From Pluto to Planet Nine

This gas giant, nicknamed Planet Nine by the scientists, isn’t the first discovery of Brown’s to make headlines. In 2005, Brown found Eris orbiting beyond Neptune, an object more massive than Pluto. Surrounded by many icy objects similar to itself in size and orbit, Pluto had been in question since the early 1990s. Many advocated that the distant entity and its neighbours should have their own classification, separate from planets. Brown’s discovery was the final straw to ending Pluto’s planetary status, sparking the International Astronomical Union (IAU) to reclassify Pluto as a dwarf planet in 2006, alongside Eris and other objects beyond Neptune, such as Haumea. Brown’s book, How I Killed Pluto and Why It Had It Coming, details the events leading up to Pluto’s reclassification.

Now, ten years after Pluto was dethroned, another planet has captured the world’s attention, and again, Brown is at the centre of the hype. The six similarly positioned objects in the Kuiper Belt that led Brown and Batygin to Planet Nine were first brought to Brown’s attention in a paper by his former post doctorate student, Chad Trujillo, and his colleague, Scott Sheppard. These objects were six of 13 periphery objects studied by Trujillo and Sheppard. The paper examined the shared orbital features of the 13 objects, suggesting a small planet could be responsible. Brown’s curiosity was piqued.

Brown and Batygin worked on the problem for a year and a half and eventually found that six of the most distant objects studied had orbits moving in the same direction in space and tilted in the same way – an arrangement that is highly unlikely to occur by chance, according to the researchers. Simulation experiments also revealed a large planet could be the cause of such movements, and rendered a likely size and orbit of the hypothetical entity. Scientists estimate that this planet could be around 10 times the mass of the Earth with an anti-aligned orbit, which the researchers explain is “an orbit in which the planet’s closest approach to the sun, or perihelion, is 180 degrees across from the perihelion of all the other objects and known planets.”

Simulations of Planet Nine’s hypothetical existence also predicts a second grouping of planets, orbiting perpendicular to the plane of the eight established planets of the solar system and at 90 degree angles to Planet Nine. As it so happens, five such planets with similar orbits to Planet Nine’s predicted orbit have been observed since 2002. “Not only are [the planets] there, but they are in exactly the places we predicted,” said Brown in his interview with Science. “That is when I realized that this is not just an interesting and good idea – this is actually real.”

Planet Nine’s hypothetical existence could also explain a second grouping of planets, orbiting perpendicular to the plane of the eight established planets of the solar system and at 90 degree angles to Planet Nine. Five such planets with similar orbits to Planet Nine’s predicted orbit have been observed since 2002. “Not only are [the planets] there, but they are in exactly the places we predicted,” said Brown in his interview with Science. “That is when I realized that this is not just an interesting and good idea – this is actually real.”

Not all scientists are as certain as Brown and Batygin, though. Dave Jewitt, a professor of astronomy at UCLA, worries that the measurements are simply too crude to say for sure that such a planet exists. Jim Green, NASA’s director of planetary science, has warned that it’s “too early to say with certainty there’s a so-called Planet X out there,” and that the finding is in it’s early stages as of yet. Another source of skepticism are the results of NASA’s Widefield Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE), a 2013 survey which scanned the sky for brown dwarfs – the scans would have detected giant planets that were orbiting our solar system. However, Planet Nine, which may be smaller than Neptune, could have been missed due to its size.

Origins and implications

If this hypothetical planet does exist, then other questions arise – where did it come from, and how did it get to the far reaches of the solar system? Planets don’t usually form as far from the sun as Planet Nine is predicted to be, and if they did, they wouldn’t reach the gargantuan size this unseen planet is believed to be. One possibility is that Planet Nine formed close to the sun, alongside the other gas giants, and was eventually knocked out of its original orbit like a billiard ball by a rogue object or a gravitational push.

Within our own solar system, Planet Nine’s orbit is considered unusual, but its behaviour is quite common in the context of the rest of the universe. Sun-like stars are known to be orbited at a variety of distances, and given the fairly clustered orbits of our current eight planets, our solar system could be considered the oddball – that is, unusually huddled together in comparison to others. Additionally, our system is void of the most common type of planet – those between one and ten times the mass of the Earth. Planet Nine could actually normalize our solar system.

Using the Japanese-owned Subaru Telescope in Hawaii, Brown and Batygin are currently scanning the sky for Planet Nine. Brown says it could take five years to completely search the regions of interest. If they do find their planet, it will be quite a career twist for the self-proclaimed Pluto-killer. Before long, we could have nine planets again.

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These questions are as exciting to think about as they are difficult to answer. Astrobiologists are largely divided in their theories concerning all three. Take the first question – how did life begin? Scientists have proposed more recipes for life than there are for chicken soup. Some believe the first self-replicating molecules formed in a “primordial soup” of organic compounds. Others think microbes could have hitched a ride from Mars to Earth on an ancient meteorite. Still others suggest that life could have begun within cracks in the ice on Earth.

Beginnings of life

“All scientists see the origin of life through their own lens,” said Robert Hazen, an astrobiologist, mineralogist, and researcher at Carnegie Institution of Washington’s Geophysical Laboratory, when speaking at McGill on September 30. Hazen believes minerals played a key role in life’s beginnings.

The compounds necessary for life can form almost anywhere, he explained. Scientists have been able to synthesize organic molecules in conditions similar to Earth’s early atmosphere, deep sea hydrothermal vents, and even space. The unknown is not how these compounds were created – it’s how they came together as self-replicating molecules.

