Volume 7 | Issue 2 | June 2017 Email ccacatalyst@gmail.com WebSite CatalystMag.Weebly.com Facebook /CatalystScienceMagazine ISSUU.COM /catalystsciencemagazine President Marissa Wu Vice Presidents Maggie Chen Vivian Shing Directors of Finance Emily Bi Victoria Li Directors of Layout Aida Razavilar Heezy Suh Directors of Editing Executive Editor Anthony Kang Supervising Editors Judy Qin Jessica Shen Advisor Michael Gaughen Editing Team Taylor Albizati Emma Boyles Alyssa Cho Sai Gantla
Anjali Gopinathan Allen Huang Anusha Jain Hunter Katz Paul Kreymborg Elizabeth Kwon Heloise Leblanc Jessica Li Andrea Liu Abigail McRea Aida Razavilar Aadil Rehan Matthew Tsai Ashley Zhang Michelle Zhang Cecilia Zhang Jeanne Zheng Natalia Zorrilla Layout Team Emily Bi Emma Boyles Samantha Chai Anjali Gopinathan Clara Guo Samruddhi Hande Harmonie Lau Victoria Li Susan Lin Amanda Tanaka Julie Tran
Cover art by Victoria Li
staff list
LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT CCA— It is with pride and some sadness that I present Volume 7, Issue 2 of Catalyst Science Magazine, the final installment of Catalyst that I will get to work on. The past four years have been an incredible journey for me, and this magazine wouldn’t be possible without our amazing student team of writers, editors, and layouters, nor without the help of our supervisor Mr. Gaughen and the generosity of our gracious sponsors. Thank you so much to everyone for working so hard on this issue; I hope you enjoy it! In this issue, we also dive into cloud computing, a rapidly-growing technology that is increasingly responsible for data transmittal online. We also explore the field of internal medicine through an interview with hospitalist Nelar Wine, learn more about the chemical components of makeup products, and describe the signs and symptoms of Stockholm syndrome. On a more pop culture-related note, you can find articles detailing the phenomenon photographic memory, the linguistics within the critically-acclaimed 2016 movie Arrival, as well as the science behind the Instagram trend of slimes. With a wide range of subjects covered, you’re sure to find something within these pages that piques your interest. One last time, thank you all. Enjoy! Marissa Wu Catalyst Science Magazine
Image credits: modup.net
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Internal Medicine Interview
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CCA Math Team Emily Bi and
Amanda Tanaka Maggie Chen
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How Language Affects Perception and The Communication Makeup of Makeup Heezy Suh
Samantha Chai
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Unforgettable Minds: Eidetic Memories in Pop Culture
Primetime for Slime: Non-Newtonian Fluids and You!
Jeanne Zheng
Marissa Wu
An Intro to
CloudComputing, The
A Rapidly Expanding Business
Silence of Stockholm Syndrome
Paul Kreymborg
Hunter Katz
Interview with Nelar Wine Internal Medicine Hospitalist by Amanda Tanaka 1
Nelar Wine is an internal medicine hospitalist at Kaiser Permanente in San Diego and has practiced there for the last 18 years. She went to UCLA as an undergraduate in biochemistry. She finished her medicine studies at Vanderbilt University Medical School. Why did you go into medicine? When I was growing up, I wanted to have a career where I would be making a difference in another person’s life everyday. I thought that being a physician was a perfect way, because I could help people live a healthy life and when they have diseases, I can help guide them in their treatment, so they could become healthy again. Why did you go into internal medicine? I chose to go into internal medicine, because I knew that I wanted to get to know a patient and essentially grow old with them, since I would know them as a young adult and all the way to their old age. I thought that internal medicine was a perfect way, because I could take care of the whole person. As an internal medicine doctor, I also have knowledge of all the different organ systems to an extent. My knowledge is broad based, and I know about the cardiovascular system, pulmonary system, kidney system, etc. When I need further help, I would reach out to my specialty consultants and colleagues, and they would guide me, so that’s why I thought that internal medicine was perfect. When going through rotations as a third year medical student, I didn’t chose pediatrics, because I was constantly getting sick from all the viruses that the kids had. Although I love working with kids, I didn’t want to be sick all the time. Also I can’t sew at all, so I knew being a surgeon was not for me. Making these choices led me to internal medicine. What kind of doctor in internal medicine are you? Specifically in internal medicine, I’m what you call a hospitalist medical doctor. This means that I don’t have a clinic practice, and, instead, my day is based in the hospital. I take care of a patient as soon as they are admitted to the hospital,take care of them throughout the whole time they are there, and finally discharge them from the hospital. I see patients who are acutely ill or patients who come in with pneumonia, a heart attack, a stroke, kidney failure, or an infection that requires antibiotics and IV fluids. I will admit you to the hospital, give you all the treatment you need, and ask advice from other specialists if needed. Then I will coordinate your care and finally discharge you. After, you would have follow ups with your primary care doctor in clinic, and that’s what a hospital internal medicine doctor does. What do you do on a daily basis? There are two aspects of being a hospital medicine doctor. One is called a rounding doctor, which means that you take care of patients already admitted to the hospital the whole time they are in the hospital—that could be for a couple days or weeks on. You take care of their all of their conditions. For example, if they had a heart attack, I would take care of them, talk with the cardiologist to get their advice, adjust medication procedures if needed, and finally discharge them. On a day like that, I would be there from 8 AM to 6 PM and checking on patients vitals and the results of special procedures one by one. I then would work with specialists on creating a schedule for the patient, whether it be a medicine schedule or scheduling special procedures. I usually would do rounding for about a week. The second aspect is a medical doctor on call. This is where I am admitting patients from the ER to the hospital all day or covering on patients who have acute illnesses or crises at night time. My days vary depending on what shift I have. How do you handle emergencies at work? I get into a lot of emergencies because when I’m on call at night, I have to run all the code blues or emergency codes. This means that a patient might have stopped breathing or their heart may
