Organelle that the plant cell and animal cell both have:

1. The Nucleus: The nucleus is an essential part of the cell. Known as the "control center", it holds the cell's genetic information.

2. The Nucleolus: Contained inside the nucleus, the nucleolus is responsible for producing the ribosomes for the cell.

3. The Ribosome: A ribosome is the cellular machinery that produces proteins in the cell.

4. The Golgi Apparatus: The Golgi Apparatus is the organelle that is in charge of synthesizing, packaging, and processing protein, to transport it all around the cell. Kind of like a post office.

5. The Vacuole: The vacuole acts as a storage system for the cell. It holds water, food particles, and other cellular material.

6. The Mitochondria: Mitochondria are commonly referred to as the cell's powerhouses. Their primary role is to generate the energy required to power cells.

7. The Cytoplasm: The cytoplasm is the material that suspends, and holds the structure of organelles in the cell.

8. The Cellular Membrane: The cell membrane controls the passage of materials into and out of the cell. You can think of it as a filter - only some things can go through.

Organelle that are unique to the animal cell:

1. The Lysosome:A lysosome is a cell organelle that contains digestive enzymes. Lysosomes are engaged in a variety of cellular functions; they break down extraneous or worn-out cell components, and they could be utilized to eliminate invading viruses and bacteria. Lysosomes are not found in plant cells.

Organelle that are unique to the plant cell:

1. The Chloroplast: The photosynthesis process is carried out by the chloroplast. In photosynthesis, light energy is captured and used to convert carbon dioxide into sugars.

2. The Cell Wall: The cell wall acts as the first line of defense when the plant comes into contact with pathogens. Along with that, the cell wall serves as a structural framework.

The 3 Principles of Cell Theory:

1. All currently existing cells were created from other existing cells, except for the first cell.

2. The cell is the utmost basic unit of life.

3. All organisms are constructed from cells.

Qualia

Many of us would agree that this apple is red

Or that this lemon is yellow......

But, like many things; colour is something that does not exist beyond us, humans. It's merely the effect of different atoms and molecules emitting different wavelengths, resulting in our ever so large colour spectrum. These wavelengths are reflected onto our retina and are converted to electrical signals, which are then perceived by our brains as colour.

But our brains can only do so much. While we do have the ability to detect colours from our own perspective, we cannot see it in someones elses perspective.

For example:

What if, I perceive an apple like that of above.

But you perceive an apple like that of above.

And consider this: it's a common knowledge that (most) apples are red, but what if what you call red, is actually my blue. And really; we have no way of communicating this because, there is ultimatley no way to describe a colour

This is the problem qualia brings to light: a language barrier that prevents us from communicating our cognitive experiences. Another example of qualia is taste

When I taste some chocolate, I experience a sweet taste in my mouth. But perhaps when someone else tastes chocolate, they experience a bitter taste in their mouth. But they've learned over time to call chocolate a "sweet" food when really, their "sweet" is my "sour". And this would explain why some people would dislike chocolate, because how on earth could you dislike chocolate?

Qualia stems from the fact that all humans have a seperate consciousness. But to understand qualia, we should first grasp the idea of consciousness. You are you; conscious, aware of your own existence. Perception, vison, hearing, cognition, language: these are the things that act as the pillars to support consciousness.

To understand consciousness we must understand where it originates from. One thing we all have come to an agreement on is that conciousness stems in the brain. About 1.3 kilograms of soft tissue, the brain plays a crucial role in just about every function of the body. It's no wonder the brain also hosts consciousness! However, we still have not found out where exactly the key to consciousness lies in the brain. To piece together the jigsaw puzzle of consciousness, we must study the human brain. This includes; psychophysics (exposing people to visual stimuli and seeing how they react). In 1974, a Lawrence Weiskrantz, surveyed a number of patients who've received damage to their primary visual cortex. These patients' eyes were still capable of processing information, but their primary visual cortex could not, leaving them blind. The survey consisted of Weiskrantz asking the patients to identify the shapes he showed them, most patients replied to this with: "I cannot see." But Weiskrantz still obliged them to answer. When finished with the survey, Weiskrantz's study found that the majority of the patients' guesses were correct. This led to Weiskrantz coming to the conclusion that; although the patients were blind they still must have some capability of perceiving visual stimuli. Nowadays, we call this occurence blindsight, the ability for people who are cortically blind to interpret visual input. Those with blindsight lack the conscious awareness of seeing, resulting in their blindness. Blindsightedness challenges the idea that one must have conscious awareness to see in order to process visual information.

