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BOND VILLAINS NOT ALL BAD

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Astronomers
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WITH
ALIENS
But should we keep
Earth's location a secret?
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Contents

50 CO
SCIENTISTS WANT TO STO VER
RY
CHAT WITH ALIENS

We’re sending messages to planets which

might harbour life, using new techniques and
new methods of encoding language. But
74
AUSTRALIAN SCIENCE ILLUSTRATED
PUBLISHED APRIL 2ND 2020

should we be telling them all where we are?

#

28 36
ISSUE

BOND VILLAINS ARE SAVING THE WORLD! WATER: THE BIG SQUEEZE

With ‘Bond 25’ hitting the cinemas, we look back at the ‘The Big Dry’ has seen Australian towns approaching
technologies harnessed by Bond’s former adversaries, Day Zero, where official water supplies run out entirely.
and discover that similar ideas are now helping to combat Water access is a global problem, but science is seeking
cancer, climate change and other evils of the real world. ways to provide fresh sources – including purified sewage.
 REGULARS
60 AND OTHER
BRAIN BACTERIA
FEATURES
New discoveries EDITORIAL
indicate that bacteria Editor Jez Ford
editor@scienceillustrated.com.au
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 MEGAPIXEL T H E M I L K Y WAY

6 | SCIENCE ILLUSTRATED
 Hole in the middle: viewing
the centre of the Milky Way
Although we can now identify incredibly
remote galaxies, we are unable to observe the
centre of our own Milky Way. A wall of intergalactic
dust blocks our view of the supermassive black hole
at the centre of our galaxy, Sagittarius A*. But the
NASA, JPL-CALTECH, SUSAN STOLOVY (SSC/CALTECH) ET AL.

long-running Spitzer space telescope has used

infrared imaging to peek beyond the wall of dust and
create this image. The blue spots are old cold stars;
the red clouds are dust illuminated by young warm
stars. The large bright area is the centre, where
millions of stars are slowly sucked into the black hole.

Photo // NASA/JPL-Caltech

scienceillustrated.com.au | 7
 MEGAPIXEL STEM CELLS

New life: early-stage embryo

grown from stem cells
Scientists have for the first time produced
an initial-stage embryo without the use of
either sperm or eggs. Scientists from the Salk
Institute for Biological Studies produced stem cells
using cells from adult mice, and those cells very soon
began to divide in the same way as they would after
natural fertilisation. We still don’t know very much
about how life originates in a fertilised egg, and
scientists hope that the discovery will provide new
knowledge about these first stages of life, when
one cell divides to become millions of cells.
SALK INSTITUTE

Photo // Waitt Advanced Biophotonics Core Facility

8 | SCIENCE ILLUSTRATED
scienceillustrated.com.au | 9
 MEGAPIXEL MOON DUST

Back to the Moon: archived

sample is re-examined
Humans may travel to the Moon again in
2024, and as part of its preparations NASA
has retrieved old Apollo mission samples from the
archives. Today, it is possible to analyse the Moon
dust more accurately than it was back in the 1970s,
and that might help plan the future missions. Far
more detailed X-rays can be taken now, making it
easier to identify the exact contents while avoiding
any harm to the samples as they are examined.

Photo // James Blair

2019

1974
NASA

10 | SCIENCE ILLUSTRATED
scienceillustrated.com.au | 11
 THE LATEST FINDINGS AND DISCOVERIES

Asteroid strike in WA
defrosted the frozen Earth
The dating of a crater from an asteroid strike in Western Australia offers a new
explanation of why a global ice age subsided more than two billion years ago.

GEOLOGY More than once, our planet has experienced a
‘Snowball Earth’ global ice age, during which its entire surface has
been covered in ice. It happened 2.4 billion years ago, after new
oxygen-producing bacteria made the atmosphere colder. The
oxygen broke down a layer of methane that had kept Earth warm,
but some 2.2 billion years ago an event suddenly defrosted the
world again. Geologists used to believe that the cause was a series
of intense volcanic eruptions, but now scientists from the Johnson
Space Center in the US are offering a different explanation.
The scientists studied minerals from an asteroid crater by the
name of Yarrabubba in south-western Australia. The minerals
contain uranium, which decays into lead over time. By analysing
the relationship between the two elements, the scientists
determined the age of these minerals, and the dating showed that
the crater was formed 2.229 billion years ago, which is consistent
with the time when the planet began to defrost. The
scientists now think that this strike was the triggering factor.
To examine the idea more closely, calculations were
made of what would happen if a 7km-wide asteroid
struck a 2km-to-5km ice sheet. The calculations showed
that such an impact would spread dust across
thousands of kilometres, sending 500 billion tonnes
of water vapour high up into the atmosphere.
Both effects might have caused a warmer climate.
Dark dust on the surface would hold on to more
solar heat, while the water vapour would
increase the weakened greenhouse effect. So
the asteroid strike could have helped Earth pass
into a new era that allowed life to develop
further on ice-free land and in the open sea.

Asteroid strike could heat Earth in two different ways

More than two million years ago, an asteroid strike marked the end of a global ice age.
Outflux
The strike released dust and water vapour, each contributing to the heating of the frozen planet.

Water vapour
BEFORE STRIKE AFTER STRIKE

Influx Outflux Influx

The Sun The Sun

Intensified
greenhouse effect

Dust layer

Ice sheet Dust

Strike

SOLAR ENERGY REFLECTED FROM EARTH DUST AND VAPOUR HOLDS ON TO HEAT
The ice-covered Earth reflected almost all solar radiation The asteroid strike covered the ice in dust, which absorbs more
back into space. The atmosphere couldn’t hold on to the solar energy. At the same time the quantities of water vapour
heat either, because the greenhouse effect was so low. escaping into the atmosphere intensified the greenhouse effect.

12 | SCIENCE ILLUSTRATED
 Editor: Jens E. Matthiesen

Yarrabubba
Crater

MATT CROW/DALE OMORI/CLEVELAND MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY

AUSTRALIA

Region with
3-billion-year-old crust

Australia has
the world’s
oldest crater A 3.8-million-year-old skull from an Australopithecus indicates that the evolution
towards the Homo genus did not happen directly, but took place in isolated groups.
The Yarrabubba Crater is located
in a region of Australia that
consists of 3-billion-year-old Ancestors with new faces
crust. The crater has now been
dated to be 2.229 billion years EVOLUTION A skull recently skull bones such as 3.9-million-year-old
old – the world’s oldest known discovered in Ethiopia belonged to finds made in 1981. According to the new
asteroid crater. The dating is one of our early ancestors, according to knowledge, they must be from an afarensis.
consistent with the impact
scientists from the Cleveland Museum of From the discoveries made of the two
being a cause of the global
ice age easing its grip on Earth. Natural History in the US. After analysing so far, we now know that Homo
the skull, they determined that it belongs anamensis lived 4.2-3.8 million years
to the Australopithecus anamensis ago, while Homo afarensis existed from
species, an ancestor of the 3.9 to 3.0 million years ago,
AUSTRALOPITHECUS
Homo genus. so that they co-existed for
is a common designation for
The 3.8-million-year-old at least 100,000 years.
several members of the genus
skull reveals features that that included the precursors
The discovery changes
differ from those which of the Homo genus. the history of our early
scientists know from the ancestors. So far, most
Australopithecus afarensis, the species scientists believed that the early
which became famous when an almost anamensis evolved directly into afarensis,
complete skeleton known as ‘Lucy’ but now we know that it happened in
was discovered in 1974. The two species a different way. Perhaps a group of
differ particularly in the lower part of anamensis was isolated in a region
the face of anamensis being more where it evolved into the new species,
protruding than that of afarensis. while in other places, anamensis survived
The differences are important, because in their original form for much longer
scientists can now identify other finds of than previously believed.

ANSWERS TO TEST YOURSELF P82: NO PEEKING!

in which body and wings are merged.
tested the blended wing body (BWB),
developed by Boeing and NASA. The X-48
Boeing X-48 was an experimental plane
Boeing 48
CODE WORD
Several times, our planet has been
a Snowball Earth, with huge ice masses
covering the entire world. One of these
LOTTE FREDSLUND & SHUTTERSTOCK
COUSTEAU, EINSTEIN & PASTEUR
sequences are names of famous scientists:
PROBLEM 6: ST. The completed letter
figure moves one step to the left.
PROBLEM 5: S. In row after row, the same
brother will add 2 years: 99 + (4 x 2) = 107
PROBLEM 4: 107. From 2029 to 2031, each
black circle is the average of the other numbers.
PROBLEM 3: 8. In all figures, the number in the

times was 2.4 billion years ago, and

as the circle's radius.
rhombus sides is as long
scientists now believe that an asteroid show that each of the
strike in Australia defrosted it again. diagonals in the rectangle
PROBLEM 2: 4. The red
PROBLEM 1: BO, EI, and NG.

scienceillustrated.com.au | 13
 S C I E N C E U P DAT E

SHUTTERSTOCK
Sex selection by slowing down
X
sperm cells with the X factor Y

BIOLOGY A new discovery can
make it easier to determine the
gender resulting from a
pregnancy. By studying mouse
sperm, Japanese scientists from
Hiroshima University have
identified previously unknown
differences between sperm cells
with an X chromosome and those
with a Y, finding 18 genes in the X
sperm cells that code for proteins
which protrude from the surface.
The genes are not active in sperm
cells with Y chromosomes.
The scientists subsequently
produced a gel with molecules
that bind to the proteins in
question, then made sperm cells
swim through it. The cells with X
chromosomes were delayed by
the molecules in the gel, but it did
not affect Y chromosome cells. So
X
a simple elimination race via the X
gel can separate the sperm cells
in a way that, according to the Y
scientists, is cheap and gentle,
and has no risk of harming them.
The scientists do not intend Y
the method for humans seeking
either a boy or a girl, but it could
have useful applications in
animal breeding. Dairy cattle Y
breeders prefer female Y
calves for milking,
whereas beef farmers
would like male calves. Pig
breeders often prefer female
pigs, because it is necessary to
neuter male pigs in order that
their meat does not get an
unpleasant taste. The Japanese
scientists hope that the method
can lead to more humane A new gel makes sperm cells with X chromosomes slower, so they can
methods of animal breeding. be distinguished or separated from sperm cells with Y chromosomes.

