Issue 29

What Keeps the Light On?

Cultivating Science Language which Imagines Change

Busy Research, Busy Bees

“Science is a way of life. Science is a perspective.

Science is the process that takes us from confusion to understanding in a manner that’s precise, predictive and reliable - a transformation, for those lucky enough to experience it, that is empowering and emotional.”

- BRIAN GREENE

Cover graphics courtesy of the Biodiversity Heritage Library

Puget Sound is committed to being accessible to all people. If you have questions about event accessibility, please contact 253.879.3931 or accessibility@pugetsound.edu, or visit pugetsound.edu/accessibility.

Letter from the Editor Happy spring folks! It’s finally starting to warm up and the sun has been shining. It may be spring but for Elements, this is our winter issue. Number twenty-nine has been a long time coming. There hasn’t been an issue since the 2021 spring semester and we’ve been trying our best this year to bring it back. If you’re reading this now that means we were at least somewhat successful. This issue features articles that emphasize science on campus. From professor interviews to summer research pieces, we’ve tried to highlight stories that showcase a real love for science.

It hasn’t been an easy time reviving Elements and it wouldn’t be possible alone. We’re lucky enough to have an amazing team that’s been hard at work. I’d like to especially thank Charlie Dahle and Ebony James for all their help to keep Elements afloat. I’m so proud of what the Elements team has created and I hope that you enjoy it. For this semester, we’re on to bigger and better things.

All the best,

Austin Glock, Editor-in-Chief

TIA BÖTTGER Copy Editor

SAGE MATKIN Copy Editor

AUSTIN GLOCK Editor-in-Chief

JAKE M C RAE Design Editor

DOMINIQUE LANGEVIN Design Editor

In this Issue 5 | Cultivating Science Language which Imagines Change TIA BÖTTGER

9 | Interview: Professor Mike Valentine SAGE MATKIN

13 | Heron’s Fountain in Sculpture JAKE M C RAE

15 | Well, Where Are They?

AUSTIN GLOCK

17 | Interview: Professor Bernie Bates OLIVIA DANNER

21 | A Question of Neural Networks and AI Learning DOMINIQUE LANGEVIN

23 | What Keeps the Lights on?

AMY SPIVEY, PROFESSOR OF PHYSICS

25 | Transparent Photovoltic Cells TIA BÖTTGER

28 | Food Deserts AYA HAMLISH

31 | Busy Summer, Busy Bees SARAH DORMER

32 | CosmoNerd TALIA LEFFEL & AYA HAMLISH

37 | Citations

Cultivating Science Language which Imagines Change

BY TIA BÖTTGER

“Scientists may explore language describing conservation which has a narrower focus than biodiversity and is easier to relate to by engaging ethical values central to human prosperity.”

“Language is a dwelling place of ideas that do not exist anywhere else. It is a prism through which to see the world” (1).

Robin Wall Kimmerer’s words in her book Braiding Sweetgrass encapsulate the inherent value, perspective, and nuance which language can hold.

Kimmerer is a master storyteller, and her book is the perfect demonstration of how science can be communicated to reach a broader audience, allowing connection and appreciation to be widely cultivated for information that is often inaccessible to the public, locked away in objective tones and language which prioritizes credibility within niche audiences.

In a world in which our attention has become a point of profit and we are under increasing stimulation from more issues than we can put productive time into, scientific research must expand its traditional frameworks and consider communication as a crucial step in the scientific method. Loss of biodiversity is arguably the most universally relevant challenge of our time and requires public engagement as a first step towards action and change. However, as a recent coalition of non-governmental organizations and research centers summarized, “Biodiversity has not, broadly speaking, proven to be a compelling object for sufficient action to halt the degradation of the diversity of life on earth,” (2). Conservation efforts have failed to accommodate a diverse range of stakeholders, or frame the importance of biodiversity in the value systems of those affected. Because our experiences and relationships with nature and within our communities are so varied, the language with which we call attention to biodiversity must be varied in its perspectives as well. In particular, science can benefit from its appeal to emotion, imagination, and intrinsic values rather than creating separation by removing humans from the picture. By situating abstract ideas into frameworks which people best understand, the intentional and inclusive use of language can create action through its facilitation of a closer relationship, both with the direct impact of the issues at hand, and through the opportunity to build community on a local scale.

The term “biodiversity” was originally coined in a politicized context. It first appeared in the National Forum on BioDiversity in 1986, thereafter quickly being adopted without the capital D, as a term purposely invented for the audience of U.S. Congress

and the general public to raise awareness and recognition of extinction threats (3,4). The term biodiversity has an inherently positive connotation, and thus the popular image on biodiversity has not been affected by much of the controversy typical of other major environmental issues (such as development and democracy, property rights, ecotourism, etc.) (4).

“Biodiversity” has been argued to be particularly useful because it is an umbrella term, and thus is vague enough to be all encompassing and evocative in many different disciplines and contexts. Toepfer describes the “impressive success of the concept ‘biodiversity’ in the last decades, in particular in the arena of politics” as being largely due to “its power to amalgamate facts and values: the fact that living beings show variety on every level of their existence, and the assumed values that are associated with this variety,” (5). This leads to the argument that biodiversity is simply whatever the field of conservation biology aims to protect, making it inherently value-laden and giving it political power. The open-endedness of the concept of biodiversity makes it difficult to define and communicate however, and therefore the term must be used thoughtfully and transparently (6). Its vagueness

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“In a world in which our attention has under increasing stimulation from more time into, scientific research must and consider communication as a crucial can just as easily leave out engaging information, and importantly, the concept is more closely accepted and linked with some value systems than others.

In a discussion about framing conservation and the values embedded in scientific language, Elliott argues that biodiversity has conceptual features which make it reliant on acceptance due to the intrinsic value of nature, rather than referring to humans in relationship to nature, or its particular usefulness from an anthropocentric standpoint (6). The classic definition of biodiversity from the Convention on Biological Diversity reads as follows: “[T]he variability among living organisms from all sources including, inter alia, terrestrial, marine and other aquatic ecosystems and the ecological complexes of which they are part; this includes diversity within species, between species and of ecosystems,” (7). Nowhere within this definition is there a connection drawn to humans, nor the inclusion of the personal and emotional response which biodiversity can evoke. This is typical practice in scientific writing. Scientists have traditionally been trained to be impersonal and distant in their writing, establishing credibility and authority through a tone of “disinterestedness,” (8). Scientific prose prioritizes technical writing as opposed to visual writing, which makes it difficult to reach wider audiences. As with any form of communication, it is useful for talking to people who speak the same dialect: other scientists. When it comes to biodiversity however, other scientists very likely already have a value system built around and including nature. Audiences with less experience and exposure to natural wonders, which scientists have the great privilege of investing time and awe into. may feel excluded by this language, or develop mistrust towards its “cold” demeanor (8). Scientific language avoids bold, persuasive, or actionable steps, further

enlarging the disconnect between scientific discoveries and those who can fuel them towards implementing solutions and enacting change.

Science language and the framing of scientific discourse is often reliant upon the inherent value of knowledge, however can easily be expanded to include other value systems by being mindful of the terms it employs, giving a greater focus to relational language and centering the “why” in a relevant human context. Carl Gough recognizes the overall sentiment that environmental crises have arisen from “our loss of a full and deep connection” and has developed a Theory of Change in response. He argues that to create change, we must first identify and understand the needs of a particular audience, as all action is driven by some form of need (9). Scientists may explore language describing conservation which has a narrower focus than biodiversity and is easier to relate to by engaging ethical values central to human prosperity.

“Environmental justice” is one such term. Because biodiversity loss disproportionately affects marginalized, poor, and Indigenous communities who are most dependent on environmental resources, the concept of environmental justice captures the same concerns as those embedded in biodiversity (6). Linguistic and cultural diversity has also been shown to be co-occurrent with biodiversity hotspots, facing extinction due to the same sociopolitical factors which affect species outside of our own (10). Environmental issues have a history of being framed in terms of recreation purposes which favor privileged groups, gate-keeping the environmental movement, so language which recenters the most vulnerable at-risk groups is a necessary consideration. In particular, Indigenous groups often resent language which doesn’t include human impact and involvement, as Indigenous erasure efforts have a history of being framed under the context of

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become a point of profit and we are issues than we can put productive expand its traditional frameworks step in the scientific method” preservation and conservation, and language such as “wilderness” and “pristine” undermines Indigenous management strategies which have vitalized natural resources and landscapes since time immemorial. By contrast, the concept of “food security” immediately highlights environmental wellbeing as being intertwined with human wellbeing, as does language promoting biodiversity such as a “life support system,” drawing direct connections to universal values, and weaving in terms such as “livelihood” “health” and “wholeness” (6).

Scientists should also be mindful to use language which is tangible and inspiring, invoking imagination and problem solving, especially when delivering information which can lead to despair and a sense of hopelessness. While science writing typically avoids figurative and emotive language, metaphors are a tool which are often embraced. Metaphors are of particular use because they can relate abstract ideas to lived experiences, increasing their accessibility (11). The nature of human conceptualization is reliant upon mapping meaning from one knowledge domain onto another, and thus metaphors can elicit a greater response and understanding of importance within a less familiar structure (12). In the context of biodiversity, examples of powerful metaphors in common discourse include the “web of life,” forests being the “lungs of the earth,” or nature being “green medicine” (4). Especially important are metaphors which foster new creative ideas towards a complex issue, and allow for the imagination of a hopeful future. The language we use to talk about restoration, remediation, rehabilitation, and environmental health originally stemmed from metaphor, creating terms which better reflect activities we know how to approach, which we bring care to in the context of people. An example that invokes creativity, inherent value, and optimism is the

analogy between ecological restoration and artistic recreation (13).

