The Wally Street Journal | Issue 3 by WHSG School Newspaper

10.2.16 Issue 3 0

Contents 2. A message from the Senior Prefect Team 3. Venice, 1989 8. Star Wars: A Review 10. Don’t Stand By 12. Refugee and Migrant Network Sutton 14. Life in plastic, it’s fantastic! 16. To what extent is masculinity synonymous with heroism in the plays of William Shakespeare? 18. The science behind the invisibility cloak 20. DEEP BRAIN STIMULATION 22. Londoners: Safe or Sheltered? 24. Can you trust the healthcare system? 26. A Potential Cure for Alzheimer’s Disease 27. The Letter 28. Valentine’s Strawberry Surprise! 29. Your 4 Top Quotes 31. Puzzles 32. Puzzles Answers 33. The Senior Orchestra 34. EPQ Presentation: Slang 1

Front Cover: Lauren Skeels, 12 KBT

SCHOOL LIFE A message from the Senior Prefect Team Hannah Shury-Smith, 12 AST

In December last year, after a hustings session in the hall and a day of Head Girl interviews, the new Senior Prefect Team was elected. The team consists of two Head Girls, two Deputy Head Girls, two Charity Prefects and two prefects per year group in the lower school â&#x20AC;&#x201C; this amounts to a sixteen-strong team of enthusiastic prefects. Although the team is still in its early days, there are some key projects that we are hoping to get underway: these include developing a stronger relationship with Nonsuch, as part of the schoolsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; recently formed multi-academy status, along with starting some healthy competition concerning fundraising between the local schools. The team is looking forward to making some exciting contributions to the school, so keep updated with our progress here in the Wally Street Journal.

SCHOOL LIFE Venice, 1989. Mrs Gibb I graduated with a degree in Music in 1988 and had no idea what to do next. To cut a very long story short, I found myself living in Venice, courtesy of the Italian government, between November 1989 and April 1990. I spent my time there researching 16th Century Venetian music

prints,

housed

the

Biblioteca Marciana. This important library and seat of learning was, back then, in St Markâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Square right opposite the Dogeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Palace. What I did there is one tale: I want to tell a different story. If you have never visited Venice, make sure you go. You simply must see it. It is a truly magical group of islands set in the shimmering, jewel-like opalescence of the Adriatic Sea and it never fails to amaze, nor will it ever disappoint. The canals range from wide and majestic to small, quiet and intimate. The architecture is heart achingly beautiful; the art galleries and churches burst with masterpieces galore. Other than the glory of Venice itself, the outlying islands each offer a different experience: Murano, famous for its beautiful Venetian glass; Burano, the island where there are no house numbers and each house is distinguished by a unique livery of colours, not to mention the hordes of ladies who sit outside and make the finest lace; Torcello, a remarkable wasteland of mud with an even more remarkable Byzantine church nestling in the vegetation; and the Lido, with its golden beach and superficial seaside mentality. The food is amazing: I could not get enough of the local delicacy of cuttlefish in a black ink sauce, and I indulged in the best ice-cream and coffee in the world. 3

Living in a beautiful place is truly a privilege and I made the most of it. But there was another source of captivation for me. What on earth could ever compete with the wonder of the city itself? The astonishing, eclectic, crazy and larger-than-life people I was lucky enough to come across. Even as I start to think about trying to describe them, my fear is that they were so remarkable, so unusual, so unbelievable that you will think I just had a series of rather vivid and outlandish dreams. Not so: everyone described here was real and part of my life, and words on a page cannot do them justice. First, my landlord: Archie. Pure Italian and really very wealthy, given the properties he owns and family he comes from, but he dresses like a tramp and his wife cuts his hair with a pair of dressmaking scissors. Fiercely intelligent, he had mastered twelve European languages in the hope of finding a common vocabulary that would lead him to uncover an original language from which all others stemmed. I don’t think he has managed it yet, but maybe one day. Next, my landlady: Mimi. Taiwanese by birth, she managed Archie’s hostel and also ran the only Chinese restaurant in Venice with her sister. She too speaks several languages and is the archetypal matriarch – quite fierce in her approach, but an amazing cook, remarkably funny and a real pleasure to know. Archie and Mimi have two sons: Ari, who was about four and Uri who was one. Archie had an interesting perspective on child-rearing and would make Ari walk to school with a wooden sword slid down the back of his shirt to help him stand up straight. He was genuinely astounded that Ari was not allowed to wear the sword while at school. Then came Oscar and Keith. They were from the USA: Keith, from the Deep South and Oscar, an illegal immigrant to the US from Mexico. They had decided to travel to Europe on the understanding that Keith would make sure Oscar could get back into the US on their return. Having spent a few weeks in Venice, staying in Archie and Mimi’s hostel as tourists, Mimi offered Keith a job managing the hostel and Oscar a job in the kitchens of her restaurant so they could stay longer. I didn’t see as much of Oscar as he often worked in the evenings, but I do remember his ambition to train as a clinical psychologist, which he achieved, along with gaining US citizenship, in the late 1990s. He also made the first and best guacamole I ever 4

