Today, we flew to Japan on a 7 hour plane ride, landing in Japan’s Tokyo Haneda International Terminal at around 4 pm. After clearing immigration at the airport, we immediately spotted Mr Keith and Mr Kinogawa, who gave us a warm welcome at the exit. After a brief introduction, we ensued an hour and a half long journey to Yokosuka Research Park. Throughout the ride, we got to see the industrial side of Tokyo, with many power plants and docks. Nearing Yokohama, we also got to see the more residential side of Japan - houses of different shapes and sizes, blocks of convenient stores and restaurants, all built into the lush greenery surrounding them, with silhouettes of towering mountains serving as a beautiful backdrop.
Upon reaching Yokosuka Research Park, we checked into the hotel with the help of Mr Keith and Mr Kinogawa. The hotel is conveniently situated right next to the main building where our classes are to be held, and where we had our dinner today. Dinner was an interesting event as we got to meet some of the other students, both from Japan and the Philippines, as well as our teacher, Ms Charlotte Evans. We had some fun getting to know each other a little better and marvelling at our diverse cultures and education systems. It was also the first time I got to try authentic Japanese noodles and green tea! After having some light snacks, we were briefed on the next day’s schedule before we called it a night and headed back to our hotel rooms for a good night’s rest.
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| Hotel YRP - Room 307 |
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| View of YRP from the hotel |
A beach party and fireworks.
I suppose today was more of an orientation day, where we finally got to meet the rest of our classmates. It was quite a different experience as this was the first time I was in a class with people from such diverse backgrounds. There were people from all over Japan, Philippines and Indonesia. I even met a girl who was half-rsh but born and brought up in Japan!
We got to know these people better through various games and activities conducted by Ms Charlotte Evans, which allowed us to open up a bit more within the group. Surprisingly, everyone was extremely fun and good-humoured. Because of this, we were able to bond quite quickly despite a language and cultural barrier. After the warm-up games. Ms Charlotte conducted a session where we were taught the qualities of a good team member, such as being respectful, cooperative, and having good communication within the team.
For the second session of the day, Mr Akihiko Yamagishi, a professor at Tokyo University of Pharmacy and Life Sciences, gave us a lecture on the origin of life. He delved deeper into what human beings, or even cells, were essentially made of and how a barren planet was capable of such the astonishing creation of life.
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| Mr Akihiko Yamagishi giving the lecture |
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| Lecture notes |
a) Organic compounds such as amino acids can be made from molecular clouds or the that takes place in a mixture of gases and liquids found on ancient earth, namely Methans, Ammonia, Hydrogen and water.
b) The hydrated human body is made mostly of oxygen while the dehydrated body is made mostly of carbon.
c) DNA is a long double strand made of letters that are ‘assigned’ a certain type of amino acid according to the combination of the letters.
d) RNA (ribs-nucleic-acid), a recent finding, is what came even before DNA and amino acids, which is simply deoxygenated RNA. It is not only carries genetic information, it can even act as a catalyst, like proteins.
e) According to research, there actually may be life, tiny microbes, on Mars.
Lastly, we had the most enthralling barbecue party for dinner at Nobi Beach, spiced up by some sparkly fireworks at the end. The food was brilliant and it was an amazing way to end the night! :)
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| Inside a Japan public bus |
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| Walking to the beach |
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| The beachside |
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| A pet duck at the barbecue cafe |
4 Aug - Day 3
Is there more to science than we think there is?
Science Ethics. Why should scientists care about ethics? Frankly, I feel that it is alright to experiment on humans or animals if the motive behind the experimentation is pure. But Ms Charlotte made us think about some of the underlying assumptions we have behind such experiments. Is it right to kill 200 mice for scientific research? Or just 2 monkeys? How about a new-born baby? These were the questions that really stuck with me even after the lesson. To establish her main point on the differing views of people on just how far scientists should go, we even had a debate! The question on hand was whether organ trade should be legalised but the catch was that those who were for the motion, were made to debate against the motion and vice-versa. This was to help us strengthen our point as we would be forced to think of the rebuttals the opposing team could raise. Through this activity, I also got to see a playful side of my classmates as we enjoyed trying to disprove each other's points.
