BBC Focus

WHAT MAKES US DISGUSTED?
The intriguing science behind moral judgements
Stephen
Hawking
New lm: the verdict
ET on Earth?
Evidence could be
encoded in our genes
Brain boost
Can a headset really
make you smarter?
sciencefocus.com
I S S U E 2 6 0 / O C T O B E R 2 0 1 3 / 3 .9 9
What the latest discoveries tell us about the

Big Bang, dark matter and multiple universes
PLUS HOW TO SURVIVE A DISASTER IN SPACE
PLAYING GOD Q&A DRONES

WITH BIOLOGY Which drink is better for ON TEST
The revolution behind you cola or diet cola? Plane vs helicopter:
glowing trees and Why do we have eyebrows? which robot spy
DNA computers Do carrots help you see in the dark? came out on top?
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WELCOME TO FOCUS JUST 50 YEARS ago, the Universe
was pretty much a mystery.
Scientists couldnt agree on whether MORE TO
it had always existed, or whether
it exploded into life in a Big Bang. EXPLORE
Today, the debate has been settled.
And thanks to measurements made
this year by a spacecraft called
Planck, we know to a pretty high
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field of synthetic biology. Turn to p53 for more mind-blowing
examples of genetic manipulation from Adam Rutherford, the
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APPEARING IN THIS ISSUE

Stuart Valerie Kelly Adam
Clark Curtis Oakes Rutherford
With a PhD in Maggots, mould and Science writer As the presenter
astrophysics, mucus might make Kelly is a regular of Radio 4s daily
Stuart is one you gag, but for the contributor to BBC science show
of the UKs most director of the Focus Magazine. Inside Science, Dr
widely-read Hygiene Centre at With the lm Gravity Adam Rutherfords
astronomy journalists. On p36 he the London school of Hygiene and starring Sandra Bullock and George voice is never far from the cutting-
looks at how new discoveries are Tropical Medicine, theyre fairly Clooney soon to hit cinemas, she looks edge of science. He counts down the
rewriting the most epic story ever mundane. On p61, Dr Valerie Curtis at what happens when things go badly most exciting breakthroughs in the
told the history of our Universe. looks at the science of being disgusted. wrong in space on p48. eld of synthetic biology on p53.
COVER: MAGICTORCH
On p36, astrophysicist John Gribbin

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CONTENTS
THE UNIVERSE:
36
THE STORY SO FAR

ON THE COVER
36 THE UNIVERSE:
THE STORY SO FAR
Recent ndings have rewritten
the story of the cosmos
61 WHAT MAKES
YOU DISGUSTED?
The science of moral outrage
67 Q&A
Your science questions
79 BOOST YOUR
BRAIN POWER
The headset that claims to
make you smarter
85 DRONES ON TEST
We take two unmanned aerial
vehicles for a test-ight
95 STEPHEN HAWKING
New documentary hits cinemas
114 ALIENS ON EARTH

Are there clues in our DNA?
PHOTO: SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY X3, THINKSTOCK, WARNER BROTHERS, THESECRETSTUDIO.NET
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6 / FOCUS / OCTOBER 2013

61 A TASTE FOR DISTASTE
67 Q&A 28 NANOBOTS HOW TO SURVIVE A SPACE DISASTER 48
FLYING DRONES 85 SYNTHETIC BIOLOGY 53
DISCOVERIES FEATURES TECH HUB TO DO LIST
19 GENES AND SCENT 36 THE UNIVERSE: 61 WERE DISGUSTED! 79 FOC.US 95 PICK OF THE MONTH
How your genes affect your THE STORY SO FAR How good manners help us Can this electric headset New lm Hawking explores
sensitivity to certain odours A brief history of absolutely avoid nasty diseases, and boost your brain power? the life of the great scientist
everything, from the Big Bang why were all programmed to
21 METEOR WARNING to the evolution of our Milky be morally outraged 81 BILL THOMPSON 96 VISIT
The Chelyabinsk meteor may Way galaxy Smart streets? Road service Great science days out
not have been a one-off 67 Q&A providers? Self-driving cars?
48 HOW TO SURVIVE Your science questions Bills putting his foot down 98 WATCH & LISTEN
24 ADAM AND EVE A SPACE DISASTER answered. This month: why Science on TV and radio
REUNITED New sci- movie Gravity we have eyebrows, how 82 LEAP MOTION
Our genetic ancestors lived depicts a catastrophe computer viruses work, A motion control device for 100 TOUCH
at the same time after all striking two astronauts, but whether your cat can be your laptop Smartphone and tablet apps
could it happen in real life? allergic to you and more
28 NANOMEDICS 83 APPLIANCES 101 PLAY
The nanorobots that can 53 SYNTHETIC BIOLOGY 88 HOW DO WE KNOW? OF SCIENCE Take On Mars, Metal Gear
deliver drugs to specic cells From faster computers to Our regular look at the Cool and clever new stuff Solid, FIFA 14 and more
better cancer and malaria history of scientic discovery
30 FLIPPER FRIENDS drugs seven breakthroughs focuses on earthquakes and 85 ULTIMATE TEST 102 READ
Dolphins remember old pals that will change the world our ability to predict them Drones go head-to-head The months science books
08 MEGAPIXEL > 15 REPLY > 31 ROBERT MATTHEWS > 35 HELEN CZERSKI > 67 Q&A > 111 MINDGAMES > 114 STEPHEN BAXTER
OCTOBER 2013 / FOCUS / 7

Awe-inspiring images from the world of science
Living larder
ALTHOUGH THEYRE TRYING University of Oxfords
their best to look like a bunch zoology department.
of grapes, this is actually a There are several species
group of honeypot ants of honeypot ant, but these
hanging upside down. They belong to the species
have gorged on nectar during Camponotus inatus and
wet weather, storing it in were photographed in
their abdomens to provide central Australia. They often
food for the colony. become so large that they
When other workers are unable to move. They
are hungry and they arent are precious when food is in
able to nd food in the short supply and can be
normal way, they will just stolen by other ant colonies.
come along and stroke Ive eaten lots of insects,
the antennae of these but this is one I havent
hanging workers, who tried, says McGavin. They
will then regurgitate the are delicious apparently. In
food, says Dr George Australia they are a real
McGavin, author, BBC TV treat for Aboriginals.
presenter and honorary
research associate in the PHOTO: FLPA

For more great pictures, follow us on
http://pinterest.com/sciencefocus

Escaping the grave
THIS IS WHAT remains of in spite of the building of a
what was once a lively town. dam to try and protect it,
Tourists visiting Villa Epecun says Professor Andrew
in Argentina would head for Goudie, Emeritus Professor
Lake Epecun to bathe in the of Geography at the
salty waters, hoping it would University of Oxford. Now
cure their ills. the climate has reverted
But the lake that enabled to what it was like in the
this resort to grow engulfed earlier 20th Century and so
it in 1985 when it ooded. the lake has started to dry
The period since the 1970s out, exposing the formerly
was exceptionally wet, and ooded resort.
so the resort, established in
the 1920s, became ooded PHOTO: GETTY

Space on Earth
THIS HUGE SWIMMING pool spacesuits to make them
at NASAs Sonny Carter feel like theyre neutrally
Training Facility in Houston, buoyant, says Robert
Texas, contains life-sized Durkin, Chief of the NBL.
models of two-thirds of You still have some
the International Space effects due to gravity from
Stations modules. being on Earth; if you go
The tank at the Neutral upside down in the suit the
Buoyancy Laboratory is 62m blood still runs to your
(202ft) long and 31m (102ft) head, Durkin adds. Plus,
wide larger than an if youre in space and an
Olympic-sized swimming object starts to oat away it
pool. Its also 12m (40ft) will continue to oat away,
deep. The tank enables whereas if youre in the pool
astronauts to practise space itll actually stop due to the
walks in conditions similar to drag of the water.
the microgravity of space.
We add weights to the PHOTO: PADI.COM

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Letters may be edited for publication
Your opinions on science, technology and BBC Focus Magazine
MESSAGE OF THE MONTH True grit

The question of my fellow townie
Simon Vincent (Q&A, July 2013),
Can chewing gum help you concentrate?
may have another component to one
already offered in your answer: It
may be that the tongue and jaw
manipulation involved in moving
gum around your mouth occupies
parts of the brain that might otherwise
get distracted. This would seem crucial,
as experience teaches us that when
the body is occupied by some, usually
repetitive, action the mind tends to be
freed and made clear to concentrate
and more conducive to insight.
Maybe there is something also in
the act of gritting the teeth, which
tends to up our game and increase
determination and hence concentration
Just what is time exactly? when effort is required. I find this
It could be as difficult to when working out. When the going
describe as the quantum world gets tough and the pressure is on, I
tend naturally to grit my teeth, which
the action of chewing gum may partly
Time for a new meaning? replicate. This action tends to give

an edge of aggression, which focuses
attention. People say this when were
Robert Matthews has set an intriguing passage implies movement, and movement required to prepare for an unpleasant
hare running in his article on time. I am has a rate attached to it. Paul Daviess reply, situation that requires us to focus and
in awe of the power of mathematics to when asked how fast time goes, was one steel ourselves: Grit your teeth!
describe the workings of the Universe, but second per second. This expression has Peter Davis, Kings Lynn, Norfolk
in this particular case I wonder whether its no dimensions, as the units of second in
authority might obscure just what time is.
As I read the article I was reminded of the
the numerator will cancel out the units of
second in the denominator. Does this imply
Measuring pain
In your August Message of the Month,
problem that the early pioneers of quantum that time does not exist?
written by Dr Macnair, she wrote about
theory faced. They were grappling with Perhaps the solution to the conundrum
the subjective nature of pain and the
such non-intuitive ideas that they found it that faces Lee Smolin and Bryce DeWitt impossibility of a scan to measure pain.
hard to describe them. In consequence they is to look at time as both existing and While I respect and agree with her desire
fell back on using everyday language that not existing, and use words that do not to view patients holistically, I do believe
was really not appropriate. After all, how relate to our everyday concept. With this that we will be able to quantify pain in
can something be described as both a wave baggage out of the way, mathematics the near future.
and a particle? can reassert itself and, as with quantum Pain is detected by neurones in the
Maybe the same thing is happening here. theory, start to lead to a real understanding brain. Regardless of the individuals
We have an everyday meaning for the word of our existence. situation or history, pain is perceived
time, the passage of events. The word Alan Hudson by the brain in the activation of select
neurones. This is physiology. If we
can assess the extent of activation of
Write in and win! these neurones, it stands to reason that
this can be correlated to the amount of
The writer of next issues Message of the Month wins
a pair of VOX amPhones, worth 119. AmPhones pain being experienced by the sufferer.
I think that this is an exciting
recreate the sound of classic VOX amps used by The
development and will have many
Beatles and The Rolling Stones. AmPhones are available applications in medicine.
PHOTO: GETTY
in four different versions, all with a different sound. Visit Dr Alexander Van Heerden,
www.voxamps.com South Africa

Arguments for extinction transparent solar panels that only make
Reading the article Leap in cloning use of the green part of the spectrum.
could resurrect bizarre frog (June, p19) They wouldnt be particularly efficient
really got me thinking. As I understand because theyd only use a fraction of the EDITORIAL
it, natural selection is a process by available light but could have a potentially Editor Graham Southorn
Deputy Editor Andy Ridgway
which living organisms that cannot huge catchment area as a roof over Production Editor Daniel Down
adapt to their changing environment are crops, which should grow perfectly well Reviews Editor Daniel Bennett
underneath because they dont need Science Consultant Robert Matthews
removed from existence so that their Contributing Editor Emma Bayley
disadvantageous genes are not passed on the green light the panels absorb.
to future generations. I am not saying that Geoff Dunwell, Maidenhead ART & PICTURES
Art Editor Joe Eden
all creatures on the endangered species Designer Jon Rich
Picture Editor James Cutmore
list should be ignored, but it does beg
the question, are all endangered species
Sentient probes CONTRIBUTORS
worth saving? Re: Stephen Baxters sentient probes Abigail Beall, Susan Aldridge, Stephen Baxter,
(August, p122), Greg Bear has an excellent Susan Blackmore, David Bodycombe, Robin
We as humans are changing the Boyden, Jamie Carter, Stuart Clark, Matthew Cobb,
planet in ways that we still dont fully novel, Queen Of Angels, concerning the Stephen Collins, Heather Couper, Valerie Curtis,
understand. What we do know is ethics of sending sentient (AI) probes Helen Czerski, Isabelle De Groote, Russell Deeks,
Henry Gee, Lauren Gentry, Alastair Gunn, Timandra
that we are changing many animals into the big black nothing. For examples Harkness, Nigel Henbest, Natalie Keir, Neon Kelly,
environments, but how do we determine of what happens to intelligence lost in Gerry Leblique, James Lloyd, Bill McGuire, Gareth
Mitchell, Kelly Oakes, Jheni Osman, Andrew Pontzen,
which ones are going extinct due to space with no-one to talk to, see Earth. Christopher Phin, Helen Pilcher, Press Association,
our actions or from their own natural Luke Daniel Andrew Robinson, Adam Rutherford, Penny Sarchet,
Steve Sayers, Arianna Sorba, Bill Thompson,
selection processes? To eventually save Magic Torch, Luis Villazon, Bradley Voytek, Paul
all endangered species would be to go Weston, James Witts
against millions of years of evolution, thus ADVERTISING & MARKETING

halting it in its footsteps. This would have Advertising Director Caroline Herbert
Advertising Manager Steve Grigg
far more dire consequences than allowing Deputy Advertising Manager Marc Gonzalez
certain species to become extinct. Brand Sales Executive James Young
As mentioned in the article, we Classied Sales Exec Laura Bennett
Newstrade Manager Rob Brock
urgently need gene banks for the animals Subscriptions Director Jacky Perales-Morris
that are vanishing. I would agree Direct Marketing Manager Mark Summerton
for animals whose environments are INSERTS
obviously being affected by humans, such Laurence Robertson 00353 876 902208
as the Chinese Giant Salamander and LICENSING & SYNDICATION
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so would be to act as Gods. Are we not,
PUBLICIT Y
after all, creatures of natural selection, so
theoretically we shouldnt have any issue Oops! Press Officer Carolyn Wray
causing other animals extinctions. We PRODUCTION

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Shadowwolf Can science explain
EDITORIAL BOARD
pessimism? As Churchill indicated, Deborah Cohen, Jane Fletcher, John Lynch,
the pessimist sees the difficulty. Julian Hector, Andrew Cohen
However, this ensures that issues
The case against biofuels are corrected prior to trying.
Audit Bureau of Circulations
66,862 (Jan-Jun 2013)
I have never understood the logic for M Paul Lloyd I half watched Annual subscription rates (inc P&P):
most biofuel research. Surely food something about this on the TV last UK/BFPO 51.87; Europe & Eire Airmail
production must take priority? Using night, and I cant say that I was all
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biological waste, or a crop like Jatropha
that convinced. BBC Focus Magazine is published by Immediate Media
(an oil producing crop that can grow in Company London Limited under licence from BBC
arid regions where normal food crops Lateralman If you had watched Worldwide who help fund new BBC programmes.
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If you want to use land to provide
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of research would be to develop

DISCOVERIES
News and views from the world of science
p21 METEOR
MAYHEM
The Chelyabinsk
p24 WANT FRIES
WITH THAT?
We asked: would you
p30 BIONIC BEES
TAKE OFF
Tiny ying robots
meteor could have eat a burger that was could be the future
an army of siblings grown in a lab? Heres of search and
heading our way what you told us rescue operations
T H E B I G S T O RY
Genes shape
how we smell
the world
DNA-determined
differences in odour
sensitivity will lead
to personalised
perfumes and food
WEVE KNOWN FOR some

time that our ability to detect
different smells varies from
person to person. Now, new
research shows how big an
influence our genetic make-up
has on our sense of smell. It
means we can expect a future
of personalised fragrances and
food, where perfumes and
meals are optimised for our
individual mix of genes.
Researchers in New Zealand
tested nearly 200 peoples
sensitivity to different
smelling chemicals before
sequencing the volunteers
genomes. They then looked
More evidence has

PHOTO: GETTY
emerged of the link

between our genes and
our sensitivity to odours

Discoveries
ANALYSIS
Joel
Mainland
Professor of Ultrasonics at the
University of Bristol
WE KNOW THAT receptors

are the key to sensing
odours, but we dont understand
how blocking or activating one
receptor will alter perception. Will
it change the intensity of an odour?
Will it shift the odour from floral to
faecal? By examining natural
genetic variation, these findings
begin to address this question.
We already knew that humans
have significant variation in
olfactory perception, but it was
The New Zealand Institute for
Plant and Food Research has unclear how much of that was due
been researching people's to culture and learning, and how
sensitivity to odours
much was due to genes. Prior to
these results, there had been five
for associations between genes between less sensitive and more sensitive examples where variation in
and smell sensitivity. With four smellers was caused by one small genetic sensing smell had been traced to
of the odours, groups of genes were change inside an odorant receptor. Newcomb a region of the genome.
found that were responsible for differences says that this change leads to the swapping of This new work makes the
in smell sensitivity. The links between genes a small component of a protein with another important point that genetic
PHOTO: THE NEW ZEALAND INSTITUTE FOR PLANT AND FOOD RESEARCH, FREMONT DAVIS, PRESS ASSOCIATION, ELONMUSK.COM
and sensitivity were not so clear with the one. It turned out to be a single amino acid variation in receptors can have a
other odours. substitution the simplest genetic change profound effect on what kinds of
While genetic differences in odour possible, he says. food we like. It explores the
sensitivity have been found before, this new The other genetic associations were found mechanisms of odour perception,
research almost doubles the number of in the sensitivity to the chemicals that give and shows how genetic variation
regions in the human genetic code that are blue cheese, malt and apples their odours. can really change how people
believed to be linked with smell sensitivity. Our sense of smell contributes to our respond to these different flavours
There was nothing particularly unusual perception of flavour, so these differences and fragrances.
about the odours which we now know we in odour perception will have an influence The obvious application of this
smell to a different extent depending on on the taste we each attribute to different research is in the flavour and
our genes. Its not unreasonable to assume foodstuffs. Newcomb suggests that in the fragrance industry. Understanding
that other odour sensitivities would also be future, smells of perfumes and household an individuals genetics could help
under genetic control. products, and the flavours of foods and drinks you understand their preferences.
If we extrapolate across many compounds, could be personalised. More broadly, understanding the
we probably all live in our own unique flavour We would like to see how we could help distribution of certain receptors in
world, says Associate Professor Richard food companies develop better products with different ethnic groups may also
Newcomb, an evolutionary geneticist at the this information, says Newcomb. For help uncover why certain cultures
University of Auckland, who led the research. beta-ionine, for example, a product developer like specific foods, and might help
Newcombs team went on to find that, in might want to make sure they have products us understand the evolution
the case of one of the smelly compounds that are able to target both the good and the of dietary preferences.
beta-ionine, the chemical that gives violets less sensitive smellers.
their distinctive fragrance the difference PENNY SARCHET WHAT DO YOU THINK?
` Would you like to see foodstuffs
tailored to your genes?
TIMELINE Let us know your thoughts at
facebook.com/sciencefocus
How the genetic link to odour sensitivity emerged
1918 1931 1986 2006 2007 2013

American botanist Albert In a lab mishap, scientists The genes for the eye A genetic difference in a The chemical androstenone A research team in New
Francis Blakeslee reports discover that some people pigments humans use to human taste-receptor is smells like flowers to some Zealand finds groups of
that humans differ in their are unable to sense the detect colour are identified. found to affect how plants people and like urine to genes that determine our
sensitivity to the scents of bitter-tasting chemical Red-green colour blindness like broccoli, which contain others. It's the first sensitivity to four odours,
some flowers, finding that phenylthiocarbamide. This is found to be linked to phenylthiocarbamide-like difference in smell traced almost doubling the known
some are blind to the difference is found to be changes in the red and chemicals, taste to to genetic differences in genetic associations with
smell of some verbenas. under genetic control. green pigment genes. different individuals. an odorant receptor. smell sensitivity.

Discoveries
1 MINUTE EXPERT
The Chelyabinsk meteor
E-skin
appeared as a fireball in
the Russian sky. Inset: Whats that?
Fragments of the space rock
Its a flexible, paper-thin
material that lights up when
touched. Just like real skin, it
senses pressure: the harder its
pressed, the brighter it shines.
How was it made?

Researchers at the University
of California, Berkeley coated a
silicon wafer with a thin layer
Astronomy of plastic. Once the plastic had
hardened, the skins electronic
Siberian space rocks neighbours components were stacked on
top. The silicon base was then
may head our way peeled away, leaving a bendy
film embedded with sensors.
T
HE DAYLIGHT FIREBALL that If indeed the Chelyabinsk superbolide How does it work?
exploded like a second sun over the was a fragment of 2011 EO40, or any other The e-skins surface consists of
Siberian city of Chelyabinsk earlier asteroid for that matter, it is very likely that a grid of pixels each housing a
this year may be part of a family many other fragments were produced during transistor, an organic light-
that threatens more impacts in future. the break-up event, says Carlos. emitting diode (OLED) and
The 18m-wide, 11,000-tonne space rock The existence of sibling chunks suggests a rubber sensor embedded
appeared without warning on 15 February. that similar impacts with Earth could occur with conductive carbon
It deposited a shower of meteorites around in the future. However, the brothers admit nanoparticles. Pressing a sensor
Lake Chebarkul following a sonic boom that that more work and observations are needed brings the nanoparticles closer
shattered windows, damaged buildings and to refine the orbits of 2011 EO40 and other together, increasing the current
injured more than 1,000 people. possible relatives. and brightening the OLED. Only
From its track through the atmosphere, More proof that 2011 E040 was the source of the pixels being pressed light up.
filmed by several cameras, estimates of the the superbolide would come if samples from
impactors orbit have been made. From that the two objects matched. Unfortunately, a What could it be used for?
data, two scientist brothers have run billions sample-return mission would cost a fortune The e-skin could provide robots
of computer simulations to help them identify and require several years of planning, says with a finer sense of touch, or
around 20 asteroids on similar tracks. Carlos. But a quicker, and cheap, alternative be used to create an interactive
Professors Carlos and Ral de la Fuente would be spectroscopy. wallpaper. Extra sensors could
Marcos, who study orbital dynamics at the A large ground-based telescope or the also be incorporated into the
Complutense University of Madrid, say the Hubble Space Telescope may be able to e-skin so that it can detect
most likely source of the space rock that hit obtain the spectrum of 2011 EO40 when it things other than pressure. For
Chelyabinsk is a 200-metre wide asteroid becomes bright enough in June next year. If example, it might be wrapped
labelled 2011 EO40. They suggest 2011 EO40 the composition deduced from the spectrum around a patients arm to
and Februarys impactor may both be matches the one found for the meteorites, a monitor their temperature
fragments of a larger asteroid that broke genetic relationship can be claimed. and pulse rate.
up between 20,000 and 40,000 years ago. PAUL SUTHERLAND
WHOS IN What did he say? the ground that contains a When will it be built?
He proposed a Hyperloop special environment. Thats far from clear. Musk
THE NEWS? that would carry passengers says hes too busy working
Elon Musk between Los Angeles and San Whats so special about on SpaceX and Tesla to build
Billionaire founder Francisco in aluminium pods the environment? the network himself, and is
of SpaceX and at up to 1,220km/h (760mph). Each pod would be suspended hoping others will take up
co-founder of Tesla In a document outlining his on a cushion of air and be the challenge. Theres also
idea (http://bit.ly/17JKhpq) propelled through the low- the small matter of cost: an
Motors and PayPal
he says: Short of figuring out pressure tubes by magnets and estimated $6bn for a system
real teleportation the only fans. Capsules would travel with people-only pods, or
option for superfast travel is between the cities in a loop, $10bn for pods carrying
to build a tube over or under departing every 30 seconds. cars as well as passengers.

