Rev. BBC Focus UK - January 2014

NASA’S 10 CRAZIEST IDEAS REVEALED
How spider bots and Venus rovers will transform space exploration
Jetpacks:
here at last
Strap in, take off!
Hollywood
science
How big could movie
monsters really get?
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ISSUE 263
COMET-CHASING SPACECRAFT, QUANTUM COMPUTING,

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LIMITLESS ENERGY, ARTIFICIAL LIFE, AND MORE...
WHAT IS FIRE? WHY WE EAT TOO MUCH SMART HEATING

The discovery that sparked How our brains trick We test the gadget that
a whole new science us to overindulge could slash your fuel bills
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“I DON’T EXPECT SUCCESS

I PREPARE FOR IT”
RYAN REYNOLDS
BOSS BOTTLED.
FRAGRANCE FOR MEN
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WELCOME TO FOCUS SELF-ASSEMBLING MATERIALS,

quantum communication and self-
fertilising crops. These are just three of MORE TO
the exotic-sounding breakthroughs set
to take the world by storm in 2014. We’ve EXPLORE
uncovered some exciting stories from
space science, neuroscience, genetics
and more besides, so why not skip
straight to p56 to find out about them?
>INTERACTIVE IPAD APP From the iTunes Store
Still here? Then let me tell you about
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NASA’s most extreme ideas. These ‘NASA >KINDLE FIRE EDITION From the Kindle Store
Innovative Advanced Concepts’ include robot spiders in space, >WEBSITE sciencefocus.com
Mars landers that look like carpet tiles, and deep-space hibernation >PODCAST sciencefocus.com/podcasts
for astronauts. We look at whether they’re feasible on p46. >FORUM sciencefocus.com/forum
Here on Earth, plans for solo flying machines date back to >FACEBOOK facebook.com/sciencefocus
Leonardo da Vinci, but most designs that actually work have >TWITTER twitter.com/sciencefocus
been flawed. Now, though, that could be about to change thanks >BOOK 100 Ideas That Changed
to some innovative new machines. Get ready for take-off on p68. The World – £6.49 from
If, like me, you’ve recently been ingesting too many calories www.bbcshop.com
(thanks to all that turkey, pudding and go-on-then-just-one-more
after dinner mint), we’ll give you some food for thought. On p40,
Susan Aldridge examines the mounting scientific evidence into what HOW TO CONTACT US
drives us to eat too much. SUBSCRIPTION AND LETTERS FOR
And finally, if you listen to music digitally but you’re disappointed BACK ISSUE ENQUIRIES PUBLICATION
[email protected] [email protected]
by the sound quality of downloads and streaming, we have the
0844 844 0260* Reply, BBC Focus, Immediate
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Converters) that plug into your computer to transform the sound of Sittingbourne, ME9 8DF Tower House, Fairfax Street,
Bristol, BS1 3BN
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Don’t miss our February OTHER CONTACTS
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APPEARING IN THIS ISSUE…

Susan Stuart Brian Penny
Aldridge Clark Clegg Sarchet
Susan is a journalist One of the UK’s Brian is a popular An award-winning
specialising in best-known science writer science writer with
health, genetic astronomy whose books include a PhD in plant
engineering and journalists, and Dice World: Science genetics, we
COVER: JAMES TAYLOR/DEBUT ART
biotechnology and author of fictional and Life In A Random tasked Penny with
is the editor of Diabetes Update. In this trilogy The Sky’s Dark Labyrinth, Stuart Universe, Gravity: Why What Goes Up bringing you some of 2014’s most
issue on p40 she looks into why we returns to BBC Focus this month. He Must Come Down and How To Build A important breakthroughs. Turn to p60
just can’t stop ourselves from eating brings us up to speed with the latest Time Machine. He reveals next year’s to discover the gems she unearthed
too much. in space research on p58. physics breakthroughs on p64. in stem cell technology and genetics.
WANT TO Fill in the form on p38 to SUBSCRIBER On p38 Kathryn Jeffs discusses what Antarctica can
SUBSCRIBE? receive five issues for £5 tell us about climate change, polar bears and alien life
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CONTENTS JANUARY 2014
ON THE COVER
40 OVEREATING
46 NASA’S CRAZY IDEAS
56 SCIENCE IN 2014
68 FLYING MACHINES
90 SMART HEATING
96 WHAT IS FIRE?
122 MOVIE SCIENCE
56
FEATURES
WHY DO WE EAT
40 TOO MUCH?
The festive season means
expanding waistlines, but
are we hardwired to eat
more when it’s available,
and can food be addictive?
NASA’S
46 CRAZIEST IDEAS
From solar sails to robot
builders, we take a look 90 68 96
at 10 NASA concepts
PHOTO: JAMES TAYLOR/DEBUT ART, THINKSTOCK, ROBERT HOYT, CHRIS-STOCKER.CO.UK, BREITLING

that could revolutionise
space exploration
2014: THE YEAR

56 SCIENCE WILL
BLOW YOUR MIND
It’s set to be a big year, with
fusion energy, stem cell
organs and artificial life all
set to break new ground
SOLO FLYING
68 MACHINES
The age of the jetpack has
arrived – meet the aeronautic
pioneers who are realising 40 46
the dream of personal flight
HOW DO WE
96 KNOW…?
Alexander Hellemans
reveals how the science
of chemistry helped us
38 SUBSCRIBE TODAY!
5 ISSUES FOR £5
understand the composition
of one of humanity’s earliest
tools: fire.
WorldMags.net JANUARY 2014 / FOCUS / 7

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CONTENTS JANUARY 2014
85
21
104 122
75
28 93
DISCOVERIES COLUMNS TECH HUB TO DO LIST PLUS…
21 THE GALAXY IS FULL 31 ROBERT MATTHEWS 85 STEAM MACHINE 103 PICK OF THE MONTH 10 MEGAPIXEL
OF HABITABLE WORLDS Astrology is total bunkum… Forget PlayStation 4 and The Royal Institution Stunning images from
New findings from the Kepler or is it? Xbox One: meet Valve’s Christmas Lectures 2013 the world of science
mission suggest that there are new console
billions of Earth-like planets 35 HELEN CZERSKI 104 WATCH & LISTEN 17 REPLY
PHOTO: JOE WILSON, THESECRETSTUDIO.NET, GETTY, ALAMY, BBC, NASA
Life on a ship isn’t easy with 90 TAD0° Science on TV and radio, Your thoughts and comments
25 DINO WALKS AGAIN weird gravity to contend with CENTRAL HEATING including a look at this
Scientists reconstruct the Save money this year with a year’s Stargazing Live 75 Q&A
walking motion of a colossal, 37 STEPHEN BAXTER smart way to heat your home Experts answer questions
ancient beast The planets offer a better 106 TOUCH including: ‘Do dogs laugh?’
chance of a white Christmas 91 APPLIANCES OF Smartphone and tablet apps and ‘what is dark energy?’
26 LIFE FROM EARTH SCIENCE
The crucible for life on Earth 122 HOLLYWOOD Cool and clever new kit 107 VISIT 117 MINDGAMES
could have been clay SCIENCE Great science days out Keep your grey matter in trim
Our new column looks at 93 ULTIMATE TEST
28 PET CLONING how films play with reality; Get perfect sound with a 108 READ 121 FOCUS ONLINE
Would you copy your dog? this month: Pacific Rim Digital-to-Analogue Converter The month’s science books More digital goodies for you
BE AN INSIDER We want to know what you think – the more we know about you, the better placed we are to bring you the best magazine
possible. So join our online reader panel, ‘Insiders’. Log on to www.immediateinsiders.com/register to fill out a short
survey and we’ll be in touch from time to time to ask for your opinions on the magazine. We look forward to hearing from you.
BBC Focus Magazine (ISSN 0966-4270) is published 13 times a year by Immediate Media Company Bristol, 9th Floor, Tower House, Fairfax Street, Bristol BS1 3BN, UK. Distributed in the US by Circulation Specialists, Inc., 2 Corporate Drive, Suite 945,
Shelton CT 06484-6238. Application to mail at Periodicals Postage prices pending at Shelton, CT and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to BBC Focus Magazine, P.O. Box 37495, Boone, IA 50037-0495.
8 / FOCUS / JANUARY 2014 WorldMags.net

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Awe-inspiring images from the world of science
Chasing dreams
THE DREAM CHASER is a Erickson Air-Crane Nevada Corporation’s
leading candidate to helicopter, allowing Space Systems division,
replace NASA’s mothballed engineers to evaluate its which is developing the
Space Shuttle. Only nine aerodynamics and the spacecraft.
metres long, but capable of performance of various The craft still has to run
carrying a crew of seven subsystems. “This was a a gauntlet of tests to
and boasting a larger key flight test to check ensure that everything is
interior ‘living space’ than several of the onboard up to spec before it can go
the Shuttle, the Dream systems of the Dream to work. It recently
Chaser is designed to Chaser spacecraft, skidded off a runway after
launch into space on an including the guidance, its landing gear failed to
Atlas V rocket. navigation and control, deploy properly following
During this test flight, aero surfaces and landing an unmanned flight test.
the space plane was gear,” says Mark
suspended from an Sirangelo, head of Sierra PHOTO: SIERRA NEVADA

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

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Augmented organs
THIS AUGMENTED REALITY Not only can doctors
iPad app promises to save easily take their plans into
lives by making liver surgery the operating theatre with
safer. The liver is a blood-rich this app, “they can adjust
organ and severe bleeding these plans quickly and
is a major risk during surgery. flexibly in the operating room
To reduce the risk, surgeons when needed,” says Bianka
plan the operation in advance, Hofmann of Fraunhofer
taking into account the exact MEVIS. “Virtual and real
anatomy of the patient’s liver, organs can be overlaid:
but once in the operating the liver is filmed with
theatre they can only rely the tablet computer and,
on still pictures and their using augmented reality,
memory. This app, developed virtual planning data can
by Fraunhofer MEVIS, be semi-transparently
offers a helping hand by superimposed onto the
giving surgeons real-time, organ in real-time.”
interactive access to the
patient’s data. PHOTO: CORBIS

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Jet flight
SEEN IN ACTION is Belgium’s Ludovic
Lucas, demonstrating the latest
extreme sport: flyboarding. Invented
by Francky Zapata, the Flyboard
was developed in the spring of 2011
and is inspired by jet-skiing and
acrobatic diving.
The device consists of a board
attached to a pair of shoes on one
side and a jet-ski turbine on the
other. This provides 90 per cent of
the propulsion, with the last 10 per
cent coming from two water jets on
the user’s forearms that are attached
to the turbine by pipes. This allows
additional stability and manoeuvrability,
although according to Lucas,
improvements to the technology are
planned “to make it lighter, less bulky
and more manoeuvrable.”
“It requires a lot of power to lift a
man,” says Lucas. Indeed, to keep
the rider seemingly flying over the
surface, the machine deliver 300
horsepower to move up to half a
tonne of water a second.
PHOTO: CORBIS

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

A coloured chest X-ray
reveals mucus on the lungs,
Evolution in space
a symptom of cystic fibrosis I was thrilled to read the article ‘The
Future Of Us’ by Hayley Birch (November,
p38). The fact that we could improve upon
evolution is fascinating. As stated in the
article, we could become healthier or more
intelligent in the future. We could even
evolve into another human species in outer
space to the extent that if the latter lives
in space for centuries, it may no longer
be able to procreate with mankind on
Earth. I believe we should intervene in the
evolution of human life through medical
and genetic improvement, but I still think
that we should allow evolution to take its
own course.
Matthew Caruana, Malta
Muslim pioneers
I enjoyed reading ‘The Future of Us’ article
and I respect giving recognition to Alfred
Russel Wallace. Credit should also be
given to the original sources of evolution
– Muslim scholars. European scientists
Survival of the moderates followed Roger Bacon’s advice to ‘learn

Arabic and Arabic science for progress’
and Arabian books were translated into
When reading Haley Birch’s article in the population and shows that perhaps European languages around 1650-1700.
concerning present and future evolution evolution didn’t ‘fail’ to eradicate a specific One Arabian scholar, Al Jahiz (776-869),
(November, p42), I enjoyed the piece genomic trait. Instead there was a clear wrote The Book Of Animals, which made
referring to the negative pressures that decision to maintain a trait that allowed for observations that described evolution
force a species down one evolutionary path survival. We often associate evolution with very clearly. Ibn Khaldun wrote the
or other. Specifically, the acquisition of the survival of the fittest. But our perception of Muqaddimah (1377) in which he asserted
heterozygous form of sickle cell anaemia to what designates fitness and health are so that humans developed from ‘the world of
combat malaria. I am reminded of a similar often out of lockstep. monkeys’. Ibn Sina’s Canon Of Medicine
situation regarding cholera infection and And so with further respect to Hayley was the chief textbook of medicine in
European medical schools until the 17th
cystic fibrosis, a congenital, genetic disease Birch’s piece referring to evolution and
Century and Al-Haitham had many
affecting the lungs and digestive system. AIDS, perhaps a super immune system
contributions to science, and there are
There is a hypothesis that cystic fibrosis is not the answer. Maybe those with a many more. These were all God-believing
carriers have greater resistance to cholera perceived genetic weakness might be the evolutionists, which I personally find
and thus they should have been selected ones to evade present and future diseases. fascinating and think it is only fair to
over what were otherwise known as If we cannot come to a cure and biological share these scholars and their teachings
‘healthy’ individuals during periods when conditions call for it, then perhaps the with all the readers out there!
cholera epidemics were rife. It explains why genetically meek will inherit the Earth. Vicki Meigh, Worcester
there is such a high level of cystic fibrosis Seán O’Callaghan
But how do we know?

Write in and win! I normally enjoy ‘How do we know?’ – I
PHOTO: SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY
The writer of next issue’s Message of the Month wins have thought the series would make a
a Linksys PLEK500 Powerline HomePlug AV2 kit worth good popular science book because the
£89. It uses your home’s power sockets to provide articles usually summarise the evidence for
the theory being discussed in terms that
a high-speed internet connection without cables –
a layman can follow. However, the most
perfect for online gaming and video streaming in HD. recent ‘How do we know... The Theory
www.linksys.com/en-eu/home of Evolution’ was deeply disappointing

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(November, p112). It is essentially a the technology around us? I used every inch
history of a philosophical concept (natural of my first mobile phone back in the late
selection/survival of the fittest), which ’90s, from making calls to killing time on
provides a rationale for the mechanism of the snake game. I barely scratch the surface
EDITORIAL
evolution. Unfortunately, despite the title, of what my powerhouse of a phone can do Editor Graham Southorn
it doesn’t actually give any evidence as to now. Unless you are editing HD footage, do Production Editor Daniel Down
why evolution is true. As I read it, behind we really need all this power? Or have I just Reviews Editor Daniel Bennett
Commissioning Editor Jason Goodyer
my shoulder I could hear the creationist hit that age where one harks back to ZX Editorial Assistant James Lloyd
mantra of: “Where’s the evidence?” Spectrums and Commodores? Science Consultant Robert Matthews
Contributing Editor Emma Bayley
Ron Gardner, Ludlow Mark Radford, Ramsbottom
ART & PICTURES
Art Editor Joe Eden
You’re right, there was less of the ‘how’ Designer Jon Rich
in this installment. As the mechanism Picture Editor James Cutmore
for evolution is all Darwin’s, we wanted CONTRIBUTORS
to pay tribute to earlier men with YOUR COMMENTS ON Susan Aldridge, Rob Banino, Stephen Baxter,
evolutionary ideas. – Ed
TWITTER & David Bayon, Susan Blackmore, David Bodycombe,
Christopher Brennan, Stuart Clark, Brian Clegg,
FAC E BOOK
Matthew Cole, Helen Czerski, Will Gater, Sedeer
El-Showk, Henry Gee, Alastair Gunn, Timandra
Magic bus Harkness, Alexander Hellemans, Adam Howling,
Kathryn Jeffs, Neon Kelly, Adam Kucharski, Gerry
In ‘How it works’ on the road-charged Leblique, Bill McGuire, Gareth Mitchell, Kelly Oakes,
Jheni Osman, Helen Pilcher, Press Association,
electric bus (November, p77), I was We asked: which Doctor Who Andrew Robinson, Adam Rutherford, Penny Sarchet,
surprised to read: “This allows current to science and inventions do you Steve Sayers, Chris Stocker, James Taylor, Bill
most want to come true? Thompson, Magic Torch, Luis Villazon, Joe Wilson
flow between the two [coils], charging the
battery.” If this were true, significant sparks @cinnamaldehyde A sonic ADVERTISING & MARKETING
would be seen jumping between road and screwdriver. I’d give almost anything
Advertising Director Caroline Herbert
Advertising Manager Steve Grigg
vehicle! Of course, what was meant was for a sonic screwdriver. Deputy Advertising Manager Marc Gonzalez
that energy passes from the road coil to Brand Sales Executive James Young
Classified Sales Exec Carl Kill
the one on the bus, but there is definitely @FarrahStoner The screwdriver. It’s Newstrade Manager Rob Brock
no electric current passing - which is like a pocket size guy who does all the Subscriptions Director Jacky Perales-Morris
actually the whole point of the system. fixing around the house, it identifies Direct Marketing Executive Chris Day
Direct Marketing Manager Mark Summerton
Otherwise, it was a fascinating insight things, and it’s a weapon.
into this new technology. INSERTS
@ResurgenceTees No one mentions Laurence Robertson 00353 876 902208
Alan Turk, Swindon
the TARDIS [despite all the inevitable
LICENSING & SYNDICATION
Time-Space apocalypses we’d bring [email protected]
with it]? For shame!
PUBLICIT Y
@FernwehFreya That sonic Press Officer Carolyn Wray
screwdriver of course! But no angels!! PRODUCTION

Production Director Sarah Powell
@Lotus_HR Has to be time travel, so Production Coordinator Derrick Andrews
Ads Services Manager Paul Thornton
I can get all my work done :-). Ad Coordinator Jade O’Halloran
Ad Designer Matt Gynn
Ross Kobak Reversing the polarity
of the neutron flow so I can go back in PUBLISHING
Publisher Andrew Davies
time and think of a better suggestion. Chairman Stephen Alexander
Chief Executive Officer Tom Bureau
Stuart Williams K9 - a genuine cyber Deputy Chairman Peter Phippen
pet and personal assistant. Managing Director Andy Marshall
BBC WORLDWIDE
Louise Rutland Time travel and Director of Publishing Nicholas Brett
South Korea is testing electric buses that are able to receive
power wirelessly as they move over a specialised road parallel universes. It would be Head of Publishing Chris Kerwin
interesting to see the world where Head of Editorial Jenny Potter
Publishing Coordinator Eva Abramik
I became an architect, which I wanted Contact [email protected]
to do as a kid.
How to stop poaching EDITORIAL BOARD
Deborah Cohen, Jane Fletcher, John Lynch,
It seems impossible to stop poaching, Andrew Rubotham Julian Hector, Andrew Cohen
so why not take a different approach? Transdimensionally engineered
housing to house many more people Audit Bureau of Circulations
If elephants were ‘detusked’ it would 66,862 (Jan-Jun 2013)
at least save the animals, and the ivory in a smaller space, alongside
farms that were bigger inside their Annual subscription rates (inc P&P):
could be sold to fund their protection. UK/BFPO £51.87; Europe & Eire Airmail
Alternatively, is there any way of boundaries than the fences would £54.96; Rest of World Airmail £59.99.
‘contaminating’ live ivory so it becomes suggest. Having all houses looking
worthless as Chinese medicine? If there like police boxes would be optional. BBC Focus Magazine is published by Immediate Media
Company London Limited under licence from BBC
is no profit, there is no poaching. Worldwide who help fund new BBC programmes.
Jeff Dobson, Reading
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DISCOVERIES
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News and views from the world of science

p27 FLYING BY p24 SHRINKING IN p28 A FACSIMILE
FRAGRANCE THE HEAT OF FIDO
Study finds homing Fossil record Korean bioresearch
pigeons navigate suggests mammals firm claims to be
vast distances by get smaller when able to clone your
using scent temperatures rise pet dog
Kepler’s huge haul of planets are

seen as dots passing in front of
their parent stars, shown here in
order of relative size T H E B I G S T O RY
GOLDILOCKS PLANETS PEPPER OUR GALAXY
Planets that are ‘just right’ for life to exist could be common. As
many as one in five Sun-like stars could have them, according to
PHOTO: NASA
the latest results from NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope

Discoveries
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ANALYSIS
Suzanne
Aigrain
Astrophysicist from All Souls
College, University of Oxford
THE RESULTS ARE

interesting but I would say
there is still a fair amount of
uncertainty in the number. They
basically took all the planets Kepler
has detected and then worked out
how many planets they might have
missed, either because they didn’t
transit or because the data wasn’t
sensitive enough to show them.
That enabled them to work out just
Kepler’s observations of planets
as they transit across the face of how many planets per star there
stars suggest an abundance of are on average.
Earth-like planets in our Galaxy
The reason I think there is a
certain amount of uncertainty is
ASTRONOMERS ANALYSING The task is made harder by the many stars that there are only a few planets in
data beamed back from NASA’s that fluctuate in brightness too much for a that region so they had to do some
Kepler Space Telescope have planet’s transit to be detectable. So Petigura extrapolation. They did it in a
predicted that a fifth of the Sun-like stars and his team examined 42,000 of the stars sensible way but extrapolation
surveyed in the Milky Way have so-called with the smallest fluctuations. They found always carries a certain risk. The
‘Goldilocks’ planets orbiting them. 603 planets, of which 10 were Earth-size and number is potentially exciting
‘Goldilocks’ planets are Earth-like worlds lay in the habitable zone. The drawback of the because it’s so high. But it’s still
where conditions are ‘just right’ for the transit method is that it only detects planets possible that figure might change
existence of life. Such planets need to have a orbiting in the same plane as the host star – a in the future.
surface temperature that allows water to exist small fraction of the total number. After the The study used almost all of the
as a liquid, which means being neither too numbers were crunched to account for data, but everybody agrees that
close nor too far from their star. planets that would have been missed, the there are probably ways of
The findings were announced by University team estimated that 22 per cent of Sun-like improving the analysis of the data.
of California, Berkeley astronomer Erik stars they observed have potentially habitable There are still some effects caused
Petigura. “When you look up at the thousands Earth-like planets. by the instrument itself that we’re
of stars in the night sky, the nearest Sun-like So far, researchers have only made it learning to correct better, and
star with an Earth-size planet in its habitable through the first three years of Kepler’s we’re also learning more about the
zone is probably only 12 light-years away and observations. The team expects the remaining properties of the stars through
can be seen with the naked eye. That’s data is likely to contain further revelations. complementary ground-based
amazing,” he said. A light-year is the distance “The planets we have already found are of observations. This will all probably
light travels in one year, and the nearest star to a bewildering variety,” said William Borucki, lead to a more sensitive study. It’s
the Sun is Alpha Centauri, 4.4 light-years away. a scientist at the Ames Research Center. “We likely that there are still quite a few
The Kepler Space Telescope was launched have planets that are probably entirely more planets to be found within
in 2009 on a mission to scan the Milky Way composed of water, some that are smaller the data, and finding them will give
for Earth-like worlds. It has continuously than Mercury and some that are bigger than us a better estimate of just how
monitored more than 150,000 stars, Jupiter. Some have densities that are greater many planets there are in the
measuring their brightness every 30 minutes. than iron and we’ve found some with habitable zone.
Researchers spot planets by using the densities lower than Styrofoam. Kepler has
readings taken by Kepler to look for the only searched 1/400th of the sky. Imagine WHAT DO YOU THINK?
minute dips in a star’s brightness caused by what other missions will find as we continue ` Do you think we’ll eventually find life on
a planet ‘transiting’ in front of it. Earth-like planets? Give us your views
that exploration.” at facebook.com/sciencefocus or email
[email protected]
TIMELINE
PHOTO: NASA/AIMES/JPL-CALTECH X2
A brief history of the search for other Earths

1992 1995 2007 2009 2011 2013
The first two exoplanets 51 Pegasi B becomes the NASA’s Spitzer Space The Kepler Space Telescope Kepler-22b is discovered, The first Earth-sized
are discovered in orbit first planet found in orbit Telescope finds water is launched with the aim of the first exoplanet that lies planets are discovered
around PSR B1257+12, a around a so-called ‘main vapour on an exoplanet searching the Milky Way for within its star’s habitable within their stars habitable
pulsar lying 980 light-years sequence’ star similar to for the first time in the signs of habitable Earth-like zone. It is twice the size zone, Kepler-62e, 62f
away from Earth in the the Sun. atmosphere of planets. of Earth. and 69c.
constellation of Virgo. HD 189733b.

