Table of contents for February 2019 in BBC Science Focus Magazine

China has made the Moon exciting again. At the start of the year, the country’s space agency dropped a lander and rover on the far side of the Moon, a place we’ve photographed but never visited. Named Chang’e 4, the mission is up there now studying the geology of the Moon’s surface. It’s even doing a bit of astronomy, from its uniquely quiet viewpoint. What it finds will help us understand the Moon’s past: how it formed and why the far side is so different from the bit we see. But perhaps more excitingly, Chang’e 4’s roving could tell us what’s in store for the Moon’s future. By digging into the Moon’s geology, particularly on the far side, Chang’e 4 could spot vital resources. On the one hand, there are…

Rock cress Way back in 1982, the crew of the Soviet Salyut 6 space station successfully grew a small crop of rock cress using a Fiton-3 micro-greenhouse. These were the first plants to flower and produce seeds in space. Sunflower Green-fingered astronaut Don Pettit grew several different plants as part of his personal biology experiments during his time aboard the ISS in 2012. Among them was this sunflower. Zinnia flowers On 16 January 2016 Commander Scott Kelly shared photographs of a blooming zinnia flower grown using the Vegetable Production System (Veggie) on board the International Space Station. Space salad In October 2017 a group of astronauts led by astronaut Joe Acaba tucked into a salad made with mizuna mustard leaves, green lettuce and red romaine lettuce, again grown using the…

9 JUNE 2005 Juno is selected as the second mission to be funded under NASA’s New Frontiers project, following the New Horizons mission. NASA had previously rejected two other proposed missions, INSIDE Jupiter and the Europa Orbiter. 5 AUGUST 2011 Juno launches from Cape Canaveral, on board an Atlas V rocket. The probe carries nine scientific instruments, including the JunoCam camera, and tools for studying the planet’s composition, gravity, magnetic field and polar magnetosphere. OCTOBER 2013 Juno carries out a flyby of Earth. This enables scientists to test out its instruments, and takes advantage of Earth’s gravity to slingshot the craft towards Jupiter. Such a manoeuvre in spaceflight is known as a ‘gravity assist’. 5 JULY 2016 Juno goes into orbit around Jupiter. Its orbit is elliptical: at perijove –…

There is an old idea in the Highlands of Scotland that the 12, 13 and 14 of February are ‘borrowed’ from January. At this point in the year, it feels like it’s going to be dark and wet forever. And so, to preserve their mental health and to predict how to approach the growing season, the Highlanders looked to what they could see, touch, smell and feel, and made up a story that would give them a vision into the future. The more miserable those days were, the better the weather would be for the rest of the year. If it was nice, though, it would be pishing it doon ’til spring. This old wives’ tale gave the people living in cold darkness the impression that they had some control…

The success of China’s Chang’e 4 landing has again brought the country’s space programme into the spotlight, and raised the question whether China is now a serious player in space exploration. The answer is unequivocally ‘yes’. While it is easy to rebuff these latest accomplishments by pointing out that the United States and Russia landed spacecraft on the Moon more than half a century ago, this misses the point. Though they did not generate as many column inches as Chang’e 4, there were 39 Chinese rocket launches in 2018, only one of which failed. In comparison, Russia launched 20 rockets, with one failure; and the United States launched 34, all successful. Europe lagged behind with eight launches with one failure, while Japan and India launched six and seven rockets respectively.…

The trustworthiness and competence conveyed by the Scottish accent are said to be a significant factor behind the decision of so many companies to locate their call centres there. And when plans were announced for Carpeo Estate Planning, a will and funeral planning business, to open a call centre in Newport in 2017, the ‘sympathetic and consoling’ Welsh accent was said to be a factor behind the decision. Accents have a big influence on how we perceive each other. “People who speak standard English tend to be rated highly on [their likelihood of] having a good job and a good house, but they tend not to be rated as likeable,” says Dr Natalie Braber, a linguistics expert at Nottingham Trent University. Different levels of intelligence, attractiveness, trustworthiness and friendliness have…

Dame Gill Morgan realised she saw things differently in her 30s while participating in a management course. The facilitator asked the group to imagine a beautiful sunrise. “I had no idea what a sunrise looked liked. I know it when I see it, I could explain and describe it, but I couldn’t imagine it at all. I thought, ‘Everybody’s having them on, nobody can see this damn thing.’” Afterwards, in the bar, she mentioned it to her colleagues: “I said, ‘That was daft wasn’t it?’ And they all went, ‘What do you mean? We can imagine…’ But I can’t. I can’t at all.” Until then, she had thought ‘the mind’s eye’ was just an expression. She hadn’t realised that people actually could visualise. “I don’t think it’s been different for…