Although water is a requisite for the origin of life as we know it, it would have inhibited the formation of early, self-organizing molecules. Many organic compounds are unable to polymerize, or come together, in water. Though there are many ways these compounds could have formed on Earth, there must have been another factor involved that allowed them to come together and form polymers.

“What you need is some kind of surface that attracts, selects, and concentrates these compounds,” explained Hazen. “And this is where minerals come in and save the day.” Minerals allow for the polymerization of organic compounds, which cannot occur in solution.

These minerals may also explain another of life’s great mysteries. Like hands come in a left and right form, there are also molecules that come in right and left ‘handed’ configurations. Called chiral, they are the exact same, except that they are mirror images of each other. Although this may seem like an insignificant difference, it changes everything when it comes to reactivity. For example, one chiral form of the hydrocarbon limonene smells like lemons. The other smells of oranges. For some unknown reason, life selected only one ‘handed’ form of chiral compounds. Some believe this was but an accident. Hazen thinks otherwise, and many scientists agree with him.

“Most rock forming minerals display at least one common chiral surface,” explained Hazen in a 2006 article published in American Mineralogist. Left and right ‘handed’ molecules selectively adhere to mineral faces of different chirality. Thus, molecules of one chiral form would have concentrated on one face, while molecules of the other would have been attracted to different surfaces. Given this tendency, if life arose from the organic compounds adhered to minerals, its selection of only one chiral form seems completely natural.

So, given organic molecules in solution, minerals may have contributed to the formation of organic polymers and life’s chirality. This still leaves one question – how did life become self-replicating? The answer is not clear. “This is the biggest challenge to overcome and it will make the biggest headlines when solved,” said Hazen.

Nowadays, DNA requires proteins to replicate, and proteins require DNA to form, so it would have been impossible for one to form without the other, much like the problem of the chicken and the egg. As of yet, no plausible prebiotic molecule or cycle of molecules has been proposed, though there are some theories: one idea is that RNA, a macromolecule similar to DNA but single-stranded, could have replicated itself, while storing genetic information. However, many scientists assert that it would have been very improbable for a molecule like RNA to spontaneously form on the early Earth. The “metabolism first” theory posits that life might have come from a series of chemical reactions. The reactions and their components would have increased in complexity over time, eventually leading to a sort of self-replicating chemical system. Many scientists are critical of this hypothesis as well, arguing that it would have been very unlikely that the steps required to build this process would have occurred on the early Earth.

We simply don’t know how life began. However, we do know how it evolved. Given self-replicating molecules, natural selection is absolutely automatic, explained Hazen. “Molecules that work will be selected over molecules that don’t work.” Thus, survival of the fittest emerged, and 3.5 billion years later, here we are.

Life in other galaxies

Here we are. And naturally, the next big question of astrobiology rears its head — are we here alone? The answer, of course, is not clear. Missions to Mars, Europa and other bodies in our solar system could provide answers. These sites have the requirements for life as we know it— water, an energy source, and organic compounds.

However, it’s entirely possible that life could exist in a form entirely different from our own. Indeed, Hazen revealed a speculative and, as of yet, unpublished finding from the Deep Carbon Observatory, a global community of researchers who work together to study the Earth. The finding could indicate an entirely new domain of life right here on Earth. Researchers drilled into a black smoker, a type of hydrothermal vent, to allow water to pass from the 300 degrees Celsius interior through the hole and out into to the cold temperatures of the deep ocean. They lined this hole with chambers, each of which was a mineral surface, and after six months, returned to collect the findings. Within the chambers closer to the core of the vent, they found a sort of electrolytic gel that appeared to be capable of self-organization, growing laterally perhaps by templating itself.

“Is that something that’s alive and can evolve? Or is it just a coating of goo?” asked Hazen. The answer is – you guessed it – not clear.

“But what would be the fun of science if we knew everything?” he continued. You can’t have discovery if there are no unknowns, and every discovery leads to yet more questions. Such is the nature of science. And such is the nature of the human mind to pursue answers.

From atoms, the basic building blocks of the universe, arose the simplest of self-replicating molecules. From these grew a mind capable of questioning its own existence – and finding answers. In the words of Robert Hazen, “The universe is beginning to know itself.”

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Even a journey of fifty thousand miles starts with a single step. For early humans, this pioneering first step out of Africa began a globe-spanning journey that would forever change life on Earth. However, aside from the location of this fateful first step, little else is known for certain about our early human roots, and there is much yet to be discovered.

For instance, one source of conflict within the archaeological community is the question of who actually took this first step and when it was taken. It is known that Homo erectus, an extinct species of hominid – a family including all modern and extinct great apes, including modern humans – left Africa about two million years ago and went on to inhabit much of Europe and Asia. However, it is unclear whether these upright walkers were actually the ancestors of Homo sapiens, or humans as we are today.

The debate over early migration

One theory, known as the multiregional hypothesis, suggests that the descendants of these Homo erectus are indeed modern humans, and that the species evolved on multiple continents in a relatively uniform fashion. This model is based on the idea that separate Homo erectus populations established across Eurasia and Africa were in close enough proximity to allow for interbreeding and gene flow. As they evolved, they did so as a relatively cohesive unit despite their spatial separation. According to this theory, regional differences in climate and other factors created the variation in features we observe in the human population.

