May 2012

Issue 1

From Computers to Quasars

I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious.

Albert Einstein

Welcome to SyTec.

hat is this interesting looking booklet that youve just picked up from outside the Chemistry, Physics or Technology

Biology,

department? Ill assume that, as you've made the effort to acquire and read this, you are someone with at least an inkling of interest in science and technology, something and are not to just looking for colourful burn, or have an

unhealthy affinity for paper booklets. This is the science and technology equivalent of a magazine you will be familiar with already; the Historacle. SyTec is a magazine written by, and for, students and teachers (although only students in this issue), covering a wide range of topics across the countless fields of science and technology. Is time travel possible? Can you run a car on waste? Is a zombie apocalypse imminent? Are Terminators just around the corner? Read on, and find out! Id like to give an enormous thank you to everyone who wrote articles for this first issue, as well as those who helped edit the articles and put it all together Sid Umapathy, Pavan Kotecha, Joe Ayathamattam, Adam Wan, Chris Warner and Tigany Zarrouk. We hope that this will be the first of many issues of SyTec, but that depends entirely on you. As mentioned, this magazine is comprised entirely of articles submitted by students and teachers, so get writing for science! [and technology] Oh and lastly, once you read the magazine, if you don't want to keep it please pass it on, or put it back in the plastic wallets. Thanks, and enjoy!

- Daniel Hurt (Editor-in-chief)

Contents:
Zapping Hypertension
Sid Umapathy

2 4 8 9 11 12 14 16 18 20 23 26 27 29 31 33 34 38

Affluenza - The Psychology of Selfishness

Kristian Smith

Quantum Computing
Niall Woodward

How Big Is The Universe?

Cameron Whittle

Alien Hand Syndrome

Adam Wan

Recapturing Lost Energy

Joe Ayathamattam

Time Travel - Is It Possible?

Stephen Molyneux

Apple - The End of Technophobia?

Sam Ball

Windows vs. OSX - Team OSX

Yasin Ahmad

Windows vs. OSX - Team Windows

Pavan Kotecha

First Aid Frozen

Rayhan Ghanchi

Congenital Analgesia - Does it hurt?

Adam Wan

Nanotechnology
Surya Prasad

Can You Fuel A Car With Nothing More Than Waste?

Joe Ayathamattam

Supersolids and Superstuff

Tigany Zarrouk

Necrotizing Fasciitis - Zombie Apocalypse?

Christian Warner

The Technological Singularity and the Rise of the Machine

Daniel Hurt

Puzzles

Zapping Hypertension

new surgical treatment for hypertension (high blood pressure) is on the horizon. It was billed as revolutionary by the Telegraph in 2009, and in 2010 New Scientist said it would cut the risk of stroke and heart disease for hundreds of thousands of people. Curious, I went to find out more... Hypertension is when your blood pressure is above 140/90 mmHg. As blood affects just about every tissue or organ, if there's a problem with your blood, it has a large knock-on effect on many areas in your body. This is why hypertension can lead to many deadly diseases. It increases your risk of a stroke; it can increase the workload of your kidneys which leads to kidney failure; and it can even cause your arteries to harden which can lead to a heart attack. But, not only can it kill you, it makes your day-to-day life miserable. The increased pressure in your eyes can impair your sight. If blood vessels supplying blood to your arms and legs are damaged, this can cause pain, especially when walking (Peripheral Vascular Disease). And something less commonly known: hypertension ages you. If you have it, it adds a whopping 12 years to your real age which leads to wrinkles and, if you're male, impotence. You also have to book and travel to frequent hospital appointments, have a special diet, and take pills every day. Normally hypertension is treated using drugs and lifestyle changes (less salt, more exercise). Thing is, the drugs that are used affect your whole vascular system, which in turn affects other systems. This means there are quite a few side effects. You may put on weight, feel tired, have kidney complications and, again, become impotent if you're male (sorry chaps). In addition, the medication is also fairly unreliable; in 2009 1 in 10 patients had uncontrolled blood pressure, even when using multiple drugs. As a result, surgery looks quite attractive. The idea behind the new procedure was actually born in the 1930s, when it was found that a bundle of nerves near the arteries going to your kidneys control the hormones regulate your adrenaline levels. In the process of doing so they also affect your blood pressure. Doctors found that by surgically disabling these nerves, they could interrupt the signal from the brain that keeps blood pressure raised. However the operation was invasive which made it risky and, as with all surgery, it could lead to further complications. Mainly for this reason, it was abandoned in favour of drug treatments.

Now, a team of researchers have come up with an innovative solution that is much less invasive. The new technique does away with the scalpel and instead it uses a catheter and radiological guidance similar to an angioplasty. A small incision is made near the femoral artery and the catheter is inserted into the artery. Then it's guided to where the nerves are, and a small jolt of electricity reduces the nerves activity by 30 80%. As the heat from the electricity only raises the temperature by 10C, there is minimal damage to the artery. Also like an angioplasty, the risks from this type of surgery are much smaller than traditional surgery. A smaller incision means there is less chance of an infection. The operation is shorter and the recovery time is also much shorter; a patient can expect to have the surgery and walk out the same day. Many clinical trials have been conducted to test this procedure since 2009. Researchers have published a study in Lancet that describes a trial on patients whose systolic BP (the BP when your heart is contracting) was greater than 160mmHg. The study showed that 84% of the test group who underwent Renal Sympathetic Denervation (as the paper calls it) showed a reduction in systolic BP of at least 10mmHg compared to the control group. More promisingly, nearly 40% of the patients saw their blood pressure return to normal levels. Furthermore, the first Renal Sympathetic Denervation procedure was actually done on a man in 2008. His blood pressure has remained under control to this day, which suggests that the procedure could be permanent. This could mean that in the future, patients may not need drugs to control their BP. Hypertension may have a cure. Each procedure is fairly expensive; it costs the NHS and therefore the taxpayer around 4,000 a pop. However this cost is easily balanced by the money it saves in the long run. Patients who dont have the procedure will have long term medication costs, and they will be at a higher risk of life threatening diseases which apart from causing harm to the patient, will also cost more for the NHS to fix. Although still in trial stages, the procedure shows huge potential and its effects on the medical world could be profound. From medical school, doctors are taught that hypertension is best treated using medication, but now this mechanical procedure could replace that. The procedure will be put into wider use later this year as part of a larger trial. So to finish, at least for those with hypertension, 2012 will not be the end of the world.
-

Sid Umapathy 12F

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Affluenza - The Psychology of Selfishness

n Western cultures, we are encouraged, through the media, to be hedonistic and consumerist, and some children are brought up by their parents in this way. Many

adverts often make claims about how the products they advertise will bring you happiness, partners, success and so on, and often encourage you to buy commodities we dont even need. These products, in their production, consume the Earths vital resources that will ultimately go to be wasted in landfill. Capitalism preaches the maximisation of capital to provide the capitalists in charge of a company the wealth to accumulate commodities. Consumption in the Northern hemisphere is vast, and at a much higher rate that the world can naturally replenish its resources, with the 20% richest people in the world consume some 80% of the worlds resources. The psychologist Oliver James identified, in his analysis, that English-speaking nations have the highest rates of mental distress in the world. An analysis over a 12-month period showed that of the citizens of English-speaking nations, 23% suffered from mental distress, compared to 11.5% of mainland western Europeans. 26.4% of US citizens suffered from mental distress in the same 12-month period, nearly six times more than the number in Nigeria. There was also a correlation between high emotional distress and high inequality in a nation. The country with the highest inequality and highest emotional distress, as well as being the most hedonistic in the world, was the USA. Genetics do not explain this trend, as English speakers come from the same gene pool as Europeans, and when Nigerians moved to the US, they developed the same trend after a few generations. James asserts that the high rates of mental distress are due to excessive wealth-seeking in consumerist countries such as Britain, Australia and the USA. He asserts that the promotion of values such as wealth-seeking, self-image, celebrity and greed has spawned the Affluenza Virus the placing of high priority and value upon money, possessions, physical and social appearance, being superior to others (financially, academically etc.) and fame. These are attitudes that are cultured by Western societies, which put emphasis on the individual i.e. greed, hedonism and me, me, me,, as well as being generated by the stimulation of false needs by advertising. This works by creating unhappiness with the viewers self, and with our current commodities. In Jamess analysis of mental distress and inequality, the nation where advertisement is the most prevalent, and where misery and unhappiness generated by it is most prevalent, is also where emotional distress is highest in the world - namely the USA.

The distress is created by the failure to meet four fundamental human needs; security, competence, being part of a community, and being autonomous and authentic. Achieving these needs is prevented by following the values of the Virus, creating feelings of insecurity, and alienation, incompetence inauthenticity.

