Fall 2008 Issue 9

fall 2008 focus: Space and Astronomy

Table of ConTenTs

spotlights:Complementary and Alternative Medicine at Hopkins ... Business in Politics ... Q & A with Dr. Ralph Lorenz ... Them Bones ... Elements in the Reign of Terror

14 NextStop:TheMoon!...Orisit? DaviD attarzaDeh

28 TheU.S.andtheWeaponizationofSpace:InternationalRelations Repercussions Daniel hochman

16 Europa’sHiddenSecret mehDi m. Draoua

24 ReevaluatingtheFaceoftheGoldenAge:AnExplorationofLopedeVega’s FlirtationwithIllicitAstrologyandBaroqueSpanishCounterculture isabel Perera

20 ATickettotheStars:ThefutureofSpacetourism niharika sathe

32 Satellites,SpaceandtheMarket:AnAnalysisoftheRoleofCapitalism andConsumerCultureonPost-SputnikAmerica kevin Park

research reports: engineering

36 Anti-CAK1MonoclonalAntibodyConjugatedPolymericParticles forOvarianCancerTargeting JosePh WooD

research reports: humanities

50 TheRiseoftheMegachurch:Who,What,Where,When,andWhy nicole overley

research reports: sciences

40 TheEffectofBloodSugarLevels,MeasuredbyGlycemicIndex andGlycemicLoad,onAcneVulgarisinAdolescents Jonathan Jacobs

46 ChangesinNucleusBasalisneuronalstructureinschizophrenia Jayati Jain

48 EnumerationDuringtheAttentional kevin Dieter

leTTer from The ediTors

{research reports: engineering

36 Anti-CAK1MonoclonalAntibodyConjugatedPolymericParticles forOvarianCancerTargeting JosePh WooD

On behalf of the staff, we would like to welcome you to the Fall 2008 issue of the Hopkins Undergraduate Research Journal (HURJ). Since its inception in 2001, HURJ has evolved each year to encom-pass and reflect the diverse interests of Hopkins undergraduates. This issue’s focus on space and galaxy is the latest in a trend of previ-ous focus topics dedicated to important concerns of today. We found fellow undergraduates to be incredibly responsive to this theme—the result is a journal of many voices, opinions, and ideas.

In this issue, HURJ showcases two types of articles. Spotlight ar-ticles highlight the achievements of professors and students. We are also excited to share with you the work of student groups on campus. Focus articles written for this issue build on this existing framework, adding dimension and insight to the continuing discussion of the final frontier of space. Whether our writers are pursuing in-depth analyses of human travel into space or the diplomatic basis of space weaponization, each is profoundly interested in inspiring solutions. We are proud of our writers and staff and hope that you will honor their work with your attention.

This issue of HURJ would not have been possible without the dedi-cation and support of the HURJ staff, Hopkins faculty, and HURJ sponsors. We would like to thank the students and professors who contributed to HURJ either through sharing their unique experienc-es, reviewing articles, or researching topics. We would also like to thank the Hopkins Student Activities Commission and the Office of Student Involvement for their generous contributions and continued support. Finally, we thank the Digital Media Center for allowing us the use of their facilities and equipment.

As always, we welcome your ideas, comments, and questions. May this journal serve as inspiration for you to begin your own project and contribute to the intellectual growth of this community.

Editor-in-Chief of Operations Editor-in-Chief of Content

Hopkins Undergraduate Research JournalJohns Hopkins University

Mattin Center, Suite 2103400 N. Charles St.

Baltimore, MD 21218

hurj@jhu.eduhttp://www.jhu.edu/hurj

AboutHURJ:The Hopkins Undergraduate Research Journal provides undergraduates with a valuable resource to learn about research being done by their peers and interesting current issues. The journal is comprised of three sections- original research, a current focus topic, and student and faculty spotlights. Students are encouraged to contribute their work either by submitting their research, or by writing for our focus or spotlight sections. The tremendous interest in our focus section has necessitated the use of an application process for our writers, while our research and spotlight sections are open for all to contribute to.

hUrJ 2008-2009

Hopkins Undergraduate Research JournalJohns Hopkins University

Mattin Center, Suite 2103400 N. Charles St.

Baltimore, MD 21218

hurj@jhu.eduhttp://www.jhu.edu/hurj

Focus Writers David Attarzadeh Daniel Hochman Mehdi M. Draoua Kevin Park Isabel Perera Niharika Sathe

spotlight Writers Ishrat Ahmed Marshall Honorof Jeremy Stein Johnson Ukken Cem Yilmaz

research Writers Kevin Dieter Jonathan Jacobs Jayati Jain Nicole Overley Joseph Wood

copy editors Haley Deutsch Miriam Haviland Jason Liebowitz Robert Romano Alex Still Lindsay Van Thoen Xin Alice Wu Wenning Xu

cover artist Karam Han

HURJStaff:

AboutHURJ:The Hopkins Undergraduate Research Journal provides undergraduates with a valuable resource to learn about research being done by their peers and interesting current issues. The journal is comprised of three sections- original research, a current focus topic, and student and faculty spotlights. Students are encouraged to contribute their work either by submitting their research, or by writing for our focus or spotlight sections. The tremendous interest in our focus section has necessitated the use of an application process for our writers, while our research and spotlight sections are open for all to contribute to.

EditorialBoard:editor-in-chief of operations....................... Adam C. Canver

editor-in-chief of content....................... Winnie Tsang

editor-in-chief of layout....................... Sharon Ovadia

spotlight editor....................... Ishrat Ahmed

Focus editor....................... Jason Liebowitz

engineering editor:....................... Jennie Wang

science editor:....................... Karun Arora

humanities editor:....................... Daria Nikolaeva

sidebar editor....................... Gandhi Vallarapu

layout editor....................... Jason Liebowitz.......................Sara Johanna

copy chief....................... Defne Arslan

Public Relations Officers....................... Adriane Alicea....................... Michael Lou

�

researCh spoTlighTs

Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) comprises the five domains of energy therapies, manipulative and body based therapies, biologically based systems, mind-body medicine and alternative medical systems such as traditional Chinese med-icine or homeopathy. All of these domains of therapies, over the past few years, have seen an increase in interest and value marked by greater out of pocket expenditures. The rising interest in CAM has its roots in a range of different factors which is beyond the scope of this article, yet this trend calls attention to the necessity of sound research.

The Johns Hopkins Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (JHCCAM) is one of the institutions open to investi-gating these practices and plays its part in the study of CAM by researching a diverse array of topics. Some of research focus areas are botanicals and supplements, effects of micro-nutrients on ge-netic processes, effects of mindfulness meditation on stress, ef-fects of acupuncture on pain, and some Mind-Body interventions for cancer patients. Dr. Adrian Dobs, was awarded an $8 million grant in 2000 from the National Institutes of Health to direct the Johns Hopkins Complementary and Alternative Cancer. She be-lieves that there is much to be learned from these therapies; yet she notes, “Much research must be done to make decisions on how, if at all, one should use them”.

Dr. Adrian Dobs conducts CAM research in addition to study-ing hormone replacement therapies for thyroid conditions and diabetes in the Department of Endocrinology and Metabolism. Her niche in CAM research is testing supplements such as omega-3 fatty acids, soy products, and Chinese herbs and on investigat-ing the palliative care aspect of acupuncture. Referring to the out-comes of her study on supplements and botanicals she explains, “There is evidence to support the benefit of fish oils on the cardio-vascular system and soy drinks on the quality of life of menopause patients even though the data analysis is not fully completed.”

Dr. Dobs, while sharing her frustration about having to ter-minate her study on a Chinese herb, points to a main challenge in CAM research. Contamination of an herb sample intended to treat patients with prostate cancer caused the immediate termina-tion of one of her studies. This instance pointed to the challenge of performing research with a lack of standardization and also high-lighted a consumer threat that called for immediate attention. In addition, the lack of standardization that is seen with the herbs is also applicable to other CAM methodologies. Body manipulation techniques and energy therapies, for example, are rarely the same among different practitioners. This lack of standardiza-tion of CAM practices makes it hard for researchers to come to a health conclusion.

Cultural factors present further challenges for CAM research. Proper understanding of these practices can only be achieved when the cultural background is considered. Only in that way could one evaluate how a disease is understood, diagnosed, and treated within its particular cul-ture. Dr. Ted Kaptchuk, Associate Professor of

Medicine in Harvard Medical School and Associate Director of the Division for Research and Education in Complementary and Inte-grative Medical Therapies , elaborates with an example in an inter-view with Scientific American. “The direction of Chinese medicine is the exact opposite [from that of western medicine]. The empha-sis is the context of the complaint. It’s more macroscopic. What kind of patient is this? How does this person behave in his or her everyday life? In work life? What are their feelings and their sensi-bilities and their beliefs? If you have an eye problem, they ask you about your knees. If you have a knee problem, they ask you about your digestion. You can’t interpret the knee unless you know how the person gets angry or doesn’t get angry. Or how the person likes certain types of food, but not others.”

Therefore, if the medical scientist within the western culture has the idea that one type of treatment will cure the knee, this scientist’s experimentations will not be measuring the efficacy of Chinese medicine. Because the whole system of diagnosis is different, the treatment tested for, can at times conflict with that of an acupunc-turist, who would needle differing set of points in regards to differ-ences in the greater context of the patients situation. In other words two patients with the same knee problem (in terms of conventional terms) with varying diet preference could receive different thera-pies in Chinese medicine yet if a western doctor is not in the know of the system of diagnosis and treatment, she may choose only one kind of treatment and would be testing it even for cases where it would not be the preferred treatment in the perspective of Chinese Medicine. To overcome this challenge Dr. Dobs continues her re-search on the effects of acupuncture on pain in patients with leuke-mia by partnering with the Professor of Chinese Medicine, Dr. Lee, from Korea, who can give counsel on such issues.

If medical scientists follow the principles of rigorous research, it will be possible to overcome the challenges of study design in order to determine the risks and benefits of CAM therapies. Of course

for well informed understanding of CAM practices to happen, many medical scien-

tists need to overcome hesitation towards studying alternative therapies, work to improve issues on standardization and pay more attention to the culture (in-ternally consistent system of diagno-sis and treatment) of medical sys-tems. With these efforts, thoroughly

tested CAM methods may enhance health, potential

harms can be avoided.

Complementary and Alternative Medicine at HopkinsCem Yilmaz/ HURJ Staff Writer

�

Jeremy Stein/ HURJ Staff Writer

Business in Politics

Adam Sheingate, a professor in the department of political science at Hopkins, researches the effect of political entrepre-neurship on American politics. Professor Sheingate did not originally intend to go into the discipline of political science; he originally wished to be a philosophy major. It was after taking class on American Political Thought that he decided to pursue a career in political history.

Professor Sheingate is the author of “The Terrain of the Politi-cal Entrepreneur,” in Formative Acts: American Politics in the Making, which explores the increasing business nature of poli-tics and the development of political consultation in America. In his book, Sheingate discusses how politicians have begun to rely more and more on political consultants to give them new ideas that could win an election than on other factors. Conse-quently, political consultants are now treating politicians much like marketers treat their products. Sheingate contends that this phenomenon has created a more chaotic political system. If Hillary Clinton had won the presidential nomination, then both McCain and Clinton’s major consultants would have been subsidiaries of the WPP Group. In other words, one political consultation firm would have run both the Republican and Democratic campaigns. Professor Sheingate predicts this sce-nario will eventually occur.

Sheingate also argues that from the early 20th century until today, political entrepreneurship has led to an increasing spec-tacle of events that draw the public’s attention. In the 1900’s, Theodore Roosevelt traveled on a steamboat to gather support for his presidency. In the midst of the Iraq War, we have seen

President Bush arrive on an aircraft carrier in a flight suit to declare victory. Consequently, Sheingate concludes that the ad-vent of political consultants has turned the presidency into a perpetual campaign.

Political consultation is a profitable career but has a high fail-ure rate. Professor Sheingate suggests that students interested in political consultation should volunteer for a campaign or work for a candidate. Eventually, a lot of political consultants start their own firms and consist of a wide variety of profes-sions: media strategists, pollsters, direct mailers, and Internet consultants.

In addition to researching political consultation, Professor Sheingate has analyzed creativity in the political and legisla-tive processes. In his class on the American Presidency, Shein-gate considers the most important presidents to be those who have interpreted the constitution most creatively. For instance, Franklin D. Roosevelt used creativity to initiate a massive gov-ernment expansion called “the New Deal” during the Great Depression. The most resourceful Presidents often become the most influential.

In the 2008 presidential campaign, Sheingate contends that the Obama campaign has been the most creative. Obama has managed to convince many uninterested voters to support his campaign. He has largely accomplished this through his skilled oration and inspiring motivation. During the 2008 election, America will continue to see the increased entrepreneurship and creativity that political consultation has helped bring to America.

8

An interview with Dr. Ralph Lorenz, lead author on a recent research

paper that presents evidence gathered from the Cassini-Huygens space probe supporting the possibility of an ocean lying

beneath the crust of the Saturn’s moon, Titan. Dr. Lorenz, a researcher at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory since 2006, has been

working on the Cassini-Huygens mission since the project’s inception in 1990. Writ-ten in conjunction with Jacqueline Mitton, Dr. Ralph Lorenz’s new book Titan Unveiled:

Saturn’s Mysterious Moon Explored details the project over the last three decades.When/How did you get involved with the Cassini-Huygens mission? What is your cur-

rent role in it? How did you come to work for JHU APL?I got involved as an engineer straight out of college (in the UK) - I was enormously lucky in that I

got a job with the European Space Agency in the Netherlands in 1990, just when work on the Huygens probe started. I then went back to the UK to do my PhD, where I built part of one of Huygens instru-ments and in 1994 moved to the University of Arizona to work on Hubble Space Telescope images of Titan, and at that point also got involved in planning Cassini’s radar observations. In summer 200� I moved to APL, where I continue to work on probe data, and on Cassini radar.

From my understanding, Cassini has been orbiting Saturn for the past 3 years or so. What has changed in its course, pattern, and research aim recently to make this discovery possible?

Cassini has orbited Saturn since July 2004, but it flies past Titan only every few

Q & A with Dr.

Ralph Lorenz,a planetary scientist at the

Johns Hopkins University

Applied Physics Laboratory

Johnson Ukken/ HURJ Staff Writer

weeks, so it spends

very little time ac-tually close to Titan. On about

half of the 40 flybys so far, we have used the radar mapper, and each time we see only about 1% of

the surface, in a long strip. It is only at this point, with 20 or so such strips, that there are enough overlaps to allow repeat observations of some features, thereby permitting

us to measure the rotation state with precision. As the mission goes on, these overlaps will build up substantially - as well as for measuring Titan’s changing rotation rate, these overlaps are good

for making stereo measurements of Titan’s topography. Could you explain these “stereo mea-

surements” a little more

9

in depth?By looking at features from different angles you can

measure their 3-D shape much better than with a single look - this is why we have 2 eyes after all.

How did you first come to the idea that an ocean might actually be under Titan’s crust?

Such an ocean was theoretically predicted even back in 1991, and it seems such oceans are common to large icy satellites, so it wasn’t a surprise.

The prediction by Tokano and Neubauer a couple of years ago that changing winds might be able to push the crust around if there was such an ocean was quite sur-prising to me at the time. But then, when the radar data showed that the rotation was consistent with that predic-tion, everything fell into place.

What kind of implications do the findings of this re-search have? Insofar as the possibility of other planets conducive to life, what stage could a planet like Titan with a subterranean ocean of water be considered to be in?

Whereas some other icy satellites have internal water oceans, Titan has that, plus abundant surface organic compounds. That combination of the major ingredients for life is very interesting. While Titan itself may or may not have life (if there is any, it will be in the deep interior) it can tell us a lot about the chemical processes by which life can begin. Surely thereare other Titan-like worlds around other stars which might be warmer and perhaps have life.

Why was Titan ever considered to have the pos-sibility of life?

Titan has been known for decades to have lots of organic (carbon-bearing) compounds in its atmo-sphere, and on its surface. And now we know there is liquid water in its interior (which is the case for many large satellites in the outer solar system, which have ice above their rocky cores). Living things function

with organic molecules in a liquid water medium, so Titan has all the ingredients for life. That doesn’t mean there is life on Titan, but it can teach us a lot about life’s origins.

What are some future missions that you hope Cas-sini-Huygens will undertake? How much further will the probe go?

We hope Cassini will continue studying Saturn and Titan for a few years yet, since its mapping is far from complete, and Titan is changing as the seasons march on. But in the future we hope to focus on Titan with a dedicated future mission, perhaps with a balloon, an orbiter that stays at Titan, and perhaps one or more long-lived landers able to monitor its weather and study the interior with seismometers.

Last Thoughts When I started on Huygens, aged 21, the project was

all drawings and paper and plans, and the launch in 199� (over � years away) seemed like the distant future, let alone the planned arrival in 2004! You really need stamina to explore the outer solar system!

Back then of course, I was just a very junior engi-neer - a nobody. It has been gratifying over the years to have got involved in so many aspects of this monu-mental project - on which thousands of smart people have worked.

10

them bonesOut in the badlands of Wyoming, not much can

survive. This is not a problem, however, when you’re looking for things that are already dead. Every summer, Dr. Kenneth Rose from the Johns Hopkins Center for Functional Anatomy and Evolution braves scorching temperatures, a dry climate, and painstaking work for one reason: to find fossils. “Nothing is more exciting than to see a gleaming jaw or skeleton lying on an outcrop,” says Dr. Rose, fondly recalling one of his many finds in the inhospitable terrain of Bighorn Basin, Wyoming, which is one of the best places in the United States to find fossils, with many easily-distinguishable layers of rock.

Sifting through rocks in order to find bones in the blazing heat may not sound like everyone’s idea of a good time, but Dr. Rose lives for hunts like these. “I got interested when I was eight years old by finding fossils, more or less in the backyard,” he explains. Growing up in southern New York during a period when a lot of unused land was being developed for apartments and office buildings, a young Ken Rose was surprised to find that many of the rocks being unearthed were not native to the area. They were remnants of a glacier that had passed over upstate New York thousands of years ago, and they contained fossils of brachiopods and trilobites, ancient invertebrate life forms that existed long before dinosaurs. “Once I saw that stuff, I was absolutely hooked,” Dr. Rose recalls. “There was nothing else in life for me but to be a paleontologist.”

Dr. Rose’s interest in paleontology only grew as he pursued higher education. During his freshman year in college, Dr. Rose first went to the badlands of Wyoming to search for mammal fossils, and the specialization stuck. He continued his studies with a Masters degree from Harvard, a Ph.D. in Vertebrate Paleontology from

the University of Michigan, and postdoctoral work at the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C., before finding work as a professor of anatomy and paleontology at the Johns Hopkins Medical Institute.

