Table of contents for October 2019 in BBC Science Focus Magazine

This will surprise no one, but I’m not a fan of diets. My feeble self-control means that any diet I go on is doomed to fail. Still, with a few notable exceptions, studies show that diets rarely lead to lifelong change. So I’ve given up on them. That said, I do think about what I can do to age healthily: to keep my fleshy husk out of hospital and make sure my mind stays in good nick. And it looks like there might be a new school of thought that even I can get behind. The more you eat, the healthier you’ll be. Unfortunately, I don’t mean eating more in terms of quantity, but more in terms of variety. You are what you eat, the old adage goes, and if…

Hell hole KARAKUM DESERT , TURKMENISTAN The Darvaza gas crater, aka ‘The Gates of Hell’, has a mysterious past. It is thought to have formed in the 1960s, when engineers drilled the site for natural gas. The sudden upward movement of gases caused a dramatic cratering – the Darvaza crater is 69m wide and 30m deep – and released gas into the air. “About 10 years after the cratering happened, it was still venting gas,” says Mark Ireland, a lecturer in energy geoscience at Newcastle University. “So local geologists purposefully lit it to burn off the gases.” The crater was expected to burn for a matter of days, but is still alight now, some four decades on. And it’s hard to predict when the crater will burn out. “We’re missing…

Researchers have poured cold water on the idea that people with increased testosterone have reduced empathy. The study was motivated by the fact that five times as many males as females are diagnosed with autism. “Of course, the primary suspect when we have something that is sharply differentiated by sex is testosterone,” said Dr Gideon Nave at the University of Pennsylvania, who led the study. One theory for this sex difference in autism diagnosis is that autism represents an exaggeration of ‘male’ tendencies, characterised by a thinking style that’s geared more towards systemising than empathising. This ‘extreme male brain’ hypothesis has been supported by previous studies that found a connection between increased testosterone and reduced cognitive empathy – the capacity to read the emotions of others, which is characteristically impaired…

Drug-resistant bacteria responsible for deadly infections that spread inside hospitals have been on the rise for several years. Over time these bacteria have developed the ability to shut out antibiotics by closing tiny doors in their cell walls, rendering them ineffective. However, things may be about change. Researchers at Imperial College London have discovered how bacteria lock out antibiotics, highlighting a new avenue to tackle antibiotic resistance. The team concentrated their efforts on Klebsiella pneumoniae – a bacterium that causes infections in the lungs, blood, and open wounds. Like many bacteria, K. pneumoniae is becoming increasingly resistant to antibiotics, particularly a group of drugs called carbapenems. These are a class of antibiotics that are used when others have failed. Antibiotics usually enter the K. pneumoniae bacteria through surface doorways known…

“A non-neutral, economically divided internet will create echo chambers” Pre-internet, analysts found that patterns of behaviour clustered in geographic areas. Anthropologists and human geographers studied the clusters of culture that formed within isolated social groups – whether in rural parts of the UK or tribes in remote Asia – and found patterns about how they structure their days and lives. Social psychologists recognise that finding yourself in one of these tight-knit, isolated communities predicts what you will believe. Armed with this knowledge, many observers and experts predicted that access to all the world’s information would create silos of opinion that we now describe variously as feedback loops, echo chambers and filter bubbles. There are other aspects of human behaviour that scientists have predicted will have a profound impact on our…

1 NASA’s DART spacecraft will leave Earth in 2021, arriving at Didymos in 2022. It will target Didymoon, smashing into it at a speed of 6-7km/s. 2 DART will be destroyed by the impact, and its orbital energy transferred to Didymoon. It will be like an explosion has gone off, and it will leave behind a big crater. 3 Radar stations and telescopes on Earth will track Didymos and Didymoon to measure the change in velocity caused by the DART impact. 4 ESA’s Hera craft will arrive in 2025. Hera’s job is to measure the impact crater, and investigate Didymoon’s composition and characteristics. 5 Hera will launch two CubeSats, which will land on Didymoon to further study its composition.…

