OUR FUTURE ON MERCURY

Why we should build a colony on Mercury p61

ASIA EDITION
TION Vol. 8 Issue 7

SCIENCE HISTO
HISTORY
ORY NATURE FOR THE
TH CURIOUS MIND

THE DARK SIDE

OF ELIZABETHAN
ENGLAND
p56

MEET THE
ENDANGERED
INDIA APES
p68

WHY IS SLEEP
IMPORTANT
p84

NANO
PPS 1745/01/2013 (022915)
MCI (P) 070/10/2015 ISSN 1793-9836
07
MEDICS
Meet the bots that will kill cancer, eat fat,
repair our bodies and more p40
9 771793 983016
SGD 7.50 | PHP 300
THB 240 | NT 200 | RM 18
On the cover Vol. 8 Issue 7

SCIENCE
61 Our Future On Mercury

HISTORY
56 The Dark Side Of
Elizabethan England

NATURE
COVER STORY

68 Meet The Endangered India Apes

Q&A

40 Nano Medics 84 Why Is Sleep Important

Vol. 8 Issue 7 3
Contents Vol. 8 Issue 7

FEATURES
14 Nature Journeys in Australia
If you love nature, youll nd beauty everywhere, especially in
Australia where vast and varied landscapes are home to numerous
national parks, heritage wonders and a plethora of unique wildlife

16 BBC Knowledge Magazine School

Challenge 2016
Relive the weekend of intense competition as you ip through
the post-event pages. Though the questions were tough, all
participants managed to piece their thinking caps together to
come up with brilliant answers

34 Christian Art in Asia

Explore the worlds rst Christian Art in Asia themed exhibition
at Asian Civilisations Museum from now to early September
2016. Many of the artefacts are also displaying in Singapore for
the rst time
56
The Dark Side Of
36 Yakult Elizabethan England
Do you know what goes into your favourite drink? Ever thought
it was a lifestyle product? Well, its actually a type of preventive
medication. Yakult is the pioneer of probiotic research and they
remain at the forefront of the development and studies behind it
SCIENCE

Cover Story

40 Here Comes
The Nano Medics
Microscopic devices could
soon be travelling around
our bodies, constantly
scanning for signs of
disease and providing a
cure even before we know
we are ill. Isnt it brilliant!

48 Seal Patrol
NATURE

Passion is what brings people forth and this group of enthusiasts

are not only looking after the worlds grey seals welfare, but also
gaining fascinating insights into their identities and lifestyle
ON THE COVER

56 The Dark Side Of Elizabethan England

HISTORY

The Elizabethan Era is often painted as the golden age, but what
really happened during that period of time? For thousands of
people, life was anything but glamorous as they battle violence,
vagrancy and crushing hunger
ON THE COVER

61 Our Future On Mercury

SCIENCE

Mars is often the favourite planet for exploration. But

could Mercury, the closest planet to the Sun, offer us more
opportunities than the Red Planet?
8 Snapshot
4 Vol. 8 Issue 7
 ON THE COVER

40 68 Indias Last Apes

NATURE
Here Comes The Assam is best known for tea, but its subtropical forests
Nano Medics also offer refuge to rare hoolock gibbons. Learn about these
primates that are very much similar to humans, more so than
any other species of primate

75 Busting The Myths Of Modern Life

SCIENCE
Everyone knows that sugar makes kids hyperactive, mice love
cheese and MSG is bad for you. But is there any truth behind
these claims?

96 A Witty Viewpoint

SCIENCE
Robin Ince is a comedian and writer who presents on the BBC
Radio 4 Series, The Innite Monkey Cage. In this issue, we talk
about cannibalism

97 My Life Scientic
SCIENCE
Meet Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell, president of the Royal Society
of Edinburgh and discoverer of pulsars

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

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

UPDATE
20 The Latest Intelligence
68 Technology recreating Rembrandt masterpieces, structure of Zika
virus mapped, evolution of fish to limbs, new particle found and
Indias
effects of LSD on the brain
Last Apes
33 Comment & Analysis
Learn about why your favourite cakes and biscuits go stale at
different states
ON THE COVER

83 Q&A
This month: could robots be creative, what is the speed of gravity, what
does sleep do for the brain, which planet would affect the Earth most

RESOURCE
94 Reviews
Comedian Sara Pascoe has been thinking about the essence and origins of
female sexuality. Her new book explores feminine behaviour largely from a
science angle
61 98 Last Word
Our Future On
Robert Matthews discusses why there is a recurring trouble with
Mercury geniuses and famous scientist

Vol. 8 Issue 7 5
Welc me Y Send us your letters
editorial-bbcknowledge@regentmedia.sg

STUFF OF Everyone has them once in a while, an itch that

occurs far beyond the reaches of your arms no
CARTOONS AND matter how much you try to contort or stretch
FANTASIES them. Somehow it always happens when you are
sitting down getting comfortable with a book or
catching up with your social media posts, and you
wish you had tiny robots that you can dispatch
to scratch that itch away! Or you wish you had
some easy way of getting at that bunch of keys you
accidentally dropped through the drain cover.
Guess what, doctors and surgeons have been
dreaming of such robots as well. Micro machines
small enough to go into the human body to detect
and destroy viruses or diseases before they can
wreak havoc. Seems like stuff of cartoons, but
nanotechnology as well as nanomedicines, are
being explored to help combat cancer as well as
tumours amongst many other ailments. They are
small enough to be injected into the bloodstream,
last longer and yet not clog up the blood vessels.
With a huge market for them and the immense
potential to treat previously un-treatable disease or
limiting the use of destructive drugs, it could be
very soon that we will be taking a pill lled with
nanobots to treat that virus or bacterial infection.
Ben Poon
ben@regentmedia.sg
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
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
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SCIENCE HISTORY NATURE FOR THE CURIOUS MIND
Know more. Anywhere.
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

JAMES
SHARPE
Professor James Sharpe has well established interests
in the social and cultural history of early modern
England, with wider interests in witchcraft, in the
history of crime and law enforcement, and in early
modern judicial systems. p56
ALI WOOD
Ali is a freelance writer, editor and publisher with over
13 years experience on consumer magazines. Her
writing portfolio includes a variety of mens, womens,
craft and entertainment sectors, but she has a special
love for the British countryside and coast. p68
TOM IRELAND
Nanomedicines are a hot topic in the world of
science, and could even make us immortal. We
asked editor of The Biologist Tom Ireland to nd out
what we can look forward to from these micro
machines. p40

6 Vol. 8 Issue 7
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mark of the British Broadcasting Corporation and is used under licence. British Broadcasting Corporation 1996

Vol. 7 Issue 1 7
Member of Magazine
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Publishers Association,
Singapore
SCIENCE

8 Vol. 8 Issue 7
Disco planet
At night, the Earth becomes a glitterball.
Viewed from the International Space Station,
lights pulsate and flicker across the planets
surface. Using a long exposure, NASA
astronaut Don Pettit captured this light
show in June 2012, during a six-month stint
aboard the ISS.
The streaks of yellow are city lights, smeared
by the rotation of the Earth and the motion of
the ISS, while the blue blotches are lightning
bolts, flaring up like flashbulbs. That green
wash of colour in the atmosphere is known as
airglow. It is caused by light being emitted
from oxygen atoms that have been excited by
the Suns ultraviolet radiation during the day.
Meanwhile, as the ISS zips around the
Earth, the night sky appears to rotate around
the space stations axis, creating the star trails
in the top-right.
My star trail images are made by taking
a time exposure of about 10 to 15 minutes,
says Pettit. With modern digital cameras,
30 seconds is about the longest exposure
possible, [so] to achieve the longer exposures I
do what many amateur astronomers do. I
take multiple 30-second exposures, then
stack them using imaging software.

PHOTO: NASA

Vol. 8 Issue 7 9
NATURE

Dumbo: Gulf of Mexico

Spotted during the NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer Gulf of Mexico 2014 expedition
and identified as the biology highlight of the cruise by many of our scientists
and viewers alike, this dumbo octopus displayed a body posture that has never
before been observed in cirrate octopods.

PHOTO: NOAA OFFICE OF OCEAN EXPLORATION AND RESEARCH

10 Vol. 8 Issue 7
Vol. 8 Issue 7 11
HISTORY

Looking Back:
Astronaut Mae
Jemison Suits
Up For Launch
On 12 September 1992, launch day
of the STS-47 Spacelab-J mission
on space shuttle Endeavour, NASA
astronaut Mae Jemison waits as her suit
technician, Sharon McDougle, performs
a unpressurized and pressurized leak
check on her spacesuit at the Operations
and Checkout Building at Kennedy Space
Center. Dr. Jemison was the science
mission specialist on the eight-day joint
mission with Japans space agency, which
included 24 materials science and 20 life
sciences experiments. She was the first
African-American woman to fly in space.

PHOTO: NASA

12 Vol. 8 Issue 7
Vol. 8 Issue 7 13
 SCHO
OL
SPECIAL FEATURE
CHALLENGE
2016
MALAYSIA

ACCESSIBLE NATURE
JOURNEYS IN AUSTRALIA
IF YOU LOVE NATURE, YOULL FIND BEAUTY EVERYWHERE, ESPECIALLY
IN AUSTRALIA WHERE VAST AND VARIED LANDSCAPES ARE HOME TO
NUMEROUS NATIONAL PARKS, HERITAGE WONDERS AND A PLETHORA
OF UNIQUE WILDLIFE
WORDS: JOSMIN ONG

y denition, nature covers all
B elements of the natural world the
mountains, trees, animals and rivers;
things that have existed since the beginning of
time. If you truly enjoy these natural wonders,
travel to Australia to begin your endless
discovery journey with its 500 national parks
and 15 natural world heritage wonders, you
are bound to be spoilt for choice. For the
marine life lovers, there are also 200 protected
marine areas, including the worlds highly
acclaimed Great Barrier Reef.
EXTRAORDINARY EXPLORATIONS
Australias Green Cauldron is one of Australias
16 National Landscapes a unique partnership
between Tourism Australia and Parks Australia
to identify the best places to experience the
countrys outstanding nature and culture.
Hike about Mount Warning (now known
as Wollumbin), culminating in breathtaking
panoramic views around the ancient caldera
with coastal views stretching from Byron
Bay to the Gold Coast and west towards
the Great Dividing Range.Wind along the
many tracks in the lush sub-tropical rainforest
of Larnington National Park, then do the
OReillys Tree Top Walk through the vine-
lined canopy for varied views.
Discover Australias Red Centre, a place
rich in Aboriginal culture and rugged outback
beauty. Alice Springs, a crossroad of Aboriginal
and European cultures, offers access to awe-
inspiring landscapes of Uluru and Kata Tjuta,
the MacDonnell Ranges and Kings Canyon.
The cosmopolitan town has also evolved into
a bustling arts and cultural centre for visitors.

14 Vol. 8 Issue 7
Choose to take a road trip through the iconic
red monolith, hike the Laraprinta Trail, ride a
camel through the Simpson Desert or take a
Ghan train journey from Darwin or Adelaide.
UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Greater
Blue Mountains Area, consists of one million
hectares of sandstone plateau, escarpments and
gorges dominated by a temperate eucalypt
forest.The site is also home to plenty of
waterfalls and bushland, easily reachable with
a 90 minutes drive from Sydney.The geology
and geomorphology of the property provides
the physical conditions and visual backdrop to
support outstanding biological values.
Alternatively, head over to Maria Island,
a mountainous island located in the Tasman
Sea off the east coast of Tasmania, Australia.
This exclusive island has something for
everyone, whether you are into historical
ruins, sweeping bays, rugged cliffs and
mountains or remarkable wildlife. The
abundance of coastal and inland forest
walks within this National Park paradise is
possible with its restriction of motor vehicles
and other non-relevant business entities.
Whether you are here for hours or days,
you can bask in the natural glory of Mother
Nature and let Maria work her spell on you.
WILDLIFE WONDERLAND
Australia is home to more than one million
species of plants and animals, many of which
cannot be found anywhere else in the world.
Some iconic animals include the cute koalas,
wombats, kangaroo, laughing kookaburra and
egg-laying platypus a creature so odd-looking
that skeptical European scientists thought it
to be several animals stitched together. Many
rare animals and birds can easily be spotted in
major capital cities. Do not be alarmed if you
see a possum climb up a city lamp post in the
evening or a giant fruit bat taking off from its
roosts in city parks. Other common animal
sightings include pelicans, sacred ibises and red
kangaroos bounding beside your ride as your
traverse through Australias outback. If you
dont wish to miss any chances, then here are a
few territories for your consideration the next
time you are in town.
New South Wales is ideal for dolphin
cruising, swimming with seals, sea bird
watching and other aquatic creature
encounters along the New South Wales
coast from Eden in the south to Cape Byron
in the north. The Northern Territory teems
with river and wetland wildlife such as
crocodiles, wild horses and buffaloes. During
wet seasons, it also attracts millions of
migratory birds. The Queensland coastline
is famed for its cruising humpback whale
watching between the months of July and
November. In the Great Barrier Reef,
you can snorkel close to a kaleidoscope of
colourful shes, sea turtles and manta rays in
warm tropical waters or even catch nesting
sea turtles and emerging hatchlings heading
into the ocean.
To spot rare wildlife, Tasmania would be
the place to be.You may be lucky enough
to encounter a wombat, shy platypus or
hear the chilling screams of a Tasmanian
devil as you walk a forest path or sit quietly
by the stream within the UNESCO World
Heritage-listed wilderness. Narawntapu
National Park will be one of the best places
to visit. Last and denitely not the least in
our list, head on to Victorias Phillip Island
Nature Park to watch the adorable nightly
penguin parade. Rangers will guide small
groups of visitors to view the penguins as
they waddle up the beach every evening.
Whether you are looking for an exciting
getaway or quiet adventure, Australia has it
prepared for you so pack up and head out here
on your next journey!
Vol. 8 Issue 7 15
 SCHO
OL
CHALLENGE
2016
SINGAPORE
BBC KNOWLEDGE MAGAZINE
SCHOOL CHALLENGE 2016
ow, in its sixth installation, the
N BBC Knowledge Magazine School
Challenge sees a consistent number
of participants from various esteemed
secondary schools in Singapore. As with past
years editions, the event was held over two
days, with the rst day being the qualiers.
This years event was held over the weekend
of 21 22 May 2016.
Participants formed groups of four to
tackle 50 multiple-choice questions along
with a short essay question within the span
of one hour.The questions were based on
nature, science and history topics discussed
in previous issues of BBC Knowledge
Asia magazines. All students were highly
encouraged to have read the magazines as
16 Vol. 8 Issue 7
WORDS: JOSMIN ONG
well as current affairs affecting the world
to comprehend and answer the questions
correctly. Day One of the event was graciously
hosted by the National Museum of Singapore
alongside sponsors such as Yakult, Sarawak
Tourism Board, Columbia, Faber-Castell,
Resorts World Sentosa and S.E.A Aquarium.
The top ten teams that scored the highest
on the rst day managed to clinch a placing
for the competition held on Day Two. Five
debate topics were chosen by random and
the teams had 24 hours to prepare a short yet
concise presentation.This segment tested their
abilities to work fast, uently, factually and
creatively. Day Two of the event was kindly
hosted by the Asian Civilisations Museum
(ACM). Guest judges include Mr Naidu
Huang Shiqi Jermaine, Manager, Education & Outreach
National Museum of Singapore

All participants received a personalised certificate

Kuek Kok Ti, Manager, PR & Advertising Department
Yakult Singapore Pte Ltd

Vol. 8 Issue 7 17
 SCHO
OL
CHALLENGE
2016
SINGAPORE

Gautama, coaching professional, Ms Sharinita

representing ACM, Mr Benjamin Poon,
managing editor of Regent Media and
Ms Melissa Chua, associate editor.
Preparing a decent presentation in 24
hours seemed like a futile task but the girls
from Nanyang Girls High School denitely
found a way to charm the judges within the
short span of ve minutes. The boys from
Catholic High School and Hwa Chong
Institution (High School) didnt fall too
far behind and came in second and third
respectively. We would like to extend our
heartiest congratulations for a job well to
all participating teams. And as late Former
President of South Africa said, Education
is the most powerful weapon we can use to
change the world.

PARTICIPATING SCHOOLS
Bukit Panjang Government High School
Cedar Girls Secondary School
Catholic High School (Sec)
Damai Secondary School
Greendale Secondary School
Hwa Chong Institution
Nanyang Girls High School
River Valley High School
Singapore Chinese Girls School

Regent Media would like to thank all students,

schools and sponsors for their warm participation
and support of the BBC Knowledge Magazine
School Challenge 2016.

18 Vol. 8 Issue 7
1st Nanyang Girls High School - Whang Chia Ning, Phua Ying 2nd Catholic High School - Phua Wei An, Ng Yoon Yik, Daryl Tan 3rd Hwa Chong Institution (High School) - Dai Siyang Calvin,
Isabel, Michelle Chang, Boo Qian Wei, Adeline Zhe Han, Teo Jun Han Lim Yang En, Tan Heang Yi Charlton, Yeo Zong Yao

4th River Valley High - Chen Xiang Long, Xie Yuxuan, Winston 5th Nanyang Girls High School - Kim Yu Lim, Janessa Phua Pei 6th Hwa Chong Institution (High School) - Nathanael Chia
Fu, Owi Ming How Xuan, Ning Xinran, Xiao Wanlin Shiau Jiun, Chong Si Hua Xavier, Tan Caleb, Lee Kai Xuan

7th Nanyang Girls High School - Gao Chen Ivy, Huang Sijia 8th Singapore Chinese Girls High - Lim Ying Yi Andrea, Kwek
Lim Yan Ming The Learning Craft
Linda, Ng Zi Ling, Ou Jiaxin Shi Qi, Shun Le Aung, Cheryl Yong Kai Lin

9th River Valley High - Soh Jun Han Owen, Gerald Goh Jun Yi, 10th Bukit Panjang Govt High - Guk Yi Siong, Ong Wei Xiang, Sharinita Ismail Assistant Director
Nyan Maw Htun, Lim Shiu Xin Gregg Neil Chen Yi Lun MacAlevey, Wee Yong Ren Marketing and Corporate Communications of ACM

Organiser: Educational Tour Sponsor Official Education Partner Venue Sponsors Official Beverage Sponsor

Supporting Partners

Vol. 8 Issue 7 19
Update THE LATEST INTELLIGENCE

D I S P A T C H E S F R O M T H E C U T T I N G E D G E

BIOENGINEERING

MEET SYN3.0, THE

SIMPLEST LIVING
THING ON EARTH
BIOLOGISTS CREATE SYNTHETIC
BACTERIA TO HELP UNCOVER THE
BASIC RECIPE FOR LIFE

PHOTO: TOM DEERINCK/MARK ELLISMAN/UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT SAN DIEGO

A team led by genomics pioneer J Craig Venter has

synthesised a living bacterium that contains all the
necessities for life yet has just 473 genes, making it
simpler than any self-replicating cell found in nature.
Humans have around 24,000 genes.
The researchers hope that the cell will help them to
tease out the most basic building blocks of life and
Syn3.0 could become the
blueprint for synthetic begin unravelling the mystery of how complex
organisms in the future organisms evolved on Earth, more than three billion
years ago. The technique used to create Syn3.0
could also pave the way for the creation of tailor-
made organisms that could be used to create new

20 Vol. 8 Issue 7

medicines, biofuels or microbes
capable of soaking up pollution,
the researchers say.
PHOTOS: J CRAIG VENTER INSTITUTE X3, GETTY X2 TOM DEERINCK/MARK ELLISMAN/UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT SAN DIEGO
Most of Syn3.0s essential
genes perform functions
related to expressing genes,
passing down genetic
information, or regulating the
cells membrane and
metabolism. However, the team
has no idea what around one-
third of the cells genes do.
Our attempt to design and
create a new species, while
ultimately successful,
revealed that 32 per cent of
the genes essential for life in
this cell are of unknown
function, and showed that
many are highly conserved in
numerous species, said
Venter. All the bioinformatics
studies over the past 20 years
have underestimated the
number of essential genes by
focusing only on the known
world. This is an important
observation that we are
THE TEAM HAVE NO
IDEA WHAT AROUND
ONE-THIRD OF THE
CELLS GENES DO
carrying forward into the study
of the human genome.
SIX YEARS IN THE
MAKING
Venter and his team first made
a synthetic cell with 901 genes,
dubbed Synthia or Syn1.0, in
2010 by copying the genome of
Mycoplasma mycoides, an
existing bacteria, and
transplanting it into another cell.
Taking the success of Syn1.0 as
a starting point, the team spent
the next six years painstakingly
cutting away genes until they
were left with a cell with only the
genes essential for life.
The results were published
in a paper titled Design and
synthesis of a minimal
bacterial genome in the
journal Science in March.
This paper signifies a
major step toward our ability
to design and build synthetic
organisms from the bottom
up with predictable
outcomes. The tools and
knowledge gained from this
work will be essential to
producing next-generation
production platforms for a
wide range of disciplines,
said the papers co-author,
Daniel Gibson.
CRAIG VENTER TIMELINE
19 4 6
J Craig Venter is born
in Salt Lake City, Utah
19 7 5
Venter graduates from the University of
California with a doctorate in physiology
and pharmacology
19 9 5
In collaboration with Hamilton Smith,
Venter determines the genomic
sequence of the Haemophilus inuenza
bacterium, marking the rst time the
complete genetic sequence of a
free-living organism is decoded
2001
The Institute for Genomic Research,
founded by Venter, helps sequence the
genome of the anthrax strain mailed in
the attacks that killed ve people
evidence that eventually leads the FBI
to the source
2003
The Human Genome Project, led by
Venter, decodes the human genome for
the rst time
2004
Venter embarks on a two-year trip
around the globe by sailboat, in search
of microbes for DNA sequencing
2008
The J Craig Venter Institute (JCVI)
announces the complete synthesis of a
bacterial genome named Mycoplasma
genitalium
2 0 10
The JCVI creates Synthia, the rst-ever
articial self-replicating organism
Vol. 8 Issue 7 21
Update THE LATEST INTELLIGENCE

THE DOWNLOAD

ELASMOTHERIUM
SIBIRICUM
Whats that? Something to keep
your trousers up?
Nope. Its the Siberian Unicorn.

