Volume 2 — Issue 3
The SSC’s Official Science Newspaper
uwoscience.ca/thecurrent
PHYSICS
In a galaxy far, far away Akemi Liyanage External Editor
Every step forward in physics shifts reality a little bit. Newton found that energy doesn’t just appear or disappear. Einstein went on to show that matter can be converted to energy. Likewise, this year’s Nobel Prize in Physics took the idea of the expanding universe to a whole new level. In the 1990’s, cosmologists Saul Perlmutter, Brian Schmidt, and Adam Riess strived to map the universe. Part of their research was to detect the presence of type Ia supernovae star via light waves. However, what they measured over time was something quite interesting. Compared to the frequency of light waves from the past, light waves measured in the present from the same type Ia supernovae were getting longer and longer. Other than experimental error, this finding pointed towards a special phenomenon called the red shift. Think about how sound waves lengthen as their source moves away from a stationary listener due to the Doppler Effect. In a similar manner,
AGRICULTURE
Petridish burgers unlimited To eat meat...or not to eat meat?
Kevin Chen Wire Editor
Courtesy of Space Nation Archives
the red shift describes how a star’s light waves shift in length from the high energy, purple side of the electromagnetic spectrum to the low energy, red side as the star moves away from a point of reference. Therefore, the ever-stretching
continued on page 6
INSIDE THIS ISSUE, YOU’RE GOING TO FIND... How to get out of depression! Yeah... a much needed reminder around this time of the year. Page 2
A recap of Movember, accompanied by some of the most outstanding ‘staches we could find. Page 3 A little bit slow on the Christmas spirit? Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered. Page 4-5 An introduction to the megalodon... all the more reason to switch majors to cryptozoology. Page 6 A list of 101 things to do during your holiday break—at least that’s what we’ll be doing anyway. Page 7
Even with the increasing popularity of vegetarian diets and greater public health awareness about eating vegetables, it is still safe to say that around the world, the consumption of meat products is increasing. As countries around the world grow more affluent, it is only natural that their citizens begin to adopt a meatheavy diet that was previously only seen in first-world countries. However, this raises new concerns about how we can possibly support this meaty demand. Beef notoriously requires a large amount of land to sustain, while pork and poultry are not much better. Interestingly, the solution of the future may lie in a simple plastic plate. The current livestock-based agricultural system is unsustainable with respect to developing trends in meat consumption. Although the costs of producing meat from tissue culture is currently extremely prohibitive, the hope is that eventually the better technology and understanding of stem cell development will lower costs to an acceptable level. To put things in perspective, creating enough burgers for your friends using tissue culture would currently cost millions of dollars. Cost is only the primary hurdle, because a secondary challenge is
developing synthetic meat that has the same flavour and texture as real meat. Muscle tissue alone does not create delicious steaks, but the proper combination of blood, fat, and wear and tear contribute heavily to the final product. While stem cells for blood and fat have been identified, the process of culturing multiple cell types and ensuring proper cell differentiation increases both cost and complexity. Culturing these tissues requires a carefully measured out recipe of salts, minerals, hormones, and signalling molecules. Currently, the best way to create an optimal environment relies on feeder cells that are derived from blood serum. Ironically, tissue culture relies on the same animal slaughter that it is trying to replace. Although the prices for producing an appropriate serum for tissue growth are decreasing, they are still extremely high. There are a lot of issues with laboratory produced meat, and it may not be market-ready for years. However, with rising demands for meat products, synthetically grown meat seems to be one of the few solutions available. Living in Canada, chances are that you have relatively easy and affordable access to most kinds of meat products. We can already see rising prices for food in general and there may come a day when eating meat daily is no longer feasible. I’m hoping that in my lifetime, I won’t have to make the difficult decision of choosing between eating petri dish meat and eating only vegetables.
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—December 2011
HEALTH AND WELL-BEING
Avoid depression. Just admit you suck.