1973 The first brain-computer interface (BCI) is created by Jacques Vidal (below) at the University of California. He uses non-invasive electroencephalogram (EEG) recordings of brain activity to communicate with a computer. 1988 Researchers in the former Yugoslavia use EEG brain signals to control a physical object for the first time – issuing commands to a robot by simply opening and shutting their eyes. 1991 A 100-electrode device called the Utah Array (above) is invented by Richard A Normann. It can be implanted in the brain to stimulate brain cells, or to record their output to electronic circuitry. 1997 Deep brain stimulation, which involves implanting electrodes into the brain (above), is approved by the US Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of the tremors of Parkinson’s disease. 2000 Researchers at…

DR ALASTAIR GUNN Astronomer, astrophysicist DR HELEN SCALES Oceans expert, science writer ALEX FRANKLINCHEUNG Environment/ climate expert DR CHRISTIAN JARRETT Neuroscientist, science writer ALOM SHAHA Science teacher, author DR EMMA DAVIES Chemistry expert, science writer DR PETER J BENTLEY Computer scientist, author LUIS VILLAZON Science/tech writer DR HILARY GUITE Former GP, science writer JULES HOWARD Zoologist, science writer CHARLOTTE CORNEY Zoo director, conservationist PROF ROBERT MATTHEWS Physicist, science writer…

EDITORIAL EditorDaniel Bennett ProductioneditorAlice Lipscombe-Southwell CommissioningeditorJason Goodyer StaffwriterJames Lloyd EditorialassistantAmy Barrett OnlineeditorAlexander McNamara OnlineassistantSara Rigby ScienceconsultantRobert Matthews ART Art editor Joe Eden Deputy art editor Steve Boswell Picture editor James Cutmore CONTRIBUTORS Abigail Beall, Peter Bentley, Dan Bright, Humano Carlos, Stuart Clark, Charlotte Corney, Simon Crompton, Emma Davies, Alexandra Franklin-Cheung, Alice Gregory, Dr Hilary Guite, Alastair Gunn, Jules Howard, Christian Jarrett, Minet Kin, Aleks Krotoski, Lucy Maddox, Michael Mosley, Gustavo Pergoli, Helen Pilcher, Emmanuel Polanco, Andy Potts, Andy Ridgway, James Round, Alom Shaha, Helen Scales, Pepe Serra, Gabriel Silvera, Jocelyn Timperley, Rogers Tyers, Luis Villazon. ADVERTISING & MARKETING Group advertising manager Tom Drew Advertising manager Neil Lloyd Senior sales executive Anastasia Jones Brand sales executive Sarah Smith Brand sales executive Hannah Rich Newstrade manager Helen Seymour Subscriptions director Jacky Perales-Morris…

India is set to ban six single-use plastic items, including bags, cups and straws, say officials. The nationwide ban will come into place on 2 October, the birth anniversary of independence leader Mahatma Gandhi. Plates, small bottles and some sachets will also be covered, officials told Reuters. If properly enforced, the measure is expected to cut 5 to 10 per cent from the country’s plastic consumption. Indian prime minister Narendra Modi had previously urged people to “take the first big step” towards freeing India of single-use plastic. “On this 2 October, can we make India free from single-use plastic?” he said during his Independence Day speech on 15 August.…

Why is it that you can remember the names of childhood friends that you haven’t seen in years, yet easily forget the name of someone you just met a moment ago? Researchers at Caltech may have found the answer: strong, persistent memories are encoded by ‘teams’ of neurons all firing together to ensure that certain memories stay remembered. The researchers developed a test to examine the neural activity of mice as they learnt and remembered a new place. First, they placed mice one at a time in a long, white enclosure with signs marked at various locations along the walls, like a plus at one end, and a slash in the centre. Treat dispensers containing sugar water were positioned at either end. As the mice explored, the team measured the…

1. WHEN USING THE TOILET Keep yourself clean and always, always wash your hands. 2. AFTER HANDLING RUBBISH Remember to wash your hands after taking the bins out. 3. WHEN PREPARING FOOD Wash your hands before touching food. Wash fruit and veg. After preparing raw meat, wash your hands and utensils straight away. 4. BEFORE EATING WITH YOUR HANDS Hands are a big carrier of microbes, so make sure not to put harmful germs straight in your mouth. 5. AFTER COUGHING, SNEEZING OR BLOWING YOUR NOSE Wash your hands and dispose of used tissues straight away. 6. WHEN LOOKING AFTER SOMEONE WHO’S ILL If they’re coughing, sneezing or vomiting, they’re most likely still infectious. 7. AFTER HANDLING DIRTY LAUNDRY There’s a reason you’re…

