SISR Changing Landscapes - Spring 2019

Spring 2019 | University of Chicago A Production of The Triple Helix

The Science in Society Review

changing landscapes

ASU - Berkeley - Brown - Cambridge - CMU - Cornell - Georgia Tech - Georgetown - GWU - Harker - Harvard - JHU - NUS - OSU - UC Davis - UCSD - UChicago - Melbourne - Yale

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TRIPLE HELIX CHAPTERS North America Chapters Arizona State University Brown University Carnegie Mellon University Cornell University Georgia Institute of Technology George Washington University Georgetown University The Harker School Harvard University Johns Hopkins University The Ohio State University University of California, Berkeley University of California, Davis University of California, San Diego University of Chicago Yale University Europe Chapters Cambridge University Aristotle University Asia Chapter National University of Singapore Australia Chapter University of Melbourne

TABLE OF CONTENTS Tech Addiction and Digital Minimalism

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Charlotte Soehner...........................................................

ADDICTION AND THE ANTHROPOCENE, consumption and the climate

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annabella archacki......................................................... the biological and psychological effects of solitary confinement

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alexa perlmutter...........................................................

Fire and brimstone: the toba extinction

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allan zhang...................................................................

A quantum leap: revolutionizing how we see and use light

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paul G. severino.............................................................

optogenetics: past, present, and future

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ayushi hegde..................................................................

crispr and consequences

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jerome freudenberg.......................................................

emotions and linguistics

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ross rauber and sofia garcia martinez..........................

TRIPLE HELIX STAFF President Nila Ray Vice President Edward Zhao SCIENCE IN SOCIETY REVIEW STAFF Editors-in-Chief Elizabeth Crowdus Rachel Gleyzer Production Team Ariel Goldszmidt Ariel Pan Managing Editors Sydney Jenkins Abby Weymouth Sharon Zeng Associate Editors Katherine Boggs Anya Dunaif Ellie L. Frank Karen Ji Caroline Kim Writers Annabella Archacki Jerome Freudenberg Sofia Garcia Martinez Ayushi Hegde Alexa Perlmutter Ross Rauber Paul G. Severino Charlotte Soehner Allan Zhang

Message from Chapter Leadership Dear Reader, It is with great excitement that we bring to you the 2019 Spring Issue of The Science in Society Review. A new year has introduced new directions to consider in some of the most pressing scientific issues and newest innovations on the rise in society. Here at The Triple Helix, we understand the need to investigate these questions in an integrative manner.

In this vein, our writers, aided by a strong support system of undergraduate editors and the executive board team, strive to incorporate the perspectives of multiple fields in their articles. We at The Triple Helix at UChicago continue to proudly uphold our mission of exploring the interdisciplinary nature of the sciences and how they shape our world through the work we present to you.

We are honored to encourage our future leaders in their rigorous exploration of the key challenges in society today. It is our hope that the articles presented herein will stimulate and challenge you to join our dialogue.

And so, I leave you with this: How do you see science in society?

Nila Ray President, The Triple Helix UChicago uchicago.president@thetriplehelix.org

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Message from the Editors Dear Reader, The cover of this issue shows two views of a landscape. Through the screen of a smartphone, the landscape dazzles with a blossoming cherry tree. Outside of the screen, the landscape lies dull and barren. The inspiration for the cover comes from our two opening articles, which ask how changing landscapes—digital, social, and environmental—shape experience, interaction, and the fabric of society itself.

The articles in this volume delve into the nexus of nature, technology, and society. In their articles, some authors approach this question by unpacking how scientific research in fields like quantum photonics might turn science fiction into reality. Others scrutinize the implementation of scientific breakthroughs: some look to the future, asking questions about gene editing and designer babies, while others look to the past, analyzing conflicting evidence regarding the Toba extinction of 75,000 years ago.

These articles tell the story of a society which is striving to use technology to look forward and backwards at once, writing the future as it tries to uncover the past.

Sincerely, Elizabeth Crowdus and Rachel Gleyzer Editors-in-Chief, The Science in Society Review uchicago.print@thetriplehelix.org

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Tech Addiction and Digital Minimalism Charlotte Soehner

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s our reliance on smartphones grows,

a host of questions about the effects of widespread smartphone use arises. Can we retain a sense of self while curating a social media profile? Does texting count as human interaction?

What does emotional connection look like in the age of the internet? Dr. Cal Newport, a computer science professor at Georgetown University, might have the answer: keep your tech gear, but engage in a practice that he calls “digital minimalism.”

Before diving into Newport’s critique of technological use, I will examine the benefits of technology. Members of Gen Z, the multitude of babies and teenagers born after 1995, seem to be naturally attracted to hardware like iPhones, tablets, AirPods, as well as to applications such as Facebook and Amazon. With incomprehensible amounts of information at our fingertips, our generation is extremely research-oriented and innovative. Entrepreneurship has soared, boosted by the infrastructure of technological support such as automating customer service and financial management. Things get done quicker, faster, better. Currently, 15 million Americans are self-employed, and the number is only rising.1

Gen Z is also the most open-minded generation in history, embracing nontraditional forms of identity and marriage, including those within the realms of race, gender and sexuality.

Resources and support mechanisms, widely available on the Internet, fa6

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notions that technology is a gateway to depression, social isolation, or financial crisis are alarmist and should be considered with a grain or two of salt.

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cilitate connections among people who have endured similar hardships or who are discovering new parts of themselves. Interpersonal connections are enabled and strengthened by social media. The language developed collaboratively on social media has led us to speak in new ways about our identity. Technology paves the way for social change, communication, and activism to thrive. Using the internet has given us reassurance that there are people out there just like us and in many ways has broadened our empathy. This can be most tangibly seen in protest movements such as the Arab Spring, the Women’s March, Black Lives Matter, and #MeToo.2 However, there exist tangible, darker consequences alongside the considerable advancements brought by technology. Notions that technology is a gateway to depression, social isolation, or financial crisis are alarmist and should be considered with a grain or two of salt. Technology addiction, though, is a crisis that experts like Newport are trying to understand and solve. Issues in technology use begin to arise when technology stands in the way of human interaction and early childhood development and curiosity. The Child Mind Institute warns that selfies are damaging self-esteem, social media is linked with deteriorating mental health among teenagers, and video games can reduce children's ability to concentrate.3 Is the Internet destroying the meaningfulness of human contact and social engagement? Perhaps.

The line between technology’s improvement of our lives and its disastrous effects is blurry. Dr. Newport attempts to answer this question and to clarify the multifaceted discourses surrounding technology in his book, Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World. Dr. Newport introduces a calming philosophy for the anxious, highly wired Gen Z members who cannot put down their iPhones. Rather than moralizing the matter, Dr. Newport explains how one can navigate a tech-ridden environment.

Cover of Cal Newport's Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World Credit: Amazon

Dr. Newport’s Digital Minimalism begins by acknowledging that digital life is exhausting. We rely on it so heavily that it has become a necessary part of human life and productivity. The urge to Google something or to check social media is now second nature, a sort of twitch where our fingers are always yearning for a click, a swipe, a refresh. Dr. Newport explains that “this irresistible attraction to screens is leading people to feel as though they’re ceding more and more of their autonomy when it comes to deciding how they direct their attention. No one, of course, signed up for this loss of control.”4 Dr. Newport is referring to the addictive property of technology use. People download apps to connect, share, and promote. Ironically, upon using and beginning to rely on these digital aids, people believe that their lives are fundamentally supported by technology. They can find themselves unable to maintain conversations without pausing and checking social media. Tech addiction is accidental in the sense that © 2019, The Triple Helix, Inc. All rights reserved.

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technology begins as a useful tool, and the need to use it can progress to compulsiveness, urged on by ad-driven business models.

To address the addictive properties of technology use, Dr. Newport proposes practicing digital minimalism, a simple adaptation to declutter how we use our gadgets. The ultimate Teens on their phones. Credit: BNI Treatment Centers purpose of digital minimalism is injecting digital use with intentionality. Such a concerted effort means that the user will not have time to be drawn deeply into useless matters and to the black hole of hours-long screen time, which often turns into a pathological and obsessive period of mindless clicking. Dr. Newport’s vision is to Marie Kondo technology use. He begs us to ask: do you really care about the time you are about to spend online? Turn it off unless it matters.

Our relationship with technology is complicated. At times, it consists of a jumble of positive affirmations we receive from social media. At other times, we experience the troubling psychological consequences of comparing ourselves to online images and forgetting how to properly interact in person because of how much time we spend on our devices. As Dr. Newport highlights, technology use grows concerning when it expands from its intended role as a supporting actor in our lives into a force that dictates how we act and feel.

Millennials, on average, check their phone 150 times per day.5 Checking a phone is useful, but not necessarily something that must be done so often. We have to unplug sometimes. Otherwise, we forget ourselves and lose touch with reality. Before you check your phone, consider fighting the nervous urge to feel cool glass against your fingertips. Newport’s most salient point is not that we have to put our phones down, but that we have to think about technology in the larger context of human interaction. In order to prioritize our own happiness, we must distance ourselves from inclinations to overuse and to hoard gadgets. We must act as digital minimalists.

Charlotte Soehner is a second year at the University of Chicago, intending to double major in Fundamentals and History. She is specifically interested in the historical and social development of modern human rights norms, as well as political dissidence movements in East Asia. On campus, Charlotte is involved with the Institute of Politics, the French Club, and various civic engagement efforts.

