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H O R A C E M A N N ’ S P R E M I E R S C I E N C E P U B L I C AT I O N • D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 2

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Spectrum is a student publication. Its contents are the views and work of the students and do not necessarily represent those of the faculty or administration of the Horace Mann School. The Horace Mann School is not responsible for the accuracy and contents of Spectrum, and is not liable for any claims based on the contents or view expressed therein. The opinions represented are those of the writers and do not necessarily represent those of the editorial board. The editorial represents the opinion of the majority of the Editorial Board. All photos not credited are from creativecommons.org. All editorial decisions regarding grammar, content, and layout are made by the Editorial Board. All queries and complaints should be directed to the Editor-In-Chief. Please address these comments by e-mail, to hmspectrum@gmail.com.

Spectrum recognizes an ethical responsibility to correct all its factual errors, large and small (even misspellings of names), promptly and in a prominent reserved space in the magazine. A complaint from any source should be relayed to a responsible editor and will be investigated quickly. If a correction is warranted, it will follow immediately.

Dr. Jeff WeitzFaculty Advisor

Jay PalekarJustin BleuelExecutive Editors

Michael HerschornManaging Editor

Deepti Raghavan Editor-in-Chief

Joanna ChoYang FeiRicardo FernandezJennifer HeonMihka KapoorTeddy ReissAmanda ZhouBrenda ZhouJunior Editors

Jay MoonProduction Director

Dear Readers,A few weeks ago, I sat on the edge of my seat and watched the live-streaming

video of Felix Baumgartner, the Austrian skydiver who made history while breaking the sound of speed in his free fall from the stratosphere. This summer, NASA’s newest rover, Curiosity, finally landed on Mars after the dreaded seven minutes of terror. Voyager 1, a spacecraft that started its journey in 1977, continues to travel farther away from the sun and earth. It may leave the solar system very soon.

Humans continue to reach new heights in space travel. While we made a big leap in our discoveries in space, we lost the first man on the moon, Neil Armstrong. His legacy is strong and continues to inspire people to venture into the world today. In addition to space travel, there have been many recent discoveries in physics, including the discovery of the Higgs Boson.

When we decided on a theme for the issue, we wanted to incorporate all of the exciting discoveries from the summer. The articles in this issue focus on all the topics I have just mentioned, along with many more within space and physics. We enjoyed putting together this first issue, and we hope that you learn something new about physics or space travel from these articles! Our staff and our writers have a passion for science, and we hope to share that passion with you.

Research, for these large-scale projects, always begins with students who are curious about the world around them. We, from this issue on, will have a section on the science research that Horace Mann students have been undertaking through the year and over the summer. We hope that you read these articles and are inspired to investigate something on your own. The world around us is waiting to be discovered, and it is our job to find out more about it and make it a better place.

Deepti RaghavanEditor in Chief

NOTE from the EDITOR

Juliet ZouBusiness Manager

David ZaskNews Editor

James ApfelSenior Columnist

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PHYSICSSECTION 1 • PAGE 5

Schrodinger’s Catby Ethan Gelfer

Quantum Entanglementby Jason Ginsberg

ISS Alpha Spectrometerby Dorothy Quincy

Higgs Bosonby Aditya Ram

NASA’s Warp Driveby Josh Siegel

Post Selection in Quantum Mechanicsby Lauren Futter

Radiationby Kundan Guha

Wormholes & Time Travelby Eliza Christman-Cohen

SPACESECTION 2 • PAGE 14

Curiosityby Cassandra Kopans-Johnson

Voyager 1 is Leaving the Solar Systemby Stanley Zhang

Timeline of the Mars Roversby Jeffrey Weiner

History of the Voyagers 1 and 2by Ajay Shyam

The Death of Earthby Lauren Hooda

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Neil Armstrongby Samantha Stern

Space Tourismby Jenna Karp

Black Holesby Rebecca Okin

Is Pluto a Planet?by Grant Ackerman

Expansion of the Universeby Sonia Sehra

RESEARCHSECTION 3 • PAGE 28

Stem Cell Researchby Brenda Zhou

Research by a Dartmouth Professorby Daniel Yahalomi

Chiara Heintz: Summer Researchby Chiara Heintz

Sci-fi & Doctor Whoby Jay Moon & Deepti Raghavan

Our Mission: To encourage students to find topics in science that interest them and move them to explore these sparks. We believe that science is exciting, interesting and an intergral part of our futures. By diving into

science we can only come out more knolwedgable.

COLUMNSSECTION 4 • PAGE 32

Senior Column: Quantum Computingby James Apfel

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Here, two protons have collided, creating two high energy photons, the red bars. This pictures the decay of a Higgs Boson Particle.

This summer on July 4th, a long-awaited announce-ment blasted through the scientific world carrying news that the “Higgs Boson” was found in the CERN laboratory in Geneva. Now, such an esoteric term can hardly mean anything to someone unfamiliar with the crucial place the Higgs Boson holds in physics. The Standard Model, otherwise informally coined as the “theory of almost ev-erything,” outlines theorized principles governing weak, strong and electromagnetic nuclear reactions. It relies on the Higgs boson to explain why elementary particles have mass. The Standard Model can be compared to a recipe in which all particles are ingredients. Alone, how-ever, this recipe does not explain why elementary parti-cles have mass. So, how do par-ticles have mass? The answer is the Higgs Field. If the Higgs Field is introduced into the recipe, then the resulting particles act as though they have mass. Before this summer, the existence of such a particle remained in question, howev-er, and now the discovery has verified some of the most critical theories in science.

The Higgs boson is associated with the omnipresent Higgs field, a quantum field which gives mass to elemen-tary particles. The interactions in the Higgs field parallels those in the electromagnetic quantum field. There, oscil-lations are dubbed quantums, while here they are labeled Higgs bosons. The Higgs mechanism, introduced by Peter Higgs in 1964, assigns particles mass, and is considered the “origin” of mass. However, it is impossible that the mass is whipped out of no where. This is where the Higgs field comes into play. Mass is transferred from the Higgs Boson in the Higgs field. The Higgs particle is itself a mas-sive (with mass) elementary particle.

The Higgs Boson was theorized and modeled in 1964 by three teams of physicists: François Englert and Robert Brout in August, Peter Higgs, The Boson’s namesake, in October, and Gerald Guralnik, C. R. Hagen and Tom Kibble in November. The Higgs boson is extremely unstable decaying almost immediately after creation. This coupled with its large mass means it can only be observed by a high energy particle accelerator.

Active efforts to study the elusive particle only began in 2010 at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, using the Large Hadron Collider in Geneva. CERN is the largest particle accelerator in the world to date. It was created to allow particle physicists to test

theories about the existence of hypothetical particles like the Higgs Boson. The Hadron Collider is the only particle accelerator capable of conclusively proving the exis-tence of the Higgs Boson due to the machine’s massive size. Finally, the tremendous efforts payed off when a new particle with a mass of approximately 125 to 127 GeV and properties mirroring those of the theorized Higgs Boson was found.

As stated before, this elusive boson is an excitation of the Higgs Field, and it is therefore very hard to detect. So, why do physicists not simply attempt to detect the Higgs Field and work from there? The Higgs Field is virtually inseparable from the weak nuclear force (and radioactive decay). Thus it is extremely difficult to detect.

The Higgs boson could be the finishing touch to the Standard Model, but it is possible that the boson will be the link that allows the Standard Model to finally encap-sulate things such as gravity and dark matter. If the boson turns out to be the gateway beyond known physics, then humanity will have a lot more work ahead to understand the workings of the universe.

THE

HIGGS BOSONby Aditya Ram

CERN, as printed in Popular Science

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Quantum Entanglement by Jason Ginsberg

Jon Heras, Equinox Graphics Ltd, as Printed in Popular Science

Einstein did not believe the idea that it is possible to change the state of an object from a distance, an idea belonging more to the world of comic book superhe-roes rather than physics. But years of work have shown that the phenomenon of quantum entanglement can transcend the bounds of space-time by breaking the principle of locality. Locality states that to affect an object while not in direct contact, one must pass or send something over the gap between one’s self and the object. For example, if one wants to kick a soccer ball, he or she has to get near it and send his or her foot over the remaining gap until contact with the ball. One cannot simply kick the ball without touching it. Quantum phys-ics begs to differ.

The history of quantum entanglement truly begins with Erwin Schrödinger. Schrödinger tried to understand how Louis de Broglie’s electron, defined as behaving as both a particle and a wave, changed over time. What Schrödinger and Max Born discovered was that the atom was a “fuzzy” cloud where electrons existed probably in certain places, not in actual locations. Another scientist, Werner Heisenberg, would later add that in such an atom the more one knows about a property of the electron, the less one could know about any other. Basically, this meant that once one makes a measurement on an elec-tron, no other accurate measurements can be made as one has changed the electron just by looking at it. This became known as the uncertainty principle.

Einstein, however, did not accept this; how could an electron exist without a concrete value and how could it be all probabilities at the same time? So, Einstein, with two of his friends, Podolsky and Rosen, joined together to write the EPR paradox, aiming to disprove the prob-ability nature of quantum physics. One of their main arguments against Heisenberg and Born’s model was a theoretical example. If two particles shoot off each other in opposite directions in a mirror image, according to Newton’s laws of motion, their momentums should be the same. If one were to measure the momentum of

one particle he or she would automatically know the momentum of the other. This would refute Heisenberg’s uncertainty, as he or she would know a property of the second particle before it had been measured. The only way that the fate of quantum physics could survive was if the principle of locality was broken. For years, this as-sertion caused scientists to abandon the crazy quantum world, until, in 1964, John Bell came up with a thought experiment. The experiment created a situation where two mirrored particles would be measured by two dif-ferent detectors for a particular property. Depending on the results the detectors gave, one would be able to tell if the locality was broken or not. Eventually, a scientist by the name of Alain Aspect would test Bell’s experiment and confirm quantum physics, as well as deny that locali-ty is always true.

