Category: today i learned (til)

Listen in on our thoughts as regarding the wonderful green spaces on campus and how they contribute to our study habits and mental health.

Watch the video on our YouTube channel here! This video was made in collaboration with Rachel Weng and Christie Lin.

If you would like to know more about green spaces, check out the references below:

van den Berg, Magdalena, et al. “Health Benefits of Green Spaces in the Living Environment: A Systematic Review of Epidemiological Studies.” Urban Forestry & Urban Greening, vol. 14, no. 4, 2015, pp. 806–16, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ufug.2015.07.008.

Vidic, Zeljka, and Nicholas Cherup. “Mindfulness in Classroom: Effect of a Mindfulness-Based Relaxation Class on College Students’ Stress, Resilience, Self- Efficacy and Perfectionism.” College Student Journal, vol. 53, no. 1, 2019, pp. 130–44.

Vleet, Zayden Van, et al. “The Effects of Green Space on College Students’ Mood.” Journal of American College Health, 2023, pp. 1–9, https://doi.org/10.1080/07448481.2023.2252931.

Rakowska, Scarlett B., et al. “Examining the Effects of Green Space Accessibility on School Performance for 3421 Elementary Schools.” Landscape and Urban Planning, vol. 234, 2023, pp. 104731-, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landurbplan.2023.104731.

In the Aquarium and Shark Lab of Team ECCO in North Carolina, there is a mystery in the water: Charlotte the California round stingray has become pregnant with three or four pups despite the lack of male rays!

Before we get into this mystery, let’s learn a little more about Charlotte. She is a round stingray with brown and yellow muddled spots. This type of stingray can be anywhere from 20 to 55 centimeters in length. Most round stingrays are found near California or in the eastern Pacific Ocean. They like to eat all types of invertebrates, like shrimps and crabs. Round stingrays are usually pregnant for 3-4 months before giving birth to up to six pups. Now that we know more about Charlotte, let’s get back into uncovering this scientific phenomenon.

The news of Charlotte’s pregnancy caught the attention of many online and it continued to snowball when the head of the aquarium suggested that the stingray could have been impregnated by one of their sharks. 

While this was a very popular theory amongst those on social media, there are actually a few more scientifically reasonable ways for a ray to become pregnant without males.

The director of Team ECCO, Brenda Ramer, explained that while some rays can store sperm, there is no chance Charlotte could be pregnant this way, because no male stingrays have ever been in her tank. But wait, there were male sharks in her tank. There were two white spot bamboo sharks that had shared the tank with Charlotte last year. For some male sharks, they mate with females by biting them, so when the team found that Charlotte had some bite marks, the whole scenario just got more confusing. 

If you’re still wondering if a shark can actually breed with a stingray, think about it ilke this: according to Dr. Noah Bressman, “sharks and rays are as distantly related as humans and snakes, so a snake knocking up a human is just as likely as a shark knocking up a ray” (Bluesky). In short, their DNA is simply incompatible. 

So knowing that cross-species hybrids are plausible but extremely rare, we turn to a more likely explanation. While sexual reproduction is the norm for rays, some can occasionally pull off something different. They have this asexual reproduction method called parthenogenesis, which means “virgin birth.” This uncommon method lets them develop embryos without needing sperm. It’s not unheard of, though – this phenomenon “has been observed in more than 80 vertebrate species, many of which are fish and reptiles (Forbes).  

As of right now, there are not any updates from Team Ecco regarding Charlotte’s pregnancy. They’ve posted an image of her ultrasound on their Instagram and some other cute videos as well. Hopefully Charlotte has a smooth delivery!

Sources:

Hobson, M. (22 February 2024). This stingray is about to have a ‘virgin birth’. Scientists explain how. Discover Wildlife. https://www.discoverwildlife.com/news/stingray-virgin-birth-parthenogenesis

Large, H. (13 February 2024). Shark-Ray Hybrid? Aquarium Suggests Shark May Have Impregnated Its Lone Stingray. IFL Science. https://www.iflscience.com/shark-ray-hybrid-aquarium-suggests-shark-may-have-impregnated-their-lone-stingray-72919

Murray, C. (14 February 2024). No, Sharks Cannot Impregnate Stingrays – As North Carolina Aquarium Investigates Mysterious Pregnancy. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/conormurray/2024/02/14/no-sharks-cannot-impregnate-stingrays-as-north-carolina-aquarium-investigates-mysterious-pregnancy/?sh=6b7774aa28ed

