Innehållsförteckning för July 2023 från BBC Science Focus Magazine

Artificial intelligence hasn't taken over the planet just yet. But if, like me, you listen to a lot of radio, you'd think that the machines are about to inherit the Earth. Hours upon hours of airtime have been devoted to the rise of AI: a reaction to the evolution of bots that seem to think, write and create like us. These bots can hold a pretty decent conversation, create digital art based on your descriptions and even compose music, and in response, every news presenter seems to believe that we've got a full-blown existential crisis on our hands. Broadcasts typically go like this: experts are brought on to say whether it really is last orders for humankind while the presenter throws around words like doomsday, armageddon and annihilation, before they…

EYE OPENER A land of ice and fire HÖFN, ICELAND Diamond Beach, on Iceland's southeastern coast, is one of the country's biggest tourist draws. But the diamonds that wash up on the shore are actually chunks of ice. The beach lies on the inlet where the Jökulsárlón glacier lagoon, formed by run off from the Breiðamerkurjökull glacier, flows into the Atlantic. At the glacier's edge, huge chunks of ice break off into the lagoon, the largest of which eventually (after about five years) float off into the ocean as icebergs. The smaller fragments don't make it that far. They're washed back by the incoming North Atlantic tides, onto the shore, where they stand out against the beach's black sand, which is formed mostly of basalt – a result of Iceland's…

COLUMNISTS COMMENT In May 2023, Google unveiled a new, AI-powered tool called Help Me Write. Currently available in I beta form, it automatically drafts email and form letters based on a user's simple instructions. It promises to be a great boon for productivity, especially for those of us who loathe writing email. But the introduction of AI-generated communication may also be the death knell for endangered languages. Thanks to the advanced capabilities of newer large language models, AI-authored text is about to be incorporated in most mass-market writing programs, from texting to email to general document generation. Some of these platforms have incorporated AI in the past, for example to help make suggestions for how to finish a sentence. But AI is about to have a much larger hand in…

Many of the world's leading voices in artificial intelligence have begun to express fears about the technology. They include two of the so-called ‘Godfathers of AI’ – Dr Geoffrey Hinton and Prof Yoshua Bengio, who both played a significant role in its development. Hinton shocked the AI world in May by quitting his role as one of Google's vice-presidents and engineering fellows, citing his concerns about the risks the tech could pose to humanity through the spread of misinformation. He even said he harbours some degree of regret regarding his contributions to the field. Similarly, Nobel Prize-winning computer scientist Bengio recently told the BBC that he has been surprised by the speed that AI has evolved and felt ‘lost’ when looking back at his life's work. Both have called for…

T he release of OpenAI's ChatGPT has generated a flood of commentary, in the media and scientific circles, about the potential and risks of artificial intelligence. At its core ChatGPT is a powerful version of the large language model known as GPT. GPT stands for generative pre-trained transformer; a type of machine learning model that extracts patterns from a vast body of training data (much of it scraped from the Internet) to generate new data composites, (such as chunks of text) using the same patterns. CEOs of AI companies, politicians and prominent AI researchers are now publicly sounding alarms about the potential of tools like GPT to pose an existential threat to humanity. Some claim that GPT may be the first ‘spark’ of artificial general intelligence, or AGI – an…

FEATURE CHRONOTYPES Anyone who's not a morning person is reminded, frequently, that they're not a morning person. For me, it's being used as a barely sentient climbing frame when my children charge in at dawn. It's the brain fog A that takes a couple of hours to shake off at the start of each day. It's the mild despair at seeing messages from colleagues who are already being productive, while I'm still summoning up the coordination required to pour out some breakfast cereal. If you're a night owl rather than an early-bird lark, the world is not organised in your favour. For most of us, work or school starts between 8-9am. If you're a shift worker or a parent to young children, then your day likely starts even earlier. But…

Jade rollers are rolling devices made of jade, a stone that has been used traditionally in skincare for decades. Jade is said to have energy-healing properties that keep your skin youthful, and the cold touch of the stone apparently soothes inflammation. The rollers are said to promote lymphatic drainage in the face, which reduces puffiness. Unfortunately, in reality, the hype doesn't stand up – jade rollers are about as effective as any form of facial massage when done correctly. Facial massage can help skin to look brighter and less puffy, but if you're looking for substantive change, sadly, that's unlikely to happen with a jade roller.…

