Indholdsfortegnelse for August 2024 i BBC Science Focus Magazine

Earth's core is a scary place, when you think about it. If you travelled straight down for around 2,900km (1,802 miles) – that's roughly equivalent to travelling from London to Edinburgh four or five times over – you'd reach it. Specifically, you'd have dug through Earth's mantle to reach the outer core. Here, rock gives way to liquid metals and the temperature soars to nearly 2,700°C (5,000°F). Dig (or swim?) a little deeper, another 2,000km (1,243 miles) or so, and you'll reach the inner core. Here, temperatures double, rising to over 6,000°C (10,800°F) – as hot as the surface of the Sun. At this temperature almost everything vaporises, even diamonds, but the material here is under enough pressure to keep it liquid. Most of this heat is residual, left over…

First captured by NASA's Hubble Telescope in 1995, the Pillars of Creation are among the most iconic astronomical images ever taken. Yet these immense clouds of gas and dust are not only visually stunning, they're scientifically significant too, as inside the pillars, which each stand several light-years tall, new stars are born. Three decades on from capturing the original image, NASA has created a new 3D visualisation using data from both Hubble and the James Webb Space Telescope. The detail in this new image is breathtaking. At the top of the central pillar, an infant protostar glows red-hot in infrared light. While on the finger protruding from the left pillar, you can see another embryonic star – a red, laser-like dot – bursting into life. The pillars form as newborn…

reply@sciencefocus.com BBC Science Focus, Eagle House, Bristol, BS1 4ST @sciencefocus www.facebook.com/sciencefocus @bbcsciencefocus LETTER OF THE MONTH A matter of time In your July issue, your pick of the month's smartest technology was a watch that could withstand the harsh environment on the surface of Mars (p42). It was priced at £6,100. For that sort of money, I would like a watch that doesn't lose 40 minutes per Martian day [days on the Red Planet are 39 minutes and 35 seconds longer than ours, here on Earth]. The watch is better as a wall clock for checking what time it is back home, not for someone actually checking the time on Mars. Did not one horologist consider the length of a Martian day? Paddy Brown, Ireland WRITE IN AND WIN! The…

It may surprise you to learn how little we know about Earth's inner workings. While we have a solid understanding of how the upper layers move, the deeper we go, the more mysterious it gets. One area of fierce debate over recent decades has centred on how Earth's inner core is moving. But a new study published in Nature may have settled the debate once and for all. The paper suggests that the core is backtracking relative to the surface – findings that support a controversial study from last year by Peking University researchers, published in Nature Geoscience. Earth's inner core is a solid, crystallised iron sphere roughly the size of the Moon. It floats around 5,000km (3,100 miles) beneath our feet in a sea of liquid iron, nickel and…

Even clear rivers can harbour harmful bacteria, including faecal bacteria from livestock and human waste. While this water also enters the sea, rivers have higher concentrations, increasing the risk of exposure. According to Prof Werner, the chance of contracting a disease from river water is low, but it rises significantly if you ingest it (which is not advisable). Here are his top tips for safe swimming: 1 Choose your spot wisely Never swim downstream of a sewage treatment plant, as even treated sewage can be harmful. 2 Check the ‘poo maps’ UK charities The Rivers Trust and Surfers Against Sewage have created maps of sewage discharges. 3 Watch the weather Ensure it's been dry for a few days. Swimming after rain increases the risk of polluted water due to sewer…

Personality traits, such as psychopathy and narcissism are replacing the old notion of ‘evil’. It's hard to think of acts more despicable than the brutal attacks, kidnappings, rapes and murders carried out by the psychopath Ted Bundy, for example. Especially as when he faced justice for them, he did it with a wink and a matinée idol smile. Psychology offers a way to understand why people commit such acts. While evil definitely can't be pinpointed in the brain, research has started uncovering neural structures and patterns of activity linked to psychopathy and narcissism. Science shows us that people with such traits simply think and feel differently, enabling them to act in morally corrupt ways. A lack of empathy has long been seen as a hallmark feature of psychopathy and, to…

Narcissists are grandiose, entitled people who seem convinced that they're something special. They tend to lack empathy and are always seeking attention. In extreme cases, someone might be diagnosed with ‘narcissistic personality disorder’. Despite the outward bravado, one theory about narcissism is that it's often rooted in deep-seated insecurity, which is known as ‘vulnerable narcissism.’ There's research to back this up – for instance, one brain scan study found that when narcissists looked at pictures of themselves, their neural activity was suggestive of negative emotion. Another study found that narcissists had reduced connectivity between parts of the brain associated with the self and reward-related neural areas. If attention-seeking and boastfulness are some narcissists’ ways of compensating for, or coping with, their private self-doubt, then a collapsed narcissist is someone for…

In a remarkable discovery that could reshape our understanding of Earth's history and the origins of life, scientists have found evidence of oxygen production in the lightless depths of the Pacific Ocean. This finding, published in Nature Geoscience, challenges the long-held belief that all of Earth's oxygen is generated through photosynthesis. A team led by Prof Andrew Sweetman of the Scottish Association for Marine Science (SAMS) made the discovery while conducting research in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone between Hawaii and Mexico, about 4km (2.5 miles) below the ocean surface. “When we first got this data, we thought the sensors were faulty because every study ever done in the deep sea has only seen oxygen being consumed rather than produced,” Sweetman said. “We would come home and recalibrate the sensors, but over…

