for knowledge

march/april 2015

W
wo a W IN
r t h E BE
R8 R
,0 0
0

the magazine that surprises

PLUS
Non-stop
around thear
ol
world on sp.22
power

SUPER
WOMAN
Smart, rational
and emotionally
mature p.34

p.46

har?
s
u sug

r
to
d
ce

ict
d
y
ad
d
o
s
n
e
w
a
e
r
CWhy a

Why on earth
would you
want to live
on Mars? p.40

VOL 05 ISSUE 02 MAR/APR 2015

Price R38.00 | 4.50 | $5.50

SADC countries: R33.33 (Excl. TAX)

Genetically
Modified
Food
Is it really that bad for you?
Are farmers the victims of agricultural blackmail?
Can you ever avoid GM products in your diet? p.66

Become a medical

GENIUS

Learn the A to Z of
chemical elements
EBOLA: Is there a
conspiracy behind the
spread of this killer virus?
Get to grips with new
prosthetic technology
When are you really dead?

Focus

Dont look down

hey could walk to school but it would

take a whole day. By riding this cable
T
car over a distance of 1km it only takes
the children of the village of Yushan
(China) a few minutes to make it to their
lessons on time in the nearby city.

22/2015

braintainment@panorama.co.za
@braintainmentza

This month
ON THE COVER
Sunny side up
Flying around the world non-stop in a solarpowered plane.

Beauty is in the
robotic eye of
the beholder

edical advancements are, for the most

part, born out of necessity. Scientists,
researchers and doctors pour hours into
searching for that one breakthrough that
could bring an end to an epidemic or find a
cure for an illness or disease. They burn the
midnight oil figuring out how to use
technology to restore a defunct body parts
functionality and push the envelope to find
new ways of keeping us alive for longer. No
doubt, such great strides in medicine and
surgery have certainly made life in this
modern era a lot more comfortable.
On the other hand, it is often these same
breakthroughs that fuel the fire of our
curiosity, our quest to become the perfect
specimen and our vanity. Take plastic surgery
for instance. For decades, such procedures
have restored the dignity of those whose
physical appearances were altered as a result
of serious accidents.
However, we soon cottoned on to the idea that
plastic surgery could make us more attractive.
You want pouty lips or want those aging laugh
lines to vanish? No problem. Botox can help
with that. Going bald? Dont stress. A hair
transplant can fix that. For some it doesnt
stop there. They become obsessed in the
quest for ultimate beauty. Pop legend Michael
Jackson is a classic case in point. Dont get
me wrong. I am one of his biggest fans, but
there was something wacko about Jacko
constantly going under the knife to change
from a handsome African-American man to
what resembled a pale white woman with a bit
of stubble.
And this got me thinking about our article on
page 26 about how new technology is helping
to restore lost senses such as hearing and
touch. Once again, these developments give
renewed hope to those living with disabilities.
But like plastic surgery, will there soon come a
time when we opt for prosthetic limbs or a
robot eye simply to make us superhuman? Will
we voluntarily lose a limb in order to fit a
robotic hand that makes us super strong?
Where does one draw the line in the quest for
perfection? I guess thats why vanity is
considered a deadly sin. Enjoy your read.
Gerard Peter
Editor-in-chief

22/2015

Page 22

Medicine 101
New technological advancements restore our
senses. Plus, when are you really dead? And the
race to find an Ebola vaccine.

Page 26

Sisters are doing it for themselves

What make women better leaders than men?

Page 34

Elementary speaking
The A to Z of chemical elements.

Page 42

Sweet temptation
What makes sugar so addictive?

Page 46

Thought for food

Why genetically modified foods arent
as bad as you think

Page 66

Plus
Why do we want to live on Mars? Questions and
Answers, Quickies.

Suicidal animals

These 7 species sacrifice

themselves for the
survival of their kin.
Page 52

TECHNOLOGY

Whats app?

The secret to the success of Angry Birds and

other popular apps.

Page 10

HEALTH

Living dead

When does a doctor decide to turn off

a life support machine?

Page 12

SCIENCE

New body parts

How do scientists give sight to the blind and can we

restore our sense of smell?
Page 26
NATURE

A death for a life

Sugar rush
Why do we have to finish the
whole bag of sweets in one go?
Page

46

Animals that sacrifice their own lives for the survival of

the species
Page 52
TECHNOLOGY

Connectivity

How does the internet work?

Page 56

AUTO

Fast and furious

What fuels the urge to drive fast?

Page 62

HISTORY

Mysterious islands

Did Atlantis ever exist and what brought about the

destruction of the inhabitants of Easter Island?
Page 72

PLUS

Robot senses

Scientists have been trying for

years to copy our senses, but their
success has been limited.
Page 26

Girl power

What makes women better

leaders than men?
Page 34

Focus
Inbox
Quickies
Q&As
Brain candy

WIN
Win a Weber Master Touch braai and
accessories worth R8,000.
Celebrate our sports and braai
heritage by submitting your favourite
Sports Selfie.

Details on page 39

Elementary

The A to Z of
chemical elements.
Page 42

1
4
6, 76
18, 40
71

for knowledge

the magazine that surprises

INTERNATIONAL EDITION

SOUTH AFRICAN EDITION

PUBLISHER
Urs Honegger

Birds of a feather

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Gerard Peter
MANAGING EDITOR
Deanne Dudley
SENIOR SUB EDITORS
Noleen Fourie, Vanessa Koekemoer
SUB EDITOR
Nicolette Els
TRANSLATION EDITOR
Elsje Calkoen
EDITORIAL INTERNS
Charlotte Bastiaanse, Kgadi Mothotse

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Thomas Hendriks

CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER Eric Blok
G + J Uitgevers C.V.
Gebouw Stede
Dalsteindreef 82-92
112xc Diemen.
The Netherlands

OPERATIONS AND
PRODUCTION MANAGER
Paul Kotze
STUDIO MANAGER
Cronj du Toit
TRAFFIC AND PRODUCTION
EXECUTIVE
Deidre Bredenhann

PRESIDENT G+J INTERNATIONAL

Dr Torsten-Jrn Klein
EVP G+J INTERNATIONAL
Dr Stefan Gneu

ADVERTISING
Tel: 011 468 2090, sales@panorama.co.za
Urs Honegger urs@panorama.co.za
Geoffrey Swanepoel
SUBSCRIPTIONS
subscriptions@panorama.co.za
Tel: 011 468 2090 Fax: 011 468 2091
FINANCE accounts@panorama.co.za
DISTRIBUTION Republican News Agency
ISSN 2223-1447
PRINTERS BusinessPrint

Braintainment is printed
on partially recycled

July - Dec 2013

13412 (total)

paper

Braintainment is published alternate monthly; 6 issues per annum. All

rights reserved. Reproduction of this magazine in whole or in part is
prohibited without prior written permission of Panorama Media Corp (Pty)
Ltd. Copyright 1997-2015 Panorama Media Corp (Pty) Ltd. The views
expressed in Braintainment are not necessarily those of Panorama Media
Corp and the acceptance and publication of editorial and advertising
matter in Braintainment does not imply any endorsement or warranty in
respect of goods or services therein described, whether by Braintainment
or the publishers. Braintainment will not be held responsible for the
safe return of unsolicited editorial contributions. The Editor reserves the
right to edit material submitted and in appropriate cases to translate
into another language. Braintainment reserves the right to reject any
advertising or editorial material, which may not suit the standard of the
publication, without reason given.

panorama
mediacorp
Competition disclaimer

HEAD OF INTERNATIONAL BRANDS

AND LICENSES
Daniela Zimmer
DEPUTY
Daniel Gesse
MARKETING MANAGER Natasha Dewi Kersting,
Sandrine Hygoulin, Lasse Martinsen
PICTURE EDITOR Annika Ananias, Anja Wiemken
ASSISTANT/AD SALES Melanie Sachau
G+J INTERNATIONAL MAGAZINES GMBH
International Brands and Licenses
Am Baumwall 11
20459 Hamburg
Germany
Phone +49 40 3703 6331
Fax +49 40 3703 5867
QUEST belongs to Gruner+Jahs International Popular Science Magazine
Family being published in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, France, Germany,
Greece, Italy, Mexico, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain and Venezuela
Copyright 2010 by G+J International Magazines GmbH, Hamburg
This magazine is published under license from G+J International
Magazines GmbH. All rights to the licensed material are owned by G+J
International Magazines GmbH. Reproduction, whether in whole or in part,
without permission of G+J Magazines GmbH is prohibited. The name of
QUEST and the logo thereof are registered TRADEMARKS of or in trust of
G+J International Magazines GmbH.

PUBLISHED BY Panorama Media Corp (Pty) Ltd.

Private Bag X4, Kyalami, 1684, South Africa.
92 Campolino Road, Kyalami.
Tel: 011 468 2090 Fax: 011 468 2091/2
www.panorama.co.za

These rules apply to all competitions and giveaways in Braintainment:

1: Email entries are restricted to one per person or email address. 2: Staff members of
Panorama Media Corp, the sponsors of the prize, their advertising agencies as well as any
immediate family may not enter. 3: Prizes are not transferable, and may not be converted into
cash. 4: The judges decision is final. No correspondence will be entered into. 5: Panorama
Media Corp staff cannot be held liable for any prizes that go missing, or are damaged in the
post, or may cause harm to the recipients. 6: Please note that by entering our competitions
you are opting into the Panorama Media Corp database. Should you receive any unwelcome
communications, you will be given the opportunity to unsubscribe. 7: Panorama Media Corp
makes every effort to contact prize winners on either the email address or mobile number
used to enter the competition. Prizes that are not claimed within 90 days of the winner being
published, will be forfeited. Prizes returned by the post office as unclaimed will be forfeited.

22/2015

In our Jan/Feb issue, learners from Crawford Prep La Lucia were

keen to know what a hadedas nest looks like. Two eagle-eyed
readers have sent us their pics. Yvette van Niekerk (pics above)
lives in Equestria, Pretoria and there is a hadeda that breeds
there every year. This year there were 2 chicks.

Francois von Landsberg spotted this nest with 2 chicks at his

friends house in Ladysmith, KwaZulu-Natal.

What the flip?

7 Why do we always depict

north as on top? In the
universe there is no up or
down. Maybe we are rotating
on our side and the galaxy
too? If the magnetic poles
switch, will the Earth flip and
will we then show the world
upside down?
Brian Lennox, via email
Well, you do raise a valid
point, but in life we all need
direction, hence over the
centuries we have conceded
that north is on top.
Regarding the magnetic
poles switching positions, it
will certainly turn our world

upside down. Get your hands on

the Sep/Oct 2014 issue and read
just what mayhem lies in store
when this happens.

Back to front

7 Dear Braintainment
I am addicted to you. Thank you
for a unique magazine with
something on everything, unlike
most other mags where there
could be 1 or 2 articles one
would find of interest and the
rest will just be paged over.
Every issue of my Braintainment
magazine is read from the cover
right through to the back page.
And by the way, I love the
outlook page at the back, what
an innovative idea! Indeed that

Questions, suggestions or observations? Share them with us:

A
A

Editor, Braintainment, Private Bag x4, Kyalami, 1684 A Twitter: @braintainmentza

Email: braintainment@panorama.co.za

Please include your name and address. The editor reserves the right to shorten and edit letters.

Practice makes
perfect?

7 I really enjoyed your Jan/Feb

2015 issue, until I read the
article Genius in the Making.
Unfortunately, the part about
practising a lot not being worth
much is really ill-considered and
misleading in my view. To
highlight this, please consider
the following:
1. Excessively practising
something you really love and

have an aptitude for is always

beneficial.
2. Practising something that you
do not love and do not have an
aptitude for is a waste of time
agreed.
3. Misquoting Malcolm Gladwell,
one of my favourite authors, is
really not okay. Gladwell links the
10,000 hours mentioned to
becoming a specialist/master
only after it is established that
you have: a) aptitude (actually a

lot of this genius); and

b)love for what you are doing.
Only after this does the
10,000 hours come into the
equation.
In simple terms: for me to play
golf like Rory McIlroy I have to
have the natural talent of Rory,
the love of the game that he
does and put in the 10,000
hours (or more) that McIlroy
undoubtedly has done.
In closing: Encouraging your
readers, who are mostly of the
younger generation, that hard
work and putting in the hours
is not worth it, is really not
cool. In a society where
everything is easy and instant
gratification is the order of the
day, encouraging people to
work hard (practise) is surely
not a bad thing.
Sybrand van der Spuy,
Johannesburg
Your comments are welcome.
Our article focused on the
latest research on improving
ones intelligence. Lets see if
any of our readers who put it
into practice go on to be the
next Einstein. Results will be
published in the Jan/Feb
2024 issue.

@braintainmentza
The brains trust

Join our social media network

today.
Comments taken from our
Facebook polls
Given the opportunity, would
you travel to space?
7 Glenn Potgieter Bah! The
whole space thing was a
conspiracy made up by NASA.
7 Maureen Terblanche YES!
I have dreamt of space all my
life. Who wouldnt want to dance
with the stars?
7 Gerhart Pieter Not for me
thanks. I cant even drive without
being car sick... How would i
handle a space rocket or zero
gravity.
7 Candice White Depends on
how long the training and
journey would be. However, isnt
it the thing that everyone
dreams of?
7 Cronje du Toit Yes. Cause I
NEED my space.
Follow us on Twitter @braintainmentza.
Facebook: facebook.com/pages/
braintainment-magazine

WIN

Braintainment is giving away 5

copies of Great South African
Inventions by Mike Bruton. This
book is a fascinating collection of
South African inventors and
innovations from yesteryear to
modern day. Simply tell us what you
think is the greatest South African
invention of all time. Email your
choice to braintainment@
panorama.co.za. Competition
closes 30 April 2015. T&Cs apply.

is exactly where I start with my

mag, automatically paging from
the back to the front! Im
pleasantly surprised that at last
there is a magazine catering for
people like me!
Elmarie Ferns, via email

Bedtime tale

7 Why do some people snore and

others dont?
Bailey Kelly, Cape Town
There are a multitude of reasons
why some people snore, and most

of it is related to your health.

For instance, snorers may
have a narrower pharyngeal
(throat) size than nonsnorers. Some may have
medical conditions such as
enlarged adenoids, a larger
tongue or increased upper
airway resistance and
reduced airway patency
compared to non-snorers.

For the record

In our Jan/Feb 2015 issue, we
stated that The closest
neighbour of the Milky Way is the
Andromeda Nebula, which is
about 2.5 light years away ... We
were about 2,499,997 light years
out. It should have stated 2,5
million light years. We apologise
for any inconvenience caused.
22/2015

IGORIE V
STANISLAV GR

Quickies

n to
little imaginatio
a
ed
ne
es
do
One
this painting.
find a moose in

7ARCHAEOLOGY

Prehistoric
childrens
drawings

hey are called geoglyphs and

you find them all over the
world: lines on the earth that form
enormous figures. Often they are
animals, like the Nazca Lines in
Peru that form a spider. Stanislav
Grigoriev of the Russian Academy
of Sciences found one on an
island near Zyuratkul Lake in the
Urals in 2011. The lines of the
animal are supposedly some
6,000 years old. People of those
days first dug a trench of 4.5m
wide and then filled it with big
and small rocks. Grigoriev has
now discovered that children also
worked on it. He found 155 stone
tools belonging to the builders, of
which some are too small for
adults. Does that qualify as child
labour? Grigoriev doesnt know.
They might have been toys.

Ahead of
Shorts the
curve
The moose in the Urals is
about 195m wide and 218m
high.
A Most tools were used to
dig with and break stones.
A The tools are between 2
and 17cm in size.
A

22/2015

7SPACE

Jupiter looked back

he red eye of Jupiter has

been known to astronomers
for centuries. It is an enormous
tornado with wind speeds of
probably some 700km/h. Last
April, the eye briefly had a pupil.
The Hubble Space Telescope
recorded it by accident when it
made recordings of the swirls in
the eye. The black pupil is the
shadow of Ganymede, the largest
moon of Jupiter. Like the shadow
of our moon races across our
Earth with a solar eclipse,
Ganymedes shadow flew over the
surface of Jupiter. Jupiter briefly
stared back at Hubble, wrote
space organisation NASA in the
caption to the photo.

7TECHNOLOGY

The entire internet

through one cable

Ahead of
Shorts the
curve
A Most gladiators were forced
to fight in the arenas.
A They were mainly slaves, war
prisoners or convicted
criminals. They didnt receive
special training and often
didnt survive a fight.
A Voluntary gladiators could go
to a school. But even for them
the chance of survival was only
1 in 9.

7HISTORY

Energy drink for

gladiators
A

SHUTTERSTOCK

NASA

drink of vinegar and ashes. According to old

Roman texts this is what gladiators drank after
fights to recover and to soften the pain. But whether
this is really true is debatable
Anthropologists of the Medical University of Vienna
(Austria) decided to study 1,800-year-old bone
fragments of civilians and gladiators that were dug
up in Ephesus, a Roman city in Turkey. The

composition of their bones says something about

their menu. The carbon, nitrogen and sulphur could
come from wheat, barley and beans, which
everybody ate. But the bones contained more
strontium, an element that occurs in the ashes of
plant material. For the researchers this is a
confirmation that the ashes-vinegar drink did exist.
Whether it worked is uncertain.

ne optic fibre that all the internet

traffic of the whole world will fit in?
They are working on it. Scientists of the
Eindhoven University of Technology (NL),
among others, made a test cable of a
kilometre long that contained 7 optic
fibre cables. Optic fibre transports data
in the form of light in various
wavelengths. Through each optic fibre
core at least 50 wavelengths were sent at
the same time by the researchers, many
more than was possible up to now. The
result of the test was a speed that is
difficult to understand: 255 terabytes per
second (8,5 billion A4s of information per
second). This is about the same as all the
internet traffic that flashes over the world
every second, according to chip
manufacturer Intel.
See how the internet works on page 56.

Ahead of
Shorts the
curve
A Faster cables are necessary
because internet traffic is still
growing explosively.
A The super cable is hardly
thicker than the existing optic
fibre cables.
A However, to be able to read
all the information we also
need better receivers.

Quickies
7PSYCHOLOGY

Mars,
Venus
and art

The painting in the background

is by Marlene Dumas (a South
African artist now residing in
Holland).

Ahead of
Shorts the
curve

Yoghurt detects cancer

at a teaspoon of
yoghurt, pee on a test
stick and the doctor can
immediately tell you whether
you have intestinal cancer.
This will happen in the future
if its up to researcher
Sangeeta Bhatia of the
Massachusetts Institute of
Technology (USA). She
developed molecules that
produce so-called biomarkers when they come in
contact with intestinal
cancer cells. Patients
8

22/2015

swallow these molecules by

simply taking a spoonful of
the yoghurt-enriched
substance. Once in the
intestines they go to work.
The bio-markers are
subsequently excreted via
the kidneys and exit the
body via urine. A special
urine test will determine if
there are any traces of
cancer. This could be an
alternative to undergoing
rather intrusive (and
expensive) intestinal scopes.

Bio-markers can not

only identify illnesses,
but also the results of
medical treatment.
A Bio-markers do their
work because they can
detect changes in
protein in the human
body. These changes
often indicate a
connection with a
disease or disorder.
A

SHUTTERSTOCK

7BODY

VINCENT MENZEL/HOLLANDSE HOOGTE

en and women look

differently at art. Men mostly
look at the background; women look
more at the complete piece of art. This
is according to a study conducted by
marketing researchers of Michigan
State University (USA). The researchers
showed 2 paintings to 518 people. The
test persons also read (fake)
biographies about the artist. One half
read that the artist had been making
unique pieces of art his whole life. The
other half read about an ordinary
painter who had just started. The
established artist scored remarkably
better. Also, the men found the story
behind the artist to be of more
importance than the women. The men
based their judgement on the
pre-information, while women tended
to analyse the object.

Technology

Angry Birds, WhatsApp, Candy Crush. How do

Fortune app
Imagine striking it rich in a short space of time thanks to an
app that is downloaded millions of times. Who doesnt want
that? Here are 5 tips to make it happen.
7 TEXT: ANOUSCHKA BUSCH

1Give it away

The magic word when it

comes to apps is free. Free
apps are downloaded 20 times
more often than those that cost
money. So then how do you make
money?
One way is to introduce advertising
on your app. Often you will get paid
per click. When a user clicks on the
advertisement, you will get paid a small
amount. This can vary from R1 to R10.
Earning R1 per click is probably the most
realistic. On average, 0.5% of users will
click on every shown advertisement. This
might seem like peanuts, but if your app is
used a lot this could add up substantially.
The very addictive free game Angry Birds
delivered at least R500,000 per day at the
height of its popularity.

