A Times of India publication

Volume 4 Issue 3
April 2014 `125

SCIENCE HISTORY NATURE FOR THE CURIOUS MIND

PREPARING FOR

Your guide to survive on the Red Planet p26

R.N.I.MAHENG/2010/35422

contents
Cover story
26 Preparing For Mars

We look at what you need to pack in your bag

for a journey to Mars

features
32 Portfolio: Nocturnal Animals

corbis x2, OEWF/KATJA Zanella-kux, hdwallpapers.in, science photo library, wiki, 123rf.com x2, sameer pawar

The animals all come out to play at night; Eric Mdard

captures the nocturnal wildlife in an array of photographs

40 10 Things You Didn't Know About Sleep

Ever wonder what your body does while you are sleeping

42 The Shadow Universe

Making sense of the Universe and what lies within it

50 NASAs Craziest Ideas

NASA is synonymous with space technology.

Take a look at 10 projects that border on the bizzare

58 Origins Of Islam

Historian Meenakshi Jain talks about the genesis

and the formation of Islam as a religion

62 How Smart Are Dolphins?

Find out whether the large brain size of the dolphins

equates to them having higher intelligence

68 India's Border Wars

The cloak and dagger circumstances that led

India to defend its borders post independence

70 How Do We Know:
The Structure Of The Periodic Table

The periodic table is a familiar classroom affair.

Find out what led to the discovery of the elements

76 Ye Olde Travel Guide: Madrid, 1621

Pretend you are taking a trip through Madrid in

the year 1621

78 Killed By Their Own Inventions

The stories behind the ironic demise of scientists

killed by their own inventions

April 2014

regulars
6 Q&A

Our panel of experts answer the

questions youve always wanted to ask

14 Snapshot

Outstanding photographs to inform

and engage

20 Update

The latest intelligence - A nano drug delivery

breakthrough and how scientists can now detect
water vapour on exo-planets

82 Inside The Pages

An excerpt from The Great Speeches of Modern India,

edited by Rudrangshu Mukherjee, which recounts
former PM Indira Gandhi's speech declaring a state of
emergency on 12 June 1975

84 Resorce

Our picks offer the best of science, history and nature

on the web

42

68
62
50

86 Edu Talk

Interview with Kiran Bir Sethi,

Director of Riverside School,
Ahmedabad

90

87 Games Review

We review the latest video games

released in the market

88 Gadgets

Lowdown on gadgets riding the new

green technological wave

90 Puzzle Pit

A veritable buffet of brain teasers

guaranteed to test your mind

94 In Focus

Elon Musk, billionaire visionary,

engineer, and entrepreneur who is
transforming the way we travel

58

82

78

from the editor

The great Jocelyn Bell-Burnell was
in the country recently and BBC
Knowledge got the rare opportunity
to speak with her. For those
unacquainted with Burnell, she
was the one who discovered radio
pulsars in the late 60s. Hers is a
very intriguing story. There was an
outrage in the scientific circles as
Burnell was left out when the
Nobel Prize in Physics in 1974 was
given to her thesis supervisor Antony Hewish and Martin
Ryle for the discovery. Of the episode, she said, I believe
it would demean the Nobel Prizes if they were awarded to
research students, except in very exceptional cases, and
I do not believe this is one of them. Read Burnells
interview on page 24.
The discovery of radio pulsars has affected fascinating areas
of research in astronomy, such as black holes and dark matter.
Another feature inside, The Shadow Universe, (pg 42) is
about the enigma of dark matter a phenomenon suggested
to explain some wonky behaviour of the Universe, such as
the whizzing stars (faster than usual) circling on the outskirts
of spiral galaxies like ours. What is keeping them in check
from flinging themselves into far off space?
But questionable behaviour is not only some stars
prerogative. NASA has laid claim to some of that too.
Audacious and insane, these ideas are set to change how we
will explore space (pg 50). Exploring Mars on the other
hand is on the cards sometime very soon. A TV show plans
to send manned-missions from 2024 every two years. And
over 200,000 people globally have applied to travel one way.
Read the cover story on page 26.

Mrigank sharma (India Sutra)

This issue is not only about space and astronomy. Find out
about scientists who died while testing their own inventions.
And the real story about dolphins intelligence. And the
Origins of Islam, along with the 10 Things You Didnt
Know About Sleep. Starting with this edition, we
introduce Ye Olde Travel Guide a witty informative
walk around a city of the world from a time that is not the
present. We start with Madrid of the 1620s. On page 76.

Enjoy.

experts this issue

Jocelyn Bell-Burnell discovered radio
pulsars. She is an astrophysicist who
has worked in areas of the
electromagnetic spectrum, and
observing new sources from radio frequencies to
high energy gamma rays. See page 24
Sean Blair is a freelance writer, a
space expert, science journalist and
currently is the web editor for the
European Space Agency website. In
this issue, he talks about how to make the journey
to Mars and how to live the Martian way of life.
See page 26
Meenakshi Jain is a former Fellow of
the Nehru Memorial Museum and
Library. She is currently the associate
professor of History at Delhi
University. In this issue, she takes us through the
conception and formation of Islam as a religion.
See page 58
Justin Gregg is a science writer and
the author of the book Are Dolphins
Really Smart? A background interest
in linguistics and the evolution of
language, his research focuses on the dolphin's
social cognition. In this issue, he talks about what
is intelligence and how animals use their grey
matter. See page 62

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&

Your Questions Answered

What is the maximum number of names a person can remember? p8
Why do cold drinks give me 'brain freeze' and how do I avoid it? p9 How
did the goldilocks zone move from Mars? p11 What makes Google so
much more successful than other search engines? p12

Expert PANEL
Stuart Blackman

A zoologist-turned-science
writer, Stuart is a contributor
to BBC Wildlife Magazine.

Susan Blackmore (SB)

Molecules of lactic acid will be

the bane of everyone trying to
shed the festive season pounds
in the New Year

A visiting professor at the

University of Plymouth, UK,
Susan is an expert on
psychology and evolution.

Alastair Gunn

Alastair is a radio astronomer

at Jodrell Bank Centre for
Astrophysics at the University
of Manchester, UK.

Robert Matthews

Robert is a writer and researcher.

He is a Visiting Reader in Science
at Aston University, UK.

Gareth Mitchell

As well as lecturing at Imperial

College London, Gareth is a
presenter of Click on the BBC
World Service.

Luis Villazon

Luis has a BSc in computing and

an MSc in zoology from Oxford.
His works include How Cows
Reach The Ground.

Ask the Experts?

Email our panel at
bbcknowledge@wwm.co.in
Were sorry, but we cannot reply
to questions individually.

STATS
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April 2014

Why does lactic

acid build up in
our muscles?
During aerobic exercise our muscles burn
glucose with oxygen to produce carbon
dioxide, water and energy. But when we are
exercising hard, the lungs cant keep up with
the muscles demand for oxygen. Rather
than just giving up, our muscles switch to an
anaerobic chemical reaction that doesnt
need oxygen.
This is less efficient because it doesnt
produce as much energy per molecule of
glucose burned, but its better than nothing.
Unfortunately, instead of water and carbon
dioxide, anaerobic respiration produces
lactic acid as one of its waste products. If
you exercise hard, this will be produced
faster than your bloodstream can transport
it away to your liver where it is processed
and broken down.
As the level of acid builds up in your
muscles, you feel a burning sensation that
acts as a warning that your muscles are
almost out of energy. Like other sorts of
pain, the purpose is to signal that your
body needs to rest. So, next time you go for
a run bear your overworked body a thought
and maybe catch your breath. LV

Why cant we trace the

sender of an email?
Each email has an invisible header containing information
like time stamps and routing information. It does not contain
personal details like the senders street name or phone
number. However, the header does contain the originating
IP address. That can narrow the origin down to a city or
district, but seldom anything more specific and certainly
not to an individual.
Online webmail services like Gmail are even more
anonymous. A Gmail message, for instance, can only be
traced back to a Google IP address. GM

What is the function of

the human appendix?
The appendix was classically
regarded as unnecessary
even its name implies that it
is a leftover bit. Its a thin
tube, about the size of half a
pencil, that sticks out of the
cecum, which is a pouch at
the start of the large
intestine. Charles Darwin
thought that our ancestors
ate a lot more plant roughage
than us and needed a larger
cecum to digest it, so the
appendix was originally a
useful compartment of the
intestine that had dwindled
through millions of years
of disuse. Koalas, which
eat very indigestible leaves
have a two-metre-long
cecum that is essentially a
giant appendix.
Certainly its true that you
can amputate the appendix
without any obvious longterm consequences for the
patient. But that same
argument applies to a toe.

Being able to get along

without something doesnt
mean its entirely useless.
Recent research that
compared the intestines
of 361 mammals found
that 50 different, quite
unrelated, species have an
appendix. This means that
the appendix must have
evolved independently at
least 32 times, which
suggests it must be doing
something useful.
Its now thought that the
appendix acts as an
emergency bunker for your
gut bacteria to shelter in. Its
narrow opening and out-ofthe-way position mean that
bacterial infections dont
normally get inside it. So
after diarrhoea has flushed
the last of any bad bacteria
out of your intestines, the
good guys can emerge from
the appendix and re-colonise
your colon. LV

Does your bodys level of

hydration affect your
bloods viscosity?

Keep your blood running

smoothly by staying hydrated
Blood viscosity, or how thick your blood is, is partly
determined by the number and size of your red blood cells.
These make up 41-53 per cent of the blood volume in men
and 36-46 per cent in women. This value is higher if you are
obese, which can increase blood viscosity by as much as 15
per cent and can cause a heart attack. But being dehydrated
can also have an impact. One study found that just sitting in
a warm room for four hours without drinking was enough to
increase blood viscosity by 10 per cent. LV

science photo library, getty, thinkstock X2

The appendix (pictured on the

left in this X-ray image) could
be a safe-haven for friendly
bacteria in emergency situations

Q&A
What is the
maximum number
of names a person
can remember?
Theres no known limit! If you ask a
mnemonist or memory savant to learn a
list of names they may remember
thousands, tens of thousands or even
hundreds of thousands with no trouble,
just as they can learn lists of thousands
of digits. Some people, who have a
neurological condition called
hyperthymesia, remember everything
that happens to them every day,
including the name of every person they
have ever met.
The rest of us evolved to cope with
no more than about 150 social
relationships. This is known as Dunbars
number after the anthropologist Robin
Dunbar. He discovered that groups of
hunter-gatherers, units in armies,
divisions in businesses and many other
groups tend towards a limit of 150. And
it seems that social media do not
change our basic nature. Even people
who have thousands of friends on
Facebook rarely maintain more than 150
meaningful relationships. SB

thinkstock x3, getty, alamy, thinkstock

Some people dont need name tags

and can put a name to thousands

KNOW SPOT
The air around a lightning
strike is the hottest place on
Earth. For a split second temperatures hit
30,000C; hotter than the surface of the Sun.

April 2014

Why do
goats have
such good
balance?

Goats are adapted to living and

feeding on steep, rugged slopes.
Their slim bodies help them creep
along next to near-vertical walls and
their cloven hooves have two toes
which can spread out wide, improving
their balance and allowing them to
grip onto rocks or even the branches
of trees. The soles of their feet are

The ultimate
rock climber:
the humble goat

soft and the rough pads under each

toe provide extra grip. They also have
two vestigial toes higher up their
legs, called dewclaws. These are
found on other species, including
cats and dogs, but goats dewclaws
are much stronger and stubbier and
help them clamber up branches, or
scramble down sheer cliff faces. SB

Can dogs laugh?

They make a sort of
breathy, panting sound
when they are playing.
If you record this and play
it back to other dogs, it
appears to reduce their
stress behaviours, such as
barking and pacing,
and increase their social
behaviours, such as lip
licking. Is that the same
thing as laughter? Or is it
just the dog equivalent of a
broad smile? Its hard to
say. Humans mostly laugh
at verbal jokes and seeing
other people fall over,
neither of which have
much effect on dogs. SB

Dogs dont laugh? Tell

that to Scooby-Doo

Q&A
Why do cold
drinks give me
brain freeze and
how do I avoid it?
Anything cold against the roof of your
mouth cools the brain, which is right
above it. To maintain temperature, the
anterior cerebral artery dilates to
bring more warm blood to the brain. If
the cooling is very sudden, the artery
dilates too quickly and the pressure in
the brain jumps up, which gives you a
headache. Drinking more slowly, with
pauses to warm your mouth back up,
is normally all you need to do to avoid
it, but brain freeze is worse in people
who are prone to migraines. LV

What gives substances their scent?

Substances generate a smell when their molecules land on so-called
olfactory neurones in our noses (which, for some things, is a pretty
unpleasant thought). But the exact nature of the interaction is somewhat
controversial. Until recently, it was believed it took the form of molecules
physically docking with protein receptor molecules in the walls of the
olfactory neurones, like keys fitting into locks. This in turn implied that
molecular shape is what determines a specific smell. But this fails to
explain why some molecules with similar shapes can smell completely
different, while others with quite different shapes can have a similar scent.
These conundrums have led Dr Luca Turin of the Alexander Fleming
Research Centre, Athens, to suggest that molecular vibrations are critical.
Hes recently published intriguing evidence that molecular shape is not
everything by showing that two molecules with identical shape but
different vibrational properties can have a different smell. RM

Next time you smell

something interesting,
think about the substances
molecules jiggling around
inside your nose
Walt Disney was delighted
to be offered the chance to
appear in Focus Magazine

Plants use carbon dioxide (CO2) during

photosynthesis to make glucose. It takes
six molecules of CO2 to make every
molecule of glucose, and this basic building
block is then used for energy and to make
the structure of the plant itself. This
biochemical reaction is the same for all
plants, but the faster a plant grows, the
more carbon dioxide it will use up per
second. By that measure, bamboo might be
the best at sucking up CO2. However,

fast-growing plants tend not to live long

and when a plant dies, all the carbon in the
plant is broken down by insects, fungi and
microbes and released as CO2 again.
So the plants that are considered the
most adept at locking away carbon dioxide
from the atmosphere are the longest-living
ones, with the most mass hardwood trees.
Its all temporary though. Eventually every
plant returns all the carbon dioxide it uses
back to the atmosphere. LV

Hardwood trees will happily

feast on your exhaust fumes,
but you probably dont
need to go to these lengths

getty, alamy, thinkstock

Are some plants better than others

at sucking up carbon dioxide?

Q&A
How long can a structure
last in a desert before being
swamped by sand?
Buildings dont actually sink into the sand, they are covered
as its blown sideways by the wind. Without any plants to
hold the sand in place, it is blown into horseshoe-shaped
dunes, called barchans. Each grain gets blown from the
bottom of the dune up to the crest and then tumbles down
the steeper slope on the leeward side. This means that the
barchan as a whole gradually creeps downwind at about
15m per year. In Tunisia, the set of Anakin Skywalkers home,
used for Star Wars Episode I, is currently being engulfed. In
another five or six years it will be completely covered. LV

alamy, thinkstock, nasa x10, science photo library

The home of Anakin

Skywalker is slowly being
consumed by the desert

Whats better: one

big bet, or lots of
small ones?
For many people, the best advice is probably not
to have a bet at all, as gambling is notorious for
messing with peoples minds. But if you insist on
doing so, its vital to use probability theory. This
shows that how you bet depends on the odds,
and in a casino theyre stacked against you.
The best advice is surprising: the biggest
hope of, say, doubling your money lies in putting
all your money on a single spin of the roulette
wheel. The reason is partly because the payout
on a simple red or black bet in roulette is twice
your stake. The odds of achieving this outcome
are, however, slightly less than 50 per cent, the
difference being the casinos profit margin. And
thats why you should make just one big bet. If
you split up your funds into lots of small bets,
youre effectively giving the casino more
opportunities to nibble away at your funds. That
said, its a brave person who can follow this
mathematical advice. But one person who did is
British gambler Ashley Revell, who in 2004 put all
his personal wealth then around 100,000 on
a single roulette spin. He won. RM

top ten biggest moons in our solar system

10. Oberon

10

9. Rhea

8. Titania

7. Triton

6. Europa

5. Moon

Radius: 761km
Location: Uranus

Radius: 764km
Location: Saturn

Radius: 788km
Location: Uranus

Radius: 1,353km
Location: Neptune

Radius: 1,561km
Location: Jupiter

Radius: 1,737km
Location: Earth

April 2014

Where can you find the fastest

broadband speed in the world?

Hong Kong: a city in

the internet fast lane

And the winner is Hong Kong! Internet

users there enjoy top speeds of 63
megabits per second, according to the
most recent figures from the internet firm
Akamai. Hong Kongs blistering
broadband speeds compare to a
worldwide average of 18.4Mbps. The UK
is number 12 on the list with average
speeds of 36Mbps. GM

How did the goldilocks zone move from Mars?

A couple of billion years ago

you could have rolled out a
towel on a Martian beach
The goldilocks zone is a region around a star (such as the
Sun) where planets are able to retain surface liquid water
and therefore be suitable sites for life to develop. The
young Mars probably had a dense atmosphere necessary
for liquid water to exist on its surface. But once it became
volcanically inactive early in its history the atmosphere was
no longer replenished and, thanks to Marss small

gravitational field, seeped away into space. Furthermore,

the Red Planet has lost its magnetic field and so has no
protection from harmful radiation. So, while the position of
the goldilocks zone can change due to changes in the
Suns energy output, this isnt why Mars is no longer
habitable. Changes in Mars itself have turned a once warm,
moist world into a cold, dry one. AG

4. Io

3. Callisto

2. Titan

1. Ganymede

Radius: 1,821km
Location: Jupiter

Radius: 2,410km
Location: Jupiter

Radius: 2,576km
Location: Saturn

Radius: 2,631km
Location: Jupiter

Q&A
Whats the secret to
Googles success?
Just google it!

What makes Google so much more

successful than other search engines?

Astronaut Mark C
Lee tests NASAs
SAFER back pack
high above Earth

nasa, science photo library X2, google, nasa, thinkstock x2

Could an astronaut
be rescued if he/she
became untethered
on a space walk?

12

NASA has developed a sort of

jetpack called SAFER (Simplified
Aid For EVA Rescue), which fires
compressed nitrogen from 24
thrusters to steer the astronaut
back to safety if they become
detached. Theoretically, astronauts
could also vent some gas from
their suits or even throw a tool in
the opposite direction to push
themselves forward. But the
problem is that unless the thrust is
exactly in line with the astronauts
centre of mass, they will start
spinning uncontrollably and very
quickly become disorientated.
SAFER automatically detects
rotation and uses its jets to keep
the astronaut oriented the same
way. LV

April 2014

Before Google, search results were less

to do with relevance than who was
paying for prominent listings. Early
tools also matched search terms to
sites based on a textual analysis of
their pages. Websites often
manipulated that by littering pages with
irrelevant words inserted for the benefit
of the search bots. The breakthrough
for Google was Larry Pages
eponymous PageRank algorithm. It
listed pages according to the number
of sites linking to them. It also weighted

the results so that a few big pages

linking to a site had more prominence
than many small ones. Googles
commercial advance was fuelled by
AdWords, where advertisers pay for
their websites to appear above the
search results for the relevant
keywords. The profits from advertising
drove a huge research and
development operation at Google,
feeding back into an ever further
refined engine, ever more targeted ads
and more and more services. GM

Does a brainwave equate to a

mental state?
No. The term brainwave comes
from the patterns detected by an
apparatus called the
electroencephalogram (EEG) that
measures electrical signals from
electrodes on the scalp. The overall
frequency gives an indication of a
persons mental state. For example,
alpha waves (8-13 per second) are
associated with a relaxed state. But
these surface waves are created
from millions of small electrical
signals in the underlying brain,
so they are a very crude measure
that could not equate to a precise
mental state.

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If you mean to ask whether any kind of

brain process equates to a mental state
then you are in the realms of seriously
difficult philosophical questions. Identity
theorists say yes mental states really
are brain states. Functionalists argue
that the function being carried out
equates to mental states. For instance,
if a human brain and a computer were
both trying to solve the same chess
problem they would be in the same
mental state. SB

The relaxed signature of alpha waves, which are

enhanced when we close our eyes to chill out

nature | Snapshot

Daniel Kariko/bnps

snapshot

Snug as a bug
Unwanted roommates
This odd-looking character is a weevil, which was
found on a doormat in Greensville, North Carolina.
It was taken by Daniel Kariko as part of a collection
of portraits of our often-overlooked housemates.
It shows the weevils head, antennae and long
snout. The full insect is 7mm long.
The image was created by combining details
taken using a scanning electron microscope
with the colours seen under a regular optical
microscope. It takes 5-10 hours of postproduction to apply the colour, says Kariko.
Vine weevils, a common garden pest, are all
asexually reproducing females, says Tom Pope,
an entomologist at Harper Adams University,
Shropshire. When alarmed, an adult vine weevil
will often feign death, he says, adding that
researchers are looking for ways to exploit this to
control them.