Narcissistic personality disorder, a mental health condition in which a person's sense of self-importance is abnormally high, is surprisingly common. In fact, it's thought that up to five per cent of the population may have it. While most people tend to become less narcissistic as they get older, a new study reveals that more narcissistic adults generally carry the trait from their childhood. The meta-analysis, which was published in the journal Psychological Bulletin, investigated several existing studies on three types of narcissism: agentic (feelings of grandiosity and superiority), antagonistic (arrogance and lack of empathy), and neurotic (hypersensitivity and emotional dysregulation). The researchers from the University of Bern in Switzerland discovered that agentic narcissism is the type least likely to decline after childhood.…

COLUMNISTS COMMENT In her lab, Dr Jessica Nowicki can often be spotted pinching and plucking a small female poison dart frog in the leg. Then she returns the amphibian to her terrarium home and waits for her male lover to share her pain. A wince, a jolt, a small leap towards his hurting partner will do. While Nowicki, a neuroethologist at Stanford University, has yet to see such an outright display of concern, she's discovered something similar. The male frog experiences a small spike in stress hormones once he's reunited with his stressed counterpart: inside his body, he matches his partner's emotional state. This suggests frogs are capable of the most ancestral form of empathy, according to Nowicki's new study published in the journal Royal Society Open Science – a…

Giant and colossal squid (1) have evolved enormous eyeballs to suck in light. Their peepers grow bigger than a bowling ball (27cm/10in diameter) and are possibly the biggest eyes of any animal ever. A 2012 study suggested that these huge eyes allow them to spot huge shapes in the water, such as the looming shadows of sperm whales, which prey on giant squid in the twilight zone. A much smaller species of twilight zone cephalopod is the strawberry squid (2). It's also known as the cockeye squid, due to its mismatching eyes; one is small and blue, the other is about twice as big and yellow. Strawberry squid orient their heads so their smaller, blue eye points downwards and looks out for flashes of bioluminescence in the darkness below. The…

ADAM COSTELLO, VIA EMAIL WHAT'S THE MOST SECRET WEAPON WE KNOW ABOUT? Militaries around the world work extremely hard to keep their latest innovations secret, for obvious reasons. But this secrecy can spark intense curiosity and speculation among members of the public. Every so often, military secrets are released, if only many decades after they were invented. One such example is Fogbank – a secret material used in the production of nuclear warheads. Its manufacture was so highly classified that details of the process were lost. So, when a fresh batch of the material was needed to refurbish old warheads, the US National Nuclear Security Administration was forced to spend a lot of time and money to rediscover the process. Although its existence is now public knowledge, the exact nature…

SOFIA QUAGLIA Can animals feel empathy? Nature writer Sofia Quaglia tells us how new research carried out on poison dart frogs may help us to find the answer. DR EMMA BECKETT Lion's mane mushrooms are being touted as the latest all-powerful health food. Nutrition scientist Emma Beckett looks into their purported benefits. MIRIAM FRANKEL Many psychopaths have surprisingly high levels of empathy, as journalist Miriam Frankel explains, and this could make them more dangerous. JHENI OSMAN There's a potentially limitless source of green energy beneath our feet. Could geothermal power solve the energy crisis? Jheni Osman investigates.…

Orbiting roughly 400km (250 miles) above Earth, astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) can't exactly get online shopping delivered within 24 hours. The resupply procedure is more complicated than that and involves an expendable spacecraft called the Cygnus. An uncrewed cargo ship, the Cygnus – seen here attached to the ISS's Canadian-made robotic arm – is designed to deliver supplies, equipment and even experiments to the astronauts on the ISS. The current model can't bring items back to Earth, but once it has dropped off its cargo, it can be filled with waste and debris, before burning up entirely as it re-enters the planet's atmosphere. But Cygnus is more than just a glorified delivery van. It's made up of three sections. Two large solar arrays sit on either side,…

DISCOVERIES SPACE In a bid to make sure we don't go the same way as the dinosaurs, the European Space Agency has announced a bold new planetary defence mission: the Rapid Apophis Mission for Space Safety (Ramses). This mission aims to rendezvous with the asteroid 99942 Apophis, an object roughly the size of a cruise liner, and accompany it during its close flyby of Earth in less than five years’ time. Apophis will pass within 32,000km (19,880 miles) of Earth's surface on 13 April 2029. Such a close approach by an asteroid of this size occurs only once every 5,000–10,000 years. While astronomers have (fortunately) ruled out any chance of Apophis colliding with Earth in the next 100 years, its 2029 flyby offers a unique opportunity for scientific observation of a…

