CRAZY

CONSPIRACY
THEORIES
DEBUNKED

PARALYMPIC
VILLAGE
WHEELCHAIR
3D-PRINTED PULLER
TRACK BIKES

AI GYMNASTICS
JUDGES AI OLYMPIC
TALENT
SPOTTER

ATHLETICS-BOOSTING
RUNNING SHOES
TECHNOLOGY
EXPLAINED
COULD WE
BUILD A
FALLOUT
VAULT?
LIFE IN THE WORLD’S MOST HOW AEROPLANE ESCAPE SECRETS OF A MAGICIAN’S
EXTREME ENVIRONMENTS HATCHES WORK TRICKS REVEALED ISSUE 192

INSIDE A SIM CARD / HOW CANDY FLOSS IS MADE / COOL COOKING CHEMISTRY
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every participating country to showcase WHAT WE’RE ANTICIPATING
its biggest athletic talents, but also for
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the host country to get a bit flash with

the latest technological advances.
Paris 2024 is packed with new
electronic gizmos, computing
wizardry and wondrous
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 INSIDE
Issue 192
34

SPECIAL 62 What is a
SIM card?

26
Meet the tiny integrated circuit
Amazing Olympic
inside your smart device that keeps
innovations
you connected
Inventions of the Summer Olympics,
from performance-enhancing footwear
to AI-powered judges SCIENCE
TRANSPORT 64 Cooking chemistry
Step into the culinary

34
laboratory of food science and
How aeroplane escape
molecular gastronomy
hatches work
Discover the engineering that allows
an entire commercial aircraft to be
evacuated in under two minutes
68 How to operate
on the brain
The procedures and surgical
54
techniques that tackle problems

HISTORY inside your skull

36 Conspiracy theories
debunked
ENVIRONMENT
Arm yourself with logic and science to
avoid falling foul of these mistruths 74 How animals live
in extremes

42
Surviving in some of the world’s
How magicians
harshest environments is tough, but
perform tricks
not for these robust species
We break the spell to reveal the
workings behind some of the greatest
illusions in history 80 How kangaroos
bounce
These marsupial mammals spring

SPACE effortlessly across the Australian

continent using specially adapted limbs

46 Detecting the
dark universe
Observations tell us dark matter and REGULARS
dark energy exist, but how do you find
something you can’t see or feel? 06 Global eye

52
Science and tech news from
Solar power
around the world
from space
SpaceX’s Starship could pave the way 22 Wish list
to a new kind of renewable energy Cool summer gadgets

84 Braindump
TECHNOLOGY Your questions answered
74
54 Could we build…
Fallout’s Vault 33
Do we have the technology to build
90 Book reviews
92 Brain gym
Give your brain a workout
self-sustaining nuclear bunkers, just like
with our puzzle pages
in the post-apocalyptic series?

60
94 How to…
“Jerboas are mostly
Making
Make a pH picture
candy floss
How fairground machines
spin sugar into delicious,
nocturnal and burrow up to 96 Letters
Have your say
wispy strands
three metres into the sand” 98 Fast facts
74 How animals live in extremes

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5
6
 Frozen
lava flows
While orbiting over Europe, an
astronaut on the International Space
Station (ISS) snapped this view of the
Nemrut volcano in Turkey. The eastern
side of Lake Nemrut is solidified lava flows
from past eruptions, taking up half of the
volcano’s caldera. The volcano last
erupted in 1650 BCE, leaving behind
‘pressure ridges’ of cooled and
hardened lava.

© NASA

7
8
 Stilt fishing
in Sri Lanka
Balanced and stealthy, these stilt
fishermen are wading in the waters off
Galle, Sri Lanka. To catch mackerel and
herring near the crashing shoreline, these
fishermen erect wooden crossbars in
shallow water, where they sit and wait with
a fishing rod in hand. This traditional
fishing technique, also known as ‘ripi
panna’, is thought to have begun
following World War II to meet
increased demand.

© Shutterstock

9
10
 Colour
coding Cas A
The James Webb Space Telescope captured
supernova remnant Cassiopeia A (Cas A)
using its Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam),
which can colour chemical elements by the
wavelengths of radiation they emit. Orange
and pink reveal clumps of gas composed of
sulphur, oxygen, argon and neon. The white
wisps around the remnant are produced
by charged particles through
synchrotron radiation.

© NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, D. Milisavljevic (Purdue University), T. Temim (Princeton University), I. De Looze (University of Gent)

11
12
 Building the
Manhattan Bridge
Commissioned in 1901, the final
Manhattan Bridge used 42,000 tonnes of
nickel steel to connect Lower Manhattan
to Downtown Brooklyn, 2,089 metres
apart over the East River. This was the
first major suspension bridge to be
designed using deflection theory, which
calculates how a horizontal deck (road)
and curved suspension cables work
together to deflect the load
applied to the bridge.

© Shutterstock

13
 GLOBAL EYE
Showcasing the incredible world we live in An illustration showing a galaxy
forming a few hundred million
years after the Big Bang

SPACE

The James Webb Space

Telescope sees the birth of
three ancient galaxies
WORDS BRANDON SPECKTOR

stronomers using the James Webb very early galaxies, let alone learn so much of the Cosmic Dawn Center. “That gas will go

A Space Telescope may have

detected some of the earliest
galaxies in the known universe in
about their formation.”
Researchers used Webb to look at 12
known early galaxies dating to no more than
on to cool, clump and form new stars.”
That early star formation was crucial for
pulling the universe out of the so-called
the midst of being born. The researchers 600 million years after the Big Bang. Back cosmic dark ages and into the Epoch of
reported the detection of what appears to be then, our now 13.8-billion-year-old universe Reionisation. As stars and galaxies emerged
three infant galaxies sprouting from a was about three per cent of its current age. from the dense gas clouds of the early
primordial cloud of hydrogen and helium The team specifically hunted for galaxies universe, their stellar radiation ionised – or
gas just 400 to 600 million years
Did in which radiation was being charged – the gas around them, slowly
after the Big Bang. This discovery
could open a window into the
you know? absorbed by the dense clouds of
electrically neutral hydrogen gas
transforming space from a thick soup of
opaque hydrogen into the clear and
murky period known as the Epoch Webb can see back that pervaded the universe at that transparent cosmos we see now. Webb has
of Reionisation, a time when the 13.7 billion years time. Such absorption would spotted ancient galaxies from this era before,
using infrared
earliest stars and galaxies first indicate that the galaxies were but this is the first time that astronomers
began to pierce the dark, dense actively weaving that gas into new have witnessed “their very birth, and thus
clouds of gas around them and reveal stars. By looking at the ancient the construction of the first star systems in
the transparent universe we know today. galaxies’ spectra, or the different the universe,” Heintz said. If these findings
“These galaxies are like sparkling islands in a wavelengths of light they emitted, the team are confirmed with follow-up observations
sea of otherwise neutral opaque gas,” said found evidence that light from three of them with Webb, they may allow astronomers to
Kasper Heintz, an assistant professor of was being absorbed by large amounts of answer crucial questions about the nature
astrophysics at the Cosmic Dawn Center at neutral hydrogen gas. “This suggests that we of the gas clouds that once obscured the
the University of Copenhagen. “Without are seeing the assembly of neutral hydrogen universe and how the first galaxies emerged
Webb we would not be able to observe these gas into galaxies,” said Darach Watson, also to enlighten them.

14
 SPACE

JUPITER’S GAS
CYCLONES MAY
MIRROR EARTH’S
OCEANS
WORDS STEFANIE WALDEK

How different are Jupiter’s gaseous

layers and Earth’s oceans? Perhaps
not as much as you’d expect. Lia
Siegelman of the Scripps Institution of
Oceanography has been studying
Jupiter through the lens of Earth’s
oceans to determine what powers the
gas giant’s raging cyclones. Her
original research, published in 2022,
demonstrated that Jovian cyclones
are powered by convection much in
The baobab tree evolved on the island of Madagascar
the same way Earth’s storms are.
before eventually spreading to Africa and Australia Following up on that study, she and
her team are now analysing filaments,
‘wispy tendrils’ found between
PLANET EARTH Jupiter’s vortices.
Calculating the horizontal wind

The bizarre evolutionary roots of

speed of the planet’s clouds and
filaments through an analysis of

upside-down baobab trees revealed

infrared images, Siegelman noticed
that the filaments appeared to behave
similarly to fronts in Earth’s ocean and
WORDS RICHARD PALLARDY atmosphere, like cold fronts or storm
fronts. These fronts represent a
he iconic ‘upside-down’ baobab and 12.6 million years ago, partly due to

T
boundary between masses with
tree first emerged on the island of hybridisation in a phenomenon known as different densities. Fronts are typically
Madagascar, new research into its reticulate evolution. Their separation into associated with strong winds or
tangled evolutionary history has distinct species was also likely facilitated by currents along their edges, which
revealed. It’s still not clear, however, how it mountain uplift and volcanism, which created could help power Jupiter’s cyclones.
jumped from Madagascar to Australia. The new and unique habitat niches with their own The team then used methods from
majestic baobab tree can grow to heights of climates and soil. oceanography and atmospheric
25 metres and can live thousands of years. It How these trees reached continental Africa science to calculate the vertical wind
is often dubbed ‘the tree of life’ thanks to its and Australia is still unclear. In the past, some speeds of the filaments, which
amazing capacity to store water, provide have proposed that baobab fruits may have confirmed the similarity in behaviour.
food and even medicine from its leaves. been carried by ocean currents, and in the case
However, the origins of the baobab have of Australia even transported by humans. Also
been shrouded in mystery, in part because known as ‘upside-down trees’ due to their
it’s found in multiple regions. One species, sparse canopies, which resemble the root
Adansonia digitata, is found in some 32 African structures of other trees, baobabs are now © Shutterstock / NASA / NASA, ESA, CSA, Joseph Olmsted (STScI)

countries, and another, A. gregorii, is found in threatened by drought and human interference,
northwestern Australia. The other six species and three of the species are now listed as either
are endemic to Madagascar. endangered or critically endangered. Two of
To untangle the plant’s murky evolutionary the endangered species, A. suarezensis and
history, researchers analysed the genomes of A. grandidieri, are highly inbred, presenting
all eight Adansonia species and then used data further complications for their survival.
on their current distribution, as well as past Volcanic activity and sea-level rise may have
climatic and geologic conditions, to recreate reduced the availability of their preferred
their emergence and spread. The progenitor habitat within the past 1 million years. Some of
of the eight living species of baobab likely the current species are also in conflict – for
originated on the island of Madagascar around instance, A. za and A. madagascariensis can
41.1 million years ago, while the first baobab thrive in a broader range of habitats and Cloud systems in Jupiter’s northern
emerged 21 million years ago. The daughter compete for territory with the endangered hemisphere, imaged by Juno
species then diversified between 20.6 million species, which have more specific demands.

15
 GLOBAL EYE
HISTORY An aerial view of the excavation site that
includes mass burials of horses

Heavy metals in Beethoven’s hair

may explain his deafness
WORDS JENNIFER NALEWICKI

igh levels of heavy metals detected documented ailments that plagued him most

© François Goulin, Inrap

in Ludwig van Beethoven’s hair of his life.” The study authors didn’t comment
reveal that he may have had lead on how higher arsenic and mercury levels
poisoning, possibly contributing to would have affected his health.
his deafness and other illnesses. Researchers An earlier study of Beethoven’s hair also
analysed DNA in two authenticated locks of the found high levels of lead, but this research was
German composer’s hair and discovered that later debunked when it was discovered that the
they contained alarmingly high concentrations locks belonged to an Ashkenazi Jewish woman. ARCHAEOLOGY
of lead, as well as high levels of arsenic and However, a recent DNA examination of verified
mercury. One lock contained 380 micrograms
of lead per gram of hair, while the second had
locks of his hair determined that Beethoven,
who was born in 1770 and lived to be 56, was 28 ‘CAREFULLY
258 micrograms per gram of hair – levels today
would be closer to four micrograms or less. His
infected with hepatitis B and had a high risk of
liver disease, which may have contributed to
PLACED’ HORSES
hair also contained 13 times the normal level of
arsenic and four times the typical level of
his death. There are a few possibilities for
what caused Beethoven to have so many
FOUND IN AN
mercury. “These are the highest values in hair contaminants in his system. One theory ANCIENT FRENCH
BURIAL SITE
I’ve ever seen,” Paul Jannetto, a pathologist at involves his penchant for wine – he often
the Mayo Clinic, said. “We get samples from consumed an entire bottle in a single day. It
around the world, and these values are an wasn’t uncommon during that time for wine
WORDS JENNIFER NALEWICKI
order of magnitude higher.” producers to include lead acetate in their
The high levels of these toxic metals concoctions as a preservative and Archaeologists in France have found
could partly explain why Beethoven sweetener. Back then, glass ancient pits containing the skeletal
experienced a number of bottles also contained remains of more than two dozen
illnesses. He started losing his traces of lead. The Fifth stallions, which may have been part of
a sacrificial ritual. The excavation site,
hearing in his 20s, was Symphony composer
located in a valley near the commune
completely deaf by his late also ate a lot of fish
of Villedieu-sur-Indre in central France,
40s, had gastrointestinal caught in the
dates to sometime between the 5th
issues and experienced at Danube, which
and 6th centuries. It includes several
least two episodes of was known for buildings and ditches, as well as a
jaundice, a symptom of containing grouping of nine pits. Archaeologists
liver disease. While high arsenic and have excavated two of the pits thus
lead levels are mercury. far, which contain the remains of a
associated with total of 28 horses. The stallions were
gastrointestinal and liver ‘carefully placed’ on their right sides,
problems, as well as with Large amounts of lead, with their heads facing south, and
decreased hearing, it’s unlikely arsenic and mercury were organised in two rows and on
that the levels were high enough were found in locks two levels. Based on this positioning,
to be his sole cause of death. But of Ludwig van the researchers determined that all of
his high level of lead exposure Beethoven’s hair the horses were buried at the same
“may have contributed to the time in an ‘extraordinary’ burial.
Radiocarbon dating shows that the
animals died sometime between 100
BCE and 100 CE. Because the horses
are small at roughly one metre tall,
researchers suspect the animals were
Gallic livestock. All of the horse
skeletons are from adult males.
One pit also contained a pair of
medium-sized adult dogs that were
buried with their heads facing west.
Archaeologists are unsure of the
animals’ cause of death, but they think
that the horses and dogs may have
been part of a sacrificial ritual.

16
 Did
you know?
Wild pigs eat three
to five per cent of
their body weight
every day

There is high potential for

hogs that have gone feral in
Canada to cross into the US

ANIMALS

Canadian ‘super pigs’ are likely

to invade the northern US
WORDS SASCHA PARE

eral ‘super pigs’ in Canada could the southern US already has around 6.9 the pigs’ movements. “We went from having a

F soon trample across the US

border. The feral pigs are a mixed
population of domestic swine and
million feral hogs, much of the north remains
feral-pig-free, thanks in part to intensive
control efforts. But these control efforts may
general concern about pigs crossing the
US-Canada border to having very detailed
maps showing where they’re most likely to
wild boar, which were introduced to Canada in not be able to hold off a pig invasion from the move and establish populations,” Brook said.
the late 1980s for meat and recreational north, which could inflict “tremendous The pigs favoured areas with a patchwork
shooting. Keepers released the boars and damage” on agricultural production and of wetland, deciduous forests and crops that
some pigs when the market for boar meat ecosystems. “They’re rooters and tear the provided both food and cover. This type of
plunged in the early 2000s, thinking that ground up,” Brook said. “They are an habitat is widespread across the northern
the animals wouldn’t survive the harsh ecological trainwreck. They eat anything prairies and along the border. The
Canadian prairie winter and deep snow. But from small mammals like mice to ducks and researchers also found that expansion was
instead the pigs thrived. “These pigs have geese, all the way up to adult whitetail deer most likely to occur near bodies of water,
high reproductive rates, are very mobile and that they kill and eat.” including Fort Peck Lake in Montana, Devils
have a high capacity to spread,” said Ryan To map their expansion through Canada Lake in North Dakota and the Missouri River.
Brook, a professor of animal and poultry and determine where they might go next, “Our results show the potential for rapid and
science at the University of Saskatchewan in Brook and his colleagues fitted 22 feral pigs uncontrolled expansion of wild pigs in the
Canada. As it turns out, the pigs are also with GPS collars. The collars transmitted the northern prairies of North America,” the
© Getty / Shutterstock

resistant to the cold, so Brook and his animals’ location every three hours for 13 researchers wrote. To mitigate the risk, Brook
colleagues dubbed them ‘super pigs’. months. Some collars failed or fell off, so the and his colleagues suggested planting shorter
A study suggests that super pigs may researchers only kept data from ten pigs. crops that provide less cover or preventing
eventually cross the border into North and They then matched the location data with wild pigs from accessing their favourite
South Dakota, Montana and Minnesota. While habitat type and created a model to simulate patchwork habitats.

17
 GLOBAL EYE
Carrion crows are the
first animal other than
SPACE humans seen performing
vocal numeracy

JAPAN TO
LAUNCH THE
WORLD’S
FIRST WOODEN
SATELLITE
WORDS SAMANTHA MATHEWSON
Japan plans to launch the world’s first
wooden satellite, LignoSat. It was
developed by researchers at Kyoto
University and Japanese logging
company Sumitomo Forestry. It’s set
to launch to the International Space
ANIMALS
Station (ISS) in September, after

A new study shows crows

which it will be deployed into orbit.
LignoSat is a tiny cube that measures
ten centimetres on a side and weighs
just over 0.9 kilograms. It was crafted
using a traditional Japanese technique can count out loud
that doesn’t require screws or glue
and is equipped with external solar WORDS BEN TURNER
panels. The parts of the satellite that
would normally be constructed from rows can count out loud, a startling In the study, researchers presented three
aluminium are instead crafted from
magnolia wood.
About a month after arriving at the
C new study has revealed, and they
may even have the same numeracy
skills as human toddlers.
crows with randomly ordered visual and
auditory stimuli, the visual being Arabic
numbers and the auditory cue being the
orbiting laboratory, the satellite will Researchers found that carrion crows can sounds of different instruments. Through trial
deploy from Japan’s Kibo module. produce a specific number of caws in response and error, the birds learned that each cue
Researchers will study how it holds up to visual or auditory stimuli, enabling them to corresponded to a set number of caws
in the harsh environment of space, count out loud between one and four. The between one and four. After crowing the
collecting data on wood expansion, discovery is the first time that animals have vocalisations out – cawing four times for a
contraction and degradation, along
been definitively shown to count by making a sound or symbol associated with four caws, for
with internal temperature and
distinct number of vocalisations. “Producing example – the birds were trained to peck the
electronic equipment performance. If
a specific number of vocalisations with purpose screen displaying them to signal they had
LignoSat does well, new doors could
requires a sophisticated combination of finished. If the crows gave the right number of
open for reducing the environmental
impact of satellite reentries. numerical abilities and vocal control,” the caws corresponding to the prompt, they
researchers wrote. “Our results were rewarded with a treat.
Traditional satellites can deposit
demonstrate that crows can flexibly Did Once they were trained, the
you know? counting crows gave accurate
harmful metal particles in Earth’s
atmosphere when they fall back to our and deliberately produce an
planet and burn up in our air. instructed number of vocalisations There are 40 responses, producing the correct
by using the ‘approximate number different species number of caws to the prompts at a
system’ – a non-symbolic number of crow rate higher than chance. Even when
estimation system shared by the crows gave wrong responses,
humans and animals.” they were often mistakes made
Many studies have shown that animals, between numbers that were relatively
including honeybees, lions, frogs and ants, close together, such as three and four, rather
have an inherent numerical sense, and another than further apart, like one and four. The
study revealed that black-capped chickadees birds’ counting skills are like those of human
add more ‘dee’ trills at the end of their alarm toddlers, who often count based upon
calls to alert to more significant threats. Yet vocalisations of numbers rather than using
none of these provide enough evidence that numbers themselves. “This competency in
animals share humans’ ability to count out crows also mirrors toddlers’ enumeration skills
loud. To look for stronger evidence of vocal before they learn to understand cardinal
The world’s first wooden satellite named animal counting, researchers turned to carrion number words,” the scientists wrote, “and may
LignoSat on show during a press crows, a promising candidate due to their therefore constitute an evolutionary precursor
conference at Kyoto University superb vocal abilities and comprehension of of true counting where numbers are part of a
complex mathematical concepts such as zero. combinatorial symbol system.”

18
 H E A LT H

50,000-year-old Neanderthal bones

harbour the oldest known human viruses
WORDS EMILY COOKE

eanderthals who lived 50,000 samples. In this way, they showed that our our understanding of disease today. “This

N years ago were infected with three

viruses that still affect modern
humans today, researchers have
closest now-extinct relatives could be
infected with three common modern human
viruses: a type of adenovirus, a herpesvirus
discovery not only expands our understanding
of viral evolution and disease throughout
human history, but may also open avenues
discovered. These traces of ancient viruses are and a papillomavirus. for the development of new medical
the oldest remnants of human viruses ever In modern humans, adenoviruses can approaches, especially with regard to
discovered. They are around 20,000 years cause a range of symptoms, including cold vaccines and antiviral treatments,” said
older than the previous record-holder for the and flu-like symptoms, a sore throat and pink Marcelo Briones, a professor of bioinformatics
most ancient human virus ever found: a eye. Infection with sexually transmitted at the Federal University of São Paulo in
common-cold virus uncovered inside a pair papillomaviruses can lead to genital warts and Brazil. “As the field of ancient virology
of 31,000-year-old baby teeth in Siberia. certain types of cancer, while different herpes expands, more revelations about past
Scientists found the ancient viruses after viruses can trigger cold sores, chickenpox or diseases are expected to help inform our
sifting through DNA sequences drawn from ‘mono’. The herpesvirus found in the understanding of modern diseases and
the skeletons of two male Neanderthals Neanderthals looked most like the one that improve our ability to combat them.”
originally found in Chagyrskaya Cave, located causes cold sores. Scientists say the findings Although the idea of resurrecting ancient
in the Altai mountains in Russia. Several provide physical evidence to support the viruses might sound concerning, it’s unlikely
sequences appeared to be viral in origin, so theory that viruses may have played a role in that this will happen anytime soon. “I am
the team compared them to modern viruses the demise of the Neanderthals, who went sceptical that this could be achieved, given
known to cause lifelong infections. They ruled extinct around 40,000 years ago. the lack of full understanding of how the
out the possibility that the viruses came from It’s possible that these viruses could viruses’ DNA is damaged and how to
modern humans who handled the skeletons or one day be synthesised and used to infect reconstruct the recovered pieces into a
by predators that fed on them by looking at modern human cells in lab dishes, the team full viral genome,” said Sally Wasef, a
specific signatures in the viral DNA that said. Comparing the ancient viruses to palaeogeneticist at Queensland University
differed between the ancient and modern modern ones could theoretically improve of Technology in Australia.