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Discoveries
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Climate change Environment

Temperature rise means Search for oldest ice heats up
shrinking size TRACKING DOWN THE The older the ice
PHOTO: ABIGAIL D’AMBROSIA/UNIVERSITY OF NEW HAMPSHIRE, DANIELLE BYERLY/UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA, BRITISH ANTARCTIC SURVEY, BILL SELLERS/UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER, IMPERIAL COLLEGE LONDON, THINKSTOCK
core, the further

oldest ice cores on Earth can back in time
be a tricky business. In some scientists
places the ice is too thin, in can study
others it’s too thick. Some
2 cm
areas are too warm due to

geothermal heating so vital
layers are lost due to melting.
The fossilised jawbone
b of Horizontal movement of
the early horse Hyracotherium
the bedrock can also mix
up the ice, making it
THANKS TO RISING sea paleontologist at the impossible to read.
levels, droughts and extreme University of Michigan. Thank goodness, then, that
weather events, climate change The shrinking effect also someone has already done
is likely to have a significant seems to be related to the much of the hard work. where such old ice may exist,”
impact on the planet in years magnitude of the warming Scientists have identified a says the British Antarctic
to come. But an increase in event. During the PETM region in Antarctica that is Survey’s Professor Eric Wolff.
global temperature could also temperatures rose 9–14°C. This possibly 1.5 million years old, The bubbles of air locked
have an effect on humans: it led to the Hyracotherium, an almost twice as old as the ice inside ice cores provide
may make us shrink. early horse, reducing in body core drilled to date. researchers with a direct
Fossil records show that size by 30 per cent. Due to the “To constrain the possible record of the Earth’s climate.
mammals such as primates 5°C rise of the ETM2 the same locations where 1.5 million- By studying these bubbles they
and horses shrank significantly species shrank by 19 per cent. year-old, and undisturbed, ice can figure out how the
during at least two ancient After both events, the animals could be found in Antarctica, concentration of greenhouse
global warming events. Once rebounded to their pre- we compiled the available data gases in the atmosphere affects
during the Paleocene-Eocene warming size. on climate and ice conditions. the temperature, and more
Thermal Maximum (PETM), Gingerich has proposed that We then used a simple ice and accurately predict the effects
about 55 million years ago, and the effect may be due to the heat flow model to locate areas of man-made climate change.
again about 2 million years plants eaten by the mammals
later during the Eocene during periods of elevated
Thermal Maximum 2 (ETM2). carbon dioxide levels having
“The fact that it happened a lower nutritional value.
twice significantly increases Dome Fuji
our confidence that we’re
seeing cause and effect.
One interesting response Dome Argus
to global warming South Pole
in the past was a
substantial decrease
Dome Concordia
in body size in
mammalian Ice beneath
species,” said Research station Antarctica could
contain air from over
Prof Philip Potential location of oldest ice 1.5 million years ago
Gingerich, a Hyracotherium shown nose to nose with a modern day horse
THEY consisting of three lights. If all ‘near-miss’ scenarios, such as

DID three lights lit up, they won some a Blackjack hand of 20, that
WHAT?! sugar pellets, which they could produce a similar buzz to winning
collect by pressing a lever to ‘cash in the brains of human gamblers.
out’. If one or two of the lights lit
Rats hooked on slot up, nothing happened. What was the point?
machine gambling When drugs blocked the rats’
What did the rats do? dopamine receptors the tendency
What happened? The rats tried to cash out when for two-light cash outs was
Lab rats at Canada’s University of two lights were lit almost as reduced. This suggests similar
One-armed bandits are
British Columbia were trained to often as for legitimate wins. drugs may help gambling addicts helping research into
play a slot machine-style device Researchers likened this to the keep their money in their pockets. gambling addiction

Discoveries
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Dinosaurs
1 MINUTE EXPERT
Prehistoric giant walks again
Thorium
What’s that? Something
to do with the hammer-
wielding superhero?
Kind of. It’s a radioactive
element that has been
suggested for use in nuclear
reactors as a safer
alternative to uranium. It
was named after the Norse
god of thunder following its
discovery by Norwegian
mineralogist Morten Thrane
Esmark in 1828.
How safe is it?

A reconstruction of Argentinosaurus Thorium reactors are easier
skeleton at the Museo Municipal to shut off than uranium
Carmen Funes, Neuquén, Argentina
ones. If the fuel rods fail to
contain the chain reaction,
THANKS TO A laser scanner patterns, before using them simulation shows it could as occurred in Fukushima, a
and some serious computing to create an animation of the reach a maximum speed of thorium reactor can be
power, the gigantic beast walking. 8km/h (5mph) – no surprise stopped by cutting off the
Argentinosaurus is walking Lead researcher Dr Bill given it weighed as much as smaller uranium or
again for the first time in 100 Sellers said: “If you want to seven double-decker buses. plutonium feeder used to
million years. Researchers at work out how dinosaurs Sellers says the research is stimulate it. Also, thorium
the University of Manchester walked, the best approach important for understanding waste remains radioactive
fed scan data of the 40m, 80 is computer simulation. This our own musculoskeletal for a much shorter period
tonne giant’s skeleton into a is the only way of bringing system and also for the future and can’t easily be used
specially designed computer together all the different development of robotics. in weapons.
with the processing power of information we have on The team now intends to
around 30,000 desktops. this dinosaur, so we can use the same method to What’s the catch?
They used custom-made reconstruct how it moved.” recreate the steps of other Thorium is fertile rather
learning software to predict The prehistoric behemoth dinosaurs such as the than fissile. This means it
the most likely movement wasn’t quick on its feet – the Triceratops and T. rex. doesn’t split into smaller
elements when bombarded
Walking with dinosaurs: a with low-energy neutrons
simulation provides insight into
the Argentinosaurus’s gait
like uranium does. This
splitting releases the energy
bound up in the fuel’s atoms.
Fertile materials are instead
used as a starting point to
generate fissile materials.
conditions such as depression Is there any evidence of illegal

WHO’S IN Prof David Nutt and Parkinson’s disease. drugs having legitimate medical
THE NEWS? Director of the uses, or is Nutt off his nut?
Neuropsychopharmacology How so? Studies carried out during
Unit at Imperial College London Scientists who want to research the 1950s found that LSD,
substances banned by the otherwise known as acid, could
What did he say? Misuse of Drugs Act have to be effective in the treatment
Nutt condemned UK drug laws apply for a licence. Obtaining of alcohol addiction. More
for holding back research into one costs thousands of pounds recently MDMA, the chemical
illegal drugs. He claims the and can take as long as a year. name for ecstasy, showed some
research is essential as it could According to Nutt, the expense promise in treating Parkinson’s
lead to the discovery of new and red tape are putting disease and post-traumatic
treatments for neurological pharmaceutical companies off. stress disorder.

Discoveries
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PATENTLY OBVIOUS with James Lloyd Biology
Inventions and discoveries that will change the world Life from earth
IT’S SURELY ONE of the chemicals confined in those
biggest mysteries of all time: spaces could have carried out
how did life originate on the complex reactions that
Earth? Now, scientists may formed proteins, DNA and
be a step closer to finding eventually all the machinery
out after the chance discovery that makes a living cell work.
that clay may have acted as a Clay hydrogels could have
breeding ground for the confined and protected those
chemicals that form the chemical processes until the
building blocks of life. membrane that surrounds
Researchers from New living cells developed.”
York’s Cornell University Earlier experiments have
stumbled upon the idea after shown that amino acids and
using clay hydrogels in the other biomolecules could have
production of proteins. The been formed in primordial
team noticed that the clay oceans, drawing energy from
boosted protein production, lightning or volcanic vents.
leading them to think it But it was uncertain how these
might provide the answer molecules could go on to form
to a long-standing question more complex structures, and
concerning the evolution of how they were able to survive
biomolecules. the harsh conditions. Clay is
The world is your (virtual) playground “In simulated ancient a promising possibility because
seawater, clay forms a hydrogel biomolecules tend to attach
IMAGINE A VIDEO games console that not only tracks your movement
– a mass of microscopic spaces to its surface. The hydrogel
– à la Microsoft’s Kinect – but also sees through walls. Wearing a VR
capable of soaking up liquids structure helps to protect
headset, you could take cover in the bathroom to hide from brain-sucking
like a sponge,” the paper’s the delicate contents from
aliens, or hunker down under the stairs until nuclear Armageddon has
author Dan Luo explained. damaging enzymes that might
passed by.
“Over billions of years, strip down and destroy DNA.
That’s the promise of ‘WiTrack’, which monitors your motion by
reflecting radio waves off your body. A patent application for the device
was recently filed by researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of
Where it all started? Clay
Technology. By measuring the time taken for the radio signals to reflect cliffs like these on an
back to the receiving antennae, the device can calculate where you island off the coast of
are. And because it uses radio waves, it can follow you through walls. Massachusetts in the US
could be a cradle for life
As well as video games, the technology – which currently locates a
human body to within about 10cm – could also detect when an elderly
person has fallen, or allow you to control household appliances from
anywhere in your home. Patent application number: TBA
The silent hairdryer The microphone tattoo

BRITISH ENGINEER JAMES TIRED OF BEING drowned out
Dyson’s latest project could make by rumbling cars and chattering
PHOTO: GETTY, THINKSTOCK X2 ILLUSTRATOR: ADAM HOWLING
those early mornings a much crowds when you’re trying to

more peaceful affair: he’s working speak on your smartphone?
on a silent hairdryer. A patent Why not tattoo a microphone
describes how the hairdryer will onto your throat? As crazy as
be lined with a foam or felt-like it sounds, Motorola is patenting
material that’s tuned to absorb an ‘electronic skin tattoo’ that
the dryer’s roar. The device incorporates a microphone
also boasts a nifty design that and a transceiver to wirelessly
separates the airflow through communicate with your phone.
the hairdryer into two paths. The idea is that by picking up
This means that only around half vibrations directly from your
of the air passing through the larynx, the background noise
dryer goes through the fan, will be reduced. Just make sure
further quieting the device. you don’t cough.
Patent number: US 20130269201 Patent number: US 20130297301

WorldMags.net Discoveries
CLICK HERE with Kelly Oakes

Food science
Patties without New websites, blogs and podcasts
the podge
IT’S EVERY MEAT lover’s CHROMOSCOPE
dream, a nice juicy burger www.chromoscope.net
that can be enjoyed without Explore our Galaxy and the
the accompanying risk of an distant Universe across the
expanding waistline. Well, electromagnetic spectrum.
that dream may soon be From high-energy gamma
realised as researchers have rays all the way down to
found a way to pack reduced- radio waves, eight different
fat mince with meaty flavour. Mmmmm… mince. And now with telescopes provided the
the added benefit of helping you keep
According to a study the pounds at bay images for Chromoscope.
published in the journal Use your cursor to grab and zoom in and get to know the all-sky
Meat Science, plasma proteins chicory. The resulting images that make up this open-source project in full.
taken from beef can be used to concoction was then added
replace fat in mince without to reduced-fat mince and fed
adversely affecting the taste. to a group of taste testers. NOBEL PRIZE INSPIRATION
The proteins were obtained The process had no observable INITIATIVE
from the meat through effect on colour, flavour, taste www.nobelprizeii.org
ultra-filtration and freeze- or texture and fared well when Whether you’re a scientist or
drying and then combined pitted against full-fat mince not, these videos will let you
with inulin, a type of despite containing 20 to 35 per get inside the head of some
carbohydrate often found in cent less fat, the paper says. Nobel prize winners, and
hopefully give you a bit of
inspiration. If things are not
Zoology going your way, the ‘Surprises
and Setbacks’ section shows that even failed experiments have
Nasal navigation value and Nobel prize winners are mistake-making humans too.
The humble pigeon

follows its nose to GREAT LAKES
find its way home CURRENTS MAP
www.glerl.noaa.gov/res/glcfs/
currents/glcfs-currents-avg.html
Watch North America’s
Great Lakes come alive in
real-time with this National
Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration site that
visualises the average current
speed right now and over the last three hours. You’ll never need
this information, but that doesn’t stop it being captivating.
EVER WONDERED HOW “If the percentage of a

pigeons can find their way compound increases with DART OF PHYSICS
home having been released southerly winds, a pigeon www.dartofphysics.ie
hundreds of kilometres away? learns this wind-correlated Did you know that everyone
It turns out they may be simply increase. If released at a site on your train carriage is
following their noses. Hans some 100km south of home, attracted to you? Okay, okay,
Wallraff of the Max Planck the bird smells that the ratio of only gravitationally. If you’ve
Institute for Ornithology in the compound is above what it visited Dublin since the end of
Seewiesen, Germany, has is on average at its loft and flies October you might have seen
developed a theory that pigeons north,” Wallraff explains. this fact on a ‘dart of physics’
are able to smell their way by In order to test his theory poster on public transport. If
accurately perceiving the Wallraff made a computer not, never fear – the website
ratios of various scents given model based on atmospheric contains many more to keep
off by organic compounds. The data. In this simulation, virtual KELLY OAKES is a your mind occupied. Find out
pigeon is then able to find its pigeons were able to navigate science journalist why the Moon is escaping the
way by associating certain successfully armed only with who tweets from Earth, why we are all made of
smells with wind directions. knowledge of winds and odours. @kahoakes stardust, and more.

Discoveries
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HOT TOPIC
WHAT DO YOU
` THINK?
Let us know your opinions at
facebook.com/sciencefocus
and twitter.com/sciencefocus
Ross Kobak
The 6th Day [movie]
anyone?
@rich_141 I have a
pet dog, Bella. She
is a quirky and fun
bundle of fur. Cloning wouldn’t
replicate her character nor her
temperament.
Scientists
pose with Donna Evil-d
their creation Williams Good grief.
- the world’s Do you really think I’d
first cloned
dog Snuppy want more than one Merlin?!
Cloning
Would you that’s been emptied of DNA,

and then implant the embryo
into the womb of a surrogate.
cloned embryos implanted into
123 dogs. This low efficiency
reflects the high degree of
clone your pet? However, many critics have

spoken out, stating that
current cloning techniques
difficulty in cloning dogs and is
okay for proof of concept. If
the South Korean team has
ARE YOU A dog owner that than 200 animals for wealthy are unreliable. It can take more progressed from an almost
couldn’t live without your Americans and a number for than 100 attempts to produce a chance event to a robust
beloved pooch? Thanks to a the South Korean Police Force. healthy animal, and even then reproducible cloning process
South Korean biotech According to Sooam’s conditions in the womb and in a few years, this would be a
company you may not have to. website: “Cloning technology other environmental factors major achievement.
Seoul-based Sooam Biotech is possible at Sooam for any can have a dramatic effect on “Will the cloned family dog
Research Foundation is dog, no matter its age, size, the resulting dog’s appearance be the same as the original?
launching its service in the UK and breed. Sooam not only and personality. Unfortunately not – while
by holding a competition for performs dog cloning research, Professor Chris Mason, genetically identical, the
one dog owner to have their but also heals broken hearts.” Chair of Regenerative environmental factors will
canine companion cloned. To produce the clone, a Medicine Bioprocessing at always be different. A cloned
Sooam usually charges Sooam scientist will take a skin University College London Rover will not be the same
around £60,000 for each sample from the target dog, said: “Snuppy, the first cloned Rover, but Rover version 1.1
duplicate dog and claims to inject DNA from that sample dog, was born in 2005 being – a unique dog rather than a
have successfully cloned more into another dog’s egg cell the only survivor of over 1,000 carbon copy.”
NEWS IN BRIEF
Snaps predict storms New part in your knee Gaia to map our Galaxy
It seems Hurricane Sandy didn’t It might be time to rewrite The European Space Agency
dampen the public’s enthusiasm the anatomy books. Belgian is sending the world’s largest
for taking photos, a finding that researchers have found a hitherto digital camera into space. It is
could help governments measure unknown part of the human knee, mounted on the Gaia observatory,
the impact of future disasters. the anterolateral ligament (ALL). which was scheduled for launch
According to photo-sharing Its existence was first postulated between 20 December and
website Flickr, 32 million Sandy– in 1879 by a French surgeon but it January 2014, and will produce
related snaps were posted using has remained unseen until now. an accurate 3D map over five
its service in 2012. Researchers The researchers examined 41 years. It’s hoped it will discover
PHOTO: GETTY, NASA
from the Warwick Business cadavers and found the ALL in thousands of planets, stars
School found a strong correlation all but one. The discovery could and supernovae and will enable
The Gaia space observatory will
between the storm’s severity and help treat knee injuries common astronomers to learn more about make a 3D map of our Galaxy
the number of photos uploaded. among athletes. the evolution of our Galaxy.

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WorldMags.net Comment
INSIDE SCIENCE
ROBERT MATTHEWS
Astrology is a load of twaddle – it’s written in the stars
S
HOULD WE TAKE astrology seriously?
We certainly should, to judge by the huge Science leaves fortune tellers out in the
publicity newspapers and magazines are cold – but they could be on to something
currently giving to their pull-out guides when it comes to the position of the
planets predicting ice ages
to ‘What the stars hold for you in 2014’.
Every January sees a whole new wodge of
astrological predictions hit the newsstands. I
doubt many readers of this magazine take them
seriously. I certainly don’t - but then, I am a coldly
logical Virgo. Scientists generally don’t have any
time for astrology. The distinguished philosopher of
science, Sir Karl Popper, spoke for most of them
when he dismissed astrology on the grounds that
it fails the acid test of any true science: it’s not
falsifiable. In other words, astrologers don’t come
up with clear-cut predictions that can be checked
against reality.
Sir Karl was right – but only up to a point. Many
astrological predictions are indeed very vague,
like ‘You may feel unappreciated this week’ (who
doesn’t?). But to be fair, not all astrological predictions
are vague; some are pretty specific. And it’s
these that show the real reason why astrology is
twaddle: it’s because its predictions consistently
suck. Don’t take my word for it: do a bit of scientific
testing yourself. Go on to Google and find out what
predictions astrologers were making for you last
year, and compare them to reality. Here’s what
one newspaper astrologer forecast for me: ‘You’re
celebrating by 23 June, but work doesn’t let up
until 13 July.’ Six months on, and I’m still waiting for
anything to celebrate, let alone work to let up.
Many ‘serious’ astrologers try to dodge such
gripes by rejecting the New
Year predictions as populist
nonsense. They focus instead
“Our lives are The influence of the Sun and Moon on the Earth have been recognised
for millennia, through the ebb and flow of the tides. But during the
on so-called natal charts, indeed in the grip of 19th Century, astronomers started to suspect that the planets were
using them to get insights into
a person’s personality based
cosmic influences – exerting more dramatic influences on our planet. In the 1920s, the Serbian
astronomer Milutin Milankovic´ showed how the planets could affect our
on the location of the planets they’re just far more climate by their gravitational effect on the Earth’s orbit. It’s now widely
at the time of birth. But again, accepted that the resulting changes in the intensity of solar heating
the problem is not the lack significant than the triggers ice ages.
of falsifiable predictions; it’s
that the predictions suck.
trivia of astrology” Further links between the planets and life on Earth are emerging. The
journal Astronomy And Astrophysics recently published evidence linking
ILLUSTRATOR: STEPHEN COLLINS
Scientific studies have repeatedly shown these natal charts to be no better the orbits of the planets to cycles of solar activity. The latter has already
than guesswork. been implicated in events like the Little Ice Age, which caused famines
So why does astrology remain so popular, with polls suggesting between the 14th and 19th centuries. If confirmed, it would imply that the
around one in four people take it seriously? I suspect it’s something to resulting social turmoil was linked to the location of the planets.
do with the ancient belief that our lives are in the grip of cosmic forces. So there really is some truth in
For some, these may take the form of gods; others prefer more abstract the ‘astrological’ idea of cosmic
ideas. Whatever; it’s this that really drives me nuts about astrology. The ROBERT MATTHEWS is Visiting influence. It’s just a shame it’s been
truth is that our lives are indeed in the grip of cosmic influences – it’s just Reader in Science at Aston hijacked to peddle piffle about
that they’re far more significant than the footling trivia of astrology. University, Birmingham what we’ll feel like next week.

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EVERYDAY SCIENCE
HELEN CZERSKI
Spend some time on a boat and you’ll get acquainted with weird gravity
W
HEN I WOKE up this morning,
gravity was misbehaving. It was
a disconcerting way to start the Gravity likes to make
a meal of your time
day. We take gravity completely on a boat
for granted, and you can see
why it took so long for humanity to ‘discover’
it. Of course things fall vertically downwards
when you drop them. But when I dropped my
hairbrush this morning, it landed somewhere
off to the left. When I knelt down to pick it up,
I had to hold on to the sink to stop myself falling
over to the right. The shampoo bottle in the
shower was rolling around all by itself, and even
having a shower had been tricky. I had to chase
the flow of water around because it kept falling
in different directions.
None of this is unusual for me at the moment
- I’m on a research ship in the middle of the north
Atlantic Ocean. But living on a rolling ship really
makes you think about how much we all just
assume that the tug of our planet is constant,
and how much we rely on it.
We’re not rolling that much at the moment,
and if you hung a string with a weight on it
from the centre of a clock it would be swaying
between the 5 and the 7. Gravity is changing
direction relative to the ship. Last night was
a bumpy night, and I got up in a panic around
2am to go and see whether a particular bit of
experimental equipment was still on the bench
I’d left it on. Can you imagine living your life not
knowing what gravity might be up to tomorrow?
We cope at sea by strapping everything down
with Velcro, string,
tape and any other the friction to stop them slipping sideways, if the tilt is only small. If
harness we can “Living on a rolling ship the tilt is bigger, this friction might not be enough (we discover that
invent, just to stop it
falling. And all that is
really makes you think limit at dinner, when plates sometimes suddenly embark on a visit to
the person sitting in the next chair).
only because of the about how much we all I love being rocked to sleep, and I like the unpredictability of living
change in direction. temporarily in a world with weird gravity. When I’m back on shore, it’ll
As the ship rises and assume that the tug of be a few days before I take fixed stable gravity for granted again.
falls with the waves,
the effective strength
our planet is constant” It’s one of the most fundamental consequences of living on Earth,
and it’s easy to ignore it. Next time you take a step, leave something
of gravity is also unattended on a table, fill a mug right up to the top or catch a ball, just
changing. Doing sit-ups in the ship’s gym is endlessly entertaining on the remember: there’s a massive planet sitting just below you, permanently
ILLUSTRATOR: CIARA PHELAN
roughest days. They can be almost effortless when the ship is on its way tugging hard enough to make it all possible. Gravity is doing its best to
down, but might be 50 per cent harder than normal on the way back up. take us all on a journey to the centre of the Earth.
One of the most important things that gravity does is make friction Just in case you’re wondering,
useful. You only get friction between two objects if they’re pressed no, I don’t get seasick. Those who
together, and that gives you some ‘grip’. You need gravity to walk because do suffer get used to the movement
DR HELEN CZERSKI is a physicist,
that’s what pushes your feet against the floor, giving you the grip to propel oceanographer and BBC science of the ship within a few days, and
yourself forward. You don’t have to carry a tray perfectly horizontally presenter who appears regularly are fine after that. Humans are
because gravity is pulling the teacups against the tray hard enough for on Dara O Briain’s Science Club amazingly adaptable!

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INTO THE FUTURE
STEPHEN BAXTER
Love snow? You’ll be better off visiting another planet
D
URING THE FESTIVE season many of us
will be dreaming of a White Christmas. For future astronauts Mars
would be the place to go to
In fact the records show that we’re a lot enjoy a white Christmas
more likely to see rain in most locations
on the big day than snow. But what about
other planets? Will future colonists on Mars or
Venus ever see Christmas snow? In fact we do
have observational evidence of rain and snow on
other worlds, but not of water or water-ice.
On Earth, rain occurs when warm air rises and
cools, and water vapour suspended in the
atmosphere condenses out into fine droplets that
accumulate until they are heavy enough to fall out
of the air. The formation of snow is broadly similar,
save that solid ice crystals condense out rather
than liquid drops. On other worlds, the same kind of
processes can occur, but with different atmospheric
components, and at different temperatures.
Saturn’s moon Titan has a chilly surface
temperature of about 180°C below freezing. The
Cassini space probe and Huygens lander observed
a rain of methane falling from the thick nitrogen
atmosphere, feeding lakes and river systems.
Some scientists have predicted methane snow
on Titan’s higher ground.
Where Titan is cold, the planet Venus is hot, with
a massive atmosphere of mostly carbon dioxide
blanketing a landscape at temperatures of over
450°C. Space probes and Earth-based observations
have confirmed that acid rain falls from clouds of
sulphuric acid some 50km high. If you’re spending
Christmas on Venus, don’t pack an acid-proof brolly,
however, as the rain evaporates 25km above the
ground. Meanwhile, a peculiar, highly reflective
deposit observed on Venus’s
mountain peaks by the 2,300°C, is hot enough to vaporise silicate rock. Scientists from Washington
Magellan space probe may “Scientists predict University, studying these results, predict pebble-like ‘snow flakes’
be snow fields of an exotic pebble-like ‘snow condensing out of an atmosphere of rock vapour.
substance like lead sulphide, But if you like snow, Mars is the place to go. In the Red Planet’s ferocious
or even tellurium. flakes’ condensing winters, Earth-like water-ice snow has been observed to fall by NASA’s
A very exotic kind of rain
has been deduced even on
out of an atmosphere Phoenix lander. But this is only a trace compared to the huge blankets of
solid carbon dioxide – dry ice - that gather at the winter pole. Observations
Jupiter, the largest planet. In of rock vapour” made in 2006-7 by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter confirmed that at
1995 the Galileo space probe observed a least some of this falls as snow (as opposed to just condensing out at the
puzzling lack of neon in the gas giant’s upper air. In 2010 scientists at the surface like frost). From the ground it would look like a blizzard, depositing a
University of California, Berkeley, suggested that the neon is being leeched metres-thick layer of convincing-looking snow.
ILLUSTRATOR: MAGICTORCH
out by a rain of liquid helium, condensing out of high hydrogen clouds. Of course Martian years are twice as long as our years, and 25 December
Even that seems almost mundane compared to what we might find on won’t always fall in the middle of a
some of the ‘exoplanets’, the worlds of other stars discovered telescopically Martian winter. So if you want a
in the last few years. How about a snow of solid rock? A world called guaranteed White Christmas, make
STEPHEN BAXTER is a science
COROT-7b, discovered in 2009, orbits less than three million kilometres sure you get the dates right and go
fiction writer and author of the
from its parent star – that compares to Mercury’s distance from the Sun of Northland series. His latest novel visit Mars – and pack a snow shovel
about 60 million kilometres. The star-facing side, at a temperature of over is Proxima published by Gollancz and a decent overcoat.