Discoveries
L PATENTLY OBVIOUS
Inventions and discoveries that will change the world with James Lloyd
Photos get rate, blood pressure and blood

more personal oxygen level.
Once the system has tagged the
THE LAST FEW years have seen photo with your bodily statistics,
an explosion in the number of youll be able to sort your snaps
personal health- and fitness- by the state you were in when you
monitoring gadgets. Now, though, took them. This means youll be
Sony is looking to take things able to create an album of those
further by tagging photos with pulse-racing close encounters
your vital signs. while on safari in Africa or just
Sonys system will use hidden track your stress levels over the
sensors in your smartphone to course of a family Christmas. The
record your biological data as you technology might also let you take
take a photo. These sensors, a selfie embedded with your vital
which could be concealed in the signs that you could then send to
camera button or inside the your GP for analysis.
devices casing, could measure Patent application number:
your body temperature, pulse US 20130182144
Touchy-feely gadgets between landscape and portrait The stray ski finder
orientation as on current devices.
WERE ACCUSTOMED TO having Some of the sensors may also Darren Grix in Kent has invented
touchscreens on our gadgets, but incorporate fingerprint recognition a device called FindSki to help
now Microsoft is looking to cover to instantly unlock the device as retrieve skis that have been lost
its entire devices with a sensitive you pick it up. Touch-sensitivity on in deep powder snow. You wear
skin thatll respond to your every the back of the device will let you a pouch on your leg containing a
whim. Microsofts patent navigate websites, control media brightly-coloured beacon in the
application describes how its players and flick through eBooks form of a nylon disk. When a ski
touch-aware skin will be without obscuring the screen. comes off, it pulls on a cord
embedded with a grid of sensors. Two devices sporting this attached to the beacon, popping
These will detect how youre technology could even interact it out of the pouch. The cord then
gripping the device, automatically with each other bumping them retracts, pulling the beacon
shifting the position of menus, edge-to-edge, for example, might towards the ski so that you can
windows, and other on-screen transfer photos between them. easily locate it.
interfaces to match your grip Patent application number: Patent application number:
pattern, beyond simply swapping US 20130181902 GB 2498985
Volunteers camped in that monitored light levels and became more synchronised with
the Rockies without THEY
PHOTO: KENNETH WRIGHT ILLUSTRATOR: ROBIN BOYDEN
any artificial lights DID their sleeping habits. the rising and setting of the Sun.
WHAT?! On average, they fell asleep and
Why did they do this? woke up two hours earlier than
Scientists wanted to nd out usual, with those who were night
Volunteers abandon how articial light affects our owls experiencing the most
articial light sleeping patterns. Before the trip, dramatic shifts. The researchers
the volunteers had their normal at the University of Colorado
Eight volunteers spent a week sleeping patterns monitored. Boulder say that increasing our
camping without any sources of exposure to natural light can reset
articial light, including torches, So what happened? our body clocks, helping us to feel
wearing watches with sensors The campers sleep cycles more lively in the morning.

Discoveries
Genetics
Genetic Adam and HOT TOPIC

Eve lived around Would you eat a
lab-grown burger?
the same time The 215,000 burger
IT TOOK
three months
Male Y and 215,000 to
chromosomes make, and the
(left) can be first lab-grown
traced back
to a common burger got a largely
ancestor positive response
at a recent tasting
event in London.
The burger,
grown by Professor Mark Post at
Maastricht University in the Netherlands,
started off as stem cells extracted from
cow muscle tissue. Their job is usually to
repair damaged tissue by turning into new
muscle cells. These cells were cultured
with nutrients to help them develop and
multiply. They were then turned into
muscle cells by stretching them, and
subsequently compacted into a patty. A
dash of beetroot juice and saffron gave the
burger its pinkish hue and breadcrumbs
improved its consistency.
This, the worlds most expensive burger
the development of which was funded
by Google co-founder Sergey Brin had an
intense taste said Hanni Rtzler of the
Future of Food Studio, who was the first
to taste it at the event. Its close to meat,
but its not that juicy. The consistency is
perfect. She added that the lack of fat
meant the centre of the burger was not
A
LMOST ALL MEN alive today can one man had the good fortune to have his as juicy as it might have been.
trace their male Y chromosome back Y chromosome survive to this day, says
to a common ancestor who walked the David Poznik, co-author of the research.
Earth around 140,000 years ago, a new
study reveals. Y-chromosomal Adam, as
One womans mitochondrial DNA survives
to this day, too.
` WHAT DO YOU THINK?
Let us know your opinions at
facebook.com/sciencefocus and our
hes known, likely walked the planet at the The team arrived at their estimates forum at sciencefocus.com/forum
same time as Mitochondrial Eve, the most by sequencing the parts of the genome
recent common ancestor of modern women. that are passed from generation to Marcus Vinicius Custodio
Previous estimates of when the genetic generation without mixing part of the Y I would undoubtedly go for
Adam and Eve lived have suggested that chromosome, and also mitochondrial DNA, synthetic meat.
they were around at different times which is passed from mother to son and
around 100,000 and 200,000 years ago daughter and so provides a route to trace @aaronmortimer Put it in a Petri
dish-grown tiger bread roll and
PHOTO: SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY, PRESS ASSOCIATION
respectively. But new research at Stanford the maternal lineage.

University suggests that Y-chromosomal By comparing these regions from 69 youve got a deal!
Adam lived earlier, between 120,000 and geographically diverse men, the team
@geoffrey I would. Youve got to
156,000 years ago roughly the same time identified thousands of tiny genetic
try moo things
as Mitochondrial Eve, who lived between sequence variations, hewn by random
99,000 and 148,000 years ago. mutation over the millennia. Knowing this, @NexusJim Yes! Its one of the
Although the new calculations indicate and also the rate at which mutations arise only ways to sustain the ever
that they may have been contemporaries in in a population over time, they were able growing human population either
Africa, its unlikely this genetic Adam and to calculate when our common male and that or a bug burger. Mmmm tasty!
Eve ever met. There were tens of thousands female ancestors would have lived.
of humans around at the time. Its just that HELEN PILCHER

Discoveries
CLICK HERE with Kelly Oakes

New websites, blogs and podcasts
DISCOVER VOYAGER
discovervoyager.com/
voyager1.php
Follow Voyager 1s journey
from Earth to the edge of the
Solar System with this site
created for the International
Space Apps Challenge, led by
NASA. To help you get to grips
with just how far Voyager 1 is
from Earth, you can see both its distance in kilometres, and how
long a signal takes to get there.
A system devised in
Germany may make
for less bumpy flights
CHRIS HADFIELD
bit.ly/HadeldSound
Aeronautics Life on the International
Space Station isnt all
Lasers detect clear non-stop excitement. Hear
some of the more mundane
noises recorded by Canadian
air turbulence astronaut Chris Hadfield
during his time in orbit
including the sounds of
C
LEAR-AIR TURBULENCE reflect off air molecules and the space station toilet and find out how the guitar he used
is invisible, deadly travel back to the instrument. to cover Bowies Space Oddity got into space in the first place.
and can strike at any By measuring the amount
moment. But pilots may of back-scattered light, the
soon be able to spot it before system can estimate the NATURE GRAPHICS
it happens, thanks to a laser number of air molecules and naturegraphics.tumblr.com
system being developed by so calculate the density of Exactly how do you go
European scientists. the air ahead. about drawing an invisibility
Clear-air turbulence (CAT) Clear-air turbulence cloak? Go behind the scenes
occurs in apparently calm causes small fluctuations in with the graphics team at
skies. It can cause a plane air density, says Dr Patrick the journal Nature as they
to plunge violently, jostling Vrancken at DLRs Institute visualise difficult scientific
passengers and, in rare cases, of Atmospheric Physics. By concepts and make them
causing fatal injuries. Aircraft detecting these variations, we understandable. If you like
most often encounter CAT expect to spot turbulence up your science presented visually, youll enjoy learning about the
near the edges of jet streams to 10-15km ahead, and we hope effort and thought that goes into making such images.
fast, narrow air currents to increase this to 30km.
high up in the atmosphere. This would provide around
When the edge of a jet stream two minutes warning, giving MINUTE EARTH
PHOTO: GERMAN AEROSPACE CENTRE, APRIL ISCH/UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO
interacts with slower-moving pilots a chance to warn youtube.com/minuteearth

air, it can create waves and passengers to fasten their Minute Earth is a series of
vortices that alter the airflow seatbelts, or even to plan a new short, snappy animated films
over the aircrafts wings, route around the region. about our planet, tackling
causing sudden lurches. At the moment, our system topics as diverse as where
Theres currently no is designed to work when the the hottest place on Earth
accurate way to detect CAT, air is free from aerosols such is, what beer has to do with
but researchers at the German as dust, sand and sea salt, biodiversity and why we
Aerospace Centre (DLR) are adds Vrancken. These pollute drive on the left while most
now testing a device that they our measurements. Our next European countries drive on
hope will do just that. Their step is to develop a way to the right. If you like this, then
LIDAR (Light Detection and filter out this extra noise so KELLY OAKES is a make sure to also check out
Ranging) instrument sends that our system works in all science journalist creator Henry Reichs original
out ultraviolet laser rays in atmospheric conditions. who tweets from and still ongoing YouTube
front of the plane. These JAMES LLOYD @kahoakes series Minute Physics.

Discoveries
GRAPHIC SCIENCE
Seeing research differently
Tiny bush-cricket
makes a racket
AN INSECT THAT was believed to be extinct arachnoides, they found that the males High-speed video showed the bush-crickets
until it was rediscovered in Columbia last songs can reach up to 110dB. produce their calls by rubbing one wing
year has been found to be one of the loudest Much of the insects song is ultrasonic against a row of teeth on the other. But
creatures on the planet. When researchers too high for human ears to detect and so unlike most other species of bush-cricket,
at the University of Lincoln measured the the researchers used ultrasound-sensitive male Arachnosclis produce their calls as the
calls of the bush-cricket, Arachnosclis equipment to measure how loud they are. wing opens, rather than as it closes.
NEWS IN BRIEF
Gut flora keep us special Solar magnetic flip due Proto-mammal had spurs Was this a predecessor
of all living mammals
or just of cowboys?
Gut bacteria may play an unlikely According to NASA, the Suns A newly discovered fossil has
role in the origin of new species. magnetic eld will ip over the next provided the most detailed picture
Biologists at Vanderbilt University in few months. But dont worry, this is yet of a prototype mammal that
the US analysed the gut microbes just a regular part of the Suns life lived 165 million years ago. The
in two wasp species. When the cycle, occurring around once every skeleton of rat-sized Megaconus
two species were cross-bred, the 11 years. In fact, astronauts will be mammaliaformis, found in China,
hybrid wasps developed a new set exposed to fewer cosmic rays sported spurs on the back of its
of gut microbes that caused them because the electrical current that heels, which may have contained
to die. It seems microbes help keep permeates space is disturbed while poison. The creature had
the two species apart, allowing them the ip is taking place, causing it to mammal-like features long before
to continue evolving separately. act as a shield. the rst true mammals came along.

Discoveries
DOOMWATCH with Bill McGuire

Nanotechnology
Nanorobots: The worlds biggest natural disasters in waiting
coming soon to Istanbul is in line to be

hit by a massive quake
NORTH ANATOLIAN FAULT
Where: Marmara Sea, Turkey
a cell inside you THE NORTH ANATOLIAN Fault, which
slices across northern Turkey, has been
unzipping bit by bit and from east to west
since the 1930s, triggering destructive
earthquakes that have been getting ever
closer to the great metropolis of Istanbul.
The last, a lethal magnitude-7.4 quake just
70km (43 miles) east of the city in 1999,
took 17,000 lives. Now, researchers at
Germanys Centre for Geosciences in Potsdam, have identied a locked
section of the fault beneath the Marmara Sea, south of Istanbul. This
part of the fault is unmoving because it is accumulating the strain that
will drive the next quake expected to be magnitude 7 or bigger. Some
estimates put the likelihood of a quake of this magnitude hitting Istanbul
Nanobots with mechanical parts between now and 2030 as high as 65 per cent.
might still be in the realms of
science fiction, but DNA-based
bots have already been put to work
Nevado del Ruiz: NEVADO DEL RUIZ
a time bomb VOLCANO
SELF-ASSEMBLING NANOROBOTS that can home in on Where: Central Colombia
and deliver molecules to specific cells have been created in IN 1985, THE Nevado del Ruiz volcano
the lab and tested in a human blood sample. Its thought the hosted the second biggest volcanic
system, described in a paper in the online edition of the journal catastrophe since Krakatoa blasted itself
Nature Nanotechnology, could be used to highlight diseased apart in 1883. The eruption responsible
or malfunctioning cells in the body, and deliver therapeutic was not huge, but hot ows of ash and
molecules to them. gas melted the summit glacier, sending
Our blood contains various different cell types. In this proof millions of tonnes of water cascading into
of principle experiment, the tiny automata were designed the valleys below. Picking up debris as
to seek out just one of them, white blood cells, and attach a they went, the oods rapidly turned into mudows that buried the town
fluorescent tag to the cells surfaces. But theres no reason why of Armero and other communities, taking 25,000 lives. After a quarter
other cell types in the body cant be targeted, or the fluorescent of a century of calm, small eruptions in 2012 led to increased concern.
tag replaced with a drug or a toxin. This means we can design Frequent tremors during July this year point to fresh magma on the move
a system to target, treat or kill specific cells cancer cells again and there are worries that a new eruption is on the way. Half a
perhaps without affecting similar healthy cells, says Dr Milan million people are now thought to be under threat from mudows.
Stojanovic at Columbia University Medical Center, who designed
the system. This could help minimise side effects.
While similar nanorobots have been designed to deliver drugs NORTH ATLANTIC
to cells before, Dr Stojanovics nanobots can pinpoint cells that HURRICANES
dont have a single characteristic that identifies them. Cancer Where: Caribbean, US east coasts
cells rarely have a single feature, such as a particular type of A NEW STUDY by the UK Met Office
receptor, that sets them apart from others. suggests that mankinds polluting activities
The tiny automata are made of discrete DNA-based ingredients may have had one positive impact.
which rapidly self-assemble into a functional unit when they Between the start of June and the end
interact with the cell of interest. Three of the components are of November every year, hurricanes
DNA strands attached to antibodies. Each antibody recognises Hurricane Katrina are the scourge of the North Atlantic,
devastated New
and binds to a different protein on the target cell. Once all three with as many as 15 causing widespread
Orleans in 2005
PHOTO: SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY, THINKSTOCK, NASA X2
are in place, a fourth component then triggers a chain reaction devastation and loss of life in some years.
within the assembled nanorobot. This sees a fifth component According to the Met Office report, however, it seems things could
here, a piece of DNA with a fluorescent maker deliver its have been worse. The authors show that hurricane activity in the 20th
payload to the cell surface. Century was suppressed to varying degrees by aerosols tiny particles
Its because this system targets combinations of three or pumped into the atmosphere by
four cell-defining proteins that its so efficient at pinpointing power stations, factories, vehicles
specific cell types. Sometimes, cells can also be defined by the and the like. These acted to cool BILL MCGUIRE is
the North Atlantic by reecting Professor of Geophysical
lack of a particular protein. With this in mind, the system can
& Climate Hazards
also be tweaked to recognise a cell that expresses two proteins, the Suns energy back into space,
at University College
but lacks expression of a third. making it more difficult for heat- London and the author
HELEN PILCHER loving hurricanes to form. of Waking The Giant

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Discoveries
Tiny flying robots are Environmental science

here, and theyre coming
to raid your piggy bank Cactus-inspired needles
could clean up oil spills
TAKING A TIP from the way cactus
needles pull water from the air,
researchers have designed tiny synthetic
spikes that can remove oil from water.
Living in dry environments, cacti have
evolved some nifty ways to collect water.
Last year, researchers discovered that a
cactus called Opuntia microdasys uses
tapered spines to draw water from the air.
When water droplets land near the tip of
one of the spines, theyre distorted into
a flattened, clam-like shape. As surface
tension in the droplets forces them back
into a circular shape, it pushes them
towards the base of the spine.
Inspired by this, researchers at the
Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing
Robotics made similar spines from materials
including copper and a silicone polymer.
Micro bot lifts off When these were immersed in a mixture

of oil and water, submerged oil droplets
travelled towards the base of the needles
H
ALF THE SIZE of a paperclip, an Key to RoboBees precise manoeuvres at a rate of around 2mm per second. Using
exceptionally agile flying robot are its wafer-thin wings. Thanks to hexagonal arrays of silicone needles,
could represent the future of piezoelectric actuators strips of ceramic the scientists were able to separate up
search and rescue operations, or be that expand and contact when an electric to 99 per cent of the oil.
used for artificial pollination. RoboBee field is applied the robot can flap its The system could provide a new way
comes straight from the cutting edge of wings up to 120 times per second. to clean up oil spills. When oil enters
micromanufacturing and can perform As it weighs in at only 80mg, the seawater, some of it breaks down into
precise flight manoeuvres similar to those RoboBee is vulnerable to even the smaller, microscopic droplets that are too
of a house-fly. slightest changes in airflow, and so dense to float, says Dr Thomas Azwell, an
Researchers at the microrobotics lab at requires an unusually fast control system. environmental scientist at the University
Harvard University in the US modelled The teams next challenges will be to of California, Berkeley, who wasnt
RoboBee on the morphology of a fly develop tiny batteries and digital brains involved in the research. Current clean-
in an attempt to duplicate the insects that would allow the bots to fly without up technologies only focus on the oil
aerial expertise. The bot represents the being attached to a wire. near the surface, but an array of needles
culmination of over a decades work. NATALIE KEIR submerged underwater could capture
those oil droplets below.
JAMES LLOYD
Marine biology
Dolphins recognise old friends 20 years on
THEY CALL HIM Flipper/No-one, you of former friends up to 20 years after
PHOTO: KEVIN MA/PAKPONG CHIRARATTANANON, SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY
see, is smarter than he. It turns out the they had been separated.
1960s TV theme tune isnt so far off the Dolphins ignored the signature calls
mark, as a new study reveals that dolphins of unfamiliar animals. But when they
can remember each others signature heard the whistles of dolphins they had
whistles for decades. associated with previously, they swam
Just as we have our own names, straight towards the underwater speaker.
dolphins have their own unique signature Some whistled back and one mother
whistle, a pithy signal that they respond dolphin even shepherded her calf towards
to and use to communicate over long the sound, to listen to the calls of a
distances. Dr Jason Bruck at the dolphin shed once known.
University of Chicago in Illinois played This study suggests that dolphins form
the signature whistles of previous pool- lifelong social memories. Their 20-year
mates and total strangers to 43 different recall is the longest such memory ever Cactus spines have
inspired a new system
captive dolphins, and found the marine recorded for a non-human animal. for cleaning up oil spills
mammals were able to recognise the calls HELEN PILCHER

Comment
INSIDE SCIENCE
ROBERT MATTHEWS
Politicians need to rely on science not headlines to make decisions
T
HE ANNUAL RITUAL of putting the clocks back
at the end of this month always puts me in a xxxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxxxxxx
bad mood, and not just because of the darker
evenings. Its an annual reminder of what
happens when decisions are based on emotion
rather than facts.
Specifically, it reminds me of an experiment that
began in October 1968, when the Government ruled that
the clocks were to be left on British Summer Time (BST)
for three years, to find out the benefits of swapping
lighter mornings for an extra hour of light in the evenings.
Hardly had the experiment started than the media began
carrying stories of kids being killed on the roads as they
made their way to school in darkness. It seemed as if the
experiment was a catastrophic mistake.
But the statisticians monitoring the outcome werent
so sure. They saw the experiment as an exercise in
something politicians now trumpet all the time: evidence-
based policymaking. And when the data emerged, it
revealed something startling. While the number of road
deaths in the darker mornings had indeed increased, it
was more than cancelled out by the reduced deaths in
the evenings. The statisticians estimated there was a net
saving of around 2,500 deaths and serious injuries over
the winter.
Yet it made no difference. A few months after the
publication of the data, the experiment was stopped. The
politicians couldnt cope with the fact that the statistical
benefit was just that: a statistic. No-one could actually Scientists had to wrestle with politicians when it came to
point to 2,500 people and say theyd dodged calamity a British Summer Time experiment; the politicians won
by the switch to lighter
evenings. In contrast, the
media had no trouble at
Hard evidence often Herceptin, the support groups have teamed up with the media to
force ministers to overrule the evidence-based decisions of NICE.
all finding actual families loses out to tabloid The result was stories crowing about victories for patients and the
whose loved ones had been media while ignoring the fact that in a cash-strapped health service,
killed through the accidents sentiment when that meant less money for proven therapies that benefit more patients.
in the mornings.
So the objective reality
politicians are trying Then theres the flip-side, where ministers refuse to cave in,
despite evidence that theyre wrong. This has long blighted policy on
lost out to the emotional to decide policy issues with a public morality element, like alcohol and recreational
response whipped up drugs. For years, ministers have been told that the dangers of drugs
by the media. And that has led to thousands of lives being lost like ecstasy have been overplayed, while those from alcohol need
unnecessarily over the last 45 years. Even today, hard evidence more attention. And for years, ministers have chosen to ignore the
often loses out to tabloid sentiment when politicians are trying to evidence for fear of a tabloid backlash about being soft on drugs.
decide policy. In the late 1990s, the government had another shot at No-one is saying that deciding policy is easy. Nor are scientists
ILLUSTRATOR: STEPHEN COLLINS
putting evidence at the heart of policy decisions by setting up what always right. But ministers should have more faith in science, and
is now called the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence worry less about headlines. First, it would increase their chances of
(NICE), to decide which new therapies are fit for use by the NHS. making the right decision. And second, when some policy does prove
This isnt just a matter of checking that the therapy actually works; incorrect, theyll be able to say the original decision was based on
it also has to be cost-effective. And that means weighing the cost of the best available scientific
the therapy against the benefit to the patients. Inevitably, NICE has evidence. Which sounds a
often found itself harangued by patient support groups for refusing ROBERT MATTHEWS is Visiting bit more statesmanlike than
to approve some expensive wonder-drug whose benefits simply Reader in Science at Aston saying it was based on getting
arent cost-effective. In some cases, such as the breast-cancer drug University, Birmingham positive coverage in The Sun.

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Comment
EVERYDAY SCIENCE
HELEN CZERSKI
Spilled your coffee? Its an opportunity to explore the strange world of molecules
C
OFFEE STAINS ARE weird. Youd think that spilled
coffee would leave behind a uniform dark patch,
but it doesnt. Instead, you get a dark ring outlining
where the coffee spill was, an accusatory record
of your clumsiness. Its a bit like a line drawn
around a body at a crime scene. I dont drink much coffee,
but I made some today and Ive been playing with it all
morning. A large flat ceramic dish is sitting in the kitchen,
decorated with the blobs and circles. Im enjoying this
game, because it lets me play with some of the tiny forces
that are moving the microscopic world around. We cant
see them directly, but the coffee is dancing to their tune.
We think of coffee as being a magical witchs brew, full
of mysterious ingredients that might perk us up, make us
irritable, improve short-term memory, stop us sleeping and
draw us into caffeine addiction. Actually, its mostly water.
Only 1 per cent comes from the coffee plant, and those
molecules are carried along by the water like a sneaky
stowaway. When the coffee sloshes onto the table, it
behaves just like water normally does. It stays in a patch,
held in at the edges by surface tension.
Ive been trying to draw a teddy bear. Ive put circular
droplets next to each other to make a coffee spill with a
rotund tummy, ears worthy of Mickey Mouse, and one
leg bigger than the other. Its warm, so the water starts
to evaporate. Tiny molecules drift off into the atmosphere
from all over the top of the spill. Youd think the coffee
patch would shrink. But it doesnt. By a quirk of surface
science, the edges have to stay where they are. Theyre
stuck on the rough surface. So to refill the edges of the
shape, coffee has to travel outward from the centre until
it gets to the edges. As I watch my bear-shaped blob, Surface tension and
capillary action can
an invisible slow conveyer belt of coffee is crawling from turn a coffee stain
his tummy towards his ears and legs. into a work of art
At the edges, the water evaporates, but the freeloading
coffee cant. Tiny
coffee particles build forces are even. Its called capillary action, and its most noticeable
up at the edge of the
spill, because they
Tiny forces between when theres a really narrow space that water can squeeze in to.
Water is sticky, and itll stick to some surfaces and crawl along
have nowhere else molecules can move them, pulling other water with it. This is what happens when water
to go. The forces
keeping the edges of
water around, and we is absorbed by paper towels, when clothing wicks sweat away
from your skin, and its how trees transport water up their trunks.
the shape in place get hints of that hidden Society would probably frown on someone of my age spilling
ILLUSTRATOR: GEMMA ROBINSON
are so strong that the

centre of the spill is
world by just letting a coffee deliberately, but I think we should all play with our food more.
I like the thought that the tiny forces between jostling molecules can
completely emptied coffee spill sit move water around, and that we can get hints of that hidden world
out. Almost all the by just letting a coffee spill sit
coffee in the spill is now stuck at the edge of the shape. My teddy for a bit. Anyway, I never liked
bear has become a line drawing. DR HELEN CZERSKI is a physicist, drinking the stuff so it might as
Tiny flows like this happen all around us, and we rely on them. The oceanographer and BBC science well provide entertainment.
bonds between water molecules are really strong, and if there is a presenter who appears regularly Ive nearly got enough for a
stronger pull in one place than another, the water will flow until all the on Dara O Briains Science Club teddy bears picnic

How new discoveries are rewriting
the history of our cosmos
Words: Stuart Clark
ILLUSTRATOR: MAGICTORCH

T
HIS YEAR COULD go down in
the astronomical textbooks as the
one when a revolution in our
understanding of the Universe
began. The iconoclast at the centre
of this upheaval is not a person but a
machine: a space probe called Planck.
Named after the great German physicist
Max Planck, the spacecraft was launched by
the European Space Agency (ESA) in 2009,
tasked with detecting the blueprint of the
Universe a snapshot of the seeds of the
stars and galaxies that surround us today.
For almost a century, cosmologists have
been busily constructing mathematical
theories that describe the story of the
Universe from the earliest moments to the
present day. But now, analysis of Plancks
blueprint is revealing a number of plot
holes, or anomalies as the scientists call
them, that dont seem to fit the story.
For one thing, data from Planck indicates
that the Universe is older than expected by
about 50 million years. It also contains more
of the mysterious dark matter and fewer
atoms than previously thought. And while
these may sound serious, in reality they are
the least of a cosmologists worries.
Much more troubling is the so-called
cold spot in the radiation from the early
Universe that Planck has recorded a
region that looks significantly colder than
current theories allow. Indeed, the
temperature pattern across the whole
Universe looks strangely lopsided.
New discoveries such as these are
shedding new light on the history of our
Universe: the story of how we arrived
at the cosmos we see around us today.