Von Hagens Plastination

An expirement similar to that of Weiskrantz' is a corpus callosotomy. A corpus callosotomy is a surgical procedure to split the two hemispheres of the brain in half (the left brain and the right brain). Doing so cuts off a band of fibers acting as the bridge between the two halves. This practice is typically put in place to treat patients with epilepsy, but, post-surgery, patients are said to experience lack of coordination. Although it so far has not been proven, scientists theorize that the lack of coordination could be explained by two seperate consciousnesses. Weird, isn't it?

Maybe we're starting from the wrong place. To understand consciousness, we must differentiate from what's conscious and what's not. Take AI for instance, AI can certainly produce answers like humans (if not better), AI can solve every-day problems, but lacks consciousness.

Blackholes; mysteries of the cosmos

What is a blackhole?

A black hole is an area of spacetime in which gravity is so powerful that nothing, including light and other electromagnetic waves, can escape.

How does a blackhole come to be?

Did you know that (mathematically) anything could become a blackhole. A blackhole is a phenomenon that occurs when massive stars run out of fuel and collapse under their own gravity. In fact, everthything in this universe that has a "Schwarzschild radius" could become a blackhole, if you were to compress it into a small enough space. For example, if you were to compress the earth down to the size of a peanut; you'd have a blackhole. You may be thinking "What on earth is a schwarzschild radius?!" and do I have an answer for you. The gravitational radius, also known as the Schwarzschild radius, is a physical quantity that matches the event horizon radius of a Schwarzschild black hole. It is a radius property linked to any amount of mass. The Schwarzschild radius is given as:

R= Radius

G= Gravitational constant

M= Object mass

C=Speed of light

What would happen if something were to fall into a blackhole?

Okay, let's say we fell into a blackhole, what would it look like from the outside? Well, gravitational fields bend space and time. So, blackholes bend the path of light passing near it. As we approach the blackhole, the distortion of the sky grows greater. At the point where half of our view is darkness- we have reached the "photon sphere". At the "photon sphere", light can actually orbit the blackhole. Because the gravitational field also warps time, there will start to be changes in our perception of time. Near a blackhole, gravity is so strong that an observer (watching us fall into the blackhole) would see something quite odd. Rather then us just quickly getting sucked into the blackhole, they'd see us fall in slower- and slower unti we reach a point known as the event horizon. The event horizion is the point that- once crossed there is no return. Here, not even light can escape. To the observer, here is where our story ends. We'd seem "frozen" in space, the light refecting off our bodies- progressivley red shifted to the point where we fade into nothingness. For us, we would continue to travel into the blackhole. The closer we get to the singularity, the more significant the difference of the gravitational pull is across space. So parts of the body that are closer to the singularity would be pulled with more force than parts further away. This would cause you to be stretched towards the singularity. The effect is so incredible, scientists dubbed it as "spaghettification". Pretty creepy, isn't it?

Our universe as we know it.

One of man’s greatest mysteries is how life as we know it began. One of those things that is still misty in the area of human knowledge. The start of time is a somewhat controversial topic, for centuries humans have not come to agree on the question of whether we were created, or if we evolved. Various religions follow the belief that life is a result of a creator, and so is the universe. Scientific theory pursues the belief that the universe is eternal. The opposing views, cause it to seem that science and religion cannot coexist. The belief that science and religion are incompatible is actually one that is relatively new. It didn't truly begin until the last part of the nineteenth century, following the release of Darwin's book on evolution. During the debate over Darwin's theory that humans descended from apes, both sides attempted to portray the other as the enemy. Prior to the scientific revolution, civilizations with strong religious traditions produced the majority of scientific and technological advancements. Ancient pagans, Muslims, and Christians invented different aspects of the scientific method. Franciscan monk Roger Bacon, who is frequently credited with formalising the scientific method, was a mediaeval Christian who focused on logical explanations when studying nature. Different perspectives of science have been held throughout Confucian thought's history, regardless of whether it is religious or non-religious. Although the consistency of such Buddhist modernity has been questioned, many 21st-century Buddhists see science as complementary to their beliefs.

