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Imitating Nature Through Robotics

by Claire Watry, Terra Linda HS

What do Olympic swimwear, Velcro, and office buildings all have in common? They are all inspired by nature and created through the process of biomimicry. According to the Biomimicry Institute, biomimicry is “a new discipline that studies nature’s best ideas and then imitates these designs and processes to solve human problems”. The high-tech swimsuits worn by Olympic swimmers (before they were banned from competition) to be able to swim faster are based off of shark skin. Velcro is a hook-and-loop product created by Swiss engineer George de Mestral based on a burr. Termite dens serve as the inspiration for office buildings because of the ability of their cooling chimneys and tunnels to maintain a constant internal temperature.


Meet Terra Linda High School grad Ian Krase, a junior at University of California, Berkeley studying mechanical engineering who will be presenting at the upcoming Marin Science Seminar. In his presentation Bioinspiration: Bird-bots and Bug-bots at Berkeley, Ian will discuss how robots are developed through the process of biomimicry. In college, Ian joined the Fearing Lab, a group that works to create small, efficient robots by mimicking nature. Ian’s explanation of the Fearing Lab is “in university research, each professor runs a lab, with several graduate students who are working on their PhDs or Masters degrees. Each student has a project, and the whole lab has a unifying theme with its own laboratory space and shared resources. Fearing Lab is Professor Fearing’s lab, and is focused on biomimicry and small-scale robotics.” The interview below shows how Ian became interested in robotics, what kind of work is done in the Fearing Lab, and advice on how to become involved in robotics.


What sparked your interest in robots?
I’ve been interested in mechanical things for as long as I remember, and robots are a developing field with some of the most interesting open questions. While I tried building a robot in junior high on a whim, my current interest began when I saw some robotics labs while visiting colleges. 
What past project are you most proud of?
Probably the work I did on BOLT (Bipedal Ornithopter for Locomotion Transitioning), a hybrid running and flying robot. I designed a carbon fiber frame for it to allow it to steer. My work on flight evolution was also pretty cool, but the part I actually worked on didn’t end up panning out very well. 


Read more about BOLT here
What project are you currently working on?
Currently, I’m working on an upgraded ornithopter and on a project to study the evolution of flight in birds by building robotic models of extinct birds and test-flying them. 
What lessons have you learned from mimicking nature?
Natural systems are incredibly complicated, even the ones that seem simple. You need a LOT of iterations. And there is almost always a reason for everything — you have to look a long way for something you can actually change. Also, natural systems seem to be incredibly strong and damage resistant. It’s actually a little creepy. 
What do you see as the future/potential of biomimicry? 
We can expect some much more efficient equipment, especially small UAVs. I also expect to see prosthetics to get much better, although Fearing Lab doesn’t work on things of that scale. I wouldn’t be surprised to see a lot of equipment replacing motors or manual latches with shape-shifting actuators. 
How can students learn more about and get involved with robotics and biomimicry?
Robotics is pretty popular, and easy to get into — you can pick up a Lego robotics set or use an Arduino and a simple driving base. On the other hand, if you want to go Fearing Lab style, you’ll do better starting with the mechanical parts. (Most of our work is more about mechanical systems and controls than about software). In the last five years there’s been an explosion in the availability of cheap and easy to use 3D printers and electronics development kits. You might want to join a hackerspace — these often have classes or workshops in electronics and other subjects. If you want to get your hands on a Fearing Lab project, you can check out Dash Robotics. And there is also a project to make gecko tape in a school chemistry lab environment on the Fearing Lab website.

Gecko Tape
For more information: Gecko Tape Activity

As far as college goes, you’ll probably want to go to a research institution for mechanical, electrical, or bioengineering. Fearing Lab at UC Berkeley, the Poly-Pedal lab at Berkeley, the Biorobotics Lab at Case Western Reserve University, and the Biomimetics and Dexterous Manipulation lab at Stanford are all biomimetic robotics labs. General robotics labs are quite common at universities with engineering research. You should also look at joining TL’s FIRST Robotics team. 

For more information about the Biomimetic Millisystems Lab click here
Learn more about biomimicry in engineering on NOVA’s Making Stuff: Wilder. You can watch it online here

Learn more about robotics and biomimicry at “Bioinspiration: Bird-bots and Bug-bots at Berkeley” with Ian Krase, TLHS grad and junior at UC Berkeley on Wednesday, October 30th, 2013, 7:30 – 8:30 pm, Terra Linda High School, San Rafael, Room 207

Sources:
http://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/wilderness-resources/photos/7-amazing-examples-of-biomimicryhttp://biomimicryinstitute.org/about-us/what-is-biomimicry.htmlhttp://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/diy/robot-birds-and-octoroaches-on-the-loose-at-uc-berkeleyhttp://robotics.eecs.berkeley.edu/~ronf/Biomimetics.htmlhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4b5sOru11Mg

Claire Watry

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Entering the Medical Field

by Jessica Gerwin, Drake HS

Dr. Art Wallace, who is a cardiac anesthesiologist and the Chief of Anesthesia Service at the San Francisco Veteran Affairs Medical Center (SF VAMC) will be presenting at the Marin Science Seminars this Wednesday. His presentation “Making Medicine Safer”, will explore the vital roles that drugs, devices and software play in modern medicine. I had the opportunity to interview Dr. Wallace and was given insight on how to enter into medical professions. Our interview is below.