ate (Mexican food had not reached Tesco in the late 80s) when I managed to track down tortilla chips in an ethnic supermarket during my Christmas trip home. I spent a lot of time with Keith: he used to run the office in the evenings when Archie and Mimi wanted family time and I was back from the library. We used to sit in the little office and watch CNN on the small TV that was mounted high up on the wall over a door. Within days of my arrival, we sat together on an ancient red sofa and watched the Berlin Wall come down: it was the end of the Cold War and a time of great political optimism. I can’t describe the emotion of those scenes from Berlin: they will probably remain the most significant I will ever witness in my lifetime. Keith was wise, funny and very easy to talk to. He had experienced racial segregation first-hand as a schoolboy and had a fierce sense of moral justice and fair play. Our friendship spanned more than twenty years, transitioning from letters and postcards, to email in the late 1990s, moving to Facebook in the mid-2000s. He died of cancer in 2012, but I was lucky enough to spend time with him in the US: he showed me New York, took me to Crawfordville, Georgia, to taste his mother’s Southern fried chicken and we enjoyed a wonderful Henry Moore exhibition together in the beautiful botanical gardens of Atlanta. He was one of the best human beings I have ever known. Who else? Well, most days I lived in the hostel I encountered the Romanian fortuneteller and his assistant who were renting the only private room in the place: they looked just like a Romanian fortune teller and his assistant should. I also met a steady stream of Antipodeans who were ‘doing Europe’, some of whom were quite interesting, but too many reeled off a list of places they’d been to in a rather glazed fashion that really made me wonder what, if anything, they were getting out of their trip. All of them, without exception, were heading to London. Significantly, I met very few Brits in Venice: they were there somewhere, but our paths did not cross. Once you live in a place for more than a month, local people recognise you. For me, these were the fruit and veg sellers where I got my supplies of apples and oranges, the proprietors of the several coffee shops where I had my breakfast espresso, the ladies on the till in my local supermarket and the staff at the Marciana. My biggest problem, though, was being English. EVERYONE wanted to speak English to me, so my Italian, other than what is needed to get by in shops and on public transport, is not

terribly good. This is my only regret - I have promised myself that, one day I’ll go native and really get to grips with learning Italian properly. All good things must, unfortunately, come to an end. Keith and Oscar returned to the US in February 1990, and sent me postcards from Venice, California, to highlight the irony of a shared name but a vastly different culture. I moved into an apartment owned by Archie and Mimi, which I occupied along with an earnest British student (I found one!) called Nick who was doing a degree in the History of Art. The apartment was really dowdy so Nick covered the walls in his own modern art: huge paintings of yellow telephones and blue bananas. They brightened the place up and Nick was good company. He could also make a remarkable meal out of Italian packet soup – truly delicious and a skill in itself. Visitors from the UK came and went: my parents; my closest friends; my long-suffering, abandoned boyfriend. I showed them all the Venetian showstoppers and my favourite, quieter places. I sadly bade farewell to Venice just after my 23rd birthday in April 1990. On my return to university I took stock of what I had done, reported back to the Italian government and then took a completely different direction and trained to become a teacher. You remember the boyfriend I mentioned earlier? Reader, I married him. And we are lucky enough to have lived happily ever after, pretty much, ever since. When I think back to my days in Venice, its beauty and majesty cannot be denied but the wonder of my experience was mostly accounted for by people. What were my favourite memories? Walking daily from Piazza San Marco through the wonderful maze of Venetian streets and alleys back to my weird Venetian foster-family. Sitting, eating with and talking to these unusual, colourful, clever people, night after night, about politics and art and religion and literature and history and culture and nationality and identity. My days at university had provided some opportunities for heated latenight discussions, but this was different; my companions had life experience, grownup opinions and interesting perspectives. The richest, most taxing, infuriating and enjoyable conversations and debates I’ve ever had were with these wonderful folk. They embedded in me a deep optimism and I have no doubt that my short time with them shaped the person I am today. Soon after Keith died I went back to Venice to see Archie, Mimi and the boys, now strapping young men who seem to have survived Archie and Mimi’s strange parenting largely unscathed. I took my husband and photos 6

of my lovely daughters. We spoke to Oscar via Skype, chatting and laughing and arguing, just like the old days. So I will always love Venice for having the capacity to attract such an amazing array of people, and for hosting me superbly well while I was fortunate enough to meet some of them. Go one day, see for yourself and I hope you find your own Venetian treasures.