“Science is not only compatible with spirituality; it is a profound source of spirituality. When we recognise our place in an immensity of light-years and in the passage of ages, when we grasp the intricacy, beauty, and subtlety of life, then that soaring feeling, that sense of elation and humility combined, is surely spiritual. So are our emotions in the presence of great art or music or literature, or acts of exemplary selfless courage such as those of Mohandas Gandhi or Martin Luther King, Jr. The notion that science and spirituality are somehow mutually exclusive does a disservice to both” -Late Astrophysicist, Carl Sagan

Carl Sagan

The terms " science" and "religion" are ones that don’t often appear side by side. The word "religion" first appeared in the 17th century amid colonisation, globalisation, and the Protestant Reformation. In an era of attempts to specifically describe those who studied nature, the word "science" originated in the 19th century. What is today referred to as "science" was first developed as "natural philosophy" . In the 19th century, institutions and communities were established, and novel applications to and interactions with other facets of society and culture took place. New titles such as "biology" and "biologist," "physics" and "physicist," among other technical fields and titles, also emerged. William Whewell, a naturalist, and theologian, invented the term "scientist" in 1834 to describe those who were interested in acquiring knowledge about and comprehending nature. The practise of studying nature has been referred to as "natural philosophy" throughout history, dating back to Aristotle in the ancient world.

( Our Universe, photographed by NASA)

How The Universe (potentially) Began

In the cosmic symphony of existence, our universe acts as the bittersweet melody that holds our reality together, the humming of the elementary particles joining in unison, creating the perfect harmony of existence. If only our universe was as simple as an amalgamation of sounds.
Our galactice body spans to incomprehensible distances, among the billions and trillions of stars, among the trillions of galaxies. These things are eternity, they’ve existed before us, they will continue to exist for many, many years after us. We are just a itty-bitty fraction of the universe, and yet, we’re somewhat of a miracle. So how did our universe come to be the clash of “sounds” and “sensations” we know today? 13.8 billion years ago, our universe was just born, in other words, our cosmic orchestra was in the process of “tuning” the galactic instruments. The birth of our universe is one that we may never truly understand. So, let’s talk about what we do know about Earth’s genesis. Our universe did not hatch from an egg like a penguin, or stem from a seed like a plant. We speculate, the birth of our universe was more of an expansion, scientists call it “The Big Bang”. In the beginning our universe was a very, very, very small singularity. We can call this stage of the genesis the “inflation”. Like a balloon, this speck started to expand into itself, growing larger and larger. At this point, the universe exhibited a hot and dense environment, like a sauna, but a trillion degrees celsius warmer and certainly not humid. Here, energy was manifested in the form of particles called gluons, and quarks. Once our growing universe reached a billion kilometers, the kinetic energy of our universe decreased and our celestial sauna began to cool. Quarks merged to let way to new particles; hadrons, a relative of protons and neutrons. In our cosmic symphony, this would be the overture, not quite the tune but rather the first few sounds. When our universe turned approximately one second old, it already spanned ≈ 100 billion kilometers, creating conditions cold enough for our neutrons to decay into protons.


