Science And Technology News And Views Magazine
This issue we shine a light on scientific UNSUNG HEROES
What is SATNAV? SATNAV is the student-led bi-annual science magazine at the University of Birmingham. If you have an interest in scientific writing then this is a great opportunity to get some experience and practice. We cater to a wide range of scientific tastes from Psychology to Quantum Physics! At SATNAV, we encourage creativity in expressing our interests in science. As well as accepting written submissions to the magazine, we also accept artwork submissions. The committee provide editors and feedback aiming to create an informative, factual and interesting magazine, with an issue published at the end of the Autumn and Spring Terms.
How can I get involved? Enjoy writing about your favourite science topics? Want to give it a go? We want to hear from you! Get in touch with us at satnav@guild.bham.ac.uk or alternatively, contact any of the committee members. Join our Facebook group: S.A.T.N.A.V Magazine Follow us on twitter: @Satnavmag See our previous issues: http://issuu.com/satnavmag Check out our website: students.guild.bham.ac.uk/satnav/wordpress/
Issue 11
Chair Siddharth Trivedi SVT272@student.bham.ac.uk Vice Chair Alina-Ioana Suiu AXS355@student.bham.ac.uk Treasurer Cecilia Caffrey CXC347@student.bham.ac.uk Secretary Arthur Zophiel Lee ATL280@student.bham.ac.uk Layout Editors Marion Cromb MXC414@student.bham.ac.uk Agnieszka Rześniowiecka AAR313@student.bham.ac.uk Life Sciences Editor Hannah Richards HLR368@student.bham.ac.uk Physical Sciences Editor Sara Jebril SMJ472@student.bham.ac.uk Technology and Review Editor and Publicity Officer William Richardson WXR369@student.bham.ac.uk Copy Editor Alex Deam AJD253@student.bham.ac.uk Website Manager Duncan Carter DAC241@student.bham.ac.uk
Astronomical Superstars Marion Cromb meets the Harvard Computers
Plenty of Room at the Bottom? Siddharth Trivedi examines Feynman's contributions to nanongineering X-ray Crystallography Amy Thompson rediscovers the forgotten technique
Rosalind Franklin Rosalind Lockley looks at the life of a pioneer
Ludwig Prandtl Siddharth Trivedi introduces the father of modern aerodynamics CRISPR Joanna Chustecki explores the advance in genome editing Vultures Chyi Chung mourns the dwindling numbers of these helpful scavengers
Alex's Adventures in Numberland Sara Jebril dives into Alex Bellos' book
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This image is a still from a simulation of the first observed collision of a binary black hole merger that produced the first gravitational wave ever detected (GW150914). The Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) observed the ripples in space and time generated as the black holes spiraled in toward each other, collided, and merged. The event took place 1.3 billion years ago, and the wave reached us on 14th September 2015, just two days after LIGO started collecting data.
SXS LENSING
The black holes are each roughly 30 times the mass of the sun, with one slightly larger than the other. The large mass of the black holes warps space and time, causing light from the stars behind to curve around the black holes in a process called gravitational lensing. The University of Birmingham has been involved in the Advanced LIGO project since its inception through its Gravitational Wave Group within the School of Physics and Astronomy.
Astronomical Superstars Marion Cromb explores the cosmic contributions of the women of Observatory Hill
O
MARION CROMB
"
h, Be A Fine Girl, Kiss Me" is the popular mnemonic used to remember the standard stellar classification system, used by astronomers and astrophysicists all over the world. You might have assumed it was a guy that came up with this aide-memoire in the 1900s, but sources indicate it was the woman who pioneered the OBAFGKM system itself: Annie Jump Cannon. Most of Annie's co-workers at the Harvard College Observatory were also women, they were much cheaper to employ and did a better job than the male assistants employed before them. Williamina Fleming, who discovered the Horsehead Nebula, actually started out working for the director, Edward Pickering, as a maid before he offered her a job in the observatory. These women were known as the Harvard Computers (in the days before computers were machines). By looking at astronomical photographic plates under a magnifying glass, the women of Observatory Hill classified hundreds of thousands of stars Annie Jump Cannon classified an estimated 400,000 alone! These plates could have hundreds of stars on them, their pinpoints of light smeared out into small rainbow spectra by a prism. This stellar fingerprint is different for different stars, and enables them to be sorted into different categories. These women lived and breathed spectra, so rather than closely analysing each one, they could simply recognise to which category it belonged. With so much experience, it is no surprise that Annie Cannon established a system still used (with additions) today.
