Frosh Issue 2012

Volume 3 — Issue 1

The SSC’s Official Science Newspaper

thecurrent@uwoscience.ca

THE SCIENCE STUDENT’S COUNCIL

A word, if you may

“

You’ll have a student number here at Western.

Don’t let it define you.

Offering a lending hand off of platform 93/4 Samik Doshi SSC President

WHAT’S UP SCIENCE!?!

On behalf of your Science Students’ Council (SSC), I want to welcome you to what will be one of the best experiences you will ever have – being a part of Western Science.

A few years ago I had no idea what I was getting into when I walked up to the science floor I would live on all of first year. And while I hadn’t yet decided if I would stick to studying science, one thing was for sure: I was surrounded by inspiring people who constantly challenged themselves.

Some focused on academics, others devoted time to a club or charity, but there was no shortage of passion anywhere.

O-week was incredible for me (and that includes my embarrassing performance at the Science faculty day talent show), but that was just the beginning.

You’ll have a student number at Western. Don’t let it define you. The experiences you have, the people you surround yourself with, and the things you get involved in are your real “stu-

“ I Want You!” To contribute to the Current science newspaper.

Become an editor! You know you wanna..

Send an e-mail to:

thecurrent@uwoscience.ca

dent number” here.

In my first couple weeks as a first year student, I went for an interview to be on a committee, and unfortunately wasn’t offered a position. Now I tell myself how lucky I am that they didn’t take me, because otherwise I may not have found my calling in the Science Students’ Council.

Your Science Students’ Council works tirelessly for one reason – to help you make the most of your student experience.

Now you’ll hear the “make the most of your undergrad” cliché quite a bit, and while it’s true, our job is to help you do that.

Through our services we help you excel academically, and through our events we help you meet science students and engage yourself socially.

We are your connection to the University Students’ Council, to the various faculty departments, and to the Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry.

We work with you to raise money for our partner charity, the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society of Canada.

We put out The Current which you’re reading right now – it’s our Science newspaper and keeps you up to

”

SAMIK DOSHI

­

SSC PRESIDENT 2012-2013

date on everything going on in the Science community.

And we offer so many ways to get involved, whether you want to be a first year SSC rep, or be on a SSC committee (HINT HINT).

Here’s my point. Don’t look at the dude to your left and say “he’s doing so-and-so, so I want to do so-and-so as well”. Develop your own “student number” – and make sure you actually DO it.

Take advantage of the resources you have and start making the most of your student experience NOW so you don’t end up like me at the end of my

first year wishing I had done more than just study.

I look forward to meeting you soon, but until then, get ready for an incredible journey!

Stay as fly as humanly possible,

Samik Doshi (@samik_doshi) president@westernssc.ca

PATHOLOGY

For the love of science

On HIV, circumcision, and why the nerd life is the best life Harmony Hsieh Current Contributor

When people apply to medical school, or law school, the ubiquitous question in every application form, every interview, every person on the street is: Why do you want to become this? Why are you studying that?

For the longest time I didn't give this question thought in regards to myself, mostly because I assumed it was pretty clear – I enjoy science, plain and simple. But as more people began to ask, I began to soberly contemplate why this was so. Seriously, why?

I was browsing reddit the other day and (hear me out) I happened upon an article on circumcision. As any fellow Wiki-surfers will relate to, links were clicked, multiple tabs were opened, and soon I arrived at an article discussing

reduction of HIV transmission as a result of circumcision.

Sometime last year The World Health Organization and UNAIDS recommended African countries implement voluntary male circumcision as a form of prevention, after the results of a study provided evidence of up to 60 percent reduction of HIV transmission.

Sixty percent! Wowzers. If it's this effective, hey, they should be lopping off those suckers left, right and centre (the image of David paying 100 foreskins to marry Saul's daughter comes to mind).

The first time around, it was just information that was vaguely interesting, but reading it again prompted the question – how does it actually work?

More research served to not only fail to answer my question, but led to the discovery of shoddy science and blatantly misleading statistics within the original study. As identified by Boyle and Hill, the perpetrated 60% reduction

is a relative number – the absolute reduction of transmission rate in the data comes up to only 1.3%.

Among a host of problems, they discovered that what was supposed to be a randomized controlled trial did not account for the lack of placebo control of the uncircumcised men (either it's there or, you know, it's not), differential treatment of the circumcised men (time-delay for healing while the other men continued sexual activities, additional counseling sessions that the uncircumcised men did not receive), as well additional biases.

