BBC Knowledge AE 2016 (Vol. 8 Issue 8)

CAN WE BUILD A HUMAN? Could science really let us rebuild ourselves

p32

ASIA EDITION

Vol. 8 Issue 8

SCIENCE • HISTORY • NATURE • FOR THE CURIOUS MIND

DO IDENTICAL TWINS HAVE IDENTICAL GENES? p89

BUSTED MYTHS OF THE TUDORS p64 PPS 1745/01/2013 (022915) MCI (P) 070/10/2015 ISSN 1793-9836

08

9 771793 983016 SGD 7.50 | PHP 300 THB 240 | NT 200 | RM 18

PEERING INTO THE BLACK HOLE p52

ECO Engineers Did you know these cute sea otters are the key to reviving threatened habitats? p42

THE SUPERVET SERIES 3 Premieres 24 August. Wednesdays at 9.45pm (JKT/BKK), 10.45pm (SIN/HK/MAL/TW) HDSDNOWCMWSHPMDOOWL&NDW&EWPGDWGDNP%SNLHMFWM@WDTCHPHMFWL&LDMPOWPGDUcRDWKND@UWC&LDWP&WOO&CHPDWSHPGWPGDW series; combining the drama and jeopardy of a medical programme with emotional twists and turns during the animals’ NDC&RDNU$WOWSDKKWOWPGDW&SMDNOcWDTBDNHDMCDWM@WNDRDKHMFWHMOHFGPOWHMP&WPGDWPG&QFGPOW&EWPGDWRDPO'

RICHARD HAMMOND’S JUNGLE QUEST

STEPHEN FRY IN CENTRAL AMERICA

Premieres 10 August. Wednesdays at 7.10pm (JKT/BKK), 8.10pm (SIN/HK/MAL/TW) Hammond treks through the steamy impenetrable jungle, tackles the mighty river amazon, sleeps rough under the forest canopy and is hoisted hundreds of feet to the top of trees, in order to reach the remote places where his target species can be found.

Premieres 19 August. Fridays at 8.45pm (JKT/BKK), 9.45pm (SIN/HK/MAL/TW) This fascinating documentary follows comedian and writer Stephen Fry as he embarks on a remarkable road trip through Central America such as DTHC&WM@WML$WPJHMFWHMWO&LDW&EW the oldest civilizations on the planet – Maya, Aztec and Olmec.

SECRET LIFE OF GROWING UP Premieres 26 August. Fridays at 9.35pm (JKT/BKK), 10.35pm (SIN/HK/MAL/TW) Secret Life of Growing Up meets the people who illustrate how we mature, EN&LWPGDWáRD%UDN%&K@WFHNKWSG&ODW verbal skills saved her mother’s life on a call to the emergency services, to PGDW+**%UDN%&K@WS&LMWSG&ODWU&FW practice keeps her young.

www.bbcasia.com BBC Earth is available in Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam and Mongolia. Please call your cable operator for more details or check out our website.

/BBCEarth @BBCEarthAsia

SCIENCE

On the cover

Vol. 8 Issue 8

SCIENCE

32 Can We Build a Human?

HISTORY

89 Do Identical Twins Have Identical Genes?

64 The Tudors Behind Closed Doors

COVER STORY

Q&A

52 How We’ll Capture A Black Hole

42 Eco Engineers

Vol. 8 Issue 8

3

Contents

Vol. 8 Issue 8

52

FEATURES

How We’ll Capture A Black Hole

14 Petrosains Introducing Petrosains, the latest discovery and edutainment centre located conveniently within the iconic PETRONAS Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur

NATURE

SCIENCE

ON THE COVER

32 Can We Build A Human? Two hundred years after the publication of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, could science finally let us rebuild ourselves? ON THE COVER

42 Eco Engineers

HISTORY

The spectacular return of sea otters along the west coast of North America has led to the rebirth of kelp forests and other threatened habitats. Read on to discover what the secrets these little bundle of joy brought …

49 History Under Attack Historical and national treasures are often collateral damage during war and conflicts, Professor Peter Stone offers his opinion on how we can prevent these losses in the future

SCIENCE

52 How We’ll Capture A Black Hole

NATURE

ON THE COVER

58 Spotted In Spain

By this time next year, we’ll have used an Earth-sized telescope to peer into a black hole, solving some mysteries of physics in the process

The genet is one of Europe’s most mysterious carnivores, often thought to be introduced from Africa. It is a sleek, cat-like animal of roughly similar build to a fox but slightly smaller in size

HISTORY

64 The Tudors Behind Closed Doors

SCIENCE

ON THE COVER

70 The Hunt For The Missing Half Of The Universe

4

Historian Tracy Borman reveals the private reality behind the well-crafted public image of the Tudors’ lives, were they really tyrannic or hypochondriac?

For nearly a century, a mystery has been bubbling at the heart of Physics: where is all the antimatter? According to our knowledge of the universe, matter and antimatter should not co-exist … Vol. 8 Issue 8

42

Eco Engineers

SCIENCE

78 More Than A Load Of Hot Air

SCIENCE

96 A Witty Viewpoint

SCIENCE

97 My Life Scientific

Airships were one of the first few mode of transportation through air, could they be making a comeback this year?

Robin Ince is a comedian and writer who presents on the BBC Radio 4 Series, The Infinite Monkey Cage. In this issue, we talk about why nanomedicine is awesome

Meet Peter Whorwell, a professor of medicine and gastroenterology at the University of Manchester

REGULARS 6 Welcome A note from the editor sharing his thoughts on the issue and other ramblings

8 Snapshot Stunning images from the fields of science, history and nature

UPDATE 19 The Latest Intelligence Lab-grown human embryos kept alive for record time, robotic surgeon, nearby exoplanets may support extraterrestrial life, discovery of 242 million year old marine reptile and more

8 Snapshot

30 Comment & Analysis Learn about how raindrops can help us predict wind speed ON THE COVER

84 Q&A This month: What would a human wingspan be, what are supercomputers used for, why did humans evolve a sense of humour, do identical twins have identical genes …

32

Can We Build A Human?

RESOURCE 95 Reviews

64

The Tudors Behind Closed Doors

This month’s best science books on topics including tides, coincidence, extraterrestrial life and history of genetics

98 Last Word Robert Matthews discusses why there is a statistics crisis Vol. 8 Issue 8

5

Welc me NOT JUST A CUTE FACE

Y Send us your letters [email protected]

Mesmerizingly adorable and exerting an extraordinarily positive influence on their environment, sea otters help trigger dramatic changes in marine ecosystems simply just by being themselves. Their need to consume over 30 percent of their body weight have led them to reduce the populations of several species, and not in a bad way too. Driven to extinction in British Columbia and California because of the fur trade, the reintroduction of the species to Vancouver Island’s kelp forests has triggered an amazing change. Kelp forests are essential for juvenile fishes but the presence of kelp attracts sea urchins that feed voraciously on them but luckily the urchins are the food of choice for the otters, which results in beautiful lush kelp forests teeming with life. Their existence isn’t without conflicts with humans, especially within the abalone industry, which blames the decline and endangered listing of the British Columbia abalone and black abalone in California, on the otters. Luckily for the otters they do look very cute and there is evidence that proves otherwise.

BBC Knowledge Magazine Includes selected articles from other BBC specialist magazines, including Focus, BBC History Magazine and BBC Wildlife Magazine.

www.sciencefocus.com www.historyextra.com www.discoverwildlife.com Important change: The licence to publish this magazine was acquired from BBC Worldwide by Immediate Media Company on 1 November 2011. We remain committed to making a magazine of the highest editorial quality, one that complies with BBC editorial and commercial guidelines and connects with BBC programmes. The BBC Earth television channel is available in the following regions: Asia (Cambodia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand, Taiwan)

SCIENCE • HISTORY • NATURE • FOR THE CURIOUS MIND Know more. Anywhere.

Ben Poon [email protected] “LIKE” US ON FACEBOOK!

www.facebook.com/knowledgemagazine

Y We welcome your letters, while reserving the right to edit them for length and clarity. By sending us your letter you permit us to publish it in the magazine and/or on our website. We regret that we cannot always reply personally to letters.

BBC Knowledge Magazine provides trusted, independent advice and information that has been gathered without fear or favour. When receiving assistance or sample products from suppliers, we ensure our editorial integrity and independence are not compromised by never offering anything in return, such as positive coverage, and by including a brief credit where appropriate.

Experts in this issue…

DUNCAN GEERE Duncan is a freelance writer based in Gothenburg, Sweden. He often writes about science, the environment, technology and culture – hoping to capture the hearts of people around the world in learning complicated matters simply. Read on about his views on rebuilding humans. p32

6

Vol. 8 Issue 8

ISABELLE GROC Isabelle is a freelance writer and photographer based in Vancouver, focusing on environmental science, wildlife natural history and conservation, endangered species, marine mammals and ecosystems. Her longstanding commitment to conservation is evident through her photography and written works. p42

TRACY BORMAN Tracy is a historian and author from Scothern, Lincolnshire, UK and is widely known for the book Elizabeth’s Women. She is a joint Chief Curator for Historic Royal Palaces, the charity that manages Kensington Palace and Whitehall. Read on about her latest book, The Private Lives of the Tudors. p64

HERE’S HOW TO GET IN TOUCH PHONE

Subscription, editorial and advertising enquiries Tel: 6446 6888 Fax: 6449 9945

EMAIL

Advertising enquiries [email protected]

T

Y SEND US YOUR LETTERS Has something you’ve read in BBC Knowledge Magazine intrigued or excited you? Write in and share it with us. We’d love to hear from you and we’ll publish a selection of your comments in forthcoming issues.

Email us at: [email protected] We welcome your letters, while reserving the right to edit them for length and clarity. By sending us your letter you permit us to publish it in the magazine and/or on our website. We regret that we cannot always reply personally to letters.

@ POST

Y

Subscription enquiries [email protected] Subscription, editorial and advertising enquiries Regent Media Pte Ltd 20 Bedok South Road, Singapore 469277

ASIA TEAM Managing Editor: Ben Poon Writer: Josmin Ong Creative Director: Eric Wong Art Director: Tint Win Senior Marketing Manager: Tasmin Chua Marketing Executives: Karlyn Ho, Rachel Tan, Sharyl Yeo Finance Executive: Julie Khong HR Executive: Wendy Chua Regional Circulation Manager: Kelvin Poon Business Directors: Kelly Koh, Marie Yeo, Thomas Leow Business Managers: Alice Ng, Joan Chua, Marina Chong

BULK SUBSCRIPTION Having just one copy of BBC Knowledge Magazine isn’t enough to go around? Not to worry – Discounts on bulk subscriptions are now available for schools, libraries and organisations who are keen to order more than 50 copies per issue. For enquiries or to place an order, email to [email protected] or call us at +65 6241 2673 today!

Worldwide

BBC Worldwide UK Publishing: Director of Publishing: Nicholas Brett Head of Publishing: Chris Kerwin Publishing Coordinator: Eva Abramik

IMMEDIATE MEDIA CO Chairman: Stephen Alexander Deputy Chairman: Peter Phippen Chief Executive Officer: Tom Bureau Director of International Licensing and Syndication: Tim Hudson International Partners Manager: Anna Brown Syndication Manager: Richard Bentley

UK TEAM Editor: Graham Southorn Production Editor: Daniel Down Reviews Editor: Daniel Bennett Commissioning Editor: Jason Goodyer Science Consultant: Robert Matthews Contributing Editor: Emma Bayley Art Editor: Joe Eden CONTRIBUTORS Acute Graphics, Peter Bentley, Jamie Carter, JV Chamary, Brian Clegg, Jamie Coe, Simon Crompton, Helen Czerski, Eiko Ojala, Adam Gale, Duncan Geere, Alastair Gunn, Timandra Harkness, Robin Ince, Christian Jarrett, Tonwen Jones, Raja Lockey, Mark Lorch, Magic Torch, Orlagh Murphy, Jheni Osman, Chris Philpot, Helen Pilcher, Andy Potts, Martin Rees, Colin Stuart, Luis Villazon DISTRIBUTORS Singapore - Pansing Distribution Pte Ltd Malaysia - MPH Distributors Sdn Bhd Indonesia - PT Javabooks Indonesia Thailand - Asia Books Co., Ltd Philippines - Asia/Pacific Circulation Exponents, Inc. Taiwan - Formosan Magazine Press Inc Hong Kong/China/Macau - Times Publishing (HK) Ltd

BBC Knowledge Magazine, MCI(P) 070/10/2015, ISSN 1793-9836, PPS 1745/01/2013 (022915), is published by Regent Media Pte Ltd under license from Immediate Media Company Bristol Limited. Copyright © Immediate Media Company Bristol Limited. No part of this publication is to be reproduced, stored, transmitted, digitally or otherwise, without the prior consent of the publisher. The information contained herein is accurate at time of printing. Changes may have occurred since this magazine went to print. Regent Media Pte Ltd and its editors will not be held liable for any damages, loss, injury or inconvenience, arising in connection with the contents of the magazine. Regent Media Pte Ltd will not accept responsibility for unsolicited contributions. Printer: KHL Printing Co Pte Ltd (197801823M) Address: 57 Loyang Drive Singapore 508968. The BBC logo is a trade mark of the British Broadcasting Corporation and is used under licence. © British Broadcasting Corporation 1996

SUBSCRIPTION AGENTS Singapore - The Learning Craft Pte Ltd, Emit Asia (S) Pte Ltd, Adept Learning Pte Ltd Taiwan - JDM Books International Co. Ltd Malaysia - Worldwide Magazines Services Sdn Bhd

A publication of

Member of Magazine Publishers Association, Singapore

SCIENCE

Stargazing From the International Space Station Astronauts aboard the International Space

The dark patches are dense dust clouds in

Station (ISS) see the world at night on every

an inner spiral arm of our galaxy; such clouds

orbit — that’s 16 times each crew day.

can block our view of stars toward the center.

An astronaut took this broad, short-lens

The curvature of the Earth crosses the

photograph of Earth’s night lights while

center of the image and is illuminated by a

looking out over the remote reaches of the

variety of airglow layers in orange, green,

central equatorial Pacific Ocean. ISS was

and red. Setting stars are visible even

passing over the island nation of Kiribati

through the dense orange-green airglow.

at the time, about 2600 kilometers (1,600 miles) south of Hawaii. Knowing the exact time and the location

The brightest light in the image is a lightning flash that illuminated a large mass of clouds. The flash reflected off the shiny

of the ISS, scientists were able to match the

solar arrays of the ISS and back to the

star field in the photo to charts describing

camera. The dim equatorial cloud sheet is

which stars should have been visible at

so extensive that it covers most of the sea

that moment. They identified the pattern of

surface in this view.

stars in the photo as our Milky Way galaxy (looking toward its center).

8

Vol. 8 Issue 8

PHOTO: NASA

Vol. 8 Issue 8

9

NATURE

Tower of doom Deep in the Brazilian savannah, a termite mound comes alive. Green lights shine into the night – each one the bioluminescent glow of a click beetle larva luring other insects to their death. On still summer nights, larvae living in the surface layers of the mound poke out of the tunnel in a bid to attract the termites and other flying insects on which they feed. The eerie light trails in this image are a photographic trick, created by zooming out during a long exposure. Bioluminescence is used by organisms as a form of defence, to attract mates, or – in the case of these click beetle larvae – to catch a tasty meal. “The glow is produced in organs at the front of each larva’s thorax,” says Prof Adam Hart, BBC presenter and entomologist at the University of Gloucestershire. “It’s created by the action of an enzyme – luciferase – on a light-emitting substance called luciferin. The luciferase acts as a catalyst, allowing oxygen to combine with the luciferin – a process which releases particles of light [photons].” It’s a light show best avoided if you’re an insect… PHOTO: TATIANA CLAUZET

10

Vol. 8 Issue 8

Vol. 8 Issue 8

11

HISTORY

Double Trouble In the early 1950s, the NACA used this XP82 Twin Mustang for its drop-body tests. A test body is shown in the rack underneath the Twin Mustang’s centre wing section. NACA 114 was the first Twin Mustang built, and was turned over to the Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory following introduction of the type into regular Air Force service. PHOTO: NASA

12

Vol. 8 Issue 8

Vol. 8 Issue 8

13

SPECIAL FEATURE

INTRODUCING PETROSAINS, THE DISCOVERY CENTRE! ake a trip in a cavernous oil-drop ride. Meet a singing dinosaur. Pretend to be Lewis Hamilton for a day and maneuver around the famed Sepang track in a Formula One simulator or simply slide down an emergency chute at an actual oil platform. These are among the many funfilled and exciting activities aimed at creating wonder while sparking the interest in science, at Petrosains, The Discovery Centre. Visitors’ journey into Petrosains, which is located within the iconic PETRONAS Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur, begins with the DARK RIDE. Shaped like an oil drop, this ride brings you through a dark and tranquil environment featuring Malaysia’s rainforests, mountains and underwater sceneries. The ride ends with an audio visual presentation of a modern and competitive present-day Malaysia. Visitors are then encouraged

T

14

Vol. 8 Issue 8

to explore the 7,000sqm centre, featuring countless unique exhibits which can be touched and played with for a hands-on learning experience. One of the exhibition highlights is the GEOTIME DIORAMA which features an animatronic singing T-Rex, an erupting volcano and plenty of interesting displays explaining geology and the formation of oil deposits. Visitors eager to experience being on an actual offshore oil rig can explore the OIL PLATFORM exhibition area. Everything at the platform was built to reflect an actual oil rig, including living quarters for the crew. Meanwhile, racing simulators and various exhibits on the science of speed are available at the SPEED gallery to allow visitors to test their reaction skills, power-to-weight ratio and discover the science of velocity. Aside from the interactive exhibits,

PETROSAINS

visitors are also treated to activities such as live science shows, mini demonstrations and science busking based on thematic campaigns, all for a more constructive and immersive learning experience. Petrosains was established as a corporate social responsibility arm in education of Malaysia’s national oil and gas company, PETRONAS. Its role is to provide a rich and stimulating environment aimed at enhancing science literacy and instilling a passion for acquiring scientific knowledge in the general public. In extending its objective and thus supporting the need to raise awareness on the importance of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education, Petrosains conducts various inreach and outreach programmes for students, teachers and the general public both within and outside the Discovery Centre. Petrosains also organizes the Petrosains Science Festival, a week-long event which pools the government, industry experts, formal and informal learning institutions, corporate organizations and the public to come together to celebrate science in a way that is accessible, captivating and fun. Together with an eclectic programming mix of workshops, talks, and forums bridging science with everyday life, the festival extends Petrosains’ reach beyond its traditional audience of families with children and school groups to engage with more adults and youths. First held in October 2013, the Petrosains Science Festival is set to return on 13 to 18 September 2016 with a holistic emphasis on creativity and innovation. The festival will be headlined by exciting science shows, lively celebrity appearances, immersive virtual reality experiences, innovative craft workshops, creative hands-on activities and technology showcases by festival partners. ß

For more information please contact: Petrosains TheDiscovery Centre, Level 4, Suria KLCC, PETRONAS Twin Towers, 50088 Kuala Lumpur. Info/Booking Line: +03 2331 8181 www.petrosains.com.my, www.sciencefestival.my www.facebook.com/petrosains

#petrosainsfest

Vol. 8 Issue 8

15

SCHO OL

CHALLENGE 2016

DATE: 06 AUGUST 2016 VENUE: PETROSAINS, THE DISCOVERY CENTRE KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA

BBC KNOWLEDGE MAGAZINE SCHOOL CHALLENGE! EXCITING EDUCATIONAL TOURS AND FANTASTIC PRIZES FOR THE WINNING TEAMS

BBC KNOWLEDGE MAGAZINE SCHOOL CHALLENGE 2016 - MALAYSIA BBC Knowledge Magazine School Challenge is an educational project organised by BBC Knowledge Magazine to inspire youths and encourage curiosity. The project aims to provide an additional platform for learning through a series of interactive challenges related to Science, History and Nature to nurture and refine students’ thinking process.

Organiser

Supported by

Venue Sponsor

Official School Agent

Official Beverage Sponsor

AUSTRALIA

SARAWAK, MALAYSIA

ELIGIBILITY Open to all Secondary School students in Malaysia. Each team should consist of four students and one teacher-mentor from the same school. Each school is allowed to submit multiple entries but subject to approval.

HOW TO TAKE PART Form a team of 4 with a teacher mentor from your Secondary School and submit the registration and indemnity form found on the following website: http://www.regentmedia.sg/events For more enquiries, Email: [email protected] or [email protected] Tel: +603 7954 8989 Other terms and conditions apply: check the website for more information.

Educational Tour Sponsor International

Educational Tour Sponsor National

Supporting Partners

R GATHE YOUR ES AT TEAMMIGN UP AND S W! NO

THE LATEST INTELLIGENCE

PHOTO: ZERNICKA-GOETZ LAB/UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE

D I S P A T C H E S

F R O M

T H E

Update C U T T I N G

E D G E

BIOLOGY

LAB-GROWN HUMAN EMBRYOS KEPT ALIVE FOR RECORD TIME RESEARCHERS HAVE GROWN A HUMAN EMBRYO AND KEPT IT ALIVE OUTSIDE THE WOMB FOR 13 DAYS, SHATTERING THE PREVIOUS RECORD AND RE-IGNITING A DECADES-OLD ETHICAL DEBATE

Studying young embryos, like this 12-day-old specimen, could improve our understanding of developmental defects and the causes of miscarriage

Vol. 8 Issue 8

19

What is life and when does it begin? It’s a fundamental question “THIS COULD that has occupied HELP US scientists and philosophers for UNDERSTAND centuries, and one raised once more thanks to WHAT results from a HAPPENS groundbreaking embryo study. DURING Biologists at the MISCARRIAGE” University of Cambridge and New York’s Rockefeller University have successfully kept a human embryo alive for 13 days, only stopping to comply with UK law, which places the limit at 14 days. It enabled the researchers to study the molecular processes that occur when a human embryo implants itself into the womb. “Implantation is a milestone in human development as it is from this stage onwards that the embryo really begins to take shape and the overall body plan is decided. It is also the stage of pregnancy at which many developmental defects can become acquired,” said the University of Cambridge’s Dr Magdalena Zernicka-Goetz, who led the study. “This new technique provides us with a unique opportunity to get a deeper understanding of our own development during these crucial stages and help us understand what happens, for example, during miscarriage.” EARLY DAYS

Once an egg has been fertilised by a sperm, it divides to create a clump of stem cells. After about three days the stem cells group together to form something known as a blastocyst. This contains three basic cell types: those that will develop into the body, those that provide nutrients, and those that form the placenta and allow the embryo to attach to the womb. On the seventh day the embryo must implant into the womb to survive. “Embryo development is an extremely complex process and while our system may not be able to fully reproduce every aspect of this process, it has allowed us to reveal a remarkable self-organising capacity of human blastocysts that was previously unknown,” said the University of Cambridge’s Marta Shahbazi, who took part in the research. 20

Vol. 8 Issue 8

E X P E R T

C O M M E N T

ALLAN PACEY ABOVE: The human embryos were kept alive using methods that had been developed to research mouse embryos, like the one pictured above BELOW: Study leader Dr Magdalena Zernicka-Goetz says that the study will improve our knowledge of human development

Professor of andrology, University of Sheffield The framework in which this work has been carried out was first set out in the Warnock Report, published in 1984. This concluded that it was ethical to conduct research on human embryos until day 14 of their development. Parliament agreed with this recommendation when the 1991 Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act was passed. But, until now, this has been a theoretical restriction as no one had the technical means to keep embryos alive in the laboratory much beyond day seven. To keep the embryos alive in this study, the scientists used methods of culture first tested with mouse embryos. This has allowed them to undertake almost hour-by-hour observations of human embryo development to see how they develop and organise within the first two weeks. This has already provided new information, but in my opinion it is the potential it offers to future research that is most exciting. There will no doubt be people who will be opposed to this research and may disagree fundamentally with the idea that legitimate and ethical research on human embryos can take place for up to 14 days in the lab. While I respect the strength of their views, this is a framework which was agreed over 30 years ago and I see no reason to revisit that decision. It will not open the door to couples being able to grow babies in the lab – this is not the dawn of a Brave New World scenario. But it does open up opportunities to understand the nature of human disease and disability. For that reason, the scientists involved should be congratulated.

