SPRING 2011
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B l ue P r i n t
CA M P US
S p r in g m in i 20 1 1
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CITIZEN SCIENCE
CONTENTS
0406
On the cover:
“Red” by AnwuliChukwurah
sally fry
editor-in-chief
erin beckerdavid gilmoresaurav sethia
managing editors
carey hanlin
assistant editor
jasmine lamb
creative director
tyler tran
photo editor
stewart boss, carey hanlin, jordan heide, troy homesley,santo jiang, zak mathews,luda shtessel, brandon wigginskara williams
staff writers
sally fry, carey hanlin, cassiemcmillan, sofia morales,tyler tran
design staff
anne brenneman
copy editor
caitlin graham, tyler tran
photographers
STAFF
EGYPT AND ITS RAMIFICATIONS FOR IRANTIME FOR TEA
07
A SMALL VICTORY FOR BAHRAIN
08
PAKISTAN’S WAR ON TERROR
A
sense o blissul satisaction is a key ea-ture o the perect procrastination tool.The search or the perect anxiety-ridding,denial-promoting, mood-boosting activity canitsel be the method o choice or procrasti-nating. While the search rarely provides relie rom the omnipresent research paper or mid-term, it does achieve the task o wasting timeon anything but the required task. Many o uschoose to procrastinate with a amiliar movie,video game or Chinese take-out in an attemptto eel ullled while avoiding responsibility.Unortunately, the pleasant halo dissipatesquickly, and the all-too-amiliar sense o doomcreeps in.For the rst time, during the summer be-tween my junior and senior year o college, Iwas able to stave o the chilling realizationthat I was entirely unprepared or a deadlinethat was ominously close. I was cramming orthe Biology GRE, and my mom had the bril-liant idea to combine my avorite pastimewith my daunting chore: she bought me aBiology coloring book. “Color the positivelycharged amino acids green,” it demanded, andI obliged. Admittedly, it didn’t oer all o theknowledge needed or a graduate level mo-lecular biology entrance exam, but it did leaveme eeling blissully ullled and relaxed.We may not all have scientically-orientedmothers, or even like coloring books, butthere are a slew o interactive online activi-ties that oer the orgetul entertainment o TV combined with the satisaction o beingproductive that might actually get you in themood to do work! These online games rely onthe critical thinking skills o volunteers (suchas procrastinating college students) to solveanswers that continue to evade scientists andremain too time-consuming or challenging orcomputers.For example, FoldIt, a game created by re-searchers and graduate students at the Uni-versity o Washington, allows players to de-termine the most likely structure o proteinsby providing various rules and guidelines o protein dynamics in an accessible and engag-ing way. Players pull and prod snake-likeamino acid chains and “wiggle” and “shake”side groups while accruing points to gainnew tools and move on to more challengingpuzzles. Participants, termed citizen scien-tists, have helped resolve hundreds o proteinstructures that would have taken computersthousands o hours to decipher. Their eortshave not gone unnoticed, leading to a publi-cation in Nature, where “FoldIt players” are thelast authors listed -- a signier o most impor-tant.The creators o FoldIt have recently intro-duced EteRNA, a game that directs users tocreate RNA molecules -- the precursors to pro-teins. Going a step urther, researchers at Stan-ord University will attempt to create some o these player-generated molecules in the labto study their biological properties. Similarly,Phylo, designed by researchers at McGill Uni-versity, prompts players to nd the best align-ment between DNA sequences, which arerepresented by colorul blocks held togetheron a string. Finding similarities between genesequences o dierent organisms may helpresearchers answer questions regarding thegenes’ unctions.I biology isn’t your thing, Galaxy Zoo o-ers players a terrestrial escape. Users inspectthousands o galaxy images with the objec-tive to categorize them based on various prop-erties, including shape, color, hue and spiraldirection. Computers lack the complex visualanalysis that comes easily to most people.The Voorwerp, an odd blue blip identied inan image taken by a Dutch observer, wouldhave likely gone unnoticed by a computer. Asthe website explains, “looking at an imageand asking ‘what’s that odd thing?’ remainsuniquely human.”I you are worried about the inerior abilitieso computers to perorm human tasks, GamesWith a Purpose oers gamers a chance to im-prove the way computers catalog the numer-ous stimuli people encounter. With the aido an online partner, users can play a multi-tude o games that entail describing variousimages (similar to Google’s image labeler),songs and videos with the goal o improvinga computer’s capability to do this accurately.IBM’s Watson may be the only computer thatunderstands the nuances o human language,but with the help o volunteers, Watson mightget some competition soon.The un, bubbly graphics and a cooperativeatmosphere that pervade these websites pro-vide relie rom the late-night mundane andunproductive Internet surng that inevitablyensues at an impending deadline. Perhapsproviding insight into the work o others may
inspire you to further your own goals. •
CITIZEN
SCIENCE
BY LUDA SHTESSEL
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I
