Innehållsförteckning för December 2022 från BBC Science Focus Magazine

DISCOVERIES COMMENT The first instrument to detect a gamma-ray burst (GRB) was watching for the end of the world. What it ended up seeing was quite possibly the end of someone else's. In the 1960s, during the Cold War, the US military deployed a group of satellites called Vela to monitor Earth and nearby space for the characteristic flash of high-energy radiation (gamma rays and X-rays) that would give away the location of secret nuclear weapon tests, even if they were carried out behind the Moon. The first events Vela observed, however, looked nothing like the kind of flash a nuclear bomb would produce, and seemed to be coming from deep space. For years afterwards, experts debated their nature and origin: where could these spectacular bursts of radiation be coming…

For decades, the responsibility of contraception has largely fallen on women. While birth control is certainly not a bad thing and allows us the sexual freedom we desire, it is not without its downsides. Mood swings, irregular bleeding, tender breasts and several other unwanted side effects are what many women endure in order to prevent pregnancy. Therefore, it is no surprise that ladies (and gents!) are keen for a male contraceptive alternative to level the playing field. Currently, men have limited options when it comes to contraception, despite a willingness to share the responsibility. They can either use condoms or get a vasectomy, a surgical procedure for permanent male sterilisation. On the other hand, women have many choices that are more reliable than condoms and less permanent than sterilisation: birth…

Honey, which is made by the eight species of honeybee, is a viscous mixture of sugars and water. It's stored inside honeycomb cells, which are sealed with wax until the energy-rich liquid is required to feed larvae or help adult bees survive the winter. If the comb becomes damaged and the honey leaks out, bees can indeed become sticky and even get stuck. Bee expert Prof Dave Goulson from the University of Sussex has seen it happen, but not often. “I think they're simply very careful when handling honey and meticulously groom off any sticky residues,” he says.…

DEAR DOCTOR… HEALTH QUESTIONS DEALT WITH BY SCIENCE FOCUS EXPERTS If you celebrate Christmas then you're almost certain to devour an enormous meal at some point on 25 December, your plate overflowing with proteins and carbohydrates. But should you add breakfast to the mix? A recent'big breakfast’ study by scientists at Aberdeen and Surrey universities found that the time of day when you consume your calories does not affect metabolism. Funded by the UK's Medical Research Council, thetrial involved 30 people on weight-loss diets, with some eating more in the morning, and others loading calories later in the day. The researchers found no difference in resting metabolic rate or weight loss for the two groups. However, those eating a big breakfast were significantly less hungry later in the day. Using…

Not all snow is created equal, as anyone who has tried to have a snowball fight or build a snowman only to have the snowfall apart in their hands will know. That's because the properties of snow vary greatly depending on temperature and moisture. The best snow for building snowmen is moist or wet snow, which forms when the air temperature is just above freezing — between 0°C and 2°C — meaning that some of the snow melts, creating free water between the ice crystals that acts like glue. Ideally, the snow should be around 3 to 8 per cent moisture. Any more than 15 per cent moisture, and snow becomes slush and too wet to hold a shape. Freshly fallen moist or wet snow forms as dendrites – the…

Scientists have already transferred bioluminescent genes from jellyfish and corals into many other organisms, including bacteria, fungi, fish and mammals. The setup can be designed so the genes are only active in certain tissue types, such as the epithelial cells that line the nose. Then, when ultraviolet light is used to illuminate the tissue, it glows. As technology continues to evolve this is, perhaps, something that Santa would consider. Like the wingtip lights on a plane, a flashing hooter could help to improve Rudolph's visibility in the night sky, keeping both Santa and his reindeer safe as they deliver their booty.…

Life experiences and facts are one type of memory. Riding a bike is another: it's a skill, or a learned pattern of movement that neurologists referto as ‘procedural memory’, more commonly known as ‘muscle memory’. There are, of course, lots of skills — like driving a car or tying your shoelaces — that are so embedded in our minds that we barely have to think about them. It's not clear why procedural memories are harder to forget than others, but it might have something to do with where they're stored in the brain; an area that seems relatively protected and resistant to rewiring.…

Sven Svensen is nearing the final phase of his preparation for his trek across the Arctic. An important part of his preparation is to put on weight to help protect him from the cold. Starting today, and for the following 200 days, he must gradually increase the number of calories he eats by 100 every day, starting from his usual 2,540-calorie daily intake. It doesn't really matter what he eats to gain the weight, so he'd prefer to do it by eating Wazoo nutrition bars, which contain 140 calories each. On how many of the days where he follows this plan will he be able to consume nothing but Wazoo bars?…

