Pulse. The

Magazine By The YCIS HK News Group

Yew Chung international school Hong Kong News Group januaruy, 2014 Vol 001

On the Cover: Chinese New Year 2014

This Month In School

Hawking Says There Are No Black Holes

The Unprecedented Drive For Green Energy Behind the PM2.5 / /

YCIS News International News Green Smog

The Year of Horse 2014

Pulse. The

Magazine By The YCIS HK News Group

Editor-in-chief: Timothy Sit Designer-in-chief: Lam Ka Lui News/Reviews/Features: Nicole Chan, David Chu, Kwok Ho Yin, Bethanie Choi, Martin Pang, Terence Tse, Timothy Sit

Facebook Page: http://www.facebook.com/yc.pulse Email: ycispulsemagazine@gmail.com

News

Pulse. The

Magazine By The YCIS HK News Group

Vol. 001 January 2014

Contents. 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08

This Month in School This Month in Science Hawking Says There Are No Black Holes Green Smog: The Unprecedented Drive for Green Energy Behind the PM2.5 The Wind Rises – Not Miyazaki As You Know It Letters to A Young Scientist / The Royal Concept EP Bioshock Infinite Review Musique Review

News Science

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Movie

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Mus

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The Pulse Vol. 001 January 2014

School This Month In

Congratulations to Martin, Ho Yin, Jason, Terence, and Ryan of Year 12

(30 January 2014) Samsung has announced the shortlist of the 60 participating teams who will advance into round 2 of the Solve for Tomorrow competition. The team of green-thinkers comprising five of our Year 12 students is happy to become one of the 20 shortlisted teams from all secondary schools across Hong Kong!

For those who do not know, Solve for Tomorrow challenges students from primary, secondary, and tertiary education to come up with a technology-oriented solution for one of Hong Kong’s multitudinous pressing environmental problems. Participants were asked to get creative in their green ideas and produce an audio clip supplemented with an image or poster. The concept by our shortlisted team, under the name “Afterschool EPC”, intends to take a bite out of the gross usage and disposal of plastic bags through engaging reward schemes in chain supermarkets.

The team is now preparing to direct a 2 minute video for the next round of the competition, during the end which the videos will be displayed for public voting. Keep a keen eye on their idea and get to know more about it in the next issue of Pulse. Be sure to show support for your fellow Yew Chung students!

YC Students Solving for tomorrow

It’s that time of year again. The Mock Exams. For those taking the Mocks will find themselves indulged in past papers more than their books, crying over having several tests per day or taking in more than several cups of coffee per day. Probably the only thing keeping them happy is the fact that this is not the real exam. For those not taking Mocks will find themselves seeing this as a blissful time for students, coming and going to school whenever you need to.

Do not fret, it will soon be your turn.

The Mocks!

Cny in ycis 2014 Despite a missing annual Chinese New Year fashion show, this Chinese New Year event remains as exhilarating as ever. ! Food Booth: Organised by the House. The food booth brought students much food favorites such as fish balls and siu mais in exchange for a nice ten dollars.! Chinese Calligraphy Booth: Chinese New Year is nothing without the red greetings on the walls of our home. And this booth offers everything we need to make them. Many have been seen to write greetings related to the coming year of horse.! Chinese Paper Cutting Booth: This exotic form of paper art takes much care and concentration to create, thankfully, this annual booth makes such art easier to create with the help of the Chinese teachers.! Song Dedications: A new addition to this year’s lunch entertainment schedule is the song dedications section. Students dedicate a special song to their fellow friends or students with a warm new year greeting.! ! Chinese Puppet Show: This highly interactive show has been nothing but pure fun. Not only were there performances, but an exclusive teaching session was given to students to learn the art of Chinese puppet performing.! ! Sports: Skipping ropes, playing with hula hoops and ... are the trend among junior students and some seniors as well. Such joy and atmosphere can’t be missed. If you do not join, you have no idea what you are missing.!

We hope you all had a wonderful Chinese New Year!

01.

News

This

IN

01 Using Light to do Heavy Math

A lexandre Silva et al. devised meta-materials which could manipulate light to perform complex mathe-matical operations, and yes, that includes calculus.

Nader Engheta, one of the contributors to the study, and an electrical engineer at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, says that his team will start building the structure in the simulation within the next 6 months.