FILMS Star Wars: A Review Leah Berridge, 12 RRC *SPOILERS* If you haven’t seen Star Wars: The Force Awakens yet, where have you been? It holds the record for the most box office records and those records have their own Wikipedia page. It’s already climbed to the third highest grossing movie of all time and it isn’t even out of the cinemas yet. For those of you who did see it you might have looked out for some of the incredible actors that did cameo in the film; Simon Pegg, Daniel Craig, and Bill Hader to name a few. Ironically, it wasn’t these stars that made The Force Awakens different. The original Star Wars trilogy was made famous from its ground-breaking use of technology and exploration of the science fiction genre that hadn’t yet been seen in 1977. So, at the start of this trilogy, Disney had to find something to make it different. When comparing the film to others in the highest grossing list I noticed: in every single film the lead character was white and previously famous from other films, 26% of the top 100 had a female lead, and 14% were Hermione in Harry Potter. In 2015, having a black man and a female lead shouldn’t be revolutionary, and yet this combination has never made nearly as much money. The Force Awakens held open auditions here in London, which is how the leads ended up coming from Peckham and Westminster, rather than the USA. George Lucas once said “I make my films for children, it’s not my fault adults like them”: probably one of the reasons he sold the rights to Disney. Making one film suitable for all age groups is their speciality, and in this aspect the film did not disappoint. It’s a traditional battle of good versus evil, it can make you laugh and cry, and it follows every Star Wars convention perfectly. Ironically, following the conventions too closely is the only fault this movie has. If you’re a hard core Star Wars fan you might notice a few similarities between this and the previous films—as in they’re exactly the same. The film opens by the New

Order/Empire fighting against the Rebels, follows a droid who crash lands on a desert planet, where they meet and are taken care of by an orphan, spend the film trying to defeat the guy in the black mask *SPOILER ALERT* only to have the father figure killed at the end on the platform of the bad sideâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s base with a red lightsabre. It could be said the film has only succeeded because they took all the best elements of A New Hope and just remade it with a better looking cast. However, this doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t make the film any worse, just more predictable. The Star Wars saga is a franchise that has inspired lightsabre-fighting as a sport, the creation of themed songs, and for people to spend over $6.3billion world-wide on movie tickets. This is the rebirth of the biggest film series since Harry Potter, so you might want to be there for it.

OPINION PIECE Don’t Stand By Anna Ludlam and Sophie Taylor, Year 13 January 27th marks Holocaust Memorial Day, a commemoration of the atrocities committed by the Nazis to the Jews of Europe during the Second World War. Seventy one years ago, on January 27th 1945, Soviet troops reached AuschwitzBirkenau. It lay in ruins. The Polish winter had taken hold, snow and ice coated the barren ground, and the air was finally still. The chimneys that had smoked continuously for four years had finally ceased, and the infamous extermination camp stood desolate–half destroyed by retreating Nazi forces. Only a few hundred inmates remained–the weakest, those closest to death, almost indistinguishable from the corpses that surrounded them. Over the next four months, hundreds more camps like Auschwitz-Birkenau would be ‘liberated’ by Allied forces. But what is ‘liberation’ to a people whose friends, towns, governments had turned against them in their time of need? Each year the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, in collaboration with the Holocaust Educational Trust establishes a ‘theme’ for the Memorial Day, in an attempt to focus our thoughts and connect our commemorations. This year, ‘Don’t Stand By’ is the chosen theme. And it’s fitting, it seems, in a climate of a refugee crisis, of the war against ISIS that the world stops and thinks. Because as much as we try to believe, to try to convince ourselves otherwise, politicians are never solely to blame for atrocity: they could never commit such crimes if it wasn’t for the support or at least indifference of the nation they control. Don’t stand by. In the early 20th century, anti-Semitism was rife in Europe. The Jews were blamed for the First World War across the continent with the hatred most intense in Russia and Germany. In the early 21st century, Islamophobia is rife across the world. Muslims are being blamed for acts of terrorism committed by individual, independent groups, with the hatred most intense in America.

In the early 1920s, a young man came to the forefront of German politics. A radical who preached hatred towards and isolation of the Jewish people, pushing for a place at the head of his nation in order to impose his fanatical ideas on his people. In 2016, an older man is coming to the forefront of American politics. A radical who preached hatred towards and isolation of the Muslim community, pushing for a place at the head of his nation in order to impose his fanatical ideas on his people. In the 1930s, the German nation sat and watched as this radical preacher took control of the reins of power in Germany. Many actively participated in the November pogrom1 of 1938. A handful protested against the persecution and the violence being done to the Jewish people. The majority stood by and let it happen. In 2016 and beyond, what will we do? Will we sit and watch as radical preachers take control of the Superpowers of our world? Will many of us actively participate in hate crimes and terrorist acts against the Muslim community? Will only a handful of us protest against the persecution of and the violence against these people? Will the majority stand by and let it happen? The parallels are frightening. But when thinking about this subject, one man and his lifetime come to mind. Elie Wiesel survived Auschwitz-Birkenau, survived the death march, and survived Buchenwald all before he was eighteen years old. Wiesel was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986 for his campaigns to preserve the memory of the Holocaust as well as his drive to raise awareness for more recent genocides. His acceptance speech resonates deeply with the idea of not standing by: “We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. Sometimes we must interfere. When human lives are endangered, when human dignity is in jeopardy, national borders and sensitivities become irrelevant. Wherever men or women are persecuted because of their race, religion, or political views, that place must – at that moment – become the centre of the universe.” So on January 27th, look to the past. Look at the mistakes our ancestors made. Look at how they stood by and let the slaughter happen. Then look to the future. Look at the refugee crisis in Syria, look at the ‘war on terror’ and the growing Islamophobia. Make these issues become the centre of our universe. Don’t stand by and let history repeat itself. Don’t stand by. 1

