Russell’s Teapot

www.russellsteapot.org

issue 03 spring 2021

Russell’s teapot

riding on water Stellar Evolution Cultured meat a dirtbike in equilibrium how black holes evaporate A solution to slaughter Photo by Louis Kennedy

Editor’s Note

Welcome back to our third edition of Russell’s Teapot, a student creation of an eclectic bundle of articles aimed at people with a passion or interest in science. Even if you are not a science geek, we have written articles so that they are interesting and accessible, so give it a read and see if you might get the science bug.

In this edition, we look at chubby pets, designer snakes and the beauty of Python, sexism in coding, fission, fusion and the stars. Of course in 2021 we could not miss out Covid, cures and vaccines. I am hoping that, by the time you are reading this, we are enjoying our freedoms and the world of science has provided a solution to the Covid problem.

We have designed the magazine so you can choose how and what you want to read. You can dip in and out, read it cover to cover or choose your areas of interest. We have even colour coded the articles so you can see what area of science they relate to.

Editing this magazine has been a demanding and timeconsuming challenge. I never thought I would be proof reading articles, designing pages and being a stickler for grammar. I am hoping that you enjoy the read but let me know what you think so we can continue to keep you engaged.

Happy reading.

Sacha Jennings

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contents

biology 4-21

4 Covid-19: Fact from Fiction 6 The Trouble with Designer Snakes 8 To Vax or Not To Vax

CHemistry 16-19

16 A Short Guide to Organic Chemistry 18 The Chemistry of Smartphones

Physics 22-29 25 Is Fusion the future?

26 Riding on water 28 Stellar Evolution

technology 30-37 32 Fun Facts about Python 35 Cultured Meat 36 Sexism in Coding

What is Russell’s Teapot?

Russell’s Teapot is an analogy formed by philosopher, Bertrand Russell, in the early 1900s. He proposed that, somewhere floating in space, is a china teapot, the old delicate kind that you would find at an antiques shop. Russell offered no evidence to support this but also claimed there was no evidence to disprove his theory either, as the teapot was perceived to be too small to be observed by a telescope. Does the teapot exist?

Rebecca Clery

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Covid 19: Fact from Fiction

Covid-19 has changed the way we live, since the country went into lockdown in March.

It has forced us to socially distance, wear masks and has prevented us from travelling and interacting. Even though it is a huge part of our lives it is often difficult to develop an understanding of the virus and its impact due to the increasing amount of fake news about it.

Here are the facts.

A virus is a sub-microscopic organism that causes many well-known diseases in plants and animals, for example influenza and HIV. The way that a virus works is that it invades cells in the plant or animal; it then take over the ‘genetic machinery’ of the cell which allows it to reproduce. The host cell will eventually burst and release more of the virus, which will attack other healthy cells.

Coronavirus was named because corona means crown in Latin and Coronavirus looks like a crown due to the crown-like spikes on its surface. These spikes are called spike glycoproteins which allow the virus to latch on, enter and eventually break out of the host cell. Biologists call the process of breaking out, ‘budding off ’.

You probably know that Covid 19 is very infectious. How does a virus spread from person to person? Covid-19 is spread by direct transmission in two ways. The first is by droplets, when the virus is carried by droplets in the air, from the respiratory system of an infected person to another person when the person coughs, sneezes or speaks. The further away you stand from other people the less likely it is for you to contract the virus from the infected person. This is why we have the two-metre rule.

‘The risk of infection when people stood more than a metre away from an infected individual was 3%, whereas if they stood within a metre of someone with Covid-19, the risk of infection was 13%.’

The second way that the virus can be spread is through fomites, which is when an object becomes contaminated by the virus. If you touch a contaminated surface and then touch your eyes and mouth, then the virus can infect you. This is why we are told to sanitise surfaces and hands as the alcohol in the sanitisers inactivates the virus.

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There is a lot of controversy about wearing masks. Some people are not convinced that it is effective to help prevent the spread of Covid. However, from what we have learnt, we can see that masks are effective as they cover your nose and mouth which prevents droplets from spreading the virus by 17.4%. Add a mask or respirator, and that number drops to 3.1%. So, wearing masks slows the infection rate because: ‘Without a mask, social distancing or any other preventive measures, the risk of transmitting the coronavirus is 17.4%. Add a mask or respirator, and that number drops to 3.1%.’

What effect does Covid have on the body? Most people will get mild symptoms and will not get that ill when they do get infected. Mild symptoms include a dry cough, sore throat, headaches and a fever. This can be overcome with rest and taking paracetamol. Some people are asymptomatic as they get the virus but have no symptoms. There are some cases (circa 6%) where people become critically ill by Covid. This is where your lungs become inflamed and breathing is difficult. In these cases, people must be put on a ventilator to help them breathe. Organs fail can occur and result in death. This is much more likely if you are old or vulnerable. The current average age a person dying from coronavirus is 82.4 years old. It is very important for these members of society to take precautions or shield.

How do the vaccines work? Vaccines work when a dead or inactive virus is injected into your bloodstream, your body treats this dead virus as an actual virus and therefore the white blood cells in your body produce antibodies to attack the antigens on the virus. During this process, B memory cells are also produced; these remain in the blood for a long time and their function is to ‘remember’ the virus and to provide the right number of antibodies quickly when the virus enters the body. When this happens, the virus is quickly killed, and the person does not get any symptoms. Therefore, after having a vaccine a person becomes immune to the virus. Scientists worked hard to create the Covid-19 vaccine, if everyone received a vaccine, Covid would be extremely rare and herd immunity would be reached.

Jemima Earing

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the with snakes

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trouble designer

hen understanding snake genetics, it is important to understand the basics of homozygous, heterozygous, dominant, recessive and co-dominant genes. Every trait that is inherited by an animal is determined by a set of alleles. If one or both parts of an allele are mutated, this can cause dramatic variation within offspring. Some of these mutations are recessive, both alleles from each parent have to be mutated in the same way in order for the offspring to be different. If half of the genetic information inherited by the snake has this mutation, it is heterozygous for that particular trait. If one mutation is needed for there to be a difference, this is a dominant trait. Dominant alleles will determine the animal’s appearance regardless of whether the other allele is generic. If both alleles are the same, then this means the trait in that animal is homozygous. If the snake has one recessive and one mutated gene then it will appear to have a normal morph, and will carry the potential for this variation in colour. This means that if it reproduces with a snake homozygous for that trait then there is a 50% chance that the offspring will be homozygous for the recessive gene and display that particular morph. Co-dominant genes are a little harder to grasp. These traits are sometimes referred to within the reptile community with the word ‘super’ in front of the morph. For example, the ‘super conda’ morph, which is displayed beautifully in western hognose snakes and gives a very reduced pattern, or in other snakes such as the ‘super pastel boa constrictors’.

