Best of MOSTEC 2019 Science Writing Introduction MOSTEC 2019’s Best of Science Writing is a collection of the top 16 articles from the MIT Online Science, Technology, and Engineering Community’s 2019 Science Writing and Communication course. MOSTEC's Science Writing course is an intensive six-week online course that packs in reading and writing assignments gleaned from graduate programs. In this fast-paced class, students conducted their own research and interviewed a scientist or professional in a related field. By the end of the course, each student produced a professional-caliber, publishable article on a STEM topic of their choice.
Acknowledgements Special thanks to the MOSTEC Science Writing & Communication instructors for 2019: Stefana Albu Graham Gillette Bill Gourgey Meg Hassey Karina Hinojosa Julia Sklar Jacob Williamson-Rea Ashley Yeager Through your engaging instruction and expert guidance, students honed their writing skills and learned the impact and importance of communicating science concepts in an engaging and relatable way. Table of Contents
Sodium as the Solution to Electricity Shortage 2 How Energy Storage Technology Could Alleviate the Crisis in Pakistan EMAAN AHMED
Amputee Culture 5 What Should We be Asking about Prosthetics Advancement? FERNANDO BRAVO
Criminal Currency? 7 A Look at Crypto’s Revolutionary Power MALIK ENDSLEY
Electromagnetism’s Holy Grail 9 YASIN HAMED
For Medicine, Tissue Engineering Could Revolutionize the Future 12 Tissue Engineering: A New Field that Holds Great Promise CHARNICE HOEGNIFIOH
Huggable Robot 15 Health Specialists’ Newest Helper ALI LIN
Want to Go to Mars? Be Prepared to Exercise Several Times a Day 17 IRISSA MACHETTA
The Harmful Effects of Gendered Voice Assistant Artificial Intelligence 20 LISETTE MALACON
Past Its Prime 23 How Shor’s Algorithm Undermines RSA Encryption SASAMON OMOMA
How Space Gardening Could Help Keep Astronauts Sane 26 SARAH PENTZKE
The Next Stage in Game Evolution 29 JASON PEREZ
Tragedy to Success 31 From Unemployed to Solving a Centuries-Old Problem MARIANO SALCEDO
Hydrogen Gas to Electricity? 34 VANESSA SANCHEZ
Is Artificial Intelligence Too Intelligent? 37 YIFAN WANG
No Monkey Business 40 How Primates have Helped in the Fight Against HIV MANNY YEPES
Alexa, is the CIA Listening? 43 SUNAMAWIT YIMER Sodium as the Solution to Electricity Shortage How Energy Storage Technology Could Alleviate the Crisis in Pakistan BY EMAAN AHMED
Islamabad in the morning. Image Credit: Awais Yaqub Upon reaching the peak of its path, the unwavering Sun shines down on a bustling city gone dark. Most of the city’s sectors have been without electricity for hours now, slowing life to a crawl as people wait for the power to return. While these shutdowns may be erratic and unpredictable, they are a regular part of life in Pakistan. As the day progresses, so too does the blackout, with no relief in sight for the weary residents of Islamabad. It is the peak of summer, and a haze of heat rests heavily upon the city, stifling even the most dynamic of markets. Islamabad is well-known for its economic and tourist activity, but even the capital of Pakistan is not immune to the biggest problem that plagues the nation: the widespread shortage of electricity. Due to crumbling infrastructure and rampant corruption, Islambad’s electric grid is notoriously unreliable, buckling quickly under high demand. To ease the pressure placed on this electrical network, the city’s Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA) employs a process known as ‘load-shedding’, where it regularly shuts down power to different sections of the city for a couple hours each. At least, in theory. The reality is that these shutdowns can stretch from five to nine hours at a time, coming and going at the whims of WAPDA. As a result, children are trapped in
2 sweltering schools, offices are abandoned for the day, and hospitals are forced to operate with minimum support- even the government itself is affected. Without any action by the city to resolve this issue, many people have taken matters into their own hands, generating electricity independently of the city’s electric grid; however, this is an expensive solution not fit for the long-term. The other option that people are starting to consider is storing electricity for use, which is more feasible than cranking up a generator every time the power goes out. While power generators are difficult to fuel and maintain, batteries most certainly are not- though they are not as commonly used in backouts. Conventional batteries are typically inefficient and expensive, making it crucial to develop technology better suited to large-scale energy storage than the ones currently in use. Many alternatives to the traditional lithium battery have been proposed and debated, but there is one that has been rather overlooked: the sodium-ion battery. Sodium-based energy storage has a number of unique advantages over its competition, being cheaper than lithium, better for the environment, and more readily available. For Pakistan, home of the Khewra salt mine, one of the world’s largest salt deposits, sodium is certainly not in short supply; this abundance would significantly reduce the cost of producing the battery. On the other hand, “lithium isn’t as abundant in the earth's crust, and has some geographical issues, since it is only mined in certain countries,” says Matt Pharr, a researcher at Texas A&M University who focuses on the mechanics of energy storage materials. “From a large scale, energy storage perspective, where you care a lot about price, sodium-based batteries may be the better option.” The main difference between sodium and lithium lies in the size of their ions, which influences the volume of the battery itself. Sodium's larger ions make for a battery with a greater volume but lower efficiency, as ion size affects the battery's mechanical degradation.
3 When a battery is charged, the ions within it are transferred between its two electrodes, or terminals. As the ions move, they cause fluctuations in the volume of the electrodes, which can speed up the internal deterioration of the battery. If the ions are larger, as with sodium, this degradation occurs at a faster rate, further reducing the capacity of the battery. Resolving this problem with sodium-ion batteries requires further attention from researchers, but it is certainly not an insurmountable barrier. Since lithium-ion batteries have a smaller The internal mechanics of charging batteries. volume, it makes sense that they are most Image Credit: The ECS commonly used in portable electronics and vehicles, where keeping weight down is a concern. However, when it comes to stationary storage, the greater volume of sodium-ion batteries is less of a pressing problem. As Pharr puts it, “If you're just gonna stick the battery in a field where there's lots of open space, then weight isn't as big of an issue.” The most tempting benefit of sodium-ion batteries lies in their usage in conjunction with photovoltaic (solar) technology, which could allow for the implementation of entirely independent off-grid storage systems. Serving a twofold purpose, such systems would reduce pressure on the city’s electric grid, fulfilling the actual goal of load-shedding without its drawbacks, while also taking advantage of the sunlight that is plentiful in Pakistan. In this way, sodium-ion batteries may help increase the presence of renewable energy in a country lagging behind in clean energy development. Of course, as with any developing technology, sodium-ion batteries are not yet mature enough to be entirely reliable; many mechanical issues remain that have yet to be ironed out. As a newcomer to a field that has been dominated by lithium for decades, “sodium is just not as well studied,” Pharr says. It will take much research and development to overcome the obstacles in its way, but it is only a matter of time before the sodium-ion battery breaks into the mainstream energy storage field. Once they become more widely available, sodium-ion batteries will significantly relieve Pakistan's electricity shortage crisis, and perhaps even expand its usage of clean energy. With off-grid power easing the city’s burden, the people of Islamabad can rest peacefully at night, knowing that the lights of the city will illuminate the streets long after the Sun sets upon them.
