Table of contents for October 2024 in BBC Science Focus Magazine

Intermittent fasting can lengthen your lifespan and aid weight loss – but according to a new MIT study, there could be a dark side to the regenerative powers of fasting. The researchers behind the study, published in Nature, discovered that eating again after fasting activates a pathway that's crucial for boosting regeneration in stem cells – an important process for healing injuries. But they also found a downside: cancerous mutations caused by this regeneration were more likely to develop into early-stage tumours. “Having more stem cell activity is good for regeneration, but too much of a good thing over time can have less favourable consequences,” said Prof Ömer Yilmaz, senior author of the study. Observing mice eating again after a 24-hour fast, the researchers discovered that stem cells proliferated most…

REALITY CHECK THE SCIENCE BEHIND THE HEADLINES REVIEW Olive oil is well known for its health benefits. The star of the Mediterranean diet, it's rich in good fats, packed with antioxidants that have anti-inflammatory properties, and linked to a variety of improved health outcomes. The olive oil production process does create a lot of waste products, though. Luckily, however, it seems one of them – olive mill wastewater – might be a potentially health-boosting product in its own right. Admittedly, olive mill wastewater, or ‘OMW’ as it's typically called in the scientific literature, isn't a particularly appetising name for a trendy, new, nutrient-dense supplement. But, olive mill wastewater is exactly what the name suggests – the wastewater from olive oil production. It's one of many byproducts created when olives are milled…

FEATURE RESHARKING Each morning, hundreds of thousands of fishing vessels head into the waters around Indonesia. The country, comprising around 17,000 islands with a combined coastline of almost 100,000km (about 62,000 miles), is one of the world's fishing superpowers and, in recent decades, has grown in strength. The country has established a reputation for providing quality tuna, shrimp and crab to high-end restaurants around the world. But behind this economic and culinary success story is an uncomfortable truth: Indonesia ranks among the world's top shark-killing nations, catching an estimated 100,000 metric tonnes (98,400 tons) of shark a year, which is contributing to an alarming global decline in shark numbers. “The biggest threat to sharks currently is fishing,” says Dr Colin Simpfendorfer of the University of Tasmania's Institute for Marine and…

WATCH Look out for Solar System, a brand-new series with Prof Brian Cox, coming this autumn As you read this, five of the eight planets in the Solar System have spacecraft orbiting them or landers on their surfaces – and more are on the way. In his new series Solar System, Prof Brian Cox reveals the freshest insights coming from these spacecraft and landers, and which of the planets they're studying holds the most promise for finding signs of life. So, naturally, we had to ask him all about it: from filming in the most alien-like places on Earth to his hope that aliens might explore the vast expanses of the Universe after we humans (possibly) extinguish ourselves. As a show, Solar System sounds familiar, but this series is very current…

OWEN BARRETT, CAMBRIDGESHIRE CAN SCIENCE EXPLAIN HAUNTED HOUSES? Paranormal phenomena, including supernatural ‘hauntings’, have been the subject of serious scientific investigation since the emergence of spiritualism during Victorian times. Unfortunately, the vast majority of paranormal investigations have been of the pseudoscientific variety – based on incorrect, incomplete or misrepresented science, or invalid due to bias, manipulation, assumption or omission. In these cases, the presented ‘evidence’ doesn't satisfy scientific rigour, or can also be interpreted in ways that don't require the paranormal. Other cases can be shown to be fraudulent. So, the conclusions (and methods) of such studies can be safely ignored from a strictly scientific perspective. Of course, there are some cases of ‘hauntings’ for which there is evidence of some physical phenomena: magnetic, pressure or temperature variations, recorded images,…

ACROSS 1 Location around a royal building (6) 4 Bully with hesitation, then cringe (5) 8 Risk not starting walk (5) 9 Unruly trio wandered round America (7) 10 Wonderful fireplace, by the sound of it (5) 12 Require small light when annoyed (7) 13 Understand how to succeed as a photographer (3,3,7) 15 Nobleman and former queen holding one in the past (7) 17 European nerd holds record, initially (5) 19 Reportedly notice team coast (7) 20 Turn pets out, distressed (5) 22 Party, and not for a contributor (5) 23 Lack of newly-woven thread (6) DOWN 1 Called after parking accident (5) 2 Little room for experiment (3) 3 Feline treatment for the ache (7) 4 Hag gets right into shape (5) 5 Club to behold application for crustacean (9) 6 Rise awkwardly, owing what's left (7) 7 Doorman rants about starting truck (11) 11 Divert Internet,…