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All snakes are generally described by their morph and their species, for example ‘het ghost boa constrictor’. As snakes produce multiple offspring at once due to low survival rates, it is fairly simple for breeders to predict the morphs.

This means that in recent years the phenomenon of designer snakes has been fairly popular within the herpetology community. This can lead to the creation of beautiful morphs and patterns on reptiles, with rather intriguing names, for example, the snake that intrigued me first regarding individual morphs was a ‘fire cinnamon’ ball python, which admittedly took me a long while to get my head around the mathematics of the breed. These morphs have led to a significant divide between cost. Morphs within the same species, such as some ball pythons, may cost upward of a thousand pounds, whereas others cost as little as 40 pounds.

The designer morph trend has downfalls other than price. Some morphs can have a catastrophic effect on the snake.

Super cinnamon ball pythons have a high chance of being born with kinks in their spine, meaning they cannot move effectively or digest food properly. One of the most controversial morphs however is that of the spider ball python. These snakes have a beautiful pattern, however are very likely to be born with a neurological defect called a ‘head wobble’. This means that the snake does not have an internal compass of sorts as the snake lacks co-ordination.

This can be seen in constant tilting and tremors of the head, corkscrewing (where the head and neck of the snake twist in circles) and very poor reflexes. This means that spider ball pythons often fall off things, head-butt into walls and have a very poor time eating and striking at food. This can severely harm the snake and give it a very poor quality of life. Some breeders argue that spider ball pythons should be bred as some head wobbles are not as severe as others. This is countered by others who say that as a breeder you should never run the risk of harm to the snake.

Some consumers think the morph should be bred as it is ‘cute’ and reduces the threatening connotations around the snake as, due to their poor aim, are less likely to bite. This is to most breeders preposterous as the entire snake/ human relationship is one of gradual trust- it is immoral to breed animals to be more docile purely for those who are incapable of raising a snake properly, especially if this will decrease the life quality of the animal. For this reason, spider ball pythons have been banned in some areas of America and in the UK. While most breeders and consumers do ensure the wellbeing of their snake it is also important to recognise the dangers and ethical issues of owning certain morphs before the snake has been born. As a community, we should make raising and breeding animals an exercise of caregiving instead of greed and profit.

Isabel Leyland

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a contentious debate

To vax or not to vax that is the question

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hat is a Vaccine? Are they safe weakened microbe whereas to use? Are they effective? inactive vaccines contain dead or destroyed microbes. Each has The debate around vaccinations benefits and drawbacks, such as has been ongoing since live vaccines can provide longfirst being invented in 1796. term protection, but cannot be Rumours and fake news have given to people who have weak led to many misconceptions immune systems. surrounding vaccines and their true effectiveness and side effects. Each virus or bacteria contains To accurately pick a side in the specific antigens on the outside of debate, you must first understand the cells. Our bodies can assemble what a vaccine is and how it complementary antibodies works. that attack these antigens.

Many of these antibodies can A vaccine is a substance that form memory cells that can contains a small quantity of a remember the same virus or dead or weakened microbe, bacteria, meaning they can that helps your immune system produce the corresponding remember and recognise the antibodies faster. This is the microbe during future infection. main function of vaccines. By There are two main types of introducing a less harmful form vaccine: live or inactivated. Live of the pathogen, it encourages vaccines are made up of the memory cells to be formed so

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it encourages memory cells to be formed so antibody production is quicker in future cases.

So, if they help to fight infection and the possibility of death, death, why are so many people against vaccination? People have listed many reasons for being against vaccines, some of the most common being religion,efficacy, side- effects or testing of vaccines. Beliefs and religion can be difficult to go against because that is a person’s choice at the end of the day. However, the other two points are common misconceptions.

Whilst there have been a few cases of deaths after being vaccinated such as the ‘Cutter Incident of 1955’, scientific research states there has been

no direct link between having a vaccine and then dying as a result. Nearly all the side effects of vaccines are minor: maybe a high temperature developing for one to two days. Although the probability is close to none, some patients may experience allergic reactions within minutes after the injection. The staff that administered the vaccine will also be trained to treat allergic reactions straightaway, meaning that if a rare reaction was to occur, it would be quickly and safely handled, leading to a good recovery. All vaccines go through several long and extensive stages of testing, to make sure they are as safe and effective as can be.

Nevertheless, people still believe that the process has been rushed and therefore do not trust the vaccine. These views have been

seen in the news recently with articles surrounding the Coronavirus vaccine in America, claiming that Trump’s ‘record time’ is a result of shortcuts taken.

It is well known that no vaccine is 100% effective as of yet, though the benefits vaccines have had on society has been momentous.

illnesses that can have serious long-term effects.

Polio is a viral disease that caused muscle weakness and paralysis.

During its peak in the 1940s and 1950s, it would kill over half a million people in the world yearly.

Thanks to vaccinations, polio cases have decreased by more The World Health Organisation than 99% since 1988. Not only claims that ‘vaccinations prevent do vaccinations help protect the between two-three million person who received the injection deaths every year.’ Vaccinations but a concept called ‘Herd are extremely important as a Immunity’ can take place when variation in 5% of vaccinated a threshold is reached. In my children is the difference between opinion, the benefits of vaccines increasing the rate of spread of outweigh the drawbacks. measles and nearly eradicating the disease. Overall, vaccines are If research continues to develop, the leading lifesaving medical I can see vaccines playing a vital intervention compared to any role in the evolution of the world other medical intervention. They in the years to come, which is why help to protect people from I am PRO VAX.

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amber kennedy

Pet obesity

is your pet obese?

O besit y in pets i s a r i sing problem in the world at the moment, it i s an epide mic in dire need to be res olved. Pre vent pet obesity, feed pets healthily.

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our pet’s wellbeing is important.

The effects of the pandemic have taken a massive toll, with one in five owners reporting that their dog had started showing new behaviours during lockdown. Five percent saying that their dog had showed signs of distress when left. Cats have also been impacted. Nearly a quarter of owners noticed new behaviours, such as spending more time outdoors.

more treats in lockdown than before. Rising rates of pet obesity is becoming more concerning for the veterinary profession.

Obesity leads to further problems: respiratory disease, diabetes, reproductive and anaesthetic issues.

Obesity is the excessive dietary intake or inadequate energy utilisation that can lead to a state of negative energy balance; factors may be involved like genetics, physical activity or calorific content of diet.