PHOTOS: SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY, NASA, NORBERT HULSMANN/FLICKR, UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE

Update

THE LATEST INTELLIGENCE

MARS

LINES ON MARS SHAPED BY BOILING WATER In 2015, it was discovered that liquid water pools on the surface of the Red Planet during its warmest summer days. However, thanks to the low atmospheric pressure, it boils away almost instantly (the boiling point of water on Mars is just 20°C). Water was therefore believed to play little or no role in shaping the Martian surface. However, an international team of scientists has now shown that even this short-lived boiling water does have a significant geological impact. The researchers, led by Marion Massé from the Laboratoire de Planetologie et Géodynamique de Nantes (Laboratory of Planetology and Geodynamics of Nantes), recreated two Mars-like environments: one inside a former diving decompression chamber at Mars-like pressure, the other in a cold chamber at terrestrial pressure. When a block of ice melted under ‘Earth’ conditions, water simply soaked into the sand. When a block of ice melted under Mars-like pressures, though, its boiling caused bubbles to be emitted which disturbed the sand, leaving a pattern of ridges like the ones seen on the surface of Mars. With saltwater, the effects were more pronounced.

BIOLOGY

Water behaves differently on Mars to Earth, forming ridges like these as it boils away

SLIME MOULDS CAN LEARN Could this be the smartest brainless blob on Earth? A team of biologists in France has shown that slime moulds are capable of learning, despite having no brain or nervous system. Slime mould is the name given to over 900 different species of single-celled organisms that cluster together in large numbers and then function as a single being called a plasmodium. Slime moulds exist all over the world, usually feeding on microorganisms that consume decaying plant matter. In the nine-day experiment at Toulouse University’s Centre de Recherches sur la Cognition Animale (Centre for Research into Animal Cognition), three groups of the slime mould Physarum polycephalum were confronted with a ‘bridge’ they needed to cross in order to access food. These bridges were impregnated with either caffeine or quinine, or left untouched. Caffeine and quinine taste bitter but are harmless to the moulds. The moulds presented with an ‘untainted’ bridge went straight to the food. Moulds presented with caffeine- or quinine-impregnated bridges were initially reluctant to cross, but having done so safely once were less hesitant the next time. After a few days they would cross quite happily, moving at a faster pace. This is evidence of a type of learning called ‘habituation’. Slime moulds that had become habituated to caffeine would not cross a quinineimpregnated bridge, and vice versa. Memory and the ability to learn are vital survival skills, but it was assumed such abilities required a nervous system. This research shows that such abilities must have evolved earlier than was thought. Vol. 8 Issue 8

21

Update IN N U MBERS

THE LATEST INTELLIGENCE

HEALTH

MEMORIES LOST TO ALZHEIMER’S MAY BE RECOVERED 709, <0.001%

190, 040

Daily flow volume, in litres, of the world’s shortest river, the Roe River. Given the volume of a human tear is 6.2 microlitres, the whole world couldn’t ‘cry me a river’, let alone Justin Timberlake’s ex.

2,325 The number of confirmed exoplanets spotted by NASA’s Kepler space telescope so far.

49,000 The age in years of a flake of basalt that was found in Australia. It is thought to be a fragment from the earliest axe with a handle. 22

Vol. 8 Issue 8

Patients in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease often struggle to remember recently learned information, meaning they forget things like important appointments or where they left their keys. But it seems these memories are not lost. They are still filed away in the brain somewhere, they just can’t be easily accessed. Now, researchers at MIT have developed a means of retrieving memories in mice suffering from Alzheimer’s. The method relies on optogenetics, a technique that uses light to manipulate genetically modified neurons. Currently it is too invasive to be used in human trials as it involves inserting light-emitting devices into the subjects’ brains, but the same underlying principles still apply, the researchers said. “The important point is this is a proof of concept. That is, even if a memory seems to be gone, it is still there. It’s a matter of how to retrieve it,” said senior researcher Susumu Tonegawa. The team took two groups of mice, one genetically engineered to develop Alzheimer’s and one healthy. They then placed them into a chamber and gave them a mild electric shock. All of the mice showed fear when put back in an hour later. When placed in the chamber a third time several days later, the Alzheimer’s mice acted normally. They had forgotten the shock. The researchers were then able to bring back the memory of the shock by activating the cells in which the memories were stored. Even when the mice were put into an unfamiliar chamber, they showed fear when the cells associated with the shock were activated. “Short-term memory seems to be normal, on the order of hours. But for long-term memory, these early-Alzheimer’s mice seem to be impaired,” said lead researcher Dheeraj Roy. “Directly activating the cells that we believe are holding the memory gets them to retrieve it. This suggests that it is indeed an access problem to the information, not that they’re unable to learn or store this memory.”

PHOTO: JOSE-LUIS OLIVARES/MIT

New research suggests there may be up to one trillion species of microbes on Earth, meaning that known species account for less than 1/1,000th of one per cent of the total.

T H E Y DID W H AT ?!

MICE BRED TO STUTTER What did they do? A team at Washington University School of Medicine bred mice with a mutated strain of Gnptab. A mutated version of this gene has been linked to stammering in humans. What did they find? The mice carrying the mutation paused for longer between squeaks and repeated the same sounds more often that the non-carrying mice. They also produced a smaller variety of sounds than mice without the mutated gene.

ILLUSTRATOR: RAJA LOCKEY

Why did they do that? Although speech is an incredibly complicated process, the finding could provide researchers with a method of further studying the roles of genes in stammering. The end goal would be the development of effective treatments for sufferers.

Vol. 8 Issue 8

23

Update

THE LATEST INTELLIGENCE

NEUROSCIENCE

NEUROSCIENTISTS CREATE A ‘WORD MAP’ OF THE BRAIN It’s a dictionary with a difference. Researchers at University of California Berkeley have created a 3D map showing how the brain stores and processes language. It’s hoped the research could lead to new treatments for strokes or motor neurone disease. The research involved subjects lying in an fMRI scanner while listening to hour-long story-based podcasts. This generated a second-by-second ‘map’ of bloodflow in the brain, enabling the scientists to build a picture of which brain regions are activated in response to particular words. Around 150 different regions in the brain are thought to be involved in linguistic processing. The new research reveals that words describing particular things, such as emotions, 24

Vol. 8 Issue 8

“THESE BRAIN MAPS ARE SO EXCITING AND HOLD SO MUCH POTENTIAL”

visual characteristics or quantities, are linked to their own distinct regions. While there was variation between individuals, patterns of brain activity proved surprisingly consistent from one research subject to another. “Our semantic models are good at predicting responses to language in several big swaths of cortex,” said lead researcher Alex Huth. “But we also get the finegrained information that tells us what kind of information is represented in each brain area. That’s why these maps are so exciting and hold so much potential.” The next step will be to repeat the experiments with a much larger sample size, as the initial research involved just seven subjects.

PHOTOS: ALEXANDER HUTH, SHEIKH ZAYED INSTITUTE FOR PEDIATRIC SURGICAL INNOVATION, UNIVERSITY OF BONN

Different regions of the brain are associated with different types of words, as this 3D model shows

MEDICINE

COULD YOUR NEXT SURGEON BE A ROBOT? This is cutting-edge stuff. A team at Children’s National Health System in Washington has created a robot surgeon that can outperform its human counterparts. Acting under the supervision of a human consultant, the Smart Tissue Autonomous Robot (STAR) successfully stitched together the intestines of both live and dead pigs. And although it took longer than a human surgeon, at 35 minutes compared to eight, STAR produced stitches that were more evenly spaced, which helps to promote healing and prevents leakage. “Our results demonstrate the potential for autonomous robots to improve the efficacy, consistency, functional outcome and accessibility of surgical techniques,” said surgeon Peter C Kim. “The intent of this demonstration is not to replace surgeons, but to expand human capacity and capability through enhanced vision, dexterity and complementary machine intelligence for improved surgical outcomes.” The robot uses a combination of infrared and 3D light field imaging systems along with an intelligent algorithm. These allow it to track

movement of tissue and make adjustments in real time. “Until now, autonomous robot surgery has been limited to applications with rigid anatomy, such as bone cutting, because they are more predictable,” said technical lead Axel Krieger. “By using novel tissue tracking and applied force measurement, coupled with suture automation software, our robotic system can detect tissue motions in real time and automatically adjust.” Now that the system has been successfully tested, the team plans to improve the sensors and miniaturise the tools. With the right backing, some of the tech could make its way into operating theatres in the next two years. With a human surgeon supervising, the robot doctor successfully performed procedures on pigs

THE DOWNLOAD

BROWN FAT What’s that? A sleazy 70s funk band perhaps? Afraid not. It’s a so-called ‘good’ fat. Unlike white fat, which stores calories and can lead to the dreaded spare tyre, brown fat burns energy to produce heat. Tell me more. Brown fat is difficult to find and study and its exact role is still being figured out. It’s found in different areas in people’s bodies. It is activated by cold and may act as a kind of internal jacket to keep us warm. Any new developments? A team at the University of Bonn has found that when there are low levels of miRNA92a, a type of molecule responsible for the coding and expression of genes, brown fat cells burn more energy. The finding may help researchers develop drugs that kick-start brown fat’s energy burning activity. If we can figure out how to manipulate brown fat, could we all be turned into svelte waifs? Not exactly. There are lots of factors involved in obesity but the finding could eventually provide doctors with a useful tool to aid fat loss.

Brown fat burns energy, unlike more familiar white fat

Vol. 8 Issue 8

25

Update

THE LATEST INTELLIGENCE

ZOOLOGY

“I THINK WE’RE JUST SEEING THE TIP OF THE ICEBERG IN TERMS OF WHETHER THERE’S SAME-SEX BEHAVIOUR”

BELOW: Stan and Olli, two male king penguins at Hamburg Zoo, only have eyes for each other

How common is homosexual behaviour in nature? We really don’t know. I think we’re just seeing the tip of the iceberg in terms of whether there’s same-sex behaviour. Incidentally, that’s a term I like better than ‘homosexual’, in part because homosexual is used to refer to a variety of things in people: sexual orientation and sexual preference, what people want to do, the kinds of partners they have. In animals, we really don’t know anything about their motivations. Animals showing same-sex behaviour aren’t necessarily pairing for life. Bonobos have sex between females and it seems to serve a function of defusing social

tension in interactions. Are they gay? No, they’re just doing what they’re doing. Sex isn’t always about reproduction. There are circumstances in which sexual behaviour has a function that isn’t going to result in sperm meeting egg. One member of another famous ‘gay’ penguin couple‚ Roy and Silo of New York Central Park Zoo‚ ended up mating with a female. Were the German zookeepers too hasty in relocating their penguins? These are captive animals and their behaviour is already being controlled... it’s not like they’re in the wild to begin with. So I think it’s a little bit pointless to speculate about ‘Shouldn’t we leave them the option of reproducing later?’ because you’ve already radically disrupted what their behaviour would have been like. It illustrates something that’s clear about a lot of birds: if you give them potential partners then they’ll often pair off with them, and sometimes those partners are members of the same sex. Are we in danger of applying our values to animals? Absolutely. There are certain aspects of animal

26

Vol. 8 Issue 8

PHOTOS: GETTY / UCR STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS, PRESS ASSOCIATION

Stan and Olli, a pair of male penguins, were recently moved from Berlin to Hamburg Zoo after attempts to mate them with females failed. So can animals be gay? We asked behavioural biologist Prof Marlene Zuk

LOVING MOTHERS If you want your kids to be a success, forget piano lessons and ballet. All you need is love. The children of nurturing mums have increased brain growth in areas associated with learning and memory, a University of Washington team has found.

RESIDENTS ON FLIGHT PATHS For those living on a flight path, it can too noisy to enjoy a garden barbecue. But help may be at hand. A team at the University of Minnesota has found patterns in the airflow of jet engines that are responsible for the deafening noise. The discovery could lead to the development of near silent jets.

GOOD MONTH

BAD MONTH ABOVE: King penguins are just one bird species that has shown same-sex behaviour

ILLUSTRATION: RAJA LOCKEY

BELOW: Prof Marlene Zuk says that we don’t know anything about animals’ motivations, so we can’t compare their behaviour to ours

behaviour that people pick up on as being particularly significant, as if something animals do is really important for what humans can or can’t, should or shouldn’t do. People have argued it both ways, and historically that’s always been true. We can actually make up our own minds about what we think is appropriate to do, without using penguins as role models. Are there biological benefits to same-sex behaviour? It’s hard to know. One possibility is that individuals who engage in even a temporary pairing with a member of the same sex might end up more likely to be in an opposite sex pairing later on. I’m quite interested in a system like that in albatrosses, where there are a lot of female-female pairs. Other people have suggested that a gene influencing sexual orientation in humans could be fostered if it’s linked with a gene that renders females more fertile. People seem to want to have a single answer, that there are gay penguins for the same reasons that there are gay bonobos or whatever. Whether you want to call it ‘homosexual’ behaviour or not, it encompasses a lot of different patterns and a lot of different kinds of animals.

TRAVELLING SALESMEN Ever wonder why it’s more difficult to sleep in an unfamiliar bed? Researchers from Brown University have found that one hemisphere of the brain remains partially awake on the first night of sleeping in a new place.

PAMPERED POOCHES Put down the chihuahua! Close physical contact can make dogs seriously anxious, researchers at the University of British Columbia have found. The effect is due to the dogs feeling trapped as their natural instinct to run away from trouble kicks in.

Vol. 8 Issue 8

27

Update

THE LATEST INTELLIGENCE

SPACE

It seems habitable planets are like buses: you spend all of your time waiting for one and then three come along at once. An international team of astronomers from MIT and the University of Liège has spotted three planets orbiting a small supercool star, just 40 lightyears away in the constellation of Aquarius. The sizes and temperatures of these worlds are similar to those of Earth, making them amongst the best targets found so far for the search for life outside the Solar System, the astronomers say. “These planets are so close, and their star so small, we can study their atmosphere and composition, and further down the road, which is within our generation, assess if they are actually inhabited,” said researcher Julien de Wit. “All of these things are achievable, and within reach now. This is a jackpot for the field.” Earth-sized exoplanets are often tricky to study as they are relatively small and can easily be overwhelmed by light from their host star, making

28

Vol. 8 Issue 8

them difficult to see in detail. But these new planets are orbiting a fainter dwarf star that emits radiation in the infrared wavelength, so they are much easier to view in detail. The planets were discovered using TRAPPIST (TRAnsiting Planets and PlanetesImals Small Telescope), a 60cm telescope operated by the University of Liège, based in Chile. Due to their size and proximity to their ultracool host star, all three planets could potentially have regions with temperatures suitable for sustaining liquid water and life. “Now we have to investigate if they’re habitable,” de Wit said. “We will investigate what kind of atmosphere they have, and then will search for biomarkers and signs of life. We have facilities all over the globe and in space that are helping us, working from UV to radio, in all different wavelengths, to tell us everything we want to know about this system. So many people will get to play with this.”

PHOTOS: M KORNMESSER/ESO, NICK FRASER

NEARBY EXOPLANETS MAY BE OUR BEST CHANCE OF FINDING EXTRATERRESTRIAL LIFE

PALAEONTOLOGY

W H AT W E L E A R N ED THIS MONTH

EARLIEST PLANT-EATING MARINE REPTILE DISCOVERED IN CHINA

LABRADORS ARE PROGRAMMED TO BE CHUBBY Labs are among the tubbiest of dogs – almost two-thirds of them are overweight. Researchers have found this may be due to a mutant version of the gene POMC, which helps switch off hunger following a meal.

OLDER PEOPLE FEEL PAIN MORE Next time your nanna moans about her aches and pains, you might want to show a bit of sympathy. A study at the University of Florida has found that inflammation following an injury occurs faster and lasts longer in older people.

STIS COULD BE RESPONSIBLE FOR HUMAN MONOGAMY Canadian researchers used computer models to emulate the evolution of sexual relations as societies grew from small groups of hunter-gatherers to larger agricultural settlements. They found that as partner availability increased, so did STI prevalence. This led to a drive towards humans taking just one sexual partner. How romantic.

IT’S EASIER TO REMEMBER SOMETHING IF YOU DRAW IT Ultracool stars, like this red dwarf in the Aquarius constellation, only emit faint light, making it easier to observe any planets nestled around it

Making sketches of things you need to remember can help you to recall them twice as well, researchers at the University of Waterloo have found. It might make shopping lists a bit more interesting too.

BELOW: No, it’s not a novelty vacuum cleaner – it’s an ancient marine reptile called Atopodentatus unicus. That jaw shape helped it to scrape up plants from the seabed

This bizarre hoover-beaked beastie is Atopodentatus unicus, a crocodile-sized marine reptile that patrolled the seas of southern China 242 million years ago, making it the earliest plant-eating marine reptile ever discovered. Fossils of the animal were first found in 2014, but as the head was poorly preserved the nature of its jaw was impossible to figure out. Now, after the discovery of two more complete fossils, an international team of researchers from China, Scotland and the US have solved the riddle. “It’s a very strange animal,” said researcher Olivier Rieppel. “It’s got a hammerhead, which is unique. It’s the first time we’ve seen a reptile like this.” The animal, whose name means ‘unique strangely toothed’, lived up to its moniker. It had a row of peglike teeth running around its mouth with bunches of needle-like teeth further inside. To get to the bottom of how the reptile fed, the team used an unconventional material: Play-Doh. “To figure out how the jaw fitted together and how the animal actually fed, we bought some children’s clay, kind of like Play-Doh, and rebuilt it with toothpicks to represent the teeth,” said Rieppel. “We looked at how the upper and lower jaw locked together, and that’s how we proceeded and described it.” After analysing the structure and shape of the model, the team concluded that the unusual jaw of A. unicus would have helped it eat plants. “It used the peg-like front teeth to scrape plants off rocks on the sea floor, and then it opened its mouth and sucked in the bits of plant material. Then, it used its needle-like teeth as a sieve, trapping the plants and letting the water back out, like how whales filter-feed with their baleen [comb-like structures in the mouth],” said Rieppel. “The jaw structure is clearly that of an herbivore. It has similarities to other marine animals that ate plants with a filter-feeding system, but Atopodentatus is older than them by about eight million years.” Vol. 8 Issue 8

29

Comment & Analysis RAINDROPS AND WIND SPEED “I would love to be able to stand in a storm and watch the raindrops in slow motion” ainstorms are lovely. I like the drama and the feeling of release as the sky washes itself clean. Even though I’m usually happiest outdoors, in the middle of the action, the best place to enjoy a rainstorm is often on the warm, dry side of a pane of glass. A couple of weeks ago I was watching a particularly enthusiastic storm batter the windows, and I noticed that the raindrop streaks on one window facing the wind were vertical – drops hit and then ran straight downwards. But my living room is on the corner of the building, and the drops hitting the window on the other wall were at a considerable angle, obviously being blown sideways across the glass. It was striking that the drop splashes all had very similar angles. Parked there on the sofa, watching it all, I wondered whether I could measure the wind speed from the angle of the raindrop splash. So I had a go. The angle of the splash depends on how the drop’s downward speed compares to its sideways speed. Even though raindrops are being blown about by the wind, they’re still falling downwards through the air. So the first question is: how fast does a raindrop fall? I would love to be able to stand in a storm and watch the raindrops in slow motion, because there’s so much going on. In the simplest case, each drop will fall at its terminal velocity. This is the speed at which the force needed to shove air out of the way is equal to the gravitational pull on the drop. The bigger the drop, the faster its terminal velocity. But in one rainstorm, there are drops of lots of different sizes, so they’re all falling at different speeds. In heavier rain, the raindrops are generally bigger. In the heavy rain that I was looking at, most raindrops were probably between 1.5 and 4mm in diameter – twice as wide as those in very light rain. That gives them terminal velocities between 16 and 32km/h. So I picked a value in the middle and assumed that the raindrops I was looking at were travelling downwards at about 24km/h. Then I had to look at the angle. The wind was travelling from right to left as I looked at the window, and the drops were

ILLUSTRATION: EIKO OJALA

R

30

Vol. 8 Issue 8

being blown sideways very strongly – the splashes were in the direction of about 8 o’clock on a clock face, or about 60 degrees from vertical. To get an angle like that, the drop has to be blown sideways almost twice as fast as it’s falling downwards, giving me a sideways wind speed of 48km/h. To get the direction of 7 o’clock, you only need the sideways speed to be just over half of the downward speed. If I’d seen that, the implied wind speed would have been 14.5km/h. It takes a surprisingly large additional wind speed to get from 7 o’clock to 8 o’clock! A quick check on the Met Office website suggested that the actual wind speeds outdoors were 40-

48km/h, so I was quite pleased with my rough estimate of 48km/h. Of course, there are a few complications here – I didn’t know the exact raindrop size, and turbulence around the building could have given the wind a slight upward or downward component. And I was lucky that one window was oriented exactly sideways to the wind. But it was nice to know that I could estimate the ferocity of the storm. And it justified the decision to be inside watching, rather than outside getting drenched! ß DR HELEN CZERSKI is a physicist and BBC science presenter. Her book, The Storm In A Teacup, will be out in November

SUBSCRIPTION

SPE SUBSCRCIAL IPT OFFER! ION

4 EASY WAYS TO SUBSCRIBE: GO ONLINE*

OR EMAIL subscribe@ media-group.com.sg FAX TO SINGAPORE 65-6449 9945 MALAYSIA 603-42926251 CALL HOTLINE SINGAPORE 65-6241 2673 MALAYSIA 603-79548989 MAIL TO Regent Media Pte Ltd, 20 Bedok South Road, Singapore 469277 or Unit 6.02 Level 6, Menara Maxisegar Jalan Pandan Indah 4/2 Pandan Indah 55100 Kuala Lumpur.

GREAT REASONS TO SUBSCRIBE

• Every issue delivered direct to your door • Exclusive subscriber-only offers and discounts

BBC KNOWLEDGE MAGAZINE SUBSCRIPTION OFFER

YES! I WANT TO SUBSCRIBE! PLEASE TICK ACCORDINGLY  Singapore, 1 year subscription, 12 issues for S$77

YOUR PAYMENT OPTIONS  CHEQUE Please enclose a cheque made payable to: Singapore: Regent Media Pte Ltd Malaysia: Regent Media Sdn Bhd

Cheque No.:

 Malaysia, 1 year subscription, 12 issues for RM216

Amount:

*Rates are inclusive of postage in SGP and MY

PERSONAL PARTICULARS

 CREDIT CARD* (VISA & MASTERCARD ONLY) *Singapore only

Title

Surname

Debited amount under”Golf Events and Marketing” will be reflected in your credit card statement for subscribers in Singapore.