4 Amputee Culture What Should We be Asking about Prosthetics Advancement?
BY FERNANDO BRAVO
Image source: Transhumanity.net
Excruciating pain. An unshakable ache travels up your arm; it feels like it is burning from the inside out. Quickly, you reach out to see what the source is, only to realize a second too late that there is nothing there, no limb to justify the very real pain you are suffering. This phenomenon is called phantom limb pain, a good eye-opener to the complexities of limb amputation and the world of prosthetics.
Prosthetics date back as far as c. 900 BCE, according to archeological findings in the form of a wood-and-leather big toe belonging to the daughter of an Egyptian priest. The purpose of the artifact is not clear; it could have been attached after death for ceremonial rituals, or meant to hide a “deformation” as a response to social stigma, or acted as a functional substitute for the lost body part. Regardless, the situation raises some fundamental questions: what is the ultimate purpose of prosthetics? Should human anatomy be their standard to follow or is that a limitation?
Some of the latest technology in this field presents itself as “e-dermis,” a collaborative effort by several research laboratories at Johns Hopkins University. The term refers to an electronic skin-of-sorts that is incorporated into a pre- existing prosthetic arm. Modeling human biology, the engineered skin mirrors receptors in natural fingertips that perceive signals from the environment they touch. Based on the signals it picks up, the prosthesis generates innocuous electrical shocks that stimulate the residual nerves in the amputation area. The nerves carry the stimulation to the brain, allowing for texture recognition, which is then used to help the user recognize the shape of the object they hold.
5 Additionally, the brain interprets the signals as a perception of touch, though not as richly as that of natural-born limbs.
As prostheses increasingly resemble the human body—visually and functionally— the lines begin to blur concerning the future of the technology. Should prosthesis advancement stop once 100% of lost function is returned to the user? Or, should the machinery design start to pave its own path independently of the human model? In this mindset, I asked professor of Biomedical Engineering, Dr. Luke Osborn from the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine what his thoughts were regarding the addition of features to prostheses that go beyond mimicking the human hand (e.g. added strength, greater movement precision) as well as any controversial issues he foresaw attached to these hypothetical “renovations.” To this, he replied, “I personally do not have an issue with that… It opens up a really interesting research question: what is a human capable of if you get access to more information or more capabilities? You can think of it as human augmentation— restoring some level of functionality, but maybe we can make it even better than it once was…” This unbound perspective sparks an interesting discussion regarding the future of the human body and its “improvement;” it also challenges ethical and religious views concerning how the body is thought of and the ways humans may alter it. Still, it almost gives a glimpse into the notion of future communities built around prosthetics and superhuman abilities. But really, just how far into the future is this culture?
The discussion regarding amputee culture and the deviation of prostheses from “ideal, real-looking limbs” remains relevant today, albeit slightly differently. Research facilities at the University of Central Florida produce simpler- functioning limb prostheses that do not attempt to visually replicate human extremities. Instead, as explained by project lead Albert Manero, children (who are the main subjects in the project) appear to own and identify better with prostheses that look like machinery, that do not hold non-amputees as the standard to resemble. They become more excited to sport a different-colored or superhero- themed extremity over an artifact that will never be the same as the original body part. This way, we glimpse into a current community that celebrates their prosthetics for what they are.
One way or another, amputee culture is growing and seems to be heading in a direction unrestrained by the human model. As this transpires, society must adjust to novel possibilities and increase the conversation regarding the notions of what the body is. As a species, we have changed tremendously throughout time, but where will an intentional evolution take us?
6 Criminal Currency? A Look at Crypto’s Revolutionary Power
BY MALIK ENDSLEY
You’ve heard about it in the news, from Bitcoin tickers moving around thousands of dollars to the president denouncing it as “highly volatile and based on thin air,” but do you know what cryptocurrency really is? How can digital currencies that were once worth less than a penny now receive global attention?
Let’s begin by explaining cryptocurrency itself. Cryptocurrency is traded just like conventional currency. The main difference between the two is that the majority of cryptocurrencies are powered by a technology called blockchain, granting it two major advantages.
One advantage of a blockchain is security: it ensures every transaction on the network is valid. With blockchain technology, the main ledger of transactions is distributed to everyone on a network and updated in real time. When transactions are confirmed, they’re collected into “blocks.” Every block is chained together in order, hence the name “blockchain.” The benefit of blockchain becomes obvious when someone tries to make counterfeit transactions. They create a fake ledger containing false records and submit it. What happens then? Nothing at all. Other members have the correct ledger, so they know the transactions are fake. The motivation to confirm or “mine” these transactions comes in the form of rewards, funded by fees attached to every transaction. Blockchain solves the issue of needing to work together but not trusting each other, crucial to digital currencies designed for secure use.
The other major advantage of blockchain is anonymity. Every blockchain user gets an identifier called an address, which is separate from their identity. These addresses are access points to a user’s currency, and a single user can have many addresses. The only data about a transaction that’s public is the data required to make the transaction. By retracing the blockchain up to the present, the system knows how much cryptocurrency everyone has. Combining the inherent anonymity of cryptocurrency with services like VPNs means that it’s almost impossible to track users who don’t want to be found.
But knowing the anonymity cryptocurrency provides, you’ve probably come up with a few nefarious things to do with it, and you wouldn’t be alone. Using cryptocurrency to buy drugs or launder money is a real threat, which means some governments quite dislike cryptocurrency. There is also concern among supporters that it will never become a true currency. On top of this, Bitcoin mining reportedly
7 uses almost as much power as Finland, a whopping 73 billion kilowatt-hours. Do the benefits of cryptocurrency justify the drawbacks?
So far, it might seem like they don’t, but the story seems a little one-sided. Thomas Flake, a founder of BCause, a company planning to offer cryptocurrency mining/exchange services, provides some insight. Mr. Flake was asked his thoughts on cryptocurrency’s capacity to replace conventional currency. He said that although Bitcoin may not be viable as a dollar-killer right now, “[Bitcoin] acts as ‘digital gold’ … and in that capacity it has been a tremendous success.” Additionally, while cryptocurrency is sensationalized for its ability to promote criminal activity, it’s important not to forget that physical cash has that same ability. Mr. Flake poses the question, “if I walk into your office with an attaché of $20 bills, and leave it with you, how traceable is that?” Bitcoin and USD have similar levels of anonymity in that sense.
Overall, it seems the jury is still out on whether Bitcoin is the solution to a global currency, but in the meantime, it has the potential to revolutionize trade. A secure, anonymous currency can already provide ways to transfer money previously thought to be too inefficient. Microtransactions—small, frequent payments— would normally be cost-prohibitive due to merchant fees, but with the advent of efficient cryptocurrency networks, their fees can be just pennies on the dollar. Comparing those fees to banks, which can charge up to 45 dollars for some transfers, “that opens up a whole set of transactions that never existed before,” Mr. Flake explains.
Like any other tool, the capacity for good or evil lies in the intentions of the user. Cryptocurrency may be anonymous, but it’s no criminal currency. Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies represent a new step forward in money transfer technology, and according to Mr. Flake, “Everyone should be diversifying their holdings.”
8 Electromagnetism’s Holy Grail BY YASIN HAMED
If you ever happen to find yourself visiting the culturally rich country of Japan, you’ll surely make it a priority to indulge in the famed, artisanally crafted sushi rolls or explore one of the country’s quirkier sides in Tokyo’s Kawaii Monster Cafe, an extravagantly whimsical, monster-themed restaurant. With all the countless attractions Japan has to offer, you will surely need to find a way to get yourself from place to place. So, you decide to take a train.
