brevia, spring 2015

BREVIAVo

l. 2

Issu

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A HARVARD COLLEGE UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH ASSOCIATION PUBLICATION

W A RMEANINGS, MOTIVATIONS, IDEAS, COSTS, BEAUTY, RHETORIC

SPRING 2015

MASTHEAD

brevia.hcura.org 2 BREVIA Spring 2015

Co-Editors in ChiefJessi Glueck and Amir Bitran

PublisherMolly Zhao

Design EditorSilvia Golumbeanu

Opinions EditorJessi Glueck

Primary Research EditorAtrin Toussi

Features EditorCharissa Iluore

SponsorsBrevia would like to thank the Harvard Undergraduate Council and the Harvard College Office of Undergraduate Research and Fellowships for their generous support of our publication.

Matthew AguirreLeib CelnikJason ChengLydia GoldbergCharissa IluoreRaul JordanRaynor KuangHa LeZainab Wurie

Alan YangJessica YamadaNicolas OntiverosJack AllenHenry LinJessi GlueckAmir BitranAtrin Toussi

Staff Writers

Thank you to Gregory Llacer for his advice and input throughout the publication process. Many thanks to Jessica Herrmann, who served as publisher and interim design editor for part of this publication cycle, and to Melinda Song, who served as design editor for part of this cycle.

Acknowledgements

DesignersMatthew AguirreSilvia GolumbeanuJessica Herrmann

Ha LeMolly ZhaoNicolas Ontiveros

Brevia Spring 2015 Masthead

The views expressed in Brevia articles are solely those of the authors. They do not represent the official stance of the magazine or any of its sponsors and affiliates.

Note

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EDITORS’ NOTES

BREVIA Spring 2015

Jessi GlueckCo-Editor-in-Chief

The modern word “war” is descended from the Old High German ‘werra,’ which means “confusion” or “discord” and not just armed conflict. Given the plethora of situations in which we use the word today — we speak of “wars on disease” and “wars of ideas” in addition to military strife — it seems fitting that the word’s etymology should reveal a broader, richer meaning. This issue of Brevia explores the role of research in fighting, winning, and evaluating all sorts of wars, whether they be against Ebola and DNA damage or between nations. We also remember, with the deepest sadness and respect, wars that are now topics of historical research but were once grim realities for millions of people.

One such war was World War I, famously called “the war to end all wars.” Now, just over 100 years after the beginning of this conflict, we know to our grief that war has not ended. War may never end. But we can try to ensure that our wars have meaning and purpose. I hope that this issue of Brevia will encourage us all to consider what’s worth fighting for.

as a Third-grader living in souTh Florida, I loved birds. I could readily identify not only the names of all the region’s bird species, but also their songs, feeding and breeding habits, and migration patterns. But I was a little embarrassed to share my knowledge, and would rather present myself as clueless about birds. During a visit to a local sanctuary, the beautiful Ding Darling National Wildlife refuge on Sanibel Island, my father pressured me to ask an educated question to the tour guide. My hand was up, I got called on, and much to my father’s dismay, the following words came out of my mouth: “do hawks eat people?”

During third grade, the last thing on any of my classmates’ minds was science. These were the good days of Pokémon, Legos, and Nickelodeon. So it is little surprise that I was hesitant to flaunt any interest in the natural world. The real world is, of course, very different from the third grade classroom, but science and research remain potentially isolating disciplines. To engage in the pursuit of knowledge requires specific, seemingly esoteric knowledge. It wasn’t until I began working with Brevia last summer that I realized that breakthroughs in science, technology, and the humanities can be made accessible, even engaging, to anybody.

Brevia has taught me to step back from the daily monotony of lab work — pipetting fluids (trying not to spill) and running gels — and instead to focus on the most important question any researcher faces — why does my work actually matter? While I can no longer distinguish a goldfinch from a chickadee, my passion for science remains. I’m no longer ashamed to share that passion, because I’m convinced that research is relevant to our lives. And, perhaps more

importantly to my third grade self, Brevia has helped me discover that research is cool. I hope that you, too, will encounter something cool in these pages.

Amir BitranCo-Editor-in-Chief

TABLE OF CONTENTS

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BREVIAWAR

PRIMARY RESEARCH

OPINION

FEATURES

GENERAL

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

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06 War on Ebola A review of the problems and solutions surrounding the Ebola epidemic | Ha Le 08 One Hundred Years Later Revisiting the Armenian genocide a century later | Jessica Yamada

10 The Costs of War An interview with Linda Bilmes on the economic burden of war | Charissa Iluore

12 The Horror Inside An examination of the psychological consequences of war | Matthew Aguirre

14 Harvard Students Serve Exploring Harvard’s complicated history with the military | Zainab Wurie

16 Defend the Tomb Protecting Syria’s World Heritage sites in times of conflict | Jason Cheng

18 The War on Disease An examination of the militaristic rhetoric of disease | Lydia Goldberg

20 Beauty and Despair The ways in which war generates art | Raynor Kuang

22 What We’re Fighting For The failed concept of a “war of ideas” | Leib Ceinik

24 Fighting DNA Damage A physical model for DNA repair | Amir Bitran

26 The People’s Project Could crowdsourcing revolutionize scientific studies? | Atrin Toussi

28 Sleep The science behind this ancient phenomenon | Alan Yang

30 Towards a Cure An interview with Doug Melton on a potential cure for Type I Diabetes | Alan Yang

32 Of Skulls and Stories A Dumbarton Oaks Summer Fellow’s research on potentially faked Latin American skulls | Jessi Glueck

34 The Rewards of Research A new perspective on intellectual property rights | Nicolas Ontiveros

36 Boys vs. Girls Are the NIH’s new gender-based regulations beneficial? | Jackson Allen 38 Seeing Stellar Graveyards Asteroid detection around white dwarfs | Henry Lin

40 A Strike Against Stroke Treating the dangerous effects of stroke on the brain | Raul Jordan

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6 BREVIA Spring 2015 brevia.hcura.org

The War on Ebola.At 104 Mt. Auburn Street, home of the Har-

vard Global Health Institute (HGHI), more than 20 students from Harvard and MIT cram into a small meeting room. At the head of the conference table sit Dr. Michael VanRooyen, Director of the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative (HHI) and Pro-fessor at the Harvard Medical School (HMS), and Dr. Suerie Moon, Research Director and Co-Chair of the Forum on Global Governance for Health. As part of HGHI’s Global Health Education and Learning Incubator program, the two are there to discuss current issues in medicine and health policy.

Today’s topic of interest? The Ebola epidemic. Since the Center for Disease Control (CDC) is-

sued its initial announcement of an outbreak in Guinea on March 25, 2014,1 news of the epidem-ic has spread across nations. Now a Level 3 epi-demic — indicating the need to avoid nonessential travel2 — Ebola has made West Africa a battlefield for both civilians and health professionals. But if

our struggle against Ebola epidemic can be called a war, then it is more than a battle against a virus. In fact, it is an struggle for the development of ad-vanced health systems and epidemiological research.

RESEARCHING A FIXThe outbreak has tested the efficacy of technol-

ogy and science as a weapon in the battle against disease. At the Broad Institute, scientists — in conjunction with Harvard University, the Sierra Leone Ministry of Health and Sanitation, and re-searchers elsewhere — sequenced 99 Ebola virus genomes from 78 patients in Sierra Leone.3 The sequences revealed that the strains in the Sierra Le-one patients came from a common ancestor. The strains’ genetic similarity also suggested that there was a single transmission from a natural reservoir followed by human-to-human transmission.3 Fur-thermore, analysis of the samples showed two different strains of the virus, which diverged well

By Ha Le

Dr. Mohamed Kokel in his safety suit. Photo by Simon Davis/DFID via Flickr. Creative Commons Attribution.

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7BREVIA Spring 2015brevia.hcura.org

before the outbreak in Sierra Leone.3 This knowl-edge from the sequencing allows specialists to trace the patterns of viral transmission and thus map the best prevention mechanism against further infection.

The researchers’ work is part of a trend in using technology to combat the epidemic. In the U.S., air-ports use thermal imaging to spot high fevers in in-coming passengers and surveillance cameras or geo-location technology on cell phones to track potentially infectious indi-viduals.4 This reflects the impact that science and technology can have in alleviating the Ebola epidemic — be it through preventing further spread of the disease or providing new insight on the virus. As the authors of the ge-nomic research write in the introduc-tion of their report: “In an ongoing public health crisis, where accurate and timely information is crucial, new genomic technologies can provide near-real-time insights into the patho-gen’s origin, transmission, dynamics and evolution”.3

CRACKS IN THE SYSTEMThe Ebola epidemic is more than a scientific

struggle, however, revealing the problems within the global health infrastructure. “No crisis has shown the cracks in the global system as Ebola has done,” Moon said during the discussion at HGHI. Paul E. Farmer, professor of Global Health and Medicine at HMS, agrees. “[T]he fact is that weak health systems, not unprecedented virulence or a previously unknown mode of transmission, are to blame for Ebola’s rap-id spread,” he wrote in the London Review of Books.

The issue is not that effective treatment for Ebola does not exist, but that the weak health systems af-flicting the affected countries are poorly equipped to meet the challenge at hand. As a result, these systems have only become more fractured with the recent cri-sis. “Here’s my assertion as an infectious disease spe-cialist: if patients are promptly diagnosed and receive aggressive supporting care — including fluid resus-

citation, electrolyte replacement and blood products — the great majority, as many as 90 per cent, should survive,” Farmer wrote.5

Providing proper care has been a challenge, however. Sever-al barriers exist, including a lack of accountability in the human-itarian aid world, according to VanRooyen. The pharmaceutical industry has yet to create an Eb-ola vaccine — which would be an effective preventative measure if it were available — and non-gov-

ernmental organizations have never confronted such an outbreak before, so they are unequipped and unpre-pared.6 The result is that global health’s own deficien-cies, whether in policy, strategy, or existing knowledge, contribute to a worsening situation. Conversations, such as the one led by Moon and VanRooyen at HGHI, are very much pertinent in the anthropolog-ical and global health communities as professionals attempt to discover the best method of stopping the epidemic and prepare for future outbreaks.

“An army is always fighting the last war, but I hope public health won’t always be fighting the last epidemic,” Moon said.

Weak health systems, not

unprecedented virulance … are

to blame for Ebola’s rapid

spread.

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By Jessica Yamada

After the end of World WAr II, in the aftermath of one of the darkest moments in humanity’s history, the world watched in horror as the atrocities perpetrated against millions of innocent Jews came to light. But although the Holocaust was a unique monstrosity, it was not actually the first genocide of the twentieth century. During World War I, and almost exactly a century ago today, radicalists in the Turkish government took advantage of the chaos of war to systematically eradicate Turkey’s Armenian minority. In total, at least two million Armenians were killed, either by official legislation or with tacit approval from the government.

