,
November 08
Contents
THE TRUTH ABOUT TOP 10 COSMIC THE NUCLEAR BOMBS Ho
HOLLYWOOD SCIENCE p68 MYSTERIES p66 TESTED INDOORS p40 pimp your w to
iP
SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY FUTURE
hone
p79
Issue 196 November 2008 £3.60 www.bbcfocusmagazine.com
“It’s a car, Jim
The car of the
FUTURE
Q&A
Is space travel
bad for you? p45
Find out what you’ll be but not as we
driving in 2030 p24
know it”
Netbooks test
Smaller than a laptop,
better than a Blackberry p78
Climate gamble PLUS
Why we still can’t really James May
predict the weather p52
designs his ultimate 1 1
next-gen Á ying car p26
9 770966 427098 Issue guide
24
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MegaPixel MegaPixel
Monster muncherWhat’s astonishing about this
mechanical beast is not so much its size, it’s the fact that its whopping 14,196 tonnes can be driven. Made
in Germany for shifting earth in open cast mines, the RB293 excavator stands 94.5m (310ft) tall – about the
same height as a 26-storey building. It holds the Guinness World Record as the largest land vehicle and can move MegaPixel 6
because huge caterpillar tracks evenly distribute its weight over a large area.As you’d expect, it isn’t exactly
nippy. It took over three weeks to crawl a mere 22km (13.6 miles) when it was driven to Garzweiler coal mine
in Germany. But what it lacks in speed, it makes up in excavating prowess. The giant wheel turns 18 bucket
scoops that eat into the earth before dumping their load onto a conveyor belt. In a single day it can shift
240,000m3 (8.475 million ft3) of earth, almost enough to fi ll 10 Olympic-sized swimming pools.
Bundle of nervesIt may look like a piece of modern
art, but this interwoven network Astounding images of the most of colourful squiggles is actually a work of science. It’s been created by
the Switzerland-based Blue Brain project, which was set up to develop a biologically accurate, functional model
of the mammalian brain. The image is a computer simulation of nerve activity in a rat’s neocortical column,
the building block of a mammal’s grey matter. The colours correspond to different levels of electrical activity.
Using IBM’s Blue Gene supercomputer, scientists processed years of experimental data on brain
structure to set the specifi cations of their simulation. Each nerve cell or neuron is biologically accurate, both in
terms of its function and the other CORDS neurons it’s connected to. The task involved accurately positioning 30
D RERL million synapses, or nerve junctions. O Project scientists think the human
SS W brain could be completely modelled within a decade. Ultimately, a INNEUG /EPFL biologically-accurate model of the
Y/ JECT brain will aid research into brain amazing things caught on cameraO function and dysfunction, increasing our understanding of brain disorders
and the ways in which they could be UE BRAIN PR cured and treated.
RICHARD BRADBUR BL6 NoN vembembbereer r 2002200008 wwwwwww..bbbcbbcfof cusmusmagagagazzinziinne.cece comm wwwwwwwwww.bb.b.bbbbcfcffoocuscucuussmagmagagaziaiazazziinene.e.ccoomom No NNoNovevememberbeberer 20 2 20200808 7 10 NoNoovvembeemmmbber erer 20022000008 w w wwww .bbcbbbbbccfofooccusmuusssmmagaagaggaazinzziininece.ce comom wwwwwwwwww.b.bb.bbbbcfcffoocucuscususmagmmaaaggazaziazizinenee..cocomom No NNoNoveveemmbeberberer 2 2022000808 11
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Update
FAC E BOOK FACELIFT
Up
Novemb
dat
er 08
e
Steam car brews PROTESTSup a storm p15
Need to know It can give you gangrene, but venom from the brown recluse spider isn’t all bad – it’s been Earth escapes deadly blast p15 Social networking found to contain compounds that
Your mobile could be a mind reader p17
Txt tlk cld lnd u in crt
website Facebook could treat impotence or arthritis.The latest intelligence Alien ant found on Earth p18 has had a Cash boost for ‘green’ rocketThe LHC’s future revealed p20 makeover – and
A space travel company has won a Starchaser is planning to use its rockets not everyone’s happy with it. The grant of over £130,000 to develop a as a recovery system for astronauts Beware – your text messages could Linguistic analysis of texts looks at a
A drug used by sports Texting styles identify a site had initially more eco-friendly rocket engine, which trapped on stricken spacecraft. It would land you in court. A new technique has whole range of variables. “Some people cheats could help improve message’s true author let its users stick may also make spacefl ight safer for dock with the troubled vehicle and provide been developed that can help experts leave out words so the text sounds more with the old astronauts. Starchaser Industries, run an escape pod for the crew. Such escape memory. Biologists at Germany’s Update 13
tell whether you wrote a message or not, like a telegram and others will text in design, but now Max Planck Institute have found
China leads the
by Salford University lecturer Steve systems have been used by Russian something that could be vital evidence in abbreviations. If they do abbreviate, they they’re being Bennett, will spend the money from astronauts for years. “The space shuttle erythropoietin (EPO) increases the a criminal case. fall into a pattern,” Grant tells Focus. forced to switch to the Northwest Regional Development was considered so safe it didn’t need an effi ciency of nerve impulses in the
Knowing who wrote a text message “At the moment, the best linguistic the new format. brain. The fi nding could help with Some users have Agency on developing the engine, which escape system,” says Bennett, who aims to can play a pivotal role in a hearing. But experts are probably better than anything the treatment of Alzheimer’s.formed protest uses hydrogen peroxide as propellent, a have a full-sized prototype within a year.linguists often disagree on the analysis. we can do statistically. But the diffi culty is,
groups on technology fi rst used by Germany in their
Asian space race
Now, experts at Aston University in in court it then becomes a battle. Who is Facebook that World War II V2 rockets. Birmingham can bring the analysis the better expert?” other users can The chemical is combined with solid down to cold hard fi gures by adapting a It’s likely to be a few years before join, effectively fuel made from waste materials such as Earth has escaped a dying star’s
technique from a rather different fi eld. the technique is accepted at criminal signing a petition old car tyres and bits of discarded plastic. deadly gamma ray burst that shot “Marine ecologists are interested in hearings. For now, the researchers are against the “What you get out of the tailpipe is carbon towards us at 99.99995 per cent changes. By the of the speed of light. Scientists knowing whether one patch of seabed compiling a database of text messages
end of September, dioxide and water,” says Bennett. While believe the burst ejected enough countries – Japan’s Kaguya mission, is the same as another,” says Dr Tim at www.forensiclinguistics.net/texting to the various CO2 is a greenhouse gas, it can at least be radiation to sterilise an entire currently with three satellites orbiting the Grant, who adapted the same statistical establish a ‘baseline’ of styles, making it protest groups offset, unlike the stuff that comes out of a galaxy. Fortunately, we avoided
Moon, is still ongoing. But China, Japan, technique to texts. “In my fi eld, this easier to spot quirks that will pinpoint their collectively had space shuttle. A shuttle’s rocket boosters that fate because the burst South Korea and India all have plans for technique lets you see whether two text author. In the future, the same technique over 1,000,000 produce hydrochloric acid, which affects occurred 7.5bn light years away.their astronauts to set foot on our natural messages might have the same author.” could be used on emails and forum posts. signatories. wildlife around the launch site. Green rockets could save astronauts lives
satellite. China could well be the fi rst, GOOD NEWS possibly even beating NASA, which aims to return there by 2020. Here’s a rundown
BAD NEWSof who is planning what:
E Should schools lift
THIS MONTH STEAMING AHEAD Your susceptibility to skin cancer All the news and views making waves in
CHINA: A mini space station will be is partly down to luck – whether created in 2010 when the Shenzhou 8
T
their bans on mobiles? Yes, that is steam billowing from the back propel the Inspiration to more than or not you carry a particular unmanned space lab will link up with the genetic variant. Researchers at the 100 YEARS AGO of what looks like a drag racer. The 150mph (241km/h). The British Steam Car Portuguese Institute of Oncology Shenzhou 9 unmanned cargo module A new study has shown just how useful a mobile phone can be in school.
The Cullinan Inspiration is the British-built machine Challenge team, which fi rst featured in found that variations in a gene and the manned Shenzhou 10. A larger Researchers at the University of Nottingham carried out a nine-month diamond – the that’s aiming to smash the world Focus in the January issue, had been known to regulate cell cycles The Chinese crew space station is planned for the longer investigation and found that pupils were able to use their mobiles for largest rough-cut steam-powered land speed record – and hoping to make their record attempt this can increase your chances of
embark on their term. Friendly nations like Iran and tasks like creating short movies or setting homework reminders. After the gem-quality its testing phase is well under way. Water autumn at the Bonneville Salt Flats in developing malignant melanoma historic voyage Pakistan could cooperate in the study, involving over 300 pupils, the researchers say phone bans should diamond ever is superheated in the car’s 12 boilers and Utah – but they are now looking for an by 80 per cent.programme. China could also beat the LENGE be lifted. But some say mobiles are too much of a distraction, a target for found and worth that results in the scalding plume of alternative location because the car
China’s fi rst ever spacewalk – After their 68-hour mission, Zhigang US to Mars as a manned mission is on
an estimated
VO
thieves and can be used to send bullying text messages. In some cases, £200m – was vapour seen here, which will hopefully wasn’t ready in time.completed on a recent space and fellow astronauts Liu Boming and the cards, for between 2040 and 2060. headteachers have banned phones completely while others say they must delivered to King mission – marked the unoffi cial Jing Haipeng landed in Inner Mongolia. INDIA: If the Chandrayaan-1 mission be switched off during school hours.
Edward and Underachieving sports teams that start of an Asian space race. Zhigang, fi rst out of the craft, said, “It goes well, another unmanned mission TEAM CAR CHAL Queen Alexandra sack their manager in the middle Commander Zhai Zhigang spent 13 was a glorious mission, full of challenges could land a rover on the Moon by Mobiles should be of a season are unlikely to reverse
allowed but switched at Windsor Castle minutes outside of the space module in with a successful end. On behalf of the 2010 or 2011. Russia’s Federal Space their fortunes. Scientists at Mid off in lessons in November an exercise that is thought to be key to motherland, I am very proud.” Agency has agreed to help by supplying S, BRITISH S 1908. A month Sweden University reviewed ice
China’s plans for a space station. China is the fi rst of several countries the rover. The Indian Space Research hockey teams over 30 years. STRIE R 68% later it was taken to the Tower of When Zhigang made his giant leap for in Asia to undertake major missions. As Organisation also plans to send an Those that fi red their managers London, where it failed to make huge improvements.Chinese space technology outside the Focus went to press, India was hoping astronaut into space by 2015.
remains today.Shenzhou 7 module, he was wearing a to launch its Chandrayaan-1 Moon SOUTH KOREA: A relatively new player £2.4m Chinese-made spacesuit. But the mission in October. Loaded with scientifi c in the space race – the country’s fi rst CHASER INDU
AR Uwalk – a huge technical feat – wasn’t instruments, the unmanned orbiter will astronaut Yi So-yeon spent 11 days ST 24% 8% 75 YEARS AGOErwin Schrödinger, without its glitches. stay in the lunar atmosphere for two aboard the International Space Station in VE/ one of the main science over the last month
EAZhigang struggled to open the years. South Korea is building the Naro April. After the launch expected later this Zhai Zhigang’s architects of People who get migraines are module’s hatch and there was a false Space Centre with a launch tower and year, little is known of its future plans. spacewalk – a fi rst All mobile phones Mobile phones should quantum also at higher risk of developing
YO
should be banned be encouraged as a mechanics, alarm from a fi re sensor. Despite these rocket assembly facilities. It is from here JAPAN: Aiming to construct a manned for China – was seen blood clots in their legs, according , CHRIS GL from schools learning tool escaped Nazi setbacks, the 42-year-old fi ghter pilot that the Korea Space Launch Vehicle will lunar base by 2030, with a manned around the world to new research from Innsbruck SSON Germany and Medical University in Austria.