If you've walked through a meadow just after sunrise, you might have noticed tiny droplets of water arranged in neat lines along the edges of plant leaves. Although they look a bit like dew, these water droplets in fact came out of the plant. To photosynthesise, plants need water, which they absorb from the soil with their roots, and carbon dioxide, which they take up from the air through tiny leaf pores, called stomata. Moisture evaporates from the stomata, so plants can close these pores to conserve water at night or during drought. When the stomata are open, water constantly moves through the plant from root to leaf, and this also helps to pull more water into the roots. If the soil is very wet, then water continues to enter…

The changes a mother's body goes through during pregnancy are complex, extraordinary and go far beyond a bulbous belly, cravings and swollen ankles. Many women also experience mental changes, such as forgetfulness, brain fog, poor attention and focus. This is commonly referred to as ‘baby brain’ and describes the general feeling of not being quite on the ball mentally. Scientists have proven it is real and that the brain undergoes physiological alterations. Baby brain can strike as early as the first trimester and can last for years – even after the baby is born. Although the reasons behind it are not entirely understood, there are a few things we do know that may contribute to mothers’ temporary cognitive decline. HORMONAL CHANGES During pregnancy, a woman experiences significant hormonal changes, including…

Yeti Certain mythical creatures are harder to kill than others. I don't mean with a silver bullet, but stories of the Loch Ness monster, Bigfoot and the Yeti continue to be shared today. So what makes them so enduring? Two enthusiasts head to the Himalayas to try and find out. BBC Radio 4, 1 July, 11:30pm Also available on BBC Sounds CrowdScience: Why do we experience vertigo? The CrowdScience team tackles a question close to my heart: what is vertigo? And is there an evolutionary reason behind it? Anand Jagatia faces his fears to find out. BBC World Service 7 July, 8:30pm (BST) Understand: Tech and AI The world is changing faster than it ever has. This bite-sized show will help you keep pace with the shifting sands of new…

reply@sciencefocus.com BBC Science Focus, Eagle House, Bristol, BS1 4ST @sciencefocus www.facebook.com/sciencefocus @bbcsciencefocus More good news, please Just received the March issue of BBC Science Focus (it takes a while for the hard copies to reach New Zealand) and love it all as usual. In particular, I really like ‘The Future's Bright…’ (p28). We desperately need good news these days. In fact, I'd love to see an entire issue devoted to it! It might help us all sleep a little easier. Beatrice Cheer, Christchurch, NZ Toe-riffic Biometric passkeys that rely on fingerprint identification (June, p36) are great… right up until you put some lotion on, use a petrol pump or start cooking dinner. Do toes have unique prints like fingers, because a toe print might actually save time? Paul Byatt, via…

Have you no taste? It's an interesting, if rude, question that encompasses a broad church of possible topics. Are you about to be criticised for your taste in art? Books? Clothes? And of course, let's not forget food. Many food tastes are acquired. Take the different types of starchy carbohydrates, which make up over half our global calorie consumption. My wife, who is of white European ancestry, loves bread. I'm of Chinese ancestry, and can take or leave it. Rice and noodles, however, I can eat every day. A love of carbs is almost universal, but the ‘tastes’ for its various forms are culturally embedded from an early age. Our genes also influence our taste for certain foods. In my lab, we study the genetics of body weight, which is…

Apple isn't exactly known for being the pioneer of new technology. Whether it's smartphones, music players or computers, Apple is rarely first out of the gate. Instead, it waits. A few years go by, technology advances and after its competitors have released a few versions of their devices, Apple swoops in with its first iteration of the technology – one that's refined, powerful, stylish and always extremely expensive. Years on from the initial boom of virtual reality, Apple has finally played its card, unveiling its first virtual reality headset. It might be late to the party, but Apple has made its usual move, with its first ever step into virtual reality being the best model we've seen yet. But what's so good about Apple's first venture into the world of…

…A FREE TV WITH A HUGE CATCH Do you want a TV for free? No, really – a completely free TV! All you have to do is watch adverts… all the time. The company behind the deal, creatively known as ‘Telly’, is giving away thousands of 55in 4K HDR TVs, with an attached soundbar. All sounds good so far? Well, the part that keeps it free is a hefty 9in screen attached below that plays adverts 24/7. You also have to agree to hand unspecified data over to the company. With concerns already being raised about its terms and conditions, this free TV could be your passport to a whole truckload of data harvesting. We'll pass. Free Telly £0, freetelly.com …AN OVERPRICED SCREEN FOR YOUR NFTS NFTs have pretty much…

