Indholdsfortegnelse for September 2024 i BBC Science Focus Magazine

These days it seems like every time I look in the mirror I notice yet another grey hair on my head or another wrinkle on my face – daily reminders that I'm not getting any younger. Sure, these changes are only cosmetic and of no real consequence, but as the ravages of time take their toll on our bodies, the risk of age-related diseases such as cardiovascular conditions, osteoporosis and dementia, rises dramatically. Over the past 100 years or so, life expectancy in the UK has risen from an average of around 45 years in 1900, to around 80 by 2010. This increase in lifespan has brought with it a whole host of new challenges for healthcare professionals and medical researchers. But what if we could halt the ageing process…

EYE OPENER MASSACHUSETTS, USA We all know what a brain looks like. That mushy mass in our heads has been shown hundreds of times in a variety of ways. But you've probably never seen it looking like this. Researchers at Harvard University, in the US, have imaged these neurons in immense detail, to create a 3D map that covers roughly one millionth of an entire human brain. That means 57,000 cells, 150 million synapses and a staggering 1,400 terabytes of data. The tiny fragment of brain you see here came from a 45-year-old woman who underwent surgery to treat epilepsy. It shows the cerebral cortex – an area involved in learning, problem-solving and sensory signal processing. The researchers immersed the fragment in preservatives and stained it with heavy metals to…

SPACE Mysterious object hurtling at one million miles per hour across the Milky Way Afast-moving, unknown object has been spotted zooming through space at about 1.6 million km/h (1 million miles per hour). It's moving so fast that it could exit the Milky Way entirely – and scientists are still trying to work out what it is. Currently 400 light-years from Earth, the object – known as CWISE J1249+3621 – is very unlikely to be a probe due to its large size. Around 30,000 times more massive than Earth, J1249 is eight per cent of the Sun's mass. This unusual size puts J1249 “somewhere between a star and a planet,” Dr Darren Baskill, astronomy lecturer at the University of Sussex, told BBC Science Focus. “Such rapidly moving stars are unusual.…

COLUMNISTS On a cold and sunny November morning in 2021, my wife and I, both dressed to the nines and clutching our negative lateral flow COVID tests, drove south along the M11 motorway heading to Windsor Castle. I was hugely honoured, and more than a little surprised, to have been appointed an MBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours 2020 for services to ‘Research and Communication and Engagement’, and we were very excited to be attending the COVID-delayed ceremony. The presentation takes place alphabetically, so, given my surname is ‘Yeo’, I was in the last group, ‘R to Z’. There must have been around 30 of us R to Z folk, introducing ourselves and making small talk, when who should walk into the room but Manchester United and England footballer Marcus…

INNOVATIONS …THE SLEEP-PROOFING EARPLUGS Sometimes sleep is so close, held back by a singular noise preventing you from nodding off. If you live in a city with lots of traffic, or there's one relentless fox going through your bins, Loop's new Quiet 2 Plus earplugs could be just what you need. We found the simple-yet-elegant earplugs to be comfortable, even while asleep, and incredibly easy to put in. They're made from silicone and comprise a small ring with a doublestacked tip attached. They come in a variety of sizes and lots of colours. Wearing them, the noises of the night almost completely disappear, but they still allow enough sound in to ensure you won't miss any crying babies or attentionseeking pets. At £29.95, it would be cheaper to buy some…

IMPOSTOR SYNDROME | FEATURE Have you ever felt like a fraud? Perhaps, on getting a new job or promotion, you've been immediately hit by thoughts that you're not good enough – and, surely, somebody will soon unmask you as a charlatan. If so, you're probably suffering from impostor syndrome. And you certainly wouldn't be the first person to experience it. Some studies show that between 70 and 80 per cent of the general population has experienced impostor syndrome at some point in their life. Even the cleverest people in history have felt like frauds at times. Shortly before his death, Albert Einstein told a friend that praise of his work made him feel like an involuntary swindler. Considering this, it's a surprise the impostor experience didn't catch the attention of…

