andoverscienceandtechreview

18Jun

By andoverscienceandtechreviewNo Comments

Technology

8 Questions with Nicholas Thompson ‘93 (PAA), CEO of The Atlantic and Former Editor in Chief of Wired Magazine

By: Zadie Robinson ‘26 Nicholas Thompson, an esteemed American technology journalist and media executive, has left a memorable mark on the world of digital journalism and technology discourse. With a career spanning pivotal roles at Wired, The Atlantic, and The New Yorker, Thompson's journey reflects the evolving nature of journalism in the digital age. As the former editor-in-chief of Wired and editor of New Yorker, his tenure witnessed the implementation of digital paywalls, resulting in significant increases in digital subscriptions, a testament to his strategic insight in navigating the shifting tides of media monetization. Throughout his career, he has remained deeply engaged in discussions about the intersection of technology, media, and society, grappling with complex ethical con...

Temperature Rise, Brain Decline: Unraveling the Neurological Impact of Climate Change

16Nov

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Biology

Temperature Rise, Brain Decline: Unraveling the Neurological Impact of Climate Change

By Anaya Qamar Is global warming frying our brains? Recently, experts search for the answer to this new question, noting shifts in how the human brain reacts to environmental change. Climate change is notorious for its increasing impact on our environment and ever changing surroundings. While it significantly changes our current world within natural occurring conditions, it affects our brain by consistently altering the stimuli that we face. Our brain almost entirely revolves around external impact and stimuli to formulate an educated response with the rest of the human body. One key source of the brain's response lies in the literal atmosphere that surrounds your body- temperature and the air we breathe. In order to function, the human brain needs a stable environment, to balance t...

Carbon Capture: The Hidden Race Behind the Climate Crisis

16Nov

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Biology, Technology

Carbon Capture: The Hidden Race Behind the Climate Crisis

By Ophelia Lee Carbon capture has been on the rise as a new method to combat the climate crisis. Major companies like ExxonMobile and Occidental Petroleum are vying to be the first to implement this technology on a large scale. While this growing industry is fueled by the fear of climate change, it’s also incentivised by the potential profits within these carbon capture technologies. Each year, over thirty-six billion tonnes of carbon are emitted, contributing to the greenhouse effect, and, in turn, increases in extreme weather which destroys ecosystems and displaced millions of people each year. To prevent irreversible damage, the United Nations projects that carbon emissions must be reduced by forty-five percent by 2030 and reach net zero by...

Feeding the Future: Climate Change and Declining Farm Productivity

16Nov

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Biology, Technology

Feeding the Future: Climate Change and Declining Farm Productivity

By Jeanne Kosciusko-Morizet Despite significant improvements in agriculture over the past sixty years, a Cornell study reveals that climate change has lowered worldwide farming production by twenty-one percent. Extreme weather and heat damage the global agricultural sector in multiple ways: increases in the number of fires, soil erosion due to stronger winds along with the changes in rainfall patterns, and biodiversity loss. Allowing scientists to create new species resistant to climatic conditions, the genetic diversity of plants has always been an essential factor to farm productivity. However, because of global warming, a quarter of all wild species are expected to disappear within the next 50 years. With only 150 commonly cultivated plant species left—of which...

16Nov

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Technology

The Future of Sustainable Footwear

By Jay Jung As one of the most pressing threats to humanity, climate change bears increasing weight in consumer decisions. Ultimately, consumers want to know that their products are produced sustainably. In the fashion industry, one result has been numerous companies are working towards reengineering their company and products to be more eco-friendly; specifically, these efforts were shown in sports footwear produced from leading companies, Nike and Adidas. Still, within these developments remains an uncompromisable struggle between performance and sustainability and limited accessibility . One iconic product, the one which began the sustainable footwear market, is the Nike Space Hippie. Space Hippie, released on June 11th, 2020, is a series of sustainable shoes made out of lef...

NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART): Hitting the Bullseye in Planetary Defense Development

1Jun

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Physics, Technology

NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART): Hitting the Bullseye in Planetary Defense Development

By Logan Eskildsen In an age of rapid, multifaceted technological development, aerospace organizations continue to investigate practical solutions to issues that the cosmos, specifically asteroids, may impose on our planet. Among these fascinating developments, a collection of scientists from NASA and John Hopkins University’s Applied Physics Laboratory made a headlining breakthrough with their Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART), surfacing global news in September 2022. Tasked with creating a device to mitigate the paths of near-Earth objects (NEOs) in November 2021, the team devised a plan to collide a human-made spacecraft into a nearby asteroid and observe if the impact yielded significant changes. Didymos, meaning “twin” in Greek and hence the derivation of “double” within t...

Moving Towards a Healthy Mind: The Impact of Exercise on Alzheimer’s Disease

1Jun

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Biology

Moving Towards a Healthy Mind: The Impact of Exercise on Alzheimer’s Disease

By Wendi Zheng What is Alzheimer’s Disease, and How Might Exercise Help? Alzheimer’s Disease (AD), the common cause of dementia, affects tens of millions of people worldwide and is expected to triple by 2050. AD is not only memory loss; the devastating disease chips away at the patient, causing behavior changes, impairing communication, and eventually taking away one’s ability to perform simple tasks, until they near total dependency on a caretaker’s assistance. Although the main risk factor for AD is old age, environmental factors such as climate change and air pollution also increase the likelihood of developing the disease, which may prove to be increasingly problematic in the future. Scientists have long sought to understand this disease and find effective treatments or, better y...

1Jun

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Technology

A Spectrum of Hydrogen

By Sebastian Lemberger Climate change has turned the future of the energy sector into a puzzle. By 2050, the world must become zero-carbon in order to stave off the progression of the climate crisis, but the way that this shift will occur is yet to be determined. For many, the key to the energy sector’s advancement is the developing field of hydrogen fuel. However, the adoption of hydrogen fuel presents a set of problems pertaining to long-term sustainability that raise the question, is the technology worth adopting at all? As of 2023, 99.6% of the hydrogen fuel produced globally is “gray hydrogen,” meaning hydrogen whose production causes the emission of greenhouse gasses. This is because the cheapest way to produce hydrogen fuel is by reacting hydrocarbons like methane with superhe...

Stem Cell Transplantations: A Possible Cure for HIV?

1Jun

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Biology

Stem Cell Transplantations: A Possible Cure for HIV?

By Ozochi Onunaku HIV is one of the most prevalent public health threats in the United States. More than 1.2 million people are currently living with the virus, and more than 35,000 new infections are reported each year. For decades, scientists from around the world have worked to find a cure with minimal success. However, a patient in Düsseldorf, Germany, has recently been cured of HIV with a stem cell transplant, making them the fifth person to be cured of HIV. The stem cell donor carried the HIV resistance genetic mutation known as CCRS-Δ32, which less than one percent of the population carries. This recent breakthrough in stem cell research has given medical professionals some level of hope in tackling the virus, but it simultaneously raises concerns regarding the effectiveness of t...

University of Rochester Researchers May Have Discovered a New Low-Pressure, Low-Temperature Superconductor

1Jun

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Technology

University of Rochester Researchers May Have Discovered a New Low-Pressure, Low-Temperature Superconductor

By Will Lucas Researchers at the University of Rochester may have made a groundbreaking discovery at the interface of physics, chemistry, and materials science. The research team, led by Dr. Ranga Dias, claims to have created a material that exhibits superconductivity at a temperature and pressure practical for industrial applications. The material, which superconductors at a temperature of sixty-nine degrees fahrenheit and a pressure of ten kilobars, or about 145,000 psi, is called a nitrogen-doped lutetium hydride (NDLH), but it has been affectionately dubbed “reddmatter” by the team due to its striking color at ambient pressure. Superconducting materials are able to conduct electricity without any energy loss. Though the superconductive pressure of 145,000 psi may sound high (ambi...