worldofmystery

C ata p u lta

science behind love

ugliest animal in the world

SCIENCE | TECHNOLOGY

WINTER 2015

1

curiosityrover

Alfred Yan, IV

What comes to mind when one hears the word “Mars”? Some people would think of green aliens, while others would be reminded of a copper-red desert. Clearly, Mars is a very notable planet for many reasons. It is also the second closest celestial satellite to Earth besides the Moon, which is why the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has sent probes there such as the Curiosity. The Curiosity rover was launched in November 2011 and landed on Mars in August 2012. Upon landing onto Mars’s surface, Curiosity was able to utilize many advanced technologies. One of these was ChemCam, a new innovation built on the rover that could analyze the properties of the rocks and minerals on Mars from up to seven meters away. ChemCam, which stands for Chemistry and Camera instrument, is composed of two parts: the Remote Micro Imager (RMI) and the Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectrometer (LIBS). When ChemCam makes an analysis, the RMI first employs a high-tech camera that provides a close-up image of the area that is being sampled, which gives information on the sampled area’s geological surroundings. Next, the LIBS fires a laser at the rock, causing it to produce a plasma that is visible to the naked eye. After the laser is fired, a built-in telescope captures the light from the plasma and transfers it to three spectrometers in the rover’s body. These spectrometers then analyze the wavelengths of the atoms from the plasma and thus are able to determine what the rock is made of. ChemCam is useful because it makes the process of taking rock samples less complicated and time-consuming. Previously, sampling minerals on Mars meant having to do many laborious tasks such as grinding and brushing away the rock’s outer layers, as with the other rovers on Mars,

Spirit and Opportunity. For these two rovers, it could take days to make just one single composition analysis. By using ChemCam, a laser could simply zap right through the dust and outer layers, completely ridding the need to even make contact with the sample. With this quick process, about a dozen mineral analyses could be made in one day. So where is Curiosity now? Currently, it is at a mountain on Mars: Aeolis Mons. This mountain, about the size of Mt. Rainier in Washington State, is situated in the middle of Gale Crater in the equatorial region. There, NASA is having Curiosity scale and analyze parts of the mountain. They believe that Aeolis Mons is made of many different layers of rock piled over time, which will provide clues to the geologic and climatic history of Mars’s surface. They are also investigating any evidence of water, such as the presence of clay or sulfate. Hopefully, NASA will continue to make more technological advancements as it continues to explore our neighboring red planet.

Editor-in-Chief:Michael Gao (II)

Task Manager:William Gao (II)

Content Editors:Jiayi Chen (II)Kevin Yang (II)

Content Associates:Randy Chen (III)William Ho (III)

Ashley Chou (V)Zhaoyang (Tim) Liu (V)

Copy Editor: Neil Sun (I)

Copy Associates:Elisabeth Kotsalidis (II)

Nena Kotsalidis (IV)Alfred Yan (IV)

Layout Editor:Yinyu Ji (III)

Layout Associates:John (Hanjin) Kim (II)Hayden Codiga (IV)Fahad Anwar (V)

Annie Tsan (V)

Treasurer:Daniel Sherman (II)

Website Coordinator:Michael Lee (II)

Faculty Advisor:Ms. Bateman

Special Thanks:Mr. Smith

We hope you enjoyed February break and all the snow days! Here is the Winter Issue of Catapulta, the school’s science magazine! In this issue there are many exciting things from seventh grade science fair experiments to articles concerning endangered species, spacecrafts, and the oceans. This issue in-volved the hard work of students from all grades, and includes articles written by a wide array of students.

We hope you enjoy the articles: there are a lot of cool scientific facts you might not have known, and fun and challenging puzzles at the end. Also, if you are interested in contributing (writing ar-ticles, working with the publication crew), feel free to contact us at catapultasciencebls@gmail.com.

Dear READER:

BLS CATAPULTA

1Curiosity Rover

2The water CRISIS

3 Ocean Acidification

4WHITE RHINOS

back insideTHE CANNY CANNABIS

12-13History of the Intervet

14-15New Antibiotic DISCOVERED

10elephants and the ivory trade

8Sixie Science Projects

11Science behind LOVE

9MATH AND art

5 The BLOBFISH

6-7Importance of Coral Reefs

16TIPS FROM BLS GARDEN

TABLE OF

CONTENTS

So where is curiosity now?A Mountain on Mars.

1 Around the nineteenth century, the British, hungry for power, set out overseas in an attempt to es-tablish themselves in the Americas to acquire wealth. What resulted was the Industrial Revolution, an event whose consequences are insidious and grow worse as time progresses. Pollutants, such as sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide, are released in massive amounts, caus-ing seemingly irreparable damage to the ocean, an en-vironment which provides sustenance for many di-verse life forms. Carbon and nitrogen emissions have an especially detrimental effect on the environment. The carbon emission that everyone is most famil-iar with is CO2, or carbon dioxide. When large amounts of carbon dioxide are released into the atmosphere, some of it is absorbed by the ocean. The water molecules and car-bonate ions (CO3

2-) in the ocean react with the absorbed carbon dioxide, forming bicarbonate ions. This poses an issue to many organisms, such as coral, clams, and sea urchins, that rely on carbonate ions. They are called “calcifying organisms” because they use carbonate ions and calcium ions to create their shells. With less carbon-ate ions available, calcification becomes more difficult. Carbon dioxide not only harms calcifying organ-isms, but also decreases the ocean’s pH, creating a po-tentially harmful environment for almost all aquatic life. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the pH of water on the ocean surface has decreased by 0.1 pH units, which is a thirty percent increase in acidity. NOAA also notes that more than a billion people around the world rely on seafood as their main source of protein. Without aquatic life, biodiversity would evidently decrease, resulting in the decline of many economiesthat depend on the seafood industry.