Make it addictive

App-makers dont make the most

money from the sale of their product,
but from the so-called in-app sales.
Currently, that makes up at least 90% of
the turnover of the Apple app store. The
app, for example, is then free, but a user
pays for all sorts of extras such as extra
lives or the ability to skip a level. But how

10

22/2015

do you persuade users to really spend

money on that? A good case in point is
the game Candy Crush that cleverly makes
use of the human urge for immediate
satisfaction. Everything in the game,
from the bright colours and the happy
music to the encouraging words (Sweet!
Delicious!) are there to give your brain
more rewards when you have managed
to make a row of sweets disappear. And
paying R9,99 to be able to continue
playing instead of waiting for half an
hour seems a small sacrifice when you
are happily playing. Eventually you pay
much more than you would ever have
paid for the game. And this can be seen
in the bank account of the creator:
Candy Crush makes about R5 million
every day.

3Create
your own
buzz

How do you make your

app more appealing
than a million others in
the app store? Without
money for expensive ad
campaigns you will have

Will it work?

you create an app that will make you rich?

to find another way to give publicity to
your app. You can try to convince media
or blogs to pay attention to it. But most of
the apps get their fame via word of mouth.
The trick is to stimulate the users to tell
their friends about your app. And the best
motivation for them to do that? When they
profit from the app as well.
Games are even more fun if you can play
against your friends. The success of the
apps Wordfeud and Draw Something is
largely due to this principle. When Draw
Something first came out there were a
lot of other app varieties of the game
Pictionary. But you could only play if
someone else was also online. This meant
that you often played against strangers.
With Draw Something you dont have to
react straight away. You can guess what
the drawing is when it suits you. So you
can always play with friends, even if they
arent online.

attention in
4Draw
the app store

One of the best ways to make sure that

your app gets sold a lot is to make sure
that it is shown as one of the first in
the app store. To do that you have to
make sure that your app is sold in large
numbers. This isnt easy, but

some app-makers have found a nifty

solution for that. They create a lot of fake
accounts and use these to buy their own
app. The money they spend eventually
lands in their own bank account again.
And the 30% that they have to pay to the
app store is a small investment compared
to the profit they hope to make. Thats
because by listing with the bestsellers the
app will sell so much that it will stay there
on its own.

5Keep it simple

If you want your app to be a hit,

dont make it too complicated. Ensure
that the user doesnt have to struggle to
find out how the app works. The most sold
app ever, Angry Birds, thanks its success
mainly to its simplicity. You catapult a
bird to destroy a pig. Granted, if you look
at it this way it sounds pretty ridiculous,
but the game is to conform to the laws of
physics. It is immediately clear what you
have to do to score points. And you dont
have to explain to anybody how a catapult
works. This, by the way, does not mean
that a successful game should also be
easy to win.
Having to try a little harder to score points
increases the feeling of reward that you
get as a user when it sometimes does
work.

onsumers dont want to

C
pay too much for an app.
The average price is R9,99.

About 30% of that goes to the

store where the apps are sold
and the app-maker keeps the
rest. However, in the app
world, the law of large
numbers applies. If you sell
100 apps per day then you
make about R700 per day.
But development is not free.
Lets assume that your idea is
in fact so original that a
standard solution is not
applicable. Then the
production costs could soon
rise to R150,000. This means
that you have to sell your app
about 300,000 times to
retrieve the costs. Statistically
speaking this is not likely. The
majority of the apps in the
Apple app store are
downloaded less than 1,000
times per year. In the Google
app store 80% of the paid
apps are downloaded less
than 100 times. Research
done by marketing company
App Promo deduced that 59%
of apps do not yield enough to
clear costs. And the prospects
for the future are bleak.
American IT research
company Gartner predicts that
only 1 in 10,000 apps will
have financial success
towards 2018. So make sure
to do the math beforehand.

22/2015

11

Health

No heartbeat. A brain that no longer functions.

When are you really dead?

Done
with life
It was simple in the old days. You were presumed dead once your heart stopped
beating. Today, it is a lot more difficult to determine if someone is really dead.
7 TEXT: MELANIE METZ

12

22/2015

22/2015

13

AMELIE BENOIST/BSIP/HOLLANDSE HOOGTE

icture the scene: a naked man

lies on a bed. His eyes are
shut, his chest is moving up
and down. It looks like he is
sleeping. A doctor stands next to the
bed. He takes the mans head and
pushes it softly towards his chin. The
man moves his arm. Does he want to
be left alone? No. The man is as dead
as a doornail.
This is no scene from The Living
Dead. This is a scene from an
educational movie for medics. The
brain-dead 43-year-old American was
filmed by doctors in 2000. You can
see a breathing tube in his mouth on
closer inspection. After his stroke his
brain had swelled so much that it
stopped functioning. But his body
still functioned. His spine could be
stimulated. That is why his arms
moved when the doctor lifted his
head. A brain-dead person can look
alive, while he is in fact dead. It can
also be the other way around: you are
dead, but you can be brought back to
life again. For example, in the case of
heart failure. About 300 heart
failures occur in South Africa every
week. In between 5 and 10% of these
cases the person is brought back to
life again. But it is not that simple to
determine if someone has really died.
How does a doctor know whether a
dead person can be resuscitated or
that a patient is brain-dead and not
0
just unconscious?

Health

Getting a heart to beat again is

often not a problem, but is there
any point in doing so?
death struggle from
metastatic lung
cancer, but then the
suffering starts again.
Besides, even if a patient
requests in a letter that he wants to be
resuscitated time and again, this is not
allowed in the Netherlands. A doctor is
not allowed to perform senseless
treatments according to Article 453 of the
Law of Medical Treatments. Whoever dies
from a fatal disease cannot be
resuscitated.

A Prediction is not possible

A doctor will attempt resuscitation in

Buried alive

t happened regularly that

Iembalming.
a body woke up during
The person in
question could count
themselves lucky that they
were not buried yet. This is
why the compulsory fake
dead houses were built in
the Netherlands in 1825.
The dead were displayed
there for 36 hours while
various tests were done.

A small mirror was held in

front of the mouth. If it
fogged up, then the person
was not dead but fake
dead. If the person didnt
show any signs of life after
the 36 hours, then he could
be buried safely.
Coffin builders cleverly
used this fear of being
buried alive. American
Franz Vester requested a

patent for a coffin with an

escape hatch that
protruded from the ground.
If the corpse woke up he
would open the hatch with
a rope and climb out via a
ladder. There was also a
bell attached to the rope,
in case the dead had
problems with walking.
Today the chances of being
buried alive are very slim.

GOOGLE.COM/PATENTS/US81437

Coffins with an emergency exit.

Some coffins also had a window
or an airshaft built into them.

14

Well, on paper anyway. The hospital

accidently faxed 200 death certificates of
living patients to their GPs. What went
wrong? When a patient is allowed to go
home a discharge note is sent to their GP.
Apparently, somebody had made a mistake
and replaced the discharge notes with
death certificates. And this was
automatically faxed to the GPs. The
hospital later apologised via a press
release.
most cases of accidents. How long will
he go on? This depends on how long the
brain can sustain, explains Kuiper.
When someone has hypothermia
because he has fallen into the water, you
can continue for an hour. When the
heart starts, the brain has not been
damaged irreparably. The cold slows
down the process of decay in the brain
cells. This is not the case for patients
with a normal body temperature. The
doctor will stop CPR after 20 minutes.
Kuiper explains: I once had somebody
who was resuscitated 17 minutes after
heart failure. He was unconscious
during this period without breathing.
But he made it. He was rather young, 44,
and that makes a difference.
A doctor decides on the basis of
scientific information to stop the
resuscitation, says Kuiper. From
research it is known, for example, that
people who already have brain damage,
such as elderly people with dementia,
profit less from resuscitation. The brain
is lost quicker if the heart is not beating.
Still, it remains unpredictable whether
resuscitation will be successful. Being
young and fit is no guarantee. We once
had a case of a young woman who
incurred heart failure during her fitness
routine, adds Kuiper. She was

Blood forms
little puddles
under your skin
when your heart
stops.
22/2015

LUUK VAN DER LEE/HH

When a body has been burned or

decapitated, then its clear that a person
can no longer be resuscitated, says
Michael Kuiper. He is an intensive care
doctor and neurologist at the Leeuwarden
Medical Centre (NL), and chairman of the
Netherlands Resuscitation Board. Also it
is nowadays almost always possible to start
the heart with a defibrillator or an AED
(automated external defibrillator). These
devices deliver an electric shock that
jumpstarts the heart. However, Kuiper
doesnt always see the point in this.
Technically speaking it is possible to
resuscitate someone when they die after a

he Austin Hospital in Melbourne

(Australia) accidentally murdered a
T
large group of patients in August 2014.

CHARLOTTE BOGAERT/HH

0 A Senseless CPR is not allowed

Not dead yet (1)

FRANK MULLER/HOLLANDSE HOOGTE

Ambulance staff always

resuscitate unless you
carry proof that you dont
want to be resuscitated.
resuscitated on the field by professional
medics. But she didnt make it. Also,
emotions play a role. You carry on
longer with a child than in the case of a
70-year-old.
The doctor will stop once resuscitation
becomes pointless. The patient dies
officially only then. The doctor signs a
death certificate. The brain dies quickly.
Death phenomena appear after 15 to 30
minutes, such as stiffness and rigor
mortis. Also, the body cools down.

A Brain-death test
What if someone falls off his motorcycle
and lands on his head? Then the heart is
still intact but the brain is damaged.
This could mean that the brain swells
and forces all the blood vessels closed so
that no cell will receive oxygen. This
also happens after a stroke. You are
brain-dead and your consciousness is
disengaged. Breathing no longer works.
Your brain has to transfer stimuli to
your chest muscles and the diaphragm.

Snow Whites baby

he body of a braindead person can

T
function when it is

ventilated. Even a baby

can grow in a brain-dead
mother. This became
apparent in 1992 when
18-year-old German
Marion Plock had a car
crash and was pronounced
brain-dead. Doctors
discovered that she was
15 weeks pregnant.
Researchers kept the baby

alive at the Friedrich

Alexander University. The
baby was fed artificially
while the mother was
connected to a ventilator.
Emotions ran high in the
German press. Critics
thought it bizarre that a
child could grow in a dead
body. Proponents called
the baby Snow White
after the comatose Snow
White from the fairy tale.
The baby died in the

uterus after a month. The

doctors couldnt find out
what went wrong. Now,
doctors and scientists
have managed a few times
to have a healthy baby
born from a brain-dead
mother. One of the most
recent cases is the
Canadian boy Iver Benson
who was born at the
beginning of 2014. Father
Dylan regularly tweets
photos of him.

And this cant be done when you are

brain-dead. Your body can only receive
oxygen via a ventilator. The body still
works, just like that of the living dead
American mentioned earlier. That is
why a brain-dead person looks like an
ordinary unconscious person. The only
difference is that an unconscious person
can still wake up while a brain-dead
person cant.
We test a patient in 3 phases when he is
unconscious, explains Kuiper. First, we
look for the causes of the
unconsciousness. Is there poison in the
blood? Is he very hypothermic? If not,
then we test the reflexes. For example,
can he still cough when you squirt water
in his airway? Such a reflex of your
trachea normally travels very fast to your
brain stem and back. If yes, then the
doctor will proceed to the last test phase.
He will look at the activity of the cortex
with a scan. Is there any activity or not?
Then the patient is brain-dead. The body
can be taken off the ventilator.
Sometimes this is delayed. For example
when organs are donated, or at the
request of the family (or when a braindead female is pregnant). The heart stops
when the ventilator stops. And then the
body is just as dead as the brain is.
0
22/2015

15

Health

SABINE JOOSTEN/HOLLANDSE HOOGTE

Even experienced
doctors doubt: is
he really dead?
Not dead yet (2)

uppose you wake up in a cold drawer in a

mortuary. It happened to these not-yet-dead.

Happy accident
The mortuary employees of the Kenyan Naivasha
District Hospital really got a fright when they
heard a loud bang from the cooling cell in
January 2014. It appeared to be coming from a
24-year-old man who had been pronounced
dead the day before. The doctors had given him
atropine to keep his heart beating steadily
because he had consumed insecticide. The
doses were probably too high because he
became comatose and seemed dead. It is not
certain if the man was happy with his
resurrection: he had taken the poison in a
suicide attempt.
Expensive joke
Doctors from the Russian Tomsk Regional
Clinical Hospital wanted to take the body of a
61-year-old woman for an autopsy when she
woke up. The doctors could not find an
explanation for the fake death of the woman.
She did suffer from heart problems. The
daughter of the woman was ecstatic, according
to the Siberian Times. She was less happy about
the money she had already spent on a coffin,
flowers and snacks for the funeral guests.
Take grandpa to his grave
An elderly South American man had died from
an asthma attack, his family thought. The
undertaker was called after 23 hours. He didnt
feel any pulse and put the man in the cooling
cells of a mortuary until the funeral. He got a
fright when he heard cries of help a little later.
The police were summoned to free the man.
Things apparently went wrong because the
family had not had a doctor to declare the man
dead. This is not compulsory in South America.

Usually it is very
simple: your heart
stops, then your
brain. Then you are
medically dead.

A Dead man rises

Doctors are careful when determining
whether someone is dead. So what
about the stories of people who were
declared brain-dead and still woke up?
They were not brain-dead, says
Kuiper. He points to a newspaper
article on his computer entitled braindead man wakes up, which shows a
picture of an American man sitting
happily on his bed. That man was
deeply unconscious, explains Kuiper.
This incorrect report can largely be
blamed on careless doctors. They
proclaimed, before all tests were
carried out, that the man in question
was brain-dead. Then it lands in the
media. And journalists dont always
understand it either and so the public
believe that a brain-dead person has
come back to life.

stopped and he was taken to a mortuary

where he woke up after a few hours.
However, according to Kuiper, this
doesnt happen often, especially in
hospitals. A living person will not
quickly be mistaken for a dead one with
all the CT scans and EEGs, he says.
Still, there is always a bit of uncertainty.
For example, you never know for sure
whether someone with heart failure has
been resuscitated long enough. I also
sometimes doubt. Maybe I have declared
someone dead who could have
recovered. That is why we have to try
and understand more. And we are
succeeding. But still, it is never 100%
certain, he concludes. 7

braintainment@panorama.co.za

A Doctors sometimes doubt

Also, something can happen that
makes a dead person come back to
life. For example, a man became
unconscious after a suicide attempt in
Kenya in January 2014. His heart had
Brain-death tests are very precise. Is there
any reflex? Is there any brain activity? If
not then you are officially dead.

ow do you test if
someone is really
H
brain-dead? The reflex test is
very important for that,
according to Dr Erwin
Kompanje of the Erasmus
MC Hospital in Rotterdam
(NL). He shows some images
of sleeping patients who
are being teased by
doctors. For example, the
eyes are tested. The doctor
shines a light in the eye of
16

22/2015

the patient and sees how the

pupils react to the bright
light. Also, the head of the
patient is moved up and
down. Normally your eyes will
shoot up and down to
compensate for the
movement, even when you
are unconscious. This
doesnt work in a brain-dead
person. Their eyes dont
move and look like a dolls
eyes, says Kompanje. The

doctors also test how a

patient reacts to pain
stimuli. The doctor will squirt
ice cold water in the
patients ear. Another test is
the cough reflex. The doctor
squirt water via a small pipe
into the airway of the
patient. You will start
coughing if your brain still
works. Normally your brain
does not want water in your
airway.

FRANK MULLER/HOLLANDSE HOOGTE

Brain-death test

HOT OFF
THE PRESS
SUMMER 2015: TJOP&DOP
WAS LAUNCHED, TURNING
YOUR BRAAI INTO THE
TALK OF THE TOWN.

t
firs
e
: Th sful
6
2
1 8 ces atch
suc tion m by
fric vented emist
is inlish ch er.
t
k
Eng n Wal d star .
Joh helpe sin ce
r
Its is eve
braa

ON SALE
NOW
Available at leading newsagents and retailers countrywide

One-stop shop

Get your copy of Tjop&Dop for only R45.

Or book your copies via subscriptions@panorama.co.za
Or order telephonically on 011 468 2090

Q&A
Why can you
hear mosquitoes fly
but not butterflies?
Karen Blues, Newcastle

difference: the faster, the

higher the sound. A fly
flaps its wings 200 to 300
times per second, and
therefore makes a much
lower sound than a
mosquito, which can
reach 1,000 flaps per
second. A butterfly only
flaps 8 to 12 times per
second in other words in
a frequency of 8 to 12
hertz. And that sound is
too low for us to hear.

Q&A

he buzzing sound
that insects make
comes from the flapping
of their wings. This
creates vibration in the air
and that is the sound that
you hear. The bigger the
wings, the louder the
sound that the insect
produces. A fruit fly, for
example, is too small to
hear. But the speed with
which the insects flap
their wings also makes a

A The number of
vibrations that a
sound wave makes is
the frequency, and
is expressed in hertz
(Hz). The frequency of
a certain sound wave
determines the volume
of the sound.
A The lower the
frequency of a sound,
the louder it has to be
to become audible.
A The smaller an
insect, the faster it
has to flap its wings to
stay in the air and the
higher the pitch of its
buzz.
A The older a fly is,
the slower it moves its
wings and the lower its
buzz.

ALEXANDER GARDNER/GETTY

FLASH

LISA THORNBERG/GETTY

Q&A

Questions & Answers

FLASH

Can a virus move on its own?

Carl Roos, Pretoria

N
UIG/GETTY

o, a virus uses existing

body processes to spread.
The flu virus travels, for example,
with small saliva and mucus
particles that you spread when
you sneeze or cough. The virus
can come in contact with the
upper airways or lungs and
cause an infection when
someone else breathes these

18

22/2015

particles in. But there are also

viruses that travel via
excrement. A well-known virus is
the norovirus that causes tummy
flu. One only needs a minuscule
amount of faeces to become
contaminated. And HIV that
causes Aids uses bodily fluids to
gain access to the body and the
bloodstream.

Russian scientist
Dmitri Ivanovsky
noted the existence of
viruses in 1892.
A The yellow fever
virus was the first
human virus that was
discovered in 1901.
A The largest viruses
have a diameter
of some 0.0004
millimetres. The
smallest are about 20
times smaller.
A

Got questions youve been carrying around for

years? Braintainment answers them! Mail your
questions to braintainment@panorama.co.za

Black boxes are found in

all aeroplanes and also in
helicopters and F-16 jets.

NYT/HOLLANDSE HOOGTE

German Count Ferdinand

von Zeppelin (2nd on
the right with book in
hand), the inventor of the
zeppelin, was an 1863
observer in the American
Civil War. Why? To study
war techniques. He also
made his first flight with
an air balloon in America.

Can a black box also

store video?

What do soldiers do
during a civil war?

Estelle du Preez, Magaliessig

war is called a civil

war when both fighting
parties are part of the same
country. But that doesnt
mean that no soldiers take
part. Better still: often

there are no civilians

fighting in a civil war. A
well-known example is the
American Civil War
(1861-1865) when the
northern and southern

Martin Boyce, Mooi River

o, the current black
boxes dont store
video, only audio.
Technically it should be
possible to develop
black boxes that also
store video recordings
from the cockpit, but so
far this has not
happened. This is mainly

states stood opposite each

other. The battle was
carried out between army
troops that belonged to
both the north and the
south.

because the pilots dont

want it. They feel that
they are being checked
on too much. Some
aeroplane companies
also dont want this
because it will mean
more expenses for them
if they have to buy new
black boxes.

Q&A

Got questions youve been carrying around for

years? Braintainment answers them! Mail your
questions to braintainment@panorama.co.za

JEROEN BOSCH

Questions & Answers

What happens when a

snail lands on salt?
Kevin Smith, Woodstock

snails body consists

mostly of water. If
you put salt on a snails
body, it drains the water
from its body and it will die
of dehydration. This
principle is called osmosis.
Water moves through the
cell walls in the direction
of the highest
concentration of salt (or
other dissolved matter).
The concentration of salt
on the skin is higher than
that in the body when you
pour salt on the snail. The
water in its body will move
to the outside because of
this. Why do people have
no trouble with salt on
their skin? Human skin
allows less water through
in comparison to a snail.

What is the oldest sport

in the world?
Christopher Dudley, Morningside

PRISMA/GETTY IMAGES

robably running or wrestling. The famous paintings in the caves of

Lascaux (France) portray these sports. These paintings are more
than 17,000 years old. An 8,000-year-old drawing in a cave in Libya adds
swimming and archery to that.
The Ancient Greeks and Romans were probably the first to play something
that resembles football some 3,000 years ago.