April 2014

15

Science | Snapshot

Jet flight
water way to travel

corbis

Seen in action is Belgiums Ludovic Lucas,

demonstrating the latest extreme sport: flyboarding.
Invented by Francky Zapata, the Flyboard was
developed in the spring of 2011 and is inspired by jetskiing and acrobatic diving.
The device consists of a board attached to a pair
of shoes on one side and a jet-ski turbine on the
other. This provides 90 per cent of the propulsion,
with the last 10 per cent coming from two water
jets on the users forearms that are attached to
the turbine by pipes. This allows additional stability
and manoeuvrability, although according to Lucas,
improvements to the technology are planned to
make it lighter, less bulky and more manoeuvrable.
It requires a lot of power to lift a man, says
Lucas. Indeed, to keep the rider seemingly flying over
the surface, the machine delivers 300 horsepower to
move up to half a tonne of water a second.

16

April 2014

Science | Snapshot

Fluoro flyer
upwards and onwards

nasa

In a darkened wind tunnel a model of a prototype

aircraft glows as it is buffeted by gusts. Fluorescent
oil shows up turbulent air as psychedelic
swirls, which enables engineers to study the
crafts aerodynamics.
The flyer is a 5.8 per cent scale model of the
X-48C aircraft created by NASA and Boeing to
investigate Blended Wing Body (BWB) technology.
BWB planes have wings smoothly merged with
the body of the aircraft, resulting in greater fuel
efficiency. The whole body of the plane generates
uplift rather than just the wing. They are harder to
control than conventional planes, hence the need
for extensive testing. BWB planes are also quieter
because the engines are mounted on the top.
The remotely piloted research vehicle was
flown 122 times between July 2007 and April
2013 to explore its basic handling qualities. The
project was extremely successful but it is really
just the beginning for the hybrid blended wing
body concept, explained Peter W Merlin of NASAs
Dryden Flight Research Center.

18

April 2014

update

the latest intelligence

A quantum leap
Superfast computing takes a step forward
with a record-breaking experiment

Two particles exhibit quantum

spin; a quantum computer takes
advantage of this property

xxx

eve all been there. Youre happily

working away on your computer
when, without warning, the
processor grinds to a halt, leaving you to
look on in frustration as the spinning wheel

20

April 2014

of death...
Well, todays lacklustre laptops have
taken a small step closer to obsolescence.
Researchers at Canadas Simon Fraser
University have managed to store quantum

information at room temperature for 39

minutes, smashing the previous record of 2
seconds. Its a step towards the holy grail of
quantum computing, explains Simon Fraser
Universitys Prof Mike Thewalt.
It would have a huge impact on
security, code breaking and the transmission
and storage of secure information. It would
solve problems that are impossible on any
conceivable normal computer and could
lead to the development of new drugs by
a deeper understanding of interactions
between molecules, says Prof Thewalt.
The quantum computer exploits a
property of subatomic particles known as
spin. The idea is that an atomic nucleus
acts like a tiny bar magnet when placed
in a magnetic field. The spin can be
manipulated to point up or down. If the
spin is up, it represents zero; if down, a one.
This is the equivalent of the familiar bit.
But a quantum computer deals in qubits
these can be in a superposition state to
represent ones and zeros at the same time.
Its why a quantum computer would be so
fast it would perform multiple calculations
simultaneously.
Until now, quantum systems have
been unable to reliably store data unless
theyve been first cooled down to incredibly
low temperatures. So storing quantum
information at room temperature for as
long as 39 minutes is a major breakthrough,
says the University of Oxfords Stephanie
Simmons, who collaborated on the project.
Thirty-nine minutes may not seem very
long, but in theory, this means that over
20 million operations could be performed
in the time it takes for the superposition
to decay by one per cent, she explains.
However, theres still a way to go before
youll be turning on a quantum computer
at home. The spins of the 10 billion
phosphorus ions used in this experiment
were all in the same quantum state. To run
calculations, the qubits would need to be
in different states.
Having such robust, as well as longlived, qubits could prove very helpful
for anyone trying to build a quantum
computer. To have them talking to one
another controllably would address the last
big remaining challenge, says Simmons.

Medicine

Nano drug breakthrough

has hit upon a novel solution
that may see the cutting edge
treatments reaching more
patients. The key challenge
is how to make a nanoparticle
get through this barrier of
cells. Whenever cells want to
form a barrier, they make these
attachments from cell to cell.
Its a bit like a brick wall where
the bricks are the cells and the
mortar is the attachments,
and nothing can penetrate
that wall, said team leader
Omid Farokhzad.

The hope is that we will

soon be able to swallow a
pill of nanoparticles to fight
disease more effectively

For inspiration, Farokhzad

looked at how babies absorb
antibodies from their mothers
milk. The antibodies act as a
key to unlock receptors found
on the surfaces of cells that line
the intestine. This allows them
to break through the intestinal
walls and enter the bloodstream.

By coating the nanoparticles

with antibodies, they were able
to reproduce this effect.
So far the technique has only
been used for the oral delivery of
insulin in mice, but researchers
say it could be used to carry
any kind of drug that can be
encapsulated in a nanoparticle.

Astronomy

Meteorology

Water found on alien worlds

Cars to drive rainfall research

We can detect water vapour on a

planet by studying the starlight that
has passed through its atmosphere

The Hubble Space Telescope

has detected water in the
atmospheres surrounding five
distant worlds. The planets
are all massive Jupiter-sized
bodies that orbit close to
their host stars. But thanks
to their blazing hot surface
temperatures they are unlikely
to host life as we know it.
Were very confident that
we see a water signature for
multiple planets, said NASAs
Avi Mandell. This work really
opens the door for comparing
how much water is present

in atmospheres on different
kinds of exoplanets, for example
hotter versus cooler ones.
The studies were part of a
census of exoplanet atmospheres
using Hubbles Wide Field
Camera 3. The researchers
can identify the gases that
are present on a planet by
determining which wavelengths
of the parent stars light are
transmitted and which are
partially absorbed.
The study also revealed a
layer of haze or dust around
the planets.

For some people cars are an

outward expression of their
personality, for others theyre
simply a means of getting from
A to B. But researchers at the
University of Hannover have
a different take: they want
motorists to measure rainfall.
Inspired by the observation
that drivers put their wipers
on faster in torrential rain and
slower in light showers, the
team has devised RainCars,

A RainCar undergoes tests in

the teams rain simulator

GPS-enabled vehicles that tour

German towns and cities to
record levels of precipitation.
Being mobile gives the
RainCars an advantage over
conventional rain gauges.
While accurate, they are often
too sparsely distributed to
capture the intricate regional
variations in weather patterns.
The team is also hoping to
collaborate with taxi drivers
in the near future.

science photo library x2, mpi for evolutionary anthropology, ikg.uni-hannover.de/daniel fitzner

Nanoparticle drug delivery

systems have proved to be a
huge success in the targeted
treatment of everything from
arthritis to cancer. However,
nanoparticles have had to be
injected into patients when
taken orally they are unable to
break through the barrier of
cells lining the intestine. Being
able to take them in pill form
would make it easier for patients
to manage their own treatment.
Now a team based at
Brigham & Womens Hospital

update

the latest intelligence

Food science

Life from Earth

getty, thinkstock x2, jamie yang/icecube collaboration, thinkstock

Biology

Patties without the podge

Its surely one of the biggest

mysteries of all time: how did
life originate on Earth? Now,
scientists may be a step closer
to finding out after the chance
discovery that clay may have
acted as a breeding ground for
the chemicals that form the
building blocks of life.
Researchers from New
Yorks Cornell University
stumbled upon the idea after
using clay hydrogels in the
production of proteins. The
team noticed that the clay
boosted protein production,
leading them to think it might
provide the answer to a longstanding question concerning
the evolution of biomolecules.
In simulated ancient
seawater, clay forms a hydrogel
a mass of microscopic spaces
capable of soaking up liquids
like a sponge, the papers
author Dan Luo explained.
Over billions of years,
chemicals confined in those

spaces could have carried out

the complex reactions that
formed proteins, DNA and
eventually all the machinery
that makes a living cell work.
Clay hydrogels could have
confined and protected those
chemical processes until the
membrane that surrounds living
cells developed.
Earlier experiments have
shown that amino acids and
other biomolecules could have
been formed in primordial
oceans, drawing energy from
lightning or volcanic vents.
But it was uncertain how these
molecules could go on to form
more complex structures, and
how they were able to survive
the harsh conditions. Clay is
a promising possibility because
biomolecules tend to attach
to its surface. The hydrogel
structure helps to protect
the delicate contents from
damaging enzymes that might
strip down and destroy DNA.

Where it all started? Clay cliffs like these on

an island off the coast of Massachusetts in
the US could be a cradle for life

22

April 2014

Its every meat lovers dream,

a nice juicy burger that
can be enjoyed without the
accompanying risk of an
expanding waistline. Well,
that dream may soon be
realised as researchers have
found a way to pack reducedfat mince with meaty flavour.
According to a study
published in the journal
Meat Science, plasma proteins
taken from beef can be used to
replace fat in mince without
adversely affecting the taste.
The proteins were obtained
from the meat through ultrafiltration and freeze-drying and
then combined with inulin,
a type of carbohydrate often
found in chicory. The resulting

Mmmmm mince. And now with

the added benefit of helping you keep
the pounds at bay

concoction was then added

to reduced-fat mince and fed to
a group of taste testers.
The process had no observable
effect on colour, flavour, taste
or texture and fared well when
pitted against full-fat mince
despite containing 20 to 35 per
cent less fat, the paper says.

Zoology

Nasal navigation
Ever wondered how pigeons
can find their way home having
been released hundreds of
kilometres away? It turns out
they may be simply following
their noses. Hans Wallraff of
the Max Planck Institute for
Ornithology in Seewiesen,
Germany, has developed a
theory that pigeons are able to
smell their way by accurately
perceiving the ratios of various
scents given off by organic
compounds. The pigeon is
then able to find its way by
associating certain smells with
wind directions.
If the percentage of a
compound increases with
southerly winds, a pigeon
learns this wind-correlated
increase. If released at a site
some 100km south of home,

the bird smells that the ratio of

the compound is above what it
is on average at its loft and flies
north, Wallraff explains.
In order to test his theory
Wallraff made a computer
model based on atmospheric
data. In this simulation,
virtual pigeons were able to
navigate successfully armed
only with knowledge of
winds and odours.
The humble pigeon follows its
nose to find its way home

round up

Keeping abreast of the top science, history and nature research from around the world

Particle physics

The IceCube Neutrino

Observatory uses
thousands of sensors
beneath the Antarctic ice
to catch fleeting neutrinos

Neutrinos on ice

If neutrinos were people their

neighbours would describe them as
keeping themselves to themselves.
Billions of the near-massless subatomic
particles pass through the Earth every
second, but as they rarely interact with
anything they are incredibly difficult
to detect.
The overwhelming majority we have
spotted originate from either the nuclear

reactions in the Sun or from cosmic rays

hitting the Earths atmosphere. However,
after three years of searching the skies,
the Antarctic-based IceCube Neutrino
Observatory has detected a group of
neutrinos likely to originate from much
further afield. This is the first indication
of very high-energy neutrinos coming
from outside our Solar System, says
Francis Halzen, principal investigator of

IceCube. It is gratifying to finally see

what we have been looking for. This is
the dawn of a new age of astronomy.
The neutrinos may carry information
all the way from supernovae, black
holes and pulsars. Occurring in the
farthest reaches of the Milky Way and
beyond, astronomers would be able
to examine these events by studying
the neutrinos.

News in brief
Keep fit for smarter babies

Fire and ice

Maven headed for Mars

Calling all pregnant ladies. If you want your

child to win a Nobel Prize then youd better
put on your trainers. Just 20 minutes of
moderate exercise taken three times a week
during pregnancy can speed up the newborn
childs brain development, say researchers
at the University of Montreal. The team
found the brains of newborns aged eight
to 12 days displayed greater activity when
they were exposed to new sounds if their
mothers took regular exercise.

The effects of global warming are well

documented, but things could really heat
up in Antarctica if a newly found volcano
erupts. Researchers spotted the volcano
buried beneath 1km (half a mile) of ice while
investigating earthquakes in West Antarctica.
While an eruption would be unlikely to
breach the surface, the heat could create a
significant amount of meltwater, scientists
from Washington University in St Louis claim.

NASAS Maven spacecraft has embarked

upon its 10-month journey to the Red Planet
following a successful launch from Floridas
Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Assuming
that all goes to plan, the $671 million (410
million) probe will gather data about the
Martian climate in an attempt to understand
how the planet was deprived of most of
its atmosphere, turning it from warm and
wet into the cold, dry and hostile world we
see today.

Mount Sidley is part of a

range in West Antarctica
where the new volcano
was found

comment & analysis

Amanda Peters talks to (Susan) Jocelyn Bell Burnell, the astrophysicist who discovered
pulsars and created a whole new subfield of astronomy

The radiation from a pulsar star

can only be observed when
the beam is pointing towards
the Earth, much like in the
functioning of a lighthouse

123rf.com, cupc2012.phasubc.ca

ow was school life while growing up?

I started life in Northern Ireland and was
schooled there till the age of 13. I then
went to boarding school in England, where I
was first introduced to science. While I found
biology boring, I was good at physics and
chemistry. From then on it looked like I would
become a physicist.
At that time in Northern Ireland, the general
assumption was that when girls moved into
high school they would opt for domestic
science like needlework and cookery, while
the boys went into the field of science. But I
was keen to get into the field. So my parents
and those of two other girls made a big fuss
and managed to break the general norm. We
ended up being the only three girls in class and
I topped the science exam in the first term.

24

April 2014

When you were growing up, was it rare

to find women in science, especially in
astronomy? What drew you to the field?
There were more women in astronomy than
in other areas, than in physics actually. I
knew when I started science that I was good
at physics. My father was very widely read
and brought home a lot of books from public
libraries. One day he brought home some
astronomy books and I read them cover to
cover. Looking back they were quite a tough
read. I was completely hooked and realised that
the physics I was learning at school level could
be applied to these big galaxies and stars. So
thats how I wanted to be an astronomer. My
classmates remembered it because not a lot of
people at the age of 15 knew what they wanted
to be but I knew.

What were the key developments

that contributed to your research in
finding pulsars?
At the time, the work that we were meant to
be doing involved looking at things, which
fluctuated rapidly in brightness. And nobody
had done that systematically before, so that
was pretty important. The other factor that led
to the discovery was the Impostor Syndrome.
The Impostor Syndrome is something
known in Europe and the US, which affects
people who have less confidence. For example,
these people find themselves in college
surrounded by lots of brilliant people. And then
they think, Oooh! Im not as clever as these
people and the college has admitted me by
mistake. This is the impostor effect. They
believe that they are going to be made out and
some go as far as quitting.
Before going to Cambridge for my PhD, I
had been on the fringes of Britain. I suddenly
found myself in this Mecca of learning
amongst the best and brightest. And I
thought to myself, "Aahh I shouldnt be here,
Im not that bright." But instead of leaving
before they threw me out, I decided I
would work as hard as I could, be as
careful as I could, so that when they threw
me out I would not have a guilty conscience. I
was being very thorough, checking everything
from this new radio telescope, this new
wave of operation and thats what led to
the pulsars discovery.
What fascinates you most about a pulsar?
Pulsars have helped test Einsteins Theory of
Relativity, forced us to learn about materials
that are extremely compact and have a high
density. They are quite hard to understand
because of their huge magnetic fields, electric
fields, and huge gravitational fields. They are
extreme in every sense of the word, so there
are a lot of fascinating things there that I yet
dont understand.
How high was the probability of finding
Little Green Men as opposed to detecting

the discovery of pulsars made the

existence of black holes more likely
stars that emitted electromagnetic radiation?
It was a bit of a joke. It would have been a very
unintelligent group of Little Green Men because
why would they signal planet Earth? Why would
they signal at 81.5 mega hertz? Thats not
sensible and why would they use amplitude
changers, changing the height of the pulsars.
Why would multiple different groups of Little
Green Men use the same signal at the same
time to contact Earth?
How has the discovery of pulsars changed
the understanding of the Universe?
One big change at the time of the discovery of
pulsars was that it made the existence of black
holes more likely. Until then people werent that
sure about black holes.
Does the Universe still surprise you?
There has been a huge change in the Universe
since I started studying astronomy. When I
started, we more or less thought we understood
the Universe and subsequently we found out
that there is something we call dark matter, and
recently we found something we know as dark
energy. The net result is that all that we thought
we understood about the Universe actually
makes up only five per cent. So we went from
thinking we understand 95 per cent to knowing
it was only five per cent, which may not be
progress, but it is a step further.
What do you think has been the most
significant development in another area due
to your discovery?
Well... NASA is launching a satellite fairly soon,
which is going to see if we can use pulsars as
navigating beacons. But pulsars are lighthouses,
so my thesis advisor Antony Hewish, patented
the idea that they could be used as navigation
beacons when we start travelling through the

galaxy in spaceships. They are beginning to be

important in understanding how materials react
under very high density. One study suggests
that the stars have so much density that they
have quarks in it.
Has there been a recent discovery in the
field of pulsars as significant as yours?
Probably not in that sort of a field but in
astronomy there are all sorts of things going on.
One of the things that excite me are fast radio
bursts, one was discovered several years ago
and now suddenly in the last 12 months they
have started finding more. We now know of
about 25 of them. Do you know of the principle
of dispersion? Its a single sharp radio blast
with different frequencies. Radio waves travel
at different speeds and different frequencies.
The high frequencies come first followed by the
lower ones. These new pulsars have turned out
to have much greater dispersions, which means
they encompass a lot of electrons far more than
what is in our galaxy. They come from beyond
the galaxy, so they are probably at a red shift
of one, which is when the Universe was half
its present size. They last about a millisecond.
There has not been a repeat burst from any of
them and there is nothing when you look at the
same spot after the burst. So what they are is a
very interesting issue at the moment. Now we
know they exist and know what to look for. We
are now going to find them faster and faster
even though they are all over the sky and not
confined to the galactic plane.
What are you currently working on?
Im 70 now and retired from the field. I am
no longer doing active research, but I do
travel to give talks. Doing interesting high
level committee work, judging prizes
make for a very interesting life.

Dame (Susan) Jocelyn Bell Burnell, as a post

graduate student in Cambridge University, UK, first
discovered the existence of radio pulsars in 1967.
Her discovery led to the branch of radio astronomy,
significant in understanding the celestial bodies
in the Universe using radio frequencies. She is
currently a Visiting Professor of Astrophysics, Oxford
University, and Professorial Fellow of Mansfield
College, Oxford. Burnell is currently on a visit to
several scientific institutions in India including Tata
Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Mumbai.

PREPARING FOR

corbis

In some of the most remote corners of the world,

researchers are flocking to try out the Martian
way of life. Sean Blair reveals why the quest to
conquer the Red Planet starts on Earth

26 / FOCUS / FEBRUA RY 2014

Planetary exploration | Science

Rock samples are

collected in Utah before
being taken back to the
Mars Desert Research
Station in Utah; how long
before a similar scene is
played out on Mars itself?

pwards of 200,000 people from

140-odd countries have applied
for one-way tickets to the Red
Planet from Hollands Mars One
television project. Producers are now
starting a two-year selection process,
seeking participants suitable for both
colonising Mars and becoming reality
TV stars. In December 2013, Mars One
announced it would send an unmanned
rover and communications satellite to
the Red Planet, to arrive in 2018. It
hopes to follow this with manned

missions from 2024, with four-strong

crews setting off every two years.
But do Mars Ones applicants
have any idea what theyre letting
themselves in for? Theyd be
spending their lives on a cold,
radiation-blasted and dust-shrouded
world, 225 million kilometres from
home on average. Any unprotected
exposure to the outdoors would make
their blood boil, while the merest
contact with bleach-like surface dust
might risk chemical burns.

April 2014

27

FEBRUA RY 2014 FOCUS / 27

Science | Planetary exploration

I was attracted by the advert,

offering: Hard work, no pay,
eternal glory!

OEWF/KATJA Zanella-kux x2

Vladimir Pletser of the European Space Agency

Thankfully, by the time they launch,

they may know what to expect. This year
is shaping up to be the busiest yet for dress
rehearsals on Earth. For the whole year,
a succession of crews are living in a habitat
in the Utah desert a desolate environment
resembling Mars. And from August 2014,
a crew of six will simulate a Mars mission
for 12 months in the Arctic chill of
northern Canada.
Its the scientific pull of the Red Planet
thats attracting researchers to the bleakest
corners of our world. They live as if they are
on Mars: toiling within confined modules,
their power, food and water rationed. Just
to step outside means donning a realistic
spacesuit and passing through a simulated
airlock.Even radioing the outside world
involves a 20-minute time delay.
The analogue suit makes you feel
isolated, recalls Ashley Dale, an aerospace
PhD student at the University of Bristol,
who in 2011 spent two weeks at the Mars
Desert Research Station (MDRS) in western
Utah. The gloves are bulky and theres an air
circulation system you cant hear a thing
except through the radio. The high altitude
puts strain on your cardiovascular system, and
the suit weighs more than 10kg. The helmet
limits your view too you dont normally
realise how seeing your feet helps you walk.
During one Extra Vehicular Activity
Ashley and his crewmates heard bloodcurdling screams from back in the Hab.
They sped back, still observing the standard
re-pressurisation protocol: We didnt know
if it was some kind of test. It wasnt
a mouse had snuck inside, surprising
the occupants.
January sees Ashley returning to the Utah
station for another fortnight, leading its first
UK crew. Plans include trying out a new
suit with inbuilt air supplies, testing how
extremophile bacteria take to the Utah
desert and operating the Canadian Space
Agencys Artemis Jr. rover, a prototype lunar
explorer: You need to take systems like this
out of the lab to really put them to the test,

28

April 2014

28 / FOCUS / FEBRUA RY 2014

Ashley adds. The same is true of people.

