Helix, Spring 2018

Helix

Milton Academy’s Science Journal

Spring 2017-18

Helix is Milton Academy’s one and only scientific journal, written by

Helix Staff Helix Board 2017-18 Editors-in-Chief: Max Hui and Kevin Lu Senior Editors: Patrick Huang and Catherine Gallori Managing Editor: Christine Flatley Layout Editor: Emma James Faculty Advisor: Dr. Linde Eyster

Helix Writers Zaki Alaoui Kiran Biddinger Seokmin (Ryan) Choi Wilder Crosier Ariane DesRosiers

Desmond DeVaul Alexandra Galls U.G. Gurol Minseo (Charles) Lee Kelly Han Zan Huang

Kate Jones Grace Li Alexander Shih Charles Sloane Antoine Wiley

We would like to thank the following people for their contributions to Helix:

Ms. bargar, Mr. Bingham, Mr. Edgar, Ms. Lillis, Mr. Moriarty, Mr. Sando, and Ms. Seplaki.

And we’d like to give a special thanks to our faculty advisor Dr. Eyster, who will be leaving Milton Academy after many years of tireless dedication to our community.

and for Milton students on a range of STEM topics. We strive to help students better share their passion for and knowledge of the sciences with the entire Milton community.

Article Topics

4 Interview with Dr. Albert H. Kwon ‘04 6 Axolotls: the Potential Key to Limb Regeneration 8 Genetically Modified Mosquitoes May Be the Key to the Extermination of Malaria and Zika Virus 10 The Commercial Space Race and the Breaching of the Final Frontier 12 CRISPR and Pigs: How We Could Solve Organ Needs 14 Why the Dinosaurs Became Extinct: New Discoveries 16 A Breakthrough in STEM Prizes

Senior Interviews This issue includes interviews of potential STEM majors who agreed to be interviewed.

We have done our best to include everyone who expressed interest.

Eloise Baker Ethan Berman Jason Bussgang Jeffrey Cao Tyler Carlton Molly Chiang Sophie Clivio James DeLano Celena Eccleston

24 18 26 25 28 18 30 27 19

Catherine Gallori Patrick Huang Max Hui Daniel Little Kevin Lu Caroline Magann Peter Marangos Charis Palandjian Devon Park Carson Prindle

19 26 19 31 27 20 23 22 30 21

Pari Sharma Andrew Song Romain Speciel Nina Taneja Matthew Tyler Andriana Velmahos Jessica Wang Jack Weiler Molly Wilson

23 22 25 29 21 28 24 31 20

Interview with

Dr. Albert H. Kwon ‘04

By Max Hui

Dr. Albert Kwon works at Boston Children’s Hospital, and is co-founder and CEO of the startup AUGMENTx. After Milton Academy, he attended MIT and Harvard Medical School.

As a senior you founded Helix, so what did you have in mind?

cently there’s been interesting patent litigation about who owns the rights to CRISPR technology in human beings.

Well, Milton had a couple And more societal side, there newspapers but none of them have been some interesting focused on science or engiTED talks about how people neering. There are just so view Facebook, Instagram many great science stories and other massive behavthat could spur a lot of disior-changing engines, and cussion; at the time, it was how they are making money about stem cells and about while warping our views and cool physics experiments at our behaviors. For the near CERN. We should have a way future I am interested in to talk about that and spread virtual reality and augmented the word among Milton stureality (AR) type platforms as dents, so that’s why a couple the next generation of display of friends and I got Helix technology. I’m dabbling in started. augmented reality (AR).

You mentioned that stem cell research and CERN were at the forefront of scientific discussion at that time, but what about now and in the near future?

Some of the topics that interest me are CRISPR technology and gene editing. I think that’s really powerful, and rePage 4

In what ways?

I have a startup incubating at Harvard Innovations lab. I’m working with a couple engineers, trying to deliver rehabilitation therapy in an (AR) environment. One problem I see in medicine right now is that, when patients lose motor functions, they have to Helix

do a lot of exercise to gradually get their functions back. I send them to a rehabilitation clinic, but then I have no clue what’s going on with them because our systems are broken. it’s so siloed: my clinic is separate, my client goes to a rehab specialist, and that’s a separate encounter; there’s nothing that ties things together. My patients tell me that exercising while at home is boring, but then if they don’t exercise, it’s not going to help them. So we’re trying to create an immersive (augmented-reality) game where we can engage the patient, and at the same time measure what the patient is doing; we can have objective data on how much therapy the patient did and whether or not they’re getting better. So what started off as a project is turning into a small, early stage startup company.

So what exactly is your role in this startup at the moment?

My official title is CEO, but it’s more than that: whether you’re CEO, CTO, CFO, no matter who you are, you’ve got to wear multiple hats, you have to be flexible to help the company. We do whatever it takes to make progress. It’s a continuous learning experience.

Along similar lines, could you talk about what you do for “work” ?

The majority of my time I spend as a doctor. I am training in two different fields, so I’m in a very weird combined program where I’m going to be a general pediatrician, and a general anesthesiologist. So half the year I spend in the operating room and helping patients recover from surgery. The other half of the year I spend time in clinics.

This month, I’m in the intensive care unit where severely ill children stay until they get stabilized enough to return to a regular floor. So I’m all around the hospital. And as a resident doctor, sometimes the schedule can be pretty brutal—sometimes we can work very close to 80 hours a week. So that’s my official job.

Moving away from this, what was your college experience

like in terms of getting your degrees? What sort of challenges did you encounter?

I entered MIT thinking I was going to do electrical engineering, so later switching to medicine was a change for sure. Dr. Eyster’s class got me interested in biology. The class was very different from physics or chemistry. I think she was the only teacher who gave me a C on a lab report, and that opened up my eyes to a very different kind of thinking and carefulness about Helix

what I write down as my claims or my hypotheses. And that was just so eye opening to me, and the topic was just fascinating. Because MIT was heavily funding bio-related engineering research, I tried some lab research to get a flavor of that field. I decided to switch to biology and through my research experience I met a lot of medical doctors, and they heavily influenced me to go to medical school. It was the right switch for me!

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Axolotls: the Potential Key to Limb Regeneration

By Ariane DesRosiers

There are currently over 10 million amputees in the world, two million of whom are in the United States (1). Imagine a way in which these people would be able to regrow their lost body parts and all the resulting implications (2). Axolotls (Ambystoma mexicanum), creatures similar to water salamanders, may contain the key to solving this problem. They’re quite peculiar — with feathery attachments on the sides of their heads and beady eyes, they are not easily forgotten animals (Figure 1).

Remarkably, these aquatic amphibians are capable of regenerating entire limbs without scar formation, a unique ability that makes them a focal point of

biomedical research around the world (3). Because axolotls have only 14 chromosomes (whereas humans have 46), their entire genome is being analysed by scientists (4). Axolotls contain special genes which code for proteins that allow undifferentiated cells to be sent to injured locations on the body. These undifferentiated cells (also called progenitor cells) are cells that have the potential to become different types of cells, like skin cells or liver cells. Once these progenitor cells arrive at the injury site, they differentiate into skin and tissue cells and create a blastema, a cellular structure which forms around the injury and creates the new limb (3).

However, these progenitor cells

are not the only things essential to the regeneration process.

Two proteins (p53 and TGF-ß1), are also integral to growing back a limb. The first of these proteins (p53) regulates cell division and suppresses tumors (5). In axolotls, this protein sends a chemical signal to initiate the differentiation of cells, turning progenitor cells by the wound into skin or tissue cells. Meanwhile, the other protein (TGF-ß1), also found in the human genome, acts as another regulator, activating nearby cells to begin the blastema formation, which gives these newly differentiated cells room to grow (3). Researchers found that if they inhibited either of

these proteins, axolotls could not regenerate their lost limbs.

To complicate matters even further, multiple other compounds and cells are all necessary to achieve the limb-regeneration process (6, 7, 8).On the bright side, scientist Stephan Roy, who conducted the research on p53 and TGF-ß1 proteins, says that with enough experimentation and research, scientists might find a way to modify and use the axolotls’ to help with tissue healing, transplants and cancer cures “within the next 10 to 20 years” (3). So even though the axolotls’ potential is enormous, it will take some time before we can see that potential come to life.

(1) LeBlanc, M. “Give Hope - Give a Hand” Estimated Amputee Population. Stanford University, 08 Nov. 2008. Web. 5 Mar. 2018, https://web.stanford.edu/class/ engr110/2011/LeBlanc-03a.pdf.