Short and mostly bald with perfect posture, smart glasses, and a dignified beard, Dr. Rose looks every bit the part of an East Coast university professor. In the spring of 200�, he taught an undergraduate Mammalian Evolution course at the Johns Hopkins Homewood campus. He spoke in a quiet, clear voice about how he was going to attempt to go through the entire history of mammals, from our first mammal-like reptilian ancestors up into the modern orders. The class was a series of lectures and PowerPoint presentations: there was no hands-on research and little group discussion, and yet the class was filled to the brim on the first day and remained so until the end of the semester. When Dr. Rose spoke, the class was rapt, and at the end of class, everyone stayed to look at the large collection of fossils he would invariably bring: everything from woolly mammoth teeth to rabbit skeletons to primitive horse thigh bones.

Even as a professor of both graduate and undergraduate classes in two separate topics, Dr. Rose’s research continues. In Wyoming, Dr. Rose studies the evolution of mammals around the Paleocene-Eocene boundary, a time period between two major geological epochs that occurred about 55 million years ago. “We can study patterns of evolution from the fossil record,” he points out. Thinking back to the rich fossil deposits in the badlands, he adds: “[Bighorn Basin] is the best area in the world to do that.”

The early Eocene was an exciting time for the then-humble mammalian class: “This was the time period during which the modern orders [of mammals] are first

Marshall Honorof/ HURJ Staff Writer

11

appearing and diversifying,” says Dr. Rose. “Primates, perissodactyls, artiodactyls,” – two large branches of hoofed mammals – “and carnivores started showing up on the Northern continents almost instantly.”

Even more intriguing is the idea that this mass immigration was brought about by climate change. Over a period of about 100,000 years – the blink of an eye on a geologic scale – the Earth’s temperature rose an average of 5°C. “We’re studying how an event like global warming can affect faunas through time, so this has relevance to modern faunas in the context of the current global warming episode,” Dr. Rose explains. If global warming brought about significant changes for mammals in the past, there is no reason to think that it won’t do so again.

In addition to a new project studying mammalian evolution in India, Dr. Rose plans to continue his studies in Wyoming for the foreseeable future. “In 30 years out there, we’ve more than scratched the surface, but there are still places we haven’t been to, and we find something important every year.”

Even though the study of fossils seems unreasonably arcane to some, Dr. Rose disagrees. “Learning something about our place in nature and how humans fit into the broad scheme of the world we live in is very important to keep us in proper perspective,” he argues. “If they knew how exciting and interesting it was, there would be more people interested in the field.” Perhaps most people don’t know how fascinating the field of paleontology can be, but with scientists like Dr. Rose at its forefront, it’s only a matter of time until we can piece together our past, discover how it affects our present, and use it to enhance our future. v

them bones

12

W h at do H2O and

the guillotine have in common? One man:

Antoine-Laurent de Lavoisier. Dr. Wilda Anderson, a professor in

the department of German and romance languages and literatures at Hopkins,

specializes in discourse analysis during the French Enlightenment. Her research on Lavoisier

has shown how his discovery of the immutable nature of elements in the laboratory influenced a chain of events leading up to Robespierre’s Reign of Terror.

Dr. Anderson received her undergraduate training in chemistry and French. However, she quickly realized she was more interested in analyzing how language and objects produce an idea. Furthermore, she wanted to

study the application of discourse to scientific arguments. Hence, her research and book

both deal primarily with the French Enlightenment. To understand

the Enlightenment, it is

Ishrat Ahmed/ HURJ Spotlight Editor

Elements in the Reign of Terror

13

important to understand the preceding time periods. According to Dr. Anderson,

People went from the dark ages where they were told what to think, to the Enlightenment, which was the payoff of the 1�th century scientific revolution. Basically what happened to a few people in the 1�th century happened to everyone in the 18th century.

Dr. Anderson further explains that there isn’t simply a singular Enlightenment. In fact, the French for this time period is “les lumières” which represents the “effervescence of different voices.” This view emphasizes the importance of the multitude of ideas that were brought forth rather than the end product. There are several strands of “les lumières.” Dr. Anderson’s interests are directed towards the Enlightenment of Being. Her current research and upcoming book focus on Antoine Lavoisier.

Lavoisier is the father of modern chemistry, which is also known as “la science Française.” (Alternatively, the “English science” refers to Physics.) He understood that a scientific field requires unifying concepts that define each other. For example, Newton investigated the relationships between mass and motion and discovered the laws that make up classical physics. Lavoisier wished to do for substances what Newton did for physics. His discovery that substances do not change negated a popularly-held belief during his time that substances like earth can transmutate to other substances like water. More importantly, since elements do not change, it became possible to create a foundation of knowledge. Lavoisier wished to break things down to the elements, find relationships, and from these building blocks, rebuild.

In addition to discovering that the world could be broken down to the elements, Lavoisier sought to create a new language to explain the world in terms of elements. As Dr. Anderson clarifies, “there is a difference between denotative language, which explains exactly what a substance is, and connotative language, which presents the accessory poetic ideas.” For example, H2O is more informative than the term “water”. Lavoisier believed that within the scientific

language there is an order that reflects the order within the world. It is possible to create sentences employing this language; “incorrect” sentences, or those lacking this order, lead to the laboratory. Lavoisier therefore reasoned that the language, and not the scientist, drove the research forward. The chemist was simply the discoverer while nature remained the inventor. This depersonalizing view of chemistry was quite appealing during the French Revolution.

At the height of the French Revolution, philosophers and revolutionaries attempted to define the natural laws of human beings. Following the king’s beheading and prior to creating a new form of government for the people, they sought to answer questions such as: What is a human being? What is an ideal state? The depersonalized role of the chemist in his quest for understanding chemistry led to an “ideal state” governed by the “natural laws” in which the individual was depersonalized and the general will or “la solidarité” was emphasized.

Analogous to scientific arguments supporting findings, revolutionary leaders promoted the natural human laws through auditory arguments. However, this was an act of persuasion and not reason. They needed to redefine words to reflect the natural laws. In fact, Lavoisier was in charge of creating a linguistic system embodying the natural laws of society or what he called the “calculus of morals”. This quest for the ideal state led to Robespierre’s Reign of Terror, a twelve-month period of the French Revolution during which several thousands, including Lavoisier, were guillotined. Lavoisier’s discoveries thus influenced the French Revolution, which in turn brought about his end. This Reign of Terror was caused by the depersonalization resulting from the theories of the scientific language.

In addition to enjoying her work in discourse analysis, Dr. Anderson takes pleasure in teaching students to ask the right questions and gain a sense of their own intellectual voice. She encourages students to recognize their ideas and take action by formulating arguments. In this way, they can be empowered to perceive relationships and form valid judgments. As Dr. Anderson explains, “the world is exciting. However, it is necessary to first learn in order to enjoy it.”

14

David Attarzadeh/ HURJ Staff Writer

Is there a future for space colonization? In 19�8, optimism soared with the release of the film, 2001: A Space Odyssey, but in 2001, human kind came to real-ize that such technology does not yet, and may never, exist. The question now is, will it ever be possible for a human to safely colonize another planet, such as Mars, or even the Earth’s natural satellite, the Moon? Con-sider the effect of global warming, the cause of major widespread temperature changes already drastically af-fecting animal populations and slowly destroying our planet. It seems not only helpful, but necessary, that humans start acting upon what has now become a myth in order to preserve our own survival.

Michael D. Griffin, the NASA administrator, was quoted as saying, “…the goal isn’t just scientific exploration . . . it’s also about extending the range of human habitat out from Earth into the solar system as we go forward in time. . . . In the long run a single-planet species will not survive. We have ample evidence of that . . . [Spe-cies have] been wiped out in mass extinctions on an average of every 30 million years. … There will be another mass-extinction event. If we humans want to survive for hundreds of thousands or millions of years, we must ultimately populate other planets. Now, today the technology is such that this is barely conceivable. We’re in the infancy of it.”1

Now, of course it is beneficial for human kind to col-onize the rest of the universe, but what is preventing us from doing so? We have constantly heard the cries of sending astronauts to live on the Moon or Mars, but these have been empty words, resulting in quite a bit of hype, but no action. Nations around the world, from China to Japan, and even Iran, have begun launching rockets and satellites into space in an effort to leave their mark on the galactic empire we call space.2 Send-

Next Stop: The Moon! …

Or is it?

15

Next Stop: The Moon! …

Or is it?ing humans to live in space, however, is a different story altogether.

Of course, there are a few accomplishments that have gone a bit unnoticed. The International Space Station, one of the first established research facilities in space, has been orbiting the Earth since 1998.3 Furthermore, NASA’s Lunar Architecture Team has proposed a lunar base near one of the moon’s poles which will presum-ably be completed by 2024.4 This would be in full ac-cordance with the NASA Authorization Act of 2005, which proposed to “establish a program to develop a sustained human presence on the Moon,” not to men-tion completing “future exploration of Mars and other destinations.”5 Of course, only time will tell whether or not we actually succeed in constructing the lunar outpost. Even with the support of dozens of nations, hundreds of billions of dollars may be insufficient for such an enormous project. According to the European Space Agency, the International Space Station costs about 100 billion euros, or approximately $15� billion dollars.� Now imagine a permanent human settlement on the Moon. This is quite a step up from what is es-sentially an enormous satellite.

Of course, mere monetary reasons are not the only impediment to developing such a settlement. For one, there must be a way to efficiently transport materials from the Earth to the Moon. Ignoring the cost and dif-ficulty of simply getting an astronaut to the Moon, the Moon itself lacks a number of extremely important elements such as hydrogen and nitrogen, but is fairly abundant in oxygen, silicon, iron, and aluminum, all contained in the soil and, through appropriate tech-nology, can be extracted.�,8 Next, there is the energy re-quired to run a settlement. Nuclear generators could be developed on the Moon, but this would be incredibly difficult since a number of the materials would need to be transported from Earth. Solar energy is not quite as attractive on the Moon as on the Earth due to longer nights. Many have suggested wireless energy transfer, but this technology has not been widely implemented.

The next problem to be considered is communica-tion. Although communication with the Moon is not very difficult, as we delve further into the universe (which may or may not occur), there will be severe lag-times due simply to the speed of light, which can-not be surpassed. For example, the distance between Mars and Earth is typically between 33,900,000 and 249,000,000 miles.9 It has been estimated that this type of distance can result in a time lag of up to 44 minutes. Of course, when emergencies happen, 44 minutes is

not very preferable.However, the most difficult requirements to obtain

on a galactic site would probably be the basic necessi-ties of life. Food, water, sufficient oxygen, and a stable, healthy temperature would need to be maintained for prolonged periods of time, which is incredibly difficult to provide when there is a lack of a stable biosphere, such as that which exists on Earth. Creation of a rain-forest or an equivalent closed environment such that carbon dioxide, oxygen, water, and other important molecules are created and broken down without over-heating the environment has not even been success-fully performed on Earth (see the Biosphere 2 project, for example).10 Of course, there are many other consid-erations to be made, such as avoiding excess amounts of radiation, but overall, these points essentially cover the main considerations of space colonization.

At this point, it seems quite possible that the Moon can be colonized. Then again, we need to remember that such claims have been made for the last few de-cades. Given that some of the most basic technologies and developments to ensure sustainability in space have not been completed or proven to succeed, it seems as though the possibility of space colonization will remain small in the near future. However, as the great moments in science and technology have shown, nothing is impossible. Trust the words of Charles F. Kettering, “Believe and act as if it were impossible to fail.”

References: “NASA’s Griffin: ‘Humans Will Colonize the Solar System’” Washington

Post. 25 Sept. 2005. Page B0�. <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/23/AR2005092301�91.html>.

“Iran Launches Scientific Satellite.” 8 Feb. 2008. United Press Interna-tional. <http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Top_News/2008/02/04/iran_launches_scientific_satellite/30�4/>.

“International Space Station.” 4 Apr. 2008. NASA. <http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html>.

Humphries, Kelly. “NASA Unveils Global Exploration Strategy and Lu-nar Architecture.” 4 Dec. 200�. NASA. <http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/200�/dec/HQ_0�3�1_ESMD_Lunar_Architecture.html>.

Dale, Shana. Exploration Strategy and Architecture. NASA. Imple-menting the Vision: 2nd Space Exploration Conference. � Dec. 200� <http://www.nasa.gov/pdf/1�389�main_LAT_GES_1204.pdf>.

“International Space Station: How Much Does It Cost?” 9 Aug. 2005. European Space Agency. <http://www.esa.int/esaHS/ESAQHA0V-MOC_iss_0.html>.

Salt, David. “What’s the Moon Made of?” The Discovery Channel. 1 Oct. 2003. ABC Sciences Online. <http://dsc.discovery.com/news/afp/20030929/moon.html>.

Kluger, Jeffrey. “Is There Oxygen on the Moon?” 20 Oct. 2005. Time Mag-azine. <http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1120�55,00.html>.

“Mars.” World Book At NASA. 29 Nov. 200�. NASA. <http://www.nasa.gov/worldbook/mars_worldbook.html>.

“Biosphere 2.” 200�. University of Arizona. <http://www.b2science.org/>.

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Gazing into the skies above, man has always wondered and dreamed about if he was really completely alone in the big universe that surrounded him. As the scientific and astronomic community advanced past the idea of the earth as the center of the universe, man embarked on the quest to understand space around him with an almost unhealthy obsession. After the 20th century landing on the moon, the world set its sights on Mars in hopes of conducting a new mission of hopefully finding extra-terrestrial neighbors. The original Mars rover, which landed on the surface of the red planet in 199�, sent back grainy photographs but once again seemed to disappoint many with not having any hard samples of life on the cold planet. [2] Moving beyond the 199� landing however, a large push has come to once again take to space and search for any possible living organisms left in our solar system. Strangely, for many on Earth, aside from old dreams of Mars holding ancient dregs of water on its surface, the next most possible site of exploration lies much farther away in the orbits of Jupiter.

Discovered in 1�10 by Galileo Galilei as one of the four astronomical satellites of Jupiter, Europa automatically seemed to stand out as a very special beacon in our solar system. [3] Being covered by a relatively even layer of ice, the moon casts an incredibly bright image as the beams of sunlight hit its surface. [3] While you may be asking yourselves why anyone would care about some ice covered rock spinning around Jupiter, you have to remember that the magic about Europa actually lies underneath its icy exterior. After the initial hypothesis by astronomer Gerard Kuiper

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in the mid 19�0’s on Europa’s surface composition as made of water and ice, all questions were answered when NASA sent up the Pioneer and Voyager crafts to fly-by the area surrounding Europa. [3] The term fly-by refers to the space travel tactic employed by space agencies with regard to their long distance crafts. By using the rather simple physics concept of conservation of momentum, the space probe uses a planet much like a “gravitational slingshot” and after being ejected out of a much more massive planet’s orbit, it is able to travel an orbital path around a much smaller mass in the nearby vicinity of the larger planet. One can observe how well the technique works to help conserve fuel by giving a “boost” of energy. [�] After the two crafts discussed earlier passed neared Jupiter, they took and sent back information regarding its moons as well and through it, allowed NASA to confirm the presence of a solid ice covering on Europa. With this undeniable proof of water on the moon, the exciting idea of possible life on the moonsoon took effect in NASA’s headquarters and throughout the scientific community.

Using Voyager’s results as a platform, further experimentation and exploration has been conducted in an effort to learn more about the mysterious 4th moon of Jupiter. First launched in 1989, the Galileo spaceship was used to explore and report on a variety of aspects in our solar system. [4E] After capturing a wide variety of cutting edge images on asteroids and other celestial bodies, the Galileo moved on to its final destination

o

Mehdi M. Draoua/ HURJ Staff Writer

Europa s Hidden Secret

1�

t Europa s Hidden Secret

18

of Jupiter. [�] Through information sent back by the ship after many years of travel in space, scientists reported in the May 23, 2002 issue of the journal Nature that “Europa’s floating ice shell may be at least 19 kilometers thick”. [1] Using a wide variety of different geological measurements, the idea of Europa holding a possibility of life became both much more complex and intriguing almost overnight. The proposed model of the moon after this point was based on a variety of factors, which primarily relied on “detailed mapping and measurements of impact craters” to guide scientists to extrapolate a specific ice thickness to the moon’s outer core. [NM] Overall, the general consensus is that in the present moment, the 19km estimate for ice outer cover thickness has about a 10-20% uncertainty. [1]

While not apparent to the outside observer, the thickness of Europa’s outer shell of ice has massive consequences and possibilities. The measurement itself solidifies the hypothesis that the moon has a basic outlay of a rather thick outer cover composed of water, with a possible ocean under the layer that would pose as a possible home for organisms. Rationally, since the thickness of the ice is so great, and sunlight can only pass to about a few meters into it, one must assume that photosynthetic organisms are out of the question in today’s Europa. [1] While blocking sunlight, the ice cover also happens to cover a very large amount of radiation from Jupiter’s atmosphere, and thereby would protect current organisms from certain death. These factors all contribute to the image that organisms living under Europa’s surface are much similar to the creatures roaming the Earth’s own ocean crevasses. [1] The information received from Galileo also back ups these theories and shows a very large amount of tectonic and geological activity stemming from the core of the moon’s center. [4] In other words, the volcanic activity which erupts from Europa’s iron/nickel center works to heat up the sub-surface ocean and produce something that resembles tidal water cycles. [3] These cycles go on to maintain the layer in-between the metallic core and the outer ice as a theoretical liquid form. The oceanic environment once again scientific parallels are seen with respect to organisms on Earth that survive by purely chemical means. Through these conjectures, scientists became overjoyed with a new source of possible extra-terrestrial life forms that could live using the heat of underwater volcanic activity.

As the evidence of possible life inside Europa mounted, the idea of sending some sort of expedition to Jupiter became more and more likely. However the prospect of life on the moon is largely outweighed by the massive problems one would have with collecting data in many ways. The extrapolation of the ice shell’s depth of 19km was made by using a variety of photographs that various spaceships have taken over the years. The mathematical measurements made by Dr. Paul Schenk and his team of geologists at Houston’s Lunar and Planetary Institute rely largely on the comparison of Europa’s surface craters with that of its sister moons: Io, Callisto, and Ganymede. [3][1] Simply put, the scientists look at a variety of crater sites around each of the moons and compare how each of their surfaces reacted to the impacts. These crater morphologies are important because ice itself reacts very differently to impact stress

based on its temperature and presence of other materials. [1] Dr. Schenk’s team used this important property with regard to similarly sized (8+km diameter) craters on the Europa surfaces and then looked at the resulting surfaces and fractures left by the shocks. [1] In many ways, this estimation created a 19km barrier to the true oceans under the outer shell of the moon. To ameliorate this problem of reaching deep layers, scientists point to the fact that the tectonic activity of the planet also works to dredge up warm ice and water to higher layers, “much like the blob action of a lava lamp”, thereby giving hope that organic samples could still exist on or near the surface of the planet. [1][5] To work with these parameters, NASA has proposed a wide variety of solutions. The first step would be to send up a probe spaceship that would hopefully be equipped with modern day equipment ranging from thermal sensors to high end seismic equipment that would make an ideal rover/lander setup. By having a ship that could land on the surface, scientists on earth could use the geologic activity under the ice to exactly pinpoint how deep the ice shell really is. [5] On top of this, the robotic lander could use a modest drill setup to go a few meters underground (thereby avoiding killing possible life form under the ice by radiation) and gathering samples of ice which could contain valuable data on organic molecules present and gas chemistry. [5] By and large, these examples of exploring new space terrain go to show the absolute infinite possibility when it comes to studying a new moon of hope. Sadly, due to recent budget constraints imposed upon NASA by congress, the prospect of starting up a new multi-billion dollar space exploration project seems grim. Nevertheless, the hope that Europa may host extraterrestrial life has inspired scientists and ordinary space nuts alike, and will hopefully keep the dream of exploration alive for future generations to continue.

