Russell's Teapot - Issue #1

SUMMER 2019
WWW.RUSSELLSTEAPOT.CO.UK
ISSUE 01
RUSSELL'S
TEAPOT

Editor's note
ISSUE 01
Welcome to the very first issue of Russell’s Teapot! Our concept has been created by
the students of Royal Russell for students worldwide. After our website was awarded by
SHINE, we have made the decision to design a magazine to showcase the most poignant
articles. In this year's ceremony, at Stationers' Hall, we had the opportunity to discuss
the future of our project with experts from Hearst, who have shown their support and
appreciation for our work so far.
Our aim is to raise awareness of topics that are less familiar, such as the effects of psychological
experiments, in The Stanford Prison Experiment, by Kaja Błaszczyk, technology
advancements, including genetic engineering (page 16), SQL injections (page 12),
lasers (page 20) and Current Problems with Supersymmetry. Thus, we aspire to make
science accessible and entertaining for everyone.
Finally, a very frequently asked question: how did we come up with our name? Russell's
Teapot is a philosophical analogy that implies it’s impossible to prove that some object
or phenomenon does not exist anywhere in the universe at any given point, as you’d
need to have complete knowledge of every point in time and space to know so. Also, it
works with our school's name!
We hope you love our magazine as
much as we loved creating it!
Alexandra Misăilă
WWW.RUSSELLSTEAPOT.CO.UK
2

Contents
4-5 current problems with supersymmetry
6-7 giraffes are going extinct!
8-9 The Mind and Beliefs of the Crowd in
Historical Phenomena
10-11 The Stanford Prison Experiment
12-13 The Forbidden SQL Injection
14-15 Nuggets of Knowledge
16-17 What is Genetic Engineering?
18-19 What If There Was No Moon?
20-21 Romania - the Home of the World’s Most
Powerful Laser
24-25 Dark Energy and Dark Matter: Q&A
26-27 What's Up with Carbon Fibre?
28-29 Hola Mola!
30-31 Challenges
3

Current
Problems
with
Supersymmetry
"It doesn't matter how beautiful your theory is, it
doesn't matter how smart you are. If it doesn't agree
with experiment, it's wrong."
- Richard P. Feynman
alEXAndra misăilă
Above: Higgs Boson diagram
Tell your friend Susy they
are part of the next big step
in understanding many of
the quantum-level theories
nowadays. In Physics, SUSY is an
acronym for supersymmetry, but
what is that, really? With the idea
that symmetry is the property of
an object of being made up of
identical parts facing each other
or around an axis, it would be
safe to assume supersymmetry
is a “better” symmetry – “on
a higher level” if you want. In
our case, this level is actually
subatomic, but it is “higher” in
the sense of its complexity and
of how much apprehending on
our part it requires.
Supersymmetry, according to
CERN, is “an extension of the
Standard Model that aims to
fill some of the gaps”, trying to
“predict a partner particle for
each particle in the Standard
Model”. Those partner particles
would be called – surprise! –
“superpartners”. The spin of the
superpartner differs by a halfinteger,
which would make them
undiscovered particles. Howard
Baer of University of Oklahoma
has worked on computer code
meant to calculate those super
particles’ masses and production
rates for the Large Hadron
Collider, but there have been
no concrete results of those
particles existing, so far. In 2016,
however, ATLAS conducted five
independent searches, each
differing in the number of leptons
in the final state. Although this
covered all the possible decay
modes, no supersymmetric
signals were detected.
One issue with supersymmetry
is that ideally, SUSY is
unbroken, meaning each pair
of superpartners should share
the same mass and internal
quantum numbers (besides spin,
of course – remember that it
differs by half-integer!) but as far
as our research has gone, they
are theorised to actually differ
in mass. Thus, SUSY becomes
spontaneously-broken. Despite
it not being the process scientists
were initially hoping for, it
could help solve problems such
as the hierarchy problem; the
supersymmetric theory claims
that the link between partners
and superpartners cancels the
Planck-scale quantum corrections
prediction to happen is that the
Higgs boson mass should be lower
than the Z boson mass. What we
know right now is that the Higgs
boson’s mass is 125 GeV and the
Z boson’s mass is, unfortunately
for supersymmetry, 91 GeV. Our
mathematical knowledge tells us
that, at least in this Universe –
hah! – 125 GeV is not less than 91
GeV. Does this mean we should
just forget about SUSY? Not
really, no.
I believe that the Higgs boson is
still a relatively new discovery.
We are certain that the
information we know about it
is correct, yet have there never
4

Above: The ATLAS Detector (CERN)
been theories believed for many, many years, that were eventually proved wrong? If there is the slightest
possibility there was a mistake – even the smallest mistake – in calculations or measurements, there is still
hope for our SUSY. It is true, the chances of a mistake realistically being there are fantastically small.
Our seemingly never-ending list of supersymmetry problems wishes to award an honourable mention to
superstring theory. Superstring theory appears to require, to some extent, the existence of supersymmetry.
Thus, the logical outcome is that it cannot be proved nor disproved until SUSY is proved or disproved,
and realistically, it might be way too long before that happens. Given the LHC hasn’t yet detected any
supersymmetric partners for the Standard Model particles, the superstring theories concerning those
superpartners with low mass cannot possibly be given any verdict. So far, the hope lies in discovering the
neutralino, the lightest believed superpartner, or the supersymmetric partner of the heaviest known particle,
the top quark. Nonetheless. researchers have come to the conclusion that there is no upper limit for how
heavy any supersymmetric particles are, meaning the superpartner of the top quark could require even
larger amounts of energy than the LHC already has, for it to be discovers. How long should the LHC shutdown
last this time? It does not matter – it is time physicists have to stand aside with their hands tied, in this sense.
Unfortunately, waiting and twitching for improvements seems to be the safest route to breakthroughs right
now.
5

