Information, stored for eternity!

Posted on November 17, 2019 by | Leave a comment

Many of the great works of ancient civilization did not stand the test of time and information has been destroyed through decay. This is very unfortunate because mankind might have missed out on some crucial information from ancient ideas. Through time we understand it is important to keep information safely kept. In this Age of Information, we have made great progress with the method of data storage by storing everything in servers instead of physical files. However, the current method of storing information in computers is not perfect and is actually quite fragile with many flaws. 

Data stored in the Cloud (Cloud Storage internet service) are actually stored in massive warehouses filled with industrial-sized hard drives, called data centers. In order to prevent losing the saved data, these hard drives must be maintained and consistently operated with a power source plugged in at all times. Not only it is vulnerable and prone to be damaged by natural disasters, but it is also very costly for maintenance and not very environmentally friendly. This is how information is being stored nowadays, and it gets problematic as more data storage is in demand for the future.

A look into Google’s data center

You may imagine, what is the ideal architecture of data storage? Picture this: a small environmental footprint, no environmental damage, low-cost, durable, and zero electricity consumption. How great is that? Well, Microsoft’s Project Silica has the ability to do just that. This technology engraves data with a laser into a piece of glass (specifically quartz glass). It can be stored away without any cost, put it in your back pocket or something because it is durable, and could last for centuries before data begin to deteriorate. It can withstand scratches and up to 1000 degrees Celcius without any negative impacts! Want to erase the data? Melt it away and create new glass for more storage!

 Breaking free of data center

How does the technology work?

The laser beam will focus on little nanostructured 3-dimensional blocks called “voxel” in the glass for storing data. The laser will then make physical changes, as a way to encode many bits of information, into one of these voxels permanently. Information is encoded as 2-dimensional layers stacked on top of each other to fill up the 3-dimensional tiny voxels. It will be like stacking up layers of paper to form a block of paper. To read the data, a source of light will be shining through the glass then changes with the light will be picked up by a camera sensor in the receiving end.

Although this is currently in the concept stage with some technical difficulties, the concept has been proven. They have successfully stored a copy of the “Superman” movie into the quartz glass. It is said that over 100 zettabytes of data are in demand for cloud storage by 2023. This revolutionary technology is absolutely necessary, and we could see it being used in the near future.

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Are all-nighters really that bad for you?

Posted on November 17, 2019 by | 3 comments

 

University students always seem to have endless deadlines but not enough time to complete them. A strategy that many students use to combat this problem, is to pull an all-nighter to catch up on their work. Adults are supposed to have at least 7 hours of sleep each night so this sleep deficiency may help get work done, but students need to consider the detrimental effects that may occur as a result.

The video attached below discusses some of the main effects sleep deprivation has on not only your mind but also your body. Sleep deprivation affects your learning, memory, mood and reaction time. All of these factors can impact your ability to study and therefore negatively affect your grades. 

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 A study conducted on university students, compared the actions of pulling an all-nighter with depression and academic achievements. Those who pulled all-nighters were seen to have higher tendency of depression symptoms, which can negatively affect their academic performance and mental health. Students often do all-nighters to finish work and study for exams but the study also shows that staying up all night correlates to lower academic achievements as seen in their GPA’s. Along with these factors, sleep deprivation can greatly impact your brain.

University students tend to pull all-nighters without thinking about the negative impacts on their mental health and body. These factors include depression, grades, memory and health. Next time you plan to pull an all-nighter to finish that essay, you may want to consider all the risks you are adding to your body due to sleep deprivation.

Written by Jocelyn Benji

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Posted in Biological Sciences

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The Bilingual Brain

Posted on November 11, 2019 by | 3 comments

Bilingua

How many languages do you speak? Chances are, in our SCIE 300 class, more than half of the students speak at least two languages fluently. Most studies and statistics show that 50%-60% of the world population can speak at least two languages. If you were required to learn your mother tongue at home, or forced to go to language classes against your will, or put through French Immersion at school, you’re in luck—here are three interesting scientific facts about bilingual brains!

