Indholdsfortegnelse for February 2022 i BBC Science Focus Magazine

The augmented intelligence piece by Prof Peter Bentley (New Year, p72) focused on a very important issue – where are artificial intelligence and robotics heading towards, and what curbs and mechanisms should be put into place to control these technologies so that they don’t get out of hand. From designing effective vaccines to managing the financial markets, both AI and robotics have improved our world so far. However, we must not rest on our laurels. We need these technologies to be regulated so that they don’t fall into the wrong hands, thus causing untold damage. I strongly believe that science and technology are gifts, and they should be used for the betterment of humankind, not the destruction of life as we know it. An augmented approach led by good people…

Jupiter’s atmosphere is one of the most turbulent places in the Solar System, and thanks to the spacecraft Juno, we know that the poles are home to gigantic, persistent cyclones that rotate around areas of low pressure without dispersing. However, the mystery of why Jupiter’s cyclones have remained so stable has intrigued scientists since they were first observed in 2016. The number of cyclones has stayed the same over this time period: eight in the north pole and five at the south. These large cyclones are up to 5,000km wide – wider than the continental United States – and each is associated with intermediate (around 500km to 1,600km wide) and smaller-scale vortices, around 100km wide. Now, a new study published in the journal Nature Physics has provided evidence that these…

Cancer researchers have developed a blood test that could improve diagnosis and treatment for patients. The test is the first to be able to detect not only the presence of cancer but also the spread of the disease around the body, which is often categorised in cancer stages. Currently, patients diagnosed with cancer have to undergo imaging and testing so doctors can tell if it has spread to any other part of the body. A cancer that has spread is called metastatic cancer. This knowledge then informs treatment, as patients with tumours in a single area are offered a local treatment, like surgery, while those with cancer that has spread would need whole-body treatments like chemotherapy or hormone therapy. The new test, developed by researchers at the University of Oxford,…

For women and men alike, becoming a parent is considered one of the most joyful experiences in life. Yet this widespread expectation brings with it a degree of cultural pressure, especially for parents who struggle with problems such as anxiety and low mood before or after their children are born. Indeed, a significant minority of mothers – about 20 per cent – experience depression in the months before and after their child is born (known as perinatal depression, in contrast to postnatal depression which is exclusively after the birth). Thankfully, awareness of these maternal mental health challenges has increased in recent years. This is a good thing, because left untreated a mother’s mental health problems aren’t only detrimental to her but to her infant too. However, less known and recognised,…

The idea of a virtual world that we can interact with is rapidly becoming more likely. It’s called the metaverse and it offers the potential of an internet that we will explore via virtual reality. But are the first users putting themselves at risk? CAN YOU EXPLAIN WHAT THE METAVERSE IS? There are a few definitions. You can think of it from a technological viewpoint, where it’s simply the successor of the internet. Computers once took up big rooms, but they’ve shrunk until we got things like pocket-sized smartphones that you constantly interact with. The metaverse takes this a step further, making the actual environment you interact with virtual, removing the interface of computers completely. Most people define the metaverse as an embodied internet. This means it allows you to…

In Arthur C Clarke’s awardwinning 1973 novel, Rendezvous With Rama, a mysterious 50-kilometre-long cylindrical spacecraft enters the Solar System. A space mission is mounted to intercept it and study it before it flies back out and is swallowed up by the darkness of interstellar space. Now, remarkably, science fiction is morphing into science fact. Astrophysicist Prof Avi Loeb of Harvard University believes ‘Oumuamua, a mysterious interstellar object that flew through the Solar System in 2017, may have been an alien Rama-like artefact. But being a scientist rather than a science fiction writer, he wants data. “With that in mind, I have set up Project Galileo,” he says. “Its aim is to scan the heavens for the next ‘Oumuamua and send a space mission to fly by it and photograph it.”…

Artificial glaciers, or ice stupas, are made using a simple irrigation system designed to store fresh water for use during arid summer months. Ice stupas have provided a lifeline for farmers during the spring planting season in Ladakh, a high mountain-desert region on the edge of the Himalayas, which on average only receives 10 centimetres of precipitation annually. 1 Artificial glaciers are built during the winter months by piping fresh water from a higher altitude downslope. 2 The water is channelled through a pipe from the base of the ice stupa into a vertical pipe. 3 When the temperature drops at night, the water is released through a sprinkler at the top of the vertical pipe, where it collects and freezes on a net-covered dome. 4 As the water freezes…

JAKOB KAYE, DUMFRIES AND GALLOWAY WHAT WOULD IT MEAN FOR BIODIVERSITY ON EARTH, IF THE MOON WAS COMPLETELY BLACK? A matt black Moon would still raise tides but would pass almost invisibly across the sky. Apart from the variation between the height of spring and neap tides, it would be impossible to tell the phase of the Moon. This circalunar rhythm is a very important timing signal that many creatures use to synchronise their behaviour. Corals on the Great Barrier Reef, for example, use the full Moon as the trigger for their annual mass spawning. This ensures that all the polyps have their eggs and sperm in the water at once, which increases the chance of successful fertilisation. Birds also use the lunar cycle to synchronise migrations. For example, the…

