Owls Issue 2 (June 2018) - "Assumptions"

Edition II: Asumptions June 2018

Oxford & Wimbledon Leading Scholarship

The Journal of the Academic Scholars of Oxford and Wimbledon High Schools

OWLS Quarterly, Edition II, June 2018 For the second piece of 2017-18 OWLS writing and research we thought it would be interesting to draw together the collective thinking of the Owls to identify and address assumptions in their chosen disciplines. We asked the students to be provocative and bold as they challenged widely-held views, and formed their own opinions. In this edition of OWLS Quarterly our 2017-18 scholars and exhibitioners range across many topics and disciplines; from the efficacy of the Big Mac index to the relevance of Classical Music, and from the use of algorithms in predicting voting patterns to the relevance of Greek Tragedy for a 21st century audience. It has been inspiring to see their fresh takes on established ideas emerge and take shape, and to see in print the expansive quality of their thinking.

Ms Rachael Pallas-Brown (OHS) & Dr John Parsons (WHS) – Editors

CONTENTS

CONTENTS

Introduction Introduction by

by Professor Professor Sonia Sonia Massai Massai An An exploration exploration of of pain pain & & pleasure pleasure in in literature literature Challenging Challenging the the assumption assumption that that because because the the dialect dialect used used in in online online discourse discourse is is different different to to that that used used in formal English prose, it is full of grammatical errors rather than it being deliberately different in formal English prose, it is full of grammatical errors rather than it being deliberately different Challenging Challenging the the assumption assumption that that the the Big Big Mac Mac Index Index is is aa good good measure measure of of purchasing purchasing power power parity parity Challenging assumptions: Women’s rights in Saudi Arabia Challenging assumptions: Women’s rights in Saudi Arabia

Page Page 2 2 Page Page 3 3 Page Page 7 7 Page 9 Page 9 Page Page 11 11 Page 12 Page 12

Challenging Challenging the the assumption assumption that that Authorial Authorial Intent Intent matters matters ‘Man’s attaining to a higher eminence…than can woman’ ‘Man’s attaining to a higher eminence…than can woman’ (Charles (Charles Darwin).

Darwin).

Does the theory of evolution really prove women to be physically, emotionally inferior inferior to to men? men? Page Does the theory of evolution really prove women to be physically, mentally mentally and and emotionally Page 15 15 Challenging the assumption that performance enhancing drugs should be banned Page 17 Challenging the assumption that performance enhancing drugs should be banned Page 17 The The assumption assumption that that dangerous dangerous chemicals chemicals are are only only destructive destructive ‘Don’t go outside without a coat –You’ll catch a cold!’

‘Don’t go outside without a coat –You’ ll catch a cold!’Challenging Challengingthe theassumption assumptionthat that being cold gives you a cold being cold gives you a cold How How did did assumptions assumptions shape shape Hillary Hillary Clinton’s Clinton’s 2016 2016 Presidential Presidential Campaign Campaign Challenging the assumption of the Appearance of witches Challenging the assumption of the Appearance of witches Challenging Challenging the the assumption assumption that that classical classical music music has has no no relevance relevance to to today’s today’s youth youth How genetic parentage testing challenged the assumption that because most How genetic parentage testing challenged the assumption that because most birds birds were were observed observed to be socially monogamous, they were Sexually monogamous too. to be socially monogamous, they were Sexually monogamous too. (and (and the the Portrayal Portrayal of of birds birds as as loyal loyal and and Romantic Romantic as as aa result) result) The The misconception misconception that that men men are are better better athletes athletes than than women women th Challenging the assumption that the ‘Madwomen in the Challenging the assumption that the ‘Madwomen in the Attic’ Attic’ in in the the 19 19 th century century literature literature were the villains of their stories were the villains of their stories Challenging Challenging assumptions: assumptions: Is Is water water really really as as harmless harmless as as we we think? think?

The assumption that a single cure to Cancer will be found The assumption that a single cure to Cancer will be found

Page Page 20 20 Page Page 22 22 Page 25 Page 25 Page Page 28 28 Page Page 30 30 Page Page 32 32 Page 34 Page 34 Page Page 37 37 Page 40 Page 40

st Greek Greek tragedy tragedy is is no no longer longer Relevant Relevant in in the the 21 21st century century

Page Page 43 43 Page 46 Page 46

Challenging Challenging gender gender assumptions assumptions In In Computer Computer Science Science Challenging the assumption that Space Exploration Challenging the assumption that Space Exploration is is aa waste waste of of time, time, money money and and resources resources

Page Page 48 48 Page 50 Page 50

Switching Switching to to Renewables, Renewables, How How easy easy is is it? it?

Should we worry about Science?

Should we worry about Science?

Page Page 52 52 Page 57 Page 57

Challenging Challenging the the assumption assumption that that the the tallest tallest skyscrapers skyscrapers are are the the best best Challenging Challenging the the assumption assumption that that aa majority majority government government provides provides more more stability stability than than aa coalition coalition

Page Page 59 59 Page Page 62 62

The The ‘Yellow ‘Yellow Cab’ Cab’ phenomenon phenomenon –– stereotypes stereotypes surrounding surrounding Japanese Japanese women women and and sexuality sexuality

Page Page 64 64

“Rage, rage against the dying of the light.” The assumption 1 that medical treatment should always be prioritised over quality of life

Page 66

INTRODUCTION by PROFESSOR SONIA MASSAI KINGS COLLEGE LONDON

As a Shakespearean, I have often wondered why William Shakespeare, successful early modern London playwright and England’s national poet, has become a global icon and brand name. What aspects of his work continue to inspire creative practices across all main art forms and across language, cultural, and national borders?

Far from being praised for the sort of wisdom, insight, and edgy creativity that Charles Foster so eloquently associates with owls in the previous issue of this magazine, Shakespeare was compared to a much less auspicious bird during his lifetime. One of his contemporaries, professional writer Robert Greene, famously compared him to an ‘upstart crow’. Unlike Greene, Shakespeare was not university educated and had a modest upbringing in rural Stratford-upon-Avon. Even those who praised him for his achievements remarked on his lowly origins. Ben Jonson, who, after Shakespeare’s death, prophetically described his work ‘not of an age, but for all time’, noted that Shakespeare knew ‘small Latin, and less Greek’.

Clearly what makes Shakespeare stand apart from other great writers is not what he knew, but how he used what he knew to create a startling ‘world of words’, a language that is ‘rich and strange’, because it is evocative and expansive.

When Titania, the Queen of the Fairies in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, reminisces about sitting on Neptune’s yellow sands, watching large merchant ships sail across the Indian ocean, and how she laughed when she saw the ‘sails conceive and grow big-bellied with the wanton wind’, her language joins together two very different realms of experience, pregnancy and trade. By linking them together, Shakespeare encourages us to be just as creative, outrageous, and unorthodox, and to look at the world differently, by comparing the excitement experienced by the first merchants who put their lives at risk to bring back home rich merchandise and exotic commodities with the excitement and the risks associated with pregnancy.

The expansive quality of Shakespeare’s imagination survives in the best translations, which in turn inspire theatre directors, writers, scholars and students to continue to look at the world as if we ‘had eyes again’. Shakespeare’s most important legacy is the power of human creativity. Art, as much as scholarship, should not aspire only to instruct and to expand our knowledge; artists, as much as scholars, including the young scholars who write for this magazine, should use their knowledge to imagine exciting, alternative ways of being human in an ever-changing world.

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cries a human being makes before language is learned.”2 Here, Scarry seems to suggest that pain not only resists language but “destroys it” as the brain’s is overwhelmed by the visceral experience. However, unlike physical pain, physical pleasure is influenced by a multitude of both physical and emotional sensations. The cause of physical pleasure can, counter-intuitively, be emotional and thus, more linked to our thought processes. Whilst the psychologist Vygotsky says that “Inner speech is almost without words”3, he also acknowledges that “It still remains speech, i.e., thought connected with words”4. Thus, due to its connection with our thoughts, which are in turn associated with inner speech, psychological suffering is more easily converted into written speech or prose than physical suffering.

Therefore, whilst emotional pain is more languagebuilding than emotional pleasure, physical pain is less so than physical pleasure. I strongly agree with Scarry’s declaration that “pleasure, unlike pain, is really language-building”5. Language-building in the sense that pleasure more frequently feeds into the development of imagery and vivid descriptions.

Moreover, I agree with her further concepts of “Psychological suffering” being “susceptible to verbal objectification” and thus “habitually depicted in art”6.

Here, Scarry acknowledges that emotional pain moves more easily from the subjective to the objective than physically painful experiences.

AN EXPLORATION OF PAIN & PLEASURE IN LITERATURE Bella Gate (WHS) ‘It is true that if something is intensely physical it can absorb all of one’s energy so that one might not have any resources left over for speech. But I do think that pleasure, unlike pain, is really language-building’ Elaine Scarry There is a stark contrast between the way in which writers approach emotional and physical experiences.

Fundamentally, in the case of emotional suffering, it is highly productive for the writer to attempt to convert personal pain into pleasure through the creation of art.

Indeed, Aristotle speaks of the pleasure-giving catharsis that is related to the process of creating and observing tragedy: “Tragedy is an imitation of an action that is serious complete and possessing magnitude […] effecting through pity and fear [what we call] the catharsis of such emotions.”1

Both psychological and physical pain have frequently been seen to produce silence in works of literature.

Most notably in the tragedies of Shakespeare. In King Lear, Lear’s reaction as he brings in Cordelia’s body can be seen as, perhaps, animalistic. He says “Howl, howl, howl, howl! O! you are men of stones: / Had I your tongues and eyes, I’d use them so / That heaven’s vaults should crack. She’s gone for ever.” (V.iii.25860)7 His language regresses to “the pre-language cries and groans”8 of a young child. Moreover, the men around him become “men of stones” who are also unable to express their grief. Thus, here we see psychological pain as being resistant to language. In

However, physical pain is language stifling, most significantly because it is experienced in the absence of language. Indeed, most often, physical pain fails to even touch the verbal as it can be experienced solely through physical sensations. Scarry suggests: “Whatever pain achieves, it achieves in part through its unsharability, and it ensures this unsharability through its resistance to language […] Physical pain does not simply resist language but actively destroys it, bringing about an immediate reversion to a state anterior to language, to the sounds and

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Aristotle, Poetics, ed. James Hutton (New York 1982), p.50 2 Elaine Scarry, The Body in Pain (Oxford 1987), p.4 3 L.S. Vygotsky, Thought and Language (London 1986), p.145 4 Ibid. p.149

Elaine Scarry, The Body in Pain (Oxford 1987) Ibid. p.11 7 William Shakespeare, The Tragedies of Shakespeare (Chicago 1955), p.783 8 Elaine Scarry, The Body in Pain (Oxford 1987), p.6 6

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Macbeth, Macduff’s response to hearing of the death of his wife and children is at first silence and then simplistic language. When the news is given, Malcolm speaks first: Rosse:

constancy of Esther’s depression. The “bell jar” metaphor portrays just how suffocating and inescapable she finds her mental illness to be.

Moreover, Plath strikingly presents emotional dissociation with “I felt still and very empty, the way the eye of a tornado must feel, moving dully along in the middle of the surrounding hullabaloo”11. She conveys how, in the depth of her soul Esther feels an emptiness, and even a calmness, that is so distant from the outer chaos of her life. Thus, in this, perhaps, postmodernist work (due to its seemingly unreliable narrator), Plath effectively converts personal pain into a form of pleasure – through the process of writing.

Furthermore, she examines the impact that psychological suffering has on the sensation of physical pain: “Then I lifted my right hand with the razor and let it drop down of its own weight, like a guillotine, on to the calf of my leg. I felt nothing. Then I felt a small, deep thrill, and a bright seam of red welled up at the lip of the slash.”12 Here, Plath conveys the way in which psychological pain stunts the feeling of physical pain. The psychological suffering is so deep that the sensation becomes skewed as a “thrill” as opposed to stereotypical physical pain. This conveys the intense power that the mind can have over the body and might suggest that language and thought play a large role in physical pain. However, it is perhaps more likely that it is feeling and emotion that does not touch language – the unexplainable, the inexpressible – that determines whether or not the physical pain is felt rather than rational thought or the inner speech that Vygotsky speaks of. Yet, later in the novel Esther’s body can be seen to have power over her mind: “Each time I would get the cord so tight I could feel a rushing in my ears and a flush of blood in my face my hands would weaken and let go, and I would be alright again.”13 As Esther attempts to hang herself the physical sensations take over and have full control of the outcome. This struggle between physical and psychological is pivotal when exploring the language-building effects, or lack thereof, of pain.

Moreover, Plath herself said that “I think my poems immediately come out of the sensuous and emotional experiences I have, but I must say I cannot sympathise with these cries from the heart that are informed by

Your castle is surpris’d; your wife, and babes, Savagely slaughter’d […]

Malcolm:

Merciful heaven!

What, man, ne’er pull your hat upon your brows; give sorrow words. The grief that does not speak whispers the o’er fraught heart, and bids it break.

(Macbeth, IV.iii.204-09) Malcolm is aware of the way in which, despite its silent nature, Macduff’s grief is intensely painful and heart-wrenching. When Macduff first speaks he begins to ask seemingly juvenile and futile questions such as “My children too?” and “My wife kill’d too?” to the point that Rosse responds “I have said”9. This initial silence, followed by simplistic language, highlights the way in which psychological pain does have the ability to stifle language. This is however, by no means to say that silence does not hold its own dramatic effect. Indeed, like rests in music, silence in literature can be as significant and effective as dialogue. However, it cannot be denied this creates a distance between the audience and the characters as language is the principal, intensely powerful, form of connection that a playwright holds.

On the other hand, other authors, particularly of the post-colonial and post-modernist periods, have successfully filled this semantic gap that is created as writers attempt to objectify pain. In The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath explores both psychological and physical pain and finds them both to be rather languagebuilding. The use of an extended motif of “the bell jar” creates a consistent and striking description of Esther Greenwood’s psychological suffering. “Wherever I sat – on the deck of a ship or at a street café in Paris or Bangkok – I would be sitting under the same glass bell jar, stewing in my own sour air,”10 conveys the 9

11

William Shakespeare, The Tragedies of Shakespeare, (Chicago 1955), p.566 10 Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar, (London 1966), p.178

Ibid. p.2 Ibid. p.142 13 Ibid. p.152 12

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nothing except a needle or a knife.”14 Here, Plath suggests not only that physical pain is difficult to write about but that the emotions that surround the process of self-harm are also untouched by language. Thus, again, it seems clear that emotional pain is easily written about but that physical pain, and even the emotions associated with it, are far from languagebuilding.

climactic experience, perhaps, even aligning it with something morbid due to harshness of this moment compared with the flowing lines that precede it. Here, the physical experience seems to influence syntax, thus physical pleasure proves itself to be particularly language-building.

Physical pleasure seems to be equally language building in the poetry of John Donne. In this poem Donne describes the climactic moments of an experience with his mistress:

Fundamentally, pleasure is significantly more language-building than pain. This, perhaps, is because, due to its relation to emotion, pleasure interacts with language more in a cognitive sense. Sensual experiences are significantly more emotional than physical pain. This can be found in erotic fiction such as the poetical works of E.E. Cummings and John Donne. This poem by Cummings vividly describes the physical experience of sexual intercourse:

“Then like the chemic’s masculine equal fire, Which in the limbeck’s warm womb doth inspire Into th’earth’s worthless dirt a soul of gold, Such cherishing heat her best loved part doth hold.

“the

Thine’s like the dread mouth of a fired gun,

internalexpanding

Or like hot liquid metals newly run

&

Into clay moulds, or like to that Etna,

externalcontracting

Where round about the grass is burnt away.”

brakes Bothatonce and

(Elegy VIII: The Comparison)16

brought all of her tremB

The use of alliteration with the “warm womb” inspires a sense of wetness and heat, accurately connoting to the physical sensations which Donne attempts to describe. Moreover, the repetition of soft “sh” sounds in “Such cherishing heat” convey the aural effects of friction during sexual intercourse. Unlike the first Cumming’s poem, here Donne does not seem to be reduced in his language-building skills by the aural nature of sexual intercourse but rather it feeds into the vivid descriptions. The rich imagery of “hot liquid metals” and the reference to the volcano Mount Etna which vividly describe the process of ejaculation go to prove that physical sensations are fundamentally language-building.

-ling to a:dead. stand;Still)”15 In this excerpt, he intensely describes the physical sensations associated with an erotic experience. Thus, the reader is given a vivid sense of the “expanding” and “contracting” of body parts and the silence that follows orgasm. Moreover, the form which the poem takes with the use of enjambment and words which go over lines seems to suggest that Cummings is following the experience temporally, the linguistic richness creating an immediacy. The end-stopped line at “to a:dead.” seems to suggest the finality of a

Vygotsky states that “Direct communication between minds is impossible, not only physically but psychologically. Communication can be achieved

14

16

https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/muscular-sanitythe-language-of-pain-in-literature/# 15

https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/johndonnes-erotica

E.E. Cummings, Selected Poems, (New York 2007), p.77

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only in a roundabout way. Thought must pass first through meanings and then through words.”17 However, unlike Pessoa, Vygotsky acknowledges the power that language holds in order to enable communication and sharing of emotional experiences.

He suggests that thought processes occur first in “meanings” and then become “words” which can be translated into written speech. Whilst emotional experiences can have physical manifestations, for example, anxiety can lead to nausea or anger can lead to a headache, fundamentally, they occur through thoughts, which in turn can be fairly easily translated into writing. However, physical experiences in many cases do not touch said types of thought. Thus, they are less easily converted into poetry, prose or drama as can be seen by the struggle that Plath speaks of in describing physical pain. Beyond the early stages of childhood, when language is just being learnt, “Words play a central part […] in the development of thought”18 thus, there is an innate connection between thought and emotion with language. Here lies the significant difference between the way in which writers attempt to objectify emotional and physical experiences. Emotional or psychological experiences are objectified in our own minds as they occur whereas physical experiences remain wholly subjective until we begin to have thoughts surrounding them. Thus, perhaps, the gap between subjectivity and objectivity that Scarry speaks of lies not only in the transfer of experience to language but also in the initial transfer of experience to thought that occurs in our minds.

However, there is a crucial difference between physical pain and pleasure: Pleasure is more affected by our emotions and is not a solely physical experience as can be seen in the erotic poetry of E.E. Cummings and John Donne. As writers attempt to describe erotic experiences they can’t help but muddle sexual gratification and feelings of love or closeness. This, perhaps, is as these two things are intertwined – one might even say that physical pleasure cannot exist without simultaneous emotional pleasure. Therefore, if physical pleasure is in fact a more emotionally driven experience than physical pain, it thus interacts with thought more. Such thought is fundamentally linked to language and has already begun to objectify the experience. The poetry of E.E. Cummings and John Donne seems to clearly display that Scarry is correct in her assessment that physical pleasure is

more language-building than physical pain. Moreover, the poetry of Emily Dickinson and the post-modernist and post-colonial novels of Jean Rhys and Sylvia Plath seem to suggest that psychological pain, unlike physical pain, is rather language-building. Thus, I strongly agree that “pleasure, unlike pain, is really language-building”.

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18

Bibliography Aristotle, ed. James Hutton (1982). Poetics. New York: W. W. Norton & Company Vygotsky, L.S. (1986). Thought and Language. London: MIT Press Scarry, E. (1987). The Body in Pain. New York: Oxford University Press, Inc. Shakespeare, W. (1955). The Tragedies of Shakespeare.

Chicago: Spencer Press, Inc. Plath, S. (1966). The Bell Jar. London: Faber and Faber Limited Cummings, E.E. (1994). Selected Poems. New York: W.W. Norton & Company Donne, J. (1950). A Selection of his Poetry. Middlesex: Penguin Books Ltd https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/johndonnes-erotica https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/muscular-sanity-thelanguage-of-pain-in-literature/#

L.S. Vygotsky, Thought and Language (London 1986), p.150

6

Ibid. p.153

conventions, while seeming arbitrary and lazy to an unfamiliar observer, nonetheless function as an internally consistent set of rules that are mutually understandable—the definition of a grammar. In fact, this dialect is optimised for conveying emotion skillfully and with great precision through text, which is essential for those with friends online with whom they cannot frequently interact in person. This function of messaging online has caused the evolution of a dialect in which other methods of conveying emotion must be used than tone of voice, body language or other methods. Moreover, those who use these language formulations do not forget the grammatical structures of standard prose. Even I might find it somewhat distant and cold to use full punctuation and grammar in a text, in which I also use far fewer punctuation marks. People who spend much of their days using these new dialects are still perfectly able to write naturally and fluently in the more cogent narrative style. This is evidenced both by the lack of any significant decline in adolescent literacy2, and by the abundance of reasonably- to excellently-written prose self-published online by these same demographics, often for free. Furthermore, changes in writing may be an example of natural linguistic progression. A seventh-century grammarian who complained about his contemporaries not pronouncing words correctly, such as “Februarius non Febrarius”3, was in retrospect documenting the very beginning of linguistic speciation. In this case and others mentioned in the same document, the loss of the middle vowel has become the correct state in various Romance languages, such as “Fèvrier” in French. This essay had insufficient time to discuss even more specific speech communities’ neologisms, such as replacing “who” with “whomst” 4 to mock faux-intellectual selfabsorption. Patterns like this change at a much faster rate, so are harder to discuss—and often never go noticed by anyone outside their own speech community. Even more rapidly varying are specific points of lexical iconography, such as saying “im feeling very knife cat”5 to connote “I am experiencing the emotion conveyed by this well-known photo”.

Stylistic breaking up of sentences and lack of capitalisation are incidentally hallmarks of the great poet E. E. Cummings, and are deliberately used for artistic merit in art forms by people who would not naturally message or tweet. Furthermore, new writing

CHALLENGING THE ASSUMPTION THAT BECAUSE THE DIALECT USED IN ONLINE DISCOURSE IS DIFFERENT TO THAT USED IN FORMAL ENGLISH PROSE, IT IS FULL OF GRAMMATICAL ERRORS RATHER THAN IT BEING DELIBERATELY DIFFERENT Aisling Hanrahan (OHS) There is a common complaint that widespread use of phones or the internet is ruining young people’s literacy. Those who text all the time send messages with run-on sentences and almost no punctuation or capitalisation, which is hard to read and looks sloppy.

Many will even rapidly correct their typographical errors only to replace them with another one!

However, this essay will discuss that this linguistic style may be more of a dialect than objectively incorrect usage, and that texts from people unfamiliar with this vernacular can come off as hostile or overly cheery. The rules of “Twitter Standard English”, while different from those of most prose, are internally consistent and widely accepted. Instead of denoting proper nouns and the beginning of a sentence, capital letters are used to Emphasise Important Words.

Commas are dispensed with in between most clauses; instead, either sentences are parsed as being read very fast and are intended to be a humorous point or rhetorical speech rather than conveying information that requires an answer – or a new paragraph/instant message breaks up a sentence at the point where a speaker would pause for breath. Copious exclamation marks or misspellings convey positive emotions, with extreme amused happiness being denoted by a collection of random letters (“dsakakdsajhhdals”) as though the typist just punched their keyboard.1 These 7

https://www.literacyworldwide.org/docs/defaultsource/where-we-stand/adolescent-literacy-position-statem ent.pdf?sfvrsn=8 3 From the Appendix Probi , discussed here: http://mentalfloss.com/article/62431/16-famous-authorstips-writing-better-poetry .

4 http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/whomst 5 http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/knife-cat 6 bredlik poems are those which use the rhyme scheme and some repurposed lines of “I lik the bred”, poem_for_your_sprog (2016), published on R/AskReddit.

7 Also poetry. See https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/06/t witter-is-the-new-haiku/277405/.

8 Tagliamonte, Sali A., and Alexandra D'Arcy. “Peaks Beyond Phonology: Adolescence, Incrementation, and Language Change.” Language, vol. 85, no. 1, 2009, pp. 58– 108. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40492846.

styles for specific situations crop up more frequently with the recent rise of the bredlik iambic dimeter form of poetry 6, along with discussions of Twitter’s character limit as a restriction that allows creative writing to flourish in a restricted form.7 The youth of today are exposed to a much wider variety of written media, and seem to be developing a wide range of writing styles for different situations. Nobody would speak the same way in a groupchat with close friends of the same age as they would in a chat on the same app with their extended family, let alone a professional email or piece of academic writing. Furthermore, the idea of a “standard English” has always been specifically that of the dominant (white, predominantly male) upper classes which is preserved; cockney slang or African American Vernacular English are no less “correct” than Received Pronunciation with not a single consonant elided, yet encounter similar levels of disrespect. More importantly, the standardised dialect is far from static. Early Modern English used capital letters for all nouns, similar to German, or simply again to emphasise individual words. Labov’s Golden Age Principle states that in general, those who do not start linguistic innovations consistently look down on them, seeing them as a departure from an idealised “perfect version of [language]”. It may be that these blogging teenagers will be the future of the most commonly used version of English. Ultimately, online linguistics is challenging expectations about “millennials’ poor grammar” by having a sophisticated grammar for intonation of many precise emotional nuances, and the capacity to convey these very quickly for people who may be typing back and forth at the same pace as a verbal conversation.

However, the idea that this innovation is a dialect, or influencing future English, may not actually be such an assumption in academic linguistics, compared to the views of the general population. William Labov noted in the 1970s that it is adolescents, especially girls, who lead 90% of linguistic change, and further research has borne him out.

1

Source for all of these: due to being 16, I am naturally exposed to this in general conversation.

2 “Adolescent Literacy: A Position Statement of the International Reading Association”, accessed 22/03 via

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U.K it £3.00, we would then expect that the exchange rate to be 1.67. If the exchange rate (of dollars to pounds) was greater, the Index would therefore suggest the pound was overvalued, and vice-versa.

CHALLENGING THE ASSUMPTION THAT THE BIG MAC INDEX IS A GOOD MEASURE OF PURCHASING POWER PARITY

Although the Index was originally created by The Economist as a light-hearted, simpler way of approaching exchange rates, it has proven to be very popular and has been published regularly since. Not only is it a much easier and accessible way of comparing prices in different countries, but in recent years it has also been used as an argument in different debates, magazines and newspapers. Forbes Magazine, for example, used the Index to argue that inflation in the U.S. as measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI) under-reported the current inflation.