Pet obesity is an ongoing problem.

The UK has seen a massive increase recently, 14% of rabbit owners confessing to feeding them

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‘ It is estimated that half of UK pets are overweight or obese.’

Obesity can lead to arthritis as the extra weight can add extra stress on the joints, which can lead to joint degeneration (a disease where cartilage that serves as a cushion breaks down), causing inflammation which causes pain, redness and swelling. It can also include the disk of the vertebrae, which may lead to having to spend a lot of money for treatments to ensure your pet gets better, or a really expensive surgery, or possible even euthanasia.

Obesity is known to increase the risk of HL, which is a lethal feline liver disease and a multifactorial syndrome. This disease occurs when an overweight cat stops eating due to the loss of appetite or psychological stress and so body fat is mobilised

to provide calories, however the cat’s body is not designed to process a large amount of body fat, this where the liver will become infiltrated with fat and then fails.

In terms of diet, owners can consider measuring food with a gram scale (this makes it more accurate) and using a feeding schedule, but if your pet is still struggling to lose weight, you could either reduce the amount that you give or use the same portion but one that is high in fibre.

The problem is that each pet is an individual and just as one person may way 150 lbs and can be obese another of the same weight could be skinny and this is the same with pets. Many pet owners also underestimate the power of treats, they are very high in calories and four or five can convert to an extra meal’s worth of added fat: they should only be up to 10% of your pet’s daily caloric diet. However, it can be understandable why pet owners love to shower their pets with treats as it shows their affection to their animal and is a major contribution towards their special bond.

It is estimated that half of UK pets are overweight or obese. This may be because pet owners underrate their pet’s body condition, because overweight animals are becoming more common so it has become normal, but it is vital that we try and turn things around so that the nation’s pets can live a longer happier life. We can do this by walking our dogs more often or encouraging them to increase their activity.

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abigail adejokun

art enthusiasts

Do you love looking at art and buildings? Discover the psychology of why.

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or the last century, psychologists have studied and theorised how art influences a person’s mood, sparking a range of theories and movements in the art world. Art and sculpture have been recognised to have an impact on the psyche more than architecture, as this has been studied in therapeutic circles due to the interest shown by the public.

Buildings can be taken for granted because they have a function and not necessarily for the benefit of the psyche of human beings.

Architecture, landscaping, and other design aspects, however, have increasingly subtle and natural effects to those who experience them.

Residential builds especially and the grounds that surround them have been observed to have the most lasting and influential effect of mental health and the psyche, being the home of most of your “downtime” and personal reflection. Simply affording the luxury of a

quiet and calming space to be truly yourself will increase happiness immeasurably.

In the 20th century, methods such as therapeutic drugs, despite reducing the number of long-term hospitalisations, was frowned upon as it ‘stifled creative desperateness’ of mental patients. Art therapy could be progressive if it allowed patients to show their artistic and untamed expression, believing that the most authentic art is linked pain. Early 20th century psychiatrists didn’t try to cure their patients as they believed that certain disorders weren’t to be fixed. It was usually prescribed that doctors just let them express themselves and accept creativity through suffering. However, in the present, the method of curing using drugs was said to hinder natural artist ability, as they have no muse.

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"We know that prolonged hospital stays can often result in stress, boredom and loneliness for patients of all ages. ... [We implemented a] programme to provide meaningful cultural opportunities, which offer distraction, entertainment and social interaction to improve patient experience at our hospitals.”

We then look at the architecture of the Chelsea and Westminster building, following the wide use of concrete shell structures, in 1950s-60s. This exterior was not welcoming and clean as wished, as the post-war brutalist movement was slowly becoming hated by the public, as harsh and lifeless. The interior work, however, was where the hospital began to turn over a new leaf. Chelsea and Westminster Hospital was the first UK hospital to lay an Art-and-Design manifesto initially into its foundations. Artists donated pieces of their own and designed white, open curved facades to make endless waiting rooms feel more inviting. Colourful statement walls and abstract sculptures also lined the interiors, brightening patients’ faces as they came to receive uncertain news. From 1995 into the new millennium, the CW foundation spent over one million pounds on art in order to improve the overall psyche of their patients.

The director of CW stated that:

For the most part, the design industry has had a really positive response over the years at how it deals with the psychological effects of their projects. Light, colour, and ambience of the builds have become a key part of all design process, especially considering how to help humans to feel more relaxed and engaged. As a community and as a profession, research has seen design spaces go from cold, emotionless buildings that are purely practical in all sense, to those that have found a compromise between a healthy atmosphere and their functionality and role in its surroundings.

Rebecca clery

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How Can we use solar energy?

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esidential housing accounts for 30-40% of electricity use in the UK. The average UK home uses around 3700 kWh/year. If buildings were to invest in photovoltaic cells within their windows, they could save electricity. Photovoltaic cells are electrical devices embedded in thick glass windows, that convert light energy into electricity by a chemical and physical phenomenon called the photovoltaic effect. A typical residential solar panel with 60 photovoltaic cells combined might produce anywhere from 220 to over 400 watts of power. This amount of saved electricity could power appliances, such as small televisions, blenders, laptops, cell phones, cameras, MP3 players, handheld video games, and lights.

How we reproduce covid 19

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oronaviruses are a large family of viruses that can cause diseases in animals and humans. COVID-19 was the coronavirus that was responsible for the outbreak at the end of 2019.

These viruses infect cells by fusing with the plasma membrane of host cells within a human or animal.

They contain an RNA genome, which means that they are able to appropriate a host cell’s translational hardware, used for replication, making host cells less able to produce proteins. This means that coronavirus RNA must mimic eukaryotic RNA to be able to use the same machinery for translation.

When a coronavirus infects a host cell, it is most likely to enter the cytoplasm, as this is where translation occurs.

However, the initial cost of installing these are high.

Industry and councils need to have a more forwardthinking attitude. Despite the initial cost, the fuel and energy savings would compound over years. It is up to our generation to apply this forward way of thinking, to not only save our government’s and businesses’ money in the long term, but to also reduce their environmentally unfriendly usage of fuel.

Anna Clery

After the coronavirus genome has been replicated, the viral proteins are packaged into a vesicle by the Golgi apparatus, to form new viral progeny (offspring). The release of new virus particles following viral replication could also cause cells to burst.

Coronaviruses need some virulence (the severity of an infection), in order to allow them to infect the host cell, however the host cell is needed to replicate the coronaviruses’ genome. This means that if coronavirus is too virulent, the host cell would die before the genome was replicated, making it more difficult for the virus to spread.

