Indholdsfortegnelse for May 2022 i BBC Science Focus Magazine

In the heights VAN PROVINCE, TURKEY With its deep valleys and high mountains, the Gevaş district in the Van province of Turkey is an ideal location for a wind farm. In fact, it’s one of the country’s most productive areas in terms of sustainable wind energy. The engineer you can see on the turbine is safely tethered to a guard rail. High up in the mountains, cold air is denser and heavier than warm air. Gaps between mountains funnel and intensify winds, and the strong but consistent breezes mean that wind farms can produce more power. At an altitude of 3,000m, the wind turbines at Gevaş also have snow and blizzards to contend with, not to mention ice formation, but the payoff is enough electricity to supply 50,000 houses. In…

The first comprehensive study of how the human brain changes over a lifetime could help doctors to monitor and diagnose neurological conditions such as Alzheimer’s. The study, led by researchers at the University of Cambridge and the University of Philadelphia, has produced a unique set of charts based on brain scans that range from those of a 15-week-old foetus all the way up to a 100-year-old adult. So far, the researchers have identified a number of developmental milestones, including a rapid growth burst that begins at around 17 weeks after conception, when the brain is around 10 per cent of its full size. This growth spurt then ends at around three years of age, when the brain has reached around 80 per cent of its full size. They also found…

A study of facial muscles in dogs and wolves has revealed key anatomical differences that are likely a result of human selective breeding. Scientists say that the 33,000-year relationship between humans and canines has relied on a reciprocal bond between the two species, which developed through mutual gazing and dogs’ ability to ‘communicate’ with facial expressions similar to ones made by humans. It’s likely that humans selectively bred dogs based on their effectiveness in communicating in this way, which may have led to our furry friends’ facial muscles evolving to become faster and more responsive. The new research, carried out by scientists at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, compared dogs with wolves and focused on specific muscles called mimetic muscles. These are muscles found in mammals that connect to nerves in…

How clever does a smartphone really need to be? A look at my Screen Time app tells me that 85 per cent phone usage is spent either watching YouTube, listening to music, or scrolling through Twitter. Clearly, I’ve wasted my money on a top-of-the-range phone – a 20-something-core processor is a bit over the top for binge-watching Binging With Babish. So, I skipped the new iPhone 13 to spend a month with the latest iteration of the iPhone SE instead – a handset that’s less than half the price of the newest, smartest iPhone available – to find out whether it’s time for a rethink when it comes to how much I spend on my phone. WHAT ARE THE UPSIDES? A quick read of the spec sheet tells you this…

EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT A FUTURE WHERE YOU CAN HAVE YOUR STEAK AND EAT IT… It wasn’t long ago that the idea of the meat on our plates coming from vast stainless steel bioreactors, rather than farmed animals, seemed like science fiction. The notion has gone through numerous rebrands since its early positing as ‘vat meat’, which triggered unappealing visions of high-tech Spam. ‘Lab meat’ came next, as scientists perfected the recipe in small beakers in laboratories. Then came the more appetising-sounding ‘cultured meat’, as investment from high-profile individuals rocketed and producers positioned these products as having been brewed, just like beer. Now, ‘cultured meat’ has evolved to ‘cultivated meat’, which is the preferred term used by CEOs in the industry. Whatever you choose to call it, with…

HOW FAR IS THE SUN FROM EARTH? The distance between the Sun and Earth is, on average, about 149.6 million kilometres. That means that the Sun’s light takes about 8.3 minutes to reach Earth. Since the Earth’s orbit is slightly elliptical, at its closest point to the Sun (called ‘perihelion’) it is about 147 million kilometres away, while at its furthest point (called ‘aphelion’) it is about 152 million kilometres away. This 3 per cent or so difference means sunlight is on average 7 per cent stronger at perihelion than at aphelion. But perihelion actually occurs in early January, in the dead of winter for the northern hemisphere. This demonstrates that it is the Earth’s axial tilt which causes the seasons, rather than its proximity to the Sun. HOW DOES…