  1. Your B.S. was in Engineering and Applied Sciences. Did you start off wanting to be an Engineer?  If so, what first sparked your interest in the field of medicine?
    1. I always wanted to be a doctor. My mother died when I was a young child and this experience focused my interest in medicine with a goal of preventing this problem in others.
    2. I started off in college with a goal to go to medical school but with an interest in physics and engineering as well. Electrical engineering appealed to me, so I majored in Engineering and Applied Science with a focus on electrical and biomedical engineering.
    3. I am fascinated by how stuff works.


  1. What kept you motivated to go through the intensive level of schooling needed to become an anesthesiologist?
    1. I was fascinated by medicine and research.
    2. In medical school, I my girlfriend developed cancer. This second experience with terminal illness drove me even harder to try to find therapies to help patients.
    3. I was driven to invent therapies that save lives.


  1. What makes you excited about going to work everyday?
    1. Providing the best care possible for patients.
    2. Creating the future of medical care. I focus on inventing therapies. Testing therapies. Making therapies better.


  1. What attributes, both teachable and non-teachable, do teenagers need to have to start pursuing a career in medicine?
    1. Fascination with science, medicine, people.
    2. Caring about people.
    3. Desire to understand how stuff works.


  1. What sort of local opportunities should teenagers be looking for?
    1. Exposure to science.
    2. Exposure to medical care – volunteer in a hospital.

  1. Do you feel that teenagers today underestimate what it takes to become a successful?
    1. Teenagers need to realize that it takes a  long time to accomplish something significant. I worked for almost 30 years to become a doctor. Once I was a physician, it took 10 more years to get good at it.
    2. One can master a video game in a week (less than 168 hours). Becoming a doctor takes a minimum of 12 years of work 100 hours a week. That is more than 60,000 hours of work to become a doctor.

  1. What message would you like to give teenagers today about joining the medical field?
    1. It is great. I love it. I can’t imagine a better thing to do with my life.
    2. It takes a lot of work.
    3. Make sure it is something that fascinates you.
    4. There is enormous joy in providing care to patients. They are relieved. They don’t die. They are no longer in pain. It is a tremendous experience to be able to help a patient.
    5. It is a tremendous experience to invent a therapy that prevents morbidity and mortality.


To learn more about recent advances and methodologies in modern medicine, check out our next seminar on October 23rd  featuring Dr. Art Wallace speaking on “Making Medicine Safer with Drugs, Devices, Software and More” The event will take place at Terra Linda High School Room 207 at 7:30 pm. To download the Fall flyer, click here.

Click on the link below for more information about Dr. Wallace

Image credits

-Jessica Gerwin

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The Process Behind Medical Innovations Revealed

by Claire Watry, Terra Linda HS

This week Dr. Art Wallace returns to the Marin Science Seminar to present “Making Medicine Safer with Drugs, Devices, Software & More”. Dr. Wallace is a cardiac anesthesiologist at the San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Center (SF VAMC) and the Chief of the Anesthesia Service. He is also a professor of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Care at the University of California, San Francisco. Dr. Wallace provides clinical anesthesia care to patients at the SF VAMC and has a laboratory that works on reducing perioperative risk. He has compiled an impressive list of innovative theories for perioperative cardiac patients. Dr. Wallace will explain the process of developing a new drug, device, or software and answer your burning questions: How is a drug or device developed? How is a new product tested? How is it determined whether the therapy is successful or not?  How do new technology and therapies change medical care? For a sneak peek preview of his presentation, check out part of my interview with Dr. Wallace below. 

What is the process of researching, developing, and implementing a new drug, device, or software?

a. The first step is to identify a problem and then identify the likely etiologic factors (what causes the problem). When we looked at patients having heart attacks around the time of surgery we first did an epidemiologic study to find out how often they died. We then put holter monitors (small portable ECG monitors) on the patients. We found that they had myocardial ischemia (not enough blood supply to the heart muscle).

b. The next step is to test likely therapies. We tested 20 different drugs to find ones that would prevent myocardial ischemia. We found four that worked.

c. The next step is to implement the programs. We implemented programs in our hospital to use those medications. Those programs decreased the mortality of patients about 35%.

d. The next step is to disseminate the program to other hospitals. We helped more than  1000 other hospitals implement the programs and they found similar reductions in mortality.

e. For devices the approaches are similar – 1) Identify a problem. 2) Find possible causes. 3) See if you can create a device to eliminate the problem. 4) Test the device to see  if it reduces or eliminates the problem.


How long does the process typically take?

The development of perioperative cardiac risk reduction takes many years and many billions of dollars. It depends when you start the clock. When did you identify the problem? When did you find a likely solution? When did you prove it works? When did you get others to use it? Science takes a long time. Once you find a therapy, it takes the average doctor 17 years to adopt it.