People work towards perceived needs, which may be success and superiority in business, making themselves look as attractive as possible or at least more than others, having the latest gadgetry. Achieving these goals brings only short-lived happiness, and eventually feelings of dissatisfaction and worthlessness. I shall refer these things, such as financial success, material wealth, fame and so on as perceived needs for ease of reference. These perceived needs come to dominate their time as they continuously attempt to meet them all, whilst neglecting their genuine desires and fundamental human needs. Insecurity is created by obsession with these perceived needs, and is detrimental to their personal development, as they only want to constantly keep up with the Joneses i.e. trying to avoid socio-economic and/or cultural inferiority by setting benchmarks to work towards. To cope with inadequacy for not being successful, they may create false, narcissistic images of themselves with the use of self-exaggeration and attention seeking. If they do better than others or meet their perceived needs, they set further benchmarks to work towards. This repeats endlessly. They may also have a sense that they should always be doing something, creating further anxiety. Feelings of incompetence are created when people are not successful in meeting their perceived needs, and so they become depressive for not having accomplished them. This gives further focus on the self, as they can only blame themselves for inadequacies and failures, and trying even harder to meet their perceived needs just creates greater anxiety and loathing, eventually leading to depression. Many so-called successful people have had nervous breakdowns following this path. Following the values of the Virus to meet your perceived needs can prevent people from having the time to meet with family and friends or interact with the wider community, as they are placed on low priority. For example, if you are a stockbroker, you might be fixated on your work all day, every day, with no time to see your family or friends, because all that matters is making money (unless they assist you in your career, and so you would only meet them because convention demands it). At other times they are kept at a distance. The motivation to have friends is often not out of shared interests, or for

spending time together for fun, but for utility in forwarding their own interests. Friendship and romance become confused and twisted with professional alliances for forwarding the pursuit of the values of the Virus, and the same can happen with work and play. These friends may have been gained as a result of career gifts, such as promotion and pay rise (i.e. by buying them with money and presents), and this may apply to lovers as well. With the Virus value of selfishness prioritised, the satisfaction and mental reward of helping the community is missed out on, and if they become very rich they may set up a charity, but often only to forward a self-image of glory and greatness, and without any real concern for the well-being of others. The lack of interaction and intimacy leaves only boredom, loneliness and emptiness, and this promotes anxiety and depression. Virus values prevent the needs of feeling autonomous and authentic by stopping us from following our true needs and desires. Many people who possess these values may work in the financial sector, and so treat everything and everyone as commodities, and not as people. There is also a sense that everything you do is just part of a big game rather than living life, as the decisions made are unconnected and irrelevant to fundamental human needs. Going through such a de-humanising environment makes them feel powerless, as though they do not have control over themselves, and are instead determined entirely by the markets they work in. The inauthenticity and lack of autonomy of this environment leaves people vulnerable to personality disorders. To medicate such depression and anxiety, people frequently turn to quick, short term fixes, such as aholias like shopaholia, workaholia, sexaholia, chocaholia and so on. It also creates vulnerability to alcoholism and more serious substance abuse, which can lead to a spiral of self-destruction, and ultimately in some cases, death. The consumerism created by following the Virus values of Affluenza has environmental and political effects due to the sheer number of people seeking material wealth. As already discussed, the richest people in the world consume a vast and disproportionate amount of resources, particularly in the North hemisphere. Huge quantities of resources are needed to produce these commodities, and in the efforts to access them it leads to devastation or total destruction of ecosystems, stimulates wars for control of resources, destruction or eviction of indigenous communities, and due to energy from fossil fuels required for production, transport etc, contributes to global warming. To overcome the effects of Affluenza on our societies, James asserts that we must pursue our real fundamental human needs, consider the long term rather than the short term, and replace the values associated with Affluenza with the values of intrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation is the opposite of the motivation of the Virus, which is extrinsic because the motivation of the Virus values is to work towards a future reward.

Intrinsic motivation comes from inside a person, rather than from an external source such as the desire for reward, and is from the sense of satisfaction and pleasure of a process that brings you to somethings completion (the getting there rather than arriving). Such values include supporting others, self-expression and being what you define as beautiful, and not just what society says is attractive. This does not mean that an intrinsically motivated person will not work for any external reward, but that when working towards a goal they will be interested in the process of getting there. Otherwise they will not be motivated. For example, you may be offered a job in a company that offers a high salary after enough promotions, but if you would not enjoy working in that company to get to that position, you would not want to work there. Having this sort of motivation and value set tends to bring much more satisfaction and happiness to people than from having the Virus values and motivation. On the political level, he states that the most important step a government must take is to challenge the values of the Affluenza Virus, by well-thought through legislation to encourage us to place less importance on money, fame and possessions. This is in stark contrast to our previous New Labour governments, which have done precisely the opposite, promoting the values of greed and wealth-seeking. Peter Mandelson said himself that We are seriously relaxed about people becoming very, very rich. Some of us have, but it hasnt made us any happier.

- Kristian Smith 12J

To keep making this magazine we need your contributions! You can write about ANYTHING to do with science or technology. Please email finished articles to: sytec_editor@yahoo.co.uk THANK YOU!

Quantum Computing

n 1947, American computer engineer Howard Aiken said that six electronic digital computers would satisfy the computing needs of the United States. Of course he didnt count on the coming of the Internet, which happens to be around 5 billion gigabytes in size, as estimated by Google. The fastest computer in the world at the time of writing is the K computer, installed in the RIKEN Advanced Institute for Computational Science in Kobe, Japan. As of November 2011, it could reach 10 petaflops. As a comparison, an Xbox 360 will only accomplish 355 gigaflops. So, the K computer will do 10,000,000,000,000,000 flops (floating-point operations per second), whereas an Xbox 360 will do 355,000,000,000 flops. Thats over 28,000 times more! A single core computer will do 1 calculation at a time, at a rate of 2500 times a second (on average). A quantum computer could potentially do 10 trillion calculations at once, every second. This is because the standard computer uses bytes which are either a 0 or a 1, while a quantum computer uses qubits (Quantum bits) which can, theoretically, have infinite states. Potentially, a quantum computer could reach 1 quintillion exaflops (1 million-trillion million-trillion calculations a second). Unfortunately Heisenbergs uncertainty principle pops up here, which states that there is a fundamental limit on the accuracy with which certain pairs of physical properties of a particle, such a position and momentum, can be simultaneously known. So what is a qubit? A byte on a hard disc is stored magnetically, as 'on' or 'off'. A qubit is any quantum mechanical object (such as an atom, ion, or a photon) that can be in two states, or in any superposition of those two states. As a result, a qubit can be 'on', 'off', both, or a superposition of both, meaning that it can be anywhere in between. Any twolevel system can be used as a qubit. For example, a photon can be measured by its polarisation of light. Horizontal could be a 0, and vertical a 1. Electrons can also be used by measuring the electronic spin. If it is a 0 it is spinning up, and 1 if spinning down. You could also have multiple ways of storing a qubit in one particle - for instance, you can measure both the electron number and its spin. The technology in quantum computing is compact and energy efficient. The problem is that, currently, the infrastructure needed to utilize a quantum computer is large, expensive and energy consuming. The difficulty for people trying to make quantum computers is not the data storage, or even making computations, but actually getting the thing to function in a way that people can use practically, without having to fire a laser or use sun glasses to find out whether a photon is polarized vertically or horizontally.

- Niall Woodward 9B
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How Big Is The Universe?

hen you see a star in the night sky, have you ever considered how far away it is, or how large that tiny speck actually is? Take a minute to think about how big you

are, and then compare that to the size of a bus, the Eiffel Tower, the United Kingdom, and then the Earth itself. It is only then that you begin to realise how big the universe is. Lets begin with the Solar System, being home to Earth (and us!) it seems a good place to start as we embark on our journey to see how much space is actually out there. As it's our home planet, Earth is the planet we know the most about. It has a diameter of 12,756km and lies 149.6 million km away from the start it orbits: the Sun. If you were to walk around the equator without stopping, at an average speed of 4 km/h, it would take 417 days, 10 hours and 45 minutes to get back to where you started. Despite its relatively large size, Earth is far from the biggest planet in the Solar System. That prize is claimed by the largest of the gas giants, Jupiter. With a diameter of 142,984km, it is 11.2 times the size of the Earth. It is also a great deal further away from the Sun than the Earth is, at a whopping 778.4 million km. However, the the king of the Solar System is the Sun, which is an astounding 109 times the size of the Earth! Outside the Solar System the sizes only continue to increase, from The Sun to Pollux, To Aldebaran and Antares, all the way to VY Canis Majoris. This red hypergiant is the largest star known, being around 49000 trillion km from Earth, and having a diameter of roughly 3 billion km - 235,183 times the size of the Earth! Now if you were to walk around the circumference of VY Canis Majoris, it would only take 268793 years, 143 days and 2 hours and 3 minutes. Bear in mind that all these stars are part of galaxies, which themselves contain billions of other stars, with our own galaxy, the Milky Way, plays host to approximately 200 billion stars. On top of that, there are many billions of galaxies in the observable universe, which is just what its name says - it is as far as we can currently see into the universe. It is estimated to have a size of 930000000000 trillion km. That's nice and all, but what does it mean? As a result of the universe being so huge, there have to be some implications. One of the more entertaining ideas is that somewhere out there, in the vast expanses of space, it is highly likely that there are other lifeforms. We can only wait and see if they are intelligent and advanced enough to be aware of our own existence currently, or if by the time our species encounter one another they have only just reached the point at which we would consider them intelligent. However there are vast amounts of space between planets,

moons and stars, so it may take hundreds, or thousands, of years for a message to be transmitted, and a great deal longer for physical contact to occur. This is because, due to the limitations of current technology, we can't travel anywhere near the speed of light (like a message would), so we will have to wait a while before we can start cruising around space in space ships. I suppose that holiday on Kepler-22b will have to wait... for now.