Our Changing Planet In this hugely ambitious series, six presenters visit six of the world’s most threatened ecosystems and will return over a period of seven years witness conservation projects in action, to see whether we can protect our planet’s treasures. BBC One Sundays, 7pm Catch up on iPlayer CrowdScience Photographic memory: it’s a gimmick employed by many a TV and movie series, but does it really exist? This week, CrowdScience explores the elusive world of memory. BBC World Service 13 May, 8:30pm Also available on BBC Sounds Just One Thing Dr Michael Mosley returns for his health radio series, which examines the small steps we can all take to improve our health. In this series, he starts with beetroot. BBC Radio 4 Wednesdays, 9:30am Also available on BBC Sounds…

A DNA analysis of thousands of tumours taken from NHS patients has shed new light on the genetic causes of cancer and could lead to new targets for treatment. A team of researchers based at Cambridge University Hospitals and the University of Cambridge analysed the whole-genome sequences of more than 12,000 NHS cancer patients, studying the history of genetic mutations in each patient as the illness progressed. Thanks to the vast size of the data set they had to work with, the researchers were able to detect tell-tale patterns, or mutational signatures, in the DNA of each specific tumour that could provide clues to the patients’ past exposure to environmental causes of cancer such as smoking or UV light. They were also able to pin down 58 previously unidentified mutational…

Genetic testing to predict how patients respond to a range of common drugs should be made available as soon as possible, according to a report by the Royal College of Physicians and the British Pharmacological Society. There can be a huge variation in how people respond to drugs due to differences in their genes. The tests that the experts are calling for are known as pharmacogenomic tests, and can be used to check how safe, effective and side-effect-free more than 40 drugs are in each individual patient by identifying variations in their genes. The authors say that 99 per cent of patients carry at least one of these variations. While some pharmacogenomic tests – such as one for the chemotherapy drug fluorouracil – are currently available on the NHS, they…

It has long been noted that COVID-19 patients can suffer from a wide range of neurological symptoms such as headaches, confusion and loss of taste and smell. They are often the first symptoms of SARS-CoV-2 infection to arise and can be severe and long-lasting. They also occur indiscriminately in patients, regardless of age or the presence of other medical conditions. But little is known about exactly how the disease affects the brain and central nervous system. Now, a group of researchers at Tulane University in New Orleans, USA, have published the first comprehensive study investigating the effects of COVID-19 in the brains of non-human primates. They found that subjects infected with SARS-CoV-2 showed signs of severe inflammation and injury, indicating a reduction in blood or oxygen flow into the brain,…

SCIENCE BEHIND THE HEADLINES Peat-free compost | Skin microbiome | W boson “Peatlands cover around 3 per cent of the planet’s surface but hold twice as much soil carbon as all the world’s forests” Visit the BBC’s Reality Check website at bit.ly/reality_check or follow them on Twitter @BBCRealityCheck For years, environmentalists have been pushing for a ban on the sales of peat in the UK, citing the peat supply chain’s high carbon emissions, as well as the ecological importance of the environment it comes from. This may now soon happen, with the UK government announcing in December plans to ban sales of peat to gardeners by 2024. But some campaigners say this is still not soon enough, while others warn that rapidly scaling up the supply of sustainable alternatives to peat may be…

…an action camera with some versatility Action cameras need to be versatile to capture every cliff jump, dirt bike trail or gnarly wave on film… and that’s where the new Insta360 ONE RS comes in. As far as action cameras go, this is one of the more unique options. It uses a modular design, offering a detachable 360° lens, wide-angle lens and a 4K action camera that you can easily switch between. You can also detach the battery, allowing you to carry back-ups that you can snap in place quickly between stunts. Insta360 ONE RS, £499, insta360.com …shoes made using dandelions The sustainable shoe market is blowing up right now, with companies competing to create the shoe that leaves the smallest carbon footprint. One of the more unique attempts is…

