Innehållsförteckning för Summer 2020 från Popular Science

THERE WAS A LOT WE DIDN’T know a year ago when we picked “Play” as the topic for this issue. We didn’t know that a pandemic would put much of the United States and the world on lockdown. We didn’t know the Olympics, one of the reasons we selected the theme, would be postponed. Heck, we didn’t know I’d be writing this letter, my first as PopSci’s editor-in-chief, let alone that I’d be typing in isolation in my apartment as the staff remotely stitched together a digital-only edition. With everything turned upside down—and so quickly!—I started to worry that 96 pages of riddles and sports and fart jokes would seem tone-deaf in a time when life by necessity is serious and grim. And when the stakes are so very high.…

ATHLETES TEND TO DO BETTER on their own turf. But the factors that create the mythical home-field advantage are still somewhat mysterious. Referee bias, lack of travel-related fatigue, and the morale boost of fan attendance may contribute, yet experts still debate the particulars. In fact, the effect even varies by sport. This is what we do know about the phenomenon—and why it might not hold the same power it once did. Spirited jeers erupting from stands could impact subjective referee decisions, like whether a baseball is in the strike zone or a linebacker interfered with a pass. One clue that fans create a bias: Some locals’ win rates tend to drop as crowds thin. 0.46 How many more fouls refs call on average against away teams in soccer. 4 The…

IN 1993, SWEDISH psychologist K. Anders Ericsson set out to find the secret to turning a typical teen into a violin virtuoso. His answer? Practice: 10,000 hours of it. The figure, a simple average of a few prodigies’ regimens, stuck; journalist and author Malcolm Gladwell even dubbed it “the magic number of greatness” in his 2008 book Outliers. The concept of “practice makes perfect” has been drilled into the heads of ambitious youths since the Roman Empire. Anyone can be the next LeBron James, Yo-Yo Ma, or Celine Dion as long as they can devote enough time to honing their craft. But can it be that simple? Not every expert agrees. While training is essential to learning, spending a chunk of your life trying something over and over doesn’t mean…

ON JANUARY 14, 2020, three Jeopardy! masterminds duked it out for a hefty cash prize and the title of Greatest of All Time. More than 13 million viewers watched Ken Jennings eke out a victory on the final clue. His response to a prompt for Shakespeare’s preachiest antagonist? Iago. His bet? Zero dollars. Jennings, formerly a software engineer, deployed the same quick wit to set the show’s longest win streak back in 2004. His triumphs turned him into a trivia star. He roped in book deals, battled the Watson supercomputer, and became a millionaire. But the hype around his comeback confirms something else—that characters like Jennings are as important to Jeopardy!’s success as it is to theirs. It’s a trope that’s played out since the 1930s: To make a hit…

1 Kubb Arrange the rubberwood pieces from the Kubb Empire standard size set into two rows, 26 feet apart. Players hurl six batons at their opponent’s formation until they’ve knocked over all the blocks. Then they can fire at the king in the middle of the pitch. 2 Spikeball The action in this recently revived sport is quick and unpredictable. Slap the hollow rubber ball into the 36-inch-wide net and watch out for a devastating return. Your rivals can dive to keep the volley going; if they whiff, you earn a point. 3 Kan Jam Space the 20-inch-tall barrels 50 feet apart, with one member of each team posted at the targets. Score by hitting the sides with a disc—your partner can help tip it midflight. If you send it…

ONE OF THE BEST SURF SPOTS in the United States to practice aerial tricks is in central Texas, some 200 miles from the Gulf Coast. On a brisk December day at the BSR Surf Resort, Caroline Marks was ripping a front-side air reverse. Aquamarine water sloshed off the concrete rear wall of the wave pool as she pumped down the line and flew off the crest of a head-high breaker into a clockwise spin. She grabbed the rail of her board as she came around and landed with a splash, sunlight glinting off the spray. She looked like she was having a blast. The 18-year-old Californian has ridden in artificial lagoons before, but this was her first time at BSR. It features an oncoming white-water section perfectly suited to her…