FEBRUARY 47
THE S TORY OF THE UNIVERSE
Lancaster University. While the experiment

can show what particles were prevalent in
CHAPTER ONE: the primordial Universe, theoreticians then
have to form a theory to understand them.
THE BIG BANG String theory is a possible quantum
theory of gravity, but it is unclear whether
it bears any resemblance to reality, because
THE VERY MOMENT of the Big the mathematics are currently unable to
Bang remains shrouded in as much predict anything that can be tested in a
mystery as ever. Its the point at which the laboratory or observed in the Universe.
Universe began space and time were So for now, the moment of the Big Bang
formed and all the matter and energy that remains terra incognito.
we see around us somehow came into
existence. Data from the Planck telescope
now indicates this happened 13.82 billion
years ago. Initially, there were no stars or CHAPTER TWO:
galaxies, just a hot, dense sea of particles
and radiation. INFLATION
Straight after the Big Bang, space began 10-35 seconds after the Big Bang
to expand, spreading out the matter and
The CMS detector at the Large Hadron Collider (top, below)
energy. The trouble is the theory that we is looking for particles that could make up dark matter
use to understand the expansion, UNTIL PLANCK, ALMOST every
Einsteins Theory of General Relativity, observation of the Universes largest
will not work at the extreme densities of scales had suggested that it is remarkably
the Big Bang and so physicists are uniform. Sure, there are clusters of
searching for a way to extend it. galaxies and huge voids, but even these are
The best template is quantum theory, pretty small when the Universe as a whole
which deals with the physics of the very is considered.
small and provides a basis for all the forces As a result, cosmologists had developed
of nature, except gravity. To investigate a mathematical framework called inflation
such a theory, scientists must turn to the to explain the uniformity. First proposed
Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN in 1980 by Alan Guth, a particle physicist
in Switzerland, which recreates the from the Massachusetts Institute of
conditions thought to have been present Technology, it postulated that right after
in the Universe a fraction of a second the Big Bang a period of extraordinary
after the Big Bang. The LHC gives us a expansion took place. In the blink of an
mini-Universe in the laboratory, says Dr eye, the Universe grew bigger by a factor
Anupam Mazumdar, a cosmologist at of at least 1,060. This would smooth out
PHOTO: CERN X3, NASA
The Large Hadron Collider fires particles

around a 27km (16-mile) ring before
smashing them together to recreate
conditions just after the Big Bang

PLANCKS POSTCARD FROM THE PAST

How detecting radiation thats travelled billions of years provides a window into the early Universe
1 Radiation and matter 2 When the Universe cools sufficiently, the 3 The microwave background was 4 The microwave radiation travelled
are produced by the Big radiation and matter go their separate ways. Its rst released as visible light but the across space for billions of years before
Bang, but are locked this radiation that forms the cosmic microwave expansion of the Universe has stretched reaching the Planck spacecraft. The
together in a hot plasma. background (CMB). it and turned it into microwaves. observatory built up a map of this CMB.
Big Dark First Galaxies

Bang ages stars and planets
form form
TIME
13.82 billion years
FROM A POSTCARD TO PROFOUND CONCLUSIONS

PLANCKS DATA CAN tell cosmologists expected 72.8 per cent, and 26.8 per cent
the age of the Universe in a roundabout
Dark The Universe after Planck
dark matter rather than the 22.7 per cent
way. Unfortunately, it is not as simple as
matter
previously thought. The percentage of atoms
just measuring it. Instead, scientists try to changes slightly from 4.5 per cent to 4.9 per 26.8%
reproduce the Planck map in a computer cent. The earlier gures came from NASAs
simulation. This involves programming what Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe. Dark
cosmologists think the Universe contains into From the total matter content of the energy
a supercomputer, such as the University of Universe, you can then work out the 68.3%
Durhams aptly named Cosmology Machine, expansion rate, known as the Hubble
and then ddling with the various proportions Constant. And from this you can work out the
until they get something that looks like the age of the Universe. Ordinary
actual map. There is a caveat, however. If matter
In doing this, the Planck scientists cosmologists are wrong in their assumptions 4.9%
announced in March that there appears to that dark matter and dark energy exist, then
be 68.3 per cent dark energy instead of the these gures are all totally wrong.

WHAT IS
DARK MAT TER?
The invisible stuff makes up over a quarter of our Universe
ASTRONOMERS AS FAR back in Italy and CDMS in America,

as the 1930s began to suspect but nothing that looks quite what
that there was more matter than theoreticians were expecting.
could be seen in the Universe. Regardless, Dr Rose Lerner,
Today they believe it is subatomic a cosmologist at the University
particles that were potent in the of Helsinki, Finland, is not too
early moments of the Big Bang, bothered. These experiments
but have now virtually lost their are looking for a very specic
ability to interact with normal type of dark matter with a specic
matter, except through gravity. way of interacting, but dark
In modern cosmology, dark matter could be anything.
matter is needed to help galaxies So, the message is keep
form and to keep them spinning calm and carry on looking.
at the rate observed by supplying However, a small group of
extra gravity. The trouble is, there cosmologists think that dark
is no conclusive detection of a matter does not exist and instead
dark matter particle to conrm we are misunderstanding the
its existence. There are a number way gravity works. If this were
of tentative detections from the the case, we would have to A detector is checked at
various dark matter experiments modify Einsteins Theory of the Cryogenic Dark Matter
around the world, such as Xenon General Relativity. Search (CDMS) experiment
deep underground in Minnesota
any large-scale deviation across There is a suspiciously large cold spot science team. And I think that if there
the Universe, making it appear signalling that a vast clump of matter was really is anything to this, you have to
uniform. Only the smallest fluctuations present in the early Universe and it is question how that fits in with inflation.
in the density of matter and energy would much denser than inflation can explain. Its really puzzling.
remain, the cosmologists theorised. More troubling is that there is one side But it may not spell the end for the
Remarkably, these fluctuations were of the Universe where the fluctuations theory of inflation just yet. Instead,
found in 1989 by NASAs COBE satellite, appear stronger than the other, indicating my gut instinct is that these anomalies
and they amount to no more than one an uneven distribution of matter across will point to a more specific model of
part in 100,000. They are the seeds from the whole Universe. This is very strange, inflation, says Dr Rose Lerner, a
which the galaxies have grown. says Dr George Efstathiou, Professor of cosmologist at the University of Helsinki
Planck has measured these fluctuations Astrophysics at the University of in Finland who works independently
in much greater detail. The 500 million Cambridge and a member of the Planck of the Planck consortium.
spacecraft split the sky into a billion pixels
and observed each one a thousand times The Planck telescope has revealed the
during its three-year mission. This Cosmic Microwave Background
PHOTO: FERMILAB, SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY X2, NASA
produced a map of the sea of microwaves in unprecedented detail

that bathe all of space the cosmic
microwave background (CMB) unlike
anything that had been seen before.
It is these subtle fluctuations in this
radiation left over from the Big Bang
that provide astronomers with their
blueprint of the early Universe the
distribution of matter and energy a
fraction of a second after the Big Bang.
When the data from Planck was released
in March, it immediately became clear
that there are problems that the
cosmological community are still trying
to come to terms with.

Another solution to the anomalies, per cent of the Universe remains in the almost 14 billion years travelling across
according to Matthew Kleban of New form of this primordial hydrogen and space, preserving a record of the density
York University, is that during the sudden helium. Only 2 per cent of the original of the various clumps of matter that
expansion that happened during inflation, atoms have been processed into heavier became galaxies. Its this record thats
our Universe slammed into a neighbouring chemical elements while inside stars. providing troubling insights into the
one. This sent shockwaves rippling through inflation that went before.
our cosmos that imprinted the anomalies
we see today. If so, we should think of
them as a cosmic bruise. Testing such a CHAPTER FOUR:
controversial idea, however, is very tricky. CHAPTER FIVE:
THE DECOUPLING OF
THE COSMIC DARK AGES
MATTER AND ENERGY 1 million years after the Big Bang
CHAPTER THREE: 380,000 years after the Big Bang
PARTICLE CREATION INITIALLY THE DECOUPLED radiation
1 minute after the Big Bang THIS IS THE moment when the radiation would have been visible to the human eye,
detected by Planck was released into space. not that there were any humans around
Until then, the Universe had been a searing to see it of course. But the continued
AT ONE MINUTE old, the entire Universe mass of atomic nuclei, lighter particles and expansion of space stretched the
resembled the interior of a star but on a energy. It had been impossible for whole
vast scale. Particles that would become atoms to form because whenever a nucleus A galaxy forms in
the nuclei of all the atoms in the Universe and an electron particle bonded together, the aftermath of the
Big Bang when the
were built in this cauldron. Mostly these the torrent of radiation smashed them Universe was only
were single protons that would become apart again. 100,000 years old
hydrogen, but about a quarter of the Now, the continual expansion of space
particles turned into helium nuclei, weakened the radiation so much that it
containing two protons and two neutrons. could no longer break apart the atoms.
There were also trace amounts of lithium This was a watershed moment because,
and beryllium produced. with most of the previously free particles
The evidence for all of this furious now confined into atoms, it was as though
activity is all around us today in the the fog cleared.
chemical make-up of the Universe. We In the same way that we can see to the
know from measurements of the radiation horizon on Earth on a clear day, so we
given off by our Sun and other stars that 98 can now see this radiation that has spent
In the first second after the Big Bang

(top left) quarks combine to form
protons and neutrons before these
combine to create atomic nuclei three
minutes later (right)

THE HISTORY OF OUR

COSMIC BACK YARD
A new space mission will reveal the dynamic nature of our own Galaxy
2 The spacecraft continually revolves

on its axis, once every six hours. The
computer locates individual stars as they
pass through the eld of view, relaying
their positions back to Earth.
EARTH MOON
150
MIL
LIO
N K
M
SUN
1.5
MIL
LIO
N K
M
A HISTORY OF the Universe wouldnt be Forget 3D: Gaia will compile a fully edged Dr Fernando Gomez of Michigan State
complete without a dig around our astronomical map in no fewer than six dimensions, by tagging University has been making predictions for
back garden. The Milky Way, our home Galaxy, each star with three position co-ordinates and what Gaia will nd in the spherical halo of
is home to a few hundred billion stars, and wed a further three detailing speed and direction. ancient stars surrounding the main galaxy.
like to know how it was built. It might even be If current thinking is correct, the nal 6D chart If we look at halo stars, most of them are
the best place to nd clues to the nature of that will be enough to prove that the Milky Way was supposed to come from smaller galaxies that
most elusive substance, dark matter. assembled from dozens of smaller galaxies. fell in. It can be anything from a few tens to
Gaia the European Space Agencys latest Thats not an easy task: the Milky Way hundreds of galaxies contributing, he says.
telescope is scheduled for launch from today looks smooth, with no clear sign of a If we can nd partially mixed fragments of
French Guiana late in November, after which mish-mash of different ingredients. Galactic galaxies anywhere, itll be here.
it will be in orbit around the Sun, 1.5 million km mixing should go at a leisurely pace, so if Gaia Gaias advanced design and isolated orbit
(932,056 miles) from Earth. There it will build compiles its data accurately enough, we can will let it pinpoint the location of stars to
up an exquisitely detailed picture of the stars separate the stars into their original, long-lost an unprecedented accuracy of 20 micro-
in our Galaxy. mini-galaxies. arcseconds. If your eyes were that powerful

At one minute old,

the entire Universe
resembled the
interior of a star but
on a vast scale
radiation into the infrared and then

into the microwave.
The Universe became dark. Even after
a million years, there were no celestial
objects, so no sources of light. These were
the Cosmic Dark Ages. Slowly the sea of
atoms across the Universe began to
3 Over the ve years, each star will
be seen about 70 times, allowing
its movement to be calculated. The
fragment into clumps, pulling themselves
together to become the first celestial
changing perspective from Gaias own
objects. This was driven by the gravity of
annual orbit around the Sun allows dark matter clouds composed of particles
distances to be determined. that formed shortly after inflation (see
What is dark matter?, on p40).
The Cosmic Dark Ages ended with the
first celestial objects. These could have
been stars or black holes. The first stars
were purely hydrogen and helium, and
some could have been hundreds or even
thousands of times the mass of the Sun.
1 Two telescopes on board
Gaia, each around a metre
across, focus starlight onto
They lived for just hundreds of thousands
of years before destroying themselves and
a 940-megapixel detector, seeding the Universe with the heavier
sending a stream of high-
elements needed to form planets and life.
resolution images to the on-
board computer. In March 2013, the Hubble Space
Telescope pinpointed one of the Universes
oldest stars right on our celestial doorstep.
Known as the Methuselah star, it has an
GAIA estimated age of 14.5 billion years give or
take 0.8 billion years. Its only this margin
of error that means it is potentially
consistent with the supposed age of the
Universe. This might sound like the star
is older than the predicted age of the
Universe, but is more of a quirk of how
accurate we are able to measure the age of
a star. It is speeding through space, just
190 light-years away, and astronomers
think that it was once part of an ancient
youd be able to locate features on the Moon the same way that having two eyes gives galaxy that embedded itself in our own,
to within four centimetres. Even so, Gomez you depth perception. the Milky Way (see The history of our
warns: If you only look at positions in the As well as conrming ideas of how cosmic back yard, opposite).
sky, all the torn up little galaxies overlap galaxies form, Gaia will let us infer the The first black holes were those now
with each other. Only with speeds can we distribution of dark matter. The motion of found at the centres of galaxies. Although
tell they were once separate. Once we can stars is dictated by gravity generated by a black hole emits no light, matter falling
accurately measure positions, the speeds of matter. Stars speed up in dense regions, into its gravitational clutches does heat up
stars become measurable. even if the mass is in the form of dark and emits radiation. They would have
Even then were only recording the particles. So Gaia isnt just about history; it ended the Cosmic Dark Ages as surely as
apparent positions on the sky working will study the make-up of the Universe too. the first stars.
out the distance to a star is a more subtle The first galaxies, known as quasars,
business. Gaia does it by monitoring tiny were voracious monsters. Their feeding
parallax effects as it orbits the Sun. In other DR ANDREW PONTZEN is a cosmologist at black holes gave out as much light as
words, its changing vantage point is used in University College London their collections of stars. Gradually,

THE DARK
ENERGY
MYSTERY
The force thats making our Universe
grow faster remains as elusive as ever
WHEN IT COMES to puzzles that make

cosmologists scratch their heads, they dont
get any bigger than dark energy. It makes
up about two-thirds of the Universe, yet we
have no idea what it is. In the mid 1990s,
astronomers discovered that the Universes
expansion has been speeding up. This
was completely against their expectation;
they thought it would be slowing down as
gravity resisted the movement. Dark energy
represents a kind of antigravity.
It could be an unexpected energy in the
vacuum of space, or it could be a new force
of nature. Either way, it means that we have
to fundamentally rethink our understanding
of the Universe. A third possibility is that we
are getting the sums wrong. Cosmologists
can only solve the equations of General
Relativity if they assume an average density
of matter across the Universe. If there are
large variations of density, then the Universe
will expand at different rates in different
parts of space. As we look out across these
regions, it could look to us as if the Universe
is accelerating in the modern day. This is a
controversial idea. Most cosmologists favour
one of the rst two options. ESAs 2020
mission Euclid will investigate all three ideas.
ESAs Euclid mission will

investigate three theories
that try to solve the mystery
of dark matter
the black holes consumed all the matter in and merge, but these incidents are a pale
their vicinity, leaving only the stars to fraction of the number of cosmic smash-
shine within the galaxy. ups that used to take place. Star formation
PHOTO: NASA X3, SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY X3
is also significantly reduced in the modern

Universe. But dont go thinking that the
Universe became boring.
CHAPTER SIX: The biggest mystery for cosmologists to
solve manifested itself about five billion
PRESENT DAY years ago. A strange energy began to
13.8 billion years after the Big Bang accelerate the expansion of the Universe.
Astronomers call it dark energy but dont
ask them to explain it, yet (see The dark
FROM THE TIME of the quasars until energy mystery, above).
now, the Universe has been growing If Im perfectly honest about it, says An artists impression of todays Universe
with its network of galaxy clusters
steadily. Occasionally, galaxies still collide Dr Tony Padilla, a cosmologist at the

COSMIC
3
The biggest
mystery for
cosmologists to
solve manifested
CONUNDRUMS
We consider ourselves an intelligent species, but we dont know what
95 per cent of the Universe is or its age; heres why were still in the dark
itself about five
billion years ago THE AGE OF THE UNIVERSE
1 Astronomers had felt pretty condent

that they knew the age of the Universe.
Derived from measuring exploding
stars across the length and breadth
of it, the gure they had settled on
was 13.7 billion years. This work had
been honed over decades, so it came
as something of a shock when the
Planck telescope showed that the
Universe is more likely to be 13.8 billion
years old. Its slightly surprising, but
I think that every time you measure
more precisely you should expect the
The Universe is now thought central value to move a little, says
to be 13.8 billion years old Dr Rose Lerner, of the University of
Helsinki, Finland.
V-shaped IC 3184 is two galaxies ploughing into each other.

Collisions like this were far more frequent in the early Universe NATURE OF THE DARK ENERGY
It is the biggest conundrum facing
University of Nottingham, were nowhere
near to understanding what it is. Taking
quantum physics as a starting point
2 modern physics. Observations say that
dark energy makes up about two-thirds
of the contents of the Universe. Quantum
predicts a strength for dark energy that is theory says that it should be vastly more.
monstrously large compared to what is To make matter worse, no-one has a clue
observed. It really makes no sense, and its what it is. Most observations suggest
that it is some form of energy but some
a problem thats been swept under the
data is hinting that it could be an
carpet for too long, says Padilla.
unanticipated force of nature. That
But maybe not for much longer: ESA is
would be a game-changer in terms of
busy developing the Euclid mission, slated what comes next, says Dr Tony Padilla
for launch in 2020. It will investigate with at the University of Nottingham. We may
extreme precision the way in which the Dark energy is powering the expansion of the be able to construct experiments to
Universe is expanding as a means of Universe, driving clusters of galaxies apart
investigate a new force.
determining the precise effect of dark
energy and, in doing so, providing an
important clue as to what it is.
Clearly, the story of the Universe has not THE DRIVER OF INFLATION
3
yet reached its conclusion. And with the No one can nd a solution to what
rate of new discoveries gathering pace, sparked ination the extremely
make sure you stay tuned. rapid growth of the Universe that took
What was it that place after the Big Bang. Scientists
sparked the Universes would like to nd the answer in particle
DR STUART CLARK is an astronomer, journalist rapid period of inflation? physics. However, this is difficult
and author of The Skys Dark Labyrinth trilogy because the sudden expansion of the
early Universe took place at vastly
larger energy levels than can be
Find out more achieved in a particle accelerator
such as the LHC, the most powerful
Listen to In Our Time - The Age ever built. The hypothetical particle
of the Universe on BBC Radio 4 responsible is called the ination. Some
http://bbc.in/LNnjG0 scientists believe that it is the Higgs
boson, but this is far from proven.
Cosmologist Sean Carroll discusses time and
whether we live in a multiverse in a TED talk.
http://tinyurl.com/n3cqkjy

With the new lm
Gravity featuring
two astronauts
whose spacecraft is
hit by debris, what
are the real dangers
posed by exploring
the high frontier?
Words: Kelly Oakes
T
WO ASTRONAUTS FLOAT in
space, working on the Hubble
Space Telescope. Suddenly, a
rogue piece of satellite crashes
into the Space Shuttle that got
them there. Hubble is hit by a
piece of debris, too, knocking it
out of its orbit. As the Shuttle
is destroyed, the robotic arm that
astronaut Ryan Stone is tethered to
begins spinning out of control. She
frantically tries to detach from it, just
managing to set herself free. The
Shuttle falls and Dr Stone is left floating
in space, along with astronaut Matt
Kowalsky. Contact with Houston is
lost the two astronauts are alone.
Thats the premise of a new film
called Gravity, which will hit cinemas
on 11 October, starring Sandra Bullock
as medical engineer Dr Ryan Stone
and George Clooney as veteran
astronaut Matt Kowalsky.
FACT OR FICTION?
This scenario may be fiction, but how
close to reality is it? Astronauts who
go to space today dont travel on the
Shuttle, and its the International Space
Station (ISS) rather than Hubble thats
the setting for todays space walks. A
satellite roughly the size of a football
field, orbiting 370km (230 miles) above
our heads, it would seem that the
chances of a collision with a piece of
space debris would be high.
Earlier this year, a meeting on
space debris organised by the

DIS A S T ER IN SPACE
Spacesuits usually Space is getting

crowded, as this
have about seven illustration showing
the number of
hours of oxygen, satellites in
orbit reveals
but that gets used

up more quickly if
you panic
Inter-Agency Space Debris

Coordination Committee (IADC),
made up of representatives from space
agencies around the world, concluded
that the number of catastrophic collisions
with spacecraft could soon increase to
as many as one every five years. A
catastrophic collision is one that results station, Strategic Command alerts flight Kosmos-2251 satellite, missed the ISS
in the total breakup of the spacecraft the controllers at NASAs Johnson Space by over 10km (6 miles).
debris hits. Center in Houston, Texas. But chunks of metal hurtling through
A catastrophic collision involving the If the piece of space debris has a greater space are not the only threat to astronauts
ISS is unlikely, says Dr Hugh Lewis, an than 1 in 100,000 chance of colliding with on space walks. Given how much they
aerospace engineer at the University of the station, Houston sends instructions rely on equipment such as spacesuits
Southampton and the UK Space Agencys to the ISS computers to alter its path. while they are outside the Earths
representative at the IADC space debris The ISS has a set of four gyroscopes and protective atmosphere, malfunctions
meeting. Thats because the debris would thrusters that allow it to change altitude, can spell big trouble.
need to be huge to impart enough energy rotate and move side to side. Its typical A space walk in July this year had to
to destroy something as large as the ISS. speed during an avoidance manoeuvre is be cut short when water started leaking
Although the ISS is unlikely to be between 0.5 and 1m/s. into Italian astronaut Luca Parmitanos
destroyed by space junk, if a debris If something is spotted too late to make spacesuit helmet. There is some in my
collision did leave an astronaut stranded a move, the astronauts hunker down in eyes, and some in my nose. Its a lot of
outside the ISS on a space walk, how long the Soyuz escape craft and prepare to water, Parmitano said at the time. In
they could survive depends on the return to Earth if necessary. The last time space, this could be deadly. Floating
resources of the suit, says Dr David that happened was in 2012 luckily, the water droplets could have caused
Green of Kings College London. debris, a small fragment of the Russian Parmitano to drown. He was not hurt,
Spacesuits usually have about seven hours
of oxygen, but that gets used up more
quickly if you panic and not panicking
would be a big ask for someone stranded
PHOTO: ESA, NASA X2, SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY, ALAMY, WARNER BROTHERS
in the blackness of space.

