Welcome back to PRISM, the SCISOC newsletter! We hope everybody has been well recently, and that the exam period passed by smoothly. In this edition of the newsletter, we look over the SCISOC IT/Publications team and see what we've accomplished this year together. We also have our featured Fun Corner, where this time, we give you our Official Formal Undeniable Academic Proof As To Why Santa Is Real, just in time for the Christmas holidays! |
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As the year comes to an end, the SCISOC Publications/IT team reflects on the work we have done this year. Despite the adversity we faced because of COVID-19, this year was a prosperous year for us to work on some of the biggest projects we have accomplished thus far. SCISOC Website |
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This year, the SCISOC website was heavily rebranded, featuring slick new images and new features! On our Home page, a view of our overall statistics can be seen. We’ve updated the Publications tab to feature our new publications created this year, and we’ve also added a newsletter archive so viewers can more easily access old newsletters whenever they please. Our Contact Us page has been completely redone, featuring a contact form that can be filled out easily in order to reach us. You can view the website here. Rebranding of Prism For us, this year has been a year of trial and error, especially for our fortnightly newsletter. But after seeing what works and what doesn’t, we glowed up! The newsletter undertook a rebrand, to PRISM: The SCISOC Newsletter. We now have a structured and consolidated format for our newsletter, with three defined sections: SCISOC Report, in which we keep our members updated with our latest and upcoming events, new publications, notices and more, Find Your Future which is a spotlight into different career pathways for science students, and The Fun Corner, where we write about virtually anything, such as The Science Behind Skincare or Pop Music, game reviews, and even letters to the weather. |
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Find Your Future What started off as a fortnightly Prism interview series has turned into a full fledged publication with a total of 9 interviewees coming from UNSW Science faculty staff, alumni, science graduates and penultimate students. Our team reached out to many connections to bring you the information about different industry roles and professional avenues that your science degree can open up. Read our publication here. |
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| The View A change of style from all our other professional publications to a more light-hearted publication is The View, in which the SCISOC team reviews everything from cakes and chocolates, to podcasts and apps! This was a very enjoyable project to work on, as we could input our own personal opinions and ratings for specific things from a wide range of categories. The end product, a monochrome newspaper-style is available on our website here. |
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Every year Christmas comes around again, only to lead to more children having their innocence stolen away and being indoctrinated into the conspiracy of Santa being fake. It astonishes me that even now, people still deny the existence of Santa despite there being numerous pieces of evidence to support his existence. It also raises the question: why do children grow up believing in Santa? Well, there is only one reason for that, and it’s because Santa only appears before children. Now, before you discredit the testimonies of children, do keep in mind that the majority of flat Earthers are in fact adults and not children. Even then, if you are still not convinced by their honest testimonies, do not fret. I shall prove to you, undeniably, that Santa is real. Not only will I prove it, but I shall also prove it in 4 independent ways. So, put on your Santa hats and buckle up as I take you on this scientific adventure into the reality of Santa Claus. |
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This first proof will be an irrefutable mathematical proof demonstrated by Hannah Fry in her book The Indisputable Existence Of Santa Claus. So, given these two statements: 1. Santaisreal 2. 1 + 1 = 2 Hopefully we can all agree that at least one of these statements is correct. Perhaps both might be, but for now let’s just agree that at least one is. Okay, so now let’s consider the second statement and let a = b = 1. Then clearly a = b Squaring both sides gives a2 = b2 And so a2- b2= 0 Factorising difference of two squares gives (a-b)(a+b) = 0 Lastly, dividing by a - b gives a+b = 0 But that would mean 1 + 1 = 0. Now wait a second. If 1 + 1 = 0, then 1 + 1 cannot also be 2. So, the second statement must be incorrect. But we all agreed that at least one of the statements is true, meaning that statement 1 must be true. Hence, Santa is real. If after reading all that you’re not convinced, then I’m not sure what to say. Nonetheless, I shall demonstrate a direct proof using evidence. Perhaps the most direct proof is actual sightings of Santa which can be easily found from a quick search on Google or YouTube. Now, I know what you’re thinking. Those videos could’ve been easily faked or photoshopped, and the people who posted them have no credibility. And to that I would say fair enough. But what if I told you that even NASA has claimed to have seen Santa. Yes, NASA, the ones that got us to the moon and back. Many decades ago on the Apollo 8, astronaut James Lovell radioed back to Earth and said “Please be informed, there is a Santa Claus”. Now, unless you’re a conspiracy theorist, you probably believe NASA and know they are a credible source. So, there should be no doubt in your mind when they themselves have announced that there is a Santa Claus. |
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Now, for those skeptics out there who are still not ready to accept the reality of Santa, I have an experiment which you can perform yourselves at home. All you need for this experiment are some cookies, preferably choc chip. It is absolutely crucial that you don’t use any of those raisin abominations that people sometimes identify as cookies. Now, on the night of Christmas Eve, leave out those cookies with a glass of cold milk and the experiment is set. All you have to do now is go to bed and wait for the morning. So, it’s Christmas morning and you’re hyped to see the result of your grand Santa-proving experiment. |
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You run downstairs and see one of two things. Either the cookies and milk are gone which would conclusively prove that Santa visited and feasted upon those delicious cookies and milk (assuming you didn’t use raisin cookies). Or, you would see that the cookies and milk were untouched. But this too makes sense if you think about it. After all, Santa has to visit about 2 billion children in one night, and at each house he has cookies to feast on. Just imagine having to eat billions of cookies in one night. That’d be pretty crazy. So chances are that Santa was just full when he arrived at your house and so he didn’t eat your cookies. In either case, Santa must exist. |
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| Hopefully I have convinced you by now that Santa must exist. But let me play devil’s advocate for a second, since it wouldn’t be fair to only see this issue from one perspective. So, let’s assume for arguments sake that Santa doesn’t exist. But this would raise an abundance of questions which cannot be answered. For example, “Who is Mrs Claus married too?”, “Who takes care of the elves and pays them their dues?”, and “Who is the owner of Rudolph?”. As you can see, all of these questions cannot be answered without the existence of Santa Claus. |
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There are a few other issues people often like to quote to disprove Santa. Preposterous things like “how can Santa visit all 2 billion children in one night?”, “how can the sleigh carry the weight of all those presents?”, or “how can reindeers fly?”. All of these questions can be explained very simply. Unfortunately, however, I have run out of space in this article and so will have to leave these proofs for next time. |
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UNSW Science Society is proud to announce our continued partnership with GradReady through 2020. 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! |
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