Nitrogen emissions, similar to car-bon dioxide emissions, are both greenhouse gases and catalysts in ocean acidification. N2O, or nitrous oxide, which some people know as “laughing gas,” is a green-house gas stronger than carbon dioxide. According to the EPA, one pound of nitrous oxide has 300 times more of an impact on global warming than one pound of carbon dioxide. Additionally, it lasts an average of 120 years in the atmosphere before finally being con-sumed by chemical reactions. The Environmental Pro-tection Agency (EPA) also notes that roughly seventy-five percent of N2O emissions comes from agricultural soil management. This is because most fertilizers con-tain nitrogen, which reacts with oxygen, forming N2O. Another type of nitrogen emission is nitrogen oxide (NO), which is released by fossil fuel power plants. This is also, however, released by tobacco smoke. Mol-ecules of nitrogen oxide rise into the atmosphere and react with water molecules in clouds to form nitric acid (HNO3). Nitric acid is a component of acid rain that precipitates into the ocean and onto land, killing off life. Despite the extraordinary amounts of these pol-lutants that are being emitted into the atmosphere, there are simple things ordinary people can do to help: Car-pooling and taking public transportation result in less emission of pollutants, and abstaining from egregious actions such as smoking prevents causing harm not only from oneself, but also from the environment and every-one else. Though problems like ocean acidification and global warming seem impossible to overcome, like being trapped in the dark, there is always a solution, and there will always be a shining light.

OCEAN ACIDIFICATION

3Randy Chen, III 2 Masha leyfer, V

Every minute, at least one child dies from improper sanitation. Water has a direct link

to education and gender equality. Water related illnesses have taken more lives than wars. A simple tap can change the lives of an entire community. More people in the world have access to a mobile phone than to a toilet. Which would you choose? The water crisis is a very real and often underrated world issue. About 72% of Earth is covered in water, but only 1% of that is available for human use. To put that into perspective, if 100 liters represents the Earth’s water, only half of a tablespoon would be available to use. For this reason, six hundred million people, almost a tenth of the world’s population, suffer from water shortages daily and one out of every eight people lacks clean water. Many people who have access to tap water, a toilet, and proper filtration often do not understand how serious the issue is: water is taken for granted, when in fact, it is a precious resource, and one that we are wasting. Others do not acknowledge parts of this crisis because it simply sounds ridiculous: how can having a toilet change somebody’s life? The impact is incredible. For example, girls without toilets are significantly less likely to get a full education than those who have access. How does this tie into science? This issue is relevant to multiple areas of science such as climatology and health. Water in a region has both direct and indirect effects on the economy and people’s access to water has a direct effect on how they are treated and how they stand in society. The consequences and repercussions of this issue are very serious, and this problem must no longer be ignored.

“EVERY MINUTE, A CHILD DIES”

WATER CRISIS

5

W i t h its square-

shaped l ips and huge head,

the northern white white rhinoceros, or

Ceratotherium simum, is known, like all other rhinos,

for its two notorious horns on its forehead. Could these horns be

the northern white rhino’s downfall? Even with its 11-13.75 feet body

and 20-27.5 inch tail, the white giant’s horns are sought after in many Asian countries to be

sold in the black market. It is especially demanded in Vietnam, and it is also used in traditional Chinese

medicine. The horn symbolizes wealth and prestige and thus is highly sought after, despite the fact that the poaching of these rhino horns is heavily discouraged. As more and more rhinos are poached before they are able to breed, sooner or later, the species will come to an end. There are now only five living northern white rhinos that are in custody of humans in zoos and wildlife protection centers. In October 2014, Suni, one of the two male white rhinos at that time, died in Kenya’s Ol Pejeta

Conservancy. Suni was likely the last male capable of breeding. More recently in December of 2014, Angalifu, another white rhino, died of old age at 44 years old in the San Diego Zoo. There is another northern white rhino in San Diego Zoo, one in Czech Dvur Kralove Zoo, and two females and one male in Ol Pejeta Conservancy. The only slim chance of their reproduction is artificial breeding. With only one infertile male and four females left of this species, however, the northern white rhino is virtually doomed to extinction. What we have learned from the white rhino is that our actions can have negative consequences and can be harmful for a species. As we lose more northern white rhinos every year, the number will soon drop to zero. As the old saying goes, you never know what you have until it’s gone. All we can do is hope that this beautiful rare species will not become extinct.

Only five living

WHITE RHINOSCarol Cao, V

UGLIEST ANIMAL IN THE WORLD?

