Table of contents for Issue 44 in Science Illustrated

MEDICINE Sperm cells with poor swimming powers are often the cause of infertility in men. So, German scientists from the Institute of Integrative Nanosciences in Dresden have developed a method to speed up these sperm cells. They have designed an auxiliary motor – a small metal coil measuring just 50 micrometres – to help the sperm cell succeed in its mission. Known as a spermbot, the auxiliary motor is shaped as a metal-coated double helix like the spring-shaped structure of DNA strands. The spring coils around the sperm cell’s tail, and by placing a magnet placed above the woman’s abdomen, scientists can create a rotating magnetic field to control the spermbot. Once the fertilisation has taken place, the robotic spiral is turned in the opposite direction, losing its grip on…

How do woodpeckers build a nest in a cactus? Why is the gila woodpecker not harmed, when it builds its nest in a cactus? The gila woodpecker, which lives in desert regions in south-western North America, prefers to build its nest in the characteristic, up to 15-m-high saguaro cactus. Like many other small bird species, the gila woodpecker has developed an ability to move about thorny plants. Usually, saguaro cactus thorns are located so far apart that the gila woodpecker can stand between them without being harmed. The woodpecker prefers to live in the tallest cactuses. The altitude and the thorns help ensure that predators living on the ground, such as snakes, cannot easily climb up to rob the nests. The nest itself is carved out in the shape of…

AIM: Carry astronauts and goods to the ISS. DREAM CHASER WEIGT: 11,300 kg. LENGTH: 9 m. ADVANTAGES: The Dream Chaser is launched using existing rockets and can be reused many times. It lands in an ordinary airstrip and will not need to be recovered from the sea. CHALLENGES: The manned version is more expensive than the competitors. STATUS: Under development. READY: The first unmanned test flight in a Low Earth Orbit will take place in 2016. FAREWELL SHUTTLES 133 successful space shuttle missions From 1981 to 2011, NASA’s space shuttles carried out 135 missions; most of the time carrying astronauts and cargo to the International Space Station (ISS). The five space shuttles, which could each carry 11 astronauts and 22 tonnes of cargo, were designed to be reused during 100…

Men have bigger brains than women MYTH 1 TRUE Measured only by weight, men win. In 2014, English scientists measured thousands of brains, establishing that a man’s brain is opn average 8-13% larger than a woman’s. However, women’s brains seem to have better internal communication than men’s. The link between the two cerebral hemispheres – the corpus callosum – is thicker in women, indicating that women can move from a problem in one side of the brain to one at the other side faster. Scientists have also discovered differences in the distribution of the grey and white matter of the brain. Grey matter consists of brain cell nuclei, whereas white matter includes their wiring, the axons, which carry signals from one cell to another. In other words, the brain’s white…

3 MILESTONES DARK MATTER HOLDS GALAXIES TOGETHER 1 In the 1970s, astronomers Vera Rubin and Kent Ford discovered that all galaxies are rotating so fast that the stars on their out-skirts would be flung in all directions, had they not been held in position by invisible matter. DARK MATTER WIND HITS EARTH 2 Since 2000, the DAMA detector has picked up seasonal fluctuations in the number of dark particles that hit Earth. That is due to the fact that Earth is orbiting the Sun and moving in the opposite direction of the rest of the galaxy in the summer and so hit by more particles. TELESCOPE SHOWS UNIVERSE MATTER 3 In 2013, the Euopean Planck satellite mapped out the distribution of matter in the universe by measuring the cosmic background…

Life with the impossible engine: The Moon is 4 hours away, and cars glide We travel to other solar systems The EmDrive is energy-efficient and able to obtain immense speed between solar systems. Mars in a few months With the new engine, the voyage to the Red Planet could probably be completed in 70 days. A trip to the Moon would only take four hours. Lighter satellites with longer lives The EmDrive could be used as an engine for satellites, making them lighter and extending their lives. Invisible missiles Today, you can clearly see the light flash from space, when a ballistic missile is launched. EmDrive missiles will be more difficult to spot. Gliding cars and planes without wings The EmDrive would render wheels and wings superflous. Cars would glide…

