BBC Science Focus Magazine

Solar storms have dramatically increased this year. Should we be worried?

2023-05-22T18:01:07Z

The Sun is out and the evenings are blissfully warm – but is there something strange happening to our skies? Over the past month, there have been more frequent reports of aurora sightings in the UK and US, with the northern lights spotted in lower latitudes than normal.

So why are we seeing more aurorae than usual? And what does it have to do with the Sun? In this article, we explain the solar cycle, where solar flares come in, and how this affects the northern lights.

And if you’re looking forward to clear nights this year, why not plan ahead with our full Moon UK calendar and astronomy for beginners guide?

What is a solar flare?

A solar flare is a sudden and intense eruption of energy on the surface of the Sun. It’s a brief release of electromagnetic radiation, including X-rays and ultraviolet (UV) light, along with charged particles – electrons and protons.

Solar flares are typically associated with the powerful magnetic activity occurring in the Sun’s atmosphere, particularly in regions near sunspots.

A small coronal mass ejection associated with a small flare as seen 22 January 2018. Image credit: NASA

What is a solar cycle?

Also known as the solar magnetic activity cycle, or sunspot cycle, the solar cycle is a recurring period of approximately 11 years, when the Sun’s activity and magnetic field vary.

Our Sun is a modestly variable star, and over the course of these 11 years, the number of sunspots (dark spots on the Sun’s surface) increases from a bare minimum where almost none are evident, to a maximum around 5.5 years later, before subsiding again into its ‘quiet’ phase.

The Sun at solar minimum in December 2019 and the last solar maximum in April 2014. Sunspots freckle the Sun during solar maximum; the dark spots are associated with solar activity. Image credit: NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory/Joy Ng

Sunspots are cooler regions on the Sun (although by no means cold – temperatures are still around 3,500°C!), but they have intense magnetic fields – thousands of times more powerful than the surrounding area.

As the number of sunspots increases, so too do these magnetic fields. As these magnetic fields connect, they change into lower energy states and the excess energy is released as solar flares into space.

“The sunspots themselves indicate where the Sun’s magnetic field is looping out and back into the Sun,” explains Dr Darren Baskill, astronomy lecturer at the University of Sussex.

“These sunspots and their magnetic fields can drift together, connect and create huge magnetic bubbles of gas than can be emitted into space – and occasionally, towards the Earth.”

Why are there so many aurorae at the moment?

You’ve probably noticed solar flares cropping up in the news a lot recently. This is because we’re entering into a period of increased solar activity in the Sun’s 11-year cycle. To be specific, Solar Cycle 25.

“The Sun’s 11-year cycle has been observed for over 400 years,” explains Baskill.

“Between 2016 and 2022, the Sun was in its quiet phase, with few – if any – sunspots visible. But the activity of the Sun has now ramped up dramatically over the last 18 months, and sunspots are now commonplace, as the Sun approaches a maximum in activity in two years’ time,” says Baskill.

The Sun as it is in May 2023. You can just make out the black centre of the sunspots (the umbra) surrounded by a lighter, grey area (the penumbra) Image Credit: NASA

Solar maximum is expected in July 2025, with a peak of 115 sunspots. However, in relation to previous cycles, Solar Cycle 25 is forecast to be a fairly weak cycle.

“While we are not predicting a particularly active Solar Cycle 25, violent eruptions from the Sun can occur at any time,” Doug Biesecker, PhD, panel co-chair and a solar physicist at NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center, told the US National Weather Service.

Are solar flares responsible for the aurora?

Yes, solar flares are one of the primary factors responsible for the creation of auroras.

When a solar flare occurs on the Sun, it releases a burst of charged particles from the upper atmosphere (corona), particularly electrons and protons, as a stream of solar wind. Sometimes enormous amounts of matter are shot out from the Sun, and this is known as a coronal mass ejection (CME).

Although the exact mechanism behind what causes the aurora is not fully understood, we do know the Earth’s magnetic field, or magnetosphere, has a role to play.

CMEs can travel at speeds in excess of 500km/s, and so can reach the Earth quickly, within days.

When a CME reaches Earth, it interacts with our planet’s magnetic field (without which we would be subject to intense radiation – one of the key challenges facing scientists as they ponder human exploration of the solar system).

The northern lights over the UK. Image credit: Darren Baskill

The Earth’s magnetic field guides these charged particles towards the polar regions where they travel into Earth’s upper atmosphere and collide with atoms and molecules in the atmosphere, particularly oxygen, nitrogen, and hydrogen. These collisions ‘excite’ the atoms to a higher energy state, causing them to lose a light photon; in other words, emit light.

The colour emitted depends on the type of atom and altitude. As different gases are prevalent at different altitudes (and in varying concentrations), this essentially determines the colour of the aurora.

For example, for a green aurora, it’s likely to be oxygen at around 100-240km above the Earth’s surface.

Are solar flares dangerous?

Potentially – but please don’t get worked up over scaremongering on social media. It’s important to remember that Earth’s atmosphere provides substantial protection from the harmful effects of solar flares, so you needn’t worry just yet.

Our magnetic field and atmosphere help to deflect and absorb much of the solar radiation, however strong solar flares can interfere with radio communications.

By increasing the ionisation of the upper atmosphere, radio signals can be absorbed or reflected by these ionized layers, causing signal degradation or loss of communication. On 21 February 2023, NOAA reported such an event: a strong solar flare on 17 February caused temporary radio blackouts on the sunlit side of the Earth.

In extreme cases, powerful solar flares can cause geomagnetic storms on Earth. For example, a CME event on 6 September 2017 reached Earth and led to a moderate geomagnetic storm event two days later.

When these storms interact with the Earth’s magnetic field, they can induce electric currents in power grids. These currents can overload transformers and other electrical infrastructure, leading to power outages and potential damage to the grid.

As far as human health is concerned, results from a 2019 study, published by the Department of Environmental Health at Harvard School of Public Health, suggested that geomagnetic disturbances (driven by the 11-year cycle of solar activity) are associated with increased mortality from cardiovascular diseases and myocardial infarction (MI) in 263 US cities. Although the authors do note that further investigation is needed.

But a lack of activity on the Sun could also be viewed as dangerous. For example, between 1645 and 1715 was a particularly quiet time for sunspots, and it’s since been associated with cold weather in the northern hemisphere. Also known as the ‘Maunder Minimum’ or ‘Grand Solar Minimum’, there is evidence for worldwide cooling at this time, as the lack of solar activity coincided with a Little Ice Age.

Why is the aurora being seen so far south?

It’s not unusual to see aurora near the poles of both the northern and southern hemisphere. And rather excitingly for the coming years, the aurora typically displays heightened activity for around two to three years before, and after, the Solar Maximum in July 2025.

January through to March are popular months for aurora chasers, thanks to the long dark nights, although they can occur year-round.

As solar activity ramps up, we are seeing aurora further south. Image by Getty Images

But why are we seeing them in Cornwall, in southern England?

“During peak activity, sunspots (and the bubbles of gas created from them) are more frequent, bigger and stronger,” says Baskill.

“And when those bubbles of gas hit the Earth they make the atmosphere glow – which we call the aurora. At solar maximum, we get more frequent aurora, and they are also more energetic, resulting in the aurora being visible further away from the poles of the Earth.”

“So we are seeing more aurora this year as the activity of the Sun increases, and this should last another 3 or 4 years until 2027, after which the Sun’s activity will begin to fade once again.”

About our expert

Dr Darren Baskill is an outreach officer and lecturer in the department of physics and astronomy at the University of Sussex. He previously lectured at the Royal Observatory Greenwich, where he also initiated the annual Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition.

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Earthshine tonight: How to see May’s spectacular Moon event

2023-05-22T16:00:01Z

You may have noticed the Moon exhibiting a ghostly glow lately, where a subtle light is illuminating the usually unlit portion of the lunar surface. This is a phenomenon called Earthshine, and it can be a spectacular sight, not to mention a great opportunity for lunar photography.

In this article, we explain when you can see this lunar glow, what causes it, and why it’s named after one of the most celebrated polymaths of all time.

You can also make the most of clear nights this year with our full Moon UK calendar and astronomy for beginners guide.

When can I see Earthshine?

Weather permitting, you can see Earthshine this evening, 22 May, after sunset (8:56pm BST in London, 8:13pm EDT in New York City).

Earthshine is visible in the mornings a few days before the new Moon, and in the evenings a few days after the new Moon. You might have already glimpsed it before sunrise on 17 May during the waning crescent phase, but if you didn’t fancy dragging yourself out of bed at that hour, we have another chance during the waxing crescent Moon phase.

Here are the next opportunities to see Earthshine:

21 May: 3.9 per cent illuminated waxing crescent Moon
22 May: 8.9 per cent illuminated waxing crescent Moon
23 May: 15.5 per cent illuminated waxing crescent Moon

“Take a look on the evening of the 23 May, and you will be able to see the crescent Moon between the bright planet Venus & the star Pollux, with the red planet Mars just to the left of the pair,” advises Dr Darren Baskill, astronomy lecturer at the University of Sussex.

The phenomenon is most visible during the waxing or waning crescent phase, because the illuminated portion of the Moon is slimmer, allowing for a larger portion of the darkened Moon to be illuminated by Earthshine.

It’s the ideal time of year to view, as during the spring, the northern hemisphere is tilted towards the Sun, while at higher latitudes, lingering winter snow and ice still provide ground cover. Snow and ice reflect more light than darker-coloured vegetation and water (i.e., snow and ice have a higher albedo), so we get more apparent Earthshine.

While you might expect therefore, that Earthshine would be brighter during the winter months when snow and ice cover is prolific, the amount of light reaching the Arctic is significantly less, so Earthshine is not as eventful during the winter.

Bottom line: get out and see it while you can!

What exactly is Earthshine?

Earthshine appears as a soft, subtle glow on the unlit, or ‘night’ portion of the Moon during specific phases. This is when a delicate, but somehow ghostly, shape of the full Moon is nestled in the arc of the bright crescent Moon, and it’s a beautiful sight for these early summer nights.

Earthshine in the early morning sky. Image by Getty Images

Also known as the Da Vinci glow, the intensity of Earthshine can vary depending on certain factors, such as atmospheric conditions, Earth’s reflectiveness, and the observer’s location.

Just be aware of popular media saying that the ‘dark side of the Moon is visible’ as this is incorrect; the dark side of the Moon faces away from us.

As the Moon is tidally locked, we’ll never be able to see the dark side of the Moon from our vantage point here on Earth. Rather, we can see the unlit portion.

What causes it?

Earthshine is also known as the Da Vinci glow, ashen glow, or rather romantically, ‘the old Moon in the new Moon’s arms’. It’s caused by sunlight reflecting off the Earth’s surface and then being reflected back onto the Moon.

“Like all planets and moons, the Earth does not emit light – it just reflects sunlight,” explains Baskill.

“This reflected sunlight can be seen lighting up the darker part of the Moon for a few days on either side of a new Moon, when the Moon appears as a crescent in the evening or morning sky.

“The Moon’s crescent is caused by bright sunshine directly lighting up the Moon, while the darker part of the Moon is faintly illuminated by Earthshine – sunlight that has reflected off the Earth to gently illuminate the Moon.”

Earthshine occurs during the phase in the lunar cycle when only a thin crescent of the Moon is illuminated by direct sunlight – either in the waxing or waning phase.

As for the portion of the Moon not lit by direct sunlight, this is the part we see as the ghostly glow. As we all know, light from the Sun reaches the Earth and illuminates its surface. But this isn’t restricted to land masses, as it also includes clouds, oceans, and the atmosphere.

Some of this light is then scattered, diffused, and reflected back into space. A portion of this reflected light travels towards the Moon, landing on its unlit portion, the lunar night side.

The Moon, despite having a non-reflective surface, bounces back this reflected sunlight from Earth. And it’s this phenomenon, that results in a faint glow on the Moon’s unlit portion, providing a subtle illumination to the otherwise dimly lit lunar surface.

What affects it?

The appearance and intensity of Earthshine are influenced by several factors, including the Earth’s cloud cover, the composition of its atmosphere, and the angle of sunlight reflecting off our planet onto the Moon. These factors can cause slight variations in the brightness and colour of the Earthshine, making it different each time.

Earth’s atmosphere, for example, plays a crucial role in shaping the appearance of Earthshine. As light from the Sun passes through the atmosphere, it undergoes scattering and absorption, with different wavelengths being affected to varying degrees. This atmospheric filtering influences the colour and intensity of the Earthshine, and it’s this light that is ultimately reflected back to the Moon.

Different ground cover will reflect different amounts of light; for example, land reflects around 10-25 per cent, while clouds reflect around 50 per cent of light.

Why is it called the Da Vinci glow?

In the early 16th Century, Renaissance polymath Leonardo da Vinci turned his thoughts to unravelling the enigma of this strange, otherworldly glow. He made detailed drawings and sketches of the Moon, and while da Vinci did not coin the term himself, these observations led to its association with his name.

A depiction of Earthshine, as drawn by polymath Leonardo da Vinci in the 16th Century. Image by Getty Images

His notebooks contained a drawing that depicts Earthshine, which is now celebrated in the Codex Leicester, a compilation of Da Vinci’s scientific writings. Though you’ll need patience if you want to read the manuscript yourself, as da Vinci recorded his observations in his characteristic mirror writing; back-to-front Italian.

What equipment do I need to see the Da Vinci glow?

Aside from the ever-constant wish for clear skies, no special equipment is required. If you have some to hand, while not necessary, using binoculars or a telescope can help you pick out features you wouldn’t ordinarily be able to see on the Moon’s surface, and observe the subtle variations in brightness more closely.

You might even like to try sketching the Moon on dark paper with chalk, pastels, or pencils.

Will climate change affect our ability to see it?

Potentially. Researchers looking at Earth’s albedo have found that warming temperatures may result in less intense Earthshine.

As the oceans warmed, they found that fewer low clouds formed over the eastern Pacific Ocean, west of the Big Bear Solar Observatory in California where they were taking measurements. This reduction in cloud cover led to a slight decline in Earth’s albedo (reflectiveness), subsequently affecting the intensity of the Da Vinci glow.

About our expert

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Women (probably) make for better astronauts. So should the first crew to Mars be all-female?

2023-05-22T15:56:07Z

“That’s one small step for man… one giant leap for mankind”. Neil Armstrong’s famous declaration tellingly illustrates that the first generation of Moon landings was a male-dominated affair. Perceptions back then were that women simply did not have ‘the right stuff’ to make it in space. This was, of course, nonsense.

These days progress has been made and now the astronaut corps found around the world are much more balanced in terms of gender.

But could it be that females have the edge when it comes to putting humans back on the Moon, or travelling to Mars and beyond?

A recent study by European Space Agency’s (ESA) medical team, concluded that “there may be a number of operational advantages to all-female crews [for future long-duration missions]”.

The work considered a theoretical group of astronauts and made estimations of the life support requirements and consumables that such a crew would require.

They concluded, not surprisingly, that because females are, on average, smaller and lighter than males, they need less food and oxygen over the course of a mission.

This is key, as getting ‘stuff’ – spacecraft, robots, humans, and everything needed to sustain them – into space takes large amounts of energy.