In Gravity, the stranded astronauts are
wearing a version of NASAs Manned
Maneuvering Unit used in 1984 Shuttle
missions to zip around the outside of the
spacecraft. But these days, astronauts on
space walks wear a smaller propulsion
system that is designed for emergencies
and has enough propellant for only one
self-rescue of about 13 minutes.
EVASIVE MANOEUVRES
If space debris is spotted on a collision
course with the ISS, there is something
that can be done. So United States
Strategic Command, part of the US Sandra Bullock
Department of Defense, keeps a close repairs the Hubble
eye on it. It tracks all debris larger than Space Telescope
with George
10cm using radar. If anything looks like Clooney in Gravity
its going to enter the area around the

DIS A S T ER IN SPACE
THE THREE BIGGEST THREATS ABOARD THE ISS

Its not just about keeping calm
Cosmic rays Even something as small

strike Earth as a nut could spell
disaster for the ISS
Cosmonaut Sergei
Krikalev takes part
in fire training
FIRE RADIATION SPACE DEBRIS

Space stations are conned spaces with a On the International Space Station, astronauts While a lot is done to mitigate the risk, even a
limited oxygen supply. As missions become are exposed to much higher levels of radiation tiny piece of debris can cause huge problems if
longer in duration, rubbish things like food than on Earth up to 160 millisieverts for a it hits. A eck of titanium oxide paint, travelling
packaging, disposable clothing and paper six-month stay, compared to the two we at 4km/s, hit Space Shuttle Challengers
towels will start to build up inside the receive per year on Earth. As we begin to windscreen in 1983 causing a chip. But though
spacecraft, increasing the risk of re. A re undertake longer missions, radiation will a piece of junk moving fast enough could
on the Mir space station started with the ignition become even more of a problem. Well be destroy the ISS, it would be less of a problem
of an oxygen canister, but other culprits could exposed to all kinds of cosmic radiation, says on a trip to Mars, for instance, since we havent
be overheating electronics or batteries. Dr David Green of Kings College London. begun littering further than low Earth orbit.
but NASA convened a Spacewalk Mishap Greg Chamitoff

Investigation Board to look into what enters an airlock on
the ISS he might
happened. Early indications suggest that have to do this in a
water from the suits coolant system might hurry if an incoming
have been leaking out through its piece of space
junk is detected
ventilation system.
In 2001 there was a different kind of
leak. Ammonia from the Space Stations
cooling system leaked out of a valve while
two astronauts were on a space walk. As
he struggled to close the valve, US astronaut
Robert Curbeams spacesuit and helmet
accumulated a layer of toxic ammonia
crystals an inch thick. His colleague had
to brush off as much as he could, before
Curbeam waited outside the Space Station
for the rest to evaporate. When they
returned inside, the crew wore oxygen
masks while the life support system purged
any remaining ammonia from the air.
Threats dont disappear once an
astronaut is safely inside the station,
either. Possibly the biggest danger is supply. Because of the oxygen it contained, astronauts know to treat it with care
fire, which behaves differently in space. the canister acted like a blow torch. their life may depend on it.
In zero gravity, the hot gases dont go up Eventually, the fire burnt out, but not So while missions in space are now
anymore, says Professor Jos Torero, an before filling the station with smoke. commonplace, the dangers have not
expert in fire safety aboard spacecraft at They were lucky that the flames didnt subsided, and with the ever-growing
the University of Queensland. They touch anything else, says Torero. threat of space junk, astronauts will
become a semi-sphere and they get bigger Rather than trying to actively extinguish need to be more vigilant than ever.
and bigger, but they dont go anywhere. a fire, the trick is to make sure it runs out
In 1997, a fire broke out on the Mir of fuel. These days, NASA rigorously tests
space station after a cosmonaut routinely all materials that go up to the Space KELLY OAKES is a science journalist
ignited a canister to add oxygen to the air Station. If something is flammable, and the writer of Click here on p26

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V7545
SY N T HE T IC BIOLOGY
Adam Rutherford is
the presenter of Inside
Science on BBC Radio 4
From new cancer treatments ALL LIFE SITS on one sprawling tree. And because all life has a common
origin, it shares universal characteristics, not least its underlying language:
to DNA-based computers,
DNA. From bacteria to blue whales, the alphabet, encryption and

biological engineering is powering translation of DNA is identical. Weve been breeding related organisms for
10,000 years, but in the 1970s we invented the technology to profoundly
a technological revolution. Adam violate the species barrier, capitalising on the fact that DNAs coding is
Rutherford counts down the the same in all creation. Genetic engineering was born. In the last few
years, its evolved into a new industrial revolution, where remixing and
most exciting developments redesigning nature is the norm, and cells are the forges of invention

SY N T HE T IC BIOLO GY
IMMUNITY TO
COSMIC RADIATION H O W N A S A P L A N S T O S HIE L D A S T R O N A U T S F RO M
HE A LT H H A Z A R D S IN O U T E R S PA C E
NASA IS APPROACHING the But shielding is heavy, making it

nal frontier when it comes costly to launch off Earth. Cytokine proteins
to synthetic biology, with projects At Ames, they are designing a are usually produced
within the bodys
looking at how designed cells can synthetic biological circuit that will white blood cells
help the exploration of strange produce cytokines - the bodys
new worlds. Based at Ames in own defences against radiation
Silicon Valley, one project aims to damage when it meets space
equip astronauts to endure the radiation. But where do you put
extreme hostility of space. it? Having freeoating synthetic
One of the biggest barriers to bacteria in your body is not a
human exploration is that with good idea. So NASA has designed
current propulsion technology, a biocapsule out of carbon
trips will take years. That exposes nanobres whose pores are too
astronauts to mutagenic and life- small to let the bacteria escape,
threatening levels of solar radiation but big enough to let the cytokines
and cosmic rays. Radiation slices they produce out. This capsule
up DNA, which can cause all sorts will be implanted underneath an
of problems, not least cancers. astronauts skin.
The Alpha Magnetic

Spectrometer on the ISS
has taught us more about
deadly cosmic rays

BIOLOGICAL C OMP U T ING S NE X T G R E AT
COMPUTING L E A P F OR WA R D C O UL D C OME
IN DN A F OR M
PHOTO: SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY X2, PIRO SIUTI/ TIMOTHY LU ILLUSTRATOR: MAGICTORCH
A team at MIT has built
DNA circuits that can
perform logic operations
and store the results
SYNTHETIC BIOLOGY HAS taken its lead of thousands of years. In 2013, weve seen a
largely from electrical engineering. I write couple of high points in the computerisation
these words on a computer where millions of biological circuits. In February, Piro Siuti,
of logic operations are happening almost John Yazbek and Timothy Lu from MIT
instantaneously to produce a full stop as programmed a circuit out of DNA that could
I hit this button. Lifeforms are much more store memory for up to 90 cell generations
complex than the most powerful computers, roughly nine days using logic functions akin
and noisier too, meaning that the underlying to those in electronics. A month later, a team
logic is not always linear, clean or obvious. led by synthetic biology pioneer Drew Endy
Part of the work of the synthetic biology published a system of DNA that works like a
movement has been to strip out the noise of transistor the essential component behind
biological systems and reduce them to their all modern electronics. The transistor was
component parts, ready for rebuilding. arguably the enabling invention of the 20th
The result could be super-compact Century; this biological version could
systems that can store information for tens pave a similar path.

CELLULAR
PHOTO: UNIVERSITY OF GRONINGEN, SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY, EYEVINE, ALAMY ILLUSTRATOR: MAGICTORCH
TOOLSETS S Y N T HE T I C B I O L O G I S T S A R E G E T T ING T HE IR
OW N SE T OF BUIL DING BR ICK S T O PL AY W I T H
ANYONE WHO TRAVELS knows what a pain it is A prototype of the sticker

to have the right power adaptor. In electronics, developed by the Groningen team
parts were standardised decades ago, so that every to monitor the condition of meat
time you needed a diode you didnt have to invent
it. Genetic engineering has been slow to catch up,
but now the BioBricks foundation is striving to make
synthetic biology more productive and creative by
making the parts t together easily. Nowhere is the
commodication of biology more apparent than in the
International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM)
competition. Each year, hundreds of undergraduates
design a problem and a solution using only the parts
available in the Registry of Standard Biological Parts
the shopping catalogue of synthetic biology. Each part
is free, and in principle, standardised to t together
with the others, of which there are currently 10,000.
Some of the ideas are outlandish (see below),
but the winner in 2012 was mundane and brilliantly
practical. A team from the University of Groningen put
together a bacterium that would change colour in the
presence of rotting meat. Seal it safely in a plastic tray
from the supermarket, and itll tell you exactly how
fresh it is.
BACTERIAL
OCEAN CLEANERS C O UL D E NG INE E R E D MIC R O OR G A NI S M S C L E A N
U P T HE O C E A N S ? W E L L , N O T Q U I T E Y E T
WHILE THE GRONINGEN teams UCLs team designed salt-

winning effort could stop you tolerant, buoyant bacteria that
getting food poisoning, the 2012 would identify plastic fragments
iGEM runners-up from University and either degrade them or
College London planned to clean aggregate them into lumps,
up the oceans by assembling a which could be collected into an
plastic island. Everyone knows island they called, in James Bond
there are millions of tonnes of villain style, the Plastic Republic.
plastic rubbish oating in the With safety in mind, the bugs
oceans. Its not, as many think, a were to be engineered to reduce
giant island of discarded bottles environmental contamination,
but, far more damagingly, billions with a system that degraded
of tiny fragments. These can their DNA if it were released. As
accumulate in ocean gyres area with many iGEM projects, getting
In 2012, a team from UCL proposed where currents meet, causing a the bacteria to work within the
a method for cleaning up the oceans vortex and can enter the food competitions timeframe proved
using genetically engineered bacteria
chain, causing toxic or physical impossible. But the global scale
distress and death to animals. and vision are typically ambitious.

CANCER
ASSASSINS G E NE T IC C IR C UI T S C O UL D IDE N T IF Y A ND
E R A DI C AT E C A N C E R O U S C E L L S IN T HE B O D Y
PHOTO: IGEM X2, SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY, EYEVINE ILLUSTRATOR: MAGICTORCH

THE MOST EFFECTIVE ways we is identied as cancerous, with
have of treating cancers are still 100 per cent accuracy. When
chemotherapy and radiotherapy. that happens, the next thing the
Although these techniques are circuit does is activate the cells
getting more and more precise own suicide program. Compared
in targeting the out-of-control to the blunderbuss approach of
malignant cells, they still kill many radiotherapy, this is a sniper.
healthy cells, making the patient Admittedly, this system only
sick during their treatment. works in one type of cancer
Ron Weiss and his team at MIT cell, called HeLa, and so far only
have designed a genetic circuit in a culture, not yet in animal
that slots into a harmless virus, models. HeLa cells are among
which then infects a cell. Once the most well-studied and well-
in there, it effectively asks the characterised on Earth, and so
cell ve biological questions. the required level of targeting is HeLa cancer cells in a
If the answer to any of these not immediately scalable to the culture can be destroyed
by a genetic circuit, but the
molecular queries is negative, myriad other cancers and their
technology doesnt currently
the circuit deactivates. If all ve ever-mutating genomes. But this work in live subjects
answers are positive, the cell is where progress begins.
STREET-LIGHTING TREES
G L O W ING F I S H A R E A L R E A DY AVA IL A B L E IN P E T
S HOP S. A R E G L O W ING T R E E S T HE NE X T S T E P ?
WEVE KNOWN ABOUT uorescence in nature for decades. Osamu

Shimomura, Martin Chale and Roger Tsien collected the Nobel Prize
for Chemistry for discovering the Green Fluorescent Protein. Originally
this gene encoded the jellyshs underwater glow, but now it is used as
the standard means of giving experimental transgenes a high-vis jacket.
Theres also luciferase, the protein that gives a rey its eponymous trait.
Weve seen mice, cats, pigs and other species made to uoresce in some
way, for scientic purposes. And then there are GloFish, the rst GM pets
to go on sale in the US.
In June 2013 the rst synthetic biology Kickstarter project raised nearly
half a million dollars to make glowing plants. With a slick presentation
video, a team of just three - led by Californian DNA hacker Antony Evans
- exceeded its funding target by more than $400,000 in just a few weeks.
Many speculated that this might be the pathway to fully sustainable
electricity-free street lighting. Critics argue that the reality is a long way
off, not least because trees are metabolically low-key, and the glow
required to produce a decent light would be energetically demanding
for the plant. But what this shows more than anything is that with the
Glowing plant pioneer
irresistible rise of synthetic biology, and the lowering of the entry bar Antony Evans (right)
to genetic engineering, such projects are no longer limited to traditional in the lab at his
centres of research and development. Whether it works or not, the synthetic biology
tech required to build previously unimaginable creations is now in start-up Biocurious
the hands of the many. And theyre asking you to back it.

ANTI-MALARIAL
WEAPONS C HE A PE R , MOR E E F F E C T I V E M A L A R I A DRUG S
C O UL D BE JU S T A R O UND T HE C OR NE R
MALARIA HAS KILLED more humans than organisms, the rst successful cellular synthetic
anything else in history. Up to a million people artemisinin producer was published in 2006. This
still die of the disease each year, and WHO estimates year, after major investment from The Bill and Melinda
that the nancial burden of treating malaria in sub- Gates Foundation (and others), we will see distribution
Saharan Africa since the 1960s has been hundreds of this drug to malaria zones. The royalty-free licence
of billions of dollars. Since the 17th Century, weve was granted to French biotech company Sano-
tackled it with a series of treatments such as quinine Aventis, and a promise made to not supply more than
and chloroquine with limited success. The problem 50 per cent of the market, to offer some protection to
with this kind of serial medical monogamy is that the traditional wormwood farmers.
parasites evolve resistance. For that reason, the The real-world delivery of such a drug will be the
most effective treatment today is a cocktail of drugs, benchmark for the synthetic biology revolution. And
including the key ingredient artemisinin. Its an extract that includes the practicalities of distribution. Already,
from a sweet wormwood, an Asian shrub thats been we are seeing the emergence of artemisinin-resistant
used in folk medicine for centuries. But wormwood malaria in Cambodia and the Far East, probably as a
Jay Keasling has harnessed synthetic is nicky to grow, and over the last few years the result of black market trading and failure to comply
biology to create an anti-malarial drug artemisinin market has been subject to boom and with WHOs recommended combined therapies.
bust cycles, and hence uctuating supply and costs. Nevertheless, this story marks the rst great product
Enter Jay Keasling (pictured). While trying to design of synthetic biology. The revolution has begun.
a genetic circuit that would produce diesel in his
labs at the University of California, Berkeley, one of
WHAT DO YOU THINK?
his students noticed that a by-product was closely
related to artemisinin, and they decided to follow
` Have we missed something? Or do you think
the progress of genetic engineering should be
this up. Built from 12 genes from three different slowed? Let us know at [email protected]
PHOTO: SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY, PEG SKORPINSKI/LAWRENCE BERKELY LABORATORY ILLUSTRATOR: MAGICTORCH
Red blood cells infected

with malaria parasites
in a blood sample taken
from a patient in Africa

3 5 JUNE 2014 I KOELNMESSE I COLOGNE I GERMANY
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P SYCHOLOGY
Daily Times
THURSDAY, 19 SEPTEMBER, 2013 50p
WHY WERE
DISGUSTED
Rotting food in the compost bin disgusts
us. So do murderers and rapists for
Its no coincidence that we use
the same facial expressions
for moral disgust that we do
for physical disgust
reasons that are inextricably linked.

Dr Valerie Curtis explains our innate
fondness for moral outrage and why
our very survival depends on it
A
LL OF US, whether expression of disgust. Its as if we
we come from hear a voice in our heads saying:
Kalamazoo or the Dont look! Dont touch!
Kalahari, Kyoto or Its a powerful and hard to
Kensington feel overcome feeling and theres a
disgust. And, with a good reason why we react this
few exceptions, we are way. Imagine, for a moment, a
all disgusted by pretty group of your ancient ancestors
much the same things. who had a mutation that took
Oozing wounds, away their sense of disgust.
mouldy food, maggots, Without it they might have found
cockroaches, poor hygiene, the idea of tasting poo attractive.
bodily emanations, skin Perhaps they would have been
eruptions, inappropriate sexual happy to eat food that was bad
contact and violent crime all and perhaps they would have
have the power to make our cuddled up to people with
stomachs churn and our lips curl festering diseases. What
in the characteristic facial would have happened to our
A N T HROP OLOGY
poor mutants? They would certainly need to avoid infectious disease, why do
have found it difficult to attract people also report that they are disgusted
mates, and would have had trouble raising
children successfully. So, as a result, they E xc u se m e fo r by moral infractions? Our studies from
around the world show that its not just
sa y in g so , b u t
probably didnt have many descendants insects but injustice, not just cat poo
which means that they would have been but cruelty, not just rats but also racism
unlikely to be your ancestors. that disgust. So is moral disgust actually
to m e y o u a re
In fact you (and I) must be descended disgust? Are they the same emotion or do
from a long line of people with a fine sense we just use the language of disgust
of disgust. This is an emotion that evolved metaphorically, perhaps as a way of
to do a simple but important job, to keep
us away from the stinky, the wriggly, the
filthy and the contaminated and so keep us
a w a lk in g b a g underlining our distaste for the immoral?
A number of studies suggest that
moral and pathogen disgust may be
safe from contracting life-threatening
infections. Those warning bells we hear
and those feelings of revulsion are like the
o f p a ra si te s one and the same thing. To start with
both produce the same facial expression.
At the University of Toronto Hanah
voices of our ancestors telling us to turn Chapman wired up the faces of
away when we come into contact with experimental subjects and then showed
anything that might harbour disease- them images of faeces, gave them nasty
causing organisms. things to taste and cheated them in a
So if just about everything that people game. All three experiences produced
find disgusting can be traced back to the the lip curl characteristic of disgust.
NEUTRAL SWEET BITTER

PHOTO: THINKSTOCK, SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY, SCIENCE/AAAS
DISGUST ANGER SADNESS

The research conducted by the University of Toronto examined the link between expressions related to taste (above) and emotions (below) the similarities between disgust (below left) and
bitter (top right) are clear. The faces have had a green band placed over the upper lip and nose to accentuate the action of the levator labii superioris muscle that is used in facial expression

A N T HROP OLOGY
XXXX
WHEN
DISGUST
GOES
WRONG
It may help us live in a cohesive
society, but it can also destroy lives
LIKE ANY OF our organs, the disgust system
can malfunction. Genes, wiring, chemistry,
physiology and life experience can all
conspire to make brains produce behaviour
that is bad for us. High levels of disgust make
some people so squeamish that they cant
leave the house, eat or make social contact
without fear of contamination. And people
with low levels of disgust tend to cause
Has someone you know been washing their hands more often than usual? It could be that they have recently committed an offence through their lack of hygiene, and so
evil act and are now experiencing the Lady Macbeth effect end up socially excluded.
The best known disgust-related pathology
Pathogen disgust also seems to influence there is a good reason for the overlap, and is Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
your moral disgust. Simone Schnall and its one we can find in our evolutionary (OCD). Thoughts of contamination and
collaborators at the University of past. Weve seen how physical disgust impurity intrude into daily life; to minimise
Plymouth subjected people to bad smells wells up when we are faced with the their distress sufferers may constantly
and nasty videos and then asked them to things that might infect us, making us clean, sanitise and disinfect themselves and
rate how they would punish immoral want to reject the object, push it away and their environments. Other people, as the
prime source of infectious pathogens, are
behaviour. Those who had experienced have nothing more to do with it. Well, the
also a major focus of overactive disgust.
disgust were more severe in their moral objects that are most dangerous to us, in
Sufferers from social phobias cant go
judgements. terms of infectious disease, are actually
out or tolerate proximity to others. Overactive
Following a similar logic, Chen-Bo other people. disgust can ruin sex lives; indeed the rst
Zhongs research at the University of Excuse me for saying so, but to me you sign that a relationship may be in trouble is
Toronto reasoned that people who felt are a walking bag of parasites. One breath that a partner begins to feel disgust for the
that they had done wrong might seek to might give me influenza, one handshake others heretofore acceptable dirty habits.
purify themselves of disgusting matter. might give me salmonella, one kiss might Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
In a paper in the journal Science they give me measles and more intimate contact (PTSD) is commonly thought of as resulting
reported what they called the Lady with you might be even more disastrous. from fear-inducing experiences; however,
Macbeth effect: subjects who had been The most infectious and therefore the intense disgust experiences, for example,
asked to recall an evil deed were then most disgusting things that I meet in my encounters with grizzly items like rotting
more likely to wash their hands at the daily life are actually other people. Yet at corpses have their own category of PTSD.
end of the experiment. the same time, I need social contact. These pathologies of disgust can ruin
Another way to figure out whether We humans are an intensely social lives, but they go under-diagnosed, partly
pathogen and moral disgust are the same is species. We all get enormous benefits from because they are poorly understood.
to look inside the brain. Several imaging being able to work together, to trade genes,
studies have found some of the same foods, technologies and ideas. So there is a
regions, though not all of them, lit up by difficult trade-off calculation to be made. I
both visceral and moral disgust. So while need to get close to you to get the benefits
we still cant be sure that moral and of co-operating with you, but I need to stay
microbe disgust are the same emotion, away from you because you can pass me
there is clearly some overlap. parasites. I have to mitigate the disease
threat by learning a complicated dance
that lets me get close, but not too close. I
THE EVOLUTION OF DISGUST can share my books but not my toothbrush,
None of these studies clinch the issue my fresh food but not my leftovers, a kiss
completely. And none of them offer any on the cheek but not in the armpit.
explanation as to why we should have This is the essence of good manners: we
similar reactions in the face of filthy all need to learn to behave in ways that Our hands are covered in bacteria - but dont think
substances and filthy behaviour. However, avoid disgusting others (see The origin about it too much or youll never leave the house

A N T HROP OLOGY
THE ORIGIN planet. That is because

humans carry micro-
organisms and parasites
whose sole mission in life is
Once we had evolved the
mental equipment for hygiene
manners, it was a short step
to extend this to the second
OF MANNERS to seek out and infect another

human being.
This is why today all
sort of manners, which are the
small courtesies that pave the
way for social engagement.
Without a strict code of conduct, we wouldnt be humans on the planet have These include letting elders
able to form groups and succeed as a species rules about contact, bodily speak rst, offering food to
emanations and wastes. guests or disciplining children
WHAT DISTINGUISHES HUMANS manners to their children and We all know the rules: how not to be greedy at mealtimes.
from other animals? Lots violations cause us to expend close it is polite to stand to Such behaviour signals respect
of candidate evolutionary large amounts of emotional others, where you can and and trust, without which we
advances have been proposed: energy. Manners provide cannot spit, where you can would be unable to move on
for example our use of tools, the scaffolding of operating and cannot defecate, how to the bigger co-operative
language, cooking, or our rules for all our daily social you should be well groomed enterprises that characterise
ability to imagine what others interactions and, as such, in public and who you can and the human way of life.
are thinking about. However, deserve closer scrutiny. cant share your towel or your A third and more ephemeral
I have another candidate for The oldest and most toothbrush with. type of manners are those that
what makes us uniquely human fundamental function of These rules are more we engage in to signal that we
manners. Without manners, manners was to control strongly enforced for are insiders, that we are part
and the disgust which is their disease. Ancient humans strangers and are sometimes of the group and so can be
foundation, the human way of wanted to get the many deliberately violated as a trusted. These include wearing
life would be impossible. benets of being a social sign of trust. For example, the local style of clothing or
Manners are seldom talked species. But there was a shaking hands and kissing are following local custom for
about in scientic discourse, downside to cuddling up to signs that you wish to invest example, in driving on the right
yet they are ever-present in our others. To one human being, emotionally in someone, side of the road.
daily behaviour. Parents invest another human being is the even at the risk of catching
huge effort in teaching good most dangerous thing on the something infectious.
PHOTO: GETTY X3, SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY
A mite burrowing into skin would

disgust anyone; it was to avoid
the spread of such parasites
that manners first evolved

A N T HROP OLOGY
D is gu st m ak es
us pu sh aw ay
and reject those
th at pose an
infectious da ng er
Generally speaking weve learnt to avoid contact with one another to prevent the spread of disease; shaking hands has
emerged as a sign of trust precisely because it contravenes this general rule
of manners, left). And because this
was such an important part of our
lives as a social species we evolved new with parasites: the disgust that we pose an infectious danger to our bodies.
mental adaptations to help us learn to do consequently feel makes us want to reject Similarly it makes us want to reject and
this the feeling of shame. A recent study and exclude that person from our society, punish those who pose a physical danger
by Roger Giner-Sorolla at Kent University to shame them so that the dirty shirt with to us. Shame helps us to learn how to avoid
showed that shame is the counterpart to its possible load of parasites never disgusting others with our lack of hygiene
disgust: it is the typical feeling elicited threatens us again in public. and so stay in with the group. Similarly,
when one is exposed to someone showing shame teaches us not to behave immorally
you the facial expression of disgust. Who or we are likely to lose the benefits of
after all has not had the horrible SOCIALLY ACCEPTABLE living in a co-operative society.
experience of being called dirty by a This, then, is the link between moral and Morality provides the set of operating
schoolmate or a teacher, and not then organic disgust. An emotion that we use rules that enable us to temporarily set
gone to great lengths never to be seen in a to punish folks that threaten us, or our aside our own interests for the sake of
grubby shirt again? group, with disease came to be used to the greater benefits that can be accrued
Shame teaches us that if we want to be punish people who threatened us in other by working as a co-operative group. Moral
social we have to avoid being disgusting ways. The murderer, the rapist, the cheat disgust motivates us to punish and exclude
to others, to keep our emanations and and the thief occasion disgust because it those that cheat on their social obligations
waste products under control. And who was adaptive to abhor such people, and to people who are behaving as social
has not in their past labelled someone as ostracise them as a threat to society. parasites, much as disgust encourages us
dirty? Other peoples dirt threatens us Disgust makes us push away those that to punish and exclude those who cheat
on their obligation not to spread disease.
Without moral disgust our modern world,
with all of its co-operative products such
as cereals, fridges, nappies, books and the
internet would not be possible. As we learn
more about the scientific mechanisms of
disgust, well learn more about what makes
us tick and how we can help others.
DR VALERIE CURTIS is
Director of the Hygiene
Centre at the London School
If you want to be part of of Hygiene and Tropical
a group youd better make Medicine and the author of
sure youre not shamed by Dont Look, Dont Touch: The
your personal hygiene Science Behind Revulsion

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People who eat nutritionally inadequate meals may especially benefit from vitamin and mineral supplementation. Iron, Zinc, Iodine.
Professor Beckett is not cited in the capacity of a health professional, but as a product inventor and former Chairman of Vitabiotics.
YOUR QUESTI0NS ANSWERED
BY OUR EXPERT PANEL
SUSAN DR ALASTAIR ROBERT GARETH LUIS

BLACKMORE GUNN MATTHEWS MITCHELL VILLAZON
Susan is a visiting Alastair is a After studying Starting out Luis has a BSc in
psychology radio astronomer physics at Oxford, as a broadcast computing and an
professor at the at the Jodrell Robert became a engineer, Gareth MSc in zoology
University Bank Centre for science writer. Hes now writes and from Oxford. His
of Plymouth. Her Astrophysics at a visiting reader in presents Digital works include
books include The the University of science at Aston Planet on the BBC How Cows Reach
Meme Machine Manchester University World Service The Ground
EMAIL YOUR QUESTIONS TO [email protected]

or post to Focus Q&A, Tower House, Fairfax Street, Bristol, BS1 3BN
ADAM DOOLEY, MANCHESTER
Why are sonic booms so loud?

