EXONIAN COLUMN
BACK FROM THE DEAD
By Max tan
We consider dying to be irreversible. When someone passes away, their death is the final goodbye—the last moment one has with that person. It is only in poorly written sci-fi movies that we imagine a place where humans can come back to life. However, a world where revival from death is possible might be closer than you think. This past April, researchers at Yale University published a study in the scientific journal Nature that took a huge step towards making death a second thought.
In the paper, the team of scientists explained how they restored some functionality to a pig’s brain for around six hours, just four hours after the pig’s death. Before, in the scientific world, many scientists have been able to reuse postmortem brain cells and study them by culturing them on a petri dish. But Nenad Sestan, the senior author of the paper and a professor of neuroscience at Yale, wanted to dig deeper....
Karen Uhlenbeck Receives The Abel Prize for Mathematic
By Lucy cai and Erin mccann
The Abel Prize for Mathematics is one of the most prestigious and coveted accolades in mathematics, colloquially referred to as “the Nobel Prize of math.” A few weeks ago, Karen Uhlenbeck, a professor emerita at The University of Texas Austin, won the award, making her the first woman among past male laureates. The Abel Prize Committee awarded her the prize “for her pioneering achievements in geometric partial differential equations, gauge theory and integrable systems, and for the fundamental impact of her work on analysis, geometry and mathematical physics.”
Top 5 Science and Technology developments of 2018
By anjali gupta and meili gupta
From the mastery of stellar navigation to inventions like the wheel, the railroad, the car, and the airplane, technology has always had a profound impact on society. The march of technology is relentless, and yesterday’s inventions inspire those of today, which in turn, spawn those of tomorrow.
So, as we look back on 2018, which landmark developments are likely to keep reshaping our lives in the years to come? Here’s our list of the top five.
First, the emergence of immunotherapy as a mainstream cure for many types of cancer. The 2018 Nobel Prize in Medicine was awarded to James P. Allison of the University of Texas and Tasuku Honjo of Japan’s Kyoto University for their work on uncovering ways for the immune system to attack cancer cells. For the body’s immune system to work, it must be able to tell normal cells from those it sees as “foreign.”
The Artemis Program: To the Moon, Then Beyond
By: Jaekeb Harper 9/29/19
In 1972, Gene Cernan of NASA’s Apollo 17 mission became the last Apollo astronaut to set foot on the moon. Almost 47 years later, he remains the last human to land on the nearest object to our planet despite countless technological advancements. "If it wasn't for the political risk, we would be on the moon right now. In fact, we would probably be on Mars,” explained NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine in an interview with Business Insider. “It was the political risks that prevented it from happening. The program took too long and it costs too much money." This summer, however, in a triumphant announcement video, NASA told the world that “we are going to the moon, to stay, by 2024”.
Bees
By: Isabella Bacon
It is common knowledge that bee, butterfly, and other pollinator populations have all taken a sharp decline. For bees, this occurrence is typically manifested as Colony Collapse Disorder, which is when the majority of worker bees disappear and leave behind the queen, food and a few nurse bees to care for the remaining immature bees. Colony Collapse Disorder can be caused by a multitude of factors: pesticides, either when applied on purpose or accidently spread through previously undetected routes (i.e. dust, soil, or plant pollen); pathogens (bacteria, viruses or other illness-causing microorganisms); fungicides; loss of genetic diversity through selective breeding; climate change; and malnutrition (due to a reduction in flower diversity). The population of the rusty-patched bumble bee, one of the world’s previously most common pollinators, has declined 87% since the 1980’s, according to the United States Fish and Wildlife Service.
The hayabusa 2 Project
By: Jaekeb Harper
Scientists and theologians have been debating the origin of life for centuries now. Maybe it started with just the right materials in an undersea vent, or maybe it was a god? It is possible, according to the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), that the material of life may have arrived to our planet from somewhere outside of the solar system. “The main purpose of this mission is to know the origin and evolution of [the] solar system. We want to find the original material of life.” says Makoto Yoshikawa, a leading scientist and the mission manager for JAXA’s ongoing project: Hayabusa 2.
The Hayabusa 2 Project is JAXA’s ongoing, daring mission to bring plentiful samples of an asteroid back to Earth to find their composition and see if it may have neem suitable to develop life. In order to do this, Hayabusa 2 must enter orbit around an asteroid, launch a lander multiple times to collect samples of the asteroid’s surface, and safely bring those samples back down to Earth...
The Fading Shades of Coral
By: Isabel Carden 10/27/2019
Although we may not encounter them in our day-to-day lives, coral reefs are an incredibly important aspect of ocean environments, as well as society as a whole. According to the NOAA, coral reefs have a $3.4 billion value every year, including fisheries, tourism and the coastal communities it protects. The largest barrier reef in the United States, the Florida Reef Tract, is said to protect communities as far
inland as Louisiana from storm surge and flooding. Not to mention that coral reefs are home to 25 percent of all marine organisms. But the health of coral reefs is rapidly declining. Warmer water, ocean acidification, pollution and disease are all contributing factors to coral bleaching. In fact, the world’s largest reef, the Great Barrier Reef has suffered greatly from bleaching, with only about half of it still alive today, according to National Geographic. It is projected that by 2050, over 90 percent of all coral will be dead.
Climate Change and the Ocean
By: Lina Huang 10/06/2019
The ocean has been saving us. Its vast waters cover around 70 percent of the earth’s surface. It has absorbed more than 90 percent of the excess heat in the climate. But, in the process, the rate of ocean warming has more than doubled since 1993.
The IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) special report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate, approved on Sep. 24 by the 195 IPCC member governments, discusses these questions of the changes to the ocean, and the “unprecedented and enduring changes in the ocean and cryosphere.''
The ocean is 96.5 percent water. In a water molecule, oxygen attracts the shared negative electrons more than hydrogen does. The electrons are therefore more often closer to the oxygen atom, which causes the oxygen atom to have a slight negative charge and the hydrogen a slight positive.
To Infinity and Beyond: The 2019 Nobel Prize in Physics
By: mAX tAN 10/13/2019
How has the universe evolved? What is our planet’s place in the cosmos? On Oct. 8, three physicists who have grappled with these questions received the Nobel Prize for their research. Half of the award was given to James Peebles, the sitting Albert Einstein Professor of Science at Princeton University, for his work with essential theoretical frameworks and models in the field of cosmology since the mid-1960s. The other half was given to both Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz, researchers at the University of Geneva in Switzerland for their groundbreaking “discovery of an exoplanet orbiting a sun-like star” in the 1990s.