References

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1

Lin, Y., Custodio, E., Garcia, O., Handrick, L., Gravel, J., Mindy, & Kanapi, H. (2019, March 25). 15 Entrepreneurship Statistics You Should Know. Retrieved from https://fitsmallbusiness.com/entrepreneurship-statistics/

2

Anderson, M., Toor, S., Rainie, L., Smith, A., Anderson, M., Toor, S., . . . Smith, A. (2018, July 11). Activism in the Social Media Age. Retrieved from https://www. pewinternet.org/2018/07/11/activism-in-the-social-media-age/

3

Miller, C., & Child Mind Institute. (n.d.). Video Games and ADHD | ADHD and Attention Disorders in Children. Retrieved from https://childmind.org/article/ do-video-games-cause-adhd/ & Miller, C., & Child Mind Institute. (n.d.). Does Social Media Cause Depression? Retrieved from https://childmind.org/article/ is-social-media-use-causing-depression/

4

Newport, C. (2019). Digital minimalism: Choosing a focused life in a noisy world. New York: Portfolio/Penguin: xi.

5

Brandon, J. (2017, April 17). The Surprising Reason Millennials Check Their Phones 150 Times a Day. Retrieved from https://www.inc.com/john-brandon/sciencesays-this-is-the-reason-millennials-check-their-phones-150-times-per-day.html

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Addiction and the Anthropocene, Consumption and the Climate Annabella Archacki

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ur bodies exist at the nexus of nature and society. They are a lens through which we see how these two concepts weave together and fragment across time. This relationship strains under the approach of death, that fragile boundary between nature and culture. Death is the law of the former, but a threat to the latter; consequently it is the specter of death — disease — which most clearly illuminates the convergence of nature and culture. In this article, I examine disease, both physiological and mental, as a window into society’s ever-mutating relationship with nature. As Susan Sontag observed in Illness as Metaphor, the twentieth century saw mental illness inherit many of the metaphors associated with tuberculosis (TB), also called consumption, in the century prior.1 I argue that it is one specific type of mental disorder, addiction, that inherits the true cultural symbolism of TB. Unlike other disorders, addiction most strongly recreates TB’s associations with creative insight, spirituality, trips, and waste.

In different maladies, the vocabulary remains, but the semantics evolve, evincing two divergent concepts of the natural world. Victorian ideas about consumption attest to a vision of nature moving in harmony with society. In addiction, the progress of civilization exists at odds with the goals of nature. Culture and nature become mortally opposed, culminating in the tension of the Anthropocene.

TB and addiction are strongly associated with artists. Drugs are regarded as catalyzing and deepening creative genius. Cannabis and psychedelics expand the bounds of the mind, bestowing insight upon those who seek it. However, drugs do not an artist make. Talent must already exist for a substance to “unleash” it, and excesses of emotion must precede the drug selected to placate, amplify, and channel them. © 2019, The Triple Helix, Inc. All rights reserved.

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TB was seen as both the product and release of extreme passions and creative genius.2 Repressed and overactive emotions heightened one’s risk of contracting TB, just as in modern medical parlance, a preexisting mental illness increases one’s vulnerability to drug addiction.2 Billie Holiday, Jimi Hendrix, Judy Garland, Whitney Houston, River Phoenix, Janis Joplin, and Elvis Presley are all members of the pantheon of artists who died too young from addiction and overdose. Their spiritual predecessors were consumptives — among them, John Keats, Frédéric Chopin, Sidney Lanier, Giovanni Battista Pergolesi, and all three Brontë sisters.

The body of the consumptive creative, like that of the addicted artist, dies young, but the spirit achieves cultural immortality.

Credit: Wikipedia

By the 1870s and 1880s, TB was culturally Singer-songwriter Janis Joplin (1943-1970) entrenched as the physiological expression died of a heroin overdose at the age of 27, making of spiritual turmoil, emblematized by its her a member of the infamous “27 club” of symptoms of fever and highs and lows artists who died at the same age. Other members of energy.2 In parallel, the addict moves who died due to overdose include Jimi Hendrix, through the turbulence of euphoric highs Amy Winehouse, and Jean-Michel Basquiat. punctuated by crashes and prolonged periods of melancholia. The symptoms of withdrawal replace the consumptive fever, when the emotions the addict seeks to repress manifest in the body, in similarly febrile form, as sweats and shakes. The almost-epileptic overdose resuscitation, now an ingrained cultural image (think Pulp Fiction or Trainspotting), unleashes the full effect of these repressed sensations which triumph against the user in a violent, abortive rage. The stereotypical junkie, like the consumptive, is pale and emaciated, the body overtaken by a suffering spirit.2 Both TB and addiction are diseases in which the body submits to a wild soul.

Consumptives and addicts experience a critical disconnect between body and spirit, nature and culture.

As “spiritual diseases,” TB and addiction herald a misalignment between body and spirit.

Treatment must heal this divide by including a “trip” back into nature to resituate the soul.

Both diseases evoke a captivating aura of leisure, sensitivity, and a blasé intimacy with suffering.

This superior spirituality, both fragile and jaded, has proved so beguiling that it has become stylish.

TB and addiction have inspired trends in fashion, romanticizing the emaciated, pale, fragile, and languorous bodies of the afflicted.

In the mid-1800s, women’s corsets pulled tighter and their makeup lightened in a self-conscious imitation of the consumptive physique.3 Likewise, the 1990s saw the rise of “heroin chic,” epitomized by Corinne Day’s grunge-adjacent photos of the waifish 10

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and malnourished Kate Moss.4 The then-popular dragon motif even drew criticism for its connotation of “chasing the dragon,” slang for inhaling the smoke off of a cooked line of heroin.5

However, addicts are not “consumed”; they do not “waste away” as in the language of TB. Instead, addicts “get wasted”; they “waste their lives.” Waste is something addicts do; it is not something that is done to them.

As “spiritual diseases,” TB and addiction herald a misalignment between body and spirit. Treatment must heal this divide by including a “trip” back into nature to resituate the soul. For Susan Sontag, the spiritual “trip” central to the idea of medical confinement is one of the key continuities between TB and mental illness.1 Consumptives were shipped off to sanatoriums in high, dry locales such as mountains or deserts, the ancestors to modern-day psychiatric hospitals.1 Physical displacement symbolized the “psychic voyage” from illness to health, “an extension of the romantic idea of travel that was associated with tuberculosis”.1 As Sontag argues, “It is not an accident that the most common metaphor for an extreme psychological experience...is a trip”.1 Although Sontag claims mental disorder as the legacy of TB, it is actually one specific type of mental disorder — addiction — that is the true heir to the metaphors of consumption. Despite sometimes describing psychosis, “tripping” is, of course, more conventionally used as a euphemism for psychedelic intoxication.

In addition to the “trip,” addiction inherits TB’s metaphor of “waste.” Since antiquity, TB bore the title of the “wasting” disease, since it withered the body the way that a landscape might run to seed.6 The ancient Greeks knew it as phthisis, “decay” (from phthiein, “to waste away”), which persevered as a medical term through the 19th century.6 The same language is present in the vocabulary of alcohol consumption. One “gets wasted” when one is drunk, but the waste metaphor is even more insidiously pervasive than one might realize. In Wasted: Performing Addiction in America, cultural and literary studies professor Heath A. Diehl argues that waste is, in fact, the focal metaphor of addiction.

According to Diehl, addiction hastens not only a “wasting of the body,” but fuels the addict’s squandering “of money, goods, time, effort”.7 However, addicts are not “consumed”; they do not “waste away” as in the language of TB. Instead, addicts “get wasted”; they “waste their lives.” Waste is Credit: Wikimedia Commons something addicts do; it is not something Four years after painting La miseria (1886), that is done to them. The “waste” the consumptive Venezuelan painter Cristóbal Rojas died at the relatively young age of 32. associated with drug use emerges as © 2019, The Triple Helix, Inc. All rights reserved.

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a kind of pollution of oneself. The language of “pollution” and “toxicity” pervades the moralistic diatribes of concerned friends, self-righteous clean living proponents, and the “about” page of many a rehab website.8 This idea takes on a literal meaning given that drugs are environmental pollutants.

Pharmaceutical treatThomas Cole, The Oxbow (1836) Credit: Wikimedia Commons This Romantic scene depicts a clash between nature and society, ment plant effluent can much like the one represented in 19th century models of tuberculosis. accumulate in bodies of water in greater concentrations than in the blood of patients taking the medicine.9 Pollution can be taken as a symptom of a kind of addiction, wherein society cannot seem to shake its dependencies on fossil fuels, plastic, fertilizers, pesticides, and so on. The “high” of novel technologies and the consequent economic booms soon plateau into a new normal. Withdrawal effects include a planetary-scale fever of 14.9 degrees Celsius and the economic challenges of transitioning to sustainable industry. In addiction, “waste” means pollution.

The idea of “waste” in TB is not that of pollution. In TB, the “waste” is perpetrated not by humanity, but by nature herself. In the Romantic period, autumn began to denote a period of premature decay, rot, and waste, breaking from earlier associations of autumn with harvest, plenitude and festival.10 Urbanization ostracized people from the celebratory rituals of the harvest, obscuring the spectacle of life while amplifying the presence of death. Until 1882, the bacterial cause of TB remained undiscovered, and people did not yet recognize the danger of contagion from living in close urban quarters.2 Nonetheless, doctors linked city life to TB on the grounds that the fast-paced, overstimulating environment exacerbated the moral and emotional instability that supposedly led to the disease.2 Urbanization contributed to the uptick in TB-related deaths circa the mid-18th century, which further contributed to autumn as a symbol of decay.10 The lingering language of phthisis (“decay”) and the “wasted” landscape of the tubercular body brought to mind the autumnal rot, a connotation not lost on scores of consumptive young poets.10 The central tubercular metaphor of the 19th century was that of plants prematurely going to seed, since, like the consumptive body, “the bloom...Died on the promise of the fruit”.11 Plants go to seed because they are, in a way, more fertile than their brethren, precociously flowering or producing fruit. This process is paradoxically one of under- as well as over-fertility, since the early fecundity of a plant leads to its early demise. Likewise, the hyper-potency of the consumptive’s mental and emotional capacities resulted in the precocious maturation of the creative fruits of these powers.2 The waste pictured here is not one of pollution, but of plants and people left to rot. People were responsible only insofar as they failed to take advantage of nature (or of one’s natural artistic powers) before it went to seed.