However, as new genetic and archaeological evidence continues to be discovered, the multiregional hypothesis is not as well-supported as the Out of Africa theory. The latter asserts that Homo sapiens evolved solely in Africa from Homo heidelbergensis, a descendant of Homo erectus. Then, around 200,000 years ago, they left Africa, replacing their hominid relatives that had already settled across Eurasia. However, given surfacing DNA evidence, the term “absorption” may describe the disappearances of these species better than “replacement.” The genes of early hominids such as Neanderthals (Homo neanderthalensis), a species that evolved from Homo heidelbergensis in Europe, compose a small percentage of the genomes of modern people living outside of Africa, indicating that there was likely interbreeding between humans and other hominid species.

Aside from the location of this fateful first step, little else is known for certain about our early human roots, and there is much yet to be discovered.

There are a couple of possible reasons for why Neanderthals, who possessed a similar brain size to modern humans and were in fact capable of complex speech, were replaced by modern humans. “Neanderthals had the intellectual capacity to develop greater complexity, but they had the disadvantage of living in an inhibiting environment,” McGill anthropology professor Michael Bisson told The Daily in an interview. The cold environments Neanderthals inhabited enforced living in small group sizes and high levels of social dispersion; thus, they were not required to develop the social institutions associated with higher-level group interactions. Moreover, the spread of technological innovations amongst Neanderthal communities would have been difficult because populations were so dispersed.

Although popular culture focuses heavily on Neanderthals as the main symbol of human evolution, there are actually a number of other, less well-known variants of archaic humans. The dominance of Neanderthals in the media is in large part due to their early discovery. “Between 1908 and 1922, an abundance of Neanderthal fossils were found in France, helping to cement their place as the prototypical ‘cave men’ in the public mind,” Bisson said. As the first to be found, Neanderthals became the centre of public debates about evolution.

However, the spread of humans into the Americas is not as well-documented in archaeological records as the spread of Neanderthals, as Europe possesses far better conditions for preservation of remains. It has long been believed that humans crossed the land bridge connecting Asia and North America at the end of the last ice age, going on to inhabit both North and South America – though scientists do not agree on this either. There is a discrepancy in possible time periods for this migration, with some scientists asserting circa 15,000 BCE and others circa 30,000 BCE as the likely date of bridging. “We really don’t know exactly what was going on, because now, everything’s underwater,” said Bisson.

Recent discoveries of early human species

Of the Denisovans, one of the recently discovered early hominids, all that has been found is a finger bone and two teeth. Found in the Denisova Cave in Siberia, the Denisovans lived around 41,000 BCE and represent a variant of hominid with DNA distinct from both Neanderthals and modern humans. “They could have been East Asia’s temporal equivalent of Neanderthals,” suggested Bisson.

Whether recent archaeological discoveries such as the Denisovans represent new species is the subject of hot debate within the scientific community. According to Bisson, the research community is comprised of “splitters” and “lumpers.” “‘Splitters’ recognize a greater number of species and ‘lumpers’ argue that there are fewer species and greater variation within species.”

“We’re extremely, perhaps disturbingly, successful.”

So what differences constitute a different species? “That is a judgement call,” Bisson explained. “There is no set number of base pair differences that defines a separate species.”

At an excavation site in Dmanisi, Georgia, a skull determined to be roughly 1.8 million years old was unearthed with four other skulls, all showing tremendous variation. It was originally suggested that the skulls belonged to multiple species. However, because they came from the same location and general geological time – within a 20,000-year period – it’s also possible and even likely that they represent a population of a single species. This discovery suggests that three of the major defined branches of hominids – Homo habilis, Homo rudolfensis, and Homo erectus – could represent a single species.

Regardless of our modelling and classification systems, of course, the way in which humans evolved across time and throughout the globe will remain unchanged. All that will change is our understanding of our beginnings. After leaving Africa, whether it was 200,000 or 1.8 million years ago, we proceeded to inhabit the entire planet and create a global network of advanced societies. “We’re extremely, perhaps disturbingly, successful,” Bisson commented.

“Humans are going to be an interesting experiment. Can behavioural flexibility and intelligence compensate for the fact that we’re rushing towards an overpopulated Earth and exhaustion of terrestrial resources?” Bisson asked. Only time can tell. But perhaps, when we finally have an understanding of where we came from, we will have a clearer sense of where we will go, and how we can continue to survive.

Ha-ha-hominids: A McGill Daily science cartoon!

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By modifying the epidermal growth factor receptor gene (EGFR), which encodes a cell-surface receptor protein that regulates cell growth, the scientists, led by Ehab Abouheif and Moshe Szyf, were able to generate a spectrum of ant sizes varying from 1.6 to 2.5 millimetres in length. Through a process called methylation, they altered the amounts of chemical coating on this gene, changing its accessibility to proteins and leading to differing levels of gene expression among the ants. Interestingly, the ants with the lowest level of gene expression were the largest in size.

“The gene sits at the top of some sort of cascade,” Abouheif told The Daily in an interview. Modifying EGFR affected other genes involved in growth, leading to the correlation observed between ant size and methylation.

These results have implications that extend far beyond the dimensions of insects. If size can have a single, all-controlling gene, it’s possible that other traits could as well, from obesity to cancer proclivity. “If you could find those genes, you could dial things up or down, no matter the trait,” said Abouheif. Indeed, the EGFR gene itself is known to be involved in many types of cancers, and it’s observed throughout the animal kingdom. “We’re just at the beginning,” said Abouheif.