The University of Bristol is also working
on some specially designed gloves that will
feed information from the outside surface
through to the users fingertips using
ultrasonic pulses. The hope is that the gloves
will allow astronauts to be more aware of
the environment as well as helping them
with manual tasks when gripping tools.
Human confinement studies, mimicking
the isolation of long-term space missions,
started in the 1960s. The major Biosphere
2 experiment began in 1991 in the Arizona
desert, with eight bionauts sealed away for
two years, growing their own food and
generating their own oxygen.Veteran
bionauts are now advising Mars One on life
support technologies.
Interest in planetary analogues locations
on Earth with similarities to aspects of other
worlds arose more recently. Analogues
have become more sought after as planetary
science becomes more interdisciplinary, says
Anita Heyward of Europlanet, a European
network of planetary scientists that supports
field trips to analogue sites from Tunisia to
Siberia. Its not just geology these days,
but areas like astrobiology studying life in
extreme environments.

ANATOMY OF A
mars SPACESUIT
Aouda.X is designed to give wearers a feel for
Martian gravity
The Austrian Space Forums Aouda.X is designed to let
wearers feel what it would be like to take a stroll in Marss
light gravity, powerful radiation and toxic atmosphere.
Costing around 1 million, its not a true spacesuit but
instead is designed to simulate the same stresses and
limitations astronauts would experience if they were to
wear a suit while walking on Mars.

A researcher conducts a field test

of the Aouda.X spacesuit as part
of a simulated Mars mission in the
Moroccan desert

Theres no on-board oxygen supply;

ambient air is circulated with fans.
Sensors check temperature, humidity
and build-up of CO2 to warn of
overheating or stale air.

Like current spacesuits, Aouda.X

combines a hard upper torso with
pressurised hinged limbs, incorporating
fireproof and bulletproof layers, and
an outer aluminum covering. It can be
safely worn between temperatures of
-110C and +35C.

A 12-volt battery powers an

on-board wireless connection
enabling biomedical and
engineering data to be
transmitted, including glove
accelerometers that check
energy expended. Theres also
a heads-up display.

Moving inside a spacesuit has been

likened to folding a balloon. An adjustable
exoskeleton submits the wearer to the
equivalent forces of various pressure
regimes for all joints, including fingers.

With average temperatures on Mars

at 63C, heated boots will keep
astronauts feet warm. The suit
weighs 45kg much less than current
145kg spacesuits but their equivalent
in one-third Martian gravity.

FEBRUA RY 2014 FOCUS / 29

OEWF/KATJA Zanella-kux, nasa, jeffrey lipton

Science | Planetary exploration

Alien worlds on earth

It was the Mars Society advocating
manned missions to the Red Planet
that began combining confinement
and analogue studies. The society took
advantage of the fact that NASA already
had a research presence on Devon Island
in the Canadian Arctic. In 2000 the society
received permission to site the Flashline
Mars Arctic Research Station (FMARS)
there, explains Vladimir Pletser of the
European Space Agency, veteran of both
FMARS and MDRS. Nearly twice the
size of Belgium, uninhabited Devon Island
is the site of the 23km (14-mile) diameter
Haughton Crater, formed about 39 million
years ago but largely intact, offering
intriguing geology.
The MDRS next took shape in Utah.
I was attracted by the advert, offering:
Hard work, no pay, eternal glory! recalls
Vladimir, who oversees ESA zero-G flights
as his day job.
This year saw a new Mars base arise,
the Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and
Simulation (HI-SEAS), on the volcanic
slopes of Mauna Loa. During an initial
four-month stay, the eight occupants of
HI-SEAS undertook various experiments.
These included charting links between food
freshness and preparation with crew wellbeing, as well as modelling anti-microbial
clothes one participant wore a single
unwashed T-shirt for the duration.
Does it help the experiments generally
for us to be located here? asks Kim
Binsted, overseeing HI-SEAS experiments.
Well, the participants benefit from having
genuinely meaningful work. HI-SEAS is
near a lava field with unexplored lava tubes;
there is the chance to do actual science
each time they go out. HI-SEAS has a
novel geodesic dome design compared to
the cylindrical Mars Society Habs.
Days start early, at about 5 to 6am, with
plenty to do, from scientific research to
maintenance. That includes a typical two
to three EVAs per day, with quad bikes
in the Arctic and Utah for geological
surveying further afield. With the suits,
there are all kinds of problems you cant
anticipate, explains Vladimir. I needed to
fix computer equipment, but my gloves
were so big I was tapping four keys at once.
I didnt get permission to take my glove
off, so I taped a screw to my finger, letting
me press what I wanted. Evenings are for
rest: crews typically make the effort to eat

30

April 2014

30 / FOCUS / FEBRUA RY 2014

How to feed a mission to Mars

pack veggie
Hawaiis HI-SEAS project proposed
spam-fried rice for its crew. But tinned
meat takes up too much space so Tofu
offers a lighter, easier to store, proteinrich alternative. Martian explorers may
have to be veggie.

grow your own

Astronauts cultivating their own food
would not only reduce the monotony
but provide an oxygen bonus too. In
fact, soybeans are already cultivated on
the International Space Station so
theres already a precedent.

3D print it
Cornell University is working on
3D-printed food. Layers of edible gels
build the desired dish and can be given
various textures, tastes and nutrients by
the printer. Cheese (pictured) and
chocolate are among the successes so far.

dinner together, often followed by a movie,

usually sci-fi.
Not that simulating Mars demands a
habitat: last February, non-profit research
group the Austrian Space Forum undertook
a four-week field study near Erfoud, in
Moroccos northern Sahara. More than a
tonne of equipment was shipped out to the
desert, assisted by the Moroccan authorities
who also provided security.
Camping by night, they evaluated
various European space hardware, including
a Hungarian lunar rover, a prototype
planetary lander and weather station, and
their own Aouda.X simulated Mars suit, and
performed geological retrieval amid other
mock experiments inspired by the Apollo
moonwalkers tasks. The suit performed
well, although fine Saharan sand got
everywhere, including backpack electronics.
Eventually it had to be taken apart for
cleaning, though we were well prepared for

this, says Forums Alexander Soucek.

For World Space Week last October the
Forums timing tests went one step further,
with synchronised testing of three different
analogue Mars suits: their own, in Austria,
the Mars Society suit at MDRS, and another
from the University of North Dakota. This
networked World Space Walk was a first
step towards setting a common standard for
suit evaluation.
Next year FMARS and HI-SEAS both
plan year-long tours, paralleling the scheduled
year-long crew stay on the International
Space Station. And if Mars One does go
forward, the concept of analogue tours should
come into the mainstream. TV viewers will
play their part in history as they choose the
first humans to walk on Mars for real.
Sean Blair is a space expert, science
journalist and editor for the European
Space Agency.

A Hungarian concept for a Martian lander

that collects weather data is installed
in the Moroccan desert by a researcher
wearing the Aouda.X spacesuit

HOW TO get to MARS

Mars at its most distant is a thousand
times further than the Moon, which is
itself a thousand times further than
the International Space Station. This
is a major reason why more than half
of all Mars probes have failed. A
manned mission would need some
redundancy, including twin
spacecraft. A suitable launch
window opens every two years and a
chemical rocket trip might take seven
to nine months. The main spacecraft
would remain in orbit while landers
dropped to the surface. Alternatively,
docking with Martian moon Phobos
might be simpler than immediately

Reaching the Red Planet is a long and perilous journey

at least with current rocket technology

landing on the surface. Either way,

after three to four months, the return
launch window would open, unless
this is a long-term (or one-way) trip.
Cruising between worlds spells
danger from cosmic radiation. Food
and water (plus waste) packed around
the hull would double as radiation
shielding. But the best way to cut
exposure is to slash travel time. NASA
hopes to do this with the VASIMIR
plasma rocket due for ISS testing in
2015. This could take a crew to Mars
in 39 days, but to power the rocket for
this length of time would require a
yet-to-be developed fusion reactor.

FEBRUA RY 2014 FOCUS / 31

Nature | Portfolio

portfolio
The night has always fascinated Eric Mdard. Its when our senses are
awakened, he explains. Our focus naturally shifts to sounds, smells and
the feel of the wind. During the day many mammals take refuge, and its
only at night that they really become active. There is so much to learn
then, but were not equipped to see everything thats going on. Infra-red
cameras have allowed me to unlock a few of these secrets.

32

April 2014

WHAT A MOUTHFUL
Nocturnal photography requires good
naturalist skills and detective work to decide
where to place your cameras and sensors.
You can use data from websites to work out
where youll see wildlife in the daytime. But at
night you need to create your own data by
looking for tracks and droppings to
determine the paths animals use. I often
position a camera along this track near my
house, and its pretty common to see roe
deer, badgers, pine martens and foxes. So
this image was no great surprise.
But what did catch my attention was the
size of the prey that the fox had captured.
I zoomed in and saw that it was carrying
kittens. I assume that they were the offspring
of a feral domestic cat that lives nearby.

Nature | Portfolio

BRIDGE OF BATS
While I was out
researching locations to
photograph otters (see p39),
I came across this beautiful
ivy-covered bridge and
realised that it would be the
perfect setting for a picture of
bats in flight. However, I had
no idea whether these
nocturnal aeronauts actually
did come through here.
I got my answer on the first
night, though they were in
only one photo. My second
attempt was more promising
with a lot of images, but
nothing that was sufficiently
sharp. It was only on the third
night that I captured this
picture. I shot it with a single
exposure and five flashes,
because I wanted to fill the
space underneath the arch
with a number of bats.

A DREAM SUBJECT
If there is a single animal that
represents the night for me, it is
the genet. Photographing one had
always been something of a
dream, but I live above the Loire
Valley north of the river, where the
species is very rare. So to get this
shot I had to head south.
A friend of mine knew a rock
where a genet marked its territory,
and showed me the location. This
was a great place to position a
camera-trap, particularly because
the surroundings were so
photogenic. I set up two flashes,
one above the camera and the
other to the side. I was lucky that
the genet looked up at just the
right time to allow me to get
this photograph.

WINGED WONDER
This little owl is a daily visitor to my
garden its good practice to get to
know the habits of animals on your
patch. Ive found that owls are loyal
to a perch for weeks at a time before
suddenly moving on to another. This
means that, as a photographer, you
have to be very vigilant, constantly
looking for clues as to their preferred
spot. Fresh droppings in one
location several mornings in a row
are a clear indicator, and when you
think that you have managed to find
their perch, you just position the
camera and hope for the best.

April 2014

35

Nature | Portfolio

36

April 2014

tiny NOise-makers
I visited this forest in Slovenia
several times, mostly to photograph
bears, before I realised it was full
of edible dormice. In autumn
they make a lot of noise all night,
and since they are attracted to
fresh fruit they are pretty easy
to photograph.

HAPPY ACCIDENT
Otters are very rare in my part of France there
are only 10 or so in all the rivers of Mayenne. So
it is not surprising that nobody had managed to
photograph one where I live, though we knew
they were here from the evidence: spraints,
tracks and three dead bodies.
I set up a camera in this location after finding
spraints here, telling me that an otter was
marking its territory. Photography excites me but
this kind of detective work, when you really have
to understand animals and their behaviour, is
even more fascinating. In this shot I clearly didnt
capture the otter I was looking for, but I did get
this beautiful grey heron. The bird visits this
location to fish every night.

Portfolio | Nature

BLACK-AND-WHITE
PHOTOGRAPHY
My interest in documenting
nocturnal wildlife began 25 years
ago with an image of a badger
outside his set, but my approach
to photography has developed
enormously since then. This shot
was taken on a path through the
woods that gets a lot of nighttime traffic.
It was a single badger track
that indicated this was a suitable
spot, and by positioning a sensor
here I knew I could use the large
oak to give a sense of scale in
the image and to show the
animals quirky charm.

Otter MAGIC
It took me several weeks to find
enough evidence to identify a
spot that this male otter visited
regularly. Even then I had to wait
for two months to get a photo of
him, though I made sure that my
equipment was totally
soundproofed so I wouldnt
cause any disturbance. Once I
missed my chance because the
camera failed to work after
getting soaked in the rain!
Sometimes the otter passed
here five or six times in the
same evening. In this photo he
has just got out of the river and
is leaving a spraint on a rock.

The photographer
Eric Mdard is part nature
detective and part optical
technician. He has spent 25
years developing soundproofed
infra-red equipment. His
photography covers Europe but focuses
on his native France.

find out more

You can see more of Erics spectacular
photos, including shots of his resident
tawny and barn owls, in a gallery on
E www.discoverwildlife.com

April 2014

39

10
Science | The science of sleep

THINGS YOU
DIDNT KNOW
ABOUT SLEEP

Ever wondered what your bodys doing while youre off in the land
of nod? David K Randall delves into the science of snoozing

 264 hours is
the longest
documented
stretch that anyone
has stayed awake
In 1964, a San Diego
student named Randy
Gardner stayed awake
without any kind of
stimulants for 11 days,
experiencing phantom
sounds and visions the
longer he went without
sleep. When he finally fell
asleep, he slept for nearly
15 hours. No long-term ill
effects were reported.

Artificial lights have

changed our natural
sleeping patterns

Without them, we would sleep in

two blocks each night. We would fall
asleep around 10pm and wake up a
few hours later, going back to sleep
after an hour. Psychologist Thomas
Wehr found people revert to sleeping
this way if isolated from artificial
lights for more than a few weeks.

Some animals only send

half their brain to sleep

In dolphins and whales, for instance,

this gives them the ability to surface
for air and be on the lookout
for danger while still technically
sleeping. Ducks are also able to
sleep with one eye shut and one-half
of their brains asleep, allowing some
of the birds to stand watch while
others in the group rest.

Dreams tend
to follow welldefined patterns

the world have vastly

different sleep patterns

Jodi Mindell of the Childrens

Hospital of Philadelphia and
Avi Sadeh of Tel Aviv University
found that 95 per cent of babies
in Vietnam sleep in their parents
bed, compared to 15 per cent in
Australia. In New Zealand, the
average bedtime for an infant is
7.30pm; in Hong Kong, its 10.30pm.

Sleep may help us

to learn new skills
After having people play the
video game Tetris before they
went to sleep, Robert Stickgold
of Harvard Medical School found
that test subjects tended to dream
about the game that night. Those
subjects who dreamed about the
game showed the most dramatic
improvement once they played it
again the next day.

Sleeping
rhythms can
affect sports
performance
Researchers at Stanford
University and the
University of Maine found
that circadian rhythms
the natural cycles that
govern when were awake
and when were sleepy
have an outsized effect
on professional sports:
athletes at their peak
circadian rhythms have an
unseen advantage over
their opponents.

Therapy may be a better

treatment for insomnia
than sleeping pills

Psychologist Charles Morin of

Laval University in Quebec found
that people who used cognitive
behavioural therapy to deal with
sleepless nights reported much
better overall sleep quality than those
treated with sleeping pills alone.

Female sleep is the

key to a happy marriage
Psychiatrist Wendy Troxel of the
University of Pittsburgh recently
found that a womans ability to
fall and stay asleep had a greater
impact on marital satisfaction
than her daily interactions with her
husband. The same effect was not
found for men in relationships.

16-19C is the ideal

temperature for a
good nights sleep
Research in Lille, France
arrived at this figure for
someone sleeping in pyjamas
and covered by sheets. If
they sleep naked, the ideal
temperature jumps to 30-32C.

David K Randall is the author

of the book Dreamland:
Adventures In The Strange
Science Of Sleep.
April 2014

41

alamy, thinkstock, getty x5, Press Association Images, NaturePL.com, superstock

Children around

In his lifetime, Calvin Hall,

a psychology professor
at Case Western Reserve
University in Cleveland,
collected more than
50,000 dream reports
from anyone whod
share them. Using Halls
database, researchers
identified that we tend to
dream about the things
that make us anxious.
Adults tend to dream
about other adults, while
children are more likely
to dream of animals.

hdwallpapers.in

It makes up the vast majority of

the matter in the Universe, but we
have no idea what it is. Now, as
Marcus Chown reveals, a hidden
realm of dark matter could exist
right under our noses

Dark matter | Science

he idea of a shadow Milky

Way may sound crazy, but it
is a serious suggestion from
physicists in the US trying to make
sense of our Universes invisible, or
dark, matter. We think its worth
exploring because it might explain
some puzzling observations and it is
testable, says Matthew McCullough,
from the Center for Theoretical
Physics at Massachusetts Institute of
Technology near Boston.
Dark matter has been postulated to
explain several baffling astronomical
observations. One is that stars in
the outer regions of spiral galaxies
like our own are orbiting too fast.
Like children on a speeded-up
roundabout, they should be flung off
into interstellar space. They are not,
astronomers reason, thanks to the
gravitational grip of a huge amount
of matter, which gives out no
detectable light.
A second observation, which
dark matter is used to explain is
the fact that you are reading these
words. Observations of the cosmic
background radiation, the afterglow
of the Big Bang fireball, show that
matter in the beginning was spread
very evenly throughout space. There
were, however, places where it was
slightly denser than average. These
regions, having stronger gravity than
their surroundings, dragged in matter

faster and became ever denser.

But this process is too slow to
build a galaxy as big as the Milky
Way in the 13.8-billion-year age
of the Universe. To explain our
existence it is necessary to postulate
a large amount of dark matter whose
extra gravity greatly speeded up
galaxy formation.

Dark matter theories

Dark matter accounts for 26.8 per

cent of the mass-energy of the
Universe. It outweighs the normal
stuff the 4.9 per cent atomic
matter that makes up you, me and
everything else five times over. The
question is: what is it? There have
been scores of suggestions, from
fridge-sized black holes left over
from the Big Bang to relics from the
future whose arrow of time runs
backwards. But the most popular
idea is that dark matter is made
of a hitherto undiscovered
subatomic particle.
There are many candidates for
example axions, which might fix a
problem with natures strong force,
and Weakly Interacting Massive
Particles. WIMPs are predicted by
theories such as supersymmetry
(SUSY), which attempts to show
that one set of natures fundamental
particles fermions are simply the
flip-side of its other set, bosons.

April 2014

43

Science | Dark matter

SO WHAT IS DARK
Many different theories
have been put forward
regarding the Universes
missing mass heres
a step-by-step guide to
some of the most popular

There are
invisible
particles

Particles
called
WIMPS

There is a vast amount

of dark matter, whose
extra gravity explains the
anomalous orbital motion of stars
in spiral galaxies and galaxies in
galaxy clusters. This dark matter
outweighs the normal matter
in the Universe by a factor
of about 5.5. So what
exactly is it?

START HERE

science photo library x2, cern, nasa/spitzer, alan r/wikipedia

The gravitational
pull of the visible matter in
the Universe fails to explain the
motion of stars observed in galaxies
and galaxies in galaxy clusters. For
instance, the stars in the outer regions
of spiral galaxies like our own Milky
Way are orbiting so fast they ought
to fly off into interstellar space.
The question is, why
dont they?

Mini black
holes

44

April 2014

The dark
matter is made
of axions. These have
very small masses but there
are huge numbers of them. The
motivation for their existence has to
do with natures strong nuclear force,
which holds together atomic nuclei.
Axions could have been produced
in prodigious numbers during
the earliest moments of
the Big Bang.

They are
made of fridge-sized
black holes, each the mass
of Jupiter. These would have
been created in the first millionth
of a second of the Big Bang and
survived. The nearest would be 30
light-years from the Earth, almost
10 times farther away than the
nearest star, Alpha Centauri. So
they would pose no danger
to the Earth!

Gravity is
wrong

Some think our

theory of gravity
is wrong. Its far stronger
than Newton would have
predicted in the outer
regions of spiral galaxies, which is
preventing the stars there from
flying off into
interstellar space. So
whats the answer?

Particles
called
axions

Modify
gravity

Modified
Newtonian Dynamics
theorises that gravity acts more
strongly than predicted by classical
physics below a critical acceleration
(10-10m/s2). Such tiny values exist in the
outer reaches of spiral galaxies, which
is why stars there whirl around faster
than expected. Another version
compatible with Relativity is
known as TeVeS.

How could we
detect black
holes?

MATTER?

Weakly
Interacting Massive
Particles (WIMPS) are particles
predicted by supersymmetry and by
theories that claim there are more than
three dimensions of space. In the latter
case, echoes in the extra dimensions
manifest as so-called Kaluza-Klein
particles, which are super-heavy
versions of standard subatomic
particles. How could we
detect them?

Detect
WIMPS
directly

Direct
detectors use a large
mass of a single element
such as silicon or xenon. The
idea is that, if a dark matter particle
slams into an atomic nucleus,
the nucleus will recoil violently.
The detectors tend not to observe
the recoil itself, but rather a
secondary effect such the
emission of light by
the material.

Detect
WIMPS
indirectly
Make our
own

How could
we detect
axions?

