Table of contents for May 2017 in BBC Science Focus Magazine

This issue, I was happy to discover I’ve got something in common with the philosopher Augustine. It turns out he also thought that time was a tricky concept to grasp. You see, I thinkI know what time is, but if you needed me to explain it to you, the conversation would probably end with a huff and a shrug (though if I’m being totally honest, I find quantum theory, post-structuralist philosophy and the appeal of Mrs Brown’s Boys equally hard to explain). But it’s not just me and Augustine who are perplexed by time: around the world, scientists are trying to reach a consensus on what actually makes our Universe tick. The problem is that, on paper, all the maths describing our Universe will function whether time flows backwards or…

Dr Darren Naish Palaeontologist “The idea that the dinosaur family tree might require revision has received a mixed reaction. Given that the result is so novel and, to date, based on just a single study, some advocate caution and scepticism. An alternative reaction is that the proposal is not surprising given the large quantity of new anatomical data collected by Baron and his colleagues. Furthermore, a vague similarity between early ornithischians and theropods has been noted on several occasions in recent years and there have even been suggestions that some early ornithischians – notably the fang-toothed heterodontosaurids – were predators. In recent decades, studies of evolution across the tree of life have resulted in the overturning of many traditional ideas. Consequently, biologists and palaeontologists are by now quite used to…

“IT IS THE FIRSTTIME STARS HAVE BEEN OBSERVED FORMING IN THIS KIND OF EXTREME ENVIRONMENT” It’s a flying cosmic crèche: a clutch of newly-formed stars has been observed hurtling away from a supermassive black hole. The stars were spotted in IRAS F23128-5919, a pair of colliding galaxies around 600 million light-years from Earth, by a group of researchers using the Very Large Telescope at the European Southern Observatory in Paranal, Chile. The team detected the young stars by looking for the distinctive pattern of radiation they emit. The stars are thought to be just a few million years old, and are travelling away from the centre of the galaxy at high speed. It is the first time stars have been observed forming in this kind of extreme environment. Supermassive black…

If you were to hop in a time machine and travel back about 717 million years, you’d be greeted with scenes reminiscent of the ice planet Hoth. But exactly how the Earth came to resemble a giant snowball has long been up for debate. Now, a team from Harvard University thinks that the runaway glaciation event that froze the entire surface of the planet could have been triggered by a huge volcanic eruption that devastated an area stretching from present-day Alaska to Greenland and happened to coincide with several other specific atmospheric conditions. “It is not unique to have large volcanic provinces erupting,” said researcher Robin Wordsworth. “These types of eruptions have happened over and over again throughout geological time but they’re not always associated with cooling events. So, the…

“OUR INTELLIGENT AUTOPILOT SYSTEM IS CAPABLE OF PERFORMING MANY PILOTING TASKS WHILE HANDLING SEVERE WEATHER CONDITIONS AND EMERGENCY SITUATIONS” Robots are customarily portrayed in sci-fi movies as futuristic creations that walk on two legs and think like a human. But this isn’t really an accurate portrayal, as we’ve been using robots of one kind or another for some time – they just look a bit different. Some of the earliest programmable machines ever invented were looms made to weave fabric in the early 1800s, while robot arms have been used in our factories since the 1960s, and the military have used robotic weaponry such as cruise missiles since WWII. In fact, these days our everyday lives are practically overrun by robots hiding in plain sight. Our dishwasher is a robot…

There is a skull that sits on a shelf on our wall. There is a hint of antiquity to it, though I must confess that it is a replica. Upon noticing the sharp teeth, children assume it is from a dinosaur. They place it on their heads and go “ROAR!”. Adults know better: they assume it is from some sort of cat, because they see its large canine teeth. They are both wrong. Neither the adults nor the children ever notice the molars that have become stretched wide like those of a horse – an adaptation forged in the depths of China’s bamboo forests to combat starvation. For the skull is actually that of an herbivorous bear: a giant panda, of course. There is always surprise when I tell people…

PARKING Some cars already have ‘parking assistance’ that allows the vehicle to manoeuvre itself into tight spots. But they require the driver to be there ‘just in case’. If a driverless vehicle could be trusted to park itself, it could drop you off at your destination and find a space on its own. LEARNING TO DRIVE It’s likely that anyone operating a vehicle, autonomous or not, will still require some sort of training in order to do so. But the arrival of autonomous vehicles is expected to result in changes to the Highway Code and possibly the skills taught while a new driver is learning. TAXIS If a car can take you anywhere without you having to drive, why do we need taxi drivers? Uber has stated that its plan…