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ILLUSTRATOR: CHRIS-STOCKER.CO.UK
An episode of the new series of

Horizon on BBC Two examines
overeating in January
40 / FOCUS / JANUARY 2014

2013 WorldMags.net
WorldMags.net
The amount we eat will ramp up this festive season,

but why are we so inclined to consume more even
when we’re not celebrating? Susan Aldridge looks
at the science behind expanding waistlines
S
INCE MEDIEVAL TIMES too? Some answers can be found in a
the festive season has been an mountain of research in neuroscience,
excuse to get down to some physiology and psychology and the
serious overeating. The average latest evidence is bringing us closer
Briton will consume 6,000-7,000 to understanding the problem.
calories on Christmas Day alone. Theories on overeating abound. We
And it’s not hard to see where may eat too much because food activates
the excess comes from: turkey and all pleasure centres in the brain. Or maybe
the trimmings, booze, Christmas pudding, we fear waste and feel we must always
mince pies, nuts and don’t forget the cake, clean our plates – a drive inherited from
complete with marzipan and icing. It our hunter-gatherer ancestors whose lives
doesn’t stop there – there’s the office veered between feast and famine. Some
party, New Year’s Eve and festive drinks people may overindulge in an attempt
with friends. That’s nine days of to fill a psychological void created by
uninterrupted consumption. childhood abuse, or to relieve stress.
An average of 15,000 calories of food,
18,000 calories of alcohol and another
3,000 calories of snacks per person is HOW MUCH IS TOO MUCH?
consumed over the festive period, which is With all this research, it’s perhaps
two or three times the recommended daily surprising to learn that there’s actually no
intake. That’s according to a survey of official definition of overeating. Government
1,000 adults carried out last year by weight recommendations state that a man needs
loss company Vitagetics. But why do we 2,500 calories a day to maintain his
overeat – at Christmas and other times weight, a woman 2,000 calories. But
WorldMags.net 2013 / FOCUS / 41

JANUARY 2014
HE A LT H
WorldMags.net
The hormone leptin (foreground) is produced

by fat cells (background); levels of the hormone
enable the body to regulate food consumption
they do not say that eating more healthy weight increases the risk of and releases a hormone called ghrelin
than this is classed as overeating. diabetes, heart disease and several forms into the bloodstream, while fatty tissues
“The term ‘overeating’ is loaded because of cancer. Obesity also impairs self- decrease production of the hormones
it assumes that there is such a thing confidence, body image and relationships. leptin and insulin. These signals are
as normal eating. In fact our food intake There is also the psychological trauma transmitted to the lateral hypothalamus,
fluctuates widely from day to day,” says associated with eating disorders such as a region of the brain involved in feeding
Jeffrey Brunstrom, Professor of binge eating (consuming 2,000 to 3,000 and other motivated behaviours,
Experimental Psychology at the University calories at a single meal) and bulimia. generating the sensation of hunger.
of Bristol whose research focuses upon At its simplest, the body can be likened Eating ceases under the influence of
the role cognition plays in eating. “Maybe to a car. It needs to fill up with fuel several satiety signals. When the tummy
the best way to describe overeating is regularly to keep going. Sensations of is full, a signal is sent via the vagus nerve,
when you feel you have eaten more than hunger and satiety act like a fuel gauge, which has many endings in the wall of the
you felt you should, or wanted to, and regulating our feeding behaviour and stomach. The signal goes up to neurones
are experiencing the soporific effect involve various hormonal signals passing in the medulla at the base of the brain,
from stomach to brain. Appetite is signalling that it is time to stop feeding.
stimulated when the stomach is empty If you eat slowly, and with attention, this
902
The amount of calories Dr Brian Wansink’s weekly
shop shows he practises
per 100g in animal fats
what he preaches…
– the highest calorie
PHOTO: SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY, JASON KOSKI/CORNELL NEWS, STUBER LAB/UNC
density of any food.
that comes from eating large amounts

at Christmas.”
There are cultural differences too.
Cornell University food psychologist Dr
Brian Wansink notes that an American
will tend to eat till they are full, while
those in other cultures may stop when
they are no longer hungry. People in
Okinawa, Japan, even have an expression
for when to stop: hara hachi bu means
eating till you are just 80 per cent full.
Whatever the cause, the consequences
of overeating can be serious. Although
the relationship between overeating and
obesity is complex, not keeping to a

WorldMags.net HE A LT H
satiety signal is likely to come through the four-hour period after a meal had suggest that limiting high GI foods may be
louder and stronger than if you wolf down been consumed. Volunteers consumed one way of controlling the urge to overeat.
your food, or chat while you are eating, milkshakes with the same calories, Meanwhile, research by Garret Stuber
when it is more easily overridden. sweetness and taste – except that one and his team at the University of North
But humans are more complicated than contained fast-acting or ‘high glycaemic Carolina has shown that at least one
cars – they are actively motivated to carry index’ (high GI) carbohydrates, while specific neural circuit drives overeating –
out survival behaviours, such as eating and the other had slower-acting or ‘lower at least in mice. When this circuit is
sex, because they give pleasure. The smell, glycaemic index’ (low GI) carbohydrates. triggered, he believes animals eat because
taste, texture and sight of food can all give As is well known, consuming high GI they enjoy it rather than because they are
pleasure. Research has shown that foods leads to a rapid rise in blood glucose, hungry (see ‘How overeating is hardwired
dopamine is released in the reward centres followed by a sharp crash. The brain in the brain, below).
of the brain when palatable foods are scan revealed this crash to be linked to Meanwhile in Bristol, Prof Brunstrom is
consumed. Clearly, some foods are more intense hunger and strong activation of working on a different approach to
palatable than others. the nucleus accumbens, a region of the understanding overeating. His research
Palatability in foods tends to boil down brain involved in addictive behaviour, suggests that planning what to eat
to the same three factors, however – fat, reward and craving. The researchers before a meal may be as important as
“Dopamine, which
is involved in our OVEREATING IS HARDWIRED IN THE BRAIN
enjoyment of food, Dr Garret Stuber of the University of North Carolina
is also involved in School of Medicine has found a pathway in the brain that
makes animals eat, even when they’re not hungry
addiction to drugs,
including alcohol The lateral hypothalamus (LH) seconds of the circuit being stimulated
is a part of the brain that is and continued to eat, even though they
and tobacco” involved in motivational behaviours, couldn’t be hungry, until we turned the
including feeding. It’s long been circuit off. When the circuit was off,
known that stimulating the LH will they showed no interest in food – even
cause a mouse to overeat. But it if they were hungry. Stimulating this
remained a mystery as to which circuit increases the palatability of
salt and sugar. This makes sense in particular neurones were involved, food, rather than satisfying hunger,
evolutionary terms. Fat gave our hunter- which is where we came in. We’d because the LH is also involved in
gatherer ancestors the reserves to survive noted that so-called GABA neurones behaviour that leads to a reward.
winter food shortages, salt helped them close by, in another region, had very This same brain pathway is very
avoid dehydration by retaining water, dense projections into the LH, so we likely to exist in humans because this is
while a liking for sugar was a way of decided to investigate this. This region a region of the brain that’s been well
distinguishing sweet, nutritious fruits is actually an outcropping of the conserved during evolution. So we’re
from sour, poisonous ones. In modern amygdala, which is involved in now trying to set up studies to see if
times, these three basic food cravings emotion, and forms a bridge to the LH. this behaviour is replicated in humans.
have reappeared in our favourite indulgent We used a technique called Our studies underscore the fact that
foods, which Wansink calls the four Cs – optogenetics, where we genetically overeating has a strong neurobiological
cookies, candy, chips and cake. Or ‘biscuits, modified the GABA neurones we were basis and the role of brain circuitry is
sweets, crisps and cake’, if you live on this interested in so they could be stimulated very significant. This brain pathway
side of the Atlantic. by an optic fibre implanted into the may play a role in food consumption
brain. In this way, we could turn the and eating disorders, such as binge
circuit on and off to see what happened eating, and further research may
ADDICTED TO FOOD to the behaviour of the mice in the help us work out how to modify
Dopamine, which is involved in our experiment. They started to eat within it and develop treatments.
enjoyment of food, is also involved in
addiction to drugs, including alcohol and
tobacco, so it could be that it is equally
possible to become addicted to foods,
especially those high in sugar and fat. In
such cases, overeating is easy to understand.
A report from the long-running Nurses’
Health Study found that women who had
suffered childhood abuse were twice as
likely to show addiction-like eating
behaviours. In another study, David
Stimulating inhibitory brain
Ludwig, of Boston Children’s Hospital, fibres (green) made food
used functional magnetic resonance more appealing to mice
imaging to observe brain activity during

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hungry and the food is not palatable. His

team invited unsuspecting volunteers to a
movie, offering free popcorn in return for
answering a questionnaire. The popcorn
was five days old and tasted stale. Most of
the volunteers had already lunched, so
they were not hungry. Yet they still ate the
stale popcorn. Some were given medium-
size buckets, others large-size buckets.
Those given the latter ate more (173
calories more, equivalent to 21 more dips
in their bucket), even though they hotly
Not feeling hungry? Tests reveal
that you’ll still plough through
denied being influenced by the size of the
five-day-old, stale popcorn container when questioned afterwards.
Wansink has run many other popcorn
the satiety signals generated during It is possible to manipulate a food for studies and the findings are the same –
the meal itself, even if we are not ES by altering its viscosity. Drinks tend to people eat more from a larger container.
always conscious of this forward thinking. have a low ES but are often loaded with
His team has developed ways of measuring calories, so their unthinking consumption
the expected satiety (ES) of different has been linked to weight gain. On the SIZE MATTERS
foods – that is, the extent to which we other hand, increasing viscosity and The size issue is worth looking at in
perceive a food as able to stave off hunger. creamy texture increased the ES value of more detail. Between 1970 and 2000, the
“There is a large mismatch between a yoghurt drink. This could be one way of number of large sizes of food products in
how many calories a food contains and reducing the amount of energy-containing supermarkets increased tenfold. The
how filling it is perceived to be,” he says. drinks consumed. spread of fast food outlets has led to the
“For instance, potatoes have a higher ES How much people eat is also influenced proliferation of super-size and jumbo-size
than chocolate. Very energy dense foods by factors such as the size of the packet,
like chocolate are perceived to deliver
less reduction in hunger.” Decisions on
plate and portion, the variety of food
available and the context in which it is “There is a large
ES seem to be influenced by volume, with
higher volume, less energy-dense foods
eaten. This is well illustrated by one of
Wansink’s experiments which shows that
mismatch between
seen as more satisfying. people will eat, even if they are not how many calories
a food contains
and how filling it is
CURB YOUR OVEREATING… WITH AN IMPLANT perceived to be”
A new pacemaker for the stomach could be the key to helping
people who are unable to control their food consumption
THE VAGUS NERVE helps regulate and weight-loss surgery – all have their portions as chains compete in the ‘value
sensations of hunger, satisfaction and drawbacks. EnteroMedics believes for money’ stakes. In a famous study
how full you feel. Surgical vagotomy, that VBLOC therapy can fill the gap carried out by University of Pennsylvania
which involves cutting the vagus nerve and offer new hope for the 20 million psychologist Paul Rozin and the French
near the stomach, was used historically obese people who would currently sociologist Claude Fischler in 2003,
as a treatment for stomach ulcers. qualify for surgery because of their portion sizes were compared in fast food
Patients often experienced weight loss weight and complications like diabetes outlets, pizzerias, ice cream parlours and
and reduced appetite as side effects. The or high blood pressure. restaurants in the cities of Philadelphia
Minnesota-based company and Paris. Of 36 meals and beverages
EnteroMedics used these findings as a compared, 26 had a significantly lower
basis for designing its VBLOC therapy, mass in Paris, with portions being an
which intermittently blocks vagus average of 25 per cent heavier in the
nerve signals between the brain and the American city.
stomach with a pacemaker-like device To illustrate the point, Wansink invited
called the Maestro System. This is 85 nutrition professors and graduate
implanted and programmed by minimally students to an ice cream party. On arrival,
PHOTO: THINKSTOCK, GETTY
invasive surgery and has been safely they were given either a medium or large
used in over 600 patients in clinical bowl and either a medium or large ice
trials, producing significant weight loss. cream scoop and told to help themselves.
This little device
Existing treatments for obesity – can put a reign Those given large bowls and scoops served
namely, diet and exercise, medication on the vagus nerve themselves with 53 per cent more ice
and your appetite cream than those with small bowls and
small scoops.

WorldMags.net HE A LT H
Studies have shown that a wide

variety of food choices at a meal
will mean that you consume more
This tendency to eat more from a large – in various combinations on a computer,

portion is likely because you can consume and asked to manipulate the image of the £5,000,000,000
a lot of food before you see much second course to show how much they The cost to the NHS every
difference in the portion size. The ‘clean would serve themselves. When there year due to problems
plate’ perhaps gives the eater a goal, which was variety – when sweet followed savoury related to patients being
acts as a clear signal to finish eating – only – the volunteers rated the foods as more overweight or obese
you have to do more eating to achieve this pleasant and said they would select a (Source: Department of Health)
with a big portion. bigger helping.
Meanwhile, as you head towards the
office Christmas lunch or New Year’s dinner, describes the ‘pause point’, and recommends
VARIETY IS THE SPICE OF LIFE bear in mind that psychology professor creating interruptions in your eating – by
Another important factor in overeating is John de Castro of Georgia State University choosing individually wrapped biscuits,
variety. Brunstrom has carried out has figured out that you eat 35 per cent sweets or chocolates, or by moving dishes
experiments that show how variety more if you eat with one other person than of food out of easy reach. Finally, be
increases the amount of food consumed. if you eat alone. If you eat with a group of mindful in your eating – ignore distractions,
Participants were shown images of four seven or more, you consume nearly twice focus on the food and eat it slowly.
dishes – chicken tikka masala, spaghetti as much. This is because chatting distracts The general tendency to ‘clean the plate’
bolognese, apricot slice and lemon tart us from the food and we stop monitoring and eat whenever the opportunity arises
what goes into our mouths. On the other seems to imply an inherent greediness in
hand, speedy eating also tends to lead to human nature. Maybe it is a throwback to
BRITAIN’S EXPANDING WAISTLINE overconsumption. Many studies have our hunter-gatherer past, when people
shown that it takes 20 minutes for the brain never knew when they would eat again?
61.3% to act on satiety signals from the body, In those days, this behaviour had a clear
which is plenty of time for a second slice survival value. In 21st Century Britain, the
of pizza or a return visit to the buffet. opposite is probably true.
However, there are many tricks for
thwarting the conspiracy between the
Find out more
brain and the environment which seems to
promote overeating. For instance, at the Listen to Constant Cravings:
festive buffet, put your plate down when Does Food Addiction Exist?
you are chatting and put only two items on overeating and addiction
on your plate at each trip to the food table. http://bb c.in/15Kkm4U
If you are shopping for crockery in the
38.7% January sales, buy some smaller plates for
dinner. In a restaurant, you could opt for
61.3 per cent of adults are overweight
or obese in the UK (source: Gov.uk) two starters and skip the main, or maybe SUSAN ALDRIDGE is a science writer and
share a pizza or a dessert. Wansink also former medical researcher

WorldMags.net
a d but
s o u nd m jects
e y m ay
r i n g p ro u re
Th p i o n e e ve r y n a t
t h e s e a n g e t h e t i o n a s we
h a o
w i l l c c e ex p l o r T E R i s g
a A
o f s p t . W I LL G
i
k n ow n c h . . .
u
fo r l a
46 / FOCUS / DECEMBER
JANUARY 2014
2013 WorldMags.net
WorldMags.net
HEN IT COMES to “NIAC is all about

cutting-edge space giving revolutionary concepts
technology it’s easy to a chance, especially the visionary or
think that nothing much unusual ones that would normally be
has happened since the considered too risky,” says NIAC Program
Moon landings over four Executive Dr Jay Falker. Every year since
decades ago. But if you 2011, the programme has given substantial fascinating
want an idea of how space funding to projects it thinks could make concepts none
exploration might evolve in the coming these big technological advances. And of us have seen before,”
decades, look no further than the work there are few limits on the kind of concepts says Falker.
of the little-known NASA Innovative that are considered. The ideas currently We’ve picked 10 projects
Advanced Concepts programme, or NIAC. funded cover many fields – everything recently awarded NIAC grants that we
It’s responsible for funding forward- from pioneering robotics to the advanced think should get the green light. It may
thinking studies that the US space agency engineering needed to send humans to be many years before any of them make
believes could open up whole new ways of Mars. “We receive hundreds of proposals it into space, but read on to discover
exploring the Solar System. every year, and every time there are some our favourites in reverse order...

SPACE TECHNOLOGY
WorldMags.net
10 SPRINGY Sensors could be bounced

on to a planet by a springy
ball-like structure
ROVERS
ROCKETS, PARACHUTES AND airbags
have helped land several rovers on
Mars, but the next generation of robotic
planetary explorers may use a totally new
technology. Dr Vytas SunSpiral and his
colleagues at NASA are looking to send a
robot to Saturn’s moon Titan that will be
constructed entirely of a set of rods held
in place by cables under tension. This
‘tensegrity structure’ would be equipped
with scientific instruments and wouldn’t
need a parachute or airbag. “The structure
itself is compliant and can absorb strong
impact shocks, so it can land safely while
protecting a payload,” explains SunSpiral.
Not only that but it will be mobile
too, he says. “Once landed, it can
shorten and lengthen its
cables to induce rolling
and explore the
planet.”
The ‘deep-sleep’ method the SpaceWorks

team is investigating is known as
“Imagine going to
hypothermia therapy. “It’s used regularly sleep and waking
to treat traumatic injuries,” says Bradford.
“Inducing this torpor state requires up on Mars six
months later, no
9
reducing the core body temperature by
ASTRONAUT
5 to 10°F [up to 6°C] and providing some
mild sedatives.” It’s a very different worse for wear!”
process to the ‘freezing’ of astronauts
often seen on the big screen, says Bradford. Dr John E Bradford, president of
SpaceWorks Engineering
“We’re not attempting ‘cryo-preservation’
HIBERNATION
and the cessation of all molecular activity.
Our goal is to be able to keep the crew in
an inactive state and limited to a confined
PHOTO: ADRIAN AGOGINO, ESA, FOSTER & PARTNERS, SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY
space during certain parts of the mission.” crew is required to have space for food
To keep the astronauts alive the team preparation and eating, exercise, science
THE CONCEPT OF putting astronauts envisage using technology that’s already stations, bathrooms, sleeping quarters and
into hibernation during a long mission in use in medicine. “They will be fed and entertainment.”
into interplanetary space is ever-present hydrated through an intravenous line It may even be better for the astronauts’
in science-fiction. From Avatar to 2001: using an aqueous solution called ‘total well-being. “On a Mars mission, you can
A Space Odyssey, complex life-support parenteral nutrition’ or TPN. This method expect to have a small group of people
systems have become a visual synonym of providing sustenance for humans is confined to a very small space for an
for the advanced space technology of routinely used for extended durations extended period of time, under a lot of
the future. Now, as we look to Mars as a with cancer patients,” says Bradford. stress and with no way to abort if there’s
place to explore, there are some who are The are several benefits to be had from a problem,” explains Bradford. “A lot of
working to make the science fiction of having a crew sleep their way through a these issues are solved if the crew is
hibernating astronauts a reality. Dr John long space voyage, argues Bradford. “With asleep during peak periods of stress
E Bradford is president of SpaceWorks the crew in this state, we believe we can and likely boredom.”
Engineering, a US-based company that reduce the mass and volume of the in- Nevertheless, there’s still much more
was awarded funds to investigate the space habitat significantly. This ultimately research to be done before the technology
pioneering technology. “In short, we are reduces the entire launch mass. The makes it into space. “Ultimately, I think it
attempting to put a Mars-bound crew in a habitat itself will be a very small module will be the preferred way to travel,” says
deep-sleep stasis during the six to nine- containing four to six crew members, Bradford. “Just imagine going to sleep and
month transfer periods between Earth and each in their own sleep chamber. By waking up on Mars six months later, no
Mars,” he explains. contrast, a typical habitat for an active worse for wear!”

WorldMags.net SPACE TECHNOLOGY
To make the trip to the Red Planet a

more comfortable experience, future
explorers may have to be put into a
state of suspended animation
8 OFF-PLANET
3D PRINTING
THE FIRST ASTRONAUTS to explore
Mars face a dangerous mission. Apart
from the radiation on the way and the
landing, they’ll also have to contend with
living on a distant outpost with little
chance of a speedy re-supply if something
goes wrong. If a vital component of their
spacecraft breaks on the surface, there’ll
be no mechanic on hand to bring them a
spare. The ‘Biomaterials out of thin air’
NIAC project could be the solution. It’s
examining how living cells could be used,
in conjunction with 3D-printing, to create
spacecraft parts, construction materials
and, potentially, even human tissue.
3D printers could be
put to work building
habitats on the Moon

WorldMags.net
7 FLAT
way to explore many more of these
tantalising environments throughout the
Solar System.
We could one day The Two-Dimensional Planetary
LANDERS
simply scatter
sheets of sensors Surface Landers project is looking into the
onto planets technology needed to build numerous
wafer-thin ‘landers’ that could be scattered
onto a planet, moon or asteroid. Each
lander would be only a few millimetres
THE TENSE LANDING of NASA’s Mars deep and would cover about one square
Science Laboratory, Curiosity, back in metre; on-board would be solar panels and
2012 took years of planning and advanced communications electronics as well as
engineering, and it all rested on the radiation, wind and temperature sensors.
perfect performance of the mission’s They may even carry thin scientific
landing systems. Today, Curiosity is instruments for studying their surroundings.
giving us a unique view of one of the most Tens of landers would be sent to the target
scientifically interesting places on in one go, with the possibility of sending
the Red Planet. But there up to 50. “When a number of 2D landers
may be a much are deployed, some may make it and others
simpler may not. It is still acceptable,” says the
project’s lead Dr Hamid Hemmati. “It
also enables landing at highly risky,
but geologically much
more interesting,
locations.”
“Enabling material
PHOTO: HAMID HEMMATI/NASA, ROBERT HOYT
to be launched as
spools or fibre will
enable us to use
smaller rockets” Spider bots could
Dr Robert Hoyt, Tethers Unlimited be set to work
building large
structures in space

XXXX
6 SMASH
Prof Robert Winglee at the University of moons,” explains Winglee. As the
Washington is investigating the feasibility penetrators smash into the surface
of a planetary ‘smash and grab’ sample- they will pick up some material in an
return technique. The idea is to have a on-board sample-return capsule. This
AND GRAB
probe drop penetrators into the surface capsule will then be reeled all the way
of an asteroid or a moon as it flies past. back to the probe, using the tether,
The penetrators would be attached to the before being sent on the long trip home
spacecraft by a long tether. “For asteroids, to Earth. “It will provide a huge step
SPACECRAFT
only a few kilometres of tether are needed, towards understanding the origins of
and maybe a few tens of kilometres for the Solar System,” says Winglee.
2. Spacecraft
thrusts to decelerate
ROBOTIC ROVERS AND orbiting and to spin up tether
spacecraft are all well and good for
exploring the Solar System, but what
planetary scientists everywhere dream of
are samples of these distant worlds. Getting
material back to Earth is not easy, though.
If your probe does manage to launch 1. Spacecraft
without a hitch it still has to fly all the way deploys sampler
at the end of
to its destination, carry out a risky landing, a tether
take-off and then return through Earth’s
atmosphere in one piece. Just ask the team
that worked on NASA’s Genesis mission.
Genesis successfully sampled the solar
wind during a 32-million-km journey
through space, only to embed itself at
320km/h in the Utah desert, when
parachutes failed to open. 3. Tether sets
Now a team the sampler
5. The tether tosses down on the
led by
the sampler towards an surface and then
Earth-return trajectory picks it back up
5 ROBOT
BUILDERS
IN ORBIT
launch
something that
is able to construct itself
once in orbit – they call their idea
‘SpiderFab’. “We’re developing a process
where we can launch materials in the
form of a spool of yarn or tape, and then
process that material to create the desired
structure,” explains Hoyt. By blending
advanced robotics with 3D printing
SCIENCE FICTION HAS long depicted technology, the team hopes to start
visions of vast structures looming in making basic orbiting structures before
orbit and spaceships with huge solar progressing on to construct parts for the
arrays gliding through the Solar System. next generation of spacecraft. “Manned
Launching such enormous structures into missions to Mars or other planetary bodies
space is astronomically expensive though will need large structures to support solar
and, as we’ve seen with the International arrays, radiation shields and other critical
Space Station, you need astronauts to do components,” says Hoyt. “Enabling the
much of the construction work. material to be launched in a compact
One method to get around this, now form, such as spools of fibre or tanks of
being studied by Dr Robert Hoyt and his polymer, will enable us to use smaller,
colleagues at Tethers Unlimited, is to less expensive rockets.”

