Volume 3 — Issue 4

.

Dr. Kang, thank you for taking the time to talk to us. You’ve mentioned that you have beenworking on HIV research for 20 years now. Can you elaborate on that 20 year process?

Dr. Kang: HIV research was easy for us to start because we’ve been working on retroviruses before. The

retrovirus is the group of vi-ruses which HIV belongs to. So, I’ve been working on ret-roviruses since, you know,mid-seventies when I was a post-doc-toral fellow. And then worked on, its called avian retroviruses, aviansarcoma virus, avian leukosis virus and also avian reticulendotheliosis vi-rus. Those are all retroviruses. So, in the

early 80s HIV was discovered, and that was one of the retroviruses that I thought the problem would be solvedvery soon. But the late 80’s, we start-ed with HIV work about 87, 88.

TC: Was that here at Western?

Dr. Kang: No, I was at the Univer-sity of Ottawa. I was the chair of micro-biology and immunology department atthe University of Ottawa medical school. And so we decided “oh well lets do some basic research on HIV”. So,the transition from other retrovirus-es into HIV was relatively easy for us. So we did a lot of those fundamentalstudies of HIV at that time...Then, un-expectedly, people could not fig-ure out how to make a vaccine againstHIV. People tried so many differ-ent strategies, but they did not work.

TC: Any particular reasons for that?

Dr. Kang: Well, that difficulty still stands. First of all, there’s no animal model for HIV vaccine efficacy test.So even if you have an experimen-tal vaccine developed you cannot test it, in any animals other than humans.So you have to test it in humans. That’s one really, reason why HIV, the progress of HIV vaccine research isso slow. Second one, is no one seemed to know what strategy one should use to make a vaccine effective inpreventing HIV infection. People have tried subunit vaccines, people have tried recombinant virus vaccines,but these strategies did not work...So we’re left with one strategy which was not tried, and this is the killedwhole-virus strategy.

Why? There were two problems with that. Number one, its too dangerous to producelarge quantities. Secondly there was no system to produce enough quan-tity to make vaccines. And we solvedthose two problems by genetically modifying the genes of HIV. We took out the NEF gene, which we know isresponsible for pathogenesis, so we took it out. And secondly we modi-fied the signal peptide which governsthe biosynthesis of the glycopro-tein, surface antigen. And so we re-placed this natural signal peptide, with atotally exogenous signal peptide which comes from the honeybee. Honey-bee mellitin, which is a honeybee toxin

signal peptide. Which produces large amounts of the glycoprotein, and pro-cesses them really adequately. Thatenhances virus production; faster and more.

TC: Moving off the actual vac-cine, you’re waiting to be interviewed by Chinese television following this.How do you feel about the media re-sponse in regards to the vaccine, and your celebrity personally, at leaston campus?

Dr. Kang: I’m trying to downplay this, because we don’t know whether this vaccine will prevent HIV infection.We are doing our best, to see wheth-er this strategy will work, because this strategy worked for other viraldiseases... Now how do I feel? I don’t want to be overly enthusiastic about this because I’m a very cautiousperson.

There were so many failures in the past, I don’t want to blow my horn yet, until we see that there is adefinite strong efficacy of our vac-cine. I’m cautiously optimistic.

TC: Can you tell me about your plans for a world institute of virology?

Dr. Kang: Well an idea, and also I in-troduced this idea, its my dream. [I need] someone who is influentialand who is governing a country, and also who has a really philanthropic mind, and those who have the fundsto support this kind of institute. And also I’ve been talking to the busi-ness people who might be interested insponsoring this. Because this can really establish a very; on solid ground this kind of institution will establish a company, or country or individual, as high impact as Nobel. [Nobel] created his.. wealth with the discovery of dynamite and donated that money to recognize people who

Good morning, Dr. Kang

The Current Editor Ivan Urosev

sits down with Dr. Chil-Yong Kang to discuss his past

research and possible ideas for the future.

The excitement regarding the recent news in the development of the SAV001 HIV vaccine here at Western has spilled over beyond the

faculty of science, and has propelled the project's lead researcher, Dr. Chil-Yong Kang, into the world of academic celebrity. Despite the at-tention, Dr. Kang remains cautiously humble about what the future

holds, perhaps a testament to the journey that has brought him to this point. Born in Korea in the 1940's, Dr. Kang's academic career began

with a boat journey to the West which took 40 days and 40 nights, and has culminated with his virology research here at Western.