Quantum Entanglement is the culmination of a cen-turies worth of thought into the bizarre world of quan-tum physics. With Quantum Entanglement, it is possible to change a particle light years away without having to traverse any of the space between yourself and the particle. This has lead to recent research into quantum teleportation. Currently, scientists, according to Science Daily, have been able to teleport particles 143 km, by having particle A become entangled with particle B. Scientists introduce a particle C which A copies. Imme-diately, particle B becomes a replica of particle A and C. Quantum communication could potentially exist in which entangled particles may be used to pass informa-tion faster than the speed of light.

Anto Zeilinger et al/via arXiv, as Printed in Popular Science

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From 1999 to 2010, hundreds of scientists from 56 institutions across 16 countries joined forces to construct a revolutionary piece of equipment that is currently ex-ploring our universe. The Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, or the AMS-02, was launched into space from Kennedy Space Center in May of 2011. Nobel laureate, Dr. Samuel Ting first proposed the project in 1995, and the United States Department of Energy sponsored the program for $1.5 billion. According to NASA, it is a module attached to the International Space Station (ISS) with the inten-tion of discovering the whereabouts of antimatter and dark matter through data collection of cosmic rays and their measurements. A large magnet within the structure measures the individual charges of passing particles and records the data. The information gathered from the AMS-02 can further our understanding of our universe’s genesis and development.

The most accepted theory for the creation of the universe is that the universe came into existence by rapidly expanding from an extremely hot and dense state, a model known as the Big Bang theory. According to the theory, 13.75 billion years ago, when the universe was just beginning, there was a balance in the quanti-ties of antimatter and matter. Matter is anything that takes up volume and has mass. It is made up of atoms, which are composed of charged particles called quarks. Antimatter is any material that consists of antiparticles. Like matter particles, antiparticles have mass, but have opposite charges. Essentially, antimatter is a mirror image of matter. Today, we are unable to find antimatter anywhere in our universe in large quantities. The capture of large amounts of antimatter is crucial to reinforce the

acceptance of the Big Bang theory and to further human knowledge of the universe’s evolution.

AMS-02 searches for dark material within the uni-verse. According to Dr. Samuel Ting, a current project investigator for NASA, scientists estimate that 95% of the universe is made up of either dark energy (72%) or dark matter (23%). Dark material does not emit nor absorb any electromagnetic radiation, so the only proof of its existence is the gravitational effect the matter and energy have on visible matter. Neutralinos, a probable constituent particle of dark matter, can be detected by the AMS-02 if they collide. The AMS-02 may also be able to discover traces of strangelet particles, which are com-posed of 3 types of quarks, up, down and strange. Matter on earth is only composed of 2 types, up and down.

Measurement of cosmic rays by the most sophisticat-ed particle physics module ever created is not only filling in gaps in human’s understanding of space but is also es-sential for future interplanetary travel involving humans. According to the AMS Experiment Website, Galactic Cosmic Rays pose an obstruction to sending humans to other planets, and correct calculations to counter the fluxes of the rays are necessary to create a safe environ-ment for human travel in space ships.

The AMS can search for new phenomena in nature, for the unknown, according to Dr. Ting. The spectrometer has been referred to as the Hubble Telescope of Cosmic Rays.

ALPHASPECTROMETERby Dorothy Quincy

AD Astra, as printed in Popular Science

This pictures the ion propulsion in the alpha spectromter.

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by Mihika Kapoor

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One of the most mind bending theories of quantum mechanics, unproven, and, in fact, requiring a redefini-tion of microphysics as we know it, like all good theories, begins with a cat.

According to minutephysics, one way of understand-ing Schrodinger’s Cat begins with visiting an Army base somewhere around the world. There is an empty bunker, completely sealed from the outside, with the exception of one small hatch on the top. Being theoretical physicists, we do the obvious thing. We go inside, and place a cat in the bunker, along with a barrel of highly volatile gun-powder that has a 50% chance of exploding in the next minute. Leaving the cat with the gunpowder inside the bunker, we leave, closing the bunker hatch behind us. For a minute, we all sit in suspense. Is it alive? Is it dead?

We know that the cat has to be dead or alive when we open the bunker, but not both. The quantum mechani-cal interpretation of this is that, before we look, the cat is in a superposition. That is to say, it is both dead, and alive. What’s more, if we look at the cat’s perspective, we actually have these two possibilities. Either the gunpow-der explodes and the cat sees it explode, or the gunpow-der doesn’t explode and the cat doesn’t see it explode. Therefore, the reality of the cat becomes mixed up with the outcome of the decision. Our act of looking causes a decision. The cat either lives, and we see it alive, or the cat dies, and we see it dead. Our reality now depends on the outcome of the experiment as well! Could there be a big-ger force watching us, or could two actions both happen in parallel within a larger multiverse?

Schrödinger’s cat experiment is one of the most fa-mous and mind bending thought projects in physics. This question touches on a lot of major subjects of quantum theory: the multiverse, quantum tunneling, the probabi-listic nature of quantum mechanics, and more.

This experiment concerns the question of alternate reality. Since before we open the bunker, before the cat sees anything, and we see anything. Whoever is watching us sees anything, the cat is both dead and alive. Does this mean that once we forced a decision, we actually force the universe to split into two parallel universes?

Another topic this thought project covers is quantum tunneling. Quantum tunneling is a phenomenon that allows for the existence of objects where they shouldn’t be. For example, if we roll a ball down the hill, using only the force of gravity, we know that it cannot come back up the other side any higher than the height from which we dropped it. If there is a slope that the ball could possibly roll down on the other side, through the quantum me-chanical interpretation, there is a chance that the ball will be there. This is because quantum mechanics is probabi-listic; the greatest chance is that the ball will still be in the valley after you drop it. It is possible, though very unlike-ly, that the ball is on the other side of the hill. Schroding-er’s Cat is one of the most famous thought experiments that continues to spawn new theories.

More sources on quantum mechanics and string theory in-clude “The Elegant Universe” or “The Fabric of the Cosmos” both by Brian Greene, or the channel “minutephysics” on YouTube.

SCHRODINGER’SCAT

by Ethan Gelfer

Christian Schirm, Wikimedia Commons

In a world with many universes, each event or decision splits into two; the cat could either be dead or alive.

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Nowadays you hear a lot of talk in the news about this thing called “radiation.” Due to the way it is portrayed in the media, people are only exposed to a vague idea about radiation and don’t actually know what it is. Ra-diation is defined as any energetic particle or wave that travels through either a vacuum or any other material that the particle or wave is not required to travel through. Therefore, sound would not be considered radiation be-cause it requires a material to travel through, while light would be considered radiation.

There are two types of radiation, ionizing and non-ion-izing. Particles are considered to contain ionizing radia-tion when they have enough energy to strip an electron away from an atom without raising the temperature to ionization temperatures. This is also why ionizing radia-tion is so dangerous, but we’ll get to that later. First let’s see what types of ionizing radiation exist. Alpha radiation, or α-radiation, is composed of fast moving helium atoms releasing alpha decay. Then there is β-radiation, or beta radiation, made up of fast moving charged particles, spe-cifically electrons in β- decay and positrons in β+ decay. Finally there is γ-radiation, or gamma radiation, which is comprised of photons within the upper limits of ultravi-olet light, x-rays, and gamma rays. Gamma rays are the strongest and most dangerous type of ionizing radiation due to their high energy and penetration ability.

Radiation can be damaging when a body cell is ex-posed to some type of radiation since there is a chance the radiation will hit a critical target, usually the cell’s DNA, and ionize an atom within it. This ionization of an atom within DNA leads to a chain of damage within the DNA and eventually leads to biological side effects. This process is called direct action. Direct action is the domi-nant form of damage for particles with high linear energy transfer (LET) such as α-particles due to their size. How-ever, that is not the only way radiation can affect a body cell. There is another process, known as indirect action, caused directly by x and γ-rays. Indirect action occurs when radiation hits another atom within the cell, typically water, and creates a free radical, an element or molecule that has an unpaired electron. The created free radicals can then diffuse into the nucleus damaging the DNA. It is estimated that about two thirds of the damage done by x-rays is through OH- radicals.

When the DNA of a cell is damaged, many biological side effects can occur. If the damage is severe enough,

the cell will kill itself upon reaching mitosis, apoptosis. The exception to this is when the radiation knocks out a tumor suppressor gene, in which case cancer can develop within a time span of 40 years. Moreover, if a sex cell was damaged by the radiation then it will take several genera-tions before the mutation will be expressed. These are all the effects of radiation on an individual cell, but radiation generally doesn’t just affect one cell, rather many if not the entire body.

The gray (gy) is the unit used to determine the expo-sure of ionization radiation, specifically the absorption of one joule of energy per kilogram. The human body dies after roughly 4 gy of radiation from a syndrome known as radiation poisoning. After 4 gy the lymphatic system is destroyed as is a large portion of the blood cells. Indi-vidual organs, however, can take much higher doses of radiation and it is due to this that different symptoms of radiation poisoning are based on different exposures of radiation.

Rebecca Boyle, as printed inPopular Science

R A D I A T I O N by Kundan Guha

Doctors are regularly exposed to radia-tion, like when taking a chest x-ray.

