Scholars Journal Issue #2 April 2016

THE SCHOLARS’

JOURNAL

INSIDE:

April 2016 Issue

The culture of fangirling Phage therapy: the next miracle cure?

Why you should be anxious about rocket science

TABLE OF CONTENTS 2

The Perks of Being a Fangirl On Utopia

10

“You have the right to an attorney …”

14

The Fast Food Revolution

17

Marriage: The Economic Perspective of Love & Romance

21

Optimism and Cynicism

25

Are the Human Sciences Scientific?

30

Phage Therapy: The Next Miracle Cure?

36

Teleportation: Fictitious or Real?

42

Why You Should Be Anxious About Rocket Science

45

A Bite into Infinity

47 The genius’s guide to love

50 53

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the per ks of being a f angirl

Steki Chung

Do you know there are more fangirls on Earth than pandas? While I absolutely made that up, it is probably true. Just ask aloud if there are any fangirls in your class. I believe there is at least one, and unless that you have 2 pandas in the corner of your classroom, my point is proven right. We all have a little fangirl inside us. People fangirl over everything—celebrities, fictional characters, even classical composers like Beethoven. What makes so many people fangirls? If you don’t know anything about fangirls, this is the perfect opportunity to get started, because I am going to summarize a brief history of fandoms and explain the three major perks of being a fangirl—convenience, motivation and connection.

Here is the definition of fangirl, according to the Urban Dictionary. Fangirls are a rabid breed of human female who is obsessed with either a fictional character or a celebrity. For your information, fanboys are sometimes also referred to as fangirls for convenience.

Author Conan Doyle shoved detective Sherlock Holmes off a cliff in The Final Problem, which appeared in The Strand magazine in December 1893. “It is with a heavy heart that I take up my pen to write these the last words in which I shall ever record the singular gifts by which my friend Mr. Sherlock Holmes was distinguished,” Dr John Watson says. Doyle may have thought that that was that, but he did not understand fans of Holmes very well. The public reaction to the death was unlike anything previously seen for fictional events. More than 20,000 Strand readers cancelled their subscriptions, outraged by Holmes’ premature demise. The magazine barely survived. Young men throughout London wore black mourning crêpes on their hats or around their arms for the month of Holmes’ death. Outraged readers wrote to the magazine in protest: “You brute!” a letter began. Americans started “Let’s Keep Holmes Alive” clubs.

This sounds, of course, like just another day on the internet in 2015. But at the time, Doyle had every reason to be shocked. Fans simply did not do this before then. In fact, they weren’t even called “fans” yet. The term, short for “fanatic”, had only recently begun use in reference to American baseball enthusiasts.

Readers accepted what went on in their favorite books, and then moved on. Now SCHOLARS’ JOURNAL APRIL 2016

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they were beginning to take their popular culture personally, and to expect their favorite works to conform to certain expectations. They seemed to actually expect a reciprocal relationship with the works they loved.

Holmes’ avid readers helped to create the very modern practice of fandom. In 1901, public pressure grew so great that Conan Doyle wrote a new story, The Hound of the Baskervilles, featuring Holmes before his fall. In 1903, in The Adventure of the Empty House, he went one step further; resurrecting Holmes.

Fans rejoiced.

Holmes fans have only grown more obsessive since then. The only difference is that now we’re used to super-fandoms, and the way fans twist and turn the plot so that it fits into their theories. This leads to the emergence of fanfictions, such as the most popular topic for Sherlock, Johnlock bromance; and the ultimate base of all billions of random fandoms—Tumblr, and the ultimate base of all not creepy stalking activities—Twitter. If Doyle killed off Sherlock in 2015, hashtags will be spammed—SherlockIsNotDead x1. SherlockIsNotDead x 2… all the way to SherlockIsNotDead x 10000. Billions of theories and fanfictions will emerge online, rewriting the ending. There would probably be a “Teens React to Sherlock’s Death” video. Expect to see a portrait of Nicki Minaj made with Sherlock heads on Tubmlr, just to light up the mood for mourning fangirls; or thousands of cartoon art of touching quotes, drawing more tears.

All that summarize into one line—fans don’t simply accept the death of their favorite character. Not then, definitely not now. In Doyle’s age, fans blackmail and spam Doyle with letters just so he will come up with a solution for Sherlock’s death. Now, fans take a step further and start writing their own endings. In fact, the interests of the same fandom stay the same through the ages, and it’s just we do the same thing in different ways. Modern technology definitely plays a role in making our passion more intense and persistent by expanding access to our obsession.

Now that you know about the history of fandoms and fangirls, here are the perks of being a fangirl in our generation.

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First, convenience. The media makes careers convenient for fangirls. Nowadays we have all kinds of social media sites—Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and of course, Tumblr.

You can stalk people super, super easily. All fangirls deserve a round of applause for their persistence. When someone tries to tell them a piece of news about their favorite, their usual answer is, “That was 27 seconds ago.” With the internet, you’re not the creepy stalker who lurks behind bushes. The paparazzi do all the work. You will sit on a comfy cushion and know everything about the celebrity.

You know about their family life from interviews. You know what they’re doing now, one second ago, and two seconds ago, just by scrolling down websites. All normal stuff. You can probably pick out a line or two in the process, and make it your new whatsapp status, such as “That’s what hair does. It tends to grow.” You never get bored online, because celebrities like tweeting random things nobody understands. And fangirls take the time to analyze everything. This not only shows how obsessed fangirls are, but also shows their impressive ability of focusing, analyzing and research.

Your Twitter is covered with photos of your favorite singer out of costume, so anyone who sees your page knows about your obsession. You totally love how adorable they are when not singing, which makes you love their songs even more. And you are so, so proud of your page, because every picture of your favorite is a blessing to your timeline.

You spam trended hashtags, and whether or not it is related, you tag it anyway.

“Just had lunch. #OneDirectionBestFandom2016.” Some fangirls spam the hashtags for over a hundred thousand times, hoping that the celebrity will notice them, though they know, deep in heart, the celebrity will not turn on his notifications. You can use hashtags to vote for your favorite band in the competitions, such as the Brits, EMA, MTVStars, etc. as well. In many ways, hashtags, one important feature of social media sites, are very useful.

Luke Brooks tweeted, “Fangirls should get paid and be a legit job, you girls do far more promotion than any money could buy, such powerful people you are.”

Fangirls are more powerful than you could imagine.

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Second, motivation. Being a fangirl creates motivation for people to do amazing things.

Being a fangirl takes you to awesome places. In 2013, a 22-year-old man, fan of Taylor Swift (a Swiftie), got arrested after attempting to SWIM 3.2 km to her beach home in Rhode Island in a bid to meet the country singer. In the end, he failed, and was arrested for trespassing. This may sound creepy, but it’s true love.

If you want to go to places with more common transport, you may have to spend money. But the other side of the coin is you learn how to save money. Sherlock fangirls can go to 221B Baker Street, which is actually Gower Street, and take a selfie with the door frame. For 90s sit-com Friends fans, there is a Central Perk Cafe opened in New York City, all designed according to the set of the sit-com.

Get a question about the sitcom right and you might even receive free coffee.

When I finish my speech, hundreds of thousands of fangirls are getting high all over the world. Unfortunate for the non-fangirls, they can never have such determine to save money for these amazing trips!

You can even help people in need. Many celebrities use fandoms for charity. In 2015, Jared Padalecki, star of Supernatural, launched a T-shirt campaign to raise awareness about addiction, depression and suicide prevention. In a mere two weeks, the campaign sold almost fifty thousand shirt and sweatshirts. What fueled the support? Fangirls. A mere image of Benedict Cumberbatch in a shirt that read “This is what a feminist looks like” was enough to spark a lively conversation about feminism on Tumblr, with thousands of likes and reblogs by fangirls. Harry Potter actress Emma Watson is an active feminist in the UN and One Direction star Harry Styles tweeted himself with a banner “He for She”, their promotion has sparked immense attention on feminism. Singer and Youtuber Troye Sivan has called attention on LGBT rights. I can confidently claim that fangirls spread huge amounts of positive vibes around the world.