How do you get the most

rest: going to bed early or
sleeping in?
Tebogo Mnisi, Cape Town

here is some truth in

grandmothers tales that the
hours before midnight count
double. You are more rested after
an early night than sleeping in.
This is because our bodies are
accustomed to sleeping when its
dark. The production of the
hormone melatonin stops when
the sun rises, and the body is

20

22/2015

prepared to wake up. Certain

processes which are part of
being awake are activated as a
result, like a more active
metabolism. This makes it
difficult to sleep deeply enough
and thus be rested when you
sleep in. Sleeping when its dark,
according to the natural pattern,
is therefore the better option.

Does the sun

make a noise?
Paul Hinrichsen, Orkney

es and no. Currents on

the inside of the sun
indeed generate sound waves.
There is even a special branch
of astronomy called
helioseismology that studies
these sound vibrations and
tries to draw conclusions
about the inside of the sun.
But you would hear nothing if
you were to float next to the
sun, because sound does not
travel through a vacuum. The
sound waves only move inside
the sun. But even if you were
to stand inside the sun, you
would still not hear anything.
The wavelength of the internal
vibrations of the sun is much
lower than the lowest tones
we can detect. So we cant
really call it noise.

The sound waves from

the sun are too low for
us to detect.

Technology

The Solar Impulse 2 will fly around the world without using

Solar king
It will attempt to make aviation history in March when the
Solar Impulse 2, the European long distance aeroplane that
uses solar energy, leaves for a flight around the world. What
has been done to ensure it is ready to take flight? Tests, lots
and lots of tests and even more tests.

7 TEXT: MARIKEN BOERSMA

22

22/2015

DENIS BALIBOUSE/REUTERS

Long ride

Pilots Bertrand Piccard and Andre Borschberg will fly 5 to 6

days and nights in one go. During a landing (in between) they
will switch places. They have already practised the long haul in
a 72-hour flight simulation machine.
SOLAR IMPULSE/ FRED MERZ /REZO.CH

SOLAR IMPULSE/ JEAN REVILLARD/REZO.CH

a drop of fuel

Flying solar

72m of solar panels make up the wings of the Solar Impulse 2.

In total, there are about 170,000 solar cells that have been
processed into the aeroplane. These will have to supply about
340kWh energy daily. This is about the same as what a 2-person
household uses in a month.

22/2015

23

Technology
Nose in the wind

SOLAR IMPULSE/ JEAN REVILLARD/REZO.CH SOLAR IMPULSE/ FRED MERZ /REZO.CH

The cockpit has been tested

in a Swiss wind tunnel. This is
important because to fly fuelefficiently, the aeroplane has
to have optimal aerodynamic
properties.

Collect energy

When solar collectors are your source of energy, you have to

know for sure that they work properly. During the development
stages the plane was taken from the hangar in order to charge
in the Swiss morning sun.
24

22/2015

Raking in air miles

SOLAR IMPULSE/ JEAN REVILLARD/REZO.CH PIERRE ALBOUY / REUTERS

Piccard and Borschberg will fly around the world in 10

stages from March to August 2015. In total they will
cover about 35,000km. The pilots have made dozens
of test flights in preparation for the big day.

Sleep tight

The pilots will spend up to 6 days

and nights in succession in a cockpit
measuring just 3.8m. They will also
have to sleep there, so the chairs
pivot. The potty has been built inside
the seat. This is how Piccard and
Borschberg will spend their days.
22/2015

25

Science

Can we copy the functionalities of our

eyes, ears, nose, tongue and hands?

Wired
for sense
Our senses, with which we detect the outside world, are very
complex. Scientists have been trying for years to copy our senses,
but their success has been limited.
7 TEXT: JERWIN DE GRAAF

Hearing

SHUTTERSTOCK

What is it?
How much progress has
been made? Out of all the senses,

scientists have been most successful

in using technology to copy our sense
of hearing. This mostly works with an
implant. There are various implants for
different types of hearing impairments,
of which the cochlear implant (CI) is the
most well-known.
A CI can be an aid for all deaf people,
but works best with people who used to
be able to hear (even a little) and with
deaf children younger than 8 years old
because their brains are still pliable.
Older people who were born deaf have
never been exposed to language, hence
their brain will struggle to learn to
26

22/2015

interpret the spoken word. On the other

hand, they can hear a car approach if
they use a CI.
How does it work? A cochlear
implant is partly inside and partly
outside the ear. The internal part is
a sort of ribbon with (maximum 24)
electrodes. That ribbon is inserted
into the spiral-shaped cochlea during
an operation. This is found deep
inside the ear and transforms (normal
spoken) sounds into electric signals.
The electrodes in the cochlea are in
connection with the outer part of the
CI, a little device that is mounted
on the skull. A microphone receives
the wavelengths and sends electrical

signals to the electrodes.

With sounds of a high frequency
the signals go to electrodes in the
beginning of the cochlea, while the
signals of sounds with a low frequency
go to the electrodes deeper in the
cochlea. The electrodes stimulate
the hearing nerve with small electric
currents. Our brain interprets this
as sound. The brains of people who
receive a CI have to get used to the
new stimuli. This is easier for people
who have lost their hearing at a young
age versus people who have become
deaf at an older age. The latter group
experiences the sound as robotic and
cannot enjoy sounds such as music.

Sight

What is it?
How much progress has
been made? Lets start with

Professor becomes a bat

evin Warwick, a professor of cybernetics at the University of

Reading (UK), wants to enrich humans with new senses. He
has already made a start. He had a chip connected to the nerves
of his left wrist. He then armed a cap with a little device that
sends and receives ultrasounds. He connected the device
wirelessly with the chip. By putting the cap on he could navigate
like a bat. Bats emit very high sounds and gauge from their
reflection how far away an object or prey is. The same went for
Warwick during his tests. He could walk through the lab blindfolded without bumping into anything.

READING UNIVERSITY

the bad news. Our eyes are, for the

moment, too complex to rebuild. But
this doesnt mean that no progress
has been made. All over the world,
there are several teams working on
an artificial eye. One prosthesis is
already available the Argus II, made
by American company Second Sight.
The Argus II copies the way in which
we see more or less and is made
for people who suffer from retinitis
pigmentosa. This is a collective name
for disorders where the light-sensitive
cells in the eye slowly die. People
who have lost their sight because of
retinitis pigmentosa can partially see
again with the Argus II.
How does it work? The Argus
II consists of several parts, namely
glasses with a small camera, a
portable computer and a series of
electrodes that doctors place in
the eye during surgery. The camera
captures images of the surroundings
and sends these to the small
computer. This activates various
electrodes in the eye, so that the
right cornea cells (in other words, the
cells that still work) are stimulated
by electrical impulses. The brain
experiences the stimuli as light. People
who wear the Argus II can learn to see
patterns again, especially when they
are elaborate. They can for example
recognise windows, the lines of a zebra
crossing and various colours. This is
a vast improvement for those who
didnt see anything before. However,
being able to pop in a pair of fake eyes
and go to the museum to enjoy an art
exhibition will take a lot longer.

22/2015

27

Science

Copying our senses is pretty

complicated, yet clever.
Those who cant see colours
can still hear them

Taste

SHUTTERSTOCK

What is it?
How much progress has
been made? At first glance your

tongue is nothing more than a wet

piece of meat. It only differentiates
between sweet, sour, salt, bitter
and savoury. One would think that it
is easy to copy the tongue, but this
is not the case. Taste is, just like
smell, dependent on the detection of
molecules. The taste of peanut butter
arises because of the combination
of molecules that are in it. And you
cant replace that with an electrical
signal, like with sound. Also, the
receptors in your nose contribute to
your sense of taste. You will notice
this when you have a cold. So dont
expect a tongue prosthesis with
working taste buds anytime soon.
In 2008, physicist Kenneth Suslick
of the University of Illinois (USA)
announced that he had developed
an electronic tongue that could
differentiate between sweet tastes
better than a real human tongue.
How does it work? Suslicks
electronic tongue is a chip the size
of a business card. The chip contains
16 to 36 small dots, each with a
substance that can change colour
when it comes in contact with a
specific sweetener. The tongue
managed to correctly identify natural
and artificial sweeteners such as
saccharose (ordinary sugar), xylitol
(found in sugar-free chewing gum),
aspartame (found in sugar-free
candy) and saccharine (mainly used
by diabetics) during 80 tests. We
humans cant do that. Suslick hopes
that his invention will be able to
identify all tastes in the future.
28

22/2015

Touch

What is it?
How much progress has been made? Bump your elbow

against the doorpost and you feel it. Pick up a pen and you feel
it. Lick a lollipop and you feel it. What is it all about? We dont
feel with 1 specific organ, like with hearing or seeing, but with a
large part of our body. It is a bridge too far to copy that. Still, there
is a group of scientists from, among others, Germany, Italy and
Switzerland who managed to make something that comes close
to the experience of the sense of touch. Dennis Aabo Sorensen,
a Danish man who lost a large part of his left arm 9 years ago,
received an artificial hand that simulated his sense of touch.
How does it work? The artificial hand has a number of
artificial tendons with sensors attached to them. These measure to
which degree the fingers bend when Sorensen picks up an object.
For instance, his fingers dont bend as much when lifting a ceramic
mug compared to when he lifts a soft plastic cup. This information
is transformed into electrical signals, meant for the electrodes that
were implanted in his remaining upper arm. The nerves guide the
signals to the brain. Sorensen feels the signals like tinglings and he
had to learn which tingling meant hard or soft. After training for a
month he knew, even when blindfolded, exactly which objects were
placed in his hand. The technique that is used for building the hand
can also be used for other prostheses, like artificial legs or feet.
The researchers are also working on an artificial skin that will feel
pressure, heat and moisture.

Artist hears colours

L.ORTIZ/GETTY IMAGES

rtist Neil Harbisson was born completely colour blind. In 2004, he decided to do
something about it and an antenna was implanted in his skull. The metal device
bends over his head to the front and ends at the
height of his forehead in a little camera. The antenna
transforms the colours that the camera sees into
vibrations that the bone of his skull transports to his
inner ear. Here the vibrations are transformed into
electrical signals that his brain interprets as sound.
The Spaniard, who was born in England, had to learn
which sound belongs to which colour, but now he is
completely used to it. Others have not reacted so
well to the antenna. Police damaged the device in
2011 during a demonstration in Barcelona because
they thought that Harbisson was filming them.

Smell

that we can implant in humans that

takes over the function of the nose.
This is because, just like with taste,
it is based on the registering of
molecules. This cannot be mimicked
with electric impulses. There are,
however, artificial or electronic noses.
There is a nose that can detect the
hospital bacteria MRSA, a nose that
can recognise spoilt food and even a
nose that can detect lung cancer.
How does it work? There are

various sensors that molecules can

bind to in the air. The resistance
of the sensor changes when this
happens and the device knows that
a certain substance is in the air. The
information of all sensors (and with
that the present substances) together
form a scent signature and thus the
electronic nose knows what it smells.
A case in point: Because lung
cancer tumours produce specific
chemicals that dissolve in the air,
the electronic nose that is built to
recognise these substances can

detect the disease. One such device

developed by a team of South Korean
scientists managed to smell lung
cancer in 85% of the cases it was
tested on. At the moment there is
no simple breathing test in every
hospital that you can do to detect
the disease, but this will probably not
take long. Scientists are also working
on artificial noses with a human
aspect. These bio-electric noses have
no sensors, but the same protein
that is found in the receptor cells of
human noses.

FRANK SWAIN

What is it?
How much progress has
been made? There is no device

Journalist hears
Wi-Fi

ritish science journalist Frank Swain is slowly

going deaf as a result of a mysterious disorder.
Still, he hears something that others cant. He has
hacked his hearing aid, together with a software
engineer, in such a way that he can detect Wi-Fi
signals. An app on his phone gathers information
about nearby Wi-Fi networks (such as signal strength
and whether it is secure or not) and connects a
stream of sounds to it. The sounds are sent to Swains
hearing aid. This has become a part of his
soundscape according to Swain, comparable to the
sound of traffic. Is there any use to the detection of
Wi-Fi? Well, Swain can hear when a network is not
protected. This could come in handy when he runs out
of data bundles, but not for much more than that.
22/2015

29

Health

Cultural beliefs play a role

in the spread of deadly
viruses like Ebola

A
to

bitter pill

swallow

Presidential outbursts, conspiracy theories and ignorance

all play a role in failing to understand medical conditions.
7 TEXT: ARNO VISAGIE

30

22/2015

ften mass hysteria around the

actual cause of a medical
epidemic or condition leads to
conspiracy theories,
miseducation of the causes and cures
and sometimes downright ignorance.
Take for example the current Ebola
crisis that has already claimed thousands
of lives in Africa.
However, oftentimes there is a Western
worldview that anywhere you visit in
Africa puts you at risk of contracting
Ebola. A sense of ignorance prevails as
people believe that Liberia and South
Africa are next-door neighbours and
hence our country should be avoided at
all cost.
Of course, not all of this is down to bad
publicity in Western media. Outdated
cultural beliefs as well as outrageous
medical statements by the continents
leaders also play a part in getting the
wrong message across. Below are 3
instances that have put us on the world
medical map for all the wrong reasons.

A Ebola: A conspiracy
Kaz de Jong of Doctors Without
Borders remembers it well. In 2008 he
visited a village in Uganda to help
contain an Ebola outbreak. We didnt
get past the edge of the village. Nobody
wanted to let us in. They were afraid
that we would contaminate everybody.
This is also the case in many parts of the
countries affected by the outbreak of
Ebola last year.
In addition, there are other African
countries that go to extremes. For
instance, this years Afcon Football
Championship was moved to Equatorial
Guinea at the 11th hour after initial host
Morocco refused to host the tournament
for fear of its people contracting Ebola.
People are still afraid that they will get
infected with the virus at a hospital. There
are also some who say Ebola is a
conspiracy aimed at wiping out the
African population. In October last year,
American activist Louis Farrakhan said
Ebola was developed by white scientists to
eradicate black people. Just like Aids.

Western aid workers are often seen

as instigators of the Ebola epidemic,
despite their good work.

Finding a cure

cientists are working tirelessly to find a

S
vaccine to eradicate Ebola. There are
currently no licensed Ebola vaccines, but 2

potential candidates are undergoing evaluation.

In February scientists began large-scale
experimentation tests on a group of volunteers
in Liberia. They hope to test both vaccines on
30,000 volunteers, including aid workers.
In addition, early supportive care with
rehydration and symptomatic treatment
improves survival. There is as yet no licensed
treatment proven to neutralise the virus, but a
range of blood, immunological and drug
therapies are under development.
There are many people who believe that.
The result is that Western aid workers are
often threatened in contaminated areas
by the local population.

n
Albino childre r in
la
u
p
o
p
are very
ies
African countr ir
e
th
f
because o
re
limbs, which a g
n
ri
b
thought to
prosperity.
A Albinos are hunted
An albino is someone who, because of a
genetic defect, has no pigment in his skin.
You are born with albinism. There is
nothing you can do to prevent it. But there
is more to it in large parts of Africa, in
particular in Tanzania. There, many
people believe that albinos bring bad luck
to the communities they live in.
Hundreds of albinos have been murdered
for this reason in the last couple of years.
Some have been maimed because
remarkably enough, their (chopped-off)
limbs are thought to bring prosperity.
There is also a lively trade in magical
potions and amulets in which albino
tissue has been processed. There are even
rumours doing the rounds that raping an
albino works as protection against Aids.
Whether they bring good luck or not, the
future for an albino living in Tanzania is
dismal. They are being chased by people
who are happy to chop their limbs off. An
arm or leg of an albino could yield
hundreds and sometimes thousands of
dollars.
0

22/2015

31

ULRICH BAUMGARTEN/GETT Y

Health

No, there is no conspiracy to

eradicate Africas population
0 A The president knows better

When its not just the population but also

the leader of a country who is
superstitious or ill-informed, then the task
of aid workers becomes very difficult.
Former South African president Thabo
Mbeki refused to believe that Aids was
caused by a virus. He saw Aids as a poor
mans disease that could best be curbed
by raising the standard of living and
improving hygiene.
Also, Western laboratories would use

Africans as guinea pigs,

he said. Aids prevention
lagged enormously in our
country. Mbekis
wilfulness has therefore
cost many people their lives. South Africa
still has remarkable opinions about Aids.
Jacob Zuma declared that he once took a
shower after sex to prevent being infected
with the HI virus. Gambian president
Yahya Jammeh says he can cure people of
Aids by laying his hands on them and

Ebola doesnt come from the West

ccording to research by the World
Health Organisation, it is thought
A
that fruit bats of the Pteropodidae family

are natural Ebola virus hosts. Ebola is

introduced into the human population
through close contact with the blood,
secretions, organs or other bodily fluids of
infected animals such as chimpanzees,
gorillas, fruit bats, monkeys, forest
antelope and porcupines found ill or dead
in the rainforest.
Ebola then spreads through human-tohuman transmission via direct contact
(through broken skin or mucous
membranes) with the blood, secretions,
organs or other bodily fluids of infected
people, and with surfaces and materials
(for example bedding and clothing)
contaminated with these fluids.
However, the Ebola virus doesnt die when
it claims a human life. Burial ceremonies
in which mourners have direct contact
with the body of the deceased person can
32

22/2015

also play a role in the transmission of

Ebola. People remain infectious as long
as their blood and body fluids, including
semen and breast milk, contain the virus.
Men who have recovered from the disease
can still transmit the virus through their
semen for up to 7 weeks after recovery
from illness.
The incubation period, that is the time
interval from infection with the virus to
the onset of symptoms, is 2 to 21 days.
Humans are not infectious until they
develop symptoms. The first symptoms
are the sudden onset of fever, fatigue,
muscle pain, headache and a sore throat.
This is followed by vomiting, diarrhoea, a
rash, symptoms of impaired kidney and
liver function, and in some cases, both
internal and external bleeding (for
example oozing from the gums and blood
in the stool). Laboratory findings include
low white blood cell and platelet counts
and elevated liver enzymes.

For years, President Mbeki did very little

against the spread of Aids.
administering herb mixtures. He is not the
only African leader who wants nothing to
do with the Western outlook on diseases.
You are caught between 2 camps as an aid
worker, says malaria researcher Teun
Bousema. You cant make a lot of noise
with protests. Then you run the risk of
being thrown out of the country and then
the patients are even worse off.

A Halting an international epidemic

The Ebola virus causes an acute, serious
illness which is often fatal if untreated.
Ebola virus disease (EVD) first appeared
in 1976 in 2 simultaneous outbreaks, 1 in
Nzara, Sudan, and the other in Yambuku,
Democratic Republic of Congo. The
latter occurred in a village near the
Ebola River, from which the disease
takes its name.
The current outbreak in West Africa is
the largest and most complex Ebola
outbreak since the Ebola virus was first
discovered in 1976. There have been
more cases and deaths in this outbreak
than all others combined. It has also
spread between countries, starting in
Guinea and spreading across land
borders to Sierra Leone and Liberia, by
air (1 traveller only) to Nigeria, and by
land (1 traveller) to Senegal. On 8 August
2014, the WHO Director-General
declared this outbreak a Public Health
Emergency of International Concern.
A separate, unrelated Ebola outbreak
began in Boende, Equateur, an isolated
part of the Democratic Republic of
Congo. 7
braintainment@panorama.co.za
EXTRA INFO
www.who.org

3 Years 36 Months
156 Weeks 1,095

26,295 Hours

Days

1,577,844 Minutes

& 94,670,778

Seconds

This is how long the best infotainment

magazine has been around
Dont miss out on
Braintainments
next 12 issues,
yours for only
R324 save
R132. Subscribe
now and
you will also
receive a FREE
Braintainment
journal valued
at R150.
Offer valid until
30 April 2015.

Cool

Mags
.com

Offer redeemable at www.coolmags.com

Queries to subscriptions@panorama.co.za

Psychology

Women can rule better

thanks to their soft qualities

Girl

power!
Women seem to be born with all the attributes
that make them good leaders. Isnt it time they
took charge of the world?
7 TEXT: ANOUSCHKA BUSCH

34

22/2015

tanding on top of a train and

surfing underneath bridges.
Attaching rocket motors to your
inline skates. Smashing a melon
on your forehead. Who performs such
stunts sooner: a man or a woman?
Precisely. Women have something better
to do than just risk life and limb for no
reason. Contrary to men, they dont have
that constant urge to prove themselves to
their peers. And also, in other aspects,
women seem to have the upper hand: they
live longer, are emotionally more skilled,
have a higher pain threshold and score
better at school.

