Physicists Have Observed the Light Spectrum of Antimatter for First Time.

Andrew Howson

Mr. Ippolito

Core Biology Honors

Crew, Bec. "Physicists Have Observed the Light Spectrum of Antimatter for First Time."ScienceAlert. N.p., 20 Dec. 2016. Web. 24 Apr. 2017.

<http://www.sciencealert.com/physicists-have-observed-the-light-spectrum-of-antimatter-for-first-time>

For this current event, I chose the article “Physicists Have Observed the Light Spectrum of Antimatter for First Time” by Bec Crew. This article describes a study done at CERN where scientists were able to isolate antimatter particles and observe how they interact with visible light.

Antimatter is a substance predicted by an equation developed by Paul Dirac in 1928 which combined quantum mechanics, a relatively new field of study at the time, and special relativity, which was developed earlier by Albert Einstein (in 1905). This equation had two solutions: one positive and one negative. This was a contradiction of most accepted theories of physics at the time because most physicists at the time believed that the energy of a particle could only be a positive number. Paul Dirac interpreted his equation to mean that every particle must have an antiparticle that is the exact opposite of that particle. For example, a particle scientists have detected called a positron is the antiparticle corresponding to an electron. When a particle of matter and its corresponding antimatter particle interract, they annihilate each other, creating an immense amount of energy, mostly in the form of light.

One of the major problems in modern physics is that the Big Bang should have created equal amounts of matter and antimatter, yet we observe the universe as pretty much only containing regular matter. This is a problem because according to current models, the universe should have annihilated itself from the beginning because the amount of regular matter and antimatter should have been equal, yet for some reason we don’t yet know, it wasn’t.

What the experiment described in this article did was isolate atoms of antihydrogen (14 of them were able to be isolated without them being annihilated by regular hydrogen), use a laser to observe how it interacts with light, and compare its reaction to that of regular hydrogen. What the scientists hypothesised was that, in congruence with the Standard Model of particle physics (the theoretical model upon which much of modern particle physics is based on), antihydrogen should interact with light in the exact same way that regular hydrogen does. The results observed by scientists with the light spectra they tested confirmed their hypothesis, however they have acknowledged there are still many more factors that have to be tested before they reach a final conclusion.

If, however, antimatter ends up not mirroring regular matter in any way, our current models of physics will need to be changed because much of what we base them off of, such as the theory of relativity, would turn out to be flawed. Adrian Cho, one of the scientists who took part in the experiment explained this by stating that “Special relativity assumes that a single unified thing called spacetime splits differently into space and time for observers moving relative to each other. It posits that neither observer can say who is really moving and who is stationary. But, that can’t be exactly right if matter and antimatter don't mirror each other.”

I found this article extremely interesting. All terms were generally well explained and it was engaging. The main problem was that I found that I needed a bit more information regarding antimatter, but I was able to find it easily.

(Additional source for the description of antimatter:

"CERN Accelerating Science." Antimatter | CERN. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Apr. 2017.

<https://home.cern/topics/antimatter>)

"Florida Releases Experimental Mosquitoes to Fight Zika."

Susie Goodell

Mr. Ippolito

Core Biology

4/15/17

Current Events 9

Goldschmidt, Debra. "Florida Releases Experimental Mosquitoes to Fight Zika." CNN. N.p., 20 Apr. 2017. Web. <http://www.cnn.com/2017/04/20/health/florida-mosquito-wolbachia-trial-zika/index.html>.

For this current event, I chose the article "Florida Releases Experimental Mosquitoes to Fight Zika" by Debra Goldschmidt. In this piece, the author discusses the release of 20 thousand mosquitoes in the Florida Keys area on Friday. The mosquitoes do not bite and were injected with Wolbachia bacteria. They were released as a new approach to limiting the spread of the Zika virus by controlling the populations of disease-carrying female Aedes aegypti mosquitoes. The trial that will last 12 weeks and twice a week, groups of these Wolbachia-infected mosquitoes will be released at 20 spots in the area. When they are released, scientists hope that the males will mate with the female Aedes aegypti mosquitoes. The eggs produced won’t hatch and the reproduction will stop, hopefully leading to a reduced population of the female Aedes aegypti mosquitoes and the viruses they carry. Field trials similar to this one have taken place successfully in places such as Australia, Indonesia, California, Vietnam, Colombia, and Brazil. Another solution mosquito control officials in Florida are looking at is completing a trial with genetically modified male Aedes aegypti mosquitoes made by a British company. They are engineered to pass on a gene to female mosquitoes that causes the offspring to die.

