Table of contents for April 2025 in BBC Science Focus Magazine

A new study has identified the potential for a variety of antiageing treatments that could prevent the development of wrinkles and grey hair. Published in the journal Endocrine Reviews, the study suggests that naturally occurring hormones could be used to slow some of the body's ageing processes. Wrinkling is caused by the degradation of connective tissue, while pigment loss leads to hair turning grey, but key hormones orchestrate these changes. “Some of the hormones we studied have anti-ageing properties and may be used in the future as agents to prevent skin ageing,” said the study's lead author Prof Markus Böhm from the University of Münster, Germany. The study looked at several key hormones, including oestrogen, growth hormones and melatonin. Among these, melatonin stood out. While most people know the hormone…

Scientists may have found a new energy carrier that could help with our efforts to transition away from fossil fuels – and it could be lurking in the mountains. Using advanced simulations, a German research team think they've found vast reserves of clean hydrogen gas (H2) produced by rocks that are millions of years old. As an energy carrier, H2 is more sustainable than fossil fuels, which release greenhouse gases and cause climate change by trapping heat in the atmosphere. Yet currently, our predominant method of producing H2 is through a synthetic process that, ironically, requires fossil fuels. The major obstacle to natural H2 extraction has been finding a reserve large enough to be viable. The research team's findings could change that. “Overall, we may be at a turning point…

The European Space Agency's (ESA) Euclid space telescope mission has released its first survey images, offering a stunning glimpse into the vast cosmos. The new pictures, taken in a 63-square-degree patch of sky – that's an area more than 300 times the size of the full Moon – reveal millions of galaxies in exquisite detail, alongside celestial phenomena such as gravitational lensing. Predicted by physicist Albert Einstein over a century ago, gravitational lensing happens when massive objects like galaxies warp the fabric of space-time. This bends the light from the even more distant galaxies behind them, making far-off galaxies appear as glowing arcs around the closer ones. Euclid captured 500 of these dramatic lensing events in just one week. By studying the shape and brightness of these arcs, scientists can…

… A FLYING CAR Tech companies are still chasing the dream of flying cars. And while most look like drones carrying a passenger cabin, the one from Alef does at least resemble a regular car… albeit one with Batmobile styling and what looks like a wire-mesh body. Details are sparse for now, but you can pre-order it for as little as $150 (the final cost is projected to be $300,000). Its eventual incarnation is expected to be roadworthy and capable of beating the traffic by flying over it. But as it stands, waxing that body will be a nightmare. Alef Aero, $299,999 (approx £231,000), alef.aero … A CONVERSATION-PIECE KEYBOARD Never before has a product's name been so apt. This is the Icebreaker, a keyboard crafted from a single piece of…

When we learn about Earth's core at school, it looks like a calm sphere. One that's smooth, unperturbed and as round as a ping-pong ball. It sits cosily at the bottom of several layers that encase one another like a set of nesting dolls. Of course, we've long known that the real picture is a lot more complicated than that. Earth's ironrich core generates a magnetic field that's so strong it projects outwards beyond the planet's surface and into space. There it reacts with the Sun's solar winds to reveal what we call the magnetosphere. Our observations of this projection of Earth's core tell us that it's constantly moving and nothing like a glowing ping-pong ball. In fact, recent studies of seismic waves travelling through Earth's layers paint a picture…

IDRIS WISE, VIA EMAIL CAN WE COMMUNICATE IN DREAMS? Today's machine learning methods have been shown to visualise our dreams. But what if we wished to go further and actually share our dreams? At present, while we can interpret brain signals and roughly figure out imagined scenes and high-level thoughts, we have no way to transfer these into another brain. Perhaps that's a good thing: many of us might be a little uneasy at the idea of computers pushing ideas directly into our brains during sleep. Our only current option is to use our senses. Words spoken into our ears while sleeping might be a way of transferring information from one sleeper to another. But how does a sleeping person talk or listen? It's more difficult than it sounds. Those…

The Americas Behold the natural wonders of the Americas, from the Amazon to the Great White North. This 10-part epic, narrated by Tom Hanks, explores the dramatic landmass, from top to toe. Watch now on BBC iPlayer CrowdScience: Are there global food allergy hotspots? Dr Alex Lathbridge investigates why rates of food allergies are climbing worldwide, and why they appear to be more prevalent in the west than in the east. Listen now on BBC Sounds The Climate Question: How do you stop a megacity from going underwater? Bangkok, a ‘megacity’ of more than 10 million people, is sinking. Reporter Jordan Dunbar travels to Thailand to uncover what plans are in place to keep both rising tides and rivers at bay. Listen now on BBC Sounds…