Works CitedLunar and Planetary Institute (2008)“ NEW MEASUREMENTS OF IMPACT

CRATER TOPOGRAPHY SHOW THAT EUROPA HAS A THICK ICE SHELL” April 5th, 2008 http://www.lpi.usra.edu/resources/europa/thickice/ [NM]

“The Search for Life in our Solar System on Mars and Jupiter’s Moons” April 30th, 2008 http://www.dummysoftware.com/mars/index.html [SL]

Calvin J. Hamilton. “Europa” April 4th, 2008 http://www.solarviews.com/eng/europa.htm [EU]

Committee on Planetary and Lunar Exploration “A Science Strategy for the Ex-ploration of Europa” http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?isbn=03090�493� [SS]

NASA.Gov. “The Future of Europa Exploration” (Updated 200�). Visited March 15th, 2008 http://www2.jpl.nasa.gov/galileo/water/klem3.pdf [FE]

Johnson, Bob. “The Slingshot Effect” (Updated Feb 2004). Visited April 2�th, 2008. http://www.dur.ac.uk/bob.johnson/SL/ [SE]

NASA.Gov. Munsell, Kirk “Solar System Exploration” April 20th, 2008 http://so-larsystem.nasa.gov/galileo/?CFID=13403913&CFTOKEN=8188�45� [SSE]

Works ConsultedOverbye, D. New York Times. “Smaller Version of the Solar System Is Dis-

covered” (Feb 15th, 2008). Visited March 2�th, 2008 http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/15/science/space/15planets.html Works Cited

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Come, my friends,

‘Tis not too late to seek a newer world. . . .

To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths

Of all the western stars, until I die.

— Alfred Lord Tennyson, ‘Ulysses,’ 1842.

a ticket to the stars:the future of space tourism

21

Come, my friends,

‘Tis not too late to seek a newer world. . . .

To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths

Of all the western stars, until I die.

— Alfred Lord Tennyson, ‘Ulysses,’ 1842.

a ticket to the stars:the future of space tourism

22

In some ways, it would be the ideal vacation. You wouldn’t have to learn phrases in a foreign language, pack your bathing suit, or worry about booking reservations in a restaurant. Space tourism seeks to have endless advantages. It is human nature to desire exploration and to seek new horizons, and the newly developing space tourism industry professes to satisfy these cravings on both accounts.

It will be a long time before it is the norm to book vacations to the moon, but such dreams have already been realized for the privileged few. The world’s first space tourist, Dennis Tito, paid twenty million dollars to take a much debated eight-day-trip into space. NASA scientists argued that Tito would be a hindrance to the workings of the space crew because Tito took this trip at the age of �0. A few millionaire space tourists have followed, but critics still question the space tourism industry. Besides the obvious issue of affordability, there are many other factors that must be taken into consideration when discussing this topic.

The toll of stress from accelerated flight had quite a detrimental effect on Dennis Tito’s health because of his age. However, space travel poses a threat to health regardless of how old or in shape one may be. As a result of what the critics call an “unprecedented” boom in space technology and the emergence of the space tourism industry, the International Space Station began to require stringent medical standards for “passengers without operational assignments” who were staying at the ISS for fewer than 30 days1. The current

list of medical standards was adopted in 2002. The list requires a tourist’s medical history, complete physical examination, lab tests, cardiopulmonary evaluation, and psychiatric/ psychological evaluation. In addition, the space travelers are made to go through vestibular testing and simulations to ensure that they can handle the conditions on the space shuttle. Such strict guidelines are necessary because of the physiological burden space flight places on the body. The cardiopulmonary assessment is especially important due to the stress placed on the heart while being accelerated at such high speeds.

A 200� NASA study showed that plasma levels of cortisol, a stress related hormone, increased significantly during simulated flight2. A surprising twist was found in this same study; it was observed that in a controlled environment the status of the immune system would not change significantly. However, immune system changes were apparent in experiments that tested for “peripheral leukocyte distribution, activated T cells, intercellular cytokine profiles and viral antibody levels”2. This ramping up of immune system function can be attributed to many factors. A major theory for space-related immune dysfunction is dependent on reactions to flight-related factors, including gravitational effects and radiation. However, scientists are currently theorizing that other factors, such as confinement, isolation, altered microbial environment, or nutrition, could cause these immune system changes. Another important health consideration in space travel is the alteration of circadian rhythms

Niharika Sathe/ HURJ Staff Writer

23

that occurs as a result of orbiting the Earth. Altered sleeping patterns naturally affect day to day health and wellbeing even on Earth, so orbiting the Earth a number of times is quite obviously a concern.

Circadian rhythm alterations must be taken into account in relation to psychological functioning as well. Altered sleep-wake cycles can result in sluggishness, moodiness and difficulty remaining alert in orbit, just as on the Earth. Weightlessness is also a factor in psychological distress. Imagine not being able to eat without nausea, dealing with insomnia because you cannot lie down on your bed, and suffering redistribution of water/ increase of anti diuretic hormone such that you have to go to the bathroom frequently; this would not be the glamorous space vacation you were expecting.

Although critics tend to mention health concerns as the biggest hurdle facing space tourism, proponents of this industry face other challenges as well. With the emphasis on going green, the amount of pollution space shuttles generate is another cause for concern. However, NASA scientists have begun to address this by using hydrogen-based fuels. Nevertheless, the sheer volume of emissions incites angry words from environmentalists. Other critics worry that encouragement to explore the skies will only lead to the developing of future technology leading to space warfare.

Despite these warnings, tourism agencies, and astronauts show no signs of slowing the progress in this field. The X Prize foundation promotes “Revolution through competition”

by offering awards and challenges to foster creativity and innovation in the space fields. Google’s lunar prize, which is offered through the X prize foundation, is a $30 million dollar award the first private company able to send a robot to the moon and transmit the images back to the Earth. Motel tycoon Robert Bigelow is developing designs for the first set of space hotels, and the Hiltons have followed. Hotels are not the only luxuries that would appear in the future. In 200�, the California Space Authority in LA held its first fashion show, entitled Space Style 2000: A Giant Leap for Couture. Amongst the creations was a zero gravity- proof wedding gown, created by Japanese designer Eric Matsui3. Companies such as Virgin Galactic and British Airways plan to create three to six minute voyages in which you would get a quick tour of the Earth for a mere 200,000 dollars4. There’s no need to pack your bags just yet, but space tourism is definitely something to keep an eye out for in the future.

References:Bogomolov, Valery V. et al (200�). International Space Station

Medical Standards and Certification for Space Flight Par-ticipants. Aviation, Space and Environmental Medicine, �8,11�2-11�9

Crucian, Brian et al (200�). Immune System changes during simulated planetary exploration on Devon Island, High Artic. BMC Immunology, 8, �.

Daniels, Eric A (200�). Fashion Creators Wow Space Innova-tors. California Space Authority.

Said, Carolyn (2004). British Tycoon wants you to fly to space. San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved May 1, 2008. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2004/09/28/MNG9990�EQ1.DTL.

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A turning point in medieval history, the Spanish Golden Age was the prototype of the great cultural and scientific advancements of the European Renaissance period. Beginning in 1492 with the “discovery” of the Americas and de Nebrija’s definitive Gramática castellana, the baroque period was a

powerful Spanish response to the end of Muslim power in Iberia. It lasted until the late 1�00s, when the death of one

of its greatest authors, Calderón de la Barca, signaled its close. Politically, the epoch of Spanish development and power weaned with its defeat of the Thirty Years’ War. Hardly idle, the centuries of Spanish hegemony resulted

in the artistic superstardom, the global promotion of Hispanic culture, and, of course, an infamously brutal Inquisition that defended the Catholic throne.

The doctrine of “gold, glory, and God” created an enormous preoccupation with the study of divinity,

spirituality, and mysticism in the peninsula and is often

Isabel Perera/ HURJ Staff Writer

Reevaluating theFace of the

Golden Age: An Exploration of Lope de Vega’s Flirtation with Illicit Astrology and Baroque Spanish Counterculture

25

representative of the advances of his time. According to Frank Halstead (1939), a collection

of Lope de Vega’s passages describe “a geocentric universe in such a manner as to suggest that he had an extremely sound knowledge of the nature of the universe as it was visualized.” De Vega seems to have been more than proficient in the vocabulary of Ptolemaic astronomy. With careful analysis, though, these texts reveal a much more confused and inherently atypical theme. De Vega’s spiritual insecurities, fueled by his interest in outer space, are present in his plays and poetry. In La Arcadia, for example, Lope de Vega writes a “long and curious exposition of astrology with the significance of the signs and planets” (1598). This sort of speculation hidden beneath the text treads the border between illicit and licit astrology. Moreover, scholars now believe that, in his seminal La Dorotea, the character of the strange diviner was actually based on one of de Vega’s most influential instructors of astrology- his brother in law. Lope de Vega regarded his French brother-in-law Luis de Rosicler, a rug weaver and astrologer, as one of his master teachers. La Dorotea also boasts another clue to de Vega’s astrological curiosity: stars play a vita role in the lives of the characters in the text. Considering that the work blends fictional narrative and autobiographical anecdotes, the role of the stars in La Dorotea can and should be linked to the problem of authorship in the text. For example, Francisco Márques Villanueva (1988) points to the text’s usage of Venus—the moon—and the zodiac symbols to explain the characters’ fates. At the time, this explanation, clearly devoid of Catholic monotheism and theological reasoning, would have been forbidden by the Spanish government and its

regulations against illicit astrology. It is the work’s fictional mask, therefore, which ambiguously

covers the author’s investment in the subject.

Thus the question persists. Whether or not

thought to be a continuation of the strong academic tradition of the Islamic era. To many, these disciplines were inextricably connected to the outer world and outer space. Astronomy and the study of the world’s relation to the planets became enormously popular. Originally developed by Moors during the medieval period, astronomy in the Iberian Peninsula was hardly foreign at the onset of the Golden Age. Despite the irony of Moorish suppression during the Inquisition, astronomy remained present in baroque Spanish academia. Astronomy was also often tied to another “science”- astrology. A popular response to the study of the stars, astrology tempted artists with the romantic humanity of the universe. Most curious, though, was the monarchy’s response to the second, mystically engaging “science.” According to Antonio Hurtado Torres (1984), Spain did indeed adhere to a brand of astrology, despite its potential conflicts with the era’s inherent Catholicism. His research indicates that two braches of astrology existed in the Golden Age- one licit, one illicit. “Legal” or “true” astrology regarded the use of astrological theories for philosophical and medical research. “Illegal” or “false” astrology regarded the use of the same theories for predestinate speculation.

Known for its prolific literary culture, the Spanish Golden Age witnessed several of the most respected works of the Western hemisphere. Writers such as Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Pedro Calderón de la Barca, and Félix Lope de Vega became popular not only for the transcendence of their art, but oftentimes also for their defense of the throne. In particular, their pieces were revered defending Spanish Catholicism and shunning pagan mysticism. However, further studies of the period’s most exemplary texts demonstrate the clear appeal of astrology in baroque Spanish culture. For example, Cervantes’ Don Quixote created the beloved sidekick character of Sancho Panza, who, consequently, was an expert in astrology. Calderón’s influential comedy “La Vida es Sueño” abounds in mystical allusions and astrological foretelling. But perhaps the most ironic astro-literary connection is that of Lope de Vega’s hidden (and sometimes not so hidden) concern with astrology. De Vega, who, according to Carmelo Virgillo, was revered for his “introspection and religious zeal,” wrote exemplary Golden Age dramas and poems which are also remarkably

2�

Lope de Vega’s art represents his attitudes towards the repressed astrological practices of the Spanish Golden Age remains unanswered. Arguably second only to Cervantes, Lope de Vega is known for owning a generation. At the forefront of the Spanish thriving literary and cultural community, Lope de Vega knew he embodied the pride of the monarchy’s imperialism. Not only was Spain the dominant exploratory force world-wide, but it was also esteemed as the intellectual epicenter of European life. The combination of wealth and creativity was closely monitored by the Spanish throne for fear of excessive independence. Too much liberty was associated with a separation from Spanish ideals, of which astrological divinity was clearly one. But Lope de Vega himself dabbled in the forbidden “sciences” of his time, engaged in a unique, un-Catholic, mysticism. Close textual analysis suggests that, behind his mainstream façade, the author also felt tempted by the fiercely repressed counterculture. His texts and characters hint at otherworldly beliefs and practices. His biography and contacts suggest an investment in an illicit study of the stars. An unconventional personal life provides a foundation for the possibility of the writer’s non-traditional beliefs. All the same, the author’s tumultuous conscious has been hidden behind his image as the face of the Spanish Golden Age. Further studies, though, may reveal Lope de Vega’s internal confusion and, ultimately, perhaps more fully define an era.

References de Cervantes Saavedra, M., & Motteux, P. A. (18�9). The history of the

ingenious gentleman don quixote of la mancha [Cervantes Saavedra, Miguel de,] . Edinburgh: W. Paterson.

de Vega, L., & Pedraza Jimenez, F. B. (1990). Lope de vega esencial. Ma-drid: Taurus.

Halstead, Frank G. (Jul, 1939). The Attitude of Lope de Vega toward As-trology and Astronomy. Hispanic Review, Vol. �, No. 3, 205-219.

Hurtado Torres, A. (1984). La astrologia en la literatura del siglo de oro :Indice bibliografico. Alicante: Instituto de Estudios Alicantinos, Ex-cma. Diputacion Provincial de Alicante.

Nadeau, C. A. (2002). Women of the prologue :Imitation, myth, and magic in don quixote I. Lewisburg Pa.; Cranbury, NJ: Bucknell University Press ;$aLondon; Associated University Presses.

Pym, R. (200�). The gypsies of early modern spain, 1425-1783. Basingstoke England ;New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Rawlings, H. (200�). The spanish inquisition. Malden, MA: Blackwell Pub.

Ticknor, G., de Gayangos, P., & de Vedia, E. (1851). Historia de la litera-tura espanola. Madrid: Impr. de la Publicidad, a cargo de M. Rivad-eneyra.

Vilar, P. (19��). Spain;a brief history [Vilar, Pierre,] (1st ed.). Oxford,New York: Pergamon Press.

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The U.S. and the

Weaponization of Space:

International Relations Repercussions

29

The U.S. and the

Weaponization of Space:

International Relations Repercussions

What do telephones, television, GPS devices, and the Weather Channel have in common? They all rely on data from satellites and surveillance equipment in order to function. It is hard for a civilian to go a day without accessing data provided by a satellite, but anyone in the armed forces will tell you that satellites and other orbiting data-gatherers are of the utmost importance to the protection of this country. Satellites are essential tools used for surveillance, for weapon guidance, for transportation—and now, for the U.S.’s growing missile defense program. There is a concern that with such intense reliance on satellites the U.S. may be the custodian of a huge liability as other nations cultivate their space and ballistic missile programs. China, India, and the European Union (E.U.) are all currently investigating the deployment of satellites used for military purposes. Aviation Week magazine quoted Indian defense ministry officials who were concerned about other nations developing “laser-based weapons platforms and killer satellites.”1 As a harbinger of what is to come, China recently shot down one of its own aging satellites, signaling to the world that no country’s space-based communications and surveillance abilities are immune to threats. In the 21st century, there is no doubt that developing nations will wish to flex their military muscle through aerospace demonstrations and through aggressive space exploration. The U.S. faces several tough decisions regarding the imminent weaponization of space. Should the U.S. not wish to see this outcome then it must adjust its current policies so that prevention is at least more likely. Should the U.S. continue its current strategies with regard to foreign policy America will face significant international relations challenges. At this time, the United States cannot feasibly condemn or prevent weaponization of space for a number of reasons. International law regarding the usage of space is limited and very vague. The 19�� Space Treaty states that space is to be “the province of all mankind” and specifically prohibits the installation of weapons of mass destruction in celestial territory. It places large emphasis on a “cooperative” spirit that is supposed to guide future exploration and building2. It was a good first step, but, since then, little in the way of specificity has been added to international law regarding space disarmament. The

Daniel Hochman/ HURJ Staff Writer

30

United Nation’s Conference on Disarmament meets every year to discuss nuclear proliferation and related topics. Despite urging by Kofi Annan as recently as 1999,3 this committee has failed to come to consensus on a space policy. In 2008, “prevention of an arms race in outer space” remains one of their top-ten agenda items4. Additionally, the United States’ own stated policies do not specifically refute the idea that it is developing its own space weapons program. There is even a clause in the USSTRATCOM’s (U.S. Strategic Command office) space mission statement that opens the door for “researching and developing space-based capabilities that have the potential to engage adversaries from space” upon congressional approval. Additionally, the USSTRATCOM policy to assures “U.S. access to and freedom of operation in space, and denying enemies the same5.” Other Bush Administration officials have also spoken out on this issue. Michael Krepon of the Arms Control Association recalls former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld’s desire to have our space warfare capabilities undergo a “transformation” in order to prevent a “space Pearl Harbor” attack by our enemies�. Rumsfeld and his commander’s talking points on this matter seem to specifically mention Russia and China repeatedly. It still remains to be seen though whether a defensive or an offensive strategy is best to contend the weaponization of space. According to Foreign Affairs magazine, the U.S. has “consistently resisted negotiations” to join the PAROS treaty (Prevention of an Arms Race in Outer Space) “out of a concern that [it] would constrain U.S. dominance in space.�” The United States clearly and openly desires to secure space for its own interests. The conflict arises as celestially-based communications, commodities and space travel become even more a matter of national security and economy. Other nations besides the U.S. may see little reason to maintain the relative neutrality of space. Currently, U.S. policy does not demonstrate willingness to seek the neutrality that the 19�� Space Treaty sought. An international relations theorist will look at the weaponization of space through two particular lenses. These are the realist and the idealist perspectives. Modern idealism includes developments such as democratization and globalization, or that it is possible to overcome the violent tendencies of human nature and that states may eventually reach a point at which they have no reason to fight one. Realism, as professed by Hans Morgenthau and Jon Mearsheimer, believes in the inherent tendency of states to pursue hegemony and to fight for their own interests. Assuming that nations conduct international relations in a realist fashion, we can expect any capable nation to pursue hegemony in space. As Thucidides famously said, “The strong do what they can, and the weak do what they must.” Every nation with space-based interests faces a threat if this is the case. The U.S. is also capable of taking a less aggressive stance in this impending struggle. The old cliché that “the best offense is a good defense” might apply here. As China has demonstrated recently, ASAT (Anti-satellite) missiles

and lasers pose a more immediate threat to American space assets than any other technology currently in development. Instead of responding by demonstrating our own ASAT technology, or by threatening Chinese satellites, the U.S. could instead embark on a satellite-hardening program (satellite self-defense), or on ensuring space equipment redundancy. According to Aviation Week & Space Technology, after September 11th, 2001 and new intelligence about Chinese space efforts, the Airforce Space Command began requesting funding for “Rapid Attack Identification, Detection and Reporting Systems (RAIDRS)” and for “sensors that could tell satellite operators or military commanders [about] the type and source of an attack.” Other methods of protection such launching micro-satellites and frequency decoy systems are also being considered as ways to defend against an attack8. Amy Butler of Aviation Week compares China’s recent launch of an ASAT weapon to the Soviet launch of Sputnik in that “it had a significant impact on future planning” on the part of the U.S. military. She also discusses the Bush Administration’s current efforts to pursue SSA technology (Space Situational Awareness)9. This is a growing effort to make sure all objects in, entering, and leaving space are constantly being monitored. At the end of the Cold War this infrastructure was dismantled. Defensive efforts such as these could be seen as less hostile and could keep weapons out of space for longer. It is also possible that the repercussions of the weaponization of space have been overstated, and that the U.S. has little to worry about. The concepts of mutually assured destruction and deterrence continue to play significant roles after the Cold War. These enduring concepts assure that even the most powerful nations are deterred from fighting wars because of the extremely high cost in blood and the possibility of nuclear annihilation. Additionally, the amount of sophistication needed to actually place a weapon into space is something that few nations have. Rocket payload logistics and safe warhead transport make the process particularly complicated and costly. ASAT (anti-satellite) technology and satellite-to-satellite warfare seem counterproductive to the aggressor because the debris from the destruction of a satellite would likely cause problems for the aggressor’s own communications and surveillance systems—not to mention, it could also start a war. Defense Department officials have confirmed that any attack on U.S. space assets will be considered an act of war10. Not many international relations theorists can foresee full-scale conflict with China, India, or Russia. In fact, it has been revealed that the Chinese ASAT test was conducted without the permission or supervision from Beijing; this means that there are dangerous gaps in the Chinese military chain of command—but more importantly, it means that the rest of the world has potentially misunderstood Chinese military intentions. Had Beijing been aware of when the test it would have more carefully warned those whom the test would concern. These nations have large amounts