The Royal Institution Christmas Lectures Okay, it's a tradition that's more than a century old, and has been presented by the likes of David Attenborough and Carl Sagan. But this year we're excited just because it's being hosted by Prof Dame Sue Black, a forensic scientist who's been involved in some of the UK's most high-profile criminal investigations. BBC Four 28-30 December Also available on iPlayer The Documentary: Living In Space With the Artemis programme, the idea of an off-planet settlement moves a step closer to reality. David Baker explores what we'd need to build a working community on another celestial body. BBC World Service 10 December, midday The Secret Genius Of Modern Life We take technology like bank cards and GPS for granted — they're almost mundane. But powering…

DISCOVERIES SPACE NASA's Artemis 1 mission successfully got underway on 16 November, with the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket sending the uncrewed Orion capsule on its journey to the Moon. The mission is the first of a series that will culminate with the space agency aiming to put humanity back on the lunar surface for the first time in more than 50 years. Shortly following the launch, the Goonhilly Earth Station based in Cornwall picked up radio signals being sent from the mission's Orion capsule as it detached from the SLS launch rocket to begin its mission in earnest. The huge radio communications facility is now tracking the trajectory of the spacecraft as it makes its 25-day journey to the Moon and beyond, and is feeding data directly to NASA…

HUMANS At least two genetically distinct groups of people made their way to Britain at the end of the last ice age, an analysis of the oldest human DNA discovered in the country has found. To make the discovery, researchers from University College London, the Natural History Museum and the Francis Crick Institute analysed the remains of two ancient humans using radiocarbon dating and genome sequencing techniques. One, a female unearthed from Gough's Cave in Somerset, was found to have lived around 15,000 years ago. She belonged to a group known for their use of stone tools and production of cave art, that moved through northern Europe around 16,000 years ago. The other, a male found in Kendrick's Cave, North Wales, lived around 13,500 years ago and belonged to a…

WE NOW KNOW MORE ABOUT THE DAY THE DINOSAURS DIED In March, palaeontologists led by Robert DePalma were digging in the Hell Creek region of North Dakota in the US, when they found a fossilised dinosaur leg. That in itself was not unusual, as the region has long been known to be rich in fossil deposits. But this particular dinosaur, a Thescelosaurus, is believed to have been killed in the asteroid strike that wiped out the dinosaurs around 66 million years ago. This makes it unique in the fossil record. In fact, until just a few years ago, no fossil had been found that lived even around the time of the impact. While debris and ash from the event shows up in core samples as a thin layer of dark…

FEATURE Q&A OF THE YEAR THE QUESTIONS THAT WE'VE BEEN PONDERING IN 2022 Q&A OF THE YEAR ANSWERED BY BBC SCIENCE FOCUS EXPERTS Video games have been accused of many things over the years. There have been concerns that they make us isolated and antisocial, and in turn damage our mental wellbeing. We have worried that some games make us more violent, therefore damaging our physical wellbeing (literally). As scientists have become more adept at researching these topics, the best evidence has started to reveal that these sorts of worries are largely unfounded. Nevertheless, there persists a deep-seated idea that playing them rots your brain — it's easy to view them as an unproductive waste of time which displace other, more meaningful pursuits. But in reality, is the opposite the…

Hormone replacement therapy (HRT) relieves symptoms of the menopause by replacing hormones that are at a lower level leading up to and during the start of the process. Women usually start to experience the menopause between the ages of 45 and 55. During the menopause, the ovaries stop releasing eggs, and levels of the hormones oestrogen, progesterone and testosterone drop, which often causes symptoms such as hot flushes, night sweats, vaginal dryness, reduced libido, disturbed sleep, poor concentration, mood swings, anxiety and brain fog. During the perimenopause – the period leading up to menopause – a woman can suffer from these symptoms, but still have her period. For many, the effects of perimenopause and menopause can be challenging, but for others they can be debilitating. HRT can help alleviate symptoms,…

Scientists can study how the human brain and body deal with information that people are likely to experience as distressing. We show test subjects a barrage of images or words designed to burden their nervous systems – exactly the sort of stuff we all encounter daily in the news (in fact, some of our most troublesome material comes from news reports). After a moment, we see changes in patterns of brain activity that are important for regulating bodily systems. Some changes occur in brain regions that have been dubbed the home of ‘fight or flight’ circuits, but really these regions are more generally important for coordinating and regulating your nervous system, immune system, and metabolism. As a result, we observe test subjects’ pounding hearts, sweating palms, and gushing cortisol as…