The overwhelming amount of negative projections, declines, and reports associated with conservation science run the risk of creating even greater disconnect if solutions which engage the audience towards action and change are not centered. Just as metaphors fight abstraction to bring issues into a more relatable context, communication targeted to local communities who feel the effects of action is incredibly effective. A phrase that Carl Gough reminds us of in his Theory of Change is “think global act local.” We are psychologically more motivated to contribute when the results are made visible to us within our own sphere of reference (9). An additional benefit to this form of communication is that it can engage local histories and knowledge held in more personal formats and ways of knowing than western science frameworks usually accommodate. Incorporating storytelling can restore relationships and build the framework for collaborative solutions which foster care into the future. In particular, centering Indigenous peoples and their stories, which often instill relationship to the land, a sense of place, and lessons of respect and love for the natural world, would be an immense aid to conservation goals. Overcoming the exclusionary language with which science has historically distinguished itself can only be done with humility, and the recognition that scientific facts alone are not the only form of knowledge, and certainly not a producer of change. To quote Robin Wall Kimmerer once more,

“I envision a time when the intellectual monoculture of science will be replaced with a polyculture of complementary knowledges.

And so all will be fed” (1).

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Interview: Professor Mike Valentine “It’s so much more than rocks”

BY SAGE MATKIN Professor Mike Valentine is a current geology professor at the University of Puget Sound. Valentine specializes in paleomagnetic studies, specifically in looking at the movement of the crust and geologic mapping. Mike has been teaching here for over 32 years! Aside from teaching, Mike is a baseball and music fan.

Professor Valentine or, as students know him, Mike is sitting in his crowded office at the end of the geology department hall. It’s the Friday before Thanksgiving Break and students are ready for vacation. Those who care—students, professors, and faculty—are speaking about the future of the University of Puget Sound, with the recent financial blow and a low enrollment rate having corrosive consequences on the small departments at the university. Geology, unfortunately, is in line for a strike and a dip it seems.

I sit with Mike, who has been teaching here for over 32 years and talk about his years prior and during his time at the university.

We start at the very beginning and I ask him what got him into geology. As a kid growing up in Buffalo, New York, Mike was interested in all sci-

“‘My favorite class is actually Geology 101 ... The rewarding part of it is to see them gain interest. You see them go “rocks... boring” and then a certain percentage, at least, go “oh this is pretty cool,”’ he laughs.” ences, and had “chemistry sets, telescopes, and an observatory in a friend’s attic”. As he grew older and considered a future in science, he attended SUNY at Albany when the choice came. “When I got to college, I was looking at biology, geology, and astronomy,” Mike says, “with biology, I looked at the 300-400 people lectures, and that didn’t appeal to me particularly.”

So, he decided, “with geology, I could do research, teach, or industry jobs—oil and minerals. I took some geology courses right away and decided I really liked it.” Professor Valentine went on to graduate from Albany and go on to do his masters and doctorate program at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. He graduated with an M.S with his thesis: Structure and tectonics of the southern Gebel Duwi Area, Eastern Desert of Egypt, and later with a Ph.D. with his dissertation Cenozoic tectonic rotation of the Mojave Desert, California as indicated by paleomagnetic studies. Between his undergraduate and graduate years, Mike took some time off to work at a pharmaceutical company. “Really geology-focused” he laughs while telling me about his time at the company doing lab technician work. Mike didn’t suffer during his time off school based on his story about a paid work trip to Barbados, where he tested sunscreens.

Dreaming of the Barbados’ sun and the Atlantic Ocean, Mike went on to complete his master’s and Ph.D., each degree bringing him to a new place—as known from his thesis/dissertation titles.

During graduate school, Mike spent three months in a city along the Red Sea, mapping out the geological structures—like faults and folds. During his time there, Mike was not your typical tourist. “I certainly never would’ve gone to that part of Egypt; it wasn’t

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exactly a tourist area. In fact, they were closed to outsiders until a year or so before I got there”, Mike explains, “there were actually places in the past that were mined so we were told ‘don’t go inside those areas, they’re fenced off because you know, you might blow up.’” Hoping to never feel how calcite does when exposed to hydrochloric acid, Mike went easy on the off-roading and favored visiting the sites, such as the Valley of the Kings and the Pyramids of Giza. For his next journey (and degree), Mike spent several field seasons in the Mojave Desert. He collected rock samples for his paleomagnetic studies and recalls his time as “interesting to see the place and just be out in the desert, marching around drilling holes in rocks.”

For his next expedition, Mike went on to fill the Professor Valentine role at a few universities before settling at Puget Sound in 1994. “There was a job advertised here, I had never heard of this school before the advert. It was for a one-year position” he responds when I ask about his beginnings at Puget Sound. “At the end of the first year, when I would have been looking for another job and going elsewhere, they created Science in Context. It was supposed to

show that science wasn’t just an intellectual pursuit, but it has practical uses and intersects with society. I got involved in developing one of those courses, along with [a retired professor] who was teaching here at the time. And we developed one of the first Science in Context courses, so they kept me another year.

I apparently did a decent job my first year, so they decided to keep me another year. I was here for a total of 3 years on a temporary basis.” When the university offered Professor Valentine a tenure track position, he couldn’t resist: “I became the fifth member of the geology department at that point...So, here I am 32 years later.” Now, Mike teaches geology and oceanography classes and is an academic advisor to students.

As a long-time professor at our university, Mike is bound to have a favorite class, which is exactly what I asked him. “My favorite class is actually Geology 101. You are talking to people who generally don’t know much about geology, it’s their first exposure to it. The rewarding part of it is to see them gain interest. You see them go ‘rocks...boring’ and then a certain percentage, at least, go ‘oh this is pretty cool,’” he laughs. “Every time I teach it, even

Professor Valentine in his office.

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though I am teaching this introductory level [class], I learn something new, either from reading it over or from students asking questions.” As both an advisor and professor, Mike observes the ins and outs of the geology department. “Very few people come here saying that they want to be a geologist. When we get our advisees every year, maybe three or four out of 16 say ‘maybe I want to do something with geology.’ So, a lot of our recruits come from taking Geology 101 as a science elective to making it their major.”

“If you have ever taken a class with Professor Valentine, you know his professorial quirks: writing semi-legible lectures on the blackboard, wearing an insanely cool t-shirt daily, making music references that would better suit our parents, wheeling out a projector that’s older than his current students and being just an overall kind and funny man.”

After teaching classes for 32 years, Mike could teach with his eyes closed. But he doesn’t tire of the material; “The thing that strikes me every year when I teach Geology 101 is I ask, “What’s geology?” And they go, “rock”. Yeah, rocks are important of course, but I think it’s about understanding how the Earth works and how it produces rocks, mountains, and Grand Canyons. So, it’s so much more than rocks.” Mike explains further, “[geology] is a creative endeavor too.

Scientists, in general, make stuff up all the time, but they make stuff up based on their observations and they test them. It’s not like a painting, where I can decide if it’s abstract or realistic, or like a short story, where you can put stuff in that didn’t actually happen.

But we are making up stuff all the time to explain what you are seeing all around you. That’s the way science works. I think that is kind of a revelation for people to understand, it’s not just memorizing a lot of chemicals or rocks or formulas.”

Mike’s travel bug didn’t stay away for long. He

soon started traveling with students, imparting his knowledge and exploring new places: “I had worked on a project with [a former student] on a little island in the Atlantic Ocean, Ascension Island...Like a real desert island.” Mike traveled with grant money he was awarded by the Natural Science Foundation, “to do some work there with paleomagnetism to look at rocks of various ages—up to a million and a half years old—and use that magnetic signal in them to track how the magnetic field had changed over that period of time.” After collecting rock samples from the area, Mike and his fellow researchers “would slice them into little pieces and look at the magnetic minerals in them to see what was causing the magnetism...It was all volcanic, so it was great for paleomagnetic samples.” Mike, to no one’s surprise, inspired this student to go on to be a geologist and he is currently teaching at a school in Michigan, “He’s teaching geology and he’s basically a paleontologist. He didn’t turn into a “paleomagner” like me.”

Professor Valentine continued traveling with students: “I got to go to Alaska with my students in 2007. It was cold and rainy the whole time, even though we went during the summer months. It was miserable that way, but it was beautiful. Everywhere looked like a postcard.” Mike studied the paleomagnetism of the area, “We were looking to find out the movement of the crust. One student was looking at fossils that would indicate that this place was originally in a lower latitude.” Mike didn’t have much luck on this trip, he explains: “Unfortunately, the rocks were highly altered, so their magnetism was messed up. It didn’t work out very well; I got some suggestions, but not very much evidence.” Mike accepted his research’s lower-than-expected evidence (as is done in field research) and admired Alaska for its scenery on his plane ride home.

We now reach the point in the interview where my questions turn from those of a biographer to those of a curious student. If you have ever taken a class with Professor Valentine, you know his professorial quirks: writing semi-legible lectures on the blackboard, wearing an insanely cool t-shirt daily, making music references that would better suit our parents, wheeling out a projector that’s older than his current students and being just an overall kind and funny man.

To most fashion observers, Mike’s t-shirt collection is legendary. Responding to my question about his fashion choices, Mike says “I like funky t-shirts. I

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don’t know exact numbers, but I have enough t-shirts that I have one for every day of a semester. But I have more than that really; I have a double dresser full of t-shirts and some extras that are still in the basement that I need to break out—some oldies.” Mike has collected shirts from every orientation, Mariners’ opening day, vacations, and some locally sourced from his friend’s silk-screening business. “I have kind of slowed down lately because I have too many t-shirts. T-shirt hoarder” he laughs. Nothing can beat a good t-shirt in Mike’s eyes.

When Mike is not talking geology, he’s probably talking music. During one Geology 101 lab, my lab partner (Hi Charlie) and I were fiending for some music and Mike, being the guy he is, allowed us to play some, on the condition that it was “good music”. The next thing we hear is Mike singing along to Beast of Burden while walking around the lab room. It seems

“‘The geology department has been around for some 80 years and I’m sorry to see it go.’” like Mike can’t get enough of anything rock related.