MATHEMATICS
‘Heading’ in the right direction
Ensuring a fair chance in games of chance
Doesn’t hurt to be realistic, studies show. Ryann Kwan Features Editor
Sometimes, an honest “I suck” is just what you need. A recently-published study by the American Psychological Association has found that undeserved self-praise leads to dejection, while accurate self-assessment—whether positive or negative— helps to alleviate feelings of depression. Wait, what?! Having read that past sentence, you should be thinking to yourself: “I’ve been lied to all my life…” Because up until now, society and the media have perpetuated the idea that constant positive feedback and praise help to boost self-esteem and combat depression. Failed your exam? Tell yourself, “I did my best, it’s okay, it was a freaking hard test” and you’ll feel better. But this study takes this commonly-held belief, turns it on its head and promptly shoves it out of the way. Convincing yourself that you did well when you didn’t won’t make you feel better at all; in fact, it’ll put you exactly where you least want to be: on depression’s doorstep. There were two parts to the study. The first tested 95 undergraduate students and 2780 high school students from the US and Hong Kong, respectively, and the students were given a questionnaire. They then filled out two widely-used (and universally recognized) surveys to assess levels of depression and self-esteem. It was found that participants with the largest discrepancies between how well they thought they did and how well they actually did felt the most dejected. In the second part of the study, 80 undergraduate students were given 10 minutes to solve 27 anagrams. After the tests were completed, the participants were arbitrarily given bogus positive or negative feedback. While positive feedback strengthened high performers’ perceptions of themselves, it caused low performers to misperceive their performance as better than it actually was,
creating a “self-enhancement” effect. Similarly, negative feedback made high performers think they did worse than they actually did, creating a “self-effacing” effect. Again, the students were then asked to fill out a survey to assess feelings of depression and self-esteem. The results showed that students who received feedback that conflicted with their actual performance experienced higher levels of depression than students who received “correct” feedback. Most importantly, self-enhancement and self-effacement lead to similarly high feelings of dejection, implying that false positive and false negative feedback are equally destructive. This can be explained in a couple of ways. For people who constantly deceive themselves to think they did well when they didn’t, all it takes is one mediocre performance where they can’t convince themselves to destroy their entire selfimage. In addition, their public image depends on their ability to convince everyone else that they’re doing well—or at least have the capability to perform well—although it doesn’t show. More often than not, this is accomplished by self-handicapping, which is just not conducive to a healthy self-esteem. So after each of your finals this month, be honest with yourself about how well you did. You won’t be doing yourself any favours if you disillusion yourself to believe that you aced an exam when in fact, you practically bombed it. The same concept can probably be applied to your holiday shopping this season. If you leave it until last-minute and end up rushing to the nearest convenience store to pick up something—anything—for everyone on your list, trying to convince yourself that you’re buying THE BEST presents is a sure-fire way to flush your holiday cheer down the drain. Instead, be realistic. While you may have found something they’ll like, it probably isn’t THE BEST gift you could have possible gotten them. And so the moral of the story (in rhyming clichés): this is one area of your life where honesty is definitely the best policy, and accuracy, my friends, is the name of the game.
Current Staff Cecilia Kwok — Editor-in-Chief Ryann Kwan — Features Editor Kevin Chen — Wire Editor Steven Robilliard — Creative Editor Akemi Liyanage — External Editor Harmony Hsieh — Photographer
Courtesy of The Intrepid
Jesse Tahilari
Current Contributor You’re ambling down a snow-dusted street when a man bounces out of an alley. “I have a proposition for you!” he declares with visible winter breath and very few teeth. Normally you would accept this sort of proposal without hesitation, but for whatever reason, something seems a bit off. You ask the man what sort of fun thing he has in mind. He informs you that he’d like to flip his coin, and if it lands on heads, he’ll give you 20 dollars. If it lands on tails, you have to give him 10 dollars. Although your calculus classes have ruined your ability to do any sort of basic, practical math, you’re still pretty sure that this deal works out in your favour. But still, you have a nagging feeling that something is off. Maybe it’s that old adage, “If it’s too good to be true, it probably is.” Maybe it’s the fact that he has consumed an entire bottle of cough syrup over the short duration of your conversation. Either way, before you flip what could very well be this man’s life savings, you want to make sure that the coin isn’t going to give him an unfair advantage. A fair coin will land on heads 50 per cent of the time, and tails 50 per cent of the time. But as assholes will always tell you, “Life isn’t fair—deal with it, nerd.” There’s a chance that the coin could be weighted to land on one side more often than the other. Luckily for you, there is a way to ensure yourself an equal chance of winning. Before your new friend runs off to the corner store to buy a mouthwash margarita with your money, use this technique to give yourself a fair chance. Flip the coin twice in a row every time. If the result is either (heads,
heads) or (tails, tails), discard those flips and start again. If the two flips are different, then you keep the result. Whichever side the first flip lands on, that is your final result. For example, if your two flips end up as (tails, heads), then count it as a win for tails. This gives an equal chance for heads and tails no matter how unequal the coin may be. Why does this work? If the coin has a probability x of landing on heads, then it has a probability of (1x) of landing on tails. The chances of getting two heads in a row is x². The chances of getting two tails is (1-x)². The chances of getting heads followed by tails is x(1-x), and the chances of getting tails followed by heads is (1-x)x—the two results are equal. If the chances of your unfair coin landing on heads is 90 per cent, for example, then you will end up discarding your flips 0.9² + 0.1² = 82 per cent of the time, but both sides in the gamble are left with an equal 9 per cent chance of winning. This technique works with anything. An unfair dice can be corrected by only counting results in which six consecutive rolls land on six different sides of the die, and choosing the result of the first roll to be your actual result. The obvious downside here is that a “fair” roll happens much less frequently. Even with a fair coin, there is only a 50 per cent chance of your flip counting. With a fair die, one where each number has a 1/6 chance of landing face-up, there is only a 6!/66 ≈ 1.54 per cent chance of being able to count your roll as fair. It may not be the most efficient method of winning money off of insane vagrants, but if you ever find yourself needing to equal out an unfair situation, you now possess a quick and easy method to turn anything into a tool for making a fair random decision.