4 SAIL-POWERED ROVER
SPACE TECHNOLOGY
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THE PLANET VENUS has a truly fearsome reputation, and a well-deserved one at that. Its sulphuric
acid rain, extreme atmospheric pressure and a searing surface temperature of around 460°C make it
a rather hostile place. In fact, it’s probably the last place you’d think that planetary scientists would
want to send a rover. But they do. And they even want to give it a sail. Yes, a sail. As part of the NIAC
programme, NASA scientists are researching the practicalities of sending a ‘land-sailing rover’
NASA wants to go to the second closest planet to the Sun. The rover would be swept along Venus’s
sailing on Venus with relatively flat lava plains by a light breeze, say the scientists. If all went
a solar-powered well, the team reckons the rover could survive for a month or so.
vehicle like this
Crater Shackleton’s
depths are revealed by a
topographic view (left-
hand side) courtesy of the
Lunar Reconnaissance
Orbiter’s Laser Altimeter
3 SUNLIGHT REFLECTORS
IF HUMANS EVER return to the Moon, one of the places we’ll likely visit is the
PHOTO: NASA X2, DAVID ALLEN
region around the crater Shackleton. The crater’s interior is cloaked in permanent
shadow while its rim is lit up by almost constant sunlight. The soil within may contain
ice that can be used by a future Moon base and the rim would be an ideal place to put
solar panels. But exploring the depths of Shackleton, and features like it on other bodies,
would be difficult due to the darkness. The Transformers for Extreme Environments
project aims to change all that by developing lightweight, autonomous machines capable
of reflecting sunlight down into the dark. The origami-like structures could be used for
illuminating the crater floor, warming a patch of ground and for communications.

The huge 100m-wide

LBR could look like
this space balloon
our cosmic origins, from the Big Bang to

the Earth itself,” says the project’s lead,
Prof Christopher Walker from the
University of Arizona. “The largest
2 1
terrahertz/far-infrared telescope
BALLOON ROBOT
to fly was the Herschel Space
Observatory. LBR will be three
times larger and have about an
order of magnitude greater
TELESCOPE SUBMARINES
collecting area, allowing it
to probe this important
wavelength deeper than
ever before.”
The LBR team hope to
SENDING TELESCOPES INTO orbit use the huge balloon-
can be a very costly way to study the borne telescope HIDDEN BENEATH THE surface of
Universe. One way astronomers have got to study objects Jupiter’s moon Europa is a vast ocean of
around this is by attaching telescopes to such as stars and liquid water. It’s an astrobiologist’s dream.
enormous helium balloons and letting planets in the Jupiter’s moon Europa Now a NIAC project, led by Professor
process of has a thick ice-sheet
them drift high up into the sky. These that covers a potentially Leigh McCue at Virginia Tech University,
floating observatories can then view the forming. life-friendly ocean has laid out what’s needed to explore it.
cosmos largely unimpeded by the gases in The team’s concept involves sending
our atmosphere that absorb many of the three landers to the surface of Europa.
wavelengths of celestial radiation that are Each will be equipped with a ‘cryobot’
interesting to astronomers. that will melt its way through the icy crust
The Large Balloon Reflector (or LBR) before breaking out into the subsurface
takes this concept one step further. It ocean. The three cryobots will then release
will incorporate two balloons; the first ‘gliders’ that will swim through the ocean,
100m-wide ‘carrier balloon’ will take the studying it in detail. “Europa’s ocean offers
telescope to roughly 130,000ft (39km) our mostly likely prospect for finding
in altitude. Fixed inside this balloon will some form of extraterrestrial life within
be a second, smaller one measuring 20m our Solar System,” says McCue. “That is
in diameter. A 10m-wide patch of this what is most exciting to me; under-ice
balloon will be metallised to create a exploration of Europa could change our
mirror-like surface, which will collect very understanding of life.”
light from the stars.
The LBR will study celestial
objects at wavelengths of
THE GLIDER
Once a cryobot melts its way
between 100 and 300 through Europa’s surface ice, it
microns – what is known releases a glider like this to swim
as ‘terrahertz’ radiation. and explore the subsurface ocean
Crucially, this radiation
will pass through the
balloon material
largely unhindered, Tail provides Sensor
but not the ‘mirror’. forward motion compartment
“This wavelength
provides clues to
Pectoral fins
Computers, enable precise
power storage control
and control
WILL GATER is an astronomy journalist and

author. Follow him on Twitter: @willgater

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THE YEAR SCIENCE WILL

BLOW YOUR MIND

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ROSETTA’S TOUCHDOWN ON A COMET 58

SOLAR SAIL SPACECRAFT 59
ARTIFICIAL LIFE 60
STEM CELL ORGANS 60
LASER WEAPONS 62
CYBERNETIC COCKROACHES 63
QUANTUM NETWORKS 64
FUSION POWER 65
WORDS
SPACE BIOLOGY TECHNOLOGY PHYSICS

Stuart Clark is Penny Sarchet David Bayon Brian Clegg
an astronomer, is an award- is a technology is a science
journalist and winning science writer and a writer and the
the author of journalist with former editor author of Build
The Sky’s Dark a PhD in plant of PC Pro Your Own Time
Labyrinth trilogy genetics Machine
ILLUSTRATOR: JAMES TAYLOR/DEBUT ART

S CIENCE IN 2 0 14
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SPACE
EUROPEAN
SPACECRAFT WILL
LAND ON A COMET
THE MISSION SET to dominate the space
exploration agenda next year is Rosetta,
the European Space Agency’s comet chaser.
“Rosetta will spend more than a year in close
proximity to the comet, observing its rise to
peak activity during the portion of its orbit
that takes it closest to the Sun,” says Matt
Taylor, ESA Rosetta Project Scientist.
This is the riskiest mission ever launched
by ESA, and it got off to a rocky start. One
month before the planned January 2003
“This is our last
launch, an identical Ariane 5 rocket exploded best chance to
during lift-off. Rather than risk the billion-
Euro Rosetta mission, ESA delayed its study the pristine
flight while the problem was investigated.
This robbed it of its intended target, Comet
Moon before there
Wirtanen, and astronomers had to choose a is a lot of human
second comet to visit.
In March 2003, Rosetta set off for Comet activity there”
Churyumov-Gerasimenko. For the last three
years, Rosetta has been in hibernation, with
all but the smallest flicker of power keeping it
alive. On 20 January 2014, the spacecraft will
awaken itself and attempt to find Earth with
its antenna. This will be a nervous waiting
game for those sat on terra firma.
anchor itself. “Once safely harpooned on
the comet, the analyses carried out have NASA WILL MAKE ITS LAST
Once contact is re-established, the main
science mission will begin. It will approach
the potential to unlock 4.6-billion-year-
old secrets about the origin of water and VISIT TO THE ‘PRISTINE MOON’
the comet in May and enter a walking-pace organic material in the early Solar System,”
mapping orbit around the icy nucleus, says Natalie Starkey, a planetary scientist THERE’S NO DOUBT that the Moon will be
scoping out its target. It will then study from The Open University, Milton Keynes. a focus in 2014. NASA’s Lunar Atmosphere
PHOTO: ESA/D DUCROS, NASA, ASTRIUM/E VIKTOR
the comet looking for a landing site, before This data will help scientists decide and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE -
releasing a whether comets brought the water for pronounced ‘laddie’ rather than ‘lady’ Little
lander, called Earth’s oceans. It could also show us which Britain style) is in orbit now and will complete
Philae, in building blocks of life were incorporated into its mission in 2014.
November. the early Earth. “It will provide the first ever It is studying the tenuous atmosphere and
Upon contact, measurements of the evolution of a comet, the dust environment around the Moon. NASA
Philae will from a rather inert icy dirt ball, to a Apollo astronauts reported seeing glows and
highly active comet,” says Taylor. rays near the rising and setting Sun that have
never been explained. Yet what makes the
investigation far more compelling is what
The Rosetta lander Philae
NASA Ames Director Pete Worden said to the
will touch down on Comet
Churyumov-Gerasimenko Universe Today website on 20 October 2013.
in November
WorldMags.net
WorldMags.net S CIENCE IN 2 0 14
It is named after the 1964 Arthur C

NASA’s LADEE probe will
investigate the Moon’s
tenuous atmosphere
SOLAR SAIL SPACECRAFT Clarke story, in which the term ‘solar
sailing’ was coined. “Sunjammer will
TO GRAZE THE SUN be the first truly operational solar sail
mission, demonstrating that this exciting
THEY DON’T HAVE engines, require technology can enable entirely new types
no fuel and yet can journey just about of orbits with compelling applications
anywhere in the Solar System. Solar for space weather,” says Colin McInnes,
sails harness the pressure of sunlight University of Strathclyde, Glasgow.
to push them through space. Sunjammer will carry a pair of instruments
Sunjammer is a NASA project to to monitor the Sun and warn us of solar
demonstrate the largest solar sail yet flares, which contribute to the space
made. In 2010, the Japanese Space weather that disrupts communications on
Agency sailed the 14x14m IKAROS Earth. Because it sails on starlight, it will
mission all the way to Venus. Now, the be able to go closer to the Sun than other
Americans want to do it bigger and conventional spacecraft. With this first
better. Sunjammer will be 38x38m flight, Sunjammer will fly 3 million km
when deployed in space, and at launch it away from the Earth and provide twice
will be packed into a dishwasher-sized the warning time achieved with NASA’s
spacecraft. Designed to demonstrate the current solar watchdog, the Advanced
level of control that can be achieved with Composition Explorer. Eventually
a solar sail, it will perform manoeuvres a flotilla of solar sails could
that are impossible for conventional monitor the Sun from
spacecraft, such as ‘hovering’ in space. all angles at all times.
NASA’s Sunjammer is a test

bed for technology that could
see us sailing to the stars
He explained: “This is probably our last

best chance to study the pristine Moon
INVASION OF MARS
JANUARY 2014
before there is a lot of human activity there
changing things.”
That is a sobering statement and reflects NASA’S CURIOSITY MARS rover set out
upon the increasing number of projects on 4 July 2013 towards its ultimate goal:
from private organisations that hope to Mount Sharp. The strata of the mountain
launch rovers to the Moon. These include will allow scientists to study the climate
the Google Lunar X-Prize competitors. A history of the Red Planet. When it arrives
prize of $40 million is being offered for any in summer 2014 it will investigate how
team that lands on the Moon, traverses long the Martian surface had water; the GAIA
500m and transmits two ‘Mooncasts’ back longer the better for the possibility of life. LAUNCHES
to Earth. The deadline for doing this is By September, Curiosity could have At the start of the
31 December 2015. some new neighbours in the shape of year, the European
LADEE is more than simply another India’s Mars Orbiter Mission and NASA’s Space Agency’s Gaia
science-gathering mission, though. It is also Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution spacecraft will begin its mission
a test of a standard spacecraft design that probe. They will be analysing Mars’s to map 1 billion stars, creating the
could help NASA drastically reduce the cost atmosphere to better understand its largest star map ever (see p28).
of its small science missions. history, including the sequence of events
that caused it to lose its atmosphere.

S CIENCE IN 2 0 14
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BIOLOGY
SCIENTISTS TO BUILD A
GENOME FROM SCRATCH
IN 2014, AN international team is set to
FIRST PATIENTS TO finish building the first artificial yeast
chromosomes. It’s part of a global effort
RECEIVE STEM to build a genome from scratch that is

capable of powering a yeast cell. The
CELL TRANSPLANTS ambitious project began during the

last decade in an effort to understand
what genes are needed for a cell to survive.
Scientists traditionally ‘knock-out’ genes
BY THE END of August, patients will cells into cartilage, before being grafted one by one and observe the effects, but
have started going under the knife in the onto a scaffold that has been made by the yeast team is adopting the opposite
world’s first clinical trial of stem cell- stripping away the cells from the organ of approach. Its building a genome up piece
based organ transplants, funded by the a conventional transplant donor. by piece, and seeing if it is able to sustain
UK’s Medical Research Council. The trial The team already has a store of donor life. One question the project hopes to
will involve patients who have suffered scaffolds. “We have a range of transplant answer is how important gaps in genes
damage to their voice box and donors and then we defrost the one are. ‘Eukaryotic’ cells that make up animals,
have difficulty breathing, that’s the right size [for the plants and yeast all have regions of DNA in
speaking, and patient],” explains Birchall. the middle of their genes that do not code
swallowing. This can Once the transplant has for proteins. Bacterial genomes do not
often be the case after been grown from the have these gaps. “[These gaps] are found
surgery when a patient’s own stem in all eukaryotic genomes, but in yeast
patient has required cells, a surgeon will there are not that many and none are
help breathing. cut it to the right thought to be essential,” says Imperial
Martin Birchall and shape while fitting College London scientist Tom Ellis. “So let’s
his colleagues have it to the patient’s get rid of them and see if the cell survives.”
already used patients’ larynx. Because these
own stem cells to lab-grown transplants
save the lives of two are made from the
PHOTO: GETTY, TOM ELLIS/IMPERIAL COLLEGE LONDON, THINKSTOCK X2, EMORY NEWS CENTER, JOHN INNES CENTRE
seriously ill patients, patient’s own cells, they

but now they want to don’t run the same risk of
make the technology a immune system rejection that
routine treatment. Your own replacement organs conventional donor organs do.
could soon be growing
To grow the transplant in the lab
“This will be the first time
tissue, the stem cells will these technologies have
first be taken from the hip of the patient, been trialled in a proper, controlled
and then brought back to the laboratory environment,” says Birchall, who hopes
to be grown and expanded. Chemical that, if successful, the technique will be
signals are then used to transform the used for other types of organ transplants.
CROPS TO SOAK UP Now a project backed by Microsoft’s

Bill Gates is experimenting with special
FERTILISER FROM THE AIR types of bacteria that can take nitrogen
from the air and pass it onto some
legumes, which include peas and beans.
Injecting a plant with a virus
IN 2014, RESEARCHERS will begin “Legumes can utilise bacteria in their is enough to make it produce
genetically altering crops in an attempt roots, and the bacteria provide a proteins to develop vaccines
to allow them to capture nitrogen biologically available form of nitrogen to
directly from the air, instead of from the plant,” explains Giles Oldroyd of the
fertilisers in the ground. Most plants
get their nitrogen from the soil, usually
John Innes Centre, a plant scientist
involved in the project. “If we can
“Plant-grown
from decayed organic matter or from transfer these capabilities to cereals, vaccine compounds
synthetic fertilisers. It is thanks to these then we can wean agriculture from its
inorganic fertilisers that we are able to addiction to inorganic fertilisers.” could be cheaper
grow enough crops to feed the global
population, but producing them is
In 2014 Oldroyd and his colleagues
will insert genes into maize to enable
and faster to grow”
energy-intensive, uses fossil fuels, and them to partner with bacteria that can
releases greenhouse gases. absorb nitrogen from the air.
60 / FOCUS / SEPTEMBER
JANUARY 2014
2012 WorldMags.net
WorldMags.net
A researcher at Imperial
College London is part of
a team building artificial
yeast chromosomes
PLANTS TO BE CULTIVATED THE JAB TO BE REPLACED

TO GROW FLU VACCINES WITH PAINLESS INJECTIONS JANUARY 2014
INSTEAD OF FERMENTING mammal cells TERRIFIED OF NEEDLES? If so there is good
or using chicken eggs to produce vaccine news coming in 2014. Researchers at INSECT
chemicals, we might soon be growing them Queen’s University Belfast are developing a RADAR
inside plants instead. The predominant painless way to inject vaccines using tiny Scientists in
strains of seasonal flu vary from year to needles, around half a millimetre in length. the UK will begin
year, and it’s a race against the clock to These microneedles don’t hurt when pressed building a radar network
develop a new vaccine each year and to into the skin, where they become soft and capable of detecting and monitoring
produce it in large enough quantities. release their medicine. Throughout 2014, the movement of pollinator insects on
Plant-grown vaccine compounds could be Ryan Donnelly and his colleagues will work a massive scale.
cheaper, faster to grow, and less susceptible on manufacturing them on an industrial scale.
to contamination. George Lomonossoff and Because the needles become soft, Donnelly
his team at the John Innes Centre, Norwich, says they could stop diseases spreading
JULY 2014
have developed a method for producing through hospital accidents, “particularly in
vaccines in plants. They have already the developing world, where the unsafe use
produced a vaccine for the Bluetongue virus of hypodermic syringes is widespread.”
that affects farm animals and in 2014 they will
push forward with human illnesses like flu.
“Egg-based systems are only just fast CANCER IN
enough to produce a vaccine in time,” THE SPOTLIGHT
explains Lomonossoff. A Canadian company, The UK will be home
Megicago, is now using Lomonossoff’s to the world’s most
techniques to produce flu vaccines. It has advanced imaging centre
already shown that these plant-based Painful jabs dedicated to studying cancer at the
techniques can produce 10 million doses of could be a Institute of Cancer Research. It will
flu vaccine within a month, and has begun thing of the
use the latest MRI and ultrasound
trialling experimental vaccines in humans. past with these
microneedles technologies to investigate tumours.

S CIENCE IN 2 0 14
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TECHNOLOGY
‘4D’ PRINTED MATERIALS
WILL BE ABLE TO ADAPT
TO THE ENVIRONMENT
WE MIGHT BE some way off the dream
of a 3D printer in every home, but the
manufacturing industry is certainly diving
in: the European Space Agency has printed
metal parts that can withstand temperatures
of 1,000°C, and General Electric is preparing
to mass-print critical jet engine parts.
It’s fast progress, but why stop at 3D? A
collaboration between MIT’s Self-Assembly
Lab and the 3D printing company Stratasys
has produced an even more amazing
process they’ve called ‘4D printing’.
Using a Stratasys Connex 3D printer,
the team can create objects that are able
to change shape after they’re printed. By
programming different material properties
into the particles of the printed object, the
team can use an external stimulus such as
water or heat to activate a self-assembly
process in which the object folds itself into
a different shape.
PHOTO: JOHN F WILLIAMS/US NAVY, NORTH CAROLINA STATE UNIVERSITY, VIRGIN GALACTIC, D-WAVE SYSTEMS
Right now it’s relatively low-level – a flat

sheet folds itself into a cube, a printed tube LASER WEAPONS TO
folds itself into a 3D frame (pictured above).
But the team is looking ahead to real-world ENTER SERVICE
applications: think water pipes that could
expand or contract, or even undulate to IT STILL SOUNDS too sci-fi to be real, useful range, but capable of matching current
move the water through them. “You design but lasers are indeed coming to a ship-defence weapons. Lasers require no
something, you print it, it evolves,” says warship near you. The US Office of Naval propellants or explosives so they’re safer,
MIT’s Skylar Tibbits. “It’s like naturally Research (ONR) has announced it will and they run on electricity, making them
embedding smartness into materials.” deploy a solid-state laser for testing cheaper than standard weapons. The ONR
And it’s not just MIT working on the aboard the USS Ponce in 2014, two years estimates the cost of a shot of directed
technology: the US Army Research Office ahead of schedule. It follows successful energy will be under $1, compared to
has given a trio of scientists an $855,000 demonstrations of the technology hundreds of thousands for a missile.
grant to develop their own 4D materials. destroying moving targets, including a “The future is here,” says Peter A
Ralph Nuzzo of the University of Illinois small boat and remote aircraft. Morrison, programme officer for ONR’s Solid-
predicts the creation of “a fabric that The laser can deliver anything from a State Laser Technology Maturation Program.
responds to light by changing its colour, non-lethal disabling blow all the way up “The solid-state laser is a big step forward to
to temperature by altering its permeability, to full destruction, and it will complement revolutionising modern warfare with directed
and even to an external force by hardening rather than replace missiles. The power energy, just as gunpowder did in the era of
its structure”. We’re not close to that stage levels will be around 100kW – not enough knives and swords.” We wouldn’t want to be
yet, but there’s no doubt 4D printing will to engage a cruise missile at a tactically the ones bringing a gun to a laser fight.
have a big scientific role to play in 2014.

WorldMags.net S CIENCE IN 2 0 14
“The laser is a big CYBORG COCKROACHES

step forward to RESCUE DISASTER VICTIMS
revolutionising WE’VE SEEN MANY innovative ways
warfare, just as to harness technology in disaster zones,
The team now plans to experiment
with adding radiation and chemical
gunpowder did in but the latest is truly bizarre. You might
have your doubts over the usefulness of
sensors to the practically indestructible
little creatures.
the era of swords” a remote-controlled cockroach, but that
didn’t stop researchers at North Carolina
Believe it or not, this all started as a
Kickstarter appeal to fund the DIY
State University from running with the ‘RoboRoach’ control kit. The kits are still
idea. They used a system of blind wall available, along with a box of live roaches.
following, and the search and rescue
cockroach was born. Cyborg cockroaches
The idea is that you release a swarm could become
life savers
of cyborg cockroaches into a collapsed
building and let them spread out in
random directions. Any time they hit a
wall, they’re directed along it, giving
operators sensor feedback on the
space they’re exploring. Repeat
the process a few more times
and you build up a map of
edges revealing an area
that would otherwise be
out of the rescuers’ reach.
GOOGLE AND NASA FIRE UP

A QUANTUM COMPUTER
GOOGLE AND NASA have teamed up to
build a cutting-edge artificial intelligence SUPER-HIGH
A laser weapon system like this
test version will soon be installed
lab. They believe the power of quantum SKYSCRAPER
on the USS Ponce, which should computing is the key to solving the most The 838m Sky City in China
be zapping things this year challenging computer science problems. is due to take the crown
They’ll use their new D-Wave Two – the of world’s tallest building.
Amazingly, building work
hasn’t even begun: its
prefabricated modules are
EVERYTHING TO BECOME projected to go up in an
incredible seven months.
TOUCH-SENSITIVE
USING CAMERAS AND projectors,
Fujitsu’s new technology transforms
any object into a touchscreen. Imagine
hovering your finger over an open atlas The heart of the D-Wave quantum computer
and seeing a digital cursor move across
the maps beneath, then tapping a country world’s most advanced quantum
and seeing a video appear on the table. computer – to help them build better
Fujitsu’s tech uses a desktop bracket models of the world and make more
that aims a camera down onto the accurate predictions, from diseases and
objects on a table and produces a map the environment to simply making a
of its surface-height co-ordinates. The better search engine. Google is also said SPACE TOURISTS ARE GO
image-processing software can then to be using the computer to improve the Customers paying $250,000 each are
match your finger movements to those blink-detection algorithm used in the expected to take their seats on Virgin
co-ordinates and change the projected eagerly awaited smart eyewear, Google Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo for the trip
table overlay accordingly. Fujitsu is Glass. D-Wave founder Geordie Rose says of a lifetime into suborbital space,
busy testing its system with the goal of it’s the first time a quantum algorithm has including six minutes of weightlessness.
producing a commercial product in 2014. been used to develop commercial software.

S CIENCE IN 2 0 14
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PHYSICS
HOW WE’LL
SILENCE ANYTHING
THERE ARE TWO ways to achieve
PLANCK TO UNRAVEL MYSTERIES cloaking. One is to cover one side of an

object with cameras and the other with
OF THE EARLY UNIVERSE a screen, showing an image of what is

behind. This only works when seen from a
single direction. However, metamaterials,
specially structured substances that
THE PLANCK SATELLITE is now dead which describes how the Universe bend light around an object, render it
and drifting in space, but its data lives underwent a period of rapid expansion truly invisible. The latest experiment in
on. In mid-2014, ESA will release the a fraction of a second after the Big Bang. 2013 hid a 7.5cm-radius cylinder from
next batch. It should tell us more about A closer look at the data might also microwaves. In 2014 this should be further
the way the large-scale structure of the help explain the incompatibility enhanced, and will be extended into
Universe was born. between gravity and the other three auditory cloaking. This would deaden any
Planck completed its mission to map fundamental forces. Gravity has not been sound from a source to the rest of the
the radiation from the Big Bang, known successfully explained at a quantum world. Professor Steven Cummer of Duke
as the cosmic microwave background level, but Planck could change this, University in the USA commented: “The
(CMB) radiation, in late 2013. It shows bringing our understanding closer to a field of acoustic metamaterials, which
the remnants of the light that first flowed unified ‘theory of everything’. Sabine can be used to manipulate sound waves
through the Universe when it was just Hossenfelder at Stockholm’s Nordic is advancing rapidly… I think we will see
370,000 years old. Now cosmologists are Institute for Theoretical Physics says: some interesting applications in 2014.”
working on extracting a subtler signal, “Quantum gravitational effects are
known as polarisation. Expected this
year, the data will tell us more about the
normally very weak, but were strong in
the early Universe. The CMB spectrum
“Auditory cloaking
temperature fluctuations and the way can carry imprints from the early phase would deaden
these grew into huge clusters of galaxies. of the Universe in its polarisation pattern.
And a year later, cosmologists anticipate Planck should be able to tell the good any sound from a
isolating the B-mode polarisation. This
could provide a crucial test of ‘inflation’,
from the bad models and show how our
Universe started its life.”
source to the rest
of the world”
Metamaterials specialist Nathan

Landy of Duke University poses
with a metamaterials-based
cloaking device
The Planck telescope finished its

mission in 2013, but the scientific
bonanza to be had from its data
is only just beginning
JAPAN WILL LAUNCH A QUANTUM NETWORK

PHOTO: NIF, CERN, DUKE UNIVERSITY, ESA
QUANTUM PHYSICS IS strange. It suggests that two particles, even on opposite

sides of the Universe, can become entangled, with a change in one instantly reflected
in another. An obvious application of ‘quantum entanglement’ might be instant
communication, but it is looking more promising in encryption, where it can generate
an unbreakable key that cannot be intercepted without the interception being
detected. The first step towards this comes in 2014 with the launch of SOCRATES
(Space Optical Communications Research Advanced Technology Satellite) by the
Japanese Space Agency. This will distribute entangled pairs of particles to act as
quantum keys, the precursor of a worldwide entanglement network.