The Doctor Will See You Now This new series presented by Kate Garraway (right) brings augmented reality into the doctor’s office. Patients journey through their own bodies using AR to help them better understand common medical conditions. BBC Two and iPlayer Check Radio Times for details Ramblings Across nine episodes, Clare Balding explores rambling routes around the UK and meets the people who take trekking to the next level. BBC Radio 4 Thursdays, 3pm Dynasties II Returning this month is the fantasti animal documentary Dynasties II, presented by Sir David Attenborough Four episodes will explore the remarkable lives of the elephant, cheetah, puma and hyena. BBC One Check Radio Times for details…

When it comes to picky eating, giant pandas are up there with the best of them. Despite weighing upwards of 100kg, the charismatic black-and-white Asian bears exist almost solely on a diet of bamboo. But how do they maintain their rotund figures by consuming a food source with so little nutritional value? Researchers at the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Zoology think they have the answer: pandas’ gut microbiomes shift during the season when nutritious bamboo shoots sprout, allowing them to pack on the pounds and compensate for the lack of nutrients in seasons when there are only bamboo leaves left to nibble on. “This is the first time we established a causal relationship between a panda’s gut microbiota and its phenotype [observable traits],” said study author Guangping Huang.…

The European Space Agency’s (ESA) exoplanet-hunting satellite has caught a glimpse of a planet deformed by the strong tidal pull of its host star for the first time. Named WASP-103b, the planet is located in the constellation of Hercules around 35 light-years from Earth and is about twice the size of Jupiter with 1.5 times its mass. The planet is so close to its host star WASP-103, which is about 200°C hotter and 1.7 times larger than the Sun, that it completes a full orbit in less than a day. Astronomers suspected that such close proximity between the star and its planet would cause a strong tidal pull, but up until now they haven’t been able to measure it. Cheops measures exoplanet transits – the dip in light caused when…

…a car that changes colour at the touch of a button Want to feel like the new James Bond? BMW’s iX Flow could get you some of the way there, without the murder, questionable politics and alcohol dependency. Unveiled at CES 2022, the iX Flow is a normal-looking car with one special feature – it can change colour. The car is covered in millions of microcapsules that contain negative and positive pigments of paint. Change the setting on an electrical field and the car instantly changes colour. Essentially, it’s like a massive e-reader display has been stretched across the face of the car. Maybe not the most useful feature, but certainly a cool party trick. BMW iX Flow £TBC, bmw.com …a tablet you can fold in half Do you ever…

MEGASTRUCTURES Just as our global energy needs are always increasing, so too will the energy needs of an advanced alien civilisation. In 1960, Anglo-American physicist Freeman Dyson suggested that, eventually, ETs will want to use the entire energy output of their parent star. They might do this, he argued, by dismantling their asteroid belt and reconstructing it in the form of a spherical shell that completely encloses their sun. Not only would this provide tremendous amounts of energy, it would offer an enormous surface area – the interior of the shell – for living space. A Dyson sphere would be unstable but an equatorial belt or a vast constellation of satellites could still intercept huge amounts of stellar energy. Such a structure might be detectable because the laws of thermodynamics…

The two most recognisable starpatterns for northern hemisphere sky-watchers are Orion and the Plough. Orion is a constellation representing a mythological hunter, while the Plough is an asterism – an unofficial pattern of stars within Ursa Major the Great Bear. All stars appear to rotate around two points representing the projection of Earth’s rotational axis into the sky: the North and South Celestial Poles (NCP and SCP). The NCP sits above the northern point on the UK’s horizon at an altitude equivalent to your latitude. Stars close enough to the NCP will appear to orbit it without setting, a behaviour described as ‘circumpolar’. The Plough is circumpolar from the UK and is known by many names: the Saucepan (la Casserole in France), Charles’s Wain, the Big Dipper, the Big Rudder…

The wobbegong shark takes camouflage to new heights. Swimming in the warm, shallow waters surrounding Australia, Indonesia and Japan, this master of disguise comes in 12 different species. With their intricate markings and pebbly hues, these animals do a knockout impression of the sea floor, where they spend most of their time, stock-still, waiting to ambush any hapless morsel that swims too close. Unlike some other shark species, wobbegongs do not need to constantly move in order to breathe. Instead, they actively pump water over their gills with their cheek muscles. The word ‘wobbegong’ is thought to come from an Australian Aboriginal word meaning ‘shaggy beard’ and refers to the wispy tassels that frame their enormous chops. By blurring the lines between the shark and its surroundings, they enhance the…

SYNAESTHESIA WHAT IS SYNAESTHESIA? Synaesthesia is a perceptual phenomenon where stimulation of one sense triggers experiences in another sense. For example, a synaesthete might see colours when music plays, or taste flavours when they speak different words. The word synaesthesia originates from the Greek words ‘syn’ for union and ‘aesthesis’ for sensation, literally translating to ‘a union of the senses’. There are over 70 types of synaesthesia, which cause associations between different types of sensory input, but what they all have in common is that the associations are involuntary, present from early childhood, and remain consistent throughout life. It is thought that synaesthesia is caused by extra connectivity between sensory regions of the brain, so stimulation of one sense cross-activates the other. In the 1990s, sound-colour synaesthetes were blindfolded and…