Around the year 300 CE, Armenia adopted Christianity as its official religion, and may actually have been the first country to do so.1 But in the 14th century, Armenia was incorporated into the Ottoman Empire. The Armenian Christians then became part

of a “millet” – a separate, somewhat self-governing community with fewer rights and liberties than Muslims.2 In the 19th century, Armenians within the Empire began to demand equal rights and opportunities to no avail. Change was on the way, though – in 1908, a group of Turkish nationalists known as the Young Turks overthrew the Sultan, instituting a multi-party democracy. After the coup, the atmosphere was hopeful: “Both Turks and Armenians … [were] calling for freedom, equality and justice”.3

Tragically, such hopes did not last. Driven by the desire to establish a true Turkish nation, a small group of radicalized Young Turks called the Committee for Union and Progress (CUP) shouldered moderates out of power, pledged the Ottoman Empire’s forces to Germany, and marched into Russia in order to reclaim “Turkish” territories.4

Among the opposing Russian army were members

One Hundred Years Later:

the Armenian Genocide

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of the group that had been a thorn in the Ottomans’ side – Armenians. Some were Russian, others had been part of the Empire, and, in the eyes of the fanatical CUP, all were enemies.3 As World War I raged on, the leaders of the CUP plotted, covertly laying the foundation for the upcoming carnage.5 Various governmental and religious institutions began suggesting that Armenians’ beliefs would give them stronger ties to other Christian nations like Russia or Britain, even though many Armenians in Turkey were descendents of centuries-old Ottoman Empire families.4 Then, in the dead of night on April 24, 1915, the CUP struck, arresting hundreds of important Armenian community leaders all over the country, sending them to remote prisons, and executing most of them. The Turkish government then began deporting Armenians en masse, allegedly for their own good, in order to establish a better, safer community elsewhere. Over a million Armenians were uprooted and sent on long journeys with armed militiamen shooting anyone who stopped. As they were marched through the Mesopotamian Desert under the blazing sun, deprived of food and water, they were often beset by killing squads comprised of fanatics and murderers drafted by the CUP. Multitudes died of exposure, starvation, exhaustion, and skirmishes.4 Those who “made it” to the end were “herded into the desert without a drop of water,” “thrown off cliffs, burned alive, or drowned in rivers”.3 Over the course of eight years, 2.5 million Armenians had been reduced to a small handful6; nearly “the entire landmass of Asia Minor and historic West Armenia had been expunged of its Armenian population”.4 Although

other countries expressed outrage and anger at the genocide, little was done to save the Armenians. Many of the events were reported in the media, and organizations did collect and send funds. The Allies even called for Turkish government officials to be tried for crimes against humanity, but in the end, the Armenians were forsaken and forgotten.

To this day, Turkey continues to deny the very existence of the Armenian Genocide. Its government has gone so far as to channel funds into a “supposedly objective research institute in the United States, which in turn paid the salary of a historian who served [the Turkish] government in its campaign to discredit scholarship on the Armenian genocide”7 and hiring “former Congressmen to lobby on its behalf … [in an attempt] to rally Republican and Democratic opposition against official U.S. recognition of the Armenian Genocide”.7 There have been no trials, no reparations, no effective efforts to right this terrible wrong. Thus, the Armenian Genocide and the international community’s reaction – or rather, lack thereof – joins the list of instances in which rhetoric is empty of effort. One wonders – how can we so readily vow that such atrocities will never happen again if we do not learn from our past inaction? Should another Armenian Genocide occur, will the world shut its eyes, block its ears, and stay silent?

Many would argue vehemently that they would do no such thing. But the weight of two million dead is difficult to ignore.

A Map of the Caucasus Region (1994). Image from University of Texas Library via Wikimedia Commons. Creative Commons Attribution.

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The Costs of War: An Interview with Linda Bilmes at HKS

We hear statistics about the billions of dollars spent on defense, but with the expense of rehabil-itating veterans, who can imagine the true cost of war? Linda Bilmes, the Daniel Patrick Moynihan Se-nior Lecturer in Public Policy at the Harvard Ken-nedy School of Government, researches just that, among other financial and budgetary issues. Bilmes was the Assistant Secretary and Chief Financial Of-ficer of the U.S. Department of Commerce during the Clinton administration. Currently, she sits on the U.S. National Park System Advisory Board and the U.S. Department of Labor Veterans Employ-ment and Training Advisory Board. She is also the daughter of a World War II army veteran.

Here is an edited transcript of Brevia’s conversa-tion with Bilmes.

BREVIA: What’s the future of U.S. military spending?.

LINDA BILMES: … [T]here has been some effort to curtail military spending – particularly the budget “sequester”… The sequester was not the right approach … because it didn’t distinguish be-tween necessary and less necessary programs. How-ever it did begin to reduce the growth of military spending, and there was some hope that it would

lead to greater efficiency and scrutiny of Pentagon expenditures. … Unfortunately … [t]he resurgence of problems in Iraq, as well as conflict in Syria and the rise of ISIL, has enabled the defense depart-ment to argue convincingly that it needs more fund-ing — not less. In addition, Congress has refused to permit the Pentagon to make certain cuts that it requested — such as modest changes in military health co-pays and reductions in some Cold War era weapons programs. [Therefore], military spending will likely continue to increase over the next few years.

B: Overall, is the U.S. too quick to go to war?LB: … We almost always underestimate the fi-

nancial costs of going to war. For example, the first Gulf War in 1991 … was not expected to cost much because the Arab countries paid for most of the up-front costs of U.S. intervention. But now the U.S. is paying $5 billion per year in health care and disabili-ty benefits for U.S. veterans who fought in that war. … I believe that the lack of a structured accounting for war costs … makes it easier for the U.S. to get involved in wars and to escalate our involvement.

B: What impact will our military spending and involvement have on future generations?

By Charissa Iluore

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LB: … [T]he current Iraq/Afghanistan wars have been financed almost entirely by borrowing mon-ey … These wars have added more than $2 trillion to the U.S. national debt, and the interest burden is growing. This doesn’t count all the money we still have to pay in the future to take care of the veterans of these wars. Historically this is a very unusual sit-uation — in America’s previous con-flicts taxes were raised to pay for wars, but this time President Bush cut taxes twice … The last time the U.S. paid for a war this entirely through borrowing was during the Revolutionary War … But in the past decade, Congress and Presidents Bush and Obama were not willing to ask today’s American taxpay-ers to shoulder the financial burden for today’s wars. My generation is not paying a war tax or buying war bonds or making any trade-offs between mil-itary spending and other investments. We are simply paying for today’s wars with the national credit card. So you and your classmates will be responsible for paying the interest on these war debts.

B: What are the greatest challenges facing veter-ans today?

LB: There are some immediate issues and some longer term issues. The media has paid a lot of at-tention to some of the shorter term problems, … such as filing disability claims … The more funda-mental issues have to do with re-integrating into a nation where only a tiny fraction of the population served … There is an epidemic of depression and

suicide in the veteran community. I [see this while serving] on the U.S. Department of Labor Advisory Board on Veterans Employment and Training, and on the Board of Directors of the Institute for Veter-ans and Military Families at the Syracuse University … Research … shows that veterans want to work in occupations that have a sense of social purpose.

It’s not sufficient for the U.S. to just throw money at streamlining claims forms … Veterans need friends and social integration out-side of the military community.

B: What are some of your cur-rent projects?

LB: I am … working on an academic research project to un-derstand how and why the U.S. government bureaucracy was not able to respond to the dramatic increase in disability claims … I

also plan to write an article on how the VA should be restructured for the 21st century veteran. At the local level, I am working with … Mayor Setti Warren of Newton on … designing a state-of-the-art veter-ans transition center.

Find more on Dr. Bilmes’ blog: http://www.ThreeTrillionDollarWar.org

Vietnam Veterans Memorial. Image by Howard Ignatius via Flickr. Creative Commons Attribution.

We are simply paying for today’s wars with the national credit card.

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When considering the effects of war, the tangible things are those that tend to occupy the spotlight. Infographics neatly present the latest numbers of casualties and injuries on both sides of the conflict, and perhaps of economic costs as well; meanwhile, photos show the destruction of streets and buildings, while refugees crowd tents and aid centers in search of the essentials: food, water, shelter. These are things we can visualize, that can be counted up and accounted for. But how can we account for the psychological damage?

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs estimates that 11 to 20 percent of all veterans deployed in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq suffer from Post-trau-matic stress disorder, or PTSD, in a given year. Sim-ilar rates are observed in veterans of the Gulf War (12 percent annually), and of the Vietnam War (15 percent); the VA office estimates that these patients account for, in total, just shy of a third of all veterans

of the respective conflicts and operations.1 However, not all veterans who experience symptoms of PTSD receive treatment or care.2 It is then likely that these estimates are a lower bound for the true number of veterans who are deeply psychologically affected by their military operations. And when we consid-er the impact of their trauma turn on their friends and loved ones, a kind of rippling effect emerges.

Far from being isolated to the conflict zone, the psychological devastation of a war can be felt by people around the world. In a way, what is seen here is the phenomenon of degrees of separation: the idea that although you might not be connected directly to another person or event, it’s highly like-ly that you at least know someone who is, or that someone you know knows such a person. In this way, the stresses of one person’s life impact scores of people. As John Donne wrote, “no man is an is-land, entire of itself ”: especially in the case of sys-

The Horror Inside:Psychological effects of war as a traumatic event

By Matthew Aguirre

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temic events like war that affect so many, no one is immune to the traumas of those around them.

Like those directly involved in combat, civilians in the combat zone exhibit symptoms of significant psychological trauma. In the Middle East, research-ers have found higher rates of PTSD among both adults and chil-dren in regions of ongoing con-flict. Lifetime rates of post-trau-matic stress have been measured at 17.8 percent in the Gaza strip, and 34.1 percent in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, compared to 3.4 percent in Lebanon and less than 1 percent among Iranians.3 These numbers raise an import-ant question: what happens when a noteworthy percentage of a nation’s population suffers from post-traumatic stress? The concerning response is that we don’t entirely know. Since PTSD can be psy-chologically debilitating, the effects of an enduring conflict could last long into the future. And consid-ering that few health systems, even outside of war-torn areas, properly diagnose and treat post-trau-matic stress in civilian patients,4,5 it is unlikely that these patients will start receiving the care they need.

Indeed, detrimental effects have been seen in a number of regions affected by conflict. An estimated 41 percent of Syrian child refugees have contemplat-ed suicide,6 and within Syria, volunteer schoolteach-ers have reported that young children draw almost exclusively in red, and that it is “almost impossible for them to draw human beings without blood com-

ing out of them”.7 It seems as if these effects car-ry on through adulthood. In Afghanistan, drug use in adolescents has spiked — an estimated million youths are addicted to heroin or opium8 — and in Bosnia, nearly twenty years after the civil war, under-

age delinquency is still on the rise.9But before we decry impend-

ing psychological doom in these regions, it’s important to put war-based trauma in proper context. Generally speaking, it is estimat-ed that 60 percent of men and 50 percent of women will go through trauma of some kind in their lifetimes, be it an automobile accident, sexual assault, or some other comparable event — and although not everyone gets PTSD as a result, a significant portion —

around a fifth — of people do.1 With this in mind, the focus should be on emphasizing the need for proper and accessible care, for all people with PTSD.

Images by Ernest Brooks (left) and Tom Oates (right), Creative Commons Attribution.

Since PTSD can be psychologically

debilitating, the effects of an

enduring conflict could last long into

the future.

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Harvard students Have a long Histo-ry of military service and many continue to serve today. This article will examine the evolu-tion of that relationship over hundreds of years and several major American military conflicts.