WorldMags.net
FUSION COULD BECOME

SELF-SUSTAINING
NUCLEAR FUSION, THE power source
of the Sun, is an energy producers’
dream – no carbon emissions, low-
level waste and a near-inexhaustible
fuel. But making fusion reactors viable
is immensely difficult. The US has long
supported an approach that blasts
a target with powerful lasers. The
light vaporises the material with such
intensity that it heats and compresses
its interior, initiating fusion.
The world’s leading experiment at
this is the National Ignition Facility
(NIF) in California. Here, 192 beams
focus onto a tiny target. In 2013, NIF
achieved a small milestone in creating
a reaction where more energy was
given out than zapped at the target.
But much more energy was put into
the system than hit the target, so this
is far off the Holy Grail of ‘break-even’
where a reactor produces useful
energy. Break-even won’t occur in
2014, but the hope is for nuclear
fusion to take over from the lasers
with alpha heating. The energy from
fusion then keeps the reaction going.
Some alpha heating was observed
in 2013, but if 2014 can make this The heart of the National
more substantial, fusion energy will Ignition Facility where a
be another step towards being fully small pellet of material
is blasted with lasers to
self-sustaining.
initiate a fusion reaction
SEARCH FOR ANTIGRAVITY TO with conventional hydrogen, to hunt

for differences in its response to the
laws of physics. The scientists will also
STRETCH THE LAWS OF PHYSICS try to assess how antihydrogen responds
ESA’s Aeolus satellite
to gravity. Antimatter may have negative
undergoes testing – it’s set
WITH THE LARGE Hadron Collider gravitational mass, repelled by the for launch in 2013
resting in 2014, CERN’s Alpha-2, the gravitational field of the Earth. In the
second phase of a project studying experiment, detectors will check whether
antimatter, will get a chance in the antiatoms drift up or down. Should
limelight. To create antimatter, constituents Alpha-2 discover that antimatter has
of atoms called protons are accelerated to negative gravitational mass it will
high speeds in CERN’s proton synchrotron, mean re-writing the laws of physics.
then smashed into a block of metal. The Scientists would have to revisit General
energy of the collision produces proton/ Relativity – a fundamental law of physics
antiproton pairs. The antiprotons are that states that acceleration and gravity
antimatter particles. Travelling at near light are indistinguishable – since antimatter
speed, they’re funnelled off magnetically would act differently under gravity
to the antiproton decelerator, which slows and acceleration.
them by passing them through a cloud of It might seem like a long shot, but
electrons. They are then combined with CERN physicist Jeffrey Hangst was
positrons to make atoms of antihydrogen looking ahead with some optimism: “We
– the antimatter equivalent of hydrogen. are very excited about the future and are The Alpha-2 experiment is
Alpha-2 will use a laser to measure working hard to get the Alpha-2 experiment installed, ready to begin probing
the mysteries of antimatter
antihydrogen’s spectrum, comparing it up and running.”

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AV I AT ION
WorldMags.net
From Leonardo da Vinci’s flying machines to the jet pack at the

LA Olympics, we’ve dreamed of flying like a bird. Now there’s a
new breed of solo flying machines ready to take off
WORDS: SEDEER EL-SHOWK
For video of flying

machines in action,
see our iPad app
PHOTO: BREITLING
Yves Rossy has used his powered

wing to fly alongside famous
aircraft like a B-17 and Spitfires

WorldMags.net AV I AT ION
OR DAREDEVILS
JETMAN WING
or flaps. A throttle attached to the right be separated from the pilot, allowing both
looking for the thrill of hand controls thrust; the only other to independently parachute to safety.
speed and the freedom of instruments are an altimeter to report Rossy unveiled his invention to the world
unencumbered flight, altitude and a timer to keep track of fuel. in a flight over the Swiss Alps in May
nothing can beat a personal There’s enough fuel to fly for around 10 2008. Four months later, he made history
jetpack. Powered by four minutes, after which Rossy is able to by using the jet-powered wings to cross
miniature jet engines, this wing land safely using a parachute. the English Channel 99 years after Louis
unit developed by Swiss pilot Protected from the engine exhaust by Blériot’s famous flight. Last November he
and aviation enthusiast Yves a heat-resistant suit, Rossy manoeuvres could be seen flying around Mount Fuji,
Rossy fits the bill. It can hit speeds of up the carbon-fibre wings by tilting his head circling the volcano nine times over the
to 300km/h (186mph) and is manoeuvrable and angling his shoulders. It takes a lot of course of a week.
enough to pull off loops and rolls. concentration to avoid an uncontrolled Don’t expect to see this wing unit in
Launched from a helicopter, the wings spin, “I stay relaxed, avoiding any fast stores anytime soon. Difficult to use and
are guided entirely by the pilot’s body movements, like a ski-jumper,” says Rossy. expensive to develop, it’s likely to
movements – there are no rudders, ailerons, In the event of a spin, the wing unit can remain one of a kind for the moment.

AV I AT ION
WorldMags.net
PHOTO: MARTIN JETPACK X3
The Martin Jetpack can hit a top

speed of 74km/h (45mph) and
operates at a recommended
cruise height of 500ft (150m)

A test pilot takes

to the skies with a
Martin Jetpack
MARTIN JETPACK
HOUGH ITS MAKERS designed parachute that is fired from a
claim to have built ‘the casing in case of failure. Protected by a
world’s first practical Kevlar roll cage, the pilot controls pitch
jetpack’, the Martin Jetpack and roll with one hand and throttle and
is actually powered by a pair yaw with the other. “We are finding
of ducted fans, not a jet engine. that even without flying experience,
Constructed from advanced individuals are able to learn to fly the
lightweight composites, it’s the Jetpack in under five hours,” said Peter
culmination of over 30 years of Coker, CEO of Martin Aircraft.
research by founder Glenn Martin, who The company is already accepting orders,
started the project in his garage on a with a target launch date of mid-2014 for
budget of just NZ $20 (£10) per month. police and other government agencies.
The Martin Jetpack has been designed Sales to private individuals are expected
with an emphasis on safety and ease of to start in 2015, though the US $100,000
use. It can cruise at 56km/h (35mph) price tag means that it will remain the
for up to 30km, and includes a specially preserve of the lucky few for a while yet.

AV I AT ION
WorldMags.net
We’re not sure if this would

qualify for use in a cycle lane…
The flying bike remains

remote controlled for now - but
human test flights are planned
PHOTO: REUTERS X3
If you’re not content with simply

beating stationary traffic on your
way to work, why not beat other
bikes too… with a flying one?

FLYING BIKE
HE SCENE IN the film a human rider in 2014 and is working to
E.T. when Elliott takes add a control unit. Unfortunately, it only
flight on his bike, iconically flies for five minutes before the battery
silhouetted in front of a runs dry.
full Moon, could become a This limited prototype is just the first
reality. That is if a crack team step towards the team’s lofty goal. Their
of engineers have their way. aim is to build a unit that works like a
Their flying bicycle uses six normal bike but can also take off for short,
electrically powered propellers: low-altitude flights, hopping over traffic
two large pairs over the wheels providing or other obstacles. “We are still considering
lift, and smaller ones on either side for major changes,” said Technodat engineer
manoeuvring and balance. Inspired Jindřich Vítů, who stressed that the bike
by science fiction novels, the Czech is “a proof of concept”.
companies Duratec, Technodat and According to Vítů, a version that can
Evektor, assisted by French company be flown by a human will be ready in a
Dassault, launched the project in 2011. year. If you’re impatient to fly something
The first prototype was unveiled last June. before then, check out the Flyke from
Although the bicycle carried a dummy Germany company Fresh Breeze, a
during its remotely controlled demo recumbent tricycle equipped with a
flight, the team is hoping to test it with paragliding wing and a motor drive.

WorldMags.net
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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. He’s 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 BBC Focus Q&A, Tower House, Fairfax Street, Bristol, BS1 3BN
MELANIE GARDER, LONDON
How long can a structure last in a desert before being swamped by sand?
BUILDINGS DON’T ACTUALLY sink into

the sand, they are covered as it’s blown sideways
by the wind. Without any plants to hold the sand
in place, it is blown into horseshoe-shaped
dunes, called barchans. Each grain gets blown
from the bottom of the dune up to the crest and
then tumbles down the steeper slope on the
leeward side. This means that the barchan as a
whole gradually creeps downwind at about 15m
The home of Anakin per year. In Tunisia, the set of Anakin Skywalker’s
PHOTO: ALAMY
Skywalker is slowly
home, used for Star Wars Episode 1, is currently
being consumed by
the desert being engulfed. In another five or six years it will
be completely covered. LV

Q&A WorldMags.net
In Numbers
348
LEIGH MCMAHON, BY EMAIL
Are Saturn and Jupiter’s moons

miles per gallon is the fuel economy that the
world’s first road-ready car built using 3D
printing, the Urbee 2, will hopefully achieve.
tidally locked? Enceladus;
504km
across
Rhea;
1,528km
across
ALAN HUGHES-HALLETT, WANSTROW Mimas;

396km
Pandora; across
What is the maximum Janus; 179km

across
81km
across
number of names a
person can remember? A quintet of tidally locked
Moons orbit Saturn; the
planet has 62 moons with
confirmed orbits
THERE’S NO KNOWN limit! If you
ask a mnemonist or memory savant to A MOON IS ‘tidally locked’ if it rotates differently on the nearer and further side
learn a list of names they may remember about its axis in about the same time as it of the moon’s bulge then create a ‘torque’
thousands, tens of thousands or even orbits its parent body. The Moon is tidally that eventually alters the moon’s rotation
hundreds of thousands with no trouble, just locked to Earth, which is why we see speed to match its orbit.
as they can learn lists of thousands of digits. essentially the same face presented to us Saturn and Jupiter both have tidally
Some people, who have a neurological at all times. Tidal locking is a gravitational locked moons. For Saturn, 15 of its 62
condition called ‘hyperthymesia’, effect and whether it happens or not moons are tidally locked, including Titan,
remember everything that happens to them depends on the sizes and proximity of the Enceladus and Calypso. For Jupiter, eight
every day, including the name of every two objects. Under the right conditions, of its 67 moons are tidally locked, including
person they have ever met. the parent body’s gravity causes the the four largest ‘Galilean’ moons:
The rest of us evolved to cope with no moon to elongate slightly. Forces acting Ganymede, Callisto, Io and Europa. AG
more than about 150 social relationships.
This is known as Dunbar’s number after
the anthropologist Robin Dunbar. He
discovered that groups of hunter-gatherers,
units in armies, divisions in businesses RICHARD O’NEILL, GLASGOW
and many other groups tend towards a
limit of 150. And it seems that social media
do not change our basic nature. Even
Why do goats have such good balance?
people who have thousands of ‘friends’
on Facebook rarely maintain more than GOATS ARE ADAPTED to living The ultimate
150 meaningful relationships. SB and feeding on steep, rugged slopes. rock climber:
the humble goat
Their slim bodies help them
creep along next to near-
Some people don’t need name tags vertical walls and their
and can put a name to thousands
cloven hooves have two
toes which can spread
out wide, improving their
balance and allowing them
to grip onto rocks or even
the branches of trees. The
soles of their feet are soft
and the rough pads under each toe
provide extra grip. They also have
two vestigial toes higher up their legs,
PHOTO: NASA, GETTY, THINKSTOCK X4
called dewclaws. These are found on

other species, including cats and dogs,
but goats’ dewclaws are much
stronger and stubbier and help
them clamber up branches, or
scramble down sheer
cliff faces. SB

WorldMags.net Q&A
WINNE
Divya wR! ins a co TOM WILLIAMS, HEREFORD
The Univ py of
erse - A
Illustrat n
QUESTION OF THE MONTH

Of Astro
Tom Jac
ed Histo
nomy by
kson
r y
Where can you find
(Worth P
ress, £2
0) the fastest broadband
speed in the world?
Hong Kong: a city in

the internet fast lane
AND THE WINNER is… Hong Kong!

Internet users there enjoy top speeds of 63
megabits per second, according to the most
recent figures from the internet firm
Akamai. Hong Kong’s blistering broadband
speeds compare to a worldwide average of
The appendix (pictured on the 18.4Mbps. The UK is number 12 on the list
left in this X-ray image) could with average speeds of 36Mbps. GM
be a safe-haven for friendly
bacteria in emergency situations
STEVEN DAVE, REDRUTH

DIVYA BENNY, WESTON SUPER MARE
What is the function of Does your body’s level

the human appendix? of hydration affect
THE APPENDIX WAS argument applies to a toe. Being your blood’s viscosity?
classically regarded as unnecessary able to get along without something
– even its name implies that it is a doesn’t mean it’s entirely useless.
leftover bit. It’s a thin tube, about Recent research that compared the
the size of half a pencil, that sticks intestines of 361 mammals found
out of the cecum, which is a pouch that 50 different, quite unrelated,
at the start of the large intestine. species have an appendix. This
Charles Darwin thought that our means that the appendix must have
ancestors ate a lot more plant evolved independently at least 32
roughage than us and needed a times, which suggests it must be Keep your blood
running smoothly
larger cecum to digest it, so the doing something useful. by staying hydrated
appendix was originally a useful It’s now thought that the
compartment of the intestine that appendix acts as an emergency
had dwindled through millions of bunker for your gut bacteria to BLOOD VISCOSITY, OR how thick your
years of disuse. Koalas, which eat shelter in. Its narrow opening and blood is, is partly determined by the number
very indigestible leaves have a two- out-of-the-way position mean that and size of your red blood cells. These make
metre-long cecum that is essentially bacterial infections don’t normally up 41-53 per cent of the blood volume in men
a giant appendix. get inside it. So after diarrhoea has and 36-46 per cent in women. This value is
Certainly it’s true that you can flushed the last of any bad bacteria higher if you are obese, which can increase
amputate the appendix without any out of your intestines, the good guys blood viscosity by as much as 15 per cent
obvious long-term consequences can emerge from the appendix and and can cause a heart attack. But being
for the patient. But that same re-colonise your colon. LV dehydrated can also have an impact. One
study found that just sitting in a warm room
for four hours without drinking was enough
to increase blood viscosity by 10 per cent. LV

Q&A WorldMags.net
Did you know? JENNY CRAMLEY, BASINGSTOKE

The air around a lightning strike is the hottest
place on Earth. For a split second temperatures
hit 30,000°C; hotter than the surface of the Sun. What gives substances their scent?
MARTIN BALSON, FIFE
SUBSTANCES GENERATE A why some molecules with similar shapes
smell when their molecules land on can smell completely different, while
Why do cold drinks so-called olfactory neurones in our
noses (which, for some things, is a
others with quite different shapes can
have a similar scent.
give me ‘brain freeze’ pretty unpleasant thought). But the
exact nature of the interaction is
These conundrums have led Dr
Luca Turin of the Alexander Fleming
and how do I avoid it? somewhat controversial. Until recently,

it was believed it took the form of
molecules physically docking with
Research Centre, Athens, to suggest
that molecular vibrations are critical.
He’s recently published intriguing
protein receptor molecules in the walls evidence that molecular shape is not
of the olfactory neurones, like keys everything by showing that two
fitting into locks. This in turn implied molecules with identical shape but
that molecular shape is what determines different vibrational properties can
a specific smell. But this fails to explain have a different smell. RM
Next time you smell something

interesting, think about the
substance’s molecules jiggling
around inside your nose
Walt Disney was

delighted to be offered
the chance to appear in
Focus Magazine
ANYTHING COLD AGAINST the

roof of your mouth cools the brain, which
is right above it. To maintain temperature,
the anterior cerebral artery dilates to
bring more warm blood to the brain. If the
cooling is very sudden, the artery dilates too
quickly and the pressure in the brain jumps
up, which gives you a headache. Drinking
more slowly, with pauses to warm your
mouth back up, is normally all you need to
do to avoid it, but brain freeze is worse in
PHOTO: GETTY, THINKSTOCK, SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY, ALAMY, NASA X10
people who are prone to migraines. LV
TOP TEN
BIGGEST MOONS IN OUR SOLAR SYSTEM
10. Oberon 9. Rhea 8. Titania 7. Triton 6. Europa 5. Moon

Radius: 761km Radius: 764km Radius: 788km Radius: 1,353km Radius: 1,561km Radius: 1,737km
Location: Uranus Location: Saturn Location: Uranus Location: Neptune Location: Jupiter Location: Earth

WorldMags.net Q&A
RICHARD DAVIS, POOLE
Why does lactic acid build up in our muscles?

DURING AEROBIC dioxide, anaerobic respiration
exercise our muscles ‘burn’ produces lactic acid as one
glucose with oxygen to of its waste products. If you
produce carbon dioxide, exercise hard, this will be
water and energy. But when produced faster than your
we are exercising hard, the bloodstream can transport it
lungs can’t keep up with the away to your liver where it is
muscles’ demand for oxygen. processed and broken down.
Rather than just giving up, As the level of acid builds up in
our muscles switch to an your muscles, you feel a burning
anaerobic chemical reaction sensation that acts as a warning
that doesn’t need oxygen. that your muscles are almost
This is less efficient because out of energy. Like other sorts of
it doesn’t produce as much pain, the ‘purpose’ is to signal that
Molecules of lactic
acid will be the bane energy per molecule of glucose your body needs to rest. So, next
of everyone trying burned, but it’s better than time you go for a run bear your
to shed the festive
season pounds in nothing. Unfortunately, overworked body a thought and
the New Year instead of water and carbon maybe catch your breath. LV
ROY MUSSELBROOK, RAMSGATE Hardwood trees will happily feast on

your exhaust fumes, but you probably
Are some plants better than others don’t need to go to these lengths
at sucking up carbon dioxide?

PLANTS USE CARBON dioxide not to live long and when a plant dies,
(CO2) during photosynthesis to make all the carbon in the plant is broken
glucose. It takes six molecules of CO2 to down by insects, fungi and microbes
make every molecule of glucose, and this and released as CO2 again.
basic building block is then used for So the plants that are considered
energy and to make the structure of the the most adept at locking away
plant itself. This biochemical reaction is carbon dioxide from the atmosphere
the same for all plants, but the faster a are the longest-living ones, with the
plant grows, the more carbon dioxide it most mass – hardwood trees. It’s all
will use up per second. By that measure, temporary though. Eventually every
bamboo might be the best at sucking up plant returns all the carbon dioxide it
CO2. However, fast-growing plants tend uses back to the atmosphere. LV
4. Io 3. Callisto 2. Titan 1. Ganymede

Radius: 1,821km Radius: 2,410km Radius: 2,576km Radius: 2,631km
Location: Jupiter Location: Jupiter Location: Saturn Location: Jupiter

Q&A WorldMags.net
CAROL FINLAY, CARDIFF
What makes Google so much

more successful than other
search engines?
Astronaut Mark C Lee

tests NASA’s SAFER
back pack high
above Earth
? ?? ?? ?
What’s the secret to Google’s success?
Just google it!
ROGER BEEVER, HUDDERSFIELD BEFORE GOOGLE, SEARCH results also weighted the results so that a few
were less to do with relevance than who big pages linking to a site had more
Could an astronaut was paying for prominent listings. Early

tools also matched search terms to sites
based on a textual analysis of their pages.
prominence than many small ones. Google’s
commercial advance was fuelled by
AdWords, where advertisers pay for their
be rescued if he/she Websites often manipulated that by littering
pages with irrelevant words inserted for the
websites to appear above the search results
for the relevant keywords. The profits from
became untethered benefit of the search bots.
The breakthrough for Google was Larry
advertising drove a huge research and
development operation at Google, feeding
on a space walk? Page’s eponymous PageRank algorithm. It

listed pages according to
the number of sites linking to them. It
back into an ever further refined engine,
ever more targeted ads and more and more
services. GM
PHOTO: NASA, GETTY X2, IGOR SEMILETOV/UNIVERSITY OF ALASKA FAIRBANKS, SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY
NASA HAS DEVELOPED a sort of

jetpack called SAFER (Simplified Aid
For EVA Rescue), which fires compressed DAVID DALTON, POOLE
nitrogen from 24 thrusters to steer the
astronaut back to safety if they become
detached. Theoretically, astronauts could
Does a brainwave equate to a mental state?
also vent some gas from their suits or even
throw a tool in the opposite direction to NO. THE TERM ‘brainwave’ comes
push themselves forward. But the problem from the patterns detected by an apparatus
is that unless the thrust is exactly in line called the ‘electroencephalogram’ (EEG)
with the astronaut’s centre of mass, they that measures electrical signals from
will start spinning uncontrollably and electrodes on the scalp. The overall
very quickly become disorientated. SAFER frequency gives an indication of a
automatically detects rotation and uses person’s mental state. For example, ‘alpha
its jets to keep the astronaut oriented the waves’ (8-13 per second) are associated
same way. LV with a relaxed state. But these surface
waves are created from millions of small
electrical signals in the underlying brain,
The relaxed signature of alpha waves, which are
so they are a very crude measure that enhanced when we close our eyes to chill out
could not equate to a precise mental state.
In Numbers
If you mean to ask whether any kind of
13.1 billion
years is the time it took for light to reach us from
brain process equates to a mental state
then you are in the realms of seriously
difficult philosophical questions. ‘Identity
that the function being carried out
equates to mental states. For instance, if a
human brain and a computer were both
the most distant galaxy known. The light was theorists’ say yes – mental states really trying to solve the same chess problem
emitted only 700 million years after the Big Bang. are brain states. ‘Functionalists’ argue they would be in the same mental state. SB

WorldMags.net Q&A
Where could the next natural disaster strike?

From methane belches to a deadly volcano, Bill McGuire
reveals how nature is on the warpath
EAST SIBERIAN ARCTIC SHELF NORTH KOREA EQUATORIAL PACIFIC
METHANE OUTBURST MT PAEKTU ERUPTION EL NIÑO
Ice and bubbles of gas mark the

East Siberian Arctic Shelf as clouds The lake-filled crater of Mount Paektu, A dried up creek in the Philippines
of methane reach the surface a volcano that is due a deadly eruption reveals the devastating effects of El Niño
BELOW THE EAST Siberian Arctic IN MOST PEOPLE’S minds, North Korea EL NIÑO IS the name given to the periodic
Shelf, locked away beneath frozen isn’t associated with volcanic blasts, but accumulation of unusually warm water in
submarine permafrost, is an estimated Mount Paektu – Korea’s tallest mountain – the eastern Equatorial Pacific. The effects
trillion tonnes of methane; one of the is known to have hosted one of the greatest of an El Niño are widespread; the change in
most potent of all greenhouse gases. eruptions of the last 10,000 years. Around ocean conditions stirs up weather patterns
Recent research reveals, however, that 940AD, this monster volcano tore itself across the planet, and usually not for the
the permafrost seal is starting to crack so apart in a colossal detonation that left better. The particularly severe 1982-83 El
that methane, produced from the decay behind a 5km (3-mile) crater (now a lake) Niño was blamed for at least 2,000 deaths
of organic material, is now bubbling up and dumped ash as far as southern Japan. worldwide and damage totalling $13 billion.
to the surface at a rate of 10 million Worryingly, for the local inhabitants and Three years after the most recent El Niño
tonnes a year. Scientists are now warning the 30,000 tourists that visit the volcano faded, there are signs that another could
that, within a decade, a giant ‘belch’ every year, recent swarms of earthquakes, start to build in spring 2014. Farmers and
could release a staggering 50 billion swelling of the ground surface and gas firefighters in Australia are on alert for the
tonnes of methane in one go. emissions, suggest that it might be getting onset of the tinder box conditions that an El
At a stroke, this would increase the ready to go bang once again. Niño brings, while places as far apart as
amount of methane in the atmosphere 12 The fact that the volcano erupts every California, Peru and eastern Europe brace
times over and raise global temperatures 100 years or so, and last exploded in 1903, themselves for torrential rains and floods.
by 1.3°C, bringing forward dangerous has served to concentrate minds even
climate change by 35 years. One estimate further. UK volcanologists are now
suggests that the impact on agriculture, collaborating with the North Koreans to BILL MCGUIRE is Emeritus Professor of
weather and sea level rise could cost the learn more about the internal workings of Geophysical & Climate Hazards at University
global economy a staggering $60 trillion. this particularly dangerous volcano. College London and author of Waking The Giant

Q&A WorldMags.net
LUIGI FILLETTI, MALTA BRIAN WINNARD, RAINHILL
What makes glue a Could white holes exist?

sticky substance? Earth Black hole
Wormhole
Making a trip to a star from

Earth would be quicker if you Alpha Centauri (star)
A magnified image of superglue – doctors now use could go through a wormhole
non-toxic variants instead of stitches White hole
GLUES ARE MADE from molecules

WHITE HOLES ARE not the ‘opposite’ with matter or lose mass through
whose electrons form bonds with those on
of a black hole but in fact its ‘time-reversal’. Hawking radiation. So any ‘normal’
the surface of other materials. Precisely
They are a feature of some solutions to black hole formed through gravitational
what type of bond – and how strong it is –
Einstein’s gravity field equations that collapse would not form such a wormhole
varies enormously, but many glues exploit
predict the existence of ‘wormholes’. (with its attendant white hole).
so-called covalent bonding, where electrons
Wormholes consist of a black hole and a Unfortunately, no object has yet been
are shared between the glue and the
white hole that connect two points in the observed (except for perhaps a few
surface, making them hard to separate. RM
Universe at their ‘event horizons’. However, unexplained gamma-ray bursts) that
mathematically, these wormholes appear could feasibly be a white hole. This has
WHAT IS THIS? to be highly unstable and would collapse led most scientists to admit that white
as soon as they form. Furthermore, these holes, although a useful and interesting
solutions only apply to so-called ‘eternal’ theoretical possibility, could exist… but
black holes; ones that do not interact probably don’t. AG
Dogs don’t laugh? Tell

MILO MCLOUD, FROME that to Scooby-Doo
Can dogs laugh?