 

  1. Different brains.

srireddy, Flickr Commons

Even if you don’t realize it, being fluent in two languages requires a lot of skills, including: being more sensitive to tones, knowing when and where to use which language, quickly switch between languages, and remembering a wide vocabulary in each language. These all require many different parts of the brain to communicate with each other. Therefore, studies suggest that bilinguals have a much more interconnected neural system in the brain that results in better cognitive control (which will be discussed later). The same paper linked above also notes that certain parts of a bilingual’s brain are denser than that of monolinguals (people that can only speak one language), which have implications on a concept called “neuroplasticity”. Neuroplasticity is the ability of the brain to physically rewire and restructure itself either when learning something new or after taking damage, in order to allow an individual to continue to function properly.

  1. Improved executive functions.

    Stroop Colour Test. mediocre2008, Flickr Commons

As human beings, and particularly as university students, skills such as planning, prioritizing, multitasking, goal-setting, focusing, and filtering distractions are essential in everyday life. These processes can be referred to as “executive functions,” and require specific parts of the brain to carry out. Although it is still an area that requires further research, many studies have shown that there is a positive relationship between bilingualism, and enhanced executive function abilities. Current evidence suggests that bilinguals have better conflict resolution skills, which was tested by measuring the response times of bilinguals and monolinguals for three different tasks—one of which is the infamous Stroop colour task: where a participant has to say the colour of the word presented to them, rather than the word it self (for example, if the word “red” is coloured yellow, participants have to say “yellow” and try not to read the word provided; if you try it out yourself with the link below, it is quite difficult!). The study showed that bilinguals consistently did better than monolinguals.

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  1. Bilingualism has potential positive effects on cognitive aging, and could delay the onset of dementia.

The effect that it has on the executive functions of the brain also have beneficial effects in the long run. The cognitive abilities mentioned above tend to decline over time, but evidence suggests that the advantage that bilinguals have in this area helps to slow down the decline of these abilities. Although further research needs to be done to determine exactly how this works, researchers think that it could also be due to the changes in brain structure mentioned in number 1.

Many of these studies also emphasize that the benefits of knowing a second language are still apparent even if you learned it later in life. So, whether you have been practicing a second language since birth or acquired it later on, you have quite the set of advantages not just from a social perspective, but also cognitively! Perhaps this will help motivate you to learn a new language, or stop complaining about your French professor.

Written by Annica Eustaquio

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Inducing sleep in two minutes or less!

Posted on November 11, 2019 by | 4 comments

Sleep deprivation is no fun and many individuals have experienced a sleepless night at some point in their life. Whether it’s from the stress of an upcoming exam or assignment, being sleep deprived is detrimental for one to be able to perform at their best.

In the majority of cases, having an instance of sleep deprivation does not come with serious consequences. Performing poorly on an exam or not being able to be at your best at work are situations one can always recover from in one way or another.

However, in the case of a US Navy pilot, having optimal sleep is absolutely essential as it very well could mean life or death.

Hence, the US Navy invented a method to essentially force your body to sleep in two minutes or less. This method has proven to be 96% successful after six weeks of practice.

So if you are feeling sleepless and have a crucial day tomorrow, try this method out and you just might be able to get a full night’s rest! Don’t worry if it doesn’t work right away. Try again and focus on relaxing your body.

U.S. Navy’s method to forcefully induce sleep

  1. Lie face up in your bed and make sure you are in a comfortable position. If you feel more comfortable on your side, you can do so as well. Close your eyes and relax your facial muscles, tongue, and jaw. Any tension you may have, mentally release it. You can do so by imagining any tension or tightness you have near an area by literally unraveling that knot.
  2. Drop your shoulders as low as possible, allowing them to be in a comfortable position that also releases any tension you have on your neck. Work from your shoulders down to each arm and then to the fingertips, mentally releasing any tension you may have. Remember, it sounds extremely awkward to be mentally releasing any physical stress, but the purpose is to trick your body into thinking it is ready to sleep.
  3. Take a deep breath and breath in and out. As you breathe out, release any tension in your chest. Likewise, work from the top of your shoulders to your lower back, pretend as you work your way down each spinal column is being massaged and relaxed.
  4. Lastly, work from your upper legs to the bottom of your feet. Including your toes and ankles, mentally massage your way down and turn off and active muscles.
  5. Finally, remove any mental thoughts that may be causing you not to be able to sleep. Don’t think about your exam tomorrow, don’t think about that upcoming presentation. Imagine yourself in a calm and peaceful place. For instance, pretend you’re on the beach and all you hear is the waves crashing against the shore. Focus on that or whatever finds you peace and comfort.
  6. If done correctly, you should be asleep by now! Of course, this is difficult to do if you haven’t done something like this before. However, with practice you will see an increasingly higher success rate every time you do it.