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Over time, TB effectively “cured” mavericks of their social unacceptability, supporting a concept of nature in harmony with the goals of civilization — unlike that of the Anthropocene. Victorian era rationality considered the onset of TB, like most other diseases at the time, the consequence of antisocial behavior. Untoward habits such as intemperance, gluttony, and masturbation could further overstimulate the already-heightened feelings and senses of those at risk for TB.2 Despite killing consumptives, the illness effectively cured them of these behavioral ineptitudes.

TB provided a mechanism through which consumptives could “spend” their excess energy through fever, sweats, burning through one’s body weight, and coughing up sputum and blood.1 The disease drained patients of the volatile sentiments that initially put them at risk.2 Despite the moral condemnation it bore, TB was therefore seen as a “noble demise” that purified the soul.2 It resulted in sufferers’ salvation from Hell, and their subsequent reunion with family in Heaven.2 Inside the consumptive body, nature and culture united for a single purpose: to transform the person within and return them to society, if not in life, then in death.

Addiction, on the other hand, is considered an ongoing form of rebellion against society.

According to the DSM-5, epigenetics can influence an individual’s risk for substance use disorders.12 This genetic influence, or the idea that addiction traces back to an internal nature fundamentally at odds with society, also surfaces in the philosophy of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA). The Big Book (AA’s bible) frequently references the “emotional” or “rebellious nature” of the alcoholic, which renders one “bodily and mentally different from his fellows."13 AA encourages even those who have not touched intoxicants in decades to continue to go to meetings, where they introduce themselves as addicts. “Once an alcoholic, always an alcoholic,” reads the Big Book.13 Even once addicts are “cured” of their dependence, they cannot be “cured” of the disease. It must become a part of their identity, differentiating them from their peers. The nature of the potential addict ostracizes them from their fellows, pitting nature against society.

This conflict is at the heart of not only the addict, but the Anthropocene. Whereas TB evinced a vision of social and natural harmony, modern society’s economic goals are seen as incompatible with ecological stabil-

The original 1996 cast of Rent15 Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Pictured is the original Broadway cast of Rent (1996), a musical based on an opera based on a book (respectively, Puccini’s La bohème, 1885, and Henri Murger’s La vie de bohème, 1845-49). In the 19th century versions, one of the main characters dies of tuberculosis. In the 20th century musical, she dies of AIDS contracted from a heroin needle. Each adaptation follows a materially poor but spiritually rich cohort of young artists, demonstrating the semantic transfer from one disease to the other.

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ity. In the language of the Club of Rome researchers (one of the first organizations to spearhead the environmental movement in the 1970s), nature and culture emerge as “opposing forces,” rather than two complementary parts of one whole.14 Consumption mended this breach by transforming an individual’s nature and integrating them into society. Addiction, however, cannot. The individual’s nature, like nature in general, is not only fragile, but fixed. It does not transform at the behest of society, just as nature does not change her laws for human culture. The relationship between the two is brittle, antagonistic, and full of animosity. Addiction lays bare a raw wound between nature and culture at the scale of society, as well as of the individual.

The two diseases isolate the spirit from the material world by consuming and eventually killing the body, while simultaneously apotheosizing the misunderstood artist inside.

As “spiritual” diseases, tuberculosis in the 19th century and addiction in the 20th expose an antagonism between body and soul mirroring the one between nature and culture. In both cases, the individual’s naturally sensitive, artistic temperament divides them from society. The two diseases isolate the spirit from the material world by consuming and eventually killing the body, while simultaneously apotheosizing the misunderstood artist inside. TB mends this rift between nature and culture by transforming consumptives into morally obedient individuals. Thus, in TB, nature and culture work together to save the souls of the afflicted; the two realms prove mutually compatible. In addiction, nature fundamentally opposes culture. The “waste” involved is that of pollution, suggesting discord between nature and the human societies that contaminate it. Moreover, the addict’s fixed inner “nature” renders them a creature apart. In the eyes of society, an addict is an addict for life, and thus, also a pariah. The fault line between nature and culture remains, seemingly unbreachable. Hopefully, the study of disease as a lens into the relationship between nature and culture can be more than an intellectual thought exercise, potentially offering a means of seeking a solution. If spiritual injury lies at the root of the concept of addiction, and thus, at that of the Anthropocene, surely recovery requires spiritual treatment — or perhaps the collapse of the nature/ culture, body/spirit dichotomies altogether. “Illness is the night-side of life,” wrote Sontag, but illness illumines as much as it darkens.1 Only in disease do we discover our bodies, our worlds, ourselves.

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Native to Austin, Texas, Annabella Archacki is a third year undergraduate at the University of Chicago studying the History and Philosophy of Science. Her interests include sustainability, astrophysics, metaphors of embodiment, science fiction, and romance languages. She is a board member for the literary magazine Euphony Journal. In other capacities, she has worked as a web designer, waitress, Cyprus-based archaeological research assistant, steward of the Great Lakes, and assistant production designer for the film Love’s Labour’s Lost.

References 1

Sontag, S. (1978). Illness as Metaphor. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 35; 35; 15, 35; 36; 36; 13-14;

2

Ott, K. (1996). Fevered Lives: Tuberculosis in American Culture since 1870. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 78; 35-36; 20; 13; 7; 19; 32; 35-36; 36-37; 14; 14

3

Mullin, E. (2016). How Tuberculosis Shaped Victorian Fashion. Smithsonian. Retrieved from https://www.smithsonianmag. com/science-nature/how-tuberculosis-shaped-victorian-fashio n-180959029/

4

Spindler, A. (1996). The 90's Version of the Decadent Look. The New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes. com/1996/05/07/style/the-90-s-version-of-the-decadent-look.html

5

Allwood, E. (2015). Revisiting the 90s moral panic over heroin chic. Dazed. Retrieved from http://www.dazeddigital.com/ fashion/article/28630/1/revisiting-the-90s-moral-panic-over-he roin-chic

6

Frith, J. (2014). History of Tuberculosis. Part 1 - Phthisis, consumption and the White Plague. Journal of Military and Veterans’ Health, 22(2).

7

Diehl, H. (2015). Wasted: Performing Addiction in America. Surrey: Ashgate, xvii; xvii.

8

Texas Men’s Drug And Alcohol Rehab Program. (2016). Retrieved from https://www.treehouserehab.org/treatment-programs/texas-mens-drug-rehab/

9

Larsson D. G. (2014). Pollution from drug manufacturing: review and perspectives. Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences, 369(1656), 20130571. doi:10.1098/rstb.2013.0571

10

Dubos, R. and Dubos, J. (1996). The White Plague: Tuberculosis, Man, and Society. New Brunswick: Rutgers UP, 45; 45; 45.

Morens D. M. (2002). At the deathbed of consumptive art. Emerging infectious diseases, 8(11), 1353–1358. doi:10.3201/ eid0811.020549

11

American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Substance-Related and Addictive Disorders. In Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (5th ed.).

12

13

W., B. (2001). The Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous (4th ed.). A.A. Grapevine, 52, 502, 30; 33

Meadows, D. H., Randers, J., Meadows, D. L. for the Club of Rome. (1972). The Limits to Growth. In L. Robin, S. Sörlin, and P. Warde (eds.), The Future of Nature: Documents of Global Change (pp. 101-112). New Haven: Yale UP (2013), 110.

14

JessnKat. The original Broadway cast of Rent from 1996. Wikimedia Commons. Retrieved from https://commons.wikimedia. org/wiki/File:OriginalBroadwayCast-1.jpg

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THE BIOLOGICAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF SOLITARY CONFINEMENT ALEXA PERLMUTTER

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he psychological effects of solitary confinement have been controversial as far back as 1890. That year, the Supreme Court evaluated a statute that adds a period of solitary confinement to a death sentence. In his decision, Justice Samuel Freeman Miller found that that when prisoners “had no direct intercourse or sight of any human being and no employment or instruction” they fell into “a semi-fatuous condition, from which it was next to impossible to arouse them, and others became violently insane; others still committed suicide, while those who stood the ordeal better were not generally reformed.”1 Here, Justice Miller both suggests that solitary confinement has detrimental psychological effects on inmates and implies that this punishment is not an effective method of rehabilitation.

Indeed, biologically and psychologically-based appeals for criminal justice reform are as old as time. We now have robust research and data to support these efforts.

This article gives an overview of the effects that serving time in prison has on the human brain and body, with a focus on solitary confinement. I argue that current research suggests that this isolation results in psychological effects that are seriously 16

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Solitary confinement— also known as isolation, administration segregation, and special housing unit, among other names—is used to describe conditions of 22-24-hour lockdown in a small room behind a solid steel door. © 2019, The Triple Helix, Inc. All rights reserved.

detrimental to inmates, prohibiting prisons from functioning as spaces of rehabilitation.

