Good Morning Reader, Welcome to STEMlights!
This week, we will be discussing AI for climate change, spotlighting Mary Golda Ross, and as always, providing STEM opportunities for students.
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AI Tool for Climate Change
This year, a new application that uses cutting-edge picture recognition AI to foresee the future consequences of climate change on any location on the planet is now available. This project called “This Climate Does Not Exist” was created by a team of AI researchers alarmed by the dramatic increase in natural disasters across the globe. The team was interested in seeing what a place that is affected by wildfires, smog, and heavy flooding would look like. The project’s application allows users to enter their home address or favorite travel destination to see what they may look like years later when extreme weather events caused by global warming have taken their toll.
The AI tool has been used to generate pictures of Mt. Rushmore, Disneyland, the Eiffel Tower, and the Lincoln Memorial. This is important to know because climate change poses an existential threat to mankind. The tool is not meant to cause panic in people but to raise awareness of the devastating impact we, humans, have on the environment. The project offers a series of actions to take to reduce the anthropogenic causes of climate change. According to Michael Mann, professor of Atmospheric Science and Director of the Earth System Science Center at Penn State University, both individual and collective action is necessary to address the ongoing climate crisis. He says, “The bigger issue is that focusing on individual choices around air travel and beef consumption heightens the risk of losing sight of the gorilla in the room: civilization’s reliance on fossil fuels for energy and transport overall, which accounts for roughly two-thirds of global carbon emissions.”
To imagine what a place may look like years from now after climate change, click here. In addition, to determine your ecological footprint, click here.
Sand dunes begin to form when sand starts to pile up as a result of wind patterns, causing it to pile and create mounds on top of itself. Once the sand dune builds up to a certain point, it can no longer support itself and therefore begins to collapse in the direction of the wind. Once the dune reaches its point of collapse it exceeds its angle of repose, which is the angle (approximately 30-34°) at which the dune begins to give in and topple. The angle of repose is influenced by several factors including the size of the sand grains, their shape, and wind speeds. Different types of dunes include crescent-shaped barchan dunes, u-shaped parabolic dunes, vegetation-influenced nebkha dunes, and complexly-structured star dunes.
The Cheerios effect is an interaction between surface tension and gravity. Surface tension refers to the property of a liquid’s molecules to stick together without breaking apart. In the context of cereal, we notice how Cheerios often stick together and float in clumps. This is because the density of the cereal grains is less than the density of milk, allowing the milk’s surface tension to keep them floating above and hold their lighter mass distribution. Therefore, the cheerios will float along the milk’s surface and form small dents on the milk’s surface that attract other cheerios and their respective meniscus-shaped dents.
The marrow is a spongy substance or material found inside the bones, storing stem cells that hold the potential to develop into different types of blood cells. The white blood cells help with fighting infection while red blood cells aid in the process of transporting oxygen around the body. Marrow donations serve a crucial purpose because they help patients battling diseases like lymphoma or anemia, replacing damaged stem cells with healthy ones that can supply the body with enough blood. Anyone who meets a certain age range and necessary health guidelines can volunteer to join a registry coordinated by the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP). This registry is a list of potential donors that can match with a patient containing a certain stem cell tissue type. Click the link to learn how you can register!
Images from unsplash.com
Mary Golda Ross
Image from Wikipedia
Since the very first Thanksgiving, Indigenous peoples have shared their kindness and innovation to the world. Today we shine a light on one hidden figure in history who helped mankind leap into the space age.
Mary Golda Ross was a mathematician and engineer. She was a member of the Cherokee Nation and earned her master’s degree in 1938. Eventually, she worked her way up the ladder through the Lockheed company. She worked on the P-38 Lightning fighter plane which was used by the US Army Air Force. Her calculations worked towards space travel towards Venus and Mars. She was on the original team at Skunk Works, a team of scientists and engineers dedicated to solving the most critical national security challenges. She was also one of the founders at the forefront of aerospace engineering innovation studying ballistic missiles and other defense systems.
Growing up with a Native American education that championed equal education for boys and girls, Ross was never deterred when she was the only girl in her math classes. She grew up near the Cherokee Female Seminary which was one of the first women’s institutions of higher education west of the Mississippi. She continued to pay it forward in the Great Depression as she went to teach science and math in Oklahoma. Even after she retired from Lockheed at the age of 65, she continued teaching marginalized groups in technical education.
To commemorate her mathematical skills, she has been minted on the 2019 American Indian coin. Although much of her work is classified, she is highly regarded as one of the trailblazers in Native American visibility working in NASA. Humanity can be thankful for Ross as one who made today’s space technology possible.
Scholastic Arts and Writing Competition
The Scholastic Arts and Writing competition is one of the oldest and most renowned writing competitions in the United States. It is a,"scholarship and recognition program for young artists and writers in grades 7–12," with categories ranging from visual art (paintings, film) to creative writing and journalism. If you are a scientist and artist whose work merges creative disciplines, this may be a great competition for you! The program is also offering the One Earth Award, "$1,000 scholarships for four students whose works address the pressing issue of human-caused climate change." Deadlines, which are approaching, vary depending on region. Check out the link below to get started!
The New York Times' 7th Annual Student Review Contest
The New York Times is inviting teenage students to, "to play critic and submit an original review about any kind of creative expression covered in The New York Times, from Nov. 10 to Dec. 15." Students ages 11 to 19 anywhere in the world (attending middle or high school) can participate! You can review anything (songs, movies, etc.) that are covered in the newspaper. Check out the link below to get started and to learn more about the rules and regulations!
World of 7 Billion Video Contest
With climate change on the rise as well as world population, Population Education is hosting a video contest open to students to bring more awareness of growing problems with a focus on highlighting problems that rising populations bring, and a sustainable solution to it. Videos must have one of the following themes: Agriculture and Food, Ocean Health, Urbanization. There are multiple prizes to be handed out for middle school, high school, state, regional, and international student entries! Deadline for entries is February 22nd, 2022, but it’s wise to begin planning ahead as filming and editing may take longer than anticipated.
Transportation Development Foundation Student Video Contest
This student video contest is, "aimed at helping students gain a better understanding of the importance of transportation infrastructure investment to the U.S. economy and quality of life, and to learn more about the industry and potential transportation construction career opportunities." The video must be about either general transportation or safety and it must be less than 2 and 1/2 minutes long. The prize is $500! Check out the link below to view previous submissions and to learn more about the rules and regulation!
Stop Hunger Foundation Scholarship
This program, "recognizes student innovation and youth-led solutions to fight hunger in the U.S." Ages of awardees range from 5-25 across the nation! Applicants must be working to, "create awareness and mobilize peers in their communities to be catalysts for change." Scholarship recipients receive a $5,000 scholarship as well as $5,000 grant for their hunger-related charity. The application period closes December 5.
The Science of Taste
Unlike all other creatures in the animal kingdom, humans have a unique passion for "enhancing the flavor of our food." Over the centuries, food/taste has shaped empires; it is an integral element of the human experience. Check out KQED QUEST's "The Science of Taste" video to learn about a brief history of humans x food and the cool scientific facts behind our perception of taste!
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