Science 10 Honours-Astronomy Wonder Project

 

How Would The World Change If We Found Extraterrestrial Life? - Astrobiology Magazine

 

Could Finding Intelligent Life Benefit Humanity? 

By Aryan Hashemi

                Humanity is a very curious species. We ask every question we can about our place in the universe but we lack the answers to those questions. We can only assume and make estimations until we have better tools to help us understand different aspects of the universe. Asking questions is how we’ve advanced through the ages to where we are today. With humanity being very keen on not leaving questions unanswered, we have managed to research and discover new technologies through the questions we have asked through the ages. However, one question that has been there since we started to really look into the stars is: are we alone? It’s one of those questions that we have yet to find the answer to. It’s only a matter of time until we do find something that gives us an answer to that question. Our search for life has spanned many years and throughout those years, we have discovered many possible planets that we consider habitable planets where we assume life could be.Are we alone in the universe? Science says it's a definite maybe | New Scientist These assumptions are solely based on our own understanding of chemistry and biology. There could be life in parts of the universe that we consider uninhabitable. It’s something that can only be proven when we do find life. Through the media, finding extraterrestrials is often portrayed as the end of the world or the enslavement of humanity. Although its not completely fiction, it isn’t the only outcome that we might see. Finding intelligent life could actually benefit our species instead of dooming us forever. 

 

 

Finding aliens may be even easier than previously thought

                        More than 4000 habitable exoplanets have been discovered through our search for life in space. Those are just the planets that we’ve been able to sift through. There’s still dozens of more planets that we just haven’t confirmed yet. All of these planets could harbor life. We just have no way of making sure. This is where we can already see some benefits coming in from just the search alone. Because of the search for extraterrestrial life, or SETI for short, space agencies such as NASA have had enough funding to start creating stronger telescopes that can observe these exoplanets much better. The James Webb Telescope is what has come out of this funding. Launching later this year, this telescope will be able to give us a clearer image of the atmospheres of habitable planets we have so we can better determine their compositions. This means that we will be able to determine if a planet could have life on it or not. However, this telescope is just a step in a much bigger field. Innovations such as these will help us discover and create countless new technologies that will benefit humanity in numerous ways such as giving us the tools to explore and further research habitable planets that we consider “out of our reach” or it could possibly help us discover more about the planets here in our own backyard like Mars or Jupiter. The saying “if there’s a need, there’s a way” perfectly describes humanities determination to discover more about our world and the worlds around it. We will innovate and we will invent new technologies that will impact our entire species. The search for life itself breathes innovation. Nevertheless, the benefits don’t stop there, actually finding extraterrestrial life brings us a whole new world of rewards to reap. James Webb Space Telescope Mirrors Will Piece Together Cosmic Puzzles | NASA

                        Our search for life has so far shown very little results compared to our expectations when we first started SETI. In the 60’s and 70’s, the golden age for space exploration, we had thought there was little green men on the surface of Mars that were coming to kill us. There were countless “UFO sightings” across the U.S; when in reality the “UFO’s” were really just the American Air Force testing their new, highly classified aircrafts. Other than that, we only have countless assumptions and estimations on where life is and what they could be made out of, based off of the biodiversity of our own planet. Nonetheless, it’s inevitable that we will find some sort of life in the future. It’s when we do that will bring us great benefits to our technology but also to our understanding of biology. All known life of earth is carbon-based life. These means that carbon is the backbone of all life here on earth. However, this doesn’t mean other life in the universe is also carbon-based. If the case arises that we find life that isn’t carbon-based, it could completely change our understanding of biology. We would be able to determine of we really are similar to other life out there or if we are completely different. The Mars Perseverance Rover that landed on the Martian surface earlier this year in February has the job of determining if mars has/had life on it. This could be a revolutionary moment in biology if we do find something like a microbe. We would be able to study everything about it and its’ components. Perhaps bacteria that we find on other planets could give us breakthroughs in the medical field or give us the tools to make those breakthroughs our selves. Although biological benefits aren’t necessarily the first thing that comes to peoples minds when they think of finding aliens, it is a very big benefit nevertheless. Finding the composition of other life in space could also help us narrow down our search to planets with similar elements; which in turn will helps us find even more life. We just have to make sure we don’t recreate the book “The Andromeda Strain” with our research of biology from other planets. That would be bad.Best of 2017: Top Picks from Genome Biology - On Biology

 