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People have been fantasizing about how time travel could change society and physics for centuries. For ex-ample, shows like Doctor Who and Star Trek portray time travel as the Metro-North of the future. Unfortunately, sometimes the naysayers like to inject a bit of cynicism into the conversation. “Time travel could never work,” they cry, “just think of the Grandfather paradox!” Being the inquisitive sci-fi fan you are, you most likely respond, “What’s the Grandfather paradox?” The theoretical nay-sayer would respond as such: The grandfather paradox is when you go back in time and kill your grandfather. Therefore, one of your parents would never have been born, and neither would you. So, because you never lived, there was no one to kill your ancestor in the first place. Eventually, this creates a cycle: your grandfather lives, you kill him, you never live, granddad’s alive again, but wait… now you’re alive again! Who’s alive, who’s dead, are we both simultaneously alive and dead in this thought ex-periment? After several minutes of staring into space with a crippling headache trying to decipher this paradox, you most likely decide to abandon all hopes of meeting your ancestors. While the Grandfather Paradox is a legitimate concern, there are a couple of theories that can allow you to resume your travel plans.

The first theory, proposed by Seth Lloyd from MIT, is called post-selection. Lloyd argues that if you were to travel back in time, you would not be able to kill your ancestor. Little events that occur would inhibit you from changing history, such as a misfiring or not being able to find your ancestor. On a larger scale, in addition to solving the Grandfather Paradox, post-selection applies to all of time travel. Someone from the future begins with the ability to do anything, but by tracing the action to the reaction, the time traveler becomes circumscribed and is “post-selected.”

While Lloyd’s theory is new and controversial, other physicists argue that post-selection is not necessary for avoiding a paradox. In the 1980’s Russian physicist Igor

Novikov proposed the self-consistency conjecture, which solves paradoxes associated with time travel. In Novikov’s proposal, he suggests that there is only one timeline, and that timeline is the one we inhabit. For example, if there were time travelers on the Titanic, we know they did not get a chance to save the Titanic because in the version of the story we know now, the Titanic sunk.

If two theories were not enough, Hugh Everett III, a deceased physicist, came up with the idea of parallel universes in 1954. Everett theorized that every time a de-cision is made, parallel universes are created that branch off like a tree. So, if you ruminate on whether to recycle a water bottle or throw it away, you are not just making a thoughtless decision, you are splitting worlds. Theoret-ically, we will say that your school’s environmental club later chastises you for throwing out your water bottle instead of recycling. They force you into a time machine, and make you recycle the water bottle. Based on the Grandfather Paradox, your recycling of the water bottle should have created a paradox in which, had you recycled the water bottle, the environmental club would have no reason to toss you in the time machine. In Everett’s model, your going back in time would cause you to go to a parallel universe in which you recycle the water bottle without causing the paradox.

When Rene Barjavel first proposed the Grandfather Paradox in his book La Voyageur Imprudent, he probably did not imagine that it would spawn so many theories and hypotheses. Luckily, people are always thinking of new possibilities for the theoretical world of time travel so that, if this fantasy becomes a reality, we will know all the likelihoods.

The Final Twist

POST-SELEC TION INQUANTUM MECHANICS by Lauren Futter

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Science fiction writers and readers have been preoccu-pied with time travel for more than a century. Books such as H.G Wells’ The Time Machine have sparked people’s interest in going forward and backward in time while movies including “Back to the Future” have explored the possibility of people leaving changing the past.

These readers and moviegoers, although keenly interested in time travel, recognize that there is, as yet, no practical way to go forward or backward in time. However, scientists now believe that the fiction of travel-ing through the fourth dimension of time may one day become reality by bridging the gap between past and present through wormholes.

Albert Einstein and one of his colleagues, Nathan Rosen, first provided the theoretical framework for wormholes in 1935. Applying Einstein’s principles of rel-ativity, they concluded that it could be possible to create a “shortcut” in space by traversing a wormhole, going from one end of the galaxy to the other at rapid speed. Although wormholes are microscopic in size and exist for only the brief periods of time, scientists now surmise that if they could be expanded through anti-gravitation-al negative energy, the holes could provide a bridge for travelers from one point in space to another, covering

vast distances in relatively short periods of time.

Furthermore, wormholes may enable time travel to be possible. According to General Relativity, time is directly related to gravity. On earth, where the gravitation-al force is strong, time runs slower than in space, where there is little or no gravity. Thus if a wormhole could be expanded and used for such purposes, the returning space traveler for whom time has moved slowly could return to earth in the future.

Sadly, even the most renowned pro-ponents of time travel, such as physicist Stephen Hawking, acknowledge that the technology to achieve both the creation of wormholes of sufficient size and the means

to travel through them at speeds close to the speed of light is far beyond the capability of 21st century science. However, the theory stating that time travel may be possible is no longer mere science fiction; it is now rooted in existing principles of science. Given our centuries-old fascination with time travel, it is a good bet that scientists will continue to search for ways to accomplish such a means of time travel.

Allen McC, Wikimedia Commons

TIME TRAVEL: FROM FICTION TO FACT?By Eliza Christman-Cohen

NASA: Artist’s rendition of a wormhole with a spacecraft travelling through. it

Schwarzschild Wormhole: These wormholes exist as an-swers to some of Einstein’s equations when wormholes are calculated mathematically.

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Whether you are a so-called “Trekkie,” a Star Wars fan, or anything else in between, you will be happy to know that a future with a warp drive may not be so far away. A Warp Drive is a hypothetical faster-than-light (FTL) pro-pulsion spacecraft system that has been part of Science Fiction lore for decades. In contrast to other fictional FTL technologies such as a “jump drive” or the Infinite Im-probability Drive, the warp drive does not permit instan-taneous travel between two points; instead, warp drive technology creates an artificial “bubble” of normal space-time that surrounds the spacecraft.

Dr Harold White, the Advanced Propulsion Theme Leader for the NASA Engineering Directorat claims that “perhaps a Star Trek experience within our lifetime is not such a remote possibility.” Dr White and his team of researchers not only believe that a kind of warp drive is theoretically possible but have also already started mak-ing one.

Why can we not just move across space using conven-tional space travel? With our current propulsion system, interstellar travel is impossible. Even with experimental technology, such as ion thrusters or nuclear pulse propul-sion, such an attempt would require staggering amounts of fuel and mass to get to any nearby star. Moreover, a trip would take centuries. Astronauts would pass away before completing the mission.

The answer to finding new ways to navigate the time/space continuum lies not in breaking the laws of physics but in finding a way to use the continuum to our advan-tage. Dr. White and other physicists have found loopholes in some mathematical equations—loopholes that indi-cate that warping the space-time fabric is indeed pos-sible. Using an instrument called the White-Juday Warp Field Interferometer, White’s team continues to search for proof of these loopholes. They do this by, “generat[ing]

and detect[ing] microscopic instance[s] of little warp bubble[s.]” Such research is crucial to the possibility of interstellar flight.

If White’s team can successfully create a warp bubble, the spaceship’s engine would theoretically compress the space ahead and expand the space behind. As a result, the craft would have to be transported without tradi-tional physical movement. The ship itself would float in a “bubble” of normal space/time and float along the wave of compressed space/time in the same way a surfer rides a breaking wave.

If these experiments are confirmed we will be able to create an engine that could get us to Alpha Centrari, the closest star, in “…two weeks… as measured by clocks here on earth,” according to Dr. White. In contrast, using current experimental space technology such as Nuclear Pulse Propulsion, Gravitational Assist, and Ionic Drive Propulsion, would take 85, 19 thousand, and 81 thousand years, respectively.

They have encountered some setbacks such as the lack of energy to drive such an engine. In the past, many physicists have argued that energy in the form of exotic matter the size of Jupiter would be required to power the engine. Recently, Dr. White has found a solution that changes the game completely, involving a decreased amount of necessary energy and an optimized warp bubble thickness.

A door is now opening to an exciting new kind of exploration—warp drive— one that may foster the beginning of a new age of space exploration, and finally take humanity from its pale blue home to the distant stars where scientists and poets have always dreamed of going.

Allen McCWikimedia Commons

IsWarp Drive

Real?This is an Alcubierre Drive, which is a model of a possible Warp Drive. Pictured here, space is contracting and expanding around the place where the spacecraft could be. The space-craft can then move with a speed faster than the speed of light through it.

by Josh Siegel

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NASA Goddard Photo and Video

Three…Two…One…Blast off! On November 26, 2011, at 10:02 a.m. EST, Curiosity, NASA’s newest rover, em-barked on an eight-month long journey. Its task is to find life or evidence of past life on Mars. This evidence will contribute to a better understanding for what is neces-sary for life to exist and what to look for in the search for life. Part of the task involves the confirmation of the existence of water on Mars.

The Mars Science Laboratory of NASA’s Mars Explora-tion Program is overseeing the mission. The laboratory uses robotics to investigate Mars and was also respon-sible for the creation of Curiosity. An engineer from the Engineering Development Laboratory in Nasa, Adam Steltzner, said that “[Curiosity] is the result of reason, engineering, thought, but it still looks crazy.” Construct-ed from 500,000 lines of computer code, it incorporates technology from the past and necessitated the invention of new technology. In this way, every space mission is constantly pushing boundaries in the attempt to improve the world technologically. According to NASA, examples of instruments it utilized include three cameras, four

spectrometers, two radiation detectors, one environmen-tal sensor, and one atmospheric sensor. All of these tools work together to gather information about our neighbor-ing planet. They act as Earth’s investigators.

