Welcome to the November-December edition of STEM Spectrum Monthly News, presented to you by The STEM Spectrum's News Editors! Each month, the latest advancements in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics are broken down and analyzed. This month's edition zooms in on various topics, from the correlation between sugar intake as a child and diabetes to using AI to prevent power outages.

Preventing Diabetes From Day One

We all indulge in a sweet treat from time to time. And no - that sweet treat will not ruin your health. But a high influx of added sugar within a young child could augment their risk of gaining health complications later in life. In fact, it was reported that limited added sugars during the first 1000 days after conception reduces risk of diabetes development and hypertension. This is because during that time, the brain and body harmonize and prepare to finish developing. During pregnancy, anything the mother eats gets transformed into nutrients for the fetus, and during early childhood, their diet normally shapes their lifestyle habits for the future.

Despite national guidelines recommending consumption of less than 40 grams of added sugar per day in adults and no added sugars at all for children up to 2 - the average American is shown to consume 29 grams of added sugars, with adults consuming double of that. Thus, in hopes to track the effects this added sugar has from early in life, economist Tadeja Gracner from the University of Southern California looked at sugar rationing in the UK after World War II. As a way to prepare foods for long periods, each person was allotted by the government 227 grams of sugar per week, or 33 grams per day. After sugar rationing’s conclusion, the daily consumption jumped to 80 grams a day for adults. The increase in sugar intake after rationing was lifted was not common for other food groups, with dairy and fat consumption remaining relatively constant.

Thus, Gracener divides 60,000 participants into two cohorts born before July 1954 (who experienced sugar rationing during early life) and from July 1954, where no rationing was experienced. They found that people who experienced lower levels of added sugar within their diet early on tended to accumulate chronic conditions later in life - they were not necessarily immune to it. Candidates were also less likely to develop diabetes and hypertension if sugar rationing was experienced in utero, even if not after birth.

This study probes the high need to reduce sugar in our daily lives, which Gracener appreciates is not easy. She understands how these revelations could make parents of that generation feel guilty and underscores the importance that it wasn’t the purpose of her investigation. Her takeaway is to aim for a decreased sugar intake as a way to make a powerful step in transforming our immunity and resilience to disease - strengthening our foundation and making the human body stronger from day one.

Brains are Sponges - Literally and Figuratively

Our minds silently absorb knowledge and grow with every bit of learning that we do. It is a common practice to treat early childhood development like a parrot, as children learn by recreating, mimicking, and following. Assistant professor of psychology and director of Plasticity in Neurodevelopment (PINE), Laurel Gabard-Durnam, investigated exactly that at Northeastern’s lab where she and colleagues discovered the revolutionary insights into mechanisms of childhood development and the plasticity of the infant brain.

Plasticity simply refers to the adaptability of an organism to changes within its environment and, in the context of the brain, the capacity of the nervous system to alter its structure and function over time. This ‘trait’ and capability is something that has long been ingrained within the physiology of living organisms - following fundamental principles of Charles Darwin's “Survival of the Fittest,” theories.

Therefore, with a desire to better understand how caregivers’ behavior whilst playing with their young children could teach them about the predictable nature of the world, she recruited 262 participants with infants to conduct an analysis. The first part involves an observation of caregivers while they played with their infants at around 4 months of life. The second part was a follow-up 5 months later. During the first visit, the caregivers were advised to imagine playing with their infants as if in a private space for around five minutes. Using three separate tripods, researchers recorded the interactions directly facing the infant with two other side views. This allowed them to track vocalizations and gestures of the caregiver, along with the infant’s responses and gazes. They used this to develop a data set on the caregiver's predictability using a psychological marker of ‘entropy.’

Months later, Durnam took electroencephalograms of the children while they sat on the caregiver’s lap in a dimly lit and quiet room. The infants were given auditory tasks made to test their ability to learn different types of patterned information and their nervous responses - monitored. Essentially, researchers were tracing the degree to which children's brains activated more when faced with predictable as opposed to unpredictable information.

And conclusively, they observed that the earlier predictability of caregivers in their auditory cues, analyzed 6 months before (which they assume is the maintained way of playing with children), indicated how able the infant was able to learn from a new task. Thus, this research shines light on the incredible capability for brains as young as infants to absorb and acclimate learning. With each discovery, we get closer and closer to unlocking the potential for healthier, brighter, and more receptive futures from the very beginning.