Fandoms are great creators of passion and all the powerful campaigns I just mentioned are what passion can inspire.

Third, also the greatest perk, is connection. Being a fangirl places you in a fandom. And it’s not just a fandom. It’s your second family.

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Nowadays, which things you are after is the major topic between people.

Besides the online family members with whom you get high by staring at the screen, the “fangirl friend making method” is useful in daily life as well. Person A: Do you like Taylor Swift? Person B: Oh my god! Yes! I’m a terrific Swiftie!!

—Instant friendship. If two non-fangirls are trying to be friends, it’ll probably be harder, or duller. Because what do you talk for small talks besides what you fangirl over? Definitely not the teacher’s outfit or the pork you had for lunch!

Being easier to make friends is probably the most obvious reason why a fandom is good for you.

Many fandoms have developed names, such as One Direction fans are Directioners, Benedict Cumberbatch fans are Cumberbitches, though he expressed obvious “squirminess” for that name, and so on. Some people think this indicates how obsessed fangirls are—they don’t even have their own identities and have to assume their identities with whomever they are obsessed with. The thing is, these fandoms are merely an additional identity. If I say those don’t define who you are, I must be lying. But hey, who wouldn’t want to be identified with one more identity if that means you can make friends much easier? Who wouldn’t like the sense of belonging to a collective?

When your favorite celebrity is being attacked, take out your weapons! Type out your pun lines! Be prepared to defend the love of your life. Wars between fandoms often occur, and uniting the whole fandom and defending the glory of your love is definitely something to take pride in.

Sometimes, your real-life friends just don’t understand your obsession. This is when your fandom comes to rescue. You can write fanfictions. You can “ship” your “OTP”, be it weird or not, because your fandom always understands. “Tyler Oakley and Troye Sivan” is “Troyler”, and “Tyler Oakley and his sandwich” is “Tywich”. Despite the fact that people probably think you’re crazy, your fandom feels you.

That’s the second reason being in a fandom is good for you. If you’re a fangirl, you can enjoy the sense of belonging and the happiness that goes with it. You are in a group, where everyone knows you by your collective identity and gets high together. You are a part of one.

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What’s more, fandoms can be of ultimate emotional support for ostracized people. There are millions of real stories of fangirls finding like-minded friends through fandoms. When One Direction is rumored about splitting, the hashtag #ThankyouOneDirectionFor trended on twitter. There are hundreds of heartwarming tweets thanking 1D for helping them meet their best friends. A year ago I met a bisexual person on Tumblr. I learnt that he was only able to prevent himself from self-harm when thousands of online Potterhead friends come to encourage him and cheer him up with funny Voldemort edits.

Summing up, the three major perks of being a fangirl in our generation— convenience, motivation and connection. First, we can make use of media to stalk legitimately, get high and share stuff. Second, fangirls intentionally or unintentionally do impressive things, because fandom creates motivation. Third, fandoms help you make friends and give you the sense of belonging and pride, and they are places of emotional support.

Back in the 19th century, people are blind to the perks of being a fan, but the passion or obsession for a thing or person has always been there, unnoticed.

Now that these benefits are recognized, why not be a fangirl? If the fans of Holmes have never responded that aggressively so that authors realize the importance and power of fans, we’d never be leading such interesting lives.

Thanks to fandoms, amazing places are built, weird photos are photoshopped and forever friends are made.

With all I’ve just talked about, it’s time to start fangirling.

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on utop ia

Anson Tam

“Many forms of Government have been tried, and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.…” ~ Winston Churchill (House of Commons, 11 November 1947) From the direct democracy of Athens, to the absolute monarchies of the Middle Ages, and to the representative and liberal democracies of our present day world, different forms of government have been tried from time to time. One conclusion can be drawn, there is no perfect form of government.

The question “what is the best form of government” has puzzled politicians, historians and revolutionaries alike from the start of the Athenian civilization.

However, the term “the best form of government” cannot stand as different forms of government are required during different times of a particular nation, for example: during times of revolution, chaos and turmoil, a dictatorship may likely bring about the most favorable outcomes, as autocracy is the most effective means of restoring order out of chaos; during times of peace and prosperity, a democratic government may be more suitable to accelerate economic development and reform. Therefore, the term “the best form of government” should be replaced by “the most suitable form of government” in accordance with the inconstant and rapidly changing political climates of a nation. This essay deals with “the most suitable form of government” during times of peace and prosperity.

The “best form of government” nowadays is “democracy”, which is one of the “universal values”. Universal suffrage, in other words “One person, one vote”, is widely accepted as an indication of “fairness” and “equality” of a nation.

However, as mentioned before, no perfect form of government exists in the present world- democracy has its own flaws,, which include ochlocracy (“the tyranny of the majority”), minoritarianism (“tyranny of the minority”), “tyranny of the voting community” and “tyranny of competitive individuals. “The tyranny of the majority” stands for the oppression of minorities and the enacting of bad policies as irrational and self- interested majorities act through the democratic SCHOLARS’ JOURNAL APRIL 2016

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process by abusing their power. “Tyranny of the minority” means that small groups with economic power exert disproportionate influence on the political process, either blocking change that's in the common interest or lobbying for policies that benefit only their own interest. “Tyranny of the voting community” assumes a serious conflict of interest between the needs of voters and the needs of nonvoters affected by the policies of the government such as future generations and foreigners, the former will almost have priority. “Tyranny of the voting community” means that electoral democracy can exacerbate rather than alleviate social conflict and disadvantage those who prefer harmonious ways of resolving social conflict. (See “The China Model” by Professor Daniel. A. Bell, Introduction: P.7) Another form of popular forms of government is meritocracy, which is a political philosophy which holds that power should be vested in individuals almost exclusively according to merit. Advancement in such a system is based on performance measured through examination or demonstrated achievement in the field where it is implemented. However, the vital flaw of meritocracy, is the linkage between good examination results and the ability of leadership of an individual. Good examination results don't necessarily mean an individual is the most suitable person to cooperate with other meritocrats and lead the country into further development and prosperity.

Therefore, in order to create “the most suitable form of government” during times of peace and prosperity, a combination democracy, meritocracy and the methods of consensus are required to be incorporated into a single form of government. The structure of this form of government is purely hypothetical and is not carried out in any country at present. The structure of the government are as follows: At the village level, the public chooses representatives to participate in a congress via fair elections, in which each village, only one representative is chosen. The government is meritocratic, with strict regulations and high standards on the entry of recruits: recruits have to study a particular subject, such as political sciences, which may help them in their future leadership of the country. The members of the meritocratic government, neglecting self- interest, come up with policies that benefit the people and the national interest. The participants of the congress discuss the policies proposed by the government, SCHOLARS’ JOURNAL APRIL 2016

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and come to a consensus on how the policies should be modified or implemented, rather than voting for them. In order to maintain efficiency, a maximum of two months is allowed for the participants in the congress to reach a consensus. The policy proposed by the government will not be discussed any further in that particular year after reaching the maximum amount of time. The public is given the autonomy for freedom of expression and can organize protests under the supervision of the police. The Separation of Powers is implemented. All organizations and individuals, including the top leadership of the government, have no right to modify any regulations of the law.

The above is a proposal for “the most suitable form of government” in the contemporary world. In order to examine “the best form of government”, experimentation must be undergone and much time must be taken. Can humanity eventually find “the best form of government” and create a utopian world? Only time will tell.

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”you have t he right to an attorney …”

Helaine Liao

“You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say or do can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be appointed to you. Do you understand these rights as they have been read to you?”

Handcuffs are snapped onto the suspect’s wrists, as the cop regurgitates this classic speech verbatim - such a scene should be familiar to fans of crime and legal drama movies. What the policeman recites is known as the Miranda Warning, also commonly referred to as one’s Miranda Rights. In many countries, a suspected criminal being arrested must legally be read their rights as a suspect. In the case of the Miranda Rights, they are granted by law enforcement of the United States, which entails the right to silence - and also the right to a public defender.