- Cameron Whittle 12F

An interesting link to an interactive website where you can compare the sizes of different objects in the universe, from the observable universe to a neutrino, or smaller!
http://htwins.net/scale2/scale2.swf?

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Alien Hand Syndrome

magine having one of your hands take on a mind of its own. Your hand is capable of punching you in the face or strangling one of your friends without your intent or control. This is essentially what Alien Hand Syndrome (AHS) is. AHS, also known as Anarchic Hand, is a rare neurological disorder where a person's hand appears to be controlled by an external source. A person with this condition will retain the ability to sense and feel with their 'alien' hand, but they will not have any control over its actions. Sufferers usually retain a belief of 'ownership' of their hand but the hand acts in an entirely autonomous fashion. 'Alien' hand movements can be differentiated from reflexive hand movements as the 'alien' movements tend to act out a purpose. Sometimes the sufferer will not be aware of what the alien hand is doing until it is brought to his or her attention, or until the hand does something that draws the hosts attention to its behaviour. Sufferers of AHS will often personify the rogue limb, such as believing it to be "possessed" by some intelligent or alien spirit or an entity that they may name or identify. The most prevalent cause of AHS is a brain injury which may be the result of a trauma, stroke, tumour or an infection. Another cause of the disorder is as a side effect of brain surgery where the two lobes of the brain are separated to relieve sever epilepsy. Damage to the corpus callosum, a flat bundle of neural fibres beneath the cortex in the brain connecting the right and left hemispheres, will give rise to the non-dominant hand becoming alien. Injury to the frontal lobe of the brain can also give rise to reaching, grasping and other purposeful movements in the non-dominant hand. Currently there is no formal treatment for AHS but the symptoms can be reduced and managed to some degree by keeping the alien hand occupied and involved in a task, for example by giving it an object to hold in its grasp. One patient with AHS would reach out to grasp onto objects as he was walking. He was given a cane to hold in the alien hand while walking, even though he really did not need a cane for its usual purpose of assisting with balance and facilitating ambulation. With the cane firmly in the grasp of the alien hand, it would generally not release the grasp and drop the cane in order to reach out to grasp onto a different object. AHS has appeared in Stanley Kubrik's 1964 film Dr. Strangelove with the title character suffering with the condition. The condition has also appeared in one episode of the medical drama House, with the patient's alien hand making House's job more difficult.

- Adam Wan 12F

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Peter Sellers as Dr. Strangelove

Recapturing Lost Energy

s strange as it sounds, 70% of the energy released when burning fuel in a car is wasted. Most of it in the form of hot gases, which are thrown out from the exhaust pipe into the atmosphere. With average oil prices as high as they have ever been, scientists have been seeking a way reclaiming this wasted energy, not only in cars, but in other systems where heat is a major product and is wasted, such as power stations. One of the leading lights in this field is the thermo-electric generator or TEG for short. TEGs work using temperature gradients (or temperature differences) to generate a potential difference within the device, causing current to flow. Therefore, in theory at least, you could use TEGs to generate a small electrical current using human body heat: the average body temperature is 37.5oC, which is warmer than the ambient temperature of around 20oC. Although this technology is relatively unknown, the thermo-electric properties of certain materials have been theorised and soon after were experimentally proved in the late 1800s. TEGs work using Seebeck effect (or thermoelectric effect). This is the direct conversion of a temperature difference into an electric voltage; the reverse can also occur, if a voltage is applied across a TEG, it can induce a temperature gradient. Most Seebeck devices are made of a semi-conductor sandwiched between a layer of copper and then ceramic. There must be a temperature difference for the device to supply a current, therefore it is crucial that one side How a TEG works stays cooler than the other; a heat sink, which increases the surface area of the cold side of the device, helps to dissipate heat keeping it cooler. Currently, there are studies looking into nanotechnologies that allow electrons to flow at the same rate but resist the flow of heat through the semi-conductor. TEGs are currently only around 5% efficient but the technology is still improving: most devices are made from Bismuth Telluride (Bi 2Te3) semi-conductor, which operates at 5-7% efficiency at 200oC; however, new devices which are Silicon and Germanium based boast up to 10% efficiency at 500oC, which is around the temperature of a car exhaust system. It is expected that thermo-electric devices are not efficient as they must allow heat to pass through them and so cannot convert all of the heat energy into electricity. Nonetheless, a 10% efficiency can represent a 10% saving in money as well as fuel, and so, although it was only a small percentage saving at first, in the long term, TEGs could bring realistic and significant savings, this too at a time of economic recession, global warming and depleting fuel reserves.

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The use of TEGs has been most established in the space industry. In the depths of space, far from the reach of sufficient sunlight for solar panels to function properly, in lunar craters or on exploration missions, where electricity must be supplied day and night and allow probes or rovers to function for very long periods of time or travel long distances, across demanding terrain. Radioisotope TEGs however can easily meet this demand: a 50kg device can provide electricity for a 20 tonne probe. It is also very efficient due to the vast temperature gradient: on one side of the device lies a vigorously decaying radioisotope, most commonly Plutonium-238, releasing huge amounts of heat, and on the other side is space, with a temperature of 3 o above absolute zero. Furthermore, most of the 50kg is a casing surrounding the radioactive material, so that it is contained in any re-entry scenario. We can all relate to the significance of the use of TEGs in cars, but they can also be used to good effect in power stations. Coal, oil and gas plants are all at most only 50% efficient with the fuel they burn and the heat they produce and use to make electricity. These plants function by heating water into steam, which under pressure is forced onto turbines, causing them to spin, which in turn spins a generator. However, the steam is then condensed back into water in cooling towers. The steam that leaves these represents a huge loss in energy unto the environment, some of which could be reclaimed using TEGs. Devices could be connected in series and could line the heat exchange surface in the cooling towers: this would regain some of the wattage lost by the power station, enabling it to produce more electricity from the same amount of fuel, meaning less is wasted. A similar arrangement could line the exhaust system of a car and the cold side could be kept cool using the cooling systems the car already encompasses, making a more Two thermo-electric devices efficient supply of electricity. To conclude, Im not trying to say that TEGs are the answer to all our economical and environmental problems, as there are a plethora of other methods to combat these, but that they are a step in the right direction that could bring significant benefits by saving money as well as fuel. Moreover, by burning less fuel, less CO2 enters the atmosphere, reducing the acceleration of climate change.

- Joe Ayathamattam 12I

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Time Travel - Is It Possible?

e are all familiar with time travel in science fiction, such as Doctor Who, Back to the Future, and The Terminator, but the question is: can it be done? Is it science fiction or could it be science fact? The main problem with time travel is that you can create many paradoxes (a statement that sounds reasonable, but in fact leads to a conclusion that seems logically unacceptable). For example, if you were to go back in time and you kill your parents before you are born then, obviously, you wouldn't be born. But then how could you have gone back in time and killed them in the first place? There are many others like this, which is why time travel has usually been thought of as impossible. Isaac Newton thought that time was like an arrow and never deviated and so therefore time travel could not occur. However then came Albert Einstein who said that time was like a river and that it meandered. It could be split into a fork or be bent like a pretzel. There are many solutions to Einsteins equations that allow for time travel to occur. One of these ways is called a wormhole. Imagine drawing two dots on a piece of paper and folding the paper so that they are above each other. Bridge the gap and this makes, essentially, a wormhole. It What a wormhole would look like. is the warping of the fabric of the universe, space time, (in this case the piece of paper) so that two places meet. This would mean that you would be travelling back in time. But there is a problem with using this theory to make a time machine. The energy required to warp space and time is that of an exploding star or a black hole, far greater than what we have available at the moment. Furthermore we would need negative energy to hold open the wormhole which we havent found in nature. If one day, far into the future, we were able to harness the power of black holes, then it might be possible to produce a wormhole. Perhaps we could imitate Doctor Who, where the Doctor travels through a black hole in his Tardis to various points in space and time. Unfortunately, most scientists believe that if you were to travel into a black hole you would almost certainly be stretched to death by the extreme gravitational force. But, in 1963, Roy Kerr found a solution of Einsteins equations for a rotating black hole that wouldnt collapse and effectively create a ring that someone could travel through and not die. The person would exit through a white hole

