Welcome back to SCISOC’s fortnightly newsletter, PRISM! Hope everyone's kicking back this flexi-week and in the mood for three exciting articles this week. In this fortnight's newsletter, we present SCISOC x EngSoc x CSESoc's Pub Crawl happening tonight! For Science News, we dissect the monkeypox outbreak and in our Fun Corner, we give you a mini-almanac on all of the characters you'll find on campus!

UNSW SCISOC x EngSoc x CSESoc Presents: Upside Down Under Pub Crawl

Keen to kick it back in flexi-week and forget about all the assignments and exams you have for a night? Feeling traumatised from the demogorgon?

Luckily for you, UNSW SCISOC, EngSoc and CSESoc are excited to bring you Upside Down Under Pub Crawl! Turn up in your best “Stranger Things” / Retro / 80s themed outfit and explore the many bars we have in store for you. Each ticket comes with FREE drinks and deals! We can’t wait to see you all there in your best outfits. Be sure to follow the facebook event page for updates on the exciting night.

Date: Wednesday 6th July

Time: 7:00pm - late

Link: https://fb.me/e/1ZmBlQW2B

The monkeypox outbreak

Another outbreak? Covid 2.0? Nope, it’s completely different and it's called monkeypox. But not to worry, scientists think that it isn’t going to result in another pandemic.

The concern is valid however, with more than 300 confirmed or suspected cases popping up in 21 countries outside of Africa, which is where the disease is originally from. It is the most widespread outbreak of the disease, which causes flu-like symptoms such as fever, headaches and body aches, as well as back pain, swollen lymph nodes and rashes that erupt into pus-filled blisters.

So what is monkeypox exactly? Monkeypox is a DNA virus in the same genus as smallpox, cowpox and camelpox. It is not a new disease as it was discovered in monkeys in 1958 and its first human case appeared in 1970. It is a disease that humans catch from animals, and there are two different types, or clades, of monkeypox.

The more deadly type is the Central African or Congo Basin clade, which kills about 10 percent of people it affects, but has not spread outside the region where it is normally prevalent. The West African clade is the one that has spread globally with the current outbreak, and it tends to be milder, with a mortality rate of about 1 to 3.6 percent for infected people.

This outbreak is a resurgence of monkeypox. There was an outbreak in 2017, which had 42 confirmed cases and 146 suspected cases. Researchers found that the virus was being spread from person to person through close contact with family members, however most cases probably originated from animals. Researchers could not identify the animal reservoirs for monkeypox, though several rodents and small animals are suspected to carry the virus.

Genetic evidence suggests that the multinational outbreak may have had a single source as the DNA sequence of the virus in other patients is very similar to ones from Portugal. As monkeypox is a DNA virus, it mutates much slower than RNA viruses, such as Covid-19, and thus all cases of this outbreak are very similar. So far, the virus has not mutated to spread more easily between humans.

So how is this virus spreading? It spreads through human interaction, although it has used a “sexual network” to infect more people. Despite it being called a “sexual network”, it’s uncertain whether monkeypox is an STD, as you can contract it by making out with someone who has monkeypox during sex, but that doesn’t mean monkeypox is sexually transmittable. It is, however, transmittable through saliva due to lesions in the throat or mouth that contain the disease. Symptoms first appear near the groin and anal regions, and can easily be mistaken for other diseases like herpes or chickenpox.

In terms of prevention, the methods are pretty similar to Covid: isolation and close contact tracing. Usually, your body should be able to fight off this disease by itself, but drugs can be administered to help boost the process. Currently, this outbreak has been mild, and there are vaccines available, so there shouldn’t be anything to worry about (yet).

Walking around campus, you start noticing the different types of people that make campus life interesting. We’ve decided to compile a short list of the types of people we’ve seen around campus and give our thoughts on them.

If you’ve ever been near the main library walkway, you’ll know the feeling of anxiously walking down the pathway, shamelessly rejecting tens of thousands of flyers from the Socialist Alternative Group. According to them, capitalism leads to oppression and inequality, but stressed and financially corrupt uni students have more pressing matters to attend to.