BY THE WAY
J. SKOWRON/OGLE

The Milky Way has a new profile

Our galaxy is not flat as a pancake, as it is often
depicted. Astronomers have produced a new image
which shows that its profile is slightly S-shaped.
The image was created by measuring the light from
The Sun
2400 special stars known as cepheids. They are very
20,000 light years
bright and can be observed across the galaxy, and it
is particularly easy to calculate the distance to them.

A N D TA L K I N G O F T H E M I L K Y WAY . . .
GAIA/DPAC/ESA

STSCI/NASA

NASA

Milky Way
Light from
the centre

The Milky
Absorbed galaxy Way bar
Centre of the
Milky Way

Adopted galaxy keeps on giving
Spanish astronomers have found evidence
of a small galaxy which was swallowed by
the Milky Way about 10 billion years ago. By
determining the ages of almost 600,000 stars,
they identified those which our galaxy probably
‘adopted’ and those that were born from
the small galaxy’s gases since the adoption.
Black hole sends light signals
The black hole at the centre of our galaxy has
begun to shine much more brightly than
astronomers have observed over the past 20 years.
The light is produced by rotating gas that swirls
closely around the hole, but astronomers do not
know why it has become brighter. It might be that the
gases were disturbed by the gravity of a nearby star.
The biggest bar in the galaxy
The Milky Way is a barred spiral galaxy,
because in its interior it includes a bar-
shaped structure that consists mainly of old, red
stars. Astronomers have combined new data from
the Gaia telescope with earlier observations to
produce a 3D reconstruction of the bar. The aim is
to solve the mystery of how the bar was produced.

14 | SCIENCE ILLUSTRATED
Robot worm removes
blood clots in the brain
A new robot can make its way to areas of the brain that
doctors cannot reach. Their goal is to remove lethal blood clots.
MEDICINE A cerebral blood clot can cause
severe brain injury and potentially death if it is
not treated quickly. Studies show that when
the blood clot is removed within 90 minutes,
the patient’s chances of survival increase
dramatically. But it is a difficult process that
requires a surgeon either to insert a catheter
through the blood vessels to deliver dissolving
medication to the right place, or to remove
the blood clot by forcing or sucking it out.
Surgeons will soon have a new tool.
Engineers in robotics from the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology in the US have
developed a robotic worm to reach hard-to-
access blood vessels in the brain. The snake-
like robot is introduced through the blood
vessels like a catheter, controlled from the
outside by means of magnets, so it avoids
Magnetism controls
snakes in the brain
The remote magnetic effect
allows doctors to guide an
artificial worm through the
narrow blood vessels of the
brain, ensuring that it doesn’t
hit the vessel walls, causing
cerebral haemorrhage.
BLOOD VESSELS
IN BRAIN MODEL
ROBOTIC WORM
2km
An island of floating lava might have
carried new life from the Pacific to
the Great Barrier Reef in Australia.
But then again, it might not have.
hitting vessel walls where it could cause a JOSHUA STEVENS/USGS/NASA
cerebral haemorrhage. The robotic worm has
a diameter of only 0.6mm, with a nickel and
titanium core that ensures it swings back to
Will the lava
its original position when it is not affected by island benefit
magnets. Around the core is a layer of rubber
mixed with magnetic particles. On the
the reef?
outside, the worm is lined with hydrogel that ECOLOGY Coral reefs
makes it pass easily through the blood vessels. throughout the world are under
So far, the scientists have tested the threat, and with them the most
robotic worm in a model brain, where the species-rich ecosystems of the
blood vessels are made of glass. The next step oceans. Coral reefs suffer from
is to test it in real brains from deceased even small rises in ocean
people. According to the scientists, magnetic temperatures because the heat
control could allow even remote treatment of reduces the quantity of algae on
patients, so surgery for some could happen which the corals feed. Moreover,
much more quickly, reducing the risk of the corals are affected by increased
permanent brain injury from the clot. ocean acidity, the result of CO2
emissions, making it harder for
the small creatures to build their
THE WORM IS FULL MAGNETIC FIELD
calcium skeletons.
Some 89% of the world’s
OF MICROMAGNETS SETS THE COURSE
biggest coral reef, the Great Barrier
The robotic arm is full The worm bends
1 of magnetic particles 2 towards the north Reef off Queensland’s north-east
corner, is thought to be affected.
that function as small bar pole of the magnetic field.
magnets that are all facing If the field disappears, the But unexpected assistance
in the same direction. snake unbends again. appeared last year in a floating
island of hardened lava in the
Micro-
magnets
External layer
of hydrogel
N
Pacific, heading towards the reef,
MAGNETIC FIELD
and due to arrive during the
production of this issue of
Australian Science Illustrated.
According to some scientists,
Rubber compound Core made of
the lava could bring new life in the
with magnetic
particles
nickel and
titanium
shape of algae, snails, worms, and
S
not least corals which could
contribute to rebuilding the reef.
The lava island was created in
eruptions from an undersea
volcano near Tonga, and covers
more than 150km2, consisting
of pumice of varying sizes, each
lump being a floating ecosystem
bringing new life from the Pacific.
Other scientists disagree,
YOONHO KIM ET AL./MIT
saying that corals dislike a moving
home, and would in any case have
no mechanism to jump from the
lava island to the reef below.
scienceillustrated.com.au | 15
 S C I E N C E U P DAT E

Red dwarf’s gas giant conundrum

The discovery of a Jupiter-like planet orbiting close to a red dwarf star
forces astronomers to adjust their theories about solar system formation.

ASTRONOMY The GJ 3512 object is around 31
light years from Earth, and astronomers used to
think it was a double star system, with two stars
orbiting one another. But analyses made by
astronomers from the Autonomous University in
Spain have revealed something quite different:
a huge gas planet closely orbiting a small star
known as a red dwarf. The combination is so
unusual that it challenges astronomers’ ideas
about how gas giants such as Jupiter are formed.
The newly-discovered gas giant has been named
GJ 3512 b. It has a mass of at least 46% that of
Jupiter, whereas the red dwarf star has a mass only
12% of that of the Sun. So the two objects are much
closer in size than the Sun is to its biggest planet.
The distance between the two objects is also
closer. The gas giant orbits the red dwarf at a
distance shorter than the distance between the Sun
and Mercury, the Solar System’s innermost planet.
Both the distance and the relative sizes have
come as major surprises to scientists. Until now
astronomers have thought that gas giants such as
Jupiter formed in a two-step process. From a disc of
gas and dust around a star, a core of ice and small
rock fragments first collect until they gain a weight
at least 10 times that of Earth. The core’s gravity is
then so intense that the planet can subsequently
collect and maintain a thick atmosphere of
hydrogen and helium. But the Spanish astronomers’
computer simulations show that GJ 3512 b cannot
have formed in this way: it would have taken too
long, and the core would only have been completed
after the gases had long disappeared from the disc.
Instead, scientists think that the gas giant formed
in a faster process where the disc of gas and dust
collapsed, forming the core all at once. If so, gas
giants orbiting red dwarfs might be far more
common than astronomers used to think.

Gas giant is surprisingly close to its star

If the gas planet of GJ 3512 b belonged to our Solar System, it would be the innermost planet, even closer
to the Sun than Mercury. The planet’s size is also much closer to that of its star than Jupiter’s is to the Sun.

GJ 3512 b is almost
as big as its star
THE GJ 3512 B
GAS GIANT The gas planet in the alien RED DWARF
PLACED IN solar system has a diameter GJ 3512 B'S GJ 3512'S
DIAMETER: DIAMETER:
OUR SOLAR 70% of the star it is orbiting. 136,311km 194,730km
SYSTEM

GJ 3512 b
VENUS
Jupiter is tiny
THE SUN
compared to the Sun
The diameter of Jupiter,
which is a little bigger
than GJ 3512 b, is only about
one-tenth of the Sun's.
MERCURY THE SUN'S
MERCURY DIAMETER:
IS ORBITING 1,392,000km
CLOSEST JUPITER'S
TO THE SUN EARTH DIAMETER:
142,984km
IN OUR SOLAR
SYSTEM

16 | SCIENCE ILLUSTRATED
 SHUTTERSTOCK
New research indicates that an unexpected situation in traffic becomes more dangerous if it happens
at the same time as a motorist’s heartbeat. As the heart beats, our ability to react is slowed.

