Innehållsförteckning för January 2018 från BBC Science Focus Magazine

BBC Science Focus Magazine|January 2018

WELCOME

I used to hate New Year’s Resolutions. I mean, why wait until 1 January to make a change? And why improve myself during the dark winter months, when I can eat, drink and sleep my way through them? I have to admit though, that the further I get from my pessimistic, block-headed 20s, the more the idea of a new year as a blank canvas appeals to me. Cancelled gym memberships and short-lived diet plans have taught me that, January or not, change is hard. National statistics tell me I’m not alone. Between 80 and 90 per cent of new diets don’t last; smokers try to quit 30 times before succeeding on average; 75 per cent of people who set fitness goals give them up. For any chance of success,…

1 min

BBC Science Focus Magazine|January 2018

REPLY

Armageddon outta here I have followed the stories of the Chicxulub asteroid impact for many years. Back then, would the landmass of the world have been almost one giant continent? If yes, then where would the asteroid have struck and is the Chicxulub site the preserved impact point once the landmasses separated? Could the giant landmass have contributed toward the extinction due to all the life existing on one large terrain? Henry Parr, Frome When the asteroid struck 66 million years ago, the Earth’s land masses were already drifting apart. That said, the location of the strike was pivotal as the rock there was hydrocarbon- and sulphur-rich. The impact created soot and sulphate aerosols that led to the extreme global cooling and drought that killed off the dinosaurs and led…

2 min

BBC Science Focus Magazine|January 2018

EXPANDING THE GENETIC ALPHABET

PROTEINS are large, complex molecules that are essential for life. They perform many different tasks inside our bodies such as acting as antibodies, transporting smaller molecules within cells, and transmitting signals to coordinate biological processes between different organs. They also help form many of the body’s intricate structures, such as hair, skin and muscle. There are hundreds of thousands of different proteins in the human body and many, many millions more throughout the natural world. Differences in our genes causes variation in the proteins our cells produce, which leads to diversity in our physical characteristics. Proteins are formed when small organic compounds called AMINO ACIDS link together in long chains There are only 20 naturally occurring amino acids but each protein molecule contains hundreds of them joined together in a…

2 min

BBC Science Focus Magazine|January 2018

DEFORESTATION LEAVES SUMATRAN TIGERS DANGEROUSLY CLOSE TO EXTINCTION

Sumatran tigers are increasingly under threat due to their habitat being eaten away by deforestation, a year-long study by researchers at the University of California has found. Though overall numbers of the tigers have gradually improved over the last two decades, the jungle in which they live is experiencing increasing threat from deforestation. It appears that 17 per cent of the tigers’ environment was logged between 2000 and 2012, mostly to make way for palm oil plantations. Moreover, the team found that tiger numbers are 50 per cent higher in areas of unlogged forest, making preservation of the jungle a high priority if Sumatran tigers are to be saved from suffering the same fate as tigers on the neighbouring islands of Java, Bali and Singapore, which all went extinct during…

1 min

BBC Science Focus Magazine|January 2018

“The process of vocal learning in songbirds is really similar to speech learning in humans”

What are ‘universal’ patterns in human speech? Linguists studying languages around the world find they’re quite diverse in structure, but there are also common features called ‘universal patterns’. Why do we have these? It’s possible there are cultural influences that lead to their propagation. That’s one hypothesis. The other is that it’s biological in origin. Why study acoustic patterns in songbirds? The ideal experiment is to expose babies to patterns and see what they end up producing, but that’s difficult to interpret in humans, so you do this in animal model systems. Most animals are actually born with the ability to produce vocalisations, but songbirds – like humans – learn during development. The process is really similar to how humans learn to speak: a bird hears an adult sing, memorises…

3 min

BBC Science Focus Magazine|January 2018

THINGS WE LEARNED THIS MONTH

WE CAN HEAR BETTER WITH OUR RIGHT EARS Researchers at Auburn University, Alabama have found that we understand and retain information better if we listen primarily with our right ears. The effect is due to sound entering the right ear being processed by the left side of the brain, which controls speech and language development, they say. DOGS ARE SMARTER THAN CATS (MAYBE) Take that, Tiddles! A team at Vanderbilt University, Tennessee, has found that dogs have many more neurons in their cerebral cortex than cats, a sign they are more capable of thinking, planning and other complex behaviours. LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT DOESN’T EXIST Sorry, Cupid, the feeling of ‘love at first sight’ is a combination of a strong initial attraction and a tendency to project current feelings into…

1 min

BBC Science Focus Magazine|January 2018

FORD WORKERS ARE BEING GIVEN EXOSKELETONS

Workers at two Ford plants in the US are being issued with upper-body exoskeletal devices to take the strain out of lifting and overhead tasks. The EksoVest is the brainchild of a California-based company called Ekso Bionics. The non-powered device can be worn by those standing 1.65-1.98m (5ft 5in-6ft 6in) tall, and provides 3-6kg of adjustable lift assistance to each arm. But it’s not really built with heavy lifting in mind – most of that is taken care of by robots in today’s car plants. Rather, it’s designed to support the spine and shoulders when working overhead (as car manufacturers regularly need to do, for instance when assembling an automobile’s chassis, exhaust system or axles), reducing both the amount of injuries that occur and the amount of muscular fatigue that…

1 min

BBC Science Focus Magazine|January 2018

MISSION INTO THE SUN

“Travelling at blistering 720,000km\h, the spacecraft will repeatedly dive closer to the sun” This summer, NASA will launch one of its most ambitious space missions to date: the Parker Solar Probe. Travelling at a blistering 720,000km/h (450,000mph), the spacecraft will repeatedly dive closer to the Sun than any previous spacecraft in history. It will venture so close that the Parker Solar Probe team refers to it as touching the Sun. In fact, it will dive in and out of the Sun’s atmosphere, known as its corona. And it’s not going to be alone up there. In February 2019, the European Space Agency (ESA) will launch a solar mission of its own, called Solar Orbiter. This craft will not go as close to the Sun as its NASA counterpart but it…

9 min

BBC Science Focus Magazine|January 2018

ARE THERE POTENTIAL BENEFITS OF ALCOHOL?