Therefore, by comparing the prices of the same product made of tradable goods, the Index is arguably creating a fair comparison that helps determine currencies’ relative value, which is their main purpose21.

Camila Bonchristiano (OHS) The Big Mac Index is published by The Economist and is an informal way of comparing the purchasing power parity (PPP) of different currencies. The Purchasing Power Parity is an economic theory that analyses different countries’ currencies, and assumes that two currencies are in equilibrium when a ‘basket of goods’ (taking into account the exchange rate) is priced the same in both countries. Multiple funds and organisations, including the International Monetary Fund, use the PPP metrics to make predictions and recommend economic policy, and investors use it to make macro assumptions and predict future exchangerate fluctuations and their likely impact on a country’s economy19. The Index provides a test of the extent to which the market exchange rates result in goods costing the same in different countries.

The Big Mac Index was created by The Economist as an easier and simpler way to track PPP. The Economist has annually tracked the price of McDonald’s Big Mac burger in many countries since 1986 to measure the PPP between nations, using the price of a Big Mac as the benchmark. The Index therefore replaces the ‘basket of goods’ used in PPP with the Big Mac burger. The index, in theory, suggests that any change in exchange rates between two countries would affect the price that consumers pay for a Big Mac in the country20. If for example, the price of a Big Mac in the U.S. was $5.00 and in the

However, in the past few years, the index’s flaws have become more discussed and apparent. Firstly, the Big Mac’s price is decided by McDonald’s Corp. and reflect market prices so are not set by the government.

This can significantly affect the Big Mac Index, which means the difference in prices is not solely due to inflation and exchange rates. In Venezuela for example, there has been hyperinflation reaching 7000%, food shortages and one of the world’s worst violent crime waves in the last couple of years, which encouraged the McDonald’s Corp. to decrease the prices of the burger so that sales would not decrease.

According to the Index, the Big Mac currently costs 132 bolivars, which equals around 67 cents22. The Big Mac’s price may also be determined by taxes, labour and property cost, which all differ across the world. In practice, the local price of the Big Mac includes the prices of tradeables (i.e. the ingredients) and nontradeables (i.e. taxes, rent, etc.). Whereas tradeables, as commodities, have their price set globally, the price of nontradeables vary a substantial amount. It is also expected that the price of nontradeables increase the higher the level of income

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21

"What Is Purchasing Power Parity (PPP)? | Investopedia." https://www.investopedia.com/updates/purchasing-power-parity-ppp/.

Accessed 13 Apr. 2018.

"The Big Mac index - Of bucks and burgers - The Economist." 13 Jul. 2017, https://www.economist.com/news/finance-andeconomics/21725034-dollar-has-slipped-over-past-six-months-still-looksdear-big-mac. Accessed 13 Apr. 2018.

20

"What is the Big Mac Index? - The Balance." 14 Feb. 2018, https://www.thebalance.com/what-is-the-big-mac-index-1978992.

Accessed 13 Apr. 2018.

22

"Is the Big Mac Index flawed? - Macroeconomic Analysis." 27 May. 2013, http://macroeconomicanalysis.com/is-the-big-mac-index-flawed/.

Accessed 13 Apr. 2018.

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per capita in the country is. Therefore, if you were to compare the price of the Big Mac in for example the United States, and in an emerging economy like China or India, the differences in the prices of the burger could largely reflect the difference in income per capita between the countries, and also the share of nontradeables that are part of the Index23.

Bibliography: What is the Big Mac Index?, 2016. The Balance. URL https://www.thebalance.com/what-is-the-big-mac-index1978992 (accessed 22.01.17).

Is the Big Mac Index Flawed?, 2013. Macroeconomic analysis. URL http://macroeconomicanalysis.com/is-thebig-mac-index-flawed/ (accessed 28.01.17).

The focus on a single good, the Big Mac, also prejudices the Index as it does not reflect the multiple products in a more comprehensive ‘basket of goods’ of an economy. While convenient and cost effective from a data gathering perspective, it is too much of a simplification of what the basket contains. Another interesting way of comparing currencies’ relative value could be airfare. By comparing the price of round-the world tickets (RTW), provided by different companies using the same route and the same stops, one would expect to find very similar prices if not identical. However, prices differ depending on the country you start from. Unlike the Big Mac Index where the results may be affected by the labour, rent and other non tradable costs, with airfare you are comparing the exact same product and service24.

However, because of different pricing policies of companies, taxes and competition considerations, prices may alter slightly depending on the country where the airfare is being quoted. However, airfare seems to be a more effective way to compare currencies as its price components of include exactly the same tradeables and nontradeable goods.

My Alternative Big Mac Index is screaming that these currencies are cheap, 2015. Sovereign Man. URL https://www.sovereignman.com/trends/my-alternative-bigmac-index-is-screaming-that-these-currencies-are-cheap17404/ (accessed 30.01.17).

What is Purchasing Power Parity?, 2016. Investopedia.

URL https://www.investopedia.com/updates/purchasingpower-parity-ppp/#ixzz54LUVTOzP (accessed 22.01.17).

This is the country with the world’s cheapest McDonald’s Big Mac, 2015.

The Daily News.

URL https://www.dailynews.com/2015/07/24/this-is-thecountry-with-the-worlds-cheapest-mcdonalds-big-mac/ (accessed 30.01.17).

The Big Mac Index, 2017. The Economist. https://www.economist.com/news/finance-andeconomics/21725034-dollar-has-slipped-over-past-sixmonths-still-looks-dear-big-mac (accessed 24.01.17).

"My alternative Big Mac Index is screaming that these currencies are ...." https://www.sovereignman.com/trends/my-alternative-bigmac-index-is-screaming-that-these-currencies-are-cheap17404/. Accessed 13 Apr. 2018.

The Big Mac Index therefore has its various faults, but nonetheless, it fulfills its main and primary objective of offering a simple way of comparing prices in different countries. It also facilitates the teaching of PPP to students and allows anyone to quickly compare prices and find out an indication whether currencies are over or undervalued. Although it should not be used in places like financial institutions because of its faults, it can be used as a directional indicator of exchange rates’ relative purchasing power.

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"This is the country with the world's cheapest McDonald's Big Mac ...."

24 Jul. 2015, https://www.dailynews.com/2015/07/24/this-is-the-countrywith-the-worlds-cheapest-mcdonalds-big-mac/. Accessed 13 Apr. 2018.

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natives. Women who are seen associating with an unrelated man can be accused of adultery, fornication, or prostitution, and may be harrassed by the religious police. In 2008, a 75 year old women who allowed a man to deliver bread to her in her own home was sentenced to 40 lashes and imprisonment. Due to public spaces being seen as‘male areas’, women are required to cover every part of their body except their eyes and hands in public. This is enforced by the religious police, but the strictness of the dress code varies depending on the region, for instance, while in Jeddah many women do not cover their faces, Riyadh is more conservative.

CHALLENGING ASSUMPTIONS – WOMEN’S RIGHTS IN SAUDI ARABIA Emma Vincent (OHS) In comparison with the rights of women in other parts of the world, Saudi Arabia was ranked 141 out of 144 countries for gender parity by the World Economic Forum in 2016.

Women only make up 18.6% of the native workforce, despite 70% of students in higher education in Saudi Arabia being female, and are forbidden from having contact with members of the opposite sex they are not related or married to. However, more recently significant progress has been made, from allowing women to vote in 2015, and more recently permitting women to drive and observe football games. Saudi Arabia’s stance on women’s rights and gender roles originate from local culture and interpretations of Sharia (Islamic Law). Historically the Arabian peninsula was populated by nomadic patriarchal tribes for which sex segregation and honour were key components of their culture. In Saudi Arabia their branch of Islamic Law, known as Wahhabism, leaves much unwritten and open to interpretation, resulting in in a wide variety of views, although judges tend to rule in favour of more conservative interpretations. Most enforcement of the Saudi ‘moral code’ is done by the Mutaween or religious police, a committee of men with some law enforcement powers, such as the ability to detain anyone, Saudi or foreign national, who they deem to be in breach of the ‘moral law’. According to the Encyclopedia of Human Rights Volume 2, the two main impediments to women’s rights in Saudi Law are sexsegregation and women’s alleged ‘lack of capacity’, which are used to justify such practices as the necessity of a male guardian or mahram’s permission in order to travel or undergo medical procedures. Sex-segregation originates from the concept of family honour and extreme concern for female purity, and focuses on keeping women from contact with male strangers. Most Saudi homes and businesses have a seperate entrance for men and women, as well as separate areas within the home and public places. Restaurants normally have ‘family’ and ‘bachelor’ sections, where in the family section each table or eating area is separated by dividers or curtains. The only exceptions to this are a few hospitals, banks, some newspaper publishers, and the occasional Western business that caters mostly to non-

All women must have a male guardian under Saudi law, typically a father, brother, uncle, or husband, and require their permission for marriage, divorce, travel, education, opening a bank account, or elective surgery. While there is a custom that a women is required to seek her guardian’s permission to seek employment, the law requiring it was repealed in 2008.

However, there has been a lot of progress in the campaign for women’s rights in Saudi Arabia in recent years. The current government is generally regarded as moderately progressive, and has implemented multiple policies regarding the improvement of women’s rights. For example, in 2001 women were granted the right to hold identification cards for the first time, allowing them proof of identity without the presence of a guardian, although until 2006 permission from a guardian was required for a women to obtain an ID card. In 2005 forced marriages were banned, but despite this many marriages are still arranged by the husband to be and the father of the bride. The first female government minister, Noura al-Fayez, was appointed in 2009, and in 2012 female athletes from Saudi Arabia were allowed to compete in the Olympics for the first time.

Women have been allowed to ride bicycles in recreational areas since 2013, and 30 women were sworn into the government’s consultative council in February of the same year. In 2015 Saudi Arabia was the last country to give women the right to vote and run for office, leading to 20 women being elected to role in the government in the municipal elections that year. More recently, in 2017 Sarah Al Suhaimi became the first female chairperson of the Saudi stock exchange, and starting June 2018, women will be permitted to drive without their guardian in the car, and obtain a driving licence without their guardian’s permission.

It was also announced on October the 29th 2017 that women would be allowed into sports stadiums starting from early 2018. There have been many notable campaigns for women’s rights in Saudi Arabia, most of which focused on areas such as the right to drive, which became symbolic of

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the wider struggle that Saudi women face in terms of equal rights. In 2008, on International Women’s Day, Wajeha alHuwaider filmed herself driving in Saudi Arabia, and appealed to the interior minister, Prince Nayef bin Abdel Aziz, to change the law prohibiting women from driving.

And in 2011, the ‘Women2drive’ campaign was launched, encouraging women with international driving licences to drive openly on Saudi Arabia’s roads on the 17th of June in protest against the driving ban. Manal al-Sharif was imprisoned for 10 days after posting a video of herself driving online prior to the 17th, and subsequently became the face of the campaign. During the protests, many women were stopped by traffic police who forced their guardians to sign a pledge saying that they would not permit the women to drive again, and others were put on trial for their actions, with one woman sentenced to 10 lashes (although this was overturned in 2012). The protests continued in 2013, but this time, despite warnings, no women were arrested, and the head of the religious police admitted that there was no religious text that forbid women from driving. A year later, however, Lujain al-Hathloul and Maysa al-Amoudi were detained for over 70 days for attempting to drive into Saudi Arabia from the United Arab Emirates, and when the ban on women driving was finally lifted, Saudi activists were warned from commenting by the authorities. Although recently progress had been made, it has been argued that the reforms are merely superficial and that more progress is urgently needed to ensure more equal rights for women in Saudi Arabia. There is still much debate within and outside the country on this topic, and while there seems to be more potential for more reform under the current government, there is still much conflict between the opposing views and values of traditionalists and more ‘western’ activists.

CHALLENGING THE ASSUMPTION THAT AUTHORIAL INTENT MATTERS

Context has always played a vital role in the study of English Literature; it is almost always assumed that contextual knowledge will help to illuminate meaning in a text and make the process of reading a more fruitful one. However, there is much to be said for context in fact only serving to obscure meaning, confuse interpretations, or being simply irrelevant to the study of a text. An author’s intent as it is encoded in his or her work is first and foremost almost impossible to entirely understand; this impossibility does not simply originate from the ambiguities of the text, but of language itself. Derrida’s theories of Deconstruction are crucial to understanding the obscurity of language, and thus contribute to further evidencing the difficulty of understanding an author’s intentions. In addition to this, even if authorial intent were simple to understand, it cannot be deemed as important as reader response, and to grant it such superiority could go so far as to contradict the very personal purpose of reading itself.

Bibliography

New Criticism is a formalist movement, originally deriving from John Crowe Ransome’s “The New Criticism” (1941); it focuses on close reading to discover how literature functions as a self-contained, self-referential, aesthetic object. Many critics who align themselves with theories of New Criticism – including Brooks and T.S. Eliot – argue for the importance of using the text as a primary source of meaning, with any features of an author’s private or personal life deemed unimportant. Two prominent theorists of the New Criticism movement, Wimsatt and Beardsley declare within “The International Fallacy” that “the design or intention of the author is neither available nor desirable as a standard for

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women's_rights_in_Saudi_A rabia#Economic_rights http://www.dw.com/en/womens-rights-in-saudi-arabia-atimeline/g-40709135 Forsythe, David P, ed. (2009). Encyclopedia of Human Rights, Volume 2 . Oxford University Press. p. 396. https://www.hrw.org/news/2017/09/29/brave-femaleactivists-who-fought-lift-saudi-arabias-driving-ban

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judging the success of a work of literary art”25. In their estimation, evidence of an author’s intentions can be broken down into three overarching categories: “Internal”26 (or public) Evidence, “External”27 (or private evidence) and Intermediate Evidence. Wimsatt and Beardsley define Internal Evidence as that which can be discovered “through the semantics and syntax”28 of a text. Meanwhile, External Evidence constitutes “how or why the poet wrote the poem”29, which can be found in what is not contained in the work itself: including all private or public statements the author has made about the work of art; whilst Intermediate evidence concerns “private of semiprovate meanings attached to words or topics by an author”30. It is near impossible for a reader to be aware of Intermediate evidence concerning a text, unless they are in personal contact with the author, and thus the question of evidence primarily focuses on that of Internal and External. The pre-eminent idea at the heart of Wimsattv and Beardsley’s writing is the assertion that Internal evidence is open for literary analysis, and anything not contained within the text (i.e. external evidence) is irrelevant and does not belong to literary criticism. This much aligns with Roland Barthes’ arguments in his Magnum Opus, “The Death of the Author”, in which he states that the author “is in no way supplied with a being that… transcends his work”31. To afford Authorial Intent a key focus would be to “lead away from the [text]”32 itself and undermine the studying of literature.

and meaning – focused on the futility of definition: they key idea being that true definition is a fallacy, and instead – to define – we simply defer to other words, which in themselves have no concrete meanings.

Derrida asserts that this “textual chain”34, and “structure of substitution”35 eventually culminates in the possibility that words have entirely different meaning to different people. When put in context of Authorial Intent, Derrida’s arguments evidence the difficulty of understanding an author’s objective with a text, chapter, or even a word. If we accept that individual words have various meanings to difficult people, due to differing connotations and associations, we acknowledge the impossibility of entirely and completely understanding an author’s intentions from their text alone, the “internal evidence”, so to speak.

Derrida’s theories of Deconstruction and Differánce further obfuscate what a reader can understand as the ‘meaning’ of a piece of literature. Deconstruction highlights the importance of dismantling our excessive loyalty to any one idea, “allowing us to see the aspects of the truth that might lie buried in its opposite”33.

Essentially Derrida desired to point out that ideas are always confused and riddled with logical defects and we must keep their messiness constantly in mind.

Derrida’s theories are in essence, a direct attack on Logocentrism; his assertion of Differánce – a critical outlook concerned with the relationship between text

Finally, having thus evidenced the complications of trying to ascertain an author’s intentions, we must also deliberate whether – even if we were able to understand them – an author’s intentions are important in the first place. To do this, a comparison of the merits of Authorial Intent and Reader Response are necessary. Barthes states that “the unity of a text is not in its origin, it is in its destination”36, clearly valuing the importance of reader response. If a reader is using a body of work to better understand the time period in which it was written, external evidence become extremely important. However, this type of reading more closely aligns with a historical interpretation, and thus not with a more simplistic – yet arguably, a more important – personal appreciation of literature, in which a body of work is valued based on its aesthetic merits and transferability. In fact, in this way, context and Authorial intent can serve to complicate the transferability of a text’s emotions or merits; if a reader is aware of a designated meaning, he or she may be less inclined to personally relate to it. Whilst Authorial Intent of course limits interpretations of a text, it cannot be considered as important as reader response. Reader-response Criticism focuses on the reader’s experience of a work and recognises the reader as an active agent who imparts “real existence”

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32

Wimsatt and Beardsley, The International Fallacy, p.468.

Wimsatt and Beardsley, The International Fallacy, p.477 27 Wimsatt and Beardsley, The International Fallacy, p.477 28 Wimsatt and Beardsley, The International Fallacy, p.477 29 Wimsatt and Beardsley, The International Fallacy, p.478 30 Wimsatt and Beardsley, The International Fallacy, p.478

Barthes, The Death of the Author, p.4 Wimsatt and Beardsley, The International Fallacy, p.479 33 Philosophy: Jacques Derrida, The School of Life, Video.

34 Derrida, Of Grammatology p.231 35 Derrida, Of Grammatology p.232 36 Barthes, The Death of the Author, p.6

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to the work and completes its meaning through interpretation. Rosenblatt in her “Literature as Exploration” stresses the importance of avoiding “preconceived notions about the proper way to react to any work”37, surmising that it limits a reader’s response to a text, and also perhaps the magnitude of said response.

Websites:

Therefore, whilst Authorial Intent and the study of external evidence “matter” when assessing the historical merit of a text, along with perhaps the cultural significance of it, when it comes to a personal interpretation of literature, they should be regarded as insignificant and irrelevant. This reasoning is twofold: first, the difficulty of actually understanding an author’s intentions – furthered by Derrida’s theories of Deconstruction – means we are perhaps never truly able to understand an author’s intent as it is encoded in his or her work. And secondly, even if we were able to understand the intended impact of a text, this intent should never be prioritised over reader response. As articulated by Wimsatt and Beardsley, a text does not belong to its author, but rather “is detached from the author at birth and goes about the world beyond his power to intend about it or control it. The [text] belongs to the public”38. In other words, Literature belongs to the reader, not its author.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0tnHr2dqTs

http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/27537676.pdf?refreqid=ex celsior%3A685c342cc627e78a240568a3bd24f071 http://www.jstor.org/stable/27537676?readnow=1&loggedin=true&seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reader-response_criticism

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Authorial_intent

Bibliography: Wimsatt and Beardsley. The International Fallacy.

Baltimore: The John Hopkins University Press, 1946.

Barthes, Roland. The Death of the Author. London: UbuWeb Publishing, 1989.

Rosenbaltt, Louise. Literature as Exploration. Chicago: University of Illinois Press.

Derrida, Jacques. Of Grammatology. Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press.

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Rosenblatt, Literature as Exploration, p.4

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Wimsatt and Beardsley, The International Fallacy, p.485

women though generally superior to men [in] morals qualities but are inferior intellectually” and goes on to claim that, via evolution arisen as a result of men assuming the hunter-gatherer role and women the child-carer, “man has ultimately become superior to woman.” This has become the backbone for many sexist theories today that underpin the idea that women are biologically incapable of doing the same jobs, being as mentally able or being as emotionally stable as men. Can this argument that females are intrinsically inferior to men be legitimate considering the facts we know today?

“MAN’S ATTAINING TO A HIGHER EMINENCE…THAN CAN WOMAN” (CHARLES DARWIN). DOES THE THEORY OF EVOLUTION REALLY PROVE WOMEN TO BE PHYSICALLY, MENTALLY AND EMOTIONALLY INFERIOR TO MEN?

In principal the theory of evolution promotes the idea that, via the process of adaptations, animals perfect themselves to suit their environment so only the successful species survives. After the publication of ‘The Descent of Man’ in 187140 Darwin wrote to a fellow scientist Caroline Kennard 41 in response to her questioning the seemingly sexist conclusion that he drew in this work. He states “I certainly think that

The assumption that physically women are weaker than males, may be ostensibly backed up by biological evidence, but when research does more than scrape the surface, new evidence is uncovered that presents the opposite. On average men have a 10% higher muscle mass and are around 15% taller than women 42 However, when considering physical superiority, muscle mass and height are not the only factors.

Steven Austad of the University of Alabama at Birmingham states “at every age women survive better than men”, a theory backed up by their 2016 research showing, of people over the age of 110 years, only 2 were male to the 46 females43. According to Darwin’s theory ‘survival of the fittest’. surely this fact points towards women being more developed than men? (ref.

1) In addition to this, Darwin argued that the sex chromosomes X and Y and hormones oestrogen and testosterone are purely for sexual function, and used this to support his theory that sexes are complimentary polar opposites (ref. 2); a theory still promoted today to undermine women’s abilities. Males possess an X and Y chromosome whereas females possess 2 X chromosomes; coding for their sexual development.

However, their role is much larger than merely this.

Many studies have been conducted evaluating the link between chromosomes and the predisposition to certain conditions. At Georgetown University of Washington, Sandberg described how they had found overwhelming evidence that women are less predisposed to many diseases “for example cardiovascular disease appears much earlier in men than in women” as well as having much slower

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Emma Ferraris (WHS) Despite the evermore popular movement feminism, women still experience prejudice and disregard on the grounds that, biologically, they are the inferior sex.

Those with gender bias who promote gender inequality use biological theories to support the legitimacy of their ideologies by claiming that it is women’s biological instinct to raise her children and her innate incapability that make her inferior. Often these claims have arisen as a result of Darwin’s primary theory of evolution published in his famous work of 1859 ‘The Origin of Species’ 39 in which he claims that women are less developed than men and hence less generally able. However, how realistic the notion that women are categorically physically and mentally weaker than men remains to be seen.

Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species.

Charles Darwin, The Descent of Man 41 Caroline Kennard, Darwin Correspondence

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arts.media. Online statistics SN Austad, Sex Differences paper.

taxi drivers possessing the ever-illusive ‘Knowledge’ of London’s streets,49 found they had an abnormally large hippocampus, (an area in the brain responsible for long-term memory and spatial navigation.) This brain plasticity is particularly prominent in children and can be affected by the toys played with during infancy. For example, it is a stereotypical norm to give girls dolls and boys trucks. In engaging with these toys, boys brains develop more in areas that define spatial reasoning whereas girls brains more so in areas of emotions and communication. Mellissa Hines of the University of Cambridge found that, under the age of 2, children had no toy preference, but after this age, boys tended towards cars, and girls towards dolls 50 Given this, it is possible to make the conclusion that society is the catalyst for differing brains and that, unlike Darwin’s promoted theory, women are not intrinsically mentally inferior; if there is any difference in brain size or aptitude it is a sociocultural, not a biological one. As author Angela Saini synthesised “The scientific picture emerging now is that there may be very small biological differences, but these are so easily reinforced by society that they appear much bigger as a child grows.”51

progression of chronic illnesses like Alzheimers44.

This difference is due to the fact that most of these conditions have links with the X chromosome. Since males have only 1 X chromosome, if there is a problematic mutation on this chromosome they do not have the ability to replace this gene in the same way that females can - by using their second X chromosome - and hence the phenotype presents this condition. Thus Darwin’s theory, used to back up sexist ideologies, that women are in all ways physically weaker is sweeping and ill-informed.

It is also a common assumption that women are worse at logical thinking and calculating than men, and hence they will never do a job that requires these skills as competently. Darwin believes women are “intellectually inferior” and American neurologist Hammond of the 19th century claimed that because women's brains are on average 5 ounces lighter than men’s, they must be less intelligent.45 Theories like this one are often deemed to be ‘Neurosexist’ but can be countered by a wave of ‘Neurofeminism’ that promotes equality within scientific research to avoid claims altered by cultural perceptions. In fact, as Helen Gardener, a scientist from the same sphere argued, if this were the case “an elephant might outthink any of us.”46 Indeed, there are many theories that have been influenced by societal expectations so they must be received with skepticism.

Although Darwin’s theorising now seems sexist and outdated to all but the sexist members of society, it must be said that his conclusions are also a product of his society. He published these works at a time when women were considered purely useful for childbirth and completely subordinate to male figures of authority, hence his theories were influenced by this perspective. Thus the use of his theories to back sexist conclusions now is completely nonsensical.

Ruben Gur of the University of Pennsylvania stated that “men will have an easier time seeing and doing”47, and many neurosexist studies have pointed towards the idea that from birth, male babies are “systemises” and female babies are “empathisers” 48. This assumed ‘fact’ is often used to support the idea of a pay gap, especially in the technology and scientific fields, enforcing the idea that women’s brains are less capable of spatial reasoning and logical thinking, hence their work in these fields is less valuable.

However, brains can be altered and changed. A good example of this is in the research by University College London, who, upon examining the brains of

Theories of evolution originate in Darwin’s revolutionary works which, despite their innate sexism powered by the opinions of society at the time, are still used to support sexist ideologies which repress women even today. The idea that women are physically and mentally weaker than men stems from an era where women were completely disregarded and hence these theories can be devalued by modern, neurofeminist

UCL team paper on London taxi diver’s brains.

University of Cambridge team on neurobehaviour.

51 Angela Saini's popular science book on combatting neurosexist research.

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49

Kathryn Sandberg, Sex Hormones and Sex Chromosomes paper.

WH Hammond, Brain size and Intelligence in Man paper.

46 Helen Gardener Fact and Fiction in Science scientific book.

47 C. Ruben Sex Differences paper.

48 Simon Baron-Cohen paper on brain differences between sexes.

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research. Although evolution may point towards minor biological differences, this idea merely scrapes the surface of what it is to be male and female; and of the differences that do exist, they are reinforced by modern society which still promotes sexist treatment, perhaps without even realising it.