Now, our very first atom has been born, hydrogen. Henceforth, building the foundation for our universe. Hadrons and electrons continued to form more atoms, enabling for an electrically neutral space. But still, darkness shrouded the universe because of the lack of stars. It was only after millions of years when hydrogen gas merged under the pressure of gravity to create new stars. These stars emitted radiation that dissolved into plasma, which only then created the possibility for visual light to travel, what a delight! At last, our cosmic orchestra is beginning to sound tangible, but not yet complete.
Our solar system began to shape when the universe was 8.9 billion years old. A cloud of dust and hydrogen gas formed our proto-sun, at the hot-dense center. Under the influence of gravitation, particles and matter unite to build things called “planetesimals”, which are small clumps of material, or “baby planets”. The “solar wind”, composed of particles emitted by the sun, exerted a force strong enough to push volatiles away from the center of the solar system. These volatiles condensed on our planetesimals.. Whereas, closer to the center, heavy materials like rock and metal remained. The increasing growth of our planetesimals enabled them to be affected by gravitational force, meaning, one planet’s motion will affect another planet’s motion. Think of this stage as a planet’s youth, in a period of growth. Of course, youth does not last forever. Eventually these planets grew to be massive, and because of the gravitational interaction between the planets, many, many collisions occurred in this stage of the solar system. Eventually, via “process of elimination” only four of our planetary bodies survived (Mercury, Mars, Venus, and our home-sweet-home; Earth). Soon after Earth’s “inception”, a large object collided with our planet. The impact not only intensified Earth’s rotation, but also caused chunks of debris to fly into orbit. These debris underwent “accretion” (to coalesce under gravitational force), causing for our moon. It’s funny to think that both Earth and Moon were formed from the same material. And we cannot possibly forget our “planetary friends” Saturn, Uranus, Jupiter, and Neptune- these planets were formed further away from the sun, where bits of ice and rocks captured nebular gases.
Finally, our cosmic symphony integrates, creating the perfect melody of our universe, the bright tune of our stars, and the groovy rhythm of our planets.
The birth of our universe, galaxies, solar system, is one that is exhausting to understand. When thinking about the beauty, the complexity of our universe, then you’ll realise that our existence is one of the strangest, most baffling. From elementary particles, to the entire celestial bodies, it’s no wonder that the discovery of the cosmos has captured human eye for centuries.

The development of particles.

Light: What a delight!

What is light?

Light is a form of electromagnetic radiation that is visible to the human eye. It is a type of energy that travels in two forms: particles (called photons), and electromagnetic waves. Light is crucial, as it is what permits us to see in the first place.

Credit: NASA's Imagine the Universe

Ties to Einstein's Theory of Relativity

In 1915, Albert Einstein, a German theoretical physicist published “General Relativity”9. What was at first a seemingly ordinary paper soon turned out to be a pivotal piece of work in the field of physics, building the frameworks for all of our physical laws, and reframing Newton's laws. Einstein built the groundwork for modern physics by covering 3 underlying components of the universe, including Special Relativity, the Equivalence Principle, and General Relativity. The theory of General Relativity is, indeed, one that is beautifully concocted. I find that Einstein's work does a marvelous job at discussing ideas such as space and time intuitively. In fact, Einstein's famous equation, E=mc2, is a result of special relativity:

E=MC^2

E=Energy

M=Mass

C^2=Speed of light squared

Here, the speed of light is about 300,000 km per second. Albert A. Michelson, an American physicist was the first to make an accurate estimate of the speed of light. To do this, he reflected light from a rotating octagonal mirror to a faraway stationary mirror and returned. The reflected light entered a telescope after passing through a revolving mirror. Michelson discovered the speed of light, by measuring the time it took the light to travel to the distant mirror and back and knowing the distance between the mirrors.

Space Debris

Our lives depend on the things we can’t see. Think about this past week, every time you’ve watched the TV, texted your friends or even used a GPS. These things that play a role in many aspects of our daily life, are either directly or indirectly the result of satellites. And, while we often take for granted the services that satellites provide, these objects themselves need our attention as they leave a lasting mark on the space they occupy. These things that we rely on day in and day out have a finite life. They might run out of propellant, they could malfunction, or they may just naturally reach the end of their mission life. At this point, these objects effectively become space junk. This is the dilemma of the satellite industry; satellites that are no longer working are often abandoned in orbit for over many, many years, only moved out of the way as a temporary solution.

This “space junk” brings a myriad of problems to the table. When these objects re-enter the atmosphere, they release chemicals, and ultimately weaken our ozone layer. Not only does space debris present a current impact, but it also impacts humanity's future. If we are ever to expand our scientific field in space, we must put an end to this. Space pollution is an obstacle that prevents further space exploration, because it poses a danger to other satellites in orbit. These satellites have to move out of the way of all this incoming space junk to make sure they don't get hit and potentially damaged or destroyed. This creates a cycle where space debris destroys an object in space; creating even more space debris in which destroys more objects.