METEOROLOGY Aeroplanes punch holes in the clouds Clouds contain supercooled water droplets, that is, water cooled to a temperature below freezing without freezing. When a plane passes through the clouds, the air surrounding the wings is cooled by up to 20°C, immediately making the supercooled droplets freeze. Small ice crystals form, which absorb the droplets around them. The heavy ice crystals fall as small local rain or snow showers, punching holes in the clouds. The “holepunched cloud” phenomenon is captured here in a satellite image of the Florida coastline. CETOLOGY Whale vacuum-cleans the ocean of sardines Every winter, billions of sardines migrate along South Africa’s coast, attracting dolphins, sharks, and other predators. The Bryde’s whale takes a more radical approach than its competitors. The 50 tonne animal surges through the…

SPECIAL EFFECTS THALLIUM HAS CLAIMED MANY LIVES The slow effect makes it easy for the criminal to disguise his action. 1971: Agents from the French intelligence service kill a political leader from Cameroun using thallium. 1988: An American man is sentenced to death for killing his neighbour, who had been given thallium in his coke. 1990s: Iraq's president, Saddam Hussein, eliminated his enemies with thalluim. 1999: Terje Wiik of Norway is sentenced to 21 years in jail for killing his girlfriend with thallium. Thallium is a metallic element that is grey and very soft. It is absorbed through the skin, breathed in via the air, or consumed with contaminated food. Chemically, thallium behaves like potassium in certain ways, which makes it dangerous. The body cannot always differ between the two,…

AIM: Manned missions to Mars. SLS AND ORION WEIGHT: 1,000 tonnes. LENGTH: 98 metres. ADVANTAGES: Power and cargo carrying capacity allow long, manned missions to Mars, etc. CHALLENGES: A manned mission to Mars in the 2030s may be too expensive for NASA, as it would require the development of new solid-state rockets and an even newer heat shield for Orion. STATUS: Under development/being tested. READY: The first unmanned mission is in November 2018. A TRIP TO THE MOON IS THE FIRST STEP TOWARDS MARS Unmanned craft to the Moon in November 2018 1 In 2018, the Orion craft will be sent on a 20 day unmanned mission to the Moon. The probe will orbit around the Moon twice and go on to travel 70,000 km further away. Orion will bring…

SHRINKING GADGETS NOW Computer hidden in an earpiece Miniature computers which we carry on our bodies, also known as wearables, already form part of our everyday lives in the shape of smart watches and fitness trackers, but the portable technology is becoming much more discreet. The Bragi Dash earbuds are examples of the trend. Bragi Dash consist of two wireless earpieces, which can either link to a smartphone via Bluetooth or function completely independently. The small earbuds feature both an integrated music player and a series of sensors, which measure your pulse rate and more. Everything is controlled by swiping or touch. The next step will be computers hidden in finger rings or under the skin. COMPUTERS DISAPPEAR Today, we are used to computers, tablets, and smartphones as physical objects,…

My God! The shout echoes, as the small, trembling, bouncing propeller plane bursts through the massive clouds at the eye of the storm. It is 27 August 2005 – the day before Hurricane Katrina strikes Louisiana. The national US weather service, NOAA, has sent a team of hurricane hunters to measure the wind speeds of the storm. In its eye, the plane is surrounded by a huge, rotating wall of thunder and rain clouds. Risking their lives, the hurricane hunters release measuring equipment into the inferno. The instruments register wind speeds of a staggering 280 km/h. Today, hurricane hunters are the only ones able to measure winds speeds inside a hurricane, but in the future, the daredevils will be assisted by eight new NASA satellites. Named CYGNSS (Cyclone Global Navigation…

THE LATEST FINDINGS AND DISCOVERIES HYPERLOOP FACTS The high-speed train of the future will carry passengers between cities (up to 1,500 km apart) in an almost perfect vacuum tube. Solar panels on the tubes will generate energy for the transport system. TECHNOLOGY Twenty-seven students from the respected American Massachusetts Institute of Technlogy (MIT) are responsible for the best design of the super train of the future. Elon Musk’s company, SpaceX, arranged the contest to find the most realistic aerodynamic transport capsule, which glides above the track by means of super magnets at a speed of 1,200 km+/h. The MIT students focused on the challenges of limiting the air drag (shortening the trip from Los Angeles to San Francisco to just 35 minutes), gaining full control of the capsule’s motion, and…