GIRAFFES ARE GOING
EXTINCT!
bibienne yeoh
The list of endangered
species is long — but
there’s a beloved familiar
long-necked friend of
ours that has recently
joined it.
In light of the recent wildfires, increasing flood levels, the alarming reports from the Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change and drastic weather patterns these past few months — it’s only right to question
whether our fellow friends on the planet are going to survive. The question of endangered species is a hot
one. Wildlife conservation organisations have gone head to head with the devastations sprouting from
poaching and destruction of natural habitat. It is because of these main two reasons that we have seen a
rapid decline in animals such as elephants, tigers, orangutans and many more. But it’s more shocking now
that two subspecies of giraffes recently joined the list of critically endangered animals in the world — which
were unheard of before! To prove it, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has moved
them from the list of “Least Concern” to “Vulnerable” in its Red List of Threatened Species.
The Kordofan and Nubian species have become the worse victims of mass destructions of habitat leading to
most populations becoming locally extinct. Other human activities putting these magnificent creatures at
risk include agriculture, mining, and construction across all of Africa. And it is no surprise that of the total of
nine subspecies of giraffe, five are declining in numbers despite three populations slowly increasing and one
is considerably stable for now. There has been a lack of attention focused on these long-necked creatures,
hence why there’s not been much news about what scientists and the media call a “silent extinction” with
only less than 111,000 left and them being completely extinct in seven countries where they were once
6

prosperous (those of which being
Burkina Faso, Eritrea, Guinea, Malawi,
Mauritania, Nigeria, and Senegal).
The giraffe is a prime example of how
humans have affected natural habitats
for these mammals. Although the
giraffe is not alone on the list, the fact
that an animal so fondly common to
generations alike might not be able
to walk on this earth is astonishing.
There is a strong tendency to believe
that familiar species such as the giraffe
should be safe in terms of numbers
because they are familiar and because
we see them in zoos. This is a worrying
realisation to dawn upon. Organisations
such as the Wildlife Act and the Giraffe
Conservation Foundation have taken
this to heart and are trying to tackle
the issue as best as they can but in
fact, the public should be made aware
of this too.
WWW.RUSSELLSTEAPOT.CO.UK
This issue is not to be taken lightly. We
might be able to point at these animals
in the zoo or on reservations and
Giraffes are very friendly creatures!
marvel at their gracefully elongated
he zoo or on reservations and marvel at their gracefully elongated neck for now — but how long more
do these animals have before they become another specimen of mother nature tucked in between a
dusty encyclopedia?
STRANGE FACTS ABOUT GIRAFFES:
-> Over short distances, giraffes can run at speeds up to 35 mph.
-> Giraffes only need to drink water once every couple of days.
-> Female giraffes often return to where they were born to give birth.
-> Fortunately, baby giraffes can stand up and even run within a hour of being born.
-> Giraffes usually stay upright while sleeping and if they do settle into a vulnerable position on the
ground, it's just for a quick six-minute nap.
-> Giraffes actually have the same number of neck vertebrae as humans—just seven.
-> Male giraffes engage in a ritualized display of dominance called "necking" that involves headbutting
each other's bodies.
-> Male giraffes will test a female's fertility by tasting her urine.
-> The first giraffe to make its way to Europe was brought there by Julius Caesar from Alexandria
in 46 B.C. as part of a triumphant return to Rome after years of civil war.
7

8

The Mind and Beliefs of
the Crowd in Historical
Phenomena
TOmmy zhang
The crowd has tremendous power and
influence in the modern age. Its mind and
beliefs are worth studying because it is
the underlying factor of many historical
events, due to the fact that the changes in
people’s thoughts largely contribute to the
great changes in civilisation. It also links
to our all-day lives when people blindly
follow what the majority believes and
stand in awe of those popularised ideas,
for example, the spread of ideas through
media. Before that, let’s look at the general
characteristics of the crowd.
When a bunch of people forms a crowd,
their individual and conscious personality
disappears, they are likely to feel, think
and act quite differently from what
they used to be because they have been
automatically indoctrinated with the
collective ideas which greatly differs from
individual thoughts and feelings, which
is usually described as rational, logical
and prudent. Whilst the collective mind
generally links to sentiments because
people with different intelligence actually
share similar instincts, feelings, and
passions. Psychologists show that although
a great difference of intelligence exists
among people, from the view of character
and emotion, there is almost none.
Therefore, a group of people with different
intelligence can unit together and form a
crowd that would share similar qualities.
Furthermore, crowds are unintelligent
compared to the individuals who formed it.
This is also because people do not think on
their own, they all adopted the collective
mind that depends on the unconscious
qualities of sentiments, which is extremely
emotional because of the belief in religion,
ethics, morality, affections, and dislikes.
We now have the fundamental knowledge
of the general characteristics of the crowd.
But how does a normal individual become
part of the crowd? There are three main
causes. The first of which is that a crowd
grants him a sense of power because of the
huge number. Also, in a crowd means being
Above: Time-lapse of crowded city.
anonymous, and therefore irresponsible of their actions. Individuals are
no longer kept under restraint since they do not fear the consequence.
The second cause is contagion, as ideas spread so easily from one to
another like a disease. The last one is the psychological suggestion, an
individual tends to easily accept it because they feel that a group of
people had accepted those ideas, thus it must be some kind of truth. His
brain has been paralyzed and blindly follows the actions and thoughts
of the others; thus he is not conscious of his act.
Many historical events caused by the shift in people’s ideas. For
example, the destruction of the Roman Empire, the Renaissance, the
Reformation, the American Revolution, the French Revolution and etc.
The visible causes of these events are perhaps political transformation,
resources, freedom and so on. But the change in civilisation is because
of the change in people’s ideas and beliefs, the ideas spread because
of its contagious nature and groups of individuals gather together. It
then led to the destruction of ideas of the past (i.e. religious, political
and etc.), and the creation of new thoughts based on new scientific
discoveries and social beliefs. The crowd tightly links with the idea
of sentiments, being unconscious and other characteristics in former
paragraphs, therefore, they can change things that each individual
that forming them cannot, because individuals consider too much and
so would never put these ideas into practice; so perhaps the crowd’s
actions largely contribute to our modern civilisation. Nevertheless,
the crowd is only good for the destruction of the old and corrupted
civilisation, not for creating a new civilisation. History tells us that a
new civilisation is always created by a small group of intellectuals,
not by unconscious, excessively emotional groups of people with low
intelligence.
9