THE CURRENT:

” “

[In the future] what I would like to do is

provide an adequate amount of funding, guar-

anteed for 10 years, for each faculty member.

- Dr. Kang

...CONTINUED ON PAGE 6

Follow us on twitter!We know how to give you a

raging hadron... @TheCurrent_SSC

The sole responsibility for the content of this publication lies with the authors. Its contents do not reflect the opinion of the University Students’ Council of the University of Western Ontario (“USC”). The USC assumes no responsibility or liability for any error, inaccuracy, omission or comment contained in this publication or for any use that may be made of such information by the reader.

INSIDE THIS ISSUE, YOU’RE GOING TO FIND...

4D’s haven’t been this interesting since the time those two female lifeguards saved you from drowning. Page 3

Famous birthdays: James Prescott Joule. Page 6

What’s more powerful than a geomagnetic storm? Two geomagnetic storms. Page 7

Scientific reasoning behind the supposed looming apocalypse. Page 4-5

The best damn comics section in the league. Page 8

The SSC’s Official Science Newspaper thecurrent@westernssc.ca

The Current— December 2012 Page 3

Daniel TovbisCreative Editor

PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE

Thinking in four directions Gain a new perspective with dimensional analogy

By the numbers

188The intensity of a blue whale’s whistle, in decibels, making it

the loudest animal on Earth.

1.08 x 105 The speed, in km/h, that the

Earth orbits the Sun.

60The percentage of DNA shared

between a human and a bannana.

72The number of muscle interac-

tions required to produce human speech.

28The mass, in grams, of Astatine (the rarest element on Earth)

found in the Earth’s crust.

29.76The melting point, in degrees

Celsius, of Gallium, a metal that will melt in the palm

of your hand.

MEDICINE

Stem cells and the art of plasticityMitchell ThomCurrent Contributor

From the time you were a child, environmen-talists have been advocating the use of the “3 R’s” – that is, Reduce Reuse and Recycle - as a means to eliminate unnecessary waste in the environment. It seems recently that scientists may have caught on and taken this slogan to a new extreme. Researchers at the Lieber institute for Brain Development in Baltimore have dis-covered an amazing way to recycle certain cells from human cadavers. It turns out that pockets of cells in the human brain can live for days, or even weeks, inside the body after death. These cells can be isolated from the lin-ings of a cadaver’s brain and reprogrammed into stem cells. Yes, you read that right. We can create stem cells from somebody’s brain after they have passed away. For the layman: a stem cell is a cell that can divide into almost any kind of tissue that you could find in the body. The flexibility of stem cells has created an exciting area of re-search – scientists believe that, in theory, they can cure many degenerative diseases or heal once-permanent injuries (such as spinal cord damage).

If you kept up with who won the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine this year, you would know that Sir John B. Gurdon and Shin-ya Yamanaka were honoured with this presti-gious award for their work with stem cells. Usin Gurdon’s research from 1962 Yamanaka was able to genetically program mature skin cells in mice to become “immature cells”, or stem cells, which he named “induced pluripotent stem cells,” or iPS. Scientists can now use the same techniques that Yamanaka used on mice to harvest iPS from adult nerve, heart and liver

What’s the shortest path between two points? The straight one, of course. But what does straight really mean? Imagine a piece of paper; it has a two-dimensional surface. For a two dimension-al person to move from Point A to Point B, they’d move it a straight line. But if the piece of paper were folded into a U shape, there could be a faster way: off the paper and through the third dimen-sion! This kind of thinking is the basis of “dimensional analogy”, the easiest way of explaining and understanding the theory of the fourth dimension.