The right to equal justice is a constitutional right - one that originated in 1963 when the Supreme Court of the United States unanimously ruled in the historic landmark case of Gideon v. Wainwright, that “any person who is too poor to hire a lawyer cannot be assured a fair trial unless a lawyer is provided for him”, reaffirming the right to a criminal defense and obliging states to appoint a defense attorney to those who can’t afford one.

It’s been 53 years since the ruling, and even till now, many legal advocates contend that the justice system is still failing the poor. “You have the right to an attorney. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be appointed to you.” For most familiar with their Miranda Rights, the right to a public defender - an attorney appointed by the government to represent those unable to hire one goes without saying. Yet what the Miranda Warning does not mention, are the severe problems facing the US’ public defender system.

While money can buy you a great defense team, in the case where you are unable to afford one, the one provided for you will most likely be overworked, underpaid and ultimately, unable to effectively present your case. The problem lies not within the competence of the public defenders themselves - but within SCHOLARS’ JOURNAL APRIL 2016

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the inadequacy of the resources available to those who are charged with the responsibility of defending the accused. The explosive growth of cases is laying a staggering burden on the US’ courts - and the system is creaking under that weight. Public defenders across the country are compelled to carry unethical caseloads that leave too little time for clients to be properly represented. In reports issued by the United States’ National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, the American Civil Liberties Union and the Michigan Campaign for Justice, the public defenders of Atlanta have an average of 59 minutes to prepare each case. In Detroit, it’s 32 minutes. And in New Orleans, it's a jaw-dropping number of only 7 minutes. Yes, you read that right - it takes at least a week for me to prepare a mock trial case, almost an hour just to complete an exam paper, but only seven minutes to read through piles of documents, and to prepare a case which one must present and argue for in court.

Subsequently, constitutional obligations are left unmet. While an attorney is still provided, most if not all are bemoaning the epidemic of overwork, and such crushing workloads often make it impossible for the defender to prepare an adequate and effective defense. As public defenders are unable to invest adequate time on each of their cases, and often lack necessary resources, such as access to experts, investigators and so forth, such deficiencies force even the most competent and devoted attorneys to engage in breaches of professional duties, pushing defenders and their clients to take action with limited time and knowledge of their cases. This prompts guilty pleas by the innocent, inappropriate sentences, and wrongful incarceration, all with taxpayers footing the bill for these gross inefficiencies.

While the excessive caseloads public defenders are burdened with remain a prevalent problem, it is not the only one the US’ public defense system faces.

Some others include severe lack of resources (such as something as basic as an office), “Meet Em’ and Plead Em’” routines (where defenders encourage clients to plead guilty without going to trial, just to expedite the process), lack of enforceable standards of counsel (where some receive adequate training, and others none at all), and much, much more - all of which render public defenders incapable of providing accused individuals with the due process guaranteed to them by the constitution. And yet, resources for public defenders remain woefully inadequate, and the problem remains.

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Without an assurance of adequate assistance of counsel for the indigent, the law draws a line between rich and poor, ensuring a fair trial to those on one side, and denying the same rights to those on the other - those most in need of the essential service necessary to ensure that the interests of justice are served.  

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the fast fo od revolution: how McDonald’s took ov er our mind, body and soul

Chan Yat Ching

Fast food, a double cheeseburger with fries, a box of fried chicken wings, a chocolate sundae topped with a generous sprinkling of nuts. It comes in numerous delicious forms but ultimately, the root of fast food’s growing popularity and influence in world cuisine boils down to one company---The McDonald’s Corporation.

As the dominant power in the fast food industry, with an annual revenue of 25.4 billion US dollars, the founding of McDonald’s has been a milestone in the legacy of fast food. It started out as just one small dream by two innovative brothers, Richard and Maurice McDonald in 1940: Revamp the food industry with efficiency, low cost and mass production as the main guiding targets. They dismissed the carhops and mechanized the kitchen, greatly reducing the waiting time for meals. With its economical price, the McDonald’s brothers started a roaring trade, founding the basis of modern fast food culture. Little did they know that the small, insignificant restaurant they opened in San Bernardino, California, would have such profound impacts on our modern world.

For every corporate juggernaut to rise to power, a tough and unyielding leader is required. In McDonald’s case, it was Ray Kroc. He once said,'If any of my competitors were drowning, I'd stick a hose in their mouth and turn on the water', showing his aggressive nature in marketing. However, in the early days of the McDonald’s franchise, he started off in a lowly position as a milkshake machine salesman. But he was not without ambition. Determined to gain more from his job, he maneuvered the McDonald brothers out of their own company through deals, tough competition and smarts. After becoming the CEO of the McDonald’s restaurant franchise, he adopted a strategy of rapid expansion and mass advertising. Under his leadership, McDonald’s has spread quickly from the USA to all across the globe and the power of advertising has been displayed on a more extensive scale. The rise of McDonald’s was brought by its extensive advertising and marketing scheme, with widespread television broadcasting, the creation of the iconic Ronald McDonald and the founding of Hamburger University to name a few. This stimulated more in depth development in the SCHOLARS’ JOURNAL APRIL 2016

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areas of advertising and marketing by future corporations. Nowadays, the golden arches of McDonald’s are recognized by more people globally than the Christian cross. With its mass promotion, McDonald’s succeeded in taking over our minds.

Ever since the rise of McDonald’s, the obesity epidemic has been spreading worldwide. With the rapid spreading of American fast food culture, more people from various countries have chosen to indulge themselves in a diet of highcalorie, deep fried and artificially sweet fast food instead of other healthy alternatives such as their traditional low fat diet which fostered a healthier lifestyle and led to a reduction in chronic diseases such as diabetes and coronary heart disease. In most Asian countries BFF (Before Fast Food) citizens had a mostly balanced diet rich in vegetables (as meat was scarce for the peasants). In European countries, although the food consumed was rich in fat and is now deemed unhealthy, they often consumed one meal for a few hours at ease due to a more relaxing lifestyle, allowing them to spend their time more lavishly. This resulted in lower food consumption per day as the stomach senses that it is full over time. However, this all changed with the introduction of the American fast food module by McDonald’s, which prioritized efficiency in our increasingly hectic modern urban lifestyle over health which was sacrificed as a result. With the increasing demand for fast food stimulated by McDonald’s, worldwide obesity was the consequence. As such, McDonald’s took control of our body, twisting our health with the obesity wave it brought upon us.

The spreading of the McDonald’s franchise led to a paradigm shift in a global scale in our modern world. Previously, the idea of food in many different cultures was presented as a meal, where family and friends were preferably involved in the enjoyment of the food. Eating was considered as not just a necessity for self-subsistence but rather as a social event, where family and friends could talk with each other and exchange information and experiences.

However, the emergence of fast food weakened this social paradigm.

McDonald’s promoted the belief of efficiency as its main ideal, causing meals to be produced and consumed at a quicker pace than ever before, thus the name “fast food”. Although efficiency has been raised, resulting in rising profits for the corporation, the time we spend on consumption of our meals has drastically decreased. The cost for increased efficiency was the reduction of time spent on SCHOLARS’ JOURNAL APRIL 2016

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social communication. McDonald’s reinforced our busy modern lifestyle by revamping the kitchen to suit its demand for speed. The McDonald’s kitchen works like a factory, with a production line that travels from the burger-flipper to the cashier, all timed to the second. This production-line model has since been used by other fast-food chains. McDonald’s radical “fast food” idea changed our utilization of time, our lifestyle and ultimately our values, with a shifting prioritization towards efficiency. With the effect of globalization, McDonald’s has infiltrated countries all around the world and has slowly crept into our souls, chipping away at old values and forming new ones to replace them.