ELEMENTARY PARTICLE These tiny particles aren’t made up of anything smaller (to the best of our current knowledge). Everything in the Universe appears to be made up of just a handful of different types of elementary particle. Two of these – electrons and quarks – are the main ingredients of atoms. FEYNMAN DIAGRAM Named after Richard Feynman, these pictures provide a way to visualise how the elementary particles move around and interact with each other. We can use the diagrams to compute the probability that something will happen to the particles. PROBABILITY A number between zero and one corresponding to the odds that something will happen. For example, the probability that a rolled dice will show a six is 1/6 = 0.167. This means that on average 16.7 out of…

DR ALASTAIR GUNN Astronomer, astrophysicist ALEXANDRA CHEUNG Environment/ climate expert DR PETER J BENTLEY Computer scientist, author PROF ALICE GREGORY Psychologist, sleep expert PROF MARK LORCH Chemist, science writer CHARLOTTE CORNEY Zoo director, conservationist DR HELEN SCALES Oceans expert, writer DR CHRISTIAN JARRETT Neuroscientist, writer EMMA DAVIES Heath expert, science writer LUIS VILLAZON Science/tech writer DR AARATHI PRASAD Biologist, geneticist PROF ROBERT MATTHEWS Physicist, science writer What could we expect from a magnitude 10 earthquake? RICHARD O’NEILL, GLASGOW 6JG››››››6ĥJQMW›GCTVJSWCMG›QHH›VJG› EQCUV›QH›,CRCP›ETGCVGF›C›VKFCN›YCXG›››O› JKIJ›CPF›UJKHVGF›VJG›GPVKTG›OCKP›KUNCPF› QH›*QPUJW›GCUV›D[››››O››/QTG›VJCP› ››››››››DWKNFKPIU›EQNNCRUGF›CPF›CNOQUV› ›››››››RGQRNG›FKGF››6JKU›OCIPKVWFG››››› GCTVJSWCMG›QPN[›TGNGCUGF›CDQWV›››RGT› EGPV›QH›VJG›GPGTI[›QH›C›VJGQTGVKECN› OCIPKVWFG››››SWCMG››$WV›VJGTGoU›CP› WRRGT›NKOKV›VQ›JQY›OWEJ›GPGTI[›[QW› ECP›UVQTG›KP›VJG›TQEMU››8GT[›NCTIG› GCTVJSWCMGU›TGNGCUG›OQTG›GPGTI[››DWV›KV› KU›URTGCF›QXGT›C›OWEJ›NQPIGT›UGEVKQP›QH› HCWNV›NKPG››+VoU›FQWDVHWN›VJCV›VJGTG›CTG› CP[›HCWNV›NKPGU›QP›'CTVJ›DKI›GPQWIJ›VQ› TGNGCUG›C›OCIPKVWFG››››GCTVJSWCMG››DWV› KH›QPG›JCRRGPGF››[QW›EQWNF›GZRGEV›VJG› ITQWPF›VQ›UJCMG›LWUV›CU›JCTF›CU›C› OCIPKVWFG››››DWV›HQT›C›NQV›NQPIGT›s› RGTJCRU›CU›OWEJ›CU››››OKPWVGU›› LV Why does yeast make bread rise? NICHOLAS PEAT, KENDAL ;GCUV›KU›C›UKPING›EGNNGF›HWPIWU››CPF›VJG›EGNNU›CTG›UVKNN› CNKXG›YJGP›[QW›OKZ›VJGO›KPVQ›VJG›FQWIJ››6JG›[GCUV› TGNGCUGU›GP\[OGU›VJCV›EQPXGTV›VJG›HNQWT›UVCTEJ›KPVQ› UWICT››YJKEJ›VJG›EGNNU›CDUQTD›CPF›OGVCDQNKUG››6JKU› RTQEGUU›TGNGCUGU›%12›ICU››YJKEJ›HQTOU›DWDDNGU›VJCV› DGEQOG›VTCRRGF›KP›VJG›UVTGVEJ[›FQWIJ››&WTKPI›DCMKPI›› VJG›QXGPoU›JGCV›GZRCPFU›VJG›DWDDNGU›GXGP›HWTVJGT›› LV Why are some plastics recyclable and others are not? MARK WARMSLEY, SOUTHAMPTON /QUV›QH›VJG›RNCUVKEU›YG›WUG›CTG›GKVJGT›VJGTOQRNCUVKE›QT› VJGTOQUGVVKPI››6JGTOQRNCUVKEU›KPENWFG›CET[NKEU››P[NQP› CPF›RQN[GVJ[NGPG››RQN[VJGPG›››#U›[QW›JGCV›VJGO›WR›VJG[›…