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Anjani Poopalasingham

what is the Physics of flight

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t is incredible to think that a passenger airplane with a mass of 80,000 kilograms can take off and fly effortlessly through the sky. The physics behind this is straightforward and involves pressure in the form of Bernoulli’s principle of lift.

why do fish never freeze?

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ne water molecule is made up of two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom: hence giving the formula H2O. Oxygen and hydrogen form a special type of intermolecular force called a hydrogen bond which shares some characteristics with dipoledipole attractions (partially positive attracted to partially negative) and some with covalent bonds (sharing at least one pair of electrons). There are certain conditions that must be true for this type of bonding to occur; a hydrogen atom that is bonded to a very electronegative atom (oxygen, fluorine or nitrogen) produces a strong partial positive charge on the hydrogen atom. Then a very electronegative atom with a lone pair of electrons, is attracted to the hydrogen to form a hydrogen bond.

Lift is key for any aircraft, be it a small propeller plane to a massive cargo plane. A plane uses its wings to generate the lift it requires. Everyone knows the generic shape of a wing. The curved top and straight bottom gives us a standard aerofoil shape. As the wing cuts through the air at speed, air passes both over the top and underneath. Due to the curvature of the top surface, air travels faster over the top than the bottom of the wing. With a faster flow of air across the top of the wing, air pressure is decreased and with slower air flow comes an increase in air pressure. This series of lower pressure above the wing and higher pressure below the wing generates what we know as lift and pushes the aircraft upwards through the lower air pressure and allows the aircraft to fly.

This simple principle of a blend of low pressure and high pressure allows aircraft of all shapes and sizes to fly effortlessly through the sky.

Nicholas Solly

Water in liquid state is free to move. The hydrogen bonds between the molecules break and reform easily to allow them to move. When water is in a solid state, the molecules are no longer free to move around, the hydrogen bonds stay in a fixed position, holding the solid together to form a 3D structure.

For the molecules to fit into the structure, they are less packed together and are less dense than water, allowing the ice to float on top.

In summary, the forming of the ice on the top acts as an insulator for the water below and therefore fish don’t freeze in winter.

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Anna Stone

A short guide to Organic Chemistry

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O

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rganic chemistry is the part of chemistry that looks and deals with the properties, structures and reactions of organic compounds which contain carbon covalent bonding. We will be looking at hydrocarbons, molecules that consist of carbon and hydrogen only, and their reactions to form alcohols, carboxylic acids, and polymers.

hydrocarbons which means that there are only single bonds between carbon atoms. Alkenes are unsaturated hydrocarbons as they have one carbon-carbon double bond. The general formula for alkanes is CnH2n+2 and alkenes is CnH2n. As alkenes have a double bond, this can open up and bond with the same alkene resulting in addition polymerisation.

Hydrocarbons are found in crude oil, which forms over millions of years when dead plants and animals fall to the bottom of the sea; under pressure changes the chemical properties.

Within crude oil there are many different fractions, which is determined by the length of the hydrocarbon. The larger the molecule, the higher the boiling point, which can be used to separate crude oil.

There are multiple ways to make alcohol, one is the hydration of ethene with steam and the other is anaerobic fermentation of glucose.

The general formula of alcohols is CnH2n+1OH which means that the equivalent of a water (H2O) molecule has been added to ethene to make ethanol. This happens when ethene is mixed with steam and vaporised whilst being passed over a phosphoric acid catalyst at 300 degrees Celsius and a pressure of 60-70 atmospheres. Whereas fermentation of glucose requires anaerobic conditions and a catalyst of yeast. Fermentation is a slow and batch process, but the equipment is easily assembled and is also a renewable process. However, hydration of ethene with steam is a continuous process, equipment is hard to assemble and is a non-renewable process.

Crude oil can be separated using fractional distillation. Distillation is the process of separating a mixture of different liquids. A fraction is a group of molecules with similar boiling points. The fractions have a range of different uses. For example, petroleum gas, which is a fraction with a low boiling point, is used as a fuel for gas barbecues and grills and bitumen, a fraction with a high boiling point, is used in paving and roofing application.

Alcohol can be oxidised to form a weak carboxylic acid; these acids have the general formula CnH2nCOOH. An example of a carboxylic acid is vinegar. If there is a mixture of alcohols and carboxylic acid, then they will react to form an ester and water. Esters have the functional group COO. Esters have strong smells and are often used in perfumes and flavourings. If a molecule has a functional group at either end of the molecule then the molecule can react to form a polymer; this type of polymerisation is called condensation polymerisation as water is produced as a byproduct.

Sometimes there is not enough of a fraction to keep up with the demand of people using it, so cracking is used to increase the supply of some fractions. Cracking is the process of larger less useful alkanes being broken down into smaller more useful alkanes and alkenes. For cracking to occur the larger hydrocarbons are heated until they vaporise at 600-700°C over a catalyst of alumina or silica.

There are two main types of hydrocarbons: alkanes and alkenes. Alkanes are saturated

Sacha Jennings

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P

The Chem Smartp

hones have become an essential part of our lives.

It is hard to believe that 20 years ago, hardly anyone owned a mobile phone, but now we cannot seem to take our eyes off them. Every time our phone goes off, we rush to pick it up whether to check a message, watch a new video or play a game. It is truly amazing that we can now surf the internet, chat with friends and listen to music with something that fits in the palm of our hands. But all this would not be possible without chemistry.

Metals are what make our smartphones. There are up to 63 different metals that may be found in an average cell phone. Of these 63 metals, one obscure group of metals, called the rare-earth metals, plays a significant role. This group of rare metals consists of Scandium and Yttrium, as well as the lanthanide metals (not including Promethium as it is radioactive), which is usually seen as the first of the two free-floating rows at the bottom of the periodic table. These rare-earth metals are what allow us to see the bright reds, greens and blues on our screens, and they are also responsible for our phone vibrations, which would not be possible without Neodymium and Dysprosium.

There are reasons that smartphones do not crack easily every time we drop them. Smartphone screens are designed to be very tough. The tough structure of our screens today was formed by accident. In 1952, Corning, a chemist, was to heat a sample of glass to 600°C in a furnace, but a defective thermostat caused it to heat to 900°C. To Corning’s surprise, the glass had not melted and damaged the furnace, so he used his tongs to take it out and dropped it on the floor, which was another accident. Again, to his surprise, rather than shattering, it bounced. At that moment, the first synthetic glass-ceramic in the world was born. The material shares many properties of glass and ceramic, their combination making the material tougher and stronger than each of the materials by themselves. Due to this huge success, Corning tried to invent a

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mistry of phones

transparent material with the strength of glassceramic. By 1962, this chemist developed a very strong glass, which goes by the name of Gorilla Glass, also called aluminosilicate glass, which is composed of an oxide of silicon and aluminium.