(3) Manly, D. “Regeneration: The Axolotl Story.” Guest Blog. Scientific American, 13 Apr. 2011. Web. 5 Mar. 2018, https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/regeneration-the-axolotl-story.

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However, it is not too late to lose hope entirely! You can do several things today to help the axolotls. You can donate to wildlife charities, sign petitions to the Mexican government and fishermen, or simply spread the word about the axolotls’ plight.

Success stories like those of the bald eagles’, the pandas, and the North American bison show us that saving species from endangerment is possible. There is still time to save the creatures who may be the key to helping millions of people regain their lost limbs!

Works Cited

(2) “Limb Loss Statistics.” Amputee Coalition. National Health Council, 2016. Web. 28 Mar. 2018, https://www.amputee-coalition. org/limb-loss-resource-center/ resources-filtered/resources-by-topic/limb-loss-statistics/ limb-loss-statistics.

Figure 1: Axolotls exhibit neoteny, meaning that after reaching sexual maturity they still retain their juvenile characteristics. Source: Pitkanen, Esa. Axolotl. Flickr, 29 July 2009, www.flickr.com/photos/esaskar/3769444935.

Unfortunately, these axolotls are dying out. Wild members of the species reside in only two canals, both of which are located in Mexico and have extremely high levels of pollution (9). Axolotls are listed as “critically endangered” according to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (10). This alarming decrease in population can be attributed to invasive fish species, such as tilapia and carp, who compete with wild axolotls and impair their chances of survival (10).

Although the Mexican government has put a lot of effort to preserve the canals’ ecosystems and protect the species,

the future seems dim for the wild axolotl (9).

(4) Voss, R. “Ambystoma” Sal-Site.

2018. Web. 26 Mar. 2018, http:// www.ambystoma.org/research/ salamander-genome-project.

2018, https://www.livescience. com/34513-how-salamanders-regenerate-lost-limbs.html.

(5) “TP53 Gene - Genetics Home Reference.” U.S. National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health, 13 Feb. 2018. Web. 1 Apr. 2018, https://ghr.nlm.nih. gov/gene/TP53.

(8) Zhu, W. “What Can the Water Monster Teach Us about Tissue Regeneration in Humans?” Salk News. Salk Institute for Biological Studies, 25 Sept. 2012. Web. 26 Mar. 2018, https://www.salk.edu/ news-release/what-can-the-watermonster-teach-us-about-tissue-regeneration-in-humans.

(6) Hamm, M. “Miracle Healer: Scientists Attempt to Crack Secret Code of the Axolotl.” Spiegel Online. Spiegel TV, 02 Dec. 2010.

Web. 5 Mar. 2018, http://www. spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/miracle-healer-scientistsattempt-to-crack-secret-code-ofthe-axolotl-a-732283.html.

(7) Lewis, T. “Missing Parts?

Salamander Regeneration Secret Revealed.” LiveScience.

Purch, 20 May 2013. Web. 5 Mar.

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(9) Wren, S. “Axolotls on the EDGE!” EDGE of Existence, 24 Apr. 2008. Web. 5 Mar. 2018, https://www.edgeofexistence.org/ blog/axolotls-on-the-edge.

“Ambystoma mexicanum.” The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN, 2016. Web. 5 Mar. 2018, http://www.iucnredlist.org/ details/1095/0.

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Genetically Modified Mosquitoes May Be the Key to the Extermination of Malaria and Zika Virus

By Minseo (Charles) Lee Mosquitoes have existed on Earth even before the birth of mankind. Researchers found a mosquito fossil that contains the blood of an unknown creature, and after testing, found out that the fossil dates back to 46 million years ago (1). These mosquitoes that have survived by sucking blood of numerous organisms are now a great threat to mankind. They serve as vectors of various viral diseases. Mosquitoes are the primary reason for the transmission of deadly virus including yellow fever, malaria, and the Zika virus(2) (Fig 1). Therefore, finding a way to get rid of mosquitoes would definitely contribute to preventing the spread of lethal diseases.

In order to prevent the transmission of diseases via mosquitoes, the United States Food and Drug Administration is considering the introduction of genetically modified (GM) mosquitoes with a self-destruction gene to artificially decrease mosquito population (2). There are mainly two methods to create GM mosquitoes: Oxitec’s gene transformation method and CRISPR method.

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Oxitec, an insect biotechnology company in the UK, has devised a new method for genetically modified male Aedes aegypti mosquitoes to mate with female mosquitoes. Only female mosquitoes bite humans and among them, Aedes aegypti mosquitoes transmit diseases such as dengue, Zika, chikungunya and yellow fever (3). The GM mosquitoes contain an antidote inside their genome that allow them to survive in the wild, but it cause their offspring to die (4). These mosquitoes target one species only, and are thus expected to cause minimal damage to the ecosystem, compared to pesticides that damage the biosphere nearby. Oxitec has already created mosquitoes with fatal genes and has succeeded in decreasing the number of mosquito larvae in several regions; therefore, positive impacts are expected from this new technology. In addition, the company controls pests without using insecticides by using genetically modified insects. The method is more effective and environmentally friendly than insecticides.

(5)

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Another method, called the gene drive, is a method that allows specific species to have particular genes. Gene drive is an artificial method that increases the possibility of a gene to be passed on to offspring (6). This technology was invented by Dr. James of University of California Irvine. In specific, this technology spreads genes into forest mosquitoes that result in sterility, thereby completely exterminating a specific mosquito species. The extermination is done by using a gene editing system, CRISPR(Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats)-Cas9, which is intended to insert a specific mutation into a gene and copy the same gene multiple times (7). Scientists insert a gene that creates a mutation within, and use nuclease (an enzyme that divides chains of nucleotides into smaller units) to copy the identical gene. This gene causes mosquito larvae to die before growing to be adult mosquitoes, thereby not being able to bite humans. Research reveals that the technology is effective; about 99% of genetically modified male’s offspring received added genes (8).

Although there are many positive expected outcomes, there are concerns as well. Because mosquitoes have existed for such a long time, they have co-evolved with numerous species present on Earth; mosquitoes serve as a pollinator for plants and prey for predators (9). Furthermore, these genetically engineered mosquitoes could disrupt the ecosystem from a long term perspective. Mosquitoes are arising as a huge problem all around the world, but people should be cautious before taking action to control the mosquito population. The extermination of mosquitoes is not merely just an extinction of a single species, but it is an issue that is intimately related to the public health of mankind.

Figure 1: Mosquito bites spread the deadly Zika Virus. https://www.defense.gov/Photos/ Photo-Gallery/igphoto200166590/

Works Cited (1) Stromberg, J. “A Fossilized Blood-Engorged Mosquito Is Found For the First Time Ever.”

Smithsonian.com, 14 Oct. 2013, https://www.smithsonianmag. com/science-nature/a-fossilized-blood-engorged-mosquitois-found-for-the-first-time-ever-1749788/. Accessed 28 Apr. 2018.

(2) Olena, A.. “GM Mosquitoes Closer to Release in U.S.” TheScientist, 13 Oct. 2017, https:// www.the-scientist.com/?articles. view/articleNo/50636/title/GMMosquitoes-Closer-to-Release-inU-S-/. Accessed 28 Apr. 2018.

(3)“Friendly Mosquitoes.” Oxitec.

(4 )Fernandez, C. “Genetically Engineered Mosquitoes will arrive in India to fight Dengue.”

Labiotech, 25 Jan. 2017, https:// labiotech.eu/oxitec-gm-mosquito-india-dengue/. Accessed 28 Apr. 2018.

(5) Oxitec. “Our Technology.” Oxitec, Mar. 2013, www.oxitec.com/ our-technology/.

(6) McFarling, U. “Could this zoo of mutant mosquitoes lead the way to eradicating Zika?”

Statnews, 13 Dec. 2017, https:// www.statnews.com/2017/12/13/ gene-drive-mosquitoes-darpa/.

Accessed 28 Apr. 2018.

(7 )Ledford, H. & Callaway, E.

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“‘Gene drive’ mosquitoes engineered to fight malaria.” Nature, 23 Nov. 2015. https://www.nature. com/news/gene-drive-mosquitoes-engineered-to-fight-malaria-1.18858. Accessed 28 Apr. 2018.

(8)Pennisi, E. “Gene drive turns insects into malaria fighters.” Science, 23 Nov. 2015. http://www. sciencemag.org/news/2015/11/ gene-drive-turns-insects-malariafighters. Accessed 28 Apr. 2018.

(9) Fang, J. “Ecology: A world without mosquitoes.” Nature, 21 Jul. 2010. https://www.nature.com/news/2010/100721/ full/466432a.html. Accessed 28 Apr. 2018.