Is Being Smart All That?

Do you strive to be the “smartest”? Spend time taking IQ tests or meditative exercises to boost brain capacity in hopes of being ‘smarter?’ Harvard experts have recently reported that such notions of intelligence are nonsensical. There is no precise definition for what it means to be smart, and intelligence tests don’t give as much information as it may seem.

Howard Gardner, research professor of Cognition and Education at Harvard Graduate School of Education, states that intelligence has many kinds. Leslie Valiant, Professor of computer science, constructed a computational viewpoint to define the concept of education - highlighting three main aspects: first, learning from experience. The second from being able to chain together things you have learned and the third being the ability to incorporate knowledge simply taken from instruction - demonstrating how science progresses within humans.

Educability, as such, comprises the ability to generate new knowledge by learning from experience and the capacity to transfer knowledge directly to other people. Valiant proposes the chance for computational machines as well to be made educable - so much so till the point of not being able to distinguish between human and machine intelligence. Current AI systems are not made to be educable yet, therefore, Valiant doesn’t see AI directly as an existential threat currently. Computers can only take over the world if we, humans, allow it to happen.

That said, she notes a downside of this highly praised notion of ‘being educable.’ Yes, it does provide us powerful ways of acquiring new information but what we indulge is what we accept. There are no comparable abilities to validate or check if some information or knowledge we obtain is true. The human mind is not wired to evaluate knowledge or facts and that is a fundamental acknowledgment of weaknesses in the understanding of intelligence.

In a world obsessed with quantifying intelligence, this fresh perspective challenges us to rethink our understanding of "smartness." Intelligence isn't a fixed measure on a test score but an evolving capacity to learn, adapt, and share knowledge. As Valiant’s view suggests, what sets us apart is not just our ability to process information but also to pass it on, imperfect and all. Perhaps the future lies not in striving to be “the smartest” but in embracing our unique capacity for critical thought, creativity, and connection. Only then can we truly redefine what it means to be intelligent, in ways no machine could replicate.

Reversing Brain Aging With Fruit Flies

Aging is one of the only things that is guaranteed in life. You are constantly growing, aging, and becoming older. This process ultimately leads to the natural end of all species' lifespan. But what if there was a way to prolong that lifespan? For decades scientists have been researching ways to slow down aging and enable longer life spans in humans. Very recently researchers at the University of California - Los Angeles (UCLA) have achieved a groundbreaking discovery where they have reversed brain aging in fruit flies.

The common way fruit fly brain age is through the buildup of a protein known as F-actin, which inhibits the removal of cellular waste, resulting in large-scale buildup of waste that detonates cognitive functions and abilities. The researchers were able to make tweaks to specific genes in their nerve cells which stopped the buildup of thai protein, which expanded the lifespan of the creatures by 30%.

This research was led by Edward Schimid and David Walker at UCLA and it began when they observed how aging fruit flies had significant levels of F-actin. They then treated flies with a drug known as rapamycin which is known to expand fruit fly lifespan and when treated with it they noticed the significant decrease in the F-actin protein. This discovery prompted them to study the genetics of the fruit fly to uncover more about their aging.

They discovered that a specific gene known as Fhos contributed to the buildup of F-actin and by inhibiting that specific gene the fruit flies saw their overall health and lifespan increase by about 30%. They also showcased improved cognitive functions including better learning, behavior and memory which indicated that the decreased amounts of F-actin in the brain enabled better cognitive abilities and improved lifespan.

Further research revealed that F-actin accumulation interfered with a process known as autophagy. This process is responsible for cleaning up damaged proteins and components of cells and this process slows down as we age. The researchers found that by decreasing the buildup of F-actin it led to increased autophagy which shows that the primary way the buildup of F-actin drives brain aging is by imparting autophagy. Reducing the F-actin improved autophagy which allowed for the improvement to the overall lifespan.

These groundbreaking discoveries offer hope to improve the lifespan of us humans but not just our lifespan but the period of life we spend in good health. Although this research was not targeted toward humans and there are key differences it shows that there are new possibilities for research to be made that can prevent cognitive decline and improve lifespan leading to healthier lives for humanity.