There’s a school of thought that says you are not one single organism, but rather a superorganism made up of many. Human cells make up less than half of what you call ‘you’ – the rest are trillions of bacteria, fungi and viruses in your gut, on your skin and throughout your tissues. You need them because of the role they play in digesting your food and maintaining a healthy immune system. They need you because they need somewhere to live. Now research is providing evidence that you have an extra reason to treasure the microbes living in the depths of your bowels: if they’re happy, you’re happy too. The hitherto ludicrous-sounding idea that what happens in your intestines affects your mood has now got scientific backing. And it’s become…

WHY DID YOU START STUDYING BEES? I had an opportunity to study tropical ecology and conservation abroad, and I realised that you can be a biologist and study insects for a living – which was ludicrous to me, who grew up in a household where you could be a doctor or a lawyer. I didn’t know that these things existed. I knew I was interested in conservation, but I wanted to focus my efforts on something that was important not just for conservation in a tree-hugger sort of way, but also important for humans. I found out that you need bees for one of every three bites of food. They provide pollination services for most of the food that we eat, so the connection there was really strong. It’s good…

SPACE DEBRIS Although unlikely to cause a widespread threat to life on Earth, space debris is a huge concern. It poses a serious risk to orbiting satellites, and because we rely on those satellites for so many things related to communication and navigation, it threatens our way of life. DANGER FACTOR: HIGH SUPERNOVAE Exploding stars pose a danger to life because of the torrent of high-energy radiation they would release. To be a risk to us, however, there would need to be a red supergiant star within 50 light-years of Earth. Luckily, no such stars are anywhere near that close. DANGER FACTOR: NEGLIGIBLE SOLAR STORMS Giant releases of magnetic energy on the Sun can propel vast clouds of electrified gas towards us on Earth. These can seriously damage our technology…

1. Neuralink’s new ‘n1’ sensor fits into a case measuring 8mm in diameter and 4mm in height. 2. All of the components of the Neuralink are stacked inside the case and hermetically sealed. 3. Each sensor is connected to 1,024 flexible, thread-like electrodes capable of reading and writing to nerve cells (neurons) in the brain. Each thread is about a tenth of the width of a human hair. 4. The flexible electrodes are individually inserted into the brain’s outer layer (cortex) through an 8mm-wide hole in the skull, using a high-precision surgical robot with a 24-micrometre needle (one micrometre = one-thousandth of a millimetre). 5. The sensors are inserted through the same hole, with the skin being closed up over them. Up to 10 sensors could be implanted, meaning as…

THE MAN WHO BROUGHT SCIENCE OUT OF THE DARK AGES For centuries following the collapse of the Roman Empire in the 5th Century, texts by key thinkers from Ancient Greece, India and elsewhere became lost to the world. The texts still existed physically, but during the Dark Ages very few scholars could read them in their original language. That changed in the 9th Century, with the work of the Arabic polymath Al-Kindi. Born around 800 in what is now the Iraqi city of Kufa, Al-Kindi became the leading scholar at the House of Wisdom, a grand library created by the ruling caliphs of Baghdad. He led a team of translators working on ancient texts by the likes of Hippocrates and Aristotle. Over the decades, manuscripts on everything from astronomy to…

The pink fairy armadillo is mostly an apt name. After all, this is a species that spends most of its time in a subterranean neverland and whose pink armour, sitting atop silky white fur, gives it an almost magical charm. However, it also has some rather unfairy-like qualities. Fairies, for instance, do not have robust digging claws. And fairies do not use their enormous bottoms to firm up the soil as they dig to strengthen the walls of their tunnels. This species of armadillo is found only in the deserts and scrublands of central Argentina. To limit the likelihood of heat exhaustion during the warm season, it uses its leathery shell as a cooling aid. By pumping this thin layer of armour with blood, the pink fairy armadillo can flush…