This majestic creature is the blobfish. Yes, it is a real animal. Just take it in. The Psychrolutes marcidus, also known as the blobfish, is a deep-sea fish that lives off of the coast of Australia. Its body is composed of a muscleless jellylike mass. It is so gelatinous because it lives around 2000 to 4000 feet below the ocean’s surface. There, the water pressure is so much higher that, if the blobfish were not so blobby, it would instantly be crushed. One would think that not having any muscles would make it difficult for the blobfish to acquire nutrients through food. Fortunately for the blobfish, its body is less dense than water, which allows it to float above the ocean floor, where it waits for food to swim straight into its mouth. To be fair, this picture of the blobfish was taken above sea level. Its body is not suited for this low pressure. The high pressure of the deep sea is what keeps the blobfish’s jelly-like body together. Without pressure, the blobfish simply falls apart, resulting in what is seen here. A blobfish i n i t s na tu r a l habitat actually looks quite

adorable. With the aid of extreme water pressure, the blobfish appears plump and small. Sadly, the blobfish is endangered due to fishing trawlers. These fishermen drag nets along the bottom of the ocean, damaging the ocean floor and its inhabitants. The blobfish is not the intended catch, and therefore is abandoned when it reaches the surface. Some fishermen mistake blobfish for lobsters, which also contributes to their declining number. Hopefully, by increasing awareness about the blobfish and their plight, we can ensure that these fish, however unattractive they may be, will continue to roam the world’s oceans.

THE BLOBFISH.

Kevin S. Qi, V4

Yes, it is a real animal.

6 7

The oceans are filled with many different forms of life. One of the most essential, most overlooked, and now most endangered types of sea life is coral. Corals are essential to the existence of life in the oceans, primarily in the coral reefs, because nearly all act as primary producers in marine reef ecosystems. The idea that an animal can act as a primary producer may seem like heresy to many Biology 1 students. The justification for this is symbiosis. Corals, sea anemones, and giant clams all have mutualistic relationships with a special type of photosynthetic algae known as zooxanthellae. These zooxanthellae give corals energy as well as their unique, fascinating coloration. Indeed, the complexity of corals and their associates makes them especially susceptible to numerous threats nowadays, with climate change and human interactions with the environment among them. In order to understand how corals could be so greatly affected by all of these factors, one must have a basic understanding of how corals work. Photosynthetic corals as a whole are classified into numerous subsets. There are two large subsets that comprise all photosynthetic corals—soft corals and stony corals. Most scientific literature and government bodies refer to stony corals when they say coral, but it is important to recognize the distinction between these two types of coral: soft corals do not have calcium skeletons and are generally more tolerant of a wider range of conditions than stony corals. For this reason, most literature involving massive coral die offs in the oceans are concerning stony corals, not soft corals. Within the stony corals, there are two more divisions: small polyp stony corals (SPS) and large polyp stony corals (LPS). Small polyp stony corals are much more demanding than large polyp stony corals in terms of environment, and they constitute the majority of coral species. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species lists

as many as 169 species in the genus Acropora, the most abundant genus of SPS coral, while

the Australian government lists 184 different species in this genus. Since these fragile creatures make up the majority of reef-building corals, when they are affected by climate change, the reefs and oceans suffer. Therefore, it is not surprising how much of an effect the thousands of species of coral have on the planet. Given how important corals are to the environment, it is concerning that they are on the brink of extinction. How might that be? Most animals are extremely resilient and adept at maintaining homeostasis; Unfortunately, corals are not so hardy. While coral are animals, they are extremely fragile—one slight change to the water chemistry in the ocean could cause every single one in a given area to perish within days. In addition, SPS coral are entirely reliant on their zooxanthellae to live; without zooxanthellae, the coral would not be able to obtain energy and therefore perish. Temperature changes, pH drops, chlorine leaks, salinity changes, and disruptions in the nitrogen cycle are only some of the numerous water parameter factors which can kill stony corals and their symbiotic zooxanthellae. In addition, there are a number of infectious coral diseases that have incredible potential to cause damage. Notably among these are rapid tissue

“Most essential, most overlooked, most endangered”

William Ho, III

Want to learn in depth about corals and the oceans in general? Did you know BLS has its own aquarium? Do you own an aquarium and want to connect with other BLS aquarists? Visit the BLS Marine

science club (blsmsac@gmail.com)! Meetings are every other Monday in

Mr Smith’s room.

PHOTOSYNTHETIC PHENOMENA OF CORAL REEFSnecrosis, which can turn all of the flesh on the coral into looming, putrid-smelling masses of brown jelly; Acropora eating flatworms, which eat corals from the inside out; and white-band coral disease, which has devastated Caribbean reefs. Further, the locals in the underdeveloped countries which house some of the largest reefs in the world—including the Philippines, Indonesia, and the Maldives—do not fully understand the value of coral to their lives, and have even used them in cement. For this variety of reasons, the stony coral population has been greatly depleted throughout the world, leading to nearly every species of stony coral being listed as endangered by the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. The loss of coral is detrimental even to terrestrial ecosystems. As primary producers, corals supply energy to every reef ecosystem in the world. Corals are an essential part of the diet of many reef fish, some of which are known as obligate corallivores due to their sole dependence on corals as food. Through multiple trophic levels, the reef ecosystem affects the sharks and whales of the open ocean as well as terrestrial organisms, such as humans, through f o o d .

However, the oceans also have an even more significant effect on the entire planet: many chemical reactions which occur in the ocean have a great impact on every life form on the planet. In order to prevent the catastrophe that might come about with massive coral die offs, many governments are limiting the harvest of coral. Additionally, many organizations across the world, both private and government-sponsored, are taking the initiative to asexually propagate coral in captivity, where they will be safe from predation and coral diseases. However, while these efforts certainly produce results, they are rather small compared to the natural sexual reproduction of coral in the oceans. In December 2014 on the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, a multitude of coral, influenced by numerous factors, among which were the tides and temperature, underwent sexual reproduction. This process was so vital to the environment that the government of Australia prohibited diving and the harvesting of marine life during the coral spawning season. Last year’s coral spawning was especially unique, since the weather allowed for thousands of eggs to successfully be released and since the reef was in great health at the time. This spectacular occurrence will have incredible effects on the coral population in Australia, and hopefully this will allow the reefs make a comeback in the near future.

