Science ideas in context 2012

THIS IS A LEGACY SPECIFICATION

H
To be opened on receipt
GCSE TWENTY FIRST CENTURY SCIENCE
SCIENCE A
A214/02 Unit 4: Ideas in Context (Higher Tier)

RESOURCE BOOKLET
JUNE 2012
* A 2 1 3 8 8 0 6 1 2 *

INSTRUCTIONS TO CANDIDATES
• This booklet contains three articles.
• Take these articles away and read them through carefully.
• Spend some time looking up any technical terms or phrases you do not understand.
• For the examination on Thursday 24 May 2012 you will be given a fresh copy of these
articles, together with a question paper.
• You will not be able to take your original copy into the examination with you.

INFORMATION FOR CANDIDATES
• This document consists of 8 pages. Any blank pages are indicated.

© OCR 2012 [L/103/3772] OCR is an exempt Charity
DC (CW/SW) 48269/2 Turn over

2

Particulate perils
What are particulates?

Particulates are small bits of solid or liquid. They are tiny enough
to stay floating in the air for several weeks. Particulates less than
10 micrometres in diameter are known as PM10. This is about 1/7th of
the thickness of a human hair.

Where do particulates come from?

More than 90% of particulates in the air result from natural sources
such as volcanoes, pollen and moulds. The other 10% of particulates
are caused by human activity, mostly from burning fossil fuels. When
fossil fuels burn completely in a plentiful supply of air they make
carbon dioxide and water. But when they burn in a limited supply of
air they also make carbon particulates. This air pollution is often called
‘black carbon’ and is released in the exhaust gases of motor vehicles.

How do particulates affect the climate?

Particulates in the air can both scatter and absorb solar radiation.

The result of the scattering of solar radiation is an increase in the amount of radiation reflected back
into space. This means that less solar radiation reaches the Earth’s surface.

Particulates also absorb some of the solar radiation directly and, depending on the size and
concentration of the particulates, can contribute to global warming.

Particulates do not remain in the air forever, and eventually settle on solid surfaces such as glaciers. If
a glacier becomes coated with a black layer of particulates, this will absorb solar radiation. Therefore
the ice melts faster. So there may be a link between particulate pollution and a rise in sea level.

Particulates can also cause a decrease in rainfall. Water condenses onto them forming very small
droplets that do not fall as rain.

How do particulates affect health?

The effects of inhaling particulates have been widely studied in humans and animals. These effects
include asthma, lung cancer, and cardiovascular disease, all of which can cause premature death.
Because of their very small size, particulates with a diameter of 10 micrometres or less can penetrate
the deepest part of the lungs and cause health problems.

Are there limits for particulate concentration?

Limits for PM10 in the air have been set for Europe. From 1 January 2010 the maximum yearly average
must not be greater than 20 µg/m3 and the daily (24 hour) average must not be greater than 50 µg/m3.

Scientists measured the PM10 concentration in a European city centre on each of the first six days in
January 2010.

© OCR 2012 A214/02 (Resource Booklet) Jun12

3

Their results are shown in the graph.

300

250

200
PM10
concentration 150
in µg / m3
100

50

0
1 Jan 2 Jan 3 Jan 4 Jan 5 Jan 6 Jan
day of the year

Scientists also found that the highest number of hospital admissions for asthma in the city during this
time was on 5 January.

Boston study

Researchers studied the 107 925 deaths in the residential area of Boston USA from 1995 to 2002.
They found that increases in particulate concentration in the air were linked with a rise in deaths on
the next day. The researchers think that particulates may cause deaths. They need to carry out further
research to support this theory.

© OCR 2012 A214/02 (Resource Booklet) Jun12 Turn over

4

Scientist knows his own future
Forty-year-old scientist Professor Stephen Quake may know his
own future. He has had his genes mapped. This allows scientists
to predict some of the diseases that Stephen may get in the future.
Even though he is healthy at the moment, he was told that he was
at increased risk of diabetes, cancer and a rare heart condition that
ran in his family. This condition could cause sudden cardiac death
or “sudden death syndrome”. He was also at much greater risk of
becoming obese and developing coronary heart disease.

The good news for Stephen was that he was at a much lower risk of
developing Alzheimer’s disease in his later life.

Stephen volunteered to have all of his genes mapped and compared against genetic variations known
for 55 different genetic conditions. The total cost for the procedure was £33 000. The cost of gene
mapping is falling.