Traces of an adenovirus (illustrated here),

herpesvirus and papillomavirus were found
in the bones of two Neanderthals

© Getty / Shutterstock

19
 GLOBAL EYE
A male European black widow
wrapping up his prey

Did
you know?
European black
widows are
identified by 13
abdominal spots

New antivenom invented for

H E A LT H

black widow spider bites WORDS EMILY COOKE

cientists have invented a new its effects on the nervous system. However, lab to determine if any were capable of

S antivenom for European black

widow spider bites that uses
human antibodies to mitigate the
because the antivenom comes from horses,
it may be recognised as ‘foreign’ by the
immune system. In a small number of
binding and neutralising alpha-latrotoxin. In
all, the team identified 45 human antibodies
that could do this, including one in particular,
effects of the arachnid’s painful toxins. The cases, the immune system can consequently called MRU44-4-A1, which showed high levels
new treatment could be superior to existing go into overdrive, sparking potentially of neutralisation. When an antivenom
antidotes, but it will need much more testing life-threatening allergic reactions and what’s neutralises a toxin, it prevents it from binding
before it’s available to patients. When known as ‘serum sickness’. to cells, and thus wreaking havoc in the body.
European black widows bite, they inject into The effectiveness of this horse-derived The European black widow, which is
their victims a powerful toxin called alpha- treatment can also vary considerably from predominantly found in the Mediterranean
latrotoxin. Alpha-latrotoxin attacks the one batch of antibodies to the next. To avoid region, is one of more than 30 types of black
nervous system and can trigger a condition these potential problems, researchers looked widow worldwide, including the southern
called latrodectism, with symptoms such as to use human antibodies that are generated black widow that is native to North America.
severe pain, headaches and nausea. If left in the lab. The antibodies they generated Although the newly made antibodies seem
untreated, symptoms can last for several target alpha-latrotoxin and could theoretically to work for the European black widow toxin,
days, but the condition is rarely fatal. be ‘made to order’ as and when needed, in a separate experiment the team discovered
People who have been bitten by a European rather than having to wait for horses to that only two of the antibodies were effective
black widow are typically prescribed pain make antibodies. As the new antibodies against the venom of southern black widows.
relief medications, such as opioids and contain constituent parts that are uniquely It could be years before the new antivenom
benzodiazepines, to treat their symptoms. human, they wouldn’t trigger dangerous for European black widow bites ends up in
They may also be given an antivenom immune responses. the clinic. At the very least, a couple of years
containing antibodies drawn from horses that So far this new antivenom has only been of research would be needed to test the
have been injected with alpha-latrotoxin and tested in lab dishes. But with further testing, safety and effectiveness of the new
thus developed immunity against it. Once the antibodies could eventually provide antivenom in cells and animals. These results
injected into the human body, these horse patients with a safer and more effective would then need to be replicated in clinical
antibodies help strengthen a person’s antivenom. In the new study, the team tested trials with humans, which could potentially
immune response to the venom, countering more than 10 billion different antibodies in the take another ten years.

20
 Scientists used solar
radiation to heat
SPACE
objects to a scorching
1,000 degrees Celsius

CHINA’S SECRET
SPACE PLANE
HAS RELEASED
AN UNKNOWN
OBJECT
WORDS SAMANTHA MATHEWSON
At around 20:00 BST on 24 May,
China’s mysterious Shenlong space
plane released an unidentified flying
object 372 miles above Earth’s
surface. Experts outside China don’t
know what the object is, but they
believe it may be a small satellite or a
piece of hardware ejected before the
craft is scheduled to deorbit. The US
Space Force has been tracking the
space plane since it launched on 14
December. Little is known about the
craft, although it appears to be similar
PLANET EARTH to the clandestine Boeing X-37B space
plane developed by the US, which is

Solar power generates enough

capable of making years-long
excursions into orbit. China’s space

heat to power a steel furnace

plane first launched in 2020 and
remained in orbit for just two days. It
stayed aloft for 276 days during its
second voyage, beginning in late 2022.
WORDS PRUDENCE WADE Shenlong deployed six smaller
cientists have used solar power to 1,000-degree-Celsius barrier. In a new study, objects shortly after launch last year;

S heat an object to 1,000 degrees Casati and his team drew upon a property each appeared to be emitting some
Celsius – hot enough to power a called the thermal-trap effect. Essentially, kind of signal. So far, Chinese officials
have remained secretive about the
steel furnace. The proof-of-concept semi-transparent materials strongly absorb
plane and its activities, and have not
study demonstrates how solar energy could sunlight, re-emitting it as heat. The researchers
addressed the nature of the mystery
replace fossil fuels in high-temperature shined incoming solar radiation onto a
objects or even acknowledged them.
manufacturing processes, such as smelting synthetic quartz rod that trapped the heat. Meanwhile, the US military’s X-37B is
steel. To manufacture materials like glass, They then attached it to an opaque silicon dish, also in Earth orbit. The craft launched
cement and ceramics, raw materials are heated which absorbed the heat from the crystal. on 28 December 2023 on a SpaceX
to above 1,000 degrees Celsius. Currently, When the incoming light shined with the Falcon Heavy. The fact that the two
using solar energy to reach these scorching intensity of 135 Suns, the absorber plate missions are operating simultaneously
temperatures is costly and inefficient, so climbed to 1,050 degrees Celsius, while the is “probably no coincidence,” Space
carbon-based energy like oil or coal are quartz rod stayed at 600 degrees Celsius. Force chief of space operations B.
typically used to power the furnaces in which Previous work, which didn’t use synthetic Chance Saltzman said.
these materials are made. These industries are quartz to trap solar energy, only demonstrated
responsible for around 25 per cent of global the thermal-trap effect up to 170 degrees An illustration of China’s secretive
energy consumption. “To tackle climate Celsius. In follow-up work, the researchers Shenlong space plane in orbit
change, we need to decarbonise energy in tested different materials, including liquids and
general,” said Emiliano Casati, a scientist in gases that can act as thermal traps, and
the department of mechanical and process managed to reach even hotter temperatures.
engineering at ETH Zürich in Switzerland. The researchers will likely look at how this
“People tend to only think about electricity as technology can be used on a larger scale to
energy, but about half of the energy is used in give it a higher chance of being adopted across
© Shutterstock / Getty

the form of heat.” industries. “Solar energy is readily available,

Scientists have previously explored solar and the technology is already here,” said
receivers, heating systems that convert solar Casati. “To really motivate industry adoption,
radiation into heat via Sun-tracking mirrors, but we need to demonstrate the economic viability
that technology struggles to break the and advantages of this technology at scale.”

21
 WISH LIST
The latest tech for SUMMER

TABLE BBQ
$470 (APPROX £370)
BERGHOFFWORLDWIDE.COM

What’s summer without a good

BBQ? Whether it’s on the beach, in
the back garden or out on a boat,
the portable table BBQ from
BergHOFF lets you grill wherever
you are. It comes with a chromium-
plated steel grid for even cooking
and a cork lid, which can adjust the
airflow to the fire basket and grill.
The table BBQ grill has a very
simple set process
with all the
elements packed
together
seamlessly. It
includes detachable
handles and a carry
strap for easy
transportation.

CANOPY POOL ISLAND FLOAT

$127.99 (APPROX £101) INTEXCORP.COM

Bringing comfort to the pool comes with a couple of cup

SOFT PACK COOLER
$119 (APPROX £94) RTICOUTDOORS.COM
and beach, this inflatable holders, making sure
island by Intex is a great way cocktails and coolers are
The contents of this soft pack cooler are kept cool and
to relax during summer. The close to hand.
insulated by ‘closed cell foam’, which RTIC say can keep its
detachable fabric sun shade
contents cold for up to two days when you follow their
lets you bask in the sunlight
handy tips, such as pre-chilling the cooler and contents.
and shuttle in the shade
The soft pack cooler comes with a leak proof design to
without the need to move
prevent the water from not only getting in but also from
locations. The two-metre
beverage spillage finding its way out. At around 40
wide inflatable can support
centimetres wide and 32 centimetres tall, this bag can hold
up to around 200 kilograms
30 cans, however, there are different sizes available which
and it is made from robust,
can hold 12, 20 and up to 40 cans.
three-ply material. It also

22
 ROAM 2
£179 (APPROX $228) SONOS.COM

Keep the music flowing this summer

with the latest portable speaker from
Sonos, the Roam 2. This compact,
Bluetooth and WiFi-enabled speaker
packs a power punch with up to ten
hours of continuous playback on a
single charge. It’s also dustproof and
fully waterproof to handle everything
the summer has to throw at it with
ease. Setting up the Roam 2 is a breeze
XREAL AIR 2 PRO
$449 (APPROX £353)
and it can be paired with your
smartphone or device and other Sonos
systems in minutes.
US.SHOP.XREAL.COM

So much more than a pair of sunglasses,

these high-tech shades are compatible with
modern smartphones for a mind-blowing
augmented reality experience. Stream your
favourite shows, immerse yourself in the
latest mobile video game or view social media
in a whole new way. Using integrated micro-
OLED panels, you can enjoy a range of social
and entertainment media on a virtual 130”
screen. The Air 2 Pro also comes with
‘electrochromic dimming’, which allows you to
alter levels of ambient light for better viewing.

JISULIFE HANDHELD FAN ULTRA 1

£94.31 (APPROX $120) JISULIFE.COM

To tackle the summer heat, JisuLife has created

this powerful handheld fan. Blasting air at a rate
of 19 metres per second, you’re sure to cool
down quickly. There’s also a dial to select one of
© Intex / SONOS / XREAL / JisuLife / RTIC Outdoors / BergHOFF

100 levels of wind speed, which are displayed

on a digital display. At only 350 kilograms, this
compact device can easily fit into any hand
luggage and travel bag. On a single charge, the
fan can supply up to six and a half hours of
cooling air and has a rapid charge feature,
taking only 2.5 hours to fully charge from zero.
It also operates at relatively low noise levels of
around 50 decibels (the same level as a
refrigerator hum).

23
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 SPECIAL

The 2024 Summer Olympics comes with an array of

inspired inventions, from performance-enhancing
footwear to AI-powered judges
WOR
WORDS AILSA HARVEY
OR

26
DID YOU KNOW? Paris has been an Olympic Games host three times – in 1900, 1924 and 2024

he Summer Olympic Games Paris 2024 will need to reduce this to

T comes around once every four

years, and it’s the ultimate stage
for most athletes to display their
1.75 million tonnes to reach its target. To
help achieve this, 95 per cent of the Olympic
infrastructure already existed or will be used
sporting skills. While Olympians focus on after the games. The stadium venues and any
their relentless training regimes ahead of buildings that are specially made will continue
their performances, the host country plans to be used for other purposes after the
meticulously to present its city to the world. closing ceremony.
To show off their economic strength, The ethos of eco-friendly advanced
innovation and dedication to environmental technology runs through every part of these
issues, Olympic hosts put on a display games, including the Olympic Villages where
of the cutting-edge technology athletes reside, the torches that encase
surrounding the competitions too. Did the Olympic flame – symbolising
The organisers of the 2024 you know? spirit, knowledge and life – and the
Olympic Games in Paris have 45,000 volunteers medals that serve as physical
claimed that the upcoming will help at the recognition of an athlete’s
event will be the most immersive 2024 Olympics achievements. Likewise, the
series of the competition to date, boundaries set by competitors in
including high-resolution 8K each Olympics series are pushed
streaming and the use of artificial higher with every event. In Paris 2024,
intelligence (AI) across the judging, security more world records are predicted to be
and entertainment sectors. One of the most broken as the limits of human abilities are
significant targets set for these games is tested once more. Increasingly aerodynamic
to halve the carbon footprint produced by racing equipment, inventive running shoe
previous Olympics. The Tokyo 2020, Rio 2016 materials and precise, performance-analysing
and London 2012 games emitted an average technology mean that each Olympic Games
of 3.5 million tonnes of carbon dioxide, so is faster, fairer and ever-evolving.

The Paris Olympics start on 26 July

© Getty / Nike / Toyota / Shutterstock / Alamy

27
 SPECIAL CONNECTING
COUNTRIES
Despite being a large-scale

AI TALENT SPOTTER
Watching Olympic events often inspires the next
Intel’s Gaudi processor will be used to analyse
the athletic performance of spectators
competition where each country
battles for victory, the Olympics has
continually promoted values of
togetherness and respect among
generation of athletes, and it may leave attendees athletes and spectators. In each
wondering if they have what it takes. To give some discipline, people will have travelled
insight into their athletic ability, a new piece of from all over the world for a shared
software by technology company Intel is available experience. In Paris 2024, this isn’t
to use at sporting venues during the games. limited by language. AI-powered
Using AI and computer vision – technology that translation bots provide real-time
enables machines to identify objects in images translation services between
from camera footage – a profile of each person attendees from different countries.
who interacts with the machine is scanned. The This software enables people to speak
user is then immersed in the process of becoming given by on-screen instructions, the computer in their native language, as the AI will
an Olympic athlete, connecting them with the will track the body’s posture, movement and detect the language and translate it
journey of the athletes they are watching. Fans speed. At the end of these activities, artificial into a chosen output language with
can engage in physical exercises and movements, intelligence will provide results on the sport best minimal delay. Devices with this
and while they carry out simple athletic drills suited to the individual. function will be placed in public
transport areas, while robots have
been tested for deployment in social
areas of Olympic venues. AI will also

SPRINTING SHOES: AIR

limit negative communication online
during the 2024 Games. Software is

CUSHION PHYSICS
being used to flag up negative or
abusive comments about Olympic
athletes or events by detecting certain
Nike Maxfly 2 running shoes have been released for 2024’s elite 100 to keywords and phrases.
400 metre runners, but what’s the science behind their speed?
Real-time AI translation reduces the need
3 DUAL CHAMBER 5 ZOOMX FOAM 6 OUTSOLE for human translators
Two flexible chambers of pressurised Nike ZoomX is extremely light TRACTION PLATE
air increase each stride’s energy return. and springy, with an 85 per This thin rubber
They compress when the foot lands cent energy return. The foam outer sole is less
and bounce back to their original shape is made of a thermoplastic than two millimetres
and volume when the foot lifts, polymer – a synthetic plastic thick and adds
releasing energy up and off the ground. softened through heating – further grip.
called Pebax.

1
4
1

1 LIGHTWEIGHT UPPER
4 CARBON FIBRE Strong, lightweight
The foot absorbs energy strands of yarn are woven
when it bends, so a stiff 2 SPIKED BASE for the top of the shoe.
carbon-fibre plate 2 Six spikes add extra grip. The material, called
provides some rigidity to They secure each stride Atomknit, secures the
the structure. It’s curved into the running track, foot, prevents water
to optimise the direction increasing propulsion absorption and allows
of energy propulsion. power and reducing slips. air to enter.

28
DID YOU KNOW? Running spikes must be more than 25 millimetres long

6
4

1924 2024 VS
How do the games compare 100 years after
Paris last hosted the Olympics?

17 32
There were five fewer
sports than the previous
There are nearly
twice as many sports
games in 1900 at Paris 2024

3,089
The number of athletes
10,500
The total number of
included 135 women athletes in 2024 will
Did and 2,954 men include an equal
you know? gender split

5,084 medals
have been
made 44
Ecuador, Ireland, Latvia
>200
The number of countries
and Poland made their and committees that
5 debut out of nearly 50 will compete, including
participating countries the Refugee Olympic
Team

14MINUTES 12MINUTES
AND31.2 AND35.36
2 SECONDS SECONDS
Paavo Nurmi of Finland The current 5,000-metre
broke the 5,000-metre world record is almost
running world record two minutes quicker than
3

10
with this time the 1924 time

625,
1

LANDMARK WINNINGS
With a podium place at the Olympic Games,
000
The number of spectators
was the equivalent of over
MILLION
The number of
tickets on sale for the
athletes win a piece of the Eiffel Tower 20 per cent of Paris’ 2024 games
population

1 TOWER PIECE 4 GREEK GODDESS THE FIRST ‘BREAKING’,

Iron from the Eiffel Tower removed
during refurbishments has been
Nike, the Greek goddess of victory, is
engraved into the back of the medal, FEMALE A FORM
stripped of its brown paint and cut to with the Athens Acropolis and Eiffel FENCING OF DANCE,
make the medal’s central gem. Tower behind her. EVENT TOOK WILL
2 GEOGRAPHIC SHAPE 5 SHINING METAL PLACE DEBUT
STADEYVES- STADEYVES-
The hexagonal shape of the central The majority of each medal consists of
metal matches that of France’s either gold, silver or bronze metal. This
borders. It symbolises the work of the is built in strips to reflect light from DU-MANOIR DU-MANOIR
HOSTEDTHE FROM2024
entire nation to deliver the Olympics. different angles, signifying the radiance
of France and the competitors.
3 GAMES EMBLEM
6 METAL APPENDAGES
OPENING WILLHOST
ANDCLOSING HOCKEY
© Shutterstock / Nike / Getty

The flame of the Paris 2024 logo

symbolises the Olympics’ energy, The Eiffel Tower’s metal is set into
while the flame’s mouth represents
Marianne – a personified symbol
the medal like a jewel. The metal
setting holds the hexagon in place
CEREMONIES TOURNAMENTS
of France that stands for liberty at each corner.
and equality.

29
 SPECIAL
514 cyclists will co
mpete
at Paris 2024

TEAM GB’S 5 SADDLE SHAPE

3D-PRINTED
The full-carbon
saddle is shaped to fit
2 the contours of the

TRACK BIKE
This lightweight, aerodynamic
rider’s body. They are
lightweight and
absorbent.
bike was inspired by fighter jets

2 SEAT POST
The 3D-printed aluminium seat post
has a gap in the centre to reduce drag.

7 DISC WHEELS
Both wheels will be solid discs to
reduce aerodynamic drag. A disc
wheel can save up to three
8 CARBON-FIBRE FRAME
Carbon fibre makes the main
seconds per mile.
structure of the bike rigid, lightweight
and enables high impact absorption.
8

3 TITANIUM CRANK
An aerodynamic
titanium crankset is
fitted with a large
carbon-fibre chain ring.

7 3

BLADE RUNNING
The Cheetah blade was inspired by
the hind legs of the world’s
fastest land animal
At the Paralympic Games, spectators can see includes the Ossur Cheetah Xceed, which is
how life-changing technology can make the the blade of choice for many Paralympians.
majority of sports inclusive to all. Running is It’s made of carbon fibre and closely replicates
one such sport, which has a large number of the movements and forces exerted by a
ability categories. Many Paralympians are human calf muscle and foot tendons. The
amputees who rely on running blades to blade compresses when it hits the ground and
transfer their impressive power to the ground stores 90 to 95 per cent of the potential
effectively. These prosthetic legs have energy for the next step. Spiked soles are
improved dramatically since the first running added to the base of the prosthetic, just as a
blades of the late 1970s. Today’s technology spiked running shoe is worn on a foot.

30
DID YOU KNOW? There are 22 summer paralympic sports

AI
4 CHANGEABLE HANDLEBARS
Drop handlebars like this can be added for GYMNASTICS
sprint events, in which bending the body
lower enables more aerodynamic starts.
JUDGE
How Fujitsu’s AI recognition
6 MISMATCHED TYRES system assists human
Team GB will have a judges in accurate scoring
narrower front tyre to
better cut through the air.

4 Did
you know?
30 to 90 sheets of
carbon fibre make
up running blades

1PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS
Cameras and light detection and ranging
sensors are positioned around the gymnastics
apparatus. 2 million lasers are emitted per
6 second to capture the position of objects and a
1 SERRATED FORK gymnast’s precise movements.
The fork of the bike,
which holds the front
wheel, has a unique
jagged edge like a fighter
jet or owl wing. This
makes airflow smoother
1 around the rider.

2 4D POSTURE RECOGNITION
The cameras identify the shape of the
human body, locating the bends of the joints.
The technology tracks the body’s movements
in 3D, with the added dimension of time to
calculate the fast manoeuvres.

© Lotus Engineering / Alamy / Getty / Illustrations by Ed Crooks

ũ7KHXSFRPLQJHYHQWbZLOOEH 3ON-SCREEN SCORING

The body’s positions and speed are
the most immersive series of the combined in the computer’s final analysis to
assess the difficulty and execution of moves in

competition to date” the performance. Final computer-generated

scores are displayed on screen for the judges,
next to the camera footage for human judges
to refer to for final scoring.

