Friday, March 2, 2018
The Campanile
B7 SCIENCE & TECH Technology allows for advances in cosmetic industry By Waverley Long
T
Staff Writer
hroughout history, the tradition of altering one's appearance with cosmetics has played a role in nearly every culture, tracing back 6,000 years. While the ancient form of cosmetics consisted of rubbing red mineral pigments on people’s skin, our modern technology allows for much more advanced methods of appearance enhancement, some of which even possess medical purposes or health benefits. These methods include, but aren’t limited to, the use of plastic surgery, clear aligners, corneal refractive therapy (CRT) lenses and technologically advanced makeup. Many Paly students have had experience with these various ways of changing one’s appearance. One of the more permanent methods is cosmetic surgery. Last winter break, junior Jess Weiss underwent a rhinoplasty procedure, a plastic surgery operation commonly known as a nose job. Weiss began meeting with her surgeon almost a year before the surgery. According to Weiss, it is the responsibility of a surgeon to ensure that their patient undergoes the surgery with a healthy mindset and a body in proper condition for the procedure. After meeting with her surgeon for one year, Weiss finally made it to the day of her operation. After the surgery, Weiss researched the procedure to learn about what she experienced. “They cut between the nostrils and peel back your skin,” Weiss said. “Then, depending on what you’re having done, they either break your nose or just shave down. For me, because they had to straighten it, they broke it. Essentially, they cut down little pieces of bone and cartilage. At the end, [they put in] these little tubes that went far up into my nasal passages to help keep it straight during the healing process.” After the procedure, Weiss experienced a lot of pain and took painkillers throughout her recovery period. In addition to her swollen eyes and face, Weiss had to avoid getting her cast wet; she
wore gauze beneath her nose to help with the bleeding. She had to restrict her diet to only liquid foods for five days and clean her nose with water and saline solution in order to avoid infection. Though Weiss said her nose will not settle into its final shape until next year, she began to appreciate the long-term effects after she underwent the most painful part of the recovery process and the swelling reduced. She now likes her nose more and feels that it suits her better. According to Weiss, another long-term effect is an increase in self-confidence; however, Weiss gained more confidence from her honesty about the surgery than her appearance. “I probably am more honest now because I was worried if people would be weird or not accepting about [the surgery],” Weiss said. “I had a debate with myself about if I was going to tell people … and it seemed like a really silly thing to not be honest about. So I’d say I probably gained some confidence in that way. I’m very not shy, clearly, about telling people about it and I don’t think it’s something to hide.”
Improvements in technology have created makeup with health benefits, typically seen in skincare products. Although Weiss was happy with her appearance as a whole, she was never satisfied with her nose, leading her to undergo rhinoplasty. She also knew many people who underwent plastic surgery and had a positive experience. “My parents were super supportive,” Weiss said. “My dad has had a lot of nose surgeries for unrelated, not cosmetic reasons … and they’ve always been very understanding and supportive of me and they weren’t scared about it because my dad had that experience with the surgeries. And also, knowing other people who have done it was a big thing for them
in being comfortable with it.” Weiss does not believe the common misconception that those who undergo cosmetic surgery are fake. According to Weiss, altering appearance through cosmetic surgery is not much different from putting on makeup or wearing clothes that make an individual look a certain way. Weiss also emphasizes the importance of refusing to subscribe to the misconception that plastic surgery will be life-changing. “I would not tell people that cosmetic surgery is something you should do because you think it will really do something to change your life — I don’t think that’s accurate,” Weiss said. “You’re still the same person, you’re not really going to be that different.” CRT Lenses While Weiss’ plastic surgery was solely for cosmetic purposes, improvements in technology have also created procedures that affect appearances and have medical benefits. For example CRT lenses, commonly known as nighttime contact lenses, make perfect vision more convenient for those who opt against glasses. Senior Andrew Shieh has been using CRT lenses since middle school and likes not having to worry about contact lenses or glasses during the day. "[CRT lenses] have become more popular in recent years, especially among athletes,” Shieh said. “Since I only need to wear my contacts when I go to sleep, I don't have to worry about losing them at school or when I work out.” Individuals who use CRT lenses put the contacts on every night before bed. The lenses reshape the cornea of the individual’s eyes while they sleep, so when they wake up, they have perfect vision. The eye gradually returns to its normal shape throughout the day, so the user must wear the contacts every night in order to maintain their vision. Overall, Shieh said he has had a positive experience with his lenses. “Night contacts have been ef-
LUCY NEMEROV/THE CAMPANILE
Health benefits can be found in many cosmetic products. Sophomore Ellie Fitton uses lip balm with SPF.