Stepping onto the train, something doesn’t feel quite right. You look around. The interior seems normal enough, but as the train begins to accelerate, you finally realize the problem.
Silence.
The usual screech-puff and the bumpiness that follows seemed to have been sucked from the train cabin to create an uneasy vacuum of silence and constant acceleration pushing you into your seatback.
What you might have failed to realize is that you are riding on the world’s fastest railway transportation system, the Maglev, capable of reaching speeds surpassing 600 kmh. This silent, high-speed, floating-on-rails marvel of engineering was only made possible by the incredible physical properties offered by superconductive materials -- this train literally floats!
The Maglev in Japan. Source: Nikkei
To understand the mystical world of levitation and infinite currents which is superconductivity, we must first take a trip back into our good old high school physics classroom and revisit the workings of regular electricity. Electrical conductivity is best understood thinking about it as a stream of water through a
9 hose where the conductive wire is the hose and the moving electrons is the stream of water. In a hose, the pressurized stream contains kinetic energy. This stream is turbulent, and water molecules end up colliding with each other and the walls of the hose, resulting in a loss of kinetic energy and overall speed. This translates into electrical resistance in a normally conductive wire, explaining why a constant battery providing voltage is needed to keep the flow of electricity in a circuit.
The concept of resistance is a foreign one to materials in a superconductive state. In superconducting materials, the lattice of positive ions making up the material itself allows for the electrons to form a network among themselves which passes through the ion lattice seamlessly. All this is to say that once an electrical current is generated in an isolated loop of superconducting material, that current will never stop flowing since there is nothing resisting its flow. Voilá -- an infinite current!
The lack of electrical resistivity is not the only surprise this class of materials has in store for us. As Dr. Alejandro Hamed, who acquired his doctorate at the University of Chicago and conducted research at the Texas Center of Superconductivity, explains, “the magnetic field never penetrates the interior of the [superconductive] material” in what is known as the Meissner Effect. This makes Certain materials lose all resistivity after dropping possible the levitating feature of the below a critical temperature, becoming Maglev train in Japan. superconductive. Source: ffden
It would seem that these properties could give our society an unfathomable range of applications and optimizations, but all this potential does come with a catch: In order for a material to become superconductive, it must reach a material- specific, super-low critical temperature. These difficult-to-reach temperatures have held back the widespread implementation of superconductors. This lack of popularity is probably why you might not have recognized stepping onto the Maglev. To levitate using the Meissner Effect, the Maglev’s superconductors must be cooled down to extremely low temperatures, a requirement that would bore a smoldering hole into many city governments’ pockets at $1.2 billion for about 20 miles of railway. It is fair to say this ridiculous figure justifies the reluctance for far-reaching implementation.
Most superconductors have a critical temperature below 200 K or -73 C. It is for this reason that room temperature superconductors have become the holy grail for scientists in this field of research. The implications of such a discovery would be tremendous, with new, mass produced, and cost-efficient technologies
10 including much faster computers, significantly more efficient energy storage systems, high speed travel as seen with the Maglev, extremely sensitive sensors controlled via detection of minute changes in magnetic fields, and more.
I still recall Dr. Hamed’s cold, calculating eyes staring intently through me during our interview, as if trying to visualize within me the next molecular model that could break the record high temperature for superconductivity, “The day room temperature superconductivity is achieved, it will transform in many ways the world as we know it.”
11 For Medicine, Tissue Engineering Could Revolutionize the Future Tissue Engineering: A New Field that Holds Great Promise
BY CHARNICE HOEGNIFIOH
Photo credit: Ousa Chea
Inhale. Exhale. You breathe in roughly eleven thousand liters of air each day, yet this process is not often thought about. So how is this oxygen transported throughout the human body?
The answer is blood vessels. Think of all of the blood vessels in your body as a complex plumbing system that carries oxygen to all of your body tissue. However, this system is much more complex than a series of pipes. These vessels are living, moving channels that each have their own role. But what do you do if you’re missing an essential part of this system? Tissue engineers are working to solve this question.
Tissue engineering is a relatively new field of science that uses cells, engineering, and materials to replace biological tissues for medical purposes.
Melanie Reschke, a researcher at Yale University’s Saltzman’s Lab, is focusing on growing capillaries, tiny blood vessels, that will be able to function within larger tissue systems. These capillaries she works with are so small that she can’t rely on traditional methods of tissue engineering. Instead, she depends on the self-
12 assembling properties of blood vessels to form new structures and branch off into additional vessels. She’s had success in replicating capillaries; now, she’s working on recreating the complex network in which capillaries function in the body. This network is important because it allows oxygen to be distributed to body tissue, a process called gas exchange.
Similarly, another researcher has had success in making synthetic blood vessels. Chris Anderson, from Yale University’s Qyang Lab, is working on engineering cardiovascular tissue that will assist in pumping blood to help children who are missing a quadrant of the heart. These children must undergo a surgical procedure that redirects the blood flow in the body through the lungs, otherwise known as the Fontan Procedure. Anderson is focusing on creating blood vessels that can contract and be implanted in the body. He hopes that one day his work will be used for more than just hearts. Theoretically, his vessels could be used for other major arteries in the body, like the femoral artery in the thigh. His work holds a lot of potential for people with poor systemic circulation.
“The entire concept of tissue engineering was to combat a very real issue of availability of either small tissues or whole organs that a lot of people need,” says Anderson. Every year, there are around 114,000 people who are on the waiting list for organs. The demand for organs outweighs the supply; each day, around 20 people die waiting for an organ. The promise tissue engineering holds is great, especially when you consider the fact that this field began around two decades ago. “I think that the ultimate goal would be to have an actual lab-grown organ, which I think we're a little bit far away from now. But that's what this is working towards in the field world,” says Reschke.
“The entire concept of tissue engineering was to combat a very real issue of availability of either small tissues or whole organs that a lot of people need. So, this [field] could…save a lot of lives...”
Progress is being made towards this goal. Reschke used to work with the New York- based tissue engineering company EpiBone that focuses on growing human bones to use in surgical replacements. And one of Anderson’s mentors, Laura Niklason, recently became the first person to get their engineered blood vessel into a phase three clinical trial, the last stage before a product gets to the clinic. These developments show how steps are being made towards realizing the exciting, full
13 potential of tissue engineering. Although this field is still in development, tissue engineering holds the keys to a multitude of new possibilities in medicine.
14 Huggable Robot Health Specialists’ Newest Helper
BY ALI LIN
Imagine that you've just received an adorable sky-blue, lime-green teddy bear with big round eyes. It has the softest fur you've ever touched, like a warm winter blanket. However, something caught your eye. What's this? You may ask. Unexpectedly, about an inch above the bear's eyes, are two furry eyebrows. Something you usually wouldn't see on a bear, but it's no ordinary bear, its name is Huggable. Huggable is a semi-automated robot that is mostly 3D-printed. Under the plush fur, scientists added a layer of silicone rubber to create a life-like feel. Beneath the silicone, an Android smartphone is positioned at the bear's face, acting as a camera for the specialist and showing animated eyes for the kids. The phone operates as a speaker too. There are also over 1500 sensors throughout the bear's body to detect activity and movement, including two pressure sensors in the paws, an inertial measurement unit, and passive potentiometers. The inertial measurement unit tells the adult operating the bear whether the bear is being picked up, bounced, or rocked back and forth. The passive potentiometer placed at the hips and ankles of the Huggable detects movement in the feet. Lastly, the robot can identify where it's being touched and how, whether it's a pat, scratch, or tickle. Adults can see all the information from the sensors and control the robot through the website outside of the patient's room, letting the child believe the bear can speak.