One heartbeat away from an accident

MEDICINE Motorists suffer a greater affect several of our brain functions.
risk of crashing if a surprise situation Experiments previously made by the
The GJ 3512 b gas giant is
develops at the precise time of their same scientists showed that our pain
orbiting a red dwarf star, and
heartbeat, according to new results from perception is reduced during systole,
must have had a very different
the University of Sussex in England. The and we are worse at remembering words
genesis to that of Jupiter.
scientists made test subjects given to us at the exact
drive in virtual traffic THE HEARTBEAT, also moment the heart beats.
while their heartbeat was known as the systole, The scientists are unsure
measured. The appearance contracts the heart muscle of the cause, but the main
of sudden obstacles was 60 times per minute, the suspects are baroreceptors
timed to coincide either normal resting heart rate. on the major blood vessels.
with the heartbeat of the The receptors are activated
test subjects or between two heartbeats. during systole, sending a message about
Their ability to react proved to be so poor our blood pressure to the brain, and this
during a heartbeat that the test subjects seems to interrupt other signals.
often crashed. The new results suggest that it is not
The heartbeat takes place as the wise to drive immediately after exercising
heart contracts – a phase known as or when excited, as a high pulse rate will
systole. When this happens, it seems to deliver more unreactive periods.

Astronomers from the Calar Alto

38 words
observatory have calculated that per minute is how quickly we write on our
the orbit time of GJ 3512 b is
about seven months. phones using two thumbs, according to a
new international study in which more than
37,000 people participated to deliver this
SHUTTERSTOCK

average figure. It is only 25% slower than

the average speed of keyboard writing.
scienceillustrated.com.au | 17
 S C I E N C E U P DAT E

RAY BAUGHMAN ET AL./UNIVERSITY OF DALLAS

Twisted rubber bands could
power fridges of the future
TECHNOLOGY Scientists from
Nankai University in China have
found a new way to power
refrigerators and air-conditioning,
after experimenting with an
effect that we can all test by
using an ordinary rubber band.
If you hold one against your lips
and stretch it, you will feel it
becoming warm, then cooler
again as you relax it. The Chinese
scientists studied the effect of
materials including threads made
of rubber, nylon and metal alloys,
and they discovered that the
effect intensified considerably
when they stretched and twisted
the threads at the same time.
X-radiation allowed the
scientists to see what happened
to the materials’ molecules when
the threads were twisted. The
mechanical impact forced the A rubber band starting at room
temperature heats up when twisted.
molecules into organised
structures where the molecules
vibrated more to maintain the
total system order, so heating the
material. The scientists observed After a while, the rubber band cools
back to room temperature again.
the effect in all the materials,
with the temperature of a rubber
thread 15 degrees higher when
twisted, and 15 degrees lower
when untwisted. According to the When the band is allowed to
unwind, the temperature falls.
scientists, the result could be
used in cooling plants and fridges
that currently remove heat using
compressed and expanded gases.
After a while, the rubber band
Previously-used gases, including returns to room temperature.
CFCs, presented a major problem
for the ozone layer which
protects us against UV radiation.
Other gas types are now used,
but could still intensify the A rubber band that is alternately twisted and relaxed can cool and
greenhouse effect if they escape. heat its surroundings. The method could be used for cooling plants.

DINO DISCOVERY

T. rex had a bite like a croc

New studies show that the skull of a T. rex had the same
structure as that of modern crocodiles. The jaw joints
were stiff and inflexible, as in birds, the descendants
of dinosaurs. Scientists from the University of Missouri
in the US have calculated that the fixed jaws provided
the T. rex with a biting strength of 7 tonnes – four times
SHUTTERSTOCK

that of a crocodile, which holds the existing record.

A N D TA L K I N G O F T H E T. R E X . . .
JORGE GONZALEZ

SHUTTERSTOCK
COURTESY OF BRIAN ENGH

Model of a T. rex head

as observed from above

Cooling
blood
vessels

Ancestor was small and fast
In the US state of Utah, scientists have
found a 96-million-year-old fossil of a small
tyrannosaurus. Named Moros intrepidus, the
predator weighed only 78kg, but the small sprinter
is believed to be an ancestor of the big tyranno-
sauruses that originated 81 million years ago.
Holes cooled the head down
The T. rex had two large holes at the top of
its skull, which palaeontologists had thought
to have been full of muscles. But American scientists
have discovered similar holes in alligators, and those
are full of blood vessels that help the animals shed
heat. T. rex holes likely had the same purpose.
T. rex could not stick out its tongue
The T. rex is often portrayed with a pointed
tongue protruding from its mouth, but that is
not how it was. Scientists have compared the tongue
bones of T. rex, crocodiles and birds. The T. rex bone is
again closest to that of a crocodile, so the tongue was
probably fixed to the lower part of the mouth.

18 | SCIENCE ILLUSTRATED

Radiation against a cancer
tumour can be more accurate
if the patient holds her breath.
SHUTTERSTOCK
Cancer patients
hold their breath
MEDICINE According to
British scientists, breathing
exercises could lead to improved
results from radiation therapy
against cancer. The better the
patient is at lying still, the more
accurate the treatment becomes.
Radiation therapy typically
involves the patient lying in an
accelerator which focuses the
radiation very accurately at the
cancer tumour inside the body.
By aiming from several angles,
doctors hit the cancer cells with
the maximum radiation, while
surrounding healthy cells get as
little as possible. The patient
clearly needs to lie still, and if
the tumour is in the breast or
stomach region, it is a further
advantage if patients hold their
breath throughout the procedure.
Scientists from the UK’s
University of Birmingham studied
how quickly we can be trained to
hold our breath for a long time,
having 30 male and female
volunteers undergo breathing
exercises, subsequently
breathing oxygen-rich air for a
few minutes. Finally, they were
asked to hyperventilate, making
as much carbon dioxide as
possible leave the blood. After
only one day of practice, the
participants could hold their
breath for about six minutes, and
after a few days could do so
several times interrupted by brief
breaks, up to a total of 41
minutes per hour. This could
improve radiation therapy so
much that it is worthwhile
testing in clinical trials.
Concrete block tower
stores clean energy
Swiss engineers have developed energy storage that involves
building of a tower of concrete blocks, only to tear it down again.
ENERGY Wind turbines and solar cells that it doesn’t require the use of lakes and
have been made far more efficient in recent rivers. Instead of water, the energy is stored in
years, but scientists are still struggling to find 35-tonne concrete blocks, which are lifted up
efficient methods to store the clean energy so by 120m-high electric cranes. When there is a
we can consume it when we need it, and not surplus of power, the cranes build a high
only when it is sunny or windy. tower by stacking the blocks on top of each
Engineers from the Swiss Energy Vault other, and when the energy is to be harvested,
company have an idea that is simple yet the cranes lower the blocks onto the ground
ingenious. It is based on the same principles again one at a time. The steel wires that are
used to store clean energy in dammed lakes. fastened to the blocks power a generator which
There it happens by water being pumped up converts the kinetic energy back into power.
into the lake behind the dam, which gives the The company plans plants that can store
water potential energy. When we want to up to 80MWh of energy, meaning that a
harvest it, the water is directed through an plant would be able to supply 8MW for
ordinary hydroelectric power station. The 16 straight hours, sufficient to provide
advantage of Energy Vault’s new concept is 1250 average households with power.
Energy storage
uses gravity
Cranes powered by electricity can
store energy by building a tower of
concrete blocks. When the energy is
to be consumed, the blocks are
lowered to the ground again.
CHARGING
of the energy store takes place as
the electric cranes lift a concrete
Concrete block to a higher level, supplying
block is
lifted and it with more potential energy.
lowered.
DISCHARGING
takes place when the block is
lowered again. The steel cable
powers a generator that converts
the stored energy into power.
Solar and wind power can be stored
locally by using the energy
to build a tower of
concrete blocks.
ENERGY VAULT
scienceillustrated.com.au | 19
 SCIENTISTS ANSWER QUESTIONS FROM OUR READERS

If humans disappeared, plants

would be taking over our cities
before the first decade was out.

Were there civilisations

on Earth before ours?
In the BBC’s Doctor Who series, the Doctor meets intelligent
reptiles from Earth’s Silurian period, 430 million years ago.
Would we be able to find evidence of such a civilisation today?

