Innehållsförteckning för September 2022 från BBC Science Focus Magazine

Despite the last known example having been dead for close to 100 years, the Tasmanian tiger could soon be on the prowl once again. Since its genome was sequenced in 2017, many researchers have been looking into the possibility of bringing the Tasmanian tiger back from extinction. Now, after teaming up with Dallas-based genetic engineering company Colossal Biosciences, geneticists working at the University of Melbourne say they expect to produce their first baby thylacine within the next decade. “We can now take the giant leaps to conserve Australia’s threatened marsupials and take on the grand challenge of de-extincting animals we had lost,” said Prof Andrew Pask, leader of the Thylacine Integrated Genetic Restoration Research (TIGRR) Lab. “A lot of the challenges with our efforts can be overcome by an army…

Images captured by the high-precision instruments on the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) have given astronomers a close-up view of the Cartwheel Galaxy – a bizarre ring galaxy that formed following a collision between a large spiral galaxy and a smaller neighbouring galaxy. The images were captured by the telescope’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) and Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI), and are sharp enough to show the individual stars scattered throughout the galaxy’s spectacular form. The Cartwheel Galaxy was previously captured by the Hubble Space Telescope, but the JWST’s capability to detect infrared light has now uncovered new insights about the galaxy’s structure and life cycle. The blue dots seen in the images are individual stars, or areas of star formation, while the red dots show areas rich in hydrocarbons. “The galaxy is…

Tiny sensory hair cells called stereocilia, located in your inner ear, are responsible for detecting sound. When these become damaged, either by genetic disorders, loud sounds or old age, it can lead to hearing difficulties and even deafness. Now, in a series of experiments on mice, researchers based at the Salk Institute and the University of Sheffield have identified a protein that can be delivered to these hair cells via gene therapy in order to trigger their growth. “Our discovery shows that hair cell function can be restored in certain cells,” said co-author Dr Uri Manor, assistant research professor and director of the Waitt Advanced Biophotonics Core at Salk. “I was born with severe to profound hearing loss and feel it would be a wonderful gift to be able to…

Picture this. You are in a foreign country. The police arrest you and realise that you don’t speak the language. So, they organise someone to translate. If you’re lucky, the person they contact is a professional interpreter. If you’re unlucky, the person is a multilingual police officer who happens to speak your language just well enough to scrape through an interview. Either way, you are now having to talk through someone else. Does this interpreter-mediated interviewing put you at a disadvantage? If so, how much? The answer to this lies at the intersection of criminal psychology and cognitive linguistics, where researchers have realised that interpreters are an overlooked barrier between suspects and their freedom. One of the most active researchers looking at these issues is Luna Filipović, a professor of…

Why do people get migraines? It’s a simple question, but one with an incredibly complicated answer. If ‘answer’ is even the right word. Because, in truth, as far as the science is concerned, the most honest and straightforward answer to ‘why do people get migraines?’ would be ‘we don’t know’. Despite countless years of research and study, it seems that the underlying science of migraines is so nuanced and complex that our understanding is still far from complete. However, it’s always worth emphasising that ‘incomplete understanding’ is a far cry from ‘zero understanding’. Science has revealed many significant things about migraines, why they occur, why they endure, who they affect, and why they hit us so severely. Is a migraine just a bad headache? For those lucky enough to not…

HADDEN DIAMOND HOLGATE, AGED 7, VIA EMAIL IF THE UNIVERSE IS EXPANDING, HOW IS IT POSSIBLE THAT THE MILKY WAY AND THE ANDROMEDA GALAXY ARE GETTING CLOSER TO ONE ANOTHER? The Universe is certainly expanding in the aftermath of the Big Bang 13.82 billion years ago, but you yourself are not expanding. Neither is the Earth nor our Solar System nor our Milky Way nor the local group of galaxies of which the Milky Way and Andromeda are the two most prominent members. This is because only on the largest scales is cosmic expansion strong enough to overcome the gravity that’s binding together astronomical objects. On the smaller scales – masses equivalent to stars and galaxies and even galaxy clusters – gravity is strong enough to hold things together and…

Is the late, great Han Solo once said, “Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at your side, kid.” A bit disrespectful, in retrospect, but a good point nonetheless. Just take new series Star Wars: Andor, which is based around the struggle of ordinary people – those who are born without space magic – who must stand up to the Empire with nothing but firearms that, according to Wookieepedia, are fire bolts of ‘particle-based energy’. But what does that mean? Patrick Johnson, author of The Physics Of Star Wars, has a few ideas. “A lot of people assume that blasters fire lasers, but the blaster beams travel at a speed where we can watch them move,” he says. “Lasers, meanwhile, move at the speed of…