Pull the other one. April Fools

Day was ages ago.
No, really. It was a large, shaggy
mammal with a pointy horn sitting
on the front of its snout. It was
previously believed to have died
out 350,000 years ago but a skull
recently found in Kazakhstan dates
to just 29,000 years ago.

I want one!
Erm, I dont think you do. Quite
apart from the fact that they are
now extinct, the animals were
around two metres tall, four
metres long and weighed about
Computer-generated four tonnes, making them similar
timelapse of the
SPACE supernova explosion in size to a mammoth. Not exactly
the sort of thing you could keep in
EXPLODING STAR SHOCKWAVE your garden.
CAPTURED FOR THE FIRST TIME
When some stars die, they go out with a bang. When the internal furnace of a
star many times more massive than the Sun runs out, the force of gravity can
take over causing the core to suddenly collapse. This results in the release
se of
enormous amounts of energy in a massive supernova explosion. It can also lso
trigger a gigantic shockwave called a shock breakout.
Now, this shockwave has been captured for the first time in visible lightt by
NASAs Kepler telescope. An international team led by the University of Notre
Dames Peter Garnavich observed the supernova KSN 2011d, a massive star
more than 500 times the mass of the Sun, as it exploded 1.2 billion light-years
years
away from Earth. The event was found among three years of observational al
data and only lasted for around 20 minutes.
In order to see something that happens on timescales of minutes, like a
PHOTOS: NASA, ALAMY

shock breakout, you want to have a camera continuously monitoring the sky,
said Garnavich. You dont know when a supernova is going to go off, and d
Keplers vigilance allowed us to be a witness as the explosion began. I might be a
se
As well as teaching us more about the life cycles of stars, studying these unicorn, but Im
not mythical,
violent events could help us to understand how complex chemicals and even promise!
life itself came to be, the researchers said.

22 Vol. 8 Issue 7
 TECHNOLOGY
THE NEW OLD MASTER
A new Rembrandt masterpiece has been created by
a computer and it looks just like the real thing
From the earthy colours and
theatrical play of light and
shadow to the thick layering of
paint, all signs point to this
portrait being painted by the
Dutch master Rembrandt.
However, it was actually
created by a computer
following a two-year
collaboration between the
Technical University of Delft,
Microsoft and the Mauritshuis
and Rembrandthuis museums.
The project has been dubbed
The Next Rembrandt.
The portrait was
created using data
from high-res 3D
scans of 346
PHOTOS: ROBERT HARRISON/J WALTER THOMPSON LONDON
of Rembrandts portraits.
Theres a lot of Rembrandt
data available, said the
Technical University of Delfts
Joris Dik. But can we actually
create something out of it that
looks like Rembrandt? That
was an appealing question.
The chosen works were all
painted between 1632 and
1642 and featured Caucasian
males aged between 30 and 40
wearing black clothes and
sporting facial hair in order to
limit the number of variables.
The data from the scans
was fed into facial
recognition software
to identify the most
typical geometric patterns IN N U MBERS
Rembrandt used to paint
human features. A deep
learning algorithm was then
used to assemble these
findings into an original portrait.
We looked at a number of
14.53
Rembrandt paintings, and we
scanned their surface texture, million km2
their elemental composition, The size of the Arctic
and what kinds of pigments
were used, said Dik.
ice cap recorded by
To add a layer of detail, the NASAs National Snow
team used the 3D scans to and Ice Data Centre. Its
analyse the texture of the lowest since records
Rembrandts brushstrokes and
3D printed the final portrait began in 1979.
using 13 layers of ink to create a
184
realistic effect.
The age of Jonathan, a
Seychelles giant tortoise
living on the island of St
Helena in the southern
Atlantic Ocean. Hes
thought to be the oldest
living terrestrial animal
on the planet.
A height map allowed the team to add
10
texture and brushstrokes to the
3D-printed Rembrandt
trillion degrees
Thats one followed
by 13 zeroes. The
temperature of quasar 3C
273, a mysterious disc of
matter swirling around a
supermassive black hole
in the Virgo constellation.
Vol. 8 Issue 7 23
Update
W H AT W E
LEARNED
THIS MONTH
WE COULD BUILD A
BASE ON THE
MOON BY 2022
NASA scientists have
suggested that a base capable
of housing 10 astronauts
could be built on the Moon
using existing technologies
in the next ve to 10 years.
It would cost $10bn, which
is around half of the space
agencys yearly budget, they
say.
MANTA RAYS CAN
RECOGNISE
THEMSELVES IN
THE MIRROR
Giant manta rays have joined
great apes, dolphins and
elephants in passing the
mirror test. A study in Florida
found that rays presented with
mirrors wiggled their ns and
blew bubbles, suggesting that
they were able to recognise
their own reections.
BEING IN SPACE
CAN STUNT HAIR
GROWTH
Researchers in Tokyo have
found that being in orbit
can turn on genes that
decrease hair growth in
men. They found the effect
after analysing hair follicles
from astronauts who spent
six months aboard the
International Space Station.
The effect was not seen in
women.
24 Vol. 8 Issue 7
THE LATEST INTELLIGENCE
MEDICINE
STRUCTURE OF THE ZIKA
VIRUS MAPPED
This knobbly disc is the rst ever image of the structure of the Zika virus,
and has potentially paved the way for the development of a vaccine to
combat the disease.
A team from Purdue University has used
high-resolution cryo-electron
microscopes to piece together a
detailed image of the Zika
viruss molecular
structure.
Zika is a type of
flavivirus, a close
relative of yellow fever
and West Nile fever,
which is spread by
a species of
tropical mosquito.
Those infected
typically experience
mild symptoms such
as skin rashes and
joint pain that clear
up within 10 days.
However, growing
evidence suggests that
the virus maybe linked with
microcephaly, a birth defect
that causes babies to have
unusually small heads and stunted
PHOTO: PURDUE UNIVERSITY/KUHN AND ROSSMANN RESEARCH GROUP
brain development.
In April last year, an outbreak of the virus
began in northeastern Brazil. The virus has
since spread to other areas of Central and
South America, and to the Caribbean.
The structure of the virus provides a map ZIKA FACT BOX
that shows potential regions of the virus that Only one in ve people infected with
could be targeted by a therapeutic treatment, the virus show any symptoms.
used to create an effective vaccine or to
improve our ability to diagnose First identied in Uganda in 1947.
and distinguish Zika infection from
that of other related viruses, said The virus is spread through the bite of
ZIKA IS A researcher Richard Kuhn. the Aedes mosquito, the same insect
VIRUS WHICH Determining the structure greatly that transmits yellow fever, dengue
advances our understanding of fever and chikungunya.
VERY LITTLE IS Zika, a virus about which very little
KNOWN is known. It shows the most Symptoms include fever, headache, skin
promising areas for further testing rash, red eyes, fatigue and joint pain.
and research to combat infection.
 ZOOLOGY

WALKING FISH COULD

BE MISSING LINK IN FIN
TO LIMB EVOLUTION
Usually, if you drop a fish on the ground it
will thrash around aimlessly like a fish out
of water. But thats not the case with
Cryptotora thamicola. Drop one of these
blind, cave-dwelling fish on the ground and
marvel as it walks away like a land animal.
The bizarre fish was found scurrying
around dark caves in Thailand by a team
from the New Jersey Institute of Technology.
It can scuttle across rocks and climb up
waterfalls thanks to its salamander-style
pelvic girdle, they say. Other fish, such as
mudskippers and lungfish, have previously
been observed walking, but those species
drag themselves along on their front fins.
The discovery may help to shed light on
how the anatomy needed to walk on land
evolved after the transition from finned to
limbed appendages in the Devonian
period, some 420 million years ago.
C. thamicola possesses morphological
features that have previously only been
attributed to tetrapods [four-legged Unlike most sh,
C. thamicola can walk
animals], said researcher Brooke on dry land
Flammang. Its pelvis and vertebral column
allow it to support its body weight against
gravity and provide large sites for muscle
attachment for walking. This research
gives us insight into the plasticity of the fish
body plan and the convergent
The caves in
morphological features seen in the Thailand where the
evolution of tetrapods. sh was discovered
PHOTOS: NJIT, BARCROFT MEDIA ILLUSTRATOR: JAMES OLSTEIN

T H E Y D I D W H AT ?!

CHICKENS bone found in the lower Why did they do that?

GIVEN leg is splinter-like and
doesnt reach all the way
DINO LEGS to the ankle. Dinosaurs
fibulae, in contrast, were
What did they do? much more developed.
A team from the
University of Chile has How did they do that?
grown chicken embryos By inhibiting the activity
with dinosaur-like lower of a gene going by the
legs. In modern-day rather bizarre name of
birds, the fibula the thin Indian Hedgehog.
Around 66 million years
ago, most dinosaurs went
extinct, but a handful of
species survived. These
went on to evolve into the
birds we see today. The
researchers are trying to
use reverse evolution
techniques to find out
how this transformation
took place.

Vol. 8 Issue 7 25
Update THE LATEST INTELLIGENCE

IN THEIR OWN WORDS

IT COULD BE THE FIRST HINT OF A BETTER,

BIGGER THEORY THAT THE STANDARD
MODEL WOULD BE EMBEDDED IN

HAS A NEW PARTICLE BEEN FOUND AT CERN?

BELOW: Prof Peter Higgs
predicted the Higgs boson
the God Particle back Higgs boson in those collisions. This new thing has
in the 1960s, but it wasnt
discovered until 2012 at
the Large Hadron Collider
Four years after the discovery of the Higgs
boson, a new particle may have been
uncovered at CERN. Graham Southorn spoke
to Jon Butterworth, a member of CERNs
ATLAS detector team
How did experiments reveal these hints?
The Large Hadron Collider [LHC] collides protons
[hydrogen nuclei] head-on and we discovered the
that for the Higgs. The evidence is about at the level
shown up in the data taken since then. Weve cranked
up the energy, which means you can create higher
mass particles more
often because E=mc2.
The way the experiment
works is that you count
the number of pairs of
photons [particles of
concentration of these pairs of photons around the
mass of the new particle.
What have you seen this time?
It seems like theres another concentration of pairs of
photons clustered around [an energy of] 750GeV,
about 750 times the mass of the proton or roughly six
times the mass of the Higgs boson. Its much heavier,
but in another sense the evidence is rather similar to
that it was for the Higgs about six months before we
announced it.
When will we know for sure this time?
If all goes to plan, I would expect an announcement
sometime in the summer conferences. It will either
have grown to the point where theres a discovery, or
it will have receded a bit and well be less excited. Its
PHOTOS: ALAMY X2, CERN

light]. Most of them like looking at an object in the mist. As you get closer,
come from random it either gets clearer or it fades away and turns out to
collisions and theres a have just been a swirl in the mist.
smooth distribution of
masses. But if theres a What are the implications for physics?
new particle in there, Its really exciting because this is not something thats
therell be a expected in the Standard Model in fact its excluded

26 Vol. 8 Issue 7
 BLONDES
Who are you calling a dumb blonde? A study at the
Ohio State University has found that blonde women
have marginally higher average IQs than brunettes or
redheads and are more likely to be classified as
geniuses. But dont bother reaching for the bleach
the effect was only seen in natural blondes.

SUN WORSHIPPERS
Heres an excuse to get away somewhere sunny:
Swedish researchers have found that catching some
rays may help extend your life. However, sunbathing
for long periods can cause skin cancer so dont stay
out for more than half an hour.

GOOD MONTH

BAD MONTH

by the Standard Model! So it could be the first hint of REALITY TV FANS

a better, bigger theory that the Standard Model would If you find yourself keeping up with the Kardashians,
be embedded in. The bigger theory would have a you may be a narcissist. University of Pennsylvania
chance of answering questions that the Standard researchers have found that reality TV fans score
Model doesnt answer, such as what is dark matter, more highly on the Narcissistic Personality Inventory.
how does gravity fit into the picture, and why is there
more matter than antimatter in the Universe? Despite CAT OWNERS
having proved that the Higgs was there, the Standard Next time you see someone flipping off another driver,
Model doesnt answer those questions so its clearly blame Tiddles. People suffering from intermittent
not any kind of final word on fundamental physics. explosive disorder, a condition that causes aggressive
outbursts such as road rage, are more than twice as
If it is confirmed, what would you do next? likely to be infected with Toxoplasma gondii, a
The theorists are having a heyday already. Theyre parasite carried by moggies.
building all kinds of hypotheses to answer some of
TOP: Experiments at the
Large Hadron Collider the open questions, using this [potential particle] as a
are helping scientists clue. Its like youve filled in a new word in a
gain a deeper knowledge of
crossword puzzle that gets you into a corner of the
ILLUSTRATION: JAMES OLSTEIN

physics
ABOVE: Collisions between
protons at the Large Hadron
Collider are once again being
analysed in the hunt for a
new particle
puzzle youve not been in before. Most of those
hypotheses will say, If my theory is right, not only do
you see this thing, but if you look over there you can
see another thing. All of these theories have
consequences for other measurements we can make
at the LHC. As experimentalists, well be weeding out
the ones that dont work and hopefully zooming in on
the few that do.

Vol. 8 Issue 7 27
Update THE LATEST INTELLIGENCE
SPECIAL REPORT
LANDMARK STUDY REVEALS THE
EFFECT OF LSD ON THE BRAIN
For the rst time, scientists have used brain scanners to uncover what happens in the brain
under the inuence of LSD, more than 70 years after the drug was rst synthesised. Zoe
Cormier investigates
A team led by Imperial Colleges
Prof David Nutt has discovered
that brain networks become
desegregated under the influence
of LSD (also known as acid).
Regions of the brain that do not
normally communicate with each
other suddenly do so.
The brain becomes much more
integrated in a strange sort of way,
said Nutt. You can pull together
things that you wouldnt normally.
This is why LSD could be so
powerful in treating conditions
where the brain has become
locked in, such as alcoholism or
depression.
You get increased connectivity
because you have dampened
down the control centres, added
researcher Robin Carhart-Harris.
The team picked 20 subjects
who had previously used
psychedelics, to minimise the risk
of them having a bad experience.
Each was given LSD, then spent an
hour in an MRI scanner while three
different imaging techniques
gathered data. They were then put
through a number of cognitive
tests.
Tom Shutte was one of those
brave enough to take LSD in a
claustrophobic brain scanner.
Every now and then I did think,
What am I doing in here? he said
later. Sounds were really
unpleasant, loud, unpredictable
and aggressive. Sometimes it took
a lot of willpower to keep it
together. Plus, some of the
questions were very strange: Did
28 Vol. 8 Issue 7
your ego dissolve? Ultimately, if
me spending a difficult hour in a
scanner in Cardiff can help
someone suffering acute trauma
down the line, its worth it.
Beyond investigating the use of
psychedelics as medication for
ailments such as post-traumatic
stress disorder, depression and
addiction, the ultimate purpose of
this work is probing the nature of
consciousness itself, explained
Nutt. This is core neuroscience. It
is about humanity at its deepest
level. And the only way to study
consciousness is to change it.
Others are yet to be convinced.
THE ONLY
WAY TO STUDY
CONSCIOUSNESS IS
TO CHANGE IT
Prof David Nutt led the research into the effects of
LSD on the brain
This study doesnt tell us much
about the therapeutic value of this
drug, though it may give us
suggestions to investigate further,
said Glen Hanson, former acting
director of the US National Institute
On Drug Abuse, whos published
over 150 scientific papers
exploring how drugs affect the
brain. But LSD is a very dirty drug:
it is not particularly selective in
what it does. As a result, it can be
problematic for patients with
underlying psychiatric disorders.
Organisations that fund
academic and medical research
seem to agree with Hanson. Nutts
team found it extremely hard to
acquire funding, and eventually
turned to crowdfunding to raise the
money. This ended up being a
roaring success, with 1,628 people
Volunteer
donating US$75,455 to the cause, preparing
double the US$35,330 asked for. to enter the
scanner
A BRIEF HISTORY OF LSD
The story of LSD, or lysergic acid
PHOTOS: GEORGINA CAMMALLERI, JIRI REZAC /EYEVINE
diethylamide, began in 1943 when
chemist Albert Hofmann was
tinkering in the laboratories of
Swiss pharmaceuticals company
Sandoz. He was developing drugs
to treat blood loss following
childbirth. When his fingers
touched a bit of LSD-25 a drug
hed first synthesised five years
earlier the world began to
shimmer. With such a profound
capacity to change the way we
see, feel and think, Hofmann
believed LSD could become a
valuable psychiatric tool.
 For a time, his peers agreed.
Psychiatrists around the world
deployed the drug in their quest to
understand the human condition,
exploring it as a treatment for
conditions such as schizophrenia
and alcoholism. Of course, many
scientists yearned to understand
what was going on in the brain
itself, but these were early days for
neuroscience: the MRI scanners
we now use to study the brain did
not appear until the 1970s.
A few studies measuring the
electrical activity inside the brain
using electroencephalogram (EEG)
readings found reductions in the
activity of the brain under LSD. But
before anyone could delve deeper,
research ground to a halt, as the
US and other countries banned the
drug from 1966.
In 2012, Carhart-Harris published
a study of the brains of people who
had been dosed with the
hallucinogen psilocybin.
Counterintuitively, he found that
the drug decreased, not increased,
the flow of blood to a constellation
of regions known as the default
mode network, considered by
LSD some to be the seat of the self. In
a normal state, these regions are
is a class-A crucial to keeping our experience
drug and is of the world stable.
illegal in the Similarly, Dr Draulio de Araujo of
UK the Brain Institute at the Federal
University of Rio Grande do Norte
PLACEBO in Brazil has studied the effects of
the hallucinogenic brew
ayahuasca, and found that the
drink which contains the potent
psychedelic DMT also reduces
blood flow to the default mode
network. This is important
because in depression we see the
opposite pattern, he said. So this
gives us clues as to the potential
LSD use of psychedelics as
antidepressants.
With the initial study finished,
Nutt is sure LSD will be invaluable
in helping us understand the nature
of the sober mind, consciousness
and the brain. To paraphrase
Isaac Newton: we can see further
because we are standing on
The orange colouring shows areas of the brain experiencing increased resting-state connectivity Hofmanns shoulders, he said.