So, I asked him about his music taste. “I am a classic rock guy. Growing up, I listened to The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, The Beach Boys and all that stuff from the 60s. And before that, in the late 50s, my mom and dad would listen to people like Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin. I even liked that stuff and listened. But mostly [my taste] is pre-2000s. I’m a vast storer, or have been, of trivia so I can hear a song from 40 years ago and tell you who sang it. But, recent stuff, it’s like “Taylor Swift? Snoop Dogg?” I am surprised now how many students are still aware of [old music], like The Grateful Dead, Jimi Hendrix. Your parents taught you well”. Mike went on to tell me about his rock lessons with his children: “When my kids were little, I would make them listen to the classic rock radio in the car and test them. I’d ask them “Who’s that?”, they would go “Uh, The Beatles?”, I’d go “No, WHO is that?”, then they’d say, “Oh, The Who”. I still like to test them when they ride with me.”

I save the hardest question for last, with the fate of geology suffering a hard blow. I ask Professor Valentine, who has been teaching here for 32 years,

his thoughts on the latest decline in geology majors and about the fate of the geology department. He sighs, “Not a fun question at all. I mean, my thoughts on that are: I am sorry to see [the decline] happening here. We were actually expanding in our graduates, prior to COVID. Now, with the uncertainty of the future of the geology department, we don’t recruit geology majors anymore. In fact, we tell them that they really can’t be geology majors. Because we are just uncertain what’s going to happen. geology has actually been removed from the literature that goes out to recruit students. Geology, on the web page, is no longer listed as a potential major.” Our mutual sadness has taken over the room and Mike continues: “The geology department has been around for some 80 years and I’m sorry to see it go.”

To lighten the mood, I asked Mike if he had anything to say to his fans. He sounded shocked, “Who are you? People idolize me? I don’t know. I don’t know if I have fans.” I reassure him of his very existent fanbase, and he goes on, “I know some people appreciate my teaching and I like to get to know people.

I try to be more than a person transferring knowledge to students. I think people who enjoy my class and like what I do, I appreciate that. That is the thing that really makes this job great for me. When we were online and I was just talking to my laptop, there was nothing fun about it. The fun part is getting to interact with people, and I love answering questions, whether it be about geology or stuff like this [interview]. If people enjoy that, I am just happy I can do that. That is my motivation.”

I clear my throat and end the recording. I thank Mike for his time and for agreeing to sit and share his experiences with me. I walk out of his office and into the geology hall, thinking about the composition of this interview. Professor Valentine inspired geologists for 32 years, each going out into the world with his imparted knowledge and advice in their heads. I am lucky to be a part of his aforementioned fan base and I know others are too.

To Mike: Thank you for everything and I hope you liked this piece! I wish you the best in the future, and I know you wish me the same. Rock and roll forever (pun intended)!!

-Sage

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Heron’s Fountain in Sculpture

BY JAKE McRAE Throughout my time here at UPS, my two favorite pursuits have been physics and sculpture.

I am majoring in physics and do my best to take sculpture and art classes when I can. I have often thought about the ways that I could incorporate physics into my sculptural work, perhaps by incorporating electronic components or making art in response to ideas within physics. This semester I found an opportunity to realize this intersection by applying some ideas of fluid dynamics to create a sculptural iteration of

“Heron’s fountain is a hydraulic machine that uses air and water pressure to circulate water in a fountain.” a Heron’s fountain. I began work on this sculpture wanting to find a way to introduce a twist to the normal mechanics of the prototypical Heron’s fountain while also creating an aesthetically pleasing sculpture.

Heron’s fountain is a hydraulic machine that uses air and water pressure to circulate water in a fountain. It was invented by the inventor Heron of Alexandria in the 1st century AD. These fountains are composed of three chambers which are interconnected by three pipes, which can

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be seen in the diagram below (Figure 1). The bottom chamber (labeled C) is the air supply container, the middle (labeled B) is the water supply, and the top (labeled A) is the basin that receives the water. To initiate the flow of the fountain, water is added to the basin and flows down through pipe 1 into chamber C. This incoming water displaces the air already in the chamber which is forced up through pipe 2 into chamber B. That air pushes the water in chamber B up through pipe 3 where it is reintroduced into the basin and the process repeats over again. (1) However, this is not an infinitely recycling fountain. The fountain will only work for as long as there is water in chamber B and air in chamber C. So the length of the water flow is constrained by the size of the chambers and the speed of water flow, which is determined primarily by the width of the pipes.

Once these two chambers have been depleted of their respective supplies of fluid, the chambers need to be reset by flipping over the entire fountain so that the water in chamber C can be transferred to chamber B, leaving mainly air in chamber C. (1) My design differs slightly from this typical arrangement. My fountain includes four chambers and six pipes. I chose to split chamber B into two chambers (the diamond shapes) and then I added additional pipes to support the extra chambers and provide symmetry. I encountered some difficulties while crafting appropriate forms for the chambers and ensuring that the entire piece was airtight, which is essential for the physics to power the fountain. Ultimately, I really enjoyed the challenge that this piece provided me as well as the opportunity to blend my interests in physics and sculpture. This intersectionality is something I plan to continue to work with and develop in my future artistic endeavors.

FIGURE 1 - Schematic illustrating the design of a prototypical Heron’s fountain.

Scan QR code to see a video of the fountain in action.

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Well, Where

BY AUSTIN GLOCK Over the summer, I was working in the university’s observatory to detect exoplanets, which are essentially any planet outside of our solar system. This concept usually inspires the same kind of questions in people, some variation of “Do you believe in aliens?”

I always gave a generic response. Something like “I don’t believe aliens have been to Earth if that’s what you mean.” We would continue talking about aliens and, probably, science fiction media, and eventually move on. Once, after I gave my usual answer, I was asked, “Well, where are they?”

Honestly, it’s a good question. Scientists have discovered over 5200 exoplanets as of the end of 2022 (1). You would think that, on one of those planets, there would be signs of life. In the grand scheme of the universe, it’s not as easy as it may sound. There are four main classifications of exoplanets that range in size and in type. The first two are the gas giant and the Neptune-like. These are both planet types with gaseous compositions that make up over half of all discovered exoplanets (1). But life as we know it wouldn’t be able to exist on these planets. Even though there’s a solid core, the gaseous planets don’t have a surface like other planets. Instead, we’ll need to look instead, to the other two classifications.

First is the super-Earth. Don’t let the name fool you, all this means is that these planets are smaller than Neptune but larger than Earth. They can have a gaseous atmosphere like Neptune or a rocky surface like Mars. Finally, and arguably most importantly,

Are

They?

is the terrestrial planet. As the name implies, these are planets that would have a solid surface similar to Earth, Venus, or Mercury. They make up only about four percent of all confirmed exoplanets, but these are the planets that would be able to host life somewhat recognizable to us (1).

We know what planets to look at. Now we need to figure out what to look for. Astronomers will look for planetary signatures that would only appear if life was present. Biosignatures are a great example.

The idea is that life changes the composition of the planets, whether intelligent or not. If the Earth were being observed from a different galaxy, those scientists would see how society has changed the composition of our atmosphere. There are three types of biosignature detection methods. Gaseous detection, where things such as photosynthesis would lead to the production of oxygen from carbon dioxide. Then there is surface detection, where the formation of forests, cities, and other physical structures can affect the reflection and absorption of light. Finally, temporal detection, where time-dependent factors are used.

Let’s say aliens several galaxies away were observing Earth, the changing of seasons could be detected using the temporal method (2).

If astronomers wanted to look for advanced civilizations, it becomes even harder. A planet with flora and fauna would be detectable with biosignatures, but what if scientists are looking for a response? Well luckily, there are technosignatures.

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“245 light-years from Earth exist two stars, Kepler-16A and Kepler-16B. While these stars are too dim for the naked eye to see, astronomers have discovered a gaseous planet orbiting these two stars. Astronomers have nicknamed it Tatooine, after the planet in Star Wars that also orbited a binary star system. ”

They’re exactly as they sound, a signature left by the existence of technology. This is an emerging method of detection but the idea is simple. Radio waves can travel great distances, and if the source is strong enough, it could reach other planets (2). With that in mind, we’ve begun listening to the universe for a signal.

Astronomers know where to look and they know what to look for, so why haven’t we found anything? Furthermore, why hasn’t anyone found us? This is the basis of the Fermi Paradox, which quite literally asks “Where is everybody?” (3). We have been looking, but really not for that long. Telescopes were invented in the 17th century, or about 400 years ago. The universe is somewhere around 13.7 billion years old, which makes 400 years look pretty measly.

Our short viewing period is just one theory. There are many more theories explaining the Fermi Paradox, ranging from sociopolitical reasons to widespread galactic laziness. One of the scariest theories is the Dark Forest. This was proposed by David Brin who imagines the universe as one giant dark forest. In this forest, there is a hierarchy, similar to a food chain. If there was an intergalactic superpower, smaller planets such as ourselves would never stand a chance against it. In order to avoid the larger predator, the smaller planets stay quiet and try to stay hidden (4). It may seem far-fetched, something that you would only see in a science fiction novel, but it turns out science fiction has gotten some things right.

245 lightyears from Earth exist two stars, Kepler-16A and Kepler-16B. While these stars are too dim

for the naked eye to see, astronomers have discovered a gaseous planet orbiting these two stars.

Astronomers have nicknamed it Tatooine, after the planet in Star Wars that also orbited a binary star system (1). If we can find planets that resemble the worlds from science fiction, we may one day discover the creatures found in them too. For now, we’re still asking the question, “Well, where are they?”