SONIC BOOMS ARE the result of pressure waves that
build up around objects moving so fast that the surrounding
air doesnt have time to get out of the way. Supersonic jets
create big shock waves, and as the loudness of any sound A supersonic jet crashes
through the sound
depends on the size of the pressure waves causing it, the barrier creating an ear
PHOTO: ALAMY
result is a very loud boom. RM splitting sonic boom

Q&A
In Numbers KEITH GILMOUR, GLASGOW
15 tonnes
was the weight of a fatberg that was recently
How are oil spills cleaned up?
found blocking a London sewer. Consisting of OVER THE YEARS everything from steam and chemical sprays to igniting the oil
congealed fat and other waste, the bus-sized has been tried, with sometimes disastrous consequences. In 1967, the oil supertanker
lump has since been removed. Torrey Canyon was holed off Lands End, triggering the worlds rst attempt at a major
clean-up. Detergents were tried as a means of breaking up the oil slick, while aircraft
RICHARD ONEILL, GLASGOW attempted to burn it off by bombing it with napalm. It did not work well: a lot of
Does social media marine life was either incinerated or poisoned by the chemicals.
In 1989 the Exxon Valdez disaster in Prince William Sound, Alaska saw
the use of high-pressure steam cleaning of the affected area. This made
prove the theory of six the coastline look clean, but sent oil down into areas previously
untouched, while scalding to death microscopic marine life.
degrees of separation? A host of techniques have been used in the aftermath of

BPs Deepwater Horizon oil-rig disaster in the Gulf
of Mexico in 2010, from the latest generation
of dispersants to simply sucking the stuff
IN 2011, up on to specially modied ships. But
Facebook found an the same problems have emerged:
average of just four studies suggest the dispersants
degrees of separation are proving much more
amongst its then 720 toxic than the
million active users. method that may
With 69 billion prove best in
friendships and a the long run:
tenth of the worlds leaving nature
population, it was to it. RM
quite a data set to draw on. Facebook
found that 99.6 per cent of pairs of people
were connected through six hops. And in A smaller ship attempts
92 per cent of users, the number of links to off-load crude oil from the
was just ve, giving only four degrees stricken Exxon Valdez in 1989
of separation. GM
JOHN CORFIELD, DEVON ROGER WEST, SALISBURY
Does closing your How do gorillas raised in captivity

eyelids protect eyes know whats safe to eat in the wild?
PHOTO: ALAMY, PRESS ASSOCIATION, SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY X2, FLPA, THINKSTOCK
from UV? BY INSTINCT. JUST as we evolved

to enjoy the taste of certain foods and to
food choices, enjoying high sugar fruits
and choosing a high ratio of sugar to
YOUR EYELIDS ARENT entirely nd poisonous ones disgusting, so did bre. They have even been tested using
opaque to all the wavelengths of ultraviolet, gorillas. In the wild, mountain gorillas photographs of food. SB
but its pretty close. Unprotected, your eat mostly leaves, shoots and stems; an
Before I was
eyelids will get sunburn before you do adult male can chomp through more released I
much damage to your cornea than 18kg (40lb) of vegetation in a day. had juicy fruit
prepared for
or retina. If you put on Lowland gorillas eat mostly fruit, but me now I
enough sunblock this difference depends on what grows in have to eat
to protect your these different environments. sticks again
eyelids, it will In experiments in
also stop the UV zoos, captive gorillas
from reaching were given over
your eyes. LV 2000 pairs of
foods to choose
Your eyelids between.
arent a
substitute They showed
for a pair of remarkably
shades or consistent
suncream

Q&A
WINNE
Darren R!
wins a c
of Anim opy
al Earth CLIVE FEINGOLD, CHESHIRE
by Ross
Piper
(Thame
QUESTION OF THE MONTH s & Hud
worth
son),
29.95 What is the oxygen
Atoms make up a nano-
scale ball bearing - we
level in a plane?
probably wont be able
to build things smaller
than a single atom OXYGEN LEVELS IN ight are
broadly the same as on the ground,
about 210,000 parts per million
by volume. However, at cruise
altitude the cabin pressure
is lower than on the ground
at around 82kPa, equivalent
to about 1,800m (6,000ft).
For comparison, air
pressure at sea level is
101kPa. At this low
pressure, oxygen levels in
the blood are lower than
at sea level. A healthy
person suffers no effects,
but those with
respiratory
illnesses
sometimes
need
additional
oxygen. GM
BRIAN PERKINS, BY EMAIL
DARREN GOODSEL, BOURNEMOUTH

What is the minimum
Is there a limit to how mass needed for a
small we can make things? star to collapse?
SCIENTISTS ARE GETTING force that emerges literally ALL STARS COLLAPSE under
adept at making atomic scale from empty space to press gravity once their nuclear fuel is expended.
objects. In 1989, researchers surfaces together, causing High mass stars do this explosively after
at IBM made headlines by nanomachines to jam up. And the entire star collapses. Lower mass stars
writing the company logo using earlier this year, researchers simply swell to a huge size as the core of
individual xenon atoms dragged in Germany found another the star shrinks to become a white dwarf.
into place using a special electron limitation: the jiggling of Even stars with extremely low mass will
microscope. By 2010 they had electrons by the warmth of their eventually collapse to become white
succeeded in drawing maps of surroundings, which generates dwarfs. However, they burn their fuel so
the world so small that 1,000 of magnetic elds affecting the slowly they are likely to outlive the age of
them could t on a grain of sand. abilities of electron microscopes. the Universe before doing so. AG
But such nanotechnological feats But even if they overcome
have their limits. such issues, scientists know that
At the atomic scale, weird the inherent fuzziness of the
quantum phenomena emerge quantum world will prevent
that can affect performance. One them making complex objects
is the so-called Casimir Effect, a much smaller than an atom. RM
The Helix Nebula is

actually a dying star
casting off its outer layers

Q&A
TOP TEN
LONGEST ANIMAL TEETH
1. Narwhal
Tooth length: up to 5.5m
Range: Canadian Arctic
and Greenlandic waters
2. Elephant
Tooth length: up to 3m
Range: sub-Saharan Africa, Nevermind my fleas
India, southeast Asia - what about your
dandruff problem?
3. Walrus ANDREW EVERSETT, DEVON dead skin. Dust mites thrive on these
Tooth length: up to 1m cells, dropping their tiny faeces into
Range: Arctic Ocean and
sub-Arctic seas
Can animals be allergic the mix, and providing even more
causes of allergic reactions.
When cats are allergic they
4. Babirusa
Tooth length: up to 43cm
to humans? show symptoms much like asthma,
including coughing, wheezing
Range: Indonesian and shortness of breath. Dogs are
islands of Sulawesi, YES THEY CAN. Little is known about more likely to suffer itching, sores
Togian, Sula and Buru allergies in wild animals, but some cats and skin infections. The problem
PHOTO: SKULLSUNLIMITED.COM/SKULLS UNLIMITED INTERNATIONAL X9, THINKSTOCK X2, SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY, ALAMY, GETTY
and dogs are known to react badly to their is getting worse now that so many
5. Hippopotamus owners. The main culprit is dander, or animals are kept indoors, where they
dandruff; the bits of dead skin that fall from are constantly exposed to human
Range: sub-Saharan our scalps. Then theres all the dust around allergens. Fresh air and time outdoors
Africa
the house that contains varying amounts of is the most natural remedy. SB
6. Warthog
Range: sub-Saharan BRIAN RAMSEY, CAMBERLEY
Africa
Why do galaxies collide?

7. Sperm whale
GALAXIES COLLIDE BECAUSE of
Range: oceans
worldwide their mutual gravitational attraction. In
general, galaxies are moving away from
each other at an ever increasing rate,
8. Payara carried along by the expansion of the
Tooth length: up to 15cm Universe. This is only noticeable over
Range: Venezuela and scales comparable to the size of galaxy
Amazon basin clusters. The gravitational interaction
between galaxies on these scales is
insufficient to prevent them from
9. Lion
Tooth length: up to 9cm moving apart. But on much smaller Two galaxies known as the Antennae
Range: sub-Saharan
scales, the gravitational forces between Galaxies are in the process of colliding
Africa galaxies can be large enough to
overcome the cosmic expansion, away from us and some toward us. The
allowing galaxies to interact, collide Andromeda Galaxy, our largest nearby
10. Musk Deer and sometimes merge. companion, is currently heading toward
Tooth length: up to 7cm In our own Local Group of galaxies, the Milky Way at 402,336km/h and is
Range: Himalayas for example, some galaxies are moving due to hit us in 4 billion years. AG

Q&A
Did you know?

The Blue Whale has the largest heart
of any animal its roughly the size
of a Volkswagen Beetle car!
BERTIE GREEN, LONDON

JOHN RADCLIFFE, BLACKPOOL
Which is better What is the most

for you, cola or powerful nuclear
diet cola? bomb ever detonated?
A can of
cola contains
around nine ON 30 OCTOBER, 1961, the Soviet
tea-spoons Union tested the AN602 thermonuclear
of sugar
bomb, nicknamed the Tsar Bomb, over
Novaya Zemlya north of the Arctic Circle.
The nuclear fusion-powered explosion
THE MAIN DIFFERENCE is obviously seven teaspoons in a can of Coca-Cola, was equivalent to over 50 million tonnes of
that cola contains sugar and diet cola on the other hand, contains 139 calories, TNT, over a 1,000 times more devastating
contains articial sweetener. In the UK, which will contribute to obesity and tooth than the atomic bombs dropped on Japan
that sweetener is aspartame and the decay. It can also lead to Type II diabetes if in 1945. RM
current scientic consensus is that this you drink too much of it. On balance, diet
additive is safe at the concentrations found cola is probably the least bad but neither is The annual Soviet fireworks
actually good for you. LV display got a little out of hand
in diet drinks. The 35g of sugar around
JOHN LEWANDOWSKI, HARTLEPOOL

WHAT IS THIS?
Why is ice cream colder
after you suck a mint? GREG SMITH, MANCHESTER
How much energy does

it take to manufacture
an average car?
THIS IS A tricky thing to calculate. You
Test your own cold
receptors by giving
cant just measure the electricity and gas
yourself a brain freeze bills of a car manufacturing plant and divide
it by the number of cars made in that time.
MINTS CONTAIN THE chemical That wouldnt include the cost of mining
menthol, which binds to the TRP-M8 and rening the materials used at the plant.
receptors in your skin that sense cold. But a detailed study by the US Department
The temperature doesnt actually change; of Energy in 2010
the menthol simply causes a false cold came up with an
signal to be sent to your brain. If you add average value
something like ice cream that actually is of 34 gigajoules
cold, this just increases the number of per car. Thats
`
KNOW THE ANSWER?
Go to sciencefocus.com/qanda/what cold receptors that are ring at once. the equivalent
and submit your answer now! of 9,445kWh of
This is similar to the reaction caused
LAST MONTHS ANSWER: electricity, or
Well done to Ricky Cann, who correctly
by chilli, which is caused by the chemical
guessed a dendritic stem cell. capsaicin and binds to the TRP-V1 about 1.5 tonnes
receptors for heat. LV of coal. LV

Q&A
PATRICK FRIEND, ALTON

SIMON SERVAL, DONCASTER
How do computer How do poisons

viruses work? dier between
SOME VIRUSES ATTACK the
computers boot sector, the area on the hard
bees and wasps?
drive that hosts the code for the start-up
routine. Such a root code virus causes havoc BOTH BEE AND wasp venom
because it runs itself every time you switch contain a painful cocktail of proteins,
on the computer. Other viruses are hidden but the exact formulation varies
in emails, games or attached documents. from species to species. The most
These applications will appear to run toxic component of bee venom is
normally but in the background; the malign phospholipase, which destroys cell
code plays tricks like sending infected membranes and lowers blood pressure.
emails to everyone in your contacts list. It also contains melittin, which causes
Another kind of malicious agent is the the most pain and amplies the effect
worm. This is able to replicate itself, of the phospholipase.
often programming the infected machine Wasp venom is also made up
to send copies to myriad random of phospholipase, but it uses the
computers. Successful worms spread neurotransmitter acetylcholine
almost exponentially through networks, to amplify the pain. Although bee
consuming processing power and venom is acidic and wasp venom is
Theres no need to
bandwidth as they go. mildly alkali, this is just incidental swat a bee after its
But some of the most widespread and doesnt play a big part in the stung you leaving
its sting behind results
disruption comes from botnets. Malicious level of pain of the sting itself. LV in the insects death
code, often spread through email
attachments, installs itself on thousands
of computers. The hijacked machines act
as an unwitting army of zombies ring
off spam emails or blitzing targets like LORELY MASKELL, HIGH WYCOMBE one cell ate another but instead of
defence or corporate mainframes. They
overwhelm them with a barrage of requests
for information in so-called distributed
How did sexual digesting it completely, the prey DNA
became incorporated into the predator
cell. If certain genes improved the
denial of service attacks. GM
reproduction evolve? cellular machinery to make it easier to
splice in new genetic sequences, they
would be more likely to get carried over
SEXUAL REPRODUCTION IS as cells ate each other. Eventually this
at least 1.2 billion years old, much could have evolved into the formation
older than the rst appearance of of specialised egg and sperm cells.
PHOTO: SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY X2, THINKSTOCK, STFC ILLUSTRATOR: PAUL WOTTON
multicellular life on Earth. When these Alternatively sex could have begun
early single-celled organisms as a sort of infection. Viruses work by
reproduced, they simply duplicated injecting their DNA into a host cell and
their DNA (or RNA, which is a simpler, hijacking the cellular apparatus to make
single-stranded version of DNA) and more copies of themselves. If some
divided into two identical cells. genes from the ancient host organisms
This was an efficient way of got carried along by the virus when it
increasing in number but because the moved to another host, this could have
If you see something like this flash up offspring were clones, it didnt do much worked like a primitive form of sperm
on your screen, be worried; but viruses to increase variety. Genes could mutate to share DNA. LV
tend to be more subtle than this spontaneously over time, but there was
no way to quickly bring useful
combinations of genes together. Each Which came
cell strain had to wait for random first? The sperm
In Numbers mutation to supply all the genes of a or the egg?
1,223km/h
(760mph) is the speed of the Hyperloop, a new
particular combination in the same
individual at once.
Sexual reproduction shortcuts this
form of transport proposed by entrepreneur by allowing organisms to shuffle their
Elon Musk. It would re passengers sitting in genetic deck of cards. But it may have
capsules down tubes and Could thetake
would Big Bang
halfhappen
an originally begun as cannibalism:
hour to go from San Francisco over and over again?
to LA.

Q&A
HOW IT WORKS
NEXT-GENERATION FINGERPRINTING
EVERY TIME YOU touch your fingertip to a technique means that only 10 per cent of prints film from being deposited. This creates a
surface, you imprint it with a precise pattern of can be used as evidence in court. Researchers negative image of the print on the bare metal.
sweat and oil. The odds of this fingerprint from the University of Leicester, the ISIS The film is also electrochromic, meaning that
matching another individuals are 1 in 64 billion. research centre in Oxford and Frances Institut it changes colour when an electrical voltage is
Research into a new way of visualising Laue-Langevin are developing a more sensitive applied. The research team, led by Professor
fingerprints on metal surfaces could approach. Known as a fluorescent fingerprint Robert Hillman, also incorporated fluorophores
dramatically increase their use as an tag, it will identify prints on metal, like a knife or into the film, molecules that change colour when
identification tool in criminal investigations. a bullet. An electric current is passed through exposed to light or ultra-violet rays.
Conventionally, collecting fingerprint forensic the metal surface, allowing an electro-active Using electricity and light, the colouration
evidence involves dusting a coloured powder film to be applied over it. Any fingerprint can be finely tuned to create the best possible
over the sticky residues left behind on a residues on the surface are electrically contrast between the fingerprint and the
surface. But the poor sensitivity of this insulating, so they act as a stencil and block the background surface.
A pattern of fatty deposits is

left by a fingertip on a metal
surface at a crime scene.
Forensic experts deploy

a polymer coating to the
A polymer-enhanced print. This is attracted
fingerprint on to the metal surface, but
the surface of a not the fatty deposits of
knife. The polymer the fingerprint.
(the green/blue
coloured area) is
deposited between
the fingerprint
ridges, so the light
areas represent the
fingerprint image
that would
be analysed. The polymer leaves a negative
image of the fingerprint.
Its colour can be changed
to tease out more detail
by applying a current and
viewing it under different
wavelengths of light.
The technique reveals a

high level of detail, such
A fingerprint
as the position of sweat
left on stainless
pores on the ridges of the
steel, having been
fingerprint, which can be
enhanced with a
used to identify a suspect.
fluorescent tag.

Q&A
THE NIGHT SKY: WHAT CAN I SEE IN OCTOBER?

Dont miss The Sky At Night
on BBC One every month
www.bbc.co.uk/skyatnight
Astronomy with THERES NO BETTER time to get acquainted with the glories of the night sky than
in October. You dont have to stay up too late for the sky to grow really dark
Heather Couper especially with British Summer Time ending on 27 October. We are treated to the
sight of two fantastic planets Venus and Jupiter and a shower of shooting
and Nigel Henbest stars; plus the Milky Way stretching overhead.
OVERHEAD LOOKI NG NORTH

All month, late evening
LOOKI NG NORTH
Brilliant Jupiter is rising
northeast around 11pm. The
giant planet lies next to the
CEPHEUS star Wasat in Gemini, and will
LYRA CASSIOPEIA be a major xture in the sky
for the next few months.
Vega Polaris
DRACO
20/21 October, after midnight
PERSEUS
Jupiter seems to be spitting
URSA MINOR out shooting stars tonight: in
Capella The fact, these meteors rain down
HERCULES Pleiades
AURIGA every October from a point
in Gemini, and this year its
URSA TAURUS near Jupiter. These Geminid
MAJOR meteors are fragments from
BOTES (PLOUGH) Aldebaran Halleys Comet burning up high
CORONA Castor Radiant of Orionids in Earths atmosphere.
BOREALIS Cor Caroli GEMINI
Pollux ORION
Arcturus LOOKI NG SOUTH
Betelgeuse
All month, late evening,
W THE SKY AT 11PM (BST) IN MID-OCTOBER 2013 E
Jupiter Leap on-board a time
machine this month! When
you have a really dark
clear night, look high in the
southeast to spot the faint
OVERHEAD smudge of the Andromeda
Galaxy. You are seeing it not
LOOKI NG SOUTH
as it is now, but as it was two
Andromeda Galaxy Deneb million years ago! Thats how
long light has taken to travel
TRIANGULUM ANDROMEDA the immense distance from
CYGNUS Andromeda to your eye.
Triangulum Galaxy
PEGASUS
ARIES 8 October, 7.30pm
DELPHINUS The crescent Moon is teaming
up with the Evening Star
(Venus), low in the twilight
19 October Altair to the southwest.
AQUARIUS AQUILA
PISCES
Path of Moon
and planets Find out more
Stargazing 2013
12 October Discover astronomy
with Heather Couper
CETUS
PISCIS CAPRICORNUS OPHIUCHUS and Nigel Henbest
AUSTRINUS Fomalhaut (Philips, 6.99)
E
THE SKY AT 11PM (BST) IN MID-OCTOBER 2013 W
74 / FOCUS /SEPTEMBER 2013

OCTOBER 2013
Q&A
GUINEVERE LEAH, MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA
Why do we
have eyebrows?
ORIGINALLY TO KEEP rain and emotions in ways that are
and sweat out of our eyes. As a hard to fake, and the eyebrows
species we humans rely on our exaggerate expressions. Even in
sight more than any other sense, cartoons, a simple line above
and water can seriously blur the eyes is enough to denote
vision. Eyebrows may also anger, fear, or surprise in a face,
deect debris and shield our and experiments have shown
eyes from the Sun. So while that we can recognise a familiar
we slowly evolved to lose most face more easily when the eyes
of our body hair, our eyelashes are blanked out than when the
and eyebrows remained. eyebrows are. So if youre Eyebrows: a
But eyebrows then took tempted to redesign your useful tool if
on another function: eyebrows by shaving or you have to deal
with henchmen
communication. Facial plucking them, do remember putting you in a
expressions convey meaning their many uses. SB shark-infested tank
You might want to

have your bikes brakes
checked regularly if you
live at the top of Baldwin
Street, New Zealand
NAOMI CHAMBERS, CHELMSFORD WITH ENOUGH RUN-up, you can ride roughly 45 per cent grade hill, ignoring
up any gradient of hill, including friction from the bike axles.
What is the completely vertical. But beginning from a
standing start, the limiting factor is the
There arent any roads with hills that
steep, but one of the steepest in the world
maximum power you can supply from your legs.