The first step in landing a rocket on another celestial body is launching it. Curiosity used Atlas V-541 rockets that weighed 1.17 million pounds and utilized oxygen and fuel tanks to power the rover into Earth’s orbit. The second phase of launching was the “Centaur”. The cen-taur stage used oxidizer and fuel to launch the rocket into low Earth orbit and than out of the orbit completely. From there, Curiosity journeyed through space until it approached Mars.

After its long journey, the rover entered into another stage of the mission called EDL, which stands for En-try, Descent, and Landing. This part of the mission was nicknamed the “7 minutes of terror” because it took seven minutes for the rover to travel from the top of the Martian atmosphere to the landing site in Gale Crater. However, it takes approximately fourteen minutes for a signal from Mars to reach Earth. As a result, when Earth first received

CURIOSITY: THE SEARCH FOR MARTIAN HISTORY

By Cassandra Kopans-Johnson

NASA

NASA: Mars

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NASA Goddard Photo and Video

NASA

information on the landing, the vehicle had already been alive or dead for seven minutes. During the landing, nobody had direct control or knowledge of the rover’s present state. Curiosity had to go “from 13,000 miles an hour to zero in perfect sequence, perfect choreography, perfect timing and the computer has to do it all by itself with no help from the ground,” according to Tom Rivel-lini, an engineer for Curiosity. If one step went wrong, then the mission was over. During the descent through the atmosphere, a heat shield protected the rover and reached temperatures up to 1,600 degrees Fahrenheit. As Curiosity approached the ground, it released a supersonic parachute, which can withstand 65,000 pounds of force even though it only weighed 100 pounds. The parachute slowed the rover down to 200 mph. The heat shield then detached from the rocket and exposed the lenses. This enabled the rover to survey the landing site in order to make a more precise landing. Then the parachute was released, and small rockets took over, pushing the rover back up and out of the parachute’s way. This diminished the horizontal and vertical velocity. Following that, the rover headed to the bottom of the crater next to a 6 km high mountain. However, the rockets could not come too close to the ground, because they might create a dust cloud, which can potentially harm the rover and its instru-ments. About 20 meters above the surface, a large crane, also known as the sky crane, using steerable engines, lowered the rover to the Martian surface. It used a bri-dle-like cord to make a soft and controlled landing. Unlike previous missions, Curiosity could not employ the air bag method for landing, because it is too big and heavy. At approximately 1:30 am EDT on August 6, 2012, Curiosity arrived successfully at Gale Crater.

Gale Crater is a unique landing site because of the geological history it contains. The crater itself is 90 miles wide and was formed approximately 3.5 to 3.8 billion years ago. The central peak reveals layers of rock that were formed throughout Mars’ planetary evolution. Each layer represents a different geological phase. It provides clues for discovering answers to whether life ever existed or exists on Mars and if there is or was water. In order to answer these questions, Curiosity presently searches for rock and soil samples that required water in their forma-tion. On September 27, NASA disclosed images of con-glomerate rocks, rocks that are formed from water-borne debris, on Mars. This discovery is monumental because it suggests that Mars might have once been capable of

supporting life. The rover is also looking for chemical evi-dence necessary to life such as carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus, hydrogen, and sulfur.

Another goal of Curiosity is to acquire more knowl-edge about Mar’s planetary evolution and past habitats. Geology is a driving science in this process. The rover attempts to fulfill its task by drilling and digging into the crater to examine the chemical composition, structure, and formation of rock and soil samples. This informa-tion will also give us a better idea of how the crust has changed over the years. Martian land and organic mate-rials contain clues to the mysteries of the planet and its past environments.

Scientists also want to characterize Mars’ climate. Cur-rently, the only information we have is that it has a cold and thin atmosphere. The Mars Science Laboratory will be able to precisely determine the atmosphere’s compo-sition, look at stable isotopes and bio signatures such as big changes in the temperature due to life, and measure the levels of elements in the atmosphere and radiation.

In addition, Curiosity’s technology acts as a step-ping-stone towards human space travel to Mars. The development of technology that can land, transport, and support bigger masses can be applied to spacecrafts that carry humans between the two planets.

Curiosity continues on its journey of discovery by examining rocks and soil samples in the depths of Gale crater, advancing technology, and opening up new possi-bilities.

Photo of the Rock “Et-Then” taken by Curiosity on October 29 2012

NASA

16

Timeline of the

Mars Rovers

Mars 3 from 1971NASA, as printed in Popular Science

Viking 1 from 1976NASA, as printed in Popular Science

1971 The USSR launches the first three Rovers into

space: Mars-1, Mars-2, Mars-3

1975 US begins its first attempted landing with the Mars-7, and it ultimately misses the Red Planet

1975 Viking 1 and 2 Rovers are successful, sending images of Mars back to Earth along the first soil

analyses

1988 The USSR send the Phobos 1 and 2

to Mars, and both get lost along the way

1996 Mars 96 rover is lost after Rocket

malfunction

1998 Mars Climate Orbiter collides with Mars due to units errors

1999 Mars Polar Lander & Deep Space 2 in 1999, crashed into Mars due to software problems

1996 Pathfinder moved 500 meters from the lander, transmitting photos and soil analyses

by Jeffrey Weiner

17

Mars Exploration 2004NASA, as printed in Popular Science

Phoenix from 2008NASA, as printed in Popular Science

1998 Mars Climate Orbiter collides with Mars due to units errors

2003 Beagle 2 radio stopped transmitting

2011 the rover Curiosity was sent to Mars to explore whether environment of Mars could have ever

supported the lives of small microbes

2007 Phoenix rover was launched and successfully landed

2016 InSight will be sent to Mars to examine the

Interior of Mars

2003 Spirit and Opportunity rovers both landed successfully

2013 Maven will be launched.

2004 Spirit rover became stuck in soft soil

18

Earlier this summer, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laborato-ry (JPL) in Pasadena, California received evidence from Voyager 1 suggesting the spacecraft was passing through the heliosheath, the last layer of the solar system, so it could soon be the first man-made object to leave the solar system.

Voyager 1, launched on September 5, 1977, recently turned 35 years old. The probe was originally launched to investigate Jupiter and Saturn and carries six instru-ments intended to study magnetic fields, charged parti-cles, plasma, and cosmic rays. Voyager 1 fulfilled its first mission only three years after its launch. However, inter-stellar travel was its next mission . It now studies particles, waves, and fields outside of the influence of the sun’s so-lar winds. The 3.7 meter wide high-gain antenna mount-ed on it still transmits data to the Deep Space Network, a series of large receivers mounted around the world. It also carries the famous “Golden Record,” a 12-inch gold-plat-ed copper phonograph with a sample of the culture and life on earth, in case the craft ever encounters any other forms of intelligent life. Along with its sister craft, the Voy-

ager 2, Voyager 1 has made many important discoveries in the solar system.

The boundary of the solar system, or the heliopause, is defined as the area where the “solar winds,” or charged particles and gases from the sun, are no longer strong enough to counteract the “winds” from other stars and objects in the galaxy. The craft began to detect signifi-cantly more charged particles from outside of the solar system in June 2012, and the amount has slowly been increasing. Now, scientists from the JPL, which has five research teams analyzing the stream of data that Voyager 1 has been sending for the last three and a half decades, believe the probe has nearly reached the heliopause. This means that it will finally be able to collect interstellar data. However, it is impossible to pinpoint exactly where the heliopause truly begins. This makes it hard to guess when Voyager 1 will actually exit the solar system. NASA’s best guess is some time in 2014, ten years after it crossed termination shock, the point where the sun’s solar winds begin to slow. However, the increasing amounts of cos-mic, interstellar radiation will hopefully signify Voyager’s

Voyager is Leaving theSolar System

by Stanley Zhang

PHOTO: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center/CI Lab, as printed in Popular Science

The end of the solar system contains the heliosheath or heliopause. According to popular science, it is full of “magnetic bubbles,” and it is not continouous, but it has breaks and indents.

19

long-awaited departure.Voyager 1 is now approximately 18.27 trillion kilome-

ters, about 122 AU from the sun. Its path is precisely cal-culated to use gravitational “slingshots” to propel itself at a speed of 17 kilometers per second. Complicating mat-ters, the sheer space between the craft and Earth means that it takes almost 17 hours for data to be transmitted.

Unfortunately, leaving the solar system doesn’t put Voyager 1 anywhere even remotely close to another star, let alone another planet. Its plutonium fuel source will only last until around 2025, stopping the probe’s trans-mission of data. Continuing on just momentum, however, will put it within about 14.88 trillion kilometers of a star named AC+79 3888 – in 40,000 years.

The presence of a manmade object outside of our own solar system is an incredible achievement as space exploration has only been around for about half a centu-ry. Even at the beginning of the project, it was anticipat-ed that Voyager 1 would be able to travel much further than the original mission goal, hence the installation of

the Golden Record and massive antenna dish. Voyager will most likely reach deep space before the end of its lifetime, so all that is left to do is wait and see, wondering where this voyager will float next.

NASA/JPL - CalTech

PHOTO: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center/CI Lab, as printed in Popular Science

This is an artist’s visualization of the Voyager Spacecraft. Voyager 1 and 2 were desigmed identically.

NASA/JPL - CalTech

Voyager 1 took this image of Jupiter and its Great Red Spot.

20

Voyager 2, Wikimedia Commons, NASA

What do the natural radioactive decay of plutonium, rare geometric arrangement of planets, and gold plated time capsules have to do with Voyagers? They make up the history of these interstellar probes that are meant to help us study the solar system and galaxy beyond. The Voyagers are our explorers of the vast and deep unknown of greater space. The history of these Voyagers have shaped them into what they are today, our final frontier of discovery.