Whitehead, B., Berger, J. (17 February 2024). ‘Miraculous birth’ expected from stingray with no mate, possible impregnated by shark. ABC 13 News. https://wlos.com/news/local/stingray-miracle-birth-expected-team-ecco-shark-lab-hendersonville-aquarium-parthenogenesis-possibly-impregnanted-shark-no-male-mate-clone-female-charlotte-jurassic-park#

I joined STEMComm this semester because I was interested in writing articles centered around science and helping out with coordinating events. This semester I got the opportunity to work on the Atlanta Science Festival event after-party, particularly with the shrinky dink activity. I had a lot of fun throughout the entire process, starting with ideation to the final product. Initially, my group and I were uncertain what we wanted to do that would be scientific and fun. However, during the brainstorming, we decided to host a shrinky dink workshop. This turned out to be engaging and didn’t cost too much money. 

A shrinky dink is a toy that was invented in 1973 and was super popular in the 1980s. The process involves drawing one’s design on thin, flexible sheets of polystyrene (a type of thermoplastic), cutting it out, and then heating it thus shrinking it into a thicker, more rigid form (Gelfand). Polystyrene is a common plastic and is considered similar to recycled plastic #6 (Magazine). These sheets are created by extrusion, where the material is melted and die-cut into the final product (Gelfand). By heating the plastic, the long polymer chains in the plastic that are stretched out go back to their original state. As a result, the design “shrinks” to around a third of its size and is marketed as magic.

In our workshop, we cut the plastic sheets into smaller sections for the participants and had a variety of art materials. These included colored pencils, sharpies, markers, hole punchers, and scissors. The product options we decided on were keychains, pins, and magnets. To maintain a safe environment for everyone, we had some team members stationed with heating guns to do the shrinking process. This ensured no participants were harmed in the heating process. Additionally, we had resin that hardened under the UV lamp to create a more secure encasing and fun gloss layer if anyone wanted. The UV light cures the resin through a photochemical reaction. This process does not take too long, depending on how much resin is needed to harden. 

Before the event started, we also created several examples to display as well as posters and slideshows to explain the process of shrinky dinks, and resin. Once the event started, the workshop received many curious participants and positive feedback. All the participants were surprised and intrigued by the shrinking process. It was fascinating to see how small the designs became when heated up. While some designs became too small or shrunk a little funky, after a few tries, participants were able to grasp how large they should go with the design before shrinking. 

The workshop was a big success and many participants came back to make more than one item. I enjoyed the setup process and seeing the participant’s faces light up in delight during the event. Running the event and seeing the final product of all the planning come together was a rewarding experience. I am looking forward to helping coordinate and run more events in the future!

Sources Cited

Magazine, Smithsonian. “The Science of Shrinky Dinks.” Smithsonian.Com, Smithsonian Institution, 14 Oct. 2010, www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/the-science-of-shrinky-dinks-36715644/. Accessed 16 Apr. 2024.

University, Carnegie Mellon. “Shrinky Dinks – Gelfand Center – Carnegie Mellon University.” Shrinky Dinks – Gelfand Center – Carnegie Mellon University, www.cmu.edu/gelfand/lgc-educational-media/polymers/molecular-rearrangement/shrinky-dinks.html#:~:text=Prior%20to%20heating%2C%20the%20thin,while%20retaining%20the%20colored%20design. Accessed 16 Apr. 2024. 

Existential Physics opens with an anecdote about a difficult question a young man posed the author during outreach: because of quantum physics, his deceased grandmother isn’t really dead, is she? “Physicists are really good at answering questions,” author Sabine Hossenfelder quips, “but really bad at explaining why anyone should care about their answers.” And from my own experiences, I do agree. In the biological sciences, it’s really easy for people to care about the science. Or even if it’s a topic that’s dense, we can usually connect it to some disease that terrifies you to attention. The mechanisms of biology are intimately embedded in our own flesh and blood. No matter how you feel about the Krebs Cycle or the structure of insulin receptors, it’s easy to understand why these are crucial to understand. On the other hand, the sweeping conclusions in physics about the universe feel less universal.

If you’re going to read this book, definitely go with an ebook or a physical copy. I listened to the audiobook, and I found myself rewinding a lot to go back to a definition or an explanation that I missed. There’s also a handy dandy PDF of diagrams that goes along with the book, and I think that would be really helpful for anyone really trying to absorb this information.