The laws of physics demand that to orbit a planet, or to escape its gravity and fly to another, the ‘stuff’ needs to accelerate to very high speeds. The more ‘stuff’, or mass, you want to get into Earth orbit, or to the Moon or Mars, the larger rocket you need.

So, if women are lighter, and eat less, should the first crew to fly to Mars be all-female?

The ESA study was a follow-up to an earlier paper by the same researchers that considered a theoretical all-male crew. Sex disaggregation in research is a good thing, as there are biological differences between sexes, and understanding these differences results in better-informed decisions.

But as Angela Saini, a journalist and author who has researched the impacts of sex-based research says: “There is actually no real-life ‘default’ male – every man is different from the next, just like every woman is.

“While it’s great that women have been studied, the more important takeaway is that individual astronauts should obviously be considered.”

Getting humans to Mars and back safely is a monumental challenge. A round trip would take around two years, with the crew having to endure a harsh environment, bombarded by solar wind.

Also, as they ventured further away from Earth, communication delays would increase, with messages taking many minutes just to travel one way, rendering normal conversations with anyone back here on Earth impossible.

Once on the Red Planet, after nine months in transit and living in a weightless environment, the crew would have to be physically and mentally capable of living on the surface of Mars before taking the return trip home. Solving the challenges of keeping astronauts safe and well will require a staggering number of considerations.

The ESA study showed that, just as on Earth, the resources needed to sustain crew when they exercise are higher than at rest, but exercise is vital to ensure that astronauts’ bones and muscles are strong enough for them to function when they land.

HIFIm, a revolutionary new exercise device invented by John Kennett, Director of Physical Mind London, might hold the answer.

Smaller and lighter than current exercise equipment, the workouts are carried out on a bench-like device and are based around jumping movements, rather than running or cycling, and could revolutionise in-space exercise programmes.

Kennett says: “The ESA has proven jumping just four to six minutes a day mitigates the effects of being in microgravity. This means that HIFIm could reduce the time astronauts need to exercise by over 80 per cent”.

So using the new device could also reduce the resources the astronauts need and lessen the payload any rocket would have to carry.

As well as staying fit and healthy individually, any crew must also function well collectively. Whilst humans haven’t yet travelled to Mars, research has been carried out into how people function in confined, isolated environments for long periods of time, and this shows that a diverse crew is key to success.

Susan Charlesworth, Director of Oxford Human Performance, and a specialist in human factors for planning space missions, says: “Men and women often have different, complementary leadership and conflict management styles which temper one another, leading to better cohesion over extended periods. A crew that is diverse in many characteristics maximises their likelihood of successful team working.”

Overcoming these extreme environments and challenges is also part of why human spaceflight can be inspirational to so many people, and the first mission to Mars will surely captivate the imagination. However, to reach the widest possible audience inclusivity is vital.

Saini says: “One of the mistakes of earlier eras was to assume that all women were incapable of going into space. It would be just as damaging to assume that all men were unsuitable.

“I would hate for young boys to feel they couldn’t dream of being astronauts, just as I hate that young girls were ever made to feel that way.”

Space agencies spend a lot of time and effort selecting their astronauts, finding people with the right mix of skill and personality that is needed to thrive in space. These astronauts are then carefully combined into crews, taking account of the specific demands of any given mission.

The first journey to Mars will be risky, arduous, and daunting. The crew that takes that step will be painstakingly chosen, and will most certainly have the right stuff to undertake what will be a monumental leap for humankind, whatever their gender.

About our experts, Angela Saini, Susan Charlesworth and John Kennett

Angela is an award-winning author and journalist who holds a masters degree in engineering from the University of Oxford and a masters degree in science and security from Kings College London. She is the author of several best-selling books including Inferior: How Science Got Women Wrong And The New Research That’s Rewriting The Story and Superior: The Return Of Race Science.

Susan is a psychologist, performance coach and the former human behaviour and performance (HBP) trainer for the European Astronaut Centre.

John is the director of Physical Mind London, where he develops exercise equipment designed to help astronauts to operate in low Earth orbit and lunar and Martian environments

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The Magnus effect: The bizarre physics behind sport’s most iconic moments

2023-05-22T10:03:00Z

A ball that is kicked head-on travels with the air flowing past it symmetrically in all directions. Friction with the surface of the ball causes the airflow to initially follow the contour of the ball before forming a turbulent wake that trails behind.

The interactions of this wake with the surrounding air are extremely complex but they form a significant part of the overall aerodynamic drag on the ball. This interaction changes when the ball is initially kicked off-centre, sending it spinning on its own axis as it travels.

The air flowing past the side of the ball rotating towards the direction of travel has a higher relative speed than the air over the opposite side. This deflects the ball’s wake sideways, in the direction of the spin, which creates a reaction force in the opposite direction.

This means that a ball kicked at the right of its centre will spin anti-clockwise and be deflected to the left. This deflection is called the Magnus effect, after the 19th-Century German physicist Heinrich Gustav Magnus.

Although the spin of the ball slows down as it travels due to friction with the air, this is much less significant than the aerodynamic drag that causes the ball to lose forward speed. So the Magnus effect stays fairly constant even as the ball slows down. This causes the curvature to increase noticeably towards the end of the ball’s trajectory and the effect is even more pronounced with very light balls. Table tennis provides the most extreme demonstrations of this with very dramatic deflections achieved by experienced players.

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Asked by: Adrian Flint, via email

To submit your questions email us at questions@sciencefocus.com (don’t forget to include your name and location)

Instant Genius Podcast: Breasts, with Dr Philippa Kaye

2023-05-23T07:51:31Z

Instant Genius is a bite-sized masterclass in podcast form. And in this episode, we’re delving into the topic of humans breasts.

Why? Well, it goes without saying that breasts get a lot of attention. But less focus is given to the science behind them: why do we have them? Why are they all different, and does it matter? What happens when things go wrong?

GP and author Dr Philippa Kaye is out to change that in her latest book, Breasts: An Owner’s Guide. In today’s podcast she tells us about the science of human breasts, the benefits – and costs – of having them, current research in breast cancer and sports, and how to take care of yours.

Find Instant Genius on your preferred podcast platform here: instantgenius.podlink.to/Podcast

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Overcoming anxiety: How new ‘meta-cognition’ techniques can calm your restless mind

2023-05-22T07:06:44Z

To help relieve anxiety, you’ve probably heard of CBT – that’s Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, which involves changing how you think about stuff in order to benefit your feelings and behaviour.

For instance, if you see an upcoming work presentation as a banana skin and you begin catastrophising about all the ways it could go wrong and ruin your life, your CBT therapist might work with you to form a more realistic and less melodramatic interpretation of the challenge, which ought to lower your anxiety levels.

However, there’s now an important new off-shoot of CBT called meta-cognitive therapy.

Where CBT is largely concerned with what you’re thinking, meta-cognitive therapy focuses on what you think about what you’re thinking (hence the word ‘meta’ in its name). It’s not the thoughts themselves, but how your mind responds to them that’s the real focus here.

For instance, when it comes to anxiety, the idea is that by changing what you think about your anxious thoughts, you’ll start to feel calmer.

How effective is meta-cognitive therapy?

Although meta-cognitive therapy is far less well-known than CBT, it’s already gathered an impressive amount of research support.

For instance, for a paper published in 2021, psychologists in Norway collaborated with Prof Adrian Wells – the British psychologist who developed meta-cognitive therapy – to follow the long-term outcomes of dozens of patients with generalised anxiety disorder who had either participated in traditional CBT or meta-cognitive therapy.

The patients who underwent meta-cognitive therapy had already shown superior improvements compared with those who did CBT, both at the time they finished treatment and two years later.

For the 2021 paper, the researchers caught up with most of the same patients nine years later – and the meta-cognitive group again recovered better from anxiety.

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How to use meta-cognitive therapy to relieve anxiety

Meta-cognitive therapists make a distinction between the positive thoughts you have about your anxiety-related thoughts and the negative thoughts you have about them.

The idea of having positive thoughts about anxious thoughts might sound like an oxymoron. But in fact many people who experience persistent anxiety have ‘positive’ thoughts about their worries and fears, like “as long as I spend enough time worrying about the work presentation, it will help stop anything really bad from happening” or “my worries about the presentation will help me to prepare for it”.

Unfortunately, these kinds of thoughts can trap you in a worry cycle.

If you recognise the ‘positive’ type of thinking about anxiety, you can take some self-help steps to try to challenge yourself. For instance, you could spend a little time questioning these beliefs you have about worrisome thoughts.

Will time spent fretting about bad outcomes really lower the probability of those bad outcomes happening? Of course not – for instance, worrying about having a car accident or your plane crashing will not keep you safe.

Worrying about your work presentation being a disaster also won’t prevent it from being a disaster (only knuckling down to some serious prep will do that).

Starting gently at first, you could even try engaging in some little experiments – seeing what happens if you let yourself stop worrying about upcoming events. Over time you’ll hopefully come to see that worrying by itself doesn’t protect you.

Separating your thoughts and how you feel about them is a key component of meta-cognition. © Getty

What about the negative thoughts that people have about their anxious thoughts? These include things like “I can’t stop my fearful thoughts”; “I can’t stop myself from worrying”; and “my mind won’t stop racing – I must be going mad”.

If you recognise these thinking about your anxious thoughts, again there are a few basic self-help steps you could try out.

Bear in mind that being scared of your anxious thoughts and trying to shut them down is only likely to make them worse – you’re effectively training your mind to be scared of them, which will only make them stickier.

Meta-cognitive therapists would encourage you to try to detach yourself from your worrisome thoughts rather than fighting them.

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Dr Pia Callesen, who is a leading researcher on meta-cognitive therapy, proposes a lovely metaphor – imagine your anxious thoughts as being like trains arriving at a railway station. Rather than climbing on board, simply let them arrive and then move on.

I’ve given just a flavour of the kind of techniques used in meta-cognitive therapy, but there are many more. Lying beneath them all is an empowering principle, which is that your mind has evolved to deal with difficult emotions. You really just need to get out of its way.

Your mind is trying to actively intervene in your anxious thoughts – thinking you need to have them, or that you need to control or shut them down – so much that you cause yourself unnecessary problems.

You risk trapping yourself in cycles of worry about worry or fear about fear.

So, try if you can to recognise that a degree of worry and trepidation is normal and to not become too distressed by it; allow it to pass and it probably will.

How to use meta-cognition to let go of worries

Another important principle is to recognise that there are things in life that you can control and many others that you cannot.

When anxiety begins to coil itself around you once more, pause to consider whether it is focused on the controllable or the uncontrollable. If it’s the latter, acknowledge that you are having the anxious thought or feeling and then let it pass (like the train passing through the station).

If the anxiety is focused on something you can control, try to get out of your head and make some concrete plans that will surely make you feel better.

For a work presentation, this might start with planning a specific time when you will do the background reading that is required. Make a plan to do the prep, and then make sure you follow through.

Of course, self-help can only do so much. And if your anxiety problems are severe, it is important that you consult a mental health professional – if you like the sound of the principles and techniques I’ve described perhaps someone trained in meta-cognitive therapy might be able to help you.

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What gives clouds their shape? A scientist explains

2023-05-21T17:01:07Z

If you’ve ever tried to make out faces or animals in the contours of the clouds, you might have wondered why they come in such a variety of shapes. Moisture is always present in the air as water vapour, but when it condenses into liquid droplets or solid ice particles, these particles scatter light, making them visible as clouds.

The shape of a cloud is determined by air temperature, density and movement. Differences in temperature and density prevent water-laden air from mixing with the surrounding air, giving clouds a distinct shape and creating crisp edges. Air movement pulls clouds into different formations.

Different types of clouds © Getty images

Although no two clouds are exactly the same, they can be grouped into categories. Cumulus clouds are puffy and cotton-like, forming low in the atmosphere. When water vapour condenses into liquid water, it releases some heat, and if atmospheric conditions are unstable, this heat is enough to give cumulus clouds buoyancy, causing them to rise and build into cumulonimbus clouds. These large, dark clouds topped with billowing turrets are formed by rapid updraughts of air and are often accompanied by thunderstorms.

In contrast, stratus clouds form as wide layers when a large region of air rises.

Cirrus are delicate, wispy clouds formed of ice crystals at high altitudes. As they gradually sink, they pass through air currents that push and pull them in different directions, forming long, feathery wisps of cloud.

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The (very cute) science of why cats knead

2023-05-20T17:05:05Z

As several million videos on the internet will attest, cats are weird. Very very weird. So, particularly if you’re the owner of a furry feline, chances are you’ve had serious questions about some of their behaviour. Questions such as ‘why do cats knead?’.

The answer: despite what you may have heard, scientists aren’t completely sure at the moment.

“Kneading is a really interesting behaviour in that it hasn’t been researched in-depth scientifically,” says Dr Lauren Finka, cat behavioural expert from Cats Protection. “There could be a lot we don’t know regarding its function.”

However, despite this, there are several key theories to why cats knead. Firstly, it’s thought the behaviour could simply be another way for them to spread their scent, creating comforting familiarity.

“There are quite a lot of scent glands around cat’s paws, so it may be that they knead us to deposit their scent,” says Finka.

Read more about the science of cats

There is another commonly cited (and downright intriguing) theory about why your moggy claws your lap. It’s thought that kneading mirrors the movement kittens use to stimulate the flow of milk from their mother’s mammary glands. This happy habit may be mimicked in later life in the form of kneading.

However, this appears only to be the case for domestic cats. It turns out that by placing them in human care, feline behaviour is drastically altered.

“Kneading. Meowing. Purring. They’re all things that humans unknowingly encourage cats to maintain in their repertoire,” explains Finka.

“Free-living domestic cats that aren’t socialised towards humans don’t tend to perform these behaviours when they leave the nest. To them, those behaviours are something that they mostly only do when they’re around their littermates and their mother – not as independent adult cats.”

Domestic cats, however, are very different. “They take these social behaviours into adulthood because they’re in these very social situations throughout their whole lifetime,” adds Finka.

“As humans, we’ve actually maintained these kitten-like features in our cats. This extended kittenhood even has a name: neoteny.”

Neoteny – essentially adult animals retaining behaviours and features they had when juveniles – isn’t just common in cats: domesticated dogs have been selectively bred to have juvenile physical traits (think the short snouts and wide eyes).

A cat kneading (and about to fall off) a cushion © Getty

Although all this sounds like humans are forcibly infantilising our cats, feline neoteny (also known as juvenilisation) isn’t necessarily harmful to them – particularly when it comes to kneading.

“Yes, we’re expecting cats to be a lot more social than they’re necessarily equipped to be. But behaviours like kneading are likely beneficial for the cat to perform – it might be soothing for them and could help them to indicate contentment during human interactions. So, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing at all,” says Finka.

Is it bad if a cat doesn’t knead?

Rest assured: if your cat doesn’t knead you, it’s not because they hate you. Well, not necessarily, anyway.

According to Finka, there are simply a lot of differences between individual cats – the need to knead (or absence of) doesn’t necessarily indicate how they feel about you, although cats with early positive experiences with humans may be more likely to do this.

“I think there’s just a lot of variability between cats, and how they choose to express themselves,” says Finka. “For instance, some friendly cats will be very vocal and meow a lot while others may hardly meow at all.