Name NRIC

DOB

Name on Credit Card:

Tel Number

Mobile

Credit Card No.:

Email Expiry Date: Address Amount:

Country

Postal Code Signature:

MY PROFILE Gender

Age Group

Occupation

Annual Income

 Male

 Below 30

 Executive

 Below $50,000

 Female

 31 - 40

 Management

 $50,001 - $100,000



 41 - 50

 Professional

 $100,001 - $150,000



 Above 50

 Businessman

 Above $150,000

Date:

TERMS & CONDITIONS: • This subscription offer is non-refundable • Promotion is valid till the end of August 2016 • Subscription gifts where applicable are available on a while stocks last basis • The above subscription rates are only applicable to readers residing in Singapore & Malaysia • Gifts must be taken as provided and are neither transferable nor exchangeable for cash • Company reserves the right to replace gift when stock is unavailable • All prices are inclusive of GST and taxes • Please allow 4-6 weeks for processing • Subscribers/Winners will be notified by post • Subscription gifts/lucky draw prizes are to be collected at address stated on notification letter • Other terms and conditions apply

SCIENCE

TWO HUNDRED YEARS AFTER MARY SHELLEY WROTE FRANKENSTEIN, WE LOOK AT HOW TODAY’S SCIENTISTS CAN CREATE LIFE IN THE LAB WORDS: DUNCAN GEERE

Scan this QR Code for the audio reader

32

Vol. 8 Issue 8

n June 1816, a monster was born. Mary Shelley (then Mary Godwin) was holidaying along the banks of Lake Geneva with Lord Byron and her lover, Percy Shelley. It was a cold, wet summer, so, stuck indoors, Byron challenged everyone in the group to write a ghost story. A few days later, Mary Shelley began working on what would become Frankenstein. Shelley’s story

ILLUSTRATION: MAGIC TORCH

I

was undoubtedly inf luenced by the science of the day, but what would have inspired her if she were alive today? Regenerative medicine and biotechnology are advancing at a breakneck pace, and the idea of creating life in the lab is looking less and less implausible. Over the following pages, we look at the science that’s making Mary Shelley’s vision a reality 200 years on.

Vol. 8 Issue 8

33

SCIENCE

This image created by the Blue Brain Project shows a digital reconstruction of neuronal connections 34

Vol. 8 Issue 8

Teams around the world are racing to create the first working replica of a brain

PHOTOS: EPFL, THOMAS HARTUNG/JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY

One of the most ambitious projects hoping to replicate a mind is the Blue Brain Project – an attempt to reverse-engineer mammalian brain circuitry. To begin with, the team is building a biologically-realistic digital simulation of the neurons in a rat brain. “Although the rat brain is very different from the human brain, a lot of the basic biology is the same,” the team at the Blue Brain Project says. “Research strategies and tools we have developed in rats could also, in principle, be applied to humans.” A breakthrough in this project came last October, when scientists completed a draft simulation of part of the rat neocortex, a region of the brain key to processing sensory information. They reconstructed a section of brain tissue about one-third of a cubic millimetre in volume, containing around 30,000 neurons connected by nearly 40 million synapses. The electrical activity of the virtual tissue closely mirrored activity seen in real brains. But the researchers admit that their work has only just begun. The human brain contains around 86 billion neurons – nearly three

million times the number achieved with the rat simulation. Meanwhile, in the US, another brainmapping scheme, the Human Connectome project, is making some interesting breakthroughs. Analysis of the connectomes – blueprints of the brain’s connections – of nearly 500 people found that those with more positive traits (such as better endurance and memory) tended to have more strongly connected brains. If we’re going to create a functioning being, knowledge of how the brain’s architecture links to physical and mental traits will be vital.

BUILD A BRAIN While some researchers try to model brains using bits and bytes, others are trying to build biological copies. Thomas Hartung of Johns Hopkins University recently exhibited balls of human brain cells the size of a foetus’s brain at two months old. According to Hartung, they show ‘spontaneous electrophysiological activity’, meaning that they send electrical signals to each other without external stimulus. While

A tiny ‘mini-brain’ that mimics some of the brain’s functions

they can’t grow any larger as they lack a blood supply, the mini-brains might be useful in drug testing as they will let researchers observe the effects of substances on neural activity without resorting to a living subject.

CREATE A CONSCIOUSNESS Finally, Russian billionaire Dmitry Itskov is funding research into whether it’s possible to upload a human consciousness to a computer. His organisation, 2045 Initiative, aims to make people immortal with the help of neural interfaces and robotics. There are some huge roadblocks to overcome, but it doesn’t seem to violate any physical laws. If scientists were to simulate a brain in a supercomputer,

“If scientists simulated a brain in a supercomputer, hopefully they’ll upload a personality that’s unlikely to turn against its creators” hopefully they’ll use this technology to upload a personality that’s unlikely to turn against its creator. Back in the present day, the closest we’ve come to building a working brain seems to be the OpenWorm project. After mapping the connectome of a nematode worm, scientists are now building digital equivalents of its muscles and organs, with the aim of bringing it to life in a virtual world. Look out, Dr Frankenstein.

Vol. 8 Issue 8

35

SCIENCE

THE RE-ANIMATOR’S TOOLKIT Want to be the next Dr Frankenstein? These essential terms should help you on your way…

Could we ever transplant a head? One man thinks so...

BIOPRINTING

BRAIN-COMPUTER INTERFACE A direct communication pathway between a brain and an external device. Often used to research human cognitive and sensory functions, and in mind-controlled prosthetic limbs.

CONNECTOME The map of neural connections in the brain and nervous system. Only one animal has had its entire connectome mapped – a tiny roundworm called Caenorhabditis elegans.

The hardest part of building a creature from scratch, after the brain, is the head and face. While head transplant experiments have been carried out on animals for more than a century, all attempts have ended in paralysis and the animal’s death. The most influential researcher in this area was scientist Vladimir Demikhov, who experimented with dog head transplants in the Soviet Union in the 1950s. He was unsuccessful, but his other experiments in transplanting organs between animals significantly advanced the field – including the use of immunosuppressants to reduce the risk of a body rejecting the transplanted organ. His work led directly to the first human heart transplant in 1967.

A cocktail of drugs that intentionally weakens the body’s immune system, lowering the chance of rejection of a transplanted organ. They also leave the body more prone to infection.

“The surgeon’s plan involves slicing off the patient’s head using a clean, fast procedure”

NEURONS

SWAP SOME HEADS

Specialised cells that transmit information to other cells. The human brain and nervous system contain about 100 billion of them, sending electrical impulses to where they’re needed.

In 1970, a team of researchers led by US neurosurgeon Robert J White attempted to transplant the head of a monkey onto the body of another. The procedure was a partial success, with the animal surviving for some time after the operation and reportedly able to sense the world around it, but the public greeted the news with widespread disapproval. More recently, a new figure has appeared on the scene. Sergio Canavero, an Italian neurosurgeon, has attracted widespread media attention over claims that he’ll perform the first successful

IMMUNOSUPPRESSANTS

PROSTHESIS An artificial device that replaces a missing body part. Some modern versions feature robotic capabilities, and research is being conducted into bestowing them with a sense of touch.

36

Vol. 8 Issue 8

PHOTOS: GETTY X3, SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY, UPMC

The process of creating body tissue using 3D printing technologies. Cells are gradually layered up in the shape and form required and then allowed to grow together before the scaffold holding them in place is removed.

PHOTOS: GUGHI FASSINO / LUZPHOTO / EYEVINE, PRESS ASSOCIATION

human head transplant in 2017, with some calling him the ‘real-life Frankenstein’. Canavero already has a patient – a 30-year-old Russian named Valery Spiridonov with spinal muscular atrophy. The surgeon’s plan involves slicing off Spiridonov’s head using a clean, fast procedure, and then connecting it to the donor body’s spinal cord with a polyethylene glycol ‘glue’ But there is much doubt – not only over whether he’ll succeed, but also whether he’ll even be able to attempt it in the face of financial and ethical constraints. At the time of writing, Canavero is still seeking funds.

York University’s Langone Medical Center. The surgery came almost exactly 10 years after the first partial facial transplant in 2005 and was described as “a critically important contribution to the advancement of science and

medicine” by the medical centre’s dean Robert Grossman. Recipients of facial transplants must take immunosuppressant drugs for the rest of their lives, and are at greater risk of suffering from infections and cancer.

ABOVE: Sergio Canavero is confident that he can perform a successful head transplant on a human patient LEFT: Dr Eduardo Rodriguez performed the most extensive face transplant to date on patient Patrick Hardison (on screen)

MAKE A FACE If heads are too hard, then faces are easier. In November 2015, Patrick Hardison, a firefighter who had been horribly burned in an accident, was given the face of a brain-dead man during a 26-hour-long operation at New

Vol. 8 Issue 8

37

SCIENCE

From 3D-printed organs to artificial skin, here’s how we’ll build the body O Once the brain and head are cconstructed, the rest of the bodyy is easier to build. b ld Bones are pprobably b bly the h simplest of all – we’ve been fixing bones w pins, rods and screws since the with m y Titanium is middle of the 19th Century. of used d to create replacement pl b often bones it s non-toxic non toxic and compatible because it’s with living tissue, leading to implants that can last more than 30 years.

Frankenstein sourced his bones from ‘charnel houses’, but he would have loved 3D printers, which can form perfect replica bones. In 2012, one 83-year-old woman was given a 3D-printed lower jaw that took just a few hours to print and install. The patient was able to speak

38

Vol. 8 Issue 8

STAYING ALIVE RIGHT: Vital organs can now be built in the laboratory BELOW: The layered structure of human skin makes it easy to recreate with 3D printing

The difficulty with 3D-printed tissue is keeping it alive, as this requires tiny blood vessels. In 2014, scientists in Australia and the US took the first steps towards integrating artificial blood vessels into tissue, and just a few months ago researchers at North Carolina’s Wake Forest University published the details of a 3D printer that could create everything – organs, tissues and bones – that could all be implanted into humans. The field is moving fast, but most experts warn against optimism, saying it’ll likely be decades before we see the tech becoming common. That just leaves skin, which is surprisingly easy to print, thanks to its layered structure. In 2015, L’Oréal announced that it was teaming up with bioengineering start-up Organovo to 3D-print human skin. The companies said the skin would be used in product tests, though some medics have suggested it might have more value in burns units and trauma centres.

PHOTOS: MASSACHUSETTS GENERAL HOSPITAL

“Human skin is surprisingly easy to print, thanks to its layered structure”

shortl shor tlyy af afte terr waaki kin ng up from the a aest anae an sthe hetic,, and could soon swallow ag in. A similar l titanium ribcage b g was agai ll d in a Spanish p h ppatient in 2015.. installed Organs are a little harder, but we’re getting there. Bioprinters have been ab e to ccreate eate human u a ttissue ssue for o a while. e. able Last year, researchers from Carnegie Mellon University adapted an off-theshelf MakerBot 3D printer to do the same. Artificial hearts, kidneys and livers have all been printed, usually by suspending living cells in a gel-like substance. The cells start to grow into tissue, and the gel is washed away to leave the organ behind.

REAL-LIFE RESURRECTIONS Death isn’t always the end. Many people have regained consciousness after being pronounced clinically dead

EXTREME TRIP In 2001, the Emergency Medicine Journal described a British man who had overdosed on drugs. On the way to hospital, he went into cardiac arrest, and resuscitation attempts failed. He was declared dead, but then a pulse was detected. He recovered fully.

I’M NOT DEAD! Eleanor Markham, a young American woman, was pronounced dead in 1894 by her family’s physician. The weather was warm so a burial was hastily arranged for two days later, but on the way to the graveyard the hearse was halted by a banging inside the coffin.

SURPRISE REVIVAL In 2014, Walter Williams, a 78-year-old man from the US, awoke in a body bag after being declared dead earlier the same day. It’s thought that a defibrillator in his chest revived him. The next day, he was well enough to speak, but died 15 days later.

SHOCKING RECOVERY Judith Johnson, a 61-year-old American woman, was declared dead in 2007 after being given medicines and shocks in an attempt to revive her. Later, she was discovered in the morgue to be alive and breathing. She sued the hospital and medical staff.

Vol. 8 Issue 8

39

SCIENCE

The final challenge: how do we bring it all to life?

THE TALE OF THE REANIMATED CORPSE This grisly experiment may have inspired Mary Shelley’s masterpiece When Londoner George Forster was convicted of murder in 1803, the judge handed down a sentence that would sound rather unusual today. It called not only for his death by hanging, but for dissection afterwards – a common practice at the time, to provide the medical world with corpses to experiment on and also to prevent the 40

Vol. 8 Issue 8

created for it? Mind-controlled prostheses are already a reality – researchers at Johns Hopkins University recently announced a prosthetic arm whose individual fingers can be controlled by the brain. To configure it, electrodes were implanted

An artificial ‘nose’ created by C2Sense

condemned from rising again on Judgment Day. After being hanged on the morning of 18 January, Forster’s body was carted down the street to a house where Giovanni Aldini, an Italian scientist, was waiting. Aldini wanted to show that corpses contained an ‘animal electricity’, and to do so he was going to apply a method named ‘galvanism’, after his uncle Luigi Galvani who’d discovered it previously. Aldini inserted a metal rod into Forster’s mouth, and another into his ear. “On the first application of the process to the face, the jaws of the deceased criminal began to quiver, and the adjoining muscles were

horribly contorted, and one eye was actually opened,” reported The Newgate Calendar at the time. “In the subsequent part of the process the right hand was raised and clenched, and the legs and thighs were set in motion.” The assembled crowd was shocked – so much so that the man who’d arranged for the delivery of the corpse died shortly after leaving. It became the most famous demonstration of galvanism, cited by author Mary Shelley (who was only five years old at the time of the experiment) as one of the evening discussion topics before she experienced the ‘waking dream’ that inspired the story of Frankenstein.

PHOTOS: JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY, WELLCOME TRUST ARCHIVE

Now we’re back to where we began – the ‘spark’ of life itself, something which we’re not much closer to understanding today than during Mary Shelley’s time. Dr Frankenstein famously discovered the secret of life: “I became myself capable of bestowing animation upon lifeless matter.” But no real-world scientists have come close. So animating our bundle of 3D-printed organs, transplanted head and digital brain is no easy task. Life is infinitely more complicated than a chemical reaction, or software algorithm – that’s why we can only approximate it in the lab, not replicate it entirely. But let’s say we could wave a magic wand to create that vital spark. How would it interact with the body we’ve

Galvanism experiments by Giovanni Aldini

over the part of the brain that controls hand and arm movements, with researchers tracking the locations that emitted an electric pulse when the subject moved their fingers. These signals could then be used to trigger movements in the prosthetic hand in the same way.

SIMULATE SENSES Currently, there are prosthetics that can deliver the sensation of touch. In 2013, University of California biologists connected up the brains of

monkeys to an artificial fingertip equipped with sensors, using a similar brain-location-mapping process. They found that the monkeys responded the same way to ‘feeling’ in the artificial finger as in their real fingers. Human trials are still some way off, but the research holds promise for amputees as well as those with spinal injuries. Fredrik Winquist at Linköping University in Sweden has built an electronic tongue that can differentiate between tastes, while Massachusetts-

“Bestowing a bundle of 3D-printed organs, transplanted head and digital brain with some kind of life essence is not easy”

ABOVE: A prosthetic arm and hand designed by Johns Hopkins University is just as dexterous as its ‘real’ counterpart

based firm C2Sense has created a similar device for smell. Combined with cameras and microphones for sight and sound respectively, that’s pretty much all the body’s major senses covered. Much work remains to be done, not least teaching a digital brain how to cope with these inputs and process them into actions. It’s easy for us to quickly withdraw our hand when it touches a hot surface, but harder for a computer to perform all the calculations at a speed that avoids damage, while also processing continuous input from the rest of its body. A fully-functioning artificial being might be some way off yet, but it’s surely only a matter of time. ß

DUNCAN GEERE IS A FREELANCE SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY WRITER WHO IS BASED IN GOTHENBURG, SWEDEN

Vol. 8 Issue 8

41

NATURE

North America’s sea otters can have as big an impact on coastal ecosystems as beavers do on land. This picture shows a mother with a three-day-old baby in Monterey Bay, California

Scan this QR Code for the audio reader

Eco engineers PHOTOS BY SUZI ESZTERHAS

42

Vol. 8 Issue 8

THE SPECTACULAR RETURN OF SEA OTTERS ALONG THE WEST COAST OF NORTH AMERICA HAS LED TO THE REBIRTH OF KELP FORESTS AND OTHER THREATENED HABITATS. THE SECRET? THEIR APPETITE FOR SHELLFISH, SAYS ISABELLE GROC Vol. 8 Issue 8

43

NATURE

SMASH AND GRAB TOOL USE IN SEA OTTERS

A raft of sea otters laze in front of the power station at Moss Landing, California – one of the best places to see them

44

or the past 30 years, Jane Watson has witnessed one of the most extraordinary underwater transformations.Year after year, on the west coast of Vancouver Island in British Columbia, she has been diving at the same sites, watching areas known as ‘sea urchin barrens’ transform into beautiful forests of 2m-tall kelp.The difference between the two environments is striking. Watson is an ecologist at Vancouver Island University with a particular interest in kelp forests.Whenever she explores a sea urchin barren, she finds herself floating in a pink world due to the overwhelming presence of pink coralline algae. Invertebrates such as sea urchins, abalone, chitons and sea cucumbers, which thrive in the open, are all easy to see. “It’s like being on a grassland because it is an exposed environment,” Watson says. In stark contrast, diving among the waving brown kelp is like hiking in a forest teeming with juvenile fish. Behind this transformation is the voracious appetite of an extraordinarily photogenic creature – the sea otter Enhydra lutris. It occurs in western North America and the far east of Asia, and as its name suggests is entirely marine. (Confusingly, though, it is not the only otter found in coastal waters – the Eurasian otter Lutra lutra also thrives on seashores and sea lochs, for example.) Urchins are the sea otter’s favourite food, and when the species arrives in an area dominated by urchins, it

F

Vol. 8 Issue 8

Sea otters are among the handful of non-primates known to use tools (others include dolphins, crows and octopuses). These otters are famous for wielding rocks, empty shells or other objects as a hammer or anvil to break open hard-shelled invertebrates, often holding onto a favourite tool by tucking it under their armpit when diving. Researchers can easily observe otters using tools since they return to the surface and float on their backs while processing their catch. A recent study found that type of prey is what drives the otters’ tool use. They mainly deploy tools for opening marine snails, and since southern sea otters in California have the highest percentage of snails in their diet, they use tools most often. “Without help, sea otters cannot make an efficient living by eating snails. It is too difficult, requires too much energy and results in tooth damage,” explains Tim Tinker, a wildlife biologist with the US Geological Survey and one of the authors of the study. “But with a tool they can access this food source quickly.”

Sea otters feed at the surface therefore making them easy to study

gets to work immediately. “After the urchins are eaten by otters, you can see the kelp growing back in two weeks. It can be a very fast process,” Watson notes. On the other hand, without predatory sea otters to keep them in check, the herbivorous urchins soon graze the kelp to virtually nothing. This is how British Columbia’s sea urchin barrens came into being – the sea otters had been wiped out by hunting. No sea otters, no kelp forests.

BACK FROM THE BRINK Sea otters were wiped out in British Columbia by the 19thcentury fur trade. But in the late 1960s and 70s, 89 otters were reintroduced from Alaska to the west coast of Vancouver Island.They have since reproduced and expanded their range, and the population in the province is now almost 7,000 strong – in fact sea otters are doing so well here that in 2009 Canada downlisted the species from ‘Threatened’ to ‘Special Concern’. Just by being sea otters, they trigger dramatic ecological changes. Unlike other marine mammals, they do not have blubber to keep them warm in the cold waters of the Pacific Northwest. Instead they depend on their thick, luxurious fur coats (the thickest of any mammal) for insulation.The consequence of this unique adaptation is that their energetic requirements are very high – they have to eat up to 33 per cent of their body mass daily.

Unlike most other otter species, sea otters sometimes form groups. The largest recorded contained up to 2,000 individuals, an amazing sight, though a few dozen animals is more typical

Ecologists are now discovering the far-ranging benefits that these keystone predators bring to the table. One study has found that kelp forests are nearly 20 times larger on the west coast of Vancouver Island after otters eliminated urchins. Not only do kelp forests provide a productive and diverse nursery habitat for fish such as juvenile rockfish, they also slow down water flows and ensure that larvae from a variety of invertebrates such as abalone stay and grow in the kelp, rather than being swept away by currents to inhospitable habitats. Kelp forests also help reduce coastal erosion and play a role in controlling atmospheric carbon levels. “We need sea otters more than they need us,” says Tim Tinker, a wildlife biologist with the US Geological Survey. “Having the otters back as a functioning component of marine ecosystems is good for the ecosystems and good for us, as we rely on the ecosystems in so many ways.” Tinker studies sea otters in California, where they were also hard hit by the fur trade.The state once had 15,000–20,000 sea otters, but this population had crashed to just 50 individuals

Ecologists are now discovering the farranging benefits these keystone predators bring to the table

Vol. 8 Issue 8

45

NATURE

BRINGING UP BABY: MATERNAL CARE Uniquely among the world’s 12 otter species, sea otters give birth in the water. A mother floats on her back to nurture her young, holding the infant snugly on her chest to nurse it. The youngster suckles for five to eight months, until almost adult size. It’s exhausting to be a mother sea otter, which is why most bear one pup at a time – twins are rare – and don’t give birth every year.

In addition to producing milk, a mother has to spend extra time looking for food. A recent study found that daily energy demands faced by a sea otter mother in California increase by 17 per cent after giving birth. By the time the pup is weaned, mum’s energy demands are 96 per cent higher. Sea otter mothers can become so weak and run down that they are at risk of developing

off Big Sur by the early 20th century. Since receiving protection under the International Fur Seal Treaty in 1911, the otters have steadily expanded north and south along the coast of central California. Today there are roughly 3,000 sea otters in the region, and as their numbers grow, Tinker has been surprised by the sheer scale of their impact. These super-industrious ecosystem engineers have high site fidelity, a ferocious appetite and live their entire lives in small areas, so are capable of exerting a major influence on local ecosystems in most unanticipated ways. “The sea otter is the one predator that comes in and completely reduces populations of a few key species,” Tinker says.

COASTAL REGENERATION A good example of this can be seen at Elkhorn Slough, a major estuary in California’s Monterey Bay where Suzi Eszterhas took many of the stunning photographs his on these pages. A few years ago, g Tinker k and dh colleagues noticed how heaalthy and green some of the eelgrass beds looked in the Slough. Eelgrass beds are shrinking in many estuaries, ppartly ly nts ffrom agricultural because of excessive nutrien g l l run-off that promote the ovvergrowth h off algae l on the eelgrass. But not herre. Tinker and his team discovered a chain react action o in tthee foodoodweb that began with the otters’ comeback. b k. 46

Vol. 8 Issue 8

‘end-lactation syndrome’, which can be fatal as it leads to susceptibility to disease. “Some females put so much energy into their pups that they can’t recover afterwards,” says Melissa Miller of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. “It’s similar to running out of gas.” Truly these are some of the most devoted and hard-working mothers on the planet.