Current Contributors Jesse Tahirali, Amanda Baillargeon
This box is a little empty, don’t you think? Your name could be here, and you could show it off to all of your friends to prove how super amazing you are—contribute to the Current. thecurrent@uwoscience.ca
The Current— December 2011
MOVEMBER
Mo’s before hoe’s Steven Robilliard Creative Editor
In the opinion of most males, there isn’t anything as aesthetically pleasing as a well-groomed, firm, manly moustache. Tom Selleck had one. So did Mario. Einstein rocked the living hell out of his. The problem is that it seems as though the majority of the female populace doesn’t agree. I don’t think I’ll never understand women... With that being said, during the month of November (aptly nicknamed
MOvember), those of us with a Ychromosome seemingly throw away our chances at attracting the opposite sex in favour of growing a moustache. You’ve seen them on campus; men meticulously stroking their Fu Manchu’s and Charlie Chaplin’s. Personally, my reddish blonde facial hair would make a fuzzy peach jealous. This month’s proliferation of moustaches certainly has its benefits—such as the vast amounts of money being raised for charity—but it is not without its downfalls. Let’s be honest. Unless you belong to the 1% of males whose moustaches actually compliment their faces, it’s probably not going to be a month for great romance. For the most part, moustaches are a no-go with the ladies, but studies have shown that during specific
times of a woman’s menstrual cycle, facial hair can be a great benefit to males. According to studies done at the University of New Mexico, women who are in the ovulatory and luteal phases (when the egg is released to be potentially fertilized) of their menstrual cycles are shown to desire men with more masculine traits (such as muscles, height and yep, moustaches). This stems from the innate biological predisposition of women to desire a partner who is strong, supportive, and possesses superior genes to be passed onto their offspring. The aforementioned masculine traits are indicators of the strong presence and superior genes that women subconsciously seek out. Women differ greatly in the length of their fertile period, but if a regular 28-day cycle is assumed, then the window lasts for an average of 8 days. That’s eight days during which moustaches are scientifically proven to be more attractive to women. Well that’s not bad, right? Eight out of thirty days is 0.267, about the batting average of a decent major league baseball player. But wait, there’s more! Researchers
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have proposed that women look and attempt to look their best during these fertile periods. Studies show that, on average, women apply more make-up and perfume, and are reported to rate themselves as more attractive during this time compared to the rest of their cycle. According to Matthew Davis, a psychologist at the University of Texas, this is because, “[A woman’s body] is unconsciously advertising the fact that she wants to attract a mate when she is at her most fertile.” So basically, women are relatively more attracted to moustaches during this special eight days and there’s scientific evidence that the fertile period causes them to dress hotter. Sweet. Does this mean your moustache isn’t as unattractive to the opposite sex as you thought? That your Hulk Hogan handlebars are gonna have girls sprinting for you like an axe commercial? No. Obviously its attractiveness depends highly upon the preferences of the female in question, but it does give a little hope to those of us sporting various amounts of upper lip hair.
CANCER
‘LIFE NOT AS WE KNOW IT’ will return in our next issue in February! Plus, we are always looking forward to your emails as a Current Contributor!
Cellphones don’t give you cancer
Despite what you’ve heard Kevin Chen Wire Editor
Cellphones have developed into a pretty important part of everyday life in North America. In fact, many people can’t even imagine a life without constant texting or non-stop connection to the Internet (as proven by student frustration with UWO’s wireless). Most people of the cellphone generation will remember the age-old debate of whether or not excessive cell phone usage increases the chance of cancer development. This uncertainty even prompted the WHO to designate cellphones as “possibly carcinogenic”, causing the public to try to reduce usage. However, a recent study in Denmark has shown no link between cell phones and any form of cancer. This recent paper tracks an entire country’s worth of individuals throughout 15 years, making it a massive study. In Denmark, every citizen is
born and assigned a national identification number. In order to register for a number of services—including purchasing a cellphone plan—they must use this national identification number. The health care system in Denmark also uses this national identification number to organize health records for every citizen. The country’s Institute for Cancer Epidemiology was lucky enough to have both databases of information easily available as they essentially had every record of cancer in Denmark’s history since 1924 as well as a record of every cellphone user. This allowed an easy one-toone association between databases which would allow the tracking of individuals with cellphones over a long period of time and whether or not they developed cancer. After data analysis and statistical adjustments for things such as age, income, and cellphone usage, the institute found no correlation between cellphone usage and any form of cancer. Even in individuals that developed cancer, there was no indication that tumors were likely to develop in locations where the phones were held or kept.