Last year I made a podcast series for BBC Radio 4 called Just One Thing, which was an unexpected hit. The idea is that each week I look at one thing you incorporate into your daily life which might have delightful, unexpected benefits. We ran a feature on this in BBC Science Focus, and the whole of series one and two (all 20 episodes) are available on BBC Sounds. Well, I’ve got a new series which has just started and it kicks off with me making the case for consuming more beetroot, one of the few vegetables that lives up to claims of being a ‘superfood’. Beetroot gets its colour from betalains, powerful antioxidants that are present throughout the plant, but it is the high levels of nitrates that give…

LYRA THE LYRE Considered a summer pattern, the small constellation of Lyra the Lyre is actually visible for most of the year. In fact, its brightest star Vega, never sets from much of the UK, but instead appears to scrape the horizon when it lies due north. During May and into June, Lyra appears roughly two-thirds up the sky above the eastern horizon around midnight. Vega is the brightest star in the large asterism (unofficial pattern) known as the Summer Triangle, the two other vertices marked by Deneb in Cygnus the Swan and Altair in Aquila the Eagle. From the UK, Deneb appears left and down a bit from Vega at this time of year, while Altair is a little lower than halfway between Vega and the horizon. For a…

I REGULARLY WORM MY PETS, SHOULD I WORM MYSELF, TOO? More than 1.5 billion people, or 24 per cent of the world’s population, are infected with worms worldwide, known as helminth infections. They tend to be more prevalent in tropical and subtropical areas, in particular sub-Saharan Africa, the Americas, China and East Asia. The World Health Organization (WHO) currently recommends deworming drug treatment once or twice a year for all children living in areas where soil-transmitted helminths are endemic. There is evidence that these worms can have a significant impact on growth and development of children, and can affect their cognitive development in the long run. In these countries, the WHO also advises that women of reproductive age (including pregnant women in the second and third trimesters and breastfeeding women)…

Just plastic pollution? I wonder if I am the only one that thinks the distribution of tiny sensors into the environment is not necessarily a good idea? The news story was in your Lunchtime Genius newsletter today (17 March). There was no mention in the item of the materials being used to produce these environmental sensors. There is an obvious silicone chip at the heart of the device along with photo cell and capacitor. There is then a small copper wire aerial coated in plastic. I assume the structure is also made of plastic. So, is adding all this silicone, copper and plastic into the environment such a good idea? Simon Biggs, Dudley WRITE IN AND WIN! The writer of next issue’s Letter Of The Month wins a prize bundle…

Frequent napping during the day is a common symptom of Alzheimer’s and can begin long before any of the memory problems associated with the disease occur. It was widely believed that this was due to patients suffering from periods of disturbed sleep at night and subsequently needing to catch up by taking daytime naps. Now, researchers based at the University of California, San Francisco, have discovered that the lethargy and sleepiness experienced by Alzheimer’s patients is due to damage to the neurons found in brain areas that promote wakefulness, namely the locus coeruleus, the lateral hypothalamic area and the tuberomammillary nucleus. This damage is caused by the accumulation of tau proteins – small molecules that usually help to stabilise the structure of neurons but break free and clump together in…

A series of peaks, domes and troughs found on Pluto’s undulating surface may have been created by icy material being pushed up to the surface by cryovolcanic activity, analysis of data collected by NASA’s New Horizons mission has found. The so-called hummocky terrain runs across Sputnik Planitia, an area found southwest of Pluto’s icy heart, and consists of a network of icy formations ranging from one to seven kilometres tall and 30 to 100 kilometres across. “The particular structures we studied are unique to Pluto, at least so far, ” said lead author Dr Kelsi Singer, New Horizons deputy project scientist from the Southwest Research Institute, Boulder, Colorado. “Rather than erosion or other geologic processes, cryovolcanic activity appears to have extruded large amounts of material onto Pluto’s exterior and resurfaced…