have stopped. In a code blue, all the doctors including the internal medicine doctor, the surgeon on call, the anesthesiologist, the respiratory team, and the pharmacists have to run to the code blue and asses the situation. Sometimes we may be doing CPR, administering electric shock, or putting them on the respirator which makes it pretty stressful. Since I have been doing this for 18 years, it is easier now than when I first started. One thing I do think about whenever I have a situation like this is keeping focus on what is going on at hand. I do this by trying to block out excess noises and using my knowledge to help assess the patient and run the codes. One of the most important things is to keep yourself as calm as possible and focus on the patient. Sometimes the patient recovers after the incident and sometimes, unfortunately, you can’t help everyone, but you try your best. Usually, after a code blue, we have a debriefing with all the members who were involved, so we can go over what was done right, what was done wrong, and what we could improve on. This helps all of us move on to the next situation because there are no misunderstandings, and we can learn what to do for the next time. How do you communicate with you patients and their families? Having good communication skills is key in being a doctor. You could know all the treatment options and how to take care of the patient because you are an up to date and knowledgeable doctor, but if you can’t convey to your patient and their family what is going on, then you can’t be a good doctor. The way I think about it is that every time I have a conversation with a patient and their family about whatever serious illness that the patient has been diagnosed with, I try to use my compassion and empathy to communicate with them. I usually would sit down with them, face to face, to let them know that we are all on the same page, because sometimes when you are standing, people may think you are in a commanding position, but you aren’t. I explain the situation in the common language that everyone understands, because you can’t assume that the patient will understand all the big and fancy words. No matter how intelligent the patient is, I try to communicate in words that are fit to their understanding. Patients are usually overwhelmed by all the information, so you have to understand that you might have to repeat this conversation a couple times before they fully understand it. They also might be shocked with the diagnosis, so you have to be patient and open to any questions. What are the key challenges in your field? When you are hospitalist medicine doctor, the key challenge is that you have to work hard, because it isn’t an easy job where you might be sitting and waiting for phone calls, but instead you are always on the go. There are always patients to admit and there are always patients getting sicker and sicker in the hospital. The intensity and the illnesses of the patients are higher at this level, and you have to be ready for anything. Also, you keep your knowledge up to date by reading medical journals and magazines, because this field is constantly changing with new discoveries and advancements. There may be new drugs or treatments be made right now, so you have to be up to date instead of learning it once and knowing everything. You have to work hard, but it is rewarding knowing that you are helping people recover and live their life as full as they can afterwards.
Image: Victoria Li
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CCA Math Team
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By Maggie Chen
“The limit is undefined!” Is the limit undefined? Is it really, truly, undefined? In the pink-swirled depths of the movie Mean Girls, we see an interesting phenomenon: the contemporary representation of a math team, marketed to a broader audience. Yes, the iconic movie did over-exaggerate a few things. Yes, it was marveled at by a generation of future Fields Medalists at the 2016 Mathematical Olympiad Summer Program, the most prestigious math program in the country. These burgeoning mathematicians may not brag about wearing pink on Wednesdays, but they do have all bragging rights to a marathon-like endurance when solving math problems which, when confronted by common people, cause a slow but sure sense of mental degradation. But these mathletes are no common people. Beyond smashing national records at generic math contests, these math team students flex their leadership and organizational chops through the Math Bonanza, a completely student-run math competition held annually at CCA. Bringing together mathematically sharp students from schools ranging from Francis Parker to Scripps Ranch, the Bonanza sets a Saturday dedicated to “getting in the math zone until time runs out,” but more uniquely, to “horse around” with other students who have similar interests and mathematical caliber. The competition consists of three rounds: Individual, Team, and Lightning. The focus remains on individual intellect; however, there is a strong groupwork aspect through the team round and the fast-paced lightning round, the Jason Bourne of math competition rounds. Many students cannot imagine dedicating hours to solving math problems, much less creating math problems and doing such problems for fun. Entering the world of these students, however, provides a better explanation for their unique passions and fiery brainpower.
