Indholdsfortegnelse for September 2018 i BBC Science Focus Magazine

I’m sure I’m not alone in saying that dinner time is often the highlight of my day. For me, tucking into a truly tasty meal is one of the greatest joys in life – right up there with meeting one of your all-time heroes, welcoming your first-born into the world, or watching Arsenal clinch the double in a close final game of the season. So I pity our ancestors when I picture them existing on a diet of boiled turnips, gritty pigeon innards and musty sea buckthorn. No fish and chips? No Thai red curry? No pizza? No thanks! Luckily for me, our diets have come a long way since the dark ages. But what are we going to be eating in the future? With natural resources being consumed at…

“This discovery of a lake of liquid water underneath the south polar ice cap on Mars is very exciting for astrobiology and the search for life beyond Earth. Liquid water is one of the major prerequisites for life, and similar environments on Earth, such as Lake Vostok, sealed deep beneath the Antarctic ice sheet, provide analogues for what sort of microbial life we might hope to find here on Mars. “But this subsurface lakewater on Mars would be an extremely challenging environment for life to survive in. The water, although liquid, is still punishingly frigid at around -70°C, and is probably also very salty to keep it liquid at such low temperatures. The lake is also 1.5km beneath hard-frozen ice, and so would be difficult to reach with robotic probes.…

Well, this rocks! The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s (JAXA) Hayabusa2 probe has snapped this stunning shot of asteroid 162173 Ryugu from just 6km above the asteroid’s surface – an important milestone in the probe’s overall mission. As outlined in last month’s BBC Focus (August, p40), Hayabusa2’s eventual goal is to bring back rock samples from Ryugu, as its predecessor the Hayabusa probe did from the Itokawa asteroid in 2010. Once returned to Earth, these samples will be studied by JAXA scientists with a view to discovering more about both asteroids’ physical make-up – knowledge that would be vital should humankind need to deflect any asteroid threatening to collide with our planet in the future – and their chemistry. Asteroids are believed to have delivered many of the chemicals needed for…

Virtual reality enables people to experience a simulated problematic situation without any actual, real world risk. For this reason many mental health experts have been exploring its therapeutic potential. Post-traumatic stress disorder, fear of flying, arachnophobia and persecutory delusions are just some of the areas where VR has shown promise.…

Many of us like nothing more than tucking into a fiery chicken madras or lamb bhuna, but the majority of other animals do their best to avoid hot, spicy foods such as chillies – which is precisely why such plants evolved to be hot and spicy in the first place. However, we’re not entirely alone: tree shrews (Tupaia belangeri chinensis) will also happily chow down on chilli peppers when given the chance. Now, an analysis of their genome by researchers at China’s Kunming Institute of Zoology has explained the secret of their tolerance. Spicy foods derive most of their heat from a chemical called capsaicin. When eaten, capsaicin triggers the activation of TRPV1 – a receptor channel found on the surface of pain-sensitive cells in the tongue and elsewhere. TRPV1’s…

#OBESITY CAN’T LOSE WEIGHT? BLAME YOUR BACTERIA It’s well established that diet and exercise are key to losing weight, but gut bacteria may also play an important role, a study at Mayo Clinic in the US has found. A preliminary trial involving 26 participants enrolled in the clinic’s obesity treatment scheme has found marked, consistent differences between the gut bacteria of individuals who lost weight and those who didn’t. ANTI-OBESITY DRUG DERIVED FROM CHILLI A drug based on capsaicin, the compound that gives chillies their spicy burn, has triggered long-term weight loss in mice eating a high fat diet, a study at the University of Wyoming has found. When fed Metabocin, a drug designed to slowly release capsaicin throughout the day, mice burned white fat cells rather than storing them,…

“I DO WORRY ABOUT THE AIR I’M BREATHING WHEN I’M IN LONDON” Much of my working life is spent in London and I cycle everywhere. It’s a fast, convenient way to get around, but I do worry about the air I’m breathing. When it comes to air pollution, London comes out badly. So what is the best way to get around a busy city if you want to minimise your exposure? Walking, driving, cycling, or the Underground? The story around air pollution is confusing. Six years ago I bought a diesel car. I’d read that diesel produces less carbon dioxide per mile than petrol, so I thought I was doing my bit for the environment. It turns out that I’ve been contributing to the nearly 40,000 premature deaths that happen…

CLOCKING UP MILES Self-driving ride-share company Waymo recently announced its cars have driven 12.87 million kilometres on public roads. They’d accrued 6.44 million kilometres from 2009 until November 2017, and doubled that distance in the last eight months. The company plans to launch a commercial service this year. LOW-STRESS DENTISTS Researchers at Colombia University’s Center for Precision Dental Medicine are equipping chairs with biofeedback systems that will measure patients’ heart rates and oxygen levels during procedures. It’s designed to track patients’ stress levels so that dentists can take steps to make them more comfortable. UNDERWATER INTERNET Thousands of miles of internet cables, data centres and servers could be underwater by 2030 due to rising sea levels, according to a new study. Underground cables are resistant to water but not complete…