Vol. 8 Issue 7 29
 Update THE LATEST INTELLIGENCE

GRAPHIC SCIENCE
2015 was the hottest year since them to isolate potential culprits and

WHATS WARMING records began. But whats driving

this change? NASA might have the
definitive answer. The Goddard
estimate their contributions. Weve
plotted their data below to illustrate
how natural variables like volcanic

UP THE PLANET?
Illustration: Valerio Pellegrini
Institute for Space Studies has built a
climate change model that allows
activity and solar variations compare
with man-made factors.
DATA SOURCE: DATA.GISS.NASA.GOV/MODELE

30 Vol. 8 Issue 7
Vol. 8 Issue 7 31
Update THE LATEST INTELLIGENCE

IN LOCAL NEWS

MANDAI TO BECOME AN INTEGRATED NATURE

AND WILDLIFE DESTINATION
On 1 June 2016, Mandai Safari Park Holdings (MSPH) held a
curtain-raiser for its plans to establish an integrated nature and
wildlife destination in Mandai. The Mandai nature precinct will
expand beyond its existing offerings of Singapore Zoo, Night
Safari and River Safari. Subject to relevant approval, visitors can
soon expect new wildlife parks, an indoor nature-themed
education centre, eco-sensitive accommodation options and
inviting public spaces that are freely accessible by anyone. The
revamped Mandai nature area will hold a strong focal point in
promoting wildlife conservation and education.
Existing parks will be joined by two new cousins, namely the
new Bird Park and the Rainforest Park, creating an integrated
nature and wildlife experience for all visitors to Mandai. The new
Bird Park will house the worlds largest collections of birds.
Themed around nine large immersive aviaries with varied plants and a custom-designed amphitheatre for performances.
landscapes from around the world, visitors will find themselves Over at the Rainforest Park, get ready to immerse yourself in a
transported into wetlands, a bamboo forest and even a complete experience from the tropical rainforest of Southeast
rainforest where these free-flying birds will feel right in their Asia. This is an exciting, multi-layered adventure as one
natural habitats. Some of the favourite features in Jurong Bird meanders through the forest floor pathways to treetop
Park will also be recreated in the new park such as a new canopies, revealing many secrets of the terrestrial biodiversity.
waterfall and a grand entrance framed by vibrant flowering

IN LOCAL NEWS

STRATASYS LAUNCHES WORLDS FIRST

FULL-COLOUR MULTI-MATERIAL 3D PRINTER
Stratasys Ltd is a 3D printing and additive manufacturing
solutions company that has launched the industrys first full-
colour multi-material 3D printer, J750 3D Printer, in Singapore.
The breakthrough in technology enables customers to mix-and-
match full colour gradients alongside an unprecedented range
of materials to achieve one-stop realism without post-
processing. This is a huge leap in terms of efficiencies in
product conceptualising and design verification.
The Stratasys J750 is a premier addition to the Objet Connex
multi-colour, a multi-material series of 3D Printers that allows
customers to choose from more than 360,000 different colour
shades plus multiple material properties. Prototypes can be
made from a vast array of colours, materials, material
properties, speeding production of realistic models, prototypes
and parts of virtually any application needed. On the other
hand, the J740 enables near instantaneous decision-making by
streamlining the way products are designed, evaluated and
brought to the market. This will help improve the total cost of
ownership by eliminating traditional complex processes.

32 Vol. 8 Issue 7
 Comment & Analysis
BAKING SCIENCE
Cakes and biscuits both go stale, but what makes
one go hard and the other go soft?
he biscuit tin in my office is an
T essential tool for getting science
done. For pondering the thorniest
scientific problems, tea alone is not enough
and a chocolate biscuit or two is necessary
to help the process along. But last week
I didnt put the lid back on properly and
by Monday morning my stash of biscuits
was soft and spongy. Their weedy nature
certainly didnt hit the biscuit spot. At the
same time, leftover cake in my kitchen at
home was getting closer and closer to the
texture of a dry loofah, hard and rigid. Both
cake and biscuits were going stale, but what
makes one go hard and the other go soft?
This distinction played a role in the famous
tax decision on Jaffa Cakes in 1991, because
the court had to decide whether to classify
them as cakes or biscuits. It was decided
that they are cakes, but it turns out that the
innards of cakes are a bit more mobile than
most people suspect.
I like to think of both cakes and biscuits
as food architecture a structure made of
different interlocking components. Baking
is a process of construction, and the texture
of cakes and biscuits reflects their structural
integrity. The framework of the cake is
provided by the flour. Flour is about 75 per
cent starch, and its the starch that provides
the strength. Working with the starch
is gluten, an elastic protein that forms a
network holding everything together with
MAIN ILLUSTRATION: MATT CLOUGH PORTRAIT: KATE COPELAND

enough stretchiness to let the dough rise.

Sugar, fat and eggs mostly help make and
hold bubbles of gas that expand in the oven.
So when it comes to whether the cake is
hard or soft, the place to look is the major
structural support: the starch.
When I bake a cake, the time in the oven
is a part of the building process. The heat
forces the starch granules in the mixture to
absorb water and expand. Water can slip
into the gaps between the huge molecules
that make up the starch grains, pushing
them apart. The final baked cake is soft,
because the starch arrangement is soft. But
the second you take it out of the oven, the
process of going stale starts. Its got nothing
to do with bacteria or mould. Its all about
the position of the starch molecules.
Even as the fresh-baked smell is wafting
across the kitchen, small rearrangements are
happening inside the cake. Water molecules
are small and mobile, and when theyre parked
between the starch molecules, the giant starch
chains can shift. As time goes on, the starch
chains slowly shunt to line up, forming regular
crystalline regions instead of messy amorphous
ones. This is why the cake goes hard its
main structural component is getting more
rigid. Sugar and fat slow this process, but they
wont stop it. The cake drying out isnt the
major player here.
Biscuits are different because they start off
with much less water. Baking a biscuit dries
it out pretty thoroughly, so the starch is
immobile and the structure rigid. But sugar
absorbs water from the air and will pass it
on to the starch, softening the structure. So
biscuits go soft at first, although they will
eventually go hard if the starch crystallises.
The details depend on the exact mixture
of ingredients and the conditions in which
you store your cakes or biscuits. The lesson
here is clear put the lid on the biscuit tin
and eat your cake sooner rather than later!
And thats the sort of thought that really
cheers up a tea break
DR HELEN CZERSKI is a physicist and BBC presenter whose
most recent series was Colour: The Spectrum Of Science

Vol. 8 Issue 7 33
 SPECIAL F
FE
EA
AT
TUR
URE
FEATURE

CHRISTIAN ART
IN ASIA
ASIAN CIVILISATIONS MUSEUM LAUNCHES
HE WORLDS
THE WORLD S INAUGURAL
INAUGURAL EXHIBITION
EXHIBITION
WORDS:
WOR
W ORD
DS:
DSS JO
JJOSMIN
SMI
S MIN ONG
MI ONG

ingapore is renowned in th tthe

he wo w
world rldd
rl spread
spre
sp read
re ad o off CChristianity since the 7th century,
S for being a diverse society,yy,, w
turral
various ethnic, racial, cultural
withitth
ith
a aand nd
and
aan
into
nd Asian
into various
in
Asia
As iaan art has absorbed these inuences
vaarr io
iou u cultures including those in
religious groups living together in n ha h rm mon
harmony. ony.y
y. the
the Middle
th M dd
Mi ddle le East, India, China, Japan, the
le
h in
hr
In fact, freedom of worship is enshrined ined ed Philippines
Phiillip
Ph
Phil ippi piine and the rest of Southeast Asia.
in Singapores constitution as one o off th
tthee The
The artists arrti
tist
ist
s s who created these Christian
om
nations top prioritities. We are home mee tto o images
im maagges m may a belong to other faiths but they
riinc
more than 10 religions but the principal n ipipall stil
st tilillll manage
still maana
m nagg to create a powerful notion and
ones include Buddhism and Taoism, m, Is Islalam,
la
Islam,m
m, story
sttorry behind behi
be h n each artwork.
Hinduism and Christianity. The
The curated curr
cu exhibition is home to 800
From now till 11 September 2016, 6, head
heaad years
yeear a s off art ar history, mainly from the 13th to
eum
over to the Asian Civilisations Museum m (ACM)
(AC CM) 2200thh ce ccenturies
ent
ntturu but holds a strong focal point
to learn more about the sacred art and nd visual
visisua
ual
ua ono art ieec from the 16th to 18th centuries,
artt ppieces
tia
splendour of the evolution of Christianityiani
n ty in
ni in th
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his w was as ttheh time of signicant trading
ion
io
Asia.This is the worlds rst exhibition n on
on the the
he an
and
nd m mi
missions.
isssioo Singapore, France, Portugal,
history and spread of Christian art innA siia an
Asia nd
and IIt
Ital
Italy,
tal
aly, y, H
y, Hongong Kong and the Philippines
on
its extensive
it
ACMs rst special exhibition after its exxteenssivive
ve fo
form
orm m tthe he llargest contributors, with over
he
renovations last year. 15
150
50 it iitems
tem
emsms from these countries, as well
Asia has became a key inuencer er in n ttheh
he as ffrom
as rom 200 other acclaimed institutions
ro

34 Vol. 8 Issue 7

and private collections around the world,
namely Muse du Louvre, the Bibliothque
nationale de France and Lisbons National
Museum of Ancient Art. These objects will
be complemented by other pieces from
ACMs rich collection, including the largest
known Sri Lankan ivory sculpture of the
Virgin Mary. Look forward to a refreshing
exhibition, as many of the pieces are new to
the Singapore scene.
The exhibition is organized in a thematic
manner for visitors to grasp a better
understanding: Early Christian Art in Asia,
What Makes Christian Art
in Asia, Christian Missions
to Asia from 16th to 19th
centuries and a case study
of Singapore. There will also
be artworks that interpret
various adaptations of well-
established Christian themes
by local artists and artisans,
even though they may not
be Christians themselves.
A good example would be
an inlaid metal candlestick
made in Syria between
1248 and 1249, which
was decorated with both
Christian scenes and medieval Islamic art.
Beyond the designs of the objects, the
exhibition demonstrates knowledge exchanged
between Asia and the West in terms of art
techniques, like ivory carving, which was
unknown in the West but grew in popularity
after.The use of rare materials found in
Asia, including rock crystal,
ivory, lacquer, mother-of-pearl,
tortoiseshell and precious stone
also grew gradually.
Christianity in Art: Sacred
Art and Visual Splendour
will be accompanied by a
fully illustrated catalogue
containing original essays on
Asian Christian Art by a group
of international scholars such
as Pedro Moura Carvalho and
Ken Parry. Expect to nd a
ASIAN CIVILISATION MUSEUM
robust array of interactive programmes and
events, as well as academic lectures to enrich
and enhance your learning experience about
the Christian art community.
Clement Onn, curator at ACM and of
the exhibition said, The Christianity in
Asia exhibition is a celebration of artistic
innovation, experimentation and
the diversity that emerges from
cross-cultural inuences. Through
the curation of the exhibition,
we hope that visitors will not just
be exposed to the wide array of
Asian Christian art, recognised
by its intrinsic quality, originality
and aesthetic merit, but also learn
that common threads such as
religion can also bring people of
various cultures and from different
countries together.
Vol. 8 Issue 7 35
 SPECIAL FEATURE

YAKULT, PIONEERS OF
PROBIOTIC RESEARCH
LEARN MORE ABOUT WHAT GOES INTO YOUR FAVOURITE HEALTH
BEVERAGE, ONE THAT RESONATES WORLDWIDE WITH ITS ICONIC
BOTTLE AND FERMENTED MILK DRINK
WORDS: JOSMIN ONG

ention Yakult and anyone in

M Singapore would probably know
what you are referring to that
tiny bottle of sweetened cultured milk
drink that is sold readily in supermarkets or
delivered to your homes regularly by Yakult
ladies. But did you know that Yakult, which
was founded in Japan, has expanded into
33 countries and regions across the world,
with 35 million bottles of the dairy product
consumed daily. The massive numbers are
fruits of labour derived from the corporate
philosophy of contributing to the health
and happiness of people around the world
through pursuit of excellence in life science
in general and our research and experience
in microorganisms in particular. The
philosophy is grounded in the passionate
desire of the founder, late Dr Minoru
Shirota, to deliver good health to as many
people as possible.
Dr Shirota was born in Nagano, Japan
in 1899 and was a leading researcher of
Microbiology and a Pioneer of Probiotics.

36 Vol. 8 Issue 7

It was during his time that Japan was in
an impoverished state. Many children lost
their lives to infectious disorders such as
food poisoning, dysentery, cholera and
typhoid. Only therapeutic medications
from doctors or pharmacies were available.
Inspired by lie Metchnikoff, a renowned
Russian zoologist known for his pioneering
research in immunology, Dr Shirota decided
to research on preventive medication,
otherwise known as probiotics. In 1930, he
became the rst in the world to succeed
in strengthening and culturing a strain
of fortied lactic acid bacteria that could
survive digestive juices, such as gastric uid
and bile, to reach the intestines alive and
work their benets. This bacterium is now
known as Lactobacillus casei strain Shirota
(L. casei strain), the key ingredient in our
well-loved Yakult health beverages.
WHAT EXACTLY ARE PROBIOTICS?
Probiotics are live microorganisms that,
when administered in adequate amounts,
confer a health benet on the host. It can be
found in our bodies naturally, but may also
be induced through food and supplements.
Many types of bacteria classify as probiotics
but the most common one is Lactobacillus.
It can be found in fermented milk drinks
such as Yakult (L. casei strain Shirota), yogurts
and other fermented foods such as kimchi,
YAKULT
sauerkraut or fermented soya products. They
are also available in powder or pill forms
in pharmacies. As a leader in probiotics
research, Yakult is always accumulating
vast knowledge on the profound world
of microorganisms.Years of research have
proven that lactic acid bacteria are benecial
in many ways.
BOOSTING IMMUNITY
The probiotic L. casei strain Shirota is a
case in point. Intake of this strain has been
demonstrated to regulate immunity in the
body, such as maintenance and restoration
of NK (Natural Killer) cells activity, which
plays a vital role in immunity. Immunity
is our bodys natural mechanism to avoid
diseases, a natural reaction to eliminate
foreign material from the body by lymphoid
cells. Generally, immunity is constructed of
two different kinds - natural (innate) and
acquired immunity. Natural immunity works
quickly, as it is the rst line of defense for
Vol. 8 Issue 7 37
 SPECIAL FEATURE

pathogens and is unstable due to it being NK cells, and is recognised as a barometer

sensitive to many stimulants. It can, however, of immunity. Since NK cells fall under
be improved through leading a healthy the natural immunity category, it can be
lifestyle of ample rest, regular exercise and a inuenced by various factors in daily life
proper diet. Acquired immunity, on the other and age is one of the major factors. NK
hand, is activated by vaccination and is the cell activity usually peaks during young
second encounter when pathogens attack adulthood, at 20 25 years of age, and
the body. It is skillful and specialised to attack gradually decreases with age. Other factors
a certain strain of foreign bodies based on include an unhealthy amount of stress and
the information received from the innate smoking, which will cause a reduction in
immunity cells and the vaccination. Though NK cell activity. Epidemiological studies
both forms of immunity have separate roles to reveal that populations with low NK cell
play against bacteria, viruses and tumor cells, it activity have a signicantly higher risk of
is imperative that they work well together. cancer than populations with intermediate
In daily life, or high NK cell
augmentation natural activity. Thus, NK
immunity helps to cells play a pivotal
prevent diseases and role in the survey and
one such example are eradication of cancer
the NK cells. NK cells cells and infected cells
work on the front in human.
line of the immune Since NK cells fall
system for protecting under the natural
the body from immunity category,
pathogens, viruses and improvement in
cancer. These cells dietary habits will
are present and active affect cell activity.
in all individuals Therefore, it is
from two years of important to take
age but NK activity in food benecial
varies individually. to the body.
NK activity means Supplementation of
the intensity of the probiotics will help
performance of boost immunity

38 Vol. 8 Issue 7

and L. casei strain Shirota (found in Yakult
beverages) has proven to reduce the risk
of cancer by ridding the body of harmful
mutagens and other actions. Reductions
in the risk of bladder, colon and breast
cancer have also been veried. A study in
2013 showed that Japanese women who
consumed probiotics and soya products on
a regular basis had the lowest incidence of
obtaining breast cancer. The same study
also proved that daily consumption of
L. casei strain Shirota since adolescence had
a signicant inverse association with early
breast cancer occurrence.
YAKULT
It goes without saying that good health
is the greatest source of happiness. Science
can achieve no greater victory than to enable
a living being to live its full span of years
while maintaining the vitality of youth, said
late Dr. Minoru Shirota. Yakult is putting his
philosophies into actions as they continue
to provide consumers products that can be
trusted. The next time you pick up your
favourite Yakult beverage, pause to think about
the efforts being placed into each and every
bottle of fermented milk drink.Who knows,
you might be the next one discovering a new
strain of healthy bacteria!
Vol. 8 Issue 7 39
SCIENCE
CIEENC
CE

HERE COME THE

NANO
MEDICS
COMING
SOON TO A
GP NEAR
YOU: MICRO
MACHINES
THAT WILL
CLIMB INTO
YOUR BODY,
DETECT
DISEASE AND
CURE IT
BEFORE YOU
EVEN KNOW
YOURE ILL
WORDS: TOM IRELAND

40 Vol. 8 Issue 7
ILLUSTRATION: ANDY POTTS

Scan this QR Code for

the audio reader

Vol. 8 Issue 7 41
SCIENCE
he 1980s sci-fi film Innerspace sees a submersible
T and its pilot shrunk to microscopic size before
being jabbed into a shop attendant, and much
hilarity ensues. The plot took its inspiration from 1960s
classic Fantastic Voyage, in which a miniaturised crew are
injected into a dying scientist and must attempt to remove a
clot from his brain.
Both films seemed pretty crazy when they came out, but
the extraordinary ideas featured no longer seem quite so
far-fetched. Tiny cameras can now be swallowed, while
electrodes can be placed deep within the brain. And
increasingly, nanotechnology tiny enough to be injected
into the bloodstream is the focus of new treatments for
diseases like cancer.
These ingenious devices are expected to revolutionise
medicine in the coming decade theyre small enough to
f low through the bodys tiniest blood vessels, yet are packed
with technology smart enough to find and treat the causes
of diseases.
42 Vol. 8 Issue 7
ABOVE:
The plot of sci-
SMALL SCIENCE
lm Innerspace no
longer seems quite
so outlandish
The simplest nanomedicines are spherical particles that
carry a payload of drugs. Smaller than human or bacterial
cells, but larger than individual molecules, the spheres are
tiny enough to penetrate cells. The term nano is used to
describe objects smaller than 100 nanometres, with one
nanometre being a billionth of a metre. Particles at this
scale have different properties than if they were larger.
Nanomedicines are large enough to stay in the
bloodstream for longer than normal medicine molecules,
yet they are not so big that they clog up blood vessels.
Scientists can even attach biological molecules to the
PHOTO: KOBAL COLLECTION
outside of nanoparticles to ensure, for example, that they
are attracted to specific molecules in the body such as
those found in tumours. Or, by making nanoparticles with
more complex shapes, scientists can effectively create tiny
machines that use chemical reactions to become
unimaginably small motors or light-emitting globes. Some

nanomachines can even puncture a hole in cell membranes,
human cell rests
much like how a virus injects its DNA to infect a host cell.
By putting these elements together payload delivery,
molecular recognition and pore puncturing scientists can
create vessels capable of travelling to the site of a tumour,
for example, and treating it directly.
PHOTOS: SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY X3, GETTY X4
ON TRIAL
Only around a dozen nanomedicines are licensed for use at
the moment, but hundreds more are in development or
undergoing clinical trials.
Imagine, for example, being able to release drugs into
your body by shining a torch onto your arm rather than
having an injection. Well, researchers at the University of
California, San Diego might just have made that a reality.
Theyve developed ball-shaped nanoparticles made from a
polymer that falls apart when UV light is shone on it. This
simple system means the nanoparticles release their
medical payload wherever light is shone into the
THE NANO TOOLKIT
HOW DO YOU MAKE A MACHINE
THATS SMALL AND SMART ENOUGH TO
TRAVEL INTO THE BODY AND BLAST A
TUMOUR?
POLYMERS
Polymers are materials that form hollow balls that
can then be filled with tiny amounts of other
useful chemicals.
GRAPHENE
A type of carbon that forms sheets just
one atom thick. The material is strong and highly
unreactive, so can be used to create a range
of tiny objects.
CARBON NANOTUBES
Sheets of graphene rolled up into tiny
tubes (nanotubes) have been a key component in
nanotechnology for years. These tubes could be used on the
ends of nanoneedles, allowing them to inject substances into
specific areas of individual cells.
QUANTUM DOTS
Quantum dots are tiny spheres that are small
enough to pass freely through cells. They have a
metal inner core and an outer casing. Some emit light,
which can be used signal the presence of disease.
DNA
DNAs ability to self-assemble into complex shapes
makes it an ideal material for making devices on a
TOP: A single tiny scale. Scientists have already created DNA-based shapes
on a bed of
that can act like tiny motors or boxes.
nanoneedles
ABOVE:
Quantum PROTEINS
dots can be Like DNA, proteins are capable of assembling
engineered
to emit light themselves into large, complex, and highly
at specic
wavelengths
predictable shapes. New shapes and functions can be
designed by altering the sequence of subunits from which
the proteins are made.
VIRUSES
Viruses are natures own nanomachines. Barely
considered living organisms, they are often made
of just a few proteins and strands of DNA. Yet they can still
infect host cells to make copies of themselves. Bolting
useful medical functions onto existing viruses is a
promising area of nanomedicine under development.
Vol. 8 Issue 7 43
SCIENCE

body. The researchers foresee a time when diabetics could
shine a torch on their skin to top up insulin.
Meanwhile, a microscopic, injectable nanoparticle
generator was recently found to yield astonishing results
in the treatment of lung and liver cancers in mice. These
drug-filled containers can deliver higher doses of drugs to
the cancerous cells than medicines dissolved in the blood.
Healthy tissue is therefore spared the toxic effects of a high
dose. Clinical trials on the first human patients could begin
as early as next year.
Nanomedicine is not just about the delivery of drugs
through the bloodstream. There are numerous other ways
nanotechnology could transform medicine, said Prof
Kostas Kostarelos, chair of nanomedicine at University
College London.
He is helping to develop nanoneedles that could extend
surgeons tools to unimaginable levels of fineness and
precision.
This could offer surgeons an extension of the syringe or Visualisation of
quantum dots
scalpel at the nanoscale, which could deliver therapeutics to attaching to a
individual cells, or even allow them to manipulate tumour on
the wall of a
individual cellular components, says Kostarelos. They blood vessel
would use molecular recognition so that the tip associates
with a particular structure.
Scientists also believe nanomedicines will be used to send
signals about conditions in the body. For example,
nanoparticles known as quantum dots have a metal inner
core and a protective shell. This structure gives them unique
optical properties, allowing the particles to modified so that
they can give off fluorescent light in the presence of certain
disease, which is then picked up in a scan.
MATERIAL WORLD
Nanomedicines can be roughly classified as hard and soft
depending on the substances used to build them. Hard
nanomedicines often use materials like graphene, a type of