When asked about what serious health issues he believes can be alleviated by the development of new technology, Dr. Wallace answered that even with new technological advances, prevention is key because “many of the health care problems we face are related to behaviors”. Dr. Wallace cited using birth control and HIV prevention, not smoking, taking illegal drugs, becoming obese or drinking excessively, and exercising regularly as prime examples of how proper education and behavior alterations can dramatically reduce health problems. He maintained that “it is vastly easier and more effective to avoid having a problem than to attempt to fix it” and mentioned computerized reminders to eat reasonably, to avoid drugs, cigarettes, and excessive alcohol, and to exercise as an effective way to avoid having a problem.

Dr. Wallace stressed that even with advanced technology “developing some miracle drug or therapy for a disease is really, really hard. Avoiding getting the disease in the first place is vastly easier and cheaper. Literacy, flush toilets and sewers, washing your hands, chlorine and fluoride in drinking water, refrigerators, pasteurization, electricity, seat belts, and social security did vastly more for people than medicine.”

Learn more about the development of new medical therapies at “Making Medicine Safer with Drugs, Devices, Software & More” with Dr. Art Wallace M.D. Ph. D. on Wednesday, October 23rd, 2013, 7:30 – 8:30 pm, Terra Linda High School, San Rafael, Room 207

http://www.marinscienceseminar.com/speakers/awallace.html

Claire Watry

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Public Health Plays More Roles In Your Life Than You May Think

by Jessica Gerwin, Drake HS

When you hear the term public health, ideas that may come to mind might be about immunizations or food recalls. However, many of us don’t realize how big of a role public health plays in our everyday lives.  From the faucets that we fill our drinking cups with to the seat belts that we wear in our cars, almost all aspects of our well being relate to Public Health in some way. On October 16th, 2013 Julie Pettijohn did an exemplary job of explaining the topic of public health and talked about what being in the field really involves. As an industrial hygienist, a typical work day for Julie is not just filling out paperwork in an office. Wearing a full outfit of protective gear, Julie often goes to a site to detect possible lead amounts in a work environment. Her job keeps us safe by enforcing the proper health requirements. The work and service of people like Julie in the public health field may often be taken for granted. Nevertheless, by attending the seminar many of us learned that being in the field is not just a job, it is establishing safe and healthy ways of life. I had the honor of asking Julie some questions about both herself and her field. Our interview is below.


1.) I’d like to learn a little about you. What made you decide to go into biology and then public health?


        I have been interested in science since junior high (now called middle school). I had a fantastic physical science teacher that really brought science to life for me. His teaching was unconventional, and his class time was spent mostly applying scientific principles through experiments instead of reading a text book. I was also a child of parents that went to community college while my sibling and I were kids. My parents met a fantastic professor that later became our good family friend. He was a Native American expert and professor of astronomy and geology. We would spend evenings at his home looking through his telescope and I often attended his college geology field trips along with my parents. While in college, I first majored in biological sciences and completed internships at the local community health center; I was thinking of going to medical school after graduation. I was fortunate to attend UC Santa Barbara, a university that is well known for aquatic biology coursework. I switched majors midway through college from biological sciences to aquatic biology and graduated with a degree in this major. This was done to pursue my due to my deep love of the ocean. My first ‘real’ job was with a state department, where I was a contractor working on public health issues related to fish contamination. My mentors at that position encouraged me to get a Master’s Degree in public health, where I could continue to learn about issues related to health, but also environmental issues, thus combining two of my interests (health and the environment).

2.)  I think that public health and public policy are difficult subjects for teenagers to relate to. Can you explain the role of public health in Marin County?


        I work at the state level, so I’m not as knowledgeable about public health issues in Marin County. However, the County Public Health Department provides a number of direct services to Marin residents and the one that I am most familiar with is Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention. County public health nurses and environmental health specialists conduct home visits where children have elevated blood lead levels, putting them at lifelong risk for learning and behavioral problems. The purpose of these site visits is to determine possible sources of the lead in the child’s environment, so that they can be reduced or eliminated.. See http://www.marinhhs.org/content/public-health-updates for some public health updates for Marin. My talk will include asking teens questions, and by the responses that I anticipate, I’m pretty sure that most of them know quite a bit about public health already, but may not automatically associate this knowledge with the field of public health.
3.)  Can you talk a little bit about the sampling equipment you are bringing? What are you sampling for? What personal protective equipment are you bringing?

        I’m bringing with me air monitoring equipment. I use the air monitoring equipment to measure lead in workplace air to assess if workers are being excessively exposed above legal limits and to make recommendations on lead safety. I’m also bringing lead check swabs which are used for immediately assessing the presence of lead surface contamination or the presence of lead in paint. I’ll be demonstrating the use of these during the talk. I’ll also be bringing wipe sampling equipment that can be used for quantitatively determining the amount of lead (or other metals) on surfaces in workplaces, homes, and other places of interest. As for personal protective equipment, I’ll be bringing respiratory protection used for reducing the amount of a chemical of concern (like lead) that may breathed in by workers in workplace air. I’ll also be showing tyvek coveralls which are worn in many industries to keep lead (also other contaminants) from contaminating your street clothes while working. I’ll be bringing a hard hat, gloves, and a traffic safety vest too.
4.)  What are a few examples global climate change that are impacting Marin County?

