Breakthrough

Breakthrough The Ramaz Science Publication June 2015

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Table of Contents A One-Way Ticket to Mars: How Humans Plan on Reaching the Red Planet by 2025 Gabe Klapholz ‘17 Pg. 3 New Study Discovers Gene Mutation that May Predict Breast and Ovarian Cancer Meira Gilbert ‘16 Pg. 6 Nasa Predicts Signs of Alien Life by 2025 Gabe Klapholz ‘17 Pg. 7 Sun Exposure, Genetics, and Melanoma- A Worldwide Health Challenge Yakira Markovich ‘16 Pg. 8 #TheDress that Broke the Internet Elie Present ‘16 Pg. 10 Shocking Diversity in HIV Strains Gabriel Klapholz ’17 Pg. 11 Study: Loss of Glaciers Threatens West Canada Moselle Kleiner ‘17 Pg. 13 Driverless Cars Abigail Huebner ‘18 Pg. 14 Life-creating Compounds Found Around Distant Star Oren Oppenheim ‘16 Pg. 15

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A One-Way Ticket to Mars: How Humans Plan on Reaching the Red Planet by 2025 Humans have ventured far beyond our own planet’s atmosphere, however we have yet to make it to Mars, our closest planetary neighbor. Travel to Mars has always been a popular topic amongst children and fiction writers, but nowadays, colonization of the planet may actually be plausible. Many contend with the issue that while the trip to Mars is economical and possible, the trip back home may not be as feasible. Surprisingly, a long list of people worldwide would nevertheless take the voyage even if that meant that they would never have the opportunity to once again breath Earth’s clean air.

Current estimates of NASA and 15 other space agencies set the 2030s as a likely decade for when humans will finally reach Mars. In addition, private companies also play a role in the race to reach our little red brother. Such companies include SpaceX and Virgin Galactic. Most significant is the extremely bold plan set forward by the Dutch nonprofit, Mars One. The project claims that by 2025, it will have landed two men and two women on Mars.

What makes Mars One so much different than, for example, NASA, is that while NASA uses the Apollo moonshot model for space travel, where astronauts use the orbit of the moon to propel themselves back towards Earth, Mars One plans on giving its astronauts a one-way ticket. Their space travel methods are reflected in their name. Mars One refers to the one trip that the astronaut would make. However, the idea that the trip would be one of no return is not simply a way to produce a catchy name, but also, according to the founders of the project, the only way to make the trip viable and affordable.

Mars is 140 million miles away from home. Are people really interested in spending the remainder of their lives so far away, living and dying on an unknown planet? The answer, to one’s dismay, is yes. With anybody over age 18 able to apply, despite one’s education, degrees or background, there are currently more than 200,000 applicants from dozens of countries around the world. The only limitation is that one

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must be within a certain height range, between 5 feet 2 inches and 6 feet 2 inches in order to be considered a viable candidate. Those in charge of the program are now choosing from 660 semifinalists to determine who will receive the ‘golden ticket’ to a different world.

Despite its boldness, many remain skeptical about Mars One and its true capabilities. It does not construct rockets and other space-travel equipment like SpaceX and it does not have the same budget as Virgin Galactic, led by the tycoon Sir Richard Branson. Many claim that the entire project is a publicity stunt as the project focuses less on financial and logistical issues, but more on the ‘pressing matter’ of selecting the colonists. Bas Lansdorp, 37, the true founder of Mars One, who created the project in the University of Twente in the Netherlands, admitted to the project partially having publicity goals, but emphasized that the project, which recently partnered with a major U.S. aerospace technology company, Lockheed Martin, is feasible and will achieve its goal should the correct candidates be chosen. Lansdorp believes that if the correct candidates are selected, those who can become a team, live together peacefully and not lose their mind throughout the entire experience, then they will ensure the mission’s success.

