Innehållsförteckning för December 2023 från BBC Science Focus Magazine

The mega-rich might not always age gracefully, but they do tend to age pretty well. Which is to say that they seem to have a knack for not only reaching old age in pretty good health, but carrying that good health deep into their advancing years. Take Queen Elizabeth II, for example. She's thought to have had a personal fortune of almost £400 million and she managed to keep going until she was 96. Her Royal Highness was by no means an outlier, though. The average age of the top five in this year's Sunday Times Rich List, all active billionaire businessmen, is 75.6. What's their secret? What's keeping them vital, active and energetic? Wealth certainly helps: according to one study from 2020, being wealthy can add almost a decade…

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EYE OPENER Having survived a seven-yearround trip to asteroid Bennu, the contents of this capsule from the NASA spacecraft OSIRIS-REx, which returned to Earth in September, could rewrite history as we know it. It carries the largest-ever sample of rocks and dust from an asteroid. Scientists managed to collect 70.3g of material from the capsule's exterior (beating the mission's goal of 60g ) before the sampler inside had even been opened. Initial analysis has revealed the 4.6-billion-year-old sample is rich in carbon and water-containing minerals. Pristine and unaltered, it could hold secrets to the beginnings of life, providing a tangible snapshot into the formation of the Solar System. As well as tracing the origins of the organic molecules that allowed life to evolve on Earth, the sample may help prevent…

Around 4.5 billion years ago, a massive collision with another planet changed Earth forever. Now, scientists have discovered that debris from the impact is still lodged inside our world. The pieces of material, measuring tens of kilometres, could be relics of an ancient protoplanet (a large body of matter in the process of developing into a planet) known as Theia, according to the scientists. Theia would have been Mars-sized when it crashed into proto-Earth. The new study, published in Nature, found that the debris of Theia buried and preserved under the crust forms up to two per cent of Earth's mass. The alien material is also denser than Earth's mantle and scientists think this is because it's enriched with iron, like Moon rock. Many scientists already believe that the Moon…

Deep under the Antarctic ice, geological forces are at work. Today's water flows and volcanic activity affect how much ice melts and how quickly. But some scientists are more concerned about tectonic activity of the past, as this may affect how quickly the ice above melts as a result of climate change. The challenge is studying a landscape hidden beneath the ice. Enter the Windracers ULTRA (Uncrewed Low-cost TRAnsport) drone (right): an autonomous aircraft designed for extreme environments. The British Antarctic Survey (BAS) plans to use the drone to discover how historic tectonic events can affect ice melt in the future, in the hope of making more accurate predictions. The technology will change the future of scientific monitoring in Antarctica and around the world, said Dr Tom Jordan, an aero-geophysicist…

Described as a “perfect launch”, the Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE) was sent to search the gas giant and three of its moons for evidence of life. Five months after JUICE'S launch, the JWST detected carbon in the salty liquid ocean on Europa, confirming the moon as the most promising host for alien life. After the initial launch on 17 April was halted during its final countdown, the SpaceX Starship lifted off on 20 April, only to explode minutes later when its first and second stages failed to separate. The Psyche spacecraft launched successfully on 13 October. Scheduled to arrive at the asteroid that shares its name in 2029, the probe will study the metal-rich rock.…

COLUMNISTS COMMENT The countryside. For me – in the rain-soaked, semi-industrial corner of the north of England that I call home – this term brings to mind rolling green hills peppered with sheep, and divided up by hedgerows and a delightfully chaotic maze of drystone walls. It's an idealised scene, but one rocked by an uncomfortable truth: despite appearances, the UK countryside is an ecosystem in trouble. Serious trouble. Natural spaces, and the wildlife that depends on them, are in decline, according to the recent State of Nature report – a comprehensive review of plant and animal life across the UK produced by a collaboration of environmental non-governmental oranisations, academic institutions and government agencies. In fact, almost 1,500 native species are now threatened with extinction. Plus, just 11 per cent…

