Professional Documents
Culture Documents
John Gribbin explores the epic discovery of how our Universe began p56
ASIA
A EDITION Vol. 6 Issue 7
4 Vol. 6 Issue 7
Contents Vol. 6 Issue 7
FEATURES
ON THE COVER
SCIENCE
ON THE COVER
HISTORY
ON THE COVER
NATURE
40 Brazilian Blues
On the brink of extinction, the recovery of Lears
Macaw is a ne example of how determined
eldwork and conservation can rescue even the
most endangered species
ON THE COVER
SCIENCE
ON THE COVER
HISTORY
67 Under Pressure
SCIENCE
72 Ghost Riders
NATURE
6 Vol. 6 Issue 7
79 Driving Into The Future
SCIENCE
40 Brazilian Blues Modern cars are much easier and safer to drive than their
early counterparts, nd out the plethora of features that
are packed into some of these automobiles
REGULARS
8 Welcome
A note from the editor sharing his thoughts on this issue and
other ramblings
10 Snapshot
Images of science, nature and history that will set you thinking
UPDATE
16 News and Views
79 Driving Into The Future The latest discoveries, research and inventions from the World
around us and beyond
85 Q&A
What percentage of the Universe is visible? How do polar
bears keep warm? Our experts answer these questions and
many more!
RESOURCE
94 Reviews
The months books, featuring Do No Harm and more
96 Time Out
Puzzles that will give your grey matter a healthy workout
Vol. 6 Issue 7 7
Welc me Send us your letters
editorial-bbcknowledge@regentmedia.sg
But with an ever-growing population, will we be able to sustain ourselves on the The BBC Knowledge television channel is available in the following regions:
limited resources we have on Earth if we as a species are able to live longer? Is Asia (Cambodia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea,
there a sweet spot for an optimum lifespan where one can enjoy longevity and yet Thailand, Taiwan)
not cause problems due to a lack of nancial resources or space to live? I guess it is
a conundrum that needs a solution only when we get there. SCIENCE t HISTORY t NATURE t FOR THE CURIOUS MIND
Know more. Anywhere.
Ben Poon
ben@regentmedia.sg
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8 Vol. 6 Issue 7
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The BBC logo is a trade mark of the British Broadcasting Corporation and is used under licence. British Broadcasting Corporation 1996
A publication of
A throw of
the dice
More than 320km (200 miles) above the
Earth, three tiny satellites are hurled
into space. Known as CubeSats, these
miniature machines measure just 10x10x10
centimetres. They were launched from the
International Space Station in October
2012, released by a deployer attached to
one of the stations robotic arms.
Well over 100 CubeSats have been
launched into space since 2003, says
Prof Jordi Puig-Suari, co-inventor of
the CubeSat design. Initially they were
primarily teaching tools, but theyve also
moved on to perform real missions.
The CubeSat furthest to the right in
this photo, FITSAT-1, was built by Japans
Fukuoka Institute of Technology. In orbit
until July 2013, it sported a high-speed
transmitter that could beam back images
within six seconds. More recently, 28
CubeSats were launched by US company
Planet Labs, with the aim of creating the
worlds largest ock of Earth-imaging
satellites.
But it looks like this is just the beginning.
In the very near future we expect NASA to
start launching interplanetary CubeSats,
says Puig-Suari.
PHOTO: NASA
10 Vol. 6 Issue 7
Vol. 6 Issue 7 11
NATURE
12 Vol. 6 Issue 7
Explosive
altruism
As far as taking one for the team
goes, Borneos carpenter ants are
up there with the best of them.
When attacked by predators,
such as the larger worker ant
pictured here, the bomb-like bugs
grab onto their assailants and hit
the self-destruct button, spraying
toxic yellow glue into the air.
Ants have a mandibular gland
that is normally conned to the
head, explains entomologist
and BBC presenter Adam Hart.
However, in some species
of carpenter ants the gland is
enormous and runs down the
length of the body. As a last-
ditch defence mechanism, the ant
can violently contract muscles
that cause its abdomen and the
mandibular glands to rupture.
This sprays the sticky, corrosive
contents all over its attacker.
This defence mechanism is
known as autothysis and is also
seen in some species of termite.
Vol. 6 Issue 7 13
HISTORY
14 Vol. 6 Issue 7
Goddard Space Flight
Centre in the 1960s
Named for American rocketry pioneer Dr. Robert H.
Goddard, NASAs Goddard Space Flight Centre was
established on the 1st of May 1959, as NASAs rst space
ight complex. When this image was taken, Goddard
focused on the development of tracking and communication
facilities and capabilities for both the scientic satellites and
the manned space ight program. Goddard became the hub
of the massive, international tracking and communications
network that involved aircraft, super tankers converted into
mobile communications units, and a wide diversity of
ground stations. A duplicate mission control centre was also
built at Goddard in case the computers at the main control
room at the Johnson Space Centre in Houston, Texas failed
for any reason.
PHOTO: NASA
Vol. 6 Issue 7 15
Update THE LATEST INTELLIGENCE
ICY MOON OF
SATURN COULD
HARBOUR
LIFE
Discovery of subterranean
ocean on Enceladus
shortens the odds on
microbial life existing there
16 Vol. 6 Issue 7
ANALYSIS
Dr Lewis
Dartnell
Astrobiologist at the University of
Leicester and author of Life In The
Universe: A Beginners Guide
and ice spewing from vents located close to received at our ground stations here, all the way organic molecules to build cells out of,
the moons south pole. Though Cassini is not across the Solar System. and some kind of energy source, which
able to land on the surface of Enceladus and The measurements made by Cassini during Enceladus could have as well. So it
though there are no plans to send a spacecraft three y-bys made between April 2010 and May ticks all the boxes.
there in the immediate future scientists can 2012 suggest there is a large body of water about We still have Cassini, which is
use measurements of the gravity experienced by 10km (6 miles) deep, beneath an ice shell about exploring Saturn and Enceladus, and
we might discover further things with
Cassini as it ies past the moon to obtain reliable 30 to 40km (19 to 25 miles) thick. Along with
our measurements from that. But what
estimates of its internal structure. the discovery of salt and organic molecules in people are likely to start talking about
The way we deduce gravity variations is a the vapour plumes emitted from the moon, the more and more now is a dedicated
concept in physics called the Doppler Effect, ndings point towards Enceladus being among Enceladus mission.
the same principle used with a speed-measuring the most likely places in our Solar System to host We might want to go back in a
radar gun, explains Sami Asmar of NASAs Jet microbial life. couple of years time, perhaps to fly
through the fountains of water, collect
some of it and then loop back to Earth
for scientists to study it.
TIMELINE
How our knowledge of Enceladus has evolved over time
1789 1847 1980 2005
Hanoverian-born British Herschels son John Voyager 1 finds Enceladus NASAs Cassini
astronomer William names the moon has a diameter of just spacecraft flies within
Herschel discovers a Enceladus, a character 500km and orbits around 175km of Enceladus
moon orbiting Saturn. from Greek mythology. Saturns diffuse E Ring, and discovers plumes
Three days later he which unlike the other of water vapour issuing
discovers another rings is made up of from cracks in the
moon, Mimas. microscopic particles. moons frozen surface.
Vol. 6 Issue 7 17
Update THE LATEST INTELLIGENCE
Neuroscience
1 MINUTE EXPERT
Nanodot
Mouse brain wiring
mapped
Whats that? Making the London A to Z seem like a simple and the major cities that they link, explains
This seasons picture book, researchers at the Allen Institute Caltechs David Anderson. Smaller road
new must-have for Brain Science have pieced together the networks and their intersections with the
fabric pattern? rst ever map of a mammals neural network. interstates will be the next step, followed
Way off the mark. Nanodots are The Allen Mouse Brain Connectivity by maps of local streets in different
tiny nanometre-scale structures Atlas shows the connectome, a kind of municipalities. This information will
that utilise the properties of
neural wiring diagram, of the rodents brain. provide a framework for what we ultimately
quantum dots to confine magnetic
To achieve this, researchers injected more want to understand: trafc patterns of
or electrical fields to incredibly
than 1,700 mice with genetically engineered information ow in the brain during various
small areas.
viruses that could trace and illuminate activities such as decision-making, mapping
individual neurones. They then produced a of the physical environment, learning
series of images of the organs at resolutions 50 and remembering, and other cognitive or
Right. So what are times smaller than the diameter of a human emotional processes.
quantum dots? hair and assembled the data. The resulting 3D The mouse brain atlas brings us a step
They are essentially map contains more than 1.8 petabytes of data, closer to fully understanding the complexities
semiconductor crystals with a equivalent to 24 years worth of HD video. of the mammalian brain. Researchers say
size of around 2 to 10 nanometres The atlas provides an initial road-map that the next step will be to gure out more
across; roughly equivalent to of the brain, at the level of interstate highways accurately how the brains circuitry functions.
around 50 atoms. Due to their
small size, quantum dots have
properties that lie somewhere
between larger semiconductors
and individual molecules.
18 Vol. 6 Issue 7
DAVID SHUKMAN
The science that matters
How global warming will affect
our food supply
Most of us never even think to collect cargoes of soya. Grown to carry full loads. When they run too low. According to the
about the vulnerability of the on land where rainforest used have to sail half-full, the transport UNs Intergovernmental Panel
food industry until something to stand, the soya is shipped costs rise, adding yet more to the on Climate Change, further
goes wrong. Extreme weather across the Atlantic to become price of the soya and everything warming is likely to reduce yields
conditions in distant lands, such an ingredient in chicken feed. that relies on it. overall, with the greatest risks in
as a heatwave in Texas, can The year before, a drought had Looking ahead, basic biology the second half of the century.
hike prices for a staple crop like damaged the crop so prices for might suggest a rising level of International trade has made
maize dramatically. Its why soya had shot up, and that made atmospheric CO2 would be food cheaper but also made
research into how climate change British-reared chicken more good for plants growers pump supplies more volatile which
could affect future harvests is expensive too. Later, in Belfast the stuff into their greenhouses means that climate change is
increasingly relevant. docks one of the receiving ends after all. And indeed, a few crops about much more than warming.
Some years ago, in the of the trade I watched a dusty in some regions may do better Just a thought for the next time
sweltering heat of the Amazon cargo of Brazilian soya coming in coming years and the most you look down at a plate of
rainforest, I saw one of the ashore and learned how droughts adaptable farmers will quickly chicken.
most controversial elements of in the Amazon could do more spot new opportunities. But
the international food network than cripple the harvest. A lack most plants will fail to thrive
rst-hand. Giant ocean-going of rainfall can also mean the river when temperatures become DAVID SHUKMAN is the BBCs Science
freighters were steaming upriver becomes too shallow for the ships too erce and water supplies Editor. @davidshukmanbbc
PHOTO: GETTY ILLUSTRATOR: ADAM HOWLING
Vol. 6 Issue 7 19
Update THE LATEST INTELLIGENCE
PATENTLY OBVIOUS
Inventions and discoveries that will change the world with James Lloyd
W
WHOS Michael Smith
A postgraduate student
Why did he do that?
As a researcher of bee behaviour,
What did he nd?
Surprisingly, the most painful area to
IN THE at New Yorks Cornell stings are presumably an everyday be hit with the excruciating venom
occurrence for Smith. However, was the nostril, receiving an eye-
N
NEWS? University
when a particularly intrepid bee watering 9 out of 10 on the pain scale.
What did he do? found its way into his shorts and The scrotum and the penis came in
Had bees sting his penis stung him on the scrotum, he was at 7.3 and 7 respectively, which is still
and scrotum along with 23 other surprised that it wasnt as painful as very painful. The least painful regions
areas of his body. Deliberately. He he expected. This made him wonder were the skull, toe and upper arm,
then rated the resulting pain on a how the pain of stings varies across each scoring just 2.3. Still, we advise
scale of 0 to 10. the body. that you dont try this at home.