The Voyagers started with the idea that it would be possible to launch two probes to gather data from far off regions at the end of our solar system. According to NASA, the mission was meant to last five years, but, due to the objectives’ continual successes, the mission was stretched to 12 years and beyond. It was decided that the Voyagers would go through with a historic fly-by of Jupiter and Saturn. Both probes were identical, equipped with instruments designed to conduct 10 different experiments, including television cameras, infrared and ultra-violet sensors, magnetometers, plasma detectors, cosmic-ray, and charged-par-ticle sensors. The probes were charged by RTG’s (radioisotope thermoelectric generators). These would convert the heat produced by the radioactive decay of plutonium into electricity to power the spacecraft.

Many trajectories, by which the probes could be launched, were studied. Engineers working for the Voyager mission studied over 10,000 possible trajecto-ries. Each took advantage of a particular arrangement of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune that happens every 175 years. This arrangement is special due to the fact that it would allow a four planet tour only using a rela-tively small amount of propellant and time. Based on the gravitational pulls of the planets, the method is referred to as the “gravity assist” technique. The gravity of each planet bends the flight path of the spacecraft and gives it additional velocity to get to the next destination (which is the next planet).

In the end, two trajectories were chosen for each probe. Each would allow fly-by’s of Jupiter and Saturn. Voyager 2 was launched first on August 20th of 1977. Its

trajectory preserved the option of continuing to Uranus and Neptune should the fly-by of Jupiter and Saturn be successful. Voyager 1 was launched the next month on September 5th. It had a faster and shorter trajecto-ry. Within 2 years, both Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 had reached Jupiter. By 1980, Voyager 1 had reached Saturn, whereas Voyager 2 would reach Saturn the following year.

The Voyager probes have already discovered much on the four outer planets as well as on their moons. Accord-ing to NASA, their findings include the discovery of three new moons orbiting Jupiter, the twisted magnetic field of Uranus resulting from its axis, the discovery of 10 new

moons orbiting Uranus, 12-mile deep canyons on one of Uranus’ moons, Miranda, 1,200 mph winds on Neptune, the fastest of any plan-et in our solar system, Neptune’s complete rings, and more. Voyager 1 became the farthest man-made object in space. It is now just at the edge of our solar system and on the brink of interstellar space.

The Voyagers carry something even more important than the instruments: a time capsule. It is also known as the Golden Record. It is a 12 inch gold plated copper disc. According to NASA, it is encoded

filled with audio of some of the diverse sounds of Earth, including surf, wind, thunder, birds, etc., as well as 115 images that best capture the diversity of Earth. It also carries recordings of spoken greetings in 55 languages of Earth. There is also a 90-minute collection of Eastern and Western classic movies. The records are inscribed with how they were made, as well as how they should be played. They are packaged in a protective aluminum casing, together with a cartridge and needle, so it can be played. It is a message to any other civilization in space in case an alien recovers the Voyagers after they have been shut down and drift away into the vast cosmos. The Voyagers are truly the adventurers of space and beyond. They continue to gather new information from the vast unknown of space and alert the rest of the galaxy of the presence of Earth.

Voyagers: The Adventurers of Space

By Ajay Shyam

In the summer of 1989, the Voyager 2 was the first probe to observe Neptune. It took this photo.

NASA/JPL-Caltech

21

The Sun won’t keep Earth alive much longer. It already has for around 4.5 billion years. The Sun warms the Earth, allowing for the life and growth

of organisms. This star is important to humans and we’ve recognized its significance throughout history; religions, cultures, and technology have always been associated with it. The life of the Sun must cease like everyone and everything, but the question that remains is what will come of Earth. The creation of the Sun takes us back to minutes after the birth of our universe 13.75 billion years ago. Hydro-gen particles had started quickly spreading out. Just 200 million years later, gravitational attraction compressed these same particles together, along with hydrogen, helium and trace amounts of lithium. Bundles of these gases are solar nebulas, and in them stars are born. Around 4.6 billion years ago in a particular solar nebula, areas of high concentration were rotating in a disk shape, heating up and condensing. Eventually this cloud of gasses collapsed unto itself, pulling most of the material toward the center where nuclear fusion began. The Sun was born. The Sun is a medium sized star of 1 solar mass, so its life span is 9-10 billion years according to NASA. One billion years in the future, the Sun will begin to expand as it runs out of hydrogen fuel. Earth is 149.6 million kilome-ters away from the Sun, so the Earth’s biosphere will be destroyed with the Sun’s steady increase in brightness. The extra solar energy input will cause Earth’s oceans to evaporate, with total water loss in 3 billion years. Over another billion years, most of the atmosphere will get lost in space as well, leaving Earth as a desiccated, dead planet with a molten rock surface.

In 5 billion years, our Sun will have mostly exhausted its supply of hydrogen which it would convert into helium. This transformation will leave it a red dwarf. Nuclear reaction at the core will stop, switching to thermonuclear fusion of hydrogen in a shell surrounding the core. This will cause the star’s luminosity to increase by a factor of 1000-10,000. The outer atmosphere of the sun will be swollen and tenuous, causing the radius to expand 200 times larger and the surface temperature to drop low, somewhere from 5,000 K. According to research phys-icists at Georgia State University, the Sun will become large enough to engulf the current orbits of the solar system’s inner planets up to Venus. Due to tidal interac-tions with the Sun, the Earth will be engulfed inside the Sun before it expands to its largest size. Life on Earth will die in a billion years, and four billion years later Earth will be engulfed inside the Sun due to its loss of hydrogen. This fate of Earth is irrevocable and inevitable; Earth is against the natural and final phases of stars that have been occurring for 13 billion years. Why should we care about Earth’s death if it’s in so long and we can’t do anything about it? Many people do care, and it’s because they are intrigued by the idea of what humans will do as the final centuries, decades, or even years approach their end. Will we adapt to the new and extreme living conditions? Will we have the technology to move to another planet? Will there even be humans around, or would we have already killed each other? A billion years can only tell.

By Lauren Hooda

The Death of Earth

PHOTO: JASON MAJOR

22

Neil Armstrong was more than an astronaut. He was

a military pilot, a hero and legend; he represented the

American dream and was the first man to touch foot on

the moon.

Born in Wapakoneta, Ohio in 1930, Armstrong was

the oldest of three children. Neil Armstrong enjoyed

flying since childhood. He worked after school to earn

money to fly airplanes at a nearby airfield and earned

his pilot’s license at the age of sixteen. In the 1950s,

after earning a navy college scholarship and studying

aeronautical engineering, he joined NASA and was

transferred to Edwards Air Force base in California as a

research test pilot. He flew experimental aircraft such as

the X-15 and the X-1, planes that were meant to break

the sound barrier, beyond 2,000 miles per hour. In 1962,

NASA chose Armstrong as an astronaut, and, by 1966,

he was selected to command the Gemini 8 flight, an

attempt to perform the first docking in space. Sadly,

though, he was forced to undock and return to earth

upon a problem with the thruster. After commanding a

series of flights, early in 1969, Armstrong was chosen to

command Apollo 11, which was scheduled to land on

the moon that very year.

In an interview with Armstrong, an Ohio native

asked why a top U.S. navy pilot would want to join the

astronaut corps. Armstrong responded, “It wasn’t an

easy decision. I was flying the X-15 and I had the un-

derstanding or belief that if I continued, I would be the

chief pilot of that project ... Then there was this other

project down at Houston, [the] Apollo program ... I can’t

tell you now just why in the end I made the decision I

did, but I consider it as fortuitous that I happened to

pick one that was a winning horse.”

On July 20th, Apollo 11 landed upon the surface of

the moon in a lunar mare known as the Sea of Tran-

quility. Astronauts Armstrong and Aldrin spent 2 ½

hours taking photographs, collecting soil samples, and

planting the American flag on the moon. Looking back,

Aldrin had this to say, “Whenever I look at the moon

it reminds me of the moment over four decades ago

when I realized that even though we were farther away

from earth than two humans had ever been, we were

not alone. Virtually the entire world took that memora-

ble journey.”

“One small step for man, one giant leap for man-

kind.” These are the very words that echoed throughout

America that joyous day. Since then parents have been

explaining this quote to the future generations

In addition, the landing of Apollo 11 and the dimin-

ishing political rivalry ended the Soviet-American space

race, a major concern and source of competition to the

Americans and Soviets alike. According to the book

Science and its Times, “With competition giving way to

a new spirit of superpower co-existence, the space race

seemed to belong to another era.” The mission was a

milestone and source of hope and inspiration for future

American achievements.

Armstrong was a hero. Even though he knew there

was a good chance he would not return from the moon,

he took his chances and embraced the challenge. He

NEIL ARMSTRONGBy Samantha Stern

23

NASA, John Frassanito and Associates

was a man who put others before himself and stayed out

of the so-called “lime-light,” and “[a] quiet man who val-

ued his privacy, Armstrong rejected most opportunities

to profit from his fame.” According to an interviewer, “Full

of stoic reluctance, he didn’t really want to be the Ameri-

can hero, regaling future generations with swashbuckling

tales of his galactic triumphs. Immune to fame, he was

merely a dutiful pilot and Purdue University-trained engi-

neer who performed his NASA tasks competently.”

This past summer, on August 25, 2012, Armstrong

passed away as a result of complications from cardiovas-

cular procedures. His family released a statement that

they hoped Americans would all abide by. They hope that

Neil’s life would serve as an example for young people

across the nation “to work hard to make their dreams

come true, to be willing to explore and push the limits,

and to selflessly serve a cause greater than themselves.