The theory of a fourth spatial, Euclide-an dimension (not time, Einstein) has been studied since the eighteenth century. The theory was brought to the public eye by Edwin Abbot’s Flatland, a novel about a square living in the two-dimensional Flat-land visited by a sphere from “spaceland”. However, the theory has been put on the backburner ever since spacetime and spe-cial relativity came along. Dimensional Analogy refers to the act of examining the relationship between the nth and the (n-1)th dimension, and using that to compare the (n+1)th and the nth. It’s necessary because we can’t direct-ly interact with the fourth dimension, just like a two-dimensional person couldn’t with the third. Dimensional Analogy has led to some interesting conclusions about the nature of four dimensional space:

-As a 3-D object casts a 2-D shadow, a 4-D object casts a 3-D shadow -A 4-D creature could see all sides (and the inside) of a 3-D object simultane ously. -As a 3-D shape is bounded by 2-D planes, a 4-D “hypershape” is bounded by 3-D planes. A hypercube is com posed of 6 cubes folded together. -As the 3-D universe is composed of an infinite number of 2-D planes, the 4-D universe is composed of an infinite number of 3-D planes.

Courtesy of spikednation.com

Our entire existence could just be one slice of a greater universe! Don’t go contemplating this stuff too hard. You might end up locking yourself in your room, trapped in existentialist mop-ing for the rest of your life. That junk is for the Arts and Humanities newspaper to cover, not us!

cells. The discovery of pockets of living cells found in the brains of cadavers has led to suc-cessful growth of iPS in 146 human brain do-nors. Cells from cadavers could start a new generation of stem cell therapies, as they can yield tissues for study that researchers could not safely remove from living people. The team at the Lieber institute is hoping to use these findings to “fix” neuropsychiatric disorders like schizophrenia, autism, and mental retardation. DAMN, science is cool.

The theory of a fourth spatial dimension has been

studied since the eighteenth century.

”“

Immaturity was never so much a desired quality.

Page 2 The Current— December 2012

Current Staff Current ContributorsKelsey Watson, Jess Uzonyi, Urvashi Vyas, Mitchell Thom,

Make like an acid and contribute to our base:thecurrent@westernssc.ca

LIFE NOT AS WE KNOW ITOur planet is home to many awe-inspiring organisms. If you’re fascinated with life on Earth, but don’t want to get out of your chair to explore the world, here is a glimpse of a

few bizarre, exotic, or unconventional creatures your lazy eyes might have otherwise never seen.

In the depths of the ocean where sunlight does not penetrate it is difficult to imagine any form of life would take up residence. It is this dark corner of the world however where the vampire squid looms. With large red eyes and a cape-like coat of tentacles it is clear how the squid got its name. But despite its frightening appearance, the vampire squid is quite harmless. It has de-veloped many unique tactics to avoid rather than attack its predators. The most sophisticated avoidance tactic of the squid is the development of photo-phore organs that completely cover its body. These organs contain bioluminescent chemi-cals and are used to create a “sparkling” dis-

VAMPIRE SQUID MIMIC OCTOPUSplay of light to confuse and intimidate preda-tors. The vampire squid is the last surviving creature of its order the Vampyromorphida. The survival of the species in an environment with low oxygen and limited food resources has been attributed to the extremely low meta-bolic rate of the squid. So this creature eats very little, sparkles, and has deep red eyes; it sounds just like Stephanie Meyer’s idea of a vampire to me!

—Kelsey Watson

Considered one of the most intelligent inver-tebrates, the mimic octopus (Thaumoctopus mimicus) goes beyond the standard environ-mental camouflage exhibited by other species of octopuses. It is known to imitate the appear-ance of at least 15 creatures! When under threat from a damselfish, it mimics the fish’s predator, the poisonous banded sea snake. It does so by adjusting mus-cle tension to expand or contract chromato-phore organs, making itself yellow and black. Simultaneously, it retreats to the ocean floor, buries six of its arms, and moves the two free arms in opposite directions to adopt a snake-like conformation.

Mildly Amusing Fact: “Octopuses” is the most correct plural form of octopus. “Octopodes” is rarely used, but still correct. “Octopi” is debat-able, as it was formed based on the incorrect belief that “octopus” is derived from Latin, in-stead of Greek.