Stars once classified were carefully compiled by Cannon into the Henry Draper Catalogue (named after the first photographer of stellar spectra, although it was Cannon's work). For this catalogue, and her contributions to astronomy, Annie Jump Cannon was the first woman to receive an honorary degree from Oxford University. Cannon also produced an extension categorising even fainter stars - working on it from her 60s till her death at age 77. Annie classified stars based on spectral differences, but did not seek to explain the differences. It was another woman working at the Harvard Observatory, Cecilia Payne, who solved this mystery with her highly-esteemed PhD thesis. Payne built on the work of Indian physicist Meghnad Saha who
had linked atomic energy levels and temperature, to show that the classification system was ordered by the temperature of the stars; O contained the hottest stars, M the coolest. Payne even used astronomical observations to correctly predict the energy level structure of several elements. Payne was also the first to propose that the stars were largely made of hydrogen, a controversial view at the time.
"Annie Jump Cannon was the first woman to receive an honorary degree from Oxford University" Another astronomical pioneer working at the observatory at the time was Henrietta Swan Leavitt, a good friend of Annie Jump Cannon (interestingly, both Henrietta and Annie were deaf). She discovered thousands of variable stars and this work resulted in her formulation of the luminosity-period law which relates the absolute brightness to the brightness fluctuations of Cepheid variable stars. ith this law, Cepheid variables could be used as an astronomical yardstick o determine the distances between stronomical objects for the first ime. This work was instrumental o Hubble when he was ormulating his theory of an xpanding universe. Cannon and her colleagues were ot anomalies, at the time one in three American astronomers were women. However the contributions of these women were dismissed at the ime and many women did not spend long in the field, feeling social ressure to give up their careers nce married. It is likely many f these other women made ontributions that were orgotten or attributed to men and remain truly unsung eroes.
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Issue 11
Plenty of Room at the Bottom? Visionary or mere daydreamer? Siddharth Trivedi investigates Feynman's contributions to nanoengineering
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ichard Feynman was an American theoretical physicist well-known for his work in quantum electrodynamics for which he won a Nobel Prize in 1965, at the age of 47. The famous pictorial representation schemes in quantum physics that he developed, were later named after him as Feynman diagrams. In contrast, his contributions in the nanoengineering field are relatively unknown – in particular, his lecture There’s Plenty of Room at t he Bottom given at Caltech in 1959. At the time, the atomic scale was mostly inaccessible, yet this lecture identified him as a visionary for the future of engineering. But was Feynman’s contribution actually important or was this simply the ramblings of a daydreaming physicist? There’s Plenty of Room at t he Bottom
consists of many revolutionary ideas, particularly in comparison to the advances at the time. Feynman brainstormed what could possibly be achieved in nanoengineering – the practical use of manipulating matter on an atomic scale. He essentially predicted atomic-scale nanofabrication when he posed a challenge to the scientific community: why can we not write the entire 24 volumes of the Encyclopaedia Britannica on the head of a pin? That vision was famously realised in 1990, scientists at IBM wrote their company's name using the scanning tunnelling microscope (STM) to manipulate individual xenon atoms. Feynman further proclaimed that with
the capacity of atomic fabrication, “all of the information that man has carefully accumulated in all the books in the world can be written […] in a cube of material one two-hundredth of an inch wide”. Imagine the possibilities! He was one of the first to envisage biological structures in terms of machines and was aware of the engineering capabilities of nanofabrication. He described nanomachines that would perform surgery from inside the body. This being through the self-assembly of atoms, with the capability of replicating to perform surgery and subsequently deconstruct once finished. Still, all this talk of futuristic technology didn’t actually stimulate any new research in the field. In fact, all following discoveries and developments were in complete ignorance of the lecture. However, looking back almost sixty years, much of Feynman’s visions seem relevant. People look at his ideas to imagine what the future might hold, and for that, he is to be commended. So is an unsung hero simply defined by practical contributions to one’s field, or the ability to capture the imagination of the wider audience?
"He essentially predicted atomic-scale nanofabrication when he posed a challenge to the scientific community: Why can we not write the entire 24 volumes of the Encyclopaedia Britannica on the head of a pin?"