        Extremes in weather, flooding, and water quality issues.
5). What do you consider to be the largest public health issue involving teens in Marin County?

        This is a great question. From my perspective, public health issues that affect Marin teens are wellness and injury prevention. What I mean by this is that teens should be thinking about personal physical fitness and nutrition. Many teens in our Country are unfortunately overweight putting them at risk for lifelong health issues, particularly as they age (heart disease, diabetes, etc.). In addition, teens are often new and inexperienced drivers, new to employment outside the home, may become sexually active for the first time and may have peer pressure to drink alcohol or take illegal substances. As a result, teens are at greater risk for accidents, particularly on the road, in the workplace, and may be exposed to sexually transmitted diseases, which if left untreated, can have serious health consequences. Besides this, a goal of my talk is to get teens to also think about global climate change and things that they can do to help.
6.)  What steps can our community take to better ourselves on these issues?

Get informed and get involved in the issues, and take care of your health to prevent or reduce future injury or illness.
7.)  Is there anything else that you’ll be talking about?

              The field of industrial hygiene, the program that I work for (Occupational Lead Poisoning Prevention Program of the California Department of Public Health), how lead impacts your health, where lead is found in various industries, and recent work by CDPH on making recommendations to reduce the allowable levels of lead in workplaces, which would be a major change in public health policy for lead workplaces. Also, I’ll briefly cover some career opportunities in public health.

Julie is one of the many people that work in the STEM field (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math). If you are interested in learning more about these fields or just science in general, attending a Marin Science Seminar can be a great way to expose yourself to new topics and learn about a few different environments. Come check out our next seminar on October 23rd “Making Medicine Safer – Drugs, Devices, Software and More” presented by Dr. Wallace. The seminar will take place at Terra Linda High School in Room 207 so come check it out!

October is Nova’s “Innovation Month”. You can learn more about different seminars that are taking place by clicking on the link below.

-Jessica Gerwin

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The Making of an App Starts with a Passion

by Jessica Gerwin, Drake HS 

On September 25th, 2013, multimedia producer David Fox spoke to an audience of over 50 enthusiastic and curious individuals about his love for Rube Goldberg machines. Rube Goldberg, as defined in Webster’s New World Dictionary is a comically involved, complicated invention, laboriously contrived to perform a simple operation. It is easy to compare the concept of a Rube Goldberg machine to the popular 60’s board game, “Mouse Trap”.

Mouse Trap, a popular board game of the 60’s was inspired by Rube Goldberg machines. The game involves setting up an array of objects in order to trap a plastic mouse.


Rube Goldberg himself is a famous cartoonist from San Francisco whose drawings focus on quirky combinations of gadgets that perform simple tasks in convoluted ways. The series of these “inventions” led Goldberg to become a founding member of the National Cartoonist Society and a Pulitzer Prize winner. Goldberg’s unique style and sense of humor made him a beloved national figure who created a large cultural impact. Goldberg’s sense of humor is well emulated in the popular YouTube video called “The Page Turner” by Joseph Herscher. To take a further look into these machines, watch the video by clicking here.

Likewise, David wishes to emulate Goldberg’s intricate and whimsical style into his game. David introduced the app that he in conjunction with Electric Eggplant and Kalani games are in the process of creating. While the name of the app has changed from Casey’s Contraptions to another not yet known, the premise of the game remains the same. The mission of each level in the game is to set up an assortment of contraptions to carry out a simple task such as popping a balloon or filling a glass of orange juice.

However, the process that it takes to animate a scene like that is more intricate than the level that they are working on. The process of programming a level is a long and difficult one. Each level requires planning, drawing, programming, and graphics skills.

While programming can be very difficult, it is not an unattainable thing to do. Programming apps does take some specific knowledge and skills that can be learned if you want to. The earlier you learn about programming, the easier it becomes.  There are plenty online and offline resources that exist to help you learn about programming.

For instance, code.org is a website that refers you to free programs that teach you how to code. The site recommends websites such as Code Academy, Khan Academy and Code HS. All of which are great resources to help you get started. Many representatives of the site stress the importance of being able to code in the YouTube video here.

Creating apps are part of the “T” in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) and is a creative way to entertain, teach, make money and more. The limitations for your own creativity is boundless.  The best way to start is to find something in which you are passionate about.  The STEM field is full of examples of many passions like David Fox’s. 

To learn more about the STEM fields, check out our next seminar on October 16th featuring Julie Pettijohn speaking on “Clean Air, Clean Water, Clean Work” about how Public Health research and policy keeps us healthy and improves our lives. The event will take place at Terra Linda High School at 7:30 pm. To download the Fall flyer, click here.

Sources Cited:

  • “Rube Goldberg : Home of the Official Rube Goldberg Machine Contests.” 

    • Rube Goldberg. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Oct. 2013. <http://www.rubegoldberg.com/>.

  • “Rube Goldberg.” 

    • Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 15 Oct. 2013. Web. 16 Oct. 2013. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rube_Goldberg>.