JESSICA PHILLIPS-SILVER, ASSOCIATE RESEARCHER IN MUSIC NEUROSCIENCE AT GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER Moving to rhythmic music is a universal human behavior. Even babies can bounce along to a song’s beat. But some people simply can’t synchronize their body to a tune. My colleagues and I coined the term “beat deafness” to describe this condition. I wanted to study it to better understand how we all maintain cadence. I’m an avid salsa dancer myself, and sometimes I’d encounter people who had all the moves but couldn’t hit them at the right times. But I didn’t feel like I could approach them at the bar afterward and say, “I’m studying this disorder, and I think you could be a candidate!” So I advertised on the radio and in the newspaper for folks…

LINDA SOHM, CO-OWNER OF MIDWEST GAME SUPPLY COMPANY The dice in your Monopoly set aren’t as random as you think. The black dots that number each side are hollow, so faces with more spots weigh less. When you roll, it’s more likely that a heavier side will land facedown, meaning you have a greater chance of getting a six than a one, or a five than a two. My company is the only manufacturer in the United States that produces “certified perfects”: Each side of one of our dice is flat, making results from a toss as haphazard as possible. Instead of filling sets of molds like those used to mass-produce dice for board games, our plastic—a strong polymer called cellulose acetate commonly found in eyeglass frames—feeds into an extruder…

IN THE MIDAFTERNOON slog of spreadsheets and deadlines, we tend to conjure up more pleasant scenes, like lush beaches with generously poured margaritas. How can our minds suddenly fly thousands of miles while our bodies remain tethered to office cubicles? We form thoughts separate from our current circumstances likely thanks to a cluster of brain regions called the default mode network, which lights up with activity when we fantasize. It constantly interacts with other bits of the noggin, including those more heavily involved in mood, says Aaron Kucyi, a cognitive neuroscientist at Northeastern University. That makes our daydreams deeply intertwined with our emotions, hence why on duller days we might imagine more blissful scenes. Though these visions may appear as an act of leisure, constantly having your head in the…

1. Bonnie Tsui Spotting the common denominator in Bonnie Tsui’s life is simple: It’s water. Her parents met at a pool in Hong Kong, she was a competitive swimmer as a teenager, and now she hits the waves in the San Francisco Bay Area with her surfboard. Being around the elemental substance calms her: “It makes you feel connected to something larger than yourself,” she says. Writing for Popular Science for the first time on page 60, Tsui explores how USA Surfing is embracing science and technology as it prepares for its eventual debut at the Olympic Games in Tokyo. Tsui’s second book, Why We Swim, was published in April 2020. 2. Jenn Ackerman and Tim Gruber After they met in 2006 at Ohio University, photography duo Jenn Ackerman’s and…

JOANNA HARPER’S RESEARCH STARTED NOT IN A LAB, but on the track. Though she didn’t have a background in sports science—she held a master’s in medical physics, and her work involved tailoring cancer radiation treatments—she was an athlete in a unique situation: In 2004, the nationally ranked long-distance runner started hormone therapy (HT) as part of her transition to female. She knew the testosterone blocker and estrogen would alter her body. What the then-47-year-old was uncertain of was how the regimen would impact her racing, so she started tracking her times. “I realized there was this huge gap, there was no quantitative data published on transgender athletes,” says Harper. “I knew that the changes I’d gone through in my athletic capabilities were notable.” Those data, along with pre- and post-HT…

PopSci’s team of fact-checkers makes sure that the big stories we print jibe with the evidence. In the process they often dig up some knowledge nuggets that normally wouldn’t make it to press. Here are their favorites. “Surfing’s Big Break,” page 60 Checked by Diane Kelly An Olympic surfer’s vertical leaps are comparable to an NBA point guard’s, and their peak oxygen uptake is akin to a top Brazilian jujitsu competitor’s. Their cognitive processing and reaction times also log way above average. “Horseplay—Or Not?” page 9 Checked by Jake Bittle Some songbirds will stick their beaks into anthills or roll around in clumps of ants—just for fun, perhaps. The mischief can last anywhere from 20 to 90 minutes, and may have evolved from a trick where feathered species coated themselves…