The Zika virus has caused devastating birth defects to the children of pregnant women who get bit by the mosquitoes carrying it. The female Aedes aegypti mosquitoes not only carry the Zika virus, but also Dengue fever and Chikungunya. Andrea Leal, the executive director of the Florida Keys Mosquito Control District, says, “A successful trial with the Wolbachia-infected mosquitoes could mean the availability of a new tool in the fight against the Aedes aegypti mosquito for not only our District, but for Mosquito Control Districts around the country.” If we can find a way to control the Zika virus, we can protect many future lives and maybe we can use a similar technique in the future to prevent the spread of other diseases.

This article is very well-written and informative. The author writes using vocabulary that is easy for anyone to understand. There is also many details of how the mosquitoes released will serve their purpose. The author discusses the threat of zika and makes the potential dangers of it very clear. This article has many positive aspects, however there are a few negatives. The author provided no background information on the origins of the Zika virus and how it spread. If the reader had no prior knowledge of the virus, the article would have been confusing. The author also doesn’t go into detail on the previous field trials of the mosquitoes. She should have provided more information about the Wolbachia bacteria and how the idea to inject the bacteria into mosquitoes was developed. Overall, this article was educational and fascinating to read.

"Mysterious Radio Signal Traced to Dwarf Galaxy Light-years Away."

Sarah Goodell

Mr. Ippolito

Core Bio: Current Event Review

22 April, 2017

Current Event #9

Griffiths, James. "Mysterious Radio Signal Traced to Dwarf Galaxy Light-years Away." CNN. Cable News Network, 06 Jan. 2017. Web. 22 Apr. 2017.

http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/04/world/dwarf-galaxy-radio-burst/index.html

James Griffiths, from CNN, wrote an outstanding article, titled “Mysterious Radio Signal Traced to Dwarf Galaxy Light-years Away,” on how an international team of researchers has finally located a mysterious signal three billion light-years away. In 2007, fast radio bursts, or FRBs, were first discovered, yet scientists were unable to narrow down their precise location. One signal in particular, one that scientists had long believed originated from within the Milky Way itself, is unique compared to the other 17 FRBs that have been found. This signal has finally been traced to a spot more than three billion light-years away, located in the dwarf galaxy in the pentagon-shaped constellation called Auriga. In 2012, scientists at Cornell discovered that this specific signal had been “repeating sporadically.” Although they do not believe that these radio bursts result from extraterrestrial life, scientists do believe that they may be coming from neutron stars, which are formed after a supernova explosion, or from a black hole at the center of this galaxy. As Shami Chatterjee, a researcher at Cornell University, said, “We think it may be a magnetar -- a newborn neutron star with a huge magnetic field, inside a supernova remnant or a pulsar wind nebula -- somehow producing these prodigious pulses.” These are the two most common explanations for FRBs, yet Brian Butler, of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, has brought up a good point. Butler has told CNN, “We do have to keep in mind that this FRB is the only one known to repeat, so it may be physically different from the others.” Because this FRB has had a history of repeating occurrences, we may not have any idea as to what this FRB is resulting from.

Since scientists are still unsure and unaware about what is causing these radio signals, it is hard to know anything for fact. These developments, however, have given way for more exploration, more experimentation, and new hypotheses to be formed on the basis of this data. For scientists, this topic is still very premature and could quickly develop with improved technology. These discoveries could prove to be something we have never seen before within our galaxy, and could lead to further space travel and exploration. For us on Earth, we should be open and willing to new and different possibilities on where these radio signals may be coming from.

The author, James Griffiths, has done an incredible job writing this article and has successfully supported his statements by including photographs, drawings, and quotes from researchers and scientists themselves. Through his use of quotes, Griffiths has established himself as a credible source for information. Griffiths has also effectively presented his findings in an article format, while at the same time being able to successfully influence and persuade his audience. However, by the end of his article, Griffiths still had left some unanswered questions for the readers. For example, he discussed how “extraterrestrial intelligence is not near the top of the list of explanations,” regarding the radio signal, but failed to tell us why there is a very slim chance that this is a possibility. Also, Griffiths could have organized his article more fluently. Instead of jumping right into the data and beginning to analyze it, Griffiths first should have introduced what is known about this mysterious signal, and then gone ahead into his findings. To improve upon both of these things, Griffiths can try to structure his report in a smoother way, in order to provide his audience with more information ahead of time. This way, his readers will be well-informed before he even begins to discuss the possibilities of this mysterious signal. He can also try to answer some of the simple, unknown questions that his audience was left with at the end of his article.