Medicine
CLICK HERE
Dutch woman gets New websites, blogs and podcasts
World Science U
a 3D-printed skull www.worldscienceu.com
This new physics and cosmology
site from Brian Greene has
Dutch surgeons have replaced a Center Utrecht, the top of the something for everyone. Dip into
short answers to specific questions
large section of a womans skull patients skull was removed and
like Is anti-gravity possible?,
with a 3D-printed replacement, replaced with a custom-made
take two to three work courses
saving her life in what is being plastic copy that tted neatly
that come with no homework, or,
hailed as the rst successful with the rest of her skull. if you really want to dive deep into
operation of its kind. The operation was a a subject, take a longer university
The 22-year-old patient resounding success. The course on relativity or quantum
suffered from a rare disorder patient has fully regained her mechanics (or both).
that caused her skull to grow vision, said Verweij. She has
extra bone. This applied extra no more complaints, she has
pressure to her brain, giving the gone back to work and there are EPI
woman severe headaches and a almost no traces that she had http://tinyurl.com/mx2l3ok
gradual loss in vision. any surgery at all. By typing key words from the 2014
If left untreated, the The team now hopes that Environmental Performance Index
condition would eventually the technique will help to survey into Google, researchers
have killed her. But in a reconstruct skulls that have have been able to make this map
23-hour operation led by been severely damaged in of how our perception of the
neurosurgeon Dr Bon Verweij accidents or by brain tumours. global environment differs from
what it actually is. For instance,
at the University Medical
people searched for why Canada
is one of the worst abusers of the
environment, when in fact it came
The 3D-printed 24th out of 176 countries.
prosthetic skull
that saved a Dutch
womans life
LROC
http://lroc.sese.asu.edu/gigapan
The Moon is our closest
astronomical neighbour, yet most
people will never get to see it up
close. A new online tool from the
Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter
fixes this by letting you pan around
the Moon to your hearts content,
looking at detailed images the
orbiters camera took over four
years in orbit around the satellite.
TALK NERDY TO ME
carasantamaria.com/podcast/
Cara Santa Maria talks nerdy to a
variety of scientists and science
writers. Covering subjects as
diverse as the Universe and the
science of self, these hour-long
podcasts feature one guest each
and really go in depth on the topics
they cover, allowing plenty of room
for the nuance that is missing in
a lot of science coverage. One to
save for a long car journey.
Vol. 6 Issue 7 21
Update THE LATEST INTELLIGENCE
How are you feeling right now? Happily distinct human facial expressions, including to map emotional responses in the brain and
disgusted, perhaps? How about sadly angry? those corresponding to the seemingly potentially aid the diagnosis and treatment
Researchers at Ohio State University have contradictory feelings mentioned above. of conditions such as post-traumatic stress
used computer modelling to identify 21 They hope the work will be useful in helping disorder (PTSD) and autism.
PHOTO: OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY, FLORIAN MUIJRES
22 Vol. 6 Issue 7
Scientists at Duke
University have
invented a practical
sonar cloaking device
Engineering
Hear no evil
PHOTO: DUKE UNIVERSITY, ZACK VEILLEUX/THE ROCKERFELLER UNIVERSITY, PRESS ASSOCIATION
Its every supervillains dream: sound waves around any object to you its a lot more difcult than there, the cloak alters the sound
a device for hiding a secret create the sonic impression that it looks, says Steven Cummer, waves trajectories to match what
underwater lair from the prying there is nothing there. The resulting professor of electrical and com- they would look like had they
ears of military sonar. Well, that device is a complex pyramid-like puter engineering at Duke. We put reected off a at surface.
dubious wish may soon become structure constructed of perforated a lot of energy into calculating The technology could be used
a reality. Engineers at Duke plastic plates. how sound waves would interact in sonar avoidance or in controlling
University have created an acoustic The structure that we built with it. the acoustics in concert halls,
cloak that can effectively reroute might look really simple. I promise To give the illusion that it isnt Cummer says.
Vol. 6 Issue 7 23
Comment & Analysis
The curious tale of the cyclist, the scorpion and a beam of ultraviolet light
looks like its glowing on a dull day is them in a dark room, youll see the glow. shine out of a dull scene, Ill remember
that it really is it has an extra source of This is uorescence. its a sneak peek into the world of invisible
energy. There is still no such thing as a free I love this idea because it means that the colours.
lunch, but the cost comes in a region of the cyclists are letting me detect UV light. If
spectrum that we dont care about. This is their jackets are glowing, UV must be there,
why high-visibility jackets are no good in the even though I cant see it. A bit further DR HELEN CZERSKI is a physicist, oceanographer and
dark theres no natural UV light around to down the road, I remembered that this BBC science presenter who appears regularly on Dara
give them that extra glow. Its not just jackets happens in the natural world too. Ask the O Briains Science Club
Vol. 6 Issue 7 25
HEALTH
HOW
SCIENCE
WILL HELP
YOU LIVE TO
AND BEYOND...
Were on the cusp of a medical
revolution. Lilian Anekwe reveals
how studying the human genome
will radically extend
your lifespan
ILLUSTRATOR: JUSTIN METZ
26 Vol. 6 Issue 7
hat if you could live past 100 years Illumina with its investment money, and
W of age? Would you want to? Its a
question we might all need to start
sequence the genomes of 40,000 people,
eventually ramping up to 100,000 people
thinking about. In recent months some of a year. At the same time HLI hopes to
the worlds highest-prole pioneers have catalogue the bacteria that live in and on the
announced they are turning their attention human body in an ecosystem known as the
to nding the genes that could make us live microbiome, and sequence the metabolome
forever. Their ambition: to hunt down the the genetic information about the
illnesses that affect us in old age. biochemicals in the body.
The forerunner in this race to help us live Its an enormous undertaking but Craig
longer has to be Craig Venter: the geneticist, Venter is condent this big genetic data
entrepreneur and philanthropist behind approach will answer the biggest questions
the Human Genome Project, whose own about human life, and death, ushering in a
genetic information was among the rst ever new age of medicine. Were likely to gain
published in 2011. In March this year, he a better understanding of human lifespan
announced his latest project would use with this approach, he says. But if all we
PHOTO: SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY X2, GETTY, GOOGLE, CORBIS X2, ALAMY, THINKSTOCK, NEW YORK GENOME CENTER
$70 million of venture capital to set up a could learn about was the sequence of the
new company called Human Longevity genome I would not waste my time or the
Inc (HLI). money. The potential is to truly understand
But Venter isnt alone in his ambitions. In our genetic propensity for health and disease.
September 2013, Google CEO Larry Page We think we can answer for the rst time in
announced he had appointed Art Levinson, history the question everybody asks: whats
chairman of Apple and biotechnology nature and whats nurture?
company Genentech, as CEO of Google It isnt a coincidence that these ventures
Calico (California Life Company). Calico have launched within months of each
has the straightforwardly ambitious remit of other, says Dr Scott Lippman, director of
improving human health and well-being, the Moores Cancer Center at the University
and solving the challenge of ageing and of California, San Diego where every Science could help you celebrate such a landmark
associated diseases.
A giant undertaking
Calico and HLI are edgling companies
with bold promises, especially when you
consider that only a handful of trial patients
have received treatment based on genomic
research. So it begs the question: how will
they stop ageing? And what will treatment
look like?
Venters company, HLI, will start by
buying two cutting-edge gene sequencing
machines from UK company
The genomic
pioneers, from left to
right: Art Levinson,
Larry Page and Craig
Venter
HEALTH
5THINGS
YOU
CAN
DO TO
START Masa Narita of Osaka, Japan turned 100 in
February; keeping her social life going has
helped make her a centenarian
The family of 101-year-old Tomiko Kadonaga,
a Canadian, say that the secret to her long life
has been her sense of positivity
NOW
the Longevity Project at Stanford University.
28 Vol. 6 Issue 7
Now 103, Fauja Singh became the rst ever Dorothy Newell celebrates her 100th birthday Seven hours kip a night is the optimum
100-year-old to nish a marathon. The event last February in Detroit; eat a balanced diet amount to live longer - maybe think about
was the Toronto Waterfront Marathon in 2011 and you could make it to this ripe old age resetting that alarm clock
Vol. 6 Issue 7 29
HEALTH
30 Vol. 6 Issue 7
WHAT WILL THE NEW AGE OF MEDICINE LOOK LIKE?
The amazing therapies on the horizon
that will help you live longer
Faulty genes
The fundamental mechanisms controlling
human ageing are complex. What we know
about the genetics of ageing comes from
studies of families, twins and centenarians
people who live beyond 100 years. Longevity
tends to cluster within families, and parents
and siblings of centenarians have a greater
likelihood of living to an advanced age than
other people.
From studying these families and searching
A sequence of genes is marked as part of research into cancer at the Imperial Cancer Research Fund,
the genome for small genetic variations that London. The aim is to be able to switch on genes that will help the body destroy cancer cells, a goal that
occur more frequently in people with a could be helped by the likes of Human Longevity Inc
32 Vol. 6 Issue 7
Craig Venter is a rm believer that gathering as much data as possible is the key to teasing out the secrets of ageing from the human genome
table is the technology to be able to analyse Its too early to know what secrets HLI has I believe we can make giant leaps. If we
big data. tapped into by hacking human genomes for dont have very substantial breakthroughs
Others are not so sure. Professor Paul the last several months. But Dr Kurzrock is in preventative medicines I will be very
Pharoah, director of Cancer Research UKs convinced that the most revealing insights disappointed. But the odds of that happening
genetic and molecular epidemiology unit will come from comparing the genome are low.
at the University of Cambridge, questions sequences of her patients at the Moores And Venter says success or failure of HLI
HLIs macro approach. Im not sure doing Cancer Centre with healthy people. In my wont change his approach to life however
things on such a grand scale is the best way. work Ive seen people in their 30s and 40s long he lives for. Despite what people think
Theres an awful lot of people doing tumour who smoke and who already have advanced about this whole enterprise I am not in this
sequencing studies and looking at the lung cancer, while other people smoke to live longer or forever. I treat every day as
associations between cancer and ageing, he heavily and still make it to 100 in robust a gift and a challenge. I like to act as if Im
says. What are they [HLI] doing, and what health. Is this luck? I very much doubt it. going to live forever, but I treat each day as if
do they know that no one else knows? Craig Venter rmly believes his approach I may not and try to live it to the fullest. But
There is a limit to how much our genes will drive this area of research further than thats more of a hope than a prediction.
can tell us about ageing because whether ever before and is prepared to take a huge,
we get illnesses and how long we live calculated gamble on the success of his
isnt purely controlled by our genes our venture. In the last 15 years there have
environment plays a big part, as do our not been that many breakthroughs that LILIAN ANEKWE is consumer health editor for the weekly
lifestyles and good old luck. medical journal the BMJ
have changed medicine. [But with this]
Vol. 6 Issue 7 33
CRYPTOGRAPHY
THE MYSTERY
OF THE VOYNICH
MANUSCRIPT
The strange book has bafed experts
for a hundred years; no one has been
able to decipher its text until now.
Brian Clegg investigates the riddle
Vol. 6 Issue 7 35
CRYPTOGRAPHY
Emperor, Rudolf II for Since Newbold there have to a medieval version of the mythology, there are nine major
600 ducats (200,000 been many attempts to break plants name, encouraged by stars in the cluster, including
in relative earnings.) The through the text. For a while, the appearance of an almost two named after the sisters
claim was based on a letter the favoured hypothesis was identical word, differing only in parents. The Pleiades cluster is
dated 1665, found with the that the manuscript was the nal letter, on the page. in the constellation of Taurus,
manuscript. a transliteration of a real Another clue came from but it is quite a stretch to assume
Bax was joining a long line language, which merely a kind of zodiac, showing this link.
of professionals and amateurs needed a few keywords to a wheel with collections of From his word matching,
who had come up against this crack it. Then there was the stars between its spokes. Bax Bax produced transliterations
PHOTO: SCIENCE & SOCIETY, ALAMY X2, SUPERSTOCK, BEINECKE RARE BOOK AND MANUSCRIPT LIBRARY
mysterious manuscript over idea it could be a cipher, identied a group of seven for 14 characters, over half the
the past 100 years yet not one a message that required stars with the Pleiades, hoping Voynich alphabet, and has since
of them has so far produced a decrypting before it could that an adjacent word referred identied both the castor oil
convincing solution. Voynich be read. However, it quickly to the constellation of Taurus. plant and the marshmallow
himself never got anywhere, became clear that if this was This is a much weaker gambit, plant. He has speculated that the
but he was presented with an the case it was a far more as the Pleiades cluster has a language may be an otherwise
apparent partial translation complex cipher than any distinct shape, which isnt unwritten dialect from western
nine years after the manuscript used in the Middle Ages, repeated in these stars. Whats Asia. Other Voynich researchers
was discovered, by Professor which are trivial for a modern more, although the Pleiades have pointed out there is an
William Newbold of the cryptographer to decode. are the Seven Sisters of Greek
University of Pennsylvania. And nally there was the idea
Newbold briey basked that the book could simply be
in glory before his theory gibberish. But why go to such
unravelled. He had decided that effort to make a hoax?
the script was a blind, and that Like many before him,
the actual message was carried Professor Bax picked out the
in tiny markings above the initial words on the pages
symbols, which he claimed were showing plant illustrations.