Inside view of the lovable robot
15 Scientists hope to incorporate Huggable with regular intervention at the hospital to help children with coping and learning. They believe the social robot would be more enjoyable for the kids, and more effective than traditional methods such as games, art, and education. Cynthia Breazeal, the head of the Personal Robots Group at MIT Media Lab, stressed that Huggable is not meant to replace specialists, but to act as a companion. “Our group designs technologies with the mindset that they're teammates. We don't just look at the child-robot interaction. It's about [helping] specialists and parents, because we want technology to support everyone who's invested in the quality care of a child,” said Breazeal. The study focused on a group of 3-10 year-olds. During the study, the child's specialist saw a boost in their emotions and their eagerness to interact. Unlike a regular teddy bear, it could move and speak, something the children have never experienced before. Interacting with the robotic teddy bear is a breath of fresh air for the patient, who regularly have doctors and other adults hovering over them. “We wanted to offer kids one more way of helping them to feel OK where they are in what's otherwise really stressful experience,” said Deirdre Logan, a pediatric psychologist at Boston Children's Hospital. The ultimate goal for this project is to be able to create a fully automated robot, where kids can take them home to track their recovery. For the Huggable to be fully automated, it must be able to determine how the child is feeling. However, there are some limitations at the moment. Miriam Zisook, a Ph.D. student on the team, explained that during the study, they put Electrodermal Activity (EDA) sensors on the patient to track their sweat levels. “[Doctors] wanted to see if there was any change in how stressed they were because one thing that's really stressful is pain. [But] it turns out that it was pretty hard to get data for EDA that is clean enough to learn a lot from because when people move, it changes,” said Zisook. Even if the data is clean, the Huggable is unable to determine whether it's positive or negative. Emotions, temperature, and medication can cause EDA levels to go up. Scientists are working to overcome this limitation, so when a child brings home their new companion, it would be able to track when they're feeling stressed and why. Huggable can always be by their side and can act as a friend. Like Logan said, “There may be kids who don’t always want to talk to people, and respond better to having a robotic stuffed animal with them.”
16 Want to Go to Mars? Be Prepared to Exercise Several Times a Day BY IRISSA MACHETTA
It sounds like something out of a science fiction movie: identical twins subjected to an extraterrestrial experiment. At the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), however, where the line between science and fiction often blurs, astronauts and identical twins Scott and Mark Kelly participated in a year- long gravity study. Scott spent a year in space while Mark stayed on Earth. Scott went into space as a carbon copy of Mark, but when he returned from the International Space Station (ISS), he was no longer the same.
A NASA Astronaut floating outside the International Space Station (ISS). Image credit: Pixaby licensed under Creative Commons Zero (CC0) While his twin brother circled hundreds of miles overhead, Mark, as the control study on Earth, fought the immense force that all earthlings fight every day just by walking or climbing or getting out of bed. It’s a fundamental force that space lacks, but that helps keep earthlings naturally fit: gravity. While in space, Scott’s body had no need to contract muscles to perform basic functions. Instead, he floated. Although it might sound too good to be true—floating out of bed in the morning
17 rather than struggling to kick off the sheets and get up—Scott’s muscles deteriorated. As Dr. John Dewitt, a Biomechanics expert at NASA’s Johnson Space Center (JSC), explains, “The normal forces that we experience in daily living are not apparent. So, our muscles and our bones respond by simply saying, ‘Hey, I don’t have to work against anything, so I don’t have to stay strong.’ As a result, the muscles and the bones get weaker, and they start to get smaller. In order to combat that, we must apply force, and the basic way to apply force is through exercise.” Exercise at the ISS targets specific muscles called anti-gravity muscles. To stimulate these vital muscles, astronauts on the ISS use three devices: A treadmill, a bicycle, and an Advanced Resistive Exercise Device (ARED)—a weightlifting machine. Space requires unique designs for each machine. For example, the ISS treadmill contains a harness and bungee cords for the astronauts to strap into, so they don’t float away. Since traditional dumbbells would also float, the ARED machine utilizes two piston-driven vacuum cylinders that look like oversized bicycle pumps. Astronauts can increase or decrease the weight by adjusting the length of the arm. Likewise, the bicycle is no ordinary bicycle; it has no seat since the astronauts would float off it. Instead, it is redesigned with a back pad to enable astronauts to remain stationary. The astronauts on the ISS must exercise consistently to prevent muscle loss from occurring. As Dr. Tweedy, a countermeasures systems instructor at NASA’s JSC told Verge, “Astronauts on the station work out six to seven days a week for 2.5 hours each day.”
Photo credit: Scott Webb, licensed under Creative Commons Zero (CC0) Muscle loss is not the only thing astronauts have to worry about in space. Like muscles, bones don’t have to fight against gravity either, so they lose mineral density. Unlike muscles, however, where pressurized exercise machines can
18 replicate the effects of gravity, bones need a chemical supplement called bisphosphonate. While muscles can be rebuilt when astronauts return to Earth, once bones deteriorate, there is no way to restore them, even with supplements. The loss of bone and muscle leads to multiple problems. As Dr. Dewitt has said, “It affects a whole host of systems.” Upon returning to Earth, astronaut Scott Kelly lamented, “Every part of my body hurts. All my joints and all of my muscles are protesting the crushing pressure of gravity.” So, whether you want to travel to Mars, the Moon, or even the International Space Station, if you want to be an astronaut, there is no way to get out of exercising to stay fit.
19 The Harmful Effects of Gendered Voice Assistant Artificial Intelligence
BY LISETTE MALACON
“Hey Siri, you’re a slut.” “I’d blush if I could.”
Virtual assistant Siri
Above is a real response that the female digital assistant Siri gave in response to verbal sexual harassment. This is one of many examples of responses that gendered voice artificial intelligence, like Siri, has been engineered to say. This may not seem like a big deal at first. After all, voice assistant artificial intelligence is just that— artificial. I’ll even admit to saying uncomfortable things to Siri when she first came out in 2011. I was only nine years old, and I thought it was hilarious at the same time fascinating in how I could tell this lady whatever I wanted. But that’s exactly the problem: I was an impressionable young child commanding a female assistant to do things for me without having anyone or anything to gauge or stop me. Feminized digital assistants produce real and harmful social effects, forming ideas in our minds that we are not aware of even having that result from repeated exposure.
20 For instance, when I was first teaching my dog new tricks, I would use a clicker right before giving her a treat for correctly performing the trick. I did this so many times that whenever I clicked the clicker, she would look at me, expecting me to give her a treat, even if I did not have any out. She had associated the sound of the clicker with receiving a treat.
This story contains an underlying principle of implicit, or unconscious, bias. Implicit bias refers to the concepts and associations we have about things in the world, unaware that we even have them. These associations depend on the amount of exposure to them. My dog was so frequently exposed to the clicker and the treat that she unconsciously began to associate the clicker with treats.
