APC Science Union · Online Library

Author: Shiguang Reviewer: Guanfu · Juntian I. Introduction   For this studio assessment at school—yes, another assessment—we had to recreate a game. We were given three choices: Don’t Starve, Slay the Spire, or Soul Knight. I had never played any of them, so after some thought, I decided to make a rough version of Arknights instead. I had seen an expert on Bilibili build the Arknights battle interface in only 48 hours. It did not look that hard… so I gave it a try!   It was only after I started that I discovered how challenging the project really was. Here are two screenshots of the game interface. To see the full game in action, watch the video posted on Bilibili through the Alliance’s official account. Game interface II. Design Approach Scenes   My original plan called for five s ...

Author: Zikongli Reviewer: Guanfu · Juntian   The previous installment, “Financial Crises (IV): Britain’s South Sea Bubble,” explained how the South Sea Company acquired a monopoly on trade with the South Seas—that is, South America—by taking on government debt. Numerous publications at the time advertised South America’s abundant produce and deposits of precious metals. Spain had already developed many silver and gold mines there, so the public had little reason to doubt these claims. Buoyed by rosy expectations for the company’s future, its shares maintained a remarkably steady market value.   In reality, however, the precious-metal deposits described in those pamphlets lay chiefly within Spanish colonies, and Spain was hardly going to hand that wealth to the British for free. For many ...

Author: Abaitel   The mature human brain is capable of higher thought and learning, extraordinary creativity and imagination, and a deep appreciation of beauty. It is hard to believe that all of this begins with a single fertilized egg. Drawing on a semester of studying the brain in and outside the classroom, I will sketch a broad but striking picture of how the human brain develops. Early embryonic development and the fetal brain   In a dramatic long-distance race, one competitor edges ahead of a crowd propelled by beating tails. It reaches the finish line by the narrowest of margins: a warm, spherical cell. This is the egg, the destination of the racing sperm. Each sperm carries different genetic information, but only the one that enters first can combine its information with the egg’ ...

Author: Polar Glacier Reviewer: Weiming   Note: This is a long article, and parts of it may be challenging. Students, interested readers, and people working in related fields will find a thorough treatment of the subject here. I. Common Rate Laws in Chemical Kinetics   Before turning to enzymes, let us review several common types of chemical reaction kinetics. 1. First-order reactions   In a first-order reaction, the rate is directly proportional to the concentration of a reactant.   The reaction is shown below:   Its rate equation can therefore be written as:   From the definition of a first-order reaction:   Therefore:   Rearranging:   Solving gives: 2. Second-order reactions   In a second-order reaction, the rate is proportional to the square of a reactant concentration. A t ...

Author: Self-Control Reviewers: Guanfu · Juntian   Europe developed at a remarkable pace during the eighteenth century. In a single hundred years, its societies seemed to release energy that had accumulated throughout the Middle Ages. Maritime exploration brought wealth and opportunity, religious reform loosened old constraints on thought, and scientific advances reshaped society. In the same climate, the last of the classical era’s three great financial bubbles was beginning to form, drawing strength from the boom before dealing another heavy blow.   By the eighteenth century, Britain had overtaken the Netherlands in commerce and was competing with France, Spain, and other powers for overseas colonies. At home, the Glorious Revolution had shifted the country’s institutions away from mo ...

Author: 阿白特尔   When solar activity is intense, point a telescope fitted with a Baader solar filter at the Sun—never look directly at the Sun through an unfiltered telescope or with the naked eye—and you may notice that the Sun’s “skin” looks a little rough. Clusters of dark patches often dot its bright surface. These, of course, are the familiar sunspots. Yet the specialists who know the Sun’s skin ailments best—solar physicists—pay even closer attention to another dark structure above its surface. This is our subject today: the solar filament.   Some readers may wonder, “I have observed the Sun through a Baader-filtered telescope for years. Why have I seen only sunspots and never the ‘solar filaments’ you describe?” If you have watched the edge of the solar disk closely enough, you may ...

Author: Shenzhou Reviewer: Weiming   Blood is a fluid tissue that circulates through the human cardiovascular system. It consists mainly of plasma, blood cells, and platelets, and its primary role is to transport substances through the body. Red blood cells carry materials in the blood, while white blood cells defend against foreign invaders. Platelets are fragments shed by megakaryocytes in the bone marrow and are essential for hemostasis. This article describes the metabolism of red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets. Red blood cell metabolism   Red blood cells are among the blood’s most important cellular components. They develop in the bone marrow from hematopoietic stem cells committed to the erythroid lineage. Before becoming mature erythrocytes, they pass through the ...

Author: Shiguang (Yixian Studio) Reviewed by: Baiyan   A game called Merge Watermelon recently took over Qzone. Once everyone was hooked, players started jokingly calling themselves “watermelon people.” Memes, parody images, Watermelon bots, and spin-offs soon followed, including Liver-Saving Merge Watermelon, Merge Tiny Grapes, and Merge a Great Nation… Here is how to build your own version in Unity. Step 1: Gather the assets   The image assets, or textures, determine how the fruit looks. Swap them out for something else, perhaps boobs (ahem), Polandballs, or any similar set of images, and the same game becomes a parody such as Merge a Great Nation.   To keep things simple, and definitely not because I cannot draw, I used a few colored balls for the fruit:   From left to right, they r ...

Author: Shiguang Reviewed by: Yuandao Introduction   This article is a record of the ideas and development work behind a simple 2D side-scrolling platformer I built for an assessment at my school’s studio (yes, really). If game development interests you—or if you hope to become a game developer—you may find something useful here. Already making games? Feel free to get in touch and compare notes 😄! Choosing a Game Engine   Once you decide to make a game, your first big choice is the engine. Which one should you use? Two mainstream options are Unity and Unreal Engine 4 (UE4), and each has advantages and drawbacks. Unity’s 3D rendering, for example, is weaker than UE4’s, but its many plug-ins can speed up development.   For the 2D game in this article, I think Unity is the better choice ...

Author: Self-Control Reviewers: Guanfu · Juntian   Correction: In the previous installment, we said that John Law solved the government’s long-standing debt problem by replacing metal currency with paper money. That was not the case. His measures merely eased some of the pressure, and we have corrected the account below.   In the previous installment, we described how John Law replaced metal currency with paper money and tightly controlled the bank’s reserves to maintain public confidence. He used tax measures to promote the new notes, helping to revive the French economy. Paper money was easy to carry and inexpensive to use, which also helped the economy grow quickly. For the second step of his plan, Law established the Mississippi Company. In 1717, the French government issued a charte ...