William Ho, III

8 9Every year, students in Class VI work on science fair projects in the Fall. These projects allow them to learn the scientific method and hone their abilities in 21st century learning expectations in speaking, presenting, researching, and problem solving. Here are two examples of what Mr. Smith’s students explored in their Earth Science class.

I did my science fair on weathering. After researching some ideas, I chose to do my experiment on this because one can see the effect weathering has on everyday life. But before I discuss my science fair project, what is weathering? Weathering is the various physical and chemical processes that cause exposed rock to decompose. Weathering is a broad concept, so I first had to find whether the weathering was mechanical or chemical. After conducting a lot of research, I figured out that my project, focusing on frost wedging, fell into the physical weathering. In nature, when water seeps into the cracks of a rock and the temperature drops, the water freezes and expanded, in the process cracking the rock. In my experiment, a water balloon demonstrated the water that had seeped through the cracks and hardened dough covering the water balloon represented the rock. Once I froze the “rock” in the freezer, the water froze and expanded causing the dough to crack. My project, therefore, serves a model of the natural phenomenon of frost weathering. Frost weathering is the fracturing of rock due to the expansionary pressure associated with the freezing of water in planes of weakness or pore spaces. One can see signs of the many changes that weathering has caused in a lot of places. One example is the sidewalk. Somewhere just outside one’s house, one might see expanded cracks because of rain and snow. Other large rocks such the ones in big parks also have signs of frost wedging. Even though nobody “noble” has ever completed my experiment, that did not stop me from completing it, and I am glad that I did!

What is biodiesel? Biodiesel is a fuel based vegetable oil or animal fat. Biodiesel is made from triglycerides, methyl alcohol, and either potassium or sodium hydroxide (lye). The lye acts as a catalyst, and it strips away the glycerin molecules found in triglycerides. By striping away the glycerin molecules, the three fatty acids in triglycerides are freed, and they join with methyl esters in the methyl alcohol to form biodiesel. Due to its renewability, sustainability, and environmental-friendliness, biodiesel is becoming more and more used throughout the world. There are many ways to create biodiesel. One could mix it with petroleum, gasoline, or another solvent, and then use the oil as it is (straight vegetable oil) or convert it to biodiesel. All these methods have problems, but the first two have the more significant problems. Strait vegetable oils (SVO) require a SVO engine and are very viscous, which makes them inconvenient to use during the winter. Mixing oil with gasoline, though not hugely problematic, still poses a serious problem; this process is heavily reliant on fossil fuels. Converting SVO is probably the best method because it does not require a modification to the engine, and it has better cold weather properties, due to the methyl alcohol in it. Overall, biodiesel is becoming more and more commonly used worldwide because fossil fuels are running out. Diesel is now available in many gas stations, and there is no doubt that biodiesel will be the energy to power the future.

How Water and Ice Change Back

Annie Jackson

Biodiesel: The Energy of the FutureLienna Peng

To most 21st century citizens, both images seem ordinary, but to the people at the time of their debut, these works of art added a certain intellectual liveliness to the monotony of style and technique. If we were restricted to drawing stick figures with only perfect straight lines and perfect circles, we could not “admire” paintings because they would have no distinguishing features. To counter the stagnating wealth of artistic techniques, mathematicians such as Durer and Escher introduced techniques of the abstract science, known as “Mathematics,” to the concrete world of visual art.

First, there is Durer, born into a time when paintings depicting people were drawn with no dimensionality and had no semblance to the reality they claimed to reflect (see medieval art). Durer took the flatness of the pre-Renaissance, crumpled it to a ball, and added some kind of dimensionality to his art. His Castle Courtyard, from the viewer’s perspective, has some objects that seem to be closer and larger and others that seem to be a mass of color in the distance. This is done by drawing a system of similar triangles, where shapes are projected into the distance while retaining their inherent shape. In his time as an artist, this technique of geometric projection has been widely used in the works of Italian Renaissance artists, but Durer’s mathematical curiosity led him to draw with projections not based on straight lines but curved lines, as if it were reflected from a concave or convex mirror to mimic the natural perception of the human eye. This resulted in his work on multiview orthographic projections.

The other notable artist is Escher. His painting of fish seems almost modern, and the reason for this is because the mathematical techniques he had introduced to art inspired further artistic application of the field of Abstract Algebra. In the painting, we see a school of fish swimming in what seems to be blue water, but upon further inspection, the water is another school of fish, just hiding behind our perceptual biases. He is most noted for his use of Symmetrical Space Filling Curves. Whereas most mathematicians preferred to use polygons, Escher used plants, animals, and even people to demonstrate the

beautiful symmetry of mathematical art. This technique produces the disorienting still motion of the fish: the fish are positioned so that if any fish were close, they would produce the same animal, just rotated, and the fish are bound by well-defined strokes. When the surface that the fish glide on is also flatly bounded by the same lines but unbounded by the space between fish, this creates the effect of still motion and the recreation of the fish shape on the surface only disorients the viewer more. Whether or not one appreciates the art or the art’s history, one has to appreciate the abstract geometrical and algebraic manipulations which the human mind perceives intuitively. Art borrows techniques from math, and math also borrows from art and if all math were abstract, the discipline would lack the human intuition that defines mathematics. Mathematics is only a refinement of common sense in the abstract sense, and art is only a visualization of abstract reasoning in a concrete sense.