TOS X6 was still able to wave the Chinese fl ag as carry a satellite into space in December. mission to the Moon in 2020 – roughly arrived in Oxford The Inspiration could become the world’s he hovered in space. The Moon is a target for many Asian the same time as China and the US. in November 1933. PHO www.bbcfocusmagazine.com/vote fastest kettlePA SONY ERIC
www.bbcfocusmagazine.com November 2008 13 14 November 2008 www.bbcfocusmagazine.com www.bbbbcfcfoocusmagazinecusmagaziine.cocomm NoNovveember 2008mber 2008 15
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R R R RA 30 A 30 A 30 A 30 C 0 C 0 C 0 C 0 2 2 2 2
THE OF THE OF THE OF THE OF
ON THEPODCAST
...AND HERE’S THE CAR YOU’LL BE DRIVING
SHAPE SEATS ENGINE Boxfi sh-shaped body is blunt-nosed but Passengers face each other on café-style seats Small rear-mounted engine and generator runs The Car of the Future 24tapered, taking lessons from nature – it gives to work or socialise in town or on the motorway. on second-generation bioethanol. Part of a
low drag and lots of cabin space Front seats can pivot to face forward when plug-in hybrid system, it starts only when the there’s danger of travel sickness batteries are depleted
Wi-Fi ROOF WINGS WHEELSWindscreen has Highly effi cient Adjustable winglets – again like a Flat-faced and with narrow tyres to embedded antennae photo-voltaic layer, boxfi sh. These provide down force reduce drag, but their position away
for comprehensive feeding the batteries when cornering, but retract to save from the body allows variable camber, car-to-car Wi-Fi drag in a straight line meaning they lean into the corners like 3it’s still unlikely they will have the battery motorbike wheels, for stronger grip
capacity or quick-charge ability to make COCOOLOLINGthem useful over long distances. Still, ‘‘VVenetiann b blilind’ ggrriillle f feeededs fs frrontont-moountunteed draddiatiatoorrs ts thathat p pumump coolant back to the batteries
The Car of
the electric motors, batteries and control aandnd co combustion engine. Cooling cg causes a lot of electronics they use will also be in pretty drag, so the ‘blind’ opens at low speeds, but closes much every car on the road by then.
foorr r reeducduceed dd drragag a att h higigh speeds whenen airfl o ow cools That’s because it’s overwhelmingly the car more stronglylikely that most 2030 cars will be some
sort of hybrid. Hybrid technology has the potential to improve the consumption of any car, whatever fuel it uses. They can
2030
recoup the vehicle’s kinetic energy by using LEAD STORYtheir motors as generators as the car slows Will it drive itself? Will it down, rather than wasting that energy
as heat in the brakes. And because the electric motors draw some current from the batteries at peak power, the engine doesn’t
have to be so powerful and can be smaller and more effi cient.
The rise of the hybridsHybrids today are usually ‘parallel
hybrids’, meaning that either the engine or the electric motor drives the wheels. By
Right now it is easy to see your uring the next two decades, two hold-ups, and help the driver avoid 2030, there will be more advanced ‘serial things will cause our cars to them. Indeed, if all the possible data hybrids’ in which only the electric motor car as an endangered species, D be re-invented. The fi rst is the sources are integrated (the fi eld is drives the wheels, while the on-board
power source – either a combustion engine threatened by environmental and power source. The world is cutting its known as telematics), and if lawmakers carbon usage and oil will only get more allow it and drivers are willing to cede or a fuel cell – charges the batteries. Many
cost pressures. But those very rare and expensive. So, for the fi rst control, it’s possible cars will be some will be plug-in hybrids. They’ll have high time in history there will be a serious way towards driving themselves. battery capacity, so you charge them from pressures are driving car design number of cars propelled by something Electronics is a far faster-moving fi eld the mains for a normal commuting range. DESIGNER
other than a petroleum-fuelled internal than car engineering. Just look back PAUL HOWSE22 E into its most exciting phase since E Beyond that the petrol engine or fuel-cell WS combustion engine. years to 1986. The Peugeot 205 GTI and WS cuts in to recharge the batteries for longer Paul, 25, graduated from the K Transportation Design course at
L HOO the automobile was fi rst invented The second game-changer is the Saab 9000 were already on the road. L HO journeys. It sounds complex, but it’s U have four wheels? Will it fl y?UOA new level of electronics and data fl ow They don’t exactly look ancient, but A potentially very effi cient. General Motors is Northumbria University with a fi rst PIF - B P STORAGE BATTERIES DRIVE PAINT before going on to study vehicle BYER
at the beginning of the last century. into and out of the car. This isn’t just they’re three times older than the fi rst BY pouring billions into this technology, fi rst Luggage bay, optionally containing Under the fl oor and around the car’s Car is powered by electric motors in the Side panels are clear but coated in paint design at the Royal College of Art. He ONETA S about mobile phones or sat-nav. It is iPod, a device launched at a time when shown in its Chevrolet Volt concept car. front wheels’ hubs. These also perform that changes colour when voltage is applied TI TION small fold-up Segway-style gyro skin. Recharged from the mains for a spent last summer working for Toyota A Paul Horrell looks ahead to see an entirely new dimension, enabling digital photography was still young A By 2030, electric drive motors will be scooters for ever-expanding normal commuting range, and from the regenerative braking to recharge the across it. Passengers can make them Advanced Design in Tokyo.
TRITS - M TREDR cars to sense and share a vast cache of and hardly anybody Googled. But car compact, and won’t need an ordinary car-free zones small combustion engine for longer trips batteries as the car slows transparent or opaque for privacyLUSILPIC C what we’ll be driving in the future digital information about hazards and development is now set to accelerate. 3 ILLUS gearbox. The batteries can be stored under 3
24 November 2008 www.bbcfocusmagazine.com www.bbcfocusmagazine.com November 2008 25 28 November 2008 www.bbcfocusmagazine.com www.bbcfocusmagazine.com November 2008 29
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N N N NIO IO IO IOT T T T AND AND AND ANDT LU T LU T LU T LU
E O E O E O E ODI EV DI EV DI EV DI EV
THE PROOFHuman vs chimp genes
Our evolution was The fi rst strong evidence of a genetic link between human diet and evolution partly shaped by emerged from a German-Chinese study conducted on mice in 2007, which proved
our ancestors’ diet. that diet-related genes have diverged avoiding the highs and lows of blood sugar. Michigan, cooking triggered a progressive Nobody knows Planck Institute in Leipzig, Germany, has between humans and chimps more For these reasons humans with high energy reduction in human tooth size, and this yet exactly shown that some genes involved in food You are what your Philip Hunter fi nds quickly than other genes. and protein needs, such as athletes or occurred only in the last 100,000 years. how selective The study group would have liked to pressures processing have changed dramatically
heavy labourers, do not do well on a vegan “Human tooth size remained unchanged feed humans on a chimp diet or vice changed our in the few million years since the time of out how the food you diet. People leading a more sedentary life from the time of Homo erectus nearly two genes with chimpanzees and humans’ last common Diet and Evolution 34versa, but since this was not ethically
ANCESTORS AT E
possible, they settled on mice, which are, in contrast, often healthy on a vegan million years ago until just about 100,000 the arrival of ancestor (see ‘The Proof’, left).eat could affect the have a number of very similar diet- diet, although most studies show that even years ago. After this it began to reduce meat eating related genes. The mice were split and cooking,
future development then a modest amount of animal fat and by one per cent every 2000 years, which into four groups, one fed a vegetarian but some Pass it on…chimp diet, one a mouse diet of pellets, protein leads to higher life expectancy. kept up until the end of the Pleistocene important clues So how do changes in diet actually drive of the human species one a diet of cooked food from the just over 10,000 years ago,” Brace says. have emerged evolution of our underlying genes? This is
institute’s cafeteria, and one fast food Pot luck “Heated stone-earth ovens allowed the following where the story skips to the present. While from McDonald’s. The other ‘Big Bang’ in human dietary Neanderthals to thaw frozen pieces the recent
N obody knows exactly when it The group zoomed in on the genes discovery of a
nobody knows yet exactly how selective happened, but there was a point evolution was the discovery of fi re, and of mammoth, which also reduced the whose activity varied signifi cantly phenomenon pressures changed our genes with the
thousands of years ago when with the diet, then studied their DNA hence cooking – valuable for both meat and selective pressure to maintain larger teeth called ‘epigenetic arrival of meat eating and cooking, some early humans started eating cooked sequences. They compared these vegetable eating, this perhaps triggered the – as the neutral theory suggests.” inheritance’ important clues have emerged following food. Perhaps it all started on a parched with the DNA sequences of genes greatest leap forward. According to the ‘neutral theory’ of the recent discovery of a phenomenon
performing the same functions in savannah where, during thunderstorms, “Cooking brought three big benefi ts,” evolution advocated by Brace, when called ‘epigenetic inheritance’ and its chimps and humans, mostly concerned lightning seared the ground. Maybe once with metabolising nutrients such as says Wrangham. “The most important is it extreme adaptations such as large teeth for relationship to contemporary diet.
the rains had doused the fi res, one of our amino acids. This revealed that, increases the amount of energy obtained chewing raw meat are no longer favoured Epigenetics tells us how our genes ancient ancestors chanced upon roots that since the two species split from a Helvetica bold for thhe captions from food. The others are that it makes by natural selection, they should revert communicate with the surrounding common ancestor about fi ve million had been ‘cooked’ by the fl ames – and food safer and softer, hence quicker to eat.” back to their normal size. environment – and ‘environment’ in this
years ago, the genes associated with found them to be delicious and edible. Wrangham argues that humans could not Changes in diet have also infl uenced context includes what we put into our diet had diverged at about twice the The discovery of À re It would be some time before humans rate of other genes, according to helped us to evolve by extract suffi cient protein and energy from genes involved in the metabolism of stomachs. Every cell in our body contains
could control fi re themselves, but this Mehmet Somel, the scientist leading enabling us to cook meat a diet of largely raw meat, and therefore food, as well as those that dictate how the same DNA and therefore the same genes. discovery of cooking, coupled with a taste the study at the Max Planck Institute in cooking must have become widespread we chew or digest it. Research at the Max But in order to develop the multitude of 3Leipzig, Germany.for meat, did not just provide early humans quite early in the evolution of modern
“We used two measures of DNA with new sources of food. It gave their sequence evolution for this comparison,” 3 Homo habilis, appeared – about two The move to elevate blood cholesterol, which is a risk humans, perhaps over one million years Once we started cooking our food the evolution a huge shot in the arm. he says. One measure looked at the diet million years ago. Before that our primate a diet based factor in both Alzheimer’s disease and ago. Others say there is no fi rm evidence
It’s becoming clear that what we eat genes themselves, and one at genes not ancestors lived on a predominantly predominantly vascular disease,” Stanford says. “An of signifi cant use of cooking until almost directly involved in processing nutrients affects not only our own lives, but also those vegetarian diet supplemented at times by on meat, fat, brain and other increase in meat eating would be predicted 100,000 years ago. but playing supporting roles in their of our children and even their descendants small amounts of meat – obtained mostly by animal parts to shorten life expectancy by promoting Whatever the timing, nobody disputes
expression. “Using either measure, far into the future. To put it another way, TH scavenging. The move to a diet based introduced the that learning how to control fi re, plus R diet-related genes showed on average chronic diseases.” But Stanford’s team has what our ancestors ate made us what we are A predominantly on meat, fat, brain and other evolutionary the development of tools for preparing E more differences than other types of found ‘meat-adaptive genes’ that evolved
today. Recent research tells us that shifts LE gene,” says Somel. animal parts introduced the evolutionary conditions for to counteract such negative effects, and meat – in particular, the development of the arrival of in diet throughout the history of evolution ISIB conditions for the arrival of modern modern humans these genes combined were so successful earthenware cooking pots – had a dramatic /Vhave shaped all the major changes that led humans, with their much larger, energy- that humans actually lived longer. They impact on human evolution.