...these students permeate the air with a gritty sense of argumentation, furthered by a drive to finish the journey to finding that last variable. In the fractal-covered confines of room E101, a group of students sits focused on distinct integers and Taylor series. Outfitted in khakis and dark sweaters, these students permeate the air with a gritty sense of argumentation, furthered by a drive to finish the journey to finding that last variable. A look into the room finds a whiteboard scattered with a’s, b’s, c’s, z’s, square roots, and altitudes. At the front of the room, Daniel Sun, Jacob Zhang, and Tristan Shin stand on a trio of desks. Jacob, the ever so responsible one, can be seen coaching younger members on American Mathematics Competition prep problems. His hand moves quickly and purposefully, sketching 30-6090 triangles (not to scale) with finesse only seen in MIT Professor Walter Lewin’s dotted line drawings. Daniel dual-wields an A Team prep packet and an AMC packet, posing questions like “Which movie recently faced PETA backlash?” (A Dog’s Purpose) while bantering back and forth with Alan Zhu and Adam Zheng on multi-solution practice problems. Tristan stands in the pack of math team members, occasionally calling out answers and arguments to the proper way to solve said problems. Anlin Zhang’s laugh, as usual, can be heard clearly from across the room, as she whips through problem sets faster than a cheetah. Scanning across the room shows a clamorous group of students. Holding pizzas and pencils, they attack math problems with vigor
matching that of their lunch consumption. There are quiet students, heads bent over lined pieces of paper, sketching quadrilaterals and derivatives across the pages. There is the group of girls working on some challenging problems. Not one student, however, looks remotely uncomfortable in an environment peppered with complex equations and multi-variable problems. The real stuff of thought is blatantly displayed on the sprawling whiteboard. To the untrained eye, it looks like a bunch of gibberish. To the CCA math team, however, math isn’t a barrier. Math has become a language comparable to Latin; it creates the foundation upon which they formulate their proofs and create new ideas. Like Latin, the origin of many languages, mathematics is not a singular field, but rather a branching platform that is constantly evolving and expanding. In my short period observing and questioning these mathematicians, I began to find connections between these students, their passion for
...mathematics is not a singular field, but rather a branching platform that is constantly evolving and expanding. mathematics, and in particular, the ways in which they perceive the field of mathematics as a whole. Perception, for Jacob, is key. “Doing math helps me think rigorously about logical and/or quantitative ideas in other sciences,” he says. “For example, among any six people either there are three people who all know each other or three people none of whom knows any of the other two, and two genes on the same chromosome have a recombination frequency of at most 50%. A sociologist and a biologist might think these observations represent scientific discoveries, but a mathematician could deduce these properties from very simple, reasonable models of human interaction or DNA crossover; they are mathematical rather than scientific facts.” Here, we see that our rigid separation of the academic fields has its fallacies in the lack of unity; mathematics has always been and will always remain the foundation for most, if not all, our discoveries. It is to the math team’s credit that they see these connections with more clarity. From the bracts of a pinecone arranged in a Fibonacci sequence, to calculating the mechanics of free throws using the Pythagorean theorem, or even to something as simple as determining the ratio of salt to sugar when baking a cake, mathematics is everywhere. As I sat in E101 writing this article, I did feel a slightly overwhelming sense of bewilderment. Watching these math students spew out numbers with the speed of a bullet train is disconcerting. Disconcertment, however, does not override the awesomeness of pure, undiluted intelligence. Mathematics is universally applicable, no matter how bad your calculus grade is. And so, when I catch Daniel’s eye as he looks up from proving the Erdos Straus Conjecture, I feel the stirrings of admiration. Yes, for these math team students, the limit is truly undefined.