BELOW: A rare image of a sea otter preying on a grebe. Suzi Eszterhas was able to capture the unusual behaviour during a photographic project lasting several years

The otters caught vast numbers of crabs, and with fewer crabs to eat them, grazing invertebrates such as seaslugs in turn became more abundant and nibbled algae off seagrass leaves, ultimately reinvigorating the entire seagrass ecosystem. “I always thought of sea otters as predators of the outer coast,” Tinker says. “But Elkhorn Slough demonstrates an entirely new keystone role for otters in estuaries that we had no idea about.” Tinker is now studying the relationship of sea otters with saltmarshes in the estuary. He has found that as the otters eat burrowing crabs, the saltmarshes get healthier.These findings suggest that as sea otters recolonise other estuaries in California, they could play a crucial role in restoring imperilled habitats there too. Sea otters also help humans in other ways. Because they consume the same shellfish that we like to eat, and these shellfish can be sensitive to marine pollution, the otters effectively act as sentinels for the health of our coasts. coa “Sea otters are like a mirror, showingg us the impact p of th hings we’re putting Melissa Mille w p g in the h water,” explains pl l ller, a wildlife ldl f pathologist p h l g at the h California lf Department p t of Fish and Wildlife. W . A few years ago Miller discovered that 21 sea ottters had intoxication.The h d ddied d off microcystin y h toxin was pproduced bloom th d d by an algal lg l bl hat originated in a freshwater lak o ke and downstream ttravelled a e ed do st ea into to the

TOP: Sea otters may come ashore, here at California’s Elkhorn Slough estuary, but are awkward on land ABOVE LEFT: An otter uses its forepaws to block out the sun’s rays ABOVE RIGHT: Tim Tinker examines the teeth of a captured sea otter as part of a long-term study

ocean, where it was absorbed by the shellfish that the sea otters ate.The discovery was a wake-up call for the water authorities, which prompted by scientific data provided by the otter researchers took steps to clean up the lake.

RIVAL APPETITES The relationship between sea otters and people is not always an easy one. For while many view the otters’ return as a great environmental success story, ecological changes triggered by these endearing animals come at the expense of shellfish fisheries. When sea otter populations were historically low, the booming stocks of abalone, clams, crabs and urchins created a welcome harvest for North America’s native peoples and commercial fishers. Now, in all the places where otter numbers are expanding, from Alaska to California, their appetite causes conflict with the people who have become dependent on shellfish for their economic as well as cultural value. “By the time sea otters arrive, it takes about two years before you can’t fish there any more,” says Mike Featherstone, president of the Pacific Urchin Harvesters Association.

These super-industrious ecosystem engineers have high site fidelity and a ferocious appetite

“In the second year, you find nothing but broken urchins. We know there will be no urchin fishery eventually. Otters are like a rat in the sea – they eat everything, but luckily for them they are cute.” Tensions are running particularly high in the abalone fishery. In British Columbia northern abalone is listed as Endangered, and so is black abalone in California. Abalone fishermen blame the demise of abalone on sea otters, even though overfishing is thought to be primarily responsible for the plight of these invertebrates. Researchers have demonstrated that the otters do not drive abalone to extinction – instead they influence their prey’s abundance, size and behaviour. In the absence of otters, abalone grew big and settled in the open where human fishers could easily harvest them. But where otters hunted them, the invertebrates avoided predation by moving to greater depths and hiding in crevices; over time the abalone even get thinner to fit narrow cracks. In California, a study led by Tim Tinker showed that black abalone actually occurred at higher densities in the very places where sea otters had been present longest. One possible explanation for this unexpected result is that as otters eat urchins and promote kelp growth, they indirectly provide more food for the grazing abalone. “Abalone and sea otters are not enemies: they truly co-evolved and depend on each other,” says Lilian Carswell of the US Fish and Wildlife Service, an expert Vol. 8 Issue 8

47

NATURE

HOW TO SEE SEA OTTERS

on sea otter ecology.While shellfish harvesters may lose out to otters in the short term, the long-term benefits that otters provide will eventually outweigh the pain that some coastal communities feel now. “It is shocking for people to see how the marine environment changes when sea otters first turn up,” Carswell acknowledges. “But the hope is that over time people forgive, forget and move on.”

ANCIENT EVIDENCE In British Columbia Iain McKechnie, an anthropologist at the University of Victoria, is looking into the past for evidence that First Nations communities and sea otters lived in balance long before the fur trade. By examining sea otter bones dating back 5,000 years found in archeological middens, he has concluded that these native peoples hunted otters and kept them away from specific shellfish-harvesting areas near village sites. “These people would actively hunt otters to prevent parts of their clam-digging beaches from being targeted, as the otters would otherwise eat all of the clams there, just like a deer that gets into your garden,” McKechnie says. Perhaps these traditional management practices could now guide First Nations people as they find ways to live with the burgeoning population of sea otters. Today, while people adjust to the reality of the sea otters’ spectacular return, the animals also face a variety of other threats. A large oil spill would be devastating, despite state-of-the art facilities to rescue oiled otters. “It would be a terrible tragedy and the proportion of oiled otters you can save is small,”

• If you want to find sea otters yourself, California’s top locations are Monterey Bay – especially near Monterey Bay Aquarium, Elkhorn Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve and Moss Landing Harbor – and Point Lobos State Marine Reserve in Carmel. Further north, in Washington state, you will also find sea otters in Olympic National Park, though views can be distant • Wildlife tour companies offering sea otter watching in Monterey Bay include Naturetrek (01962 733051,www.naturetrek.co.uk)

TOP: Sea otters can become very approachable, as here at Moss Landing Harbor, pictured with some California sealions

There is real excitement about the sea otters’ recovery and their massive potential

48

Vol. 8 Issue 8

and Speyside Wildlife (01479 812498, www.speysidewildlife. co.uk) as well as numerous local operators • In Canada and Alaska, sea otters are often best seen from the water. Companies offering cruises include Reef & Rainforest (01803 866965, http://reefandrainforest.co.uk) and Wildlife Worldwide (01962 302086, www.wildlifeworldwide. com). Or take a kayak tour like those run by Kingfisher Wilderness Adventures (020 3239 7378, http://kingfisher.ca)

says Carswell. Then there is the threat posed by rising ocean temperatures, leading to more frequent algal blooms that put sea otters at higher risk of exposure to domoic acid, which can be fatal. In California, meanwhile, one of the main causes of death in sea otters is predation by great white sharks. Shark attacks have dramatically increased over the past 10 years in the south of the otters’ range. “This is now a real impediment to sea otter recovery,” says Carswell. Yet despite these problems there is real excitement about the sea otters’ recovery and their massive potential as ecosystem engineers. Carswell dreams about what might happen if one day they recolonised their entire historic range. “When sea otters return, there are all kinds of ecological connections that we couldn’t possibly have imagined,” she says. “So what else are we missing? What other magical connections might be restored if sea otters return to some of their former haunts?” ß

ISABELLE GROC IS AN ENVIRONMENT WRITER: WWW.TIDELIFE.CA. ENJOY MORE OF SUZI ESZTERHAS’ SEA OTTER PHOTOS AT WWW.DISCOVERWILDLIFE.COM

HISTORY

History

under attack

RECENT CONFLICTS IN THE MIDDLE EAST HAVE SEEN THE DESTRUCTION OF SOME OF THE REGION’S MOST IMPORTANT ANTIQUITIES. PROFESSOR PETER STONE OFFERS HIS OPINION ON HOW WE CAN PREVENT SIMILAR LOSSES OF HISTORICAL TREASURES IN THE FUTURE

GETTY IMAGES

Culture crime A US tank takes up position outside the plundered National Museum of Iraq, Baghdad in April 2003. “The general breakdown of law and order in Iraq [in the wake of the coalition invasion] heralded almost endemic looting,” says Peter Stone

Vol. 8 Issue 8

49

HISTORY

T

protocols, citing lack of parliamentary time as the reason on an annual basis since 2004. Sadly, the looting of museums, libraries, archives and archaeological sites that followed the invasion is a well-known story. Despite our warnings, all museums and many other cultural institutions were plundered. The only reasons the impact was less catastrophic than it might have been was the decision by most of the Iraqi army not to mount a credible defence, coupled with the courage of the staff of these institutions who, in some instances going against the direct orders of Saddam Hussein, removed and concealed as much as possible.The archaeological sites fared far worse.The breakdown of law and order

It appears to be an accepted fact that cultural property will be damaged. Where there is war, places and things get destroyed

Ransacked A wrecked sculpture at the National Museum of Iraq. Looters opened the museum vault and grabbed treasures dating back to the dawn of civilisation 50

Vol. 8 Issue 8

heralded, in some parts of the country, almost endemic looting. I believe the coalition must accept some of the blame for this. It could have protected museums and other institutions, as it did other vulnerable buildings, such as the central bank and various government ministries.While it would have been impossible to deploy troops to protect all archaeological sites, the coalition could have taken practical measures to reduce the looting – by, for example, buying crops that would have given local people greater financial stability. It could have also continued to pay tribal site guards to deter looters.

WHAT WE HAVE LOST But what happened in Iraq cannot be blamed entirely on the military. Equally critical was the failure of political planners to understand the importance of cultural property and heritage, especially in the context of a western-led coalition invading a Middle Eastern country. A far more uncomfortable failure must be attributed to the heritage sector, which allowed the close relationship it had developed with the military during the 20th century to wither.We may never know how much we have lost; we will never know how much we could have learnt. It appears to be an accepted fact that cultural property will be damaged and destroyed during armed conflict. However, military theorists, from Sun Tzu in sixth-century BC China to von Clausewitz in 19th-century Europe, have argued that allowing the cultural property of your enemy to be destroyed – or worse, destroying it on purpose – is bad military practice.This is because it immediately makes a population less easy to govern and provides the first reason for the next conflict. Protection of cultural property during war was first enshrined in law in the 1863 Instructions for the Government of Armies of the United States in the Field, which stated: “Classical works of art, libraries, scientific collections… must be secured against all avoidable injury…” Fast-forward half a century, and the First World War saw positive action. Capturing Jerusalem in 1917, the British general Edmund Allenby instructed that “every sacred building, monument, holy spot, shrine, traditional site… of the three religions will be maintained and protected”. Showing an understanding of cultural sensitivities, Allenby ensured that Muslim troops from the Indian army were deployed to protect important Islamic sites. Despite Allenby’s efforts, the First World War wrought enormous damage on European

EYEVINE

he beginning was not auspicious. The exchange – “Isn’t there some archaeology that we should be avoiding?” “Yes, I know a bloke, I’ll ask him at the weekend” – had taken place in the Ministry of Defence on 29 January 2003, just two months before the USA/UK-led coalition invaded Iraq to enforce ‘regime change’. I was that bloke: the wrong person – I knew little of the detailed archaeology of the region – at the wrong time. Most coalition troops were already ‘in theatre’, objectives set, their maps in hand (with no museums, libraries, archives or archaeological sites marked), and with little appetite for additional tasks, let alone training. With help from colleagues in the UK and Iraq – we couldn’t mention the latter, as their lives would have been under threat – we produced a list of 36 sites, from the Palaeolithic to Islamic, that were perhaps the most important not to damage.We stressed the vulnerability of these sites in any interregnum, and we emphasised the international humanitarian law (IHL) within which the coalition was obliged to work. Unfortunately, neither the US nor the UK had ratified the primary relevant IHL – the 1954 Hague Convention on the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict, and its two protocols of 1954 and 1999. The USA eventually ratified the convention in 2009. But the UK has still failed to ratify either the convention or

GETTY IMAGES

Safe keeping American soldiers in Germany, 1945, recover paintings stolen by the Nazis. The Allies went to great lengths to protect cultural property during the Second World War

heritage and, as a result, the international community was still debating how to better protect cultural property during conflict on the eve of the Second World War. From 1939–45, the protection of cultural property was widely regarded as the responsibility of combatants – and the Allies, (as well as some elements of Axis forces) took this responsibility seriously. The Allies’ Monuments Men (officially the ‘Monuments, Fine Arts and Archives’ unit) made enormous efforts to protect cultural property in all theatres of the war.The unit had the full backing of Dwight D Eisenhower, the Supreme Allied Commander, who wrote before the Normandy landings reminding troops that: “Inevitably, in the path of our advance will be found historical monuments and cultural centres which symbolise to the world all that we are fighting to preserve. It is the responsibility of every commander to protect and respect these symbols wherever possible… ” Many cultural sites, buildings and collections were destroyed, but the Allies did try to limit the destruction. Unfortunately, little was done after the war to continue the work of these conscriptsoldiers and, despite the 1954 Hague Convention, by 2003 few military forces retained anything other than a superficial expertise, or commitment to, the protection of cultural property. Events in Iraq would, tragically, bear this out. Cultural property is damaged and destroyed specifically during conflict for all kinds of reasons. Sometimes protection is not regarded as important enough to include in pre-

Casualty of war The remains of an artefact destroyed by the so-called Islamic State in Palmyra, pictured in April this year after the ancient Semitic city was retaken by Syrian government forces

conflict planning. At other times it is regarded as a legitimate ‘spoil of war’, or it becomes collateral damage.Throw in a lack of military awareness, looting, ‘enforced neglect’, specific targeting and you have a potent combination of threats. While perhaps little can be done about the last two of these, at least under the 1999 second Protocol of the 1954 Convention and the 1998 Statute of the International Criminal Court, intentional damage and destruction can now be treated as a war crime. As for the first five threats, they can, and should, be mitigated through a closer relationship between cultural heritage professionals and those groups most involved in conflict – politicians, the military and other emergency agencies. All parties must have a clearer understanding of the multifaceted values of cultural property.

MORE MONUMENTS MEN For all that, positive steps have been taken – led by Unesco and the Blue Shield, a voluntary organisation frequently referred to as the “cultural equivalent of the Red Cross/ Crescent”. For example, Nato is considering developing a cultural property doctrine; the UK and US are actively considering reestablishing units similar to the Monuments Men; European militaries have met annually over the last six years at ‘Coping with Culture’ conferences; the British have had their own ‘Culture in Conflict’ symposium for eight years; a key Nato-affiliated training centre has just published Cultural Property Protection Makes Sense; and armed forces from Mali to Cambodia to New Zealand, and across Europe

are beginning to integrate cultural property protection into their training. In another encouraging development, lists of cultural treasures have been produced for Iraq, Libya, Mali, Syria and Yemen – with clear evidence that such information protected sites in Libya. Meanwhile, two Serbian officers were imprisoned for the 1991 shelling (not justified by military necessity) of the World Heritage site of Dubrovnik. And Ahmad Al Mahdi, an alleged member of the militant Islamist group Ansar Dine, is currently on trial at the International Criminal Court for the destruction of cultural property in Timbuktu in 2012. Of course, heritage is still being targeted specifically as exemplified by the appalling destruction of parts of the World Heritage site of Palmyra by the so-called Islamic State. In 2015, the UK government, acknowledging the gravity of the situation across the Middle East for cultural property of national and international significance, announced the creation of a Cultural Protection Fund. We need to make sure that this funding is spent in a strategic, coherent way, and I hope the government will deliver on its commitment to ratify the Hague Convention. While cultural heritage experts are never going to stop war, we can perhaps help to better protect our common human heritage. ß

PROFESSOR PETER STONE OBE IS UNESCO CHAIR IN CULTURAL PROPERTY PROTECTION AND PEACE AT NEWCASTLE UNIVERSITY Vol. 8 Issue 8

51

Scan this QR Code for the audio reader 52

Vol. 8 Issue 8

PHOTO: ALAMY

SCIENCE

HOW WE’LL

CAPTURE

A BLACK HOLE

NEXT YEAR, AN EARTH-SIZED TELESCOPE WILL ATTEMPT TO PHOTOGRAPH A BLACK HOLE FOR THE FIRST TIME, AND ITS IMAGES COULD MAKE OR BREAK THE LAWS OF PHYSICS AS WE KNOW THEM WORDS: COLIN STUART

radio dish swivels above vast plains of Antarctic ice, while another scans the skies almost 5,000 metres above sea level in the Chilean desert. Meanwhile, cosmic signals are pinging into receivers in California, Arizona, Hawaii, Mexico and Spain. Despite the distances between them, these radio dishes all form part of the same audacious project: a telescope the size of the Earth itself. This is the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) and by this time next year, we’ll have used it to see into the heart of a black hole.

A

Vol. 8 Issue 8

53

SCIENCE 4 1

1

2

THE ANATOMY OF A BLACK HOLE

ERGOSPHERE

The region beyond the event horizon of a black hole where gravity starts to have an influence on objects.

2

3

ACCRETION DISC

Matter attracted towards a black hole spirals around it. Infalling material becomes superheated, leading to the emission of X-ray radiation.

3

5

EVENT HORIZON

The point at which the speed required to escape from the black hole exceeds the speed of light. Effectively the point of no return. 4

JET

Jets of matter are thought to form when material in the accretion disc interacts with magnetic fields close to the event horizon. 5

SINGULARITY

All matter falling into a black hole gets crushed into this infinitely small and dense point.

“They are the most terrifying objects in the Universe,” says Shep Doeleman, a member of the EHT team based at MIT’s Haystack Observatory.

BREAKING GENERAL RELATIVITY Our best picture of the environment around the event horizon of a black hole is laid out by Einstein’s General Relativity. His equations, formulated over 100 years ago, describe how mass warps the fabric of space around it. However, many physicists suspect that in the strongest gravity fields its descriptive power might wane. “The event horizon of a black hole is the one place in the Universe where General Relativity might break down,” says Doeleman. Finding a chink in its armour would be a real boon

ALMA will soon be linked up to the Event Horizon Telescope. ALMA is located at an altitude of 5,000m in the Atacama Desert because the high and arid environment is essential to the function of the equipment

54

Vol. 8 Issue 8

PHOTOS: GETTY, ESO

Ordinary black holes are gargantuan relics formed by the deaths of the largest stars, those with masses tens of times that of the Sun. Even more brutal versions, with masses running into the equivalent of millions of stars, lurk deep in the heart of galaxies like our Milky Way. But while their masses are mighty, they are also the most compact objects in the cosmos. This extreme density leads to an incredibly fierce gravitational pull, one that twists and contorts the fabric of space around it. At a certain point – the event horizon – the black hole’s power is so strong that even a beam of light is helpless to resist the relentless pull of gravity. The curvature of space is so extreme here that all escape routes simply lead straight back into the black hole.

for physicists, who have long sought a happy marriage between General Relativity and quantum theory. If General Relativity could be shown to be flawed, it might provide an insight into a deeper, more fundamental theory of the Universe. So far, General Relativity has passed every test with flying colours, including the recent discovery of gravitational waves from colliding black holes. But we’ve only ever probed it in relatively weak gravitational fields. According to Prof Dimitrios Psaltis, a theoretical physicist at the University of Arizona, the tidal forces associated with galactic black holes are up to 100 million times stronger than those linked to the colliding black holes detected by the LIGO consortium in September last year. That makes supermassive black holes a natural laboratory for experimenting with Einstein’s ideas. The key will be looking at the black hole’s ‘shadow’. “Because of the strong gravity of the black hole, you wind up seeing a ring of light around it,” says Doeleman. This ring is formed by light that is initially moving away from you but is bent back around towards you by the black hole. The shadow is the dark area inside the ring. Einstein’s equations predict it should be roughly circular. Any significant deviation from a circular shadow would violate General Relativity. Far and away the best black hole for this test is Sgr A* – the monster at the Milky Way’s centre. Astronomers have been peering into the centre of

“We need a resolution 2,000 times greater than that of the Hubble Space Telescope” the Galaxy since the mid-1990s, charting the passage of stars as they appear to orbit around something invisible. From the way these stars move, we know the black hole must tip the scales at about four million solar masses (one solar mass is equivalent to the mass of the Sun). Yet, for these stars to remain in stable orbits, its event horizon must be relatively small. “It’s about a third of the orbit of Mercury,” says Doeleman.

RESOLUTION SOLUTION Testing the shape of Sgr A*’s shadow is only possible if we can see what’s going on around its event horizon. But that’s easier said than done. Not only is the event horizon physically small, it is also 26,000 light-years away, making it really tricky to hone in on. Of course, the smaller an object appears in the sky, the greater resolution your telescope requires in order to see it. “We need a resolution 2,000 times greater than that of the Hubble Space Telescope,” says Doeleman. That’s the equivalent of being able to resolve a grapefruit on the Moon. As a general rule, the bigger the diameter of your ’scope,

Vol. 8 Issue 8

55

SCIENCE

9

2

3

French Alps

10

Arizona, USA Mauna Kea, Hawaii 4 8

6

5

Granada, Spain

1

7

Volcan Sierra Negra, Mexico

11 2 3

Chajnantor plateau, Chile

11

Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station

EVENT HORIZON TELESCOPE To photograph a black hole, scientists will need an Earth-sized telescope. This means they will need to call in data from telescopes all around the planet TELESCOPE 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

56

Arizona Radio Observatory Submillimeter Telescope Atacama Pathfinder Experiment (APEX) Atacama Submillimeter Telescope Experiment (ASTE) Caltech Submillimeter Observatory (CSO) Institut de Radioastronomie Observatory (IRAM) James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT) The Large Millimeter Telescope (LMT) The Submillimeter Array (SMA) Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) Plateau de Bure Interferometer South Pole Telescope Vol. 8 Issue 8

LOCATION

TELESCOPE TYPE

Arizona Chajnantor plateau, Chile Chajnantor plateau, Chile Mauna Kea, Hawaii Granada, Spain Mauna Kea, Hawaii Volcan Sierra Negra, Mexico Mauna Kea, Hawaii Chajnantor plateau, Chile French Alps Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station

Microwave Infrared and radio Microwave Microwave Radio Far IR, microwave Radio Radio Radio Radio Microwave, radio

PHOTOS: NAOJ, JOHN MALLON III/NSF, ESO X2 ILLUSTRATION: ACUTE GRAPHICS

9

SGR A* BLACK HOLE IN FOCUS ´ Discovered by astronomer Karl Jansky in February the higher its resolution. Hence the enormous separation needed between the EHT’s component dishes. Using a technique known as Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI), astronomers can combine the radio signals arriving at dishes on four continents and get the same view as if they had a single dish the size of their total separation – a planet-sized telescope. The logistics behind such a task are extreme. In order to join up the signals received by these farf lung dishes, the team is using accurate atomic clocks to note their precise arrival times at the different telescopes. The volume of information required means that 64GB of data, an iPad’s worth, is recorded for every second of observation. Hundreds of terabytes of data are stored on memory drives in a single session and these are then f lown to a central facility at MIT where only then are they are synced up to provide a picture of a celestial object.

