Table of contents for May 2019 in BBC Science Focus Magazine

In a galaxy far, far away, there’s a place beyond the reach of science (no, not Endor), a place where the way we perceive and even think about the Universe falls apart (no, really, not Endor). I am, of course, talking about a supermassive black hole. A cosmic monster that’s crammed 6.5 billion times more matter than our Sun contains into an area so small, it doesn’t actually have spatial dimensions. The consequence of this cosmic crunch is that nothing, not even light, can escape its pull. And yet, last month, a global team of scientists announced they had managed to capture an image of this black hole at the heart of the galaxy M87. They had gathered and weaved together light that left the outer reaches of this black…

Hang in there YASUNI NATIONAL PARK , ECUADOR Having a bad day? Then spare a thought for this caterpillar. It’s been eaten from the inside out by braconid wasp larvae, seen here pupating inside their cocoons, dangling from the caterpillar via silk threads. The parasitic wasps use needle-like ‘ovipositors’ at the base of their abdomen to pierce their victim – usually a caterpillar – and deposit eggs inside the body. Once the eggs hatch, the larvae use their host as food until they break through and begin the process of spinning their cocoons and pupating into adult wasps. Incredibly, this caterpillar was still alive when the photo was taken. Apparently, some wasps keep the host alive on purpose, to deter predators from attacking the cocoons. Sonic boom CALIFORNIA,USA The shock…

@EllaMclellan My daughter recently opened her time capsule, made in the year she was born. It included a copy of the Dec 1998Focus magazine @sciencefocus . A fascinating read, although some of the predictions were rather “interesting”! @sciencefocus That's a brilliant find. We wonder how close we came with some of our other predictions? @EllaMclellan Well, you were not far off with the whole phone, internet, satellite connected to your car stuff. But as you can see, an early navigation device would have set anyone back a cool £1,500 plus fitting.…

Skrillex’s music can protect against mosquito bites, according to a new study. Female Aedes aegypti mosquitoes that were played music by Skrillex attacked later and far less frequently. They also had sex less often when the music was playing. The buzzing of females’ wings allows males to identify them, and the scientists believe this may be disrupted by the music. They hope music could provide a new means of protection against Aedis aegypti, which spreads the dengue, Zika and yellow fever viruses.…

1.5 megabytes The amount of data native speakers need to retain to fully learn the English language, as calculated by a team at the University of California. 4,000 years The age of a sample of bog butter – a Bronze Age dairy product that ended up submerged in peat, which preserved it – found in Knockdrin, County Westmeath, and dated by a team at the University of Bristol. 1 billion The number of people who, due to rising temperatures attributed to climate change, will be newly exposed to viral diseases carried by mosquitoes such as dengue, chikungunya and Zika over the next 50 years, as estimated by the Georgetown University Medical Center.…

WHAT DID YOU FIND IN THE STUDY? We’ve known for a long time that individuals who have a lower level of socioeconomic status suffer from worse health throughout their lives. They die earlier, they are at increased risk of cardiovascular diseases, metabolic diseases, infectious diseases – basically everything on the social gradient of health. But it’s been a bit of a mystery how that happens. How is it that our bodies in a sense remember the experiences that we have had growing up? And how do those experiences – in this case experiences associated with socioeconomic status – affect cellular function and physiology with implications for health? We found that lower levels of socioeconomic status were associated with DNA methylation on a large number of sites across a large number…

1. ACCRETION DISK The part of the black hole that gives away its location. Here, stars, gas and any other material nearby spiral towards the hole at blistering speeds, producing enormous amounts of electromagnetic radiation that we can detect here on Earth. The objects sucked into the black hole become more frantic and crowded as they near the event horizon. Some are dragged beyond this point into the hole itself, while others are blasted outwards to create a jet. 2. RELATIVISTIC JETS Pop culture suggests that nothing escapes a black hole, but that’s not quite true. Astronomers have observed jets of particles streaming out of black holes so long and fierce that they break out from their galaxy. To borrow an analogy from Konstantinos Gourgaouliatos, a theoretical physicist…