Image: Susan Lin
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By Emily Bi and Heezy Suh
HOW language affects perception and communication “Language is the foundation of civilization. It is the glue that holds a people together. It is the first weapon drawn in a conflict.� 5
The science fiction film Arrival (2016) reveals the underestimated, yet broad influences that language holds on individuals and societies. While some of the plot devices in Arrival are, scientifically speaking, far-fetched, they still evoke questions that psychologists and linguists have been trying to answer for centuries: How does the language we speak affect our perception of the world? How can it affect our communication with others? In Arrival, linguist Dr. Louise Banks encounters a group of alien visitors. She eventually decodes their language, Heptapod B. Unlike most human languages, Heptapod B is written cyclically and with free word order, meaning there is no beginning or end in each sentence and no fixed syntax. The aliens and Dr. Banks, who learns their language, consequently perceive time in a nonlinear manner, and those fluent in Heptapod B can simultaneously perceive events in the past, present, and future. This is where the film begins to depart from scientific realism and to take some creative liberties: in reality, learning a language, even one that describes time nonlinearly, would not give you the ability to see the future. But that’s not to say that language can’t change the way we think. The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, also known as linguistic relativity, states that the structure of a language influences its speakers’ cognition and world view. In one study, researchers looked at different languages’ spatial metaphors for time. In the English language, we talk about time horizontally: we say the future is ahead of us, and the past is behind us. In Mandarin, however, speakers often refer to time vertically: they say that last week is “up week” and next week is “down week.” Researchers pointed to a spot in space and asked English and Mandarin speakers where they would place “tomorrow” and “yesterday” in relation to that spot. English speakers almost always pointed to tomorrow and yesterday in horizontal relation to that spot, while Mandarin speakers were more likely to point to spots vertically (above and below the point). Another interesting case is the language of the Kuuk Thaayorre, a small Aboriginal community in Australia. Unlike English speakers, who use terms like “left, right, forward, back” to describe space relative to the speaker, many Aboriginal languages define space in terms of cardinal directions (north, south, east, west). This results in a difference in spatial and navigational understanding between speakers of languages that describe space with relative terms (like English) and languages that describe space with absolute terms (Aboriginal languages). The Kuuk Thaayorre people are much better at keeping track of their location than English speakers, even in unfamiliar places, and this is because their language forces its speakers to have their attention trained on directions in space at all times. Language can influence our perception even outside of space and time. For example, different languages describe color in vastly different ways. Some languages make many distinctions in certain areas of the color spectrum, while others make fewer distinctions, and this affects the way we see colors. One researcher named Jules Davidoff tested this idea in the Himba tribe of Namibia. The Himba tribe’s language does not distinguish between blue and green, and has no word to describe blue. When shown a circle of eleven green squares and one blue square, the Himba people could not pick out the blue square from the green squares, and if they did, it took much longer than it took English speakers, who could usually spot the difference immediately. However, the Himba people have many words for different shades of green, and consequently, they could easily pick out a slightly different shade of green square from a circle of twelve green squares, a task that was difficult for English speakers. This study suggests that without a word to describe a color, it is much harder to identify it.
But language doesn’t just change the way we perceive things; it also affects the way we communicate with others. Speaking a language is a deceptively simple idea. Linguists consider language and communication to be two separate aspects of interpersonal exchanges, and they have developed four paradigms to illustrate different perspectives of the nature of these exchanges. In order for two individuals to interact successfully, they must simultaneously encode and decode outgoing and incoming messages, both of which are fundamentally subjective and error-prone processes. This concept, the Encoding/ Decoding Paradigm, is a basic concept in interpersonal communication, and it emphasizes the importance of the context of the exchange, as well as the identity of the addressee, in the decoding of a code (the code being speech). With any change in these two components of communication, the meaning of an outgoing code can be completely different. In other words, meaning is an innate component of a message. The Intentionality Paradigm, however, views successful communication as the exchange of intentions. Rather than carrying inherent meaning, messages are simply ways to convey our intentions. This means we can deliver the same intention with different messages. For example, if person A wanted person B to push a chair in, they could say “Push in the chair,” “Do you want to push in the chair?” “Did you forget to push in the chair?” “That chair is blocking the walkway,” etc. Not only must person B decode person A’s message, but they must also employ inference to understand person A’s communicative intent. The Perspective-taking Paradigm takes yet another aspect of communication into account: the different perspectives that different message recipients hold. Because the same message may hold different meanings for different people, the addresser attempts to accommodate for the addressee’s perspective by standing in their shoes. Some characteristics of the addressee that may be considered are their familiarity with the subject, social status, and perceived expressions. One well-known example of this paradigm can be seen in use of honorifics in many Asian languages, such as Chinese, Japanese, and Vietnamese, in which suffixes are added to the end of words and sentences to convey respect to an elder or someone of higher social status. The Korean language uses completely different words to refer to the age and actions of respected people. The use of honorifics demands forefront consideration of the addressee’s perspective in order to efficiently convey a social and coded message. The last concept, the Dialogic Paradigm, differs from the previous three paradigms in that it views meaning as something created from the interactions between two individuals. Rather than placing meaning on a singular aspect of communication like the message (Encoding/Decoding), speaker’s intention (Intentionality), or addressee’s point of view (Perspective-taking), the Dialogic conception asserts that communication exists to facilitate conversation, which in turn exists to achieve some common idea or goal that cannot be achieved alone. This collective approach to the significance of communication views the derivation of meaning as something formed by an implicit agreement between two or more individuals or a society. These four paradigms in interpersonal communication only begin to reveal the complexities that lie in the simple act of using language to exchange ideas with others. Combined with the various ways in which linguistics influence personal and societal perceptions of the world, the connection between language and psychology is one that merits extensive further exploration.