RECOMMENDED READINGS THE PLANET FACTORY Elizabeth Tasker Bloomsburry, 2017

THE UNIVERSE IN YOUR HAND Christophe Galfrad Flatiron Books, 2017

THE ZOOLOGISTS GUIDE TO THE GALAXY Arik Kershenbaum Viking-Penguin, 2020

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Interview: Professor Bernie Bates

BY OLIVIA DANNER

Bernard Bates, who tends to go

by Bernie, is a physics professor here at UPS. He largely teaches astro-related courses, and if you’ve ever had a class with him you know it’s easy to get him to wander off on long tangents.

He’s full of stories and anecdotes that range from funny to fascinating, but he’s also skilled at circling it back to the topic formerly at hand. His office is in Thompson 158, packed full of books, knicknacks, posters, and other items amassed over the years – his big weakness is going to Goodwill and buying discount graphing calculators, telescopes, mirrors, CDs, TV remotes, and anything else he can get his hands on. The window of the door is plastered with decorations, including a blue-and-white sign that says ‘Bernie,’ left over from Bernie Sanders’ campaign – there’s a story behind that, too. His wife helped him to tidy up the office space and clear out some of his excess stuff in spring of 2022, but it’s slowly been piling up since then.

Bernie grew up in Brooklyn and attended Brown University for his undergraduate degree,

where he received a BA for a constructed major called “Math and Physics,” created by a student before him with the aim of leaving room for a lot of elective courses. All of the science courses he took outside of physics were geology – his main interest was planetary science. Applications for graduate school all tend to be upwards of fifty dollars, so Bernie’s focus was finding the cheapest application fees – which he fully admitted was not the best mentality. University of Pittsburgh and University of Washington gave him the best deals with teaching and research assistantships. It turned out that the chair of the astronomy department at UW, George Wallerstein, was also a trustee at Brown, so Bernie was able to interview with him. In 1977, he chose to move across the country for his masters and Ph.D on our lovely, rainy Northwest coast.

That summer, within a week of graduation, Bernie was able to jump straight into graduate school.

He told me that the funny part of the story was this: “George was a spectroscopist, and I started roughly at the point where it became obvious that planetary astronomy should be part of planetary science, which really was a part of geology … According to George, it isn’t astronomy if you can get to it. Astronomy should be everything you can’t get to, and so the planets were now out.” He slowly worked his way through what George considered astronomy, then moved into geology and remote sensing. He came back to astronomy because a faculty member at UW was interested in micrometeorites, which became the focus of Bernie’s graduate research: proving that the micrometeorites found in the Atlantic really were cosmic in origin.

If a meteorite enters Earth’s atmosphere at the right angle, it will slow down enough to simply melt instead of vaporizing, like it would if entering headon. Micrometeorites like Bernie worked with are bits of those meteors the size of tiny ball bearings, or marbles. On land, he said, “If you were to measure how much stuff is just falling out of the sky, you get something ridiculous, like a meteor every thousand years.”

The number that fall into the sea is more reasonable, a meteor every million years. Although it might seem backwards, this actually means that it’s easier to find micrometeorites in the ocean – imagine scouring the entirety of Earth’s surface for bits of rock the size of ball bearings, and compare that with trawling the seafloor. Still a lot of area to cover, but comparatively more reasonable.

Comets and asteroids, the two possible

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sources of meteorites, are both incredibly iron-rich.

This is the key to separating them out from the other debris on the ocean floor, and ultimately the key to proving that they were cosmic. Water erodes rock, and these rocks had been lying under tons of ocean water for centuries. The outsides of the micrometeorites had been stripped of the elements that made it clear they weren’t from Earth. Their insides remained untouched, so by cutting them open and examining their interior makeup, it became clear that they were cosmic in origin. Some matched the composition of the sun,; others had lost their more volatile elements.

All had iron oxide, which was also key to the project: by analyzing those oxidized iron particles, it was possible to tell when and by how much the oxygen concentration in Earth’s atmosphere had changed.

“Right now,” Bernie told me, “it’s at a point where you can completely oxidize all the iron, but a billion, two billion years ago you would not run into enough oxygen atoms before the thing slowed down to oxidize everything.”

PROFESSOR BERNIE BATES in his office on campus

“... it isn’t astronomy if you can get to it. Astronomy should be everything you can’t get to, and so the planets were now out.”

The story of how Bernie found his way back to astronomy and onto the West coast is an interesting one, but the story of how he came to UPS, and stayed here, is a sad one. He met his first wife in graduate school, while she was working towards an astronomy Ph.D. She left after getting her masters to work for Boeing, which brought them both to Tacoma in 1988.

Although it wasn’t intended to be a permanent situation, Bernie’s plans changed drastically when his wife died in a rock climbing accident. With a young child to raise, he chose to stay at UPS rather than uproot both of their lives by moving. He later met his second wife and remarried, and that cemented his decision to remain here.

That led me into asking more about his time here as a professor. Since starting to work here, Bernie has taught introductory physics and astrophysics, modern physics, a few lab sections, astronomy, a couple of astronomy classes that are no longer around, and his pet courses: an SSI on the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI), and an STHS course about Mars exploration. He told me that the SETI course is his favorite “Because I can’t believe they pay me to do it … We’re talking about aliens and I tell people on the first day that there’s as much proof that aliens exist as (sic) ghosts exist … In fact, there’s probably more proof that ghosts exist.” There’s more to it than that, though.

Central to SETI is something called the Drake equation, which is really a collection of probabilities – things like whether a star has planets and whether those planets are habitable and can develop complex life. If we know the values of those probabilities, then we can calculate the number of technological civilizations in the galaxy – or at least, that’s the hope. The equation was developed in the sixties, before we had even confirmed that other stars even had planets.

As of now, we know all or most of the astrophysical terms in the equation, but that still leaves the bio-

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logical terms – how easy was it for life to develop on Earth? What about the steps that led us from simple to complex life? Humanity is our prime example – we don’t have other, similar life forms to compare to in order to answer these questions more thoroughly.

There’s also the question of whether these technological civilizations would even survive long enough for us to discover them, or vice versa. Bernie put it into perspective by pointing out, “We developed radio astronomy, the ability to talk over light years, at the same time we developed nuclear weapons. And both discoveries came out of a major war that could have set things back a lot.” If another civilization did manage to get to that point but blew themselves up instead, it would leave a sign – one that we’d have to be actively watching for in order to catch it.

Moreover, we have to ask the age-old question: what even is intelligence? We’re trying to figure out the probability that you get intelligent life on another planet, but we don’t even know what we mean by ‘intelligence.’ Pragmatically and astronomically, “intelligence is being able to build a radio telescope … according to that, we weren’t intelligent until the beginning of the second world war.”

The SETI class is full of discussions like that, which is why Bernie likes teaching it so much. “It’s science fiction-y in a sense, but it’s not because it’s real in terms of the search and the questions that have to be answered.” The variety of topics that he has to touch on keeps him on his toes, more than any of the other classes he teaches.

These are the kinds of things that Bernie loves talking about – so much so that, if he could teach one course, he’d create one that would unofficially be called “Stuff,” with the course description, “Bernie talks about stuff.” He said that it would cover the physics of last week, a course where the focus is learning about the wacky things that have happened in physics over the years. His inspiration for this course is a book called Physics for Future Presidents by Richard Muller, which establishes a baseline scientific knowledge which is important to know if you want to be responsible for a nation of people in a technological world. Bernie’s dream course would essentially allow him to talk about the weird, wacky, and wonderful developments that science has brought us.

Another topic that Bernie often seems to circle back to in class is cryptids, so I had to ask for his thoughts on them. His favorite is the chupacabra because it’s close to home. Bigfoot and Yetis are all over

the world, but the chupacabra was born as a South American legend and spread northwards. He said it’s like a home-grown cryptid, something whose spread we can watch in real time – it’s ours, in a way that more mainstream cryptids aren’t, really. His love for the topic started when was ten or twelve and started noticing books about cryptozoology and thought that they had to be true, otherwise they wouldn’t be published. He’s learned since then that that isn’t how publishing works, but his appreciation for cryptids and other pseudosciences hasn’t dwindled – for Bernie, “It’s just fun. I know it’s pseudoscience, I don’t believe any of it, but it’s fun.”

“‘...intelligence is being able to build a radio telescope … according to that, we weren’t intelligent until the beginning of the second world war.’”

To wrap up the interview, I asked Bernie whether there was anything else he wanted to say.

He gave two pieces of advice: firstly, people really believe that their grades are important, but no one really cares about that after your first job. Secondly, when you’re picking classes, think back to the worst class you took in high school and if you can, take a course on that same topic in college. Every topic is intrinsically interesting; that’s why they’re being studied and taught, and why they exist. Give things a second chance. Explore.

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OOP S

!

A Question of Neural Networks and AI Learning

BY DOMINIQUE LANGEVIN

Despite the incredible progress made with advanced artificial intelligence in the past years, many image recognition systems are running into a similar problem. If only a couple pixels are changed in the image they are trying to identify, they will completely misidentify the contents of the image, being consistently incorrect, even if a human could tell what was there (1). These images are called adversarial examples (1), and can even be successful with the alteration of just one pixel, known as a one-pixel attack (2). This poses a serious risk to a government or organization attempting to use image recognition AI for any purpose. It means that it would be significantly easy for a hacker to incapacitate their system (2).

These advanced AI systems often utilize a deep learning neural network. These networks are designed to function in a way that mimics human neural processing. They contain different levels of processing and are trained on massive sets of data (3). In the case of image recognition AI, this learning takes the form of being presented an image, providing an answer, and being corrected when it is wrong. Have you ever been around a young child who calls any four legged animal a dog? The process of distinction in which the child learns to distinguish between dogs,

cats, and other furry tetrapods is the same process which AI scientists are trying to recreate in their systems through machine learning.

The issue is that, like human brains, deep learning neural networks tend to be black boxes, with even the designers having trouble understanding the

FIGURE 1

Adversarial example (1)

DID YOU KNOW?