SHUTTERSTOCK

A Born for the top

Women seem more suitable for leadership
in our modern society. They communicate
better, are more focused towards the
general interest and will rather find
solutions for problems than engage in
conflict. Still, there are very few women at
the top. Twenty percent of members of
parliament worldwide are female. The
number of women in top positions is only
a little higher with 24%.
But it seems that this will soon change.
Men, be warned: the power relations are
shifting. Women are taking over the work
space. And it is unavoidable that we see
this in leadership positions as well. This
century is not called the century of the
woman for nothing. In the Netherlands
women in the age group 25 to 30 already
earn more per hour than men. In the USA
women already occupy more than 50% of
management as opposed to 26% in 1980.
A Diligent and more social
What is the reason behind the rise of
women? Simple: women deliver better
results at school. Why do women of 25 to
30 earn more than their male peers?
Because they are better educated. The
turning point came in 2006. Since that
year more girls than boys enrol in tertiary
studies in the Netherlands. Women also
drop out less often than men and complete
their studies quicker. The head start with
girls begins at primary school already,
where they are miles ahead with language 0

22/2015

35

Psychology

Would the world not be a

better place if women
were in charge?
thanks to their greater self-discipline they
can maintain this difference in their later
education as well. Girls are more diligent
and social. They pay attention during class
and do their homework.

A Soft sector scores

But there are more things women shine in.
The same social and communicative skills
that they score higher at school with also
have advantages in todays information
society. Muscle power and endurance,
talents that men derived their position
from traditionally, are needed less and
less. What are needed are female skills.
Social intelligence, open communication,
Sales results for companies with
women on the board are on average
42% higher than other companies.

the ability to sit still for long periods and

concentrate: on average not the strongest
points of men, concluded Hanna Rosin in
her controversial bestseller The End of
Man. And guess what these are the skills
most needed in todays society.
The financial crisis of 2008 has accelerated
the downfall of man as well. Business
areas where men dominated were hit
hardest: construction, factories and
financial services. Three quarters of the
job losses in the USA were among men.
And which sectors create the most jobs?
Mainly jobs where women are in charge:
financial administration, nursing, home
care and child care. The irony is that the
technological progression that men have
started themselves is now
working against them. Typical
male jobs are disappearing,
while typical female
professions are growing.

Girls are more clever.

Boys make a lot of
mess and noise.

SHUTTERSTOCK

0 and social skills compared to boys. And

With more and more women in

high places, it is unavoidable
that more women will reach the
top. And this, shows various
studies, is favourable for
everybody because companies
with women at the top perform
better. Research from
consultancy bureau McKinsey
shows that companies with
women are more innovative and
have happier employees. This
can also be seen in sales figures:
sales of companies with women

Men feel threatened

ccording to a moneyweb.co.za report
in January this year, of the 2,217
A
non-executive directors serving on the

boards of the JSEs 350 companies, 422 or

19% are women. It further states that at the
median level the gender pay gap has fallen
from a peak of 22% in 2012 to 17% in
2014. However, the fact that men still earn
more than their female counterparts in most
sectors may not be such a bad thing,
because a partner who earns more is often
seen as an attack on their manhood. The
self-respect of a man lowers as his partner
gains more success, according to research
done by the University of Florida (USA) and
the University of Virginia (USA). The chance
36

22/2015

of marital problems and divorce among

couples with the wife earning more is 50%
higher. The larger the difference in income,
the more often the man will need medicine
for impotence.
Cornell University (USA) claims that men
who earn less are 5 times more likely to
commit adultery. On the other hand: when
a man earns considerably more than his
wife he is also more likely to be unfaithful.
Probably because these men, despite their
money, long working hours and overseas
trips, have more opportunities to commit
adultery, suspect the researchers. The
secret to a stable marriage? A wife who
earns 25% less than her husband.

MARIETTE CARSTENS/HH

A Women are more

business savvy

on the board are on average 42% higher.

It could of course also be that companies
that hire women are more advanced in
other fields. But that is not the only
explanation. Women also make better
decisions, according to 2013 research from
the Canadian DeGroote School of
Business. They are less sticky with the rules
and traditions of business life. They seem
more eager to learn and find possible
solutions, surmises researcher Gregory
McQueen. Also, women are more
considerate of the interests of others with
their choices and are not afraid to ask for
advice.

he age-old preference for a

son seems to be
T
disappearing with the new

opportunities for women. In the

Netherlands you cannot choose
the sex of your baby, but in the
USA you can. In clinics, the
demand for girls is higher than
for boys. This preference can
also be seen in the Netherlands:
the chance of a second child
appears 17.3% smaller if the first
child is a girl. Even in South
Korea, once the most patriarchal
society in the world, this
preference has changed. In a
questionnaire from 2010, at
least 23% of men preferred to
have a boy as firstborn. A girl
was preferred by 42.6%. And
maybe rightfully so. Because
those who prefer a harmonious
atmosphere in the home should
rather choose a girl. As long as
you just have 1 or 2. Families
with 2 girls are the happiest,
discovered British education site
Bounty after a study of its
visitors. But this changes where
there are 4: 4 girls make for one
big fighting mess and constantly
irritate one another. On the other
hand, it is hardly more difficult to
keep 4 rowdy boys in check than
just 2.

Competition is bad
for women

ompetition ensures that

C
men perform better. For
women the opposite is true,

concluded American
economists Uri Gneezy and
Aldo Rustichini from
research during a running
competition between Israeli
fourth graders. The boys and
girls ran equally fast when
they were alone on the track.

This changed when they had

to run against one another.
The performance of the boys
became better if they had to
compete against an
opponent, independent of
the sex. Girls actually ran
slower if they had to run
against another girl. Together
with a boy they would go a
little faster.

VERONIQUE DURRUTY/GETTY

A girl please

Feminist tribe

hen we talk about equal parenthood, then the men of the

Aka tribe in Central Africa are probably the biggest
winners. The fathers look after the children while the women
hunt. And when needed, they will even offer the baby their
nipples to suckle. Work at the Aka tribe is equally divided.
There are no traditional roles when it comes to cooking, hunting
or looking after children. Only when its about the top position
do they not differ too much from us. The leader of the tribe is
always a man.

A Women are more rational

Women perform well at the stock
exchange for this reason. Men are more
often led by emotions and an excessive
self-confidence in their decisions. They
trust their gut feeling or hot stock tips off
the internet. Women conduct proper
research and consult others before they
invest. Men panic quickly when stocks
drop. The result: they sell their shares
precisely at the wrong moment, when the
stock is at its lowest. Women are calmer
and wait patiently until the tide changes.
They also take fewer risks (which is why
women with their own companies also go

bankrupt less often).

The obvious conclusion? All the
arguments about female incapabilities
that men ever used to remove womens
voting power and study opportunities are
more suited to men. Women are more
rational, have more willpower and are not
influenced by their emotions while
making decisions. Also, men are more
distracted by physical beauty. Because it
only takes 1 beautiful woman to throw
men completely off course, according to
research from Radboud University (NL)
in 2009. Male test persons scored
considerably lower in a cognitive test after

a meeting with an attractive woman. The

female brain capacity on the other hand
was not influenced by the presence of
attractive males.

A No more war?
More women at the top is good for
companies, but would that also be good for
the world? There would be no more war if
women were at the helm, it is claimed. Crime
statistics seem to support this statement.
Women are less likely to use violence. 80%
of all murders are committed by men. And if
a woman murders someone it is almost never
a stranger.
0
22/2015

37

Psychology

Positive manly
characteristics exist. We
just have to find them

A Are men redundant?

Do all these excellent female
characteristics mean that men will be
redundant in the future? Maybe the
world would be a better place without
men, but also a lot more boring. Those
typical male characteristics, no matter
how annoying sometimes, would be
missed in the long run. Because those
same male traits that make them do
badly at school (lack of concentration,
quirkiness and the like) also create
revolutionary new ideas. Women are
more interested in people and less in
technical details. They wont easily
seclude themselves for months to
surface from the basement with a
brilliant invention. Male self-estimation
and big talk often make them into
inspiring leaders. And their
competitiveness and urge to suppress
others to force their own ways can also
lead to spectacular results. Men who
really changed the world, like Thomas
Edison and Steve Jobs, were
remarkably often little boys who

How countries fare

ccording to a 2013 international report by

research firm Graham Norton, there is still
some way to go before women occupy the same
number of high profile jobs as their male
counterparts. Worldwide, the average percentage
of females in top jobs is 24%.
Russia scores well in the report. At least 43% of
the top managers in that country are female. This
could be put down to the legacy of its communist
past when equal chances for women were
encouraged by the powers that were. The number
of female top jobs in Asian countries is also
relatively high. In China, for example, 38%, and in
Indonesia even 41%. The reason for this could be
the tight family relations. Children, parents and
grandparents often live together in 1 house. Child
care is therefore no problem for career women.

38

22/2015

Both men and

women perform
better when they
only do 1 thing at
a time.

Argument over
multitasking

couldnt sit still and had trouble

concentrating in class. 7

braintainment@panorama.co.za

omen multitask better than men. At

least this is what they claim.
W
Science is a little less convinced. Among

BAONA/GETTY

are more moral. Men are less troubled by

lowering their ethical standards a little if
it means they can win. Especially when
failing would mean impairing their
manhood. Women more often invest
their money in social purposes and have
more of an eye for the long term.
Companies with women in senior
positions invest in renewable energy
more often.

SHUTTERSTOCK

0 It also seems time and again that women

Asia scores above average when it comes to

women holding top jobs.
In South Africa, 2013 statistics from Grant
Thornton showed that for 6 years the percentage
of women in senior managerial positions had been
static at 28%. While statistically above average,
we still have a long way to go to meet
governments goal of 50/50 representation.
Females in Africa are making formidable strides.
In 2013, Angolan Isabel Dos Santos became
Africas first female billionaire. The oldest
daughter of Angolan President Jose Eduardo Dos
Santos, she is also the richest black woman in the
world, with an estimated fortune of R43,7 billion.
She made her money as a result of her diverse
investment portfolio including banking, telecoms,
retail and the energy sector.

walking test persons, females seemed to

delay or even stop walking altogether when
difficult questions were asked in a study
by the Warwick Business School (UK).
But a recent series of experiments by the
University of Glasgow (UK) proved women
right. The researchers measured how
much switching between the left and right
hand influenced test persons performance. The changing of hands was an
extra task that kept their brains occupied.
Men slowed down by 77%, women by only
69%. And in a second test in which the
test persons had to carry out different
tasks, the women came out on top. They
had to find a solution for a problem, like
finding keys in a field while they were
interrupted by a phone call with tricky
questions. Women seemed less troubled
by the interference and found more
innovative solutions for the problems.
EXTRA INFO
The End of Men and the Rise of Women, Hanna
Rosin
The Spectrum (2013): Why women are passing
men
The Sexual Paradox, Susan Pinker
Contact (2008): Men, women and their
chances of success

ing
Sport

COMPETITION

SEND US YOUR SELFIES AND

WIN

CH BRA AI
U
O
T
R
E
T
00!!!
BER MAS
WIN A WE ORIES WORTH R8,0
ld
SS
ness Wor
in
u
AND ACCE
G
e
h
t
s in
at

For the best braai tips,

recipes and interviews with
celeb braaiers, get your copy
of Tjop&Dop, a magazine
that celebrates South Africas
favourite pastime. Available
at leading newsagents
for only R45 or visit
coolmags.com for exclusive
subscription prices.

or
now th
t boerew
s
e
g
n
Did you k
lo
e
th
South
r braaing
y 2014 in
a
M
3
Record fo
n
o
en
was brok
in length?
m
5
.1
7
5
,5
the world
ured 1
cord? You
e
d it meas
r
n
i
a
a
,
a
a
r
b
ic
r
f
A
r own
uc h
empt you
t
t
a
o
M as t e r t o
t
r
t
e
n
b
e
Wa
W
ga
tesy
by winnin
,000 cour
8
R
h
t
r
can start
o
sw
accessorie
d
n
a
i
a
a
r
b
tainment.
in
a
r
B
d
n
Weber a
vory
son I
im
r
C
lack
oke B
m
S
Slate

+
+
+

Braintainment is giving away an awesome

prize for the best sports selfie, valued at

R8,000
ITS AS EASY AS 1, 2, 3:

Take out that smartphone or digital

camera. Snap a clear high resolution
pic of you and your besties at a braai
wearing your favourite supporters kit get
a pic with your favourite SA sports star.

Grate
g
n
i
r
a
Se

2
3

Send it to us using one of the

methods below.
Wait and see if youve won

HOW TO ENTER

iron
Cast
e
Griddl

Wok

Send us your photo, full name, a physical

daytime delivery address, a daytime
contact number and your email address via
one of these methods:
EMAIL braintainment@panorama.co.za with
the word Weber in the subject line.
VISIT www.tjopndop.co.za and upload your
picand details online. Be sure to include
the words Braintainment competition with
your entry.
FACEBOOK Check out the best sports selfies
every day on facebook.com/tjopndop

stone
Pizza

THE SMALL PRINT: Entries close 30 April 2015. Winners will be chosen by random draw
and notified telephonically. People who work at Weber and Panorama Media cannot enter (sigh). T&Cs apply.

Q&A
Questions & Answers

Got questions youve been carrying

around for years? Braintainment
answers them! Mail your questions
to braintainment@panorama.co.za

Why do we want
to live on Mars?
Frans Koiter

You would travel for months and might never

return to Earth. Still, there are several missions to
send people to Mars. But just why are we going to
the Red Planet?
7 TEXT: ELLY POSTHUMUS

voyage to Mars and

back will take
about 16 months,
according to the
European Space Agency.
Those bound for the Red
Planet will be confined to
living in a small space
throughout the journey. And
it has its dangers too.
Travelling in space has
negative effects on your body
and your psychological
constitution. The lack of
gravity will bring on
deterioration of muscles and
bones. In addition, being
cooped up in such a small
space with the same people
might cause depression. Still,
if its up to NASA it will
happen in 2030. The first
people will set foot on Mars.
Why are NASA and other

space agencies so determined

to land on Mars?

A Robot fares better

NASA cites curiosity, the
human urge to explore and
the expanding human
presence in our solar system
as reasons for manned flights
to Mars. Besides, there
would be plenty to discover
for humans on this planet.
For starters, we could search
for proof of life by collecting
samples.
But do we really need people
for that? Cant robots do
that? The advantage of
humans is that they have
insight and understanding
which they can use on such a
mission, says Maarten
Kleinhans, head professor of
physical geography at

Successful landings

merica and
A
Russia have
been trying since

1960 to send
unmanned probes to
Mars. The American
Mariner 4 was the
first one to get to
Mars in 1964. It flew
40

over Mars and took 21

photographs of the
planet. The Russian
Mars 3 was the first to
land on the Red
Planet in 1971, but
stopped transmitting
data after 20
seconds. The Viking 1
22/2015

managed to land on
Mars in 1976 and was
the first probe to
transmit clear photos
of the planets
surface. Thus far, 7
probes have managed
to land on the planet
without crashing.

There are many planned manned missions to Mars.

The buggy, ExoMars, is scheduled to travel across the
planet in 2018. The astronaut who pushes the rover in
this artists impression will not be there yet.
Utrecht University (NL). He
studies rivers and deltas on
Earth and on Mars. People
can decide what is important
to take back and what is not.
A robot cant do that of
course. However,
Kleinhans cautions, humans
have restricted movement
because of all the safety
regulations that they would
have to adhere to. And
there will only be a few
humans. This might not yield
much information. One
person on 1 spot cant
research much. That is why
he prefers the idea of sending
a small group of robots
instead of people. This is
much cheaper and safer. We
can spread the robots over
various areas and collect

much more information than

a few people could.

A No return
The Dutch foundation Mars
One also wants to send
people to Mars. The
promoters want the Mars
travellers to settle there and
start a colony. The first
colonists would travel there
in 2024. It is not sure if they
will ever set foot on the
planet. According to
Kleinhans, this is unrealistic
at the moment.
Before people can go there
you need to know how to
maintain agriculture to
provide for their living needs.
Sadly, all projects with closed
ecological systems that were
simulated to see if people

Distance
matters

NASA

P. CARRIL/ESA

enus and Mars are the

closest planets to reach
V
from Earth. They come close to

Fun for climbers: Mount

Olympus Mons on Mars is
35.4 km high.

could sustain have failed up

until now. Problems arose
because of the lack of oxygen
and rodents that got the upper
hand. To make something like
that work you would have to
know in detail how the
ecosystems on Mars work.
Kleinhans explains: There is
no chance of success as long as
we dont even understand our
own planet. Also, just a
single colony comprising a few
people will have very little
purpose when it comes to
gathering scientific knowledge
about Mars, claims professor
of scientific philosophy
Gustaaf Cornelis of the
University of Brussels
(Belgium). In addition to Mars
travellers medical conditions,
he is also interested in finding

out about their psychological

and sociological states. You
put people in a closed-off
space for months or even years
with a lack of gravity and then
watch what happens to them
and how they behave.

A Mars is attractive
Kleinhans thinks that plans for
a manned mission to Mars are
mostly prestige projects to
show what we are capable of.
Countries can be put on the
map with such a mission. If
China or America is the first to
place their countrys flag on
Mars, it would be a victory for
that country.
Cornelis compares this to the
moon landing. What would
we not have known about the
moon if man had never been

Earth in their orbits around the

sun. The shortest distance
between Mars and Earth is 56
million kilometres. And Venus,
with its distance of 42 million
kilometres, comes even closer.
However, this planet is less
accessible due to high
temperatures of 480C on
average. It is a little milder on
the Red Planet, between -140
and 20C. Probes have landed
on Venus but could only
broadcast for a very short time
because the high temperatures
quickly destroyed them. The
Russian probe Venera 13, which
landed on Venus in 1982,
managed to stay alive for at
least 127 minutes and lived
longest of all the Venus probes.
Sending people to Venus would
pose a real problem. Mars is
therefore a better option for
human exploration and possibly
setting up a space colony.

there? Nothing. Then we would

have had the information from
robots. But it was THE space
exploration milestone of the
last century. It is all about
making world news. A manned
flight to Mars will generate
worldwide media interest. Half
the world was watching the
moon landing on the TV. Such
an achievement grabs attention
and encourages huge financial
investments that can also be
used for unmanned flights. It is
the business card of space
exploration, he concludes. 7

braintainment@panorama.co.za
EXTRA INFO
Tinyurl.com/NASAmars: all about
the NASA mission to Mars.
22/2015

41

Science

Ununoctium is still waiting for a real name

ABC

of chemical
elements

From aluminium and oxygen to the search for new additions

to the Periodic Table, we bring you elementary knowledge
about the building blocks of our planet.
7 TEXT: BERRY OVERVELDE

HOLLANDSE HOOGTE

Aluminium

luminium is the most plentiful metal in

the Earths crust. You pay about R20 for a
roll of aluminium foil at the supermarket. Still,
it is very expensive in other forms. The
semi-precious stones ruby and sapphire are
actually just aluminium oxide, but then
polluted with a bit of chrome and cobalt. This
makes for the beautiful red and blue colours
respectively. Even topaz contains aluminium.

A
42

22/2015

Bohrium

here are often differences of opinion when

it comes to naming an element. The
Russian who discovered Element 105 called
his find nielsbohrium, after scientist Niels Bohr.
However, American
scientists called the
same element
hahnium, after
chemist Otto
Hahn. The
uncertainty
lasted until
1997. The
International
Union of Pure
and Applied
Chemistry
decided then
that Element 105
should be called
dubnium in future, after
the city where the element was
discovered in 1967. Finally, after some debate,
Element 107 was later renamed bohrium.

Californium

his is the most expensive element of them

all. The radioactive californium-252 (what
does the 252 stand for? See Isotopes) is used
to trace gold and oil. Lives can also be saved
with this. It is used for radiation therapy in
cancer patients when other methods dont
work. Nuclear plants also have uses for this
element. But it all comes at a price that can
run into millions of rands per gram.

Dubnium

he Russian city of Dubna is the seat of the

Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, an
international research centre where, during the
last decade, the most breakthroughs have been
made in chemical element findings and
research. At least 9 new elements have been
discovered (with or without the co-operation of
American researchers. See Livermorium). They
are: rutherfordium, bohrium, dubnium,
seaborgium, flerovium, livermorium, ununtrium,
ununpentium and ununoctium.

his chemical element was discovered in

1922 by 2 scientists working in the
laboratory of Danish scientist Niels Bohr in
Copenhagen. One scientist was Hungarian
Hevesy Gyorgy and the other was a Dutchman
named Dirk Coster. The latter would later
become a professor of physics and
meteorology in Groningen.

Isotopes

Francium

rancium has an atomic number of 87, and

the same number of protons in the nucleus
of 1 atom. It is the most unstable of the first
100 chemical elements. As of 2012, there has
not been enough francium produced to weigh it
conclusively. It has the highest equivalent
weight of all elements.