Image: Flickr @isobrown
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THE MAKEUP OF MAKEUP
By Samantha Chai
Your favorite powders and creams go way back. Although they have evolved along with the market for cosmetics, the ingredients found in makeup today may surprise you. Mascara containing bat guano is (thankfully) an urban legend. It does, however, include the ingredient guanine, which is produced lawfully by crushing fish scales. Confusion likely arose due to the phonetically-similar words “guano” and “guanine”. The possibility of coating your eyelashes with feces is now debunked and replaced with the truth that you are coating your eyelashes with fish scales. Another common misconception arose when warnings appeared online about the alleged presence of lead in many name-brand lipsticks in 2003, inducing a panic within the consumer public. Although lead is indeed found in small amounts, the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) found that more than 99 percent of tested products contain less than 10 PPM (parts per million) of lead as a result of impurities in manufacturing environments. To put it into perspective, candy is not held exempt from containing trace amounts of lead (and any candy that exceeds 0.10 PPM is considered a tainted product by the California Department of Public Health). All cosmetics undergo inspection solely performed by the FDA (meaning no other organization can determine the safety of a product). This just goes to show how far we have come from the times Greek women painted their faces with lead to achieve
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sought-after light skin tones, unknowingly shortening their lives. Today, we will continue to have our makeup mishaps, albeit in a modern sense: through the distribution of products online, especially by third-party sellers. Suspiciously cheap dupes of reputable (and often expensive) brands such as the popular Urban Decay Naked eyeshadow palette series and plethora of Kylie lip kits are sold at bargain deals online. One does not need to access the black market in order to get these tantalizing deals—some report seeing and buying counterfeit products on high-traffic, popular websites like Ebay and Amazon. Third-party sellers, unwarranted and unexpected side effects, inauthentic and haphazard packaging, or products with labels exclusively in a foreign language should all raise red flags. Even when buying genuine makeup products, customers may be at risk. According to a study by Bionsen, a natural deodorant manufacturer, in 2009, British women used over 500 chemicals on their bodies in the form of products meant to cleanse, alter, and preserve their bodies. The ingredients that could potentially compromise the health of humans are usually present only in small traces; however, the sporadic chemical mistake during the production process can bring the industry undesired public attention. For example, Jessica Alba’s Honest company underwent a $5 million dollar lawsuit in 2015 after a slew of consumers of their Honest Sunscreen Lotion took to the interwebs to complain about the ineffective sun protectant. The lawsuit claimed that although labeled and advertised as “natural”, it doesn’t necessarily mean it is safer than your ordinary sunscreen, and that it actually contained
synthetic chemicals and preservatives. The fault may lie in the reformulation of the product which lowered the nano zinc oxide, the principal UV ray shield. Another contributing factor could be the lack of shaking of the product to mix the ingredients since unequal dispersion of nano zinc oxide can lead to a fruitless dollop of lotion that does nothing to protect the skin. Science depends on trial and error, and mistakes of the past allow the future of cosmetics to become better formulated and healthier. We can now appreciate today’s make-up as a product of not only years but centuries of errors—errors that may seem obvious to us today. Even though we can laugh at the follies of previous generations, modern beauty rituals. For example, vampire facelifts in which platelet-rich fibrin matrix (a method in which blood is centrifuged and then reinjected) rejuvenates areas of the face was an unconventional beauty ritual put on the radar by a certain Kim K in 2013. These processes may not seem any more sane nor safe than crocodile excrement face masks from Ancient Greece said to have anti-aging properties. The moral of the story is not to refrain from utilizing cosmetic products or procedures but to purchase them with the same level of vigilance we use when buying food. As some chemicals can prove lethal as a result of toxic properties or allergic reactions, consumers must make conscious decisions by buying high-quality products from reputable brands. They can impact our health more than we think in both the short and long term. As the saying goes, beauty is pain, but it is up to you not to make it deadly. Sometimes the best things for our body are not what we put on, but what we decide not to.