The metamaterial is currently only available via computer simulation of a structure made of alternating blocks a few microns thick of pure silicon and of zinc oxide that contained small amounts of aluminium.

The study was published in the January 10 2014 issue of Science1

Sci 02 Is your chocolate really worth the cost?

D apeng Zhang et al.are reporting for the first time a method to authenticate the varietal purity and origin of cacao beans.

The ability to authenticate premium and rare cacao beans will encourage producers to maintain cacao biodiversity rather than depend on the most abundant and convenient-to-grow trees.

The authentication works by identifying a small set of DNA markers called SNPs that make up unique fingerprints of different cacao species.

The study was published in this month's issue of Journal of agricultural and food chemistry2

03 Coffee & Memory M chael Yassa et al. conducted experiments with 160

adults involving memory tests and caffeine.

The experiments showed that a dose of 200 milligrams - equivalent to 2 espressos, enhances long-term memory by improving the process of memory consolidation.

The experiment was repeated with 100 and 300 milligrams of caffeine, both did not show any significant difference compared to a placebo. This could be because other effects kick in at higher doses that negate the benefits for memory consolidation. Also, participants given the 300 milligram dose reported side-effects like jitters and headaches, says Yassa.

The study was published in this month’s issue of nature neuroscience3

04 How the queen stop its worker from having sex

A nnette Van Oystaeyen et. al have successfully identified a pheromone used by queen ants, bees and wasps to suppress the reproductive system of their workers.

Pheromones are chemical messengers and are thought to play a key role in regulating complex social systems, especially in insects.

The study was published in the January 17 2014 issue of Science4

1 https://www.sciencenews.org/article/materials%E2%80%99-light-tricks-may-soon-extend doing-math 1 http://gizmodo.com/this-amazing-light-bending-metamaterial-can-do-calculu-1498877144 2 http://phys.org/news/2014-01-authenticate-premium-chocolate.html 3 http://www.newscientist.com/ 4 http://www.sciencemag.org/content/343/6168/287 5 http://www.popsci.com/article/science/year-science-2014

Virgin Galactic will be taking paying passengers, including Katy Perry, to space.

Something to expect in science this year

By Timothy Sit

02.

Science

Says�NO�HOLE Stephen Hawking, one of the most well known scientists of our generation, published a paper this month stating that an event horizon - that is the boundary around a black hole in which nothing, not even light, can escape, is in contradiction with quantum theory.

Much of Hawking’s work is based upon black holes, the radiation that is believed to come from black holes - Hawking radiation, is aptly named after himself.

Hawking has instead proposed a substituting phenomena named ‘apparent horizon’, in which matter and energy are only held temporarily prisoner and is eventually released in a distorted form. escape�

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,� !�”� In classical theory there is no escape from a black hole after

breaching the theoretical boundary around the black hole known as the event horizon, the event horizon is thus a defining characteristic of black holes. Quantum theory, however, “enables energy and information to escape from a black hole” Hawking told Nature.

The paper dealing with the issue, ‘Information preservation and weather forecasting for black holes’ was published January 22 on the arXiv preprint server, and has yet to be peer-reviewed.

References�

http://www.nature.com/news/stephen-hawking-there-are-no-black-holes-1.14583 Information preservation and weather forecasting for black holes http://arxiv.org/pdf/1401.5761v1.pdf The paper was based on Hawking’s meeting via Skype at the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics in Santa Barbara, California. http://online.kitp.ucsb.edu/online/fuzzorfire_m13/hawking/

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News

By Terence Tse

S ince December, the smog suffocated the northern regions of China, including Beijing and Shanghai, according to some accounts the pollution was to such an extent that the time for sunrise has to be

broadcasted. This has thrown the international community into heated debate over the sustainability of Chinese production and growth.

But behind the black fog, lies the world’s largest green energy investor. In key renewable energies, such as solar, hydropower, wind and nuclear, China has taken massive leaps to incorporate renewable energy into the energy grid. In the recent years, it has become both the world’s largest consumer and producer of renewable energy.

However, what is remarkable of China’s green energy drive is not just the size, but the massive constant growth that placed China into the frontier of green power.

In wind power, China has gone from a small shareholder into the driving force of the wind power industry. China as of now has already installed 75GW of production capacity, with plans proposed to install another 25GW.

A question many will like to ask, is that if China has one of the world’s largest green industry, then why is the pollution of China worsening by the day? A thorough examination into the statistics will bring us to the crux of the problem; the growth of the Chinese economy.