ARCHAEOLOGY Scientists cannot tell for On a larger scale, geological forces

sure whether Earth was previously the home
of a civilisation comparable to that of
humans. If the civilisation existed in the
Silurian period 430 million years ago, almost
all evidence would have vanished by now.
The likelihood of finding fossils of a
430-million-year-old intelligent species is
very slight. Before the dinosaurs, we know
of only around 2000 somehow intact
individuals of relatively few species over a
period of 170 million years.
Moreover, almost all artifacts produced
by a civilisation are quickly broken down
through physical, chemical and biological
reactions. Concrete crumbles; iron corrodes;
textiles decay. Only a few materials survive
for millions of years, such as bronze. A statue
like Captain Cook’s in Hyde Park would
survive longer than the rest of Sydney.
continuously rearrange the planet’s surface. LIZARDS WOULD BE
Some areas are worn down, and the surface IMPOSSIBLE TO FIND
is washed into the ocean as sand and clay. In Doctor Who features
other places, the surface becomes buried by a civilisation of lizard-
like creatures from Earth’s
new soil layers. The oldest preserved ground
Silurian period 430 million
surface in the world is thought to be the years ago. If this were true,
Negev desert in Israel, and that is only 1.8 evidence of their existence
million years old. would be almost impossible
Geologists’ most detailed data about the to find today.
past comes from drilling into the mud of the
ocean floor. From these stratified cores we
can discover the details of past climate
change, and it could be that global warming
and the effect of humans’ CO2 emissions
would be the most die-hard evidence of our
own civilisation. But again, the ocean floor is
constantly destroyed and reformed through
plate tectonics, and the oldest ocean floor in
the world is only 170 million years old.

20 | SCIENCE ILLUSTRATED
 Editor: Esben Schouboe

Any evidence of humans TOP 5 · Which machine is the world’s noisiest?

would quickly disappear
Scientists of the future will have
difficulties finding evidence of us,
as most of our remains would quickly
be destroyed. If we disappeared, cities
would be unrecognisable after 10 years.

YEAR 1:

SLAC NATIONAL ACCELERATOR LABORATORY

Asphalt would
crack, tunnels
would be flooded,
and nuclear
reactors would
melt down.

YEAR 10: 1
Trees and plants Underwater X-ray laser
would slowly take
over cities, rising 270 decibels! With the specific aim of producing the loudest
ground water would possible sound, Stanford University scientists in 2019
create new lakes and
streams, and build-
bombarded tiny water jets with an X-ray laser. The result
ings would crumble. was perfect sets of over- and underpressure: a wave-train.

YEAR 100: MEGATON BOMB SATURN V DRAGSTER CANNON

Roofs and walls 210 DECIBELS 204 DECIBELS 160 DECIBELS 155 DECIBELS
would collapse
along with In air, the History's Dragsters Hearing
2 volume limit 3 most 4 are cars 5 protectors
bridges; forest
is normally 182 powerful rocket that accelerate are compulsory
would completely decibels, but a one carried man very fast. This when warships
cover all cities. megatonne (Mt) to the moon. requires powerful test their
explosion can At its launch, engines which cannons. In the
cause overpressure Saturn V make so much future, cannons
in the sound waves, produced some noise that they will be able to
YEAR 1000: and is therefore able of the loudest could present a send grenades
Buildings and to break this limit. ever noises. health hazard. 1500+km away.
metal vessels
would have
corroded.
Chemical pollution
would no longer
exist in nature.
What causes a squint
in someone’s eyes?
YEAR 10,000:
The last buildings
HUMAN BODY A squint is defined
as eyes that have difficulties when Eye turns inwards
would disappear,
coordinating their motions, so they (Esotropia)
and ecosystems
would achieve a may look in separate directions.
new balance Squinting is often due to the nerves
without us.
that control eye motion being Eye turns outwards
damaged. The injury can occur during (Exotropia)
birth, when the skull is compressed
YEAR 100,000: on its way out via the pelvic floor, or if
The CO2 level of
ANDERS BOTHMANN/ILLUSTRERET VIDENSKAB

the baby is delivered by forceps. But it

the atmosphere and Eye turns upwards
global temperatures
can also occur if the vision of the eyes
(Hypertropia)
would have been is so different that the eyes look in
restored as if we different directions. Squint-eyedness
BBC & SHUTTERSTOCK

had never existed. can make it difficult to judge distance,

Eye turns
and can even cause blindness of one
downwards
eye if the brain shuts the eye down to (Hypotropia)
clear the field of vision.

scienceillustrated.com.au | 21
 ASK US

Why do some people hate coriander?

BIOLOGY Scientists have found
out that many people who dislike
the smell and taste of coriander
(Coriandrum savitum) share a
specific genetic variation on
chromosome 11. Typically, they
think that coriander tastes like
soap. The variation on chromosome
11 relates to the OR6A2 gene,
which codes for our ability to sense
organic compounds known as
aldehydes, often used in fragrances
reminiscent of soap, and which
contribute to coriander’s taste and
smell. But genetics aren’t the
whole story. In regions where
coriander is heavily used in food,
people seem to get used to the
taste. In Europe, where coriander
is not a traditionally-used herb,
17% dislike it. But in Southern Asia, Some people have a genetic variation relating
Latin America and the Middle East, to the sensation of aldehydes which exist in
where the herb is more popular, coriander. The taste is reminiscent of soap.
the figure is only 3-7 %. SHUTTERSTOCK

INSIDE THE BODY · How does the chill factor affect the human body?
The chill factor – also known as the chill index – is an expression
of the temperature we experience when the weather is both cold
and windy. The wind removes the protective layer of air close to Usually, we have a
1 thin layer of air
the body which is normally heated to help keep us warm.
close to our skin. The air is
heated by body heat and
protected by body hair.

When it is
2 windy, the
heated air close to
the skin disappears.
The windier it is, the
more heat we lose.

If wind speed is 2 metres/second

3 and the air temperature is -5°C,
the temperature on the skin feels
like -6°C. If the wind speed is 10m/s
while the air temperature is -5°C,
the temperature experienced is -22°C.
SHUTTERSTOCK

22 | SCIENCE ILLUSTRATED
WORLD RECORDS ‘Trojans’ share their orbits
with larger objects such
How big can as planets like Jupiter.
TROJANS

jellyfish grow?
Some jellyfish are only a centimetre
in size, but in two jellyfish species
the bell, in rare cases, grows to a
diameter of two metres. One of the
two species, Nomura's jellyfish
(Nemopilema nomurai), probably
holds the weight record, as it can TROJANS
weigh up to 200kg. The red lion's
mane jellyfish (Cyanea capillata)
has the longest tentacles. An
individual found on a beach in
Massachusetts Bay in 1870 was
found to have 34-metre tentacles.

JUPITER

Can several worlds

share the same orbit?
NATUREPL

34 es Can asteroids, planets and moons share an orbit around the Sun?

metr e l
t
onges of
ASTRONOMY In the Planets do not share their
orbits with other objects.
in that orbit, or interrupt
them, changing their orbits.
is th Asteroid Belt between Mars
r de d length es, and Jupiter, and in the Kuiper Part of the definition of a The two exceptions to
rec o
h tentacl
s
jellyfi at’s longer .
Belt on the outskirts of the Solar System planet is that it the rule are a planet’s
and th blue whale Solar System, many objects has used its gravity to clear moons and ‘trojans’, which
than a share the same orbits. But its orbit around the Sun. orbit in the same path as a
only a few of them have a When a large heavenly body planet while remaining at a
GREENLAND
diameter greater than a such as a planet orbits the distance that corresponds to
kilometre, so they are not the Sun, it will either collide with an angle of 60 degrees in the
biggest of heavenly bodies. other smaller celestial bodies elliptical orbit.

EARTH’S ONLY TROJAN ASTEROID

NASA & PAUL WIEGERT/UNIVERSITY OF WESTERN ONTARIO, CA

2010 TK7’s fluctuations

‘2010 TK7’ is our only known ‘trojan’,
a roughly 300-metre asteroid orbiting
the Sun in the same path as Earth but
80 million km ahead. The asteroid
orbits both the sun and Earth’s own
Stinging jellyfish orbit, causing the major fluctuations
marked out in green in the figure.
WHERE: The lion's mane jellyfish
exists in the North Atlantic, while 2010 TK7 Jupiter has thousands of trojan
Australia’s most venomous jellyfish Earth asteroids in two major clusters.
is the sea wasp or Chironex fleckeri.
Despite its fearsome reputation, Saturn has two pairs of trojan
only 60-80 deaths have been moons.
recorded off Queensland and the
NT since the first report in 1883.

scienceillustrated.com.au | 23
 ASK US

Which animal
has the best
sense of smell?
WILDLIFE Many animals
have an impressive sense of
smell, but scientists cannot
identify one specific animal as
having the king of noses. That’s
because the sensitivity of the
nose to different substances An elephant’s sense of smell
varies from species to species, can be critical for finding
and typically animals can best water in a large area. It can

SHUTTERSTOCK
recognise specific smells to find smell water from a distance
water, or a mate, for example. of more than 18km.
They are not necessarily good at
smelling everything. So while we
generally consider dogs to have a
ANIMAL SENSE OF SMELL
far better sense of smell than
A silkmoth A brown bear A polar bear An elephant A dog can make
humans, we are actually better
can spot the can smell a can sniff out a can smell water out a 24-hour-old
than carnivorous dogs at scent of a partner carcass from a seal from a from a distance scent of a human
smelling some types of fruit, from more than distance of distance of 2km. of 18km. among hundreds
whereas dogs are much better at 10km distance. 25km. of others.
smelling their prey.

WHAT IS THIS? · Tiny glass spheres in moon dust

Lunar dust from the
Apollo 11 mission
under an X-ray
microscope reveals
tiny glass spheres.