The basic idea of creating motion by directing a jet of fluid in the opposite direction dates back to ancient times. In the 1st Century AD, the Greek mathematician Hero of Alexandria described a device propelled by squirting steam out of two opposing nozzles. But it’s doubtful it ever worked as the jets were probably too weak to overcome friction between its various components. In 1922, French engineer Maxime Guillaume was granted a patent for a simple jet engine. While never built, it had the right idea. It consisted of a series of turbines to compress air, which was then mixed with fuel and ignited. The resulting rapidly expanding gas produced thrust. The first to succeed in making this approach work was a young RAF engineer named Frank Whittle. In…

PETER BENTLEY Computer scientist Peter takes a look at how the technology behind robots is evolving, and investigates how they could learn and think for themselves. ›p48 HELEN CZERSKI Oceanographer and physicist Helen loves to explore the science of everyday life. This month: what cooked spinach tells us about chlorophyll. ›p77 ROBERTO FLORE Fancy cooking up some insect cuisine? Roberto Flore of the Nordic Food Lab has dreamed up some bug-tastic recipes for you to try. Yum! ›p92…

THE EASY-ON-THE-EYE Being a bit of a looker may mean you are doomed to have short relationships. A team at Harvard University has found that those rated as attractive during high school tend to have shorter marriages and a higher rate of divorce. POKER PLAYERS Time for card sharps to fold their final hand? A team at the University of Alberta has created the first AI that can beat human players at heads-up, no-limit Texas hold ’em. Dubbed ‘DeepStack’, the bot is able to play using ‘intuition’, they say.…

What did they do? A team from Washington University played videos of chronically scratching mice to other mice. With a few seconds of seeing the video, the spectating mice would begin scratching too. What did they find? The itching behaviour is triggered by a structure in the mice’s brains called the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) releasing a chemical called gastrin-releasing peptide (GRP) – a key transmitter of itch signals between the skin and the spinal cord. The behaviour is an instinct that the mice have no control over, according to the researchers. Why did they do that? It is hoped that the findings can help the researchers to deepen our understanding of the neural circuits that control socially contagious behaviour.…

“WE’RE STILL USING 21ST-CENTURY GADGETRY WITH ONE EYE ON THAT BATTERY ICON” What looks set to be the top tech story of 2017 is already in – and it’s still only May. Researchers in the US have made headlines worldwide by developing a radically new type of battery that charges far faster and holds way more charge than today’s lithium cells. Oh yes, and it doesn’t explode either. It’s not just a terrific technology story, either. The team behind it is led by tech legend Prof John Goodenough of the University of Texas, Austin – the co-inventor of the original lithium-ion battery, and still doing brilliant work at the age of 94. I first heard of the breakthrough from my son, who is clearly thrilled by the prospect of no…

Question: How do you monitor the sleep patterns of wild elephants? Answer: Give them a smartwatch! And that’s exactly what a team at Wits University in South Africa has done, by attaching Actiwatch fitness trackers (minus their straps) to wild elephants’ trunks with electrical tape and wax. The team, led by Prof Paul Manger, found that elephants in the wild get just two hours of sleep per day, mostly standing up (they only lie down for about an hour every three or four days). They can manage up to 48 hours without sleep, and don’t seem to suffer any detrimental effects. Captive elephants, in contrast, sleep for around four hours a day. It’s hoped the findings will help conservationists develop strategies that are better suited to the animals’ needs, and…

Touch Surgery Enjoy watching TV medical dramas? You’ll love this surgery simulator! It was devised as an aid for medical students, but is now available to the general public. Free, iOS/Android Ancient World In VR Created by archaeologists, this virtual reality app takes you on a tour of famous ruins and monuments in Paris, Athens and Rome. Free, Android Steps This app helps people who suffer from social anxiety disorder overcome their phobia by setting small, manageable daily goals and tracking their progress over time. Free, iOS…

About this series In this exclusive four-part series, physicists Jeff Forshaw and Brian Cox introduce us to the biggest ideas in modern physics and cosmology. What is the nature of time? What is everything made from? What happened before the Big Bang, and how will the Universe end? We’ll delve into the deepest questions concerning the very essence of space, time, matter, and reality itself… The first part of our exclusive four-part series was in our April 2017 issue. If you missed it, you can buy a copy for only £4.80* including postage. Visit buysubscriptions.com/focusbackissuesor call us on 01795 414 699+ to order your copy today. What happens if you chop something in half, then in half again and keep on going? What do you end up with? Can you…