The Stanford Prison
Experiment
Kaja Błaszczyk
In 1968, Philip Zimbardo, a graduate of Brooklyn
College, student and teacher of Yale University,
became a professor of psychology at Stanford
University. In 1971, he conducted the experiment
funded by a Government grant from the U.S.
Office of Naval Research. He aimed to understand
what is responsible for humans’ cruelty in
prison conditions – sadistic personality or
social expectations, roles and the power of the
situation? Following the Milgram’s research that
has revealed how an authority figure can free
ordinary people from a sense of responsibility,
the Stanford prison experiment has become
known as one of the most controversial studies in
the area of social psychology.
The participants, nineteen male Americans
randomly assigned to their roles of guards and
prisoners, were chosen amongst volunteers who
responded to the newspaper advertisements in
the Palo Alto Times and The Stanford Daily offering
$15 per day. They were looking for students
willing to take part in “a psychological study of
prison life”. All volunteers were psychologically
tested to prove their “emotional stability”.
On the morning of August 17, “prisoners” were
arrested by the Palo Alto police department
in their own houses in front of families and
neighbours. This action was supposed to reinforce
the roles of participants from the very beginning.
Subsequently, they were delivered to the Stanford
Country Prison. Here, each prisoner had to go
through the forced strip-searching and delousing.
As Zimbardo decided to additionally humiliate
humiliate the prisoners by emasculating them,
they also got uniforms, which were more like
female dresses with assigned numbers and chains.
The guards received their own uniforms, handcuffs
and mirror shades that underlined their roles even
more.
The experiment was scheduled to last for fourteen
days, but Zimbardo’s girlfriend, Christina Maslach,
persuaded him to shut it down after six. The
behaviour of guards started becoming a real threat
to prisoner’s psychological and physical health.
Prisoners had to follow sixteen rules while guards
were free to exercise their control as long as they
could maintain prison law. They did not wait long
to start underlining their higher status in prison.
To further humiliate prisoners, the guards woke
them up at 2:30 am and forced them to call out
their assigned numbers in order to ‘familiarise’ the
prisoners with the said numbers. Push-ups, which
had been used as punishment in Nazi concentration
camps, giving privileges of better food and cells to
break the solidarity among prisoners, and guards’
permission to use the toilet are only examples of
the horrible harassments that the prisoners had to
experience.
As the study lasted, guards became more and more
sadistic, especially at night when they thought
that cameras were turned off. Even though the
first day in prison did not bring any response from
prisoners, the second one surprised both guards
and Zimbardo. Prisoners rebelled against the
guards’ behaviour. They swore, ripped off their
numbers and uniforms and barricaded themselves
10 11

by putting beds against the cell’s door. Eventually,
the rebellion was put down, but the attitude of
the prisoners changed. They started experiencing
high levels of anxiety and depression. Within 36
hours, Prisoner #8612 began to show symptoms
of major psychological disturbance.
Researchers thought that the prisoner was
trying to get out of the prison in a trivial way
by pretending to be mentally disturbed, so they
suggested him to become their informant. This
led the Prisoner #8612 to an even worse state
of craziness. Thus, he started convincing others:
“You can’t leave. You can’t quit.” Further actions
of the prisoner convinced Zimbardo that his
behaviour was real and he decided to release him.
Two more prisoners left the prison on the fourth
day. One of the prisoners went on a hunger strike.
These events, along with Maslach’s persuasion,
led Zimbardo to the decision to shut down the
experiment.
Zimbardo’s research is thought to have high
internal validity as both quantitative and
qualitative data was gathered during and after
the experiment proving that the majority of
participants genuinely believed that the prison
was real. However, a lot of researchers question
Zimbardo’s ease in drawing conclusions. Even
though the volunteer sample was thought to
increase the reliability of the research for a very
long time, the following studies undermined this
conclusion.
attracted volunteers of opposing
characteristics to the original volunteers, who
have exhibited cruel and aggressive behaviour.
In other words, the volunteers who had
offered to take part displayed traits commonly
detected in actual prisoners. Carnahan and
McFarland found that participants who
responded to the advertisement excluding
the term “prison life” acquired different
scores on later psychological tests. Volunteers
from this advertisement had lower levels of
aggressiveness and authoritarianism, which
suggests that the men who participated in the
Stanford prison experiment could have just
had traits that influenced the outcome of the
study indeed.
The research has proved that a situation can
strongly influence the behaviour of ordinary
people. Participants very easily conformed
to the prison roles. Not only prisoners and
guards, but also researchers and other
members of the working staff, such as the
Chaplain, started treating the basement of
the psychology department as a real prison.
However, confounding variables, such as
participants’ personalities could actually
determine the outcome of the experiment.
That is to say, the psychological tests did not
cope with selecting representative sample
to draw the conclusions about human’s
predispositions to conform to social roles
given by a particular situation.
In 2007, psychologists Thomas Carnahan and
Sam McFarland questioned the wording of
Zimbardo’s advertisement. They have argued that
had they phrased the adverts differently, by not
mentioning about “prison life”, they would have
1211