CHALLENGING THE ASSUMPTION THAT PERFORMANCE ENHANCING DRUGS SHOULD BE BANNED

Bibliography: 1.

Charles Darwin - Origin of Species, 1859 - John Murray, Chapter 4 2. Charles Darwin - Descent of Man, 1871 - John Murray, Chapter 2 and 3 3. Caroline Kennard - Darwin Correspondence Project, 1881 4. http://www.arts.ac.uk/media/arts/research/documents/ SizeUK-Results-Full.pdf - 20.3.18 5. Sex differences in lifespan Austad SN, Fischer KE. 19.05.2016 6.

Sex Hormones and Sex Chromosomes Cause Sex Differences in the Development of Cardiovascular Diseases. Arnold AP, Cassis LA, Eghbali M, Reue K, Sandberg K. - 09.03.17 7. Brain Size and Intelligence in Man. Hammond WH 05.1942 8. Fact and Fiction in Science, Helen Gardener. 1893.

9. Sex differences in cognitive regulation of psychosocial achievement stress: Brain and behaviour. Kogler Lydia, Gur Ruben C, Derntl Birgit. - 03.2015 10. The Essential Difference: the Male and Female Brain.

Simon Baron-Cohen.- 2005.

11. London Taxi Drivers and Bus Drivers: A Structural MRI and Neuropsychological Analysis.

Eleanor A. Maguire,* Katherine Woollett, and Hugo J. Spiers. - 2006.

12. The early postnatal period, mini-puberty, provides a window on the role of testosterone in human neurobehavioural development. Hines M, Kung KTF, Spencer D, Browne WV, Constantinescu M & Noorderhaven R. - 2016 13. Inferior. Angela Saini. - 06.03.18

Evie Coxon (OHS) Despite the countless number of drug tests which professional athletes undertake, doping still appears to be a massive problem in sport. Only this month, Sir Bradley Wiggins, a five time Olympic cycling champion, is revealed to have been taking the corticosteroid triamcinolone leading up to his victory in the Tour de France 201252.

This drug which is prescribed to help with asthma, has additional performance enhancing effects which improve an athlete’s power to weight ratio (making an enormous difference in a sport like cycling). There has been a huge wave of outrage and indignation at this in the media; people accusing Bradley Wiggins of being a cheat and ‘crossing the ethical line’. However, perhaps the real fault in this lies not with Wiggins himself, but with the greater power of the World Anti Doping Association (WADA). Arguably it is their fault there is a lack of clarity as to which drugs should be permitted for medical purposes and which drugs should be prohibited. More generally, we consider performance enhancing drugs a form of cheating and so assume that they should be banned but are things really so straightforward? Is there ever a totally equal contest in sport anyway? And if athletes are always trying to find new ways of taking drugs, is it foolish to think we can ever ban them completely?

Doping: a very short introduction Doping in sport can be traced back to Ancient Greece where the Greek athletes would use performance enhancing drugs for their Olympic games. They would take herbal medicines, wine potions and hallucinogens

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BBC Sport article, Jack Skelton, 5th March 2018 ‘Bradley Wiggins and Team Sky crossed ethical line’.

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to increase their strength and power. Doping continued throughout history right up until 1928, when the International Association of Athletics Federation (IAAF) banned doping in professional sport.

However, it is clear that this has not stopped athletes from trying to take drugs. Since then, hundreds of athletes have been caught doping. Maria Sharapova tested positive for meldonium in March 2016. In the summer of 2016 there was a massive doping scandal in the Russian Olympic team where 118 athletes were found to be taking anabolic steroids53. In September 2007, cyclist Floyd Landis tested positive for synthetic testosterone. These are only a few examples of countless times the anti-doping rules have been broken. It is clear that we have failed to enforce the ban on PEDs and the problem has been getting even worse in the last few years. We need to face the fact that to think that we can ever achieve a pure, cheatless sporting environment is being foolishly optimistic.

Athletes always have and always will be looking for new drugs and new ways to cheat- that’s arguably one of their most human traits. But now is the time to take a totally radical approach to this issue.

an astonishing athlete, was a hero as well as the most popular sporting personality of the time. Gatlin, even though he had served his time and had abided by the IAAF, became the villain. So much so, that in the 2017 athletics world championships when Gatlin stood against Bolt in the final of the men’s 100m, Gatlin was booed by the public. The media has created a distorted image of Gatlin as the face of all drug cheats. Gatlin’s agent even says under interview ‘Gatlin is not the poster child for doping.’55 He is right. It is unfair to allow an athlete back into competition, only to demonise him and hold him accountable for the corruptness of sport. For as long as the media behaves in this way, the whole debate will be centred around celebrities and individuals whereas what we need to be doing is thinking about the bigger picture- what is cheating and why does it occur?

Trial by Media One of the problems when discussing this topic is the media and how controversial they are when reporting about these things. Newspapers and news reporters massively determine our perception of specific cases and the situations of athletes regarding drugs. A prime example of this is with the men’s 100m: the rivalry between Usain Bolt and Justin Gatlin. The media heavily portrayed this as Good vs Evil. Justin Gatlin was banned for 2 years in 2001 when he was caught taking a banned amphetamine. Then in 2006 when he tested positive for testosterone54, he received an 8 year ban which was then shortened to 4 years on appeal. In 2010 he made his return to sprinting and a rivalry formed between him and Usain Bolt, the fastest man in the world- an international sensation. Bolt, having never taken performance enhancing drugs and being

The equality myth PEDs are seen as cheating because they strengthen and better athletes for their sport through use of chemical stimulants which act on the body in a certain beneficial way. This makes it unfair on the athletes who are actually more athletic and better at the sport but are not using drugs- it is not an equal contest. However this raises the question of whether athletes are ever actually on fair ground to start with? Is professional sport ever an equal contest? How can it be when athletes from countries all over the world are competing, including less economically developed countries and more economically developed countries.

Countries like USA, China and Germany are competing with much less economically developed countries such as Haiti, Tajikistan and Kosovo. The first triad obviously have more money therefore more funding goes into their sport. For example the USA give about $50 million per year to over 40 sporting federations. The money is split according to their success in the Olympic Games- track and field alone received $11.9 million due to their possible 133 medals.56 This money can then go towards building new athletics tracks, the travel and accommodation for

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Anabolic steroids increase muscle mass and speed up recovery meaning that athletes can train harder for longer.

54 He appealed that the amphetamine was medication for his attention deficit disorder and his ban was shortened to 1 year consequently.

BBC Sport interview- 8th August 2017- Renaldo Nehemiah (Gatlin’s agent), in response to Lord Coe’s criticism of Gatlin following his win against Usain Bolt in the 2017 World Athletics Championships.

56 Bloomberg- statistics for USOC four year funding prior to the 2016 Olympic Games

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athletes, finding the best nutritionists, coaches, health care (physio), psychologists and S and C coaches which in turn helps the elite athlete to succeed in their sport. However some (poorer) countries do not offer this sort of sports funding and so their athletes receive very little (if any) support putting them at a severe disadvantage. And so if it is impossible for some athletes to have access to these resources, then surely they are at a disadvantage and sporting competition is not an equal contest at all. And if it is an unequal contest anyway, what does it matter if other components come into professional sport, what does it matter if say, performance enhancing drugs are permitted.

allowed to take EPO to make the competition a fairer contest?!

A scary future It is possible that all of this debate and fussing about drugs in sport is irrelevant with regards to the future so we should not be focussing on it at all. Our days of worrying about enforcing the ban of PEDs will be behind us if (and when) athletes start genetically enhancing their own genes to improve their athletic abilities. Parents of children might be able choose their child’s genetic traits, selecting genes which allow the quick building of muscle and genes which improve the volume of oxygen they carry. Super athletes will be formed- athletes who are equipped with the perfect genes to succeed in their sports, with dramatically improved strength, power, endurance and speed. They will be invincible.

The winning gene There are two things which make up an athlete: their training and their genetics. No athlete has exactly the same genetics and the same training environment (barring the case of identical twins). Now we have established how training environments cause an unequal contest, we can discuss the role which genetics play in sport. It is a huge question whether or not natural talent exists, however it has been proven that there are specific genes, ‘sports genes’ which allow an individual to excel at a specific sport. An extreme case is that of the Finnish cross-country skier Eero Mäntyranta. Mäntyranta, a 3 time Olympic gold medallist and twice World championships gold medallist, was blessed with a mutation of a gene which meant he had an extraordinary red blood cell count, up to 65% higher than the average man57. This acted as a huge advantage in his endurance sport as increased haemoglobin and red blood cell count meant he could carry more oxygen needed for respiration of muscle cells. The hormone erythropoietin (EPO) is the drug equivalent to this gene- it increases the red blood cell count. Taking EPO is a form of blood doping and banned, but Mäntyranta had this extraordinary stamina naturally and to an even higher extent than the drug allows. Surely athletes competing against this skier with that special gold medal winning gene should be

Bibliography: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cycling/43280081https://www. bloomberg.com/graphics/2016-olympics-usoc-return-oninvestment/ https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2016/jul/28/russ ian-olympic-rio-team-drug-steroids-health-effects http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/athletics/40858219 http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/science-askier-with-gold-medals-in-his-blood-in-endurance-sportsa-plentiful-supply-of-oxygen-to-1458723.html

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‘The Sports Gene’ by David Epstein, p274 ‘The Gold Medal Mutation.’https://sportsanddrugs.procon.org/view.timeli

ne.php?timelineID=000017 The Sports Gene- David Epstein

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is enough to kill, it is essential (in small amounts) in humans, and tests on animals have indicated that fluorine deficiency causes anaemia, infertility and stunted growth.[7] In addition, fluoride salts such as NaF are included in toothpaste and public water supplies to prevent tooth decay. Tooth enamel is primarily comprised of hydroxyapatite (Ca5(PO4)3(OH)), which can be converted to stronger, more acid-resistant fluorapatite by replacing the OHion with an F- ion. In addition, fluoride salts are thought to prevent the growth of bacteria and remineralise damaged enamel.[8]

THE ASSUMPTION THAT DANGEROUS CHEMICALS ARE ONLY DESTRUCTIVE Gabriella White (OHS)

Further applications of fluorine/fluoride in medicine include the antidepressant fluoxetine (Prozac), which reduces serotonin absorption in the brain, helping to regulate mood,[9] and in PET scanning, for mapping cancerous tumours etc. Positron Emission Tomography (PET) scans use the glucose analogue 18 F-Fluorodeoxyglucose, which can be taken into cells, but not completely metabolised. Therefore, once the molecule has been absorbed, it must remain in the cell until an atom of the radioactive 18F decays, emitting a positron. This positron is then annihilated by its antiparticle, the electron, releasing two gamma rays, which can be picked up by a detector. The more gamma rays emitted from a region of the brain, the higher the metabolic rate. The data can then be used to create an image.[10]

Nicknamed ‘the gas of Lucifer’, the campaign of 19th century chemists to isolate the element fluorine (F) resulted in a considerable number of serious injuries and deaths. Accordingly, it is regarded as a highly dangerous substance, and so it would seem that its useful applications are limited. However, fluorine is in fact a good example of a substance that has the capacity to both preserve and destroy.

As a halogen, fluorine forms diatomic molecules, although its small atomic radius and high electronegativity causes an elevated degree of repulsion between the nuclei[1], making the F-F bond very weak (159 kJ/mol[2]). It is these properties that make it so reactive, as evidenced by the fact that despite the relatively high prevalence of fluoride ions in the Earth’s crust, very little F2 exists naturally[3].

Fluorine compounds are also useful in industry. The name ‘fluorine’ comes from the Latin fluere (to flow), due to the use of fluorspar (CaF2) as a flux in smelting, as it reduces the melting point and viscosity of the metal mixture. It is also popular in PTFE (polytetrafluoroethene or Teflon), a strong insulating material that is also resistant to corrosion. The inertness of this material is due to the high strength of the C-F bond (one of the strongest single bonds in organic chemistry, at 514 kJ/mol[2]), making it ideal for holding corrosive chemicals. In fact, only a container made from PTFE is resistant enough to contain fluoroantimonic acid, the strongest known acid (pH: approximately -31[11]). However, encountering this acid outside a laboratory is unlikely instead, most people use PTFE on a daily basis within their homes. The weatherproof clothing material Gore-Tex is a heat-treated version of this polymer,

F2 is particularly dangerous due to its reaction with water to form hydrofluoric acid (F2 + H2O → 2HF + O2), which causes severe burns and may affect the calcium metabolism of the body, potentially leading to cardiac arrest.[4] Other fluorine compounds are similarly undesirable to be around: dioxygen difluoride (FOOF) explodes above -180oC, and reacts violently with virtually everything; the reaction H2S + 4FOOF → SF6 + 4O2 + 2HF releases over 1800kJ of energy per mole.[5] Chlorine trifluoride (ClF3) will start a fire with both sand and water; in the book ‘Ignition!’, the safety equipment recommended by the author for handling ClF3 is only “a good pair of running shoes”.[6] However, fluorine is still important in our daily lives, and shouldn’t be overlooked. Although exposure to F2 at a concentration of 0.1% for more than few minutes 20

whilst non-stick frying pans are coated in PTFE (utilising its low coefficient of friction).[7]

content of that substance, as in any product (e.g. a vaccine), these substances have the potential to do far less harm than good. Therefore, we can conclude that despite the fact that dangerous chemicals have the potential to be destructive in the majority of cases, this does not hold 100% of the time, and so they should not be overlooked as viable research areas.

These are just a few examples of molecules containing fluorine to show that despite the dangers of the element (and some of its derivatives) itself, when handled correctly, it can be used to form useful materials that may even save lives. HF is a precursor of many fluorine compounds, but if it wasn’t used, materials such as PTFE wouldn’t be available.

Bibliography:

Fluorine isn’t the only double-edged sword on the periodic table: for example, cadmium is on the United Nations Environmental Programme’s list of the top ten hazardous pollutants, but is used in the aerospace industry to coat steel, and in nuclear reactor control rods (preventing the reactor from going into meltdown).[7] Therefore, while it is important to respect the properties of hazardous materials, if research/commercial manufacture can be conducted in a safe manner, these substances should not be ignored.

1.

2.

3.

In addition, the way in which a substance is used is also an important factor to be aware of. Gaseous phenol (C6H6O) is considered an immediate risk to life at concentrations of more than 960mg/m3, as it affects the central nervous system and causes cardiac arrhythmia[12]. However, it was introduced as an antiseptic by Joseph Lister in 1865 (known as carbolic acid), and helped to reduce the mortality rate in his hospital from 50% to 15%.[13] Today, it is used as preservative in several vaccines- the presence of compounds like phenol and trace amounts of formaldehyde has led to some people rejecting vaccinations. However, the concentrations of these substances are too low to be of any risk to health. In the case of formaldehyde, which is used to deactivate viruses/bacteria, the amount used is less than 1% of the concentration known to cause any adverse effects in humans.[14]

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

The ‘father of toxicology’ Paracelsus is credited with the maxim “the dose makes the poison”, and this is certainly true for most, if not all the compounds we encounter daily. Even water is a risk in high quantities, so when the composition of a product is provided, the fact that it simply contains a substance that is known to be dangerous at a given level of exposure is insufficient. The important factor is the mass or molar

9.

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Clark, Jim. (2015, May). Atomic and Physical Properties of the Group 7 Elements (the Halogens).

Retrieved from: https://www.chemguide.co.uk/inorganic/group7/ properties.html Luo, Yu-Ran. (2002, December 26). Bond Dissociation Energies.

Retrieved from: http://staff.ustc.edu.cn/~luo971/2010-91-CRCBDEs-Tables.pdf ‘Chemistry Explained’. (n.d.).

Fluorine.

Retrieved from: http://www.chemistryexplained.com/elements/CK/Fluorine.html ‘Honeywell’. (n.d.). Recommended Medical Treatment for Hydrofluoric Acid Exposure.

Retrieved from: https://web.archive.org/web/20090325112238/htt p://www51.honeywell.com/sm/hfacid/common/d ocuments/HF_medical_book.pdf (archived from original) Lowe, Derek. (2010, February 23). Things I Won’t Work With: Dioxygen Difluoride. Retrieved from: http://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/20 10/02/23/things_i_wont_work_with_dioxygen_d ifluoride Clark, John. Ignition! An Informal History of Liquid Rocket Propellants. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1972.

Emsley, John. Nature’s Building Blocks: An A-Z Guide to the Elements. Oxford: Oxford University Helmenstine, Anne. (2017, March 16). How Fluoride Works to Prevent Tooth Decay.

Retrieved from: https://www.thoughtco.com/how-fluoride-worksprevent-tooth-decay-607857 Nordqvist, Joseph. (2017, December 14). What is Prozac (fluoxetine)?

Retrieved from: https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/kc/prozacfluoxetine-side-effects-263773

10. ‘Johns Hopkins Medicine’. (n.d.). Positron Emission Tomography (PET Scan). Retrieved from: https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/healthlibrary/t est_procedures/neurological/positron_emission_t omography_pet_92,P07654 11. Peshin, Akash. (2017, November). What Are Strong Acids? Which Is The World’s Strongest Acid?

Retrieved from: https://www.scienceabc.com/eyeopeners/whatare-strong-acids-which-is-the-worlds-strongestacid.html 12. ‘EPA’. (1992, April). Phenol. Retrieved from: https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/201609/documents/phenol.pdf 13. Hollingham, Richard (2008). Blood and Guts: A History of Surgery. New York City: Random House 14. ‘Compound Interest’. (2015, February 10). A Summary of Common Vaccine Components.

Retrieved from: http://www.compoundchem.com/2015/02/10/vac cines/

“DON’T GO OUTSIDE WITHOUT A COAT – YOU’LL CATCH A COLD!” CHALLENGING THE ASSUMPTION THAT BEING COLD GIVES YOU A COLD

Hannah Gray (OHS)

Getting a cold is an inescapable part of life. On average, an adult will suffer from between two and four colds every year, and most children will get up to ten per year (Davison, 2017). Everyone is familiar with the symptoms: getting a runny nose, suffering from headaches and sneezing (Common Cold, 2017).

However, there are many common misconceptions about what causes a cold and one of the most common is that being physically cold will in turn give you a cold. The actual causes of the common cold are a variety of different viruses. The most common group of viruses that causes a cold are the rhinoviruses (Mayo clinic staff, 2017), which cause at least 50% of all common colds (Turner, 2007). Rhinoviruses are types of non-enveloped viruses that are approximately 3 x 10-8 metres in diameter. They contain one single strand of RNA as their genetic material, and are a part of the virus family called Picornaviridae which also includes the more deadly poliovirus (lorimccoy, 2004). These enter your system through either the mouth or nose (which are a part of the nasal passage), and are spread through tiny droplets in the air that are released when somebody who is already infected with the virus coughs or sneezes. Rhinoviruses can also be spread through physical contact with someone who is infected, including hand-to-hand contact and indirect contact through touching other objects (Mayo clinic staff, 2017). After entering the nasal passage, the virus reaches the back of the throat after just 10-15 minutes.

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This is where the infection begins, as the rhinovirus then attacks the specific cell surface receptors that are found here. This is also where the infection is localised for its duration as interestingly, rhinoviruses do not replicate effectively at temperature greater than 33 °C, meaning that they do not reproduce further down in the lungs (the temperature here is approximately 37°C). This is why the symptoms that present themselves in the patient include a runny nose and sneezing, as they all involve the nasal passage. The symptoms that present are all actually the body’s immune response to the infection of the rhinovirus.

When the rhinovirus hijacks the host cells, the host cells then release cytokines (a type of chemical signal) which attract immune cells (lorimccoy, 2004). The high level of immune cells (these are the white blood cells) in the infected area causes inflammation. They also cause the swelling of the two lymph glands located on either side of the neck, and this is a clear symptom of a cold and is often used as a diagnostic tool by doctors (Swollen glands, 2017). The cytokines also cause an increase in the secretion of mucus by the mucus membranes, in an attempt for the mucus to trap the virus and infected cells, and take it out of the body through sneezing and coughing. Cytokines also stimulate the nerve fibres in the nasal passage, which causes pain and also triggers the reflexes for coughing and sneezing (lorimccoy, 2004).

it could be that in cold weather rhinoviruses simply replicate much more frequently than in warmer weather, leading to more people suffering from rhinovirus in winter. It has also been discovered that in warmer temperatures, host cells produce a significantly higher number of interferons – these are proteins that warn healthy cells of the virus’ presence, thus triggering a faster immune response. In colder temperatures host cells produce far fewer interferons, giving the virus longer to replicate and survive. This suggests that the rhinoviruses prefer the colder temperatures, as it means that they have a better chance of replication and survival (Fessenden, 2015).

Another possible reason is that in colder weather people sniff a lot more frequently, resulting from the blood vessels in the nose expanding to stop frostbite from acting on the nose. There is evidence that viruses favour an environment with greater access to circulation, so they then occur more frequently in colder weather (Blatchford, 2016). Also, in colder temperatures vasoconstriction can occur. This is when the blood vessels that are closest to the surface to the skin constrict so that blood flow to the tissue under the skin is reduced, reducing the amount of heat lost by the body and therefore keeping the body warmer (Vasoconstriction and vasodilation - higher tier, 2014). Vasoconstriction means that there is increased dryness in the nasal passage, which therefore means that there is a decrease in the production of mucus.

This compromises the ability of the nasal passage to filter out any viruses and means that there is an increased likelihood for the rhinovirus to become successful in replicating, and consequently surviving (Melone, 2012).

There is therefore definitive evidence that rhinoviruses (alongside some other viruses) are the one cause for the common cold. However, there must be some reasons why being physically cold is associated so strongly with having a cold and has been for such a long time. One simple reason is that people have mistakenly confused being cold with having a cold and lack the medical knowledge to differentiate the two.

Of course going out in the cold weather poorly dressed can lead to other health complications (such as hypothermia and frostbite) which has then meant that individuals have been more susceptible to contracting the virus, and this could be another reason why people are confused.

A more specific reason is that when the weather is cold, people generally spend a lot less time outside and a lot more time inside. The air found indoors is recycled and people spend lots of time in close proximity with others. If just one person is infected with rhinovirus, this means that it could spread a lot faster as there is a shorter distance for the rhinovirus to travel before finding another host. This is a key factor in why so many people get colds in winter (Anderson, 2014). As mentioned previously, rhinoviruses replicate better in cooler temperatures, so

All of this evidence shows that being cold is most definitely not the cause of having a cold. Catching and suffering from a cold depends entirely on whether you come into contact and ingest a virus such as the rhinovirus – so if you avoid this, you can wear what you like when you go outside! That being said, there is still some worth in listening to your mum when she 23

Melone, L. (2012). Can the Cold Give You a Cold?

Retrieved March 11, 2018, from https://www.everydayhealth.com/cold-andflu/colds-and-the-weather.aspx Mukherjee, S. (n.d.). The Emperor of All Maladies .

New types of therapy mean cancer is going to become ever more survivable . (n.d.). Retrieved 03 25, 2018, from The Economist : https://www.economist.com/news/technologyquarterly/21728779-science-making-cancertreatments-more-precise-many-different-waysnew-types-0 Quarter of cancer patients dead in six months due to late diagnosis. (n.d.). Retrieved 03 26, 2018, from The Telegraph: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/health/119685 39/Quarter-of-cancer-patients-dead-in-sixmonths-due-to-late-diagnosis.html Swollen glands. (2017). Retrieved March 17, 2018, from https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/swollen-glands/ TRAIL in cancer therapy: present and future challenges. (n.d.). Retrieved 03 25, 2018, from PMC: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2 976473/ Tumour immunology and immunotherapy . (n.d.).

Retrieved from Nature Video : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K09xzIQ8zsg Turner, R. B. (2007). Rhinovirus: More than Just a Common Cold Virus. The Journal of Infectious Diseases, 195(6), 765-766.

Vasoconstriction and vasodilation - higher tier. (2014).

Retrieved March 10, 2018, from http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/scienc e/triple_ocr_21c/further_biology/maintaining_bo dy_temperature/revision/3/ We can hack our immune cells to fight cancer. (n.d.).

Retrieved 03 25, 2018, from TED Talks : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qd5rAVHT6 Vw

tells you to put a scarf on in winter. Being at a lower temperature can increase your chances of catching a cold as it provides favourable conditions to the virus and spending more time inside also increases your chances of catching a cold. In fact, you are probably more likely to catch a cold when you spend time inside in winter than if you are out in the cold – so put a scarf on and go outside to avoid all of the viruses!

Bibliography: Anderson, C. C. (2014). Does cold weather cause colds?

Retrieved March 18, 2018, from https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/swollen-glands/ Blatchford, E. (2016). For The Last Time, Being Cold Doesn't Make You Catch Cold. Retrieved March 3, 2018, from https://www.huffingtonpost.com.au/2016/07/10/f or-the-last-time-being-cold-doesnt-make-youcatch-cold_a_21429347/ Cancer chemical are found in eggs. (n.d.). Retrieved 03 25, 2018, from The Daily Mail : http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article50995/Cancer-chemicals-eggs.html Closing in on cancer. (n.d.). Retrieved 03 25, 2018, from The Economist : https://www.economist.com/news/leaders/217288 93-science-will-win-technical-battle-againstcancer-only-half-fight-closing Common Cold. (2017). Retrieved March 2, 2018, from https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/common-cold/ Davison, N. (2017). Why can't we cure the common cold?

Retrieved March 2, 2018, from https://www.theguardian.com/news/2017/oct/06/ why-cant-we-cure-the-common-cold Delay Kills . (n.d.). Retrieved 03 25, 2018, from Cancer Research UK: http://www.cancerresearchuk.org/prod_consump/ groups/cr_common/%40abt/%40gen/documents/g eneralcontent/cr_085096.pdf Fessenden, M. (2015). There is A Scientific Reason That Cold Weather Could Cause Colds. Retrieved March 4, 2018, from https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smartnews/there-scientific-reason-cold-weather-couldcause-colds-180953817/ lorimccoy. (2004, August). Rhinovirus: An Unstoppable Cause Of The Common Cold. The Science Creative Quarterly.