S I Z E S C A L E ( w i d t h)

Electron microscope

Water molecule Glucose molecule Quantum dots DNA nanobot Virus Bacteria

0.1nm 1nm 10nm 25nm 100nm 1,000nm

44 Vol. 8 Issue 7
 Near the South Pole, e, the
t e United
Unniit
U ite
tteed States Antarctic
Program has been een trialling
bee
bbe
ee ialllil nngg drones to map the
trria
tria
ia
changing sea ice.icce. The
TThhhee UAV
UA
U AV thatthat took this picture
was paired
rreed with
paire withth ann autonomous
th a tonomo
au oomm us sub below the
ice.
e This
ice Thiss allowed
aalllow
l ed ed a team teeam m to to produce a photo
mosaic of an ice eld out of 500-1,000 images

YOUR FUTURE DOCTOR

COULD THIS BE HOW NANOPARTICLES KEEP US HEALTHY
ALTHY IN 2050?
1. Nanobots that 3. On developing fluorescent light accumulate in the 6. At age 90,
detect signs of diabetes at 30, being emitted tumour, making
king DNA-based
common diseases light-sensitive, from deep in the the cancerousus nanobots
are injected into insulin-producing lymph nodes. tissue glow. constantly repair
the blood soon quantum dots are Nanobots are Surgeons can an the age-related
after birth. injected into the reacting with then safely damage to brain
body. To top up molecules found remove the tissue cells that can
2. Signs of cystic insulin levels in cancer cells to without the risk of lead to
fibrosis are during the day, a signal the damaging healthy
ealthy degenerative
detected. A special torch is diseases flesh. Other conditions.
modified virus shone onto the presence. nanobots are then Others scan the
infects cells with blood vessels on released into the DNA in each cell
gene-editing the wrist, where 5. To combat the body which send to ensure it is
technology, the skin is thin. cancer, more powerful functioning just
repairing the nanobots are anti-cancer drugs as it used to
genes that cause 4. At 60, a scan injected into the directly into the when the body
the disease. reveals weak body. They cancer cells. was younger.

carbon that can be made into sheets just one atom thick. Munich. We adapt or mimic the methods used to
These sheets can be used to make tiny atomic-scale shapes assemble functional molecules in nature. We are looking to
such as hollow tubes and spheres, and metals with unusual do chemistry how our bodies do it, by building enzymes or
PHOTOS: SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY, GETTY X5, ISTOCK X3

properties can be embedded within them. But scientists are drug-delivery vehicles that are smarter than current
increasingly focusing efforts on soft nanomedicines pharmaceutical methods.
particles made from biological materials like proteins, fats DNA, especially, has proven to be the perfect material
and DNA. This research takes its inspiration from the for scientists looking to build functional objects on a tiny
complex molecules made within all cells, many of which scale. Rather than trying to manufacture components,
perform highly specific jobs and could therefore be scientists create a length of DNA with a particular genetic
considered natural nanomachines themselves. sequence. The way the different subunits of the strand
Nanobots made from shiny metal are actually pretty far interact with each other causes it to fold itself into highly
off still Im not sure that predictable two- and three-dimensional shapes as it is
route is really going formed. The longer the lengths of DNA, the more complex
anywhere, says Prof
Hendrik Dietz, head of
Viruses can arguably the shapes that can be formed.
Manipulating DNA in this way is known as DNA origami
the Laboratory for be seen as natures and has been used to create objects such as tiny walking

nanomachines
Biomolecular machines, boxes that open and close, and self-destructing
Nanotechnology in drug-delivery vehicles. It may be some time before this

Optical microscope Unaided eye

Cancer cell Human hair 40,000 DNA nanobots Baked bean Tennis ball
would t on this full stop

10,000nm 100,000nm 1,000,000nm 10,000,000nm 100,000,000nm

Vol. 8 Issue 7 45
SCIENCE
technology is used in the body, but the complexity of DNA-
based nanomachines is already impressive. Scientists have even
constructed a microscopic alphabet to show their skill in
making DNA form any shape.
No other material can compete with DNA in terms of
precision and self-assembly, says Dietz. It folds into a
precise shape based on the sequence of base pairs we have
programmed. These self-assembly methods are much finer
than what you can do with traditional top-down design.
Other researchers use entire viruses as the basis for their
nanomachines. While viruses are normally thought of as
harmful infectious agents, they can also arguably be seen as
natures nanomachines perfectly evolved to travel deep
into their hosts and inject a genetic payload into cells to
infect them. Biologists are increasingly using non-deadly
viruses to infect human cells with new genes in order to
replace those that cause genetic disease. The viruses can be
shielded from the bodys immune system by altering their
outer casing, and like lab-built nanoparticles this outer
surface can be modified to ensure they target specific cells.
The number of potential uses of nanotechnology in
medicine is dizzying. As well as tiny devices, scientists have
46 Vol. 8 Issue 7
The nanobots in developed gels that self-organise at the nanoscale into
this illustration
look a little like structures that can stop bleeding in wounds within seconds.
viruses, which in And a team in South Korea has designed a nanobandage a
themselves can
be used in dressing that contains stretchable, wafer-thin
nanomedicine nanotechnology that monitors a patients muscle activity or
skin condition, then administers medication as needed.
WHAT NEXT?
This seemingly unending potential has led some to suggest
that nanomedicine could make humans virtually immortal
within a few decades. Renowned futurist Ray Kurzweil
has stated that within the next century he believes DNA-
based nanobots will eventually be a routine part of our
blood, scanning each cell in our bodies for damage to
repair.
In the shorter term, researchers like Dietz believe that
integrating biology-based nanotechnology and traditional
engineering could revolutionise the power and efficiency
PHOTO: ALAMY
of technology outside of the body too. The more
transistors you can pack into a space, then the more
calculations you can do per second, he says. A
combination of super-fine, self-assembling DNA
 THE DIMINUTIVE DOCTORS
SOME OF THE MOST INTRIGUING NANO DEVICES CURRENTLY BEING RESEARCHED

Type How it works Target Made from Benets

Viruses are already used as

A virus injects its own genes into its Any living
nanomachines to deliver
VIRUS hosts cells organism
or cell
DNA and protein
replacement genes into cells,
including those of humans

Chemical reactions make sections They could allow bots to move in a

MOLECULAR of a nanoparticle move, propelling it N/A
Complex chemicals such as
amino acids or proteins
specic direction, or break down
MOTOR forward fatty deposits and clots

WORM-SHAPED Can evade the immune system,

which means that the body will not Tumours Synthetic polymers
Can be made into different shapes
NANOPARTICLE eliminate them
for different jobs

When this DNA-based device

DNA recognises a target cell, its two
halves swing open to release a Cancer DNA Self-assembles, non-toxic
NANOBOT payload of drugs or other
nanoparticles

Computer- nanostructures and existing technology could help us reach

generated another level of efficiency in computing.
models of 3D
structures that For now, the goal is to prove nanotechnologies are safe
were created and effective when used in medicine. As nanomedicines
from DNA
stay in the body for longer than traditional drugs, there is a
greater risk that they may have lasting unwanted effects.
Those containing certain metals are more likely to be toxic
should they accumulate in the body. If the remaining
hurdles can be overcome, it heralds a new era in smarter
treatments that are tailored to function only in particular
areas in the body. These targeted treatments have the
potential to make traditional medicines, which act on the
entire body, seem crude in comparison.
The global nanomedicine market is already estimated at
PHOTOS: SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY, YONGGANG KE

being worth between US$150bn and US$250bn, and will

only continue to grow as more treatments are licensed for
use.
Todays nanomedicines may not look like the submersible
in Innerspace, but theyre arguably far, far smarter. Made
from DNA that can build itself and with biological
molecules as their navigator, they wont go wrong or get
lost. This tiny technology is coming to a human being near
you and soon.

TOM IRELAND IS A FREELANCE SCIENCE WRITER AND ALSO EDITS THE

BIOLOGIST MAGAZINE.

Vol. 8 Issue 7 47
NATURE

SEAL PATROL
A PASSIONATE GROUP OF ENTHUSIASTS IS NOT ONLY LOOKING AFTER OUR
GREY SEALS WELFARE, BUT ALSO GAINING FASCINATING INSIGHTS INTO THEIR
IDENTITIES AND SECRET LIVES. AMY-JANE BEER REPORTS FROM CORNWALL

PHOTOS BY NICK UPTON

48 Vol. 8 Issue 7
 Michelle Clement of British
Divers Marine Life Rescue
inspects the tail ippers of a
sick and injured grey seal pup
that was found washed up
on the tideline at Widemouth
Bay, north Cornwall

Vol. 8 Issue 7 49
NATURE

ABOVE: Grey seals ue Sayer is looking through a digital photo
rest on a sandy
beach near St
Ives, Cornwall
S album in her cottage above the Hayle Estuary
on Cornwalls northern coast. It contains several
BELOW: Sue Sayer hundred images of grey seals taken the previous day, showing
holds a 9m section hundreds of individuals or maybe its a few dozen.You
of shing net that
inicted deep know how it is with seals. A head bobs up, disappears, then
neck wounds on reappears or is it a different animal? Its hard for me to tell,
a grey seal pup
but Sue doesnt seem to have any trouble.
An image ashes up on the computer screen. In the time
it takes me to register sunlit water, a sleek head and huge
dark eyes, Sue has already clocked several splodges of paler
fur on the neck, opened another window in her program
th
and begun icking though an archived catalogue keyworded
with patterns she sees in the slate-and-
sil fur. In seconds, shes found a match.
silver
This seal is Trolley. Or, to give him
h full moniker: Line Four-dots
his
W Trolley. Next up is Antlers
Wave
H
Horns W Glass Goggles Flipper Line
H
Heatlamp Flying Circle. I know its
ri
ridiculous, Sue smiles. But it works.
T improbable names are the result of
The
in
individual seals being re-photographed
at different times from different angles,
en
enabling Sue to see new patterns.
Opening other les on her computer,
S shows me more inkblot splodges
Sue
a weeping willow, a key and, incredibly,
the word SWIMS in dark swoops on
the back of a beautiful female that also
carries a huge propeller scar.
Sue has been painstakingly recording grey seals around
Cornwall like this since 1999, when she spotted a few while
rock-climbing.I started wondering if the animals I saw below
me were the same individuals, she explains.When I learned
that each and every seal has a unique coat pattern, I was
hooked. Sue has now spent countless hours poring over photos,
developing a phenomenal ability to recognise individuals.
STARTING SMALL
At rst Sue began recording the details of seals at a single
haul-out site. She started by sketching, then progressed to
lm and nally digital photography. Having expected to
identify about 30 individuals in total the number she
typically saw on the beach on a given day she was amazed
when it took three months (and hundreds of seals) before
she nally found a match: a male she calls Chairlift.
In 2004 Sue began sharing her data and in doing so
established the Cornwall Seal Group, now the Cornwall Seal
Group Research Trust. In 2008 the project spread to other
sites around Cornwall and Devon, with volunteers sending
pictures to Sue for identication. Seals were taking over her
life. I had an advanced teaching job I loved. But I realised
that other people could do that. Im not sure anyone else
could do this. So Sue gave up her salary and became a full-
time seal researcher.
Realising that the projects long-term future would rely
on other people being able to record seals the same way,
Sue began teaching her ID techniques to recorders. Seals
are now being monitored independently at 15 sites around

50
50 Voooll. 8 Issue
VVol
Vol. Issue
Issuuee 7
su
Cornwall by volunteer citizen scientists, many of whom are One of the rst conclusions of Sues work is that Britains CLOCKWISE
FROM TOP LEFT:
birdwatchers happy to add variety to their patch-watching. grey seals dont live all year in static colonies. You might Sue Sayer of the
Its all very impressive Sues personal passion and skill, and see 99 seals on a beach one day, and 99 the next, but very Cornwall Seal
Group Research
the colossal spreadsheets of data. But is it scientic? I was very few will be the same individuals. Seals come and go, using Trust identies
concerned about scientic rigour, Sue says. Every record is locations like motorway service stations. a grey seal; grey
seal pups gain
archived the dates, the pictures, the matches so anyone can One of our volunteers spent two years photographing seals weight rapidly
go back and independently check that theres no mistake. every week without nding a match, she continues. Another thanks to their
mothers milk,
The identication protocols that Sue has developed with built up a catalogue of 150 animals before one turned up twice. which contains
the University of Exeter require ve matching coat patterns But the buzz when you nally get a match is amazing. 60 per cent fat;
Sue photographs
in the same relative positions, ideally on both sides of the grey seals on
body, with no obvious inconsistencies elsewhere before a SEAL SOCIABILITY a survey trip
match is conrmed by two experienced researchers. The Clearly seals are gregarious on land theyre seldom seen
system allows for the fact that seal appearances can change alone. But given the independence of their movements at
depending on the condition of the fur (wet or dry, moulting sea, are they sociable? Sue is sure that they recognise one
or not), age and the appearance of scars. another: They greet by snifng each others faces and ears.
Though the grey seal is the largest mammal breeding in The reactions vary from what looks like affection through
Britain, its ecology is relatively little known. This is a familiar tolerance to recoil, suggesting they can recognise other
problem for marine biologists, whose subjects spend a large individuals and recall past encounters.
part of their lives hidden from view. Big budgets are needed Another uncertainty about grey seals is just how many
to deploy GPS tags, SMS transmitters, data-loggers and there are, though we know that Britain is home to over
radio-telemetry to follow seals, whales, sharks and sea turtles. a third of the world
In comparison, using photos, mostly taken from the shore population, and that Though the grey seal
is the largest mammal
but sometimes from boats, is undeniably low-tech. there are probably two
Its also low-cost and most importantly non-invasive: or three times more grey

breeding in Britain, its

no seal has to be caught and handled. And because the seals in British waters
system that Sue has developed enables seals to be tracked than common ones. Data

ecology is relatively
for their entire lives, it reveals more about individuals than from the Sea Mammal
any other method and builds knowledge on abundance, Research Unit based at

little known
habitat use, migration, breeding and survival rates, as well as the University of
behaviour such as feeding, vocalisations and personality. St Andrews also

Vol. 8 Issue 7 51
NATURE

IF YOU FIND A SEAL

Email sightings and photos of
seals in south-west England to
sue@cornwallsealgroup.co.uk
If youre worried about a seal,
call British Divers Marine Life
Rescue on 01825 765546.
The Cornwall Seal Dont get too close to wild
Group Research Trusts seals. This especially applies to
database now contains hauled-out seals, and mothers
more than 16,000 with pups.
sightings, including
records of thousands
of individually identied seals. Among them are undoubtedly
many animals that have since died, and a good number of
duplicates seals are often identied several times from different
camera angles before Sue links their patterns up.

MONITORING SEAL MOVEMENT

These records make it clear that these are not simply
Cornish seals. Collaboration with organisations such as
the RSPB, the National Trust and the Wildlife Trust of
South and West Wales has shown that grey seals repeatedly
commute between south-west Wales and south-west
TOP: Feeding time shows that grey seal numbers have increased since records England, and Sue recently snapped a seal she knew from
at the Cornish began but stabilised over recent years. Population estimates Cornwall across the channel in Brittany. Satellite and ipper
Seal Sanctuary
are based on counts of pups, yet with very little data on tags also show that seals move to Ireland.
ABOVE: Michelle survival rates, the potential for error is signicant. The data has other surprises. The received wisdom is
Clement and
Simon Dolphin Pup mortality can be very high, says Sue. On the east that female grey seals return to pup on the beach where
of British Divers coast, 247 pups were washed off a beach in one night during they were born, but Sue nds this isnt always the case. Of
Marine Life
Rescue rehydrate a storm surge. Life is tough for the adults too, which are the 44 known seals recorded commuting between south-
a grey seal pup
at Crackington
at risk from seal pox; infections such as septicaemia and west England and Skomer in Pembrokeshire, two mums
Haven, north peritonitis; disturbance at haul-outs; entanglement in lost have pupped in both places. And, contrary to expectations
Cornwall
shing gear; and chemical pollutants such as polychlorinated that males disperse to avoid inbreeding, Sues data seems to
biphenyls (PCBs), levels of which are monitored closely in suggest that at some bigger sites males stick around a little
whales and dolphins but not in the UKs grey seals. longer than females. Shes keen to nd out why.
Sue is of the rm opinion that there are far fewer seals Sue is also a volunteer for British Divers Marine Life

The Cornwall Seal

nowadays. Of course Rescue, often working with area co-ordinator Dave Jarvis,
there are. Historic who lives nearby. A freelance quantity surveyor, Dave says

Group Research Trusts

accounts tell us that that his regular clients are used to him disappearing for his
shermen once had other job. Hes on call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and in

database contains more

to wade through seals pupping season the messages can come thick and fast.
to reach their boats in Grey seals usually pup in autumn in Cornwall, any time

than 16,000 sightings

Mousehole Harbour from September to December. The females suckle their
near Penzance. white-coated pups on milk almost rich enough for a

52 Vol. 8 Issue 7
 5 RELEASE
Rehabilitated seals are released on
quiet beaches. Pups that have reached
a healthy weight and learned to fend
for themselves are often released in
groups. Each one will wear a sanctuary
flipper tag and be added to the
grey seal database, so that it will be
recognised if it is seen again.

ROAD TO RECOVERY: HOW TO REHABILITATE A SEAL

FIRST
1RESPONSE
In autumn and winter most
calls to the British Divers
Marine Life Rescue seal
hotline concern weak or
injured pups, but the team
also help sick, injured or
net-entangled adults. The
public should keep their
distance and avoid eye
contact with the seal and
keep dogs under control.
3 RESCUE
Pups requiring further
treatment are bagged and
carried off the beach, then
transferred to a crate for
transport to the Cornish
Seal Sanctuary. Sick and
injured animals receive
individualised treatment in
private hospital cubicles.
Underweight pups are
fed up, socialised and
taught how to hunt.

ASSESSMENT
2 A medic assesses
the health of the seal,
taking their temperature
and blood samples where
necessary. They can carry
out some emergency
treatments on site,
including rehydration,
cleaning any wounds and
administering antibiotics. In
the worst cases, seals are
euthanised on the spot.
REHAB
4 Most of the animals
brought to the sanctuary
will be fully rehabilitated.
However, those that
cannot be released
may become long-term
residents. These seals
will be trained to perform
tricks such as rolling over,
which enables sanctuary
staff to carry out routine
health checks.

Vol. 8 Issue 7 53
 NATURE

SEAL STORIES
The mini-biographies of these grey seals have been
taken from the ever-expanding database
of the Cornwall Seal Group Research Trust.

WAVES
has had four pups (the
third is shown here) ROCKET
at three sites along a has been identified
GHOST 75km stretch of north 73 times, making
has visited the same Cornish beach for three weeks Cornish coast, and has four return journeys
every year for 13 consecutive years to give birth; 11 of been seen moulting between three
her 13 pups have survived. But so far Ghost has never on the south Cornish monitoring sites. His
been spotted anywhere else. One day Sue Sayer hopes coast. This tells us that movements show that
to discover
dissco where she goes. not all seal mums are males return to their
faithful to the same site natal beaches.
in fact some move
around a lot. GULL
appeared in a set of photos sent by a new volunteer in
south Devon, extending the known range of the Celtic Sea
population and demonstrating how even a single photo can
improve our understanding of the jigsaw of seal-habitat use.

BEAST
was rescued from
a fishing net when
four months old.
SPADE He was released
made the return trip from south Cornwall to Skomer from the Cornish
island, off Pembrokeshire, for two years running. She Seal Sanctuary
was sadly found dead on 8 April 2015. in March 2015 after his wound healed, and has been
identified 15 times at two locations.