The glass spheres were

discovered in lunar dust
using a method known as
synchrotron-based nanotomogra-
phy. An X-ray microscope scans
samples and produces a 3D image.

The glass spheres probably

originated because mine-
rals from the Moon's crust
were crushed, melted, and quickly
hardened. The process could be
due to a meteor strike (see last
issue’s Dino Doomsday story).

Particles in the glass

spheres provide lunar dust
with specific qualities.
It is extremely heat-insulating and
electrically charged, allowing it to
hover above the Moon’s surface.
SPL

24 | SCIENCE ILLUSTRATED
 WHAT IF...
What if our weather
systems reversed?
What would the weather be like if weather systems
suddenly came from the east instead of the west?
METEOROLOGY North America,
Europe and North Africa are located in
the westerlies wind belt, where the
climate is determined by westerlies
and western ocean currents. If the
system’s direction changed, the
climate would be markedly altered.
During most of the year, westerlies
carry the warm, moist air inland. So
the climate is mild in summer and in
winter, while frequent precipitation
makes the soil fertile.
Towards the east, the air is dry
and temperatures more extreme. If
easterlies replaced the Gulf Stream and
westerlies, North European winters
would become up to 20 degrees colder,
while the summers would be hot and
dry, as the air would no longer be
supplied with evaporated ocean water.
If the weather systems
changed direction from west to
east, winters would be much
colder and summers drier.
Westerlies control
heat and precipitation
Westerlies are key to Europe's
mild, moist climate. Easterlies
would mean a dry climate with
major temperature differences.
Australia’s weather is also affected
by strong westerly winds that blow
almost continuously in the mid-to high
Wind direction
latitudes of the southern hemisphere.
Storms and cold fronts tend to move
from west to east, bringing rainfall to
southern and eastern Australia.
Our weather is also affected by the
north-to-south shift in these westerlies,
known as the SAM, or Southern Westerlies in Europe:
Westerlies carry warm moist air
Annular Mode. A positive SAM occurs produced by the Gulf Stream inland,
when the westerlies contract towards making the climate mild and fertile.
the pole, increasing the chance of rain
in the east, but decreasing it in the
west and south during winter. When
the westerlies expand towards
Australia it is called a negative SAM,
reversing the above results in winter,
Wind direction
but reducing rainfall across the whole
south-east when occurring in summer.
Easterlies in Europe:
Dry air from the continent flows
across Europe. Winters become
cold, and summers are hot and dry. CLAUS LUNAU & SHUTTERSTOCK
scienceillustrated.com.au | 25
 ASK US

Do fish have the same

blood types as people?
BIOLOGY The simple
answer is no; indeed all
animals seem to have
different blood types. Fish
have not been specifically
researched, but every
species that has been
studied has its own system.
We know most about the
blood types of domestic
animals, and of mammals
such as dogs, cats, cattle,
pigs, and horses. Related
animals often have related
blood-type systems, so that
not quite the same, so blood
transfusion across species is
not possible. Different blood
types probably developed
as an evolutionary step to
improve resistance against
diseases. The more genetic
variation in a species, the
more viable it is.
NUMBER OF
BLOOD TYPES
Cats: 3
Humans: 8

RITZAU SCANPIX
the antigens which define Horses: 8
the human ABO blood type Cows: 9
system also exist in chimps, Dogs: 13
bonobos and gorillas. Their Pigs: 15 Scientists do not know about fish blood types, but all studied species
blood types are, however, have different blood types, most likely developed to resist disease.

VERSUS · Who's got the biggest spacecraft?

VS
SPACE LAUNCH SYSTEM FALCON HEAVY
39,144,000 Force at launch – newtons 22,829,000
70 Lifting capacity into orbit – tonnes 64
98 Height – metres 70
2608 Weight at launch – tonnes 1421
NASA’s new huge rocket has more than 30 times as SpaceX's biggest rocket can lift the weight of a
much engine power as a Boeing 747 and is taller than fully-loaded Boeing 737 into an orbit around Earth.
the Statue of Liberty. Its first mission will be the lunar The Falcon Heavy flew its first mission in February
NASA & SPACEX

mission of Artemis 1, which is planned for late 2020. 2018, when a Tesla car was launched into space.

26 | SCIENCE ILLUSTRATED
 PARTICLE PHYSICS
What if you were hit by
the LHC proton beam?
"How would the cells of my body react if they were hit
by the proton beam from CERN’s Large Hadron Collider,
where the beam travels at a speed close to that of light?"
PARTICLE PHYSICS The proton
beam from CERN's Large Hadron Collider
delivers extremely high-energy particle
radiation, but the beam is also very narrow
and focused. A person standing completely
still would probably have a hole cut right
through, because the cells would disappear
where the beam hits. A person that moved
through the ray would be cut in two, as if
sliced by a Star Wars lightsaber.
However, we know you could survive a
proton beam microhole, because someone
already has. In 1978, Russian scientist
Anatoli Bugorski was working on his PhD
in particle physics when he discovered a
problem with the U-70 particle accelerator.
SHUTTERSTOCK
As he was trying to find the error, he
accidentally put his head in front of the
beam and was hit. Subsequently, Bugorski
talked about a light pulse "more powerful
than a thousand Suns”. Now, Bugorski has a
bald spot on his forehead where the beam
hit, and one of his ears is deaf. The left side
of his face is paralysed due to nerve injury –
the paralysis prevents wrinkles, and so the
left side seems younger than the right one.
Bugorski also suffers from mild epilepsy.
Mind you, CERN's LHC proton beam is
now almost 100 times more powerful than
the U-70, which in 1978 was the most
powerful accelerator in the world with an
energy level of 70 GeV (giga electron volts).
Proton beams have
the same effect
as radioactivity
Proton beams share characteristics
with radioactive radiation, and are
used as cancer therapy. Too much
radiation can be harmful. Doses are
measured in millisieverts (mSv).
106
104
103
1
10-3
10-4
10-6 X-ray of a fractured arm
Annual dose in concrete building
CT scan of the head
Acute symptoms of radiation sickness
that received by Anatoli Bugorski
Lethal dose corresponding to
Chernobyl after the meltdown.
20 minutes in the reactor room of
mSv
In 1978, Anatoli Bugorski was hit by a
proton beam which paralysed the left
side of his face. But he survived.
 TECHNOLOGY JAMES BOND

BOND
VILLAINS
SAVE THE
WORLD!
After 25 films, James Bond has
survived or thwarted a good many
instruments of torture and other
devices wielded by Bond villains.
Yet now similar technologies
are destroying cancer tumours,
eliminating trauma, and could
soon be pulverising asteroids.

LAINS
S TECH VIL
ANPIX

7 C OM B A T
00
TH TIME
RES/RITZAU SC

FOR THE 25
ent 007 has
For 58 years, ag
ith tech-savvy
fought duels w reen.
on the silver sc
CAPITAL PICTU

super villains Bond

lease of James
To mark the re ustralian
N o. 25 , N o Time to Die, A
fi lm k
ted takes a loo
Science Illustra ll ai ns’
rsions of vi
at real-world ve s:
d their statu
technologies an

- NOW EARS
Y
- IN 5 YEARS
0
- IN 1
 By Mikkel Meister

Arch-rival Blofeld tries

to kill Bond with a
remote-controlled
helicopter. In the real
world, such remote
technology is helping
to ease traffic jams.
ALAMY/IMAGESELECT & SHUTTERSTOCK

scienceillustrated.com.au | 29
 A gamma knife
aims cobalt
radiation at
cancer cells
in the brain.
ASTIER-CHRU LILLE/SPL
Cobalt bomb
kills cancer cells
Radioactive cobalt emits gamma radiation,
which could eliminate cancer tumours in the brain.
Bond villain Goldfinger threatens
to destroy the USA’s gold
reserves (to add value to his own
gold) by using a radioactive cobalt bomb.
In reality, doctors use cobalt radiation to
treat cancer by means of the gamma knife
method developed by Swedish doctor Lars
Leksell in 1968. Natural cobalt is a metal
Cobalt turns into nickel
A gamma knife is equipped with 201
1 units of cobalt-60, an isotope of
cobalt metal. The isotope is unstable, and
so it decays into nickel-60 metal. In the
process, two gamma rays are emitted.
60 Co
60 Ni
Gamma radiation
30 | SCIENCE ILLUSTRATED
that normally has 27 protons and 32
neutrons in its atomic nucleus. The
cobalt-60 isotope includes an extra
neutron, so it is unstable and decays into
nickel metal. When cobalt becomes nickel,
gamma radiation is emitted during the
conversion, and this can be used to kill
cancer cells by destroying their DNA.
Radiation hits tumour
Doctors MRI-scan the patient’s head to
2 find the tumour. Subsequently, they
place the head in a frame, so the radiation
will influence only the tumour. The cobalt
is encapsulated in a shell that allows
radiation to escape only via narrow cracks.
Cobalt Shield
Helmet Gamma
radiation
ALLSTAR PICTURE LIBRARY/
TED ARTISTS/RITZAU SCA UNI
VILLAIN
In Goldfinger (1964),
the villain of the
NPIX
same name collected go
ld.
He wanted to destroy th
e
USA's gold reserves in
order to add markedly to
the value of his own go
ld.
Radiation destroys DNA
Gamma radiation is ionising –
3 meaning it includes sufficient
energy to steal electrons from
molecules. The radiation ionises cancer
cells’ DNA, so the cells cannot reproduce,
and the tumour dies.
KEN IKEDA MADSEN & SHUTTERSTOCK
Gamma ray
Destroyed DNA
 NOW
Scientists 3D-print artificial
jaw for cancer patient

COLUMBIA PIC
Patients can now get a 3D-printed substitute for lost skin and

TURES/EON/DA
limbs. Laser light creates accurate plastic replacements.