Mapping The Cancer Genome. (n.d.). Retrieved 03 25, 2018, from Scientific American : https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/mappi ng-the-cancer-genome-2008-07/ Mayo clinic staff. (2017). Common cold. Retrieved march 3, 2018, from https://www.everydayhealth.com/cold-andflu/colds-and-the-weather.aspx

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assumptions about the behaviour of the people in question, and an election algorithm is no different. The election campaign optimisation algorithm uses sampling, a widely employed statistical method that gathers fractional information from a number of individuals, as a technique to gather fundamental data about voting habits for certain ethnic groups, areas, and financial situations. The Election Campaign optimization algorithm starts by assuming that there is an election mechanism, where the following conditions are true:

HOW DID ASSUMPTIONS SHAPE HILARY CLINTON’S 2016 PRESENDENTIAL CAMPAIGN?

Anoushka Patel (OHS) 

‘Mr President, I’m sorry,’ Hillary Clinton told Obama, who had contacted her to extend his condolences for her loss. Just four hours prior to this, as the first polls closed on 8th November 2016, Clinton was preparing for the moment she would take the stage as the first female president of the United States. Alas, the reality was starkly different.58 In this article, I will be discussing the role of assumptions in her campaign algorithm and data analysis techniques, and how these contributed to her loss. I will be focussing mainly on assumptions made internally (within her political campaign team), however it is important to remember that the election result was also largely to do with assumptions made by the public about her as a candidate.

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

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

Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign relied heavily upon an algorithm called ADA, named after Ada Lovelace, an English mathematician and writer, mainly known for her work on Charles Babbage’s mechanical general purpose computer. ADA is an election campaign optimisation algorithm - the specific nature of this program is confidential, and has not been disclosed to the public. The complex system of an election, with an incredibly large number of variables to take into account, relies on an equally complex algorithm to model the behaviour of voters.

All modelling algorithms are based on fundamental

The prestige of candidates is different to each other. A candidate's effect to voters is in direct proportion to their prestige.

A candidate can affect many voters and their effect decreases with the increase of distance between candidate and voters.

The prestige of voters is also significant. A voter’s support to candidates is directly proportional to their prestige.

Each voter would be affected by several candidates, so the voter should theoretically distribute their support to all the candidates that affected them according to the effect magnitude from those candidates.

The total support the candidate holds is the sum of the support from all voters that they have affected.

The current support situation of the candidates is achieved by means of survey sampling. In order to ensure that the sample is a good representation of the whole population, a normal distribution hypothesis test is carried out. Using this model, the candidates continue to adjust their position according to sample survey results to gain a larger number of voters.

Election is a process in which candidates seek maximum support from voters by a series of campaigns, and optimisation is to find the best in numerous feasible solutions. Figure 1 (below) shows

58

The Economist (2016): Election 2016- how it happened [online] Available from: https://www.economist.com/news/unitedstates/21710028-donald-trump-won-fewer-votes-mitt-romneyin-2012hillary-clinton-did-much-worse [Accessed: 20th February 2018]

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three candidates (C1, C2, C3). Ten global samplesurvey voters are shown by red dots, and four local sample-survey voters surrounding each candidate (sixteen in total) are shown by green dots.59

positions of those sample-surveying voters whose distances to the candidate are nearer and prestiges are higher relatively. The next election location of the candidate should be his support barycentre, where the candidate will have the higher support. Do that circularly until the highest support is found.’

ADA, at its peak, ran 400,000 simulations a day, giving campaign manager Robby Mook detailed pictures of which battleground states were most likely to tip the race one way or another. It also played a key role in guiding decisions about where the team should spend time and money. So, what were the main problems with the ADA algorithm? Firstly, heuristics of the program meant that it was inevitable for there to be some error. All complex algorithms are guaranteed to have some percentage error, so this reason does not account for the loss in addition, her team would have accounted for this imminent error. Heuristics most likely would have occurred because of incorrect assumptions about voters’ habits. Another deeper, more fundamental problem is the fact that an algorithm like ADA, which took so many different factors into consideration, was faced with the task of solving an NP-complete- problem61. To solve such a problem, an approximation algorithm must be used.62 Given that an approximation to this NP-complete problem was used, as well as the fact that it leveraged heuristics, it is likely that Ada’s predictions did not predict reality.

Figure 1 Using this as a basic model, it is possible to write an algorithm that predicts the support barycentre of a candidate. According to Guangdong University of Technology, Election Campaign Optimization Algorithm60 :

‘...The support barycentre of the candidate C1 is

Although there is a lot to be said about the issues with the ADA algorithm, it is important to remember that this was just a small part of a more fundamental problem- her team’s overreliance on analytics. Charlie Cook, National Journal, writes that63: ‘The reliance, or perhaps over-reliance on analytics, may be one of

...The support barycentre of a candidate is obtained by means of sample-surveying, which depends on the 59

A local sample survey is generated by the normal distribution probability around each candidate, and the global sample survey about all candidates is generated by the probability of uniform distribution in a field.

time in any way. Solving an NP-complete- problem is not impossible, but it means that finding an exact solution requires exponential time in the number of inputs.

62

60

Wikipedia (2018): NP (complexity) [online]

Available from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NP_(complexity)

Wenge Lu (2010):Election campaign optimization algorithm[online]Available from: https://ac.elscdn.com/S1877050910001547/1-s2.0-S1877050910001547main.pdf?_tid=4819c28e-d3f7-42bf-90b8d5ed4a4f2564&acdnat=1520010261_d913e2d5925da542c82703ae1757a 310 [Accessed 20th February 2018]

[Accessed 21st February 2018] 63

Charlie Cook, National Journal (2017) How analytic models failed Clinton [online] Available from: https://www.nationaljournal.com/s/646194/how-analytical-models-failedclinton: [Date accessed: 18th February 2018]

61

An NP-complete-problem, in Computer Science terms, is a classification of decision problem that cannot be solved in polynomial

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the factors contributing to Clinton’s surprise defeat.

The Clinton team was so confident in its analytical models that it opted not to conduct tracking polls in a number of states during the last month of the campaign. As a consequence, deteriorating support in states such as Michigan and Wisconsin fell below the radar screen, slippage that that traditional tracking polls would have certainly caught.’

Available from: https://ac.elscdn.com/S1877050910001547/1-s2.0S1877050910001547-main.pdf?_tid=4819c28e-d3f7-42bf90b8d5ed4a4f2564&acdnat=1520010261_d913e2d5925da542c 82703ae1757a310 [Accessed 20th February 2018] Wikipedia (2018): NP (complexity) [online] Available from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NP_(complexity) [Accessed 21st February 2018]

This suggests that Clinton’s team made the unhelpful assumption that using new, expensive and intelligent systems would be more beneficial than focussing on rallying support with her grassroots supporters (a technique used frequently by Trump). In fact, her algorithms underestimated the rallying necessary to such an extent that in September, she only headlined seventeen public campaign events, with Trump headlining thirty five.64

Laura Nelson(2017): On the Campaign Trail, Donald Trump Leads in Rallies [online] Available from: https://www.wsj.com/articles/on-thecampaign-trail-donald-trump-leads-in-rallies-1475573406 [Accessed: 20th February 2018] Heather Roff, Duck of Minerva (2016): Algorithmic Bias: How the Clinton Campaign May Have Lost the Presidency or Why You Should Care [online]

Overall, I believe that assumptions were a key part of the 2016 Presidential election, especially within Clinton’s campaign team. There is no doubt that her team’s algorithms and data analysis tools rotated around inaccurate assumptions and speculations.

Although there is not a way to undo events of the past, I believe it is crucial for us as a society to learn from our previously incorrect assumptions.

Available from: http://duckofminerva.com/2016/12/algorithmic-bias-howthe-clinton-campaign-may-have-lost-the-presidency-orwhy-you-should-care.html [Accessed: 18th February 2018] The Economist (2016): Election 2016- how it happened [online] Avaibible from: https://www.economist.com/news/united-states/21710028donald-trump-won-fewer-votes-mitt-romneyin-2012hillary-clinton-did-much-worse [Accessed: 20th February 2018]

Bibliography: Charlie Cook, National Journal (2017) How analytic models failed Clinton [online] Available from: https://www.nationaljournal.com/s/646194/how-analyticalmodels-failed-clinton: [Date accessed: 18th February 2018] Stephanie Kirthgaessner, Guardian (2017): Cambridge Analytica used data from Facebook and Politico to help Trump [online]: Available from: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/oct/26/cam bridge-analytica-used-data-from-facebook-and-politico-tohelp-trump [Date accessed: 18th February 2016] Wenge Lu (2010):Election campaign optimization algorithm[online]

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[Accessed: 20th February 2018]

Laura Nelson(2017): On the Campaign Trail, Donald Trump Leads in Rallies [online] Available from: https://www.wsj.com/articles/on-the-campaign-traildonald-trump-leads-in-rallies-1475573406

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period that our modern perception of the witch was truly formed. The invention of the printing press in combination with artists such as Albrecht Dürer, a German painter, were to a significant extent responsible for this. In Dürer’s widely influential engraving ‘Witch Riding Backwards on a Goat’ (c.1500), he determined what would be stereotype of a witch’s appearance - depicting a hideous, old crone astride the aforementioned symbol of the Devil, naked with withered skin and a mouth stretched open to shriek evil incantations. One theory is that Dürer and his contemporaries were in fact inspired by the personification of Envy by the Italian artist Andrea Mantegna (c.1431-1506)66. As a result of these images, there was a surge of misogynistic witchcraft imagery spread rapidly and widely by the recently invented printing press; and it seems that the torturing of “witches” in the Western world that happened between approximately 1500 to 1750, was partly inspired by this. The typical target accused of witchcraft in England was an old, isolated, povertystricken women - partly because of her vulnerability, but also because of the bias as a result of the history of images of witches.

CHALLENGING THE ASSUMPTION OF THE APPEARANCE OF WITCHES

Izzy Henstridge (OHS)

Witches today are typically thought of as hideous old women, who wear pointed hats and ride broomsticks; and have been depicted as such from Shakespeare’s Macbeth to The Wizard of Oz. Even Google defines ‘witch’ as: “a woman thought to have magic powers, especially evil ones, popularly depicted as wearing a black cloak and pointed hat and flying on a broomstick.” And while it is straightforward to trace back through history the idea that witches are old women, the source of the assumption that they are associated with hats and broomsticks is more ambiguous.

Therefore, it makes sense why the assumption that witches are old women has been universally formed throughout the West in particular; however, the history of witchcraft does not explain where the concept of witch’s hats and broomsticks originated. Frustratingly, the source of the witch’s hat as commonly depicted today is unknown, seeing as medieval images of witches are most often bare-headed with long hair, and in fact it wasn't until the 1710s and 1720s that children’s chapbooks in England began to include illustrations of witches in conical black hats. But there are several theories; and the belief dating back to the earliest period is that they have evolved from the Phrygian hat (a soft, slightly pointed cap) which were associated with untrustworthy foreigners in Ancient Greece. In Ancient Greek texts and artwork, any figure described or shown as wearing such a hat was considered a barbaric foreigner, and therefore unholy and despicable. Other stories report of witches in medieval England being forced to wear hats shaped like church steeples, that were supposed to draw down God’s grace in a last attempt to redeem the wearer;

Having been around for as long as popular folklore, it is impossible to find the origin of the ancient belief of witchcraft; but the earliest examples appear in classical literature and law, and in the bible. The modern depiction of a witch as an old, haggard woman with a hooked nose can be easily traced throughout history. During the classical era, witches were believed to be hideous women that performed perverse spells at night and summoned demons from the underworld. For example Circe, the enchantress from Greek mythology, was a witch who transformed her enemies into swine; in short, the ancient world was responsible for establishing a number of tropes that would come to be associated with witches in the following centuries. 65During the Middle Ages, the Church continued to portray witches as old, grotesque, women for the function of making them targets of fear and hatred, because witches were thought to worship the Devil. But it wasn’t until the early Renaissance This is described by Barbette Stanley Spaeth in her novel ‘From Goddess to Hag: The Greek and the Roman Witch in Classical Literature’. http://www.oxfordscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195342 703.001.0001/acprof-9780195342703-chapter-2 65

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As explained by art critic Alastair Stooke: http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20140925-where-do-witches-comefrom

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however there is no evidence of this. More likely, but still perhaps questionable, is that during the medieval period, the Church purposefully depicted witches in pointed hats to turn the public further against them, because it is believed that the clergy and devout practitioners of the faith despised the pointed hat because it resembled the horns of the Devil.67 This speculation is supported by the fact that witches were believed to have been worshippers of the Devil from the Middle Ages to the Victorian Era. One of the most plausible theories is that in the 1215 Fourth Council of the Lateran demanded that all Jews had to identify themselves by wearing the ‘Judenhat’, and the style soon became a target for anti-semitism. Artists painted devils that wore Judenhats, and the trend of marginalisation continued throughout history.

hallucination without the unwanted side effects. And the most receptive areas of the body to apply such ointments were places where the sweat glands were close to the surface of the skin, such as armpits and the mucus membranes of genitals. Household objects, including brooms, were often used for application; and although early depictions in Europe from the 15th and 16th centuries show witches flying on a range of items, including stools, cupboards, and cooking forks, the image of the broomstick is the one that stuck.

According to an investigation into witchcraft from 1324: “In rifleing the closet of the ladie, they found a pipe of oyntment, wherewith she greased a staffe, upon which she ambled and galloped through thick and thin.” 69 To conclude, witches have been depicted as old hags since at least the classical era and this notion became widely acknowledged during the Renaissance.

Although it is not commonly known where the concept of witch’s hats and broomsticks originated, it turns out that the broomstick was actually a method of applying ointment containing hallucinogenic drugs that was popular throughout the Middle Ages. However, why witches are thought to wear pointed hats is still unknown, despite there being several theories.

Unlike the unknown origin of witch’s hats, the source of myth that witches ride broomsticks is not ambiguous and speculated over; it is in fact quite scientific. In Europe, in the Middle Ages and Renaissance, bread was made using rye, which can host the fungus ergot - which, when consumed in high doses can be lethal, but in smaller doses is a powerful hallucinogen. Records from the 14th to the 17th century mention Europeans' affliction with "dancing mania" - groups of people dancing through streets, speaking nonsense and foaming at the mouth, before collapsing from exhaustion; and those who experienced the “mania” would later describe their hallucinations. 68And according to legend, witches used herbs with psychoactive properties like ergot in their potions, or ‘flying ointments’, so those who became afflicted with “dancing mania” were often suspected to be guilty of witchcraft. In fact, one Spanish court physician writing the 16th century claimed to have taken "a pot full of a certain green ointment […] composed of herbs such as hemlock, nightshade, ergot, and mandrake" from the home of a woman accused of being a witch. However, early drug users found that simply ingesting the ergot would cause nausea and vomiting, but another way of experiencing the drug was to absorb it through the skin in the form of an ointment - which lead to

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Writes Gary Jensen, a former professor at Vanderbilt and author of ‘The Path of the Devil: Early Modern Witch Hunts’ http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_eye/2013/10/17/the_history_of_the_witch _s_hat_origins_of_its_pointy_design.html

https://romanfootprints.com/2011/10/31/romanwitches/ http://www.oxfordscholarship.com/view/10.1093/ acprof:oso/9780195342703.001.0001/acprof9780195342703-chapter-2 http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20140925where-do-witches-come-from https://renaissancewitchcraft.wordpress.com/ http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_eye/2013/10/17/t he_history_of_the_witch_s_hat_origins_of_its_p ointy_design.html https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witch_hat

This account by the English historian Raphael Holinshed was used as supposedly damning evidence in the case of Lady Alice Kyteler, Ireland’s earliest known accused witch. Eventually she was condemned to death for using sorcery to kill her husband, although Kyteler managed to escape and her maid was burned at the stake in her stead. https://www.livescience.com/40828-why-witches-ride-broomsticks.htm

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In the 20th century, Albert Hofmann would realize the psychedelic effects of LSD while studying ergot. https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/10/why-do-witchesride-brooms-nsfw/281037

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http://www.ancient-origins.net/history-ancienttraditions/pointing-witchcraft-possible-originconical-witchs-hat-006499 https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2 013/10/why-do-witches-ride-broomsnsfw/281037/ https://www.livescience.com/40828-whywitches-ride-broomsticks.html

CHALLENGING THE ASSUMPTION THAT CLASSICAL MUSIC HAS NO RELEVANCE TO TODAY’S YOUTH

Louisa Clogston (WHS)

Classical music, once at the forefront of popular culture and entertainment, is nowadays often seen as a dying art. Frequently, classical music, an umbrella term for music spanning the baroque, classical and romantic eras, is described as an ‘elitist form of artistic expression’ that is only enjoyed by the old, the white and the rich. Its place as the leading form of musical entertainment has been taken by modern genres such as pop, rock and rap that generally do not share the musical complexity of much of classical and romantic music that used to dominate concert halls. It is clear that the interest and enjoyment of classical music has decreased over the years, most prominently in today’s youth, despite the increasing accessibility through platforms such as Spotify and YouTube. However, just because interest has lowered does not mean that “classical music is irrelevant to today’s youth” as radio 1 DJ ‘Kissy Sell Out’ publically argued. It is important that those with a platform in the music industry challenge the notion that classical music is only for a select group of elites as there is so much to be gained from being engaged with classical music, from education to in media to understanding successful music in the modern world.

An area in which classical music is of utmost importance is in education. Headlines such as “listening to an hour of Mozart a day can make your baby smarter” outlining the so-called ‘Mozart effect’ frequently dominate the press. This longstanding myth 30

of listening to Mozart as an infant correlating to intelligence has since been debunked as having little scientific merit. However, there is evidence behind the notion that classical music has a positive effect on brain development and wellbeing. A study undertaken in 2014 by Zuk, Benjamin, and Kenyon found that adults and children with musical training exhibited cognitive advantages over their non-musically-trained counterparts. Adults with prior musical training performed better on tests of cognitive flexibility, working memory, and verbal fluency; and the musically-trained children performed better in verbal fluency and processing speed. The musically-trained children also exhibited enhanced brain activation in the areas associated with "executive functioning" compared to children who had no previous musical training. An additional study at the National Association for Music Education as well as researchers from the University of Kansas, found that young participants in music programmes in American High Schools associated with higher GPA, SAT and ACT scores, IQ, and other standardized test scores, as well as fewer disciplinary problems, better attendance, and higher graduation rates. These scores can have great impacts on future quality of life as they directly contribute to which college one is able to attend as well as future jobs leading to income.

the music community. Videogame music has striking similarities to both film music and elements of classical music with the main difference being it must be able to repeat indefinitely to accompany gameplay.

The royal philharmonic orchestra recently announced that it was to play a PlayStation concert to celebrate videogame music. James Williams, director of the RPO describes the planned concert as a “signpost for where orchestral music is expanding”. Whilst the music itself is not classical, it uses many elements of classical composition and is massively influenced by it. It is arguably the most similar genre to music of the classical era in the modern day. This shows how it is not always obvious where derivatives of classical music can appear in the media of young people, yet the stigma is still very present. James Williams argues that if classical music rebranded to ‘orchestral music’ to include film and videogame popular music, it would help to destigmatise the term. Classical music is vital as the basis of these new and expanding genres of music that are very popular among younger generations.

Within society, there are many other instances in which classical music is used and very relevant, although not in its original context. In advertising, classical music and derivatives of classical music are widely used in order to promote specific product and target specific groups of people. A 2014 study from North Carolina State University shows how the correct musical soundtrack in an ad can “increase attention, making an ad more likely to be noticed, viewed, and understood; enhance enjoyment and emotional response; aid memorability and recall; induce positive mood; forge positive associations between brands and the music through classic conditioning; enhance key messages; influence intention and likelihood to buy”.

The brain has evolved to encode emotional memories more deeply that non-emotional ones and memories formed with a relevant, resonant musical component are stored as emotional memories. This means that ads with suitable music are more likely to be remembered and acted upon. Clearly regardless of whether or not classical music is actively listened to by young people, in plays a very active part in our society and therefore cannot be labelled as irrelevant.

Another important use of classical music is in modern day media. Film music is a genre that directly stems from classical music. Its widespread use in movies and television means classical music is constantly permeating our daily lives and it would be naïve to pretend it is irrelevant. Film music serves several purposes in films including enhancing the emotional effects of scenes and inducing emotional reactions in viewers. The effects are widespread and particularly evident when watching a scene without the accompanying music. For example, watching the famous shower scene from Hitchcock’s psycho without Herrmann’s music makes the scene appear almost comical and certainly lacks the fear and suspense the scene is meant to evoke. The film music industry is very successful especially among younger generations, with film music scoring the highest number of downloads of instrumental music.

Similarly, the videogame music industry has recently taken off in terms of popularity and recognition within 31

Clearly despite classical music being stereotypically more popular within older social circles, it is still very relevant for today’s youth, weather in or out of its traditional context. Claims that the popularity of classical music is massively decreasing can be disproved if the definition of classical music is expanded to include similar genres such as in film, videogames and advertisement which are all very popular and relevant, in addition to the huge benefits classical music has on the brains of young people.

Therefore, it cannot be argued that classical music is irrelevant to today’s youth.

HOW GENETIC PARENTAGE TESTING CHALLENGED THE ASSUMPTION THAT BECAUSE MOST BIRDS WERE OBSERVED TO BE SOCIALLY MONOGAMOUS, THEY WERE SEXUALLY MONOGAMOUS TOO. (AND THE PORTRAYAL OF BIRDS AS LOYAL AND ROMANTIC AS A RESULT

Bibliography: https://www.independent.co.uk/artsentertainment/classical/features/radio-1-dj-kissy-sell-outclassical-music-is-irrelevant-to-todays-youth2282561.html 23/03/18 Behavioral and Neural Correlates of Executive Functioning in Musicians and Non-Musicians, Jennifer Zuk, Christopher Benjamin, Arnold Kenyon, Nadine Gaab Published: June 17, 2014 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0099868

Mairi Franklin (OHS)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_9483000/948 3625.stm 23/03/18

It was Darwin who first explained the reason for the prevalence of monogamy in birds; he applied his theory of natural selection, and explained that it would be to both the female’s and male’s genetic advantage if they cared for their young as a cooperative pair, as more would survive to adulthood. However it was at that early stage unknown that although 90% of bird species are socially monogamous - developing a pair bond only with each other - they often partake in extrapair matings, meaning their mating system is not in fact sexually monogamous, since many pairs raise some chicks sired by males other than the female’s partner. In fact it has been estimated that in 90% of monogamous species (which comprise 90% of all bird species,) some females lay at least some eggs fathered by a different male than their social mate70. This assumption by him, and by countless other scientists, writers and musicians, that birds are loyal to their one

https://www.virtualsheetmusic.com/blog/brain/ 23/03/18 https://blog.ebiquity.com/2014/06/the-role-and-impact-ofmusic-in-advertising 23/03/18 This is your brain on music – Daniel Levitin, Dutton Penguin, 2006

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p325 The Cornell Lab of Ornithology Handbook of Bird Biology, third edition

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partner, has influenced the portrayal of birds in our culture to a great extent, the irony of which has only very recently been revealed.

two lovers met in Mayfair; and even references to birds singing in modern pop songs about happy, often new love, such as ‘Love Is Easy’ (2012) by McFly! In a short story called ‘The Nightingale and the Rose’ (1888), by Oscar Wilde, the nightingale takes a slightly different role, not of a lover herself, but of a selfless patron of true lovers. A student, promised a dance in exchange for a red rose, is in despair that his garden does not have any; and so the nightingale hears his cries, and singing with her breast pressed against a thorn all night, she stains one pale rose with her heart’s blood for him, and dies at dawn.

Birds, since centuries before Darwin, have been used as symbols of romance and love. Doves were often pictured alongside Aphrodite, goddess of love and desire, in the time of the ancient Greeks. (Interestingly, another of her lasting symbols was a red rose). Ever since then they have outlived their deity as representations of love71; for example the ‘two turtle doves’ in the Twelve Days of Christmas (published in 178072), and those still seen commonly on Valentine’s cards. But as with so many species, despite most pigeons/doves forming monogamous pairs - and indeed many mate for life - they nonetheless engage in extra-pair matings.

Leading on from spring courtship generally, bird song in particular is certainly one of the most romanticised aspects of it, so much so that it has become a cliché.

Examples of its use in connection with love affairs include the poem by Robert Burns called ‘Address to the Woodlark’ (1795) imagining a woodlark as a lamenting lover; the popular 1939 song, ‘A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square’, about the night

This long-standing assumption of sexual monogamy that is, pair fidelity - was challenged with the rise of genetic parentage testing. There had already been doubt, since males of some supposedly monogamous species had been seen to mate with more than one female, but genetic studies enable researchers to ascertain exactly how many chicks in a nest were sired by the male of the pair, and which by others (and, more rarely, to identify the cases where a female lays some eggs in nests other than her own). It was a powerful tool for ornithologists (biologists studying birds), who previously had not been able to accurately observe the extent of extra-pair matings, or to confirm them.

