Table of contents for February 2020 in BBC Science Focus Magazine

Where does consciousness come from? It’s the big, unanswered question at the heart of psychology. We have a picture of how our brain senses the world around it, how it creates and recalls memories and how emotions take shape. But ask a psychologist what makes us self-aware, and you’ll get different answers depending on who you ask. Some say it’s an illusion, others say it’s a by-product of our brain’s mechanics, and some even think consciousness could be the result of quantum physics. The wide-ranging nature of these theories, and indeed the slippery nature of consciousness itself, makes things tricky. That’s why one institution has created what, from the outside, looks like a science Battle Royale. A dozen or so theories will go head-to-head, in what’s called adversarial collaboration. In…

Quest for camel-lot RUMAH,SAUDI ARABIA Eager buyers surround a herd of camels in the Ad-Dahna desert of Saudi Arabia, during the annual King Abdulaziz Camel Festival in Rumah. Camel racing and the ‘Miss Camel’ beauty competition are highlights of the festival. A long neck, delicate ears, full lips and a shapely hump are all criteria for the most beautiful camel. The festival was rocked with scandal in 2018 when a dozen camels were disqualified from the beauty contest due to the discovery of cosmetic enhancement – owners had injected botox into the camels’ lips, to make the animals’ pouts look more alluring. Camels are a proud symbol of Saudi Arabia and the King Abdulaziz Camel Festival is the world’s largest, and richest, camel festival. It’s a sprawling six-week event for…

Fewer than two in every 100 packed lunches eaten by children in English primary schools meet nutritional standards, according to a study at Leeds University. The team compared the nutritional quality of packed lunches brought into a sample of primary schools in 2006 and then again in 2016. Although they found the amount of sugary food included has dropped slightly, the majority of children still eat crisps regularly and just one in five had vegetables in their packed lunches. Over the same period, eight standards have been introduced for cooked school lunches, including restrictions on sweets, snacks and fizzy drinks, and minimum requirements on the amount of vegetables, protein and dairy in each meal. Packed lunches, however, are not subject to any control.…

Switching to a quicker, cooler washing cycle will help reduce the plastic pollution problem and make your clothes last longer, a UCL study has found. Hundreds of thousands of microfibres – tiny synthetic strands that account for more than a third of all plastic reaching the ocean – are flushed down the drain with every load of washing, where they can travel to beaches and oceans before being swallowed by sea creatures. Researchers compared 30-minute cycles at 25°C with 85-minute cycles at 40°C and found there was up to 74 per cent less dye release and up to 52 per cent less microfibre release with the cool wash.…

RENEWABLES EDGE AHEAD OF FOSSIL FUELS In 2019, Britain got more of its electricity from zero carbon sources than fossil fuels for the first time since the Industrial Revolution, new data from the National Grid shows. Wind, solar and nuclear together delivered 49 per cent of Britain’s electricity in 2019, while just 43 per cent was generated by fossil fuels. The remainder came from biomass. In contrast, 76 per cent of Britain’s electricity came from fossil fuels in 1990. “As we enter a new decade, this truly is a historic moment and an opportunity to reflect on how much has been achieved,” said John Pettigrew, National Grid’s chief executive. INVASIVE PLANTS IDENTIFIED Scientists at the University of Exeter have found a new way to predict which plants are likely to…

Since its inception in 1967, CES has provided a glimpse into the future. In 2001, Bill Gates unveiled Microsoft’s new gaming console: the Xbox. In 2003, Blu-ray DVDs were the next big thing – though that didn’t really pan out. And in 2013, the Oculus Rift was first revealed to journalists in a small corner of the show’s sprawling halls. “MONSTROUSLY BIG TELEVISIONS WEREN’T THE ONLY SCREEN TECH TAKING OVER THE SHOW IN LAS VEGAS” This time around the show was dominated by TVs, perhaps with tech companies casting an eye towards the upcoming Tokyo Olympics which will be the first to be broadcast in 8K. A large screen is necessary to really enjoy this resolution, so Samsung made sure it would win the inevitable size contest with its 292-inch…