Curious Cases: Bubbles The Curious Cases team takes a fun look at the science of bubbles. What role do they play in the ocean, how do they work in space and could you really make one large enough to wrap around the entire planet? Listen now on BBC Sounds Solar System In this new five-part series, Prof Brian Cox takes us on a tour of the Solar System, from the volcanoes on Venus to the frigid nitrogen glaciers of Pluto. Watch on BBC iPlayer Protein: Powerhouse or Piffle? Social media is full of people with rippling muscles waxing lyrical about the benefits of protein. But how much should we be eating, and can it really help us lose weight and be healthier? Listen now on BBC Sounds…

Weight-loss drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy are a hot topic, but new research suggests there could be a more effective alternative: Amycretin. In the first human trial of Amycretin, its creator Novo Nordisk A/S (the pharmaceutical company behind Ozempic) recorded promising results. In fact, the trial found that people taking Amycretin lost an average of 13.1 per cent of their body weight over a period of 12 weeks. But unlike Ozempic and Wegovy, which require injections, Amycretin comes in pill form. So how does this new pill work? Well, Amycretin is a kind of two-for-one deal, in that it mimics the actions of two hormones involved in weight loss: amylin and glucagon-like peptide (known as GLP-1). They both help to decrease hunger sensations and control appetite. Published in the journal…

Peace Awarded to the late Prof BF Skinner for his experiments on live pigeons. In the paper ‘Pigeons in a Pelican’, he details tests on the feasibility of housing the birds inside World War II bombs to guide them to their targets. Skinner himself called it a “crackpot idea.” Physiology Won by a team of Japanese and American researchers, the physiology Ig Nobel Prize solved a crucial question: Can mammals breathe out of their anuses? Turns out they can. The discovery could also help treat respiratory failure in humans. Botany Jacob White, from the US, and Felipe Yamashita, of the University of Bonn, won the botany prize for finding evidence that the South American plant Boquila trifoliolata can mimic the leaves of plastic plants nearby, indicating some form of plant…

ANALYSIS Since its launch in 2019, the hype and demand for Ozempic has grown rapidily, owing to its effectiveness not only at treating type 2 diabetes, but also its ability to help people lose weight. Given its popularity, could we ever see Ozempic, and drugs like it, being available over the counter? And what would the implications of such easy access to powerful appetite suppressants be? WHAT IS OZEMPIC AND HOW DOES IT WORK? The active ingredient in Ozempic is semaglutide, a drug that mimics the actions of a naturally occurring hormone called glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1). When we eat a meal, GLP-1 is released from cells in the intestines and does a few key things. Firstly, it signals the pancreas to release insulin, helping our bodies keep our blood sugar…

FEATURE ASTEROID DEFLECTION Another day, another rocket launch. So many, in fact, it's easy to get blasé. In 2023, almost 200 rockets lifted off from Earth, carrying satellites and other spacecraft into orbit. By early September this year, the number for 2024 had already reached 158, most of them from Elon Musk's SpaceX company, which has launched 89 rockets and is aiming for around 150 by year's end. In October, one of those additional SpaceX launches will carry the European Space Agency's (ESA) Hera mission into space. Although one more launch may seem almost insignificant, Hera could prove to be one of the most important missions ever launched, because it'll tell us how capable we are of deflecting asteroids. In November 2021, NASA launched the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART)…

WATCH Look out for Solar System, a brand-new series with Prof Brian Cox, coming this autumn Origin stories have a special way of capturing our imaginations. Whether it's a particular species of plant or animal, or a favourite fictional character, knowing how they came to be makes for captivating stories. It's no different in space. Especially the small corner of it we live in: the Solar System. How did it form and why does it look the way it does today? How does it compare to other solar systems and is the one we're part of special or just like all the others? In recent years, astronomers have got closer to answering these important questions and uncovering the story of our Solar System. How they're doing it is a story in…