Image: @nbhamla on Flickr
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Unforgettable Minds: eidetic Memories In Pop culture Jeanne Zheng 9
some people. Some are savants, people with developmental disabilities who are especially gifted in a particular area. One of the most famous savants was Kim Peek, who had FG syndrome, a rare condition caused by recessive genes on the X chromosome. He served as inspiration for the film “Rain Man” and possessed an incredible memory from a very young age. For example, Peek’s father claimed that Peek had started memorizing the books read to him at around sixteen months. As an adult, he could accurately describe the plots of around twelve thousand different However, as many things related to television frequently are, the way these books, some of which he had not read in a very long time. Stephen Wiltmemory geniuses are portrayed tend to be somewhat erroneous. Although shire, an English architectural artist, is another example of an autistic savant with impeccable memory. He is able to draw the entire landscape of many people describe such characters as possessing a “photographic” a city after having seen it just once. Wiltshire and Peek’s memory abilities memory, this term is actually a misnomer. True photographic memory, the ability to capture and recall in perfect detail a mental snapshot of past greatly surpass those of an average person. Although no definite reason events, has never been proven to exist. Larry Squire, professor of psychia- has been discovered for why some savants have such extraordinary try, neuroscience, and psychology at UCSD, describes it best: most people’s abilities, scientists theorize that a different pattern in brain circuitry that memories act as pieces of a puzzle that are put together to form a general results in autism could also lead to enhanced memory. However, due to the incredible variance across autism spectrum and other developmental idea; information like the sights, scents, and sounds of an event that has disorders, as well as the unique structure of the human brain, this theory occurred can be joined to form a memory, but minor details such as the color of the carpet in the building in which the event was taking place are has not been confirmed. often forgotten. In other words, normal human memory functions as a Another rather curious case of exceptional memgeneral composition of information gathered ory is the story of Solomon Shereshevsky. He had from visual, olfactory, and auditory senses. a condition called synesthesia, where information This differs from the method that minds processed by one sense would cause stimulation with photographic memory use to remember in another (eg. the ability to associate colors information, which is taking a purely visual with sounds). Shereshevsky had been diagnosed “photograph” of the event that can be recalled with fivefold synesthesia, which meant that any in perfect detail. When television programs information processed by one sense immediately talk about “photographic” memory, they are triggered reactions in all the other senses. This most likely using the term interchangeably would have made his eidetic images exceptionally with eidetic memory. vivid. A famous anecdote involving Shereshevsky Eidetic memory is similar to “photographic” memory in that it also refers that demonstrates his amazing mnemonic abilities describes a work to an ability to almost flawlessly recall past events and involves remember- meeting during which his boss reprimanded him for not taking notes; ing a “mental picture” of the past. However, while those with photographic Shereshevsky then shocked everyone by instantly reciting the speech memory are able to quickly remember details from their mental snapshots, practically verbatim. people with eidetic memory experience their memories more vividly. Since While the concept of eidetic memory may not be as glamorous or as faneidetic memory involves details collected from the other senses, people tastical as it is often portrayed in television, researching this topic leads with eidetic memory reportedly feel as though they are reliving a particdown a rabbit hole of interesting questions and cases to consider. From ular past event when revisiting memories. Eidetic memory is a bit more realistic than photographic memory as it functions more similarly to how a celebrated architect who can commit every groove of an entire skyline to memory to a man who has memorized more stories than some people the human memory works (although, in this case, the word “realistic” is highly relative). Cases of eidetic memory have been rare and are disputed read in an entire lifetime, real-life people with extraordinary memories are very different from the typical quirky, socially awkward prodigies heavily within the neuroscience and psychology fields. The phenomenon seen in television. Eidetic memories are not just a plot device to use most closely related to eidetic memory that is actually testable is the process of eidetic imagery. Some people, most often children, are able to retain when convenient; rather, they are an intriguing phenomenon that relates to neurological conditions and brain structure, to the cooperation of a mental image of a picture they were asked to look at for around twenty all senses to form cohesive memories, and to the fascinating lives of the to thirty minutes. However, this does not constitute an eidetic memory, as most lose their mental image of the picture after a brief amount of time people who have lived with such astonishing abilities. It is evident that the greatest shame about the use of people with eidetic memory in pop(around four minutes). ular culture is not television’s inaccurate portrayal of such characters, but Although confirmation of the existence of photographic and eidetic mem- rather that so little of a rich topic is explored and presented to viewers. ory has not been found, there have been cases of extraordinary memory in For some reason, the concept of a photographic memory has always been a persistent trend in pop culture. Perhaps it is the fact that having an excellent memory seems to be a hallmark characteristic of one of television’s most beloved tropes: the odd genius. Examples of these undoubtedly brilliant but always endearingly eccentric characters include Criminal Minds’ Spencer Reid, The Big Bang Theory’s Sheldon Cooper, and Sherlock’s titular character Sherlock Holmes.