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The Commercial Space Race and the Breaching of the Final Frontier

By Antoine Wiley

Launching a rocket into orbit is a massive undertaking. An individual launch can run anywhere from tens of millions to nearly a billion dollars, and success isn’t guaranteed[1]. Even if the launch doesn’t result in a catastrophic explosion, the rocket can’t be used again, resulting in a colossal waste of resources.

This lack of rocket reusability has greatly limited the rate at which NASA, the U.S. Military, and humanity as a civilization can send things into space. Or at least that’s how things used to be.

Commercial players have burst onto a multi-billion industry

traditionally dominated by government agencies and forever changed the launch equation, leading to dramatic cost cuts and a sharp uptick in launch rates. The most prominent of these companies are SpaceX and Blue Origin. SpaceX, founded in 2002, made history only six years later in September 2008 when its Falcon 1 rocket became the first privately developed liquid fueled rocket to reach orbit, which went on to become the first rocket of its kind to deliver a commercial satellite to orbit the following year [2] [3]. What makes SpaceX so revolutionary and successful is its focus on reus-

able rockets. If we could reuse rockets as effectively as we do airplanes, the price of access to space would plummet dramatically. And that breakthrough is getting closer and closer; in December 2015 the Falcon 9 landed upright at a launch facility after having delivered 11 communications satellites into orbit, a historic first [4].

But SpaceX isn’t the only new player in the market. Aerospace titan Blue Origin, helmed

by Amazon CEO and world’s richest man Jeff Bezos, has many of the same ambitions as SpaceX and its own trophy case of spaceflight milestones; the rocket booster of a New Shepard

rocket (the company’s standard rocket) landed on Earth on November 23, 2015, marking the first time in history that a rocket booster went to space and back [5]. And although these companies’ lofty goals of daily launches and Martian colonization still remain out of reach, the effects of these efforts are already clear: prices have dropped drastically relative to even a decade ago.

The trend only continues with each breakthrough, the most recent being SpaceX’s successful test launch of the Falcon Heavy, the most powerful rocket in operation “by a factor of two” [6].

The rocket can launch a staggering 140,660 pounds of cargo into low-Earth orbit at a price tag of $90 million dollars, which works out to a jaw-dropping

$639.84 per pound [7]. To put that in perspective, United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy is seven to twelve times as costly [8]. The trend is only going to gain momentum as rocket manufacturers learn to more capably recover their rockets and refurbish them for the launch pad.

Recent rocketry advances are certainly worth celebrating, but our growing proficiency at spaceflight raises many issues.

Companies like SpaceX and Blue Origin think of space as more of a playground for human activity, while NASA and other government agencies have a far less hands-on vision, and nothing more sharply highlights this difference

than Mars. While NASA plans to eventually send astronauts to Mars in the future, the agency’s current ambitions are to studiously examine the planet for signs of life, carefully sterilizing each spacecraft it sends to the red planet in order to prevent contamination from terrestrial microbes, while SpaceX intends only to colonize and ultimately terraform Mars to render it more habitable. Just one rocket from SpaceX would irreversibly change the microbiome of Mars, abruptly shattering the research aims of thousands of scientists.

The extent to which which we should interact with space remains an open question, one we will end up having to answer sooner or later.

Works Cited (1) “Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network.” U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, optn.transplant.hrsa. gov/. Accessed 11 Apr. 2018.

(2) “Xenotransplantation.” U.S. Food and Drug Administration, 5 Feb. 2018, www.fda.gov/biologicsbloodvaccines/xenotransplantation/. Accessed 11 Apr. 2018.

Figure 1: A Falcon 9 rocket blasts off from its launch pad. The Falcon 9 is SpaceX’s most widely used rocket. Its reusability has turned the commercialization of space exploration into reality. Source: http://www.spacex.com/media.

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(3) Servick, Kelly. “CRISPR slices virus genes out of pigs, but will it make organ transplants to humans safer?” Science, 10 Aug. 2017, www.sciencemag.org/ news/2017/08/crispr-slices-virusgenes-out-pigs-will-it-make-or-

gan-transplants-humans-safer.

Accessed 11 Apr. 2018.

(4) “Questions and Answers about CRISPR.” Broad Institute, www.broadinstitute.org/whatbroad/areas-focus/project-spotlight/questions-and-answersabout-crispr. Accessed 11 Apr. 2018.

(5) “About eGenesis.” eGenesis, www.egenesisbio.com/about-us/.

Accessed 11 Apr. 2018.

(6) Niu, D., Wei, H., Lin, L., et al..

“Inactivation of porcine endogenous retrovirus in pigs using CRISPR-Cas9.” Science, 10 Aug.

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2017, arep.med.harvard.edu/pdf/ Niu_Yang_2017.pdf. Accessed 11 Apr. 2018.

(7) Griffin, Andrew. “Pig organs could soon be transplanted into humans after major ‘xenotransplantation’ breakthrough.” Independent, 10 Aug. 2017, www. independent.co.uk/news/science/ pig-human-transplant-organs-xenotransplantation-crispr-cas9-pervs-porcine-retrovirus-a7887071. html. Accessed 11 Apr. 2018.

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CRISPR and Pigs:

How We Could Solve Organ Needs

By Kiran Biddinger

winner of the Laurence S. Persky Award 2017-18

Figure 1: The hallway of the eGenesis, a lab dedicated to perfect the technique and practice of xenotransplantation so that it can become common medical practice.

Every 10 minutes, someone is added to the national transplant waiting list. Every day, 20 people die while waiting for an organ donor. As of October 2017, about 116,000 people were currently waiting for organ transplants (1). However, simply not enough human organs are available to help these people: At that same point in 2017, only 26,000 transplants had been carried out for the year, with 12,000 donors (1).

One suggestion to fix this shortage was xenotransplantation, the “transplantation, implantation, or infusion” of non-human or animal cells, Page 12

tissues, or organs into a human (2). Pigs seemed to be a possible solution for viable organs, as their organs can grow to roughly the same size as humans’. However, pig to human transplantation was ruled out after the discovery of PERVs, or porcine endogenous retroviruses. These retroviruses are seemingly harmless to pigs, but they can become active and cause fatal problems with humans (3). Thus, pig organ transplantations were seen as useless, until CRISPR Cas9 was discovered.

CRISPR Cas9, which stands Helix

for Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats, is a technique that allows scientists to make changes at specific locations in the genome through the following process. “CRISPR ‘spacer’ sequences are transcribed into short RNA sequences” to find specific sequences of DNA (4). CRISPR utilizes a guide sequence of RNA that is complementary to the target region of DNA and an enzyme called Cas9 (4). The guide sequence of RNA binds to and brings the Cas9 to the target region (4).

Then, the Cas9 enzyme binds to and cuts the target DNA

(4). Intended to treat genetic diseases in humans, CRISPR allows scientists to fix genetic mutations (4). For pigs, the idea was mostly the same: Scientists would use CRISPR to remove the genes causing the retroviruses, so the retroviruses would not be able to harm humans.

A company that focuses on this process of making organs that could be transplanted into humans was founded in 2015

by Harvard geneticists George Church and Luhan Yang (5).

Later in 2015, they found that they could use CRISPR to deactivate all 62 PERVs in pigs, bringing modern science even closer to xenoplantation (6). Because it would be very

difficult to remove the retroviruses from already living pigs, the scientists decided to pursue the goal of breeding their own pigs without the retroviruses. They were able to breed and nurture real live pigs who seemed to have no trace of the PERVs (6).

Therefore, pig organs could be transplanted into humans without activating the retroviruses in order to keep the transplantee safe. However, that discovery does not mean that xenoplantation is tested and ready for action. Still other problems loom, such as figuring out a way to prevent the human body from rejecting a pig’s organ (3).

Nevertheless, even if xenotransplantation became both achievable and acceptable, doctors would have to decide who would get the privilege of human organs: should it be people with religious objections, wealthy people who can pay more, or people picked in a random lottery? Pigs organs would very likely be inferior to human ones (7). Someone would have to create a policy as to who gets the human organs, which would likely be preferable to pigs. So, watch as modern science gets closer and closer to being able to transplant pig organs into humans: both the scientific and moral battles.

news/2017/08/crispr-slices-virus-genes-out-pigs-will-it-makeorgan-transplants-humans-safer.

Accessed 11 Apr. 2018.

dogenous retrovirus in pigs using CRISPR-Cas9.” Science, 10 Aug. 2017, arep.med.harvard.edu/pdf/ Niu_Yang_2017.pdf. Accessed 11 Apr. 2018.

