Author: AlexS

Violet is a robot who kills Covid-19. It was based off of Stevie, a robot who helped take care of old people. Violet is equipped with an Ultraviolet light, which “causes DNA either to change shape, or acts like molecular scissors,” (says Beckett, a postdoctoral research fellow in Trinity’s microbiology department). So basically, it kills viruses. It makes little nicks and dents on cells, and while complex organisms and bacteria can repair the nicks and dents, viruses can’t. So why isn’t Ultraviolet light everywhere? Well, it “can also cause sunburn and the cell mutations that lead to skin cancer,” (Meet Violet, the Robot That Can Kill the COVID-19 Virus) so it is used in rooms that don’t have people, so it can’t be used in places like waiting rooms, where there are people. But is violet good, or bad?

Violet can disinfect things very quickly, up to 4 times faster than a person, which takes around an hour to disinfect a room with Covid-19, but it only takes violet around 15 minutes. Violet is useful for working and disinfecting on the front lines, but there is still the risk that it can damage a human. So, the builders of Violet installed motion sensors that would stop Violet if they sense motion, and a protective shield on the back of the light. Violet is currently working very well, disinfecting the rooms in 15 minutes, instead of the old method that takes 1 hour, but are it’s motion sensors and shields enough?

Even though complex organisms like humans can repair their cells if they are damaged by Ultraviolet light, if they are frequently exposed to it, Ultraviolet light could the cell mutations that lead to cause skin cancer. So even though Violet has motion sensors, and a protective shield, it takes a moment for the motion sensor to sense motion, and turn off the light, so what if a doctor is frequently exposed to bursts of the light? Well, then it might cause skin cancer. So while Violet has precautions that try to protect people from the UV light, scientists and researchers are still trying to think of ways to further protect people from Violet’s UV light, and when they are done, then Violet may become a well-used robot that everybody uses, and it will be disinfecting everywhere, from grocery stores to hospitals.

Did you know that only 59% of the world population has access to internet? The internet is a great tool for all uses, learning, entertainment, exercising, (work out videos) etc. but only 4.57  billion out of the 7.8 billion people on Earth have access to it. Billionaire Elon Musk will try to change that, with a project called ‘Starlink’. This project will launch hundreds and hundreds of Satellites into space, and have them provide internet.

After launching all the satellites, there will be coverage in every corner of the Earth, but the project will be very expensive, at more than an estimated 9.8 billion dollars, and will take around 5 years. Musk says that 400 satellites will provide basic coverage, and 800 will provide moderate coverage. The satellites will offer affordable and fast internet, and He also says that the earnings might help fund a future city on mars. Satellite internet has been tried before, but due to the fact that there were very few satellites, the coverage was very slow and patchy, so it was not used.

There are many good things about the Starlink project, but there are also downsides. One downside is that after we launch all of the starlink satellites, they will hinder our ability to see the sky, which will hurt scientists and stargazers. Another downside of the project is that “The orbiting satellites can also interfere with the workings of ground-based radio telescopes that experts use to see more distant phenomena.” (Elon Musk’s SpaceX will launch another 60 Starlink internet satellites into orbit around the Earth tonight bringing the total number to 482) There are both pros and cons to this project, so what do you think? Is starlink really a good idea?

Humans can survive without water for 3 days. Humans can survive without food for 30-40 days. In the article, “Forced Social Isolation Causes Neural Craving Similar to Hunger”, It seems to prove that human interaction is a need, necessary for survival, and lots of stories and movies seem to prove it, but is it really a NEED? And if human interaction is really necessary, then there will be a certain amount of time that humans can survive without it. Sure, the old prisoner in books in movies has gone insane, but Robinson Crusoe survived just fine for many years. Maybe it has something that varies person to person, and affects social people more than not social people, but is it really NEEDED to survive?

In the article, the effects on the brain for wanting food are similar for wanting social interactions, but that is a want, while food is a need. Maybe social interaction is also a need, but it just shows physically far slower than the need for water, or food, but maybe it is just a mental want, not a physical need. Anti social animals can survive just fine by themselves. Why can’t humans? Perhaps its because they are social animals, but just like animals, there are social humans, and non social humans. Humans Originated in many countries, and though they are all humans, maybe some humans just don’t need social interactions as much as others.

When someone volunteers to be socially isolated, the effect is different from being forced to be socially isolated, but what is a human ‘adapts’ to fit the need of no social interaction? Even though we can research all we want, maybe social interaction is a need, but it just takes a really long time, years and years and years, to show, and unlike how ALL humans can survive without water for 3 days, and Humans can survive without food for 30-40 days, it varies from person to person? There is currently no way of testing this, because it will take many years, perhaps, so currently, there is no way of confirming if human interaction is really a need or not.

