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.