Math & Art The Abstract Humanities

Mathematics and art have a long historical relationship; without mathematics, how would the Greeks have constructed such elegant works of architecture like the Parthenon, and how would the Arabs have woven intricate patterns of interlocking shapes? But without art, mathematics would be stale, reduced to algorithms of parsing set theory, and would have never been able to visualize and describe in concrete terms the beauty of modern algebra. Here are two famous examples of the intimacy between the two seemingly unrelated fields: Albrecht Durer (d. 1528 in Nuremberg) and Maurits Cornelis Escher (d. 1972 Holland). Both were originally mathematicians by trade, but decided to try their hand at making a living as artists. They both became extremely successful artists.

Durer’s Innsbruck Castle Courtyard (1494)

Escher’s Fish No. 107 (1960)

MICHAEL LEE, IIAnnie Jackson, VILienna peng, VI

10 11Ivory is used to create items like piano keys, jewelry, and religious artifacts, and is known for its sheer white color. The process in which ivory is obtained, however, is violent and ruthless. This prized luxury item is taken mostly from Earth’s largest land animal, the elephant. The African elephant is the main target of the trade, and despite efforts to protect it, thousands are illegally killed every year. In fact, over 25,000 African elephants were killed in 2012 alone. These magnificent creatures have not only been poached to endangerment, but are also killed in the most gruesome and inhumane ways. Most of them are shot to the point where they can no longer walk or protect themselves. Then, completely vulnerable, their tusks are cut off so deeply that, even if they were to survive, their tusks could not grow back. A great percentage of the poached elephants bleed to death. Their tusks are then taken to major participants in the ivory trade, such as Southern Africa and Asia; 70% of the ivory is smuggled

into China. A smuggler earns around 3,600 dollars for carrying ivory, giving the

middleman a strong incentive to obtain and

trade. There were about 26,000,000 elephants in Africa in 1800, and today there remain only 600,000, with their numbers decreasing. The killing itself has detrimental effects on the mental state of the surrounding elephants,

especially on orphaned babies. Elephants live in very complex social structures and create relationships with each other, just as humans do. They can remember individuals and places for years, and also mourn their dead and remember where they died. Organizations like the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust and WildAid have attempted to save injured and dying elephants, and they serve as centers for traumatized victims. Foundations like these aim to nurse elephants whose tusks have been cut off back to health, and also to ease their trauma, especially with the young orphans. Elephants are not the only victims of the ivory trade. Animals such as hippos, walruses, and narwhals are also hunted for their horns, although they have not created as much controversy as the elephants killed in Africa and Asia. Rhinos have also fallen victim to trade because of their horns. Their horns are made of keratin, the same protein that makes up our fingernails and hair, and it is believed by some to have medical benefits. Because of this, the rhino population is decreasing unsettlingly fast. In 1960, there were more than 2,000 northern white rhinos in the world, and now due to poaching, there remain only four. To help beautiful animals such as elephants, you can support organizations like the International Elephant Foundation, Elephant Care International, The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, African Wildlife Foundation, Amboseli Elephant Research Project, WildAid, and more.

Elephants and the Ivory Trade

Jacqueline Kam, III

Every Valentine’s Day, many people begin to think, “Who am I going to ask

out? Do I look cute enough in this dress, or should I get another one?” Neither love nor attractiveness seems to be scientific at first glance. However, your relationship with that kid in your science class is just as scientific as what your teacher is teaching. Evolutionary biologist Charles Darwin suggested that animals obtain traits based on how well the traits can help them survive, which is a process called natural selection. But male peacocks do not need all those pretty feathers to survive, do they? Darwin therefore proposed a process called sexual selection, in which traits develop in an animal to beat out others of the same gender for a better mate. In most cases, like with the peacock, these traits show that the animal is strong and healthy enough to reproduce.

We humans admire bilateral symmetry because an asymmetrical face shows

a defect that cannot be overcome. Additionally, a low waist-to-hip ratio for women and men is seen as “sexy” by many. Animals with an ideal amount of sexual hormones called estrogen for females and testosterone for males tend to have waists 70% the width of their hips, and usually have an easier time conceiving and giving birth. Why are you and your friends attracted to different people? Part of the answer lies in pheromones, an odorless chemical that we subconsciously expel, which triggers reactions from the opposite sex. Studies have shown that women are more attracted to men with a dissimilar major histocompatibility complex (MHC), the part of the immune system that recognizes foreign substances. Similar genes can also attract people to each other. But at the end of the day, let us just say we all have our own interests.

SCIENCE BEHINDLOVE

“OWN

INTERESTS”?