Most of the seals that

cream tea. The youngsters pile on about 10kg a week and rehab. But this is
gain strength rapidly but then they have to, because when only possible with
they are just three weeks old their mums leave them to fend
for themselves. As novice swimmers inexperienced at nding
young individuals a
frightened two-year- are rehabilitated at the
their own food, newly independent pups lose a lot of weight
before working out how to feed themselves.
old seal can easily drag
two men off their feet, Cornish Seal Sanctuary
Some pups face even greater odds. Female grey seals are while restraining an
return to the wild
GHOST, WAVE AND ROCKET BY SUE SAYER; GULL BY ROB WELLS;

sensitive to disturbance, and may abandon their pups early
rather than risk staying on a beach visited by humans and
especially dogs. Extreme weather events can also separate
mums and pups. A lone white-coat pup weighing less than
20kg is doomed unless it is taken to a rescue centre. Those
collected around the Cornish coast by Sue, Dave and other
volunteers end up at the Cornish Seal Sanctuary in Gweek,
SPADE BY SUE SAYER AND DAVE BOYLE
adult might require six
to eight rescuers.
Luckily most of the seals that are rehabilitated at Gweek
return to the wild, and theres every chance that they will
be seen again and recognised. Every year Cornwalls seal-
spotters receive sightings of ex-rescue animals from locations
that are as widespread as Devon, Wales, France and Holland.

at the northern end of the Lizard Peninsula, where they
receive specialist rehabilitation.
Its not only pups that have trouble. Seals of all ages have
accidents, and the sanctuary routinely treats broken ippers
caused by boat strikes. Entanglement in shing gear is a
growing problem, too some animals swim for months towing
nets or ropes. Even a small piece of looped net removed from a
beach could save a life, says Sue. Please pick it up!
When at sea entangled seals cant be helped, whereas
those on beaches can be caught and freed, or taken in for
It all goes to show just how mobile grey seals can be
and that the rehabilitation work is well worth the effort.
As Sue says, Its often freezing cold and wet, but knowing
that our efforts in research, rescue and rehab are making
a difference is ample reward.
ALI WOOD IS A FREELANCE JOURNALIST: WWW.ALI-WOOD.COM. SHE
TRAVELLED TO ASSAM WITH INDIA TOURISM AND ASSAM TOURISM.

54 Vol. 8 Issue 7
HISTORY

Spectre at the feast

An allegory depicting Elizabeth I in her
later years, with the gure of death
looking over her shoulder just as, in a
very real sense, the threat of starvation
loomed over her subjects after
a series of terrible harvests

Scan this QR Code for

the audio reader

56 Vol. 8 Issue 7
 THE DARK
SIDE OF
ELIZABETHAN
ENGLANDTHE ELIZABETHAN ERA IS OFTEN PAINTED AS A GOLDEN AGE.
YET, SAYS JAMES SHARPE, FOR THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE LIFE
DEN, BLIGHTED BY VIO
WAS ANYTHING BUT GOLDEN, VIOLENCE,
GRANCY A
VAGRANCY AND CRUSHING HUNGER

A woodcut shows an idyllic harvesting scene from the 1600s. In the previous
century, the Merrie England of Elizabeth I was marred by disastrous crop failures

nterest in Elizabeth I and her reign
I (15581603) seems limitless, and
invariably suffused with admiration
an attitude epitomised in The Times of 24
March 2003, on the quatercentenary of the
queens death:
Tolerance found a patron and religion
BRIDGEMAN
found a voice and a purpose Something
in her reign taught us what our country is,
and why it matters. And as her reign came
to craft a sense of national identity that had
not been found before, so she came to
embody our best selves: courageous,
independent, eccentric, amusing,
In an ICM poll for Microsoft Encarta at
the same time, 55 per cent of respondents
thought Elizabeth had introduced new
foods, notably curry, into Britain, while
one in 10 credited her with bringing corgis
to our shores.
More soberly, in 2002 Elizabeth was one of

its balance, seas were navigated and an capricious and reasonable, when reason was just two women (the other, Princess Diana) in
empire embarked upon and a small nation all. The greatest prince this country has BBC Twos list of 10 Greatest Britons.
defended itself against larger enemies and produced was a prince in skirts. Books, lms, newspaper articles and

Vol. 8 Issue 7 57
HISTORY
plays have all played their part in polishing
the Virgin Queens reputation. There have
been many biographies (around one a year
from 1927 to 1957); countless novels; and
Edward Germans 1902 operetta Merrie
England, whose very title tells us what
Elizabethan England was apparently like.
More recently the Michael Hirst/Shekhar
Kapur Elizabeth movies concluded that,
under Elizabeth, England became the most
prosperous and powerful nation in Europe.
SOCIAL BREAKDOWN
However, not everyone who actually lived
through the Elizabethan era was quite so
convinced that they were in a golden age.
Take Edward Hext, an experienced
Somerset justice of the peace, who on 25
September 1596 wrote to Lord Burghley
predicting imminent social breakdown in
the county. Hext reported that thefts were
prevalent, most of them carried out by
criminal vagrants who would rather steal
than work. He also complained that there
had been food riots, with rioters declaring
58 Vol. 8 Issue 7
that they must not starve, they will not
starve. Class hatred was manifest, he
wrote, with the poor saying that the rich
men have gotten all into their hands and
will starve the poor.
Hext was not, it seems, a lone doom
merchant. On 28 September 1596 we nd
William Lambarde, another veteran justice
of the peace, telling the Kent quarter
sessions at Maidstone that those in
authority needed to act swiftly or the
countryside would erupt.
This wasnt merely a case of two old men
romanticising about the good old days.
Hext and Lambarde knew they were on the
edge of a major social crisis. The harvests of
1594 and 1595 were bad enough, but 1596
was disastrous, sending grain prices
rocketing to their highest levels of the 16th
century, with grim consequences for
thousands.
This crisis has rarely featured in popular
accounts of Elizabeths reign. Yet it not
only provides an alternative perspective on
what life was like for ordinary men and
women in the 16th century, far from the
glittering court of the Virgin Queen, but
also deepens our understanding of how the
regime functioned.
At the heart of the problems confronting
Elizabethan England was the challenge of
feeding its soaring population. In 1500 there
was around 2.5 million people in England.
By 1650, that number had soared to more
than 5 million the economy simply couldnt
keep up. This manifested itself particularly in
two ways. Firstly, the price of grain rose
disproportionately: while the population of
England more or less doubled between 1500
and 1650, the cost of grain wheat, rye,
barley, oats increased six-fold. This had
grave implications, since a large (and
increasing) proportion of the population
BRIDGEMAN ART LIBRARY
depended on buying bread, or bread-grain, in
the market.
Secondly, real wages the purchasing
power of a days pay failed to keep up
with prices. Whereas the price of grain rose
by a factor of six, real wages did little more
than double. And, of course, given the glut

of labourers, the chances of nding work,
even at reduced levels of pay, diminished.
Few people were wage earners in the
modern sense, but most of the poor were
dependent on waged work for a proportion
of their income. The declining buying
power of real wages pushed many into
acute misery.
As a result, the Elizabethan period
witnessed the emergence of poverty on a new
scale. By the 1590s, the lot of the poor and the
labouring classes was bad enough at the best
of times. What made it worse was harvest
failure, for the steady upward progress of
grain prices was punctuated by years of
dearth, of which those of 159497 were
remarkable for the misery they engendered.
Yet for a prosperous yeoman farmer with a
surplus of grain to sell, bad harvests could be a
blessing: you had enough grain to feed your
family, and enjoyed enhanced prots from
the grain you took to market. If, however,
you were a middling peasant, normally
termed a husbandman, your position would
be badly squeezed by harvest failure. Families
300 Londoners,
marching north
to embark for
war service in
Ireland, mutinied at
Towcester, elected
a leader, and took
the town over
in this stratum desperately tried to maintain
their status until their inability to meet
mounting debts or some personal disaster sent
them down to the labouring poor. As a result,
by 1600, many villages in the south and
Midlands were becoming polarised between
a rich, and locally powerful, class of yeoman
farmers and a mass of poor people.
The impact of failed harvests on local
society is illustrated vividly by the parish
registers for Kendal in Westmorland. These
record that, following the disastrous harvest
of 1596, just under 50 parishioners were
buried in December that year compared
with a monthly average of just 20 in 1595.
The death toll remained high throughout
1597, peaking at 70 in a particularly
grim March.
London also suffered badly. Here, an
average year would see burials running at a
slightly higher level than baptisms (with the
early modern capitals formidable
population increase being largely fuelled by
immigration). Yet there was, it seems,
nothing average about 1597: in that year,
around twice as many Londoners were
buried as baptised and the seasonal
pattern of the burials indicates that famine
was the cause.
No segment of Englands population was
more terrifyingly vulnerable to high grain
prices than prisoners awaiting trial in its
county jails. The basic provision for feeding
them was bread paid for by a county rate, a
rate that did not increase in line with grain
prices. The results were predictably
catastrophic. We know of 12 coroners
inquests on prisoners who died in Essex,
Hertfordshire, Kent, Surrey and Sussex
county jails in 1595 and 33 in 1596. In 1597,
that rocketed to 117. Some of these deaths
resulted from starvation and many famine-
induced maladies: the Elizabethan jail was an
extremely efcient incubator of disease.
THE BURDEN OF WARFARE
The social dislocation caused by the bad
harvests of the 1590s was exacerbated by
warfare. England was continually at war
between 1585 and Elizabeths death in 1603
in the Netherlands in support of the
Dutch Revolt; in Normandy and Brittany
in support of French Protestants in that
countrys wars of religion; on the high seas
against the Spanish; and, most draining of
all, in Ireland.
Conict was costly (the government spent
US$9m on war between 1585 and 1603
much of it funded by taxpayers), it was not
particularly successful, and involved the
raising of large numbers of soldiers. Kent, a
strategically important county, contributed
6,000 troops from a population of 130,000
between 1591 and 1602.
Some towns where troops were
concentrated saw serious unrest. Soldiers at
Chester, the prime embarkation port for
Ireland, mutinied in 1594, 1596 and 1600.
The rst of these episodes, in which the 1,500
soldiers billeted in and around the city daily
fought and quarrelled, was only suppressed
when the mayor of Chester declared martial
law, set up a gibbet and hanged three men
identied as ringleaders.
In 1598, 300 Londoners marching north to
embark for war service in Ireland, mutinied at
Towcester, elected a leader, and took the
town over. Soldiers were normally recruited
from the rougher elements of society, and the
experience of soldiering in late 16th century
conditions did little to soften them. As a
result, soldiers returning from wars tended to
join the ranks of vagrant criminals.
The crisis elicited a variety of reactions
from those disadvantaged by it. One was to
complain, which led to prosecutions for
seditious words. In March 1598, Henry
Danyell of Ash in Kent declared that he
hoped to see such war in this realm as to
afict the rich men of this country to
requite their hardness of heart towards the
poor, and that the Spanish were better
than the people of this land and therefore
he had rather they were here than the rich
men of the country.
His were isolated sentiments, perhaps,
but it is interesting that some inhabitants of
Merrie England were advocating class
warfare and support for the nations
enemies.
Vol. 8 Issue 7 59
HISTORY

RESORTING TO CRIME
Theft was another remedy. Crime records
from Essex, Hertfordshire, Kent, Surrey
and Sussex suggest that there was a massive
rise in property offences (larceny, burglary,
house-breaking and robbery) from an
average of around 250 a year in the early
1590s to about 430 in 1598. Hard times
were clearly encouraging the poor to steal,
even though most of the offences were
capital. Indeed, records suggest that just
over 100 people were executed for property
crimes in these ve counties in 1598.
Another reaction to high grain prices was a
rash of grain riots across southern England.
The riot, at least in its early stages, had much
of the character of a demonstration, and the
objectives were limited to controlling prices
in the local market or preventing the export
of grain from their area there is little
evidence of grain rioters envisaging what The poor become poorer A beggar is whipped in the streets, 1567, in a period when hard times caused by poor harvests and
would today be called social revolution. the burden of warfare helped create more vagrants

The one incident where we know such But although they contained the crisis of
an outcome was envisaged was a complete
failure. This was the Oxfordshire Rising of People might the 1590s, government ofcials at all levels
must have been painfully aware of the

steal, they might

1596 when, following unsuccessful
petitioning by the poor of the county
authorities, ve men began to formulate
plans to lead a revolt. When the ringleaders
met on Enslow Hill in the north of the
county to spearhead their revolution, they
found that nobody had turned out to join
strain it imposed. When parliament met in
October 1597 many of the county members
would have had experience of interrogating
participate in local thieves, placating rioters and xing grain
prices in their local markets, while many
grain riots but the borough MPs would have been very aware
of the pressure put on their towns poor

them. And so the men made their way
home, only to be arrested.
Following their interrogation and torture,
two were hanged, drawn and quartered on
the very hill on which their projected rising
was supposed to begin, and the three others
disappear from the historical record,
presumably having died in prison.
This crisis of the 1590s illuminates
chances of getting
relief systems.
And it was that pressure that produced
the crisiss one major, concrete legacy the
a large-scale near-comprehensive Poor Law Act of 1598,
rounded off by further legislation in 1601.
popular revolt off It may be more prosaic perhaps than Francis
Drakes circumnavigation of the world or
the ground were the defeat of the Armada, but this piece of
legislation has to rank among the dening

serious tensions in Elizabethan society far
removed from the stereotypes of Glorianas
triumphant reign. But it also, perhaps
surprisingly, demonstrates the regimes
durability. People might complain, they
might steal, they might participate in local
grain riots. But, as the Oxfordshire Rising
demonstrates, the chances of getting a
large-scale popular revolt off the ground
were seriously limited.
But why? The answer comes in two parts.
First of all, over the Tudor period, Englands
county and town administrations established
much closer links with central authority in
the shape of the Privy Council (the body of
advisors to the queen). They were learning
seriously limited
by the increasing social polarisation that
accompanied Elizabeths reign. In 1549, the
Midlands and southern England were
rocked by a large-scale popular revolt led
by wealthy farmers and other notables the
natural leaders of village society.
Over the following half a century, with
the divide between rich and poor steadily
growing, these same village leaders the
group from which parish constables,
churchwardens and poor law ofcials were
drawn began to regard controlling the
poor as a major part of parish government.
achievements of Elizabeths reign.
The two acts provided for a nationally
legislated yet locally administered poor relief
system that was in advance of anything then
existing in a state of Englands size. They
were arguably the much-feted Elizabethan
Ages most important legacy to later
generations, and were inspired by the horrors
of those harvest failures from 1594 to 1597.
Perhaps the poor who during those years
resorted to theft, were reduced to vagrancy,
rioted or were indicted for seditious words
had achieved something after all.
JAMES SHARPE IS PROFESSOR OF EARLY MODERN
BRIDGEMAN

the importance of working together to ensure They increasingly saw themselves as HISTORY AT THE UNIVERSITY OF YORK. HE IS
the smooth running of government. stakeholders in, rather than sworn CURRENTLY WORKING ON A NEW HISTORY OF VIOLENCE
The second half of the answer is provided opponents of, the Elizabethan regime. IN ENGLAND

60 Vol. 8 Issue 7
 SCIENCE

OUR
FUTURE
RICH IN RESOURCES AND FUEL, THIS PLANET COULD BECOME OUR TICKET
OUT OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM
WORDS: STEPHEN BAXTER ILLUSTRATOR: MAGIC TORCH

ON
MERCURY
On 9 May 2016, Mercury will pass
between the Sun and Earth the
first transit in 10 years. And in 2017,
the Japanese and European space
agencies will be launching
BepiColombo the third ever space
probe to visit Mercury.
Space visionaries contemplate
Mercury with an eye on the future
because the resource-rich world is
close to the Sun and all of its
energy. We asked Stephen Baxter,
renowned science-fiction writer
and member of the British
Interplanetary Society, to envision
how Mercury could be the stepping
stone to exploring the Solar Scan this QR Code for
System and beyond. the audio reader

Vol. 8 Issue 7 61
SCIENCE
STAG E 1
Mercury, the innermost planet in
our Solar System, was once an
enigma. For years, its proximity to
the Sun made it difficult for
astronomers to observe but the
space age changed all that. NASAs
Messenger, the second space probe to
Mercury and the first orbiter, was
launched in 2004 and orbited the
planet from 2011 to 2015. The data it
returned gave us real knowledge
about Mercury for the first time.
PECULIAR PLANET
Mercury takes 88 Earth days to orbit
the Sun, and rotates once on its axis
every 59 Earth days. It was not until
the 1960s that even these basic facts
were established. But standing in any
one place on Mercury, you dont see
the Sun rise every 59 Earth days
because of that short year. Mercury is
so close to the Sun that tidal forces
have locked in its rotation periods:
three Mercury days are the same as
two Mercury years. The net effect
is that at any point on Mercurys
surface you will only see a sunrise
every 176 Earth days.
If you were to stand on Mercury,
superficially it might seem like the
Moon: a small, airless world with a
rocky surface distorted by huge,
ancient craters. But the details vary,
because of the planets different
location and composition. On
Mercury, there are peculiar linear
62 Vol. 8 Issue 7
features called rupes (Latin for
cliffs) that resemble wrinkles on a
shrivelled apple and its thought
that is pretty much how the rupes
formed, with the planet shrinking by
a kilometre or so as it cooled.
And Mercurys gravity might
surprise you. Though the planet is
only a little larger than the Moon, its
gravity is about twice as high.
Mercury was once a more massive
world with, like Earth, an iron
core and a rocky mantle. An
immense collision with another
young world may have stripped off
much of that mantle, leaving the
planet with an outsize core and a
higher density to match.
If you could stand on Mercury, the
Sun would look twice the size in the
sky as it does from Earth and there
would be barely a scrap of
atmosphere to shelter you, or to
retain the heat in the night. At
noon the ground is hot enough for
lead to melt; at midnight the
temperature plummets to nearly
-200C. Even the Messenger craft You might think it will forever be
had to be designed to take these impossible to live on Mercury. But
challenges into account. The front nature, uncharacteristically, may
side of the sunshade routinely have given future explorers a break.
experienced temperatures in excess The planet has no axial tilt, so there
of 300C, explains Helene Winters, are no seasons. This means that at the
mission project manager. Whereas planets poles, there may be craters
the majority of components in its where the Sun never shines. And
shadow routinely operated near there lies a miracle, discovered by
room temperature. Messenger: water ice, delivered by
the impacts of comets and frozen in
the permanent shadows life support
for future colonists. But aside from
science exploration and perhaps
some pretty extreme tourism, why
would we ever want to go to
Mercury?
In fact, Mercury could be one of the An artists impression of our
arrival at Mercury. In reality,
Solar Systems most strategically the chosen location would
valuable locations be in constant darkness

Vol. 8 Issue 7 63
SCIENCE

EARTH MERCURY
DISTANCE FROM SUN DISTANCE FROM SUN
152,100,000km
0km (att furthest point) 69,816,900km
m (at furthest
fuu r point)
MASS MASS
5.97 x 1024kg
4kg 0.33
0.3 3 x 1024kg
RADIUS RADIUS
6,378km 2,440km
DENSITY DENSITY
5,514kg/m33 55,427kg/m3
GRAVITY GRAVITY
9.8m/s2 3.7m/s2
YEAR YEAR
365.25 Earthth days 888 Earth days
DAY DAY
24 hours 599 Earth days
DAY-NIGHTT CYCLE DAY-NIGHT CYCLE
DAY-NIG
1 Earth day 176
177 6 Earth days
DAY TEMPERATURE
ERATURE DAY TEMPERATURE
TEM
57C (max) 4427C (max)
NIGHT TEMPERATURE
MPERATURE NIGHT TEMPERATURE
TEM
-89C (min) --173C (min)
SOLAR POWERWER received PER M2 SOLAR power receiv
received per M2
1,361 Wattss 99,083 Watts