Gallium

his is a metal with a remarkable

characteristic: the melting point is so low
(nearly 30C) that it
almost melts in your
hand. The story goes
that a trick was
performed by many
knowing chemical
scientists: pour
gallium in the shape
of a spoon, give the
spoon to a nonsuspecting colleague
and wait until he
spoons up his soup
with his gallium
spoon. This should
be a lot of fun if you
can get your hands
on some gallium.

very sample of an element has the same

number of protons (see Protons). Every
oxygen atom has 8 protons, every californium
atom has 98. However, the number of neutrons
(nuclear parts without charge) can vary. Then
we speak of isotopes. There are californium
isotopes with 139 neutrons, but also
with 158. When you add the
number of neutrons and
protons then you get the
mass number of the
element. The very
expensive
californium-252 has a
mass of 98 protons and
154 neutrons.

J
J

unnily enough there is no element or even

an abbreviation that starts with J.
Ambitious scientists may want to seize this
opportunity to have a chemical element named
after them.

Krypton

e all know about krypton. Apart

from being an element used in the
photographic world, it is also the fictional
planet where Superman comes from and
is the caped heros
Achilles heel.
Krypton gas is
also combined
with other
gases to make
luminous signs
that glow with a
greenishyellowish light.

G
22/2015

43

JOHN CANCALOSI/NGSOCIETY/CORBIS/HH

his is a satirical song from 1959 by

singer and scientist Tom Lehrer. Lehrer
summed up all 102 known elements of those
days in his 90-second song. Theres
antimony, arsenic, aluminium, selenium and
so on. You can watch the video here: http://
tinyurl.com/n9s8zgw. Its a real tongue
twister. Currently there are 114 known
elements, with 4 more waiting for formal
recognition by the chemistry world.

Hafnium

FRANK RUMPENHORST/DPA/CORBIS/HH

Elements, the

THEODORE GRAY/CORBIS/HH

BEN WELSH/ANP

Science
Wetenschap

N
National pride

t would seem that most elements have been

named after the countries and cities that
those who discovered them come from. This
ranges from americium, francium, germanium,
polonium (Poland) and ruthenium (Russia) to
berkelium (after university city Berkeley),
californium and lutetium (after Lutetia, the
Latin name for Paris).

L
WIKIPEDIA

Livermorium

his super-heavy element is named after

the home of the Lawrence Livermore
National Laboratory in the United States.
Together with the Joint Institute for Nuclear
Research in Russia, it is the birthplace of
most of the new elements. This lab was key
in discovering flerovium, ununtrium,
ununpentium, ununseptium, ununoctium and
lets not forget livermorium.

Mendeleev,
Dmitri

endeleev was a Russian chemist. In

1869 he published a systematic layout
of the elements that were known up to then.
This was the
predecessor to the
periodic system of
elements, or the
Periodic Table
that every high
school student
learns in
chemistry or
physical science
classes. The elements in
Mendeleevs table are divided by type,
such as metal or gas. Naturally, there is also
an element named after him: mendelevium.

44

22/2015

Osmium

smium emits a terrible odour. You would

have known this if you spoke Greek.
Because osmium comes
from the Greek
osme, meaning
stench. The
surface of the
metal gives off
the irritating,
penetrating
smell of osmium
tetroxide.

Protons

ositively charged particles. An element is

only called an element if all atoms of
that element have the same number of
protons. All hydrogen atoms have 1 proton,
all helium atoms have
2, all lithium atoms
have 3, and so on.
This number of
protons is the
atomic number of
an element and
the number that
accompanies it on
the Periodic Table.
Lithium, for example, has
an atomic number of 3, einsteinium an
atomic number of 99. An einsteinium atom
therefore has 99 protons.

Quadium

erived from the Latin word for 4

(quattuor). When an element has just
been discovered in a lab and the find has not
been acknowledged yet, it first receives a
temporary name. This name is nothing more
than the Latin version of
the atomic number.
And when that
number ends in
4? Then it gets
the temporary
name quadium.
This was the
temporary name
for rutherfordium
when it was first
discovered in 1964. Its atomic number is 104
and for a short while it was called
unnilquadium. And flerovium (1998) was
originally called ununquadium, meaning 114.

HEINRICH PNIOK

One way to ensure that you will always

be remembered is to have a chemical
element named after you

Radioactivity

any elements, among them all

elements with 84 protons or more,
are so unstable that they fall apart
spontaneously into completely
different elements. This is
called radioactive
decay. The atoms
send out ionising
rays with this
decay, better
known as
radioactive
rays. For
example, when
uranium-238 (an
isotope or uranium
with 92 protons and
146 neutrons) decays,
thorium-234 arises. This decays
further into protactinium-234. This decay
carries on until eventually lead-206 arises.
Then the element is stable again and will no
longer change.

Ytterby

his is a quarry near the Swedish capital of

Stockholm where lots of elements can be
found. At least 4 elements have been named
after the area. These are yttrium, terbium,
erbium and ytterbium. They were all first found
in the minerals dug up from the Ytterby quarry.

inc is the 24th most common element in

the planets crust. After copper,
aluminium and iron, zinc is the most
commonly used metal by industries
throughout the world. Zinc was likely given its
name by Paracelsus, a Swiss-German
Renaissance physician, botanist, alchemist,
astrologer and general
occultist. He founded
the discipline of
toxicology.

Vanadium

very element has a symbol which is

actually just an abbreviation. Usually
this symbol is logical. The symbol for fluorine
is F and the symbol for darmstadtium is Ds.
And the symbol for Hydrogen is H. But why is
the symbol for, lets say iron, Fe? And gold
Au? Many element names are Latin.
Abbreviations often seem illogical in a
different language: Fe comes from ferrum and
Au comes from aurum, to name just a few.

Thallium

his is a very poisonous element,

especially in the form of thallium sulfate.
Its effects vary from hair loss to damage to
the nervous system, which could be fatal. It
is a popular substance among people who
want to kill others. Enemies of Saddam
Husseins regime were poisoned with this in
Iraq in the 80s.

Ununseptium

his is the latest addition to the known

chemical elements and was discovered
by scientists from Dubna (Russia). When
scientists are trying to show the existence of
an unknown element, they will shoot at the
atoms of that element with atoms of another
element. This leads to reactions between the
atoms. And if the scientists hit the jackpot, a
new element will arise that has not
been detected before. Researchers
shot at berkelium with calcium
and a new element arose with
117 protons: ununseptium.
The find still has to be ratified
by the International Union of
Pure and Applied Chemistry.

W = Tungsten

ungsten (W) has an atomic number of

74. It ranges in colour from a steely grey
to almost white, and has the highest melting
point of any of the metal elements. Carl
Wilhelm Scheele hypothesised the existence
of tungsten in 1781 in tungstic acid. Two
years later, Jos and Fausto Elhuyar isolated
tungsten from an acid created by wolframite.
Hence the abbreviation W.

Xenon

his rather expensive element is mainly

known for its use in automobile
headlights. Xenon itself is a colourless gas,
but when electricity passes through it, it will
produce a bluish light. So why is xenon used
for headlights if it is so expensive? You cant
put a price on quality. Xenon simply lights up
the road better than other lamp types and is
better seen by other road users. According to
a study by TUV (German Technical University),
fewer road users would die if all cars had
xenon lamps.

braintainment@panorama.co.za
EXTRA INFO
SPL/ANP

Symbol

anadium was discovered by Nils

Gabriel Sefstrom. The name
vanadium comes from the Norse goddess,
Vanadis, but was chosen because Sefstrom
realised no other element started with the
letter V. It is harder than most of the other
metal elements. 98% of the worlds
vanadium is mined in 3 countries:
South Africa, China and Russia.

Natures Building Blocks: all chemicals with

descriptions of their properties, history and
applications.

22/2015

45

CORBIS/HH

Zinc

Diet

SHUTTERSTOCK

o
t
e
v
a
h
e
w
o
d
y
h
W
finish the entire
bag in one go?

46

22/2015

y
d
n
a
C

h
s
cru
en ends
ft
o
t
e
e
sw
e
n
o
st
ju
What begins with
at? And is it
th
is
y
h
W
.
g
a
b
ty
with an emp
ts in one go?
e
e
sw
f
o
g
a
b
le
o
h
bad to eat a w
7 TE XT: PAUL SE

RAIL

22/2015

47

Diet

Chewing on a wine gum

releases the same hormone
that makes us enjoy sex

ur editor came back after

December leave and, to
celebrate the new year, he put
an enormous jar of sweets on
the table. What nobody ever thought
possible happened: by the end of the day
there was only a small layer of sweets left.
An email does the rounds, a hungry
mob throws themselves at the prey and
even before the last colleague has read
the mail, there is nothing left of all the
sweets but an empty jar and a few last
sugar crumbs. So here in the office its
simple: you have to attack immediately,
otherwise your colleagues will do it for
you, and you cant retrieve sweets from
an empty jar. But our colleagues
inform us that this also happens at
home ... So why is it almost impossible
to eat just 1 sweet?

A Carrot gives little boost

First answer another question: why do
we like sweets? What is wrong with a
piece of carrot or cucumber? The
simplest explanation is that sweets satisfy
your needs, says Kees de Graaf,
professor of sensory science and eating
behaviour at Wageningen University
(NL). A carrot doesnt really do that.
De Graaf explains that vegetables
contain important nutrients, but you
hardly derive any energy from them.
And that is what your body wants when
you are hungry. So why dont we have an
insatiable appetite for potatoes, bread or

pasta, which are energy-rich products?

Your metabolism has to first cut the
carbohydrates in pieces. The energy is
only released then. Your body easily
absorbs sugar. It lands in your
bloodstream quickly and is full of
energy. This is what you need when you
are craving something. Bread, pasta and
potatoes also contain fibre, nutrients and
a lot of water, but sweets are sugar
bombs, bursting with energy.

A Taste is important
It seems that your brain knows all too
well that sweets work well against hunger
and that you should therefore go for
sweets. De Graaf had a few people in his
test group develop a protein shortage.
These people craved protein-rich
foods, explains the professor. We are
mainly talking of savoury snacks. Cheese
or salami, for example. The body can, in
the same way, indicate that it needs
something sweet for an energy shortage.
How does it work? De Graaf explains
that the taste system signals protein, fat
and sugar when you eat something. Your
body then knows what you eat when you
consume meat or peppermints. The taste
system can also ensure that you eat the
nutrients you need by craving something
that makes you eat savoury or sweet
snacks in between meals.
A Energy in sweetness
You dont have to worry about a protein

shortage. De Graafs test persons had to

follow a specially designed diet to
achieve that. A shortage of energy is a
different story. Your body will soon
react to that with a growling noise from
your tummy. In a different study we
looked at the pattern of eating habits
during the day. Craving something
sweet was constant during the whole
day, says De Graaf.
A sweet tooth is something that the
professor thinks we are born with.
Because sweet means sugar and sugar
means energy. We need it to move, to
think and to stay alive. Sugar is so
important that the reward system in our

SHUTTERSTOCK

or people who want

to stay away from
F
sugar and have an

aversion to artificial
sweeteners, there is a
nice alternative
available. Stevia comes
from the leaf of the
stevia plant that grows
on the border of
Paraguay and Brazil. The
sweetness is 200 to 300
times higher than sugar
and has the advantage
of containing no
calories. The substance
is still new but bakers
and sweet makers can

48

22/2015

already make cake and

candy that you can eat
plenty of without getting
fat, while the snacks are
still just as sweet.
Possible bad news is
that candy with other
sweeteners than sugar
doesnt seem to make
you as happy as real
sweets. Chocolate,
peppermints and wine
gums provide a nice
dopamine spike. In an
experiment with
saccharine, another
sugar replacement, this
was a lot less intense.

HILDE /CORBIS/HH

Natural sweet

n average you consume

122g of sugar per day, or in
other words, 44kg per year. The
Knowledge Centre for Sugar and
Food had Wageningen University
(NL) compile a list of how we
consume the most sugar. Sweets
are not on the list:

CATHY YEULET/123RF

Boys and girls of between 7 and

18 years old
1. Cool drinks
2. Dairy products
3. Cake and biscuits
Men
Dairy products
Cool drinks
Sugar, honey and jam
Women
Dairy products
Fruit
Cake and biscuits

brain becomes active when we have

found something sweet.
This reacts on sugar by producing
dopamine, explains Tanja Adam. She is
researching obesity at Maastricht
University (NL), where she is mainly
interested in the effects of hormones in
the brain. The dopamine that is
released when you eat chocolate or
chew on a wine gum is the same
substance that is produced by drug
users or after a bout of sex. The reward
system motivates us to do it again. So
its pretty logical that you take another
sweet after your first one, and a second,
third and fourth.

Load up that trolley

you walk through the supermarket with a

Iwithftrolley
you will buy more candy than customers
a basket, showed research bureau GFK in
2012. In the first scenario 5.2% of the trolley
accounted for biscuits, candy and chocolate,
while people with baskets spent less than 1% on
that. A much-heard theory is that you do more
impulse buying with a trolley. You have to lug a
basket around and it hurts your shoulder.
Customers with children spend the largest part
of their shopping budget on sweet stuff. For
those without a trolley it is 5.5% and those with
a trolley 6.3%.

MICHIEL WIJNBERGH/HH

Sugar rush

A That was nice

Dopamine is not the only substance that
is released when you eat sugar. Your
pancreas releases insulin into your
bloodstream. The insulin level in your
blood explains where your energy levels
are at. Are there reserves? Do you
need food? Or have you had enough?
Your brain gets to know those sorts of
things thanks to insulin, explains
Adam. A low insulin level makes you
hungry. It also became known in the
last few years that insulin plays an
important role in the reward circuit.
There are actually receptors in the
reward area of the brain that insulin can
bind to. The role of insulin is to mute
the feeling of reward versus dopamine
which gives you a good feeling.
You have cooked your favourite meal.
Oh, nice, you think. That is because
dopamine is released in your brain,
begins Adam. This happens very
quickly. But during the course of the
meal you produce more and more
insulin. This goes to the brain and
brings everything in balance again.
Insulin gives you a full and satisfied
feeling. You have eaten enough.
Insulin also starts to flow when you eat
sweets, only you dont notice this when
you are eating them. If you would
listen to your saturation levels then you
would be able to stop after 3 sweets,
explains Adam. But you only listen to
your reward system. It is not about
being hungry but about eating more
sweets.

22/2015

49

Diet

A Never enough
Apart from insulin there is another
substance that provides saturation. It
was discovered in the 50s that mice
dont react to the hormone leptin and
keep on eating. They dont get saturated
and become obese. Leptin is, normally
speaking, also recognised by the reward
areas in the brain and gives a saturated
feeling just like insulin. If all goes well,
at least. Dopamine, insulin and leptin
together ensure that you eat when an
energy shortage lurks, but also that you
stop as soon as you have had enough.
Insensitivity to insulin and leptin can
be a problem, explains Adam. The

Drilling bacteria

andy and teeth dont make a good

combination. How do wine gums or cherry
C
lollipops manage to drill a hole in your teeth?

SHUTTERSTOCK

The lollies and other sweets are helped by

bacteria. Streptococcus mutans is the name of
the little fellas. The bacteria live off of sugar, but
when the organisms transform sugar, lactic acid
is released. This affects the enamel on your
teeth. The enamel slowly dissolves and a little
hole appears. Your saliva fights against this
process, but cannot manage if you put sugar in
your mouth several times per day. Have a
maximum of 2 snacks per day, advise many
dentists. So if you want to be kind to your teeth,
down the whole bag of sweets in one go instead
of 1 every 10 minutes.

50

22/2015

thought is that you get the feeling of

saturation less quickly when you are less
sensitive to these hormones. And your
sensitivity decreases when you gather
more body fat. People who are obese
often dont get saturated at all,
continues Adam, who as a clinical
psychologist has also treated patients
with eating disorders. The good news is
that the nice feeling of saturation can
return. Its just a matter of a good diet
and the receptors will work again.

A Addiction is not that bad

The whole story of getting hungry and
getting saturated or not is actually
more complicated, with opioid
peptides that, just like dopamine, give
a nice feeling and other substances
apart from insulin and leptin that help
to restore the balance. The stomach
wall plays an important role in that as
well. Your brain will get the signal
that you are saturated when the
stomach wall is stretched, says Adam.
A plate with fries and a burger will
quickly fill your stomach. Sweets are
more compact. It takes a little while
before your stomach wall reacts with a
now-its-enough signal.
The basis for eating too much is clear:
you keep doing what feels good. You
are motivated to keep eating because
dopamine gives you such a nice
feeling. Is it possible to get addicted to
sweets with all these pleasure-inducing

FRANK MULLER/HH

It is not quite clear if you can be

addicted to sweets as there are
no clear withdrawal symptoms

substances? The opinions are divided

about that. A difficult point in research
about food addiction is the lack of
proper proof of withdrawal symptoms
when the eaters stop binging. Some
become restless, others lifeless. There
is a lack of clear withdrawal
symptoms, explains Adam, which
makes it difficult to speak of a candy,
chocolate or eating addiction.
Here in the office we love to plunder a
big jar of sweets, but we will survive a
day without sweets without shivering,
hyperactivity or depression.

A All in moderation
How bad is it to make a whole bag of
sweets disappear? Of course, you

Candy makes parents hyperactive

ven though some parents like to

make the following sum:
E
children + candy = hyperactivity,

research shows that the result is

wrong. When you add various studies
together there is no proof for a
connection between the
consumption of sweets and active
children. So how can it be that
parents see a childrens party go
mad as more sweets are dished out?
Daniel Hoover and Richard Milich
showed in 1994 already that it is not
the sweets but the parents who are
the problem.
They gathered 35 so-called sugarsensitive boys and their mothers. All
boys were given the same amount of
sugar, namely none. The researchers
have to prevent yourself from getting
fat. It is important to monitor how
much energy you take in and how
much you use, says Adam. If the two
are in balance then you will stay at
the right weight. The problem with
sweets is that they are empty calories.
Your body does not benefit from
them apart from a dose of energy that
enters your body. You can curb your

hunger with sweets, but those who

live on candy alone will deteriorate
because of a lack of vitamins, protein
and other nutritional substances. To
prevent that you need vegetables,
some meat and fruit. In practice you
derive your daily doses from bread,
potatoes, pasta and rice. If you are
short of some calories after your
regular meals you can add some

then told some of the mothers that

their children were given a large
amount of sugar, the other mothers
believed their sons had not been
given sugar. The mothers then
watched how active their children
became. Guess what? Mothers who
thought that their sons had received
sugar kept a closer eye and reported
busier behaviour. They thus found
proof that sugar makes their boys
hyper. Independent observers saw
no difference between the children.
Increased activity at a childrens
party is more likely caused by the
organised activities. Or by the
happiness that children get when
they are given something nice. Sugar
has nothing to do with that.

sweets. There is nothing wrong with

sweets, says Adam. The need to eat
something rewarding in the form of
something nice is what we are born
with. You dont have to stop with that
as far as I am concerned. But maybe
we should try and keep the bag half
full. 7

braintainment@panorama.co.za

Hidden cubes

uppose you have a 200m

cup of tea or coffee. This is
how many cubes of sugar (of
4g) you have to add to
consume just as much sugar as
is found in:
A glass of skimmed milk
(200m): 2.5
A cup of low fat yogurt
(200m): 2.5
A glass of orange juice
(200m): 4.5
A glass of Coke (200m): 6

A can of Red Bull

(250m): 7
A glass of yoghurt
drink or a cup of fruit
yogurt (200m): 7
And how many sugar
cubes are there in:
An average sweet: 1
An average biscuit: 2
A slice of cake: 3
An apple: 4
A Snickers bar: 7
A packet of Smarties: 12

22/2015

51

Nature

These 7 species sacrifice themselves

for their peers

Natures
kamikazes
Meet Mother Natures species who will sacrifice
their own lives so that others can survive. Who
are they and why do they do it?
7 TEXT: FRANK BEIJEN

Bee sting? Quickly remove

the sting. Poison can flow
from the sack for up to a
minute. Never squeeze the
sack because more poison
will enter your body.
SHUTTERSTOCK

Bee tears itself apart

Who makes the sacrifice?

The female workers in a honeybee colony. The males dont

have stings.

How do they do it?

The female bee will fly away when she feels threatened by
an intruder. But sometimes she delivers a painful sting.
Muscles in the lower body contract, whereby she forces the
poison out of her poison sack. The weak spot of the bee
is located in this area. The sting remains inside when the
victim has a thick skin, such as in the case of humans and
other mammals. In addition, the poison sack and a part
of the intestines always remain on the victim and a much
weakened bee flies away.
52

22/2015

Who makes the sacrifice?

The females of various spider
species are eaten by their own
children. One of them is the
Cheiracanthium japonicum.

How do they do it?

Found in Japan, the female spider

lays about 100 eggs at the same
time. However, the bond between
mother and offspring is short-lived.
They start eating their mother a
week after hatching. Spiders
digest their prey by vomiting
digestive juices over it.
The prey changes into
a sort of soup and is
tastefully slurped up.
This is how these
baby spiders
devour their own
mother.