Solitary confinement—also known as isolation, administration segregation, and special housing unit, among other names—is used to describe conditions of 22-24-hour lockdown in a small room behind a solid steel door. In general, there are two types of solitary confinement commonly used in US prisons: shorter periods of disciplinary segregation for when inmates break rules, and longer periods of administrative segregation for inmates who are deemed a safety risk to the community.4 Inmates in solitary confinement have severely limited contact with other people, little to no access to educational programming, inadequate medical and mental health care treatment, Isolation. Credit: Wikimedia Commons and often must endure permanent bright lighting, extreme temperatures, and sensory deprivation.2 A report published jointly by Yale Law School and the Association of State Correctional Administrators estimates that 80,000 – 100,000 prisoners were in solitary confinement in 2014, which excludes inmates in local jails, juvenile facilities, or in military and immigrant detention. The report also notes that black prisoners are more likely than white prisoners to end up in isolation.3 The discussion raised by the Supreme Court in 1890 over solitary confinement continues today. In 2011, President Obama authorized the Justice Department to review the use of solitary confinement in the United States penal system. DOJ recommended that the Federal Bureau of Prisons limit their use of solitary confinement as a punishment because of the mental health consequences for inmates. Specifically, the DOJ suggests abolishing restrictive housing for juveniles, expanding mental health treatment for inmates, and building “Reintegration Units” rather than keeping inmates in isolation.10 President Obama adopted these recommendations for his plans to reform U.S. prisons, writing, “How can we subject prisoners to unnecessary solitary confinement, knowing its effects, and then expect them to return to our communities as whole people? It doesn’t make us safer. It’s an affront to our common humanity.”11 Here, President Obama raises important ethical questions about the state’s willingness to place prisoners in isolation despite knowing the adverse effects on the human brain.

Indeed, the idea that solitary confinement has severe effects on the human brain is well-supported by scientific research. As Terry Kupers, a professor of psychiatry at the Wright Institute in Berkeley, California explains, “Human beings require two very basic things: social interaction and meaningful activity. By doing things we learn who we are and we learn our worth as a person. The two things solitary confinement does is make people solitary and idle”.5 Indeed, the human brain is affected and shaped by © 2019, The Triple Helix, Inc. All rights reserved.

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the surrounding environment, and an environment characterized by stress produces measurable effects on the brain’s structure and function.

Isolation and external stressors, especially those that are constant, unpredictable, and inescapable, change the structure and functioning of neurons in the brain, suppress the development of neurons, and reduce the volume of the hippocampus. 6 The Brain's Hippocampus. Credit: Wikimedia Commons Experiments on mice have shown that that neurons in sensory and motor regions of the brain shrink by 20% after one month of social isolation.7 As the severity of stress increases, the functioning of the hippocampus decreases, which can result in many of the cognitive and psychiatric symptoms associated with solitary confinement.

While specific symptoms vary between individuals and depend on the length of time one is kept in solitary confinement, effects of isolation are serious. Psychiatrist Stuart Grassian, author of the Washington University report about adult prisoners, observed that inmates showed hyperresponsivity to external stimuli, or the inability to tolerate ordinary environmental stimuli like lights and sounds. Many inmates have trouble leaving solitary confinement and re-integrating into the general prison population because of this hyper-sensitivity, and they spend most of their time in their cell, even though they are no longer required to do so.5 Prisoners also reported perceptual distortions, illusions, and hallucinations, as well as severe panic attacks.

One of the most serious consequences of isolation, though, is difficulties with thinking, concentration and memory. As one prisoner reported to Grassain, “[My] mind’s narcotized.”8 This acute brain fog can be partially explained by sensory deprivation and an absence of natural light, 8 which disrupts the body’s natural circadian rhythm and causes decreased cognitive function.7 Other effects of solitary confinement on inmates include intrusive obsessional thoughts, overt paranoia and fears which often resulted in psychosis, and trouble with impulse control, leading to random acts of violence directed towards themselves and others.8 Among juvenile prisoners, the effects of solitary confinement are even more severe because adolescent brains are not fully developed. Indeed, the frontal lobe, which is responsible for many cognitive processes including planning, organizing thoughts and actions, and impulse control, develops until a person’s mid-twenties.9

Other effects of solitary confinement on inmates include intrusive obsessional thoughts, overt paranoia and fears which often resulted in psychosis, and trouble with impulse control, leading to random acts of violence directed towards themselves and others.

Grassain notes that the compilation of symptoms caused by solitary confinement 18

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are found in no other psychiatric illness and thus form a unique syndrome.

Specifically, Grassain writes that the hyperresponsivity to external stimuli coupled with hallucinations that simultaneously affect auditory, visual, olfactory, and kinesthetic modalities is so rare that it may indicate a new category of brain dysfunction. Grassain ultimately concludes, “while this syndrome is strikingly atypical for the functional psychiatric illness, it is quite character- Solitary confinement cell. Credit: The Canadian Press istic of an acute organic brain syndrome: delirium.” Indeed, delirium is an advanced stage of psychosis that prisoners struggle to fully recover from.8 Burgeoning research is beginning to show that the biological and psychological effects of administrative segregation may be irreversible. A 2018 study set out to measure the potentially rehabilitative effects of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and Mindfulness Training (MT) on prisoners who have spent time in solitary confinement. Specifically, the therapies included group sessions with clinicians and cultivating emotional resiliency through meditation. While research suggests that CBT and MT are helpful strategies to improve a patient’s mental health outcomes, their findings showed that these interventions did not have statistically significant results in improving cognitive control and emotional regulation after periods of solitary confinement. The authors conclude, “clear deleterious effects of incarceration on cognition necessitate an ongoing pursuit of potential cognitive interventions.”12 Indeed, solitary confinement results in serious biological and psychological consequences, and until the practice is eliminated or significantly curtailed, prisons cannot function as viable spaces for rehabilitation of inmates.

Alexa Perlmutter is a second year student at the University of Chicago. She is an English major, the Deputy Viewpoints Editor for The Maroon, and active in UChicago's Institute of Politics.

References 1

Medley, 134 U.S. 160 (Mar. 3, 1890). Retrieved from https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/134/160/

2

Solitary Confinement Facts. (n.d.). Retrieved March 25, 2019, from American Friends Service Committee website: https://www.afsc.org/resource/solitary-confinement-facts

3

The Liman Program, Yale Law School, & Association of State Correctional Administrators. (2015, August). Time in Cell: The ASCA-Liman 2014 National Survey of Administrative Segregation in Prison.

4

Weir, K. (2012). Alone, in 'the hole'. American Psychological Association, 43(5), 54.

5

Sifferlin, A. (2014, July 29). What 28-Years of Solitary Confiment Does to the Mind. Retrieved March 25, 2019, from Time Magazine website: http://time.com/3052468/ what-28-years-of-solitary-confinement-does-to-the-mind/

6

Kim, E. J., & Pellman, B. (2015, September). Stress effects on the hippocampus: a critical review. Retrieved from National Institutes of Health website: https://www. ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4561403/

7

Smith, D. G. (2018, November 9). Neuroscientists Make a Case against Solitary Confinement. Retrieved March 25, 2019, from Scientific American website: https:// www.scientificamerican.com/article/neuroscientists-make-a-case-against-solitary-confinement/

8

Grassian, S. (2006). Psychiatric Effects of Solitary Confinement. Washington University Journal of Law and Policy, 22, 327-380.

9

Dimon, L. (2014, June 30). How Solitary Confinement Hurts the Teenage Brain. Retrieved March 25, 2019, from The Atlantic website: https://www.theatlantic.com/ health/archive/2014/06/how-solitary-confinement-hurts-the-teenage-brain/373002/ Office of the Deputy Attorney General. (2016, January). Report and Recommendations Concerning the Use of Restrictive Housing (Department of Justice, Author).

Retrieved from https://www.justice.gov/archives/dag/report-and-recommendations-concerning-use-restrictive-housing

10

11

Obama, B. (2016, January 25). Barack Obama: Why we must rethink solitary confinement. Retrieved March 25, 2019, from The Washington Post website: https:// www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/barack-obama-why-we-must-rethink-solitary-confinement/2016/01/25/29a361f2-c384-11e5-8965-0607e0e265ce_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.1079b65790ac Umbach, R., & Raine, A. (2018). Cognitive Decline as a Result of Incarceration and the Effects of CBT/MT Intervention: A Cluster-Randomized Controlled Trial.

Criminal Justice Behavior, 45(1), 31-55.

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Fire and Brimstone: The Toba Extinction Allan Zhang

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s you look up, ash fills the sky. The sun is being blotted out, and as you take note of your surroundings, you can feel the temperature dropping rapidly. This was the scene that could have faced our ancestors during the Toba Supervolcano eruption 75,000 years ago. With little sunlight actually reaching the ground, the effects of such an eruption would have been far-reaching. Reduced temperature due to sunlight blocked by ejecta from the volcano would have decimated plant life; herbivores and other flora and fauna that our ancestors depended on for survival would have been heavily affected as well.

How did our ancestors survive?

Some evidence suggests that prehistoric humans often lived in coastal areas, such as the ones that survived near Pinnacle Point in modern-day South Africa. Because they lived a hunter-gatherer lifestyle, they could have relied on shellfish and other marine creatures, which were protected by a “buffering effect of the ocean.”1 Moreover, our ancestors would have been migratory, able to move from one location to another in search of food. In comparison to other flora and fauna that had to remain in one geographical location, our ancestors would have been able to weather such an event relatively well.1 However, recent evidence has emerged that perhaps the Toba Catastrophe may not have occurred at all. Using a technique called optically stimulated bioluminescence, researchers at Pinnacle Point could determine when a buried grain of sand was last exposed to sunlight.2 In doing so, they distinguished two distinct layers of sand, demonstrating that the site had been occupied at times both before and after the eruption. With sediment cores drilled from the site, scientists determined that there was no massive vegetation die-off as originally assumed. To further support such theories, stone tools dated shortly before and after the eruption were found at multiple sites, including both Pinnacle Point and Vleesbaai, another town located in South Africa.

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Despite the evidence found at Pinnacle Point, teams of researchers at other geographical locations have found evidence that confirmed severe climate change during this time period elsewhere. Much of the evidence described above is circumstantial, with a team of researchers led by Stanley Ambrose at the University of Illinois arguing that the distinct layers of sand prove a drastic change in climate conditions occurred.3 Further lending support to such a theory is the notion that the population of our ancestors was reduced to a small number of individuals during the late Pleistocene. This bottleneck would roughly correspond to the eruption of Toba.3 With greater fluctuations in our DNA as a result of this bottleneck, different genes may have become prevalent within the population at a much higher rate. Such evidence would lend credibility to the idea that the Toba catastrophe had devastating effects on the environment. Ultimately, taken in conjunction with the continuation of a human population at these sites, it would seem that Pinnacle Point and the coastline in South Africa provided refuges for prehistoric humans to survive through the difficult years post-Toba eruption. As more excavation is done on these sites, we gain deeper insight into the past as well as the future—if such an event were to happen today, what would be the effects on modern-day society?