“In most cases, kneading could be a good indicator that the cat is probably relaxed and comfortable. But it’s not necessarily a cause for concern if you don’t see that.”

Read more about the science of cats

7 simple, science-backed ways to better your mental health

2023-05-20T17:04:04Z

There is a mountain of self-help books, online gurus and social media trends telling you how to improve your mental health, but do they actually work? While some of the tips you might have heard can make a real difference to your day-to-day mental health, there are equally those that are more fiction than fact.

So what’s the best way to know what is actually going to help, and improve your mind’s wellbeing? Follow the science. We’ve picked out the seven best ideas for dealing with anxiety and boosting your mood, all backed by documented research.

1. Ignore the social media doomsayers

We are constantly told that, while in theory, it should be a fun thing, social media is in actuality making us sad. But is this true? Well, scientists aren’t actually sure.

It wasn’t that long ago that we were told constantly that playing video games causes people to commit violent acts. Now, many years on from that we know for certain that there is no link between games and violent tendencies.

While that was the panic of the time, social media is the new panic worrying people. That fear, paired with data not being passed on from the social media companies themselves means we’re in a bit of a unsure place in terms of whether there is a link between social media and sadness.

Right now, the best advice is to judge for yourself how social media makes you feel. If you feel good when and after using it, then keep on going. If it brings you down, taking a break from it can be a good way forward.

Read more about social media and mental health

2. Breathe better

A time-old classic: when life gets a bit too stressful, the first bit of advice you’ll often hear is to just breathe… and for good reason.

According to Ian Robertson, a psychology professor at Trinity College, Dublin, deep breathing “is the most precise pharmaceutical you could ever give yourself, side effect free.”

He also points out that it’s very discreet. “You can do it in a meeting and nobody need know you’re doing it,” he says.

Deep breathing – particularly breathing with elongated exhales – activates your parasympathetic nervous system, which acts like a brake, calming your body down. Long, deep breaths from your diaphragm will slow your heart and also reduce your blood pressure and anxiety.

Deep breathing can also be an effective way of dealing with pain. Chronic pain is closely linked to stress and learning how to do ‘controlled breathing’ is an important part of treatment for managing both.

That’s partly because pain and stress have a similar effect on the body. They increase your heart rate and blood pressure, make breathing faster and shallower, and cause muscles to tighten up. If you live in a state of chronic stress or pain, your nervous system will stay on permanent high alert, with your muscles in a constant state of tension.

And it’s not just your body. Stress and pain make your levels of stress hormones surge, which in turn will keep your brain in a state of constant arousal. You’ll be more sensitive to pain signals and much more aware of them. One way to help break this vicious circle is to practise deep-breathing exercises.

One breathing exercise you can try is the 4-2-4. Breathe for a count of four, hold it for two, then breathe out to a count of four. Repeat the process at least 10 times.

Read more about how breathing can help reduce stress

3. Bolster your microbiome

A healthy microbiome goes a long way. But what does that actually mean?

Human cells make up less than half of what you call ‘you’ – the rest are trillions of bacteria, fungi and viruses in your gut, on your skin and throughout your tissues, collectively known as your microbiome.

You need them because of the role they play in digesting your food and maintaining a healthy immune system. They need you because they need somewhere to live.

Research is now suggesting that a healthy gut biome will also mean a healthy mind. There is a direct link between a strong gut biome and happiness.

Scientists are providing evidence for this link, which they refer to as the ‘microbiome-gut-brain axis’.

Not only that, but they are showing that by altering your gut bacteria (microbiota) via administering probiotics (live bacterial supplements) and prebiotics (dietary fibre supplements that encourage bacterial growth), you can actually improve stress response, reduce anxiety and mitigate the effects of other mental health problems.

Read more about your microbiome

4. Lower your anxiety with yoga

Certainly, yoga is an activity known for being calming. But while the appearance of happy people is there, does the science follow? Yes! Well, to an extent.

Scientists at the New York University’s Grossman School of Medicine have found that when it comes to treating generalised anxiety disorder (GAD) – a chronic condition that causes anxiousness about a wide range of situations and issues – yoga has short-term benefits but is less effective than cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) in the long run.

A talking therapy that can aid patients with negative thinking, CBT helps people manage overwhelming problems in a positive way.

However, while it is a better solution in the long run, therapy isn’t going to be for everyone and yoga can be a great alternative.

Naomi M Simon, a professor in the department of psychiatry at NYU Langone Health, who is one of the authors of the study, said: “Generalised anxiety disorder is a very common condition, yet many are not willing or able to access evidence-based treatments.

“Our findings demonstrate that yoga, which is safe and widely available, can improve symptoms for some people with this disorder and could be a valuable tool in an overall treatment plan.”

In the study, participants were put through a Kundalini yoga practice that involved getting into different strengthening postures, as well as performing various breathing techniques, relaxation exercises, and meditation.

Results showed that 54 per cent of those in the yoga group saw their symptoms improve compared to 33 per cent in a group who were given frequent tips and suggestions on how to reduce stress.

Prof Simon said that while CBT is considered the gold standard treatment for GAD, alternative interventions, such as yoga, could help manage the condition for those unwilling to explore talking therapy as an option.

Read more about yoga as therapy

5. Get out in the garden

Improving your mental health doesn’t always mean radical changes to your diet or exercise plan, it can be as simple as getting out into your garden.

A study from 2021 found that gardening just two to three times a week maximised the benefits of better wellbeing and lower stress levels.

Those who garden everyday had wellbeing scores 6.6 per cent higher and stress levels 4.2 per cent lower than those who didn’t garden at all.

“This is the first time the ‘dose response’ to gardening has been tested and the evidence overwhelmingly suggests that the more frequently you garden – the greater the health benefits,” said Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) wellbeing fellow and lead author Dr Lauriane Chalmin-Pui.

“In fact gardening every day has the same positive impact on wellbeing as undertaking regular, vigorous exercise like cycling or running.

“When gardening, our brains are pleasantly distracted by nature around us. This shifts our focus away from ourselves and our stresses, thereby restoring our minds and reducing negative feelings.”

According to the study, published in the journal Cities, gardening on a frequent basis – at least two to three times a week – corresponded with the greatest perceived health benefits.

Read more about gardening and stress relief

6. Eat more healthy foods

It’s a classic line that you will have heard from your parents. Whether you are ill, tired, or just not feeling your best self, you’ll hear the response of “well, what have you been eating?” and, as usual, mums are right here.

The food we put in our bodies plays a huge part in how happy we are, with different foods working to improve our guts, brain power and overall mood. So which grub should you add to your shopping trolly?

There isn’t a set list, but certain foods to consider are:

Fermented foods

Unpasteurised sauerkraut, kimchi, kefir, blue cheese, live yoghurt, miso, tempeh, fermented pickles and kombucha all help to boost the diversity of beneficial microbes in our gut.

As mentioned above, a healthy guy microbe is key to our overall health, including in its influence on your mental health and anxiety.

Tea, coffee and dark chocolate

In small doses, tea, coffee and dark chocolate can all be good for you. They are rich in polyphenols which can enhance the elasticity of blood vessels, allowing blood to flow more freely. Polyphenols also have a protective effect on the brain.

Tea has been shown to reduce anxiety and even improve memory and attention.

Leafy greens

Chard, kale, cabbage, spinach, watercress and rocket are abundant in various nutrients like beta carotene, folate, vitamin K and magnesium, which are involved in the function of the brain and nervous system.

Raw, unsalted nuts

Nuts like almonds, Brazil nuts, hazelnuts, pistachios and walnuts are valuable sources of polyphenols. When these are digested by our gut microbes, they produce phenolic acids that protect the brain by reducing inflammation and oxidation.

Oily fish

Fish like salmon, mackerel, anchovies, trout, herring and sardines are full of omega-3. Omega-3 fats are irreplaceable when it comes to healthy brain structure and function.

Evidence suggests they may be beneficial for those with mild cognitive impairment and depression. We must obtain omega-3 fats through the diet, which can be achieved by eating one or two portions of oily fish per week, or taking a DHA/EPA supplement.

Read more about getting a healthy diet

7. Reduce your ultra-processed food intake

Food plays such a role in your mental health that we are bringing it up once again. As the food we eat becomes more processed, we now have a new foe to deal with, ultra-processed food.

Food is split into multiple groups of processing. In the earliest group you have completely untouched foods. This is fresh and dried fruit and vegetables, meat and fish, milk, grains etc.

This works down with things like honey, sugar, salted meats, cheeses and other foods sitting in the middle.

However, in the ultra-processed food category, you can find mass-produced breads, breakfast cereals, fizzy drinks, ready-to-eat pizzas, and a huge host of other foods.

Currently, The UK leads the way in the consumption of UPFs across Europe, with 55 per cent of UK adults’ daily calories coming from ultra-processed foods, mostly in the form of baked goods (cakes and biscuits), confectionery, processed meats and soft drinks, and that figure is growing. Americans are slightly ahead of us, with ultra-processed food and drinks making up 57 per cent of their daily calories.

But food processing has done much good. Food that lasts longer is cheaper for the consumer. UPFs are convenient to prepare and eat. And, by design, they taste good. So what’s the problem?

In order to extend the shelf life and palatability of UPFs, additional sugar and fats are added, which may have negative consequences for metabolism, blood glucose control and brain health. Finally, and most importantly, the convenience of these foods means that they increasingly push more nutritious but more difficult-to-prepare foods out of our diets.

Though one glass of squash isn’t going to kill you, there are reasonable grounds to be concerned about the majority of our diets consisting of these foods. This is because the nature of processing means that brain-healthy nutrients, like vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, essential fats and fibre, are lost.

Read more about ultra-processed foods

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10 surprisingly poisonous plants you should avoid in the UK

2023-05-22T08:18:11Z

We often think that the UK is a very safe place, with no volcanos or dangerous animals lurking nearby ready to rip our heads off. But nature loves to lull us into a false sense of security.

The woodland all around us is not as safe and benign as you might expect, and we have the evidence to prove it. We have brought together some of the most poisonous plant species that you might find on your travels through the seemingly pleasant countryside.

These are the plants you want to avoid while you are out and about in the UK, especially if you have inquisitive dogs, cats or young children.

And remember: If you or anyone you know may have plant poisoning, spit out any plant parts and call the emergency services immediately. Do not try to induce vomiting, and bring a piece of the offending plant with you for identification.

So, with the safety briefing finished, here are the most dangerous plants in the UK.

Ivy (Hedera helix)

Ivy growing on the bark of a tree in Dover, UK. Photo by Kallerna/Wikipedia Commons

This ubiquitous clinging vine is everywhere in the UK, spreading over walls, fences and trees. It is a great home for insects, nesting birds and bats. Unlike many other species of climbing plants, this one does not harm trees or other shrubs when it clings to them.

Be warned though – the leaves of the ivy plant can irritate your skin if you handle it without wearing gloves. It can also give you a mild stomach upset if consumed, and is toxic for dogs and cats.

Rhododendron (Rhododendron)

Close-up image of a flowering pink Rhododendron. Photo by Getty Images

Rhododendrons are a very common sight around the world, known for their distinctive flowers in a wide range of bright colours.

They are essentially large hardy shrubs, thriving in different kinds of climates. They are also harmful when eaten.

You would need to consume a lot of rhododendrons to become ill, but they are much more harmful to dogs, especially small ones. All parts of the plant are poisonous in small doses, so best to just keep your four-legged friends away.

Tulips (Tulipa species)

A close-up view of tulip merlot blooms in springtime. Photo by Getty Images

Tiptoe through the tulips if you must, but maybe don’t put them in your sandwiches. Consuming any part of these iconic flowers in even small quantities can cause vomiting, diarrhoea and dizziness. In rare cases, they can even cause heart problems.

The bulbs are the most dangerous part, so make sure your dog doesn’t try to dig them up and eat them.

Autumn crocus (Colchicum autumnale)

Beautiful autumnal crocuses; deadly in the wrong hands. Photo by Cephas/Wikipedia Commons

The autumn crocus is not actually a crocus at all, but a different family altogether. Their slight resemblance to wild garlic has often led them to be consumed by foragers, who soon come to regret this mistake. Symptoms of accidental ingestion can range from stomach upsets to kidney and liver problems.

It isn’t all bad news though – this plant contains colchicine, which can be used to treat gout. It is also a useful anti-inflammatory medication when given in small doses, and is often administered after heart surgery.

Bluebell (Hyacinthoides non-scripta)

Bluebell photographed at Box Wood, Stevenage, UK. Photo by AnemoneProjectors/Wikipedia Commons

Bluebells are probably one of the most recognisable flowers in the UK, and are often a good indication that a woodland area is ancient and well-established. They tend to flower in large swathes, creating striking blue coverings on fields and in clearings.

But these little beauties also conceal a dark secret – they contain toxic chemicals. Even small doses can cause stomach upsets, and if consumed in large quantities they can be fatal to humans.

Foxglove (Digitalis purpurea)

Distinctive purple flowers of a foxglove. Photo by Benjamin Balázs/Wikipedia Commons

Foxglove really is a devil in disguise. This common plant can be found in many woodland areas and gardens up and down the land. But it is worth bearing in mind that all parts of the plant are highly toxic, and can result in severe poisoning if consumed.

Symptoms range from diarrhoea and skin irritation to heart problems, so consider this carefully on your next visit to the garden centre, and maybe buy a spider plant instead.

Read more:

Cuckoo pint (Arum maculatum)

Stems carrying lots poisonous red berries of the cuckoo pint flower. Photo by Getty Images

The cuckoo pint is a common sight across a lot of Europe, and it certainly does have some very attractive red berries. But before you grab some to sprinkle across your fruit salad, it is probably best to point out that they are highly toxic.

The berries also do not taste very nice, so it is unlikely that you would eat more than one. But if you were to accidentally consume a whole bunch, you can expect a swollen throat and some serious stomach pain for your trouble.

Monkshood (Aconitum napellus)

Monkshood, also known as ‘wolf’s bane’ or ‘devil’s helmet’, is a poisonous perennial herb. Photo by Getty Images

Monkshood is a popular garden plant in the UK due to its colourful and elegant flowers which grow on tall spikes. But don’t let appearances fool you – this plant is very poisonous and must be handled with extreme care.

Large consumption of this plant can cause almost instant death, and even relatively small doses can lead to severe problems in a short space of time. The toxins in this plant were utilised as arrow poisons for hunting and warfare many centuries ago.

Deadly nightshade (Atropa belladonna)

Fruit of deadly nightshade (Atropa belladonna) Photo by: Bluered/Red & Co/Universal Images Group/Getty Images

Deadly by name, deadly by nature: this nightshade really is one of the most toxic plants on Earth. Its properties have long been known to humanity, which hasn’t stopped it from being used in some cosmetics and dietary products.

The root of the plant is the most toxic area, but the main danger here is the enticing shiny berries – just consuming a few can be enough to cause hallucinations, slurred speech and dreadful headaches. In larger quantities, consumption can cause death in adult humans.