NJAQ
In Skyfall (2012), Raoul Silva is the Bond villain this to design a replacement that was printed by
with a jaw implant that helps him breathe. A means of the stereolitography method. A
jaw implant allowed a real patient, Shirley Anderson, stereolithography printer consists of a tank with VILLAIN
to have a new face prosthesis after he lost his liquid plastic and a laser underneath. The laser Raoul Silva wit
h the
jawbone due to a cancer tumour in his tongue. ‘draws’ the required shape from below layer disfigured face
Skyfall (2012) from
Doctors from Indiana University in 2012 made a by layer, and the light makes the liquid material wanted to get
back at Bond’s
employer,
prosthesis for Shirley Anderson using a 3D printer. harden. In the process, the solid replacement is the British MI6
secret service.
They CT-scanned Anderson’s face and subsequently gradually lifted out of the tank. This process
used the data to create a model on a computer, using successfully sculpted a new jaw for Shirley Anderson.

FORMLABS
WITHOUT PROSTHESIS WITH PROSTHESIS

Shirley Anderson lost

part of his jaw due to
cancer, but he got a
new 3D-printed
replacement.
ARQ CENTRUM’45

Red ball eases

war trauma
The villain of Die Another Day (2002)
suffers from insomnia, and treats
himself with a virtual reality mask. Doctors
SELECT

are using a similar method to treat war

ALAMY/IMAGE

veterans suffering from PTSD, which can

cause anxiety and nightmares.
Dutch scientists in 2013 introduced a PTSD
treatment method involving the reactivation of
traumatised soldiers' emotions via virtual
reality. The veteran walks on a treadmill while
watching a situation from the war in Afghanistan.
A red ball moves about the screen, indicating
VILLAplIesNs villain numbers that the veteran says out loud. The
task activates his working memory as the
The slee
Die
Gustav Graves in memory of the trauma is activated. The brain
002) ha a
d then uses fewer resources on remembering the
Another Day (2
a Dream
mask he called Veterans experience familiar war situations as part trauma in a stressful way, and the memory can
aimed to
Machine, and he of a new treatment to ease PTSD symptoms. be ‘re-saved’ in a less traumatic version.
tween North
trigger a war be
a.
and South Kore scienceillustrated.com.au | 31
 TECHNOLOGY JAMES BOND

Y R S
IN 5

EHANG
Helicopter attack
drone converted
to upmarket taxi
007 is attacked by a villain's
remote-controlled helicopter in
For Your Eyes Only (1981). A similar

ALAMY/IMAGE
technology could contribute to easing
traffic jams in cities. In 2018, the

SELECT
Ehang company showed the 216
drone, which can carry two
passengers. For safety it includes 16
rotors so that if one set of rotors fails,
the others can still keep the drone in
the air. The flying taxi uses battery-
powered electric motors and has been
tested at speeds of up to 130km/h. On VILLAIN
a touch-screen in the drone cabin, the A villain remot
passenger enters a route that the e-
controlled a h
copter with 00 el i-
drone follows by GPS. From mission 7 in it in
control, pilots observe the trip via The Ehang 216 drone is to carry passengers across short For Your Eyes O
nly (1981).
video and remote-control the drone. distances in cities where it could effectively bypass traffic jams.

Brain scan

Robot removes
hazardous fluid
from brain
Thanks to intelligent algorithms,
the NaoTrac robotic surgeon is
more accurate than a human being.

In the film Spectre, a villain threatened

to make a robot drill into James Bond’s
brain and destroy his memory. But
similar technology is helping real patients.
Scientists in Taiwan have developed the NaoTrac
robot that can use an arm controlled by artificial
intelligence to steer instruments into the brain.
The robot can insert a drain to remove liquid –
with an accuracy of down to 2mm. NaoTrac can
also be used for deep brain simulation, by which SCANNERS MAP OUT
doctors stimulate the brain with electrodes to THE BRAIN IN 3D
treat symptoms of Parkinson’s and other Doctors make a CT or MRI scan of the
1 patient’s head. The scans show exactly
diseases. The robot is under test, and is expected
where liquid has collected in the brain. The
to be available in just a few years. robotic surgeon uses the scan to make a 3D
model of the patient’s brain, calculating the
optimum place to drill and insert a drain.

32 | SCIENCE ILLUSTRATED
 KEN IKEDA MADSEN & SHUTTERSTOCK
Scientists trigger
earthquake on purpose
Causing an earthquake certainly sounds like a Bond Hose
Tremor
villain’s plan. But scientists are doing just that in
order to get better at predicting real major quakes.
Seismometer

GEORGES DE KE
In A View to a Kill (1985), Max Zorin plans to detonate bombs
and trigger an earthquake in Silicon Valley. Real earthquakes
are almost impossible to predict and prevent for two reasons: it is

ERLE/GETTY IM
impossible to place measuring equipment as deep in the ground as
the tremor originates, and scientists can only make measurements

AGES
after an earthquake as they lack data about underground motion
prior to the earthquake. Now scientists from Columbia University
and Stanford University aim to place equipment on the ocean
floor to make measurements before, during, and after a harmless
earthquake that they themselves will trigger. The scientists will
direct a tube from a ship to a fracture in the Earth’s crust and Liquid
VILLAIN
pump in liquid. The pressure of the liquid will move the crust, In A View to a Ki
ll
causing a minor earthquake. Measurements from the quake can A ship pumps liquid into a fracture between (1985), Max Zo
to kill competi rin tried
be used to determine how much pressure companies can use two plates of Earth’s crust. The pressure from tors with an
earthquake in
when they pump liquid underground to extract gas. the liquid triggers an earthquake. Silicon Valley.

ALLSTAR PICTURE LIBRARY/UNITED

CAMERA SENDS
SIGNAL TO MOTORS
A camera located at the
2 end of the arm continuously
sends pictures to a computer,
which subsequently sends
electrical impulses to motors

ARTIST
in the arm joints.

S/RITZAU SCANPIX
VILLAIN
In Spectre (2015),
Ernst Stavro Blofeld
aimed to destroy James
Robotic arm
Bond’s memory by
making a robot drill into
the agent’s brain.

Accumulated fluid
BRAIN NAVI BIOTECHNOLOGY CO., LTD.

ARM INSERTS DRAIN

VERY ACCURATELY
With an accuracy of
3 down to 2mm, the robot
inserts a drain into the
patient’s head. Motions are
adjusted by combining camera
footage and brain scan data.
 TECHNOLOGY JAMES BOND

RITZAU SCANPIX
KEN IKEDA MADSEN & SHUTTERSTOCK

False moon to light up VILLAIN

Chinese city at night The villain of D
Another Day (2
focused sunlig
ie
00 2)
ht by
means of a sate
Chinese engineers will launch a mirror into llite.
orbit around Earth to save electricity by Solar mirror

reflecting sunlight onto a Chinese city.

When Gustav Graves, the villain of Die

Another Day (2002), aimed to shoot
sunlight onto the Earth, he was engaging in a Sun
mission quite similar to a real project that
Reflected
Chinese engineers are working on. The engineers sunlight

aim to save power at night in the city of

Chengdu in Western China by launching a mirror
into orbit around Earth, from which it will reflect
sunlight onto Earth to top-up or replace street
lighting. The local company behind the idea has
calculated that the mirror can save more than
A$250m annually by illuminating an area with a
diameter of 10-75km at a brightness The solar mirror consists of thin,
corresponding to eight full moons. According to reflective film. The light can be
the space institute of Chengdu, the mirror is to focused in a beam with a
be tested this year at an orbit height of 500km. diameter of 10-75km.
SHIMIZU CORPORATION

Underwater city sphere

for 5000 people
Living quarters
Bond villains love their hide-outs, and
Karl Stromberg, villain of The Spy Who
Loved Me (1977), aimed to start a nuclear
war from his underwater city of ‘Atlantis’.
A little more than 50 years after the film – in
2030 – an underwater city could be realised if
the Japanese Shimizu Corporation manages
to build its design for the Ocean Spiral, a
self-sufficient underwater city stretching
from the surface to the ocean floor at a
Power generator
depth of 4km. The upper part of the
Ocean Spiral is a sphere made of a grid
structure of concrete with a diameter of
500m and room for some 5000 people.
The ball is more resistant to water
pressure than a cubic shape, while
The underwater humans, food, fuel and water can be
ALLSTAR PICTU

city of Ocean Ocean water desalination carried up and down via a 15km spiral
Spiral is to be a tunnel. Energy for the city is to come
RE LIB

4000m-high from micro-organisms that convert CO2

RARY/UNITED

structure. in the water into methane, along with VILLAIN

generators that use water temper- From his under
water
ARTISTS/RITZAU

ature differences to generate power. complex, the vi

CO 2 storage
of The Spy Wh llain
Ocean water is to be desalinated and o Loved Me
(1977) aimed to
Mineral extraction used as drinking water, and the conquer the
world. But did
SCAN

inhabitants will feed on fish. h e like fish?