Keep in mind that while this study spanned a massive 15 years and included an amazing number of participants, the authors noted that they would continue to monitor data for the foreseeable future as there may be longer term effects that have not yet been observed. Regardless, it seems more likely than ever that the extreme cellphone usage that permeates modern society is not a major player in the rising incidences of cancer. Having said this, it couldn’t hurt to tone down excessive amounts of texting and calling.
Photograph Courtesy of Wentworth Images
Christmas Feature brought to you by the Current Team
1. Ignorance ain’t bliss for bacteria You may have heard that bacteria are getting harder to kill. They’re growing more and more resistant to our antibiotics with every passing year. And as time goes by, we’re also discovering new—and sometimes seemingly harmless—conditions in which antibiotics are ineffective. One of these loopholes in the Antibiotics Should Kill Bacteria rule can be seen when bacteria are starved of nutrients. When bacteria don’t have enough nutrients, they enter a sort of starvation mode during which they stop growing. They also become super resistant to antibiotics and as a result, they become really difficult to kill. It’s kind of like when you’re studying for finals. I don’t know about you, but while I study, I’m constantly eating. As long as there’s food around, life is good. You know that good-for-you/guilty conscience that tells you that you need to study if you want to pass the upcoming exam? Well, I’m more inclined to listen to it if I’m being fed. Now take my food away, and things get ugly…or rather, things get supremely unproductive. Why? Because I’m hungry. Studying? I don’t think so. Listening to that good-guy voice? Not for a second. Actually, I’m just going to pretend I don’t hear it. Bacteria work the same way…sort of. Think of students as bacteria, studying as growth, and the good-guy conscience as an antibiotic. If the bacteria are “hungry”—they don’t have enough nutrients—then there’s no way they’re going to concentrate on growth. They shut it down. And the chances they’re going to be sensitive to the good-guy antibiotic? Slim to none. We used to think the sudden antibiotic resistance in the face of starvation was because the bacteria weren’t growing. Many antibiotics function by interfering with cellular activity, and once bacteria are in their starvation mode, most of that activity stops. So the antibiotics become pretty much useless. To re-sensitize the bacteria to the antibiotics, we would have to re-stimulate their growth and activity, which could complicate things from a medical perspective (say…when we’re dealing with bacterial infections in humans). But a recently-published paper in Science shows that the growth arrest is triggered by an active response to starvation called the stringent response (SR), and it is this SR which is responsible for the antibiotic resistance. As a result, we could re-sensitize the bacteria to antibiotics simply by blocking the SR. Think of it like this: if someone were to prevent you from knowing that you were hungry while you were studying, you would keep on working and that good-guy voice would be able to do its job and keep you on track. Similarly, disrupting the SR would prevent the bacteria from knowing that they’re starving. As a result, they wouldn’t become resistant to antibiotics. To test this theory, Dr. Dao Nguyen, lead author of the paper, and her colleagues tested the bacteria Pseudomonas aeruginosa’s sensitivity to the antibiotic ofloxacin with and without an intact SR. They created a “starvation” environment by using serine hydroxamate, which is known to activate the SR. When “starved”, cells with an intact SR (knew they were starving) had 2300 times more oxfloxacinresistant cells than their non-starved counterparts. Cells with a disrupted SR only had 34 times more resistant bacteria. The researchers also tested stationary-phase bacteria cultures (cells enter the stationary phase, which slows growth, when there is a lack of nutrients). Again, SR-intact cells had more antibiotic-resistant cells (106) than SR-disrupted cells (less than 104). It is important to mention that SRdisrupted cells and SR-intact cells had similar rates of protein synthesis and RNA synthesis, suggesting that any extra sensitivity to antibiotics was not due to a lack of cellular activity. Overall, Nguyen et al. found that even though bacteria become resistant to antibiotics when they go into “starvation mode”, we can re-sensitize them so that they can be killed by antibiotics by blocking their stringent response. Essentially, we block their ability to sense that they’re starving, showing that for bacteria, ignorance is most definitely NOT bliss.
— Are you sick of…
e Hearing obnoxiously cheerful Christmas ca d Being around annoyingly hyper children in d Seeing another cover of Justin Bieber’s Mist d Being told to try some overpriced pepperm d Feeling like a jerk when you decline anothe d Being surrounded by tacky holiday decorati d Being bombarded by Facebook event reques d Turning on the radio only to hear another r d Racking your brain for gift ideas for all of yo d Emptying your wallet to buy gifts for said “ d Standing in line for ages to empty said wal d Realizing that there’s nothing on TV except d Trying (and failing) to be charmingly witty w long-lost relatives? d Trying to park on Boxing Da—oh wait. You d Hearing your friends complain about gettin d Having “Santa” eat all your goddamn cookie
Not to worry, us too. Relax, get yo hustle-and-bustle before it drive
LOVE Art
Attack.