Is This Ancient, Bag-like Sea Creature Our Earliest Ancestor

Alyssa Lee

Mr. Ippolito

Biology 10H

20 April 2017

Strickland, Ashley. "Is This Ancient, Bag-like Sea Creature Our Earliest Ancestor?" CNN. Cable News Network, 03 Feb. 2017. Web. 20 Apr. 2017. <http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/30/health/earliest-human-ancestor-deuterostome-saccorhytus-history-study/index.html>.

The article that I chose to read is called “Is This Ancient, Bag-like Sea Creature Our Earliest Ancestor?” by Ashley Strickland. It discusses the discovery of the Saccorhytus, a “tiny, bag-like creature” only one millimeter long that thrived approximately 540 million years ago. The Saccorhytus is an organism that has been categorized in the broad and wide-ranging category of deuterostomes, a group of smaller organisms from which many of the larger, more advanced organisms of today can trace their origins back to. Some organisms that fall into this category include starfish and sea urchins. When the scientists at the University of Cambridge in England and Northwest University in China first decided to investigate the origins of human existence and evolution, it is therefore no surprise that they turned their search to the deuterostomes, being responsible for many of the current lifeforms on Earth today. Upon deep excavation near shallow waters, the researchers found exactly what they were looking for: the Saccorhytus, appearing as “tiny black specks” in the three tons of excavated limestone, the researchers decided to examine their samples of Saccorhytus under the microscope. They found that the Saccorhytus “had an elliptical body with bilateral symmetry, evidence of musculature and a thin yet flexible skin.” However, the most defining feature of the Saccorhytus was its expandable mouth, incredibly large when compared to the span of its body. The most important discovery made was that the Saccorhytus had suggested the idea of a “molecular clock”- an idea that suggests that “the origination of the main groups of animals significantly predate what the fossil record would indicate”. In other words, the actual time of origination differs from what is suggested from the fossil evidence, pointing to the fact that the deuterostome from which human life may have evolved from to be the Saccorhytus. Due to the fact that the earliest small animals such as the Saccorhytus were unlikely to survive and be found fossilized, they not only shed light on the possibility of a strange human ancestor, but also offered rich, unprecedented insight into a “long and cryptic history”.

The existence of the Saccorhytus sheds an incredible amount of light onto the mystery surrounding our earliest human ancestors, even beyond our simian counterparts and hominids. Due to the fact that many of our ancient relatives are shrouded in the unknown, this discovery offers a hint of not only one of the origins of intelligent human life, but also on the time period in which it lived, over half a billion years ago. With the Saccorhytus, scientists and researchers can observe its anatomical structure and use their observations to form conclusions concerning the status of life on Earth at the time. This is especially essential to our studies today in that we can catch a glimpse of Earth in an era where we did not yet exist, and thereby see the changes that have occurred to animal lifeforms that have adapted over time to environmental pressure. Its discovery also reveals to us the amount of change that can happen over the course of hundreds of millions of years- if the Saccorhytus is indeed a distant relative of humanity, it is certainly awe-inspiring as to how such a queer, primitive looking creature could have any possible relevance to what homo sapiens look like today. This demonstrates the astounding fact that a significant amount of change that can occur to an organism during the course of evolution that has truly shaped the organisms alive on Earth today.

This article was very well-written in that it stated the facts simply and colloquially, making it not too difficult a read. The author does an especially excellent job describing the significance and the background on the Saccorhytus, as well as the tedious process used to find them. In addition, the topic itself was very interesting to me in that I was able to discover and learn more about our human ancestors, a subject that I find intriguing. However, I believe that there were some weaknesses to this article. The most prominent weakness that I could find was the author’s explanation of how they determined the Saccorhytus to be a human ancestor. Although the author explains that many deuterostomes have been discovered to be the ancestors of organisms today, I did not fully understand the link between the Saccorhytus and humans; as far as I understood, the only aspect that connected the two was the fact that the Saccorhytus was a deuterostome in the same tree of life as humanity, but even this is not explained. Therefore, I believe that further elaboration was needed in order to fully specify the reasoning behind this essential connection.  

The Race to Destroy Space Garbage

Alisa Fominykh

Mr. Ippolito

Biology 10H D Odd

April 17, 2017

O'Brien, Jane. “The Race to Destroy Space Garbage.” BBC News, BBC, 8 Apr. 2017, www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-39521406. Accessed 16 Apr. 2017.