The way to
detect a passing axion
is by placing a microwave
cavity a closed metal structure
used to amplify certain frequencies
of microwave in a magnetic field.
An axion is expected to interact with
such a magnetic field to create
microwaves, which can then be
easily detected within
the cavity.

Evidence
for fridge-sized
black holes left over from
the Big Bang is the flickering of
the light from quasars super-bright
distant galaxies. Some astronomers
suggest this might be caused when a
black hole passes between
Earth and the quasar and its gravity
magnifies the quasars light, an
effect called gravitational
microlensing.

Collider
detectors, such as
the Large Hadron Collider
in Geneva, use the energy of
colliding particles to create new
particles. Obviously, the energy of the
incoming particles must equal that
of the outgoing particles. If it does
not, this missing mass would be
the tell-tale sign that a dark
matter particle had also
been created.

Indirect detectors
look for the gamma
rays expected when a dark
matter particle in space meets its
antiparticle and annihilates. No-one
knows the mass of any dark matter
particle and so the energy of the
gamma rays they should expect to see.
However, a characteristic of such
gamma rays is that they should
all be at pretty much the
same energy.

Science | Dark matter

The particles come in the guise of a whole set

of superpartners of the known subatomic

particles. The lightest stable superpartner,

the neutralino, is a popular candidate for the
dark matter.
But there is a problem. No neutralino
or any other dark matter particle has yet
been conjured up by the super-high-energy
collisions at the Large Hadron Collider near
Geneva. Its possible one will turn up when
the accelerator is restarted at an even higher
collision energy in 2015, says McCullough.
But what if it does not?
This has got some physicists wondering
whether our model of dark matter needs to
be tweaked. The everyday world is complex
built not out of a single Lego brick
particle but a whole multitude of them, says
McCullough. What if the dark matter is like
that as well?
McCullough has been working with Lisa
Randall of Harvard University, author of
Warped Passages and the first tenured female
theoretical physicist at both Harvard and
MIT. She and her colleagues have proposed
a new form of matter that would interact
with itself while shunning normal matter.
Consequently, we would not know that it
is there.
Most importantly, such self-interacting
dark stuff would behave very differently
from conventional dark matter. Our Milky
Way is believed to have formed from a giant
spherical, rotating cloud of dark matter
intermingled with a little normal matter. The
normal stuff began to shrink under gravity.
This happened faster between the poles
than around the equator, where the outward
centrifugal force opposed gravity. The end
result was a thin, flattened disc which then

The cosmic microwave background reveals

the uneven distribution of matter in the early Universe

46

April 2014

The everyday world is complex. What if

the dark matter is like that as well?
Professor Lisa Randall, Department of Physics, Harvard University

fragmented into stars. This was only possible

because the normal matter was able to shed
its heat heat that was pushing outwards and
preventing gravity shrinking the cloud by
emitting that heat energy as electromagnetic
waves, or light. Crucially, however, the dark
matter could not give out light. Unable
to lose energy and shrink into a disc, it
remained in a spherical cloud. This has led to
a picture of our Galaxy as a flattened spiral
disc of stars embedded in a spherical cloud of
dark matter.
But Randall and her colleagues say the
kind of dark matter they envisage might
interact with itself via a force analogous
to our electromagnetic force. So it might
be able to lose energy by giving out dark
electromagnetic waves, or dark light. The
dark matter could then collapse into a thin
disc just like normal matter, she says. We
call it double disc dark matter.
The idea of a double disc might explain
some observational anomalies. For instance,
NASAs Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope
has detected gamma rays of energy 130
gigaelectronvolts (GeV) coming from the
centre of our Galaxy. This could be explained
if there exists a dark matter particle of mass
130 GeV about 130 times the mass of the
proton. The gamma rays might then come
from the annihilation of such dark matter
particles and their antiparticles. The picture

of dark matter spread thinly in a spherical

halo doesnt yield a high enough density of
such particles to explain such a gamma-ray
feature. But with a double disc, the new
component of dark matter could be denser
and so find other particles to annihilate with
more often, says Randall.
Detecting dark matter
Most experiments to detect dark matter
have seen nothing, even though the Sun is
orbiting the centre of the Galaxy at 220km/s
relative to the dark matter halo. If some of
the dark matter is in a second disc which is
turning with the visible galaxy, this is what
we would expect, says McCullough. The
relative motion between the dark and normal
discs will be zero, so dark matter will hit the
detectors too softly to be noticed.
Critics might say that dark matter does
not explain what we see, and that Randall
and her colleagues are simply adding bells
and whistles. They might say it is reminiscent
of the Greeks, who on discovering their
theory that planets orbit in circles did not
fit the data, added circles within circles, or
epicycles, until it did.
I think its even worse than adding
epicycles, says Mordehai Milgrom of the
Weizmann Institute in Rehovot, Israel. Its
adding epicycles just for the heck of it.
Milgrom is the originator of the idea of

The Fermi telescopes gamma-ray view of the Milky Way (gamma-ray

emissions are shown in bright red). It has detected radiation that the
traditional view of a dark matter halo cant explain

Modified Newtonian Dynamics, or MOND,

which contends that the anomalous orbital
motion of stars in spiral galaxies is explained
not by the gravity of a vast amount of
invisible dark matter, but by the fact that
gravity is stronger than Newton would
have predicted.
McCullough concedes that the double
disc dark matter idea does not satisfy the
old addage of Occams razor, which says
that if there are two competing theories, the
simplest is usually true. But what if dark
matter truly is complex? he says. We have

no choice but to take what nature gives us.

So how could we find evidence of our
Milky Ways second disc? It will influence
the gravitational field experienced by stars
in the solar neighbourhood, says Randall.
Precision observations of their motion
might therefore reveal the disc.
The second disc might not have the same
thickness or extent as ours. But even if they
didnt start out aligned, says Randall, the
gravitational tug between the dark disc
and the normal disc would long ago have
aligned them.

The existence of a dark electromagnetic

force would enable a subcomponent of dark
matter to settle into a shadow disc. That disc
might then fragment into star-sized clumps
thanks to dark equivalents of the known
forces. Whether dark stars might ignite in
these clumps would depend on the existence
of dark strong and weak nuclear forces to
ignite nuclear reactions, says Randall.
Marcus Chown is a former radio
astronomer, and author of several books
including We Need To Talk About Kelvin.

matt kapust X3, nasa

The LUX detector, located in

a former gold mine in South
Dakota, has so far failed to
find any evidence of the dark
matter particles it is looking for

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X xxx
Science | Space Technology

ut
ad b
dm
soun projects
ay
e
hey m ioneering ry natur
T
e
ve
ep
thes ange the tion as w o
h
ra
g
will c ce explo ATER is
a
G
of sp it. WILL
know nch...
u
for la

50 / FOCUS / DECEMBER 2013

hen it comes to cutting-edge

space technology its easy to
think that nothing much has happened
since the Moon landings over four decades ago.
But if you want an idea of how space exploration
might evolve in the coming decades, look no further than
the work of the little-known NASA Innovative Advanced
Concepts programme, or NIAC. Its responsible for
funding forward-thinking studies that the US space agency
believes could open up whole new ways of exploring the
Solar System.
NIAC is all about giving revolutionary concepts a chance,
especially the visionary or unusual ones that would normally
be considered too risky, says NIAC Program Executive Dr
Jay Falker. Every year since 2011, the programme has given
substantial funding to projects it thinks could make these big
technological advances. And there are few limits on the kind
of concepts that are considered. The ideas currently funded
cover many fields everything from pioneering robotics to
the advanced engineering needed to send humans to Mars.

We
receive
hundreds of
proposals every
year, and every time
there are some fascinating
concepts none of us have seen
before, says Falker.
Weve picked 10 projects recently
awarded NIAC grants that we think should
get the green light. It may be many years before
any of them make it into space, but read on to
discover our favourites in reverse order...

April 2014

51

photo: adrian Agogino, esa, foster & Partners, science photo library

10

springy
rovers

Rockets, parachutes and airbags have

helped land several rovers on Mars, but the
next generation of robotic planetary
explorers may use a totally new technology.
Dr Vytas SunSpiral and his colleagues at
NASA are looking to send a robot to
Saturns moon Titan that will be constructed
entirely of a set of rods held in place by
cables under tension. This tensegrity
structure would be equipped with scientific
instruments and wouldnt need a parachute
or airbag. The structure itself is compliant
and can absorb strong impact shocks, so it
can land safely while protecting a payload,
explains SunSpiral. Not only that but it
will be mobile too, he says. Once
landed, it can shorten and
lengthen its cables to
induce rolling and
explore the
six to nine-month transfer periods
planet.
between Earth and Mars, he explains.
The deep-sleep method the
SpaceWorks team is investigating is
known as hypothermia therapy. Its
used regularly to treat traumatic
injuries, says Bradford. Inducing this
torpor state requires reducing the core
body temperature by 5 to 10F [up to
6C] and providing some mild
sedatives. Its a very different process
to the freezing of astronauts often
seen on the big screen, says Bradford.
Were not attempting cryopreservation and the cessation of all
The concept of putting astronauts into
molecular activity. Our goal is to be
hibernation during a long mission into
able to keep the crew in an inactive
interplanetary space is ever-present in
state and limited to a confined space
science-fiction. From Avatar to 2001: A
during certain parts of the mission.
Space Odyssey, complex life-support
To keep the astronauts alive the
systems have become a visual
team envisage using technology thats
synonym for the advanced space
already in use in medicine. They will
technology of the future. Now, as we
be fed and hydrated through an
look to Mars as a place to explore,
intravenous line using an aqueous
there are some who are working to
solution called total parenteral
make the science fiction of hibernating
nutrition or TPN. This method of
astronauts a reality. Dr John E
providing sustenance for humans is
Bradford is president of SpaceWorks
routinely used for extended durations
Engineering, a US-based company that
with cancer patients, says Bradford.
was awarded funds to investigate the
The are several benefits to be had
pioneering technology. In short, we
from having a crew sleep their way
are attempting to put a Mars-bound
through a long space voyage, argues
crew in a deep-sleep stasis during the

astronaut
hibernation

Sensors could be bounced

on to a planet by a springy
ball-like structure

Imagine going to
sleep and waking up on
Mars six months later,
no worse for wear!
Dr John E Bradford, president of
SpaceWorks Engineering
Bradford. With the crew in this state,
we believe we can reduce the mass
and volume of the in-space habitat
significantly. This ultimately reduces
the entire launch mass. The habitat
itself will be a very small module
containing four to six crew members,
each in their own sleep chamber. By
contrast, a typical habitat for an active
crew is required to have space for food
preparation and eating, exercise,
science stations, bathrooms, sleeping
quarters and entertainment.
It may even be better for the
astronauts well-being. On a Mars
mission, you can expect to have a
small group of people confined to a
very small space for an extended
period of time, under a lot of stress
and with no way to abort if theres a
problem, explains Bradford. A lot of
these issues are solved if the crew is
asleep during peak periods of stress
and likely boredom.
Nevertheless, theres still much
more research to be done before the
technology makes it into space.
Ultimately, I think it will be the
preferred way to travel, says
Bradford. Just imagine going to sleep
and waking up on Mars six months
later, no worse for wear!

Space Technology | Science

To make the trip to the Red

Planet a more comfortable
experience, future explorers may
have to be put into a state of
suspended animation

3D printers could
be put to work
building habitats
on the Moon

Off-planet
3d printing

The first astronauts to explore Mars

face a dangerous mission. theyll have
to contend with living on a distant
outpost with little chance of a speedy
re-supply if something goes wrong. If a
vital component of their spacecraft
breaks, therell be no mechanic on hand
to bring them a spare. The Biomaterials
out of thin air NIAC project could be
the solution. Its examining how living
cells could be used, in conjunction with
3D-printing, to create spacecraft parts,
construction materials and, potentially,
even human tissue.

We know dark energy exists, but how this

substance changes with time and location
remains unclear
Dr David Bacon of the University of
Portsmouth
April 2014

53

DECEMBER 2013 / FOCUS / 53

We could one day

simply scatter sheets of
sensors onto planets

Flat
landers

The tense landing of NASAs Mars

Science Laboratory, Curiosity, back
in 2012 took years of planning and
advanced engineering, and it all rested
on the perfect performance of the
missions landing systems. Today,
Curiosity is giving us a unique view of
one of the most scientifically interesting
places on the Red Planet. But there may
be a much simpler way to explore many
more of these tantalising environments
throughout the Solar System.
The Two-

Enabling material to be
launched as spools or fibre will
enable us to use smaller rockets
Dr Robert Hoyt, Tethers Unlimited

54 / FOCUS / DECEMBER 2013

Dimensional Planetary Surface Landers

project is looking into the technology
needed to build numerous wafer-thin
landers that could be scattered onto
a planet, moon or asteroid. Each lander
would be only a few millimetres deep
and would cover about one square
metre; on-board would be solar panels
and communications electronics
as well as radiation, wind and
temperature sensors.
They may even carry thin scientific
instruments for studying their
surroundings. Tens of landers would
be sent to the target in one go, with the
possibility of sending up to 50. When
a number of 2D landers are deployed,
some may make it and others may not. It
is still acceptable, says the projects
lead Dr Hamid Hemmati. It also enables
landing at highly risky, but geologically
much more interesting, locations.

Spider bots could be set

to work building large
structures in space

X xxx
Space Technology | Science

Robotic rovers and orbiting spacecraft

are all well and good for exploring the
Solar System, but what planetary
scientists everywhere dream of are
samples of these distant worlds. Getting
material back to Earth is not easy,
though. If your probe does manage to
launch without a hitch it still has to fly all
the way to its destination, carry out a
risky landing, take-off and then return
through Earths atmosphere in one
piece. Just ask the team that worked on
NASAs Genesis mission.
Genesis successfully sampled the solar
wind during a 32-million-km journey
through space, only to embed itself at
320km/h in the Utah desert, when
parachutes failed to open.
Now a team led by
Prof Robert

tens of kilometres for moons, explains

Winglee. As the penetrators smash
into the surface they will pick up some
material in an on-board sample-return
capsule. This capsule will then be reeled
all the way back to the probe, using the
tether, before being sent on the long trip
home to Earth. It will provide a huge
step towards understanding the origins
of the Solar System, says Winglee.
2. Spacecraft thrusts to
decelerate and to spin up tether

1. Spacecraft
deploys
sampler at
the end of
a tether

3. Tether sets
the sampler
down on the
surface and
then picks it
back up

5. The tether
tosses the sampler
towards an Earthreturn trajectory

robot
builders in orbit
Science fiction has long depicted
visions of vast structures looming
in orbit and spaceships with huge
solar arrays gliding through the Solar
System. Launching such enormous
structures into space is astronomically
expensive though and, as weve seen
with the International Space Station,
you need astronauts to do much of the
construction work.
One method to get around this, now
being studied by Dr Robert Hoyt and
his colleagues at Tethers Unlimited,
is to launch something that is able to
construct itself once in orbit they call
their idea SpiderFab. Were developing
a process where we can launch

materials in the form of a spool of yarn

or tape, and then process that material
to create the desired structure, explains
Hoyt. By blending advanced robotics
with 3D printing technology, the team
hopes to start making basic orbiting
structures before progressing on to
construct parts for the next generation
of spacecraft. Manned missions to
Mars or other planetary bodies will need
large structures to support solar arrays,
radiation shields and other critical
components, says Hoyt. Enabling the
material to be launched in a compact
form, such as spools of fibre or tanks of
polymer, will enable us to use smaller,
less expensive rockets.

April 2014

Hamid Hemmati/nasa, robert hoyt

Smash
and grab
spacecraft

Winglee at the University of Washington

is investigating the feasibility of a
planetary smash and grab samplereturn technique. The idea is to have a
probe drop penetrators into the surface
of an asteroid or a moon as it flies past.
The penetrators would be attached to
the spacecraft by a long tether. For
asteroids, only a few kilometres of
tether are needed, and maybe a few

55

DECEMBER 2013 / FOCUS / 55

Science | Space Technology

NASA wants
to go
sailing on
Venus with a
solar-powered
vehicle like this

sail-powered rover
The planet Venus has a truly fearsome reputation, and a well-deserved one at that. Its
sulphuric acid rain, extreme atmospheric pressure and a searing surface temperature
of around 460C make it a rather hostile place. In fact, its probably the last place youd
think that planetary scientists would want to send a rover. But they do. And they even
want to give it a sail. Yes, a sail. As part of the NIAC programme, NASA scientists
are researching the practicalities of sending a land-sailing rover to the
second closest planet to the Sun. The rover would be swept along
Venuss relatively flat lava plains by a light breeze, say the
scientists. If all went well, the team reckons the
rover could survive for a month or so.

Crater Shackletons
depths are revealed
by a topographic
view (left-hand side)
courtesy of the Lunar
Reconnaissance Orbiters
Laser Altimeter

photo: NASA x2, david allen

3 sunlight reflectors

If humans ever return to the Moon, one of the places well likely visit is the
region around the crater Shackleton. The craters interior is cloaked in permanent
shadow while its rim is lit up by almost constant sunlight. The soil within may
contain ice that can be used by a future Moon base and the rim would be an ideal
place to put solar panels. But exploring the depths of Shackleton, and features like
it on other bodies, would be difficult due to the darkness. The Transformers for
Extreme Environments project aims to change all that by developing lightweight,
autonomous machines capable of reflecting sunlight down into the dark. The
origami-like structures could be used for illuminating the crater floor, warming a
patch of ground and for communications.

56 / FOCUS / DECEMBER 2013

The huge 100m-wide

LBR could look like
this space balloon

balloon
telescope

radiation will pass through the

balloon material largely unhindered,
but not the mirror. This wavelength
provides clues to our cosmic origins,
from the Big Bang to the Earth itself,
says the projects lead, Prof Christopher
Walker from the University of Arizona.
The largest terrahertz/far-infrared
telescope to fly was the Herschel
Space Observatory. LBR will be
three times larger and have
about an order of magnitude
greater collecting area,
allowing it to probe this
important wavelength
deeper than ever before.
The LBR team hope
Hidden beneath the surface of
to use the huge
Jupiters moon Europa is a vast ocean
balloon-borne
of liquid water. Its an astrobiologists
telescope to study
dream. Now a NIAC project, led by
objects such
Professor Leigh McCue at Virginia
Jupiters moon
as stars and
Tech University, has laid out whats
Europa has a thick
planets in the
needed to explore it.
ice-sheet that
covers a potentially
process of
The teams concept involves
life-friendly ocean
forming.
sending three landers to the surface of
Europa. Each will be equipped with a
cryobot that will melt its way through
the icy crust before breaking out
into the subsurface ocean. The three
cryobots will then release gliders that
will swim through the ocean, studying
it in detail. Europas ocean offers our
most likely prospect for finding some
form of extraterrestrial life within our
Solar System, says McCue. That is
what is most exciting to me; under-ice
exploration of Europa could change
our very understanding of life.

Sending telescopes into orbit can be a

very costly way to study the Universe.
One way astronomers have got
around this is by attaching telescopes
to enormous helium balloons and
letting them drift high up into the sky.
These floating observatories can then
view the cosmos largely unimpeded
by the gases in our atmosphere that
absorb many of the wavelengths of
celestial radiation that are interesting
to astronomers.
The Large Balloon Reflector
(or LBR) takes this concept one
step further. It will incorporate two
balloons; the first 100m-wide carrier
balloon will take the telescope to
roughly 130,000ft (39km) in altitude.
Fixed inside this balloon will be a
second, smaller one measuring
20m in diameter. A 10m-wide
patch of this balloon will
THE GLIDER
be metallised to create a
Once a cryobot melts its way
mirror-like surface, which
through Europas surface
ice, it releases a glider like
will collect light from
this to swim and explore the
the stars.
subsurface ocean
The LBR will study
celestial objects at
Tail provides
wavelengths of
forward motion
between 100 and
300
microns what
is known
as
terrahertz
radiation.
Crucially,
Computers,
this
power storage
and control

robot
submarines

Sensor
compartment

Pectoral fins
enable precise
control

Will Gater is an astronomy journalist

and author.