An organised massacre of a particular ethnic group, in particular that of the Jews in Russia or Eastern Europe. 11

OPINION PIECE Refugee and Migrant Network Sutton By Nishi Shah, 12 HLE Recently, the ongoing civil war in Syria has had a lot of media coverage. This is largely due to the fact that many more Syrians are being forced to flee as it is not safe for them to live in Syria anymore. There was a lot of speculation as to whether the UK government should let the migrants claim asylum in the UK and how many people they should accept. It was decided in September that 20,000 Syrian migrants would be allowed to claim asylum in the UK over the course of 5 years, and the migrants would be taken directly from UN camps in the Middle East. This was, and still is, a contentious issue, and only because it gained so much worldwide consideration did it bring to the publicâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s attention the endless struggle of refugees and migrants. Many people are unaware of the fact that there are a lot of organisations that are made solely for the purpose of helping refugees and migrants settle in and integrate into our society, many of which have been up and running for over 20 years. Most of us cannot even imagine the trauma and turmoil the migrants have gone through - to have to pack up a comfortable life you once had and move to a completely different country, with an entirely different culture to yours, is an experience most of us would not be able to comprehend. These networks aid these refugees and help them as much as they can to make their settling in a little bit easier, and to give them the advice they need to start a new life. The refugee and migrant network in our local area, Sutton, is one of these helpful networks. At the minute, they are preparing to aid the Syrian migrants who are coming to the UK. They provide many instrumental services for refugees and migrants who have recently moved to Sutton and are settling in to the local area. They offer the service of counselling for people who are deeply affected by loss and the events that occurred/are occurring in their country, as well as helping them settle into our society with spectacular English classes for people who cannot speak any, or very little English. The aim of these classes is to help the migrants and refugees practise speaking English with an emphasis on daily routine. For example, how to ask for 12

directions on the street or how to ask for something in a supermarket. They offer invaluable advice and information on many different areas such as housing, employment and benefits - many of which would be extremely difficult to tackle and understand without a little bit of outside assistance. The best thing about these networks is that anyone from the local community can lend a hand. You are able to donate goods to families, offer up a room in your house and also go in to the centres to help with the activities and classes they hold for the migrants and refugees. The impact the networks have on the well-being of the migrants is phenomenal. They support and empower them to live a comfortable and flourishing life. Without the help of these networks, the refugees and migrants would be helpless, lost and lonely in a country vastly different to their own.

OPINION PIECE Life in plastic, it’s fantastic! By Jasmin Daley, 12JML Barbie has gone and done it. The franchise that had already made a revolutionary change in June, releasing its first range of dolls designed to wear flats, has now gone on to establish a new set of dolls of a range of shapes and sizes. Combatting the constant claims of the way the dolls are body-shaming a young generation. For years Barbie has been criticized for having a negative influence on young, impressionable girls. This is what is known by some psychologists as ‘The Barbie Effect’; this is the idea that we subconsciously associate Barbie’s beauty, fame, handsome boyfriend and to-die-for dream house with her almost stick-like figure. It seems ludicrous that such a giant in the toy-making industry has gone on for over fifty years with a product who, if she were real, would have a waist fifteen inches smaller than the average UK waist size. Maybe it was the fact that people blamed Barbie for the fact that ‘50% of children under the age of 13 have attempted to diet’ that inspired Mattel Inc. to revamp its Barbie fashionistas line. Barbie has now brought forward a range of thirty three brand spanking new dolls to suit everyone. We have the ‘original’ Barbie, the ‘curvy’ Barbie, the ‘tall’ Barbie and for all those little girls out there, my personal favourite, the ‘petite’ Barbie. All are designed in an attempt to help girls feel good about themselves, whatever their shape. Body type, however, isn’t the only change; Barbie is now being made into more races than ever! It’s no surprise that the new doll is a hit, already being crowned one of ‘Oprah’s favourite things of 2016’ and featuring on the front cover of Time magazine. Of course there are some sceptics who believe this new type of doll will create a unique kind of pressure for girls. Will a nine year old be frowned upon for picking up an ‘original’ sized doll blonde instead of a ‘Curvy’ dark skinned Barbie? And by creating these dolls will we further confirm the effect the media has on young minds, if these dolls don’t instantly fly off the shelf? There have been other complaints and questions arising such as, what about different body sizes for Ken? Is Barbie allowed 14

to have a disability? In all honesty it seems that Barbie will never be able to satisfy everyone. So what is next on the cards for Barbie? Mattel Inc. have just launched a ‘Hello, Barbie!’; a doll which connects to your Wi-Fi, your phone and even claims to ‘get to know your child’, in an attempt to compete with other technology such as the iPad. Has Barbie taken things a step too far? Will these revolutionary toys end up being a success? Only time will tell.