With greater fluctuations in our DNA as a result of this bottleneck, different genes would have become prevalent within the population at a much higher rate, leading to quicker rates of natural selection.

In the year 1816, Mount Tambora, which, like Toba, is located in Indonesia, exploded.

Nineteen cubic miles of ejecta were released into the atmosphere.4,5 Ten thousand local residents were killed instantly, with thousands more dying from diseases and injuries caused by the volcano, including burns and afflictions of the lung.6 With a drop in temperature of 2 degrees Fahrenheit worldwide caused by the eruption, no countries escaped the effects of the volcano.7 In America, the New England Historical Society observed that during the summer months of that year, highly unusual cold snaps occurred, with freezing temperatures recorded well into July.6 Harvests were almost completely ruined; oats and corn fields were decimated, food costs rose almost 600%, and farmers were Rendering of the Toba Explosion. Credit: Wikipedia

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forced to rely on fish harvests in order to survive the difficult year. Ultimately, many citizens residing in the Northeast migrated to the Midwest in search of better fortunes. In the UK and Europe, incessant rains resulted in heavy flooding that washed away countless acres of crops.

Southwestern Europe saw a mass exodus to Pinnacle Point, South Africa. Credit: New York Times Russia and the United States.8 As prices spiraled out of control, European monarchs sought to restore order by “[putting] agriculture on a more professional footing”; namely, the farmers now worked directly with representatives of the monarchy in planning crop growth of crops to ensure that the country would be prepared if such an event should occur again.8 Ultimately, Tambora demonstrated humanity’s newfound resistance to natural disasters, and though a genetic bottleneck wasn’t created as a result of such an eruption, sweeping socio-economic reforms were brought throughout the world, setting the stage for unified countries as we knew them in the early 1900s.

Today, even with the world as interconnected as it is, a volcanic winter would still have potentially devastating consequences. Looking at the volcanoes with the largest potential for global chaos, the Yellowstone Caldera is the most likely candidate. With an estimated ejecta size of more than 60 times the size of Mount Tambora, a volcanic winter would likely follow a Caldera eruption.5 The resulting fallout from the ash would likely result in the disruption of electrical grids across the U.S.9 Yellowstone erupted 600,000 years ago, plunging the world into roughly two volcanic winters, lasting eighty years each. With far more drastic temperature drops and socio-economic upheavals than those caused by Tambora, there would undoubtedly be far-reaching negative consequences of such an eruption; society as we know it could potentially collapse.10 However, NASA has a plan in place to prevent such an eruption from occurring. By pumping water into Yellowstone’s magma chamber, they hope to cool the chamber enough to solidify the molten rock and prevent an eruption.10 Ultimately, through scientific advancements and our ability to alter the environment around us to better fit our own needs, the roles of humanity and nature seem to have reversed. We now hold the power of change; we must decide how we are going to use it.

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Allan Zhang is a first year at the University of Chicago, currently majoring in Economics. He is interested in the intersection between the physical sciences and the health care sector. In addition to writing for SISR, Allan is a member of PULSE as well as Phoenix Biology. In his free time, he enjoys reading science fiction and eating Flamin' Hot Cheetos.

References 1

VogelMar, Gretchen, et al. “How Ancient Humans Survived Global 'Volcanic Winter' from Massive Eruption.” Science, 12 Mar. 2018, www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/03/how-ancient-humans-survived-global-volcanic-winter-massive-eruption.

2

Smith, Eugene I., et al. “Humans Thrived in South Africa through the Toba Eruption about 74,000 Years Ago.” Nature News, Nature Publishing Group, 12 Mar. 2018, www.nature.com/articles/nature25967.

3

Ambrose, Stanley H. “Did the Super-Eruption of Toba Cause a Human Population Bottleneck? Reply to Gathorne-Hardy and Harcourt-Smith.” Journal of Human Evolution, vol. 45, no. 3, 2003, pp. 231–237., doi:10.1016/j.jhevol.2003.08.001.

4

Rice, Doyle. “200 Years Ago, We Endured a 'Year without a Summer'.” USA Today, Gannett Satellite Information Network, 9 June 2016, www.usatoday.com/story/weather/2016/05/26/year-without-a-summer-1816-mount-tambora/84855694/.

5

“Volcanic Explosivity Index (VEI).” Geology, geology.com/stories/13/volcanic-explosivity-index/.

6

“1816: The Year Without a Summer.” New England Historical Society, 7 May 2018, www.newenglandhistoricalsociety. com/1816-year-without-a-summer/.

7

Daley, Jason. “Ancient Humans Weathered the Toba Supervolcano Just Fine.” Smithsonian.com, Smithsonian Institution, 14 Mar. 2018,www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/ ancient-humans-weathered-toba-supervolcano-just-fine-180968479/.

8

“The Year Without a Summer.” Deutsches Historisches Museum , www.dhm.de/blog/2016/12/05/the-year-without-a-summer/.

9

Plumer, Brad. “What Would Happen If the Yellowstone Supervolcano Actually Erupted?” Vox, Vox, 15 Dec. 2014, www. vox.com/2014/9/5/6108169/yellowstone-supervolcano-eruption. ”French, Brett. “Imagine an 80-Year Winter: Researchers Say Yellowstone Volcano Caused 2 Cool Periods.” The Billings Gazette, 1 Nov. 2017, billingsgazette.com/montana-untamed/get-outside/imagine-an--year-winter-researchers-say-yellowstone-volcano-caused/article_201d326e-27b9-5ac3-8024-93524f59d77b.html.

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A Quantum Leap: Revolutionizing How We See and Use Light Paul G. Severino

F

rom Star Wars to the Big Bang Theory, quantum physics pervades the science

fiction of popular science media. One cannot browse YouTube these days without seeing viral videos like ‘How to Build a Real Lightsaber!’ While everyone from philosophers to theoretical physicists loves to talk about quantum mechanics, the field is rarely viewed from a materials science or engineering perspective. Quantum physics, because it deals with extremely small scales and often theoretical scenarios, can be hard to conceptualize using classical intuition. Most people fail to see what quantum mechanics has to do with the real world, let alone how its results could impact everyday life.

It turns out that crazy theories in quantum mechanics lead to crazy possibilities in the real world. Nowhere is this more evident than in the recent breakthroughs in light. Modern quantum advancements involving light may lead to a revolution in the way we visualize light itself, both on a theoretical basis and in its material utility. Light with the properties of materials, or Synthetic photonic materials, may even open the door to a revolution in the way things are made.1

To fully appreciate the modern day revolution in the science behind light, let’s consider the advances that led to the twentieth-century interpretation of light. Most people, including Isaac Newton, interpreted light as a particle. This model for light fit into the field of optics, as light appears to bounce off prisms like a particle.

However, British scientist Thomas Young experimentally showed that light exhibits wave-like behavior. He did this by shooting photons through two tiny slits. If light 24

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were only a particle, the photons would only create two light spots behind the slits on the screen. Instead, Young observed a different pattern, indicating that light acted like a wave instead of a particle.

Luckily, Albert Einstein gave the world a new and improved way to picture light. Einstein, in his Nobel prize-winning explanation of the photoelectric effect, described light as a photon. These photons were discrete entities, taking on the properties of both waves and particles. Einstein elaborates on the nature of light in his theory of special relativity, in which photons are massless entities that travel at the maximum speed limit of anything in the universe—the speed of light.2 Einstein gave the twentieth century a sound interpretation of light that has survived the test of time and stuck with popular media in the late twentieth century.

Modern quantum advancements involving light may lead to a revolution in the way we visualize light itself, both on a theoretical basis and in its material utility.

The twentieth century re-imagining of light led to innovations that include the laser, but despite Einstein’s giant step forward, quantum physics has even more to illuminate regarding the nature of light. Scientists like Professor Jon Simon have produced astounding experimental evidence that point toward something entirely new, counterintuitive, and exciting. Professor Simon’s mantra is ‘making materials out of light’, which sounds certifiably insane. It already seems crazy that light can act like a wave and a particle; how can it also act like a material? Yet Professor Simon, in studying the electromagnetic phenomenon at the quantum level—Quantum Hall physics—created photons that experience a Lorentz Force. The Lorentz Force acts on a charged particle traveling through a magnetic field. Because the photons experience these forces in a magnetic field, Professor Simon created photons that have charge.3 Professor Simon has trapped photons in a special way using mirrors such that the photons, canonically massless particles, appear to have mass.4

Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Instead of making two bright spots, Young observed this ‘diffraction’ pattern. This gave experimental evidence for the wave-like nature of light.2 © 2019, The Triple Helix, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Somehow, two quantum mechanical theories lead to two seemingly contradictory yet experimentally verifiable results: wave-particle photons and material-like photons.

Rather than undermining quantum physics, this paradoxical evidence validates quantum theory.

Many assume that science —especially physics— must be intuitive. But Credit: Computer Business Review the classical physics Quantum computing combines quantum mechanical phenomena viewpoint is quite limit- with computer science to create push computation beyond the ing, as it restricts scientific limits of classical computers. This quantum—which uses charged imagination. While the particles and magnetic fields—could be optimized with synthetic philosophical implica- photonic materials with electric charge.4 tion of intuition bending phenomena could be argued until every possible theory in physics is resolved, one must accept the "weirdness" of strange results when it comes to phenomena like light. With this new frame of mind, wild things such as synthetic photonic materials become natural extension of theory instead of a theoretical contradiction. And in utilizing phenomena like synthetic photonic materials, scientists can revolutionize technology in groundbreaking ways.

