Catamount Times
April, 2016
Our World Would Not Be the Same
Without Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein was a great man for
several reasons. He had many jobs
and lived his life to the fullest. He had
many ups and downs throughout his
life, such as being hunted by Nazis
and creating the Theory of Relativity.
After being hunted by Nazis for
being German, Einstein fled to America and never
returned to his
hometown. As
a sailor, he
sailed
ships
and
repaired
them for a living. Later, he
became a wonderful musician.
He played the
violin loud and
clear to appease people’s taste in music.
He later divorced, unhappy with his
marriage. Then his brilliant brain decided to lead him to a new, betterpaying career as a scientist. He remarried, to a woman named Elsa Loewenthal, and soon after was promoted
to another job in Berlin, teaching
young men at Prussian Academy. He
lived happily with his family, touring
Artificial Intelligence is Both
Amazing and Terrifying
around the world for the rest of his
life.
Einstein was also famous for his
wonderful theories, all created in a
span of only a couple years! He even
got a brain exam by other scientists
to see why he was so brilliant! His
most famous theory, E=mc2, describes when
mass is made
into energy.
His second
famous theory, the Theory
of Relativity,
is about objects
being
related
in
some way all
of the time.
An atom looks
almost exactly the same as the planets orbiting the sun, just as the planets orbiting the sun looks like a galaxy. It is all directly related in some
form or another.
Without Einstein’s contributions to
our understanding of science, our
world would be quite different.
By Tristan M.
Catamount Staff Reporter
Artificial intelligence (AI) is the development of computers that can perform tasks that would require human
intelligence. AI research was founded
by Dartmouth College in 1956. Some
of their first responses were to talk,
solve algebraic equations, play chess
and checkers, and solve logical theorems.
Scientists
believe
that
they will soon
be able to
make computers do everything a human
can do, which
is both amazing and terrifying.
Kismet is one of many robots that
can actually sense emotions and also
express human emotions. Kismet was
made in the late 1990s by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, as an
experiment to see if scientists could
develop a robot that could differentiate
Cicadas: Endlessly Fascinating Insects
Cicadas are, in my opinion, one of
the best critters in the world. For the
first time in 17 years, we will hear the
distinct buzzing of the northeast breed
of cicadas.
Cicadas
are
strange insects that
emit a noise that can
go up to 100 decibels
– that’s louder than a
lawnmower! Strangely enough, cicadas
only come out every
13 or 17 years, depending on their
type. Scientists aren’t sure how they
keep track, but they assume cicadas
have some kind of clock-like instinct.
Why do they come out only every
13 or 17 years? Scientists have studied this question, and think that cicadas evolved into this cycle to counter
ordinary predators’ reproduction rate.
Confusing, right? Let me explain.
If a predator’s life span is usually 5
years, and cicadas came out every 5
years, every time they came out they
would be hit by a wave of predators.
So if they came out every 13 or 17
Strange Facts About Black Holes
Black holes aren’t made from dying
stars – they’re made from basically
anything. Everything in this universe
has a certain thing called a Schwarzschild radius, which works like this: if
the entire Earth
was shrunk to the
size of a peanut
while still maintaining the same
mass, you would
have a black hole.
If a human
was shrunk to the
size of two neutrons, you would
have a black hole.
When it comes to
stars,
it’s
the
same thing; they just manage to reach
their Schwarzschild radius a lot easier
when they’re dying.
If you were falling into a black hole,
and simulate emotions like anger,
happiness and sadness, etc. The robot hears, sees and has a mind of its
own. This robot is one of many that
show how far we’ve come.
In 2013, scientists released the
Never Ending Image Learner (NEIL).
NEIL takes images off the Internet to
discover
new things
and expand
its
intelligence. Scientists designed this
robot to understand
words, emotions, colors,
numbers,
shades and other objects – for example, a deer looks like an antelope or
leaning towers can be in Pisa (Italy).
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