31

of vested interests in each other, and the consequences of war are such that no nation can afford them.11 The fates of the U.S. and of China are especially intertwined.12 Chinese economic and military growth are dependent on American consumption and American corporations and consumers rely on the low costs of Chinese goods and labor. International Relations theorist, Dr. John G. Ikenberry of Princeton University, discusses what he would call the “open” world order (as opposed to a U.S. order) in which “technology and the economic revolution have created a logic of economic relations that is different from the past—making the political and institutional logic of the current order all the more powerful.” The idea that economic interdependency is beginning to trump traditional realist imperatives may apply to these concerns regarding weaponization of space.13 If we accept the perspective that the advent of a space arms race does not pose a serious threat to the United States, then what should the country be worried about? Dr. Steven R. David, an esteemed International Relations theorist and a professor at the Johns Hopkins University, reveals that some IR theories consider irrational non-state actors (terrorists and rogue leaders) as more of a threat to today’s major powers than any particular nation is to another. Irrational non-state actors are capable capturing fissile material and using it without facing or caring about immediate repercussions. David acknowledges that dominating space will give an advantage to the country that achieves it, however he notes that the significance of a nation’s supposed military superiority is not what it used to be. Without taking a particular side, he claims that if the realists end up being wrong about the workings of international relations, then “space as a strategic component will be less important” to a country’s national security14. Essentially, it is possible that the Bush Administration’s offensive strategy with regard to space (missile defense included) is ill advised during a time when terrorism, civil wars and other non-state actors are causing the most destruction in the world. U.S. action labeled as defensive, such as missile defense, tends to be met with hostility. We are in a period of relative peace among the world’s nations, but some say that the United States is behaving provocatively. People who study the inadequacy of realism suggest that nations focus on combating civil wars, ethnic strife, terrorism and rogue groups precisely because attacks from these groups are hard to counteract; whereas, sovereign nations and their military command tend to know that the consequences of confrontation with the U.S. do not justify the means. As a member of the realist school of thought, one would likely believe that the weaponization of space is coming and that it is an important matter to consider. Someone of the idealist spectrum, or who believes that realism does not accurately explain modern international relations, would likely turn to other problems that appear more pressing to a country’s national security. According to the evidence we have

looked at so far from the EU, India and from the US, space will likely be weaponized. But deterrence will likely prevent any significant conflict between the major powers. Other expected sources of tension will be over the economic and expansionary opportunities that lie in the thoroughly mysterious territory that is space.

References

Mathews, N. (200�) Space Stability. Aviation Week & Space Technology. Vol. 1�4. Issue 1�. Retrieved April, 2008 from Academic Search Premier.

(November, 200�) United Nations Treaties and Princi-ples on Space Law. UNOOSA. Retrieved April, 2008. <http://www.unoosa.org/oosa/en/SpaceLaw/treaties.html>.

(January, 1999) Secretary-General Urges Conference on Disarmament to Embark on Meaningful Negotia-tions for a Fissile Material Treaty. United Nations. Re-trieved April, 2008. <http://www.un.org/news/Press/docs/1999/1999012�.sgsm�8�4.html>

(2008) Conference on Disarmament (CD). Conference on Disarmament. Retrieved in April, 2008. http://www.reachingcriticalwill.org/political/cd/cdindex.html

(January 2008) Mission Statement. USSTRATCOM. Retrieved April, 2008. http://www.stratcom.mil/fact_sheets/fact_space.html

Krepon, M.(November, 2004 ) Weapons in the Heavens A Radical and Reckless Option. Arms Control Associa-tion. Retrieved April 2008. http://www.armscontrol.org/act/2004_11/Krepon.asp

Gill B. & Klieber M. (200�) China’s Space Odyssey. For-eign Affairs. Retrieved April, 2008 from Academic Search Premier.

Wall, R. & Falghum, D. A. (2002) Satellite Self-Protection Gains Added Attention. Aviation Week & Space Tech-nology. Vol. 15�. Issue 18. Retrieved April, 2008 from Academic Search Premier.

Butler, A. (Octover, 200�). Secret Steps. Aviation Week & Space Technology. Vol.1��. Issue 15. Retrieved April, 2008 from Academic Search Premier.

Butler, A. (Octover, 200�). Secret Steps. Aviation Week & Space Technology. Vol.1��. Issue 15. Retrieved April, 2008 from Academic Search Premier.

Scott, W. B. & Coumatos, M. J. (January, 2008) Would China Start a War in Space. Aviation Week & Space Technology. Vol. 1�8. Issue 1. Retrieved April, 2008 from Academic Search Premier.

Gill B. & Klieber M. (200�) China’s Space Odyssey. For-eign Affairs. Retrieved April, 2008 from Academic Search Premier.

Ikenberry, J. G. (February, 2008) The Rise of China and the Future of the West. Foreign Affairs. Vol. 8� Issue 1, 23-3�. Retrieved May 2008 from Academic Search Premier.

Personal Interview with Dr. Stephen R. David (March, 2008)

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Satellites, Space and the MarketAn Analysis of the Role of Capitalism and Consumer Culture on Post-Sputnik America

Historians commonly believe that the launching of Sputnik had a shock and awe effect on America as a whole; that it caused a massive uproar and panic throughout the nation. Some such as Paul Dickson, author of Shock of the Century, argue that the effect of Sputnik was even greater than events such as Pearl Harbor or the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The underlying reason for this claim is often cited as the surprise of the launch for it was the Soviet Union, not the United States, who first accomplished this feat. Up until that time, these historians argue that the American public had a huge belief in US technological and military capability. The Soviet Union was supposed to be a “backward Communist nation” that was behind the United States in every aspect, yet they managed to accomplish a “major” scientific feat first. In particular, Sputnik required a developed Inter-Continental Ballistic Missile to be launched into space. Success with the satellite meant that the Soviets had the capability to launch satellites or even nuclear warheads from the Europe or Asia that could reach the United States. This new threat of a Soviet attack was supposedly a direct attack on American as a whole that needed to be solved by any means available. The result of such analysis has been to point to Sputnik as a turning point in US Cold War strategy and the beginning of a hot arms race with the Soviets.

In does not seem the case, however, that such a panic was as widespread or expansive as these historians have portrayed. Sputnik did not act as a turning point, but functioned more as a catalyzing factor for changes which had already begun. Cold War historians essentialize America into a single entity with a single response to this problem when in fact there were distinct responses by differing groups within American society. This paper will look at underlying cultural factors which prevented Sputnik from being a major source of panic for the public. Sputnik was appropriated by capitalism and consumer culture in America. This brought Sputnik down to Earth by

making it part of everyday phenomena. Constant exposure from all sides turned Sputnik from a scary Soviet satellite to a friendly flying saucer.

The cultural response will be analyzed using pri-mary source data from October 4, 195� to December �, 195�. These dates were chosen because the effects of Sputnik on America changed to a noticeable degree after the failed launching of Vanguard on the latter date. Vanguard marked the transition from reaction to Soviet success to reaction to American failure. Any subsequent newspapers, journal articles, or govern-ment documents would have a definite skew on Sput-nik by pitting it in relation to another event.

It is interesting to note the cultural developments that occurred due to the satellite; that is, space became part of American consumer culture for the first time. Sputnik and space became pervasive in all levels of society from children’s toys to pop culture as Ameri-can businesses utilized the fears and insecurities of the public to sell and make a profit.

In terms of children, the launching of Sputnik led to an increase in sales of binoculars and telescopes for children so that even “binoculars selling for $150 were enjoying a new popularity.” The newspapers gave the public a large amount of information regarding when Sputnik could be seen such as time and location in the sky. That alone would have provided some insight into the nature of the public sentiment at the time, but it would not have been as interesting if no one actually looked to the sky. The fact that sales increased in space viewing tools meant that people in 195� actually wanted to look at Sputnik and see it for themselves. This must be taken with a grain of salt due to the polling data which indicated that the majority of the population had not seen Sputnik with their own eyes. It should also be noted that the increased sales were for products for children who might not have been able to use the tools even after buying them or simply lost interest for some other reason. For these children, there were model kits to make your own Sputnik or pre-made

Kevin Park/ HURJ Staff Writer

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34

Sputnik toys that would make the characteristic “beep beep” noise. It did not hurt any that Sputniks I and II were launched in October and November respectively, or in the weeks before Christmas. Sputnik even led to a ride at the Hayden Planetarium where people could get a simulation of going into space and riding around in an ‘earth moon.’

Sputnik’s appropriation into consumer culture was not limited only to toys and rides. In food, Sputnik was turned into an ice cream sundae that “included everything but the ice cream dipper.” This came out only a week after Sputnik I went up! Not even World Series MVPs from “America’s pastime” get a sundae designed in honor of them that quickly. For those over 21, Sputnik also spurred a nice little cocktail made with “three bleeps of vodka, one of vermouth” and mixing “in the direction of orbit.” The language associated with these two foodstuffs shows the extent to which Sputnik was commoditized by American consumer culture.

Sputnik even became incorporated into entertainment as Neville Black turned Sputnik into a dance in “Jazz Song to Sputnik.” This went even further as television shows, mov-ies, and advertisements all brought space down to earth, so to speak. Everywhere a person went, there were pictures of Sputnik. In this area, it is interesting to note that even after fifty years, Sputnik has not lost its power to captivate the public as movies such as “Golden Eye” (1995), “October Sky” (1999), or “Iron Giant” (1999) all involved satellites (Sputnik directly in the latter two) and went on to be award winning box office hits.

At the time of Sputnik, however, people could go back and read old science fiction novels such as “The Brick Moon” by Hale or C.L. Moore’s Judgment Night which talked about traveling to the moon or meeting space aliens with a belief that one day those things could become real-ity. Even if some of the stories were farfetched, some had such as “Ralph 124C41+” had “contain[ed] other prophe-cies of things to come” like televisions. Although the extent to which that was true is questionable because of an appar-ent contradiction between the romantic visions of science fiction writers and the real universe. Sputnik made going to the moon and other planets seem much more possible than ever before. However, these writers had painted a pic-ture of space with images of “green oases on the far side of the moon” or “men dashing hither and yon among the stars and apparently not getting old.” As more information about space was discovered, it became more apparent that these descriptions were not the case and science fiction was challenged to make these stories less fantastical and more relatable.

Yet there were two even more poignant examples of the extent to which Sputnik became incorporated as part of American culture. The first came with the development of “sputniked.” Getting “sputniked” meant “losing out due to stupidity and incompetence…being left behind” or being “beat to the punch.” People could get sputniked everyday at their job, in school, or even at home. Sputnik was no longer limited to only the public sphere but invaded the private sphere as well as people turned it into common expression. The second was when fashion designer Oleg Cassini made a space suit clothing line as part of his Fall 195� collection.

Now Sputnik and space were even a part of haut-couture in addition to food, drink, entertainment, and language.

The launchings of Sputnik I and II were major events in American Cold War history, but were not fundamental turning points in perceptions by the American public. The reason for this can be pointed to the assimilation of Sput-nik into American consumer culture through food, cloth-ing, and toys. American consumer culture saw Sputnik as an opportunity to gain material benefits, i.e. profit, and jumped at the chance. Sputnik and space as a whole became ingrained into the public eye in virtually every possible as-pect. How could people be afraid of something they could eat, drink, watch, speak, or wear? While it could be argued that the panic surrounding Sputnik is what allowed it to become so popular and so effective an advertising strategy, it was precisely this local exposure to Sputnik that resulted in the decline of that very same panic.

This paper should not be misunderstood as arguing that Sputnik had no effect on the American way of life. The point is simply to see that singular events in Cold War his-tory cannot be used to indicate linear relationships to any other event(s). Even in a time when Mutually Assured De-struction was possible, two satellites did not drastically af-fect American perceptions of nuclear capability or defense. That being said, this paper only analyzed a short two month time period in which large changes were not necessarily possible. This does not, however, detract much from the contextualization of these events as it is debatable whether any other events had the potential to carry as much signifi-cance as Sputniks I and II.

References Dickenson, Paul. (2001). Sputnik: The Shock of the Century. New York City:

Walker Publishing Company. Logsdon, John M.. (2000). Ramifications and Reaction. In Roger Launius, John

Logsdon, and Robert Smith (Eds.), Reconsidering Sputnik: Forty Years Since the Soviet Satellite. Amsterdam, Netherlands: Harwood Academic Publish-ers.

Divine, Robert. (1993). Sputnik Challenge. New York City: Oxford University Press.

Feldbaum, Carl B., & Bee, Ronald. (1988). Looking the Tiger in the Eye: Con-fronting the Nuclear Threat. New York City: Harper and Row Publishers.

Feldbaum and Bee. (1988). (195�, November 8). Sputniks and Saucers increase optical sales. Chicago Daily

Tribune. Chicago Tribune Historical Database. The Gallup Organization. (195�, November �-12). Have you seen Sputnik No.1

or 2 with your own eyes? Poll 591, Question No.2. Gallup Brain Online. (195�, October 21). Sputnik rocks the toy world and orders leap. Los Angeles

Times. Proquest LA Times Historical Database. (195�, October 2�). Space Station in New York. New York Times. Proquest New

York Times Historical Database. (195�, November 11). Sputnik Sundae. Los Angeles Times. Proquest LA Times

Historical Database (195�, November 11). Four bleeps and satellite make drinknik. Chicago Daily

Tribune. Proquest Chicago Tribune Historical Database (195�, November 1�). Sputnik Dance. Chicago Daily Tribune. Proquest Chi-

cago Tribune Historical Database Wolters, Larry. (195�, December 5). Where to Dial Today. Chicago Daily Tri-

bune. Proquest Chicago Tribune Historical Database. (2008) Internet Movie Data Base (IMDB): Search Query: Satellite, Sputnik.

Retrieved March 1�, 2008 from http://imdb.com/ Boucher, Anthony. (195�, December 1). Science Fiction Still Leads Science Fact.

New York Times, Proquest New York Times Historical Archive. Ibid. (195�, October 24). Crisis in Science Fiction. Chicago Daily Tribune. Proquest

Chicago Tribune Historical Archive. Johnson, G.W. (195�, October 12). Name Defined. Los Angeles Times. Pro-

quest LA Times Historical Database. Prime, Mary. (195�, October 29). Cassini evolves space suit. Los Angeles Times.

Proquest LA Times Historical Database.

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3�

Anti-CAK1 Monoclonal Antibody Conjugated Polymeric Particles for Ovarian Cancer TargetingJoseph Wood

Background:

Ovarian CancerOvaries are essential organs of the female reproductive system, re-

sponsible for the production of sex hormones, such as estrogen and progesterone, and the release of eggs during normal menstruation. When cancerous masses form on these organs, symptoms that substan-tially lower quality of life, such as pressure or pain in the abdomen, pelvis, back, or legs, a swollen or bloated abdomen, nausea, indigestion, gas, constipation, diarrhea, fatigue, shortness of breath, feeling the need to urinate often, and unusual vaginal bleeding, may occur. Ovarian cancer is also somewhat difficult to detect and often times is given the chance to metastasize and spread to other parts of the body, including intraperitoneal fluid, fallopian tubes, the uterus, pelvic tissue, regional lymph nodes, liver, and lungs. Risk factors include a family or personal history of cancer, age, never having been pregnant, and menopausal hormonal therapy. Approximately 22,000 diagnosis and 15,000 deaths due to ovarian cancer were reported in the United States alone in 200�, giving ovarian cancer the highest mortality rate of all cancers found in the female reproductive system .

Surgery, Chemotherapy, and RadiotherapyClinicians and scientists have developed various methods to treat

ovarian cancer over the years. In general, treatments for ovarian cancer can fall under three categories, local therapy, intraperitoneal chemo-therapy, and systemic chemotherapy.1

Surgery is a local therapy, removing or destroying ovarian cancer in the pelvis. Typically, surgeons will perform a laparotomy and re-move both ovaries and fallopian tubes, the uterus, the omentum, near-by lymph nodes, and samples of tissue from the pelvis and abdomen. When the cancer has spread, surgeons perform “debulking” surgery to try and remove as much of the cancer as possible. Needless to say, sur-gical treatment of ovarian cancer is highly invasive and leaves patients infertile, hospital bound for several days, and with a sudden loss of fe-male hormones. 1

Radiation therapy, though less frequently used, is another local ther-apy for ovarian cancer, and uses high-energy rays to eliminate cancer.