31
 SPECIAL
2

TORCH TECH
2,000 torches have been made
for the Olympic torch relay across
France and French territories, but
what are they made of?
The 2024 Olympic Village in
Saint-Denis during construction

1 RECYCLED STEEL
The torches were made of
scrap metal from cars and
household appliances, melted
1 2 CASTING METAL
As the melted steel
LOW-CARBON
at 1,650 degrees Celsius. cooled, it was
moulded into
0.7-millimetre-
thick sheets.
OLYMPIC VILLAGE
Some of the buildings being built for the Olympics include
7 STEEL MICROBLASTING accommodation for athletes. During construction, Olympic
To create this smooth, organisers focused on making environmentally conscious
satin-like appearance on choices. The village is spread across three towns – Saint-
the upper half, the metal Denis, Saint-Ouen and L’Île-Saint-Denis – where the athletes
underwent microblasting. 7 will stay during the games. All accommodation is less than
This involves firing abrasive six miles from 80 per cent of the Olympic venues to reduce
particles at the metal with travel times. The concrete used is low-carbon, and all
compressed air.
buildings shorter than 28 metres are made of wood. Of all
the materials sourced, three-quarters are recycled.
Surrounding the buildings are green spaces and water
5 MAXIMUM DIAMETER features to improve air quality. After the Olympic
The diameter at the Did Games, the buildings will be used as affordable
middle of the torch is
5 you know? residential apartments for locals, and some spaces
ten centimetres, will be converted into shops and restaurants.
France was the
around a centimetre
first country in the
thinner than the EU to allow AI
previous torch. surveillance The AI surveillance system splits up
recorded scenes into individual
objects to track movements

3 SHINY SECTION
The steel on the bottom
half of the torch was
polished to create its
3
shiny appearance.
6 WAVY DESIGN
After laser cutting the INTELLIGENT
SURVEILLANCE
steel sheets, some
were pressed into
wavy moulds and
mirror polished to The Olympic Games is a high-profile event, meaning the
The Olympic torch relay reached create reflection. security alert status is inevitably higher. To keep attendees
Cassis, France, on 12 May. These waves represent
safe at the Paris Olympics, AI-powered surveillance cameras
the Mediterranean Sea
between France and are being tested. The Olympics will be used as a trial period
its territories. to see if the technology is successful in spotting potential
threats. In place of standard cameras, which keep record of
all video footage and times, AI surveillance can actually
4 NARROW BASE make sense of the images it captures. Using machine
The torch narrows at the learning, the technology is designed to detect specific
bottom so that shapes and movements that are present in dangerous
torchbearers can easily encounters. Some examples of scenarios the software can
grip it in their hand. At spot include crowd surges, objects that have been
the back of the torch is a abandoned, fire and unusual traffic patterns. If the cameras
gap that allows the detect these, an alert will be sent to the authorities, who can
4 bearer to see if the torch check them and use human judgement to decide the best
is still alight. course of action. This is a smarter way to monitor large
crowds when police eyes can’t look everywhere at once.

32
DID YOU KNOW? 150 wheelchair e-pullers will be used at the Paralympic opening ceremony

4 COMPATIBLE 8 VERSATILE SPACE 2 PEOPLE MOVER

GREATER MOBILITY
Toyota has supplied a wheelchair e-puller
CONNECTION
The e-puller is
The space inside the
APM is large and the
Toyota is releasing
250 accessible people
connected to the front floor is flat to maximise movers (APMs) to
and a people mover for easier and of a wheelchair user’s compatible wheelchair transport athletes,
more accessible travel chair to pull them up to types and travel visitors and staff
five miles per hour. combinations. around venues.

1 WHEELCHAIR E-PULLER
This device converts mechanical wheelchairs into
electric-powered ones so that wheelchair-using
athletes can navigate more freely.
2

8
1
6

3
5
6 EASY ACCELERATION 5 CHAIR BRACKET
Like an electric scooter, the To connect the e-puller to a
e-puller is driven forward when wheelchair, a bracket needs
4 the user presses this button. to be connected to the chair.

7 BRAKE BAR 3 WHEELCHAIR-FRIENDLY

The e-puller is safely The APM is a battery electric vehicle
controlled, with handbrakes designed for wheelchair users to easily
on the handlebars. enter via an extendable ramp.

MONUMENTAL OLYMPIC STADIUMS

1ATHENS
PANATHENAIC STADIUM 2 THE BIG O
1896: THE MONTREAL 1976:
This was the first modern This was the first Olympic
3BEIJING 2008:
THE BIRD’S NEST
Inspired by the intricate
4LONDON 2012: OLYMPIC
VELODROME
London’s Velodrome
5PARIS 2024: THE
STADE DE FRANCE
The Stade de France is
Olympic stadium and is stadium to feature a birds’ nests found in was inspired by the used for athletics. It was
© Alamy / Shutterstock / Toyota

the only one in the world retractable roof. The nature, the 2008 efficiency and light built for the 1998 FIFA
that is constructed out roof displayed multiple stadium’s outer shell weight of a bicycle. It World Cup and features
of marble. technical failures, but was is the largest steel features vertical vents acoustic panels on the
a novelty at the time. structure in the world. for natural ventilation. roof to reduce echo and
absorb sound pollution.

33
 TRANSPORT

HOW AEROPLANE ESCAPE

HATCHES WORK
Discover the engineering that allows Did
you know?
Aeroplane evacuatio
inflate within six se
n slides
conds

an entire commercial aircraft to be The Airbus A380

has 16 emergency
evacuated in under two minutes exits

WORDS AILSA HARVEY

f you’ve ever been assigned a seat than it is outside the aircraft. Such a large

I in the emergency exit row of an

aeroplane, you are likely to have
considered your role as lead
pressure difference exerts a force on the door
that keeps it firmly closed.
In modern escape hatches, the doors are
evacuee as a member of the cabin crew details power assisted so that at lower altitudes and
the responsibility. Although you are very when needed, passengers and crew members
unlikely to need to activate the escape hatch, don’t have to rely on muscle strength to
being in this seat means you should read the manoeuvre the large doors. Instead, a simple
instructions before takeoff. Escape hatches turn of the handle causes the mechanisms to
can’t be opened until the pilot orders you to do kick in and automatically open the hatch. This 1 NEAREST EXIT
so, and they are mechanically locked while the is powered with an independent battery pack. Before takeoff, passengers are
instructed to locate their nearest
plane is in flight. When the plane is at cruising When the handle to an escape hatch is turned,
exit. Every plane is designed for
altitude and the cabin is pressurised, it is also a canister of high-pressure air releases its all passengers to evacuate within
physically impossible to accidentally open the contents. The fast-moving air travels to an 90 seconds when only half
hatch during flight. This is because the air actuator, which converts the kinetic energy into the exits are available.
pressure inside the plane is much higher mechanical energy, opening the escape route.

HANDLING B
THE HATCH
What are the steps to opening
A
and exiting the escape hatch? C

A LOOK AT THE brightly coloured and

INSTRUCTIONS needs to be pulled
You should read or turned to release
the instructions the hatch. Twist the
before takeoff. handle in the 1
This will make the direction of the
process quicker instruction arrows.
in an emergency. This will remove the
hatch from the plane.
B REMOVE THE Some designs
HATCH COVER require you to throw
Pull down on this the loose door out
handle to remove the of the opening.
hatch cover. This is a
D
protective barrier D FLEE
that seals the hatch. Opening the hatch
should deploy a slide.
C PULL THE HANDLE Start evacuating and
The next stage is to move away from the
find the hatch lever. aircraft when you’re
This is usually safely outside.

34
DID YOU KNOW? Aeroplane escape slides are tested to ensure they function in winds up to 29 miles per hour

The pilot escape hatch can be seen at

THE PILOT’S ESCAPE the top of this commercial plane

When a pilot determines that evacuation is necessary, they will deliver

the order to do so to the cabin crew and passengers. To make sure the
passengers are evacuated safely, the pilot and copilot remain on board
until they are confident that evacuation is taking place smoothly. Those in
the cockpit have their own escape hatch, which is usually found in the
ceiling above them. When using ceiling escape hatches, pilots will hoist
themselves up onto the plane’s roof using a rope. This rope can then be
used to guide them down the outside of the plane.

EMERGENCY ESCAPE
How do passengers leave an aircraft after landing on water?

4 LIFE JACKET
All passengers
have a life jacket
underneath their
seat to inflate in
the event that
the plane lands
on water.

2
5

5 LIFE RAFT
Aeroplane life rafts
2 ESCAPE HATCHES 3 EVACUATION SLIDES
© Alamy / Shutterstock

are usually made of

Those seated in the As the escape hatch is opened, a corrosion-resistant
emergency exit rows are the escape slide is released. material such
requested to assist in the High-pressure air is pumped as polyurethane-
evacuation procedure. into it to inflate the slide. coated nylon.

35
 HISTORY

Arm yourself with logic and science to

avoid falling foul of these mistruths
WORDS AILSA HARVEY

36
DID YOU KNOW? A 2021 study showed that India had the highest proportion of conspiracy theory believers and Denmark the lowest

Contrails can remain visible in the sky for hours

n the world of science, there are

I many concepts which have been

explored, tested, written into
scientific theory and widely
accepted. However, some people choose not
to believe the science and instead speculate
about how we’re being deceived. A conspiracy
theory is an attempt to explain an event
alternatively, often involving the concealment
of the truth by powerful beings and

AEROPLANE CONTRAILS ARE

government groups.
Many struggle to understand how others
believe a fictitious storyline with no evidence
to back it up, but someone is more likely to be MIND-CONTROL CHEMICALS
a conspiracy theorist if they possess specific When aircraft soar through the sky, they thoughts for cooperation with the
psychological traits. Studies show that a leave behind lingering white trails in a government and population control,
combination of personality traits and range of shapes and sizes. Depending on including chemicals that reduce fertility.
motivations make you more likely to believe a an aircraft’s height, size and flight path, In reality, they’re just contrails –
conspiracy theory. These include paranoia, these trails can vary in appearance. A clouds that form when fine soot particles
impulsivity, insecurity and manipulation. The small percentage of the population are from aircraft engines freeze into crystals
suspicious about the contents of these in the air’s water vapour. Where the air
average conspiracy theory believer relies on
puffy trails, believing that those in power is highly humid, these ice crystals are
their own intuition much more than other
are poisoning the people of Earth with unable to disperse as easily and remain
personalities do, striving for a better personal
chemicals for various reasons. Some of in streaks in the sky for longer. This is
understanding of the world and often looking why the trails are inconsistent in their
the theories include weather control to
to feel safer in their environment. Many also create rain and prevent droughts, mind duration – it’s not because they contain
© Shutterstock

want to feel superior in their views of the control to influence the population’s mysterious substances.
world by straying from the more widely
accepted worldview.

37
 HISTORY

Saturn’s north pole, captured

by the Cassini spacecraft

Did
you know?
Saturn’s hexagon is
twice the width
of Earth

SATURN’S STORM IS ALIEN TECHNOLOGY

If you’ve seen any close-up images of Saturn, you may that could be suggested from seeing a photograph. of
FAC T S
have noticed a hexagonal-shaped patch located at the the phenomenon. Close-up footage of the hexagon
REASONS
EARTH CAN’T
planet’s north pole. While most would assume that showed it to be a rotating storm around 50 times
BE FLAT
this is a natural feature, the unusually uniform larger than a hurricane on Earth. Saturn’s north polar
six-sided shape has led some conspiracy theorists to jet stream spins above the planet’s atmosphere at

1
jump to the conclusion that Saturn has advanced alien around 300 miles per hour. At this speed, the storm SHADOW ON
technology. Despite a hexagon being a rare shape in has settled into a symmetrical shape that we are THE MOON
nature, this patch is the result of a planetary storm. unfamiliar with in nature on Earth. Unlike Earth’s During a lunar eclipse,
Closer inspection of the hexagon by NASA’s Cassini uneven surface, Saturn is a gas giant and has no Earth casts a round
spacecraft debunked any claims of alien technology solid surface to impact gas flow. shadow onto the Moon,
as would be expected
from a spherical object.

2 SHIPS ON

SCIENTISTS HAVE THE HORIZON

When a ship sails over the
horizon, it disappears
gradually from the bottom

DISCOVERED A up. This gradual

disappearance confirms
Earth’s curved shape.

KILLER PLANET
An object capable of destroying our entire
3 TIME ZONES
The Sun sets and rises
at different times around
world would be one to be feared. And those the world. If it were flat,
these events would be
who are highly sceptical of the authorities
simultaneous everywhere.
believe that not all the important information

4
about the world is shared. A combination of THE DIRECTION
fear and scepticism has created the ultimate OF GRAVITY
conspiracy theory that the world is ending. Gravity pulls objects on
Conspiracy theorists say that there is a planet Earth towards the centre
of the planet. If Earth were
called Nibiru that is on a trajectory to collide
flat, gravity wouldn’t pull
with Earth and that people need to know. The People have been wrong ab you ‘down’ towards the
out the end
planet is believed to orbit the Sun every 3,600 of the world multiple times ground in all countries.
before
years. Doomsday predictions were set to the
year 2003 and then 2012, but the end of the
world has not occurred. But is there any truth 5 SPACE
OBSERVATIONS
Now that space travel
to this theory? Mathematicians have predicted
is commonplace, the
that there may be another large planet in our number of people who
Solar System – Planet Nine. However, this is have seen Earth’s
entirely hypothetical based on the orbital curvature first-hand
patterns of known objects. There is yet to be is increasing.
any evidence of Nibiru’s existence, let alone
any suggestions of a collision path.

38
DID YOU KNOW? A 2022 study found that around half of people born between 1997 and 2012 get their news from social media

THE MOON LANDING 1 STARLESS SKY

To prevent

WAS FAKE
Certain aspects of the 1969 Moon landing photos make
overexposure, the
cameras had short
exposure times to
some people question whether it even happened capture the bright
lunar surface. This
prevented the stars
from showing up in
photographs, but
1 they were there.

2 WAVING FLAG
Why is the flag waving
if there is a thin
atmosphere and no
wind on the Moon?
It’s simply because
NASA designed a flag
with an extra pole along
the top edge so that
the flag would stand
2 out and the stars and
stripes could be seen.

3 TOO MANY SHADOWS

There should only be
one light source – the
Sun – so why aren’t the
shadows parallel? In
reality, the uneven
ground and different
perspectives can
cause this illusion.
3
4 CLEAR FOOTPRINTS
Should the footprints
be this defined without
moisture? Being made
6 up of fine particles, the
lunar surface compacts
well to form these
well-defined prints.

5 WELL LIT
Conspiracy theorists
think the scene is too
well lit to not be staged.
5 However, the Moon’s
surface is highly
reflective and brightly
e people believe lit by the Sun.
Incredibly, som
aped like a disc
that Earth is sh
6 NO CRATER CREATED
Why are there no
visible signs of
4 disturbance from the
Lunar Module’s
descent to the ground?
The lander was slowly

“Conspiracy theorists
lowered, and didn’t
make a crater when
tested on Earth
think the scene is either. The lack of an
atmosphere on the
too well lit” Moon also limits
dust dispersal.
© Alamy

39
 HISTORY

THE BERMUDA TRIANGLE HAS HIDDEN TRUTHS

There are multiple theories surrounding the Bermuda Triangle, and many attempt to
explain the large number of missing aircraft and boats in the area

1 ALIEN ABDUCTION 2 A LOST CITY 3 TIME WARP 4 SUPERNATURAL ACTIVITY 5 WEATHER PHENOMENA
Theories suggest that Legends describe an advanced Are missing vehicles Could sea monsters or Large earthquakes and storms
extraterrestrial life is city called Atlantis that was caused by accidents or paranormal activity be to could impact this region of
capturing human destroyed by a large cataclysmic a disruption in the blame for disappearances? ocean more than other areas.
ships and planes. event. Some think the ruins lie space-time continuum? Some people think authorities It is an area known for frequent
There has been no beneath the Bermuda Triangle One theory is that ships could be covering this up to rogue waves – steep and
evidence of this in and that the government is are sucked into another avoid panic, but paranormal unexpected waves that some
this area, or in the keeping its advanced technology dimension by time activity has not been scientists think are the true
entire explored a secret, even though there is warps. This is a popular scientifically proven, and it’s culprits responsible for
universe. no archaeological evidence concept in fiction, but unlikely that large creatures some of the missing and
of Atlantis. is not fact. wouldn’t be seen elsewhere. sunken ships.

Did
you know?
50 ships have
disappeared in the
Bermuda Triangle

BERMUDA
Aircraft aren’t being sucked
through space-time
TRIANGLE

Andrew Wakefiel
d pictured at the
centre of a vacc

VACCINES CAUSE AUTISM

ination protest

In 1988, Dr Andrew Wakefield published a study and each one has concluded that there is no link.
linking the mumps, measles and rubella (MMR) Despite this, people are more likely to remember and
vaccine with an increase in autism cases. This was a believe the alarming headlines, regardless of their
flawed study that included false data and was inaccuracy, and question what studies are truthful.
consequently retracted. However, news outlets Spreading misinformation caused vaccination rates
picked up on this story and spread fear among the to decrease. This is harmful as it lowers populations’
public about the impact of vaccinations. Many immunity to certain diseases and makes dangerous
studies have been carried out since this incident, outbreaks more likely to occur.

40
DID YOU KNOW? Scientists have known the Earth is round since the 3rd century BCE

COVID-19 WAS CREATED

IN A LABORATORY
How nature produced this virus through evolution

1 1 ANIMAL ORIGIN
COVID-19 originated in bats. Bat
coronavirus RaTG13 has genome
sequences with 96.2 per cent
similarity to the COVID-19 virus.

2 INTERMEDIATE HOST
5G IS HARMFUL
5G is the fifth-generation mobile
As the virus began subtle mutations, it
was eventually able to infect wild
animals that come into contact
with humans.
network, making mobile
communications quicker and more
3 SARS-COV-2
consistent. To some people, the 2 The COVID-19 virus SARS-CoV-2 is 10
advancement in mobile technology
and the ease with which we can to 20 times more likely to bind to
communicate with people across the human cells than SARS-CoV-1 – the
virus responsible for the 2002
globe seems too good to be true. And
coronavirus outbreak.
from this technology, conspiracy
theories have been born. Perhaps the
most dominant 5G conspiracy theory 4 SPIKE PROTEINS
is that it has harmful health Proteins on the outside of coronavirus
implications. 5G accesses a higher 3 interact with the host cells. Mutations
in spike proteins altered the virus in
frequency of radio waves than
bats, making them more efficient at
previous generations for speedier data
infecting human cells.
transmission, leading some members
of the public to question whether the
radio frequencies are harmful. But 5 HUMAN TRANSMISSION
there is no need to fear the 5G An infected human can spread
masts being constructed for data COVID-19 through close contact. The
transmission. 5G mostly uses the virus can live outside the human body
same radio waves as previous
5 for a short time, such as in small
airborne droplets of breath.
generations. The main difference is 4
that 5G uses higher frequencies,
although it still falls far short of the 6 CONSTANT CHANGE
harmful ionising part of the As the COVID-19 virus copies
electromagnetic spectrum. itself to replicate, small errors are
made, changing the genetic code
slightly and altering how well the
Other 5G conspiracy theories include the virus can infect different species.
government using the technology for
large-scale surveillance
6 VARIAN T S
© Getty / Shutterstock / Alamy / Illustration by Adrian Mann

ALPHA B117 BETA 1351 GAMMA P1 DELTA 1617 OMICRON 11529

“Mutations in spike
proteins altered the
virus in bats”

41
 HISTORY

Breaking the spell to

reveal the workings behind
some of the greatest
illusions in history
WORDS NIKOLE ROBINSON

ven the simplest magic tricks

E enthral and bewilder audiences

the world over, but it’s difficult to
pinpoint exactly when emulating
the supernatural became a form of
entertainment. Ancient Egyptian writings tell
of the magician Djedi, who could reattach the
severed heads of animals and bring them
back to life. But even though this feat can be
replicated today, there is still doubt cast on
this story. There’s evidence that sleight-of- s are used
Sleeves and pocket
hand skills were performed in ancient objects
to cleverly conceal
Rome, most notably at banquets, but after

42
DID YOU KNOW? David Copperfield made the Statue of Liberty disappear in 1983

This 1502 oil painting by Hieronymus Bosch

depicts an early cups and balls trick
PULLING A RABBIT
FROM A HAT
When most people think of magicians,
images of wands, top hats and rabbits
are conjured in their minds, all thanks
to this famous trick that has been
repeated for hundreds of years. It’s
said that Louis Comte was the first to
perform this for King Louis XVIII in
1814, though John Henry Anderson
is credited with the first stage
performance. Taking off their hat and
presenting it to the audience, the
crowd can clearly see the hat is empty,
but the magician soon suspends their
disbelief by pulling a cute creature
from its depths. In reality, the rabbit
is sometimes hidden in a secret
compartment in the hat, or the hat has
a false bottom the rabbit can slip
through. In some iterations, the bunny
this era magic as a form of entertainment referred to as the ‘father of modern magic’.
is hidden beneath a tablecloth, with
seems to have become heavily intertwined With his opening of a theatre in Paris in 1845,
expert sleight of hand able to make it
with the occult. he took performance magic from the streets to
appear as though it really is pulled into
By the Middle Ages, people had begun to fear the stage, raising its reputation. As well as existence by way of magic.
magic, believing it to be the work of witches showing off the classics, he used his expertise
and the devil. To dispel this association and to make mechanical marvels that really did
stop innocents from being persecuted and seem like magic. By the end of the 19th
burnt at the stake, Reginald Scot century, magic acts on stage had
published his book, The Discoverie of Did become commonplace, with people
Witchcraft, in 1584. It is considered you know? from all walks of life wishing to be
the first text written about In 2008, David amazed by the seemingly
performance magic. Within it, he Blaine held his impossible. Those who mastered
described the methods behind many breath underwater magic could gain complete control
magic tricks, distancing them from for 17 minutes over an audience, and the best
witchcraft and the paranormal by began rising to fame. This continued
revealing their secrets and deceptions. with the invention of television, with
Travelling performers and street magicians celebrity magicians performing on the screen
would continue to perfect the craft, developing as well as stage. The enduring popularity of
new techniques and apparatus to improve magic tricks has seen them become bigger,
upon well-known illusions while also coming more technical and often more dangerous than
up with new ideas. ever before. It’s a testament to the curious White rabbits are particularly popular for
The sophisticated stage performances of nature of humans – we’re desperate to discover performing this trick
today can be traced back to the French the deceptions behind what we’re seeing, while
clockmaker Jean-Eugène Robert-Houdin, often still desiring to be deceived.