McDonald’s has, in its own way, been one of the integral building blocks of modern life, from advertising to obesity, from mass production to efficiency; it has played a critical part in many of the pressing issues we face today. So next time you bite into a burger or devour a packet of fries, take a moment to sit back and think about how the origins of the humble meal in your hands exerted an influence on us today.

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m a r r iage : t he ec on o m i c pe rs pe ct iv e o f lo ve and ro mance Wong Wui Long "I promise to be true to you in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health. I will love you and honour you all the days of my life. " When a marriage vow is made, have we ever considered the economic implication behind? When economists analyse the market of love and romance, they consider marriage as a firm in which the parties engages in production such as cooking, washing dishes, and bearing children. The prerequisite of marriage is perhaps not "love". Instead, it is essential that the couples create an economic “martial surplus", which exists only if the joint utility between two people from being married exceeds the sum of their payoffs from being single. A disequilibrium is reached when a conflict arises over the allocation of this marital surplus.

So why does such surplus exists? An intact household provides a conducive environment for raising a child than doing so outside of marriage. Parental guidance, social recognition are essential to a child's growth and development.

However economists place more focus on the sharing of household public goods and the existence of economies of scale in production. Even without children, cooking a meal for two rather than cooking two separate meals, having a single house rather than two lowers costs of living and enhance efficiency of resource allocation. A large extent of division of labor between husband and wife also contributes.

We are all specialists of ourselves. Restaurants may not be able to cater to the preference and taste of each and every customer, and that's way household production is often more desirable. This explains why men with good culinary skills are praised as reliable husbands! Another reason might be the existence of transaction costs. If we are fixing a malfunctioning light bulb, the time and trouble of finding a technician, negotiating terms, monitoring the work is comparatively huge, even though carpenters have specialized knowledge in this field. Marriage in this sense, is all about lowering living costs and maximizing utilities.

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Is marriage the tomb of love?

A problem associated with specialization in division of labour and long-term contracts is that workers are often locked into a bilateral monopoly. Employers and employees bore substantial costs in job training. Similarly, if marriage is viewed and a longterm contract, the termination of it incur very large costs.

They have been accumulating firm-specific capital in their relationship. They risk leaving a familiar and accustomed home, wasting specialized knowledge of how to live with each other and losing established connections among circles of friends and relatives. That is why couples often take advantage of the fact that the other is locked into the relation and to get things his or her way. This results in a large bargaining range between the two parties and echos with the famous analogy of marriage as "Walled city" by the Chinese writer Qian Zhongshu.

Ideally, a long-term contract can be drafted that completely specified the obligations of both parties to avoid disputes. The problem is a contract can never be detailed enough to spell out and detail all the terms and the enforcement of it is virtually impractical. We can sue a company for misrepresentation on the sales of goods, but not suing your spouse for cooking badly. The only way out is to terminate the contract, i.e. divorce.

Soaring divorce rate?

Why has marriage become less common? Is it merely associated with the reconstruction of values and evolving attitudes towards love and relationship?

The straightforward economic answer is that the amount of time spent in household production firm-specific capital has declined drastically. A typical economic textbook will tell you that regional division of labour is practiced at a marco-scale, which encourages mechanization. The scope of specialization has increased drastically over the past few centuries. Household products such as clothing and even meals are now mass-produced instead of made at home.

Researches have revealed that for every year by which a woman delays having her first child, her lifetime earnings rise by ten percent. Delaying motherhood means higher income and better job prospect for educated women, because of the economies of scale in the workplace. Compounded with the decrease in SCHOLARS’ JOURNAL APRIL 2016

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infant mortality, women are no longer required to produce children nonstop to ensure two or three of them survive to adulthood. Less time is spent on bearing and rearing children. The above factors lead to the emergence of "househusbands" and higher demand for maids and household services. The term "housewife" is rendered obsolete.

Government intervention?

Through interventions in the labour market or provision of childcare service, a government can enhance a woman’s labour market prospects. This would then increase the value of the best alternative forgone and secure for them a larger bargaining power within marriage. While the working population is shrinking globally, releasing the women labour force seems to a way out. On the contrary, governments bear must in mind that the cost of divorce is positively related to the marital surplus. It seems almost paradoxical - but perhaps women's job prospective should not be made too attractive. Otherwise divorce rate would again soar as martial surplus diminish. 

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optim ism and cynicism: an insight into early ch ildhood education

Tung Yat Ying Irma

“Be positive!” — I guess many of you might have heard this piece of advice from either your parents or teachers. True, there is no problem in being hopeful and optimistic in life. But let’s set our sights a little further on the sliding scale of optimism and cynicism.

To look into this issue, let’s first explore the fundamental ideas of being an optimist or a cynic. In a philosophical sense, optimists are hopeful of the future and often hold the belief that good must ultimately prevail over evil, while cynics are pessimistic about life and usually skeptical of others’ motives.

The prevalence of cynicism “A cynic is a man who knows the price of everything, and the value of nothing.” ― Oscar Wilde Take a look at the popular movies and books around you. Did you notice that dystopian fiction like The Hunger Games always appear on the top of the bestselling charts? Did you realise that there is at least one movie every year on how aliens may invade our planet or how disasters may take place when the end of the world comes? Have you ever read A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket or watched Corpse Bride directed by Tim Burton?

These all shed light on the trend of people gradually becoming more receptive to cynicism and other pessimistic values. Everyone is a cynic to a certain extent. I would view cynicism as a self-protection tool against human evil, as well as a way for us to be more critical of things around us. We don’t expect the world to be beautiful and perfect. We realise the flaws of public systems, identify problems of society, be skeptical of the government’s functioning, and then try to do something about it.

The true nature of idealists “Scratch any cynic and you will find a disappointed idealist.” — George Carlin Idealism, in other words an extreme version of optimism, is also a hot topic in philosophy. However, not many may notice the fact that being idealistic is in SCHOLARS’ JOURNAL APRIL 2016

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fact not that different from being cynical, or that cynics actually arise from idealists. Some people wish for a utopia and hold high hopes for the future of society as they believe everything could change for the better. However, the sad fact is, many of them are eventually stroke by the cruel reality and they soon realise that their dream change is never going to happen — human beings are selfish by nature and continuously harm others for the sake of protecting their own interests. Idealism and cynicism, which seem to be on the opposite extremes, are actually from the same origin.

Looking further: early childhood education Given the popularity of cynical movies, books and other works, you might have already become fed up with all the negativity in the world — but there is still a group of people who are still hidden from the truth: young children.

We all love to tell children fairy tales. Snow White finds her loyal dwarf companions, Cinderella lives in the castle with her true love, and the Mermaid ends up happily ever after with the human prince. Who doesn’t love these happy endings?

But I’m afraid these are all not true.

Regrettably, fairy tales children hear every day are only stories manipulated by adults in order to instil certain values in children. Sleeping Beauty wasn’t rescued by the prince’s kiss - she was raped; Mermaid did not end up with the prince - she turned into sea foam as the prince married another woman; the Little Red Riding Hood wasn’t saved by the huntsman - her grandmother was killed, subsequently Red ate her flesh and drank her blood without knowing, and was eventually eaten by the wolf. No one would have ever expected things like physical violence, sexual assaults and premarital sex in Grimm’s Fairy Tales.

It is not difficult to recognise how hard we have been attempting to shape a perfect world for young children: we tell them that there is Santa Claus, we assure them that superheroes always win over evil villains, and we never tell them stories with bad endings. Meanwhile, it is not only young children who are hidden from the truth — but also adolescents. Whilst it is true that youngsters are sometimes able to see certain dark facts presented in classes like history, SCHOLARS’ JOURNAL APRIL 2016

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traces of adults trying to cover up the bold truths are still easily seen. When writing compositions, we are always told to come up with examples of successful entrepreneurs and historical figures. Can we use unemployed and uneducated workers as examples? No, except when you are using them to emphasise how meaningless their lives are, as a contrast to the successful millionaires.