OPINION PIECE To what extent is masculinity synonymous with heroism in the plays of William Shakespeare? Katherine Corcoran, 13 RCY Androgyny/non-binary gender identification was unheard of in Elizabethan England. The concepts of ‘masculinity’ and’ femininity’ were not merely suggestions for how one should conform to their gender, but conservative, clear-cut responses to the dilemma – what is it to be a man/woman? Throughout Shakespeare’s comedies, tragedies and history plays there exists a recurring theme of masculine identity. The playwright questions how his audience might define ‘masculinity’; maybe, as Robin Headlam-Wells puts it, masculinity is ‘martial qualities - physical strength, prowess in battle and masculine honour’. Or maybe it is simply ‘the presentation of a sturdy character wearing a hat and a sword that strutted and fretted his hour on the stage’, as Jean-Louis Claret argues. The struggle to define the Shakespearean perception of masculine identity inspired my Extended Project Qualification, and about halfway through my initial project research I found an interesting solution to the problem: ‘Heroism, we suspect, is a figment of the imagination, born of our collective will to idealise manly behaviour’. Masculinity, therefore, is heroism. Heroism is masculinity. We think hero; we think control, courage, prowess, goodness and direction. We think masculine, and we essentially think the same, just with the addition of a good beard. But perhaps it is not as simple as that. What happens when, as in Twelfth Night, the play’s hero is a young girl cross-dressed as a male. Biologically, she’s still female, so does this play suggest conclusively that a woman can be a true hero? Or, on the other hand, it could be argued that the playwright is trying to say that Viola can only

be a hero when she ‘becomes’ male – it isn’t femininity that’s heroic, but the disguise of masculinity. Would this be a better conclusion to the dilemma, bearing in mind the strongly-held belief that archetypal heroism is just a masculine ideal? 5000 words, one production log, one research diary and a whole lot of source analysis later, and I have my finished EPQ. There are a lot of misconceptions about the EPQ. People say it gets boring, drags your results down and is something that people only continue because they’ve written it on their University application so they can’t drop out! For me, this was never the case. I’ve never been a particularly organised person, but carrying out this project made me find a field of interest that I’m now considering studying for a Masters qualification. Some people might wonder how it’s possible to enjoy writing what is basically a massive essay on Shakespeare (I am not going to pretend that my project doesn’t sound incredibly sad and boring), but I’m really proud of what I’ve done. And if you’re intrigued enough to be as interested in my project’s conclusion as I am, have a look at my essay! It will be on the shared area from Monday 8th February.

SCIENCE The science behind the invisibility cloak By Grace Li, 13 VWS “And so it was that Death reluctantly handed over his own cloak of invisibility…” – The Tales of Beedle the Bard (JK Rowling) The concept of cloaking has appeared throughout pop culture for many years, such as in the Harry Potter series, in the form of a magic invisibility cloak, and in the Avengers films, as technology that can render their transportation invisible. For several decades these ideas have lacked the scientific know-how to come into being, but theoretical progress, followed by positive research in this area, indicate that the technology that looks like magic may finally become a reality. So how does it work? Consider a rock in a river. When water approaches, it is forced to change direction to flow around the rock. However, looking at the water immediately before and after this obstacle, the waves are parallel to one another, as if there was no obstacle. Similarly, cloaking mimics this effect by using metamaterials – synthetic materials that demonstrate properties not found in nature – with a negative refractive index to bend light around an object. And what is a negative refractive index? When light passes from air to a denser medium, it is usually refracted (it changes direction) towards the normal – an imaginary line perpendicular to the surface of the medium. The size of this refraction is the ratio of the speed of light in the two media, known as the refractive index (which is usually a positive number). However, metamaterials can defy what we thought we knew about refraction with a negative refractive

index. This allows us to sculpt light around the object so that it finishes parallel, meaning that to an observer, it appears as if the obstacle never existed.

Cloaking is not just limited to space but can be extended to events in time. The technique is to pass a beam of light through two temporal lenses (which work using something called electro-optic modulation) in series. The first lens compresses the light in time while the second decompresses it, so it appears to a spectator that the light was never altered. This leaves a tiny gap in which

event

could

occur

unrecorded. Following theoretical development at Imperial College London, a team at Cornell University successfully created a temporal cloak, although it only lasted for 15 x 10-12 seconds. The applications of this technology are widespread: a possible use includes camouflage for the military. It can also be used in medical imaging by making internal organs and tissues invisible, so that a doctor can see the problem point more clearly. While these experimental results may not seem that impressive, they are a step in the right direction and magic-like technology has never been closer to being a reality.