In summary, it was discovered in 1985 (Alec Jeffreys et al.75) that testing regions of DNA called microsatellites can identify parentage very precisely, since there is much variation in these lengths within a population (and also because every individual inherits two copies of the microsatellite, one from each parent). Other regions can be used, but these are the most convenient. Their variability is due to them having unusually high mutation rates, and high variability makes them perfect for field biologists, since within a population of birds the regions are likely to differ between individuals, and thus it is possible to match genetic variants in offspring to which parents they must have been inherited from76. The DNA can be collected from tissues, such as in blood samples, or non-invasively, using the cells in faeces shed from the intestine lining. It can either be amplified using PCR (polymerase chain reaction) and then labelled with

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In fact, the origin of Valentine’s Day as a romantic festival is related to birds being seen as doting partners; in the 14th century it became known as the day birds chose their mates, potentially because some species start to sing in February. One of the earliest references to this was in the ‘Parlement of Foules’ (probably written 138273) - also known as the ‘Parliament of Fowls’ - a 700-line poem by Chaucer, in which every bird is gathered together by the goddess Nature, and takes turns to choose a partner. As of then it became a significant day for lovers, when they would write letters or send tokens - and one would hope this was in light of the birds as symbols of loyalty, rather than referring to their true practice of infidelity and deception! (Around that time, the 14th February was called ‘the birds’ wedding day’ in some parts of Sussex74, clearly implying monogamy.)

https://www.livescience.com/33001-why-do-doves-represent-love.html https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Twelve_Days_of_Christmas_(song) 73 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parlement_of_Foules 74 http://theepicentre.com/valentines-day-birds/

Reference p267, An Introduction to Behavioural Ecology, fourth edition 76 p327, The Cornell Lab of Ornithology Handbook of Bird Biology, third edition

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dye, or visualised using gel electrophoresis, as shown

THE MISCONCEPTION THAT: MEN ARE BETTER ATHLETES THAN WOMEN

Mara Smith (OHS)

“Coercive sex segregation does not reflect actual sex differences in athletic ability, but instead constructs and enforces a flawed premise that females are inherently athletically inferior to males.” [1] The common misconception, ‘men are better athletes than women’, titled above, is a frequent phrase used by, and enforced by professionals, teachers and coaches all around the world, but the common phrase is incorrect and not accurate. The term ‘athlete’ is defined as ‘a person who is trained or skilled in exercises, sports, or games requiring physical strength, agility, or stamina’.[2] The word athlete is referring to the skill and ability required to undertake a sport and not the results obtained. It is true that men have biological advantages over women meaning in general they will obtain higher results and achieve better results, but this does not necessarily make them better athletes, however this phrase is often misused. Despite this, today's society coupled with primitive attitudes regarding the roles of women in sport have enforced this incorrect stereotype upon generations of young women, whom have grown up believing they are inferior, hindering any major advances in women’s sport. This piece is not attempting to argue and convince the reader that women are better athletes, it is merely attempting to remove the idea that they are athletically inferior to men.

in the example below.

This is an example of a paternity test using gel electrophoresis77, to identify the fathers of 7 mongoose pups - however it is the same technique as in birds.

(The third column is the mother’s data, though hard to see here.)

From these results we can tell that while offspring 1, 2, 3, 4, 6 and 7 were sired by male A, pup 5’s father is male B. This is now a very commonly-used method, and it has exposed not only the extent in number of species who practice extra-pair copulation, but also some extreme examples in the frequency of extra-pair matings; in superb fairy-wrens, an Australian species, up to 80% of nestlings can be fathered by males other than their mother’s social partner78!

To conclude, it is in light of genetic parentage testing, arising only in the last thirty years or so, that we can now see that the longstanding image of birds in our culture as lovers, as guardians of true romance, and as faithful spouses is on the whole mistaken, indeed ironic, and has been a profoundly inaccurate assumption challenged only by recent biological proof.

It is seemingly obvious and inevitable that men have always, and for years to come will always be stronger and more physically-suited to participate in physical activities involving throwing, jumping, kicking etc. It must be pointed out that we would expect this to be the case as initially these sports were designed around

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Photo from p268, An Introduction to Behavioural Ecology, fourth edition

p329, The Cornell Lab of Ornithology Handbook of Bird Biology, third edition

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men and around the physical capabilities of males, as the traditional roles of women lay in the domestic sphere. Biological advantages such as the average height of men being 15cm taller than women, providing not only better muscular support, but longer bones, allows men to perform to a higher level in strength disciplines, such as throwing etc. Higher testosterone levels increase muscle mass in men as well as increasing the size of both the lungs and heart, and the numbers of type 2 muscle cells, producing more red blood cells and therefore increasing oxygen carrying capacity and maximum oxygen uptake. In contrast women’s maximum oxygen consumption is 15-30% lower than men, and this factor alone is considered the key trait in both high aerobic endurance and elite performance. It is clear that men have the biological advantage, however despite not being the defining factor in athletic ability, many use this as a sole reason to call men ‘better athletes’ due to their higher physical abilities.

the social constructs of female stereotypes and male sport superiority have negative effects on the psychology of these women, making them convince themselves that they are inferior to men, in turn affecting their mindsets when competing.[6] The common insults and turns of phrase such as ‘you throw like a girl’ or ‘you run like a girl’ subconsciously reinforce these gender stereotypes, continuing to portray the idea of female athletes as inferior [7] [8].

However, recent figures [9] have shown that over the past century women have been improving their race times at a faster rate than the men have, slowly narrowing the gap. This increase in results correlates with these women receiving more training and resources and opportunities, similar but still not the same as those received by top male athletes. There have also been instances whereby females have beaten men in events such as the 2003 Boston Marathon, with the average time for women being 5 minutes faster than that of the men.[10] However such occurrences although which admittedly are not all too frequent are ignored, excused, blamed on the men having a ‘bad day’. In 1931, Virne Mitchell aged 17 lost her professional baseball contract after striking out both Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig. ‘As is common in these cases, the women’s victories were belittled, and the men they beat were excused for having gone lightly on them due to their looks or supposed frailty’. Even though such examples are in the past, even today female athletes are still being held back by lack of opportunities and due to a lack of an even playing field. From early childhood these stereotypes are reinforced, with coaches already choosing to focus on the boy’s athletic potential segregating the children and leaving the girls to ‘do it by themselves’ ,and throughout a woman’s life these stereotypes are built upon, developed, deepened and reinforced to the extent to which one believes they are true.

However inevitable and unchangeable biological differences do not define what a ‘good athlete’ is. It would be unfair to categorise women as lesser athletes due to reasons such as biological differences which they cannot change. Despite sport being a primarily physical activity, performing at a high level requires large amounts of psychological endurance and advanced cognitive skills. Although not entirely applicable to the real world, a recent study into 8,280 Grand Slam tennis matches suggests that these women are better at dealing in high-pressure situations [3] [4].

Their findings showed that after reaching a tie, the number of men’s serves broken rose by over 7%, and that even when a women’s performance deteriorated in the final stages the drop was still 50% smaller than the men. Studies into the different gender responses to competition have also been carried out, finding that the men’s initial advantage over women is often shortlived as the competition progresses. "The initial gender difference only appears when we frame the competition as a race; it does not appear when we tell participants that the competition is 'not a race,'" the study reads. "These findings suggest that the existence of an initial male advantage depends crucially on the design of the competition and the task at hand, and when the male advantage does exist it does not persist beyond the initial period of competition."

This inherited view of women being inferior to men in sport is then automatically translated into professional athletes’ salaries. [11] In 2017 on the list of the 100 highest-paid athletes, Serena Williams was the only female athlete to feature at number 51, still earning £50 million less than number one Cristiano Ronaldo. Following a similar trend after winning the 2015 World Cup, the USA women’s football team got a £1.5 million reward, however this was just 5.7% of the prize for the winners of the male tournament with their cash prize at £26.5 million the previous year. Such stark differences in salaries

Studies into the psychology of female athletes [5] has shown that the media portrayal of women in sport and 35

reinforces these stereotypes of women’s sport being inferior to males and further enhances the divide.

URL:https://howwegettonext.com/is-gender-segregationin-sports-necessary-dc188150f242 (Accessed: 10/02/18)

I am not arguing against the fact that men perform better at sports, that is an inevitable occurrence that cannot be changed, however these studies into the mindset and psychological abilities of women suggest there is a potential that is unable to be fulfilled due to barriers in today's society. These topperforming female athletes deserve the same recognition as their male counterparts which currently they are not receiving.

10. Are men really better athletes?

URL:https://isreview.org/issue/72/are-men-really-betterathletes (Accessed: 13/02/18) 11. 100 Women: Is the gender pay gap in sport really closing?

Perasso, V 2017, October 23 URL: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-41685042 (Accessed: 07/03/18)

Bibliography: 1. MCDONAGH, E PAPPANO, L Playing with the boys: Why separate is not equal in sports, 8/11 2007 2. Athlete definition URL: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/athlete (Accessed: 07/03/18) 3. American Associates, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. (2016, November 10). Male athletes more likely to choke under pressure. ScienceDaily. (Accessed: 22/02/18) URL: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/11/16111012 4555.htm (Accessed: 22/02/18) 4. Women respond better than men to competitive URL:https://hbr.org/2017/11/women-respond-better-thanmen-to-competitive-pressure (Accessed: 22/02/18) 5. Psychological considerations for women in sports Wright,P Barnett, NP April 1994 URL: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8013034 (Accessed: 12/02/18) 6. Why are psychological skills important for athletes: URL: http://www.athletics-training.com/articles/sportspsychology.html (Accessed: 9/02/18) 7. Women vs Men - Self-confidence and sports URL:http://www.verticalwise.com/en/self-confidencegender-and-sports/ (Accessed: 9/02/18) 8. What does it mean to throw like a girl URL:https://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/08/24/w hat-does-it-mean-to-throw-like-a-girl/ (Accessed: 14/02/18) 9.Is gender segregation in sport necessary? 2016

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completely outside of the rigid expectations of women - they criticised their husbands, they expressed fervent emotion, they did not make an effort to look attractive to men. Bertha Mason in Jane Eyre is attributed “virile strength”, criticising her for her masculinity and sexuality.

In Victorian times, women outnumbered men in asylums two to one, and John Sutherland, Emeritus professor of English Literature at University College London said “If a man wanted to get rid of his wife, he would simply get two doctors to certify her and lock her up”.2 There is certainly evidence that women were called mad simply for failing or refusing to confine themselves to expectations, and this is the case for many famous mad women in literature. For example, in Wilkie Collins’ 1860 novel The Woman in White, Sir Percival Glyde arranges for his wife to be taken to an asylum in place of another woman after she finds out a secret of his this was based on a true story of an MP’s wife who was vocally critical of her husband. In The Yellow Wallpaper, first published in 1882 by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the protagonist’s physician husband John diagnoses her with "temporary nervous depression – a slight hysterical tendency", a diagnosis common to women in that period, and as a remedy forbids her from working on her writing and encourages her to spend more time with her child - suppressing her into the role of Mother and Wife. The short story is in the first person, and the lucidity of the writing prohibits the assumption that the husband’s diagnosis is correct. While the protagonist certainly descends into some form of psychosis as a result of this repression and understimulation, she is certainly sane in the first half of the story. The book was

CHALLENGING THE ASSUMPTION THAT THE “MADWOMEN IN THE ATTIC” IN THE 19TH CENTURY LITERATURE WERE THE VILLAINS OF THEIR STORIES

Marianne Tambini (OHS) The seminal second wave feminist work of literary criticism The Madwoman in the Attic, published in 1979 by Susan Gubar and Sandra M. Gilbert, argues that female characters as written by both male and female authors can be categorised as either angels or monsters.1 These “monsters” such as Bertha Rochester in Jane Eyre, after whom the book is named, are insubordinate and unruly - disagreeable traits in a Victorian woman and supposed symptoms of madness. Although they explore the effect of this trope upon the work of female authors during the 19th century, the text (and many others even in the genre of feminist literary criticism) assume that these women were intended to be, and received as, the villains of their stories.

Conversely, I would argue that the madwomen in 18th and 19th century literature were more often than not sane victims of their husbands and societies. For many authors their ‘madwomen in the attic’ were the manifestation of their own minds within the text, and acted as a metaphor for the entrapment they felt in their own bodies due to the constraints of the patriarchy and society at the time.

exaggerated and extrapolated from Perkins Gilman’s own experience with the medical establishment, and she suggested it was written to convince her previous doctor, Dr S. Weir Mitchell, to stop prescribing extreme “rest” treatments to his female patients. Martha J. Cutter

One of the most frightening things about these female ‘villains’, especially for 19th century readers, was the way in which they behaved 37

discusses how in many of Perkins Gilman's works she addresses the attitudes and expectations of society as a whole at the time, which seeped into medical diagnoses.3 According to Cutter, a cured woman was one who was "subdued, docile, silent, and above all subject to the will and voice of the physician". In this environment, the protagonist of The Yellow Wallpaper, Bertha Mason in Jane Eyre , and any number of madwomen, real or fictional, could be simply victims of their husbands and their era, rather than mad at all.

tensions in the Caribbean during her childhood than some mysterious “madness”. In Wide Sargasso Sea, her mental state becomes confused after being locked in the attic for so long, and her discovery of Jane Eyre: collected, beautiful and socially accepted. Taking this as the reason for her violence, the reader of Jane Eyre is inclined to take Bertha’s side even over that of the protagonist. Though female audiences and modern audiences may feel more sympathy with the woman fighting for emancipation ahead of her time, Gustave Flaubert reportedly asserted “Madame Bovary, c’est moi”, in reference to the excitement-seeking and sensitive Emma Bovary in his 1856 novel Madame Bovary5. A feeling of longing to escape permeates these stories, and this longing, along with our sadness at their obvious mistreatment, forces us to feel for, and often grieve for, these women.

In the case that these women are sane, or were before they were diagnosed as mad by their husbands, they deserve our utmost sympathy.

After all, who would not set the bed alight after being trapped in a dark attic with greedy alcoholic Grace Poole, as Bertha Mason does in Jane Eyre?

However, many readers understand these women as truly mad, and not entrapped due to the ulterior motives of their husbands. In fact, even when Jane Eyre was published in 1847, Bronte was criticised for her hyperbolic portrayal of madness, which frightened many readers. Despite this, to a female audience in particular, Bertha’s entrapment would reflect their own frustrations, and this applies to a modern audience as well as a 19th century one. In a 2015 article for the Guardian, Samantha Ellis describes Bertha’s end thus: “She sets fire to Thornfield Hall, and stands on its battlements, her ‘black hair … streaming against the flames’. It was supposed to be her house, it became her prison, and now she’s its blazing queen. She jumps to her death and it’s a horrible, violent end, but it’s also a radical leap of faith that sets her free.”4 In a feminist reading such as this one, we fight Bertha’s cause and rejoice in her escape from Rochester, the husband we come to hate. Jean Rhys wrote Wide Sargasso Sea in 1966, inspired by Bertha Mason’s backstory in the Caribbean, the narrative of which suggests that Bertha’s problems had much more to do with her anger and sadness about her relationship with her mother and the racial

As these women are not monsters with whom we cannot identify or feel sympathy, nor can they be blamed for much of the damage they cause due to their sad situations, we cannot call them villains.

Instead, I think it is more likely that their authors intended, consciously or otherwise, to place themselves in the story. These characters with their uncontrollable rage and will for agency are a metaphor in the work of female authors for their frustrations with their lack of autonomy and confinement into an inescapable role. When they do escape, for example in the case of Bertha Mason, the image of her standing against the battlements in the flames is one of a power and freedom which Bronte could never experience as a woman, publishing her works under the pseudonym Currer Bell. Virginia Woolf, in an essay entitled Professions for Women in 1931, wrote of “the angel in the house”, a name she gave to the way in which women were supposed to act in the 19th century, which she said restricted their - and her own - creativity and stopped them from writing. In the works of male authors such as Flaubert6 and also Edgar Allen Poe, who wrote 38

06/baddies-in-books-bertha-rochester-charlottebronte-janeeyre) London: The Guardian, 2006

about a mad woman entombed alive in her ancestral home by her brother in The Fall of the House of Usher, the metaphor operates in a similar way, representing the repressed emotions trapped inside the creative as a result of Victorian attitudes. It is interesting that they chose women as the embodiments of these entrapped passions.

Perhaps as it was more realistic that they would be locked up; perhaps because male madness was praised in the Romantic era, such as that of the “mad, bad and dangerous to know” Lord Byron; perhaps, as women were regarded as more emotional, to give voices to the feelings which their masculinity prohibited them from expressing. It is supposed that the madwomen in 19th century literature were villains because of our own archaic attitudes towards women who are unrestrained. These characters were not evil, they may not even have been mad, and they certainly deserve and often garner our sympathy. A feeling of entrapment in the attic of one’s mind is universal even today, when society does not confine us to as great an extent as it would have in Victorian times, and the authors of these novels took pleasure in an ability to write a character as free in emotion and expression as Bertha Mason.

They could even, in many cases, be called heroines.

Demarest, Rebecca, A., C’est Moi, Flaubert’s Madame Bovary, Inquiries, Vol. 3. No. 3, 2011 5

6

Bibliography: 1

Gubar, Susan and Gilbert, Sandra M., The Madwoman in the Attic: The Woman Writer and the Nineteenth-Century Literary Imagination, Connecticut: Yale University Press, 1979 Were the’mad’ heroines of literature really sane? (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/8622367.stm), BBC, 2010 2

3

Cutter, Martha J., The Writer as Doctor: New Models of Medical Discourses in Charlotte Perkins Gilman's Later Fiction, 2001 4

Ellis, Samantha, Baddies in books: Bertha Rochester, the madwoman in the attic, (https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2015/jan/

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Woolf, Virginia, Professions for Women , 1931.

is illustrated as a sigmoid curve which represents the dose-response relationship ( Fig. 2.) .

CHALLENGING ASSUMPTIONS: IS WATER REALLY AS HARMLESS AS WE THINK? Molly Hobbs (OHS) Water is integral to all life on earth. Just take a look at the makeup of our planet, or ourselves. Approximately 60% of the human adult body is water - the heart - 73% water, the lungs - 83% water, skin - 64% water. In every organism water is essential for vital processes and mechanisms, for example transporting molecules, facilitating crucial reactions, lubrication, excretion and shock absorbency for the brain and spinal cord (to name just a few). Or take for example the biodiversity found within seas, or the necessity of water for plant life and therefore human life. In short, without water life on earth could not exist - it only takes approximately 3-5 days without water for a person to die of dehydration. However, when we explore the effects of too much water, it does not seem such a harmless molecule as once thought. One of the most famous cases of water acting as a toxicant was that of a 28 year old woman who died of water intoxication after taking part in a radio station’s water drinking contest to win a Nintendo Wii video game system in California, 2007. When exploring the safety of water, it is therefore paramount to investigate why such a lifedependent molecule can cause such adverse effects.

Firstly, it is important to consider the role the dose plays in the toxicity profile of a molecule. According to Paracelsus, one of the most influential medical scientists in early modern Europe1, all the atoms that build up our planet can be considered toxic - ‘closis sola facit venenum’2.

The graph also emphasises how the dose is crucial to distinguishing between a beneficial therapeutic effect, adversity and lethality; a common case of the small margin of such differences being the administration of morphine to palliative care patients.

The concept that there are no safe limits for molecules can be illustrated using a number of widely used chemicals, which exemplify how the ‘dose makes the poison’. For example, arsenic, although used as a relatively effective medication to treat syphilis before penicillin was discovered, can cause symptoms similar to cholera if enough is absorbed. Arsenic can inhibit around 200 enzymes involved in cellular energy pathways and DNA synthesis, by increasing oxidative stress, upregulating proinflammatory cytokines and inflammatory mediators, inactivating eNOS3 and causing the phosphorylation of MLCK. This results in a host of 4 life-threatening complications, often with carcinogenic and genotoxic effects, such as altering gene expression, cardiovascular dysfunction, neurotoxicity ,encephalopathy (brain damage), demyelination, peripapillary hemorrhages) and hepatotoxicity. Another example of how to dose radically effects the outcome is mercury, which has the potential to cause severe neurological effects, but is used in fillings, (although this is considered controversial). The most powerful example however, is that of water - ‘the universal solvent’ and ‘the driving force of all nature’5. With an LD50 of 6l for an 165 lb person, water intoxication is caused by severe hyponatremia; when the blood is so ‘waterlogged’ that that blood sodium concentration levels are measured below 135 millimoles/litre. This drop in the sodium concentration causes water to move into cells to

Although Paracelsus’s thinking is accurate to a great extent and very forward thinking for his time, there are exceptions, as some chemicals do not have a safe therapeutic dose, for example botulinum toxin, cyanide and polonium 210. However on the whole, the higher the dose, the greater the toxic response, and this

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media’s attention. For a small number of patients, it is crucial that clinicians are able to make an early diagnosis and begin treatment as soon as possible to prevent fatal complications. The treatment methods discussed above emphasise water’s life-threatening toxic potential, however, what is really highlighted is how essential the dose is when considering when a molecule is toxic, and this in particular has much wider implications and applications in society.

However, it would be illogical to only take this more pessimistic view of such a crucial molecule, and so we must make sure this is balanced by continuing to recognise the pivotal role water plays in sustaining all life on earth.

balance the electrolyte levels. Water intoxication can be physically identified by symptoms such as fatigue, mental disorientation, nausea and frequent urination, but most critically, and in the most severe cases, brain edema. Although most cells can accommodate the excess water leaving the blood and entering the cells, brain cells are unable to adapt to this. As the quantity of water outside the cell increases, more Aquaporin 4s6 are transported in vesicles to the cell surface membrane from the cytoplasm, resulting in more water entering the cell. The swelling of these cells causes a buildup of intracranial pressure, and because ‘inside the skull there is almost zero room to expand and swell’7, the brain edema ‘manifests as seizures, coma, respiratory arrest, brain stem herniation and death’8.

1..http://broughttolife.sciencemuseum.org.uk/brought tolife/people/paracelsus 2 ‘The dose makes the poison’ Paracelsus.

3 Endothelial nitric oxide synthases (family of enzymes) 4 Myosin light-chain kinase (protein) 5 Leonardo da Vinci 6 Water channels in the membrane of brain cells which control the flow of water into and out of the cell.

7 W. Liedtke, a clinical neuroscientist at Duke University Medical Center (2007) 8 A. Arnaout, chief of nephrology at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School (2007)

Water intoxication can affect a small number of psychiatric patients, most often those suffering with chronic psychosis, through psychogenic polydipsia; a disorder characterized by the compulsive drinking of water. Although classed as an emergency condition, in clinical practice it is often mistaken for other neurological and internal emergency states because of its non-specific symptomatology. This can lead to the misdiagnosis of the condition and become the cause of death. Early diagnosis is therefore crucial to prevent fatal complications, and so awareness of it in clinical settings is important. In addition, adequate treatment can lead to a full recovery. Treatment methods include reducing fluid intake, taking diuretics to increase the volume of urine produced, treating the condition that caused the overhydration, and in severe cases replacing sodium levels. In the instance of cerebral edemas, clinicians can reduce the swelling by a number of non-invasive treatment options: medication, osmotherapy, induced hypothermia (as lowering body temperature can reduce metabolism in the brain and swelling, although this is still being researched) and hyperventilation. In the most severe cases invasive methods are used, for example ventriculostomy (draining fluid from the brain) or a craniotomy (removing a section of the skull to relieve pressure). Such measures emphasise how serious and life-threatening the misuse of water is to human life.

Although rare, and not a key concern for most in society, there is an angle to water that not much light is shed on until extraordinary fatalities attracts the

Bibliography: Anthony, K.(2017) Cerebral Edema [Online] Available from: https://www.healthline.com/health/cerebraledema#outlook [Accessed 24th February 2018].

Ballantyne, C. (2007) Strange but True: Drinking Too Much Water Can Kill You [Online] Available from: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/strange-buttrue-drinking-too-much-water-can-kill/ [Accessed 10th March 2018].

Bill, R. (2017) Aquaporin water channels as drug targets for treating brain swelling [Lecture] Oxford High School, December 2017.

Bower, L. Farrell, DJ. (2003) Fatal water intoxication [Online] Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1770067/ [Accessed 5th March 2018].

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Brainy Quote (n.d.) Leonardo da Vinci Quotes [Online] Available from: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/leonardo_da_vinci_1 51978 [Accessed 10th March 2018].

https://www.coursera.org/learn/chemicalshealth/lecture/vYiH7/lecture-3a-a-look-into-the-world-oftoxicology-section-a-trush [Accessed 27th February 2018].

USGS (2016) The water in you [Online] Available from: https://water.usgs.gov/edu/propertyyou.html [Accessed 19th March 2018].

Dovey, D. (2014) Water Intoxication: Just How Much H2O Does It Take To Kill A Person? [Online] Available from: http://www.medicaldaily.com/water-intoxication-just-howmuch-h2o-does-it-take-kill-person-312958 [Accessed 19th March 2018].

Willis, A. (2016) Toxicology [Lecture] Oxford High School, March 2016.

Dressler, D. Saberi, FA. Barbosa, ER. (2005) Botulinum toxin: mechanisms of action. [Online] Available from: . https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15830090 [Accessed 9th March 2018].

Health, Environment & Work (2007) Toxicology [Online] Available from: http://www.agius.com/hew/resource/toxicol.htm [Accessed 25th February 2018].

MedlinePlus (n.d.) Low sodium level [Online] Available from: https://medlineplus.gov/ency/article/000394.htm [Accessed 5th March 2018].

Pupic-Bakrac, J. Pupic-Bakrac, A. Markota, D. Severe Hyponatremia and Water Intoxication – Diagnostic Challenge in Department of Emergency Medicine [Online] https://hrcak.srce.hr/index.php?show=clanak&id_clanak_j ezik=281272 Available from:[Accessed 20th March 2018]. science museum (n.d.) Paracelsus (1493-1541) [Online] Available from: http://broughttolife.sciencemuseum.org.uk/broughttolife/p eople/paracelsus [Accessed 9th March 2018].

Singh, A. Goel, R. Kaur, T. (2011) Mechanisms Pertaining to Arsenic Toxicity [Online] Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK230889/ [Accessed 9th March 2018].

The Water Page.com (n.d.) How long can you live without water? [Online] Available from: http://www.thewaterpage.com/live-without-water.htm [Accessed 19th March 2018].

Trush, M. (2000) A look into the world of Toxicology [Online Lecture] Available from:

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months due to delayed diagnosis. (Quarter of cancer patients dead in six months due to late diagnosis, n.d.)

Once a cancerous cell evolves its growth increases exponentially, making larger and more developed tumours increasingly resistant to treatment. Its rampant ability to spread is worsened by the fact that there is very limited awareness of the symptoms of cancer, causing senior oncologists to believe that early diagnosis would provide increased hope for cancer treatment (Delay Kills , n.d.). However, blood tests can now detect DNA fragments shed from tumours, permitting easier diagnosis. (Closing in on cancer, n.d.) Time is a key factor to successful cancer treatment, yet this new technique will increase the available for treating the cancer whilst allowing physicians to cripple the cancer when it is at its weakest, thus helping to increase the survival rates even more.