—Jess Uzonyi

Portia spiders, also known as “jumping spi-ders”, use a plethora of hunting tactics which involve intelligent sophistication rarely ob-served in such small mammals. They are ara-neophagic which means they feed only on other spiders. One of their hunting tactics includes vi-brating other spiders webs (sometimes for up to 3 days) to mimic captured prey or male courtship, then taking long detours to avoid visual contact and finally dropping from above to kill their prey. Portia spiders have exceptional recognition skills which help it identify its prey and alter their hunting strat-

PORTIA SPIDERegy. For example, against spitting spiders they only attack from the rear, however if the spitting spider is carrying eggs it is therefore vulnerable and the Portia spider takes advan-tage of this by attacking it directly. Labora-tory studies have shown that Portia spiders possess problem solving skills that help them create new strategies to capture prey that neither they nor their ancestors would have encountered in the wild. Although I am not normally afraid of spiders, I am afraid of this one so thankfully they are not found in North America! —Rajiv Lakhani

CAMELCamels, an amazing beast of the Middle East, live and thrive in some of the most desolate places of our planet. They bear the distinctive feature of hav-ing a hump on their backs. These humps were once thought to store water, however, are actually fatty deposits that allow them to survive in hot temperatures by minimizing heat-trapping insulation. The kidneys and intestines of camels are very efficient at retaining water. Most camels are domesticated today and serve to provide milk, heat and hair for textiles. Camels are working animals and can go

long periods without water. It is the only mam-mal to have oval shaped red blood cells to al-low them to flow when they are dehydrated rather than clumping, as our blood cells do. Camels can also kick in all four directions, so be sure not to make them angry!

—Urvashi Vyas

Courtesy of nationalgeorgraphic.com

Courtesy of nationalgeographic.com Courtesy of wired.com

Courtesy of allamazingfacts.com Courtesy of outdoorphoto.co.za

Steven Robillard — Editor-In-ChiefDaniel Tovbis — Creative Editor

Jameera Mohamed — Compilation Editor Rajiv Lakhani — Compilation Editor

Ivan Urosev — Copy Editor Harmony Hsieh — Features Editor

RuiLin Guo — Features EditorCaitlin Martin-Newnham — Outreach Editor

Mathura Thiyagarajah — Images Editor

After hours of intense research and (il)legitimate speculation, The Current team brings you the latest actually-somewhat-sort-of feasible ways the world could end in 2012.

You know, just in case. You can thank us later.

It has been arguedthat the great French seer and apothecary, Nostradamus pre-dicted the end of the world in 2012 in par-allel with the ending of the Mayan calendar.

Sacre Bleu!

In a world that is in chaos politically, socially and environmentally, how can the human race sustain another 100 years? - Stephen Hawking

”“

Page 4 The Current— December 2012 The Current— December 2012 Page 5

In our quest to surpass previous gen-eration in cleanliness, we seem to have armed our microscopic enemies with an overpowered set of genetics singularly aimed toward our destruction. Overuse of antibiotics in medicine and health-care products, and our heavy-handed interference in agriculture have led to extremely resistant pathogenic bacteria.

Triclosan, an antibacterial and anti-fungal agent, inhibits fatty acid synthesis which leads to the eventual destruction of bacterial cell membrane. Commonly found in anti-bacterial soaps, it is now found in all types of consumer products, including kitchen utensils, toys and socks. Sounds

useful - except the amount of time spent washing hands or handling the products is not even close to the amount of time it takes for triclosan to be effective at elimi-nating the bacteria. Resistance of bac-teria to agents such as triclosan thus fol-lows the same story as that of antibiotics.

Food irradiation, the process of us-ing radiation to induce mutations and subsequently destroy any unwanted or-ganisms on agriculture, also carries some serious implications. Bacterial strains that survive our reckless onslaught are now immune to the very technolo-gies we have created to eliminate them.

Is the new iPhone 5 your current baby? If you’re like most people, it’ll be cradled lovingly until the next new shiny toy comes along - probably half a year down the road. As the world continues to make leaps in technological advances in the midst of international political unrest, the possibility of the intentional misuse of our new-found technology grows.

Biological or chemical weapons have been made and used extensively in his-torical battles - smallpox blankets and catapulted disease-ridden corpses, any-one? More recently, some of the major powers experimented with deadly strains of bacteria during the cold war. Their ef-fectiveness and scale of attack relative to their production scale is so much greater than any other weaponry humans have the capacity of harnessing, even nuclear weapons. So much so, in fact, that as of 2011, over 150 countries have signed the Convention on the Prohibition of the De-velopment, Production and Stockpiling of Bacteriological (Biological) and Toxin Weapons and on their Destruction treaty (wheew, that’s more than a mouthful!).