PHOTO: SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY X2, WILL SAGER, NASA, THINKSTOCK X3
THEY MAKE A sort of breathy,

panting sound when they are playing.
If you record this and play it back to
other dogs, it appears to reduce their
stress behaviours, such as barking
and pacing, and increase their social
behaviours, such as lip licking. Is that
the same thing as laughter? Or is it just
the dog equivalent of a broad smile?
It’s hard to say. Humans mostly laugh
at verbal jokes and seeing other people
fall over, neither of which have much
effect on dogs. SB
KNOW THE ANSWER?
` Go to sciencefocus.com/qanda/what
and submit your answer now!
LAST MONTH’S ANSWER:
Dulcie Phipps correctly guessed
fluorescing honeycomb coral

WorldMags.net Q&A
STELLA THOMPSON, LEEDS
What is the largest volcano in the Solar System?

UNTIL RECENTLY 200k
m (12
the largest volcano in the 4 mi
les)
Solar System was thought to
be Olympus Mons on Mars.
However, recent research has
revealed that the Tamu Massif,
a submerged shield volcano
1,600km (1,000) miles east of
Japan, is actually larger. The
Tamu Massif, which erupted
between 130 and 145 million
years ago, is about 640km
(400 miles) wide and covers
an area of about 190,000km2.
In comparison, Olympus
Mons is only 595km (370 miles)
across, although it is thought A 3D image reveals the extent
of the huge Tamu Massif
to be 25 per cent more massive volcano - possibly the largest
overall. AG in the Solar System
FAUSTO STELLA, THAILAND SACHA REYNOLDS, LONDON RJ WILSON, GLOUCESTERSHIRE
Why can’t we trace the Is there any proof What does

sender of an email? that echinacea stops dark energy do?
you getting a cold?
THE CONSENSUS IS that it does
not. A review by the Cochrane Library of
16 different trials that ran double-blind
tests on various different echinacea
preparations, found that there was no
benefit in preventing colds, compared It’s hoped the radiation left over from the Big Bang
with taking a placebo. There is some (pictured) will help us investigate dark energy
evidence that once you catch a cold,
echinacea might help reduce its duration DARK ENERGY, IDENTIFIED by
by about a day and a half. The mechanism astronomers in the 1990s, acts like a form
isn’t understood and only nine of the 16 of anti-gravity. While its origins are
EACH EMAIL HAS an invisible trials found a significant benefit, so the unknown, observations reveal that it has a
header containing information like time evidence is somewhat inconsistent. repulsive effect that is negligible at human
stamps and routing information. It does not It may be that only some parts of scales but which gets stronger with
contain personal details like the sender’s the plant or some preparations have distance, propelling the expansion of the
street name or phone number. However, any effect. LV Universe over the largest distances. RM
the header does contain the originating
IP address. That can narrow the origin
down to a city or district, but seldom
anything more specific and certainly
not to an individual. It seems the NEXT MONTH Over 20 more
Online webmail services like Gmail are
even more anonymous. A Gmail message,
common cold lives
to see another
day, although
of your questions answered
For even more answers to the most puzzling
for instance, can only be traced back to a
Google IP address. GM
echinacea may
reduce its duration ` questions, see the Q&A archive at
www.sciencefocus.com/qanda

WorldMags.net
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THE FUTURE OF G ADGE T S
TECHHUB
THIS MONTH
BILL THOMPSON
The LEDs replacing Wi-Fi
p89
JUST LANDED
Tado° heating system
p90
ULTIMATE TEST
Digital-Analogue
Converters
p93
EDITED BY DANIEL BENNETT
T
HE WORLD’S of people that populate the UK. Steam OS – a purpose-built,
ON THE HORIZON most influential And now Valve is about to move open-source operating system,
games developer into hardware. based on Linux.
is launching its Rumours of a Steam Box Strictly speaking, there’s not
STEAM own range of

living room hardware. Valve is
the undisputed king of PC
have been circulating online for
years, shrouded in the same air
of mystery that pervades
much to separate Steam’s
machines from the gaming
computers that are already on
MACHINES gaming, an innovator without

peer. In addition to creating
genre-defining titles like Half
everything Valve does. The
company is promising not one
but an entire series of Steam
the market. But while the deep
end of the PC pool is largely the
domain of hardcore enthusiasts,
MULTIMEDIA AND Life, Portal and Team Fortress 2, accessibility is the key here. If
Machines: compact yet
GAMING SET-TOP BOX
Valve is the company that powerful gaming computers, you want to dabble in the dark
WORDS: NEON KELLY brought us Steam – a software designed for your living room, arts of PC gaming without
valvesoftware.com delivery platform that set the built using beefy chipsets from fretting too much about the
(prices TBC) blueprint for downloadable the likes of Nvidia, Intel and fiddlier technicalities – such as
gaming. Released in 2003, the AMD. The details will vary building your own computer –
Steam service now boasts 65 from model to model, but the a Steam Machine will offer
million users, the same number common link between them is an easy point of access..

Tech Hub WorldMags.net
The Steam Machine’s controller swaps

thumbsticks for trackpads to provide
greater input precision
TECHOMETER
WHAT’S HOT
HELIUM-FILLED
HARD DRIVES
While air can
seem pretty
thin to you
and me, it can
be relatively dense.
In fact, it’s so thick that
Western Digital is now
replacing it with lighter,
thinner helium gas inside its
hard drives. As the disks
spin round inside the drive
housing they experience
less resistance from the
helium than they would
with air, and are therefore
more efficient. This means
more disks can be stuffed
into the same space,
ballooning storage by up
to 50 per cent.
WHAT’S NOT
NFC PAYMENT CARDS
New NFC bank cards
let you tap your card on
special readers to pay for
This formula worked for Google, which “I’m impressed by the innovation that items under £20 without
built the Android smartphone operating they’ve shown with the controller,” says having to enter your pin. It’s
system and let hardware manufacturers Byron Atkinson-Jones of Xiotex Studios, convenient, but researchers
from the University of
concentrate on what they were good at: an independent games developer. “It gives Surrey aren’t certain it’s
making machinery. The result was a gamut me real hope that we haven’t yet come to secure. They rigged up a
of smartphones more user-friendly than an evolutionary dead end in terms of system that could be carried
anything offered by Nokia and BlackBerry controller design.” in a backpack and could
and more affordable than the iPhone. Despite his enthusiasm for the new take payments from NFC
Valve’s hoping its parallel approach, controller, Atkinson-Jones sees the move cards at a distance of up to
45cm. The students could
offering up the Steam Operating System, into hardware as a brave one for Valve. skim money
and a range of hardware from different “Steam is a relatively unknown brand for off shoppers’
manufacturers, will mirror the success of the mass market, so whether they can get cards just by
Android. And by remaining open source, enough interest outside of their traditional walking
like Google’s software, it’ll eventually bring PC gamer customers remains to be seen. past them.
in the largest selection of streaming TV Consoles aren’t just devices to play
services, games and apps of any smart TV games on – they’re a service, and a bad READER POLL
hardware available. experience can put people off.” Do you want a ‘contactless’ credit card?
In a move that will rattle the cages of In the eyes of existing PC users, Valve is
Microsoft and Sony, Valve has also one of the most trusted names in the
unveiled a new controller. It resembles a business. If they can extend this expertise 17%
Yes – typing in
traditional twin-stick pad, but with to living room entertainment it could my PIN takes
circular touch-sensitive trackpads in place transform what we think of as a set-top too long
ILLUSTRATOR: DEM ILLUSTRATION
of the usual thumbsticks. In addition to box. It may mean that we could finally
haptic feedback (vibrations that give you a have one box that really does do it all.
physical response to the action), the pads 83%
are said to offer unprecedented levels of No – I don’t think
it’s secure enough
precision. The promise is clear: the
comfort of a console meshed with the NEON KELLY is a freelance gaming journalist
finesse of a PC. based in London

WorldMags.net
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9. Product and Quotient Rules
10. The Chain Rule
11. Implicit Differentiation and Related Rates
12. Extrema on an Interval
13. Increasing and Decreasing Functions
14. Concavity and Points of Inflection
15. Curve Sketching and Linear Approximations
16. Applications—Optimisation Problems, Part 1
17. Applications—Optimisation Problems, Part 2
18. Antiderivatives and Basic Integration Rules
19. The Area Problem and the Definite Integral
20. The Fundamental Theorem of Calculus, Part 1
21. The Fundamental Theorem of Calculus, Part 2
22. Integration by Substitution
23. Numerical Integration
24. Natural Logarithmic Function—Differentiation
25. Natural Logarithmic Function—Integration
26. Exponential Function
27. Bases other than e
28. Inverse Trigonometric Functions
29. Area of a Region between 2 Curves
30. Volume—The Disk Method
31. Volume—The Shell Method
32. Applications—Arc Length and Surface Area
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THE NEXT BIG THING COMING SOON

3 MONTHS
NVIDIA TEGRA NOTE
LIGHT: THE NEW WI-FI

Nvidia’s TEGRA chipsets have
been powering incredible
graphics on mobile phones in recent years,
so a dedicated tablet from the company is
worth keeping an eye out for. Nvidia.com
U
SING RADIO
waves to carry Windows Phone 8.1
binary data instead The updated Windows mobile OS is reported
of analogue- to feature a Siri-like virtual assistant and
encoded sound or images is better app support. Windowsphone.com
pretty standard these days,
and everyone using a digital Samsung Galaxy S5
Google’s Nexus 5 may be the new
television or radio, mobile
benchmark for Android phones, but
phone or wi-fi-connected Samsung’s Galaxy always introduces new
computer is doing just that. innovations. Samsung.com
But a new approach
promises faster and more
reliable data transfers for a 6 MONTHS
wide variety of uses. Like
fibre-optic systems, it uses
GOOGLE NEXUS GEM
visible light, but the Tech you can wear will be
technology is different. bigger than ever in 2014. No
manufacturer has yet made a
Invented by Professor watch we’d want to buy, but one with
Harald Haas at the the Google Now diary system that works
University of Strathclyde, with its smart glasses could get us reaching
Glasgow, ‘Li-Fi’ uses for our wallets. Google.co.uk/nexus
micro-LEDs operating in
the visible spectrum to Alcatel One Touch Flip Cover
transmit data at up to 3.5 This smartphone has a colour screen and a
gigabits per second (Gbps) second e-ink screen. This way your phone
uses very little battery if you’re reading or
by making the bulbs flicker just checking the time. Alcatelonetouch.com
- that’s three times what
current Wi-Fi can offer. verge of commercial replacing inaccurate Whistle
The flickering is at a exploitation and ‘Li-Fi’ GPS signals with precise Keep an eye on your dog’s health with this
frequency too high to be (aka VLC – Visual Light coordinates transmitted canine activity tracker. It’ll keep an eye on
seen by the human eye but Communications) could from buildings. how much exercise, rest and play Fido is
it can be detected by a be coming to your home Even one of the system’s getting and create charts based on the data.
photodetector chip, and or office soon. disadvantages is really a Whistle.com
thus used to deliver very One area where it could bonus, says the team
fast data rates. What’s appear is toys – Disney developing it. Unlike the
9 MONTHS
more, you can use different has a whole research wi-fi microwaves, visible
coloured LEDs to transmit programme dedicated to light doesn’t go through SKULLY
multiple bands at the same what it calls ‘LED-LED walls, making it harder for This prototype helmet will
time, and the higher communication’. Picture a people to ‘borrow’ your offer bikers a HUD to warn riders
frequencies involved mean Mickey Mouse doll in his internet connection and when an object enters their blindspot
and shows them the view from behind.
that there’s a lot less Sorcerer’s Apprentice garb reducing interference. Skullyhelmets.com
interference between these that follows the gestures of It all sounds great, but
bands than with radio or your magic wand. it’s only been tested in the Rasperry Pi Monitor (HDMIPI)
microwave frequencies. The technology might lab so far, so I think I’ll The credit card-sized, £22 computer has
The result is speeds in also be used for traffic wait to see if VLC is more created a mini-revolution, despite lacking an
the lab of up to 10Gbps management. LED traffic than a flash in the pan. affordable screen. That’s about to change as
using red, green and blue lights could communicate a UK-based start-up is bringing out a 9in HD
monitor for the Pi for just £65 later this year.
LEDs in parallel, and with your car to help you Raspi.tv
Professor Haas hopes that brake in time. There’s also a
these will translate into real possibility that visible BILL
Intel Gesture Control
commercial products that light LEDs could solve the THOMPSON
Intel will be bringing its gesture control
can deliver similar speeds. internal navigation issues contributes to
system to laptops and PCs this year, so
news.bbc.co.uk
After some years of that bedevil maps and and the BBC
most new computers will have some form of
development it’s on the augmented-reality systems, motion-control by the end of 2014. Intel.com
World Service

JUST LANDED: TADO°

HIGH-TECH HEATING
As energy companies hike up their prices by another 10 per cent this winter,
Daniel Bennett investigates a cheaper, smarter way to heat your home
What is it? precision tool. After setting

This white box promises to your initial parameters –
cut your heating bills by up how warm you like it (to
to 25 per cent. The tado° within 0.1°C) and when
system works in two ways. you get up and go to bed
First, it connects your – it’ll take care of the rest.
central heating and your And if you want to rethink
broadband so that you can your settings, the app will
control your thermostat give you instant feedback
with your smartphone. This as to how the boiler has
way you’ll be able to been working over the past
monitor and set the day, week, month or even
temperature wherever you year. While £249 is a big
are. Second, by connecting initial spend, it could pay
to tado°’s network, it can for itself within three
use smart algorithms to years, and after that it’ll
optimise how your home is help soften the blow of
heated, and tell you exactly ever-increasing gas prices.
what it will cost you.
TADO°
What will it do? WWW.TADO.COM, £249 (OR
The app will monitor when £6.99 A MONTH TO RENT)
you leave home, so the
heating’s never left on while
you’re out. You can also tell DANIEL BENNETT is the
it your daily schedule so reviews editor of BBC
that the heat drops while Focus magazine
you’re asleep and climbs whose units are
when it’s time to get up. It’ll compatible with tado°.
track other variables too,
such as how long it takes to How easy is it to install?
bring your home up to the The hardware is designed
specified temperature. By to be installed by anyone.
compiling these and other Disconnecting your own
factors, the tado° calculates heating controls will be daunting, there will be an
the cheapest heating pattern intimidating though – installation service option.
for you and your home. especially if you’re planning
on doing it during winter! But Does it really save
Will it work with my old detailed, concise instructions you money?
thermostat, programmer and clever packaging make it Most current thermostats
and boiler? about as simple to put together and programmers are
Most likely, yes. A tado° kit as flat-pack furniture. If, like blunt instruments when
can be used to replace, or us, you find any anomalies it comes to controlling
work with, most existing during set-up (we found six your heating. They’re
central heating units in the wires coming out of our wall often placed in the least
UK. If you’re installing it rather than three), tado°’s used room in the house
yourself, the online set-up friendly customer support and have difficult-to-
guide lists dozens of service is only a phone call fathom controls. The
thermostat manufacturers away. If this all seems too tado°, by comparison, is a

1 2 3
5 6
APPLIANCES OF SCIENCE
FILTERED SMELL GREEN SHAPESHIFTER PLANT CLEAN
1 TIPS 2 YOU LATER 3 LIGHT 4 5 WHISPERER 6 UP BOT
James Dyson must hate Ever wanted to share a Meet the future of light There isn’t always an We’ve killed so many iRobot, the creators of
housework. First he got smell with someone? bulb technology. The easy or secure way to houseplants (well, desk Roomba, the robotic
rid of those vacuum No, us neither. But that Nanoleaf offers the store your helmet after plants) at BBC Focus vacuum cleaner, have
cleaner bags you had to hasn’t prevented Vapor brightness of a a bike ride, which is that there should be a now built a mechanical
change every few Communications from standard 100W bulb why Jeff Woolf, a British law against us buying dogsbody to tackle
weeks, and now his coming up with a device but uses just 10W of inventor, has come up anything leafy. But mopping. But instead of
new Cinetic cyclone that sends scents. You power. It does this the Morpher – a foldable coming to the rescue of randomly traversing
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don’t need to clean or lets you “compose” your operates at a far lower into a package small Flower Power, a sensor Roomba, the Braava
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This new vacuum caramel here, a whiff of typical light bulb. In bags. The Morpher’s plant to monitor how Navigation Cube’ for
cleaner has 54 small espresso there. You addition, they’re made convenience doesn’t much sunlight and direction. This projects
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airflow and each of information of your or lead so they’re protection, though. Its how fertile the soil is. It ceiling that Braava can
these has a special composition to friendly to Planet Earth. manufacturer, Strategic checks these readings use to track and plot
oscillating tip that someone with an It’s simply a bonus that Sports, says the helmet against a database of its route. Now iRobot
prevents particles from Ophone device that will they look like something exceeds most safety over 6,000 plants and just needs to build a
gathering together and create that same smell. out of Blade Runner. standards. tells you how to help device that will do the
clogging up the system. Ophone Nanoleaf Morpher helmet your green friend. laundry too.
Dyson Cinetic Vaporcommunications. thenanoleaf.com, $35 Morpherhelmet.com, Parrot Flower Power iRobot Braava
Dyson.co.uk, price tbc com, price tbc (£22) plus P&P $110 (£69) plus P&P Parrot.com, £49.99 irobot.com, from £199

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ULTIMATE TEST
AUTHENTIC AUDIO
Digital-to-Analogue Converters take your MP3 music tracks

and make them sing. Dan Bennett tests four
What is a DAC? How do they work? Why should I buy one?
A digital music file is made up To convert the data to an If you’ve got a high-quality digital
of a stream of 1s and 0s. To turn analogue wave, a DAC music library and some high-end
this into sound, the data needs has to do three things. It speakers, then your PC might
to be converted into an analogue must accurately read the be the weak link in the chain.
PHOTO: THESECRETSTUDIO.NET
electrical signal that can drive a data, generate the sound Plus, if you’ve always felt like
speaker. That’s where a DAC – a at precisely the right time your CDs and MP3s are missing
Digital-to-Analogue Convertor – and then flesh out the wave the warmth of old vinyl records,
comes in. Like reading a book between each digital point of then this will be the next best
aloud, it takes written information information. Your PC already thing to getting the decks out. A
and turns it into sound. The skill does this, but an external great DAC will make the sound
is getting the pronunciation and USB DAC will override your more accurate and more
inflection just right. computer’s soundcard. lifelike than ever.

MERIDIAN EXPLORER DAC

Meridian-audio.com; Price: £249
NAIM DAC-V1
www.naimaudio.com; Price: £1,250
TO MAKE A DAC the size Thankfully you don’t even need AT £1,250 THE Naim costs more At the rear there’s every kind of
of a Snickers bar, Meridian to use the best possible music than most PCs, but with this DAC input and output you could ask
Audio has taken some of its files to get something out of the you’re buying more than just an for, so you can connect several
high-end audio equipment and Explorer. Stream a heavily layered upgrade: this is the device you devices to the Naim at once (a
stripped it of everything but the song like Zebra by Beach House buy to go from great to perfect. Blu-ray player alongside your PC,
bare essentials. It takes all of 20 through Spotify and it opens up Sat next to some very special for example). It’s futureproof too.
seconds to set up: simply connect the sound, adding warmth and DALI speakers (used to test all The DAC can handle all the file
the USB to your Mac or PC depth. Indeed, as you go up four devices) and an amp, this qualities you’d expect and more.
(Windows’ users will need to through each standard of file really brings music to life. It gave It’s even capable of processing a
download a driver), plug your quality, the music gains more and new dimensions to otherwise 24-bit/384kHz music file, a format
headphones in and you’re away. more breadth. It has to be said, overplayed classics like Hendrix’s that won’t be widely available for
Unlike the other devices here it though, that the difference isn’t as All Along The Watchtower and some time yet, so you’re unlikely
draws all the power it needs from immediate as the other DACs on drew out the quiet, low-end bass to need an upgrade any time soon.
its USB, so there’s no need for a test. The Explorer is a simple, favoured by bands like The xx. The in-built headphone amp is a
plug. The case is pitted with a capable device that’s a great place Each instrument had more nice bonus too. The functional
series of three light indicators, to start if you’re new to DACs. definition than with any other DAC design will please audiophiles,
which tell you the quality of the It will work with speakers as well on test. I enjoyed revisiting the xx but others might hanker after
music you’re putting through it – all as headphones, but lacks the album, listening all the way something a bit more elegant.
three lit up means you’re using it ultimate depth of sound offered through to hear the way the frail But that’s a minor foible you’ll
to its full potential (playing a by the higher end models. bass and raw vocals became forgive soon after turning it on.
lossless audio file). QQQQQ stronger and clearer. QQQQQ
WHAT MUSIC SHOULD MP3 AAC

I DOWNLOAD? This is the most common format. The Made popular by iTunes, the AAC
quality of an MP3 – measured in kbps, file (Advanced Audio Coding) offers
PHOTO: THESECRETSTUDIO.NET
Getting hold of the best quality

the amount of kilobits transferred per better compression. This means
music isn’t as simple as picking
second – can vary hugely, but whether your music library will take up less
up a CD. There are dozens of
you’re taking music off a CD (‘ripping’) or space on your hard drive. Because
formats and variations, so
buying it online, opt for 320kbps. At 4MB it’s slightly less common you could
which should you buy?
per file, it’s a fair compromise between come up against a media player that
= 2.5MB file size and sound quality. AVG FILE SIZE might not be able to play it. AVG FILE SIZE

ARCAM irDAC BEST BUY

Arcam.com; Price: £400
AUDIO LAB M-DAC
Audiolab.co.uk; Price: £599,
ARCAM HAS A long, successful to the drum cymbals. Listening to MORE OFTEN THAN not I find professionals. Tracks bustling
history of bridging the gap something a little more restrained myself testing black boxes, so with effects and instruments,
between digital music and at a higher bit-rate like James it’s nice to come across something like Grizzly Bear’s Sleeping Ute,
high-end audio, and this tradition Blake’s Retrograde demonstrated that looks a bit different. In fact, are remarkably clear and precise
is evidenced in the irDAC. Its how good the irDAC’s timing is: the Audio Lab M-DAC looks so – I actually picked out a triangle
small, discreet case will look the the bare vocals and big bass smart that it’s the only device being struck that I had never
part in most living rooms and it sounded incredibly precise. of the four I’d actively put on noticed before. Inside its smart
comes with a simple remote if At a third of the price of Naim’s display. As you’d expect at this aluminium casing there’s also
you want to tuck it away out of V1, this DAC is perfect for all but price, there are as many inputs a very good headphone amp,
sight. All the cables you need to the most devoted audiophiles. It’s and outputs as you’re likely to making it ideal if you just want
get it up and running are thrown worth noting that it works need. There’s also a range of to invest in a single box to get
in, and the set-up guide is seamlessly with Arcam’s Bluetooth filters on offer, but with names like more out of your music.
unintimidating. A nice added touch receiver if you want to wirelessly ‘Transient Optimal’ we struggled All in all its digital conversion
is the iPod input, making it easy stream music to your sound to pinpoint the difference, though is hard to fault, but it’s amongst
for anyone to just plug into your system, with no loss of quality. I’m sure an audio engineer could some tough competition at this
system and let the irDAC do its There’s only one slight tell us otherwise. price point.
magic with minimal fuss. drawback. Of the four, this is the Of the four devices we tested, QQQQQ
It worked wonders with a low only device without a headphone the M-DAC generated the most
quality stream of Elbow’s One amp, which would have been a clinical sound. After using Arcam’s
Day Like This, adding a texture nice addition. irDAC, this left us a little cold. That DAN BENNETT is the reviews editor
to the strings and a crispness QQQQQ said, the accuracy will appeal to of BBC Focus Magazine
FLAC APPLE LOSSLESS WAV AND AIFF