Works Cited (1) “Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network.” U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, optn.transplant.hrsa. gov/. Accessed 11 Apr. 2018.

(2) “Xenotransplantation.” U.S. Food and Drug Administration, 5 Feb. 2018, www.fda.gov/biologicsbloodvaccines/xenotransplantation/. Accessed 11 Apr. 2018.

(3) Servick, Kelly. “CRISPR slices virus genes out of pigs, but will it make organ transplants to humans safer?” Science, 10 Aug. 2017, www.sciencemag.org/

(4) “Questions and Answers about CRISPR.” Broad Institute, www. broadinstitute.org/what-broad/areas-focus/project-spotlight/questions-and-answers-about-crispr.

Accessed 11 Apr. 2018.

(5) “About eGenesis.” eGenesis, www.egenesisbio.com/about-us/.

Accessed 11 Apr. 2018.

(6) Niu, D., Wei, H., Lin, L., et al.. “Inactivation of porcine en-

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(7) Griffin, Andrew. “Pig organs could soon be transplanted into humans after major ‘xenotransplantation’ breakthrough.” Independent, 10 Aug. 2017, www. independent.co.uk/news/science/ pig-human-transplant-organs-xenotransplantation-crispr-cas9-pervs-porcine-retrovirus-a7887071. html. Accessed 11 Apr. 2018.

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Why the Dinosaurs Became Extinct:

New Discoveries

By Charles Sloane

Over the summer of 2017, places around the world experienced darkness due to the moon passing in front of the sun, known as a solar eclipse. This eclipse was an interesting phenomenon to watch, but would it have been favorable if that darkness lasted for about two years with our world falling apart around us? Sixty-six million years ago the world remained dark for as much as two years with massive consequences once an asteroid hit Earth. An asteroid collided into Earth at the Yucatán Peninsula. This location is possibly one of the worst places it could have hit. The geology of this place shows that the sedimentary rocks were extremely dangerous and unlucky to the life on Earth (1).

There have been many hypotheses around the mass extinction of the dinosaurs. Until a recent drilling project, very little was actually known about why the dinosaurs became extinct. The main recent hypothesis is that this extinction was extremely rare and against all odds, as supported by the drilling project (2).

A location on Earth that could cause such a catastrophic extinction from an asteroid such as the one that hit the Yucatán Peninsula is extremely rare.

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Only thirteen percent of the planet possesses the surface rocks that can cause a mass extinction from a similar asteroid (1). Other large asteroids have hit Earth without mass extinctions such as the one that hit Chesapeake Bay because the area did not have the specific sedimentary rock (3). It, therefore, did not cause a major extinction even though they were similar in size. If the asteroid had hit most anywhere else on the Earth, we might be living in a world populated with dinosaurs to this day (4).

The reason why the spot where the asteroid struck caused a mass extinction was the sedimentary rocks that lay below.

A sedimentary rock called evaporite is in surplus in certain places (Fig. 1). Evaporite forms when a large body of water evaporates leaving these deposits (5). Evaporite was rich in hydrocarbon and sulfur, and when the asteroid hit Earth, the impact heated the sedimentary rock, vaporizing it (6). Sulfate aerosols and stratospheric soot were then created which lead to drought, extreme global cooling, and the blockage of sunlight (6). The sulfate aerosols and stratospheric soot which both originated from the sedimentary rocks are viewed as causes for the mass extinction (6).

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This knowledge was found in a drilling project during the past couple years in the Yucatán Peninsula at the site of the crater. They went deeper than they thought could and found things that had never found before (7).The smallest amount of change in the average surface temperature of the planet that can cause a mass extinction like the one that killed the dinosaurs would be 8-10℃ (6). In the event that killed the dinosaurs sixty six million years ago, the global surface air temperature dropped between 13-17℃ (6).

With the temperature lowering drastically, photosynthesis decreased greatly; the animals such as the dinosaurs that could not adapt did not survive (3).

The dinosaurs could not adapt to the drop in temperature because they were cold-blooded animals which made them need heat from the sun and the air to survive, unlike warm-blooded animals (8).

The main development in the never ending learning curve of the events of the dinosaur extinction is that the extinction itself was an unlucky rarity. This tragic event could have been avoided if the asteroid hit any place in the other 87% of the world, but this event lead to the world we have today (3).

Figure 1: Axolotls exhibit neoteny, meaning that after reaching sexual maturity they still retain their juvenile characteristics. Picture Credit: Pitkanen, Esa. Axolotl. Flickr, 29 July 2009, www.flickr.com/photos/ esaskar/3769444935.

Figure 1: The places on Earth where an asteroid the size of the one that landed in the Yucatán Peninsula could cause a mass extinction like the one 66 million years ago are shown in orange and magenta. Source: Kunio Kaiho and Naga Oshima, https://www.nature.com/ articles/s41598-017-14199-x/figures/4

Works Cited (1) Donahue, M. Z. “Dino-Killing Asteroid Hit Just the Right Spot to Trigger Extinction.”National Geographic, National Geographic Society, 9 Nov. 2017, news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/11/dinosaurs-extinction-asteroid-chicxulub-soot-earth-science/.

(2) Switek, B.. “What Killed the Dinosaurs? Science Has Had Some Wild Ideas.” National Geographic, National Geographic Society, 18 Apr. 2016, news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/04/160418-whatkilled-dinosaurs-chicxulub-craterdrill-science/.

(3) Mack, E.. “Dinosaurs Might Still Be Here If That Asteroid

Hit Almost Any Other Spot On Earth.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 9 Nov. 2017, www.forbes.com/ sites/ericmack/2017/11/09/ dinosaurs-asteroid-earth-chicxulub-extinction/#551185491b62.

(4) Gulick, S.P.S., et al. “GEOPHYSICAL CHARACTERIZATION OF THE CHICXULUB IMPACT CRATER.” Reviews of Geophysics, Wiley-Blackwell, 3 Apr. 2013, agupubs.onlinelibrary. wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/ rog.20007.

(5) The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Evaporite.” Encyclopaedia Britannica, 20 July 1998, www.britannica.com/science/ evaporite.

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(6) Kaiho K. and Oshima N.. “Site of Asteroid Impact Changed the History of Life on Earth: the Low Probability of Mass Extinction.”

Nature News, Nature Publishing Group, 9 Nov. 2017, www.nature. com/articles/s41598-017-14199-x.

(7) Amos, J. “Chicxulub ‘Dinosaur’ Crater Drill Project Declared a Success.” BBC News, BBC, 25 May 2016, www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-36377679.

(8) History.com Staff. “Why Did the Dinosaurs Die Out?” History. com, A&E Television Networks, 2010, www.history.com/topics/ why-did-the-dinosaurs-die-out.

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A Breakthrough in STEM Prizes

By Kate Jones

Every year, actors and directors are recognised at the Academy Awards, and singers are celebrated at the Grammy Awards. But what about science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) researchers? Thanks to an elite group of wealthy people in STEM fields, for the past five years researchers have been not only nominated and honored at an awards show for their research, but also monetarily compensated – as actors and singers are – to be able to continue researching. The

Google, and Mark Zuckerberg, co-founder of Facebook (1).

Each year, seven researchers across the fields of life sciences, fundamental physics, and mathematics are awarded Since their inception, the Breakthrough Prizes (1). AddiBreakthrough Prizes have tionally, the same organization revolutionized the way STEM awards New Horizons Prizresearchers are recognised es, which are smaller prizes and celebrated. Yuri Milner, a awarded to up to six new well-known technology invesresearchers who show promise tor, used his wealth to help advance STEM fields by found- in their fields (prize website 2). ing the Breakthrough Prize The Breakthrough Prize at its along with an elite group in core differs from the Nobel the STEM community including Sergey Brin, co-founder of Prize in that it honors younger Breakthrough Prize gives those involved in STEM a chance to receive the public recognition that singers and actors receive.

researchers who have already shown promise, gives them the financial means to make more discoveries, and recognises researchers for coming up with hypotheses even if they are unable to further research them yet (1). The Breakthrough Prize also celebrates researchers in mathematics as well as other STEM fields, unlike the Nobel Prize (3).

One of the 2017 Breakthrough Prizes was awarded to mathematician Jean Bourgain for his research in a further application of the Pythagorean theorem (3). Jean Bourgain, born in 1954 in Belgium, attended the Free University of Brussels, where he earned a Ph.D in mathematics (4). He won

a Fields medal, a very prestigious award in mathematics, for his wide range of research and proofs (britannica 4).