SAAto modern humans – larger brains, smaller N demanding brains. This was a crucial step enabled human evolution to exploit the “Cooking was an essential part of our S,jaws, thinner stomachs and even our because it reduced the amount of energy positive aspects of meat – mainly a reduced adaptation,” says anthropologist Professor
TERsophisticated voice boxes. needed to chew and digest copious amounts amount of energy and stomach capacity Alison Brooks from George Washington EUThe driving role of diet in the evolution of veg to gain the calories and protein we needed to obtain the required calories, University in the US. “Cooking makes lots IS, R
Bof mammals has been clear for some time, R need, says Professor Craig Stanford, an protein and other nutrients. While some of plant foods more easily digestible or less Oaccording to Professor Richard Wrangham, , C anthropologist at the University of Southern vegetables and fruit also contain the toxic, enables humans to survive after their M
one of the leading British researchers O California. But surely a high-meat diet required protein, it takes longer to digest, teeth fall out, and reduces bacteria, insects .Clooking at the link between diet and changes would be bad news for our ancestors? and at greater expense of energy. and parasites that inhabit wild foods.” Athletes with high EPLRin humans since we departed from the other “The major increase in meat eating in Protein also plays an important role According to C Loring Brace, an energy needs do not
TUAgreat apes such as chimpanzees. “Dietary N human ancestors would be expected to in producing energy at a consistent rate, anthropologist at the University of fare well on a vegan dietchanges are well known to lead rapidly
to changes in anatomy in other species,” E 2.2 million years ago 100,000 years ago + 20,000 years ago 10,000 years ago 200 years ago 50 years agosays Wrangham, a professor of biological N species would never be the same again
anthropology at Harvard University. The fi rst human-like species appeared, The next big step was the discovery of There is evidence humans in coastal Agriculture began in the Middle East. The industrial revolution led to After WWII, increasing prosperity and a UTION LIE evolving into Homo erectus and at the fi re and cooking, with much debate over areas have eaten fi sh and shellfi sh Cities could now be built, since land deterioration in diet, often short of decline in home cooking led to the The fi rst major dietary milestone in same time becoming a meat-eating whether this became widespread early throughout evolution. But some northern could support denser populations. Dairy fruit and vegetables in the cities, with modern western diet and fast foods –
human evolution was a big increase in OL M predator, using tools to make fl esh on (over one million years ago) or more populations have in the last 20,000 years farming also began in India and Europe corresponding health problems such increasing heart and vascular disease, meat consumption, occurring around the EV TI more digestible through grinding recently (around 100,000 years ago) come to depend on it around this time as scurvy and rickets obesity, some cancers, and diabetes
time the fi rst human-like species, like 3
34 16November 2008 www.bbcfocusmagazine.com www.bbcfocusmagazine.com November 2008 35 36 November 2008 www.bbcfocusmagazine.com www.bbcfocusmagazine.com November 2008 37
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See inside the lab
Q&A
Q&A Q&A Q&A
Your questions answered Do opposites attract, or does like attract like?44 Why do we have fi ve fi ngers?
46 What is swarm robotics?49 Have pencils ever contained lead? Is space travel bad QUICKFIRE
50 What’s the loudest animal? 3.1mm
Send us your questionsVital stat Focus magazine Q&A,
The height sea level Tower House, Fairfax Street,has been rising Bristol, BS1 3BN
annually since 1993 questions@bbcmagazinesbristol.com What single action Why do we have where scientists are
would make the biggest for your health? HoHoww m much uch abuse could The experts diff erence to my carbon fi ve fi ngers and ALUN HARRIS, ABERGAVENNY my iPodod
Why do poppy fl owers footprint? fi ve toes? Space travel could be bad for your health in a number of ways. One obvious problem, which withshstand andtand and is currently being studied by the National Space Biomedical Research Institute at Houston, ALISON JARROLD, GOOLE Texas, is the effect of space radiation, from which we are protected at the Earth’s surface by the still work?
open in the morning BECKY ROGERS, GRIMSBY Van Allen belt. The effects of space radiation can include cancer, acute radiation sickness and Giving up long-haul fl ying would make the Q&A 42degenerative tissue damage. Radiation can also degrade some common drugs, including the DAVID LUDFORD, TEESSIDEEESSIDEbiggest difference. On a single fl ight from It’s probably nothing more than an accident. All scopolamine that astronauts take to curb nausea, and some antibiotics. London to Australia, you’ll be responsible tetrapods (the group of vertebrates that includes The absence of gravity can also pose health problems, including loss of bone mass of around Moving parts, like the hard drives in the rives in the
for around fi ve tonnes of CO2 – that’s the mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians) are one per cent per month. In the longer term, there is evidence that the microtubules that provide bigger iPods, can give out after time, time, ROBERT MATTHEWS and close at night? greater than the average person’s footprint descended from a pentadactyl ancestor. Pentadactyl After studying physics the inner scaffolding of living cells require gravity to help them orient properly, which may make especially if they are dropped. With for an entire year. Swapping the plane for
at Oxford University, ROSEMARY WHITTINGTON, EAST LOTHIAN means ‘fi ve-fi ngered’ and this basic pattern has been breeding in space problematic. intensive use, the headphone sockets can can Robert began a the train on short-haul routes would also preserved in all descendant animal groups. Astronauts are not always cooperative in the study of such problems. According to one wear out too. But most remarkably, in Iraq career in research. He make a difference. On a fl ight from London The common ancestor of the tetrapods was a lobe- report, the culture of the astronauts, resting on stoicism and a can-do attitude, ‘reinforces the last year, the metal casing on a 20GB iPod
is currently a Visiting This behaviour is called nyctinasty, and and then grow more cells on the inside to to Edinburgh, your individual footprint fi nned fi sh living in the Devonian period, around 365 Reader in Science at although it is by no means universal, there open them again in the morning. individual’s reluctance to report medical information’. LF took a stray bullet for a soldier, apparently Aston University are lots of other fl owers besides poppies The most likely explanation for this Do ants ever sleep?
that do it. Most of them instigate the closure behaviour is to protect the pollen. At night Do opposites million years ago. The fossil record also shows fi sh with preventing it piercing its owner’s body six and seven ‘fi ngers’ in their fi ns at around the same armour. Though the soldier survived, the by pumping water out of cells at the base the insects that pollinate most fl owers are PAUL BACHELOR, BY EMAIL time, but there is no clear reason why the fi ve-fi ngered iPod itself was trashed. GMof the petals so that they wilt themselves dormant and closing the fl ower keeps the
really attract? form survived to become the template for land life. shut. But the genus Kalanchoe of tropical pollen dry and contained. Some fl owers Ants defi nitely rest – in any given colony there will always be some Possibly having fewer fi nger bones allowed each to planing to set off a succulents actually grow new cells on the that are pollinated by moths or bats do the individuals that are standing still, not doing anything. Ants are also DEAN PURNELL, ST IVES become stronger and this helped when crawling out of How big a problem
outside of the petal base to force them shut opposite and only open at night. LV inactive in cold temperatures and many species hibernate through the the water. However, there is nothing magic about the winter. Resting ants exhibit loss of muscle tone and reduced sensitivity People are likely to choose partners number fi ve and subsequent evolutionary pressures is space junk? to stimuli. But they don’t have a complex enough nervous system to who are similar, rather than opposite, have driven many species to fuse fi ngers and toes
exhibit the different brain wave patterns seen in humans during sleep; LUIS VILLAZON to themselves when it comes to together to form thicker, stronger hooves and claws that PAT REID, MERSEYSIDELuis has an MSc in nor do they dream. LV three of the big fi ve personality traits are better suited to their particular environment. LVzoology from
Oxford University. – agreeableness, conscientiousness The US Vanguard satellite, launched His published and openness. This is according to 50 years ago, became the fi rst bit of work includes research by Beatrice Rammstedt at space junk when it was left in orbit after
How Cows Reach the Centre for Survey Research and becoming defunct. Since then, at least the Ground Who worked out the Methodology in Mannheim, Germany, 600,000 objects larger than 1cm have The Focus experts answer your
length of a second? and Jürgen Schupp at the German The further and more frequently you fl y, the been dumped in orbit, boosting the risk Institute for Economic Research in more those carbon emissions stack up of collision. The situation was not helped Berlin. They found that two other major by China testing an anti-satellite weapon would be 140kg. The emissions from the traits (extroversion and emotional last year, which created vast amounts PAUL BACHELOR, BY EMAIL equivalent train journey would be around a Why can texts be
stability) have no perceptible effect on of potentially dangerous debris. So far, third of that. the choice of partner. however, no satellite has been destroyed The term ‘second’ comes from the second division of an hour by a The other thing you can do is swap Couples are also particularly likely delayed for days? by collision with space junk. RM
factor of 60 using the weird ‘sexagesimal’ counting system adopted your gas-guzzling SUV for a smaller car. to stay together if they have very GARETH MITCHELL by the Babylonians. The fi rst use of so fi ne a division of an hour Supposing you live 16km from the offi ce, STEVE BRIDGE, BY EMAILsimilar levels of agreeableness and Gareth started out began around 1000AD, but it took almost another 600 years before your annual commute would total 8000km.