fective for me,” Shieh said. “My vision has pretty much stabilized and I don't have to wear glasses anymore." Clear Aligners Clear aligners and CRT lenses are similar in that they both affect one’s appearance and have medical purposes, but while CRT lenses have short-term effects, clear aligners are a permanent solution. They are plastic retainers that adjust an individual’s teeth over a long period of time. People often refer to clear aligners as Invisalign, a popular clear aligner product. Clear aligners are essentially like braces, but are clear and fit over the individual’s teeth rather than attaching to them. According to junior Courtney Kernick, clear aligners can take a significant amount of time to reshape teeth due to the gradual process of adjusting one’s teeth through slight changes to the aligners. “I got a mold of my teeth at the beginning, then they sent it to Invisalign labs and came up with two week increments of sets of Invisalign that would eventually lead to [my] straight teeth and a correction of my overbite,” Kernick said. “Every two weeks, I would get a new set [that] would have a couple millimeters of changes to different teeth and parts of my mouth and that would [eventually created a long-lasting] change over the course of two years.” After wearing both clear
aligners and braces, Kernick said she preferred clear aligners due to their conveniency. “Invisalign was a lot easier and more convenient,” Kernick said. “It was a lot less noticeable than braces, and the metal of braces can rub against your gums and the inside of your mouth and cause abrasions.” Makeup Though clear aligners, contact lenses and plastic surgery change an individual’s appearance, the most common form of cosmetic enhancement is makeup. Improvements in technology have created makeup with health benefits, typically seen in skincare products. These include tinted moisturizers with SPF, foundation with acne medication and eyelash serums that condition lashes to be longer and thicker. Senior Kendra Wu uses moisturizers with SPF over 30 and sunscreens with SPF over 50 to help remedy acne scars.
Clear aligners are essentially like braces, but are clear and fit over the individual’s teeth. “I buy a facial moisturizer with more than 30 SPF,” Wu said. “Wearing more sunscreen causes the pigmentation spots from acne to fade.” Technology has also made
makeup more practical for all types of weather and activities. Makeup has undergone significant improvements that have contributed to the waterproof aspect as well as makeup’s longlasting effects. Blinc, a brand of mascara, utilizes its own type of tubetechnology that forms tiny waterresistant tubes around one’s eyelashes, opposed to most mascaras, which only paint the lashes. While regular mascara can be removed with makeup remover or soap and water, Blinc mascara can only be removed by using water and applying light pressure to gently slide the tubes off one’s lashes. This means that unlike regular mascara, Blinc cannot be smudged accidentally. These methods of enhancing one's appearance have become increasingly common throughout the centuries as improvements in technology have made them more accessible and more effective. However, Weiss emphasizes that at the end of the day, it is what’s on the inside that is of paramount importance. “Just know that the most important thing is to be confident in who you are,” Weiss said. “If you are confident in who you are, no matter what you do you are going to be great and have a good life and no one needs to ‘fix’ anything.”
Food Delivery Services increase laziness SpaceX Launch Recap The unending incorporation of technology into our daily lives can be detrimental
HELENA LOPEZ/CC0 LICENSE
PHOTO BY HELENALOPES/CC0 LICENSE
Technology can take away from the basics of our everyday life.