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| Points for debate |
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| Mr Hejcik Pavel |
Mr Pavel, an extremely tall man, gave us quite an insightful talk today, a concept that human has been unable to comprehend to this day. The biography of the universe. Before that, he touched lightly on science in general. He told us that in an experiment, it is more important to try and disprove your hypothesis than prove it and that it is vital to ask questions as a scientist. With that in mind, he then moved onto how the universe came to be.
Key findings:
a) Edwin Hubble first discovered that there are other galaxies which are moving further and further away from us.
b) Methods of measuring distances: Parallax, Supernova Ia and Red shift.
c) Dark matter makes up 68% of the universe.
d) General Theory of Relativity
e) The timeline of the creation of the universe, beginning with the Big Bang.
f) Other theories that could explain the universe.
Although the topic as a whole was quite a bit to take in, Mr Pavel tried his best to simplify the concepts so we would understand it. I really liked how he conveyed the content in more of a story-like manner to keep it interesting. His talk has definitely altered my perception of the world! :)
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| Mr Pavel's explanation for the Infinite Hotel |
Ms Evans took us again for the night session, during which we learnt the skills of a good presenter. Although we have gone through this many times in SST itself, many of the points that Ms Evans highlighted were new to me. She even injected some literature into her lesson. Firstly she taught us five linguistic features that can help enhance our speeches. Then she moved onto making us do some practices on delivery of speeches, including reading aloud Lewis Carroll's "Jabberwocky".
Key Findings:
a) 5 linguistic features: metaphors, big questions, repetition, tripartite structures and imperative verbs.
b) Always have an objective in mind while making a presentation.
c) It is important to capture the audience's attention during the first one minute of your presentation.
d) The conclusion should be memorable.
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| Night session |
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| Points for a good presentation |
5 Aug - Day 4
Enlightenment
Our first lecture was on the topic “Who are you? Your body and your brain.” Dr Qi Zhang conducted this extremely informative class. The good thing about this particular lecture was that there were many group discussions where we had to ponder over a given question, and this ensured we were awake through out the lecture.
Key Findings:
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| Lecture Notes |
a) The cycle of the development of an embryo.
b) The somites, present in all vertebrates, have genes that dictate what part the body should grow.
c) Embryos have webbed feet at first before the cells in the web go through apoptosis (programmed cell death) to form normal fingers and toes.
d) All cells carry the same genes but the genes are just expressed differently for different functions.
e) iPS cells are terminal cells that have been converted back to stem cells. iPS cells are useful for organ transplanting as the body will not reject the organ.
f) The brain is made of hundreds of types of neurons.
g) The male and female brain differ in terms of how they are ‘wired up’.
h) How a neuron transfers messages.
i) How our eyes, tongue and ears work.
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| Dr Qi Zhang giving the lecture |
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| Dr Qi Zhang explaining the development of an embryo |
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| Photocromic liquids we used for the UV ray experiment. |
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| Mr Saturo Iwata |
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| Dye sensitised solar cells. |
Key Findings:
a) Planck's equation: E= hv
b) Primary colours, secondary colours and complimentary colours.
c) Objects are the colour we see they are because of the different light colour they absorb and reflect.
e) There are two types of photoreceptor cells (rod and cone cells) on the retina. The rod cells are only responisve in the dark.
f) There are L cone cells, M cone cells and S cone cells that are simulated by red, green and blue light respectively.
g) Thermal deactivation process: Electrons move to a higher energy level when light is absorbed and they emit thermal energy when they return top ground state.
h) Fluorescence: The electrons emit light energy instead of thermal energy while returning to ground state.
i) Geometric isomers: Molecules change structure with light irradiation. Photochromic molecules: Geometric isomers that have reversible structural change.
In the evening, we had an inspiring talk by Mr Gaku Nagashima. He is currently doing his PhD in Harvard University and he told us how he overcame multiple obstacles to be where he is today. The session was not one where the speaker just babbles on. Instead, he made us sit in a circle, even gave us sweets from his hometown and turned the session into more of a discussion. His friend, Mr Komasa, was also there to assist Mr Nagashima and asked him some pretty insightful questions. And so, began the life story of a Harvard student. As a child Mr Nagashima had always wanted to be a rockstar (he does look like one...) but his life turned around when his older brother told him how Newton and Einstein had changed the world. From then on, he too wanted to change the world. Einstein and Newton became his role models, he wanted to innovate something, to research something that would earn him the respect he always wanted. So he began working hard, aiming to get into University of Tokyo just like his elder brother. But that developed his inferiority complex toward his brother, something that made it difficult for him focus. So then he thought instead of going to the University of Tokyo, why not he go to one of the most renowned school's in the world, Harvard. It might sound crazy, a guy from a small town in Japan wanting to go to Harvard. But the thing is, he did it. He worked very very hard and managed to get into his dream school. He wasn't very good at english but he practiced and studied, talked to people from foreign countries to meet the minimum qualifying level. If there is one thing that I have learnt from him is that perseverance can make a man fly.