There are steps we can take now to make developing AI safer… 1 Governments should institute a Medicines and Healthcare/Food and Drug Administration-style approval for large-scale deployment of AI models, in which companies must satisfy regulators (ideally independent scientists) that their products are safe and that the benefits outweigh the risk. 2 Governments should compel AI companies to be transparent about their data and to cooperate with independent investigators. 3 AI companies should provide resources (for example processing time) to allow external audits. 4 We should find ways to incentivise companies to treat AI as a genuine public good, through both carrots and sticks. 5 Create a global agency for AI, which has multiple stakeholders that work together to ensure that the rules governing AI serve the public and not…

You might not think that an AI capable of making music would signal the end of free will, but others think differently. Particularly those who gathered at Mexico City's El Cantoral symphony hall in 2019 for the Latin American premiere of Schubert's Unfinished Symphony, Finished With AI. I sat between my father and a Chilean movie star as the conductor led the orchestra in a performance of the symphony that I had written… Well, that I had sort of written. Before he died in 1828, Franz Schubert wrote half of the movements needed for a symphony and then abandoned the work. Over 190 years later, I ‘finished’ the symphony using melodies generated by an AI. It was simple really. We trained an AI using Schubert's melodies and gave it the…

DIABETES AND HEART DISEASE This is partly because early birds tend to use their fat stores as a source of energy, say researchers at Rutgers University. DEPRESSION Multiple studies show that night owls are more prone to depression, but one from Harvard Medical School suggests that going to bed and getting up one hour earlier can reduce the risk by 23 per cent. BREAST CANCER University of Bristol researchers found that women who rise early have as much as 48 per cent lower risk of developing breast cancer than night owls (although chronotypes may be less important than factors like smoking or diet).…

LAWRENCE HANCOCK, CUMBRIA The world's tallest tree is a 116m (380ft) redwood in California, USA. Scientists think it comes close to the maximum height a tree can grow. Trees grow very tall when water and nutrients are plentiful and there is intense competition for sunlight. But as they grow, gravity gets stronger. Plants and trees carry water to their leaves for photosynthesis in a tube called the xylem. If there isn't enough water, or gravity is very strong, this water column can break, creating potentially deadly air bubbles. This places an upper limit on tree height, which theoretically lies somewhere between 122m and 130m (400-426ft).…

People think mucous and phlegm are things you should cough up and get out, because they're bad for you. But in truth, mucous is the interface between you and the outside world. It lines the moist surfaces of your nose, sinuses and lungs, and filters out material you breathe in – a bit like flypaper. It's mostly water, but also contains proteins, sugars and molecules that help the body control harmful germs. Mucous creates a layer of protection between us and the outside world, so it's not something to get rid of. Although we make quite a lot of it all the time, usually you're unaware of it. It gets pushed to the back of the throat by microscopic hairs called cilia, and you swallow it without noticing. It's only…

It's a test of self-recognition. Put a smudge of soot on a baby's nose and then plonk them in front of a mirror. Until the age of 18 months or so, the baby will be none the wiser. They can't identify their reflection and so don't think the soot is odd. Now repeat the exercise with a two-year-old (but good luck getting them to sit still). Most children of this age will touch the dirty mark, which psychologists interpret as a sign, not just that the child can recognise its image, but that it is becoming self-aware. The test was devised in 1970 by American psychologist Gordon Gallup Jr, who wanted to see if animals could recognise themselves. Since then, many animals have taken the test, but only a few…

Cuckoos are master manipulators. After laying a solo egg in the nest of another species, female cuckoos abandon their offspring to the care of others. When the interloper hatches, it boots out any other eggs or hatchlings present, then tricks its foster parents into feeding it more by imitating a whole nest of chicks. The host birds then raise the chick as their own. It's a strategy known as brood parasitism, but how do they know to adopt this strategy, when they're raised without cuckoo role models? Animal behaviour is influenced by nurture and nature, but in this instance, genetics holds the trump card. It's thought that multiple genes influence brood parasitism, and that these genes are passed from mother to daughter. So, the genes that influence a female cuckoo's…