The procedure was possible because of the Human Genome Project, which was completed in 2003.
Following this, it has been possible to catalogue individual genetic variations that are associated with
different genetic conditions, in computer databases. The databases are continually updated. Stephen’s
genes were compared with these databases. A computer then calculated Stephen’s risk of certain
genetic conditions based on his age and sex.

Before taking the test, Stephen was given counselling, so that he was prepared for any bad news.

After the test, Stephen said: “It’s certainly been interesting. I was curious to see what would show up.
But it’s important to recognise that not everyone will want to know the intimate details of their genome,
and it’s entirely possible that this group will be the majority. There are many ethical, educational and
policy questions that need to be addressed.”

Scientists say that although the study ushers in a new era of personalised medicine, it raises ethical
dilemmas. Scientists believe that a similar test could be on offer to everyone in about ten years’ time.

Professor Henry Greely of Stanford Law School in California said that doctors are about to be hit by a
“tsunami” of genome sequence data. He said: “The experience with Steve Quake’s genome shows we
need to start thinking – hard and soon – about how we can deal with that information”.


5

Observing the night sky
People have always looked up at the night sky and tried to make sense of what they see. From very
early times, people observed the regular movements of the Sun and Moon across the fixed pattern of
the stars. The stars themselves are tiny, fixed points of light which all seem to move together around
the Earth. There are also some bright star-like objects – the planets – which seem to wander about.

From the earliest times, however, observers also saw blurry smudges of light in the night sky. Some
quickly became brighter, grew tails and moved about between the stars: these are comets. Others
seemed fixed among the stars and were called ‘nebulae’, which means ‘clouds’.

The invention of the telescope in the early 17th century showed a lot of
detail in the night sky. Galileo turned his telescope on the Milky Way,
also called the Galaxy, a white band stretching across the night sky. He
saw for the first time that it is made of many thousands of stars.

In 1781 William Herschel, a keen comet observer, spotted a round,
blurry shape. He thought at first it was a comet, but careful observations
of its movement proved that it was in fact a planet, later named Uranus.

Other astronomers looked in detail at nebulae. Powerful telescopes
soon showed that some of these nebulae are clouds of matter, where
new stars are being created. Most of the nebulae, however, are made
up of large numbers of stars. But how far away are these starry
nebulae?

In a famous debate about the starry nebulae in 1920, two points of view
were expressed by leading American astronomers. Harlow Shapley
claimed that the starry nebulae were inside our Galaxy, and the Milky
Way was the entire Universe. Heber Curtis claimed that the Universe
was much bigger than Shapley thought, and that the starry nebulae
William Herschel were outside the Milky Way.

More observations were needed before any judgement could be passed on the two theories. Within
three years of the debate, Edwin Hubble measured the distance to one of the starry nebulae in the
constellation of Andromeda. He showed that the Andromeda nebula is far outside the Milky Way. All
starry nebulae are galaxies, just like the Milky Way.

Over the next decade, Hubble measured the distances and speeds of a number of distant galaxies. He
plotted his data and obtained this graph:

1000
speed in
km / s
500

0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
distance in millions of light-years

His data supported the idea that the Universe started with a big bang. Recent data obtained in the
same way showed that this happened nearly 14 thousand million years ago. Satellite measurements
of microwave radiation support this finding. However, detailed observations of galaxies show that they
do not move exactly as theory predicts. This suggests that there is a lot that we do not yet understand
about the early Universe.

6

BLANK PAGE


7

BLANK PAGE


8

Copyright Information
OCR is committed to seeking permission to reproduce all third-party content that it uses in its assessment materials. OCR has attempted to identify and contact all copyright holders
whose work is used in this paper. To avoid the issue of disclosure of answer-related information to candidates, all copyright acknowledgements are reproduced in the OCR Copyright
Acknowledgements Booklet. This is produced for each series of examinations and is freely available to download from our public website (www.ocr.org.uk) after the live examination series.
If OCR has unwittingly failed to correctly acknowledge or clear any third-party content in this assessment material, OCR will be happy to correct its mistake at the earliest possible
opportunity.
For queries or further information please contact the Copyright Team, First Floor, 9 Hills Road, Cambridge CB2 1GE.
OCR is part of the Cambridge Assessment Group; Cambridge Assessment is the brand name of University of Cambridge Local Examinations Syndicate (UCLES), which is itself a
department of the University of Cambridge.


Science ideas in context 2012

More Related Content

Viewers also liked (12)

Similar to Science ideas in context 2012 (20)

More from opsonise (20)

Recently uploaded (20)

Science ideas in context 2012