as a broadcast conscientiousness. But psychologist 40clocks capable of measuring out seconds reliably became available. Over a year, a vehicle with a two-litre engine Text messages work on a store-and-forward Y engineer. He is now Sanjay Srivastava at the University of would give off 2.38 tonnes of carbon. Halve a broadcaster, writer DID YOU Today, the second is defi ned by a fundamental physical process basis. First, the message is stored by your How do seashells nuclear bombOregon has a different explanation for
IBRAR and presenter of Why does polystyrene the size of your engine and you also nearly service provider’s short message service (SMS) this observation: “Perhaps the longer bore through rock?halve those emissions to 1.4 tonnes. If you centre which consults a massive database to TO L used for packaging KNOW – it’s the time needed for a caesium Digital Planet on the How do we know the atom to emit exactly 9,192,631,770 BBC World Service couples stay together, the more they took the train instead, the footprint of your locate your recipient’s network. The message
grow alike.” LF ROB SPEED, BATHstick to everything? speed of light is the same waves of a certain type of radiation. This process is measured by annual commute would reduce to 250kg. then passes on to a big hub within the GSM atomic clocks. For more That’s nearly six times less than driving a network called the mobile switching centre Piddocks, also known as ‘angel wings’,
small car. GM, SCIENCE PHO (MSC). If your recipient’s phone is switched are marine molluscs of the Pholadidae SHARON PHILIPPIDIS, BY EMAIL for everyone? Also known as the on time, see the ‘corpse fl ower’, the December issue ARD Amorphophallus titanum of Focus. RM Vital stat off, the MSC holds the message until the family. They can bore up to 90cm into handset appears again. If traffi c is heavy, say on
rock to create a home. They achieve this Polystyrene is the material of choice for HARRIET BEST, BY EMAIL – or titan arum – is Christmas Day, it’s possible that your message TY by mechanical means – rasping away at packaging because it’s nice and light. It’s believed by many people Willie Jones from the US was can be held at any of these stages for a while
3, MOODBO the rock with the hard ridges on their shell easy to snap in half or crumble but, crucially, This is the assertion behind the theory of special relativity – and it’s not to be the smelliest plant , GET U admitted to hospital with before being passed on. It could be hours or LEN FISHER it’s strong in compression and therefore obvious. The speed of a train may be 200km/h to a stationary observer, but on Earth. When it SC and blasting the debris away with water Len is an Honorary O
protects delicate objects if dropped or 400km/h relative to a train coming the other way. Einstein’s claim that the blooms, it releases an W heatstroke on 10 July 1980, a day even days. GMA/K jets. However they bore extremely questions on just about everythingResearch Fellow in extremely foul odour AS O when the temperature reached 32.2°C (90°F). His temperature slowly, normally Physics at Bristol crushed. Polystyrene is also a very good speed of light is the same for everyone, regardless of how they’re moving, that smells like 4, NY.COM, ALAMY X University and the insulator, meaning that it quickly accrues was confi rmed by experiments at CERN in Geneva. Sub-atomic particles Every second 122 burrowing no D Y was found to be 46.5°C (115.7°F).
author of several electrical charge. This gives it a strong were accelerated to 99.975 per cent of the speed of light, but when the rotten fl esh, and counts (and Temperatures in more than BRAR popular science can be detected 5cm in a LI electrostatic attraction to other objects, speed of light they emitted was measured, it turned out to be 300,000km/s so does , ALAMY X The number of breeding pairs DI KN saunas can reach year. LVTO books including How up to half a every wave of
to Dunk a Doughnut causing it to readily stick to things. GM – the same as when the particles are stationary, as Einstein predicted. RM mile away. radiation) of red kites now in Scotland 140°C (284°F).PHO CORBIS
42 November 2008 www.bbcfocusmagazine.com www.bbcfocusmagazine.com November 2008 43 44 November 2008 www.bbcfocusmagazine.com www.bbcfocusmagazine.com November 2008 45
Focus_196_Q&A_10AR.indd 42 7/10/08 17:43:08 Focus_196_Q&A_10AR.indd 43 7/10/08 17:43:14 Focus_196_Q&A_10AR.indd 44 7/10/08 17:43:20 Focus_196_Q&A_10AR.indd 45 7/10/08 17:43:24
G GE ING E INGT T E IN E INA A T TA A
CLIM MODELL CLIM MODELL CLIM MODELL CLIM MODELL
ON THEPODCAST A QUESTION OF REFLECTION FOR AND AGAINST
Can we trust computer How measuring light on the Moon can improve climate models climate models?
The ghostly glow often seen lighting up the dark half of a crescent moon YESis giving climatologists a new way of After striking the
testing the reliability of their computer Earth, the refl ected According to Pope, clouds can produce Thomas Reichler of the University of Utah. “The biggest Dr Vicky Pope, models. Called ‘Earthshine’, the sunlight is bounced Met Offi ce Hadley Centreboth a cooling and a warming effect. “On a “This means that individual clouds and advances in phenomenon is caused by sunlight off the Moon and
refl ecting off the Earth and striking returns to Earth where cloudy day, less heat from the Sun reaches their response to climate change are not recent years have been in our the Moon. As such, its intensity it can be observed the Earth’s surface, and we feel cool,” she well-simulated in current models.” representation “Climate models solve complex Climate Modelling 52depends on climate-related features, by ground-based explains. “On the other hand, on a cloudy So it is important to model clouds of how clouds, mathematical equations based on
such as cloud cover, levels of sea- telescopes night, the heat generated during the day in detail because their climatic impact oceans, sea ice well-established physical laws that
TION
ice and snowfall over mountains. defi ne the behaviour of the weather and is trapped, and the temperature near the depends on their height, thickness and and climate Measurements by Earth-based interact with life climate. The models are tried and tested telescopes have shown a marked rise surface remains relatively warm.” thermal properties, which all depend on Earth” in a number of ways. First, they’re used
in the refl ectivity of the Earth’s surface Finding out how clouds help and hinder on their individual size. But without the to reproduce the climate of the recent since 1999, which coincides with global warming is arguably the biggest computing power to model clouds in detail, past. Second, they’re used to reproduce a slow-down in global warming. what we know about ancient climates, challenge facing today’s climate models. climatologists have been forced to capture
Climate scientists will run their which is more limited. The Met Offi ce computer models to check Yet attempts to simulate the white, fl uffy just their basic features, like temperature Hadley Centre’s computer model is
The Climate
they can reproduce this link things that fl oat in the sky still brings even and humidity. The hope is that this will give unique in that it is also used with more between refl ectivity and today’s supercomputers to their knees. at least some guide to the impact of clouds regional detail to produce the weather recent levels of global “Clouds have sizes of around several on future climate. forecasts every day.
warming – and it may help “Global climate models have become hundred metres, but the spatial resolution According to new research, current them explain it. more complete over the years as Sunlight strikes the [or scale] of the best current climate models computer models may overplay the link computer power and our understanding
Earth and bounces off is 100km – which is bigger by a factor of between clouds and global warming. Since of climate change has increased. The its surface. Different
GAMBLE
1000,” points out climate expert Professor 1980, the average temperature over Europe biggest advances in recent years – and 3surfaces refl ect where further advances are still needed different amounts of – have been in our representation of
light – oceans refl ect how clouds, oceans, sea ice and Japan’s Earth Simulator relatively little, clouds climate interact with life on Earth. The models a typhoon to and ice a lot and land resulting climate projections have gauge its effects
varies between the two demonstrably improved over recent years. Further improvements are COVER STORYnecessary and achievable.”
Climate change predictions are based on computer models that are NO Will climate change be TYonly able to vaguely reproduce Earth’s complex weather systems. 3says Dr Fred Singer of the University of JARGON computing power, and concern about what of a new Ice Age attracted huge media , GET Prof John Christy, Virginia, adding that the models “should be
BUSTER vital ingredients the models were missing. coverage during the 1970s. The fact University of AlabamaRobert Matthews asks whether that’s enough to bet our future on LETIN viewed with caution.” CLIMATOLOGY that climatologists came to believe the So who is right? With the future of The study of Keep it simple, stupid exact opposite is far more likely has, not
S BUL the planet at stake, this is no academic The dangers of using too simplistic a surprisingly, prompted cynicism about “There are so many complex and poorly long-term weather TION understood processes in the climate
W hen it comes to predicting atmosphere, land masses, oceans and ice- power, they will get closer to the goal of squabble: everyone’s lives could be patterns, usually model became clear early on. In 1971 two climate models. Yet, in reality, the study system that long-term predictions the future of our planet, how caps – even down to the level of dust in the reliable climate prediction. TIA over a number of GO profoundly affected by the outcome of these NASA scientists carried out a pioneering was always seen by climatologists as much faith would you put in air and the state of plants on the ground. “This next generation of climate years. It’s used to should always be suspect. For example, supercomputer simulations. study of an issue that remains central just a crude prototype of the far more there are large unknowns in our devise possible
EDIA
a computer capable of a million-billion Fed with data about current climatic models will include detailed chemistry TH NE While they may only now be attracting to climate research: the role of dust and sophisticated models they have since gone understanding of how the climate future projections operations a second? It’s an awesome conditions, the supercomputer will then and interactions with the plants, soil and responds when it's heated or cooled. /EAR worldwide media interest, climate models by analysing smoke particles on global warming. Known on to build. For example, the NASA model This is directly related to clouds and machine for an awesome task, but Britain’s work out how today’s climate will change ocean biology,” says Dr Vicky Pope, Head
have been around for over 50 years, with current conditions technically as aerosols, these tiny particles failed to take into account the fact that rain – the two things climate models do climate experts believe the computing under various scenarios – such as projected of Climate Prediction at the Hadley Centre. S, IISD and the causes TO scientists working on them since the fi rst have a host of sources: some natural, such a poor job of imitating. Recent for them aerosols tend to be concentrated in certain colossus, being readied for operation at future levels of man-made pollution. The “It is only with the introduction of new
PHO commercial computers became available as deserts and volcanoes, and some man- areas – for example, over industrialised observations indicate the climate is not the Met Offi ce’s Hadley Centre for Climate results are eagerly awaited by climate supercomputers that we will have enough A, P in the 1950s. But even then, the same CLIMATE MODEL made, like coal power stations. The NASA Europe – while greenhouse gases are as sensitive to increasing CO2 as is Prediction and Research, will bring them scientists, who will make them the basis computing power to run these models.” two issues dogged the research: lack of Computerised popularly believed, because clouds study looked at how these aerosols might spread more evenly around the planet. The apparently react to keep the climate
closer to answering some of the most of their advice to the world’s governments But according to some experts, the drive /SOHO simulations based decrease global warming due to carbon rates of aerosol production, and whether from going awry. pressing questions facing the world today. on how to avert climatic disaster. But for ever more computing power misses a far SAA on real data that dioxide by refl ecting more of the Sun’s heat “What we need is more fundamental aim to show how they all have a cooling effect, were also Just how hot will our planet become over just how reliable are the results of these more basic problem with current climate Y, N
back into space. research focused on observational data. the temperature brought into question. the coming decades? Where will the worst computer models? Can they be trusted by models. They argue that the models are Our ignorance of the climate system is
M
IBRAR and weather in Using estimates of man-made aerosol Today’s models take a much more astounding. For example, we don’t have effects of global warming be felt? And what governments faced with making policy still too crude to be reliable, lacking subtle L a particular part TO levels over the next 50 years, the sophisticated view of aerosols. They include a global observation system that can be done to protect those most at risk? decisions that will affect all our lives? effects that can have a profound impact on of the planet
will be affected researchers made a stunning discovery: the not only their direct impact – such as their provides data from which we can K.U The Hadley Centre supercomputer will Climate modellers admit that even the the Earth’s climate. by various refl ection effect had the power to halt global cooling effect, caused by refl ecting sunlight determine the interplay of all of the as bad as we’ve been led to believe?.CO start its assault on these issues next year power of supercomputers like the Hadley And as evidence, these critics point to the warming. They warned that temperatures climate factors. This is a fundamental atmospheric back into space – but also their indirect
requirement if we are going to improve using the most sophisticated simulation Centre machine or Japan’s Earth Simulator recent discovery of worrying discrepancies , SCIENCE PHO inÁ uences could drop by 3.5°C, and might even plunge effects. And chief among these is the way climate models. Understanding what STOCKER of the Earth’s climate ever devised. Its is inadequate to do full justice to the between what climate models say should be STER the planet into a new Ice Age. in which aerosols act as ‘seeds’ for the the climate does, and why, will lead to
millions of lines of computer code make complexity of the climate. Even so, they are happening and the reality. “The models are /ASA Air quality, such as that in Beijing, affects While the researchers never claimed formation of clouds, whose effect on global more reliable computer models.”CHRIS- up a mathematical model of Earth’s confi dent that with ever more computing seen to disagree with the observations,” A3 N cloud formation, which affects climate their scenario was inevitable, the idea warming is more complex.