This breakthrough wasn’t the beginning for Abouheif, though. In 2012, he led a team that was able to environmentally induce the development of ‘supersoldier’ ants, unlocking genes that had laid dormant for millions of years. With giant heads and huge mandibles, the oversized ant ‘supersoldiers’ are appropriately named. This rare phenotype occurs naturally in some species, but the scientists were able to create it in species that normally lack the phenotype by applying hormones to the ants at crucial developmental stages.

“You’ll find [natural] anomalies where whales will have hind legs and birds will have teeth,” Rajee Rajakumar, a former PhD student at McGill and the lead researcher in the study, told the Daily. The scientists believe that these types of irregular body plans represent phenotypes that are locked within the genome, remnants of a time when they were necessary. They remain accessible in the presence of the right triggers, allowing for the release of new (or perhaps, old), potentially adaptive characteristics in the event of drastic environmental changes.

“They’re a throwback to ancient traits basal to the group,” explained Rajakumar. According to him, this research could potentially be used as a means to evolve novel traits, or variations on the themes of these traits. Right now, Rajakumar is working on postdoctoral research at the University of Florida, hoping to extend his PhD research on ants to vertebrates. Although he’s working with sharks and chickens now, he still thinks ants are an incredible model organism. “Studying them can lead to fundamental insight into all animals.”

At first glance, the significance of ants as a model organism may not be obvious, but their unique sex determination system actually makes them an excellent model for the study of genetic mechanisms. Female ants are diploid, with two sets of chromosomes, whereas males are haploid, with only one set. Thus, when ants reproduce, female offspring receive half of their mother’s chromosomes and the entirety of their father’s genome. The half that’s passed on from the mother varies from daughter to daughter, but each daughter receives the same genes from their father, so on average, sister ants are genetically 75 per cent similar. Thus, variation among sister ants is harder to attribute to genetic differences, which makes them an excellent model for the study of epigenetics, or the effect of the environment on genes.

As the research from the Abouheif lab shows, the environment is key in regulating genetics. “The environment and genes contribute equally and you can’t tease them apart,” Abouheif explained. Everything from our early childhood experiences to the food we eat for breakfast can potentially alter the way our genetic code manifests. As research into the field of epigenetics continues to advance, scientists are coming closer to harnessing this potential, which could lead to innovative treatments for epigenetic diseases such as cancer and perhaps even a slow aging in the future.

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This may sound extraordinary at first, but it actually is quite intuitive. As another person’s emotional state is empathized with, it is imagined and, in a sense, experienced by the empathizer. Indeed, research has found that when we empathize with a particular emotion, the same brain circuits involved in the actual experience are activated. In a 2003 study using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), a technique that measures brain activity, researchers exposed participants to a foul odourant and video recorded their facial responses. Afterward, when the participants were shown the clips of their faces, they were found to have similar brain activity as they’d had during the first hand experience.

This process of emotional contagion could also be linked to the human tendency for mimicry. People automatically imitate others during social interactions, copying facial expressions, postures, and even vocal intonations. Research has shown that mimicking the physical representations of certain emotions can lead to the adoption of those same emotional states. For example, when we smile, we tend to feel happiness, and when we stand tall with our hands on our hips, we experience more confidence. Thus, mimicking others has the potential to cause transmission of their emotions.

Whether in the form of mirrored brain activity or copied facial expressions, research has confirmed that feelings certainly are contagious. In a 2002 study at Yale investigating transference of emotions among members of a group, a single participant’s mood was found to significantly influence the emotional states of fellow group members. This process has even been shown to occur through social media. In a controversial study conducted through Facebook, researchers reduced either the positive or negative emotional content of people’s news feeds. Those with more positive news feeds were found to post less negative and more positive material, and the opposite occurred for people with negatively weighted news feeds. Thus, in the absence of first hand interaction, emotions seem to be contagious.

Recent research at McGill indicates that the experience of empathy and emotional contagion could depend on the degree of familiarity between people. In an experiment led by McGill neuroscientist Jeffrey Mogil, people were asked to rate their pain levels while soaking their hands in a bucket of cold water. Then, they were paired with either someone they knew or a stranger. When only one person out of the pair was soaking their hand, their pain rating matched their solo report. However, when both were in pain, people familiar with each other reported a higher perception of the pain than when they experienced it alone, whereas paired strangers reported the same levels as they had individually.

“The reason for this is the stress of exposure to strangers,” Mogil told the Daily. When this stress was blocked through the administration of drugs, strangers were effectively transformed into friends, experiencing the same increase in pain perception as the participants that had known each other. Playing a game of Rock Band together before the experiment was also found to prevent this stress, as the participants familiarized and became susceptible to pain contagion.

In the harsh world of ‘survival of the fittest,’ empathy may seem like a relatively useless ability, especially considering the disadvantageous forms it can take, like pain contagion. However, empathy is likely the evolved product of highly important survival tactics. Within a herd, individuals must be attuned to the emotional states of the animals around them to ensure survival. If an antelope senses a threat, it will panic and run, and the ability of surrounding antelopes to recognize and mimic this action will determine their ability to escape danger. Empathy is also a vital aspect of teamwork, communication, and parental care abilities that are central to survival in social animals.