  • Caplan, Lisa. “The App Store’s IPad Game Of The Week: Casey’s Contraptions.”AppAdvice RSS. App Advice, 22 May 2011. Web. 16 Oct. 2013. <http://appadvice.com/appnn/2011/05/app-stores-ipad-game-week-caseys-contraptions>.
  • “Code.org.” Code. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Oct. 2013. <http://code.org/>.

-Jessica Gerwin

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Educational Video Games: No Longer a Contradiction

by Claire Watry, Terra Linda HS
The definition of a video game according to Merriam-Webster is: an electronic game played by means of images on a video screen and often emphasizing fast action. The definition does include the phrases “must contain violence,” “must be uneducational” or “guaranteed to turn children into zombies.” Video games are often stigmatized as a waste of time, and few realize that video games can actually be educational and help children’s learning rather than hindering it. With proper implementation, educational video games have the potential to transform traditional education and propel students into high-profile jobs in the tech-savvy world.

Video games are an innovative way to engage students in science. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology in partnership with the Smithsonian Institution experimented with alternative methods of teaching science and created the video game Vanished where students are presented with the scenario that in the future all historical records are destroyed, and are asked by the people of the future to investigate the causes of this catastrophe by researching and recording data about present-day Earth. The game incorporates problem-solving and analytical skills in an interactive way of exploring science in the hopes that science is seen as an “engaging process of mystery and discovery” rather than the sadly common perception that is a boring process full of memorization. Vanished gives the students a hands-on experience by requiring them to go out into their neighborhoods to research and record what they experience instead of  just memorizing vocabulary and looking up the answers on the internet. Although the trial run of Vanished is over, researchers hope to use the game as a model to create interactive educational tools for teaching science.

A leader in the use of education video games in the classroom is the Redwood-City-based GlassLab (Games, Learning, and Assessment Lab). The goal of the video games is to engage the students in an interactive manner and stimulate their interest in the fields of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics). For their first project, GlassLab took the commercially-successful SimsCity video game and modified it to be educational. The science-based video game titled SimCityEDU: Pollution Challenge! challenges middle-school students to run a successful town by considering the environmental impacts their actions have while maintaining employment levels and citizen happiness. For example, in the game a city will run out of electricity and the students must then solve the issue and return power to the city. The video game engages the students’ critical thinking and allows them to gain valuable insight into real world problems and potential solutions. The game follows lesson plans and assesses the students’ progress by tracking their progression through the various scenarios. Check out the video below to learn more about SimCityEDU: Pollution Challenge!.



For more information about GlassLab visit http://glasslabgames.org/.
Learn more about educational gaming at “The Making of an App—The First Official Rube Goldberg Invention Game” with David Fox, of Electric Eggplant, Marin County –Wednesday, September 25th, 2013, 7:30 – 8:30 pm, Terra Linda High School, San Rafael, Room 207.

Links:
Claire Watry

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What Makes a Cancer Cell

by Sandra Ning, Terra Linda HS

Cancer is most commonly treated through radiation, surgery, and chemotherapy.

    While it could be considered cliché to compare cancer cells to supervillains, the similarities are undeniable. Supervillains are cunning, deeply rooted within their far-reaching schemes, and fearsome to the extreme. Cancer cells are just as sly, difficult to remove from the human body and terrifying to the afflicted and their loved ones. It’s not hard to visualize cancer cells as the shady criminal syndicate of the human body; their reach extends to the lungs, bones, tissue and bloodstream, and their tactics are ruthless. Make no mistake—cancer cells have long been antagonists to the scientists fighting for a cure and the patients fighting for their life.
    But when it comes down to the science of it, cancer cells differ from many classic villains in that they aren’t innately evil. Rather, cancer cells and their dangerous properties originate from chance mutations during the division of normal cells. Mutations explain a lot of strange phenomena, from unexpected eye colors to increased resistance to diseases. These unexpected changes in gene sequences can be harmless, or even beneficial. However, they have an equal chance of damaging DNA, mutating it in such a way that the cell distorts into fast-splicing cancer cells.
     Usually, mitosis—the process in which a cell divides—takes precautions against such mutations. “Checkpoints” during a cell’s growth period scan for identity-changing DNA mishaps, ensuring things are running as expected. If something is wrong, the cell will stop growing; if the damage to the DNA can’t be repaired, the cell will kill itself in a process called apoptosis. Through such self-sacrificing vigilance, cells that are mutated beyond repair never get the chance to multiply into a runaway number of damaged cells. But sometimes cell mutations go undetected, due to the sheer number of cells within the human body, with its trillions of constantly dividing cells, each with their own double-helix sequences and enzyme and lysosomes. In such a rush, a handful of mutations can slip by even the strict quality standards cells hold to themselves. Many of these mutations go undetected because they’re harmless to the identity of that cell—but some aren’t so benign.

Normal and cancer cell division. Most damaged cells die through apoptosis.