King levitation is done by

slyly removing a shoe LEVITATION
Magicians are adept at defying gravity, King levitation produces a similar effect
but once again it’s deception. One of using a different technique. A cloth or
the simplest methods of self-levitation jacket briefly covers the magician’s
was described by Ed Balducci in 1974. feet, and when it is removed they float a
© Wiki: Tigerpaw62289

In it, the performer stands at an angle few inches above the stage, their body
to the crowd and lifts themselves up on side-on to the crowd. What the crowd
the front of the foot farthest from the didn’t see was the entertainer remove
audience. If they stand correctly, this their shoe and wedge it between their
is
Balducci levitation point of contact is hidden by the other foot and the heel of the other, which is
viewed at an an gle foot and the back of the foot touching twisted away so the bare toes they are
© Alamy / Getty

the ground, creating a hovering effect. balancing on are disguised.

43
 HISTORY
Did
you know? The balls se
emingly pas
through the s
The Magic Circle cups
was formed
in 1905

CUPS AND BALLS THE OLDEST TRICK

Due to a depiction on a burial
chamber wall in Beni Hasan that
rather than balls. Performed by
street magicians since antiquity,
IN THE BOOK
An extra ball is all it takes to pull
shows two men kneeling over its history is intertwined with off this ancient trick
inverted bowls, some Egyptologists gambling, used to con mystified
claim this trick dates back over viewers out of their money as they
3,500 years. Though this is incorrectly guessed which cup an
debated, the trick was performed in object was under. Due to its relative
ancient Greece and Rome, making simplicity, the trick has endured for
it one of the oldest – and it’s still a thousands of years, with many
favourite today. Different versions gimmicks being added by conjurers
have been performed around the to make it their own.
world under various
names, such as the
Japanese ‘Owan To “Due to its relative
simplicity, the trick 1SETTING UP 2MOVING A BALL
Tama’, using bowls, and
With three balls in One of the
the Chinese ‘Immortal
view, a fourth ball is hidden three visible balls is placed on
Sowing Beans’, which
used three to ten beans has endured” under the left cup. Turning the
cup keeps the ball inside.
top of the cup with the concealed
ball inside.

3 CUP ON TOP The middle cup is

placed on top of the left cup,
hiding the ball that was just
4 PASSING THROUGH As the cups
are lifted, the ball appears to
have moved through – but it’s
5 TRICKERY The cup that now
has a ball inside is swiftly
placed on top of the ball on the
6 REPETITION The second ball is
placed on top of the cup with
the balls underneath it, and the
placed there underneath it. actually between the two cups. left, and the trick is repeated. middle cup is placed on top.

7DOUBLED UP Lifting the cups,

the second ball appears to
have passed through. The hidden
8A TWIST The cup with the
ball inside is placed over the
other balls. Rather than repeating
9STACKED CUPS The empty cup
is put over the ball on the
right cup and tapped with a
10TRANSPORTED This time it
appears as though the
ball has jumped from one side of
ball is once again in the cup that the same trick, the remaining ball finger or wand. The performer the table to the other, with three
was stacked on top. is placed on the cup on the right. then taps the left cup and lifts it. balls now on the left.

44
 DID YOU KNOW? Harry Houdini took his stage name from 19th-century magician Jean-Eugène Robert-Houdin

A combination of devices and misdirection

can make people appear to disappear
SAWING SOMEONE IN TWO
The real magic of this illusion isn’t in assistant remain visible as the cut is
the sawing itself, but the putting back made, an impressive improvement that
together of the person after the fact, or drew more attention to the trick.
restoration. The trick has possible origins Enduring to this day, the trick has been
in the 19th century, but rose to popularity embellished with giant buzz saws,
in the 1920s after being performed by transparent boxes and even no box at all,
British magician P. T. Selbit. However, in creating a truly mystifying experience for
his version the box the assistant entered the audience. The secrets of this magic
was closed, hiding her completely. The lie in hidden compartments, cleverly
American Horace Goldin was first to use arranged mirrors and very flexible
apparatus that is recognisable today, assistants who are able to contort their
where the head, arms and legs of the bodies into tight spaces.

3 HEAD AND FEET

NO HALF MEASURES
The simplest form of this trick uses two
As the assistant gets into place, with their
head poking out of the box, the other person
sticks their legs out to make it look
assistants posing as one like they are one person.
1 MAGICIAN’S
ASSISTANT
The magician 1 2
guides his 3 3
assistant into a
long, rectangular
box, designed
specially for
this trick.

5 4

2 HIDDEN
4 CUTTING EDGE

rston
FROM VIEW
5 REASSEMBLY

© Wiki: John Henry Thu

A saw or blade is Unknown to
The box is pushed back driven down the the audience, a
together, and the person centre of the second person is most
Harry Houdini is one of the
withdraws their legs as the box, appearing to already concealed e,
famous magicians of all tim
‘head’ assistant exits the box, sever the person in the other half ring esc ape acts
renowned for his da
miraculously still in one piece. inside in half. of the box.

Card tricks are deft deceptions

PICK A CARD that use sleight of hand

Playing cards have been synonymous cards and their audience to influence
with magic for a long time, with the their target and work towards a desired
© Getty / Shutterstock / Illustration by Nicholas Forder

earliest recorded card tricks dating outcome, such as a predetermined card

back to the 15th century. Born from being chosen. There are ways to shuffle
card manipulation in gambling, skilful and cut a deck to keep track of a card
shuffling and sleight of hand soon gave that has been placed there and sneaky
rise to a new form of entertainment, manoeuvres that can make cards
with magicians gaining mastery over a disappear entirely. Making use of such
deck of cards to perform a whole host a versatile prop, card tricks have
of tricks. But there’s psychology at endured as one of the most widely
work here as well as dexterity. performed types of magic, with
Magicians can manipulate both the thousands of different variations.

45
 SPACE

46
DID YOU KNOW? American astronomer Sinclair Smith found evidence of dark matter in 1936

Observations tell us dark

matter and dark energy
exist, but how do you
find something you
can’t see or feel?
WORDS COLIN STUART

arth, wind, fire and water. The

E ancient Greeks thought they

had the universe all sewn up…
except they didn’t. As scientific
understanding progressed, we learnt that it’s
atoms that make up the world around us. And
yet more recently the goalposts moved again. It
now seems that atoms make up just five per
cent of the universe. That’s it.
The first inkling that the universe wasn’t
quite as it seemed came as far back as 1933.
Swiss physicist Fritz Zwicky was gazing at
galaxies in the Coma Cluster and noticed its
thousand or so galaxies were moving far too
fast. Even when he added up all the stars and
gas in the cluster, there didn’t seem to be
enough gravity to be pulling the galaxies
around at such a great speed. He guessed that
© Sanford Underground Research Facility

there must be something else, hidden from

view, that contributed, calling his shadowy
substance ‘Dunkle Materie’ – German for
dark matter.
By the 1970s the mystery remained
unsolved, but the evidence continued to mount.
Astronomer Vera Rubin, looking at the
Andromeda Galaxy, realised that she was

47
 SPACE

LUX’s cylindrical detector was

immersed in 272,550 litres
of ultra-pure water to protect
it from background radiation

Did
you know?
Fritz Zwicky also
coined the term
‘supernova’
in 1934

seeing impossible stars: ones rotating so fast

around the galaxy that they should be flung out
ũ)LQGLQJGDUNPDƔHUZRXOGEHKXJH,WZRXOGEH
into the void, not bound in a neat orbit. She
looked for the same phenomenon elsewhere,
ELJƐHUWKDQWKHGLVFRYHU\RIWKH+LJƐVERVRQŪ
and by 1980 she had spotted it in over 100
other galaxies.
So something else must be providing the The first LUX results were released in isn’t the only one looking for dark matter in
extra gravity that’s affecting the stars. October 2013, but did not reveal evidence of unlikely places: researchers are going to the
Whatever this something else is, this ‘dark WIMP interactions. Neither did subsequent ends of the Earth.
matter’ must be exerting a gravitational pull on results, and LUX was decommissioned in 2016 IceCube is an experiment buried beneath
stars while remaining invisible. “We know it in favour of its successor, the LUX-ZEPLIN 1.5 miles of Antarctic ice. “It’s so cold there
can’t be normal matter – it doesn’t fit the experiment. This next-generation dark matter that construction could only take place in
zoo of particles currently known to physics,” experiment has yet to discover WIMPs. But November, December and January each year,”
says Daniel McKinsey of the University of with such a reward on offer, McKinsey’s team says Professor Subir Sarkar of the University
California, Berkeley. The hunt for the answer of Oxford. Luckily, now that it’s built it can be
took McKinsey far away from a conventional Inside the LUX dark operated remotely. Sarkar and his colleagues
laboratory to an experiment almost a mile matter detector are hunting for particles called neutrinos, which
underground in an abandoned gold mine in the they believe are generated by WIMPs within the
Black Hills of South Dakota. “It was very James Sun. “The Sun has been vacuum cleaning
Bond down there,” he says. Fired up in March everything in its path for 5 billion years,
2013, the Large Underground Xenon (LUX) including any dark matter,” says Sarkar.
dark-matter experiment was on the lookout for If two WIMPs were to meet in the Sun – or
particles known as weakly interacting annihilate – it would create a cascade of
massive particles (WIMPs) – the current particles, including neutrinos. However, only
favoured explanation for dark matter. If neutrinos would be capable of making it out
real, they would pass through the Earth all of the Sun without being reabsorbed. The
the time. However, these particles are Sun makes neutrinos in other ways but,
antisocial – WIMPs rarely deign to crucially, those created by dark matter
interact with normal matter. annihilations would be more energetic,
In the hope of snaring one of these and thus easy to distinguish.
particles, McKinsey and his team Attempts to find evidence of WIMP
installed a tank of liquid xenon, cooled to annihilations are not restricted to Earth
-100 degrees Celsius, in the cavernous – one experiment is almost 248 miles above
mine. “If a WIMP bumps into one of our our heads. In 2011, the Alpha Magnetic
xenon atoms, that atom will rip through Spectrometer (AMS-02) experiment was
the liquid and excite others, causing them ferried to the International Space Station (ISS).
to fluoresce.” Detectors surrounded the liquid As well as neutrinos, WIMP annihilations are
to pick up any flashes. thought to produce particles called positrons,

48
DID YOU KNOW? Before WIMPs came massive compact halo objects (MACHOs), which included bodies such as black holes

1 GLOW THE ICECUBE

IceCube doesn’t detect neutrinos
directly – they have almost no mass, OBSERVATORY
so such a feat is nearly impossible. Scientists are drilling in the South
Instead it detects the glow generated Pole in search of dark matter. The
when a neutrino passes through the IceCube Neutrino Observatory is an
nucleus of an ice atom. experiment being conducted up to 1.5
miles beneath the Antarctic ice sheet
over an area measuring 0.3 square
miles. This area holds over 5,100
1 football-sized telescopes embedded in
the deep ice. These are designed to
spot high-energy neutrinos. Scientists
chose these extreme conditions
because they give us the best chance
of detecting neutrinos. With the
detectors buried deep within the ice,
there is little chance of other particles
contaminating the results. In late
2013, IceCube detected 37 neutrinos
from deep space. These particles
behave differently to ones from
elsewhere and could be evidence of
dark matter annihilations that
theoretically occur inside stars.

2 LIGHTLESS
At this depth, pressure
has pushed all the
bubbles out of the ice
and no light reaches it.

© Matthew Kapust/South Dakota Science and Technology Authority / Jim Haugen. IceCube/NSF
This means that IceCube
can focus on searching
3 for tiny flashes of blue
light – proof of
a neutrino’s visit.

3 BOREHOLE
This is one of 86 holes created
using a high-pressure hot water
hose. Each hole contains
neutrino-detecting telescopes.

49
 SPACE

Sensitive equipment in LUX

required careful checking

Did
you know?
Ordinary matter is
also known as
‘baryonic’ matter
which researchers expected to find be counteracting gravity, flinging
in high numbers. In April 2013, the the universe apart at ever-
AMS-02 team’s first results did show increasing speeds.
the predicted excess of positrons, but In a hat tip to its longer established cousin,
sources other than dark matter have yet to it was dubbed ‘dark energy’. But what could it
be ruled out. be? “The simplest explanation is related to the
Despite all these efforts, dark matter idea that there is some energy associated with
remains elusive. However, the chilling fact is ‘empty’ space,” says Dr Jonathan Pearson of
that dark matter isn’t even the dominant the University of Manchester. The crucial thing
constituent of our universe – it only accounts is that the density of this energy – how much
for 27 per cent of it. With normal matter there is per piece of space – remains fixed, so it
making up just 5 per cent, that leaves 68 per is often referred to as a cosmological constant.
AMS-02 in the payload bay of Endeavour cent unaccounted for. The revelation that As the universe swells and space gets bigger,
for its penultimate mission dark and normal matter constitute less than a the amount of this energy increases too.
third of our universe came as late as 1998. Early on, when the young universe was
Two teams of astronomers were using quite compact, gravity won out against the
exploding stars called supernovae to measure cosmological constant. But as the universe
how fast the universe is expanding, expecting ballooned in size, this dark energy came to
to find it slowing as the Big Bang’s force dominate and is now pushing the cosmos
fizzled out and the gravitational pull of ever farther apart, despite gravity’s best
galaxies exerted an increasing resistance. efforts. There is a problem, though. When
They were wrong. The discovery that the astronomers compare the energy they think
expansion was actually speeding up netted is there to the amount required to push the
Saul Perlmutter, Brian Schmidt and Adam universe apart at the observed rate, they
Riess the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics. They differ by a factor of 10120 – that’s one followed
realised that another unseen entity must by 120 zeroes.

50
DID YOU KNOW? Planck telescope results revised the amount of dark energy down from 73 per cent to 68 per cent

1 ISS DETECTOR
AMS-02 is mounted to the upper
payload attach point of the ISS’
main truss. It was launched in 2011
on the Space Shuttle Endeavour.

DARK SPACE
Scientists have taken our search for
WIMPs into space aboard the
International Space Station. The
Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer
(AMS-02) sits on the ISS scanning
space for radiation. It’s designed to
look for positrons – a form of
antimatter that’s the exact opposite of
the electrons found in normal matter.
Positrons are of interest to us because
it’s thought that collisions between
dark matter particles are generating a
sea of them. In March 2013, scientists
held a news conference at the
European Organization for Nuclear
“This has led to alternatives which challenge universe’s dominant constituents is more data, Research (CERN) to announce that
the fundamental assumptions that go into the using the development of more experiments they’d seen a spike in the number
cosmological cookbook,” says Pearson. Some looking to tease out their properties in ever of positrons being picked up by
AMS-02’s instrumentation. However,
– including Pearson – favour ‘modified gravity’. more complex ways. Slowly but surely,
we cannot take this as evidence of
The need to invoke dark energy is based on the scientists are gathering pieces of the puzzle,

© Michele Famiglietti/NASA / Matthew Kapust/South Dakota Science and Technology Authority / Alamy
dark matter’s existence, as we’re
assumption that Einstein’s rules on gravity ring and new observatories are under construction
currently unable to rule out other
true even on the universe’s biggest scales, to peer into the dark universe. 2,000 years
variables that could be the source of
something Pearson says is “an entirely since the ancient Greeks thought it was made this. AMS-02 continues to collect data
untested assumption”. up of just four elements, we’re arguably only a in the search for dark matter.
For now, dark matter and dark energy remain little closer to finding out what really makes up
a mystery. What’s required to unmask the the universe.

THE BLUNDER OF A GENIUS

Albert Einstein dismissed an early glimpse of dark energy. In 1917, Einstein amended
his general theory of relativity, which he had published two years earlier. At the time,
he believed the universe wasn’t expanding, and so felt the need to add a ‘cosmological
constant’ to his equations to fit in with that assumption. When Edwin Hubble
confirmed an expanding universe in 1929, Einstein did away with his constant and
called its addition his greatest blunder. And yet today his cosmological constant has
been revived as the leading contender in the race to explain the true nature of dark
energy. Perhaps it wasn’t such a blunder after all…

51
 SPACE

SOLAR POWER FROM SPACE

SpaceX’s Starship could pave the way to a new kind of solar power
WORDS ANDREW MAY

raditional solar power uses a

POWER
T photovoltaic panel at or near
ground level to collect the Sun’s
energy and turn it into electricity. BEAMING
It’s one of the most important sources of This is the system that Virtus
renewable energy, but it does come with
Solis hopes to build using the
SpaceX Starship
limitations. It only works during daylight hours
and when there’s no cloud cover. Unfortunately,
this means it’s least useful in winter, which is
exactly when we need the most energy.
But there’s another potentially more effective
1 MIRROR 1
approach to solar power that’s been tossed A sheet of thin,
around for the last 50 years or so. This reflective material
involves placing satellites in Did directs the Sun’s
carefully chosen orbits where you know? rays onto the
they spend most of their time in solar panels.
Virtus Solis means 3
sunlight, and then converting the ‘power of the Sun’ 2
energy collected into microwaves in Latin
that can be transmitted down to
Earth at any time of day or night,
regardless of weather conditions.
Although simple enough in principle, this
involves launching huge quantities of hardware 2 SOLAR ARRAY
into space – much more than the total mass of Made up of a large number
the International Space Station. That’s the of interlocking solar panels,
main reason that space-based solar power, or this converts sunlight 4 MICROWAVE
SBSP, has been slow to get off the ground. into electricity. BEAM
This should all change with the advent of After being
SpaceX’s gigantic and fully reusable Starship converted to
rocket. That’s the aspiration of a new startup microwaves,
company called Virtus Solis, which is focused the energy is
on making SBSP happen. According to its beamed down
calculations, if SpaceX can get the per- to Earth’s
surface.
kilogram cost of launch down from its current
An example of a
4
Molniya orbit, this
one optimised for

MOLNIYA ORBIT the Northern

Hemisphere
First used by a family of Russian satellites
called Molniya, meaning lightning, these
are specialised orbits that take 12 hours to
complete a revolution of Earth. Unlike
more conventional orbits, they’re not
circular but highly elliptical, coming within
500 miles of Earth’s surface at the closest
point but rising to 22,000 miles at the 5
most distant. A satellite on such an orbit
travels much faster at its low point than its
high point, so spends most of the time
looking down on Earth from a high altitude.
This gives it excellent coverage of an entire
hemisphere of the planet.

52
DID YOU KNOW? Most spacecraft operating inside the orbit of Jupiter rely on solar panels to generate electricity

The solar array The idea of

elements would
be put together in
space-based solar
power isn’t new;
SPACE-BASED
space by robots,
as shown here
this NASA concept
dates from 1999
SOLAR POWER
DEMONSTRATOR
Several key technologies needed
for SBSP were tested by the
California Institute of Technology in
2023. Its Space Solar Power
Demonstrator mission, SSPD-1, had
three aims in particular. The first, and
perhaps the most critical, was to
demonstrate the feasibility of
transmitting power wirelessly from
one point in space to another. A
second focus was on the solar panels
themselves, which in order to
function on the scale needed for
SBSP have to be ultra-lightweight,
cheap, efficient and durable. Thirdly,
3 SPACEX SSPD-1 also tested a lightweight
STARSHIP deployable structure capable of
This is used carrying an array of solar panels
to deliver the and power transmitters.
individual solar
panels into orbit
and deploy
robots to put Just three
them together. satellites in
carefully chosen
orbits could
provide coverage
for an entire
hemisphere

Close-up view of the experimental

apparatus designed to test wireless
power transmission in space

6 END USERS value – which should be possible once Starship

Once the power is in the enters service – then SBSP could become as
pre-existing grid, it is economical as traditional solar power, and
used exactly like any much more so than nuclear energy or
other source of energy. fossil fuels.
The plan put forward by Virtus Solis involves
multiple Starship launches, each carrying
6 hundreds of 1.6-metre solar panels into orbit.
These would then be pieced together into giant
arrays, each a thousand metres across, using
specially designed robots. Putting the arrays
on carefully planned Molniya orbits would
maximise the time they have clear lines of sight
© Virtus Solis / California Institute of Technology / NASA

to both the Sun and Earth’s surface. Two or

5 GROUND STATION three arrays on different orbits would be
This consists of a dish enough to provide continuous power to a given
antenna to receive the
ground station on Earth, and a system of 16
microwaves and
arrays could cover the entire globe. Virtus Solis
infrastructure to
transfer the power to aims to launch a demonstration mission in
the electrical grid. 2027 to test both the feasibility of robotic
assembly in space and the ability to beam
power down to Earth. If that’s successful, the
company hopes to build the first commercial
SBSP system by 2030.