“He is able to draw the entire landscape of a city after having just seen it once.”
Image: Wikimedia Commons
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PRIMETIME for SLIMES: Non-Newtonian Fluids and You!
BY MARISSA WU
The next trend is here, and it’s already oozing through your keyboard: slime. A quick search on Instagram reveals nearly two million photos and videos of the mysterious goop. It’s colorful, it’s squishy, it’s fun—what’s not to love? But the puzzling question remains: what really is slime? Shifting between seemingly liquid and solid states, slimes are classified as non-Newtonian fluids. Such substances do not follow Newton’s Law of Viscosity, which states that a liquid’s viscosity, or resistance to flow, is directly related to the shear stress, or mechanical pressure, applied to the fluid’s surface. Newtonian fluids, which follow this law, generally maintain a constant viscosity in response to shear stress. For example, no matter how hard a swimmer paddles the water, the liquid’s flowing texture remains unchanged. When put under shear stress, however, non-Newtonian fluids experience changes in viscosity. There are two main kinds of non-Newtonian fluids: shear-thinning and shear-thickening fluids. Shear-thinning fluids become less viscous with increased agitation. If you’ve ever hit the bottom of a ketchup bottle to make it dispense faster, then you’ve seen a shear-thinning fluid in action. Each hit applies shear stress to the ketchup, which becomes less viscous and flows faster. Meanwhile, if a shear-thickening fluid is agitated, its viscosity increases. An example would be quicksand-
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the more you move, the more difficult it is to escape, as the quicksand becomes more resistant. What differentiates a shear-thinning fluid from a shear-thickening fluid is its chemical structure. In shear-thinning fluids, shear stress breaks bonds between polymer strands, which then can slide past each other more easily. When applied to shear-thickening fluids, shear stress twists polymer strands together, making it harder for them to move. In both types, the fluids generally return to their normal states over time. Most slimes posted on Instagram follow a basic recipe consisting of glue and borax solution. Like quicksand, slimes made from these recipes are shear-thickening fluids. The glue’s protein molecules and the borax solution’s borate ions cross-link to form strong bonds which ultimately make up the shape-shifting muck that the Internet has come to know and love. Outside of slimes, non-Newtonian fluids have other important uses in daily life, from the ketchup you put on your fries to an up-and-coming Polish technology that could result in bulletproof body armor. However, the social media superstardom of slimes alone has made one thing clear: playing with slimes is nothing short of shear pleasure. Image : Wikimedia Commons
An Intro to Cloud Computing: A Rapidly Expanding Business by Paul Kreymborg
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ne of the fastest growing markets in the technology world is that of cloud computing. The concept is simple – A company can avoid the various IT problems like hosting websites on its own physical computers or needing to purchase powerful computers to process data by having another company do it for them, letting them focus their time and resources on other things. But cloud computing took a while to catch on among large companies. But now, cloud computing companies are reporting up to fifty or even ninety percent growth per year. In fact, Amazon, one of the most popular online marketplaces in the world, reports over half of its profit from its cloud computing services. Cloud computing is especially suited to businesses that require large amounts of data, like pictures or streamed video, to be uploaded to databases or sent to users on demand. In 2016, Netflix finished transferring all of its movie streaming to Amazon Web Services, the most popular cloud computing service in the world. Netflix couldn’t efficiently keep up with the increasing popularity (over a 1000 times increase) of their web streaming services, so they made the decision which is becoming more and more popular among companies facing similar problems – they switched to the cloud. Two other notable companies which have done this are Pinterest and Instagram, photo shar-
ing websites which need to handle millions of image files every day. Cloud computing is a bit of a throwback to time sharing – a system that allowed many people who didn’t necessarily own computers to simultaneously access fast processing power through terminals. Like cloud computing, this method is more efficient than each person (or company) using their own computer, since a single user will not fully use a computer to its full ability. Instead, a large computer, in cloud computing a data center, can handle many different computing tasks at once. It’s like the difference between everybody buying their own airplane and learning how to fly to get around the world and airlines flying hundreds of people at once in one airplane. It seems likely that cloud computing will become more and more popular soon– the possibilities are numerous. For instance, what if, with lightning fast fiber optic connections, graphics-intensive video games could be played over the internet without the need to buy an expensive computer or console? What if PCs were connected to data centers, removing the need to replace obsolete processors or storage devices? Expect to see these advances and more in the near future.