ReCaptcha is a machine learning tool, every time you fill one out you are training image recognition AI.

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true mechanisms in which these networks process information (3). This is what makes it difficult to solve the adversarial example problem. Because it is nearly impossible to know how the information is being processed in the neural network, it becomes nearly impossible to correct the defect that is causing the misrecognition of an image with a few pixels altered.

But, what if the issue wasn’t within the neural network itself, but an issue of a missing component?

All this time, scientists have been seeking to harness the immense processing power of human neural networks. However, neurons only make up 10 percent of our total brain cells. The remaining 90 percent are glial cells, such as interneurons, astrocytes, and oligodendrocytes (4). Each kind of cell serves a number of purposes, but the one to focus on as the potential solution for the adversarial example problem is astrocytes. Fields et al. (2014) described the key role astrocytes play in human perception of figure-ground relationships, due to their function in connecting and regulating large numbers of neuronal connections

FIGURE 2

Adversarial example (2)

FIGURE-GROUND

Two faces on a white background or a vase on a black background can be seen.

across many regions of the brain. Astrocytes allow for the successful completion of complex cognitive functions needed for perception and large-scale analysis (5). This is what lets us distinguish between the foreground and background of a scene and to utilize depth perception cues on a flat image. In images such as the one above, these cells allow us to mentally switch between seeing either the black or white image as the foreground, and the other color as the background. We have astrocytes to thank for the saying “once you see it, you can’t unsee it.”

Finally, the question is: if AI engineers were to incorporate synthetic astrocytes, or to mimic astrocyte function in their neural networks, could the adversarial example problem be solved? Is the solution to this technological flaw to further mimic human brain structure and function?

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What Keeps the Lights On?

BY AMY SPIVEY, PROFESSOR OF PHYSICS

“Our electrical power is so reliable that we forget to think about where it comes from.”

When was the last time you recall being somewhere when the power went out? Were you at home?

Or on campus? It doesn’t happen very often, right?

We are fortunate to live in a part of the world where homes and businesses have electricity close to 100% of the time. Our electrical power is so reliable that we forget to think about where it comes from. In fact, electrical power generation is complicated and constantly evolving, and it’s worth considering both how our electricity is generated and the scientific innovations involved in the process.

Figure 1 shows the percentage of electrical power in the U.S. generated by utilities using different energy sources (1). Nationwide, we get about 61% of our electricity from fossil fuels (coal, natural gas, and petroleum combined), 17% from renewables (solar, hydroelectric, and wind energy), and 20% from nuclear power, which is emissions-free but not technically renewable. The “Other” category in Figure 1 includes geothermal energy, wood and wood fuels, and other less-prevalent sources.

Although Figure 1 shows the energy mix used in the entire U.S., there is wide variability in the sources used depending on geography and local resource availability. For example, in 2020 Hawaii generated 68% of its electrical power by burning imported petroleum, while in Iowa 57% of the electrical power was generated using wind turbines (1). Our local public utility, Tacoma Power, generated about 80% of its electricity in 2020 using four hydroelectric dams in western Washington, with the rest coming from nuclear power and wind (2).

The energy sources used for electrical power generation are constantly evolving. Figure 2 shows the percentage of U.S. electricity generated nationwide using different sources over the past 20 years (1). While the fraction of electricity generated using nuclear or hydroelectric power has stayed relatively constant, Figure 2 shows that natural gas has gradually replaced much of the coal-fired electrical power generation. Much of this change has been driven by low-cost natural gas obtained through fracking, but it also may reflect efforts to lower CO₂ emissions. (For each kilowatt hour of electricity generated, burning natural gas releases about half as much CO₂ as burning coal (3).) Figure 2 also demonstrates that the fraction of U.S. electricity generated using wind or solar energy has been on the rise during this time.

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Along with university researchers, federal agencies in the U.S. (such as the National Renewable Energy Laboratory) and companies such as BP (formerly British Petroleum) and General Electric are tackling energy-related problems. Efforts include studies of new photovoltaic solar cell materials (4), research on more efficient and cost-effective battery storage for large-scale wind and solar generation projects (5), and the development of cheaper, safer

nuclear power sources (6). Scientists and engineers around the world continue to develop technologies that could help move electricity generation away from fossil fuels and toward emissions-free and/or renewable sources.

As a student at the University of Puget Sound and a future scientist and problem-solver, perhaps you, too, will work in one of these areas someday -helping us keep the lights on!

FIGURE 1 - Energy sources used for electrical power generation by utilities in the United States in 2020. Data provided by the Energy Information Administration, a division of the U.S. Department of Energy (1).

FIGURE 2 - Percentage of U.S. electricity generated by utilities over time for the most common energy sources. Data from the Energy Information Administration (1).

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Transparent Photovoltaic Cells A window to a renewable future

There is an ever-increasing demand for energy in an expanding economy with a continuously growing population. Electricity production generates the largest share of global greenhouse gas emissions, with 60% of our electricity in the U.S. coming from burning fossil fuels, mostly coal and natural gas (1),(2). To continue to meet energy consumption needs while replacing fossil fuels, a rapid expansion of clean renewable energy infrastructure is imperative. Solar energy received on Earth’s surface per year is approximately 120,000 TW, which is 6-7 thousand times more than the current global energy consumption (3). Research into solar energy has been a priority, as it is considered the most abundant source of energy that can satisfy the demands of continual economic development (4). As of 2020, only around 1% of global energy demand could be satisfied by installed solar energy plants, however (5). A large surface area is required for solar energy to be an efficient source of electricity, as photovoltaic cells rely on absorbing light (photons) to create a current. For photovoltaic cells to fulfill energy demand, they must be adopted on a wide scale. Traditional solar panels made from

BY TIA BÖTTGER

silicon can be heavy and bulky, making them difficult to widely install into existing architectural spaces (6).

Emerging technologies of transparent solar cells help address the challenge of a very large amount of space required, as any already existing sheet of glass could be converted into photovoltaic cells. The prospect of converting windows in buildings, cars, agricultural sheds, and even the glass panels of electronic devices into energy harvesting devices is an exciting challenge, which would help overcome the current limitations of solar panels and address the high demand for energy (7).

An understanding of a traditional photovoltaic cell is necessary before exploring emerging technology into transparent photovoltaic cells. Most basically, a photovoltaic cell functions by creating a potential difference, which will drive current to flow through the cell so that energy can be transported to electrical devices. A semiconductor material is used to achieve this, and a photovoltaic cell functions under the same working principle as a semiconducting diode.

Semiconductors are crystalline solids, so they are neither metals nor insulators, and their conducting properties are determined by impurities or dopants (4). Silicon is by far the most widely used semi-conducting material, with around 80% of solar cells in the world made using silicon-based materials (4),(8). A slab or film of Si is n- and p- doped in its two surface regions (8). The p-type silicon is produced by adding atoms, such as boron or gallium, which have one less electron in their outer energy level than silicon does.

Because one less electron is present than is required to form bonds with the surrounding silicon atoms, an electron “hole” is created. In contrast, n-type silicon includes atoms with one more electron in their outer energy level than silicon, such as phosphorous,

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leaving the electron free to move within the silicon structure. Where the layers meet, the electrons from the n-type layer will fill the holes in the p-type layer, creating a depletion zone as shown in Figure 1. The p-type layer, initially containing holes, now had excess electrons, and is negatively charged.

The n-type layer has lost electrons and is positively charged. Hence, an internal electric field is created within the semiconductor (9). The electric field will direct negative electrons through the material, as they will feel a force in the opposite direction of the electric field (F=qE), and be repelled from the positively charged zone and attracted to the negatively charged zone. When photons from sunlight strike the solar cell, electrons within the silicon material will be knocked loose due to the photoelectric effect, as long as the photon energy (hv) is equal to or larger than the work function of the material (10).

These free electrons will move across the cell, directed by the electric field, creating electric current that we use as energy.

With a p-n junction such as described, photons must have an energy greater than or equal to the energy band gap in the semiconducting material for an electron to be freed for an electric circuit (4), (11). This is a limiting factor in the efficiency of solar cells, as lower-energy photons from sunlight will not be used in energy generation. Multijunction cells are a common way to achieve a higher total conversion efficiency. As the name implies, they are comprised of a stack of single-junction cells in descending order of their energy band gaps, so that lower energy photons which aren’t captured by the top cell can still be absorbed by lower-band-gapcells (11). Furthermore, synthesized nanocrystalline dyes are used to expand the range of the wavelength of electron excitation, and efficiency in the excitation process (4). When a photon is absorbed, moving an electron to a higher energy level, little light passes through the material. Light passes through a material when the energy gap of the electrons is higher than the photons, and so the arrangement of atoms and electrons in a material determines its transparency. Therefore, it is a particular challenge to create an efficient solar cell which is also mostly transparent to the human eye.

To maintain a current, a solar cell also needs a thin film of electrode material, such as highly conductive platinum. When a conductor attaches the positive and negative ends of the cell

FIGURE 1 - A SILICON PHOTOVOLTAIC CELL (9).

an electrical circuit is formed (11). Electrons in a solar cell are transferred from a front surface electrode to a counter electrode. Finding a transparent counter electrode is a main challenge of transparent solar cells. Most existing transparent solar cell technologies use a conductive oxide glass such as fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO), and indium-doped tin oxide (ITO), using a thin film with a thickness of less than 20 nm.

Combined with the intrinsic optical losses of the glass itself, these layers reduce transparency by approximately 15-20%. Complete transparency in a solar cell is an unrealistic endeavor (4). Instead, researchers aim for near transparency, and there have been some promising developments towards this goal.