SNAPPING SPACE Despite the many challenges, the project is well underway, with many telescopes already linked up. The first observations were made back in 2006, and subsequent explorations have been made of Sgr A*. However, the current EHT resolution isn’t quite up to peering directly at the event horizon. But that is about to change. The EHT will soon welcome an impressive new partner to its ranks – the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in Chile. “In one stroke that will increase our sensitivity by a factor of 10,” says Doeleman. ALMA is a huge bank of radio dishes that work together as one. Researchers have already tested out a way to add 30 of ALMA’s receivers to the EHT. In April, they flew to various EHT sites to further test ALMA’s addition to the system. “The idea is to get it ready for full-on observations in the spring of 2017,” Doeleman says. So we’re potentially just a year away from the

GALAXY M87 IN FOCUS ´ Discovered by French astronomer Charles Messier in 1781

´ Located 53.5 million light-years from Earth in the constellation of Virgo in the centre of the Milky Way

´ Galaxy estimated to weigh

1974 when he detected radio waves coming from the centre of the Milky Way

´ Located 26,000 light-years from Earth in the constellation of Sagittarius

´ Thought to weigh about four million solar masses

´ Measures 44 million km across

event horizon of a black hole sharpening into view for the first time. And that will do more than simply test General Relativity. The four million solar mass supermassive black hole at the centre of the Milky Way may seem large, but it pales in comparison to the seven billion solar mass leviathan lurking at the centre of the galaxy M87. M87 is an elliptical galaxy, and its most striking feature is a vast jet that erupts 5,000 light-years away from its centre. Previous observations with the EHT have looked deep into the base of the M87 jet, but exactly what causes it isn’t clear. It’s believed to be related to matter falling towards the black hole and interacting with strong magnetic fields, but getting a view nearer to the event horizon is key. “We want to know how matter gets loaded onto the magnetic field lines and gets ejected,” explains Psaltis. “These are things we currently have to infer, but future observations with the EHT will be the first time we’ll be able to do it snapshot by snapshot.” Observing how matter gathers around black holes, a process known as accretion, could also give us an insight into why the Milky Way’s central black hole seems to be on what Doeleman calls a ‘starvation diet’. Only 1 per cent of the surrounding material is thought to make it to the event horizon. As this matter spirals in, it becomes superheated and gives off X-ray radiation. So, if Sgr A* had a more substantial appetite, it is likely the Milky Way would be f looded with a lot more high-energy radiation. That fact that it isn’t might help explain why biology has been able to thrive within it. So not only will next year’s EHT observations provide the sternest test yet of General Relativity, they might begin to tell us why we’re even here to test it. ß

around 2.7 trillion solar masses

´ Measures 120,000 light-years across

COLIN STUART (@SKYPONDERER) IS AN ASTRONOMY WRITER AND AUTHOR OF THE BIG QUESTIONS IN SCIENCE Vol. 8 Issue 8

57

NATURE

Perhaps the least-known carnivore in Europe, the common genet may have been introduced from Africa. It is a sleek, cat-like animal of roughly similar size to a fox but of much slighter build 58

Vol. 8 Issue 8

SPOTTED SPAIN HANDSOME YET OVERLOOKED, THE GENET IS ONE OF EUROPE’S MOST MYSTERIOUS CARNIVORES. BUT A PHOTOGRAPHER IN EXTREMADURA HAS GAINED NEW INSIGHTS INTO ITS SECRET LIFE. DAVID LINDO REPORTS PHOTOS BY JOSÉ-ELÍAS RODRÍGUEZ VÁZQUEZ

s I crouched in front of a tree trunk on the edge of a Spanish woodland, miles from the nearest urban street light, questions whirled around my head.The sun was close to setting, though I wouldn’t have known it from looking at the sky due to the thick, enveloping cloud that stretched to the horizon. It was a surprisingly chilly February evening, given that I was in Extremadura in south-west Spain, and I was beginning to wonder if I was a tad underdressed. My mental musings concerned my quarry at this secret site.Would it appear, and what would it look like? How would it behave? It was an animal that I barely knew anything about, had never really even thought about and had certainly never seen before: a common genet. In fact until recently I didn’t even know anyone who had seen one in the wild. However, here I was with the awardwinning wildlife photographer JoséElías Rodriguez Vázquez awaiting

A

the appearance of not one but three apparently very approachable common genets he had discovered and staked out. An assiduous naturalist, José-Elías knows every inch of the countryside that surrounds his home near Alange, in the south of the province.The local habitat includes olive plantations, holm oak woodlands and reservoirs, all bordered in the near distance by a range of mountains. It is a very picturesque landscape; it’s no wonder he says that the common genets love it here. José-Elías first became aware of the existence of the genets by chance during the autumn of 2012, when he noticed their scats in a tiny, isolated woodland surrounded by olive plantations near his home. Genets create latrines to mark the borders of their territory.These are normally sited in conspicuous places, such as on rocks. Their scats are curved with a pointed end, and contain a lot of fur and other indigestible parts from the animals’ prey. José-Elías’ genets had

Vol. 8 Issue 8

59

NATURE

deposited their dung on a dead tree stump, and after a while these piles of droppings had become dry and brittle, breaking up into short pieces but still recognisable. Having made the discovery José-Elías decided to set up camera-traps where he thought that the animals roamed, and play the patience game. Despite his initial optimism, for the first few nights he recorded nothing. A week later, though, he got what he was after: a shot of an adult common genet. He was ecstatic at the great opportunity to photograph an animal that he had only glimpsed twice in his life. Though the species is thought to be distributed throughout southern Spain, most of the local people are

José was ecstatic at the Opportunity to photograph an animal that he had only glimpsed twice in his life completely unaware that they are sharing their country with such an exotic creature. In fact no one even knows how many genets there are in Europe – the Spanish Society for the Conservation and Study of Mammals says that no study has been commissioned on them, nor are there any guesstimates of the Spanish population.

A VERY UNUSUAL FAMILY Genets, along with civets, belong to a diverse family distributed throughout Africa and Asia. Most of the species are poorly known because of their nocturnal habits. The current range of the common genet includes parts of Southern Africa (from Namibia to Mozambique in the east), a band of sub-Saharan Africa (from Senegal east to the Horn of Africa), the Arabian Peninsula and North Africa. Common genets are also found throughout the Iberian Peninsula, north into southern and western France. They favour Mediterranean oak and pine woodlands, scrubland and rocky areas, typically with a source of water nearby. Genets spotted elsewhere in Europe are believed to have escaped from captivity. There are two schools of thought as to how common genets spread into Europe. Some think that the animals in the Iberian Peninsula are a remnant population isolated after the Gibraltar land bridge was breached by the Mediterranean Sea more than three million years ago. A size variation, with smaller specimens in the north of the range, suggests that the European distribution of the genet has been natural.The second theory is that they were brought as pets to Iberia by the Moors.They are affectionate and easily house-trained, and are thought to have been kept as rat-catchers until the modern domestic cat superseded them in the Middle Ages. What is known for sure is that the populations on the Balearic Islands were most certainly introduced by humans. The genets found on Ibiza, for example, are smaller than their counterparts in mainland Spain and seem to resemble a form of the feline genet, a closely related species in Africa. 60

Vol. 8 Issue 8

ABOVE: This genet has just snapped to attention after spotting some birds, adopting a pose that will be familiar to anyone who has a pet cat THIS IMAGE: The genet’s retractable claws make it a superb climber

Common genets are often found near pools or rivers The soft, dense coat varies from whitish-grey to pale yellow

GENETS IN EUROPE Though little-studied in Europe, the common genet seems to be well established in Portugal, Spain, southern and western France, Ibiza and Majorca (below). Sightings

CAMERA-TRAP DISCOVERY in Belgium, Switzerland, Germany and Italy are likely to be a handful of escapees. The species’ main range is North and sub-Saharan Africa, Yemen and Oman.

Common genet range in Europe FRANCE ATLANTIC OCEAN

SPAIN

MEDITERRANEAN SEA

PORTUGAL

MAJORCA IBIZA

ALGERIA

Whatever the origins of his genets, José-Elías took full advantage of their acceptance of his camera-traps. Theorising that they must have gotten used to his scent, he decided to take a risk and try photographing them in person. His hunch paid off, because only minutes after he had settled into position, out in the open and without a hide, a genet appeared and foraged around him with little concern. Over three months of daily visits José-Elías built up the animal’s trust, and his patience was rewarded one evening when two individuals arrived to root about at close range. He even received an unexpected and very welcoming gift on Christmas Day that year, when a third individual joined the duo. As José-Elías had discovered, common genets are interesting creatures. They resemble the love child of a cat crossed with a smidgen of mongoose and a touch of marten, with a soupçon of lemur thrown in for good measure. About the size of a short-legged tabby, they are essentially grey-brown with a distinctive blend of black stripes and spots: their flanks and legs are spotted while a black stripe runs from their shoulders along their spines to the base of their long, bushy, ringed tail. They have a relatively small head and a pointed muzzle with small, erect ears. The face is well marked with the Vol. 8 Issue 8

61

CIVETS AND PERFUME-MAKING Practically all of the Viverridae family of mammals scent-mark. The scent, which is called civet, carries information about the sex, age and individual identity of each animal. The term ‘civet’ derives from zabel, an Arabic word that describes the pervading fluid and its odour secreted from the perineal glands, usually located between the genitals and the anus. The secretion is yellowish but turns brown with age, and the odour can last upwards of three months. Genet scent apparently has a subtle and pleasing allure, though the scent left by true civets is powerful and disagreeable. Common genets scent-mark by squatting, but males also leave scent on elevated objects by assuming a handstand posture.

62

Vol. 8 Issue 8

However, when they do this they are thought to be leaving behind a scent derived from their urine rather than civet. Civet oil used to play a key role in the perfume industry. In high concentration it can smell putrid, but in minute traces it is quite pleasant. The oil was forcibly collected from caged animals using a special spoon, a distressing process that sometimes resulted in injuries. Nonetheless in ancient times civet oil was much cherished for its odour, its ability to exalt other aromatic compounds, and its duration. Fortunately, the collection of civet oil for perfume is now dying out, though some countries in East Africa and the Far East still ship large quantities for so-called medicinal purposes.

strong black-and-white designs around the muzzle that are so typical of many nocturnal predators. Most species of genet share the retractable claws and the feline look of cats, and indeed common genets have been observed adopting the same defensive posture when they feel threatened, arching their backs with their dorsal and tail hairs erect while hissing through bared teeth.

STEALTHY HUNTERS Keen eyesight and a lithe build make genets proficient hunters. They are generally unobtrusive animals, hence their low profile in Spain and elsewhere, feeding mostly on small mammals and occasionally small birds, reptiles, amphibians and fish, as well as invertebrates. They are excellent users of stealth, stalking their prey in a series of speedy dashes punctuated by short pauses. They are often described as quiet animals, but they do vocalise occasionally and their kits can purr. Females sometimes utter a hiccupping sound to their young and, in a nod to their feline roots, copulating adults meow and the female will utter a growl when she ushers the male away. In Europe common genets can breed all year but tend to produce two to four young between April and September. The kits are born in a vegetation-lined nest in a tree or burrow. They are blind at birth but their eyes are open by the

4

OTHER UNEXPECTED MAMMALS IN EUROPE

SIBERIAN CHIPMUNK Originally native to forests in Northern Asia, this small, striped squirrel is popular as a pet. During the 1970s escapees established wild populations in Western Europe, especially in Belgium and around Paris, which now threaten ground-nesting birds.

RACCOON DOG This bandit-masked member of the dog family is from East Asia, but when the USSR introduced it to the wild to help support the fur trade it soon spread. Now found in much of North and East Europe, it is considered one of the continent’s most troublesome invasive mammals.

COYPU Native to South America, the coypu, or nutria, is a semi-aquatic rodent. It spread from Eastern Europe to France after escaping from fur farms, and is considered a pest as it burrows into bankss. A population in East Anglia was officially exterminaated by 1989.

CRESTED PORCUPINE This nocturnal spiny species is Africa’s largest and heaviest rodent. The Romans are often held responsible for its introduction to the Italian mainland and Sicily, though fossils suggest that its presence there could date from 126,000–5,000 years ago.

time they start to venture from the nest eight days later. They are weaned after six months, becoming independent after a year and sexually mature after two. Genets are proficient climbers too, but happily for an eager photographer seem to spend a lot of their time on the ground.They are also rather solitary, with one study finding that males command territories of up to 113ha and females up to 72ha. Of the two sexes, the female appears to be the more territorial.

ANCIENT LINEAGE The genet and civet family, Viverridae, appears to represent an ancient family of feliform lineage that branched off. Throughout the world there are generally considered to be 34 species in the family, though further taxonomic research may alter this number. A number of them are sadly of conservation concern, largely due to the threat of habitat destruction. Currently the clan includes six species of large terrestrial civets, 17 species of the slender and semi-arboreal genets and oyans, about four species of banded palm civets and the strange aquatic otter civets. Finally there are at least seven very arboreal species that include another group of palm civets and the curious black and hairy binturong from Asia, which is also known as the bearcat.

TOP LEFT: Common genets are most active straight after sunset and just before sunrise, and by day rest in hollow trees or among thickets TOP RIGHT: Adults tend to be solitary, though the home ranges of males and females may well overlap

The oddest member of the tribe is the fosa from Madagascar. It is a very cat-like animal that is highly arboreal and preys on lemurs as its food of choice. One of the unusual things about the fosa is that it is the only known mammal where young females temporarily develop masculine characteristics before returning to be fully feminine in adulthood.The Viverridae family also once included mongooses, with which they share several traits. However, recent molecular studies have concluded that the mongoose is more closely related to hyenas. Back at my stakeout it was nearly dark, and I was beginning to dream of a tapas dinner washed down with a good Spanish wine when I heard a rustle.Three genets

Genets stalk their prey in a series of speedy dashes punctuated by short pauses appeared in front of me, foraging in the low branches and on the ground. José-Elías later told me that it was a female with two well-grown kits.They paid no heed to either of us; one even approached to within 20cm of where we sat. Whether they were descendants of medieval pets or bona fide natives from millennia ago didn’t matter to me – I was in heaven either way. I may never see another wild genet in my life, but at least I now have a connection with a special creature whose secret life I glimpsed one cold winter’s night in Spain. ß

DAVID LINDO, THE ‘URBAN BIRDER’, IS A NATURALIST, PRESENTER AND AUTHOR WHO FEATURES ON THIS YEAR’S SPRINGWATCH. IN 2015 HE ORGANISED THE POLL THAT SAW THE ROBIN VOTED BRITAIN’S FIRST NATIONAL BIRD: WWW. THEURBANBIRDER.COM Vol. 8 Issue 8

63

HISTORY

THE TUDORS

behind closed

Scan this QR Code for the audio reader 64

Vol. 8 Issue 8

Happy family? A 19th-century painting shows Henry VIII playing with his son, the future Edward VI. The young girl with Edward is probably Princess Mary and the girl to the left almost certainly her half-sister, Elizabeth. Henry would, no doubt, have approved of this benign portrayal of the royal nursery but life in the Tudor inner sanctum rarely matched the idealised image

BRIDGEMAN

Doors

WAS HENRY VIII A HYPOCHONDRIAC? DID ELIZABETH I WISH THAT SHE WAS A MAN? AND COULD MARY I HAVE BEEN ADDICTED TO GAMBLING? TRACY BORMAN REVEALS THE PRIVATE REALITY BEHIND THE WELL-CRAFTED PUBLIC IMAGE OF THE TUDORS’ LIVES…

Vol. 8 Issue 8

65

HISTORY

Henry VIII THE MYTH

Henry VII THE MYTH

He was a dour old miser Henry VII has long had the reputation of a penny-pinching killjoy whose only pleasure in life was to scrutinise his accounts and swell the royal coffers. But there was a good deal more to the first Tudor king than that. True, he was careful with money to the point of parsimony, but he also knew how to spend it when the occasion demanded. One of his first acts upon becoming king after defeating Richard III at Bosworth in 1485 was to order a lavish new set of clothes. During the two years that followed, he spent a staggering £5,386 (equivalent to US$4m today) on his wardrobe. Although he liked to appear as a sober-minded and pious king, in private Henry was much more light-hearted. His household accounts reveal that he was fond of playing cards, even though he regularly suffered heavy losses – most notably in June 1492, when he was obliged to raid the royal coffers for £40 (US$26,000 today) in order to pay off his creditor. Physically fit from his years of campaigning, Henry held regular jousts and liked to play tennis, and later in his reign he employed two professional players to act as coaches. The king also employed a fool, a troop of minstrels, lute players, pipers, dancers and a group of singing children. 66

Vol. 8 Issue 8

The new king had other pleasures too. There is evidence to suggest that he bedded his beautiful wife, Elizabeth of York, before they were married. Their first child, Arthur, was born just eight months after the wedding. Although it had begun as a political marriage, Henry grew to love his wife deeply and he was grief-stricken when she died in 1503, having given birth to no fewer than seven children. But Henry was not content to stay a widower for long. Among the nubile young brides that the middle-aged king considered marrying was Joanna, Queen of Naples, who was more than 20 years his junior. This was more than just a diplomatic move: Henry instructed his ambassadors to describe in great detail every aspect of Joanna’s appearance – the colour of her hair, the condition of her teeth, the size and shape of her nose, the smoothness of her complexion, even whether she had hair on her upper lip. They should also, he demanded, pay particular attention to “her breasts... whether they be big or small”.

THE TRUTH

He was a pleasureloving king with an eye for the ladies

Henry VIII stood – literally – head and shoulders above the rest of his court. At 6ft 2ins tall, with a 42-inch chest and a 32-inch waist, he was an imposing, athletic figure. “Among a thousand noble companions, the king stands out the tallest, and his strength fits his majestic body,” enthused Thomas More. “There is fiery power in his eyes, beauty in his face, and the colour of twin roses in his cheeks.” But behind this impressive façade lay a hypochondriac who was regularly thrown into a panic at any sign of illness at court. The French ambassador described him as “the most timid person in such matters you could meet”. The fact that Henry’s brother, Arthur, had died at the age of 15, before he had the chance to bear any heirs, may have sparked Henry’s paranoia. The new king willingly subjected himself to the examination of his physicians every morning, and also concocted remedies of his own from the cabinet of medicines that he kept hidden in his private apartments. Although he was physically fit for the first two decades of his reign, Henry’s health began to seriously decline as a result of various injuries sustained from jousting. Tormented by the constant pain and frustrated by being unable to exercise as he once had, Henry rapidly gained weight, which made him even more incapacitated. The private correspondence of Henry’s most personal body servant, Thomas Heneage, groom of the stool, reveals that he suffered from other, more embarrassing ailments. His love of red meat and lack of exercise led to severe constipation, which necessitated prolonged and often painful visits to his close stool. During one particularly bad bout in 1539, the king’s physicians prescribed an enema – a pig’s bladder with a greased metal tube fixed in it, which was inserted into the king’s anus. The bladder contained more

BRIDGEMAN

The fashion-conscious Henry VII kept cloth merchants like this very busy in the first two years of his reign

He was a model of physical vigour and kingly power

than a pint of a weak solution of salt and infused herbs and it remained in place for two hours, after which Heneage reported that his royal master had been relieved by “a very fair siege”. There are also hints in the contemporary sources that Henry started to lose his famed virility. As part of the evidence that was gathered for Anne Boleyn’s trial, the disgraced queen was alleged to have said that her husband lacked “puissance” in the marital bed. He was unable to consummate his marriage to his fourth wife, Anne of Cleves. Although he blamed it on her ugliness and made his private physician testify that he still had wet dreams, he seemed to protest a little too much.

THE TRUTH

He was a constipated hypochondriac who may well have suffered from impotency

A 1543 portrait of Henry VIII’s physician Sir William Butts, who treated the king for all kinds of embarrassing conditions

The 1570 painting King Edward VI and the Pope: An Allegory of the Reformation celebrates the king’s rejection of the pope (seen languishing at the bottom)

Edward VI THE MYTH

He was a frail boy-king, dominated by his advisers Edward has long been portrayed as the fragile boy-king, dominated by the overbearing presence of the dukes of Somerset and Northumberland. But he was made of sterner stuff than that. In fact, he was a chip off the old block. Far fro from being a sickly child, Edward was a robbust little boy and, as Henry V hief minister Thomas Cromwell VIII’s ch put p it, “su ucketh like a child of his puissanc p e”. Living in a succession of luxuriou us nurseries, as prince he was regularly g y spoilt with gifts and allowed to indulge i a diet of rich foods. One tactful g in visitor no oted in October 1541 that the four-yea y ar-old Edward was “well fed”, addingg th hat he was also “handsome” and “remark kably tall for his age”. It was only when e Ed dward contracted measles as a teenager g r, that his constitution was dangerou g usly weakened. At tim mes, Edward displayed flashes of his fatheer’s notoriously savage temper. Reginal g ld Pole, later archbishop of Canterb bury, claimed that in a fit of rage, g thee young prince once tore a livingg falcon into four pieces in front of hiss tutors. tu o When n he became king, Edward started to keepp a diary – the only Tudor monarch to do so. A rather staid account of the key o his reign, it also portrays the eevents of yyoun ng king as cold, unfeeling and unccompromising – a dangerous u b blend of traits that might have hardened into tyranny if he had

lived to maturity. Although he had been close to his uncle, Lord Protector Somerset, Edward afforded his demise no more than the following cursory mention in his journal: “The Duke of Somerset had his head cut off upon Tower Hill between eight and nine o’clock in the morning.” On the issue of religion, though, Edward had all the passion of a zealot. “In the court there is no bishop, and no man of learning so ready to argue in support of the new doctrine as the king,” wrote the imperial ambassador. Edward spent several hours a day in private devotion and, determined that his subjects should conform to his faith, he spent much of his short reign implementing a series of radical reforms. These also affected those closest to the young king. An entry in Edward’s journal for January 1552 records: “The emperor’s ambassador moved me severally that my sister Mary might have mass, which, with no little reasoning with him, was denied him.” If he had lived to maturity, there is little doubt that Edward would have persecuted any non-conformists with increasing severity – even more so, perhaps, than his elder sister did.

THE TRUTH

He was a spoilt brat with the makings of a tyrant Vol. 8 Issue 8

67

HISTORY

Mary I She was defined by her intense piety and sobermindedness Mary has gone down in history as a severe, humourless monarch. Although she lacked the charisma of her father, Henry VIII, and halfsister, Elizabeth, England’s first crown queen regnant was a different woman in the closeted world of her privy chamber. One of Mary’s favourite companions there was her female jester, Jane Cooper, known as ‘Jane the Fool’. In common with other ‘fools’ of the period, Jane may have had learning disabilities. The queen was extremely fond of her and gave her many valuable clothes, as well as an unusual number of shoes. Jane was joined by another jester, ‘Lucretia the Tumbler’. Although she and Jane sometimes performed together, Lucretia was a trained entertainer with impressive (and presumably acrobatic) skills. Mary was also an avid gambler and loved to play cards and board games. Like her father, she was fond of masques and plays, and cherished an abiding love of music. She also loved to provide entertainments and feasts for her court. One Spanish visitor claimed that she spent more than 300,000 ducats a year on her table and that she and her court “drink more than would fill the Valladolid river”. Nowhere was Mary’s passionate nature more obvious than in her relationship with her husband, Philip of Spain. She fell head over heels in love with him after seeing only his portrait, and lavished affection on him after they were married. According to his adviser, Philip himself was rather less enamoured, as his wife was “no good from the point of view of fleshly ensuality”.