64 Vol. 8 Issue 7
 STAG E 2
It might seem odd, but Mercury may
be a good site to mine. If we move
off the Earth, a growing
interplanetary civilisation is going to
need resources, in terms of materials
and energy and Mercury has
energy aplenty in the form of that
concentrated sunlight. To capture as
much energy as a square metre of
solar-energy cells on Mercury would
require six square metres on the
Earth and 60 square metres at
Ceres, a dwarf planet thats often
touted as a good candidate for
resource extraction.
RICH RESOURCES
As for the resources, there is strong
concern about the impact of mining
on Earth, in terms of environmental
cost; plus, resources extracted from
Earth would be expensive to lift into
space. So it would be far better to
mine out there. That prospect may
be coming closer, with the
emergence of the Alliance for Space
Development, led by the USs
National Space Society, to press for
legislation and initiatives to allow
development of space resources.
But where to mine? A first obvious
choice is the Moon. While the Moon
is deficient in volatiles like water, its
surface is full of useful components
such as oxygen, calcium, magnesium,
potassium, even heavy metals like
titanium and aluminium. Mercurys
mantle has pretty much the same
composition, and so techniques
developed on the Moon could easily
be transferred there. In addition, the
huge amount of solar energy received
by Mercury could be used to drive the
mining operations themselves, and for
firing packets of resources to sites
across the Solar System perhaps using
mass drivers. These electromagnetic
slingshots were first suggested by
Arthur C Clarke. It might be more
acceptable to mine remote Mercury
than to scar Earths Moon, plus
Mercurys huge core mostly iron, but
rich in other metals is only 600km
down in some places, whereas the
Moons smaller core may be up to
1,400km down.
There are still more imaginative
schemes. All that sunlight could be
used as a free propulsion system.
Imagine a solar sail, strong but thin,
perhaps built out of Mercurys
aluminium. When sunlight hits a
reflecting surface, it exerts a pressure
as if the particles of light are
rebounding from the surface and
pushing it away. The effect is small,
but its useful, continuous and free. At
the distance of Earth, a sail measuring
800m across would receive a light-
pressure of about five newtons, which
is similar to the thrust of the low-drive
ion-propulsion engines used on
NASAs Dawn spacecraft. And the
closer you get to the Sun, the greater
the thrust at Mercury you would get
the same thrust with a sail measuring
less than half that diameter. If you
wished to ride a solar sail to Neptune,
the most distant planet, it would be
better to pay a visit to Mercury first to
pick up the greater acceleration, and
then sail outwards.
Mercury may some day become
the shipyard and principal port of the
Solar System. And looking even
further into the future, there are
still bolder suggestions.
Vol. 8 Issue 7 65
SCIENCE
STAG E 3
In his 1984 novel The Flight Of The
Dragonf ly, physicist and science-
fiction writer Robert Forward
suggested a solar-sail starship, to be
built at and launched from Mercury:
a Solar-System-wide machine that
would toss [the crew] to the stars on
a beam of light. At the core of
Forwards propulsion system is a set
of 1,000 laser stations, each 30km
wide, in orbit around Mercury.
These together capture solar energy
into laser beams with a combined
total power of 1300TW, equivalent
to about 1 per cent of all the sunlight
intercepted by Earth, and blasted at a
sail a thousand kilometres across.
But Mercurys future may hold
greater miracles yet. Could we turn
it into a second Earth?
Terraforming, the art of turning
an uninhabitable world into a
habitable copy of Earth, is usually
considered in the context of Mars.
Mars has a similar orbit to Earths, a
similar length of day, and at least
some of the necessities for life in
water and carbon. But Mercury does
have some natural advantages, even
over Mars. That relatively strong
gravity would enable it to hold on to
at least some of an imported
atmosphere. And Mercury has a
comparatively strong magnetic field
less than Earths, but stronger than
that of Mars or Venus, perhaps a
product of its huge iron core. Just as
on Earth, such a field would help
def lect harmful solar radiation from
the planets surface.
Otherwise, though, the challenge
of turning Mercurys liquid-lead,
hard-vacuum surface into a
shirtsleeve environment seems
66 Vol. 8 Issue 7
enormous. To emulate a sunny day
on Earth, the incident sunlight
would have to be reduced by some
84 per cent. Perhaps this could be
achieved with a huge def lecting
mirror a sunscreen the size of
Mercury itself. Mercury lacks water
and other volatiles; even the polar
deposits would be a minor scrape in
this context. The dismantling of a
small moon of Saturn, perhaps
300km across, could supply this
need. Even then, imported terrestrial
life would suffer from Mercurys
enormously long day-night cycle.
Perhaps this could be jury-rigged
using orbiting shields and mirrors.
IN A SPIN
A more permanent but trickier
solution might be to spin up the planet,
so that it rotates more quickly. And in
the same spirit, the sunlight issue could
be solved simply by dragging the
planet further from the Sun. Such
schemes have been considered in sci-fi
literature, by shooting massive objects
the fragments of moons perhaps
past the planet to use their gravitational
fields to spin or drag it. A much more
advanced culture than ours may have
better ideas in the future.
Mercury, a Moon-like world
spinning close to the Sun, seems a
dismal candidate for terraforming.
But such is Mercurys potential
wealth in minerals and energy, and
such is the pivotal role it may one day
play in the development of an
interplanetary, or even interstellar
civilisation, that perhaps such a
project will be considered by a future
society inconceivably richer and
more powerful than our own.
Vol. 8 Issue 7 67
NATURE

INDIAS Scan this QR Code for

the audio reader

LAST ASSAM IS BEST KNOWN

FOR TEA, BUT ITS
SUBTROPICAL FORESTS
ALSO OFFER REFUGE
TO RARE HOOLOCK

APES
GIBBONS. ALI WOOD
MEETS THE LOCAL
PEOPLE DEVOTED
TO CARING FOR INDIAS
ONLY WILD APES
68 Vol. 8 Issue 7
 DR AXEL GEBAUER/NATUREPL.COM (CAPTIVE)
Though they are of similar
size (about 5.5kg), male and
female western hoolock
gibbons have very different
coloration males such as
this have black fur and a
distinctive white brow

Vol. 8 Issue 7 69
NATURE

OUR GIBBONS
You rst hear a baby hoolock gibbon sing
with its family when it is four or ve years
old. When it is seven years old it sets off on
its own to nd a mate, and will live up to 40 years. If their
mate dies, they dont mingle again. Hoolock gibbons only
have one partner in life, and usually no more than two or
three young. Thats why I like them. They are like us.
DEVON BURON FOREST GUARD, HOLLONGAPAR GIBBON SANCTUARY

70 Vol. 8 Issue 7
 hen Kumud Ghosh wakes in his village amid the tea
W plantations of Assam hes greeted by a spine-tingling
sound somewhere between the hoot of an owl
and the howl of a wolf. As Ghosh leaves his home a second,
lower-pitched voice joins in, and by the time hes walked the
2km stretch to Hollongapar Gibbon Sanctuary, the duet has
reached a magnicent crescendo.
When I hear the western hoolock gibbons sing, freshness
comes to my body, explains Ghosh, who has studied the
species for 15 years. For me, it is like listening to classical
music. Ghosh is one of the rangers at this 21km2 forest reserve
in north-east India. Upgraded to a wildlife sanctuary in 1997,
Hollongapar is home to hoolock gibbons, the only wild apes in
the country. However, unlike Assams Kaziranga National Park,
which is famed for its one-horned (Indian) rhinos, the reserve
receives few visitors.
As we step through the thick shrubs of the subtropical
deciduous forest, my pulse quickens when I hear what
sounds like a re alarm. The noise is high-pitched and
intermittent, accompanied by what could pass for the
whoops greeting a best mans speech at a wedding.
Forest guard Deben Borah smiles, puts his nger to his
MAIN: A western
hoolock gibbon
carries her one-
month-old baby
RIGHT: Tea
plantations (top)
have replaced the
species crucial
forest habitat in
contrast Hollongapar
(bottom) offers tall
trees with a suitable
canopy
lips and beckons us in the direction of the calls. Five minutes
later we spot them a black male and tan female. They
perch a couple of metres apart, their characteristic long
forearms holding onto the branches above, while their baby
crouches below munching leaves.
India has two species of gibbon, but Hollongapar is home
to just the western hoolock (Hoolock hoolock). The eastern
hoolock gibbon H. leuconedys, which varies slightly in
colour and has a narrower gap between its bushy brows, is
found close to the Tibetan border in Arunachal Pradesh.
CALL OF THE WILD
The duet were hearing is territorial, Borah explains, but
hoolock gibbons also have specic calls for mating, food and
danger. If one family calls another will sometimes reply. The
morning song which in Hollongapar occurs every two
to four days can last up to half an hour, and identies the
singers species, sex and identity.
Today the song bout climaxes after 15 minutes, and
the family disappears. Gibbons get around using a lanky
yet powerful alternate-arm-swinging technique called
brachiation, which propels them at up to 55km/h, as they
hurl themselves across gaps in the forest canopy as wide as
6m.
Knowing that were unlikely to catch up with the super-
athletic gibbon family, we make our way back to the track.
Deben points out an all-male group of capped langurs above
us. Unlike gibbons, which are monogamous and live in small
family groups based around a breeding pair, these monkeys
form social groups of up to 15 individuals.
Hollongapar offers a refuge to seven of Indias 11 primate
species, and is one of the last strongholds of the rare stump-
tailed macaque, considered Vulnerable by the IUCN. Though
the sanctuary has the highest primate biomass in India, the
HOOLOCK: BERNARD CASTELEIN/NATUREPL.COM; TEA: ALI WOOD; HOLLONGAPAR: NHPA/PHOTOSHOT
abundance of food means there is little competition. The
gibbons are frugivorous and frequent the treetops, whereas
Hollongapars other primates live in the middle and lower
canopies. Living at the top of the canopy is not
without problems, however. Gibbons are threatened
Vol. 8 Issue 7 71
NATURE

Conservationists are working

hard to protect the gibbons
that live in Barekuri, such as
this male. The local population
stood at 21 individuals at the
end of last year

OUR GIBBONS
The gibbons talk to other family
groups. Occasionally they cross into
each others territories, but just for a
minute. I believe they sing in glee. Morning breakfast
is like their prayers. When they are scared, it is
different a rough sound. And when they are enjoying
themselves they sing freely, the male and the female.
They go to and fro in the branches. They dance.
DAMBARU CHUTIA HEAD OF WECO, BAREKURI

72 Vol. 8 Issue 67
 by habitat fragmentation because they cannot move easily
between isolated patches of forest.
Western hoolock gibbons are restricted to north-east
India, China, Burma (Myanmar) and Bangladesh, and their
total population has shrunk from 100,000 to fewer than
5,000 over the past 40 years. But at Hollongapar they have
increased from 63 to 130 in the past decade.Yet even here
habitat fragmentation has an impact.
Running east to west through the middle of the forest is
an old railway line, laid by the British, which cuts off three
of the areas 26 gibbon families. Though pig-tailed macaques
and langurs happily cross the tracks, the gibbons keep to the
canopy, away from predators such as pythons and leopards.
Borah thinks that there could be a solution, which he
hopes will see the gibbon gene pools mix after a century
apart. He takes me on a walk along the old railway line,
past two rhesus monkeys playing on the tracks. We also see
bamboo trampled by Asiatic elephants sadly ve members
of the forests 50-strong elephant population have been
killed by trains in recent years.
We come to a stop at a 15m-high iron bridge built by
the North-East Frontier Railway. Its positioned in the spot
TRANSLOCATION: CAN WILD GIBBONS BE
MOVED TO SAFER AREAS?
REAS?
Conservationists are cautiouss about
the possibility of translocatingg isolated
groups of gibbons to repopulate
ulate
protected areas. Tarali Goswami,
wami, a tour
HOOLOCK X3: DHRITIMAN MUKHERJEE; BRIDGE: ALI WOOD
guide and World Wildlife Fund nd volunteer,
says: The hoolock gibbon iss intelligent,
with a complex social life itss mating and
child-rearing behaviour is similar
milar to ours.
So you cant just translocate this species
as we have the rhinos of Assam.
sam. Rhinos
are primitive and easy to catch,
ch, but hoolocks
are top-canopy dwellers and d move quickly.
Samuel Turvey, senior researcher
rcher at the Zoological
Institute of London, also points
nts out that so far such
attempts have been few and far between. Partly this is
because theres a preference e for hands-off conservation
management. But forests across ross Asia are becoming
increasingly fragmented, so this sort of approach is likely to
become more widely used in n future.
ABOVE LEFT:
This bridge at
Hollongapar has
been built to
enable gibbons
to cross railway
tracks, uniting
fragmented
populations
ABOVE RIGHT:
Females are a
golden/coppery
brown, making
the sexes easy to
distinguish even where gibbon families call to each other across the tracks,
when crossing the
treetops at speed and the structure which will soon be covered in vines is
designed to allow them to cross. Dilip Chetry, the sanctuarys
director, says that the gibbons are already investigating
the bridge, and he hopes they will go on to breed. But he
cautions that the southern population may have developed
serious genetic problems. Its a familiar situation small
populations lose genetic diversity
HEADQUARTERS OF HOPE
Back at Hollongapar HQ a modest room next to the
derelict railway station Ghosh outlines the centres other
initiatives to conserve western hoolock gibbons. It is
carrying out job swaps with foresters from neighbouring
states, and offering work placements to students. But the
threats are many. As well as facing deforestation, hoolock
gibbons are killed for food and their blood, which is
believed to give strength to the foetus of a pregnant woman.
Wildlife crime is taken very seriously in India, and hoolock
gibbons are protected under the Wildlife Protection Act (1972).
But Ghosh doesnt believe that the shoot to kill policy his
country uses on rhino poachers will work here.This forest is an
island, he says.We are surrounded by villagers, and they play
a vital role in conservation.Yes, by means of the gun you can
protect the forest, but how many people must you kill rst? We
are trying to raise awareness that this forest is everyones property.
It belongs to the villagers, and we want them on our side.
The Indian government is encouraging villagers to earn
money through ecotourism for example, by guiding
tourists and offering home-stays to visitors rather than
poaching. Organisations such as the World Wildlife Fund
are also working in the region, reducing humanelephant
conict and translocating rhinos. Hoolock gibbons might
benet indirectly from some of these initiatives, but there are
no plans to also translocate them to protected areas.
Species translocation is a complex business, and in
Vol. 8 Issue 7 73
NATURE

HOW TO SEE HOOLOCK GIBBONS

Getting around Assam can be tricky and English is
not spoken in many rural areas, so its a good idea to
travel with a local guide or organised tour. Find a list of
tour operators at www.assamtourism.gov.in and more
information at www.incredibleindia.org

Flamingo Travels & Adventures (www.flamingotravels.

com/itin_wildlife1.html) offers a 15-day tour of Assam
with four national parks and four sanctuaries.

Naturetrek (01962 733051, www.naturetrek.co.uk)

offers a tour of Assam that includes an 11-day wildlife
cruise down the Brahmaputra River, visiting Kaziranga,
Nameri and Orang National Parks.

Rhino Club Adventure and Tours is run by Tarali

Goswami, a former WWF volunteer who worked on
tiger and rhino censuses. Tarali arranges bespoke tours;
email her at rhinoclubadventure@gmail.com.

non-human primates that walk primarily on two legs, but

OUR GIBBONS
The gibbons are
often in our village
and our gardens
theyre not afraid of us. They come
India this eld is still very new, says for bamboo leaves, oranges, bananas
Ghosh. We are trying to motivate and tender blackjack fruit. There was
our scholars to study gibbons, one family I used to love watching.
because traditionally they are more MANAB CHUTIA PURANI MOTAPUNG VILLAGE
interested in studying and working
with glamorous species such as tigers and rhinos.
There are several other gibbon-conservation projects outside
the Hollongapar sanctuary, and its one of these in the district of
Tinsukia that we visit next.We head north-east along the banks
of the Brahmaputra River into the oodplains of Dibrugarh.The
forest, cotton trees and palm-fringed paddy elds give way to tea
plantations stretching as far as the eye can see.
Some plantations date back to colonial days when Scottish
explorer Robert Bruce discovered tea. These are large,
commercial operations with purpose-built villages, schools
and hospitals for workers. The 19th century tea bungalows
now accommodate tourists. Other plantations belong to the
villagers they are their own back gardens.
THE HIGH PRICE OF TEA
The international tea industry is the main cause of Assams
deforestation, which has had a major impact on the western
hoolock gibbons of Barekuri. Across this cluster of villages,
spread over 15km2, there were only 21 western hoolock
gibbons in six families at the end of 2015 all of them
living in village woodlots and bamboo patches.
DHRITIMAN MUKHERJEE
walking is still exceptional behaviour. Gibbons rarely leave
the canopy, so long as they can occupy good-quality forest,
explains Samuel Turvey, senior researcher at the Zoological
Institute of London. They are superbly well adapted for
movement in the trees. By contrast, theyre clumsy and
highly vulnerable on the ground.
Thats conrmed by conservationist Anwaruddin
Choudhury, who has studied hoolock gibbons for years and
says that domestic dogs are a real danger: They can attack
and even kill gibbons. So when gibbons are forced to come
down to the ground, they cross as fast as possible.
Chutia takes me to the rivers edge. Next to us is a hut, from
which WECO hopes to start birdwatching tours. He points to a
small patch of forest across the water. Theyre the only big trees
left round here now. Jhum [slash-and-burn] cultivation made
way for tea gardens.
Chutia says that villagers enjoy the company of the
gibbons, and believe the apes to be their ancestors. But in
hard times people are forced to cut down the few remaining
large trees for timber, and sell the fruit that gibbons love
to eat. Its a double whammy. Gibbons play a crucial role
in seed dispersal and forest regeneration, so the knock-
on effect is that there will be even fewer trees in future.
At Barekuri, WECO is persuading the villagers to plant
more fruit trees and monitor individual gibbons. The charity
also successfully campaigned to stop an oil company cutting
down a vital corridor of silk-cotton trees that the gibbons
used. The villagers love their wild neighbours heartily,
Chutia says. If the gibbons go, it will be a big heartache.
I think back to the moment I rst witnessed a pair of
hoolock gibbons sing their territorial duet, known to
primatologists as the great call sequence. When they

I meet villager Dambaru Chutia, who runs a charity called nished, they swung off vigorously through the trees. Surely
the Wildlife and Environment Conservation Organisation Their long arms this is one of Indias great wildlife spectacles one that
make hoolock
(WECO). There used to be big trees before tea gardens gibbons brilliant
future generations deserve to see.
came, but now the surviving gibbons have to steal the fruit acrobats, and
they have an
from the villagers gardens, he says. Sometimes they even excellent sense of
ALI WOOD IS A FREELANCE JOURNALIST: WWW.ALI-WOOD.COM. SHE
come down to the ground and walk. Gibbons are the only balance TRAVELLED TO ASSAM WITH INDIA TOURISM AND ASSAM TOURISM.

74 Vol. 8 Issue 7
 SCIENCE

BUSTING
THE MYTHS
OF MODERN
LIFE...
DO MICE REALLY LOVE
CHEESE? DOES SUGAR MAKE
KIDS HYPERACTIVE? DO YOU
ACTUALLY NEED YOUR FIVE-A-
DAY? WE PUT 29 COMMON
BELIEFS UNDER THE
MICROSCOPE TO SORT THE
FACT FROM THE FANTASY
WORDS: TOBIAS JOLLY

A PENNY DROPPED FROM THE

TOP OF THE EIFFEL TOWER
COULD KILL SOMEONE
The building used as the basis of this myth
varies. Much more constant is the terminal
velocity of a penny, which is around 44km/h
(27mph). The penny reaches that speed after
ILLUSTRATIONS: JAMES OLSTEIN

it has been falling for about 15 metres (50

feet). Once the penny has reached its terminal
velocity, it will not accelerate any further.
Physicist Louis Bloomfield at the University
of Virginia used this calculation to replicate
the fall of pennies from tall buildings. He
found that pennies at that speed would not
break the skin at most, they would just
sting a little.

Vol. 8 Issue 7 75
SCIENCE

GOLDFISH
ONLY HAVE A
THREE-SECOND
MEMORY
The life of a goldfish isnt always
filled with joys that are worth
remembering: countless numbers
of these small fish have little to
look back on other than a short trip
in a tiny bag before being flushed
down a toilet. But goldfish do have
a better memory than just three
seconds much better in fact.
Goldfish can remember the route
to take in a simple maze, for
example. A study by researchers
at the University of Seville also
suggested that the fish are able to
develop and remember a mental
picture of their environment. In the
maze experiment, the fish could
find their way to a goal from a start
point other than the one from
which they were trained.

Local
honey cures
hay fever
Tablets containing pollen are
somewhat effective at combating
hay fever. Since some honey
contains pollen, honey as a hay fever
remedy seems plausible. But most
honey contains little or no pollen.
Even unfiltered local honey has
no apparent impact on hay
fever.

BUMBLEBEES
DEFY PHYSICS
They are big and fat with
seemingly tiny wings, making
their flight seem improbable.
But since science is updated
when there is new evidence, if
a bumblebees flight really
couldnt be explained by
current models then the
physics would change. In reality,
the insects do not defy any laws of
nature. Those wings do indeed
provide enough lift to hold up the
entirety of a bumblebees 0.2g.