Although Bourgain received the Breakthrough Prize for all of his research and discoveries in mathematics, a major factor in his winning was his recent “decoupling theorem.”

This theorem takes the general ideas put forth by Pythagoras of comparing triangle side lengths to the hypotenuse length and applies them to the superposition (adding together) of waves such as radio or light waves (3). Bourgain’s connection between the Pythagorean theorem and the superposition of waves (3) highlights his mathematical style of applying concepts

from various fields of mathematics to proofs (4).

Achievements In Science And Awards More Than $25 Million In Prizes At Gala Ceremony In Silicon Valley, Breakthrough Prize, breakthroughprize.org/News/34.

Times, 4 Dec. 2016, www.nytimes.com/2016/12/04/sc ience/breakthrough-prizes-science-math.html.

Every year, the Breakthrough Prizes honor STEM researchers such as Bourgain and give them the recognition they deserve along with the monetary resources needed to continue revolutionizing STEM fields.

The annual Breakthrough Prize serves as a wonderful celebration of all the revolutionary work that STEM researchers do by reminding the world that STEM researchers are celebrities too.

Works Cited (1) Kiger, Patrick J. “About the Breakthrough Prize.” About the Breakthrough Prize, National Geographic Channel, 29 Oct. 2015, channel.nationalgeographic.com/breakthrough-prize/articles/aboutthe-breakthrough-prize/.

Mathworld photograph. Source: Britannica ImageQuest, Encyclopædia Britannica, 25 May 2016. quest.eb.com/search/132_1348706/1/132_1348706/cite.

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(2) “Breakthrough Prize.”

Breakthrough Prize – Breakthrough Prize Marks 5th Anniversary Celebrating Top

(3) Dennis Overbye, Kenneth Chang, Nicholas St. Fleur and Denise Grady. “$25 Million in Breakthrough Prizes Given in Science and Math.” The New York Times, The New York

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(4) The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica. “Jean Bourgain.”

Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 30 Jan. 2017, www.britannica. com/biography/Jean-Bourgain.

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Ethan Berman

Celena Eccleston

Q: What is your area of STEM that you work in or are interested?

Q: What will your major/focus area be in college?

Interviewed by Zan Huang

A: Computer Science and Software Engineering. I’m also interested in cybersecurity, but I know less about it than I do software engineering. I have been programming since I was in 6th grade and I have taken a couple of programming classes at Milton. I program a lot for fun in my free time, and I plan on studying computer science at Whitman College.

Q: How has programming class at Milton changed your skills or interests?

A: Well my artificial intelligence class has definitely clued me into a lot of stuff I never heard before

Interviewed by Ariane DesRosiers

and helped me narrow what I am actually interested in studying in computer science. Through studying artificial intelligence this year, I have learned that I don’t really like artificial intelligence as a field.

That was helpful for me so that in college I can study what interests me.

Q: What got you into Programming?

A: Well my Dad worked for IBM as a lawyer, but before then he was into computers, back when computers were very new. In college he majored in management science because that was the department of the school where they had the best computers and the best access

A: As of right now, it is definite that my focus will be on biology, but I am not sure if I will major in biology with a concentration of neuroscience or double major in biology and neuroscience. to computers. He graduated and worked as a programmer for a while then decided to go to law school, so he works around technology for a job. When my brother was 12, he got a CD of lessons in Basic and tried to teach me, but I was really young, so I struggled a lot. So computer science was around me growing up. It was intuitive.

Molly Chiang A: Harvard University Q: What will your major/focus area be in college?

Q: What was your favorite DYO at Milton?

Q: What do you like about STEM? A: I really like biology because I love learning about how things work and about all the amazing processes that all living things are doing to grow and interact. As for STEM overall, I like the field because I really like solving puzzles. STEM is a constantly growing

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Q: Interests for after college?

A: Right after undergraduate school, I plan to go straight to medical school to become a neuro-

A: I think I first became interested when I was maybe in third grade or so. In a science class I saw a human body model that the middle school was using and was shocked that the body could be so complex.

And then as I grew I learned more about geology, chemistry, evolution, biology, etc. During my time at Milton, I chose to take the electives of Neuroscience and Anatomy & Physiology.

Q: What was your favourite DYO from Milton?

A: My favorite DYO at Milton was last year in biology, where I used yeast and sugar to blow up balloons.

Max Hui

Q: What will your major/focus area be in college?

field with tons of puzzles that when solved can change people’s lives and make the world a better place.

A: Most likely biology, as I plan to concentrate (major) in Molecular and Cellular Biology.

A: I will attend Emmanuel College.

Q: How did you first become interested in science and how did you explore your interest in science?

Interviewed by Ariane DesRosiers

Interviewed by Kate Jones

Q: What college will you attend?

Q: What college will you attend?

surgeon.

A: My favorite DYO was probably my one from this year. This DYO investigated the differing effects of synthetic and natural antibiotics on bacterial toxicity, growth, and proteome. Although it definitely was a complicated DYO and we ran into some difficulty along the way, it was still my favorite as I was able to learn cool new procedures like running gels. Also, setting up the poster and presenting at the Science Symposium was really fun.

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A: When I was applying, I put aerospace engineering down, but now I’m not quite sure; I think I might do aerospace engineering or maybe computer science.

Q: Did any specific teacher/friend/ scientist inspire your passion for science?

Q: What college will you attend?

A: I think the two teachers that most inspired my passion for science have been Ms. Lillis and Mr. Edgar, who taught me for Honors and Advanced Bio respectively.

Their passion when teaching the material really sparked my interest in biology, an interest which only continued to grow the more I learned.

Q: How did you first become interested in science and how did you explore your interest in science?

A: Harvey Mudd!

A: I’ve always been interested in astronomy and the solar system.

So, in the summer after freshman year I did a program in astrophysics at Johns Hopkins (through the CTY program) and then I came to

the realization that I wanted to do something more applied, something where I could look at and see the full outcome of my work.

Q: What is/are your DYOs this year? Favorite DYO from Milton?

A: My favorite is either my Chemistry DYO or my Advanced Physics DYO. In Chemistry last year, I definitely had a lot of fun writing up my lab report on the Briggs-Rauscher Reaction because there’s not that much information on the internet about this reaction, so it felt like I was doing a lot of original research. For my Physics DYO, we built an ion thruster that would be used in spacecraft. Writing the lab report was slightly harder, but I had too much fun to think about writing the lab report.

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Q: What was your senior project?

A: I had two: one of them is 3D modelling and printing a scaled jet engine, and my other half project is creating an album with a couple other kids in my dorm. It should mostly be pop covers and mashups, and maybe some originals, so catch us on SoundCloud!

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Caroline Magann

Matthew Tyler

Q: What will your major/focus area be in college?

Q: What will your focus area be in college?

Interviewed by Kelly Han

A: I plan to major in Biology on the Pre-med track with a minor/ concentration in Genetics or Human Health.

Q: What college will you attend?

A: I will attend Boston College.

Q: Interests for after college?

A: At of this moment, after college, I’m planning to go to medical school. I want to become a pediatrician, because I love science as well as working with kids.

Q: How did you first become interested in science and how did you explore your interest in science? Did any teacher inspire

Interviewed by Charles Sloane

your passion for science?

A: I’ve always liked math and science more than the humanities, but I first became really interested in biology while taking Honors Biology and Anatomy and Physiology. I knew it was something I loved and wished to continue, leading me to take Advanced Biology the following year. Mr. Edgar really inspired my interest in the field and he is one of my all-time favorite teachers.

Q: Which science electives did you take and what did you like most about them?

A: I took Advanced Biology, Anatomy and Physiology, Nuclear Physics, and Molecular Genetics. I liked that everyone in the electives was interested in the same topics,

A; I plan to major in mathematics, but I will also be taking some chemistry and physics classes. so we could have good discussions and experiments. We also got to use some advanced college level labs and techniques.

Q: Have you done any internships or held any jobs in the field of science?

A: I have not done any internships or held any jobs in the field of science yet, but for my senior project, I shadowed doctors in a variety of different fields at Mass General Hospital.

Q: What will your major/focus area be in college?

A: Most likely either molecular and cellular biology or biomedical engineering.

Q: What do you like about STEM? A: I like how applicable the information is. I never wonder “why am I learning this” because it is clear that the information either has already or eventually will translate into new technologies, therapies, and innovations.

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Q: Are you going to have any minors?

A: I will probably minor in a material science such as chemistry or theoretical physics.

Q: What do you like about science specifically at Milton?

A: I think that the exploratory nature of science at Milton is extremely helpful with the learning.

It helps you to understand how

you think and how you understand science.