MEMORIALS AND MEMORIESDuring the Civil War, 1,358 Harvard affiliates

fought on the Union side, while 304 represented the Confederate side.1 In 1898, artist Sarah Wyman Whitman created the Memorial Transept window in Harvard’s Memorial Hall to commemorate the Union soldiers who fought in the war. There has been debate over whether the university should add the names of the confederate fighters.2 Across a sunny plaza from Memorial Hall stands a memori-al for a different war. Memorial Church houses the names of 373 Harvard soldiers who died during

World War I, including four who fought on Ger-many’s side.3 Many Harvard students also worked as medical volunteers such as ambulance drivers and other emergency medical experts.4 In another landmark event of Harvard’s military history, Theo-dore Roosevelt’s initiative for military training camps helped form “Harvard’s Regiment”, the university’s first Reserves Officer’s Training Corps (ROTC) pro-gram in 1916.3 But after protests surrounding the Vietnam War, it looked as if the ROTC at Harvard might need a memorial, too. On an April night in 1969, 300 student members of a left-wing organi-zation called Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) marched to the house of Harvard’s presi-dent, Nathaniel Pusey, and taped a list of demands to his door. Among these were calls to remove the ROTC program from campus.5 Harvard agreed to remove ROTC from campus after the anti-Vietnam1

By Zainab Wurie

Harvard Students Serve:Undergraduate Engagement with the Armed Forces, Past & Present

War protests and only welcomed it back under current president Drew Faust when the “Don’tAsk, Don’t Tell” law was repealed in 2011.

HARVARD’S REGIMENT TODAYKevin Zhou ‘18, a Navy ROTC member on the

Marine Corps track, knew the military path was one he wanted to take for years before joining the pro-gram. He also applied to other service academies but realized that he wanted a more traditional four year college experience at Harvard, where he could “get the best of both worlds, in college and military training”. Michael Haley ‘18, a Navy ROTC mem-ber, acknowledged that making the decision to join ROTC involved more than simply following in his father and grandfather’s footsteps, saying, “I felt like it would give me a sense of purpose coming into college”. Does this intense sense of purpose come into conflict with schoolwork? Haley explainedthat he’s able to maintain a balance. “It’s a balanc-ing act but … [t]hey make sure you’re well aware of that before you apply to the program … One of the important things about being a naval officer is being able to perform under pressure and [being] able to balance different duties … It’s a challenge, but it’s a challenge that I’m willing to take,” he said. Zhu agreed, saying, “… There are a lot of additional requirements to fulfill. However, they do stress that academics come first. I would say that the bigger challenge is balancing [ROTC] with other clubs”.

But ROTC creates a community of its own. “Something my platoon officer always would say is, ‘Suffering brings togetherness,’” Zhu said. “[As a member of ROTC], you go through a lot of things

that [you] don’t go through with other college stu-dents”. Army ROTC freshmen classes teach customs and rank structure of the army. They also attend “Leadership Labs” taught by Juniors and Seniors to learn. Navy ROTC members usually have physical training from 5:45 to 7 A.M. and Naval science class-es from 7:30 to 9 A.M. on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Every Wednesday from 6:30 to 8 A.M., they have “Leadership Lab”, where they learn more about cus-toms and mannerisms of the army. Air Force ROTC students take Aerospace courses all four years and also take Leadership Lab and field training classes. This kind of community, though, has the potential to isolate its members from those around them, es-pecially given ROTC’s troubled history on Harvard’s campus. But Haley said that hasn’t been much of a problem for him. “Sometimes, we’re a little wor-ried because the university has … history with the ROTC program dating back to the 70s. ROTC was brought back a couple of years ago, so now we’re officially recognized on campus as an organization. People I talk to see me in the uniform on Wednes-days [and] don’t respond negatively. They’re usu-ally very inquisitive and very interested in how the program works and our motivations”. Zhou, too, said he feels the ROTC integrates well into campus culture. “Everyone seems to be pret-ty supportive and interested. I didn’t know what to expect coming in. But I feel pretty good about being a ROTC member on campus,” he said.

FEATURES


Artwork by Molly Zhao. Derived from Images by Mike Mozart and Alonso Torres via Flickr,. Creative Commons Attribution.

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In a vIdeo uploaded to Youtube1 on July 7, 2014, purported Islamic State (IS) militants are shown de-stroying the grave of the Prophet Younus (also known as Jonah in the Christian Bible).2 Two weeks later, it was reported that IS had leveled the entire Younus mosque and surrounding areas with explosives.3 In fact, all of Syria’s World Heritage Sites have been damaged and the situation has been so dire that these six Sites have been placed on UNESCO’s “List of World Heritage in Danger”4 and multiple other his-torical locations or artifacts face similar threats. But in the larger context of political turmoil and human suffering in war-torn Syria that has killed more than 200,000 people and displaced millions more,5 should “defending the tomb” be one of our top priorities?

Before we begin to answer this question, we should understand some of the motives behind the destruc-

tion of these cultural artifacts. The IS assault on the country’s rich cultural heritage can be traced back to a fundamentalist Sunni Muslim movement known as Wahhabism that seeks to “restore pure monotheis-tic worship”.6 Often, this includes the destruction of tombs, which are thought by adherents to Wahhabism to promote idolatry and false worship.7 At the same time, these acts also serve to further inflame the con-flict in Syria along Sunni-Shiite divisions and to fund IS operations through the trade of illicit antiques.

So IS, from its perspective, has good reasons to destroy these tombs. Do we have good reasons to defend them? Indeed, it is imperative that we act to save this cultural heritage. In a pragmatic sense, the destruction of these tombs further polarizes oppos-ing forces and funds violent activities. In a moral sense, while it is true that saving the lives of people

Defendthe TombBy Jason Cheng

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should be the top priority, it is important to remember that these two goals are not mutually exclusive. Irina Bokava, the Director General of UNESCO, puts the issue into perspective, stating, “protecting culture is protecting people”.8 A failure to protect culture is a failure to protect “values, identities, and belonging”.8 We should also recognize that the loss of these cul-tural histories is not only an attack on a single group of people, but also a “loss to all humanity”,8 to the shared, global heritage that defines our collective past.

But what action should we take? It is clear from the damage to all UNESCO World Heritage sites in Syria that spe-cial international designation of spe-cific sites as “protected” is not wholly effective. Multiple international treaties have attempted to address the problem of conservation in war, including the Geneva Convention9 that dictates ac-ceptable standards of war and the Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict10 that legally obligates signatories to actively protect cultural property during war and established the International Committee of the Blue Shield to “to work to protect the world’s cultural her-itage”.11 Despite these international accords, there is little legal authority or political will to pursue these war crimes especially against non-adherent states or militant groups that blatantly disregard the treaties. What results is only a notional protection for these immensely valuable cultural properties that in turn often become subject to neglect or deliberate dam-age with little or no consequence to the perpetrators.

An effective defense of the tomb must first edu-cate individuals and governments about the impor-tance of our cultural heritage in order to discourage and prevent further damage to that heritage. Addi-tionally, we must forge the political will to pursue legal, economic, and military recourse directed at the persecution of those who blatantly target these

properties as IS has done on multiple occasions in Syria. Finally, as Bokava notes, “the best way to protect cul-ture in conflict is to make the most of it to prevent conflicts, and make it a pillar of peace building”.8 Therefore, we should pursue lasting resolutions to these conflicts to not only to safe-guard our arts, but can also use the dia-logue around the conservation of these works as an avenue towards peace.

The Tomb of Younus marked a remembrance not just of the proph-

et himself, but also represented a greater acknowl-edgement of the cultural heritage that has formed part of the basis of religious faith for millions of people worldwide and has played an active role in defining the societal landscape of the world to-day. Its destruction — and the destruction of any piece of cultural property — is untenable and we must take active measures to protect the history of all humankind. Just as there is no culture with-out people, there are no people without culture.

We must take active

measures to protect the history of all humankind.

Image by Russel Yarwood via Flickr. Creative Commons Attribution.

OPINION


“Fighting cancer. Battling depression. Combating AIDS.” The metaphor of war has become commonplace in our everyday discussion of illness, and is even used in this publication in several of the other covers articles. We have all heard about problems with the “war on terror” and the “war on drugs.” But what could be wrong with a war on disease?

Quite a bit, it turns out. We rarely pause to think about how the metaphors we use affect our responses to problems. But the use of figures of speech like war rhetoric can impact our actions, impeding our progress in working to prevent, treat, and cure disease.

The word “war” is packed with meaning and emotion. A declaration of war, even a metaphorical one, signals a sense of urgency, and a sense that winning is the chief priority, trumping all else. For this reason,

politicians and scientists like to use war rhetoric. Nothing is as effective at mobilizing people to action. People are eager to answer a call to arms. Support and funding come promptly at the declaration of war.

But in this rush to mobilize, there is not always time to work out the details of the most important questions: what research are we funding, and what legislation are we supporting? The problem with war rhetoric is that it changes our perception of the right course of action. We have all heard the phrase “All is fair in love and war.” When we use war as a metaphor for disease, we tend to see death as the final defeat, and we suggest that we can go above and beyond the normal limits of our power to prevent it.1 This assumption has consequences.

When we use military rhetoric to describe illness,

By Lydia Goldberg

The Problem with the “War on Disease”

OPINION


we persist in the idea that we must exceed the normal limits of care. As a result, when it comes to serious illnesses like cancer, we risk overprescribing treatment for patients. Instead of focusing on aspects of patient treatment such as pain reduction or mental health, we focus on developing as many new drugs as possible. We forget that the comfort of the patient and the patient’s family is also important, perhaps paramount. This culture has led to the development of what some call the “medical-industrial complex”,2 an industry that seeks profit rather than prioritizing patient care. As in a real war, individuals tend to get lost in the fight for the greater cause, despite being the very ones we want to protect.

Yet another problem with war rhetoric is the idea of a clear division between those on the right side and the enemy. When war is used as a metaphor, this division creates two main problems: anyone who dares to disagree with the “right side” may be attacked, and an enemy is created when there is not necessarily a clear one.

In 2009 debates about health care legislation, people attacked the idea of “death panels” that would, according to their detractors, decide who did and did not have the right to life-saving health care. In fact, these panels were supposed to advise

patients on their options for end-of-life care. But when disease is seen as the enemy and death as the final defeat, it is not surprising that many people’s reflexive reaction was one of dismay. Viewing death as the ultimate defeat makes it difficult for us to have rational discussions about end-of-life care.

The concept of disease as an enemy has further repercussions for those suffering from illness. Patients can become closely intertwined with their disease when medication, hospital visits, and conversations about their sickness make up a significant part of their daily routine. It can become hard to separate the disease from the patient, leading

patients to feel dehumanized and stigmatized. Naming disease as an adversary can make the patient feel like a traitor in the metaphorical war.

When we use war rhetoric, we change the way we think about taking action, forgetting about limits and creating enemies where there should be none. We need to retire war rhetoric once and for all.

This culture has led to the development

of what some call the “medical-industrial

complex”,2 an industry that seeks profit

rather than prioritizing patient care.

Photo Illustration by Molly Zhao. Modified from “Physicians” by TryJimmy via Pixabay, Creative Commons Attribution.

COVERS


WAR! WhAt is it good foR? Edwin Starr wants to know, and he has a band asking it with him. It’s good for a whole lot, apparently, at least in cul-ture. From The Iliad to Inglorious Basterds, artists have filled the cultural canon with works set on bat-tlegrounds. More often than not, these tend to be bloody, with at least a few deaths for good measure. It’s natural, after all, that war appear so frequently given how — sadly — central to humanity it is. A more pertinent question for Mr. Starr might have been to ask why we bother depicting war at all, when we already have plenty of the real, gory thing.