If you have not had the pleasure of losing your sincerity and trust to a scammer on campus, fear not - chances are you’ll have met the notorious UNSW scammer. Before you know it, you’ll have shamelessly fallen victim to his gentle demeanour and Canva-made charity poster, donating a generous $50 of your weekly salary to a Reddit-verified charity.

There’s always a chatter of foreignness floating around the campus of UNSW. Whether it be ordering a chicken roll at the subway and noticing the student beside you asking for extra tom-ae-toes in their meatball roll, or looking among the terribly-fashioned domestic students to sightsee a chic, fashionable international student. International students are everywhere - they’re usually the majority of students staying up at the main library at 10pm, and the bulk of those who camp around religiously at the law library at 3am. However they are to be treasured, and we thank them for funding 99% of the UNSW budget.

The UNSW campus can often be tricky to navigate, but most students become accustomed to the whereabouts of our lecture halls and buildings early on. Yet there seem to be a unique few who are awfully geographically challenged, the ones who get lost on campus despite believing they are too elite to download Lost on Campus. Learn how to read a map!

If you have to walk through the Anzac Parade walkway every week, chances are you’ve been approached by a group of people encouraging you to join them in their religious journey. Unfortunately you might find yourself having to politely decline and avoid them by saying that you’re “busy” or that you’ll “see about it”, perhaps even unfriending them on Facebook before they accept the friend request.

If you were unlucky enough to stumble through the main library at the wrong time, you might’ve seen the vegan protesters playing a video of farm animals being brutally slaughtered. At least they bring some very cute dogs and even gave out free Oreos one time, but I will still rush to Yallah Eats to get my chicken rice bowl.

Chances are you’ve spotted numerous people on campus wearing green shirts running around non-stop. These people are the Street Team BNOCs and are usually on campus 3-5 days a week. You’ll probably find them wilding at WAO every Friday night.

During the winter season, the domestic students equip their default skin with North Face puffer jackets or just hoodies, especially the first-year UNSW hoodies. Literally everyone looks the same.

Sometimes on campus you’ll see swarms of high school children running around on their excursions, little do they know that the true essence of UNSW lies at night when half its population get wasted, lose 5kg in chunder and doesn’t remember a thing.

The skaters at UNSW are pretty cool and honestly it's a pretty effective way to go from upper campus to lower campus. [A/N: I do wish I could skate sometimes as the last time I tried I almost lost a friend’s skateboard while shattering my ass.]

The dancers in front of SEB have insane confidence and passion. You guys get an A+ for effort. Who knows, in 8 years’ time you might be the next BTS.

To the students in the law library after 8pm when it's pitch black outside at uni, I wish all the best for you guys. Stay on the grind and become the next Camille Vasquez, you guys are the only sign of academics at UNSW.

Next up are the students on the other end of the spectrum who’ve not seen a lecture since week 0. They live and die by the motto “P’s get degrees” and on campus you’ll find them in “study sessions” just chatting.

The people napping on the nets in front of the Hilmer Building seem to be the chillest people on earth. The rest of us here are struggling with 3 assignments and 15 lectures overdue, barely able to recall what day of the week it is.

You most likely would’ve run past the computer science students whose code never compiles and spend 3 hours staring at the same 300 lines of code to find the missing semicolon. Non-computer science students can’t relate to the pain of slowly rotting away as they see their null pointer exception for the nth time, rearranging so many lines of code you don’t even know what you’re doing anymore.

You know that feeling when you’re walking alone on campus, friendless and bitter, in lone misery with your credit WAM and 30% academic plagiarism, and not even a chicken rice bowl from Yallah Eats could cheer you up, and yet you continue on, determined to bump into a very special group of people on campus, who no matter how irritated, unhappy or miserable you are, can turn that downward slope of yours into a beaming smile. The SciSoc members! Infinite swag, coolness and sexiness. Come to our events and you can see it for yourselves!

UNSW Science Society is proud to announce our continued partnership with GradReady through 2022. GradReady provides GAMSAT Preparation courses for anyone looking to pursue Medicine after they graduate.
This process starts earlier than you think, so if you’re studying medical science or just have that passion, check out what they have to offer!