The Forbidden SQL Injection
Liam smith
SQL injection is one of the largest and yet paradoxically
one of the simplest to execute counter cybersecurity
threats. It is often regarded as the ‘low hanging fruit’
of the cybercrime and cybersecurity world. This is
due to the fact that detection of an SQL vulnerability
is as easy as entering a single character into a search
function, and exploitation of this vulnerability is
only slightly less comparatively easy (especially
as SQL queries and language needed to perform
a successful injection can be found online with
increasing ease, provided you are aware of which
database management system is being used). Also,
vulnerabilities that allow websites’ databases to be
breached through SQL injection are a dime a dozen
due to the fact that most only implement precautions
against it after having already suffered from its use.
In fact, many have listed it as the most prevalent form
of cyberattack, with Akamai (a cloud service provider)
citing it as having been used in 51% of all cybercrime
cases in the second quarter of 2017.
Before going any further I would like to remind
you that SQL injection is ILLEGAL when carried out
without permission and therefore should not be
exploited against someone else’s website or online
service under any circumstances.
SO, WHAT IS SQL?
SQL stands for Structured Query Language and is
the highest level programming language. It is used
for communication with databases and it has a high
level of abstraction from Machine code (binary). This
abstraction is what opens up a severe vulnerability
when partnered with a lack of correct precautions
being made when search functionality or requested input
from a user is implemented into a website.
The simplest way to explain the major vulnerability in SQL
is through the use of an example: let’s imagine that you
are creating a website. On this website, you sell a variety
of different products. In order to allow users to search
for said products, you include a search function. The way
this works is through the use of SQL. For example, you
create a search bar that upon anything being entered into
it an SQL query is completed and sent to a PHP server.
This query would (in English) equate to something along
the lines of “return any information within column X
(products column) that are like “_” .” When a user enters,
for example, “wardrobe” into the search bar this query is
completed and is received by the PHP server which then
returns the relevant information (in the case of an online
store, most likely as a table).
The issue with this is that the user that enters information
into this search bar has full control over part of the query
and no rules or parameters have been set to prevent
them from embedding an entirely new query within their
request. As a result, if a user were to enter the characters
“ ’ ” or “%”, the PHP server and data management
system would assume that these symbols were structural
characters and not simply text. This specifically would
just return an error as the PHP server would see this as
an invalid query. However, once this error is spotted by
someone with malicious intent they become instantly
aware of the vulnerability. As the user is able to modify
a section of query without being disallowed from
embedding subsequent queries within this section, a
malicious user may wish to modify the query so that it
becomes the equivalent of (in English again), “return any
12

this information, the user would then be able to identify
tables and columns that may contain sensitive and
valuable data (that would normally this information, the
user would then be able to identify tables and columns
that may contain sensitive and valuable data (that would
normally be inaccessible). The user can then further
exploit this system by adapting the query once again;
“return any information within column X (products
column) that are like ” and return all information stored
within the USERS table, which is, once again, formatted
with the same number of columns. This query specifically,
is extremely – dangerous as it has the potential to return
ALL user information (passwords, usernames etc.) in
an easily viewable format to any user with the correct
knowledge and intention. At this point, what is possibly
the most valuable data held within the server has been
entirely breached thus heavily impacting public opinion
of the service and also potentially leading to legal action
due to inadequate protection of user data.
SQL injection is even able to be carried out when
information is not displayed on the screen via a table
or some equivalent. This is through what is known as
blind SQL injection by which the predetermined code is
modified to request a “sleep or “delay” for a number of
seconds for each valid piece of data within a database.
This will cause the database to delay its response by
a few seconds or so for each instance of applicable
information being held within a table. For example, you
could set a delay of 5 seconds for each column containing
the word “apple” within a table and thus if a response
took exactly 15 seconds to be received from the database
you could easily infer that 3 columns within said table
contained text reading as “apple”. You could then further
narrow this down until you are presented with only
information you need based on these logical inferences.
This obviously takes far longer than the previous method
however it may be the only option for a malicious user in
certain situations.
Ultimately, SQL injection is a very basic form of database
manipulation and is also very easy to counter by simply
improving on the written code itself to specify that anything
typed within a search bar etc. is text and not any form of
realise how serious it can be after it has already affected
them.
Can you understand this?
/* CREATE TABLE */
CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS TABLE_NAME(
);
just VARCHAR(100)
/* UPDATE QUERY */
UPDATE
SET
TABLE_NAME
just = 'follow'
WHERE
just = 'follow';
/* UPDATE QUERY */
UPDATE
SET
TABLE_NAME
just = 'the'
WHERE
just = 'the';
/* UPDATE QUERY */
UPDATE
SET
TABLE_NAME
just = 'procedure'
WHERE
just = 'procedure';
13