China, through its economic liberation in the 1970s, has steamed forwards with a constant growth of around 10%. Even as the government promised to increase the renewable energy capacity to 15% of total energy consumption by 2020, the economy of Chine would have almost doubled by then. This growth meant that without a massive exponential growth, the pollution that caused the smog in China would only worsen.

The only saving grace of China would be a timely gust that will clear off the smog from the hinterlands of China. This, however, is hardly sustainable. Sending pollution of China’s neighbors will not be well regarded, nor will the winds always arrive, as we have seen right now.The government of China, and its people, has just began to realize the pollution that comes with growth and prosperity, and may this be a harsh reminder that all actions, do indeed have consequences.

! Green.

04.

Environment

THE WIND RISES���NOT MIYAZAKI AS YOU KNOW IT���

The Wind Rises (Chinese title: 風起了), the farewell masterwork from Hayao Miyazaki (宮崎駿), has caused quite a stir. The Wind Rises departs from the fantasy world of My Neighbor Totoro and Spirited Away and brings us back to pre-WW2 Japan. What can his fans expect from his final flight of fancy?

The film follows the dream of Jiro Horikoshi (堀越二郎) who aspires to, and eventually becomes an aeroplane designer. Satisfying the stereotype of an engineering wunderkind, the protagonist earns his position as chief designer albeit creating a few engineering nightmares. Jiro falls in love with Naoko (菜穗子) who is afflicted with tuberculosis. Under the pressure of company competition, the rise of European fascism, and his lover’s deteriorating health, Jiro has to make decisions and confront the conflicts of his dream.

Miyazaki’s familiar fantasy elements present themselves in Jiro’s multiple dream encounters with Italian aircraft pioneer Caproni, in which Caproni encourages him to live his ten years as an artist and engineer to full. Tightly threading the entire film together, the magic of these dream sequences simply reminds us of the power in Miyazaki’s artistry which never fails to leave his viewers in awe.

By Ho Yin Kwok

One of the remarkable aspects of the film is the vivid illustration of Jiro’s dream. He casually talks about a mackerel bone’s resemblance to an aircraft wing component; the cinema crowd giggles. But if you understand the strange romance of machines, Jiro’s (and Miyazaki’s) enthusiasm for such will more or less resonate. Let’s not forget the director also has to squeeze the love storyline into this two-hour animation, and this is where he struggles to deliver all. The love between Jiro and Naoko is admirable to say the least, but this film gives the unhappy impression of a feeble attempt at melodrama. The love story lacks serious tension between the two, and their romance (from getting to know each other to getting married) seems to be built on several clichéd events in such a comical tone, the potential emotion impact is reduced to a few baffling laughs.

Knowing Miyazaki’s love for pacifism - that is reflected in his long list of works, it is reasonable to think that The Wind Rises would take a strong anti-war stance. Then people started questioning why the protagonist is a designer for war machines, but this topic may well be the most intriguing aspect of the film. Aviation is a dream that is cursed before and during the Second World War, but it did not stop our protagonist Jiro from building-- if this rings any bells-- the infamous Zero. It gained the reputation of the instrument of death whose formidable presence alone terrorised the skies of the Pacific. Anti-war? The wise director would not actively disguise the implications of Jiro’s job, but he might be too easy on Japan when representing the devastations of war in the film. Viewers are aware of the direction and possible consequences of Jiro’s dream as the story progressed. There is undoubtedly a tone of regret towards the end, but Jiro realises that the only option to achieve his innocent dream is to build planes. Confusingly, Jiro is constantly portrayed in numerous occasions as a kindhearted person who upholds justice, from confronting school bullies to offering dessert to the poor to becoming the target of the secret police (because the villain’s enemy must be the good guy, right?), contrasting starkly with his shadowy role in the war.