Liane Xu, V

12 13

In the 1960s, Dwight D. Eisenhower’s administration established an agency tasked with competing against the Soviet Union in the field of technology. Initially, the main focuses were on computer and space, and the research organization associated with them was the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA). Today, it is referred to with “Defense” in front as DARPA. Later on, the space division branched out and became the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Computer researching continued without much media attention. During the late 1960s, ARPA began working on a distributed network, partly to improve better use of the mainframes by connecting them together, and to also fix the aforementioned problem with the communication infrastructure of America. This new network was to be called the Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET), the mother of today’s Internet. In 1968, the project became available for contractors to bid on. However, most of the major telecommunication companies ridiculed this project. To them, the current telephone communication system was perfect and the companies did not have the time and resources to tinker with it. Thus a small company, situated in Cambridge, MA, won the bid: BBN Technologies (BBN), which is currently a subsidiary of Raytheon, another Massachusetts company. The project’s initial goal was to create a network

to link together four mainframes. The mainframes were to be linked to an Interface Message Processor (IMP), then from this to the phone line and to the other IMPs. BBN was tasked with creating the first IMP. These machines were due nine months after the start of the project, the first day of 1969. On August 30, 1969, the first IMP was delivered and connected to Leonard Kleinrock at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). By December of that year, the four mainframes at UCLA, Stanford University, University of California, Santa Barbara, and University of Utah, were connected to the network. Gradually, the ARPANET expanded. A year after, there were 13 nodes (points) on the network. The main use of the network was to send files and commands to mainframes. Since no one had done this type of network before, most of the technologies around the Internet were created during this time period. Telnet was created in 1969; the first email was sent in 1971; the TCP/IP protocol was created by Vinton Cerf in 1973. During the 1970s and 1980s, the speed of Internet development picked up. As more mainframes were connected to the Internet, the technologies were standardized by the International Organization for Standardization. The Internet seemed to be headed for a bright future. In 1989, the networks around the world were connected together and thus the Internet was officially born.

At the start of the 1990s, the price of comput-ers plummeted. More households owned computers, such as small PCs from IBM or Apple. The Internet was still, however, reserved for military and academic use. Connecting to the Internet was a tremendous has-sle. In the 1990s, there was no Google, no Firefox, no Facebook, or any other websites. To do something like sending emails, one had to sit at the computer and type lines and lines of command and code through the system. In 1989, Sir Tim Berners-Lee, a researcher in

CERN, had an idea. He proposed a way to use the In-ternet as a backbone to serve up and link together docu-ments. He coded a simple program to access these docu-ments. This was the founding of the World Wide Web. With the invention of the Web, the presence of the In-ternet became ubiquitous. Today, it is easy for tech-sav-vy teenagers to surf the web. Companies such as Ama-zon, Microsoft, Google, and Yahoo have been formed to take advantage of the lucrative Internet business.

The Construction of the Internet

The Internet is still very young, and its history is still relatively short. However, the Internet certainly has one of the most important roles in the functioning of our society and enables us to maintain the lifestyle we have now. Therefore, let us celebrate the anniversary of the very young Internet and its even younger son, the World Wide Web.

After the Internet

a brief history ofthe internet

Before the Internet The world was very different before the Internet. Since its invention, our lives have changed greatly, in ways that are and are not noticeable.

Before the Internet, a server was a person who served another, a surfer was one who went to the beach, and a browser was

a person who browsed through books. Computers used to be gigantic machines sitting alone in book

rooms that made an incredible amount of noise and heat. If one wanted to use them, he or she had to sit in the same room or connect his or her computer terminals to larger computers,

called mainframes. The greatest change brought by the Internet was in communication. Before the

Internet, if one wanted to send a message across a long distance, he or she had to use a telephone to call the person on the other side. At that time, the telephone and the telegraph seemed like the fastest methods of communication. However, there were still many problems with them. In the 1960s, the United States was involved in the war with the Soviet Union. The Americans worried that the NORAD system (North American Aerospace Defense Command) would fail and that the United States would be nuked. The Cuban Missile Crisis (1962) further heightened this fear. One of the United States’ fears, besides being nuked, was that the communication system would be heavily damaged and deleterious to American cities. After all, the telephone of the 1960s was quite different from today’s. In the 1960s, phones connected two people. When one picked up the phone, he or she would need to connect it to the operator and then request connection to the phone number he or she wished to reach. The operator sitting at the telephone exchange would then connect him or her through telephone switchboards to the other phone number. Until modern times, this process was done manually. But this system had a huge flaw: if the connection between two phones was cut, the communication was broken. Given the destructive nature of nuclear devices, a nuke on United States would have disabled communication for a long time, impairing any response from the military. Therefore, there was an urgent need for a better communication system. Much research was done to alleviate this problem, but telephone companies would not spend money to upgrade this system. Thankfully, modern telephones have advanced to digital switching, and the flaw that would have destroyed the United States’ communication system is now forgotten.

There was an urgent need

for a better communication

system

In 2014, the Internet turned 45, and its child, the World Wide Web, turned 25. The Internet is a technology that most of us take for granted by not recognizing its ubiquitous presence.

