BOSTON LATIN SCHOOL ISSUE 2011 - 2012 C<<IACIENSATAPULTA SCIENTIAM IN VIAM>> WE THE CATAPULTANS of Boston Latin School, in order to illuminate scientific processes, phe- nomena, and recent developments, pique interest in the sciences, combine the contemporary with the classical, and secure the blessings of knowledge to ourselves and our fellow classmates, do maintain and publish this Catapulta science newsletter for the entire BLS committee. You can contact us (questions, comments, article ideas, submissions, etc.) by email at: [email protected] Delicious Destruction BY ANDREW SUN Meat production also leads Meat’s impact on the it would have the same CLASS II to greenhouse gases being environment is easily seen effect as removing 7.6 mil- put into the atmosphere. from studies done on the lion cars. Another study in Why does a person choose Factories require a large topic. According to a report Japan states that producing to be vegetarian? You likely amount of energy, and the done by the Environmental 2.2 pounds of beef requires hear that it is healthier, or animals themselves produce Working Group, if every the same amount of carbon that eating meat is not mor- the greenhouse gas methane American does not eat meat dioxide that the average al. However, another huge when digesting. and cheese one day a week, European car produces every reason against the consump- 155 miles. tion of meat is the disastrous Most of us are already environmental effects of its eating too much meat: the production. average American eats two Much of the grain times the recommended in the world today is used amount of protein. So next to feed animals, which is a time you’re ordering some- very inefficient process. To thing at a restaurant, think get the same number of calo- about the consequences ries of meat as calories of of getting something with grain, several times of this meat, and maybe even try amount of grain is required. a vegetarian option. You To get this grain, thousands http://blog.ga.naturesgardendelivered.com/ would be doing the earth a of square miles of tropical http://www.popsci.com/ huge favor. rain forests are being cut down. Unlikely Sources Inspire New Inventions BY NICOLE GILDEA by intricately crossed, metal- air, could be used in products rous pitcher plants because CLASS III lic, hollow tubes that are a ranging from battery elec- of their slippery, cylindri- mere 100 nanometers thick trodes to insulation in the cal leaves that slide insects The World’s Lightest Mate- (1,000 times thinner than a near future. down into the plant. Aizen- rial strand of hair). This unique berg placed a lubricating When people think of material is not only light, but A Super Slippery Substance film within a spongy layer of lightweight materials, items also strong, shock-absorbent, As winter progresses, Teflon. The result repelled such as Styrofoam or cotton and capable of recovering its people will probably notice both water and oil-based balls usually come to mind. shape after compression. the temperature dropping materials. Most people do not think of Another interesting below 32°F. Colder weather SLIPS is unique be- metal. Surprisingly, metal is fact is that scientists looked leads to ice, and everyone cause it never gets dirty since a component in the world’s at examples of architecture knows how slippery ice is. nothing can adhere to it. lightest material. Researches in their development of Imagine, though, a surface This creative invention can from HRL, The California micro-lattice. The Golden more slippery than ice, a be beneficial in the future. Institute of Technology, and Gate Bridge and Eiffel Tower surface to which nothing can It could be used for several the University of California, inspired the material’s cel- stick. Joanna Aizenberg and purposes, such as making oil Irvine have collaborated to lular architecture because of her colleagues at Harvard re- pipes more efficient or as a create micro-lattice. This their lightness and strength. cently invented SLIPS (Slip- coating on airplanes to repel super light material has a Micro-lattice, approximately pery Liquid Infused Porous ice. Perhaps, even, people micro-lattice structure, which one hundred times lighter Surface). Their invention was can finally get that last drop is formed than Styrofoam and 99.9% influenced by carnivo- of ketchup out of the bottle. Antimatter - ticle; for every kg of matter, other, the magnetic bonds us go to earth-like planets, there is one kg of antimat- like the fabled Pandora, or Science Fiction? ter. To explain the seeming holding the pieces of mat- go exploring the Andromeda absence of antimatter in our ter together is released, de- galaxy. BY ALEX