“In the next 10 years, the emerging field of ‘personalised nutrition’ will offer healthy eating guidance tailored to the individual” Before 1928, no one had tasted bubblegum. In the late 1930s, frozen cream desserts threw off their reputation for being as hard as rock with the US invention of soft-serve ice cream (often called Mr Whippy in the UK). Popping candy introduced children’s mouths to a bizarre effervescence 20 years later. And in the late 1990s, Red Bull showcased a strange medicinal flavour that’s since become synonymous with energy drinks. The foods we eat are always evolving and new tastes are being created. By 2028, you can expect to be tucking into foods unlike anything you’ve experienced before. ... TAILORED TO YOUR GENOME Today, we know that healthy eating is…

SINGLE NUCLEOTIDE POLYMORPHISMS Nucleotides, the building blocks of DNA, include one of four chemical letters: A, C, G or T. The most common genetic variations in humans are ‘single nucleotide polymorphisms’, known as SNPs. These are positions in DNA where two people might carry the same letter, or different letters. There are 10 million SNPs across the genome and the vast majority don’t affect how your body works. Personal genomics firms like 23andMe offer tests that read SNPs to generate a DNA profile, which is compared against other profiles in their databases to indicate your family history, ethnic background and risk of inherited diseases. MICROSATELLITES Approximately 3 per cent of the human genome is composed of microsatellites, also known as ‘short tandem repeats’ (STRs). Each microsatellite is a repeating unit…

The traditional consensus among psychiatrists and psychologists has been that psychopathy is an untreatable condition. Even respected mental health professionals have bandied around terms like ‘just evil’ to describe psychopathic criminals. But while there’s certainly no sign of a cure on the horizon, in recent years some evidence has emerged to suggest that young psychopaths, in particular, can at least be taught to manage their condition. In 2001, a study carried out by Michael Caldwell and Gregory Van Rybroek at the Mendota Juvenile Treatment Center in Wisconsin, USA, found that young offenders diagnosed with psychopathic traits were far less likely to reoffend if given ‘decompression therapy’. This involves moving slowly from a punitive model of care to one of positive reinforcement, in which youths were rewarded for more ‘normal’ behaviour.…

One theory suggests that seasickness occurs when the motion we feel with our inner ear doesn’t match the motion we see. The brain mistakes this for a hallucination caused by poisoning, and we vomit as a defensive measure. Recent studies also suggest that side-to-side motion is much more nauseating than purely up-and-down movement. 1. Brain The ‘area postrema’ is a part of the brain that detects chemical toxins, and triggers vomiting to get rid of them. 2. Brainstem The ‘reticular formation’ group of neuron clusters regulates arousal. Seasickness is often accompanied by drowsiness, perhaps because the wave motion mimics the rocking that soothed us as infants. 3.Eyes The eye muscles stretch as you automatically try to compensate for the motion. This may stimulate the vagus nerve, which can also trigger…

HOWL AT THE MOON Artist Luke Jerram has hung a seven-metre model of the Moon in Hull Minster, and on 11 September, for one night only, you can sing along to space-themed tunes with the University of Hull Chapel Choir. DISTORTIONS IN SPACE-TIME Experience what it’s like to step into a black hole in this brand new immersive artwork. You’ll be turned into particle clouds on a giant screen, then squashed and stretched by gravitational waves. ATTRACTION EXPLAINED On 12 September, psychologist Viren Swami will discuss how geography, appearance and personality affect who we fall for and why. Then you can test out your new knowledge on someone you get paired with on the night… CSI OF THE SEA If a cetacean dies after becoming beached on UK shores, ideally…

NICOLA DAVIES Psychologist and writer Nicola reveals why there are more psychopaths around than you think (and why that’s probably okay). p74 STUART FARRIMOND Doctor turned writer and TV presenter Stuart looks into the future of food – from edible spray paints to genetically engineered superfoods. p40 MOYA SARNER Writer Moya spent some time hanging out with Flat Earthers to find out why they’re so committed to a worldview that science rejected centuries ago. p58…

Michael Mosley’s column (Summer, p27) sheds light on the benefits of ‘daily fasting’ and eating only during restricted daytime hours. Only a generation or two ago this was a normal way of consuming food, dictated by necessity and sometimes also by traditions and customs. My grandparents, who were married in 1902, lived in a house without central heating and running water. To keep milk fresh, they lowered the closed milk container on a rope into the well to hang just above the water level. Their daily routine didn’t begin with breakfast in bed – they had to fetch wood to light the stove, water for their morning cup of tea, and milk out of the well. Being devoted Eastern Orthodox Christians, they said their prayers every morning before they would…