t's the question everyone is asking -- whowill be next aer Egypt's momentous revo-lution? Some point to Algeria or Moroccowhile others point to less likely countries suchas Iran and China. Whatever your opinion, it isclear that Iran has become a hotbed or pro-tests, and the story told by Egyptian revolu-tionaries carries deep meaning or the utureo such protests and or America's involve-ment in these revolutions.In the summer o 2009, Iranian revolution-aries rom hundreds o dierent backgrounds,religions and belies took to the streets inthe name o liberty. They were not Muslims,they were not extremists, they were not vio-lent, they were not just Sunnis or just Shiites.Instead they were people united under thecause o reedom.These revolutions were quelled by violentretaliations rom the "Basij," the paramilitarygroup commanded by the supreme leader,Ayatollah Khamenei. However, the impact o the revolutions is still elt today within Iranand around the globe.The Iranian uprisings o 2009 were impor-tant because they claried something orAmericans and the world. Because o an orga-nized uprising, it became clear that the Iraniangovernment does not necessarily depict theIranian people.This representation had ramicationsthroughout the Middle East. Countries couldnow be seen through two lenses: the lens o the government that controls those countriesand the lens o those who rebel and disagreewith those overarching governments.Today, we see a ree Egypt, with eectsspreading to Bahrain, to Syria, to Algeria, toMorocco and possibly even to Iran. It is evenclearer that the governments o the MiddleEast do not depict the people they control.Rather, they are extreme, oppressive andpowerul. They are also commonly in powerbecause we put them there, as was the casewith President Mubarak.There are important lessons that can belearned rom this quick and largely non-vio-lent exchange o power and can be applied toalmost any nation. The power o non-violencerevealed a Middle East much dierent romthat depicted in the media. Egyptians, Mus-lims and Christians alike gathered to protesthuman rights abuses and restrictions on lib-erty. Through all o this, the revolution waslargely bloodless.This contradicts Western views o extremistIslamism and violent Muslim attacks, showingthat there is much more to the Middle Easternpeople than bombs and violence.The Egyptian revolution showed, as did theIranian uprisings, that the power o Twitter,Facebook and mobile phones is an irreplace-able epicenter o revolution. These new toolshave acilitated open discussion, communica-tion and preparation or massive protests andhave been able to improve solidarity.Future revolutionaries can put these tools touse, videotaping violence by the government,recording violent language, planning mas-sive rallies and preaching that non-violencethrough mass communication. These thingsare allowing new opportunities or revolutionin areas like Iran.The revolution in Egypt shows just how pow-erul non-violent protests can be, but it betterrepresents just how powerul American actioncan be in these protests. The American gov-ernment walked the line between extremeintervention and outright ignorance o therevolution and because o it was able to acili-tate a peaceul and quick exchange o power.However, the U.S. government still has somelearning to do.In the Iranian uprisings o 2009, the U.S.ailed to take a strong and clear stance ontheir support o these revolutions. This wascaused by a combination o actors includingthe U.S. support or Israel and the alse belie that Iranian uprisings were a undamentalistIslamic grassroots movement.With Egypt, America was in the end willingto speak out as Secretary o State Hillary Clin-ton did on several occasions. Eventually, aerMubarak's all, even President Obama clari-ed his support or the power o the people.Ironically, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahma-dinejad even hailed Egypt's revolution and theprospect o a "new Middle East."Thus, it is important that American and otherworld leaders make clear that they supportthe power o the people and the action o peaceul revolution. However, I also nd itimportant to give people the dignity o theirown struggles, as this allows or a growth andunderstanding o just what reedom means.An Iranian revolution would not only be amomentous step or Iranians, but or Ameri-cans as well. Iran is one o the most economi-cally and socially advanced nations in theMiddle East, with one o the best educationsystems to bolster its growth. Iran could be-come a true light in the Middle East and pro-vide an opportunity or the growth o humanrights and liberty in the region.The signs o a possible revolution in Iran areslowly beginning to show as the success inEgypt emanates outward. Tens o thousandso protesters marched in Tehran in the weekollowing the all o Mubarak. Uploaded You-Tube videos reveal protesters burning posterso Ayatollah Khomanei, chanting or reedomand eventually being chased by police clad inriot gear.Unortunately, in the words o UNC Inter-national Politics Proessor Mark J.C. Crescenzi,"Governments adapt quickly to revolution."The Iranian government adapted quickly bylimiting visas or oreign journalists, blockingaccredited journalists in the country rom re-porting and slowing the Internet to a crawl.The Iranian government is now calling orthe capture and execution o previous Presi-dential candidates Mehdi Karrubi and Mir Hos-sein Moussavi. Lawmakers were seen chant-ing, "Moussavi, Karrubi ... execute them" on thestate-run Press TV.The Iranian government has cracked down,but the protests have also come ull circle romthe 2009 uprisings to Egyptian Revolution andback again to Iran. Many lessons have beenlearned along the way. Iran is poised, as aremany Middle Eastern countries, to wrest pow-er rom the tyrants and non-violently place itin the hands o the people.Our role as a country is pivotal in acilitatingand also allowing these peaceul revolutions.Also important is our understanding o thenon-violence o the Muslim people, the powero the Internet and our inuence in what we
do or do not choose to do. •
EGYPT
and the
BY TROY HOMESLEY
RAMIFICATIONS
for
IRAN
EgyptBahrainIranPakistan
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