Since the treaty’s conception in 1975, our ability to manipulate microorganisms and chemical compounds, and the ease at which we do so, has increased exponen-

tially. We have companies that mass-pro-duce genes now. Any terrorist group with a minimal amount of resources and inno-vative minds can wreak havoc on the en-tire Western world, if they were so inclined.

It seems humans like to either go big or go really tiny, when it comes to warfare. Between Earth’s current count of nuclear warheads totalling at almost 20k, and our microtechnology invading not only our everyday lives, but our bod-ies, our cells, our DNA - there’s a lot to be excited about when it comes to our civili-zation growing, but also much to fear for.

At World’s End

It may not be the sudden violent de-mise we picture when we think apoca-lypse, but slowly and surely, humans are marching towards a massive global food crisis. It’s hard to imagine here in Cana-da, where grocery stores overflow with abundance, but there are already severe food shortages worldwide that will only get worse with time.

World poverty, of course, com-pounds the problem, especially in light of dramatically increasing food prices. Cli-mate change also brings altered temper-atures, changed precipitation patterns, and more severe weather events like floods and droughts. Agricultural prac-

tices lead to erosion, soil salinization, aquifer depletion, and desertification. 30-40% of global cropland has already been degraded, and we continue to lose millions of acres a year to desertification, pollution, urban sprawl, and more. Com-bine those factors with a population set to overshoot carrying capacity, reaching over 10 billion by 2050, and we have the recipe for a food-related disaster.

Preventing such a crisis is a tall order – certainly, we will need to reduce un-sustainable agriculture, poverty, popula-tions, emissions causing climate change, and consumption. Maybe genetically modified foods will be the way of the fu-ture (or maybe they’ll bring even more problems), or some revolutionary ag-ricultural technique will ease scarcity.

FOOD CRISIS

PANDEMICS

WAR

Background courtesy of Rafael A. Burgos

NATURAL DISASTERS

The earth is a violent place. Continents collide, lava spews, waves destroy, and the ground can crumble beneath your feet. Natural disasters have always been a part of life, and perhaps, somewhere, is a sleeping giant: a catastrophe of mas-sive proportions that will end life as we know it. Climate change has been linked to shifting weather patterns and an in-crease in the number and severity of nat-ural disasters. Here are some events that doomsayers claim could spell the end:

Supervolcanoes: volcanic eruptions so enormous they can wipe out popula-tions, change landscapes, and alter cli-mate for years after. “Devastation would be complete and incomprehensible”, says American geophysicist Bob Smith. More than a thousand square kilometers

would be obliterated and sulphuric acid and ash would be launched in the atmo-sphere. Scientists estimate that the Earth experiences a supervolcano once around every 50 000 years. The most catastrophic supervolcano in human history was at Toba, Sumatra, some 74 000 years ago, and it plunged earth into a volcanic win-ter. Another one is due. Nobody knows where or when, but Yellowstone (US), Toba (Indonesia), and Taupo (New Zealand) are possibilities.

Megathrust Earthquakes: devastat-ing quakes that form at subduction zones where one plate is forced underneath the other. Since 1900, all earthquakes with magnitudes of 9.0 or more (six total) have been megathrust quakes. The next disas-ter is only a matter of time. Scientists are waiting for “The Big One”, a megathrust earthquake overdue to strike the Cascadia Subduction Zone, which would affect the Pacific Northwest, including BC. Another potential hotspot is between the Philip-phine Sea Plate and the North American Plate near Tokyo.

Megatsunamis: Large ocean waves from 40 m to over 100 m tall caused by impact, volcanoes, or landslides (tsuna-mis caused by earthquakes are smaller). Waves can reach over 20 km inland, and reshape entire coastlines, as seen in the most recent megatsunami with wide-spread impact – 4000 years ago on Re-union Island (near Madagascar). Posssible sources for future megatsunamis are large landslides on volcanic islands (like Re-union, Hawaiian, and Canary islands), or even an unstable rock face in southwest-ern BC.

According to the Mayans, the world is supposed to end in the year 2012. Are you buying that? When’s the last time you even ran into a Mayan?

- Jay Leno

”

“

The magnetic fields and electrical forces......move

along with 20,000,000 am-peres of current at 50,000

volts.