Q: Did anyone in particular inspire your passion for science?

A: It would have to be my father, Mr. Tyler (a chemistry teacher here at Milton Academy), and Mr. Shrager would be on the list.

Carson Prindle Q: What will your major/focus area be in college?

Interviewed by Kate Jones

A: Dartmouth College

A: I will be attending Harvard University.

A: I think it started back in my fourth grade year, when Mr. Schrager taught an extremely fun science class, which I think sparked my interest. My freshman year, I had Mr. Duseau who was challenging but made the material seem really interesting. Also, my interest in chemistry was sparked

by Mr. Larochelle.

Interviewed by Wilder Crosier

Molly Wilson Q: What college will you attend?

Q: What college will you attend?

Q: Why do you like science?

Q: What was your favorite DYO at Milton?

A: My favorite DYO was my DYO from Advanced Biology. My partner and I first classically conditioned planaria by pairing light exposure with a brief electrical shock (which they contracted in response to) so that the planaria learned to associate the light with the shock to the extent that they contracted in response to just the light. We then severed the planaria directly below the head or a bit above the tail, generating head-less and tail-less planaria segments. After, we tested the response of regenerated planaria to light and found that all of the

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A: I’m going into computer science. I definitely want to do a little bit more mechanical engineering, maybe somewhere in the designing aspect of the robotics realm or in virtual reality,

segments retained the conditioned response (they contracted in response to light alone), suggesting that, for planaria, memory is not entirely localized in their brains.

Q: Do you have any particular interests for after college?

A: I hope to be either a doctor or a biomedical engineer.

Q: What college will you attend?

A: University of Wisconsin–Madison Q: How did you explore your interest in science at Milton?

A: In middle school I did robotics and had a lot of fun with that. In high school I did all four of the computer programming classes, and senior year I took Nuclear

Physics, Issues in Environmental Science, and Engineering the Future.

Q: Have you done any internships or held any jobs in the field of science?

A: I did an internship for three weeks at Markley Group, which is a big data center in downtown Boston. I did some work with marketing and some with the hardware, such as all the servers that they had, and I worked on the AC units and other things in the building.

Q: What is your senior project?

A: I made a virtual reality game using the platform Unity and writing in C Sharp. The main premise of the game has one person on a

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PC and one person in VR who has to fight hordes of enemies on the screen with various weapons of your choice.

Q: Interests for after college?

A: I will be doing computer science, but l I definitely want to do more on the product design/development end of that. I definitely want to work on something that requires creativity.

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Charis Palandjian

Pari Sharma

Q: What will your major/focus area I definitely first became interested be in college? in science.

Q: What is/are your DYOs this A: Undecided, but I am interested year? Favorite DYO from Milton? in pursuing something in the realm of biology or chemistry.

A: My DYO this year was working with C. elegans, and was probaQ: What college will you attend? bly my favorite DYO from Milton.

I had never worked with these A: Harvard University worms before, so it was definitely a cool experience to work with a new Q: How did you first become inter- organism for my last Milton experested in science and how did you iment. explore your interest in science?

Q: Have you done any internships A: My science classes at Milton or held any jobs in the field of science? were probably my first real exposure to scientific inquiry and experimentation, and this is where A: Last summer I worked at the

Q: What college will you attend?

elephant toothpaste traveled.

A: University of Rochester

Q: Did any specific teacher inspire your passion for science?

Interviewed by Seokmin (Ryan) Choi

Interviewed by Kate Jones

Q: What will your major/focus area be in college?

MIT Media Lab with a group called the Community Biotech Initiative.

This group focused on developing tools and technologies to enable the broadest possible participation in biotechnology. I worked on projects that included designing low cost biological hardware, such as a gel electrophoresis or a PCR.

Andrew Song

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Peter Marangos Q: What will your major/focus area be in college?

astronaut as well. It’s always been a dream of mine since forever :)

A: Mechanical Engineering; I hope Q: Why do you like science? How to do a lot of aerospace work specif- did you first become interested in ically science and how did you explore your interest in science?

Q: What college will you attend?

A: I’ve always had fun doing math A: Columbia University and especially solving problems and the satisfaction that comes with doQ: Are you going to have any miing it well. I explored this interest by nors? getting ahead with math curricula as fast as possible. I went to a robotics A: I might minor in Computer Scicamp and a math problem-solving ence, Mathematics, or Philosophy camp in middle school, and a cosmology course based camp at StanQ: Interests for after college? ford my freshman year. After that, I emailed my resumé to different A: I hope to work in industry or institutions across the country and grad school. If it’s a realistic option, was lucky to contact with a postdoc, I’d see what I can do to become an Zachary Slepian, who said he’d be

A: I would like to go to medical school after my four years of undergrad and ideally be able to practice medicine as a surgeon. Although that is a long road, I know that it is what I would like to do. I would also like to do research in a topic that I form a certain interest in after my clinical experience.

Interviewed by Seokmin (Ryan) Choi

Interviewed by Seokmin (Ryan)Choi

Q: What will your major/focus area be in college?

A: I would say that Mr. Moore was an inspiration for my passion for A: Biochemistry science. The year that I had chemistry with Mr. Moore I did an inQ: What was your favorite DYO at ternship with a microbiology lab in Milton?

Boston, and after break we would talk about what I had done in the lab A: My favorite DYO at milton was and the bigger picture. His ability to for Chemistry class with Mr. Moore. explain how there are many factors For our DYO, my partner and I in one aspect of science intrigued decided to do an experiment with me into wanting to explore more. “elephant toothpaste.” We altered the amount of hydrogen peroxide we Q: Do you have any particular interput in and measured how high the ests for after college?

A: I plan on studying computer science and electrical engineering.

Q: What college will you attend?

A: I will be attending the University of Chicago after a gap year.

Q: Have you done any internships or held any jobs in the field of science?

A: For STEM electives, I have taken Programming 2 and 4, Engineering the Future, and Advanced Physics.

A: Over the summer before my senior year, I worked on a data-analysis project on the biomechanics of rowing. My team and I developed sensors that could be placed at various points on the boat, and we used the data that we collected to provide useful metrics to coaches and athletes.

Q: Interests for after college?

Q: What is your senior project?

A: During or after college, I’m hoping to work at a high-profile tech company: Google, Microsoft, Apple, etc. Eventually I’d like to

A: For my senior project, I explored stock market automated trading algorithms. I started with reading Seth Klarman’s Margin

Q: Which science electives did you take? happy to let me intern and work on a project he thought would be interesting! The project was about exploring a possible solution to the “Missing Satellites Problem”, and after I returned to work with him the next year for 5 weeks at the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, we found a satisfying answer!

I wrote a long paper about it, and really enjoyed the experience.

either start my own company or join a startup, but it’s impossible to know when an idea worth pursuing will come along.

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of Safety to gain an understanding of fundamental stock market concepts. I then focused directly on algorithmic trading, first by reading Ernest Chan’s Algorithmic Trading: Winning Strategies and Their Rationale, and I explored existing machine learning strategies for stock trading, including standard neural networks, q-learning, recurrent neural networks, decision trees, and others. By the end of the project, I hope to develop a new strategy that combines the successful parts of existing models with my own inventions.

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Jessica Wang

Jeffrey Cao

Interviewed by Kate Jones

Q: What college will you attend?

A: Yale University Q: What will your major/focus area be in college?

A: Double major in Computer Science and Creative Writing Q: What do you like about STEM? A: I like how it’s kind of messy and how it’s not really about procedures and protocol but about figuring things out as you go. It’s like a giant puzzle you have to solve and figure out. I really like the logic to it.

Interviewed by U.G. Gurol

Q: What was your favorite DYO at Milton?

Q: What will your major/focus area be in college?

A: My favorite DYO was my junior year DYO, in which I looked at yeast. Ethanol makes yeast die, but it is also a byproduct of yeast respiration, so if there is too much byproduct, the yeast will die. I found that the amount of ethanol did decrease the cell respiration, but in turn increased the cell size.

A: Computer science.

Q: Did any specific teacher spark your passion for STEM? A: Ms. Pries is probably my absolute favorite teacher for STEM. She taught me that I am a very smart and capable person, and through her I realized that being

Eloise Baker

Q: Which college will you be attending?

good at something in STEM isn’t only about the technical skills going into it but also about your confidence and your ability to think that you are a capable person. She also made me realize that Computer Programming isn’t a dry subject, but that there is a way to make human connection exist in this field.

She introduced me to the concept of coding for “good” and for social change.

Interviewed by Kevin Lu

Q: What will your major/focus area be in college?