My first talking tour of the UK has just finished, and one of the subjects that has come up a lot is breakfast. Is skipping breakfast a terrible way to start your day? Will you get hungry later, eat all the wrong things and put on weight? That is certainly what Public Health England and NHS guidelines currently say. But is it true? There is plenty of evidence from cohort studies that eating breakfast is good for your health. A study last year from the German Diabetes Centre in Düsseldorf, for example, found that when they compared a group of people who skipped breakfast with a group who ate breakfast, those who skipped it were not only heavier but were also 33 per cent more likely to have type 2…

INFECTIONS While the male sex hormone testosterone (crystals of which are pictured above) tends to dampen the immune system’s response to infection, the female sex hormone oestrogen increases the number of immune cells and the intensity of their response. ‘Man flu’ may be a manifestation of men’s struggle to fight off infection. IMMUNE SYSTEM Women are more likely to suffer from diseases characterised by the immune system attacking its own body – conditions such as lupus, rheumatoid arthritis and multiple sclerosis. Around 78 per cent of those affected by autoimmune conditions are women. PAIN Research consistently shows different experiences of pain in men and women. Women are generally more sensitive and less tolerant to painful stimuli. Surgical research suggests that this may partly be due to them having a greater…

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

KATE HARRIS, TORQUAY, DEVON HOW DO FISH KNOW WHO THEY ARE? Fish can’t see themselves, and so presumably don’t know what they look like. But they’re still able to recognise other members of their own species and join them in a shoal. Smell is an important sense for fish. Many species release potent pheromones, which tell other fish not only if they belong to the same species but also if they’re siblings. Recent studies of zebrafish, the lab rats of the fish world, have also shown that some fish may spot their own species by the way they move. When a zebrafish is shown a computer screen with a black dot moving in bursts, characteristic of a zebrafish’s swimming style, it will follow the dot for hours. Even fish brought…

EPIDEMIOLOGY, EPIGENETICS AND THE ‘GLOOMY PROSPECT’ GEORGE DAVEY SMITH George’s brilliant, eclectic discussion of randomness in human development, which vividly reifies chance with human stories, was the initial spark for the thoughts that led to my book. SHARED BEGINNINGS, DIVERGENT LIVES, DELINQUENT BOYS TO AGE 70 JOHN LAUB AND ROBERT SAMPSON (£27.95, HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS) A wonderful analysis of the surprising randomness in criminal life courses. It shows how benign uncertainty can be. POOR ECONOMICS ABHIJIT BANERJEE AND ESTHER DUFLO (OUT OF PRINT) An invigorating challenge to thinking about problem-solving in developing countries, from the bottom up, acutely conscious of the power of detail – a recurrent theme in The Hidden Half.…

Podcast Ahead of the 50th anniversary of the Moon landings, Kevin Fong digs into the science that got us there. bbc.co.uk/sounds iPlayer Go behind the scenes of the Event Horizon Telescope, the project which created that black hole image, in How To See A Black Hole: The Universe’s Greatest Mystery bit.ly/blackholepic TV During Mental Health Awareness week, Nadiya Hussain investigates anxiety, David Harewood shares his experience of psychosis and Alistair Campbell talks about living with depression.…

The future’s bright At Saint Francis Xavier School we’re very passionate about the ecosystem, and we have been awarded a Green Flag accolade, which is given to schools who have achieved a high standard in creating a better ecological environment. Since then we are trying to become a plastic-free school. As part of that aim we are trying to spread the word to the wider community. As a school we try not to buy single-use plastic bags and drinks bottles; as an alternative we have used cans which we crush and sell to fund our LED lights. An eco-team member buys BBC Science Focus every month and has noticed that you wrap it in a plastic bag. She’s tried to help the environment by not buying things in plastic bags,…

While the Japanese art of forest bathing has been around for decades, it has only recently reached British woodlands. Also known as shinrin-yoku (which literally means ‘forest shower’), forest bathing is the art of immersing yourself in the sights, sounds, smells and textures of the woodland ecosystem. Scientific studies have shown that practising forest bathing brings a whole host of health benefits* . Aside from the usual refreshed feeling a walk in the woods might leave you with, forest bathing delves much deeper, and can have positive impacts on both your mental and physical health. THE BENEFITS OF FOREST BATHING Forest bathing is said to lower blood pressure, boost your immune system and even combat anxiety, depression and trauma. It can help aid restful sleep, increase positivity and reduce stress,…