It is rarely used as an initial treatment, but is sometimes used to relieve pain and some of the aforementioned side effects of the disease. Though treatment only takes a few minutes, side effects, including nausea, vomiting, diar-rhea, bloody stools, and red, dry, and tender skin, last for days. 1

Systemic chemotherapy is when drugs are taken by mouth or injected into a vein; the drugs enter the blood-stream and destroy or control cancer throughout the body. It is usually used after surgery to kill any cancer cells that may remain, and must be given in cycles due to the toxic-ity of anticancer drugs. Though varying depending on dosage and drug type, side effects occur due to harm to rapidly dividing normal cells, i.e. blood cells, hair cells, and epithelial cells of the digestive tract. This leads an in-creased likelihood of infections, bruises, and fatigue, hair loss, poor appetite, nausea and vomiting, diarrhea, and mouth and lip sores. Some drugs used to combat ovarian cancer can even lead to hearing loss, kidney damage, joint pain, and loss of feeling in hands and feet. Fortunately, most of these side effects diminish after treatment ends.1

Intraperitoneal chemotherapy is given directly into the abdomen and pelvis through a thin tube. The drugs then destroy or control cancer in the abdomen and pelvis.1 Though this form of therapy significantly reduces the side effects inherent in systemic chemotherapy, the freely released drug molecules are subject to degradation and clearance via the body’s natural mechanisms. As a result, chemotherapeutic injections must be given with consid-erable frequency in order to maintain an effective level of drug in a localized region.

Current treatments for ovarian cancer leave much room for improvement, to say the least. Undesired side effects, high dosage amounts, invasive procedures, and harmful therapies leave patients of this disease debilitated at best and, as evidenced by the low survival rate, unlikely to live. It is therefore imperative to seek out more efficient treat-ments for ovarian cancer.

Abstract:Conventional chemotherapy for ovarian cancer can result in various undesired side effects. A drug delivery system targeting to ovarian cancer tissues would therefore be useful in reducing side effects and increasing tumor specificity. In this study, we developed biodegradable microspheres with surface-conjugated CAK1 monoclonal antibodies. These microspheres were shown to specifically target to mesothelin overexpressed ovarian cancer cells by a Fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS) assay. A drug delivery sys-tem for chemotherapeutics based on anti-CAK1 monoclonal antibody conjugated polymeric particles is being developed in order to obtain more effective treatments for ovarian cancer patients.

3�

Introduction:Drug Encapsulation Using Polymeric Particles

The obstacles of tumor selectivity, rapid clearance, and systemic side-effects have been partially overcome through the use of biodegradable polymeric drug delivery systems, which can encapsulate chemothera-peutics in micro/nanoscopic particulate forms. As the polymer de-grades, chemotherapeutic molecules are released into the surrounding environment. Using this method of drug delivery, sustained and tun-able drug release profiles have been achieved. When particles size is on the scale of nanometers, the leaky microvasculature of tumor environ-ments draws in these polymeric particles, thus achieving passive tumor selectivity . In addition, the polymer shell protects the encapsulated drug from degradation and clearance mechanisms that are responsible for the traditional frequency of systemic chemotherapeutic treatments. Logically, the increased potency also lends itself to reduced side-effects due to lower systemic drug levels .

Immunotargeting and CAK1 Overexpression on Ovarian Cancer Cell Surfaces

Immunotargeting is an approach that utilizes antibodies in order to achieve specific targeting of a molecule to a certain cell type. Antibod-ies are proteins used by the immune system to identify foreign objects in the body. Though there are several thousand types of antibodies, the general structure of all antibodies is similar; a “common” region that makes up a majority of the protein, and a small “variable” region at the tip, which gives antibodies the intrinsic ability to bind specifically to different targets, or antigens. Immunotargeting has been studied as a method to achieve active targeting of drug molecules to cancer tissues. By chemically conjugating antibodies to drug molecules, researchers have created a new breed of chemotherapy drugs equipped with intrin-sic “homing devices” that selectively seek-out and bind to cancer cells that overexpress the complementary antigen.

In comparison to normal cell types found in the human body, ovarian cancers , , , mesotheliomas , , and pancreatic cancers over-express a membrane-bound protein called mesothelin, or CAK1. As such, CAK1 overexpression can be used to differentiate between normal healthy cells and ovarian cancer cells.

Our lab set forth to develop an immunotargeting method using an-tibodies specific for the CAK1 antigen and a biodegradable polymeric particle drug delivery approach. Antibody conjugated polymeric par-ticles have been synthesized in the past using a method of conjugation known as an “avidin bridge” . This method involves bridging a biotinyl-ated polymer chain to a biotinylated antibody using avidin, a common protein, as a linker group between two biotin molecules. By conjugat-ing antibodies to the surfaces of polymeric particles, we are developing a particulate drug delivery system that specifically targets to ovarian cancer cells, which overexpress the CAK1 surface antigen. By

Materials and Methods:Reagents

Biotin-poly(ethylene glycol)-poly(sebacic acid) 15% (MW ~ 23000 g/mol) (bPEG-SA) FluoReporter Mini-Biotin-XX Protein Labeling Kit (F-�3�) (Molecular Probes), anti-CAK1 monoclonal antibody (CAK1

mAb) (Signet Laboratories), 0.5% Trypsin-EDTA 1x (Gibco), FITC-conjugated anti-human IgG (FITC-Ab) (Signet Laboratories), PE-labeled anti-human IgG (PE-Ab) (Signet Laboratories).

Cell CultureID8 cells (mouse ovarian cancer) transfected with hu-

man mesothelin (ID8+) were obtained from Dr. Chien-Fu Hung at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. RPMI 1�40 1x (Gibco) + 10% fetal bovine serum (FBS) (Atlantic Biologicals) + 1% 100x Streptomycin-Penicillin (Gibco), Dulbocco’s phosphate buffered saline (DPBS) (Gibco), and bovine serum albumin (BSA) (Sigma) were also used to culture cells.

Preperation of polymeric microspheresPolymeric microspheres were synthesized using a sin-

gle emulsion method. Briefly, 18.0 mg of bPEG-SA was dissolved in 1mL of methylene chloride. The polymer so-lution was then homogenized at 3,000 rpm for 1 min in 20 mL of 0.1% PVA. The homogenous mixture was then stirred slowly at room temperature for approximately 3 hr to allow the methylene chloride to evaporate and the microspheres to form. The microspheres were then col-lected by centrifugation at 2,000 rpm for 10 min once (Beckmann Coulter Avanti, J-25.50 rotor), followed by 10 more washes at 2,000 rpm for 10 min, each using 40 mL of deionized H2O (dH2O) for resuspension. Finally, the microspheres were resuspended in 500 μL of dH2O. The particle size was determined using a Coulter Counter Multisizer II (Beckman Coulter, Inc.).

Texas-Red Avidin Conjugation to Micro-spheres

1�0 μL of a Texas red labeled neutravidin solution (50 ug/mL in PBS) was added to the microsphere suspen-sion (how many particles?) and incubated at 3�oC for 20 min. The microsphere suspension was then collected by centrifugation at *** xg for 5 min. After being washed in PBS the samples were resuspended in 500 μL of PBS. The presence of conjugated Texas red neutravidin on particle surface was then verified by using fluorescence micros-copy (Fig. 1)

bCAK1 mAb conjugation to Texas-Red avidin conjugated microspheres

CAK1 mAb was biotinylated using a FluoReporter® Mini-Biotin-XX Protein Labeling Kit (F-�34�) (Invitro-gen) following the product instructions. 30 μL of bCAK1 mAb solution (~ 2.4 mg/mL) was subsequently added to the microsphere suspension. The suspension was al-lowed to react at room temperature for 30 min while be-ing vortexed. Afterwards, the particles were collected by centrifugation at 1,000 rpm for 5 min and washed once to remove unreacted bCAK1 mAb. The microspheres were finally resuspend in 500 μL of a buffer solution contain-

38

0.5% bovine serum albumin.

Fluorescent labeling of conjugated bCAK1 mAb

To verify the conjugation of bCAK1 mAb to the micro-spheres, a FITC labeled secondary antibody was used for fluorescently labeling. 10 μL of secondary antibody solu-tion (1 mg/mL) was added to a 50 uL portion of the micro-spheres. The microspheres were allowed to react at room temperature for 30 min. The microspheres were finally re-suspended in 100 μL of PBS after washing once. The pres-ence of conjugated bCAK1 mAb was then verified by using fluorescence microscopy (Fig. 1).

FACS assayID8+ cells were trypsinized and added into eppendorf

tubes at a density of 5x105¬¬¬¬ cells/tube in 200 μL block-ing buffer. For each cell type, samples were given CAK1 mAb conjugated microspheres, avidin conjugated micro-spheres, or left untreated. The cells were then incubated at 3�oC for 35 minutes. Afterwards, the samples were collect-ed and washed. 1 μL of a PE labeled secondary antibody (1 mg/mL) was added and the samples were incubated at 3�oC for 30 min. The samples were eventually resuspended in 300 μL of a buffer solution containing 0.5% bovine serum albumin after washing. FACS assay was then performed using a flow cytometer.

Results:Microsphere size determination

A Coulter Multisizer IIE was used to determine the size of the microspheres (N = 100,000). The average diameter by number was 2.414 m +/- 1.89� m (multiple measure-ments are needed to get a small variation), while the average diameter by volume was �.�03 m +/- 1.498 m (multiple measurements are needed to get a small variation).

Fluorescent microscopyFigure 1. CAK1 mAb Conjugated bPEG-SA Microspheres: Fluorescence microscopy was used to verify the conjugation of Texas Red Avidin (top) to bPEG-SA microspheres. FITC-Ab secondary antibodies (bottom) were used to fluorescently label bCAK1 mAb molecules conjugated to bPEG-SA microspheres.

FACS assay

• Particles and anti-Meso-Particles were stained with anti-mouse IgG PE.• Particles were incubated with GFP cells or Meso-GFP cells for 30 min. Anti-Meso-Particles were incubated with GFP cells

Figure 2. FACS Analysis of ID8+ Cells Treated with CAK1 mAb Con-jugated Microspheres: Fluorescently labeled CAK1 mAb conjugated microspheres bound specifically to mouse ovarian cancer cells that ex-press human mesothelin (bottom far right), an over-expressed surface antigen in human ovarian cancer. These same microspheres do not bind as tightly to cells that do not express human mesothelin (bottom mid right). For both cell types (bottom mid left and bottom far left), microspheres that do not present the CAK1 mAb do not bind tightly.

Discussion:Mesothelin is overexpressed on a variety of cancer tissues includ-

ing pancreatic, ovarian, and mesotheliomas. As such, the potential usefulness of an immunotargeting system of this nature is vast. Re-searchers have already exploited this antigen for active targeting of immunotoxins and radiolabels to cells that over-express CAK1. However, none of these methods contain the advantages intrinsic in a biodegradable polymeric delivery system. Using this system of drug delivery, we can obtain controlled and sustained release of che-motherapeutic drugs and target them specifically to the aforemen-tioned cancer tissues.

The fluorescent images indicate the presence of both avidin and bCAK1 mAb on the microsphere surfaces. This is a strong in-dication that bCAK1 mAb was successfully conjugated to the micro-sphere surfaces via an avidin bridge. The FACS data showed CAK1 mAb conjugated microspheres bind specifically to cells expressing human mesothelin (CAK1) on their surfaces.

This data is very promising for the development of an immuno-targeting polymeric particle chemotherapeutic delivery system for the treatment of human mesothelin (CAK1) overexpressing cancers. By further analyzing and this system through future research (i.e. animal studies, conjugation efficiency determination, drug loading capability, etc.), we will develop a more efficient means of chemo-therapeutic treatment for mesotheliomas, pancreatic, and ovarian cancers.

39

Acknowledgements:I would like to acknowledge Dr. Kostas Konstantopolous, De-

partment of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, JHU for allowing access to a FACS machine and Dr. Marc Ostermeir, De-partment of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, JHU for allowing access to a Beckmann Coulter Avanti ultracentrifuge. I also would like to thank Dr. Chien-Fu Hung, Department of Pathology, Johns Hopkins Medical Institute for collaborating with us in this research effort. Most of all, I would like to thank my research advisor, Dr. Justin Hanes, Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, JHU for allowing me this op-portunity and the entire Hanes Lab group for providing a won-derful and enriching environment. This project was sponsored by the Johns Hopkins University Fall 200� Provost Undergradu-ate Research Award, which is funded by the Hodson Trust.

References:

National Cancer Institute. What You Need To Know About™ Ovar-ian Cancer. NCI. 200�

American Cancer Society. Cancer Fact & Figures 200�. Atlanta. American Cancer Society; 200�.

Greish, K., Enhanced permeability and retention of macromolec-ular drugs in solid tumors: a royal gate for targeted anticancer nanomedicines. J Drug Target, 200�. 15(�-8): p. 45�-�4.

Greco, F. and M.J. Vicent, Polymer-drug conjugates: current status and future trends. Front Biosci, 2008. 13: p. 2�44-5�.

Chang K, Pastan I, Willingham MC. Isolation and characterization of a monoclonal antibody, K1, reactive with ovarian cancers and normal mesothelium. Int J Cancer, 50: 3�3-81, 1992.

Ordonez NG. Application of mesothelin immunostaining in tu-mor diagnosis. Am J Surg Pathol, 2�: 1418-28, 2003.

Frierson HF, Moskaluk CA, Powell SM, et al Large-scale molecular and tissue microarray analysis of mesothelin expression in com-mon human carcinomas. Hum Pathol, 34: �05-9, 2003.

Chang K, Pai LH, Pass H, et al Monoclonal antibody K1 reacts with epithelial mesothelioma but not with lung adenocarcinoma. Am J Surg Pathol, 1�: 259-�8, 1992.

Ordóñez NG. Value of mesothelin immunostaining in the diagno-sis of mesothelioma. Mod Pathol, 1�: 192-�, 2003.

Argani P, Iacobuzio-Donahue C, Ryu B, et al Mesothelin is over-expressed in the vast majority of ductal adenocarcinomas of the pancreas: identification of a new pancreatic cancer marker by serial analysis of gene expression (SAGE). Clin Cancer Res, �: 38�2-8, 2001.

Wartlick, H., et al., Highly specific HER2-mediated cellular uptake of antibody-modified nanoparticles in tumour cells. J Drug Tar-get, 2004. 12(�): p. 4�1-�1.

Hassan R, Viner JL, Wang QC, et al Anti-tumor activity of K1-LysPE38QQR, an immunotoxin targeting mesothelin, a cell-surface antigen overexpressed in ovarian cancer and malignant mesothelioma. J Immunother, 23: 4�3-9, 2000.

Hassan R, Wu C, Brechbiel MW, et al 111Indium-labeled mono-clonal antibody K1: biodistribution study in nude mice bearing a human carcinoma xenografts expressing mesothelin. Int J Can-cer, 80: 559-�3, 1999.

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40

The Effect of Blood Sugar Levels, Measured by Glycemic Index and Glycemic Load, on Acne Vulgaris in AdolescentsJonathan Jacobs and Dona Schneider

Abstract:Background – Acne vulgaris is the most prevalent skin disease

in the western world, affecting 8�% of adolescents. In non-west-ern societies, acne is rare. This study examined whether this dis-parity in acne prevalence can be explained by differences in di-etary intake.

Methods – A cross-sectional survey design was used to deter-mine the effect of diet, measured by glycemic index and glycemic load, on acne status among 3�3 high school students. Descriptive statistics and chi-square analyses evaluated the data.

Results – No relationship was found between acne and total gly-cemic daily intake. The associations between specific food items and acne status revealed only that those who drank organic milk were less likely to have acne compared to those who drank non-organic milk.

Conclusion – This study refutes the hypothesis that there is an association between high or low glycemic diets and acne status. Future research should include studies that examine the role of ge-netics or environment as possible reasons for the disparity in acne prevalence between western and non-westernized societies. The relationship between acne and organic milk should also be evalu-ated with a larger sample size to determine whether hormonal ad-ditives in milk may explain acne flares in some individuals.

Introduction:Acne vulgaris is the most prevalent skin disease in the western-

ized world, affecting approximately 8�% of the adolescent popula-tion (1). Acne has both severe economic and social costs. Billions of dollars are spent on acne treatment each year and many adoles-cents become depressed because of their poor facial appearance, due to acne and acne scaring (2, 3). Currently there is no cure for acne. It is also unknown why acne occurs and is most prevalent in the teenage population.

The link between diet and acne has long been considered a myth by dermatologists (4, 5). The two major dermatology textbooks used by researchers and doctors state that diet is not a factor in acne pathogenesis (�, �). However, the two main studies these textbooks cite are both thirty years old and contain many design flaws (8-11).

In the westernized world acne is widespread. However, in non-western societies acne is not prevalent (12, 13). There is much evidence that this difference could be related to diet. Genetics could be a possible factor because of its role in acne especially in the rate of sebum secretion (14, 15). However, genetics is certainly

not the main reason for such a disparity between western and on-western societies in prevalence of acne. There are many examples of non-westernized societies, which after westerniz-ing became more susceptible to acne. For example, an Eskimo population studied by a general practitioner for thirty years had no acne present until acculturation. Upon westernizing, the occurrence of acne became similar to that of western so-cieties (1�). Another example is the Zulu population, where acne only became a problem when the people integrated into urban and western life (1�). Therefore, genetics is probably not a reason for such a large disparity in prevalence of acne.

One of the main differences between our two societies is diet. Dr. Loren Cordain, a nutritionist, listed detailed reports of two non-westernized populations: the Kitavan Islanders living near Papua, New Guinea and the Ache hunter-gathers of Paraguay. The Kitavans are composed of 2,250 natives and are completely isolated from civilization. They had no elec-tricity, telephones or motor vehicles, when the study was done in 1990 (12). The study reports that cardiac death, stroke and obesity are absent. Accidents, infectious disease and senes-cence are the most common causes of death. Their diet was free of any processed foods and was composed of fruits, veg-etables, fish and coconut. Their diet was basically all in the form of low-glycemic load foods. In regards to their acne, “not a single papule pustule, or open comedone was observed in 1200 cases.” The other islanders studied, the ache hunter Gatherers, had similar general health and diet. In a study of 115 subjects that were followed over an 843 day period, “not a single case of acne vulgaris was observed” (12, p. 158�).

Of the 300 Kitivans who were at greatest age risk for acne (15-25 years), none had any reported cases of acne (12). In a sample from a Western society, expected cases of acne would be found in about 120 of the patients (18-20). Additionally, “It is unlikely that the effective absence of acne in the Kitavan and Ache people resulted entirely from genetic resistance to acne, since other South American Indians and Pacific Island-ers whose ethnic backgrounds are similar to the Ache and Kitavans, but who live in more westernized settings, maintain considerably higher acne incidences rates,” than the afore-mentioned populations (12, p. 1585). Diet could be a pos-sible reason for the disparity, because of its link to the patho-genesis of acne.

Acne results from four major bodily occurrences: Follicular plugging with keratinocytes, failure of normal desquamation, increased sebum production brought on by above normal

41

levels of androgen, and inflammation brought on by P. Acnes bacterium (21). It is still unknown what causes these abnormal bodily functions to occur in an acne patient.

The Glycemic Index is a way to distinguish between Western and non-Western diets. The glycemic index, created in 1981, is a method used to characterize foods that contain carbohydrates according to their induced glycemic response. High glycemic foods such as refined sugars and grains (rice, potato chips) con-tain carbohydrates that are absorbed by the body quickly, while by comparison, low glycemic foods such as fruits, vegetables and whole grains, are absorbed slowly (5, 22). This is shown in Figure 1 (23).

In 199�, glycemic load (GL) was created to access the poten-tial of a food to raise blood glucose levels, while taking into ac-count the quantity of the dietary carbohydrate. The calculation for GL is: GL times carbohydrates per serving size (24).