A: I am undecided on what my major is at this point but I am interested in pursuing Biology.

Q: What college will you attend?

A: Brown University Q: Interests for after college?

A: I am not sure what I want to do after college yet, and I’m hoping to find what I’m really interested in by utilizing Brown’s open curriculum the next four years.

Q: Why do you like science?

A: I like science because it gives

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me a way to answer questions I have through experimentation and allows me to figure out the mechanisms behind how things work.

Even though I don’t know what I want to do after college I feel like following a path of science would give me a way to try to help solve some of the world’s most pressing issues.

Q: How did you first become interested in science and how did you explore your interest in science?

A: When I was younger I did a few science summer camps that my middle school offered and I really enjoyed the marine biology focused activities and field trips.

Q: What is/are your DYOs this year? Favorite DYO from Milton?

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A: University of Chicago.

Q: Do you have any interests for after college?

A: I’d like to work in the field of computer science, particularly in AI or machine learning.

Q:Why do you like science?

A: I think that science is all-encompassing in terms of who it affects and how it impacts the world. It’s cool to think that there are so many people working in different fields of science who are constantly making discoveries.

Our lives are all affected, some way or another, by these people.

Literally everything such as our phones, and even the smallest items, are made possible by scientists and engineers.

Q: Do you recognize any teacher/ friend/scientist for inspiring or furthering your passion for science?

A: I think that my honors biology teacher from last year, Ms. Seplaki, really opened my eyes into how to look at science and how to approach problems. I didn’t really have any interest in biology, but she definitely made it more accessible and enjoyable for me.

Q: What is/are your DYOs this year? Favorite DYO from Milton?

A: I didn’t actually take a science course this year, but I did take

computer programming. One project from that class which I consider a DYO was designing AI that could predict how many likes an Instagram photo could get.

The project was cool, and it was still the same process of finding a problem and then designing a method for solving a problem followed by testing the method. My all-time favorite was my physics DYO. We studied how the angle of the blades on a windmill would affect its efficiency. We had to build our own windmills which was a really fun, but challenging experience.

Romain Speciel

Interviewed by Kiran Biddinger

A: My DYO this year was exploring the effect of blue light on the ability of Standard Fastplant cryptochromes to enhance plant growth in the presence of a strong magnetic field. I think my Advanced Biology DYO is also my favorite DYO from Milton because I liked being able to test out an idea that hasn’t been fully supported in scientific research yet, that cryptochromes can act as magnetic sensors.

Q: What college will you be attending?

the countless mathematical questions which I was exposed to.

A: University of Toronto

Q: Which STEM electives did you take? How were they?

Q: What will your major/focus area be in college?

A: Pure math Q: How did you first become interested in STEM and how did you explore your interest?

A: Math always appealed to me, and, since a young age, I have been curious about the answer to

A: I took Advanced Physics, Group Theory and Abstract Algebra, Multivariable Calculus, Advanced Topics (over 4 semesters), independent study in Number Theory. I loved all of those classes, particularly Group Theory. Indeed, I recommend Group Theory to anyone with an interest in math , as it is the first exposure to math beyond high school and has some

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really neat applications.

Q: What are your interests for after college?

A: I don’t know yet! I hope to keep math involved in my career, and am willing to embrace wherever that will take me.

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Jason Bussgang

James DeLano

Interviewed by Seokmin (Ryan) Choi

Q: What will your major/focus area be in college?

A: Not sure, but definitely something in the natural sciences or economics Q: What college will you attend?

A: Bowdoin College Q: How did you first become interested in science and how did you explore your interest in science?

A: My grandfather and dad are both very good at math. My grandfather has been a physicist and inventor of the Bussgang Theorem and my dad majored in computer science in college, so

Interviewed by Kevin Lu

Q: What will your focus area be in college?

I have always been interested in math and science and obsessed with asking the question “why” for everything.

Q: What was your favorite DYO from Milton?

A: My favorite DYO from Milton was in Honors Biology when I tested the effect of vitamin D on planaria’s life expectancy.

Q: Any teacher/friend/scientist inspired your passion for science?

A: My advisor Mr. Moore has been a true inspiration to my love of science given how passionate he is. Mr. Larochelle was also an excellent teacher and person for Honors Chemistry and Anatomy

and Physiology.

Q: Have you done any internships or held any jobs in the field of science?

A: I did an internship at Mass General Hospital 2 years ago and did research on mice with and without ALS, testing for different proteins that are expressed more or less in the mice with ALS using western blotting.

Patrick Huang A: Civil or environmental engineering, but I also want to study statistics and public policy.

Q: What college will you attend?

A: Princeton University.

Q: What science do you like and why do you like it?

A: Science allows you to apply concepts you learn in a classroom and be able to make a change in the world. Science allows you to

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Q: What college will you attend?

A: Williams College Q: Interests for after college?

Kevin Lu

A: I will be focusing on Mechanical/Biomedical Engineering.

really make a difference and help improve your surroundings. Particularly, I’m interested in renewable energy Q: How did you first become interested in science and how did you explore your interest in science?

A: From as early as elementary school, I was fond of doing math.

Typically, I think math and science go hand and hand. So naturally, as I was interested in mathematics, I got attracted to science.

Q: Which science electives did you take?

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Q: What college will you attend?

A: I will be attending the Massachusetts Institute of Technology A: Last year, I took Nuclear Physics. Everyone was interested in the subject but also wanted to have fun while learning it, so it made that course interesting. This year, I’m taking Organic Chemistry, Introduction to Aerodynamics, and Science in the Modern Age. They are all really good courses and each of them has their own focus.

Q: Did any teacher inspire your passion for science?

A: Mr. Owens, Mr. Hales, Ms. Pries, and Mr. Kassatly in no particular order. They were all awesome teachers and helped me realize I wanted to do this.

Q: Have you done any internships or held any jobs in the field of science?

A: No. I may this summer, though.

Q: What was your senior project?

A: A data science project. I’m writing a bunch of code to solve a kaggle-inspired challenge. I’m learning a lot about featuring engineering and modeling — two of the most critical aspects of data science.

Interviewed by Seokmin (Ryan) Choi

Q: What will your major/focus area be in college?

Interviewed by Charles Lee Q: What will your major/focus area be in college?

A: I’m thinking about majoring in computer science, economics, and/or statistics. I’ll do some combination of the three — a triple major may be ambitious, but it’s a possibility. I could end up with a minor in one or more of the above instead.

A: Something to do with computer science or data science. I’m not exactly sure what that would look like but there are a lot of options.

Q: Are you going to have any minors?

A: I am considering minors in either Finance or Computer Science. I haven’t really done any work in those areas but I know that in the long run, having some knowledge on them would be valuable.

Q: Interests for after college?

A: I’m not really sure what I would want to do after college. As of right now, I am leaning towards becoming an engineer, focusing on designing and creating prosthetics. This may lead me to the MIT Media Lab, where they are currently focusing on prosthetics in the ankle area. Another possible route would be going to medical school.

Q: Why do you like science?

A: I like science because I like to understand how the world around me works. Through science, I can learn about why everything is the way it is, but it also gives me the opportunity to apply what I know and try to make sense of things on my own.

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Q: How did you first become interested in science?

A: One of the first ways I became interested in science was by collecting rocks as a child. Having gone to Brazil frequently, I had easy access to a plethora of rocks.

From there, I became interested in how one rock differed from another and why it would be more valuable. I would read about their properties and just try to understand how they all compared to each other.

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Andriana Velmahos

Nina Taneja

Q: What will your major be in college?

Q: What will your major/focus area be in college?

Interviewed by Seokmin (Ryan) Choi

Q: What college will you attend?

ologist, a trauma surgeon, and a brain/spinal cord specialist. For the other half, I learned traditional Greek dances with another Greek student at Milton, and then we taught a class at school for our final presentation.

A: I will be attending Boston University

Q: Any teacher/friend/scientist inspired your passion for science?

Q: Interests for after college?

A: Honestly, the whole science department has inspired my passion for science. I am especially grateful for Mr. Edgar, Mr. Moore, Ms. Seplaki, and Ms. Pedersen for making my science experience extra special.

A: Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

A: I am mainly interested in pursuing something related to medicine or engineering after college Q: What is your senior project?

A For my senior project, I did two half projects. The first one was shadowing a variety of doctors at MGH and Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital including a cardi-

Q: Have you done any internships or held any jobs in the field of science?

A: I had a working internship at MIT’s Biochemical Engineering

Interviewed by Seokmin (Ryan) Choi

A: Electrical and Computer Engineering Lab. I was helping on a project funded by the Department of Defense. We were working with an injectable nonmaterial that prevented blood coagulopathy.

