BSJ

The Butler Scholarly Journal

Category: Science

  1. Investigating the effect of gaze on different facial targets on verbal accuracy and response bias.

    The act of looking is both a source of stimulation and a type of response, and as humans are social animals, in general we try to discriminate the postures and movements of the eyes of another person in social interactions for example, in nonverbal communication (Gibson, J. J., & Pick, A. D.,1963). Gaze is a key type of nonverbal communication that has many roles in social interaction. Interaction is a mutual reference in the behaviour of social partners, and communication is the exchange of messages in a communication system consisting partners and a mutual code, that being a result of…

  2. The pigeonhole principle: using simplicity to understand complexity

    Suppose you have a certain number of pigeons, and a certain number of pigeonholes. You must place each pigeon into one pigeonhole. If you have more pigeons than you do pigeonholes, then clearly there must exist a pigeonhole containing more than one pigeon. This statement is known as the pigeonhole principle. It seems a very trivial and obvious statement. Having twelve pigeonholes for thirteen pigeons will result in an overpopulation of pigeons, so that at least two of them will have to share a hole. However, this simple statement has an astounding number of applications in solving very non-trivial mathematical…

  3. How can volcanoes help us fight climate change?

    Volcanoes emit many gasses when they erupt. Among those are carbon dioxide, water vapour and methane. These are all greenhouse gasses and contribute to global warming. This may suggest volcanoes to have a negative impact on climate change. However, volcanoes do not emit these gasses in large enough quantities to have a long-term impact on climate. Crucially, the gas that could help us fight climate change is sulphur dioxide – a gas released in large amounts by volcanic eruptions. When sulphur dioxide is injected into the stratosphere it oxidises with water vapour to form something called aerosols.1 Confusingly, these aerosols…

  4. Why does the mathematically mysterious nature of prime numbers make them so useful in the current digital age?

    Since the ancient Greeks, prime numbers[i] have been of enormous interest to mathematicians due to their seemingly mysterious nature, and their unpredictability. If you look at a table of whole numbers and highlight the primes, they appear to be random. If you know that one number is prime, it is very difficult to know when the next prime will appear. In the 20th and 21st centuries, however, these properties have made prime numbers an integral part of our digital world; in this age, cryptography is vital. Every time you purchase something online you send your credit card information across the internet. This data…

  5. An Examination of the Anti-Vaccination Movement

    Between June 2007 and February 2015, it is estimated that there were 8,973 deaths in the United States that could have been prevented through vaccination. (1) Since the advent of vaccines by Jenner and Pasteur, there has been opposition towards them, with a multitude of social and political reasons contributing to this. (2) However, the rising prominence of anti-vaccination rhetoric may have more severe consequences now than in any time in the past, due to an increase in global travel, the lack of subclinical infection due to previous vaccination successes and the close proximity of human contact on a regular…

  6. Bioterrorism: Are Biological Weapons a Serious Threat?

    Although science has been hailed with many great discoveries and has saved many lives, it has also been exploited and used to create weapons. Bioterrorism describes the deliberate use of microorganisms such as bacteria, viruses or toxins to spread diseases that threaten the lives of many. They are often genetically modified to be incredibly infectious and transmissible, have long incubation periods and evade medical intervention. These diseases can be more devastating than attacks using chemical weapons because they cannot be contained within national boundaries; they can spread throughout the world causing mass scale death. Bioterrorism is not a hypothetical situation,…

  7. Kelvin’s Aethereal Knots – The Origins of the Periodic Table and Knot Theory

    c. 1867, University of Glasgow: William Thomson, or Lord Kelvin (namesake of the temperature scale and the man who coined the term ‘kinetic energy’) as he is today more frequently known, turns his considerable intellectual ability towards the daunting question of how all material in the universe might exist. At this time in scientific history, the idea that matter was composed of individual atoms of varying type was becoming increasingly accepted by academics. However, what remained a complete mystery to all was how these atoms could themselves exist. The person who could suggest a working theory to answer such a…

  8. Invention and Imperialism in the Nineteenth Century: How Science Strengthened the British Empire

    The nineteenth century is widely known to have witnessed revolutionary developments in science and technology, in areas ranging from healthcare to transportation. Naturally, it follows that these innovations provided Europeans, particularly the British, with effective tools for the expansion and consolidation of their empires. Not only was this the case, but a new rationale for imperialism developed as a result of the scientific developments of the Victorian era. This is a theme which can be explored through two examples; firstly, the use of quinine prophylaxis as a more successful medicine to combat malaria, and secondly, the invention and introduction of…

  9. Colonisation of Mars: is it really possible?

    Walking on the moon is arguably one of the greatest achievements of mankind, but as the Apollo 17 mission in 1972 was the last landing of humans on Earth’s natural satellite, it is evident our attention has been focused elsewhere. In 2011, Bas Lansdorp and Arno Wielders changed the direction of space travel by announcing the Mars One mission, which aims to colonise Mars with human life by 2025. The mission began with a selection process in 2013, where any individual over the age of 18 could apply. There were over 200,000 applicants, all of whom wanted to be among…

  10. Ocean Circulation – a climate changer?

    Will climate change ever be understood? A major limitation of current climate models is the reconstruction of ocean circulation. There is a good knowledge of modern circulation, but research is currently underway to explore whether major shifts in the past circulations coincide with significant climatic events. It is believed that on geological timescales, key climatic controls relate primarily to tectonics and ocean circulation changes. Both of these mechanisms influence atmospheric CO2 concentrations and therefore global temperatures. Ocean circulation changes can occur due to reconfiguration of oceanic gateways. A predominant example of this is the opening of the Drake Passage, the…