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| Mr Gaku Nagashima explaining his research. |
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| Rough sketch of Mr Gaku's research. |
For today’s morning session, Mr Volkhard Mäckel gave us a talk on Nuclear Power Plants. He is originally from Germany, but he came to Japan 4 years ago to do research on nuclear power plants. I had always heard about nuclear energy and radiation but I never really new what it was so the session was particularly interesting to me. I was especially captivated by the nuclear fission part as anything related to atoms has always piqued my curiosity.
Key Findings:
a) A nucleus is stable when it has a certain amount of neutrons and protons. When too much is neutrons is added, the nucleus undergoes either alpha or beta decay.
b) Alpha decay: The unstable nucleus emits and alpha particle (2 neutrons and 2 protons). Alpha particles are heavy and slow, therefore it cannot penetrate through the skin and can be easily blocked.
c) Beta decay: The unstable nucleus converts the additional neutron to a proton, electron and neutrino. The electron or neutrino are an internal and external hazard as they can penetrate the skin.
d) Gamma rays: After alpha/ beta decay, the excited nucleus emits high energy photons which are extremely radioactive.
e) Nuclear fission: Unstable nucleus (U-236) breaks into two nucleus (E.g. Barium and Krypton) and either 2 or 3 neutrons. High energy is released in this process.
f) The energy released during fission is used to boil water at 75 atm (boiling point of 300ºC) to release steam to drive a turbine and generate electricity.
g) A chain reaction of nuclear fission is created in Uranium atoms due to the additional neutrons released.
h) Control rods containing atoms that absorb neutrons, or bubbles are produced in the water to control the rate of fission. 
Key Findings:
a) The different blood types, A, O, AB, B and the respective donors.
b) Haploid and diploid chromosomes.
c) The causes of cancer, alzheimer’s disease and parkinson’s diseases.
In the evening, we learnt some very useful presentation tips from Ms Yoshiko, aka Ms Dragon. She used to work as a consultant so she is quite adept in the world of powerpoint. On top of that, we even got to make our own presentation about a solution we thought of to any problem we would like to solve. Of course, all the groups’ ideas were really absurd and funny, most of them about Doraemon. It was a very fun workshop and I loved it mostly because I got to mingle with a few members who I had not yet talked to much.
7 Aug - Day 6
A lecture on ‘Rheology’ was our first class today. It was conducted by Mr Naomi Takeishi, who is in the field of biomedical engineering. Rheology is the study of how fluids flow and change of state of matter. His class was really fun as we got to do one experiment and two presentations. The experiment was very entertaining as we got to play with ketchup its properties. Afterwards, we had to present on our findings for the experiment and the second presentation was about our thoughts on using computer simulation to predict diseases.
Key Findings:
a) Viscosity is the ability of a fluid to flow. For example, honey is more viscous than water.
b) Newtonian fluids: Flow as long as a force is applied.
c) Non-newtonian fluids: Does not flow unless a certain amount of force is applied.
d) Thixotropy: The molecular structure of fluid changes when stress is imposed. This change is reversible.
e) In the blood vessel, cells that are near the wall will move to the center of the blood vessel when the blood flows through due to fluid viscosity.
f) When red blood cells migrate to the center, they push other cells such as the white blood cell or cancer cells to the wall.
g) Malaria-infected red blood cells stay in the center of the vessel due to a deformity.
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| Mr Naomi Takeishi |
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| Ketchup experiment |
The second session was less content-heavy but it was as fascinating because we got to learn so many facts about animals. The lecture, Mr Pavel, explained to us what cognitive traits are and which animal has what. Obviously, humans had all the cognitive traits while different animals had different traits.
Key Findings:
a) Delayed gratification vs Immediate gain.
b) Primates have an excellent working memory but they have really less social communication traits.
c) Crows are very good at using tools.
d) The cerebellum is used for movement and balancing, a part of the brain that is not as profound in humans as in other animals.