Nuggets of Knowledge
Raindrops Breaking
Speed Limit
Raindrops are supposed to have a terminal velocity,
a maximum speed it reaches when the force of the
air resistance has the same force as the mass and
gravity which is causing it to go down. This results
in the raindrop not accelerating and reaching a
constant speed. The term ‘terminal velocity’ is used
in skydiving, for example, which helps explain it.
A scientist measured the distance and time it took
for an object from a distance to reach the device.
The scientist placed this device on a rainy day to
measure the time it took for a raindrop to reach
the device from a certain distance. This created a
distance-time graph from which the speed could
be calculated. Thus, he formula for terminal
velocity was used and by putting the results from
the experiment in the formula, it gave a number
approximately 30% higher than what was expected.
Interestingly, such a small experiment can lead to
a wider understanding of speed and velocity and
terminal velocity. This can be important when
manufacturing vehicles or even rockets as they can
be made more effective.
mihai pavel
How do eagles soar with
convection currents?
To understand this, you have to understand how
convection currents work in the air. They are made
when the air is heated usually by the sun or another
heat source. The cold dense air is heated and begins
to become less dense since temperature and density
are inversely proportional. The hot air rises due to its
decreased density this is called an updraft or thermal
column. The hot air eventually cools down once it has
reached high enough. As the temperature decreases
the density increases and the cold air descends back to
the ground which is called a downdraft. Then the air is
heated again and the process repeats.
The uneven heating of the earth causes thermal columns
to appear and disappear depending on whether the
surface is hot enough. For instance, eagles fly into
thermals when they are hunting or flying long distances
because it saves energy. Once in a thermal they extend
their wings, stop flapping and fan out their tail feathers
to increase airflow. Since the eagles stop flapping their
wings they descend but in a thermal, the rate of descent
is slower and smoother as the hot air pushes vertically.
To stay in the column, they steer with their wings and
tails in a circular pattern. Once a thermal is cooled they
move to another of start flapping.
amber kennedy
14

Cryogenic Technology
It is well known that both solar and wind power don’t
necessarily generate electricity when people want to use it
so there are new inventions for cleaner energy. Cryogenic
technology is making it possible for liquid air, nitrogen, and
methane, especially methane, to play roles in combating global
warming.
Cryogenic cooling is compared to a “pressure cooker in
reverse”. The main idea is to slow the rate at which gas boils
off by lowering its pressure and temperature, typically to
below 125 K. To minimize the energy required, engineers seek
to keep components of a gas’s internal energy, the entropy
and/or enthalpy, constant. Ideally, there would be no transfer
of heat to or from the surroundings. Decades of research and
development have nevertheless produced efficient, wellestablished
liquefaction cycles for cryogenically cooled gases,
with multiple stages of compression and then expansion into
low-pressure chambers.
One of these processes, the Claude cycle for making liquid air, is
central to Highview Power’s business. Highview exploits cheap
electricity, usually at night-time, to power a modified Claude
cycle, liquefying air at around 80 K. This liquid air is stored
in low-pressure, vacuum-insulated tanks, like those in the
industrial-gas sector. Then, when electricity demand is high,
they pump up pressures and evaporate liquid air through a heat
exchanger. There, heat from ambient air or hotter air, released
either by the refrigeration cycle itself or by a neighbouring
industrial process, turns liquid air back into gas. That expansion
drives an electricity-generating turbine.
Liquid air produced for cooling can also be used for other
purposes. For instance, CryoHub already uses cryogenics in
vehicles or for transporting goods at multiple temperatures.
Currently, they use liquid nitrogen but might be able to convert
systems to liquid air.
victor ayodele
Red-shifts
What is red-shift? Before this, how do we observe stars? Well, we
use a spectrometer, which is a device that measures wavelengths
of light over a range of the electromagnetic spectrum. Different
elements absorb different frequencies (or wavelengths) of light
because a different number of electrons in each element and some
particular dark lines are produced, which is the visible part of the
EM spectrum that elements absorb. When scientists observe the
same distanced stars or galaxies again, they see the same pattern
apart from the fact that the light source appears red, which has a
longer wavelength than we expected the galaxy to emit. It shows
that the stars and galaxies must be moving away from Earth.
The Doppler effect explains it- for example, when an ambulance
is moving towards you, the sound waves which it produces has a
higher frequency which means it has a higher pitch; when it moves
away from you, the pitch decreases because of lower frequency.
The same thing happens to light, just replace the ambulance with
stars and galaxies and the person with the earth. Therefore, the
universe is expanding. Hubble found out that the further distanced
stars or galaxies are moving away from the earth even faster than
the close ones. Furthermore, the acceleration of the expansion of
the universe was also discovered back in 1998.
Then, what is red-shift? Before this, how do we observe stars?
Well we use a spectrometer, which is a device that measures
wavelengths of light over a range of the electromagnetic spectrum.
Different elements absorb different frequencies (or wavelengths)
of light because different number of electrons in each element
and some particular dark lines are produced, which is the visible
part of the EM spectrum that elements absorb. When scientists
observe the same distanced stars or galaxies again, they see the
same pattern apart from the fact that the light source appears
red, which has longer wavelength than we expected the galaxy to
emit. It shows that the stars and galaxies must be moving away
from Earth.
tommy zhang
15

A lot of people think genetic modification is a very new science, but humans
have been genetically changing creatures and plants for the millennium.
However, we didn’t understand what this implies and why it happens until
recently, when we discovered DNA (or deoxyribonucleic acid).
Let’s think of it like this: if living creatures were a Lego set, then DNA would be
the instructions. Change the instructions and you change the outcome. Because
of this, genetic engineering is a strange subject to most people. Most people
vaccinate themselves and their children, and they are fine with that. What
they possibly do not know is that those vaccines have been obtained through
genetic modification, as some of those people also seem to be disgusted by
the thought of eating genetically modified food. Is there really a difference?
I believe that what those people fear when someone talks about genetically
modified foods is that they could be harmful to the body because they produce
pesticides that kill insects, but it is important to keep in mind that a chemical
that could be harmful to those small creatures could be harmless to us. For
instance, coffee is relatively harmless to us, but kills insects. Chocolate is
harmful to dogs, but a pleasure to humans.
A usual example of genetic modification is when your cells are attacked by a
virus. When this happens, the cells often die. There are times when the cells
survive – or more accurately, some die and some survive – and they store a
copy of the RNA (or ribonucleic acid).
That is stored in the protein CaS9 which performs a procedure across the
cell’s DNA called CRISPR (short for Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short
Palindromic Repeats) which goes back and forth across the DNA. If it finds
16 16