As expected, this novel covers a ton of topics: gravity, relativity, black holes, time, aging stars, and even the beginning and ending of the world. Along the way, Dr. Hossenfelder debunks various pseudoscientific physics myths (i.e., people can’t use quantum leaps to travel through time and space). It also encourages us to think critically about these theories, which the doctor admits can sound ridiculous. As a neuroscience major, I really liked the explanation of Boltzmann brains, the product of a theoretical thought experiment where the tiniest chance of atoms colliding in space makes a brain form spontaneously from the element soup. That brain has maybe half a thought before its parts collapse back into the mush.

Honestly, as the book gets deeper, I felt like that brain: briefly having a moment of insight before falling into an ocean of mild confusion. Don’t get me wrong, it was incredibly fun, but I feel like I may have only absorbed about 60% of the information. Don’t underestimate the “Existential” half of Existential Physics. This book not only introduces uncertainty, but it revels in it. Why do we do science at all if the laws of science, just like everything else, might stop working tomorrow? Does anything actually exist or is it just our perception as “brains in a vat”? Where did we come from and how will the world end? Does free will exist?

Still, the prose of this title brings things back to a more understandable state. At the end of each chapter, the professor gives the main takeaway in a sentence or two. So even if we don’t completely know what’s going on, we can get the big idea. Even more, she interviews other physicists about their own views on the theoretical physics theories of the day. These sections, written in a more direct and casual way, helped me understand the concepts in context. It also has some entertainment value, the same way someone would watch an Actors on Actors video interview.

This book is quite unique in that it covers very dense, deep content, but it never feels stifling. Dr. Hossenfelder’s tone, aimed at older teenagers and adults, doesn’t talk down to the audience. She doesn’t mistake oversimplification with approachability, which is something I find really refreshing about this book. I’ve noticed that while short form internet content (Instagram Reels, Youtube Shorts, TikToks) can give people bite sized pieces of information, it also dumbs things down to fit the time limit of the posts. Because of the format, this book is able to really delve into different topics, and the result is a complete, enriching experience. If you want to learn more about how the big physics questions can help you recontextualize your own life, give it a chance.

Image Source: https://nextbigideaclub.com/magazine/existential-physics-scientists-guide-lifes-biggest-questions-bookbite/36201/

Lurking beneath the surface of the normal internet lies the dark web, a labyrinthine network of hidden websites accessible only through specialized software. Often shrouded in mystery and fear, the dark web has earned a reputation as a haven for criminals, a digital underworld where illegal activities flourish like weeds in the dark. But is this image entirely accurate? Is the dark web simply a playground for the nefarious, or is there another side to the story?

The dark web’s anonymity and encryption indeed provide fertile ground for illegal activities. Drugs, weapons, stolen data, and even child pornography find ready markets in this hidden bazaar. Hackers ply their trade, offering malware and cybercrime services to the highest bidder. Terrorist groups and extremist organizations utilize the dark web for communication and recruitment, leveraging its secrecy to spread their ideologies. These illicit activities undoubtedly paint a grim picture of the dark web, fueling the narrative of a digital underworld overrun by criminals.

However, to solely label the dark web as a criminal haven would be a gross oversimplification.

Beyond just illegal activities, the dark web also offers unique opportunities. It serves as a vital tool for activists and whistleblowers operating in repressive regimes, offering them a platform to expose human rights abuses and corruption without fear of reprisal – which in some regimes constitutes death [1]. Journalists, researchers, or citizens in countries with restricted internet like China and North Korea can utilize the dark web to access censored information and communicate with sources in dangerous environments. The dark web also provides a safe space for marginalized communities facing discrimination and persecution to connect and share their experiences, especially in extremely dangerous environments [2]. The dark web can literally save people’s lives.

You could also argue the dark web fosters innovation and technological advancement. Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, originally conceived on the dark web, have become huge financial vehicles in the 2020s. Anonymity-preserving tools developed within the dark web have applications in cybersecurity and privacy protection. The decentralized nature of the dark web also holds promise for building more secure and resilient online platforms.

The very features that make the dark web useful for good – its anonymity and encryption – also pose significant challenges for regulation. Traditional law enforcement methods struggle to navigate the complex network and identify illegal activity [3]. Attempts to regulate the dark web often raise concerns about censorship and the potential erosion of online freedoms. Finding the right balance between protecting individuals and restricting criminal activity remains a delicate and ongoing debate.