Courtesy
“Spinnin
of Kim E
ickmeier
Parked outside of an ice castle, nbd.
Courtesy of Nick Chisholm
—NO.
3. Bacteria makin’ ski slopes
arols blasting everywhere? n line to see “Santa” ? tletoe pop up on your newsfeed? mint-gingerbread-eggnog shit when you just want coffee? er request for a holiday charity donation? ions and ugly Christmas sweaters? sts from people you don’t even know? rendition of Mariah Carey’s All I Want for Christmas is You? our “friends”? “friends”? llet for said gifts for said “friends”? t for 24-hour Christmas movie marathons? while writing Christmas cards to all of your acquaintances and
On the (maybe rare) chance that Snowmageddon 2.0 won’t happen this year and the slopes aren’t blanketed in several inches of white, have no fear. Buy your chairlift passes—we’ve got you covered. With bacterial proteins. Many ski resorts usually have at least a few snow canons just on the side of ski slopes where artificial snow is made by forcing out water and pressurized air. A little bit of a secret ingredient is added to the mixture in order to make ice form at a higher temperature than normal: ice nucleating proteins. These proteins help to align water molecules, such that ice formation is favourable. This greatly lowers the activation energy needed to form ice from the less-ordered liquid state of water. Commercially, Pseudomonas syringae, a gram-negative bacterium, is kept cultured to produce these proteins. This is what makes the snow that complements the natural stuff you ski or snowboard on. Besides their use to make artificial snow, these proteins have been found at the core of hailstones, and in the hemolymph of insects, in both instances acting as condensation nuclei. Generally, they are what cloud droplets coalesce on, and they help freeze-tolerant insects pass the colder seasons by controlling the location of ice formation inside their bodies. Now flashback to when you were much younger. Do you remember sitting in the yard, eating snow amidst your mother’s screeches telling you not to eat it? Or how you ran around during a snowstorm with your mouth open and tongue hanging out to “catch snowflakes”? Okay, so maybe you still do that. But at least now you know what you’re eating.
can’t. ng fat after willingly stuffing their faces with Christmas treats? es?
our Scrooge on, and retreat from the annoying es you completely insane.
2. Snowmageddon 2.0
ng at an igloo near you”
Courtesy of Corbin Masters
Chances are that most of you remember the momentous academic year of 2010-2011 when we received an unprecedented three snow days in a row. We received more snow days in that year than in the entire academic history of Western. Although many students rejoiced at the thought of cancelled classes, many others hated it for delayed or postponed exams as well as the terrible commute to and from campus. Overall, it was a pretty brutal winter and from the looks of things, we might be in for another snow-filled Canadian winter. What are snowstorms? If you guessed an extremely large amount of snowfall, you wouldn’t be too far off the mark. Because snow is far less dense than liquid water, the normal amount of liquid you would receive during rainfall can easily cause huge disruptions in the form of snowfall. Combined with strong winds and other hazardous conditions, snowstorms can easily turn into terrible blizzards. In fact, it only takes a couple feet of snow to completely devastate operations in cities that are not prepared. In Canada, we are rather fortunate as our cities are fairly experienced and capable of adapting and handling debilitating amounts of snow. Cities south of the border regularly close schools and other facilities when a few inches of snow fall just because of the lack of support infrastructure. However, if you were lucky (or unlucky) enough to experience December last year, you can see that even the best preparation can’t always prevent disruptions. This year’s long-term forecasts predict another brutal winter season for both Canadians and Americans. In North America, the actions of La Nina, a natural occurrence resulting in the decrease of sea surface temperatures, played a major role in the terrible winters of 2010 and looks to impact the rest of the winter season of 2011. This year, cold arctic air blowing across the warm lakes will most likely create snowfalls that are larger than average. If you’ve spent the winter here, it should come as no surprise that London will probably be getting large snowfalls this winter. Whether or not we’ll get enough snow for more snow day is an altogether different matter. It isn’t out of the question, but personally I would not bank on the off-chance that the one or two snow days we might get would fall on my exam day. Regardless of the final outcome, get ready to bundle up!
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The Current—December 2011
CHEMISTRY
Boys in the fume hood
Using chemistry, not just in the classroom Steven Robilliard Creative Editor
Methamphetamine is a psychostimulant capable of inducing euphoria, increasing alertness, and stimulating concentration. It is popular in lower income areas of North America, a fact which is widely due to its relatively easy synthesis…if you know the right steps. Its recreational use is rampant in the cities’ slums, and traditionally both its consumers and producers come from this side of town. Traditionally. In “cooking” meth, there are a number of steps that involve the use of corrosive and flammable chemicals posing a significant danger to the producer. Thus, although it is one of the easier illicit drugs to make, having a significant chemical aptitude is of some benefit to the manufacturer.