THE ASSUMPTION THAT A SINGLE CURE TO CANCER WILL BE FOUND

In 2015 cancer claimed 8.8 million lives. (New types of therapy mean cancer is going to become ever more survivable , n.d.) The magnitude of its effect has led to a deep public desire for a single ubiquitous cure, however this widespread wish is unlikely to come to fruition. Cancer is often assumed to be a singular universal disease, yet this could not be further from the truth; the word ‘cancer’ is a term used to define hundreds of different diseases, all of which share a characteristic: uncontrollable cell growth. Cancer cells are all unique and in each body they manifest in a different way, thus a single cure is impossible to synthesise. However, as we step into a new era of medicine with the hopes of personalised medicine maybe the fantasy of curing cancer is not as far as it seems, however due to the unique identity of each tumour they will continue to be treated separately with different methods. Therefore, although there is scope to cure all cancers, it will not be done it using one simple medicine.

Every decade has chosen to interpret cancer in their own way, as we embark on the genetic revolution our addition to the mountain of research has been the illumination of the cancer genome, through the creation of The Cancer Genome Atlas. (Mapping The Cancer Genome, n.d.) In 1981 this group of diseases was first associated with oncogenes (cancerpromoting versions of the human gene).

Cancer has been described by the renowned oncologist Siddhartha Mukhergee as ‘not just a divine cell’ but ‘It’s a complex disease: It invades, it metastases, it evades the immune system. So there are many other stages of [defining] cancer which are still in their infancy.’

(Mukherjee) This reinforces the impossibility of a disease that is so elusive and complex being cured with one ‘magical’ cure.

Researchers gave up on the search for the single ‘magical’ cure long ago, yet due to misinformed public knowledge the idea of this cure still prevails. Almost every day the public is bombarded with headlines reading nonsensical unfounded claims about the disease, such as: ‘Cancer chemicals are found in eggs’.

(Cancer chemical are found in eggs, n.d.) This level of deception hinders cancer treatment itself, as patients are less able to recognise symptoms and notify doctors, having been deceived by an array of pseudoscience coupled with the lack of public knowledge on the nature of the disease. A hamartia to today’s treatment of cancer is its late diagnosis, (Delay Kills , n.d.) with a quarter of cancer patients dying within 6

For many years/ thousands of researchers have hubristically tired at curing this disease with Nixon embarking on the ‘war on cancer’ in 1971, acknowledging cancer as an enemy of humanity.

However, due to the uniqueness of each patient’s cancer now being acknowledged, cancer is an enemy of each human. As this notion permeates into the medical world treatments are slowly becoming more specific to the cancer, which enables each patient’s cancer to be treated more effectively. Genetic tests allow physicians to discover the exact vulnerabilities of each individual tumour, making treatments more 43

precise. This revolution is known as ‘Personalised Medicine’; it acts to analyse each individual’s tumours and determine which combination of medications will work best. It can materialise in 3 ways: the cancer cells can be extracted and grown in a lab where they are treated with variety of drugs to see which are the most potent and successful. The cancer’s own genetics can be sequenced, which will provide information for the most fitting treatments. Finally, genetic testing can be used in order to determine whether a patient has a certain genetic mutation, which leads to an increased risk of developing cancer.

an ever more significant problem. A chemical gluing known as e-selectin and a selective tumour killing chemical known as TRAIL can be attached to our immune cells, (TRAIL in cancer therapy: present and future challenges, n.d.) which makes ensures that the greatest proportion of drugs reach the targeted tumour.

(We can hack our immune cells to fight cancer, n.d.)

An omnipotent cure for cancer is unfortunately not on the horizons, but cancer treatment is improving and will continue to do so, with increasingly effective treatments being trialled currently. Cancer is not merely one disease but a collection of many diseases, therefore it is not possible to manufacture one single disease busting cure. However, accepting this idea is not as nihilistic as it may seem. Despite cancer’s infinite variation modern techniques and treatments all combined will help to increase survival rates with the hope of ridding and defeating cancer. The key to new treatments is specificity, allowing drugs to target cancer cells with efficacy. Everyday cancer survival rates are increasing and diagnosis is occurring sooner, so although the idea of the cancer busting drug remains impossible, the collective new treatments and increased societal awareness to cancer will be fundamental to defeating the greatest enemy of humanity.

Another prospective field for cancer treatment is immunotherapy, which utilises our body’s innate immune system. Our cells are constantly monitoring the function of other tissues, with NK cells sending stress associated molecules to malformed cells.

(Tumour immunology and immunotherapy , n.d.)

Cytoxic T-cells are also equipped with antigens that are complimentary to tumour antigens; thus they bind to them. Once these two types of cells are activated they release perforin, which bursts the cancerous cells, resulting in apoptosis. Cancer cells are able to impede our intrinsic cancer killing mechanisms through altering their surface antigens, preventing them from causing an immune response. Consequently, as these disguised cancer cells are not killed the inevitably become more prevalent. Some tumour cells suppress our immune cells through the release of inhibitory molecules with others having the ability of encouraging the growth of our bodies’ own immune suppresser cells. (Tumour immunology and immunotherapy , n.d.) Therefore, frighteningly cancer acts as the manipulative foe turning our own allied cells against each-other. However, new methods obstruct cancer cells from interfering with our intrinsic defence mechanisms, which allows our white blood cells to attack tumours with increased efficacy.

Despite its infancy immunotherapy has resulted in long-term remissions in the small trials that it has been carried out in, (We can hack our immune cells to fight cancer, n.d.) showing hope for the future.

Bibliography: Anderson, C. C. (2014). Does cold weather cause colds?

Retrieved March 18, 2018, from https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/swollen-glands/ Blatchford, E. (2016). For The Last Time, Being Cold Doesn't Make You Catch Cold. Retrieved March 3, 2018, from https://www.huffingtonpost.com.au/2016/07/10/f or-the-last-time-being-cold-doesnt-make-youcatch-cold_a_21429347/ Cancer chemical are found in eggs. (n.d.). Retrieved 03 25, 2018, from The Daily Mail : http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article50995/Cancer-chemicals-eggs.html Closing in on cancer. (n.d.). Retrieved 03 25, 2018, from The Economist : https://www.economist.com/news/leaders/217288 93-science-will-win-technical-battle-againstcancer-only-half-fight-closing Common Cold. (2017). Retrieved March 2, 2018, from https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/common-cold/

Our immune cells can also be hacked to make drug delivery more efficient, ensuring that drugs reach the tumours, instead of accumulating within organs. 90% of cancer deaths have been attributed to the spread of cancer to other organs, which makes drug inefficiency 44

Davison, N. (2017). Why can't we cure the common cold?

Retrieved March 2, 2018, from https://www.theguardian.com/news/2017/oct/06/ why-cant-we-cure-the-common-cold Delay Kills . (n.d.). Retrieved 03 25, 2018, from Cancer Research UK: http://www.cancerresearchuk.org/prod_consump/ groups/cr_common/%40abt/%40gen/documents/g eneralcontent/cr_085096.pdf Fessenden, M. (2015). There is A Scientific Reason That Cold Weather Could Cause Colds. Retrieved March 4, 2018, from https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smartnews/there-scientific-reason-cold-weather-couldcause-colds-180953817/ lorimccoy. (2004, August). Rhinovirus: An Unstoppable Cause Of The Common Cold. The Science Creative Quarterly.

Mapping The Cancer Genome. (n.d.). Retrieved 03 25, 2018, from Scientific American : https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/mappi ng-the-cancer-genome-2008-07/ Mayo clinic staff. (2017). Common cold. Retrieved march 3, 2018, from https://www.everydayhealth.com/cold-andflu/colds-and-the-weather.aspx Melone, L. (2012). Can the Cold Give You a Cold?

Retrieved March 11, 2018, from https://www.everydayhealth.com/cold-andflu/colds-and-the-weather.aspx Mukherjee, S. (n.d.). The Emperor of All Maladies .

New types of therapy mean cancer is going to become ever more survivable . (n.d.). Retrieved 03 25, 2018, from The Economist : https://www.economist.com/news/technologyquarterly/21728779-science-making-cancertreatments-more-precise-many-different-waysnew-types-0 Quarter of cancer patients dead in six months due to late diagnosis. (n.d.). Retrieved 03 26, 2018, from The Telegraph: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/health/119685 39/Quarter-of-cancer-patients-dead-in-sixmonths-due-to-late-diagnosis.html Swollen glands. (2017). Retrieved March 17, 2018, from https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/swollen-glands/ TRAIL in cancer therapy: present and future challenges. (n.d.). Retrieved 03 25, 2018, from PMC: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2 976473/ Tumour immunology and immunotherapy . (n.d.).

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were told, for if you were to reduce one of Shakespeare’s greatest tragedies, King Lear, to its core, it is merely about a silly old man locked out on a windy night, as Tolstoy described it. Yet, the way the story is presented thrills us as an audience. Therefore, it is undeniable that the productions still fascinate society, and thus the question one ought to be asking is: why are they still relevant?

‘GREEK TRAGEDY IS NO LONGER RELEVANT IN THE 21ST CENTURY’

In order to begin to answer this question, it is first necessary to discuss what constitutes the genre of tragedy. Collins English Dictionary82 defines it as ‘a serious play, film or opera in which the main character is destroyed by a combination of personal failing and adverse circumstances’, or, to take Chaucer’s more poetic description, it is a story 'of hym that stood in greet prosperitee/ and is yfallen from heigh degree/ into myserie, and endeth wretchedly'. Therefore, fundamentally a paradox is introduced in the fact that we voluntarily agree to be harrowed, to delight in the downfall of others, indulging in schadenfreude, arguably. Evidently, emotions are at the heart of tragic poetry, and as a result, we are forced to empathise with the characters, to feel disturbed on behalf of people who have no connection to us at all; as Hamlet puts it in his famous soliloquy ‘What’s Hecuba to him or he to Hecuba that he should weep for her?’83 Here, he aptly expresses the idea that tragedy is concerned with ‘outgoing emotion’ rather than ‘introverted selfabsorption’, a point first put forward by Gorgias, who was a sophist most well-known for his portrayal in Plato’s Gorgias. He argued that ‘by means of the discourse, [the audience’s] spirit feels a personal emotion on account of the good and bad fortune of others’84, and so whatever else it may chance to inform us of the world is merely conveyed by means of these emotions. Both Plato and Aristotle agreed with this view, although disagreed with one another regarding the benefits of this process: Plato believed that the emotional experience of the audience had the potential to be harmful, whereas Aristotle, in his work the Poetics, argued for it being a beneficial practice.

In 1882, the University of Cambridge put on Sophocles’ tragedy Ajax, publicising it as the first full performance of a Greek tragedy in Ancient Greek in the modern world. At the time, it was the event of the season, drawing in crowds of people who were fascinated by the Hellenistic culture. Every three years since this performance, University of Cambridge students have performed a variety of the Ancient Greek tragedies in the Cambridge Greek Play, a showcase of theatrical and academic expertise that is spoken entirely in the original language, the last being Antigone (Sophocles) and Lysistrata (Aristophanes) in October 2016.

However, the Greek tragedies face repeated doubts about their relevancy to the 21st Century, with the primarily cited reason being that the plays are over two thousand years old and thus, arguably, anachronistic.

Greek tragedy is undeniable entirely a work of its own times. As Taplin states, it was written and performed for the 5th century Athenians, not for a Bronze Age audience and certainly not for a 21st Century one; he points out that ‘its general preoccupations, moral, social and emotional are those of its age’.79And yet, despite this, people are drawn repeatedly to watch these ancient performances. It is not only the University of Cambridge which has performed these plays, but others, including the highly successful Almeida Greeks performances in 2015.80 So, whilst the stories are clearly rooted in their own time, frequently with the plot being known, there is still a ‘tenacious staying power’ as Melvyn Bragg described it.81 Indeed, this is often through the way in which they

79

82

Taplin, O., (1978) ; Greek Tragedy in Action, Metheuen & Co. Ltd. Chp 10.

80 https://almeida.co.uk/greeks 81 In Our Time: Tragedy, 1999, BBC Radio 4.

Collins English Dictionary (2011), HarperCollins Publishers.

Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act 2, Scene 2, Line 518-519.

84 Kennedy, G. (1972); The Older Sophists.

83

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δ’ἡβωσι ποηται.)87, he was not referring to practical skills nor the traditional adages which are often gleaned from the tragedies. Whilst it is true that The Orestia teaches us about themes of justice or that Oedipus in Colonius relates to modern issues of asylum, the moral messages of the texts are not always contained within the lines of the text to simply be extracted. Thus, it can be argued that a tragedy teaches through the work as a whole, as Taplin puts it by ‘the way that human life is portrayed and not merely by individual spoken lines’. He goes on to explain how the audience member who submits to the experience of the play becomes a better and wiser person because of that, than the person who remains resolutely unmoved, an idea stemming again from Gorgias who wrote the following: ‘ὁ ἀπατηθεις σοφωτερος του μη ἀπατηθεντος’ (the man who is deceived has more wisdom than he who is not).

It is from this that the Aristotelian notion of catharsis arose. Catharsis has two meanings: the first being ‘purgation’, with more medical undertones; and the second being ‘purification’ with a latent religious meaning.85 Both, however, encompass the same idea: that by witnessing a dramatic tragedy, we can release and thus be relieved of strong or repressed emotions.

This is a concept which Freudian criticism is fascinated by, with Freud himself likening the action of choosing to watch a tragic play to the way in which a baby might throw away his most beloved toy, just to reel it back again. In this way, Freudian critics argue that the process of watching a tragedy allows us to test our ability to live with the grief and emotion which is experienced. This concept is a problematic one, however, with Jennifer Wallace, author of The Cambridge Introduction to Tragedy, asking whether there is ‘such a phenomenon now as "compassion fatigue" or "tragedy porn"’ and if it is ‘still possible to consider witnessing others' suffering morally improving or enriching’.86 In other words, is the disappointment we would feel if Oedipus had his selfrealisation earlier and instead of sleeping with his mother, Jocasta, simply decided that they would have a catch up about all the years of his life she had missed? What if, to take a later tragedy, Hamlet had simply decided to talk things through with Laertes?

We would be disappointed, perhaps feel horrified or scammed, and potentially not have been morally enriched. The morals of tragedy may be questionable, however, the fact that it can cause this phenomenon is undoubtable. When we witness a good tragedy, George Steiner (Extraordinary Fellow at Churchill College, Cambridge) argues, you leave with your emotions actively richer and perhaps more in balance.

Therefore, rather than extreme emotion driving out logical thought, the experience of tragedy can achieve coherence in a way that the emotional experiences of real life are unable to, simply because they are too emotionally close to be put in perspective.

In this way, it is evident that Greek tragedy is still relevant and beneficial to our lives so long as we allow ourselves to indulge in it. We are drawn to tragedy perhaps because of the way in which it is told, but what we can gain from it is why we keep going back.

Tragedy unites emotion and logic ‘to give us an experience which, by creating a perspective on the misfortunes of human life, helps us to understand and cope with those misfortunes.’ We are the current audience of Greek tragedy and they still have the same didactic power as before, as well as the ability to thrill us.

Bibliography: Websites: Greek tragedy: setting the stage today, 2008. University of Cambridge: http://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/greektragedy-setting-the-stage-today (accessed 11/3/2018).

Reinventing tragedy in the modern age, 2012. University of Cambridge: http://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/reinventing-tragedyin-the-modern-age (accessed 1/3/2018).

Perhaps when Aristophanes claimed in his famous comedy Frogs that ‘boys have a school teacher to instruct them, grown-ups have poets’ (τοις μεν γαρ παιδαριοισιν ἐστι διδασκαλος ὁστις φραζει, τοισιν 85

86

Definitions from: Schaper, E., (1968); Aristotle's Catharsis and Aesthetic Pleasure.

http://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/reinventing-tragedy-in-themodern-age 87 Aristophanes, Frogs, Line 1054-1055.

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Why Euripides remains relevant, 2007. The Gaurdian: https://www.theguardian.com/stage/theatreblog/2007/dec/1 9/whyeuripidesremainsrelevant (accessed 1/3/2018).

The Case For Classics: The Relevance Of Ancient Greece In Today's World, 2017. http://www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/2017/09/27/ancientgreece-gail-pool (accessed 10/3/2018).

CHALLENGING GENDER ASSUMPTIONS IN COMPUTER SCIENCE

Podcasts: Why Greeks Matter, 2015. (accessed 14/3/2018).

https://almeida.co.uk/greeks

Kira Gerard (WHS) The computer science industry has historically been dominated by men. The view that working in computer science is too demanding and difficult for a woman to handle has become ingrained into our society, leading to the assumption that the tech industry is not a suitable environment for women to work in. This has led some within the computing industry to believe that men are better suited to work with computers, as well as discouraging many women from pursuing computer science, as they may have led women to believe the stereotypes about working in the field.

In Our Time: Tragedy, 1999, BBC Radio 4.

Books and Journals: Theodric Westbrook, H., (1943); Greek Tragedy: Is It Modern?, The Classical Weekly, Vol. 36, No. 22, The Johns Hopkins University Press.

Schaper, E., (1968); Aristotle's Catharsis and Aesthetic Pleasure, The Philosophical Quarterly, Vol. 18, No. 71, Oxford University Press.

Taplin, O., (1978); Greek Tragedy in Action, Methuen & Co. Ltd.

Towards the end of 2017, James Damore was fired from Google after posting an internal memo in which he put forward his view on the reasons why there are fewer women than men in tech. He stated that due to women’s “stronger interest in people” and “neuroticism”, they may be less naturally inclined to pursue a career in computer science. Evidently this did not sit well with many people, but there is clearly an issue here that needs to be addressed – across many big companies in the tech world, there are very few women to be seen. For example, at Google, only 20% of the engineers are female; and in 2016, Facebook reported that a mere 17% of its tech employees were women. However, this does not mean that Damore’s opinion that the gender gap is due to biological factors is right: Professor Gina Rippon, a neuroscientist at Aston University, has looked at the psychological differences between the two genders, and found that even if there do appear to be differences, they are "always very tiny" and " not enough to explain the gender ratios" within the computing industry. Her research also shows that any differences between male and female performance are miniscule and do not apply over a wide range of cultures and societies - for example, in other countries such as India or Malaysia

Wallace, J., (2007); The Cambridge Introduction to Tragedy, Cambridge University Press.

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there are far more women studying computer science than in the UK. This goes to show that Damore’s claim that men are more inclined biologically to study computer science is not likely to be accurate, and the reason why there are so few women in the tech industry is most probably not due to an innate predisposition.

There have been many female pioneers within computer science, who are increasingly being recognised for their important contributions to the field, and who can act as great role models for girls who feel they are not encouraged to go into computer science. Ada Lovelace (1815 – 1852) is one of the most well-known female computer-scientists. She was mentored by Charles Babbage after she met him when she was 17. Working with Babbage allowed her to begin studying advanced mathematics, as well as becoming more involved in Babbage's plans to create the analytical engine, which was designed to solve complex calculations. Ada made extensive notes on the analytical engine and theorized a method of how the engine could repeat a set of instructions - the equivalent of what is now known as looping in computer programs. As well as this, she described how letters and symbols, as well as numbers, could be used to create codes for the device. Due to her work alongside Babbage, Ada is often considered the first computer programmer. Grace Hopper (1906 - 1992) has also been recognised for her great work in computer science, and was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2016. She joined the US navy in WWII and was assigned to program the Mark I computer. While she was working on this, she coined the term 'bug' to refer to unexplained computer malfunctions. After the war, Hopper led a team in creating the first compiler for computer languages, this development later led to the creation of the widelyused programming language COBOL. These women show us that it is possible to work in the tech industry and achieve great things, regardless of gender, and their efforts should encourage more women to pursue careers in computer science.

However, there is perhaps a historical basis as to why so many women today feel alienated from the tech industry, and are therefore unwilling to pursue a career in computer science. In western countries such as the UK or US, computers have historically been targeted towards men, and women have never been greatly encouraged to pursue further education or a career in computer science. Professor Dame Wendy Hall, director of the Web Science Institute at University of Southampton, stated that “women were turned off computing in the 80s. Computers were sold as toys for the boys." She believes that this view has rooted itself in our society, contributing to the belief that women are not well-suited to work in tech, and this “cultural stigma” is something that we are finding very difficult to get rid of. Jane Margolis, a psychologist at UCLA, agrees with Hall: through interviewing hundreds of computer science students, she found that from a young age many of them felt as though computing was “very much associated with male adolescents” and that “if they didn’t dream in code and if [computing] wasn’t their full obsession, they didn’t belong or were not capable of being in the field." This shows that many women may feel as though they were never encouraged to pursue computer science, which may explain why only 16% of computer science undergraduates in the UK are female. As well as this, incidents such as Damore’s statement could serve to alienate many girls and women from pursuing a career in tech, as it could lead them to believe that the environment they will go into will not accept them.

Many women could also be discouraged by the fact that female-led initiatives are around 86% less likely to be funded than one led by a man, which suggests that even if a woman does pursue a career in tech, they may never be as successful as their male counterpart.

Clearly these assumptions that the computing industry is a hostile environment for women to work in should be changed, and we need to encourage more young women to study computer science.

To conclude, as technology becomes increasingly integrated into our lives and everything we do, it is vital that we encourage more girls to go into the tech industry, and begin to seriously address the issues of inequality and assumptions against women in computer science, allowing us to make our world a more equal and fair place.

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Bibliography: Women of Color Magazine, Vol. 11, No. 1, pp. 31-38, ‘Women in Computer Science and Computer Engineering’, 2012

CHALLENGING THE ASSUMPTION THAT SPACE EXPLORATION IS A WASTE OF TIME, MONEY AND RESOURCES

https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2016/07/facebookdiversity-update-positive-hiring-trends-show-progress/, ‘Facebook Diversity Update: Positive Hiring Trends Show Progress’, July 2016 https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2017/aug/08/wh y-are-there-so-few-women-in-tech-the-truth-behind-thegoogle-memo, ‘Why are there so few women in tech? The truth behind the Google memo’, August 2017

Margaret Lister (OHS) https://www.biography.com/people/ada-lovelace20825323, ‘Ada Lovelace’, February 2018

Space exploration is the ongoing investigation and exploration of celestial bodies in and beyond our solar system by means of continuously evolving and growing space technology. The study of space is carried out mainly by astronomers with telescopes and also the physical exploration of space is conducted both by unmanned robotic space probes and human spaceflight. Although astronomy in fact predates recorded history, it was the development of large and considerably efficient rockets during the midtwentieth century that allowed physical exploration of space to be possible. Common arguments in favour for exploring space include advancing scientific research, national honour, ensuring the future survival of humanity, and either uniting different nations or developing military and strategic advantages against other countries. However, some people argue that we should not plough all of this money, time and resources, which are in limited supply, into exploring space.

https://www.biography.com/people/grace-hopper21406809, ‘Grace Hopper’, February 2018 http://www.rasmussen.edu/degrees/technology/blog/wome n-in-computer-science-assumptions-to-avoid, ‘Women in Computer Science: 6 Assumptions to Avoid’, February 2018

Why do we care if there was water on Mars at some point in the last few thousand years? Especially when these same astro-physicists, engineers, mathematicians, chemists and alike could have be applied to finding better ways to solve humanity's impending energy crisis, or to feeding the millions of starving and impoverished people around the world, and generally endeavouring to improve life on Earth first. It seems fair that the needs of humanity should come first; while there are people on Earth who need help, they should receive help. And the money needed for aid should not instead go to sending robots to other planets that are thousands of light years away (and so irrelevant to life on Earth anyway). In this way it is 50

argued that space exploration is too high a cost (NASA received over 16 billion dollars in 2005) to justify the benefits people see for it. It is argued that there are no direct benefits from space exploration. Why bother spending money say on developing a pen that works in zero-gravity when you could instead use a pencil and save yourself a lot of trouble, especially given that only the tiniest proportion of Earth’s 7 billion inhabitants will ever experience zero gravity? What Earth does need, for example, is sustainable housing and more scientific research into neglected tropical diseases such as trichuriasis, of which it is estimated that 800 million people are infected worldwide.

products of the space race could have been developed by commercial companies. However, when we take into consideration that our planet won't last forever and that space exploration offers a chance to find a new habitable planet and might even secure the future of the human race, it doesn’t seem like such as waste of time. [3]Of course the Earth should be explored too, but not at the expense of the space programme. More of the money that goes into fighting wars should go into funding scientific research instead.

There is also the argument that space exploration has always been a gimmick. For instance during the Cold War the USA was doing it to try and prove superiority to the USSR and vice versa; it has never really been about the science. Moreover, there are considerable dangers attached to space exploration; there are plenty of stories how NASA failed on some of its missions and risked the lives of their astronauts. Furthermore, NASA scientists have actually lost contact with the latest unmanned spacecraft sent to Mars, meaning those 156 million dollars spent to build the Mars Polar Lander were a waste. Then in September, again the $125m Mars Climate Orbiter mission also failed, after a mix-up over metric and imperial measurements (you’d think they’d be a little more careful when risking millions of dollars especially when justified by the pursuit of scientific endeavour).There is a long history of failed missions to Mars, which stretches back 40 years, suggesting not many advancements have been made. In space flight missions at least 18 people have died, and millions of dollars have been spent on rovers that have been unsuccessful, however does that means we should give up? Obviously not.

And NASA has also had many successes. And while it’s very true that being an astronaut is a dangerous job, more people die from car crashes in one city in one month than have died expanding exploration for the last forty years. Furthermore, all astronauts know the risks and undertake them anyway, proving they truly believe in the intrinsic worth exploration. [4]

On the other side of the argument, people do not realise the direct impacts that space exploration has already had on our lives, for example, NASA created Velcro which is now used worldwide. Furthermore, non-stick pans were also created as a result of the space programme. Even more significantly, satellites, a critical part of our society, are as a result of space exploration: there are weather forecasting satellites, which help predict dangers such hurricanes and in doing so help prepare people. Furthermore there are GPS, long range television satellites, long range communication satellites, which allow mobile phones, and of course we would not have the internet without satellites either. How can we say space exploration is a waste of money when not only is knowledge invaluable but also compared to other areas of government spending (e.g. military), the cost of space exploration doesn't stand out- of the US’s total federal budget only 0.8 percentage of the budget went to NASA whereas 54 percentage went to the military.