NIIGATA, JAPAN This award-winning picture captures two Asian sheepshead wrasse (Bodianus reticulatus) fighting to establish dominance. The young challenger (on the right) is facing off against the older fish in a bid to claim his territory and become the sole male to breed with the females in it. Male Asian sheepshead wrasse are big fish. They can reach up to 1m (3ft) in length and 13kg (30lbs) in weight. As in other wrasse species, dominance is established through a ‘big mouth contest’. The rivals approach each other with their mouths agape, as if they're bellowing into each other's faces. Then they turn away, ‘return to their corners’ and do it again. This process is repeated until one fish backs down. Typical male behaviour, you might think. But it might surprise…

Cycle syncing is having ‘a moment.’ The practice, which involves women adjusting their habits to align with their menstrual cycle, is all over the digital realm. Menstrual tracking apps – Clue and Flo are just two examples of the many available – are popular. Downloaded to phones, smartwatches and other wearable tech, they're currently used by an estimated 50 million people. Most women use them to track their periods and understand their cycles. On social media, however, cycle syncing is touted by influencers as a means to enhance fitness, help you lose weight and even boost your creativity. There's scant evidence to back those claims, however. Research published this year from McMaster University, in Canada, for example, found no link between synchronising menstruation phases and exercise routines with the body's…

When the road gets tough, do you dig deep, push forward and refuse to back down? If so, you likely believe in the power of mental toughness – the ability to overcome obstacles with sheer focus and will. The idea is simple enough: by strengthening your mind, you can bulldoze through any barrier standing between you and your goals, whether it's crushing a personal best at the gym or landing that big promotion. Mental toughness is about believing in your ability to persevere, no matter what stands in your way. Sounds logical, even admirable, right? But there's a huge hidden catch: relying solely on mental toughness might not serve you well in the long run. Take marathon running as an example. If someone adopted a mindset of mental toughness, they…

Everyone from the Red Cross to the British government recommends that you keep an emergency kit ready for just-in-case scenarios, such as floods, fires and power cuts. Your go-bag should contain items that'll keep you safe based on the likely risks in your area, says Price. “It depends if you're in, say, a flood zone – what are the essentials you'd need? You're not talking about 9mm pistols and all that rubbish. It's just practical stuff. If you've got kids, you might want to take some colouring boxes and playing cards in case you have to vacate your house and go to the local sports hall, maybe overnight.” “Preppers get a bit of a reputation that they're all waiting for the end of the world. But it's not that; it's…

The world is full of intriguing paradoxes. Does this article still exist when you're not reading it? If I travelled back in time and killed my grandfather, would I still be writing this now? And how can two socks go into the washing machine, but only one sock comes out? Perhaps the biggest paradox, however, is how can a frog get smaller as it grows up? Life starts, pretty much as expected for the paradoxical frog (Pseudis paradoxa). The female lays fertilised eggs in the lakes and lagoons of South America and Trinidad. Eggs hatch, tadpoles emerge and then start to eat. The voracious larvae feed mostly on algae and very soon, start to bulk up. They start small, like other tadpoles, and grow at a similar rate to their…

PENCILS AT THE READY! ACROSS 1 Worried assistance will follow, far off (6) 5 Terribly bored, but dressed (5) 9 A Catholic curse about the plaintiff(7) 10 Staring at a torn page (5) 11 Commiserated about skinflint (5) 12 Old barrier starts to get vandalised (7) 13 Assessing a sailor (6) 15 Frank also seen among detectives (6) 18 Mislay award outside, getting shot (5-2) 20 Line in a letter read out (5) 23 Organised tour around key royal house (5) 24 Revising and changing gin diet (7) 25 Huge order for lager (5) 26 Unexpectedly asleep, if you don't mind (6) DOWN 2 Concentrate on what a camera can do (5) 3 Loser managed as well (4-3) 4 Ridicule notes on journey (6) 5 More almonds surround field (5) 6 Bishop, in tatters, boasted (7) 7 Right late coming round, journalist is feared (7) 8 Serene local man…

“As the global population ages, the number of people living with the disease is projected to double by 2050” Parkinson's is the fastestgrowing neurodegenerative disease in the world, affecting around 10 million people globally. It's the second most common neurodegenerative condition after Alzheimer's and, currently, there's no cure. But thanks to a recent breakthrough, scientists hope that new treatments may soon be on the horizon. Scientists have now linked the disease to a protein called PINK1, produced by the PARK6 gene. Faults in the way PINK1 functions have been directly linked to Parkinson's disease, especially in people with early onset Parkinson's, which accounts for about 1.2 per cent of cases in the UK. Scientists have recently made strides in understanding how PINK1 interacts with mitochondria. Often called ‘the powerhouse of…