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(the opposite of a black hole, spewing out matter) and perhaps appear in another time or possibly an alternate universe. At least, that's the theory. Recently, events at the CERN super collider in Switzerland caused uproar in the world of physics as scientists believed they had proved that neutrinos (very small particles) travelled faster than the speed of light, which had been deemed impossible. The neutrinos appeared to arrive 60 billionths of a second quicker than light would. This would suggest that time travel was possible and led to the joke - 'the barman says Im sorry, we dont serve neutrinos in here, a neutrino walks into a bar.' However recent evidence suggests there may have been a systematic error which therefore disproves the faster than light travel. This does, however, raise the possibility of time travel by travelling close to the speed of light. The closer you get to this cosmic speed limit the slower time passes. Therefore if you built a spacecraft powerful enough to travel at these speeds, you could set off and travel for what you would experience as a year, but you would return to Earth to find that hundreds of years have passed since you had left. Essentially you have travelled into the future. There are also theories on the paradoxes I mentioned earlier than can provide an insight into overcoming them. They suggest that going back in time doesnt create paradoxes or alter the future in your timeline, but merely creates a parallel universe, and so you change someone elses future. However even though the paradoxes can be solved it doesnt mean that time travel can be made easily. There are still many problems that need to be addressed. For example, currently, our mathematics is not sufficient to try and prove or disprove these theories. A theory of everything is required to produce such answers. The closest such thing at present is string theory (but even that's not a complete theory because the real equations for it havent been found). In essence string theory is the premise that every fundamental particle is made of tiny string at a size of the plank length ( m). The theory involves 10 dimensions; the strings' vibrations create everything we know in our physical world. In conclusion, there is nothing to say that time travel cannot be achieved. Einsteins equations allow it, as does the latest attempt at a theory of everything, string theory. However the very concept is hard to imagine. The energies required are beyond anything we are capable of. This does not mean it is not possible, but that the question is how and when it will be possible. Probably not in our lifetimes, but some day we may be able to harness the power of black holes or produce enough energy to warp space and time. We could discover the real equations of string theory and find other avenues to time travel that have never been considered. So, as quoted by the American theoretical physicist Michio Kaku, if someone knocks on your door claiming to be your great-great-great grandchild, dont shut the door on them because they may well be telling the truth Stephen Molyneux 12F

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Apple - The End of Technophobia?

pple are renowned for knowing what we want before we do. As Steve Jobs once said, "a lot of times people don't know what they want until you show it to them". This has proven to be the case with Apple and they didn't stop there. They have not only been able to predict what we want, but have also made their products easy for people to use. Apple's desktops and laptops have topped an ease-of-use poll conducted by the consumer magazine Which?. They have also become synonymous with making the lives of designers and other creative professionals considerably easier. Many of Apples successes have been helped by first-mover advantage, such as in the case of iTunes, launched in 2001, when many people were unsure if there would ever be a market for digital content of this type. Regardless, Apple was correct, and now around two-thirds of legal music and movie downloads are from iTunes, despite the increasing number of competitors that have emerged over the years. The iPad was the first tablet to be launched into the market, and has now become the quintessential tablet. For instance, advertisements for Sky Go have been directed exclusively at iPad users, even though it is available for other tablets. They also advertise Sky Go for iPhone despite the fact that it is also available for Android phones. The iMac is considered superior to its competitors, as it is seen to be more reliable, secure, predictable and smooth to operate than its competitors. Although they are very expensive, they lose their value less rapidly, simply because they are Apple products. For example, a 3 year old Dell computer tends to be worth far less than a 3 year old iMac. The simple presence of a fruit on the casing seems to make many people think it is definitely worth the cost. I would say that it is the user friendliness of Apple products that have made the company so successful. Among Apples many achievements, it currently has more money in the bank than the U.S. government, the iPhone 4 is the best-selling phone of all time in terms of units sold, with the iPhone 3GS in second place. Even now the iPad is becoming more popular than the iPhone. Before its launch, a survey conducted by RBC/ChangeWave showed that more people planned to purchase one than had for the iPhone before its launch in 2007.

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The iPad does not include a manual as it is so easy to use. Only 10 years ago it would have been seen as financially suicidal to launch a new technological product without any instructions on how to use it. No one appears to be even remotely upset by this, apart from myself. When I first tried out my iPad, I had never owned an iPod as I kept all my music on my phone (which was not an iPhone). As a result, I had no idea how to use apple products. I tried holding down the button on the front to turn it on, but after 'googling' "how to turn on an iPad" I realised that there was a button on the top. A few days later I realised it was not even an iPad, but in fact an iPad2! I should point out that I won it, rather than going into a store asking for an iPad and being given an iPad2 by some stroke of fortune. This was just the beginning of my problem. It then took me about two hours to set up my Apple ID, and several weeks to put any music on it. My inability to get music on it was not completely my fault, as it was a frequent problem for iPad2s to fail to synchronise with iTunes it would just stay on step 3 forever, and crash when you tried to close it. Eventually I found a solution, which involved me opening the task manager and closing lots of extra programs that were open, followed by complet ely skipping stage 3. Since then I have become addicted to my iPad. Once I had got it working it was easy to use, and every few weeks I discover a new feature which I have never noticed previously. For instance, after three and a half months of owning the iPad, I accidentally took a screenshot - something I had wanted to know how to do for some time. After my own experiences, I'm not sure whether the iPad is technophobe proof, although I am at least certain that it is not idiot proof. When you get used to Apples technology, you realise how easy it actually is, and that it was just you being thick. I can't help but admire them for charging people hundreds of pounds for the product, and then making them pay for everything on it (the apps). Its a little like selling a car and retailing the steering wheel as an optional extra. To conclude, Apple could represent the end of technophobia, as its products are very accessible and intuitive to use (for anyone other than me that is, as I am yet to meet anyone who has had similar experiences), but we will just have to wait and see...

- Sam Ball 12E

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Windows vs. OSX - Team OSX

he two greatest technology companies in the world, Apple and Microsoft, have always been industry leaders, from when they were first created up until this very day. But whose computers are better? The answer of a businessman would be Microsoft, but a true geek would say Apple, so who is right? Currently the worlds most popular OS is the greatly flawed Windows 7, with Apples current OS (OS X Lion) running on just 9.1% of the worlds systems. However, underneath the bonnet, the reality is completely different. Windows may have the ability to run on just about any platform with a reasonable amount of compatibility, but that is just about where the praise stops. The Apple OS is not only the worlds most sophisticated platform; it offers many uses for just about Pinned web pages on the dashboard everyone. The interface of Windows seems somewhat unnecessarily cluttered when compared to the desktop of a Mac, with its menu bar and dock. Also, with its simplicity, the Apple OS is more appealing than the start menu and gadgets of the Windows desktop. Admittedly, the Lion OS has a separate screen for the clutter-some gadgets, known as the dashboard, but even then, it proves itself to be Gadgets, the Windows ahead of the game, by allowing users to pin web-pages to it.
equivalent

Beyond the desktop, there are many other benefits of the Apple OS. The fact that the Apple OS is designed a certain way for each of its computers, so that it is optimized individually on each machine for speed and performance, is why Apple recommend that you do not install the OS on a machine that has not been manufactured by them. This is usually the point where most hobbyists would argue that Windows is better than Apple OS, and in a respect it is true. On a Windows computer installing various internal components and modifying them is much easier, such as installing a 3D Graphics card and then customizing the 3D depth. However, a similar sort of effect can be achieved by purchasing the Mac Pro, which at 2041 can be considered an immense rip off. However, this is not the case, as the Mac Pro offers the upgradability of an Alienware, with miles more performance, and the style and all round fantastic quality of an Apple product. Even though the Mac is compatible with less hardware and software than a traditional Windows computer, this may be a good thing. You know that if the component is verified to be compatible with the Apple OS, it will almost certainly be a high quality product.