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X-ray Crystallography
Revealing structure: Amy Thompson revisits the technique that science has overlooked
X
-ray crystallography is a fundamental method used to study atoms that make up a solid object. As the name suggests it involves the use of X-ray beams, which are fired at the solid that has been made into a crystal form. Information is received from the X-ray beams as they bounce off the crystal; this is recorded as a series of dots. These dots reveal the organisation of the atoms within the solid structure allowing scientists to see how a structure is arranged. It is a complex procedure based on highly intricate, yet fundamental mathematics that enable the prediction of a solid structure to be mapped out. X-ray crystallography is a technique that is not given enough praise; it has been vitally important in the fields of
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"Dorothy Hodgkin was a pioneer in X-ray crystallography. Without her discoveries numerous scientists would never have taken the technique seriously" biology and chemistry and has aided many landmark discoveries. In total, 48 Nobel Prizes have involved the use of X-ray crystallograph -, without the procedure the prize recipients would not have been able to produce the data needed to demonstrate their findings. One of the most important scientific discoveries was detecting the structure of DNA. The use of X-ray
crystallography by Rosalind Franklin and Maurice Wilkins in the 1950s, gave researchers the first glimpse into the possible structure of DNA. This work is what later inspired Watson and Crick in their discovery of the double helix structure of DNA. X-ray crystallography was a procedure founded and developed by the Braggs, a father and son team, and is over a century old. Despite founding Xray crystallography, the Braggs are widely unspoken of within the scientific community. Dorothy Hodgkin was a pioneer in X-ray crystallography. However, like the Braggs, very little is known about her work, but without her discoveries numerous scientists would never have taken the technique seriously. Hodgkin
Issue 11
Franklin's fight for DNA
R
osalind Franklin was a forerunner in the preliminary research towards determining the structure of DNA. Her X-ray crystallography photos and corresponding mathematical data led to the discovery of the helical structure of DNA. These results set out the basis for many further studies, including the well-known discoveries by Watson and Crick. Controversy over Franklin’s contributions to Watson and Crick’s work has been the subject of debate continuing to this day. During her lifetime her results were
was able to develop the technique further than the Braggs, enabling greater detail of protein structures to be shown by the X-ray beams. This allowed her to study the structures of some of the largest proteins during 1950s. Hodgkin was able to identify the
"In total 48 Nobel Prizes have involved the use of Xray crystallography" structures of penicillin, vitamin B12 and later insulin. Hodgkin won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1964, for her discovery of the structure of vitamin B12. The most important achievement of Hodgkin and her team was analysing the arrangement of insulin. This
knowledge allowed for synthetic insulin to be developed, which is still used for the current treatment for type I diabetes sufferers. Unlike many other scientists such as Darwin, Hawking, Curie or Franklin, many households will have never heard of Dorothy Hodgkin, despite her scientific discoveries being essential in the development of insulin and in the progression of biological research. Many scientists are “unsung heroes”, who have helped the world but have not gained fame or fortune from their discoveries. Many scientists today are like Dr Dorothy Hodgkin, they do their work in order to gain a greater understanding of the world. Hodgkin could not have imagined that her discoveries would benefit so many, which is why scientists like Hodgkin should be celebrated, not only for their discoveries, but also for their
not fully accepted, the Nobel Prizes was awarded years after her death to Watson and Crick, neither giving any credit to Franklin's work. Franklin later went on to work on the structure of plant viruses, again producing pioneering results that proved important in the understanding of polio.
Rosalind Lockley
selflessness in the pursuit of scientific advancement. The procedures involved in X-ray crystallography are fascinating but it is a unfamiliar scientific tool of which many science students will not have heard. It is a process that allows scientists to discover new protein structures and it is used to learn more about the structures that both surround us and make us. Specific data banks, like the PDB (Protein Data Bank) are now available to all with one internet search. The importance of X-ray crystallography was summarized best by Nobel Prize winner Max Perutz; he stated that X-ray crystallography shows “why blood is red and grass is green, why diamond is hard and wax is soft, why graphite writes on paper and silk is strong”.