76 Vol. 8 Issue 7
 HOUSEFLIES ONLY
LIVE FOR 24 HOURS
It may seem unfortunate that the
annoying housefly lives for more
than a day. They can actually live
for several weeks. The 24-hour
myth probably comes from
confusion with the mayfly, of which
many species do have incredibly
short lifespans in their adult stage.
Part of the reason mayflies can get
away with such a short lifespan,
while still being able to find a mate,
is that they swarm. Since a swarm
of houseflies might be more of a
nuisance than the odd one buzzing
round your kitchen, we should
probably be thankful that they do
Turning not share the mayflys lifecycle.
the thermostat
up high will increase
the rate of heating
Unlike humans, who might meet an
ambitious challenge by working
harder, heating systems dont put more MICE LOVE CHEESE
effort in when they have further to go. Youre not alone if you feel a sense of disillusionment after
Setting your thermostat to 30C will learning that your childhood cartoons were misleading you.
only change the target temperature, Scientists from the University of Birmingham have
not the heating speed. A higher confirmed earlier research by showing that wild-caught
setting will just risk wasting mice do not appear to have any apparent preference for
energy while getting you cheese, and probably prefer seeds and grains. Crunchy
too hot. peanut butter, another common mouse bait, was also not
preferred (perhaps they prefer smooth).
Given that adult mammals tend to have little of the enzyme
lactase, required for lactose digestion, cheese probably isnt
great for a mouses health, either. Plus, feeding cheese
to a mouse is a criminal waste of cheese!

YOU NEED TO DRINK EIGHT

GLASSES OF WATER A DAY
Being dehydrated isnt great for your health,
but the idea that we need to drink eight
glasses (around two litres) of water in order
to stay hydrated has no real scientific
backing. Research suggests that health can
be maintained with a much lower water
intake.
As concluded by Dr Heinz Valtin from
Dartmouth Medical School, theres also no
evidence to specifically drink plain water.
You can stay hydrated with any other fluids
and the water thats found in most food.

Vol. 8 Issue 7 77
SCIENCE

HUMANS HAVE FIVE SENSES

A significant problem with the idea that we have five
senses is that there is no uncontroversial definition
for what constitutes a discrete sense. Regardless of
how you define a sense, its clear that we have
probably more than five of them. The
non-traditional senses include nociception (the
sense of pain), thermoception (the sense of
temperature) and equilibrioception (the sense of
balance). Admittedly, The Sixth Sense might not
have been nominated for as many Oscars had it
been about a boy who was able to sense how cold
he was

SHARKS DONT
GET CANCER
There are plenty of documented
examples of sharks with cancer.
This myth has been used as the
pseudoscientific basis for the
use of shark cartilage as an
alternative cancer treatment and
is implicated in diminishing
shark populations. The world of
alternative medicine is filled with
myths that could be included on
this list, but not all such myths
put entire species at risk. This
one does.
YOU NEED TO EAT FIVE
PORTIONS OF FRUIT
AND VEG A DAY
Campaigns that aim to increase
the amount of fruit and
vegetables the average person
consumes have taken place
across the world. For example,
in Australia they have the 2 & 5
campaign. These campaigns are
based on the World Health
Organizations recommendation
of 400g of fruit and veg per day.
The five-a-day target is pretty
arbitrary you probably wont
be a lot worse off if
you only manage
four, and six would
probably be slightly
better. Five a day might
be a reasonable
target if you currently
eat little or no fruit or
vegetables, but theres
nothing special about
that figure in particular.
SUPERFOODS ARE MSG IS BAD
REALLY GOOD FOR YOU
FOR YOU Monosodium glutamate (MSG) is
Put simply, there is no a common source of the savoury
academically recognised umami flavour found in many
definition for superfood foods, such as tomatoes, soy
it is essentially a sauce and parmesan cheese.
marketing term. It is used as a flavour
While adding enhancer by the food
some industry, but claims
berries and about MSGs negative
kale to your health effects have
diet may be been around for a
beneficial to while, with supposed ill
your health, effects ranging from
many of the headaches to cancer. As
specific claims a result, MSG has been
made about various studied extensively, and in 2007,
superfoods arent based on any a team at the University of
real evidence. No single food has Hohenheim examined all the
shown to be a health panacea research on MSG and concluded
worthy of the term super, and that even unusually high doses
no one should think they can are not harmful. It has also been
counteract the effects of a huge conclusively established that
bowl of ice cream by liberally MSG makes things taste even
sprinkling it with goji berries. more delicious.

78 Vol. 8 Issue 7

ALCOHOL KEEPS
YOU WARM
Many drinkers have found that
alcohol made them feel more
resistant to cold weather on the
walk home from the pub. This beer
jacket is the result of the blood
vessels dilating, resulting in more
blood travelling to the surface of the
skin. Far from keeping you warm,
alcohol is more likely to put you at risk
of hypothermia as it can impair the
bodys ability to regulate its
temperature.
SUGAR MAKES
KIDS HYPERACTIVE
Its easy to understand why so many
believe that sugar (a source of quick
energy) causes hyperactivity, but
numerous controlled experiments
have failed to establish any causal
relationship. The belief might be
perpetuated by
confirmation bias: a
study at the University
of Kentucky showed
that when a parent was
told that their child had
just eaten a lot of
sugar (even when
they hadnt), the
parent was far
more likely to
describe their kid
as hyperactive. Of
course, this doesnt
mean feeding your
children vast
quantities of sugar is
to be recommended.
Adults
cant generate
new brain cells
Several areas of the adult
brain contain the neural stem
cells required for the growth of
neurons. These areas include the
dentate gyrus, thought to be
involved in memory formation, and
the olfactory bulb, which is
involved in our sense of
smell.
WE ONLY USE 10 PER
CENT OF OUR BRAINS
The origin of this myth is uncertain, but it didnt originate
from the scientific study of the brain. The myth is often
found in self-help books that claim to tell you how to
harness the power of the brains other 90 per cent. In
reality, all the parts of the brain are highly specialised and
there dont appear to be any unused sections that you
could learn to activate in an attempt at self-improvement.
THE TONGUE IS
DIVIDED UP INTO
DIFFERENT SECTIONS
The absence of an umami
section is not the biggest
problem with the tongue
map. The idea that our
tongues are split into
sections has been
perpetuated by
textbooks and
teachers for
decades, yet it has
no basis in
physiology. The
receptor cells that
identify the CAFFEINE DEHYDRATES YOU
molecules You may find yourself visiting the bathroom more frequently after
underlying the basic consuming tea or coffee. This is probably due to the diuretic
tastes (sweet, effect of caffeine, which is suspected to irritate muscles in the
sour, salt, bitter bladder. But even if you do pee more often, it doesnt mean
and umami) are youre passing a greater volume overall. The effect of caffeine on
distributed on urine output has been investigated in numerous studies, which
taste buds all have been reviewed by dietician Dr Carrie Ruxton. She found
over the that a moderate intake of caffeinated drinks is unlikely to
tongue. have any significant effect on your overall level of hydration.
Vol. 8 Issue 7 79
SCIENCE

GINGER-HAIRED
PEOPLE ARE
GOING EXTINCT
Red hair is caused by a recessive
variant of a gene, which means
you need two copies of it to be a
redhead. Currently, redhead
alleles are found at a much higher
concentration in some
populations in northern and
western Europe. Its possible that
as those genes spread out the
probability of two people with a
redhead allele having a child will
diminish, which might make
redheads less common, but as
long as the genes are there, we
will still have redheads.

THERES A CHEMICAL THAT TURNS PURPLE

WHEN SOMEONE WEES IN A SWIMMING POOL
Although this myth might serve a noble purpose, there is no urine
indicator that could be put into pools. In principle it may be possible
to create a chemical that is colourless in the absence of urine, but
colourful in its presence. But the difficulty in ensuring that it doesnt
result in false positives probably wouldnt be worth the investment.
Along with the difficulties in developing such a dye, you could
probably also guarantee that any pool that used it would have a
constant purple tinge.

LEFT-BRAINED PEOPLE SHAVING CAUSES HAIR YOU LOSE A LOT

ARE LOGICAL, RIGHT- TO GROW BACK OF BODY HEAT
BRAINED PEOPLE ARE FASTER AND THICKER THROUGH YOUR HEAD
CREATIVE Shaved hair that hasnt yet If you leave any one body part
As described by the University been exposed to the bleaching exposed to the elements, that
of Utahs Jared Nielsen in a effects of sunlight may appear body part will play a major part
study of brain scans from over darker. And compared to the in your heat loss. The 7 per cent
1,000 individuals, there is no tapered end of an unshaved of your bodys surface area that
evidence of left- or right-brain strand of hair, the sheared ends covers your head isnt in any way
dominance. The idea that there usually feel coarser. While these special, however. The myth often
are left-brained people who are two effects might make recently claims a figure of around 50 per
logical and right-brained people shaved hair seem thicker, there cent heat loss through the head.
who are creative may be a useful is no evidence that shaving The implication of this
metaphor, but it has no more influences the growth rate or percentage is that youd be as
basis in actual science than thickness of hair. warm if you went out wearing
astrology does. Though a nothing but a balaclava as you
left-brained Gemini like myself would be if you went out fully
would say that. clothed but without a hat. Feel
free to try this at home.

80 Vol. 8 Issue 7
 BAREFOOT RUNNING IS
BETTER FOR YOU
Barefoot running has grown in
popularity over the past few years.
The proponents usually claim that
running without traditional running
shoes improves form, prevents
high impact heel strikes and
reduces injury rates. However,
media articles supporting
barefoot running generally rely on
questionable evolutionary
hypotheses or anecdotes.
A group of researchers at the
University of Cape Town
examined papers looking
at the biomechanics
of barefoot versus Stretching
traditional before exercise
running. Dr prevents injury
Nicholas Tam Finnish researchers analysed
and his team studies covering almost 5,000
concluded participants and concluded that
stretching before exercise had no
that while
effect on injury rates. However,
barefoot
a gentle aerobic warm-up will
running might prepare the muscles for
reduce the risk a workout.
of certain injuries,
such as knee pain, it
may also increase the risk
of others, such as stress fractures
to the feet. Individual experience
may vary, but there is so far no
scientific basis on which to
prescribe barefoot running to
reduce injury rates.

PEOPLE ARE MORE PLAYING CLASSICAL

LIKELY TO COMMIT
SUICIDE IN WINTER
The assumption that the dark and
cold of winter cause a peak in
suicides is understandable, but
its not supported by the statistics.
Researchers from Inje University
in Seoul looked at studies from a
range of countries, and found that
the biggest peak is around April
and May (in the northern
hemisphere). This peak also
varies based on a number of
demographic factors, particularly
age. The seasonal variation in the
suicide rate is smaller in the UK,
but winter is not the most
dangerous period.
MUSIC TO BABIES
MAKES THEM GROW
UP SMARTER
There may or may not be a
correlation between intelligence
and an appreciation for classical
music. The Mozart Effect that
suggests classical music
improves childrens intelligence
was first described in an early
1990s study, but since then, it
has not been established as a
robust phenomenon that
survives study replication.
Parents time is probably better
spent teaching their children that
correlation does not imply
causation.
A MALFUNCTION AT A PARTICLE
ACCELERATOR COULD SUCK
THE ENTIRE PLANET INTO A BLACK HOLE
The idea that particle accelerators, particularly the Large
Hadron Collider (LHC), might cause Earth-threatening black
holes has been in the news since the LHC opened. Micro black
holes are hypothesised to be generated by high-energy particle
accelerators like the LHC, but they wouldnt be a threat to the
planet. Unlike their massive astronomical cousins, the
hypothetical micro black holes would evaporate almost
instantly. And although it would be an important discovery, no
micro black holes have been detected at the LHC so far.
TOBIAS JOLLY IS A DATA ANALYST AND BIOCHEMISTRY GRADUATE.

Vol. 8 Issue 7 81
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 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.
Hes visiting
professor in
science at Aston
University.
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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
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of Hull, where
he teaches
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and science.

editorial-bbcknowledge@regentmedia.sg

Can robots be creative?

Yes they can. Creativity involves combining ideas
together in novel ways. In nature, we see amazing
creativity arising from evolution, where genes from
different parents are uniquely blended. So when we use
genetic algorithms, which mimic evolution, computers
cross over ideas in novel ways to produce highly
creative solutions. Today, computers can compose
music, produce art, and design unconventional and
efficient solutions to problems. PB
PHOTO: GETTY

Well done, but a robot cant paint

a Rembrandt or can it?

83
83 Vol.
Vo
VVol
ol. 8 Is
ol IIssue
ssue
ssuuuee 6 Vol. 8 Issue 76 83
83
 &
IN NUMBERS

Are ofces making us more sick?

92
hours
Its hard to be sure. Several studies have found that
workers in open-plan offices take more sick days than
those who work in small groups or have their own
week. So maybe open-plan offices are just more
stressful and unpleasant to work in, and their
employees are more inclined to pull a sickie. Or it may
private office. But this is mostly short absences of just be that open-plan employees are less likely to be
is the record for one or two days. If cold viruses were spreading more missed. A 2005 study found that presenteeism (where
non-stop TV watching, effectively in offices, you would also expect the spread employees come to work, even when they are sick) is
set by five Austrians in of flu as well, which would knock you out for at least a more common in small offices. LV
early 2016

75
hamburgers are sold
by McDonalds around
Extreme measures
are put in place when
Barry eats curry for
lunch
the world every
second

Can dogs sense when What does sleep do

someone is about to die? for the brain?
Dogs are highly social animals and certainly sense Too much stimulation of
when we are unhappy or in pain. A 2004 study also your brain cells can lead to
found that they can be trained to detect bladder neurotoxicity, which is
cancer from the smell of the patients urine. So its dangerous, and so one
certainly possible that dogs may be able to tell when tentative theory holds that
someone is seriously ill. But theres no evidence that sleep is a chance for the
they have any sixth sense that can tell youll be hit by brain to enter a detox
a bus tomorrow. LV mode in which overall
levels of neural excitability
are reduced. Sleep also
But if you dont
feed me steak right helps the brain to learn,
now, you although the precise
mysteriously might
not wake up physiological processes
tomorrow that underlie this benefit
are still being worked out.
This means that after
youve spent time revising
or learning a new skill, its
very important that you get
a good nights sleep. Doing
so will help your brain to
consolidate the neural
connections that underlie
new memories. CJ

84 Vol. 8 Issue 7

THE THOUGHT EXPERIMENT
What will happen if I am jettisoned into space?
PHOTO: SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY, GETTY X3 ILLUSTRATION: DANIEL BRIGHT
1. YOU WONT EXPLODE
Even without a spacesuit, your skin can
resist a pressure difference of one
atmosphere, so you wont explode. Dont
hold your breath though, because without
the atmosphere pushing against your chest,
the air trapped in your lungs will expand and
rupture the tissues inside, forcing air into
your chest cavity and blood, like the worst
case of the bends.
Gravitational waves, as
visualised in this artwork,
helped us prove that gravity
travels at the speed of light
2. YOU WILL ASPHYXIATE
Since you arent holding your breath, you
have 15 seconds before you lose
consciousness, or as few as five seconds if
you are panicking. If you are rescued and
restored to normal atmospheric pressure
within 90 seconds, you have a good chance
of making a recovery. But any longer than
that, your heart will stop and even a
defibrillator wont save you.
What is the speed
of gravity?
According to Einsteins General Relativity,
gravity travels at the speed of light. Proving it
is far from simple, though: unlike light, gravity
cant simply be switched on and off, and is
also extremely weak. Over the years, various
attempts have been made to measure the
speed using studies of astronomical
phenomena, such as the time delay of light as
it passes through the huge gravitational field
of Jupiter. While the results have been broadly
in line with Einsteins prediction, theyve
lacked the precision needed for compelling
evidence. Thats now been provided by the
celebrated detection of gravitational waves.
Analysis of the signals picked up by the two
giant LIGO instruments in the US has
confirmed that gravity does indeed travel
through space at the speed of light. RM
3. YOULL FREEZE DRY
In the vacuum of space, water will boil
even at body temperature, so the moisture
in your lungs, mouth and eyes will boil
away a few minutes after you die,
eventually drying you out like a mummy.
And with no ozone layer to shield you
from the Suns UV radiation, your
desiccated corpse will char black over the
next few months.
Vol. 8 Issue 7 85
 &

What evolved rst: eyes or ears?

The eyes can clearly
be seen on this
fossilised trilobite

Eyes, by at least 40 million years. The only quite the same thing as hearing.
ring.. Trilobites
invertebrates with ears are land arthropods already had complex compound
ound d eyes 521
and they didnt emerge until about 480 e eyespots
million years ago, and simple eyyespots
million years ago. Older invertebrates had bac
without a lens probably date back ck to 570
antennae that would have been able to million years ago, when the first multicellular
sense vibrations in the water, but thats not animals appeared. LV

T O P 10

Top 10 largest birds

of prey (by weight)

PHOTOS: SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY, GETTY X5 ILLUSTRATION: DANIEL BRIGHT

6. Harpy eagle
Weight: 9kg
Distribution: Mexico, Central
6. Stellers sea eagle and South America
Weight: 9kg
Distribution: Russia and Japan

8. Lammergeier
Weight: 8kg
Distribution: Southern Europe,
Middle East,
China and Africa

8. Philippine eagle
Weight: 8kg
Distribution: Philippines
10. Golden eagle
Weight: 7kg
Distribution: North America,
Eurasia and North Africa

86 Vol. 8 Issue 7
 1. Andean condor
2. Eurasian black vulture Weight: 15kg
Distribution: South America
Weight: 14kg
Distribution: South Europe
and Central Asia

2. Lappet-faced vulture
Weight: 14kg
Distribution: Africa and
Middle East

4. Himalayan vulture
Weight: 12.5kg
Distribution: Central Asia and
Himalayas

5. California condor
Weight: 12kg
Distribution: North America

Is it possible to fool Which planet, if

ngerprint readers?
It depends
it disappeared,
on the
technology
used
would affect
within the
fingerprint Earth the most?
PHOTOS: ALAMY, GETTY X4, SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY

reader, but
it is quite possible to trick many of
them. Some will be fooled by a mould
of your finger made out of the same
gelatin as gummy bears the gelatin
has a similar electrical conductivity
as your finger. Some will be deceived
by a fingerprint on a simple piece of
sticky tape. Some are even outfoxed
by a simple photocopied image of a
fingerprint. Most are not aware if the
owner of the finger is alive or dead.
Like all security systems, fingerprint
readers are not perfect. PB
Jupiter, which has a mass three times the
combined mass of all the other planets, dominates
gravitational interactions within the Solar System.
But even if it suddenly disappeared there would be very
little impact on the movements of the other planets, which
are mostly determined by the Suns gravity. There would be
minor changes in the planets orbits about the Sun, but very
little else. However, Jupiter does a great job of shepherding and
absorbing small objects in the Solar System. With Jupiter gone, the
main effect on Earth would be an increase in the rate of impacts from
asteroids and other space flotsam. AG

Vol. 8 Issue 7 87
 &

Can gravitational waves teach

us about the inside of a black hole?
The recent detection of gravitational waves from the
merger of two black holes was a success for astrophysics.
But from the outside it is impossible to tell anything
about the inside of a black hole. The shape of the signal
detected by LIGO revealed the masses of the two merging
black holes, which led to an estimate of how powerful the
event was at its source. But no observations, including
those of gravitational waves, can probe beyond the event
horizon of a black hole. AG

W H AT S I N

TOOTHPASTE
Most of the ingredients in toothpaste are there to make it taste, smell and feel nice,
act as preservatives, or bind everything together. The rest of the ingredients that are
actually included for the good of your mouth include:

SODIUM FLUORIDE HYDRATED SILICA

This helps maintain the strength This mild abrasive used to
of tooth enamel and, despite rub away stains and debris.
controversies, is perfectly safe at the Alternatively, your toothpaste
amounts found in toothpaste. of choice might contain
calcium carbonate (chalk),
magnesium carbonate or
aluminium oxides, all of
which do the same job.

SODIUM LAURYL SULPHATE
This detergent crops up in all sorts of products
including shampoos, washing powder and
washing-up liquids. It helps remove fats, but
mostly its just included to make a nice foam
(which doesnt actually help with the cleaning
but we expect bubbles in cleaning products). Its
this stuff that makes orange juice taste vile after
youve cleaned your teeth.
TRICLOSAN
This antibacterial agent appears in many
toothpastes. It helps prevent gum disease, but
it is a cause for concern after you spit. Triclosan
is difcult to remove from sewage and when
it enters the water systems it is toxic to some
aquatic organisms.
How do tunneling
machines know
where they are?
To keep 1,000-tonne, 150m long Tunnel
Boring Machines (TBMs) like those used
for Londons Crossrail project on track,
engineers rely on a laser-based system.
Precise reference points are set up below
ground behind the TBM, and laser beams
are sent out from them into receivers
in the machine. This keeps the TBMs
heading in the right direction to within a
millimetre or so over distances of up to
100 metres. RM

88 Vol. 8 Issue 7
 Tunnel Boring Machines are
being used to excavate
beneath London for the citys
Crossrail project
Is there life in clouds?