April 2014

57

DECEMBER 2013 / FOCUS / 57

history | origins of islam

origins of islam

123rf.com X5

Meenakshi Jain writes on the

historical context of the origins,
formation, and expansion on one of
the worlds oldest religions - Islam

58

April 2014

he Arabs call the pre-Islamic period of their history

the jahiliyyah - the Age of Ignorance. Not much is
known about the early religious beliefs of the Arabs.
They worshipped many deities, among them Allah taalah,
the name by which they still address the Almighty.
The religion of Islam, founded by Muhammad in
Arabia in the seventh century CE, is the third major
Semitic faith after Judaism and Christianity. It accepts the
Prophets of the Jews and Jesus Christ but states that
Muhammad is the Final Messenger of God.
Muhammad was born in Mecca in CE 570, in the
Banu Hashim clan of the Quraysh tribe. An orphan, he
was raised by his relatives. He accompanied his uncle on
trading journeys to Syria and himself assumed charge of
the merchandise of a rich widow, Khadijah, whom he
subsequently married.
Muhammad had his first vision around CE 610, when
he heard a voice telling him, You are the Messenger of
God. He received several such messages. His teachings
were perceived as critical of the idolatrous practices in
Mecca and opposition to him grew among the Quraysh.
The small Muslim community got a reprieve when some

residents of Medina (280miles north of Mecca) accepted

his teachings. His followers in Mecca then began to
migrate secretly to Medina. Informed of Quraysh plans to
slay him, Muhammad himself reached Medina by a
circuitous route in CE 622. This migration is known as the
hijra and the Muslim calendar commences from this year.
While at Medina, Muhammad organised razzias (raids)
on Meccan caravans en route to Syria. These led to
battles with the Quraysh in CE 624-627. In each instance
military success was followed by attacks on the Jews and
Christians of Medina, who were charged with falsifying
the scriptures to conceal prophesies of Muhammads
advent. In CE 630, Muhammad made a triumphal entry
into Mecca. He circumambulated Kaaba seven times (an
ancient ritual) and ordered the removal of all the 360
idols (in the pre-Islamic era, the Kabba housed many idols
and holy stones, popularly numbered at 360, which were
worshipped by the Arabs) barring one, known as the
Black Stone installed there. The people of Mecca
submitted to Muhammad, and gradually the various
tribes of Arabia acknowledged his spiritual and
temporal supremacy.

Muhammads
successors

this new community

The polity that Muhammad created
was based on the twin concepts of
ummah (the Muslim community of
believers) and jihad. It had a religious
basis and all its members had to be
Muslims. The ummah has remained
a potent reality throughout Muslim
history. There has been no occasion
when ideas and movements originating
in one area have not resonated in the
rest of the Islamic world.
Islam incorporated the revered
symbols of the Arabs and distanced
itself from Judaism and Christianity, the
two religions it had to contend with in
its homeland. As part of this process,
Friday was substituted for Sabbath,
azaan (call to prayer) for trumpets and
gongs, and the direction of prayer
changed from Jerusalem to Mecca.
The ancient practice of pilgrimage to
Kaaba was integrated in the Islamic
rituals. Islam was the first attempt in
Arab history at a social formation based
on religious rather than blood ties.
Scholars have therefore viewed it as a
manifestation of Arab nationalism.

60

April 2014

After the death of Muhammad in CE

632, the leadership of the community
devolved, in succession, on Abu Bakr,
Umar, Uthman and Ali. Known as
the Patriarchal Caliphs, they were
all close companions and relatives of
Muhammad. The first major schism
in Islam dates from this period. Alis
followers held that he should have
been declared the immediate successor
of Muhammad as he was married to
Muhammads eldest daughter, Fatimah
and none of the Prophets male
heirs had survived infancy. Ali was
subsequently murdered and his son and
family members perished in the battle
of Karbala. Alis followers are called
Shiis, while Muslims who accept the
correctness of the order of succession
and comprise the majority, are known
as Sunnis. A third group, the Kharijites,
rejected both positions and upheld the
right of the Community to elect and,
if need be, depose its leader. [Over
time many other sects also developed
in Islam like the Ismailis, Bahais
(Iran) Ahmadiyahs (India) and Black
Muslims (US)].
The reign of the Patriarchal Caliphs
(CE 632-661) was followed by that of
the Umayyads (661-750) and Abbasids
(750-1258). The seat of the Caliphs
shifted under Ali from Medina to
Kufah. In the time of the Umayyads
it moved to Damascus and under the
Abbasids to Baghdad. A new class
of specially trained white slaves, the
Mamluks (mostly Central Asian Turks),
now began to dominate the polity.
Independent Muslim rulers (sultans)
emerged in several regions. The Caliphs
sanctioned their rule and became titular
heads of the Islamic realm.

Expansion of Islam
Within a hundred years of
Muhammads death, the Arabs had
established an empire greater than that
of Rome at the pinnacle of its power.
The Arabs conquered Baghdad in CE
634, Syria in 636, Persia between 636
and 650, Egypt in 642, and Carthage
on the North African coast in 698. The
Central Asian regions were also quickly
subdued. In 711, the Arabs crossed
the Gulf of Gibraltar and entered the
Iberian Peninsula. In 712 Sindh also
came under their control. The string
of conquests from Spain to India
enabled the Arabs to link the two major
economic units of the Mediterranean
and the Indian Ocean and dominate all
the major maritime and caravan routes.
The Islamic threat became a matter
of concern for Europe, which fought
nine Crusades between CE 1096 and
1291, albeit with no notable success.
From around CE 1220, the Islamic
world also faced a grave threat from the
Mongols who sacked Baghdad in 1258
and ended the Abbasid Caliphate.
The upsurge of the Turks, however,
culminated in the establishment of the
Ottoman Empire. In 1453, Ottoman
Turks wrested the prized city of
Constantinople from the Christians
and renamed it Istanbul. The great age
of the Ottomans then commenced.
The Ottomans proclaimed a Turkish
Caliphate and, with it, leadership of the
Muslim world.
From the sixteenth century, Muslim
control of the Mediterranean-Indian
Ocean trade steadily declined. This
weakened the Ottoman Empire in its
encounter with the rising West. In
1688, the Turks had to retreat from the
gates of Vienna following defeat at the
hands of the Habsburgs. The events
culminated in the replacement of the
Islamic by the European civilisation as
the dominant world power.

MOdern Islam

The Quran

Since the eighteenth century, Muslim

thinkers and leaders have tried various
strategies to innaugrate a new era in their
history and meet Western challenge.
Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab
(1703- 1787), in Saudi Arabia, started the
Wahhabi movement, calling for a return
to the pristine Islam of the ancestors
(salaf). Al-Wahhab married the daughter of
Muhammad ibn Saud, Emir in the Riyadh
region. This alliance of religious and
political leaders strengthened the Wahhabi
movement, which steadily extended its
influence to other Islamic lands.
In the nineteenth century, Jamal al-Din
al-Afghani (d.1897) and his disciple Shaikh
Muhammad Abduh of Egypt (d.1905) led
a vigorous campaign for the purification of
Islam. Al-Afghani was an advocate of PanIslamism, the political union of all Muslim
countries under the Ottoman Caliphate.
The British, then a major colonial power,
viewed the Caliphate as a threat to the
stability of their Muslim possessions. The
Caliphate was abolished in 1924 as Turkey
embarked on the path of modernisation
under Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.
In the twentieth century, Maulana
al-Mawdidi fathered what is now called
Islamic fundamentalism. The desire to
consolidate Islam against Western ideas and
influence has ensured the longevity
of orthodox revivalism. It has also led to
the rise of new brotherhoods, which focus
on dissemination activities in Africa, India
and Indonesia.
At the same time, ordinary Muslims
have attempted to seek relief from
tyrannical and corrupt rulers, leading
to popular upsurges like the Arab Spring
of 2011.

Muslims regard the Quran the true word of God as revealed

to Muhammad by the Angel Gabriel over a period of 20
years. The authoritative text of the Quran was prepared
around CE 650 on the basis the revelations that many
Muslims had learnt by heart and others had written down.
The Quran consists of 114 chapters (Surahs). The first
chapter, called the fatihah, is a short prayer. Muslims
regard the Quran as the final authority on all religious and
legal matters.

Hadith: The records of the sayings of the Prophet are

known as the Hadith. They are ranked, after the Quran, as
the second major source of Islamic law and guidance. The
most authoritative compilation is the Kitab al-Jami as-Sahih
by Muhammad ibn Ismail al-Bukhari (CE 810-870).
The Sunnah: The spoken and acted examples of the
Prophet are an important complement to the Quran as a
source of Islamic law and practice.
The Shariah: The canonical law of Islam as stated in
the Quran and the Sunnah is known as the Shariah. It is
elaborated by four schools the Shafi, Hanbali, Hanafi, and
Maliki; along with the Jafari of the Shiis.
Ijma: The doctrine of consensus of the community (ijma)
was introduced in the eighth century to regulate regional
differences of views and practices. It eventually became a
conservative mechanism to thwart change in the Islamic
way of life.
Ijtihad: This meant to endeavour to find legal solutions
to new problems. However, the acceptance of a definitive
body of Hadith virtually closed the gate of ijtihad.

The Five Pillars of Islam

The five fundamental observances for Muslims are:
Profession of the faith by repetition of the shahadah, There is no God but God and Muhammad is his Prophet.
Regular performance of the ritual of prayer (salat) five
times a day facing the direction (qibla) of Mecca; with
special congregational noon prayers on Friday when a
sermon (khutbah) is delivered by the preacher (khatib).
Payment of zakat or obligatory tax for the welfare of
poor Muslims.
Fasting during the month of Ramadan, the ninth month of
the Muslim lunar calendar.
Hajj or pilgrimage to Mecca in the twelfth month of the
lunar year at least once in a lifetime for those with
the means and physical capacity. Hajj is a powerful means
of reinforcing the sense of community as Muslims from all
over the world join in common rituals and prayers.

123rf.com X6

Meenakshi Jain is a former Fellow

of Nehru Memorial Museum and
Library, and is currently the associate
professor of History at Delhi University.

Sources of Islamic law

getty

Dolphin intelligence | Science

Ever since Ancient Greece, these marine predators

have been held in high esteem for their friendliness
and intelligence. But are they as clever as we think?
Justin Gregg investigates

oments after John Lilly cracked

open the dolphins skull, a
bulging pink mass emerged.
Instantly he knew hed made an
important discovery. This animals
brain was huge: even bigger than a
human brain. The year was 1955, and
after examining the freshly harvested
brains of half a dozen bottlenose
dolphins, Lilly, a neuroanatomist,
concluded that these fish-shaped
aquatic mammals must possess an
intelligence to rival our own.
When Lilly made his discovery,
the link between intelligence and
brain size seemed simple: the bigger the brain, the smarter the animal.
Humans, with our enormous brains
stuffed into our swollen craniums,
were obviously the smartest species,
so it followed that dolphins must also
be pretty darned clever. But research

has since shown that the dolphins

claim to fame as the smartest nonhuman isnt that clear-cut. Crows,
octopuses, even insects have all
demonstrated feats of brain power to
rival the dolphin, and they dont possess nearly as much grey matter.
So are dolphins really as smart as
we think?
The EQ test
The Encephalization Quotient (EQ) is
a measure of how large an animals
brain is compared to what wed expect to see for its body size. According to some calculations, humans
have the largest EQ (7), with brains
seven times larger than youd expect
for our bodies. Dolphins are in the
number two spot, with species like
the rough-toothed dolphin having an
EQ of about 5.

April 2014

63

Science | Dolphin intelligence

But when attempting to match EQ ratings

to intelligent behaviour in animals, results
are mixed. Large EQs correlate with the
ability to cope with novel environments or
the production of diverse behaviour, but not
with tool use or imitative ability. To further
muddy the picture, the calculation of EQ
itself has come under criticism in recent
years. Depending on the data thats fed
into the model, humans have normal-sized
brains for our bodies, whereas gorillas and
orangutans have abnormally large bodies for
their standard-sized brains.

In this experiment at Hawaiis Dolphin Institute,

dolphins demonstrated an ability to remember
which of two shapes theyd been shown previously,
indicating their choice by hitting a paddle

Simply having a big

brain is no guarantee
that an animal will
display intelligence

Grey matter
Simply having a big brain or a large EQ
is by no means a guarantee that an animal
will display intelligence. But it wasnt just
brain size that intrigued Lilly. Inside the
dolphin skull he found an outer layer of
brain tissues that, much like the human
brain, was folded in on itself, like crumpled
paper stuffed into a thimble.
This outer layer of the mammalian brain,
called the cortex, is involved in complex
cognition in humans, including our language
skills and self-awareness. As it turns out, the
dolphin cortex is larger than the human
cortex. So what might this mean?
Many species that pass tests for selfawareness (like the mirror self-recognition
test) have a relatively large cortical structure
in the front of their heads. Its this frontal
cortex that is likely responsible for the
mirror self-recognition skills of chimpanzees,
gorillas, and elephants. Dolphins pass this
test too. But therein lies the rub: dolphins
dont have a frontal cortex. Their oversized
cortex is squished into areas around the sides

of their skull, leaving the front of their brain

oddly concave. And since magpies, which can
also recognise themselves in mirrors, dont
have a cortex at all, were still left scratching
our heads as to which parts of dolphins
and magpies brains are involved in selfrecognition. Maybe, like magpies, dolphins
rely on non-cortical structures to recognise
themselves in mirrors. What exactly the
dolphin cortex is doing and why its so large
is an unsolved mystery.

photo: science photo library x3, getty x2

the eq factor
The Encephalization
Quotient (EQ) is a measure
of how large an animals
brain is compared to what
youd expect for its body
size. A cat has an EQ of 1:
its brain is exactly the size
youd expect to see given
its body size. Humans have
brains that are almost eight
times larger than youd
expect for our body size.

64

April 2014

0.5
Mouse

Dr John E Bradford, president of

SpaceWorks Engineering

Name that whistle

This isnt the only enigma surrounding
dolphin intelligence. Over the years the
debate about how dolphins brains relate to
their behaviour has been so exasperating
that marine mammal expert Lance BarrettLennard was forced to conclude that a
dolphin could have a brain the size of a
walnut and it wouldnt affect the observations
that they live very complex and social lives.
Although Lilly might have objected to
the walnut comment, the idea of dolphins
as socially complex beings is a sentiment

The relationship between body and brain size can

indicate some (but not all) forms of intelligence

0.9

Horse

1.0

Cat

1.2

Dog

1.3

African elephant

1.8

Gorilla

What is intelligence?
Is it really possible to compare the cognitive
abilities of completely different species?
DOLPHIN BRAIN

HUMAN BRAIN

Larger than human brains, dolphin brains also

have a larger cortex, although in dolphins
the cortical grey matter is at the sides of the
brain rather than at the front

with which he would have agreed. While

performing rather unpleasant invasive
experiments on the brains of living dolphins,
he noted that the dolphins would often
call out to each other (using whistles), and
would seek comfort from one another. He
believed that this was evidence that dolphins
were both socially complex animals, and that
their communication system might be as
complex as human language.
Fifty years later, there is evidence to
suggest that Lilly was not too far off the
mark. In experiments, dolphins perform
nearly as well as the great apes when it
comes to understanding the meaning
of symbols, and how these symbols
can be combined to create sentences.
While attempts to establish two-way
communication with dolphins have not
been as successful as similar work with apes,
their ability to comprehend symbols in the
lab is remarkable.
Lillys suggestion that dolphins possess a
communication system as sophisticated as
our own, however, is probably not correct.

Most scientists studying animal

behaviour dont like
to offer a definition of intelligence.
We simply cannot reduce the
diversity of animal cognitive skills to
a single standard that allows us to
compare different species. If
pressed, some scientists will cite
the ability to produce flexible,
adaptive behaviour in the face of
novel problems as the mark of
intelligence. But ask the general
public about animal behaviour that
could be seen as intelligent, and we
name properties that do not fit this
narrow definition: things like selfawareness, having complex
emotions, understanding language,
tool use, the ability to count or
playful behaviour.
There is one factor that
all of these things have in common:
they are all cognitive and
behavioural skills at which humans
excel. This human-centric view of
intelligence has long been used to
evaluate the intelligence of other
species. In trying to figure out if
dolphins are intelligent animals,
early researchers spent decades
trying to teach them to both

produce and understand language.

Weve learned a lot about dolphin
cognition by testing their ability to
use symbols in the lab, but focusing
too much on factors like symbol use
which is so important to human
intelligence does not tell us much
about the kind of cognition that is
likely to be relevant to dolphins.
Their own cognitive worlds have
developed to cope with the complex
nature of their unique societies, and
rely on sensory-perceptual systems
like echolocation; something
completely foreign to humans.
In order to answer the question
of how intelligent dolphins might be,
we should try to learn how their
minds evolved to solve dolphin
not human challenges.

7.8
4
5.3
4.8

2
2.1

2.5

0
Rhesus monkey

Chimpanzee

White-fronted capuchin

Bottlenose dolphin

Human

CLEVER
Corvids
Crows arent as bird-brained
as you might think
When it comes to intelligence, corvids
the crow family give dolphins a run
for their money, with a number of
species proving adept at skills that
have traditionally only been seen in
primates and dolphins.
New Caledonian Crows have been
observed using and manufacturing
tools in the wild, tearing leaves off
branches and forming them into
hooked probes to retrieve hard-toreach food items. Jackdaws can use
human gaze and pointing to locate a
reward. In captivity Western Scrub
Jays appear to plan their behaviour,
caching their favourite foods
strategically so theyll always be able
to access them regardless of which
enclosure theyre kept in for the night.
Crows remember the faces of
humans that have bothered them in
the past, and this information is
passed on to others in the group,
resulting in crows whove had no
contact with the threatening human
attacking them out of the blue.
Ravens, like dolphins, live in complex
societies and might be one of the only
species that uses gestures (with their
beaks) to direct each others focus of
attention. In the lab, ravens appear to
use logic in order to solve puzzles
involving pulling a series of strings
to retrieve a food reward.

Thinking outside the box: a

New Caledonian Crow uses
a stick to try and find food

Unlike great apes,

dolphins understand
pointing gestures
made by humans

Navigating a social world filled with political

intrigue requires serious brainpower
To be fair, scientists understand next to
nothing about how dolphin communication
works. They have, however, discovered that
dolphins possess a skill that is otherwise
unknown in the animal kingdom except
for among humans. In some dolphin species,
each individual has its own signature whistle
that it will use throughout its life, and that
might serve as a name.
We know that dolphins can remember
the signature whistles of their relatives and
playmates, even whistles that theyve not
heard in over 20 years. And recent research
suggests that dolphins also respond when
hearing their own signature whistle, which
means its possible that dolphins call each
other by name on occasion.
Although Lilly could not have known it at
the time, he might well have been witnessing
this very behaviour during his experiments
half a century ago.
Dolphin learning
If dolphins are trying to get each others
attention by calling each others names, it
might mean that they have some awareness
of the minds of others around them.
Unlike most great apes, dolphins seem to
be able to spontaneously understand the
human pointing gesture. This suggests they
might attribute mental states like seeing or
intending to the pointing humans. How an
animal that has no arms can understand a
human pointing is a real mystery. And while

there is no evidence that dolphins fully

understand the inner thoughts and beliefs of
others (something called theory of mind),
dolphins do point with their heads to direct
humans attention towards objects they want
them to look at.
Having some awareness of their own
and of others thought processes is perhaps
what allows dolphins to devise solutions
to complex problems, as they have done
in experimental settings. In the wild, a
female Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphin was
observed removing the cuttlebone from
a cuttlefish to make it easier to eat a
long process that would have required
some planning.
Hunting can be similarly ingenious.
Wild bottlenose dolphins in Shark Bay,
Australia use marine sponges as tools to
flush out fish, a skill that is passed down
through the generations. A number of
dolphin populations appear to learn hunting
techniques from their peers, with bottlenose
dolphins stranding themselves as a group on
the mudflats of South Carolina in order to
trap fish, and orcas teaming up to produce
waves to wash seals off ice floes in Antarctica.
This social learning is integral to the idea
of culture in animals, defined as knowledge
passed on from animal to animal. Its perhaps
the best explanation as to how young orcas
can learn their familys dialect.
There is one hypothesis as to why
dolphins have big brains that might yet

Dolphin intelligence | Science

neurones by numbers

= 10 million
cortical neurones

Cells in the brain that transmit nerve impulses

are called neurones, and we have more of
them in an area called the cortex than any
other animal. The jury is still out, however,
as to how this relates to intelligence.
Human
11,500 million

Horse
1,200 million
White-fronted
capuchin
610 million
Rhesus monkey
480 million

African elephant
11,000 million

Cat
300 million

Chimpanzee
6,200 million

Dog
160 million

Bottlenose dolphin
5,800 million

Rat
15 million

Mouse
4 million

Gorilla
4,800 million

vindicate Lillys original ideas, and it involves

the kind of social intelligence that makes
problem-solving, culture and self-awareness
possible. Many dolphin species live in
complex societies, with the intricate and
ever-changing social alliances between male
dolphin groups in Shark Bay resembling

Australian bottlenose dolphins use sponges to

protect their noses while hunting for fish

a soap opera plotline. Navigating a world

filled with political intrigue requires serious
brainpower in order to remember who owes
you a favour and which friends you can rely
on. The leading theory as to why dolphin
brains grew so large is that extra cognitive
muscle was required to keep track of these
tricky social relationships, something called
the social brain hypothesis.
Brainy beasts
This might explain why other species that
live complicated social lives also have big-ish
brains (like chimpanzees, ravens and humans).
But dont write off those small-brained, tiny
EQ species quite yet. Much of the complex
behaviour we observe in dolphins is also
seen in species that do not live in complex
social groups. Chaser the border collie knows
over 1000 symbols representing objects a
vocabulary that dwarfs that of the dolphins
or great apes tested under similar conditions.
Octopuses use coconut shells as tools to
protect themselves from predators. Goats
can follow the human pointing gesture.
Fish are able to acquire a long list of skills via

social learning, including predator defence

and foraging. And ants display a behaviour
called tandem running that is perhaps
the best example of teaching in any nonhuman animal.
Lars Chittka, a scientist studying insect
behaviour and a staunch proponent of the
idea that small-brained insects are far more
intelligent than we give them credit for, asks,
If these insects can do these things with
such little brains, what does anything need a
big brain for?
The more we understand about
neurobiology, the more we realise that the
link between brain size and intelligence is
a tenuous one at best. Although there is no
doubt that dolphins display a rich tapestry
of intelligent behaviour, just what the
oversized walnut is doing inside that
dolphin skull is a bigger mystery now than
it has ever been.
Justin Gregg is a researcher at the Dolphin
Communication Project, and the author of
Are Dolphins Really Smart?