From its evolutionary roots as an instinct to nurse wailing newborns and blindly run after panicking herd mates, empathy has grown into one of the most valued qualities in human society. However, as of yet, researchers are still unsure of the exact mechanisms behind it. Understanding the neural circuits behind empathy could significantly increase our insight into not only human psychology, but also the nature of many empathy-related developmental, neurological, and psychiatric conditions, such as autism, schizophrenia, and psychopathy. Already, our increasing understanding of the brain has allowed for experiments in empathy modulation, from administration of hormones to brain stimulation techniques. Many of these techniques seem to be effective and show promise. While the implications of this research are insightful, there is a strong need for further research.

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Most of you probably just gagged. That was my first reaction as well. The very idea of insects as food is shunned in most Western cultures, with bugs viewed as nothing more than pests. But entomophagy, the practice of eating insects, dates back to the earliest humans. The Indigenous peoples of Australia enjoyed eating cooked moths and the ancient Algerians harvested locusts. Even Aristotle wrote of eating cicadas — according to him, the young ones are the tastiest, and among the adults, the egg-laden females are best.

In today’s world too, entomophagy is a common practice. In many countries, insects are eaten on a regular basis and even considered delicacies. According to the UN, an estimated two billion people around the world include insects in their diets, from dry-roasted crickets to stir-fried palm weevils.

Westerners tend to view insect aversion as the norm, but in reality, it’s a perspective that’s really only prevalent in North America and Europe. In the rest of the world, insects are not just considered pests — they’re viable food sources. However, with the age of globalization comes the spread of ideas and, slowly but surely, entomophagy is gaining momentum in Western countries. Across North America and Europe, numerous companies have started to raise food-grade bugs, and many restaurants have opened that boast dishes featuring insects. Here in Montreal, chef at Limon, David Ali Garcia plans on creating a five-course, edible, insect-centred dinner.

From August 26 to 28, the first entomophagy conference in North America was held here in Montreal as well. Called “Eating Innovation: The Art, Culture, Science and Business of Entomophagy,” it provided a forum for people to get together and discuss the benefits of insects as food.

Perhaps the most significant advantage of entomophagy is its sustainability. We live in a world of dwindling resources, a world that will have to feed nine to ten billion people come 2050. “We can’t sustain the growing population on this planet with traditional livestock,” Aruna Antonella Handa, a speaker at the conference, told The Daily. “We won’t be able to feed them unless we start doing things differently.”

By doing things differently, she means eating insects. Rearing bugs for food requires a much smaller amount of feed, land, and water than traditional livestock. For every ten pounds of feed, a cricket colony gains four to five pounds of body mass, which is significant when compared to the single pound that cows put on. “Insects are cold-blooded, so they’re much more efficient at converting feed into body mass,” said Dzamba.

Perhaps the most significant advantage of entomophagy is its sustainability. We live in a world of dwindling resources, a world that will have to feed nine to ten billion people come 2050.

And they’re good for us, too. As a protein source, insects are comparable to chicken and pork, and crickets are high in healthy omega-3 fats. Considering their nutritiousness and sustainability, it’s strange to think Westerners haven’t used insects as a food source yet.

It can’t be due to taste. Crickets purportedly taste like roasted almonds or cashews, flavours well-loved by many. According to Handa, mealworms have a subtler flavour, much like popcorn. With many insects, they’ll simply take on the taste of what they’re cooked with, much like chicken or beef. And as Dzamba stated, wax worms boast the flavours of bacon and scallops.

Most would deem these flavours enjoyable, so taste is not likely the crux of this species-spanning aversion. No, the culprit is socialization. From a young age, Westerners are taught that insects are pests, fit for extermination rather than ingestion. Given the prevalence of poisonous bugs in the insect population, this aversion actually makes good evolutionary sense. But in today’s world, we know which insects are edible and which are not, which eliminates the need for this all-encompassing avoidance. But learned associations from childhood are difficult to break — though not impossible.

Before insects can become a staple food source in North America and Europe, people must overcome this reflexive association with disgust. Dzamba says that Future Food Salons, events where groups of people get together to try eating insects, are a great way to introduce yourself to entomophagy. Insect flour is also a popular route, enabling people to dissociate from the image of bugs.

The other main obstacle to overcome is production. Currently, there is far more demand than supply of food-grade insects, resulting in grossly inflated prices. Although insects are cheaper to produce than other meats, the price is around $9 per pound right now because of the inability to meet the demand. Handa predicts the price will fall to $4 or $5 per pound once the issue of supply and demand is addressed. Until then, an affordable way to include insects in your diet is simply by raising them at home. Third Millennium Farming sells at-home cricket farms that enable people to raise food-grade crickets on nothing more than food scraps.

As these issues are overcome, Handa predicts that insects will become a central food source in the future. “We need them to be,” she said. “Otherwise, we will not be able to feed the planet.”

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In early March, NASA announced its plans for an upcoming mission to Europa, an icy member of Jupiter’s small moon army. Besides Earth, Europa may be the only place in our solar system with access to the three basic ingredients of life as we know it: water, organic compounds, and an energy source. Covered by a layer of ice kilometers thick, this moon is believed to house a massive subterranean ocean beneath its icy mantle. On the surface of its frozen exterior, clay minerals have been discovered, likely delivered by comets or asteroids. These extraterrestrial rocks often contain organic materials like amino acids as well. To complete the trio, the underground ocean is likely kept in liquid form by tidal forces, which could lead to volcanic activity and the exciting possibility of hydrothermal vents, or “black smokers,” in the deep sea.