There have been space vehicles built privately for as little as $25m, nowhere near the figures of sending the US military to Iraq.[1] It is argued that we should learn more about Earth and the ocean before wasting time and money on Space exploration (96 percentage of the oceans are still unexplored) and that any advancements made through space exploration were inadvertent and so cannot be used as justified arguments for the continued funding of space exploration as there is no way to guarantee any more innovations. For instance, the seabed, especially around volcanic regions, is relatively unexplored, as is Antarctica. [2] The scientific knowledge obtainable from our own planet, particularly organisms that inhabit locations with extreme conditions, arguably offers far more promise than that of space. As well as the fact that all the by-

In the word’s Cooper in Interstellar (2014), “mankind was born on Earth, it was never meant to die here.” and “We've always defined ourselves by the ability to overcome the impossible. And we count these moments. These moments when we dare to aim higher, to break barriers, to reach for the stars, to make the unknown known. We count these moments as our proudest achievements. But we lost all that. Or perhaps we've just forgotten that we are still pioneers.

And we've barely begun. And that our greatest 51

accomplishments cannot be behind us, because our destiny lies above us.”[5] Finally curiosity is one of humankind's best and most deeply rooted values and it should be embraced not suppressed.

Bibliography: Andrew Kuh. (2015) The cultural significance of Space exploration Available at:

SWITCHING TO RENEWABLES – HOW EASY IS IT?

https://space.blog.gov.uk/2015/01/14/the-culturalsignificance-of-space-exploration/ (Accessed at: 19 March 2018) Interstellar (2014) Directed by Christopher Nolan [film] North America: Lionsgate films, International: Warner Bros Pictures

Pip Knight (OHS)

Zaina Adamu. (2012) Exploring space: why is it so important Available at http://lightyears.blogs.cnn.com/2012/10/20/exploringspace-whys-it-so-important/ (Accessed 19 March 2018)

With increasing awareness of the dangers posed by fossil fuels to our planet, society is slowly switching to renewable energy sources, such as solar and wind energy. There is an assumption among some that we can simply switch to renewables, save the planet, end of. However, this solution isn’t perfect. The majority of renewables, with the exceptions of geothermal and hydroelectric energy, are intermittent; that is to say energy is only produced at certain times of day or year.

Therefore when there is a surplus, energy must be stored for use when there is a shortage, so there will be an increasing need worldwide for energy storage methods that are economic, efficient, and long-lasting to account for seasonal variation. Within my essay, I will show what a difficult problem this is and find whether it is solvable by considering three types of energy storage that could provide a solution. These are the rechargeable batteries lithium ion, lead-acid and nickel cadmium, vanadium flow batteries, and finally chemical energy storage in the form of hydrogen.

Robin Hanbury-Tenison and Piers Bizony. (2017) Debate for and against space exploration- is space research a waste of time?

Available at: https://eandt.theiet.org/content/articles/2011/10/debate-forand-against-space-exploration-is-space-research-a-wasteof-time/ (Accessed 19 March 2018) Ann Martin (2015) How much money is spent on space exploration Available at: http://curious.astro.cornell.edu/physics/150-people-inastronomy/space-exploration-and-astronauts/generalquestions/921-how-much-money-is-spent-on-spaceexploration-intermediate (Accessed on 19 March 2018)

Rechargeable batteries can differ greatly, so I will consider how appropriate the three main types are separately. The oldest type of rechargeable battery is the lead-acid battery, which works as follows. The cathode is coated in lead oxide (PbO2) and the anode in lead. The electrolyte, sulphuric acid and water, contains hydrogen sulphate (HSO4)88, which oxidises the lead anode to produce electrons89. These repel the 88

89

Formed during the protonation of water by H2SO4:

H2SO4 + H2O → HSO4- + H3O+

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Pb + HSO4 → PbSO4 + H+ + 2e-

circuit92. There has been a lot of research into finding such materials for the electrodes that store a high proportion by mass of lithium in their compound, such as graphite and silicon, resulting in current lithium ion batteries having excellent specific energy93. In the context of large-scale energy storage, this attribute makes them easier to transport (more compact) and less space-consuming in situ. As mentioned previously, their lifetime is excellent - after 2000 cycles at 75% discharge, they still retain 80% capacity.

Discharge time is also very good at just over 30 minutes. The major drawback is the high initial cost of currently 600$/kWh, and their charge retention which is poor; 5% self-discharge in the first 24 hours then up to 5% each month afterwards. This means lithium ion batteries could not account for seasonal variation in energy generated from renewables, because, over 6 months, 35% of the energy would have been lost, an unacceptable figure for a society to run on. Therefore, lithium ion batteries could viably form part of the solution, but would need another storage technology to enable energy storage over long periods of time.

electrons in the wire which, combined with attraction by positive charge at the cathode, creates a potential difference along it and so a current. The cathode is positive because the lead oxide (PbO2) is reduced, accepting electrons90. The battery is recharged by the exact opposite of these reactions.

I consider in my analysis only valve-regulated lead acid batteries (VRLA) as they have fewer secondary costs than flooded batteries and require no maintenance. Lead acid batteries have some important attributes, including low initial cost (120$/kWh versus 600$/kWh for lithium ion batteries (G. Albright et al, 2012)), high current, and straightforward manufacture.

However, the lifetime of the lead-acid battery is poor, an effect exacerbated by hot climates. At an 80% depth of discharge, the battery retains only 60% of its initial energy storage capacity after 500 cycles (G. Albright et al, 2012). This would necessitate very regular replacement which, on the scale of worldwide energy storage, would be enormously costly. Furthermore, discharge is slow - at least 10 hours is required for full discharge meaning they could not supply sudden peaks of high demand in populated areas. These considerations make lead-acid batteries an impractical storage solution for the scale of the proposition.

One such technology is ‘flow batteries’, which present an exciting new technology that avoids self-discharge almost entirely. In standard batteries, the electrolyte sits between the reactants so side reactions involving the electrodes or impurities in this electrolyte (ions are often there to enhance conducting ability) can occur, such as the production of inorganic salts and oligomers which cause the electrodes to become sealed off and redundant (‘Solid-Electrolyte Interphase’), as well as using up the chemical energy of the reactants. In flow batteries, the chemicals being oxidised and reduced in the reactions fueling the battery are stored in two external tanks and only pumped in when needed.

Therefore they spend the majority of their time in storage with only the same species and the unreactive electrolyte - and in the short time they are reacting in the cell, the chances of side reactions are small because there are no electrolytic impurities and different vanadium species are separated within the reacting cell. The diagram in Figure 2 shows the electrochemistry of a vanadium flow battery, a type of flow battery that is considered by many specialists,

The second of the three main types of rechargeable battery, nickel cadmium, also seems unsuitable. These batteries are currently being phased out because cadmium is toxic, making it very difficult to dispose of. They have low specific energy and high selfdischarge91 (10-15% in 24 hours then 10-15% a month). Though they have a fairly low cost, this Figure 1. Simplified lead acid battery. Source: https://glossary.periodni.com/glossary.php?en=lead-acid+battery

does not outweigh the numerous disadvantages; using toxic batteries on the scale of worldwide energy storage is wholly ethically and politically unfeasible.

In contrast, lithium ion batteries have an excellent lifetime and are rapidly gaining in popularity. The principle behind their function is the movement of Li+ ions through an electrolyte while the electrons produced in the anode reaction flow through the 90

PbO2 + HSO4- +

At cathode: CoO2 + xLi+ + xe- → LixCoO2

3H+ + 2e- → PbSO4 + 2H2O

93

Energy per unit mass. A typical lithium ion battery has 150 Wh/kg, compared to lead-acid batteries with 40 Wh/kg

91

When side reactions reduce the stored chemical energy in the battery.

The percentage is the proportion of this chemical energy lost.

92 For instance, at anode: LixC6 → xLi+ + xe- + 6C

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especially Chemical Engineers at Imperial College London who have dedicated nearly £150,000 it, to perhaps be the solution to worldwide energy storage.

generated by a renewable source (probably in loco) into chemical energy in hydrogen by electrolysis. The most established technology for electrolysis of hydrogen is Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM)11 electrolysis. This works as follows. Water splits at the anode into oxygen, hydrogen ions and electrons. The hydrogen ions diffuse across the membrane while the electrons are pumped through the circuit, then at the cathode the two react to produce hydrogen gas. This works to separate hydrogen and oxygen because the membrane is only soluble to protons. This technology is excellent because it has very low maintenance needs, uses abundant and non-toxic substances (water) and has a reasonable Energy Figure 1. Diagram of a vanadium flow battery. Source: Return On Investment (EROI) which is the ratio http://energystorage.org/energy-storage/technologies/vanadiumredox-vrb-flow-batteries of energy input to energy produced in the products, of 1:5. To put this in perspective, the EROI of making gasoline and natural gas is 3.41 (the higher the EROI, the more efficient the system), The flow battery in figure 2 works as follows. therefore the process is reasonably efficient.

Sulphuric acid is used as the electrolyte because, when cold, vanadium and vanadium oxide will not react with The other half of the system would be converting the it, and it provides the protons for the positive half-cell chemical energy in hydrogen back to electricity using reaction. V2+ ions are pumped from the external tank a hydrogen fuel cell. The fuel cell is essentially the into the ‘negative half-cell’ and oxidised to V3+, reverse of PEM electrolysis and, as in flow batteries, releasing an electron which enters the circuit94. In the the electrodes are not solid, and do not sit in an ‘positive half-cell’, this electron is used in the electrolyte; instead, a PEM96 separates them, allowing reduction of vanadate (V) to vanadate (IV)95. Protons only the oxidised hydrogen ions (protons) to pass, can diffuse through from the negative half-cell to keep forcing the electrons around the circuit97. up their supply and keep charge distribution even between the two sides. The technology has not been perfected yet: currently, ion exchange membranes that prevent vanadium crossing over halves of the cell are expensive and can sometimes get vanadium permanently caught in them. But vanadium flow batteries produce high voltages, and the materials needed are abundant – vanadium is the 20th most abundant element in the earth’s crust and can be found in around 65 different minerals. Therefore flow batteries, with their potential for long-term energy storage, certainly appear to be a viable energy storage technology.

Batteries are not the only energy storage mechanism, and there are increasing numbers of advocates of another ‘energy vector’: hydrogen. This technology would work by directly converting the electricity 94 95

Figure 2. Diagram of a hydrogen fuel cell. Source: https://energy.gov/eere/fuelcells/hydrogen-productionelectrolysis

V2+ → V3+ + eVO2+ + 2H+ + e- → VO2+ + H2O

groups which form a network that will only be permeable to certain species.

97 Cathode reaction: 4H+ + 4e- → 2H2 Anode reaction: 2H2O → O2 + 4H+ + 4e-

96

Also known as Polymer Electrolyte Membrane, these membranes are usually made from ionomers – polymer backbones with polar ionic

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energy industry can use hydrogen more. Its first meeting was the 17th January 2017 in Davos, Switzerland, where they discussed the idea that hydrogen can first be used in the transport sector, then domestic heating, as the first steps to perhaps basing the majority of the energy industry on hydrogen.

Germany, Japan and Iceland all have hydrogen policies aimed at encouraging its use in the transport sector, so an advantage of hydrogen over lithium ion and flow batteries is that its implementation is starting gradually and already has some political momentum in its favour.

Hydrogen fuel cells are comparatively very efficient (70-85% of energy in the hydrogen is transferred to electricity (J. Ogden et al, 1999) because thermal energy is not involved in the useful energy transfers when it is involved, as in internal combustion engines which are only around 20% efficient, it is easily lost to the surroundings.

In between these two, there is also the question of how storing and transporting hydrogen from production site to our homes could be achieved. Storage could be underground in depleted oil or gas fields, aquifers or salt and rock caverns. This has already been done commercially – for instance by Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) in salt caverns at Teeside, England and Gaz de France in the Genevese aquifer. Aquifers and gas fields have capacities of up to 1 billion Normal cubic meters and caverns in the millions of Normal cubic meters. Each continent has several major aquifers, with the USA having the most of any one country, 27, and there are estimated to be more than 65,000 oil fields worldwide. It is estimated that in one storage cycle, one of these sites could store fuel for 0.3-3.0 million hydrogen fuel cell cars for a day.

Therefore storage seems achievable - natural gas is already stored in this way, and volume can be increased by the artificial creation of more salt caverns by ‘leaching’98.

I have explored three possible technologies to deal with long term energy storage: rechargeable batteries (the only viable type being lithium ion batteries), vanadium flow batteries and hydrogen. The flow battery and hydrogen, unlike lithium ion batteries, could provide long-term storage. Therefore one of these two (or an alternative solution) would be needed alongside lithium ion batteries, which in most other respects – discharge time, specific energy, lifetime are excellent for the job. Tesla use lithium ion batteries for exactly this on a small scale – the Tesla ‘power wall’ employs them to store surplus solar energy for single households with solar panels for up to a few weeks. But for storage over many months we must consider flow batteries and hydrogen. Both have good efficiency, but hydrogen requires huge investment in designing, producing and maintaining infrastructure.

And another thing to remember about hydrogen is its poor public reputation due to its inflammability - the disaster of the hydrogen-fueled Hindenburg airship that in 1937 caught fire and crashed, killing 35 people, is still in people’s mind. Furthermore, the energy companies that would have to switch to using hydrogen may not be in favour of using a system unpopular with their customers. Hence, though only in early stages of research and development, vanadium flow batteries appear the more viable of the two.

Therefore a combination of flow batteries and lithium ion batteries could provide the energy storage needed to account for the intermittency of renewable energy sources. Of course, this system would have to gain political support and be implemented over many years, but it certainly appears to be a feasible possibility.

Therefore, though the assumption that switching to renewables is an easy way to resolve the issues surrounding our use of fossil fuels is wrong, the

Transport could be achieved by truck, probably as compressed gas because the cost is a lot lower than liquid hydrogen which requires expensive cryogenic dewars and cooling technology. Again, the technology does exist for hydrogen transport currently; about 1% of US primary energy use goes to hydrogen production for chemical applications, such as ammonia synthesis.

For domestic heating, later on a pipeline distribution network would make transporting hydrogen a lot more convenient, though this is costly and would need to be totally leak-free to avoid fire hazards. Overall, the storage and transport of hydrogen seems possible, but costly, and needs more research into the technologies to ensure safety.

The idea of using hydrogen as an energy ‘vector’ in this way is growing in popularity. A new international ‘Hydrogen Council’ has been set up to discuss how our 98

Injecting water into salt caverns to dissolve the salt which is then extracted in the form of brine.

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assumption it is possible is quite true; with further research the technology outlined above seems viable.

10.

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Titcomb, J. (2016). The search for a better battery: is a solution near? [online] The Telegraph. Available at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2016/01/21/th e-search-for-a-better-battery-is-a-solution-near/ [accessed 12 Jan. 2018] Mirza, U. (2011). Types of batteries and their applications. [online] Bright Hub Engineering.

Available at: http://www.brighthubengineering.com/powergeneration-distribution/123909-types-of-batteriesand-their-applications/ [accessed 12 Jan. 2018] Parkinson, G. (2013). The Long-Term Energy Storage Challenge: Batteries Not Included. [online] Green Tech Media.

Available at: https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/thelong-term-storage-challenge-batteries-notincluded#gs.or_Uok0 [accessed 15 Jan. 2018] Battery University, (2018). What does Elevated Selfdischarge Do? [Online] Available at: http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/elevating_se lf_discharge [accessed 18 Jan. 2018] Albright G., Edie J. and Al-Hallaj S. (2012). A Comparison of Lead Acid to Lithium-ion in Stationary Storage Applications. 1st ed. [pdf] Chicago: AllCell Technologies LLC. Available at: http://www.batterypoweronline.com/wpcontent/uploads/2012/07/Lead-acid-white-paper.pdf [accessed 18 Jan. 2018] Energy Storage Association, (2012). Vanadium Redox (VRB) Flow Batteries. [Online] Available at: http://energystorage.org/energystorage/technologies/vanadium-redox-vrb-flowbatteries [accessed 27 Jan. 2018] Research councils UK, (2018). Vanadium-Hydrogen flow battery for energy storage applications – a feasibility study.

[Online] Available at: http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk/projects?ref=EP%2FN508585% 2F1 [accessed 27 Jan. 2018] Siemens, (2018). All about PEM: A technology that shows potential.

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technology/pages/all-about-pem.aspx?ismobile=true [accessed 30 Jan. 2018] Sathre R., Scown C., Morrow W., Stevens J., Sharp I., Ager J., Walczak K., Houleae F., Greenblatt J. (2014) Life-cycle net energy assessment of large-scale hydrogen production via photoelectrochemical water splitting. Energy and Environmental Science, Volume 7(10), pages 803-804.

M. Guilford et al., (2011). A New Long Term Assessment of Energy Return on Investment (EROI) for U.S. Oil and Gas Discovery and Production.

Sustainability. [Online} Volume 3, pages 1872-1875.

Available at: www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainability [accessed 30 Jan. 2018] Ogden, G. (1999). Prospects for building a hydrogen energy infrastructure. Annual review of Energy and the Environment. Volume 24. Pages 4-15 Ingram, A. (2014). Toyota Gasoline Engine Achieves Thermal Efficiency Of 38 Percent. [online] Available at: https://www.greencarreports.com/news/1091436_toy ota-gasoline-engine-achieves-thermal-efficiency-of38-percent [accessed 04 Feb. 2018]

resulted in failures, these failures include stillbirths and miscarriages; even when the process is successful, very often the clone is born with life threatening abnormalities. Many scientists believe that no clone will ever be fully healthy, even if they appear to be healthy when they are born, they are very likely to develop health issues later on. Even if a safe process of reproductive cloning is established, many ethical issues would still remain. One of the main issues being how cloning would be used, whether it was only given as an option to sterile or same sex couples who want a biological offspring, and even then whether or not the parents would be able to choose the traits of their child which is possible with human cloning. If so then there is the danger of the loss of individuality amongst the human race as clones would be created using only the “desirable” traits. All of these issues now preoccupy scientists who see that human cloning could potentially endanger human identity, they have also lead to the implementation of laws across the world to prevent human cloning as the issues are seen to outweigh the benefits. Many countries such as Australia, Colombia, Costa Rica, Denmark, Germany, the United Kingdom and more have enacted a variety of laws that prohibit reproductive cloning. It is apparent that very close monitoring of such experiments must be put in place in order to stop illegal and unethical practice and sanctions should be upheld to deter those who want to break these rules. It is not only these more controversial experiments that require close monitoring, everyday procedures, such as the manufacturing and distribution of pharmaceuticals, must be so carefully watched in order to prevent any disasters. When dealing with the lives of the general public there is so much at stake that it is imperative that the exact protocol is followed as not only will the persons responsible risk losing their jobs due to the error, thousands of people’s lives could be lost. A huge lesson is to be learnt from the horrendous Thalidomide disaster of the late 1950s, this is a devastating example of what can happen if and when proper procedure is not followed. Thalidomide was developed in the 1950s by the German pharmaceutical company Chemie Grünenthal GmbH, it was an anti-convulsive drug but it also made the patient sleepy and relaxed. It was slightly later found by an Australian doctor to reduce the symptom of morning sickness during pregnancy. During testing it

SHOULD WE WORRY ABOUT SCIENCE?

Natasha Milliken (OHS) There is no doubt that advances in science have been beneficial to the world. Our planet could be a completely different place with the possibility of a non-existent human race without the creation of the smallpox vaccine for example. One of the greatest developments in science is the transition from being a niche topic area only accessed by the privileged few into a globally accessible community made up of millions of people from a very diverse group. This is a wonderful progression as it increases the possibilities of wider development due to a larger array of ideas and ways in which to solve problems. This larger group of people also brings a much fiercer competition which leads to faster and more creative scientific innovation.

However, the continual progressions in science are not always completely beneficial to the world. There have been many cases of unethical, incorrect or improper use of science in the past that have had catastrophic consequences. These cases continue to happen in today’s modern society, often we see in the news accidents or dangerous events taking place due to misuse or poor use of science. The aspirations of some scientists continue to grow without limitations.

Although this can lead to major breakthroughs, sometimes it can cause dismay between other scientists and society. Some developing ideas can have such problems as ethical ramifications, even though the original idea may have been well meaning with the interest of scientific improvement at heart, the journey to the final result could provoke some ethical issues that must be dealt with before the process begins. A relevant example to this issue would be the ever increasing possibility of human cloning.

Many people object to the idea of creating human clones as the process of cloning is very unsafe. More than 95% of experiments cloning mammals have 57

was found that it was nearly impossible to administer a deadly overdose of the drug, therefore it became thought of as safe for use by everyone including pregnant women. The thorough testing of this drug did not however look at the effects on pregnant women, so whilst it was licensed in July 1956 for prescriptionfree over-the counter sale in Germany and most European countries, no one actually knew the effects that this drug could have. It was not until the early 1960s that concerns were raised about the safety of this drug, long term users of this drug had begun to develop nerve damage in their limbs and GrĂźnenthal could not provide any convincing evidence to refute concerns.

During its use there was an increase in children born with birth defects, although the link between this and the use of the drug was delayed.

Agent Orange. And even today deadly chemical weapons are still in use, the most recent attack being the poisoning of the former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia that took place on 4th March 2018 in Salisbury. The chemical used has been found to belong to a group of nerve agents known as Novichok. The name Novichok means "newcomer" in Russian, and applies to a group of advanced nerve agents developed by the Soviet Union in the 1970s and 1980s. What is so scary about this incident is not only the fact that this chemical was produced in the first place but that it got into the United Kingdom undetected. The apparent ease at which this attack took place leads us to question whether there is any way to prevent such an attack from happening again. There is no way to control the production and use of these chemicals, which can only mean that they can continue to be developed further and used again and again. It seems that science is not too far off becoming out of control, with the strong possibility of the negatives beginning to outweigh the positives. The dark purposes to which science can be put are becoming ever more sinister, but the difficulty with reversing this is that it is not only the scientists who are to blame for the potentially negative impacts of their work. We can blame the scientists who develop things in order to cause harm, we cannot however blame the creator for how their science gets used in society. For example we cannot lay the responsibility on Einstein for the use of his E=mc2 equation to build an atomic bomb. The world will always have sociopathic members of society who will do whatever they want no matter what the consequences, and therefore we can no longer hope that science will always be used for the public good. In order to prevent science from moving in the wrong direction we must recognise this and do our best to stop this power from getting into the wrong hands.

Over 10,000 children worldwide were affected by thalidomide. It is shocking to know that companies that we rely on to produce and distribute safe drugs can make such an awful error with horrific consequences.

It can make us question whether or not the new drugs that are on the market now will actually be found as unsafe in the not too distant future. What is even more shocking is that Thalidomide is still in use today as a way to reduce some symptoms of leprosy and as a treatment for some blood and bone marrow cancers such as leukemia and myelofibrosis. Although there are benefits to this drug, there is a risk of new thalidomide births, especially in countries where controls over the use of this drug may not be sufficient.

It appears that we may not have learnt from our past mistakes. Aside from malpractice in the production of pharmaceuticals used in the medical industry, we must also be wary of the production of chemicals that can be used as weapons. Some chemicals that have been and will be developed have the potential to wipe out entire nations and more. This is possibly the biggest issue of scientific development and incidentally the hardest one to combat as such chemicals are produced unofficially in underground laboratories, therefore they cannot be prevented from being created. It is impossible to know the number of these chemicals that exist and also the strength and potential of them. We have already seen the devastation that these chemicals can cause from their use in wars such as the Vietnam War. Thousands upon thousands of people died and suffered due to the inhumane use of chemicals such as 58

Bibliography: Az Chemistry. (2018). 6 Hazardous Chemicals Used in Vietnam War - Az Chemistry. [online] Available at: https://azchemistry.com/chemicals-used-in-vietnam-war [Accessed 15Mar. 2018].

CHALLENGING THE ASSUMPTION THAT THE TALLEST SKYSCAPERS ARE THE BEST

BBC News. (2018). What are Novichok nerve agents?. [online] Available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/worldeurope-43377698 [Accessed 23 Mar. 2018].

Geneticsandsociety.org. (2018). Reproductive Cloning Arguments Pro and Con | Center forGenetics and Society. [online] Available at: https://www.geneticsandsociety.org/internalcontent/reprod uctive-cloning-arguments-pro-and-con [Accessed 11 Mar. 2018].

Thena Brooker (OHS)

The Scientist. (2018). Opinion: The Dark Side of Science. [online] Available at: https:// www.theScientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/31392/title/Opinion-The-Dark-Side-of-Science/ [Accessed 8 Mar. 2018].

Unesdoc.unesco.org. (2018). [online] Available at: http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0013/001359/135928e.p df [Accessed 16 Mar. 2018].

Featured images top to bottom: The Shard, The Burj Khalifa, The Tokyo Skytree

Currently, the Burj Kahlifa is the tallest building on our earth, standing at 830m to the tip (Facts & Figures Burj Khalifa.

Accessed10/03/18.http://www.burjkhalifa.ae/en/thetower/factsandfigures.aspx).

However, the engineering feats of the skyscraper cannot be classed on its height alone. In this essay I will analyse the engineering principles in Dubhai’s Burj Khalifa, London’s The Shard and also the former tallest skyscraper until surpassed by the Burj Khalifa, the Tokyo Skytree.

As the skyscraper increases in height, the threat that the wind poses increases with it. With wind speeds of 59

100mph (Dr. Anne Nichols. The Shard at London Bridge.

ARCH-631.2016.