THE TRUTH

She was passionate and had a host of ‘guilty pleasures’ at court 68

Vol. 8 Issue 8

Elizabeth I THE MYTH

She was a man’s woman It’s well known that Elizabeth I was comfortable in men’s company. She loved to flirt with the many ambitious young men who frequented her court. Her liaison with Robert Dudley is well documented, as is her infatuation in old age with his stepson, the Earl of Essex, and her more sober relationships with trusted advisers such as Lord Burghley and Sir Francis Walsingham. The queen herself seemed to regret that she had been born a “weak and feeble woman”, and was forever decrying the shortcomings of her sex. But all of this was a deliberate ploy on Elizabeth’s part. Far from believing her own publicity, she only pretended to regret that she had been born a woman in order to manipulate her male courtiers and establish her authority in what was essentially a man’s world. In her own private world, it was the women who held sway. When she retreated to the privacy of her ‘secret lodgings’ at court, Elizabeth was attended by a coterie of trusted ladies. They included her former nurse, Blanche Parry, who had served her since she was a baby and would notch up 57 years as a member of the queen’s inner sanctum. Kat Astley, Elizabeth’s old governess, was the most senior of her ladies and attended the queen in her most private hours – including her visits to the new flushing lavatories at court. Lady Elizabeth Fiennes de Clinton was probably Elizabeth’s closest friend. It was said that the queen

trusted her “more than all others”. Katherine Dudley, the youngest sister of Elizabeth’s great favourite, was another constant companion and was often observed to be “very private” with her royal mistress. These women would help the queen relax by playing cards with her, embroidering, practising dance steps and gossiping about the affairs of the court. They would see her divested of her courtly splendour and knew the secrets of her carefully crafted image as the Virgin Queen. So familiar were they with their royal mistress’s person that foreign ambassadors offered them bribes to confide whether she menstruated regularly and was therefore capable of bearing children. While her male courtiers and councillors were obliged to wait around in the public rooms beyond, Elizabeth’s ladies would spend hours alone with her, sharing her innermost thoughts and secrets. And in an age when access equalled power, this gave the women of Elizabeth’s private world considerable influence in the public arena beyond. ß

THE TRUTH

She preferred the company of her ladies TRACY BORMAN IS A HISTORIAN AND AUTHOR. SHE WILL BE DISCUSSING THE PRIVATE LIVES OF THE TUDORS AS PART OF BBC HISTORY MAGAZINE’S HISTORY WEEKENDS IN BOTH WINCHESTER AND YORK

GETTY IMAGES/BRIDGEMAN

THE MYTH

Elizabeth I receives Dutch ambassadors in the 1570s. While her court was dominated by men, her ‘secret lodgings’ certainly weren’t

Vol. 8 Issue 8

69

SC SCIENCE CIEENC CEE

PHOTO: SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY

Artist’s impression of the Big Bang

70

Vol. 8 Issue 8

I N FOCU S

THE HUNT FOR THE MISSING HALF OF THE UNIVERSE FOR NEARLY A CENTURY, A MYSTERY HAS BEEN BUBBLING AT THE HEART OF PHYSICS: WHERE IS ALL THE ANTIMATTER? WORDS: STUART CLARK

Vol. 8 Issue 8

71

SCIENCE

ne of the greatest mysteries in physics is ‘why is there any matter in the Universe at all?’ All of the stars and planets, galaxies and clusters are made of the stuff. Even plants and animals are made of matter. But according to our understandings of the origin of the Universe and antimatter, none of it should exist. The most important aspect of antimatter is that when it meets a matter particle counterpart, both are annihilated back into energy. A reading of the laws of physics suggests that the tremendous outpouring of energy that took place in the Big Bang should have created equal amounts of matter and antimatter, and that’s a big problem because here we are 13.8 billion years later and the Universe is still full of celestial objects. All of them are made from matter. So, the conclusion is inescapable: nature simply did not produce as much antimatter as matter. Comparing the amount of radiation to matter in the Universe, our best estimates suggest that for every billion particles of antimatter that were formed, a billion and one particles of matter came into existence. When the particles and antiparticles annihilated back into energy, the residue went on to form the shining structures that we see right across space. All of this means that there is something missing from our equations of physics. There is a miscalculation that must be tracked down and corrected. At the root of the problem must be some big piece of physics that we simply do not yet understand. As a result, many particle physicists have turned their attention to solving the problem.

O

“According to our knowledge of the Universe’s origin, matter and antimatter should not exist” 72

Vol. 8 Issue 8

MISSING ANTIMATTER The story of the missing antimatter began in 1928. At the time, physics was in a state of seismic change. Albert Einstein had established relativity as a way of describing the force of gravity and some of the strange effects that happen when objects move at close to the speed of light. Almost simultaneously, a

group of physicists were developing quantum mechanics – a way of describing the behaviour of particles.Meanwhile, British physicist Paul Dirac was trying to link the two theories, by applying Einstein’s relativity to the quantum mechanics of hydrogen atoms. In the resulting equations, he saw that it was possible for a particle to exist that shared the characteristics of an electron. However, instead of being negatively charged like an electron, it was positively charged. It was our first inkling that antimatter could exist. Dirac developed the idea and published his prediction of the ‘anti-electron’ in 1931. Concurrent with Dirac’s theoretical work, a number of experimentalists had been noting odd observations in their laboratory ‘cloud chambers’. These sealed tanks contain a supersaturated mixture of water vapour and alcohol. When a tiny particle passes through the tank, it leaves a trail of mist. Applying a magnetic field across the chamber means that electrically charged particles are def lected, producing curving tracks. Some scientists noticed that electrons sometimes appeared to curve the wrong way. US physicist Carl Anderson wondered if these observations could be produced by Dirac’s positive electrons, and so built his own experiment to test the idea. On 2 August 1932, he gathered enough data to be sure that the ‘anti-electrons’ existed. He named them ‘positrons’ at the suggestions of the editor of the journal Physical Review that printed the landmark paper. Since then, antimatter has become a familiar part of physics and science fiction but with the positive identification came the realisation that something was wrong at the heart of physics. Dirac’s equations suggested that antimatter would obey the laws of nature in the same way as ordinary matter. In this case, there must be exactly equal quantities of matter and antimatter in the Universe and so somewhere there would have to be 2 antimatter stars and galaxies – but how to find them? In the late 1970s, Russian cosmologist Alexei Starobinsky published details of how the Universe could have expanded hugely in its earliest moments. This process was termed ‘cosmic inf lation’ and is thought to be a strong possibility for what happened shortly after the

1

1 US physicist Carl Anderson jointly received the 1936 Nobel Prize for Physics for his 1932 discovery of the positron, the antiparticle of the electron 2 The first image of the positron, taken in a cloud chamber. The positron’s trail can be seen curving to the left in the middle of the picture 3 At the 1927 Solvay Conference, renowned scientists gathered to discuss electrons, photons and quantum theory. A few key figures were: Marie Curie (first row, far left); Albert Einstein (first row, third from left); Paul Dirac (second row, third from left); Niels Bohr (second row, far right). How many do you recognise?

2

PHOTOS: SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY X2, GETTY

3

Vol. 8 Issue 8

73

SCIENCE

PHOTO: NASA/HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE

The Bullet Cluster comprises two colliding clusters of galaxies, and was studied in an attempt to detect antimatter

74

Vol. 8 Issue 8

Big Bang. If the distribution of matter and antimatter were not completely uniform, then it is possible that inf lation separated out the clouds of matter and antimatter and carried them to different parts of the Universe. As antimatter stars would give out ordinary light, it is impossible whether they are made of matter or antimatter just by looking at them.

SMASHING STARS

“It is not just black holes that release antimatter. Every hour or so, on average, your lunchtime banana will spit out a positron”

In 2008, Prof Gary Steigman of Ohio State University realised that there could be another way to identify antimatter. Sometimes, huge clusters of galaxies collide with each other. If one were made of matter and the other of antimatter, then the particles would annihilate each other to give off far more X-rays and gamma rays than would normally be expected. To search for antimatter, Steigman investigated a galactic smash-up known as the Bullet Cluster. He studied observations of it made by NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and Compton Gamma Ray Observatory, but found nothing of significance. The low level of X-rays and gamma rays implied that less than three particles in every million could be antimatter. In the same year, a vast but tenuous cloud of antimatter was found in our very own Milky Way. It surrounds the centre of the Galaxy and shows itself by the gamma rays it gives out. These carry the precise amount of energy released by the collision of an electron and a positron. Observations with the European Space Agency’s INTEGRAL gamma-ray satellite showed that the cloud is not precisely centred on the Milky Way, but instead seems to trace the pattern of stars that are known to give out X-rays. The antimatter is therefore not left over from the beginning of the Universe. Instead, it seems that the stars themselves are the source of the positrons. Each one is orbited by a black hole, and the antimatter is produced in the high-energy processes that take place as the gas from each star is ripped away and eaten by its companion black hole. It is not just black holes that release antimatter. Every hour or so, on average, your lunchtime banana spits out a positron. This is because bananas contain the naturally occurring radioactive isotope potassium-40. As it decays, the isotope occasionally releases a positron, which will annihilate into energy with the first electron it encounters.

The amount of energy released in the annihilation is minuscule. Indeed, there is potassium-40 in our bodies too, and the same process takes place. The bottom line is that when it comes to searching for primordial antimatter, finding positrons just will not do. They are too easy to produce in the modern Universe. Instead, heavier antimatter particles such as anti-helium nuclei are needed. To look for these, astronomers comb the so-called cosmic rays that perpetually bombard our atmosphere.

RAY OF INSPIRATION Between 1911 and 1913, the Austrian physicist Victor Hess repeatedly climbed into a hot air balloon. These were no pleasure rides. Instead, he was carrying particle detectors. Since the discovery of radioactivity in the late-19th Century, it was assumed that the level of particle radiation would decrease with altitude since it was thought that the radiation measured at sea level was coming from radioactive elements in the rocks. Hess set out to test this. In a series of ever higher balloon f lights, he produced a surprising result: that the amount of radiation in his detectors increased with altitude. It was completely against everyone’s expectations. Physicists next assumed that if the radiation was coming from space, it must be coming from the Sun. Hess tested this as well. He took a balloon f light during a total solar eclipse and discovered that the amount of radiation increased as usual even though the Moon was completely blocking the Sun. He concluded that the radiation was coming from deep space. Known as cosmic rays, the phenomenon quickly became a focus for physicists to investigate and in 1936, positrons were discovered in them. While positrons can be created in present-day interactions, the cosmic rays present a way to trawl for unmistakable traces of primordial antimatter.

SEARCHING SPACE There is nothing powerful enough in nature today to produce a nucleus of anti-helium. Only the Big Bang can do that. So, if such a particle were to be discovered, then it would have to be a piece of primordial antimatter. A bigger prize would be the detection of a nucleus of anti-carbon. Carbon can only be made in the nuclear furnaces found inside stars. An

Vol. 8 Issue 8

75

SCIENCE

2

1 Austrian physicist Victor Hess made trips in a hot air balloon to measure radiation. He found that levels increase with altitude, concluding that the radiation comes from outer space – a discovery that bagged him a joint Nobel Prize in Physics in 1936 2 These tracks show a shower of particles, moving from top to bottom through a chamber. The tracks spiralling anticlockwise are produced by electrons, while positrons are spiralling clockwise

anti-carbon nucleus would therefore mean that there were antimatter stars somewhere out there in space – a dramatic breakthrough indeed. In 2011, the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) detector was carried into orbit by the space shuttle Endeavour and placed on the International Space Station (ISS). The AMS was designed specifically to measure the amount and type of antimatter in cosmic rays; by 2013 it had seen more than 400,000 positrons but not a single piece of any other antimatter. The truth is that so far there is no evidence that primordial antimatter is lurking anywhere in space. So that leaves just one possibility: contrary to Dirac’s equations, antimatter behaves differently from matter. In 1967, Russian physicist Andrei Sakharov proposed a set of conditions that would lead to matter’s dominance. The key to his proposal was that in the extreme conditions of the Big Bang, the laws of physics must have acted slightly differently on matter than on antimatter. In the decades since, particle physics experiments have repeatedly seen that there is a wrinkle in physics that means

76

Vol. 8 Issue 8

particles and antiparticles behave a little differently from each other. It can be traced to the so-called weak nuclear force. This is one of the four fundamental forces of nature. Gravity and electromagnetism are two of these forces. These operate on the largest scales across the Universe. The final force is the strong nuclear force. Like the weak nuclear force, this acts on short ranges that are comparable to the size of an atomic nucleus. In 1964, physicists studying particles called kaons noticed that the kaons could naturally decay into their antiparticles but that the decay of antikaons into matter happened with a different frequency. In other words, the two processes were not mirror images of one another and so would lead to an excess of matter in the Universe. In the decades since, particle physicists have

“The laws of physics must have acted slightly differently on matter than on antimatter”

PHOTOS: SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY X2

1

PHOTO: SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY

An enormous magnet from the LHCb detector at CERN

seen similar readings, time after time. The latest experiments have been taking place at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider. The detector known as LHCb has been supplying evidence that matter and antimatter behave differently when responding to the weak nuclear force. This has allowed the scientists to define a number that quantifies the difference, which can be used to see how much antimatter was produced in the early Universe. The answer is not what the scientists were hoping for. It goes in an entirely different direction. Remember, the split between matter and antimatter is expected to be a billion particles of antimatter produced for every billion and one particles of matter. So, roughly speaking, half the Universe was antimatter in those early days. Yet according to the experiments seen so far, the early Universe should only have produced about a galaxy’s worth of antimatter. This is a clear mismatch between expectation and observation, and it means that there is a lot more work to do. One consideration is that experiments carried out so far

have only concentrated on subatomic particles called quarks. These make up the particles found in the nuclei of atoms. There is another whole family of particles called leptons – which includes electrons – that also respond to the weak nuclear force. Perhaps experiments will show that their behaviour can match our expectations and solve the problem. For now, physicists remain mystified about how and why antimatter should behave differently to matter. Yet the evidence for it doing so is spread across the whole Universe. Perhaps the solution will come during the next run of the Large Hadron Collider. There is some evidence that a new particle of nature has been seen. The detection is still to be confirmed, but if true, this particle has not been predicted from any known theory. If it is really truly there, it will need explaining, and who knows what secrets it might reveal about the Universe. ß

DUNCAN GEERE IS A FREELANCE SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY WRITER WHO IS BASED IN GOTHENBURG, SWEDEN

Vol. 8 Issue 8

77

SCIENCE

PHOTO: GETTY

MORE THAN A LOAD OF HOT AIR?

78

Vol. 8 Issue 8

AIRSHIPS ARE ONE INVENTION THAT SEEM TO BE CONSIGNED TO THE HISTORY BOOKS. BUT THIS YEAR THEY COULD BE MAKING THEIR WAY BACK TO OUR SKIES WORDS: NEIL ASHTON

What’s bigger than a football pitch, can withstand bullets, and has been designed in the UK? The Airlander, that’s what…

Vol. 8 Issue 8

79

SCIENCE

n 6 May 1937, people around the world watched their TV screens in horror as German airship the Hindenburg violently burst into f lames while attempting to dock at a mooring mast in New Jersey. Seconds after igniting, the 245m-long craft was shown nose-diving into the ground before crumbling into a pile of ash. The accident claimed 36 lives and shattered the public’s confidence in the safety of airships. Yet it is largely forgotten that in the

O

months prior to the accident, the Hindenburg spent a short-lived golden age ferrying passengers across the Atlantic in comfort. Now, 80 years on from its maiden f light, could we see airships returning to our skies?

UP, UP AND AWAY Airships rely on the Archimedes principle to get them off the ground. The difference between the density of the gas inside the airship and the air outsidee

creates an upward force that propels them into the air. It is exactly the same effect seen in children’s party balloons. Early airships such as the Hindenburg were filled with hydrogen, as it is the lightest gas and therefore offers the maximum possible lift. The downside being that it is also extremely f lammable. This meant that airships were vulnerable to explosions caused by fuel leaks and lightning strikes, especially as they tended to f ly below the clouds. cloud The

1783

1852

1872

1900

1925

1936

1 December 1783 Jacques Charles and the Robert brothers take the maiden voyage of the first manned hydrogen-filled balloon.

24 September 1852 Henri Giffard takes the maiden voyage of the first steam-powered airship. It was also the first steerable airship.

1 December 1872 Paul Haenlein created an internal combustion engine to power the airship, with fuel taken from the ship’s gas.

2 July 1900 The Zeppelin LZ1 makes its maiden flight. The rigid metal frame design would become the basis for future airships.

3 June 1925 The infamous Goodyear blimp first flies. These would go on to be a regular part of sporting events in the US.

4 March 1936 Hindenburg makes its maiden voyage. At over 245m long, it is more than twice the length of a modern Airbus A380.

HINDENBURG

SKIN: Cotton canvas with a coating of cellulose acetate butyrate (lacquer) mixed with aluminium powder

80

Vol. 8 Issue 8

GAS: There were 16 compartments that contained a total of 200,000m3 of hydrogen

RUDDER

PROVIDED A REGULAR SERVICE BETWEEN EUROPE AND THE US The Hindenburg was a luxurious aircraft that offered fast passage across the Atlantic. The engineers originally wanted to use helium to provide lift, but couldn’t secure import of the gas from the US.

PHOTOS: GETTY X5, CORBIS, CAN STOCK ILLUSTRATION: ACUTE GRAPHICS

IT WAS POWERED BY FOUR DIESEL ENGINES

“Airships can offer a cheap and flexible way to ship cargo to remote locations”

Hindenburg disaster is, of course, a sobering example of the dangers of using hydrogen. These days, airships are filled with helium. This gas is slightly heavier than hydrogen, so provides less lifting force – but crucially it isn’t f lammable. In contrast to the Hindenburg, most recently designed airships are not trying to compete with well-established forms of passenger travel. Instead, airships can offer a cheap and f lexible way to ship cargo to remote locations where paved

roads and other infrastructure is scarce or even non-existent. Example uses could be delivering equipment and personnel to hard-to-reach mines and drilling sites, or perhaps even to the Arctic Circle, which is fast becoming a key focus of big business thanks to the large untapped oil reserves hidden underneath the ice.

BEST OF BOTH WORLDS Over the last few years, a number of companies have been developing

1937

2006

2008

2013

2015

2016

6 May 1937 Hindenburg explodes after attempting to land at the end of a transatlantic flight. There’s still debate over the cause.

31 January 2006 Lockheed Martin completes a successful test of its P-791 Hybrid Airship, featuring a lift-generating multi-lobe design.

7 August 2008 First flight of the HAV-3 demonstrator, which forms the basis of the Airlander airships that feature a hybrid wing design.

3 January 2013 Worldwide Aeros Corp successfully test their Dragon Dream concept airship, which has now become the Aeroscraft programme.

2015 At the Paris Air Show, Lockheed Martin officially announces that orders are being accepted for its Hybrid Airship.

2016 More than 10 companies are developing designs to compete in the airship market.

AIRLANDER PHOTOS: AIRLANDER , AEROS CORPS X2 ILLUSTRATION: GRAPHIC NEWS

WORLD’S LONGEST AIRCRAFT TO MAKE UK FLIGHT Originally sold to the U.S. Army, the Airlander Hybrid Air Vehicle – a huge helium airship as large as a football pitch – will be flown for the first time by its UK developers later this year.

SKIN: Blend of Vectran, Tedlar and Mylar, developed for US military to withstand small arms fire

FORWARD PROPULSOR DUCTS BOWTHRUSTER

REAR PROPULSOR DUCT

BODY: Filled with non-flammable helium and air mixture at just above atmospheric pressure Fuel/ freight module

PAYLOAD MODULE

Radar and communications

Vol. 8 Issue 8

81

SCIENCE

new airship designs in the hope of competing for a piece of this emerging market. Lockheed Martin, one of the world’s largest aerospace and defence companies, recently unveiled the Hybrid Airship at the Paris Air Show. It combines a traditional helium gas-filled body along with an aerodynamic multilobe hull fitted with aeroplane-like wings to provide additional lift. This means it requires a smaller volume of helium than a standard airship. It has a top speed of 111km/h (69mph), a range of 2,600km and burns just one-tenth of the fuel per ton of cargo compared to a helicopter, Lockheed says. “The first 10 years of what we did was evolving to the multi-lobe structure. It’s a careful balance between weight, performance and aerodynamics,” explains Bob Boyd, programme manager for the project at Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works. “You can do a single lobe design, or you can have five, seven or 20 lobes. There are a wide variety of combinations, but economically the best combination is what we have.” The hybrid design also provides versatility when it comes to taking off. When loaded with more than 70 per cent of its maximum cargo weight of 21,000kg, the Hybrid Airship can take off

ABOVE: Lockheed Martin’s Hybrid Airship can take off like a conventional airship, or like an aeroplane BELOW: Airships still have wide-ranging appeal and are often called upon for promotional events and tourism

in a similar fashion to an aeroplane. To deal with unpaved surfaces, Lockheed engineers have developed an air cushion system that allows the craft to hover slightly above the ground as it takes off. As the helium gas still provides 70 to 80 per cent of the lift, the airship can take off and land vertically like a conventional airship when carrying less than 70 per cent of its maximum cargo weight. The team hopes that the design will prove both versatile and cost-effective. “There are only a small number of design metrics that matter, the most important one by far is the cost. We are trying to build a platform that fits the costs and transport needs of different customers,” says Boyd. “Our vision is that our aircraft will be flying 24/7, 300 plus days a year, most of the time to the same place.”

A BALLAST FROM THE PAST Early airships all required some form of external ballast when they landed to stop the airship from taking off when passengers and cargo were removed. Typically, this ballast would be water, but having access to external ballast in remote locations can be a problem. Some companies have developed solutions to remove the need for external ballast altogether. One such company is

PHOTOS: GETTY, WORLDWIDE AEROS CORPS

Aeroscraft uses a system similar to a submarine to help it take off and land

82

Vol. 8 Issue 8

PHOTOS: AIRLANDER

ABOVE AND BELOW: Mines and mountains can be tough to access via road or rail, but the Airlander can navigate to these locations with ease

Worldwide Aeros Corp, which is developing the Aeroscraft airship. When the craft is landing, the COSH (Control Of Static Heaviness) system compresses some of the helium gas within the aircraft into tanks, which makes it heavier. It then releases it back into the main structure as it wants to take off. This system is similar to the way in which a submarine controls its depth. “The ability to hover for hours over a targeted area and rapidly load or off load cargo without ballast problems is what sets Aeroscraft apart from the rest,” says engineering manager John Wertz. The team also took a unique approach to designing the landing gear. Rather than landing on wheels or skids, Aeroscraft uses specially designed landing cushions. This enables it to land safely on almost any surface, including water. Air can also be blown or sucked through the cushions, enabling the airship to operate like a hovercraft when taxiing, or grip the ground during loading and unloading.