Reducing your risk of developing and dying from heart disease. Possibly reducing your risk of ischemic stroke. This is when the arteries to the brain become narrowed or blocked, causing severely reduced blood flow. Possibly reducing your risk of diabetes. There are many possible reasons for the benefits listed above, but I recently came across a novel explanation. It turns out that wine – and red wine in particular – has a positive effect on gut bacteria. Evidence for this comes from a number of sources, including a small study published in The American Journal Of Clinical Nutrition in 2012. The researchers recruited 10 middle-aged men and, after an alcohol-free week, randomly allocated them to either drinking a large glass of red wine (270ml), red wine with the alcohol removed,…

1 min

BBC Science Focus Magazine|January 2018

IS IT TIME FOR A TECH DETOX?

Can’t put your phone down? You’re not alone. A 2016 survey found that the average person spends 145 minutes a day on their phone – that’s over 36 days a year. But for some, it’s more than just a bad habit. Mental health hospitals that traditionally treated alcoholics and drug addicts are now treating tech addicts, too. One such hospital is the Nightingale Hospital in London. Dr Richard Graham is head of its Technology Addiction Service, and the stories of his past and present patients* may sound familiar. Ryan is a teenager who spends 8 to 10 hours on screens after school, mostly on YouTube. Holly is obsessed with how many Instagram followers she has. Ollie, a man in his early-20s, suffered severe bullying in his teens, and became absorbed…

10 min

BBC Science Focus Magazine|January 2018

WHAT IS BLOCKCHAIN?

At the heart of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin is the electronic ledger, or blockchain, which keeps a permanent and unalterable record of every transaction ever made. It’s this that prevents people creating counterfeit Bitcoins. The whereabouts of every genuine transaction is updated on the blockchain, along with a version of the same information that’s been mathematically transformed – ‘hashed’ – in a way that produces a radically different outcome if the information is tampered with. Any attempt to amend a transaction will produce a mismatch that’s instantly spotted. For added security, the hashed version of each transaction also depends on parts of the previous transaction, plus some extra ingredients. Maintaining the blockchain is the job of so-called ‘miners’, who generate the hashed information using computers and are rewarded for their work…

1 min

BBC Science Focus Magazine|January 2018

Q & A

Is muscle memory real? SIMON TAYLOR, LONDON There are two kinds, both very real. The first, properly called ‘procedural memory’ strengthens the synaptic pathways in your brain for specific coordinated sequences of muscle movements that you perform often. This is what allows a guitar player to form the chord shapes without consciously considering the position of each finger, for example. There is another kind of muscle memory though. If you have previously put on muscle mass through training, then it is easier to bulk up again in the future than if you had never trained before. Muscle cells gain extra nuclei during training and these can last for 15 years, even after the muscle fibres have shrunk back to normal size. It is as if the muscles ‘remember’ their previous…

9 min

BBC Science Focus Magazine|January 2018

...THE NUMBER 4 AND THE DAY YOU WILL DIE?

1. Numerology The number 4 is unlucky in China and Japan. This is because the word for the number 4 (‘sei’) is pronounced the same as the word for death or suffering. 2. Stress The Hound Of The Baskervilles Effect, named after the Sherlock Holmes story, is a real phenomenon that increases your chance of a heart attack when you are suffering from psychological stress. 3. Death A 2001 study at UC San Diego investigated the Hound Of The Baskervilles Effect, and found that people of Japanese and Chinese origin are more likely to have a fatal heart attack on the 4th of any month. 4. Superstition Yet studies have failed to find any increase in heart attacks on Friday 13th. This may be because it’s merely considered unlucky, rather…

1 min

BBC Science Focus Magazine|January 2018

...WHEN I HAVE A PANIC ATTACK?

Humans have evolved behaviours to deal with sudden physical threats, such as predators. These are triggered automatically without conscious thought, to quickly prepare the body for running away or standing and fighting. But modern life is mostly free of marauding bears and this threat response can be accidentally triggered by emotional stress instead. A panic attack is like the smoke alarm going off when you burn the toast, even though the house isn’t on fire. 1.Eyes Pupils open wider to increase the light reaching the retina. This boosts vision in low light and improves the ‘frame rate’ for rapidly moving objects. 2. Brain Attention narrows to focus exclusively on the perceived source of the threat. If there is no physical danger, this can feel like tunnel vision. 3. Heart Pulse…

1 min

BBC Science Focus Magazine|January 2018

AUTHOR’S BOOKSHELF

THE NEW BLACK: MOURNING, MELANCHOLIA AND DEPRESSION BY DARIAN LEADER (£9.99, PENGUIN). “This book tackles issues of loss head-on. It invites us to mourn, not to step away and pretend everything is okay. It makes the case that this approach will loosen the grip that these experiences have on our lives.” SMILE OR DIE: HOW POSITIVE THINKING FOOLED AMERICA AND THE WORLD BY BARBARA EHRENREICH (£8.99, GRANTA). “I love the title of this book! It takes a no-prisoners approach to criticising the unrealistic and tyrannical nature of the positive thinking movement. It also warns against its costs, both in terms of human well-being and losing touch with reality.” THE BODY IN PAIN: THE MAKING AND UNMAKING OF THE WORLD BY ELAINE SCARRY (£12.99, OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS). “This is a philosophical…