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| Mr Pavel |
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| Ravern and Bayu participating in an 'experiment' on humans' cognitive trait of gambling. |
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| An 'experiment' on mind reading |
Today’s session was absolutely mind blowing. Amazing. Mr Gary Vierheller and Mrs Sachiyo Vierheller were simply fantastic. They basically teach the top-notch people, scientists, astronauts, even CEOs, how to make presentations. Mr Gary came into the room looking really cool, grey suit, blue sunglasses, suitcase in hand. And when he started, he was a solar explosion. A burst of energy. He got us revved up and running in no time at all and soon we were just watching him in a daze. Together, they were just so amazing. A breath of fresh air. I have honestly never seen anyone so energetic, moreover at the age of 66. They breezed into the room and imparted so much useful knowledge to us, that I can still remember because of how dynamic they were.
Key Findings:
a) Mistakes are good.
b) Questions are good.
c) We should maintain eye contact while presenting, and gesticulate to emphasis. This also helps to pitch our voice.
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| The Vierhellers' lecture |
In the afternoon, we had a session on the future of the universe by Mr Yoshifumi Komasa. He had actually opened school in Africa and is now teaching in a school for gifted students, where they only learn Mathematics and Science.
Key Findings:
a) Earth’s circumference: 36000 km
b) The solar system is 45 billion km big (30.01 AU).
c) 1 AU = Distance from earth to sun.
d) Edwin Hubble discovered Nebulas and the redshift.
e) There is something in space, a gravity lens, that light curves around. This is why we see the same one galaxies in many different places.
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| Mr Yoshifumi presenting on lensed quasars. |
Today’s session was absolutely mind blowing. Amazing. Mr Gary Vierheller and Mrs Sachiyo Vierheller were simply fantastic. They basically teach the top-notch people, scientists, astronauts, even CEOs, how to make presentations. Mr Gary came into the room looking really cool, grey suit, blue sunglasses, suitcase in hand. And when he started, he was a solar explosion. A burst of energy. He got us revved up and running in no time at all and soon we were just watching him in a daze. Together, they were just so amazing. A breath of fresh air. I have honestly never seen anyone so energetic, moreover at the age of 66. They breezed into the room and imparted so much useful knowledge to us, that I can still remember because of how dynamic they were.
Key Findings:
a) Mistakes are good.
b) Questions are good.
c) We should maintain eye contact while presenting, and gesticulate to emphasis. This also helps to pitch our voice.
In the afternoon, we had a session on the future of the universe by Mr Yoshifumi Komasa. He had actually opened school in Africa and is now teaching in a school for gifted students, where they only learn Mathematics and Science.
Key Findings:
a) Earth’s circumference: 36000 km
b) The solar system is 45 billion km big (30.01 AU).
c) 1 AU = Distance from earth to sun.
d) Edwin Hubble discovered Nebulas and the redshift.
e) There is something in space, a gravity lens, that light curves around. This is why we see the same galaxy in many different places.
The last day was finally here. The morning started off on a rather dreary note since we all knew we would be leaving soon. The first thing that all of us did during breakfast, was exchange phone numbers, emails and add each other on Facebook. We all agreed that it had been a brilliant and enriching week where we had formed string bonds. That day, we did not have any lessons as we would be presenting in the afternoon so the whole morning was taken up polishing our presentations. Ms Evans and the rest of the organisers were very helpful, assisting us in our rehearsal and ensuring that our final presentations would run smoothly.
At first I had thought that the presentations would simply be done in class but on the contrary, and to my surprise, the presentations were to be given in a the YRP hall! Moreover, even the mayor of Yokosuka was there. Many of us were shocked when we heard that but it drove us to practice even more so we don’t end up forgetting our lines on stage. Despite our nervousness, all our presentations ran quite smoothly, apart from a few fumbles. In then end, everyone was quite pleased with their performance and the session ended off with everyone taking group photographs.
Lastly, we had farewell dinner where there was pizza, chips and all sorts of other food. All 24 of us sat round a long table int he cafeteria and indulged in the good food while chatting with eac other. Also, we played a mass game of “Murderer”, which was extremely fun. All I can say is that that was the perfect way to end off an amazing week of school!
10 Aug - Travelling back to Singapore
... The End ...
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