By Leela Srinivasan
T
Staff Writer
he 2008 Pixar film “WallE” depicted a society of immensely overweight individuals, inseparable from their self-driving, hovering chairs they were whisked around in as they exchanged instant messages and watched movies on holographic screens. These movie characters were not obligated to lift a finger as they went about their daily routines. While these individuals live in a dystopian world, concerns arise when considering whether their society could be a representation of what is in store for our future. Using technology to improve our lives is imperative to progress in our society. It eliminates busy work, opening up windows of time for us to think, create and engage with the world. However, the direction technology has taken poses a dangerous threat to our future, one where the entirety of our life passes from behind the screen of a device. By allowing technology to grab hold of the reins of our lives, we have dropped them completely; one by one, we remove pieces of our daily routine and replace them with alternatives in which we are disproportionately inactive. The first item of concern — the way technology has transformed consumer access to food — starts with companies competing to keep people away from grocery stores. With the rise of Instacart and the implementation
of Google Express and Amazon Fresh Grocery, making the trip to the supermarket is no longer necessary. Consumers can select the groceries they would like delivered to their home by simply opening up a laptop or a mobile phone, and within two hours, the items will appear on their doorstep. “We use Google Express to order cereal and ordinary supplies like cleaners, toilet paper [and] paper towels,” said junior Claire Chen. “It makes my family's life easier because essentially, someone else does our simple errand running.”
While many individuals still opt to make the trip to the grocery store, it is plausible to imagine a near future in which delivered groceries have become the norm. Paly Science teacher Alicia Szebert said she has observed these practices in her everyday life. “I live in San Francisco in an apartment complex with 300 different occupied units, and I barely see anybody,” Szebert said. “Everyone is just in their apartment; their groceries get delivered with Instacart and [they] can even have their meals sent directly to them.” While many individuals still opt to make the trip to the grocery store, it is plausible to imagine a near future in which delivered groceries have become the norm.
Take this up a notch, and BlueApron is ready to serve as the largest meal kit provider in the United States. A “meal kit provider” is a nuanced concept that details chopped and portioned ingredients that are arranged and delivered to one’s doorstep, along with a step-by-step recipe. Mountain View High School parent Karen Fitch is a frequent user of another primary meal kit provider, Gobble. As a single, working parent, she finds the service invaluable. “[Gobble] is convenient because I don’t have to think about what I should cook for dinner or go grocery shopping for those ingredients,” Fitch said. “I think that it’s convenient enough that more working families will want to try it out.” In addition to BlueApron and Gobble, companies such as Green Chef and Purple Carrot have enabled the meal kit provider industry to accumulate an estimated $10 billion in combined revenue, according to Statista. The increasing popularity of the meal kit provider industry helps establish this system could replace cooking as we know it. Once consumers become accustomed to receiving previously prepared ingredients, the custom of chopping vegetables by hand will fade away completely. Generation Z has no obligation to learn how to properly cook meals with the vast range of services available to them. This industry will continue to grow, until eventually, cooking will become a long-forgotten custom of the past. One step further, and DoorDash, Postmates and UberEats are at your service. While takeout delivery has existed for a long time, the compilation of all nearby restaurants’ offerings into a single platform is a new concept. The concept of errand running will slowly fade away as customers become accustomed to purchasing every small item online, and as delivery services improve, reducing the time it takes for the product to arrive. With fewer people out and about running errands, human interaction as a whole decreases. In today’s world, of the communication that does occur, it is more commonly executed through text
messaging, voice calls and Facetime than ever before. Daniel, an employee from Uber, whose name has been changed to preserve his anonymity, said he frequently observes this phenomenon in his workplace. “We work in a building with employees spread out among six different floors,” Daniel said. “Oftentimes, rather than shifting floors to meet in person, I noticed that people just meet via video call for convenience.” Szebert’s main concern is technology will be used to construct replacements for schooling, which in her opinion, is invaluable and can not be substituted. “High school is so important, because those are four years where you’re going to school every day and you’re forced to interact with people every day,” Szebert said. “If people start staying at home for schooling because great new online homeschooling programs arise, just sitting at their computer and talking to nobody, they will really lose out.” Szebert said this issue is not only applicable to high school students, but also to young children. “Social skills start with kids, so we have to make sure that the youth to go to daycare, allowing them to spend time around other children,” Szebert said. “Those are the kind of skills that no one can teach you.” So where is the line drawn between removing busy work and replacing every single day to day task? It is difficult to see how ordering a gallon of milk on Instacart instead of picking it up at the supermarket could raise an issue; however, the problem becomes more apparent from a bird’s eye view, when one takes into account the effects of the combination of these practices. We claim to use advances in technology to move forward and increase our interaction with the world, but it in practice keeps us holed up and isolated in our houses, our activity and engagement levels declining rapidly. “Right now, not having to leave the house to complete tasks is still a new thing, so I don’t think the negative effects are as clear yet,” Szebert said. “If and when it gets even more exaggerated, it could be a serious problem.”