1 min

BBC Science Focus Magazine|January 2018

BLACK HOLES

Black holes are regions of space where gravity is so strong that nothing, including light, can escape. Hence a black hole’s blackness. The modern picture of black holes is provided by Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity. The theory tells us that a mass like the Sun creates a valley in the space-time around it, into which other bodies fall. In this picture, a black hole is a bottomless well from which light cannot escape without being sapped of every last shred of its energy. For reasons we do not fully understand, nature appears to have created two main classes of black holes: ‘stellar-mass’ black holes and ‘supermassive’ black holes, ranging in mass from millions of times the mass of the Sun to almost 50 billion times its mass. There is…

8 min

BBC Science Focus Magazine|January 2018

WHAT WE’VE FOUND OUT THIS MONTH

Some dinosaurs were fluffy p19 There are some health benefits from drinking small amounts of red wine p48 Not sleeping enough can make you fat p56 The first cryptocurrency transaction was the purchase of two pizzas for 10,000 Bitcoins. Worth around £120m today… p65 Globally, human eyesight is getting worse p75 CONTACT US Advertising neil.lloyd@immediate.co.uk 01173008276 Lettersforpublication reply@sciencefocus.com Editorialenquiries editorialenquiries@sciencefocus.com 01173147388 Subscriptions bbcfocus@buysubscriptions.com 03330162113* Othercontacts sciencefocus.com/contact WANT MORE ? FOLLOW SCIENCEFOCUS FACEBOOK TWITTER PINTEREST GOOGLE+…

1 min

BBC Science Focus Magazine|January 2018

MESSAGE OF THE MONTH

Power to the people While I think we all agree that electric vehicles are the way forward, as long as low pollution energy generation and vehicle production can be achieved, there are practical problems that appear hard to overcome. Since many houses in this country do not have drives or front gardens, how will it be possible to charge a vehicle as the cables would run across a public footpath? Terraced houses have small frontage and residents often have difficulty parking near their property as it is a free-for-all. I cannot think of a solution to these problems and would be interested to know whether it has been considered by electric vehicle manufacturers. Les Maud, Northampton This year the UK government set up a £2.5m fund to solve just this…

1 min

BBC Science Focus Magazine|January 2018

INTERSTELLAR ASTEROID CAPTURED ENTERING THE SOLAR SYSTEM

An oddly shaped asteroid has entered the Solar System, and is the first confirmed object from another star. Officially dubbed 1I/2017 U1, but known as Oumuamua ( Oumuamua comes from the Hawaiian word for ‘scout’), the space rock was captured by the Pan-STARRS 1 telescope in Hawaii. First thought to be a comet thanks to its trajectory and high speed, Oumuamua had already passed its closest to the Sun when it was detected, so the race was on to gather as much data as possible. At New Year, the asteroid was roughly three times the distance of the Earth from the Sun and is currently speeding away from our planet at 90,000km/h. Telescopes can’t get a good picture of Oumuamua, but astronomers managed to determine its shape from variations in…

2 min

BBC Science Focus Magazine|January 2018

STRETCHY SWEAT-POWERED BATTERY MADE OUT OF FABRIC

Soon you could be charging your smartphone with your sweaty socks. A team at Binghamton University, State University of New York, have created a fabric-based, bacteria-powered biobattery that could be integrated into wearable electronics. According to the team, the microbial fuel cells could be powered by sweat generated by the human body, and produce more electricity than previous textile biobattery designs, which could be useful for wearables. “There is a clear and pressing need for flexible and stretchable electronics that can be easily integrated with a wide range of surroundings to collect real-time information,” said research lead Dr Seokheun Choi. “If we consider that humans possess more bacterial cells than human cells in their bodies, the direct use of bacterial cells as a power resource interdependently with the human body…

1 min

BBC Science Focus Magazine|January 2018

BAD MONTH

THE ENTIRE HUMAN RACE It might not feel like it on a Monday morning, but you may be one of the greatest examples of the human race that will ever live. A study at Paris Descartes University has found that the limits of human lifespan, height and physical performance have been reached and are currently in decline. FRY-UP LOVERS Here’s yet another reason why muesli is a healthier breakfast option than a full English. Droplets of oil that are released into the air when food is shallow fried can be damaging if inhaled, a team at Utah State University has found.…

1 min

BBC Science Focus Magazine|January 2018

TICK GRASPING A DINOSAUR FEATHER DISCOVERED PRESERVED IN AMBER

This incredible photograph shows a tick clutching onto a 99-million-year-old dinosaur feather perfectly preserved in a chunk of Burmese amber. The sample was found in a collection owned by the Oxford University Museum of Natural History and dates back to the Cretaceous period which ran from 145 to 66 million years ago. The feather is similar in structure to that of modern-day birds and offers the first direct evidence of an early parasite-host relationship between ticks and feathered dinosaurs. “The fossil record tells us that feathers like the one we have studied were already present on a wide range of theropod dinosaurs, a group which included ground-running forms without flying ability, as well as bird-like dinosaurs capable of powered flight,” said lead researcher Dr Ricardo Pérez-de la Fuente. “So although…