A US man has become the first person in the world to receive a heart transplant from a genetically modified pig. Surgeons say the experimental procedure was the only available option for the patient David Bennett, a 57-yearold from Maryland in the US, who was living with terminal heart disease. Bennett is currently being carefully monitored while specialists at the University of Maryland Medical Center, where the procedure was carried out, determine whether the transplant can keep him alive in the long term. “It was either die, or do this transplant. I want to live. I know it’s a shot in the dark, but it’s my last choice,” said Bennett. “I look forward to getting out of bed after I recover.” The procedure required emergency authorisation from the US Food…

A space rock the size of a bus will be the target of this shoebox-sized spacecraft that will use the Sun as a means of propulsion. Near-Earth Asteroid Scout (NEA Scout) will hitch a ride aboard the test launch of the Artemis rocket in March. Once in space, it’ll deploy a solar sail which will reflect the Sun’s radiation to propel it forwards. Asteroids smaller than 100m across have never been studied up close. NEA Scout will pull up alongside its target and investigate its composition to work out whether it’s a single boulder-like rock or if it’s made up of clumps of dust and debris.…

Adults and young people in the US seem to be having less sex than previous generations, according to a study published in November 2021. As is often the case, mobile phones have been named as the cause of this change in behaviour, but is that really what’s going on? The study was based on data from the National Survey of Sexual Health and Behavior (NSSHB), comparing over 8,500 individuals’ responses from 2009 and 2018. The results echoed a similar study in the UK, called the National Surveys of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles (Natsal), which has been collecting information about the public’s sexual experiences for over three decades. The Natsal researchers have found that with every survey, the average number of occasions of sex per week has decreased: in 1991 respondents…

A robot arm, a machine-learning algorithm and a brain-computer interface have been combined to create a system to help tetraplegic (those who can’t move their upper or lower body) patients interact with their world. While this isn’t the first time a brain interface has been used to control a robot, it has taken the technology a step further by estimating and understanding brain signals without input from the patient. The technology was built by two departments at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL). One department was responsible for the algorithm that translated the brain waves into the signals the robotic arm could interpret, and the other built the brain-machine interface. First, the user puts on an EEG cap, which effectively scans electrical activity in their head. These brain…

BAT KIT CRAZY Bat flight is fiendishly complex, requiring a system of muscles, bones and joints that incorporate folding of the wings in every wingbeat. The force that bat wings generate comes from a strong but flexible covering of skin, as opposed to the rigid feathers used by birds. Basically, of all the flying beasts in the world, if you’re going to pick one to try to emulate, don’t pick a bat. Except that’s exactly what US researchers did when they created this robotic bat, dubbed ‘B2’, to help them understand bat flight. In an article published in the journal Science Robotics, they explain how they stretched a 56-micrometre-thick (one micrometre = one-thousandth of a millimetre), silicone-based skin over B2’s wings, enabling it “to morph its articulated structure in mid-air…

Kimberley co-presents Made Of Stronger Stuff on BBC Radio 4. Series two is available now. Scientific progress is characterised by the transition from the supernatural to the natural, and the mystical to the comparatively mundane. Before the modern era of psychology and neuroscience, mental illness was understood to be evidence of the supernatural: demonic possession, unhappy deities or vengeful curses. Unusual behaviour would be addressed through prayer, penance and exorcism. Towards the end of the Renaissance, when the church’s power over civil life began to wane, there was greater acceptance of more mundane causes of emotional distress or unusual behaviour. Though the treatment of mentally ill individuals in 16th-Century asylums could not be called humane, the assumption, at least, was that the causes of illness were natural or physical and…

HOW CAN I CONTROL MY CHOLESTEROL? Cholesterol is a type of fat, called a lipid, which is present in the blood. It’s a waxy substance, and your body needs cholesterol to build healthy cells, but too much can lead to the build-up of fatty deposits in your blood vessels, increasing your risk of heart disease. Diet is a key contributor to high cholesterol. The key is to cut down on foods with saturated fat, like cheese, biscuits, cakes, butter, pies, sausages, coconut oil and fatty meats. Eating more foods with unsaturated fats can help, such as avocado, vegetable oils, nuts, and oily fish. There are good diet sheets available on the British Heart Foundation and NHS websites with more detail, which might be worth pinning on the fridge as a…

PENCILS AT THE READY! ACROSS 1 Had torn round cape when necessary (2,3) 4 Virile doctor going round a church (5) 8 Amusing soldier found in damp places (5) 9 Some dairy has hog running around in tent (7) 10 Limit international appearance (3) 11 I care about heather (5) 12 Initially organise meeting by word of mouth (6) 14 After development, promote creche’s cell (13) 17 Blues composition about old game (6) 19 Not sure when a Republican’s removed a member of the family (5) 22 One politician is a mischievous devil (3) 23 A victory – scoundrel rings about fruit (7) 24 Bone puts excellent section back (5) 25 Artist to rely ultimately on material (5) 26 Start to distribute a cut – curious gold coin (5) DOWN…