this same RNA again, it cuts the RNA, because viruses implant their RNA into
the DNA of the cell – basically hijacking it – and CRISPR is extremely precise. In
2006, we found out that CRISPR was ‘programmable’ meaning that we could
choose what genes would be changed.
This has been used in several cases, such as in the 1990s, where the papaya
industry was almost destroyed by the Ringspot virus. To prevent Hawaiian
papaya from being wiped out completely, the government created a genetically
modified papaya plant which was immune to the virus. Thus, the papaya
industry was saved!
Another use of genetically modified plants is mostly to fight against climate
change and absorption of CO2 or other harmful gases in the atmosphere with
super absorbent plants, such as the American chestnut tree. Other uses are
to make crops that produce bigger yields each year, so that, with the growing
population, we could produce a larger amount of food but in the same area
of land. Thus, we wouldn’t need to cut down that many trees to create more
cattle farms, we could just have larger cattle.
I am hoping to see more of genetic engineering in the future, as I hope people
will understand how they can make a living out of what is now seen as magic.
DERI ROBERTS
17 17

What if
there was
no moon?
The Moon.
For 4.568 billion years of Solar System history,
the Moon has always been orbiting around
the Earth while the Earth has been revolving
around the Sun. Our Moon is bigger than any
other Moon when compared to the planet it
orbits around. There are also in many ways in
which our Moon has affected our lives until
now, such as Lunacy (werewolves and the full
Moon), animal behaviour (corals spawn around
the full Moon), cultural references (inspiration
in many phrases), farming (a harvest Moon),
and even women’s menstrual cycle. Although
these would not impact our lives massively
even if the Moon is gone, however, there are
many scientific impacts which could put our
lives into danger if the Moon disappears.
The Moon is the second brightest object from
Earth’s sky, the first being, of course, the Sun.
Even though the Sun is naturally 400,000 times
brighter than the full Moon, the full Moon is still
14,000 times brighter than the third brightest
object in the sky, Venus. Therefore, when you
look at the night sky without the Moon, the
other stars would be brighter and would be
seen better.
Eclipses require three astral objects to be in a
line: the Sun, a planet, and its Moon. When the
Moon passes between the Sun and the planet,
a shadow is cast onto the planet’s surface. But
without a Moon at all, any of these eclipses
would not occur whether it is solar eclipses,
partial, total, annular or lunar eclipses.
The Moon exerts a tiny frictional force on the
Earth, therefore making the speed of the Earth’s
rotation slow down over a long period time.
It may only happen for about a second, but if
we lost the Moon, it would add up over time.
Now we have 24 hours in a day, but there were only
22 hours a day back when dinosaurs roamed the
Earth, and a day was under 10 hours a few billion
years ago. This means in another four million years,
there may be no need for leap days. Without the
Moon, all of this would stop. The day would be a
constant 24 hours every day.
Moreover, we have tides primarily because of the
Moon. During full Moons, new Moons and when the
Sun, Earth and the Moon are aligned, we have spring
tides. They make the largest differences between
high and low tide. In comparison, we have neap
tides, which have the smallest of those differences.
This happens during a half Moon, when they’re at
right angles. However, without our Moon, the tides
would always be the same size and only a quarter of
the size of today’s spring tides.
More importantly, as the Earth spins on its axis,
tilted at 23.4˚ when orbiting around the Sun
(obliquity), you may think the Moon has got
nothing to do with it. Over thousands of years, the
tilt could change from as little as 22.1˚ to as much
18

emma ozeki
as 24.5˚. The Moon stabilizes the force of this tilt.
This is known because of planets such as Mars with
small Moons, where their axial tilt changes by ten times
as much over time. Therefore, the axial tilt of the Earth
without the Moon could exceed 45˚ at times, meaning
the Earth would spin on our sides. As a result, poles
wouldn’t always be cold, and the places around the
equator may not always be hot. Without the Moon to
stabilize the Earth’s axial tilt, ice age could hit the Earth
once again.
As for these reasons, if there was no Moon, our lives
would be completely different to our life now.
19

Romania is Now the Home of
the World’s Most Powerful
Laser
alEXAndra misăilă
Above: National Institute for Laser Plasma and Radiation
Physics, Romania
As of March 7, 2019, the National
Institute for Laser Plasma & Radiation
Physics (INFLPR) in Măgurele, Romania,
has reached the highest power in the
world, of 10 PW (petawatts). It is part
of the European ELI Project, which “aims
at hosting some the most intense lasers
world-wide, develop new interdisciplinary
research opportunities with light from
these lasers and secondary radiation
derived from them, and make them
available to an international scientific
user community,” according to eli-laser.
eu.
The director of the Laser Department
himself, Ioan Dancus, explains how “10
trillion laser pointers [of about 1 milliwatt]
equal the power of the Măgurele laser.”
Also, given that the power of the Sun
is roughly 3945996 watts, the Laser
is approximately 10% of that. This
outstanding achievement will help
research in areas of fundamental physics,
nuclear physics and astrophysics, possibly
material sciences and will aid in the
production of “new technologies in the
biomedical field” (Nicolae Zamfir, the
director of the project).
I personally hope this will bring a lot more
opportunities for research in physical
sciences for Romania. Who knows?
Romania’s Horia Hulubei National Institute
of Physics and Nuclear Engineering
has always been a big contributor to
discoveries, in that sense, and is even
recognised by CERN.
20

21

Credits:
Bibienne Yeoh
@itsbibsyeoh
Winner of the
Biology Photography
Competition 2019,
Royal Russell
22