#ParkerSolarProbe On 4 April, NASA’s Parker Solar Probe made its second close flyby of the Sun. The spacecraft launched in August 2018 with the mission of being the first probe ever to ‘touch’ the Sun, in an effort to understand more about its corona. Nicky Fox @SolarGirl2018 Fasten your seat belts – we’re going in again!! @NASASun @JHUAPL #ParkerSolarProbe heads in for her second trip through the corona. #HelioRocks #obsessedwithspace NASA Goddard NASAGoddard How time flies! Today, #ParkerSolarProbe is making its second close approach to the Sun. A little over a year ago, the spacecraft was undergoing some of its final testing here at Goddard Jason Kalirai @JasonKalirai Exciting day for @NASA space science. #ParkerSolarProbe will achieve its 2nd perihelion in just a few hours. As it flies through the…

The winners of the penultimate stage of NASA’s 3D-Printed Habitat Challenge – a competition launched in 2015 to create sustainable shelters suitable for use by settlers on the Moon, Mars or beyond using resources available on-site – have been announced. In this ‘software modelling’ stage, each of the 11 teams was awarded points based on the architectural layout, efficient use of interior space and constructability of their design, with SEArch+/Apis Cor, Zopherus and Mars Incubator bagging the top three spots and sharing $100,000 (£76,600) in prizes. The teams will now compete for a prize purse of $800,000 (£613,150) in a head-to-head print-off to create scale models of their designs at the final in Peoria, Illinois on 1-4 May .…

The last few years in global politics have been chaos; the cacophony of politicians trying to outperform each other in various absurd zero-sum conflicts – from Russian interference in the US 2016 presidential election to who was responsible for the British economic crisis – is deafening. It really doesn’t matter if you’re on the left or the right or somewhere in the middle, conversation has turned from public service to public humiliation. International debates have reduced complicated concepts of national identity, economic stability, resource management and other high-level ideas to blaming and scapegoating. “Rather than pointing fingers of blame, we can accept our part in the plot, and turn down the noise” The official line on scapegoating dates back to Leviticus, when he wrote about the practice of taking two…

Bacteria blockers The bacteria that cause gum disease could contribute to the development of Alzheimer’s. A recent study published in Science Advances found DNA and enzymes from Porphyromonas gingivalis bacteria in the brains of deceased people who’d had Alzheimer’s. It’s unknown how the bacteria get there, or how they affect the brain, but it’s a link that could pave the way for Alzheimer’s treatments that block toxic enzymes secreted by these bacteria. Gene therapy This method either replaces a mutated, disease-causing gene with a healthy version, stopping it from functioning, or introduces a new, disease-fighting gene. Research shows that people with a gene variant called APOE e4 have a higher risk of developing Alzheimer’s, so using gene therapy to replace or ‘knock out’ this gene could help. Other research suggests…

AGE In infants and older people, the liver and kidneys may work less effectively, so drugs aren’t broken down so well and tend to accumulate in the body’s tissues, prolonging their influence and increasing the risk of side effects. ATTITUDE There’s evidence that people with an optimistic outlook respond better to painkillers, due to a stronger placebo effect. Your expectations of whether a drug is going to work, based on past experiences, can also influence its effectiveness. BODY SIZE A larger person generally needs more of a drug than a smaller person needs for the same effect. Research indicates that standard doses of antibiotics, fertility drugs, birth control pills and emergency contraception may not be effective in people who are obese. GENERAL HEALTH Other diseases can affect how well a…

People who are in love have higher levels of several key hormones. For example, oxytocin and vasopressin – two hormones produced in a region of the brain called the hypothalamus – cause stronger feelings of attachment. The development of hormones that encourage us to form committed relationships makes sense from an evolutionary perspective: our ancestors would have been more likely to successfully raise, feed and protect their children if both parents worked together. But does this mean that love is just a chemical trick being played on our brains? Oxytocin has been shown to increase the amount of time you spend gazing into the eyes of your loved one, and it also boosts your ability to read someone’s emotions. Some perfume manufacturers have tried to exploit this by adding oxytocin…