For those who may ask what they can do to honor Neil,

we have a simple request. Honor his example of service,

accomplishment and modesty, and the next time you are

outside on a clear night and see the moon smiling down

at you, think of Neil Armstrong and give him a wink.”

This is a rendition of Armstrong on the moon, making history.

Mercedes 1976, Flickr Photo Sharing

24

Imagine traveling to space next year. In fact, various companies will be offering sub-orbital spaceflights to tourists as soon as 2013. One of the best-known com-panies in the industry of space tourism is Virgin Galactic, which was founded by Sir Richard Branson in 2004. Virgin Galactic has developed SpaceShipTwo, whose design is based on aerospace engineer Burt Rutan’s SpaceShipOne. In 2004, SpaceShipOne became the first privately de-veloped manned vehicle to go to space, but no tourists were allowed on the expedition. However, tourists will be welcome on Space-ShipTwo, and over five hundred people have already booked voyages.

According to Virgin Galactic’s official web-site, the sixty-foot-long SpaceShipTwo can hold six pas-sengers and two pilots. The spaceship has a rocket motor and will be launched by a twin-fuselage jet. The jet will depart from Spaceport America in New Mexico. Upon reaching an altitude of 50,000 feet, the spaceship will de-tach from the jet and blast off upward. Once passengers are sixty miles up, they will be allowed to unfasten their seatbelts and float in zero gravity. The spaceflight will be sub-orbital, which means the spaceship will not complete a full orbital rotation. Still, passengers will be able to view the Earth’s curve through side and overhead windows.

When SpaceShipTwo returns into the atmosphere from the vacuum of space, special safety features will be utilized, including what is known as a feathered re-entry. Jessie McKinley of the New York Times writes: “[Feathered] re-entry will be a little more intense [than exiting the at-mosphere], with the ship’s wings folding and body-de-pressing G-forces, until it arrives at about 70,000 feet, at which point the wings will open again and the plane will glide back to the Spaceport.” Another safety measure is that passengers will receive three full days of training be-

fore SpaceShipTwo’s de-parture. These measures show that safety is a top priority of Virgin Galactic.

According to George Whitesides, the chief executive and president of the com-pany, Virgin Galactic’s quest is to open up space to human-kind by making space travel accessible to those other than the upper class. The current $200,000 price tag for a seat on SpaceShipTwo would have to be lowered significantly in order to achieve this goal. If costs can be substantially reduced, many people may be enjoying space travel soon.

SPACE and YOUBy Jenna Karp

Many people may be enjoying space travel soon.

Photo: Virgin Galactic

25

SPACE and YOU

NASA

NASA MARSHALL Space Flight Center

Visualize an area in space whose gravity is so strong it pulls in everything near it. However, this vacuum-like zone is also invisible to the human eye. How do you know where it is located, or if it even truly exists?

The idea for the black hole first sprang up in 1783. John Mitchell, an English philosopher, speculated that it might be possible to have an object in space big enough to contain an escape velocity that would be greater than the speed of light, thus keeping light in its hold. Although at the time this idea seemed impossible, his theory eventual-ly was published in an astronomy guide. However, Mitch-ell’s ideas were abandoned shortly after by the general sci-ence community, only to be revived more than 130 years later in 1916. While experimenting with one of Einstein’s field equations, astrophysicist Karl Schwarzschild devel-oped the idea of a singularity, an area of indefinite depth. Scientists then hypothesized that a singularity rests in the middle of a “black hole,” a term coined by the theoretical physicist, John Wheeler.

Black holes are objects where so much matter is squeezed into such an extremely small space and the gravitational pull is so heavy that it does not allow any light to escape. This makes them hidden to humans, thus posing the question: how are scientists able to identify them? Currently, NASA uses specialized satellites and telescopes to study black holes. The Hubble Space Tele-scope and the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer are used to collect information about black holes that has proven to be critical to the general understanding of these space objects. The key to discovering the location of a black hole is to study “the orbits of stars and clouds of gas in that vicinity and the speed with which they move,” according to Hubblesite.org. If, by way of counting the stars in a cer-tain area, there is an abundance of mass, the most logical explanation is the presence of a black hole.

One of the first concerns and misconceptions people have when learning about black holes is the idea that the Earth could be sucked into one. Yet, the closest black hole,

named V4641 Sagittarii, is several thousand light years away from Earth, rendering the probability that Earth get swallowed, nil.

The quest to understand black holes is not over. We now have the technology to locate these objects but there are still many unanswered questions. We may not even be certain about the accuracy of the term “black holes.” Some scientists argue that black holes aren’t entirely black. Ste-phen Hawking proposed that they radiate heat and glow, which indicates the wide, vast world of knowledge that is just being uncovered.

BLACK HOLESBy Rebecca Okin

This is the spiral galaxy M81, about 12 million light years away from the Earth. This picture includes data from the Chandra x-ray observatory, Hubble Space Telescope, and Spitzer space telescope. There is a black hole in the middle, about 70 million times bigger than the sun.

26

The universe is expanding. The famous Big Bang Theory states that the universe began from an extremely dense point, and this point kept on expanding. The Big Bang theory had many implications that tell how the uni-verse is behaving today. The exact nature of this expan-sion can be extremely confusing: the universe could be finite, yet it is infinitely expanding.

According to the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, a joint venture between different universities and Physics and Astronomy Institutes, the Big Bang theory started with Edwin Hubble’s discovery in 1929. Hubble’s law essen-tially states that distance to distant galaxies increased is proportional to the red shift between the galaxies. Red shift is a celestial’s body’s tendency to emit bigger wave-lengths when it is moving away from an observer. In other words, Hubble’s Law reveals that galaxies must be stretching or expanding. By this explanation, the uni-verse itself, not what is inside of it, is like an ever-expand-ing balloon, taking galaxies along with it.

In order for something to expand, it must be finite. This means that the universe would have an “edge.” We know our universe is finite because there are spaces between the stars in our sky. According to SDSS, in the 1800s, Heinrich Olbers, a German astronomer, stated that although a star may look smaller from far away, the brightness of the star should remain constant. Therefore, he argued that if the universe were infinite, the entire night sky would be extremely bright. The sky does have dark areas, so the universe has to be finite.

According to SDSS, there are 3 different equations, some of which come from Einstein’s theories, which result in different outcomes for the universe. The three results are an open universe, a closed universe, and a flat uni-

verse. An open universe keeps expanding to infinity. A closed universe expands and then re-collapses on itself, maybe spawning another big bang. Finally, a flat uni-verse is between the open and closed one. A flat universe does keep expanding, though decelerating up to an infinite point in time where universal expansion stops all together.

Though the universe is clearly expanding, there is no definite “point” that the universe is expanding from. There is no exact center of the universe. One could argue that everywhere is the center of the universe. When the universe expands, it does not expand from one point. According to Dave Rothstein, an astronomy and astro-physics post-doctoral researcher at Cornell University, the universe is “stretching,” and everything is moving farther away from everything else. In addition to research about the expansion of the universe, there is research about how a universe could start.

There is an adaption of general relativity, called Ein-stein-Cartan-Sciama-Kibble theory of gravity that discuss-es how universes could exist inside black holes, according to Nikodem Poplawski, a columnist for Inside Science. Particles spin with a property known as “torsion”, which can bend and curve space-time. With this theory, during the birth of a universe, matter would compress into a singularity due to gravity, but torsion would prevent it from becoming infinitely small. As the particles spin, the hole expands and matter recoils outward. This outward recoiling would have the same shape as a new universe. Theories about expansion of the universe and how uni-verses start continue to intrigue physicists.

Rebecca Boyle, as printed in Popular Science

The

E X P A N S I O Nof the

UNIVERSEby Sonia Sehra

Researchers for the Hubble Space Telescope have found the oldest spiral galaxy so far, about 10 billion years old.

27

In elementary school, it is common to learn about our solar system. I learned that there were nine plan-ets: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Ura-nus, Neptune, and Pluto.

In 2006, the International Astronomers Union or IAU officially demoted Pluto to the status of a dwarf plan-et. A dwarf planet, similar to a planet, needs to orbit around the Sun, to have a nearly round shape, to clear the neighborhood around its orbit, and not be a satel-lite such as the Moon. Some of the main reasons that Pluto was deemed a dwarf planet that it is a Trans-Nep-tunian Object (TNO), which means that it is past the or-bit of Neptune, and it is smaller than Mercury, now the smallest planet. Currently, the four other dwarf planets are Makemake, Haumea, Ceres, and Eris. Some people thought that Eris, discovered in 2005, would be the tenth planet because it was more massive than Pluto.

Although it seemed unfair to demote Pluto, it is not the first time that a planet had been demoted. Ceres was discovered in 1801 (before Neptune), and at the time, it was considered a planet. However, many other large objects in the region between Mars and Jupiter, now called the asteroid belt, were discovered soon af-ter, and it became unclear if they should all be planets. By 1851, fifteen planets in this region had been dis-covered, so Johann Franz Encke decided to call these objects asteroids. Ceres was the only asteroid in the asteroid belt to be promoted to dwarf planet in 2006 making it the only dwarf planet inside Neptune’s orbit.

It is easy to relate the period of discovery of aster-oids in the asteroid belt to the more recent period of discovery of larger bodies in the Kuiper Belt. Pluto was the first large TNO, discovered in 1930. Recently, oth-er discoveries of large TNOs such as Eris, Makemake, Haumea, Orcus, Quaoar, and Sedna make it hard to distinguish between planets and non-planets. Just as the discovery of other large asteroids caused Ceres to be relegated, the discovery of other large bodies in the Kuiper Belt caused Pluto to be demoted.