HSIA universe, he proposed that scribed by Einstein’s famous However, despite all CLASS IV there was another universe equation e=mc^2. It says that the possibilities antimatter It may now seem as if the made completely out of anti- the energy (e) produced by presents, there has not been world of science fiction is matter. this annihilation of matter becoming reality. Antimat- Antimatter, when it is equal to the mass of the sufficient research into the ter, called by some the “fuel comes into contact with mat- objects (m) multiplied by the production and actions of an- of science fiction” may now ter, produces a very powerful speed of light squared (c^2). timatter. Despite being able be coming of use in the real explosion. It is guessed, by That’s a lot of energy. The to produce small quantities world. Antimatter, the all- looking at light from distant speed of light is 300,000,000 of antimatter in large particle powerful energy that pow- stars billions of years ago, m/s, and that squared is accelerators, we are not yet ered spaceships like the USS that in the very early mil- 90,000,000,000,000,000 able to make antimatter at ENTERPRISE and gave liseconds of the universe, (that’s 90 quadrillion!). In an affordable and substantial robots energy to think freely, rate. Living in a world made is now being considered to of matter, containing anti- be used in a potential space- matter is another issue. Pro- ship that might bring man totypes have been made that to Mars, or even out of our can store up to 1000 atoms galaxy. of antimatter, yet require Antimatter is a type liquid nitrogen cooling and of atom that has the opposite complex magnetic fields. In properties of atoms that make addition, 1000 atoms is a of all the matter we see; all http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/ miniscule amount. The width of antimatter’s protons and of your hair is 500,000 at- negatively charged, all of its there were large amounts of application to our modern oms wide. Although so much electrons positively charged. antimatter and matter being world, a space shuttle takes power can be made from It was first conceived in produced, and large explo- 1,000,000 gallons of solid antimatter, 1000 atoms is a 1928 by an English physicist sions constantly happening. rocket fuel propellant in small amount by any scale. by the name of Paul Dirac. For some mysterious rea- addition to the 500,000 of If more time and re- Dirac was trying to solve a son, apparently, matter had liquid hydrogen and oxygen search is put into the study of problem in quantum phys- a slight lead, probably just to just get to the reaches of antimatter, we may one day ics; to find an equation that one atom out of billions, and earth’s gravitational pull. be able to travel off into the explained the movement of annihilated all the antimatter, With a piece of antimatter the distant galaxies long dreamt an electron in an atom. In his producing the matter-filled size of a dime, a rocket could of in science fiction; we may equation, there was an inter- universe that we have today. go to the same place, do the be able to solve the world’s esting problem. Just as the In particle accelerators, sci- same things. growing energy crisis. We square root of a number can entists can artificially create The uses for antimat- may even be able to move be both positive and nega- antimatter. This provides new ter are limitless. They could to a different planet or have tive, his equation said that an knowledge that we may be replace all current energy the ability to go searching for electron could have both a able to use to great benefit. sources, as antimatter is more other life. Will it be practical positive value and a negative Antimatter may be the clean, efficient than nuclear fission. in 500 years, 100 years, or value. Up to that point, it almost limitless power source They could power rockets maybe even 50 years? When- that we are looking for; it that will bring us to Mars ever the time, antimatter will was unheard of that a particle may be the answer to inter- in a matter of days, using undoubtedly be a great inno- could have negative energy. stellar travel. As the matter gamma ray bursts to propel vation for mankind. He concluded that, for every particles and antimatter par- spacecraft at mind-boggling particle, there is an antipar- ticles are annihilating each speeds. They could even let Biotechnology and Forensics: Using Biology to Solve Crimes BY JACK TAN house, covered all the mir- murder cases today is DNA scene. The cells contain- CLASS I rors, and bludgeoned every- biotechnology. While the ing the DNA are dipped in a On a warm morning in June one to death using an axe.