1 min

BBC Science Focus Magazine|January 2018

THIS NERVE STIMULATOR CAN HELP HEROIN ADDICTS RECOVER

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has just approved a “percutaneous nerve field simulator” for use in treating those addicted to heroin and other opioid drugs. The United States is currently in the grip of an opioid addiction epidemic, caused largely by over-prescription of painkillers such as Oxycontin and Vicodin. As a result, drug overdoses are now the leading cause of death among under-50s in the US, having overtaken car accidents and shootings. One reason this problem has proven so intractable is that for those addicted to opiates, withdrawal symptoms can be crippling. The NSS-2 Bridge from Innovative Health Solutions is designed to make coming off such drugs easier, by vastly reducing those symptoms. The electrical nerve stimulator is placed behind the patient’s ear, and contains a battery-powered chip…

1 min

BBC Science Focus Magazine|January 2018

PARKER SOLAR PROBE DIAGRAM

1 FIELDS EXPERIMENT (FIELDS) Will make direct measurements of electric and magnetic fields and waves in the solar wind, and of density fluctuations and radio emissions. 2 INTEGRATED SCIENCE INVESTIGATION OF THE SUN (IS ƕ IS) Observes highly accelerated electrons, protons and heavier particles, and correlates them with solar wind and coronal structures. 3 WIDE-FIELD IMAGER FOR SOLAR PROBE (WISPR) Provides images of the solar wind, shocks and other plasma structures as they approach and pass the spacecraft. 4 THERMAL PROTECTION SYSTEM (TPS) An 11.43cm-thick carbon-composite shield that will withstand temperatures outside the spacecraft that reach nearly 1,377 °C. 5 HIGH GAIN ANTENNA Used to communicate with Earth. The downlink data rate when close to the Sun will be around 167kb/s. Not much compared to modern broadband speeds. 6 SOLAR…

1 min

BBC Science Focus Magazine|January 2018

THE SCIENCE OF FIGHTING FAT

The statistics tell their own story. One in four people in England are now classified as obese, compared with one in six in the 1990s. Fifty-eight per cent of women and 68 per cent of men are now overweight. Being overweight makes us less healthy: a new study published in Lancet Public Health shows a clear relationship between hospital admissions and body weight. But it also matters because being overweight makes many people unhappy. A British Social Attitudes survey revealed that people who are overweight suffer significant stigma, and that 53 per cent of the British public are intolerant, believing that most overweight people could lose weight if they tried. But the science shows that it’s not simply a matter of being weak-willed. “There are very clear reward pathways for…

10 min

BBC Science Focus Magazine|January 2018

HOW TO LIVE WELL WITH YOUR PHONE

1 Step it down gradually The urge to check your phone can become reflexive and habitual. For some, going a few minutes without checking their phone is difficult. If this sounds like you, try to go 15 minutes without doing it. Once you realise this is possible, increase the length of time you avoid checking to 30 minutes, an hour, and then a few hours a day. 2 Monitor usage Download an app that will tell you how much time you’re spending online. (Moment and AntiSocialare two examples.) This could make you aware of a problem – the first step to a solution. 3 Buy an alarm clock Don’t use your phone as an alarm, or you might be tempted to check texts and emails last thing at night and…

1 min

BBC Science Focus Magazine|January 2018

HOW TO GET INVOLVED

There are two basic ways of getting involved in cryptocurrency: as a means of paying for stuff, and as an investment. But however you do it, you need to proceed with care. Cryptocurrencies exist only electronically, making them targets for a global network of sophisticated digital scammers, thieves and hackers. And as the whole idea of cryptocurrency is to offer an alternative to official money, if something goes wrong you won’t be able to run to your bank for help. If you’re still undeterred, then here’s what to do… GET A DIGITAL WALLET This is where you keep your currency, allowing you to send or receive payments from your computer or smartphone. Digital wallets include security features designed to keep your currency safe. One of the most popular and well-regarded…

1 min

BBC Science Focus Magazine|January 2018

WHAT WOULD LIVING ON MARS DO TO MY BODY?

1. LOWER GRAVITY The effects of zero gravity have been studied on the International Space Station, but the long term impact of low gravity is unknown. An hour in a special gym each day might be enough to stave off muscle wasting and bone loss. But reduced gravity also lowers red blood cell counts and compromises your immune system, and a treadmill won’t help with that. 2. RADIATION The surface radiation on Mars is 0.67mSv per day, which is the equivalent exposure of a daily hip X-ray. This radiation is mostly in the form of galactic cosmic rays. Martian soil could be used to shield a Mars base from the rays, but the covering would need to be five metres thick. Even for a three-year round trip to Mars, studies…

1 min

BBC Science Focus Magazine|January 2018

WHAT IS THIS?

Lake Natron This colourful lake in northern Tanzania would not be a pleasant place to cool off! The water is highly alkaline, thanks to nearby volcanoes that empty molten mixtures of sodium carbonate and calcium carbonate into the water via a network of faults and wells. Despite its alkanity, the lake is not a dead zone. It is home to a variety of salt-adapted species, including microorganisms that give the water its red and pink colours. In the dry season, flamingos will nest in the region, as the water provides a safe refuge from predators.…

1 min

BBC Science Focus Magazine|January 2018

OUT THERE

1 TAKE AN ANIMAL’S-EYE VIEW ANIMALS WITH CAMERAS BBC ONE, FROM 1 FEBRUARY. Deep underground, at the bottom of the ocean, high up in the jungle… animals spend a lot of time in places that are difficult for us to visit. But what if the animals could take us there themselves? What if we gave them cameras to film from their own perspective? That’s the premise of new three-part series Animals With Cameras, which uses the latest camera technology to take us deep into the world of animals, capturing previously unseen behaviour. We’ll observe chimpanzees washing their hands and building treetop nests in Cameroon, ride with cheetahs as they hunt for prey in the tangled woodlands of Namibia, and find out who looks after baby meerkats in their underground burrows…