Q&A NATURE'S WEIRDEST Picture the scene. It's Halloween and you've gone for an ill-advised stroll through the graveyard on the edge of town. As the screams of trick-or-treaters fade into the distance, a shroud of dense fog rolls in, blanketing the tombstones. It already feels like an episode of Scooby-Doo, but things are about to get worse. You stumble and fall, face-planting into the detritus, where you spot a putrid-looking hand sticking out of the ground. Misshapen digits. Long, twisted nails. You try to scream, but the sound is stuck in your throat. Where is Velma Dinkley when you need her? Then you look again closely and realise it's not a hand at all. Although dead man's fingers (Xylaria polymorpha) may look like it belongs on the end of a…

Thirteen thousand years ago, human existence depended on our ability to find ways to survive in the snow and ice. Now, scientists think the solutions we found were even more ingenious – and brutal – than we initially thought. Research has found that Ice Age hunters probably crafted a specialised weapon to make animals impale themselves. Previously, researchers thought that hunters would throw spears topped with razor-sharp rocks (palm-sized tools known as Clovis points) at their giant prey. These included mammoths, mastodons (similar to mammoths, but more closely resembling modern-day elephants) and bison. That, or the humans used the sharpened rocks to kill and butcher any wounded animals they scavenged. But the new study, published in the journal PLoS ONE, suggests we may have got it wrong. The authors, archaeologists…

COMMENT On my morning walk with the dog, my path takes me past a field where a small herd of cattle grazes. I usually pause there, partly because my dog is utterly fascinated by cows, and partly because it's a pleasingly bucolic scene. This is what I picture when I think of livestock farming: cows or sheep wandering around munching grass in a field. Then, like a lot of us who don't work in farming or meat production, I probably don't dwell as much as I should on what happens between the grazing animals and the meat we see on the supermarket shelves. But there's a burgeoning meat-production industry that looks very different from this, which is set to offer us an innovative alternative using science: meat grown not in…

As the partner of a 40-something male, I'm acutely aware of the hair-loss horizon looming large in our house. With the first signs of a receding hairline come furtive glances in the bathroom mirror, then throwaway remarks about shaving it all off. Pretty soon, we'll be stocking up on scalp cream and hats. Going bald is no joke, though, as the now-retired American body-image expert, Prof Thomas Cash, showed in a 2001 study. Cash convinced 145 customers of Virginian barber shops and hair salons to visit his lab, where he checked the extent of each man's hair loss and asked them how they felt about it. Men who had more severe balding were less satisfied with their hair, but also with their overall appearance, admitting to feeling self-conscious and unattractive,…

If you want to make a climate scientist uncomfortable, just sidle up to them and whisper “tipping points” in their ear. Climate breakdown driven by global heating is scary enough, but so-called climate tipping points send a shiver down the spine. So, what are they and why do they have us all running scared? We're in the middle of a unique experiment that's driving up the global average temperature at least 10 times faster than at any time in the geological record. The consequences are all around us: explosions of extreme weather, collapsing ice sheets and accelerating sea-level rise. But as greenhouse gas emissions continue to climb as fast as ever and the global temperature rise (compared to pre-industrial times) for the last 12 months touches 1.64°C (a rise of…

Q&A ASTRONOMY FOR BEGINNERS Jupiter is currently prominent, a veritable beacon among the stars of Taurus. It's very bright to the naked eye, more so when the Moon appears close, as will be the case just before dawn on 21 October. Binoculars make Jupiter look brighter, but don't show any detail. Hold them really still, however, and you may see some or all of its four brightest moons: Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto – also known as the Galilean Moons. These appear as star-like dots dancing slowly from one side of the planet to the other. Gravity rules at Jupiter and the distances between the three innermost moons are such that orbital resonance occurs. Each moon exerts enough of a gravitational influence on its neighbour to roughly double its orbital…

BETTER LIVING THROUGH SCIENCE They don't call it go-juice for nothing. Caffeine is the world's favourite performance-enhancing drug. And it is a drug, not a nutrient – the most widely taken psychoactive stimulant known to humankind. In the UK, we knock back 98 million cups of coffee every day. Besides getting us moving in the morning, it's known to improve athletic performance, from strength to endurance, as well as cognitive skills like alertness, reading speed and problem-solving. “There's a massive list of supposed performance-enhancing substances,” says James Betts, professor of metabolic physiology at the University of Bath. “You can count on one hand those that clearly work and I would have caffeine at the top of that list because the effects are so potent, so consistent, and because it's absorbed…