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Ludwig Prandtl: The Father of Modern Aerodynamics Take smooth flights for granted? Siddharth Trivedi meets the man behind the mechanics
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orn in Freising, Germany in 1875, Ludwig Prandtl spent a significant portion of his childhood with his father due to his mother’s long term illness. A professor in engineering, his father was probably the reason Prandtl picked up his innate ability for scientific observation. He later utilised these same skills as he earned his PhD in Munich, and entered his first job in a factory where he designed a suction device as an equipment design engineer. In 1901, he became a professor in fluid mechanics at the presently named Technical University Hannover. This was the location of his first major publication: a breakthrough paper titled Fluid Flow in Very Litt le Friction. This breakthrough in fluid mechanics saw him becoming the Director of Institute of Technical Physics at University of Göttingen, where he worked until his death on 15 August 1953. In the general scientific field, he is a relatively unknown character. However, in chemical and aeronautical engineering he is commonly known as the father of modern aerodynamics. But why is that? During his 50 years in Göttingen, Prandtl became a powerhouse of fluid
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mechanics research. Fluid Flow in Very Litt le Friction described the boundary layer formation on contact between solids and fluids, leading to a better understanding of skin friction. He also detailed stalling and streamlining, the reduction of drag, of airplane wings and other bodies in motion. Using research by Frederick Lancaster, Prandtl worked with other engineers such as Albert Betz and Max Munk to develop
"During his 50 years in Göttingen, Prandtl became a powerhouse of fluid mechanics research" mathematical tools to model the lift from non-ideal aircraft wings. The results are known as the LancasterPrandtl wing theory. Studying World War I aircraft, he published a simplified thin-airfoil theory that showed the importance of designing wing-tips. Wing-tips became a main design criteria for the manufacturing of airplanes due to the induced drag and vortices which previously had been ignored. These mathematical models allowed designers to theoretically model their designs before building, leading to better
engineering. As World War II planes approached supersonic speeds, Prandtl and Hermann Glauert coined the Prandtl-Glauert correction which became very useful in countering compressibility at high velocities. A great number of practical contributions to the chemical and aeronautical engineering field marked Prandtl’s long career. His contributions are not well recognised to the common scientist though his name has recently been used for significant scientific pursuits. For this reason, LudwigPrandtl-Ring is the highest honour awarded by German Society for Aeronautics and Astronautics for outstanding contribution to aerospace engineering. In honour of Prandtl’s research, NASA has also named two research and exploration aircraft after Prandtl, one known as PRANDTL-D tailless aircraft, which has been used to prove his theories that adverse yaw forces could be countered solely by wing-tip aerodynamics. So, Ludwig Prandtl: a German engineer that has made travel and transport possible for all and made significant contributions unknown to most. Revolutionising the aerodynamics field that has taken off and become a significant part of human life: this is why he is the father of modern aerodynamics.
Issue 11
CRISPR: The Hero of Genome Editing Are designer genes nearly here? Joanna Chustecki examines the new toolkit in our hands
materials, and boundless applications in basic genetic research.
enome editing, the science behind the manipulation of the very code of life, has seen remarkable advances in recent years. The toolkits allowing the changing of genes have varied, but leading the charge is our very hero: CRISPR/Cas9. CRISPR/Cas9 is cheaper, more efficient and less time consuming than its predecessors, it allows precise editing of the string of letters that make us who we are. This has applications covering a broad range of issues, such as food security, drug development and future fuels. But with such an explosion of knowledge in this field of research, how can we keep up?
What does the future hold for our hero?
G
What is CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing?
This toolkit originates in bacteria, as a protective defence system against invading viruses. The system acts by cutting up the viral genome before it wreaks havoc to the bacterium. CRISPR refers to the short DNA sequences in the bacterium, stored from previous
exposure to one or more bacterial viruses. A virus inserts its genetic material into the bacteria, and these sequences are used to guide the Cas9 nuclease, a DNA cutter, to the viral material. The Cas9 nuclease cuts the invading viral DNA at the specific points where the sequences match. This renders the viral DNA useless, and the bacteria safe.
How can we use this technique?