SCIENTISTS ANSWER QUESTIONS FROM OUR READERS Baleen whales do not suffer a great risk of something getting stuck in their respiratory passages or gullets. The gullet is not so flexible that something can get stuck, and it contains lots of lubrication. The large baleen whales are among the biggest organisms that ever lived on Earth, but at the same time, they feed on tiny organisms such as krill and shrimps. This type of prey exists in such large quantities that it is not a problem to have enough, if you develop a technique for capturing it. And that is exactly what baleen whales have done. Instead of teeth, they have huge, fibrous baleens that filter all edible particles out of the water. The whales actively look for a shoal of…

AIM: A permanent colony on Mars. MARS ICE HOUSE RESIDENTIAL AREA: 90 m2. ADVANTAGES: NASA needs not carry all building materials all the way to Mars. CHALLENGES: Landing in a place where scientists are positive that there is enough ice to build the base. STATUS: Prototype. READY: Unknown. FAREWELL LM No bases on the Moon The Lunar Module (LM) offered two astronauts the opportunity to land on the Moon and explore it on foot. Though they did not have a base as such, a pressurised cabin of 6.65m3 allowed them to use the lander as a safe haven in between the walks on the surface of the Moon. 3D printed Martian ice base Send a spacecraft to the Martian north pole, inflate a plastic balloon, and reinforce it with a…

NO SKELETON As jellyfish have no skeletons, they can only grow to a certain size. Nomura’s jellyfish is one of the largest, weighing up to 200 kg and growing to a diameter of 2 m. GIANT Nomura’s jellyfish loves global warming Japanese fishermen have always had a strained relationship with the huge Nomura’s jellyfish, which can weigh up to 200 kg and have a diameter of 2 m. It often ends up in the fishermen’s nets, but is an undesirable catch, as a net full of heavy jelly blobs prevents fishermen from recovering their catch of fish. Sometimes, Nomura’s jellyfish appears in huge shoals, which cover the coast in a slime layer that is several metres thick. In the past, such blooms occurred at intervals of several years, but since…

Imagine that you arrive at the airport in a car without wheels. Subsequently, you board a plane without wings. On the plane, you read the morning paper and drink a cup of coffee. The plane speeds through the air, completing the flight from London to Sydney in a few hours. A brand new type of engine could revolutionise travel on Earth and in space. Known as EmDrive (electromagnetic propulsion drive), the engine works by taking advantage of the energy of microwaves, and it can allegedly obtain such incredible speeds that it could make other engines obsolete. The EmDrive differs from other engines by not using traditional fuel. Instead, it accelerates by means of electricity that could be generated by solar cells. So, the engine can keep on accelerating – in…

Can a ship without a captain cross the Atlantic all on its own? That is the question which the Mayflower drone ship will answer in 2020. Instead of a crew, the Mayflower will be equipped with technology enabling it to handle all the tasks usually carried out by human beings. So, scientists are developing software that acts as a virtual captain, making decisions about course, speed, right of way, and whether or not to be under sail – and implementing them. Known as MARS – the Mayflower Autonomous Research Ship – the project is to pave the way for a future, in which cargo ships are unmanned robots crossing oceans on their own. The project involves much more research than just what concerns navigation. The ship is to cross the…

1. Made out of titanium and protected by 256-bit AES encryption, the Solarin is a $19,000 what? 2. Suffering from syphilis, Johnny Depp’s character in the 2004 film The Libertine had to wear a silver what? 3. In myth and legend, which came first: the Griffin, or the Hippogriff? 4. Though the famous story of her life says she fell short of her goal of making 1000 before she died in 1955, Hiroshima school girl Sadako Sasaki actually folded 1400 what? 5. Which common igneous rock, usually grey and often weathering into large round boulders, gets its name from the Latin word for “grain”? 6. What popular nickname, referring to his scythe, did the personification of Death get in 1847? 7. Sharks from the family Sphyrna, easily identified by their…