SEB JOWETT, EPSOM WHY DO WE ENJOY WATCHING OTHER PEOPLE FIGHT? Since time immemorial, humans have competed against each other in activities that have real-life survival value, be that throwing a javelin, jousting, boxing or wrestling. This makes sense from an evolutionary point of view, as those who honed these skills were more likely to survive when faced with a real-world conflict. Watching combat sports such as boxing and wrestling is an extension of that habit, with all the thrill but none of the personal danger. Of course, some of us find such thrills more appealing than others. A survey at Indiana University Bloomington, US, of hundreds of undergrads found that those with more risk-seeking personalities, who said they enjoyed feelings of fear, derived more pleasure from watching mixed martial…

WHO WE ARE AND HOW WE GOT HERE DAVID REICH (£10.99, OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS) David Reich’s book on ancient DNA has been important to me. LIVING COLOR NINA JABLONSKI (£25, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS) This is an accessible textbook and it’s focused on pigmentation. It is an outstandingly good book, and heavily influenced me. THE ILIAD HOMER More than anything else, I recommend going back to the classics. I had to pick up The Iliad again in order to get some references and ended up devouring the latest translation by Emily Wilson. It’s just one of the best books I’ve ever read.…

“WE SPOT THE MOON FROM EARTH ALMOST EVERY NIGHT. CAN YOU IMAGINE HOW BEAUTIFUL IT MIGHT BE SEEING OUR PLANET FROM THERE?” DR ELISA RAFFAELLA FERRÈ , p58 Old hat? Reading ‘Why positivity is overrated’ (December, p77) I was suddenly reminded of the poem IFby Rudyard Kipling written in 1895. The second verse goes: “If you can dream – and not make dreams your master; If you can think – and not make thoughts your aim.” There you have, in a couple of lines, what has taken Dr Gabrielle Oettingen 20 years of research to discover. Perhaps the good doctor should read more poetry? Kipling was well aware of this 125 years ago. Makes you think, doesn’t it? George Ford, Durham, via email Live fast I’ve been reading Dr…

WHAT DID THEY DO? A team of ultra-low temperature physicists at Lancaster University put four Lego blocks into the world’s most effective refrigerator. WHAT DID THEY FIND? They managed to cool the Lego blocks down to -273.13°C, which is just 1.6 millidegrees above absolute zero. WHY DID THEY DO THAT? Both superconductors and quantum computers need extremely low temperatures to function. This requires the use of materials that transfer heat as slowly as possible in order to maintain the low temperatures for as long as possible. It turns out that the plastic used to make Lego blocks, combined with their unique interlocking shape, fits this bill perfectly.…

Motion Pillow For those who snore, this smart pillow is able to raise, turn and lower your head during the night when it detects that discordant drone. Hatch Restore sleep light This is one of the best sleep lights we’ve seen. Set a routine that suits, and the Restore will help you meditate, wind down, sleep soundly and wake on time. Climate360 Smart Bed Winner of the CES 2020 Best of Innovation: Smart Home award, this bed creates a personalised sleeping climate. It even warms your feet to aid sleep.…

Scientific advances have sent people to the Moon and to the greatest depths of the ocean. We’ve split the atom and created computers that can defeat a chess grandmaster. And yet science still can’t explain arguably the most fundamental aspect of existence – our subjective experience of existence. Our consciousness. “THE AIM IS TO STIMULATE GREATER PROGRESS IN THE CONSCIOUSNESS FIELD, BY REDUCING THE NUMBER OF COMPETING THEORIES” That’s not for a lack of trying. There are many consciousness theories, it’s just that none is widely accepted. Part of the reason is the two-tiered nature of the challenge. There’s what the Australian philosopher David Chalmers called the ‘easy problem’ of consciousness, which is explaining the biological processes that underlie mental functions, like perception, memory and attention. But there’s also the…