It had never been thought of or seen before, and it eventually climbed its way onto nearly every smartphone screen.

Of course, the screens of our smartphones are not just a piece of tough glass; it is a screen that responds to our touch, giving us personal connections to our phones. There are two types of touch screens: The first category is the resistive touch screen.

This is where anything can be used to touch the screen — a pencil would work the same way a finger would. It is composed of two thin layers of conductive material under the surface and when something is pressed, it physically indents the screen, causing the two layers to touch, sending signals to carry out the action to correspond with the touch. These types of screens are generally found on ATMs. Smartphones use something called a capacitive touchscreen. Because glass is an insulator, it does not conduct electricity — the screen is coated with a layer of conductive substances such as a thin transparent layer of tin oxide. It then acts as a capacitor, storing electrical charges, so that when you touch the screen, a small amount of these electrical charges enters your finger, because our skin is an electrical conductor. When the charge leaves the screen to enter your finger, the system detects a voltage drop which then causes the responding action.

Twenty years ago, no one could have imagined that there would be more mobile phones in the world than humans. No one could have imagined that our phones would be used to take more pictures than our stand-alone cameras. No one knows what is going to happen next, but with the use of chemistry, the possibilities are endless.

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Anjani Poopalasingham

Interested in a What do you need

Medicine:

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xtra-curricular looks good on applications and interviews – especially sports as it shows teamwork and determination.

Volunteering is essential for around six months or longer. This is so that you have the skills you have learnt from this experience such as communication and empathy with patients. Universities want you to have done some form of work experience which could be shadowing a doctor or working at a hospital for between one to two weeks.

Engineering:

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aths and normally physics is compulsory, further maths can help as there is lots of maths involved in engineering (other sciences may be useful as well depending on what you want to specialise in). There are not any extra-curriculars you need to do specifically but read and watch shows on anything to do with engineering to show you are interested and passionate about the subject or engage in incentives such as head start courses that some universities offer which you can write about on your UCAS statement.

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Biochemistry:

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ny type of extracurricular is good as long as you show dedication and can talk about any soft skills that you may have learnt that you can transfer into your university life. Make sure you research what careers you can go into if you are interested in doing a biochemistry degree as there is such a broad range of jobs to go into.

Scientific career? to be doing now?

Computer Science:

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omputer science courses are a mix of both practical and theory so you should focus on developing your practical skills and not just theory. Good extracurriculars could be building a programme, attending lectures, reading books on different areas within computer science but also anything athletic, artistic, etc that you can do regularly for a period of time to show your commitment.

psychology:

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o get a psychology degree that is BPS or BAC accredited, you can find on the UCAS website or the university psychology page. For most universities you do not need a psychology A level, but it is very helpful as well as English, maths and biology. You can use anything for extra-curricular to make it work to your advantage so you can talk about yourself and any transferrable skills you have learnt.

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Dentistry:

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ny extra-curricular looks good if you can show that you are good at working with people like volunteering at a charity shop, care homes or even a schools. As a dentist you need to be able to work with people from all age ranges. A year's worth of volunteering is best, but six months is also good depending on what type of job you are doing.

Pet t ia n Bhoorasingh

F-35. The lightning of the sky

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erial combat has been always been a by-product of the invention of the aeroplane. Over the last century aircraft have gone from looking like wooden sheds with wings to today’s multi-role highly computerised aircraft. This evolution of the combat aircraft leads onto the 5th generation fighter jet. The F-35B Lightning II is the current pinnacle of the breed.

When the pilot wishes to land, take off or enter the hover, behind the cockpit canopy two doors open revealing a Pratt and Whitney turbofan rotational engine. At the flick of a switch the two counter rotating fans blow around 90,000 newtons of unheated air downwards. This pure amount of downward thrust is able to hold the aircraft in the pure hover mode. Additionally, the rear engine can be swivelled downwards and to the sides to control the hover and again add even better manoeuvrability to the aircraft while in the forward flight mode. The use of this ability to hover and take off and land vertically means the aircraft can operate with ease from small airstrips and naval aircraft carriers making the aircraft extremely versatile.

The Aircraft combines advanced sensors and mission systems with low observable technology or “stealth” which enables the jet to operate undetected in hostile airspace without being detected. It has integrated sensors and data linking, that provides the pilot with unprecedented situational awareness.

The pilot is then able to send information via a secure data link to other data platforms and take appropriate action or use appropriate weapons depending on the situation.

As the aircraft is specifically designed and to be operated by countries air forces, the F-35 can be equipped with many different types of weapons from AAMs (Air to Air missiles) to having two bombs being carried and an optional 25mm cannon pod. It can also be equipped for specific missions for example stealth Missions it will carry smaller loads so fewer warheads and sidewinder missiles and two bombs and can also be equipped for offensive missions so it will carry more weapons. In total it can carry 22,00lbs of ordnance with a maximum operational range of 490 nautical miles (830 kilometres) with a maximum operational altitude of 50,000ft and able to achieve a maximum speed of Mach 1.6.

One key feature of the aircraft that makes it a formidable piece of machinery is the set up within the cockpit. Although most of the software within the cockpit has remained classified, what has been revealed is the helmet for the pilot. Costing a hefty £300,000 the helmet is the key attribute of the aircraft. The helmet provides the pilot with a head up display of all his flight instruments and data but moreover it allows the pilot to have a greater view of visibility. With a series of sensors and cameras located around the aircraft. Live imagery is relayed to the pilot allowing the pilot to see all around the aircraft and the surrounding area. This huge benefit in visibility gives the F35 and the pilot a huge advantage in combat and surveillance roles.

Overall, this new breed of 5th generation multi role combat aircraft will be a formidable asset to many countries and with the advancements in technology and cyber warfare the F35 will easily keep up with the new types of warfare while still being able to dominate the skies. The F35B unquestionably is the lighting of the skies.

Another key Feature of the F35B lightning is the aircrafts ability to take off, land and hover like a helicopter. This ability to vertically manoeuvre is achieved due to the aircraft having a second engine.

Nicholas Solly

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‘A maximum operational altitude of 50000FT and able to achieve a maximum speed of m ac h 1 . 6’

‘

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illustration by: sacha jennings

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Ya n i ng Ly u

IS fusion the future?