As the media and various police records around the continent have proven, ideal candidates for making meth aren’t sketchy drug-dealers, but brillient chemistry students. Illicit drug production has taken a huge leap from the dirty palms of addicts and abusers to the eager hands of science students in educational institutes across the country. It has polevaulted into the lap of even the most educated among us, being used as a relatively low-cost-high-income endeavour. The potential monetary gain combined with the fact that most full-time students don’t have a dime to their names (although Western might be an exception to this stereotype), provide the perfect rationale for making drugs.
Courtesy of Tanyagrove Wordpress
Courtesy of Dartmouth Database
In June of 2010, police seized numerous corrosive and flammable chemicals from the home of William Cecil, a chemistry student at the University of Central Florida, as well as glassware of all shapes and sizes. Cecil admitted to using the chemicals and the glassware to cook methamphetamine, which he would in turn sell to a street dealer to pay for his school expenses. Similarly, Randy Lambreghts (shown above), a grad student studying at Dartmouth College, an Ivy League school, was arrested this past August for manufacturing and distributing meth from his residence. Over the past few years, there have been hundreds of student ar-
CRYPTOZOOLOGY
Jurassic Park 4, anyone?
Introducing the mighty megalodon Akemi Liyanage External Editor
There are several chapters of cryptozoology destined to stay unresolved. Nessie of the Loch Ness seems to have changed addresses ages ago. And no one’s ever really befriended a Yeti long enough to take a picture. But what about the Carcharocles megalodon? Unlike tales of enduring dinosaurs or snowy monsters, there is evidence of the megalodon’s existence. And it ain’t too pretty. If you thought Jaws was scary… you might want to hold onto your seat. The story of the mighty megalodon begins with a court physician’s curious discovery that the peasants’ “tongue-stones” were actually shark teeth. The marvellous fossils, spanning nearly seven inches are more than double the size of the vicious king of the seas, the great white shark. Based on tooth size alone, paleontologists estimate that the C. megalodon would have grown to be nearly 60 feet and 100 tonnes which translate to a whopping nine great white sharks in length and 33 great white sharks in weight at its smallest.
As of now, experts say that no other marine predator rivals the sheer size of the megalodon, not even its dinosaur counterparts, the liopleurodon and kronosaurus. We all know that giant predators like to take down massive prey. So what in the oceans, would the biggest predator ever alive chosen for lunch? Obviously, none other than the largest organism in existence. With an estimated biting force of between 10-18 tonnes, even the skull of the blue whale wouldn’t be a challenge for the C. megalodon to chow down. Another bonus point to embellish the megalodon’s throne as master of
the seas is its apparent hunting method of blue whales. While great white sharks tend to rip open their prey when their bellies are exposed, the megalodon didn’t need to wait for a moment of weakness. It simply disabled prey by biting off its fins and then watched it die…or gulped down it right away. Unfortunately (or fortunately) there isn’t much else known about the C. megalodon. As with every ending of each chapter in cryptozoology, there is always the chance that this magnificent shark still lives in the 95% of the oceans still unexplored by mankind. And who knows? It might just stick around to say ‘Hello’ the next time you go scuba diving.
Courtesy of Lifty’s Blog
rests across North America relating to the synthesis of illegal drugs. Some might argue that the boom in illicit drug production is attributed to the media. Television shows such as AMC’s Breaking Bad have brought the creation of illegal substances into a new light. The show highlights a high-school chemistry teacher stricken with terminal cancer, teaming up with a former student to produce and sell meth in order to ensure his family has a good financial future before he passes away. Don’t get me wrong, I love the show – the dad from Malcolm in the Middle has always been a favourite actor of mine – but it can be argued that it is rationalizing cooking meth, perhaps even promoting its production. Either way, manufacturing drugs certainly is portrayed in a more positive light in the media today than it had been in the past. If you’re a science student and reading this (which I assume you are), don’t get any bright ideas, because it is certainly not worth it. Just ask William Cecil or Randy Lambreights who have been dismissed from their schools, served jail time, and basically had the rest of their lives ruined. The next time you’re in an organic chemistry lab, stick to making aspirin…you don’t want the headache of making anything else.
>> CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
...and farther
Courtesy of Space Nation Archives
type Ia supernovae light waves indicated a change in not only the energy of the wavelengths, but also the distance of the stars relative to Earth. Since the light waves were getting longer, the type Ia supernovae were presumably moving away from the milky way. What does this tell us about the universe? Ultimately, Perlmutter, Schmidt and Riess not only confirmed that the conclusion made in 1920 was correct, but also revealed that the universe is expanding at an increasing pace, hence an accelerating universe. But that’s not all. It was once believed that the universe would eventually stop expanding due to the attractive force of gravity. Also, the Nobel Laureates determined that only 73% of the energy in the universe is accounted for. Between these two lines lies a missing link: the existence of an extra energy that is responsible for the acceleration of an already expanding universe. Dark energy. That’s it folks, your deep fantasy about dark energy has finally been satisfied. Not only is this dark energy anti-gravitational, only 4% of it is supposed to be made of atom-like particles. So what else could dark energy possibly be? Maybe it’s time to re-visit our theories of physics, because dark energy could literally be anything.