Poison hemlock (Conium maculatum)

Poison hemlock, whilst pretty innocent-looking, can be deadly if consumed. Photo by Djtanng/Wikipedia Commons

Hemlock is a common sight on the grass verges and next to streams, and it is this familiarity that can often prove dangerous. A member of the carrot family, it is often confused with the very similar-looking cow parsley (Anthriscus sylvestris), but this is not a species to be messed with.

All parts of hemlock are poisonous, and even just a little dose is enough to cause breathing difficulties and death in mammals, including humans. Seeds and roots are especially toxic, and should not be handled.

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What is biphasic sleep? The shuteye phenomenon, explained by a sleep expert

2023-05-20T10:00:00Z

Biphasic sleep refers to that which is taken in two phases within a 24-hour period. Examples of biphasic sleep include taking a nap during the day before sleeping again at night. Another example is of waking during the night for a period before falling asleep again.

In certain circumstances, biphasic sleep can offer advantages. For example, naps may be particularly beneficial for young children as they can support learning and development. Naps may also be useful for those who live in hot locations and might struggle to function during the midday heat. Napping more generally can increase our alertness and functioning, support the immune system and mental wellbeing and reduce stress.

Nonetheless, naps are not appreciated by everyone as they can sometimes lead to sleep inertia (a groggy state experienced upon waking). They can also make it more difficult to fall asleep at night, so are best avoided in those reporting insomnia.

When it comes to waking during the night, the historian Arthur Roger Ekirch discovered that before the Industrial Revolution, it was standard to have two sleeps (perhaps going to bed at 9pm or 10pm and waking after midnight for an hour or two, and then falling back to sleep until the morning). This too offered certain advantages, as it was possible to visit the toilet and attend to tasks during the night such as stoking the fire and brewing ale.

Read more:

Asked by: Mark Brady, Manchester

To submit your questions email us at questions@sciencefocus.com (don’t forget to include your name and location)

Space oddities: The surprising science of hollow ‘rubble pile’ asteroids

2023-05-19T17:01:05Z

Many small asteroids, such as Dimorphos, Ryugu and Bennu, have quite low densities compared to moons or terrestrial planets. Known as ‘rubble-pile’ asteroids, they appear to be composed of loose conglomerations of rocks, small grains and dust, and are not ‘solid’ at all. Planetary scientists believe that rubble-pile asteroids are formed by material coalescing after the destruction of larger asteroids.

DART: Everything you need to know about NASA’s mission to deflect an asteroid

The Japanese spacecraft Hayabusa2 visited asteroid Ryugu in 2018 and revealed that about 50 per cent of its volume is empty space! Meanwhile, measurements have revealed that Bennu has a density only slightly greater than that of water. It is likely that Bennu has hollow cavities in its interior, some of which are probably filled with water. NASA’s OSIRIS-REx probe, which collected a sample from Bennu in 2020, would almost certainly have sunk into Bennu’s surface had it not fired its rockets on contact.

Just like other celestial bodies, it is gravity that keeps these asteroids together – as long as the centrifugal force due to their rotation is not strong enough to overcome gravity. Research has shown that, for many asteroids, ‘cohesive’ and ‘adhesive’ forces – the tendency of materials to attract each other and ‘stick together’– are also required to prevent rotation from tearing these asteroids apart. In fact, the ratio of the gravitational to centrifugal forces on a rubble-pile asteroid determines not only the maximum size of boulders on its surface, but also the minimum mass at which the asteroid can remain intact.

So a boulder on the surface of Dimorphos is easily held there by gravity because the asteroid’s rotation is not sufficient to overcome gravity and throw it off into space.

Read more:

Asked by: Roger Jordan, via email

To submit your questions email us at questions@sciencefocus.com (don’t forget to include your name and location)

Animals can experience time very differently to humans. Here’s why

2023-05-19T17:00:07Z

Time perception depends on how quickly the brain can process incoming information. Scientists have attempted to measure it by showing animals pulses of light, which start slowly and then speed up. There comes a point when the light is flashing so quickly, that it looks as though it is on permanently. Carefully placed brain electrodes can reveal when this moment occurs.

Studies show that smaller animals with faster metabolisms can detect higher frequencies of flickering lights than chunkier, slower animals. Just like Neo dodging bullets in The Matrix, movements and events may seem to unfold more slowly.

Salamanders and lizards, it seems, perceive time more slowly than cats and dogs. And while this may help to explain the infuriating ability of flies to elude rolled-up newspapers, it also raises an important question: why?

From an evolutionary perspective, it makes sense for animals that need to respond quickly – for example, to evade predators or catch fast-moving prey – to perceive time at finer resolutions, but what’s remarkable is that some animals appear to dial up or down their experience of time to suit their needs. Before they set off hunting, some swordfish, for example, boost blood flow to the brain, slowing their perception of time, and boosting the number of frames that they can process per second. It helps them to react more quickly.

Elsewhere, studies on mice have shown that time perception can be speeded up by stimulating dopamine-producing neurons in the brain. These findings have profound implications for people with dopamine-related disorders, such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Here, there is a reduction in dopamine, so sufferers could perhaps be impulsive because they perceive time more slowly.

Conversely, drugs that boost dopamine levels may be of use, because they speed up the perception of time. However, this is only a working hypothesis, so for now, only time will tell.

Asked by: Simon Bartlett, Leicester

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Always bugged by mosquitos? Blame your body odour

2023-05-19T15:01:06Z

When it comes to mosquitos, having unattractive body odour may actually be a good thing – but what is attractive to a mosquito? A team of scientists developed an ice-rink-sized outdoor arena in Zambia to find out how mosquitos hunt us over longer distances, and discovered that body odour plays a key role in making some humans more attractive to them than others.

These findings “could potentially contribute to the development of more effective mosquito control strategies, leading to better prevention of mosquito-borne diseases”, Alicia Showering, a doctoral candidate at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine who was not involved in the research, told BBC Science Focus.

This study, published in the journal Current Biology, is one of the first to test how the Anopheles gambia mosquitos (the most efficient malaria vectors in Africa) locate human hosts over longer distances in a ‘real world’ setting – the 1000m³ arena in Choma District, Zambia – rather than in a lab.

Researchers from the John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health’s Malaria Research Institute and Macha Research Trust compared heat, body odour, and the release of CO₂ in human breath as lures in the mosquito hunting process.

The arena contained landing pads heated to human skin temperature (35°C). On each of the six nights in the study, they released 200 hungry mosquitos into the arena and monitored them with infrared cameras. When they landed on the pads, it signalled that they were ready to bite.

Six people were sleeping in single-person tents around the arena for the duration of the week, with pipes leading from their tents into the arena. But these pipes were not nightmarish, streamlined hunting funnels for the mosquitos (thankfully). Instead, the researchers used repurposed air conditioning ducting to pump air from each tent – and the body odours it contained from the sleeping participants – onto the landing pads.

Overhead photo of testing area and surrounding tents © Julien Adam

The researchers found that one lucky volunteer had a completely different body odour composition to the others and consistently avoided the mosquito’s attention.

“We don’t really know yet exactly what aspect of skin secretions, microbial metabolites, or breath emissions are really driving this, but we’re hoping we’ll be able to figure that out in the coming years,” said Stephanie Rankin-Turner, a postdoctoral fellow at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and one of the study’s authors.

The team identified different blends of the same 40 chemicals in the odour of all six humans. Each person’s blend may be impacted by diet, skin secretions, microbes, and breath emissions, among other factors.

For mosquitos, some humans are more attractive to others – but by identifying these people, “we can isolate and study the volatile compounds in their body odour,” says Showering. “These odours could be synthesised to develop better, more attractive baits for mosquito traps, thereby reducing mosquito bites and the subsequent transmission of deadly diseases like malaria.

“This research has the potential to lead to new tools in the fight against malaria in the future, which could improve the quality of life and health outcomes in areas where the disease is most prevalent.”

About our expert

Alicia Showering is a final year PhD candidate at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. Her studies are focused on understanding why there are natural differences in how attractive humans are to mosquitoes, and her research has been published in BMC Microbiology and Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London.

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Women have more resilient body clocks than men, new study suggests

2023-05-19T13:49:09Z

You know that feeling after a late night when things feel a bit out of whack? That’s your circadian clock – your body’s inner timepiece – falling out of rhythm as it grapples with the fact you are awake when you should be asleep. Scientists have a specific name for this: ‘circadian misalignment’.

But not everyone suffers in the same way from this effect. A new study has suggested that women are more resilient than men to the damage a circadian misalignment can cause.

The findings “may have broad societal implications, from the design of shiftwork schedules to the capacity to cope with trans-meridian travel [travel across timelines],” says first author Seán Anderson, researcher from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.

The new study, published in the journal Science Translational Medicine, analysed health data from over 92,000 people with a history of shiftwork (work that takes place outside the hours of 7am – 6pm on a fixed or rotating basis). It found that both men and women have a higher incidence of metabolic syndrome when working shifts – but that the risk is significantly higher for male shift workers than for women doing the same job. Female shift workers were also found to sleep better than their male counterparts.

Intriguingly, these findings are similar to findings in mice. As part of the same study, the scientists exposed the animals (who were fed a high-fat diet) to abnormal day-night cycles. While the microbiomes, metabolism, and behaviour of the female mice were largely unaffected by the conditions, male mice demonstrated higher blood pressure and shifts in their gut microbiome and liver metabolism. The scientists also found that the male mice gained substantially more weight after 12 weeks of biweekly ‘shifts’ than the female mice.

The circadian clock runs on a 24-hour cycle from our brains, and controls clocks in organs around our bodies. Though best known for controlling our sleep schedule, the rhythms of these clocks direct all aspects of our physiology, from deciding the function of cells to governing our metabolism.

Previous studies have shown shiftwork can cause issues to health and sleep, such as metabolic syndrome (a cluster of conditions including high blood pressure and blood sugar levels that increase the risk of heart disease and stroke) and accidents at work.

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Dr Michael Mosley: Is fermented food really good for your gut microbiome?

2023-05-18T19:00:05Z

Although fermented foods like kimchi and sauerkraut have been around for hundreds of years, and were traditionally just a way to help preserve vegetables over the long winter months, in recent times they have become super trendy. I like making and eating my own fermented foods, but what is the evidence that they do you any good?

The current excitement is based largely on the impact that eating fermented foods has on your gut microbiome – the trillions of microbes that live in your gut and which have a profound impact on our health.

One way to influence your microbiome is to eat foods that are rich in prebiotics and probiotics. Prebiotics are, broadly speaking, fibre and other nutrients that our microbiome likes to feast on and which confer health benefits. Probiotics, on the other hands, are living microbes in food which, when eaten, bolster the armies of ‘good’ bacteria living in your gut.

Fermented foods, like sauerkraut and kimchi, are rich in both prebiotics and probiotics, or at least they are if you make them yourself, which I do. The bottles of fermented vegetables you buy in supermarkets are often pasteurised, so any living bacteria are now long dead.

Kimchi is a Korean dish, made of cabbage, seasoned with chilli, garlic and ginger, and then fermented. It is rich in vitamin K and riboflavin (B2) and also contains plenty of Lactobacillus bacteria, which can survive the acid bath of the stomach and make their way down to your large intestine.

In a small study carried out a few years ago by Korean researchers (‘Beneficial effects of fresh and fermented kimchi in prediabetic individuals’), 21 patients with prediabetes were asked to either eat fresh (1-day-old) or fermented (10-day-old) kimchi for eight weeks. Then, after a four-week washout, they switched to the other form of kimchi for the next eight weeks.

Eating either type of kimchi led to a significant reduction in weight and waist size, but it was only when the patients were eating the fermented stuff that they saw significant improvements in blood pressure and insulin sensitivity, suggesting the Lactobacillus were doing something.

Read more from Michael Mosley:

Like kimchi, sauerkraut is based on fermenting cabbage. Despite being associated with German cuisine, it almost certainly originated in China more than 2,000 years ago. Sauerkraut is packed with vitamins and minerals, including iron, potassium, copper and manganese. It is also low in calories and rich in fibre, which your microbiome will enjoy.

That said, I couldn’t find any specific human studies showing that eating sauerkraut leads to particular benefits. The alleged benefits are mainly based on animal studies.

Nonetheless I am a huge fan of fermented cabbage, and eat a good dollop of either homemade kimchi or sauerkraut most days. One word of warning: if you decide to do the same, ease your way in. If your guts are not used to fermented food then they may react badly to a sudden invasion of a vast army of foreign microbes with bloating, stomach cramps or wind.

This article first appeared in issue 363 of BBC Science Focus Magazine – find out how to subscribe here

‘At my dad’s funeral, I couldn’t cry’: Why men find tearing up so difficult (and how this harms us all)

2023-05-18T17:41:11Z

Everybody cries. Crying is a natural, deeply engrained biological function, a reflexive response to strong emotional experiences. Usually sadness, but it can happen when you’re extremely happy, or angry, too. Crying has a lot of range.

And crying is important. Many point to its function as a potent mechanism for releasing stress and emotional pain, which is a key aspect of good wellbeing and mental health.

As a neuroscientist, I’d long been well aware of this. As a result, I’d scoffed at the notion that ‘men don’t cry’, dismissing it outright as unhealthy macho posturing, an unhelpful holdover from the past, and something we should ignore in these more mentally enlightened times.

But then, in 2020, I went to my father’s funeral. The highly restricted, socially distanced one, necessary because he’d died from COVID-19, at the age of 58.

I never got to see him, I never got to say goodbye, and I had to give a eulogy. It was, by some margin, the saddest day of my life.

But I didn’t cry.

It’s not that I didn’t want to cry. I did. I knew it was right and necessary. But I just couldn’t.

You know when you get that tingling build-up in your sinuses that means you need to sneeze, but the sneeze never comes? It was like that, only much sadder.

I did eventually cry that night, just before bed, when everyone else in my house was asleep. But still, I’d clearly internalised way more of the ‘men don’t cry’ perspective than I’d realised.

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Why do we cry?

Despite how common it is, the actual reason for us crying is still unclear.

We know it’s a deeply fundamental process; the tears we cry due to strong emotions, known as psycho-emotional tears, are actually chemically different from those we produce when we’ve dust in our eye, or cutting onions.

But why did this process evolve in the first place? Sure, the whole ‘releasing stress and powerful emotions’ aspect is very useful, but why did evolution decide that this process would benefit from being loud, noisy, and involve leakage from the eyes?

It’s telling that crying from emotions is a trait that’s unique to humans (as far as we know). Much of the things that make humans unique stem from how intensely social we are, compared to our fellow species. In fact, a surprising amount of our brain function is dedicated to forming, and maintaining, emotional bonds with others.

One theory is that crying is a way of signalling, to those close to us (emotionally or geographically), that we are experiencing powerful emotions, and need help, support, empathy, or just a general connection.

This is emphasised by the fact that our emotional tears contain chemicals like oxytocin, which enhance emotional bonds.

It’s grimly ironic, in a sense, that we’ve learned to be embarrassed to be seen crying, when that’s pretty much the whole point of it.

Why don’t men cry, and why is that bad?

Men can cry. Men should cry. They have all the same plumbing and neurological wiring that women do, in this regard. But we live in a world where men’s expression of emotion is regularly regarded as a sign of weakness, of vulnerability.