similar to an Ancient Greek Many of these are words
shorthand. But to come up with used infrequently elsewhere
his translation Newbold had in the text, suggesting they
to take pairs of these characters may correspond to the
as single letters, then make proper names of the plants.
anagrams of words. With such One illustration resembles
complex manipulations of a Centaurea, a thistle-like
manuscript it is easy enough to genus of owering plants.
read anything into it. Newbolds Using a technique similar
translation nally lost credibility to that used in decoding
when it was shown that the Egyptian hieroglyphs, Bax
markings were cracking in the matched letters to the word
ink surface. kantairon, an approximation
36 Vol. 6 Issue 7
1666
Prague scientist Johannes Marcus
Marci writes a letter claiming that
a book with mysterious images and
text, possibly by Roger
Bacon, was sold to
Rudolf II for 600
,9
ducats.
the Voynich. Initially While it has never given up its Marcelo Montemurro of the any point in history, although
trained in linguistics, he secrets, it does have a number University of Manchester in the use of these grids in
went on to study experimental of characteristics that suggest 2013, contradicting an Austrian producing ciphers, making
psychology and now works it isnt pure gobbledegook. It statistical analysis from 2007 them a natural technique for
in computer science. Rugg has a complex, non-random that declared it gibberish. The mocking up a fake language,
had two problems with Baxs structure. Yet if Kelley could Manchester technique maps was only introduced in the
announcement. One was that nd a way of mocking up such high information words and 1550s. One obvious clue would
this technique had been widely a script, he would have been suggests that the Voynich seem to be carbon dating,
tried since the 1940s without prepared to put in a good few has meaning, but could also and in 2010 a team from the
success, and the other was that he months of work. If the book work with a fake using Ruggs University of Arizona declared
believed that the manuscript was was sold for 600 ducats, the approach. that the parchment was most
not a language at all, but a hoax. equivalent of 8 to 10 years on In principle such a hoax likely to have been produced
By using technology from an average wage, making a fake might have been undertaken at between 1404 and 1438, much
the time of John Dee, Rugg would have been worth it.
has shown that it would be To create such a document
relatively easy to produce a fake you would need a mechanism Gordon Rugg is a
rm believer that the
Voynich manuscript. In fact for generating fake words. Voynich manuscript is an
Dees household becomes of Using quill pens and parchment, elaborate hoax
PHOTO: ALAMY X2, UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA ARCHIVES, SIMON WESSON
38 Vol. 6 Issue 7
2012 2013 2014
Stephen Bax comes across the Gordon Rugg publishes Blind Spot, Stephen Bax gives us the rst
Voynich manuscript in a programme a book describing techniques to few words in the latest attempt
about John Dee (pictured) on analyse errors in expert decisions, to uncover the secret of the
BBC Radio Four. using the Voynich and the possibility manuscript.
that it is a hoax as a major
case study.
earlier than the 1586 date when for the book dealer to value the
the manuscript may have been
sold to Rudolf.
manuscript at $100,000.
FOR or AGAINST:
It doesnt, however, rule out Elaborate hoax?
Kelley as the author. It wasnt Theres more that adds weight Is the Voynich manuscript fake?
uncommon for parchment to be to the hoax theory. The
kept for decades before writing manuscript features unusual Stephen Bax
on it, and it would be easy word repetition. One phrase,
enough to take an old, part- for instance, transliterated into Professor of Applied Linguistics at the University of Bedfordshire
used book, remove the pages familiar letters in a convention The attraction for me personally was the oddity of
that had been written on and used by Voynich researchers, the script and the possibility that it might be a script
make use of the rest. To cover reads qokedy qokedy dal that I could decode. Many people have looked closely
this up, the manuscript might qokedy qokedy. Conversely, its at the script and discounted that it might be a natural
then be rebound out of order very unusual in the manuscript language. Ive looked closely at it, taking full account
so that the lost pages werent to nd frequently used phrases of what they say, and I believe as a linguist that it could
all at the front of the book with two or three words well be a natural language.
and, interestingly, the Voynich together, something that occurs
manuscript does appear to have in most languages. Gordon Rugg
been bound with the pages Then there is the absence of Senior Lecturer in Computer Science at Keele University
rearranged. If old parchment mistakes. In a notebook, with One key assumption that everybody made is that
was used, it allows for an even the lack of formality of the complex structures need to have complex causes.
more dramatic hoax suggestion Voynich, you might expect There are complex structures within Voynichese,
that Voynich himself was to see crossings out, and even so everyone had thought that it couldnt be a hoax
behind it. the best medieval manuscripts because those structures were so complex But
This has been suggested by contain corrections. When very simple causes can produce very complex
Voynich researcher Richard a scribe made an error, he outcomes.
SantaColoma. He believes would wait for the ink to dry,
that Voynich found the letter then scrape it carefully off
giving the books provenance the parchment before writing denitive answer on the be proved if supporting
and created a manuscript to the new characters. However Voynich manuscript unless a evidence from the period of the
match. If it had been nothing carefully done, this action solution provides a full forgery were discovered.
more than an obscure herbal leaves a mark on the surface decoding. Stephen Baxs What remains is a delightful
manual, it would not have been of the material. A few years translations are interesting, but enigma, that will no doubt
worth the effort, but here there ago an examination was made as yet he has not said which prove as entertaining in the
was the combination of the of extremely high-resolution language he believes the next hundred years as it has in
intriguing mystery language images of several of the Voynich manuscript is written in, nor has the rst.
and the alleged link to Roger pages, providing far more detail he been able to apply his
Bacon, who was in the news in than is obvious to the naked eye transliterations to the text as a
1912 as his 700th anniversary yet there was no evidence of a whole. Meanwhile, Gordon BRIAN CLEGG is the author of Dice
approached, a link that Voynich single correction. Ruggs hoax hypothesis is World: Science And Life In A Random
stressed. This made it possible It isnt possible to give a intriguing, but could only ever Universe
Vol. 6 Issue 7 39
LEARS MACAW
40 Vol. 6 Issue 7
A pair of azure-blue Lears
macaws y past their red
sandstone nesting cliffs in the arid
interior of north-east Brazil
Brazilian
BLUES
The recovery of Lears macaw, one of the worlds most beautiful parrots,
has startled the triage conservationists who suggest that trying to save
species with tiny populations is a waste of time, says Tony Juniper
Photos by Joo Marcos Rosa
LEARS MACAW
or most people, their rst thought of Brazilian turned up in captivity. In common with the glaucous and
F forests is of dense, steamy jungles. Far fewer
know about the thorny thickets in the arid and
hyacinth macaws, it had a massive palm-cracking beak, a
very long tail and long, graceful wings. Like Spixs, it was
drought-prone north-east of this enormous country. But believed to be possibly extinct but all that changed in
though they might appear desolate and inhospitable, these 1978 when, after decades of speculation, a wild population
haunting woodlands, known as caatinga, are as Brazilian was located by Brazilian zoologist Helmut Sick.
as the Amazon rainforests and surprisingly rich in I met Helmut in Rio de Janeiro in 1990, where he told
endemic wildlife. me about his dogged quest for Lears macaw. He explained
I explored these parched, spiny forests in 1990, searching how hed mounted several expeditions to look for the
for Spixs macaw. I was working with the International species in north-east Brazil, starting in 1964. The vast
Council for Bird Preservation (now BirdLife International), search zone covered an area larger than France, and it
where my job was to help prevent the extinction of the was only 14 years later that he eventually struck gold.
worlds endangered parrots, and this was the rarest of the
rare. Spixs macaw was known to be near the edge, but just Finding the holy grail
how near came as a severe shock: my Brazilian colleagues Helmut discovered his macaws in a remote area called the
and I sadly concluded that there was just a single bird left Raso da Catarina, in the sun-baked, rugged interior of
in the wild a solitary male. the state of Bahia, not far from where our own expedition
Spixs was one of four impressive blue South American was later to nd the last Spixs macaw. He described this
macaws that tragically were all high on the list of parrots inhospitable place as a great white patch on the map,
for conservation action (see box, below). In fact the far, far away from the nearest civilisation. The trackless
glaucous macaw, known from far landscape was too much for even the best 4WD vehicles, so
Helmut happened further south, had most likely already
crossed the line of extinction. The
Helmut had to search on horseback.
It was in this unforgiving, far-ung land that Helmut
to meet a hunter hyacinth macaw, the biggest parrot of came across the vital clue. In 1978 he happened to meet a
who had shot a all and known to live chiey in Brazils
interior, in areas such as the Pantanal
hunter who had shot a blue parrot to eat and, fortunately,
had kept some of its feathers. Helmut had recently returned
blue parrot to eat seasonal wetlands, was doing somewhat from Santiago Zoo in Chile, where he had studied captive
better. But even that species was down Lears macaws, making detailed notes and measurements.
and, fortunately, to just a few thousand birds. So when he clapped eyes on the poor birds remains, he
had kept some of The fourth species, Lears, had for instantly knew that hed found his Holy Grail.
a long time been known only from On 31 December 1978 Helmut at last tracked down a
its feathers museum specimens and birds that had population of about 60 Lears macaws. They were living
Once believed to be a hybrid between the larger These huge parrots the worlds biggest,
hyacinth macaw and the paler glaucous macaw, measured from beak to tail-tip range across the
this species was rst described in 1856 by French dry interior of Brazil and into Paraguay and Bolivia.
ornithologist Lucien Bonaparte, based not on a live The largest of three main populations is centred on
bird but on an 1832 artwork by Edward Lear. Until the Pantanal region, where there are some 5,000
1978 it was known only from captive birds and individuals. Popular with collectors; under
those in museum collections. relentless pressure from trappers.
What was probably the last wild bird was seen in Believed extinct since the 1960s, this bird was
1990 tantalising but unproven reports suggest a more turquoise than Lears, but a new study aims
few birds may just hang on in Brazils Serra da to establish whether it was simply a form of the
Capivara National Park, in the state of Piau. The same species. If so, this would effectively extend
captive population of about 96 birds might yet one the known range of Lears macaw south as far as
day lead to a reintroduction attempt in the few northern Argentina, justifying releases of
remaining areas of habitat. captive-bred Lears there in future.
42 Vol. 6 Issue 7
Pockmarked cliffs
at Raso da Catarina
provide safe nest
sites. The macaws
breed from February
to April, raising one
or two young
LEARS MACAW
Lears macaws on steep red sandstone cliffs where they roosted and nested. Poets parrot
form pairs before This tiny group of birds was under relentless pressure Helmuts discovery transformed the macaws status
they are old overnight. It had long been a poets parrot, with an
from trappers, including the same man who had single-
enough to breed,
and mates stay handedly almost wiped out the last remnant group of Spixs English name that honoured Victorian artist and poet
together for life macaws. The phenomenal value of Lears macaws, even Edward Lear. A famous painting of the bird included in
back then selling for over $10,000 each, meant that big his 1832 book, Illustrations of the Family of Psittacidae, or
incentives were on offer for those who could catch them. Parrots, had helped the moniker to stick. But now what
The favoured method was to lower nets down over cliff- had been an obscure creature in ornithological circles,
faces. As the macaws attempted to leave, theyd become known only from old paintings, a few captive individuals
entangled, be hoisted upward and embark on journeys and mothballed skins, suddenly became a very rare wild
to collectors on the other side of the world. bird with a known home range. And that had massive
The birds were not only at risk from trappers their conservation implications.
main food source, the fruits of licur palms, was under An urgent rescue effort was launched. Guards were
pressure as well. The palms were being cleared for cattle stationed at the macaw nesting cliffs and a modest-sized
pasture and being lost in periodic wild res. Only a few protected area was established. Despite this, the capture
pairs of birds were found to be breeding and because of birds continued. In 19921995, for example, it was
of feather deformities, it was feared that inbreeding was estimated that 20 individuals were caught and sold from
This stunning already taking a toll. Though a further small population one population. In 1996 alone at least 19 were taken.
landscape is part
of Serra Branca was later discovered, the total number of birds was The conservation effort was stepped up, and the
Farm, whose owner perilously tiny. protected area expanded. In 2007 a Brazilian conservation
has turned it into a It wasnt clear why this species was so rare, but Carlos group called the Biodiversitas Foundation, with
major stronghold Yamashita, a Brazilian expert on parrots, told me he assistance from the American Bird Conservancy, bought
for Lears macaws
thought it might be because a long-standing relationship neighbouring properties to enable a ten-fold increase in the
with other South American wildlife had been severed. He size of the Canudos Biological Station. The new reserve
suspected that the giant ground covered 1,450ha, including the cliffs where about half of
sloths that once roamed South the surviving birds roosted and nested. It was a huge step
America, and which had been towards the preservation of the species, says Eduardo
wiped out by early human Figueiredo of the Lears Macaw Conservation Program.
hunters, ate palm nuts and There are ongoing efforts, supported by the Tenerife-
their dung provided food in an based Loro Parque Fundacin, to safeguard groves of the
easier form for the macaws to licur palms that provide most of the macaws food. Some
eat. But whatever the reason areas have been fenced off to prevent them being trampled
for its scarcity, there was little by cattle. But maintaining the food supply for the birds is
doubt that Lears macaw was in no small task, when an estimated 450 fruit-bearing palms
imminent danger of extinction. are needed to sustain a single macaw.