52 November 2008 www.bbcfocusmagazine.com www.bbcfocusmagazine.com November 2008 53 54 November 2008 www.bbcfocusmagazine.com www.bbcfocusmagazine.com November 2008 55
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IGHT
Quickchat
/L Quick Chat 58
Heston Blumenthal
ET
The culinary alchemist puts down his blow torch to tell Andy Ridgway why he’s about to give away all his secrets
Analysing the cooking process Do you like browsing through How can you use that knowledge All about Heston has let you dismiss such ideas? science equipment brochures? in a restaurant?
A three Michelin-starred chef, he hasn’t Yes, but you can’t reduce cooking Yes, it’s really sad. Even when I Well, you can serve something as attended a cooking course in his life. to a test tube. It’s not like you have don’t know what the things do, I a little clue before the food comes. Instead he picked up all his knowledge men in lab coats coming up with just think ‘wow, it’s got tubes and You wonder what it is and then you
U
by simply reading books on French formulae and somehow they create pipes – fantastic’. I was looking get a sense of discovery, that ‘ah’ cuisine and by visiting restaurants and a new dish – it doesn’t work that through a scientifi c catalogue in moment, and that really triggers vineyards in France
way. The great thing is that human 2000 and found water baths that reward mechanisms.He opened The Fat Duck restaurant interaction is still absolutely key. could hold a specifi c temperature. in the Oxfordshire village of Bray in And once you’ve got that, you try to I thought ‘wow, that’s brilliant’. Do you think the use of reward
1995. It has twice been voted the best in the world by a panel of 500 understand how things work from Chefs didn’t cook with them back mechanisms will spread Scientist or chef? Heston Blumenthal discusses the experts. Eating from the ‘sample the scientifi c side of things and that then, but now they’re common. throughout the restaurant world?
menu’ – which includes a snail enables you to produce that food to It’s a more accurate and controlled I don’t know. I’d like to think some porridge course – will set you
G
that level of accuracy day in day out. cooking system. We put the meat or of it will, but I’m just getting my back £125 vegetables in a plastic bag and suck head around it now. I think that in A Christmas special of his BBC series Your new book includes 50 of your all the air out before placing them all walks of life, multi-sensory
In Search of Perfection included edible signature dishes. Was it hard to in the bath. You don’t get oxidation, design is going to become baubles and mulled wine that is hot and give away your secrets? which turns the meat a grey/brown increasingly important. cold at the same time
I’ve taken a lot of inspiration from and changes its fl avour. All the the academic world and a lot of juices stay in there too. Do you think that the fact you’re How do you use science to help ideas from other people to create a self-trained chef helped you to
you cook? the dishes, so I think it’s important Where will we see the biggest think laterally?If you do something in a kitchen to feed that information back into advances in cooking? Yes, absolutely. I think being naïve and it works well, you want it to be the system rather than keep things I think one of the most exciting has been a blessing in disguise,
the same each time. So the idea a secret. It’s also a better way of things recently is the realisation that as has being self-taught, because is to get an understanding of why helping things to move on. perception is far more complicated I didn’t have so many shackles something works and how you can than we fi rst thought. Previous work to take off. There are things I’ve
do it consistently. You’re well known for using on reward mechanisms focused on suggested in the past that I’d never “You can’t reduce cooking to a test tube, scientifi c gadgetry in the kitchen. drug addiction. But we’re fi nding have the guts to suggest now Are there any cooking myths What’s been the most useful item? that small things we do on a daily because I’d think that’d be a really human interaction is still absolutely key”
you’ve been able to dispel? I’ve got a fl avour programme that basis can trigger the mechanisms. stupid idea. I just chucked out loads Don’t put a lid on a pan when you’re you can use to call up an ingredient If you eat a pistachio nut from a of ideas and thought they were all cooking vegetables or they will go and see what aroma compounds shell for instance, it always tastes cool. Now I look back and think
brown – that’s nonsense. Or the are in it. You can then look those better than if the pistachio had been ‘ooh, that’s a bit embarrassing’. „ brain chemistry that helps you enjoy your foodother one is don’t wash mushrooms compounds up to see how they will shelled. You’ve got to do a little because they get waterlogged. Just impact on the taste and see what bit of work. Even something that Heston Blumenthal’s latest book
try washing them and then drying other foods they are in. It’s a great simple is enough to trigger a reward The Big Fat Duck Cookbook them and compare their weight little tool for creativity because it mechanism and you get more (Bloomsbury Publishing, £100) is before and after. produces ideas for fl avour pairings. pleasure from food. out 20 October
REX
T RA
58 November 2008 www.bbcfocusmagazine.com www.bbcfocusmagazine.com November 2008 59
Focus_196_Quickchat_7RB.indd 58 6/10/08 10:17:27 Focus_196_Quickchat_7RB.indd 59 8/10/08 09:25:03
REU RE RET U UT TCK NA
CK NA CK NABA TO BA TO BA TO
NATURE’S PAT E N T S
3 where biologists work with corporate “Our clients give Engineering Roboticsclients such as Boeing, Procter & Gamble, us a problem Nike, O2, and Hewlett-Packard to develop to solve and we Animals have evolved to maximise the healing processes found in nature Lessons learned from eons of evolution are University, researchers are developing a
fi lter through effi ciency of movement and are inspiring to create aircraft that mend themselves helping to produce robots designed to climbing robot by mimicking the gravity- Biomimetics 61innovations based on observations of the the ocean of aerodynamic designs for faster, more automatically during fl ight. Similar to how perform a multitude of tasks. Researchers defying locomotion of the gecko lizard. It’ll natural world. “Our clients give us a biological fuel-effi cient vehicles. Daimler, for a scab stops bleeding, a hardening epoxy at Northeastern University, Massachusetts, be years before it can match the speed and
particular challenge to solve and we fi lter literature, instance, has developed a car based on resin is released from embedded capsules have already created underwater mine- dexterity of a gecko, but StickyBot can walk through the ocean of biological literature, right through the surprisingly streamlined shape of the to seal any crack and restore the plane’s sensing robots based on the up glass and US defence research agency boxfi sh. The people behind the high- structural integrity. The researchers are right through from amoeba to zebra,” says from amoeba neurophysiology of the freshwater lobster. DARPA hopes it will one day climb up
to zebra” speed Shinkansen Bullet Train reduced the also working with an aerospace composite German engineer Frank Kirchner has buildings to monitor the terrain below. And Benyus. “Then we take them through the noise-clap produced as the train emerged manufacturer to develop a system where constructed a scorpion-inspired robot that scientists at the University of California are design process. We reduce the problem to from a tunnel by copying the shape of a the healing agent moves around the plane
Robolobster is sent can descend steep cliffs, climb rough attempting to create a surveillance robot the function level, fi nd the best natural kingfi sher’s beak, which helps it dive into as part of an integrated network. In the to the seabed to terrain and squeeze into previously based on the way a blowfl y hovers and fl ies
k c Ba
models and try to emulate them.” water with very little splash. future, self-healing spacecraft could allow Elsewhere, aerospace engineers at humans to spend much longer periods of look for mines inaccessible areas. NASA hopes to use his with incredible agility by controlling the Benyus believes the next century will robot in planetary exploration. At Stanford exact shape in which its wings beat. the University of Bristol are mimicking time exploring far-fl ung planets. produce technologies just as effi cient as the
natural structures that inspired them. With Architectureadvances in nanotechnology continuing to The world’s leading architects are looking to air at the bottom and allows it to rise open up new opportunities, bio-inspiration nature to inspire a new generation of through spiral atriums as it warms, just as a
has the potential to revolutionise the way environmentally-friendly buildings. The sponge extracts nutrients as water is we do almost everything, from storing Arab World Institute in Paris has a pattern circulated upwards. of mechanically controlled, eye-like The Eastgate Centre in Harare, Zimbabwe, information and making materials, to
apertures on its south-facing façade. They is modelled on termite mounds, which
TO NATURE
growing crops, harnessing energy and open and close at regular intervals to regulate airfl ow to maintain temperature by healing ourselves. Using nature as a model control the amount of light entering the constantly opening and closing a series of will lead to exciting developments in building, thereby regulating the internal vents. Architect Mick Pearce replicated this
temperature. Despite its misleading with a series of openings, ducts and fans engineering, architecture and medicine. It nickname, the ‘Gherkin’ (aka the Swiss RE placed throughout the building. His creation could also furnish us with innovations that The World Arab Institute’s building) in London actually resembles the uses just 10 per cent of the energy that a light-controlling apertures
help to save the habitats of the very plants glass sponge. Its lattice structure draws in conventional building would. How nature is showing us the way If you have a problem, chances are, nature and animals that inspired them. But biomimetics has the potential to go
has already solved it better than you ever A whale À n-inspired Environmenteven further – to turn science fi ction into turbine bladereality. If we can copy and adapt the ways Bio-inspired designs are providing solutions revolutionise water purifi cation in semi-arid could. Dan Cossins looks at biomimetics animals crawl, swim, climb and fl y, we to some of the most pressing environmental coastal regions.
concerns, so plants and animals could Meanwhile, the fl ippers of a whale that can create robots to better explore internal The surprisingly furnish us with the means to save the very washed up on a New Jersey beach inspired
A dawn fog rolls across the hot, elegant,” says Dr Andrew Parker, a organs, the depths of the oceans and streamlined boxÀ sh… habitats in which they thrive. the development of quieter, more effi cient arid sands of the Namib Desert zoologist at the University of Oxford distant planets. If we can learn how living Mark Clark, a professor of environmental wind turbine blades. The bumps on the on Africa’s southwest coast. who studies how animals are adapted organisms build and repair themselves, …and the Daimler engineering at the University of Illinois, has leading edge of a humpback whale’s fl ipper MARK R CUTKIn the dim morning light, a Namib to extreme environments. “Large ES developed membranes for water treatment help it make tight turns, crucial for hunting G car it inspiredA we can build self-repairing spacecraft by incorporating the water-channelling schools of herring. Frank Fish, a professor
beetle scurries up a dune and spreads droplets form on its wings by virtue M and skyscrapers. Who knows, if we can proteins found in kidneys into synthetic at West Chester University in Pennsylvania its wings against the breeze. As the fog of their bumpy surface.” An intricate , DK I successfully replicate the adhesive qualities systems. These new membranes are over 10 copied these ‘turbercles’ to create serrated
condenses on the stiff wings, minute patchwork of water-attracting bumps OSKY times more effective at rejecting salt than turbine blades that use 20 per cent less WER of gecko’s feet and the silk-spinning water droplets appear, before growing and water-repelling channels moves / current desalination techniques and could energy to generate wind power. S E PO secrets of spiders, we could all be scaling heavy enough to trickle along the the droplets like a bead of rain on the TANF
buildings and swinging through the city surface and into the beetle’s mouth. roof of a freshly waxed car – and the ORD UNIVERSITY CENTER F , WHAL like Spiderman. „ Medicine The ‘Resurrection This life-sustaining drink is vital best thing, at least for humans, is that
, REX Dan Cossins is a Bristol-based journalist From wound healing to drug delivery, Here in the UK, a company called plant’ has inspired because the beetle will absorb the process can be copied. nature is leading to new life-saving Cambridge Biostability has created heat- new vaccinesnothing but blistering heat once the Parker was able to replicate the LIAMS technologies. Engineers in Japan are stable vaccines that can be transported and
Sun has risen. beetle’s microscopic checkerboard FIND OUT MORE building a hypodermic needle based on stored without refrigeration. The idea is In desert fogs, the droplets measure with synthetic materials. Now, the way mosquitoes penetrate skin. Seiji inspired by the ‘resurrection plant’, which OHN F WIL www.n100best.org Aoyagi at Kansai University in Osaka found survives droughts by producing glass-just 0.025mm across, small enough to the same principles could lead to
/JO 100 great designs and ideas from nature that a mosquito’s stab is painless because forming sugars to preserve its cells in in design and engineeringbe carried horizontally on the wind. self-cleaning surfaces, fog-clearing R DE AVY its serrated proboscis minimises nerve suspended animation. When water becomes But the Namib beetle has a clever trick devices and solutions to water scarcity
SIGN RE S N www.biomimicry.net stimulation by leaving only small points in available, the sugar-glass dissolves and up its sleeve, which has caught the in the world’s driest countries. “It 2, U The Biomimicry Guild contact with skin tissue. By etching slices of the plant comes back to life. Scientists have attention of scientists who want to turns out we can recreate these SS X silicone dioxide into a similar shape, Aoyagi replicated these glass-forming sugars to SEAR
Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired hopes to manufacture a hypodermic needle protect the active ingredients in vaccines,
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COM, HUBER know this industrious insect’s secrets. properties quite easily with materials SPRE
CH by Nature that causes no pain. which are then released upon injection.“The beetle’s device is incredibly we already know about,” says 3 NEW By Janine M Benyusn (CRC, 2005)
www.bbcfocusmagazine.com November 2008 61 64 November 2008 www.bbcfocusmagazine.com www.bbcfocusmagazine.com November 2008 65
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C IES C IESSMI SMIO O
C STER C STER10 MY 10 MY
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things we still
10 Cosmic Mysteries 66 don’t know about
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the Universe 7WHY IS THE COSMOS EXPANDING FASTER?