PIX

34 | SCIENCE ILLUSTRATED
 Y R S
IN 10
KEN IKEDA MADSEN & SHUTTERSTOCK

Laser shoots
asteroids off course

ALLSTAR PICTURE LIBRARY/

Asteroids could destroy all life on Earth, but scientists
are working on a defence craft that could shoot asteroids
off course by means of laser light.
VILLAIN

UNI
The villain Hugo

TED ARTISTS/RITZAU SCA

A major battle with laser guns
took place outside Bond
villain Drax’s space station,
from where he aimed to kill all
Drax in Moonraker
rocks that could destroy all life in (1979) aimed to kill all
entire cities or regions if they strike. humans on Earth from
Scientists from the University of his space station. Nasty
!
California aim to avoid such major

humans on Earth. But in the real
world lasers could one day become
mankind's saviour from the 20,000+
near-Earth objects – comets and
asteroids – that orbit the Sun and
might collide with Earth. NASA has
named objects with diameters over
140m as “potentially dangerous”
strikes by means of laser guns
mounted on ion-powered spacecraft. If
astronomers spot an asteroid heading
towards Earth, a craft would be
launched so its lasers can shoot at the
asteroid. With 19 laser guns hitting
the same spot on the asteroid, its
surface would heat to 2700°C, hot
NPIX
enough to sublimate rock and metal
directly from solid state to gas. The
flow of rock and metal away from the
surface would push the asteroid in the
opposite direction, altering its course
sufficiently to make sure that the
asteroid flies past Earth. Thanks Drax!

Asteroid

DE-STARLITE
Laser beams

Rock

Spacecraft follows asteroid
The DE-STARLITE spacecraft will be
1 launched into space as soon as
astronomers on Earth spot a potentially
harmful asteroid. The craft follows the
asteroid at a distance, so its laser gun is
constantly aimed directly at the asteroid.
Laser shoots from 10km
The laser gun fires 19 1-3kW laser
2 beams. The beams travel 10km
through space before they all hit an
asteroid at one spot with a 10cm diameter.
The light heats the asteroid’s surface to
approximately 2700°C.
Gas pushes asteroid away
The heat makes rock and metals go
3 from a solid state to gas. The gases
move away from the surface, pushing the
asteroid in the opposite direction –
like a rocket caused to move forwards
by a beam of fuel fired backwards.

scienceillustrated.com.au | 35
 TECHNOLOGY WAT E R

WATER:
THE BIG
SQUEEZE
Withered plants. Suffocating
dust clouds. Water pipes that
sound with a hollow ‘clang’. One
third of the world's population
lacks pure drinking water, but
membranes and miracle powder
could help them obtain more.

PROBLEM
Australia has been waiting too long for water.

KEY ELEMENT
The H2O miracle molecule ought not exist.

SOLUTION?
Engineers convert ocean water and faeces into drinking water.

36 | SCIENCE ILLUSTRATED
By Mikkel Meister & Morten Kjerside Poulsen

Only one ten-thousandth of Earth’s water

is drinkable, but that would be more than
enough if only resources were evenly
distributed throughout the world.
SHUTTERSTOCK
 TECHNOLOGY WAT E R
The long wait for water
Some of Australia’s dams have been topped up by February’s storms, but elsewhere farmland
has been baking through years of drought. In some places, the water supply officially ran dry.
D
ay Zero is a term you might
hear in a Hollywood disaster
film, but in Australian towns
affected by drought, Day Zero
comes when the authorities
finally shut down the local water supply after
years of severe drought. To some Australian
towns suffering under The Big Dry, that day
has been fast approaching in the last year.
Such water problems are not unique to
Australia. A global water crisis is affecting an
estimated one-third of the world’s ground
water deposits, created by a pattern of
ever-increasing water consumption despite
extended periods of severe drought.
Australia, South Africa and India are all
particularly affected, but according to the UN
more than four billion people live in regions
suffering water shortages for at least one
month a year. Factor in the world’s rising and
increasingly urban population, plus the pros-
pect of a warmer climate, and the problem
will only worsen in decades to come.
Scientists are trying to find solutions,
developing new technologies that could
conjure up pure drinking water from even
the world’s driest water taps.
David Littleproud, Australia’s
Minister for Water Resources,,
inspects a dry water reservoir
in October 2019.
MICK TSIKAS/RITZAU SCANPIX
The Big Dry
Bone-dry river beds and empty reservoirs
have become the new normal in too many
Australian towns. In New South Wales, the
32 months from January 2017 to August 2019
were the driest on record.
FACTS
DAILY WATER CONSUMPTION
PER CAPITA
USA: 3304 litres
AUSTRALIA: 1926 litres
GERMANY: 814 litres
SOURCE: Statista 2020
using latest available info (Australia
2017, Germany 2016, USA 2015)
The situation is so severe that in August
2019, the authorities were prepared to spend
ten million dollars saving fish. The year
before that they had relaxed rules for shoot-
ing kangaroos because increasing numbers
of roos were encroaching on farmland in
search of water and food. In September 2019,
the Southern Downs in Queensland intro-
duced critical water restrictions allowing a
maximum of 100 litres of water per person
per day. Even when people comply with the
restrictions, towns still run out of water.
It happened on Monday 13 January 2020
to the 5000+ residents of Stanthorpe. The
water officially ran out – Day Zero had
arrived. The next day the entire water needs
of this fruit-growing town began arriving by
truck, 42 water loads a day, shipped to Stan-
thorpe’s dam from another dam near
Warwick, in an operation estimated to cost
$800,000 a month. But this wasn’t a long-
term solution. The dams needed to receive
significant rains by August, otherwise the
secondary supply would be exhausted, leav-
ing Southern Downs to look elsewhere for
this ever-dwindling resource.
“This is the worst drought on record,” said
Tracy Dobie, who has been Mayor of the
Southern Downs Region since 2016. “When
you see a blue cloudless sky, dry soil, and
dead vegetation, it is hard to be positive.”
But they try. Day Zero didn’t stop the Stan-
thorpe Show taking place in the town at
 PROBLEM

CLAUS LUNAU
Y
D RI L
S O

R
TE
NG EL WA
I S IL E V LT
R N SA
A
O CE
R
TE
WA
U ND
G RO

Evaporation Warm air causes Glaciers Drinking water

is on the rise extreme weather shrink is polluted
The oceans The rising quantity In a warmer In near-shore
1 account for 86%
2 of water vapour 3 atmosphere, 4 areas and island
of the evaporation of causes more severe more precipitation states, rising water
water to the atmos- rainfall in some places, falls as rain instead of levels make salt water
phere. A warmer whereas other regions snow. The melting of pollute ground water
atmosphere can hold experience longer glaciers and snow- reservoirs. The result is
more water vapour, drought periods, covered mountains is undrinkable water and
allowing evaporation increasing the consump- speeding up, making the loss of irrigated
to increase even more. tion of ground water. ocean levels rise. agricultural land.

Is climate change putting

pressure on ground water?
Oceans, lakes and rivers interact with the atmosphere to move water around
our planet in a constant cycle. Changing climate conditions threaten to break
that circuit, leaving some regions bone-dry, others with salt-polluted ground water.

scienceillustrated.com.au | 39
 TECHNOLOGY WAT E R

the end of January: “A wonderful family

DAVID GRAY/RITZAU SCANPIX

day,” reported the Mayor, “gingerbread houses,

sheep, and green grass in the main arena.”

Water pressure
Prolonged drought puts ground water
supplies under pressure, supplies that are
already depleted by the continued high
consumption in private homes, by agricul-
ture and for industry. If global ocean levels
rise as expected, more drinking water in
coastal areas will be polluted by inflows of
ocean water, making it no longer drinkable
by humans or plants. Rising temperatures
and longer droughts are expected to
continue in various parts of the world. In
some places underground deposits have
become the only source of fresh water.
The development has been documented
by NASA’s GRACE (Gravity Recovery and
Climate Experiment) satellites. From 2002-
2017, the satellites carefully observed the
The extreme heat in Australia makes kangaroos invade farmland, world’s ground water deposits from their
consuming crops and drinking from farm water tanks. orbits. In 2018, the space agency launched
ANDERS BOTHMANN & NASA

Satellite measures water reserves

One third of the world’s ground water deposits are threatened by climate change
and excess consumption by people, agriculture and industry. NASA’s GRACE-FO
mission is mapping out the ground water developments very accurately.

Longer Shorter
distance distance

High ground water level Low ground water level

Satellites measure distance
by means of microwaves
The GRACE-FO mission consists of two
1 satellites that orbit 220km from each
other and communicate by means of
microwaves. If Earth were a perfect sphere,
the distance between them would be constant.
Earth’s mass affects satellites
Mountains, valleys, and water cause
2 slight differences in the gravitational
pull that influences satellites. The
differences are measured by means of micro-
waves and read as changes in the distance
between the satellites.
Falling water levels cause
weaker gravitational pull
As mountains very rarely move,
3 the changes in measured
gravity over brief periods will
usually be due to moving water – such
as changing ground water deposit levels.