Most cyclists cant balance once they are
is Baldwin Street in New Zealand. This
has a maximum grade of about 35 per
PHOTO: ALAMY, GETTY
travelling at less than 1m/s. An Olympic cent and there are videos on YouTube of
gradient a cyclist athlete can put out about 370400 watts
of power for short periods and this would
cyclists making it to the top. They
invariably zig-zag on the way up though,
could climb? theoretically let them climb at 1m/s up a which attens the effective gradient. LV

Q&A
SALLY MUSKELL, LITTLEHAMPTON
Why do earthworms
surface after rain?
NOT BECAUSE THEY Some may need to come
might drown. People to the surface to mate when
often claim that this is the it is wet enough, but only a
explanation, yet earthworms very few of the 4,400 known
breathe by exchanging species of earthworms do
oxygen and carbon dioxide this. Another possibility is
through their skin, which that earthworms confuse
they keep wet with a slimy the sound of rain with a
mucus. This means they are predator, such as a mole, and
happiest in damp soil and so make their way upwards
most species can survive for to the surface to escape.
several days under water. Certainly the animals are
So a brief rainstorm should well known to respond to
not bother them. Indeed, such sounds, as any worm
they may even exploit catcher will tell you. Some
the wet weather to travel old tricks include vibrating
longer distances than they sticks, saws on wooden A worm wriggling around in wet
weather could be thinking that its
would normally be able stakes. And, more bizarrely, escaped the clutches of a mole
to underground. giving worms tea and beer. SB
HARRIET MORRIS, ISLE OF MAN ALAN HUGHES-HALLETT, WANSTROW
Why does skin stick Do carrots really help you

to frosted metal? see in the dark?
Eating a bunch of carrots
IF YOU PUT your tongue on wont give you the power of
night vision unfortunately
a frozen metal agpole, the high
conductivity of the metal removes heat
from your tongue much faster than
your body can supply it. This makes
the water in your saliva freeze into ice
very quickly. The ice creates hydrogen
bonds between the metal and your
skin, just like liquid water does, except
that now the whole surface bonds
together to resist the force as you pull
away. The same thing will happen with YES AND NO. Carrots contain vitamin bombers on night raids, they issued
your ngers because your ngerprints A, or retinol, and this is required for your press releases stating that British pilots
provide some roughness and your body to synthesise rhodopsin, which is were eating lots of carrots to give them
skin also usually has a tiny amount of the pigment in your eyes that operates in exceptional night vision. This fooled
PHOTO: THINKSTOCK, SUPERSTOCK, ALAMY
moisture from sweat. low-light conditions. If you have a the British public, as well as German
But very smooth, vitamin A deciency, you will develop High Command and an old wives tale
very dry skin nyctalopia or night blindness. Eating was born. LV
wont stick. LV carrots would correct this and improve
your night vision, but only to the point of
It wont taste
an ordinary healthy person it wont
of anything
and you ever let you see in complete darkness. NEXT MONTH Over 20 more
could be in
for a painful
The idea that it might is due to a myth
begun by the Air Ministry in World War
of your questions answered
separation
For even more answers to the most puzzling
II. To prevent the Germans nding out
that Britain was using radar to intercept
` questions, see the Q&A archive at
www.sciencefocus.com/qanda
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THE FUTURE OF G ADGE T S
THIS MONTH
BILL THOMPSON
Roads of the future
p81
JUST LANDED
The Leap Motion
p82
ULTIMATE TEST
Flying drones
p85
EDITED BY DANIEL BENNETT
F
OR CENTURIES Now it seems the next form shrewd business decision too:
people have sought of mental stimulant could come video games were a 43 billion
ON THE HORIZON quick fixes and in the shape of a piece of ($67 billion) dollar industry in
miracle cures to technology, and not a drug. 2012, and professional gaming
FOC.US
enhance our vitality Looking like something Star draws in sponsorship and
and make us faster, stronger, Treks Borg might wear, the viewing figures that rival
smarter, younger. Historically foc.us device promises to make physical sports. The companys
WWW.FOC.US, $249 speaking, many of these fixes your synapses fire faster with bold claims may draw in others
(160 PLUS P&P)
have been pharmacological. the application of a small looking for a mental boost,
WORDS: DR BRADLEY Freud used cocaine to improve electrical current to the brain and not just people who like
VOYTEK his mood and treat his patients for 30 minutes. The promised to play video games.
while Queen Victoria was result is that youll have Unfortunately as a scientist
known to enjoy a wine infused sharpened reflexes and faster Im sceptical. The technique
with the drug. In fact its only reactions. As a gamer, I can see being used by the foc.us
relatively recently the late the attraction. Those extra split headset is known as
1960s that the sale of seconds can make all the transcranial direct
amphetamines was made illegal. difference. Its certainly a current stimulation

Tech Hub
TECHOMETER
WHATS HOT
300TB OPTICAL DISCS

Sony and
Panasonic
are drawing
up plans for
a new disc
format that
would replace
Blu-ray. These new optical
discs would hold 300GB
of data, just enough space
for a single, 4K resolution
(Ultra HD) lm. This format
would be four times
sharper than the 1080p
resolution Blu-ray offers.
Televisions with 4K displays
are already on sale, so
alternative ways of getting
Ultra HD content could
spring up in the meantime.
The latest must-have

accessory for WHATS NOT
super-nerds, the
foc.us claims to give
you a mental boost
BLUETOOTH TOILETS
Bringing a whole new
meaning to the term
backdoor vulnerability,
(tDCS). In the scientific world, studies Yes, sometimes tDCS provides a a Bluetooth toilet, which
can be controlled via a
using it have actually been quite promising. cognitive benefit; the data is indisputable.
smartphone, has been
In carefully controlled experiments, I myself make use of this technology in my hacked. All of its functions,
low-level electrical excitation of just the lab. But its capabilities are too non- including the ush, bidet
right brain regions have provided a small specific. In the brain, it matters which and hot-air blower, can be
boost to task performance. After a quick neurones are excited; alcohol excites a lot hijacked. The toilet, which
zap, volunteers have gotten slightly better of neurones, but no one would claim that even keeps a log (no pun
intended) of your bowl
at noticing if a square changed colour drinking four pints sharpens your reflexes.
movements, is stuck
(after an hour of watching flashing And while stimulation methods have with the Bluetooth
coloured squares). But could this really been proven to be safe for use in controlled pin 0000,
extend to a task as complex as playing a experimental situations over the short- making it
video game? term, we dont know about longterm an easy
The general idea is that if a certain brain effects. Weve been down this road before. target.
region is involved in cognition attention Over the short term the data was very
for example then stimulating that area clear: cocaine and amphetamines were
with an electrical pulse (priming it) should very effective at enhancing energy and READER POLL
improve your ability to attend to whats mood, but we didnt know about long-term Would you sharpen your reexes by
happening around you. We also know that negative consequences. I will never say stimulating your brain with electricity?
when youre engaged in a complex that we shouldnt test new drugs or new
cognitive task (like playing Call Of Duty: technology, but when companies promise
Modern Warfare), certain neurones in to excite your prefrontal cortex to give
specific brain areas fire more quickly. you the edge in online gaming 36%
So, I imagine the thinking at foc.us is and let the force of electricity excite No - danger,
ILLUSTRATOR: LAUREN GENTRY
danger, high 64%

that if we can speed up the rate of neuronal your neurones into firing faster, well voltage! Yes - buzz me
firing we should be able to enhance gaming buyer beware. up, Scotty!
ability. Unfortunately, thats a little like
saying, I can boost my computers memory
by jolting its hard drive with a battery! DR BRADLEY VOYTEK is a neuroscientist
your IT department wont be happy. at the University of California, San Diego

Tech Hub
EARLY ADOPTER COMING SOON

BILL THOMPSON 3 MONTHS
MOTO X
Motorola has launched its rst new
smartphone since it was acquired
by Google. The Moto X is always
Road to the future

listening for voice commands from
the user. Saying Okay Google Now
tells the phone that youre about to
issue instructions. Motorola.com
he Yorkshire Dales is glowing green markings Something akin to this is
T a magical place, and replacing street lights. already being built in iPhone 5C
All the signs point towards a budget iPhone,
Ive spent more time The next step is to make South Korea. A new city
available in several colours, going on sale
than Id like driving the road more aware by called New Songdo will before the years out. apple.com
up and down the A1. When equipping it with sensors have its roads managed by
you travel up the ancient for all sorts of things, like Cisco, which will use real- PS4
North Road, its apparent temperature, water and of time information like the With video calling and social networks
how little roads have course vehicle speed. The current weather to optimise loaded as standard, Sonys next PlayStation
changed in comparison data collected can then be the citys traffic lights. is set to provide a more social gaming
experience. playstation.com
to everything else. used to warn drivers, A system like this would
One person who agrees either through on-board make it a lot easier to get
is Daan Roosegaarde, who information systems or by to Swaledale in Yorkshire 6 MONTHS
runs the social design using it to guide self- each week, but for all my
lab Studio Roosegaarde. driving cars like Googles. excitement one thing NEXUS Q
He has developed a worries me. Im uneasy Googles attempt at a TV set-top
photoluminescent paint about building an box opped initially, but the search
that can be used on road intelligent road system for giant is thought to be readying a follow-up
surfaces, for example for the same reasons I am with more services, including cloud gaming.
road markings. During about turning the Google.co.uk/nexus
the day the lines internet from a series of
LG Smartwatch
absorb sunlight and relatively dumb pipes
Following the launch of its new G2
then glow for 10 into a fully managed smartphone, LG registered the G Watch
hours to provide network. Once you do brand. Its fuelled rumours that the company
guidance to night that you put enormous will launch an Android-powered smartwatch
drivers. This will power in the hands of before the years out. Lg.com
save money and could those in charge.
also improve safety by Just as we have to Mercedes S-Class
The car that sets the standard for the rest of
making it affordable to trust internet service
the motoring industry comes with Distronic
illuminate country roads. providers not to feed all Plus Steering Assistance. In
He also has paint with our data to GCHQ and to other words, autonomous motorway
a temperature-sensitive be fair in allocating driving. Mercedes.com
ingredient that glows The first UK self-driving bandwidth so that BBC
phosphorescent white car trial will take place in iPlayer works properly, so
when the temperature Oxford this year, and the wed have to trust the road 9 MONTHS
drops below zero. move to autonomous service providers not to
Roosegaarde proposes vehicles seems unstoppable. send us on long detours so SAMSUNG SMARTWATCH
to use it to paint giant Imagine the end point their higher-paying The South Korean tech
snowflakes on the road and we have road systems customers could drive at company has penned a patent
that will appear in frosty designed from the ground high speeds down empty for an Android-powered
weather to warn drivers of up with intelligent materials roads as if they were in a watch with a bendable
icy conditions, instead of and embedded computers. car advert. The road to the screen that wraps around the
wearers wrist. Samsung.com
relying on in-car systems. They will be efficient, low- future might not be so
Its a lovely concept and power and safe because the clear after all. Oculus Rift
later this year Heijmans, a whole system is managed The virtual reality headset could change
Dutch road-building by road service providers, Bill Thompson contributes entertainment as we know it. NASA has
company, will build a 150m the transport equivalent of to news.bbc.co.uk and the already developed virtual tours of Mars and
demonstration road with internet service providers. BBC World Service the ISS using the hardware. Oculusvr.com
Samsung Youm
As well as a bendable watch, Samsung is
readying a exible phone. With the battery
TELL US WHAT YOU THINK!
` Do you want a highly managed smart road network with driverless cars?
packed into a lipstick-sized cylinder the rest
of the phone can be rolled up. Samsung.com
Give us your opinion by emailing [email protected]

Tech Hub
JUST LANDED
MAGNIFICENT GESTURE
The lm Minority Report envisaged a future of interactive 3D displays. Jamie Carter
gets hands-on with Leap Motion, which turns science ction into reality
WE CAN TOUCH, tap and 3D version of my hand on the not going to be checking your common Leap language, no
even talk to our devices, so the screen. When I moved just one email or surfing the web. gesture that consistently
arrival of gesture control for fingertip very slightly, the 3D There are over 70 apps, from works. We were addicted
computers shouldnt come as model hand moved in unison. the 3D dissection of skeletons to Cut The Rope the simple
a shock. Leap Motion creates However, although it runs on Cyber Science Motion to a swipe gesture came naturally.
a 3D motion control area in on both Windows and Mac New York Times app, though But flicking our way around
front of your computer by computers, the Leap Motion most are simple games like Google Earth felt alien, with
using a small USB stick-like software works only within Cut The Rope. The main just slight movements making
device that sits in front of its own dedicated apps; youre problem is that there is no the view zoom in and out
your keyboard. It uses too quickly.
a combination of For now Leap
cameras and infrared 2 Algorithms convert what the camera sees 3 The interaction area Motion is a proof
LEDs to capture into digital tracking points. These are used to stretches half a metre above of concept that
movement. create a 3D model of your hands. the controller to a 150 angle. should improve as
But where the other more apps become
gesture-control available. While
device, Microsofts gesture control
Xbox Kinect, follows will most likely
your whole body, the have a place in
Leap Motion only hybrid interfaces
tracks your hands. of the future, we
During the set-up wouldnt ditch
procedure the the keyboard and
software showed a mouse just yet.
JAMIE CARTER is a
freelance technology
journalist for CNet
1 Infrared LEDs in the controller

throw light onto your hands, which
are then tracked by two cameras.
Tech Hub
1 2 3
5 6
APPLIANCES OF SCIENCE
QUIET THATS HEADS SPECS KEEP SHARKS PAR FOR
1 DOWN 2 A WRAP 3 UP 4 APPEAL 5 IN THE DARK 6 THE COURSE
These are the rst With smartphones and Driving a car while If you wear glasses Above water, this Football and tennis have
noise-cancelling cameras now offering squinting at a Sat-Nav every day, then its swimsuit might make already had a high-tech
earphones that let you full-HD video, you might thats yelling at you important that they t you look like a beached makeover with the
choose which sounds think thered be no need probably isnt the best comfortably. Protos whale, but in the sea it arrival of smart balls
you block out. The Bose for camcorders. Canon formula for road safety. uses smart algorithms makes you invisible to and rackets, and now
QuietComfort 20s can thinks otherwise, with This heads-up display to analyse pictures of sharks. The theory goes its golfs turn. Sensors
isolate and block low this alternative take on connects to your you and determine what that since sharks are inside this add-on to
frequency sounds like a the old handheld. At a smartphone and styles of frame will suit colour-blind they wont your club track its
droning aeroplane mere 76 x 22 x 96mm, projects directions, your face, and the be able to see a diver in swing and position. This
engine, leaving high the idea is the Vixia Mini speed and distance to precise dimensions this suit. However, as data is recorded and
frequency sounds can slip into your destination onto your needed for a snug t. its well known that the sent via Bluetooth to
audible. And when you pocket and offer high- windshield, just like in a Once you select a predators use all their your smartphone or
need respite from the speed, adaptive lming ghter plane, so youre design you like, the senses to hunt, theres tablet, where its drawn
crying baby two rows that your phone and not forced to divert frames are then brought also a suit that uses into a 3D map of your
back, theyre agile compact camera cant. your attention from the to life by a 3D printer black and white stripes movements alongside
enough to cut out the Plus its Wi-Fi mode will road. Just dont get too using a exible plastic to mimic prey that would stats on club speed,
rapidly modulating let you control lming caught up in pretending thats easy to bend but be poisonous to eat. angle and more. You
frequencies of the remotely from your youre in Top Gun tough to break. Radiator Elude Dark can then compare stats
human voice. smartphone or tablet. Garmin HUD Protos Eyewear Diving Suit with other users online.
Bose QuietComfort 20 Canon Vixia Mini 129.99 + 44.99 app, Price TBC, AUD 495 (286) plus Swingbyte
259.95, bose.co.uk 249, canon.co.uk garmin.com protoseyewear.com P&P, radiator.net 145, swingbyte.com

Tech Hub
ULTIMATE TEST
SPIES IN THE SKY

Small, discreet and easy to y, the next
generation of unmanned aerial vehicles is
here. Daniel Bennett prepares for take-off
PHOTO: THESECRETSTUDIO.NET

Tech Hub
Engine
Aileron Small but powerful, it will propel the craft
Electric motors adjust each ap to speeds of up to 80 km/h (50 mph) and
independently during ight. As wind y at a height of around 80m.
hits the wings, the ailerons adjust to
keep the LA100 and its camera steady.
Unibody wing
With a wingspan of 92cm, this
toughened polypropylene frame GoPro mount
makes the craft light enough to No camera is supplied but you can attach any
y (850g), but tough enough to model of GoPro camera to the nose mount. A
survive crash landings which GoPro 3 (not older models) is also able to attach
we can certainly vouch for. to the underbelly of the plane, and lm the ground
beneath. These will record video in full-HD (1080p)
and at up to 60 frames per second.
LEHMANN LA100
lehmannaviation.com, 990 (854) plus P&P
CUT OUT FROM a single block of Its simple to y, too. Once the as easy as lobbing the LA100 into spirals back down to the point it
light but tough polypropylene foam, batterys plugged in, the GPS unit a headwind. launched from.
the rst thing that strikes you rings out for ve seconds to let Theres a split-second of fear In strong winds the onboard
about the Lehmann LA100 is just you know its acquired a satellite as it immediately falls to Earth. sensors keep the LA100 ying true
how little it weighs 850g to be x. Next, a tilt towards the ground Thats swiftly followed by a sigh of and, although its disappointing
exact. Everything about it has instructs the UAV to test out its relief as it climbs towards the not to get a camera included in the
been cut down to the bare wing aps. When thats done, clouds at the last moment. From price, the footage from the GoPro
essentials. The hull which houses pointing the nose upwards starts there the autopilot takes over. It is spectacular. Ultimately though,
the GPS unit, ight computer (the a countdown of beeps warning ies off in a straight line for theres no practical use here -
LA100 ies on autopilot) and you that the electric motor is around 300m and ascends to 80m Lehmann recommends using it
battery is made out of a single about to start. Youll want to be before looping around and tracing for mapping. Its just an expensive
PHOTO: THESECRETSTUDIO.NET, ALAMY, TITAN AEROSPACE
piece of carbon bre which wearing gloves at this point to a criss-cross pattern in the air toy, but its an exciting one.
fastens to the wing with Velcro protect your hand from the over the starting point. Five
alone. Simplicity is king here. whirling propeller. Then, take-off is minutes later it returns and gently QQQQQ
ARE THEY LEGAL? guidelines follow common horizontally and 400ft (122m) course you should avoid poking
Toys they may be, but there sense. Your drone must stay at vertically from the pilot. your drones nose into private
are a few rules to bear in least 150m from a congested Surprisingly youre free property. If you plan to upload
mind before you take off area or 50m from potential to lm as much you like, as footage where individuals
passers-by, and you should long as the footage is for are clearly identiable onto
The Civil Aviation Authority always make sure your drone private viewing only and not YouTube, you should get their
makes the rules here and its is in view no more than 400m for commercial use. And of permission rst.

Tech Hub
Indoor hull Sensors

This body is made from a tough but Accelerometers and magnetometers
exible polypropylene foam which monitor the position of each blade,
keeps its shape after an impact. A while an ultrasound sensor under
more aerodynamic hull is supplied the hull checks the Parrots distance
for outdoor ight. from the ground.
Watch a video of
the drones in action
on the BBC Focus
Magazine iPad app
and YouTube channel
Camera at youtube.com/
The HD (720p) camera sends a sciencefocus
live view to your smartphone,
which can then record video
or take snapshots. Augmented
Reality (AR) games can
superimpose virtual ghters Piloting app
over your view or use the Speed, altitude and piloting controls
Parrots distinctive markings to are all laid over the Parrots-eye
identify other drones. view. The Emergency button lands
the drone immediately.
PARROT AR DRONE 2.0

Parrot.com, 299
SEVEN MINUTES OF terror. No, smartphone and connect to the level. All this wizardry means you easy enough, while chasing
Im not referring to the Curiosity drones own Wi-Fi network can just concentrate on where virtual baddies through its
rovers descent to Mars, but you tap the take-off button and you want to go, and not worry Augmented Reality games (AR) is
what happened the last time the drone leaps into the air and about smashing into the ground, hugely enjoyable.
Focus tested a remote-controlled hovers there like a dragony, a walls or passers-by. Sadly the fun is likely to be
helicopter. There was lots of metre or two above the ground. The piloting app superimposes fairly short-lived as its battery
palm-sweat, panic and, ultimately, Parrots quadrocopter can do your controls a directional pad wont survive much more than
disappointment when the chopper this because inside its hull its for each axis over a live view 20 minutes of ight. But if youve
hit the ground blades-rst. brain is calculating how fast to from the AR Drones cam. You been lming the action, then
In comparison, ying the Parrot spin each of its four blades for simply tell it where to y and it watching the crisp, smooth
AR Drone is a much more civilised the entire craft to stay still. If a obeys. Itll even pull off ips and footage will occupy your time
affair. After a breezy set-up you gust of wind buffets the drone, its barrel rolls at a touch. between charges.
just download the app from the sensors tells its 1GHz processor This means pointing the 720p
App Store or Google Play on your what adjustments to make to stay HD camera in the right direction is QQQQQ
FUTURE DRONES SOLAR-POWERED MIND-CONTROLLED

Soon the skies will be Pairing the latest solar power Using a cap loaded with
buzzing with drones technology with a UAV results electrodes, researchers
thanks to future in a high-altitude plane that from the University of
applications like these... can y for months at a time, Minnesota were able to
functioning as an alternative pilot a drone purely by
to GPS satellites. the power of thought.

HOW DO WE KNOW?
WHAT
CAUSES
EARTHQUAKES? BY ANDREW ROBINSON
Theyve devastated cities throughout human history, but have proved
to be one of the most dicult of natural phenomena to understand
OT LONG AFTER midnight Every year in Britain, some 200 philosophers proposed natural
N
on an ordinary evening in minor tremors are recorded by explanations. Aristotle, during the
2008, I had an uncanny seismographs. A magnitude-4 4th Century BC, believed in a central
seismic experience. I had just earthquake occurs every two or three fire inside caverns in the Earth. As
finished drafting a review years on average; a magnitude-5 quake the subterranean fires burned away
of a book called Apocalypse: every 10 years. In 1931, there was a the rocks, the underground caverns
Earthquakes, Archaeology, quake of magnitude 6.1 the largest collapsed, generating earthquakes.
And The Wrath Of God British earthquake measured to date. Aristotle even classified earthquakes
when I felt the floor of my As a rule, 90 per cent of these into types according to whether they
upstairs flat in London shift almost tremors go undetected by the public. shook structures and people in mainly
imperceptibly for a second or two. Those that are noticed like the a vertical or a diagonal direction, and
Perhaps the vibration had been caused magnitude-5.2 earthquake on 27 whether or not they were associated
by a London Underground train, so I February 2008 are nevertheless with escaping vapours. Much later, the
forgot about it and went to bed. rapidly forgotten. To most people, Roman philosopher Seneca, inspired
The following morning, however, earthquakes and England would in part by an Italian earthquake in
the BBC radio news bulletin announced appear to have little connection with AD 62 or 63 that devastated Pompeii,
that there had been an earthquake, at the almost apocalyptic earthquakes proposed that the movement of air
12.56am. The British Geological Survey that have shaped society in countries rather than smoky vapours trapped
had monitored the event as having like China, Japan, Iran and Pakistan, and compressed within the Earth, was
occurred at a depth of 5km, with its where violent shaking of the earth has responsible for both violent storms
epicentre in Lincolnshire, roughly killed millions of people in modern and destructive rock movements.
north of London around 200km away, times. Yet, it was in Britain that
and with a potentially destructive seismology emerged as a science.
magnitude of 5.2. One serious injury The first attempts to account for MADE IN CHINA
was reported and many houses earthquakes in other than divine The first measurement of an
close to the epicentre where the terms come from ancient Greece earthquake comes from ancient
intensity of an earthquake is greatest and Rome. Rather than imagining China, however. The earliest known
PHOTO: GETTY
suffered damage. This was the biggest the god Poseidon striking his trident seismometer was invented in AD
earthquake in the UK since 1984. on the ground in anger, some Greek 132 by Zhang Heng. It consisted

How do we know?
> IN A NUTSHELL
Once thought to be the work of
callous gods, weve gradually come
to understand the mechanics of
earthquakes to the point where
we can accurately measure them
A road is decimated by a magnitude-6.8 and even predict where the next
earthquake that struck Ojiya, Japan, in devastating blow might strike.
2004, killing 68 people
How do we know?
of eight dragon-heads facing must have comprised a pendulum as But scientific understanding of
the eight principal directions of the primary sensing element, somehow how earthquakes form had to await
the compass. They were mounted on connected to levers that caused the the destruction of Lisbon in 1755 by
the outside of an ornamented vessel bronze balls to drop. an extremely powerful earthquake
said to resemble a wine jar with an According to Chinese history, in AD followed by a tsunami and fires. In
approximate diameter of 2m. Around 138 the seismometer enabled Zhang Britain, data on the effects of the
the base, directly beneath the dragon- Heng to announce the occurrence of a Portuguese earthquake were collected
heads, were eight squatting toads major earthquake at Rosei, 650km to from all over the country and abroad
with open mouths. In the event of the northwest of the Chinese capital by the Royal Society, supplementing
an earthquake, a bronze ball would Loyang two or three days before that collected after a series of British
drop from a dragon-head into a news of the devastation arrived by earthquakes in 1750. John Michell, an
toads mouth with a resonant clang. messengers. This prediction restored astronomer at Cambridge University,
The direction of the earthquake was the faith of court officials in the took up the challenge of analysing the
probably indicated by which dragon- seismometer, and led the imperial eyewitness reports, and accounting
head dropped its ball, unless more government to appoint a secretary for earthquake motions in terms
than one ball dropped, indicating a to monitor the instrument, which of Newtonian mechanics. Michell
more complex shaking. The device remained in existence for four centuries. eventually published an important, if
THE KEY The movement of roads, fences and streams crossing the San Andreas Fault
DISCOVERY enabled Harry Fielding Reid to develop a theory of how earthquakes are triggered
IN 1906, THE San Francisco earthquake the fault had been deformed by its The lower the friction, the weaker the fault
produced a surface rupture 435km (270 movement, and how after the earthquake and the more easily it would slip, suggested
miles) in length, and wide enough to swallow they were displaced or offset by up to 6.4m. Reid. In places where the friction was of
a cow, according to a famous folk tale of the He proposed that before the earthquake, medium size, the fault would slip frequently,
time. The rupture happened in an area friction between the two sides of the fault producing many small earthquakes. But
named the San Andreas Fault. To explain it, had locked part of it, deforming it as the where friction was high and the fault strong,
geophysicist Harry Fielding Reid published sides moved past each other until nally it would slip only occasionally: there would
his mechanism of elastic rebound. the fault snapped. The sides sprang away be few, but large, earthquakes. While Reids
Reid had noticed that in the years before from each other and they elastically model suffers from serious difficulties, its
1906, roads, fences and streams crossing rebounded, creating the surface rupture. still the best that seismologists have.
Around 3,000 people were

killed and 80 per cent of the
city destroyed as a result of the
1906 San Francisco earthquake
PHOTO: SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY X3, SCIENCE AND SOCIETY, US LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