However, as I learned at my father’s funeral, it’s one thing to know intellectually that men can and should cry, but in practice, it’s more complex than that.

We are all, whether we like it or not, shaped by our environments, in innumerable ways, both overt and subtle. Our brains learn by doing, and by observing. And in particular, the people around us, and our interactions with them, shape our very thinking.

So, if we live in a world where the message ‘women cry, men don’t’ is constantly reinforced, our brains will readily internalise this, and, if you’re a man, it’ll work to prevent crying, even in the most emotional circumstances.

This is dangerous. The parts of our brains that process powerful emotions, allowing us to deal with them, are the same parts that create them. So, if we don’t allow ourselves to feel our emotions, we cannot work through them, and our mental health declines as a result, to a potentially fatal extent.

Essentially, such unthinking masculinity, which prevents men from crying, can be literally toxic.

Read more:

Four simple ways to get better at crying

So, if you’re a man who wants to cry more, but is struggling to overcome decades of social programming telling you you shouldn’t, what can be done?

It’s a difficult process, but here are some helpful options:

Embrace your emotions in a safe or private way

Crying in front of people may be a scary prospect, but you need not start there. If you can make yourself cry while alone, that’s an important step.

Indeed, watching sad films, or listening to sad music, while alone, is a very common pastime, because it allows the brain to acknowledge and process negative emotions, but in a safe, risk-free context.

It’s a bit like an emotional workout; it’s not nice to lift heavy weights repeatedly, but it is good for you.

Personally, while trying to work through my crying issues, I kept revisiting the most heart-breaking scenes from Pixar films. It was sort of like using an emotional nicotine patch.

Talk it out

It may sound trite, but if you have someone who you can open up to emotionally, take advantage and do so.

A good friend, a romantic partner, a close family member, anyone. Those we’re close to are actually an important aspect of the human brain’s emotional processing; sharing emotions is often as important as experiencing them. It’s much easier to cry when you have someone who is there to help you do it.

Break the cycle

Following on from the previous advice, it’s also important to avoid reinforcing the message that men don’t cry.

If you have friends or colleagues who are the sort to laugh and ridicule any emotional expression in other men, it may be necessary to distance yourself from such negative feedback.

Test your own boundaries as and when you feel able to, but when you’re trying to unlearn a bad lesson, ideally you’d avoid having it taught to you again.

Appreciate ‘manly’ crying

There are many examples out there of healthy masculinity, that involve men openly crying in positive ways – just look at Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds crying when their team Wrexham achieved promotion.

Seek them out. Embrace them. We’re always being told about the darker examples of male communities, but they’re not the only ways to be a man in our modern world.

Dean Burnett goes into more depth about the actual workings of our brain in his latest book, Emotional Ignorance.

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The new science of CRISPR: How gene-editing tech is about to change food, children and vaccines forever

2023-05-18T14:52:45Z

Genuine eureka moments are rare in science, but one occurred a decade ago when research into a curious function of bacteria immunology exploded into a Nobel Prize-winning discovery. The 2012 paper by Jennifer Doudna and Emmanuelle Charpentier is already recognised as a landmark of science.

Researchers had been piecing together information about CRISPR (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats) since the 1980s. In nature, it’s a molecular defence mechanism that bacteria use to detect and destroy the DNA of an invading virus, like a set of microscopic scissors.

When a bacterium is infected, the ‘scissors’ cut and paste a segment of the virus DNA and insert it into its own genome. This trains the system to recognise that DNA and destroy it.

The major breakthrough came when scientists isolated the specific enzymes and RNA (ribonucleic acid) that made up the genetic scissors. Reproducing it in a lab turned CRISPR into a tool that accelerated the speed of biological research. It was a simple way to edit the genomes of any living thing.

How does CRISPR work?

How CRISPR works (click to expand). Illustration by Sam Falconer

1. A strand of ‘guide’ RNA (ribonucleic acid) molecule is created that matches the DNA sequence of the intended target.

2. The Cas9 – ‘molecular scissors’ – is combined with the RNA and they’re injected into the plant, animal, or human receiving the treatment.

3. The RNA then shepherds the Cas9 enzyme to the exact spot on the DNA where the edit is needed. Here, the Cas9 makes a cut in the DNA strands, removing the unwanted genetic material.

4. Scientists introduce healthy DNA into the genome to replace the snipped section.

How is the technology affecting medicine?

A number of genetic disorders are caused by a mutation in a single gene. The power (and precision) of CRISPR is allowing scientists to uproot those conditions from the human genome in a single, life-changing treatment.

CRISPR therapies for blood disorders, like sickle cell disease and beta thalassemia, were among the first to reach human trials, and early results have been encouraging.

The fact is, just 10 years on from its discovery, CRISPR is saving people’s lives

Patients are recovering from potentially fatal illnesses that caused chronic pain and required regular treatment. The fact is, just 10 years on from its discovery, CRISPR is saving people’s lives. The first CRISPR therapies for blood disorders could be approved as early as this year (2023).

Practically any disease with a genetic component could potentially have a CRISPR treatment. Trials are underway for conditions as diverse as blindness, cancer, diabetes and HIV/AIDS.

Illnesses such as heart disease and dementia could also be targeted, because researchers aren’t just studying genes that cause disease – they’re also looking for ways to insert protective DNA into the human genome.

Listen to the Instant Genius Podcast: CRISPR, with Prof Fyodor Urnov

What about vaccines?

The CRISPR-Cas9 tool is sometimes described as a ‘wanted’ poster that’s hung in an organism’s immune system. On this is the likeness of a virus, teaching the immune system to recognise the potential invader.

Vaccines of various kinds are designed to do the same job: to give your immune system a heads-up about potential invaders. Thanks to its precision and ease of use, CRISPR can help us make new kinds of vaccines. During the COVID-19 pandemic, CRISPR was used to develop some of the mRNA vaccines, and it’s now being used to accelerate new ones, including one for malaria.

Working with the parasite Plasmodium falciparum, which causes malaria, Washington-based scientists deleted three genes that are needed to infect humans. After being bitten by mosquitoes containing the CRISPR-edited parasite, people were protected against malaria for a few weeks, thanks to antibodies produced by the body.

CRISPR timeline: A genetic revolution

1987

The CRISPR mechanism is first described in scientific literature.

2000-02

More clustered repeats of DNA are found in bacteria and archaea. The term Cas9 is coined (where Cas comes from CRISPR-associated proteins).

2005-08

We begin to learn how CRISPR and Cas9 protect bacteria from viruses.

2012

Emmanuelle Charpentier, Jennifer Doudna and colleagues publish their landmark paper on CRISPR-Cas9
as a genome-editing tool.

2016

The first CRISPR-based therapy is used to treat somebody, a patient with lung cancer.

2018

Biophysicist He Jiankui announces the so-called CRISPR babies, children born from genome-edited embryos.

2020

Charpentier and Doudna are awarded the Noble Prize in Chemistry for their work on CRISPR.

2021

The US Food and Drug Administration approves the first CRISPR therapy for sickle cell disease.

How is CRISPR changing food and agriculture?

Is anyone peckish for a spicy tomato? How about some nuts that won’t rattle your allergies? Or a triple-stack burger that you can enjoy without sending your cholesterol into orbit? Those are some of the delectable possibilities on the menu as researchers begin to use CRISPR to produce foods with unusual traits.

In agriculture, CRISPR is being used to produce crops that are pest- or drought-resistant. With demand for food set to soar, researchers are looking to create higher-yield crops by silencing genes that restrain growth.

Advances in CRISPR could help us fight climate change. Illustration by Sam Falconer

Biotech firms are racing to develop foods that make us healthier or safer, and researchers are developing nuts, wheat, and other foods that are edited to remove allergens. CRISPR-edited tomatoes are already on sale in Japan.

CRISPR is also being used to develop lab-grown meat, and research shows CRISPR reduces LDL (low-density lipoprotein) cholesterol in monkeys by 70 per cent in two weeks.

How can CRISPR could fight climate change?

Weather-resistant foods

Climate change is already affecting crop yields. GM foods aren’t to everyone’s taste, but scientists are using CRISPR to develop crops resistant to drought, heat and floods.

Better biofuels

Gene-edited biofuels could play a key role in providing clean energy. CRISPR has made it possible to produce double the amount of biodiesel from phototropic algae.

Air-purifying plants

Californian scientists are using CRISPR to develop plants that remove CO2 from the atmosphere, thanks to improved photosynthesis and roots that deposit carbon deeper into the soil.

Carbon-extracting microbes

Jennifer Doudna, one of the joint discoverers of CRISPR, has spoken about the potential for CRISPR-modified soils and microbes to extract more carbon from
the atmosphere.

Hardier coral reefs

US scientists are using CRISPR to study genes in coral that affect heat tolerance. They hope it will help conservation efforts as reefs feel the impact of rising sea temperatures and ocean acidification.

Shrinking methane emissions

Methane released during rice production makes up 2 per cent of global greenhouse emissions. CRISPR is being used to create crops and livestock that release less methane.

Could CRISPR bring extinct creatures back to life?

CRISPR holds the potential to take surviving DNA from an extinct species and compare it with the genome of a related, living one. By editing the genome of the living species in the places where it differs, researchers believe they could bring animals back from the dead – or create a hybrid that shares some DNA.

CRISPR techniques could help researchers return mammoths to the Arctic tundra. Illustration by Sam Falconer

The most iconic example is the woolly mammoth, which died out around 10,000 years ago, and scientists aren’t certain whether they were hunted to the brink by humans, or struggled to survive in Earth’s rising temperatures. Either way, their fate may not be sealed. A number of preserved specimens have been found buried in ice and scientists have not only extracted mammoth DNA, but they’ve also sequenced the entire genome.

Now, researchers are trying to return mammoths to the Arctic tundra. Start-up Colossal is using CRISPR to genetically modify the genomes of Asian elephants so they have cold-adapted traits of their long-dead cousins, like smaller ears and more body fat. It believes the first calves will be born within five years.

Projects to revive animals that went extinct more recently, like the thylacine and the passenger pigeon, are also underway.

What are the challenges with CRISPR?

CRISPR is sometimes described as ‘easy’. It may not be rocket science, but funnily enough, genome editing is still a complex process and it’s very expensive, especially when it comes to curing diseases.

Researchers are refining CRISPR delivery mechanisms, looking for enzymes that may be more effective than Cas9 and trying to limit what is known as ‘off-target effects’. These occur when the process of editing affects not just the target DNA but potentially other genes within the organism as well.

Perhaps the biggest challenges are not technical, however, but ethical. Gene editing has long carried the stigma of ‘playing God’ and researchers interrogate their own work against some of the questions that are often asked about the technology and its use.

Some of the biggest challenges with CRISPR are ethical rather than technical. Illustration by Sam Falconer

Will it lead to greater health inequality as the rich access exclusive treatments? Should you target germline cells, where any edits made are also passed onto the next generation? And as it becomes more accessible, how do you regulate the technology for human healthcare and not human enhancement?

What are CRISPR babies?

In 2018, twin girls were born in China who became known as the ‘CRISPR babies’ – the world’s first genome-edited children. Biophysicist He Jiankui engineered mutations in human embryos, which were later implanted into a woman. He claimed to have disabled a particular gene to give them protection against HIV.

He was jailed in China and condemned by the scientific community for crossing an ethical line by editing the human germline – the mutations he made would be passed on to the girls’ future children.

The rogue scientist was also criticised for not following the normal safety and ethical procedures and fuelling the idea of ‘designer’ babies – the notion that gene-editing will allow future parents to choose everything, from their children’s eye colour to their intelligence.

What are CRISPR babies? Illustration by Sam Falconer

Ethicists warn that without careful regulation, genome editing could lead to a two-tier society, split between those who are edited and those who are not.

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Carbon dating: How scientists hack radiation to age ancient artefacts

2023-05-18T10:01:15Z

Radiocarbon dating is used by scientists – including archaeologists and geologists – to uncover the mysteries of our planet’s past. By measuring the amount of carbon-14 remaining in organic materials, radiocarbon dating can determine the age of ancient human remains, fossils, archaeological artefacts, and even historical documents with remarkable accuracy.

How radiocarbon dating works

Step 1

High-energy cosmic rays, in the form of neutrons, strike nitrogen atoms in the upper atmosphere and convert them to the radioactive isotope of carbon, which is carbon-14 (also known as radiocarbon). This quickly oxidises to create mildly radioactive carbon dioxide. About 1.1 per cent of the carbon atoms on Earth are carbon-14.

Step 2

Plants absorb radiocarbon, along with normal carbon dioxide, during photosynthesis and incorporate it into their tissues. Herbivores eat the plants, and carnivores eat the animals, and so the radiocarbon spreads through the food chain, eventually reaching even the deepest oceans.

Step 3

Radiocarbon is unstable, and slowly decays back to nitrogen. The half-life of carbon-14 (the period of time after which half of a given sample will have decayed) is about 5,730 years. When a plant or animal dies, it stops absorbing new carbon, so the proportion of radiocarbon in their body gradually drops due to this radioactive decay.

Step 4

Scientists can measure the ratio of carbon-14 to the stable isotopes carbon-12 and carbon-13 with an accelerator mass spectrometer (AMS). This uses an electric field to accelerate carbon ions past a magnet that deflects their trajectory. Carbon-14 is heavier, so is deflected less. The older the sample, the less radiocarbon is still present.

How accurate is radiocarbon dating?

Radiocarbon dating is believed to be accurate to within a few decades or centuries, with lower accuracy the older the sample. Dating anything older than 50,000 years is very difficult since so little radiocarbon remains after that long, but some measurements of samples up to 75,000 years old have been made.

In the 1950s and 1960s, nuclear weapons tests briefly doubled the levels of radiocarbon in the atmosphere and radiocarbon dating needs to account for this to remain accurate. Conversely, burning fossil fuels since 1900 has steadily lowered the amount of radiocarbon, because coal, oil and gas are all formed from plants and animals that died millions of years ago and so have essentially no radiocarbon left.

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To submit your questions email us at questions@sciencefocus.com (don’t forget to include your name and location)

Instant Genius Podcast: Time travel, with Lawrence Krauss

2023-05-23T07:51:54Z

Instant Genius is a bite-sized masterclass in podcast form. And in this episode, we’re delving into the topic of time travel.

From HG Well’s The Time Machine, to Doctor Who and Back To The Future, time travel has become a beloved staple of science fiction. But will humans ever actually be able to jump through time? According to physics, quite possibly.

To explain this, we’re joined by Lawrence Krauss, theoretical physicist and author of the new book The Known Unknowns: The Unsolved Mysteries Of The Cosmos. He delves into the strangest theories of time travel, time tourism, and also what most time travel movies get wrong.

Find Instant Genius on your preferred podcast platform here: instantgenius.podlink.to/Podcast

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A gene named after Sonic The Hedgehog is all that separates scales from feathers

2023-05-17T18:01:07Z

Despite their clear differences, new research shows that just a few genes separate the growth of scales from feathers in animals, and it all has to do with a gene named after Sonic the Hedgehog.

Appendages from the skin such as hair, feathers and scales are common and diverse across mammals, but they all are created when skin cells hardens in the necessary areas of the body. It’s a certain cluster of genes that influence this hardening, one of the most important being the Sonic Hedgehog gene (or Shh gene).