STEVEN RILEY, ABERDEEN In films and television documentaries, dinosaurs often roar like lions. But in fact, there is no evidence to suggest that they made such noises. On the contrary, the existing evidence suggests they didn't, for a couple of reasons. First, a lion's roar is made possible by the big cat's vocal cords: folds of tissue in their throats. We also have vocal cords, as do many animals, but those of lions are fine-tuned to make loud and intense noises, and there's no direct fossil evidence that dinosaurs had these same structures. Second, dinosaurs were the ancestors of birds, so it's likely some made more bird-like noises. One 2016 study argued that some dinosaurs made closedmouth vocalisations like the ‘booms’ ostriches make. Modern-day birds have a voice box, called…

SARAH PHELPS, VIA EMAIL My friend's African Grey parrot speaks so convincingly, she can order herself treats via the family's smart assistant. No lips, no vocal cords, just sheer opportunism. She does this by using her syrinx, a hollow, Y-shaped structure unique to birds, that sits between the base of the windpipe and the lungs. As the bird breathes, air passes through the syrinx, which vibrates and makes a noise. The form of this noise is acutely controlled by a series of muscles and soft bony rings on the outside of the syrinx. This enables parrots to sing, call and mimic words, such as ‘Pretty Polly’ and ‘Alexa, buy more millet’.…

1. At the start of the year, it was announced that China's Artificial Sun broke the world record for the longest sustained nuclear plasma reaction after running for 17 minutes, 36 seconds. But how hot did it get? 2. The largest known bacteria, Thiomargarita magnifica, is found in the tropical mangroves of Guadeloupe in the Caribbean. How big is it? 3. The most expensive NFT sold to date is ‘The Merge’. Almost 30,000 collaborators pitched in to buy parts, but how much did this artwork sell for? 4. A mysterious cube was detected on the far side of the Moon by China's Yutu-2 rover. What was it? 5. Why did NASA's DART mission deliberately crash into an asteroid on 26 September? 6. A new antibiotic, solanimycin, has been recently found…

EYE OPENER LANGLEY RESEARCH CENTER, VIRGINIA, USA This structure might be the key to landing experiments, equipment and possibly even people on Mars. And it's inflatable But it's not for cushioning the impact of hitting the planet's surface; it's for surviving the heat of atmospheric re-entry. NASA is developing it as an alternative to the rigid heatshields currently used to protect payloads as they pass through a planet's atmosphere. The bigger the heatshield, the more heat it can absorb as it generates drag to slow the craft for a safer landing. The problem is, a rigid heatshield's dimensions are constrained by the size of the rocket it has to fit inside. An inflatable shield, however, can be stowed for launch, then inflated to a larger size when it's deployed. This…

Whether it's being unprepared for an exam, realising you are naked in public, or having your teeth suddenly fall out, around 1 in 20 of us are troubled by recurring nightmares. As well as being distressing, these nightmares can negatively affect sleep and lead to poor health. Now, help may be on the way, as sleep scientists at the University of Geneva have devised a method of cutting down the frequency of bad dreams using sound therapy. Currently, those suffering from recurrent nightmares are prescribed ‘image rehearsal therapy’ — a form of treatment that involves patients changing the negative narrative of the recurring dream into a more positive one and then mentally rehearsing the scenario throughout the day. While this is effective in some cases, it doesn't always help. In…

HEALTH Here's an easy way to make yourself feel a bit chirpier: seeing or listening to birds can improve our mental wellbeing, a study carried out at King's College London has found. The finding is based on data collected by a smartphone app named Urban Mind that was developed by King's College London, landscape architects J&L Gibbons and the arts foundation Nomad Projects. The app was downloaded by almost 1,300 volunteers from the UK, the European Union and the USA. Each day, the volunteers were sent three notifications by the app and asked whether they could see or hear birds nearby, followed by a short questionnaire designed to assess their mental wellbeing. The researchers found that the volunteers’ wellbeing was better when they could see or hear birds, compared to…

DISCOVERIES COMMENT Content moderators are the unsung heroes of the internet. They work in a growing field which upholds the social media infrastructure of today. But keeping us safer, by constantly seeing and filtering the worst content online, takes its toll. Can people really cope with this constant barrage of horror? One of the main handbooks for psychologists, the DSM-5, includes ‘indirect exposure to aversive details’ in the category of post-traumatic stress disorder. In extreme circumstances this can result in what is often called ‘secondary trauma‘. Secondary trauma can happen when people, such as first responders, deal with victims in distress. It can also occur after seeing or reading distressing content. Among others, those who work in content moderation for social media companies, in medicine or psychology, and in social…