There is a scene in Christopher Nolan's new film Oppenheimer (a biopic of J Robert Oppenheimer, the man who invented the nuclear bomb) in which Leslie Groves, an army engineer played by Matt Damon, worries about destroying the world. This is just before the Trinity test, the first-ever detonation of an atomic bomb, and Oppenheimer says he's confident that the chances of annihilating all life on Earth are near zero. “Near zero?” splutters Groves. “Zero would be nice!” In reality, Groves's concerns were those of Manhattan Project physicist Edward Teller. According to Steven Biegalski, Chair of Nuclear and Radiological Engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology, Teller was worried that the heat of the explosion “would cause the hydrogen in the atmosphere to undergo fusion, setting off a catastrophic chain reaction…

→80 PROF PRITI PARIKH Day Zero is the theoretical point when water stops coming out our taps. We're not there yet, but infrastructure engineer Priti explains how close we're getting to our reserves running dry. →p26 PROF GILES YEO Love sprouts but hate coriander? Trust Me I'm a Doctor presenter Giles explains how your genes can affect your taste for greens. →p28 PROF STEPHON ALEXANDER Theoretical physicist and musician Stephon talks us through the surprising parallels he's found between quantum physics and jazz. →p30 DR EMMA BECKETT Nutrition scientist Emma investigates the claims that the weight-loss drug Ozempic can be used to treat a broad range of addictive behaviours and depression. →p38…

The bird's-eye view I thought you may like this photo. I was reading your news story about chicken feathers (June, p16) when I noticed one of the very free-range chickens at the campsite where I was staying taking an interest. Maybe another example of animals being more intelligent than we thought? John Rawcliffe, Ipswich WRITE IN AND WIN! The writer of next issue's Letter of the Month wins a trio of the latest hardback science books. Put pen to paper (or fingertips to keyboard) and you could get your hands on In A Flight Of Starlings by Giorgio Parisi; Many Things Under A Rock by David Scheel; and The Good Virus by Tom Ireland. WORTH £70…

A mathematics researcher has developed a formula she claims has created the world's best swear word. MSc student Sophie Maclean, who is due to begin her PhD in number theory later this year at King's College London, wrote a code that can read a list of existing swearwords and analyse their qualities to create a new one. So what world-beating expletive did the code come up with? According to maths, the ultimate swearword is ‘banger’ – or ‘ber’ for short. The answer may be disappointing for anyone expecting something coarser. “I think neither is as satisfying as a ‘f*ck’ when you've stubbed your toe, or a ‘sh*t’ when you realise you've forgotten your parent's birthday. But both feel like they could be quite good insults,” said Maclean. To determine the…

FEATURE PARASITES When we think about living things and where we find them, we tend to think at large scale. The word that comes to mind is ‘habitat’, which conjures up images of forests, deserts, oceans, swamps and the many other diverse places on Earth where life can be found. Of course, we might also be thinking at a smaller scale, focusing perhaps on our garden, a local hedgerow or a small pond. If you think at the right scale, though, pretty much any physical space can be habitat to something. Anyone who has looked closely at mites living on a leaf, or at tiny springtails under the decaying bark of a dead tree, will have marvelled at the wonder of microhabitats. But when you start thinking at a really…

Should an AI be your best friend? Even if you've never considered the possibility or think it's an absurd idea, it's worth contemplating, because in the near future there will be AI systems attempting to befriend you. AI friends offer many benefits. They're available any time (even at two o'clock in the morning) and they never get bored (unlike your human friends, who may tire of hearing the same complaints about your job or partner). But, as convenient as an AI friend might be, it's a friend with more costs than benefits. One reason to be suspicious of AI companions is that you don't know their motives – or, more accurately, the motives of those who control them. They may be programmed to secretly support a political candidate, sell gadgets…

Batteries generate electricity by chemical reactions that move electrons from one terminal to the other. Ordinary alkaline batteries use a potassium hydroxide gel as the conductive electrolyte, and the reactions in the gel generate a small amount of hydrogen gas. Since the battery is sealed, the pressure in the cell gradually builds and eventually causes tiny ruptures along the seams of the metal casing. The potassium hydroxide reacts with CO2 in the air to form a harmless crust of potassium carbonate, but the potassium hydroxide itself is caustic and can cause skin irritation. Take your leaking batteries to the recycling centre in a plastic bag.…