     When a cell with damaged DNA successfully slips by and divides, it creates the first two in a series of cells that will rapidly divide and spread incorrect DNA, beginning the first rapidfire stages of cancer. The speed of growth and division of cancer cells is unmatched, and unyielding; a cancer cell’s daunting ability to keep multiplying without ever dying, as normal cells do, is often referred to as ‘immortality’. This trait is due to two substances within the cell in particular: telomere and telomerase.
      Telomere is a repeating DNA sequence that essentially acts as a cap for the chromosome it’s on. The sequence acts as a buffer between valuable DNA sequences within the chromosome and the often messy process of dividing a cell. Without the telomere, the ends of the chromosome would lose important base pairs much like a rope fraying at the ends. The more a cell divides, the more telomere is lost in protecting the chromosome. Once all of the telomere is gone, the chromosome reaches “critical length” and no longer replicates. When this happens, the cell doesn’t divide and dies through apoptosis. The erosion of telomere thus measures the age of a cell, with long telomere sequences indicating young cells and short sequences indicating old ones.

The repeating TTGGGG sequence is telomere; the enzyme and RNA template belong to telomerase, which rebuilds worn-down telomere.

     To restore and keep the cycle of cells replicating in our body, telomerase is needed to extend the eroding telomeres. Telomerase is an enzyme made of proteins and RNA. As an enzyme, telomerase enables certain reactions that couldn’t happen without it—in this case, rebuilding and elongating telomeres to a longer sequence again. Telomerase is sparingly used in somatic, or body, cells, which comprise most of the human body. As a result, humans age without much interference from telomerase.
     While telomerase is rarely active in normal body cells, the enzyme becomes ten to twenty times more active in cancer cells. The abundance of telomerase gives cancer cells an endless supply of telomere, and with it, the ability to multiply indefinitely.
    In addition to ‘immortality,’ cancer cells have several additional unique properties that explain why finding a cure is proving so difficult. In addition to fast replication, cancer cells don’t undergo apoptosis easily; high levels of survivin, a protein, inhibits the usual method of cell death. Cancer cells need neither the physical space nor the same amount of nourishing chemicals, known as growth factors, that normal cells need. Instead, they pile freely on top of each other, and remain undeterred by a diet on growth factors. The clusters cancer cells often find themselves in form the lumps within the breasts and testes that doctors and outreach campaigns warn about. Despite their ability to clump, cancer cells have unfortunately high mobility, too. While normal cells anchor themselves onto neighboring cells, cancer cells can break away and travel through the body, infecting other organs. Their ability to invade and infect other areas is made possible through the ability to break through the lamina. The lamina is a noncellular shield that protects the tissues, organs and surfaces within the human body, deflecting normal cells with ease. Cancer cells don’t have the same limitation, and spread to different organs with relative ease.
     With its unique properties, cancer remains frustratingly difficult to cure. Treating cancer needs to somehow overcome the mobility and speed of replication cancer cells exhibit. Current treatments for cancer actually do better than that—the chemotherapy method of treatment uses the cancer cells’ speedy multiplication against it. Chemotherapy sends chemicals throughout the body that kill fast-replicating cells. Cancer cells are efficiently targeted and wiped out through this method, being some of the fasted replicating cells in the body.
     However, chemotherapy has serious faults in its accuracy; by targeting fast-replicating cells, chemotherapy hits hair and blood cells particularly hard. A broad swath of helpful cells get caught in the crossfire between chemotherapy and the cancer cells it’s meant to target. As a treatment for cancer, chemotherapy can cause hair loss, amongst other more painful side-effects.

Chemotherapy affects the fast-growing hair cells as well, which is why cancer patients’ hair often falls out.

     Other treatments are available, when cancer cells are concentrated in specific parts of the body. Radiation focuses on a single area, maybe one organ, to destroy cancer cells. When cancer cells are concentrated in a single area, forming a tumor, surgery can excise the infected part. Sometimes, a mixture of the three treatments are required to treat a patient.
     There is still no way to accurately target and eradicate cancer cells without collateral damage. For that reason, and for the growing number people with breast cancer, leukemia, and other forms of cancer, research for better treatment and ultimately a cure is incredibly important. Cancer is internal, deadly in its silent machinations and intimidating with its arsenal of lethal properties. It’s up to the bright minds and generous hearts of every scientist, doctor, donor and activist to combat, quite literally, the enemy within.

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Interested in cancer cells and what scientists are doing to treat it? Come see Dr. Brad A. Stohr present “Why do Cancer Cells Grow Forever and Can we Stop Them?” Dr. Stohr will be presenting this Wednesday, April 17th, at the Marin Science Seminar. The Marin Science Seminar takes place during 7:30 to 8:30 p.m., in rm. 207 of Terra Linda High School. Come check out the Marin Science Seminar on our website and Facebook!

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Sandra Ning

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Why do Cancer Cells Grow Forever and Can we Stop Them? Check out the teaser vid!

Check out this teaser video for Wednesday’s science seminar about battling cancer cells with Bradley Stohr MD PhD of UCSF. Video by MSS intern Josh Leung.


Why do Cancer Cells Grow Forever and Can we Stop Them? from Marin Science Seminar on Vimeo.
April 17th, 2013
Unlike normal cells, cancer cells can keep proliferating forever. This “immortality” allows cancer to spread through the body, causing destruction and often death. In this seminar, Dr. Stohr will discuss how cancer cells become immortal and how we might be able to treat cancer by targeting their immortality.