Duy Nguyen, II Duy Nguyen, II

14 15

Antibiotics have been used for nearly three quar-ters of a century to treat people who have infectious dis-eases. Antibiotics are drugs that reduce illness and death from infectious bacterial diseases. These drugs, however, have been used so frequently and for so long that the infectious microorganisms they are designed to kill have adapted to them. In fact, antibiotic-resistant bacteria do not respond to the drugs developed to kill them. The growing number of bacteria that have be-come unresponsive to treatment with antibiotics is alarm-ing. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “every year at least 2 million people in the United States become infected with bacteria that are re-sistant to antibiotics and at least 23,000 people die each year as a direct result of these infections.” How do bacteria become resistant to antibiot-ics? Antibiotic resistance is a natural and unavoidable phenomenon, because bacteria evolve. Evolution occurs due to spontaneous mutations in the bacterial genome which occur in approximately 1:1x106 to 1x107 bacterial cells. Some of these mutations are beneficial and en-able a bacterium to synthesize enzymes that inactivate the antibiotics, while other

Patients sometimes take antibiotics unnecessarily, to treat viral illnesses like the common cold.” The World Health Organization is very concerned about the issue of drug-resistant infections and consid-ers antibiotic resistance “an increasingly serious threat to global public health that requires action across all govern-ment sectors and society.” Fortunately, there are many sci-entists around the globe working hard, trying to stay one step ahead of these microorganisms that threaten to take us back to a time when a minor cut could kill. For the first time in 25 years, a major new antibiotic discovery has been made by researchers at Northeastern University in Boston. Using soil from a field in Maine, these sci-entists have isolated a previously uncultured strain of bacteria called Eleftheria terrae, which makes the new antibiotic called teixobactin. So right now you may be asking yourself, “Bac-teria make antibiotics? I thought you said antibiotics kill bacteria. So, why are they making antibiotics and how does that make sense?” Bacteria and fungi do in fact make antibiotics. They do so to help them kill other bacteria in their environment that are competing with them for food and water and other limited resources in the soil.This poses the question of why scientists have not been looking in the soil for new ones all along, since this could solve the current critical need for new antibiotics. The reason for this is because it is has been very dif-ficult to grow soil bacteria under

laboratory conditions to study them. However, recently, the scientists at Northeastern University, led by Dr. Kim Lewis, have been able to solve this laboratory growth problem of soil bacteria with a new technology that the scientists have developed. The tech-nology is called the iChip, and it could bring about the dis-covery of even more new antibiotics in the future. In fact, scientists are even calling this new technology “promising and exciting” because it will allow them to scour ordi-nary soil samples for new bacteria. This includes the 99% of soil bacteria that do not grow in a laboratory dish. Teixobactin has been shown to kill bac-teria that cause tuberculosis, methicillin-resistant

staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), as well as other deadly bacteria that can not be killed by even the most pow-erful antibiotics currently available. Although teixo-bactin has yet to be tested on humans, scientists have tested it on mice and have gotten positive results. The clinical trials on humans will take another year or two.

The scientific article describing this new technol-ogy as well as the new antibiotic was pub-

lished in the journal Nature, on January 7, 2015.

mutations close up the entry points that allow antibiotics to enter the cell, and others make pumps that export the antibiotic back outside the cell so that it does not harm the bacterium. Bacteria that acquire any of these antibi-otic resistance genes are able to multiply in the presence of therapeutic levels of antibiotic. Since those bacteria without the resistance genes are killed, the frequency of the resistant bacteria increases dramatically in the gene pool, which often renders antibiotics ineffective. Bacteria may develop resistance to a single while others develop resistance to several different kinds of an-tibiotics. In some cases, there are no available antibiotics that are effective against these multidrug resistant bacteria. According to the Alliance for the Prudent Use of Antibiotics website, “the current higher-levels of antibi-otic-resistant bacteria are attributed to the overuse and abuse of antibiotics. In some countries and over the In-ternet, antibiotics can be purchased without a doctor’s

prescription.

“PROMISING ANDEXCITING TECHNOLOGY”

Elisabeth Kotsalidis, II Elisabeth Kotsalidis, II

NEWANTIOBIOTIC DISCOVERED BY BOSTON SCIENTISTS

16

Although last year’s marijuana legal-ization has been moving forward, in hopes of reducing the issue of illegal smoking of weed, some people seem to have found ways to abuse the legality of the dangerous drug. Fol-lowing the trend of the infamous E-cigarettes, some savvy people who are bent on pot-usage have experimented with smoking it discreetly in public. People who have done this use a hand-held vaporizer, or a vape pen which looks iden-tical to the E-cigarettes which people use in public. Instead of vaporizing nicotine in a liquid form, the vape pen that is used for smoking pot is modified to vaporize the molecules in con-centrated marijuana oil. Some companies, including JuJu Joint, have started selling vape pens. The products of JuJu Joints have an average of 40% to 50% tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) which compared to homemade vape pens, have advantages such as not having to charge batteries, having no smell, and having no visible smoke. However, this inconspicuous approach cannot serve as an excuse to smoke weed, as a vaporized con-centrate is proven to be lethal to one’s health.

Vaporized cannabis still contains two times more THC than the regular marijuana joint. When the vaporized cannabis is inhaled often, propylene glycol can maximize the dan-ger of intoxicating one’s body. In addition, no one knows for sure what the consequences are for inhaling constant doses of this chemi-cal and what else is included in the vaporized cannabis. This can be a major concern toward teenagers, who often smoke E-cigarettes. The combination of this very widely-used drug and the growing popularity of vape pens proves a great issue especially because they are wide-ly used by young adults and precipitate po-tentially negative effects. Understanding the myriad of negative health and social effects that any type of marijuana smoking has, we, as teenagers, must not smoke this deleterious drug.