“All I wanted to do was to make something beautiful”. In Jiro’s shared dream with Caproni, there is a discussion on the metaphor of pyramids, pyramids being timeless marvels built at the cost of lives. Caproni prefers the world with pyramids, and Jiro? He remains silent, but ultimately chooses to ride the flow of time and live his creative years to full. Shocking that Jiro does not seem to struggle to choose nor is he conscious of the escalating war mentality. It is hard to tell if there is actually a strong conflict of feelings inside his mind, but when moral challenges, Caproni is the voice of Jiro’s subconsciousness which points him to his innermost desires. This brings us to the question, if Miyazaki lived in the dark era of WW2, would he allow his artistic talents to become a servant to the deadly Empire of Japan? I would like to add that the film does not genuinely reflect the prevalent fear (e.g. of being chased by the secret police) in the times of turmoil. Admittedly, there are a few missed opportunities throughout the film, but the good news is, a Miyazaki film is still a Miyazaki film. Pre-war Japan springs to life under his exceptional visual craftsmanship and the animation is as breath-taking as ever. You might never again see a film which captures wind in such a stunning way. Oh, and all sounds in the film are produced by mouth, if you fancy that. The Wind Rises is not a Miyazaki film geared towards children as demonstrated by the brutal but accurate tobacco use (so props to that) and the complex emotions towards war. Viewers may wonder what Miyazaki is capable of delivering in these more thought-provoking genres, only to realise that this will be his farewell masterpiece. The Wind Rises will struggle to join the ranks of the director’s best and finest, but a Miyazaki film is a film worth watching and he will definitely be remembered as our all-time favourite master of animation.

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In 7 words: Advice and stories to scientific career seekers.

Letters to a young scientist contains interesting suggestions by the author on the ways to a successful career in science.

Most suggestions revolves around the theme of finding your passion and working hard. Less cliché advices includes choosing a field in science that is less explored and more sparsely populated. Readers should note that this piece of advice might have rooted from the author’s own experience of choosing an esoteric field of science - Entomology.

Besides a strong passion for knowing the unknown and discovering the undiscovered, Wilson pointed out that most scientific breakthroughs stem from fantasy rather than pure logic:

‘The ideal scientists think like a poet and only later works like a bookkeeper.’

The first three sections deals with advices that are more general and can be applied by the majority of the readers, while the last two sections contains more in depth examples and stories of the author’s own experience through his journey in science.

Readers who do not have much time to spend, and who are more interested in career advices in science than E.O. Wilson himself will find the first three section a sufficient read. Edward O. Wilson:

Edward O. Wilson is a world renowned biologist. He is currently Honorary Curator in Entomology and University Research Professor Emeritus(retired but allowed to retain title) , Harvard University

In 7 words: He did lots of research on ants.

You can find an interview by NPR about E.O.Wilson’s book here: http://www.npr.org/2013/06/21/194230822/e-o-wilsons-advice-for-future-scientists

LETTERS TO A YOUNG SCIENTISTS The Royal Concept’s self-titled EP brings nostalgic 80’s influences – drum pads, synthesizers – into the 21st century with skillful instrument work and strong vocals. The album is extremely catchy – the opening track “Gimme Twice” opens with an unrelenting bass line that will have you nodding your head to the beat even before the first verse starts.

A strong debut, the album manages to showcase the band’s musicality and understanding of their style. It will be thrilling to follow their evolution down the road.

♪ If you liked this album, try listening to Phoenix – Bankrupt!

THE ROYAL CONCEPT EP

By Timothy Sit By Bethanie Choi

06.

Leisure

A rt has recently been introduced to the young digital world, and emphasis on art has gradually been introduced in video games. Sometimes the creativity and innovation of video game art can use some ambitious methods, where it

is sometimes hard for the audience to comprehend. One of the examples of this is Bioshock Infinite, including the floating city of Columbia, the ambiguous state of Chen Lin and the mysterious Lutece Twins.

Bioshock Infinite is a first person shooter game video game developed by Irrational games and released in March 2013. The game contains many element based on the principles based on quantum mechanics such as levitation and quantum entanglement, and you might not have understood how they work. They will be explained in this article.

Levitation-The city of Columbia, where most of the game takes part is floating in the sky. It is located 15 thousand feet above ground and travels around 14 locations above the United States. The theory behind this is that it has “failed to fall” according to the physicist Rosaline Lutece, not because of “quantum levitation ” described by her colleagues. Quantum levitation, also known as flux pinning, is when superconductors’ impurities trap magnetic fields of a magnet, causing one of those to levitate at a fixed position and any external force applied will be resisted and it will return to its original position. This force is so strong that you could use the superconductor or the magnet to drag the other. This could explain how the magnets can drag Columbia around on land, which is not probable, as the size of the magnet needed would attract too much unwanted attention from the United States. Also, a superconductor needs very cold temperatures in order to show its superconducting properties, but the possibility exists that Lutece discovered room temperature superconductors. In Lutece’s explanation, Columbia fails to comply with gravity, which means that there is an anti gravity force acting against the gravity. Nonetheless, none of the anti gravity methods were proved to work.