How do we know?
flawed, geological paper, Conjectures

concerning the cause and observations
upon the phaenomena of earthquakes, CAST OF Masters of destruction: the minds who
in the Royal Societys Philosophical CHARACTERS unlocked the mystery of earthquakes
Transactions for 1760.
He correctly concluded that
earthquakes were waves set up by Zhang Heng
shifting masses of rock miles below (AD 78-139) designed
the surface. However, his explanation the earliest recorded
for this shifting relied wrongly on seismometer. He was
explosions of steam when underground a Chinese astronomer
water encountered underground fires. and mathematician. In
When the shifting occurred beneath 138, the seismometer
the seabed, Michell also rightly measured a major
concluded that it would produce a earthquake far from
sea wave (a tsunami), as well as an the Chinese capital,
earthquake. There were two types of two or three days
earthquake wave, he said, once again before news of the
Robert Mallet (1810-81)
coming close to the truth: the first earthquakes damage
was an Irish civil
was a tremulous vibration within arrived by messenger.
engineer and inventor
the Earth, followed shortly by an who became interested
undulation of the Earths surface. in earthquakes
From this he argued that the during the 1830s. He
speed of an earthquake wave could created experimental
be determined by its arrival times at earthquakes with
different points on the surface. Such dynamite, investigated
times were approximately known from the 1857 Neapolitan
eyewitness reports for far-flung places John Milne (1850-1913),
earthquake through
affected by the Lisbon earthquake, a British geologist and
detailed analysis of its
which enabled Michell to calculate mining engineer, was a
damage to buildings,
a speed for its wave of 1,930km/h. professor in Japan from
and compiled world
He was the first scientist to attempt 1876-95. His teaching,
maps that showed
such a calculation unaware though the seismographs
earthquakes clustering
he was that the speed of seismic waves he designed and his
in mysterious belts.
varies with the types of rock through investigation of the 1891
which they pass. He then went further, Mino-Owari earthquake
by theorising that the surface origin established Japanese
of an earthquake, what we now call seismology, while the
the epicentre, could be located by international earthquake
combining the same data on arrival bulletin he issued after
times. Although he curiously chose his return to Britain
a different and inaccurate way to Harry Fielding Reid led to the International
calculate the epicentre of the Lisbon (1859-1944) served Seismological Summary
earthquake (relying instead on reports on Californias started in 1918.
of the direction of the tsunami), his state commission
theoretical principle is the basis of to investigate the
todays method for locating an epicentre. 1906 San Francisco
earthquake. An Charles Richter
American geophysicist, (1900-85), like Reid,
FINDING THE EPICENTRE he closely examined was an American
The next major development came land movements due physicist-turned-
in the mid-19th Century from a to earthquakes over seismologist. Working
brilliant Irish civil engineer, Robert the course of the with Beno Gutenberg at
Mallet, who had spent two decades previous half-century. the California Institute
collecting data about historical quakes. He then proposed that of Technology, Richter
His catalogue of world seismicity earthquakes were the devised a magnitude
contained 6,831 listings, giving the result of the elastic scale for Californian
date, location, number of shocks, rebound of geological earthquakes in 1935.
probable direction and duration of faults such as the San Until the 1980s, Richter
the seismic waves, along with notes Andreas Fault. magnitude was used
on related effects. In 1858, he internationally, but it has
travelled to Naples to investigate now been replaced by a
the destruction wrought by more accurate moment
a recent major earthquake. magnitude scale.

How do we know?
Assessing every crack with a

trained eye, Mallet compiled
The key discoveries that have enabled us to understand
TIMELINE the mechanism of earthquakes and detect them
isoseismal maps: that is, maps with
contours of equal earthquake damage/
intensity. Its a method employed
today, albeit with refinements, to
The worlds rst
map seismic hazard. Mallet placed
seismometer (pictured),
invented by Zhang too much reliance on the direction
Heng, establishes of fallen objects and the type of
cracks in buildings as indicators of
AD 132
the principle that an
earthquake can be earthquake motion (cracking is in
scientically measured fact mainly a function of the type of
with an instrument
building construction). But his maps
located far from
the epicentre. did allow him to estimate the centre of
the earthquake and its size relative to
other earthquakes.
A catastrophic
earthquake in Lisbon Using the new technique of
leads John Michell, photography, he documented the
a British clergyman damage. He then reported to the
1755
and astronomer, to Royal Society in a two-volume study,
conclude, in the Royal Great Neapolitan Earthquake Of 1857:
Societys Philosophical
The First Principles Of Observational
Transactions in 1760,
that earthquakes are Seismology, published in 1862.
waves set up by shifting Elsewhere, he published maps of world
masses of rock. seismic intensity, providing the first
indication that earthquakes cluster
in certain belts around the Earth.
Robert Mallet publishes his
An explanation of this fact would
two-volume study, Great
Neapolitan Earthquake, have to wait another century, but in
and maps of world seismic
intensity demonstrating that
earthquakes cluster in certain
1862 the meantime Mallets map focused
scientific attention on these patterns.
belts around the Earth.

GLOBAL NETWORK
An earthquake in Over the next half-century seismology
San Francisco and a became a truly international science,
subsequent re destroy as measuring instruments improved
the city but establish the in sensitivity to the point where they
discipline of seismology in were able to monitor, and record,
California. Harry Fielding
earthquakes all over the planet from
PHOTO: SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY X2, GETTY X3, US LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, PRESS ASSOCIATION
Reid proposes the elastic
1906 rebound theory of

earthquakes, which is still
inuential, if awed.
a single location. A British geologist
and mining engineer, John Milne,
having designed more than one such
seismograph while living for two
decades in Japan, returned to Britain
in 1895 and established a central
earthquake observatory at his house
Charles Richter, following the on the Isle of Wight. It had inputs from
1933 Long Beach earthquake a worldwide network of seismographic
near Los Angeles, creates stations. Although Milnes theoretical
a magnitude scale, which
enables seismologists to allot
a size to each Californian
1935 contributions were small, he has a
considerable claim to be considered
earthquake, regardless of its the founder of seismology.
varying intensities. With the vast increase in seismic
data, theoretical understanding
advanced in the first decade of the
The theory of plate tectonics 20th Century. The theory that volcanic
explains why the vast majority action might be related to earthquakes
of earthquakes cluster in belts,
believed by Aristotle and lent
1960S
at plate boundaries such as the
Ring of Fire around the Pacic credence by the contiguous volcanoes
Ocean; but it fails to explain and earthquakes of southern Italy and
intra-plate earthquakes, for Japan was largely abandoned when
example in Missouri. it became clear that active volcanoes
were often free from earthquakes.

How do we know?
NEED TO KNOW
Key terms that will help you
understand earthquakes
EPICENTRE
1 The area of origin of an earthquake
underground is its hypocentre or
focus. The point on the Earths surface
immediately above the hypocentre is the
epicentre, where there is often visible
movement and cracking of the Earth, as
surface waves radiate from the epicentre.
2 FAULT
At its simplest, a geological fault is
a joint between two rock planes. The
fault is usually not exactly vertical and
so one plane of the fault overhangs the
other. Fault movements and earthquakes
are intimately connected, but their
precise relationship is controversial.
3 INTENSITY
The intensity of an earthquake
measures its effects on objects,
humans and animals. Intensity generally
increases the closer the observer is
to the epicentre. Its also higher for a
Charles Richter studies earthquake
poorly constructed building than for a
tremors in his laboratory in
well-built one, given the same shaking. Pasadena, California he developed
the Richter scale in 1935
4 MAGNITUDE
Unlike intensity, magnitude is was driving them? Not until the 1960s, achievable during the last few decades
independent of the observers distance with the advent of plate tectonic of the 20th Century, all seismologists
from the epicentre. It is, so to speak, theory, did seismologists appreciate now admit its currently impossible.
the amount of explosive in a bomb, that the San Andreas Fault was the The scale of the task was outlined
as opposed to the bombs effects. boundary between two tectonic by Charles Richter, who devised
An earthquake can have only one plates, the Pacific plate and the North the Richter magnitude scale for
magnitude, fundamentally; but it American plate, which were moving in measuring earthquakes in the 1930s.
always has many intensities. opposite directions. Some other plate The seismologist said: One may
boundaries, for example near Japan, compare it to the situation of a man
were also seismically active. Hence who is bending a board across his
Instead, the tectonic movement of the fact, first noted by Mallet, that knee and attempts to determine in
geological faults came to be seen as earthquakes clustered in bands, which advance just where and when the
the chief origin of earthquakes. Known were now understood to coincide with cracks will appear.
as the elastic rebound model, abrupt plate boundaries.
fault movement was first proposed Yet, despite progress, seismologists
by the American geophysicist Harry remain far from fully understanding Andrew Robinson is the author of Earthquake:
Fielding Reid in 1906 to account for earthquakes. Plate tectonics do not Nature And Culture and Earthshock
the surface rupture of the San Andreas really explain British earthquakes, far
Fault in the San Francisco earthquake from the mid-Atlantic plate boundary.
(see The Key Discovery, p90). Whats more, geological faults such
Find out more
But while the model was plausible as the San Andreas have turned out
enough, it offered no explanation as to be very much weaker than would Forecasting Earthquakes
to why the sides of certain geological be expected from the elastic rebound reveals the past, present and
faults should be grinding past each model for large earthquakes. future of earthquake detection.
other in a regular fashion, causing As for earthquake prediction, which www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01c4qgt
periodic earthquakes. What force was touted by many seismologists as

To Do List
TO DO LIST
VISIT
WATCH
LISTEN
TOUCH
PLAY
PLAN YOUR MONTH AHEAD WITH OUR EXPERT GUIDE READ
PICK OF THE MONTH DONT MISS!
Ada Lovelace
Day Live
An evening at Imperial
College London celebrating
the work of the many
largely unsung female
scientists in history. p96
Hawking
This new film offers
a fresh perspective
on the life of the most
famous living scientist
IN THE OPENING scene of Hawking, the Richard Branson even pops up to say hes offered
famous physicist is about to take the stage Hawking the first trip to space on Virgin Galactic. Take On Mars
at a public lecture, his face obscured by the screen If all this is standard autobiographical fare, its still
Get behind the wheel of
with which he selects words to be spoken by a a revelation to see Hawkings humorous side. Fellow
your very own Mars rover
synthesizer. It symbolises how the wheelchair, the students at Oxford remember him as the life and
with this extra-terrestrial
voice and Hawkings iconic status have come to soul of every party, and a master of witty one-liners.
driving sim. p101
overshadow the man himself. The biggest disappointment is that his scientific
This, then, is an attempt to show what life is like discoveries arent better explained. Its possible to
for a 71-year-old who has overcome every obstacle appreciate that Hawkings studies of black holes
since being diagnosed with motor neurone disease showed how the Big Bang could produce the
a staggering 50 years ago. Scenes of Hawking at Universe. Yet his other work on black hole mergers
home and work are cut with contributions from his and Hawking radiation is rather baffling, and largely
family, friends and colleagues. Most poignant are left to colleagues to put in context. Its a shame
the recollections of his first wife, Jane. His illness because Hawking is clearly driven by his craving to
was already diagnosed when they first met, yet she understand the Universe.
devoted herself to their marriage and three children. This film is still worth watching, though, for its
But after a succession of health scares, the couple candid glimpses of an extraordinary man who plays The Sports Gene
bowed to the inevitable and hired round-the-clock Wagner at full blast while continuing to defy the odds.
This new book examines
carers. Hawking survived, but their marriage didnt. GRAHAM SOUTHORN
whether great athletes
By the time the couple split up in 1990, Hawking
are born or made. Does
PHOTO: GETTY
was a superstar, able to do pretty much anything Hawking, directed by Stephen Finnigan, the key to their success
he liked. We see footage of him on Star Trek and is in cinemas from 20 September lie in their genes? p102
The Simpsons and his flight in NASAs vomit comet.

To Do List
VISIT
Scientists havent
always worn lab
coats you know EDITOR'S
CHOICE
EVENTS & EXHIBITIONS

WITH JHENI OSMAN
OCTOBER-JANUARY
Wallace100
Swansea Museum, www.swanseamuseum.co.uk
FORGET DARWIN FOR once:

2013 is the year to celebrate the
achievements of Alfred Russel
Wallace, the Welsh naturalist who
co-founded the theory of evolution
by natural selection. This exhibition,
marking 100 years since his death,
follows his story from a childhood
in Usk to his eventual exploration of
the Amazon and Indonesia.
3 OCTOBER-24 NOVEMBER
Echo
FACT Liverpool, www.fact.co.uk
EVER SEEN YOUR doppelgnger?

You can with this video installation,
where a reection of yourself
moves and speaks as you do in real
time, but within an unfamiliar city.
The installation was developed with
15 OCTOBER
Professor Olaf Blanke, Director of
Ada Lovelace Day Live

the Laboratory of Cognitive
Neuroscience at the Brain-Mind
Institute in Lausanne, Switzerland.
Imperial College London, 6pm, 15, ndingada.com
5-20 OCTOBER WHO WAS THE mother encouraged Adas

worlds rst computer interest in mathematics to keep
Midlothian Science Festival
PHOTO: ALAMY, SCIENCE AND SOCIETY, SA JOHANNESSON, BAS
programmer? A strong case her mind on the logical straight

can be made for the 19th- and narrow. Nowadays, Ada
Various venues and prices, midlothiansciencefestival.com Century countess, writer Lovelace is seen as something
and mathematician Ada of an iconic gure, representing
Get up close to your body Lovelace. She was famed for the many other historical
extremely close, by using a her contributions to Charles female scientists who had the
microscope to look at your own Babbages early mechanical glory stolen from them.
cells. This is just one of the quirky computer, the Analytical Engine. To shine the light on
events at this festival. Theres also Her father, the poet Lord women working in science,
hands-on experiments with the Byron, was a philanderer technology, engineering and
Chemistry Brothers and the return who sired more children out mathematics today, attendees
of Brainiacs Dr Bunhead (pictured), of wedlock than in mainly of this event are encouraged
exploring everything from bubbles because he upped sticks to share stories of those who
to bombs in an explosive show. and left the UK four months have inspired them. The host,
after Ada was born. Deeming science comedian Helen Arney,
him mad, and not wanting is joined by female scientists to
JHENI OSMAN is a science writer and the author of her daughter to follow his celebrate Adas achievements
100 Ideas That Changed The World (BBC Books, 9.99) delusional way of life, her and all she stands for.

To Do List
19-20 OCTOBER FROM 9 OCTOBER
Battle Of Ideas 3D: Printing The Future

Science Museum, London, 10am-7pm, free,
The Barbican, London, www.battleodeas.org.uk
www.sciencemuseum.org.uk
THE BARBICAN HOSTS its annual
In future, prosthetic
festival of debate to get the mental body parts could be
cogs whirring. With over 80 printed off at home
sessions, theres plenty of food for
thought, and of particular interest
to the scientically curious will be
debates on the science of addiction,
legal highs, the obesity crisis and the
ethics of Big Data. Grey cells at the
ready, science-slingers!
21 OCTOBER-6 JANUARY
Ice Lab
MOSI, Manchester, www.mosi.org.uk
THIS NEW EXHIBITION, which will run for nine
THE LOWEST TEMPERATURE ever
months, looks at the growing impact of 3D printing
recorded in Antarctica was -89.2C,
on everything from medicine to aeronautical engineering.
while winds can reach 320km/h
This rapidly evolving technology could soon be used to print
(199mph). Designing research
replacement organs and create drugs specically targeted
stations to cope with these extreme
to the patients body. Its already being used to build lighter
conditions takes some serious
parts for aeroplanes and space probes. Prop-maker Ivan
engineering. This exhibition
Owen helped carpenter Richard Van As, who lost four ngers
showcases Antarctic architecture,
in an accident, design and build a mechanical hand the
as well as looking at the science
plans have already been downloaded over 27,000 times
taking place in the frozen wasteland.
from Thingiverse.com. Visit the Science Museum to see
this 3D future, and nd out if it works.
23-30 OCTOBER
London Science Festival SPEAKER OF THE MONTH

Various venues and prices, www.londonsciencefestival.com
AT 150 YEARS of age, the Tube is 22 OCTOBER
the worlds oldest underground train
system. Londons festival celebrates
this and other technological and
Prof Robert Winston
engineering achievements. Speakers Westminster Abbey, London, 6.45pm, 27,
www.intelligencesquared.com
include leading scientists and
engineers, familiar faces from the
small screen such as Adam Who is he?
Rutherford and, slightly randomly, The man with the distinctive
comedian Ruby Wax. moustache, Prof Winston is currently
Professor of Science and Society at
Imperial College London.
25 OCTOBER 19 JANUARY
Whats his background?
Grow Your Own... Prof Winston (aka Lord Winston) set up the
Science Gallery, Dublin, sciencegallery.com IVF service at Hammersmith Hospital. Hes
been a scientic advisor to the World Health
BIOBRICKS ARE OPEN source Organisation and has presented many BBC
DNA building blocks that were series, from Child Of Our Time to Walking
rst developed at Massachusetts With Cavemen and The Human Body.
Institute of Technology 10 years
ago. But in the wake of all the furore Whats he talking about?
around GM food, their use by Prof Winston joins Jack Straw and Max
genetic scientists has proven equally Hastings in the debate An Anatomy Of
controversial. This exhibition tackles Truth, looking at whether telling the truth
provocative questions surrounding is always the best thing to do. If you ask us,
synthetic biology see p57 for more. a little white lie never hurts, does it?

To Do List
WATCH
TV, DVD, BLU-RAY & ONLINE
WITH TIMANDRA HARKNESS
EDITOR'S
CHOICE
SEPTEMBER
Animal Maternity
Channel 5, September TBC
BEHIND-THE-SCENES hidden
cameras at zoos, wildlife sanctuaries
and safari parks witness the births
of some of the rarest creatures on
Earth, including zebras, elephants,
and white rhinos. But as every
parent knows, thats just the start
of the work: we still have all the
sleepless nights, the feeding and
babys rst steps to go.
SEPTEMBER
Supersize Season Being Bonos stunt

double is a dirty job but
someones got to do it
Channel 5, September TBC
WITH CHRISTMAS EXCESS looming, 2 SEPTEMBER

here are six documentaries to put
the frighteners on you. Keith weighs
almost 70 stone, and hes out to lose
half his body weight and walk his dog
Man Vs Ride
National Geographic, 30 September, 10pm
again. But its not always a simple
journey. Other would-be slimmers NEIL COKE HAS bagged one of keeping their dinners down.
suffer unwanted side effects from of the best TV jobs going. His And he bravely faces up to his
weight-loss surgery, or nd their mission: to ride the worlds own biggest fear.
love lives hit by unexpected fallout. most thrilling rollercoasters in If youre worried that lengthy
the name of science. So from explanations of the science
Ferrari World in Abu Dhabi to will get in the way of thrilling
PHOTO: DISCOVERY NETWORKS X2, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC CHANNEL, GETTY, CHANNEL 5
FROM 26 SEPTEMBER a disused mine shaft in South rollercoaster footage, dont be.
Africa, Neil goes there on our To get a proper understanding
Animal Airport behalf. He even takes one for
the team by driving a Ferrari
of any of the fascinating
science, engineering and
Animal Planet, 26 September, 8pm around a nearby race track medicine touched upon in the
to compare the speed and stunts and demonstrations,
CHICKENS AT CHECK-IN, baggage- acceleration of car and ride. youll need to head to Google or
handling baboons and penguin pilots? Of course, there are ask a science teacher. Which
Sadly, no. Its a y-on-the-wall series downsides. Cameras on-hand is a pity, as there is plenty
from Heathrows Animal Reception to record every adrenalin- of physiology, psychology,
Centre, which welcomes 40 million packed moment also capture physics and mathematics
animals a year. In the rst episode, each twitch of terror, nausea, involved in ride design.
Ross tackles a particularly angry and unattering face-apping. But its an hour packed with
cat, the life of a monkey is in Stuarts He competes against a teenage entertainment, visuals and
hands and Sian takes on some unruly rugby team to hold out against vicarious thrills, and Neil is
alpacas. Beat that, Friends. the vomit-inducing powers of an engaging presenter with
Spains eight-inversion coaster an above-average ability to
Dragon Khan, repeating the withstand G-forces. Though
TIMANDRA HARKNESS is a stand-up comedian and a presenter ride time after time until only as he learns, thats not entirely
on BBC Worldwides YouTube channel Head Squeeze three of them are still capable a good thing

To Do List
FROM 30 SEPTEMBER
DVD & BLU-RAY
Ultimate Survival Alaska
Discovery, starts 30 September, 8pm Race To The Moon
Go Entertain, 8.30
THIS SERIES DROPS eight survival
experts in the middle of Alaska WHEN APOLLO 11 landed on the Moon, Russia
with only the gear they can carry. already had its own rocket on the launchpad. This
Crossing mountains and glaciated Russian-made documentary uses rare footage,
river valleys, they must face hunger, interviews and expert analysis to tell the Moon
predators and each other. Ten race story from the Russian point of view.
stages will test them physically and
mentally, with gruelling time limits to
beat on the long way home: think Big
Fred Dibnahs Industrial Age
Demand Media, 20
Brother with snow, ice and bears.
In this series from 1999, the late Fred Dibnah visits
200 locations to meet people who worked in coal
OCTOBER mines and cotton mills, as well as the volunteers
who restore ships and steam engines, while
The Great British Year animations show how the engineering worked.
BBC, October TBC
IT SOMETIMES FEELS as if British How The Universe Works

weather follows no discernible Discovery, 13.30
pattern except to rain whenever you This show aims to explain the Universe in terms of
go out without a coat. But in this a huge mechanical device, with stars, black holes
series, four hour-long programmes and galaxies working together to produce the
trace the landscape and wildlife of cosmos we see today. With cutting-edge CGI,
Britain over a year, using time-lapse take a journey from the Big Bang to life on Earth.
photography to make visible the
subtle changes we often miss, such
as the spectacular aurora borealis.
OCTOBER
FROM 25 SEPTEMBER
How Its Made: Dream Cars Monster Moves

Channel 5, October TBC
Discovery HD, starts 25 September, 8pm
IF YOUVE JUST shifted three books
and a lava lamp into a student at,
spare a thought for those moving
heavier loads, such as two steam
locomotives that are crossing the
Atlantic. And if youve ever battled to
t a sofa into a van before unbolting
the arms, youll empathise with the
engineers who have to dismantle a
helicopter to t it inside an aeroplane.
OCTOBER
How Its Made explores the

The Man Who Doesnt Breathe
art and science that goes Quest, October TBC
into building a supercar
HOW LONG CAN you hold your
breath underwater? A minute?
YOU MAY NEVER be able to afford a Porsche 911, let Three? Stig Severinsens personal
alone a Morgan Aero Coupe, but thanks to this series best is 22 minutes. This two-parter
you can get under the bonnet and right inside all the nooks follows him to Greenland, where
and crannies. From the choice of materials to the way the he hopes to set two new world
instruments are arranged on the dashboard, every detail of records: longest dive under ice, and
the engineering contributes to these cars overall impact. longest underwater breath-hold. For
Follow every step of the process, from lumps of steel maximum impact, watch it from a
arriving in the factory to rubber tyres hitting the road. bath full of ice cubes. With a walrus.
OCTOBER 2013 / FOCUS /99

To Do List
LISTEN
BBC RADIO PROGRAMMES
TOUCH
SMARTPHONE & TABLET APPS
WITH TIMANDRA HARKNESS WITH CHRISTOPHER PHIN
he wanted to capture the life