This revolution in light will soon begin to affect everyday life. Synthetic photonic materials may play an important role in the powerful quantum computers of the future. Quantum computers hold the potential to revolutionize encryption and computing power, and circuits made from synthetic photonic microwaves may be the building blocks for these quantum computers.4 Further, synthetic photonic materials can be used to improve microscopy. Many of the best microscopes in the world use electrons, not light, to "see" on smaller scales. Scientists could also use photons with material properties instead of electrons to more easily and efficiently control the scale that they explore.4 Synthetic photonic materials are on the verge of revolutionizing modern science and everyday life.

Credit: Wikimedia Commons

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The sheer act of giving light properties like mass or charge is absolutely astonishing.

Using light as a material could change the world of materials science forever. To say that it is straight out of a sci-fi movie is an understatement. The Star Wars universe might be closer than we think; Professor Simon was able to bounce one photon off of another—like pool balls not unlike two clashing lightsabers.4 While scientists may not be developing real life lightsabers any time soon, synthetic photonic materials are revolutionizing how we build with and think © 2019, The Triple Helix, Inc. All rights reserved.

about light, despite misconceptions that exclude quantum mechanics from real-world applications. If even light can be reinvented by quantum scientists, there are almost no limits to what quantum physics can revolutionize in society.

Paul Severino is a second year Physics major at the University of Chicago.

He is the president of Boyer House, an executive member of Inter-House Council, and a Society of Physics Students board member. When he’s not working in the lounge of KPTC, he is either playing chess, competing in intramurals for his house, or listening to Radiohead.

References 1

Bhargava, A., and B. Suthar. "Chalcogenide Photonic Crystals - Exploiting Nonlinearity for Nanophotonic Applications."

MRS Bulletin, 2013. doi:10.1063/1.4810078.

2

Eisberg, Robert Martin, and Robert Resnick. Quantum Physics of Atoms, Molecules, Solids, Nuclei, and Particles. New Delhi: Wiley, 2017.

3

Schine, Nathan, Ryou, Albert, Gromov, Andrey, Sommer, Ariel, and Simon, Jonathon. "Synthetic Landau Levels for Photons."

Nature 534, no. 7609 (2016): 671-75. doi:10.1038/nature17943.

4

Simon, Jon. “Topological Materials Made of Light.” Chicago Physics no. 2. 2019.

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Optogenetics: Past, Present, and Future Ayushi Hegde

E

nter Cummings Life Science Center on a Monday morning, and you’ll be greeted with silence. Inside and out, the building gives the impression of a fortress: a blend of Regenstein-esque brutalism and UChicago’s love for all things Gothic, it towers over the rest of West Campus. Don’t be fooled by its noiselessness, though. Beneath the brick and cement, the building is abuzz with some of biology’s most cutting-edge developments, including the work of Professor Michael Glotzer.

Dr. Glotzer’s lab group uses optogenetics to study cytokinesis, the ability of cells undergoing mitosis to split their contents between two daughter cells. By exposing their model organism to light, they can induce its individual cells to divide. Under a microscope, the effect is easily mistaken for magic. But optogenetics is a science.

Our power to engineer living systems that respond to light a product of biology.

The question is, how does it work?

From the roots ‘opto-,’ meaning “seen or visible,” and ‘-genetics,’ the word optogenetics is counterintuitive. Condensed into nuclei, we could fit 2,500 human genomes — thousands of millions of genes — into the space taken up by the period at the end of this sentence.1 We rarely think of genetics as a field that can be understood without a microscope, making it difficult to reconcile the technique with results that are so immediately obvious. And the system’s inducibility poses another challenge.

How can genetics — slow-acting at the organismal level and difficult to change in a lifetime — be manipulated by flipping a switch? The technique is less paradoxical than the name would suggest. Nature defines optogenetics as “a method that uses light to modulate molecular events in a targeted manner in living cells or organisms … [relying] on the use of genetically encoded proteins that change conformation in the presence of light to alter cell behavior.”2 Put simply, the technique uses light-sensitive biological machinery to trigger whatever process is being studied. Genes are the basis for Dr. Glotzer’s striking visuals, not their direct cause. By shining a light on 28

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an organism that expresses their engineered machinery, investigators can effectively ‘turn on’ a cascade of proteins that will carry out their desired function. The effect can be pronounced or subtle, anything from cell division to neuronal activation.

Depending on the design of the optogenetic system, it can be used to solve a wide range of problems. The implication is doubly significant: versatility and specificity, allowing optogenetics to work in several biological contexts.

Like any innovation, understanding optogenetics requires some insight into its history.

Ed Boyden of MIT was one of the first scientists to particularize it. In his seminal paper on neuronal activation published in Nature Neuroscience in 2005, Boyden et al. describes a light-sensitive gated ion channel that, in response to stimulation, causes neurons to fire.3 Inspired by light-driven ion pumps called opsins, which naturally occur in photosynthetic organisms, Boyden had hoped to harness their power to start a chain reaction. He chose the molecule channelrhodopsin-2, which causes the green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii to phototax in response to light. In particular, he was interested in neurons: could channelrhodopsin-2 work in cells where it wasn’t normally expressed? By activating it in the nervous system, could Boyden regulate the salt concentrations needed to make a neuron fire? The answer was a resounding yes. Boyden’s system had a measurable effect, proving the ability of optogenetics to control the timing of processes that weren’t naturally occurring.

In the long term, it meant that brains — the subject of Boyden’s work — could be understood in terms of the individual processes governing them. By the time his seminal paper was published, the word ‘optogenetics’ had caught on, its use in the scientific community referring to “the use of light to image genetically expressed reporters of neural function as well as to perturb genetically targeted neurons”.4 The neuron-specific definition persisted until the system was adapted for use in other cell types, when it became a catch-all for light-inducible activation.

Despite their variability, today’s optogenetic systems share the same set of defining features. Most notably, their manipulability lets them answer one of biology’s most important questions: is the occurrence of one event enough to trigger the beginning of another? For biologists, the ‘sufficiency’ test allows them to understand living systems in terms of the networks that regulate them, making optogenetics a useful way to reconstruct complexity.

Nature defines optogenetics as “a method that uses light to modulate molecular events in a targeted manner in living cells or organisms ... [relying] on the use of genetically encoded proteins that change conformation in the presence of light to alter cell behavior.”2 © 2019, The Triple Helix, Inc. All rights reserved.

Another common characteristic of optogenetic setups is their design.

From Boyden’s discovery that light-sensitive proteins could be used to control the behavior of a biological system, investigators have generalized the model to include a wide range of molecules that change shape in response to light. Using editing tools like CRISPR, genes encoding the light-sensitive proteins used in

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Optogenetics. Credit: Ayushi Hegde

optogenetics can be altered or inserted into organisms that wouldn’t normally express them. The resulting proteins are hybrids that respond to light by changing their shape. Due to the interconnectedness between the structure and function of biological molecules, activated proteins can carry out new functions that change the behavior of the system as a whole. The result is a powerful tool with the ability to explain processes that are poorly understood.

Depending on the design of the optogenetic system, it can be used to solve a wide range of problems.

The implication is doubly significant: versatility and specificity, allowing optogenetics to work in several biological contexts.

At the same time, the manipulability of optogenetics allows it to be tuned to the needs of investigators. Depending on the molecule of interest, optogenetics can be used to direct proteins to different parts of the cell, build working complexes and catalyze reactions, among other possibilities. The setups have functional differences that allow them to work in a wide range of contexts. Similarly, changing the light-sensitive protein fused to the molecule of interest can have a profound effect on activation. Optogenetic systems can fail to have the intended effect for reasons that are poorly understood, making it useful to test setups with different properties.

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Conveniently, light-sensitive proteins make up a diverse family of structures and functions; their different shapes provide them with different responses to light. The resulting model can be tuned to carry out an almost endless list of processes, its adaptability allowing it to answer an array of biological unknowns.

And the list is growing longer.

Optogenetics has seen an explosion in recent years, with investigators using Boyden’s setup as a template for their own, increasingly specific models. The result is general enough to work in diverse contexts without losing its customizability. In fact, groups as small as individual labs have begun to develop their own optogenetic signatures, preferring certain strategies and light-sensitive domains to others. Their design choices can be arbitrary—the exact mechanisms underlying optogenetics remain to be understood, requiring a certain amount of guesswork followed by trial-and-error—or intentional, depending on the goal of the experiment. Dr. Glotzer, a professor of molecular genetics and cell biology at the University, has spent years designing a setup that works in the context of cytokinesis. His light-sensitive domain of choice belongs to LOV, a family of Light-Oxygen-Voltage-sensing proteins that was first identified as a regulator of phototropism—the tendency to grow towards sources of incident light—in plants.5 By fusing it with a protein of interest, his lab can alter the behavior of individual cells by exposing them to blue light. While the approach has led Dr. Glotzer to identify some of the main proteins involved in cell division, other labs have engineered systems to answer their own questions. Optogenetics is being used to study anxiety, depression, addiction, Parkinson’s disease, epilepsy, sleep, memory, endocrinology and cardiology in model organisms ranging from worms to primates.6

For biologists, the ‘sufficiency’ test allows them to understand living systems in terms of the networks that regulate them, making optogenetics a useful way to reconstruct complexity.

And the results are promising. Since its development in the early 2000s, optogenetics has broadened our understanding of nearly every biological process imaginable.

Its versatility is proving invaluable, but untested. The technique is still emergent, yet to be applied to some of biology’s most pressing questions. For one, it remains unclear whether optogenetics could be used to understand higher order processes than the ones that interest Dr. Glotzer and his lab. An attempt to shift from single cells to intra-organismal systems is likely, along with optogenetics being used to explore fields that are poorly understood.