23

hypotheses regadi
Q&A: Dark Energy & Dark Matter
WHAT ARE ‘DARK MATTER’ AND ‘DARK
ENERGY’?
Everything we know such as atoms, objects, people, planets and
stars. However, when scientists calculated the structure of the
universe, they found out that normal-visible matter is simply not
enough to make up the whole universe; this accounts for less than
only 5% of the known universe. There is approximately 25% of
which is dark matter and 70% – dark energy. They are called “dark”
because we know their existence, but we are not able to see nor
detect them.
HYPOTHESES – IS DARK MATTER…?
…Anti-matter? Certainly not, because when anti-matter is produced
naturally, it is produced from a type of radioactive decay and
interacts with gamma quanta with matter. However, dark matter
does not produce the unique gamma ray when it reacts with normal
matters.
…Black holes? Certainly not, because dark matter does not have
the extremely strong gravitational effects that would absorb
everything.
…Weakly-Interacting Massive Particles? They have been mostly
discussed among physicists, yet are not discovered elementary
particles. They seem to fit with the characteristics of dark matter
– they don’t interact with light or other electromagnetic spectra,
but only with gravity.
24 24

ng dark energyhy
SO HOW DO WE KNOW
DARK MATTER EXISTS?
Dark matter is invisible
because it does not reflect
electromagnetic spectrum
such as light, and energy as
normal matter does. Therefore,
we use a different approach
to hypothetically recognise its
existence. We know it exists
through gravity, because with
high concentrated dark matter,
it bends light which passes by.
HYPOTHESES REGARDING
DARK ENERGY
Cosmological constant? – This
hypothesis suggests that dark energy
is not really a type of energy, but a
property of space, where the empty
space is constantly generating more
space. Therefore, as the universe
expands, more and more space is
generated and filled the gap. However,
it creates an unsolved problem called
the Cosmological Constant Problem,
in which the observed amount of
energy largely disagrees with the
theoretical number.
HOW DO WE KNOW DARK
ENERGY EXISTS?
Our recognition of dark energy is similar to dark matter because
our current technologies are not able to detect them as they don’t
absorb, reflect and radiate light. In 1929, Edwin Hubble determined
that the universe itself is expanding as he described that the redshift
phenomenon (= Doppler effect) occurs because the wavelength of
light is stretched as the universe expands. Before that, it was thought
that the pull of gravity would contract and collapse the universe at
some point, or neither expand nor collapse, which was proposed by
Einstein – the model of a static universe in 1917. Therefore, there
must be some kind of unknown form of energy which accelerates the
universe expansion.
25

What’s Up with Carbon Fibre?
Carbon fibre is a modern synthetic fibre
and guess what? It’s made just from Carbon
atoms. Carbon has some amazing properties
it seems! In this article I hope to show you
how recent developments are changing
our lives, and indeed are leading to other
developments which may radically change
our lives in the near future, hopefully for
the better.
Carbon fibre has some very useful
properties. it is extremely strong, durable,
light and stiff which makes it very useful in
a variety of situations. In fact, most people
may not realise it, but it is very likely that
they use carbon fibre products regularly and
may take them for granted. For instance,
many boats are made from carbon fibre
because of the lightness and durability of
the material; pretty much all professional
hockey sticks are made of it as well because
of the stiffness, durability and strength of
carbon fibre. Because carbon fibre is so
light, the outer casing of formula one race
cars are also made from it. Bicycle frames
are increasingly being constructed from this
amazing material because of the lightness
and strength of the material.
How do all these carbon atoms come together
and form a material with so many practical
applications. Well, it all starts with the
covalent bond. A covalent bond is where
two or more non-metal atoms (i.e. elements
on the right-hand side of the periodic table
above the zig-zagged line) share electrons so
that each atom achieves a full outer shell,
resembling the group 0f elements.
As atoms are more stable when they have
filled their outer shell, neither atom is
keen to let go of the electrons and a ‘tug of
war’ results in the formation of very strong
[covalent] bonds. The more electrons that are
being shared, the stronger the bond will be.
This means that more energy will be required
to break the atoms apart. Some other familiar
covalent compounds that you may know
include water, diamond, ammonia, methane,
ethanol and graphite!
Before I can talk about Carbon fibre properly.
It is important that you understand the
concept of the Buckminster’s Fullerene, also
26

WWW.RUSSELLSTEAPOT.CO.UK
Sacha Jennings
known as a ‘Bucky Ball’. You
are probably thinking “What
on earth is that?”. Well, I can
guarantee you that you have all
seen hundreds, if not thousands,
of an everyday object that is
really a model for this mysterious
shape. This is because the lattice structure of
a Bucky ball can be represented by the same
pattern of shapes that are seen on the surface of a
traditional football!
This covalent lattice is made up of sixty carbon atoms (C 60
).
The shapes that make the sphere include twelve pentagons
and twenty hexagons. C 60
can be made when an electrical
arc is created between two carbon electrodes. C 60
can then
be extracted from the soot that is remaining.
So now we can try and understand what a carbon fibre is. Imagine cutting the Bucky ball
in half, separating them and stitching them together in a cylinder made from other carbon
atoms so that they form a tube capped on either end by the halves of the Bucky ball. That is
a carbon fibre and as you might imagine, it can be made as long as you desire.
What is next in technological developments related to carbons unique properties? Already
scientists are exploring some amazing possible new and exciting technologies involving
carbon, which include graphene. Graphene is a super strong, super thin, superconducting
material. The possibilities of this are already being imagined, and are becoming a reality,
and include foldable mobile phones, wallpaper that can be a TV, tiny batteries that can
store huge amount of charge so that the envisaged future devices can last longer between
charges. How soon can we expect to see this? Who knows?
27