The United Kingdom uses nuclear fission to produce 20% of its electricity. Nuclear fission is the most reliable energy source for now.

This does not mean it is the safest or most sustainable.

Fission generates energy when a neutron collides with a large and unstable Uranium-235 atom. This causes the Uranium-235 atom to split into smaller atoms releasing more neutrons causing a chain reaction. Huge amounts of energy in the form of heat is released during this reaction. This heat evaporates water, drives a turbine, which generate electricity. This process can go wrong and have terrible consequences. Examples of Nuclear fission disasters are Three-mile lands 1979, Chernobyl 1986 and Fukushima in 2011.

Fusion is safer than nuclear fission, unlike fission it does not leave radioactive waste, so is less damaging environmentally. Fusion is the opposite of fission. Fusion occurs when two small atoms fuse together to become a bigger atom and some of the mass is turned into energy.

Fusion occurs naturally in the universe, such as in stars. Fusion requires a huge amount of energy to overcome the electrostatic forces of the two nuclei and make them fuse together.

Inside a nuclear fusion reactor, plasma is created by extreme temperatures and pressures creating plasma, super-heated

matter that gets so hot that it rips electrons off the atoms and forms an ionised gas. an ionised gas. The atoms in the plazma fuse together due to the extreme temperature and pressure within the reactor which releases energy.

There are minimal risks with fusion because if the process becomes unstable, the reactor will automatically cool to safety. It could be a sustainable energy source as we have plenty of the natural resources that enables fusion. Fusion requires the use of Deuterium and Tritium (isotopes of hydrogen), which can both be extracted from the oceans.

The biggest barrier to fusion is the amount of energy produced by fusion is less than the amount of energy that is needed to cause the fusion. ‘Q’ is the ratio of the energy causing fusion compared to the energy produced. The highest ratio so far is 0.67 set by the JET tokamak reactor in the UK. In 1980, the EU, USA and China in collaboration with Russia built the ITER reactor in France. This is expecting to reach a Q value of 10 which means that it is expected to produce 10 times the amount of energy that would be required. However there have been delays so will not start testing until 2025 and will hopefully reach the goal of “Q=10” by 2035. If this turns out that to besuccessful more fusion reactors will be built and used for future energy.

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Riding on water 26

Dirt bikes are renowned as being loud and noisy pieces of machinery that spend their working lives hurling around swamp-like dirt tracks caked in mud. By applying a few physics principles and bolting on a few extra pieces, you can achieve what is deemed impossible and be able to ride a dirt bike across water.

The ability to ride a dirt bike across water is down to the principle of hydroplaning, sometimes referred to as aquaplaning and a combination of applying Newton’s third law.

Hydroplaning is when a wheel is separated from the ground by a thin layer of water.

Usually this causes a vehicle to lose traction and can cause a vehicle to skid. For the dirt bike to be able to use hydroplaning to ride across water, we need to factor in Newton’s third law which states that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.

Putting this into the context of the dirt bike, if a dirt bike can generate enough velocity using the back powered wheel like a paddle the bike will put enough force into the water to ensure the equal and opposite force coming back will keep the front wheel and the bike out of the water. The optimum speed is critical for the bike to be able to skim across the water. Too slow and the downward force on the water will reduce and as a result, the upward force generated by the water will also reduce and thus the forces applied will not be sufficient to keep the bike on the surface and the bike will sink. Too fast of a velocity and the rear wheel of the bike will not give enough time for the air gaps created in the bike’s tread to be filled with water. This is a process known as ventilation. As a result, forward propulsion would be lost and again being a bike, it would sink. It is worked out that

the optimum velocity to ensure the right amount of thrust is produced around 45 miles per hour which works out to 20.1 metres per second.

A modification that is needed to ensure that riding on water is possible is a plaining ski that will act like a hull. At the correct velocity, the ski of the bike will generate enough lift to ensure the bike remains clear of the water and ensures the bike plains smoothly. In terms of how much lift is needed to ensure successful plaining, by taking the average weight of a dirt bike plus rider, comes to a total of 200 kilograms. Linking back to Newton’s third law, a total force of 1962 newtons is required to keep the bike skimming across the water smoothly.

The penultimate area to cover is the angle of entry. The angle of entry should be as shallow as possible so that as the bike hits the water, it hits the water with the optimum amount of force that will allow it simply skim over the water. If the approach angle is too steep, the bike will hit the water with so much force that it will nosedive and possibly cartwheel and throw the rider across the water uncontrollably. A gradual and shallow slope is optimal for the bike to hit the water with the correct force and skim controllably across the water.

The final area to be covered is to find a brave enough rider to pilot the bike across the water.

With everything in check and with all the calculations completed you will be able to watch the incredible phenomenon of a regular dirt bike skim majestically over water.

Nicholas Solly 27

Stellar Evolution Sacha Jennings

‘ high temperature and pressure creates ideal circumstances for nuclear fusion to occur' 28

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tars are formed when a nebula - an interstellar cloud of dust, hydrogen, helium and other ionised gases comes together under its own gravity. As the volume of the nebula decreases, the pressure of the gas cloud increases. Because volume and pressure are inversely proportional to each other, an increase in pressure causes an increase in temperature so the particles have more energy.

This combination of high temperature and pressure creates ideal circumstances for nuclear fusion to occur, where two atoms are fused together and where some of the mass is turned into vast amounts of energy which results in a force which counteracts the force of gravity preventing the star from collapsing and achieving a hydrostatic equilibrium.

To start with, stars use hydrogen as their main source of fuel, where two hydrogen atoms fuse together to form helium, then helium fuses into lithium, this process continues until iron is formed. As the star runs out of hydrogen and helium the star expands into a red giant. Once there is not enough fusion the force of gravity becomes greater than the force from fusion. If the star is of the same mass as the sun, the star will collapse under its own gravity to form a hot white dwarf and will eventually cool to become a black dwarf. If it is a supermassive star, then the star will collapse and explode in a supernova and either a neutron star or a black hole will remain.

For both a neutron star and a black hole, there is an imbalance between the forces of fusion and gravity where gravity is higher. As a result, the star implodes, and all the matter is squeezed together. At this moment all elements are created, and the star explodes in a supernova.