The dark web is not simply a binary of good vs. evil, criminals vs. activists. It is a complex and multifaceted ecosystem, where both light and darkness coexist. While it is undeniable that illegal activities flourish within its confines, it would be a mistake to ignore the potential for positive change and innovation that the dark web also offers. The challenge lies in developing effective regulation strategies that address the legitimate concerns surrounding illegal activities without stifling the potential for good. This requires a multi-pronged approach that involves collaboration between law enforcement, technology experts, and civil society organizations, all working towards a common goal: harnessing the potential of the dark web while mitigating its harmful aspects.

The nuances of the dark web allow it to move beyond simplistic narratives of “evil” and work towards a future where the dark web serves not as a haven for criminals, but as a tool for positive change and innovation. This truly is a testament to the human spirit’s ability to find light even in the darkest corners of the digital world.

Sources:

1. Bartlett, Jamie. The Dark Web: Cybercrime, Online Activism, and the Future of the Internet. John Wiley & Sons, 2016.
2. Weimert, Gabrie. The Hidden Web: Exposing the Dark Side of the Internet. Apress, 2015.
3. Russell, Mike W. Inside the Dark Web: Understanding the Underworld of Online Crime. Greenwood Publishing Group, 2017.

In the digital age, the lines between public and private have blurred. Our every click, swipe, and purchase leaves a trail of data, meticulously collected by corporations, governments, and third-party entities. This pervasive surveillance raises urgent questions: who owns our data? How is it used? And most importantly, how can we reclaim control over this vital piece of ourselves?

The scale of data collection is staggering. Smartphones track our location, social media platforms analyze our interactions, and smart devices monitor our homes [1]. Facial recognition technology identifies us in public spaces, and even our browsing history paints a detailed picture of our interests and beliefs [2]. This data is then analyzed, packaged, and sold, shaping everything from targeted advertising to political campaigns.

The consequences of this data-driven world are far-reaching. Algorithmic bias can perpetuate discrimination, data breaches can expose our vulnerabilities, and the erosion of privacy can stifle free expression [3]. We become not individuals, but data points, subject to manipulation and control.

However, amidst this unsettling reality, there is hope. Reclaiming our privacy requires a multi-pronged approach, encompassing both individual action and collective advocacy.

Taking Control of Your Digital Footprint:

• Mindful data sharing: Be cautious about what information you share online. Consider the purpose of each platform and the potential consequences of divulging personal details. Opt-out of data sharing settings wherever possible.
• Privacy-focused browsers and apps: Ditch data-hungry browsers like Chrome for privacy-oriented alternatives like DuckDuckGo and Firefox. Utilize secure messaging apps like Signal and Telegram for encrypted communication.
• Strong passwords and two-factor authentication: Implement unique, complex passwords for every account and activate two-factor authentication for added security.
• Data minimization: Limit the data you share with third-party applications and services. Regularly review and revoke unused app permissions.
• Digital detoxing: Disconnect regularly from social media and online platforms to reclaim your mental space and reduce data trails.

Collective Advocacy:

• Support privacy legislation: Advocate for stronger data protection laws and regulations that empower individuals to control their data.
• Hold corporations accountable: Demand transparency from tech companies and challenge their data collection practices.
• Raise awareness: Educate others about the importance of privacy and encourage them to take protective measures.

Reclaiming our privacy in the age of surveillance is not a one-time action, but an ongoing process. It requires vigilance, awareness, and a commitment to safeguarding our digital and physical selves. By adopting these practical steps, amplifying our voices, and demanding accountability, we can begin to rewrite the narrative of data ownership and reclaim control over our lives in the digital age.

By understanding the pervasiveness of data collection, adopting practical protective measures, and advocating for stronger privacy protections, we can begin to navigate the age of surveillance with a greater sense of control and empowerment. Remember, our data is not simply a commodity; it is a fundamental part of our identity, and we have the right to decide how it is used. So, let us not surrender to the panopticon of the digital age, but rise up and reclaim our right to privacy, one click and one voice at a time.

Sources:

1. The Algorithmic Society: Social Theory in the Digital Age by Nick Srnicek, https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv319wpvm, 2023
2. The New Digital Age: Reshaping the Future of Business, Work, and Society by Eric Schmidt and Jonathan Rosenberg, https://www1.goramblers.org/papersCollection/Book?dataid=mTn:3008&Academia=The_New_Digital_Age_Eric_Schmidt(3).pdf
3. The Public Option: How to Build a Better Internet by Evgeny Morozov, 2011, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=le8Ldl5EeZA