1. LAYER UP Put on as much clothing as you can find. Wool repels water, creating insulating air pockets even when wet. A waterproof layer will trap air and help keep you afloat. Put on a life jacket or stuff your top with empty containers for buoyancy. 2. DON’T JUMP Titanic’s lifeboat deck was 17.6m above the water, and even a 6m jump is enough to compress your spine and break bones. Wait for the boat to sink first – the idea that you will be sucked under with it has been tested and disproved. 3. KEEP CALM Breathe out as you hit the water to help counter the inhalation reflex caused by the cold shock response. Cold shock also causes a minute of hyperventilation. Once this subsides, you have…

An aerial drone captured this image of construction workers as they assembled the foundations of a wind turbine near Jacobsdorf, eastern Germany. The foundations, made of metal and concrete, need to be able to withstand the huge mass of the structure, as well as any vibrations of the tower. Wind power currently comprises around 13 per cent of Germany’s total power. The country is currently in the midst of its ‘energiewende’, or energy transition, as it attempts to eliminate the use of fossil fuels by 2050.…

“Eating insects makes more environmental and economic sense than eating traditional livestock, but is this enough for us to start introducing insects into our diet in Europe? I don’t think so. “I was extremely fascinated to discover that there are many reasons why people eat insects around the world, but only one always emerges as fundamental: insects taste good. Most of them are collected directly from the wild and cooked as a fresh, seasonal ingredient. As a chef, I see edible insects as the key to starting a conversation about the food we eat, as we look to embrace different types of food from different cultures. We can use them as a starting point to develop a more profound relationship with what’s on our plate, and a more complex understanding…

A sloth can hold its breath for 40 minutes p82 NASA’s pioneering female scientists have been immortalised in Lego p28 Bee larvae taste best when blanched p93 Neanderthals might have taken aspirin after a club to the head p22 A frog can be used as a pregnancy test p88 CONTACT US Advertising neil.lloyd@immediate.co.uk 01173008276 Lettersforpublication reply@sciencefocus.com Editorialenquiries editorialenquiries@sciencefocus.com 01173147388 Subscriptions focus@servicehelpline.co.uk 08448440257* Othercontacts sciencefocus.com/contact WANT MORE ? FOLLOW SCIENCEFOCUS FACEBOOK TWITTER PINTEREST GOOGLE+…

From our green countryside to a nice bag of fish ’n’ chips, we Brits have plenty to be proud of. Now, there’s another thing to smile about: dinosaurs may have originated in what is now Britain. A team at the University of Cambridge has uncovered evidence that the prehistoric beasts could have evolved from a common ancestor – the Saltopus, which is a small Scottish specimen previously considered to be insignificant. The somewhat controversial finding stems from the researchers’ conclusion that the basic categories used to classify dinosaur species need to be reassessed. The previous incarnation of the dinosaur family tree was drawn up by British palaeontologist Harry Govier Seeley back in the late 19th Century. He initially split dinosaur species into two main groups based on the structure of their…

800 MILLION TONS The weight of insects and other prey eaten by the world’s spiders every year, that’s twice the amount of meat and fish eaten by humans. 10 MINUTES The length of time that brain activity can continue after death, according to researchers from the University of Western Ontario. Further study is needed to determine what is happening, they say. 215 MILLION GIGABYTES The amount of data that could be stored on a single gram of DNA, according to researchers in New York. That’s enough to fill a tower of DVDs piled 55km high.…

What’s that, a high-end Caribbean resort? Nope. It’s a type of South American palm tree that just might help to save the world’s elephants from extinction. How so? The trees have large seeds measuring up to 8cm across that can be dried out, hardened and then carved into trinkets and jewellery. When polished, the resulting attractive, off-white substance closely resembles elephant tusk – so much so that the seeds have been dubbed ‘vegetable ivory’. That sounds great. But exactly how threatened are elephants? The number of elephants in the wild is still falling dramatically. It’s estimated that up to 100 animals are killed by poachers each day to meet the continuing demand for ivory. But isn’t the trade in ivory illegal now? Well, the worldwide sale of new ivory was…

NORWEGIANS ARE THE HAPPIEST PEOPLE IN THE WORLD This year’s UN World Happiness Report has declared Norway as the happiest country in the world, ousting previous holder Denmark. The report takes into account factors such as income, life expectancy, freedom and trust. The UK placed 19th. SKYSCRAPERS COULD BE BAD FOR OUR HEALTH The swaying motion of skyscrapers caused by strong winds can trigger tiredness, low mood, difficulty concentrating and lack of motivation in occupants, researchers from the University of Bath say. SAT-NAV USE ALTERS BRAIN ACTIVITIY Using GPS reduces activity in the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex, brain regions involved in memory, navigation, planning and decision-making, a team at UCL has found. The effect is thought to be due to it negating the need to think of other possible routes.…