SPACE DAY 2019 THE HIVE, SAWMILL WALK, WORCESTER SAT 5 OCTOBER, 10.30AM-4PM The British Interplanetary Society hosts the UK’s biggest free space exhibition. Exhibitors include the Institute of Physics, the European Space Agency and Spaceflight UK. bit.ly/space_day_2019 AN AUDIENCE WITH DR DON THOMAS GEORGE HOTEL, LICHFIELD MON 7 OCTOBER, 7PM Dr Don Thomas, the four-time Space Shuttle astronaut turned author and science educator. will give a lecture on his experiences in space and his current activities, followed by a Q&A session. Over 16s only. bit.ly/don_thomas 1969 AND ALL THAT DYNAMIC EARTH, HOLYROOD RD, EDINBURGH TUE 15 OCTOBER, 7PM Prof Monica Grady will be giving a lecture about “all the things that happened in 1969 to do with planetary sciences – meteorites in Antarctica, comet 67P, the Marina space probe pictures…

WHY SHOULD I START MY OWN YOUTUBE CHANNEL? There are all kinds of different reasons for starting up your own YouTube channel. Some people do it to share their passions and knowledge with the world. Others simply want to vent about life’s little annoyances. If you have a particular talent, be it playing an instrument or even playing video games, YouTube is a great way to advertise yourself and grow a following. Some of the more popular YouTubers are watched by millions of people every month, while the biggest vloggers are now fully-fledged celebrities with their own clothing brands and sponsorship deals. YouTube reaches almost two billion people each month in over 90 countries, making it one of the biggest virtual stages on the internet. So whatever you want to…

JOCELYN TIMPERLEY In this new regular section, climate and energy reporter Jocelyn gives us the lowdown on the latest environmental news. p22 DR LUCY MADDOX Feel like you need a brain upgrade? Clinical psychologist and writer Lucy looks at the promise – and potential pitfalls – of brain-computer interfaces. p72 DR STUART CLARK A joint mission between NASA and ESA will intercept and hopefully change the trajectory of an asteroid. Astronomy writer Stuart finds out exactly how they’ll do it. p64 DR SAMANTHA ALGER Wild bees are under threat. But what can we do to help them? Ecologist Samantha explains what her research has uncovered. p58…

World-first trial shows promise for pioneering treatment following heart attacks There are more than 100,000 hospital admissions in the UK due to heart attacks every year, but there are few effective treatments for repairing the resulting damage to cardiac tissue. Following a heart attack, scar tissue can develop which can reduce the performance of muscles and eventually lead to heart failure. Now, researchers at the University of California, San Diego think they may have a solution – an injectable hydrogel that can form a scaffold around damaged cardiac muscle and encourage the growth of healthy, new tissue. Dubbed VentriGel, the material has passed its initial safety trials. It is made from the natural scaffolding of cardiac muscle tissue – also known as extracellular matrix, or ECM – which is taken from…

Over the centuries, humans have bred dogs for different tasks, like hunting, herding or companionship. This has led to huge variation in our pooches’ physical characteristics. But new research suggests that our meddling has shaped their brains as well. A US-based team used an MRI scanner to study 62 dogs from 33 breeds, and found that brain anatomy varied considerably, and seemed to correlate with the tasks that the dogs had been bred to carry out. However, the variations don’t seem to be linked to the size of the animal’s brain, or its skull shape.…

Banana farmers in some of the world’s biggest producing countries could be hit hard by climate change. The changing climate has made conditions more favourable for bananas in recent decades, according to research published in Nature Climate Change. But these gains could disappear by 2050 if climate change continues at its expected rate, the study found. Ten major banana exporters could be negatively affected, including India, the world’s biggest producer. The impacts of climate change on bananas have been largely ignored so far, said study co-author Daniel Bebbe. “There will be winners and losers in coming years.”…

