Welcome back to another edition of SCISOC's fortnightly newsletter PRISM! Today, we bring you some exciting news about the opening of our Subcommittee Recruitment Drive, all of which you can read below to find out more info! We also discuss the landing of the Mars Perseverance Rover, as well as what that could mean for us in the future. In our Fun Corner, we talk about the preconceived notions of the 'alpha/beta' male stereotype, and where such stereotypes originated from. Let's dive in!

Network and Nibbles

Come to our collaboration event with Women In Science, where you'll get to participate in a seminar prepared by some incredible women in STEM as they talk about their experiences in the industry, as well as an opportunity to network and make meaningful connections afterwards!

Check out our Facebook event here for more details. See you there!

8th March, Monday | 5-7pm ChemSci M17

2021 SCISOC Subcommittee Recruitment
SCISOC's 2021 subcommittee recruitment drive has officially begun! If you want the chance to meet like minded people, develop professional skills in order to help advance your career, or you simply want to have fun, fill out our application forms to join our subcommittee!

We have seven different portfolios for you to choose from, and this year, we're doing something we've never done before; there's no limit to how many portfolios you can apply for!

Check out our Facebook event here for more details!

After being launched on July 30 2020, the Mars Perseverance Rover successfully landed on the Red Planet on February 18, 2021.

The previous 2003 Mars twin rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, were mainly known for their discovery of water on Mars. This critical evidence of water on Mars’ rocks, minerals and landforms supported the theory that conditions on Mars could have been habitable to microbial life.

Following these discoveries that point to the existence of life in Mars’ history, Perseverance’s key mission is to search for signs of ancient life on Mars, that once had flowing rivers and lakes. "The rover will characterize the planet's geology and past climate, paving the way for human exploration of the Red Planet, and be the first mission to collect and cache Martian rock and regolith." - NASA, 2020.

Perseverance landed in one of Mars' many craters, Jezero Crater and according to scientists, this crater was once a lake, filled with flowing water. To explore signs of ancient life, Perseverance is equipped with a drill to collect core samples of Martian rock and soil, which will be picked up by a future Mars mission that would take them back to Earth for analysis. The team behind this mission has also used Perseverance to test technologies to help pave the way for future human exploration of Mars.

There are various ways that this Mars Perseverance mission helps pave the way for future human expeditions to Mars. These include testing a method for producing oxygen from the Martian atmosphere, identifying other resources (such as subsurface water), improving landing techniques, and characterizing weather, dust, and other potential environmental conditions that could affect future astronauts living and working on Mars.

A critical technology demonstration is actually tied to the rover - The Mars Helicopter, named "Ingenuity". This is the first powered aircraft test on a planet other than earth. Once a suitable "helipad" location is found on Mars, Ingenuity will undergo a series of test flights in the span of 30 Martian-days.

While it is currently still in its cruising phase, we are keen to see what Perseverance will discover on its mission, which will last at least 1 Martian year!

“Loltyler1.com discount code ALPHA”, the merchandise store of popular League of Legends streamer Tyler1. This 6’5”, 255 pound genetic freak is often described as an alpha, although it is usually a self-description, to the point where even his discount code is “ALPHA”. So, what exactly makes him an alpha? Is it his gargantuan height, his massive muscles, his thundering voice, or is it his pristine league of legends gameplay? What makes someone an alpha?

Alpha is a word that is commonly thrown around in society to label those loud, dominant, confident people in the world. On the other hand, the term beta is often used to describe people who have less confidence, are timid, or those who simply follow others. In fact, often time, especially in the online community, people will use the term beta as an insult to describe people as cowards while using alpha as a form of admiration towards someone who is charismatic. But are these terms actually proper descriptions of behavior, or are they simply founded on pseudoscience from a mistaken science experiment?

The first thing you’re probably wondering is, where did these terms originate? The words themselves are just letters in the Greek alphabet, with alpha being the first letter, and beta being second, and have been around since the 8^th century BC. But the terms were first used to describe behavior or hierarchy in 1947 by Rudolph Schenkel, who was studying the hierarchy within a pack of wolves.

When people hear “alpha”, the first animal they think of is a wolf. And this makes sense. When we look at wolf packs, a clear hierarchy can be seen, where one wolf leads and the other follows. But what is this hierarchy based upon? Researchers first observed the wolves within a pack fighting between themselves and theorized that this was a fight to gain the position of alpha. But later, with more observations, they would soon realise that wolf packs are often just a family of wolves, and so the hierarchy is already established within the family in a similar way to humans. That is, the parents lead the pack in the same way human parents take care of their families. So, does this disprove the idea of alpha behavior being a real thing?

Well, the answer turns out to be, not quite. While it is true the majority of wolf packs are family units and so don’t strictly follow an alpha/beta based hierarchy, there are many other species which do in fact follow such a hierarchy. A good example would be primates. They tend to follow such a structure with the alpha being the physically strongest animal. This is for two reasons. 1. The alpha must protect the group from predators. 2. The alpha is able to pass off his superior physical genes to his offspring. So, the idea of alpha/beta behavior isn’t completely unfounded. But the real question is whether this behavior exists within humans.

Human society is one that can’t really be compared to that of animals. There is no one trait that is superior than all others, and so there’s no clear way to establish an alpha/beta. For example, the alpha of competitive chess, Magnus Carlsen, would probably not be considered an alpha in a bodybuilding tournament. Furthermore, unlike other species, human society isn't based off physical strength. So, while some animals could go and fight the alpha in an attempt to take over the position, this would not work in our society. An employee cannot challenge their employer to a physical fight in order to become the new boss, otherwise society would be far too chaotic. But you get the idea, alpha behavior for humans would be far more context based and it would just be a label for someone loud, dominant, or confident in a specific situation.

So, there is no such thing as an alpha male or alpha male (besides Tyler1 of course) in overall society. Human society is far too complex to be governed by something like alpha/beta behavior and the terms “alpha” and “beta” are simply labels used to describe people in terms of their physical and personality traits. So, with all this being said, remember to use discount code “ALPHA” if you want to purchase anything from Loltyler1.com.

Did you know that you can find all our previous newsletters on our website? Check out unswscisoc.org and scroll to our Publications tab to check them out!

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.
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