It's a combination of biology, maths and physics. If you play a tone with a frequency of 440Hz then you get an A. Doubling the frequency to 880Hz changes the note to an A one octave above. Our ears hear this as essentially the same note, just pitched up. Within this range, certain ratios sound more pleasing than others; the most important being the ‘perfect fifth’ (3:2) and the ‘major third’ (5:4). Dividing the octave into 12 isn't the only possible system (a lot of folk music uses a five-note octave), but 12 divides neatly by 2, 3, 4 and 6, which makes it easy to construct ratios that correspond closely to harmonious note combinations.…

Cheek puff Purse your lips and puff out your cheeks, transferring the air between cheeks as you do so. Hold for 5 seconds, release and repeat. This can help tone your cheek muscles. Eye rejuvenator Gently tap the skin under your eye, gradually moving the taps towards the inner corner of your eye. Move up and above your eye towards the outer corner. This helps with lymphatic drainage, which can reduce dark circles and puffiness. Fish face Purse your lips, then suck in your cheeks. Hold this pose for around 30 seconds, release and repeat. This is often considered the ‘classic’ facial yoga pose, targeting the jawline and cheek muscles. Frown preventor Using your index and middle finger between your eyebrows, gently press down and open your fingers so they…

This NASA-led lunar exploration program includes six other space agencies as well as a number of private space-flight companies and will, over the next decade and beyond, seek to establish a permanent human presence on the Moon. ARTEMIS I NOVEMBER 2022 Marking NASA's first return to lunar exploration since the Apollo program, Artemis I demonstrated that the Orion spacecraft and Space Launch System (SLS) rocket were ready for crewed flight. ARTEMIS II NOVEMBER 2024 In this 10-day mission, the Orion spacecraft and a crew of four NASA astronauts will perform a flyby of the Moon and return to Earth; the first crewed mission beyond low Earth orbit since Apollo 17 in 1972. ARTEMIS III NOVEMBER 2025 Astronauts will land in the Moon's southern polar region and take the first steps…

Wandering stars, also called ‘intergalactic stars’, ‘intracluster stars’ or ‘rogue stars’, are stars that are not gravitationally tied to a particular galaxy – they exist between galaxies. These stars, first discovered in 1997, probably formed inside galaxies, but were later expelled, perhaps during galaxy mergers or by a close encounter with a supermassive black hole. Astronomers estimate that rogue stars comprise between 15–50 per cent of all stars in galaxy clusters. The Virgo galaxy cluster, for example, contains perhaps 1 trillion rogue stars! Closer to home, at least 675 rogue stars have been found between the Milky Way and the Andromeda Galaxy.…

The Secret Genius of Modern Life Whether its passports, vacuum cleaners or smartphones, the little things we take for granted often have fascinating and unexpected histories. Prof Hannah Fry delves into those objects’ histories and meets some of the people who make them. BBC Two, Wednesdays, 8pm Also available on BBC iPlayer Tooth and Claw: Cheetahs Prof Adam Hart catches up with the fastest land animals in world. Cheetahs have an arsenal of physical adaptations that allow them to reach speeds of 110km/h (65mph) when pursuing their prey. But the predators themselves are under threat. BBC World Service, 11 December 8.30pm GMT Also available on BBC Sounds The Reith Lectures 2023: Our Democratic Future This year's lectures see Ben Ansell, Professor of Comparative Democratic Institutions at the University of Oxford's…

EYE OPENER What comes to mind when you think of Japan? The history, the culture, the food… or giant suits of transforming robotic armour? If you asked Ryo Yoshida, the 25-year-old chief executive of Tsubame Industries, the makers of this gigantic drivable robot, named Archax, he might be banking on you choosing the latter. Designed to resemble the robots of the sci-fi anime series Gundam, Archax stands, on four wheels at a height of 4.5m (14.8ft) and weighs 3.5 tonnes (7,716lbs). Inside is a cockpit, which has enough screens, buttons and cameras to make a Bond villain jealous, as well as enabling a pilot to control Archax's legs, arms and hands to move objects and interact with its surroundings. Archax can work in an upright robot mode or transform into…

reply@sciencefocus.com BBC Science Focus, Eagle House, Bristol, BS1 4ST @sciencefocus www.facebook.com/sciencefocus @bbcsciencefocus LETTER OF THE MONTH Unforeseen benefits While on holiday on Cornwall in September, looking around at the old tin mine engine houses got me in mind of your cover feature, ‘Earth's Mysterious Core’ (June, p66). With numerous articles on renewable energy, a thought occurred that an infinite supply of wind power was staring me right in the face: the mining chimneys. With the differential in air pressure creating a constant breeze upwards, would it just be a matter of adding a turbine inside each chimney stack, and off you go? Perhaps the people who built them were a couple of centuries ahead of their time. Gary Stubbs, via email WRITE IN AND WIN! The writer of next issue's…