“Back in the 80s, we knew liquid water existed below Earth’s polar ice sheets,” he told BBC Focus. “On Mars, we knew the surface temperature, we had some idea of the thickness of the polar caps, and we knew that Mars, like Earth, generates internal heat. So it was just a case of putting all those elements together. Of course, 30 years ago people weren’t yet used to thinking of Mars as a water-rich planet, so there was some resistance to the idea at first. But thanks to MARSIS, we now have very persuasive evidence that such lakes do indeed exist.”…

12 The number of previously undiscovered moons found in orbit around Jupiter. This brings the total number of moons around the gas giant to 79 – the most of any planet in the Solar System. 42,000 YEARS The age of nematode worms that were successfully revived recently, after they were discovered lying frozen in Siberian permafrost. 5 The percentage drop in end-of-term exam performance for students who were allowed access to a smartphone or tablet for non-academic purposes in lectures, according to a study at Rutgers University.…

RURAL DWELLERS Mental decline occurs much more slowly among those living in villages than among urban dwellers, a 10-year study carried out in Barcelona has found. Reduced stress, lower pollution levels and more active lifestyles are all believed to be factors. LYING POLYGLOTS Multilingual Pinocchios, rejoice! The University of Würzburg has found that we feel emotions less strongly in a second language, so the stress that is associated with lying is reduced, making it easier for us to tell those fibs.…

This summer has seen extreme weather right across the Northern Hemisphere, seemingly far beyond what has been seen in previous years. Widespread heatwaves have been observed on every continent, with weather records being broken left, right and centre. On 27 June, Oman reported a night-time temperature that never dropped below 42.6°C, a world record for the highest minimum temperature within a 24-hour period. Across the Red Sea, in the Sahara Desert, a new continental record maximum daytime temperature of 51.3°C was observed. Elsewhere on the planet, local temperature records have been broken in regions as diverse as the Arctic Circle, the US, Japan, Greece and the UK. In many places the heat has been made worse by a lack of rain, which, if present, takes some of the energy from…

Live out your Iron Man dreams with this Tony Stark-style flying suit that’s gone on sale at Selfridges in London. You can pick up the 1,050bhp Jet Suit for a cool £340,000. The Jet Suit, made by Gravity Industries, was constructed using 3D printing and bespoke electronics, weighs 27kg and is powered by five miniature jet engines attached to the back and arms. It’s no casual ride: in the suit you can reach a cruising speed of 51.5km/h (32mph) and a maximum altitude of 3,675m (12,000ft) – features that earned the suit a Guinness World Record. Richard Browning, who built the suit, isn’t some mad billionaire with a superhero complex, but a father of two from Wiltshire who was inspired by his time with the Royal Marines. Flight is in…

SEGWAY NINEBOT KICKSCOOTER ES2 It’s hard to say exactly why, but there’s just something horribly conspicuous about a grown man on an electric scooter. Even in Bristol, where we’ve seen people going to work on unicycles and penny-farthings. But if you can put your vanity to one side, the Ninebot by Segway is actually a fine way to get around. The motor kicks in after a push and manages a reasonable top speed of 25km/h (15.5mph). Large wheels and shock absorbers help the Ninebot skip over most surfaces, and the LED headlight makes it visible enough to ride at night. It’s a brilliant piece of kit, albeit one that’s perhaps, like other Segways before it, just a little ahead of its time. From £549, segway.com TOP…

SUSPICION Often there’s an official story, and conspiracy theories explicitly push back against it, such as with 9/11. The official story is that this was a terrorist attack, but the conspiracy theory is that it was the government, or someone else. However, conspiracy theories can also emerge as an event unfolds, before the official story becomes clear, in the guise of “there is more to this than we are being told”. DECEPTION Conspiracy theorists tend to believe that everyone else is being deceived, apart from themselves. The methods of deception, they believe, are elaborate, complex, ongoing and executed almost perfectly – pulling the wool over the eyes of those who haven’t yet ‘seen the light’. WICKEDNESS When real-life scandals are uncovered, we usually find petty self-interest is at the root…

DR ALASTAIR GUNN Astronomer, astrophysicist ALEX FRANKLINCHEUNG Environment/ climate expert DR PETER J BENTLEY Computer scientist, author PROF ALICE GREGORY Psychologist, sleep expert DR ZOE WILLIAMS GP, fitness expert CHARLOTTE CORNEY Zoo director, conservationist DR HELEN SCALES Oceans expert, science writer DR CHRISTIAN JARRETT Neuroscientist, science writer EMMA DAVIES Chemistry expert, science writer LUIS VILLAZON Science/tech writer DR GILES YEO Geneticist, food expert PROF ROBERT MATTHEWS Physicist, science writer What’s the biggest butterfly in the world? TERRY CROFT, SLOUGH Queen Alexandra’s birdwing butterfly, which is only found in 100km2 of rainforest in Papua New Guinea. The females are bigger than the males and have a wingspan of 25cm and an 8cm-long body. The Hercules moth, found in New Guinea and northern Australia, is slightly larger, with a 27cm wingspan and the…