But what is the actual reality that we should learn of? On one hand, Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, who have not finished their high school or university degrees, earned global recognition as well as a great deal of money owing to their exceptional innovation and creativity. At the same time, numerous office workers live a dull life and a countless number of workers are fired, being forced into the desperate competition for a job. As ordinary students, it is apparent which picture is closer to our lives and which reality is the one that we have to better recognise.

Let us also take a global perspective: while westerners are advocating racial equality, how many Asians and black people are nominated for the Oscars?

While society is starting to identify the importance of justice, how many lawsuits filed against business tycoons by poor peasants actually get judged properly? While fans are showing their passion and love over certain artists and their songs, how many of them actually download songs from legal online stores? To admit that many of us are simply hypocrites is certainly an extremely difficult task.

Admit it: good doesn’t always prevail over evil. “Happily ever after” endings are, most of the time, fantasies. What lie behind are ugly truths that people tend to ignore. Some may argue that people will eventually change for the better and get the ending they deserve. Politicians never stop advocating change, holding high hopes for the future. But what are the results? Conflicts keep arising between countries, civil wars and riots break out from time to time. Everyone tends to focus on expressing their own opinions instead of listening to or accepting others’ ideas and weaknesses. Pessimistically speaking, nothing could be entirely altered unless we destroy every single established system and get everything back to square one.

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Gen Urochubi, one of my personal favourite Japanese anime writers, is known for his dark, nihilistic themes. One of the most controversial but at the same time, immensely popular anime “Puella Magi Madoka Magica”, follows a group of middle school girls who decide to become magical girls and combat surreal enemies called witches. Seems like an innocent, childish story? I’m afraid not — it features deeply emotional and brutal content, revealing dark human nature and delivering a theme of “be careful what you wish for”.

Admittedly, this might be a little too extreme as young children could be tricked into the cinema, mistakenly believing that it is simply an ordinary magical girl series. But the vision that Urochubi holds is in fact a right direction of education that we usually neglect. There is evil in this world but we tend to hide the dark side of most things from young children. We should free ourselves from the traditional belief that young children are meant to be sheltered in a bright, beautiful world before they grow up simply because they are “not mature enough”. Being young doesn’t grant you the privilege of staying in fantasy land and hiding from the true reality. It is our responsibility to gradually expose to them certain dark truths, say, to show young children films and stories that slightly hint on the dark side of human nature, to train up their mentality of facing sins and handling fears. Similar to striking a balance between being cynical and optimistic, apart from reading positive and encouraging stories, children should also be allowed to experience more and more of the true reality as they grow up such that we could stimulate their thinking and prepare them for the real world, before they realise that there are no handsome princes in the world.

Yes, this might be a little shocking to traditional educators. But I still consider it more horrible to tell kids that “there is no evil in this world”.

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are the h uman scie nces scientific?

Edward Yu

I believe the biggest problem in answering this question is how we should define the term ‘science.’ We could explain the term as pertaining to our knowledge of anything, as the etymology of the word would dictate, and the human sciences would definitely be considered ‘scientific.’ However, we could move to the other end of the spectrum and define the term as the organization of testable and verifiable knowledge, or the logical elucidation of observable phenomena. We may also consider the applicability of scientific methods to a particular subject.

This definition would severely qualify the boundaries of science, and here is where the debates on whether the human sciences are scientific come in. For the sake of simplicity, I will define ‘science’ using the latter definition, as this will allow me to put forth my argument that the human sciences are semi-scientific.

First of all, research in the human sciences employs the scientific method and peer reviewing to ensure the quality of results obtained. The scientific method involves identifying and studying unexplained phenomena, forming hypotheses and predictions over such observations, and gathering information to test the validity of the conjectures (usually through experimentation). The results obtained are analyzed and evaluated, after which scientists draw conclusions from the processed data. This method is constantly applied to the human sciences, and it forms the foundations for most human science papers.

Therefore, the human sciences are scientific, and apply logical deductions to the generation of knowledge.

Although the scientific method is widely applied in the human sciences, there may also be limitations as to what extent the method may be effectively applied to it. For example, the reference class problem presents the difficulty in establishing a correlation-causation relationship linking two distinct phenomena, and hence explains how it is hard to reach a conclusion given the difference between an experiment and its control. The problem deals with what reference class (which is an indicator of a factual occurrence in a particular circumstance), to be used to predict the relationship of two events. For example, were the psychiatrists in the Rosenhan experiment motivated to diagnose their patients due to expectation bias, or did they believe that their diagnoses were accurate as SCHOLARS’ JOURNAL APRIL 2016

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per existing criteria? Or did they diagnose them out of more selfish reasons? We cannot reach a definite conclusion as to why the psychiatrists made erroneous judgments concerning their patients’ mental state, as the reference class problem does not allow us to identify a particular reference class that correlates the input in the experiment with the corresponding output. Therefore, even when we use experimentation in the scientific method to identify the reasons for a certain event, there are always limitations to our knowledge or understanding of the results. Another limitation to the application of the scientific method in the human sciences would be the impracticability of designing a human science experiment with absolutely no uncontrolled variables. Although the same applies to natural science experiments, such assessments have very few uncontrolled variables, and oftentimes these variables are negligible. However, uncontrolled variables in human sciences investigations play a large role in affecting the results obtained, as humans (the subject of research) are unpredictable per se, and are wild cards in any human science experiment. The effects societal, economic and political conditions have on human behavior also cannot be properly gauged, and thus human science experiments are to a certain extent more unreliable. Hence, even when the scientific method is applied to human science investigations, its effect is qualified by the shortcomings of such experimentation, both in the evaluation and the reliability of the results.

Peer reviewing forms the basis of most social science journals; it involves a third party verifying the accuracy and reliability of an academic paper, and offering comments and evaluations of the article before submitting it to the journal for publication. Peer reviewing is of paramount importance in the publication of scientific articles in journals, as revision of said articles allows for the identification of error, as well as the diversity of opinion concerning the inferences made from the results. As peer-reviewing is applied to various journals in the social sciences, much of the knowledge generated and disseminated through these journals are double-checked and revised, similar to the procedures applied by the sciences. Therefore, it is logical to say the human sciences are ‘scientific’ insofar that peer reviewing grants such an argument, just as the natural sciences are regarded as ‘scientific’ due to the ruthless peer reviewing of scientific articles. However, we cannot conclude that simply because information in the social sciences is filtered by peer reviewing, it may be deemed scientific. Peer reviewing is flawed in nature, both due to the SCHOLARS’ JOURNAL APRIL 2016

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systematic and superfluous errors made on behalf of the reviewers. Systematic errors include the limited command a reviewer has of a particular subject, and the large number of articles a reviewer must go through annually. As modern journals encompass a wide range of topics, it is not possible for the reviewer to be an expert in the fields of knowledge involved in all of the articles he examines, and therefore it is possible for the reviewer to accept errors involving specialized information in an article. Reviewers may also leave out important errors made in articles due to the time limitations in submitting reviews, and this may affect the quality of the research papers as they are not proofread rigorously to prevent mistakes. However, the superfluous errors made during peer reviewing have a larger effect on the process; these errors include the reviewer’s personal bias, the lax reviews that many of these reviewers provide, and the deliberate acceptance of an article for profit. In the 1990s, Vicente Navarro’s social science paper named ‘Race or Class, or Race and Class’ was rejected by reviewers in all American journals, as it dealt with sensitive information concerning America’s social and political structures, and presented controversial ideas as to how this affected the peoples’ livelihood. Eventually, Navarro had to publish it in The Lancet (a British Elsevier journal), uncovering the prejudice that certain reviewers may bear (especially reviewers who are stakeholders involved in an article’s topic). Therefore, peer-reviewing does not serve as a panacea for all the shortcomings involved in the scientific method, and may even exacerbate the inaccuracies of a journal. Furthermore, peer-reviewing has been shown to be slipshod, even in peer-reviewed journals with high impact factors. In 2013, John Bohannon sent fake scientific papers to 304 peer-reviewed journals to observe the thoroughness with which the process was carried out.