Why send people to Mars in the first place at the cost of hundreds of billions of dollars? Many believe that robots on Mars, such as Curiosity, cannot be used as a way to completely confirm that life once existed on the planet. Instead, human beings are needed to explore the planet and discover for certain that life once existed on Mars. With such a discovery, the human understanding of the universe would change forever. It would become clear that our universe actually contains life beyond this Earth and that other planets, whether it is Mars or a planet in a different galaxy, are capable of sustaining life.

Others believe that humans will naturally need more space to expand and develop.

Within our solar system, Mars is the most capable of sustaining human life. It is about one-sixth the size of Earth and is nearly equal to Earth in landmass, as it has no oceans. Mars has seasons because it rotates on a tilt, similar to Earth, of 24 degrees. The length of a day is close to that on Earth and the soil is around two percent frozen water, which could be melted and used by potential human inhabitants. The gravity on Mars is 40 percent of Earth’s gravity, a perfect balance for space travelers, as it would not cause intense muscle and bone deterioration. The downside is that Mars is a frigid planet where the average temperature is minus 50 degrees Fahrenheit and where the atmosphere is one percent the density of Earth and consists of mainly carbon dioxide. Because humans are incapable of subsisting on the poor atmosphere present on Mars, they would need to live in “artificial podlike habitats,” where they would grow vegetables in greenhouses and receive necessary protein from eating insects. A spacesuit would be needed to handle the outside environment. The relentless Martian winds and ever-present dust would also pose challenges to colonists.

Despite all of the difficulties of leaving Earth and having to spend the remainder

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of your life on a foreign planet, many people remain adamant in their desire for a ticket to Mars. Kellie Gerardi, age 26, a professional in the commercial spaceflight industry, is among the candidates. She is getting married in September but is willing to leave her husband should Mars One ever get back to her with a passport to take part in the longest, farthest, and most incredible journey in human history where an entire life must be sacrificed on this planet to make room for life on another planet millions of miles away.

Works Cited Angier, Natalie. "A One-Way Trip to Mars? Many Would Sign Up." New York Times.

N.p., 8 Dec. 2015. Web. 11 Mar. 2015.

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New Study Discovers Gene Mutation that May Predict Breast and Ovarian Cancer A new study on thousands of women showed that where mutations occur on cancer genes can affect the risk of breast or ovarian cancer. Women with breast cancer and women with ovarian cancer harbored mutations in different regions on the BRCA1 and BRCA2 gene. Normally, BRCA genes encode cancer-suppressing proteins.

However, the mutated versions gave women who carried them a higher risk of breast and ovarian cancer.

The researchers studied the genetic information of 20,000 women who carried the mutated BRCA1 gene. Of those women, 46 percent had breast cancer, 12 percent had ovarian cancer, and 5 percent had both. The researchers also looked at 12,000 other women who carried the BRCA2 gene. Of those 12,000, 52 percent had breast cancer, 6 percent had ovarian cancer, and 2 percent had both.

Study co author Timothy Rebbeck, an epidemiologist at the University of Pennsylvania, said that the biological effect of the specific mutated region is not yet understood. However, further analysis of the differences within the mutated genes may lead to more accurate cancer predictions. Rebbeck says “This is part of the precision- and personalized- medical approach”. Rebbeck also said that ultimately, a clearer understanding of one’s own genetic mutations might enable a decision based on “better risk numbers.” For example, some women who have the BRCA mutations decide to preemptively remove their breasts and/or ovaries in order to prevent cancer in the future.