“Although I knew I was standing in a grey, carpeted room, I was soon sweating and frightened” Over the years I’ve taken part in some crazy self-experiments, ranging from infecting myself with a tapeworm to prolonged sleep deprivation. But the worst was a film I made on fear, during the course of which I agreed to go caving. I am mildly claustrophobic, so when I got stuck deep underground I almost screamed the cave down. This delighted the director, but it was the most frightened I have ever been. So I was sympathetic when one of my co-presenters on Trust Me, I’m A Doctor, psychiatrist Dr Alain Gregoire, admitted to having a fear of heights. This phobia affects around 20 per cent of people in the UK. The traditional way…

In 2017, astronomers identified a comet from a completely different solar system passing through our own. Discovered by the Pan-STARRS telescope at Haleakala Observatory, Hawaii, it was called ‘Oumuamua, the Hawaiian word for ‘scout’. At first, it looked like an asteroid because it did not display tails like a comet, nor a surrounding gas cloud known as a coma. But later, it began to accelerate in a way that could not be described by the gravitational pull of the Sun or the planets. Although this led to some lurid headlines about it being an alien spacecraft, such behaviour is precisely what comets do. It occurs because the heat from the Sun releases gas from the ices below the comet’s surface, and the escaping gas acts like a small rocket motor.…

DR ALASTAIR GUNN Astronomer, astrophysicist ALEX FRANKLINCHEUNG Environment/ climate expert ALOM SHAHA Science teacher, filmmaker, 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 DR HELEN PILCHER Biologist, science writer PROF ROBERT MATTHEWS Physicist, science writer…

1. The Carlsberg brewery sponsored the research of Danish physicist Niels Bohr, who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1922. To honour his achievements, in 1932 Carlsberg gave him a house with free beer on tap, piped directly from the brewery next door. 2. Bohr had an element of the periodic table named after him – bohrium (Bh). Bohr himself played no part in its discovery, though, and the element was named 35 years after his death. 3. The element to the left of bohrium in the periodic table is seaborgium (Sg). It was discovered by and named after American nuclear chemist Glenn Seaborg – the first time an element had been named after a living scientist. 4. Seaborg won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1951 for his…

STUART CLARK Last year a mysterious object visited us from another solar system. Astronomy journalist Stuart investigates the mission that could get us a closer look if such an object passes by again. p68 DR ELISA RAFFAELLA FERRÈ With commercial spaceflight on the horizon, researchers are racing to discover what living off-Earth might do to our brains. Psychologist Elisa explains what her experiments on the Vomit Comet reveal about the impact of gravity on our cognition. p58 HAYLEY BENNETT Commercial fishing is bad for the environment, so what would happen if we banned it entirely? Science writer Hayley investigates. p75 ROB BANINO How do you prepare for space exploration? Simple: you recreate the conditions on Earth, as science journalist Rob finds out. p44…

In the first issue of 2010, we made predictions about what life in 10 years’ time would be like. You can read the article at bit.ly/2020_world Freya Whiteford was 12 when she stashed away a copy of the magazine, and in January 2020 she took to Twitter to reveal how accurate we were. “Customised travel data isn’t at all a bad shout, but in the real 2020 I just get push notifications on my phone about Glasgow traffic to me, noted pedestrian.” “Admittedly pretty spot on – if you told 12-year-old me that the Freya of today has never owned a TV, she’d wonder where I went wrong.” Freya Whiteford (@rooksoup), via Twitter…

Despite improvements in healthcare, the poorest in society have more long-term conditions now than those who were born 100 years ago, a study at University College London has found. Using data from a pre-existing survey of 200,000 people aged 30 to 59 in England, researchers determined that the inequality between the health of the poorest and the richest had increased over the years. They compared the health of people born in 1920-22 with those born 1968-70 and found that long-term illnesses had grown twice as prevalent in low-income women, and one and a half times as prevalent in low-income men.…