A lossless file like a FLAC is If you’re determined to use iTunes These are completely
closer to the original music with lossless music, then Apple’s uncompressed formats, WAV
than an MP3. The data isn’t lossless format (ALAC) is the way made by Windows, AIFF by Apple.
nearly as compressed as with to go. It’s similar to a FLAC file, but They’re exact copies of what
an MP3 – a file can be 36MB slightly less compressed. A whole came out of the recording studio
in size – but it will provide your album can be over 500MB in size, and are as close as you’ll get to
DAC with more information to so make sure you’ve got plenty of the original audio. A single track
work with. AVG FILE SIZE hard drive storage. AVG FILE SIZE can be up to 100MB in size. AVG FILE SIZE

WorldMags.net
HOW DO WE KNOW?
THE NATURE OF
FIRE
BY ALEXANDER HELLEMANS
Chemistry underwent a revolution at the end of the 18th Century,
brought about by finally disproving old ideas about fire
F
IRE IS ONE of the oldest Century. Galileo Galilei and Isaac and sulphurous earth, which he called
forms of technology. Hearths Newton changed science by linking ‘terra pinguis’. This constituent was
found in the Swartkrans Cave scientific concepts to mathematical renamed ‘phlogiston’, from the Greek
in South Africa show that reasoning. Science became ‘to set on fire’, by Becher’s student
early humans, Homo erectus, quantitative, not just qualitative. Georg Stahl. Phlogiston was forced out
used fire a million years ago. Mathematics became a scientific tool; of things when they burned, producing
Its nature was pondered measurements were taken from fire. Substances containing phlogiston
in Antiquity by Greek experiments and observations. were said to be phlogisticated and they
philosophers, and Heraclitus dephlogisticated when burned. Things
of Ephesus (about 540-475 BC) called like wood, charcoal, phosphorus and
it the ‘primary substance’. Empedocles CHEMICAL QUEST sulphur contained a lot of phlogiston
(about 492-435 BC) was one of the first But one subject escaped this revolution: and therefore burned easier.
to believe that matter was made up of chemistry. Newton, like many of his Stahl’s ideas about what happened
four primary substances or ‘elements’: contemporaries, viewed it as more art to the phlogiston when released into
earth, water, air and fire. Aristotle than science. Indeed, he was involved the air were quite original: he said
(384-322 BC) adopted the concept of with alchemy and the search for the it caused lightning, which excited
these four elements, each of which was ‘philosopher’s stone’, a substance the air. The excited air subsequently
endowed with two qualities. Earth was said to turn lead into gold. He never collapsed, which we hear as thunder.
cold and dry; water, cold and wet; air, thought of applying the techniques The lightning theory was wrong –
hot and wet; and fire, hot and dry. that had made him so successful, today we know that lightning consists
The description of the world measurement and mathematics, to of channels of ionised (excited) air,
supported by Aristotle was qualitative, his chemical experiments. through which an electric discharge
based on metaphysical or philosophical The concept of Aristotle’s four passes. A vacuum is created, which
views. Concepts were directly linked elements remained largely unchanged causes nearby air to rapidly expand
to human experience or expectations. during the 17th Century. But there and contract, producing thunder.
This Aristotelian view of the world was a new theory about matter from Stahl also argued that phlogiston
survived for most of the Middle Ages, alchemist Johann Joachim Becher. was indestructible, and was
PHOTO: GETTY
but began to be challenged in He thought that combustible matter continuously being recycled.
astronomy and physics in the 17th burned because it contained an oily Besides lightning, it was also

How do we know?
WorldMags.net
> IN A NUTSHELL
Fire is one of the oldest tools but
its real nature eluded us for
thousands of years. It wasn’t until
the late 18th Century that the idea
Fire was one of four elements, of fire being made from ‘phlogiston’
alongside, air, earth and water, was overturned by the emerging
that the Ancient Greeks believed science of chemistry.
made up everything around us

How do we know?WorldMags.net
present in clouds and rain and into a metal. That meant a metal was phlogiston. Metals too were thought
was taken up by plants and a combination of two components: to lose phlogiston in the process of
animals. The strongest argument for phlogiston and a substance called combustion, yet they became heavier.
its existence was that phlogiston calx (see ‘Need to know’ on p97). The Moreover, heating a calx with charcoal
explained many of the processes studied reverse process, the rusting of metals, also resulted in a loss of mass when
by chemists during the 17th Century. It would be explained by the release of a metal was formed. This despite
would explain why ashes, obtained by phlogiston. Rust didn’t burn, therefore phlogiston supposedly being added.
burning wood, would not burn – the it didn’t contain phlogiston. A solution to this paradox came from
wood had been left without phlogiston. Stahl’s views on phlogiston became the French surgeon Gabriel Venel
The phlogiston theory was thought widely accepted during the 18th (1723-75), who was also interested in
to explain not only combustion Century. The theory, though, was chemistry. He suggested that phlogiston
but also the well-known process of flawed. When wood is burned, the had a negative weight. Adding
producing metals from ores. When ore resulting ash is lighter than the phlogiston to a metal formed by heating
was heated in the presence of charcoal, wood before combustion. Sulphur, calx with charcoal would therefore
the charcoal gave off phlogiston while when burning, disappears entirely. It make it lighter, as shown by experiment.
turning into ashes. The phlogiston was was thought these substances must The problems for phlogiston were
then absorbed by the ore, turning it become lighter due to the loss of only just beginning, however. If a
THE KEY An ingenious set of apparatus enabled Antoine Lavoisier to disprove the concept of
EXPERIMENT fire-causing ‘phlogiston’ and discover a crucial ingredient of air: oxygen
IN 1774, ANTOINE Lavoisier decided to test boiling, a reddish crust of calx started extinguished a candle and mice could not
his views on the combustion and reduction floating on its surface. live in it. Now, Lavoisier wanted to reverse
of a single metal. He filled a flask called a After 12 days, when no more calx was the reaction. He skimmed off the calx from
‘matrass’, which had a long curving neck forming, the level of mercury inside the bell the mercury and heated it. The calx
like an elephant’s trunk, with four ounces of jar had risen higher – the calx was absorbing underwent reduction to liquid mercury,
mercury and placed it on a furnace. The something from the air inside the flask. giving off the same amount of air as it initially
mouth of the matrass was covered with a Lavoisier calculated that one-sixth of the absorbed. This air caused a burning taper
bell jar placed in a trough of mercury. When air had been absorbed. The remaining to burn brightly and the mice loved it. He
Lavoisier heated the metal till it was nearly five-sixths of the air, which he called ‘azote’, called it oxygen.
PHOTO: SCIENCE AND SOCIETY X4, GETTY, SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY
Antoine Lavoisier demonstrates the experiment that revealed the composition of air to fellow scientists; in doing so the idea of phlogiston was turned on its head

How do we know?
WorldMags.net
material undergoes combustion inside

an airtight vessel, the process will
eventually stop. The reason, according CAST OF Throughout the 17th and 18th centuries, physicians
to Georg Stahl, was that air could take CHARACTERS and chemists pondered the make-up of fire
up only a limited amount of phlogiston
and became saturated. However, this
did not explain why pressure in the Johann Joachim
vessel also decreased. If you’ve ever Becher
seen a boiled egg placed in the mouth (1635-1682) was a
of a milk bottle in which a candle is German physician and
burning, you’ll have witnessed the egg polymath who was
being dramatically sucked into the appointed Professor
bottle. If phlogiston really was given of Medicine at the
off by burning material, the pressure in University of Mainz
the bottle should increase. in 1657. He published
The discovery of different types of a series of books on
air, later identified as different gases, topics ranging from
complicated the issue still further. politics to the sciences.
Georg Ernst Stahl
Chemists began experimenting with Settling in London in
(1660 -1734) – a
different materials, and testing the 1682, he wrote three
German physician and
gases given off during combustion books on chemistry.
student of Becher,
or chemical reactions. They checked he started teaching
whether different kinds of air could at the University of
sustain a burning candle, or keep a Halle. He adopted an
mouse alive. For example, in 1755 animistic approach to
the English chemist Joseph Black medicine, associating
found that if you react sulphuric acid physiological
with chalk or heated limestone, you The Scottish chemist
processes, such as
obtained ‘fixed air’, in which candles Joseph Black (1728 -
involuntary motion
would be extinguished or mice would 1799) made fundamental
in animals, with the
not survive. Known today as carbon contributions to
soul. Later he became
dioxide, it turned limewater milky. chemistry, introducing
the physician of King
quantitative methods
Friedrich I of Prussia.
in experiments. His
INFLAMMABLE AIR research with latent
In 1766, the English chemist Henry heat, the heat required
Cavendish (1731-1810) reacted zinc, to melt ice or convert
iron and tin with acids, and collected water into steam, were
the gas that came off. He called it the first steps in what
‘inflammable air’ because it readily later became known as
ignited, and wrongly concluded that thermodynamics.
the gas must be phlogiston (it was Joseph Priestley
in fact hydrogen). This again led (1733 -1804) was a
to a contradiction. Phlogiston was Unitarian minister and
supposed to stop combustion, but amateur scientist.
Cavendish found that it did just the Encouraged by
opposite by burning itself. Benjamin Franklin,
Nearly a decade later, the English Priestley experimented Called the father of
chemist Joseph Priestley made a with electricity. He modern chemistry,
surprising discovery. By heating red investigated gases Antoine-Laurent
oxide of mercury (a calx), Priestley and dissolved Lavoisier (1743-1794)
found that it expelled ‘air’ with ‘fixed air’ in water, financed his research
different properties than expected. creating soda water, by running a private
Instead of extinguishing a candle, and independently tax-collecting company.
the candle started burning very discovered oxygen. He was the first to
brightly, and mice lived twice as long Because of his develop the concepts of
in the trapped air than ‘common sympathy for the chemical elements and
air’. Priestley believed this ‘pure air’ French Revolution, compounds. Besides
caused candles to burn longer because Priestley had to move oxygen and nitrogen,
it was free of phlogiston. He called to the US in 1794. he identified and listed
it dephlogisticated air. It would also several other elements.
explain respiration. When breathing, it He was executed during
was believed that phlogiston was the Reign of Terror after
exhaled, which left ‘common air’ the French Revolution.

How do we know?WorldMags.net
saturated. Priestly’s pure air, in

contrast, was good for breathing
Phlogiston theory became so entrenched among
TIMELINE scientists that it took nearly 100 years to overturn
because it was free of phlogiston.
All of this testing of gases by the
English chemists was being closely
followed from across the Channel,
Johann Joachim Becher where Frenchman Antoine-Laurent
introduces the concept Lavoisier was growing suspicious
of ‘terra pingus’ (oily of the phlogiston idea. He decided
earth) as the substance to look into it by setting up his own
1669
that’s contained in chemical laboratory. His wife, Marie-
materials and causes
fire in his book
Anne Pierrette Paulze, became his
Physica Subterranea laboratory assistant, taking notes
(Subterranean Physics). and translating the English reports.
Lavoisier conceived of a series of
experiments to investigate whether
the ‘air’ involved when things
Georg Ernst Stahl introduces the burned was the air we breathe or a
1755
concept of phlogiston, a substance special kind of air, like the ‘fixed air’
1697
that causes fire and rusting, based discovered by Joseph Black. Finally
on Becher’s idea of oily earth. in 1774, Lavoisier met Priestley for
dinner in Paris and briefed him on his
own research. The stage was set for
Lavoisier to repeat the Englishman’s
experiments, and the results would
change the course of science.
PHLOGISTON’S DEMISE
One experiment convinced him that
the idea of phlogiston being given off
during combustion was wrong. He
Joseph Black discovers ‘fixed air’, now known sealed tin inside a flask and heated
as carbon dioxide. It extinguishes candles and it by focusing sunlight on it with a
does not support life.
large magnifying glass. He weighed
1766 the flask before and after combustion,

and found that there was no change
in weight. When he opened the flask,
Henry Cavendish he noticed that air rushed in, and
reacts metals with that now there was a small increase
acids, producing in the weight of the flask. He realised
hydrogen - he called
it ‘inflammable
air’, equating it to
1774 that the tin, turning into a calx, had
absorbed something from the air in the
phlogiston. flask. It had not emitted phlogiston.
Lavoisier then set out to see what
happened if a calx is heated in the
PHOTO: SCIENCE AND SOCIETY X3, THINKSTOCK, SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY
presence of charcoal – a process

Joseph Priestley, during a meeting in known as reduction. According to
Paris, explains to Antoine Lavoisier
how he prepared dephlogisticated air
existing scientific views, this would
(oxygen) by heating calx of mercury. transfer phlogiston from the charcoal
to the calx, turning it into a metal.
Lavoisier placed a piece of litharge
1778 (a calx of lead) on a small pedestal

in a basin of water. He covered the
pedestal with an inverted bell jar, and
Lavoisier reports the
result of an experiment
heated the calx with sunlight and a
involving the oxidation magnifying glass. He saw the water
and reduction of level inside the bell jar start to go
mercury, rejecting the down, indicating clearly that the calx,
idea of phlogiston. Air turning into lead, was emitting some
consists of a smaller kind of air. When he tested it, he found
amount of oxygen and
a larger amount of
that it would extinguish a candle. It
nitrogen. had to be ‘fixed air’ – the same air that
Joseph Black discovered in 1755.

How do we know?
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NEED TO KNOW The 17th Century alchemist

Georg Stahl thought that
These 18th Century ideas will help lightning was the result of the
substance phlogiston building
you understand the story of fire up in the air
CALX
1 Chemists in the 18th Century defined
calx as the substance obtained when
phlogiston was driven out by heating or
rusting: iron ¤ calx (rust) + phlogiston.
We now know that the reverse happens:
oxidation. Oxygen reacts with iron to
form the calx or rust.
2 FIXED AIR
The 18th-Century chemists called
the air obtained by heating metals with
charcoal ‘fixed air’. It cannot sustain
a flame or life. Today we know it as
carbon dioxide. It is formed by the
reduction of the metal ores (calx). In
other words, the reaction between
carbon and the oxygen in the ore.
3 REDUCTION
When ores are heated with
charcoal in a furnace, according to the
18th-Century chemists, phlogiston passes
from the charcoal to the calx, producing
the metal. Again, they had it the wrong
way round. Carbon reacts with the
oxygen in a reaction that is the reverse
of oxidation: reduction.
Lavoisier was convinced that the

two processes were related, and of this proved that ‘common air’ the idea of phlogiston, Lavoisier
exactly the opposite of what was wasn’t a single substance but had two introduced another idea – caloric. This
predicted by the phlogiston theory components, one of which combined was an elastic fluid that permeates
actually happened. Combustion did with the metal and was good for everything on Earth, flowing from
not emit phlogiston into the air, but respiration. The other ‘air’ was bad warm bodies to colder ones. It was
took something from it. The reduction for both respiration and combustion. the first step towards a concept of
of calx with charcoal did not absorb In 1777, Lavoisier proudly announced energy, which developed during the
phlogiston but produced ‘fixed air’. it was oxygen and not phlogiston that 19th Century and helped banish many
Now Lavoisier set out to investigate caused combustion. Oxygen was air of the misconceptions in chemistry
the processes of reduction and that was sharp (‘oxy’ in Greek) because and physics. And at long last, fire
combustion using the same material in it formed acids. The air we breathe, was finally revealed as the effect of
a single experiment. It was known that he reported, consisted of one-sixth combustion under oxygen.
if you heated mercury, it turned into a oxygen and five-sixths ‘azote’ (from
reddish calx called mercurius the Greek meaning “without life”).
calcinatus. It would give off the The inert gas had to be different from Alexander Hellemans is the co-author of
dephlogisticated air, as shown by the ‘fixed air’ (carbon dioxide) because The History Of Science And Technology
Priestley. Lavoisier confirmed the it did not turn limewater milky. His
results of Priestley’s experiment, and result was close to the truth – today
Find out more
also found that the reddish calx formed we know that air contains 21 per cent
in this ‘calcination process’ expelled oxygen and 78 per cent nitrogen. Listen to an episode of In
air that made candles burn brightly. Chemistry and physics were still Our Time on the discovery
Mercury became Lavoisier’s insufficiently developed to understand of oxygen with Melvyn
choice for his next study (see ‘The the nature of flames. At the very Bragg and guests. http://bbc.in/KeAboS
key experiment’, p94). The result same meeting at which he discarded

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WorldMags.net To Do List
TO DO LIST
VISIT
WATCH
LISTEN
TOUCH
PLAN YOUR MONTH AHEAD WITH OUR EXPERT GUIDE READ
PICK OF THE MONTH DON'T MISS!
Royal Institution
Christmas Lectures 2013 Stargazing LIVE
Join Brian Cox and Dara O
Briain for a celebration of
the night sky and the latest
astronomy news. p104
Dr Alison Woollard delivers

this year’s Christmas Lectures
on how organisms develop
MUTANTS. THEY’RE EVERYWHERE. On the “Organisms acquire new characteristics when

buses, in the streets, lurking in the shops. In mutations cause their cells to become programmed Plagues
fact, you’re probably sitting next to one right now. in a slightly different way,” says Woollard. “When They’ve ravaged us through
“We’re all absolutely full of mutations,” explains Dr a mutation makes the organism more likely to the ages, but how will
Alison Woollard, the presenter of this year’s Royal succeed, you have natural selection, making that infectious diseases affect
Institution Christmas Lectures. “We acquire them organism’s species evolve. In the lecture, we’re our future? Find out with
every day.” But before you start panicking, most going to focus on how changes in DNA can alter a series of talks. p107
of them are harmless, and some are even useful. the way an organism looks.”
To find out more, you’ll have to watch this Finally, in the third lecture, ‘Could I live forever?’,
year’s lectures, titled ‘Life Fantastic’. The three Woollard looks to the future. “When we understand
programmes look at how organisms develop. At what makes cells different, we can start to give
the heart of this story is a tiny structure that can them useful properties – turning stem cells into
be found in every living thing, from the lowliest heart cells, for example.” This will allow us to replace
bacteria to the largest whale: the cell. organs when they wear out – slowing, and even
“We all start off as one cell and then end up as halting, the ageing process.
a huge community of cells, all doing different things So we could all be immortal mutants… we wonder
at different times,” says Woollard. “All of our cells if the producers of the X-Men will be watching.
contain exactly the same DNA, so how do they all JAMES LLOYD Life At The
PHOTO: PAUL WILKINSON
end up doing such different things?”

This million-dollar question is tackled in the first Speed Of Light
lecture: ‘Where do I come from?’. In the second Watch the Royal Institution Genetics pioneer Craig
lecture, Woollard explores how changes within Christmas Lectures on BBC Venter’s latest book is
cells allow organisms to evolve over time – and Four over the Christmas period a look at the history of
that’s where the mutants come in. synthetic biology. p108

To Do List WorldMags.net
WATCH
TV, DVD, BLU-RAY & ONLINE
WITH TIMANDRA HARKNESS
EDITOR'S
CHOICE
FROM 12 DECEMBER
Plants Behaving Badly

Eden, starts 12 December, 7pm
SEX AND DEATH pervades the plant

world in these two shows. First, the
sordid world of the orchid, whose
beauty seems pure but serves only
one purpose: to lure insects. Once
it’s had its wicked, pollen-spreading
way, the orchid never texts, never
calls… In the second film, insects are
demoted from pollinator to lunch
(Venus flytrap pictured).
FROM 12 DECEMBER
Mankind: The Story Of All Of Us

H2, starts 23 December, 6pm In an alternate
Universe, Prof Brian
Cox and Dara O Briain
present a show about
AN AMBITIOUS TITLE for an ambitious staying indoors and
series, narrated by Stephen Fry. looking at the ground
Science, history and geography
are pulled in to tell the story of the
rise and fall of civilisations. It’s an FROM 7 JANUARY
action-packed epic, punctuated with
PHOTO: BBC X3, DISCOVERY NETWORKS X2, THINKSTOCK, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC CHANNEL X2, PRESS ASSOCIATION
key discoveries and developments

that turned us from hunter-gatherers
into settled societies who can sit in
Stargazing Live
comfort and watch TV. BBC Two, 7, 8, 9 January, 8pm
BACK AGAIN FOR a fourth interstellar travel? What is dark

JANUARY season, how can the live energy? Why can’t you get an
astronomy show reach new overdraft from Jodrell Bank?
Crisis Control heights? For a start, by sending
its presenters aloft. No, Dara
The studio guest list looks
more impressive than ever,
Discovery, January TBC
didn’t sneak himself aboard with celebrities and space
NASA’s MAVEN mission to scientists dropping in for a
SOMETIMES, FAILURE IS not an Mars – though he has a report chat. Three generations of
option. If you’re responsible for the from the launch – but he does astronauts – past, present
Panama Canal, for a major airport, experience zero gravity aboard and future – will share their
or even a spectacular Las Vegas a parabolic flight. Liz Bonnin experience of leaving planet
show, you need systems in place ventures above the clouds, too, Earth behind. Meanwhile,
that can deal with anything. If they chasing the Northern Lights. amateur astronomers will be
fail, thousands of people could Prof Brian Cox is back with a out in the cold to share some
die. This series goes behind the new role as weather presenter exciting new projects. Will you
scenes to meet the people that keep – that’s the space weather be one of the lucky local groups
everything running smoothly. across the Solar System. And to get a turn controlling a
when he’s not busy forecasting powerful telescope? Or will
solar storms, he’ll delve into you stay indoors and enjoy
TIMANDRA HARKNESS is a stand-up comedian and a presenter some tricky theory. Will we Stargazing Live from your
on BBC Worldwide’s YouTube channel Head Squeeze ever use warp drive for own comfy sofa?

JANUARY
DVD & BLU-RAY
Horizon
BBC Two, January TBC Earth From Space
Spirit Entertainment, DVD, £12.11
BBC’S HORIZON USHERS in the New
Year. For the seasonal over-indulgers WITH SO MANY satellites orbiting our home planet,
among us, twin GPs Chris and Xand we have unprecedented abilities to observe the
Tullican ask: why has obesity become Earth. This film uses footage taken from space,
such a problem? Meanwhile, Iain from closer to home, and from scientific observations, combined
Stewart travels to Florida to get to with CGI to deliver an all-encompassing examination of our world.
the bottom of the state’s mysterious
sinkholes (we hope not literally). The
rest of the series looks at NASA’s
Pandora’s Promise
Martian ambitions, and more besides. November Films, DVD, £8.99
NUCLEAR POWER – WHERE do you stand?

5 JANUARY Dangerous technology that should be abandoned?
Or potential saviour in our quest for low-carbon
Miracle Landing On The Hudson energy sources? This film goes right to the heart of the controversy,
interviewing energy experts and environmentalists.
National Geographic, 5 January, 8pm
A DOUBLE BIRD strike within Leviathan

minutes of take-off is unlucky, but Dogwoof films, DVD, £10.59
when it happened to US Airways
Flight 1549 in January 2009, THIS DOCUMENTARY IMMERSES you in the
Chesley Sullenberger was at the dangerous world of commercial deep-sea fishing.
controls. He beat the odds to Literally immerses you, at times, as the camera
bring the plane down in one piece dives below the waves. At other times, a bird’s-eye view reveals
on the river Hudson in New York. the isolation of the vessel in an unforgiving environment.
Reconstructions, interviews and
expert opinions tell the story.
13 JANUARY
JANUARY
Big Brain Theory Meteor Strike

National Geographic, 13 January, 10pm
Discovery Science, January TBC
The fireball seen streaking over the
Presenter Kal Penn should tell Russian city of Chelyabinsk last
Buzz Aldrin he doesn’t need the
name tag anymore
February was a space rock. When
it blew apart, it unleashed forces
equivalent to 30 Hiroshima bombs.
Thanks to the Russian habit of
video recording from their vehicles,
this programme has plenty of
striking footage to supplement the
astronomy behind the fireball.
13 JANUARY
Ice Tsunami
National Geographic, 13 January, 10.30pm
FORGET THE APPRENTICE, Scrapheap Challenge or WATER CAN BE swift and deadly, as
Dragon’s Den. Over in the US, they like a bit more tsunamis remind us only too often.
jeopardy in their TV. So the 10 contestants competing in this But ice moves slowly – at glacial
hunt for the new generation of technological minds face a few speeds – right? Not always. In May
extra pressures. Like a 30-minute time limit to come up with 2013 a fast-moving wall of ice tore
an engineering solution to that week’s challenge. This could through communities in Canada and
be anything from replacing a bridge that’s been blown up, to the US. Amateur film helps experts
smashing two pick-up trucks into each other loaded with explain how it happened. It will also
explosives, judged by people like Buzz Alddrin. remind you to defrost your freezer
before it’s too late.