Why do they do it?

The mother spider offers herself so

her children can become big and
strong. A researcher of Hokkaido
University (Japan) removed the
mother spider in a number of nests
in 2011. He then compared these
babies with the spiders that did eat
their mother. The spiders that didnt
snack on their mother had shorter
legs than those who ate their parent.
Also, they left the nest sooner,
because they had to find food. The
early expedition was very dangerous.
Those who ate their mother had a
bigger chance of survival.

How deadly is it?

The mother stands no chance

against her own children. She is
still alive when they start eating her.
Remarkably she offers no resistance.

ATSUO FUJIMARU/NATURE PRODUCTION/MINDEN PICTURES

Mother spider is baby food

Broad-footed
marsupial mouse
Who makes the sacrifice?

The male of this species puts his life

on the line. This little Australian animal
looks like a mouse, but it is actually a
marsupial.

How do they do it?

During spring, a male broad-footed

marsupial mouse changes into a hectic
sex machine. He is so revved up that
he does not survive the 2-week mating
season. A copulation session lasts a few
hours. And when the male is done he
will go on to the next female as quickly
as possible. He hardly takes time to eat,
drink or sleep. Meanwhile, the stress
hormones are raging through his body and
his immune system gives up. This breaks
him down further and further and he loses
his fur, becomes prone to infections and
eventually succumbs to death.

Why do they do it?

The death of the male is an advantage for

his offspring, according to researchers.
The female only needs him for
fertilisation, not for raising the young. And
when Dad is no longer around, there is
more food for the marsupial babies.

How deadly is it?

MARY EVANS/HOLLANDSE HOOGTE

The males dont survive the mating

season.

Why does she do it?

The bee makes this sacrifice to scare the intruder and to

warn her peers. An alarm pheromone is released when a
bee is torn in half. The bees in the area will smell this. They
then know to be careful. The substance also sticks to the
attacker. The colony will raise the alarm bells should the
attacker return.

How deadly is it?

Many bees die very soon after they have stung, but half of
them will live for at least another 18 hours. They can still
defend the colony even if they have lost their sting. They do
this by pursuing the intruder and flying in their path irritatingly.
22/2015

53

VISIONSPICTURES/HOLLANDSE HOOGTE

Nature

Ants guarding the entrance to a nest will

not make it to the next morning
Ant locks itself out
Who makes the sacrifice?
Workers of the ant species Forelius
pusillus. These ants live in Brazil.

How do they do it?

Why do they do it?

It is unsafe for the ant colony to

sleep with the entrance to the nest
open. It is better to sacrifice a few
peers than to run the risk that an
enemy raids an entire nest. It is not
quite clear yet who decides who has

to make this sacrifice. According to

behavioural ecologist Adam Tofilski
of the University of Rolniczy in Krakau
(Poland), it could possibly be the sick
ants that have to do the dirty work. In
that way they can make themselves
useful for the group.

How deadly is it?

The ants are so vulnerable outside the

nest that they cant survive the night.
They fall prey to other animals or die
from starvation or lack of water.
MARK MOFFETT/MINDEN PICTURES/GETTY IMAGES

All ants are safely inside the nest

by nightfall. But some worker ants
stay outside to close the nest off.
Between 1 and 8 ants close the
hole with sand grains. They do this
from the outside, because in this
way the entrance can no longer be
distinguished from the rest of the

wall. This job can take up to 50

minutes. When the ants open the
entrance to the nest again from the
inside the next morning, the ants on
the outside have died.

About 10% of
all Globitermes
sulphureus termites
are soldiers.

Termite blows itself up

Who makes the sacrifice?

The soldiers of a number of termite species, among

them the Globitermes sulphureus.

How do they do it?

A team of French and Vietnamese scientists

saw the Globitermes sulphureus in action in
1997. The researchers made a hole in a termite
hill and watched as the termite soldiers fought
valiantly against ants that tried to enter the nest.
The termite soldiers pulled their upper bodies
powerfully together and squirted a yellow, sticky
substance. The substance dried up fast and the
attackers got stuck in it.
But this action also harms the termites themselves.
The gland in which they make this substance is
a sort of backpack without an opening. It has to
burst to let the sticky mass go. The upper body of
the termite soldier then tears open.
54

22/2015

Why do they do it?

The termite soldiers use the yellow gunk to disable

the attackers. This buys their peers extra time and
the workers can flee inside or try and close the
entrance to the termite hill.

How deadly is it?

Scientists have given the squirting soldiers

fancy nicknames such as walking chemical
bombs and kamikaze ants. The French and
Vietnamese scientists think this is a bit too
much. Thats because there are also termites
that only secrete a drop of gunk without tearing
their bodies open.
That said, even with their bodies torn apart, the
soldier termites can still fight for a few minutes.
They dish out blows with their large lower jaws
before dropping dead. So, the comparison with
kamikaze soldiers is understandable.

Aphid closes
Who makes the sacrifice?
Young aphids of the Nipponaphis
monzeni species.

How do they do it?

The aphids live in galls, bulging

deformations on plants. The little green
insects will close a hole in the gall
as quickly as possible so no predator
can enter. Scientists from the Tokyo
University of Agriculture drilled holes in
plant galls containing aphids in 2013.
They saw how the young aphids gather at
the edge. They secrete a white substance
from a little tube at the back of their
bodies. When they do so they also lose
two-thirds of their weight. They knead the
gunk with their mouths and limbs until
it becomes harder and close the hole
with it. The plaster work does not just
contain the white dried-up substance
after about half an hour some aphids
also get stuck in it.

Why do they do it?

It is important for the aphids in the gall

to close the hole quickly or they run the
risk of the whole group being eaten by
enemies such as moth larvae.

How deadly is it?

Fixing a hole does not cost every

helping aphid its life. But the Japanese
researchers found aphid bodies in all 13
closed-off plant galls they studied. They
found an average of 7 dead aphid young
per hole.

Bumble bee dies alone

Who makes the sacrifice?

The bumble bee workers. These are the females that are
not queen.

How do they do it?

Bumble bees are used by various parasite flies to lay eggs

in. One of these pesky flies is the Apocephalus borealis.
The larvae eat their way out once the eggs hatch. But the
bumble bee does not wait patiently for its horrible death.
As soon as the insect has been infected it will fly away
to die far from the nest.

Why do they do it?

The bumble bee is eaten from the inside. The bee is

a source of nutrition for the new generation of flies.
When they grow up they will lay eggs inside more
bumble bees.
The body temperature of the bee lowers when
it sits outside the nest. This slows down the
growth of the fly larvae. More importantly,
the danger posed by the flies is further away
from the nest.

How deadly is it?

The bumble bee will not survive

outside the nest. It will get cold and
will have very little food.

SHUTTERSTOCK

Scorpion withstands its own poison

t is often said that scorpions can kill

themselves. According to a Southern
IEuropean
legend they do this as soon
as they are surrounded by flames. They
would be more afraid of the fire than
their own deadly poison. British poet
Lord Byron made mention of this story
in a poem in 1813. Over the centuries,
scientists have been trying to find out
if this is true.
Psychologist Conwy Lloyd Morgan
wrote in the magazine Nature in 1883
how he tortured the non-suspecting
little creatures in all sorts of ways.
He burned their backs with bundled
sunlight, teased them with acids and

alcohol, heated them up in a bottle

and placed them in flames. It was
barbaric enough for every scorpion
with even the smallest inclination
to suicide to take flight into selfdestruction, said Morgan. He saw that
the scorpions sometimes jabbed their
tails towards their own backs, but this
didnt wound them any more than they
already were.
Even if the scorpion wanted to,
it could not poison itself.
French researchers saw
this in 1998. They
injected a bunch of
scorpions with various

types of scorpion poison. Guess what?

The scorpions were not troubled by it
at all. 7
braintainment@panorama.co.za

22/2015

55

Technology

The internet looks more like a highway system

comprising streets of copper and fibre optic cables

Connectiv

56

22/2015

SHUTTERSTOCK

The internet seems elusive. But

behind your computer and
smartphone there is an
enormous network that helps
you connect with the rest of the
world. What does it consist of
and how does it work?

ity

7 TEXT: ELLY POSTHUMUS

icture a long, white, sterilelooking corridor. At the back is

a door to the right, behind
which a lot of sounds are
emitted. Behind this door is a
corridor with even more doors. This is
where the noise comes from, the so-called
suites of the Amsterdam Internet
Exchange (AMS-IX), the largest internet
node in the world. There are 4 computers
hard at work in this room. They are black
blocks about 2m high with all sorts of
lights flashing and with dozens of cables
attached to them.
The noise comes from the installation that
blows cool air in and thus prevents these
enormous computers from overheating.
The black machine is a so-called switch.
They are devices that lead the internet
traffic in the right direction. When you
send a mail or upload a video to someone
in the Netherlands, the chances are good
that your message or video will pass
through here. Such switches form the
infrastructure of the internet together
with millions of kilometres of cable,
servers and routers.

A Everything is on the internet

Many people experience the internet
only as something that they see on the
screen of their computer or smartphone,
says Boudewijn Haverkort. He is a
professor of design and analysis of
communication systems at the University
of Twente (NL). The internet is a
computer network that connects millions
of computer users from all over the world
to one another.
Not that long ago it was mainly traditional
desktops and servers. These are
computers that save and send information
such as web pages and emails. But today
more and more devices are connected to
the internet, such as smartphones,
televisions, cars and even photo frames.
According to research conducted by
American company Internet Systems
Consortium (ISC), there was at least a
billion of those at the beginning of 2014.
According to other estimations, there
were already about 10 billion and there
will be 50 billion in 2020. These devices
22/2015

57

Technology

The internet keeps functioning even when one

of the smaller networks stops working

Checking the mail

ll information that you send over the

internet is treated the same. At least, that
is how it should be, says Fernando Kuipers of the
Delft University of Technology (NL). But
technically speaking, it is possible to treat all
those information parcels differently on the basis
of their content, and let some of them through
and not others. Internet providers can see what
kind of information the parcel contains.
In 2011 it became known that Dutch cellphone
company KPN wanted to use this information to
halt the stream of certain parcels and to only let
them go if you paid for them. For example, they
wanted to stop Skype parcels because you can
make free calls using Skype. And this of course
means less income for the cellphone companies.
The checking of parcels also has its advantages.
It is also used, for example, to stop viruses.

are only the outside of the internet. Here

most of the intelligence is found, says
Haverkort. The core of the internet is
actually surprisingly simple.

omputers were mainly devices that

worked independently from one
C
another before the 1970s. Then, the
Advanced Research Projects Agency
(ARPA) of the American Ministry of
Defence came up with a method to
have computers of various universities
communicate with one another. They
managed to connect 23 computers that
were housed in different sites in
America to 1 network in 1971.
In 1972 the ARPANET consisted of
connected computers from 40
different locations. In 1973 the first
transatlantic connection was made

teaches network architecture and services

at the Delft University of Technology
(NL). Only, this road network doesnt
consist of tarmac, concrete or sand, but
rather copper cables, optic fibre and air.
These cables often run parallel to roads
and railroads. In the case of going from
one continent to another, they run across

MARCO HILLEN/HOLLANDSE HOOGTE

A Network is robust
The internet can be compared to a road
network, explains Fernando Kuipers. He

Growing network

This is the very heavily guarded internet crossing Amsterdam Internet Exchange.
58

22/2015

with the University College London

(UK). The connected computers were
not desktop computers like we have
now, but big colossuses belonging to
universities and large companies.
About 1,000 computers were
connected to the network in 1984.
From 1985 other networks were
connected with the ARPANET. In 1989
there were already more than
100,000 computers from various
networks connected with one another.
The internet was released for
commercial use in 1991 and now
anyone can log on.

the ocean floor. The internet does not

belong to one owner, just like the world
road network.
Kuipers explains: It is built up from
smaller networks that belong to various
internet providers, like MWEB or
Afrihost. They each maintain their own
piece of the network, just like every
country maintains its own roads.
Worldwide there are tens of thousands of
these networks. The power of the internet
comes from the smaller networks that it is
built from. If one of them falls away, for
whatever reason, the internet still exists
and information exchange will remain.
Its just like traffic on a road network.
When one road is closed off you can still
reach your destination via a detour. Each
network of internet providers consists of a
lot of cables and crossings which connect
the cables with one another. There is a
switch or router on each crossing, like the
ones at AMS-IX. Both connect several
computers with one another. Only a

SHUTTERSTOCK

Nice and tidy

ll photos, films, emails, internet

A
sites and other data that we can
reach via the internet are stored on

computers. Many companies use

computers in a so-called data centre
or computer centre. These buildings
are especially designed to house
computers with enormous storage
capacities.
A data centre has, for example, a
reserve electricity supply and an
advanced system for climate control to
prevent overheating of the computers.
It is difficult to say how many data
centres there are worldwide. Many
companies prefer not to release
information about their IT
infrastructure. And that is why we only
have a rough estimate. American
company Emerson Electric estimated
at the end of 2011 that there are
about 509,147 data centres, but there
could certainly be a lot more.

Energy sapper

he internet consists of many

millions of computers that
T
store and send information. Put

together, they consume a lot of

energy. It is difficult to say how
much energy they use as we dont
know how many computers and
data centres there are. So working

out how much energy the internet

consumes is tricky. But American
ICT research and advice bureau
Gartner made an attempt in 2007
and calculated that all data
centres together use half a
percent of the total energy used
worldwide. Researchers from the

switch makes the connection within a

network. A router stands on the edge of a
network and connects it with other
networks. Routers and switches are
actually a sort of super crossing. A dozen
or so cables come in, and from each
router or switch you can go to another
dozen or so outgoing cables. In a few steps
you can arrive at millions of different
addresses. The crossing at AMS-IX does
not consist of 1 router or switch. AMS-IX
has 12 suites with several switches. The
non-profit organisation currently connects
nearly 700 networks with one another.

A Information in pieces
If you want to visit Braintainments
website, your computer has to
communicate in this crisscross of cables
and crossings with a computer or server in
the network where the website of
Braintainment is housed. The
communication consists of sending
information to and fro. For example, you

University of California in Berkeley

(USA) estimated that the energy
use of the whole internet was
between 170 and 307 gigawatt.
That is between 1.2 and 1.9% of
the total 16 terawatt that the
entire world consumes in energy
per year.

type www.braintainment.co.za into your

browser. A browser is a computer program
which enables you to look at web pages.
This program knows that you want to
make a connection with the
Braintainment website. It sends a message
that you want to see the website to the
computer where the website is stored. In
the case of Braintainment this is in
Johannesburg.
All sorts of information, like the sending
of messages, but also images, words and
music, consist of enormous rows of only
zeros and ones. The program that you use
chops the enormous amount of zeros and
ones into small pieces or packets the
moment you send something. These are
easier and quicker to send than all the
information in 1 chunk.
Every parcel has a sender, which is your IP
address, and the address from the receiver,
in this case the IP address from the
computer in Johannesburg where the
Braintainment site is housed. It also

determines the type of information it is,

like a Word document or an image. Also,
each parcel that goes together with this
same chunk of information (for example a
video clip) gets a sequence number. The
computer of the receiver can then piece
them together again in the right order.

A Crossing sorts
These parcels with zeros and ones are sent
from your computer in the form of
electromagnetic waves or light signals
through a copper and optic fibre cable or
with wireless signals through the air. As
soon as a parcel arrives at the first crossing
(router), the destination will be determined
and it will send it on to the first available
router in the right direction. Of course, not
every router knows all IP addresses of all
internet users, like yours and
Braintainments.
Kuipers adds: You can compare such a
router with a mail-sorting centre. The
parcels to Johannesburg land in a different
22/2015

59

SHUTTERSTOCK

Technology

The information travels at

the speed of light through
fibre optic cables

World line

s the whole world on the internet? Well,

not really. But the number of people online
is growing constantly.
About 2.9 billion people use the internet.
That is 40% of the total population.
In Africa only 21% is sometimes connected
to the internet. In Europe this is 69%.
The internet has reached almost everybody
among the population of the Falkland
Islands. 96.9% of its residents are connected
to the internet.
At this moment there are at least 1 billion
websites that you can visit.Bron:www.
internetlivestats.com
sorting than the ones that have to go to other
parts of South Africa. The router will send
the information parcels to an address that is
in Johannesburg but a different router will
send the parcels to Cape Town, for example.
The next router looks at the parcel again and
sends it on to the next router in the right
direction. Only the last router is in direct
contact with the computer in Johannesburg.
It receives your request that your computer
wants to see the website and sends all
information back that is necessary to see the
site, such as text, images and clips of the
homepage. This also goes in parcels, this
time with you as the receiver.

A Message travels fast

These information parcels often have to
cover enormous distances. To visit the site
of Braintainment they have to travel to
Johannesburg. For a site in America they
have to travel even further. The greater the
distance the parcels have to bridge, the
longer they take.
You dont really notice this, however.
Thats because a large part of the internet
network consists of optic fibre. For
example, in the Netherlands you reach the
optic fibre in a few steps from the copper or
60

22/2015

wireless connection in your house, says

Haverkort. And here the information
moves at the speed of light. Within a dozen
or so milliseconds your parcels have gone
across the ocean and you will have received
something back. Thats clever because
dozens of parcels go to and fro just to get
the homepage of Braintainment. And
because this happens so quickly, the
website opens in one go.
At least, most of the time. If somewhere a
cable has a problem, like a transatlantic
cable between 2 continents, then there
could be problems on both sides of the
cable. Fortunately, there are many of these
cables. So the information can always be
rerouted via other cables. Just like a road
network. When one traffic light is out you
can still get home via another route.
Fortunately, in the case of the internet this
only yields a delay of a few seconds. 7

ocean? You use the ocean floor. The

first undersea cable was laid long
before the internet existed. The
Anglo-French Telegraph Company laid
a copper telegraph cable across the
floor of the English Channel in 1850.
This first cable didnt survive for very
long. Part of it got caught in a
fishermans net and he cut a piece out
to show his friends.
The first transatlantic telegraph cable
followed 9 years later. The first
transatlantic telephone cable was only
rolled across the ocean nearly a
century later in 1956. The first fibre
optic cables followed in 1980. These
are a little more difficult to cut. The
current fibre optic cables are protected
by at least 7 layers. Under them are
steel cables, carbon fibre and
aluminium. According to the latest
count there should be about 285
working transatlantic internet cables
across the ocean floor in 2015. Put
together they cover a distance of
885,000km. You can circumnavigate
the Earth 22 times with that. And every
year more are added. Want to see
where they are? Visit tinyurl.com/
zeekabelkaart.

SSPL/GETTY IMAGES

Internet in numbers

ow do you create a cable

connection between 2 countries
H
or continents that are separated by an

braintainment@panorama.co.za
EXTRA INFO
www.vox.com/a/internet-maps: a site where
the development and reach of the internet is
illustrated with the aid of 40 country maps.

A cable-laying machine on the deck of

the SS Great Eastern in 1867.

Auto

If you want to drive incredibly fast you have to learn how

Licence to thrill
Do you think going at 220km/h is frighteningly fast? In the Porsche 918
Spyder you will laugh at such a snails pace. Anoushcka Busch fulfilled
her need for speed on Germanys famous Autobahn
RAYMOND DE HAAN

7 TEXT: ANOUSCHKA BUSCH

to brake

It can also go faster

hat is the fastest speed ever achieved on

the German Autobahn? Formula 1 driver
W
Rudolf Caracciola drove at an unmatched speed of

GETTY

432.59km/h on 29 January 1938. Chances are

very slim that this record will ever be broken. It
was done in a racing car; one that doesnt have the
same standards as a car that has been approved
for driving on a public road. Also, the highway was
closed off for the race, so Caracciola didnt have
to be considerate towards other drivers.
This doesnt mean to say that the race was not
dangerous. Bernd Rosemeyer, Caracciolas
opponent, crashed and died on the second run.
With his Audi V-16 Auto Union he had reached a
slightly lower top speed
of 432km/h. What is the
record for a normal car
on a public road? There is
no official mention in the
Guinness Book of World
Records, but it is
probably the 381km/h
achieved by car-tuning
company 9ff in 2010 with
their modified Porsche
GT3 GTurbo 850.

The writer takes control.

Also available with
a cup holder.

o you know how fast you

were driving just now?
285km/h. Wow! My
personal speed record
on the Autobahn was at least 100km/h
faster than I had ever gone in my life.
The men at the counter of the Porsche
dealer had not been convinced I could
push a car to its maximum when I had
stepped inside the dealership with my
high heels a few hours earlier. What is
the fastest you ever drove? I had been
asked. I had to confess it was 170km/h in
my own little Peugeot 206.

Is driving fast bad for the environment?

No. The green brake discs indicate that the
Porsche 918 Spyder is a hybrid and is kind
to the environment.