April 2014

67

history | border wars

3
4

indias

Border
wars

sameer pawar

Moshita Prajapati looks at the wars independent

Indias fought to defend its borders

Date

68

April 2014

Location

Combatants

Outcome

IndoPak
War of 1947
1

Kashmir

The Sino-Indian
War of 1962
2

22 October 1947 1 January 1948

(2 months, 1 week, and 3 days)

Kashmir

20 October 1962 21 November

1962 (1 month, and 1 day)

5 August 1965 23 September 1965

(1 month, 2 weeks, and 4 days)

India against China

Dominion of India, and Jammu

and Kashmir against Dominion of
Pakistan, The Furqan Force, and
Tribla Militias
An insurgent attack by tribal militia forces in
Kashmir led to the first of the three wars fought
between India and Pakistan over the state
of Jammu & Kashmir. Maharaja Hari Singh,
then ruler of the state, appealed to India for
assistance in suppressing the rebellion. India
agreed to, but only if he signed the Instrument
of Accession to the Union of India, which he
did (this is again debatable), which would
accede the now dissolved princely state into
India. War was declared and the two armed
forces marched to the border fronts, which
eventually would serve as the de facto border
(Line of Control) between the nations.

Aksai Chin and North East

Frontier Agency

IndoPak
War of 1965

India against Pakistan

This war was triggered by multiple points of

disputes - The Tibetan Uprising of 1959 and
the welcome given to 14th Dalai Lama by India,
which irked the Chinese government. Following
these, border conflicts were recorded along
the Himalayan border. In a bid to avert war,
India initiated the Forward Policy. This act of
diplomacy failed as the Chinese army launched
a military attack simultaneously in Ladakh
and across the MacMohan Line. India woefully
under prepared suffered substantial damages.
The war ended after a month, only when China
declared ceasefire.

A ceasefire was announced at

midnight of 1 January 1949 as
mandated by the United Nations.
Pakistan conquered 35 per cent of
Kashmir (Azad Kashmir and GilgitBaltistan) and India gained control of
Kashmir Valley, Jammu and Ladakh.

Aksai Chin is completely

under the control of China.

Pakistan launched and executed Operation

Gibraltar, a covert operation to initiate a
rebellion against Indias rule in the disputed
Indian administered state of Jammu & Kashmir.
While the operation wasnt successful, it did
lead to a significant military engagement
between the nations. Indian forces crossed the
international border and entered Lahore, with
the armed, air, and naval forces called in for
further support.
Following the UN mandated
ceasefire the war was called off. The
governments of India and Pakistan
met at Tashkent and signed the
Tashkent Declaration committing
them to solve their disputes in a
peaceful manner. Both countries also
withdrew their forces to positions
they held before the war.

Kargil War
5

Kargil District, Kashmir

3 May 1999 - 26 July 1999
(2 months, 3 weeks, and 2 days)
India against Pakistan

After a relatively quiet period between the warring

neighbours, barring few border skirmishes and
conflicts, war erupted again. Pakistani backed forces
and Kashmiri militants in a covert plan hatched by Gen
Pervez Musharraf, infiltrated into Indian administered
Kashmir. They occupied the posts held by the Indian
army in the region of Kargil. Indian forces retaliated
by launching air strikes, about 30,000 thousand shells
were fired daily. Operation Vijay was executed, where
armed forces battled to regain control of Kargil sector
from the infiltrators.
Under military pressure from India, and
diplomatic pressure from the international
community, Pakistani forces retreated and
India regained control of its occupied territory.

IndoPak
War of 1971
4

East Pakistan, India West Pakistan

border, the Line of Control, Arabian Sea,
and Bay of Bengal
3 - 16 December 1971 (13 days)

India, and Provisional Government of

Bangladesh against Pakistan
Operation Searchlight was a planned
military operation launched by Pakistani
Army in the region of East Pakistan to
curb the Bengali nationalist movement
on 26 March 1971. India entered the
battleground only after the Pakistani army
in a preemptive strike, bombarded Indias
airbases, and radar equipment on the
eastern seaboard. While this military attack
failed, India formally entered the
war on 3 December backed by then
PM Indira Gandhi.
The independent nation of
Bangladesh is formed.

Science | How do we know

How Do We Know?

the Structure of the

periodic table
By Andrew Robinson
The periodic table is familiar in classrooms all over the world, but
it took a century of scientific endeavour to be fully realised

science photo library

the great physicist Ernest

Rutherford is famously reported
to have said, All science is
either physics or stamp collecting, to
the irritation of subsequent
generations of scientists who were not
physicists. Yet when Rutherford was
awarded a Nobel prize in 1908 for a
physics experiment, the prize was
given for chemistry. Rutherford took
it with good humour, referring to
his instant transmutation from physicist
to chemist.
Rutherford played a key part in
developing a periodic law governing
the chemical elements in the 20th
Century, and our understanding
of elements today is down to both
chemistry and physics. The law was
discovered 145 years ago this month,
in February 1869, by Dmitri
Mendeleev and other chemists.
Although hes regarded as a chemist,
Mendeleev spent almost no time
searching for the elements in
his laboratory.
What constitutes a chemical
element has long been debated, and
is still unresolved to some extent.

70

April 2014

The concept of an element goes back

to the ancient Greek philosophers.
They recognised just four terrestrial
elements: earth, water, air and fire.
These corresponded with the shapes
of the four Platonic solids known
to mathematicians: the cube, the
icosahedron, the octahedron and
the tetrahedron. Thus, the liquidity
of water was thought to parallel
the relatively smooth shape of the
20-faced icosahedron, while the
pain caused by touching fire was
explained by the sharp corners of the
tetrahedron. When a fifth Platonic
solid, the 12-faced dodecahedron, was
later discovered, Aristotle proposed
the existence of a fifth element. It was
quintessence, the celestial aether.
Of course, some of the 90 or so
naturally occurring substances we
recognise today as elements have
been known since antiquity or even
earlier for example, carbon, copper,
gold, iron, lead, mercury, silver,
tin and sulphur. These substances
were found in an uncombined form
or were easily separable from the
minerals in which they occurred. For
many centuries, alchemists occupied

themselves in attempting to transform

the naturally occurring base metals,
such as iron and lead, into the noble
metals, gold and silver, without
success. In the scornful words of the
influential natural philosopher Francis
Bacon, writing in the 1620s: All
the philosophy of nature, which is
now received is either the philosophy
of the Grecians, or the other of the
alchemists. The one never faileth to
multiply words, and the other ever
faileth to multiply gold.
Modern matter
The modern concept of the chemical
element began to emerge only in
the late 18th Century with the work
of the French chemist, AntoineLaurent de Lavoisier. He is generally
regarded as the founder of modern
chemistry from the 1770s until his
death under the guillotine in 1794.
Using quantitative experiments,
Lavoisier defined an element
empirically as a material substance
that was yet to be decomposed into
any more fundamental substances.
In 1789, the year of the French
Revolution, Lavoisier published his

There are currently 118

known elements, but not
all of them occur naturally

> IN a nutshell
Two millennia after the Ancient Greeks wrongly
classified the four elements as fire, water, wind
and earth, Dmitri Mendeleev uncovered underlying
patterns in nature leading to one of the most
powerful tools in science.

Science | How do we know

Elementary Treatise On Chemistry, in

which he listed 33 simple substances
or elements. Many of these are
accepted as elements today the
gases hydrogen and oxygen and
the metals known since antiquity
plus manganese, molybdenum and
tungsten, and the non-metals carbon,
sulphur and phosphorus. But other
supposed chemical elements in
Lavoisiers list included lime and
baryta, which are now known to
be chemical compounds, and light
and heat, which belong in physics,
not chemistry. However, Lavoisier
correctly rejected the ancient Greek
elements of earth, water, fire and air,
on the grounds that they had been
shown to be composed of more
fundamental substances.
The next step towards classifying
the elements was taken by an English
chemist, John Dalton, around 1803.
Dalton assumed that each element
consisted of a particular type of
atom an indivisible entity. Using
Lavoisiers data, Dalton estimated the

relative atomic weights (see Need

to know, p75) of several important
elements by analysing simple chemical
compounds. Water appeared to be
about one-eighth hydrogen and
seven-eighths oxygen by weight. This
led Dalton to assign an atomic weight
of 1 to hydrogen and 7 to oxygen, by
assuming waters molecular formula
to be HO. Although Lavoisiers
measured proportions were somewhat
inaccurate, and Daltons molecular
formula in this particular case was
erroneous (as everyone now knows),
his approach was sound. The relative
atomic weights of the elements
would prove crucial, after further
refinement, to the construction of
periodic tables in the 1860s.
A German chemist, Johann
Wolfgang Dbereiner, began the
process. From 1817, over several years
he noticed that triads of elements
sharing similar chemical properties
also shared a pattern in their atomic
weights. For instance, the alkali
metals lithium, sodium and potassium

science & Society x2, Science photo library, getty, corbis x2

the Key EXPERIMENT

The periodic table struck Mendeleev while he was writing an immensely

successful textbook. In January 1869, he completed volume one. However, it
discussed only eight out of the 63 known elements. Volume two, he knew,
required a less rambling structure to fit the publishers format and deadline. So,
on 17 February 1869, (1 March in the Gregorian calendar), he concentrated on
shuffling the elements, both on paper and in his mind. Indeed he may have
played a form of solitaire (patience) with element cards. Virtually certain is that

April 2014

Multiple approaches
In 1858 an Italian chemist, Stanislao
Cannizzaro, published a standardised
list of atomic and molecular weights.
He did so by reviving the 1811
hypothesis of his compatriot, chemistcum-physicist Amedeo Avogadro,
concerning gases. Avogadro, unlike

It was the genius of Dmitri Mendeleev that placed the elements in a logical,
periodic table, arranging them by atomic weight and subsequently spotting
similar chemical properties

Dmitri Mendeleev may have

arranged the elements like a game
of solitaire to create his famous table

72

had the respective atomic weights 7,

23 and 39. Sodiums atomic weight
must therefore lie midway between
that of lithium and potassium. (7 +
39 = 46; 46 2 = 23.) The same
relationship held for the alkalineearth metals calcium, strontium and
barium, and for the halogens chlorine,
bromine and iodine. Between 1827
and 1858, other chemists extended
Dbereiners observations beyond
these triads by adding magnesium to
the alkaline-earth metals and fluorine
to the halogens. Oxygen, sulphur,
selenium and tellurium were classified
as a family; nitrogen, phosphorus,
arsenic, antimony and bismuth as yet
another family.

Dmitri Mendeleevs early periodic

table, devised in 1869, categorised
the known elements in order of
atomic weight (small numbers).
Scandium (bottom row) was
discovered as the missing element
in the table in 1879
he used two classifying tools simultaneously. He wrote out the elements in rows
by increasing atomic weight, thereby spotting periodic repetitions of chemical
properties. And he listed several natural groups, like alkali metals and halogens,
in columns, thereby spotting patterns of increasing atomic weight.
This generated what he called his first try (see above). The missing element
was Sc, scandium unknown in 1869 but discovered in 1879, with an atomic
weight of 45.

Dalton, had guessed that gases such as

hydrogen and oxygen were composed
of molecules, which were themselves
composed of atoms. This meant
that the molecular weight of the gas
must be different from the atomic
weight of its constituent element.
The molecular weight depends on
how many atoms of the element are
contained in the molecule: two atoms
in the case of oxygen. Cannizzaros
analysis formed the basis for discussion
at the first international congress of
chemists, held in Karlsruhe, Germany,
in 1860.
Among those attending were
Dmitri Mendeleev from Russia,
Julius Lothar Meyer from Germany
and William Odling from Great
Britain. All three chemists, along
with two others, John Newlands
and Gustavus Hinrichs and a French
geologist, Alexandre-mile Bguyer
de Chancourtois, proposed different
versions of the periodic table
during the 1860s. They investigated
patterns in atomic weights, chemical
properties and, in the case of
Hinrichs, atomic spectra of the 63
elements known at this time.
Mendeleevs proposal, which
occurred to him while writing a
Russian chemistry textbook, was
the last of these six. It was published
in draft form in 1869 and more
fully in 1871, although it appears
not to have been influenced by
the five earlier proposals. All the
proposals had considerable merit, but
only Mendeleevs would become
established. The main reason it
succeeded was that in 1869-71
Mendeleev had made a number
of predictions of the existence of
unknown elements. He labelled them
with the Sanskrit word, eka, meaning
one. They included eka-aluminium,
eka-boron and eka-silicon, which
he predicted would have the atomic
weights 68, 44 and 72, respectively.
The first of them was discovered in
1875 and named gallium (atomic
weight 69.7), the second in 1879
and named scandium (atomic weight
45.0), the third in 1886 and named
germanium (atomic weight 72.6).
Moreover, Mendeleev predicted
almost all of the chemical properties

cast of characters

Johann Wolfgang
Dbereiner (1780-1849)
was a German chemist who
started as an apothecarys
apprentice. He became a
professor at the University
of Jena, where his lectures
were attended by his
lifelong friend Goethe. In
1817, he spotted a pattern
in the atomic weights of
triads of elements with
similar chemical properties.

Ernest Rutherford
(1871-1937) is probably
the greatest modern
physicist after Einstein.
Born in New Zealand,
he carried out most of
his research in Britain,
at Manchester and
Cambridge, where he
directed the Cavendish
Laboratory. This work
included revealing the
structure of the atomic
nucleus, which
led to the concept of
atomic number.

The greatest scientific minds of the past two

centuries unlocked the order of the elements
John Dalton
(1766-1844), the son of a
poor country weaver and the
father of the modern atomic
theory, was a schoolmaster
in Manchester. He
controversially maintained
that the chemical elements
were composed of atoms,
and in 1803 compiled a list
of relative atomic weights
covering some of the most
important known elements.

Dmitri Mendeleev
(1834-1907), the leading
Russian scientist, was the
youngest of 14 children.
He lost both parents in his
teens but managed to obtain
some scientific training in St
Petersburg and then went to
Germany, before returning to
Russia. By analysing atomic
weights and chemical
properties, he devised his
periodic table in 1869.

Henry Moseley (1887-1915)

was an English physicist.
After training under
Rutherford at Manchester, he
returned to Oxford University
in 1913 for research work.
There he discovered the key
relationship between an
elements atomic number
and its chemical behaviour.
He was killed by a snipers
bullet at Gallipoli, during the
First World War.

Science | How do we know

timeline

They make up the Universe, but its taken nearly a

century to discover and categorise the elements
In triads of chemically
similar elements, such as
chlorine, bromine (pictured)
and iodine, Wolfgang
Dbereiner observes the
second elements atomic
weight to lie midway
between that of the first
and third elements.

1858

Atomic weights are

standardised by Stanislao
Cannizzaro, using Amedeo
Avogadros 1811 hypothesis,
that equal volumes of any
gas at the same temperature
and pressure contain equal
numbers of molecules.

After partially successful attempts by

several chemists to detect periodicity
in the atomic weights of the elements,
Dmitri Mendeleev, while writing a
textbook, introduces the basis of a
successful periodic table.

science photo library x2, Science & Society, alamy, thinkstock, corbis

1875

1869

Gallium, the first of three

hitherto unknown chemical
elements predicted by
Mendeleev from his periodic
table, is discovered by Paulmile Lecoq de Boisbaudran.
Scandium is discovered in
1879, germanium in 1886.
After bombarding gold foil with
alpha particles, Ernest Rutherford
and collaborators establish
the nuclear model of the atom.
Antonius van den Broek theorises
that an elements nuclear charge
determines its atomic number.

1913

74

1817

By examining elements X-ray spectra, Henry

Moseley demonstrates that nuclear charge
and atomic number are connected; chemical
properties and hence periodicity are
determined by this number; and only around
90 elements occur naturally.

April 2014

1911

of the new elements correctly.

Not all his predictions were so
successful. Well before his death in
1907, new discoveries challenged his
theory. In fact, current versions of the
periodic table ignore three cardinal
principles dear to Mendeleev: the
valency, the indivisibility, and the
immutability of the atom.
The valency is the number of
chemical bonds an atom can form
with other atoms. The noble (inert)
gases helium, neon, argon, krypton,
radon and xenon discovered in
the 1890s by the chemist William
Ramsay and the physicist Lord
Rayleigh appeared totally
unreactive, with a forbidden valency
of zero. Today, we know some do
form a few chemical compounds. The
discovery of the electron in 1897 by
the physicist JJ Thomson disproved
indivisibility the atom plainly had
an inner structure. And radioactivity,
discovered by the physicist Henri
Becquerel in 1896 and named by the
physicists-cum-chemists Marie and
Pierre Curie in 1898, showed that
transmutation of elements does occur.
Elements like uranium, polonium and
radium all undergo radioactive decay.
By the numbers
Most serious of all the objections,
though, was Mendeleevs unyielding
reliance on increasing atomic weight
as the chief ordering principle of his
periodic table. The higher the atomic
weight of an element, the later should
be its position in the periodic table,
he maintained. Mendeleev himself
was aware of this difficulty, because
he allowed one or two exceptions
to this rule notably for tellurium,
which he placed earlier than iodine
despite an atomic weight of 127.6
for tellurium versus 126.9 for iodine.
He justified this reversal on the
grounds that the atomic weights for
one or both of these elements had
been incorrectly determined. But his
reasoning turned out to be wrong.
While tellurium does indeed have a
higher atomic weight than iodine, its
atomic number, 52, is now known to
be smaller than the atomic number of
iodine, 53.
Atomic number was a concept

need to know

Terms youll need to understand

the periodic table

Atomic number

The atomic number of an element

is the number of protons in its atomic nucleus.
Oxygens atomic number is 8, golds 79. Many
elements occur in more than one form, known as
isotopes, with equal numbers of protons but
different numbers of neutrons. Carbon has two
stable isotopes, carbon-12 (the most common) and
carbon-13, and one radioactive isotope, carbon-14.

2 Atomic weight

Also known as relative atomic mass, the

atomic weight of an element is the ratio of the
average mass of one atom of the element to
one-twelfth the mass of an atom of carbon,
which has an atomic weight of approximately 12.
Oxygens atomic weight is 16, golds 197.

3 Element

A chemical element, such as oxygen or gold, is

a substance that cannot be resolved into simpler
substances by chemical means. The atoms of a
given element all have the same atomic number.
The atomic number of each element is different.

unknown to Mendeleev. In some

19th-Century periodic tables,
elements were simply numbered
according to increasing atomic
weight. The concept owes its
existence to physicists, notably the
work of Rutherford and Henry
Moseley in 1911-14. Rutherford
discovered the atomic nucleus, with
its positively charged protons, around
which negatively charged electrons
orbit in a kind of Solar System.
Moseley followed a suggestion by
an economist and amateur physicist,
Antonius van den Broek, that
the number of an element should
correspond to its nuclear charge, in
other words to its number of protons.
By measuring the wavelengths of
characteristic X-ray spectral lines
of many elements, Moseley showed
that the wavelengths depended in
a regular way on the elements
atomic number.