The paper was fabricated with such conspicuous errors, that Bohannon himself had stated that any serious peer-reviewing would definitely lead to its instant rejection. However, 62% of the journals accepted the article, including journals published by Elsevier and other renowned journal publishing companies. To make matters worse, only one journal recognized the ethical problems involved in the investigation, revealing the lack of rigor in the peer-reviewing process of various journals. Some predatory open access journals even lack any proper peer-reviewing, for example, an article which simply consists of seven words that are repeated over and over again was accepted in an official journal after peer-reviewing. As we can see, the scientific process of peer-reviewing may be applied to the social sciences, but I believe that it is the system itself that poses SCHOLARS’ JOURNAL APRIL 2016

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the largest problem for any meaningful and constructive criticism of academic papers.

However, we cannot say that the human sciences are absolutely scientific because of the scientific method and peer-reviewing, as the fundamental structure of the human sciences prevents such an interpretation. As the name would suggest, the human sciences deal with humans, which adds an element of unpredictability and arbitrariness to the subject. From this point of view, the human sciences are not ‘scientific’, as knowledge cannot be verified or quantified, and there is a wide range of explanations for any identifiable phenomenon. Moreover, this weakness can be exploited for malicious purposes, as in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). The DSM offers ‘standard criteria’ for the diagnosis of psychological disorders, and is officially used by various mental institutions. The manual started out as a modest endeavor with around 100 identified disorders, although there were some controversies surrounding the book (homosexuality and other normal human behavior were listed as disorders). This showed that the classification of what constituted a ‘mental illness’ was arbitrary, and not based on specific facts.

However, the DSM started spiraling out of control with the publication of DSM III, which was nearly 500 pages long and included 265 disorders, dwarfing the size and breadth of mental disorder identification of its predecessor (DSM II).

DSM III had turned normal human experiences into mental disorders, and even Robert Spitzer, the leader of the task force writing the manual, had said that DSM III led to the superfluous medicalization of 20 - 30% of the population who otherwise didn’t possess any mental disorder. The evolution of DSM exemplifies the arbitrariness of the human sciences, and shows that there is practically no proper way to measure or validate information in the human sciences. Therefore, the subjective nature of the human sciences qualifies the extent to which we can consider it ‘scientific’.

To conclude, the human sciences are in some ways scientific, as they incorporate the scientific method and peer-reviewing to ensure the standard of research results obtained; at the same time, they contain arbitrary elements that precludes the possibility of their identification as ‘scientific’. Therefore, the human sciences are semi-scientific.

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phag e therapy: the nex t miracle cure

Alvin Fan (student submission)

Does the word “superbug” send shivers up your spine? You’ve probably heard of many “superbugs” (antibiotic-resistant bacteria) which have ravaged hospitals worldwide, leaving doctors helpless, forcing them to scramble for new antibiotics and prompting them to prescribe with ever-increasing care. To combat MRSA and fluoroquinolone-resistant E. coli, some researchers are digging out a forgotten treatment from the archives: phage therapy, the usage of bacteriophages to treat bacterial infections.

The word “bacteriophage” derives from the familiar word “bacteria” and the more alien Greek term φαγεῖν (phagein, "to devour"). Put simply, bacteriophages are viruses that use bacteria as their hosts, causing infection and, in most cases, the death of the bacteria; by destroying the offending bacteria, phage therapy relieves bacterial infections. Bacteriophages vary in shape, but the most iconic shape is that of the T-even phages, which have been said to look somewhat like an Apollo spaceship.

Bacteriophages are more common than you might think. For obvious reasons, they are usually found in locations populated by their bacterial hosts. There can be as many as 9×108 virions per mL of seawater, and 2×108 virions per mL in freshwater. [1] Wherever there are bacteria, there are bacteriophages.

Ernest Hanbury Hankin was one of the first to notice the occurrence of bacteriophages in 1896, reporting that the rivers Ganga and Yamuna contained a biological agent that attacked cholera bacteria. This observation was followed by two independent discoveries of bacteriophages, by the microbiologists Frederick Twort in 1915 and Félix d'Herelle in 1917. [2] It was quickly understood to be a way to eradicate bacterial infections, and its research and development quickly started. D'Herelle’s laboratory produced at least five phage preparations which were commercialized by what is now the cosmetics and beauty company L'Oréal. [3] In 1928, penicillin, the first antibiotic, was discovered by Alexander Fleming.

Interest in phage therapy quickly subsided in the West, as antibiotics were easier to manufacture, store and prescribe than phages. Despite the circumstances, SCHOLARS’ JOURNAL APRIL 2016

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Soviet research continued, and bacteriophages were quite successfully applied in field hospitals.

Since the 1950s, antibiotic-resistant bacteria have been on the rise, and this phenomenon has been attributed to pressures including the abuse of antibiotics, such as their use in chicken feed [4] and their unnecessary application in treating human diseases [5]. This has led to a renewed interest in phage therapy. In June 2015 the European Medicines Agency held a workshop for experts and professionals to discuss the usage of bacteriophages to treat bacterial infections.

[6] One of the major advantages of phage therapy is the fact that bacteriophages are living agents capable of evolution. Like evolving resistance to antibiotics, bacteria can evolve to develop resistance against viruses. However, unlike antibiotics, which are static molecules incapable of selectively responding to different bacteria, phages can naturally mutate to overcome these evolved defence mechanisms, which greatly prolongs their efficacy. The mutation rate of bacteriophages can even be manipulated, [7] which can be applied for the purpose of phage therapy. Due to this special property, phages show more promise for a long-term solution against bacterial infections, as opposed to antibiotics, which are already being overrun by superbugs.

Another notable advantage is that bacteriophages have significantly fewer side effects than conventional medicine. Antibiotics often impact many types of naturally occurring bacteria in the body, many of which are beneficial to our health, by changing their numbers and causing them to develop antibiotic resistance. [8] This can lead to diarrhoea, or even a secondary infection.

Bacteriophages, on the other hand, target very specific hosts, typically one or a few species of bacteria per type of phage. They cause few, if any, side effects, and could reduce the long-term harm which is so often dealt to patients in the use of antibiotics.

It should also be noted that it is much easier to dose the usage of bacteriophages.

As a self-replicating agent, even a tiny dose of bacteriophages will self-amplify and produce the desired medical effect. Once a small number of phages infects a population of the targeted bacteria, they will reproduce and increase their SCHOLARS’ JOURNAL APRIL 2016

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numbers. An overdose does not present much of a problem either.

Bacteriophages are made of proteins and nucleic acids, which are found in abundance in the human body; thus bacteriophages are, in theory, nontoxic.

Thus far, there have been virtually no reports of phages causing harm. [9] In the case of an overdose, the excess phages will simply remain inactive for some time, eventually leaving the body of the patient by means such as excretion.

Of course, nothing is perfect. Like many other things, phage therapy has its own limitations. For the sake of objectivity, we should also consider the downside of this type of treatment.

Surprisingly, the advantage of narrow host range is, at the same time, a disadvantage. This means that each type of phage can attack only a few types of pathogens. Since it is not always immediately obvious what pathogen is causing a certain infection, samples of infected tissue would have to be taken and the pathogen within isolated and cultured before a treatment is applied; however, this is time-costly and could delay proper treatment. Mixtures of phages could be prepared in advance so as to tackle infections involving bacteria of unknown species, but even this “cocktail� might not contain the right phages, and in the case of failure, the results could be catastrophic. On the contrary, broadspectrum antibiotics target many types of bacteria, and can often be prescribed without troublesome testing procedures.

Also, as mentioned above, phages can be harder to manufacture and store than conventional medicine, posing a limitation to its practical value. Bacteriophages are easy to find and can be extracted from sources rich in bacteria and phages such as sewer water. However, creating specific, usable samples of phages from the source is more complicated: they have to be cultivated using live samples of the targeted pathogen, and then centrifuged to isolate the desired bacteriophages.