I read the article titled, “The Race to Destroy Space Garbage” in which the author Jane O’ Brien addresses the fact that pollution in space is also a reality. Over 23,000 pieces of space junk are large in enough in size to be tracked by the US Space Surveillance Network, implying they are greater than 4 inches in diameter. However, a majority are smaller than that, meaning they cannot be recorded, resulting in them also being a threat, despite their size. A result of the large quantities of space junk floating around collisions do occur, causing potentially hazardous situations. Of the 7,000 satellites currently in space, only 1,500 are working. In the next decade it is expected that 9,000 more will be added, thus only further increasing the possibility of collisions. In the past collisions have caused astronauts in space to evacuate capsules in order to escape harm. Collisions with satellites are harmful since a majority of modern day luxuries are a result of them, such as GPS, movie downloads, phone calls, internet and even national security. In recent years, military efforts have been taken to in order to observe more objects, thus better protect vital satellites and space stations.

This article was important since it exposed how humans are prone to pollution, even in space. Additionally, it exposed how pollution even not on the earth can be harmful, to our society. If a satellite were to be damaged it could result in technological dilemmas, not to mention the safety of individuals can be in peril, once it is put into account that national security is reliant on technology. On another note, this article emphasized how various modern commodities rely on satellites and space.

This article was thoroughly written and did a good job utilizing videos to emphasize how the quantity of space debris substantially increased over a period of more than 50 years. However, a fault within the article was that it did not address how the collisions could potentially result in debris falling to earth, thus causing more harm, rather than solely damage to satellites in orbit. Addressing this within the article would help stress the reasons as to how pollution in space is also physically harmful to Earth’s inhabitants. Finally, an improvement I recommend for this article would have to be for it to better explain how debris can be removed from space. Along with the particular technologies scientists are coming up with in order to perform such actions, rather than merely stating that there are no current methods of cleaning space.

Toxic Air Pollution Can Penetrate the Brain: Study

Current Event #8

Core Bio // Mr. Ippolito

Norah Foley

April 16th, 2017

Worland, Justin. "Toxic Air Pollution Can Penetrate the Brain: Study." Time. Time, 06 Sept.

2016. Web. 06 Sept. 2016.

http://time.com/4480016/air-pollution-health-effects/

 The article I read was entitled “Toxic Air Pollution Can Penetrate the Brain: Study” by Justin Worland. In the articled, Worland addresses how air pollution remains a major global health threat that contributes to many more degenerative diseases than previously thought.  According to new research the toxic effects of pollution reach well beyond just cardiovascular diseases.  Based on research from a new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, pollution also appears to be a contributing factor to brain maladies, such as Alzheimer's.  Researchers found that toxic particles of magnetite and other metals which makes up the much of the pollution in urban areas, are actually able to permeate the brain through the olfactory nerve.  These substances have been found in high levels of brain tissue taken from people who had previously resided in heavily polluted cities.  The author believes this research now shows how the  pollution can enter the human body and cause the disease, although he does note that more research will be necessary to show the exact cause and effect.   

This is problematic, since according to the World Health Organization, over 80% of people in urban societies reside in areas where air quality is well below current health standards. According to this article air pollution is linked to a variety of health issues, including millions of premature deaths yearly, throughout the world. It has long been a problem in cities that are heavily polluted such as in third world countries like India, but now it seems to also be affecting areas that are proactively fighting pollution, such as in Europe and the United States.  It affects our lives here in Bronxville, because we are located just outside a major city.  We breath the same air and it appears based on this article, that even small amounts are able to “infiltrate” the human body and wreak havoc on one’s health.  Now that we are gaining a greater understanding of how pollution can permeate the body, we need to focus more on ways to prevent it from doing so.  

I found this article to be very interesting since toxic air pollution affects so much of humanity.  However, it covered this topic in very general terms, raising a lot of unanswered questions.  The author often stated that “research shows” that pollution contributes to degenerative brain diseases without giving specific examples or sources for his theories.  He asserts that pollution “infiltrates” the brain through the olfactory nerve, but has not detailed exactly why he makes this claim, other than that it was found in the brain tissue of  individuals from heavily polluted cities, like Mexico City and Manchester.  It leaves me to question whether there could be other ways that pollution could end up in the brain tissue.  Maybe it traveled in the person’s bloodstream when that person drank contaminated water or food?  Could the magnetite or other metals somehow be absorbed by the skin, similar to lead poisoning? Leaving these questions unanswered was frustrating to me as a reader, however with more research these questions could possibly be answered.