Scientists have hijacked and applied this process to a huge range of different organisms, including mice and monkeys, to edit genes with precision. By creating their own short sequences, scientists can guide Cas9 to any point in the genome of the organism they wish to edit, creating a break in the DNA, allowing us to either remove genes, or edit them precisely. The action of this small Cas9 protein has profound effects for potentially curing genetic disease, creating new sustainable fuels, producing new
The power of our CRISPR/Cas9 hero is outstanding, but as with all heroes, with great power comes great responsibility. The editing of germ lines has the potential to carry any mutations made into future generations, and research on stem cells is still a hotly disputed topic. Research being undertaken at the Francis Crick Institute in London, for the use of CRISPR technology for editing human
"Potentially curing genetic disease, creating new sustainable fuels, and producing new materials" embryos, has only just been approved, a landmark decision for science in the UK and the world. CRISPR/Cas9 editing was widely debated last December at the International Summit on Human Gene Editing in Washington DC. Members warned of a slippery slope towards germ line editing, and potentially dangerous experiments occurring without the right regulations. However, it was agreed that shutting the door on embryo research would be damaging to advancement of this field, and hold back research that could be potentially life changing for millions of people. For now, CRISPR/Cas9 continues to be applied to new areas every day, and the pace at which this field is evolving shows testament to CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing being a true hero of modern science.
ERNESTO DEL AGUILA III, NHGRI
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Vultures: The Unsung Heroes of Death Chyi Chung considers the position of vultures within the Indian food chain
PIERRE DALOUS
"Carcasses of livestock fall into the paws of feral dogs that lack the sanitation and efficiency of vultures"
"In lieu of burial and cremation, which taint the four elements of earth, fire, water and wind, they present their dead on exposed platforms to scavenging vultures"
Alex's Adventures in Numberland roving maths can be fun, Sara Jebril takes us through the rabbit-hole of Alex Bellos' book
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lace one grain of wheat on the corner square of a chessboard and continue doubling across adjacent squares. "How much wheat would you need to fill the final square?", Alex Bellos writes. “If you started counting a grain of wheat per econd at the very moment of the Big Bang 13 billion or so years ago, then you would not even have counted up to a tenth of 263 by now”. After picking up the book in Waterstones, Alex’s Adventures in Numberland has been one of my favourite books ever since. He describes the book as giving dispatches from he wonderful world of mathematics and acts as a guide in search of weird and wonderful phenomena. While covering various topics, he sets out to explain why he finds maths interesting and includes some fascinating mathematical proofs. Through explaining simpler maths concepts like Pythagoras’ theorem, he explores the man's role as charismatic leader of a mystical sect, and discusses numerology with a modern day Pythagorean, Jerome Carter. Alex Bellos is the author of many great books including Alex’s Adventures
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in Numberland and its sequel, Alex Through t he Looking-Glass. Both books
are bestsellers and have been translated into more than twenty languages. As well as being a writer, he is also a broadcaster and journalist who is currently running a maths and puzzle blog for the Guardian. In his column, Alex Bellos's Monday puzzle, he sets a fortnightly problem for Guardian readers, such as a crossword that counts itself. In his first popular science book, he spent a year travelling around the world in-
"The world’s best chimpanzee mathematicians, the creators of the supercomputer that can calculate pi to two billion decimal places, and more" terviewing people whose lives have a connection to maths. And in his next book he travelled widely linking mathematics to civilisation to understand how we, as humans, view the world through numbers. Keeping technical material to a minimum, each chapter of his books is self-contained and aimed at a reader who has no previous backround knowledge. Bellos meets the world’s best chimpanzee mathematicians, he creators of the supercomputer that can calculate pi to two
billion decimal places and more. He explores why numbers are great but letters are better, looking at the early use of the unknown quantity and its symbol. The book transfers his enthusiasm in an original and very entertaining style. From Numberland, you can learn that quadratic equations underpin modern science but also the impossibility of random shuffling on iPod songs. He looks at studies of the Munduruku, tribespeople from a remote part of the Amazon who can only count up to four or five. Travelling around the world, Bellos reveals history along with many stories of incredible achievements. From attempting to apply algebra on the alphabet, he looks at Euclid the greatest mathematician of all time. Numberland teaches that maths is timeless, it does not age, and concepts like symmetry, algebra and geometry will be forever unchanged. In Numberland, he explores why mathematical ideas really do underpin our lives, uncovering hidden laws in the everyday world and proves that mathematicians can really be funny. The author relates these key ideas to philosophy, religion, magic, history and basic sheep counting to the Munduruku. Starting from where numbers come from he proves undoubtedly that mathematics truly represents a world of beauty. Its theorems will be as they always were. So if you’ve ever been interested in the tyranny of ten, the beauty of teeth or have just wanted to take a different look at randomness, Alex Bellos might be able to give you some answers.