“There are lots of cases where we just haven't thought about how witnesses saw the perpetrator,” says Prof Heather Flowe. The psychologist from the University of Birmingham recently wrote a paper about the Ted Bundy murders. One of the survivors saw Bundy from the side during his attack, then later had to pick his photo from a front-facing line-up. Bundy's defence challenged the victim on this, claiming that her choice must have been influenced by the familiarity of his image in newspapers. Flowe says, “we should show the witness what they actually saw.”…

From their ability to regrow limbs to the conundrum of identifying where their bodies end and their heads begin, starfish are often at the centre of scientific intrigue. When it comes to that latter query, at least, scientists may finally have the answer. Researchers from the University of Southampton are suggesting that, rather than their heads being part of their bodies, the entire bodies of starfish – and other echinoderms – are their heads. Echinoderms, a group of animals that includes sea urchins and sand dollars, have a ‘fivefold symmetric’ body plan. That means their bodies can be divided into five matching sections. “The whole echinoderm body is equivalent to bilateral animals’ heads” Bilateral animals (which includes humans and most of the animal kingdom) have two sides, left and right,…

HEALTH IN 2023 How to have an optimal day, according to research published in 2023 SET YOUR BEDROOM TEMPERATURE RIGHT The importance of sleep was made clear by a number of studies this year. Getting a good amount of deep sleep is crucial to almost every aspect of our lives, so how can we get more of it? In August, a study by scientists at Harvard Medical School, in the US, found that sleep is most efficient and restful for older adults at temperatures between 15–25°C (60–77°F). ENJOY A SNOOZE TO BOOST YOUR BRAIN If you're enjoying a deep sleep when your alarm rings, there's no need to stop, according to a study published in October by researchers in Sweden. They found that people who hit the snooze button and…

BREAKING INTO THE BRAIN A breakthrough method that uses ultrasound and bubbles to ‘trojan horse’ drugs across the bloodbrainbarrier spells good news for potential Alzheimer's treatments. “It opens up this door of basically unlimited options,” Dr Sophie Morse, the study's lead author told BBC Science Focus in September. GREEDY GENE Scientists from the University of Cambridge discovered that fetuses use a gene (IGF2) inherted from their fathers to force their mothers to release more nutrients during pregnancy. It was the first evidence that a dad's gene, nicknamed the ‘greedy gene’, allows his unborn child to send these demanding signals. MAPPING MINDS 2023 was a big year for neural cartography. In March, researchers at the University of Cambridge pieced together a map showing the links between every single neuron in the…

When I was a young postdoctoral researcher at Cambridge in 2002, a colleague took me to a fancy dinner at Peterhouse College, the oldest of Cambridge's colleges. It was a six-course affair and, rather ridiculously, you had to change seats (and hence dinner companions) for each new course. During the first course, an older, bearded professor sitting opposite me asked, “So young man, what do you do?” I told him I was working on the genetics of childhood obesity. “Ha! Do you know what your problem is?” he replied. “You give fat people an excuse.” The disgust in his tone threw me and as I mobilised all my diplomatic nous to gently push back, I was saved by a literal bell, signalling that we had to switch seats for course…

INNOVATIONS A PRIVATE AIRCRAFT EXPENSIVE Let's be honest, cars are old news. Sure, you could live the super-rich life in a new Tesla or a classic supercar, but they're too familiar to really turn heads. What would turn heads (or rather, tilt them upwards) is your own personal eVTOL (electric vertical take-off and landing) aircraft, such as the Jetson ONE. It's an impressive feat of engineering, even if it does look like a gaming chair with propellers. And you don't actually need a pilot's licence to fly it, since an on-board computer is doing a lot of the heavy lifting, aviation wise. It's classed as an ultralight aircraft, however, so it can only be used recreationally. That means only flying it in your vast back garden, not over public areas.…