“We may have black smokers like we do on Earth,” Richard Leveille, a planetary scientist at the Canadian Space Agency and a visiting scholar at McGill, told The Daily. Far from the reach of sunlight, black smokers, or deep-sea vents, line the ocean floor, erupting heated water laced with dissolved chemicals. On Earth, they’re teeming with primordial organisms that derive energy from the reactive chemicals the vents release. Some scientists even believe that life could have originated in these deep-sea vents; however, it is speculation that they exist on Europa. In their absence, there are other possible energy sources available, including accelerated particles from Jupiter’s magnetic field, and of course, the Sun.

The idea of life existing in such an extreme, icy environment may seem like something out of science fiction, but such cryophiles, or ice-loving organisms, aren’t limited to fantasy. They can be observed here on Earth. Jay Nadeau, a professor in McGill’s biomedical engineering department, will soon be studying bacteria that swim beneath sea ice, an environment most would believe to be inhospitable to life – but one that likely mimics conditions on Europa.

Complex life has been observed thriving under these thick sheets of ice as well. Earlier this year, a new species of sea anemone was discovered within Antarctica’s Ross Ice Shelf, clung onto the ice with its tentacles extending into the freezing waters below. Worms, crustaceans, and fish that swim upside down have also been found living in these extreme environments. The existence of such cryophilic organisms lends hope to scientists for the upcoming mission to Europa.

Currently, the details of the mission itself are unknown. One idea that is generating much hype among scientists is the Europa Clipper, a spacecraft that would enter in to Jupiter’s orbit and make multiple flybys of Europa, studying its icy surface and the possible ocean beneath. Given the radiation surrounding Jupiter and its distance from Earth, the craft would have to be well-shielded and would likely take six years to arrive. If launched according to schedule, in the early 2020s, then it would reach Jupiter around 2030.

Although scientists are eager to sample this icy moon, it’s unlikely to occur on this mission. The Clipper will mainly function as a scout for a future landing party. Yet, recent observations suggest that a craft wouldn’t even have to land to take a sample of Europa’s makeup.

Late last year, scientists observed plumes of water 200 kilometers high erupting from Europa’s southern pole as the moon reached its furthest point of orbit from Jupiter. A spacecraft could easily fly through these geysers and collect samples of water without even having to land; however, this method, while simple and cost-effective, may be limiting, says Leveille. “You’d get a snapshot of what’s going on underneath, but it wouldn’t be the same as drilling into the ice and having a submarine swim around there.” We’re probably still a few decades off from such a project, but perhaps we’ll have a camera beneath the ice within our lifetimes.

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Neuroplasticity is the brain’s ability to rewire itself, and even create new neurons. It was previously believed that only young brains had these capabilities, but research has shown that the brain remains changeable well into adulthood, and even old age.

The discovery of neuroplastic processes has had groundbreaking implications. In the world of medicine, stroke victims have recovered their faculties, and painful phantom limbs have been cured. In the world of psychopathology, depression and anxiety disorders have been overcome through changes in thought patterns. Even for the everyday person, the understanding of neuroplasticity has created new opportunities. The brain’s control over us is no longer a one-way street. We have power over our brains, simply through the experiences we choose to pursue. This idea has opened up a new field of research, and numerous studies investigating brain-enhancing activities have emerged in its wake. One of the main subjects of such research is meditation.

Though meditation can be viewed solely as a method to de-stress, its benefits extend far beyond relaxation. The practice can actually alter neural structures. A 2007 study published in Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience compared the brains of 20 experienced meditators to controls, finding that meditators had increased brain mass in regions associated with memory formation, emotional control subjects, and attention. It was also found that meditators 40 to 50 years of age had grey-matter volumes that were comparable to those of control subjects who were 20 to 30 years old – in other words, their brains resisted the effects of time and showed reduced age-related thinning. Some studies have even found that experienced meditators have decreased pain sensitivity and heightened compassion.

The brain’s control over us is no longer a one-way street. We have power over our brains, simply through the experiences we choose to pursue.

Many studies following non-meditators through meditation training have found similar results. A team at Massachusetts General Hospital compared differences in brain structure before and after participants took part in an eight-week meditation program, finding that an average of 27 minutes of practice per day was enough to show a visible increase in brain density in areas associated with learning, memory, self-awareness, and introspection.

Even meditation’s well-known effect on stress, largely credited to its relaxing nature, has been found to be a by-product of its effect on brain structure. Meditation is thought to loosen neural connections between the brain region responsible for information about ourselves and areas related to sensory information and fear. This results in a lessened personal reaction to stress, anxiety, and unpleasant feelings such as pain or itching.

Due to its well-publicized effects on the mind, meditation has rapidly gained the reputation as a ‘cure-all.’ Although it has many benefits, meditation may also hold a few drawbacks. Studies have found that because of its effect on mindfulness, meditation could block the mind-wandering processes involved with creativity, and have negative effects on habitual processes, such as riding a bike. Such procedural activities are learned implicitly, or mindlessly, so meditation may interfere with their execution.

Another potential hazard of meditation lies in the world of psychopathology. Although evidence suggests that meditation can reduce symptoms of depression, obsessive compulsive disorder, and anxiety disorder, its practice can have a very negative effect on people with schizophrenia, and studies have revealed cases of meditation-induced psychosis. Ishan Walpola, a research assistant at Amir Raz’s psychology lab at McGill, further described why this might occur. “There’s a neural network for the internal world, which involves thoughts and feelings, and for the external world, which monitors what is happening around us,” Walpola explained. For most people, only one of these networks can be active at a time. You can either focus on your surroundings or your internal world of thoughts and feelings, but not both. Some forms of meditation focus on dissolving the distinctions between such dualities. To people with schizophrenia, this can be detrimental, because it can interfere with the ability to distinguish between external and internal worlds.