Brad Stohr MD/PhD is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Pathology at UCSF. His laboratory studies telomeres and telomerase in human cancer. In addition, he serves as an attending physician on the autopsy service.

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The Birth of the Universe, through Today’s Telescopes

by Sandra Ning, Terra Linda HS

A nebula in the Large Magellanic Cloud. Though nebulae are often the focus of space appreciation in pop culture, the universe encompasses billions more phenomena.


     A story is typically told from the beginning, but oftentimes the universe is an exception. As a society, time is measured in days and nights, hours, minutes, and seconds. But even more so, time is apparent to us through the peachy sunrise of dawn, the angry grumbles of an empty stomach at noon, and the fatigue that settles with the darkness of night. It’s hard to imagine any of these things in relation to the universe, with its sleepless planets and nomadic asteroids, all swallowed up in an unimaginably large blanket of space. If the universe is a story, and all the galaxies, comets, and stars its characters, where does it all begin? 
     Luckily, scientists have already delved into the origins of the universe, and have resurfaced with new and exciting insights regarding these questions. Dr. Mary Barsony, an associate professor of physics and astronomy at SFSU, has kindly answered several questions regarding the birth of the universe, the elements, and how scientists are researching it all.—

1. The Big Bang theory is the most widely-accepted theory for the creation of the universe. What kind of evidence have astrophysicists gathered to support this?


    a) Apart from the “immediate” neighborhood of our Milky Way Galaxy,
in any direction you look, the further away a galaxy is, the greater the shift
of its spectral lines towards longer wavelengths (e.g., towards the red portion of the spectrum, hence the term “red-shifted.”) This systematic red-shift of extragalactic spectra
was first discovered nearly a hundred years ago, by combining spectra obtained
by V.V. Slipher at Lowell Observatory with distance determinations obtained by
E. Hubble at Mt. Wilson Observatory. 


           Any cosmological theory must explain this observational fact. According
to the Big Bang theory, the observed red-shifts are a direct consequence of
the expansion of the Universe since the Big Bang (13.7 billion years ago).
As space(time) expands, the light-waves stretch with the space they are in,
meaning their wavelengths get longer, or red-shifted.


 Timeline of the universe, showing the formation of particles, then nebula, then more.


     b) There is remnant radiation observed in all directions of space, corresponding
to a temperature of 2.73 Kelvins (above absolute zero), peaking at a wavelength of
~1 millimeter, which is in the “microwave” region of the electromagnetic spectrum.


         Any cosmological theory must explain why we see this radiation uniformly
in all directions in the sky.  According to the Big Bang theory, early in the
Universe’s history, its state was extremely hot and dense–so hot that
protons and electrons were separated from each other in a state
known as a “plasma.” Photons (light) cannot escape such a plasma,
since photons strongly interact with free electrons and protons. This
interaction is called “scattering.”  As the Universe expands, it cools. Once the Universe
had expanded and cooled enough so that protons and electrons
could combine to form atoms, the plasma turned into an electrically
neutral state, and the photons could escape–so instead of a dense, opaque
fog of scattered photons, we have a transparent state of freely propagating photons (light).
The microwave background radiation was discovered (accidentally) by some radio
communications engineers (as a source of unwanted noise in their communications
equipment). They received the Nobel Prize in Physics for their discovery.


    c)  We observe the elemental abundances in the Universe to be
~90% (by number) hydrogen and ~10% (by number) helium.
In terms of mass, this corresponds to ~75% by mass of hydrogen and ~24% by mass
helium. All the other elements we are familiar with here on Earth are trace
elements relative to these, on the scale of stars, galaxies, and galaxy clusters.


      The abundances of hydrogen and helium are predicted by the Big Bang theory
in terms of what is known as “Big Bang nucleosynthesis.”


2. Did all of the elements form at once with the Big Bang? And if not, in what order (if any) did they form in?


      The nucleon formation order in the Big Bang was: protons (protons are nuclei
of hydrogen) and neutrons, then deuterons (the nuclei of deuterium or heavy
water), then helium nuclei (both “light” helium, with  2 protons+1 neutron and “regular” helium, with 2 protons + 2 neutrons), then lithium. All the tritium nuclei (12 yr half-life) and beryllium nuclei (53 day half-life) formed in the Big Bang decayed into deuterons or lithium.
  
          All other elements are formed either within massive stars, post-main-sequence stars, supernovae, or spallation of cosmic particles and interstellar hydrogen nuclei (protons).


3. Would it be theoretically possible to create even more elements?


       Yes, elements past uranium, the so-called “trans-uranium” elements
are all formed in the lab with accelerators. Generally, these very heavy
elements are unstable and decay (their nuclei split apart, or undergo “fission”)
in fractions of a second.


4. What elements are “stardust” and nebulae primarily composed of? 


    Interstellar dust is mainly composed of silicates and hydrocarbons.


     Nebulae are generally gas lit up by a nearby light source, which could be
a massive star or star cluster (e.g., Orion nebula) , a white dwarf (planetary
nebulae), a pulsar (Crab nebula), or very young star  (L1551 in Taurus).
Interstellar gas is primarily composed of hydrogen and helium, with  traces of
other, heavier elements.