THE CANNY CANNABIS

The three small raised beds, which comprise the Boston Latin School garden, have produced a myriad number and variety of vegetables including tomatoes, carrots, radishes, peppers, chives, garlic, kale, lettuce, rose-mary, mint, basil, endive, beans, and cantaloupe. These vegetables are given for free to BLS students and people in the Longwood area who walk down Avenue Louis Pas-teur. Through the effective use of the minimal land avail-able, the garden has cultivated this great variety of foods without the use of pesticides and artificial fertilizers. One technique often employed is to sow rows of vegetable seeds and allow them to grow for several weeks. Then, rows of an additional vegetable are planted in between the half-matured plants, so that both may develop at the same time, without either inhibiting the other’s growth. This technique was used predominantly for lettuce and garlic. Furthermore, vegetables are planted according to the season in which they are most hardy. As the months

pass, vegetables that are no longer highly productive are removed and composted, creating more

space for new vegetables. For example, when the beans went out of season and all the bean pods had already been collected, these plants were re-moved and replaced with peppers. The use of beans also provided nu-trients to the soil, for legumes share a symbiotic relationship with soil bac-teria known as Rhizobium, which is found in the root nodules of legumes.

In exchange for the legumes’ sugars, the bacteria provide the legumes with nitrogen , which is incorporated into the soil, thus promoting the growth of neighboring plants as well. To attract pollinators that fertilize the crops’ seeds, the garden uses marigolds and nasturtiums, two plants that are usually planted ornamentally. These ornamental plants also attract predatory insects, such as hoverflies, whose lar-vae eat aphids. Thus, the crops themselves are pollinated and also protected for most of the year from insect damage. Regarding the topographical layout of the gar-den, tall plants of the Solanaceae (Nightshade) family, such as tomatoes and peppers (and in one year eggplant), are planted in the same bed and are separated from the smaller crops. As these plants are of the same family, they require similar conditions, which are easier to provide when grouped together. This arrangement also prevents other plants from being outcompeted, as might occur if the taller Nightshades were combined with smaller let-tuces and herbs. In addition, certain herbs of the gar-den, which tend to survive over the winter, are planted in such a way that annual (living for less than a year) veg-etables may be situated around them. For example, mint and rosemary, both of which are of the Lamiaceae (Mint) family, have become well-established perennials (living for more than two years) in the garden, which week af-ter week provide an almost continuous yield. This year, endive, kale, and marigolds were planted around these herbs to maximize use of the land. Chives are another example or perennial vegetables that also offer produce almost every week after the winter. The garden also uses the strategy of locating most plants of the same species in the same area, not only to standardize the conditions they receive, but also to facilitate natural reseeding of

the plants. In this garden, marigolds, tomatoes, and chives are the most efficient reproducers by seed. The garden currently is dormant due to

the winter. Many seeds and bulbs, how-ever, have already been sown, and

green leaves will soon emerge when Massachusetts itself emerges from the cold and

snow of the winter. BLS GARDEN

a MAJORCONCERN

JOHN KIM, II Daniel Sherman, II

DelEterious DRUG

PuzzleS

Though it may be surprising, natural languages are often modeled on several rules that can be observed from a computational viewpoint. The field of computational linguistics deals with determining patterns in languages with the aid of computers and computer science.

Here is a scenario between two friends, Alice and Ben, who live in the planet Kwarzul. Both of them know nine different languages.

Your Task:A language family is a group of languages which share a common root. For instance, languages like Spanish, French, and Italian are part of a language group called the “Romance Languages.” In Alice and Ben’s ten-lined conversation, there are nine different languages, and three language groups. i. There are ten different sentences, but only nine different languages. Which two numbered sentences are in the same language? ii. Now, of the nine different languages, sort them into three language groups. Each language group has exactly three different languages.N.B. Umlauts, as seen in the “o” in “gödok,” are important. Since you do not know what these words mean, it is important to look for patterns.

1. A: gödok selam burinhi sahkul2. B: gaesu jelam laeku perum sejil latum 3. A: gäsihl sihtak sehkul jilä kumunhbha 4. A: Shazil kevan latokje laov5. B: Gaesu julaem gaeku juran serajukisarekuji 6. A: Guräillumpal supar kural pujak 7. B: Lariva shzaol jiolra raenvokovon! 8. A: Junchai lunkai saijan feiran?9. B: Jaeol shaeol rarajok rarataeshik10. B: Saelam Pujai zelan kaufei

THEKWARZULWORD PUZZLE

SCAVENGER HUNT- Give the sec-

ond-to-last letter of the current location

(full name) of Curiosity. - Give the ninth let-

ter of the genus name of the new bacteria which makes

an antibiotic called teixobactin. - Give the first letter of the genus name of the northern white rhinoceros. - Give the second letter of the written-out age of the Inter-net as of 2014. (e.g., 23 would be written out as twenty three). - Give the third letter of the word de-noting the literary device found in the title of the article of the previous page. - Give the second letter of the event(s) which water-related illnesses

have taken more lives than. - Give the fifth letter in the name of the protein from which fingernails, hair, and rhino horns are made. - Give the sixth letter in the first name of the scientist who proposed a process explaining the beautiful feathers of a male peacock. - Give the sixth letter of the type of pressure associated with freezing wa-ter that causes frost weathering. - Give the third letter of the word which the “P” in “SPS” stands for. - Give the second letter of the word that would complete this sentence: “without art, mathematics would be stale, reduced to an algorithm of _______ set theory”

Read the ar-

ticles to de-code the name

of a famous sci-entist and inventor.

When submitting your answer, give the full answer

and bold the letter specified.

For each puzzle, those who correctly solve it will be put into a raffle for a ten dollar gift card! Email responses to catapultasciencebls@gmail.