A Filton is the end of the road

Its amazing how many looks you get in
such a super deluxe sports car. In my
rear-view mirror I see the driver of the
car behind me taking photos with his
cellphone. It is special to spot a Porsche
918 Spyder on the highway. The model is
a very limited edition with only 918 such
cars ever made. Each of them was made

by hand. What is the

attraction of expensive sports
cars? I must admit, my heart
also skipped a beat when I
saw the shiny white vehicle
that I was about to drive. The
pure thought that you can
reach 345km/h already gave
me an adrenaline rush.
And the sensation gets even
bigger when you know how
expensive it is. It has a price
tag of 780,450 (in South
Africa, it is a lot more
expensive). And yes, I was
extremely stoked at being given the
opportunity to try out Porsches new
flagship model on the German
Autobahn. Porsche instructor Dolf
Dekking was tasked with guiding me
along the way as to how I should control
this race monster safely. During our trip
to Stuttgart he was going to teach me not
only about the various functions of the
car, but also about how to brake well and
how to steer the car through corners at a
high speed.

A Practise makes perfect

It takes a bit of getting used to. The
interior of the 918 does not resemble my
car at all. The ignition key, for starters, is
not on the side of the steering wheel where
you would normally find it. And where is
the gearbox? I am amazed that this tough
Porsche is an automatic. Manual shifting is
also possible, with 2 buttons on the wheel.
But its best to leave the changing of gears
to the car, advises Dekking.
22/2015

63

Auto

The car will slide if

you dont learn to
brake properly
With a dial you can choose from 4
different positions. In e-power mode
the car drives completely electric. Yes,
the 918 is a hybrid. So you can glide
across the road in little villages and you
will not bother anybody in town with
your fumes. It can do this for about
31km. Fortunately, the battery charges
itself while you drive. The combustion
engine does that, but also the energy that
is released with braking goes towards the
batteries. The car changes between
electric and combustion engine so that as
little fuel as possible is used in hybrid
mode. The car drives only on the
combustion engine in sport mode. The
electromotor ensures an extra boost
when the car needs more power. Race
mode is a sort of turbo version of sport
mode: high fuel usage but with extra
power. And if you really want to go to
the max, you can always push the red
hot lap button in the middle.

A You have to learn to brake

As soon as I know more or less about all
the buttons (I unfortunately keep
mixing up the down shift button with
the headlights button), Dekking teaches
me to look far ahead. Of course, I
already know this from driving school.
But when everything is done twice as
fast as you are used to, you also have to
look twice as far ahead. And think
ahead. That truck in the distance? He
might be overtaking the truck in front

Testosterone booster
ts mainly men who are crazy about sports
And that is not very strange. Not
Ionlycars.
do they score higher on the scale of
sensation seekers, but there is also
little else that does so much for their
social status. The testosterone levels
of men rise the moment they get into
a Porsche, according to research
conducted at American
Concordia University. Also,
their chances with women
increase, discovered
researchers from British
University of Wales. Being
photographed next to a
prestigious car makes them
more attractive. On the other
hand, female car lovers do not
profit from this effect.
64

22/2015

Its too bad if you want

to intimidate the cars in
front of you. The Porsche
918 is more impressive
from behind.
of him. That means that the cars that
drive in the middle lane will go left,
onto your lane (remember they drive on
the right in Europe). Its best to slow
down a little now.
I even have to learn how to brake. How
hard can it be? It does not seem
completely unnecessary to practise
braking at high speed. My first attempt is
very unconvincing. The car begins to
slide a little. You are holding the
steering wheel too tight, says Dekking.
You have to sit relaxed, push your back
into the seat and let the car do the work.
Trying to keep the car in the right lane
with the steering wheel while braking
is exactly what you shouldnt do.
Thats because the wheels are
mounted slightly skew in the
car. That is why they tend to
go straight when they turn.
By holding the wheel
tight and pulling it
straight I work against
the mechanism of the
car, which makes it
slide. Dekking
explains: Touching
the steering wheel
lightly is best. Then
you feel exactly what
the car does and you
will have the most
control.

A Straight through the corner

What was the most important lesson I
learnt? Dont be afraid to push down
hard on the brakes. Most people
(including myself) have a tendency to
brake carefully. Thats a remnant from
the past, explains Dekking. With older
cars it was dangerous to break hard. The
wheels could lock, which made steering
impossible. Today, most cars have ABS,
which keeps the wheels turning even
when you break hard. But most people
dont know what it means. Some people
think that they will overturn the car,
says Dekking. But you really dont have
to worry about that. Even braking in a
corner poses no danger.
I was also told that pressing hard on the
accelerator while cornering is not a good
idea with this car. You can only hit the
gas once the wheels are straight again.
This minimises the risk that you will spin
out of the corner. Dekking also has
useful tips when we hit the curvy hill
road along the course. He suggests that I
choose as straight a line as possible. In
other words, start on the left of the road
and then cut through so that you end up
on the right side. Isnt it dangerous to
change to the left before a blind corner?
I wonder. Dekking explains: When you
drive on the left the oncoming traffic will
see you sooner. And then you will still
have plenty of time to go to the right.

Expensive car
means less hooting

RAYMOND DE HAAN

uppose you are behind a car while the

traffic light changes to green. When would
S
you sooner hoot: when its an expensive

sports car or an old jalopy? Most people say

at the sports car. It seems that in practice this
is precisely the other way around. An
experiment done in 1968 showed that drivers
sooner and more often hoot if they think the
car is cheap than when its an expensive car.
It also became apparent that expensive cars
are overtaken less often. Other research
shows that people leave their parking spot
quicker when an expensive car is waiting. At
least this is the case for men. For women it
didnt seem to make a difference. It is unclear
whether this is because men are more
sensitive to status or because women just
dont know the difference between the cars.

Wrong side?

he first thing that you notice when you

start a Porsche 918 is that the key is on
T
the wrong side. Its a remnant from the classic

A Coming through
It also takes a few psychological
manipulation techniques to ensure that
you are the boss of the road. How do you
make the other cars move over without
flashing your lights or driving right up
their rear bumper? The appearance of
your vehicle already makes a difference.
Some cars just have more overtaking
power than others. Thats a beautiful
phrase for the ability of a car to
intimidate the driver of the car ahead to
move over the moment he spots you in
his rear-view mirror.
The overtaking power of my Peugeot 206
is probably a little higher than that of a
Smart. But even the 918, which would
really impress me immensely, doesnt
make some drivers move out of my way.
Well, says Dekking, if you drive at
the same speed as the car in front of you,
then why would he move over? There is
no reason for it. He thinks that you wont
go faster than him. Keep your distance
and then drive towards him cheekily.
Indeed, he gets the hint. The car goes to
the right. Dekking: What also helps
often is going to the right lane yourself.
No, not to overtake on the right. But the
movement to the right gives someone the
feeling that he should also go right when
he looks in his rear-view mirror. And
that is the moment that you can go past
him on the left.

GETTY

Le Mans Race. At the 24-hour race that has

taken place since 1923 in French Le Mans,

the drivers used to run across the track to the

car, jump in and start the car as quickly as
possible. They could start with their left hand
and almost immediately change gears with
their right hand.

A Rollercoaster feeling
It still seems a bit tricky to gain speed
with all that traffic, despite all the tips.
As soon as I have built up some speed,
another car cuts in front of me, or there
is a risky situation in the right lane and it
might be better to reduce my speed.
Eventually I manage to put my foot
down and definitely establish my
personal speed record. It only lasts a
little while, but long enough to get the
feeling of the power of the 918. Its a
sensation as if you are in a rollercoaster
pushed back into the chair by the
acceleration.

The G-force that the car yields at full

power is the same as an emergency stop
for a normal car, I hear later. I wonder if
I would buy it if I win a million in the
lottery. Probably not. And what if I was a
multimillionaire? Who knows? I would
probably not opt for the 45,000 paint
job to personalise the car though. 7

braintainment@panorama.co.za
EXTRA INFO
Tinyurl.com/Por918: information about the
Porsche 918 Spyder.
22/2015

65

Diet

Genetic modification
should make this rice
resistant to hungry
insects.
66

22/2015

Research shows that farmers could yield better

crops by using genetic modification techniques

Thought
for food

Genetically modified (GM) food can make you sick and

harm the environment. Thats what we are constantly told.
Now, some researchers say that this couldnt be further from
the truth. They believe that GM foods can help alleviate
hunger around the world and even create a healthier planet.
7 TEXT: HIDDE BOERSMA

were even levelled against its creators.

The site, www.monsantocollaborators.
org, has since been taken down.

A More yield, less hunger

There are many in scientific fields in
favour of GM technology. Whats more,
there is no other subject to be found where
public opinion is so completely opposite to
the scientific consensus. A search in
scientific literature actually delivers a very
positive image: genetically modified crops
are safe for both humankind and the
environment. Genetic modification has
the potential to raise crop yields, reduce
the use of pesticides and curb hunger. But
what exactly is genetic modification?
It happens when scientists introduce a
specific change into the DNA of a crop
using GM methodology. This happens in a

PASCAL GOETGHELUCK/SPL/ANP

ithout even knowing it, most

of us consume GM products
on a daily basis. Just think
about those convenient
ready-to-eat meals and products such as
margarine. Such products are part of our
daily lives. Still, there are few other
scientific subjects that face such
criticism. Emotions run high about the
subject on the internet. A Google search
teaches us that food made from GM
crops can lead to cancer, autism and all
sorts of other modern-day ailments.
The technique meets so much resistance
that a website that surfaced in June 2014,
on which pro-GM scientists (and
journalists) wrote positively about the
technique, was compared to the Nazi
regime and called a worldwide
agricultural holocaust. Death threats

22/2015

67

Diet

By growing GM crops farmers

will use fewer pesticides and
yield bigger crop sizes

A Plant makes poison

One of the big success stories of GM
plants is the so-called Bt crop. Plants
such as corn and cotton face a threat from
caterpillars that often eat whole crops.
Farmers worldwide use a lot of
insecticides to protect their crops against
this. In the 90s scientists managed to
build a certain poison gene from the

ES
/GET TY IMAG
ERIC BOUVET

GM on the rise

armers were immediately enthusiastic

when genetically modified crops were
F
first approved by the American Food and

Drug Administration (FDA) in 1996. Their

popularity rose quickly, especially in the
USA, and in the last decade farmers in that
country have planted about 175 million
hectares of soil with GM crops. In South
Africa 103,300 hectares of land can be
used for growing crops. GM crops are
especially popular in North and South
America and in Asia, while the European
countries are not so sure. The green
lobbyists have gained so much ground that
many governments have prohibited the
growing of GM crops.
68

22/2015

XINHUA PRESS/CORBIS

A An extra tool
One of the scientists who are positive
about the use of GM methodologies is
Bert Lotz, a professor of applied ecology
at Wageningen University (NL). He is
surprised about the resistance.
Humankind has already been adapting
crops for centuries. Todays corn or wheat
doesnt look anything like its original
predecessors, he argues. Genetic
modification is an extra tool in the kit that
can help us improve crops. It would be a
waste if we didnt use this useful method,
especially if you realise that we will have
to feed another 2 billion extra mouths by

2050. Food production will have to double

in the next 30 years, and if we are going to
manage that we will need to make use of
GM products. According to Lotz, GM
techniques are mainly more precise
because you work specifically with one
gene of which you know exactly what it
does. Also, its faster because you dont
keep testing to ensure that you have the
perfect crop.
It seems from years of scientific research
that in principle GM technology has no
disadvantages. Both the European Union
and the World Health Organisation, as
well as the majority of European and
American scientific institutes, claim that
GM crops form no greater risk for
humankind and the environment than
conventionally developed crops. They also
claim that they contribute to a sustainable
world and more stable food production.

SHEPERD ZHOU/EPA/ANP

laboratory, where changes in a plant cell

are inserted on a microscopic level using
molecular technology. Scientists first very
precisely remove one gene from an
organism (plant, animal or bacterium)
that is responsible for one specific
characteristic, for example resistance
against a disease. This gene is then built
into an agricultural crop that also gets this
specific characteristic. The technology
differs from the traditional way in which
crops are improved. Here a crop is crossed
with a plant with the desired characteristic
in the hope that one of the new plants will
also have that useful characteristic.
Because so many undesirable genes are
transmitted, the new plants have to be
cross-pollinated with the original crop
many times. This is to ensure that you
eventually end up with a plant that still
has all the properties of the original crop
plus that one characteristic that you
wanted in there.

A researcher in a field of GM grown

rice. China is the first country to
grow this crop on a large scale.

Does GM lead to suicide?

poor farmer commits suicide every half hour in India. That

amounts to a staggering 17,000 suicides per year. Anti-GM
A
activists would love to hear that this is due to the increase in the

cultivation of GM crops. They say that the Indian farmers commit

suicide en masse because the GM seeds are too expensive and the
farmers dont have the option to buy other seeds. This leads to
enormous debt, which leads them to commit suicide. But is this true?
Suicide among poor farmers in India is indeed a big problem, but this
was already the case before GM crops were grown. The numbers have
actually reduced since the introduction of GM cotton. Bt cotton gives
more crop certainty to farmers. However, those opposing this method
of crop yielding keep repeating their claim and this gives GM
techniques a bad name.

Suicide among farmers is a big problem in India. Poverty, debt and

drought are all considered to be factors in these untimely deaths.
bacterium Bacillus
thuringiensis (Bt)
into various crops.
This ensured that
the plants became
poisonous to the
caterpillars, but not
to other organisms.
The result: if a
caterpillar takes a
bite from this crop
it will die. They
dont multiply and
a potential caterpillar plague has been
halted. With these new GM crops farmers
now have to use fewer pesticides and at
the same time harvest a bigger crop.

A Increase in revenue
Over the last few years Lotz and
colleagues have studied the effects of the
introduction of the Bt crop on the 3 Ps:
people, planet and profit. They analysed
the effects of the Bt crops on labour

conditions; the rights of the local

population (people); the quality of the soil,
water and biodiversity (planet); and the
income of the farmers and the land as a
whole (profit). It seemed that Bt corn and
Bt cotton have a positive effect across the
board. This goes for both large-scale
farmers in the West as well as poor
farmers in developing countries.
Bt cotton is mainly a big success in India.
The yield increase for Indian farmers in
many areas is substantial. Also, fewer
pesticides are being used. Fewer pesticides
mean less impact on the environment and
the population in general. Lotz and his
colleagues do propose that you have to be
cautious with new GM crops. For example,
unscrupulous use in cotton plants could
mean that caterpillars quickly develop
resistance to the poison in the Bt crops.

A Rice and bananas

The advantages of genetic modification
dont just stop with ensuring better crop

yields. It also helps with making food

more nutritional, say scientists. Currently,
scientists from various universities from
all over the world are developing golden
rice. This is a rice variety with a built-in
gene that ensures that the plant produces
beta-carotene, a substance that the
human body transforms into vitamin A.
Worldwide, there are between 250,000
and 500,000 children who become blind
because of a lack of vitamin A in their
food. Half of them die within a year. The
development of golden rice can help to
reduce the lack of vitamin A in the
world, and with that save the lives of
thousands of children. The first tests of
golden rice are currently being carried
out in the Philippines.
A similar type of gene will also be put
into bananas, one of the most eaten fruits
in East Africa, via genetic modification.
Children in that part of the world also
dont get enough vitamin A, hence a GM
banana can make a difference there. A
22/2015

69

Diet

Scientists are currently working on a more disease-resistant potato

ISSOUF SANOGO

GM cotton in a test field in

Burkina Faso.

ot everybody is happy
with GM food. Here are
some of the reasons for their
argument:
There is too much
uncertainty about what the
crops do to the environment.
There is no technique where
you can exclude all risks.
However, GM crops have been
grown for almost 20 years
without any foreseeable
negative effects. The chances
that wild plants, for example,
take over the changed gene,
is one of the biggest fears of
many environmental activists.
However, this has not
happened in the case of
conventional agricultural
crops.
GM food will make you sick
and it is unhealthy.
The truth is that GM food has
been consumed for the last
20 years and nobody has ever
gotten ill. The crops are
70

22/2015

A protest against genetically

modified food is often a
protest against giant seed
producer Monsanto.
tested extensively in the lab
before they land on your
plate. From all these tests it
has become apparent that
GM food poses no greater
risk to your health than
traditional food. Also, GM
crops are tested more
extensively than conventional
crops before they go on sale.
Large companies are
forcing poor farmers to buy
GM seeds from them.
Many activists who are
against GM crops are actually
against Monsanto, the largest
seed producer in the world.
They are against this
company because it has
patents on the seeds and
they think that Monsanto is
too big and powerful. They
have a point there. If farmers
are too dependent on a small
number of seed producers,
the diversity of grown crops

A Triple protection
For the most part, GM crops are hardly
grown in Europe because of the
successful lobbying of environmental
organisations. However, in places such as
Holland, farmers are giving a lot of
thought to introducing such crops,
especially GM potatoes. Prof Bert Lotz
explains that this is due to the fact that the
wet weather in that country means potato
crops are often affected by Phytophthora
infestans, a micro-organism that causes
the potatoes to become diseased. Last
year the farmers had to spray on average
once a week to prevent their crops from
dying. At Wageningen University they
are working on a potato that is
resistant to this potato disease,
states Lotz. These genes come
from an inedible wild potato. We
also try to bring in resistance with
the aid of crossing in existing
types, but this is difficult.
Phytophthora infestans is very
good at adapting and therefore
breaks through a resistance very
fast. With the aid of genetic
modification we can build 3
resistant genes in one go in
todays potato. This yields triple
protection, which Phytophthora
cant resist. When this potato is
ready we hope that Europe will
take a more scientific course
and that the resistance against
GM crops will be reduced.
AFP/ANP
RA JESH JANTIL AL/

Case for the

opposition

case in point: in Uganda, most of the

population gets up to 30% of their daily
calorie requirements from eating
bananas. If local farmers start
introducing GM bananas, it could make
the fruit more nutritional.

will suffer and this might lead

to contracts where the buyer
is extorted. But this has
nothing to do with genetic
modification as a technique.
Its more about our
capitalistic economy and how
this company in particular
operates. There are many GM
projects that are financed by
NGOs and governments,
where there is often no
patent on the seeds. Also,
plant characteristics that
have been bred the
traditional way can also be
protected and patents can be
applied for.

A GM means less hunger

Scientists from all over the
world are working on dozens
of other projects that have to
help curb hunger and make the world
more sustainable. Wheat is being
developed that is better equipped against
dry circumstances, rice that needs less
water and peanuts that dont cause
allergies. Scientists are also developing
tomatoes that retain their taste longer
and multivitamin corn that contains
vitamins B and C in its grain. The
Hawaiian papaya crop has already been
saved years ago by building in a
resistance against the ringspot virus,
which was found on the island group in
the 90s. So, there is a big chance that
many more GM products will be making
their way to the supermarket shelves in
the coming years. 7
braintainment@panorama.co.za

BRAIN CANDY
Make it stick

Power up

The Fridge Monkey is one of those

products that no kitchen should be
without. The flexible rubber mat is
designed to maximise storage space and
stop bottles from rolling about in the
fridge or on a counter. Its also perfect for
playing 99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall.
Drinks not included.
Price: R69
Info: leagueofbeers.com

Two of mans greatest necessities (a charged phone

battery and a stylish place to keep your debit
cards) have finally been combined into 1 perfectly
pocket-sized package the Mighty Power Wallet.
Made from highly durable Italian Saffiano leather,
its everything youd expect from a quality wallet.
Only this collision of fashion and functionality
conceals a built-in 3,000mAh battery so that you
can charge your smartphone up to 1 times while
youre out and about. The battery itself is super
slim so youd barely know its there and its easily
re-charged via the included micro-USB cable.
Price: R1,200
Info: firebox.com

Braai on
the run
The Cobb Premier Plus
Complete Kitchen in a
Box is more than just a
braai. It allows you to
grill, boil, fry and roast.
Braai on the go? No
worries. You can take the
unit on your travels. This
guy will be the sous chef
you need. Just pop 6 to
10 pieces of charcoal or
aCobble Stoneinto the
fire grate and light. Then
use the grill grid and
attachments to cook food
as you wish when you are
out and on the move.
Price: R2,599
Info: Yuppiechef.com

Lighting with a twist

In the time it takes you to finish reading this opening sentence, the current
world record holder, Mats Valk, can solve a Rubiks Cube. A paltry 5.55
seconds to be precise. Thats just incredible and absurd in equal measure.
We cant all possess these astounding levels of dexterity and mind-boggling
brain power, but with the Rubiks Cube Light you can now light up your bedroom
as well as putting your puzzle-solving skills to the ultimate test.
Twist and turn this interactive piece of illumination in your hands, or sit it
proudly in the included display stand to brighten up your humble abode with its
80s retro stylings. Just pray that your friends and family dont rearrange it.
Price: R700
Info: Firebox.com

A world where dragons do exist

Dragon Age: Inquisition is a title
that, while it unsurprisingly borrows
a number of ideas from other
games of its ilk, also delivers a
truly extraordinary experience in
one unique package. Its unlike
anything else weve played this

year. Monsters, romance, action,

exploration, a deep storyline and
addictive gameplay make this one
of the best games ever developed.
The main storyline contains enough
intrigue, drama and plot twists to
keep you entertained for hours on

end, and the side missions and

quests will draw you into a world
that will not let you go. If youre a
fan of RPGs or action adventure
games,Dragon Age: Inquisition
is it.
Price: Dependent on platform
22/2015

71

History

Mysterious islands: Are they

all just fantasy or did some
actually exist?