It was duly listed as Critically Sometimes the macaws raid farmers corn, triggering
Endangered the last stop persecution, so conservationists have been offering nancial
before disappearing completely. compensation. Research is also underway to better
44 Vol. 6 Issue 7
FATAL ATTRACTION:
THE CAGEBIRD TRADE
Parrots have been popular companion birds for a very long time.
Over 2,300 years ago Alexander the Great brought some back
to Europe from his travels to the Indus Valley (this is how the
Alexandrine parakeet got its name). Today much of the demand is
met by captive breeding, but some species especially the scarcer
ones remain at grave risk from trapping in the wild.
Parrots now rank among the most threatened of all bird families.
The IUCN currently lists 100 of the worlds 330 species as At Risk.
Of these, 66 species are directly threatened by the illegal bird trade,
including all three of the surviving blue macaws.
The trade in all parrot species is governed by the Convention on
International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). Despite this and
additional measures including a ban on the import of wild birds
introduced by the USA and EU, huge nancial incentives continue
to drive illegal trade in these attractive, charismatic birds.
Mauricio Duenas/AFP/Getty
Colombian police
understand the birds feeding patterns, reproductive biology The fruits of the with a scarlet macaw
and the size of their home ranges. Surveillance at breeding licur palm are the seized at a market
macaws main food:
sites has moved up a gear and arrests have been made. their fortunes are
Progress has been exceptional. From a minuscule, barely closely tied to those
viable known population of 60 or so birds in the late 1970s, of the tree that can be done. Thankfully the local conservationists at
there were close to 250 by 2001. There were 400500 in Biodiversitas thought differently.
2004, and in 2006 an estimated 630. In 2008 there were
nearly 1,000 macaws. A survey conducted in November The birds came back
2013 suggested that there were almost 1,300, a slight That such a large, colourful and noisy parrot could for
increase on the year before, despite a severe drought that so long evade detection says something profound about
it was feared might affect their breeding. our knowledge of the world. Its recovery provides an
The surge in numbers has encouraged conservationists important lesson, too. Determined eldwork followed by
to downgrade the species status to Endangered. Its still a conservation action involving local communities can rescue
precarious position, but the deep, red canyons clothed in even the most endangered species. Lears poem Calico Pie
thorny caatinga woodland and cactus scrub echo once more comes to mind:
with the screeches from ocks of these amazing parrots. The little Birds y
Challenges remain not only when protecting the Down to the calico tree,
wild birds, but also when making best use of macaws in Their wings were blue,
captivity. At least 74 are scattered across the globe in private And they sang Tilly-loo!
collections and public zoos. These birds could be valuable Till away they ew,
to the conservation effort, but no coherent captive- And they never came back to me.
breeding programme exists, despite decades of trying. In this case, amazingly, the birds did come back.
Lears macaw is a great example of a species that triage
theorists might have said we should let go, says Michael
TONY JUNIPER is an environmentalist and former director of Friends
Parr of the American Bird Conservancy, referring to of the Earth. His books include Spixs Macaw: The Race To Save The
the way in which doctors prioritise between patients, Worlds Rarest Bird and What Has Nature Ever Done For Us? Visit www.
sometimes leaving those for whom there is nothing else tonyjuniper.com to nd out more.
Vol. 6 Issue 7 45
ANTIGRAVITY
ILLUSTRATOR: MAGICTORCH
46 Vol. 6 Issue 7
of
he Hg Wells novel The First to science fact. Earlier this year, a team at no, says team member Prof Joel Fajans,
Labo rator y
Men In The Moon, published in CERN the European centre for particle Lawrence Berkeley National
ct
1901, saw human beings travel physics, on the border between France and (LBNL), California. We certainly expe
from Earth to our planets natural Switzerland announced plans to look for fall dow n, but just may be we
antimatter to
satellite in a spacecraft powered signs of antigravity in particles of antimatter. will be surprised.
by cavorite. This was a ctional Their tests involve an experiment
antigravity material, capable of blocking Falling upwards at CERN called ALPHA (short for
s).
the Earths gravitational pull. For centuries, Antimatter can be thought of as the Antihydrogen Laser Physics Apparatu
scientists and philosophers have pondered opposite of ordinary matter with all its The experime nt com bine s antip rotons
this problem how might we counteract key properties, like electric charge, reversed. with antielectrons to make antihydrogen
gravity, that most fundamental of the forces, All properties except one, that is. Matter atoms, which are stored briey in a
ched
which keeps us all stuck rmly to the Earths and antimatter both have positive mass, so magnetic eld. When the eld is swit
surface? most physicists had expected them both off, the atom s fall out and mov e und er
Of course, aircraft and space rockets to behave in the same way when placed in the action of gravity until they collide
manage to overcome gravitational pull, but a gravitational eld. But now scientists at with the walls of the apparatus.
n
only at considerable cost and effort. True CERN say this might not be the case after When this happens, a ash of light is give
thes e
antigravity would allow a vehicle to rise all. They think antimatter might fall at a off. By looking at when and where
nt,
gracefully upwards at the ick of a switch different rate to ordinary matter and could ashes occur in the ALPHA experime
not just overcoming gravity, but altering even fall upwards. the scientists are able to get a hand le on
its very essence. Now, antigravity may be Is there such a thing as antigravity? Based how the antihydrogen atoms are
about to make the leap from science ction on free-fall tests so far, we cant say yes or falling in the Earths gravitational
Vol. 6 Issue 7 47
ANTIGRAVITY
WHAT IS ANTIMATTER?
The Universes yin-yang nature
1915 Albert 1917 Using GR 1921 American 1932 Carl David 1933 Walther
Einstein publishes to build a model physicist Thomas Anderson discovers Meissner and Robert
the General Theory of the Universe, Townsend Brown the positron, the rst Ochsenfeld nd that
of Relativity (GR), Einstein proposes discovers the ionic known antimatter superconductors can
which remains our the cosmological wind effect that particle, predicted levitate magnets.
best description constant, later known causes lifters to four years earlier by
of gravity. as dark energy. levitate (see pxx). Paul Dirac.
48 Vol. 6 Issue 7
We certainly expect slowing down at all, but was actually getting
antimatter to fall
faster. Distant galaxies were accelerating
away from us, and the astronomers concluded WHAT WILL
down, but just
maybe we will be
that some kind of antigravitating material
must be responsible. WE DO WITH
surprised
They called this material dark energy.
Its actually an old idea. In 1917, shortly after
Einstein had formulated his General Theory
ANTIGRAVITY?
A technological revolution
Professor Joel Fajans, of Lawrence Berkeley of Relativity, he used it to build a model of awaits when we finally master
National Laboratory the Universe at large. But his calculations
this bizarre phenomenon
quickly revealed the model to be unstable,
recollapsing under its own gravity. To solve
the problem, Einstein added dark energy TR ANSPORT
(although it wasnt called that at the time) With no need to ght the
to his model essentially an antigravity-like downward pull of gravity, aircraft
term in the equations governing his theory. will be able to skirt around the
In 1929, when American astronomer Edwin Earth at high speed and at a fraction of
Hubble found that space was expanding, the cost.
Einstein removed the dark energy term
CHE AP ENERGY
from General Relativity. But by the end
Water owing downhill can
of the century, astronomers had found that
generate energy. If you could get
Einsteins biggest blunder (as he called it) is the water back to the top of the hill
in fact a real feature of our Universe. with minimal effort you could generate the
same energy all over again.
In the dark
Last September, UK astronomers announced
a new project, called the Dark Energy Survey SPACE FLIGHT
(DES), to map the distribution of dark Cosmologist Hermann Bondi
energy throughout space and to chart how showed that if you placed
this distribution has changed as the Universe antigravitating matter next to
evolved. Although dark energy is invisible, normal matter then the two will self
accelerate. Robert Forward suggested this
astronomers can infer its presence through
could be used to build a space drive.
its anti-gravitational inuence on distant
galaxies and the light that they emit. Over
a period of ve years, DES will survey 300 WE APONS
million galaxies in an area covering one- Antigravity will make it easy to
eighth of the night sky. reach orbit. Throw a big rock down
The study will help scientists better from space and it will strike the
understand the nature and ultimate origin ground with the force of a nuclear bomb.
of this curious substance. We know dark
energy exists, but thats about it. How WE ATHER CONTROL
this substance changes with time and location Altering gravity would have an
remains unclear, but well have a better view effect on atmospheric pressure.
after DES, says team member Dr David This in turn could enable us to
Bacon, of the University of Portsmouth. control the weather, for example to prevent
An extreme form of this antigravitating hurricanes.
dark energy is believed to have existed
shortly after the Big Bang. Called ination,
it prevented the embryonic Universe
from recollapsing back on itself
1996 Russian 1999 Supernova 2000 The rst 2002 Stories 2013 Physicists
Eugene Podkletnov explosions provide superconducting emerge of NASA at CERN announce
claims to have found the rst evidence maglev train (using attempting details of experiments
evidence for gravity for the existence the Meissner effect) to reproduce to discover whether
shielding in spinning of dark energy. is successfully tested Podkletnovs work antimatter possesses
superconductors. by scientists in to build antigravity antigravitating
China. craft. properties.
Vol. 6 Issue 7 49
ANTIGRAVITY
We know dark
UP IN THE AIR energy exists, but
The world of antigravity is filled with lofty concepts. Here are some key how this substance
terms to help you get off the ground changes with time
GRAVITY and location remains
SHIELDING unclear
Russian physicist Eugene
Podkletnov claims to have Dr David Bacon of the University of Portsmouth
created a device that can
partially block the force
of gravity. If correct, this
would be an example of instead blasting it up from microcosm
gravity shielding, with the to macrocosm in
device able to screen out the tiniest fraction of a second.
the particles carrying the Indeed, that we are here at all is at least
gravitational force, much partially thanks to ination and dark energy.
like a screen of lead can
Gravity shielding If the precise amount of dark energy was
technology could be block particles of radiation
different, the Universe wouldnt evolve in
used to power ying like X-rays.
saucer-like craft the same way. In [models of] universes
that have much more dark energy than
ours, whenever matter tries to clump into
galaxies, the repulsive push of the dark
REPULSIVE energy is so strong that it blows the clump
GRAVITY The effects of dark energy apart and galaxies dont form. Universes
The gravitational force (purple grid) act against gravity with much less dark energy collapse back on
between lumps of (green grid) to pull clusters of
themselves so quickly that, again, galaxies
ordinary matter is always galaxies apart
dont form, explains physicist Prof Brian
attractive, pulling the
Greene, of Columbia University. Without
objects together. But some
galaxies there are no stars, no planets, and no
forms of matter generate
repulsive gravity, whereby
chance for our form of life to exist.
the gravitational force We dont need to look into space to see
pushes objects apart. An antigravity in action, however. Experimental
example is dark energy, physicists have already created small amounts
which cosmologists of antigravitating material in the lab, and it
believe is causing the has nothing to do with antimatter. In the
expansion of the Universe so-called Casimir effect, named after Dutch
to accelerate. physicist Hendrik Casimir who discovered
it in 1948, negative energy is created
PHOTO: CORBIS, FERMILAB, ALAMY, SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY X2
50 Vol. 6 Issue 7
The Dark Energy Camera with 74
blue-coloured CCDs is ready to
observe the positions of millions
of galaxies to shed light on the
true nature of dark energy
ANTIGRAVITY
materials that the two plates are made from The pl lacce to sen
place nd an iidea for defying
send
and adddi
dinng a uid between them. The anti-
adding the force of gravity
gra
ravi
vity
ty isnt
isn
snt a popular
pop
pular science
magazine like ours but a scientic journal,
TERREN/TESLADOWNUNDER.COM,
DEFYING GRAVITY
RIVERSIDE, NASA, PETER TERREN/TESLADOWNUN
By nose-diving at a certain
speed passengers on
the vomit comet become
weightless
Catch a
RIVERSID
oating
train from
Pudong Lifters use a downward
airport to wind of charged
MOHIDEEN/UC
OHIDEEN/UC
MAGLE V LIF TE
TERS VOMIT COMET
Some high-speed trains forsake wheels in favour Technica these arent antigravity; theyy just look
Technically Aircraft such as the NASA vomit comet
ERMILAB, U M
of magnets, using the magnetic force to make the like it. A lifter is a triangle of balsa woodd covered can reduce the gravity experienced by occupants
FERMILAB,
maglev trains use powerful superconducting creates a downward wind of charged particles,articles, simulated zero-gravity environment for science
PHOTO:
HOTO:
PHOT
magnets. causing tthe lifter to hover. Dont try this at home! experiments.