A flowchart of star formation; protostars aren’t shown in this chart, but would be between the stellar nebula and a fully-formed star.


6. What are neutron stars?

       A neutron star is an object made entirely of neutrons, that has a radius of ~10 km
and contains more than 1.4 solar masses.  Generally, it is a remnant of a
supernova explosion.


7.  And what are protostars?

       A protostar (of which I am one of the co-discoverers) is an object
which is still in the process of forming, with almost all of its mass residing
in an extended (~2000 Earth-Sun distances, or astronomical units) infalling envelope.
Its energy is derived from gravitational infall, and it fuels powerful bipolar
jets of gas, which act to remove its magnetic field and spin energy.


7. You’re currently studying a protostar, the Wasp-Waist Nebula, right? What do scientists hope to learn from protostars, and for what purposes?


    Fantastic! You saw it! Yes, this nebula is mostly composed of hydrogen.
The protostar forming at the center of the Wasp-Waist Nebula may be the
first such object we have found that ultimately may form into a “failed star”
or “brown dwarf” (an object not massive enough to fuse hydrogen into helium
in its core) instead of into a low-mass star.


        We’re hoping to understand, in detail, both how stars form from the
tenuous interstellar medium and how their planetary systems form.


The Wasp-Waist Nebula, which holds a protostar currently being studied.


8. Do orbiting planets form already orbiting a star? Or do they form, and then drift in space until a sizeable star is encountered?


     Actually, as stars form they form accretion disks, as well. Just like when
water goes down a drain, it generally swirls around before going down the center,
so gas and dust swirl around in a disk around the central protostar before falling in.
Planets eventually form from the disk orbiting the central young (pre-main-sequence,
or, not yet fusing hydrogen to helium) object.


9. Why are the outer planets all gas giants while the inner planets are all rock?


      That has to do with the temperature structure of the accretion disk
around a young, pre-main-sequence object. It’s so hot close-in that only
rocky (silicates, iron) planets can form from planetesimals crashing into each other–it’s too
hot for ices to form. Remember that, by far, most of the material in such
a disk is hydrogen, then helium, with just traces of heavier elements.


   Far enough out in the disk, the temperature cools enough so that both
ices (composed of water, carbon monoxide, ammonia) and rocks (silicates)
can form the central cores of planets. Once an icy/rocky core
surpasses about ten Earth masses, its gravitational pull can become
strong enough to hold onto and sweep up the disk’s gas in and near its orbit.
This is how the gas giants Jupiter and Saturn, and the ice giants, Neptune and
Uranus, formed.


10. Is it difficult to study the formations of stars and planets? What obstacles are in the way of studying these formations?


       Yes, it’s difficult, but it’s rewarding. We are very lucky to live in the present
time, when our technology is allowing us to examine star and planet formation
in unprecedented detail.  The ALMA (Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array)
will revolutionize our understanding of this field.  This instrument (66 telescopes
working as one) was just inaugurated, on March 13, 2013.  https://science.nrao.edu


11. What kind of technology are scientists using to study these formations?


    Very many kinds. The ALMA array, for instance, uses the fastest, specially
made supercomputer (called a “correlator”) to process the signals from
all of its antennas simultaneously every 10 seconds. The receivers for
detecting radiation from the sky are state-of-the-art and are approaching  (or at) the
quantum limit for how faint a signal they will respond to. Its data processing
software and user interface is brand new and continually being written and upgraded.
This is a truly international collaboration, with scientists from Europe,
North America, Taiwan, and Japan all equal partners in its use and development.


     For near-infrared arrays, to find new brown dwarfs
and young free-floating planets, we’re using the largest such devices in existence.
For near-infrared spectroscopy, we’re using a 400-fiber-optic fed
spectrograph (called FMOS) on the Subaru 8.0-meter telescope on Mauna Kea.
for a recent synopsis of this work).


     We’re looking forward to JWST, the successor to Hubble, which will
work in the near- and mid-infrared. That is where we can study star and planet
formation much better than at optical wavelengths, where these objects
are generally invisible.


  12. How do SETI scientists try to find life in the universe?


  Currently, they are using the ATA (Allen Telescope Array),
looking in a specific frequency range (1-10 GHz) for
narrowband signals that might be transmitted by other


   SETI scientists are also studying geology, geophysics, atmospheric
science, and the conditions under which life may first have arisen on our own planet.
They are studying life in extreme environments on Earth, as in under the Antarctic
ice sheet and on the deep ocean floor where sunlight does not penetrate, and pressures
are high, etc.


13. You’re very involved in different fields of astrophysics; how did you realize your interest in astronomy?

   I remember as a little girl of 4 or 5 years old, looking up at the dark sky, seeing the
stars, and wondering.

The night sky over the Church of Good Shepherd; New Zealand tried to get this patch of sky named a World Heritage Site.
 
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Come join the Marin Science Seminar during our Astronomy Month presentations! This Wednesday, March 27, Dr. Mary Barsony will be presenting ‘We are Stardust: Genesis of the Elements’. The Marin Science Seminar takes place from 7:30 to 8:30 p.m., in rm. 207 of Terra Linda High School.

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Sandra Ning

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