Works Cited https://www.sciencenews.org/article/mutation-regions-mapped-genes-cause-breast-andovarian-cancer?tgt=nr

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NASA Predicts Sign of Alien Life by 2025 They may not be anything like “Avatar” extraterrestrials, but NASA believes to have found evidence of alien life. As Ellen Stofan (NASA chief scientist) said in a panel discussion, “I think we're going to have strong indications of life beyond Earth within a decade, and I think we're going to have definitive evidence within 20 to 30 years.” NASA’s evidence of alien life was found on the dwarf plant Ceres and Jupiter’s moon Europa. Indications of water were found on those planets, consisting of saltwater ocean beneath the surface of the earth, like between two layers of ice. In fact, the evidence proposes that Mars once held more water than the Arctic ocean, NASA scientists said last month, so if life was going to form somewhere other than Earth, Mars is looking like a pretty good candidate for alien life. As great as this may seem, there are some caveats involved too. NASA isn’t talking about intelligent alien life, but microorganisms. This discovery will allow in a matter of time for life to be found outside our solar system, as former astronaut John Grunsfeld said, "I think we're one generation away in our solar system, whether it's on an icy moon or on Mars, and one generation on a planet around a nearby star."

Works Cited http://www.sciencealert.com/nasa-s-chief-scientist-predicts-we-ll-find-signs-of-alien-lifeby-2025 http://www.cnn.com/2015/04/08/us/feat-nasa-scientist-alien-life/index.html

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Sun Exposure, Genetics, and Melanoma- A Worldwide Health Challenge.

On Wednesday, February 19, 2014, I attended a lecture titled; “Sun Exposure, Genetics, and Melanoma- A Worldwide Health Challenge.” This event, which took place at Rockefeller University in New York City, was sponsored by Parents and Science, an organization that sponsors events featuring distinguished scientists and guest speakers from fields such as psychology, medicine, education, and the social sciences.

The Melanoma Research Alliance was founded in 2007 by Debra and Leon Black, and it is now the largest private funder of melanoma research worldwide. The MRA has provided more than 51 million dollars to many Melanoma research programs that are making tremendous advances in the treatment of Melanoma, with the ultimate goal of finding a cure for melanoma.

The feature presentation was given by Sohail Tavazoie, a medical oncologist at Rockefeller University Hospital and at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer center. Dr. Tavazoie is also a leader in the study of metastasis at Rockefeller University.

Dr. Tavazoie began the lecture by describing the biology of cancer and its detrimental effects on the human body. Cancer is a disease of mutations in one’s DNA. In cancer, the cells multiply uncontrollably and destroy the body’s healthy tissue. Cancer usually begins when something goes wrong with the controls in the cell cycle that control cell growth in the body. When the cells divide and grow uncontrollably, they form a mass of cells called a tumor. Benign tumors are not cancerous, meaning they will not spread deadly cancer cells throughout your body. However, malignant tumors are cancerous. As the cancer spreads throughout the entire body, it uses up all of the body’s nutrients and stops it from functioning properly.

Melanoma is a skin cancer that is typically identified by four different irregularities known by the acronym, A B C D. A stands for asymmetry, B stands for border irregularity, C stands for change in color, and D stands for a quarter inch diameter.

Dr. Tavazoie discussed three different topics related to Melanoma: epidemiology, prevention, and metastasis. Dr. Sohail’s research is mainly focused on how to stop and prevent metastasis from growing and spreading throughout the body. Metastases are the spread of a cancer from one organ or part to another non-adjacent organ or part. In particular, he discovered a revolutionary concept to prevent the growth and spread of metastasis by increasing the amount of a specific protein in the body called ApoE. This protein was found to suppress the growth of metastasis once Melanoma has already developed. ApoE cannot permanently stop the growth of metastasis, but it can slow down their spread.

Following Dr. Tavazoie, a panel discussion took place, which included Dr. Jennifer Stein, a dermatologist and the Director of the Transplant Dermatology Unit, and

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the Associate Director of the Pigmented Lesion Section of The Ronald O. Perelman Department of Dermatology at NYU Langone Medical Center. The panel also included Debra Black, a survivor of melanoma, who together with her husband, Leon Black, a well-known private equity executive, founded the Melanoma Research Alliance. The panel primarily discussed the prevention of melanoma and specific risk factors that are often identified with Melanoma. Those risk factors include solar UV exposure, older age, sunburn, indoor tanning beds, skin pigmentation, moles, genetic risk factors, and so on.

Each one of these risk factors was discussed, explained and suggestions were provided for how to mitigate these risks.