Plumes From Saturn’s Moon Enceladus Hint That It Could Support Life

Catherine Faville

Mr. Ippolito

Bio H

This week I read the article Plumes From Saturn’s Moon Enceladus Hint That It Could Support Life written by kenneth Chang, in this article he discusses that it could be possible for icy moons, such as Saturn’s enceladus, be able to hold lifeforms. After analyzing the small moons, scientist have inferred that there are hydrothermal chemical reactions that are very similar to that of the Earth's oceans. With these hydrothermal parts of the ocean, brings a lot of life, this discovery was accomplished from the cassini that has been orbiting saturn for thirteen years, the cassini also discovered a imbalance of hydrogen and carbon dioxide, meaning that organisms could potentially use this energy source as a way to get food.

This article is helpful to society because with a new discovery of life would enable scientists to further investigate, and by chance use these new found life forms  as a way to compare the lifeforms on earth to that of other planets of moons, in order discover how organisms work and how they form.  It would also be effective on opening up the idea to people that life on other planets is a definite possibility.

The information given in the article was very descriptive as to what the cassini has found on saturn, and how scientist used this data to create a theory as to if life could be obtained on the planets moons. The author also did a great job of going into extreme depths as to how life could possible use these chemical reactions as away thrive. However, the author did not do a good job of describing if other icy moons could have the same chemicals on saturn's moon, that could make life possible. Also he should have went into better detail as to what a moons plume is, it would have made the article much more efficient as to putting its idea out.

"How One-Year Mission Affected Astronaut's Health"

Olivia Doyle

Mr. Ippolito

Core Biology

15 April 2017

Strickland, Ashley. "How One-Year Mission Affected Astronaut's Health." CNN. Cable News

Network, 04 Feb. 2017. Web. 15 Apr. 2017

http://www.cnn.com/2017/02/01/health/astronaut-twins-study-preliminary-results-trnd/index.html

This week, I read an article entitled “Twins study: How one year mission affected astronauts’ health”. The article discussed a study that sought to answer the question: “What happens to the human body after a year on the International Space station, floating in zero gravity?” To do so, they took data from twins Scott and Mark Kelly. After spending one-year on the International Space Station (ISS) doing field tests for a possible future landing on Mars,  Scott returned to Earth and both of the brothers’ health were tested in order to compare the results. Researchers studied immune response, bone formation, and the twins’ DNA in order to see if DNA was affected by living in space and what other changes occurred inside Scott’s body. It was found that “Chemical modifications to Scott's DNA decreased while he was in space, but they returned to normal once he was back on Earth.” This is a sign of how sensitive genes are to their surrounding environments. A study was also done on Scott’s telomeres, the sequences at the end of a chromosome to prevent it from deteriorating. It was found that rather than decrease in size (as they should have), the telomeres increased in size while in space. This change is thought to be linked to an increase in exercise and a decrease in calorie intake. Additionally, researchers found that Scott experienced declining bone formation, “but levels of a healing hormone that helps with bone and muscle health increased, most likely due to all of the exercises astronauts perform in space every day to combat bone and muscle loss.” Scott also experienced a decrease in reaction time and a suffering of the accuracy of his fine motor skills. In the future, scientists believe more training to help astronauts readjust to Earth’s gravity is necessary.

The information obtained from the results of Scott’s study is significant in the future attempts at landing humans on Mars. They show that a year in space is no more taxing than six months is, which raises an interesting question of how long a human could survive in space. From Scott’s results, scientists know that if humans were to land on Mars, they would struggle with “performing tasks quickly and efficiently, even if those actions would be vital to life support.” The studies done on the changes on Scott’s body greatly affect humanity as they show what astronauts experience when going into space and answer questions on the human body and how it is affected by its surrounding environment. It is a testimony to what the human body can endure, even without gravity. The article mentions the idea of sending humans to Mars, which brings about the question if there is life beyond earth, and if humans can survive someplace other than Earth. Overall, the article’s findings express how zero gravity affects the human body and what it means for a mission to Mars.

In my opinion, the article was very well-written, but was lacking a few key components. First, the article did a good job of talking about how the series of tests were performed on Scott  and explaining the results of each test. I liked how the author opened up with a question, as it clearly displayed the article’s purpose and outlined what the rest of it is trying to answer. Additionally, quotes from NASA researchers further enhanced the author’s argument. However, the article did not go into depth on the comparison between Scott and Mark’s health. This would have been more interesting, as it is rare that you find twins’ data to compare-- especially if one went to space. In addition, there was a paragraph included on the sleep patterns of astronauts, which was slightly out of place and did not contribute to the author’s central argument. Overall, though, the article provided interesting results on the impact of space and zero-gravity on the human body.