Over 500 years ago, Leonardo da Vinci suggested that the air we breathe contains something vital to life, having found that combustion seemed to remove it from air, causing animals to suffocate. Many medieval alchemists tried to find it, without success. Then in 1774, the English chemist Joseph Priestley succeeded in both separating out the substance, and showing it was a single chemical element, rather than some special mix of gases. Priestley was also the first to publish his findings and thus allow others to confirm his discovery – a process which is still regarded as vital in claiming priority in discovery disputes. The French chemist Antoine Lavoisier later claimed to have discovered the gas independently of Priestley. He named it oxygen (meaning ‘acid maker’), and investigated its properties. However,…

1. WINGS The heaviest-ever flying bird wasArgentavis magnificens, which lived six million years ago. It had a similar height and weight to an adult human, with a wingspan of six metres. These wings would have been too large and hefty for continuous flapping, so it probably flew more like a glider, taking off by running downhill into a headwind. We’d have to adopt a similar flying style. 2. MUSCLES AND BONES To flap these wings, we would need pectoral muscles twice the size of a pro bodybuilder’s. Our bones would be lighter and therefore weaker, so we’d need to strengthen our collarbone by fusing the clavicles into a wishbone. We’d also need a ‘keel’ bone protruding down the centre of our chest, to allow the pectoral muscles to attach further…

What do you do? I’m a physicist working with Tokamak Energy, a company that’s developing fusion energy. I’ve just climbed Everest and am writing a book about the science behind it. What’s the link between science and exploration? “FUSION ENERGY IS CUTTING EDGE. IT’S EXPLORATION. IT’S GOING PLACES PEOPLE HAVE NEVER BEEN BEFORE” Science is an exploration. In my work, we’re trying to create a clean energy source for humankind. Fusion energy is cutting edge. It’s exploration. It’s going places people have never been before and trying to do something that seems almost impossible. If you think about polar exploration or climbing Everest, it’s the same kind of thing. How did you get into exploration? I had a pivotal moment when I was at university. My housemate told me that…

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I wonder if Erwin Schrödinger had any idea that his use of the dead/alive cat thought experiment would echo down the decades as it has done. Quantum mechanics is not an easy ride for professional physicists, let alone the rest of us, but Brian Clegg did a really good job in his article in the January issue of explaining this most counterintuitive of subjects. He set out the difficult ideas on entanglement and superposition by supporting them with experimental evidence. The thing I’m interested to find out is did Schrödinger really believe in the possibility of superposition, or was he using the somewhat ridiculous cat idea because of his aversion to the notion itself. Perhaps there is another reason, which is rooted in his competition and desire to cast doubt…

Although the Lunar Micro Ecosystem experiment ultimately did not run for as long as had been planned, it still represents a significant step forward in our attempts to provide for off-world explorers. Like an automated, miniaturised version of Matt Damon’s character in the film The Martian , this sealed biosphere was briefly able to grow plants on the surface of another world. Previous space-farming experiments have focused on two main approaches: either testing plant growth in the microgravity environment of the International Space Station (ISS), or Earth-based experiments that involve investigating how well different crops develop in simulated lunar or Martian soils. The problem with the microgravity environment of spacecraft such as the ISS is that plant seeds need to sense the direction of gravity to know which way to…

PEOPLE WHO LIVE IN FLATS Living in a house with no shared walls may help protect you from heart disease, says a team at the University of Essex. A study of 10,000 people found those living in detached houses had half the levels of C-reactive protein – a chemical linked to angina, heart attacks and strokes – of those living in flats. PIANISTS Look out, Liberace! Engineers at the University of Cambridge have created a 3D-printed robot hand that’s capable of playing the piano in different styles.…

What did they do? A team at Scripps Research Institute fed fruit flies liquid food laced with alcohol and observed the effects of the ethanol on nerve cells in their brains. What did they find? Much like people who enjoy a tipple, flies that drink alcohol begin losing their coordination before becoming hyperactive. They found that an enzyme called phospholipase D2, which plays a role in anaesthesia, built up in the flies’ nerve cells. This caused the nerve cells to fire more easily, resulting in hyperactive flies. Why did they do that? The study is the first time that the direct action of D2 on nerve cells has been linked to the consumption of alcohol. Further study of the effect could lead to treatments designed to prevent us from getting…

Seven years ago I discovered, thanks to a chance blood test, that I was a type 2 diabetic. Rather than start on medication, I wanted to see if there was another way to reverse my diabetes. So I made a Horizon documentary called Eat, Fast, And Live Longer during which I discovered the joys of intermittent fasting. The idea behind this approach is that you can lose weight and improve your health by significantly cutting your calories a few days a week, or by going for longer periods than you normally would without eating. A popular form of intermittent fasting is the 5:2 approach. This involves cutting your intake to around 600 calories a day for two days a week, then eating healthily for the other five. Using 5:2, I…