Why? It’s the Sonic gene that controls the signalling pathway – a communication system that allows the transmission of messages between cells. The signalling pathway also helps build skin appendages and the neural tube (the early stages of the brain and spine).

In a recent experiment, a team led by Michel Milinkovitch – a professor in the department of genetics and evolution at the University of Geneva – investigated the potential role of the Shh pathway.

The big finding: by activating the Shh pathway in chicken embyros, they were able to trigger the formation of feathers where there would normally be scales.

“We used the classic technique of ‘egg candling’, in which a powerful torch illuminates blood vessels on the inside of the eggshell,” said Rory Cooper, a post-doctoral researcher in Michel Milinkovitch’s laboratory and co-author of the study.

“This allowed us to precisely treat chicken embryos with a molecule that specifically activates the Shh pathway, injected directly into the bloodstream”.

The feathers that were generated are comparable to those across the rest of the body. This means they are regenerative and can be subsequently replaced by adult feathers without any further interaction from the researchers.

When compared with a control embryo, injected with a substance that didn’t contain the active molecule, analysis showed that the shh pathway was immediately activated following the injection. This acts as confirmation to the pathways underlying involvement in the conversion of scales to feathers.

‘‘Our results indicate that an evolutionary leap – from scales to feathers – does not require large changes in genome composition or expression. Instead, a transient change in expression of one gene, Shh, can produce a cascade of developmental events leading to the formation of feathers instead of scales,’’ said Michel Milinkovitch.

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Here’s why bad news can make you feel physically sick

2023-05-17T14:32:27Z

When you discover something bad has happened, it can trigger your body’s ‘fight or flight’ response. This is your body’s evolved response for coping with intense danger. At a neurobiological level, it’s governed by what’s known as the sympathetic nervous system, which sends commands from your spinal cord to your body’s major organs, including your heart and intestines, gearing you up to either fight or flee when faced with danger.

A key part of the fight or flight response is to shut down digestion so that blood flow and energy can be sent to your limb muscles instead. In some people, this sudden effect on digestion can manifest as nausea, vomiting or diarrhoea. In short, the bad news has prompted you to feel threatened and your body has triggered your survival mode.

The sympathetic nervous system is in constant opposition with the parasympathetic nervous system, which is more active when we’re relaxed. It sends its own messages to your body, including encouraging digestion. So anything you can do to boost your parasympathetic nervous system activity ought to help you overcome those feelings of sickness.

This is easier said than done, but basic steps include deliberately slowing down your breathing. Consider writing a list of those aspects of the situation that are out of your control, and those that you can do something about. For those things you have some influence over, try to come up with some achievable plans to make the situation better. Over time, distraction, exercise and meditation can help you relax and cope with stress.

Don’t be afraid to ask for help from friends and family – or seek professional support if the feelings of nausea won’t go away.

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Asked by: Amelia Montgomery, via email

To submit your questions email us at questions@sciencefocus.com (don’t forget to include your name and location)

Phone call anxiety: Simple ways to overcome your telephobia, according to psychology

2023-05-17T13:37:00Z

We spend most of our day palming our phone. We even get nervous when we can’t find it. So why is it that when it actually comes to using a phone for its primary function, to make phone calls, many of us are shying away?

In fact, one survey of UK office workers found that 40 per cent of baby boomers and 70 per cent of millennials experience anxious thoughts when the phone rings. Gen Z are so prone to ignoring phone calls, they’ve even been called ‘generation mute’ by some.

Talking in real time can feel scarier than commenting on social media or sending messages via WhatsApp, and ‘social anxiety’ is a growing problem, with 15 million Americans currently suffering.

Telephone phobia (or ‘telephobia’) is the reluctance or fear of making or taking phone calls and although it’s been around for almost as long as there have been phones (the poet Robert Graves wrote about a fear of using the telephone in 1929), cases are officially on the rise.

At the moment, most evidence suggests this is a problem for young adults. For instance, US study of 22- to 37-year-olds found that 81 per cent felt anxious about talking on the phone. However, even older generations aren’t immune. As an ‘elder-millennial’, few things fill me with dread more than an unexpected phone call from an unknown number.

Mary Jane Copps aka ‘The Phone Lady’ has coached thousands on phone communication for almost two decades and says: “I have people are in their 50s and 60s telling me phone calls make them anxious!”

But what exactly causes this anxiety? And what can be done to overcome it? Here’s the science you need to know to beat telephobia.

What causes telephobia?

The scientific consensus seems to be that it comes down to a fear of being judged. A huge amount of our cognitive energy goes towards managing what other people think of us – in other words, for the most part, we want others to like us.

Phone calls can challenge this need in several ways. Firstly, they put us in the spotlight, drawing others’ attention. In fact, researchers from Cornell found that ‘halfalogues’, or conversations where we only hear one side, are more distracting than hearing both sides of any given interaction. Take a call on a train, this study suggests, and people will pay more attention to what you’re saying than if you were talking to another passenger face-to-face.

In short, we really want to avoid the judgement of anyone who may be eavesdropping. However, even if nobody else is listening in, a phone call is an inherently difficult social interaction to navigate. Mainly because it’s not very social. We’ve known since the 1960s that 55 per cent of communication is visual, but on the phone, we miss out on that silent orchestra of gestures, facial expressions and body language.

“In real life, we can see if someone has an angry face or confused face, we get those cues,” explains Professor Alison Papadakis, director of Clinical Psychological Studies at Johns Hopkins University. “Whereas on the phone, you may hear deadly silence. If you’re anxious, you may fill in those gaps with negative thoughts. And that can be nerve-racking.”

Anxiety over the prospect of talking on the phone has increased as we’ve moved away from verbal communication, towards texting, emailing and social media comments. The voice-calling function may now be one of the least important on our phones.

A 2020 Ofcom study found that phone calls were already dying out, with one in four of us making fewer than five calls a month. Incoming calls became associated with bad news and outgoing calls were made in often stressful situations – like calling in sick, making doctors’ appointments, or for serious conversations that didn’t feel appropriate over text. Then came the pandemic, when all of us hid behind a screen to live, work and play.

“Much of how we present ourselves now is online, so people are used to offering a curated version of themselves,” says Papadakis. “This means it can be harder for young people especially to realise that in a phone conversation, you may not have control.”

Read more:

With written communication, we have time to gather our thoughts and edit before pressing ‘send’. On a call, anything can happen. For Zoomers who’ve grown up with the internet at their fingertips, never knowing the tactile comfort of twisting a curly landline cord around a finger mid-chat, this can come as a shock.

Phone calls are more time-consuming than texts and can feel like an intrusion, interrupting our train of thought or even our day. So we avoid them. Only avoiding social situations is far worse for our mental health – a National Academies of Sciences report found a consistent relationship between social isolation, depression and anxiety. Plus, young people who can’t express themselves verbally may suffer from behavioural problems, emotional and psychological difficulties, according to educational psychologist Dr Zoe Owen.

In summary, phone calls can represent several threats. Not only may you fear that others may be eavesdropping and judging your social skills, but the calls themselves don’t allow you to see social cues. Others may simply find calls as too spontaneous, especially compared to the manicured version of reality we’re all too used to portraying online.

Fortunately, however, we can train ourselves to be more conversationally resilient.

How to get over telephobia, according to science

Make micro-calls

“The best approach is exposure therapy,” says Papadakis: “For some people it’s about ripping the band-aid off by just making that first call, then they may start to feel better. Or you can take the scaffold approach.”

This is where we put ourselves through the thing we’re scared of in small steps, building up slowly until it feels fine. So if we’re frightened of talking on the phone, we should try a thirty-second call first of all. Then a minute. Then two. Before gradually increasing to a chat-appropriate call length that feels right for us. Copps suggests phoning family and friends instead of texting, for two consecutive days, since “getting into the habit of calling familiar people is a good starting point”.

Make (very brief) notes before a call

Making notes can help, for everything from work calls to virtual doctor’s appointments and even catch-ups with friends. “Having agenda with bullet points is usually more helpful than writing a script,” says Papadakis.

This works regardless of whether calls are incoming or outgoing. “Many people feel worse when they’re the ones being called,” says Copps, “but just listening to why someone is calling, then repeating it back to them puts you back in control. And never be afraid to say ‘I don’t know the answer right now, but I’ll find out’. It’s always a perfectly acceptable response.”

Take perspective

We can also take heart from the fact that we overestimate how much we’re ever actually messing things up on the phone. According to research led by Professor Thomas Gilovich at Cornell University, we significantly overestimate how noticeable our embarrassing behaviours are to others. We also underestimate how much our conversation partners like us and enjoy our company – an illusion Yale researchers call ‘the liking gap’. After we have conversations, we are liked more than we know.

Fake a smile

Finally, we should choose our expression wisely. According to a study by scientists at the University of Portsmouth, people can actually ‘hear’ our smile.

“When we listen to people speaking, we may be picking up on all sorts of cues, even unconsciously, which help us to interpret the speaker,” said lead author of the report, Dr Amy Drahota. Not only does smiling help us sound more confident, it also makes us feel happier. And it’s very hard to frown and smile at the same time.

Psychologists at the University of Cardiff found that those who received frown-inhibiting Botox injections were happier and less anxious – not because they felt more attractive (they didn’t, worse luck), but because they couldn’t look anxious – even if they tried. So the next time we’re experiencing that sweaty-palmed feeling, we should smile like we mean it. Or at least, ‘not frown’. And then pick up the phone anyway – turns out it’s good to talk.

About our expert, Professor Alison Papadakis

Alison Papadakis is Director of Clinical Psychological Studies at Johns Hopkins University. Her research focuses on how young adults deal with stress, and what coping strategies are more effective. Her work has been published in journals including Psychological Methods and the Journal Of Personality.

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25 ski essentials for hitting the slopes

2023-05-17T08:15:25Z

If there’s a single sport in the world that always requires a seemingly endless amount of high-tech gear, it might just be skiing.

Skiers need to be shielded from the elements, have ample protective clothing and may also want to invest in some gear to help them improve.

If you’re looking to pick up some new kit, this is our in-depth list of the best ski gear and gadgets out there.

We haven’t included skis, poles, or boots, which are more widely covered and are often rented. Instead, we’ve decided to focus on other intriguing technology you’ll want to add to your wish list.

Ski Gadgets

PHOOZY XP3 Series Ultra Rugged Thermal Phone Case

We’ve all seen what can happen to our phones in cold weather. Exposure to cold temperatures can reduce battery life, cause screen damage, and lead to a loss of touchscreen sensitivity.

You’re likely to need your phone while skiing, whether in a resort or out on the slopes. Phoozy manufactures phone cases designed for rugged outdoor conditions, and the XP3 is specifically designed to provide a thermal layer to keep the phone warm.

The XP3 is said to feature five layers of protection, including a Chromium Thermal Barrier which is said to reflect over 90% of the sun’s heat to prevent overheating and damage.

Go Pro Hero 11 Black

If you fancy recording your skiing skills, it’s time to get an action camera. GoPro’s Hero 11 Black, released in September 2022, is considered one of the industry’s top contenders.

The Hero 11 Black is said to come with significant upgrades compared to its predecessor. One notable improvement is the inclusion of a larger 1.9″ sensor, which aims to increase the vertical field of view.

It’s stated that the camera can support a frame rate of up to 120 fps and enable high-resolution recording of up to 5.3k. This level of quality aims to allow users to crop clips into landscape and vertical video, making it easier to adjust footage for social media or playback on a TV.

GoPro also claim to have enhanced their video stabilisation. The camera features a “Horizon Lock” feature specifically designed to keep the horizon level stable while rotating a full 360 degrees.

Go Pro Sports Kit

Buy now from GoPro (64.99)

If you’re set on using the GoPro, you’ll also need accessories to keep it securely in place. This kit includes mounts for your chest and poles, designed to ensure you can capture a range of dynamic angles.

The Chest Mount is specifically designed to provide stable shots, minimising excessive movement during sudden changes in your skiing movements. It offers a perspective that includes both your poles, giving a unique viewpoint.

The Pole Mount, on the other hand, is designed to move along with you. It’s said to allow you to capture footage of the terrain ahead of you or shoot videos of yourself as you ski.

Carv Digital Ski Coach

The Carv Digital Ski Coach is a smart insole which acts as a ski instructor to help you learn and improve. It features 72 pressure sensors and is said to be able to track movement using a 9 axis 3D motion sensor.

This technology aims to provide precise metrics to measure your technique and ability, providing audio in real time while you’re skiing. Data is also fed into the Carv app, which gives you advice after your ski session, including a an overall Ski:IQ score to measure your performance.

The insole comes in a single one size fits all, with Bluetooth battery said to facilitate up to three days of use.

Aleck 006

Buy now from Aleck (£99.00)

Aleck’s wireless headphones are designed to have a slim profile that fits under your helmet. They are touted to deliver high-fidelity audio, allowing you to stream your favourite music while skiing.

According to Aleck, these headphones feature a long-lasting battery that will keep them powered throughout your entire day on the slopes.

They reportedly feature a water and sweat-resistant body for durability in outdoor conditions. The headphone controls are designed to be easily operated while wearing gloves.

In addition to music controls, the headphones offer voice-activated commands and push-to-talk communication. This feature enables two-way communication with another headphone, said to function from any location on the mountain face.

Theragun Mini

This percussive massage therapy gun from Therabody is designed to be portable and easy to fit in your luggage. It’s said to sit in the palm of your hand, weighing less than 1.5lbs.

While it comes in a smaller size, it still can reach 2400 percussions per minute at the most intense setting, with three speeds to choose from. The standard ball attachment is designed for well-rounded use on a range of muscle groups.

Therabody Wave Solo

The Therabody percussive massage therapy gun is specifically designed to be portable and conveniently fit in your luggage. It is described as compact, easily sitting in the palm of your hand and weighing less than 1.5 pounds.

Despite its smaller size, this massage gun is said to deliver up to 2400 percussions per minute at the highest intensity setting. It offers three different speeds to choose from, allowing you to customise the intensity to your preference.

Mammut Ride Protection Airbag 3.0

Buy now from The Snowboard Asylum (£475.99)

The backpack from Swiss mountaineering brand Mammut serves a dual purpose. It offers a capacity of 28 litres to accommodate all your skiing essentials, but also works as an avalanche safety device.

It withholds an orange airbag system which deploys behind the wearer’s head. Mammut state this airbag system is designed to mitigate the severity of impact.

In the event of an incident, the airbag’s bright orange appearance is said to aid visibility, helping to aid the wearer in signalling their location.

Zippo HeatBankTM 9s

This USB charger serves a dual function, allowing you to charge your USB-compatible device while also acting as a handwarmer. It offers six heat settings, said to reach temperatures of up to 50°C.

To help you control the charger, there are battery and heat indicator lights included. These lights provide information about the remaining battery life and the current heat level of the handwarmer.

The charger reportedly provides up to nine hours of warmth at a time, meaning you should have enough power to keep warm while out on the slopes for the day.

Thermic Heat Kit Set + C-Pack

Buy now from Cotswold Outdoor (£175.00)

While skiing, it’s crucial to ensure that your extremities, including your feet, stay warm. While hand warmers can help keep your fingers toasty, it’s equally important not to neglect your feet.