The Sky At Night There has never been a better time to tune in to the BBC’s oldest science show. But this episode, which revels in the beautiful detail of the James Webb Space Telescope’s new images, is a must-watch. Available on BBC iPlayer Net Zero: A Very British Problem The UK has been a success story when it comes to shrinking our carbon emissions, but can we reach net zero? Comedian and environmental economist Dr Matt Winning travels around Britain in this four-part series to find out if we can make the changes needed to get there. BBC Radio 4 Starts 16 September, 11am Also available on BBC Sounds CrowdScience: Is There A Language Of Laughter? Is comedy universal? Do we all laugh at the same things? Are comedians…

Engineers at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) have developed a technique that enables ultrasound images of organs within the human body to be captured, using a simple patch that is stuck onto the skin. This could reduce the need for time-consuming hospital visits, and allow for the real-time monitoring of organs, or of stents (tiny tubes inserted into blocked arteries), plates and other surgical implants. Ultrasound imaging, or sonography – a technique first developed as a means of detecting enemy submarines during WWI – has been used medically since the 1940s. Most people will be familiar with it as the technology used to take pictures of babies inside the womb. The process works by applying a gel to the skin, which allows ultrasound waves – soundwaves at ultrahigh frequencies far…

All of us will have experienced pain at some point in our lives. We all know how pain can affect our physical activities, but it also affects how we feel mentally and emotionally, as well as other health-related factors such as our ability to sleep. This is especially true for those who suffer from chronic pain. When we have an injury, pain signals travel along specialised nerve fibres and the spinal cord up to reach parts of our brain. Both the brain and spinal cord have a role in processing the signals, and work together to create the feeling and perception of pain. The prevalence and widespread impact of pain on our lives was set out in the 2017 Health Survey for England. Around 34 per cent of respondents reported…

Like a peacock spreading its feathers to make itself more appealing, the Nothing Phone 1 employs a plume of 900 LED lights to set itself apart from the procession of near-identical smartphone launches these days. Nothing is a start-up from a former co-founder of OnePlus, and its mission is to create desirable tech at affordable prices for the masses: a tricky balance to strike. We spent a few weeks with the £399 Nothing Phone 1 to find out what was beneath its flashy display. LIGHTS, CAMERA, ACTION! First off, let’s talk about the light show on the back. This is the Nothing Phone’s unique selling point, known as the Glyph interface. The lights (Glyphs) are intended as a notification system, flashing in different combinations and colours, with a variety of…

DIY drone “A typical racing drone in its current state is built from the ground up. You buy the parts, and you assemble them all together. That obviously requires some knowledge or skill, but there is plenty of educational content out there to do that,” says Turner. There are lots of trustworthy websites that sell drone parts, including YourFPV or Five33 (owned by Turner). DJI FPV “The DJI FPV drone is a good way to get into FPV and at least understand the basics, but I would also say that you’re not going to use the DJI FPV as a long-term drone because it’s very basic,” says Turner. While this is by no means the cheapest FPV drone, it is the best for beginners due to its enhanced safety and…

A decade ago, Luca Gamberini’s father, Sergio, decided to pursue what seemed to Luca like a madcap scheme to grow plants under the sea. The Gamberini family business, Ocean Reef Group, specialised in diving and scuba equipment. Agriculture was not part of the picture. But after the idea to plant underwater crops emerged from a dinner between Sergio – who had a passion for gardening, as well as scuba diving – and a farmer friend of his, he decided to try it. “It was kind of a bet, a fun joke,” says Gamberini. “And my father was like, ‘hey, you know what, I’m actually going to try that.’ And he did. And it worked.” To start, they used small, curved, transparent balloons sunk below the water and filled with air,…

How about science without maths? In her letter, Barbara Atkinson (Summer, p12) says science is perceived as a difficult subject. I suggest that it’s not the physics that’s difficult, but instead it’s the mathematics that’s used to explain it. Science has always been my passion, but I’m not good at maths. Just ask if you can have an explanation without all the formulae and you are told “mathematics is the language of science”. To understand the data coming out of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) requires a mathematician, but an understanding of GCSE and A-Level science doesn’t. What’s required is teachers who realise that understanding the maths doesn’t make you a good teacher. Instead, a good teacher is one who can enable a pupil to understand the science, even though…