Ernest Rutherford (right) in his laboratory at Cambridge University was awarded the Nobel Prize in
chemistry in 1908 for his work that helped shed light on patterns in the periodic table

It is atomic number, not atomic

weight, which is the ordering principle
of the many versions of the modern
periodic table. The reason why atomic
weight nevertheless remains a good
guide to an elements properties is that
increasing atomic weight generally
parallels increasing atomic number,
because atomic weight is determined
by the protons and the neutrons in
the nucleus. As the number of protons
rises through the periodic table so,
as a general rule, does the number
of neutrons. Therefore rising atomic
number and increasing atomic weight
roughly correspond.
That said, the physics of the atom
will never completely predict its
chemical behaviour as an element.
In the words of The Periodic Table, a
celebrated collection of short stories
by Primo Levi, the Italian-Jewish
chemist who evaded being gassed at
Auschwitz in 1944, one must distrust

the almost-the-same. Even potassium

and sodium, nearest neighbours as
alkali metals in the periodic table,
can behave very differently under the
same circumstances: one causing an
explosion, the other not. Alluding
to his own narrow escape from
death in the Holocaust, Levi added:
The differences can be small, but
they can lead to radically different
consequences, like a railroads switch
points. Its an appropriate conclusion
to the convoluted history of the most
profound discovery in chemistry.
Andrew Robinson is the editor of
The Scientists: An Epic Of Discovery
and the author of The Story Of
Measurement.

find out more

View an interactive periodic table, compiled by
the Royal Society of Chemistry
E www.rsc.org/periodic-table

History | ye olde travel guide

Historical Holidays: guidebooks from the past

Madrid
1621

Jules Stewart invites visitors to

Europes literary and arts capital,
home to a new king, afternoon
bullfights and the ultimate nightlife

bridgeman art library / illustrated map: www.jontyclark.com

When to go
Madrids climate has turned quite extreme
since 1561, the year when thousands of
acres of woodlands were felled to provide
timber and firewood for the court, which
had just been moved from Toledo.
Travellers should heed the Madrid
proverb:Nine months of winter and three
months of hell. Spring is usually the best
time to visit; if you go in May, youll be
in time to catch the best bullfights of
the season.
What to take with you
At 2000 feet above sea level, Madrid is
Europes highest capital city.While the
abundance of sunlight is a source of
energy for keeping up with late-night
Madrileos (those from Madrid), it is not
without its perils, so stay in the shade.
Sensible footwear is another must and,
given the almost total absence of paved
streets, a pair of knee-length cavalry boots
will come in handy. Camillo Borghese, the
former papal nuncio, points out to visitors
that Madrids houses are almost all made
of mud and timber, and have neither
doorsteps nor water closets. Keep an ear
open for shouts of Agua va!, the cry that
precedes the emptying of chamber pots
into the street.
Costs and money
The official currency is the Spanish gold
ducat. Silver is accepted in most places and

a small pouch of reales can be useful for

shopping at the handicraft and tailors stalls
clustered around the citys Plaza Mayor.
Madrid lies at the crossroads of the
Iberian trade routes, so expect to find
bargains in almost everything: from Toledo
swords and dried salt cod from the Basque
Country, to flagons of fine wine from
Rioja and embroidered lace mantillas (a
veil or shawl) from Andalusia.
Sights and activities
Madrileos are a theatre-mad lot, and even
the young King Felipe IV, who has
just this year ascended the throne of
Spain, is given to late-night escapades
in disguise, frequenting the citys outdoor
theatres to see, among others,
Flix Lope de Vegas celebrated
play Fuenteovejuna.
Culture vultures could not choose a
better time to visit the city. Basking in the
splendour of a golden age, Madrid is
Europes literary and arts capital.
Miguel de Cervantes second volume
of Don Quixote is already on sale in the
bookshops, Francisco de Quevedo
and Luis de Gngora are slugging it
out in their satirical sonnets and Diego
Velzquezs recently completed
masterpiece, The Adoration of the Magi,
hangs in the Royal Alczar Palace.
The new Plaza Mayor offers a
venuefor afternoon bullfights and
jousting tournaments.

Felipe IV, who has just this year

ascended the throne, is given to
late-night escapades in disguise

Dangers and annoyances

Madrid is a far safer place today than was
the case a few years ago, when street
brawling and general riotous behaviour
was so out of hand that the authorities
banned innkeepers from providing chairs
and tables in their establishments, and
prohibited patrons from consuming food
brought in from outside.The rationale was
to discourage people from spending
excessive time in these watering holes.
Visitors no longer run the risk of being
served wine diluted with water, for as part
of the general crackdown anyone
convicted of selling adulterated wine
receives a hundred lashes.
Sleeping/accommodation
Madrid suffers from a lack of tourist

Madrid today
With no risk of falling dung for todays
tourists, a visit to Madrid is irresistible. Still
Spains capital, Madrid has retained its own
identity, a sense of centrality and solidity.
As in 1621, the altitude and location
ensure that the climate is extreme, cold
enough to require heaters to be installed in
the upper tiers of Real Madrids Bernabeu
Stadium for chilly night matches, and hot
enough to go into shutdown during July and
August. Dont despair if youre here in high
summer, or if you feel the need to seek shade
on hot afternoons this is the best time to hit
the Prado gallery or retire to the Retiro Park
for a picnic and a doze.
Visitors will need their energy: Madrid is
one of the worlds greatest destinations once
the sun goes down. There are districts for
every mood and orientation, all getting started
late and finishing in the small hours. Most
visitors will settle for a tapas bar or two and
a taste of the atmosphere just stray a little
into Huertas, for example, a short walk from
the main tourist centre around Puerto del Sol,
to get a flavour of things.

If you like this

For another wonderful Spanish-speaking
capital, try Buenos Aires, Argentina. Another
Iberian hotspot mixing history by day with
late-night fun is Lisbon, Portugal.

accommodation. However, there is a

scattering of inns near the Moorish
Quarter, such as the Posada del Len de
Oro and the Posada del Dragn, offering
unheated and open-plan sleeping facilities.
These places are not for the faint-hearted
and tend to be rather insalubrious. Its a
good idea to sleep with your shoes tied
round your neck.
Eating and drinking
Youll need a lot of energy to cope with
Madrids hectic nightlife.The city boasts
more taverns between Plaza Tirso de
Molina and Plaza Santa Ana than in all of
Norway. Try the roast suckling pig, a
Castilian speciality, at one of the taverns in
the winding streets adjacent to the Puerta
del Sol. Be warned: you will feel very lonely

if you turn up for dinner before 10pm.

The vast majority of these inns are frequented
by a smattering of civil servants and honest wage
earners, but at night they are a haunt for
swashbuckling soldiers, freshly returned from
fighting Dutch insurrectionists in Flanders.

Diego Velzquezs Adoration

of the Magi, 1619. The
painting now hangs in
Madrids Prado Museum

Getting around
Madrid is highly walkable, and it is only a short
stroll from the central Puerta del Sol to any of
the citys major attractions. However, the town
hall has yet to post street signs or house numbers
on the buildings so an oil lantern is vital for
getting around after dark.
Jules Stewart is a freelance journalist
and author. His latest book, Madrid: The
History, is published by IB Taurus.

April 2014

77

history | killed by their own inventions

killed
by their own
inventions

Fate is a fickle mistress and these great

inventors have the dubious honour
of dying by the very inventions and
discoveries that brought them accolades.
Moshita Prajapati lists the untimely and
unnecessary demise of these scientists

Carl Wilhelm Scheele Death by Taste

wiki x3, 123rf.com, modern mechanix.com

Scheele was a Swedish-German pharmaceutical chemist who is

credited with discovering a number of chemicals, such as oxygen,
manganese, chlorine, and compounds like arsenic acids, hydrogen
fluoride, etc. His untimely death was brought about by his longstanding habit of either sniffing out or taste testing his discoveries;
he managed to stave off death when he tasted hydrogen cyanide,
an extremely poisonous liquid, also one of his discoveries.
Alas! His peculiar habit was his downfall and he died on 21 May
1786, of what doctors now confirm as mercury poisoning.

William Bullock Death by Kick

Bullocks invention of the web rotary press revolutionised the printing
industry. His invention allowed for a continuous feed of rolls of paper
thereby increasing speed and efficiency. Whilst making adjustments
on one of his machines, Bullock tried to kick a diving belt onto a pulley
when his foot got caught in the machine and was crushed by the
mechanism. His foot developed gangrene and on 12 April 1867, as he
was being operated upon to amputate the foot, he died.

78

April 2014

Jean-Franois Piltre
de Rozier Death by Hot Air
De Rozier and his companion Pierre Romain
were not only the first human passengers to fly
a hot-air balloon, but also were the first known
fatalities of an air crash. The worlds first
untethered balloon flight, manned by them, took
place on 21 November 1783 from the Chteau
de la Muette in the Bois de Boulogne, flying a
distance of 9kms over 25 minutes and landing
on the outskirts of Paris. On their now final
flight, they attempted to cross the English
Channel on 15 June 1785, when the hot air
balloon suddenly collapsed and crashed from a
height of 1500ft, killing them both.

 Max Valier Death by Fuel

Valier was a rocketry pioneer, who wanted to realise the
reality of space flight in the 20th Century. He invented
liquid-fueled rocket engines under the patronage of Fritz
von Opel. On 25 January 1930, he successfully tested a car
that was powered by liquid rocket fuel and on 19 April that
year, he executed the first test drive of a rocket car powered
by liquid propulsion. He died not in a crash car, as one
would expect, but sitting by his workbench, when the
alcohol-fueled rocket engine he was devising exploded,
killing him.

Franz Reichelt Death by Cloth

Reichelt was an Austrian-born French tailor, who invented a
mix between the modern-day parachute and an overcoat,
which he was confident would allow pilots to safely land
when jumping from damaged planes. Flying high on the
success of the tests he conducted using dummies, he
decided to jump off the first deck of the Eiffel Tower to test
the invention himself. The result: he fell 187ft (57m) to his
death on the icy ground in front of a gathered crowd. If you
arent the queasy kind, watch his jump here www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_
embedded&v=FBN3xfGrx_U (Death Jump Franz Reichet)

Otto Lilienthal

Death by Flight
Lilienthal was a German aviation
pioneer, who specialised in gliding
flights, earning the moniker of the
Glider King. His inventions without
doubt are seen as important work in
the field of manned aviation before the
Wright Brothers. With over 2000
successful flights under his belt, he
took his final flight on 9 August 1896,
when his glider stalled mid flight and
crashed, resulting in injuries that
eventually led to his death.

history | killed by their own inventions

James Douglas 4th Earl of

Morton Death by Beheading
The Earl of Morton was a Regent of King James VI to
Scotland. To punish crimes committed against the
Crown, he introduced Maiden, an early form of the
guillotine, which was an improvement from the
primitive Hailfax Gibbet guillotine implemented in
England. Accused by his peers of his part in the murder
of Lord Darnley, the King Consort of Scotland, he was
executed on 2 June 1581, by the very guillotine he
introduced, having been impressed by its clean work.

Marie Curie Death by Radiation

wiki, 123rf.com

Two-time Nobel Prize winner Marie Curie is credited with the

discovery of two highly radioactive elements; radium and
polonium. Curie always carried around isotopes of the
elements in test tubes in her pocket, and had them stored in
her desk drawer, remarking on the faint light they gave off.
After spending all her time studying the elements, without the
safety procedures required today when exposed to radioactive
elements, Curie eventually succumbed to aplastic anemia, a
condition caused due to exposure to radiation, on 4 July 1934.
Because of the high levels of radioactivity, her papers from
1890s are kept in lead-lined boxes and individuals must wear
protective gloves if they wish to consult them.

80

April 2014

Thomas Midgley Jr.

Death by Suffocation

Midgley, a mechanical engineer, and celebrated

chemist is known for creating no-leaded
gasoline (fuel), and the greenhouse gas Freon
(CFCs). But his death wasnt caused by either
of these products. After contacting polio and
suffering from lead poisoning, he was confined
to his bed. To help in ease of movements for
his limbs, he invented a rope and pulley system
attached to his bed. And on 2 November 1944,
as is with the fate of all scientists in this
article, he got entangled in the ropes and died
as a result of suffocation.

Horace Lawson Hunley

Death by Water

Hunley, a marine engineer helped and designed

three hand-powered submarines for the
Confederacy Government during Americas Civil
War. Though the safety record of his submarines
was questionable, they played a large role in naval
warfare. While his first and second submarine sank
as part of collateral damage, the third submarine
named H. L. Hunley, which has the distinction of
being the first combat ship to sink an enemy
warship, sank during a routine exercise
commanded by Hunley, along with a crew of seven.

buzz

A snippet on what we are upto

Quark 2014

This year BBC Knowledge participated as the knowledge

partner for Quark, Techno Management Fest, organised by Birla
Institute of Technology and Science at BITS Goa Campus,
Goa from 7-9 February 2014. The
three day festival showcased an
array of original concepts towards
innovative and effective design
in multiple categories broadly
based on Core Engineering, Pure
Sciences and Business. BBC
Knowledge also partnered with
the Quark National Quiz where
it witnessed an overwhelming
number of participants, and the
Goa Institute of Management
emerged as the winner.

inside the pages

An excerpt from a book you should read

Thought
Summar
prov
y:
facts, The oking and full of s
urprising
Great Spe
India, exe
eches
test of tim mplies that word of Modern
s
e
Jinnah's . The selection of stand the
opening
speech
parliame
nt, nathu speech for Pakis es;
ram Gods
tani
in court e
e's s
xplaining
why he s tatement
to Manm
h
Finance M ohan Singh's first ot Gandhi
speech a
inister in
s
'91, wh
India
global ec 's economy to be ich allowed
o
passiona nomic reforms, a in tune with
ll capture
te effusio
n
the grow
th and sh of orators that le the
aping of
modern In d to
dia.

Ramchandra Guha,
historian and author says,
This is an absorbing and
richly educative book.
Ranging from Nehru
to Vajpayee and from
Tagore to Vikram Seth, the
speechmakers represented
here cover all shades
of social and political
opinion. Guided by a sure
editorial hand, they take
us evocatively through
the highs and lows of our
modern history.

82

April 2014

History

Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in her speech explains that to safeguard the security of India from
internal disturbance an emergency is imposed.

INDIRA GANDHI (1917-1984)

June 12, 1975, as the historian Ramchandra Guha has noted,
was a bad day for Indira Gandhi. Early in the morning, she
was informed that her old associate D. P. Dhar had died.
Later in the morning came news that Congress was taking a
beating in the polls in Gujarat. And then came the judgement
from the Allahabad High Court declaring her 1971 election
to the Lok Sabha from Rae Bareli null and void for misuse
of government machinery for election purpose. Many senior
Congressmen felt that she should step down as prime minister
INDIRA GANDHI (1917 1984)
The President has proclaimed the emergency. This is nothing to
panic about.
I am sure you are all conscious of the deep and widespread
conspiracy, which has been brewing ever since I began to introduce
certain progressive measures of benefit to the common man and
woman of India. In the name of democracy, it has been sought to
negate the very functioning of democracy. Duly elected governments
have not been allowed to function and in some cases, force has been
used to compel members to resign in order to dissolve lawfully elected
assemblies. Agitations have surcharged the atmosphere, leading
to violent incidents. The whole country was shocked at the brutal
murder of my Cabinet colleague, Shri L. N. Mishra. We also
deeply deplore the dastardly attack on the Chief Justice of India.
Certain persons have gone to the length of inciting our armed
forces to mutiny and our police to rebel. The fact that our defence
forces and the police are disciplined and deeply patriotic and,
therefore, will not be taken in, does not mitigate the seriousness of
the provocation.
The forces of disintegration are in full play and communal
passions are being aroused, threatening our unity.
All manners of false allegations have been hurled at me. The
Indian people have known me since my childhood. All my life has
been in the service of our people. This is not a personal matter. It is
not important whether I remain Prime Minister or not. However,
the institution of the Prime Minister is important and the deliberate
political attempts to denigrate it is not in the interest of democracy or
of the nation.
We have watched these developments with utmost patience for
long. Now we learn of a new programme challenging law and
order throughout the country with a view to disrupting normal
functioning. How can any Government worth the name stand by
and allow the countrys stability to be imperilled? The actions of a

following the verdict. But she chose to heed the advice of her
youngest son, Sanjay Gandhi and the chief minister of West
Bengal, Siddhartha Sankar Ray. On June 25, Ray helped her
draft an ordinance declaring a state of internal emergency.
The President, Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed signed it without any
protest. Armed with the ordinance, Indira Gandhi switched
off the power supply to all Delhis newspaper offices so that
there would be no issue the next day. At 6 oclock in the
morning of June 26, a meeting of the union cabinet was
summoned, the members informed of the emergency and
their formal consent obtained. Indira Gandhi proceeded to
the studio of the All India Radio to announce the state of
emergency to the nation.
few are endangering the rights of the vast majority.
Any situation, which weakens the capacity of the national
Government to act decisively inside the country, is bound to
encourage dangers from outside.
It is our paramount duty to safeguard
unity and stability. The nations
integrity demands firm action.
The threat to internal
stability also affects
production and prospects
of economic improvement.
In the last few months
the determined action we
have taken has succeeded
in largely checking the
price rise. We have been
actively considering further
measures to strengthen
the economy and to relieve
the hardship of various
sections, particularly the poor
and vulnerable and those with fixed
incomes. I shall announce them soon.
I should like to assure you that the new emergency proclamation
will in no way affect the rights of law-abiding citizens. I am
sure that internal conditions will speedily improve to enable us to
dispense with this proclamation as soon as possible. I have been
overwhelmed by the messages of goodwill from all parts of India
and all sections of the people. May I appeal for your continued
co-operation and trust in the days ahead?

The President
has proclaimed
the emergency.
This is nothing
to panic about.

The Great Speeches of Modern India published by Random House

India, `299.

123rf.com X3, random house india

Proclamation of emergency
(New Delhi, June 1975)

resource

the latest science books reviewed

Our Mathematical Universe The Last Alchemist In Paris The Long And The Short Of It
My Quest For The Ultimate Nature Of Reality

And Other Curious Tales From Chemistry

The Science Of Life Span & Aging

Max Tegmark Allen Lane `2,547

Lars hrstrm Oxford University Press `695

J Silvertown The University of Chicago Press `1,625

K Max Tegmark is a
professor of physics at
MIT and a leading
expert on theories of
the Universe. But hes
also arguably the nearest
we have to a successor to
Richard Feynman, the
bongo-playing, wise-cracking
physicist who proved it is possible to be
smart, savvy and subversive at the same time.
Tegmark has carved out a career as a
physicist willing to ponder mind-boggling
issues like the existence of multiple
universes, yet without being dismissed as a
crackpot by his peers. As he admits in this
engrossing account of his career and
thinking, this has enabled him to stay under
the radar of the scientific establishment.
But now Mad Max has been given the
freedom of an entire book. And he hasnt
wasted it. Around half of it is a lucid tour
dhorizon of what we know about the
Universe. The rest is an exhilarating
expedition far beyond conventional
thinking, in search of the true meaning of
reality. Dont be fooled: Tegmark is a very
smart physicist, not a hand-waving
philosopher, so the going gets tough in parts.
But his insights and conclusions are
staggering and perhaps even crazy enough
to be true.

K My four-year
chemistry degree
course made little
reference to history.
We learnt nothing of
acetones vital
contribution as a solvent
of nitroglycerine to the
production of cordite in
the First World War, or of the 19th Century
discovery that iodine deficiency in the
thyroid gland caused goitre. Nor did anyone
inform us how to tell a diamond from a
zirconia: hold it to your upper lip. Diamond,
as a good conductor of heat, will cool your
skin, whereas zirconia, as an insulator, will
make no difference.
Such stories form Lars hrstrms
beguiling book. Hes a Swedish chemical
engineer with a talent for dramatising the
unfamiliar role of chemistry in historical
events. In his finest chapter, Bonapartes
Bursting Buttons, he deconstructs a famous
anecdote that Napoleons soldiers, retreating
from Moscow in 1812, suffered dreadfully
because the tin buttons on their clothing
disintegrated. The white tin had changed into
less dense, non-metallic grey tin under
sub-zero conditions.
Not every chapter is as focused, however,
and astonishingly chemist Primo Levis 1980s
classic, The Periodic Table, goes unmentioned.

Robert Matthews is a Visiting Reader in Science at

Aston University.

Andrew Robinson is the editor of The Scientist: An Epic

Of Discovery.

Alien Universe
Extraterrestrial Life In Our Minds
And In The Cosmos
Don Lincoln
Johns Hopkins
University Press
`1,498

84

April 2014

Whether or not intelligent alien life exists, Don

Lincoln argues, one of the biggest questions of all
time. Looking for an answer he delves into the rich
history of the alien phenomenon from the 1835
Moon Hoax, through the reported sightings of
Foo Fighters by World War II pilots, to more
recent claims of abductions. Popular films and TV
shows, such as Star Trek and The X-Files, are also
discussed, and Lincoln points out that our changing
concept of the alien often mirrors the hopes and
fears of society at the time. For example, the 1951
film The Day The Earth Stood Still reflects the
anxiety in coming to terms with our species

K Heres an
extraordinary
statistic: over the last
two centuries, human
life expectancy has
roughly doubled. Since
1840, the average
lifespan of our species has
been increasing by around
three months every year. Or, to put it
another way, by 15 minutes per hour. What is
to stop us living longer and longer, perhaps
even forever? Its a question that has
occupied plenty of human minds and its
one that now takes centre stage in this
provocative book.
Ecologist Jonathan Silvertown tackles the
subject of lifespan and ageing as a series of
linked puzzles. Why is it, for instance, that
bacteria only live for a matter of hours when
the ocean quahog (a kind of clam) can reach
400 years? How come conifers can live more
than 10 times that long? Why do some
species breed year in year out their entire
adult lives while others throw everything
theyve got into one monumental
reproductive effort? As Silvertown resolves
these conundrums, he throws in plenty of
fascinating facts, refers to dozens of
plants and animals, and boasts an eclectic
cast of human actors from Darwin to Bob
Dylan and Dr Seuss.
Henry Nicholls is a journalist and the author of The Way
Of The Panda.

newfound capability for self annihilation in a

nuclear holocaust.
The book is a level-headed fusion of pop culture
and the latest scientific advances in the field of
astrobiology, discussing the requirements for life on
Earth. But while the efforts of SETI (the Search for
Extraterrestrial Intelligence) to detect radio signals
from advanced civilisations are praised, Lincoln
professes that he believes the likelihood of an alien
visitation is extremely unlikely.
Lewis Dartnell is an astrobiologist and the author of Life In
The Universe.

get your clicks

Our pick of internet highlights to explore

H WEBSITE

H WEBSITE

H WEBSITE

All eyes on paris

Project euler

Real scientists

www.alleyesonparis.com

www.projecteuler.net

See what your cat sees as it wanders

around Paris. Okay, so your cat
probably doesnt wander around
Paris. But the familiar landmarks will
provide a useful backdrop to compare
a humans world with a cats or a
bees, or even a falcons. Sadly the
site is not yet up and running for OSX
users, but the creators promise
theyre working on it.