We humans are social animals: we live in groups, form long-term bonds, and take care of each other. Behind the scenes, we are also the caretakers of each other's nervous systems. Here's what I mean. Your brain works day and night to keep your body healthy by regulating its resources like water, oxygen, salt and glucose. This regulation is like a budget for your body. Actions that replenish your resources, such as eating and sleeping, are like deposits. Actions that spend resources, like getting out of bed in the morning, your heart beating while you read quietly, or your immune system protecting you from viruses, are like withdrawals from your budget. Some withdrawals are even healthful, such as exercising and learning new things — they're like investments that pay dividends…

In 2018, researchers controlling a remotely operated vehicle in Hawaiian waters stumbled across the best view to date of this deep-sea oddity. Spotted a mile down in the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument, the critter looked like a sinister sperm, with its black, bulbous head and a lithe, whip-like tail. Without warning, its head then began to inflate and wobble, before morphing into a gaping pair of jaws, and then into a more streamlined form, before it disappeared into the darkness. Until that moment, much of our knowledge of the pelican eel came from the mashed-up remains of individuals that had been roughly hauled up from the abyss. It's called the pelican eel because of its enormous mouth, which can expand to hold large volumes of water and prey, a bit…

Any situation where you feel you can't cope or you're not in control is likely to make you feel stressed, so plan ahead to minimise these feelings. For instance, schedule ‘escapes’ for yourself during their stay – be that a walk with a friend or a trip to the shop for some groceries. Mentioning such plans politely at the outset of the visit will help prevent any awkwardness in the moment. Similarly, plan private me-time breaks at home, such as a spot of gardening, or even just a long shower. These brief respites will prevent your feelings from overwhelming you. Try to cultivate opportunities for shared positive moments with your in-laws, be that a trip to see some Christmas lights, taking the kids to the park, cooking together, playing a…

WHEN: THROUGHOUT WINTER The two most recognisable night-sky patterns visible from the northern hemisphere, have to be the Plough and Orion. As winter approaches, Orion the Hunter moves centre stage, a magnificent, large and easy-toidentify constellation. Start at the centre of the pattern, which is marked by three stars of similar brightness, equally spaced in a straight line: Mintaka, Alnilam and Alnitak. This trio forms Orion's Belt. Hanging down from his belt is afaint north-south line of stars representing his sword. Look into the sword using binoculars or a telescope and you'll be rewarded with a view of the Orion Nebula, M42, a gaseous glow surrounding a newly formed group of stars known as the Trapezium Cluster. The top and bottom of the sword are marked by two open clusters,…

There isn't much of a consensus on this. Some people think it's due to greater muscle dexterity on one side of the face, others say one eyebrow is dominant in the way that one hand is dominant, while others argue that there's a genetic component to it. It might be a combination of all three of these factors, or perhaps none of them at all – there's no definitive answer, unfortunately. However, if it's a skill you'd like to improve, with a bit of practice, you can apparently learn to raise both eyebrows independently.…

You're not alone if you spend much ofthe night ruminating about daily stressors, checking the time and worrying about how tired you'll be in the morning. Then spending the next day struggling to think straight and keep your eyes open. So, how can you break this cycle of anxiety and sleeplessness? The first tip, and one of the most important, is to avoid lying awake in bed. If you haven't nodded off within 15-20 minutes of resting your head on the pillow, get up. Take yourself off to another room and do something relaxing like reading, meditating or listening to music. Then, when you begin to feel sleepy again, go back to bed. This can be hard when you're so tired that it's a struggle to get out from under…

Yes, anyone living on the Moon will experience night and day, buta lunar day and night would last almost an entire Earth month. Earth's gravity causes the Moon to elongate slightly on the sides nearest and farthest from us. The gravitational forces acting differently on the near and far side of the Moon's ‘bulge’ creates a torque that acts to alter the Moon's rotational period so that it matches its orbit period. This is known as ‘tidal locking’. Because the Moon spins in the same time as it orbits Earth, it only ever presents the same face to us. But even though the Moon is ‘tidally locked’ to Earth, it's still rotating with respect to the Sun. Its rotation period is 29 days, 12 hours and 44 minutes (also the…