               In the end, we are still a long ways from being able to communicate or interact with aliens if we do find them, assuming they are not in our own solar system. However, finding them will benefit us through numerous ways. Despite the popular perspective of how aliens will come to hunt us down and destroy humanity, it’s not entirely what would happen if we did find intelligent life in the cosmos. Of course, it is hard to predict exactly what would happen if we did find life; but it’s safe to say that we would be able to benefit off of it’s discovery whether it’s technological or biological advances. What is important is that we continue SETI. It’s one of the biggest questions we have about the cosmos and we have a much better chance of finding an answer now than we did in the 1920’s-1990’s. If SETI continues, our innovation for space travel continues with it; which gives us a much better chance of finding life and a much better chance of understanding it. Although the search for life is important, it shouldn’t overshadow the issues we have created on our own planet such as climate change. We should be investing a majority of our attention into repairing our planet as it is the only one we have currently; unless Elon Musk some how manages to put us on Mars in the coming years. Regardless, humanities’ trek to the stars is gaining traction every year as new missions are being announced and new technologies are being created to test. The most recent development is NASA’s planned return to the moon in 2024 with the Artemis missions. It has been almost 50 years since we have put humans on another celestial body. After the Artemis missions, one can only imagine all the future missions that we could accomplish. The future of space travel is looking very promising for humanity, and so does it’s chances of finding life. Turns out the “final frontier” is really just the beginning of a new chapter for our species.

Everything You Need To Know About Going To Space

 

Here’s a couple videos similar to this topic:


References

1. “How Many Exoplanets Are There?” Exoplanet Exploration: Planets Beyond Our Solar System, https://exoplanets.nasa.gov/faq/6/how-many-exoplanets-are-there. Accessed 21 Apr. 2021.

2. “Can We Find Life? | The Search For Life.” Exoplanet Exploration: Planets Beyond Our Solar System, https://exoplanets.nasa.gov/search-for-life/can-we-find-life. Accessed 21 Apr. 2021

3. Crawford, Ian. “Why Looking for Aliens Is Good for Society (Even If There Aren’t Any).” The Conversation, http://theconversation.com/why-looking-for-aliens-is-good-for-society-even-if-there-arent-any-80700. Accessed 21 Apr. 2021.

4. “How Would The World Change If We Found Extraterrestrial Life?” Astrobiology Magazine, 29 Jan. 2015, https://www.astrobio.net/alien-life/world-change-found-extraterrestrial-life/.

 

Pictures

1. https://phys.org/news/2016-05-aliens-easier-previously-thought.html

2. https://www.astrobio.net/alien-life/world-change-found-extraterrestrial-life/

3. https://www.newscientist.com/article/2172774-are-we-alone-in-the-universe-science-says-its-a-definite-maybe/

4. https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/james-webb-space-telescope-mirrors-will-piece-together-cosmic-puzzleshttps://blogs.biomedcentral.com/on-biology/2017/12/15/best-of-2017-genome-biology/

 

 

 

 

Science is MAGIC-Science 10 Honours

For this science project, we were asked to find a science experiment that we could conduct and film that looks like magic but is actually just science.

My partner and I decided that we would use a simple yet interesting experiment and use balloons to demonstrate how it could look like magic at first. We mixed 2 simple household items together, Sodium Bicarbonate (Baking Soda) and Acetate Acid ( Vinegar) to produce CO2 (Carbon Dioxide) gas. Now, CO2 gas isn’t just a normal gas; it is actually much heavier than normal air. But to really demonstrate that fact, we decided to use balloons. In our experiment, we filled one balloon with normal air and by using a water bottle, vinegar, and baking soda, we filled another balloon up with CO2 gas. We dropped them right next to each other and observed that the balloon with CO2 actually hit the ground much faster than the one with normal air did. 

All in all, this project was a ton of fun to film and to do. All the research really intrigued me as I saw all these cool experiments that I could do at home very easily. Especially with spring break being right around the corner, I’m gonna need something to do when I’m bored.

 

Here is the link to David and I’s video:

 

Core Competency:

 

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Science 10 Honours- Data Visualization

For this project, we were assigned the task of representing any scientific data in a unique way that gives a clear message.

For my project, I chose to represent the number of Covid-19 related deaths by month in Canada in 2020. I feel that it is very important to understand how the pandemic affected Canada and how much damage it has caused to countless families and communities all across Canada in just the span of 12 months. Below, I have the raw data that I used to help me create my unique visualization of this data:

 

I have used numerous websites to make sure my information is as accurate as possible including government websites which will be cited at the bottom of this post.