After millennia of exploiting sources of chemical energy, such as wood, the discovery of nuclear fission in the 1930s gave humanity access to something far more potent: energy released by the splitting – ‘fission’ – of atomic nuclei. Immediately recognised as the basis of a weapon of mass destruction, and now used to generate around 10 per cent of the world’s electricity, nuclear fission has always been controversial. Even its discovery provokes arguments. What’s not in doubt is that nuclear fission was first achieved by a team led by the German chemist Otto Hahn in 1938. Along with his colleague Fritz Strassmann, Hahn found that uranium atoms could be split by bombarding them with neutrons. But baffled that mere subatomic particles could achieve this feat, Hahn contacted Lise Meitner, a…

“YOU WOULDN’T HAVE SEEN A NEANDERTHAL AT THE BACK OF THE CAVE DROPPING THE MICROPHONE” What do you do? Too much. I’m a stand-up comedian, I do bits of TV and I’m also a PhD student studying Neanderthals. I go into unstable, hostile and disputed territories to look for Palaeolithic caves. I go to the places the government advises you not to visit. The sorts of places you can’t get insurance for. I’ve worked in Syria and in the Yemen. Why are you drawn to conflict zones? Partly because these places are underexplored, and partly because fossils can help to create a narrative of hope. Fossils can be a source of national pride, and can draw tourists and resources. Because they transcend political divisions, they can act as a rallying…

At the end of July, scientists from the European Space Agency (ESA) announced what’s arguably one of the biggest scientific breakthroughs of 2018 so far: there isliquid water on Mars. The discovery of an underwater lake below a glacier in Mars’s south polar region was made using the MARSIS (Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionosphere Sounding) instrument on ESA’s Mars Express probe, which has been in orbit around the Red Planet since December 2003. While the surface of Mars is far too cold for water to exist in liquid form, the covering of ice at the poles, which can be up to 2km thick, acts like an igloo, trapping what little heat Mars emits due to the decay of radioactive elements within its core. If the water in question…

SPORTS FANS As any supporter of a less successful team can attest, being a sports fan can be hard work at times. Now, a study carried out using a happiness monitoring app by researchers at the University of Sussex has found that the despair felt by sports fans when their team loses is twice as strong as the elation felt when their teams win. BUSINESSMEN Time to loosen up office dress codes? German researchers have found that wearing a tight necktie can reduce blood flow to the brain by as much as 7.5 per cent. The restriction could prove problematic for those with high blood pressure or circulation issues.…

“PUBLIC SPEAKING SENDS ME INTO PAROXYSMS OF FEAR” Beaver Creek, Colorado. It’s a sweltering July day and I’m at an invite-only gathering of polymaths and dignitaries. I’m being introduced to this audience of extraordinary people as the next stimulating speaker. I hate this moment. I can hear the anticipation in the air; I can see their eyes shining with expectation. Soon I’ll have to walk out, alone and vulnerable, to educate, enlighten and entertain. I feel confident with the education and enlightenment; I know I know my stuff. But the last, I fear, eludes me. I have flashbacks of misjudged, overly academic talks I’ve presented to silent rooms of people, their faces blue with the shine of their digital devices as they try to escape the drone of my words.…

The combustion engine’s days are numbered. Those smelly, noisy motors will slowly be forced out of cities as we creep towards 2040, after which you’ll no longer be able to buy a new car in the UK unless it can travel 50 miles on electric power alone. In order to clean up the air we breathe, it seems petrol and diesel will go the way of the steam train, and the horse and carriage before it. It’s a necessary progression, but one we’ll be slightly sad to see. That’s the backdrop to the arrival of the Jaguar I-Pace, the first real all-electric rival to Tesla’s premium Model S. It’s a big leap for the British company, but is it good enough to ease the pain of parting with the engines…

LACK OF EMPATHY Psychopaths couldn’t care less about anything other than their own wellbeing MANIPULATIVE They will say anything to get you where they want you CONFIDENT They are arrogant and overly confident in character and ability BLAME SHIFTERS They engage in blame shifting and never take responsibility for their behaviours SELFISH They do have the ability to love – but only themselves VIOLENT They resort to violence and threats when backed into a corner FOCUSED They have exceptional focus for accomplishing their goals MOOD SHIFTS They tend to exhibit rapid shifts in mood…