To give an answer, we can turn to World War I, when the visceral brutality of the first Great War in-spired poets in a variety of manners. As one instance, consider the Canadian John McCrae’s poem “In Flanders Fields,” written after his friend was killed at the Battle of Ypres. The poem calls up imagery of beautifully blowing poppies in the title fields of Flanders, sweet symbols above the graves of fallen

soldiers. Evoking the voices of the dead, the speak-er pleads for the listener to take up his compatriot’s battles. The effect of the poem in Britain and Cana-da was stunning, where just the sight of red poppies was enough to drive up enlistment and bond sales.1 And why not? The poem is genuinely inspiring. Con-densing all the bitterness of war into sadness and inspiration, the poem is an excellent demonstration of how war can elicit the deepest emotions. McCrae successfully immortalized his friends, plucked them from their graves and put them among the flowers.

The work of Wilfred Owen, however, strongly rebuts McCrae’s idealism. Among many other sim-ilar poems, his poem “Dulce Et Decorum Est” was written in response to the years of terrible trench and chemical warfare that plagued WWI. “In Flan-ders Fields” uses the image of a single red field, but Owen is relentless in describing a platoon caught in a gas attack. The soldiers are “blood-shod” with fa-tigue, and when the gas hits it’s like a “green sea,”

Beauty & Despair:The Aesthetics and Ethics of

Representing War

By Raynor Kuang

COVERS


suffocating one unlucky soldier until his “froth-cor-rupted lungs” gargle with blood. Owen is angry at poems like “In Flanders Fields” that can brashly ask for more young men to undergo this fate. The inspi-ration of McCrae’s poem, he says, is nothing more than a classic lie, told and retold since it was first written in Latin: “it is sweet and fitting to die for one’s country.” Owen’s argument seems fair, but sadly it received notice too late for him: he was killed in the trenches a single week before the armistice ending the war.2

Owen is nowadays the more well-known of the two poets, but this shouldn’t be seen to validate him and invali-date McCrae. Though war is vicious in all its cruelty, it still does generate in people great feelings, and not necessarily ones that demand further fighting; rath-

er, these feelings can be respectful, noting the val-or of waging war as well as the great sacrifices it provokes. The Gettysburg Address was composed for the purposes of remembering casualties of war, but it sublimely hallows those peoples’ memories.

While it would be dishonest to only portray the glory of war, it would perhaps be just as dishonest not to depict war at all. Culture and art are a kind of history in which war is transformed and recaptured. It would be lying to never warn people of the loss-es war inflicts; yet it would also be hopelessly pessimistic to only show war’s grievous effects, since war and

conflict do inspire people to higher, nobler things. Owen and McCrae connect and contribute to each other. War can be represented aesthetically, and it in fact should be, in all its heroism and despair.

Though war is vicious in all its cruelty, it still does generate in people great feelings.

Left: Commemorative poppies laid at a tomb. Photo by Benoit Aubry - Ottawa. Creative Commons Attribution. Right: Trenches during WWI. Photo by Bain News Service via Library of Congress. Creative Commons Attribution.

COVERS


The concepT of a “war on Terror” left its mark six years ago when it changed the ideo-logical course of U.S. military strategy, and this concept is now being employed against the Is-lamic State. Closely linked to the concept of a “war on terror” is that of a “war of ideas.”

In 2008, the Strategic Studies Institute of the U.S. Army War College published a paper called “Wars Of Ideas and The War Of Ideas” by Antu-lio J. Echevarria II. Echevarria identifies several main types of the war of ideas, including ideolog-ical wars and wars over religious dogma. He out-lines the conflicts in the Middle East, mainly those with al-Qaeda, as battles started by and fought with ideas. Physical fighting was a secondary issue. Eche-varria recommends a joint campaign of undermin-ing terrorist ideology and cutting off their networks through military force, a campaign mostly analogous

to the military strategy employed in the Middle East over the past six years.1 Today, the war of ideas as an effort to neutralize extremist groups has proven ineffective throughout the Middle East due to glob-al recession and renewing conflict. The international dialogue that has campaigned to delegitimize radical actors, however, has promoted international cooper-ation. UN-mediated discussion has proven more ef-fective in limiting strife where the war of ideas failed.

The war on terror fought mainly in Iraq and Af-ghanistan was the first war of ideas. The U.S. fo-cused on moderating radical Islam and countering the ideologies of terrorists.2 However, Echevarria noted that public support is crucial to the success of the war of ideas – if the people become distract-ed by another catastrophe, the war grinds to a halt. The war of ideas in Iraq and Afghanistan became ineffective in part because Americans grew more worried about the economy than the war after the Great Recession of 2007-08 turned their thoughts towards home. CNN reported in March 2009 on exit polls for the November elections of the previ-ous year and found that 62 percent of voters rated

What We’re Fight ing For : Learning From A Fai led War of

By Leib Celnik

COVERS


the economy as their first priority. Only 10 percent of voters rated the war in Iraq as their top issue. 3

The six years between the publishing of Eche-varria’s monograph and today have only pushed the conflict further from the American media spotlight. Al-Qaeda has left the American psyche as the face of terrorism. New groups have replaced it. Most recent-ly, the Islamic State (IS), also known as ISIS, ISIL, or DAISH, has emerged as a major terrorist threat in the Middle East. Conflict has moved from Iraq and Afghanistan to Syria, and Iran remains sanctioned by the United Nations in fear of the development of nuclear weapons in the Middle East. The question for world leaders now is this: will we make these current conflicts into wars of ideas? Will we mus-ter an ideologically-driv-en public to motivate our battles, only to suffer a devastating decrease in morale when the public be-comes uninterested? Or is there some other way?

Certain recent developments seem to suggest that there is another way: international coopera-tion. In an October 2014 article written for the BBC, former British MP Tony Blair affirmed the importance of education in the Middle East.4 U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry met with King Ab-dullah of Saudi Arabia in September of 2014 to discuss programs to convince Saudis that ISIS dis-torts the message of Islam.5 These cooperative measures are the lifeblood of international discus-

sion because they reduce conflict and strengthen the relationships terrorists could otherwise exploit.

Cooperation, of course, doesn’t always work. Sometimes the passions of war run too high and ideological differences too deep for either side to realize the legitimacy of the other. Then, too, ideo-logical differences become complicated, forcing in-dividuals to battle for survival rather than contem-plate their philosophical commitments. The situation in Syria is a case in point. Negotiations between the

Syrian government and the UN halted in February 2014 and have seen little progress since.6 A rebel faction once composed largely of people rioting for democracy has been swamped with radical jihadists.6 This is undoubtedly a war of ideas, but each side is entangled in many different and complex ideologies. We

can only be certain that the bloodshed continues. In the face of conflicts like this, we should con-

tinue to pursue energetic diplomatic efforts in hopes that the ideological fervor on each side will cool. And we can focus our own military strategy not on converting hearts and minds, but on limiting vio-lence and saving lives. Unlike many of the citizens of Syria, the United States has the luxury of choosing whether and how it goes to war. Let’s choose wisely.

The question for world leaders now is this: will we make these

current conflicts into wars of ideas?

Artwork by Jessica Herrmann. Derived from “Fountain Pen” by Robert Howie, via Flickr, Creative Commons Attribution.

One Of DnA’s biggest enemies is its own envi-ronment. Environmental factors such as UV light and toxic chemicals lead to widespread damage to our DNA, at rates as high as one million times per

cell per day.1 Left unchecked, DNA damage would so rapidly deteriorate our genome that we would not live to be more than eight years old. Fortunately, various mechanisms exist to repair damaged DNA, although they are not fully understood. The Mara Prentiss lab, a biophysics group in the Harvard University Physics Department, studies a particular form of DNA dam-age known as a double-strand break, or an interrup-tion to both of DNA’s strands at one location.2 At the Prentiss lab, we are investigating a mechanism by which E.Coli repairs double-strand breaks in DNA (this mechanism has close analogs in eukaryotes).2 In doing so, we hope to better understand some funda-mental physical challenges inherent to DNA repair.

When DNA in E. Coli experiences a double strand break, the mechanism responsible for repairing such breaks finds an intact DNA fragment in the cell that is identical in sequence to the broken one. This intact version can then be used as a template to repair the damaged strand.3 But how does the damaged DNA discriminate the correct template sequence from all the other sequences in the genome? The answer in-volves stability. When the damaged DNA finds its correct template, the two molecules will pair up and form a stable complex. Meanwhile, an incor-rect match is relatively unstable. There is, however, an intermediate level of stability: sometimes, the matches are only partially correct. For example, the fragments may share only their first six “letters,” or base pairs, but differ in the rest of their sequence. Such pairings, while not as stable as fully matched pairings, are still somewhat stable. Therefore, the re-pair system may waste time on these partial match-es.3 Time is crucial in DNA repair, since there are

COVERS


Fighting DNA Damage By Amir Bitran

Image by Tom Ellenberger via WashingtonUniversity School of Medicine in Saint Louis. Creative Commons Attribution.

COVERS


5 million base pairs in the bacterial genome to be scanned,4 and only one (or a few) correct templates.5

Given that both partial and correct matches are relatively stable, how does damaged DNA efficiently discriminate between them? A potential solution lies in the fact that, for a pairing to be tight, the DNA molecules must be aligned in parallel — angled in-teractions are weak. This is true of both partial and complete matches. When a damaged molecules “tests” a potential partner, the two generally col-lide at a random angle. Thus, we believe that par-tial matches never form a strong interaction due to this angle, and come apart instantly. But when the colliding sequenc-es match, we hypothesize, based on previous work,5 that an electrostatic attraction brings them into align-ment to form a tight pairing. This at-tractive force would ensure that the system is efficient,6 as it only ever affects correct matches. Our goal is to model this electrostatic attraction using a computational model known as a Metrop-olis Monte Carlo simulation, and assess whether it could plausibly align matching DNA sequences.

To align the two DNA fragments, this force must be strong enough to overcome thermal motion (the random jiggling of molecules), which makes it hard to lock the fragments into a complex. Our simulation seeks to test if this force is in fact strong enough. To assess this, the program first assigns the DNA fragments an initial collision angle. Then, the frag-ments attempt to take random “steps” in space. If the step brings DNA fragments into closer align-

ment, it is always accepted by the program, since the attractive force makes such a step plausible. But what if the step moves the molecules apart, against the force? In nature, molecules will occasionally move against an attractive force due to their ther-mal motion. Accordingly, our program occasionally accepts force-defiant steps as well. The simulation ends as once the DNA fragments have successfully aligned, or after a minimum number of steps have passed without alignment. If we find that the DNA fragments align in most trials, then the electrostatic force may be strong enough to overcome thermal

motion. This would suggest that the force may be key in helping dam-aged DNA find a template for repair.

Our computational model can improve our understanding of the critical, physically complex process of DNA repair. But the project’s cen-tral question — how two molecules self-assemble into one correct struc-ture — has larger implications. Self-as-

sembly is a theme in biology: lipids form membrane bilayers, amino acid chains fold into 3D proteins, and proteins assemble into macromolecular machines. In all these cases, the system must rapidly discriminate a correct, optimally-stable conformation from many incorrect, partially-stable ones, while overcoming disruptive thermal motion. Our project represents a specific example of self-assembly and thus pro-vides a gateway into a universal question in biology.3

Our model can improve our

understanding of the process of DNA repair.

FEATURES


“Is not lIfe a hundred tImes too short for us to bore ourselves?”1 This question, posed by the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, tends to provoke unanimous and instinctive agreement.

Lately, science has been offering us a creative way to use spare time that might otherwise be “boring”. Care to map the brain’s connections or help NASA detect near-Earth objects on a lazy Sunday morn-ing? With the advent of “crowdsourcing,” you can.