By Samantha Hwang Staff Writer
On Feb. 6 at 1:30 EST, aerospace manufacturer SpaceX successfully launched a rocket out of Florida. The company spent over $500 million building this colossal machine, known as the Falcon Heavy rocket. The SpaceX launch is revolutionary in the space industry due to the rocket’s large payload. With added Payload capacity, SpaceX is carrying aboard the red Tesla roadster and will be transported to Mars with the rocket. Additionally, the launch marks a historical moment for all commercial space flight companies and other aerospace enthusiasts. SpaceX an aerospace manufacturer and space transport services company founded by Tesla CEO Elon Musk in 2002, aimed to explore the concept of humanity’s eventual migration and survival on other neighboring planets, according to their official website. With the successful launch of the Falcon Heavy, SpaceX is one step closer to attain its dream of people inhabit-
The SpaceX launch is revolutionary for many in the space industry due to the rocket’s large payload. ing other planets. Following the explosion of the company’s first rocket, Falcon 9, in 2016 due to a breached helium system, the success of the launch of the Falcon Heavy rocket is a redeeming moment SpaceX with them finally being able to launch successfully. The success of the rocket launch signifies the future opportunities for space exploration, as well as the possibility of human life on other planets, much like science fiction novels and films where people can one day live on neighboring planets. Compleating SpaceX's company mission. “I think the SpaceX launch is very exciting because it shows how SpaceX has achieved the goals that it set for itself in the beginning,” said junior Robbie
Selwyn. “In addition, the capacity of the new rocket makes it much easier to transport goods into space. Given SpaceX recent launch completions, it will be really exciting what they can do the rest of this year and later on.” Many other fans tuned in to watch the SpaceX launch on live television or in person. Other than the exciting new venture into space exploration, the launch is a huge accomplishment because of its great difficulty.
With the successful launch of the Falcon Heavy, SpaceX is one step closer to attain its dream of people inhabiting other planets. “Since the space shuttles have been retired, their hasn’t been that much visible space exploration. I think it’s cool that we’ve been doing our own heavy lifting [with space exploration]” Said Senior Connor McQuinn who tuned into watch the Falcon Heavy launch in February. The launch of the Falcon Heavy is not only exciting due to the fact that it is a gateway to a futuristic world of people living in surrounding planets, it is also a great feat due to the difficulty of the launch. For example in order to complete the launch, SpaceX needs to be able to complete a suicide burn. A suicide burn refers to the action of a moving rocket or any powered object to descend on large body. An example of this would be the Apollo 13 landing on the moon. "A suicide burn — landing upright with ur rocket throttle on — is really hard because if you're a little late, you smash into the ground," said senior Preston Sterling, who is interested in studying aerospace. When asked further about the difficulty of completing a suicide burn, Preston said, "You want to save fuel because that's the most efficient route,” Sterling said “It's most efficient if you throttle up your engines really hard right before you land, as opposed to a slow and long burn, which makes the landing procedure more dangerous."