Humans hold these same kinds of biases in the real world, but they apply to the scope of other people. For example, as mentioned by the UNESCO’s report, The Rise of Gendered AI and Its Troubling Repercussions, rather than associating 'clicker' and 'treat,' humans may have the unconscious association between 'woman' and 'assistant' if they are frequently exposed to female digital assistants. According to Dr. Calvin Lai, assistant professor of psychological and brain sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, “the more that culture teaches people to equate women with assistants, the more real women will be seen as assistants — and penalized for not being assistant-like.”
What I didn’t realize at nine years old was that commanding Siri to do whatever I wanted may have unconsciously been embedding into my mind that females should respond on demand. Computer programmers are often advised to avoid hard-code: a fixed value in a program that cannot be changed. As feminized digital assistants are becoming more and more prevalent in today’s society, the association between ‘woman’ and ‘assistant’ is hard-coded into the minds of voice assistant users. Just like programmers, the general public should also try to avoid this type of hard-coding in their minds. But how?
Dr. Lai suggests we target the root of the problem. After all, prevention is better than cure. Once an implicit bias is formed, it is difficult to change it without long- term exposure to a different perspective. It is essentially hard-coded into the unconscious mind. In order to prevent people from forming these associations in the first place and to prevent the AI from responding in a way that encourages inappropriate remarks, changes must be made in the development process of the AI. There’s no singular fix, but there are some small steps to be taken in the right direction. For example, instead of using the experiences of one category of people to develop the AI, using the experiences from a diversity of people could contribute to less bias in the AI itself. Another small step could also be as simple as making the voice genderless.
21 Combatting the problems that arise from gendered voice assistant artificial intelligence is challenging, but perhaps with enough steps in the right direction, the biases formed from voice assistants can be reduced.
“Hey, Si—” “Call me Q.”
22 Past Its Prime: How Shor’s Algorithm Undermines RSA Encryption
BY SASAMON OMOMA
When we transmit data over the internet, we rely on encryption to ensure that unauthorized parties cannot access our information. Encryption systems, the algorithms that encode and decode messages, depend not on their encryption being unbreakable, but on the extremely long time that they would take to break. RSA encryption, a widely-used encryption system, relies on the difficulty of factoring large numbers—a notoriously complicated math problem—to make it hard to crack. If someone used a standard desktop computer to decrypt an RSA- encrypted message, it would take thousands of times longer than the age of the universe.
For the past 25 years, however, the future of data encryption has been compromised. In 1994, mathematician Peter Shor developed an algorithm that proves a quantum computer could quickly factor large numbers. This discovery— which the MIT Technology Review warns could be actualized in the next 25 years— would make RSA encryption defunct.
Shor’s algorithm starts with a simple concept: division. When you divide into another number, it doesn’t always yield a round number. There may be a number left over, called the remainder. For example, when you divide 5 by 3, 3 goes into 5 exactly 1 time, with 2 left over:
5 ÷ 3 = 1, with a remainder of 2
Consider these division problems and their remainders:
Power of 5 Simplified 5x divided by 3 Remainder
5 5 5 ÷ 3 = 1, with a remainder of 2 2
52 25 25 ÷ 3 = 8, with a remainder of 1 1
53 125 125 ÷ 3 = 41, with a remainder of 2 2
23 Remainders are usually ignored in favor of decimals, but in number theory, the patterns of these discarded numbers are key to undermining RSA.
To illustrate this, consider a place full of hidden patterns: the ocean. At the shoreline, the crashing of waves appears chaotic and random. From a bird’s eye view, however, you can see the waves rolling in neatly, appearing patterned and nearly uniform when observed over a stretch of a few miles. Modular functions— functions involving remainders—are the same.
For example, as we continue the table for higher powers of 5, we are solving a modular function: 5x mod 3, which translates to “what is the remainder after dividing 5x by 3?” If we continued the last column of the table, we would notice the remainders form a pattern. Like ocean waves, the function has a period, meaning that after a set interval, its values repeat. If we can find the period of a special modular function, f(x) = ax mod N, we can easily factor big numbers.
To explain period-finding, let’s consider another type of wave: a sound wave. Sounds are made up of many waves of different frequencies. Sometimes, it is useful to consider a single sound wave, such as isolating a song’s low frequency in order to boost the bass. Doing this is possible with the Fourier Transform, a mathematical tool that captures the individual frequencies of a function or sequence. If we use the Fourier Transform to break a sequence into many different frequencies, we can find the sequence’s periodicity.
The Fourier Transform has its limits: it requires a large number of steps, which slows it down. Even with modern electronic computation and the improved Fast Fourier Transform, it is still too slow for demanding applications. Shor had to develop another Fourier Transform—the Quantum Fourier Transform.
Based on mathematical models, Shor’s Quantum Fourier Transform proves how to find the period of a modular function on a quantum computer. However, this isn’t because quantum computers are inherently faster than classical computers. “Quantum computers are not just classical computers sped up,” Shor explains.
Physical properties of quantum computers, such as superposition and interference, help condense mathematical processes into fewer steps, an advantage exploited in the Quantum Fourier Transform. Given an input of a specific size, quantum computers can generate and calculate upon a larger amount of
24 information simultaneously, which allows them to extract a sequence’s period. From there, it’s back to number theory to find the factors of a number.
In the next few decades, quantum computers could make the factorization of large numbers trivial, making RSA encryption insecure and obsolete. Anything RSA- encrypted—transactions, emails, or messages of national security—could be decrypted. Even as quantum computer-resistant encryption systems are being developed, Shor’s algorithm will leave an impressive mark on our data. It might be time to start considering the lock on our data more like a time capsule: as soon as quantum computers are powerful enough, all bets are off.
25 How Space Gardening Could Help Keep Astronauts Sane
BY SARAH PENTZKE
International Space Station overlooking Earth. Image Credit: NASA
The International Space Station floats in the long, colorless purgatory of space, over 250 miles above Earth. Inside the ISS, astronauts drift down rows of stark white corridors to the small Cupola Observation Module, giving the men and women aboard a panoramic view of Earth’s glowing blues and greens—their only glimpse of home. Hundreds of uncrossable miles separate them from their loved ones.
“When you are in ISS—when I was in HERA—everything is white, it’s stainless steel, it’s hard,” said NASA scientist, LaShelle Spencer, when describing her experience in a thirty-day space mission simulation called the Human Exploration Research Analog, or HERA. “There's nothing of home. You don't see the sky. You don't see the breeze blowing the trees.”
In the cold, harsh environment of space, the bright greens of plants seem almost a dream. With the help of scientists like Spencer, however, gardening in space has
26 become an integral part of space travel. In addition to her contribution in the HERA simulator, Spencer is a Food Production Technologies researcher for NASA. Her research contributes to creating plant-friendly environments in space. Several different varieties of planting modules have already been designed for space travel, including the Vegetable Production system, known as Veggie, which is currently being used by astronauts in the ISS.
Whether in a backyard garden or a confined chamber in the ISS, all plants need certain conditions to grow. Veggie works to recreate these conditions artificially. Each plant in the Veggie system has a small pillow filled with clay-based soil and nutrients. The pillows also help to contain water. In space, water doesn’t behave the way it does on Earth; it tends to bunch together and form globules in the air. Because of this, the pillows are specifically engineered to equally distribute the water, keeping the plants well hydrated.