The infi nite depths of space have perplexed the planet’s The explosive force unleashed by the Big Bang caused the Universe greatest minds for centuries. But JV Chamary wonders if to expand. With enough matter,
gravity’s pull should have slowed science is any closer to answering these questions this growth, but instead, it’s speeding up. This suggests the
existence of a mysterious anti-gravitational force dubbed ‘dark energy’. One explanation for its
1WHAT TRIGGERED 2 IS THERE A THEORY 4 WHAT IS DARK presence is that so-called empty THE BIG BANG? OF EVERYTHING? MATTER MADE OF? space is fi lled with energy Before the Universe’s explosive A unifying theory of all natural When astronomers weigh galaxies, generated by short-lived particles
T
O creation 13.7 billion years ago, the forces and the particles on which translating their brightness into mass and anti-particles that literally HOW LIKELY COULD entire Universe was inconceivably they act – the Holy Grail of physics and predicting how this should affect appear out of nowhere, propelling 9 ALIEN LIFE BE?hot, dense and crammed into a – could help us answer many of their rotation, their sums don’t add the expansion before they vanish. Planets that could support life
space smaller than a subatomic the big cosmological questions. up. Missing mass called dark matter should orbit within a star’s particle. Under these extreme The problem is trying to unify could balance the books. It can’t be What started the Big Bang? How will the habitable zone (HZ), a region of COVER STORYconditions gravity and the other quantum mechanics – laws that seen because dark matter isn’t made
2 three fundamental forces (weak govern the interactions between of conventional particles that emit, and strong nuclear forces, and subatomic particles – with gravity, absorb or refl ect light. But we know 6 HOW DID space sometimes called the GALAXIES FORM? ‘Goldilocks zone’ where conditions PE X are ‘just right’ for liquid water. But electromagnetism) behaved in the force that glues distant objects it’s there through its gravitational pull Until 300,000 years after time this concept ignores greenhouse
entirely unknown ways and could such as stars and planets together. on visible matter. Some of dark began, the Universe was too hot to gases, whose effects could raise ELESCO even have combined into one Unfortunately quantum laws and matter’s peculiar particles could be allow matter to condense and form E T temperatures enough for liquid C ‘super force’. But without a theory general relativity (Einstein’s theory created by collisions in the Large galaxies. When the expanding
PA of how gravity interacts with the of gravity) don’t seem compatible. Hadron Collider. Universe had cooled to 1000°C, the water outside of an HZ. It also LE S conditions were right for the fi rst assumes that, like organisms on B three other atomic forces it will be B
U all but impossible to explain what pockets of matter to appear – but Earth, all aliens need liquid water 5, H set off the Big Bang. what happened next is still up for to survive – so life could also exist
3 IS THE UNIVERSE Y X debate. Did particles cluster to outside of habitable zones.RA MADE OF STRINGS? 5 HOW MANY DIMENSIONS ARE THERE? form stars around which galaxies RIB String theory is widely considered We see things in four dimensions: formed, or did the cosmos emerge to be the best bet for tying gravity three axes in space, plus time. But as colossal clouds of matter that
TO LOH to the quantum realm. The idea some theoretical physicists think 8 WHAT SHAPE IS separated into galaxies as the 10 HOW WILL THE E P behind the theory is that all there may be many more. Just Universe expanded? THE UNIVERSE? UNIVERSE END?C According to general relativity, It could be a Big Freeze when the
Universe end? And just how many dimensions are there?
77particles and forces – including how many depends on which IEN objects with mass warp space-C Universe’s expansion dissipates gravity – are different vibrations on theory of quantum gravity is
, S time like cannonballs on a rubber so much of the Big Bang’s heat PE strings 100 billion billion times correct – an early version of string sheet. With enough matter the that it reaches absolute zero smaller than a proton. While this theory only worked with 26 ESCO whole cosmos curves, and if it’s (-273°C). Or the cosmos might
EL provides an elegant description for dimensions. According to M-theory, really dense, space would close up expand so much it tears itself E T quantum gravity, there’s no proof the most sophisticated development C into a vast sphere. But as dark apart in a Big Rip. Gravity could PA that strings exist. Some of string theory, the Universe energy appears to be causing the make it collapse in on itself in a
is an infi nitely large membrane LE S researchers are working on B Universe to expand, space seems Big Crunch that could trigger B alternatives: the Planck probe’s that vibrates in 11 dimensions. U more like an endless sheet of another Big Bang or Big Bounce.
/H studies of the cosmic microwave The seven extra dimensions are paper. Some astronomers believe This Universe might be the latest SH hidden from us in small, bizarre R background (the heat left over A the Universe has a more complex in an endless Bang/Crunch cycle, from the Big Bang) could make or structures known as Calabi-Yau
E M geometry, and is shaped like a for which the Plank satellite might break these theories. manifolds (right). doughnut or a 12-sided crystal. fi nd evidence.STEV
66 November 2008 www.bbcfocusmagazine.com www.bbcfocusmagazine.com November 2008 67
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Is this the clock
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NN N IO NIO IO IENTIST T IOIENTIST T IENTIST T BASED ON A IENTIST T
SC FICSC FIC SC FIC TRUE STORY SC FIC face of the future?
ON TTHE DOCTOR PODCD AST THE SHARK BAIT STRANGELOVE THE CLIMATOLOGISTPeter Sellers
MOVIE: Jaws based his MOVIE: The Day After Tomorrow CHARACTER: Matt Hooper insane former- CHARACTER: Jack HallPLAYED BY: Richard Dreyfuss Nazi scientist PLAYED BY: Dennis Quaid
on the THE FICTION: Rich-boy marine Hungarian THE FICTION: Square-jawed climatologist biologist Matt Hooper is part of the theoretical Jack Hall is drilling for ice core samples in
three-man boating expedition to hunt a physicist Antarctica. He’s standing in exactly the wrong THE CLONERhuge, man-eating great white shark, but Edward Teller, place when the Larsen Ice Shelf cracks and puts rather too much trust in a shark- known as the THE REANIMATOR breaks away from the rest of the continent, and MOVIE: The Austin Powers Trilogy
proof cage. When the shark mangles the father of the MOVIE: Frankenstein transplants (or whole body transplants, barely escapes with his life. Jack rushes home, CHARACTER: Dr Evil Scientist Fiction 68cage, he is forced to fl ee and hide on the H-bomb, and and Bride of Frankenstein depending on how you look at it) are really but his warnings of impending catastrophe PLAYED BY: Mike Myersocean fl oor, and emerges to learn that the German CHARACTER: Henry Frankenstein come too late and the world is plunged into a
scientifi c solutions are no match for a big tricky. “The closest anyone has come is physicist PLAYED BY: Colin Clive new, somewhat unlikely, ice age.
Scientist
gun and an exploding oxygen cylinder. Wernher von grafting brain tissue into the parts of the Braun, the man THE FICTION: Dr Henry Frankenstein is brain that deteriorate in Parkinson’s THE REALITY: Jack Hall’s job would in truth responsible for an early giant of mad science. After disease,” says Dr Frances Edwards, include less desk-thumping and more studious
German rocket locking himself in an old castle with neurophysiologist at University College correlation of data, according to Dr John Turner development in at the British Antarctic Survey.giant electric machines and a London. “This has not been madly “I saw The Day After Tomorrow some time the 1930s 50
hunchbacked assistant called Fritz, he successful so far. People ended up with side ago. It was quite fun,” he says. “I’ve drilled ice creates a reanimated monster from effects such as repetitive, involuntary cores in my time, and I’ve been to Antarctica
S
,
GET
ELEANOR eight times over the years.” Ice cores allow
FICTION
ARROWAY various body parts – including the movements like blinking or grimacing.” scientists to examine climate conditions up Before playing brain of a mass murderer – and bad news in a procedure that doesn’t to a million years ago, and would indeed fall Eleanor hooking them up to a lightning strike. approach the complexity of a full within Jack Hall’s remit. This is where fi ction
Arroway, the Several dead bodies later, Henry fi nds and reality start to diverge, however. Dangling scientist who himself hurled from a burning over crevasses and shouting at the Prime makes fi rst Minister is right out.