Image: ccPixs.com
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The Silence of The Silence of Stockholm Stockholm Syndrome SyndromeBy Hunter Katz by Hunter Katz
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tockholm syndrome is one of the most painful mental disorders in existence. Despite this, the disorder is rarely discussed. It stems from traumas like bullying, physical and verbal abuse, kidnapping, human trafficking, surviving a mass shooting and being taken hostage. It is a form of extreme abuse that the perpetrator forces on the victim. It is a cultural phenomenon, and might as well be called “the silencer.” Stockholm Syndrome is a condition that causes a victim to develop positive feelings or identification with an abuser. Places where Stockholm Syndrome can develop include prisons, courts of law, kidnapper’s houses, and even schools. Stockholm syndrome was first identified in an eponymous bank robbery in Stockholm, Sweden on August of 1973, when a robber held 4 hostages in a bank vault for 131 hours only for the police to find that the hostages had developed positive relationships with the robber himself. As All Day.com’s article, Captive For Years: Famous Cases of Stockholm Syndrome, reports, “By day two, the hostages were on a first-name basis with their captor, and were hostile with police who came to check on them during negotiations. They did not gain freedom until police pumped teargas into the vault. The hostages hugged their captor before leaving and protected him from police so he would not be shot. They even collected money for his defense attorneys.” Many doctors are unsure about what exactly causes Stockholm Syndrome, but people who are prone to Stockholm syndrome are prisoners of war, concentration camp prisoners, kidnapping victims and even abused children. Factors that may contribute to the development of the Stockholm Syndrome are as follows: inability to escape the situation, isolation from others except for the abuser, small kindness from the abuser, a large threat to survival, and the reality that a perpetrator could cause harm. As Dr. Joseph M. Carver of CounselingResource.com states, “Stockholm Syndrome (SS) can also be found in family, romantic, and interpersonal relationships. The abuser may be a husband or wife, boyfriend or girlfriend, father or mother, or any other role in which the abuser is in a position of control or authority. It’s important to understand the components of Stockholm Syndrome as they relate to abusive and controlling relationships. Once the syndrome is understood, it’s easier to understand why victims support, love, and even defend their abusers and controllers.” This mental disorder is extremely difficult even for medical professionals to diagnose because many individuals affected with Stockholm Syndrome often withhold information from their loved ones due to psychological stress. Those often affected by Stockholm syndrome develop identification with their abuser as a way to cope with their emotional distress. To add to the diagnostic dilemma, less than 8% of former hostages report having Stockholm syndrome.
The symptoms from Stockholm Syndrome vary from person to person. Common symptoms include trying to please the perpetrator, showing defiance over the incident or refusing to testify against the perpetrator, defending the perpetrator, and refusing to hold the perpetrator accountable. However, these symptoms are not universally accepted, making it difficult to diagnose. Some of the factors that can help medical professionals determine if the incident has more likelihood of the victim developing Stockholm Syndrome include the length of the incident, the amount of interaction with the perpetrator, and the amount of “kindness” or “restraint ” from the perpetrator. NoBullying.com says, “Adversely, people who feel helpless in stressful situations or are willing to do whatever it takes to survive appear to be more susceptible to developing the syndrome if the opportunity arises.” Unfortunately, many people affected by Stockholm Syndrome can develop Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), another brutally painful disorder in which victims of a serious incident experience flashbacks (a psychological episode where victims feel like they are reliving the event.) Some Stockholm Syndrome patients may view their perpetrator as a sort of “victim of society” to keep the perpetrator from harming them. Stockholm Syndrome victims are more likely to experience flashbacks and have recurring nightmares of the incident. They are also at an increased risk of extremely low self-esteem, lack of personal enjoyment, and sadly, an increase in drug addiction and suicide. There is no “one size fits all” solution to the emotional struggle these victims endure. Fortunately, many victims of Stockholm Syndrome have gone on to recover from their painful experiences to live normal, fulfilling lives. PrimeHealthChannel.com says, “Stockholm Syndrome is typically regarded as a condition that develops from extreme stress and fear. The most effective cure for it is counselling by psychiatrists and the love and support of family members. With loving support, expert guidance and patience, Stockholm Syndrome can be rooted out after a period of time.” Many of us live a life to espouse sympathy and not empathy. We see their struggle as an incidence we were lucky enough to not endure, but is that how we want to really treat others? We must know that these victims are real people with real feelings and we must always listen and seek help for them because their struggles are our struggles. The next time you hear someone suffering through emotional pain, be willing to listen and help them seek out guidance because when we stay silent, their inner demons will triumph.
“...people who feel helpless in stressful situations or are willing to do whatever it takes to survive appear to be more susceptible to developing the syndrome if the opportunity arises.”
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