52 Vol. 6 Issue 7
ANTIGRAVITY FAQ
Prof Clive Woods of Louisiana State
University and Dr Michael Doser of
CERN clear up some tricky questions
Vol. 6 Issue 7 53
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he idea that the Universe was models matched the Universe in which Galaxies or nebulae?
T born in a hot, dense state
the Big Bang, as Fred Hoyle
we live.
But that didnt stop Friedmann
What Friedmann didnt know was that
there was already astronomical data
dubbed it is one of the most important, speculating. In a book, World As Space that supported his idea. At the Lowell
and well-established, scientic concepts. And Time, published in 1923, he wrote: Observatory in America, Vesto Melvin
But the idea is less than a hundred years It is useless, due to the lack of reliable Slipher (always VM to his colleagues)
old, and The Beatles were already the astronomical data, to cite any numbers had been studying the light from objects
singing sensation of the 1960s before that describe the life of our Universe. then known as nebulae spiral clouds
astronomers had proof that there Yet if we compute, for the sake of of material. There was a debate about
really was a Big Bang. Fifty years ago, curiosity, the time when the Universe whether these were clouds of gas within
solid evidence was found in the form was created from a point to its present the Milky Way, perhaps sites of star
of the so-called Cosmic Microwave state, ie, time that has passed from the formation, or much larger objects far
Background Radiation. By then, creation of the world, then we get a beyond the Milky Way galaxies (as we
though, there was already plenty of number equal to tens of billions of usual now call them) in their own right.
circumstantial evidence. years. This is pretty close to the accepted To his surprise, Slipher found that
With hindsight, we can see the genesis modern value, 13.8 billion years, but the light from these spiral nebulae is
of the Big Bang idea in a paper published nobody took any notice at the time. redshifted, by a large amount. The
by the Russian mathematician Alexander naive explanation for this was that the
Friedmann in 1922. Friedmann realised objects are moving rapidly away from
that the equations of Albert Einsteins us, and the redshifts are caused by the
General Theory of Relativity, which Doppler effect. This suggested that they
describe the behaviour of space, time and were indeed beyond the Milky Way.
matter, allowed for the possible existence But there is another possibility. In the
PHOTO: SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY X2
56 Vol. 6 Issue 7
Scan this QR Code for
the audio reader
> IN A NUTSHELL
in California, which was far That someone was Georges Lematre, Universe. Putting everything together,
more powerful than the telescope a Belgian mathematician and astronomer and estimating the distances to galaxies
Slipher had, was able to measure the who added two and two to make four. by a rule of thumb that fainter galaxies
distance to the Andromeda Nebula (or Lematre, although based in Belgium, must be further away than brighter
galaxy) by studying variable stars known had visited Cambridge in England, galaxies, he discovered that the redshift
as Cepheids within the nebula. This, Harvard, and Mount Wilson. He had of a galaxy depends on its distance from
and measurements of distances to other met both Slipher and Hubble, and was us its velocity is proportional to its
nebulae, established once and for all that up to date on all the observations, but distance. But he was aware that this is
the spirals were indeed galaxies far out completely unaware of Friedmanns not a Doppler effect. As he put it in 1927,
into the Universe. The time was ripe for work. So when he independently the redshifts are a cosmical effect of the
someone to put redshifts and distances discovered the same solutions to expansion of the Universe.
together, adding in the equations of the Einsteins equations that Friedmann had This discovery which really ought
General Theory of Relativity to provide found, his interpretation of the equations to be known as Lematres Law was
a description of our Universe. was based on observations of the real published in a paper whose title translates
THE KEY A baffling find by Penzias and Wilson that the Universe was warmer than it should be at their
EXPERIMENT radio antenna turned out to be a major discovery that would earn them a Nobel Prize
The horn antenna at Crawford Hill in New antenna from observations of the cold remove any sources of interference,
Jersey was built for use with satellites, so load to observations of the sky, they could including cleaning out the layer of
the shape of it was designed to minimise measure the apparent temperature of droppings that had accumulated in the
interference from the ground, and provide the Universe (expected to be 0 Kelvin) then antenna horn from a pair of nesting
the best possible measurement of the subtract out known factors, such as the pigeons. Nothing made much difference.
strength of radio noise from the sky. The interference from the atmosphere above. The mystery of the excess antenna
nature of this radiation depends on the But in 1964 it soon became clear that temperature continued to baffle them
temperature of the radiating object. The the radiation coming from the antenna into throughout 1964.
amplifiers used in the receiver were cooled the receiver was at least That is until they realised, with the help
to 4.2K (-268.8C) using liquid helium, and 2K hotter than they of Dicke, Peebles, Roll and Wilkinson at
Penzias devised a cold load, cooled by could explain. The pair Princeton University, that they were
liquid helium to about 5K, which was used did everything they looking at the afterglow radiation of the
to calibrate the system. By switching the could think of to Big Bang.
PHOTO: GETTY X3, CORBIS, SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY, NASA
58 Vol. 6 Issue 7
as A Homogeneous Universe of CAST OF It was Lematres initial brilliance that enabled
Constant Mass and Increasing Radius
Accounting for the Radial Velocities of
CHARACTERS others to prove the Big Bang theory
Vol. 6 Issue 7 59
HOW DO WE KNOW?
It could be the biggest question of all: how did the Universe Lematre, though, wasnt nished.
TIMELINE begin? It took decades of discovery to answer Hubble was only interested in
using redshifts to measure distances,
and never tried to t them to any
Edwin Hubble discovers cosmological model. Most relativists
that the distance of a simply regarded the equations as
galaxy from us is directly something to play with, of no relevance
proportional to the to the real world. Lematre, though,
velocity implied by its
redshift. Lematre had 1929 took them at face value and used them
to attempt a description of how the
published this in 1927, Universe began. In 1931, he speculated
but nobody had noticed. that the Universe might have begun
violently (in reworks) in a very dense
Lematre writes in
state, which expanded dramatically to
Nature: We could
become the world as we see it today. He
1931
conceive the beginning
developed these ideas in a book published
of the Universe in the
form of a unique atom,
in 1946, and referred to the origin of the
the atomic weight of Universe either as the primeval atom
which is the total mass or the cosmic egg. This inspired the
of the Universe. Russian-born American George Gamow
to take up the idea and develop it further,
with the aid of his colleagues Ralph
Alpher (pictured) and Alpher and Robert Herman.
Herman calculate
that the leftover
radiation from the
1948 Ralph Alpher realised that the heat
from Lematres reworks should have
lled the Universe with electromagnetic
primeval reball radiation, which would still exist today
should still ll the in the form of cold radio waves. In
Universe today, with a
1948, he published a paper in Nature
1964
temperature of about
concluding that the temperature in the
5K. This was also
Universe at the present time is found to
published in Nature.
be about 5 Kelvin [268C]. Gamow
promoted the idea for a time (and now
Penzias and Wilson discover a weak hiss often incorrectly gets the credit for it),
of radio noise coming from all directions in but in those days nobody thought
space. The following year this is explained as that such cosmic background radiation
the leftover radiation from the Big Bang. could be detected, and the idea was soon
forgotten.
1989
Bang idea, as it was being called by the
1950s. The speed with which galaxies
are moving apart today tells us how
PHOTO: GETTY, SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY, NASA X3
Launch of the Cosmic Background Explorer long it has been since they were all
satellite (COBE), which detected tiny irregularities squeezed together in Lematres cosmic
(ripples) in the background radiation, conrming egg. This age of the Universe is related
the accuracy of the Big Bang model. to Hubbles constant the bigger the
constant, the faster the galaxies are
Launch of the Wilkinson separating and the younger the Universe.
Microwave Anisotropy Probe For a value of 500km/s per Mpc,
(WMAP), which makes the Universe would only be about a
precision measurements of billion years old far younger than the
2001 the background radiation,
pinning the age of the
known ages of the Sun and stars. This
encouraged the rival Steady State model
Universe down as 13.8 of the Universe, which says that the
billion years. Universe has always existed and always
60 Vol. 6 Issue 7
JARGON BUSTER
The cosmic terms youll need to
understand the Big Bang
COSMOLOGICAL REDSHIFT
A stretching of light, or other electro-
magnetic radiation, caused by the
stretching of space between the galaxies
as a result of the expansion of the Universe.
This is not a Doppler effect, because it
does not involve motion through space, but
is measured in units of velocity. The cosmic
background radiation is light from the Big
Bang with a redshift of 1,000.
HUBBLES LAW
Actually first discovered by Lematre, the
law says that the redshift velocity of a
galaxy is proportional to its distance. So a
galaxy twice as far away is receding twice
as fast, and so on. This does not mean we
are at the centre of the Universe, however.
The law works the same way whichever
galaxy you observe from.
The light from Pandoras Cluster a group of galaxies in the deepest realms of the observable Universe
has been shifted to the red end of the spectrum due to the expansion of the Universe
MICROWAVES
Microwaves are radio waves with wave- it could be used for astronomy, it had to They produced a pair of papers in the
lengths in the range from 1-30cm. In be calibrated. Penzias and Wilson found July 1965 issue of the Astrophysical
astronomy theyre used to study the that it was plagued by what seemed to be Journal. Dicke, Peebles, Roll and
background radiation left over from the interference. A weak hiss of radio noise Wilkinson came rst, setting out the
Big Bang, and in the study of interstellar showed up in the instruments no matter theory of leftover radiation from a
molecules. On Earth theyre used in which part of the sky they pointed the hot early Universe. That paper was
microwave ovens, radar and tele- telescope to. They were utterly bafed. followed by Penzias and Wilson with
communications. The Universe is A Measurement of Excess Antenna
Then, in December 1964, Penzias
a microwave oven with a temperature Temperature at 4,080 Mc/s, making
happened to mention the problem to
of -270.3C. no mention of the possible signicance
another radio astronomer, Bernard
Burke, who said that he knew of a team of the discovery except for the sentence
at Princeton University (a 30-minute A possible explanation for the observed
expands but that new atoms pop into drive away) who might shed some light excess noise temperature is the one given
existence as space stretches to make new on the problem. by Dicke, Peebles, Roll and Wilkinson
galaxies which ll the gaps. That team was headed by Jim Peebles in a companion letter in this issue. It
The Big Bang idea gradually became and Robert Dicke, with two junior was the proof that there really was a
more respectable as better telescopes and colleagues, Peter Roll and David Big Bang.
improved observations showed that the Wilkinson. Dicke had independently In the following decades, three key
Hubble constant is much smaller than come up with the same idea as Ralph satellites probed details of the Big Bang.