Hooper: he’ll drink to your leg windmill. A hard lesson, perhaps, but contact with “When you’re making a fi lm you’ve got to aliens in the a fair one. make it more exciting, but they forget the hard THE REALITY: Professor Leonard movie Contact, work that goes into collecting and analysing
Compagno is director of the Shark Jodie Foster THE REALITY: Incredibly, there are data.” To this end, Turner gathers as much Research Institute (SRI), based in spent months scientists out there who, like Frankenstein, information as possible, from satellite reports ‘How will I spend my million?’ ponders Dr Evil COVER STORY
The mad professor stereotype is regularly seen in fi lms. But here on Focus Princeton, New Jersey. “Steven Spielberg with Jill Tarter. to weather charts, with the aim of gauging in Dennis Quaid: partially used me as a model for Matt have dabbled with body parts. In 1970, which direction the planet’s climate is heading. dressed for an THE FICTION: After graduating from evil As director of Hooper, although the resemblance was surgeon Robert J White kept a monkey alive “I do two things really,” he says. “I look at the unlikely ice age medical school, the Doctor’s scientifi c we’ve met lots of scientists, and we’ve noticed no evil cackles, no hunchbacked the Center for slight,” he says. “In Jaws the portrayal
SETI Research for a few days after transplanting its head past and try to predict the future.” achievements were many and varied: Life in the lab isn’t of white shark behaviour was almost henchmen, and very few hollowed out volcano lairs. Mark Blackmore looks fembots, giant lasers, a time machine entirely false. What was strange was (Search for onto another monkey’s body. But brain “So which one of us is really the monster?” and a tractor beam. But his proudest
people believed it, despite the obvious Extraterrestrial at the reality behind cinema's most famous scientists and their work contrary evidence at hand.” Intelligence) in
THE TELEPORTER achievement was a functional working
T
O Compagno’s colleague Dean Fessler, Mountain View, clone of himself, identical in every way – the SRI’s education director, is currently California, but one-eighth his size.leading a great white shark expedition Tarter is the MOVIE: The Fly
THE TIME TRAVELLER off Guadalupe Island near Mexico. person most CHARACTER: Seth Brundle“Perhaps my greatest disagreement likely to say THE REALITY: Dolly the sheep, created PLAYED BY: Jeff Goldblumwith Mr Hooper is how he refers to white that fi rst ‘hello’ by the Roslin Institute, Edinburgh, in MOVIE: The Back to the Future trilogy travel is possible – it’s just that Doc L sharks as ‘rogues’, solitary animals,” he THE FICTION: Physicist Seth Brundle million atoms in the same quantum state 1996, was the fi rst cloned animal. So if
CHARACTER: Emmett ‘Doc’ Brown Brown was thinking too small. “Back AB says. “I’ve seen great white sharks in ALAN GRANT succeeds in moving his molecules from – via a beam of light,” he says. “A large scientists can already clone a sheep, why OPLAYED BY: Christopher Lloyd to the Future is one of my favourite K groups. There’s even some suggestion of Palaeontologist movies,” says Michio Kaku (right), E/ one teleportation pod to another, but chunk of atoms is ‘destroyed’ somewhere not follow Dr Evil’s example and clone cooperative hunting, like a wolf pack.”IN Jack Horner
unfortunately absorbs the DNA of a fl y that and the information contained in the a person? Professor Dame Kay Davies, K THE FICTION: Emmett ‘Doc’ Brown is professor of theoretical physics at the According to Fessler, that’s not the was the .U a man who puts scientifi c advancement City University of New York. “But let’s EW L only place Hooper goes wrong. “He inspiration for had landed in the pod at the worst possible quantum state is sent at the speed of light director of the Functional Genomics Unit .CO before personal safety – he steals not have any illusions – one gigawatt
2, N keeps referring to the shark as male, moment. This triggers a metamorphosis to another location where it can be used at Oxford University, has a simple answer. ER Alan Grant K plutonium from Libyan terrorists to is far short of the energy necessary to L X when, in reality, it’s the females that C into a fl y-human hybrid that christens itself to reconstruct another chunk with the “Dolly came out of 277 different attempts,” power his time machine. He has no send a DeLorean back in time. The actual A played by Sam B grow larger. The sex of a shark is of O
standing in the scientifi c community energy is comparable to a black hole.” Neill in Jurassic ‘Brundlefl y’. Before long his fi ngernails and same properties.” she says. “We’d have to understand more -STO /K tremendous importance when observing IS and works out of his garage while And as time devices go, the fl ux X Park. It was R O and determining behaviour. Also a teeth have fallen out, and he can only eat Given how mind-bogglingly about the biological process before it H C making money on the side as a capacitor is, sadly, on the modest side Y F 25-footer, while possible back in the Horner who by being sick on things. It’s doubtful this is complicated his own achievements have would be ethical to clone a human.”
BY repairman. Even so, he’s able to send compared to Kaku's ideas. “One 1970s, would still be a rare size to discovered and what he had in mind when he got started. been, Bradley doesn’t see Brundle’s How far are we from human clones? a DeLorean 30 years into the past using potential design is a spherical shell NTUR obtain. Nowadays a 20-footer is almost named the TION pod-to-pod method becoming a reality “It’s very diffi cult to predict because we a ‘fl ux capacitor’, which requires just made out of negative energy or matter, CE Why do bubblesLA unheard of due to overfi shing.” Maiasaura, the
1.21 TH gigawatts to operate. that would connect via a wormhole to THE REALITY: Real-life scientists are any time soon. “Although teleportation of could have a breakthrough,” Davies says. IPU 20 The most famous Hooper scene is the fi rst dinosaur to N another sphere. But these designs are L, prove that these every bit as excited about teleportation the kind depicted in The Fly would be a “There are all sorts of DNA modifi cations A A attack on the shark cage – and it is utter THE REALITY: Time travellers, as far beyond anything we can harness today.” B always that different to the movies, M O nonsense. “Once I was looking directly creatures as Brundle. Dr Ashton Bradley of the highly desirable advance, it would seem during development that we’re only just
C as we know, don’t actually exist yet. The All hope is not lost, however. “It’s L/K at a 15-foot shark and exhaled through possessed University of Queensland in Brisbane, rather diffi cult to arrange for complex beginning to understand. It’s still a long Y, BB nearest thing we’ve got are theoretical conceivable that our descendants will SA my regulators,” Fessler says. “My mothering M physicists – and they almost never have be able to manipulate stellar amounts of ER bubbles startled the shark. It defecated instincts and Australia, was part of a team that recently objects. And even if the technology did way off, at least a couple of decades.” „
LA to toil as repairmen to fund their work. energy, and may want to go back in time IVN and swam away as fast as possible. cared for managed to ‘teleport’ a few atoms. “Our happen to be just around the corner, I Brundlefl y’s table manners The good news is that they believe time to meet their illustrious ancestors.” , U work focused on teleporting a quantum would not like to be the fi rst person to Mark Blackmore reviews games TTY,A X Mindless eating machines – I think not…” their young leave a little to be desired and DVDs for Focus
GE RE object – a condensate consisting of a have to test the device.”
68 Noovvembember 2008err 2008 www wwww.bbcbbcffoocusmagazinecuusmagazine.c.coomm www.bbcfocusmagazine.com November 2008 69 70 November 2008 www.bbcfocusmagazine.com www.bbcfocusmagazine.com November 2008 71
PHO
Focus_196_movie_scientists_11RB.indd 68 7/10/08 14:38:27 Focus_196_movie_scientists_11RB.indd 69 7/10/08 14:38:41 Focus_196_movie_scientists_11RB.indd 70 7/10/08 14:38:49 Focus_196_movie_scientists_11RB.indd 71 7/10/08 14:38:52
have colours
A
Objects of desire
The Guide
Do n’t missThe lightest laptop yet p76 Creepy crabby Fly defi nition
Killer apps for your iPhone p79 These robot crabs scuttle sideways until they fi nd shelter. If your plasma TV takes pride of place The photo album of the future p85 The cowardly crustaceans have sensors that react to light in your living room, you don’t want the
Everything for the clued-up consumer Doctor Who meets Einstein p91 and sound – stopping when they fi nd a dark spot and moving wires that connect it to your Blu-ray player again when you clap your hands. If the crabs are already ruining the look, do you? Well, the Belkin FlyWire provides
The Guide 73
in them?scurrying between safe points, clapping your hands will make a wireless connection between HD devices: just plug your them panic and change direction. HD sources – such as Blu-ray – into the FlyWire transmitter,
EDITOR’SCHOICE then hide the equipment in an inconspicuous cabinet or even HEXBUG Crab another room. The transmitter sends HD signals to a receiver
£12 approx plugged into your HDTV… without those unsightly cables.www.hexbug.com Belkin FlyWire
SE, P
Index
Drink and drive £800 approxAccording to the World Health Organisation, waterborne diseases kill over www.belkin.com1.5 million people a year. The Aquaduct, dreamt up by design consultancy
Ideo, could help reduce that number by making it easier for people in developing countries to get clean water. Not only does it make transporting
Objects of desire 75 water faster, the Aquaduct purifi es it as you ride. The rider’s pedal power The tech you’ll sell your granny to get pumps water from a tank between the rear wheels through a fi lter. From
Four of the best 78 there, it’s pumped to the container at the front ready for use. It’s currently a prototype but Ideo intends to make the tricycle economically viable for Lightweight, web-ready mini laptops developing countries.
How to… 79Make the most of your iPhone IDEO Aquaduct
Tried & Tested 80 www.ideo.comDancing robots that guard your home
W
Games 84
Google Chrome
Take on the world in pixellated form Online 85
Internet insight Track and blueBooks & DVDs 86 Microsoft’s BlueTrack technology lets you use a mouse on
The people who revolutionised internet searches now want to The best movies and page-turners almost any surface (except clear glass and mirrors). Instead of the familiar red laser used by most mice, the BlueTrack change the way you browse the web. Introducing Google Chrome What’s on 90 Explorer gives off a cool blue glow. It comes with a hidden Gadgets, games, books and DVDs reviewed.
Unmissable events and programmes USB dongle that you detach from the underside, then plug into your computer to give you cordless control.