Ever fancied learning how to code?

Project Euler will give you something to
aim towards. The site contains a series
of problems to attempt, starting off
relatively easy and getting harder. If
youre not sure whether you want to
make the commitment, you can preview
the problems first before your grey
matter is fried.

www.realscientists.wordpress.
com

H WEBSITE

H WEBSITE

H WEBSITE

Digitised diseases

Chromoscope

Nobel prize inspiration initiative

www.digitiseddiseases.org

www.chromoscope.net

www.nobelprizeii.org

Here youll find images and details of

1600 human bone specimens,
including the deformed skull of a
young woman who died of syphilis
hundreds of years ago. Theyve been
made available for doctors and curious
members of the public to study for free
on this newly launched site. Its pretty
gruesome stuff, but fascinating.

Explore our Galaxy and the distant

Universe across the electromagnetic
spectrum. From high-energy gamma
rays all the way down to radio waves,
eight different telescopes provided the
images for Chromoscope. Use your
cursor to grab and zoom in and get to
know the all-sky images that make up
this open-source project in full.

Whether youre a scientist or not, these

videos will let you get inside the head
of some Nobel prize winners, and
hopefully give you a bit of inspiration. If
things are not going your way, the
Surprises and Setbacks section
shows that even failed experiments
have value and Nobel prize winners are
mistake-making humans too.

This is for anyone whos ever

wondered what real scientists do all
day. Each week a different scientist
or science communicator takes the
reigns of the Twitter handle @
realscientists and tweets about
their life. Theyre a diverse lot,
including field biologists tweeting
from the forest.

If you have a favourite website, blog or podcast that youd like to share with other readers, email bbcknowledge@wwm.co.in

edu talk
Kiran Bir Sethi, Director of Riverside School, Ahmedabad, talks to Moshita Prajapati about the
need for a student-centred learning
You set up Riverside because you were not
happy with the education your son was
receiving in his previous school. What does
Riverside offer that is different?
I think the single point of reference is that
Riverside is user-centred, which makes all the
difference to the whole system. Now the user
here is the student rather than the parent.The
focal point of the school is not the needs of
the parent. We have shifted the focus back to
students, which basically means that
everything we design and create
is to ensure that the student has a
The
pleasurable learning experience. I
think this elementary shift is what
such
sets Riverside apart.
Could you elaborate?
We really understand who the user
is. The Riverside model is based
on the three stages of development
the younger years are about awareness, the
middle years are for enablement and the older
years are to empower the child, and students
unfailingly go through these three phases. The
world is complex and you have to make this
simpler for the younger user to get it right. So all
the opportunities are designed to ensure that the
young users get the right experience at the right
time as they navigate through.

curriculum is designed
that the students get to
see the value in what they
are learning

How is this learning inculcated in the

classrooms?
It is not difficult to do. It is to do with what youre
learning towards, and what is the value of that
learning. That is the primary template.
So the curriculum is designed such that the
students get to see value in what they are
learning, even if it is about, say, the circulatory
system. Why should a student learn about the
circulatory system? Students need to know why
it adds value. So students take a blood test and
then we get to core of this experience when each
student is reading his/her blood report, which
helps them understand their system. The report
gives them clues on who they are, and how healthy
they are. This is adding value to their learning.

86

April 2014

You believe children to be catalysts of

change. How do you empower children on a
daily basis in school?
No child is born fearful. It is their 15 years spent
in school that often makes them this way. So
whats really important is to recognise what
do children really believe. That they can make
anything better, and they have the solution. You
cant tell children, No you cant, youre too
young, youre too alone, its too dangerous.
That makes them believe that is right. This was
my basis to evolve the belief in them that they
can, by creating a design model where they can
see the world and have the ability to engage.
It is in that engagement that they get a sense
that they can make something better. And that
became a very important programme when we
started Riverside.
What does a school programme look like,
which tries to achieve this?
From Grade 3 to Grade 7, every year, each grade
engages with a cause for five years as part of
the course, which is real and a social concern. It
could be about hunger for instance, and they will
associate themselves with a particular NGO. They

will learn how to conduct a research, understand

about physical height, weight, check the survey
of under-weight children, and raise money. They
also look at daily nutrition intake and all of this
learning is a part of their research. This is a part
and parcel of the school learning, and not done
as an after school activity.
Design for Change is an initiative, which
is now a global movement. What led to its
conception?
We have people visiting our school
who said, We want to do what you
are doing here. We realised it is the
practice of teaching and learning at
Riverside, which was creating an
impact. So we started documenting
everything we undertook, and
started giving it an online presence.
We embraced the idea of sharing the
practice because we realised that
teachers and schools are inspired not by what you
say but by what you do.
How did your design background from
National Institute of Design (NID) help?
Design means you take something from the
current scenario to make it better. Ill give you
a small example. You see the garbage thrown
outside your house and you say, Oh my God!
Its full of garbage. Youve never been in this
situation before, and you clean up
the garbage. But the next day, it is there back
again. This has happened because you have
not been able to look at the human centre of
this situation. Humans place the garbage there.
Garbage is not the problem, the people putting
the garbage out there is the problem. So
you study how far the garbage dump is. Is
it too far from the society? Do poeple
find it more convenient to put garbage in this
particular place? Design thinking asks you to
understand and empathise with human behaviour
and their patterns. That will tell you what needs
to be solved. This is the very basis of how design
influenced in creating learning and teaching
methods in Riverside.

games review
Take On Mars

also out
FIFA 14
PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, EA Sports, `3,999
The undisputed king of football
games is back, and this year its
making a surprisingly strong
claim to genuine innovation. The
new Player Chemistry feature
lets you fiddle with the playing
styles of individual team
members, tailoring their
approach to each match. You
might give your striker added
defensive capabilities, perhaps, or make your
defender more aggressive so hes more useful when
pushing forward. Its probably best to avoid any
settings that encourage biting other players.

Scratching your new motor

wont just mean a polish job
in Take On Mars; it means
billions of wasted dollars
and funding pulled from
future missions at the cost of
thousands of jobs

PC, Bohemia Interactive, ` 3,200

Have you heard of the Mars Curse? No,

sadly it has nothing to do with people
choking to death on chocolate bars. Its a
term that was coined to describe the
awkward history of our attempts to
explore the mysterious Red Planet.
Almost 60 per cent of our missions to
Mars have resulted in failure: the batteries
went flat on the satellite Mariner 3;
Phobos 1 was lost in space; and, of course,
there are British physicists who still weep
into their tea at the mere mention of the
word Beagle. Stupid craters.
Now, thanks to Take On Mars, you
can try to succeed where others have
failed. Assuming the role of a sweatypalmed operator back on Earth, youll
assume control of your own Rover as
you explore the Martian surface. Players
can jump straight into a series of missions
or otherwise elect to manage an entire
space programme from scratch,
researching new tech as the funding

trickles in. Provided that you dont prang

your billion-dollar craft on a rock, that is.
Czech developer Bohemia Interactive
is best known for its terrifyingly realistic
military simulations - back in 2011,
footage from ARMA 2 was mistakenly
used in a TV documentary. While its
efforts here are certainly less violent than
usual, theres still something quite eerie
about your slow progress across
the amber dunes, especially when viewed
through the warped perspective of a
Rovers fish-eye lens.
The vehicles are constructed from up
to 50 separately modelled components,
any of which might fail on you at a
crucial moment: if a wheel gets jammed,
for example, youll have to find a way to
compensate for your wonky steering.
This kind of problem-solving gameplay
might not appeal to everyone, but hey
- you cant have a Rover sim without the
Mars Curse.

Metal Gear Solid:

The Legacy Collection
PlayStation 3, Konami, `4,299
Blimey, how does one
summarise the importance of
Hideo Kojimas epic series in
just 80 words? Its not possible,
but suffice to say that this
compendium houses some of
the best video games ever
made. Imagine James Bond
meets Bear Grylls in a self-aware soap opera, filled
with robots, ninjas and edible snakes. Oh, and Metal
Gear Solid 3 has an incredible bit where you simply
climb a ladder for two minutes. Its brilliant, honestly.

Disney Infinity
PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii, Wii U, 3DS,
Disney, `1,299
If youre familiar with Activisions
wildly lucrative Skylanders
brand, youll understand the gist
of Disney Infinity. Its a platform
game where players can scan
real-world toys to import them into their virtual
worlds. There are also franchise-specific playsets
that unlock famous Disney locales like Monsters
University or the tropics of Pirates Of The
Caribbean, while Toy Box mode lets you blend
characters and settings to create your own
mash-ups - like The Incredibles battling Davy
Jones in Radiator Springs.

Gadgets

charge on the go

Power Trekk
The Power Trekk is made up of three components; a
water reservoir, a puck, which is an internal battery, and a
green plastic fuel cell top. Based on a Swedish Fuel Cell
technology, the Power Trekk just needs to be filled with
water and salt and the technology then converts the
hydrogen, which produces electricity, to
provide instant power anywhere.
Price: `10,146 www.amazon.com

Ecoxpower
EcoXPower is a compact handler, which can be strapped to
your cycle, and with every pedal you can charge your phone.
The attached dynamo engages the wheels moving spokes and
converts kinetic energy into electricity. The energy produced
also powers the bikes head and tail light. The lithium-ion battery
also stores power to light up the headlights without pedalling
for two hours.
Price: `12,276 www.amazon.com

Window socket
The Window Socket is a renewable energy generator in shape
of a round button, which can stick onto any surface. It sticks
to a window with a suction plate that encircles the solar
panel, and a basic outlet feeds the converted solar power to
a device placed for charge. It can provide 10 continuous
hours of power on a full charge; it
presently takes about five-eight
hours to fully charge.
Price: TBA
www.yankodesign.com

Spin
The 'SPIN' eco media player allows you to play music without the
need to charge. One minute of winding the rotator by hand
provides 45 mins of playtime. A fully charged device can last up to
55 hours. It also enables you to charge your mobile through the
device. The media player is powered by the neodymium magnets,
which is twice more effective than charging with electricity.
Price: `9,058 www.amazon.co.uk

riding the wave of green technology

Re-Feed |

You should feel bad about throwing

away leftovers from last nights dinner.
Be a proactive environmentalist and
invest in this Re-feeder - your
personal compost and waste
processor. The canister-like device
comes with a blade, which shreds and
converts organic waste into instant
fertilising liquid for your plants. An
attached tube feeds and nourishes
your plant from the roots up.
Price: T.B.A
www.yankodesign.com

Rukus Xtreme
This eco-powered, Bluetooth-enabled
music machine has five speakers and
solar panels, which can fully charge the
speakers in five hours flat. It also reserves
the energy in an inbuilt 6600mAh battery,
which enables you to charge any mobile
phones or tablets.
Price:`4,698 www.amazon.com

| WakaWaka Light
WakaWaka light is a solar powered LED lamp that is
twice as efficient as the other solar lamps in the
market. The size of a tablet, its backed with solar
panels on the back, which provides 16 hrs of safe
light on a single day of solar charge. Weighing up to
200g, its also incredibly light.
Price: `1,566 www.waka-waka.com

LifeStraw |
LifeStraw is a personal water filter, which allows
you to drink water safely from any water source you
come across while travelling. This light-weight gadget is
capable of purifying up to 1000 litres of water, without the use
of chemicals and wipes out 99.9 % of harmful bacteria.
Price: `1,253 www.amazon.com

Eolic
The Eolic is a
portable windmill,
beneficial when
no power is
available. It
converts wind
energy into
electric energy
and stores it,
which can be
used to power
your gadgets
when needed.
This sleek and
portable wind
turbine made of
carbon fibres and
aluminium makes
it a lightweight
gadget, but also
tough enough to
not get blown
away by the wind.
Price: TBA
www.inhabitat.
com

- Compiled by Sanaa Nalawalla

| Soccket ball
How does a 17 ounce, airless,
deflation proof, and
water-resistant ball harness
clean green energy? By being
kicked. This action allows for
the pendulum inside the
socket ball to swing when the
ball moves, generating energy
for a rechargeable battery
stored inside. Thirty minutes
of play translates into three
hours of light from its
companion LED lamp.
Price: `6,200
www.unchartedplay.com

Have suggestions for any gadget/application?

email bbcknowledge@wwm.co.in

in exciting
Solve & W e hampers
chocolat 550 from
worth `

puzzle pit
Questions and challenges guaranteed
to give your brain a workout

Crossword NO.20
Across

1 Relating to milk (6)

5 Crave, want or wish (6)
10 Blueprint, plan or sketch (7)
11 The English ___ : it separates Dover from Calais (7)
12 Discovers, tracks down (6)
15 Mounts, ascends (6)
16 Proclaim, attest or announce (7)
17 A kind of ceremony (4)
18 Scandinavian books (4)
19 Succeed, do well (7)
20 Snatch or seize (4)
22 Egyptian goddess (4)
25 Participated or enrolled in (7)
27 ____ one's views: expressing oneself openly? (6)
28 Area or locality? (6)
31 Thoughtful (7)
32 Condense, curtail, or lessen (7)
33 Overcome in a contest (6)
34 Core of a nut (6)
Down

2 Captivate or charm (7)

3 Worked hard, struggled (6)
4 Masticate (4)
5 Pal of Harry and Tom? (4)
6 Horse's accommodation (6)
7 Changed the title (7)
8 Medical practitioner (6)
9 Clear part of the blood (6)
13 Burning or inflamed (7)
14 Spectacles (7)
15 A climbing plant (7)
20 Understands or realises the significance or meaning of (6)
21 Put in order (7)
23 Tool used in spinning (7)
24 Burnt slightly (6)
25 Complete or whole (6)
26 More costly or more beloved? (6)
29 Abandoned (4)
30 Giant killer from the fairy tales (4)
How to enter for the
crossword: Post your entries to BBC
Knowledge Editorial, Crossword No.20
Worldwide Media, The Times of India
Bldg, 4th floor, Dr Dadabhai Navroji Road,
Mumbai 400001 or email bbcknowledge@
wwm.co.in by 10 April 2014.
Entrants must supply their name, address
and phone number.
How its done: The puzzle will be
familiar to crossword enthusiasts already,
although the British style may be unusual
as crossword grids vary in appearance from

Your Details
Name:

Age:
Address:

PinCode:
Tel:

School/Institution/Occupation:

Email:

country to country. Novices should note

that the idea is to fill the white squares with
letters to make words determined by the
sometimes cryptic clues to the right. The
numbers after each clue tell you how many
letters are in the answer. All spellings are
UK. Good luck!
Terms and conditions: Only
residents of India are eligible to participate.
Employees of Bennett Coleman & Co. Ltd.
are not eligible to participate. The winners
will be selected in a lucky draw. The
decision of the judges will be final.

Announcing the winners of

Crossword No. 19

Swaraj Kasar, Maharashtra

Rizza A. N., Chennai

Jayanth Gunda, Andhra Pradesh

Amogha Lakshmi HS, Bangalore

Solution of crossword NO. 19

Puzzl
Mensa
Q2
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Q4 Chain words

F
orm a continuous path of words from START to
FINISH by connecting the word parts given in the
boxes. There are two parts to each word and the
second part of one word is the first part of the next.
You wont necessarily need to visit every box to
achieve your aim.

il
and Ta
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April 2014

91

Puzzle Pit

t
Find your way ou
of the maze.

Q7 Hidato

Q8 PICTURE SEARCH
In the jumble below, the words
represented by each of the 16 pictures
are hidden either horizontally, vertically
or diagonally forward or backwards
but always in a straight line. See how
many of them you can find? Look out for
descriptive names.

Q9 Enigma Code
Each colour in our code represents a letter. When you
have cracked the code you will be able to make up
seven words. The clue to the first word is given to help
you get started. The Clue: Exploit, control

se

Choo
Q 11 Pick and

mbination of
oosing the right co
e six clues by ch h of the letter set can be used
Solve th
below. Eac
at the end
letter sets given
given. The number e used in
only in the order
only once and
ts of letters ar
ifies how many se
of the clues spec
the solution.

re
Q10 Go Figu

third, fifth,
rs in the first,
the four numbe whatever operators
Place
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and seventh bo the second, fourth, and sixt
use in
er.
you care to
get the answ
rrect order to
boxes in the co only once
rs
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Rajasthan (3)
1. Bird sanctuary in
)
Open Champion (3
2. 2014 Australian

=2

Easy

=7

Medium
3

enir (2)
3. Keepsake or souv
arded (4)
4. Stockpiled or ho
5. Ancestors (4)

)
and Herzegovina (2
6. Capital of Bosnia

= 47

PUR

Q12 Today's Teaser

1) An elderly man is going for a walk. Two youn
g men
in excellent physical condition are directly behin
d
him, sprinting toward him. No matter how fast
they
run, they do not catch up with the man. Why cant
the
men catch up with the elderly man and where
are all
three people?

SARA

FO

RIN

JEVO

KA

LAT

RE

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UMU

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Q13 O
ne le

Use th

e pictu

tter

res du

cro

e to fi
ll in th

ss

word

e pizz

les.

2) Oscar sold 2 glasses of milk for every 5 soda

s he
sold. If he sold 10 glasses of milk, how many soda
s
did he sell?
3) How many flowers do I have if all of them
are roses
except two, all of them are tulips except two, and
all
of them are daisies except two?

Q7 Hidato:
Q6 Scramble: Words: Ivied, Flute, Launch,
Kelvin - We think in generalities, but we live
in detail.
Q5 Head & Tail:
Get-Sick-Pay-Dirt-Road-Trip-Wire-Gauge.
Q4 Chain Words: Mortal, Alter, Termed,
Medlar, Larder, Dermal, Malign, Ignite, Iterate,
Rateable, Ablest, Stand, Andante, Anteroom,
Roommate, Material, Rialto, Toward.
Q3 Deduction: Contend, Audit, Log.
Q2 Mensa Puzzle: 35. Numbers advance in
steps of 7, 8, 9 and 10.
Q1 Double Barrelled: Side.
Solu tions:

Q12 Today's Teaser: 1) The three people are

on treadmills in a gym. 2) 25 sodas. 3) Three
flowers: rose, tulip, daisy. 4) Hook, line and
sinker. 5) The words are: SILLY (Absurd); BILLY
(Billy goat); CHILLY (cold).
Q11 Pick and Choose: Bharatpur, Wawrinka,
Memento, Accumulated, Forefathers, Sarajevo.
Q10 Go Figure:
Easy: 2 x 2 + 5 - 7 = 2
Medium: 7 + 5 / 3 + 3 = 7
Hard: 3 + 4 x 7 - 2 = 47
Q9 Enigma Code: Harness, Hastens, Trashes,
Panther, Sharpen, Another, Shorten.
Q8 Picture Search: Bottle, Burglar, Cat,
Chair, Fish, France, Gear, Hammer, Hourglass,
Magnet, Mask, Rose, Rupee, Speaker, Swan,
Tuba.

5) What three rhyming words can be associate

d with
the following three words:
ABSURD
GOAT
COLD

Q13 One Letter Crossword:

1. H, 2. K, 3. A , 4. C.

4) What's the rebus, here:

J, ____ & Titanic

in focus
You will be able to
travel for free, forever,
on pure sunlight
- Musk, during the announcement of opening Tesla
Supercharger stations, where owners of Teslas Model S
cars will be able to charge their cars using solar energy
at stations spread across US and Europe. This is part of
Teslas move towards recognising a more sustainable
future for automotive transit.

Elon Musk

Legacy

business insider, spacenews.com, washigton post, motortrend.com

Elon Musk is not your average self-made

billionaire; he is an engineer, inventor and
an entrepreneur. He is part of the new-age
breed of intellectuals who want to map out
the future of transport and energy usage
of the world. He is CEO and Chief product
Architect of Tesla Motors; the company
manufactures fully electric vehicles for
mainstream consumers, the latest being the
award-winning Tesla Model S, a full-sized
electric five-door hatchback. His current
project Hyperloop, is a rapid transport
plan, which would allow travellers to cover
the trip between Los Angeles and San
Francisco in under 30 minutes as opposed
to the 10 hour drive by road, the 13-hour
drive by train or the one hour flight, while
travelling at a speed of 700 miles per hour.
But his ambition extends far beyond
Tesla. As the CEO and CTO of Space X,
he earmarked a significant landmark in
reducing the cost of space travel to develop
new technologies for orbital launches with
a reusable quality of that of a commercial
aircraft. Testing for the same has begun in
February 2014.

94

April 2014

Did you know

Musk was the inspiration for Robert

Downeys interpretation of Tony Starks
character for the Iron Man movies. Musk
did a cameo in Iron Man 2 and the Tesla
Motors Palo Alto factory was used for much
of the filming.

Musk taught himself to programme code

at age ten. He made his first sale, a video
game he had written called Blastar, to a
magazine at 12 for $500.

Space Xs Falcon 9 rocket

In an interview Musk stated that he never

takes a vacation.

The future of our transport:

The Tesla Model S (left)
and a computer generated
image of the Hyperloop

SCIENCE HISTORY NATURE FOR THE CURIOUS MIND