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For the rest of the world, who dont find pleasure in playing about inside their computer (why ever not!) the Mac offers so much more than Windows. An updated Mac will not get viruses a feat that a Windows computer with the best (non OS X) anti-spyware software cannot claim. Another great feature of OS X is the Mac App Store. I would claim that all software downloaded through the Mac app store is satisfactory, and that it is from a verified source. There is also an integrated piece of software named Launchpad, which holds all the applications installed through the Mac App Store. Beyond that, the computers designed by Apple are usually very aesthetically pleasing. For instance, the iMac all in one is a very quiet and beautiful computer, whilst the Mac Pro is also beautiful in its own right. The standard that Apple produces their machines mean that their Windows competitors at a similar price, and often with better specifications on paper, are no match for the mighty Mac. However, very few people actually use the Apple OS, as extremely good marketing by Microsoft and surprisingly poor marketing by Apple has led to people using, and therefore promoting, the less reliable and generally worse Windows machines.
The Windows 8 Metro interface

Apple being Apple, are actually one step ahead of the game. They are ready to launch their latest weapon in tablet computing, the iPad 3, and their even more developed OS, Mountain Lion, with further power, security, usability, performance, speed and wow factor. The same cannot be said for Microsoft, as they are desperately trying to shoehorn years of experience into a tablet optimized OS, Windows 8. From first appearances at the official launch, and from the official beta, Microsoft is up to its usual tricks of copying Apple, with fast startup speeds, and a new partition named metro, which seems similar to the Dashboard of OS X Lion. Furthermore, the new Windows OS looks uncannily like Windows 7 Basic, which in essence is what it is. It should be no competition to Apple in the coming years, although Googles chrome book does seem to look like a minor competitor with OS X Mountain Lion.

- Yasin Ahmad 9F

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Windows vs. OSX - Team Windows

icrosoft and Apple are two of the biggest computer companies on the planet, and they have both been fighting it out for who has the best operating system. At the moment Microsoft appears to be winning. 90.9% of the worlds computers use Windows, and over 1 in 4 of those run Windows 7. I admit Apples products have got one thing going for them - style. They are curvy and pretty, but in my opinion, that's just about where their greatness stops. Windows is the better operating system by far, even if it doesn't come in a sparkly case. In the past one of OSX's main claims was that it booted faster. However many Windows systems now load just as fast and are much more customizable too. You can customise your desktop with gadgets and programs you use regularly, and you also have the start menu where you can find all of your programs very quickly. To find an application a Mac first you have to open finder, and then you have to locate the applications folder. Once you've found that you have to trawl through its contents until you find your desired application. 'But the search! Why don't you use the search?' I hear the OSX Club cry. Well you if you search for let's say 'Photoshop', OSX will rummage around your entire hard drive until it stumbles across it. On my MacBook, which has a fairly full hard drive, this invariably takes longer than finding it myself. Furthermore, OSX isnt as flexible as Windows 7; Windows 7 is compatible with just about any computer that has been made in the past 5-10 years. OSX will only work on a select few. Not to mention, adding extra components to an Apple Mac will burn a nice hole in your wallet. Installing components on Windows is not only easier, but costs a fraction of the price. On the theme of money, Macs are overpriced for what they actually contain; you can get a Windows computer for up to a half of the price however with exactly the same or even better specifications. Here's a comparison of the original MacBook Air and the Sony Vaio TZ to illustrate this:

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Another big complaint against Macs is Software Compatibility. There is much more software available for Windows and, again, at the fraction of the price (can you spot a theme there?). One of the cornerstones of computing is being able to share information. You can't do this if the program you use isn't available on a Mac, or vice versa. But aren't there more and more Mac versions of software? Well yes, and to an extent this problem is being reduced. But sometimes there are issues there too. Occasionally programs won't work as smoothly or as intuitively, simply because they weren't designed for OSX. Even quick tasks can become complicated and long-winded. Here's an example - cropping a picture on Word 2007: Mac 1) Make sure your Formatting Palette is open. If not, click View -> Formatting Palette in the menu bar. 2) With your image selected, go to the Formatting Palette and see if the Picture category is revealed. If not, click on Picture to open it. 3) There should be a Crop button. Once clicked, the edges in your image will change to show handles you can drag to crop the image. 4) Click the Crop button again to finish the crop. Windows 1) Select the picture and click the format tab. 2) Click crop. 3) Select area of picture wanted. 4) Press enter to complete.

The flagship argument to buy a Mac is the supposed lower chance of getting viruses. Yes, this is true if you are comparing against a Windows computer with no antivirus software. However installing antivirus software is almost a rite of passage for a new computer. With good antivirus software catching a virus is very unlikely. The software isn't expensive either. In fact, you can get several great ones for free. Many manufacturers will even save you the trouble and preinstall them onto your system. Moreover Macs aren't immune to malware. In truth, they are just as susceptible to viruses as a Windows machine if not more so, as many Mac users don't bother installing antivirus. Of course, Macs get infected less often, but there is a straightforward explanation: fewer people use Macs and so hackers write viruses for the wider market (Windows). But this is unlikely to continue. Nearly half a million Mac computers were infected with the Flashback Trojan, and Apple took over a week to release a fix. As Macs become more popular, hackers will inevitably start to target the new, unprotected and weaker prey. Finally, for all the gameoholics out there, Windows is definitely victorious here. There are more games for Windows than there are for Mac. Also the hardware in a PC or laptop is much more gaming-capable than what's inside an iMac or a MacBook. Moreover if your computer becomes a bit out dated and you need to upgrade a part to play a game then is simple and cheap to do. Renovating a Mac is not straightforward. Most upgrades (such

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as video cards) don't fit Macs, and the ones that do are hard to find. This makes expanding your computer (already 2000) a very costly process. To sum up, Windows is intuitive, easier to use, more customisable, more flexible, is compatible with a wider range of software and hardware and is less expensive. The computers may not be as pretty Macs, but they are better everywhere else.

- Pavan Kotecha

Are you a Mac or a PC? Or something else entirely? We're interested in hearing your views! Head over to the poll on our Facebook group:

You can also tell us what you think is interesting about Science, or give us feedback about the magazine.

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First Aid Frozen

mong those well versed in the lore of science fiction, the idea of suspended animation would most likely be met with a Vulcan salute or some unintelligible reference to Kryptonian technology. However, as opposed to inducing a 50,000 year stupor to fly people to Mars or Tatooine, researchers are attempting to use the concept of suspended animation to treat critically ill patients in trauma. Primarily, it should be clarified what the term suspended animation actually means. It is essentially the slowing of life processes by external means without causing death, with the ability to wake up the organism unharmed. Breathing, heartbeat, and other involuntary functions may still occur, but can be detected only by artificial means due to the miniscule scale of their occurrence. Mark Roth, among the eminent of researchers in this field, presents the idea that If you

look out at nature, you find that as you tend to see suspended animation, you tend to see immortality. In biological terms, immortal refers to the absence of cellular senescence as