New research suggests that not only was Mars once a perfect holiday destination (if you're willing to overlook the radiation exposure and absence of food sources), but was also in possession of the right conditions to host alien life. It all stems from the discovery of ancient sandy beaches on Mars. A discovery that suggests a large liquid ocean once spread over the northern part of the Red Planet. The team behind the research, from institutions in China and the US, says that this ancient shoreline is the clearest evidence yet that Mars was previously habitable. “When we look back at where the earliest life on Earth developed, it was in the interaction between oceans and land. So this [discovery] is painting a picture of ancient habitable environments capable of…

Perhaps inevitably in such turbulent, uncertain times, there's a renewed interest in cryonics: the freezing and storing of human remains so that they can be resurrected in the future when medical technology is sufficiently advanced. The appeal of this is obvious. It's basically the mortality equivalent of a video game save point, allowing you to ‘undo’ whatever life-ending harm you've experienced and pick up where you left off. But a growing enthusiasm for cryonics doesn't change the fact that, at present, it's a process with many significant hurdles to overcome before it could be said to ‘work’, in any meaningful way. Cryogenically freezing someone is rarely, if ever, permitted before that person has died. Why? Because freezing a living body is inherently a lethal process and, even if they're okay…

Smokers are increasingly unconvinced of the benefits of switching to e-cigarettes, or ‘vaping’ – using an electronic device to heat a liquid that contains nicotine and inhaling the vapour (as opposed to breathing in the smoke from burning tobacco). Last year, over a third of smokers surveyed in England thought vaping would be more harmful to their health than smoking – up from 12 per cent four years earlier – while another third thought vaping would be just as bad. This is despite scientific evidence from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) showing the effects of smoking on our health, and a Cochrane review from 2022 that suggests vaping helps more people to quit than other nicotine replacement products. So, the perception of vaping is important because,…

AGRICULTURE Underground farming involves growing crops beneath Earth's surface in controlled environments, such as tunnels, basements and abandoned mines. It relies on artificial lighting, hydroponics and climate control to create optimal growing conditions without relying on sunlight or weather. Advocates, including the operators of a farm in the London Underground, argue that the method conserves water, reduces the need for pesticides and allows year-round production, while increasing food security in densely populated areas. EARTHSCRAPERS Imagine an inverted skyscraper that extends for storeys under your feet instead of over your head. Developers claim that building earthscrapers will save on steel costs, as well as on heating and cooling systems. Proposed examples include the earthquake-proof complex Underground Science City, planning to house 4,500 researchers in Singapore. In 2018, the InterContinental Shanghai Wonderland…

More of us than ever are taking statins. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) reported in October 2024 that around 5.3 million people in England had taken statins or the cholesterol-lowering medication ezetimibe in the previous year. That's almost triple the figure for 2015/2016 and approaching 10 per cent of the country's population. Meanwhile, statin use is also increasing globally. Doctors prescribe statins to help prevent heart disease – currently the leading cause of death worldwide. They reduce low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol – the ‘bad’ type that clogs up arteries – by interfering with enzymes that our livers use to make cholesterol and helping draw it out of the blood. This makes statins effective at preventing heart attacks and strokes, but that alone doesn't answer all the…

Mars has graced our evening sky for a while, an orange-hued planet moving slowly east against the background stars. In the middle of April, it crosses the invisible border between Gemini the Twins, and Cancer the Crab. Gemini's main stars are Castor and Pollux. They mark the heads of the twins and you can find them by using the Plough, or Saucepan. Extend the line from the first star in the handle away from the pan, through where the handle joins the pan, extending for twice the length of the Saucepan to arrive at Castor and Pollux. Cancer is a trickier pattern to find, but resembles a faint upside down ‘Y’. At the heart of the ‘Y’ is a beautiful star cluster known as the Beehive Cluster, M44. It's visible…

Of all the myriad mysteries of science, the one that's currently got my neurons in a twist concerns a Toffee Crisp stashed away in my kitchen cupboard. I'm entirely preoccupied by it – it's like being pulled by some metaphysical tide. The question is, how? How can a chocolate bar scrape away at my willpower when – the last time I checked – I was a halfway-intelligent adult who should know better? The answer may have something to do with ‘food noise’: those persistent, intrusive thoughts about food and eating between mealtimes. In the case of my bewitching Toffee Crisp, these thoughts are probably a short-lived distraction that I'll give in to within the hour. For some people, however, food noise is a more serious problem, that's according to Daisuke…