Wild stories about treasure islands and sunken nations did the rounds
before the world was completely mapped. Does the legendary Atlantis
actually exist and who erected the stone statues on Easter Island?
Here are 6 famed islands and the mysteries that surround them.

SHUTTERSTOCK

7 TEXT: JAN LIGTHART

72

22/2015

ARCHIVES
MCCULLY NOVA SCOTIA

Excavations on Oak Island in 1931. Centuries of

relentless digging has probably only yielded 1 coin.

Platos utopia:
Atlantis

A hole full of money:

Oak Island

Where is it? It probably is just a myth.

Where is it? In the Atlantic Ocean off the

Claim to fame: The lost city of Atlantis

is arguably the most well-known myth in the

entire history of mankind. It would have been
the strongest, richest and most powerful nation
in the world if it existed about 12,000 years
ago. Only, nobody has ever found a single trace
of the island.

What mystery surrounds it? Greek

philosopher Plato (427-347BC) described a
utopic island state, named Atlantis, in 1 of his
2 works. Earthquakes and subsequent floods
destroyed Atlantis and it disappeared into the
Atlantic Ocean. Ever since there have been
speculations and many quests to find Atlantis. It
has been a source of inspiration for authors and
artists over the centuries. Two of the renowned
islands from world literature, Utopia by Thomas
More and New Atlantis by Francis Bacon, are
futuristic versions of Platos Atlantis.
Did it ever exist? Modern scientists dont
believe that Atlantis ever existed. They see it
as a myth that was created by Plato in his own
philosophical contemplations. There is also no
proof that there ever was a large island in the
Atlantic Ocean, let alone an island inhabited by
people who were way ahead of their time.
Is the legend still alive? People are

still looking for Atlantis all over the globe,

from Crete to Cuba, from Japan to Ireland
and from the North Pole to the South Pole.
The last discovery of the island was in 2011,
when a group of researchers claimed to have
found Atlantis near the port city of Cadiz in
southwestern Spain. The team claimed to
have found canals and even an oven. Not
even a day later this claim was rubbished by
a Spanish government team who had already
been researching there for a long time. There is
absolutely no evidence that Atlantis was here,
they said. It might just be a settlement from the
beginning of time. And with that the last found
version of Atlantis was wiped away together
with Platos story of the island.

coast of the Canadian peninsula of Nova Scotia.

Claim to fame: Oak Island is the ultimate

treasure island, even though its cold, flat and

boring. The island has appealed to peoples
imaginations for 2 centuries. Dozens of people,
among them President Franklin Roosevelt (18821945) of the United States and actors Errol
Flynn (1909-1959) and John Wayne (1907-1979),
searched here for the biggest pirate treasure ever.

What mystery surrounds it? A man

found a strange hole in the ground here in 1795.
He dug 9m deep and found a layer of flat stones,
traces of pickaxes and a layer of planks that
were metres long. This was the beginning of an
obsession for him and many others. Every so often
the money pit was dug out further, up to 55m
deep. Sometimes new holes were dug. This was
fuelled by wild theories about what was hidden
there, such as the pirate treasures of Captain
Kidd or Blackbeard or even the jewels of French
queen Marie Antoinette. The mystery was further
encouraged by a legend that the first 7 gold
diggers had to die before the treasure could be
found. Thus far, 6 treasure seekers have died on
this island of holes.
Did it ever exist? There has never been

even 1 trace of a real treasure. According to

critics, it doesnt exist. They say that the hole
is a sinkhole a natural phenomenon where
holes appear in soil because holes deeper down
collapse. Stones and trees are known to disappear
into sinkholes, often creating layers of stone and
wood between holes.

Is the legend still alive? Since 2010

there has been a special law that says treasure

hunters have to ask for ministerial permission
before they can embark on their quest for quick
wealth. This permission was granted to the makers
of a television series for the History Channel. Last
year they showed a Spanish coin from the 17th
century that they found on Oak Island. Whether
it is true or not, it added a new paragraph to the
myth of the money pit of Oak Island.

History

it was thought that this island was somewhere in the

northern part of the Atlantic Ocean.

Claim to fame: Thule was an island that became

a statement on its own. Literally and figuratively a

mystical place on the edge of the Old World, the world
that Europeans knew before America was discovered.
It was an elusive place that explorers up until the
Victorian Age (1831-1901) referred to and that was
placed on numerous old maps.

What mystery surrounds it? There were

always myths, legends and mysterious stories about still
unknown places up until the moment that the entire Earth
was mapped. Thule was first mentioned by the Greek
Pytheas in his first report about his expeditions between
330 and 320BC. First, it seemed to be about the British
islands or an island north of that. With
every new discovery the mysterious Thule
moved further and further north. During
the Middle Ages it was possible that
explorers referred to Iceland or Greenland
as Thule. In some stories about Thule
this island was inhabited by dwarves or
by magical, malformed or at least slightly
deformed people.

and Hy-Brasil. As far as Thule is concerned, historians

now agree that Pytheas must have meant Norway.

Is the legend still alive? The mystery has

been unravelled. A beautiful description of that is The

Ice Museum: To Shetland, Germany, Iceland, Norway,
Estonia, Greenland and Svalbard in Search of the
Lost Land of Thule by Joanna Kavenna (2005). She
travelled to all the places that were once Thule and
indicated that Thule was everywhere and nowhere.
The name Thule still surfaces, mainly in the English
language, but then without mythical meanings. The
original inhabitants of Greenland are called the Thule
people; Thule means Iceland in Scottish Gaelic. The
American Air Force base on Greenland is called Thule
Air Base.

RBIS IMAGES

0 Where is it? Thule does not exist. For centuries

THOMAS PICKARD/CO

Did it ever exist? Thule existed

as long as there were white spots on the
world map. The same goes for mythical
islands in the Atlantic Ocean like Antilia

Sandy mistake: Sandy Island

Where is it? It probably never existed.
Claim to fame: We are able to land a probe

PETER HENDRIE/GETTY IMAGES

on a comet 500 million kilometres away. So, it is

surprising that in the 21st century you could still
find a non-existent island of good size on many
maps of the world until a few years ago. Why?

What mystery surrounds it? British

explorer James Cook (1728-1779) wrote in his
logbook that he had spotted Sandy Island 420km
east of New Caledonia, an island east of Australia.
A whale fisherman also saw a sandy island or
sandbank at more or less the same location about
100 years later. And until the end of 2012, the
island adorned all maps without anybody ever
verifying that it does indeed exist.
74

22/2015

TORONTO PUBLIC LIB

Northerly land: Thule

RARY/GE TTY

Empty spots on the world map were

coloured in with mythical places

Did it ever exist? Hydrographers who

research ocean floors had their doubts about

the existence of Sandy Island. French Service
Hydrographique et Oceanographique de la Marine
finally took it off their maps in 1979. But because
not all scientists always use hydrographic maps,
Sandy Island has remained on many land maps.
In November 2012 Australian researchers went to
the spot and confidently concluded that there is no
island. And it never was there either because the
sea is at least 1,300m deep in that area. Cook and
the whale fisherman had been mistaken. This has
happened before, but the fact that such an error
was maintained until 2012 was rather unique.

Is the legend still alive? Sandy Island has

been removed from all maps.

Greenland was the

last Thule purely
because there were
no more northern
islands.

Bounty Island: Bali Hai

Where is it? Bali Hai is a fictitious island.
Claim to fame: Bali Hai is described in one of

the most popular island books of the 20th century,

Tales of the South Pacific by James A. Michener
(1907-1997). The story formed the basis of the film
and the musical South Pacific.

The island Moorea

in French Polynesia
could also pass for
Bali Hai.

What mystery surrounds it? Bali Hai is

nowadays incorrectly associated with the Indonesian
island Bali. This was unthinkable some 50 years ago,
especially in America. Everybody knew in those days
that Bali Hai was a paradise that was somewhere in
the Pacific Ocean because of the immensely popular
musical and movie. Many people thought it really
existed, especially because Michener refused to say
which island had been his source of inspiration, and
many went in search of it. The search for Bali Hai
became almost as fanatical in the 50s and 60s as
was the search for Atlantis over the centuries.

Did it ever exist? Michener disclosed in

1970 that he had not 1, but 2 islands as his source

of inspiration. One was an island of the Solomon
Islands and the other was in Vanuatu. They were, in
the words of the author, miserable places that he
had visited as a soldier during WWII and therefore
he decided to create an island of love and fantasy
by using the power of the human imagination. He
succeeded really well at this considering the craze
that he began.

Is the legend still alive? Bali Hai is now

an honorary name in the USA. The name is used

here and there in the tourist industry to indicate
how picturesque and serene a hotel or island is.
The most descriptive search for Micheners real Bali
Hai can be found in Islomania by Thurston Clarke
(2001). He supposed that Espiritu Santo in Vanuatu
was the island that inspired Michener and with that
millions of other people.

Ecological disaster: Easter Island

Where is it? In the Pacific Ocean,
3,500km off the coast of Chile.

Claim to fame: No island in the world is

more recognisable than Easter Island thanks
to the Moai, the characteristic stone statues
that are found there.

What mystery surrounds it? For

a long time it was unknown what brought

about the demise of the Rapa Nui (the original
name of both the island and its Polynesian
inhabitants) and why they had built the Moai.
When Dutch explorer Jacob Roggeveen (16591729) discovered the island on Easter Sunday
in 1722, the statues were still upright, but the
destruction of the island had probably already
started. A hundred years later all the statues
had fallen over as a result of tribal wars. A
number of them have been put upright again

in the last century.

Did it ever exist? It has since become

clear that when the first Polynesians

came here, the island was covered with a
subtropical forest. Things went wrong when
the Rapa Nui started making statues from
volcanic rocks. These types of statues, which
represented their ancestors and guarded
Easter Island from the coast, were also made
elsewhere in the Pacific Ocean. However, none
were as tall or created on such a large scale.
Trees were used to transport the statues (up
to 20m tall and 270 tons in weight) from the
interior to the coast. It was only when the very
last tree had been felled that Moai production
was halted. It then also became apparent
that no canoes could be built anymore to fish
in the sea. The barren soil blew away, food
became scarce and wars broke out. The arrival

of the Europeans with their deadly diseases

was the last straw. Only a few hundred Rapa
Nui were left at the end of the 19th century
on an island that once had more than 10,000
inhabitants.

Is the legend still alive?

Archaeological research is still conducted

on Easter Island, but this has hardly
resulted in new insights. Research done
by Christopher Stevenson of the American
Virginia Commonwealth University in 2000,
about how the Rapa Nui destroyed themselves
by exploiting natural resources, still stands
strong today. Just like the ominous statement
by evolutionary biologist Jared Diamond
in Collapse (2005) that Easter Island is a
metaphor for what doom awaits us if we
continue to exploit and destroy our natural
resources.

The creation of
the statues led
to the downfall
of civilisation on
Easter Island.

22/2015

75

Quickies

7BODY

Guinea pig
D

7GEOLOGY

Iceberg does
not melt

ots of glaciers are melting due to

global warming. But not the ones of
the Karakoram Mountain in the Great
Himalayas. It is, in fact, growing.
Researchers of Princeton University (USA)
now know why. The mountain range is lucky
with its position. The hot air that comes
from the southeast is blocked by other
mountains. This keeps the Karakoram area
cool in summer so the ice does not melt.
The cold air streams to the mountain in
winter. It snows and the glaciers keep on
growing. But according to researchers, this
will not last forever. If the summer gets
even hotter, they will also disappear.
76

at the beginning of 2014, where he observed their eating

and living behaviour. They filled nearly 2,000 tubes with
Hadza excrement for lab research. Leach enriched his own
intestines with it. How did he feel? Fine until now, he
writes on his website Humanfoodproject.com. It is still
uncertain if this experiment will yield him better intestinal
flora. The research will continue until 2016.

DEAGOSTINI/GETTY IMAGES

o hunter-gatherers have healthier intestines than fast

food-eating Westerners? Only one way to find out,
thought anthropologist Jeff Leach: put some intestinal
bacteria in your own Western intestines. The researcher
from the British London School of Hygiene and Tropical
Medicine nominated himself to be the guinea pig. He
travelled to the Tanzanian Hadza tribe with a research team

22/2015

KICKSTARTER

Rain

Blown-out air

Ahead of
Shorts the
curve
Leach used a basting
syringe for the
excrement
transplantation. This is
a large pipette that you
normally use to baste
gravy over meat.
A I fart a lot less!
reports Leach on his
website.
A The researchers also
study mothers milk
from the Hadza.

Ahead of
Shorts the
curve

Air supply

Hadza men hunt a lot.

Still, 70% of their diet
is plant matter.

7TECHNOLOGY

MATTHEW OLDFIELD/ANP

Umbrella with an open top

he old-fashioned umbrella with

its irritatingly large diameter has
seen its best days. Korean designers
Je Sung Park and Woo Jung Kwon
have made an umbrella that does not
create a little roof above your head,
but rather blows air over it. This
airstream, which originates from the
handle, ensures that raindrops above
your head are blown away. If you want
to share with a friend, then you can

enlarge the surface of the air roof. A

few disadvantages of the air
umbrella? People around you will get
twice as wet from your blown-away
raindrops. And the capacity of the
battery is small: it will only keep you
dry for half an hour. The developers
have collected enough money via
Kick Start to further develop the
umbrella. They hope to launch it at
the end of 2015.

A A little motor in the

head of the handle
produces the
airstream.
A This comes out in the
shape of an umbrella
and blows the falling
water droplets away.
A The Korean designers
were aided by
technical staff from
the Beijing University
of Aeronautics and
Astronautics.
A The makers of the air
umbrella hoped to
receive an investment
amount of 10,000
dollars, but the count
is above 100,000 at
the moment.

7NATURE

Amoebas date corpses

Amoebas reproduce mainly by

cell division. Especially if there
is enough food.

UNIVERSIT DE NEUCHTEL

cientists of the University of Neuchtel (Switzerland)

think that in the future amoebas will be able to help
with determining how long someone has been dead. The
researchers put 3 dead ferns in a cage in the forest and
counted the amoebas in the ground underneath. They
prefer certain substances that are released during decay
and they dont like others. A spike was detected in the
number of amoebas on the eighth day. The week after
that they had almost all disappeared, after which their
numbers grew again. By counting the amoebas one can
figure out how long a dead plant has been somewhere.
One day it might be a good method to count the little
creatures to date human corpses.
22/2015

77

Quickies
A

7SPACE

NASA

Sleeping
to Mars

trip to Mars is quite a bit

of bother. A single trip will
take some 7 months. How do
you keep the astronauts in
shape and fed during this time?
At lot of fitness devices and
food substances will have to go
with. NASA came up with a
simple solution for the long trip:
bring the crew into torpor, a
sort of winter sleep/hibernation.
The astronauts will be fed via a
tube. And their muscles will be
stimulated with electrodes so
that they dont weaken. This
saves a lot of extra baggage.
But how do you safely put the
astronauts to sleep? The space
organisation has figured that
out now. The astronauts are
administered a sort of cooling
fluid via one of their nostrils
which lowers their body
temperature. This lands them in
torpor. Comatose patients are
also kept in hibernation in
hospitals this way. However, this
seldom lasts longer than a
week. NASA is going to test if
you wake up refreshed after a
snooze of 6 months.

Thanks, fruit fly

had left some yeast

cultures on the lab
table on Friday night,
explains Kevin Verstrepen of
the Catholic University
Leuven in Belgium. When I
returned on Monday some
were full of fruit flies and
others had none. The gene
that produces fruity aromas
in yeast had been
disengaged in the cultures
without fruit flies. This gave
the microbiologist an idea:
does the yeast that gives
beer and wine their fruitful
taste produce this to attract
flies? Research confirmed
that the insects like to eat
fruity yeast cells, but they
dont touch mutant yeast
cells.
What use is it to the yeast
to be eaten? They use the
fly as a taxi, says
Verstrepen. The fly does not
78

eat all of the yeast, and a

part of it sticks to the
abdomen and paws of the
insect. Mutants struggled
to find a lift, but fruity yeast
simply flew with the insect
to the next over-ripe
orange.

22/2015

Fruit flies have not only

made beer tastier to
us they are also crazy
about it.

GETTY IMAGES

7NATURE

Ahead of
Shorts the
curve
Yeast that doesnt
make a fruity taste
because of genetic
manipulation, brews
boring beer.
A When you have yeast
that makes extra fruity
aromas, the beer will
get a banana
milkshake taste.
A The aromas that the
yeast produces are
exactly the same
molecules that give a
banana, apple or pear
its taste.
A Fruit flies also
benefit from this
co-operation: the yeast
is an important source
of protein. Flies need
protein when they
produce eggs.
A

Next issue

on sale 27 April 2015

7 HEALTH

DOES 1 A DAY
REALLY KEEP THE
DOCTOR AWAY?

The vitamin supplement industry rakes in billions

of rands every year. But do vitamin tablets really
work or is it just clever marketing? Also, how do
scientists pack all your daily vitamin
requirements into just 1 small pill?

7CULTURE

Star gazing
We know it is fiction, yet some people are fixated with space fantasy movies
such as Star Wars and Star Trek. What makes them want to dress up as
Darth Vader and even learn to speak Klingon?

7 HISTORY

Politically incorrect?
The world preaches that democracy is an ideal
that every country should implement. But there
are many reasons why this style of government
simply takes the mickey out of many constitutions
that these democracies are built on.

7 PSYCHOLOGY

Blowing a gasket
Some are more patient than others, but sooner or later we
all lose our temper. So, why do some have a shorter fuse
than others? Are we born that way or do we learn to throw
our toys out of the cot over a period of time?

ALSO IN THE NEXT ISSUE OF BRAINTAINMENT: How do you deal with a naughty child? Brewing different kinds of beer, geology, space, science, your
questions answered and more Any questions? Mail braintainment@panorama.co.za
22/2015

79

Outlook

ALLES WAT JE MOET WETEN IN 1 PAGINA

PAGE
1
N
O
S
T
H
IG
L
H
THIS ISSUES HIG

Sensory
perception
Creating a functioning
artificial eye and giving
amputees a sense of
touch. Page 26

Women on top
They may be the fairer sex, but women
are no pushovers. What gives them the
edge over men? Page 34

INDEX
Index page ............................... 80
Auto .......................................... 63
Archaeology ................................6
Body ...................................... 8,76
Culture ................................36,76
Brain Candy ............................. 71
Diet ......................................46.66
Focus...........................................1
Geology .................................... 76
Health..................................12,30
History ....................................7,72
Lifestyle.................................... 11
Nature .........................52, 78, 79
Psychology ...........................6, 34
Science ...............................26,42
Space ....................................... 78
Technology.............7,10,22,56,77

Red Planet calling

Why do we want to live on Mars? Page 40

Plus

Your questions answered, searching for the lost city of Atlantis,

solar-powered flight plans, archaeology, astronomy, meteorology,
nature and more
80

22/2015

Back to
basics
The A to Z of chemical
elements. Page 42

for knowledge

march/april 2015

W
wo a W IN
r t h E BE
R8 R
,0 0
0

the magazine that surprises

PLUS
tions
your ques and
answered
more!

Y
D
N
CA
H
S
U
CR

p.46
?
r
a
g
u
s
o
t
ted
ic
d
d
a
o
s
e
w
e
r
Why a

Solar
flight:

Non-stop around the word

fuelled by sunlight p.22

GM foods
Is it really
that bad for
you? Can you
ever avoid
them in your
diet? p.66

Medical genius
Why on earth would you
want to live on Mars? p.40

SUPER
WOMAN
Smart, rational
and emotionally
mature p.34

Learn the A to Z of
chemical elements
EBOLA: Is there a
conspiracy behind
the spread of this
killer virus?
Get to grips with
new prosthetic
technology
When are you
really dead?
VOL 05 ISSUE 02 MAR/APR 2015

Price R38.00 | 4.50 | $5.50

SADC countries: R33.33 (Excl. TAX)