WHY DO SPILLS OCCUR? The UK's sewage system is designed to overflow into rivers and seas to prevent it filling to capacity after heavy rain. Such events are called ‘combined sewer overflows’. But recently, so-called ‘dry spills’ have occurred, in which sewage is released into waterways illegally, without the threat of rain-induced overflow. Normal operation Untreated sewage flows smoothly through the system, with no release via the overflow pipe. Legal spill After heavy rain, untreated sewage overflows with rainwater, known as ‘stormwater’. Illegal dry spill Even though the weather is dry, untreated sewage overflows into the river or sea. 2024 IN SEWAGE OVERFLOWS SO FAR Generally, data from the water companies is released in one big – ahem – dump at the end of each year. But more and more…

On 9 July, Europe's latest rocket, Ariane 6, made its inaugural flight from the European Space Agency's (ESA's) Spaceport in French Guiana. After retiring Ariane 5 over a year before, Europe had been left without its own rocket – creating a ‘launcher crisis’ that Ariane 6 has now tackled: Europe once again has its own access to space. Unlike the latest American vehicles, Ariane 6 isn't reusable, so the rocket you see here will have to be remade each time it's needed. But the new model uses state-of-the-art manufacturing processes, from 3D printing to augmented-reality design. The mission was supposed to end with the rocket's upper stage intentionally falling back towards Earth and sinking into a designated spot in the sea, known as Point Nemo – the farthest point from…

When I was working on a documentary in Antarctica earlier this year, I watched a group of tourists, in matching jackets, walking along the icy, windswept coastline. Casually following them was a small group of curious penguins. This is what Antarctic tourism can look like. If you imagine taking a trip to the great white continent, you might picture yourself gazing out over an empty wilderness, feeling truly alone. But excursions for visitors to the Antarctic are carefully choreographed. When people step ashore, they're directed on to planned routes that have been mapped out by guides. The planning is designed to protect tourists, the landscape and the wildlife. But the neat lines of people all following the same path along the Antarctic coastline looks… well, odd. In the tourist season…

INNOVATIONS PREPARE YOURSELF FOR TOMORROW Since the first robot was made, researchers have struggled with ‘uncanny valley’, the feeling of being unsettled by something that looks almost human, but not entirely realistic. Well now, scientists have found a solution to this problem: simply slap some human skin on the bots. Okay, that's an oversimplification, but it isn't actually that far off. A team comprising researchers from the University of Tokyo, Harvard University and the International Research Center for Neurointelligence has created a lifelike skin for robots using living human skin cells. Their research was published in the journal Cell Reports Physical Science and could be a big step forward in robotics, in terms of making them look more human, and improving their durability and use in a large number of…

…A MIC THAT RECORDS EVERYTHING YOU SAY Artificial intelligence is everywhere now and while it may revolutionise our lives and work, it's also bringing us some of the creepiest products ever seen. The Limitless Pendant is a strong contender for the top spot. It's essentially a clip-on mic that records every conversation you have and uses AI to recover any highlights you may need. Want to recall what your boss said in your last meeting? Or that zinger you hurled at your mate in the pub? The Pendant can pull it up. Sure, it might be useful, but it's also very unnerving. Limitless Pendant $99 (approx £75), limitless.ai …AN AI ASSISTANT THAT DEMANDS YOUR ATTENTION Why settle for a digital assistant on your smartphone when there's the cutesy Rux Robot?…

The author of The Great Gatsby, F Scott Fitzgerald, once said, “The worst thing in the world is to try to sleep and not to.” He was far from alone in that sentiment. Listen to any group of blearyeyed new parents and one of them is likely to compare sleep deprivation to a form of torture. Lack of sleep feels horrible. It doesn't just leave you feeling down, dozy and demotivated, it makes you eat more. As much as 385 calories, say researchers at King's College London, due to a drop in our levels of the satiety hormone leptin and a rise in the ‘hunger hormone’ ghrelin. It also causes changes to our gut bacteria, makes us more sensitive to pain and can lead to trouble in deciphering other people's…

Geothermal energy production is only at 7% of its estimated potential, generating under 1% of the world's electricity. Geothermal energy exists in almost 90 countries, but only 24 of them produce electricity from geothermal sources. It has demonstrated potential though. Kenya gets almost 50% of its electricity from geothermal energy. It's believed the world can increase energy production from geothermal sources at least 10-fold by 2050. Wind, solar and other renewable energy sources are transforming the way we power our world. But there's another source of sustainable energy that's often overlooked. Deep within the Earth lies a mass that's as hot as the surface of the Sun. This fiery remnant from the formative era of our Solar System is our planet's core and it's the source of geothermal energy. Geothermal…

Recent advances in deep learning, especially relating to robot control, have caused some people to get very excited about the prospect of humanoid robots. Some predict they'll be the next major breakthrough after ChatGPT. But we've heard stuff like this before. In 2012, much of the automobile industry predicted they would have fully autonomous vehicles ready by 2020. Billions of dollars were spent on research and development by manufacturers and roboticists. Today, almost every manufacturer has abandoned the idea – it was just too difficult and costly to make them work. Humanoid robots are much more complicated than autonomous vehicles. Their environments are more varied and the safety issues are immense. How close? They're well beyond the horizon. EMAIL YOUR QUESTIONS TO QUESTIONS@SCIENCEFOCUS.COM WINNER The winner of next issue's Question…