Whatever the future holds, one thing is certain: biology is entering an era of optogenetics. And the advances made in the last 15 years are only the beginning.

Mouse with electrode. Credit: Fashion Fetish © 2019, The Triple Helix, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Ayushi Hegde is a first year studying Biology and French at the University of Chicago. Passionate about intersectional learning, she loves finding ways to combine her interests in the humanities and STEM. She plans to work in biological research, where she hopes to continue her lifelong journey as a writer. Currently, she is involved with Women in STEM, The Triple Helix, and the South Asian Students Association, where she participates in the traditional dance forms Bhangra and Raas. Outside of academics, she loves baking, petting dogs, and running.

References 1

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How Big is a Genome? (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.geneticsalive.com/howbig.html

2

Optogenetics - Latest research and news. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.nature.com/subjects/optogenetics

3

Boyden, E. S., Zhang, F., Bamberg, E., Nagel, G., & Deisseroth, K. (2005). Millisecond-timescale, genetically targeted optical control of neural activity. Nature Neuroscience, 8, 1263-1268. doi:10.3410/f.1026686.336097

4

Boyden, E. S. (2011). A history of optogenetics: The development of tools for controlling brain circuits with light. F1000 Biology Reports, 3. doi:10.3410/b3-11

5

Pudasaini, A., El-Arab, K. K., & Zoltowski, B. D. (2015). LOV-based optogenetic devices: Light-driven modules to impart photoregulated control of cellular signaling. Frontiers in Molecular Biosciences, 2. doi:10.3389/fmolb.2015.00018

6

Lyon, L. (2019, April 06). Optogenetics. Retrieved from https://www.labome.com/method/Optogenetics.html

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CRISPR and Consequences Jerome Freudenberg

R

ight up there in the sci-fi realm of aliens and time travel is the idea of genetically

modifying humans. While the rest of these staples of science fiction exist only in our cultural imagination, genetic engineering has taken off. In fact, to the displeasure of the larger scientific community, two genetically modified humans were born in 2018, a premature development made possible by CRISPR.

At this point, you’ve probably already heard of CRISPR: the somewhat mystical genome-editing tool revealed in early 2013. CRISPR has been hailed as the solution to a number of incurable diseases, as well as a gateway to sustainable energy, increased agricultural output, and the elimination of pollution. The tool drew international attention from the scientific community and worked its way into mass media, dragged further into the spotlight by the legal and ethical quagmire of a patent battle between UC Berkeley and the Broad Institute. Six years later, followed by the conception of the first CRISPR-ed babies, discussions on the ethics of genetic modification have only become further entangled in a web of scientific, legal, and socioeconomic ethics.

Given this entanglement, the technical details of CRISPR often remain overlooked.

“CRISPR” stands for Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats.

CRISPR-Cas9 term refers to specific DNA sequences found in bacteria of the bacterial immune system that work with the enzyme Cas9. The CRISPR sequences are transcribed into RNA sequences that match with existing strands of DNA. The sequences then guide the Cas9 enzyme to a genetic location, where it can cut or modify the genetic code.1 The ability to program genetics gives scientists the ability to prevent a variety of diseases; scientists could remove disease-causing mutations and add disease-preventing ones that could even protect against non-heritable diseases, like malaria or HIV. Further potential applications of CRISPR include reversing plastic pollution in the © 2019, The Triple Helix, Inc. All rights reserved.

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oceans by engineering a plastic-consuming enzyme,2 expanding food production by increasing individual crop yields,3 and advancing sustainable energy sources by increasing biofuel efficiency.4 One disease that has lent itself to possible CRISPR treatment is Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD), a rare genetic disease and one of nine types of muscular dystrophy. The disease results in progressive muscle degeneration, starting as early as age 3. As a result, children will often walk on the fronts of their feet, sticking out their stomach and pulling back their shoulders to try to keep their balance, before eventually needing a wheelchair between ages 7 and 12. By the teen years, DMD can weaken heart muscles and become life-threatening.5

One study found that by using the CRISPR-Cas9 system in the mice models, researchers were able to restore 90% of dystrophin protein expression in all muscles.

DMD stems from a lack of dystrophin, a protein important for strengthening muscle fibers by connecting muscle cells to proteins and molecules outside the cell.6 Given that one in three victims of the disease suffer from a learning disability and that dystrophin is present in nerve cells in the brain, it is also believed that dystrophin plays a subtle role in cognition and behavior.

The dystrophin gene is the largest human gene and is located on the X-chromosome, meaning males are more likely to display symptoms of DMD, but cannot pass it on to male children since they only pass on the Y-chromosome to their sons.

Additionally, DMD is monogenic, meaning the disease is caused by a single gene mutation; thus, it is an ideal candidate for gene therapy, since only one gene needs to be edited to prevent it.

DMD is caused by a mutation that deletes part of the dystrophin gene, resulting in a shift in the genetic code so that it can no longer be properly transcribed. Researchers have looked for opportunities to correct this shift using the CRISPR-Cas9 system in human and mice cells.

One study found that by using the CRISPR-Cas9 system in the mice models, researchers were able to restore 90% of dystrophin protein expression in all muscles. This intervention was accomplished with a single cut using CRISPR.7 Another study evaluated the long-term effects of this approach, showing that dystrophin restoration was maintained for a year after Credit: Wikimedia Commons 34

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a single administration. Further, the study found that immune responses could be avoided by treating neonatal mice instead of adults.8 These studies illustrate CRISPR’s ability to cure a disease like DMD. Their success brings the CRISPR-Cas9 system closer to clinical application.

And yet, not all is well in wonderland. The realistic and looming possibility of gene therapy raises numerous questions about the ethics of editing human genomes.

In one Nature article, Vanderbilt professor Ellen Wright Clayton points out that while there is a lot of public support for fixing disorders like DMD via gene therapy, there is also fear that CRISPR therapy may be used for non-curative purposes. What happens when someone without DMD wants the therapy to become stronger? There are many imaginable (and understandable) reasons why someone would seek Credit: Wikipedia to become stronger, smarter, or more attractive. Clayton explains the dangerous inequity in this scenario: not only is it tricky to find the line between treatment and enhancement, but the more privileged would have greater access to these opportunities, deepening structures of inequality.9 The list of controversies goes on. The idea of “designer babies,” children whose genetic makeup has been selectively altered, has been a subject of debate for quite some time. While once a fantasy, now, sooner than anticipated, they have become reality. In late 2018, Chinese scientist He Jiankui used CRISPR to cripple a gene called CCR5 in two human embryos to try and make them HIV-resistant, giving rise to the birth of two girls named Lulu and Nana.10 Aside from the fact that HIV is relatively preventable outside of genetic modification, the experiment was performed using an imperfect technology without regard to the unknown risks to the babies’ health and that of their descendents. The stunt has elicited widespread condemnation by the scientific community, and highlighted the need for oversight to avoid CRISPR abuse that would hinder future work.11 Ultimately, CRISPR still has a way to go before its associated treatments will be on the market, but that future is drawing ever closer, closing the curtains on some debates, only to give the stage to others. Though past highlights like the patent battle will be resolved, flashier arguments about ethics and regulations will persist while we try to weigh the technology’s positive effect on diseases like DMD against its potential for detracting from society. When CRISPR-based treatment inevitably becomes commercially available, hopefully our newfound powers will be properly managed and used as the solution to old problems instead of as the origin of new ones. © 2019, The Triple Helix, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Jerome Freudenberg is a first year student planning on majoring in something at least vaguely related to Statistics or Computer Science. He has additional interests in Biology and Creative Writing, so anything could happen, really. Outside of class, he's involved with SISR, Fencing, and Groove Theory. In his free time (read: when he's procrastinating), Jerome enjoys listening to music, browsing Reddit, and occasionally doing something productive like watching anime.

References 1

Questions and Answers about CRISPR. Broad Institute. Retrieved from https://www.broadinstitute.org/what-broad/ areas-focus/project-spotlight/questions-and-answers-about-crispr

2

Carrington, D. (2018). Scientists accidentally created a mutant enzyme that eats plastic bottles. The Guardian. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/apr/16/scientists-accidentally-create-mutant-enzyme-that-eats-plastic-bottles

3

Niiler, E. (2017). How Crispr Could Transform our Food Supply. National Geographic. Retrieved from https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/future-of-food/food-technology-gene-editing/

4

Stapleton, A. (2017). Gene-Editing Algae Doubles Biofuel Output Potential. Science Alert. Retrieved from https://www. sciencealert.com/gene-editing-algae-doubles-biofuel-output-potential

5

Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD). Muscular Dystrophy Association. Retrieved from https://www.mda.org/disease/ duchenne-muscular-dystrophy

6

DMD gene. Genetics Home Reference. Retrieved from https://ghr.nlm.nih.gov/gene/DMD#conditions

7

Min, Y. L., Li, H., Rodriquez-Caycedo, C., Mireault, A., Huang, J., Shelton, J. (...) Olson, E. (2019). CRISPR-Cas9 corrects Duchenne muscular dystrophy exon 44 deletion mutations in mice and human cells. Science Advances. Retrieved from http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/advances/5/3/eaav4324.full.pdf

8

Nelson, C.E., Wu Y, Gemberling M.P., Oliver M.L., Waller, M.A., Bohning, J.D., (...) Gersbach C.A. (2019). Long-term evalutation of AAV-CRISPR genome editing for Duchenne muscular dystrophy. Nature Medicine. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi. nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30778238

9

Clayton, E.W. (2018). A genetically augmented future. Nature. Retrieved from https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586018-07642-0#ref-CR1 Molteni, M. (2018). Scientist Who Crispr’d Babies Bucked his own Ethics Policy. Wired. Retrieved from https://www.wired. com/story/he-jiankui-crispr-babies-bucked-own-ethics-policy/

10

Momentous CRISPR-enabled developments. (2019). Nature. Retrieved from https://www.nature.com/articles/s41551-019-0361-z

11

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Emotion and Linguistics Ross Rauber and Sofia Garcia Martinez P

eople often use the Internet to complain about things they don’t like—whether it be their disgust at pickle-flavored chips or their outrage at Congress’s new bill. In fact, they complain so much that companies automate a large portion of reading through criticism. This is one of the forces driving interest in computational models which can identify sentiment—whether a sentence expresses a positive or negative opinion.