Yes. Up to two million tons of bacteria are lofted by air currents

into the atmosphere each year, along with 55 million tons of fungal
spores and an unknown quantity of algae. These microscopic
life forms are thought to play an important part in the weather by
causing the water vapour in clouds to precipitate into rain more often
than it would in a lifeless atmosphere. LV

Why do we use a decimal

system?
PHOTOS: GETTY X2, SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY, ALAMY, PRESS ASSOCIATION

The most obvious answer

is as Aristotle pointed out
that we have 10 fingers,
which we can use for
counting and displaying
the results. This may be
why many cultures have
adopted the decimal system,
but its not a watertight argument:
some Native American tribes decided
single hands are enough, resulting in quinary counting systems
based on units of five. RM

Vol. 8 Issue 7 89
 &
W H AT C O N N E C T S
How much saliva
do we produce in Caviar and beer
a lifetime?
Your saliva is mostly recycled,
1.
Caviar is
rather than produced, because the eggs
you are constantly swallowing of a sh
and reabsorbing it. But the flow called a
rate is around 30ml of saliva an sturgeon. The best caviar comes from
hour a bit more when youre the beluga sturgeon, Huso huso. The sh
eating, a bit less when youre can live for over 100 years, but caviar
sleeping. Thats a wine bottle harvesting normally kills the female.
full every day, or 20,000 litres
in your lifetime. In other words,
53 bathtubs full to the brim with
saliva! LV

2.
Like most bony sh,
the beluga sturgeon has an
organ called the swim bladder.

Could our brains This is a gas-lled oat that can

be squeezed by the surrounding
muscles to adjust its total volume

be fooled by and control the shs buoyancy.

virtual reality?
3.
The lining of the

PHOTOS: GETTY X3, ALAMY, CONDITION ONE ILLUSTRATION: DANIEL BRIGHT

swim bladder is made
from almost pure collagen
protein. This is dried to make
isinglass. The name comes from
the Old Dutch word huizenblass

4.
Its actually very easy to fool the brain just sturgeon bladder.
browse some basic optical illusions online to
get an idea. So yes, VR can trick the brain in
all sorts of ways. In fact, one of the obstacles Isinglass is
to the next wave of gaming VR has been the traditionally
way the technology confuses the brain with added to cask-
a mismatch of sensory signals. The visuals conditioned beers to
say youre flying in plane, for instance, but remove the sediment.
your vestibular system (in your inner ear) The collagen causes
says youre stationary. The result for many suspended particles
players is motion sickness. Could we ever truly of the brewing yeast to
mistake the virtual world for the real world? clump together and settle
For that wed probably need whole-body at the bottom of the barrel,
immersion, not just a VR headset. CJ resulting in a clearer beer.

90 Vol. 8 Issue 7
W H AT I S T H I S ?

Osteosarcoma cells
This is the worlds biggest model of a
crystals structure and was created by
Dr Robert Krickl. It shows the pattern
of sodium and chloride atoms found in
a single crystal of table salt. The
model is over three metres tall and
contains almost 40,000 balls and
more than 10km of connecting rods.

Vol. 8 Issue 7 91
 &
W H O R E A L LY D I S C O V E R E D ?
CALCULUS
Isaac Newton Gottfried Leibniz
Calculus is a powerful mathematical
toolbox for dealing with phenomena in a
state of flux, from the flow of water to the
expansion of the cosmos. As such, a
better name for it would be fluxions a
term coined by Isaac Newton, one of the
two 17th Century mathematicians
regarded as its inventors, the other being
the German Gottfried Leibniz. Not that
Newton saw it that way. Having invented
it in secret in the 1660s, he was horrified
when Leibniz went public with similar
methods, having independently
discovered them about 10 years later.
Newton launched an unjustified
campaign of character assassination
against Leibniz, yet could not stop the
adoption of his rivals name for the
technique (from the Latin for counting
stone). Its now known that some basic
ideas in calculus had been explored
much earlier. For example, Archimedes
showed how to work out the area
enclosed by curves by dividing it up into
tiny strips. This is a trick exploited in
integral calculus to work out the total
effect of a series of tiny changes.
However, none of Leibniz and Newtons
predecessors realised the full power of
what they were working on.
92 Vol. 8 Issue 7
Will we discover any We most definitely will! New elements are
created by smashing known ones together
more elements? at super-fast speeds. Ununoctium (first
identified in 2002, but only recently
recognised and due to get a proper name
soon) is the heaviest known element and
was made by firing about 40 quintillion
calcium nuclei (travelling at almost the
speed of light) into californium (which is
itself man-made)! This made just three
ununoctium atoms that hung around for
about one millisecond before radioactively
decaying. The laboratories that found
ununoctium (and other elements) are
already busy smashing more atoms
together in the search for elements to start
a new row of the periodic table. ML
NO EASY ANSWER
Could
Neanderthals
speak?
Forty years ago, the consensus
was that they could not.
Neanderthals didnt make cave
paintings, or flint arrowheads, and
their larynx wasnt positioned low
enough to allow them to make
the full range of human vocal
sounds. But more recent
discoveries have shown that
Neanderthals had a hyoid
bone, tongue nerves and
hearing range that was very
similar to modern humans, and
quite different to other primates.
Neanderthals also shared the
FOXP2 gene with us, which is
thought to be involved in
speech and language. Prof
Steven Mithen of Reading
University has suggested
that Neanderthals may
have had a proto-
language that was
halfway between speech
and music. LV
 Do stars have a size limit?
Astronomers reckon that stars probably cant survive
above a mass of about 150 solar masses. This is
because the enormous radiation pressure and mass
loss from the star would disrupt its gravitational
stability. Although more massive stars have been
discovered, such as the 265-solar-mass star R136a1,
these are likely to form by the merger of two or more
stars. But mass and physical size are not simply
related, particularly for giant stars. The best candidate
for the largest known star is UY Scuti which, although
it is only about 30 solar masses, has a radius 1,700
times that of the Sun. Giant stars such as UY Scuti are
known to swell up due to changes in their internal
structure as they evolve. But there is no clear-cut
equation that determines how big a star can get since
it depends not only on mass, but composition,
evolutionary history and the strength of its stellar wind.
For giant stars, such as UY Scuti, the outer
atmosphere can continue to puff up and grow
essentially without limit. But at some point the diffuse
gas of its outer layers become merged with the
Our Sun (tiny yellow dot)
interstellar medium and cannot really be regarded as compared to largest
the stellar surface. AG known star UY Scuti

IN NUMBERS

What effect does

48
million
drinking too
much water have
on your body?
PHOTOS: ISTOCK, ALAMY, GETTY X3, SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY X2

people drink tea in the

UK every day If you drink more water than your
kidneys can remove
(approximately one litre an hour),
the concentration of sodium and

25
other electrolytes in your blood
begins to drop. Beyond a certain
point, your cells will uncontrollably
absorb water by osmosis and swell
up. In the brain this increases the
pressure against your skull, which
per cent leads to headache, confusion,
vomiting and (ironically) thirst. If it
of an apples volume is air, isnt treated promptly, this
which is why they float progresses to seizures, brain
damage and death. LV

Vol. 8 Issue 7 93
 Resource A feast for the mind

EXPLORE OUR
INNER ANIMAL
Comedian Sara Pascoe has been thinking about the
essence and origins of female sexuality. She talks to Helen
Pilcher about her new book, Animal
Why did you decide to write this book?
Ive been interested in the subject for a long time. Id noticed that
where feminist articles often blame magazines and popular culture
for the way women feel and are treated, the scientific literature
tends to focus more on biology and evolutionary theory. I wanted
to write a book that combines both these angles, alongside my
own personal experiences.

Theres a lot of great science in the book. Where does

your passion for science come from?
A big part is from my mum. Shes amazing. She did a PhD in the
genetics of autoimmune disorders while raising three children as
a single parent. She was so excited about how experiments could
be applied to help change peoples lives, and I think some of that
rubbed off on me.

How animal are we?

Were all part animal, part conscious. Writing
Animal has made me realise how much of our
behaviour is underpinned by millions of
years of evolution. It can explain everything
from mating preferences to jealousy and
infidelity. But were more than that. We
have these big, crinkly, clever brains that
enable us to consider whether or not we
should act on these animal impulses.
When a dog humps someones leg,
its not worrying about whether or
not the leg fancies it back, or if the
leg is married or underage. The
dog is just acting on impulse.
We, on the other hand, have
the capacity to understand

Sara Pascoes new

book looks at how
different factors
from biology to
the mass media
have influenced
our perception of
female sexuality

94
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 that actions and desires are different things.
That makes us unique.
In your book, you say that our ideas
of sexuality are often male-biased.
Why do you think this is?
The scientists who discovered evolution
were Victorian men. At the time, women
were oppressed and dismissed as coy,
chattering nurturers. The view was that
women got their pleasure not from having
sex, but from having babies. Its led to
a model of human sexual behaviour
that completely ignores female lust and
pleasure as forces. So for example, if a
woman sleeps with a co-worker, often its
interpreted as an act of manipulation her
wanting to sleep her way to the top rather
than that she just plain fancied the guy.
Theres this whole agenda going on.
What was the most surprising thing
you learned?
How much falling in love is influenced by
brain chemistry. MRI scans show how love
causes the brain to flood with dopamine.
The release men get from orgasm is the
same as a heroin user gets from a hit. Its
addictive.
We have all of these songs and poems
and conversations about love, but to see it
happening in the brain in black and white is
just huge. It doesnt undermine love or take
away any of the feelings or the magic. It just
makes it even more incredible.
While exploring the neurochemistry
of love, you underwent an MRI scan.
How was that?
Exciting! You lie there and youre told to stay
completely still and theres all this clanging. I
was like a child who wanted to impress their
teacher its the stillest Ive ever been.
MRI scans show how love causes the
PHOTOS: DAVE BROWN
brain to flood with dopamine. The release
men get from orgasm is the same as a
heroin user gets from a hit. Its addictive
This is a very personal, emotive book.
It made me laugh but it also made
me cry. What do you hope to achieve
from it?
I want people to accept themselves and be
forgiving of what they find. I want them to be
interested and curious.
A third of the book is about consent. There
was a case in the US where a football player
was found guilty of raping an unconscious
woman, yet to this day he claims he did
nothing wrong. I want to promote discussion.
If we can educate people to better understand
the issues surrounding consent, then this
becomes a solvable crime. Our legal system
is not set up to trial rape and sexual assault
effectively. That needs to change.
Has writing your book been cathartic?
Yes, it really has. Sometimes, writing things
down really helps you to work out what you
think. I was able to look back at some of
the more difficult parts of my life and put
a full stop after them. Its also made me
realise how well my Mum has shaped me as
a person. Its almost like Ive been able to
write her a love letter in a book.
Animal: The Autobiography Of A Female
Body by Sara Pascoe is out now.
Vol. 8 Issue 7 95
Witty Viewpoint

CANNIBALISM
Cannibalism has all but died
out. There is scant mention of
it on TV cookery shows
here is a lot of negativity towards advantage. As the bones
T cannibalism. In the 21st Century, it seems
to have all but died out. There is scant
were lacking in tasty
sinews, they were far less
mention of it on TV cookery programmes, either appealing to bacteria, wild
as a totemistic or nutritional diet choice. By clumsy dogs or anything else that might
chance, as I write this, I am sucking blood my own have scavenged, trampled or
having gashed open my finger while rummaging for eroded them. All these things
my laptop in my rucksack. would have further damaged the
Several years back, there was the gory news story integrity of the Neanderthal DNA.
of a German man who advertised for someone who would So the bone samples found
volunteer to be eaten. Im not sure which magazines accept themselves taken from a cave
classifieds from hungry human flesh-eaters these are the of death and destruction to the
loneliest hearts columns. Apparently, the volunteer began to remarkably clean basement of the
experience regret when he and the chef partook of his flesh Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary
together. I dont know if this was an issue over seasoning, or Anthropology, where among
the realisation that this was a less glamorous way to die than hed Tupperware and UV light, Pbo and
imagined. his team now search for the holy grail of
It was while I was in Germany last month that my thoughts DNA. Within some of these pecked and
turned to the more positive sides of cannibalism. In Leipzig, I sucked at bones will be gene sequences that
learnt that cannibalism can be a boon for the curious evolutionary reveal more about the effects of the coupling
geneticist. Swedish scientist Svante Pbo is one of the founders of between Neanderthals and our Homo
palaeogenetics. He led the team that sequenced the Neanderthal sapiens ancestors.
genome in 2010, which provided new evidence for interbreeding In 17th-Century Europe, human
between Neanderthals and modern humans. Headlines appeared remains were often used as ingredients
when suppositions were made that our genetic inheritance from in medicine. Charles IIs tincture, the
the Neanderthals included allergies, incontinence and depression, Kings Drops, for instance, contained
but also our ability to fight disease. distilled human skull and was used to
But what has all this got to do with cannibalism? One of the treat a variety of ailments.
major problems of sequencing the DNA of extinct creatures, Unfortunately, snacking on
or any elderly relic, is the degradation that occurs over time. human remains didnt do much
It is hard to find specimens untainted by bacteria, human for Charles and co. But the sad
touch or the multitude of other ways in which nature can necessity of cannibalism 40,000
maul a bone. years ago is helping us to
In 1994, however, a large cache of Neanderthal bones discover why we are who
was discovered in the El Sidrn cave in northern we are. With new genetic
Spain. The bones had scars and cut marks across them, sequences, we may make new
ILLUSTRATION: JAMIE COE

suggesting that theyd been sliced to remove flesh and medical breakthroughs without
muscle for the purposes of a meal. The archaeologists the need to munch on a still-
think that this particular family were victims of survival beating heart
cannibalism, which means they were eaten out of necessity
rather than desire (dietary cannibalism) or for mystical reasons
(symbolic cannibalism). Robin Ince is a comedian and writer who presents, with Prof Brian Cox, the BBC Radio 4 series
This terrible act of survival has given modern geneticists a great The Innite Monkey Cage.

96 Vol. 8 Issue 7
 SCIENCE

MY LIFE SCIENTIFIC
DAME JOCELYN BELL BURNELL
In the 1950s, the assumption was that girls would get married
and not have jobs
I grew up in Co Armagh, N Ireland. My father was an
architect who did his own surveying. Sometimes, hed let me
come along while he took measurements. Then in the car on the
way home, hed let me reduce the observations. It introduced
me to science and taught me how to design a good experiment.

In the 1950s, the assumption was that girls would get

married and not have jobs. So at secondary school, girls
did domestic science and boys did science. My parents had
to fight to get me into science class. That first term we did
physics and astronomy, and I discovered I was good at
physics.

I did a physics degree at Glasgow University,

where I was the only woman in my honours class.
When I walked into the lecture theatre, everybody would
wolf whistle at me. When I told my female housemates I
was the only girl, they presumed I would change subject,
but it never occurred to me.

To become an optical astronomer I would have to

stay up at night, which Im not good at. So I took
an interest in radio astronomy, which you can do during
the day.

I didnt think I was bright enough to go to

Cambridge. When I was accepted to do a PhD there
I was delighted. I spent the first two years armed
with screwdriver, wire cutters and pliers helping to
physically build the radio telescope.

When it was up and running; the telescope

generated miles of data. It was my job to analyse it
all. A small, quarter-inch smudge caught my eye. After
many careful checks, I realised it was a signal from an
entirely new type of stellar object.

When we described this pulsar to the media,

journalists would ask my supervisor about the
science, but ask me about my vital statistics.
It made me feel objectified and a lot less appreciated.
ILLUSTRATION: ORLAGH MURPHY
enough to receive. I think things are definitely improving for
women in science, but theres still a lot more work that needs to
be done.

I was enormously pleased when, in 1974, the Nobel

Prize for Physics was awarded for the discovery of
pulsars. It was the first time ever the prize had been awarded
to astronomers, but my exclusion from it led some people to call
it the No-Bell Prize.
Since then, I have had a rich and varied astronomical
career. The lack of a Nobel Prize has been more than
compensated for by the many other rewards Ive been lucky
Im no longer an active researcher, but I do keep busy.
Im visiting professor at Oxford University and president of
the Royal Society of Edinburgh. I like classical music and Im
incredibly fond of my garden. Im also very active in the Quakers.
Its an essential part of me.
DAME JOCELYN BELL BURNELL is president of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and the
discoverer of pulsars.

Vol. 8 Issue 7 97
The Last Word
THE TROUBLE WITH GENIUSES

veryone has childhood heroes

E a brilliant sports star, say, or an
adventurer. Its all part of growing
up as is discovering they werent quite
as heroic as you thought. My first hero
was Captain Scott, whose story of steely
determination to reach the South Pole
moved me to tears when I read it as a kid.
Only years later did I find out that he was
an amateurish bungler.
My scientific heroes have fared better.
Sure, Louis Pasteur sometimes cut corners
in his scientific studies of disease, but the
outcome saved countless lives. Physicist
Richard Feynman was a bit of a show-off,
but theres no doubting his genius.
And then theres Albert Einstein, who
just gets more impressive by the day. His
theories are still producing the goods a
century on witness the recent detection
of gravitational waves. Yet even he made
mistakes. He never accepted quantum
theory, and wasted years searching for a
theory that unified the fundamental forces
of nature.
The tragedy of Einsteins lost years is
that it was clear his quest was doomed
even as he worked on it. His rejection
of quantum theory ruled out any hope
of understanding the subatomic world.
Then theres the awkward fact that when Einstein started work, renamed The Science of Consciousness.
everything involved just two forces of nature gravity and So after centuries of conjecture, beard-stroking and thought, have
electromagnetism. As the years went by, other fundamental forces the great minds nailed down the problem to the point they can
were identified, but they didnt stop Einstein. He was still working put rival theories to the test? Er, no, not exactly. The conference
on his Theory of Some Bits of Everything on the day he died. features the usual grab-bag of imponderables being kicked around
Still, its the prerogative of all geniuses to pursue their own by the usual mix of cerebral celebs. In short, the name change is just
hobbyhorses, isnt it? Maybe, but I cant help being saddened an exercise in rebranding the scientific equivalent of steaming the
when I learn that yet another brilliant scientist has been seduced label off a bottle of plonk and renaming it Chteau Lafite.
into spending time on one particular Big Question: the nature of Part of the conference has been designated the Pribram Session,
consciousness. named after Karl Pribram, one of the pioneers of brain research
Pondering how our brains create the sense of being conscious who died last year at the age of 95. He was yet another brilliant
has entranced countless thinkers, from Ren Descartes to Nobel scientist who spent his latter years wrestling with the mystery of
laureates like Francis Crick of DNA fame. None of them made consciousness. The outcome was an enormous book whose thesis is
ILLUSTRATION: ADAM GALE

any real progress, in the sense of developing theories that could be
tested scientifically.
And yet still they come. As you read this, some very clever
people are in Arizona for the most prestigious conference devoted
to the problem of consciousness.
Held every other year since 1994, the week-long gathering used
to be called Towards a Science of Consciousness. But its been
flaky at best.
Im sure that Pribrams peers will have a grand time in Arizona.
But part of me wishes they would bend their intellects towards
problems they can at least agree on.
ROBERT MATTHEWS is Visiting Professor in Science at Aston University, Birmingham

98 Vol. 8 Issue 7
PREDICT MY FUTURE: THE SCIENCE OF US
Premieres 15 July. Fridays at 9.40pm (JKT/BKK), 10.40pm (SIN/HK/MAL/TW)
The Dunedin Longitudinal Study, begun in 1972 and continuing today, follows a group of 1,037 New Zealanders since
their births, examining early childhood behaviour to predict whether a person will have a more or a less stable and
successful life as an adult.

TRIBES, ANIMALS & ME SEASONAL WONDERLANDS JOANNA LUMLEYS TRANS-

Premieres 4 July.
Mondays at 8.45pm (JKT/BKK),
9.45pm (SIN/HK/MAL/TW)
Wildlife cameraman Gordon Buchanan
joins three of the worlds wildest
indigenous peoples, each with a
unique understanding of an iconic
animal. In order to get closer to the
animals, Gordon must earn the trust
and respect of the tribe.
Premieres 20 July. SIBERIAN ADVENTURE
Wednesdays at 7.00pm (JKT/BKK), Premieres 28 July.
8.00pm (SIN/HK/MAL/TW) Thursdays at 8.50pm (JKT/BKK),
Set in three of the most seasonally 9.50pm (SIN/HK/MAL/TW)
changeable landscapes on Earth this A fascinating three-part series in
beautiful series reveals the stunning which we accompany Joanna
transformations that occur each Lumley on this most romantic, epic rail
year and how wildlife copes with journey, from Hong Kong to Moscow,
them. (Svalbard / Okavango Delta / via China and Mongolia.
New England)

www.bbcasia.com
BBC Earth is available in Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore,
/BBCEarth
South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam and Mongolia.
Please call your cable operator for more details or check out our website. @BBCEarthAsia
Brand New Series 4
Premieres 26 July
www.bbcasia.com
TUESDAYS AT 9.45PM (SIN/HK)
BBC Earth is available in Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore,
/BBCEarth
South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam and Mongolia.
Please call your cable operator for more details or check out our website. @BBCEarthAsia