7 min

BBC Science Focus Magazine|January 2018

James Wong

What is ethnobotany? Ethnobotany looks at the ways humans use plants. Plants provide us with food, medicine, air and solutions to complex problems. For example, there’s a way to extend the life of satellite solar panels that’s based on the fibres of edelweiss flowers. Do you know all the plants? No one knows all the plants. We think there are around 300,000 species, but new ones are being found all the time. I’d like to be in The Matrix, where you could get a chip with all the plants on and plug it directly into your brain. Tell me something surprising… Plants can count. The Venus flytrap has hairs that sense insects, but the trap only shuts if the hairs are touched twice within 10 seconds. It then takes a…

3 min

BBC Science Focus Magazine|January 2018

EYE OPENER

Flamboyant flock LAKE NATRON, TANZANIA Lesser flamingos, Phoeniconaias minor, flock en masse above an African salt lake. The water can reach temperatures of more than 40°C and is alkaline enough to burn human skin but this doesn’t bother the birds, who gather to feed on the nutrient-rich bacteria and shellfish found on its shores. The smallest of the six species of flamingo, lesser flamingos are highly nomadic and move between suitable breeding and feeding sites according to changes in weather conditions. They are highly gregarious birds and gather in large groups bound together by intricate and elaborate social structures. “Pairs or trios or small subgroups will feed together and remain in close proximity without squabbling. Rival flamingos, or those that do not get along, will squabble, joust with bills and…

2 min

BBC Science Focus Magazine|January 2018

SYNTHETIC DNA MADE IN LAB

A team of scientists at the Scripps Research Institute in the US have created a living ‘semi-synthetic’ organism capable of producing proteins never seen before on Earth by adding new letters to the genetic code. The synthetic proteins created by such organisms could pave the way for a new generation of made-to-order drugs and therapies, the team said. The regular genetic ‘alphabet’ consists of four letters, or bases: A, T, G and C. These stand for adenine, thymine, guanine and cytosine, which are the four chemicals that make up DNA. These letters can combine in different sequences to form 20 naturally occurring amino acids – the building blocks of proteins. In 2014, the Scripps team created two more ‘letters’, X and Y, making it theoretically possible to create a further…

2 min

BBC Science Focus Magazine|January 2018

SOME DINOSAURS WERE FLUFFY

Though films such as Jurassic Park show dinosaurs with tough, leathery, rhino-like skin, it has since been proved that many of them were feathered. Now, though, it seems that some dinosaurs were fluffy. A team at the University of Bristol have studied the fossilised remains of bird-sized dinosaur Anchiornis, part of the same paravian group as Velociraptor that lived 160 million years ago. The specimen has particularly well-preserved feather details, which is something that’s usually lost during fossilisation. Covering its body, Anchiornishad unusual ‘contour feathers’ – plumage not used in flight – that were soft and V-shaped, and around one to two centimetres in length. Longer flight feathers emerged in layers from all four of the animal’s limbs. Anchiornisseems to have needed extra flight feathers because their feathers were not…

1 min

BBC Science Focus Magazine|January 2018

CHILDREN ENCOURAGED TO BE BATMAN

What did they do? Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania had a group of children, aged between four and six, pretend to be Batman. They then assigned them a repetitive task and told them it was important. They encouraged the children to concentrate on the task but allowed them to take a break to play with an iPad whenever they wanted. What did they find? When pretending to be Batman, more than 30 per cent of the four-year-olds and more than 50 per cent of the six-year-olds spent significantly more time on the task. It’s unclear whether this effect was due to the fun aspect associated with pretending to be Batman or the children identifying certain traits, such as concentration and perseverance, with being a superhero. Why did they do…

1 min

BBC Science Focus Magazine|January 2018

DEEPEST DWELLING FISH DISCOVERED

“THIS FISH HAS SEVERAL ADAPTATIONS TO HELP IT SURVIVE UNDER HIGH PRESSURE” Head 8,000 metres down into the Mariana Trench in the western Pacific and you might just bump into this guy – the Mariana snailfish, or Pseudoliparis swirei. Down on the seabed at this depth, conditions are hostile: pressure is around 1,000 times greater than at sea level, temperatures rarely reach 2°C, and it’s almost pitch black. But the Mariana snailfish, the deepest dwelling fish ever discovered, thrives where normal fish would be squashed flat. Researchers from the University of Washington used remote controlled traps to recover 37 Mariana snailfish on two expeditions, one in 2014 and one in 2017. The snailfish family is large, with over 400 species – but few others have the impressive abilities of the…

1 min

BBC Science Focus Magazine|January 2018

GREEN RIDE

In December, the first battery-powered black cabs hit the streets of London, just a few weeks after the news broke that all newly licensed London taxis will need to be zero emissions from January 2018. The TX taxis, which use Volvo technology, are something of a hybrid system. They can travel 130km (80 miles) on a charge and are fitted with a 1.5-litre petrol engine for longer journeys. They’re crammed with tech too, and come complete with contactless card machines, Wi-Fi, power sockets and USB charging capabilities, while their filter system will scour gases and particulates from the air. It is hoped that the new cabs, which cost £55,000 to buy, will help improve conditions in the pollution-filled capital. By 2021, there should be over 9,000 of these cabs operating…