Check out Boyle and Hill's article or the University of Oxford's website if you want to find out more.

As scientists, it is their responsibility to ensure every issue approached is done so with the highest degree of accuracy and objectivity that they can afford.

continued on page 3...

The sole responsibility for the content of this publication lies with the authors. Its contents do not reflect the opinion of the University Students’ Council of the University of Western Ontario (“USC”).

The USC assumes no responsibility or liability for any error, inaccuracy, omission or comment contained in this publication or for any use that may be made of such information by the reader.

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The Current—Frosh Issue 2012

LIFE NOT AS WE KNOW IT Our planet is home to many awe-inspiring organisms. If you’re fascinated with life on Earth, but don’t want to get out of your chair to explore the world, here is a glimpse of a few bizarre, exotic, or unconventional creatures your lazy eyes might have otherwise never seen.

THE STAR-NOSED MOLE BARREL EYE FISH

At a glance, one may wonder how it is possible that Mother Nature could have created a creature as unfortunate looking as the star-nosed mole.

However, this little beast that resembles a mouse with a miniature starfish attached to its nose leads the animal kingdom in a couple of important categories, which can all be attributed to its elaborate sniffer.

Unlike the traditional two nostrils that most animals possess, this little guy’s snout is composed of eleven appendages. It has a higher density

of receptors than the noses of other moles and is in fact the most sensitive organ in the entire animal kingdom.

This wondrous muzzle has another trick up its sleeve though. By exhaling and subsequently sucking back in a series of bubbles, it allows the starnosed mole to smell underwater – a feat previously thought impossible.

—Kevin Zhao

Courtesy of National Geographic

There exists in the deep temperate waters of the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans an organism so interesting, it shares its brain function with everyone else in its vicinity. The Barreleye fish has a large, dome-shaped head which also happens to be transparent. Yea transparent. It is one whose brain function can be observed from a safe distance, because god knows I’m not gonna go near THAT. The Barreleye fish utilizes its lightpermeable head to compensate for

the lack of cone cells in its poorly developed eyes. By allowing more light to enter into the retinal processing center, their vision is enhanced many fold. As well, it is speculated the head is used to refract light in order to focus images on the retina of the fish, allowing it to see further and more clearly.

—Steven Robillard

Courtesy of National Geographic

WORLD ISSUES

A miracle for our miracles Defending the health of our less fortunate progeny Sudha Aysola

Current Contributor Imagine you are born a girl in a small village on the outskirts of a big city in India. You eat a mere handful of rice and some vegetables every day. U n knowingly, you suffer from severe malnutrition. You attend school until the 10th grade because it is mandatory, after which your schooling is stopped because you have to be married.

Your family marries you to a boy from your village and within a year and a half at the age of 18, you are ready to give birth.

A hospital birth is unheard of in your village, so you undergo labour within the village. The labour is prolonged because of your severe anemia (wasn’t sure if I should use anemia or iron deficiency, you choose).

Your weak contractions and body's inability to pass oxygen properly to your child in the womb, result in your

baby born with severe birth asphyxia.

You now have no choice but to seek help in a government hospital.

Your baby boy is now 20 days old and has extreme difficulty breathing.

You are both suffering.

This is the story of young Jayalakshi, a strong and inspirational friend that I had the pleasure of meeting during my one month stay in India this past summer.

Working in the Neonatal Ward—a ward designed for babies less than 28 weeks old-- of King George Hospital, a government funded hospital in Andhra Pradesh, India, for the month of June exposed me to a completely different world.

Listening to the stories of dozens of young women who endured the pain of their newborn children suffering from diseases which arose because of their lower social and economic status was eye-opening and shocking.

In 2005, approximately 800,000 neonatal deaths in India were caused by prematurity/low birth weight, neona-

Current Staff Steven Robillard — Editor-in-Chief

Your name could be in this box....it’s pretty awesome.

Visit westernssc.ca for editorial applications

tal infections and birth asphyxia/birth trauma, all of which can be derivations of maternal malnutrition and environmental unsanitary conditions.

This is only one of the many problems persisting in not only rural India, but in several developing or poverty stricken nations such Bangladesh, and most East African countries.

At the present moment, we are powerless against larger global issues such as this, but what we fail to recognize is that we have more resources to educate and support these people than they can ever hope for.

Encouraging hospital delivery, athome sanitation, and providing a listening ear may seem insignificant, but will spread the message of hope.

Temporary relief and momentary happiness, is relief and happiness nonetheless.