”“

made a contribution to society. And if we can establish this world in-stitute of virology, I think that institute can make significant contributions for human-kind... I really hope that in my lifetime that I can see that kind of institute established. I’m not going to be involved, I just want to make sure that this happens. I don’t care who does it, as long as there is an instituteestablished, then I can sit back and say “praise the lord” something happens.Now the reason that I thought about this, is because over the years, you know 40 years or something ofmy faculty I life, I spent an average of about 2.5 – 3 months every year, in re-lationship to funding. Because allthe professors especially in science, you have to have funding in order to con-tinue your research and that fundingis sole responsibility of the faculty, him or herself. If you don’t have your fund-ing you don’t have your students,if you don’t have students you cannot have any progress. So we are spend-ing so much time and effort to get

funding. Sometimes its totally uncer-tain whether you’re gonna get the mon-ey or not, I mean that’s the struggle.Now if we can alleviate that struggle, and give 100% of scientists’ time to con-centrate on their research, then theprogress will be faster. So what I would like to do is provide an adequate amount of funding, guaranteed for 10years, for each faculty member. So we can renew this contract every 10 years. But we want to put maybe 25 – 30best virologists in one place, so that you have critical mass. And those 30 virologists will hire maybe 10[researchers] each, so that you will have over 300 scientists in one insti-tute, so that you will have critical mass.And then let them do what they want to do, with their free mind..

*Dr. Kang’s responses have been edited due to space restrictions.

For more information on the conservation of Kakapo parrots, visit kakaporecovery.org

The Current— December 2012 Page 7

PHYSICS & CHEMISTRY

The beauty of a geomagnetic stormThe science behind the phenomena known as Aurora Borealis and Aurora Australis

Jameera MohamedCompilation Editor

Meet the New Zealand Kakapo. There’s Alice and Jack and Sirocco. Maestro and Phoenix. Luke. Joe. There are now so few Kakapo in the world that almost every single one is given a name! Once the third most common bird in New Zealand, this critically endangered par-rot is now relegated to only three tiny isolated islands. The Kakapo has overcome nearly insur-mountable odds, having been both hurt and helped by humans in equal measure. The cur-rent official count by the Kakapo Recovery Programme shows only 126 Kakapo alive on earth! Though they’re half a world away, if we care anything about conservation and human responsibility, then the Kakapo’s unique story is one worth knowing. The Kakapo is like no other parrot you’ve ever met. It’s the world’s heaviest parrot at 1.3 to 4 kilograms and it has a number of unique characteristics: it is flightless, nocturnal, sexu-ally dimorphic in size (males are larger), and

ZOOLOGY

A tentative existence

RuiLin GuoFeatures Editor

The story of the world’s strangest parrot

Many people enjoy spending stormy nights cuddled in blankets listening to the pouring rain and thunder, or watching mountains of snow come down outside of their windows. A storm brings about a variety of feelings within people, ranging from fear, to calmness or thrill. But what about a storm that makes you stop in awe? A geomagnetic storm is sure to do just that. The phenomenon is known as the Aurora borealis or Aurora australis (also known as Northern Lights or Southern Lights, respectively).

The Auroras are fascinating light displays that are visible near the magnetic poles in the Arctic and Antarctic. How does this amazing phenomenon arise? It all begins with the sun. The sun’s activity can result in coronal mass ejections (CMEs), a release of charged par-ticles or plasma into space.

The Earth gets immersed in these solar winds and as they bombard our atmosphere, they cause the release of photons. As the par-ticles of the solar winds collide with magneto-spheric particles accelerating along the Earth’s magnetic field lines, they cause ionization of nitrogen atoms and excitation of oxygen and nitrogen atoms.

As the ionized nitrogen atoms reacquire electrons they emit a blue light. If the nitrogen atoms are returning to ground state from ex-citation, it results in the emission of red light. The emission of red light is a much rarer oc-currence to experience. The consequence of oxygen atoms returning to ground state is the emanation of green or brownish-red light. The colour is dependent on the amount of ener-

gy absorbed during excitation. The altitude of these atoms also influence the wavelength of photon emitted, and hence the colour seen.

The Auroras definitely know how to put on a show. They have some pretty smooth dance moves to go along with the light show.

The magnetic fields and electrical forces interact with each other in constantly shifting combinations and as they move along with 20,000,000 amperes of current at 50,000 volts, they Auroras create a dance smoother than a waltz.