FLYING HIGH A British company, Hybrid Air Vehicles, is also in the final stages of developing a cargo airship, the Airlander 10. Like

Lockheed’s Hybrid Airship, Airlander is filled with helium and features a multilobe, winged hull that provides the craft with around 40 per cent of its lift. “One of the keys to making Airlander commercially viable is the strong and lightweight hull material. Its layers of Tedlar, Mylar and Vectran reinforced fibres give it the protection, strength and helium-retention features vital to keeping the shape of the hull in all weather and f light conditions,” says head of f light sciences David Stewart. Airlander has a cruising speed of 148km/h, it can carry a maximum load of 10,000kg and is able to stay airborne for

up to five days. Each of its four diesel engines can be rotated to point up or down. This gives the craft the ability to hover, as well as land on almost any surface be it ice, sand or water. Though it seems unlikely that we will be piling into airships heading for exotic destinations anytime soon, these giants of the sky could nevertheless have a second, slightly less glamorous, golden age on the horizon. ß

DR MICHAEL MOSLEY IS THE PRESENTER OF TRUST ME, I’M A DOCTOR, AND AUTHOR OF THE 8-WEEK BLOOD SUGAR DIET, PUBLISHED BY SHORT BOOKS Vol. 8 Issue 8

83

YOUR QUESTI0NS ANSWERED BY OUR EXPERT PANEL

&

DR CHRISTIAN JARRETT Christian is a psychology and neuroscience writer. His latest book is Great Myths Of The Brain.

DR ALASTAIR GUNN Alastair is an astronomer at the Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics at the University of Manchester.

PROF ROBERT MATTHEWS Robert is a physicist and science writer. He’s visiting professor in science at Aston University.

DR PETER J BENTLEY Peter is a computer scientist and author who is based at University College London. His latest book is Digitized.

LUIS VILLAZON Luis has a BSc in computing and an MSc in zoology. He is author of How Cows Reach The Ground.

DR MARK LORCH Mark is a senior lecturer at the University of Hull, where he teaches chemistry and science.

[email protected]

What are the most sophisticated drones capable of?

PHOTO: BAE SYSTEMS

The Taranis drone: expected to enter military service in 2030

Drones are radio-controlled flying gadgets with several propellers that may be used for filming, racing, and in the future perhaps even widespread delivery of parcels. Military drones resemble small 84

Vol. 8 Issue 8

aircraft with no pilots. Some can take off, fly and land by themselves. They can perform surveillance over enemy territory or even deploy missiles to attack specific targets in dangerous places where we

may not want to risk human pilots. One of the most advanced today is the Taranis, a UK-built drone with a top speed of 1,127km/h (700mph) and 9.7m wingspan but ainvisible robot can’t to paint thatWell is done, nearly radar. PB a Rembrandt – or can it?

If humans had wings, what would their wingspan be?

The extinct bird Argentavis magnificens weighed about as much as an adult human and it had a wingspan of 7m – four times the average human arm span. This bird had lots of other adaptations to allow it to fly though, including the muscles to support these wings and flap them. Hang gliders, which allow humans to ‘fly’, are 9-10m across. LV

PHOTOS: GETTY X2 ILLUSTRATION: CHRIS PHILPOT

What causes recurring nightmares?

Why does heat have a shadow? Thermal energy – the physicist’s term for heat – comes in various forms, including infrared radiation, which is part of the electromagnetic spectrum, like visible light. As such, this form of heat can be blocked by objects, creating a shadow. But the other forms of heat can still get to us via, for example, the motion of warm air known as convection. RM

Approximately 2 to 5 per cent of the population suffers from recurring nightmares, and often the reason is that they have survived some kind of life-threatening situation, such as a car accident or a violent attack. Indeed, one study estimated that between 50 to 70 per cent of patients with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) experience chronic nightmares. Other psychiatric conditions associated with an increased risk of experiencing frequent nightmares include schizophrenia, anxiety, and alcohol and drug abuse. Among people without a psychiatric diagnosis, a dream diary study from 2003 found that nightmares were experienced more often at times of stress. CJ Vol. 8 Issue 8

85

& Why do dogs bury bones? Wolves bury food that they can’t eat immediately. This keeps it safe from scavengers like crows and the cold ground helps to preserve it. Birds don’t have a good sense of smell so they find it harder to locate these buried caches than wolves do. Dogs retain this behaviour and will bury toys or bones – either because they are saving their leftovers, or just because they are bored. LV

Why did humans evolve a sense of humour? A recent theory holds that humour evolved because it encourages us to perform the arduous task of fact-checking our assumptions about other people’s intentions and perspectives. By this account, mirth is the reward we get when we debunk one of our presumptions and see things suddenly in a new light – jokes are ‘super-normal stimuli’ that

exploit this system. Once it evolved, humour became a social signal – we assume funny people are intelligent and friendly, and men and women alike prefer witty partners. On average, however, men tend to be more concerned that would-be partners will find their jokes funny, whereas women are more attracted to people who make them laugh. CJ

THE THOUGHT EXPERIMENT

1. EXHAUSTION Let’s say you dig a 1x1m hole, which gives you enough room to wield a shovel. For each metre that you dig down, you have to remove a cubic metre of earth, weighing 1.6 tonnes. Even if you have some kind of bucket elevator so that you don’t need to lift the soil to the surface, you’re still shovelling almost 100 tonnes a minute. 86

Vol. 8 Issue 8

2. HEAT Maybe instead of manual shovelling, all the digging is taken care of by an automatic drilling machine that you stand on. But for every 40m that you descend, the temperature will rise by 1ºC. After 33 minutes you are 2km deep, and you die of heatstroke in the 50ºC air.

3. SUFFOCATION Even if you have some kind of amazing cooling system, you are still in an everdeepening hole with almost no fresh oxygen diffusing in through the narrow opening at the top. After a couple of hours of effectively rebreathing the same air, you’ll die of CO2 poisoning at a depth of 7km. Or whenever your bottled air runs out.

PHOTO: GETTY X2 ILLUSTRATION: CHRIS PHILPOT

If I dug down at 1m/s, what would kill me first?

What are supercomputers used for? Foot cheese: not tasty on a cracker

Tianhe-2 is the world’s fastest supercomputer – bet its developers won’t let you play Pacman on it…

The best supercomputers fill rooms, cost millions, and are thousands of times faster than your computer at home. They are usually used for complex scientific problems involving lots of maths. They are used to predict the weather, model brains, or help predict the result of a nuclear explosion, for example. Some are used to test the strength of

encryption (computer security) methods. They have been used to model the spread of swine flu, to predict climate change, and even to understand the Big Bang at the beginning of the Universe. But technology moves quickly. A topend desktop computer today calculates at the same speed as a supercomputer 10 years ago. PB

Why do sweaty feet smell off cheese? The same bacteria that is used to ripen many cheeses, including Munster, Limburger and Port-du-Salut, also lives on our skin and eats dead skin cells. It’s called Brevibacterium; as it digests it gives off S-methyl thioesters, which smell cheesy. Another skin-munching bacterium is Staphylococcus epidermidis, which produces the cheesy, vinegary-smelling isovaleric acid. The final ingredient in this ‘socktail’ is Propionibacterium, which converts sweat into the sour-smelling propanoic acid. LV

IN NUMBERS

PHOTOS: GETTY, REX, ISTOCK

How do aquatic snails breathe? Most species of aquatic snail have a comblike gill. The oldest groups have two gills but the majority have lost one, to make room inside their spiral shell. As snails moved to the land, they swapped gills for a primitive lung, called the pallial cavity. Some snail groups moved back to freshwater and a few re-evolved external gills. Others stay close to the surface and use a snorkel tube to gulp air now and again. Pond snails mostly breathe air but can flood their pallial cavity and use it as a basic gill when their pond freezes over. LV

1.2 grams The amount of salt that can be present in one low-fat blueberry muffin.

14,000 The number of years ago that blue eyes first appeared in humans.

74

The height, in metres, of the world’s tallest slide, which opened in London in June 2016.

Vol. 8 Issue 8

87

& Why do both fission and fusion release energy?

Nuclear fission involves splitting nuclei to generate energy

Nuclear fission involves splitting atomic nuclei, and is the process used in nuclear power stations. Fusion, as its name suggests, involves fusing nuclei and is the power source of the stars. While both fission and fusion release energy, the process and amount is very different. Fission exploits the instability of nuclei of heavy elements like uranium, which can be split using neutrons, producing fragments with a lower total mass. The

difference appears as energy – courtesy of E=mc2 – which is carried away by fast-moving neutrons. In contrast, fusion involves ramming together nuclei of light elements like hydrogen so violently they fuse together, producing fresh nuclei plus neutrons. Again, the lower mass of the fusion products is turned into energy via Einstein’s famous equation, but over 10 times the amount produced by fission for each gram of ‘fuel’. RM

Does sunshine really make us happier? When it’s sunny, it seems like people are happier – we fill the parks and beaches, and radio stations start blasting out upbeat tunes. And yet, research has repeatedly failed to find any evidence that people who live in sunnier places enjoy more positive moods. A new, massive study published this year even brought into question the idea that a lack of sunshine can lead to seasonal affective disorder (SAD). Nearly 35,000 US adults completed a mood survey at different times of year and there was no evidence of more depression symptoms among those who completed the survey in winter. CJ

T O P 10

10. Euphausiid (krill)

9. Giant acorn barnacle

8. Giant tiger prawn Length: 33cm

7. Alice Alicella gigantea

6. Zebra mantis shrimp

Length: 15cm

Length: 30cm

Distribution: Indian Ocean

Length: 34cm

Length: 40cm

Distribution: Antarctic

Distribution: Coast of

and West Pacific

Distribution: Kermadec Trench,

Distribution: Indo-Pacific

Ocean

northwest America

New Zealand

region

88

Vol. 8 Issue 8

PHOTOS: GETTY X2 ILLUSTRATION: CHRIS PHILPOT

HUGE CRUSTACEANS N

Do identical twins have identical genes?

PHOTO: GETTY ILLUSTRATION: CHRIS PHILPOT

They start with identical genes, because each is formed from a single fertilised egg that splits into two embryos. But from that moment onwards, their DNA begins diverging. The DNA replication mechanism introduces about one new mutation for every 100 million base pairs copied, per generation. There are around three billion base pairs in the human genome, so you would expect between 10 and 100 new mutations per person that occur early enough in embryonic development to be present in most cells in the body. Ordinary DNA tests won’t normally detect this because they only examine a short section of the DNA, in a region known to be highly variable between individuals. But if the entire genome were sequenced, these differences would show up. In France a case of multiple rape, in which identical twin brothers were both suspects, was solved in this way in 2012. Your DNA also gets modified by epigenetic mechanisms such as DNA methylation. This changes the chemical structure of the DNA and affects how active certain genes are, based on diet and other lifestyle differences. So identical twins that have lived different lifestyles could also be genetically distinguished in this way. LV

“Who’re you calling identical?”

4. Tasmanian giant freshwater crayfish

4. Tasmanian monster crab

3. Coconut crab

2.. A American lobster

Leg span: 1m

Length: 1m

Length: 80cm

Leg span: 80cm

Distribution: Indian Ocean and

Distribution: Atlantic Ocean

Distribution: Rivers and

Distribution: Oceans off

Central Pacific Ocean

around North America

streams in Tasmania

southern Australia

1. Japanese spider crab Leg span: 4m Distribution: Pacific Ocean around southern Japan

Vol. 8 Issue 8

89

& Why does cold water take your breath away?

What is the bug bounty programme?

It’s called the cold shock response. When the cold receptors in your skin are all suddenly stimulated they cause an involuntary gasp and, for about a minute after that, hyperventilation. If you fall into chilly water, the cold shock response will kill you long before hypothermia does. Either that first gasping breath will fill your lungs with water (drowning you instantly), or the hyperventilation will make swimming almost impossible. In the UK, 67 per cent of drowning victims are strong swimmers, and over half of those are within 3m of the shore or the side of their boat when they drown. LV

Some hackers love to break into computer systems to see what’s ‘under the hood’. It’s a big problem, so security has to constantly be improved to prevent intrusion. Several years ago, one company called Netscape Communications had a smart idea. They invited the hackers to try to break into the early versions of their software, and paid them if any issues or vulnerabilities were found. This became known as the bug bounty programme, and it is used by many software companies today to help improve their products. PB

HEAD TO HEAD

Chernobyl

Fukushima 800 3,200 300,000 0

RADIATION RELEASED (petabecquerels*)

5,200

SPREAD OF RADIATION (km2)

200,000

POPULATION EVACUATED

335,000

PREDICTED CANCER DEATHS

US$91bn

up to 57,000

COST

Only two events have ever reached the maximum level 7 on the International Nuclear Event Scale: the Chernobyl meltdown in 1986 and the Fukushima disaster of 2011. But the causes and effects

of the two were quite different. Chernobyl released more radioactive material but cost much less to clean up, principally because almost no compensation was paid to the people affected by the fallout. LV

*One becquerel is a unit of radiation equivalent to one nucleus decay per second. One petabecquerel is 1015 becquerels. 90

Vol. 8 Issue 8

US$240m

In Denmark, many people take part in ‘winter bathing’, plunging into the freezing sea to experience the water’s invigoraing effects

Why are there two sexes?

PHOTOS: GETTY X3, ISTOCK, NASA

Biologically speaking, the most important difference between the sexes is that females produce eggs that are much larger than the sperm of the male. Large eggs are an advantage because they provide more resources for the developing zygote. But making your eggs large means that you can’t produce so many of them, so another valid evolutionary strategy is to make lots of small, cheap sperm. Both of these strategies seem to be more effective than the compromise of producing a moderate number of middle-sized gametes, so evolution has gradually driven eggs and sperm in different directions. Once they’ve evolved to have different gametes, the sexes are also driven to evolve other differences. For males to be promiscuous, and females to be choosy, for example. LV

Why doesn’t Earth’s atmosphere vanish into the vacuum of space? While we can’t see them, the gas and vapour molecules making up the atmosphere all have mass, and as such all feel the gravitational pull of the Earth. They could still escape if they had enough energy – for example, if the Earth was closer to the Sun, and thus hotter. Fortunately, however, our planet has just the right mass and distance from the Sun to avoid that. RM

Vol. 8 Issue 8

91

& W H AT C O N N E C T S…

Could Earth capture an asteroid? It is certainly possible but highly unlikely. Typically, asteroids are travelling far too fast for Earth’s gravity to make much of an impact on their trajectories. They normally have more than enough energy to escape Earth’s influence even if they approach very close. However, if they are of the right mass, are travelling at just the right speed, and manage to miss our planet by just the right amount, they could end up in a stable orbit around Earth. This capture process was probably how Mars got its two small moons, Phobos and Deimos. AG

HOW IT WORKS

SpaceX’s Falcon 9 is the world’s first reusable rocket and is designed to deliver the Dragon spacecraft to the ISS. In early April, SpaceX successfully launched the Dragon into

space aboard a Falcon 9, then landed the rocket on a floating platform in the ocean. The innovative technology could slash the costs of space travel and improve reliability.

payload: dragon spacecraft

1.

In 1942 Dr Harry

Coover was looking for clearplastics that could be used for lightweight gun sights in WWII. One of the chemical groups he tested was the cyanoacrylates.

2.

Coover discarded them as a suitable material because cyanoacrylates bond instantly to almost anything. But in 1958 the company Eastman Kodak took advantage of this and sold it as Eastman #910, which was later renamed ‘super glue’.

second stage

3.

C Cyanoacrylates are liquid aat room temperature. But the presence of even a tiny amount of moisture ccauses the cyanoacrylate molecules to link rapidly into a long sticky chain.

interstage 3

Second stage ignites and sends payload into orbit

first stage

2

First stage separates 4

5

Engines burn to adjust impact point and put first stage on course to re-enter Earth’s atmosphere

Deceleration fins open to slow the speed

6

At touchdown, first stage has slowed from 4,600km/h (2,900mph) to 7.2km/h (4.5mph)

1

foldeD landing legs

4.

Launch

Unanchored drone platform measuring 91.5 x 52m

92

Vol. 8 Issue 8

engines

In 1966, field medics in the Vietnam War used a cyanoacrylate spray to temporarily seal wounds. Today, medical grade super glue is often used to repair small cuts.

PHOTOS: GETTY X2, ALAMY X2, ISTOCK, SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY ILLUSTRATION: CHRIS PHILPOT

The Falcon 9

...Gun sights and wound suturing?

W H AT I S T H I S ?

Floating fern This image of the water fern Salvinia

natans was taken using an electron microscope. The tiny structures shown here, which look a bit like egg beaters, are hairs that blanket the top surface of the leaves. The hairs repel water, while the brown areas at the tips attract it. Nanotechnologists think that materials inspired by the plant could be used on the hulls of ships to reduce drag.

Vol. 8 Issue 8

93

& W H O R E A L LY I N V E N T E D ?

Bagheera kiplingi is agile with fantastic eyesight – these skills help it dodge the ants that protect its veggie food source

THE LIGHT BULB

Joseph Swan

The basic idea of using electricity to create light was first investigated over 200 years ago by the English chemist Humphrey Davy. He showed that when electric current flowed through wires, their resistance caused them to heat up to the point where they gave out light. But he also identified the key problem to creating the first practical ‘incandescent light’: finding a cheap material that both burned brightly, and lasted for many hours. US inventor Thomas Edison is often credited with creating the solution in 1879: the carbon filament light bulb. Yet the British chemist Warren de La Rue had solved the scientific challenges nearly 40 years earlier. He used thin – and thus highresistance – filaments to achieve the brightness, and delayed burnout by making them from high-meltingpoint metal sealed in a vacuum. His choice of pricey platinum for the filament and the difficulties of achieving a good vacuum made the result uneconomic, however. In I 1878, 187 another British che c mist, Joseph Swan, publicly demonstrated the t e first light based on co ommercially-viable car c rbon, but his use of relattively thick filaments still s le ed to rapid burnout. Edison Ed so ’s combination of tthin carb bon filament design with better vacuums made wi hb him the h e first to solve both tthe e scie sc entific and commercial challenges of lilight h bulb b lb design.

94

Vol. 8 Issue 8

Are there any vegetarian spiders? Just one. Out of around 40,000 spider species, Bagheera kiplingi is the only spider known to have a herbivorous diet. It lives in Mexico and Costa Rica, and feeds mostly on protein nodules of the acacia tree. But even this spider sometimes eats ant larvae, so perhaps it is closer to the sort of vegetarian that doesn’t count prawns! LV

Why doesn’t Europa have any impact craters? Europa is one of the smoothest objects in the Solar System. Although there are many surface features, including craters, these are few and far between. It is believed that Europa’s surface is a series of brittle tectonic ice plates moving on top of a warmer layer of convecting ice. Beneath that is probably a

subterranean ocean of water. Recent observations have shown these icy tectonic plates moving about, creating ice plumes and ‘cryolavas’ in a mechanism akin to volcanism on Earth. This constant recycling of the surface material means that craters and other features don’t survive for very long. AG

PHOTOS: GETTY X2, ISTOCK, R L CURRY, NASA

Thomas Edison

A feast for the mind

Resource

CELEBRATE THE TIDE In his new book, Hugh Aldersey-Williams sheds light on one of nature’s most powerful phenomena – the ocean’s tides. He speaks to James Lloyd TIDE: THE SCIENCE AND LORE OF THE GREATEST FORCE ON EARTH BY HUGH ALDERSEYWILLIAMS is out now (US$25, penguin)

Why did you decide to write a book about the tide? I live near the coast in Norfolk and I sail, but I felt much more ignorant about the real workings of the tide than I should. I think the tide plays an underappreciated role in our lives – we only tend to think about it when we’re sitting on the beach. I wanted to explain the science of the tide, but also the moments where it was pivotal in history and culture – where it determined the course of battles and inspired poets and artists. Who was the most important scientist in helping us understand the tide? A lot of people made individual steps, from the Venerable Bede in the 8th Century to Galileo, Newton and Laplace. Newton is possibly the most important figure here, as he was the first to explain that the tides are caused by the combined gravitational pull of the Sun and Moon. We now know that lots of other factors play a role, too, such as irregularities in the Earth and Moon’s orbits, the shape of the Earth, the profile of the coast and ocean floor, and even the presence of ice shelves. It’s knowing all these factors that allows us to calculate the tides at any time in the future or past. What was the most memorable experience you had while writing your book? It was going to see the site of the ‘original’ maelstrom in northern Norway – the giant vortex of water that Jules Verne and Edgar Allen Poe wrote about. In some senses it was an anticlimax, because

those accounts had built it up in its terror and scale – you don’t see a big, sucking whirlpool. But there is a very slow, majestic circular movement, probably a couple of hundred metres in diameter. We whizzed straight over the top of it in our powerboat, but you wouldn’t want to be swimming. What role does the tide play in the natural world? The intertidal zone [the area between high and low tide] is constantly changing and being replenished by the sea. It’s like a supermarket – everyone goes there because food keeps arriving. It offers protection and food in alternation, and that’s what many species need. Our own lives are so ruled by the cycle of light and dark that it can be hard to believe that there are life forms that are governed by the tide. There are fish in California called grunion that lay their eggs on the beach during high spring tide, timed so that the eggs hatch at exactly the time of the next spring tide some days later. It’s a very beautiful, neat means of reproducing.

A LSO O U T R EC EN T LY

FLUKE: THE MATHS AND MYTHS OF COINCIDENCE BY JOSEPH MAZUR Out 2 June (US$17, Oneworld)

Have you ever bumped into an old school friend on holiday? This mathematical take on coincidence reveals that even the unlikeliest of events can come true. Just ask the woman who won the lottery four times…

GOLDILOCKS AND THE WATER BEARS BY LOUISA PRESTON Out 16 June (US$22, Bloomsbury Sigma) Astrobiologist Louisa Preston looks at the latest thinking around extraterrestrial life, explaining how earthly ‘extremophiles’ like the water bear are directing our search for life elsewhere in the cosmos.