So just how much space debris is there out there? Well, to put it into perspective, there are more than 9,000 metric tons of garbage as of now orbiting Earth. Approximately twenty-thousand of those pieces are 10 centimetres and larger, five hundred thousand of those pieces are 1 to 10 centimetres, over 10 million of those pieces are under 1 cm, and 170 million pieces are under 1 millimetre, meaning they are too small to be tracked. The space debris can be categorised into three different categories. There is payload; (these are mainly fragments of satellites), rockets (which are the remains of stages used to propel missions in orbit), and there’s mission-related debris (which are objects dropped, for example tools, cameras, and cables).

TheAeroengineer.com

And as we can see in this chart, space debris started existing way back then in 1960. But, 2010 marks when the amount of space debris sky rocketed (no pun intended). Here, the graph depicts the amount of space debris in space by decade. The colour represents the type of space debris. Yellow being upper stage fragments, orange; upper stage mission related objects, blue; upper stages, dark blue; satellite fragments, green; satellite mission-related objects, and finally red being intact satellites. So which countries are responsible for space junk? Our top 3 culprits are: China (in third place), the United States (in second place), and Russia in first place.

What can we do to prevent space debris? Well, the European Space Agency has had a few tricks up their sleeve in this case. ESA is developing a special device called “ClearSpace-1”, also known as the “Space Claw”. The “Space Claw” is designed to capture and destroy space debris. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration as well, has devices to remove space debris. Crosscutting High Apogee Refuelling Orbital Navigator, otherwise known as CHARON is the technology that could track and remove space debris. While CHARON currently is only a concept, it could be revolutionary when launched.

“ClearSpace-1” interpreted by FOX Weather

Let's face it: not many people on Earth are currently engineers at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, but there are still ways we can end space pollution. Through spreading awareness, we can educate others on the topic. This means creating media to acknowledge the issue (for example, posters, public service announcements, and articles). To create a more direct impact, people could advocate for their opinion. For instance, signing a petition to make it illegal to abandon objects in space.

Space debris is a problem that affects us all in our daily lives, even though we may not see it. Not only does it impact us now, but it also affects future generations. If we want to live in a better world, and leave a better world behind, let’s make it our duty to stop the problem.

When I think of our current knowledge, I see pieces of a puzzle, a jigsaw puzzle that spans millions and billions of years. Each and every scientific discovery that is made, is one piece further to a sense of understanding in our universe. But perhaps, this is a puzzle that is impossible to complete, as time slips away, so does crucial information. Like pieces of the puzzle swiped under a rug, our information will be seemingly-lost. It would be a misconception to say that completing the cosmic puzzle is the only way of grasping the true meaning of existence, no. The true meaning is the things we experience in our everyday lives, the beautiful things like the warm breeze brushing along your skin, or the chirps of the birds at the break of dawn. These things, we take for granted, are the moments in life that can truly bring us the most joy. The human mind is some way or another, tainted. We have the natural ability to create problems for ourselves rather than solve them. We are jailed by our own brains- brains that are too complex to see the divinity in life. Being freed from our tainted minds means, being able to be content with solely existing, surely then, we could live in a world where happiness is real, where we would see meaning in the smaller things.

In a universe that is constantly expanding, all we know and ever will know is shrinking more than ever. When we reach that wall, we’ll realise that we are bound by the chains of human knowledge, where we are in some way or another; limited. Soon, it will become apparent that in the end- we are only human, in a world with endless possibilities, in a world where things occur against all odds, and maybe, it is best to leave certain things- unknown. The birth of our universe, galaxies, solar system, is one that is exhausting to understand. When thinking about the beauty, the complexity of our universe, then you’ll realize that our existence is one of the strangest, most baffling. From elementary particles, to the entire celestial bodies, it’s no wonder that the cosmos has captured the human eye for centuries.

Note from Sophie

Hi, I am Sophie S. I made this website using HTML, Java Script, and a bit of CSS as a passion project.