FOLDING FRIEND If you’ve got a lot of money and some spare space, you could snap up a FoldiMate laundry-folding machine. Feed your shirts into it and it’ll fold them perfectly in about five seconds – it can do a whole load in about four minutes. You do have to feed each garment into the machine individually, however, so the novelty might wear off quite quickly. FoldiMate $980 (£780 approx), foldimate.com SMART SUITCASE  e, smart usually follow nd you, which y’re all too easily en. ForwardX has created a case that rolls its owner. It uses meras and facial n software to ye on its owner odges all the bags, perfume and other you usually in airports. Forwardx Ovis Suitcase $800 (620pprox),…

1 HEARING HELP These stylish earplugs protect your hearing without ruining the music. The loop on each earplug has been designed to mimic your ear canal but with a reduced acoustic resonance. At the end of each loop is an acoustic filter that lowers all sounds by around 20dB. Loop Earplugs ›29.95 (£26 approx), loopearplugs.com 2 SMART SPECS North’s Focals are normal-looking glasses that have a built-in heads-up display. Inside the right arm is a tiny projector that displays your notifications on the right lens. The glasses are controlled with a ring, which means you won’t get sticky fingerprints all over the lenses. North Focals $999 (£775 approx), bynorth.com 3 TECH IN DISGUISE These aren’t just planks of wood, they’re touch-sensitive displays…

Why mine the Moon? The Moon has a mass of 73 trillion tons. A crude calculation shows that if one ton of material were removed each day, it would take 220 million years to deplete the mass by 1 per cent. This isn’t enough to cause a change in the Moon’s orbit, or affect the gravitation that influences the tides on Earth. Geological surveys of the Moon show that it contains several vital elements that are in increasingly short supply on Earth. These include: Helium-3 This substance is an isotope of helium that is made up of two protons and one neutron, rather than the two protons and two neutrons that comprise the more common helium-4. Though rare on Earth, helium-3 is relatively abundant in the Moon’s soil and rock.…

Am I helping or hindering the bee population by eating honey? AMY ROUSE, VIA EMAIL It depends on the brand of honey you buy. Most supermarket honey is imported, and farming methods overseas, particularly in China, may be weakening the honey bees’ immune system. Buying local, non-blended honey is much better since small-scale producers have a vested interest in preserving the health of their hives. But the real threat to bees comes from habitat loss, not honey harvesting. Planting wild flowers in your garden and buying organic vegetables (to reduce pesticide use, which can poison bees) makes a much bigger difference. What makes someone objectively beautiful? SHEIKH HUSSAI, LOUGHTON Psychologists have found that faces we rate as attractive tend to be highly symmetrical, and the positioning of their features –…

The tropical luminous click beetle, pictured here in Trinidad, has two bioluminescent spots on its thorax and a third one on its abdomen, which can be seen during flight. The beetles are nocturnal and live in subtropical and tropical regions of the Americas, where they feed on fruit and pollen. Unlike fireflies, luminous click beetles’ light organs do not flicker, but when they are touched or disturbed they glow even brighter – in fact, they are among the brightest bioluminescent insects.…

On 3 January China’s Chang’e 4 became the first lunar probe to land on the far side of the Moon. Two weeks later, the probe achieved another first when it sent back a grainy photograph showing tiny green shoots sprouting from a cotton seed stored inside its Lunar Micro Ecosystem biosphere experiment. The success was short-lived, however: on 16 January it was reported that the shoot had failed to survive the freezing temperature of the lunar night. None of the other organisms on board – potatoes, rapeseed, mouse-ear cress, yeast or fruit fly eggs – showed any signs of life and the experiment was called off just a few days into its planned 100-day stint. “THE SUCCESS WAS SHORT-LIVED, HOWEVER: ON 16 JANUARY IT WAS REPORTED THAT THE SHOOT HAD…

MIGRAINE SUFFERERS A team at the University Hospital of Amiens-Picardie in France has found that regular Botox injections lessen the regularity of migraines by an average of 1.6 attacks per month in chronic sufferers. TEENAGE TECHNOPHILES Using smartphones, tablets and game consoles is no more harmful to youngsters’ mental wellbeing than eating potatoes, researchers at the University of Oxford have found. A study of 300,000 teens showed that only 0.4 per cent of adult wellbeing is related to screen use.…