Researchers engineer AI path to prevent power outages

Over the last 100 years, the vast majority of society has become dependent on electricity. Without power, many of the things we do on a day-to-day basis go obsolete. Yet, there are still places in the world where electricity is a luxury. In many places, especially remote environments, electricity and power are extremely volatile with power outages being a common occurrence. This causes extreme disconnectedness and can lead to substantial issues to an individual's livelihood. However, recently, Researchers at the University of Texas at Dallas (UTD) in collaboration with the University of Buffalo (UB) have engineered an innovative AI model that aims at preventing power outages by automatically rerouting electricity in real time.

The study showcases how the model was engineered to automatically detect issues in the power grid. It does this continuously and as soon as it detects some level of an issue it resolves and resorts the electricity within milliseconds. Very often power systems get damaged due to storms and other natural issues and this causes the empower systems to need human repairs, but with this AI model, it enables electricity to continue to flow through the power lines without the need of immediate human intervention.

The North American electrical grid is a very complex and intricate network with thousands of transformers, transmission lines, and facilities. As a result, disturbances or issues in this system can cause mass disruptions that require human intervention to repair. However, this AI model automates this process and addresses the disruptions by automatically rerouting the electricity. The main advantage of this model is the speed. It can do this in milliseconds, which enables people to continue to have power while people work on the permanent repairs.

Dr. Zhang explains how the model works. The model was trained on the massive intricate network of the electrical grid. It then identifies the most optimal path for the electricity to reach the most number of users as quickly as possible. Following that, it reroutes the electricity to that specific path, providing mass electricity while the repairs take place. This model was trained and tested on smaller grids that were focused on testing and has yet to be applied to the real-world grids. This is partly because the model is very new and can make mistakes and so further testing and research is needed to finetune it before mass implementation.

The AI was built on a method known as reinforcement learning, where the AI is trained on information to make decisions that maximize a desired outcome. In the event of a wrong decision, that data is then taken and trained continuously to maximize the chances of the AI making the most optimal decision to reconfigure the grid to provide electricity. The primary method it uses to supply the electricity is drawing on nearby solar panels and battery grids to supplement the power. This technology is groundbreaking as it can transform the way in which electrical grids operate, making them more resilient and reducing the need for manual intervention whilst providing people with mass electricity.

Life-seeking, ice-melting robots could punch through Europa’s icy shell

The question that scientists have been researching for decades is as follows: Can there be life on other planets? It boils down to two options, we are either alone or not. Both are equally as scary and intriguing. One mission that can bring us some answers is NASA’s Europa Clipper mission which has launched and is on its way to Jupiter's moon Europa.

This mission aims at investigating the icy surface of Europa and the ocean beneath it, where it is believed there may be chances of life through microorganisms. There will be a spacecraft that conducts multiple flybys of Europa, where it will gather data about the ocean to determine if it can harbor life. Their spacecraft will reach Europa in 2030, and in the meantime, scientists are working on a follow-up mission to land a lander on the planet to search for life. This mission would involve the lander breaking through the icy surface and searching the ocean through an autonomous submersible.

The main challenge with this project, however, is the hostile environment that Europe breeds. Europa is bombarded with intense radiation from Jupiter’s magnetic field, which fries most electronics, and with its ice shell being 15 miles thick, it is extremely difficult to penetrate. Thus, the first step of this mission is to design a lander that is capable of withstanding both the radiation and the ice, and scientists are currently testing robots that are capable of doing this.

Furthermore, even if we can get through the ice sheets and survive the radiation the ocean beneath provides yet another challenge. Unlike Earth, the ocean beneath Europa differs significantly due to a lack of atmosphere and the extreme pressure of the ocean given how deep it is within Europa. To combat this, scientists are researching methods to modify current vehicles used for ocean exploration on Earth and testing them in Alaska and Antarctica to see their plausibility of survival.

Finally, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory is testing a serpentine robot, known as EELS, that is designed to crawl through tight, icy environments, inspired by the geological features found on moons like Saturn’s Enceladus. All of these projects highlight how mankind is ambitious to uncover the truth of the question, if there exists extraterrestrial life. Europa’s unique environment provides a combination that may support life and these projects provide what is necessary to discover the truth.

Despite the obstacles, these prototypes are pushing the boundaries of what is possible, and if successful, they could one day provide the first evidence of life beyond Earth, making Europa’s hidden ocean a key target in the search for extraterrestrial life.

Presented to you by the TSS News Editing Team.

Nov-Dec STEM News