In 2008, India accounted for one out of every five newborn deaths worldwide.

For more information visit dnaindia.com

Courtesy of Sudha Aysola

Current Contributors Samik Doshi, Harmony Hsieh, Kevin Zhao, Sudha Aysola Andrew Kanapatski

Make like an acid and contribute to our base: thecurrent@uwoscience.ca

STUDENT SUCCESS

The Current—Frosh Issue 2012

Page 3

So you wanna succeed in science, huh?

Start kicking assessment Steven Robillard Editor-In-Chief

Ahh... I remember when I was a fresh faced first-year. Trembling like a hummingbird on redbull I was politely yanked out of my mom's minivan by a tall guy yelling at me through a microphone.

So many things about my surroundings excited me, but also spurned some feelings of fear in the back of my head.

First of all, I had never been surrounded by so many other students I didn't know - never had to share a bathroom with almost 20 gaseous other boys.But the thing that really got me scared was the mere size of the campus. A hulking mecca of both modern and traditional stone buildings, I was a simple grain of sand on the beach of the university.

Clocktowers, sky bridges, a multitude of residences - I felt as though I might as well have been arriving at Hogwarts (though regrettably Emma Watson was nowhere to be seen).

As I became less focused on my surroundings and more focused on my studies - in which achieving success is a tad more complex than in high school - I became worried that I might not do as well as I had hoped.

Having endured stressor upon stressor brought on by consecutive midterms, preparing for labs, assign-

ments and quizzes - I developed more than a couple strategies to help you not only to survive, but to thrive in the Faculty of Science.

Keep in mind that everyone is different - any one strategy may prove beneficial to some, detrimental for others - it all depends on what you are comfortable with.

1) You're surrounded by hundreds of other science students at any given point in the day - use a couple of 'em! It may sound funny, but other students are one of your most valuable resources down here in the coal mines, and they can save you from suffering a slow, agonizing death from the inhalation of dust. Especially for courses like Tom Haffie's Biology and Physics with Zinke, you are going to want to form study groups to go over concepts - don't assume you are too smart to need one they'll save your ass.

2) TA's are awesome. Can't be put much simpler than that - but chances are the TA's for your course are not only a wellspring of knowledge, they will tell you (if you bat your eyelashes enough) what the important concepts to know for a midterm, and what you can generally steer clear of.

Keep an eye out for TA review sessions for the majority of your courses - they are almost always helpful and usually only last an hour (like you had something better to do..).

3) Prioritize. Chances are, if you're in

Letter to the editor

IT’S RAINING KNOWLEDGE!

STUDENT FEEDBACK

BUY AND SELL SCIENCE TEXTBOOKS,

AT THE SSC BOOKSALE

Re: The democratization of student government

INTAKE: SEPT 6,7,10,11 PURCHASING DATES: SEPT 18-21 visit westernssc.ca for more details

By: Akemi Liyange, Vol. 2 Issue 5 The article states that “...this secrecy is unacceptable. What a student government does with the money and right it has been granted is the business of every student citizen”.

First of all, every USC meeting is open to the public and the dates are outlined. I attended several meetings as a student at-large myself. If a student at large has an interest, the meetings are not secret at all.

All minutes and documents are available on the USC website. If one cannot attend a meeting, all documents and information are online and available for everyone who is interested. On top of that there are multiple twitter and Facebook groups/accounts that continuously update students.

USC is greatly transparent for people who seek for that information. And if students are not interested, no matter how hard you try, they will never take the information from you. Therefore, I find the transparency point redundant.

As well, the article states that since USC and SSC councilors are the “most passionate” student on campus they should do most of the work to engage students in communicating.

I personally think that they are doing a good job and all those “colorful posters” are assisting them. I think the author fails to acknowledge the fact that students who do not want to be engaged and who do not want to listen, will never communicate. Communication involves both talking and

first-year science - you're taking Biology, Chemistry, some form of Physics, and Calculus - plus an elective.

You'll probably have this situation come up at least once: a midterm worth, say, 35% of your final mark in Chemistry coming up in 5 days, and a Calculus quiz the day before. What should you allot the majority of your time to?

Seems easy, but a lot of people have trouble doing this - they would rather study for the quiz, which would barely influence your mark.

That doesn't mean don't study for both, because jeez, if you want to do well you better do that - rather it means you should look ahead. I can't stress enough the importance of being organized.