Who knew all those magnetic fields we

learned about in physics and those atoms in chemistry could be so cool? If you’re looking to take a vacation and experience the smooth moves and light spectacle check out these places where you can see the Auroras at their brightest: Tromsø, Norway; Yellowknife, Canada; Fairbanks, Alaska, United States; Kangerlussuaq, Greenland; Southern tip of South America, Aus-tralia, New Zealand and South Africa.

They only peak once every 11 years, and the next one in 2013 so I’d be sure to book my ticket soon.

INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT THE AURORAS:

1) The name “Aurora Borealis” is credited to Galileo Galilei (1616) and means ‘north-

ern dawn.’

2) The Aurora Borealis is named after the Roman goddess of the dawn, Aurora, and Boreas, the Greek name for north wind.

3) Yellowknife (Northwest Territories, Canada) is the capital for Aurora tourism.

4)The height of the displays can occur up to 1000 km (620 miles), although most are

between 80-120 km.

5) Some Inuit peoples believed that the auroras were the spirits of animals that

they hunted.

6) The lights also produce a strange sound for those close enough to hear,

which has been described as similar to the sound of applause.

7) It is possible to forecast the aurora activ-ity within three days accuracy as NOAA

polar satellites monitor the aurora activity and solar storms on the sun.

8) The best chance you have is to visit the latitudes in the Arctic Circle from 68 to 74

degrees

Courtesy of ivebeenthere.co.uk

entirely herbivorous. Also known as the Owl Parrot, the Kakapo’s name comes from the native Maori term kākāpō for ‘night parrot’ and its scientific name Strigops habroptilus also refers to owl-like characteris-tics of facial disks, soft feathers, and nocturnal behaviour. Kakapos are excellent climbers and walkers, but their main defense is camouflage, as their mottled greenish-yellow plumage blends in extraordinarily well with their forest habitat. Kakapo feed on various grasses, herbs, and leaves, and breed every two to five years, corre-sponding with the super crops of native fruiting trees. Kakapo are also unique for their polygy-nous breeding system, where males gather at special sites known as leks and perform mating “boom” calls to attract females. The Kakapo has not fared well in its en-counters with humans. Their history with hu-man contact goes back to Maori tribes from Polynesia, who settled on New Zealand’s islands over 1200 years ago. Kakapos were hunted as a major Maori food source, eaten by domestic or feral dogs, and killed for their skins. Their forest and scrubland habitat was also degraded with intentional burnings to clear land. By the time of European settlement in the 1800’s, the Kakapo was already extirpated on eastern South Island and reduced to isolated lo-cal populations elsewhere. With the Europeans came land clearance, loss of food sources due to farming, hunting for food, and collection for museums and zoos. Introduced predators such as stoats, rats, pos-

sums, cats, and dogs took the greatest toll. A distinctive scent, loud breeding displays, nests on the ground, and flightnessless, all con-tribute to making the Kakapos extremely vul-nerable to mammals that hunt using smell. The severe decline in Kakapo population reached an all-time low in 1994, when only 47 individuals remained in existence! Populations have been slow to recover. There is still hope for the fascinating Ka-kapo, however. Their future will be a lesson in conservation management, and the model for the success or failure of humans taking action to protect endangered species. The Kakapo Re-covery Programme, which began in 1989, has shown many intensive management solutions including relocating birds to better habitats, radio-tagging every bird, eliminating predatory mammals, heating nests, and giving supple-mentary feedings to improve breeding. The global Kakapo population has been moved to relatively predator-free Anchor, Little Barrier, and Codfish islands, and there is cur-rently a project to restore Secretary Island and Restoration Island for Kakapo use. These weird parrots are teetering on the brink of extinction, but with conservation ef-forts a success story is entirely possible. Only time will tell which fate befalls the curious Ka-kapo.

Courtesy of glen.co.nz

Facts compiled using various sources, including

the Library of Congress database.

The so-called ‘Owl Parrot’ has seen its exis-tence threated due to human activity.