Lematre and Hubble had estimated Alpher, but had gone one step further by The rst was COBE, launched in 1989,
less than 100km/s per Mpc. Then came initiating a project to build a telescope which detected ripples in the background
the decisive moment. to look for the predicted radiation. The radiation produced by the seeds on
In 1964, Arno Penzias and Robert telescope was nearly complete when which galaxies grew. The Big Bang
Wilson were adapting a radio telescope Penzias and Wilson got in touch. The theory had triumphed.
built to test satellite communications two teams put their heads together,
for radio astronomy. The telescope, at and quickly established that what
Crawford Hill in New Jersey, belonged Penzias and Wilson had found could JOHN GRIBBIN is a visiting fellow in astronomy at the
to the Bell telephone company. Before indeed be the echo of the Big Bang. University of Sussex, and author of Science: A History
Vol. 6 Issue 7 61
HEALTH
PHOTO: FIONA ROGERS/NATUREPL.COM, ALAMY, THINKSTOCK, ALEX HYDE/NATUREPL.COM, SOLVIN ZANKL/NATUREPL.COM, ANNETTE ZITZMANN, OTTO PLANTEMA/FLPA, PHOTO RESEARCHERS/FLPA
lowland gorilla developed
stereoscopic, colour vision and
a keen sense of smell to detect
fermenting fruit in the jungle
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Vol. 6 Issue 7 63
HEALTH
UNRAVELLING ADDICTION
ON
Drunk fruit flies are shedding light on the
e cellular mechanisms behind alcoholism
Addiction to alcohol poses major Flies placedd within an alcohol plume Dopamine plays a crucial
role in the cause of addiction
health challenges, but its obviously will y upwards
wards toward a light,
not possible to experiment with becoming progressively more drunk
humans to understand the cellular and then settling
ettling out on a series of
changes underlying the disease. stacked funnels.
nnels. The higher iers
However, fruit ies present a useful are thus more
ore resistant to alcohol
model with which to study various and can be collected for genetic
physiological mechanisms that analysis. The
he wonderfully named
come into play during addiction. happy hourr mutant,
Alcohol inuences many different for example,e, handles
features of the nervous system in booze fairlyy well,
all animals. However, a number whereas cheap
heap date
of cell signalling pathways within is particularly
rly prone
PHOTO: GETTY X3, SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY
Vol. 6 Issue 7 65
HEALTH
66 Vol. 6 Issue 7
MATERIALS SCIENCE
UNDER
PRESSURE
Were rewriting the rules of chemistry with sheer
force to turn everyday substances like salt into
remarkable new materials. Michael Banks
reveals the pioneering labs making it happen
Vol. 6 Issue 7 67
MATERIALS SCIENCE
alt is vital for human life. In our bodies this it cannot decompose back into the individual elements
S common ingredient regulates the exchange
of water between cells. Made up of sodium
or into any other compounds. At least thats what we
thought until now.
and chlorine, it plays a key function in the heart, nerve
impulses, and the digestion of body-building proteins. Chemistry reworked
Given salts abundance in nature and how much we eat Last year, scientists in China, Russia and the US put
every day, you might think that we know almost tiny crystals of salt under huge pressures a burden
everything there is to nd out about the material that an order of magnitude greater than the pressure at the
has the chemical formula NaCl. But youd be wrong. bottom of the ocean (see Feeling the squeeze, p53).
It was commonly thought that NaCl was the only What they found was totally unexpected: the material
compound that could be created out of its constituent began to form so-called forbidden compounds ones
parts of sodium (Na) and chlorine (Cl). The laws of that experimentalists thought did not even exist. This
chemistry reect that compounds tend to form from work will change the way chemistry is taught and Salts (NaCl) structure, its
the strongest bonding possible. For example, in its used, says Professor Artem Oganov from the State unit cell, is a basic cube
chemical make-up, sodium has one electron that it University of New York, a lead author of the story. shape, which contains the
sodium and chlorine ions
wants to lose having a charge of +1 while chlorine Oganov and colleagues found that when they
has a space for an electron (its charge is 1). So sodium put salt under a pressure of around 20 gigapascals
happily gives away an electron while chlorine happily (GPa the unit used to measure pressure), or about
takes it. The result is a compound thats neutral in 200,000 times the pressure of the air, together with
charge and therefore chemically stable, meaning that a little bit of additional sodium and chlorine, it could
68 Vol. 6 Issue 7
This work will change
the way chemistry is
taught and used
Prof Artem Oganov from the State University of New York
One of the biggest areas of high- what the Earths core is made of. It
pressure research is creating helps us understand the chemistry
conditions in the lab that exist at the of the Earth, its various temperatures,
very centre of planets. Researchers the details of how it formed, says
Left: the two diamonds of a can put iron and its alloys under Earth scientist Oliver Lord from
diamond anvil cell are used to pressures of around 300GPa similar Bristol University.
apply extreme pressure to that in the Earths inner core. They Andrew Jephcoat at the University
can then test the temperatures that of Oxford has also been using pressure
form compounds such as NaCl3 and Na3Cl. These the materials melt, their crystal to study the Earths core. He studies
compounds dont have a neutral charge and are thought structure and their density. These how helium can escape from molten
to have net charges of 2 and +2, respectively ndings can then be compared with iron metal alloys and silicon
forbidden under the standard rules of chemistry.
PHOTO: STEVE JACOBSON, SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY X2
the properties of the core, which we compounds that were present in the
Although scientists are not exactly sure why know about from the way seismic formation of the Earth. Understanding
these compounds form, only knowing that the reaction waves pass through it. This enables that helium can break up and escape
occurs over a couple of seconds, they suggest that the scienists to tweak the compositions of from the alloys tells us that the Earths
laws of chemistry seem to change under high pressures. the materials theyre studying to core could still hold plenty of the
Our work shows the existence of a whole new class of match them up and better understand helium isotope 3He.
compounds, previously overlooked by chemists, says
Oganov. There is clearly a lot that chemists still need Studying intense
to learn about chemical bonding and rules determining pressures is revealing
the stability of compounds, so we need more general how the Earths
core behaves
rules than the ones that exist today.
Indeed, some interesting structures emerge as a
result. One product of putting salt under high pressure
is Na3Cl. Normal salt is a very bad conductor of
electricity. But this new compound is made up of
alternating layers of NaCl and pure sodium. The
atom-thick sheet of sodium is very similar to the
Vol. 6 Issue 7 69
MATERIALS SCIENCE
totally unusual compounds, he says. Other heel (with a square tip with sides of 0.4mm) then the
compounds the group have discovered so far pressure would be huge. Indeed, if you had around
include KCl3 and CsF2 compounds containing 650 elephants all stood on each others backs on this
potassium (K), chlorine, caesium (Cs) and uorine (F). one stiletto heel it would be equal to the pressure
In contrast with NaCl3 and Na3Cl, they are stable at inside the Earths core.
normal air pressures. They could have applications in While scientists dont usually have access to 650
storing toxic gases like uorine and chlorine at low elephants in the lab, they do have diamonds one of
temperatures, since when they are heated slightly they the hardest materials known to do all the squeezing.
decompose to release the held gas. Scientists have been doing this since the late 1950s,
Whats just as remarkable as the new chemicals following the invention of the diamond anvil cell at
being created, is how simple it is to make them. The The structure of the compound
the US National Bureau of Standards (now known as NaCL3, which is formed by
only thing needed to open the gates to this new the National Institute of Standards and Technology). applying pressure to salt with
chemical playground is a bit of pressure. Well, a lot Diamond anvil cells consist of opposing, specially-cut a diamond anvil cell
of it. diamonds around a millimetre wide and weighing
around 0.2 carats
There is clearly a lot that chemists still (40mg). The tips of the
diamonds are cut and
need to learn about chemical bonding are extremely smooth
and nely aligned so
Prof Artem Oganov from the State University of New York
that they encase the
sample with identical
and opposing force.
Believe it or not,
Elephants on heels generating pressure is as
Pressure is a measure of how much something is simple as tightening bolts connected to the two sides of
stressed by applying a continuous physical force on the cell with a common Allen wrench tool. The cells
an object by something in contact with it pressure put a pressure of around 300GPa on a sample similar The extreme material NaCL3
to that found in the core of the Earth. has a single-atom thick layer
being the force applied over the contact area. Imagine
of sodium, which could prove
an adult male elephant weighing around 5,500kg. Its Crystals, like NaCl, are made up of an innitely to be an excellent conductor
weight will exert a force on the ground. If that force repeating array of 3D boxes, known as unit cells. of electricity
is spread over a large area (say the elephant was lying For example, salts unit cell is a basic cube shape,
down) then the pressure would be relatively small. But which contains the sodium and chlorine ions. What
if the elephant managed to stand on a single stiletto happens when pressure is applied to a material is
One of the biggest facilities in the world In May 2012, the ESRF opened a new
that can produce high-intensity X-rays, beamline with a speciality to study in
enabling scientists to peer into the real-time the behaviour of materials
structure of a whole range of different at extreme pressures and temperatures.
materials, is the European Synchrotron Called ID24, the beamline cost 180m
Radiation Facility (ESRF) in Grenoble, to build and lets researchers shine
France. To do this, the ESRF accelerates X-rays into materials that have been
electrons in a 270m diameter storage squeezed using diamond anvil cells.
ring and as the subatomic particles travel The materials under study can also be
in a circle they produce X-rays, which are heated up to 10,000C with short,
sent down 40 beamlines. Researchers intense laser pulses.
use these to carry out a range of With such intense pressure and
experiments in elds such as physics, temperatures, the experiment can be
medicine and archaeology. Given how used to test materials present in the
powerful the ESRF is, the samples that Earths liquid iron core 2,900km
are used can be 10,000 times smaller beneath the surface as well as what it
than those used in university labs. is like inside large planets like Jupiter.
70 Vol. 6 Issue 7
FEELING THE
SQUEEZE
How pressures in the
real world compare to
those created by the
diamond anvil cell.
that it squeezes the structure, slowly decreasing electricity through a chemical reaction with oxygen.
the distances between the atoms in the unit cell. Another hotbed of research is in superconductivity
The advantage of using diamonds is that they are materials that allow for the ow of electrons without
transparent, meaning that X-rays can then be used any resistance, such as magnesium diobride (MgB2).
to measure the structure of the material and how Most superconductors need to be cooled down to
it changes under pressure without the diamond 200C before the effect kicks in, but it would be a
affecting the signal from the sample (see Putting boon for power distribution if a room-temperature
pressure under the microscope, left). superconductor could be found. By applying pressure
Using diamond anvil cells, researchers can study to these compounds, it can either increase the
materials under pressure at different temperatures. temperature at which they become superconducting or
Andrew Jephcoat, a physicist at the University of can even make a compound that isnt superconducting
Oxford, is using pressure to explore how hydrogen at ambient pressure suddenly become so.
(chemical symbol H) forms unusual, weakly- Indeed, Oganov, together with Weiwei Zhang
bound compounds with other gases such as krypton at New York State, have used their crystal structure
(chemical symbol Kr) and xenon. This has led them prediction program called USPEX to calculate
to discover a new range of strange compounds such that a whole range of exotic materials should exist,
as Kr(H2)4. These materials are of interest because even at normal ambient conditions. It will keep
they reveal the complexity of bonding possible and experimentalists busy for some years to come in
they help explain how hydrogen itself may behave attempting to create and make uses for them. This is
at extreme pressure, says Jephcoat. He adds that only the beginning, Oganov declares.
the work could be used to design new materials for
use in hydrogen storage. This is a key technology
for fuel cells that could be used in cars, for example, MICHAEL BANKS is news editor of Physics World and has a PhD in
since it converts the chemical energy from a fuel into condensed matter physics
Vol. 6 Issue 7 71
WILD HORSES
GHOST
RIDERS
Wild horses rule the Ghost Forest of Alberta,
Canada, descendants of ancient domesticated
animals. Eleanor OHanlon saddled up to ride
with them and discover their rich social lives
Photos by JAMES ANDERSON
72 Vol. 6 Issue 7
e may see wild horses any time now, Maureen
W Enns says. At that moment her chestnut mare,
Hope, stops suddenly, ears pricked. I halt my
gelding, Amigo, and we listen. Nothing stirs in the
dappled green shade between the aspens, but Hope has
clearly sensed something that we cant.
I hear a breathy huuf. Among wild herds, that audible
exhalation is a signal by the lead horse: move. Hopes
tension slackens immediately and she walks forward
without prompting, her long strides leading us still deeper
into the forest. I follow on Amigo as the mare steps surely
between beds of sphagnum moss and fallen aspens. We
wind through dense stands of spruce and pine, so thickly
clad with lichens that the trees glow grey-white among
the shadows. Theyre visible reminders of the name given
to this area of mixed marshland, lake and boreal forest on
the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains in southern
Alberta: the Ghost Forest.
Hope is my teacher in the language of wild horses,
Maureen had told me earlier. Raised among wild herds,
the mare still responds to their cues. One day, she stopped
suddenly on the trail, Maureen recalls. I trust her, so I
froze, too. Then I saw the black hairs of a horses tail ick
briey into the light. Wild horses had been there all
along, standing very still in the shadows, and Hope
Vol. 6 Issue 7 73
WILD HORSES
was responding to the stallions signal to the herd an wild herds, I keep seeing things that completely shatter that
instruction to freeze. preconception, she added.