Glycemic index (GI) and GL are related to insulin response (25). A high glycemic diet or Western diet is made up of 50% of insulinemic and high glycemic foods (2�). Continual consump-tion of high glycemic foods may cause hyperinsulinemia and insulin resistance. The effects of such a reaction are related to the etiology of acne vulgaris (2�).

Hyperinsulinemia influences hormones that regulate kerati-nocytes proliferation and corneocyte desquamation (5). These are both main causes of follicular plugging which leads to acne (28). One who consumes a high glycemic diet has increased insulin like growth factor (IGF-1). IGF-1 is a mitogen for epi-dermal cells and elevated IGF-1 has the potential to stimulate growth in the follicle. A Western diet also induces the lower-ing of insulin-like growth factor binding protein (IGFBP-3), which helps regulate apoptosis in corneocytes. A lowering of IGFBP-3 can impair this process and lead to more dead skin cells (5). A high glycemic diet also affects androgen production. Increased androgen production leads to more sebum, which is a main cause of follicular plugging and acne. Both insulin and IGF-1 stimulate the production of androgen in the reproductive tissues. Studies show that when human subjects are injected with IGF-1 they are shown to have increased androgen produc-tion. These higher levels of androgen in turn, stimulate growth of sebum. There for increased IGF-1 led to acne lesions (29-31). Another way a Western diet influences acne is by causing inflammation. Diet is a well- known modulator of inflamma-tory reaction. In a typical Western diet, the dietary factor which influences inflammation, are the w-� and w-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids. The typical U.S. diet contains an unbalanced ratio of w-�/w-3 fatty acids. This can lead to increased inflammation in the skin (32).

There is a large disparity between the number of people who have acne in Western and non-Western civilizations. The evi-dence shows that this disparity can not be solely based on genet-ics. It is indeed possible that diet, which is very different in non-Western culture, is the culprit. This study tested the hypothesis that a high glycemic diet or Western diet is a risk factor for acne, while a low-glycemic or non-Western diet may be protective for the disease. To examine this diet-acne relationship, a cross-sectional study design was employed using a questionnaire to determine both food intake and acne status among high school students.

Materials and Method:Study Population

To test my hypothesis about the relationship of diet to acne, I surveyed 414 students from Irvington High School. Irvington High School is a 9-12 high school located ap-proximately 30 miles from Manhattan. The students at the high school ranged in age from 13-18 years. This age group was selected because adolescents have a propensity toward acne and the cross-sectional design is appropriate for high prevalence populations. The study was approved by the In-stitutional Review Board. They also waived the parental per-mission for students under eighteen because of the low risk of the study. The permission form is usually needed when conducting experimentation involving patients less than eighteen years of age. However, because the study posed no psychological or physical risks this form was waived allow-ing for much greater statistical response.

Survey InstrumentA three-page questionnaire was developed for this study.

The first page of the questionnaire included demographic questions for gender, sex, age and grade. Following these questions were questions about acne prevalence, diagnosis and treatment. The last two pages were a food frequency questionnaire (FFQ), set up similarly to two dietary surveys used in prior published peer-reviewed research. The first of the previously developed surveys was used in the Nurses Health Study by the Harvard School of Public Health. That format determined the prevalence of intake of specific foods, ranging from never to more than six times a day (33). The second survey, developed by Stephanie Silvera at the Albert Einstein School of Medicine, used a format the grouped foods into categories (34). The FFQ used for this study com-bined those formats. It was in table form and divided into seven food categories: dairy, beverages, cereals and grains, meats, vegetables, fruits, and other items. The FFQ was designed so that the subject placed one check mark under each food depending on how often they ate the food. The combined format FFQ was created by Jonathan Jacobs and Dr. Dona Schneider to allow for calculating GI and GL. The survey would then allow us to evaluate the relationship of these variables to acne status.

Data and AnalysisThe 3-page food frequency questionnaire was given out

in April, 200�, at approximately 9:00 A.M., to 414 students in their high school classroom. Of these, 3�� surveys were returned. Four surveys were thrown out because they were not sufficiently completed for data analysis. Two surveys were complete on the first page, but had no food frequency questions answered. The other two answered yes or no ques-tions in the forms of answers which were unrelated to the question. Twenty more surveys had bizarre and possibly fabricated answers. These cases, however, were included in the analysis but flagged as potential outliers. In total, 90% of responses were considered valid (n=3�3, 193 female and 1�8 males) and used to test the hypothesis.

42

The survey responses from 3�3 subjects were coded and en-tered into an SPSS data base. Qualitative (categorical or string) data were given numerical codes for the analysis. For example, males were labeled 1 and females were labeled 2. Each food was assigned values for consumption as follows: Never = 0, 1-3 times per month = 1…� or more times a day = 9. Values that were missing were assigned ��, 88, or 99 depending upon the circumstance. For example, “99” was assigned to data that were completely missing, perhaps because the respondent skipped over a question whether purposely or mistakenly. There was simply no answer given. The value “88” was assigned to non- dietary questions or those with “yes” or “no” answers where not giving an answer was an obvious error. For instance, 88 would be used if someone said that they believe they have acne and then left the question, “How severe is your acne?” blank. The code “��” was used to make up for an error in response to a par-ticular question. For example, if students claim they do not have acne, but answered the question, “How severe is your acne?” the appropriate code for the second question was ��.

In total there were 211 variables. The data were “debugged,” that is, checked for invalid entries using the frequency program in SPSS. This program allowed many mistakes and numbers which were mistakenly input in to be identified and corrected.

To test the hypothesis that there is a statistical relationship between dietary intake and acne, GI and GL values had to be assigned to each food. The total daily GI and GL for each food were calculated based on how often the food was consumed. Finally, the daily values for each food were summed to create a total daily GI and GL, values that represented the total daily food intake for each subject. This method has been used previ-ously in other published scientific studies (34, 35).

The following is an example of the formula for calculating the GI for a specific food: GI eggs = frequency of consumption of eggs x GI value for eggs. As the survey responses about the fre-quency of food consumption were not all based on daily intake, these variables had to be recoded. For instance, the category once per month was recoded as 1/30. This meant that the sub-ject had a particular food once every 30 days (33).

Assigning the specific GI and GL values to each food was challenging. GI is a constant value that is the same no mat-ter what the serving size of the food. However, GL changes in proportion to serving size. GI and GL values were determined from the “International Table of Glycemic Index and Glycemic Load Values” by Foster and Powell (38) and the online glyce-mic database created by Jennie Brand Miller at the University of Sydney (3�, www.glycemicindex.com, 05/05). Because the serv-ing sizes of the food in the questionnaire were different than the ones found in the two references, these variables were recoded as follows: GL = GI x carbohydrates per serving / 100 (33-39). For example, the GI for ice cream was for 120 grams. The sur-vey asked about a serving size of ½ cup (100 grams). Thus, the calculated GL was 120 grams.

After total daily GI and GL were calculated for each subject, these variables were examined by quartiles and terciles. This allowed for the classification of total GI and GL based on per-centiles consumed by each subject relative to the rest of the sub-ject group (39). We chose this method of classification for our analyses rather than use other researchers’ classifications of GI and GL values as low, medium or high (34), as we were only concerned about our subject group of adolescents, not catego-

ries based on the diets of adults. Using our answers to acne questions on the food frequency

questionnaire, we examined the relationship between total daily dietary GI/GL and acne in adolescents. Four responses to the acne questions determined acne status: 1) “Do you believe you have acne?” 2) “Were you diagnosed with acne?” 3) “How severe is your acne?” (for those who indicate they have acne) 4) “Do you take medication for acne?” Those responses were examined by the calculated total daily GI and GL values (low, medium and high) using cross-tabulations (Chi-square analyses). The results appear below.

ResultsThere were 3�3 student respondents ranging in age from 13-

18 years. There were two missing values for age and gender, where the students did not answer these particular questions. The largest proportions of students were 1� years of age, in 10th grade and female. Only one student was as young as 13 years of age. The full demographic profile of the respondents is shown in Table 1.

For the questions about acne, about 20% of respondents claimed they were diagnosed with acne; approximately 50% said they believed that they had acne and most of them felt it was mild. Of the 83 people who said they took medication for acne, the

most popular medication was Proactive® followed by Differ-in®. Most of the participants reported having mild acne; only six (�) responded that their acne was severe. For the severity ques-tion, it is apparent that the questionnaire was faulty as many of the respondents completed the severity question despite the fact that they answered that they did not have acne. They were obviously under the impression they had to answer the severity question regardless of whether they believe they had acne or not. The subjects’ perceptions of their acne status are shown in Table 2. Crosstab analysis showed that those in the 15-year age group were most likely to believe they have acne. All other crosstabs evaluating the demographic characteristics and acne status were statistically non-significant (n.s.).

The mean total daily GI for all students was 533.�; the median was 45�.2. The mean total daily GL for all students was 123.��; the median was 101.42�. While both the mean and median were calculated, the median is a more reliable statistic for this research as it is not impacted by outliers. Indeed, the daily GI intake per day as predicted by University of Sydney is reported as the median (38). To further categorize GI and GL we cal-culated terciles, or three levels of the variable split into equal numbers of subjects. Crosstabs between demographic charac-teristics of the respondents and total daily GI and GL found that there were significantly more males with high total GI and GL levels than females. This information is presented in Table 3.

To assess the hypothesized relationship between acne and blood sugar levels as measured by total daily GI or GL we ran more cross tabs, this time using both terciles and quartiles. We selected two levels of measurement for GI and GL in case there was a relationship at one level of analysis that might have been missed at another level. Neither level of analysis showed statis-tically significant results (All results were p > 0.05, not statisti-cally significant or n.s.). In other words, the amount of people who had low, medium and high GI and GL intakes were essen-

43

tially the same across the board for those who had acne and did not. Table 4 shows the results of the Chi-square cross tab analysis using terciles. The quartile results are not included, but are available upon request. Neither set of results supports the hypothesis that there is a dietary link between blood sugar lev-els, as represented by total daily GI and GL, and acne status.

The relationship between acne severity and GI/GL was also assessed (Table 5). Once again there were no statistically signifi-cant findings. Finally, each food item was examined for its in-dividual relationship to acne status (Data not shown). None of the associations between the specific food items and acne status were statistically significant except for consumption of organic milk. Those who drank organic milk were less likely to have acne compared to those who drank regular or non-organic milk (30% and �0%, respectively). These results could add to those found by the Department of Nutrition at Harvard, whose study entitled, “High school dietary dairy intake and teenage acne” found a similar relationship. Table � shows this positive statisti-cal relationship.

Table 1. Characteristics of RespondentsSubject Frequency Percent

Age (years)13 1 .314 �� 18.115 10� 28.81� 115 31.01� �5 1�.518 1� 4.3Valid responses 3�1 100.0Missing 2Total 3�3

Grade9th 108 21.010th 119 31.911th 93 24.912th 53 14.2Total 3�3 100.0

GenderMale 1�8 48.0Female 193 52.0Valid responses 3�1 100.0Missing 2Total 3�3

Table 2. Acne Status of RespondentsSubject Frequency Percent

Diagnosed with acneYes �� 20.�No 29� �9.4Total 3�3 100.0

Believe they have acneYes 1�9 48.lNo 193 51.9Valid responses 3�2 100.0Missing 1Total 3�3

Severity of acneMild 14� �5.8Moderate 41 21.1Severe � 3.1Valid responses 194 100.0Invalid responses 1�9Total 3�3

Table 3. Total Daily Glycemic Index and Glycemic Load Levels (Terciles) by Gender

Total Daily Glycemic Index (GI)Gender Low Medium High Total

Male* 4� 5� �� 1�8Female �� �9 4� 193Total 123 125 123 3�1

Total Daily Glycemic Load (GL)Male** 40 �0 �8 1�8Female 83 �5 45 193Total 123 125 123 3�1

* Males have a higher total daily GI than females. χ2 = 15.421, p < 0.001** Males have a higher total daily GL than females. χ2 = 23.518, p < 0.001

44

Table 4. Acne Status by Total Daily Intake, as Measured by Glycemic Index and Glycemic Load Levels in Terciles

Total Daily IntakeDiagnosed with

AcneTotal

Yes No

Glycemic Index

Low 25 99 124Medium 29 9� 125

High 23 101 124Total �� 29� 3�3

χ2 = .849, p = 0.�54

Glycemic Load

Low 22 102 124Medium 32 93 125

High 23 101 124Total �� 29� 3�3

χ2 = 2.844, p = 0.241, n.s.

Total Daily IntakeBelieve They Have

AcneYes No

Glycemic Index

Low �0 �4 124Medium 5� �8 124

High �3 �1 124Total 1�9 193 3�2

χ2 = .�9�, p = 0.��1

Glycemic Load

Low 5� �� 124Medium �4 �0 124

High 58 �� 124Total 1�9 193 3�2

χ2 = .92�, p = 0.�29, n.s.

Table 5. Severity of Acne by Total Daily Intake, as Measured by Glycemic Index and Glycemic Load Levels in Terciles (N=194)

Total Daily IntakeSeverity

TotalMild Moderate Severe

Glycemic Index

Low 53 11 1 �5Medium 49 12 1 �2

High 45 18 4 ��Total 14� 41 � 194

χ2 = 5.44�, p = 0.244

Glycemic Load

Low 50 10 1 �1Medium 53 15 2 �0

High 44 1� 3 �3Total 14� 141 � 194

χ2 = 2.�91, p = 0.593

Table 6. Relationship Between Drinking Organic Milk and Acne Status (N=351)

Response to “Do you believe you have acne?”

Drink Organic Milk?TotalYes No

Yes 48 125 1�3No 10� �2 1�8

DiscussionThis study was unable to confirm an association between

blood sugar levels, as measured by high or low glycemic diets, and acne status in adolescents. Thus, it refutes the conclusions of Cordain that GI and GL are linked to acne (5, 12). We did not find that the prevalence of acne increased among our study subjects as their dietary GI and GL levels increased, nor did the severity of acne among those who were diagnosed with the dis-ease. Nonetheless, the fact still remains that acne is a prevalent skin disease in westernized civilizations, but it is a non-factor in non-westernized tribes and groups.

Since diet does not account for this disparity, other factors may come into play. One possible factor could still be genetics. Genetics are important in determining susceptibly to acne and have been shown to control sebum secretion (40). However, genetics could not be the sole reason for the disparity because other South American and Pacific Islander populations who had similar ethnic backgrounds to the Ache and Kitivans stud-ied, but who are westernized, had significantly more acne than those reported by Cordain (5). Another more viable factor is the environment. Studies show that a possible cause of acne is stress. It is possible that non-westernized societies experi-ence lower levels of stress and thus a lower prevalence of other types of diseases. In our westernized world we are continually stressed and this could be a cause of the large prevalence of acne present in our society. Future research should look into genet-ics and the environment as causes of this disparity. Finding the cause for the discrepancy could help find a better treatment for acne.

The positive findings regarding GI and GL levels were in re-gards to gender. Males reported having the highest total daily GIs and females had the lowest. This could either be because fe-males eat better foods and are more conscious about what they eat or it could be physiological, they eat smaller portions. Also, it may be that the teenage girls responding to this survey don’t want to give the perception that they have unhealthy eating hab-its and underestimated their intake.

The only positive finding linking individual food items to acne was in regards to organic milk intake. Respondents who drink organic milk were less likely to have acne compared to those who do not drink organic milk. The hormones added to regular milk regulate sebum secretion and other studies of acne among teenage girls have validated the link between drinking regular milk and acne (41). By showing that organic milk has a protective effect against developing acne, this study provides further proof that the added hormones present in regular milk could influence acne. It may also be, however, that those who drink organic milk are in some way different from those who do not, or that the organic milk-acne relationship is confounded by another variable not captured in this study. Therefore, the relationship found in this study between acne and organic milk should be evaluated with a larger sample size and it should be determined whether hormonal additives in milk may explain acne flares in some individuals.

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Goulden V, Stables GI, Cunliffe WJ. Prevalence of facial acne in adults. J Am Acad Dermatol 1999; 41:5��–80.

Burkhart, CN, Gottwald L. Assessment of etiologic agents in acne pathogenesis. Skin Med 2003; (2): 222–8.

Flosom, AR, Zewditu D, Harnack L. Glycemic index, glycemic load, and incidence of endometrial cancer: The Iowa Women’s Health Study. Nutrition and Cancer 2003; 2: 119–24.

“Glycemic Index.” The Glycemic Index. University of Sydney. 1� Sept 200� www.gly-cemicindex.com.

Liu S, Willett WC. Dietary glycemic load and atherothrombotic risk. Curr Atheroscler Rep 2002; 4; 454–�1.

Holt SH, Miller JC, Petocz P. An insulin index of foods: the insulin demand generated by 1000-kj portions of common foods. Am J Clin Nutr 199�; ��: 12�4–��.

Gerrior S, Bente L. Nutrient Content of the U.S. Food Supply, 1909-99: A Summary Report. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Center for Nutrition Policy and Promo-tion. Home Economics Report No. 55, 2002.

Ludwig DS. The glycemic index: physiological mechanisms relating to obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease. JAMA 8; 28�: 2414-2423, 2002.

Bershad S. The Modern Age of Acne Therapy: a Review of Current Treatment Options. The Mount Sinai Journal of Medicine 2001: (�8); 2�9-28�.

Zouboulis CC, Xia L, Akamatsu H, et al. The human sebocyte culture model provides new insights into development and management of seborrhea and acne. Dermatol-ogy 1998; 19�: 21-31.

Deplewski D, Rosenfield RL. Growth hormone and insulin-like growth factors have different effects on sebaceous cell growth and differentiation. Endocrinology 1999; 140: 4089–94.

Klinger B, Anin S, Silbergeld A, et al. Development of hyperandrogenism during treat-ment with insulin-like growth hormone factor-1 (IGF-1) in female patients with Laron syndrome. Clin Endocrinol 1998; 48: 81–�.

Simpoulos AP. Omega-3 fatty acids in inflammation and autoimmune disease. J Am Coll Nutr 2002; 21:495-505.

Speizer, FE. “Nurses Health Study.” Harvard Medical School (2003). www.Nurse-sHealthStudy.org.

Personal communication via email with Paul Terry. 28 Oct 2005. Chung-Jung C, Morris M, Rogers G, et al. Carbohydrate intake and glycemic index

in relation to the odds of early cortical and nuclear lens opacities. Am J Clin Nutr 2005; 81:1411–1�.

Personal communication via email with Walter C. Willett. 12 Apr 2005. “Glycemic Index.” The Glycemic Index. University of Sydney. www.glycemicindex.

com. Foster-Powell K, Holt S, Brand-Miller J. International Table of Glycemic Index and

Glycemic Load Values: 2002. Am J Clin Nutr 2002; ��:5–5�. Tsai CJ, Leitzmann MF, Willett W, Giovannucci EL. Dietary carbohydrates and glyce-

mic load and the incidence of symptomatic gall stone disease in men. Am J Gas-troenterol 2004: 54;823–8.

Goulden V, Mcgeown CH, Cunliffe WJ. The familial risk of adult acne: a comparison between first-degree relatives of affected and unaffected individuals. Br J Dermatol 1999; 141:29�–300.