IMAGE-OBSESSED MEN Young men taking anabolic steroids in an attempt to get the ripped physiques popular on social media and reality TV shows could cause a strain on the NHS in coming decades, says a report by UK Anti-Doping. Steroid abuse can damage organs and increase the likelihood of heart disease and stroke, the researchers say. MOVIE SUPERFANS Sometimes it really is better to manage your expectations. A study by researchers at Ohio State University found that viewers of Star Wars VIII: The Last Jedi film who went in with high expectations but were disappointed enjoyed it significantly less than those going in with lower expectations.…

Here’s proof even stray dogs are good boys: 80 per cent of untrained stray dogs can still understand human cues, Indian researchers have found. Studying stray dogs across several Indian cities, Dr Anindita Bhadra of research institute IISER Kolkata and colleagues found the animals successfully followed pointing directions – either momentarily or repeated – when presented with two covered bowls of food. Stray dogs are a common feature in cities around the world, particularly in developing countries, and this research could be key to understanding how humans shape stray dog behaviour. However, researchers did note that shyer, more anxious animals tended not to participate, so more work is needed to determine a potential link between the ability to understand human cues and personality traits of the dogs.…

1. This view of the North America Nebula was made by combining images created using visible light (blue) and infrared (red and green). It shows clusters of young stars aged between one and five million years old. 2. The spiral galaxy Messier 81 is located 12 million light-years from Earth in the northern constellation of Ursa Major, which also includes the Plough. It is easily visible through a pair of good binoculars. This image has been specially processed to isolate the distribution of dust throughout. The dust particles are composed of silicates – chemicals that are similar to the sand you’d find on a beach. 3. The eye-like Helix Nebula is located about 700 light-years from Earth. It is a planetary nebula – an expanding shell of ionised gas that…

1. Audio, video and voice assistant Made by flexible screen specialists Royole, the Mirage smart speaker could replace several of your home gadgets. It’s powered by Amazon Alexa voice service, though it’s considerably bigger than an Amazon Echo speaker in order to accommodate an eight-inch AMOLED screen, wrapped seamlessly around the unit. You can make and receive video calls using the five megapixel camera, or use the screen to present visuals. Royole’s partnership with audio brand Cleer gives the Mirage an impressive, 360° sound quality. Royole Mirage smart speaker, £799, royole.com 2. For shower karaoke There are lots of shower speakers out there, but some compromise on sound. The new Kohler Moxie showerhead has built-in audio from Harman Kardon, so there’s no concessions here. It’s completely waterproof –…

Samsung Shoe Care System This year, Samsung unveiled a huge number of new products and concepts, but the Shoe Care System seems to be taking things a step too far. Pegged exclusively for your smelly trainers, it will dry, deodorise and sanitise your footwear. It will take up a chunk of space – it’s perhaps three-quarters of the size of a small fridge – and based on its cousin the AirDresser’s price, is bound to cost upwards of £2,000… £TBC, samsung.com Segway S-Pod This isn’t a prop from a WALL-E reboot, but an egg-shaped two-wheeler that could soon be transporting you around airports or shopping centres. The Segway S-Pod is said to be much easier to manoeuvre than previous iterations, although some have called it a ‘ridiculous lounge chair on…

INTEGRATED INFORMATION THEORY Proposed by neuroscientists Giulio Tononi and Gerald M Edelman, the theory states that the neural processes that give rise to consciousness have two key properties. The first is integration. When you perceive the world, you experience a single, unified whole that can’t be separated or broken down into smaller parts. Consider how it’s not possible to be consciously aware of two different scenes simultaneously. The second key property is information, which refers to each conscious experience being highly differentiated or informative – you are having this particular experience rather than an almost infinite number of others. Critics say that, by arguing that any system with these two properties gives rise to consciousness, it is advocating for ‘panpsychism’ – the idea that consciousness is ubiquitous in the Universe.…