53
 TECHNOLOGY

COULD WE BUILD… WORDS JAC

K PARSONS

ta in in g nu clear
o b uild se lf-s us
e te ch n ol og yt pti c se ries?
e th c a ly
Do we hav s t like in the p os t- apo
bu nke rs , ju
54
 DID YOU KNOW? In the 1950s, tourists flocked to Las Vegas for ‘atom bomb parties’, where they watched tests from a distance

The surface was decimated by war

HOW NUCLEAR FALLOUT SPREADS
The US Army tested the first atomic bomb in remote Nevada to limit damage, but winds
still blew radioactive particles across 46 states, Canada and Mexico
© Alamy; LANDMARK MEDIA

RÖNTGENS
ould you spend your whole life in 0.01 to 0.05
C
an underground bunker? This is the
premise of the Fallout series, based
on the wildly popular video game
0.05 to 0.1
0.1 to 0.5
franchise of the same name, set in a future
© National Park Service

where nuclear war survivors live in ‘Vaults’, 0.5 to 1.0

waiting for it to be safe to return to the
1.0 to 5.0
irradiated surface and rebuild society. Fallout’s
name is inspired by the radioactive debris >5.0
thrown into the air by a nuclear bomb, which

WHAT IS FALLOUT MADE OF?

then falls back to Earth. During the decades-
long standoff between the US and the Soviet
Union known as the Cold War, there was
widespread fear that either side would attack

© Wiki: Inkspace
the other with atomic weapons. By 1965,
around 200,000 Americans had built fallout
shelters to hide in. Meanwhile, 16,500 public
shelters were built in Russia.
Often little more than basements stocked 1 AMERICIUM-241 2 CAESIUM-137 3 IODINE-131 4 STRONTIUM-90
with supplies, it’s questionable how much One of the heaviest This fine white Released as a gas, This byproduct of
protection home shelters offered. They might elements produced powder easily iodine-131 can atomic blasts and
shield you from the blast of a bomb, but in a nuclear disperses in the air, travel hundreds of reactor waste
few could keep out the fine fallout debris. explosion, this dissolves in water miles on the wind. It remains toxic for
Government facilities were better prepared, human-made metal and sticks to can be easily inhaled, decades. It’s most
with military bases buried under mountains. doesn’t tend to surfaces. Worse still, contaminate drinking dangerous when
spread far beyond it emits powerful water and settle on consumed with food
However, these were still far from Fallout’s
the blast zone. gamma rays that vegetation, entering or water. With similar
fictitious Vaults, which could house
However, it remains penetrate clothes, the food chain. chemical properties
generations for centuries. When the original radioactive for over bricks and more. Fortunately, an to calcium, it can be
Fallout video game launched in 1997, many 430 years, making it Large doses can eight-day half-life absorbed into bones
real-life shelters were being decommissioned, a long-term threat. cause burns, means its radioactivity and teeth and can
as nuclear war was no longer considered an radiation sickness quickly fades. cause cancer.
everyday threat. However, recently there and even death.
has been an uptick in a new kind of Did
underground hideout: the billionaire you know?
bunker. Fearing future pandemics, During the 1950
In Nevada, a nuke s and 1960s, it
common to pr was
climate change and more, luxury lairs was dropped ac tise how to ‘duc
cover’ in case k and
have become the ultimate status every three weeks of a nuclear at
tack
symbol for the ultra-rich. For instance, for 12 years
Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook,
has built a $260 million (£204 million)
shelter under his Hawaii mansion. Leaked
documents show this bunker is twice the size
© Alamy; TCD/Prod.DB

of the average home and is self-sufficient, with

its own food and water supplies. As Amazon Old radiation signs indicated where
you could find a public shelter
has launched a new Fallout TV series on its
streaming service, perhaps we’ve reached the
point where we can build real-life Vaults.

55
 TECHNOLOGY

Vault dwellers need to work 3 FILTERING AIR

together and get along Air pumped from the
surface needs filtering for
nuclear, chemical and
biological dangers. A
high-efficiency particulate
absorbing filter catches
most particles over 0.3
microns, but needs
changing every two years.
Stockpiling is impractical, so
inhabitants need training to
3D print replacements.

INSIDE © Alamy; LANDMARK MEDIA 2 HYDROPONIC FARM

You can easily store 25
years of dry food, but a

3
hydroponic farm allows

VAUL
Wha
of
Tt
3
li
a
v
re
ing
the
lon
re
g
al-life challeng
term in a huge
es
5
you to grow fresh fruit
and vegetables in tanks
of nutrient-rich water
under ultraviolet lamps.
Expect a bumper harvest:
lettuce grows twice as
fast hydroponically.
ault 33?
bunker like V

5 SHIELDING
You need thick walls to defend Vault dwellers from
high-energy gamma radiation. Dense materials
1 BLAST DOORS like concrete, brick or packed earth are ideal. Each
The main entrance needs layer you build adds more protection, but is expensive
to be as thick as the walls and reduces internal space. Ventilation shafts and other
to block out radiation. A access points also create weaknesses in the shielding.
trapdoor helps minimise
the size and expense,
while also making the
Vault easier to hide.

10

6 POWER PLANT 10 OVERSEER’S OFFICE

Many Vaults in the Fallout universe are Some Vaults experiment with
powered by nuclear reactors for reliable different forms of government,
long-term energy, but this comes with but often inhabitants elect
obvious risks. You also need a way to dispose an overseer who can act as a
of radioactive waste. Geothermal power single point of authority to
offers a safer, limitless alternative for ensure order in the
heat and electricity. isolated community.

56
DID YOU KNOW? The biggest Soviet nuke had the power of 50 million tonnes of TNT

8 MEDBAY
While people are instantly
healed with a mix of
3 medications and
stimulants called
Stimpacks in the game,
“WE ALWAYS
2 a real Vault would
need a fully stocked
pharmacy and
operating theatre.
PUT IN A JAIL”
Albert Corbi, founder and
CEO of customised security
company SAFE, explains why
4 4 WATER RECYCLING the ‘human element’ is key to
Unless you can tap a natural
water source, the Vault would securing the shelters he designs
likely rely on filtration and for the rich and famous
recycling systems to treat
In Fallout, hundreds of people live
8 wastewater and condense it
into drinkable water. Careful together. How feasible is that?
monitoring is essential First of all, I think that’s a terrific idea
to prevent illness. because I like the scale. We build
communities of 12 homes. Along with
our client, each one will be occupied
7 LIVING QUARTERS by a doctor, an engineer, an
To maximise space, families
electrician, a plumber, a farmer –
live in one-room dormitories
with bunk beds and people with expertise. But these
multifunctional furniture. individuals likely come with a family.
They don’t have kitchens – Say that’s made up of two parents and
food is served in a two children, that’s a community of
communal canteen, 48. But we build each shelter to
where it can be rationed. accommodate a maximum of 60.

What’s would be the biggest

7 Did challenge when scaling a bunker
you know? like one of yours to Vault size?
More than 2,000 The human element. When we build
nukes have been for ten or more people, we always put
detonated since in a jail. When you have lots of people
1945 together, they aren’t always going to
agree. You have to be able to control
them. The jail acts as a deterrent. But
we also put in graveyards. There’s a
certain solace in knowing that your
body isn’t going to be fed to the
vultures. You also know you’ve got
the best chance of survival if
there’s a medical centre.

How do you choose who goes

into the bunker with you?
There’s a level of screening and
9 profiling that goes into potential
members. There is only one spot
for a plumber, but if that plumber
also happens to be young, in

4
great shape, a skilled
hunter or has a
© Illustration by Nicholas Forder / SAFE / Getty

really friendly
9 SCHOOL ROOM disposition,
Future generations need that’s going to
a thorough education to improve their
restart civilisation. chances.
Community clubs like the
‘Young Pipefitters
Association’ make it
fun to learn essential
maintenance skills.

57
 TECHNOLOGY

HOW TO SURVIVE THE NUCLEAR WASTELAND

Searching for a replacement water pump, on a mission for the overseer or fleeing personal tragedy?
Whatever your reason for venturing to the surface, make sure you gear up

KI tablets were issued PHASR, a 2005 laser dazzler

to Japanese residents project from the US Air Force
after the Fukushima
nuclear accident While the
Pip-Boy is
considered
essential in the
© Bethesda Softworks future world of
Fallout, it doesn’t

© US Air Force
even have a
colour screen

FIGHT RADIATION PIP-BOY: FALLOUT’S IS A PLASMA

SICKNESS SMARTWATCH RIFLE POSSIBLE?
There are many ways to get radiation poisoning Every Vault dweller wears one of these wrist- You’ll need a Winchester P94 plasma rifle to
in the Fallout games – just exploring the surface mounted gadgets. Short for ‘Personal protect yourself. Pip-Boy’s archives say it
chips away at your health bar. To restore it, you Information Processor,’ the Pip-Boy functions as fires “superheated bolts of plasma down a
must find a wonder drug called RadAway. With as a primary interface in the game. You use it to superconducting barrel.” Plasma is a soup of
one dose, you’re fully healed and can safely view maps and quest information, manage your charged particles that forms when gases get so
wander the wasteland a little longer. In real-life inventory and track your status. It can also hot their electrons fly free from their atoms. A
nuclear emergencies, people take potassium monitor radiation levels and interact with other ‘superconducting’ material conducts electricity
iodide (KI). These pills protect the thyroid gland machines you find. In real life, a super-sized without resistance. Welders use plasma torches
in your neck, which produces essential smartwatch could do most of the things a to cut through thick steel plates and bullet trains
hormones. High levels of iodine-131 in the Pip-Boy does. Most models have GPS use superconducting magnets to boost their
thyroid can increase the risk of cancer, even navigation, heart rate monitors and can respond speed. But plasma weapons have had less
years later. KI won’t reverse radiation sickness, to voice commands. Many fitness models are success. The US Army tested the Plasma
but each dose offers around 24 hours of also rugged enough for the surface world. Acoustic Shield System, or PASS, in 2008. This
protection. The tablets flood your thyroid gland Adding sensors to detect radiation or control handheld device shot a plasma ball that ignited
with non-radioactive iodine, making it too full to other devices would be a technical midair like a firework, but it was only
absorb any harmful radioactive isotopes that challenge. But the chassis of the
Did powerful enough to dazzle. Recent
you might eat, drink or inhale. Incredibly, this
life-saving medication is made from a type of
Pip-Boy offers more space to fit a
Geiger counter and Bluetooth, plus you know? tests have been more successful, but
they need so much power they have
salt similar to what’s in your kitchen. add long-lasting batteries. There are 12,512 to be mounted on vehicles.
nuclear weapons in
the world today

THE COLD WAR’S 5 TAGANSKY PROTECTED COMMAND

POINT (BUNKER GO-42)
Location: Moscow, Russia
4 816 NUCLEAR
MILITARY PLANT

BIGGEST BUNKERS Square metres: 7,000

Status: Deactivated
5 Location:
Chongqing, China
Square metres:
104,000
3 RAVEN ROCK Status: Deactivated
MOUNTAIN COMPLEX
Location: Pennsylvania, US 6
Square metres: 24,154
Status: Active

1
3
2 6 CANADIAN FORCES 4
STATION CARP
(DIEFENBUNKER) 1 CENTRAL GOVERNMENT
Location: WAR HEADQUARTERS
2 CHEYENNE MOUNTAIN COMPLEX Ottawa, Canada (BURLINGTON BUNKER)
Location: Colorado, US Square metres: Location: Corsham, UK
Square metres: 20,639 9,300 Square metres: 141,640
Status: Active Status: Deactivated Status: Deactivated

58
DID YOU KNOW? Switzerland has 370,000 blast shelters – that’s enough space for its entire population of 9 million

3
POWER UP WITH 2 SEALED ENVIRONMENT 3 DISPLAY
POWER ARMOUR Built-in air filtration Like a military-grade
protects you against Oculus Rift, an
Discover the suit that makes the radiation and chemical augmented-reality
Brotherhood of Steel – a attacks, plus allows you display helps target
post-apocalyptic paramilitary cult to breathe underwater enemies and shows
– such a formidable fighting force for a limited time. ammunition levels.

4 FUSION CORE
The suit is powered
by an onboard 5 2
fusion reactor,
which generates
power by fusing
4
atoms instead of
splitting them.

5 BULLETPROOF
PLATING
While power armour
is made of lightweight
metal alloys and
ceramics, real-life
Kevlar EXO provides a
better option: clothing-
like fibres that are
30 per cent stronger
than traditional
bulletproofing.

1 GUNS OF STEEL
Motors and hydraulics enhance the
wearer’s strength. The US Army’s
SABER program has tested real-life
exoskeletons to help soldiers lift
6
more and work longer.

6 TAILOR-MADE
action DESIGN
Power armour in The armour
has various
interchangeable
parts so you can
customise it
based on
your needs.
azon Prime Video

© Bethesda Softworks / Getty

Jo Whilden / Am
© Alamy; BFA / Jo

59
 TECHNOLOGY

MAKING
CANDY FLOSS
How fairground machines spin
sugar into delicious wispy strands
WORDS SCOTT DUTFIELD

ince the late 1890s, people have enjoyed the

S sweet taste and lighter-than-air texture of candy

floss, or cotton candy. The mechanics of creating
candy floss are quite simple. Sugar, containing
dye and flavourings, is heated up into a liquid syrup and spun
at a rapid speed. The result is ultra-thin strands, or ‘floss’, 6
which can be whipped into sugary clouds. As for how
sugar can be transformed into floss, the answer is
Did
a combination of molecular chemistry and a
touch of physics.
you know?
Sugar, or sucrose, is made up of carbon, The French call
hydrogen and oxygen atoms, which are neatly candy floss ‘barbe
à papa’, meaning
arranged in a crystalline structure. When sugar
‘papa’s beard’
is heated to around 190 degrees Celsius in the
head of a candy floss machine, the bonds that hold
these atoms together are broken, and it switches from a
solid to a molten viscous liquid. When sugar is spun in a candy 6 MOLTEN SUGAR
floss machine, it is not given time to recrystallise from a The molten sugar cools
molten liquid back into a solid state. As the liquid is spun, upon exiting the head,
centrifugal forces act on the liquid sugar, causing it to move forming fibres around
out of the heated head. As the sugar is hurled into the 50 microns in diameter.
collection drum, it meets the cool air and rapidly solidifies,
creating a filament-like thread.
However, candy floss can only maintain its cloud-like
texture for so long. Sugar is naturally hygroscopic, meaning
it draws in moisture from the air. When candy floss comes in
contact with moisture, it begins to recrystallise and clumps up
into a gooey mush. To prevent candy floss from clumping
together, it’s often packaged in sealed plastic bags or tubs,
cutting off its exposure to moisture in the air.
Unopened cand
y floss can stay
fresh for up to th
ree weeks

MEDICAL BREAKTHROUGHS The gelatine blood ve

ssel moulds
ss
created using candy flo
The humble candy floss machine has had an cells don’t always develop into full-formed
impact in the confectionary industry, but also in capillaries or die away. Instead, researchers spun
Youtube Channel

medical science. In 2016, researchers at sugar, along with a polymer, in a candy floss
Vanderbilt University used a candy floss machine machine to create the sugar strands. Gelatine
to make networks of artificial blood vessels, was then poured over the fibres to encase the
comparable in size and density to those in the sugar and left to harden. An enzyme solution was
© Vanderbilt University

human body. Before anyone thought to turn to then added to dissolve the sugar, leaving behind a
this machine, scientists typically created artificial network of microscope tubes that researchers
blood vessels by layering cells in a gel and waiting could use to cultivate human cells and create
for them to grow. However, using this method, the comparable blood vessels.

60
DID YOU KNOW? The record for the longest candy floss in the world is 1,400 metres

SPINNING SUGAR
How heat and centrifugal force create pillowy clouds of sugar

4 PERFORATED HEAD 2 SUGAR

Molten sugar escapes Solid sugar is poured into the
the machine’s head head, where it is heated by
through tiny holes. the elements underneath.

2
5
4

3 HEAT 5 COLLECTION BOWL

Heating elements in the head of The spinning head
the machine reach temperatures generates centrifugal
of over 150 degrees Celsius, force that shoots
melting the sugar. molten sugar from
the head and into
1 1 MOTOR
the collection bowl.

A motor rotates the head of the

candy floss machine at around
3,450 revolutions per minute.

INVENTED BY A DENTIST
© Alamy / Shutterstock / Illustration by Nicholas Forder

Although the dentists of today will be to the world at the Louisiana Purchase
the first people to tell you to stay away Exposition in 1904, also known as the
from the sugary confection, it was a St Louis World’s Fair. The exposition
dentist named William Morrison who lasted eight months and showcased the
created candy floss. Along with latest inventions, including personal
confectioner John C. Wharton, the automobiles, X-ray machines and other
American duo created the world’s first amusements. Around 20 million people
‘electric candy machine’ in 1897, which visited the fair that year, which helped ‘Fairy floss’ was debuted to millions
was later patented in 1899. Morrison and Morrison and Wharton sell 68,655 at the 1904 St Louis World’s Fair
Wharton unveiled their novel ‘fairy floss’ servings of fairy floss.

61
 TECHNOLOGY

WHAT IS A
SIM CARD?
Meet the computer chip
inside your smart device SIM cards can be us
tablets, laptops, sm
ed in phones,
artwatches,
cameras and GPS
that keeps you connected SIM cards are inserted by opening a small
devices

tray in the side of a mobile device

WORDS AILSA HARVEY

obile phones are personal to the are saved to the SIM in the settings and not just

M user. They can contain contact data

for close family, personal messages
and useful applications. When you
the phone’s internal storage.
Data transfer between a phone and SIM card
involves communication between the device’s
change this device, oftentimes you need computer and the card’s chip. When you
to carry over a SIM card to transfer Did click a button with a message such
this data and identity to a new you know? as ‘save to SIM card’, the phone
device. SIM stands for Subscriber changes the chosen data into a
Identity Module. This small card
There are more SIM
cards than people SIM-accessible format. The phone’s EMBEDDED SIMS
needs to be inserted into a device in the world operating system sends a signal to
If you’ve bought a new phone recently,
in order to connect to a mobile the device, commanding it to receive you may not have needed to insert a
network and allow you to and store the data. When the action SIM card for your phone to learn your
communicate over mobile internet has been performed, the SIM card sends identity. Instead of a chip that you
services. Information such as contact details a return signal to confirm the process and a need to physically remove and insert,
can either be saved to the device itself or onto confirmation message appears on the screen SIM cards are now being built into
the SIM card. If you wish to transfer all your for the user. The metal part of the SIM card devices as reprogrammable chips.
contact details to a new phone – or any other connects to the phone’s electrical circuits, and Embedded SIM cards (eSIMs) are built
data – you need to make sure that these details data is transferred through electrical signals. into the device’s motherboard.
Changing your service plan using an
3 VCC 4 GND eSIM card involves changing your data

CARD This is the power Also known as the

settings in your device’s settings
instead. eSIMs are programmed

BREAKDOWN
supply pin, which ground pin, this section
controls the voltage completes the electrical remotely and a user’s data profile
provided to the SIM. circuit and returns an can be transferred wirelessly. For
How does this tiny smartcard electric current to the smart device manufacturers, this
store data? power source. method takes up less space
and enables them to
produce sleeker devices. The
2 RESET
When the device sends a reset 4 5 VPP saved space can be used to
optimise other components.
signal, this section resets The programming
the SIM card to remove voltage pin isn’t
any errors or refresh always required in
the data.
5 modern cards. Its
function is to
increase the
6 voltage for
programming so
3 that memory cells
can store data.
2

1 CLOCK
1 This pin synchronises 6 I/O SIM cards have shrunk in size over the
time data between the The input/ years, from a mini SIM to micro SIM down
© Alamy / Getty

device and the SIM card output pin sends to a nano SIM and eSIM
so that data is read commands between
with correct timing. a device and its SIM.

62
 SCIENCE

Step into the culinary laboratory of food

science and molecular gastronomy
WORDS SCOTT DUTFIELD

64
DID YOU KNOW? The term ‘molecular gastronomy’ was coined by physicist Nicholas Kurti and chemist Hervé This

TURNING FOOD
INTO FOAM ulinary foam can serve up intense flavours in

C the lightest possible way. The trick to a perfect

foam is something called a surfactant. These
stabilising compounds can be naturally found,
such as egg proteins, or synthetically made, and have a
hydrophilic (water-loving) head and hydrophobic (water-
fearing) tail. The job of a surfactant is to create a film
around air bubbles in a flavoured liquid, such as stock or
sauce, and reduce the surface tension around the bubbles,
preventing them from popping. When air is pumped into
the liquid, typically using an immersion blender or a
ury
Culinary foam can turn sweet and savo gas-powered Espuma gun, the surfactant clings together
with flavour
sauces into light foams bursting to temporarily hold the shape of the bubbles, locking in
the flavour of the liquid.

CREATING TASTY BUBBLES How to make culinary foam 4 HOLDING FORM

The surfactant molecules
hold the structure of the
1 CONCENTRATION 2 MICELLISATION bubble, reducing its
The hydrophilic heads of The molecules of a surfactant surface tension and
surfactant molecules fill the arrange themselves in a circle, preventing it from bursting.
surface of a liquid until their called a micelle, around an air
concentration becomes too bubble, with the hydrophilic
great, forcing them to head on the outside and the
plunge into the liquid. hydrophobic tail on the inside.