Hola Mola!
Bibienne Yeoh
If you’ve read the news recently, you’d have noticed the stream of articles
regarding a 2-meter hoodwinker sunfish (Mola tecta – tecta translating to
‘hidden’ in Latin) washing up on California shores. And if you were wondering
as to what all the commotion was about, it’s not only because of its alien-like
features but also because of the fact that these particular aquatic species have
been quite elusive (more so than their cousin, the ocean sunfish also known as
Mola mola)! I won’t go into much detail about the discovery of the gigantic fish
on the California beach – instead, I want to focus on the anatomy of this beast
that has researchers boggled.
The Molidae family are known for being unusual with their unique bullet-shaped
appearance and short body with a structure, called a clavus, just behind their
elongated triangular dorsal and anal fins resulting from the folding of their backfin
into the body which looks like a rudder. On the other hand, compared to its
colossal disc-like body, the sunfish have tiny pectoral fins and an extremely small
mouth, accompanied by fused beak-like teeth. They are in fact the largest of the
bony fishes (a member of the Osteichthyes class made up of the Sarcopterygii and
Actinopterygii groups). According to research carried out by a marine scientist,
Marianne Nyegaard, unlike the rest of its family, the hoodwinker sunfish has a
slimmer and sleeker adult figure. They don’t develop lumps, bumps, or a snout
which distinguished itself from other sunfish. In addition to that, their scale
structure and number of boney structures are different from other species.
28
28

It has been said that
the hoodwinker sunfish
can weigh up to 2
tons (a whopping 1815
kilograms) and grow up
to 2.4 meters long.
Its massive shape allows it to maintain body temperature for deep dives when
feeding and their size also helps keep them buoyant – allowing them to quickly
return to the surface to warm up. Jellyfish make up most of their diets although they
do consume small fish, algae and large amounts of zooplankton.
There isn’t a lot much else to say about this species due to the fact that they are
partially difficult to preserve and study – but the idea of uncovering new facts
about them is quite an exciting prospect, especially considering the rarity of them
appearing on the radar. However, we should also take into account that the sudden
appearance of one (washed up on the shore) is slightly concerning. Marine biologist,
Tierney Thys, mentioned that “when you have a new species appearing in waters
where it hasn’t been before, that is often indicative of a changing environment”.
She said this in 2008, but this could easily translate to our current climate.
With the hoodwinker sunfish preferring waters in the Southern Hemisphere, it is a
wonder as to why one of them crossed the equator and was found stranded in North
America. The rest of the Mola family is considered vulnerable with sunfish frequently
getting caught in nets and suffocating on plastic bags resembling jellyfish. But could
it also be that this sunfish washing up proves to be another indication of the effect
of drastic climate change? Or was this one just another wanderer while the rest of
them remain hiding from the sunlight?
29 29

and now,
a challenge....
Down:
1. The energy that comes from heat
2. Force caused when the mass of physical
bodies attract each other
3. The resistance of motion when one object
rubs against another
4. Standard unit of measure for energy and
work
5. Measure of how much mass is in an object
6. The amount of energy required to raise 1kg
of a substance by 1°C
8. Any substance that has mass and takes up
space by having volume
9. The measurement of how fast on object
moves relative to a reference point
11. The process by which an unstable atomic
nucleus loses energy
15. Combine to form composite particles called
hadrons
16. The force of gravity on an object
19. A measurement that only measures the
magnitude
21. Standard unit of measure for power
Across:
7. An objects overall change in position
10. Heat transfer where the warmer particles
rise
12. A star made of mainly closely packed
neutrons, occurs after supernovas
13. The measurement of the change in
object's velocity
14. The energy an object has due to its motion
17. The lowest limit of the kelvin temperature
scale
18. Electromagnetic radiation from an object
undergoes an increase in wavelength
20. The theory of how the universe started
21. When a force acts on an object to move it
some distance
Solutions will be in the next issue.
30

Credit: Bibienne Yeoh @itsbibsyeoh
RUSSELL'S
TEAPOT
Editor-in-Chief:
ALEXANDRA MISĂILĂ
Y12
Here are some biology anagrams that we have
prepared:
1. TMISISO
2. YCOGLEGN
3. IEULONTOV
4. OROEMMCHSO
5. GNSOIRAM
6. OSIRECMCOP
7. CSENUUL
8. TPRINOE
9. ONINCLG
10. CRBAAETI
11. PSHIOSTEOHSTYN
12. FINSUFDOI
13. ULOESLCLE
14. TENGEIC
15. ZEMNYE
16. TEGMAE
17. LNAREDEAIN
18. NEKYDI
19. RTPEARMETEU
20. VTNACINOCAI
Anagrams by Anjani Poopalasingham
Solutions will be in the next issue.
Contributors:
VICTOR AYODELE
PETTIANN BHOORASINGH
KAJA BŁASZCZYK
SACHA JENNINGS
AMBER KENNEDY
ALEXANDRA MISĂILĂ
ANJANI POOPALASINGHAM
EMMA OZEKI
MIHAI PAVEL
DERI ROBERTS
LIAM SMITH
BIBIENNE YEOH
TOMMY ZHANG
Art Director:
VASILISA LITVINENKO
Graphic Designers:
VASILISA LITVINENKO
ALEXANDRA MISĂILĂ
Illustrators / Artists:
PETTIANN BHOORASINGH
ANJANI POOPALASINGHAM
Photographer:
BIBIENNE YEOH
Y10
Y10
Y12
Y10
Y10
Y12
Y10
Y10
Y10
Y9
Y10
Y12
Y10
Y12
Y12
Y12
Y10
Y10
Y12
Russell's Teapot is the brainchild of
Alexandra Misăilă and the team of
the Natural Sciences Society at Royal
Russell School. All the work including,
organising, writing, designing and
maintaining the website, and now
magazine, is done by the students. They
are already looking to expand the aims
and reach of the project and welcome
Royal Russell students to participate.
© Russell's Teapot 2019
31

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