As for my actual representation of the data, I decided to create a sort of infographic that gives you the important facts as well as the number of deaths by month in Canada in 2020:

Link for the infographic: https://create.piktochart.com/output/52333286-covid-19-related-deaths-in-canada-2020

The reason I chose to represent my data in this simple way is because I feel that it is important that subjects such as the pandemic are described and represented in very simple ways. Sometimes simplicity is a much better option as it can be interpreted by almost everyone without much difficulty. It gives the reader the important points and statistics so that they can research further into the topic without being too overwhelmed; something that is very important for serious subjects such as this pandemic. As the vaccines are stating to be distributed around the world, it is important that we start to really look as this data to be better prepared for what the future could bring; however, it is essential that along with the raw data, comes simplified visualizations of the data. As visual learner myself, I have seen myself grow more interested in data that is represented in a easy to understand way rather than just the raw data all at once. 

2020 was a tough year for everyone. However, there is some hope that we can recover from it this year and do better with all the information that we have gathered.

 

Sources:

https://health-infobase.canada.ca/covid-19/epidemiological-summary-covid-19-cases.html?stat=num&measure=total&map=pt#fn1

https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/cv.action?pid=1310078501

https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/coronavirus/canadians-age-85-and-older-account-for-over-half-of-excess-deaths-amid-covid-19-statcan-1.5205790

https://www.statista.com/statistics/1107149/covid19-cases-age-distribution-canada/

 

 

Scientific Method/ Paper Airplanes

For this assignment, we were tasked with experimenting with paper airplanes to determine how adding or removing different variables will change the paper airplanes’ distance travelled, distance glided, etc…

My partner and I decided it would be interesting to see how the length of the plane would affect the distance being travelled.

Would a smaller plane which weighs less travel further faster or will it just fall flat?  Will the longer plane glide longer than the smaller ones?

There was a lot of questions we had; however, we predicted that the standard paper airplane would reach a greater distance than the smaller ones. Then the question came, how small will the other ones be? Each piece of paper was 8.5 inches wide and 11 inches long. We decided that our first plane would be just the normal average paper airplane you would see. For the second, we decided to cut 2 inches of the length to make it 9 inches long. Then for the 3rd, we cut off another 2 to make it 7 inches long.

Left to right: Plane 1,2,3

To measure the distance traveled, we threw each plane from a fixed point 5 times to get an accurate measuring. Once we had collected the distance each plane traveled through 5 trails, we summed it up to an average of all 5 scores for each plane.

From this data, we learned that maybe just because the planes are smaller, doesn’t mean that they will fly very far. However, they did fly faster but that might have been because they were plummeting to the ground each time we threw them! The normal paper airplanes work just fine the way they are.

Overall, this assignment was honestly a super fun little experiment to start Science 10 honors and it really got me excited for what to come later on in the class. I am super excited to start this year of science honors and I am looking forward to all the cool activities and experiments like this one!

 

Desmos Art Functions Card 2020

 

 

 

 

This project has truly been a journey and I am pretty happy with the way it turned out.

Throughout the process, I encountered many challenges. Whether it was trying to make an parabola fit in a spot or trying to figure out how I can fit an Absolute value function in a picture that was all curves; I always figured out a way around it. I think the best part of this project was its frustrating moments. As bizarre as it sounds, the moments where I was frustrated, where the exact moments that I got the most work done.

In terms of the actual math behind the drawing, it was quite simple. Making the different equations wasn’t too hard in my opinion. It was just very time consuming.

Overall, I am super happy with the end result and excited to end MATH10H with something that really grew my understanding on functions.

 

English 10- Indian Horse Tic-Tack-Toe Project

For our final project of the quarter, we were given the task of choosing 3 assignments in a row. As seen in the picture below, I chose the top 3.

The first task I had was to make a 7 entry diary on one of the characters in the book. I had a ton of choices but I ultimately chose Virgil. Its was very interesting writing from his perspective as I only had Saul’s perspective to base it off of. It was challenging but it was also very interesting.

The second task I had was to make a comic strip depicting a scene or event from the story. I wont spoil much about it as I will be putting a link to it below. However, the comic strip was probably one of my favourite assignments as I used the program last year and coming back to it was pretty fun. I had a blast making the comic.

The third and final task I had was to remake the cover of the book. This one is the one I had the most struggles with as I’m not the best artist. I never liked drawing. 

Book Cover

 

Comic 

https://Pixton.com/ic:v1259om1

Diary Entries

Indian Horse- Infographic

For literacy 10, we were given the task of completing a infographic on the book we had chosen to read for our class novel study. 

The book I had chosen was Indian Horse by Richard Wagamese. The book is about a indigenous young boy who experiences the hardships of the residential school and the joys that he finds in the sport of Hockey. 

Together with my group, we created an infographic, explaining different aspects that were linked to the book.

Here is the link to our infographic: 

https://create.piktochart.com/output/50206240-indian-horse-infographic

Indian Horse: Wagamese, Richard: 9781553654025: Books - Amazon.ca