Even though Veggie allows astronauts to grow plants in space, Spencer noted that the technology was not robust enough yet to support astronauts’ whole diets. Instead, she emphasized another, less obvious advantage. “Growing plants is something that brings you back home. It’s a psychological benefit, growing plants and caring for them. We want to bring that to the astronauts.”
While in the simulation, Spencer described how difficult living in a space environment can be. “Being in space is very high stress. It’s high stakes, things happen. We did a lot of simulations [in HERA] that would bring about those types of stressors,” she said. Plants have been proven to counter stress. Spencer (left) and the rest of the HERA IX crew in front According to a Washington State of the HERA living habitat. University study done by Virginia I. Lohr in June 1996, having plants in a windowless room was shown to reduce stress and even improve the productivity of those inside.
The psychological results Spencer experienced during her 30 days at HERA were extraordinary. Spencer spoke with a smile whenever she mentioned the plant habitat that she and her colleagues oversaw in her simulation. “We found—all the crew found—that we gravitated towards it. We kept the experiments alive longer
27 than we should have.” She added wistfully, “We even named one of the plants Alfred and kept him alive in a little zip lock bag.”
Confined in small, high-stress, stark-white environments, astronauts have many reasons to feel disoriented and uncomfortable. According to Spencer, “a big aspect of having a successful mission is being able to decompress.” Small reminders of home, even little plants named Alfred, help astronauts relax. From broader studies to Spencer’s personal experience, plants are helping to keep the men and women in space sane. “I know that plants will have a positive impact on crews moving forward,” she said, “because they had a positive impact on us.”
28 The Next Stage in Game Evolution BY JASON PEREZ
Just as an artist grabs his brush, the game designer picks up his stylus. Both have an empty canvas in front of them, but in their eyes, it is already full of color. The artist dabs paint onto the brush and begins to materialize his vision. On the other hand, the designer uses its stylus to select a color from the digital and infinite palette. In the end, both have produced a masterpiece, however, one is not yet complete. As the designer stares at the fulfilled canvas, it proceeds to the next step. With the press of a button, the beautiful landscape is transformed into a living and ever-changing open world thanks to artificial intelligence. AI is software that can perform tasks that would otherwise require human intelligence by using data. For example, the ghosts in Pac-Man reacting to Pac-Man’s movement through the maze. Even though AI in games dates back to the 1950s, much of today’s games utilize the same concept, just more efficient. Recent developments in AI research, however, may alter the way games are created and played. AI is already all around us, from the social media feed generated by machine learning to the targeted ads directed by gathering and predicting customer interests. Just as other areas are improving their products and services with AI integration, the game industry is as well. Over the past couple of years, a new trend has been rising within games: open-world level design. These worlds are, as the name implies, very open and allow the player the freedom to explore the game in its entirety. Whether the game takes place in an urban city or a fantasy world, each world requires a great amount of detail to produce. For instance, a game designer must model a building, develop textures, render the final product, perform a quality check, and if necessary, make corrections. This process takes hours to fulfill and only produces a single item. With the help of AI, designers will only have to oversee the creative side while the program uses machine learning to create a perfect product. This only entails a single example, but AI can be used in a variety of ways. As explained by Dr. Mike Cook from the Queen Mary University of London, “I think AI can enhance the skills people already have, and help support the ones they're lacking in...I can design levels, but an AI that can help me rapidly sketch out ideas and see variations on them would let me work a lot faster and develop ideas quicker.” However, according to Nick Statt from The Verge, “Under the hood, the delta between those old classics and the newer titles is not as dramatic as it seems.” Although AI within the game industry has been relatively the same over the past decades, the future promises a synergy between game designers and artificial intelligence that will usher in a new era of gaming.
29 New developmental tools are exiting the research labs and going to the hands of developers. A research team from the University of Edinburgh and Method Studios created a machine learning program that changed the animation movement depending on the terrain traveled. Detailed by AIFrontiers, “They choreographed a machine learning system that is fed by motion capture clips showing various kinds of movement.” For instance, if there is rocky terrain, the program would use the respective animation to create a more realistic render. The issue with many of these new tools is their reliability. According to Cook, “If I made something really exciting and useful that broke 90% of the time, most people probably still wouldn't want to use it - we'd rather have something that works a bit less good but never fails.” It is a matter of time before AI becomes a powerful and vital asset to game developers. As these various tools begin to incorporate AI into their functionality, the only limit will truly be the developer's imagination.
30 Tragedy to Success From Unemployed to Solving a Centuries-Old Problem
BY MARIANO SALCEDO
Thousands of workers in Mexico’s oil industry lost their jobs overnight in 2014. The workers and their families were devastated as a result of the country’s inaction against the plummeting costs of oil. Rafael González Acuña, a young man who lost his job during this crisis, saw this as a chance to look at life through a different lens.
He quickly decided to go back to college to complete a master’s degree. The field of optics caught his attention. “I thought of it as a new opportunity for me,” González says.
Four years later, in June 2018, González came up with a solution for one of the oldest standing problems in physics: spherical aberration, which occurs when light travels through a lens. The light exhibits strange behaviors, so images generated by the lens have a low quality.
How did González go from being unemployed to solving one of the most famous problems in optics?
Alejandro Chaparro-Romo, a Ph.D. student from the National Autonomous University of Mexico contacted González in November of 2017. By that time, Gonzalez was completing a Ph.D. at the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (ITESM) in optics and had already co-authored several well- received papers in the field. Chaparro-Romo had been trying to solve the problem of spherical aberration for quite a while and thought González’s assistance could be useful. Because Chaparro-Romo and González studied in different places, Mexico City and Monterrey respectively, their collaboration solely relied on the internet. González emphasizes “a lot of communication” throughout the entire process was key to working on a solution together.
Seven months after teaming up with Chaparro-Romo, González figured out the solution. The brightest minds in physics—including Nobel laureate Max Born, Isaac Newton, René Descartes, Christiaan Huygens, and several others—had attempted to solve the problem for millennia, but González reached a breakthrough while eating.
31 “One day I was having breakfast, and after having the problem in my mind for several weeks, I realized I had found it. I jumped. With my heart pumping out of my chest, I ran to my room and tested the solution. There, I realized the solution was correct.”
Ideally, when light travels through a lens—like the one you find at any pair of binoculars, a microscope, or a telescope—all the light rays meet at a single point. This point is known as the focal point, where the light once again comes together to form a clear image on the other side of the lens. However, the problem of spherical aberration resides in the word “ideally,” for light does not actually behave in this way.
In reality, the light rays that go near the middle part of a lens meet at a very close distance from the lens’ surface, while rays that hit the edge of the lens meet at a greater distance apart from its surface. This means the light rays do not meet at a single point, but at multiple points, which causes blurry, unclear images to form after light travels through the lens. González’s solution, however, reverses this effect back to an ideal state.
González’s answer is surprisingly elegant. The solution is a formula which works for any type of lens shape. Let’s say a lens manufacturing company wants to create a lens free of spherical aberration. They only have to mathematically describe the surface of a lens which suffers from spherical aberration to González’s formula.
“[The equation] will produce the description of a second lens surface,” says González. “Manufacturers can then use this new surface to completely correct the spherical aberration in the first.” Overall, creating a lens which will yield clear, sharp images when light travels through it.