Debra Black also explained how The Melanoma Research Alliance operates, and its unique approach to funding collaborative research among scientists who are developing innovative ways to treat Melanoma, with the ultimate goal to develop a cure for Melanoma. In particular, Debra Black stressed the importance of collaboration, not only in sharing success stories, but also sharing unsuccessful research and experiments.

The importance of sharing what does not work is often overlooked, but it is the key in developing a cure for Melanoma because scientists do not have to waste time and effort on previously unsuccessful attempts at developing a cure. The uniqueness of this approach highlights the success that the Melanoma Research Alliance has had in making great strides towards developing an effective treatment for Melanoma in a relatively short period of time.

Overall, this was a very informative and interesting presentation that taught me much about Melanoma, risk factors, and preventative steps. The lecture also provided me with a basic understanding of how to fund a successful research program that will hopefully soon find a cure for melanoma.

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#TheDress that Broke the Internet If you so much as looked online on February 27th, it's likely that there was one picture dominating all of your social media accounts. This picture of a dress sparked a huge debate because some people saw the dress as blue and black while others saw it as white and gold. The debate literally captured the world with everyone, including many celebrities, taking sides. Additionally, buzzfeed, the website that first uploaded the picture, revealed that the picture of this dress caused more traffic in a single day to their site than any other previous upload. The real question, though, is not what the colors are (blue and black is the correct answer), but how different people saw the same picture in different ways. According to Mitchell Moffitt, known for his science series on youtube, this is not a big mystery. He says that there is a phenomenon known as color constancy and the people who saw the dress as white and gold, for example, were possibly interpreting the dress to be in a blue-lit room. On the other hand, Neil Miller, an ophthalmologist at Johns Hopkins, says that really the color perception depends on the person. He says that the cones, the photoreceptors in the retina that see the primary colors, are different for different people so the information that gets to the brain is different. These two opinions greatly differ because according to one, its the perception of the room that makes people see The Dress a certain way and according to the other opinion, it’s the actual perception of The Dress that is different. Overall, there are different ways that people use science to elucidate this debate but what is certain is that our brains function in excitingly complex ways and there is no clear cut way to explain how people think.

Works Cited Howard, Jacqueline. "#TheDress Sparked a Huge Debate, But Science Is Here to Settle Things." The Huffington Post. N.p., 27 Feb. 2015. Web. 23 Mar. 2015.

Miller, Neil. "Johns Hopkins Ophthalmologist Explains the Science Behind The Dress."

Hub. Johns Hopkins University, 27 Feb. 2015. Web. 23 Mar. 2015.

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Shocking Diversity in HIV Strains HIV, or human immunodeficiency virus, a retrovirus that leads to AIDS, has long been an issue of immense research and discussion in the scientific world. Scientists first viewed HIV in 1981, when doctors in Los Angeles observed that many of their patients had fallen ill to an otherwise harmless fungus. Later identified as the precursor virus to the more severe infection of AIDS, HIV has infected around 78 million people and killed 39 million, half of those infected. For many years, scientists researched the origins of the virus to discover a way to stop its spread. They found that HIV was transferred from animals to humans in a range of cases and did not result from only a single case of transmission. Specifically, according to recent research, HIV permeated into the human species from thirteen separate instances where ancestral viruses previously found only in chimpanzees, gorillas and monkeys, evolved in humans.

In 1985, scientists uncovered the first puzzle piece in understanding HIV. They found a virus in macaque monkeys, called simian immunodeficiency viruses, or SIV, which closely resemble HIV. Later discoveries showed that over forty African primate species had SIV. It was from these viruses that HIV developed and evolved into a harmful killer of humans.