That moment demonstrated how the wild horses of the When I rst spoke to Maureen, she described the horses
Ghost Forest had learned to protect themselves by hiding rich social lives, the careful education of youngsters by the
like deer, standing motionless in the forest where tree adults, the empathy and care she had witnessed among the
trunks break up the animals outlines. Such adaptations wild herds. Seven years of study have convinced her that
have helped the horses to survive for over 100 years in a these horses are not simply domestic escapees they
habitat where they could avoid human contact, sharing have truly rewilded.
their range instead with wolves, cougars and grizzly bears Ive loved horses all my life and thought I knew them
The stallions as well as other herbivores such as deer, moose and elk. but talking to Maureen exposed my limited understanding.
ehmen grimace That moment sparked a determination in Maureen to So when she invited me to ride with her among the wild
exposes the learn more about these remarkable animals. She began to herd, I leapt at the opportunity.
vomeronasal gland, study them on horseback and on foot, installing a network
enhancing the
detection of female
of remote cameras to minimise the disturbance. Mane attraction
hormones and, A wildlife artist whose work ows from her intense We glimpse them rst through gaps between the aspens
thus, mares engagement with the natural world, Maureen has spent glossy, dark-brown bodies on the marshland down by
in oestrus years in a remote part of Kamchatka, in the Russian the lake. Six stallions are grazing among the sedges, their
Far East. There she raised orphan brown bear summer coats gleaming in the sunshine. They are sleek,
cubs, learning how to communicate with muscled, t in the Darwinian sense, their beauty sculpted
the bears directly so that she could live by natural selection. In this harsh mountain land, they face
among them without fear. Maureen predators and winter temperatures plunging below 30C.
had believed that living in such As they approach sexual maturity at about two years
wilderness for so long instilled in old young males are driven from the family herd and
her an open mind. Yet when she join other stallions in bachelor bands, remaining with their
rst came into contact with the male peers till they are mature enough to attract a mate and
wild horses, she realised that she start a family of their own. Bachelor bands have a denite
saw these free-roaming creatures social structure. Young studs may spar playfully, testing
as domestic animals. But as I watch the one anothers strength and determination, but they cluster
WILD HORSES IN NORTH AMERICA
Horses evolved in the Americas some Horses also ranged throughout
four million years ago, migrating into Europe, as far south as Iberia, and
Some 800 wild horses Eurasia where they diversified to eastwards into Russia, China and
are estimated to roam produce asses and zebras. American Mongolia. Wild horses even inhabited
the Alberta foothills of
the Rocky Mountains. populations fluctuated with climatic the harsh tundra regions of northern
shifts, sometimes becoming extinct Siberia, from the Yamal Peninsula to the
and being restored by migrations Kolyma River in the far east.
around a leader whose authority they recognise. across the land bridge linking Asia with Today, wild horses are recognised
Isnt it dangerous to ride a mare around wild stallions? modern-day Alaska. The fossil of an as native European wildlife, making
I know from experience that I couldnt be safer, Maureen ancestral species Equus lambei, dated a valuable contribution to ecological
avers. These wild stallions have been raised by the herd to 700,000BC, was found in the Yukon. diversity and the rewilding of
and taught to respect the mares. They may approach and During the last glacial period, at least European landscapes. Konik horses,
look, but they wont come near if theyre not invited. two subspecies of the modern horse representatives of an ancient breed,
We ride on through aspen stands and grassy clearings Equus caballus grazed North America, have been released in the Netherlands,
to a second lake set among sedge meadows, dwarf birch alongside a variety of large mammals and the Rewilding Europe project
and bog willow. The forested slopes beyond rise to the including the woolly mammoth. They released a group of Andalusian
snow-covered peaks and turrets of the Rockies, lling died out about 11,000 years ago. Retuerta horses in Spain in 2012.
the horizon.
A family band of mares, foals, colts and llies grazes at During the Pleistocene
the far end of the lake. The head stallion feeds slightly apart era, horses lived alongside
mammoths, reindeer and
from the group; he is lean, ribs distinct, his black face and lions in North America
sides scored with white scars from battles with other studs
eager to claim one of his mares for themselves.
A solitary stallion, a glossy bay, grazes alone some 20m
MAURICIO ANTON/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY
Primal team
As we stand quietly in the shadows, a wolf materialises
from the trees. Maureen gasps as the lone, dark-grey
predator stalks towards the horses. I focus my binoculars
on the black stallion, expecting a tense encounter as he
Vol. 6 Issue 7 75
WILD HORSES
78 Vol. 6 Issue 7
TECH HUB
Vol. 6 Issue 7 79
TECH HUB
BMW M4
www.bmw.com
80 Vol. 6 Issue 7
AUDI A8 www.audi.com
Vol. 6 Issue 7 81
TECH HUB
LEXUS
LS 600H
www.lexus.com
Panelled with walnut and draped ed job keep everything serene. The
in leather, the LS 600h has all LS 600h was the car in which we
the opulence of a stately home.. felt most isolated from the outside
But beneath the old-fashioned world. Even on the noisy, y potholed
demeanour is a strikingly modern M25, the inside of the cabin was
petrol-electric hybrid engine relatively sedate.
similar in a sense to what youd Again, the car is always
nd in a Toyota Prius. casting a watchful eye over the
Tacking an electric motor onto road. Radar that is sensitive
a ve-litre V8 might seem futile enough to pick up individual
ecologically speaking (though we pedestrians monitors the adjacent
did average around 28mpg), but lanes and sends out a warning if
its not there to save the planet. you start to switch lanes without ACQUIRING APPS
What it is there to do is move checking your blind spot all the The LS 600h can be improved with apps that give you access
quickly and silently. Unlike a petrol while monitoring the car in front in to local information and radio from around the world
engine, the battery-powered case it needs to ready the brakes
motor, which is charged from the and safety systems for a crash.
wheels when the car coasts, can Unfortunately, the on-board ENGINE SIZE 4,696 CC
deliver all of its power the second computer isnt as smart or as
you stamp your foot on the pedal. relaxing to use as the rest of the HORSEPOWER 389HP @ 6,400 RPM
This means if you need to move all car. Its controlled via a small
2.8 tonnes of the car in a hurry, joystick, which more often than
MPG* 32.8 MPG
you dont need to wait for the not causes you to glide over the
petrol engine to reach its peak rev option you wanted. Generally
0-60MPH* 6.2 seconds
range. And since this is a bit of a speaking it slows everything down,
limousine it doesnt hurt that itll and puts you off using the clever
do all this silently, too. features packed behind its 12-inch DIMENSIONS 5.2 X 1.9 X 1.5M, 2,815KG
Most of the technology through- display.Q Q Q Q Q
out is channelled to do that very
PHOTO: THESECRETSTUDIO.NET
82 Vol. 6 Issue 7
MERCEDES
S500 AMG L www.mercedes-benz.com
Vol. 6 Issue 7 83
Win A Pair of Cathay Movie Passes!
(30 pairs to be won)
Opened in 2004, Wild Wild Wet is one of Singapores largest
water park. Situated in Downtown East, it remains one of the BBC KNOWLEDGE MAGAZINE / NTUC CLUB
most popular family attractions in Singapore by NTUC Club.
PROMOTION
Send your entry via email to marketing@regentmedia.sg or post it
Over here, we promise you a day of thrills and spills for the whole
to: BBC Knowledge Magazine / NTUC Club Promotion, Regent Media
family, from adrenalin-pumping rides to relaxing and gentle ones. Pte Ltd, 20 Bedok South Road, Singapore 469277.
Visitors are guaranteed a full-filled day while they beat the heat. Closing date: 31 JULY 2014
Celebrate our 10th Birthday Bash on 2nd August with fun
filled activities and games. Amidst the unusual water-based Question: Name any 2 rides in Wild Wild Wet.
percussion sounds, our life-sized sea creature mascots will
be joining our festive splash! On top of that, there is also dive
NAME: ...................................................................................... AGE: ..........................
in for the Aqua Zumba dancercise in water to Latin and other
international musical beats. OCCUPATION: .............................................................................................................
Make your Wild Wild Wet visit extra fun with games specially
NRIC: ...................................................................... DOB: ............................................
prepared for our birthday, so do take part in our contest from
14 July to win free entry to the party. Visit Downtown East on ADDRESS: ....................................................................................................................
Facebook for more details.
........................................................................................................................................
EMAIL: ...........................................................................................................................
& SUSAN
BLACKMORE
Susan is a visiting
psychology
professor at the
University
of Plymouth. Her
books include The
Meme Machine
DR ALASTAIR
GUNN
Alastair is a
radio astronomer
at the Jodrell
Bank Centre for
Astrophysics at
the University of
Manchester
ROBERT
MATTHEWS
After studying
physics at Oxford,
Robert became a
science writer. Hes
a visiting reader in
science at Aston
University
GARETH
MITCHELL
Starting out
as a broadcast
engineer, Gareth
now writes and
presents Digital
Planet on the BBC
World Service
LUIS
VILLAZON
Luis has a BSc in
computing and an
MSc in zoology
from Oxford. His
works include
How Cows Reach
The Ground
editorial-bbcknowledge@regentmedia.sg
PHOTO: SHELL
Vol. 6 Issue 7 85
&
In Numbers
What
W h percentage of the Universe is
3.253
seconds is the time that an ARM-processor-
visible from Earth?
powered robot made from Lego solved a Rubiks We can happily observe
Cube, beating the previous record of 5.27s. everything in the
Universe up to 46 billion
light-years away
86 Vol. 6 Issue 7
Its a smelly job,
but someones
got to do it
Why do we get
used to smells?
Our nervous system has evolved to
become progressively less sensitive to a
stimulus, the longer it persists. This enables
us to concentrate on the newest sensations
that are more likely to be an opportunity or a
threat. We also have an olfactory memory that
discards smells that we have experienced
recently. This means that you dont notice the
smell of your house when you come home
from work, but it smells strange when you
come back from holiday. LV
What keeps
How many different types of electrons moving?
knots are there? Electrons are often portrayed whizzing
round the nuclei of atoms like planets
orbiting stars. Theory shows, however,
that if electrons really did behave like this,
People have been inventing has revealed the existence of truly
theyd rapidly lose energy and crash into the
knots for millennia; the oldest fundamental ones that cant be
nuclei. The reality is much more abstract,
known used in a shing net unravelled into collections of
with electrons being more like fuzzy clouds
found in Finland in 1913 dates simpler ones.
surrounding the nuclei. RM
from around 8000BC. Thousands Taking prime numbers as an
are now known, but theyre not all analogy which cant be divided
unique: some are just combina- by anything other than them-
tions of others. selves and one these are so-
Actually deciding whether two called prime knots. The simplest
apparently different tangles of is the so-called trefoil knot; a
string are really just the same combination of two of these form
knot in disguise or some com- the famous granny knot. Theres
bination is far from simple. So to an innite number of prime knots,
bring some order to the chaos, and these form an innite number
mathematicians have developed of composite knots. I wouldnt go
ways of classifying knots. This trying to untangle them all! RM
Vol. 6 Issue 7 87
&
TOP TEN
DEADLIEST SNAKES
Does taking pictures help us remember things?
Based on the LD50 (lethal dose 50%) test -
the amount of venom required to kill half a Sometimes, but it can also do the less detail of the photographed items.
test pool of mice, expressed in mg/kg opposite. Photography can spoil our However, the effect was fragile. If they
memories if we rely on having pictures zoomed in on specified areas of the
to take home instead of enjoying life as it objects, they recalled more details not
1. Hook-nosed happens. Tourists who hold their phones fewer, even recalling details that were not
seasnake or cameras up all day cannot look properly in the photos.
LD50 (mg/kg): 0.02 at the sights, let alone engage deeply Indeed photographs can help memory in
ICS.COM, ALAMY X5, SUPERSTOCK, SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY
Length: up to 1.5m with people and emotions. A specific other ways. Concentrating while choosing
Location: South Asia waters
photo-taking-impairment effect a shot requires attention which in
was recently discovered when turn aids memory. And looking at
2. Russells viper students photographed 15 objects photos later helps us remember
LD50 (mg/kg): 0.03 in a museum and just looked at more about the context and the
Length: up to 1.7m
Location: Asia 15 others. They remembered events we chose to record. SB
4. Duboiss reef
seasnake
LD50 (mg/kg): 0.04
PHOTO: THINKSTOCK X2, PETER WOODARD/WIKIPEDIA, ALOAIZA/WIKIPEDIA, NIGEL MARSH/SEAPICS.COM,
Length: up to 1.5m
Location: Australian waters
5. Eastern brownsnake
LD50 (mg/kg): 0.05
Length: up to 2.4m
Location: Australia, Papua New
Guinea, Indonesia
5. Black mamba
LD50 (mg/kg): 0.05
Length: up to 4.5m
Location: Sub-Saharan Africa
If you could store food in a perfect vacuum,
7. Tiger rattlesnake
how long would it remain edible?