Uranus is the seventh planet from the Sun, and was the first to be discovered with the aid of a telescope. It has 27 known moons. Unlike those of every other planet, the moons of Uranus are not named after gods from ancient mythologies, but after characters from the works of William Shakespeare and Alexander Pope. Initially, the names of the outermost moons all came from The Tempest. That trend ended in 2003 when a newly discovered moon was named after Margaret, a chambermaid in Much Ado About Nothing. Kenneth Branagh’s 1993 film version of Much Ado About Nothing is one of the most acclaimed Shakespeare adaptations. It featured an early cinematic role for Imelda Staunton, who played Margaret.…

WHAT I’M READING Helen Glenny EDITORIAL ASSISTANT THE KNIFE’S EDGE PROF STEPHEN WESTABY (£20, WEIDENFELD & NICOLSON) The ‘doctor recounting case studies’ genre now sees scores of similar, somewhat-interesting tomes floundering in the shadows of masterpieces like Paul Kalanithi’s When Breath Becomes Air, or Adam Kay’s This Is Going To Hurt. But The Knife’s Edge by retired cardiac surgeon Stephen Westaby offers something different. He carries the typical self-important bravado of many a surgeon-turned-writer, but his is down to a head injury sustained during his university years. This injury affected his critical reasoning and risk-avoidance, leaving him uninhibited, irritable and reckless. This is a man given the nickname ‘Jaws’, because of the speed at which he could amputate a limb. That said, The Knife’s Edge is peppered with…

WHY IS SLEEP IMPORTANT? Sleep regulates the immune system, it’s involved in regulating our body temperature, and it has huge impacts on the brain. We see direct correlations between the breakdown of sleep as people age and atrophy of different parts of the brain, as well as shrinkage and cell death, and we think that is associated with descent into dementia and even Alzheimer’s disease. Recent research has shown that sleep is really important for flushing toxins out of the brain. One of those [toxins] is beta-amyloid, which is deposited in the brain over time, and can build up and form the plaques that are associated with Alzheimer’s disease. Sleep has been shown to facilitate that flushing by up to 80 per cent compared to a waking state. And that’s…

JHENI OSMAN Can staying in work help people with dementia? We sent former Science Focuseditor Jheni to a pop-up restaurant in Bristol that’s aiming to find out. p66 SIMON CROMPTON Walk into any pharmacy and you’ll be given the same drugs, regardless of sex. Health writer Simon asks whether it’s time for change. p72 DAVID VEALE On the eve of Mental Health Awareness week we met Prof David Veale, who’s investigating a surprising new treatment for depression: sleep deprivation. p58 MICHAEL MOSLEY For those of you who skip breakfast, Trust Me, I’m A Doctor’s Michael Mosley has some good news – it doesn’t really matter, as long as you enjoy a healthy diet. p63…

Careful where you walk this spring; queen bumblebees might be sleeping underfoot, gaining strength before moving to their next nest. Scientists at Queen Mary University in London have discovered that after emerging from hibernation, queens spend the majority of their time resting on the ground, only occasionally flying for 10 to 20 seconds in any direction. “A few weeks of this type of behaviour would carry queen bees several kilometres away from their hibernation site,” said study co-lead Dr Joe Woodgate. It could explain how queens disperse from their birth nests to found new colonies.…

@mcsuk The Marine Conservation Society is a UK charity that has been campaigning to protect aquatic life and prevent ocean pollution since 1983. @sascampaigns Set up by a group of Cornish surfers in 1990 to champion water quality, Surfers Against Sewage now campaigns against marine pollution generally. @Imogennapper Imogen Napper is a PhD candidate at the University of Plymouth, where she studies marine plastic pollution. @SciMatty Based at the Plymouth Marine Laboratory, Dr Matthew Cole studies the effects of human activity on marine environments.…