There are two types of HIV: HIV-1 and HIV-2. HIV-1 is the most common and can be found worldwide. On the other hand, HIV-2 is mostly restricted to western African regions. Interestingly, the two strains do not have the same origin but developed separately and from different sources. HIV-2 comes from a certain strain of SIV in a type of African monkey called a sooty mangabey. The different SIV strains led to differing strains of HIV-2 in humans. Overall, SIV has made the leap between monkey and human nine times, each time developing into a different strain of HIV-2. Many have instead focused on the origins of HIV-1. Viruses resembling HIV-1 were found in chimpanzees in Gabon. A larger study was conducted in which chimpanzees’ feces were collected and tested for viral genes. The study’s results showed that chimpanzees have had SIV in their gene pool for tens of thousands of years. In terms of the stimulus for such infection, scientists believe that, at some point, other chimpanzees consumed an infected monkey.

The actual relationship between SIV and HIV-1 is contested as many have found that most strains of SIV are not similar to HIV-1. HIV-1 consists of four different groups called M, N, O and P that scientists use to specify different types of HIV-1. The origin of Group M, which makes up 90 percent of HIV-1 cases, and of Group N were chimpanzees, while the origins of the other two – Groups O and P – were, for a long time, uncertain. In 2006, new research suggested that Groups O and P actually came from gorillas and not the classical chimps that commonly carry SIV. The SIV found in the feces of gorillas was very similar to that of chimpanzees in Cameroon, suggesting that the

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chimps passed on the SIV to the gorillas. Specifically, the transfer from chimps to gorillas occurred once while the transfer from gorilla to human occurred on two separate occasions, leading to the rise of Groups O and P. Group P is the least common form of HIV, considered to be unsuccessful in spreading and infecting humans, and has only been recorded in two cases in Cameroon. Nevertheless, Group O has infected over 100,000 Cameroonians.

The chimpanzee SIV and its transfer to humans caused a major epidemic, while the gorilla SIV did not. Scientists believe that this was a result of chance. Groups M and O were carried into human populations in the 20th century, when African hunters killed animals for food. The two also have different methods of attacking the body’s defense mechanisms. Group M attacks the protein tetherin, which tries to keep viruses tied to the cell so they cannot escape and infect other cells throughout the body. Especially when placed in a rapidly growing urban setting, such as Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the virus easily finds a way to spread and grow exponentially.

Works Cited Zimmer, Carl. "Two Strains of H.I.V. Cut Vastly Different Paths." New York Times. N.p., 2 Mar. 2015. Web. 11 Mar. 2015.

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Study: Loss of Glaciers Threatens West Canada The journal “Nature Geoscience” published research predicting the onset of mountain glacier evaporation in the West Canadian region–70 percent shrinkage by 2100– and attributes this discovery to a rise in sea levels. Note that the rise not only affects the glaciers and the surrounding environment, but also has drastic repercussions for the aquatic animals that live off the glaciers. The researchers calculated the potential reductions using high-resolution regional models of current glaciers and then applying their findings to the Intergovernmental Panel’s global warming predictions. In response to the article, Andreas Vieli, a Zurich professor, spoke of the paper’s methods as perhaps something that should be implemented in the study of glaciered regions throughout the world. Garry K. C. Clarke, the lead author of the study and a University of British Columbia expert on glaciers, agrees with Prof. Vieli, even saying that part of the goal in publishing his research was to “hand these tools to people who know what they’re doing in other parts of the world.” Clarke also mentions in the same interview that the primary misconception regarding the threat of global warming and its relationship with melting glaciers is that glaciers respond to the irregularities in recent weather. Rather, he argues, glaciers respond to climate, and it is the climate that is changing in ways not good for glacier survival. Yet Clarke believes that his study doesn't just bring bad news– he sees it as suggesting the existence of possible measures to combat climate change and therefore combat the evaporation of glaciers, but figuring out those measures and initiating them?

That’s his next step.

Works Cited Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/07/science/earth/study-forecasts-70-loss-ofwest-canadas-glaciers.html?_r=0

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Driverless Cars Driverless cars sound like something from a sci-fi movie or from the future, but definitely not something that someone would find driving around the streets of America.

But, as technology and science advance, these are becoming a reality.