On the matter of preservation, ultraviolet (UV) light has a pronounced effect on the survivability of phages [10], and phages are sometimes very sensitive to changes in pH and temperature. [11] To create a controlled environment where UV is absent and temperature is kept strictly constant requires some effort, and this requirement may discourage practitioners from taking up phage therapy.

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Lastly, due to the fact that phage therapy was largely neglected in the past, not much well-established research has been done on this area. In the 20th century, much of the research surrounding bacteriophages was done in Soviet nations, and even today they are not readily accessible. This means that we cannot yet be sure if there are any unknown limitations to the effectiveness of phage therapy, or any other discouragement that will render its realization infeasible. A lot more research has to be done before phage therapy is certainly safe and practical.

Phage therapy is quite unlike any treatment used in conventional medicine. It undoubtedly has a huge amount of potential, such as offering a potential solution to antibiotic-resistant bacteria, but, as is the case with many things, it has its own limitations, most notably the difficulty in processing phages.

Personally, I strongly support the development of phage therapy. “Superbugs” have the potential to push mortality rates back to what they were in the Middle Ages, and bacteriophages could well be the solution that we are fumbling for.

By utilizing phage therapy, we could offer an alternative to antibiotics that is free of side effects. Research into phage therapy is lacking for now, but increased interest in the subject could compensate for it. Narrow host range can also be addressed with brute force – cocktails of phages that target the most common and the most dangerous bacteria that occur in the environment; imperfect, but good enough in most cases. Manufacture and storage difficulties, on the other hand, concern the abundance of resources more than they do the adequacy of phage therapy; they are likely to lessen themselves as the global economy becomes more developed. In light of recent developments, it seems that phage therapy is here to stay. Its use is still disputable, but it should definitely not be underestimated.

References 1. Wommack, K. E., & Colwell, R. R. (2000). Virioplankton: viruses in aquatic ecosystems. Microbiology and molecular biology reviews, 64(1), 69-114.

2. Wittebole, X., De Roock, S., & Opal, S. M. (2014). A historical overview of bacteriophage therapy as an alternative to antibiotics for the treatment of bacterial pathogens. Virulence, 5(1), 226-235.

3. Summers, W. C. (1999). Felix d'Herelle and the Origins of Molecular Biology. Yale University Press.

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4. Hawkey, P. M., & Jones, A. M. (2009). The changing epidemiology of resistance. Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy, 64(suppl 1), i3-i10.

5. About Antimicrobial Resistance. (2015). Retrieved February 16, 2016, from http://www.cdc.gov/drugresistance/about.html 6. Workshop on the therapeutic use of bacteriophages. (n.d.). Retrieved February 17, 2016, from http://www.ema.europa.eu/ema/index.jsp? curl=pages/news_and_events/events/2015/05/ event_detail_001155.jsp&mid=WC0b01ac058004d5c3 7. Kroutil, L. C., Frey, M. W., Kaboord, B. F., Kunkel, T. A., & Benkovic, S. J. (1998). Effect of accessory proteins on T4 DNA polymerase replication fidelity. Journal of molecular biology, 278(1), 135-146.

8. Rafii, F., Sutherland, J. B., & Cerniglia, C. E. (2008). Effects of treatment with antimicrobial agents on the human colonic microflora. Therapeutics and clinical risk management, 4(6), 1343.

9. Chanishvili, N. (2012). Phage therapy—history from Twort and d’Herelle through Soviet experience to current approaches. Bacteriophages, 83, 1., as quoted by Henein, A. (2013). What are the limitations on the wider therapeutic use of phage?. Bacteriophage, 3(2), e24872.

10.Iriarte, F. B., Balogh, B., Momol, M. T., Smith, L. M., Wilson, M., & Jones, J. B. (2007). Factors affecting survival of bacteriophage on tomato leaf surfaces. Applied and environmental microbiology, 73(6), 1704-1711.

11.Jończyk, E., Kłak, M., Międzybrodzki, R., & Górski, A. (2011). The influence of external factors on bacteriophages—review. Folia microbiologica, 56(3), 191-200.

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tele portatio n: fic titious or real?

Anson Kam

Teleportation has been one of the greatest inspirations in various Science fictions and films, where people or objects are often dematerialized into an energy pattern and rematerialized in their destination. Throughout the years, scientists have been trying to make human teleportation a reality, but to the misery of Science fiction lovers, the research results in vain.

However, as technology advances, an alternative way called quantum teleportation has been discovered, which some believe it to be a possible stepping stone towards human teleportation. In quantum physics, there is a phenomenon called quantum entanglement, where two particles are connected in such a way that when the quantum state (e.g. spin, position, polarization) of one particle is measured an instantaneous and opposite change in the quantum state of the other particle occurs.

(It is as if message is transmitted to another particle faster than the speed of light – which violates the laws of Special Relativity. Einstein described it as “spooky action at a distance”, as he was typically bothered by this concept.

This may be left for future discussions) What happens in quantum teleportation is that we have a set of entangled particles, particle A and B, and simply by knowing the quantum state of one particle we can know the quantum state of the other. This ability to know the quantum state of particles using quantum entanglement has allowed scientists to teleport particles. Two particles are entangled and separated by a large distance.

A third particle, particle T, is brought in, which is the particle that we want to teleport.

Particle T is entangled with particle A and we learn how the quantum state of particle T relates to particle A. The information of the quantum state of particle T is then sent across to where particle B is kept. As particle A and B are entangled, the information about how the quantum state of particle T relates to particle A will also reveal how the quantum state of particle T relates to particle B. Particle B will then be manipulated to replicate the quantum state of particle T, becoming an exact copy of particle T. Meanwhile, the original particle T is destroyed as its information was extracted and sent across.

Sounds simple, isn’t it? Now you may ask, if we can teleport one particle and humans are after all made up of nothing but particles, can we teleport humans?

The answer is clear: no. Above all theoretical deductions, practicality ought to SCHOLARS’ JOURNAL APRIL 2016

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be considered in the first place. A single human being contains a huge amount of particles – the number would have 28 zeros behind it – which would mean an immense amount of data would need to be transferred during human teleportation. Transferring this amount of data using the means we have today would take up at least quadrillion years, which is definitely not applicable to reality in any sense.

At the same time, it opens up a philosophical debate of whether particle T is actually particle T, or just a precise copy of particle T. Imagine that human quantum teleportation becomes reality. Say Alice wants to travel from Hong Kong to London. Two chambers of entangled particles would be in each city.

Alice would step into a scanning device and the quantum state of each individual particle would be measured in relation to the chamber of particles in Hong Kong. This information would be related to London and there the chamber of particles would be manipulated to replicate the quantum state of each of Alice’s individual particles, creating an exact replica of Alice.

Meanwhile, the original Alice in Hong Kong has been destroyed.

The question is, as the original Alice dies in the process of teleportation but is reconstructed at her destination in London, is the final Alice still Alice? London Alice is identical to the last atom as the Hong Kong Alice and is in full possession of knowledge, experience, and memories of the latter. London Alice even believes she is the Hong Kong Alice, while the original Hong Kong Alice no longer exists to debate the issue with her. It is a philosophical and ethical dilemma and will sure create discontents among different social groups.

Hence, human teleportation would be extremely difficult to be achieved, and although theoretically it is not impossible, it is improbable that such technology will be developed in the near future. Until then, human teleportation shall remain as one of the most fascinating imagination and mesmerizing mystery in human history.

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why you should be anxious about rocket science

Tsang Long Kiu

Many world-changing innovations, when first released, tend to be disregarded or underestimated. When aeroplanes were first developed, they were dismissed as ‘interesting toys’. When the internet was born, people had a hard time believing that it would make any real impact on life. And just a few months ago, a breakthrough that will alter the future of humanity forever was achieved.

On the 22nd of December, 2015, American space transport company SpaceX launched a rocket into orbit – and landed it down again.