These computational models act as tools that appear to do something eerily human— extracting not just meaning, but emotion, from text. And they work fairly well, with state-of-the-art models lining up with human judgements around 96% of the time.1 Though a model performing exactly as well as a human on sentiment classification would not necessarily imply that it was using the same methods to solve the problem, assumptions about our own cognition are often baked into approaches to machine learning. These tools were still built by human beings, after all—analyzing how they work (and don’t work) sheds light on the different ways people think about thinking, and how these approaches undergird much of the “smart” technology that is a growing

these tools were still built by human beings, after all—analyzing how they work sheds light on the different ways people think about thinking.

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presence in 21st century life.

Suppose you wanted to detect the sentiment of the following: “That movie sucked and was bad. Hated it.”

Certain words, like “that movie,” and “it,” are less relevant to understanding the sentiment than others, like “sucked,” “hated,” and “bad.” You may wonder if you could detect these sorts of words, and label any sentence that has more “negative” words as being more negative overall. Then you run into a different problem—how will your program know which words matter? Surely you don’t want to manually label the entire dictionary, and you want it to respond to new slang that you may not be aware of, as well.

One of the most popular methods for solving this problem derives from a mid-20th century observation that words with similar meanings tend to appear in similar contexts.2 A family of techniques leverages this fact to create representations of words, known as “word embeddings,” where each word is associated with a vector, which can be thought of as representing a point in space. In such a space, words that are found in similar contexts—and are thus to some degree synonymous—appear closer together.

There are many ways to create these vectors, but an influential technique known as Word2Vec accomplishes this by predicting a word missing from a given sentence using the surrounding context. With each prediction, the numerical values—weights— used to make these predictions are modified to improve performance.3.4 Ultimately, vectors of these weights come to encode a lot of information about the meanings of word.

Analogies between machine learning approaches and the brain cease to function at any depth of description of either system, but superficially speaking the brain is itself made up of connections between neurons, which can fire with more or less frequency.

These word vectors can be used to improve performance on sentiment analysis. A common way to do this is to combine all of the words in a sentence through the application of some simple operation, like an element-wise average, to create a sentence-level representation. This result can then be fed to another model that predicts whether the sentence is positive or negative. Models such as this that erase the significance of the order in which words occur are known as “bag of words” models.5,6 These word vectors are attractive for a number of reasons: they do not require programmers to spend their time explicitly defining the difference between nouns and verbs; they have a large amount of flexibility; and they end up encoding some very intuitive semantic relationships.

There’s also a sheen of biological realism to the intuition behind machine learning, reflected in vocabulary such as “neural net." Analogies between machine learning approaches and the brain cease to function at any depth of description of either system, but superficially speaking the brain is itself made up of connections between neurons, which can fire with more or less frequency.

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Now, suppose you’ve built a bag of words model and it comes across the following sentence: “I did not find that movie worthwhile or pleasant in any way.”

Your model is likely to classify this sentence as being positive, picking up on the high positivity associated with “worthwhile” and “pleasant." The source of this error seems to have something to do with negation. Intuitively, the commentator holds the movie to be “not worthwhile” and “not pleasant,” something our model cannot account for when treating each word independently. It may be tempting to assume that we can use our old values and simply make the model sensitive to linear order, allowing it to learn how “not” might affect the sentiment of the words following it. But linear order still seems to be missing something. For instance, how might a model using linear order alone account for the following: “If you think this movie was good, then you’re wrong.”

It seems that the way you interpret the statement between if and then is guided by what follows then. “You think this movie was good,” is a free-standing sentence with a meaning that the entire comment seems to depend on. The same logic can apply to aspects of the sub-sentence: note we can replace “think this movie was good” with a single verb and still have a perfectly fine sentence: “If you speak, then you’re wrong.”

You cannot do the same with a single noun. Most English speakers would say that “if you movie, then you’re wrong” sounds off to them, unless “movie” is re-analyzed to mean something like “watch a lot of movies." There is something “verb-like” to “think this movie was good”—it is, in fact, what linguists call a Verb Phrase.7 Thus, every sentence is made up of smaller constituent segments of words contained within one another. A tree which visually represents the relationship between different parts of a sentence is thus able to capture linguistic phenomena which mere linear order cannot.

Credit: Generated from a freely available tool on Stanford's NLP Group's website

Figure 1. Recursive Neural Tensor Network model of sentence.

Figure 1 is an image from a freely available online demo produced by the Natural Language Processing Group at Stanford,8 which uses a model known as a Recursive Neural Tensor Network.8 The model, when given a sentence, builds a representation of its structure and is then trained to identify how the meaning of two words or © 2019, The Triple Helix, Inc. All rights reserved.

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phrases should come together to form a phrase containing both. Essentially, it learns that while “good” on its own may have positive sentiment, when “not” appears before “good” in a phrase, the phrase as a whole has negative sentiment, as well as how similar transformations can affect more complex phrases.

Stanford’s RNTN only achieves 87% on a version of the sentiment classification task,9 meaning there’s still a lot of room for improvement. So what is this model missing? In many cases that something is knowledge about the world that helps interpret comparisons and metaphorical language. In addition to this class of errors, however, we argue there’s another more systematic way in which these models fail—one that’s well described in many linguistic approaches to natural language syntax. Consider the following example, particularly the underlined sentence: I would say that my kids enjoyed this movie a lot.

That the movie is any good I wouldn’t say.

The underlined sentence has an identical meaning to “I wouldn’t say that the movie is any good.” In fact, a standard analysis would assert that the two statements—the ones where the “that” phrase surfaces to the right and left of the negating word—are related through the movement of a phrase, as in the following simplified tree:

Credit: Rauber and Martinez

Figure 2. Structure underlying "That the movie was any good I wouldn't say"

In the image above, the fact that the phrase “that the movie is any good” originates under “n’t” negates it, even though it is pronounced in a position higher than “n’t”.

Stanford’s RNTN incorrectly reports that this is a positive sentence, but does assign a negative sentiment to “I wouldn’t say that the movie is any good”, failing to recognize the relationship between the two possible forms of the sentence.8

A tree which visually represents the relationship between different parts of a sentence is thus able to capture linguistic phenomena which mere linear order cannot.

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Perhaps this digression may strike one as being pedantic or contrived, but much of human language relies on these hidden linguistic dances.

Linguists believe that regularities of this type, hidden from the language’s own users, are fundamental to meaning and

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understanding. Machines which fail to demonstrate the behavior that these patterns describe cannot be said to understand language at all, at least not in a human way.

This is not to say that linguistic theory necessarily captures any of this better than attempts by engineers and computer scientists to work with the same phenomena.

However, knowledge of how to do something and knowledge of what one is doing are not the same thing, and cross-pollination between all enterprises that require a deep understanding of language could yield deep insights about the moment-tomoment crystallization of thought that happens when words come together.

Sofia Garcia Martinez is a third year at the University of Chicago, double-majoring in linguistics and computer science. Sofia is fascinated by the endless complexity of something humans use so seemingly effortlessly on the daily. Additionally, this author enjoys directing and acting in theater, and creating graphic novels.

Ross Rauber is a fourth year at the University of Chicago studying linguistics and computer science. His academic interests lie mostly in Syntax, though he enjoys all of what both fields have to offer!

References 1

Ribeiro, F. N. (2016). Sentibench-a benchmark comparison of state-of-the-practice sentiment analysis methods. EPJ Data Science, 5(1), 23.

2

Harris, Z. S. (1954). Distributional structure. Word, 10(2-3), 146-162.

3

Mikolov, T. (2013). Distributed representations of words and phrases and their compositionality. Advances in neural information processing systems, (pp. 3111-3119).

4

Chia, D. (2018). Implementing Word2Vec with Numpy. Towards Data Science. https://towardsdatascience.com/an-implementation-guide-to-word2vec-using-numpy-and-google-sheets-13445eebd281

5

Maas, A. L. (2011). Learning word vectors for sentiment analysis. Proceedings of the 49th annual meeting of the association for computational linguistics: Human language technologies-volume 1 (pp. 142-150).

6

Landauer, T. K., Foltz, P. W., & Laham, D. (1998). An introduction to latent semantic analysis. Discourse processes, 25(2-3), 259-284.

7

Adger, D. (2003). Core syntax: A minimalist approach (Vol. 20). Oxford: Oxford University Press. (pp. 48-53)

8

Stanford NLP. Live Demo. http://nlp.stanford.edu:8080/sentiment/rntnDemo.html

9

Socher, R. (2013). Recursive deep models for semantic compositionality over a sentiment treebank. Proceedings of the 2013 conference on empirical methods in natural language processing (pp. 1631-1642).

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The Triple Helix International Leadership

The Triple Helix, Inc. is an undergraduate, student-run organization dedicated to the promotion of interdisciplinary discussion. We encourage critical analysis of legally and socially important issues in science and promote the exchange of ideas. Our flagship publication, the Science in Society Review, and our online blog, The Triple Helix Online, provide research-based perspectives on pertinent scientific issues facing society today.

Our students at twenty chapters at some of the most renowned universities in the world form a diverse, intellectual, and global society. We aim to inspire scientific curiosity and discovery, encouraging undergraduates to explore interdisciplinary careers that push traditional professional boundaries. In doing so, we hope to create global citizen scientists. www.thetriplehelix.uchicago.edu

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