These specialised insoles are equipped with heating elements designed to provide warmth to your feet while you’re out on the snow. The batteries are said to provide up to 13 hours of warmth, aiming to ensure long-lasting comfort during your next skiing adventure.

It’s worth noting that these insoles are only compatible with Therm-ic C-Pack batteries, which are rechargeable.

Dakine BC Tool Snowboard/Ski Multi-tool

This miniature tool kit aims to provide all the tools you may need to adjust your gear while out on a ski tour.

It features Philips screwdrivers with various heads, as well as a mini wrench and a plastic scraper for getting rid of ice or snow from your equipment when needed. It’s designed to be attached to a key chain, ready for use whenever needed.

Horizn Studios H5 Cabin Luggage

Buy now from Horizn Studios (£370.00)

This smart suitcase from German brand Horizn Studios features a removable smart charger, designed to help you charge your phone easily in the airport, as well as throughout your skiing holiday. The charger is said to be able to provide power for up to five days.

The suitcase also features a coded lock to keep your items secure, which Horizn Studios state is TSA approved. The wheels are said to be able to rotate 360-degrees to make it easy to manoeuvre through a crowded airport.

It also features an inbuilt compression pad and hard shell to keep your items protected, plus a laundry bag to keep your clothes organised.

Watches

Garmin Fenix 7 Solar

Garmin’s latest addition to their Fenix GPS smartwatch range, the 7 Solar, comes equipped with built-in sport apps, including a dedicated skiing mode.

In this mode, users can access Skiview maps, which provide information about ski runs, including difficulty ratings based on data from over 2,000 ski resorts.

Users can track various run details such as time, distance, maximum and average speed, as well as total descent. This information helps skiers monitor their performance and progress on the slopes.

The battery life of the Fenix 7 Solar is said to last for up to 18 days in smartwatch mode. The built-in solar-powered charging capability reportedly extends the battery life by an additional four days, ensuring that the watch remains powered even during extended outdoor activities.

Suunto 9 Peak

Buy now from Suunto (£429.00)

The Suunto 9 Peak watch features a frame constructed from grade 5 titanium, said to provide durability while maintaining a sleek profile.

With a thickness of 10.6mm, it aims to offer a slim and lightweight wearing experience. For skiing enthusiasts, the watch includes features such as GPS tracking, a lap counter, and a barometric altitude sensor.

These features allow you to measure and monitor your skiing activities, including the number of downhill runs you have completed.

Suunto claims that the 9 Peak watch can also stream music, provide wellness insights, and deliver up to 7 days of battery life in tour mode.

Polar Grit X Pro

The Grit X Pro by Polar claims to be exceptionally durable compared to its predecessors in the Grit series.

Polar claim that it can withstand water depths of up to 100 meters and can operate in temperatures as low as -20⁰C, making it suitable for various outdoor activities, including skiing.

The watch’s GPS functionality allows you to visualise your skiing routes and slopes, as well as providing guidance to help you find your way back home.

Polar states that the Grit X Pro can offer up to 7 days of battery life while fully functional, designed for long-lasting performance during your skiing adventures.

The watch incorporates Polar’s heart rate technology, which utilises sensor technology to provide heart rate readings that said to not be affected by motion.

Helmets

LIVALL Rs1 Ski and Snowboard Smart Helmet

Buy now from Amazon (£135.61)

Livall, a well-known manufacturer of hardware, has added a touch of modern technology to this classic skiing helmet.

The helmet comes equipped with a built-in Bluetooth wireless headset, allowing wearers to pair it with their mobile phones and listen to music while on the go.

Livall claim that the helmet’s sound system is fitted with a windproof microphone that can isolate voices and music, even in temperatures as low as 20⁰C.

The Bluetooth capability also enables a walkie-talkie feature, activated by pressing the PTT (Push-to-Talk) button on the helmet, allowing skiers to connect with each other.

The helmet features an SOS alarm system that can be activated in case of an accident. This alarm is said to notify an emergency contact of the wearer’s GPS location.

Giro Tor Spherical Snow Helmet

Buy now from Giro (£250.00)

This ski helmet from Giro incorporates their Spherical Technology, which is said to be specifically engineered to minimise rotational energy during impacts, aiming to reduce the risk of head injuries.

The helmet is equipped with adjustable venting, allowing users to regulate their temperature and maintain optimal comfort while skiing. This ventilation system is stated to enable airflow control to prevent overheating or excessive cooling.

Giro also emphasise that the helmet utilises vertical tuning to accommodate various goggle and head shapes. They state that this ensures a secure and comfortable fit, allowing skiers to wear their preferred goggles without discomfort or compromising safety.

The helmet features a magnetic buckle closure, designed for easy opening and closing. This convenient closure system aims to allow users to fasten or remove the helmet without it being too fiddly.

Salomon Driver Prime Sigma Helmet

Buy now from Salomon (£320.00)

Salomon’s Driver Prime Helmet is equipped with a built-in visor. This hybrid design is said to avoid the hassle of adjusting your goggles or finding the right pair that fits perfectly with your helmet.

The visor is designed to enhance colour contrast, enabling wearers to better perceive and examine the terrain while skiing. It’s also stated to provide 100% UV protection to help shield the eyes.

The visor is designed to be removable and replaced based on weather conditions or personal preference. Salomon state that the helmet’s ventilation system is engineered to deliver a consistent and even airflow around the head.

Eyewear

Oakley Flight Deck Ski / Snowboard Goggles

Oakley’s Flight Deck goggles are said to feature a curved visor, which aims to maximise the wearer’s vision and field of view.

To achieve this it features a rimless frame, 100% UV protection, glare reduction, and an anti-fog coating. The rimless frame is also stated to make the goggles compatible with a wider range of helmets.

This pair of goggles is also stated to feature a flexible chassis to fit the face comfortably, plus silicone lining for a secure fit.

Vallon Freebirds Goggles

Buy now from Vallon (£94.00)

The Vallon Freebirds goggles are said to use a spherical lens to maximise the field of vision, aiming to offer a wider peripheral vision. Vallon state that this provides less glare and distortion compared to cylindrically shaped goggles.

This pair also feature anti-fog coating with an anti-scratch lens, aiming to increase durability. The pads are made from triple-layer foam, said to provide added comfort.

Bollè Shifter Sunglasses

Ski goggles are your best friend while skiing, but they can be bulky to wear for extended periods of time. While out and about in a resort or chateau, you’re likely to need something a little lighter to avoid the glare of the snow.

This pair of sunglasses from Bollè features a polarised and high-contrast lens, stated to enhance colours by 30% while maintaining a white balance to keep the picture accurate.

They are also said to be fitted with rubber touchpoints that improve the grip of the glasses, keeping them on your face while you move.

Clothing

Helly Hansen ALPHA 3.0 SKI JACKET

Buy now from Helly Hansen (£440.00)

This ski jacket from Helly Hansen features three layers of fabric, which they claim makes the layers waterproof, breathable, and windproof.

It uses mechanical venting, stated to allow wearers to retain or release heat when necessary. It also features Helly Hansen’s Life Pocket – a pocket designed to preserve your phone battery in the cold.

Icebreaker Mens 200 Oasis Long Sleeve Crew Top

Icebreaker specialises in merino wool clothing, a material known for warmth in cool weather. The Oasis Long Sleeve Crewe is designed with flatlock seams, which they claim prevents chafing for added comfort.

There are also underarm gussets, aiming to offer breathability to keep you comfortable during intense skiing sessions. The slim fit aims to provide a snug fit under a fleece and coat for optimal insulation.

Odlo Womens Active F-Dry Baselayer Bottoms

Buy now from Odlo (£35.00)

This pair of baselayer leggings are designed to be light and moisture-wicking. Odlo state their F-Dry technology makes them the fastest trying product they have produced.

There is also a coating of amino sugar, which Odlo call “ZeroScent”, which they state limits bacteria built-up and reduces the smell of body odour. The leggings also feature flat seams, designed to reduce chafing.

Therm-ic Ultra Heat Boost Men’s Gloves

Buy now from Ellis Brigham (£295.00)

This pair of gloves are said to be built for particularly cold conditions, with internal elements which provide up to ten hours of heat.

The heat is provided by lithium batteries, which are stated to be lightweight and have three temperature settings to choose from.

They can be charged using a USB cable and are said to feature a waterproof material and a leather palm for some extra grip .

What ski gear should you invest in?

Helmet: A properly fitting helmet is essential for safety on the slopes. While you could rent one and they may be bulky when travelling, it might be more comfortable and hygienic to purchase your own if you start skiing frequently.
Ski goggles: Goggles protect your eyes from the sun, wind, and snow while skiing. Always look for a pair that offer 100% UV protection, and look out for features like anti-fog coating or ventilation systems.
Ski jacket and pants: Ski-specific clothing is designed to keep you warm, dry, and comfortable while skiing. These garments typically have waterproof or water-resistant coatings, insulation, and other features tailored for specific use on the slopes.
Base layers: Wearing moisture-wicking base layers can help regulate your body temperature by providing insulation and keeping your skin dry.
Gloves or mittens: Insulated gloves or mittens are important for keeping your hands warm and protected while skiing. Some come with built-in heated options for even more advanced comfort.
Other tech: It can also be a good idea to keep an eye out for other new developing technology to help your skiing experience, including heated gear, ski tracking apps, smart watches, safety equipment and many more.

Top image credit: Louis Tricot / Unsplash

How to finally break your procrastination habit, explained by a psychologist

2023-05-16T17:00:15Z

You’re procrastinating right now, aren’t you? Don’t worry, we’re not judging. But we are here to tell you that you’re not alone: an estimated 20 per cent of adults (and above 50 per cent of students) regularly procrastinate.

In fact, procrastination – defined as voluntarily and unnecessarily delaying a task – is so widespread that scientists have even found evidence of the behaviour in pigeons.

So, why do so many people procrastinate? What causes it? And, most importantly, how can you stop procrastinating?

Let’s not put off answering these questions any longer. With the help of the University of Durham’s Prof Fuschia Sirois, a researcher who has dedicated 20 years to the topic, here’s a beginner’s guide to the psychology of procrastination.

What causes procrastination?

It would be easy to say – as your mum probably does – that procrastination is the result of poor time management or, worse, sheer laziness. But the science simply doesn’t back this up.

“There hasn’t been any convincing scientific evidence to say procrastination is the result of poor time management. But we can easily say it’s all to do with mood management,” Sirois says.

“At its core, procrastination is about not being able to manage your moods and emotions. Although many think impulsivity and self-control are the problems – and they do play a factor – underneath is a poor emotional response.”

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As Sirois explains, every person faces stressful situations, demanding tasks that trigger brain activity that involves a brain region known amygdala. And it’s the amygdala that processes emotions and signals threats, capable of prompting a ‘fight or flight’ response linked to procrastination.

“Interestingly, people who say they are chronic procrastinators tend to have larger grey matter volume in the amygdala,” says Sirois.

“This means they will also be more sensitive to the potential negative consequences of their actions, leading to more negative emotions and procrastination.”

Another factor strongly linked to procrastination: temporal thinking. Or, to put it more plainly, how close you see the current version of yourself to yourself in the future.

If you’re a normal person, chances are that you suck at temporal thinking. Really suck. In fact, studies conducted at The University of California, Los Angeles have indicated you probably imagine the future version of yourself as a completely different person altogether.

Using functional MRI scans, researchers discovered that different sections of the brain are activated when we process information about our present and future selves. And that when we imagine our future self, the same regions of the brain are activated as when we think of a stranger.

“This is important as if you perceive your future self this way then it’s easier to do something that might harm that person, leaving them a huge task rather than doing it yourself now,” explains Sirois.

“As your future self might feel psychologically distant to you now, you might also see them as a kind of superhero. You might say ‘Future me will have all the ideas because they’ll be well-rested’ or ‘Future me won’t have writers’ block.’

“However, the truth is that we really don’t change much in a short period of time.”

If you’re a chronic procrastinator, you’re probably well-versed in this fallacy. Fortunately, however, there is some evidence suggesting there’s an easy way to improve your temporal thinking: do it more often.

For instance, one intriguing Applied Psychology study of university students found that those who imagined a version of themself merely two months in the future (“from a third and a first-person perspective”) for 10 minutes twice a week were found to be less likely to procrastinate.

As the researchers concluded, such a practice was “effective at increasing an altruistic motivation towards [a future self], mainly by procrastinating less in the present.”

Is procrastination bad for your health?

In short, procrastination can cause a lot more problems than missed deadlines. Over decades Sirois has examined the impact of chronic procrastinating on a person’s health, her findings worrying at best – and downright terrifying at worst.

“People who chronically procrastinate – people who make it a habit – have higher levels of stress and a greater number of acute health problems. They are more likely to have headaches or insomnia or digestive issues. And they’re more susceptible to the flu and colds.”

Even more alarming, Sirois has found that procrastination is a factor that can lead to hypertension and cardiovascular disease, with chronic procrastinators more likely to put off healthy behaviour such as exercise.

People who chronically procrastinate have been shown to not only perform worst as students, but also earn less money and have jobs with lesser perceived value to them.

Studies have also shown procrastination leads to lower self-esteem, fewer visits to the dentists and even a lack of ‘Household safety behaviours’ (for instance, checking to see if the fire alarm is working – extremely concerning considering there are an estimated 37,000 house fires a year in the UK).

How to stop procrastinating

As you might have guessed by now, procrastination is a big problem. But fortunately, psychologists know this and have been searching for effective methods to tackle it.

First, there are the many quick-fix procrastination aids. For example, one compelling Psychological Science paper described how downsizing larger metrics of time (think 48 hours instead of 2 days, or 10,950 days instead of 30 years) can make events seem more immediate, prompting people to engage in upcoming tasks.

However, for Sirois, there are two primary ways of reducing procrastination at its root cause: self-compassion and cognitive re-framing.

“I think people don’t realise that procrastinators, especially chronic procrastinators, are extremely hard on themselves – before and after the task. And rather than getting on with the job, they just go round and round spinning their wheels,” she says.

“My advice is to not go full in overidentifying and becoming that frustration. Step back from it for a minute and just acknowledge that you’re not happy with yourself. And then move forward.

“It’s basically about recognising that everybody screws up. You’re not the first person to procrastinate, nor will you be the last. Welcome to the human race.”

The data increasingly support this theory. For example, in a study of 750 people, Sirois found a firm link between procrastinating and lower levels of self-compassion (those more likely to judge themselves harshly, believing they suffer from the problem alone).

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But what does this all mean practically? First off, as Sirois contends, mindfulness exercises have been linked to greater self-compassion and lower procrastination levels.

As one study published in the International Journal of Applied Positive Psychology found, those who completed a mere three-minute mindfulness exercise (involving “audio instructions intended to induce non-judgmental awareness and attention to present body sensations, including breath”) had less tendency to procrastinate afterwards.

(You can find such breathing audio exercises through the NHS, such as this instructional video.)

“These exercises help you take a little perspective, preventing you from running down a bad road of negative emotions that lead to procrastination,” Sirois explains.