THE GENE: AN INTIMATE HISTORY BY SIDDHARTHA MUKHERJEE Out 2 June (US$32, Bodley Head) A history of genetics with a personal touch. As well as detailing the major breakthroughs, from Mendel and Darwin to Watson and Crick, Mukherjee weaves in the story of his own family’s recurrent struggles with mental illness. Vol. 8 Issue 8

95

Witty Viewpoint NANOMEDICINES hat means that our whole Solar System could be, like, one tiny atom in the fingernail of some other giant being. This is too much! That means one tiny atom in my fingernail could be…” “Could be one little tiny universe.” In days gone by, this was the stereotypical stoned human conversation, as immortalised by National Lampoon’s Animal House. As drugs have changed and our understanding of physics has advanced, I imagine the conversations have moved on to discussions of the possibility that we are all some sort of simulation inside a simulation inside a simulation, or some other burble inspired by The Matrix. Evidence for populations of sentient beings thriving on electrons – even small, clever cats bouncing in and out of existence – is still lower than scant. Go up a few orders of magnitude, and the candlelit hours can be spent pondering something that’s delightfully true: what a walking zoo we are. As Ed Yong states in the Walt Whitman-inspired title of his upcoming book I Contain Multitudes, we are never alone. Yong elegantly takes us on a tour of the colonies of bacteria and fungi that make up our microbiome – the teeming savannah of our skin surface and the oceans of life that swim within, as well as the “unfathomable numbers” of viruses that make up our “virome”. There is a psychosomatic itchiness that kicks in when you ponder this diverse population. There are new worlds to conquer, and some are within us. And with this, I see images of Raquel Welch and Donald Pleasence in Richard Fleischer’s Fantastic Voyage. This 1966 sci-fi film imagined a world where doctors and a submarine could be miniaturised and injected into the sick to combat life-threatening illnesses. Like much imaginative fiction, it is both a way off, and far closer to reality than you may think. From my investigations, there is little evidence of research grants

T

96

Vol. 8 Issue 8

going to the manufacture of shrink rays, but our ability to target sickness at a tiny scale is making remarkable headway via nanomedicine. I recently introduced Prof Donald Ingber of the Wyss Institute at a public outreach lecture at Queen Mary University of London. This was a fiesta of nanomedicine. I am glad I never had corrective laser surgery, because on that particular day my glasses kept my eyes from flying out of my head as I heard about the remarkable possibilities that blossom from the human imagination. There are chips that can replicate human organs so exactly that when we test drugs on them rather than animals, we can expect much more illuminating and useful results. Then there are nanotechnologies that ferry drugs directly to tumours. Meanwhile, the battle against sepsis is fought with tiny magnetic nanobeads that pull toxins from patients. But what of blood clots, the enemy that had to be destroyed in Fantastic Voyage? Today’s Proteus submarine is a clump of nanoparticles that will only break apart when subjected to stress – something that occurs at the site of a vascular blockage. As they break apart, they disperse the blood clot. Using nanoparticles rather than submarines also avoids the problem of villainous, miniaturised scientists intent on jeopardising the mission. Richard Fleischer’s other science fiction movie was Soylent Green, in which people survive on plankton – hopefully this isn’t inspiring as much research. When I was young, I wanted to be a zookeeper. Perhaps the best way to do that now is to move into nanomedicine and tend the animals I keep with me. ß Robin Ince is a comedian and writer who presents, with Prof Brian Cox, the BBC Radio 4 series The Infinite Monkey Cage

ILLUSTRATION: JAMIE COE

“Using nanoparticles and not submarines avoids the risk of any miniaturised villains”

SCIENCE

MY LIFE SCIENTIFIC PETER WHORWELL “My patients come in miserable and go out smiling. It’s incredibly fulfilling to be part of that”

Peter Whorwell tells Helen Pilcher about his passion for medicine, and why IBS deserves to be taken more seriously

I’ve always been interested in how things work. When I was 10, I remember buying a book about viruses and then puzzling one of my teachers by asking whether mouse viruses could cause human cancer. I used to make rockets. When I was a child, you could buy all the ingredients to fuel a rocket from the chemist. I’d then ignite it remotely from the house using an electric current. I always knew that I wanted to do medicine. I used to watch the TV show Dr Kildare where the lead character would roam around in a white coat comforting patients. When asked why I wanted to become a doctor at my interview for medical school, I said that Dr Kildare was my inspiration. I was just being honest. Much to my relief, they accepted me.

ILLUSTRATION: ORLAGH MURPHY

I didn’t really enjoy my medical training. We saw a lot of patients but I was disappointed to find some of the consultants arrogant and lacking in empathy. It didn’t put me off medicine but made me determined that I would do things differently when I qualified. When I did qualify, I transformed from a lazy, rather disillusioned student into a workaholic who has never stopped ‘drinking’ from the cup of medicine. Generations of medical students have been taught that irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a largely psychological condition, but it’s not. I treat people with severe IBS. They suffer extreme pain, many have faecal incontinence and more than a third have contemplated taking their own lives. I’m proud of what I’ve done and what I can do for these patients. I’ve published over 300 papers on IBS, all of which have helped to put the condition on the map. The result is that doctors are now starting to take IBS more seriously. I can help, but not cure, almost everyone who comes to my clinic. We explore diet and medication, and sometimes offer hypnotherapy. My research has proved, beyond doubt, that hypnotherapy can help people with IBS. We help give people their lives back. My patients come in miserable and often go out smiling. It’s incredibly fulfilling to be part of that.

I don’t have any hobbies. I don’t read novels. I hardly watch TV. The well-being of my patients is incredibly important to me. I live and breathe medicine. If I wasn’t a doctor, there’s a chance that I might have become a pilot. I learned to fly when I was a registrar, but I no longer fly. Still, I can’t stop myself staring at a plane when one goes by. Medicine is my life. I dread retirement because I worry that I won’t have anything to do any more. After all, you can only mow the lawn so many times. ß

PETER WHORWELL is professor of medicine and gastroenterology at the University of Manchester Vol. 8 Issue 8

97

The Last Word THE STATISTICS CRISIS re you brainy enough to be a scientist? Try this test, suggested by the Nobelprizewinning immunologist Sir Peter Medawar back in the 1970s. The works of the 16th-Century artist El Greco often show people looking oddly tall and thin. Was this deliberate, or the result of a visual defect making him see the world like this? According to Sir Peter, anyone who can instantly see that the dodgy eyesight theory is wrong is definitely smart. It requires spotting in a flash that such a defect would affect not just how El Greco saw real people, but also his depiction of them on the canvas. So if he had simply been trying to record accurately what he saw, the result would be figures looking just as distorted to him as the real thing, which would look just as undistorted to the rest of us. As Sir Peter admitted, science needs more than people who can ace such tests. But there’s one test I’d argue every wannabe boffin should be able to pass, not least because it highlights a key issue that occurs repeatedly in research. Indeed, it’s at the heart of a huge crisis of confidence sweeping through science. It goes as follows. There is over 50 per cent chance of people with brain tumour suffering from recurrent headaches. So if you get recurrent headaches, the chances you’ve got a brain tumour are also around 50 per cent, right? Wrong, of course, but can you say why? It’s because the argument assumes the chances of A given B are identical to the chances of B given A. And you can’t flip probabilities around like that. If you spotted it, then you’re head and shoulders above generations of researchers who either failed to notice or chose to ignore it when analysing their data. The problem lies with a statistical technique known as ‘significance testing’. Put simply, this allows researchers to work out the chances of getting at least as impressive results as they did, assuming just fluke were responsible. The trouble is, generations of researchers have then flipped the result around, believing that it reveals the chances of their ‘breakthrough’ actually being a fluke. Statisticians have been warning researchers about this howler for decades. I’ve been writing about it since the late 1990s, in academic journals, newspapers and BBC Focus. Like others, I’ve suggested it could play a role in the disturbing way many breakthroughs just fade away over time. Yet no one paid much attention, and it seemed to be regarded as just a bit of nitpicking. 98

Vol. 8 Issue 8

Not any more. A series of international studies analysing past claims in medicine, psychology and economics has confirmed that a substantial proportion don’t stack up. And one of the prime culprits is that decades-old blunder of flipping round the outcome of statistical tests, leading researchers to see ‘significance’ in baloney. There are signs that the scientific community is waking up to the need for action. The American Statistical Association recently issued a public statement about the ‘misconceptions and misuse’ of significance testing and called for researchers to move towards more sophisticated methods. So will they? Only if they’re willing to take another test, this time centred on the biggest question facing researchers today: what is science about, getting results that are reliable, or merely publishable? ß

ROBERT MATTHEWS is Visiting Professor in Science at Aston University, Birmingham

ILLUSTRATION: ADAM GALE

A

places to stay

Rachel Khoo’s

Extraordinary

MAGAZIN NE ASIIA

WORDS MELISSA LORRAINE CHUA

JULY/ AUGUST 2016

notebook

Win!

P

AMPERING OUR SENSES NO LONGER stops at touch, taste and scent. Good hoteliers know that visual appeal plays a large part in the perception of luxury (and our derivation of pleasure) and seek to bring ocular gratification to all who pass through their doors. Good design doesn’t just stop at choosing a pleasing palette or hanging a few decorative pieces on the wall – it permeates the atmosphere, seeps into the ethos, and inspires you to live a life more beautiful and adventurous than before. Whether through a unique floor plan, gorgeous furnishings, or bespoke art, here are five hotels that play the design game exceptionally well.

Paris

THE BEST PLACES TO EAT AND DRINK LIKE A LOCAL

A 2-NIGHTS’ STAY* IN PARK HOTEL CLARKE QUAY FOR TWO T

PARIS PPARI R S PICN PICICNIC PIC NICC ‘L Le piq pique pique e-niq -niqu nique’ ee’ is o onee of o the t e thi thing t ings ngss l I love most about the city; during the warmer months, it’s the only th w way to eat. Having always lived in tiiny flats far too small to invite lots off people round, I was forever ringing my friends and saying ri ‘m ‘meet me here, and bring some ood.’ Parisians don’t do the whole fo bl blanket-and-hamper thing. For them it’s not about the accessories, th bu but the ingredients: usually a baguette, cheese, cured meats, fruit ba an nd a bottle of wine, all bought from markets or local independent shops. m Paaris Picnic does that bit for you, nd delivers the picnic wherever an yo ou want to eat. My favourite spot is the Parc des Buttes-Chaumont, bu but beside the Canal Saint-Martin is a classic choice.

QT SYDNEY NSW, Australia

BEYOND ITS BEAUTIFUL WALLS? A boutique accommodation in the middle of Sydney’s CBD, QT Sydney is only a hop and a skip from iconic attractions such as Hyde Park, SEA LIFE Sydney Aquarium, and the Sydney Tower Eye & SKYWALK, the latter offering staggering 360-degree panoramas of the surrounding cityscape. Also known for its award-winning restaurants, be sure to check out Sydney’s critics-favourites Aria, Quay, and Nel while you’re in town.

ourne Melb onomic

HOTEL CLARIS Barcelona, Spain

BEYOND ITS BEAUTIFUL WALLS? Located in Barcelona’s central Eixample neighbourhood, just steps away from the bustling Passeig de Gràcia, Hotel Claris is a great base from which to explore the city’s world-famous architecture and exciting gastronomy. Visit the top tourist attraction in town, La Sagrada Família, educate yourself on the eponymous painter’s early years at the Picasso Museum, or drink in the plethora of sights and sounds along colourful Las Ramblas.

RATE: US$180++ per night qthotelsandresorts.com/sydney-cbd

From US$35pp; parispicnic.com

Gastr delights beyond the city centre

WHAT IS ITS AESTHETIC APPEAL? The most outstanding design element at Hotel Claris is the sheer size of its art collection, whether paintings, sculptures, or furniture. In addition to being distributed throughout the common areas and rooms, the hotel’s exceptional assemblage of art can also be viewed at its first-floor museum, which houses rare Egyptian artefacts,19th-century Turkish kilims, Roman mosaics and sculptures from the second and third centuries, sketches by Catalan painter Josep Guinovart, original etchings commissioned by Napoleon in 1812, and fifth- to eighth-century Burmese and Indian sculptures, amongst many others. Its exterior is equally a sight to behold, the former nineteenth-century neo-classical Verduna Palace reworked and extended upward using glass and steel to house a rooftop pool and provide a constant stream of natural light.

RATE: US$312++ per night hotelclaris.com

60

JULY/AUGUST 2016

JULY JU ULY Y/A /AUG UGUS GUS UST 201 06

CITY AT A GLANCE

85 5

Saan Fr S Fran anci an c scco ci o’’s h st hi s or oric ric ic ico cons ECUADOR

ART T GALLERY Y

Sydney Opera House and Harbour Bridge seen from Mrs Macquarie’s Chair

MINI GUIDE

Budget Sydney In this city, many of the best things in life really are free – from lazing around the beaches or checking out the wildlife, to admiring Sydney’s outstanding art collection.

MUS USEUM U OF TEMPORA CONT A A slice of Gotham h Circularr Quay Wess Art Decco MCA has h s ws since 19 eyebrow ng exhibitio changing o the hip to in-youry explicit and d somew w disturbiing. You’ll ’ a nal art featu aboriginal ently. There prominently. guided tours (mca George St; 10am–5 d, to 9pm T Fri–Wed,

Plan Plan Pl an your trip

ECUADOR

1

From Fr m And ndea eaan m rk ma rket ets to t Galá Ga aláápaagos go os wiilld w dlilife dli fee

SGD 7.50 RM 20 NT 270 RP 75.000 THB 195 9 7 7 2 0 1 0 0 8 2 0 1 7

Budget Sydney

3

4

5

Pass (straight) Head across through volcathe Pacific to noes and over canyons the Galápagos on the Tren de la Lib- to meet marine iguaertad, departing from nas, giant tortoises and sea lions (p52).

Ibarra (p50).

04

MCI (P) 116/09/2015, PPS 1747/12/2012(022909)

ECUADOR

6 MINI GUIDES SYDNEY X NEW YORK X KRAKOW X COSTA RICA X BEIJING X CORNWALL

MINI GUIDE

2

M local Meet l l shoplo h Take a walk The Andean k pers among deep into market town keepers th l l era bbuildld- clo of Otavalo is the thee ccolonial co oud forest, iings g of Quito o o,, th thee one the o e of the most biodi- home to weavers, flute makers and the hg p cityy in vers e se environments highest capital best roast pig in t worldd (p44 p ) the (p44). on Earth (p46). Ecuador (p48).

S:: MSHIELD PHOTOS/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO, CHRIS MATTISON/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO

Fo old d2

Art Ar rtt mu m Inside th this stately l buildingg lies an exx collection. Blockb exhibitiions arrive there’s an outstan n collection off Aust ng a substa includin b a nous section indigen n free guiided tours i (artgalllery.nsw.go o Galleryy Rd; d 10am–– Thu–Tue, to 10pm m

G E GR EA AT ESCA AT ESCA ES APE PE

Great a Escape E C U A D O R EExplore xpplo oree tthe hee colonial colonniall capital capita Quito, before delving deep into cloud forest, where hu umminngbirdds fl it aand nd pu hummingbirds flit pumas stalk; next, head high into the Andes and meet the inddigenous ige gennous craftspeople craaftsspeo ople of Otavalo, set out from Ibarra on a scenic train ride, aand nd eend nd yyour ourr advent adventure among the unique wildlife of the Galápagos

Activ

WORDS WO ORDS S PETER R GRUNERT Tear out page here then fold along the dotted lines

@peter_grunert O PHOTOGRAPHS PHILIP LEE HARVEY

@PhilipLeeHarvey Well-camouflaged marine iguanas bask on lava rocks (and one another) on the Galápagos Islands

EASY TRIPS

EASY TRIPS

Easy Trips

We’re up all night to get funky at the Singapore’s Night Festival

Tradiitional wooden Traditional wo n Yamaboko on parade Yamabo Yamabok e in Kyoto Kyot otto

1

including Have fun in the summer sun in Kyoto, Japan Find out what floats your (beer can) boat in Darwin, Australia Art comes alive in a UNESCO Heritage Site in Penang, Malaysia Light up the night sky in Singapore Go chasing waterfalls in Bali, Indonesia

5

AL MUSEUM OF SINGAPORE, NATIONAL HERITAGE BOARD

Lonely Planet’s Sydney (US$21) is a comprehensive guide to the city, and chapters from the guide can be downloaded at lonelyplanet.com (US$5), while Pocket Sydney (US$12) is ideal for shorter trips. Check out Friday’s Metro section of the Sydney Morning Herald for what’s on listings (smh.com.au). Sydney by Delia Falconer is an insightful dissection of the Harbour City by one of its own (US$39; NewSouth Publishing).

Singapore Night Festival

Gion Matsuri in Kyoto July is peak summer for the northern hemisphere and while many may choose to stay indoors to get away from the heat, the Japanese are one to head outdoors for a Natsumatsuri. Natsumatsuri (夏祭り), or summer festivals, are like street carnivals, where locals get together to enjoy the warm weather with food and games. The Gion Matsuri is no different and is considered one of the most famous festivals in Japan. Held in Gion, the geisha district of Kyoto, the ancient festival originated as part of a purification ritual to appease the gods that caused natural disasters and plagues. By far the highlight of the festival is the Yamaboko Junkō parade. The Yamaboko are giant wooden

HE NA

FURTHER READING

began renting loungers on Tamarama Beach, offering waiter service. It didn’t last long. Even at what was Sydney’s most glamorous beach, nobody was interested in that kind of malarkey. OFor Australians, going to the beach is all about rolling out a towel on the sand with a minimum of fuss. Ice-cream vendors are acceptable; martini luggers are not. OIn summer, one of the more unusual sights is the little ice cream boat pulling up to Lady Bay (and other harbour beaches) and a polite queue of nude gentlemen forming to purchase their icy pops. OSurf lifesavers have a hallowed place in the culture and you’d do well to heed their instructions, not least of all because they will be in your best interest.

30

JULY/AUGUST 2016

29

floats that are assembled in a traditional Japanese way that doesn’t use nails. These floats are mounted onto wooden wheels and are pulled through the narrow streets of Kyoto by at least 40 men during the parade. All eyes will be fixed on the chigo, though, during the parade. The chigo is a young boy who is chosen to act as the deity’s special page that has to cut a sacred rope with his sword in one slice as part of the ritual. In the days leading to the Yamaboko Junkō parade, attend the Yoiyama Festival, which allows parade goers to check out the floats that also act as shrines or as museums holding priceless artefacts. As with every Natsumatsuri, do check out the yatai, street stalls selling

JULY/AUGUST 2016

traditional Japanese snacks and food, as well as the game stalls where the gamed can win bags of goldfish and other trinkets. To feel like a part of the rich Japanese culture, don on a yukata

MAKE IT HAPPEN The month-long summer festival runs from 1 to 29 July 2016. The Yamaboko Junkō parades are held from 17 to 24 July. It’s best to head to the intersection of Shinjo and Karasuma, where the parade begins. Arrive early for the best views. Entry to all events is free. From Singapore, fly Singapore Airlines or All Nippon Airways direct to Kansai International Airport (KIX). From Kuala Lumpur, fly Malaysia Airlines or Japan Airlines. From KIX, grab the

(summer kimono). Yumeyakata has a wide range of colourful yukata for rent for both men and women (from US$32+ for full day rental; yumeyakata.com/english/ yukata.html).

Hankyu Tourist Pass with Limousine Bus Ticket (from US$18) at the Kansai Tourist Information Center for fast transport to Kyoto. Enjoy a full Japanese experience of staying in a ryokan with modern comforts at Maifukan, situated within Gion. Their combination Japanese/ Western-style rooms let guests enjoy the best of both worlds (from US$143 per pax per night; maifukan.com/en).

PHOTOGRAPH: COURTESY OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM OF SINGAPORE, NATIONAL HERITAGE BOARD

JULY/AUGUST 2016

OIn the mid-’90s, a business

PHOTOGRAPH: FLICKR - STÉFAN

92

The know-how BEACH CULTURE

TRANSPORT Apart from national carriers, Singapore Airlines and Malaysia Airlines, Qantas flies from Singapore and Kuala Lumpur daily (qantas.com). Sydney Airport taxis to the city cost from US$32, airport shuttles from US$5, while trains charge The palm-shaded communal US$12 for the short journey into garden at Bondi Beach House the city. If you’re here for a week, a MyMulti1 pass (US$33) A two-minute walk from the will get you most places on beach, Bondi Beach House offers trains, ferries, buses and trams. a homely atmosphere with Trains are reliable and frequent, rustic-chic furnishings, a terrace, while buses go where the trains courtyard and well-equipped don’t, such as Bondi and the communal kitchen (bondibeach Eastern Beaches. Ferries are an excellent way to see the harbour. house.com.au; 28 Sir Thomas Mitchell Rd; from $67). WHERE TO STAY The peaceful retreat of Tara Mariners Court Hotel Guest House has four graceful offers that rare combination of spaces with soaring ceilings location, price and a bit of elbow and French doors opening on to room, not to mention a free large verandas. The communal hot breakfast buffet. All rooms breakfast is a highlight, and have courtyards or balconies rates include airport transfers (marinerscourt.com.au; (taraguesthouse.com.au; from 45–50 McElhone St; from US$74). US$146).

WORDS: RAEWYN KOH. PHOTOGRAPH: COURTES

Sydney essentials

COMPILED BY NATALIE MILLMAN, WITH CONTRIBUTIONS FROM PETER DRAGICEVICH. PHOTOGRAPHS: MANFRED GOTTSCHALK/GETTY IMAGES, RYAN EVANS/GETTY IMAGES, DAVID SOUTH/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO, BONDI BEACH HOUSE PHOTOGRAPHY BY ISAAC MACLURCAN, MEDIABLIZIMAGES/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO

PHOTOGRAPHS: HOTEL CLARIS, QT SYDNEY

WHAT IS ITS AESTHETIC APPEAL? Carefully crafted within the city’s historic Gowings and State Theatre buildings, QT Sydney takes design to the next level, infusing a heady blend of Gothic, Art Deco, and Italiante influences throughout its interior. Heavily inspired by its external architecture and theatrical heritage, the QT Sydney fuses cutting edge technology and quirky contemporary design to bring out the dazzling alter ego in you. Expect opulent, over-the-top features such as luxurious bath tubs, gilded gold accents, and baroque-inspired prints. You can even bring back a touch of QT flair by purchasing designer items from Qtique, the in-house gallery gift shop, which carries such quirky items as a cockatoo-shaped lamp and inflatable watermelon beach ball.

The Southeast Asian city that never sleeps takes nocturnal entertainment to the streets once again with the Singapore Night Festival. Night owls take over the Bras Basah/Bugis heritage precinct for two weekends in August to showcase a magical show in the dark during this annual midsummer celebration. This year’s Singapore Night Festival focuses on the theme of Inventions and Innovation and will see international and local artists combining science fiction with fantasy to create unforgettable performances that will dazzle through the night. Spread out over a few spots, including Armenian Street, CHIJMES, Singapore Art Museum, National Museum of Singapore and many more, festivalgoers can expect an array of events to fill up the night. Be treated to street

buskers with acrobatic acts, Singapore musicians, installations and the highlight of every Singapore Night Festival – Night Lights. The interactive light show turns the facades of the Singapore Art Museum and National Museum of Singapore into blank canvases for a psychedelic and kaleidoscopic light show. This year will also see the return of PERSPECTIVE talks and CREATIONS workshops, where registered guests will get the chance to discuss in an open panel with artists or make a souvenir commemorating their time at Singapore Night Festival at a workshop. When dawn breaks, stay in the area to participate in a heritage walk around one of Singapore’s oldest neighbourhoods. The Original Singapore Walks by Journeys will take history buffs

through Bras Basah on The Time of Empire walk. Unearth interesting facts about the 19th century as knowledgeable tour guides share about prominent names in Singapore’s history. Learn more about the Sir Stamford Raffles, the founder of Singapore, the

MAKE IT HAPPEN Singapore Night Festival will be held over the course of two weekends from 19 to 27 August 2016. Various programmes are ticketed but the Night Lights shows are free. Check nightfest.sg for more updates and ticketing information. Changi Airport in Singapore serves more than 100 airlines flying in from some 330 cities in about 80 countries around the world. National carrier

Sarkies brothers, The Straits Times and the cocktail drink that put Singapore on the map as you visit St Andrew’s Cathedral, Coleman Street, Raffles Hotel, Supreme Court and much more (US$28 per pax; journeys.com.sg/ singaporewalks/index.asp).

Singapore Airlines is available in 63 international destinations in 35 countries. Newly opened M Social Singapore is an ideal place to stay for the weekend. The Philippe Starck designed hotel is Robertson Quay’s newest and chicest accommodation that thrives on the idea of community and new experiences. Opening rates are available from US$187 per night for a Nice Room (msocial.sg).

JULY/AUGUST 2016

33

FORCES OF NATURE Premieres 18 August Thursdays at 10.45pm (SIN/HK) BBC Earth is available in Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam and Mongolia. Please call your cable operator for more details or check out our website.

www.bbcasia.com /BBCEarth @BBCEarthAsia