Adebamowo CA, Spiegelman D, Danby FW, et al. High school dietary dairy intake and teenage acne. J Am Acad Dermatol 2005 Feb; 52(2):20�–14.

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Changes in Nucleus Basalis neuronal structure in schizophreniaJayati Jain

Schizophrenia is a unique neuropsychiatric disorder which affects almost 1% of the human population. It is spread through all cultures and affects both males and females, although the onset is often earlier and lifelong severity more severe in males. Schizophrenia is characterized by a number of cognitive disturbances which present themselves via both positive and negative symptoms. Positive symptoms can include sensory hallucinations such as hearing of voices which converse with or about the patient and delusions which can be paranoid. Patients with schizophrenia often have difficulty in differentiating their own voices from that of the others and thus tend to misidentify their own voices as alien. Negative symptoms include a loss of will or motivation, anhedonia, social withdrawal and isolation. At the core of these manifestations lies a complex disturbance of neural networks and other neurophysiologial and neurochemical disorders.

Since the 1980’s, many studies have been conducted to gain a deeper understanding of the morphological and physiological abnormalities in the brains of patients with schizophrenia. There has been considerable debate over changes in grey matter volume, although studies have consistently reported that total ventricular volume is higher and the cerebral volume is lower in schizophrenia (Harrison, 1999; Crespo-Facorro et al, 2000; Wright et al, 2000; Kreczmanski et al, 200�; Whitford et al, 200�). Changes in the subcortical region in patients with schizophrenia have also been investigated with varied results, especially in the amygdala (Kreczmanski et al, 200�). However, few studies have been done on studying the nucleus basalis in schizophrenia, despite its vital function in the cholinergic system of the brain and its widespread projections to the neocortex.

Anatomy of the Nucleus Basalis:The Nucleus Basalis of Meynert (NBM) is a crescent shaped

group of magnocellular neurons in the substantia innominata. Around 90% of the neurons within the NBM are cholinergic and send widespread projections to almost all parts of the neocortex and the amygdala, suggesting that they play an important role in the general regulation of the forebrain activity (Mesulam et al, 1983). It has been observed that different cytoarchitectural regions of the neocortex receive projections from different subsets of the NBM, proposing a model in which each neuron in the NBM projects to a small area in the neocortex (Saper, 1984).

The normal functioning of the NBM and its connection with the cerebral cortex is crucial for regular cortical activation. It is

suggested that it plays a critical role in the sleep-wakefulness cycle as an increased activity of the NB is required for the maintenance of behavioral activated states. It has been found that there is a loss of neurons in the NBM in Alzheimer’s disease (Arendt et al, 1985), Parkinson’s disease (Whitehouse et al, 1983) and Picks’s disease (Uhl et al, 1983). Other studies report that normal ageing does not inevitably produce degeneration of the cholinergic system in humans or animals, although cell sizes and their responsivity do show some decline (Hornberger et al, 1983; Decker, 198�). Thus it is unclear if the NBM is involved in the cognitive decline in mental illnesses such as schizophrenia or mood disorders.

The Experiment:The purpose of this study was to investigate neuronal (nucleur

and nucleolar) changes in Nucleus Basalis in mood and affective disorders. The cases for the experiment were selected from the Corsellis brain collection maintained by the West London Mental Health Trust, UK. Medical cases which showed symptoms of schizophrenia (F20) and depression (F33) under the definitions provided by ICD-10 were selected, along with control cases demonstrating no psychiatric disorder (NPD). The nucleus basalis was taken out from coronal sections of brains which had been fixed in 10% formalin. The tissue was serially processed and blocked in paraffin wax, before being sectioned in the coronal plane at a thickness of 10 µm. The cut sections were floated in a warm water bath and then mounted on electrostatic glass slides. One slide from each case was stained with cresyl violet and another with hematoxylin and eosin (H&E).

Using H&E stained sections as a guide, cresyl-stained x40 images of the NB were captured at 2048x153� resolution using a Nikon Eclipse 80i microscope. Images of randomly selected cells were captured at x400 for analysis. Images were analysed using Image Pro-Plus (Graphpad, US). The colour ratio was set to increase the resolution of the nucleur/ nucleolar boundaries. The boundaries of the nucleolus and nucleus were traced manually using a polygonal measurement technique which automatically calculated the enclosed area within a calibrated area. A second contrast setting, using green-scale, was used to measure the length of the nucleus, where a line graph was plotted across the nucleus to calculate its length. The graph showed a depression in the area covered by the nucleus, and the length measured by the distance between points representing the nuclear membrane.

Results and Discussion:The primary results show a general trend which suggests an

increase in the nuclear area in schizophrenia when compared with controls (graph 1: p=0.03�, two-tailed t-test). However, when the groups are split with respect to sex, it is seen that the increase is prominent only in females (graph 2: F control vs. F Sch, p=0.0038, two-tailed t-test). The nucleus length (longest diameter) also shows an increasing trend in schizophrenia, giving a graph consistent with the one for nuclear area (graph 3).

Did you know?To this day, debate continues on whether schizophrenia is determined by a single illness or a set of multiple manifes-tations. The individual who is credited to naming the disorder is Eugen Bleuler, and he supported the idea that multiple syndromes de-fined it; thus, he defined it as “schizophrenias.” This is not to be confused with multiple or split personality disorder, which is a completely sepa-rate affliction.

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On the other hand, the nucleolar area was much smaller in females than in males, for all groups, although it appears to be unaffected by diagnosis (graph 4).

The nucleus contains the chromatin material and is the site for gene replication and expression. A large nucleus in schizophrenia may indicate increased activity in the DNA of that neuron, thereby leading to an increase in the neuronal activity. The nucleolus is the site for ribosome biogenesis, and the above results suggest that NB neurons may show decreased ribosome synthesis in females as compared to males. As nuclear gene expression and supply of ribosomes are critical to the normal functioning of the cell, changes in the nucleus and nucleolus may be signs of impaired cellular functioning.

Such impairments will have a direct effect on the functioning of the cerebral cortex as NB neurons send cholinergic projections to almost all parts of the cortex. Visual and auditory hallucinations, which are very common symptoms of schizophrenia, seem to be arising due to such improper functioning of the sensory cortex. Conversely, rather than being the cause, the increase in neuronal size could be another symptom of schizophrenia and the actual cause might lie in areas which send projections to the NB, like the hypothalamus or amygdala.

Changes in gene or ribosome expression, or chromosome structure are also possible, although further research into the nature of these changes would be required. The results in this study reflect a complex interaction of diagnosis and sex in the cellular structure of NB magnocellular neurons. Further examination into somal volume, neuronal density and glial cell activity in the NB is required to elucidate its role in other mental illnesses.

Key terms:Amygdala- an almond shaped mass of nuclei located within the temporal lobes and considered to be a part of the limbic system in the brain.

Cholinergic system– the system of neurons which use acetylcholine as their neurotransmitter.Magnocellular– cells of large size.Neocortex– the six layered tissue of the cerebral cortex. Substantia innominata– a band of large cells lying below the globus pallidus and part of the basal forebrain.

Ventricular volume– volume of the fluid filled cavity in the core of the brain.

ReferencesArendt T, Bigl V, Tennstedt A, Arendt A. Neuronal loss in different parts of the

nucleus basalis is related to neuritic plaque formation in cortical target areas in Alzheimer’s disease. Neuroscience. 1985 Jan; 14(1): 1-14.

Crespo-Facorro B, Kim J, Andreasen NC, O’Leary DS, Magnotta V. Regional frontal abnormalities in schizophrenia: a quantitative gray matter volume and cortical surface size study. Biol Psychiatry. 2000 Jul 15; 48(2): 110-9.

Decker MW. The effects of aging on hippocampal and cortical projections of the forebrain cholinergic system. Brain Res. 198� Nov; 434(4): 423-38.

Harrison PJ. The neuropathology of schizophrenia. A critical review of the data and their interpretation. Brain. 1999 Apr; 122 ( Pt 4): 593-�24.

Hornberger JC, Buell SJ, Flood DG, McNeill TH, Coleman PD. Stability of num-bers but not size of mouse forebrain cholinergic neurons to 53 months. Neu-robiol Aging. 1985; �(4): 2�9-�5.

Kreczmanski P, Heinsen H, Mantua V, Woltersdorf F, Masson T, Ulfig N, Schmidt-Kastner R, Korr H, Steinbusch HW, Hof PR, Schmitz C. Volume, neuron density and total neuron number in five subcortical regions in schizophrenia. Brain. 200� Mar; 130(Pt 3): ��8-92.

Mesulam MM, Mufson EJ, Wainer BH, Levey AI. Central cholinergic pathways in the rat: an overview based on an alternative nomenclature (Ch1-Ch�). Neuroscience. 1983 Dec; 10(4): 1185-201.

Saper CB, Chelimsky TC. A cytoarchitectonic and histochemical study of nucle-us basalis and associated cell groups in the normal human brain. Neurosci-ence. 1984 Dec; 13(4): 1023-3�.

Whitehouse PJ, Hedreen JC, White CL, Price DL. Basal forebrain neurons in the dementia of Parkinson disease. Ann Neurol. 1983 Mar; 13(3): 243-8.

Whitford TJ, Farrow TF, Rennie CJ, Grieve SM, Gomes L, Brennan J, Harris AW, Williams LM. Longitudinal changes in neuroanatomy and neural activity in early schizophrenia. Neuroreport. 200� Mar; 18(5): 435-9.

Wright IC, Rabe-Hesketh S, Woodruff PW, David AS, Murray RM, Bullmore ET. Meta-analysis of regional brain volumes in schizophrenia. Am J Psychiatry. 2000 Jan; 15�(1): 1�-25.

Uhl GR, Hilt DC, Hedreen JC, Whitehouse PJ, Price DL. Pick’s disease (lobar sclerosis): depletion of neurons in the nucleus basalis of Meynert. Neurology. 1983 Nov; 33(11): 14�0-3.

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Graph 4. a comparison of the area of the nucleolus by sex and diagnosis.

Graph 1. a comparison of the areas of the nucleus in controls, schizophrenic and depressive brains.

Graph 2. a comparison of the areas of the nucleus by sex and diagnosis.

Graph 3. a comparison of the diameter of the nucleus by sex and diagnosis.

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48

Introduction:Attention is one of the most important capacities of the hu-

man brain. Through the use of attention, we are able to learn relevant information about our environment without also wast-ing resources encoding irrelevant aspects. It has been proposed, however, that there are certain features in the world which can be processed without taxing the attentional system at all. Ac-cording to Neisser (19��), these so called “preattentive” features include color, orientation and size in the visual realm. If these features in fact do not require any of our attentional resources, we should be able to learn preattentive aspects of a visual scene even if the full capacity of our attention is occupied.

One way to test whether or not preattentive features actually do tax the attentional system is through the use of the rapid se-ries visual presentation (RSVP) method. Experiments by Ray-mond, Shapiro and Arnell (1992) used RSVP streams to identify a phenomenon known as the attentional blink, which is, as the name implies, a brief period of time where attentional resources are unavailable - much as visual resources are briefly unavailable when we close our eyelids during a blink. Subjects are asked to view a rapidly presented stream of letters, of which one letter (usually identified by a difference in color) is a target. For up to about half a second after presentation of the target, attention is unavailable to the subject. In other words, after identifying the target letter in the stream, subjects are not able to devote any at-tention to another task for a brief period of time.

If the notion that some features can be identified without at-tention is correct, this attentional blink should have no impact on identifying preattentive features because they are not be-lieved to require any attentional resources in order to be iden-tified. An experiment by Joseph, Chun and Nakayama (199�), however, showed that this notion of preattentive features may be incorrect. Using an RSVP stream and oriented Gabor patches (patches of light/dark contrast which can appear to be pointed in a specific direction), they showed that performance on the second task of identifying oriented Gabor patches was signifi-cantly reduced during the attentional blink as compared to af-ter the attentional blink. This was done by presenting a ring of oriented Gabor patches, either all in the same direction, or with one patch oriented differently, at several different lags after the target was presented in the RSVP stream. At short lags, subject’s performance on the second task was significantly worse than for longer lags.

It is possible that this result means only that orientation was incorrectly identified as a preattentive feature, and that experi-ments of this type using other preattentive features such as color or size would yield different results. This was tested in our lab using the feature of enumeration, which is unique in that it can be seen as an example of both a preattentive and an attention-

requiring task. The reason for this is that it has been proposed that humans have two distinct systems for processing number. Feigenson, Dehaene and Spelke (2004) identified an approxi-mate number system which is used for estimating large num-bers, and a precise system which is used for dealing with small numbers. The distinction between these two systems can be seen in a phenomenon known as subitizing. For displays with 0-3 objects, subjects are able to immediately respond with the number of objects, and have almost one hundred percent ac-curacy. As the number of objects increases, average responses increase linearly with the average response being the correct number, but standard deviation also increases linearly. In other words, for large numbers, responses on average are correct, but there is much less precision. Based on this distinction, it seems highly likely that the small number system could be preatten-tive, while the large number system clearly requires attentional resources. As a result, by varying the number of objects to be counted in the second task, an experiment could test the effect of the attentional blink on both a supposedly preattentive and a non-preattentive task.

The First Experiment:The first experiment we ran in the lab tested the effects of the

attentional blink on enumeration as described above. Subjects viewed a RSVP stream during which one red letter was pre-sented. At a certain lag after the presentation of the letter, dots appeared very briefly in a ring around the letter stream. There could be anywhere from 0-9 dots in this ring. Subjects were in-structed to identify the red letter, and the number of dots that appeared in the ring.

If enumeration for small numbers was preattentive, we would have expected to see consistently good performance at all lags for numbers 0-3, while for larger numbers we would have expected a significant effect of lag (better performance for long versus short lag). Interestingly, the results, reported in an Egeth, Leon-

Enumeration during the attentionalKevin Dieter

When traffic lights were first established, do you think the designers wanted drivers to use single-ton-detection or feature-search detection?

The answer is feature-search detection because it takes less time to process, and on the road, the lower the amount of time spent processing, the lower the risk for accidents. By designing the traffic lights to be a consistent, red means stop, yellow means slow down, and green means go, the designers ensured that drivers know exactly what to do at intersec-tions, which can be potentially very dangerous.

49

ard and Palomares (in press) paper, show that within small numbers there was a significant effect of lag on numbers two and three, but not for zero and one. This result seems to suggest that the small num-ber system is not preattentive, because numbers that are believed to be in this small number range are affected by the attentional blink. However, the Joseph et al study discussed earlier suggested that there should be an attentional blink even for the preattentive detection of a singleton. Our condition of zero and one to-be-enumerated items surrounded by distractors is very much equivalent to the supposedly preattentive task of detecting a singleton.

One possibility is that subjects are not using an enumeration strategy in the case of zero or one dot, and instead they are simply responding to whether they see something versus nothing. If sub-jects are not using an enumeration strategy, they must be using at-tentional mechanisms in some other way in order to search for the number of dots.

Two proposed search modes in attention which may help to ex-plain this pattern difference in findings are singleton-detection and feature search mode. As defined by Lamy and Egeth (2003), single-ton-detection mode is a method by which subjects adopt a strategy of searching for some discontinuity in a scene, while feature-search mode involves a strategy of searching of searching for a feature which is known to be relevant to the task. In other words, singleton-detection is looking for what’s different, while feature-search is look-ing for what’s important. Furthermore, singleton-detection could rely solely on bottom-up processing, with the most salient item in a scene being the one that is attended to. Feature-search, on the other hand, requires top-down mechanisms and knowledge of what is be-ing searched for.

The Second Experiment:Given the results found in the first experiment, it seemed that

further experimenting could lead to both an explanation of the re-sults found for zero and one in Experiment 1, and to clarification of feature-search and singleton-detection. The design for this second experiment was similar to the first in that once again subjects would view an RSVP stream with one target letter, and would then see dots flash on the screen at a certain lag after the target letter. This experi-ment differed in that on each trial, there was either one or zero tar-gets, and also in that a full ring of distractor dots was displayed on each trial. In other words, at a certain lag after the target letter, a full ring of colored dots was presented, within which there either was or was not a dot of the target color.

In the consistent condition, the ring of dots always consisted of all green dots with either zero or one white dot amongst them. This set up encouraged the use of a feature-search method. Even though the position of the white dot could change, the target and distractor dots were always the same color, and it benefited subjects to use these features to their advantage. In the inconsistent condition, distractor dots could be either white or green, with the target being whatever color was not used for the distractors. In other words, subjects would see either a ring of green dots with zero or one white dot, or a ring of white dots with zero or one green dot. Because the subject could never be sure of which color their target would be, it was necessary for them to use singleton-detection to determine whether or not a target was present.

The results showed that there was no significant effect of lag for the consistent condition, but that there was a significant effect of lag for the inconsistent condition. Searching for one target using a

feature-search mode did not result in an attentional blink, while searching for one target using singleton-detection mode did. This seems to suggest that subjects were able to enumerate 0 or 1 dots accurately during the attentional blink in Experiment 1 because they were using a feature-search mode rather than a singleton-detection mode in ex-periment one.

Discussion:When subjects used a singleton-detection mode to de-

termine whether or not a single target was present among distractors, they suffered an attentional blink. This did not happen when they searched using a feature-search mode. These results will help explain the findings in the first ex-periment, namely that there was an attentional blink for ar-rays of two or three dots but was not for zero or one dot, even though all of those numbers are thought to be in the subitizing range. In regards to the first experiment, it makes some sense that feature-search would only work for zero and one target dot. Subjects were searching for green dots, so it seems that a feature-search strategy would allow them to capture a single green dot. However, if there are multiple green dots, it may be more difficult to determine where to place attention. As a result, it may be easy to count the dot attended to and perhaps those which are spatially close by, but will be more difficult to count any others that may have appeared.

These results also suggest that feature-search is more effective than singleton-detection. Even when attention-al resources are fully occupied by the RSVP task, feature search is still able to come up with the correct answer, while singleton-detection requires waiting for more resources to become available. This makes sense anecdotally because it seems that we are better at finding something if we know what we are looking for. If it more effective to use feature-search, it would explain why subjects were using it in ex-periment one, which would in turn explain why no atten-tional blink was seen for zero or one target dot.

References

Egeth, H, Leonard, CJ, & Palomares, M (in press). The role of attention in subitizing: is the magical number 1? Visual Cognition

Feigenson L, Dehaene S, and Spelke E. Core systems of num-ber. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 8(�), 30�-313.

Joseph J, Chun M, and Nakayama K. (199�). Attentional re-quirements in a ‘preattentive’ feature search task. Nature, 38�, 805-80�.

Lamy D, and Egeth HE. Attentional capture in singleton-de-tection and feature-search modes. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 25(5), 1003-1020.

Neisser, U. Cognitive Psychology. (Appleton-Century-Crofts, New York, 19��).

Raymond SE, Shapiro KL, and Arnell KM. (1992). Tempo-rary suppression of visual processing in an RSVP task: an attentional blink? J Exp Psychol Learn Mem Cogn, 18(3), 849-8�0.