2 min

BBC Science Focus Magazine|January 2018

AUGMENTED REALITY GLASSES TO HELP THE SIGHT-IMPAIRED

A start-up based at the University of Oxford has developed augmented reality glasses that can help the visually impaired to see. OxSight’s glasses can’t do anything to help people who are completely blind, but the totally blind are only a small fraction of the visually impaired community. The glasses can, on the other hand, help those who suffer from a wide range of conditions such as glaucoma, retinitis pigmentosa or diabetes-related sight loss. They work, essentially, like glasses on steroids, using front-mounted cameras to see what’s in front of the wearer and then overlaying a computer-enhanced version of the resulting image onto the lenses. Depending on the wearer’s specific condition, they can enhance colours, sharpen up the image so that it looks ‘normal’ when seen by someone with blurred vision,…

1 min

BBC Science Focus Magazine|January 2018

IS DRY JANUARY WORTH IT?

Choosing to do a ‘Dry January’ has become increasingly popular over the last few years and I’ve known quite a few people who have done it. Dry January is an idea being driven, among others, by a charity called Alcohol Concern. Alcohol Concern’s website states that the reasons for doing a Dry January include: “enabling you to take control of your relationship with alcohol” and “driving a conversation about alcohol: why do we drink it, what does it do, and how can we reduce the harm it can cause?” It says that the potential benefits include better sleep, improved skin, weight loss, having “an amazing sense of achievement at the end”, and saving money (according to Alcohol Concern the average person spends £50,000 on booze in their lifetime). This all…

9 min

BBC Science Focus Magazine|January 2018

TIPS TO HELP YOU FIGHT FAT

1 Eat slowly Research presented at a recent American Heart Association meeting has found that eating quickly expands your waistline and increases heart disease risk. According to obesity expert Dr Giles Yeo, eating too quickly means you’re not leaving enough time for your gut to release hormones signalling to the brain that you’re full. So hunger continues and you keep on eating. 2 Avoid ‘empty’ calories Empty calories are sugary foods that make you gain weight, but don’t make you feel full. Fizzy drinks and fruit juices deliver large concentrations of sugar to the gut so quickly and easily that your intestines barely register it’s hit them. Proteins and complex carbs, like beans, wholegrains, nuts and leafy vegetables, take longer to break down – so they’re in your gut longer…

1 min

BBC Science Focus Magazine|January 2018

SHOULD YOU INVEST IN CRYPTOCURRENCY ?