Q&A YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED CARA SAUNDERS, VIA EMAIL If you frequent the ‘how to be productive’ part of TikTok, you've probably come across the latest ‘hack’ for staying focused and avoiding procrastination: starting your day with a low-dopamine routine. According to the low-dopamine morning trend, the activities you do within the first 90 minutes of waking will determine what your brain craves for the rest of the day. If, upon switching your alarm off, you immediately open Facebook or Instagram, then your first dose of dopamine is coming from your smartphone. So when you're at your desk later on and struggling to concentrate, you'll find it difficult to resist turning to your phone in search of another dopamine hit, warn the TikToks. Instead, low-dopamine mornings are designed around tasks that are calming…

If you've ever gone online to order something during a work break – let's say a new electric toothbrush – expecting it to be fairly straightforward, but instead you found yourself overwhelmed by the huge number of choices and options available, you've experienced decision paralysis. You're stunned that there are so many factors to consider; not only the basics, such as price and delivery time, but there are many other factors like battery duration, warning lights for excessive pressure and even fancy apps. The clock is ticking on your break and it's impossible to make a decision. This is just one example of decision paralysis – when the sheer number of options and the difficulty of weighing them all up – leads you to freeze. It used to be thought…

It's unlikely that spicy food will ever love you, if it doesn't already. But keep up the good work and continue to eat it regularly because as well as creating the taste sensations you crave, chilli is also good for you. Some studies suggest that people who consume it regularly are healthier and live longer than non-chilli eaters. Beyond that, being a chilli-lover can also reveal aspects of your personality to the wider world. Research at Pennsylvania State University, US, suggests that ‘sensation-seekers’ with a sensitivity to reward are more likely than other types of people to turn to foods containing chilli. Chilli gets its heat from a chemical irritant called capsaicin. This has anti-inflammatory effects and may help to regulate a person's blood pressure and lower the risk of…

PROF STEPHON ALEXANDER Theoretical physicist Stephon delves into the weird world of quantum super position and how it could be applied to evolution. → p30 VICTORIA GILL The BBC's award-winning science correspondent takes a look at what's endangering the UK's countryside and what needs to be done to save it. → p32 DR HELEN PILCHER The current limit for research on human embryos is 14 days. Scientists want to extend it further. Helen, a cell biologist, outlines the reasons why. → p34 PROF BILL MCGUIRE Not all earthquakes happen at the boundaries between tectonic plates. Bill, a volcanologist, looks into the threat posed by intraplate quakes. → p72…

“As someone who has studied them for the last 10 years, these findings have radically changed the way I think about starfish” Dr Jeff Thompson p18 TECHNOLOGY ANYONE YOU RECOGNISE? Police line-ups aren't working. Technology could improve them p16 SPACE BURIED REMAINS Shards of a planet that crashed into Earth are lodged deep within the mantle p18 NATURE HEADS UP Ever wondered where a starfish keeps its head? Now scientists know the answer p18 PALAEONTOLOGY CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF DEATH Turns out it wasn't an asteroid that killed the dinosaurs. Well… not directly p20 GEOLOGY WHAT LIES BENEATH A new unmanned drone intends to find out what's going on under the Antarctic's ice p21 REVIEW 2023 IN SCIENCE A look back at the biggest stories in space, physics, technology, health and medicine from the last…

MAY Scientists unveiled a secret weapon in the fight against ecosystem loss this year – one that was created thousands of years ago by Indigenous people. Called ‘dark earth’, the incredibly fertile soil created by deposits such as charcoal from cooking fires left by Amerindian people in Brazil, could help us grow more climate-resilient forests fast. JULY Australian researchers published a paper outlining a potential use for honey from the bizarre honeypot ant: creating powerful antibiotics. In doing so, they acknowledged the thousands-of-years-old medicinal use of the ant by Australia's Indigenous people. AUGUST After 25 years of research, a woman born without a womb became the first in the UK to have a successful womb transplant. The donated organ came from her sister. The patient hopes to have an embryo…