The Google Self-Driving Car is powered by software called Google Chauffeur.

This works through hundreds of thousands of dollars of complicated machinery, including a LIDAR system. LIDAR is a sensing technology which uses a laser to sense objects around it, such as other cars. A 64-beam laser on top of the car acts as its map, seeing its surroundings and telling the car, which responds to them.

Although not yet widely used, these cars are being tested and improved. By 2020, Google plans to have many issues fixed. These issues include the cars’ inability to detect humans signaling it to stop, or small objects like garbage. It is also not completely safe in extreme weather conditions yet. However, these do seem to be overall safer than cars with drivers--there are only two incidents of accidents with driverless cars, one of which was due to the other vehicle and one of which was while the driver was manually driving.

Once this window is opened, many new things are possible. For example, driverless planes are now being considered, especially as more planes are crashed by pilots, copilots, or passengers. Already, some military planes can fly themselves, and normal planes can autoland in cases of emergency or low visibility. However, experts believe that a plane without a pilot can never really replace a pilot on a commercial airline. People feel safer knowing that a real person is there. But the technology is improving more and more, and anything can happen even within the next few years.

Works Cited http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_driverless_car http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lidar http://www.economist.com/news/science-and-technology/21567053-autonomous-civilaircraft-could-be-flying-cars-go-driverless-your

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Life-creating Compounds Found Around Distant Star The question has plagued mankind for many years: could life exist elsewhere in the universe besides Earth? A new discovery by the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA), published in the scientific journal Nature, may help shed more light on that mystery. Scientists found a few compounds—among the basic ingredients that were crucial in the formation of life on Earth—revolving around a star named MWC 480.

MWC 480 resides over four hundred light-years away from Earth, and is nearly two times the mass of the Sun. Using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array, scientists found around the star three types of cyanide, a dangerous molecule but also one that leads to the development of life; they help create amino acids that lead to the creation of proteins. The types of cyanide (hydrogen cyanide, cyanoacetylene, and methyl cyanide) were identified by looking at the wavelengths of the radiation they produce. Astonishingly, there is more cyanide surrounding the star than there is water in Earth’s ocean. The molecules are not just ‘living’ around the star but are ‘thriving’—which bodes well for the potential formation of life somewhere outside of Earth.

"We now have evidence that this same chemistry exists elsewhere in the universe, in regions that could form solar systems not unlike our own," said astronomer Karin Öberg of the CfA. And while it had previously been known that other solar systems in the universe could also have many planets or water like Earth’s, “Now we know that we’re not unique in organic chemistry.”

These organic molecules had been known to form outside of the solar system in interstellar clouds hovering between stars, but this was the first time that they had been shown to endure after the creation of a new solar system. The molecules and the other material orbiting around the star with them will eventually go in many directions, whether going into the star itself and adding to MWC 480’s size, going out into space, or becoming planets, comets, and the like. It may be a while until scientists see fully-formed life elsewhere in the universe—if they ever do—but even so, “From a life in the universe point of view, this is great news,” said Öberg.

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Works Cited Harvard-Smithsonian Center For Astrophysics. Complex Organic Molecules Discovered in Infant Star System. N.p., 8 Apr. 2015. Web. 9 Apr. 2015. <https://www.cfa.harvard.edu/news/2015-10>.

Perkins, Sid. "Organic Molecules Found Circling Nearby Star." Science. American Association for the Advancement of Science, 08 Apr. 2015. Web. 09 Apr. 2015. <http://news.sciencemag.org/chemistry/2015/04/organic-molecules-found-circlingnearby-star>.

Redd, Nola Taylor. "Basic Ingredients for Life Found Around Distant Star."

SPACE.com. Purch, 8 Apr. 2015. Web. 09 Apr. 2015. <http://www.space.com/29049life-ingredients-found-around-star.html>.

Editors: Beckie Cohen Yakira Markovich Victoria Spero Faculty Advisor: Ms. Lenore Brachot

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