“Crowdsourcing” is the process of assigning the task of information gathering to a “crowd.” And, in this case, that crowd consists of us — the population at large. Originally coined by Jeff Howe back in 2006,2 the concept of crowdsourc-ing has rapidly found its way into many areas of life, from political mapping to collaborative music. Similarly, crowdsourcing in the sciences enables in-dividuals to piece together small bits of one very large puzzle. And it’s all done from the comfort

of one’s home, making crowdsourcing the fun, online version of mass scientific data collection.

The key to crowdsourcing lies in its apparent simplicity. In the sciences, these projects large-ly manifest themselves as games. Take for exam-ple “Eyewire,”2 created by Dr. Sebastian Seung and his laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In attempting to understand how motion is detected, Dr. Seung and his team cre-ated a game that allows users, or “Eyewirers,” to trace individual neurons in a complicated and high-ly tangled network of connections in the retina. To do this, a three-dimensional reconstruction of the pathway is created using images of very thin brain slices. The reconstruction allows Eyewirers to identify the pathways of individual neurons by coloring in their branches. In the end, Dr. Seung and his team used this information to demonstrate the complex structure of certain retinal cells.2 Dr.

The People’s Project: Crowdsourcing Scientific Research

by Atrin Toussi

FEATURES


Seung’s recently published findings can be found in the May 4th issue of Nature, along with credit to the 2,183 Eyewirers who contributed to his findings.

Aside from Eyewire, examples of crowdsourcing science abound. One includes the game “Foldit,” which allows users to compete with one another to figure out the shape of specific proteins implicated in disease. Another, non-gaming example, “Galaxy Zoo,”3 allows visitors to view images taken of the Uni-verse in order to classify galax-ies based on their shapes. More cases of crowdsourced science can be found at zooniverse.org, though even these are only a few of the many current proj-ects looking for volunteers to donate their idle computer time.

Without a doubt, crowd-sourcing is pushing its way onto the scientific radar. Yet it remains to be seen if it is a positive direction for sci-ence to be taking. Yes, the pace of scientific discover-ies will quicken and the breadth of human knowledge may increase. But is the kind of data generated by non-specialists reliable? One method by which some of these projects have chosen to address quality con-trol is by selecting only their best players to contrib-ute to their work. For example, Foldit’s premise of competition allows for a built-in system of quality

control, while Eyewire’s ability to screen and choose only the best Eyewirers lends itself to reliability.

There are, however, other cases in which crowd-sourcing could pose problems for the “crowd” itself. In projects where researchers pull information from participants as part of their research, confidentiality

could become an issue.4 Sen-sitive data from users must sometimes be collected, but it must always be protect-ed. Walking on such a fine line could be risky for both scientists and those partici-pating in the crowdsourcing effort. But we can learn to navigate this path successful-ly as crowdsourcing matures and game-creators address more studies in which they must manage users’ privacy.

In spite of these con-cerns, crowdsourcing is a

concept brimming with potential. It is engaging. It is cost-effective. It can be used to monitor disease, gather data, and connect the vast array of minds all over the world. Crowdsourcing hints at the advent of a new age in which specialists and non-special-ists can learn from each other and work togeth-er. And maybe we’ll all bore ourselves a little less.

Crowdsourcing in the sciences enables individuals to piece together small bits of one very large puzzle.

Image via Pexels. Creative Commons Attribution.

FEATURES


Many of us, as busy college students, know the delirious heaviness of an all-nighter or the slow, in-sidious apathy provoked by days of sleep depriva-tion. It turns out that sleep is not just a questionably necessary inconvenience that our moms don’t think we get enough of. A new study done by German sci-entist Maria Antonietta Tosches and her colleagues suggests that our need for sleep has been encoded deep within our DNA throughout our evolutionary history. Dubbed the “hormone of darkness,” mela-tonin is a chemical that regulates our 24-hour Cir-cadian rhythm and sleep patterns. Secreted by the pineal gland in response to light-dependent signals from the eye, melatonin syncs our bodies with na-ture and tells us when it’s dark and when it’s light out. It is responsible for our grogginess during late night work sessions and the inescapable lethargy of jet lag. And now for the first time, Tosches and her colleagues hypothesize that melatonin-related processes are around 700 million years old, origi-nating in little aquatic worms called zooplankton. Known more precisely as Platynereis dumerilii, this marine invertebrate is very different from humans

and mammals, but the processes that regulate its day-night cycle bear striking resemblances to ours.

Tosches and her colleagues studied melatonin’s role in the day-night cycles of 2-day-old larvae of these worms. As larvae, the worms are still in their developmental “infancy” and exhibit very intriguing circadian activity. During the night, these larvae sink steadily towards the ocean depths, but as dawn arrives, they start beating their cilia — small filaments on their bodies — back and forth, propelling themselves upward toward the surface of the ocean. By the time they reach the surface at dusk, their cilia stop beating and they slowly sink to the bottom to repeat the cycle.1

Based on this observation, the lab was able to find a link between melatonin activity in the worms and their daily, cyclic behavior. They first discov-ered that melatonin synthesis occurred in the same part of the worm’s brain that regulates the beating of the cilia. They then found that these melatonin synthesis and signaling genes are turned on at night, just like in humans. Moreover, they identified mel-atonin as the chemical that arrests cilia activity by binding to receptors on cilia motor neurons and

an ancient phenomenon: SleepBy Alan Yang

FEATURES


inducing the neurons with rhythmic bursts of elec-tric signals that override their usual beating activity.1

Overall, Tosches’ group’s findings pinpointed mel-atonin as the regulator of the intriguing day-night, up-down motion of these zooplankton worms. Since melatonin is the primary sleep hormone in humans, the worms’ up-and-down displacement in the ocean’s waters can be thought of as an analogue of our sleep cycle. During the day, they begin swimming to the surface to feed on other organisms. During the night, they fall back to the depths to avoid predators. We, on the other hand, are awake during the day and sleep during the night when the pi-neal gland behind our ears secretes melatonin based on the waning levels of sunlight we detect with our eyes. Just as melatonin syncs our wakefulness and slumber to the rise and fall of the sun, the worms also use melatonin to coor-dinate their vertical displacement with the presence of sunlight.

These seminal findings are changing the way we understand the evolutionary history of sleep. The molecular mechanisms of melatonin and Circadian activity in the worms are early predecessors of the

highly-specialized melatonin-mediated sleep rhythms found in many vertebrates. In the grand scheme of things, this discovery suggests that the origins of other human brain patterns can perhaps be traced back to ancient marine organisms. Indeed, Tosches comments, “Life evolved in the ocean, but unfor-tunately we cannot go back 600 million years and watch what happened. But studying marine ecology and neurobiology can still tell us something about where our brains come from”.2 It seems that sleep,

attuned to nature’s cycles light and darkness, has been around for much longer than we thought.

These seminal findings are changing the way we understand the evolutionary history of sleep.

Photo by Mohammed Badarin via Flickr, Creative Commons Attribution. Modified by Silvia Golumbeanu.

FEATURES


References???

Doug Melton, a Xander University Pro-fessor at Harvard, recently published break-through research that brings a cure for Type I diabetes closer to reality than ever.

In Type I diabetes, the immune system attacks the body’s own insulin-producing beta cells in the pancre-as. Since insulin is a hormone that promotes the uptake of glucose from the bloodstream by the body’s cells, diabetics cannot absorb glucose from the food they eat.

Blood sugar levels that are either too high or too low can have detrimental effects on the body. Thus five times a day, diabetics prick their skin to test their blood sugar levels, and use these to estimate how much artificial insulin to inject into their bodies. This routine is both a great inconvenience to the patient and only a crude solution to the problem. Indeed, es-timating the right amount of insulin to take requires more than just knowledge of blood sugar levels. Di-abetics also need to take into account factors such as whether they have just eaten a meal or exercised.

After over two decades of research, Melton’s lab has found a way to turn embryonic stem cells — non-differentiated cells obtained from human embryos — into normal, function-ing beta cells. We are now just a few steps away from a commercial cure for Type I diabetes.

Professor Melton explained, “Embryonic stem cells can make any part of the body. The question becomes: Why not turn stem cells into beta cells for transplantation?” With this goal in mind, his lab did an intensive study on the different biochem-ical agents that participate in the complex process whereby embryonic stem cells differentiate into beta cells. By adding these same agents to embryonic

Doug Melton’s Groundbreaking

Diabetes Research

Towards A Cure

By Alan Yang

Left: Stem cells. Image via pixabay. Creative Commons Public Domain. Right: Photo by George Shuklin via Wikimedia Commons. Creative Commons Attribution.

FEATURES


stem cells in the lab, he was able to guide stem cells through the long series of developmental stages to-ward beta cell differentiation via a 30-day process.1

Melton’s lab is the first in the world to gener-ate beta cells from stem cells successfully, a feat that opens the door to an unlimited supply of beta cells with which we can treat the estimated 347 million people worldwide with diabetes.2 His lab’s 30-day process could generate beta cells in quan-tities large enough for widespread patient use. Melton said, “One should never forget that the goal should be doing it for patients — at scale.” He hopes to start clinical trials within three years.

But evidence that the cells could be successful is already here. When Melton’s research group tested its lab-produced beta cells by transplanting them into diabetic mice, the mice started producing their own insulin and were cured of their diabetes. The Melton group also wants to test the beta cells in monkeys.

Despite his success in treating mice, Melton said, “This is not yet a complete cure for diabetes. We still need to put the cells in people … and protect them from their immune systems.” But when comparing the task of making beta cells to that of transplant-ing them successfully into humans, Melton said, “We’ve solved the harder of the two problems. I can’t imagine that it will take 15 years until a cure is on the mar-ket. I’m now ener-gized to go faster.”

Type I Diabetes is a condition that affects Professor Melton very personally. He and his wife, Gail O’Keefe, have a daughter Emma and a son Sam, both of whom have Type I diabetes. After Sam’s di-

agnosis at just six months old, Gail left school to care for him, which was like an around-the-clock job. With Gail’s support from home, Professor Melton began to focus his research on finding a cure for diabetes. Professor Melton said, “I don’t deny that [my children] are the motivating factors for me.”

Harvard University’s support helped Professor Melton to use that motivation to its fullest poten-tial. This support included the founding of the Har-vard Stem Cell Institute, the world’s largest collab-orative of stem cell scientists, of which Melton is a co-director. He said, “ I’ve benefited enormous-ly from being at a private institution, from philan-thropic funds from alumni, and from full-throttle university support.” The investment was no doubt a sound one: Melton’s research could help reduce the cost of diabetes to the American healthcare system, which was 245 billion dollars in 2012.3

Professor Melton emphasized that the peo-ple in his lab, including the students and post-docs, also made an enormous difference in his success. “I’m so proud of them for joining me and working on this,” he said. “There is no sense in which this is my work. This is a team effort.”

And it’s been a team effort for a worthy goal. With a cure for Type I diabetes based on

Melton’s research, diabetics would no longer have to monitor blood sugar and worry about everything they ate. “They would treat meals the way you and I do: what do

I feel like eating?” Melton said. “It will truly be a life-changing therapy.”

FEATURES


Before I knew MartIn Berger’s naMe, I called him “the skulls guy.” Berger, a PhD stu-dent in Latin American Archaeology at the Uni-versity of Leiden, is indeed spending his sum-mer studying human skulls. But his work is less about the macabre mystique of human heads and more about a long epic of art, history and deceit.