4
1

3 ENTER GAS 3
When gas is pumped into the liquid, micelles
form around the emerging air bubbles.

TASTY POWDERS
Maltodextrin is a carbohydrate derived from the starch of different
crop plants, such as wheat or corn. One of the deliciously ingenious
ways that chefs can use maltodextrin is to transform fats into
© Shutterstock / Illustration by Adrian Mann

powders. Olive oil, peanut butter and even meat fats can be quickly
combined with maltodextrin to become powers, which when
consumed melt in the mouth and release the fat’s trapped flavour.
When molecules of maltodextrin are blended with molecules of fat,
the two form a matrix that prevents the fat molecules from melding The oils and fats
back together as a viscous liquid. A similar compound called released in peanut
cyclodextrin can also be used to create powdered alcohols in butter can be turned
some parts of the world, such as in the US. When the powdered into powder by
alcohol is dissolved in water, the alcohol is released. adding maltodextrin

65
 SCIENCE

FLAVOURING
Spherification
can encapsulate
any liquid into

WITH SMOKE
jelly-like balls
that burst in
your mouth

Whether it’s a steakhouse

or a cocktail bar, smoke is
readily used to impart unique
flavours into different foods
and beverages. When wood
burns, it undergoes pyrolysis,
a chemical reaction which
breaks it down into its
fundamental components,
such as cellulose,
hemicellulose, lignin and
volatiles. Cellulose and
hemicellulose are made up of
chains of sugar molecules
which break down into sweet
THE SCIENCE OF SPHERIFICATION
Bringing chemistry into the kitchen, spherification is chloride, calcium alginate forms on the surface of the
volatiles that can infuse into
a culinary science that packs flavour into gelatinous drop. This creates a gelatinous sphere encompassing
exposed foods. Lignin
balls. English food scientist William Peschardt was the sauce within. Reverse spherification uses a similar
breaks down into aromatic
the first to patent the process of spherification in the process but requires a droplet containing calcium
compounds called phenolics,
1940s. However, the process gained popularity when lactate to fall into a bath of sodium alginate. This
which can permeate food and
Spanish chef Ferran Adrià introduced it on the menu creates larger, thicker domes that can contain
transfer a pungent flavour.
of his famous restaurant El Bulli in 2003. calcium-rich ingredients such as milk or cream.
These are especially useful
Spherification calls for two essential ingredients: Along with fine-dining restaurants, culinary
when adding flavour through
sodium alginate and calcium chloride. When the two spherification can be found at the bottom of bubble
a quick burst of smoke, such
solutions are mixed they create calcium alginate, a tea as ‘popping boba’ – not to be confused with the
as when serving up a fragrant
film-like substance. When a sauce or juice is combined pearls of tapioca starch, which are also found in
cocktail that has been hit
with sodium alginate and dropped into calcium bubble tea.
with a smoke gun. Nitric
oxide is also released during
pyrolysis, which doesn’t
6 DIFFUSION 7 THICK FILM
JELLY SPHERES
impart flavour but reacts
with the iron content of Calcium ions The gel coating that forms
different meats and can How two solutions work together to make diffuse outwards around these droplets is
produce a pink ‘smoke ring’. caviar-like balls bursting with flavour from the droplet thicker and will not continue
and are replaced to form when removed
with sodium from the bath.
1 SODIUM ALGINATE from the bath.
The volatile compounds A sauce or juice is
produced by burning wood combined with
4
can infuse into cocktails sodium alginate and
dropped into a bath
of calcium chloride.

3 5
6

1 7
Did
you know?
Smoking food
dates back to the
2 CALCIUM 3 GEL FORMATION 4 COATING CONTINUES 5 OPPOSITE SOLUTIONS
palaeolithic era
MOVES IN The calcium ions The film around the For reverse spherification, a
Calcium ions displace the sodium droplet will continue to flavoured liquid is combined
within the bath from the alginate and form until it is solid, even with calcium lactate and
permeate into create a thin film when it’s removed from dropped into a sodium
the droplet. around the droplet. the calcium bath. alginate bath.

66
DID YOU KNOW? Culinary liquid nitrogen was first described by Agnes Marshall’s recipe book Fancy Ices in 1890

us,
n be extremely dangero

FREEZING IN A FLASH
When chefs are looking to freeze food fast, there’s nothing quicker than liquid nitrogen.
Using liquid nitrogen ca
and chefs have to wear
to prevent their skin fro
protective equipment
m freezing solid

To make liquid nitrogen, nitrogen is collected directly from the air through fractional
distillation. At extremely low temperatures of around -200 degrees Celsius, nitrogen
and oxygen can be separated and extracted from the air as a liquid. However, nitrogen
has an extremely low boiling point, which means that when liquid nitrogen warms to
-196 degrees Celsius, it reverts from a liquid to a gas. While in its freezing liquid state,
nitrogen can be poured over different foods to ‘flash freeze’ them into brittle or creamy
frozen treats. Using flash freezing to produce ice cream, for example, prevents the
formation of grainy ice crystals that can form when water trapped in the cream is
frozen over a long period. The rapidly forming microcrystals that form using liquid
nitrogen create a smoother, creamier consistency.

FROM FARM TO REFORMED FOOD

How meat can be glued back together into a new form

1 RAW MEAT 2 TRANSGLUTAMINASE 3 MOULDING

Any raw meat can Powdered transglutaminase is Meat pieces are
be glued together, sprinkled over the areas of the moulded or vacuumed
even meat from meat pieces that are intended together into the
different animals. to be joined together. desired shape or form.
5

1
3
2

6 4 COOLING 5 GLUING 6 NEW MEAT

Meat is refrigerated Transglutaminase The cross-linked
to activate creates bonds bonds are strong
transglutaminase’s between protein enough to hold
ability to create molecules, which meat pieces
bonds between the is known as together to form
protein molecules. cross-linking. a new shape.

Meat glue is used as an ingredient

in many reformed meat products,
MOULDING WITH MEAT GLUE
Meat glue has been used across the culinary and creating a new solid piece. The
such as imitation crab sticks spectrum, from reforming chicken meat transglutaminase is denatured and removed
into factory-made nuggets to ‘shrimp when the meat is cooked, but there is a risk
© Getty / Shutterstock / Illustration by Adrian Mann

spaghetti’ noodles served up on avant- of bacterial contamination when it is used

garde menus. Although it might sound incorrectly. For example, a piece of
synthetic, meat glue is a naturally occurring reformed beef cannot be served rare
enzyme called transglutaminase that is because the collective surface area of all
extracted from different sources, such as the pieces of beef that came together to
cow and pig blood, bacteria and plants. make the new piece can harbour bacteria
These enzymes work by forming bonds within the meat. Due to this, reformed meat
between proteins, bridging the gap needs to be completely cooked in order to
between two different pieces of meat be safe to eat.

67
 SCIENCE

HOW TO

The procedures and

surgical techniques
that tackle problems
inside your skull
WORDS SCOTT DUTFIELD

68
DID YOU KNOW? Genetics are to blame for less than five per cent of brain tumours

other hand, grows much faster, invades other

tissue and can spread around the body. All in
all, 120 different types of tumour can form in
the brain alone.
For both benign and malignant brain
tumours, a common course of intervention is
a craniotomy and resection, whereby a
surgeon removes a portion of the skull to
expose the brain and hopefully cut away the
tumour. To help guide them through the brain
and keep tabs on where surgical instruments
are during operations, surgeons use
Did neuronavigation systems that are
you know? connected to their equipment.
There are an “One of the biggest challenges is
estimated 49,940 distinguishing between normal
neurosurgeons brain tissue and tumour tissue,
globally which requires extensive training
and experience,” says Pietro D’Urso,
a consultant neurosurgeon at Salford
rain Royal Hospital in Manchester. “The location

B surgery
encompasses
a myriad of
of the tumour is another big challenge,
particularly if a tumour is in very important
parts of the brain, called ‘eloquent areas’, that
procedures designed to treat an control speech and motor functions.”
equally diverse set of conditions In some cases, surgeons can access the
and associated symptoms, including brain without having to remove part of the
tumours, blood clots, epilepsy and
aneurysms. Neurosurgeries can range
from minimally invasive procedures such as
a biopsy, whereby a needle is inserted into
the brain to collect cells for analysis, to
FIRST REMOVAL
extensive operations that expose the brain At the Glasgow Royal Infirmary in
to treat blood clots and for tumour removal. 1879, pioneering surgeon William
Like any other tumour, a brain tumour is an Macewen completed a landmark
surgery to remove a brain tumour.
abnormal mass of cells and tissue that
14-year-old Barbara Watson presented
wedges itself somewhere in the brain.
an “obscuration of intelligence,
There are two categories of tumour: benign
slowness of comprehension, want of
and malignant. While benign tumours can
mental vigour and pain in the head,”
grow large, albeit slowly, they don’t according to Macewen’s address to
typically invade surrounding tissue the annual meeting of the British
or spread around the body. A Medical Association in 1888. Macewen
malignant tumour, on the identified a tumour in the dura, a thick
membrane that surrounds the brain,
now known as a meningioma. The
tumour was compressing the brain,
causing the patient’s symptoms.
After Macewen cut through the skull
and removed the tumour, Watson
made a full recovery.
© Wiki: Materialscientist

William Macewen, a pioneer of British

© Shutterstock

brain surgery

69
 SCIENCE

skull by going through the nose or mouth. This

type of procedure is called neuroendoscopy.
Using a piece of equipment called an
endoscope, which includes a tiny camera
and light, surgeons can transverse the nasal
passage up into the brain to treat tumours.
“We use the endoscope when we feel that we
can safely deal with the abnormality,
respecting the surrounding brain structures,
and at the same time when we believe Did
we are able to effectively remove the
cyst or tumour.”
you know?
Unlike many other kinds of surgery, The world’s largest
brain tumour
brain surgery can be carried out while
weighed 1.8
the patient is unconscious or awake. kilograms
Used to tackle tumours in specific
areas of the brain that are involved in
functions such as speech and memory, an
awake craniotomy allows doctors to assess
the functionality of the brain during surgery
by getting patients to perform certain tasks. The exposed skull of a patient
“Awake craniotomy is used to reduce the risk in the midst of a craniotomy
of causing permanent damage during the
removal of a tumour, and usually patients
undergoing an awake craniotomy recover areas of the brain involved in the control of
quicker,” says D’Urso.
However, if a patient feels uncomfortable
movement, using special electric probes that
deliver a gentle current that stimulates the
“Brain surgery can be
with the idea of being awake during surgery,
surgeons have other ways to assess brain
brain to map and monitor the motor functions,”
says D’Urso.
carried out while the
function. “We can still proceed to remove
tumours in eloquent areas, particularly the
In the world of neurosurgery, D’Urso says
that the “pace of technological advancement is
patient is awake”

1 SHAVED PATCH
HOLE IN THE HEAD
How surgeons safety gain access to a 4 CUTTING THE SKULL
A portion of the head is A surgical saw connects each
patient’s brain through the skull
shaved to reveal the of the burr holes to release a
site of the surgery. piece of the skull, often referred
to as a skull cap or flap.

4
3

2 5

2 SKIN REMOVAL 3 BURR HOLES 5 CAP REMOVAL

The skin is peeled away Burr holes are drilled into the The skull cap is removed,
from the skull and skull as access points for a exposing a thin membrane
clipped into place. surgical saw. called the dura and the brain.

70
 DID YOU KNOW? Every year, 12,000 people in the UK are diagnosed with a primary brain tumour

very fast and exciting”. One of these emerging Similarly, the invention of augmented and
fields is the use of robotics during surgery. virtual reality can help surgeons get a better
Since the 1980s, robots have been a helpful picture of what’s going on beneath the skull.
feature in the operating theatre. Early “Mixed reality is also being used for
innovations, such as the first surgical robot, visualisation and planning, allowing us to see
PUMA 560, have assisted in guiding needles and project the location of the tumour in virtual
into the brain for biopsy procedures. Today, reality. These technologies contribute to
robots can help surgeons tackle tumours, place meticulous planning and promote the use of
brain stents, treat epilepsy and much more. minimally invasive techniques,” says D’Urso.

TUMOUR TAKEDOWN
How a surgeon carefully trims away malignant masses and benign tumours

A patient receiving laser

y
interstitial thermal therap

LASER TREATMENT
Laser interstitial thermal therapy
1INNER REMOVAL
An ultrasonic aspirator, which uses high-
frequency vibrations to remove tissue, is used
2TRIMMING
The borders of the tumour are carefully
cut away from the surrounding healthy
(LiTT), also known as laser ablation to break down some of the mass of the tumour. brain tissue.
surgery, uses a magnetic resonance
imaging-guided laser to target
abnormal cells and tumours to destroy
them. During the procedure, a probe is
inserted into the brain through a small
incision in the head. At the tip of the
probe are fibres that are heated up by
a laser beam that moves through the
probe. The heat is then used to
damage any abnormal tissue in
the brain. Along with guiding the
probe, magnetic resonance imaging is
used to monitor the temperature at

3 4
the tip to ensure that the surrounding
healthy tissue remains unharmed. SUCTION REMOVAL
While separating and resecting the tumour, If possible, the separated tumour can be

© Getty / Sciecnce Photo Library / Alamy / Shutterstock / Illustrations by Adrian Mann

any fluid or blood is sucked up through tubes completely resected and lifted out of the brain.
called cannulas.

A patient
undergoing

5 6
endoscopic
brain surgery CLOSING UP CAP REPLACEMENT
The dura flap is closed and stitched back The original skull cap is replaced and
together with sutures or sealant. affixed with small metal screws, and the skin
flap is put back into place.

71
 SCIENCE

DEEP BRAIN RUNNING

STIMULATION 4
INTERFERENCE
How DBS interrupts the electrical signals
More than 160,000 people around the in the brain to get it back on track
world have undergone a procedure
that involves inserting a long wire with 5
electrodes at its tip into the centre of 1 ELECTRODES 4 THALAMUS
the brain. Known as deep brain Electrodes are Electrodes can be
stimulation (DBS), the surgery is inserted through placed in the brain’s
designed to tackle several small holes created relay station, called
neurological conditions such as in the skull. the thalamus, to
Parkinson’s disease and epilepsy. reduce tremors.
3
Conditions such as Parkinson’s are 2 GENERATOR
derived from the disorganisation of
1 A battery-operated 5 SUBTHALAMIC
electrical signals between neuron cells generator is inserted NUCLEUS AND GLOBUS
in the part of the brain designated to under the skin of PALLIDUS
movement. DBS can help correct the chest. Electrodes are
irregular signals and improve the commonly placed in
conditions’ physical symptoms, such 3 CONNECTION specific regions such
as tremors, by delivering high- A wire is threaded as the subthalamic
frequency stimulation from an under the skin to nucleus or globus
electrode inserted into the brain. 2 deliver power to the pallidus to treat
To insert the DBS electrode, a Did electrode from the Parkinson’s disease.
surgeon will use imaging technology you know? generator.
such as computed tomography to
The brain has no
guide the electrode to the target. pain receptors A cranioplasty underway to
Electrical impulses are delivered to install a mesh skull cap
the electrode by a pulse generator
inserted into the chest. The generator
and electrodes are connected via a
thin insulated wire or ‘lead’ under
the skin. Doctors will create
optimal individual electrical
programs for each patient to
reduce their symptoms.

An illustration of a probe being

inserted into the brain for deep
brain stimulation

SKULLS MENDED WITH TITANIUM

When the skull cap can’t be replaced patch can be made from several
after a craniotomy or the skull is materials, including a bone graft from
“A piece of alternative damaged or deformed, surgeons may
have to perform a procedure called a
another part of the body or a synthetic
material that can mimic the robust
material is used to cover cranioplasty. During the surgery, a
piece of alternative material is used to
structural qualities of bone. One of the
commonly used alternatives is a plate
the exposed brain” cover the exposed brain for
protection. The replacement skull
of titanium or a metal mesh that is
adhered to the skull using screws.

72
DID YOU KNOW? The average thickness of a male’s skull is 6.5 millimetres, while it’s 7.1 millimetres in females

ROBOT SURGEONS
The technology helping to make the world’s
most complex surgeries a little simpler

© Hashem Al-Ghaili; YouTube

© MIT

AI ASSISTANTS ROBOTIC SURGICAL ARM OPERATING REMOTELY THE RENAISSANCE ROBOT THE NOT-SO-
In the not-so-distant Lending a surgical hand, Massachusetts Institute of Named after one of the REVOLUTIONARY ROBOT
future, surgeons in Hong the Robotic Surgical Technology engineers have most influential minds of In May 2024, social media
Kong could have an Assistant (ROSA) is a developed a telerobotic the Renaissance, the da was awash with audiences
artificially intelligent robotic arm that surgeons system that allows Vinci Surgical System is a wondering if the ‘world’s
helper in the operating can work with to precisely surgeons in one hospital to technological work of art. first head transplant
theatre. At the Centre for move through the brain. treat stroke or aneurysm Boasting four surgical system’ could be real. In a
Artificial Intelligence and Almost like a GPS for the patients in another, tackling arms, all of which are video released by Yemeni
Robotics (CAIR) in China, brain, ROSA can help emergencies in a crucial guided by an endoscope science communicator
researchers have navigate through the window of opportunity camera, the da Vinci robot Hashem Al-Ghaili,
successfully tested a complex composition of when surgical invention is allows surgeons to operate ‘BrainBridge’ is a concept
robot called MicroNeuro the brain and provide most critical. The system from an adjacent booth. system that integrates
that uses AI to deliver feedback in real time on lets surgeons perform The da Vinci robot advanced robotics and
ultra-accurate control for the precise position, depth life-saving endovascular translates the movements artificial intelligence to
precise brain surgeries and angle of surgical surgery using a modified of a surgeon’s fingers in execute complete head
on cadavers. The tests instruments. ROSA can be joystick in one hospital and real time, while they’re and face transplantation
demonstrated that used for many different a robotic arm in the other. sitting in a booth with a procedures. The video
MicroNeuro could types of neurosurgery, The joystick controls a camera feed and their shows two bodies
complete surgical tasks such as DBS and laser magnet at the hands slotted into ‘undergoing treatment’,
while reducing brain treatment. end of the robotic the controls. The with an army of robotic
tissue damage by at arm to guide a ‘EndoWrists’ at arms wielding needles and
least 50 per cent. soft magnetic the end of each scalpels to remove one
wire through the arm have seven head and reattach it to
arteries and degrees of another body. Despite its
vessels in the freedom – much glaring biological and
brain to tackle more than the technological issues, the
© MIT

blood clots. human wrist – project gained millions of

which gives views online, leaving many
surgeons more stunned by the futuristic
flexibility and science. However,
precision. researchers confirmed
that BrainBridge “is not a
real company – it’s not
incorporated anywhere”.
© Shutterstock / Getty / Hashem Al-Ghaili; YouTube

“Surgeons in one hospital

can treat stroke or aneurysm
patients in another”

73
 ENVIRONMENT

74
DID YOU KNOW? For every square metre around a hydrothermal vent, there can be up to 600 yeti crabs

Did
LIFE AT THE DEEPEST DEPTHS
he world’s oceans coast of Japan, scientists have
you know?
Hydrothermal
2

T
vents were
are some of the most found what is potentially the discovered
hostile environments deepest dwelling fish in the in 1977
to live in. From freezing world, the Mariana snailfish. The
polar waters to the darkness of the snailfish’s piezolytes increase the
oxygen-depleted abyssal zone, life space that proteins take up in a
has adapted to the many different cell and prevent water from
challenges that the ocean has to pushing its way inside.
offer. Deep-sea creatures quite Arguably the most hostile
literally have to bear the weight environments for life underwater
of the world’s water on their can be found 2,500 metres
proverbial shoulders. To avoid below the ocean’s surface, where
being crushed by their high- hydrothermal vents called black
pressure environment, many deep- smokers are found. These holes in
sea species have evolved bodies the seafloor are where magma and
made up mainly of water and water meet. Temperatures up to 1
utilise molecules called piezolytes around 300 degrees Celsius and
to counteract the weight of the toxic gas emissions are just some
surrounding water. For example, of the hurdles that many animals
more than 8,000 metres below have to overcome to call these
the ocean surface off the vents home.

nt releasing hot
A hydrothermal ve
the Pacific Ocean
water and gases in

LIFE AT THE VENTS

Some of the animals that call these
toxic underwater chimneys home

1 YETI CRAB
Discovered in 2005, these hairy-clawed crustaceans spend
their time scurrying around hydrothermal vents, particularly in
the Pacific-Antarctic Ridge, which lies south of Easter Island.
Unlike their crabby cousins nearer the surface, yeti crabs use
their hairs, called setae, to collect their main food source:
bacteria. These crabs also wave their claws around to move the
flow of water and minerals that help bacteria reproduce.

2 POMPEII WORM
Pompeii worms create tubular homes to dwell in, which they
root at the top of hydrothermal vents. The bases of their homes
can experience temperatures of up to 105 degrees Celsius,
but inside the tube it’s much cooler. Outside of their homes,
Pompeii worms can handle temperatures of up to 55 degrees
Celsius. A coating of bacteria on the bodies of these worms
allows them to bear the extreme heat around thermal vents.

3 VENT MUSSEL
© Getty / Alamy / Shutterstock

Vent mussels are one of the few animals that obtain their
nutrition through chemosynthesis. Unlike photosynthesis,
whereby plants convert light into energy, chemosynthesis
involves using the chemicals released from hydrothermal vents
and seawater to produce organic compounds that release
energy. However, vent mussels can’t achieve chemosynthesis
on their own and require a helping hand from bacteria.

75
 ENVIRONMENT

5
6

1
2

EARTH’S EXTREMES
These species thrive in some of the most uninhabitable places on the planet

1 WADING IN ALKALINE WATER

LESSER FLAMINGO
TANZANIA AND KENYA
2 VOLCANO VISITORS
PACIFIC SLEEPER SHARK
SOLOMON ISLANDS
3 CONQUERING THE COLD
ANTARCTIC MIDGE
ANTARCTICA
The brackish water that fills Lake Bogoria in In the Southwest Pacific, scientists have found Although it’s the coldest place on Earth,
Kenya and Lake Natron in Tanzania is packed Pacific sleeper sharks living above the caldera Antarctica is home to 235 animal species,
with carbonate salt, making them so alkaline of the active Kavachi submarine volcano, 20 including just one insect species. The Antarctic
they’ve been nicknamed soda lakes. Soda lakes metres below the ocean surface. The last midge is a small wingless fly that’s around six
are uninhabitable for many species and would eruption of the volcano was in 2022, but it millimetres long. During the winter, which can
corrode a person’s skin if they waded through. continues to release plumes of discoloured plummet to -30 degrees Celsius, these midges
Lesser flamingos are equipped with tough leg water into the ocean. The waters around the use sugars stored in their bodies as anti-freeze.
skin and scales to prevent this. When they need volcano’s caldera are hot, cloudy and especially The sugars dehydrate their cells to prevent
to drink, they turn to the waters of hot springs acidic, meaning not much should live there, them from forming deadly ice crystals. For
and use a special gland in their heads that can especially sharks. However, in 2015 a research extra protection they burrow under the snow,
filter out the salt and release it back into the team exploring the area found sharks darting which acts as a thermal blanket while they
water through their nasal cavity. in and out of the plumes. hibernate and wait out the winter.