the Current
s a m t s i r h C s i h t 101 things to do
presents
(and New Year’s because we can’t think of enough stuff) checklist for those who want more clichés in their lives
1. Sleep in 2. Watch Saturday morning cartoons 3. Eat too much 4. Get spoiled by your parents on your first day back 5. Realize why you like living on your own on the last day 6. Organize Secret Santa with your friends 7. Bake Christmas cookies (the Pillsbury kind count) 8. Watch Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer 9. Cut down an evergreen tree 10. Decorate a Christmas tree 11. Roast chestnuts 12. Arrange Christmas lights into pictures 13. Drink mulled wine 14. Say “Happy Holidays” to strangers at the mall 15. Don’t watch The Star Wars Holiday Special 16. Take a picture with the mall Santa 17. Hang up your stockings 18. Try not to get coal 19. Try to make the “Nice List” (for most people) 20. Leave cookies and milk out for Santa 21. Eat the cookies later 22. Mail Santa a letter 23. Determine how fast Santa would need to be to visit every child in the world 24. Watch NORAD track Santa across the world 25. Find out Santa isn’t real 26. Spread the truth to other children 27. Question why fruit cake is a thing 28. Listen to Christmas songs on repeat 29. Eat glazed ham 30. Volunteer at a soup kitchen 31. Watch A Charlie Brown Christmas 32. Make Christmas ducks 33. Go carolling all over the neighbourhood 34. Be receptive of carollers 35. Go see The Nutcracker 36. Hope for a white Christmas 37. Shovel that white Christmas away the next day 38. Go to sleep early on Christmas eve to prepare 39. Make a Christmas dinner from scratch 40. Regret it because of the massive clean-up 41. Make fun of holiday commercials 42. Volunteer to wrap presents at the mall 43. Dress up your pets in festive costumes
44. Drive around all day to find gifts, spend 80% of the time trying to find a parking spot 45. Plan to tick to your gift budget 46. Fail 47. Try to find last-minute deals at the mall 48. Buy gifts at the last second 49. Eat candy canes 50. Watch Home Alone (2 is the best one. 1 is ok too I guess) 51. Hand-make some Christmas cards 52. Mail out Christmas cards 53. Act surprised when opening your gifts after you had already opened them the week before 54. Spend time with family and friends 55. Spend time with us 56. Read A Christmas Carol 57. Go to the Christmas parade 58. Watch the parade on TV instead because it’s freezing cold 59. Act out A Christmas Story 60. Make a gingerbread house 61. Eat said gingerbread house 62. Kiss under the mistletoe 63. Hate the abbreviation X-Mas 64. Wear ugly Christmas sweaters 65. Do other things because you don’t celebrate Christmas 66. Celebrate other cultural traditions that aren’t mass-marketed 67. Make hot chocolate. Drink hot chocolate. 68. Have a snowball fight 69. Win because you built a snow fort before- hand 70. Drink apple cider 71. Toboggan (a real toboggan, not a food tray) down a hill 72. Cut out paper snowflakes and stick them on your window 73. Donate food to your local food bank 74. Make a snow angel 75. Try to catch snowflakes on your tongue 76. Make eggnog 77. Go ice skating 78. Bring extra pairs of socks 79. Vacation to other countries (preferably somewhere warm)
80. Eat flavoured snow (don’t eat the yellow kind) 81. Bake an apple pie to go with the snow 82. Go star gazing 83. Be excited for Boxing Day 84. Try to find a place to park during Boxing Day 85. Line up at 4 in the morning outside of Best Buy on Boxing Day 86. Fight over cheap electronics on Boxing Day 87. Put random things in people’s shopping carts during Boxing Day 88. Go watch the latest winter blockbuster 89. Be underwhelmed by the 3D effects 90. Lick an icy pole 91. Don’t lick an icy pole 92. Sleep in more (to catch up with your deficit) 93. Knit a friend a scarf 94. Give up because it’s too hard 95. Go to a New Year’s Eve countdown 96. Make New Year’s resolutions 97. Give up on your New Year’s resolutions 98. Go skiing or snowboarding 99. “Acquire” a food tray and toboggan down UC Hill 100. Get ready to go back to Western 101. Check off this list on your way back from home
Page 8
The Current—December 2011
Amanda Baillargeon Current Contributor
Peppermint Mocha
Way cheaper than Starbucks and still tastes great! 2010 www.uwoscience.ca/thecurrent September
Volume 1—Issue 1 Welcome back to school! A message from your Science Students’ Council president
Alcohol, magnified See what your drink looks like under the microscope
Page 2
Page 5
INGREDIENTS
Calculus used in real 2 cups skim milklife it’s 2possible, we swear! tbsp. sweetener
Science comics Featuring humour only a true nerd can appreciate
ON NEWSSTANDS NOW; GET YOUR COPY TODAY!