That doesn’t sound particularly impressive, but it is. Even though the event didn’t attract much attention, its importance far exceeds violent protests in Mong Kok and US presidential elections and earthquakes and ISIS and climate change.

Firstly, landing a rocket is exceedingly difficult, also why no one had ever done it before. To complete such a manoeuvre, the rocket would have to have very precise self-guiding systems to steer it through hurricane-level winds at hypersonic speeds, and decelerate just before landing while maintaining exactly the same output on all its engines to prevent it tipping over. Not to mention the tiny amount of fuel it has to complete the above, as most of the fuel would be gone from getting it up to space in the first place. In short, not a simple task.

Ok, but just because something is difficult doesn’t make it important. The significance in this event is that the landed rocket can now be reused for another launch. Previously, every single part of a rocket burned up in the atmosphere or fell into the sea, so each time something had to be sent into space, a new rocket was built. This made space travel outrageously expensive. However, with reusable rockets, the price for a launch would be drastically decreased, by around 2 orders of magnitude, making going to space affordable to many more.

And with more people able to pay for a ticket, we can finally do what sciencefiction has been promoting for decades: colonize Mars.

Yes, colonize Mars.

Life on Earth is delicate, and any number of catastrophic events could easily wipe everything out, humans included. Sun flares, asteroids, epidemics, gamma ray bursts are only a few natural examples. Add to that man-made issues like climate change and nuclear bombs, and it becomes clear that having all humans live on Earth doesn’t seem a very safe situation to be in. Now, if space ticket prices fell low enough, some people would be both willing and able to head to Mars (Make no mistake, a lot of people want to go), and if enough people fell into this category, they would be able to create a self-sustaining facility on Mars, SCHOLARS’ JOURNAL APRIL 2016

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and achieve colonization. Humanity would essentially gain a ‘backup’, and our chances of survival as a species would be greatly increased. As Stephen Hawking said, “I don’t think the human race will survive the next thousand years, unless we spread into space …We need to expand our horizons beyond planet Earth if we are to have a long-term future.” Clearly, we should put all our efforts into colonization and make it our top priority right now, so that we don’t feel sorry for ourselves when a disaster comes along. This is why the reusable rocket may well be the most beneficial invention in the history of mankind.

So next time the SpaceX logo appears in the news, pay close attention as if lives depend on it. As they do.

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a bite int o infinity

Cheung Kai Hei Trevor

Let’s face it: you are reading an article about mathematics, well, and a little bit of philosophy.

Long before modern mathematics were developed, a Greek philosopher Zeno raised a paradox (later called Dichotomy paradox), that, when translated to English, was: “That which is in locomotion must arrive at the half-way stage before it arrives at the goal.” [1] What does that mean? Well, let’s consider the following example.

Suppose a person wants to walk a distance of 1m. In order for him to walk this distance, he first needs to walk half the distance, i.e. 0.5m. In order to walk the remaining distance, he then needs to walk half the remaining distance, i.e.

0.25m. This process can go on forever and ever, meaning that the person can never reach the end of the distance. The diagram below [2] illustrates explicitly what I mean:

Does that mean any motion can never happen? But it contradicts with what we can see: we can always finish walking 1m! What is wrong with this paradox (or why was Zeno so stupid to raise this kind of paradox)?

This paradox can be said the “ancestor” of all infinite series. The paradox, expressed in a more succinct form, is actually asking if the following equation is correct.

In modern mathematics, it is the most stupid question to ask, but back then, in the BCE, nobody could comprehend what limits and infinite series were. Here comes the mathematics bit: To prove the equation is correct, the infinite sum is often denoted as S, and by some operations, we can find the sum quite easily.

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Which gives us the answer S=1, i.e. our original equation is correct. However, can this method be always used? Just allow me to give you an insight into how this method is non-convincing towards the Zeno’s paradox.

There is quite a famous infinite sum, the harmonic series, and its sibling, alternating harmonic series, which are S1 and S2 respectively.

While S1 tends to infinity, S2 tends to a number less than 1; let’s just call it a at the moment. What if we consider the following trying to compute S1?

It is just by subtraction, and we can see that after subtraction, it gives back the same thing – does that mean S2 is 0 (but a does not equal 0)?

What do I want to say by the S1 and S2? When you don’t know the sum of S1, but you know the sum of S2, by trying the method similar to how we prove is correct, we get an inconceivable result – S2 is 0?!

The harmonic series gives you the idea that our method to solve the paradox is totally non-convincing. But how can one solve the paradox, or prove is correct without the method listed above? Maybe it’s time for you to find out.

References: 1. Aristotle, Physics, VI:9, 239b10 2.Photo credit: http://www.conspiracybase.com/final_truth/chapter2.html

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the genius’s guide to love

Shaun Lee

What is love? What’s this mysterious feeling of euphoria, anxiety and passion that hits us all of a sudden? Why do we read the texts with the person we like over and over again? How do we understand this powerful urge? It can’t be described- right?

Well, the answer is wrong! Love can actually be explained by science (gasps).

Humans are actually very simple, with a lot of urges related to the reward system. What’s that? Well, when we do something that we like, or is good for us, we get spikes in neurotransmitters and hormones like endorphins that make us feel good and also dopamine (which is related to the anticipation of the reward).

So back to the topic, there are basically 3 stages of love: Lust, attraction and attachment.

First of all, we have lust. When we enter our teen years, we start experiencing high levels of hormones like testosterone and oestrogen (which also causes higher chance of breast cancer by the way). These hormones are called sex hormones and are the very things that gives us desire, confidence and general well-being. We start being curious in the opposite gender and take more interest in them.

The next stage, and the stage most commonly seen in the movies, is attraction. It is the famous ‘love-struck’ phase. Have you ever thought nothing else but the person you like all day long? Or start sweating, having clammy hands when you see someone? Congratulations! You are attracted to him/her! Funnily enough, this stage is very similar to drug-taking. Both will let us experience huge spikes in neurotransmitters like dopamine and norepinephrine (aka adrenaline) and the most important of them all, serotonin. Are you scared by these terms already?

Great! There’s more to come! Let us focus on serotonin. It is truly magical and plays a major part in moods like anxiety and glee. It can even drive you insane.

The more serotonin you have, the happier you are. Deficiency of this little hormone can cause depression. It is interesting to note that serotonin is associated with bone growth. When synthesized in the brain, it can act as a neurotransmitter and enhance bone formation. The result? You grow taller!

However, too much of it can result in the Serotonin Syndrome which causes confusion, sweating, high fever and even unconsciousness. Oh well. Nothing is perfect.

But what makes love so perfect and strong is the attachment stage. If you have reached this last stage, then your bond with the other very lucky person is likely SCHOLARS’ JOURNAL APRIL 2016

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to last long. This attachment stage usually involves sexual intercourse which secretes another two hormones, vasopressin and oxytocin. To keep my dear reader’s minds pure, I’ll pass this stage :D How are we attracted by the opposite gender? There are two known ways: by appearance and pheromones. 0.7 waist-to-hip ratio and symmetrical features are all signs of fertility and good genes. We can also ‘sniff’ pheromones- odorless chemicals that are detected by an organ in the nose. Research has shown that women prefer the ‘smell’ of men who have a different immune system than their own. Want to find your true love? Keep on sniffing!

And now for the biggest question: why do we love? What is the purpose of having love? Physiologically, we want love because it can give us selfassurance, confidence, and let us understand our values. It lets us mature and gives us a boost. Another view on love is more depressing: Selfishness. I like quoting the Richard Dawkins’ Selfish Gene Theory. ‘We are survival machines – robot vehicles blindly programmed to preserve the selfish molecules known as genes…. We and all other animals are machines created by our genes…we are born selfish’. Many scientists think that we experience love, we have this reward system all because of the need to reproduce, all because of the need to pass on our genes. We love others, because we love ourselves. Is that really so? You’ll have to find out yourself.

‘If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.’ What is love to you?

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Chloe Wong

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