The release of the Chrome browser shows that frustration that results when one errant site crashes the The Review SquadGoogle is serious about ensuring its users get a browser and closes them all. Microsoft BlueTrack Explorer Mousegood online experience. Instead of having to rely In Chrome, each window and each tab has its own Bill Thompson £69.99“You can insert as many of your on Firefox, Opera, Safari or Internet Explorer to access separate process on your computer, so if one gets own ‘when in Chrome’ gags www.microsoft.comincreasingly complex services like Gmail or Google Maps, corrupted the others can carry on. There’s even a task as you like,” Bill told us. “But if A light touch
they’re crap, I’ll hunt you down users can choose a Google-coloured browser that has manager that lets you see what’s running and forces and kill you.” So we didn’t By declaring their laptop “lighter than been designed to run them quickly and reliably. misbehaving sites to quit, making it more robust. Air”, it’s clear Samsung has Apple’s Russell Deeks
Chrome’s user interface is as stripped down as the Perhaps conscious of concerns over its attitude to Russell is assembling his own ultra-portable MacBook Air in its sights. Google homepage. It lacks most of the buttons you’ll user data, Google has given Chrome a special ‘incognito’ robot army and plans to invade The X360 weighs just 1.27kg – 90g lighter Lundy Island. “Them puffi ns will see on Firefox and uses pull-down menus like Internet mode that stores no information on sites you are visiting
put up one hell of a fi ght,” he than the Air. But unlike Apple’s machine, What’s the time, Mr Worf?Explorer. The homepage shows website thumbnails for locally, so nobody can check your browser. Both Internet says. “But I will prevail” the X360 doesn’t compromise on This futuristic watch wouldn’t look out of place quick access, rather like Opera. Web applications like Explorer 8 and Firefox 3 will do something similar, as this Ian Calcutt connectivity: it has three USB and even on a Klingon’s wrist. The Tokyofl ash Rogue
the Google Docs word processor can run in a Chrome is clearly something many will fi nd useful. Ian hooked his test laptops to an HDMI port, not to mention a DVD drive displays time through a series of concentric window with no tabs, buttons, address bar, or menus to There’s lots of info about Chrome online, including the Large Hadron Collider data that isn’t an optional extra. The laptop LED circles. The inner ring represents hours crunching grid. “I fear I may have give the appearance of a desktop programme. details of security problems found in early versions, but pressed the wrong button,” he can be confi gured with a hard disk drive while the larger ring is divided up into fi ve-
But Chrome is not a replacement operating system. for an entertaining overview of the browser and its many says. “I’d better lie low for a while” (HDD) or a more expensive, but faster, minute blocks. On both rings, the missing Like other browsers, it still relies on Windows (it’s not features then you need to read Scott McCloud’s comic, Timandra Harkness solid state drive (SSD). block indicates the current time. If you want yet available for Macs). Rather, Chrome is an attempt to specially commissioned by Google to explain Chrome at “The sub-prime lending fi asco a more precise reading, the smallest outer
could have serious implications ensure that Google users are happy with the company’s www.google.com/googlebooks/chrome/. for the HDTV roadmap,” says telly Samsung X360 ring shows single minutes. No more problems applications, since that makes them more likely to click addict Timandra. “Why are the £1499 (128GB SSD) with big and small hands to drive you into an Plus, what’s on TV and radio
real issues being ignored?”on the ads that have made the web giant so rich. Download Google Chrome at: £1299 (120GB HDD) violent, Bat’leth-weilding rage.Under the hood Chrome works very differently from www.google.com/chrome Mark Blackmore 0845 726 7864
Mark has spent so long testing other mainstream browsers. We’re all used to having www.samsung.com Tokyofl ash Roguegames he has started digesting many browser windows open at once, each with separate Bill Thompson is a technology writer, broadcaster his own body parts. “My eyelids £90 approx
Y tabs for separate websites – and also used to the and critic went last night,” he says. “Now I www.tokyofl ash.comN can play Halo 3 in my sleep”SO
UL HO
www.bbcfocusmagazine.com November 2008 73 76 November 2008 www.bbcfocusmagazine.com www.bbcfocusmagazine.com November 2008 77
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A
P Post Get in touch
Telephone 0117 927 9009 Letter of the month Wi
A B JOIN THE DEBATE Website www.bbcfocusmagazine.com Email post@bbcfocusmagazine.comAmaruc www.bbcfocusmagazine.com/forum
The robot wo e P n BBC Focus magaziner zt oh n a Bristol Magazines Ltd uprising £ D rr engage the brain should just be left to disappointed to see an inaccurate 24. V y’D s
9 the alligators in the swamp or other response to the question ‘Does a tooth Do we really need to know Tower House 9 bad things in the forest. left in cola dissolve overnight?’. You Fairfax Street ‘Where’s my Robot?’ (Focus, September) is Richard Hamblen, by email dismissed this as an urban myth, but about science? Bristol, BS1 3BNcomprehensive and most interesting. However,
the correct response is that although
GE:
the illustration on pages 26/27 has me worried. The author EDITORIAL PUBLISHINGReferee! cola will not dissolve the entire tooth, A robot with all these projected abilities would of this I have a colleague who says there is no need for most of us Editor Jheni Osman Publisher Jemima RansomeAs a former rugby referee I was it will certainly dissolve away all the Deputy Editor Ian Taylor Publishing Director Andy Benhamsurely be able to observe that humans only issue’s in the modern world to know science at all. For example, the Production Editor Robert Banino Managing Director Andy Marshall
Post 94work for reward. I don’t fancy facing up to an letter of fascinated by your article on the enamel overnight. common man just needs to know where to buy the washing News Editor Andy Ridgway Editorial Director Nick BrettStaff Writer JV Chamary intelligent ‘swarm’ of intercommunicating, the month science of refereeing (‘Fair play’, Focus, Sarah Banks, by email powder, he does not need to know how washing powder Consultant Editor Paul Parsons EDITORIAL BOARD
powerful slave robots bent on securing wins a DVD of Bruce September). There needs to be further Science Consultant Robert Matthews Piers Bizony Writer and journalistParry’s Amazon, debate as to when it is appropriate works. Science is everywhere, manufactured and packaged Contributing Editor Emma Bayley Andrew Cohen Series Editor, BBC Horizontheir robot rights. Makes me glad I’m an Bumpy landingcharting his journey for offi cials to use video recordings In your letters pages back in the for easy consumption, so there is really no need for the Deborah Cohen Head of Science, BBC RadioART & PICTURES John Lynch Head of Science, BBC TVoctogenarian who can’t expect to be around
along the mighty to review decisions. The remarkable June issue, comment was made that common man to know any science at all. Do you agree? Art Editor Steve Sayers Nick Patten Executive Producer,when it happens! South American river, Deputy Art Editor Rachel Dickens BBC The Sky at Night
A
thing in most sports at senior levels runways were not made uphill. Not John Corfi eld, Witheridge courtesy of 2Entertain. jpYB3Gp Picture Editor James Cutmore Lord Rees of Ludlow President, Royal Societyis not that referees and umpires make quite true: when World War II was over CONTRIBUTORS ADVISORSoccasional wrong decisions, but that in the Pacifi c, I was among the crew of
Absolutely not, I could not agree less – indeed it is a grossly David Adams, Rob Attar, Stephen Baxter, Dr Susan Aldridge Author & journalistGimme fever to humans. Being densely populated they give correct decisions in the a ship that carried food to Tarakan in Mark Blackmore, David J Bodycombe, Ian Dr Stephen Baxter Science fi ction authorarrogant and insulting suggestion. We all have the right to Calcutt, Benedict Campbell, Dan Cossins, Dr Heather Couper Author & broadcasterwith reasonable numbers of animal overwhelming majority of cases after eastern Borneo. There was an airfi eld Heather Couper, Russell Deeks, Dr Len Fisher, Dr Henry Gee NaturewwwOOnwwn tnntn ww..b thbbbthbcbhehcffooocusmagazineepe podcaste podcae pecusmagazinecuusmaga ppopodcpodpsmodcaaagazagaziggaazizinezcainene.cost.coomtm
hosts that humans could come into seeing the incident once at full speed there that was not only on an incline knowledge and the choice should be for anyone to make for Barry Fox, Professor Monica Grady, Caroline Dr John Gribbin University of Sussexcontact with, the UK does indeed have from one angle. The commentators uphill but also had different gradients themselves no matter how ‘common’ they may be. Green, Tracey Guise, Timandra Harkness, Nigel Henbest Author & screenwriterNigel Henbest, Paul Horrell, Paul Howse, Philip Prof Steve Jones University College London Jungle
fever the potential for new outbreaks – but have the luxury of reviewing it in along its length. I stood with an RAF M Paul Lloyd Hunter, Ger Leblique, M Paul Lloyd, James Adrian van Klaveren BBC TV NewsMay, Ed McLachlan, Chris Madden, Gareth Jonathan Mitchener BT Futurologistscientists and government agencies slow motion from four or fi ve different armourer as his pilot landed a Spitfi re, Mitchell, Richard Palmer, Paul Parsons, Tim Prof Bill McGuire University College Londontracking doIn rwn liemottlete-k parts of the world, scientists are pandemic Sands, Chris Stocker, Bill Thompson, Sam Rahiel Nasir Consumer technology guruN s. Ian Taylornown viruses to stop emerging To hATeHAN WOLFE IS TRYING TO SAVE mee US ALL. ts the disease huntersnt “We’re essentially trwuat tit neinheg frxeto d, dor ieadtrmlyan pat in tndemhe wic iisld an alreadyd t such as Defra closely monitor such angles. This begs the question, are and as the plane landed it bounced in Uhe To paraphrase Carl Sagan, “We have created a world that Turvey, James Urquhart, Luis Villazon, Dr Francis Pryor University of Nottinghamhhw teronudgs th toh stoe hs cpu imhtanan pce toopu telaar a htion. Wole olfe sone pxt panAe v Tihveraofrts’seid evtsyemiso of Cer of epidec before iyti hangp tpo stoensp,” t shae ys ry bailt as difornmia, Liologos Ay antge thlee s.ari ni uinre dozeudus. Mnds. Fiscovns – poedeor strest eard peasrhtetthiamrs, iogepas hteti’fns susfiu ncous tnhdgt jltaretg as iu cds – of est ot ne ost tulhd beree in rEmel dod nobl coeme fsn’t krgoindgryon e vmowilse dor o w. Thhae ot it is, wnly trhoeurble is e it user ws arehse eni itht weri.ll strike. deesm t
sc hhe fiadlgy tuore c huomulad bns. Ae mnud Wch, molfue tchh inks So t m situations… we think – Ed we in danger of losing the essential a wee bit, so that the plane wobbled relies on technology and science to function, yet people Professor Drew Weston, Paul Whitfi eld, Dick Strawbridge BroadcasterALAMY, GETTY r ietpaenbomote plssibleti to spistshs t evhemaernts of tot. U ksenlvoeswh t ae wsue aahnadolt s trldlly sumost hpey er, teahrdfey cacinx befistag .on re aw w32 Focus September 2008 Eboeasernolargeain ochg systethr HIeers, Wr witV. moh’ fl a gfe is buor tlohbe naill ndeiexntt SAwg an ‘orRk of Se, arl y abcigoat nhye of tr. “Iht’s de viirffiucseus in hlt to buem suarns we hoew Touuuhlat odllanyt n’ kte p bneo aewr ct a aeblrnl suo ttue of tt,r” hprmSepphiseeetre saemberatmd iu.ys. “Bu”f we ktn I ew century’s. W goainrmg teo change in treh 2se 21 w008ilst lFocu ±s 33 Jonathan Wright, Paul Wooton, Ceri Yorath Dr Charlotte Uhlenbroek Broadcastersportsmanship that allows us to accept from side to side. With gasps and know nothing about these subjects; it will be our downfall”. Prof Lord Robert Winston I read your article ‘Jungle Fever’
Driven crazy referees’ decisions if we introduce expletives from this chappie, it did ADVERTISING & MARKETING Imperial College Londonush85 Group Advertising Manager Prof Richard Wiseman (Focus, September) with interest. I read with a wry smile Nik Berg’s more video reviewers? land successfully. James Tawton 0117 933 8073 University of HertfordshireI admire the silent heroes who are comments about people who use sat- Advertising ManagerSW Shaw, Cornhill John H Brake Frankston, Australia
out there, risking their lives to save navs and blame the device for all their It depends on your defi nition of ‘science’. Agreed, most Graeme Kirk 0117 933 8045 SUBSCRIPTIONS AND BACK ISSUESAdvertising Executive Call the Focus customer services hotline on us from a pandemic and I applaud driving mistakes (Focus, September). The tooth of the matter Oops of us could get on with our lives without knowing how the Helen Kembery 0117 314 8384 0844 844 0257. Inserts Account ManagerFocus for highlighting their work. While being a good map reader, I’ve We were pleased to see the free In the ‘Jungle Fever’ article (Focus, internal combustion engine works (to pick a very abundant Jo Galise 0117 314 8847 Annual subscription rates (inc P&P): UK/ Get it off your chest. Let us know your thoughts
For all we know they could have been using sat-navs for years now. I preview of Focus that we received September), we claimed that bubonic example)… yet millions of people Head of Circulation BFPO £39; Europe & Eire Airmail £54.96; do know how it works, and Jamie Malley 0117 314 8366 Rest of World Airmail £59.99. Back issues already saved millions of lives. remember being on a business trip with Radio Times last week, and it plague is a virus – it is in fact a bacterial disease in fact get great pleasure out of tinkering with them. Marketing Manager are £4.40 each (inc P&P, UK only). Cheques However, I was shocked to see a in Florida and the TomTom directing looks interesting. However, I was Marie Spicer 0117 314 8357 and postal orders to be made payable to:
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opened up a can of worms for me. me to follow the highway in the same about scientifi c principles and methods, you would learn Carolyn Wray 0117 314 8812 to press. ISSN 0966 4270.What are the pathogens involved? direction as I was heading. It wasn’t next to nothing about the world around you. PRODUCTION Are they dangerous? How many rocket science to think about the best Nails Production Director Sarah Powell
Assistant Production Coordinator Pip Smithcases are known of this occurring? route: in a mindset as great as Homer Ad Coordinator Natasha JochmanWhy does it happen so often in the Simpson, I just went ‘swamp bad; road What’s the alternative? An idiocracy, a land where a large Ad Designer Cliff NewmanAd Proof Readers Pete Stillman, Adam Mason,
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