03/03/18.http://faculty.arch.tamu.edu/media/cms_pag e_media/4433/ShardTower.pdf) being recorded at the top of The Shard in London, it was crucial that a system was engineered to combat the sway of the building in the wind. A central core is commonly built within skyscrapers to overcome the sway as it provides lateral stability throughout the building. In the case of The Shard, the use of a concrete core controls the sway of the building by allowing the kinetic energy of the sway to dissipate through the solid concrete and the resonant motion hence be reduced. An alternative method to a solid core is installing a mass damper, for example the large spherical damper used in Taipei 101.

Similar to The Shard, The Burj Khalifa also used a central core and exoskeleton, which are often ‘large pieces of diagonal bracing to form strong triangles’ (AGRAWAL. sky, BUILT. London. Bloomsbury.

2018. pg 140) hence, strengthening and stabilising the outside of the building. However, in contrast to The Shard’s geometric design, the Burj Khalifa is unpredictably shaped and tiered. This tiered design was inspired by nature; the Hymenocallis flower which is native to that region’s deserts. This design was chosen with the aim to break up the force of wind on the external surface. Referring back to the model cylindrical skyscraper, the wind would be a single large net force on the building, applied equally along the entire of the building’s length. In contrast, The Burj Khalifa’s spiral pattern in each tier broke up the wind. Overall, the Burj Khalifa’s aerodynamic design effectively minimised the wind effects on the building.

The damper works differently to the core by swaying independently to the building due to inertia. With the resultant opposing force created being dissipated through piston dampers, the kinetic energy is again dissipated. Although The Shard lacks the large hanging mass damper this does not put the skyscraper at a disadvantage but instead gives the building more free floor space. The decision to choose a central core as a damper over the hanging mass prevailed as it meant more floors were available for residential use and floor depths could be shallower. This resulted in an additional two floors and shows how The Shard engineers thought beyond the scientific engineering of dampers to which method would also benefit the business element of The Shard.

Inspired by the ancient Japanese Pagodas, the Tokyo Skytree utilised a central core as well as additional dampers. The skyscraper was built to not only overcome the typhoons and strong winds but, most crucially, the extreme earthquakes in Japan. The original Pagoda, from which engineering principles were applied in the Tokyo Skytree, works by having a central column ‘shinbashira’ to absorb energy during earthquakes. Although all cores are designed to be flexible to a degree since it needs to channel the wind forces downwards into the foundations, the shinbashira is different to other central cores as in the 125-325m (SCIENCE CHANNEL. Here’s How Engineers Used Ancient Techniques To Protect Tokyo's Skytree From Earthquakes. 11/05/17.

02/03/18. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7pcm5vICdU) section of the tower it is built separate from its enclosing steel frame. The problem of the central core being separate to the frame was that it could hit the inner steel frame of the building when it swayed, damaging it from the inside. This problem was overcome via the use of 6 oil dampers, which would absorb the energy of the collision. By cushioning the force of the collision, the oil dampers are able to absorb swaying by up to ’50 percent’ (Science Channel. 2017. Here’s How Engineers Used Ancient Techniques To Protect Tokyo’s Skytree From

Japanese Pagoda with central core Image source:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7pcm5v ICdU)

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Earthquakes. https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=H7pcm5vICdU). v=H7pcm5vICdU.

Image sources: http://www.ctbuh.org/TallBuildings/FeaturedTallBuildings /FeaturedTallBuildingArchive2013/

Being in the heart of London, a significant challenge was to construct The Shard so as not to disturb the roads and railways close by. This not only meant that The Shard was constrained to a fairly small area but that it also needed to be completed within a short time frame. The method of ‘top down construction’ (AGRAWAL. sky, BUILT. London. Bloomsbury.

2018. pg 129) was used and involved simultaneously digging down to form the basement and building upwards. To form the basement, piles were installed at ground level as opposed to at the bottom of the dugout basement. Steel columns were then fitted inside the cylindrical piles. These piles and columns were driven into the ground with the ground floor slab placed on top. Access to the soil underneath was still provided since the slab had a large circular cut-out. This meant that digging could continue downwards to reveal the piles whilst a rig could also be attached to the ‘newly exposed steel columns’ (AGRAWAL. sky, BUILT. London. Bloomsbury. 2018. pg 129) upon which the central core was built. Overall, it is no surprise that engineering principles are shared across the Burj Khalifa, The Shard and the Tokyo Skytree as the fundamentals of building a skyscraper are strong foundations, acentral core, frame or exoskeleton to stabilise the building and also dampers to overcome the sway. What therefore makes each skyscraper stand out is how it has improved on one of these fundamentals or introduced a new method of problem solving. The aerodynamics of the Burj Khalifa for example is extraordinary in that it accounts for the majority of the building’s wind and seismic resistance.

In addition, the improvement from Japanese historical Pagodas in the Tokyo Skytree has resulted in a revolutionary earthquake proof system whilst the building is also the second tallest in the world. As well as this, the efficiency of The Shard regarding the topdown method on such a large scale encourages more time efficient construction that will become increasingly important as cities become larger and more crowded. Since each structure has different strengths and was built within different environments, choosing one skyscraper as the best based on height alone would mean unfairly disregarding the other factors involved for the other structures.

TheShardLondon/tabid/6020/language/en-US/Default.aspx http://www.burjkhalifa.ae/en/the-tower/gallery/burjkhalifa.aspx https://newatlas.com/tokyo-sky-tree/21682/

Bibliography: AGRAWAL, BUILT, Bloomsbury, 2018 http://www.ctbuh.org/TallBuildings/FeaturedTallBuildings /FeaturedTallBuildingArchive2013/ TheShardLondon/tabid/6020/language/en-US/Default.aspx https://www.newcivilengineer.com/the-shard-down-at-thebridge/5200168.article http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/architecture/889681 0/The-Shard-its-architectsview. https://www.economist.com/node/456070 https://www.curbed.com/2015/9/24/9917752/theengineering-tricks-behind-buildingslender-taller-towersand https://newatlas.com/tokyo-sky-tree/21682/ http://www.nikken.co.jp/ensk/skytree/structure/structure_0 1.php https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7pcm5vICdU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tF204Pgf-eo https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokyo_Skytree#Earthquake_ resistance http://www.engineersjournal.ie/2016/01/26/engineeringthe-shard/ http://www.ingenia.org.uk/Ingenia/Articles/790 https://www.wsp.com/en-GL/projects/the-shard http://www.burjkhalifa.ae/en/the-tower/structures.aspx http://www.pn-projectmanagement.com/constructionmanagement-blog/7-constructionchallengesfaced-by-burj-khalifa-the-tallest-skyscraper https://www.curbed.com/2015/9/24/9917752/theengineering-tricks-behind-buildingslender-taller-towersand https://www.iabse.org/Images/Publications_PDF/SEI/SEI. Burj%20Dubai.pdf https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=niVguabIhTs https://nicolasecharte.wordpress.com/tag/hymenocallis/

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crisis. Admittedly, the initial leader of the wartime coalition, Asquith, was ousted by a coup following the disastrous ordeal at the Battle of the Somme, and Lloyd George also discarded the War Cabinet for a select inner cabinet of five ministers100. Thus the success of a coalition in promoting unity and stability can be determined by the strength of the leader in rallying national spirit during wartime. Of course, the necessity of unity during wartime could be seen as an extenuating circumstance that facilitates the success of coalition, but the triumph of Lloyd George’s coalition in the 1918 general election indicates that this system can also be popular and feasible during peacetime.

CHALLENGING THE ASSUMPTION THAT A MAJORITY GOVERNMENT PROVIDES MORE STABILITY THAN A COALITION

In comparison, despite the popularity of Churchill’s coalition during wartime, the Conservatives were voted out of office in 1945, and it was only in 1951 that Churchill was able to establish a majority government. This suggests that it was Churchill’s wartime leadership and excellent skills as an orator that enabled him to rally the support of the British people during the war, emphasising the role of the leader in providing stability, rather than the coalition itself. Yet this undermines the importance of the precedents set by the wartime coalition, and its popularity amongst the British public. In fact, the Conservative majority government in 1951 was encouraged by the Conservative Research Department to “retain the essence of the post-war consensus”101, demonstrating that the precedents established by the coalition had permeated into the very ideologies of political parties and were important in influencing party image. Therefore, the strength of leadership shown during both wartime coalitions challenges the assumption that coalitions provide less stability than a majority government.

Millie McMillan (WHS)

Coalitions are rarely associated with stability; instead, they are often perceived to be the epitome of weak governance. The temporary allegiances between parties can be crippled by ideological tension, and strong and decisive leadership is often lacking; thus the assumption that majority governments will provide more stability ostensibly seems well founded.

However, the ever-changing political climate in the UK may render coalition an increasingly viable and stable form of government, making it necessary to challenge the aforementioned assumption.

One of the main indicators that UK coalition governments can provide strength and stability is the success of both wartime coalitions. During the First World War, Lloyd George led a coalition of the Tories, Liberals and the newly emerging Labour party, from 1916 to 1922. Whilst other European governments faced great social unrest, the efficiency of the coalition in centralizing the economy meant the British public remained vastly behind the war effort. For instance, during the course of World War One, the civil service expanded and the state administered up to 85% of foodstuffs, meaning that Britain avoided major food shortages99. The coalition government was able to function effectively as inter-party squabbles took a backseat in order to promote the ultimate wartime agenda of victory. In this goal Britain was also successful, emphasising the capacity of coalition to provide stable leadership during times of national

Having considered the history of coalition government in the UK, one must also look to the future. Benjamin Disraeli may have stated, ‘England does not love coalitions’, but the rise of multi-party politics makes the increasing prevalence of coalitions somewhat inevitable102. The outcome of two of the last three elections has been a hung parliament, emphasising the decline of the traditional two-party system as minority parties (such as the Liberal Democrats and nationalist parties in the devolved regions) gain a higher

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101

Robert Tombs, The English and Their History, (2014), page 627 100 Simon Jenkins, A Short History of the English People, (2011), page 226

Kenneth O. Morgan, Britain Since 1945: The People’s Peace, (1990), page 113 102 Nick Clegg, Politics Between the Extremes, (2016), page 4 62

proportion of the vote share. In 2017, a Conservative minority government was formed, yet its authority was undermined from its conception by the deep schisms within the Conservative party. The assumption that coalitions will foster instability is based upon the pretext that ideological clashes between parties will render governing unfeasible. Increasingly, however, the entrenched political divides are as much within parties as between them. For example, the difficult in reconciling the opinions of Europhiles and Eurosceptics within the Conservative party makes Brexit negotiations challenging, and undermines the ability of the government to deliver strength and stability. It is important to acknowledge that May’s government is a minority government, thus does not necessarily debunk the assumption that majority governments would provide more stability; however, the same ideological divides plagued the Conservative majority government in 2015, and resulted in the referendum on European Union membership that arguably created long-term instability by uprooting the precedents of the last 50 years. Therefore, the decline of two-party politics makes majority governments increasingly unlikely, and a coalition can provide a more stable alternative to a minority government given the current deep schisms within the UK’s mainstream parties.

provide the antidote to the increasing prevalence of populist and polarized politics.

The assumption that majority governments provide more stability than coalitions may have rung true in the past, yet it is necessary to debunk this assumption given the changing nature of the political climate in the UK. The decline of two-party politics and the increasing schisms occurring within the two major political parties makes coalition an increasingly likely phenomenon, and its advocacy of moderate and rational policies could provide much needed stability in an age of uncertainty.

Bibliography Clegg, Nick, Politics Between the Extremes (2016) Jenkins, Simon, A Short History of England (2011) Morgan, Kenneth, Britain Since 1945: The People’s Peace (1990) Tombs, Robert, The English and their History (2014) The Aberdeen Coalition, History of Government (2013), https://history.blog.gov.uk/2013/01/23/the-aberdeencoalition/ (accessed 15/03/18) 'Coalition Government in Britain: Lessons from Overseas', Ben Seyd, Constitution Unit, University College London (2002), http://www.ucl.ac.uk/constitutionunit/publications/tabs/unit-publications/84.pdf (accessed 15/03/18)

In fact, coalitions often have to oversee the aftermath of a period of national upheaval, suggesting that their reputation for instability has only arisen as a result of the challenges they have been tasked with. For instance, the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition attempted to alleviate the burden placed on Britain after the 2008 financial crisis. The need to reduce the deficit, coupled with the difficulties of negotiations, resulted in compromised policies that alienated the support bases of both parties, which was particularly detrimental to the smaller party in the coalition.

Whereas a majority government has gained a definitive mandate from the electorate to implement their manifesto policies, coalition parties will invariably have to deviate from their party line due to the necessity of compromise. Thus parties will have to concede some ground to ensure negotiations are successful, but ultimately this can result in a more moderate line of policy, which is conducive to stability. Thus coalitions, emblematic of “the politics of reason, compromise and moderation”103 can

‘The Cameron Paradox and the redrawing of British Politics’, Nick Clegg, Financial Times (2016), https://www.ft.com/content/be17c052-4e5e-11e6-8172e39ecd3b86fc (accessed 19/03/18)

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Nick Clegg, Politics Between the Extremes, (2016), page 7 63

counterparts? In response to this, women who do indeed go abroad to sleep with foreign men claim that in doing so it is ‘socially, economically and politically liberating’. Hime, a Japanese hip-hop artist, goes as far as to claim that the act puts ‘women in the driver’s seat’.

THE ‘YELLOW CAB’ PHENOMENON- STEREOTYPES SURROUNDING JAPANESE WOMEN AND SEXUALITY

Despite all this talk of empowerment, the act of sleeping with men abroad rarely shows a permanent rejection of the Japanese patriarchy. Many of these women return to marry Japanese men and become housewives. While for a brief moment in New York there was a group of Japanese female professsionals calledイエローキャブを考える会 (group to think about yellow cabs) formed as a protest to stop negative media coverage back home, they disbanded in 1993, and no similar organisation has been formed since in New York or elsewhere. Additionally, in Japan, there are concerns surrounding the spread of AIDS through the act of sleeping with foreign men.

Jess Marais (WHS) Despite being famous for its flashy technology and wacky fashion, Japan remains conservative in its attitudes towards women. Reflecting this are a range of stereotypes surrounding women, especially those who are comfortable with themselves and their sexuality. A common stereotype in Japan is a term used towards women who go abroad, referring to them as ‘イエローキャブ’ (yellow cab) . This stereotype claims that the wealthy women who travel abroad do so in order to meet foreign men, saying that they are as available and easy to ‘ride’ as a yellow cab.

The ‘yellow cab’ phenomenon is not the only issue surrounding Japanese women and their sexuality. A trend that is perhaps more well known in the West (to the extent that there is a BBC Stacey Dooley documentary on it) is the fetishizing of school girls, a trend that originated in the mid-1990s. This fetish feeds off of the innocence of the school girls, the traditional symbol of these being their uniforms.

Japanese school uniforms are based on the British naval uniform and are central to their pornography and other spin-offs of the fetish.

This term originated in the 1980s around the time of the Japanese post war economic miracle, where for the first time since the Second World War young people found themselves with disposable income. As a result, many women had the funds to independently travel abroad- something which had never been the case before. The term gained traction as a result of Shoko Ieda’s 1991 book titled ‘The Yellow Cab’. In this book, she reported on interviews she had conducted with Japanese women overseas, however since the publication, her assistant has claimed many of the interviews to be fraudulent. This book was followed in 1993 by Makiko Iizuka’s book ‘The guys who can’t even hitch a ride on a cab’.

This phenomenon is seen as socially acceptable and the spread of the fetish can be pegged to its mainstream status. In the 1990s, used underwear vending machines began to crop up around Tokyo, where interested customers could buy underwear that had been worn by a school girl, with the average price being around $50. Following the success of these businesses, entrepreneurs began to set up shops where customers could begin to request certain types of underwear to be worn for certain lengths of time and to certain activities. Not soon after, in an area of Tokyo known as Akihabara ‘maid cafes’ began to crop upseen in the West as a fun tourist attraction; and while lots are, many are essentially the equivalent of hostess bars, where people can pay to spend time with school girls.

Looking into the phenomenon itself, some claim that it is a direct response to an element of Japanese male culture. In some circles, men go on ‘sex tours’ (most commonly to China) to sleep with as many women as possible. This brings into question Japanese standards for women: why should they not be able to engage in behaviour that is deemed acceptable among their male 64

The image of the Japanese school girl is so mainstream to the extent that the official Japanese tourism logo is of a bishojo (computer animated) girl named Mirai Suenaga, dressed in a cute sailor school uniform with a very short skirt.

Bibliography:

One question asked is where does this whole fetish develop from, to the extent that it is so mainstream?

Many say it originates from male puberty, where many boys attended single-sex schools, and girls were seen as unattainable. Is the whole phenomenon a hangover from a pubescent boys unfulfilled sexual desires?

Others would argue that the use of school girls is a form of sexual roleplay that enables the men to dominate women, showing a translation of the traditional Japanese conservatism into modern concepts.

KogalWikipedia URL https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kogal (accessed 05.02.2018)

The fashion movement of ‘コギャル’ (literally ‘high school gal’) seemingly epitomises this: in and around the areas of Tokyo called Shinjuku and Harajuku, girls wear their school uniforms with shortened skirts and loose socks. This style, popularised by singer Namie Amuro and worn by girl group AKB48, is now seen at schools all over Japan. While many blame the girls themselves for this trend, others look to the practise of fetishizing uniforms and the pressures placed on the girls by the media to wear their uniforms in this way.

Mirai SuenegaCulture Japan URL http://www.dannychoo.com/en/post/1587/Mirai+Suenaga. html (accessed 04.03.2018)

Yellow cab (stereotype)Wikipedia URL https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_cab_(stereotype) (accessed 03.02.2018)

Young Sex for Sale in Japan- BBC iPlayer documentary URL https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p04t0h2b/staceydooley-investigates-young-sex-for-sale-in-japan (accessed 27.02.2017) Hime (Japanese Rapper) URL http://www.virtualjapan.com/wiki/Hime_(Japanese_Rappe r) (accessed 04.03.2018)

Lamal, P.A., (1997); Cultural Contingencies: Behaviour Analytic Perspectives on Cultural Practices, Greenwood Publishing Group, p.141 Takahashi, Dr K., (2013); Language Learning, Gender and Desire: Japanese Women on the Move, Multilingual Matters, p.5

As always, stereotypes result from people enacting them, and in the case of the ‘yellow cab’ phenomenon and the presentation and styling of school girls there are many people who do behave in the way that the stereotype deems them to, and are proud of it.

However, the very nature of the stereotypes call into question the deep-seated cultural attitudes towards women in Japan. Both stereotypes discussed are at opposite ends of the spectrum: the ‘yellow cab’ phenomenon denies women the right to be sexually active, and the stereotypes surrounding school girls encourages sexual behaviour before maturity is reached, however both cases are example of women being denied the right to choose their sexual identity.

While on the whole, Japan is a lot more sexually conservative than we have become accustomed to in the West, the double standards of behaviour for men and women show that modern feminism still has some work to do.

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is, is crucial. The main role of the doctor can be considered as healing; doing their best to secure the wellbeing of a patient through cures and guidance. The International Labour Organisation defines the role: “Doctors as clinical scientists apply the principles and procedures of medicine to prevent, diagnose, care for and treat patients with illness, disease and injury and to maintain physical and mental health”. This definition clearly shows that doctors are not just administrators of treatment or drugs but instead carers responsible for the health of their patient, which, as described by the World Health Organisation, is “not merely the absence of disease of infirmity” but rather the complete well-being of an individual, including socially. Thus, it makes sense for a doctor to look past what they are physically treating, e.g. a cancerous tumour or infection, to the the patient and their overall experience. Treatment is not simply; will this kill the infection, but how will this affect the life of the patient being treated.

“RAGE, RAGE AGAINST THE DYING OF THE LIGHT.” THE ASSUMPTION THAT MEDICAL TREATMENT SHOULD ALWAYS BE PRIORITISED OVER QUALITY OF LIFE Georgina Hagger (WHS) Medical treatment in our society has never been better, scores of diseases are no longer a death sentence but instead show increasing survival rates. In 1971, only 40% of breast cancer patients would be predicted to survive another 10 years but this has increased to 80% in 2011104. Furthermore, people are living to older ages, with 18% of the population being over 65105.

However, with these increasing survival rates and new technologies at the disposal of doctors, an assumption has developed that medical treatment can cure most diseases and this should be done at the expense of the patient’s Quality of Life (QoL). This is a widely held assumption, believed by patients, families and even doctors the world over. There is a new inability to “give up” on treatment even if the patient is actually suffering for it.

When discussing whether treatment should be prioritised over QoL, the illnesses that are being discussed are normally life-limiting conditions or terminal illnesses. These conditions are those that are likely to result in a death in the immediate future, and so the two main options in these cases are actively managing and fighting the illness or switching the focus to managing pain and symptoms. The former, more aggressive and often assumed, approach can sometimes lead to sacrificing QoL and dying in a way that was not desired. Whereas the managing of pain and symptoms encompasses the key principles of palliative care and hospice care. When it comes to “End of Life” treatment, the focus is now to help patients live the best life they can until they die, and this is where QoL is preserved and prioritised.

Hospices are key providers of such care, within the hospice itself or carers visiting the patient’s home, with their mission being to help people die with dignity but also to live out the last of their days to their wishes as much as possible. This care helps people to be able to die at home surrounded by loved ones, instead of on a crowded ward, and this is shown to be something that 83% of people would prefer and yet

Quality of Life is defined by the Oxford Dictionary as “The standard of health, comfort, and happiness experienced by an individual or group” and is often assessed through the “eyes of the experiencer”106. This makes QoL a subjective measure thus specific to each person and ultimately what they deem as satisfactory in their life. Many would question how this would actually become the responsibility of a doctor, and so understanding and defining what the role of a doctor 104

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http://www.cancerresearchuk.org/healthprofessional/cancer-statistics/statistics-by-cancertype/breast-cancer/survival#heading-Two 105 https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommun ity/populationandmigration/populationestimates/articles /overviewoftheukpopulation/july2017

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC476 8563/

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50% of people will die in hospital107. Hospices provide this opportunity that the vast majority of people desire and yet 6 in 10 people108 who are believed to have needed specialist “End of Life” care did not receive this from hospices, or perhaps even anyone. This suggests that many people in the UK are not receiving the care that they want and deserve at the end of their life. One possible reason for this difference between the ideal and the reality is that ultimately it is hard to have conversations about how you would like to die, when you do not want to believe that you are going to die. Facing one’s own mortality is a struggle that at some point everyone will have to go through, yet it is not something that is often discussed openly and perhaps this is what needs to change to challenge this assumption. Honest conversations between doctors and patients will help to ensure that the patient’s wishes are followed when it comes to stopping treatment and how they would like to die. It is not the wish of everyone that they stop life-prolonging treatment (e.g. mechanical ventilation) just as it is not the wish of everyone that treatment should be continued if it is preventing them from living their last days as they please. The only way that doctors can understand these wishes is through the shared decision making advocated by the General Medical Council as they can have the hard conversations with their patients so that they can understand their priorities.

Rachel Clarke, a palliative care specialist, suggests that hearing the patients tell their own story will help the doctor understand their wishes whilst providing the patient with the knowledge that they are being heard and understood.

understanding what is important to a patient at the end of their life.

This assumption that medical treatment should always be prioritised is ultimately incorrect, as someone’s desires cannot be predicted or assumed. Quality of Life is assessed by the experiencer and so by its very nature, every person’s satisfactory QoL will be different. Thus, it is imperative for doctors to understand the desires of the patient and ultimately acting in the interest of the patient to fulfil their role of caring for the whole person and not just the disease.

However, it is not only doctors who have a role to play but patients and their loved ones must have honest conversations about expectations and desires so that each person can live their last days as they want. It is not right for treatment to always be prioritised over QoL but neither is it right to assume that QoL should be prioritised. As treatments become more and more successful, it is now more important than ever to start discussing death and what quality of life we can all bear and hope for.

Bibliography: Thomas, Dylan (1947); Do not go gentle into that good night Gawande, A., (2014); Being Mortal, Profile Books Ltd Virtual Mentor, June 2008, Volume 10, Number 6, AMA Journal of Ethics http://journalofethics.ama-assn.org/2008/06/fred10806.html

The assumption that medical treatment should be prioritised over QoL can be a very dangerous one. For a patient with end-stage cancer, using a trial drug that could have many bad side-effects might mean their final few months are filled with pain instead of the peace that they may desire. Furthermore, clinically assisted nutrition and hydration, whilst prolonging life, may not give a person the life or death that they would want. Surgery that leads to paralysis or further complications may not be a situation that people would like to be in, although this varies with the individual. Thus, the previously mentioned patientdoctor (as well as family) discussions are vital to

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Quality of Life in Chronic Disease Patients, Kalliopi Megari, 23/09/2013 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4768563/ On Love and Loss at the End of Life, Rachel Clarke, TEDx Talks, 6 March 2018 GMC- End if life treatment and care: Good practice in decision-making, A draft for consultation https://www.gmcuk.org/CONSULTATION_DRAFT_GUIDANCE.pdf_254 17410.pdf Facts and Figures, Hospice UK https://www.hospiceuk.org/media-centre/facts-and-figures

The National Survey of Bereaved People (VOICES) 2014

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https://www.hospiceuk.org/media-centre/factsand-figures 67

Treatment and care towards the end of life: good practice in decision making, GMC, 20 May 2010 https://www.gmcuk.org/Treatment_and_care_towards_the_end_of_life___E nglish_1015.pdf_48902105.pdf

https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/p opulationandmigration/populationestimates/articles/overvi ewoftheukpopulation/july2017 About WHO, World Health Organisation http://www.who.int/about/mission/en/

Hospice Care in the UK 2016, Hospice UK https://www.hospiceuk.org/docs/default-source/What-WeOffer/publications-documents-and-files/hospice-care-inthe-uk-2016.pdf?sfvrsn=0

Breast Cancer Survival Statistics, Cancer Research UK http://www.cancerresearchuk.org/healthprofessional/cancer-statistics/statistics-by-cancertype/breast-cancer/survival#heading-Two

Overview of the UK population: July 2017, Office for National Statistics

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