“To some, cryptocurrencies are the future of money, to others they are a disaster waiting to happen” TJG[oTG›GXGT[YJGTG›HTQO›INQUU[›OCIC\KPGU›VQ›UEW\\[›GOCKNU››CPF›CTG›CEEGRVGF› D[›OWNVKPCVKQPCNU›CPF›CUUCUUKPU››6Q›UQOG››VJG[›CTG›VJG›HWVWTG›QH›OQPG[››VQ› QVJGTU››VJG[›CTG›C›FKUCUVGT›YCKVKPI›VQ›JCRRGP››'KVJGT›YC[››VJGTGoU›PQ›FGP[KPI› VJG›EWTTGPV›DW\\›QXGT›ET[RVQEWTTGPEKGU››(TQO›$KVEQKP››.KVGEQKP›CPF›'VJGTGWO› VQ›PGYEQOGTU›NKMG›<ECUJ›CPF›7DKS››VJGTG›CTG›QXGT›››››››FKHHGTGPV›XCTKGVKGU› VQ›EJQQUG›HTQO››$WV›UJQWNF›[QW›RNWPIG›KP›QT›UVC[›YGNN›ENGCT!›+VoU›C›SWGUVKQP› VJCVoU›DGGP›CUMGF›GXGT›UKPEG›,CPWCT[›››››››YJGP›VJG›ITCPFCFF[›QH›VJGO› GOGTIGF›HTQO›NKVGTCNN[›PQYJGTG››$KVEQKP››› #›HGY›OQPVJU›GCTNKGT››C›OGUUCIG›JCF›RQRRGF›WR›QP›C›VGEJPKECN›OCKNKPI› NKUV›FGUETKDKPI›C›PGY›HQTO›QH›GNGEVTQPKE›RC[OGPV››6JCV›KP›KVUGNH›YCUPoV› RCTVKEWNCTN[›GZEKVKPI››QXGT›VJG›[GCTU›VJGTG›JCXG›DGGP›OCP[›KFGCU›HQT›PGY› HQTOU›QH›FKIKVCN›ECUJ›YJKEJ›HQT›QPG›TGCUQP›QT›CPQVJGT›JCXG›PGXGT›ECWIJV›QP›› $WV›CEEQTFKPI›VQ›KVU›KPXGPVQT››VJG›GNWUKXG›5CVQUJK›0CMCOQVQ››$KVEQKP›YCU› FKHHGTGPV››+V›YCU››JG›ENCKOGF››CDNG›VQ›QRGTCVG›EQORNGVGN[›KPFGRGPFGPVN[›QH› governments, regulators or banks, yet still be totally trustworthy. 6JG›UJGGT›OCIPKVWFG›QH›VJKU›ENCKO›DGEQOGU›ENGCT›CU›UQQP›CU›[QW›VJKPM›JQY› EQPXGPVKQPCN›OQPG[›YQTMU››*CTF›ECUJ›s›KP›VJG›HQTO›QH›EQKPU›CPF›PQVGU›s›KU› RJ[UKECNN[›RTQFWEGF›D[›PCVKQPCN›OKPVU››CPF›ETCOOGF›YKVJ›CPVK›EQWPVGTHGKVKPI› featurestostoppeoplesimplymakingtheirown YJGPGXGT›VJG[›PGGF›OQTG››$WV›GNGEVTQPKE›OQPG[›› NKMG›UVQEMU››UJCTGU›CPF›CP[›QPNKPG›VTCPUCEVKQPU›› KUPoV›TGCN››KVoU›LWUV›FKIKVCN›UKIPCNU››YJKEJ›ECP›LWUV› DG›EQRKGF›CPF›RCUVGF››6Q›EQODCV›VJKU››VJG›INQDCN› financial system relies on electronic clearing houses that keep tabs on every transaction in CP›CVVGORV›VQ›UVQR›HTCWF››1T›CV›NGCUV››VJCVoU›YJCV› VJG[›CTG›UWRRQUGF›VQ›FQ››+P›TGCNKV[››HTCWFUVGTU› CPF›KPUKFGTU›ECP›s›CPF›JCXG›s›HQWPF›YC[U›VQ› EJGCV›VJG›U[UVGO››$WV›0CMCOQVQ›ENCKOGF›VQ› JCXG›HQWPF›C›YC[›VQ›RTGXGPV›VJKU››2WV›UKORN[›› $KVEQKP›YQTMU›D[›EQPXGTVKPI›VJG›KPHQTOCVKQP› CDQWV›GCEJ›PGY›VTCPUCEVKQP›KPVQ›C›HQTO›VJCVoU› OCVJGOCVKECNN[›CNOQUV›KORQUUKDNG›VQ›TGCF›QT› EJCPIG››CPF›VJGP›GPVGTGF›KPVQ›C›RGTOCPGPV› GNGEVTQPKE›NGFIGT››MPQYP›CU›C›DNQEMEJCKP› TIGHT WAD #U›YGNN›CU›DGKPI›UGEWTG››VJG›DNQEMEJCKP›FQGUPoV› GZKUV›KP›C›UKPING›RNCEG››+PUVGCF››KVoU›URTGCF›CETQUU› C›XKTVWCN›PGVYQTM››RTQFWEKPI›C›INQDCN›U[UVGO›QH› GNGEVTQPKE›EWTTGPE[›VJCV›KU›HCUV››GHHKEKGPV›CPF› 2 VTWUVYQTVJ[›s›CPF›QWV›QH›VJG›JCPFU›QH›IQXGTPOGPVU›QT› banks.Cuttingoutthefinancialestablishmentseemsto JCXG›DGGP›C›DKI›OQVKXCVQT›HQT›0CMCOQVQ››9JGP›$KVEQKP› YCU›NCWPEJGF››VJG›YQTNF›YCU›KP›VJG›ITKR›QH›VJG›YQTUV› HKPCPEKCN›ETKUKU›UKPEG›VJG›››››U››$CPMU›YGTG›YKFGN[› seen as the culprits, yet governments were racing to DCKN›VJGO›QWV››6JKU›KPHWTKCVGF›OCP[››YJQ›DGNKGXGF›VJG› DCPMU›UJQWNF›UWHHGT›VJG›EQPUGSWGPEGU› p1PG›TGCUQP›$KVEQKP›JCU›ECRVWTGF›VJG›KOCIKPCVKQP› QH›UQ›OCP[›RGQRNG›KU›VJCV›KV›JQNFU›VJG›RTQOKUG›QH› FGOQETCVKUKPI›HKPCPEG›q›UC[U›&CXKF›1TTGNN››EQ›CWVJQT› of the 6JG›'XQNWVKQP›1H›/QPG[. 1PG›MG[›CRRGCN›QH›ET[RVQEWTTGPEKGU›KU›VJG›CDKNKV[›VQ› RGTHQTO›VTCPUCEVKQPU›EQORNGVGN[›QWVUKFG›VJG›UVCPFCTF› DCPMKPI›U[UVGO››6YQ›nOCKPUVTGCOo›DGPGHKVU›QH›VJKU›CTG› CP›CDKNKV[›VQ›ECTT[›QWV›VTCPUCEVKQPU›CPF›FQFIG›VJG›HGGU› NGXKGF›D[›DCPMU››NKMG›YJGP›[QW›YCPV›VQ›UGPF›OQPG[› CDTQCF››CPF›CNUQ›VQ›CXQKF›UCNGU›VCZGU›NKMG›8#6›› +PVTKIWKPIN[››YJGP›0CMCOQVQ›nOKPGFo›VJG›HKTUV›$KVEQKPU›› VJG[›ECOG›GODGFFGF›YKVJ›VJG›VGZV›QH›C›JGCFNKPG› FGUETKDKPI›JQY›VJG›7-›IQXGTPOGPV›YCU›CDQWV›VQ›IKXG› DCPMU›C›UGEQPF›DCKNQWV››9CU›VJKU›CP›GCTN[›JKPV›QH› 0CMCOQVQoU›OQVKXCVKQPU›KP›NCWPEJKPI›CP›KPFGRGPFGPV› EWTTGPE[!›+VoU›KORQUUKDNG›VQ›MPQY››CU›PQ›QPG›MPQYU› YJQ›QT›YJGTG›0CMCOQVQ›KU››JG››QT›UJG››XCPKUJGF›KP› ››››››#VVGORVU›VQ›GZVTCEV›ENWGU›HTQO›JKU›RQUVKPIU›JCXG› EQOG›VQ›PCWIJV››+P›››››››0GYUYGGM›UGGOGF›VQ›JCXG› HQWPF›JKO›KP›%CNKHQTPKC››DWV›VJG›RGTUQP›KPUKUVGF›JG› MPGY›PQVJKPI›CDQWV›$KVEQKP››5QOG›UWURGEV›n0CMCOQVQo› KU›C›RUGWFQP[O›HQT›C›VGCO›QH›ET[RVQEWTTGPE[›GZRGTVU›› 9JCVGXGT›0CMQOQVQoU›OQVKXCVKQP››VJGTGoU›PQ›FQWDV›KV› YCU›UJCTGF›D[›QVJGTU››#V›HKTUV››$KVEQKPU›YGTG›NKOKVGF› to a small community of enthusiasts. With relatively HGY›KP›GZKUVGPEG›CPF›NKVVNG›KPVGTGUV››VJG›GEQPQOKE›NCY›QH›…