Do spiders dream of catching flies? Maybe! A team of researchers, led by Dr Daniela C Rößler from the University of Konstanz, have uncovered tantalising evidence that jumping spiders go through different sleep stages, including REM-like sleep, which has never before been observed in arachnids. This discovery sheds new light on the mystery of sleep in the animal kingdom. We know from human studies that our most vivid dreams occur during the rapid eye movement (REM) stage of sleep, and these findings also raise the possibility that spiders may have visual dreams. Most spiders have two principal eyes that see detail and colour, as well as six smaller eyes. There are more than 6,400 species of jumping spiders in the world, and they are renowned for their excellent vision. Part…

IS THERE A DEFINITION OF DROUGHT? There isn’t a scientific definition of ‘drought’. We can think of a meteorological drought in terms of a deficit of rainfall, like we have seen in the last few months. Or there is agricultural drought, particularly if the dry weather happens at the same time as the irrigation season in the summer. But there is also hydrological drought, which is perhaps the worst in respect of maintaining the water supply, for both our drinking water and also to support the environment. These will develop over a longer period than several weeks of no rainfall. In the recent period, we’ve seen months of lower rainfall than usual. A dry spring leading into a dry autumn or winter makes the problem even worse. Next year, we…

Across western Britain and Ireland, you can find patches of damp and misty woodland draped in a cover of green lichens, mosses and liverworts. Increasingly referred to as temperate rainforests, these unique ecosystems harbour the largest concentration of oceanic lichens and mosses in Europe, including some found nowhere else on Earth. Now at a fraction of their previous coverage, many are asking whether Britain should be doing more to protect and expand the areas it has left. In fact, earlier this year, a campaign was launched urging the public to map the remaining pockets of this rainforest habitat. But what actually are these rainforests of Britain, and how can we save them? Temperate rainforests, unlike their tropical counterparts like the Amazon, are found in cooler climates that intersect with an…

…a tent tHat can weatHer tHe storm Forget the leaking two-man pop-up tent you’ve been lugging to festivals, the Kirra Classic is an inflatable tent that combines speed and convenience with strength. The tent can be assembled in less than 30 seconds, simply by inflating the tube-like frame with a pump. Once set up, the strong geometric design will keep you better protected in storms and strong winds. But if you do have any issues, each individual part of the tent can be replaced. However, at more than £700, all of this tech doesn’t come cheap. Kirra Classic €849 (£717 approx), en.heimplanet.com …LEGO striking the nostalgia nerves If two of your childhood hobbies were LEGO and playing the Atari 2600, LEGO has found a way to tap into your nostalgia…

A PARADE OF PLANETS WHEN: MID TO LATE SEPTEMBER After residing in the morning sky for the first half of 2022, the bright and not-so-bright planets can now be seen in the late evening sky. The progression starts with Saturn, which is visible 20˚ above the southern horizon at 11pm BST on 14 September, progressively getting to this position earlier each night to arrive there by 10pm on 30 September. For reference, the horizon is 0˚ and the overhead point, or zenith, is 90˚, with 20˚ representing a height approximately one-fifth up the sky. Jupiter follows Saturn higher across the sky and is unmissable because of its brightness. Less obvious is dim Neptune, which requires binoculars to see. It’s located west-southwest of Jupiter below a circular pattern of stars known…

I CAN’T STOP SQUEEZING MY SPOTS, IS THERE A BETTER WAY TO GET RID OF THEM? Squeezing spots can make them worse and increase the likelihood of permanent scarring, so do try to avoid this, however tempting it might be. There are lots of other things you can try yourself at home, and some medications which you can get from a pharmacy or from a GP. Simple things to try at home include avoiding oily make-up and moisturisers, removing make-up completely before bed, washing the affected area with a mild soap or cleanser and lukewarm water (not too hot or cold) no more than twice a day, washing hair regularly and trying to avoid letting hair fall across your face. To date, despite what most people think, there is little…

PENCILS AT THE READY! ACROSS I Cyril’s lost for words (5) 4 Insult didn’t start as frivolous (5) 8 Honour for being lamed, unfortunately (5) 9 Mark follows sailor in refrain (7) 10 Departing during coffee (3) II In extremis, too readily returning to origins (5) 12 Wear out soldier, coming back for insect (6) 14 Bag one wasted following swine messenger (7,6) 17 Sluggish form of electricity (6) 19 Some insects are small and affectionate (5) 22 Equipment acquired from obelisk itself (3) 23 Prevaricating woman has visa to get back (7) 24 Old performance is not approximated in any way (5) 25 The riddle of the kitchen? (5) 26 Fear adder moving around (5) DOWN 1 City appearing in five lines (8) 2 Travelled to see old cowboy…