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…A FOLDABLE BICYCLE HELMET With its aH-1, Ventete aims to solve one of life's great concerns: where on Earth do you put a bike helmet when you're not wearing it? Too big to go in a bag, too important to leave unattended with the bike… you're stuck carrying it around. So how does Ventete deal with this? Air. The helmet is made from a series of inflatable tubes. When it's not in use, it can be deflated so it's almost completely flat and easy to put away. A small pump is included, so the helmet can be brought back to full size to keep your head protected when you're pedalling between places. Ventete aH-1 £350, ventete.com …A SECOND ATTEMPT AT HEADPHONES Expensive, confusing and flawed… Dyson took a gamble on…

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reply@sciencefocus.com BBC Science Focus, Eagle House, Bristol, BS1 4ST @sciencefocus www.facebook.com/sciencefocus @bbcsciencefocus LETTER OF THE MONTH Going underground There will probably be a better use for the luxury bunkers (Summer, p40) than assuaging the fear of nuclear Armageddon that some of us faced in the 1960s. Your worrying articles show the dangers of extreme heat (Summer, p34, 62, 90), but one strategy for future living could be to move underground. With the more constant temperature of subsurface dwellings, air conditioning isn't required, and light can be conducted via fibre optics, meaning no need for extra energy. There's underground housing already in Coober Pedy, South Australia, and an underground hotel in southern Tunisia (made famous in Star Wars: A New Hope). There are also examples of troglodyte dwellings in China and…

J ust over 1 billion women – more than a quarter of Earth's female population – want to use contraception, according a World Health Organization report from 2021. There are plenty of contraceptive options for women; more than 13 methods are currently available from over 200 brands. The vast majority of them are hormonal, however, whether it's the contraceptive pill, implant or intrauterine devices. But women have different reasons for using birth control, only one of which may be to prevent pregnancy. Others include helping with painful or heavy periods, irregular cycles or acne. Consequently, different women have different requirements for their contraception. Add to this other variables such as ethnicity, post-natal health, perimenopause and other medications, and the picture becomes even more complicated. It's little wonder then that women…

INNOVATIONS PREPARE YOUR SELF FOR TOMORROW Remember the good old days when pneumatic tubes were all the rage? No? That's okay. Since they were invented in the 1850s and largely phased out by the late 20th century, it's likely only a few of us recall when they were in regular use. Built to propel cylindrical containers through small pipes using compressed air, pneumatic tubes were used to send packages, mail and important documents around offices and between buildings at high speeds. But despite being depicted in television shows such as Futurama and Star Trek as a futuristic tool, this old-school delivery system is rarely used today. It was killed off, for the most part, by the speed of communication brought about by advances like email and the internet. Pneumatic tubes…

ANTI-AGEING FEATURE Are you, or is someone you know, ageing? Of course your are: thought a handful or wellness influencers claim otherwise, the processes of biological ageing are ticking along within us all. But there's good news - scientists now understand enough about those processes that we may one day be able to slow them down, or even reverse them. And that day might arrive sooner than you thing. While you should take the claims of social media biohackers with a very large pinch of salt, longevity science is beginning to uncover the mechanisms that make us grow old. It goes far beyond vanity – such scientists aren't just trying to create new anti-ageing skin creams to smooth fine lines and wrinkles, but real anti-ageing medicines that will slow the…

ROBIN INGRAM, VIA EMAIL HOW DO I BREAK FREE OF BLAME CULTURE? If you're living and working in a blame culture, you might have noticed how people are afraid to speak up when things go wrong. They know those in charge will be looking for people to use as scapegoats to punish and shame. Most research on this problem has been done in workplaces, but the same principles can apply in families and other group contexts. Living and working in this kind of culture leads to negative consequences – group members fear being blamed and this makes them understandably secretive, distrusting and afraid to ask for help. In employment contexts, if staff have concerns about mistakes in the work they're doing, they'll tend to stay silent for fear that they'll…