Schrodinger’s Cat-The weapons maker, Chen Lin, was found dead before he could provide weapons to the player. However, it is shown that he is in fact alive in another universe. This is a reference to the popular thought experiment “Schrodinger’s cat”.

I In the Schrödinger’s Cat experiment, a cat is contained inside a sealed box with a device that would kill it 50% of the time. According to quantum mechanics, the cat is both dead and alive at the same time until we choose to open the box and observe. This

will force nature to choose between the two, but the problem is who is observing us to force nature to choose between the possible outcomes. The game provides another explanation: The cat is alive in one universe and dead in the other; in the game the cat is represented by Chen Lin.

Quantum Entanglement-Rosalind Lutece and her alternate universe self, Robert can communicate with each other using quantum entanglement. When quantum particles interact with each other in a certain way, they are entangled and no matter where they are, they are to be described by one quantum state instead of separate ones and one must be described relatively to others. One example is momentum. When particles interact, their total momentum must stay the same according to the Conservation Law. Therefore, after the interaction, if one particle’s momentum increases, the total momentum of other particles that interacted with it must decrease by the same amount, therefore relating the momentum of all the particles with an equation. For example, after the interaction of two quantum particles, if one is observed to have a clockwise spin, the other at any time after this, no matter how far away, is always found to have an anticlockwise spin. The problem of communicating using it is that you cannot precisely control quantum particles; only control the possibility of your desired outcomes to an extent, therefore you can not be sure you have sent the correct message. Also, you cannot be sure you are observing one particle or the whole entangled group and entanglement is easy to break, therefore proves to be an unreliable way to communicate. As Bioshock Infinite is a science fiction game, it is probable that Lutece has found ways to overcome these problems.

Lutetia was the name Paris during the 1st to 4th Century AD, which is similar to last names of the physicist Rosalind Lutece and her counterpart, Robert.

Winner of Over Over 80 80 Awards

By David Chu

www.bioshockinfinite.com

07.

Game

Reviews

Musique

01!Feed Me and Crystal Fighters – Love is all I Got The rare talents of both electronic musicians unveils itself in “Love is all I Got.” Cleverly mixing electro house, folktronica and dubstep together, a stunning combination of deep bass dubstep and psyched up beats is created.

Infinite - Amazing One of Kpop’s biggest boy bands, Infinite made it big with its initial alternative direction. How the half-indie melody intertwines perfectly the heart-breaking lyrics makes “Amazing” one of the best of Infinite.

02!

2NE1 – Missing You 2NE1’s much famed producer Teddy is back. “Missing You” is a complete relief and a complete life saver from “Do you love me?” and “Falling in Love.” Leaving the electro range where their influence has made a significant impact on the Kpop industry, 2NE1 steps into maturity with a dark, heart-breaking yet mature and soulful comeback.

03!

Epik High – Umbrella (ft. Younha) Weaving rap and sweet tearful singing together in a rainy whether, who would have thought such a sad song could be so beautiful? This certainly not the first time Epik High has made such beautiful creative approaches to hip hop, however, this song makes its mark as one the best.

04!Cho Yong Pil - Hello 60 and still as amazing today as he was back in the days. The highly influential pop singer released his 19th album in 2013. Made up from an eclecticism of all the trends in modern pop and rock, the title track “Hello” truly is a masterpiece in today’s mainstream pop. This truly is an incredible feat for someone from a different era.

05!

Ferreira – Lost in My Bedroom There is no stopping for this talented girl. Echoing and wistfully singing her way through the electro pop song about a fantasy in her mind, this deserves just as much love as her much acclaimed song “Everything is Embarrassing.” Perhaps, a novel creative direction in the electro pop genre might have done the trick.

06!Lim Kim – Goodbye 20 Togeworl’s Lim Kim stunning mystic voice brings alight the youth’s naiveness, when it comes to growing up. Like Taylor Swift’s “22”, “Goodbye 20” keeps things light, life is to be enjoyed. However, in contrast, “Goodbye 20” tells us about how nothing really changes with each birthday, we just naively believe that things will get better the next year.

07!

By Nicole Chan

08.

Music

Yew Chung international school Hong Kong News Group January, 2014 Vol 001