4) Oh yea, and you know who else is awesome? Sophs. Speaking from both sides of the fence here as once a frosh and now a soph - even if you only marginally like your soph (which I would have a hard time believing), cozy up to them. Because beneath their bright clothes and unwavering spirit, you should recognize them for what they are - older students. They have taken the courses you're about to dive into, can give invaluable assistance, and if you're lucky, can even provide their study notes and resources from previous years.

Have a great year! You'll have'alkynes' of fun.

listening.

If some students fail at listening, that does not indicate lack of democracy in the student government.

The article states: “The students should be able to view the proceeding of every student government meeting online”. I would like to inform you that every USC meeting is streamed online (and recorded) and many students (usually through tweeter, addressing their councilors) comment and contribute to the meeting.

That also relates to my first point of students having access to every meeting, even if they can’t be physically present.

I understand that the article is trying to point out problems in the student government. I do not deny the existence of problems.

However, I think that points made in the article were based on assumptions, lack of research, and exaggeration I am afraid that some science and non-science students may make wrong assumptions about our student government.

Courtesy of Dan’s Journal

Science pride ...continued from page 1

Everyone is liable to make mistakes, and it is only through a deeper understanding of scientific technique and interpretation that allowed the peers of the original paper's authors to first question the original article.

Then, by their own motivation, they actually proceeded to conduct their own research on the topic as well as analyze the original paper.

It is by having the initiative, skills and tools to pick apart the barrage of information and so-called-facts presented to the public by the media – this is why I want to be in science.

I want to be in science because of the ability to understand issues at a deeper level, to discern bad science from good science, to learn and contribute to the dialogue on issues so complex and multifaceted as HIV is.

When talking amongst my friends and wondering about a factoid, to have someone say “Yo, we need to see the primary article before I can believe this”, makes me feel weirdly giddy inside and puts a proud mama-bear smile on my face.

1. Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor’s ‘A stroke of insight’ A marvelous story of a brain researcher’s stroke

TOP FIVE SCIENTIFIC

TALKS

2. Craig Venter’s ‘Future biology’ The creation of life at our fingertips

3. Arthur Benjamin’s ‘Mathemagic’

Fantastic application of mathematical concepts

4. David Gallo’s ‘Underwater life’

Exploring a world few of us know much about

- Andrew Kanapatski

Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor’s inspiring lecture takes top prize

5. Ken Robinson’s ‘Schools kill creativity’ An astute measuring of our educational system

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The Current—Frosh Issue 2012

COMICS How’s your previous knowledge?

Here’s some of what you’ll see this year: 1

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Down Across 2 Across Force of 9.8 m/s^2 1 Down F = -kx law maker Force of 9.8 m/s^2is inversely 1 3 FOrganisms = -kx law makerof oxygen 5 Pressure intolerant proportional to what? respirate ____ intolerant of oxygen Pressure is inversely 3 Organisms 7 Ion responsible for muscle 4 Father of modern genetics (last proportional to what? respirate ____ contraction name) Ion responsible for muscle 4 6 Father modern (last 8 Acid + base > salt + ____ Valence of Shell Electron genetics Pair 10 Electrical signals from the Repulsion (acr.) contraction name) body travel down these Energy carrying molecule in the Acid + base > salt + ____ element 6 9 Valence Shell Electron Pair 12 Most electronegative cell Electrical15 signals from the (acr.)

The four atomic subshells 11 Repulsion Digests proteins in the stomach 16 Ethane, propane, butane, etc. (enzyme)carrying molecule in the body travel down these 9 Energy 17 Gas to liquid phase change 12 (1/Period) = ? (In words) Most electronegative element of 18 Geometric configuration 13 cell Two compounds don't mix, they The four atomic subshells 11 Digests methane are ____ proteins in the stomach 20 Last name of your SSC 14 (enzyme) Primary monosaccharide in body Ethane, propane, butane, etc. president 19 Blood from the vena cava(s) Gas to liquid phase change 12 (1/Period) (In words) 21 Separation of + and - charge empties into = the?right __ Geometric configuration of 1322 Two don't mix, they in a molecule Final compounds electron acceptor in aerobic methane24 Primary site of water are ____respiration reabsorption, ____ intestine (sinx/cosx) Last name of your SSC 1423 Primary monosaccharide in body president 19 Blood from the vena cava(s) COMIC ,into DRAWING OR ART Separation of + and - charge CONTRIBUTE A empties the right __ in a molecule 22 Final electron acceptor in Primary site of water aerobic respiration reabsorption, ____ intestine 23 (sinx/cosx)

KITTY PLEASE??

Send an email to:

thecurrent@uwoscience.ca