“The next killer app isn’t on your device. It’s in the places that compel us to keep our phones in our pockets” Theme parks? I’m a sucker for them. In a month or so, the UK’s finest will throw their gates open for the new season to thrill us with their engineered delights. As usual, I will be the first person inside, forced to sit through pre-shows, until I plunge like a lemming into wilful surrender. Yes, I may be a digital evangelist, but to me there is nothing as compelling or as intoxicating as the full-on experience of spending a day in someone else’s imagination. Dr Carissa Baker, assistant professor in theme parks and storytelling at the University of Central Florida, argued in 2018 that theme parks are gatherers…

LUKAS HINDMARCH, NORTH STAFFORDSHIRE DO FISH EVER GET BORED IN FISH TANKS? We know that the nature of a fish’s tank will have an influence on its brain and behaviour. When young trout are reared in a boring, featureless tank they develop a smaller cerebellum (part of the brain that regulates movement) than trout that are given rocks and plants to explore. Cod reared in similarly enriched tanks become better at learning how to catch prey, and also recover quicker from stress after a simulated predator attack. But whether fish actually feel bored in a way we can relate to is harder to work out. Fish-keepers sometimes see their pets ‘glass surfing’ – swimming repeatedly up and down the glass of the tank. This could be the aquatic equivalent of…

“The idea that there could be racial purity is just ahistorical, ascientific, it’s an absolute nonsense” WHY DID YOU WANT TO WRITE THIS BOOK? Three angles of my career and life have collided in this book. The first is that I’m a geneticist, so I’m interested in human variation, the basis from which historical descriptions of race have come. The second thing is that I spent my entire career at University College London (UCL), which is, in many ways, the home of human genetics. I was in the Galton Laboratory, which was named after Francis Galton. Galton was sort of the founding father of both human and statistical genetics, but also of eugenics and some pretty awful ideas. The third thing is that I’m mixed race. My maternal lineage is…

Perhaps it’s because it’s the month of love, but beauty seems to be on everyone’s minds right now. But if you’re thinking of buying, or asking for, makeup this Valentine’s, you might want to watch Beauty Laid Bare on BBC Three first. This three-part programme sees four young adults investigate the cosmetic industry to find out the real price that the world is paying for our obsession with artificial beauty. Though the presenters’ attitudes towards makeup seem initially superficial, they begin to question their own relationship with cosmetics when they attempt to get the truth from big beauty businesses on topics like animal testing, wages and recycling. Despite some of the shocking facts posed by Beauty Laid Bare, it manages to provide a sense of hope and optimism. The proof…

DISASTER BY CHOICE ILAN KELMAN £16.99, OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS Just how ‘natural’ are natural disasters? Ilan Kelman argues they are a result of human actions. It’s the choices we’ve made that turn natural hazards into widespread suffering and disaster. But we can change this. Disaster By Choice is dedicated to those who’ve suffered greatly, and praises those working to prevent the next hazard becoming a disaster. QUALITYLAND MARC-UWE KLING £14.99, ORION In Qualityland, life is optimised. There’s no need for deliberation or confusion: your ideal mate is chosen for you, a personal assistant lives in your ear, and algorithms deliver packages to your door before you’ve even thought about purchasing. This dystopian novel is entirely convincing as a possible future and is currently being adapted for TV by HBO, the…

When I was around eight or nine, there was a whole series of How And Why books on different science and history subjects. It was the How And Why Wonder Book Of The Human Body that intrigued me. There were pictures of the skeleton and the muscles and the circulation, and I just couldn’t get enough of it. From that age, I knew I wanted to be a doctor and study the human body. English was the subject at school that I was least good at. Science seemed quite obvious and natural to me, but I think my struggle with English has been rewarding. There were two books that we studied at school, round about O Levels, that really made an impression. They were Lord Of The Flies by William…