Sirois also points to a recent unpublished study conducted by PhD student Sisi Yang. Experimenting with students that had a task they were procrastinating on – or they predicted they would procrastinate on – the participants were divided into several groups.

One group were encouraged to think about happy thoughts by engaging in certain activities (think watching videos of kittens). Another group were asked to reframe the upcoming task as something meaningful, pondering questions such as:

How will completing this goal be valuable in how you see yourself?
How will completing this goal be valuable in how others see you?
How will completing this goal be valuable to my personal growth?

Interestingly, when monitoring the activity of all participants over the next few days, the second group procrastinated less.

“It’s about reappraising. Seeing something as more meaningful. And when you create meaning, you create a connection to the task,” says Sirois.

“Finding meaning in the task, whether it’s in relation to yourself or other people, is really, really powerful. And it’s a great way to start that reappraisal process and dial down some of those negative emotions or at least make them more manageable.”

About our expert, Dr Fuschia Sirois

Dr Sirois is a reader at the Department of Psychology in the University of Sheffield, primarily examining behaviour regulation. She is head of the Self-Regulation in Health & Well-Being Lab and her research has been published in numerous peer-reviewed journals such as Health Psychology, Social Science and Medicine, Journal of Psychosomatic Research, Quality of Life Research and the Journal of Behavioural Medicine.

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Google Bard: Everything you need to know about ChatGPT’s AI rival

2023-05-16T10:26:13Z

Google Bard is the biggest competitor to the dominating force that is ChatGPT. As the name suggests, Bard comes from the tech giant Google, backed by its mammoth amount of funding, never-ending sources of user data and hundreds of apps, tools and pieces of software.

While the product has only been publicly available for a few months, it has already received a major update, touting new features, increased access and a better understanding of what future technology we can expect.

It can write jokes for you, design stories at your request, rate the best restaurants in a local area, design a website and a hundred other similar tasks.

But this software is by no means perfect and, while it is improving, features a number of problems that keep it from putting everyone out of a job.

So how does Google Bard work? And is this yet another example of how artificial intelligence is changing the world?

What is Google Bard and how can I use it?

Google Bard is the latest chatbot to become available to users. You can sign up to use it via a waitlist and for now, the software remains free-to-use once you gain access.

It operates in a near-identical way to ChatGPT. When you open it, you are presented with a text box. Type any worded command in here and Bard will respond with its answer.

This could be writing a poem about dinosaurs, asking for book title ideas, writing the code for a website, translating a poem into Arabic or asking it to solve a complicated mathematical puzzle. While it can often get confused or tell you it can’t complete a problem, for the most part anything goes.

Google Bard: A huge update announced at IO

Two months on from the announcement of Google Bard and the company is already releasing a hefty update. Announced at the company’s annual IO event, Google is looking to make Bard into a serious ChatGPT contender.

Google Bard has now been made available in both Japanese and Korean, as well as plans for 40 other languages being announced. As part of this process, the team is also working on a better understanding of local nuances.

One of the big updates the Google Bard team is working on is the use of visuals, both in prompts and responses. This could mean showing photos of hotels you’ve asked about, or listing must-see sights in a certain city.

Alongside that, upcoming updates will allow the use of images in your searches. An example Google gives is asking for a “funny joke about these two” with an attached photo of two dogs.

Google has also announced an upcoming partnership with Adobe, utilising both Google’s G-Suite platforms and Adobe’s image software, including its latest AI technology Firefly – an AI art generator to compete with the likes of Dall-E and Midjourney.

Through these collaborations, users would be able to ask Bard to produce images with accompanying text, create the code for a website along with header images, and a host of other utilities.

Google also plans to allow the integration of Bard with other popular platforms like Khan Academy and Instacart.

Will EU countries have access to Bard?

As part of Google’s latest announcement, it was revealed that the AI chatbot would be available in a huge 180 countries. However, while that sounds huge, it leaves out quite a large group – countries in the EU.

While Google hasn’t clarified any reason for this large group missing from Google Bard usage, it is likely to be to do with recent GDPR issues related to the rise of AI chatbots. This is an issue OpenAI’s ChatGPT is also facing.

Canada is also missing from the list, but these countries could all soon be added.

How does Google Bard work?

In Google Bard’s own words, the training process is a multi-step process – four steps to be precise. Firstly, the data had to be prepared. This meant collected data from a variety of sources including Wikipedia, GitHub and a host of other publicly available data sets.

However, Google also used information from 3^rd party companies and internal data from the company itself. All of this data was cleaned and prepared for the training process.

The next step is taking this information and feeding it into a neural network which learns to generate text, translate languages and write different forms of creative content, answering your questions in informative ways.

Obviously, once the model is trained, it then needs to be tested, like taking an exam after revising. This is done by comparing the model’s output to human-generated text, translations and creative content. This process can help identify areas where the model needs improvement.

Based on the results of this test, the model can be refined. This is done by adding more data to the training set, changing the model’s architecture, or using different training algorithms.

This refinement process is ongoing, with the team constantly updating, tinkering and measuring the chatbot’s performance through human checks and a machine learning process.

Is Google Bard as good as ChatGPT?

While Google Bard and ChatGPT are incredibly similar in nature, there are some key differences between the two.

The most noticeable difference and Google’s major benefit over the two is its understanding of the up-to-date world. Bard could tell you who the current UK prime minster was, whereas ChatGPT could not.

Equally, Google Bard was able to summarise a list of pros and cons on restaurants in my nearby area, recommend where to live in a city based on house prices in 2023, list the dates of UK festivals this year and summarise the biggest events in science happening this year.

However, while this is ChatGPT’s downfall, not having knowledge past 2021, this isn’t the same for Bing and its use of GPT-4. When using the AI chatbot via Bing, all of these questions came back with similar responses to Google’s Bard.

When comparing the two chatbots, Google seems to have a stronger understanding of regional topics, as well as recent issues. ChatGPT on the other hand has a stronger understanding of logic, writing style and complex problems.

As Google’s Bard is very much in its infancy, this could all change in the future as the company continues to develop it and learn from user interactions.

A learning period

While Google Bard is impressive, especially in its understanding of recent events and niche information, it is still very clearly in its infancy. While testing it, the chatbot could be easily confused.

When I asked it for lyrics to Celine Dion’s My Heart Will Go On, it offered up Phil Collin’s Against All Odds. When asked about the score to an imaginary Six Nations Rugby match from the year 2000, it replied with a confused string of responses of made-up scores and matches.

Equally, when quizzed on a string of incorrect facts about Britpop, it corrected me on most of it, falling short with a confused fact about a song charting at number one.

None of these points are the end of the world, especially as I was intentionally trying to confuse the chatbot, but elsewhere it was getting confused with some quite simple prompts.

When asked to provide 10 food puns about famous literary titles, it gave 10 answers. The first was Lord of the Fries. While you would expect that to be from the obvious Lord of the Flies, it was supposedly a pun on Lord of the Rings. Bard then followed up with nine other famous book titles, none of which were puns, just the original title.

Equally, the chatbot became confused with simple mathematical questions or prompts around logic. Sometimes it would solve incredibly complex sums with ease, but then struggle with simple addition. Asked to write a poem without the letter ‘b’, Bard returned a poem… full of that exact letter.

Who needs a personality?

Whether on purpose or not, Google Bard is not exactly the most personable chatbot out there. Where ChatGPT, especially via Bing, was seen cracking jokes, making jibes at users and impersonating celebrities, Bard is having none of that.

Ask it to write stand-up comedy routines or sketches and you’ll get a very serious response. Prompts of this nature around topics that could be controversial such as politics, gender and economics are all level-headed conversations supporting both sides with no jokes and some ‘(audience laughs)’ thrown in.

While this could be to avoid the pitfalls ChatGPT discovered of users manipulating AI to expose biases and stereotypes, the same is seen with the most mundane of prompts.

Asked to create jokes, comedy sketches and stand-up routines around kitchens resulted in a script of a loving couple complimenting each other’s cooking. Prompted to make a joke about books, I got a series of nonsensical answers that were neither funny nor really made any sense.

While Bard is, for the most part, good at keeping things neutral and safe, every so often it slips up and pulls out an unexpected dark side. In my time using it, I received a joke about Facebook “What do you call a Facebook post? A desperate cry for help”. A joke about orphans also slipped through with a surprisingly dark explanation of why the joke was funny.

Of course, this is all to be expected. Google Bard has restrictions on certain topics that are hateful, violent or discriminatory. It monitors these via human moderator reviews and machine learning algorithms but things will still slip through.

As more people use the chatbot, it will develop a better understanding of what is appropriate, what is safe to say, but also what is deemed funny. In ChatGPT’s latest update, OpenAI said that it had been working on improving the chatbot’s understanding of humour, something Google may decide to avoid in favour of a more serious competitor.

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Are there any benefits to using a daylight SAD lamp? A GP explains

2023-05-16T10:00:03Z

Seasonal affective disorder (SAD) is a type of depression that comes and goes in a seasonal pattern. The exact cause isn’t fully understood, but it’s often linked to reduced exposure to sunlight during shorter days.

Some people find that a light box, called an SAD lamp, can help. These produce a very bright light to simulate sunlight. This is thought to encourage your brain to reduce melatonin (the hormone that makes us sleepy).

Light therapy has been associated with a reduction in fatigue on a short-term basis. However in 2019, Cochrane (the global independent research network whose reviews are considered the gold standard for research) published a systematic review of light therapy for SAD, and concluded that the quality of evidence about whether light therapy prevents winter depression is very low.

However, some studies have found it’s effective for treatment during a SAD phase, especially first thing in the morning. It’s worth bearing in mind that it can take a few weeks to work, and is often not available on the NHS.

Most people can use light therapy safely. The recommended light boxes have filters that remove harmful ultraviolet (UV) rays, so there’s no risk of skin or eye damage for most people, but make sure that you choose a light box that is medically approved for the treatment of SAD, and produced by a fully certified manufacturer.

It’s rare for people using light therapy to have side effects, but some do report agitation or irritability, headaches, eye strain, sleeping problems (avoiding light therapy at the end of the day may help prevent this), and blurred vision. You must be especially careful if you have an eye condition or take any other medicines that might sensitise you to bright light, such as some antibiotics.

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Asked by: Lisa Seymour, Durham

To submit your questions email us at questions@sciencefocus.com (don’t forget to include your name and location)

Instant Genius Podcast: Body language myths, with Prof Geoff Beattie

2023-05-16T07:14:36Z

Instant Genius is a bite-sized masterclass in podcast form. And in this episode, we’re exploring the many myths of non-verbal communication.

Want to get better at interpreting body language? Well, most books on the topic are unlikely to help you. At least, that’s the argument of Geoff Beattie, professor of psychology at Edge Hill University.

He claims that most stereotypes of non-verbal communication, be it defensive arm-crossing or nervous hair twiddling, are vastly misunderstood. In this episode, Beattie unpacks these body language myths – and also explains science worth paying attention to.

Find Instant Genius on your preferred podcast platform here: instantgenius.podlink.to/Podcast

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Nature superhero The Penguin Protector wins ‘Nobel prize of conservation’

2023-05-16T16:28:19Z

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it’s not even Superman. It’s The Penguin Protector.

Argentine conservationist Dr Pablo Borboroglu, dubbed ‘The Penguin Protector’ because of his work to conserve the world’s 18 species of the flightless bird, has today been awarded the 2023 Indianapolis Prize, known as the Nobel prize of the conservation world.

“This is a dream,” Borboroglu told BBC Science Focus. “I was so thrilled just to be nominated. Then when I got into the final, it was mind-blowing to be recognised for all the work that I’ve done.”

Over three decades, Borboroglu has become an internationally recognised expert on penguin ecology and conservation. He founded the Global Penguin Society in 2009 and currently serves as its president, and also co-founded the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Penguin Specialist Group. Through this work, Borboroglu has helped to protect over two and a half million penguins worldwide.

Borboroglu is the first Indianapolis Prize winner from South America, selected from a group of finalists from five different countries around the world.

He is “an extraordinary example of someone who has positively impacted the survival of a species,” Dr Robert Shumaker, President of Indianpolis Zoo, told BBC Science Focus. “His accomplishments fit perfectly for what we have always looked for and what we desire when it comes to the person who receives the Indianapolis Prize.”

Borboroglu has used his winner’s platform to explain that our future is tied to penguins: “We suffer the same problems that penguins are facing – we are under threat as well.”

Penguins are excellent indicators of ocean health, including threats from climate change, plastic pollution, oil extraction, and fisheries, according to Borboroglu. Because of the vast distances of land and sea that they live in and travel across, “when you protect their habitat, you’re protecting hundreds of other species that coexist with the penguins.”

Awarded by the Indianapolis Zoological Society, the winner of the prize receives $250,000 (just under £200,000): the largest monetary for conservationists award in the world. The prize aims to recognise, reward and celebrate exceptional individuals who have made a dramatic difference to a species or group of species.

“The funds will be really instrumental in speeding up a lot of conservation efforts,” Borboroglu said. As soon as he returns to Argentina after accepting the prize in London this week, he will begin a project to protect a 600,000 acre area in Patagonia.

But what is Borboroglu’s favourite species? Although he says it’s like forcing a parent to pick their favourite child, he does have a soft spot for the yellow-eyed penguin, of which there are only around 1,500 pairs left on the planet.

About our expert

Dr Pablo Borboroglu is the founder and President of the Global Penguin Society and is the Co-Chair of the IUCN Penguin Specialist Group. In addition to the 2023 Indianapolis Prize, he won the Whitley Award in 2010 and the Segre/WFN Partnership Award in 2014.

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The biggest myth about fossil fuels and dinosaurs, debunked by science

2023-05-15T17:01:06Z

Most oil reserves were formed between 65 and 252 million years ago. While this does overlap with the ‘dinosaur times’, oil is a marine sediment made of the remains of algae and plankton.

Skeletons of prehistoric reptiles such as plesiosaurs and ichthyosaurs (neither of which count as dinosaurs) have been found in the same geological layers as oil and they may have contaminated the oil deposit. But to say that oil is made from dinosaurs is like saying that bread is made from insects, just because the odd one occasionally falls into a flour mill.

Oil sediments formed in shallow seas that were teeming with life near the surface but stagnant and dead on the seabed. As dead plankton and microorganisms rained down, they buried the ones below them faster than they could decay. This trapped the organic matter in an oxygen-deprived layer that sank lower and lower as it was compressed from above. After 100 million years of this, the bottom layers were under several kilometres of clay and sand, and the heat and pressure at these depths converted the organic material into oil.

In contrast, a five-tonne plesiosaur falling dead to the seafloor would be very unlikely to remain undisturbed for long enough to be safely buried. Instead, it would be a temporary oasis for fish, crustaceans and worms that would quickly strip away the organic parts. We see this happening today when whale corpses fall to the seabed.

Coal is a much better place to find fossils; in fact, many plant and animal remains have been found preserved in coal seams. But coal deposits date from the Carboniferous era (359 to 299 million years ago), about 57 million years before the earliest dinosaurs. And even those animal fossils are embedded in, rather than contributing to, the coal deposit itself.

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Asked by: Ian McCoy, via email

To submit your questions email us at questions@sciencefocus.com (don’t forget to include your name and location)