There are still many flaws with the IAU classifica-tions of Solar System bodies. The cut-offs on some of the determining factors are completely arbitrary. For example, how round is “nearly round”? How round do the orbits have to be? How large does it have to be? No planet is perfectly round or has a perfectly round orbit. It is still debated whether satellites should be one of the factors in determining a planet Pluto has more than Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars combined. The IAU could have chosen to include bodies in the asteroid belt and the Kuiper Belt as planets, but that would take away the exclusivity of the title. If Pluto were a planet, they would have to make Eris and simi-lar bodies planets. Especially because they are still dis-covering many analogous bodies in the asteroid belt and the Kuiper Belt, there could have ended up being hundreds of planets. This would make a first grader’s task of knowing all the planets much harder.

NASA: PLUTO FROM THE SURFACE OF A POSSIBLE MOON (Smaller Body is Charon)

Is Pluto a Planet?

by Grant Ackerman

28

Voyager TIMELINE

JAZZY PHYSICS“Dare to think the unthinkable.”

by Daniel Yahalomi

European Southern ObservatoryThe universe and sub-atomic particles, jazz and theo-retical physics, Professor Stephon Alexander would argue that these two seemingly opposite concepts could not be more related, and Professor Alexander has made a fantas-tic career out of connecting them.

Stephon Alexander is the Ernest Everett Just 1907 Professor of Natural Sciences at Dartmouth College. Alexander has pushed the frontiers of physics with his research on theoretical cosmology, quantum gravity, and particle physics. Born in the Caribbean, and growing up in the Bronx, Professor Alexander says that he “always felt like a bit of an outsider.” Yet despite this, and with the help of an inspirational tenth grade physics teacher, Professor Alexander went on to get his BS from Haverford College and his PhD from Brown University. He went on to explore and write on some of the most important and exciting topics in theoretical physics today.

Some of Stephon’s recent work has been on the Chern-Simons Modified General Relativity. This provides an explanation for the Big Bang, and, in particular, the cosmic baryon asymmetry. Baryons are a subatomic par-ticle made up of 3 quarks. The theory of the Big Bang, in which the Universe was created, includes that there was a certain amount of Baryons and a certain amount of an-ti-baryons present. In an instance, their asymmetry led to

the excess baryons. The amount of baryons happened to be the perfect amount for nucleosynthesis, which in turn created our Universe. The gravitational Chern-Simons term was used in the derivation of the cosmic inflation principle, which states that in an infinitesimal instance (about 10-35 seconds after the big bang) the universe experienced rapid expansion of at least 1078 in volume.

Professor Alexander believes that his playing of jazz saxophone and physics research both feed off of each other. Indeed, his “Ted Talk” is all about the ways in which jazz and physics are related, even suggesting that a John Coltrane “puzzle” diagram of notes inspired a realization that allowed him to complete his post-doctoral research.

The theme to Professor Alexander’s body of research is in exploring connections between seemingly unrelated phenomena, and his creative genius is in his ability to find these obscure links.

“For me, playing and composing music can help my mind relax, the way a muscle would relax, and allow me to think more freely.”

European Southern Observatory

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Can you imagine turning a cell barely visible to the human eye into a fully functioning heart? Or even a duplicate organism? This kind of transformation doesn’t seem possible outside of scientific fiction, but John B. Gurdon and Shinya Yamanaka made cloning a reality. Gurdon and Yamanaka are the joint laureates of the No-bel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2012 as the leading pioneers in stem cell biology concerning induced plurip-otent stem cells. Induced pluripotent stem cells have the potential to develop into almost any cell type. IPS cells have the ability to replace nearly all types of damaged cells. They are now in the spotlight for their potential in treating diseases such as diabetes and heart disease which involve cell damage. Gurdon and Yamanaka have significantly advanced the field of stem cell research by discovering different ways of cloning.

In 1962, John B. Gurdon presented to the world the cloning of somatic cells, fully matured cells. To accomplish this, he cloned a frog by removing an immature nucleus from an egg cell and replacing it with an intestinal cell from an adult frog. The egg cell successfully developed into a tadpole, indicating that mature cells have all of the DNA needed for development. In making his ex-periments public, Gurdon was the first to confirm the possibility of reverse specialization, allowing scientists to further delve into its potential. Since his successful cloning of frogs, Gurdon has been further researching his technique of nuclear reprogramming. Known as the godfather of cloning, John B. Gurdon paved the way for new research in the field of stem cell biology by being to the first too perform reverse specialization.

In 2006, Shinya Yamanaka was able to induce plu-ripotent stem cells from mouse fibroblasts, which are connective tissue cells that maintain the structure for many tissues and are important in healing wounds. He discovered that the fibroblasts could be reprogrammed into pluripotent cells by injecting four transcription factors, proteins that regulate the expression of genes, into the adult cell. These four transcription factors, now called Yamanaka factors, can induce adult cells to become induced pluripotent (iPS) cells, which have the ability to specialize into any type of cell in the body.

Yamanaka’s discovery can lead to further analysis of an ail-ment by cloning the diseased organ and performing tests on the clone rather than on the actual organ. Scientists would be able to more easily model diseases and find cures. Shinya Yamanaka introduced the use of iPS cells as a novel technique of reverse specialization, which can eventually develop to be incredibly helpful in the medi-cal field.

John B. Gurdon and Shinya Yamanaka, the winners of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2012, are exemplary pioneers of stem cell biology. Gurdon devel-oped a technique to clone organisms by replacing the nucleus of an immature cell with the nucleus of an adult cell of the targeted organism. Yamanaka discovered the Yamanaka factors that stimulate pluripotent abilities in mature cells, allowing them to specify into almost any cell type. Gurdon’s and Yamanaka’s research symbolize a large advancement in today’s technology and pave a path for scientists to build on. With these discoveries, cloning has breached the borders of scientific fiction to become a possibility.

C L O N I N GThe 2012 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine

By Brenda Zhou

Wikimedia Commons, Subtle Guest

European Southern Observatory

This is an image of a mouse embryo fibroplast, before it has been reprogrammed into an in-duced pluripotent stem cell.

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Student Research

Chiara Heintz: Fragile X Syndrome

Fragile X Syndrome (FXS), caused by a mutation in

the FMR1 gene, is a neurologic disorder that causes

severe intellectual disability and is the most common

single-gene cause of autism. The mutation prevents the

gene from producing a protein called FMRP, which regu-

lates many functions of neurons. However, two proteins,

FXR1P and FXR2P, have similar properties to FMRP and

remain present even in the absence of FMRP. Because all

three proteins may share redundant functions, a possi-

ble therapy lies in raising the levels of either FXR1/2P.

A common mechanism that cells use to regulate the

levels of proteins involves the binding of a protein called

Argonaute (Ago) to their messenger RNAs. This causes

a decrease in protein production. Ago associates with

different micro-RNAs that are responsible for targeting

it to specific sites in messenger RNAs. The questions we

asked were whether Ago binds to the genes for FXR1P

and FXR2P and, if so, which micro-RNAs are responsible.

Knowing the identity of the micro-RNAs then allowed

us to try to block the Ago binding and increase levels of

the FXR1P and FXR2P proteins.

We used a system called a luciferase reporter assay

to mimic the regulation of FXR1P or 2P that happens

in cells. The system replaces the protein coding part of

the FXR gene with a protein called luciferase that can

catalyze the production of light, measured by a lumi-

nometer. Mutations can also be made in the regulatory

parts of the FXR genes to test binding of Ago and mi-

cro-RNAs. We have found that Ago binds to two specific

sites in the gene encoding FXR1P, mediated by three

specific micro-RNAs (miR-124, miR-9 and miR-182). We

successfully increased protein production by blocking

the Ago effect with either added target protectors that

block Ago binding or antagomirs that block micro-RNA

function. Our study presents a novel approach toward

developing a therapy for Fragile X Syndrome.

SUMMARY:

Diagrams that Chiara Heintz provided for the Siemens Competition

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I’ve always been interested in science, and particular-

ly that of the brain, so when I applied to the summer

research program at Rockefeller I knew I wanted to be in

a neurobiology lab. I was placed in the Laboratory of Mo-

lecular Neuro-Oncology, and assigned a wonderful men-

tor who was studying Fragile X Syndrome. It was a disease

I had heard of but didn’t know much about. As soon as

she began to give me a little background on the intrica-

cies of the gene affected in patients with Fragile X, I was

hooked on the topic. The research project my mentor de-

signed for my partner and me to work on seemed daunt-

ing, but very relevant and very exciting. I couldn’t wait to

start. In Fragile X Syndrome, there is one protein called

FMRP that is very important but is absent in patients

affected by the disease. Our task was to raise the levels of

functionally similar proteins called FXR1P and FXR2P to

compensate for the absense of FMRP. The first few weeks

was a lot of practice and getting used to lab techniques,

but by the end of the program we were able to increase

protein production and rescue loss-of-function of FMRP

in human neuronal cells. It was so cool! I wrote my first

scientific paper and created my first scienctific poster and

placed as a regional semi-finalist in the Siemens Compe-

tition for my work. Thanks to my inspiring experience this

summer, I’ve realized that science is something I plan to

continue with throughout my life.