“There’s a neural network for the internal world, which involves thoughts and feelings, and for the external world, which monitors what is happening around us.”

Ishan Walpola, student in the Raz lab

Even individuals without any psychological ailments have reported unpleasant, and even traumatizing meditative experiences. Shortly after Hans Burgschmidt, a Canadian “spiritual seeker,” began the practice of mindfulness meditation, he had a strange experience while making his bed. His thoughts seemed to be happening in space, without reference to him. With no warning, his “self” had disappeared. Though such an experience might have been hailed as “enlightenment” by an experienced meditator, Burgschmidt called it “terrifying and alienating.” For the past seven years, he’s been dealing with similar frightening experiences – and he’s not alone. Burgschmidt has been helping others like him cope with similar problems. These kinds of unpleasant reactions may be due to a lack of cultural context in Western meditative practices.

Walpola elaborates, “In the Buddhist tradition and context, there is a historical precedent for the meditative experiences where you lose your sense of self. This isn’t present in the Western mindfulness tradition, which is a stripped-down, secular form. Although meditation is hailed as a cure-all, there are elements of it that should be hailed with caution and with context.”

The flip side of Burgschmidt’s experience is what most meditators call “enlightenment,” or what the mystics of the world term “the true self” or “nothingness.” Though its scientific explanation remains elusive, meditators describe “enlightenment” as a shift from the self-focused, personal perspective that most people embody to a more grounded, selfless experience of the world. This in turn leads to reduced stress, increased happiness, and higher levels of fulfillment.

At Harvard’s Functional Neuroimaging Lab, the process of “enlightenment” was observed occurring in the brains of two expert meditators. During these periods, the brain regions responsible for higher cognitive function showed a dramatic increase in activity. Further study is required to fully understand such processes, but this type of research provides a glimpse into the less understood aspects of meditation.

When it comes to phenomena such as “enlightenment,” research is restricted by the lack of regard that scientists have for the subjective experience of meditation. Most researchers focus on the clinical applications of meditation practice, with little consideration of its spiritual origins and potential. Yet, at McGill and around the world, a new generation of students is entering this field of study, many of whom wish to pursue research into the spiritual aspects of meditation. Perhaps in our lifetime, we will know the full extent of meditation’s effects.

Although meditation has potential hazards, these can be mitigated through caution and careful study. Few people have the negative experiences discussed above, as the vast majority of meditators report heightened connections to experiences, higher levels of happiness, and a greater presence in the moment – and let’s not forget its effects on brain structure and aging. Though it certainly isn’t a cure-all, meditation is a practice that can be highly beneficial if it is exercised with caution.

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This isn’t to say that all sugars are bad. In fact, we need sugar to survive. Glucose is a form of sugar that acts as the primary source of energy for our cells and fuel for our brains. Lack of glucose can be detrimental, and people can lapse into comas if their blood glucose levels fall too low.

The sugar that’s causing obesity, diabetes, and heart disease rates to skyrocket is fructose. Unlike glucose, which is processed throughout the body, fructose is primarily processed by the liver, producing triglycerides – the main form of fat in the human body. Some of these stay in the liver, which can lead to liver dysfunction, while others enter the blood stream, which can cause higher blood pressure, obesity, and diabetes in the long term. Fructose also causes your brain to resist the effects of leptin, a molecule that is central in regulating consumption. As a result, regardless of your caloric intake, individuals may not feel full and continue to eat, which can lead to weight gain and even more sugar consumption.

Our bodies simply aren’t designed to process so much sugar. Sugar was a scarce commodity in the ancient past, and even considered a luxury in recent history. We only started eating so much of it in the last 100 years, which isn’t enough time to undo millions of years of evolution.

The simple solution to these not so sugar-coated problems is just to stop eating so much sugar; however, this may be harder than it sounds. Sugar is an additive in most processed goods, even in foods most would think to be healthy choices, like whole-wheat bread and low-fat yogurt. In addition, research is emerging that suggests excess sugar consumption may lead to addictive tendencies.

There may be more to a ‘sugar high’ than just energy. A recent study by faculty and students at Connecticut College found that the brain regions associated with pleasure were activated more strongly when rats were exposed to Oreos than cocaine. In 2011, Harvard Medical School conducted research that found that some people’s brains react to junk food in the same way that the brains of people with drug addiction react to drugs; yet there is much speculation about the condition of sugar addiction.

Sugar falls under the category of primary rewards – those involved in survival and reproduction. Lesley Fellows, of the Montreal Neurological Institute, expressed her view on sugar addiction, stating that, “Addiction is generally considered to follow pharmacological doses of drugs that ‘hijack’ the normal reward system. Sugar just drives the normal reward system, it doesn’t ‘hijack’ it. So the effects of sugar versus cocaine on behaviour engage the same brain systems, but to very different degrees.”

Whether we’re addicted to it or not, we’re certainly eating way too much of it. Some scientists are suggesting drastic action. Paul van der Velpen, the head of Amsterdam’s health service, wants cigarette-style warnings on sweets and soft drinks telling consumers that “sugar is addictive and bad for the health.” Additionally, former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg tried to ban the sale of sugared drinks larger than 16 ounces.