4HANDLING
JERBOA
THE HEAT
SAHARA DESERT
5
UTAH
SALTY SURVIVORS
BRINE SHRIMP 6TOXIC CAVE DWELLERS
LIMNODRILUS SULPHURENSIS
COLORADO
Jerboas have evolved some tricks to survive in Brine shrimp – also known as a popular pet Steamboat Springs in Colorado is home to
harsh desert environments such as the Sahara, called ‘sea monkeys’ – are tiny invertebrates some of the most toxic sulphur caves on Earth,
where daytime temperatures reach over 50 that thrive in extremely salty water. One of which these blood-red worms call home.
degrees Celsius. To combat the extreme heat the mechanisms employed by the shrimp to Hanging from the ceiling of these caves are
and lack of water, these small rodents gain all survive in saltwater is an outer protective layer mucous bacteria that drip sulphuric acid onto
of their hydration from the food they eat, such that prevents water loss from their bodies and the cave floor. To tolerate the enormously high
as desert plants and small insects. Urination is increases the release of sodium and chloride levels of sulphur in the caves, these worms
also kept to a minimum to conserve water. To through specialised glands. Although they engulf sulphur-eating bacteria. Within the
escape the scorching daytime temperatures, have a preference for salty water, sea monkeys bacteria are structures called trophosomes,
jerboas are mostly nocturnal and burrow up to don’t dwell in open oceans and instead swim in which process hydrogen sulphide and convert
three metres into the sand. In the freezing saltwater lakes. In the Great Salt Lake in Utah, it into energy. By consuming the bacteria, the
desert winters, burrow entrances are plugged brine shrimp can tolerate salt concentrations worms also obtain their trophosomes to
with sand to conserve the heat within. of more than 24 per cent. process the extra sulphur.

76
DID YOU KNOW? The great jerboa can reach up to 44 centimetres, including its tail

5 3
1

© Tasteofcrayons Belgica
© Wiki; Fengjiao Peng

Limnodrilus is one of the most

common genera of aquatic
worms on Earth

Did
you know?
Arctic foxes can
survive at up to -50
degrees Celsius

6
© Shutterstock / TEM of D. radiodurans acquired in the laboratory of
Michael Daly, Uniformed Services University, Bethesda, MD, USA

A transmission electr
on micrograph

EXTREMOPHILE BACTERIA
of Deinococcus radio
durans

Along with some of the world’s toughest reactors. The secret to its survival lies in its
and most resilient animals, bacteria can DNA. The remarkable bacterium has high
be found in every harsh environment on concentrations of manganese and iron ions
Earth. Known as extremophiles, one of the that protect bacterial proteins and can
toughest bacteria is called Deinococcus mitigate the damage of ionising radiation.
radiodurans. From extreme cold to acid Deinococcus radiodurans also has a rapid
lakes, this persistent organism has even DNA repair mechanism that can precisely
been found on the walls of nuclear reassemble damaged DNA.

77
 ENVIRONMENT

HIGH LIFE
Here are some of the animals
living on top of the world
7,000

ALT I T UDE (ME T RES)

6,700 METRES
The Rüppell’s vulture
has specially adapted 1 HIMALAYAN JUMPING SPIDER
high altitudes The Himalayan jumping spider is one of the
blood for breathing at
highest dwelling animals on Earth, found only
in some small areas of the Nepalese
Himalayas, Mount Everest and Makalu.

LIFE AT THE
Bouncing between rocky outcrops, these
insectivores don’t share their lofty homes
with many prey species to hunt. Instead,

HIGHEST HEIGHTS
these spiders wait for the wind to deliver
frozen insects that have been caught in the
updraft and lifted to higher altitudes.
At around 3,500 metres above sea level – less than half
the height of Everest – the high-altitude zone begins. 6,000 5,800 METRES
Living within this zone means tolerating declining
2 SNOW LEOPARD
The steepness and uneven surfaces of
temperatures at a rate of around 0.65 degrees Celsius mountain ranges make travelling tricky,
every 100 metres upwards. Animals have to withstand especially for a large predator on the hunt.
decreasing air pressure that can impact respiration Snow leopards have evolved short forelimbs,
and tackle increasing exposure to ultraviolet long hind legs and an extra long tail to
radiation. Oxygen depletion, or hypoxia, is maintain balance as they traverse the rocky
one of the many factors to contend with terrain. To combat decreased oxygen levels
when climbing through the sky. At the that come with living in high altitudes with low
beginning of the high-altitude zone, air pressure, snow leopards can survive by
taking just half the amount of oxygen in each
oxygen levels are just 64 per cent
breath compared to when they’re at sea level.
compared to sea level, and by 5,500
metres it’s just 50 per cent.
5,400 METRES
No animal understands these
5,000 3 PIKA
restrictions better than Rüppell’s At higher altitudes, animals have to adjust
vulture, the highest flying bird. their requirement for oxygen. Living more than
Soaring 11,300 metres high, 5,000 metres above sea level, a group of small
these vultures can tolerate low mammals called pikas can change their
air pressure and oxygen tolerance for the level of oxygen through their
through adapted genes. Scientists have discovered that pikas at
haemoglobin, which higher altitudes have different versions of
can utilise oxygen genes found in pikas at lower altitudes, which
produce more oxygen-efficient proteins.
more efficiently.

5,000 METRES
4 HIGH HIMALAYA FROG
Found in the Tibetan Plateau, the High

1 4,000
Himalaya frog has adapted to tolerate
increased levels of ultraviolet radiation. These
amphibians have a higher concentration of
melanin in their skin – a pigment that scatters
ultraviolet radiation. This acts as a shield to
reduce the amount that penetrates the skin.

78
 DID YOU KNOW? Tardigrades have been regenerated from 100-year-old moss

Did
you know?
ALL-TERRAIN TARDIGRADES
Tardigrades are the conquerors of Earth’s have an incredible tolerance for
There are around
1,300 known
species of ultraviolet radiation and the vacuum
extremes, settlers in space and seemingly the temperature, ranging from -200 tardigrades of space for ten days, returning to
most indestructible animal on the planet. Also degrees Celsius up to 148.9 degrees Earth unharmed. One of the ways that
known as water bears, these eight-legged Celsius. Even pressure six times that of tardigrades achieve such impressive feats
microscopic creatures can be found in any the deepest region of the ocean wasn’t of survival is their ability to enter a ‘tun’ state.
water source on the planet, including the films enough to squash these tiny titans. The tun state is a collection of processes,
of water that coat terrestrial plant life. Their tolerance has even seen them journey such as anhydrobiosis (extreme dehydration)
Scientists have thrown every extreme at these beyond Earth aboard missions into space. and cryptobiosis (cessation of metabolism),
fascinating creatures to discover their Putting them to the ultimate test of survival, which almost suspend tardigrades in time and
seemingly limitless survival skills. For scientists found dehydrated tardigrades could leave them largely unaffected by their
example, studies have found that tardigrades survive in low-Earth orbit after exposure to environment, until rehydrated.

TARDIGRADE ANATOMY
Inside the body of the world’s most resilient animal
A tardigrade swimming
around in a water samp
le

5 BRAIN
The control centre for the tardigrade’s 1 HYDROSTATIC SKELETON
nervous system, which also includes groups In place of bones, its body is
of light-sensitive cells that act as a simple eye. supported by a cavity filled with
haemocoel, the tardigrade’s
version of blood.

5
3

4
2
1

4 STYLET
A sharp mouth
that can
puncture plants
and suck out
nutrients.

7
2 SALIVARY GLAND
Releases various fluids to the
mouth, including those that are 8
thought to help grow the stylet.

3 MUSCLES
The muscles that move the legs
and body of the tardigrade are
attached to their outer covering,
called the cuticle.
6 REPRODUCTION
Female tardigrades have an ovary to
produce eggs, as seen here, while
7 CLAWS males have testes to produce sperm.
© Shutterstock / Getty

Each leg ends with a double- However, there are hermaphroditic

hooked claw that helps it cling tardigrades that have an ‘ovotestis’ 8 HAIRS
to plant matter. to make both eggs and sperm. On the surface of the cuticle are
many long hair-like structures that aid
in sensing the environment.

79
 ENVIRONMENT
Kangaroos live in fa
mily
groups called mob
s

OUT OF THE POUCH

A young kangaroo is called a joey.
When it’s born, a joey is only two
centimetres long, making it very
vulnerable if it were to navigate the
world alone. After birth, the joey
climbs across the mother’s fur and

HOW KANGAROOS
into the pouch at the front of her
body, where it stays and feeds on her
milk for a further few months. When a
joey first leaves the pouch, this will
only be for short outings. And before

BOUNCE
learning to bounce, they learn to walk.
This involves transferring their weight
from their back legs to their arms
while adjusting their back legs
forwards. As they repeat this, they
begin advancing in a crawl-like
These marsupial mammals spring manner. When a kangaroo becomes
more used to being mobile, they begin
effortlessly across the Australian to remove their arms from the
process, stand more upright and
continent using specially adapted limbs begin jumping. At eight months old, a
young kangaroo is usually able to live
WORDS AILSA HARVEY fully outside the pouch.

kangaroo’s posture and hopping following jump is recycled energy from

A movements are instantly

recognisable. They have short arms
hanging high on their chest and a
these tendons, with the rest generated from
the muscles.
Unlike humans, who need to move their
thick tail that serves as an extra limb for legs quicker to accelerate into a run, a
standing and walking. But what they lack in kangaroo can increase its bouncing speed

Did
arm length they make up for in their without increasing the speed of its leg

you know?
substantial feet and elongated back movements. As a result, moving
legs. Kangaroos can reach hopping faster doesn’t mean using more
speeds of over 30 miles per hour and Kangaroos can muscle energy. Instead, a kangaroo
have hearts twice as big as other travel nine metres alters the angle of takeoff to vary
mammals their size to provide in a single hop the distance travelled between
them with high-speed endurance. jumps. Kangaroos haven’t always
Kangaroos have strong, elastic been hoppers, however. Fossil
tendons in their hind legs that act as evidence suggests that 25 million years
springboards. When on the ground, these ago, their ancestors didn’t need to travel long
tendons compress and store the energy from distances, and instead climbed trees for food.
impact. This is then released in a rebounding As Australia’s rainforests diminished and A joey has short trips outside the pouch
jump as they launch themselves into the air, transformed into flat, grassy plains, from around six months old
similar to the way a spring releases its kinetic kangaroos evolved to jump across the
energy. Almost half of the power for the continent in search of food.

80
DID YOU KNOW? Bouncing pushes a kangaroo’s gut up and down and against the lungs, helping it breathe

HOP IN MOTION
7 LIGHT SKELETON Breaking down the motion of a kangaroo hop,
you will see that before jumping a kangaroo is
and forwards. When up in the air, the legs
can extend fully to project the animal further
Compared to
upright, with its tail on the floor balancing its while mid-jump. As the animal is slightly tilted
other animals
body and its arms close to its chest. To initiate forwards while in the air, the tail stretches
their size,
kangaroos’ the jump, it bends its knees and ankles to outwards horizontally to balance the animal.
skeletons are position its body close to the ground. To Before returning to the ground, the kangaroo
lighter in weight, launch into the air, the kangaroo contracts the moves its legs forwards to absorb the impact
increasing speed leg muscles in its back legs. The Z-shape of before contracting the muscles again to
and energy the leg causes the animal to move upwards repeat the cycle.
efficiency while
reducing joint
strain.
7 Kangaroos are mostly active
at night and early morning

4 SHORT ARMS
Having short arms
compared to their legs
reduces the weight
carried when bouncing.

4
5 JOEY POUCH 3 3 HIND LEGS
Kangaroos keep their Their legs
young in this pouch, have powerful
enabling them to bounce muscles and
long distances without stretchy tendons
joeys getting tired. to spring them
into the air.

BOUNCING
BIOLOGY
How this marsupial’s anatomy 5 1 BALANCING TAIL
assists its airborne travel 6 Measuring up
to one metre in
length, a
8 FOURTH TOE 2 BIG FEET kangaroo’s
Kangaroos have long Kangaroos belong to the muscular tail
fourth toes that align animal family Macropus, provides stability
with the central leg which translates from the 1 during a jump.
bones. This propels ancient Greek for ‘big
the kangaroo upwards foot’. These feet make
into a bounce. good launchpads.
6 FUSED BONES
The bones in the
© Alamy / Shutterstock

2 lower legs are fused

8 together for structural
support to withstand
the force of landing.

81
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82
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 BRAINDUMP
Amazing answers to your curious questions

What is the
HOWITWORKSMAG

GLƈHUHQFH
EHWZHHQD
HOWITWORKS@FUTURENET.COM

TXDVDUDQG
DSXOVDU"
@HOWITWORKSMAG

Despite their confusingly

similar names, these are very
different celestial objects. A
pulsar – short for ‘pulsating
star’ – is a rapidly spinning
neutron star – the remnant of
HOW IT WORKS MAGAZINE

a supernova explosion. It has a

powerful magnetic field,
shooting out jets of radiation
that sweep across space like
lighthouse beams. When
they line up with Earth they
appear as a rapidly repeating
burst of light, radio waves
and other radiations. A quasar
is a distant galaxy with a
fluctuating blaze of light and
SEND YOUR QUESTIONS TO:

other radiations coming from

its central region. The activity
in these galaxies is caused by
giant black holes at their very
hearts, pulling in material
from their surroundings,
tearing it to shreds and
heating it up to tremendous
temperatures before
swallowing it up.

84
 WHY IS BLOOD RED?
Blood is red because it contains iron, bound up in a
ring-like chemical structure called porphyrin within
haemoglobin – the protein responsible for carrying
oxygen around the body. Haemoglobin is crammed
into our red blood cells, making them red too. Red
blood cells, white blood cells and platelets are the
key components of blood, floating in clear plasma,
but the sheer volume of red blood cells gives blood a
red colour overall. Oxygen-rich blood is a bright red,
whereas deoxygenated blood is a darker brownish

WHY ARE
red. The veins in your wrists may appear blue, but
they are red too – the blue colour is the result of
SOME GENES the way light travels through your skin. While all

STRONGER vertebrates share the same colour blood, blue blood

does exist – horseshoe crabs have no haemoglobin,
THAN having opted instead for haemocyanin, a copper-

OTHERS? based protein.

‘Strong’ genes are called

dominant genes and
require just one copy of
themselves to have an
effect. Recessive genes
need two copies to exert
WHEN WAS EDINBURGH CASTLE
their influence – so you BUILT AND WHO LIVED THERE?
need to have inherited a
Castle Rock, a 130-metre outcrop created by an extinct
copy from both your
volcano that was active around 350 million years ago, has
parents. Dark eyes are a
been inhabited since the late Bronze Age, around 800
dominant trait as it only
BCE. The Greek-Egyptian geographer Ptolemy is thought
takes one copy of the
to have recorded a settlement here around 150 CE, but the
relevant gene to
first reference to a fortification here, known as Din Eidyn,
stimulate the eye to
or the ‘stronghold of Eidyn’, comes from a Welsh epic
produce melanin – the
poem from around 600 CE. Archaeological evidence
pigment that colours
backs up the idea of habitation, but shows no signs of a
eyes brown. Blue eyes,
real castle. The first definitive reference of a castle comes
on the other hand, are
from the reign of King David I, who held assemblies of
recessive as the
nobles and clerics here from 1139 onwards.
presence of melanin
masks the blue colour –
somebody with one
gene for blue eyes and
one for brown eyes will
have brown eyes. This is
just one of the many
ways in which dominant
:KLFKDQLPDOKDV
and recessive genes
interact, but there’s still
WKHEHVWH\HVLJKW"
a lot more for scientists
to learn about how
they work. Birds of prey boast the greatest visual acuity of all animals,
and zoologists believe some hawks and eagles have vision
eight times sharper than ours. An eagle’s retina sports
approximately 1 million sensory cells per square millimetre
– around five times what you’d find in a human retina. It
pays off: some birds of prey can spot and track a rabbit
0.9 miles away.
If you gauge eyesight in terms of light spectrum
perception instead of acuity, the mantis shrimp is the
© Shutterstock / Getty

champ. Mantis shrimp perceive 11 or 12 primary colours,

putting our three to shame, and they can see ultraviolet
and infrared light too. But their greatest trick is the ability to
perceive both linear polarisation and circular polarisation of
light, a talent no other animal possesses.

85
 BRAINDUMP
IS IT TRUE THAT
POLAR BEARS ARE
ACTUALLY BLACK?
No, they are definitely white. It is true that polar
bear skin is black, but as we all know it’s covered
by a thick coat of white fur, so the bear as a whole
is white. The colour of a thing is how it appears to
your eyes. Think of it like this: if you paint your
HOWITWORKSMAG

HOW IS
bedroom walls white, are they really still brick
coloured? Taken individually, polar bear hairs are
SILICONE actually transparent. The coat appears white for

MADE? the same reason clouds do: all the tiny reflections
from the myriad of jumbled surfaces combine to
Silicone starts out as reflect the light back to your eyes. It used to be
silicon dioxide, or silica, thought that each hair acted as an optical fibre to
found in abundance in funnel sunlight down to the skin, but recent
rocks and sand. studies have ruled this out. The white colour is
HOWITWORKS@FUTURENET.COM

Transforming it into purely for camouflage.

silicone requires
replacing the two oxygen
atoms bound to the
silicon atom with organic
carbon-based groups. How high do you
Firstly, silica is heated
inside a furnace, driving have to go to see the
oxygen out and leaving
elemental silicon. The FXUYDWXUHRI(DUWK"
silicon is powdered, then
combined with a copper
catalyst and methyl While we can fool ourselves into thinking we see the
chloride, forming several curvature of the Earth from high mountains, this is usually
@HOWITWORKSMAG

different silanes. These wishful thinking. You should be able to detect it from an
are separated and aeroplane at a cruising height of around 10,600 metres, but
hydrolised to produce you need a fairly wide field of view and a virtually cloud-free
siloxanes – chemicals horizon. Clouds, hills and mountains mean we rarely get to
with a backbone of see the kind of perfectly flat horizon where the curve would
alternating silicon and be most obvious. However, you can detect the curve from
oxygen atoms which are ground level at the coast with binoculars – just look for
the building blocks for distant ships on the horizon and you’ll see that their hulls
many types of silicone. start to disappear before their masts. Ancient Greek
scientists, who spotted this without any optical aids, used
HOW IT WORKS MAGAZINE

this to conclude that Earth was round.

WHY DON’T MUMMIES ROT?

The miracle of mummification is how a body process, Egyptians removed all of the
buried nearly 5,000 years ago can remain deceased’s internal organs and coated the body
intact, while a non-mummified body inside and out with a salt mixture. After 40 days
decomposes into a pile of dust in just a few or more, the salt would have drawn all of the
hundred years. The key is desiccation – moisture from the body. Organs were dried
removing all moisture from the body and storing separately and either placed in urns or back
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it in an extremely dry environment. Bodies rot inside the body. Mummies were also stuffed
because bacteria thrive in the moist conditions with sawdust before being treated with naturally
of decaying flesh and organs. But bacteria can’t antibacterial oils and wrapped in layer upon
live where there’s no water. In Ancient Egypt and layer of sticky resin and linen. Mummification
South America, the first mummy-making didn’t always work, but if the body was fully
cultures probably found animals whose skin dried, carefully wrapped and stored in a
remained intact after dying in extremely dry perfectly dry place, the skin and bones would
places – both hot and cold. To replicate this remain preserved for millennia.

86
Could we
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GLQRVDXUIURP
SUHVHUYHG'1$"
Bringing back extinct species is a would break down completely
real possibility. In fact, scientists within 6.8 million years. Dinosaurs
have announced a plan to clone died out over 65 million years ago,
woolly mammoths using remains meaning their DNA is long gone.
preserved in the Siberian A possible alternative is to
permafrost. They hope to create assemble the genetic code of a
mammoth embryos by replacing dinosaur-like animal with a
the nuclei of elephant egg cells computer using ancient
with preserved mammoth nuclei, ‘switched off’ dinosaur genes
then implanting those embryos that still exist in the DNA of
in elephants. possible dinosaur descendants,
But the outlook for dinosaur such as birds. We don’t have
cloning isn’t so good. New the necessary technology
research says DNA has a half-life today, but scientists haven’t
of only 521 years, and that it ruled out this possibility.

WHAT’S THE SMALLEST COUNTRY IN THE WORLD?

At 0.17 square miles, Vatican City is the pope’s residence and the spiritual centre
planet’s smallest country. A procession of the Roman Catholic Church.
of popes owned and ruled portions of Around 800 people live in Vatican City
Italy for over 1,000 years until the and only around 500 people hold
© Getty / Alamy / Shutterstock

mid-1800s, when the Kingdom of Italy citizenship. The only ‘military’ force is
seized most of the papal land. The the Pontifical Swiss Guard, a corps of
1929 Lateran Treaty established the Catholic bodyguards recruited from
independent state of Vatican City, the the Swiss Army.