HUMANS HAVE 35 COMMON FACIAL EXPRESSIONS There are just 35 facial expressions that are commonly understood across almost all cultures – 17 of which express happiness, while just one suffices for disgust. Cognitive scientists at Ohio State University typed over 800 words that describe feelings, in five languages, into the most popular search engines on five continents, and analysed the 7.2 million resulting images. TERMITES BENEFIT RAINFORESTS Here’s something to chew on: termites protect tropical rainforests from drought, a new study in Hong Kong has discovered. The presence of termites speeds up the process of leaf litter decomposition, leading to soils that are moister and richer in nutrients during dry spells. OFFICIAL: GM OPPONENTS LACK UNDERSTANDING Studies in the US, France and Germany last year found that the people who…

Exercise trackers, such as Fitbit, have been helping people collect their fitness data for a while now, but at this year’s CES we saw a raft of new devices that can gather even more information about the state of your health. Some new trackers had integrated ECGs (to monitor heart rhythms) and EEGs (to monitor brain waves), vastly increasing their ability to detect potential problems. Meanwhile, Lumen, a device that analyses your breath, can let you know whether you’re burning fat or carbohydrates when you’re exercising. Our favourite health monitoring device at CES was the Heart Guide, made by clinical tech company Omron. It’s a smartwatch with an FDA-approved blood pressure monitor. It works using a similar mechanism as the upper-arm blood pressure monitors we’re used to, but is miniaturised…

1 Relay satellite This is positioned 65,000 kilometres beyond the lunar surface to bounce signals back to Earth. 2 Dosimeter This measures the radiation on the lunar far side, in preparation for future human missions to the Moon. 3 Ground-penetrating radar This can scan underneath the lunar surface, right down to a depth of 100 metres. 4 Transmitter dish This sends scientific data and images from the Yutu 2 rover to the relay satellite. 5 Panoramic camera This has already sent back stunning images of the landscape on the far side of the Moon. 6 Solar panels These provide power to the rover, but only during the two weeks every month when the far side is illuminated. 7 LFS booms This trio of five-metre-long antennae pick up radio waves from…

The second law of thermodynamics sounds trivial when it’s described in simple terms as ‘heat moves from a hotter body to a colder body’ – but there is much more going on behind this simple statement than may first appear. The second law is involved in everything from life to the ultimate fate of the Universe. An alternative, more technical description of the second law is that ‘in a closed system, entropy stays the same or increases’. Entropy is a mathematical measure of the amount of disorder in something, based on the number of different ways that you can rearrange the components parts of the object you are considering. Broadly speaking, the more disordered a system is, the higher its entropy. Take BBC Focus magazine. There’s just one way to…

1. You feel happier Your brain releases more of the hormones dopamine and oxytocin. These feel-good chemicals give a euphoria similar to the effects of cocaine. 2. You’re possessive Another hormone produced by the loved-up brain is vasopressin. Studies in animals show that this chemical increases the sense of attachment and territoriality. 3. One-track mind Elevated levels of adrenaline and norepinephrine hormones, coupled with lower serotonin, make you anxious and can cause a sensation of obsessive focus on your love interest. 4. Jangling nerves. Adrenaline and norepinephrine also cause more physical symptoms of stress around your crush, including sweaty palms, a fluttering heart and a dry mouth. 5. Wide eyes The autonomic nervous system – which regulates the body’s unconscious actions – is deeply connected to the arousal centres of…

What causes the differences? In every country in the world, women live longer than men. In the UK, women get an extra four years on average; in Russia it’s an extra 11 years (the highest in the world). Some of these differences in life expectancy are down to lifestyle factors, but there’s something much deeper encoded in our genes. Women have two copies of the X chromosome in every cell, whereas men have one X and one Y chromosome. With women, if one of the genes on the X chromosome becomes faulty, they have a healthy ‘backup’ copy. Men, on the other hand, have to make do with any faulty genes on their single X chromosome, which can put them at a greater risk of disease. When do the differences…

NEUROMUSICOLOGY THE BLACK BOX, BELFAST 17 FEBRUARY 2019, 4PM Join cognitive neuroscientist Dr Niamh Kennedy to explore the neuroscience of music, and find out how the brain controls movement. Kennedy will be helped by harpist Ursula Burns, who’ll be having her brain activity imaged live while she plays the piano and the harp at the same time. MENSA MAGNIFICENT MONDAY QUIZ THE BLACK BOX, BELFAST 18 FEBRUARY 2019, 7.30PM Leave the movie soundtracks and obscure sports facts behind. This team quiz is focused on the good stuff: science, technology and engineering. It’s light-hearted, so don’t worry if your quizzing skills aren’t at MENSA level – it’s all about the craic. FIRST CONTACT: OUR FIRST VISITOR FROM ANOTHER STAR QUEEN’S UNIVERSITY BELFAST 18 FEBRUARY 2019, 7PM In October 2017 we detected…