 The Sinclair C5 electric tricycle may have been a flop in the 1980s, but perhaps the idea was simply ahead of its time? That, presumably, is what Sir Clive Sinclair’s nephew Grant is thinking, because he’s the brains behind the IRIS eTrike, a newelectric tricycle that’s due to launch this winter. THE SILVER ECO MODEL OF THE ETRIKE HAS A TOP SPEED OF 40KM/H Unlike the original C5, the eTrike features an all-over hard shell, making it suitable for use in all weathers, while inside there’s an LCD dashboard and a smartphone dock. Two models of the eTrike will be available: the silver Eco model will cost £2,999 and have a top speed of 40km/h (25mph), while the £3,499 black Extreme version will have a top speed of 48km/h (30mph).…

RIP UP A ROBOT There are now hundreds of VR games. Unfortunately, most of these are burdened with clunky control systems or inflict motion sickness on their users, but there have been at least two titles that have left a lasting mark: Robo Recall on PC and Resident Evil 7 on PS4. The first – out this month – we played with earlier in the year. Robot Recall has a whiff of a story at the start but essentially your two controllers are virtually replaced by guns and you’re asked to blast the bolts out of any robot in sight. Anyone’s who’s picked up a plastic gun at an arcade will be instantly at home, but what really impressed us was the game’s speed and fluency. Every movement was mapped…

1 According to Caltech cosmologist Dr Sean Carroll, the flow of time from past to future may be the symptom of our Universe having emerged from another universe that existed before the Big Bang and subsequently gave birth to our own. 2 In 1967, two American theorists derived an equation describing the quantum state of the whole Universe. Known as the Wheeler-DeWitt equation, it includes many key features of the cosmos, such as its size. But one aspect is absent: time. Some theorists believe this implies that time only exists in our minds. 3 According to theorist Prof Lee Smolin at the Perimeter Institute, Canada, the existence of life in the Universe is the result of the laws of physics evolving to their current state over an infinite number of…

1966 ELIZA One of the first examples of a chatterbot. When running a script dubbed DOCTOR, ELIZA could ask and answer questions like a psychotherapist. It didn’t understand a great deal, but with some clever programming was still able to convince many users of its intelligence. 1994 VIRTUAL CREATURES Computer artist and researcher Karl Sims created a group of virtual creatures that inhabited their own virtual universe. Using genetic algorithms, they evolved until they could swim, crawl, jump and compete against one another. Unfortunately, they were too concerned with their own virtual lives to talk to us. 1997 DEEP BLUE Deep Blue was catapulted into public consciousness when it won a chess game against grandmaster Garry Kasparov – the first supercomputer to achieve such a feat. However, it was given…

“THE STRUCTURE IS FANTASTICALLY CLEVER AND DELICATE, DESIGNED TO MAXIMISE PHOTOSYNTHESIS” Leaves are green. It’s one of those statements that is so self-evident you could easily reverse it: we can all agree on what colour green really is because it’s the colour of a leaf and it’s pretty much the same for all leaves. But while making a lasagne the other evening, I started to wonder whether we reallyknow what that colour is. I was microwaving spinach in batches before chopping it up, and the difference in colour between the fresh spinach going into the microwave and the growing pile of cooked spinach was really striking. What went in was a cheerful light green, but what came out was much darker. Why the change? And which colour is the real…

1. Home pregnancy tests use antibodies that bind to hormones in a pregnant woman’s urine. The antibodies have dye molecules attached to them, which create a visible line on the test. 2. The hormone being detected is called human chorionic gonadotropin, or HCG, which the placenta secretes once a fertilised egg has implanted. It is detectable from the day the woman’s period is due. 3. Although HCG is specific to humans, other vertebrates have similar gonadotropin hormones that regulate their reproductive cycle. HCG collected from humans is used by vets to induce ovulation in horses. 4. But it isn’t only horses that HCG can affect. In the 1960s, clinical pregnancy tests involved injecting a woman’s urine into the leg of a live African clawed frog. If the frog laid eggs…

What got you into rocks? When I was a kid the Eagle comic ran a serialisation of Conan Doyle’s The Lost World. The sheer fascination of a world that was so distant and exotic made quite an impression. After that, I started collecting fossils. I spent a couple of summers working on the collections at the Ludlow Museum, where people were so knowledgeable and generous with their time, it made me realise that this was the area I wanted to work in. I hear you used to live in a chicken shed, is this true? For my PhD, I studied the ancient rocks of North Wales. When I first arrived, I had nowhere to stay, so I knocked on the door of a local farm. The lady of the house…