Deerfield Academy's Issue I 2015
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DOORDeerfield Academy’s to stem Issue I 2015 Table of Contents Mission Statement........................................................................1 Letter from the Faculty Advisor................................................3 Letter from the Editor-In-Chief.................................................4 Science..................................................................................5 Genomics by Justin Xiang.................................................................................................7 Stem Cells: Part I - An Introduction by Elizabeth Tiemann.................................................8 Music as Numbers by Victor Kim....................................................................................11 Memory Deciphered by Gia Kim.....................................................................................13 Universal Graviation by Robin Tu....................................................................................14 Take a Sniff by Gia Kim...................................................................................................16 Technology..........................................................................17 Internet of Things by Drew Rapoza..................................................................................19 The Living Dead by Alice Sardarian.................................................................................21 Net Neutrality by Drew Rapoza........................................................................................23 Engineering.........................................................................25 Solar Planes by Teddy Vallar............................................................................................27 The Travel of the Future by Teddy Vallar...........................................................................28 The Power of Plasma by Teddy Vallar..............................................................................29 Math....................................................................................31 Crises in Mathematics by Robin Tu.................................................................................33 Addition and Subtraction Properties of Infinityby Michael Wang.....................................35 The Doomsday Argument by Richard Park.....................................................................37 The Team..............................................................................39 Mission Statement “Encompassing science, technology, engineering and mathematics, Door to STEM provides an outlet for Deerfield Academy students to share science-inspired opinions, reviews and research, with the intention of piquing and encouraging the interest in STEM by all members of the Deerfield Community. 1 Mission Statement Encompassing science, technology, engineering and mathematics, Door to STEM provides an outlet for Deerfield Academy students to share science-inspired opinions, reviews and research, with the intention of piquing and encouraging the interest in STEM by all members of the Deerfield Community.” 2 Letter from the Advisor Dear Reader, Welcome to Door to STEM! Congratulations to the students who have worked diligently to assemble this inaugural issue. Also congratulations to you for being inquisitive about science, technology, engineering, mathematics and the natural world around you. One of the implicit traits of quality science is learning to ask in- teresting questions. In this edition the students have chosen to re- view topics motivated by questions such as: What are stem cells?; How are music and math related?; and What is on the horizon for genomics research? The writers have also explored and shared their opinions on topics including: 3D printing; space travel; the historical development of the theory of gravity; memory; and the arithmetic as- sociated with infinity. As you can see, there are many topics to be curious about and I once again applaud the staff for taking their curiosity to the next level by digging further and sharing their findings with others. I challenge and encourage all of you to do the same and I thank you for opening a Door to STEM. Sincerely Curious, Dr. Ivory Hills, Faculty Advisor 3 Letter from the Editor Dear Reader, First, I would like to extol you for performing the sincere act of opening the front cover of this magazine. This relatively effortless act that you just exacted by way of neurons in your brain firing to incite mechanical movement in your arms and fingers shows your inquisi- tiveness, your zeal for self enlightenment and edification. Who doesn’t appreciate someone who endeavors to better himself? Is betterment not one of the handful of impetuses of life? If so, congratulations! You are doing life right. Second, I write this flying on a Singapore Airlines elephantine A380 Airbus over India, going on my 14th hour of being confined to a seat. Door to STEM has been a vision of mine for going on more than a year. I remember first learning about cell cycles in the 6th grade, and coming to the revelation that there is a whole world, a myriad of systems occuring within me that was completely obscured to me. Just like the miracle of human functioning, I hope Door to STEM reveals and highlights the work and thoughts of students on campus that without an outlet, would be just like my awareness in 6th grade - naught. Much like crossing half the continent, the drafting and laying out of this magazine has been both lengthy and onerous. At times, we as a team have encountered turbulence, but we have persisted. Touch down is now, with the printing and a physical man- ifestation of all the blood, sweat, and tears - kidding, time and ener- gy - that the team has so willingly poured into the publication, not for fear of a grade or on motivation of anything else other than the simple mission to bring a taste of enlightenment to you, our reader. We hope that we, even diminutively, do just that. Best Discoveries, Elizabeth Tiemann ‘16, Editor-in-Chief 4 5 6 Genomics By Justin Xiang ‘16 Review In a world of ever evolving technolo- patient and therapy. gies, genomics is going to be at the center The cost of genomic sequencing has of future medical advances. Genomics as rapidly declined. When James Watson, defined by the OED is “the branch of mo- co-discoverer of DNA’s double helix shape, lecular biology concerned with the struc- had his genome sequenced, it cost rough- ture, function, evolution, and mapping of ly $1 million. Nowadays it typically costs genomes.” $1,000 to $4,000 to sequence an individu- With modern day genomics, it is possi- al’s genome. Yet, scientists are even more ble to analyze an individual’s genome and ambitious; they want to achieve the $100 learn a lot about the individual. For exam- price tag for genomic sequencing, allow- ple, Mark Costa, a primary care physician, ing many people in developed or develop- sequenced his DNA and discovered that ing countries to find out more about their he has a higher-than-average risk for stom- health condition. ach cancer, has a lower-than-average risk It is possible that genomics can further for Alzheimer’s and metabolizes caffeine medical care to the point that living beyond very slowly. Armed with such information 100 years old may not be absurd. In fact, about himself, Costa knows that because many scientists predict that by 2050 the he has a higher-than-average risk for stom- average life of women will live to 89 to 94 ach cancer he must pay extra attention to and men will live to 83 to 86. what he eats. He also knows not to drink Thanks to genomics and genetic se- caffeine in the afternoon because it might quencing it is possible to identify potentially keep him up late at night. cancerous cells and fight them before it is Genomics and next generation gene too late. Personalized medication based on sequencing also allow the opportunity such genomic sequencing will also prolong for personalized medication. All individu- human life expectancy. Maybe in the future als possess unique genomes and can be being “middle aged” might mean the mid- affected differently by the same disease or 70s! therapy. Genetically sequencing patients allows for better, more effective matching of Citations http://money.cnn.com/2013/06/25/technology/enterprise/low-cost-genome-sequencing/ http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/genomics?searchDictCode=all http://www.genengnews.com/media/images/AnalysisAndInsight/May162013_49113423_DNASequencing_GenomicsCloser- Clinic_II1443522313.jpg 7 Stem Cells: an introduction By Elizabeth Tiemann ‘16 Review You might have heard obscure terms to differentiate into other cells. The potency like embryonic, hematopoietic, mesenchy- levels follow: chymal, unipotent, totipotent, pluripotent and other seemingly thorny terms in the Totipotency vast conglomeration of garble that sur- Cells that possess the capability to differ- rounds stem cells or maybe even just the entiate into embryonic and extraembryonic broad topic of cancer. We all know that cell types. They are produced by the fu- cancer has either affected, or will some- sion of a sperm cell and an egg cell. They time in the future, touch us individually or can produce any type of cell that is in your those surrounding us. In this article, I en- body. Thus, they can form a full viable or- deavor to first introduce the very definition ganism. of stem cells (SCs), the two broad types of them – embryonic and adult – and subse- Pluripotency quently delve one level deeper and pres-