LD50 (mg/kg): 0.06
Length: up to 0.9m Food spoils because of chemical To preserve flavour, the dried strawberries
Location: Southwestern USA in some breakfast cereals are preserved
changes and the growth of bacteria. There
are plenty of bacteria that dont need by freezing them and then drying them in a
oxygen to survive and some of the most vacuum. LV
8. Boomslang
dangerous ones actually require an oxygen-
LD50 (mg/kg): 0.07
Length: up to 2.0m free environment to grow. Vacuum-packing
Location: Sub-Saharan food can actually activate the spores of
Africa Clostridium botulinum, which causes
botulism, for example. So a vacuum doesnt
8. Yellow-bellied protect food by itself. Food that is vacuum
seasnake sealed is first cooked to kill any existing
LD50 (mg/kg): 0.07
bacteria and then packaged to prevent new
Length: up to 1.1m
Location: Pacic, Indian Oceans bacteria getting in. Vacuum packing is about
as effective as canning in this regard and
10. Common Indian some foods can last several years.
krait If you just expose food unprotected to a
LD50 (mg/kg): 0.09 vacuum, it will rapidly lose moisture. This
Length: up to 2.1m prevents bacteria from growing, but it also Clostridium botulinum wakes up when it nds itself
Location: India
changes the taste and texture of the food. in a vacuum and can then make you very ill indeed
88 Vol. 6 Issue 7
www.bbc-asia.com BBC Knowledge Asia @BBCKnow_Asia
&
90 Vol. 6 Issue 7
What causes addiction?
Addictive drugs interfere with neuro- that induce pleasure and reduce pain. The
transmitters, the chemicals that transmit brain responds by reducing the number and
signals around the brain, and their receptors. sensitivity of its opioid receptors so that more
This causes changes to the brains reward of the drug is needed. Nicotine increases
system. This can create craving and dopamine and activates the brains rewards
tolerance, so that a higher dose is needed pathways. Again, the brain compensates so
to have the same effect. Some also have that more nicotine is required.
unpleasant withdrawal symptoms that are People can also become addicted to
only relieved by taking more. Heroin is the activities such as sex, gambling or shopping,
most addictive drug known. It mimics the but the mechanisms underlying these Heroin, seen here under a micrograph, alters the brains
brains own endorphins, the natural opioids addictions are less well understood. SB reward system leading to addiction
Vol. 6 Issue 7 91
&
It is, of course, difcult to deduce the comes from studies of gas clouds. By
appearance of something when you are measuring the velocities and positions
embedded within it! But astronomers can of these clouds, astronomers are able to
map the distribution of the stars and their show that they are distributed in a loose
motions quite easily. This shows us that spiral pattern around the galactic centre.
the stars of the Milky Way are orbiting However, astronomers are unsure how
a central bulge (in the constellation many spiral arms there are.
Sagittarius) and are distributed in a So, although we cant see the Milky Way
thin plane. from the outside, the evidence suggests it
The most convincing evidence for has a structure much like the other spiral
the spiral structure of the Milky Way galaxies we see around us. AG
This chap at the UKs Electricity National Control
Centre is going to have a tough job come 2035
92 Vol. 6 Issue 7
How long could humans survive if
all green vegetation disappeared?
If green plants literally vanished, Long before that almost every land ecosystems depend on the photosynthesis
there would be massive oods and ecosystem would have collapsed as of unicellular algae, rather than green
landslides as the soil lost the stabilising the herbivores, and then the carnivores, plants. We might even be able to cultivate
effect of plant roots, and rainwater ran starved to death. Humans probably the algae ourselves. Marine algae also
straight off the surface. If they were all wouldnt die out completely though. produce about 50 per cent of Earths
killed by a mysterious virus, there would Existing food stocks would last about oxygen, so there would still be plenty to
be enormous wildres as dead forests a year in developed countries and we breathe particularly since we would be
became tinder-dry. could still get food from the sea. Marine virtually the only land animal left. LV
Extracting oil is
like sucking it
from a sponge
Vol. 6 Issue 7 93
Resource A feast for the mind
Paperback Hardback
Do No Harm
Stories Of Life, Death And MEET THE AUTHOR
Brain Surgery
Henry Marsh
Weidenfeld & Nicolson
94 Vol. 6 Issue 7
The EExtreme
treme Life Of The Sea IInheritance
h it Island On Fire
Stephen R Palumbi and How Our Genes Change Our Lives The Extraordinary Story Of Laki, The Volcano
Anthony R And Our Lives Change Our Genes That Turned Eighteenth-Century Europe Dark
Palumbi Sharon Moalem Alexandra Witze and Jeff Kanipe
Princeton University Press Sceptre Profile Books
One of the snags of accessible science If you were to raise a chimpanzee as a The last time clouds of ash from an
books is that they can be anything but. The human you would still get a chimpanzee, Icelandic eruption paid us a visit, the
dazzling intellect of Dawkins and Gould and this tells us that the genes we inherit result was mayhem: the cancellation of
can intimidate even when stripped down from our parents really do matter. But the more than 100,000 ights wrecking the
for mere mortals like us, so it was with scientic study of epigenetics is showing travel plans of 10 million people. It could,
some trepidation that I opened The Extreme that our genetic destiny is not xed at however, have been far worse. In 1783, a
Life Of The Sea. conception: how we are brought up, what vast outpouring of lava from the islands
Such reservations were swiftly quashed. we eat or even how our parents were Laki volcano loaded the atmosphere with
Its a book full of big, juicy, well-I-never brought up and what they ate, can affect noxious sulphur gases, which the weather
facts, written in a highly entertaining style our genes. Rats fed spinach are resistant to then launched towards Europe.
that will appeal to all. Did you know that some cancers, because compounds in the As the authors observe in this
swordsh heat their eyeballs to improve spinach modify genes that help to ght fascinating account of the blast, the result
their vision? Me neither. That such a thing these cancers. Female mice given vitamins was a smog-ridden summer, swiftly
as an immortal jellysh exists? And - my can benet their offspring by modifying followed by a bitter winter, as the gaseous
personal favourite - that certain viruses their genes to make them less susceptible shroud blocked out the Sun. One-fth
infect winkles specically so they commit to diabetes. of Icelands inhabitants died during the
suicide by losing their fear of heights? Sharon Moalems breezy Inheritance resulting famine, while across Europe,
This is a terric book, a celebration of recounts the latest in a rapidly growing the young, old and inrm succumbed to
the extraordinary adaptations of marine list of ways that environmental factors the smog and weather; around 20,000
life, a eulogy to the complexity of the can alter genes, and how those alterations extra deaths occurred in England alone.
ecosystems of the sea, as well as a lament can inuence health. We dont yet know Signs of this cull may be gleaned by a
about the potential fate that awaits the how these effects will translate to humans, visit to a graveyard. I went over to one
oceans if mans destructive activities but the era of the designer gene is being nearby and the rst two gravestones I
continue unfettered. ushered in, and insurance companies and encountered both recorded deaths in
Its a book for anyone who has peered your doctor will want to get in on the act. late 1783. Coincidence? Probably, but as
into a rock pool and marvelled at its You can stay one step ahead by reading the authors warn, the impact of the next
contents, and a perfect gateway - open Moalems account of this fascinating, and Icelandic blast may ruin far more than a
to all - into the wonderful world of sometimes alarming, new eld. few package holidays.
marine science.
MONTY HALLS is a marine biologist and BBC TV MARK PAGEL is head of the Evolutionary Biology GILES SPARROW is a science writer and the
presenter Group at the University of Reading author of Physics In Minutes
It is 55 years since the great American physicist importance of self assembly, learning from
Richard Feynman speculated on the potential natures ability to make complex structures
to build objects a few atoms across. Since then, from simple instructions, then go on to
it might seem that nanotechnology has gone discuss graphene and the possibilities for
nowhere. Weve heard more about ctional nanomedicine.
nanobots rebelling as all-consuming grey goo However, the images, while striking, are
than wondrous new tech. But Nanoscience poorly laid out and the ow of a good popular
demonstrates that there have been many science book is missing. Instead you are
remarkable developments. bombarded with facts and artistic interpret-
The early prophets of nanotechnology ations. Nanoscience has great content, but is
Nanoscience assumed it would involve tiny but traditional let down by the presentation.
Giants Of The Innitesimal feats of engineering. However, on the scale of
Peter Forbes and Tom Grimsey cells and large molecules, different forces BRIAN CLEGG is the author of Dice World: Science And
Papadakis apply. Forbes and Grimsey take us through the Life In A Random Universe
Vol. 6 Issue 7 95
Time Out
In the know SET BY DAVID J BODYCOMBE
A bizarre quacking sound heard in In what year was this photograph Whats unusual about the cave-
1 the Southern Ocean for 50 years 5 the first ever selfie taken? 10 dwelling insect Neotrogla?
has been revealed as what? a) 1779 a) The males eat their own faeces
a) The underwater callings of b) 1839 b) The females have penis-like sex
Antarctic minke whales c) 1899 organs
b) The sound of ice calving from c) The juveniles are bigger than the
glaciers The sele isnt adults
c) Sonar chirps from nearby such a modern
phenomenon
submarines
after all
11 Complete the recent headline:
________ have structurally
Scientists in the UK and Ireland have different brains
2 made graphene using which
a) Monkeys
common household appliance? b) Lawyers
a) Kitchen blender c) Artists
b) Vacuum cleaner
c) Electric iron
PHOTO: US LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, TOM RUEN/WIKIPEDIA, ADAM BURROWS/JASON NORDHAUS/PRINCETON UNIVERSITY
96 Vol. 6 Issue 7
Crossword No.165
ACROSS
8 Many not worried that it means the opposite (7)
9 Dim dealer moved within hearing (6,3)
13 Money for a large animal (5)
14 Closest relative caught that fellow parking (5)
15 Right to chat about alien it has teeth (7)
16 Musical right for mechanic (7)
17 Classical moulding gives a sign, we hear (5)
18 Route deviated to exterior (5)
20 Copper has time to add avouring (5)
22 Patiently sorting out priorities (6)
23 Divert rain by using base 2 (6)
25 Depressed, perplex an Arctic creature (4,3)
27 Brew causes commotion (7)
30 Vices constructed with large attachment device (6)
31 Policeman in his element (6)
32 The best dairy product (5)
35 Only application left for a dipper (5)
36 Article about my hybrid herb (5)
37 Overexcited to take on a particle (7)
39 Key result about some stars (7)
41 Harass a dog (5)
42 Bishop joins rst victim in the Tower (5)
43 A new client working with one rock formation (9)
44 Bird found in no Homer translation (7)
DOWN
1 Needing correction without Dutch machine (6)
2 One dip soon affected pigment in the eye (8)
3 Scorn thorny development of particle accelerator (11)
4 Membrane paid off note harm has moved round (9)
5 Talk at a location (7)
6 Import goes mad and shows growth with respect to gravity (10) SOLUTION TO CROSSWORD
7 Sailor returns to church composer (4) 162 QUIZ
10 Soldier in cart accident very sad (6) ANSWERS
11 Attach appendage to duck (7) 12A, 13C
12 Level fable about additive (6) 9B, 10B, 11C,
19 Student in a terribly spruce exterior, say (7) 5B, 6C, 7A, 8B,
21 Frenchman sees everyone use wrong bone (7) 1A, 2A, 3C, 4A,
24 Wasted rather toned gure (11)
26 Flap about pigs toilet (10)
28 College afterwards got point of plastic (9) HOWDID YOU
29 Egypt pushes out Greek city (7) SCORE?
30 Coal spread around cavity (6) 0-4 Pulling a moonie
32 Rodent may pray a cab has been ordered (8) 5-9 Reaching for the moon
33 Fellow let loose below the crust (6) 10-13 Over the moon
34 Antiseptic monster I learn about (7)
38 Flexible game (6) *Last issues solution was for crossword
161, we apologise for the labelling error.
40 Supporter of foul nature (4)
37 Alternatively cultivate each vegetable plant (6)
Vol. 6 Issue 7 97
The Last Word
It may not have held up, but the Steady State theory was a thing of beauty
feature of beautiful description not of our clunky Universe, but of the Multiverse, in all
things: symmetry. its maximally symmetric beauty.
Most people regard symmetry merely as some kind of appealing Sadly, I probably wont be around in 2064 to collect my winnings.
regularity. But to theoreticians, its far more profound. It gives them But remember - you heard it here rst.
unchanging properties they can rely on to build models of reality.
For example, they regard the Universe as having spatial symmetry;
that is, on the grandest scales, it looks the same at all points and in all
directions. But the Big Bang universe lacks one key symmetry. On
the grandest timescales, its not the same. It lacks temporal symmetry. ROBERT MATTHEWS is Visiting Reader in Science at Aston University, Birmingham
98 Vol. 6 Issue 7
Korea Tourism Organization and Korea MICE Bureau take pride in establishing Korea as the premier destination for MICE visitor.
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