Of course, reading about this method does not do it justice, you can watch this video to follow a step by step guide on how to do so.

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Some additional things to watch out for:

  1. Whatever you do, don’t think about whatever it is stressing you out. This may seem difficult to do, but it is probably the main reason why you cannot sleep because your brain is actively stimulated by it.
  2. Don’t think about how late it is and how you need to sleep as soon as possible. Thinking about this only adds further stress and makes you more awake.
  3. Don’t move. Once you find your comfortable position, fight any urge you have to move or readjust. Your leg is itchy? Fight that urge to itch it. By doing so you are actively tricking your body that you are ready to sleep.

Sleep deprivation is rampant among University students, if you are ever feeling sleepless and desperate to fall asleep, please try this out!

Written by Jason Duong

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Posted in Biological Sciences, Science in the News, Statistics

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Giraffes: The Massive Extinction that Nobody Knows

Posted on November 4, 2019 by | 2 comments

A Beloved Animal Lost Forever

Source: David Orgel, Giraffe, 2006. https://www.flickr.com/photos/orgel/2208083592/. All Creative Commons.

When most people think of the African Savanna, they imagine a beautiful grassland filled with lions, elephants, zebras, cheetahs, and, of course, giraffes. But what if I told you that giraffes are going extinct?

In the past three decades, the giraffe population has fallen by an enormous 40%. Currently, there are less than 100, 000 left in the world, and what few do remain, exist in vulnerable and fragmented herds, facing constant threats from habitat loss and poaching.

Giraffes overall are only categorised as a vulnerable species – meaning they are in threat of extinction for the not-immediate, but foreseeable future. However, scientists agree that giraffes are indeed endangered and face imminent extinction if nothing is done.

These numbers only get more daunting when looking at the individual subspecies. Two of the nine subspecies – Kordofan and Nubian giraffes –  are considered critically endangered with population decreases of 90% and 98%, respectively. Similarly, the Reticulated Giraffe is considered endangered – a step up from critically endangered but still facing immediate extinction. Startlingly, the West African Giraffe was saved from the brink of extinction with only 49 members still living in the 1990’s. Today the West African Giraffe has been moved to the vulnerable category despite only having 600 members total in its population.

The most heartbreaking part of this story is that the reason for this drastic decline is entirely man-made. Experts say that what is driving this beautiful species to extinction is the combined effects of habitat loss and poaching.

Source: Frapelo, Giraffe, 2009. https://www.flickr.com/photos/frapelo/3823053523/. All Creative Commons.

The encroachment of humans onto giraffe zones has begun to drive out the animals from their natural habitat, and this new contact between giraffes and humans has been harmful to both species. Giraffes have been known to die in car accidents or starve from loss of food sources.

On top of this, many poachers have been killing these protected animals for their hides, meat, and bones, making luxury crafts or medicines from the various parts. Some giraffes are even being killed for their tails alone, which are seen as a status symbol.

Thankfully, there is some hope. Conservationists have been working tirelessly to save each of these subspecies, and so far, they have been successful in this tiresome fight. However, education needs to be there.

Source: Lisa, Giraffe, 2005. https://www.flickr.com/photos/ljb/32340548/. All Creative Commons.

Most people are aware of the extinction faced by elephants, rhinoceroses, and other megafauna, largely due to the media attention those cases receive. Giraffes, on the other hand, have not received that same kind of media highlighting, resulting in what some are deeming a “silent extinction”. Experts say this is because of the common misconception that because an animal is often seen in zoos and sanctuaries, it must be under no threat in the wild. In fact, there are fewer giraffes than there are elephants.

Through awareness and understanding, groups like the Natural Resource Defense Council (NRDC) have managed to put in place policies protecting giraffes. Through more efforts, we may be able to see this species safe and stable.

 

Written by Kaitlyn Le

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Posted in Biological Sciences

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