Special thanks to Carly Leonard for her assistance on this article.

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50

The Rise of the Megachurch:Who, What, Where, When, and WhyNicole Overley

I. Introduction: “A New Twist on an Old Fa-vorite” and Historical Precedents

Walk into any one of the much-hyped and most popular churches in America during a Sunday worship service and you will be immediately accosted by the grandeur of the experience. At first, it may seem to resemble a Rolling Stones concert or the NCAA Final Four: you will join perhaps thousands of people, from all possible walks of life, packed into a proportionately small stadium, with all eyes passionately fixed ahead. Colored lights flash brilliantly, tiny figures are projected onto giant tele-vision screens, and the whole building vibrates along with edgy music. The excitement is palpable. But then you notice that that excitement is not directed towards cheering on worshipped, godlike celebrities—rather to actually worshipping God. What happened, you wonder, to the traditional image of church: white steeples, organs playing age-old tunes from the hymnal, pews filled with reverent churchgoers dressed in their Sunday best?

Dubbed “megachurches,” the recent proliferation of hundreds of these unique, nondenominational Christian organizations is a blatantly modern phenomenon, the likes of which never previously observed. But there’s nothing saying that modern phenomena lack historical precedent, and after exploring three hundred years of religion in America, the megachurch obvious-ly illustrates a transformation of a popular and recurring theme in the nation’s history. Beginning with the Great Awakening, which swept the young colonies in the 1�30s, religious fervor resurged and, under the distinguished leadership of Protestant zealots like George Whitefield and Jonathan Edwards, first es-tablished the concept of a democratized Bible in America and denounced the sinful nature of mankind in highly influential sermons like Edwards’ “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” After a period in which such intensity died down, the Second Great Awakening brought evangelism and the revival to the forefront of American religion, an early template for the mega-church’s most fundamental doctrine. Circuit riders traversed America’s uncivilized wilderness and converted thousands of pioneers at Sunday camp meetings that impressed upon attend-ees the reality of hell and the need to be saved, bringing along with it the social gospel message to improve not only converts’ spiritual lives but also their physical lives as well. During the late 1930s and early 1940s came Billy Graham’s famous reviv-

als, which people flocked to even more than they had to camp meetings largely for his inspiring message of hope and salvation, a concept well received in a time of such turmoil. And turmoil and hardship indeed often causes such flux; during a period of prosperity people inevitably become confident in humanity over divinity, while social upheaval propels them back to church—it is a pattern illustrated even by today’s megachurch.

So, many themes evident in each of these religious trends—evangelism, the social gospel, positive messages, and even the historical pattern which begot their existence—can be un-earthed today in the megachurch movement. Yet in many ways it is a barely recognizable mutant, simply because never before in the history of Christianity have such resources and technol-ogy been at the fingertips of church leaders as now, and even more significantly, never before has such modernism been so fully embraced. The result seems, according to Scott Thumma of the Hartford Institute for Religion Research, “to have a par-ticular resonance with […] modern American society.” After all, megachurches have grown exponentially since their birth in the late 1980s and early 90s, attracting an ever-increasing number of Americans disillusioned with Catholic and more traditional Protestant churches or unchurched entirely. Although regarded as “only the latest in a series of upheavals in American religion,” the megachurch is admittedly now a far more prominent me-dium of worship that perhaps represents a permanent shift in the practice of Christianity, claims Donald Miller, professor and executive director of the Center for Religion and Civic Culture at USC (1). As evidenced by hundreds of similar organizations across the country, Americans’ rejection of “traditional religious dogma” has forced definite change upon churches, leading to the birth of the megachurch as a revolutionary and sometimes controversial American institution with a distinctly modern-ized atmosphere (Axtman).

II. “Everybody’s Doing It!”: The Response of Churches to Changing American Society

The development of the megachurch is rooted primarily in the sweeping changes brought about in American society be-tween the 1940s and 19�0s and the resulting shifts in religion in America. After the Second World War, American society settled back into a conservative consensus, raising their chil-dren in utopian suburbia and trusting the government to re-buff any threats to the peaceful prosperity. Parents took this new baby boomer generation to their traditional neighborhood churches, where they ate at potluck dinners and won Perfect At-tendance awards at Sunday school. Predictably, church atten-dance “peaked during those years”: “49% of the US population”

“When you’re on fire for God,people will come from miles around

to watch you burn.”-John Wesley

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attended weekly (Miller 1�). Dr. Thomas Brindock, a lifelong resident of White Oak, Pennsylvania (a suburb of Pittsburgh), has attended Faith Lutheran Church for just as long; in his 1950s childhood, Faith was “dynamic, growing,” boasting the “tradi-tional church atmosphere” (Brindock). But as he grew up, the increasing unease, disillusionment and outright protest brought about by Communism abroad, the Vietnam War, and Water-gate reflected a growing disillusionment in unfulfilling religion, where conformity and mediocrity distanced young churchgoers from God. Membership and attendance declined across the na-tion “until it bottomed out at approximately 40% in the �0s”; in fact, the rigidly traditional “denominations such as the Meth-odists, Presbyterians, and Episcopalians […] lost [as much as] 20 and 40 percent of their members” (Miller 1�; Marsden 3). Like churches all across the country, Faith Lutheran “had [no satisfying programs] for the young people that were growing up in the �0s and really seeking something spiritual” (Brindock). Churches everywhere found themselves facing a dire future if they could not pull Americans back into the fold. It was time for direct action.

Leaders of the most dynamic churches quickly recognized the importance of doing whatever they felt God had ordained—no matter how radical or nontraditional—to further champion their cause, and when observing and analyzing the changes that had taken root in American culture, they chose to move along with society rather than isolate themselves as the last bulwark of an obviously forgotten age. As the hippie counterculture of the �0s democratized mainstream life with mutual respect and deafened it with rock music, the first of the new wave of church-es responded by embedding aspects of this new “entertainment-saturated,” “feel-good” mentality in their programs every Sun-day (Axtman, Mason). Gone were traditional hymns and organ accompaniment, replaced by electric guitars and the new genre of Christian rock. Duly earning the title of megachurch with an almost 40,000 member congregation, Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas, has a 300-member choir which belts out any-thing but the reverent songs that earlier generations grew up with and invites the audience to engage in a modern form of the call and response technique popular at revivals (Atxman, see Exhibit 1). Invisible yet formerly impenetrable socio-eco-nomic barriers within the congregations of traditional churches were replaced by non-prejudiced acceptance of all ethnicities, whether black, white, or Hispanic, at megachurches (Axtman). The experience is as casual as it is tolerant. Attendees do not feel expected to “dress up”—many who attend megachurches simply wear jeans and shirts—but rather encouraged to wear informal, comfortable clothes (Miller 13). The pastor, likewise shedding traditional robes for casual business attire, is projected onto huge screens so that everyone can easily see and hear him inter-pret God’s word in plain English. Unlike the revivals of earlier centuries, which brought attendees to their knees in terror of “hellfire and damnation,” “no one is called a sinner” in this posi-tive new message of grace and support, says Joel Osteen, pastor of Lakewood (Sims). The metamorphosis reflects the new at-titude of instantaneous gratification and has amassed many new members for megachurches by sensitively catering specifically to “seekers” searching for an inconspicuous way to rediscover spirituality. Claims Osteen himself, “people feel uplifted by [the] message of hope, of life and of victory,” not like they are “con-stantly being beaten down” (Axtman).

In fact, the allure of a charismatic pastor, like Joel Osteen at Lakewood, is sometimes the sole draw. The allure of famously charismatic pastor Andy Stanley of North Point Community Church in Alpharetta, Georgia, a megachurch with a 10,000 person congregation, is so strong that an offshoot of the ministry, christened Buckhead Church, has cropped up in another Atlanta suburb in response to the popular demand of aspiring churchgoers who live inconveniently far from the church’s main location (see Exhibit 2, 10). A church by day and a banquet hall by night, eager worshipers crowd the converted facility every Sunday, consistently overflowing the limited park-ing only “to watch a live [3D] video feed of [Stanley’s] sermon at NPCC” in Alpharetta (Mason). With at least five active, thriv-ing churches boasting flesh-and-blood leadership within a mile from Buckhead Church, the casual observer must wonder why the allure holds and, even more, continues to draw. Spring Ma-son, who attends with her young son Cooper, states simply that Andy Stanley’s “messages really had an impact on” her, some-thing that the pastor of his previous church lacked. “It is amaz-ing” to Spring that “so many people come just to watch a video” that could be seen on TV, especially considering the church’s makeshift facility.

Generally secular architecture, like that at Buckhead, distin-guishes the archetypal megachurch because its leaders believe that an atypical, almost secular appearance increases appeal to unchurched Americans. North Point in Alpharetta resembles a flat, gray slab stucco office building (see Exhibit 14). Lakewood in Houston inhabits the old Compaq Center, a sports areana where the Rockets played several championship games (see Exhibit 3). Like Lakewood, First Baptist Church of Woodstock, Georgia, has a stage for an altar and video projection screens in place of traditional stained-glass windows (Rybczynski, see Exhibit 4). Its streamlined architecture replaced wooden pews with contemporary movie-theater-style seating (Axtman). Wil-low Creek Community Church, in the Chicago suburb of South Barrington, Illinois, encompasses a gymnasium, bookstore, food court, and cappuccino bar on a 155-acre site entirely devoid of steeples, bell towers, or even a cross (Rybczynski). Even in ar-chitecture, “the idea of megachurches is to be as inclusive and inoffensive as possible,” “remov[ing] every obstacle that keeps people from coming into the Christian church,” claims Eddie Gibbs, professor at Fuller Theological Seminary (Axtman).

III. “Would You Like to Supersize That?”: Appealing Characteristics Make a National Trend

As modern churches finessed the art of enticing unchurched Americans through their doors, attendance soared to new highs, earning such organizations the coveted title of megachurch. As the megachurch grows, yet more people come, forming a “social vortex” that grows almost overnight: the first attendees would come away and tell their neighbors, coworkers, and friends of an almost transcendental experience, during whose exhilarating music and friendly interaction their jaded cynicism fell away (Thumma). And then those neighbors tell their neighbors who tell their neighbors. This word-of-mouth popularity was supple-mented by the direct efforts of the church to literally advertise their benefits using the burgeoning media industry.

The role that media plays in the development of a megachurch

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is simply, in the words of Todd McPherson, Outreach Director at First Baptist Woodstock, “crucial.” Megachurches like FBCW and Lakewood in Houston broadcast their Sunday services locally and across the country at many times and on many channels. Radio is an additional means of reaching out to the community, and many technologically savvy churches like FBCW, Lakewood, and NPCC in Alpharetta have taken advantage of the information superhigh-way by uploading weekly webcasts online. Lakewood places bill-boards along regular highways as well, encouraging passerby to visit one of the five weekly services (see Exhibit 5). Each of these measures heightens awareness of the church, both for explicit and implicit reasons: ostensibly, any successful evangelizing effort—a major goal of any megachurch—is a victory for the Christian faith and the greater good; however, in “advertising” their faith, mega-churches hope to not only draw people to Christianity but to their particular institution as well. For this reason each church empha-sizes their most valued characteristics in their multimedia: for Lakewood, that may be their elaborate children’s programs they hope will entice the young families of the so-called “seeker genera-tion”; NPCC welcomes seekers with a special program called “the Foyer,” an effortless “first step into entry environments at North Point” (Stanley). If they succeed, size easily trumps any of these as the church’s most overt characteristic (Thumma).

The next milestone in the life of a megachurch occurs when the current facility housing the congregation is deemed too small, which happened to Lakewood in 2003. After growing exponen-tially to over 25,000 members, Lakewood’s congregation—the largest in the country—collectively purchased the old Compaq Center, the sports center that once held the Houston Rockets, and renovated it. The new facility conveniently houses thousands per service, along with meeting rooms and a 5,000 volume bookstore, but the intimacy has been lost: the service now is massive and flashy—giving churchgoers their entertainment fix—yet largely impersonal (see Exhibits �, �, and 8). With its two auditoriums that members are ushered into depending on the first letter of their last name, North Point Community Church faced the same problem; attendees feel literally like a number upon seeing their child’s identification number flash on the giant television screen during the service (see Exhibit 9).

To combat the inevitability of congregants literally get-ting lost in the throngs of people each Sunday, megachurches es-tablished “a myriad of small groups,” which have become “really where the heart of the church is,” asserts John Vaughan, founder of the research group Church Growth Today (Sims). Church-spon-sored activities like Bible studies, youth group meetings, children’s programs, and even exercise classes or basketball leagues take place outside of the huge Sunday morning service, providing inti-mate interaction in an otherwise impersonal environment (Miller 14). “Small groups,” as they are affectionately coined, are “a very big deal” for adults “at many of these churches,” says Buckhead Church attendee Bob Ostelhoff. These small groups typically meet around a specific theme, and there is a group tailored to anyone and everyone’s needs—for “parents raising teenage children, those battling drug or alcohol addictions, or seeking advice on financial [management], or recovering from divorce” (Miller 15). And, Os-telhoff assures, “God will work in [each] group in ways that you can’t imagine,” while “friendships develop that are just as tight as can be.” Todd McPherson of FBCW also notes that small groups are “instrumental to a healthy church of [their] size and to [the] individuals’ spiritual health too,” which is why FBCW tries “to get

everyone in a small group right away,” and furthermore of-fers members “financial planning classes, Christian school support, preschool, childcare, teen groups, the whole gamut.” While adults meet in these small groups, children are offered an entirely transformed version of traditional Sunday school to fulfill their spiritual needs, often a combination of a tightly-knit small group and an elaborate production. North Point Community Church, which together with a non-profit orga-nization called Family Wise “markets and sells [their children’s program] to churches across the country,” has developed Kid-Stuf, a “forty-minute entertainment program done on stage with characters” ranging from “the little computer geek to the strong guy” (Ostelhoff, see Exhibit 11). Each month the char-acters lead the children in learning about the importance of a specific virtue from the Bible while “just having a blast” in UpStreet, the area of NPCC dedicated just to them (Ostelhoff, see Exhibit 12). With such programs, the churches hope to bring about a twofold reward: firstly to “connect the parents and the children more” and second—their strategic reason—to ensure that other “kids hear about them and bring their parents to the church for the first time” (Ostelhoff).

Since the main demographic targeted by mega-churches is the “consumer-oriented, highly-mobile, well-edu-cated middle-class” family, the majority of successful mega-churches are found in strategic areas of the country. The three states in America with the highest number of megachurches and megachurch members are California, Texas, and Flori-da, with Georgia a close fourth (Blake). At first glance, these states seem to have nothing in common…except an excess of large cities and the generally conservative, Christian families that inhabit their suburban sprawl. These suburbs happen to be the most common places that megachurches have sprung up (Thumma). The metropolis of Houston, fourth largest city in the nation, hosts Lakewood; Atlanta is home to FBCW and North Point, among others. The programs that megachurches offer appeal most to families—American retirees have no rea-son to upend their Christianity so late in their lives, and mid-life singles often find themselves too busy to devote any time at all to religion—and, besides being where many families reside, the suburbs are the expanding areas of the city where leaders can purchase large tracts of land cheaply (Gilley 10).

IV. “For Every Action, There is a Reaction”: Skeptics of the Phenomenon

“Old habits die hard,” reads an oft-uttered cliché that seems to be especially applicable to matters of religion as a backlash of criticism thwarts megachurches’ popularity. Complaints range from the dearth of individual attention to a sweeping vilification of their acceptance of modernism. Some argue that megachurches’ “easy come” attitude brings about an “easy go” result, causing parishioners to be literally lost in the throngs of people (Gilley ��). They question the extent of spiritual ful-fillment that members receive and even how much a church of such huge proportions can feasibly offer individuals—an argument not without its merits. “Even though there are other programs” to “get engaged in,” Buckhead attendee Spring Ma-son admits that the sheer size of the congregation can “make one feel lonely.” Others question the means to the end, claim-ing that church and religion should not change at the whims of human desire but rather stay the way they believe God originally designed. From the pastors’ million-dollar book

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deals to the multi-colored, eye-catching bulletins, they charge, megachurches are too commercialized and market-driven, each a spiritual “mall”—right down to North Point’s bookstore and the Guest Services kiosks found around FBCW (see Exhibits 10, 13). This worry raises the question of to what extent churches should change to attract members, although in present society, one must realize that if such changes were not made, members might not come at all. Yet more critics contend that all the hype sugarcoat-ing the real message is unnecessary. To this concern, proponents, citing the respective decline and increase in different churches’ membership, answer that it is indeed unquestionably necessary in today’s changing world (Vaughan 89).

Undoubtedly, whether one considers them to be harmful or pos-itive, it is impossible to deny the huge impact megachurches have had on American society, especially considering the three million people who call them home each Sunday morning. To McPherson of First Baptist Woodstock, church should “be a lifestyle, an all-time thing, a life-long thing.” Indeed, megachurches seem to fit that ideal as “something that touches every area of every person’s […] life” (McPherson). And, “in an era where small and medium sized churches” like Faith Lutheran in Pennsylvania “are losing members,” Kris Axtman, reporter for the Christian Science Moni-tor, predicts that “megachurches will continue to grow.”

References:

Axtman, Kris. “The Rise of the American Megachurch.” Christian Science Monitor (2003). <http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/1230/p01504-ussc.html>.

Blake, John. “Big on Worship.” The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. 15 Feb. 200�.

Brindock, Dr. Thomas, Lifelong Attendee of Faith Lutheran Church, White Oak, PA. Phone Interview. 14 Jan. 200�.

Gilley, Gary. This Little Church Went to Market: The Church in the Age of Modern Entertainment. New York: Xulon Press, 2002.

Marsden, George M. Fundamentalism and American Culture: The Shaping of Twentieth-Century Evangelicalism. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1980.

Mason, Spring, Former Creative Director of Peachtree Presbyterian Church, Current Attendee of Buckhead Church. Phone Inter-view. 1 Feb. 200�.

McPherson, Todd, Outreach Director of First Baptist Church of Woodstock. Phone Interview. 2 March 200�.

Miller, Donald E. Reinventing American Protestantism: Christian-ity in the New Millennium. Berkeley: University of California Press, 199�.

Ostelhoff, Bob, Involved Attendee of Buckhead Church. Personal Interview. 28 March 200�.

Rybczynski, Witold. “The Age of Megachurches: The New Look for Places of Worship.” Slate on MSN.com. 10 Oct. 2005. <http://slate.msn.com/id/212��15/?GT1:�125>.

Sims, Amy C. “Religion Gets Supersized at Megachurches.” FOXNews.com (2004). 1 March 200�. <http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,110240,00.html>.

Stanley, Andy. “About Us.” North Point Community Church. 1 Oct. 2005. <http://northpoint.org/about-us>.

Thumma, Scott, Ph.D. “Exploring the Megachurch Phenomena: Their Characteristics and Cultural Context.” Hartford Institute for Religion Research (2003). 1 Oct. 2005. <http://hirr.hartsem.edu/bookshelf/thumma_article2.html>.

Vaughan, John N. Megachurches & America’s Cities: How Churches Grow. New York: Baker Group, 1993.

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