“Being in cold water increased their metabolic rate and boosted levels of dopamine” Between June and September, I swim in the sea as often as I can. But quite apart from the pleasures of doing exercise in the great outdoors, what are the health benefits, if any, to be had from a dip in the ocean or a cold river? A few years ago I made a film with Wim Hof, also known as ‘The Ice Man’. Wim assured me that cold water can lead to a “cascade of health benefits”, including fat loss, a strengthened immune system and the production of mood-boosting endorphins. There is evidence that cold water encourages the development of brown fat (which burns calories) and clearly, if you do a lot of swimming in cold…

Would you have an IQ-boosting microchip implanted in your brain if you had the chance? What if everyone else around you did? Imagine your work colleagues outperforming you, and your friends having conversations you can’t quite follow. Would you upgrade your brain then? Should you? It sounds like science fiction, but it’s not such an outlandish idea. Earlier this year, an announcement from tech entrepreneur Elon Musk’s company Neuralink caught the attention of the world’s media. A range of different ways to link brain signals and computers – brain-computer interfaces, or BCIs – already exist, but Neuralink has improved this technology using impressively small, super-thin, flexible micro-electrodes, which enable a tiny device to be implanted in the brain to read (and potentially write) neural signals. They have trialled this in…

ANNA BRIGGS, PLYMOUTH HOW FAR FROM EARTH COULD ALIENS DETECT OUR RADIO SIGNALS? While commercial radio broadcasts began around 100 years ago, these early transmissions used frequencies that were either mopped up by the atmosphere or drowned out by radio emission from the Sun. In contrast, military radar transmissions set up during the Cold War to detect incoming ballistic missiles have the power and frequency characteristics to be detected over hundreds of light-years – and have already broadcast our existence to any aliens within around 60 light-years of the Earth. RM JESSICA HOWARD, INVERNESS WHAT WOULD HAVE HAPPENED IF WE’D CARRIED ON USING CFCs? In the late 1970s, scientists noticed levels of ozone gas (O3) dropping in the ozone layer, a region of the stratosphere some 15 to 30km above…

The digestive system isn’t like an in-tray, where everything remains until fully processed: it’s more like a conveyor belt. Whatever you eat moves through your intestines at roughly the same speed, and anything that doesn’t get broken down and absorbed into your bloodstream passes out the other end. This usually takes one to three days. Chewing gum can’t stick to the wet intestinal wall, so a single piece of swallowed gum normally gets swept along with everything else. There are a few cases in the medical literature of small children swallowing many pieces of gum that formed a lump too large to pass. But this quickly caused severe constipation and pain, and needed surgery to remove. But supposing some gum did somehow get trapped, would it take seven years to…

MANFROTTO BEFREE ALUMINIUM TRAVEL TRIPOD If you’re planning on taking your DSLR out and about for shooting, I highly recommend grabbing a Manfrotto tripod. This aluminium effort folds up impressively small, and is incredibly light to boot, yet there’s no compromise on stability. Perfect for throwing in a backpack, or taking on trips abroad. £185, MANFROTTO.COM PANASONIC GH5 If you want a dependable DSLR for shooting 4K video by yourself, the Panasonic GH5 is still a winner. It’s easy to use, boasts impressive stabilisation and packs in a surprisingly deep range of features for a reasonable price. Just remember to grab a spare battery if you’re shooting a lot of footage. £1,500, PANASONIC.COM/UK FINAL CUT PRO X If you’re serious about producing a professional video and you own a Mac,…

Reality check p32 HOW TO REDUCE YOUR CARBON FOOTPRINT WHEN YOU FLY AVAILABLE ON BBC IPLAYER In this episode of The News Explained, BBC environment reporter Laura Foster explains how you can keep your flight’s carbon footprint to a minimum. GLOBAL BUSINESS: FLYING GREEN Can airlines go green? Is the future of air travel electric, biofuel, or something else? Listen to this episode of weekly documentary Global Business on the BBC World Service. A SCIENTIST’S GUIDE TO LIFE: HOW TO SMELL NICE Dr Chris Callewaert, also known as Dr Armpit, offers a scientist’s guide to dealing with body odour. bit.ly/how_to_smell_nice Eat yourself happy p48 THE DIET MYTH BY PROF TIM SPECTOR (£8.99, ORION PUBLISHING) In this book from Prof Tim Spector, find out more about the science behind…