A summer fellow at Dumbarton Oaks, Harvard’s research library and collection in Washington, D.C, Berger aims “to study the appearance of turquoise mosaics from Mexico on the art market in the 20th century.” Among the Dumbarton Oaks col-lection of pre-Columbian objects (that is, objects from Latin Amer-ica before the time of Spanish colonization) are three turquoise mosaics decorating human skulls, and a fourth ornamenting a wood-en disk. But there’s a twist: the objects are probably fakes. Berger explained that Javier Urcid, an anthropology pro-fessor at Brandeis University, determined that the skulls’ materials and iconography didn’t match those of real art from the Pre-Columbian time period. Though the skulls and their mosaics separately ap-pear to date from Pre-Columbian times, the com-bination is likely new. “I come at it with a kind of

different angle, because I’m already prepared to ac-cept that [the artifacts] are fake, and now I’m looking at who faked them, and when and where and why,” Berger said. “It was for money, that’s quite clear.”

Berger thinks that real Mesoamerican skull art, of the kind found in a 1932 archaeological investigation in Oaxaca, Mexico, could have formed the inspira-tion for the fakes. A curator at the National Museum of World Cultures in the Netherlands, Berger had previously done research on such probable fakes

in his own museum’s collection. He hopes to compare them with those at Dumbarton Oaks to de-termine whether the same art dealer could have faked both col-lections. “I’m comparing them in terms of styles and materials and techniques,” Berger said. “And at the same time I’m doing litera-ture study, trying to locate similar items in different museums and

reading up on actual Mesoamerican practices relat-ing to the decoration of skulls, the use of mosaic, the use of turquoise and the meaning of turquoise.”

So why are these old fakes of interest to contem-porary scholars? “These artifacts are really power-ful,” Berger said. “This was somebody’s father or child … and their skulls were dug up and decorated

Of Skulls and StoriesBy Jessi Glueck

This was some-body’s father or child ... and their skulls were dug up and decorated with mosaics.

FEATURES

BREVIA Spring 2015brevia.hcura.org

with mosaics. That’s … mind-bog-gling.” According to Berger, Mesoamerica, an area defined by similar cultural attributes that stretches roughly from the U.S. border to El Salvador, is often portrayed by popular culture as savage and unciv-ilized. The fact that a faker of artifacts from this region chose to make art out of human skulls demonstrates the preva-lence of that stereotype. “Meso-american peoples are almost always portrayed as bloodthirsty, very sav-age, sacrificing people whenever they have the chance,” Berger said. “This kind of artifact … resonates well with how Mesoamerica has been portrayed.”

This was somebody’s father or child … and their skulls were dug up and decorated with mosaics.”

Berger explained that the international art mar-ket in the 1950s is itself an exciting area of study. “People go into a tomb, dig up some stuff, put it back together; they sell it to some dodgy art dealer in Mexico … it’s almost like a detective story,” Berg-er said. He described the experience of finding a letter from a man who had sold one of the skulls to the founders of Dumbarton Oaks. The man had journeyed to a Mexican village to obtain a skull, had his wallet and ID stolen, and been forced to walk 16 miles back. “I … see it in my head, how this guy’s in a village walking around with this Mesoamerican mask, and his wallet’s stolen, and he’s like, ‘I have

to walk 16 miles!’” Berger said. “You get these … cool stories.”

Berger’s fascination with great stories is his motivation in his other studies, too. At the University of Leiden, he is working on a dissertation about the Mesoamerican ball

game, which has been played continuously in some form from before Spanish coloni-

zation until today. “My PhD is not really hardcore archaeology,” Berger said. “I really like work-

ing with people, not just being in a site and excavating … but actually

talking to people about what they feel, what they think, about their life

histories.” The type of game play that exists today, Berger said, is probably Euro-

pean in origin. “It’s an indigenous ball game in the sense that it was assimilated by indigenous peoples, but the way of playing was originally European, so it’s really a symbiosis between the two,” Berger said.

For Berger, the ball game represents anoth-er kind of symbiosis: one between archaeology and anthropology, between the past and the pres-ent. “I think it’s the kind of topic which has both an archaeological and anthropological side, be-cause it’s still being played,” Berger said. “It’s this continuity which really appealed to me.”

Photo by Martin Berger. National Museum of Ethnology, Leiden, The Netherlands.

33

OPINION

BREVIA Spring 2015 brevia.hcura.org34

intellectual property debates in the United States focus on squabbles between mul-tibillion-dollar companies. In the summer of 2014, Apple and Samsung sued each other over patent infringements, which resulted in each company paying the other millions of dollars.1

Another significant intellectual property is-sue, though, involves researchers at universities. These researchers often have ground-breaking results that can be easily monetized. For exam-ple, scientists at Harvard University discovered a potential treatment for Type I diabetes.2 When pharmaceutical companies make such discov-eries, they file patents which can earn them mil-lions of dollars. But to whom is a patent award-ed for a discovery at a university, an institution

supported by both private and public funds? In the 1980s, the U.S. federal government passed

the Bayh-Dole Act, which allows a university us-ing public funds for research to keep any patents the university produces.3 Before this act, inven-tions (new drugs, technology, etc.) developed at universities using government funding had to give their ownership of the invention to the federal government. Now, universities maintain owner-ship of the inventions and can file patents.3 Pat-ents safeguard the university’s ownership because they make it impossible for any other institution or business to legally recreate the invention. The university can license these patents to businesses, which commercialize these patented inventions to make money.4 Businesses then pay royalties

Photo from Seattle Municipal Archives via Flickr. Creative Commons Attribution.

Rewards for ResearchBy Nicolas Ontiveros

OPINION


Researchers are being

stripped of a reward for creating an innovation.

which are shared between the university and the inventor. It’s important to note that the universi-ty gets to decide how much to pay the inventor.5

The Bayh-Dole Act was important in stream-lining innovation in the United States. Instead of inventions being lost in bu-reaucratic paper-work, busi-nesses could market these inventions to consumers and become very profitable, thus helping the economy. But what about the scientists con-ducting the actual research?

The lack of control re-searchers have over their in-ventions is alarming. Con-sidering the time, effort, and ingenuity these scientists pour into research, the scientist should have con-trol, not some university official who did not put in the long hours in the lab. Ultimately, researchers are being stripped of a reward for creating an in-vention. If I were to create some invention in my garage and patent it, I have the right to do what-ever I want with the patent. I could start a busi-ness based on the invention or license the idea to a business of my choosing. People who invent things in university laboratories instead of in garages are actually at a kind of disadvantage, because the uni-versities dictate what happens with the patents.

There is a fundamental difference between the garage inventor and the university researcher: uni-versities provide resources (facilities, faculty, etc.) that aid research. But a lot of research funding

comes from the government or non-profit orga-nizations. Universities are seldom using their own money to create inventions. Therefore, why do they have a right to own the intellectual property of re-searchers? Universities should be vehicles for inno-

vation. They should not be mon-ey-making machines that use researchers as a means to an end.

It could be argued that uni-versities will use the money they earn to fund more research and do other worthy things. But there is nothing inevitable about this. Private universities des-perate for cash can spend extra money on just about anything they like, from new student cen-ters to stock market investments.

The university may profit from investing the roy-alties, but the profits are unjustified since all of the royalties belong to the researcher. Royalties should directly benefit the researcher, not other people in the university who did not put on a lab coat.

Ultimately, the relationship between research-er and university needs to be flipped: researchers should own the patents, and the right to license those patents. Although this is unlikely to oc-cur since many research universities want full possession of a researcher’s intellectual proper-ty, federal lawmakers can take action by amend-ing the Bayh-Dole Act. Big tech companies may forever be suing each other over their smart-phones, but it’s time for the needs of universi-ty researchers to be brought into the limelight.

OPINION

36 BREVIA Spring 2015

Biomedical research depends heavily on laboratory testing in mice, rats, dogs, monkeys, and cell cultures for the development of new treat-ments for disease. As different as these animals are, a common thread runs throughout those used for laboratory tests: they are almost always male. Scientists have long avoided experimenting on female animals, fearing that their reproduc-tive cycles and hormone changes could confound the results of long and expensive trials.1 However, new studies suggest that excluding female animals from scientific research has led to major knowl-edge gaps.2 For example, the development of drugs known as statins, which are useful for reducing cholesterol, was done almost entirely in men. In

women, however, their benefits are much more limited.1 It is now clear that pre-clinical research must include female animals to remove gender in-equality from the development of new medicines.

A new initiative by the National Institutes of Health aims to change the nature of laboratory re-search to include tests on female animals.3 Citing evidence that the effects of certain medicines can be very different on females and males — Ambi-en, a commonly prescribed sleep-aid, was recently found to cause drowsiness in women for much lon-ger periods of time — the NIH Office of Research on Women’s Health recently announced a new poli-cy that will promote gender parity in research.3 The program began in October with a requirement that

brevia.hcura.org

Boys vs. GirlsBy Jackson Allen

Photo from Mycroyance via Flickr. Creative Commons Attribution.

scientists state the gender of any animals used in published experiments. Eventually it will be expanded to require that male and female animals be used in all NIH-funded re-search.3 The requirements do not stop with animals, how-ever, as scientists will also be required to identify the sex of cells used in their experi-ments, since differences be-tween “male” and “female” exist even at this level. Every human cell culture is derived from a single human donor, who may be male or female. Therefore, the difference between male and female cells is defined by the Y chromosome, which is not present in fe-males. “Each cell is either male or female,” Dr. Ja-nine A. Clayton, director of the NIH Office of Re-search on Women’s Health, recently told the New York Times, “and that genetic difference results in different biochemical processes within those cells”.1

The NIH expects to meet resistance from scien-tists as the new policy takes effect. In preparation for opposition, the NIH has launched a website that aims to answer questions scientists may have about the policy.4 Douglas Fields, a developmental neu-roscientist at the National Institute of Child Health and Development, is skeptical of the new policy. “I share the goals of the current approach,” he noted in a recent interview, “but my concern is that it will fail and cause a backlash among the public and un-dermine the effort”.2 Others who oppose the policy

claim it will create unneces-sary costs and difficulties in experimental design that will slow the progress of science.1 But the progress of science is already being restricted by experiments that ignore the differences between males and females. In addition, the NIH has already created new training programs focused on experimental design, and has made available more than $10 million to fund studies

that will include both male and female animals.4 Though different viewpoints exist on how to ap-

proach the problem, the necessity of a new policy to prevent discounting of women’s health is clear. While females are included in human clinical tri-als, one must remember that the development of drugs is an incredibly long and expensive process. By not including female animals in early pre-clin-ical research, we are blinding ourselves to import-ant differences that could alter the development of potential drugs early on. This represents a ma-jor improvement over current practice, which, in a practical sense, presumes that medicines affect male and females in the same way until the 11th hour of drug development: human clinical trials. And ultimately, including female animals in our research processes can only expand our base of knowledge. Females’ bodies seem to work different-ly from males’. It’s time to start understanding how.

OPINION


We are blinding ourselves to

important differences that could alter the

development of potential drugs early

on.

PRIMARY RESEARCH


Seeing Stellar Graveyards:Asteroid Detection Around White DwarvesBy Henry Lin

When stars like our sun die, they do so dra-matically, first expanding into a so-called red gi-ant and engulfing everything out to the orbit-al radius of the Earth and then shrinking to a size comparable to that of the Earth. The dense stellar corpse is known as a white dwarf.