1/2 tsp. peppermint extract 1/2 square of unsweetened chocolate, finely chopped 2 cups hot brewed coffee (double strength) 1/2 cup whipped cream
Page 7 Page 8 DIRECTIONS The Supreme 1. Mix together the skim milk, sweetener, and peppermint extract together in a saucepan for five Court has ruled minutes until heated thoroughly, while stirring frethat they canquently. Make sure the mixture doesn’t boil. wonder about the scientific 2. Add the chopped chocolate in a medium bowl and facets not have a naKevin Chen coffee? whisk in the mixture from of the saucepan until the tivity scene in Current Editor chocolate is melted and well blended. Coffee is produced from the Washington, D.C. 3. Stir the mixture into the coffee. Pour the hot drinkof the geseeds of trees and shrubs into mugs topofwithnus whipped Enjoy! They couldn’tSomething Coffea.cream. Since these seeds bear asfour simple as and a cup
“
The chemistry behind your caffeine addiction We are the official newspaper of the Science Students’ Council. Last year, we were known as “Absolute Zero”, but after a little remodeling we are now under new name. a striking resemblance coffee isa often the only thing that findprinting three wise
to beans, they are known as “coffee beans.” keeps the many students at WestThese beans easily make up one ern awake and strong. Peppermint-OREO Cookie Balls - Jay Leno Whether of the most room valuable it is the of lastyou didn’t have A little gift crunch for friends for commodity in crops in the world. minute assignments the presyour holidayor budget! Originating in tropical Africa sure of cramming for final exams, and Southern Asia, coffee plants coffee is INGREDIENTS by far the world’s most 6 candy canes, finely chopped (about 1/3 cup) are now found of various species popular stimulant. As one of the 1 pkg cream cheese, softened growing around the world, the most consumed beverages in the 1 pkg OREO cookies, finely crushed an extra hit majority (for of which is produced in world, coffee has had an impresof mint try using the PC brand candy cane cookies) South American countries like Brasive impact on everything from the 2 pkg semi-sweet chocolate (approximately 16 zil and Columbia. Facing relatively culture tosquares), the environment melted of each few regulations and laws—and ofnation. ten grown with other crops that However, as interesting as that DIRECTIONS
”
men and a virgin.
A name with several different scientific meanings: It could mean the movement of electric charge. It could mean the flow of water or air. It also sounds like those little black raisin fruit things, which – With love from depending on howthe youCurrent use them – could also be pretty scientific.
Happy Holidays!
We’re devoted to delivering you as science-related stuff maymuch be, what kind of1 science stu1. Separate tbsp. of chopped candy. Mix as the remainJesse Tahirali Contiued ing we candy cream cheese and cookie crumbs un- on page 4 dents would be ifwith we didn’t ever you can handle, and delivering it in tilthe most interesting way well blended. 2. Shape into 1-inch balls. Freeze the balls for 10 possible. minutes. Then dip the balls in melted chocolate and
A pharmaceutical researcher’s historic bicycle trip place them on a shallow waxed paper-lined pan.
Zahra Sakkejha Current Editor “Turn on, Tune in, Drop out” – the words of Dr. Timothy Leary, LSD’s most prominent enthusiast. A Harvard professor of psychology in the 1970s, he believed that LSD could have profound benefits for many— everyone from criminal offenders to mental patients to regular citi-
Sprinkle remaining crushedtook candy. gic acid diethylamide-25—what is genic bicycle ride with homethe from the Hoffman his day-long acid trip 3. Refrigerate the journal balls for one hour until firm. now commonly known as LSD. Hoflab. He later wrote in his as an indicator of the drug’s potenmann discovered its effects in an that he felt completely stationtial clinical effectiveness. He was unusual way. When he accidentally ary while riding his bike, and that convinced that nobody would want absorbed some of the compound the images of the world around to use it for recreational purposes, Science Students’ Council | The Current through the tips of his fingers, he him were curved, as if seen in a but that psychologists would be began seeing Faculty a funhouse mirvery interested to use it as a treatof Science • The University of Western Ontario Natural Sciences Centre, Room 108 London, ON, CANADA N6A 5B6 kaleidoscope of “[he] woke up feeling ror. Once he ar- ment. Email: thecurrent@uwoscience.ca • Web: www.uwoscience.ca colours in his As you might have guessed, healthier, even noting that rived home, he mind. Confused began accusing these predictions have yet to be his breakfast tasted ‘unusu- his neighbour realized and mainstream psychoand curious, he ally delicious’.” decided to give of being a witch, logical treatment using LSD is still