87
 BRAINDUMP
HOWITWORKSMAG
HOWITWORKS@FUTURENET.COM

How far can we see into the

past through a telescope?
@HOWITWORKSMAG

Our ability to treat the universe like a great cosmic Cluster set out on its way to Earth around the time
time machine is due to the limited speed of light – the dinosaurs became extinct. The most distant
even though it’s the fastest thing in the cosmos it galaxy seen with the Hubble Space Telescope,
can still only travel at 5.9 trillion miles per year, so GN-z11, is 13.4 billion light years away, so we are
all the light from distant objects that we are seeing seeing back to a time just 400 million years after
now set out on its journey at some time in the past. the Big Bang. The James Webb Space Telescope
Even with the naked eye, you should be able to spot went further with its recent discovery of the
the Andromeda Galaxy, one of our closest galactic galaxy JADES-GS-z14-0, seen just 300 years after
HOW IT WORKS MAGAZINE

neighbours, which is equivalent to looking about the Big Bang. And radio telescopes can do even
2.5 million years back in time. A small telescope will better than that, detecting weak microwaves from
reveal galaxies tens of millions of light years away the afterglow of the Big Bang itself, some 13.7
– light from some of the galaxies in the Virgo billion years ago.

ARE THERE CARNIVOROUS WASPS?

Not in the sense of eating a diet of solely such as yellowjackets, are omnivorous,
meat. Almost all wasps are parasitic and both adults and larvae will feed on
SEND YOUR QUESTIONS TO:

as larvae, with the eggs laid into the dead insects, fallen fruit and even carrion.
paralysed body of an insect host so the The wasps that make a nuisance of
larvae can eat it when they hatch. The themselves at picnics are normally the
adults generally just feed on nectar, much social species. The adults have sharp
as bees do. Parasitic wasp species are all mandibles that can slice through flesh
solitary, but there are a few species of and carry it back to the hive. However,
social wasp, with sterile workers providing they are scavengers and won’t normally
for a reproductive queen. Some of these, tackle living prey.

88
 ARE STORKS DINOSAURS, AND WHY
DO THEY HAVE SUCH LONG LEGS?
The prevailing opinion among palaeontologists is that birds
are direct descendants of theropod dinosaurs from the
Jurassic period. The counter view is that birds are actually
descended from other prehistoric reptiles. If the dinosaur
lineage theory is correct, then storks – and indeed all birds
– could be classified as a dinosaur subgroup. But this is a
bit like saying whales are ungulates (hoofed land animals),
as they are ungulate descendants. Storks likely evolved
long legs as a means of walking through tall grass and
shallow water searching for fish, frogs and other prey.
Palaeontologists believe a flying dinosaur ancestor – the
giraffe-sized pterosaur – may have hunted the same way.

WHAT IS THE CASSOWARY’S

CROWN FOR?
Cassowaries are large flightless birds, only slightly smaller than an
ostrich or emu, that live in the forests of New Guinea and northeast
Australia. Their most distinctive characteristic is the large crest, or
crown, on the top of their head. The outside is hard like a horn, but the
inner part has a honeycomb-like structure to keep the weight down.
There are lots of theories for the purpose of the crown. It may have
originally evolved to protect the bird’s head. Cassowaries eat fallen
HOW ARE fruit, and the wedge-shaped crest would help deflect any fruit or seeds
TUFA TOWERS tumbling from the treetops. Cassowaries can also run at 30 miles per
hour, and as they career through the forest they lower their heads to
FORMED? push through the undergrowth. But the honeycomb interior does more
than just save weight – it also acts as an amplifier. Cassowaries have
Tufa towers are columns
the deepest call of any bird. The note is so low it is only just audible to
of calcium carbonate
humans, but the crown acts as a resonating chamber that allows this
which form in
sound to carry through the forest. Besides these useful qualities, the
carbonate-rich saltwater
cassowary’s crown may play a decorative role as well. Like the
lakes, also called soda
peacock’s tail, size matters when it comes to attracting a mate.
lakes. Underneath the
lake, underwater springs
pump calcium-rich
water through the
lakebed. When the
spring water meets the
alkaline lake water, Is fur the same as hair or are
calcium and carbonate
salts react to form WKH\FRPSOHWHO\GLƈHUHQW"
insoluble calcium
carbonate, or limestone,
which precipitates out, Hair and fur are two words for the exact same thing: thin fibres made
settling in mineral from the protein keratin. These fibres grow out of organs called follicles,
deposits around the which you’ll find in the skin of nearly all mammals, from mice to
spring. Over centuries elephants. The only difference between hair and fur is the kind of
these deposits gradually mammal you’re talking about. Fur is reserved for non-human animals,
grow into towering while hair can mean fibres on either animals or humans. Of course, a
columns which can human head of hair and an animal’s fur coat do have some key
reach heights of up to differences. A typical furry animal, like a cat, sports a dense coat of very
nine metres. Tufa can fine individual fibres. Human heads have a less dense coat of thicker
only form underwater, individual hairs. Additionally, the hair on our heads grows to greater
© Getty / Alamy / Shutterstock

so it is only if lakes are lengths thanks to a unique activity cycle. The hair on your arms or legs,
drained or dry out over akin to animal fur, is in the growth stage (anagen) for 19 to 26 weeks
many years that the before reaching an intermediate phase (catagen) followed by a shedding
towers are exposed. phase (telogen). In contrast, the hair on your head might be in the anagen
phase for two to six years. The follicles and fibres themselves are the
same, but our genes make them follow different cycles.

89
 THE LIBRARY
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those might be. effect, as each cloud type and
Every chapter can effectively be split its phenomena are presented
into a series of questions, the kind that might with elegant sketches that
typically be asked by a school student of a beautifully capture the
certain age: how long could you survive on intricacies and moods of
Pluto, what’s inside a black hole and if the different skies.
universe is growing, what is it expanding into? Readers learn about the ten
These questions are comprehensively main cloud types, positioned on

“Cleverly weaves around

answered by Bothwell using his best the page at the altitudes that
supervillain professor voice, revelling in the you can spot them. Artistic
extreme dangers posed by the space beyond tough answers that might graphs detail the science of
our little bubble of atmosphere, and the require an actual PhD cloud formation, the anatomy

to unpick”
apocalyptic scenarios we might encounter if of rainbows, halos formed by
we could travel millions of light years from clouds’ crystals and the
Earth or live for a few billion years. appearance of clouds on other
Bothwell is the public astronomer at the actual PhD to unpick, coupling them with planets. All these topics and
University of Cambridge’s Institute of plenty of cartoon illustrations and the kind more will be uncovered in
Astronomy, so engaging a school-age audience of choice typography that makes an intriguing Cloudspotting for Beginners.
is all in a day’s work, and Astrophysics for Buzzfeed article. It’s a really fun insight into
Supervillains is no exception. It cleverly weaves the cosmos that could inspire future
around tough answers that might require an generations of astronomers.

90
 A BRIEF HISTORY A KID’S GUIDE TO
OF STUFF THE NIGHT SKY
SIMPLE WAYS TO
THE EXTRAORDINARY STORIES
OF ORDINARY OBJECTS EXPLORE THE UNIVERSE
AUTHOR JOHN READ
AUTHOR DK
PUBLISHER SOURCEBOOKS
PUBLISHER DORLING KINDERSLEY
PRICE £9.99 / $12.99
PRICE £20 / $25
RELEASE 1 NOVEMBER
RELEASE OUT NOW

The night sky is filled with

It’s a truly eclectic list of ‘stuff’ that DK
countless cosmic objects to
has put together in this curiously
explore, and this book does its
constructed book. From baby bottles
best to introduce a whole heap
to ballpoint pens, there isn’t much of a
of them to the next generation
logical path or timeline to this book,
of astronomers. From the little
which is oddly part of what makes it a
bear to the mighty dragon,
brilliant reference book. Casting your Luckily, A Brief History of Stuff has all
there are many glinting
eye over the contents page and seeing a the information you need to know about
constellations and bright stars
list of everyday items such as a thimble their origins and impact on society.
to identify with the help of this
or fridge magnet, readers are left Packed with bitesized facts, before you
guide. However, it offers so
realising there’s a gap in their knowledge know it you’ll be reciting the history of
much more for science-minded
about how these things came to be. ‘stuff’ to your friends and family.
stargazers. The life cycle of
stars, conjunctions and light
pollution are just a few of the
topics that this book introduces
to its audience. It also takes a
deep dive into each of the Solar
STOMP, SOAR, System’s planets and some of
the amazing technology that’s
DINO ROAR
TAKE A DINOSAUR TOUR WITH
working to find out more
about them. With so many
constellations, satellites and
TERRI THE TRICERATOPS
comets to discover, this
AUTHOR MAX AMATO AND easy-to-follow guide offers
BRENDAN MCAULIFFE helpful tips and tricks to make
PUBLISHER SOURCEBOOKS
sense of what’s in space.
PRICE £14.99/ $18.99
RELEASE 1 NOVEMBER

In an immersive short story for young

readers,the dinosaurs of the Cretaceous
period are introduced through colourful
cartoons and sounds. Kids explore this
ancient era with newborn Triceratops Terri
as she encounters new species for the first
time. Each illustration enables the reader to
visualise how every dinosaur would engage
with its surroundings and, most importantly its
echoing sounds. The size, shape and design of
the text helps readers recreate the style of
each sound, and phonetic spellings break down
the complicated dinosaur names beneath the
main text.
Hear from water-loving dinosaurs and
duelling competitors as the rhymes become an More thorough information about how we know
entertaining and fast-paced tour. At the end of what each dinosaur may have sounded like
Stomp, Soar, Dino Roar, readers can gain more through fossils and the analysis of living
information about each dinosaur mentioned, relatives is included at the back of the book, as
with useful fact files and illustrations to show well as a timeline to visualise how long ago
the size of each in comparison to a human. animals like Terri graced the Earth.

91
 BRAIN GYM
Give your brain a puzzle workout

:RUGbVHDUFK
Find the following words

Sudoku
Complete the grid so that
OLYMPICS
MAGIC
SUMMER
VAULT
BRAIN
EXTREME
COOKING
HATCH
SOLAR
CONSPIRACY CANDY SIM
each row, column and 3x3 box
contains the numbers 1 to 9 O C M P A
E O S I R N K Y O B
EASY
L H A T E M E R T X E L O M R
8 3 2 7 Y A N D V A U L T Y S O L E A
3 1 9 5
6 8 7 2 1 4 9 3
M J F C O O H S B R A I L Q I
8 3 6 9 P S U N N E R Y R A L O S Y N
4 3 1 I M A L G I R Y N D A G C M Z
6 7 9 4 8 C X E H O O E L K M M A E C U
9 8 7
S I M A C Y M A G L R C F O P
1 4 3
3 2 4 7 1 9 V S O T L X M U B I L T S O U
MEDIUM A Y H C A T U C P H M A Q K D
7 6 8 1 5 U D B H U O S S A R W T C I H
1 6 7 2 F N P I C S N P C O N Z P N A
2 7 3 1 T A E N A O X I L M P Y C G T
9 2 5
A C O V C E A R O L A R I M G
3 4 7
8 2 5 1 I T R E M A G I C A M A D O L
1 9 4
6 1 9 5
9 3 6
HARD
What
4
9
8 1
7 is it?
5 2 6 4 Hint:
8 4 9 Needs a bit
2 6 7 of friction
7 3 9 1
7 6 A
5 4 9
6 8

90
6SRWWKHGLIIHUHQFH QUICKFIRE
See if you can find all six changes between the images below
QUESTIONS
Q1:KDWW\SHRIFUDƏWZDV
1$6$ŧV,QJHQXLW\"
Rover
Helicopter
Submarine
Satellite

Q2+RZORQJFDQSODW\SXVHV
OLYHIRULQWKHZLOG"
20 years
30 years
50 years
70 years

Q3:KDWSURFHVVFDXVHVGHZWR
IRUPRQVXUIDFHVRYHUQLJKW"
Evaporation
Transpiration
Precipitation
Condensation

Q4:KDWDLUFUDƏWƊHZLWVƉQDO
ƊLJKWLQ"
Concorde
Eurofighter Typhoon
Hawker Hurricane
Airbus A320

Q5)RXQGLQZKDWZDVWKH
QDPHJLYHQWRWKHƉUVWKXPDQ
DQFHVWUDOIRVVLO"
Lucy
Sally
Amanda
Jane

$QVZHUV Find the solutions to last issue’s puzzle pages Q6,QZKDWDWPRVSKHULFOD\HU

GRHVPRVWZHDWKHURFFXU"
Troposphere
What
Q1 THE SUN
Stratosphere
GLIIHUHQFH

Q2 RAYLEIGH SCATTERING
is it?
6SRWWKH

Q3 ENGINEERED MOSQUITOS Mesosphere

Thermosphere
© Alamy / Getty

Q4 AFRICAN ELEPHANT
ECLIPSE
Q5 INLAND TAIPAN
Q6 2026

91
 HOW TO…
Practical projects to try at home

DRAW A PH PICTURE WITH TURMERIC

Using these three simple substances that react with each other,
you can create a masterpiece
HOWITWORKSMAG
HOWITWORKS@FUTURENET.COM

1 GATHER YOUR ART MATERIALS

For this experiment you will need to
2 MAKE TURMERIC INK
Measure out one tablespoon of
turmeric into a bowl and add water.
prepare your own ink mixtures before you This should be just enough water to
begin drawing using simple ingredients. create an ink with a deep colour.
@HOWITWORKSMAG

3 MIX WELL
Mix the turmeric and water
well so that the turmeric is 4 PAINT THE PAPER
Take your cotton pad and dip it
evenly distributed. If you want into the turmeric bowl. Use this as
HOW IT WORKS MAGAZINE

to darken the ink, add slightly a brush to coat the white paper in
more turmeric powder. orange ink and wait for it to dry.

6 SQUEEZE
THE LEMON

5 MIX THE Cut and squeeze a

SEND YOUR IDEAS TO:

WASHING lemon to fill the third

POWDER bowl with all the
As you did with the lemon juice from your
turmeric powder, half-lemon. Place one
take one tablespoon cotton bud in the
of washing powder washing powder and
and mix it with water lemon bowls. These
in a separate bowl. are your paints.

94
 0 A
NE
GL
$. SS

XT
KIT LIST

( OR

ISS
$ N
Plain paper

67 A

UE
Water
DON’T

$, ME
One tablespoon of turmeric powder

1( N
One tablespoon of washing powder DO IT
ALONE!

' T
Half a lemon

ƒ
If you’re under 16, make
Three bowls sure you have an adult
with you
A cotton pad
Two cotton buds

7 PAINT WITH
POWDER
Using the cotton bud
8 LEMON ERASER
To erase what you have drawn, use the
lemon juice. This will turn red turmeric back to
in the washing yellow. Here, the letter edges with running ink
powder, draw a have been fixed with lemon juice.
design of your choice
onto the turmeric
paper. Remember to
keep topping up your
bud with more
washing powder.

9 DRAW IN
REVERSE
The lemon juice can
be used for further SUMMARY
techniques. By
drawing a block with Turmeric is a pH indicator that naturally changes colour
when it comes into contact with a substance that is
washing powder and
alkaline. In this experiment, the washing powder is alkaline,
erasing details with
and drawing with this mixture causes the turmeric on the
lemon juice, you can
paper to turn from yellow-orange to red. Lemon juice is
create designs using
highly acidic. Being at the opposite end of the pH scale,
this reverse method. adding this to the washing powder lowers the pH again and
gradually returns the turmeric to its yellow colour. If you
wish to experiment further with this scientific artwork, you
can write with invisible ink. Instead of colouring the paper
in turmeric first, begin by writing on the paper in washing
powder. You won’t be able to see the writing very clearly, as
the mixture is white. Wait for the writing to dry. Then pass
the paper to a friend and tell them to paint over it with

10 SEND IN YOUR ARTWORK

What did you draw? Send in your
turmeric artwork via email to howitworks@
turmeric, using a brush or cotton pad. As they do so, the
paper will turn yellow and the sections with washing
powder on will turn red, revealing your secret message.
futurenet.com for a chance to be featured
in the next issue of How It Works.

Had a go? Let us know!

If you’ve tried out any of our experiments – or
conducted some of your own – let us know! Share
your photos or videos with us on social media.
DISCLAIMER
Neither Future Publishing nor its employees can accept any liability for any adverse
effects experienced during the course of carrying out these projects or at any time after.
Always take care when handling potentially hazardous equipment or when working with
electronics, and follow the manufacturer’s instructions.

95
 INBOX
Speak your mind
RARE LETTER
of the
AURORA MONTH
HOWITWORKSMAG

ALLERGY Dear HIW,

The other week I was lucky enough to see
SEASON the northern lights from my home in the
south of England. I had only ever known them
Dear HIW,
to be seen much further north before this.
I have hay fever, but no
What made them visible so far south and how
one else in my family has
HOWITWORKS@FUTURENET.COM

frequently could I see them from here? I

it. What causes this?
would also like to know what makes some of
Sarah Anderson
the lights purple and some green. The Sun’s energised particles collide with
Linda Johnson those in Earth’s upper atmosphere
While allergies are
often hereditary, this
At the beginning of May, people across
isn’t always the case.
Britain were presented with a rare display The light is caused by charged particles
Many environmental
of the northern lights. The lights, also from the Sun interacting with gases in
factors can cause you
known as the aurora borealis, were caused Earth’s atmosphere, and different gases
to develop hay fever, an
by an exceptionally strong geomagnetic create the different colours of light.
allergic reaction to
storm, or solar wind. According to NASA, Oxygen displays a green hue in the sky,
pollen that usually
the lights could be seen from the lowest while the purple and pink colours are a
impacts people in
latitude in around 500 years, across result of nitrogen. In very energetic
spring and summer.
Europe and North America. As you say, geomagnetic storms, red is visible. This is
Sometimes a person’s
usually the northern lights are mostly oxygen at very high altitudes coming into
@HOWITWORKSMAG

genes can make them

limited to Scandinavia, Canada and the contact with solar particles.
more susceptible to
northern parts of the UK, like Scotland.
developing allergies. A
A hyperactive sunspot caused the

WIN!
parent could have this
energetic solar flares of the lights that
gene but never develop
you encountered, and the Sun was
hay fever, while you
approaching a time when solar activity
could show symptoms AN AMAZING PRIZE FOR
is at its strongest, called solar maximum.
from an early age or LETTER OF THE MONTH
This only happens once every 11 years.
not experience hay
Despite this, meteorological experts say ASTROPHYSICS
fever until your adult
that an event as powerful as the recent FOR
HOW IT WORKS MAGAZINE

years. Some
environmental triggers
northern lights display is a once in 30 SUPERVILLAINS
Expert author Matthew Bothwell has
years event, so you are lucky to have
that could cause created a supervillain academy to
seen them from your location. teach astrophysics to
someone to begin to school students
develop hay fever
include moving home
to an area with high
pollution and a diet
change to more meat,
dairy and alcohol due
FORMING FINGERPRINTS
Dear HIW, different levels of skin mean that
to high histamine levels How does nature produce only the protruding ridges make
in these products. fingerprints? Other than modern contact with many surfaces,
SEND YOUR QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS TO:

uses for identification, what were limiting how much friction can
One in four people have
hay fever in the UK
they originally for? be created. This leaves today’s
Christopher Biggs leading theory for fingerprints
as an aid for touch.
The leading theories for why we When the fingertip touches an
have detailed fingerprints on our No two people have
object, sensory neurons detect the
same fingerprints
hands are to increase grip and this. The ridges of the fingertip
to improve our sense of touch. increase the surface area where
Fingerprints provide fine ridges sensory neurons detect touch, vibrations in the fingertips
in the skin that some scientists especially when the finger is that are the same frequency
thought created friction moving sideways across an as the touch sensations,
between the hand and the object. In the finger there are strengthening them. As well as
surfaces it touches. However, also cells that respond to touch being a useful identification
recent studies have shown that so that the brain can interpret tool, fingerprints can also be
fingerprints don’t actually the feeling. Studies have thanked for finger
increase friction. Instead, the shown that the ridges amplify hypersensitivity.

96
 OBOE
OBSERVATIONS
Future PLC Quay House, The Ambury, Bath, BA1 1UA

Editorial
Editor Ben Biggs
Dear HIW, Senior Art Editor Duncan Crook
I don’t understand how oboes Production Editor Nikole Robinson
Senior Staff Writer ³ƬȒɎɎ(ɖɎˡƺǼƳ
work. Most wind instruments have Staff Writer Ailsa Harvey
Heterochromia can affect the a hole, but an oboe is a reed. Editor-in-Chief Tim Williamson
whole iris or part of an iris
Where does the air go and how Contributors
does it make a noise? Dr. Andrew May, Jack Parsons, Nikole Robinson, Brandon

UNIQUE EYES
Specktor, Sascha Pare, Emily Cooke, Richard Pallardy, Jennifer
Noah Jones Nalewicki, Ben Turner, Stefanie Waldek, Samantha Mathewson,
Prudence Wade

Cover images
Dear HIW, An oboe reed might look flat Alamy, Getty, Nike, Shutterstock, Toyota
Why do some people have two different and solid, but it’s actually made
Photography
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97
 FAST FACTS
Amazing trivia that will blow your mind

SOME TOWNS IN CHINA’S XINJIANG

6 septillion
PROVINCE USE FLOCKS
OF POLICE GEESE
INSTEAD OF DOGS
Vehicle cruise kilograms
control was invented
Planet Earth weighs a lot

in 1948 by Ralph
Teetor – a blind man

FOUR
YEARS 19 MILES
PER HOUR
It took the internet a short time to
reach an audience of 50 million

Hippos weigh up to 4.5 tonnes, but can still run

NINE IN TEN
much faster than the average human

The majority of Americans own a smartphone

The first Morse code message

was sent 180 years ago
Less than 1 in 20
visible features on
the Moon aren’t DIAMONDS
WILL BURN IN
craters

PURE OXYGEN
AT AROUND 690
DEGREES CELSIUS
© Shutterstock

Nearly half a billion smart homes will exist worldwide by 2025

98
9000