Although the conversion of our Sun into a white dwarf will signal the death of the inner solar system as we know it, studying white dwarfs may provide insights into the early solar system. The reason is that the debris that is created from the red giant can pre-sumably coalesce into tiny rocky bodies, asteroids, and possibly new planets, via processes that might resem-ble what happened when the solar system was young.

Recent work has provided evidence for this pic-ture, as dusty debris disks have been found orbit-ing white dwarfs,1,2 and metals have been found on the surface of white dwarfs,1,2,4 which is surprising since metals should sink rapidly toward the center of white dwarfs. Both of these phenomena could be explained by a population of asteroids surrounding

white dwarfs.4 Asteroids could bombard the white dwarf, leaving behind metal debris on the white dwarf ’s surface. These asteroids could also get ripped apart by tidal forces due to the gravitational effect of the white dwarf, explaining the dusty disks, which also slowly deposit metals onto the white dwarf.1,2,4

Up until now, nobody has thought about finding these conjectured asteroids around white dwarfs, since the smallest objects we've detected around stars are about the size of Earth's moon. However, in a let-ter to the Astrophysical Journal, my mentor Avi Loeb and I pointed out that it is actually possible to detect such objects with existing and future telescopes.3

Our detection method relies on the fact that the difference between the thermal radiation (the light emitted by all objects as a function of their tempera-ture) from an orbiting object and thermal radiation from a white dwarf is dramatically enhanced com-pared to the difference one would expect if the same object were around a star like our Sun, since the small size of the white dwarf means that it is exceptionally

PRIMARY RESEARCH


Studying white dwarfs may provide insights into the early solar system.

Image by ESO/L. Calçada via Wikimedia Commons. Creative Commons Attribution.

dim. To use a crude analogy, we are searching for a fireflies around a candle instead of fireflies around an LED lamp. Furthermore, rocky objects much small-er than the moon have no atmospheres and are tid-ally locked to the white dwarf, mean-ing that it is always “day” on one side of the asteroid and always “night” on the other side. This means that even though we cannot resolve such tiny objects — that is, we cannot physically see them as objects separate from the white dwarf they surround — if we monitor a white dwarf over a period of a few days, we should be able to see a small sinusoidal variation in the rate of infrared photons hitting our tele-scope, as the rocky object alternatingly exposes its very hot day and its very cold night side. (Without tidal locking and the enhanced thermal con-trast, the temperature difference would be too small to detect). And the method should work except in the

special case where the orbital plane is perpendicular (or nearly perpendicular) to the line of observation.

We calculated that ground-based telescopes could detect objects with a mass as small as 1% of

our moon’s mass around nearby white dwarfs with a few hours of exposure.3 As the bigger and better scientific successor to Hubble, the James Webb Space Telescope, set to launch in 2018, may be able to detect objects as small as 0.1% the size of the moon around most nearby white dwarfs.3 We plan to put theory to the test by actually observing a few candidate white dwarfs in the coming months and looking

for the periodic signal we predicted. If we can relate the abundance of rocky objects around white dwarfs to the age of the white dwarf, we will for the first time be able to see planetary formation in action.

PRIMARY RESEARCH

40 brevia.hcura.org

A Strike Against Stroke: Increasing Bloodflow to the Brain

By Raul Jordan

The LymphaTic SySTem is an indispensable part

of our physiology that functions to drain away

excess products of the metabolism, called “metabolites,” from the body’s tissues. Without such a regulatory system to

maintain metabolites and fluid pressures at

their optimal levels in the body, our tissues and

organs would not have the right balance of nutrients to maintain

their functions. However, no extension of this crucial system exists in the human

brain. Its absence has led scientists to question how

the brain reacts to metabolic waste products that build up,

especially after life-threatening conditions such as brain hemorrhages.1 Some have hypothesized that there exists

a drainage system in the brain that drains waste as effectively as the lymphatic system, but so far no conclusive understanding of mechanisms has been achieved.2

The absence of a lymphatic system has dire consequences, especially in potentially deadly conditions such as stroke. In particular, stroke causes red blood cells to undergo physical stress, which causes them to ultimately burst and spill their contents — including large amounts of the oxygen-carrying molecule hemoglobin — into the brain’s bloodstream. Next, haptoglobin, an immune system protein, associates with hemoglobin into a complex that attracts certain white blood cells. The main job of white blood cells is to fight off infection and together, with haptoglobin, they release a large amount of inflammatory molecules that narrow the blood vessels in the brain. Because of this inflammation, the walls of the vessels come closer together and restrict the flow of blood. This can then lead to another stroke with an even more deadly result. Therefore, it is of serious consequence that the brain does not seem to have a drainage system and cannot clear inflammatory agents and other types of cellular waste once they have done their duty.

BREVIA Spring 2015

PRIMARY RESEARCH


Much progress has been made in understanding the pathways and side effects of stroke by simply identifying the haptoglobin-hemoglobin complex as the main target of this mechanism for possible treatments.3 My research, supervised by Juan Fernando Suazo in the Nova Lab in San Pedro Sula, Honduras, focused on discovering a possible mechanism of reducing the inflammatory capabilities of this haptoglobin complex4 in mice (Mus musculus). We began by prompting their bodies to produce molecules that widen blood vessels (vasodilation) whenever inflammatory molecules are sensed. This vasodilation was achieved by drugs known as cGMP-dependent phosphodiesterase inhibitors5, which stimulate the production of vasodilating molecules.

We then associated these drugs with a molecule that blocks the drug’s function until these blocking molecules sense large amounts of hemoglobin and internal red blood cell proteins and dissociate. This associated drug and drug-blocker can act as a regulatory mechanism that helps prevent the mortality of stroke by preventing the vessels from narrowing whenever a stroke occurs, which is one of the major consequences of stroke on the human body. At the same time, the drug-blocker keeps the drug from triggering excess vasodilation.

Two groups of mice were used to experimentally determine whether the use of this drug complex is effective in treating stroke. One group, with induced non-fatal stroke, was treated with the previously mentioned vasodilator-associated-blocker complex intravenously. The other was a control group of mice also induced with non-fatal stroke but left untreated. Over the course of 7 days, cranial

pressure (pressure underneath the skull) skyrocketed in the control group and correlated with a greater concentration of hemoglobin-haptoglobin in the blood as expected. The experimental group, however, showed an expected increase in cranial pressure during the first day, but then decreased to normal after the third day of intravenous treatment with the drug and drug blocker complex. Due to the biophysical law known as Poiseuille’s Law, narrowing, or vasoconstriction, of blood vessels leads to a large increase in pressure within the vessels themselves. The associated vasodilator-blocker-complex allowed the bodies of the mice to respond immediately and effectively to the vasoconstriction of the vessels.

As hard as it is to predict when the next onset of extreme blood vessel narrowing and its consequential spike of brain blood pressure of a patient can occur, we can engineer potential solutions that work independently of clinical monitoring, essentially making the treatment of stroke easier for those affected by this severe condition. The complex that was explored experimentally in mice gave strong insight into how the body might react dynamically to stroke, mitigating its deadly capabilities. While this solution is not yet an actual treatment for stroke, it is a step forward in understanding how we can design better solutions for medical problems that claim the lives of many, and build upon the limitations of human anatomy to create these powerful results.

Right: Red Blood Cell. Image via Wikimedia Commons. Creative Commons Attribution. Left: Artwork by Jessica Herrmann. Derived from image by Hannes Grobe via Wikimedia Commons. Creative Commons Attribution.

REFERENCES


COVERS06 War on Ebola

1. “2014 West Africa Outbreak.” Atlanta, GA: Center for Disease Control, 2014. Web. 18 Oct. 2014. 2. “Ebola in Guinea.” Atlanta, GA: Center for Disease Control, 2014. Web. 18 Oct. 2014. 3. Gire, Stephen K. et al. “Genomic surveillance elucidates Ebola virus origin and transmission during the 2014.” Science 345(6202):1369 1372. Web. 4. Hager, Emily B. and Christian Roman. “Modern Technologies and the Ebola Fight.” New York Times. 2 Oct. 2014. Web. 17 Oct. 2014. 5. Farmer, Paul. “Diary.” London Review of Books 36(20): 38 39. Print. 6. Moon, Suerie and Michael VanRooyen. “The Struggling International Response to Ebola: What can be learned about gaps in the global health system?” Harvard Global Health Institute. 16 Oct. 2014. Conversation.

08 One Hundred Years Later1. “Unfinished ‘Nuremberg.’” Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute. National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia, 2014. Web. 2 Nov. 2014. 2. “Frequently Asked Questions about the Armenian Genocide.” Armenian National Institute. Web. 2 Nov. 2014. 3. Carey, Andrea, “Millet System of the Ottoman Empire.” University of Washington in Seattle. Web. 16 Nov. 2014. 4. “11 Facts About the Armenian Genocide.” Do Something. Web. 5 Nov. 2014. 5. Smith, Roger W., Maruksen, Eric, Lifton, Robert Jay, “Professional Ethics and the Denial of the Armenian Genocide.” Holocaust and Genocide Studies 9:1, 1–22 (1995). Web. 16 Nov. 2014. 6. “Armenian Genocide.” United Human Rights Council. VIBSCO, 2014. Web. 2 Nov. 2014. 7. “Armenia – The First State To Officially Adopt Christianity.” University of South Florida Libraries. Web. 2 Nov. 2014.

12 The Horror Inside

1. Gradus, Jaimie L. “Epidemiology of PTSD.” Veterans Advocate. Web. 30 Jan. 2014. 2. Tanielian, Terri L., and Lisa Jaycox, eds. Invisible wounds of war: Psychological and cognitive injuries, their consequences, and services to assist recovery. Vol. 1. Rand Corporation, 2008. 3. Neria, Yuval, et. al. “Trauma and PTSD among Civilians in the Middle East.” PTSD Research Quarterly Vol. 21 No. 4, Fall 2010. 4. Beckett, Lois. “Why hospitals are failing civilians who get PTSD.” ProPublica. Web. 4 March 2014. 5. Davis, Glenn Craig, and Naomi Breslau. “Post traumatic stress disorder in victims of civilian trauma and criminal violence.” Psychiatric Clinics of North America (1994). 6. Shaheen, Kareem. “Lebanon ill equipped to handle mental health issues of Syrian refugee children.” Washington Post. Web. 27 Sept. 2014. 7. Inskeep, Steve and Ramos, Deborah. “2 Million Displaced Syrians Are Living ‘Rough’.” NPR. Web. 4 Jan. 2013. 8. Haseeb, Meena. “Youth addiction grows parallel with drug production in Afghanistan.” Khaama Press. Web. 29 May 2013. 9. Dzidic, Denis. “Bosnia Still Living with Consequences of War.” Balkan Insight. Web. 6 April 2012.

14 Harvard Students Serve

1. Ireland, Corydon. “Blue, gray, and Crimson: 150 years later, the Civil War echoes across Harvard.” Harvard Gazette. March 2012. Web.