SCIENCE DEEP BRAIN STIMULATION: Exciting progress in the field of Neuroscience By Simran Sehdev, 13VWS The history around brain surgery for psychological problems has often been shrouded in conspiracy, with its roots buried deep in science fiction. Whether it’s the lobotomies performed by Moniz, or trepanation initiated in Neolithic times to keep evil spirits away, the history of using interventions in the brain as a tool to manipulate, abuse and control is rich. Deep brain stimulation, or DBS, is a procedure originally pioneered in 1987 and since then more than 100,000 people around the world have undergone DBS for movement disorders. At the flick of an electrocuted switch, tremors disappear, and someone who would not have been able to hold a cup of tea before can now do so motionless. I was first introduced to the procedure whilst on work experience at UCL Neurology Hospital as a viable option for people with Parkinson’s related movement disorder. Later I met someone at a Neuro Rehabilitation Centre in Banstead who had the electrodes implanted in his brain after an acquired brain injury after a car accident. He talked with great enthusiasm about how he had been made ‘literally bionic’. Here’s how the procedure works; small electrodes are implanted into the brain (powered by battery packs sewn into the chest) to deliver a weak but constant electric current that reduces or eliminates symptoms. The electrode arrays (leads) are implanted into a specific region of the brain via burr holes in the skull using neuroimaging-guided stereotactic neurosurgical techniques where the target for implantation is calculated within a three-dimensional coordinate system based on external landmarks. “Stick a knitting needle through a piece of butter and it’s exactly the same feeling,” Thomas Schläpfer, Neurosurgeon, University Hospital Bonn, Germany.

The procedure combines neurology, neurosurgery and electrical engineering to produce a scientific feat parallel to the works of science fiction, whether the minds that brought us the lobotomies of Shutter Island in 2010 or the extreme box office success of the Matrix films, brain implants are strewn over the sci-fi film landscape. More recently research is being conducted into DBS being used to treat psychiatric disorders such as extreme forms of OCD, Anorexia and Treatment Resistant Depression. The way this works is by targeting specific areas of the brain involved in different behaviours. For example there is evidence that stimulating the ‘Nucleus Acumbens’, a part of the brain known as the ‘reward centre’, is thought to improve the feelings of anhedonia associated with depression. Even though these procedures are still in its trial phases, they raise interesting ethical questions. For example; does interfering with the brain’s pathways change someone’s personality drastically? Or whether controlling the way someone’s brain works reduces their right to autonomy and making their own decisions as a patient? Essentially who holds the remote? With the possibility of DBS being used to treat more niche conditions such as paedophilia, and criminal inclinations, these questions are more important than ever. There are a number of clinical dangers as well. Previous studies have shown that when the Neuromodulation is increased too much it can lead to leakage of cerebrospinal fluid, loss of movement and increased confusion, among a host of other side effects. A patient I met personally who had deep brain stimulation in the ‘basal ganglia’ area also reported temporary blindness when the frequency was increased beyond a certain point! Sam Kean’s ‘The Tale of the Duelling Neurosurgeons’, he talks about how the central paradox of neuroscience is ‘How a conscious mind emerges from a physical brain’. This question as to ‘where the brain stops and the mind begins’, highlights essentially the ethical issue that arises when with interfering with the brains neural connections in DBS. Undeniably this procedure could prove to be promising for treating clinically acute cases of psychiatric disorders in the future. Nevertheless due to risk of potential misuse, personality changes, and reduction in patient autonomy it should be approached with caution. If this this topic interests you and you’d like to find out more about Deep Brain Stimulation and the dangers of its application, come along to the TP block at 3pm after school on the 10th of February for a 15 minute EPQ presentation!

SCIENCE Londoners: Safe or Sheltered? Jenna Smith, 12 JNL Most Londoners go about their day-to-day lives with the perception that they are more likely to win the lottery than be caught in a hurricane. While it is true that the nearest tectonic plate boundary is 6,000km away and the UK climate isn’t likely to cause a drought any time soon, are we as safe as most believe we are? Or are we living a sheltered and uninformed existence? Tornados aren’t something that most people would associate with the British climate; what they don’t know is that England actually has the most tornados per square mile than any other country. On average, England is hit with around 30 tornados every year, with London being one of the most commonly hit areas. One of the largest London natural disasters was the 2006 tornado in which £10 billion of damage was caused by uprooted trees, detached roofs and flying cars. It was a miracle that only 5 people were injured and no-one was killed; it would have been all too easy for someone to be knocked over by some flying debris. Experts have predicted that there is a 6% chance of a tornado happening this year in London; a prediction that could have disastrous consequences if proved true. The UK is known for its wet and windy weather, so it follows that there must be big problems with flooding up and down the country, and London is no exception. Although it was almost 100 years ago, the Thames Flood of 1928 is still one of the largest floods to have occurred in London. Melting snow, high precipitation and storm surges caused the river’s banks to burst, leaving parts of London 5ft underwater. As a result, 14 people drowned in their basement and 4,000 people were

Source: Independent

made homeless due to the water damage. Experts described this flood as ‘1 in 100 22

years’ which may suggest that another flood of the same magnitude could be expected in the next few years. The Environmental Agency has calculated that some areas of London around the Thames (such as Battersea and Woolwich) are at high risk of flooding this year (3.3%). People born in the 20th Century will most likely remember the Great Storm of 1987; the extra-tropical cyclone that hit England with winds of over 100mph. This resulted in 22 deaths with thousands being left stranded without power. Transport systems were severely affected due to uprooted trees blocking roads and railways. It was described as a ‘1 in 200 years’ storm, and although it means that there may not be another of the same magnitude for some time, the possibility remains that another disaster could occur in the future. Cyclones, tornados and floods are just some of the natural disasters that have hit London and other parts of the UK in the past century. With global warming on the rise, Londoners can expect to see another natural disaster in the not-so-distant future. It may not have a thousand-person death toll or have multi-billion dollar damages, but that doesn’t make it any less risky.