There are two main categories of transparent photovoltaic technologies: those which are wavelength selective, making use of compounds which selectively absorb ultraviolet (UV) and/or near-infrared (NIR) light invisible to the human eye, and those which generate electricity from a wide wavelength absorption range and achieve near transparency by segmenting opaque devices or making use of very thin photoactive material (5). For the purposes of this paper, I will only detail one particularly successful development as recent as this year, in which a near-invisible solar cell was created with high efficiency utilizing photon energy in a large range of wavelengths, including visible light.

A team of researchers in Japan led by Toshiaki Kato at Tohoku University exposed an ITO electrode to a vapor of tungsten disulphide (WS2). Under the right

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conditions, the vapor deposited an atom-thick layer of WS2 onto the ITO conductive glass surface. The monolayer of WS2 acts as a semiconductor, making up the photoactive layer, while the indium-doped tin oxide ITO is the transparent electrode. The researchers were able to precisely control the energy band gap, which electrons need to pass from one material to the other, by coating the ITO in thin metals and placing an insulating layer between the ITO and WS2.

In this case, the difference in the work function of the electrode and semiconductor materials could produce a built-in potential, because as the electrons absorbed photons and crossed the WS2 layer, they jumped between the semiconductor’s two energy bands, leaving behind a positively charged hole before moving to the conducting ITO electrode. The voltage difference created allows for electrical energy to be harvested.

Furthermore, the team increased the contact barrier height in the ITO-WS2 junction, increasing the voltage difference to be 1,000 times more effective at creating electrical energy than existing ITO-based solar cells.

Additionally, their choice of materials was far more transparent, allowing for up to 79% of average visible transmission (7), (12).

Kato’s team also demonstrated how their solar cell could be fabricated on larger scales, expanding the material’s surface area. In other ITO-based solar cells, this led to a voltage drop and decrease in efficiency. With this design, however, a high performance could be maintained in solar cells as large as 1 cm2 in area (7), (12). If the material becomes commercially available, it would have a huge impact. If all the buildings with 90% glass on their surface, such as sky-scraper office buildings, used transparent solar cells on the surface of the glass, the solar cells would have the potential to power more than 40% of that building’s energy consumption, depending on factors such as geographic location and tree cover (4). Another case study of a typical office building found that the energy savings for installation on one glass facade could have a return on investment in just a couple of years (5). Kato’s team imagines that implementing transparent solar cells into electronic devices could allow them to run without the need to ever be plugged into an external grid or power supply. Overall, these advances would revolutionize the use and availability of solar energy and are exciting milestones towards a renewable future.

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Food Deserts: Are They a Public Health Problem?

BY AYA HAMLISH

East Tacoma residents are among the nearly 39.5 million Americans who live in low-income communities that do not have a supermarket (1). These communities are known as “food deserts”. The City of Tacoma has several programs that make healthy foods available to families in East Tacoma, but do these programs address the root causes of food deserts?

Do they have an impact on the serious public health issues in these communities? While bringing healthy food to residents in low-income communities is important, that may not be enough. Limited transportation options, the time, effort, and knowledge required to prepare healthy meals, and the easy availability of inexpensive, fast foods are all problems that remain, even when healthy food is available. Healthy food, alone, is not enough.

A food desert is defined as a low-income, urban neighborhood with limited access to a variety of nutritious and affordable food. Communities designated as food deserts have higher rates of poor nutrition and long-term health problems, such as heart disease, stroke, Type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, and cancer (2). The Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department found that 28% of adults in East Tacoma meet the criteria for obesity (3). The health of people in those communities makes the elimination of food deserts an urgent public health problem.

When Jean-Pierre Dubé investigated the “food desert hypothesis” he looked at the relationship between 1) the availability of healthy food, 2) the presence of large supermarkets, and 3) the price of the food (4). Dubé found that when a full-service supermarket was introduced into a food desert, there was no change in the healthfulness of the food purchased (4). He suggests that having a grocery store does not solve all the problems of a food desert. Other factors, including transportation, convenience, and cost, have

an impact on peoples’ food choices.

People in low-income communities often rely on public transportation to get to jobs, schools, healthcare, and food. When public transportation is limited, it adds multiple barriers to eating healthy food. The PierceTransit System that serves East Tacoma is known for being unpredictable, with frequent delays and indirect routes that require transfers and additional waiting time (5). This means that people must set aside more time for grocery shopping and have to deal with waiting and transfers while carrying all of their groceries, including perishables. Dependable transportation is one of the key factors needed to address food deserts.

“East Tacoma residents are among the nearly 39.5 million Americans who live in low-income communities that do not have a supermarket.”

Convenience and cost are also major factors in food deserts. Food deserts often have a lot of options for fast food or processed food that is quick, easy, lower cost compared to healthy foods, and appealing because it is high in fats, salt, and sugars (6). While Dubé claims that people prefer these options, this is not what residents in East Tacoma have said (4). They make it clear that they are “hungry for healthy cooking options” but may not have the time, resources, and knowledge to prepare a healthy meal (7). East Ta-

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Volume 4: Food Deserts

Pierce County Figure FD-3: Location of Food Deserts in Tacoma

Figure 1 - Locations of food deserts in Pierce County. (12)

coma is a haven for fast-food joints and Quick-E-Marts (8). After a long day at work, who wouldn’t choose the easier and less expensive option to pick up fast food instead of the planning, shopping, and cooking (not to mention clean up) needed to prepare and serve a well-balanced, nutritious meal.

There are several programs in Tacoma working to address food deserts. Farmers markets, food pantries, and educational programs bring important healthy options, however, they do not get at the root causes of the food desert problem. The Eastside Farmers Market offers an abundant selection of fresh fruits and vegetables (9). The market makes healthy food accessible by accepting all types of payment, including EBT/SNAP, P-EBT, SNAP Market Match, WIC, and Senior Nutrition Vouchers (9). While the market is open from 3pm - 7pm, which makes it easier for people to shop after work, the market is only available one day per week, and for only three months out of the year (every Tuesday during June - Aug). During the

rest of the year, East Tacoma residents do not have a nearby source of fresh produce.

Eloise’s Cooking Pot (ECP) Food Bank provides a drop-in site for anyone in need of food, and home delivery for the elderly or people who are disabled (10). The site is open six hours a day, five days a week, including Saturdays, which makes food more accessible than the limited times of the farmers’ market.

However, there are eligibility requirements to access the food bank’s services and requires that people disclose their household income, which may discourage some from seeking help. ECP brings an important resource to the community, but still does not solve the root causes.

The Metro Parks Mobile Teaching Kitchen was created in order to deal with the transportation barriers that individuals/families face, and to teach families how to cook healthy meals on a budget (11). The truck travels to community gardens, neighborhoods, and community centers around Tacoma. The teach-

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“Farmers markets, food pantries, and educational programs bring important healthy options, however, they do not get at the root causes of the food desert problem.” ing kitchen gives people the knowledge to prepare healthy meals, but they still need to get to a grocery store, shop, and prepare the food. Imagine how much more impact the Teaching Kitchen would have if they worked with food pantries to teach classes around the food that is immediately available to residents.

The services provided to residents in East Tacoma certainly help to meet the needs of families who are hungry, but because each works in isolation they do not change the underlying environment that leaves communities without reliable access to shop, prepare, and eat healthy foods. Our efforts will be

more successful if we look at the root causes – transportation issues, time, convenience, and cost – and then coordinate efforts to address these issues. Equally important, we need to recognize that choosing healthy foods requires much greater effort in low-income communities compared to middle-income and high-income communities where healthy food – and the resources to buy and prepare it – are readily available. Individual programs address only one aspect of the problem and won’t lead to healthier people until we coordinate our efforts to make a real impact.

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Busy Research, Busy Bees

BY SARAH DORMER While sweat drips down my back, I turn to Dr. Sue Hannaford, trying to keep my breathing as calm as possible. I need to ask her a rather urgent question.

“Sue,” I said, trying to keep my voice level, “Is my hair tickling my face, or is that a bee?” We’re performing our weekly hive check, surrounded by the thousands of honeybees the Hannaford lab and Hiveminders keep on Thompson’s roof. Sue’s head snaps up. “It’s a bee! Close your eyes and hold your breath.” She takes out the smoker we use to keep the bees calm, and gives my face a few strong puffs of smoke. Once the bee wandering my right cheek is subdued, she unzips the hood of my bee suit and lightly brushes it off. “She must have found a gap in the zipper near your neck,” Sue tells me, and we get back to work.

When we think of research, we tend to picture someone in a stiff white coat in a lab, surrounded by flasks of different chemicals. I definitely had days like this during my summer research experience, but many days were more like what I described above: examining frame after frame of wax comb, adult bees, larvae, eggs, pollen, and glistening honey, all while sweating profusely in our head-to-toe linen bee suits in the summer sun. We even got stung once in a while.

I wouldn’t trade the experience for anything.

The Hannaford Lab studies the link between pesticides and neurodegenerative disease. I decided to join the team and study the pesticide FujiMite, or fenpyroximate: the EPA considers the chemical safe for honeybees, but in humans, its continued use has been linked to neurodegeneration, Parkinson’s disease, and Alzheimers (1). Despite this, its use on crops like apples and pears has increased. For these reasons, I decided to expose some honey bees to nonlethal amounts of fenpyroximate and study the potential effects: even if pesticide wasn’t killing the bees, it might be causing neurological damage. Every week, I would catch 40 foraging bees on their way out of the hive and bring them to the lab. Some of them ate plain sugar water, but I slipped small amounts of pesticide into the food of others. After 5 days of

treatment, I used EthoVision software to quantify how much and how fast the bees moved around. After this came the hardest part: the bees had to be humanely euthanized by putting them in the freezer--I needed to dissect out their brains to look for neurons undergoing apoptosis.

The pesticide had no significant effect on the workers. However, in addition to working with adult bees, I hand-raised larvae in the lab. Watching them turn from tiny grubs to beautiful fuzzy bees was exhilarating, especially because the Hannaford lab hasn’t raised bees before. Any food the workers bring back to the hive is eaten by every member of the colony, so even if the pesticide isn’t affecting the adults, it might harm the delicate larvae. This work will be my thesis--I look forward to many more hours of lab work, baby bees, and days spent in linen, hunched over the hive while thousands of bees make the air sing.