opposed to invincibility. An example would be plant seeds or bacterial spores. These creatures are among the most immortal life forms on our planet, and they tend to spend most of their time in suspended animation. Bacterial spores are individual cells that can exist for as long as 250 million years. Similarly, the eggs that sit in the human ovaries for up to 50 years in the life women are actually stored there in suspended animation. The process is not just limited to small organisms either; suspended animation can be seen in many larger animals. An example that's familiar to many of us is the species known as Sea-Monkeys. In that reckless abandon of childhood, you go to the nearest Toys'r'us store, you purchase this precious packet of ten minute appeal, you open the bag, and you dump them into the plastic aquarium. In about a week or so, you have little shrimps (as opposed to small scale primates) swimming around. This is because the packet you dumped actually contained brine shrimp eggs. They have the ability to survive for many months within the packaging because the eggs enter a state of cryptobiosis, an ametabolic response triggered by oxygen deprivation or freezing. It is well observed that the two major factors which can induce a state of suspended animation are extreme cold or oxygen deprivation. Occasionally, human beings have experienced this process, often due to cold. Ten years ago, a skier in Norway was trapped in an icy waterfall, and was there for two hours before she was extracted. She was extremely cold, and had no heartbeat -- for all intents and purposes she was dead, frozen. Seven hours later, still without a heartbeat, doctors brought her back to life, and she went on to be the head radiologist in the hospital that treated her. In a more recent occurrence, Peter Skyllberg, 44, was found asleep in his car after being buried under
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seven feet of snow for a period of two months in -30oc conditions. Upon removal, he possessed no side effects except those of emaciation. So, these are miracles, are they not? They are certainly incredible events. In fact, Doctors have a saying that, "You're not dead until you're warm and dead." And this could be seen as true. In the New England Journal of Medicine, a study was published that showed that with appropriate re-warming, people who had suffered without a heartbeat for three hours could be brought back to life without any neurological problems in over 50% of cases. The scientists hope that by studying suspended animation, they can discover what causes the body to enter and recover from it, and what circumstances allowed the skier and Skyllberg to survive. In both of those cases, the persons involved had little to no oxygen consumption. It is this idea, namely that exposure to low oxygen does not always kill, that current research is focusing on. In an average room, the air contains approximately 20 percent oxygen; if the oxygen concentration were reduced, we would all be dead. And, in fact, animals in laboratory experiments carried out to test suspended animation -- garden worms and nematodes -- also died when exposed to low oxygen. However, when the oxygen concentration was lowered to an extreme, by 100 times, to 10 parts per million, they did not die. Instead they entered suspended animation, and could be brought back to life without any harm. And this precise oxygen concentration, 10 parts per million, is effective not only in nematodes and worms, but also in many other animals such as fish. Also both the skier and Skyllberg were subject to extreme cold. Normally, if exposed to those temperatures, you would die. So scientists wondered if being in animated suspension prevented this. And so they tested this hypothesis and discovered that, although animals in a normal state died when they were subjected to extreme cold, animals in suspended animation (i.e. 10 parts per million oxygen) survived when exposed the same temperatures. Therefore it was proven that a precise balance of conditions could induce a state of suspended animation. However, the maintenance of those conditions, especially in a medical setting, is incredibly difficult and far too expensive. And so scientists wondered: Might there be some agent that is in humans, something that we produce naturally, that might be able to regulate our own metabolism in such a way so that we are able to survive when we got extremely cold, and might otherwise pass away? Physiology textbooks brand such an idea as heresy. As humans we, from the time we arrive on the earth until we take our last dying breath, have been unable to reduce our metabolic rate below what's called a standard, or basal metabolic rate. To induce suspended animation, we would have to lower it much further. But it is not impossible. There are some animals that do reduce their metabolic rate (such as ground squirrels and bears); they reduce it in the wintertime when they hibernate. So it was discussed as to whether some agent or trigger could do the same to us.
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Following many failures from a number of chemicals and agents, Mark Roth proposed the use of hydrogen sulphide, after watching a documentary about caves in New Mexico. This particular cave was Lechuguilla, which incredibly toxic to humans. The researchers had to suit up merely to enter; the cave is filled lethal hydrogen sulphide gas. Curiously hydrogen sulphide is actually present and produced in all humans. The highest concentration is in our brains, where it is used as a biological signaller. In chemical accidents, hydrogen sulphide is known to if inhaled in excess, causes collapse, with the appearance of death. Yet, if the casualty is brought into a normal environment they can be reanimated without harm. This is because hydrogen sulphide binds to the haemoglobin, the same area where oxygen binds. In this manner, the rate of oxygen consumption is massively reduced and hence, instead of dying, the person enters suspended animation. This is why Mark Roth suggested hydrogen sulphide to induce suspended animation. In further testing, when hydrogen sulphide induced suspended animation was tested in extreme cold the test animal reacted in the same way as normal suspended animation. Instead of burning more oxygen to maintain its body temperature, the animal's core temperature dropped and its metabolism slowed down. Its oxygen consumption rate fell by tenfold. This allowed the animal to survive where it would have otherwise died. Most importantly, in addition to providing a relatively easy induction into suspended animation, using hydrogen sulphide also allowed the animal to be awoken easily. Its metabolism could be restarted quickly, with the movement of the subject into room air the only stimulus required to resume animation. But the ability to induce suspended animation has greater benefits than the ability to knock people in and out of consciousness on a whim. A liquid formulation of hydrogen sulphide in an injectable form has been created by the research group Ikaria and has been sent out on a global level to physicians working on models of critical healthcare infrastructure. The results were very positive. In one model of a myocardial infarction, animals given hydrogen sulphide to induce suspended animation showed a 70 percent reduction in cardiac damage compared to those who received the current standard treatment. The same is true for organ failure; induced suspended animation reduced the damage cause by diseases such as poor renal perfusion, liver failure, and acute respiratory distress syndrome. Even the damage suffered from surgical procedures such as cardiac-bypass surgery was decreased. Among thought leaders in trauma medicine, it seems irrefutable that induced suspended animation is very effective at reducing damage received from otherwise lethally low levels of oxygen. This is an important breakthrough and in the future, it could be hugely beneficial to the treatment and recovery of critically ill patients.

- Rayhan Ghanchi 12I

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Congenital Analgesia - Does It Hurt?

fter watching the final fight in Rocky IV where Sylvester Stallone gets his face beaten for ten rounds continuously, I wondered whether he was capable of feeling pain. I think we all would rather not feel pain, no more stubbed toe pains and no more pain when being kicked in the groin. But we all take pain for granted, it is there to make sure that we know we're injured and it's to force us to keep our injured parts protected. Congenital Analgesia or Congenital insensitivity to pain is a rare condition where a person cannot feel (and has never felt) pain. People with this condition have normal cognition, which means that no mental conditions exist, and they have normal sensation, which means they are fully capable of feeling the things they touch. There are usually no physical abnormalities with people possessing this condition. Children that suffer from this condition often suffer damage to their oral cavities (for example, many have bitten of the tips of their tongues) and fractures to bones are quite common. In some people with this disorder, there may be a mild intellectual disability, as well as an impaired corneal or blinking reflex.

Don't worry! Pain is a good thing!

There are usually two types of Congenital Analgesia which are insensitivity to pain, where the person is unable to feel pain in any form at all, and indifference to pain, where the person is fully capable of feeling pain, but is unable to react to it, for example by flinching. One cause of Congenital Analgesia is due to a mutation in the gene that codes for a sodium channel found in neurons (SCN9A if you really want to know). People that have the mutation are unable to feel pain. Another cause is Leprosy also known as Hansen's disease which causes the degeneration of nerves and pain receptors. It is the accumulation of injuries that cause people with Leprosy to have their fingers and toes drop off, not the disease itself. As a final note, in Stieg Larsson's Millennium Trilogy, former boxer Paolo Roberto discovers that Ronald Niederman was born with congenital analgesia and is therefore, as he describes "invulnerable" physically. ("He just keeps on going!") Even so, Roberto continues that his inability to perceive pain is a severe danger because Niederman has no way of understanding when his body is being put in mortal danger by way of punches, blows, burns, or even gunshots. It is suggested that human awareness of painful stimuli is an evolutionary necessity to avoid injury and death.

- Adam Wan 12F

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Nanotechnology
What is Nanotechnology? Nanotechnology is the engineering of functional mechanisms at a molecular or even atomic level. Generally, nanotechnology deals with sizes between 1 to 100 nanometres. Nanotechnology can used to create structures that can be incredibly effective at doing what they are required to do. They can maximise the amount of useful output for the minimum amount of input, therefore saving energy in electrical devices and making them more efficient. Nanotechnology has huge potential in a plethora of areas, for example: New batteries How many times have you used a gadget that is battery powered, and it runs out of juice just when you need it the most? Well worry no more, thanks to new batteries using nanotechnology! These amazing new batteries can be recharged an unlimited number of times; it can last 10 times as long as a regular battery, and can be much cheaper too. This works because the nano-particles have a much higher surface area and are therefore much more efficient than regular batteries. New DVDs Researchers at the Centre for Micro-Photonics at the Swinburne University of Technology in Victoria, Australia, created a new material that could lead to new discs that can store up to 10,000 times more data than your average DVDs using nanotechnology. This means that fewer DVDs need to be made, because these new DVDs can store much more information; this saves money and material. Furthermore, any company that develops this new type of DVD and puts it on the market or uses them in their business could make millions in profit because of this much more efficient way of storing data. The wonders of carbon There are different allotropes (forms) of carbon, such as diamond and graphite, all depending on how the carbon atoms are structured. If the carbon atoms are rolled up then they form carbon nano-tubes. These nano-tubes, which have an even greater tensile strength than diamond, exhibit unique electrical properties and can be very good heat conductors. This material is very versatile and can be used in manufacturing many products of the future, such as, thinner, lighter T.V. screens, strong yet lightweight building and waterproofing materials, and smaller and lighter electrical circuits, which

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would be considered a great advantage in the eyes of technology corporations, such as Sony, Panasonic, Samsung etc. Medical uses of nanotechnology There are many possible medical uses of nanotechnology that could greatly benefit those who are in need of medical treatment. For example, nano-coatings on hip and joint replacements could prevent rejection from the body, and nano- scaffolds will be able to support the growth of new skin and body tissues. We may even be able to invent nano-capsules of drugs that will specifically target cancer cells, or nano-electronic implants in the retinas of blind people, which communicates with cells, making it possible for the blind to be able to see again. Bucky-balls (60 carbon atoms covalently bonded to each other, this molecule is in the shape of a ball) can trap free radicals that are generated during an allergic reaction and stop the inflammation that occurs during the process.

- Surya Prasad 10F

To keep making this magazine we need your contributions! You can write about ANYTHING to do with science or technology. Please email finished articles to: sytec_editor@yahoo.co.uk THANK YOU!