For a neutron star this happens when the balance between the force of gravity and the force of fusion created is unbalanced for a short period of time and gravity is stronger, which compresses the core of the star which causes heavier and heavier elements to be fused together, from carbon to iron. Iron is essentially nuclear ash because no more fusion can take place. As soon as this happens the core is crushed under the weight of the collapsing star. The volume of the star decreases from roughly the size of the 265 solar masses to a ball twenty-five kilometres in diameter. This causes the pressure to rise so much that electrons and protons fuse into neutrons, these neutrons are packed together as densely as an atomic nucleus. A neutron star is so dense that if it was any more so, it would be a black hole. Due to there being free flowing electrons and the neutron spinning extremely quickly when it is formed, a very strong magnetic field is formed. The most common neutron star is a radio pulsar.

If the star is large enough the whole core of the star will form a black hole, the densest thing in the universe of infinite density at the singularity which takes up no area and no space. Black holes emit radiation, which means black holes lose energy and mass. This will eventually cause the black hole to evaporate into nothing. This is known as Hawking radiation and takes black holes around 10100 years to do so.

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Wordsearch

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Bacteria density evolution magnet protein catalyst radiation molten 30

Antigen astronomy burette genetics molecule atom funnel cell

How to get involved What can YOU do?

Help with the magazine is open to everyone in all years. We want your content (science related) to be fused into our magazine, website, podcasts, videos and more. You can choose to do as much or as little as you like.

Some suggestions for what we would like you to do (but not limited to): 1. Write an article (between 200 and 700 words) or a short paragraph on anything you find interesting that is science related.

2. Write a review on a science book, film or documentary that you have seen.

3. Take photographs of anything science related and write a short caption to go with the photograph.

4. Create a piece of science themed artwork to be incorporated into the magazine.

5. Produce some engaging activities such as word searches, crosswords, mazes, etc.

All submissions and any help would be greatly appreciated and participating in the magazine will help you work on life skills as well as look great on your CV and personal statement.

WHO to contact?

To get involved please contact: Sacha Jennings; 15jenningsa@royalrussell.co.uk

More information can be found at www.russellsteapot.org

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Fun Facts About Python T

he name of this programming language does not come from a snake as most people might think. Guido Van Rossum, the creator, took the name from the BBC comedy “Monty Python's Flying Circus” which came out in the 1970s, of which he was a big fan. Van Rossum wanted a short and mysterious name that would catch people’s attention, so he called the language “Python”.

Python, surprisingly, was a “hobby” programming project that was supposed to keep Guido Van Rossum occupied during the weeks around Christmas.

There are many modules in Python but did you known there was a poem too? Tim Peters, a major contributor to the Python community, wrote a poem about the philosophies of Python called “The Zen of Python”.

Another fun fact is that in 2015, unbelievably, Python overtook French in primary schools in the UK as the most popular language. According to the statistics, six out of ten parents preferred their children to learn Python and 75% of primary school children preferred to learn how to control a robot instead of learning French. Impressive, right?

Python has a sense of humour too. Python does not use braces and if you try to “from __future__ import braces”, it will give you “SyntaxError: not a chance”.

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The debate of whether to use “!=” or “<>” has gone on forever. Barry Warsaw, “Uncle Barry”, was chosen to become the “Friendly Language Uncle For Life”, “FLUFL” in short. There is an interesting library where “!=” is replaced by “<>”.

There is “xkcd” webcomic on Python as well that can be accessed through importing “antigravity”.

Have a look at the other comics as well after reading this one!

There are so many more easter eggs, I will stop here and let you explore them on your own.

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Mia Tran

Cultured MEat 'Scientists are now looking at producing cultured meat as a way of addressing climate change, biodiversity, and animal welfare.'

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ultured meat originated as a way of supplying meat to humans colonising in space without the need to take animals from Earth. NASA was among the first to produce cultured meat in the 2000s. Scientists are now looking at producing cultured meat as a way of addressing climate change, biodiversity, and animal welfare.

to use renewable energy resources . Cultured meat can grow quicker than usual livestock. Cultured cell populations double in size every few days and therefore it would take about three weeks to grow steak. Lab-grown meat could also be modified to benefit the health of humans, by controlling the protein and fat content, lab-grown meat could be produced to contain healthier omega-3 fatty acids which are less harmful than the saturated fats meat currently contains.

Cultured meat is produced by taking a biopsy (a tissue sample) from a living animal. Stem cells are then extracted from this sample and placed in a bioreactor (a manufactured device or system that supports a biologically active environment; the process can either be aerobic or anaerobic).

These cells are fed a solution of glucose, amino acids, vitamins, and minerals and require specific conditions to develop into mature muscle cells, which then form the cultured meat.

Livestock farming produces about 9% of total greenhouse gas emissions. People also question if labgrown meat is more, or less ethical than agricultural meat.

Lab-grown meat requires the extraction of blood from the heart of foetuses of slaughtered pregnant animals so scientists would need a constant supply of livestock. Until an alternative method is developed that does not require animal cells, lab-grown meat is not free of animal cruelty or exploitation. Labgrown meats could also be viewed as unhealthy because there are studies that suggest these meats link to various diseases and that they use unhealthy chemicals and antibiotics in production.

Shojinmeat is a non-profit collective, co-founded by Dr Yuki Hanyu. They have been developing cheaper methods for extracting live cells and growing the meat in mediums such as egg yolk, vitamin tablets and bodybuilding powder. Their findings are published online, in the style of ‘how-to’ guides and the youngest person who has cultured cells was only 10 years old. The meat produced so far has been no bigger than the size of a pea, taking 14 to 20 days to grow and containing around 100,000 cells. They are now working on producing it on an industrial scale.

There are many pros to lab-grown meats, for example, the labs that grow the meat might be able

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Cultured meat is still in the experimental stage and will not be ready to buy from supermarket shelves for at least another decade and therefore it will be up to the younger generation to decide whether we think that cultured meat should be available.

Anna stone

Sexism in coding

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ender play a huge role in deciding our entire lifepaths. One of the best examples is the IT field. It is concerning how these days if asked to visualise a computer programmer, it would always be a male figure.

It is a common belief that women are not capable enough and cannot take that much pressure, resulting in women being harassed, neglected and abused in the industry. That is why female coders are leaving their dream careers because of discrimination. The Google and Uber harassment allegations in 2018 is an example. Even at the most senior level, women still have to fight to be taken seriously. Shubhi Rao, former Treasurer of Alphabet/Google said that she experienced a high level of sexism in the Valley — it was just rife with macho behaviour and very passive-aggressive and there was a huge ‘bro’ culture. An anonymous senior engineer quit her job at IBM a couple of years ago, after being supremely micromanaged by a superior who gave her low-level duties.