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C O S M O N E R D

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Ask A Scientist The Elements team answers your most pressing questions!

Q: How big is infinity, really?

A: The short answer is that infinity is unimaginably huge. List as many numbers as you can, and you will not have listed them all. Infinity is a concept, not a number, and trying to treat it like one doesn’t work. If you’ve ever taken a calculus course, then you’ll have seen it as a placeholder for getting very close to a value but never quite reaching it, as with limits taken to infinity.

The longer answer is that there are actually different sizes of infinity. Take the natural numbers, i.e. 1, 2, 3, 4, etc. There are infinitely many natural numbers. Now take all the even numbers and all the odd numbers. You might think that you’ve split infinity in half, but these groups of numbers (sets) are actually the same size as the set of all natural numbers. If you take the double of every natural number, then you have the set of all even numbers: the number of values in both sets is the same. The same can be done with the odd numbers (1).

Now for the weird part: the set of all real numbers, i.e. whole numbers, fractions, and irrational numbers (such as π), is larger than the set of integers (2). We were able to show that the set of odds, evens, and integers were all the same size by connecting every integer to every odd or even number, but that’s impossible to do with the set of all real numbers (2). Showing that is a much more complicated process, but if you’re interested, look up Georg Cantor’s Diagonal Proof to see it.

Q: What makes sunsets pretty?

A: The color of the sky which we see is the result of selective scattering of sunlight by air molecules. Visible light includes a spectrum of wavelengths, from violet (shorter wavelengths) to red (longer wavelengths). Typical air molecules are slightly closer in size to violet wavelengths, and therefore reflect and redirect them in all directions and to our eyes more effectively than for longer, redder wavelengths (3). If our eyes weren’t more sensitive to blue light than violet, we would see the clear daytime sky as violet! At sunset and sunrise, however, sunlight takes a much longer path through the atmosphere than during the middle part of the day. The light that reaches our eyes during these times of day appears reddened. A nearly infinite number of scattering events have occurred by the time sunlight reaches us, which remove the violet blue light within the spectrum and leave predominantly red wavelengths!

You can imagine the same blue light you see in the sky in the middle of the day becoming increasingly red as it travels to reach somewhere further away where the sun is setting.

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Q: Why is fiber optic cable faster than copper cable?

A: The two types of wiring use different methods to transmit data.

Fiber optic cable uses light to send signals, while copper cable uses electricity. Light travels at 300,000 kilometers per second, much faster than electricity moving through copper, which travels at 200,000 kilometers per second (4). Fiber optic cable is designed to maximize the reflection of light as it bounces off the inside of the cable, creating total internal reflection and making it travel as fast as possible through the cable (4). Additionally, electromagnetic interference can slow the speed of electrical transmission through copper cable. Electromagnetic interference can be created by electrical systems or devices and can disrupt the electric field that travels through the copper cable as it transmits electricity (5). Fiber optic cable does not have this problem, since it doesn’t rely on an electric field, making it both faster and more consistent in speed.

Q: How do plants grow in the dark?

A: Plants, including seedlings, can grow in the dark, but not very well. When seeds are grown in the dark, or underground, they undergo skotomorphogenesis. Otherwise, plants usually undergo photomorphogenesis, which happens with light growth. Interestingly enough, the transition from skotomorphogenesis to photomorphogenesis— when the plant is introduced to light again—happens within a few minutes. These are developmental pathways for the seedlings to aid in their survival and growth. Growing in the dark is less than ideal for the seedlings, so they go through phenotypic, or morphological, changes (6). Plants without light are unable to undergo photosynthesis and therefore can’t produce vital energy. So, plants conserve energy by having smaller leaves and diverting their energy towards their roots. This is why dark grown seedlings have longer roots than those grown in light; they are attempting to reach a light source. Additionally, in the dark, chlorophyll formation is stunted, and green wavelengths are no longer absorbed, meaning pale leaves, without their familiar green color.

Q: What would happen to the Earth if the sun were a black hole?

A: There are two paths for stellar evolution, depending on the size of a star. The sun is what’s called a yellow dwarf, so it’s smaller and therefore its ultimate fate is to become something called a white dwarf (7)- incredibly dense, but not a black hole. In the process of evolution, it would expand enough to definitely engulf Mercury and Venus, possibly Earth as well. Either way, if it were as close to us as Venus, our planet would heat up beyond habitability.

The only way for the scenario to occur, then, would be if the sun were swapped out for a black hole. Let’s assume that it’s the same mass as our sun. The event horizon of a black hole is essentially its surface. Within the event horizon, the velocity needed to escape being sucked in exceeds the speed of light (8) ― the point of no return.

For a black hole the mass of our sun, that puts the event horizon at about 3 km (9) away from the center. For reference, the Earth is 6,371 km away from the sun. We wouldn’t get sucked into the brand new black hole at the center of our solar system, but we would also no longer have sunlight and freeze to death instead. No spaghettification, but absolutely freezing temperatures would abound.

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Elements A Playlist

The Elements

Tom Lehrer

Communication Breakdown

Led Zeppelin

Cultivating Science Language which Imagines Change - Tia Böttger

Long Live Rock

The Who

Interview: Professors Mike Valentine Sage Matkin

(My Baby Does) Good Sculptures The Rezillos

Heron’s Fountain in Sculpture - Jake McRae

Starman

David Bowie

Interview: Professor Bernie Bates - Olivia Danner

Resident Alien

Space Monkey

Well, Where Are They ? - Austin Glock

Brain Damage

Pink Floyd

A Question of Neural Networks and AI Learning - Dominique Langevin

Lights

Ellie Goulding

What Keeps the Lights On? - Professor Amy Spivey

Solar Power

Lorde

Transparent Photovoltaic Cells: A Window to a Renewable Future- Tia Bottger

Hunger

Florence + The Machine

Food Deserts: Are They a Public Health Problem? - Aya Hamlish

Imma Be

Black Eyed Peas

Busy Research, Busy Bees Sarah Dormer

Planetary Ambiance

Japanese Breakfast

CosmoNerd ELEMENTS | 35

ELEMENTS Article Word Search CWC S E J U N HWP P H R Y MO P C Z X L O L T A AMG V N A M E I OO GMU CWN H C A Y S M I G F P A S M P I B P O F C T U E E I L K R V R E D S OWS R NWO G A U U H E A C O B S P O I D L MN L R S L U D E O B O B C QOD E C L I L D R L V SW I A NG B T C G P E N A G C H E O T J Y U S H T S I R L OH P R L I MU B T U E E A UWO H R S O O D P B R R WW Q E R O A U T G N T U E T E L S YWD Y K NWY R L K N E U R O S C I E N C E Y B Communication

Food desert

Power

Astrobiology

Sculpture

Light bulb

Exoplanets

Neuroscience

Bernie

Bees

Geology

Solar

Communication

Astrobiology

Exoplanets

Food desert

Sculpture

Neuroscience

Geology Bernie

Power Solar

Light bulb

Bees

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Citations Cultivating Science Language which Imagines Change (1) Kimmerer, RW, Braiding Sweetgrass. Minneapolis, Minnesota: Milkweed Editions; 2016.

(2) Wyborn C, Kalas N, Rust N, Adams W, Alvarez I, Balan M, Beck S, Clement S, Davila F, Diaz S, et al. Seeds of change: provocations for a new research agenda. 2020. doi:10.13140/RG.2.2.22170.59848/3 (3) Takacs D. The Idea of Biodiversity: Philosophies of Paradise. Johns Hopkins University Press; 1996.

(4) Väliverronen E, Hellsten I. From “Burning Library” to “Green Medicine”: The Role of Metaphors in Communicating Biodiversity. Science Communication. 2002;24(2):229–245. doi:10.1177/107554702237848 (5) Toepfer G. On the Impossibility and Dispensability of Defining ‘“Biodiversity.”’ In: Casetta E, Marques da Silva J, Vecchi D, editors. From Assessing to Conserving Biodiversity: Conceptual and Practical Challenges. Cham: Springer International Publishing; 2019. p. 341–351. (History, Philosophy, and Theory of the Life Sciences). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-03010991-2_16. doi:10.1007/978-3-030-10991-2_16 (6) Elliott KC. Framing conservation: ‘biodiversity’ and the values embedded in scientific language.

Environmental Conservation. 2020;47(4):260–268. doi:10.1017/S0376892920000302 (7) Convention on Biological Diversity. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: United Nations Conference on Environment and Development; 1992.

(8) Green SJ, Grorud-Colvert K, Mannix H. Uniting science and stories: Perspectives on the value of storytelling for communicating science. FACETS. 2018;3(1):164–173. doi:10.1139/facets-2016-0079 (9) Gough C. Environmental Storytelling - A theory of Change by Carl Gough. https://www.storyteller-carl-gough.co.uk/Impactful-storytelling.php (10) Gorenflo LJ, Romaine S, Mittermeier RA, Walker-Painemilla K. Co-occurrence of linguistic and biological diversity in biodiversity hotspots and high biodiversity wilderness areas. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 2012;109(21):8032–8037. doi:10.1073/pnas.1117511109 (11) Niebert K, Gropengiesser H. Understanding Starts in the Mesocosm: Conceptual metaphor as a

framework for external representations in science teaching. International Journal of Science Education.