The true power to make a change lies in our hands. It is up to us to choose a healthier lifestyle. This doesn’t have to mean cutting sugar out entirely. The health problems lie in the dosage. In the average person’s diet, the top sources of sugar are processed food, cereal, juice, canned products, bread, flavoured dairy products, fast food, and soda. If you want to reduce your sugar intake, cutting down on some or all of these is a good first step. Learning to recognize some of the aliases that sugar hides behind is another useful skill. If you see a product with any type of syrup (especially high-fructose corn syrup), corn sweetener, maltose, molasses, or dextrose in the top three ingredients, it’s best to avoid it.

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What goes through your mind when you read that word? What kinds of images are evoked? Are they at all positive?

For a lot of people, the answer is no.

Throughout most of its existence, ‘nerd’ has been thought of as a derogatory term. Merriam-Webster describes nerd as “an unstylish, unattractive, and socially inept person.” Well, to all you Battlestar Gallactica fans reading this, let me just say, frack that.

The real meaning of the term ‘nerd’ is nothing like the backwards definitions you’ll find in the dictionary or on Wikipedia. This word is so comprehensive that it’s actually quite difficult to pinpoint a single definition. According to Zachary Levi, founder of the website The Nerd Machine, “Nerds are people whose unbridled passion for something, or things, defines who they are as a person, without fear of other people’s judgement.” And as Wil Wheaton (the actor who played Wesley Crusher on Star Trek) put it at the 2013 Calgary Comic Expo, “Being a nerd is not about what you love, it’s about how you love it.”

In the past couple of decades, the things that nerds tended to like were often mocked or dismissed as ‘a waste of time’ or ‘lame’. Wearing a superhero t-shirt to school was an excellent way to get thrown in the dumpster, and good grades were equated with the bottom rung of the social ladder. However, in modern society, the things that nerds have loved and excelled at throughout the years are rising in popularity and demand – even becoming mainstream. Computers are a necessity of everyday life. Gaming is something that even our grandparents do. Intelligence is sexy.
What facilitated this change? The answer: nerds.

“Nerds are people whose unbridled passion for something, or things, defines who they are as a person, without fear of other people’s judgement.”

The nerds of the 1970s and 1980s eighties pioneered the digital age. They brought us Facebook, Google, Apple, CGI, email, and Blu-ray movies. Back in the 1970s and 1980s, good marks in grade school might have meant getting your lunch money stolen, but it also meant going to top universities. Nerds rose with ease in their respective fields, becoming the leaders of the new world.

Equipped with power, first-class intellects, and imaginations stretched by Star Trek, nerds ushered in a new age, leading the world through a technological revolution. The fantastical devices used by Captain Kirk or Luke Skywalker were made a reality. Martin Cooper, inventor of the cell phone, admitted in an interview with Mobility Ventures that he was inspired by Captain Kirk’s communicator. The bionic prosthetics now available bear a striking resemblance to the limbs of C-3PO. Science fiction has also been credited as the inspiration for tablets, holograms, and GPS, to name a few.

It even might have had a role in the invention of the internet. In his futuristic short story From The ‘London Times’ of 1904, Mark Twain wrote about a device eerily similar to the internet. Called the “telectroscope,” it was a phone-based, worldwide network used for information sharing, making the “daily doings of the globe [visible] to everybody, and audibly discussable too, by witnesses separated by any number of leagues.” Sound familiar?

Whether or not they were inspired by science fiction, we have nerds – mathematicians, computer scientists, engineers – to thank for the invention of the internet. They led the way from the very beginning, heading the initial military-funded program called ARPANET and, eventually, bringing us the World Wide Web, a tool that has transformed the world of information. We also have nerds to thank for Google, which revolutionized the way people searched for that information, and for Facebook, which revamped the way people shared it.

Nerds changed the world, and paved the way to a new era. Many call it the “digital age” or “the age of information,” but I think a more apt title is the “Age of the Nerd.” People have started to realize that being a nerd doesn’t mean that you’re ‘lame.’ More often, it means you’re successful. As John Green, author and YouTube vlogger, put it in one of his YouTube videos, “Saying ‘I notice you’re a nerd’ is like saying, ‘Hey, I notice that you’d rather be intelligent than stupid, that you’d rather be thoughtful than be vapid, and that you believe that there are things that matter more than the arrest record of Lindsay Lohan.’”

Equipped with power, first-class intellects, and imaginations stretched by Star Trek, nerds ushered in a new age, leading the world through a technological revolution.

In modern society, being a nerd is something to admire, and even strive toward. Being a nerd is, well, cool. Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg are revered as demigods. Who doesn’t like Iron Man and Batman these days? The popular TV sitcom Big Bang Theory is about nerds. Sherlock Holmes is more of a sex symbol than Brad Pitt and there are world championships for League of Legends.

Even at McGill – or especially at McGill – being a nerd has become cool. People proudly attend classes in Mass Effect t-shirts. With its epic sword fights and bottle cap throne, the Faculty of Engineering’s fantasy-themed ‘Frosh of Thrones’ was the envy of all firstmen. Intelligence is celebrated and respected here, and it’s the same throughout Montreal. With over 40,000 attendants this year, Montreal Comiccon dominated the city on the weekend of September 13. During those three days, it was rare not to see a dementor, gladiator, or Starfleet officer on the streets.

Being a nerd is something that people now wear as a badge of pride – the Age of the Nerd is upon us.

So say we all.

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