questions

& Answers

DO CHILDREN HAVE A BETTER

SENSE OF SMELL THAN
ADULTS?
Newborns can only smell a few different things, such as their
mother’s body smell. Sense of smell improves up to about the age
of eight. But, from the age of 20 (or even 15, according to some
studies), the sense gently declines. Yet, some studies have
found that children can’t detect certain musk odours until
they reach puberty. LV
WILL ELECTRIC CARS REDUCE
CAN PHOTOSYNTHESIS
BE RECREATED IN THE LAB?
Photosynthesis is the process of using light energy to convert
carbon dioxide into oxygen and carbohydrates.
Plants and bacteria have been doing this happily for billions
of years. In 1912, an Italian chemist called Giacomo Ciamician
had the idea to copy nature. Eighty years later, the Swedish

POLLUTION? Consortium for Artificial Photosynthesis was established to work

on the problem in earnest. Since then, artificial photosynthesis
Electric vehicles’ engines don’t churn out polluting fumes, making has been a major area of research all around the globe.
them the obvious choice for improving local air quality in towns The tricky things are making it efficient at the relatively low
and cities. But, although they have the potential to drastically cut concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and turning
pollution, they are only as green as the electricity they run on. the lab-based science into a working technology! ML
Given that most electricity globally is still produced by burning
fossil fuels, charging an electric car can indirectly generate
similar amounts of greenhouse gases to a petrol-powered vehicle,
particularly in countries that rely heavily on coal power. As the world
embraces renewable energy, electric cars will increasingly gain
the upper hand in years to come. AFC

PHOTOS: GETTY X3 ILLUSTRATIONS: RAJA LOCKEY

14
DECEMBER 2017
 questions
& Answers

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

TELEVISION

JOHN LOGIE PHILO

BAIRD FARNSWORTH
Transmitting signals over long distances was one of
the greatest triumphs of 19th-century inventors. Yet even
their ingenuity failed to solve the ultimate challenge:
the transmission of clear sound and images. Many tried, QUESTION OF THE MONTH
leading to a long list of supposed ‘pioneers’ of television,

WHY ARE
the most famous being the Scottish inventor John
Logie Baird. In January 1926 he gave the first-ever
demonstration of the transmission of moving images,
and, by 1929, Baird was selling ‘Televisor’ sets for £25 –
MOST PEOPLE
RIGHT
equivalent to £1,500 today. Baird’s design offered small,
flickering, black-and-white images and involved the use
of a spinning, perforated disk invented in 1894 by
German engineer Paul Nipkow that scanned images
for transmission as electrical signals.

The technology needed to give television its mass
appeal is generally credited to the brilliant American
inventor Philo Farnsworth. While still a teenager, he
realised that emerging electronic technology could scan
images far faster and more finely than any mechanical
device, and, in 1927, he demonstrated the first electronic
television. A bitter patent dispute with the US electronics
company RCA then broke out. Despite ultimately
winning and being awarded a settlement plus royalties,
Farnsworth and his key role in the invention of television
-HANDED?
Many animals show a preference for one side of the body over
another, but the split between right- and left-handed varies. Seven
out of 10 chimpanzees are right-handed, but almost all kangaroos
are left-handed. In cats, males are nearly all left-handed and
females are nearly all right-handed. Humans have a higher
proportion of right-handers than any species, with left-handers
PHOTOS: GETTY X3, ALAMY X2, ANDREI REINOL

are now largely forgotten. RM making up just 10 per cent of the population. This is because we are
Post-war German a tool-using species, and also highly social. The very earliest flint
television tools, around two million years ago, don’t show a strong bias
towards left- or right-handed versions. But it’s a big advantage if you
can use the tools someone else has made, and, from about 1.5
million years ago, we seem to have standardised on the right-
handed versions. It’s not exactly clear why right-handedness won,
but it may be that one side of our brain was already specialised
for fine-motor control. One theory why left-handedness hasn’t been
completely eliminated is that it provides an advantage in combat,
precisely because it is rarer, and, therefore, unexpected. You can
see this today in sports like tennis, where left-handed professionals
16 are more common than in the general population. LV
DECEMBER 2017