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Recently, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics to David J. Wineland and Serge Haroche for successfully developing tech-niques that allow for the observation and manipulation of quantum particles. At one time this was believed to be impossible, a belief made famous by the Schro-dinger’s cat thought experiment postulated by Erwin Schrodinger. In this thought experiment, the cat exists in a superposition of life and death. As a living being cannot possibly be viewed in a simultaneous state of life and death, the experiment seemed to indicate that a quantum system cannot be observed without destroying the quantum system. This is known as wave function collapse. This view, though, is no longer held in mainstream physics. Rather, scientists believe in a phenomenon known as decoherence in which quan-tum information bleeds out into the environment once a quantum system ceases to be isolated.

Essentially, Schrodinger’s cat couldn’t be seen in its quantum state because by the time the box had been opened decoherence had already struck. It is possible to delay decoherence long enough, however, to ob-

serve a quantum state. This was a goal both Wineland and Haroce reached using different techniques. As is often the case, the Royal Swedish Academy is awarding the prize to a discovery or development that occurred much earlier but is currently influencing an extremely active field. And right now, research into mainstream quantum technology is exploding. With quantum me-chanics, the absurd and inexplicable is the norm, and, as long as decoherence can be prevented, incredible things can be achieved.

At the center of research into the uses of the prop-erties of quantum mechanics is the qubit, which is to quantum information theory as the bit is to classical information theory. They are similar in the sense that they are both two-state systems; they both consist of two basis states, a 1 or a 0. But whereas a bit can only be one of two values, 1 or 0, a qubit can exist as any of the values from 0 to 1. To account for this, in general an unmeasured qubit is generally represented as a prob-ability curve, a curve that measures the likelihood that the qubit is some value.

QuANTuM COMPuTING by James Apfel

Wikimedia Commons, D-Wave System, Inc.

Quantum Computing Chip: Basis of a Quan-tum Computer

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Once a qubit is measured however, depending on these probabilities, the act of measuring, therefore, changes the probabilities, making one of them equal to one and the other zero. This is pretty complicated and very different from a bit, but the real disparity between a qubit and bit only appears when they are considered in a group. This is because qubits can become entangled with each other. Entangled qubits are in a state of superposition with one another. Entanglement presents so many problems that clas-sical mechanics is completely ripped apart; not even Einstein could make sense of it.

Having an entangled qubit A at the beginning location and an entangled qubit B at the ending location allows for quantum teleportation, a tech-nique for the transmission of data that may allow for the creation of the quantum internet. If there is a third qubit, C, which has information that needs to be transmitted from beginning to end, qubits A and C can actually be forced to interact and produce two standard bits. If C is sent to the end, then the informa-tion it contains can be used to turn B into C, thereby successfully receiving the information. Although it does not occur superluminally, it is an absolutely secure form of communication, as intercepting the bits is meaningless. They are only meaningful to the possessor qubit B, and any attempt to somehow steal the quantum information would also be futile as such an act would alter the information. Quantum telepor-tation is currently an area of intense research; the re-cord for the longest quantum teleportation has been broken several times recently. Scientists are already able to achieve quantum teleportation over a long enough distance to allow for earth-to-satellite com-munication, and the construction of a satellite based, perfectly secure, quantum internet isn’t that far off.

The qubit’s potential isn’t restricted solely to secure communication. It extends into a realm far greater than that, quantum computing. Qubits allow for computation many orders of magnitude more complex than current computers are capable. A qubit, once measured, becomes just like a bit, so a 64-qu-bit qubit will only ever produce 64-bit answers. But this is Einstein’s old nemesis entanglement coming roaring back in. As previously discussed, one qubit is in a superposition of two basis states, but a system of

two entangled qubits would exist in a superposition of four different states. Any system of N entangled qubits will be in a superposition of 2N different states. Although that doesn’t seem like a big deal, imagine a system of five-hundred entangled qubits, which would exist in a superposition of 3.27*10150 states. Although that enormous number will collapse to 500 bits once the computation is complete and the system measured, the computer can operate on every one of those 3.27*10150 until that occurs. A classical computer, no matter its complexity, is merely ma-nipulating one value through a range. The potential capabilities of this new technology may result in many modern technologies becoming outdated. For instance, modern encryption systems used in everything from e-mail to software identification rely on presenting an NP-complete problem: a problem wherein it’s tough to find the correct answer but easy to check once you have the answer. One example of this is prime factorization, whereby multiplying the factors checks the answer, but it could take several thousand years to find the primes which make up the answer. These constraints, of course, only occur for classical computers; a quantum computer can solve a prime factorization or similar problem extremely quickly.

If the development of quantum computing contin-ues, it could have drastic implications for the future of computing, fundamentally altering the way problems are solved.

Wikimedia Commons, Smite-Meister

Bloch Sphere: a way to represent the qubit

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OPINION:

Why Bad Science Doesn’t Get in the Way of Good Science Fiction

You’ve heard it many times before. The latest summer blockbuster is out in theaters, and the action-adventure’s ending hinges on a scientific impossibility. “Prometheus had a total disregard for evolution!” “Even if you are Batman, you can’t measure the decay of a reactor to the exact second!” “What the heck even happened in Loop-er?” Sci-fi nerds and the scientific community alike seem to enjoy analyzing plot elements to the last detail. NASA gives Armageddon to its prospective managers as an example of flawed science: according to their count, there are over 168 aspects of the film that are flat-out scientif-ically impossible. Yet people still seem to flock to these movies, and cult sci-fi classics grow their fanbase every year. Are people willfully ignorant of science? Perhaps. Af-ter all, fiction has its roots in entertainment. But there is a case to be made for the intentionally flawed, the purpose-fully downright poor science that merely sets the stage for what drives fiction more than plot: character.

If you’re like me, you use fiction as a form of escapism from reality. With the stresses of senior year around me, I like to take every opportunity I can to settle down and watch, read, or otherwise consume some good sci-ence-fiction. It serves to me as a way of seeing the lives of people play out in a world that is not the one I live in, because the world I live in can sometimes be stressful. It’s why I don’t enjoy too many stories set in the “real world.” Characters’ reactions to everyday situations are predict-able and follow logic, so drama is heightened for the sake of heightening drama. It’s easy for me to get actively annoyed at a character’s actions when the world follows the rules of our own - you’d expect a character to make the decision you would make in that entirely plausible sit-uation. Procedural dramas such as Law & Order, CSI, and Grey’s Anatomy are always criticized by the respective professions that they represent because they’re a heav-ily fictionalized series of events in an otherwise realistic

by Jay Moon

Prometheus, 20th Century Fox

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world. But in a science-fiction world, you don’t know what’ll happen because its rules are not the same as our own. You don’t know whether you’ll create a mind-bend-ing paradox in Doctor Who, whether you’ll uncover an inhumane conspiracy in Moon, or if you’ll create a dino-sauric reign of terror in Jurassic Park.

Sometimes to realize these fictional worlds, liberties have to be taken with the science behind the premise. The TV show Fringe discusses the concept of infinitely diverging universes, yet only ever shows two universes interacting with one another in questionably plausible ways. Looper’s laws of time travel are paradoxical but re-main internally consistent throughout the movie. Doctor Who is about a madman with a box that’s bigger on the inside than it is on the outside and can travel anywhere in time and space... okay, that one is a little far-fetched no matter how you look at it. But with that last example, it’s a premise that spawns genre-bending episodes and dozens of seasons. There’s a reason why the show is ap-proaching its 50th anniversary - and that reason is not the show’s devotion to scientific accuracy.

In the end, it’s the characters’ decisions that make the story, not the science. There are some good science fiction works that take a hard approach to the science they incorporate, but good science is not imperative for a good science fiction - and often times, bad science makes for better story.

BBC’s Doctor Who is the budding time traveler’s dream. The show never gets old. Really. The show revolves around a “time lord,” who is just like a human, ex-cept has two hearts and can regenerate into a new body when he dies. Sounds crazy, right? He travels through time and space with his TARDIS, Time and Relative Dimen-sions in Space Machine. Every few seasons, there is a new Doctor. Currently, BBC is on its 11th doctor, portrayed by actor Matt Smith. The show started in 1963. Why is it so popular? The “science” involved is not possible with the technology we have now.

The possibility of travelling back in time, traveling into the future, or even traveling to distant galaxies in literally 2 seconds is mind-boggling. Einstein tells us that we can-not surpass the speed of light. Even if the “time vortex” that the TARDIS travels through exists, humans are far from having the technology to access it. In some of the most recent Christmas specials, there is some invasion of aliens on Earth. We obviously have not had any direct contact with aliens as yet.

The show attracts a huge fan base. Why? As Jay wrote before, its popularity is not because of a promise to be scientifically accurate. Steven Moffat, who also is the co-creator of the popular show Sherlock, writes plots that are crazy, but really allow the viewers to be taken out of their everyday lives and experience something new. Characters on the show cannot make everyday “normal” decision; the rules of our world do not apply to the world of Doctor Who. They also do these extraordinary things with their lives. Personally, I would love to go travelling to some distant planet made out of diamonds with the Doc-tor. I would love to go visit Pompeii before the volcano erupted. Unfortunately, the closest I am going to get is by watching an episode of Doctor Who. The characters in the show are fresh and never become boring. Moffat also makes the Doctor really human-like, someone we can all relate to. Yet we know that he is 1100 years and old and has seen things of which we can only dream of.

Science fiction has the ability to let viewers see things beyond their wildest dreams. It can function as an escape from reality by giving viewers a new world in which any-thing is possible, but not by magic, by “science.”The Case for

Doctor Who by Deepti Raghavan

by Jay Moon

Prometheus, 20th Century Fox

The Famous Tardis: The Doctor’s Blue BoxWikimedia Commons, Babbel 1996

Cover/Back Photo: NASA

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