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Can you fuel a car with nothing more than waste?

technology, the answer is unfortunately no, although we can process waste and turn it into fuel. Biological waste can be left to decompose to make biofuels such as methane, bioethanol or biodiesel. Plastic waste, similarly to metal cans and paper-based products, is much more economical to recycle, but for some plastics, especially polystyrene, that is not the case. Polystyrene is a remarkable material: its uses extend from the foam beads used in packaging, through CD cases, disposable plates and cups, to housings for electronic appliances and toys. Its versatility means that polystyrene is one of the most widely used plastics: only polyethylene is more commonly used. It is usually known as Styrofoam(R), which is made from expanded polystyrene beads. The problem is that this material is mostly air and very bulky, in that even a small mass of the material occupies a large volume. This makes it somewhat economically unfeasible to recycle because of excessive transport costs. It is not biodegradable and no bacteria have been found that are able to decompose it, making polystyrene a plastic that is very difficult to get rid of. This brings me to an interesting discovery: it has been found that polystyrene dissolves in biodiesel! A research project, funded by the Ministry of Defence, to find a way of disposing of waste and generating power under conditions similar to those in a battlefield yielded fruit: in an experiment, Styrofoam was found to dissolve almost instantly in biodiesel, 'like a snowflake in water' said Song-Charng Kong, the co-author of the study. He continued by saying, "One can recycle any kind of plastic, but if you are camped in a remote area, recycling is not an option. Turning plastic into fuel is a way to get rid of garbage and make electricity." More interestingly, mechanical engineers from Iowa State University found that using fuel with dissolved polystyrene actually increased the output of an internal combustion engine significantly when compared to it running on 'ordinary' biodiesel. This was because the plastic increased the fuel's viscosity, as there were increased van der Waals interactions due to the long polymer chains dissolved in it. It was found that there was increased pressure inside the fuel injector inside the engine as the fuel was more viscous. This meant that fuel was injected into the combustion chamber sooner in the cycle, leading to a greater power output from the engine.

lthough this question brings to mind the final scene from Back to the Future, with our current

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Though this seems like the perfect way to dispose of this almost indestructible plastic, there are some disadvantages. Firstly, this altered fuel produces much more carbon monoxide, soot and oxides of nitrogen than ordinary biodiesel does when it is burnt. These products are formed due to incomplete combustion; when the fuel burns in insufficient oxygen, leading to chemical compounds that can be harmful to one's health, usually causing breathing problems. The build-up of soot in the atmosphere also causes global dimming, in which particulates of soot become nuclei for cloud droplets, increasing cloud formation, causing less sunlight to reach the Earths surface. Another problem is that the more polystyrene was dissolved, the more viscous the fuel became, and the greater the concentration of the undesirable products of incomplete combustion. However, this is entirely predictable, as Kon g says: You are putting large polymer compounds in: its hard to burn them completely. After testing, a 5% concentration of the plastic was found to give the optimum engine power output, with minimal incomplete combustion. At higher concentrations, the fuel becomes too viscous and power output decreases; at 15% concentration, it is so viscous that the fuel injector pump overheats and ceases to function normally. In conclusion, you cant fuel a car with nothing more than waste, so the chance of a DeLorean running on rubbish is still out of the question. A recent study found that it would be over three times as energy efficient to recycle trash than to convert it to fuel, although Robert Malloy, from the University of Massachusetts, agrees that polystyrene is an exception in this case: I think we should try to recycle as much as we can, but there are certain materials that dont lend themselves to recycling in an economic way. Technologies that enable you to get energy back would be preferable to land filling. Therefore, dissolving polystyrene in fuel still seems like a very reasonable and moneysaving way to deal with waste. Song-Charng Kong added that he hopes to refine the engines fuel injection system, in order to achieve a more complete burn. Malloy agrees, saying that as long as emissions can be brought back down, adding polystyrene into fuel remains a viable option.

- Joe Ayathamattam 12I

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Supersolids and Superstuff

hat do you think of when you think of a solid? Something that is reassuringly rigid, perhaps? Or something in which the atoms making it up are tightly bound

together and cant pass through each other? Well, in 2004 Moses Chan and Eunseong Kim found that you can walk through walls, or at least solid helium can. The idea that a solid can pass through something isnt a thing that you usually expect: you have never seen your teacup dissolve through your saucer, or your clothes melt through your body. This is due to the fact that solids usually have a regular array of atoms that dont have enough energy to break free of their molecular bonds. This prevents the atoms from flowing over each other, but this rule can be broken. In 1969, Russian theorists Alexander Andreev and Ilya Lifshitz found that there was a way for solids to flow through each other. In certain crystals, the bonds between atoms are so weak that you can squeeze the solids like a sponge. In these crystals, near absolute zero (-273C), the atoms can only vibrate slightly; this tiny movement is thought to be enough for an atom to break free. This leaves the crystal lattice full of gaps called "zero-point vacancies". It might sound weird that a gap in a crystal can have any physical properties, but physicists think of these vacancies as having energy and mass just as atoms do. They can even move around the crystal. Andreev and Lifshitz predicted that the vacancies could move through the solid as though one solid were flowing through another. To prove this theory. Chan and Kim set up solid helium in which they cooled helium to a liquid state and then compressed it to 60 times atmospheric pressure. They then put it in a vat that could rapidly rotate back and forth, inducing oscillations in the solid helium. They observed a resonant vibrational frequency, which they interpreted as indicating that there were two solids in the vat that were passing through each other. The reason that this can happen is that the solid helium acts as an exotic fourth state of matter: a Bose-Einstein Condensate (BEC). These were theorized by Satyendra Nath Bose and Albert Einstein in 1924. It is where the bosons can all share the same quantum wave function (the probability of position) and because the atoms of Helium 4 are bosons, they can be in the same quantum state. This means that they all act as, essentially, one giant atom in its lowest energy state. In addition to this. the zero-point vacancies in the helium allow the helium to pass through each other. Bose-Einstein condensates can occur with all other bosonic particles (particles with integer quantum spin) and even photons (light) if there is a low enough temperature (less
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than 0.2K or -272.9C). Other properties of helium in a BEC state include superfluidity which is where again the atoms of the Helium share the same quantum state, but this time in fluid form. When this happens, the effects are just as staggering. The fluid can go though micro cracks in containers, and if you were to try and spin the fluid it would stay completely still. This lack of viscosity comes from the fact that there is a huge gap in energy between this lowest state and the next energy state. Viscosity is just the dissipation of energy due to friction, but since the BEC is in its lowest state already, there is no way for it to lose energy - and thus it has no viscosity. Another weird property arises if you physically lift a portion of the BEC. It acquires more gravitational potential energy than the rest, and because this is not a sustainable equilibrium for the superfluid, it will flow up and out of its container to pull itself all back into one place. Unsurprisingly, the vacuum of space isnt cold enough or pressurised enough to make superfluids or solids but that doesnt mean that they can only occur on earth. Last year the Chandra X-ray telescope discovered that the core of a neutron star called Cassiopeia A, which lies 11,000 light years away from earth, is a superfluid. This happens because the neutron star is so dense (a teaspoon of the stuff weighs 6 billion tonnes or The core of a neutron star is a superfluid 6,000,000,000,000 kg. If you were to drop the teaspoon on earth it would pass straight through it like butter). The intense pressure from the outer layers of the star compresses the core into a superfluid of both neutrons and protons. There doesnt seem to be any applications for supersolids in the future because of the extreme process needed to obtain them, and unfortunately as the mass of the particles and the size of the particles get bigger it, gets harder and harder for Bose-Einstein condensates to be seen. This makes it almost impossible to use them on a large scale. So, for all of you ghost wannabes out there, sorry you cant walk through walls just yet.

- Tigany Zarrouk 12F

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Necrotizing Fasciitis - Zombie Apocalypse?

ven with the continuing takeover of the vampires within the movie industry, the outcome where zombies destroy the world as we know it is still popular within sci-fi and horror films. While the possibility of the earth being over run by a devastatingly fast growing horde of cannibalistic, flesh eating, soulless corpses, all intent on eating brains may not seem very likely, the sight of zombie-esque victims with chunks of flesh hanging off them is not as fictional or fantastical as we may first think. Necrotizing fasciitis, or flesh eating disease, is a disease process which affects the fascia, a deep tissue covering the muscles. This disease can be caused by several different strains of bacteria including group A streptococcus, staphylococcus aureus and vibrio vulnificus. The infection usually enters the body through an open wound, and in a few rare cases, comes about as a result of improperly sterilized surgical conditions. Whats interesting about this disease is the way in which the infection progresses and the mechanism by which flesh is destroyed. The bacteria release enzymes, which destroy connective tissues and allow the bacteria to spread and break down red blood cells and DNA. Actually the action by which the fascia is destroyed is not synonymous with the diseases description as flesh eating. The bacteria do not physically ingest flesh; instead they release toxins which include streptococcal pyogenic exotoxins. These particular toxins are superantigens and have the ability to activate T-cells non-specifically, which causes the overproduction of proteins called cytokines. The toxins cause an influx of cytokines which is known as a cytokine storm causing tissue cells to be destroyed. This often leads to organ failure if the disease is allowed to progress. In this respect the bacteria is very advanced, it does not eat your flesh but instead causes your body to destroy itself. The progression of this disease is rapid. Witnesses say they can visibly watch its effects advancing further from the infection site. The usual method of treatment is emergency surgery to remove all infected tissue, whether that may be a small amount of muscle or an entire limb. After the surgery has taken place the patient is monitored closely and any further signs of infection will require further surgery to remove the afflicted tissue. The mortality rate for this disease is around 25% although this can increase severely depending on how far the infection has progressed, when it was diagnosed, and any other complications. Although the effects of the disease are life-threatening, the chances of infection are unlikely as the bacteria with the correct genes to cause necrotizing fasciitis usually are located in tropical marine environments and usually only take hold of people who are immuno-suppressed. So is there going to be a zombie invasion or not? Thankfully, the disease doesn't resemble zombies, besides the 'flesh eating'. It isnt contagious and doesnt cause cannibalism. So the chances of a zombie apocalypse are pretty slim. However, bacteria can mutate so the infection could become contagious. If this were to happen, a zombie apocalypse may not be so impossible after all.