LISTEN
BBC RADIO PROGRAMMES
TOUCH
SMARTPHONE & TABLET APPS
WITH TIMANDRA HARKNESS WITH CHRISTOPHER BRENNAN
18 DECEMBER iPhysics Pro

iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, iOS 6 or later
Frontiers Carolina Pocino, £1.99
BBC Radio 4, 18 December, 9pm
PHYSICS IS EASY once you’ve
WILL YOU BE in your mastered the basics and
mid-evening stride when this The Snail Lady’s next challenge: newts
committed to memory every
programme goes out at nine, rule and theory. For most of us,
on to other animals. How do
or yawning and planning to however, remembering all the
newts navigate? Can cats
catch it on iPlayer at six details can be tricky. iPhysics
read maps? Find out here.
tomorrow morning? Linda Pro is an app designed to gently
Geddes discovers the science introduce key concepts and
of body clocks with the JANUARY reinforce your knowledge of
scientists who are sorting us physics to keep with you wherever you go. The app covers
into larks and owls. Whether
you’re an early-bird or a
The iPod War motion, gases, liquids, thermodynamics and more in an easy
BBC World Service, January TBC to navigate and, importantly, digestible format.
night-hawk may depend on your
biology as much as your habits. TWO MAJOR DEVELOPMENTS
launched in October 2001: the
iPod and the war in Afghanistan.
Walking With Dinosaurs
31 DECEMBER Coincidence, but the bulletproof iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch
music device is the item most BBC Worldwide, free
All In The Mind often requested from Help for
THIS IS A truly stunning app that
BBC Radio 4, 31 December, 9pm Heroes to boost the
brings dinosaurs to life before your
morale of those
THE PSYCHOLOGY, eyes. Print out a ‘target sheet’,
serving in the UK
psychiatry and brain science place it on a flat surface and then
forces there.
series returns with some open the app to see a 3D dinosaur.
Psychologists and
surprising new findings about Complete with appropriate noises,
those on the front
cognitive fatigue – Samuele you can control up to two dinosaurs as they walk around your
line contribute to
Marcora of the University of desktop. Feed the beasts as they explore their 3D habitat. Really
this hour-long
Kent has trained soldiers to impressively, you’ll see them wander off the edge of the sheet,
special exploring the
resist the physically tiring leaving footprints and casting shadows as they go.
symbolism and the
effects of too much hard
practical role of the
thinking. Also, moral distress
and the results of the 2011
iPod at war.
Seene
BBC Stress Test. iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, iOS 6 or later
JANUARY Obvious Engineering, free
1 JANUARY
The Human Zoo Seene lets you capture images and explore them
Show Me The Way BBC Radio 4, January TBC in 3D. Thankfully no special glasses are required.
It’s a fun way to see how 3D images are created
To Go Home MICHAEL BLASTLAND’S
series asking how we think
and your human subjects will no longer be able
BBC Radio 4, 1 January, 9pm to simply present their ‘best side’. The process
returns for a third season, with is slightly more involved than just taking a picture
YOU MAY NOT recognise the expert input from psychologist – you have to capture the object from specific
name Ruth Brooks, but if we Nick Chater of Warwick angles to make it work. Once you’ve made your
say she’s the Snail Lady who University. This time, as well as 3D image, tilt your iOS device to see the effects.
won BBC Amateur Scientist of joining in online tests, you can It may be something of a novelty, but there’s some
the Year 2010, your memory hear the results of live clever tech behind it.
may travel back to her research experiments conducted on
PHOTO: NASA/WMAP
into hungry gastropods finding volunteer listeners. Plus the

their way back to her garden. usual mix of interviews,
Having established that snails investigations, studio
PHOTO: BBC
can make a comeback from as discussion and current affairs. CHRISTOPHER BRENNAN is a technology journalist
far as 10 metres, she’s moved And Timandra Harkness. Again. and mobile app expert

VISIT
EVENTS & EXHIBITIONS
WITH JHENI OSMAN
20-22 DECEMBER
Curiosity Roadshow It seems that our

troubled relationship
with plagues is only
Camden Lock Market, London, free, www.wellcomecollection.org set to get worse in
the future
HOP ABOARD THE bus parked at Camden Lock Market and you can EDITOR'S
CHOICE
get your mitts on unique objects from the Wellcome Collection. You
can also watch retro films and delve through archive images. 17 JANUARY - 7 MARCH
Plagues
21 DECEMBER Lady Mitchell Hall, Cambridge, Fridays, 5:30pm, free,
www.darwin.cam.ac.uk
Royal Observatory Greenwich Christmas Lecture
THEY’VE STOPPED ARMIES in their tracks and altered
Royal Observatory Greenwich, London, 7-9pm, £6/£8, www.rmg.co.uk
the fate of nations. This series of talks looks at all the
DISCOVER THE ALIEN worlds and celestial bodies that fill our repercussions of plagues. How did ancient plagues influence
Galaxy at this talk by astrophysicist John Gribbin. medicine? How do insect plagues affect our agriculture and
economy? How will Earth cope with the ‘human plague’? And
what sort of plagues can we expect in the future now that
14 JANUARY
the digital world has created a global network for computer
viruses, malware and spyware, which threaten personal
Wallace And The Limits To Evolution privacy and the security of nations? Don’t have nightmares!
Wallace Lecture Theatre, Cardiff University, 6:30pm, free,
www.cardiff.ac.uk
22 JANUARY - 14 FEBRUARY
STEVE JONES, THE well-known geneticist looks at the life of
biologist Alfred Russel Wallace and his evolutionary ideas.
Out Of Ice
18 JANUARY Ambika P3, University of Westminster, London, free, p3exhibitions.com
Behind The MOST OF EARTH’S ice is locked away in Antarctica, but if other
ice sheets melt, sea levels will rise by up to 95cm by 2100. Artist
Lens: Wildlife Elizabeth Ogilvie shows the threat ice loss poses to our planet.
Photographers
Natural History 23 JANUARY
Museum, London,
12:30pm and 2:30pm, Motion Perception Dialogue Event
free, www.nhm.ac.uk 7-9pm, free, www.sciencemuseum.org.uk
MEET PROFESSIONAL WILDLIFE snappers and hear about ARTIST MATT PYKE explains why cosmetic surgery
the lengths they go to in the hunt for that perfect shot. can make you look creepy, and why we find
human-looking robots, like the one pictured, scary.
20 JANUARY
FROM 24 JANUARY
Rosetta Space Night
Life Science Centre, Newcastle, 6-9pm, £2.70/£3, life.org.uk Full Frontal Nerdity Tour
At venues all over the country, see festivalofthespokennerd.com
Rosetta is due to CELEBRATE THE
embark on its comet- ‘wake up’ of comet-
sampling mission JOIN THE FESTIVAL of the Spoken Nerd comedy trio for some
chaser Rosetta hilarious and unashamed geekery.
with an astronomy
themed evening, as
the craft comes out JHENI OSMAN is a science writer and the author of
of hibernation. 100 Ideas That Changed The World (BBC Books, £9.99)

READ
THE LATEST SCIENCE BOOKS REVIEWED Hardback Paperback
Life At The MEET THE AUTHOR
Speed Of Light
From The Double Helix To Craig
The Dawn Of Digital Life Venter
J Craig Venter What’s the meaning behind the
Little, Brown £20 book’s title?
As we read the genetic code and digitise
it, we can actually send that information
T
HE NORMALLY DEMURE magazine
Scientific American described through the internet. We’ve designed and
geneticist J Craig Venter in 2010 as built the first version of a ‘Digital Biological
‘…the Lady Gaga of science. Like Converter’ where we take that computer
her, he is a drama queen, an over-the-top information and robotically convert it back
performance artist with a genius for into the software of life. For example,
self-promotion.’ Venter, to the best of Chinese scientists recently sequenced
my knowledge, is yet to make a public the H7N9 flu virus. We downloaded
appearance in a lab-coat made of raw meat. that information from the internet and
He is more nuanced than this sketch, and synthetically made the virus, which can
his contribution to modern biology should now be used to rapidly develop new
not be underestimated. Life At The Speed quotations encoded within its DNA (he vaccines ready for any pandemic.
Of Light is the account of his scientific elects not to mention how one out of the
journey, treading a thorough chronology three quotations was wrong, and another Which of your achievements are you
of biological engineering from its mid-20th potentially infringed copyright). However, most proud of?
century roots to now, though it focuses it was not the great heralding of the new I’m very proud of doing the first genome
specifically on his own work in manipulating synthetic biology that some proclaimed. of a living organism, and how that led
DNA into writable software. Venter is divisive; courting the limelight to the human genome. But I think that
The flap biography starts with the legend has earned him bogeyman status for our creation of the first synthetic cell
‘Venter is best known for sequencing the many, and a distraction from other less will have even greater implications
human genome’, which grates given how attention-seeking work. His is no doubt for humanity. When we made the first
many people were involved in both his important: in genomics, he has led teams synthetic chromosome, we created a cell
private consortium and its more successful that invented many new techniques, and that was controlled and driven only by
publicly owned competitor. But I would say his competition drove the public Human that chemically made piece of DNA. Life is
that he is best known for the dervish of Genome Project forward. a DNA software system, and if you change
publicity (including the Lady Gaga quotation) The writing is very American: somewhat that software you can change the species.
that was whipped up after his publication breathless, without a great presence of
PHOTO: PUBLIC LIBRARY OF SCIENCE/ WIKIPEDIA COMMONS
of ‘Synthia’, a bacteria whose genome was humility, but with a determined biographical How far away are we from creating
constructed in a computer. This was a narrative. Every page is encumbered with complex animals like humans?
colossal technical achievement, expensive intellectual ancestors - 67 individuals We’re a long way from that. The
and lengthy, complete with hubristic name-checked in the first 23 pages, and mammalian genetic code is substantially
across the whole book he references the larger than that of relatively simple
Nobel Prizes of 33 laureates with almost bacteria. We have six billion letters of
“Venter is best comic regularity. Frequently, it reads as code in each of our cells, whereas the
bacteria we made only had 1.1 million. The
though each one is an inevitable part of the
known for ‘Synthia’, scientific family tree that expressly leads rules and regulations inside the cell get
much more complex too. We’re still at the
a bacteria whose to the as-yet Nobel-less Venter. Whether
he will be written about in the same terms very early stages of truly understanding
genome came from is yet to be seen.
QQQQQ
human biology, so we’re definitely not
ready for synthetic humans.
a computer” MORE ON THE PODCAST
ADAM RUTHERFORD is the presenter Listen to the full interview with Craig Venter
of Inside Science on BBC Radio 4 at sciencefocus.com/podcasts

EDITOR'S
CHOICE
Nothing A Female Genius The Simpsons And Their

From Absolute Zero To Cosmic Oblivion How Ada Lovelace Started The Computer Age Mathematical Secrets
Jeremy Webb (Ed.) James Essinger Simon Singh
Profile Books £7.99 Gibson Square £14.99 Bloomsbury £18.99
A BRAND OF painkillers used to be ADA, COUNTESS OF Lovelace was a EPISODES OF THE Simpsons are full of
advertised on telly with the slogan mathematician and collaborator of the maths. As Simon Singh reveals, its writers
‘Nothing acts faster than Anadin’. This computer pioneer Charles Babbage. – who between them have Masters
always prompted my mum to say “So take She has a programming language, Ada, degrees and PhDs from some of the
nothing then!” Now it seems this old joke named after her by the US Department of world’s top maths departments – have
may be no laughing matter. New research Defense in the 1970s; a medal in her name snuck in concepts ranging from statistics
suggests many ‘proven’ painkillers may awarded by the British Computer Society to geometry. Recounting episodes, Singh
really be doing nothing apart from since 1998; and an annual day, 15 October, picks apart each blink-and-you’ll-miss-it
triggering a placebo effect, which stimulates recently named in her honour for the reference: why the Universe might be
the body’s own pain-killing system. celebration of women scientists. Ada is doughnut-shaped; and how one of the
This is just one of a host of curious also known as the sole legitimate child of great theorems, Fermat’s Last Theorem,
insights in this entertaining collection of the poet Lord Byron – she died at the can be proved wrong.
essays on the theme of, well, nothing, same young age (36) as Byron. Unfortunately, the links between
compiled by Jeremy Webb, editor-in-chief Despite her deserved fame, Lovelace’s cartoons and conjectures sometimes feel
of the obscure magazine New Scientist. vaunted stature as the first computer forced. There is little to motivate a section
Covering everything from physics to programmer is disputed, because Babbage about game theory, and ‘Simpson’s
physiology, there’s something for everyone. was unable to build his complicated and paradox’ is covered only because it
I expected to find the essays on mysteries expensive ‘Analytical Engine’ and thereby shares the show’s name. The best bits
like dark energy – the cosmic force that test her ideas. Even so, author James are the behind-the-scenes stories, such
emerges from the ‘nothing’ of space – Essinger makes an appealing case for as when the writers came up with
most interesting. Yet it was the more Lovelace as a visionary in this biography. mathematically intriguing numbers for a
down-to-earth stuff I found more For example, she ‘foresaw the digitisation brief shot of a scoreboard; or when the
rewarding, like Andy Coghlan’s essay of music as CDs or synthesizers and their makers of Futurama – The Simpsons’
about the health dangers of doing nothing. ability to generate music’, he writes. sister show – developed a theorem to
Even a bit of exercise, like walking round However, the book’s title is too much of a ensure that a loose plot could be tied up
your sofa during TV ad breaks, can stretch. ‘Genius’, whatever its gender, neatly. Often the writers put a huge effort
improve your life expectancy. Overall, this can only properly be ascribed to those into an idea just because they find it
is a rare example of where it’s worth who manage to bring their ideas to interesting. By explaining why, Singh
paying something for nothing. fruition, such as Alan Turing. shows just how addictive maths can be.
QQQQQ QQQQQ QQQQQ
ROBERT MATTHEWS is a Visiting Reader in ANDREW ROBINSON is the author of ADAM KUCHARSKI has a PhD in maths and
Science at Aston University, Birmingham Genius: A Very Short Introduction is an award-winning science writer
EVERY FOUR AND a half days sees a million women are freed from the reproductive
more people born on a planet that’s not tyrannies of religion and society they have
getting any bigger and whose resources are fewer children, and educated women have
running out. As we’re easily desensitised the fewest children of all. Were all the
to such statistics, Alan Weisman surveys world’s women to average between one
overpopulation from the points of view of and two children, the world’s population
dozens of personal stories. He takes us could ebb before 2100. Perhaps these
from Japan, whose population is sliding women, more than today’s discredited and
Countdown towards extinction yet whose youngsters
have given up sex, to the expanding
mainly male bankers, will work out how
we’re to embrace the zero-growth economy
Our Last, Best Hope For
A Future On Earth? deserts of Niger where local chieftains we’ll need if we’re to survive on this planet.
no longer see children as a blessing. QQQQQ
Alan Weisman One lesson sings out from this perhaps
Little, Brown £25 overlong catalogue of detail, and it is this: HENRY GEE is an evolutionary biologist
it is women who will save the world. When and a senior editor of the journal Nature

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STARGAZING
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Your guide to health and fitness to kick start the year
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MINDGAMES
Pit your wits
against these
brainteasers by David J
Bodycombe, question-
setter for BBC Four’s
Only Connect
See bottom of p113 for

PRIZE PUZZLE WIN! MYTHBUSTERS
SEASON 5
terms and conditions.
Congratulations to Kevin
Ward (Gloucestershire),
At the front they are black and white, or Kathy Humphrey (Crewe),
The first five correct entries win a copy of Jacqui Sclanders
black and yellow at the rear. They have MythBusters Season 5 on DVD (Discovery, £21.24). (Lincolnshire), Anne Miller
the power to evoke pride or amusement, Post your entry, marked ‘Prize Puzzle 263’, to: BBC Focus
(West Yorkshire) and Jo
Dale (Lancaster) who
and can be bought and sold for six-figure Magazine, PO Box 501, Leicester, LE94 0AA, to arrive by
answered October’s Prize
5pm on 9 January 2014. We regret that we cannot accept
sums. However, if they break they can be Puzzle correctly to win a
email entries for this competition. See sciencefocus.com/
copy of How We Invented
winners for a list of previous winners and solutions.
replaced for £20. What are they? The World.
Q1 Q7
must be somewhere along
In the early days of train travel, the direction indicated (not A town in Kent just north of Dover; a high-jumping technique; a ‘go’
Third Class carriages had necessarily the immediately in a game… what could come next?
holes drilled in the floor. For adjacent space).
what reason? Q8
Q2 Each rectangle contains either a battery with a positive (+) and

negative (–) pole OR a dud wooden block which does nothing. The
When divided by 2, 3, 4, 5 or 6, red/black numbers indicate how many positive/negative poles there
this number leaves a remainder are in that row or column. Two like poles (eg + and +) cannot touch,
of 1. When divided by 11, it horizontally or vertically.
leaves no remainder at all.
Find the number.
Q3
Shade in six small squares

so that each row, column
and outlined region contains
one shaded square. No two
Q6
shaded squares touch, not
even diagonally. You have two full open-topped
cylinders containing 3 and 4
litres of water respectively.
Without using anything else,
how can you make the larger
cylinder contain approximately
‘pi’ litres?
Q4
Triton, Titania, Titan,
Ganymede, Phobos… what SOLUTIONS
comes next, and why is that Q8) See illustration on p121. half-empties it, leaving 5.5L in total. 6th, 4th, 1st and 3rd square.
the end of the sequence? hand: Deal, (Fosbury) Flop, Turn, River. level just touches the bottom edge – this Q3) Row by row, shade the 5th, 2nd,
are the stages of a Texas Hold ‘Em poker Q6) Tip the 3L cylinder until the water required answer.
Q5 Q7) The Thames or any other river – they 18); (6, 23, 1, 15, 19). 11. However (2x60)+1 = 11x11 = 121, the
Number every square so that
approximation of pi. 9, 16, 24); (7, 8, 12, 10, 17); (21, 5, 22, 11, with 1 added to it. 61 isn’t a multiple of
the 4L container. 5.5 x 4/7 = 22/7, an Q5) Row by row: (20, 4, 2, 3, 25); (14, 13, 4, 5 and 6 is 60. Now try multiples of 60
it is possible to travel from 1 Of the 5.5L remaining, 4/7ths is now in System order. Q2) The lowest common multiple of 2, 3,
to 25. When you land on cylinders have the same water level. natural satellites of each planet in Solar Class carriages had no roof.
a square, the next square Now transfer the water so that both Q4) Earth’s Moon – they are the largest Q1) To let the rain drain away. The Third

Mindgames
?
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EVERY MONTH, A NEW CHALLENGE
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ACROSS
mammals
9 Partial to small overtones (9)
10 Her inept use of a surgical
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12 Managed to capture old horse (4)
Roughly how long ago did the
13 Friends getting into shape (6)
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a) 100 million years dye (7)
b) 150 million years 15 A quiet errand boy has to finish
c) 200 million years supplement (9)
17 Range of frequencies gives group
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18 Chemical substance that provides
Which species of whale is the heat (7)
largest mammal in the world? 20 I’d go back to king with rubbish
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21 Mark’s out of mascara (4)
b) Blue whale 24 Projectile at home makes the
c) Killer whale news (8)
26 Take a rug to wrap extinct
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28 One boisterous start by old goat (4)
What’s the scientific name for 29 Snake volunteers to generate
a mammal that lays eggs? pain (6)
a) Monotreme 31 Windpipe changes in each rat (7)
b) Ovumate 34 Shyness – it improves by
combining (9)
c) Cetacean 36 Piano rags composed from bits of
fungi (9)
Q4
38 Complaint as construction coils
Complete the sentence: ‘Bats SOLUTION TO CROSSWORD No 156 WIN! round it (7)
MICRO MONSTERS 39 Enjoy chutney (6)
are the only mammals…’
Sue Corbett, Phillip Glendinning, M Hodgson, 40 Rendered ill by unknown plant (4)
a) …with wings Peter Haworth and Peter Hodgkinson
3D ON BLU-RAY
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b) …that eat insects (Doncaster) solved issue 260’s puzzle and The first five correct person and a good reader (8)
each receive MythBusters Season 2 on DVD. solutions drawn will each 42 Clever nit displayed a bit of heart (9)
c) …that hunt at night win a copy of Micro
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Q5
Attenborough (Sky 3D, DOWN
On which continent are most £13.19). Entries must 1 Around the road, swarming, like
be received by 5pm on
marsupials found? most animals (8)
9 January 2 Pear recipe gave politician a
a) South America 2014. See booster (6)
b) Asia below 3 Bit nails terribly while hissing (8)
c) Australia for more 4 Spy turned out to have
details. revolutionary mind (6)
Q6 5 Betokens new antelope (8)
Which mammal is also known 6 Centre page out of proportion (10)
7 Obscure how days are
as the sand puppy? changing (7)
a) Naked mole rat 8 Inexpert, under a new spell (6)
b) Antelope squirrel 11 Throwing a cherry for sport (7)
c) Caracal 16 Irritate with a hypodermic (6)
19 Piece of duet performed with
Q7 energy (5)
YOUR DETAILS 20 Nod back at the professor (3)
Roughly how long is an Asian 22 Black bird lost second sign of
elephant’s gestation period? NAME illness (5)
23 Arts perplex, thanks to having
a) 600 days ADDRESS layers (6)
b) 650 days 25 Semiconductor should sort strain
c) 700 days out (10)
26 Information in an emergency (3)
27 Critically examine woman’s group (7)
30 Imparts a new filling (8)
POSTCODE TEL 31 Grand amount (8)
EMAIL 32 Learn, say, about examiner (8)
ANSWERS: 33 Altered his opinion of fungus (7)
35 Hold an admiral (6)
1c, 2b, 3a, 4a, 5c, 6a, 7b
Post entries to BBC Focus Magazine, January 2014 Crossword, PO Box 501, Leicester, LE94 0AA
or email a scan of the completed crossword or a list of answers to january2014@focuscomps. 36 Lisa sent Virginia a secretion (6)
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ALERT!
CONTAINS
PLOT SPOILERS
PACIFIC RIM
THE PERENNIAL DEBATING game down the pub
is: who would win in a fight? A 76m-tall (250ft)
robot or a pan-dimensional giant amphibian
bred for wiping out mankind? Your money’s on
the robot, right? But what if the giant monsters
just keep getting bigger and bigger? This is the
premise of director Guillermo Del Toro’s Pacific
Rim. Humanity are pitted against the Kaiju, an
army of ever-growing behemoths hundreds
of metres tall, who like nothing more than
snacking on high-profile landmarks while they
slug it out with the Jaegers, giant robots that
act as mankind’s last line of defence.
But how big could the Kaiju, or any creature,
really get before physiological limits get in the
way? Galileo may well have been thinking about
the problem in 1638 when he formulated the
square-cube law. Say an animal doubles in size.
Its volume becomes cubed while its surface
area is only squared. This creates all sorts of
problems. Bones, with only four times the surface
area, are subject to eight times the weight. So the
Kaiju would be at increased risk of broken bones,
and fitting a plaster cast on something that angry
would be dangerous. Muscles and cartilage are
“The largest land

animal possible would
weigh somewhere between
100 and 1,000 tonnes”
likely to fail. With a lot of bulk and comparatively little skin, overheating is tonne of food it needed per day to nourish its giant frame. It also boasted
also likely to be a problem, as is delivering oxygen around its enormous air-filled bones to lighten its load, a comparatively tiny head that didn’t
frame. “Something is going to give,” says dinosaur expert Mike Taylor from crush its neck, and four vertical limbs to help support its weight.
Bristol University, “the question is, what will fail first?” Taking all the various factors into account, researchers have estimated
ILLUSTRATOR: JOE WILSON
A blue whale, the largest ever living animal weighing in at up to 170 that the largest land animal possible would weigh somewhere between 100
tonnes, shirks the square-cube problem by using the protective buoyancy and 1,000 tonnes – not the several thousand tonne bulk of the Kaiju. “It’s
of the oceans to help support its weight. Dinosaurs, the world’s largest just completely unfeasible,” says Taylor. Of course, these size limitations
terrestrial animals, circumvented these problems by being uniquely might not apply to a creature of dubious alien biochemistry that bleeds
adapted to being big. The 80-tonne, long-necked Argentinosaurus had an ammonia and can self-destruct, but for now at least, it’s comforting to
efficient bird-like respiratory system that would have drawn in oxygen know the Kaiju remains relegated to the realms of B-movies.
whilst breathing in and out. It swallowed without chewing to gulp down the HELEN PILCHER

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NASA’S 10 CRAZIEST IDEAS REVEALED

COMET-CHASING SPACECRAFT, QUANTUM COMPUTING,

WHAT IS FIRE? WHY WE EAT TOO MUCH SMART HEATING

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PHOTO: JAMES TAYLOR/DEBUT ART, THINKSTOCK, ROBERT HOYT, CHRIS-STOCKER.CO.UK, BREITLING

2014: THE YEAR

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DISCOVERIES COLUMNS TECH HUB TO DO LIST PLUS…

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MESSAGE OF THE MONTH

Survival of the moderates followed Roger Bacon’s advice to ‘learn

But how do we know?

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screwdriver of course! But no angels!! PRODUCTION

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Join the discussion at

Immediate Media Co Bristol Ltd accepts no responsibility

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SPACE SAVING SOUND

News and views from the world of science

Kepler’s huge haul of planets are

GOLDILOCKS PLANETS PEPPER OUR GALAXY

the latest results from NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope

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THE RESULTS ARE

A brief history of the search for other Earths

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THE JBL CHARGE

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THEY consisting of three lights. If all ‘near-miss’ scenarios, such as

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PATENTLY OBVIOUS with James Lloyd Biology

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CLICK HERE with Kelly Oakes

The humble pigeon

EVER WONDERED HOW “If the percentage of a