The times that you are the most yourself are when you are young, and when you are old. When you are young, you feel free to express yourself, and you have a big imagination and do not try to hide or copy others. When you are old, you realize that you have less summers behind you than ahead of you, and you also try to do things you like, and not try to hide yourself, because you don’t care about others’ opinions now. It is when you are middle aged though, when you take other’s opinions and try to ‘fit in’. There are four ‘yous’, and they are your ego, your actual self, what you want yourself to be, and what others want you to be. When you are not old and also not young, you take other people’s opinions very seriously, and try to shape yourself into what they want, so they will like you more.

There is something called a ‘true mirror’. Usually, a mirror will show that you raised your right hand if you raise your left hand, but that’s not how a true mirror works. People look in mirrors to check their appearance every day, but what they see in a mirror is actually not what other people see. To make one, you can either use a digital (phone/computer) mirror and turn the ‘mirror effect’ off in the video settings, or you can mirror a mirror, and it will be a ‘true mirror’. A true mirror shows exactly what you do, so it will show that you raised your right hand if you raised your right hand. Your unconscious self makes you tilt your head to one side, and you should check a true mirror sometime to fix it. There are many things about being yourself, and you shouldn’t try to be what others want you to be, or just pride, but truly yourself. Making yourself ‘fit in’ with other people’s opinions might seem good, but you should really just be yourself.

After you’re an adult, your brain stops growing, right?
Wrong. Everybody thought that, until we got more advanced technology, and so then, we researched more about brains, and found out that your brain never keeps growing, even when you’re an adult. Turns out, every time you learn a new thing, or even just think some thoughts, your brain changes. There are two types of changes that can happen. A short term chemical change, a long term structural change. A short term change is when your brain adjusts how much your neurons are connecting, so it might give you a temporary boost at something. This is what happens when you think you are getting the hang of a new skill but then the next day you’re not as good again.

Everybody’s brains are different, which is why some learning methods are better than others for a specific person. That is also some people learn faster than others, and while a person might be good at something, he/she might not be as good at another thing. But that is not what shapes a brain the most. The thing that shapes the brain the most are your habits. Everybody has different habits, and that structures their brain. Right now, we are still researching, and there is much more to be found about brains, and how they grow, but for now, we have realized that many things that we thought before about how brains grow are wrong, and that there is still much to learn.

Martin Luther King Jr. Gave his famous ‘I have a dream’ speech to make people of all races and skin color equal. However, here we are, 57 years later, and there are many protests about ‘Black lives matter’. Do you think people would do that if all people were equal? There being many protests about ‘Black lives matter’ shows that people would think that not all people are equal, or else they would not think that, because they would already know that all lives matter the same. But they probably don’t think that, because the ‘Black lives matter’ protest is because people think that other people think that their lives don’t matter, which signals that some people think that other people are being racist. I don’t really have an opinion in this matter, but I don’t think people should be judged just by the color or their skin.

I saw a video about a social experiment about the ‘black lives matter’ protest where somebody held up a ‘black lives matter’ sign in a white neighborhood, and the people disagreed, saying ‘all lives matter’, and then he held up a ‘all lives matter’ sign in a black neighborhood, and the people there thought that he was saying that black lives don’t matter. (but he was really saying that ALL lives matter) As I said, I don’t really have an opinion on this matter, but what do you think? Do you think that people still racist about skin color?

Have you heard of Graphene? It was discovered in 2004, and has been hailed as the most important breakthroughs since the plastics revolution that was more than a century ago. It is a material that is made of one layer of carbon atoms, yet it is very strong. 200 times thinner than a human hair, yet 200 times stronger than steel. When it was first discovered, people thought it would make technologies straight out of a sci-fi movie. But here we are, a decade and a half later, still without those technologies. You might think that the process of discovering Graphene was really complicated, but it really isn’t. In fact, it’s so simple, that you can do it in your home. It was discovered by scientists by repeatedly sticking a piece of tape onto a piece of graphite and taking it off until they got exactly one layer of carbon. Graphene is very useful, from strengthening concrete, buildings, and even bicycle helmets, to making batteries faster charging. It is extremely useful, and be used for many purposes. It is very conductive, and so far, the only problem is that it is hard and expensive to produce. The current methods of producing graphene are very expensive, and can only produce very little amounts of Graphene at a time. Graphene can be used for many things, but the current problem is that it can not yet be mass produced. If we were to build big things with Graphene right now using (our) primitive methods, it would take a LOT of sticky tape.

The Ted talk “The urgent case for antibiotic-free animals” said that farmers should only use very low levels of antibiotics, or not use antibiotics at all, but what can we use instead of antibiotics? One solution, is to use a more balanced meal, like said in the video, and to have cleaner water and living quarters, and to have better hygiene, as the video described. However, there is a problem with that. Farmers are raising the animals for money, and the better meals, living conditions, and hygiene for animals will cost more money, and it is a huge hassle to prepare and do. So as long as antibiotics work, I think farmers will use them, because their goal is to make money.