- Christian Warner 12F

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The Technological Singularity and the Rise of the Machine

What is the technological singularity? "Where the ENIAC is equipped with 18,000 vacuum tubes and weighs 30 tons, computers in the future may have only 1,000 vacuum tubes and weigh only 1 1/2 tons." - Anon, 'Popular Mechanics', March, 1949 Most people are familiar with Moore's law, that the number of transistors that can be placed inexpensively on an integrated circuit doubles approximately every two years. If we assume that current trends continue, with the trend being continued by other approaches such as quantum computing and DNA computers when the limits of miniaturisation are reached, we can extrapolate a few rough predictions: 2020 - A personal computer with the processing power of the human brain will be in existence 2045 - A personal computer with the processing power of every human brain on the planet will be in existence The inventor and futurist Ray Kurzweil has postulated that at some point in the future, a technological 'singularity' will occur, similar to the singularity at the centre of a black hole predicted by physics. This is the point at which technological progress, if plotted on a graph, essentially becomes a vertical line. But how would this suddenly occur? Kurzweil predicts that once a computer is created with the processing power of the human brain (the hardware of the brain), it is possible to program the computer to think like we do by replicating the neural network in our own brains into the circuitry of the computer (the software of the brain). We then have a computer that, for all intents and purposes, is the same as our own brains. Would it be able to talk to us, feel, and think original as we do?

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Probably, yes. But would it be conscious? Would it be aware of its own existence? Well that's a topic for another day... Now, imagine that a year or two after this first computer 'brain' is created, computer have again roughly doubled in power. A second computer is now created, but this one is twice as powerful as our own brain. This gives it twice the ability to reason, to think originally, to imagine and to create. It would be able to make new scientific discoveries, create new technologies or improve existing ones, and most importantly improve itself twice as well as a human can. We might then leave the computer to build a third 'brain' a little later which is even more capable of improving upon itself, and so on. This becomes a self-reinforcing loop, with greater and greater progress made with shorter and shorter gaps. Within perhaps only a few months more progress is made than in the last 100 years. Within as little as a few years the ultimate potential of matter to compute (which is about 10^42 operations per second for 1kg of matter - 10 trillion times more powerful than all human brains on earth!) could be reached. Whence Singularity? "You will know the Singularity is coming when you have a million e-mails in your in-box" - Ray Kurzweil, 'The Singularity is Near' Of course this might never happen, or not for thousands of years. There could be some fundamental problem in mapping the network of neurons into a computer, or there could be some currently unknown, unique element to our brains that cannot be replicated in a machine, or we may simply end up destroying ourselves before computers can become powerful enough (more likely than you think...) But, if it is possible, the estimated time of the technological singularity varies. Ray Kurzweil puts the year as 2045, others put it earlier and some later. Personally, I think Kurzweil's got it about right (although I am a little sceptical that the singularity will even happen). Even if there are major problems in achieving the software of the human brain, the hardware should already be more than sufficient by this time. So what? "Two billion years ago, our ancestors were microbes; a half-billion years ago, fish, a hundred million years ago, something like mice; then million years ago, arboreal apes; and a million years ago, proto-humans puzzling out the taming of fire. Our evolutionary lineage is marked by mastery of change. In our time, the pace is quickening." - Carl Sagan, 'Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space'
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So we end up with more and more powerful computer, but what use is that? (Apart from letting you run Crysis at 200FPS) As I hinted at earlier, computers aren't just good at making better computers, but can allow progress in every field of science and technology: genetics, nanotechnology, robotics, medicine, space exploration, food and energy production, and countless more. The singularity would be the defining point in the whole of human history, after which everything would be different. Just to give a handful of the technologies that could rapidly develop: - Nanobots (robots on the nanoscopic scale) that can patrol the body to destroy pathogens and repair damaged cells - Advances in propulsion that would allow interstellar travel - Full immersion virtual reality indistinguishable from real-life - Advances in genetics and medicine that could allow the prolongation of life for hundreds of years - Technologies that could reverse environmental damage, end poverty and provide a more than comfortable lifestyle for every human being Perhaps the most important development, and the one that Ray Kurzweil sees as necessary, is the merger of humanity with technology. He argues that in order to even comprehend the immense change caused by the singularity, humans must amplify their own intelligence with that of the computer, even up to the point of 'uploading' your mind into a computer. This sounds like a scary prospect for most (including myself!), but would allow immortality to all extents and purposes. It is well worth spending some time considering the technological singularity - whether you think there is any chance of it occurring in the foreseeable future, and its implications on your view of the world.

The dangers of technology "I think that their flight from and hatred of technology is self-defeating. The Buddha rests quite as comfortably in the circuits of a digital computer of the gears of a cycle transmission as he does at the top of a mountain or in the petals of a flower. To think otherwise is to demean the Buddha - which is to demean oneself." - Robert M. Pirsig, 'Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance' There are a plethora of dangers from technology, many of them existential. Already we are able to wipe out most of life on the planet with nuclear weapons, but the technology of the future could give us more efficient methods. Nanobots could be programmed to

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replicate indefinitely, consuming the entire planet, along with ourselves in the infamous 'grey goo' scenario. Deadly, untreatable viruses could be engineered to wipe out large portions of humanity. There's always the danger of technology popularised in the 'Terminator' series, of a malicious artificial intelligence developing intent on the destruction of mankind. This is unlikely since the computer would be based on our own brain, and most of us don't want to utterly destroy our own species (if you do, please seek help). There is also a chance of the emergence of a violent, unscrupulous neo-luddite or anarcho-primitivist movement, opposed to the advance of science and technology, and advocating a return to a 'simpler' way of living. Perhaps through the ironic use of highly destructive technology, they might carry out devastating acts of terrorism to further their cause. Finally there is perhaps the greatest danger of the exponential rise of the machines. Do, by allowing technology to do everything for us, and by becoming drawn into the world of the computer, we lose something of what makes us human. Might we become to technology, what technology is currently to us - in other words, the transition from a world of humans that happens to contain machines, to a world of machines that happens to contain humans. Conclusion "The most common of all follies is to believe passionately in the palpably not true" - H. L. Mencken Ultimately, the singularity might happen in 20 years, in a thousand years, or never at all. Whichever turns out to be true, it is important that we do not become complacent that it will happen and negate the world and its people today, safe in the knowledge that technology will save us all in time. It is equally important that we do not assume that the singularity will not occur, and fail to prepare ourselves and society for the profound effects of rapidly progressing technology, much of which may pose existential threats to our species. A 600-page book could be written about the singularity, and in fact in has. If you're interested in anything brought up here, I highly recommend Ray Kurzweil's 'The Singularity is Near'. Some of it is heavy reading, but it's well worth it.

- Daniel Hurt 12F

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Puzzles!
Sudoku
Easy: Hard:

2 9

2 5 3 9 7 2 2 4 1 8 9 6 1 4 3 2 8 6 3 8 5 8 7 1 4 6 8 Riddles

6 4

9 2 9 7 8 3 5 8 4 1

7 4

6 5 7 4 1 8 5

4 7 3 8

1. Name three consecutive days without using the words Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, or Sunday. 2. What is it that the more you take, the more you leave behind? 3. What is the word where the first 2 letters are about a man, the first 3 are about a woman, the first 4 are about a great man and the whole word is about a great woman? 4. It is greater than God, more evil than the devil, the poor have it, the rich need it, and if you eat it, you will die. What is it? 5. I never was, but always will be. I was never seen, and never will be. To all that live, my approach is always certain. But what I will be is never so. What am I? You can find the answers on our Facebook group 'SyTec Magazine' under 'Docs'

Thank you for reading!

If you don't want to keep me, please pass me on to someone else, or put me back in the plastic wallet.
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