This medicine was originally targeted for soldiers on the field to temporarily help them until they can reach a better medical institution; however, the hope is that it can also be used in other settings, such as in ambulances. During other vacations, I have joined volunteer organizations which visit remote locations in need of health care.

Tyler Carlton A: I will be studying biology, but I do not have a concentration in mind yet.

Q: Has any teachers inspired your passion for science?

A: Although they did not spark my interest in biology, my Junior year science teachers (Mr. Edgar and Mr. Bingham) played a fairly large role in helping me make the choice to pursue a career in STEM. Q: Have you done any internships or held any jobs in the field of

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A: How did you first become interested in science and how did you explore your interest in science?

Q: I first became interested in science just before freshman year.

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A: I love the inquiry process at Milton and how we are encouraged to pursue what interests us.

Q: What is/are your DYOs this year? Favorite DYO from Milton?

A: My favorite DYO was the one I did this year with a partner in

A: I like science because it enables me to view the world through a well-informed lense, so I know how and why things work, whether it be the human digestive system or carts moving on a rollercoaster.

Q: How did you first become interested in science and how did you explore your interest in science?

Catherine Gallori A: Definitely something in Biology, maybe Neuroscience or Cellular Biology.

A: Yes, I have interned at a hospital and a research laboratory.

A: I am considering a minor in Chemistry or Environmental Science.

Q: What do you like about science specifically at Milton?

Q: What will your major/focus area be in college?

science?

Q: Are you going to have any minors?

A: Columbia University

Q: What is your favorite exhibit in the Museum of Science?

A: I have always liked science but my experiences in the last few years at school and outside of school have made me even more excited about science. At Milton, I loved Chemistry Honors class with Mr. Moore and my Advanced Physics class with Mr. Kernohan this year. Over the past few summers I interned at a cancer research lab and worked at an electrical engineering lab building a circuit to improve EEG systems.

Interviewed by Seokmin (Ryan) Choi

Interviewed by Seokmin (Ryan) Choi

Q: What will your major/focus area be in college?

Q: What college will you attend?

Advanced Physics. We created versions of Bhaskara’s Wheel, a type of perpetual motion machine, and analyzed the physics behind perpetual motion.

Q: What college will you attend?

A: While on vacation with a friend, I read an article about stem cell regeneration and its wide-ranging possibilities and I found it to be very interesting. At that point in time, I did not really explore science much further beyond a National Geographic magazine or two. Now, four years later, I find myself watching informational science shows and reading about random college experiments when I probably should be working on my Senior Project.

A: Harvard University.

Q: How did you first become interested in science and how did you explore that interest?

A: I used to read a lot of science books for kids, and in middle school I started reading journalism articles and science books for the general public.

Q: What do you like about science specifically at Milton?

A: I really liked Honors Biology because I really enjoyed the problem-solving nature of the thinking.

I also really liked Advanced Biology; I’ve improved so much in my ability to think of a question and design an experiment around it.

Q: What science electives did you take and what was your DYO? A: I took Advanced Biology and Neuroscience this year, and my DYO in Advanced Biology was about planaria and the effect of ethanol on their head regeneration. Ethanol is hypothesized to work on brains through raising the activation of a specific protein, and in our DYO it showed that ethanol worked in planaria in part by raising the activation of that protein.

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Q: Have you done any internships or held any jobs in the field of science?

A: I worked in a lab at Dana-Farber for the past two summers under a grad student. I was helping him study a particular protein, and we’d sit down at the end of each day and debrief what I did and the science behind it. I had a ton of fun; everyone in the lab was willing to talk to me and help me out.

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Daniel Little

Sophie Clivio

Interviewed by Jun Seob Shim

Interviewed by Ariane DesRosiers

Q: What will your major/focus area science in my 7th grade Biology be in college? class. I had a teacher who was incredibly in love with biology A: Biology, and I may want to focus (and science in general) and, on Neuroscience. because he was so passionate, I really learned a great deal about Q: What college will you attend? the scientific process and how important it is in life. At Milton, A: University of North Carolina, I explored that interest by taking Chapel Hill. a variety of science courses from Molecular Genetics to Anatomy Q: Interests for after college? and Physiology.

A: I would like to pursue medicine, Q: What was your DYO this year? so after college I will be applying to Favourite DYO from Milton? medical school.

A: My DYO for Advanced Biology Q: How did you first become inter- was titled “The effect of increasested in science and how did you ing light exposure on Physarum explore your interest in science? polycephalum (slime mold) stress levels, measured through decision A: I first became interested in accuracy”. This lab would proba-

Devon Park

Q: What will your focus area be in college?

A: Most likely biochemistry, but that could change.

Q: What college will you attend?

A: Bowdoin College bly be my favorite DYO because it was my first full lab in Advanced Biology, and I enjoyed working with the organism and had a reasonable trend in my data.

Q: What is your senior project?

A: One half project is shadowing Dr. Cetrulo (a plastic surgeon) at MGH and another half project is choreographing 3 dances (George Luo will be filming them).

A: Not sure, maybe neuroscience or engineering Q: What college will you attend?

A: Columbia University

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A: I did two musical half projects.

One involved me playing funk

Q: What will your major/focus area be in college?

Q: What do you like about science specifically at Milton?

A: Computer Science Q: What college will you attend?

A: At Milton, I like how it is focused on inquiry rather than just shoving “facts” down our throats.

in molecular genetics Mr. Edgar made this topic really fun and exciting to learn about even though some topics were complicated.

A: Pitzer College

Q: What is your senior project?

Q: What STEM electives did you take?

A: My senior project was making a virtual bulletin board app

Q: Have you done any internships or held any jobs in the field of science?

A: Nuclear Physics, and Issues in Environmental Science and all 4 programming classes

Q: Are you going to have any minors?

A: This year for Molecular Genetics, I really liked the GAPDH cloning project because it was cool to take a gene from a radish and put into bacteria cells.

Helix

Q: What was your DYO this year?

Favorite DYO from Milton?

Q: What is your senior project?

Q: Which science electives did you take? Favorite?

A: I took Organic Chemistry 1 and 2 this year, which I really enjoyed.

I think it’s the only science elective I’ve taken, but it is one of my favorite classes I’ve taken.

Interviewed by Kevin Lu

Q: What is/are your DYOs this year? Favorite DYO from Milton?

Q: How did you first become inter- Q: Any teachers inspired your ested in science and how did you passion for science? explore your interest in science?

A: I really liked all my science A: I always liked science. I really teachers. Mr. Sando was passionliked Anatomy and Physiology in ate about science and Mr. Moore my junior year and Organic Chem- was a really great teacher too. istry and Molecular Genetics in my Because of Mr. Moore and his senior year. Ultimately, the chem- life story with organic chemistry, istry and biology route really made I later took Organic Chemistry. me interested in science.

With biology, I really enjoyed learning with Mr. Bingham and

A: Science gives me a framework to try to analyze and understand things about the world I live in. I really enjoy understanding concepts that are a part of my daily life, and for me, science is a very gratifying and interesting way to understand these concepts!

music on saxophone with a band, and the other involved me learning guitar with a different band.

Jack Weiler

Interviewed by Seokmin (Ryan) Choi

Q: What will your major/focus area be in college?

Q: Why do you like science?

A: This year in Organic Chemistry we didn’t have a regular DYO, but we did have an assignment where we chose a bioactive molecule to research and present on. I chose testosterone, and I enjoyed the project a lot. My favorite DYO from Milton would probably be last year in Honors Biology. I put translucent flies in ethanol and measured the change in the flies’ heart rate. I came up with a mechanism to be able to look at the flies under a microscope.

Counting the heartbeats was very tricky, but when I finally came up with a good design the experiment was a lot of fun.

A: No, but I hope to in college and take advantage of all the research opportunities that they offer.

Q: Interests for after college?

A: Working in an app development start up or doing bioinformatics research

A: Biology or Economics

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Helix Board 2018-19

Editors-in-Chief: Kate Jones and Seokmin (Ryan) Choi Faculty Advisors: Ms. Lillis and Mr. Sando

Cover image: Hawaii’s Mount Kilauea experienced eruptions earlier this month.

Maron, Erez. Mesmerising Images of Lava Flows Seen from the Air. Photograph.

National Geographic. December 5, 2017. Accessed May 30, 2018. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/content/dam/photography/PROOF/2017/December/ lava-gallery/10-lava-j-Kilauea-Ocean-Entry-9-10-2017-pan1.adapt.1900.1.jpg.