FEATURE VERTICAL FARMING BBC ONE Find out more about vertical farming by watching Planet Earth III tepping through the heavy, air-locked door into the world's most advanced indoor vertical farm, it's the noise that hits you first. It's loud. Machines buzz and whir over the insistent drone of the warehouse-scale air circulation system. The lights are dazzling. Peering up at the two-storey-high living curtains of plants quickly prompts a protest from your neck. Nearby, a few workers, wearing coveralls, hair nets, hard hats and earplugs, keep a cool eye on their busy robot underlings. The air is bright with the fresh, sweet scent of tender young salad leaves. It's a far cry from the story-book picture of a farm; there's no mud, no wellies, no hens pecking in the yard. But…

2000 Despite Alan Turing predicting that a computer would pass his test by the turn of the century, when cybernetics professor Kevin Warwick (above) gave his lecture, which included a Turing Test, no AI had made the grade. It's still unclear whether the Turing Test has been passed, but Prof Mike Wooldridge hopes to challenge this in his lecture. 2008 In 2008's Christmas Lectures, Prof Chris Bishop explained the difficulties in building intelligent machines for visual processing. To demonstrate, Bishop used three volunteers to test a new technology that identifies individual penguins by their front markings. 2013 Biologist Prof Alison Woollard played with facial ageing software – as seen today in many social media image filters – in her Christmas Lectures to explain the biology of ageing. 2018 Prof Alice…

Humans are hardwired to enjoy eating fat. The process of melting releases fat from cheese, where it has been held by networks of milk proteins. Heating causes the networks to relax, pushing out water and leaving gaps for fat to move through. Heat also brings out amino acids with a savory ‘umami’ taste, such as glutamate. If you overheat your cheese, however, you'll be left with clumps of protein and puddles of grease. But it's not only the taste we enjoy; the smell's pretty special too. A recent study identified 50 volatile chemicals released from melted cheese, many of which derive from buttery fatty acids.…

Q&A ALEX MADDOX, VIA EMAIL GETTY IMAGES X3 Facial yoga has gained immense popularity in recent years, espoused by celebrities like Jennifer Aniston, Kate Moss and Gwyneth Paltrow. The basics are the same as full-body yoga: a series of stretches and exercises to tone and strengthen facial, neck and shoulder muscles. The process targets tensions and stresses, and devotees claim it contours and lifts areas that have become weakened over time. But is there science behind the bizarre facial expressions? According to a small pilot study published in JAMA Dermatology, researchers found that participants (aged 40–65) who performed 30-minute daily or alternate-day facial exercises over 20 weeks saw a “significant improvement in upper and lower cheek fullness”. More than that, they reported a reduction in apparent age: 1.2 years after…

This claim has been around for at least 100 years, but no one quite knows where it originated. Experts agree that unless you live in a sewer, it's categorically false. Part of the problem is that we know little about rats’ secretive lives or how many there are. A report by Natural England in 2018 put the British rat population at 7 million, but according to the British Pest Control Association it could be 120 million. Whatever their number, British rats are not evenly dispersed. They're completely absent from parts of the Scottish Highlands and you're unlikely to be near one in the middle of the English countryside unless you're near a barn. Rats are commensal, meaning they live near humans and their next easy meal. Even in urban environments,…

Ants may be little, but they can pack a pungent punch. Many species of ants release strong-smelling chemicals when they're angry, threatened or being squished. Trap-jaw ants release a chocolatey smell when annoyed, while citronella ants earned their name from the lemony odour they give off. The scent of the odorous house ant, meanwhile, has been likened to blue cheese or rancid coconuts. This is because the chemicals that it releases, methyl ketones, are also produced by the Penicillium bacteria that ripen blue cheese and grow on rotting coconuts. Formic acid is another stinky substance emitted by many ant species. Wood ants, for example, produce large quantities of the vinegary substance in their venom gland to spray at prey and attackers. And when ants die of natural causes, they release…