2015;37(5–6):903–933. doi:10.1080/09500693.2015.1025 310 (12) Taylor C, Dewsbury BM. On the Problem and Promise of Metaphor Use in Science and Science Communication. Journal of Microbiology & Biology Education. 2018;19(1):19.1.40. doi:10.1128/jmbe. v19i1.1538 (13) Keulartz J. Using Metaphors in Restoring Nature. Nature and Culture 2 (2007) 1. 2007;2. doi:10.3167/nc.2007.020103 (14) Elliott R. Communicating Biological Sciences: Ethical and Metaphorical Dimensions. 1st ed. Nerlich B, Elliott R, Larson B, editors. Routledge; 2016. https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/9781317163695. doi:10.4324/9781315572888 (15) Elliott R. Communicating Biological Sciences: Ethical and Metaphorical Dimensions. Routledge; 2016.

(16) Fernández-Llamazares Á, Cabeza M. Rediscovering the Potential of Indigenous Storytelling for Conservation Practice. Conservation Letters.

2018;11(3):e12398. doi:10.1111/conl.12398 Interview: Professor Mike Valentine (1) Valentine M. (2) Pugetsound.edu. Michael J Valentine [accessed 2023 Feb 7]. http://webspace.pugetsound.edu/ facultypages/mvalentine/home.htm Heron’s Fountain in Sculpture (1) Stroia A-MGS-CG. Heron’s fountain demonstrator. Revista Romana de Inginerie Civila. 5(2). https://www.academia.edu/17331258/Herons_fountain_demonstrator Well, Where Are They?

(1) Pat Brennan KW. NASA Exoplanet Exploration.

Exoplanet Exploration Program. https://exoplanets. nasa.gov/ (2) Edward W. Schwieterman, Nancy Y. Kiang, Mary N. Parenteau, Chester E. Harman, Shiladitya DasSarma, Theresa M. Fisher, Giada N. Arney, Hilairy E. Hartnett, Christopher T. Reinhard, Stephanie L.

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Olson, Victoria S. Meadows, Charles S. Cockell, Sara I. Walker, John Lee Grenfell, Siddharth Hegde, Sarah Rugheimer, Renyu Hu, and Timothy W. Lyons. Exoplanet Biosignatures: A Review of Remotely Detectable Signs of Life. Astrobiology. 2018;18(6). https:// www.liebertpub.com. doi:10.1089/ast.2017.1729663 (3) Lohnes K. The Fermi paradox: Where are all the aliens? In: Encyclopedia Britannica. 2017.

(4) Yasser S. Aliens, The Fermi Paradox, and the Dark Forest Theory. Project Nash. 2020 Oct 12. https:// www.projectnash.com/aliens-the-fermi-paradox-andthe-dark-forest-theory/ A Question of Neural Networks and AI Learning (1) Goodfellow I, Shlens J, Szegedy C. 2014. Explaining and Harnessing Adversarial Examples. arXiv. (2) Su J, Vargas D, Kouichi S. 2019. One pixel attack for fooling deep neural networks. arXiv 23(5): 828-841.

(3) Liao M. 2020. A Short Introduction to the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence. In: Liao M, editors.

Ethics of Artificial Intelligence. Oxford University Press. p. 1-28.

(4) Connors B, Bear M, Paradiso M. 2015. Neurons and Glia. In: Neuroscience, Exploring the Brain. 4th Edition. Jones & Bartlett Learning. p. 24-48.

(5) Fields R, Araque A, Johansen-Berg H, Lim S, Lynch G, Nave K, Nedergaard M, Perez R, Sejnowski T, Wake H. 2014. Glial Biology in Learning and Cognition. The Neuroscientist 20(5): 426-431.

What Keeps the Lights On? (1) Electricity. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Energy Information Administration; 2022 [updated 2022 Oct 14; accessed 2022 Nov 10]. https://www.eia.gov/electricity/ data/state/ (2) Our Power Sources. Tacoma, WA: Tacoma Public Utilities; 2022 [updated 2022; accessed 2022 Nov 9]. https://www.mytpu. org/about-tpu/services/power/about-tacoma-power/ dams-power-sources/ (3) Weeks J. Coal’s comeback. CQ Researcher.

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(4) Price, GD. Renewable Power and Energy, Volume I : Photovoltaic Systems. New York: Momentum Press; 2018 [accessed 2022 Nov 10]. https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ups/detail. action?pq-origsite=primo&docID=5485377.

(5) Professor Donald Sadoway Honored by European Patent Office for Achievements in Energy

Storage Technology. Ambri Inc; 2022 Jun 19 [accessed 2022 Nov 10]. https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/professor-donald-sadoway-honored-by-european-patent-office-for-achievements-in-energy-storage-technology-301577498.html#:~:text=Donald%20Sadoway%20 has%20won%20the,developing%20Liquid%20 Metal%E2%84%A2%20batteries.

(6) Mallapaty, S. China prepares to test thorium-fuelled nuclear reactor. Nature. 2021; 597(7876): 311-312.

Transparent Photovoltaic Cells (1) Global Emissions. Center for Climate and Energy Solutions. [accessed 2022 Nov 1]. https://www. c2es.org/content/international-emissions/ (2) US EPA O. Sources of Greenhouse Gas Emissions. 2015 Dec 29 [accessed 2022 Nov 1]. https://www. epa.gov/ghgemissions/sources-greenhouse-gas-emissions (3) Hu Z, Wang J, Ma X, Gao J, Xu C, Yang K, Wang Z, Zhang J, Zhang F. A critical review on semitransparent organic solar cells. Nano Energy. 2020;78:105376. doi:10.1016/j.nanoen.2020.105376 (4) A. A. F. Husain, W. Z. W. Hasan, S. Shafie, M. N. Hamidon, and S. S. Pandey, “A review of transparent solar photovoltaic technologies,” Renew. Sustain.

Energy Rev., vol. 94, pp. 779–791, Oct. 2018, doi: 10.1016/j.rser.2018.06.031.

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2020;219:112982. doi:10.1016/j.enconman.2020.112982 (6) Durganjali CS, Bethanabhotla S, Kasina S, Radhika DS. Recent Developments and Future Advancements in Solar Panels Technology. Journal of Physics: Conference Series. 2020;1495(1):012018. doi:10.1088/1742-6596/1495/1/012018 (7) He X, Iwamoto Y, Kaneko T, Kato T. Fabrication of near-invisible solar cell with monolayer WS2.

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chemmatters/past-issues/archive-2013-2014/how-asolar-cell-works.html Food Deserts: Are They a Public Health Problem?

(1) Rhone, A,Ver Ploeg, M, Dicken, C, Williams, R, Breneman, V. January 2017. Low-Income and Low-Supermarket-Access Census Tracts, 2010-2015 [Internet].EIB-165. U.S Department of Agriculture.

Available from: https://www.ers.usda.gov/webdocs/ publications/82101/eib-165.pdf?v=3395.3 (2) National Research Council (US). 2009.The Public Health Effects of Food Deserts: Workshop Summary [Internet]. Washington (DC): National Academies Press (US). Available from: https://www. ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK208018/ (3) Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department [Internet]. Available from: https://www.tpchd.org/ healthy-people/health-equity/communities-of-focus/east-tacoma (4) Youtube [Internet]. Available from: https:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIRbJEYb2Yg (5) Pierce Transit [Internet]. Available from: https://www.piercetransit.org/faq/ (6) Carlson, A, Frazão, E. May 2012. Are Healthy Foods Really More Expensive?:It Depends on How You Measure the Price [Internet].

EIB-96. U.S Department of Agriculture. Available from: https://www.ers.usda.gov/webdocs/publications/44678/19980_eib96.pdf (7) King 5 News [Internet] Available from: https://www.king5.com/article/news/local/tacomamobile-teaching-kitchen/281-159730c2-542b-4c958f43-0dcb6ed9c5e (8) Youtube [Internet]. Available from: https:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEjxQ5F-YFQ (9) Tacoma Farmers Market [Internet]. Available from: https://tacomafarmersmarket.com/eastside-market/ (10) Making A Difference Foundation [Internet].

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Location of Food Deserts in Tacoma. 2011. https:// courses.washington.edu/studio67/psrcfood/Food_ studio_docs/Vol05_Food_Deserts.pdf

Busy Summer, Busy Bees (1) B. Pearson, J. Simon, E. McCoy, G. Salazar, G. Fragola, M. Zylka. Identification of chemicals that mimic transcriptional changes associated with autism, brain aging and neurodegeneration. www.nature.com/naturecommunications. 31 Mar 2016; DOI: 10.1038/ncomms11173 Ask a Scientist (1) How Large is Infinity. Owlcation.com. https:// owlcation.com/stem/How-Large-is-Infinity (2) All about Infinity. Maths.org. https://nrich. maths.org/2756/index (3) Corfidi SF. The Colors of Twilight and sunset.

Noaa.gov. 2014 Sep. https://www.spc.noaa.gov/publications/corfidi/sunset/ (4) Alwayn V. 2004. Fiber-Optic Technologies. In: Kane J, Schachterle J, editors. Optical Network Design and Implementation. Indianapolis (IN): Cisco Press. p. 49-92.

(5) Muthukrishnan V. 2020. Electromagnetic Interference (EMI): What it is & How To Reduce it. Electrical4U; [cited 2023 Feb 5]. Available from: https:// www.electrical4u.com/electromagnetic-interference/ (6) Lincoln Taiz EZ. Plant Physiology and Development. Sinauer Associates; 2014.

(7) Our Sun. NASA Solar System Exploration. 2021 Oct 15 [accessed 2023 Feb 6]. https://solarsystem.nasa. gov/solar-system/sun/in-depth/ (8) Garner R. What Are Black Holes? NASA. 2020 Sep 8 [accessed 2023 Feb 6]. https://www.nasa.gov/ vision/universe/starsgalaxies/black_hole_description. html (9) Germany L, Proctor R, Fluke C, Gaztelu MA, Mackie G, Maddison S, Lagos MA, Kilborn V, Bailes M. Schwarzschild Radius. In: Cosmos: The Swinburne Astronomy Online Encyclopedia. https://astronomy. swin.edu.au/cosmos/S/Schwarzschild+Radius

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