Don’t forget to check out

westernssc.caall of our issues online at

Page 6 The Current—December 2012

THIS MONTH IN SCIENCE HIST RY

2.29 million B.C: First evidence of tool use by hominidae

110 - 168 AD: Claudius Ptomely theorizesthat the Earth is the center of the universe

1642: Sir Issac Newton is born

2011: The gods of genetics arecruel, blessing Snooki with a functioning uterus

December 2nd 1984THE BHOPAL DISASTER

Union Carbide, a multi-national chemi-cal company with a factory located in the heart of Bhopal, India, were the recipients of thousands of class action lawsuits and per-sonal grievance claims after over 30 tonnes of methyl isocyanate were released into the surrounding residential districts of the city. The mixing of the gas with water produced a runaway reaction which allowed the gas to escape the storage tanks by way of an emer-gency venting procedure utilized by the fac-torie’s safety systems. Methyl isocyanate has a greater den-sity than the surrounding air, facilitating a low-lying noxious cloud of what is essen-tially poison having an extreme effect upon shorter individuals in the population, such as children and small animals.

The official immediate death toll after the gas release numbered greater than 2,250 people, however casualties rose exponentially over the next few weeks due to the slow-act-ing effects of methyl isocyanate upon human physiology, such as the stimulation of bronchi-al edema and pneumonia. Methyl isocyanate also has the tendency to produce circulatory hemorrhages, contributing to the increase in the death toll to over 20,000 in the subsequent months after the disaster. Union Carbide claimed negligence of their employees to a situation deemed critical, but is still infamous within the Indian commu-nity and the rest of the world as the shining ex-ample of what can go wrong with mass chemi-cal storage and production.

December 24th 1818 FAMOUS BIRTHDAYS: JAMES PRESCOTT JOULE A brewer by trade and physicist by both inter-est and reputation, James Prescott Joule was the proprietor of the study of the nature of heat and its mechanical elements. Born to a wealthy brewer farmer in a house adjoining the family brewery, Joule was educated quickly in the nature of solu-tion chemistry and embraced his heritage, yet showed an uncommon desire for determin-ing the factors behind the heat exchange he observed in the vats his father used to store alcohol. James became the manager of the fam-ily brewery following the passing of his father, and immediately became interested in replac-ing the steam engine utilized by his father to brew the beer with the newly invented elec-tric motor, which would drastically improve

efficiency. This led to his proposal of Joule’s Laws, which concerned the heat produced by an electric current, and resulted in the adoption of the SI unit of the joule, which describes the amount of work done in applying a force of one newton through a distance of one meter. Joule died in 1989 in his hometown of Sale, England after producing many versions of an apparatus for measuring the mechani-cal equivalent of heat and providing innu-merable dissertations and defences for his theories of the relationship between heat and the mechanical elements that constitute it. Happy 194th birthday James.

Courtesy of Julian TrubinThe Bhopal Disaster memorial statue - a weeping mother

...CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

Joule’s apparatus involved the rotation of a paddle submerged in water to determine the mechanical equivalent of heat.

CENTRAL LIBRARY251 Dundas St.Stevenson & Hunt ADROP IN

2 hours free validated parking in Citi Plaza during Library hours.

117-9 pmTUESDAYDECEMBER

2012

THE END OF THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT?

Dr Linda Howie and Dr Pauline Barmby from Western University will discuss astronomical catastrophes, the Mayan calendar and the hype around December 2012. Separate truth from �ction and learn about why you should not blow your savings just yet!

Here and NowScience

Page 8 The Current—December 2012

CONTRIBUTE YOURCOMICS, DRAWINGS OR ART

Send an email to: thecurrent@westernssc.ca

YOU ARETHE MISSING LINK!

?

COMICSUnlike fractals, all great issues come to an end.

Hey kids, here’s a chance for you to work your thinking caps. Which one of these science

facts is false?1)

Alien hand syndrome is neurological disorder in which one of your hands seems to take on a life of its

own.

2)

Nikola Tesla created an “earthquake machine” that almost destroyed New York’s fifth Ave.

3)

Leonardo da Vinci drew up a design document for a tank in the fifteenth century.

4)

84% of matter in the universe is invisible.

5)

Most hamburgers on the market are passed through Ammonia gas to kill accumulated bacteria before

selling.

SKILL IMPROVEMENT IN FIRST YEAR PHYSICS

Note-Taking

Studying

Doodling

Nap Efficiency

FORMALDEHYDE CASUALDEHYDE

IN ASTRONOMY CLASS...

Yooo, man, black holes are the coolest!

Naw dude...

TheySUCK

A: They’re all true. Crazy huh??