Lens manufacturers still rely on techniques that use expensive and inexact ways around the problem of spherical aberration. “The trial-and-error process [in lens manufacturing] caused resources to be vastly wasted, and the consumer is who ended up paying this price,” says González. Because his solution is closed in nature—meaning it is exact and does not rely on approximations—it has the potential to eventually lower lens prices by eliminating the need for trial-and- error methods.
Only five years ago, life had given González a devastating blow. After losing his job in what became a dying industry, González could have easily lost sight of his future. However, by solving the centuries-old mystery of spherical aberration, González invented his own lens to see a future which he is excited for.
32 “[The] formula is a great contribution, and only time will tell how useful and accepted it will be.”
33 Hydrogen Gas to Electricity?
BY VANESSA SANCHEZ
The Sun
The world was given a deadline in 2018. Twelve years remained until the effects of climate change became irreversible, and while our instinctive response was progressive, it was temporary. A year later, ignorance has largely resurfaced and drowned out the urgency. Dating back to the Industrial Revolution, human activity has accounted for a 1.0°C rise in global warming levels. Since then, a constant burning of fossil fuels has led to the accumulation of greenhouse gases and their resulting retention of heat in our atmosphere. Consequently, global warming rates have accelerated, potentially placing levels at 1.5°C by 2030. While a minimal increment, its indications are drastic. At 1.5°C, weather is driven to extremes, inviting heavy droughts, substantial precipitation, and intensified heat waves. Likewise, the global epidemic strikes oceans, altering acidity and oxygen levels. Having plagued our planet, climate change culminates in the extinction of species and death of ecosystems.
34 Ceasing greenhouse gas emissions would not prompt the immediate reversal or stoppage of global warming, however. The key to mitigating climate change sails the horizon: fusion. Occurring at the core of stars, fusion powers our universe. Its emulation on Earth would unlock an inexhaustible, carbon-free energy source, but harnessing the power of the stars has not been realized. For over 50 years, scientists have sought the Promethean task, yet have neither generated net energy from fusion nor proven its economic viability. “The world stopped doing, trying other things and that was unacceptable. That's why we started SPARC,” recounts Dennis Whyte, director of MIT’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center and head of the Nuclear Science and Engineering Department. To demonstrate net fusion energy, MIT devised a fusion device of their own: SPARC. The experiment stands at the forefront of fusion research; yet, despite its promising conceptual basis, it has garnered little attention. “It's never going to get there. It's always 30 years away,” addressing common belief, Zachary Hartwig continues, “The goal of SPARC is to really clear up that misconception, to shatter the perception that fusion is a joke.” Assistant professor in the Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering at MIT, Mr. Hartwig joins Mr. Whyte as a member of SPARC’s founding team. Although a novel proposal, SPARC does not reinvent physics. Its fusion still targets the nuclear reaction of two hydrogen isotopes: deuterium and tritium. Prior to the reaction, the separation of nuclei from their electrons results in charged particles known as plasma: the only medium within which fusion reactions are possible. On Earth, plasma particles fuse once they have overcome the repulsion experienced as two like-charged nuclei encounter. According to the kinetic theory, high temperatures are associated with the high velocities required to combat repulsion forces, hence the operation of fusion devices at 200 million degrees Celsius. Granted all materials vaporize at such temperatures, the charged nature of plasma suggests a practical method of confinement: magnetism. Designed on years of scientific achievement, a tokamak is a magnetized donut structure which provides the appropriate environment for the confinement and reaction of plasma. Within the structure, magnetic fields unify into a helix around which the particles revolve and await proper fusion conditions. Thereafter, sustained density, confinement time, and temperature conditions trigger the collisions of energized plasma particles, whose reactions produce helium and
35 neutrons. Whereas helium remains in the tokamak to regulate conditions, neutrons exit the magnetic field, striking the metal sheets that blanket the vessel. Finalizing the cycle, the sheets convert their kinetic energy into heat energy. Altogether, SPARC will revolutionize the magnetic design of fusion devices. Through the implementation of High-Temperature Superconductor (HTS) magnets, SPARC will intensify its magnetic fields and pave the way for net fusion energy and commercialization. Concerning reactors placing power on the grid, Mr. Hartwig clarifies, “It's scaling them up such that the total amount of power starts to really help combat climate change by displacing fossil fuels from the energy mix.” Standing atop the brink of monumental realization, clean energy through fusion will be transformational. Mr. Whyte words it simply: “It's more than just the scientific accomplishment. You have to realize it's the next and the last energy source that mankind will actually probably ever demonstrate.”
36 Is Artificial Intelligence Too Intelligent?
BY YIFAN WANG
Artificial intelligence. These words may be intimidating, but, trust me, they are more applicable to you than they seem. Seen recommendations on YouTube and Spotify? Used a phone with a facial recognition lock? Played a game with an automated opponent? Well, you see, artificial intelligence is everywhere. Now the question is, “what exactly is artificial intelligence?”
Survey people and ask them what artificial intelligence is. Most will probably say it’s related to advanced technology, and others may tell you it’s machines doing humans’ work. These are great answers, but let’s dig a little deeper.
Artificial intelligence, commonly known as AI, is the idea that machines “learn from experience, adjust to new inputs and perform human-like tasks.” The magic lies in the learning. For humans, our brains help us learn and form our thoughts, but how do machines think? By analyzing large amounts of data, machines look for patterns, which they use to make decisions. Take recognizing flowers for example. Humans would input the flower’s type with the corresponding characteristics into the machine’s algorithm. The machine then would find the patterns of the number and length of pedals to indicate a particular species. When you input information of a new flower, it will examine the pedals and determine the species based on the patterns it picked up earlier. But why say they are too intelligent?
How Machine Learning and AI work
Take a minute to think back to when factories were filled with workers standing at assembly lines. Nowadays, all you see are rows of machines manufacturing products. Sure, machines are more efficient and the job is made easier, but what about those factory workers? If their jobs are taken by AIs, what do they do? You probably guessed it --- they do nothing. As research from McKinsey mentions, “...frictional unemployment will likely rise in the short-term and wages could face downward pressure.” This sets the basis for massive unemployment and thus poverty, and, may I mind you,
37 that poverty led to one of the most tragic events in American history, the Great Depression. Statistics tell a similar story. McKinsey’s research also states that one-third of US workers, and 800 million globally, will be replaced by machines by 2030. This is only in the next decade. Imagine what would happen in 20, 50, or even 100 years…
Tesla Motors Model S assembly line. Photo credit: Steve Jurvetson
AIs are also implemented to make important decisions since they do not carry any prejudice or preference and are 100% neutral. However, that isn’t really the case. After all, AIs are designed by humans. When humans create these machines, they introduce their own biases to them. The machines can adapt these biases as standards for later judgements, which, of course, becomes problematic. Yet, even without human intentions, the information read by the machines will always be biased in some ways. Take racism for example. Although race may not be consciously considered in AI algorithms, bias still emerges in factors such as education and job. The intent may be genuine, but the side effects cannot be ignored. In fact, we can alter AI to mitigate its negative impacts.
Humans tend to overuse things they like. The same applies to AI. Undoubtedly, AI has made our lives much simpler in many aspects, but everything has limits. Demis Hassabis, the co-founder and vice president of Google DeepMind, says, “we need to make sure we understand its potentials.” When we do not respect those limits, problems arise.