So I watched this youtube video before, it was by “Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell”, and it was about bacteriophages. They area form of life, that is bacteria’s natural predator. It is everywhere, like germs, and bacteria, and like germs and bacteria, there are many times of bacteriophages. Each type of bacteriophage targets one specific type of bacteria, and its close relatives. The Video said, that now that there are bacteria practically immune to drugs, (superbugs) we can use bacteriophages to kill bacteria. There has already been cases that have been cured with bacteriophages, and according to wikipedia,

“Phage therapy is the use of bacteriophages to treat bacterial infections. This could be used as an alternative to antibiotics when bacteria develop resistance. Superbugs that are immune to multiple types of drugs are becoming a concern with the more frequent use of antibiotics.”

This makes it seem that bacteriophages are the perfect solution to bacteria, especially now that bacteria develop resistance to antibiotics. And they do not harm any human or animal cells, only bacteria. They do this by clamping on to the bacteria, making the bacteria cell make bacteriophage parts, and then assemble the bacteriophage parts, and then it explodes the bacteria, releasing the bacteriophages. Bacteria might adapt to bacteriophages, as life adapts to changes, but bacteriophages will adapt too, since they are also life. And the video also said, that it is proven, that if a bacteria’s resistance to antibiotics rises, it’s resistance for bacteriophages lowers, and the opposite is true, so there is just about nothing to worry about. So a simple and effective alternative (other than solution to superbugs/antibiotic resistant bacteria, are bacteriophages.

At the end of the short story, we all know that the princesses lover chose the right door. The question is, was that the door for the tiger, or the door for the bride? Well, she does not want to go to the tiger, as this passage shows, “she started in wild horror, and covered her face with her hands as she thought of her lover opening the door on the other side of which waited the cruel fangs of the tiger!” (the lady, or the tiger) But she does not want her lover to chose the bride, either, as this passage shows,

“she
gnashed her teeth, and torn her hair, when she saw his start of rapturous delight as he opened the door
of the lady! How her soul had burned in agony when she had seen him rush to meet that woman, with
her flushing cheek and sparkling eye of triumph; when she had seen him lead her forth, his whole
frame kindled with the joy of recovered life; when she had heard the glad shouts from the multitude,
and the wild ringing of the happy bells; when she had seen the priest, with his joyous followers,
advance to the couple, and make them man and wife before her very eyes; and when she had seen
them walk away together upon their path of flowers, followed by the tremendous shouts of the
hilarious multitude, in which her one despairing shriek was lost and drowned!” (the lady, or the tiger) These passages from the story show that, to her, both of the doors are bad, because she does not want her lover to die by the tiger, but she does not want him to marry the woman, either, because she wants him for himself. It is extremely hard for her to decide, as this passage shows,

“Would it not be better for him to die at once, and go to wait for her in the blessed regions of semibarbaric futurity?
And yet, that awful tiger, those shrieks, that blood!” She is not sure, and as the story says, and even though she decided in an instant, it was after days and days of torture. (she did not want to decide) So anyway, if she is a more selfish person, who would not like to share her things, and would rather destroy them than share them, then she would probably have chosen the tiger, but if she is more selfless, and would share her things to not have them destroyed, she probably would have chosen the woman for her lover.

“When the novel coronavirus roared into the U.S., mental health took a back seat to physical health. The number one priority was making sure hospitals wouldn’t be overwhelmed and that as many lives as possible could be saved.” (https://www.livescience.com/coronavirus-pandemic-mental-health-toll.html) This means that when the coronavirus started in the US, physical health was valued a lot more than mental health. But as Schools closed, remote work became the norm, restaurants shuttered, getting together with friends was no longer possible, news stories containing many coronavirus deaths, and unemployment levels soaring, people should realize that mental health during this pandemic is just as important as physical health. People might be worrying about making sure the most amount of lives can be saved right now, but sooner or later, people should also know that with all the things going on, mental health is just as important as physical health.

In 2020, research shows that people are 8 times as likely to screen positive for serious mental issues than compared to 2018, and “70% met criteria for moderate to serious mental illness, compared with 22% in 2018.” (https://www.livescience.com/coronavirus-pandemic-mental-health-toll.html)

Even though currently, physical health might seem more important than ever, you need to know that mental health is very important, too. There has been much more stress, with parents trying to care for their children at home. (because the children can’t be sent to camp) And young adults struggling to find new jobs after restaurants closed.

Having said that, even though at the start of the pandemic, physical health was the most important thing, now, as people are trying to get back to their regular lives, mental health is starting to regain it’s importance.