Playful behavior can help a species survive. Adult bonobos, for example, seem to make silly faces as a way of reducing tension with potential mates. Similarly, male polar bears sometimes fake-fight, which may help them to gauge the limits of their own strength before risking full-on brawls. —Gordon Burghardt, professor of psychology and ecology at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville Children have always liked animal figurines, dolls, and mini weapons and tools. But so-called object play is even older than humanity. Chimpanzee babies do it too. Like our own kids, they want to copy what they see adults doing so they can gradually master it. —Michelle Langley, archaeologist at Griffith University Make-believe can help little ones learn to manage and control their emotions. In the classic “marshmallow test,” preschoolers successfully…

Medium The 522 snap-together parts in Ubtech’s Jimu Competitive Series ChampBot Kit combine to create three different configurations, including this catapult. Once a child has one built, they can use an iOS or Android app and program actions via Google’s Blockly coding software. Easy Preschoolers press the buttons on the head of the Fisher Price Code ’n Learn Kinderbot to tell the machine to carry out basic movements, like rolling forward. Then they can fasten on extra pieces and punch in sequences to make it pull off tricks like transforming into a bulldozer. Hard The formidable DJI RoboMaster S1 will accept commands from a remote, or via a simple coding system called Scratch. But those who want to flex their skills can create custom behaviors using the Python programming language…

1979: Pittsburgh Persimmon Attached to a metal shaft, the forged steel head was about the same size and weight as its contemporary wooden cousins, but differed in one key way: It was hollow. That configuration kept the mass at the perimeter, making the club slightly more forgiving of awkward mishits. 2020: SIM Driver The titanium face on this large head flexes as it makes contact with the ball, launching it at high speed and with little spin to avoid distance-killing drag. A steel weight at the back acts like a pendulum and stabilizes the driver to help prevent it from twisting—and slicing shots sideways.…

No matter how hard you try to spin the house balls at your local bowling joint, they rarely curve. That’s because they are simple spheres built for durability, not fancy moves. But a small handful of companies—among them Storm Bowling—create gear that is surprisingly complex inside. Precisely shaped, meticulously balanced weight blocks leverage the laws of physics to help skilled alley jockeys throw a strike on most rolls. This clever engineering allows the projectiles to hook inward as they approach the end of the 60-foot lane, where the invisible oil slick on the boards thins. The spin an expert gives the globe (as fast as 600 rpm) will find purchase there as the friction increases, putting the orb right next to the headpin. Here’s a look at what’s going on…

1. SPEEDY RESEARCH JES WOODS, NIKE RUNNING COACH While working as an engineer, I started running ultramarathons for fun. I quickly realized that I was never going to be the fastest runner. So instead I took a scientific approach to training, which ultimately led to my career as a coach. For instance, I always experiment with new workouts on myself to make sure they’re not just good on paper. 2. MATH STITCHES SABETTA MATSUMOTO, PROFESSOR OF THEORETICAL PHYSICS AND APPLIED MATHEMATICS AT GEORGIA TECH My mom was a textile artist, so I grew up crafting. Now I study why some fabrics get stronger or more elastic when you knot their fibers together in new ways. Early in my career, I started knitting the math concepts involved in my work, like…

WHETHER IT’S BANKRUPTING your family in Monopoly or securing the last victory point against your buddies in Settlers of Catan, there’s nothing quite like the feeling of board-game triumph. We’ve collected experts’ best tips and tricks so you can dominate every time. MONOPOLY OBJECTIVE: Bleed your opponents dry by buying strategic properties STRATEGY: Most players forget the real goal of this game: It’s not to become rich. Instead, you must bankrupt your opponents before they wipe you out. Brian Valentine, who placed third at the 2015 World Monopoly Championship, recommends going all in on the orange properties. From jail, a rival’s dice toss of six or eight—statistically among the most likely rolls—puts them smack in the middle of this real estate. This makes these amber gems some of the most…

THE LUCKY RESIDENTS OF THE INTERNATIONAL Space Station pull 12-hour shifts, including two and a half hours of gym time and six and a half hours of lab work, among other duties. They sleep eight hours, leaving another four for goofing off in zero gravity. If the timing’s right, they call home to catch up. They watch their alma maters play football (the Army-Navy game is particularly popular). NASA has sent up playthings like guitars, keyboards, and a saxophone, as well as a chess set outfitted with Velcro to keep the pieces from floating away. Staying entertained is vital because when you’re on long space flights, boredom can be dangerous. “It leads to performance errors,” says NASA Senior Operational Psychologist James Picano. Breaking a tool is a lot more worrisome…