Some of the issues with AI also tie into human morality. While it may seem that AI is slowly overpowering, a lot of the negative impacts result from the
38 malicious intentions of the humans behind those machines. As Tony Prescott, a professor of cognitive neuroscience from the University of Sheffield, states, “The more pertinent issue is that people will use AI for bad purposes.” Despite the potential harms that technologies may bring, intended harms by humans are much more dangerous. Thus, utilizing machines for legitimate and kind purposes is the key to maximizing their benefits.
After all, there are always two ends of the spectrum -- benefits always come with harms. But it is really up to humans to decide how to increase the benefits and reduce the harms.
39 No Monkey Business: How Primates Have Helped in the Fight Against HIV
BY MANNY YEPES
The Sooty mangabey, Cercocebus atys. Image credit: Joachim S. Müller, licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
Deep in the forests of Senegal, a small, curious looking monkey lives peacefully among the trees. Thus it may be surprising to know that this small primate may hold the key to save millions of people’s lives across the world. What makes the Sooty mangabey so unique is not its characteristic white collar, but rather its apparent resistance to HIV, which is helping researchers test new anti-HIV therapies.
Since 1981, HIV has been the cause of over 39 million deaths. What kills, however, is not the virus itself, but its third stage, commonly known as AIDS. In the first two stages, the virus lives inside the body, but there are no noticeable symptoms.
40 During the third stage, however, the virus kills many of the body’s white blood cells. These cells are vital for your immune system, and their absence leaves people with AIDS incredibly vulnerable to common, normally non-life-threatening diseases.
The Sooty mangabey, however, does not seem to follow this pattern described above. When infected with the primate version of HIV — called SIV, or Simian immunodeficiency virus — the Sooty does not develop AIDS but rather coexists with the virus and develops no dangerous symptoms. Other primates, such as the Rhesus macaque, do develop AIDS once they’re infected with SIV. What causes these contradicting responses? This is what scientists are currently researching in primates.
The key to finding the cause of these differences between the two species is genomics. Recently, through new genetic sequencing technologies, the genomes of these two primate species were fully sequenced. This revealed something very interesting to researchers. It seemed there was a significant difference between the two species, in the gene known as TLR 4. This gene protects against bacterial infections through inflammation. What does this have to do with HIV, however? What really causes HIV to progress to AIDS is the elimination of your white blood cells, specifically a certain type called CD4+T cells. Normally, it takes many years after the initial infection for your CD4+T cells to begin to disappear. This is only in your blood, however. In your intestines these cells are actually wiped out in days. The TLR 4 gene sees the virus as a bacterial infection, and tries to stop this by causing inflammation in your gut. This inflammation does nothing to stop the virus, and instead it causes your intestines to weaken, and eventually rupture. This allows the virus to spread from your intestines into your bloodstream, and thus the rest of your body. This then results in AIDS. The Sooty mangabey was found to have a mutation in this gene which stopped inflammation, and thus stopped the virus from progressing to AIDS.
Because of their resistance to AIDS, sooty’s are used by scientists as models of the immune system’s response. As Dr. Steven Bosinger, Director of the Yerkes Nonhuman Primates Genomics Core at Emory, says, “they’re not good model for studying how a vaccine would work, but they are a good model for studying the differences in the immune system between species that do get sick, like humans.” In order to test vaccines and other therapies, scientists use the Rhesus macaque. This primate’s genome is incredibly similar to the human, more so than mice. Like humans, they also do not have the HIV resistant gene that is present in primates such as the sooty. As stated by David Evans and Guido Silvestri in their scientific paper on AIDS Primate research, “the biological similarities between human and
41 simian AIDS…are such that many consider the SIV/macaque model the most useful animal model ever developed in biomedical research.”
Using a hybrid version of the HIV virus, called SHIV, or simian HIV, scientists infect macaques and then test various vaccines to see how effective they are. By studying the way the immune system responds to HIV in both sooty’s and macaques, the scientists can then tailor the vaccines to target different parts of the system. Thus, these primates offer vital ways to not only study the virus, but also to test new vaccines and therapies.
After nearly forty years since its initial diagnosis, HIV seems to be no closer to being cured. Primates, however, hold the key. Through extensive experiments, scientists are able to use primates as effective models to study ways to stop the virus. Additionally, primates, such as the Sooty mangabey, offer incredible examples of nature’s own methods of combating the virus. One must remember that in fighting HIV, we are fighting the result of millions of years of evolution in nature. Thus, it seems fitting to look in nature to find a cure, which may save millions of people to come.
42 Alexa, is the CIA listening?
BY SUNAMAWIT YIMER
Voice Assistant: Alexa
Often when I ask Alexa about today’s weather, she replies, “Currently in San Jose, California, it is 61 and partly cloudy.” Then, my mother tells me, “Unplug that that thing right this second!” Alexa echo dot is a small, round machine that can identify and respond to human speech. She's a voice-controlled speaker that can be used to play music, answer trivia questions, add things to a shopping list, create calendar appointments, set alarms, report news, and nearly access any function found on the Internet. While it may sound a bit intimidating, the technology behind Alexa and various other speech recognizing devices is actually quite simple. Just as a person standing close enough to a loudspeaker is able to feel the vibrations of emitted sounds, Alexa can sense human speech. We release sounds that cause vibrations in the air that have wave-like patterns. Similar to how we “feel” sound from loudspeakers, she can “feel” human speech. Alexa, similar to most voice recognizing devices, can detect and analyze the wave-like patterns we emit. Then, she goes to her memory and finds a matching pattern. Once Alexa finds a matching pattern, programs match them to known phonemes, the smallest element of a language and a representation of the sounds humans put together to form meaningful expressions. Finally, Alexa matches the distinct phonemes to the appropriate language and executes the command. In order to get Alexa to respond, you have to begin your sentences with “Alexa.” This feature is known as her wake call. Alexa, like other voice recognizing devices, always listens to her environment in order to respond to
43 her wake call. Sadly, my mother, similar to many people, worries Alexa is invading our privacy because she is listening all of the time. “What if she’s reporting our conversation to hackers or even the government” she worried. I wondered if my mother had a point, so I sat down with Mason Wan, a software engineer at Google in hopes of learning more about voice recognition safety concerns. Wan explained that although 100% safety isn’t always guaranteed, companies such as Google and Amazon, the maker of Alexa, have servers that are nearly impossible to hack. He stated, “Yes, there is a chance that hackers can hack and listen to your conversations, but that chance is very very small.” Large companies do their best job of assuring safety, but can never really guarantee it. Consider Google’s statement regarding privacy concerns, “All Google products are built with strong security features that continuously protect your information. The insights we gain from maintaining our services help us detect and automatically block security threats from ever reaching you. And if we do detect something risky that we think you should know about, we’ll notify you and help guide you through steps to stay better protected.” This disclosure states that google does its job of detecting, blocking, and notifying consumers about security threats; however, it does not guarantee safety. Still, unless someone is really lucky, phenomenally lucky, they have very little chance of hacking secure servers. Google, along with most technological companies, is always doing its best job of protecting our privacy. As consumers, all we can do is trust the fact that companies have well-trained security teams that have our best interests at heart. My mother’s fears about Alexa always listening to her environment were somewhat valid; however, Alexa can’t operate unless she listens. Yes, she might be a safety concern, but technically any device including our phones can be a safety concern. Nothing is ever really guaranteed in the internet of things; still, that possibility is extremely slim. Besides, my mother can always turn Alexa’s microphone off during important conversations.
44