16 Defend the Tomb

1. “Massive Explosion as ISIS destroys Jonah’s Tomb in Mosul.” YouTube, 25 July 2014. Web. 27 Oct. 2014. 2. Mamoun, Abdelhak. “ISIL Dug up Grave of Prophet Younis (biblical Jonah) in Mosul.” Iraqi News. 4 July 2014. 27 Oct. 2014. Web. 3. Mamoun, Abdelhak. “ISIL Destroys Mosque of Biblical Jonah, Prophet Yunus.” Iraqi News. 25 July 2014. Web. 27 Oct. 2014. 4. “List of World Heritage in Danger.” UNESCO World Heritage Centre. Web. 27 Oct. 2014. 5. “Syria death toll now exceeds 210,000.” Reuters. Web. 7 Feb. 2015. 6. Commins, David Dean. The Wahhabi Mission and Saudi Arabia. London: I.B. Tauris, 2006. Print. 7. Shahner, Christian C. “Syria’s ‘Blood Diamonds’” Wall Street Journal. 8 Sept. 2014. Web. 27 Oct. 2014. 8. Bokava, Irina. “Culture in the Cross Hairs.” New York Times. 2 Dec. 2012. Web. 27 Oct. 2014. 9. “No. 17512.” United Nations Treaty Collection. 23 Jan. 1979. Web. 27 Oct. 2014. 10. “Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict with Regulations for the Execution of the Convention.” UNESCO, 14 May 1954. Web. 27 Oct. 2014. 11. “Blue Shield - About ICBS.” International Committee of the Blue Shield. Web. 27 Oct. 2014.

1. Childress, James F. “The War Metaphor in Public Policy: Some Moral Reflections.” The Leader’s Imperative: Ethics, Integrity, and Responsibility. J. Carl Ficarrotta. West Lafayette, IN: Purdue UP, 2001. 187. Print. 2. Coleman, Michael P. “War on cancer and the influence of the medical industrial complex.” Journal of Cancer Policy (2013).

20 Beauty and Despair

1. Prescott, John F. In Flanders Fields: The Story of John McCrae. Erin, Ont.: Boston Mills Press, 1985. Print. 2. “Wilfred Owen.” BBC History. Web.

22 What We’re Fighting For

1. Echevarria, Antulio J. “Wars of ideas and the war of ideas.” Carlisle, PA: Strategic Studies Institute, U.S. Army War College. 2008. Web. 15 Oct. 2014. 2. Wood, Sara. “Plan Outlines Strategy for War on Terror.” United States Department of Defense. 6 Feb. 2006. Web. 3 Nov. 2014. 3. Hornick, Ed. “Recession hit Americans ‘a Little Sick’ of Iraq after 6 Years.” CNN. 13 March 2009. Web. 16 Oct. 2014. 4. Blair, Tony. “Fight War of Ideas against Extremism.” BBC News. 14 Oct. 2014. Web. 3 Nov. 2014. 5. Crowley, Michael. “Kerry Enlists Saudi King in War of Ideas Against ISIS.” Time. 15 Sept. 2014. Web. 3 Nov. 2014. 6. “Syria: The Story of Conflict.” BBC News. 13 March 2014. Web. 17 Oct 2014.

18 The War on Disease

27 Oct. 2014. 2. Hammond, Mason. South Transit Window. 1978. Stained Glass. Memorial Hall, Harvard University. 3. “World War I German Memorial.” The Memorial Church. Web. 27 Oct. 2014. 4. Ireland, Corydon. “‘The choicest of their kind’: How Harvard Responded to the Great War.” Harvard Gazette. July 2014. Web. 27 Oct. 2014. 5. “April 9, 1969: Harvard Students Occupy University Hall.” Mass Moments. Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities. Web. 27 Oct. 2014.

REFERENCES


24 Fighting DNA Damage

1. Clancy, Suzanne. “DNA Damage & Repair: Mechanisms for Maintaining DNA Integrity.” Nature Education 1(1):103 (2008). Web. 19 Oct. 2014. 2. Cromie, Gareth A., Connelly, John C., and Leach, David R.F. “Recombination at Double Strand Breaks and DNA Ends: Conserved Mechanisms from Phage to Humans.” Molecular Cell 8:6 (2001). Web. 10 Nov. 2014. 3. Jiang, Lili and Prentiss, Mara. “RecA mediated sequence homology recognition as an example of how searching speed in self-assembly systems can be optimized by balancing entropic and enthalpic barriers.” Physical Review Letters E 90, 022704 (2014). Web. 4. “Sequencing Projects.” Bacterial Pathogen Genome Sequencing Projects. Web. 11 Nov. 2014. http://www.genome.wisc.edu/. 5. Lavery, Richard, Maddrocks, John H., Pasi, Marco, and Zakrzewska, Krystyna. “Analyzing ion distributions around DNA.” Nucleic Acids Research 42:12 (2014). Web. 24 Oct. 2014. 6. Minsky, Abraham. “Structural aspects of DNA repair: the role of restricted diffusion.” Molecular Microbiology 50:2 (2003). Web. 24 Oct. 2014.

GENERAL26 The People’s Project

1. Nietzsche, Friedrich, “Beyond Good and Evil.” The Complete Works of Friedrich Nietzsche. Trans. Helen Zimmern. Project Gutenberg. 7 Dec. 2009. Web. 20 Oct. 2014. 2. Gorman, James. “Recruiting Help: Gamers.” New York Times. 26 May 2014. Web. 10 Oct. 2014. 3. “Galaxy Zoo.” GalaxyZoo.Org. Web. 09 Nov. 2014. 4. Halder, B. “Evolution of Crowdsourcing: Potential Data Protection, Privacy and Security Concerns under the New Media Age.” In Democracia Digital e Governo Eletrônico, Florianópolis, n°10, p. 377 393. 2014.

28 Sleep

1. Tosches, Maria A., Daniel Bucher, Pavel Vopalensky, and Detlev Arendt. “Melatonin Signaling Controls Circadian Swimming Behavior in Marine Zooplankton.” Cell 159 (2014): 46 57. Web. 1 Nov. 2014. 2. Brookshire, Bethany. “Melatonin and the Watery Beginnings of Sleep.” Society for Science & the Public. 7 Oct. 2014. Web. 1 Nov. 2014.

30 Towards a Cure

1. Pagliuca, Felicia W., Jeffrey R. Millman, Mads Gurtler, Michael Segel, Alana Van Devort, Jennifer Hyoje Ryu, Quinn P. Peterson, Dale Greiner, and Douglas A. Melton. “Generation of Functional Human Pancreatic β Cells In Vitro.” Cell 159.2 (2014): 428 39. Web. 1 Nov. 2014. 2. Danaei, Goodarz, Mariel M. Finucane, Yuan Lu, Gitanjali M. Singh, Melanie J. Cowan, Christopher J. Paciorek, John K. Lin, Farshad Farzadfar, Young Ho Khang, Gretchen A. Stevens, Mayuree Rao, Mohammed K. Ali, Leanne M. Riley, Carolyn A. Robinson, and Majid Ezzati. “National, Regional, and Global Trends in Fasting Plasma Glucose and Diabetes Prevalence since 1980: Systematic Analysis of Health Examination Surveys and Epidemiological Studies with 370 Country years and 2∙7 Million Participants.” The Lancet 378.9785 (2011): 31 40. Web. 11 Nov. 2014. 3. “Economic Costs of Diabetes in the

34 Rewards of Research

1. Satariano, Adam, and Joel Rosenblatt. “Apple, Samsung Agree to End Patent Suits Outside U.S.” Bloomberg.com. 6 Aug. 2014. Web. 20 Oct. 2014. 2. Mozes, Alan. “Stem Cell Success Raises Hopes of Type 1 Diabetes Cure.” WebMD. 9 Oct. 2 14. Web. 20 Oct. 2014. 3. Cervantes, Mario. “Academic Patenting: How Universities and Public Research Organizations Are Using Their Intellectual Property to Boost Research and Spur Innovative Start ups.” World Intellectual Property Organization. Web. 20 Oct. 2014. 4. “What Is Bayh Dole Act?” Colorado State University Research Foundation. Web. 3 Nov. 2014. 5. Loise, Vicki and Ashley Stevens. “The Bayh Dole Act Turns 30.” Les Nouvelles 2010: 185 194. Web. 18 Nov. 2014.

U.S. in 2012.” Diabetes Care 36.4 (2013): 1033 046. Web. 5 Nov. 2014.

36 Boys vs. Girls1. Rabin, R.C. “Labs Are Told to Start Including a Neglected Variable: Females.” New York Times. 14 May 2014. 2. Brookshire, B. “Is NIH Policy the Best Way to Sex Equality in Studies?” Science News. Society for Science & the Public. 26 Oct. 2014. 3. Clayton, J., and F. Collins. “NIH to Balance Sex in Cell and Animal Studies.” Nature 509 (2014): 282 83. 4. “Studying Sex to Strengthen Science: Questions & Answers.” National Institutes of Health Office of Research on Women’s Health. 25 June 2014.

38 Seeking Stellar Graveyards1. Gansicke, Boris. “A Gaseous Metal Disk Around a White Dwarf.” Science 314.5807 (2006). 2. Jura, Michael. “A Tidally Disrupted Asteroid around the White Dwarf G29 38.” The Astrophysical Journal 584.2 (2003). 3. Lin, Henry and Loeb, Abraham. “Finding Rocky Asteroids around White Dwarfs by Their Periodic Thermal Emission.” The Astrophysical Journal Letters 793.2 (2014). 4. Farihi, Jay et. al. “Rocky planetesimals as the origin of metals in DZ stars.” Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 404.4 (2010).

40 A Strike Against Stroke

1. Weller, Roy O., Effie Djuanda, Hong-Yeen Yow, and Roxana O. Carare. “Lymphatic Drainage of the Brain and the Pathophysiology of Neurological Disease.” Acta Neuropathologica 117.1 (2009): 1-14. Web. 2. Yuhas, Daisy. “How the Brain Cleans Itself.” Nature (2012). Web. 3. Kiga, Chizuru, Hiroaki Sakurai, Hirozo Goto, Kazuko Hayashi, Yutaka Shimada, and Ikuo Saiki. “Proteomic Identification of Haptoglobin as a Stroke Plasma Biomarker in Spontaneously Hypertensive Stroke-prone Rats.” Life Sciences 83.17-18 (2008): 625-31. Web. 4. Holme, Ingar, Are H. Aastveit, Niklas Hammar, Ingmar Jungner, and Göran Walldius. “Haptoglobin and Risk of Myocardial Infarction, Stroke, and Congestive Heart Failure in 342,125 Men and Women in the Apolipoprotein MOrtality RISk Study (AMORIS).” Annals of Medicine 41.7 (2009): 522-32. Web. 5. Bode-Boger, S. M., R. H. Boger, H. Alfke, D. Heinzel, D. Tsikas, A. Creutzig, K. Alexander, and J. C. Frolich. “L-Arginine Induces Nitric Oxide Dependent Vasodilation in Patients With Critical Limb Ischemia: A Randomized, Controlled Study.” Circulation 93.1 (1996): 85-90. Web.

on the cover

— Kara BirkenmayerFall 2014 HCURA Research Photography Competition Co-Winner

Desolation: The majestic dunes of Namibia shield the stark, lesser-known beauty of the pans. These dead acacia trees were photographed with my back to one of the tallest dunes in the world — the aptly named “Big Daddy”, which is over 1000 feet tall. The black trees, situated in the oldest desert in the world, have been dead for over 900 years; it is too dry for them to decay.

BREVIA is a forum for science, culture, and other big ideas. We are committed to bringing all disciplines of research out of the ivory tower and into the discourse of the interested public. Through our opinion, features, and primary research articles, we explore the myriad connections in the world of intellectual endeavor. Our stories are brief because we want to make knowledge accessible and interesting, providing a palette of perspectives on the world around us.

BreviaVolume 2 • Issue 2 • Spring 2015

brevia.hcura.org

brevia, spring 2015

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