THREE SLICES OF FRESH APPLE PIE SIT ON THE kitchen counter, and you and a trio of buddies are drooling over them. What do you do? Try to grab a piece right away, and you risk a tussle with a pal who makes the same move. Hesitate, and you might get nothing. Maybe it’s smarter to reach for the smallest sliver first? Then again, if you give up the last slice to a friend, they might remember your sacrifice and be kinder to you in the future. That mental math is a delicious example of game theory: the study of how competitors strategize based on what they could do to win and what they guess their rivals might do. Experts in the field use calculus and other advanced math to…

ADMIT IT: SOON AFTER FIRING UP YOUR FIRST Sims game, you trapped them in a doorless room just to watch them starve to death. Perhaps your Barbies planned and executed a series of elaborate bank heists. Or maybe you pushed your Oregon Trail party at a grueling pace with bare-bones rations in the hopes they’d croak from cholera before hitting Chimney Rock. There may be an explanation for your twisted impulses: dark play. Performance researcher Richard Schechner coined the term in 1988 to describe how we seek thrills by subverting harmless fun. Schechner studied the many ways in which people act out roles, both onstage and in real life. He considered play—in which invented rules, chance, and adopted identities govern our behavior—an important and universal example of self-presentation. Of course,…

Tower Pro gamers demand smooth graphics rendering so there’s no fight-ruining lag between their commands and what happens onscreen. The burly multicore AMD processor inside the Alienware Aurora Ryzen stores data in an extra-large cache to avoid any hiccups. Mouse The Razer Basilisk Ultimate boasts 11 programmable buttons that can execute everything from simple commands like “jump” to complex routines. Its sensor automatically adjusts to the surface below, so it’ll track smoothly over nearly any material. Keyboard Speed and feel are crucial for players who spend hours on the make-believe battlefield. Logitech’s G513 Carbon and Silver mechanical device offers a switch option under the sturdy caps that prioritizes response rates over click-clacky sounds.…

THE OLDEST KNOWN JOKE DATES BACK NEARLY 4,000 years, and it’s a fart gag. The fact that we’ve been crackin’ wise for so long suggests there’s something innate about the need to laugh. Heck—chimps, rats, and perhaps even dolphins do it. Neuroscientists and psychologists aren’t sure about the exact evolutionary reason for a chuckle, though its ability to pep us up and promote bonding provide pretty solid clues. Whatever its underlying purpose, here’s how a good ol’ guffaw manifests in your body. 1/ When the frontal cortex [A]—an area responsible for decision-making—realizes something is funny, it starts a cascade of neurological responses. 2/ One signal hits the motor cortex [B]—which spurs the physical components of a giggle, including diaphragm contractions and head bobs—and then the periaqueductal gray [C], a chunk…

James Baldwin’s confidence overtakes his ability midway through his fourth lap of Silverstone Circuit. The track, home to the British Grand Prix and among the most famous in racing, features a tricky series of sweeping curves best approached with a delicate balance of gas and brakes. Baldwin, however, attacks them at 110 miles per hour, risky given the damp morning’s freezing cold. His tires skate across the slick pavement and he careens onto the grass. After hitting the brakes, he cranks the shuddering steering wheel to the left, turning into the skid. The car skitters for several seconds and just misses a wall, but the move arrests his slide and gets him pointed the right way. Baldwin exhales, downshifts, and roars back onto the track. Within moments he reaches 110…

JESSICA ROLPH, CEO AND CO-FOUNDER OF LOVEVERY When my son was 6 months old, he had a toy that always caught my attention: When you pressed a button, a purple cow would pop out, music would play, and lights would flash. It mesmerized him, but I wasn’t sure the flare was nurturing his brain development. To clear up this mystery, my business partner and I reached out to psychologists to figure out what kids’ rapidly maturing noggins crave. We found that starting around 9 months, babies have the fine motor skills to voluntarily grasp and release. At this age they’ve also started to understand the concept of “in” versus “out”—the idea that objects can be contained inside others. This is why they love to pull tissues out of a box…