Studies also show that women’s coding is less likely to be accepted even when their work product is just as good as or even better than a man's. Women’s contributions to, for instance, open-source software on GitHub, are more likely to be accepted if no one knows they’re women. The team from the computer science departments at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, and North Carolina State University found that

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78.6% of pull requests made by women were accepted compared with 74.6% of those by men. But in the cases where gender was obvious, favour was not towards females. Data found that pull requests offered by female programmers whose gender was publicly available were only accepted 62.5% of the time, compared to a 71.8% acceptance rate from women whose gender was not known.

numbers using the Analytical Engine, and this made her the first computer programmer in the world.

• Margaret Hamilton was the director of Software Engineering Division at MIT who wrote the code for Apollo Guide Computer (AGC) from scratch, this made the first moon landing possible and spawned a new industry.

• Grace Hopper was known as the “Queen of Software” for the way she decided to make code easier to read by humans.

• Joan Clarke was an English cryptanalyst who was well known for her role as a code breaker during the Second World War and who was the only woman to work on decrypting the German Enigma messages.

• Even though her name might be always linked to Yahoo, since she was the CEO before the company was sold, Marissa Mayer contributed to other work that made her name recognisable. She worked for Google, as the company’s twentieth employee and was the first female engineer to help create products for Google, such as Google Maps, Google News, and Gmail.

In order to balance out the gender prejudice in science, there were many projects and scholarships created just for women. However, despite more women being encouraged into computer science, the environment is still heavily biased towards men, which makes it harder for women. Coding was always believed to be too ‘smart’ and ‘geeky’ for girls, even in schools and universities, and most of them just gave up on it without trying or lost interest.

Nearly every girl experienced being excluded from computer clubs or not being taken seriously. Most of the time, parents do not encourage or support their daughters when it comes to studying coding.

The result being, when girls show up for their first year of computer science classes at university, they are often years behind the boys.

No wonder many girls would lose confidence and start dropping out – despite, according to the Carnegie Mellon study, many getting good, sometimes top, grades and producing cleaner codes and being faster at it. The ones who stayed on caught up with the boys by their third year. Although it is a common belief that the computer programming field is dominated by men, the truth is, it was created by women and and men just took over later. In the 40s, 50s and 60s, 90% of programmers and other IT-related jobs were female, as men were more interested in hardware than software.

The proportion of women majoring in computer science, though, has fallen from about 38% in the 1980s — nowadays, just 18% of computer science grads are women.

The shift of stereotypes and gender roles can be seen. When programming and software work was thought of as unimportant, it was carried out by women who are considered to be equipped to handle only easy tasks. The women who once pioneered this area of study were no longer considered to be valuable. As more men began to join the field due to the advent of home computers and targeted advertising, women began to be pushed out. The field is now considered to be complex, requiring logical thinkers, and it is thought if it is being done by women, the work cannot be complex. But if there are more women in tech, then, hopefully, the imbalance will fade out and women will be accepted equally as men, but it could take years or even decades.

These are some famous female coders: • Ada Lovelace was the first person to realize that Analytical Engine could be used for more than just calculations and that’s why she wrote an algorithm to compute Bernoulli

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mia tran

Science Crossword Complete the crossword puzzle below 1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10 11

12

13

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Created using the Crossword Maker on TheTeachersCorner.ne

Across

across:

Down

down : 1. Molecule which consists of hydrogen and carbon

5. Neutral atoms or molecules are converted into 5. atoms neutral atoms or molecules converted charged or molecules (ions) into charged or molecules 6. Labatory equipmentatoms that incubates samples at 6. laboratory constant temperature equipment over a long that periodincubates of time samples at constant temperatures 8. The variable that is changed 10. Biological catalyst that is changed 8. The variable 12. Measurement for an mount of substance (6.022 10. biological catalyst x 10²³) 12. Measurment for an amount of 13. Energy of an object relating to its motion substance (0.5mv²) 13. energy of object relating to its 14. An electrical component that allows the flow of currentmotion in one direction only

1.atoms Molecule only consisting of carbon and hydrogen only 2. A microorganism that can't grow or reproduce 2.without A microorganism a host cell that cannot grow or reproduce without a hostelectrode cell 3. The negatively charged Protein testcharged electrode 3.4.Negatively Collection 4.7.protein testof gas, dust, billions of stars and their solar systems 7. Collection of gas, dust, billions of 9. Basic mattersystems and the defining structure of stars andunits theirofsolar elements 9. BAsic units of matter and the defining 11. A closed path that that allows electricity to flow structure of elements from one point to another 11. A closed path that allows electricity to flow from one point to another

14. electrical component that allows current to flow in one direction only

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Russell's

About the cover photo This photograph was taken on a bridge which stretches across the motorway near Gatwick Airport. My intention was to capture everyday motor vehicles travel on these busy roads causing both light and air pollution. The streaks of light are from cars which have been captured by my camera. I set my camera to ISO 100 an Aperture of f4 and I set it to a bulb setting. This allowed me to create this physical experiment with my camera.

Louis Kennedy

teapot Editor-in-Chief: Sacha Jennings

Graphic Designer: Sacha Jennings

illustrator Sacha Jennings

Answers to crossword in previous issue: 1 Weatherall 3 Anther 5 Producers 7 Biuret test 9 Neurones 11 Homeostasis 13 Cell membrane 15 Decomposers 17 Adrenal gland 19 Plasma 21 Gas exchange

2 Gamete 4 Anatomy 6 Anaerobic respiration 8 Vacuole 10 Lymphocytes 12 Mitochondria 14 Benedicts solution 16 Mitochondria 18 Retina 20 Reflex arc 22 Iris

Russell's Teapot is an entirely student run organisation which allows pupils from Royal Russell to express their scientific minds through research, articles, podcasts, videos and most importantly hard work.

www.russellsteapot.org

Contributors:

Pettiann Boorasingh Anna Clery Rebecca Clery Jemima Earing Anjani Poopalasingham Sacha Jennings Amber Kenedy Yaning Lyu Nicholas Solly Anna Stone Mia Tran

Editors:

Pettiann Boorasingh Anjani Poopalasingham Sacha Jennings Nicholas Solly Anna Stone

Photographers: Louis Kennedy Mia Tran tecnology consultant: Sam king

© Russell's Teapot 2021

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Thank you to everyone that has helped produce this edition of Russell's teapot.

-mrs au -Pettiann Bhoorasingh -Ross burridge -Anna Clery -Rebecca Clery -Jemima Earing -Ellie Hartland -Sacha jennings -Mr Pattison -Anjani Poopalasingham -Amber Kennedy -louis kennedy -Sam king -Yaning Lyu -Nicholas solly -Mia Tran

www.russellsteapot.org

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