7 min

BBC Science Focus Magazine|January 2018

HELEN CZERSKI ON… CHAMPAGNE CORKS

“THE POP AND FIZZ OF CHAMPAGNE ARE EXCITING, BUT THE CORK ITSELF HAS A STORY TO TELL TOO” There was never a conscious decision to start a collection. But I’m a bubble physicist, so I notice champagne (usually as a toy first and a drink second), and some years ago I started picking up the corks. I put a couple of them in a bowl in my living room, with the matches and tealights and other such miscellany, and every so often another one would come along. Eventually, the corks outnumbered everything else, and the rest got booted out. I looked at them properly for the first time this week, and wished it hadn’t taken me so long to appreciate them. Form and function are so beautifully intertwined, and it…

3 min

BBC Science Focus Magazine|January 2018

QUESTION OF THE MONTH

How dense is the Universe? LEWIS RYLANDS, LIVERPOOL By making observations of fluctuations in the cosmic microwave background (the ‘leftover’ radiation from the Big Bang), astronomers have shown that the Universe is ‘flat’. This means that its density appears to be close to the critical density, which is the density needed for gravity to just halt its expansion after an infinite time. The expansion rate we see today indicates that the critical density of the Universe is about 9◊10 -27 |MI›O-3 . This density, however, is the total density QH›DQVJ›OCVVGT|CPF|GPGTI[››1DUGTXCVKQPU› have shown that ordinary matter accounts for 4.9 per cent of this density, YJKNG››››››RGT›EGPV›QH›KV›KU›FWG›VQ|FCTM› matter, a form of matter not directly visible. The remaining 68.3 per cent is FWG›VQ|FCTM›GPGTI[››C›O[UVGTKQWU› energy field causing the Universe’s expansion to accelerate. So, ordinary matter…

1 min

BBC Science Focus Magazine|January 2018

MOST VITAMIN D RICH FOODS

1. Cod liver oil Per portion: 440 Per 100g: 9,780 2. Salmon and mackerel Per portion: 400 Per 100g: 470 3. Tinned sardines Per portion: 270 Per 100g: 270 4. Tinned tuna Per portion: 154 Per 100g: 181 5. Almond milk Per portion: 68 Per 100g: 30 6. Breakfast cereal Per portion: 52 Per 100g: 168 7. Eggs Per portion: 41 Per 100g: 73 8. Shiitake mushrooms Per portion: 40 Per 100g: 53 9. Caviar Per portion: 33 Per 100g: 116 10. Margarine Per portion: 30 Per 100g: 300…

1 min

BBC Science Focus Magazine|January 2018

Q&A: GORDON BUCHANAN

What benefits do you get from filming from the animals’ perspective? We have all this information about animals’ lives, but the one thing we’re usually missing is actually seeing what the animal sees. Chimpanzees spend a lot of their lives hidden in thick foliage up tall trees, brown bears in the mountains of Turkey are so secretive that the majority of people in that part of the world haven’t even seen one, and meerkats spend half of their time underground. With the latest technology, we can now follow these animals into their worlds, and that’s mindblowing. The cameras aren’t a gimmick – we worked closely with biologists and zoologists to try to answer the questions they have about the animals they’re studying. With the fur seals in Australia, the scientists…

3 min

BBC Science Focus Magazine|January 2018

GRAVITATIONAL WAVES

Gravitational waves are ripples in the fabric of space-time. They were predicted to exist by Albert Einstein in 1916, although he then got cold feet and retracted his prediction the following year, only to re-make it in 1936. Specifically, gravitational waves are a prediction of Einstein’s revolutionary theory of gravity, the ‘General Theory of Relativity’, which he presented in Berlin in November 1915, at the height of WWI. Whereas Isaac Newton had maintained that there was a ‘force’ of gravity between the Sun and Earth, like a piece the invisible elastic tethering the Earth to the Sun and keeping it forever in orbit, Einstein showed that this is an illusion. No such force exists. Instead, the Sun creates a ‘valley’ in the space-time around it, and the Earth travels around…

9 min

BBC Science Focus Magazine|January 2018

EXOPLANETS

Exoplanets are planets that orbit stars other than our Sun. We now know of 3,493 exoplanets out there, and the number rises every week. The first exoplanets were actually found orbiting the stellar corpse of a ‘pulsar’ by astronomers Aleksander Wolszczan and Dale Frail in 1992. However, the first exoplanet orbiting a Sun-like star was found by astronomer Geoff Marcy in 1999. Now we have found extrasolar planetary systems containing five, six and even seven planets. (‘Extrasolar’ refers to astronomical objects located outside our Solar System.) About one-third of nearby stars have planets, and a further third have dust disks from which planets congeal. Consequently, in our Milky Way, there are almost certainly more planets than stars – and there are several hundred billion of those. Before the discovery of…

7 min