NASA has teamed up with private spaceflight company SpinLaunch to trial a unique system designed to send satellites into space using a slingshot-like launcher. The system works by attaching a rocket payload onto one end of a giant spinning arm powered by electric motors, accelerating it to high speeds and then flinging it out into space. As it is housed in a vacuum chamber with next to no air resistance, the arm can be accelerated to around 450 rotations per minute, allowing it to launch the payload through a chute mounted on the top of the system at speeds of up to 8,000km/h – enough to send it into low Earth orbit. In October last year, the SpinLaunch team carried out a successful test run of a scaled-down prototype of…

At the moment we’re born, each of us is seeded with trillions of bacteria cells that live and thrive on our skin. These cells form what’s known as our skin microbiome. The exact makeup of each person’s microbiome is as unique as a fingerprint. As we go through life meeting new people, interacting with environments, adopting different lifestyles, and changing with age, so too does the diversity and health of this microbiome. “The skin microbiome is a natural ecosystem of bacteria that live on the skin, ” explains cosmetic doctor and skin specialist Dr Martin Kinsella. “It works to guard the skin against harmful pathogens to the point where a well-functioning skin microbiome is the foundation of a healthy immune system.” As the microbes colonise our skin, they flourish by…

These chopsticks use a gentle electric current to make food taste saltier, in an effort by Japanese researchers to reduce the sodium levels in a national diet that relies heavily on salty ingredients like soy sauce and miso. They look like a pair of typical chopsticks, just with a set of wires sticking out that connect to a small wrist computer. The utensils work by passing a weak electric current through one of the sticks, which draws out sodium ions from the food (the chemical component that gives salt its savoury taste). The wrist computer modulates the current to create a unique waveform, which the researchers say is so gentle that it poses no danger to the diner. While this technology has potential across the world, it is especially useful…

PURPLE STAIN ABALONE Abalone shells are gleaming and shiny on the inside, thanks to layers of nacre, the same stuff that pearls are made of. Nacre is 95 per cent calcium carbonate – chalk, essentially – but try dropping an abalone shell and you’ll see it’s virtually shatterproof. This super strength comes down to nacre’s microscopic structure of diamond-shaped crystals stacked like bricks, with layers of chitin in between. Chitin is the same tough protein that makes insect exoskeletons and shrimp shells. If the outside of the shell gets damaged, the inner nacre layer stops cracks from growing bigger. The nacreous crystals slide over one another and the chitin stretches, dampening the energy of a spreading crack and halting it in its tracks. Scientists from Canada’s McGill University recently mimicked…

SOFT EYE CONTACT Direct prolonged eye contact can be quite intimidating for most dogs. But if your dog is happy to share soft gazes with you, it can mean that they feel comfortable connecting with you in this way. BIG WAGS “Most of us know that dogs are happy to see us when they treat us to a full body wiggle and wagging tail, ” says Claire Stallard, animal behaviourist at welfare charity Blue Cross. “But look for the ‘helicopter tail’ when the tail spins like a propeller – this is often reserved for a favourite person.” NAPS AND LAPS To keep warm and secure, dogs are fond of napping alongside one another. Often, they will actively choose family members they feel attachment with specifically for this purpose. “It’s important…

KARL STEWART, LEICESTER WHY DO CHILDREN GO HYPERACTIVE WHEN IT IS WINDY? There’s certainly seems to be widespread belief in this idea. A survey of hundreds of UK headteachers in 2020 found that the overwhelming majority (74 per cent) believed that strong wind is the worst weather for pupils’ behaviour, rather than heat, snow or rain. We probably shouldn’t dismiss these beliefs out of hand, but from a scientific perspective, there’s little evidence to support them. A 1989 study by researchers at the University of Lancashire actually found that slightly fewer children were sent to a ‘quiet room’ (for disruptive behaviour) on windier days. A University of Nevada study from 1990 looked at a range of weather variables, including wind, and while preschoolers spent less time on their learning materials…