SCIENCE Can you trust the healthcare system? Mathoorika Sivananthan, 12 KBT Thousands of people were infected with Hepatitis C and HIV through NHS blood products in the 1970s and 80s. However, the inquiry only concluded recently, after six years, with a single recommendation – that anyone in Scotland who had a blood transfusion before 1991 should be tested for Hepatitis C if they have not already done so. The inquiry had more than thirteen thousand pages of transcript, in addition to two hundred witness statements and one hundred and twenty thousand documents in its database. The victims and relatives expressed their righteous anger with shouts of “whitewash” after the conclusion was read out at the National Museum of Edinburgh. This contaminated blood scandal is one of the worst nightmares in history, but it has reduced some people’s trust and confidence in the healthcare system in the UK. Many of those victims were already haemophilia patients, making them even more vulnerable. On behalf of the government in 1991, which holds responsibility for this, David Cameron said it was difficult to imagine the "feeling of unfairness that people must feel at being infected with something like Hepatitis C or HIV as a result of totally unrelated treatment within the NHS". He also added: "To each and every one of these people I would like to say sorry on behalf of the government for something that should not have happened." In addition, there is a confirmed provision of up to twenty five million pounds in 2015/16 to support any transitional arrangement to a better payment system. Unfortunately, this response was dismissed as a "joke" and "gesture politics" by one spokesman. The driving force for these victims is the curiosity to know who was at fault and the possibility of a comprehensive compensation settlement.

The probe, headed by former high court judge Lord Penrose, said that there must have been more supervision through the screening of the blood and the donors for Hepatitis C and the collection of blood from prisoners should have been halted a very long time ago. A statement was read out on his behalf by inquiry secretary Maria McCann, who said patients in the late 1980s had been “confronted with the reality that what had been presented as a treatment to extend life and improve its quality carried a risk of serious and potentially fatal disease.” Even though at first reading this may sound irrational, by looking deeper in to the narrative setting out the case that cannot be avoided by the government and its moral responsibility. As a nation we can only hope that a similar event does not take place in the future and this ‘nightmare’ remains as a lesson.

SCIENCE A Potential Cure for Alzheimer’s Disease Zara Clark-Thorne, 12 RRC Alzheimer’s is a serious disease that is the progression of mental deterioration that is caused by the general degeneration of the brain. It is also the most common cause of premature senility that affects 1 in 9 people aged 65 and over. Even younger people can develop Alzheimer’s, so it is a serious condition that can affect a large amount of people within their lifetime. Patients have been being treated with medication that targets amyloid plaques. Amyloid is a protein that is found throughout the body, however in Alzheimer’s sufferers the protein divides improperly, creating a form of the protein that is toxic to the brain. This was thought to have been the cause of the disease. However, new research has been conducted by experts at the University of Southampton which suggests that if you stop the inflammation of the brain (a side-effect of the disease caused by the build-up of microglia cells), it stops the disease from progressing any further. The researchers carried out an experiment in which they gave mice a drug that blocks the receptor that is responsible for the rise in microglia cells. The mice that received this drug were found to have fewer memory and behavioural problems. The drug also prevented the loss of communication points between nerve cells in the brain, which usually occurs in people with Alzheimer’s. It has been said that this research could explain why drugs that have previously been used to treat Alzheimer’s disease have been unsuccessful. This research is unique in comparison to other Alzheimer’s research, as the experts looked at what they previously thought was a symptom of the disease and concluded that it was not a symptom at all, but was a potential cause for the disease. This research shows promise and could potentially lead to a cure against the progression of Alzheimer’s disease, which in turn could have a positive effect on hundreds of thousands of people across the globe.

POETRY The Letter Lydia Bearne 7 Bronte An old piece of parchment flew through our rusty letter box, "A letter from Fred" exclaimed daughter Pox. She ripped off the seal and read aloud, "To present you this letter, I am not proud," "He is just hurt!" I thought "He must have tried hard when he fought!"

I clenched my fists and listened hard: "Fred Butterworth died in action today, He has gone to heaven, we ask you to pray."

I fell to the floor, trying to hide, he had tried hard, I should have felt pride, I ran upstairs leaving Pox to cry, He had died

He had died with HOPE He had died for YOU

RECIPE Valentine’s Strawberry Surprise! Zara Clark-Thorne, 12 RRC Fancy doing something romantic for someone special this Valentine’s Day, but you don’t know what to do for them? Well look no further! This is a simple but exciting twist on the classic chocolate-covered strawberries that will tickle your taste buds! Here is how you make your scrumptious treat…

Step 1: Choose your strawberries and wash them. Then slice off the top of the strawberry and put it to the side. Step 2: Place some chocolate in a bowl and heat in the microwave until it is fully melted. Step 3: Take your strawberries and take the middle out of all of them using a knife. Step 4: Get a spoon and scoop your melted chocolate into the middle of your strawberry. Step 5: Place the top of the strawberry back on top. Put the strawberries on tinfoil and put in the fridge until the chocolate has set. Step 6: Dip each of your strawberries into the leftover melted chocolate. You can also add extra toppings like popping candy for an extra twist on top! In just 6 steps you can have a classic but fun special little gift for someone special on Valentine’s Day. It is quick and easy to make but it will easily impress people. Plus you get to eat the extra chocolate once you have finished making it, and who wouldn’t love that?!