We’re still unsure how the supermassive black holes that lurk in the centre of galaxies, such as Powehi in M87, took seed. Some theories attribute their origin to some of the earliest stars formed in our Universe, while others posit their formation by ‘dark matter halos’. We do, however, have a reasonable understanding of how stellar black holes form… DYING STAR Once stars run out of fuel, they die in one of two ways. Smaller, Sun-like stars splutter out of existence and form red giants and white dwarfs, while stars 10 or more times larger go supernova before becoming a black hole. SUPERNOVA With the fuel spent, the outward pressure of the nuclear reaction can no longer resist the star’s own gravity. The remaining material collapses in on itself and…

HOW DID THIS IDEA FOR A TREATMENT COME ABOUT? It started in about 1967, when a patient in Germany reported to her psychiatrist that she could treat her depression by going cycling through the night. It was later recognised that it wasn’t the exercise that was important, it was the sleep deprivation. Sleep deprivation was then tested: around 50 per cent recovered, but of those about 80 to 90 per cent relapsed. So it didn’t really seem to be worth it. There were quite a few studies and trials that went on in the 1980s and 1990s on sleep deprivation alone, but it became a little sort of footnote in textbooks – ‘this is what happens if we do sleep deprivation’. It got forgotten about. It was only in the…

“What ice cream flavours have you got for dessert?” “Hazelnut. Or strawberry and… erm, I’ve forgotten! Let me just go and check.” Joy heads off to the kitchen, returning a minute later. “Strawberry and white chocolate.” So far, so normal. What waitress or waiter doesn’t forget the odd detail on the menu? In fact, our whole meal has been completely hitch-free. Nothing amiss, no spillages… not bad going for a place that calls itself The Restaurant That Makes Mistakes. This is no ordinary restaurant. It’s run by Michelin-starred chef Josh Eggleton, and all 14 of his chefs and waiting staff are volunteers living with dementia. The pop-up restaurant is the brainchild of CPL Productions, which is filming a Channel 4 series looking at how people with dementia might benefit from…

The sleeping tablet Ambien is a blockbuster – it’s one of the most commonly used insomnia and jet lag treatments in the world. Yet a decade or so after its approval in 1992, worrying reports began to emerge. Users – particularly women – were behaving bizarrely after taking the sedative, then having no recollection of what they’d done. There were accounts of people being involved in driving accidents the morning after taking the tablets. Research confirmed that women were more likely than men to have bad side effects after taking Ambien. Then, in 2013, US drug regulators confirmed there was a problem: the manufacturer’s recommended dose was double what it should be for women. The research leading up to the drug’s launch had not separated out men and women, so…

RON BAKER WHAT CAUSES GUSTS OF WIND? Gusts are sudden but short-lived increases in the speed of the wind. They’re often created as wind brushes past buildings, trees or other obstacles, with the friction causing it to slow and then speed up again. Larger-scale variations in the direction or speed of wind (known as wind shear) can also create chaotic changes in atmospheric pressure, generating gusts as the air flows from high to lower pressure. Finally, as the Sun warms up a surface, the overlying air warms and rises, which also creates gusts as cooler, denser air rushes downward in its place. The higher the average wind speed, the gustier it is likely to be. This relationship depends on the local terrain, though: towns and cities generate more gusts through…

Eye opener NASA Dive deeper into NASA’s low boom demos with a load of extra photos and videos from the day. bit.ly/low_boom Reality check BBC SOUNDS: ARE TRANSGENDER WOMEN A THREAT TO FEMALE SPORT? Medical physicist Joanna Harper, who advises the IOC on such issues and is herself a transsexual woman, debates this controversial topic with Dr Nicola Williams, a research scientist who specialises in human biology. bit.ly/TransgenderSport Inside a black hole HOW TO SEE A BLACK HOLE: THE UNIVERSE’S GREATEST MYSTERY This BBC Four programme investigates the Event Horizon Telescope, and how it took a picture of a black hole. bit.ly/black_hole_spotting NASA SCIENCE Visit the black hole section of the NASA website to find out more about black holes and see animations of them in action. bit.ly/black_hole_NASA David Veale…