FROM 10 SEPTEMBER
that happens there. From a IFTTT
Shared Planet lone robin at dawn to the
human chaos of rush hour and
iPhone, iPod touch
IFTTT, free
BBC Radio 4, 10 September, 11am
back to the thundering of
overnight goods trains, this is EVER WISHED AN app would just do that one
MORE FROM THE series that thing it currently doesnt? Or that you could hook
looks sternly over its glasses at his 24-hour portrait in sound.
up one of your favourite services with another
the human race and tells us to to do something awesome? You need IFTTT.
go and have a long, hard think Using this app, you can create recipes that
about what weve done. Like the follow the simple programming formula, If this,
time we accidentally introduced then that. For example, If I favourite a tweet,
brown rats to South Georgia, then add it to a new line of a spreadsheet on
and they ate all the seabird eggs Google Drive. You can make your own recipes
and chicks. Whoops. Can we knitting together different services, or pick from
put that one right? Lets nd out. those others have shared, such as one that will automatically
Lets hope The Station isnt cancelled due
download Facebook pictures youre tagged in to Dropbox.
to the wrong type of radio waves
19 OCTOBER
MeteoEarth
Android 4.0.3 or later
Dont Log Off MeteoGroup, 1.52
BBC Radio 4, 19 October, tbc THIS NEW APP from the makers of the popular
WeatherPro is beautiful. You can switch between
South Georgia is undergoing the biggest CONTRARY TO ALL advice, viewing temperature, rain, cloud cover or wind,
rodent eradication ever undertaken lan Dein does talk to strangers. and for each you can play the forecast forward
He uses Facebook and Skype or scrub back and forth manually; in either case,
28 SEPTEMBER to contact people all over the the animation is buttery smooth. Whats more,
world, sparking conversations you can pinch to zoom in and out. This enables
Blind Man Roams The Globe that can be funny, intimate you to either see what the local weathers like or
BBC Radio 4, 28 September, tbc and warmly human, and often get a global perspective on macro weather patterns.
hearing the kind of stories that Plus, you can switch between 3D and 2D maps.
IMAGINE STEPPING OUT of a you would only dare to share
distant airport for the rst time with someone that youre
and meeting a new country
through sound, smell and
never likely to meet. The Human Body By Tinybop
iPad
sensation instead of sight. FROM 27 OCTOBER Tinybop, 1.99
Presenter Peter White, who has
been blind since birth, lets us
experience the worlds cities
Living World THIS PRETTY APP is designed to
BBC Radio 4, 27 October, 6.30am help kids explore the human body.
though his ears and helps us Six layers skeletal, muscular,
understand the diverse THE RETURN OF the wildlife nervous, circulatory, respiratory
soundscapes that are his series that sends presenters and digestive teach basic human
introduction to new places. around the UK to report on anatomy, and you can toggle text
whats new in nature. So new, labels on and off. Kids will love
9 OCTOBER we dont yet know where or poking around the app, and if you
what, so keep an eye on the enable the parent function, they
The Station
PHOTO: THINKSTOCK, DREAMSTIME
BBC Radio 4 website, where can record questions as theyre

BBC Radio 4, 9 October, 11pm you can also see photos of using it which you can review and
what happens during a then investigate with them later.
PHOTO: NASA/WMAP
SOUND RECORDIST CHRIS recording. Dont be scared of

Watson normally captures the big furry thing thats just
birdsong and elusive wildlife. the microphone. They disguise
But as a regular traveller via it as Bill Oddies chin to avoid CHRISTOPHER PHIN is the editor of
Newcastle Upon Tyne station, frightening the birds. MacFormat magazine

To Do List
PLAY
CONSOLE & COMPUTER GAMES
EDITOR'S
CHOICE
WITH NEON KELLY
FIFA 14
PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, EA Sports, 39.99
THE UNDISPUTED KING of football games is

back, and this year its making a surprisingly
strong claim to genuine innovation. The new
Player Chemistry feature lets you ddle
with the playing styles of individual team
members, tailoring their approach to each
match. You might give your striker added Scratching your new motor wont just mean a polish job in Take On Mars; it means billions
defensive capabilities, perhaps, or make of wasted dollars and funding pulled from future missions at the cost of thousands of jobs
your defender more aggressive so hes more
useful when pushing forward. Its probably
best to avoid any settings that encourage
biting other players. Take On Mars
PC, Bohemia Interactive, 8.99
assume control of your own

Metal Gear Solid: Rover as you explore the
The Legacy Collection Martian surface. Players can
jump straight into a series of
PlayStation 3, Konami, 34.99
missions or otherwise elect to
BLIMEY, HOW DOES one summarise the manage an entire space
importance of Hideo Kojimas epic series in programme from scratch,
just 80 words? Its not possible, but suffice researching new tech as the
to say that this compendium houses some funding trickles in. Provided that
of the best video games ever made. Imagine you dont prang your billion-
James Bond meets Bear Grylls in a self- dollar craft on a rock, that is.
aware soap opera, lled with robots, ninjas Czech developer Bohemia
and edible snakes. Oh, and Metal Gear Interactive is best known
Solid 3 has an incredible bit where you for its terrifyingly realistic
simply climb a ladder for two minutes. military simulations - back
Its brilliant, honestly. in 2011, footage from ARMA
HAVE YOU HEARD of the 2 was mistakenly used in a
Mars Curse? No, sadly it TV documentary. While its
has nothing to do with people efforts here are certainly less
Disney Infinity choking to death on chocolate violent than usual, theres still
PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii, Wii U, 3DS, bars. Its a term that was coined something quite eerie about
Disney, 49.99 (game), 29.99 (playset) to describe the awkward history your slow progress across
of our attempts to explore the the amber dunes, especially
IF YOURE FAMILIAR with Activisions wildly mysterious Red Planet. Almost when viewed through the
lucrative Skylanders brand, youll understand 60 per cent of our missions to warped perspective of a
the gist of Disney Innity. Its a platform Mars have resulted in failure: Rovers sh-eye lens.
game where players can scan real-world the batteries went at on the The vehicles are constructed
toys to import them into their virtual worlds. satellite Mariner 3; Phobos 1 from up to 50 separately
There are also franchise-specic playsets was lost in space; and, of modelled components, any of
that unlock famous Disney locales like course, there are British which might fail on you at a
Monsters University or the tropics of Pirates physicists who still weep into crucial moment: if a wheel gets
Of The Caribbean, while Toy Box mode lets their tea at the mere mention of jammed, for example, youll have
you blend characters and settings to create the word Beagle. Stupid craters. to nd a way to compensate for
your own mash-ups - like The Incredibles Now, thanks to Take On Mars, your wonky steering. This kind
battling Davy Jones in Radiator Springs. you can try to succeed where of problem-solving gameplay
others have failed. Assuming the might not appeal to everyone,
role of a sweaty-palmed but hey - you cant have a Rover
NEON KELLY IS DEPUTY EDITOR AT VIDEOGAMER.COM operator back on Earth, youll sim without the Mars Curse.

To Do List
READ
THE LATEST SCIENCE BOOKS REVIEWED Hardback Paperback
The Sports EDITOR'S

CHOICE
MEET THE AUTHOR
Gene
David Epstein
Yellow Jersey Press 16.99
David
Epstein
B
ACK IN 2007, UK Sport launched
its Sporting Giants development Why did you write the book?
programme. The aim: to unearth I wanted to explore what genetics can tell
future Olympic talent in sports us about the biggest nature vs nurture
where height and power provide a questions in athleticism. The answers to
competitive advantage. Applicants had some of these questions were very
to come from an athletic background, be counter-intuitive to me. Some things that
tall 6ft 3in (1.9m) minimum for men, 5ft 11in I thought would be genetically-based
(1.8m) for women and be aged between 16 like a cricket players ability to react to
and 25. Results were mixed but one stood speeding objects turned out to be
out: Helen Glovers gold in rowing (alongside learned skills, while other things I thought
Heather Stanning) at the 2012 Olympics. would be unrelated to genetics like the
Glover passed the necessary physical compulsive drive to train actually have
and performance tests in 2007 and via a important genetic components.
monastic lifestyle, sports science support with sickle cells and a will to survive
and 40 hours training a week helped GB laid the foundations for Usain Bolts Are sports stars successful because
womens rowing win their rst-ever Olympic super-human sprint prowess. Or how of an innate talent, or just because
gold. Her natural physiology ourished the Chinese basketball federation forced they train very hard?
in this world-class sporting environment the relationship of former pro basketball A bit of both. Practice matters if it
- a ne of example of nature and nurture players Yao Zhiyuan and Fang Fengdi, didnt, athletes could just show up on the
working together. who gave birth to NBA legend Yao Ming day without practising. But genetics is
Focusing on the genetic side of the (7ft 6in, or 2.3m). Along the way, Epstein showing us that, in many cases, whats
nature versus nurture debate is the goal also exposes some myths including why more important is the biological setup
of Sports Illustrated s David Epstein. Malcolm Gladwells oft-quoted 10,000 that allows someone to benet from their
Through interviews with the worlds leading hours of practice should be renamed the training. Bradley Wiggins, for example,
genetic scientists, exhaustive research and 7,000-40,000-hour rule. clearly puts in huge amounts of gruelling
conversations with Olympic champions, Epstein looks at all of the components of practice, but studies have shown that
Epstein examines the genetic argument sporting success including speed, power, elite endurance athletes like him also
behind elite performance. Why long limbs endurance, reaction times and motivation have gene variants that predispose them
and thin calves explain the Kalenjin peoples marrying fascinating anecdotes with to respond well to aerobic exercise.
dominance of endurance running for the cutting-edge science. While at times not
last 30 years. How West African slaves as accessible as Matthew Syeds Bounce, Is there a genetic explanation for why
which dissects peak performance in a so many of the worlds fastest men
wider context, it remains a worthy addition come from Jamaica?
Its partly genetics and partly culture.
West African slaves to an expanding area of sporting literature.
Of course, the fear is that genetic doping Many Jamaican 100m runners have their
with sickle cells will soon take centre stage in the sporting
amphitheatre, if it hasnt already note the
ancestry in a relatively small region of
West Africa, where people tend to have
and a will to survive column inches questioning the meteoric longer legs in proportion to their body
size and a high proportion of fast-twitch
laid the foundations rise of 16-year-old Chinese swimmer Ye
Shiwen. If you want to stay abreast of muscle bres. But Jamaica also has an
amazing talent selection system that
for Usain Bolts the rapid developments in sports science,
fair or not, The Sports Gene is a must. spots great sprinters early, allowing them
sprint prowess QQQQQ to make the best of the talent they have.
MORE ON THE PODCAST

JAMES WITTS is a sports journalist with Listen to the full interview with David Epstein
a degree in sports science at sciencefocus.com/podcasts

To Do List
The Neanderthals Rediscovered The Cancer Chronicles Animal Earth

How Modern Science Is Rewriting Their Story Unlocking Medicines Deepest Mystery The Amazing Diversity Of Living Creatures
Dimitra Papagianni and Michael A Morse George Johnson Ross Piper
Thames & Hudson 18.95 Bodley Head 18.99 Oxford University Press 29.95
THIS IS THE most up-to-date account of IN 2000, CANCER researchers Douglas THIS BOOK IS stunning. Animal Earth
the Neanderthals you will nd in popular Hanahan and Robert Weinberg stated: combines gorgeous photography and
science literature, as Papagianni and One day, we imagine that cancer biology up-to-the-minute scientic accounts of
Morse outline the latest research into and treatment at present, a patchwork all of the worlds animals, including
Neanderthal evolution and strive to quilt of cell biology, genetics, biochemistry, information on their ecology, behaviour
change the their popular image. histopathology, immunology and and genes. Unusually, Piper gives equal
The chronologically-ordered book lets pharmacology will become a science space to each of the 35 major lineages,
you see the Neanderthals as part of the with a conceptual structure and logical so humans and other vertebrates get a
whole story of human evolution. It starts coherence that rivals that of chemistry mere 14 pages without a panda or other
by discussing Homo heidelbergensis, the and physics. In a bold and wide-ranging poster species in sight. Like most of the
ancestor of both modern humans and analysis, award-winning science writer book, our section highlights aquatic
Neanderthals, and goes on to reveal how George Johnson looks at how science is organisms lampreys, rays and axolotls.
recent advances, particularly in dating taking on this challenge. Pipers organisation of the animal
and DNA research, have changed our The author touches upon many kingdom is novel for a coffee table book,
views. The book breaks down the aspects of cancer research: proteomics, but justied: if we want to explore animal
differences we once thought existed epigenetics, evolutionary biology, game diversity then we need to study marine
between Neanderthals and ourselves theory and even extraterrestrial biology invertebrates, which show an incredible
and focuses throughout on the question, (where renowned cosmologist Paul range of body plans. You may not have
Why us and not them? The last chapter Davies has a theory of cancer). The heard of many of the animals described
describes Neanderthals in popular media Cancer Chronicles also looks at the here, but you will be amazed at their
and how they have turned from dim- politics of cancer, including the role of the beauty and their exquisite adaptations.
witted brutes into well-organised hunters charities and why breast cancer, in The text is clear, well-organised and
and gatherers, skilled makers of tools and particular, has such a high prole. And takes account of the latest molecular
clothes who had language, just like us. nally this is a personal book, for both data, including the recent realisation that
Although it may be less captivating to Johnsons wife and brother had cancer, insects are simply a kind of crustacean.
scientists who are looking for a fully which he writes about movingly. Piper also addresses one of biologys
referenced book, its rewarding Since more than one in three of us will great mysteries why are there no
if youre interested in Neanderthals develop cancer, a better understanding is insects in the sea? and gives the right
and human evolution in general. crucial. This book certainly provides it. answer: no-one really knows.
QQQQQ QQQQQ QQQQQ
ISABELLE DE GROOTE is an anthropologist SUSAN ALDRIDGE is a science writer and MATTHEW COBB is Professor of Zoology
at Liverpool John Moores University former medical researcher at the University of Manchester
THE IMMUNE SYSTEM does more than deserves two stars just for trying. Davis
protect us against disease. In many ways, easily picks up another three for the
most of them still unexplored, its involved quality of his writing, his humour and his
in how we choose our life partners, how enthusiasm. To be sure, parts of this book
we make sense of the world, even how we require more than the usual amount of
think. It has shaped many aspects of our concentration, but thats to be expected.
evolution and contributes to human What scores, though, is his humanity and
diversity. It determines who will live, and the wonderful pen-portraits of the many
who will die. It is also so complicated that scientists involved in this fast-moving eld.
trying to grasp any more than the basics Sure, its messy but sos the subject. In
The Compatibility can be as hard as nailing jelly to the ceiling. real science, no-one looks for easy
Gene This explains why few popular books
exist on immunology compared with, say,
answers at the back of the book.
QQQQQ
Daniel M Davis human evolution or quantum mechanics. In
Allen Lane 20 fact, anyone who delivers a book about HENRY GEE is an evolutionary biologist and
immunology for a general audience a senior editor of the journal Nature

NOVEMBER ISSUE ON SALE 17 OCTOBER PLUS
Alfred Russel Wallace
and the other pioneers
of evolution
THE FUTURE OF US HOW THE HUMAN RACE WILL EVOLVE
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Mindgames
MINDGAMES
Pit your wits
against these
brainteasers by David J
Bodycombe, question-
setter for BBC Fours
Only Connect
PRIZE PUZZLE WIN! HOW WE INVENTED

THE WORLD
See bottom of p104 for
terms and conditions.
Congratulations to Mike
Harman (Swindon) and
You have five blank cards. What The first five correct entries win a copy of Blaine Malone (County
letters should you write on each How We Invented The World on DVD (Discovery Down) who answered the
Summer issues Prize Puzzle
side of each card so that you could Channel, Go Entertain). correctly to each win a copy
spell out any of the following words: Post your entry, marked Prize Puzzle 260, to: BBC Focus of Chasing Ice on DVD.
Magazine, PO Box 501, Leicester, LE94 0AA, to arrive by 5pm on
RAKES, STOCK, EARLS, CLOSE, 17 October 2013. We regret that we cannot accept email entries
STARK, COLTS and ALTOS? for this competition. See sciencefocus.com/winners for a list of
previous winners and solutions.
Q1 Q5 Q8
Which famous annual honour Write the numbers 1 to 5 in Move the listed cards into the grid so that the best possible poker
by a US magazine happens to each row and column so that hand in each row and column matches the label shown. The cards
contain the 1st, 2nd and 3rd each section contains the total are not necessarily in the right order (e.g. 5-4-6-7-3 still counts as a
most common nouns in the indicated. 7-high straight).
English language, in that order?
Q2
What comes next: Boron,

Carbon, Fluorine, Hydrogen,
Iodine, Potassium...?
Q3
A scientist makes an unusual

discovery on a microscope
Q6
slide. What is it?
Divide up this rectangle into 10
essentially different dominoes (ie
2-3 is the same domino as 3-2).
Q4
Find a pair of lines in this
question that are the same
length and perfectly parallel.
Q7
For each phrase, rearrange

the letters into famous male/
female pairings: JOKEY NAILS,
NIAGARA BLEND, HEEL SPRAIN
and RABBI KNEE.
SOLUTIONS
Q8) See illustration on p104. Q6) Theres a vertical Blank-2 in the Q3) It looks like a coded DNA sequence, and
and KEN. 25413, 31245. alphabetical order: B, C, F, H, I, K, N).
ANGELINA, PARIS and HELEN, BARBIE Q5) Row by row: 12534, 54321, 43152, symbols consist of a single letter (in
Q7) KYLIE and JASON, BRAD and Q4) The two letter Ls in the word parallel. Q2) Nitrogen. Elements whose chemical
are horizontal. DEOXYRIBONUCLEIC ACID. according to the OUP).
bottom-left corner. All the other dominoes with your eyes, you can read the letters and Year being the most common nouns,
top-right corner, and a vertical 2-3 in the in fact if you hold the diagram horizontal Q1) Time Person of the Year (Time, Person

? TRY OUR WEEKLY QUIZ AT
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QUICK QUIZ FOCUS CROSSWORD No 156

EVERY MONTH, A NEW CHALLENGE
SET BY AGENT STARLING
How much do you know
about Mars? ACROSS
Q1 9 Advance payment for a butler (8)
10 The field of pleasure (3)
Marss red colour comes from 11 Hard to find rowers of stature (6)
which chemical compound? 12 Principal design for plates (6)
13 Chart displayed alien wheel
a) Aluminium oxide with teeth (7)
b) Iron oxide 14 Long tree (4)
c) Silicon dioxide 15 Ideal to talk about hypothetical
substance (7,3)
Q2 17 Protect and monopolise
garden visitor (8)
What are the names of the two 18 Space to pay me off for collection
NASA rovers active on Mars? of fluid (7)
a) Spirit and Opportunity 19 Greet the weather (4)
b) Opportunity and 21 Two articles registered part of a
flower (6)
Curiosity 24 The same starting point, not like
c) Curiosity and Spirit Lords (5,7,5)
27 One bear roaming around one
Q3 peninsula (6)
29 The affair of the bag (4)
Roughly how high is Marss
30 Repeatedly spoil a sea (7)
Olympus Mons volcano? 33 A bit of pressure and Im back
a) 5km getting sick at the pub (8)
b) 15km 35 Suggestive of a mood (10)
36 Bit of potato, or maybe silicon (4)
c) 25km
37 Smoke can infuriate (7)
Q4 38 Try air-conditioning, its very
unusual (6)
Whats the most abundant gas 40 Using a drill can be dull (6)
in the Martian atmosphere?
SOLUTION TO CROSSWORD No 153 WIN! 41 Sailor finds viscous substance (3)
MYTHBUSTERS 42 I have to follow after month is
a) Carbon dioxide Kathy Humphrey, R Gilmore, Shelia Smeal,
Steven Barnett and Norman Faulkes solved
SEASON 2 ON DVD influential (8)
b) Nitrogen The first five correct
issue 257s puzzle and each receive a copy of
c) Argon solutions drawn will each DOWN
Rise Of The Continents on DVD.
win a copy of MythBusters 1 Gather mole was affected by heat
Q5 Season 2 on DVD (Discovery, from the ground (10)
15.41). Entries must be 2 Grouse or fish (4)
When does the Inspiration received by 5pm on 17 3 Crime not solved by local
Mars Foundation hope to October 2013. See below communication (8)
launch a manned flyby mission for more 4 Group travelling round Indonesia
details. catch disease (7)
to Mars?
5 Heathen plan involved ingredient of
a) January 2018 mothballs (11)
b) January 2028 6 Princess joins friend in the
c) January 2038 sun (5,5)
7 As easy as a fraction (6)
Q6 8 His solution, mark you
a single tibia (8)
How long does it take Mars 10 The position of a flower (5)
to complete one orbit around 16 Insect finished at the bridge (7)
the Sun? 20 Answer arrives by ship in the
Gulf (5)
a) 287 Earth days
22 Time to get recluse some
b) 487 Earth days
c) 687 Earth days
YOUR DETAILS 23
welding gear (7)
Tie tricycle up and get juice (11)
25 Elf brigade constructed an
Q7 NAME
opening connection (4,6)
ADDRESS 26 Financial instrument is
How many known moons does plagiaristic (10)
Mars have? 28 Trendy bishop started for
a) One the city (8)
b) Two 31 A note to the office about
precision (8)
c) Three
POSTCODE TEL 32 A religious man has to finish
a few supplements (7)
ANSWERS:
EMAIL 34 Fatty sauce only
1b, 2b, 3c, 4a, 5a, 6c, 7b needs identification (6)
Post entries to BBC Focus Magazine, October 2013 Crossword, PO Box 501, Leicester, LE94 0AA
or email a scan of the completed crossword or a list of answers to october2013@focuscomps. 35 Victor misses top of target (5)
co.uk by 5pm on 17 October 2013. Entrants must supply name, address and phone number. By 39 Impetuous complaint (4)
YOU ARE: entering, participants agree to be bound by the terms & conditions, printed in full on page 104.
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INTO THE FUTURE
STEPHEN BAXTER
Your DNA could hold a message from an alien civilisation
T
HIS SUMMER IS a significant one for SETI, the
Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence. The 64th
International Astronautical Congress will be held
on 23-27 September in Beijing, China. This annual
high-profile gathering of the major players in the
space industry, including NASA and ESA, regularly includes a
formal session on SETI. And in July a seminar at St Andrews
University in Scotland launched the UK SETI Research
Network (www.seti.ac.uk). This informal network of UK
academics active in SETI of which Im one - was formed
to promote new SETI activity in the UK. One possible example
is Jodrell Bank making a search using e-MERLIN, a network of
radio telescopes across the country.
SETI was launched in 1960 with the first attempts to
detect signals from alien civilisations using radio telescopes
(and the book and movie Contact showed how that might turn
out, if successful). The fiftieth birthday of SETI has come and
gone without a confirmed success. But what about other
search methods? Even if we cant pick up aliens messages,
could we spot their ships? In 1996 space scientist Robert
Zubrin calculated that an antimatter rocket, like the Venture
Star of the movie Avatar, would have an exhaust so bright
it could be directly detectable across many light-years.
Even such advanced technologies as wormholes and warp
drives could, in principle, be detectable from the radiation If aliens have known about
they produced. DNA all along, might they
Alternatively, what if were looking for the wrong kind of have altered our genes?
signal? Recently much interest was created by a remarkable
paper, published in May in the science journal Icarus by
the Kazakh scientists Vladimir shCherbak and Maxim Makukov. It SET VALUE
concerned a possible detection of a message artificially implanted in INPUT
our DNA, which GO TO
might have taken NULL VALUE
place far in the
Its a possible detection
past, perhaps of a message artificially The program when run performs the functions that its programmer
even when the intended. But reading down the lines we see that the first letters give
DNA system implanted in our DNA, an additional message: SIGN. Its this additional message the authors
first evolved. which might have taken claim to have detected.
The double-helix Its a very stable messaging system. DNA will decay in a few
structure of the DNA place far in the past, million years at best, but the coding system itself has been preserved
molecule encodes even when the DNA through the history of life on Earth, going back over three billion
all the information years. Perhaps such a message could be a relic of meddling with the
required to build system first evolved genetic system at the time of its formation. Whether the new claim
and control a living holds up or not, it has certainly suggested new places to look for
organism. It incorporates a coding system, analogous to a computer evidence of intelligence. I anticipate much debate about this in Beijing.
program. The code is stored in patterns of bases A, G, C, T - but it There is no sign yet of our giving up the search for ETI. After
could equally well be written down in mathematical symbols and all, even a negative result
indeed has been transcribed into computer code for geneticists would mean that at best
to analyse. The Kazakh scientists suggestion is that the message STEPHEN BAXTER is a science intelligent life like ours is
is stored not in any given DNA molecule, but in the mathematics of ction writer whose books very rare. Or, perhaps,
the coding system itself. An analogy might be a series of computer include The Science Of Avatar alien life is stranger than
program lines, each beginning with a command such as: and the Northland series we have yet imagined.

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