INSPIRATION Your 4 Top Quotes Aisha Chaudhry, 12PBD We are now in the second month of 2016 and hopefully our New Year’s resolutions are still going strong. But also, at this point in time, some of us may have realised how much we enjoy just eating cake, or the opposite of our resolutions. To those that are still persevering, or wavering from their resolutions, you may need some motivation. So being the Tumblr-scroller that I am, I decided to share my top four favourite quotes for this month, and I hope that they get you as motivated as I was: 1. ‘The trees that are slow to grow bear the best fruit’ – Molière This quote is particularly special to me, because with mocks approaching, this quote reminds me that everything will be okay. I mean, if a Himalayan lily can take seven years to grow three meters then it’s alright for me to take an extra half an hour staring at a question. Just kidding! Don’t stare at the question for thirty minutes. But it doesn’t matter if you’re taking it slowly, so long as you get there with those extra hours showing their worth. Because if your taking those hours then you’re taking extra moments to be the star of the show. 2. ‘He who is not courageous enough to take risks will accomplish nothing in life.’ – Muhammad Ali Risks are an essential part of life. Because risks allow decisions to be made, and when you make the wrong decisions you learn to make the right ones in the future. It’s not easy to make decisions and the moment that reality hits you it can be harsh. But life cannot be made without these risky decisions. When you make these decisions you’re letting yourself carve your own path. If you live in the fear of not making any decisions, what have you really achieved?

3. ‘Arriving at one goal is the starting point to another’ – John Dewey It took me a while for this to actually sink in and when it did I realised that it is true. Is it not true, that when we achieve one thing, we’re starting to plan the next? The other day, I made Nutella doughnuts and when I finished I was thinking of making New York Cheesecake. Or much more relevant goals, like when we get a B in our mocks and we’re already planning how to achieve an A. 4. ‘An essential aspect of creativity is not being afraid to fall.’ Every one of us has a sort of creativity inside us, and it’s not just art or the labs that have the power to bring out that ability. Creativity is the ability to imagine and to create. And when something with no boundary is given to us, it is easy to simply give up on the idea because of the fear of failure; the idea in our mind that had been conjured up is dead before it can even breathe. Nothing. So why not have a little faith in yourself? Why not be the next famous person, someone who didn’t let the fear of failure get to them.

PUZZLES Puzzles By Jasmin Daley, 12 JML Challenge 1: You have a bar of soap. Your friend requires that you give them 1/7 of the bar every day for a week. What is the least amount of cuts you have to make to the bar to give the friend 1/7th of a bar every day? Challenge 2: A magic square is a square full of numbers where all the rows and all the columns add up to the same number. Can you complete this one? 19 12

22 1

14 18

Dingbats: Hint: Theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re all to do with School.

Doctor

Teacher

Waitress

Teacher

Firefighter

Teacher

Lifeguard

Teacher

ANSWERS Solution to Challenge 1: The least amount of cuts you can make is two, making the cuts in the ratio of 1:2:4. It works like so:              

Day One: You give the friend the smallest piece Total is 1/7 Day Two: You give the friend the middle-sized piece, and take the smallest piece in return. Total is 2/7 Day Three: You give back the smallest piece. In total they’ll have 3/7ths of the bar. Total is 1/7 + 2/7 = 3/7 Day Four: You give them the largest piece, and take back the two smaller pieces. Total is 4/7 Day Five: You give them back the smallest piece so in total they have 5/7ths Total is 4/7 + 1/7 = 5/7 Day Six: You give them back the middle-sized piece and take the smallest piece back. Total is 4/7+ 2/7 = 6/7 Day Seven: You give them all the pieces. Total is 4/7+2/7+1/7=7/7

Solution to Challenge 2:

Dingbats: Examinations (Exam in Nations)

Teacher is always Right (Teacher is to the right of all the other professions.

Half Term Term is split in half

Lesson Plan Less ‘n’ in Plan 32

THE SENIOR ORCHESTRA

SENIOR ORCHESTRA

COME ALONG THIS WEEK AND TRY IT OUT! 33

EPQ PRESENTATION

â&#x20AC;&#x153;To investigate the variance in the use of slang between two populations of teenagers from two neighboring boroughs in South London from different socio-economic classes.â&#x20AC;? 34

Thank you for Reading! The newspaper committee would like to extend a large thank you for reading this Valentineâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Edition of the Wally Street Journal! We hope you enjoyed it! We hope that you all have an amazing Half Term and that you all continue to write such amazing articles and essays and submit them to the School Newspaper folder in the shared area. If any of the articles in the newspaper pique your interest, please feel free to write an article in response.

Thank you and goodbye for now!