40 | SCIENCE ILLUSTRATED
 PROBLEM

Offenders named and shamed
Day Zero does not only threaten small coun-
try towns. Cape Town in South Africa, a city
TRACY DOBIE
MAYOR, SOUTHERN
of 4.5 million people, only just escaped Day
DOWNS, AUSTRALIA Zero in 2018. According to scientists from
Imperial College London and the University
When you of Cape Town, the city was saved by reducing
see a blue, the water pressure in the pipes, introducing
cloudless sky, dry soil, fees for excessive consumption, and install-
and dead vegetation, ing meters that automatically shut off the
water supply of ‘offenders’. The local author-
it is hard to be positive.
ities even introduced a controversial website
known as the Cape Town Water Map,
complete with colour codes indicating the
households that complied with restrictions
their replacement, known as GRACE-FO. and those that did not.
These new satellites can measure the In Sydney, as elsewhere, desalination has
microwaves that reveal water motion in the been adopted as part of a long-term solution.
ground far more accurately than their Some 97% of the planet’s water resides in the
predecessors, providing us with an even the vast ocean that
more accurate picture of how ground water
changes are taking place
in different parts of
the world.
covers 71% of its surface. Nations such as
Malta and the Maldives already harvest all
their water from the ocean through desali-
nation. But current methods are energy
intensive, with the side-effect of pumping
CO2 into the atmosphere. Desalination also
leaves highly concentrated brine behind as
a waste product which is harmful to the
marine environment if released back into
the ocean. Scientists are working on solu-
tions where desalination can be powered by
cleaner energy sources such as solar cells or
wave power, and on expanding uses for the
brine in industrial processes, instead of
being released back into the ocean.
Other new technologies might offer hope,
with new techniques to extract drink-
ing water from the ocean, the air,
and from human waste.

WAT E R
GROUND
ANGES
LEVEL CH
CE
INFLUEN
TES.
S AT E L L I

Colours reveal
water level
A GPS determines 1 0 0 mm

4 the satellites’
positions with
RISE

an accuracy of a few
centimetres, so a map of
the ground water can be
made. Red indicates falling
ground water levels –
with Australia among the 1 0 0 mm
many nations affected. FALL

scienceillustrated.com.au | 41
 TECHNOLOGY WAT E R

Water is so weird
it should not exist
Its boiling point is 140 degrees higher than for other similar molecules.
And unlike all other substances, water is lighter in its solid state than
as liquid. Why? These unique qualities are caused by electric forces.

Oxygen and hydrogen

share electrons
A water molecule
1 consists of an oxygen
atom and two hydrogen
atoms, linked by strong
HYDROGEN
covalent bonds. Oxygen BINDINGS
and hydrogen share the
HYDROGEN hydrogen atoms’ electrons.

HYDROGEN

OXYGEN

SHARED
ELECTRONS

The molecule has

a different charge
The oxygen atom
2 attracts electrons to a
greater extent than the
hydrogen atoms. The result is a
dipole, which means that the
water molecule on the oxygen
side is negatively charged,
whereas it is positively charged
on the hydrogen side.

42 | SCIENCE ILLUSTRATED
 SHUTTERSTOCK & LOTTE FREDSLUND
ARE C

KEY ELEMENT

100 degrees
The boiling point
is unusually high
The more a molecule weighs, the higher
its boiling point. But water breaks the
rules. The compound hydrogen selenide
weighs more than water, but has a boiling
Water molecules
point of -42°C. Water, being lighter, ought to
bind to each other
boil at an even lower temperature, but due to
The positively-charged
its hydrogen bonds, the water molecules
3 hydrogen atoms attract
negatively-charged oxygen remain intact until 100°C, something which
atoms of other water molecules. was vital for life being able to originate.
Thanks to the hydrogen bonds
between the water molecules,
liquid water forms.
VA P O U R

HYDROGEN BONDS Water produces ‘film’

on the surface
At the water’s surface, the
water molecules cannot
form hydrogen bindings in all
directions, so they bind more
efficiently to nearby molecules.
The result is surface tension, so
that water forms drops, and
some insects can walk on water.

Ice insulation keeps

marine animals warm
The density of ice is lower than that of
liquid water, because water molecules
form hexagonal structures at a temperature of
0°C. This increases the distance between
molecules, so ice is less dense than water, settling
ICE
on top of the water. Ice functions as insulation,
keeping the water under the ice liquid and
making sure that animals and plants can survive.

ICE

WAT E R

0 degrees

scienceillustrated.com.au | 43
 TECHNOLOGY WAT E R

The desalination plant in Carlsbad,

USA, uses inverted osmosis to
provide 400,000 people in San
Diego with pure drinking water.
DON BARTLETTI/GETTY

44 | SCIENCE ILLUSTRATED

Drinking water to be derived
from waves... and faeces
The salty oceans of the world are huge potential drinking water reservoirs for mankind,
but technologies for desalinating ocean water require too much energy. Scientists
have developed new methods that not only produce drinking water from ocean water
with higher energy efficiency, but also from bone-dry desert air, and from human faeces.
E
ven from a distance of six billion
kilometres, Earth high levels of
water are made evident by the
planet’s deep-blue colour. In such
remote images, taken by the
Voyager probe on its way out of the Solar
System, Earth still renders as a blue dot. No less
than 71% of our planet is covered in water. If it
were all bottled, it would fill 2670 billion billion
half-litre bottles. But we couldn’t drink much
of it. Ninety-seven per cent of the world’s water
is bound in salty oceans.
Still, ocean water has become a vital
source of drinking water in many places in
the world, where desalination plants are
used to convert salt water into drinking
water. In the future, desalination could prove
to be an important part of the solution to the
general pressure on ground water supplies
throughout the world.
Desalination consumes energy
Why can’t we drink ocean water? After all,
our bodies need salt – but only in modest
qualities. Our bodies consist of
about 60% water, and
the human body
absorbs 5-6 grams
of salt a day, while
the kidneys secrete
the rest into our
urine, at a concen-
tration which is
less salty than sea
water, about 35g per
litre. So if you drink a glass of salt
water, getting rid of the excess would require
the body to put more water into urine than
there was water in the glass. Keep repeating
that process, and the result would be death
by dehydration.
No place in the world desalinates as
much water as Saudi Arabia. The nation’s 28
SOLUTION
desalination plants supply 6.6 billion litres delivering 250 million litres a day, or 15% of
of pure water a day, which is 22% of all the Sydney’s water needs.
desalinated water in the world. In Australia This may sound like a lot, but globally
Perth desalinates some 45 billion litres annu- only about 1% the total fresh water require-
ally, 18% of the city’s consumption. In late ment is currently covered by desalination
January Sydney residents received a bulletin plants. One reason is the cost, and the major
from Sydney Water announcing that its consumption of electricity, the burning of oil
desalination plant was at ‘full production’, and gas required for the desalination
CLAUS LUNAU & MATHIEU PRÉVOT/UC BERKELEY
Fan sucks Filters bind Porous metal
in air the water forces water out
The water
1 harvester
Frames
2 including MOF of desert air
sucks in air by are stacked inside A porous material known as MOF
means of a solar- the device. Via a (metal-organic framework) is the
powered fan. process known as main ingredient of a harvester
The device also adsorption, the air’s
has a battery, so water molecules are
developed by scientists from the
the fan can be absorbed by the University of California. The
active at night. MOF material. material’s tiny pores have such a
large surface area that 1g of MOF
corresponds to the area of a
soccer field. MOF binds water
molecules, and a 1kg unit can
extract 1.3 litres of water a day.
Even from the dry air of the
Mojave Desert (7% relative
Heat forces water out humidity) water can be retrieved.
Heating elements heat the
3 water of the material. Fans force
the water through a tube as vapour
before it is cooled and condenses.
The water is so pure that it can be
consumed without further treatment.
 TECHNOLOGY WAT E R
processes. That Sydney bulletin also
explained that the cost of desalination
would necessitate a 6% increase in water
usage charges, backdated to October. Shortly
afterwards, storms refilled most of Sydney’s
dams. But a refund is unlikely.
Another problem with desalination is the
waste product of brine – salt water with a
higher concentration of salt than ordinary
ocean water. Brine is typically released back
into the ocean, but the high salt concentra-
tion can harm animals and plants.
However, scientists are exploring new
opportunies to extract metals and salts such
as magnesium, calcium, lithium, and sodium
chloride, for use in different industrial
processes and in agriculture. Scientists from
the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in
Boston have developed a method to extract
sodium hydroxide – also known as caustic
soda – from ocean water. Lots of caustic soda
is now purchased by desalination plants to
pre-process ocean water so that the
membranes that desalinate the water don’t
3 methods
to desalinate
ocean water
A collective of buoys that put water
under pressure, and ultrathin graphene
and wood discs – new environmentally
friendly methods are to make reverse
osmosis more climate-friendly, and
salty ocean water drinkable.
46 | SCIENCE ILLUSTRATED
get congested. So now, part of the waste from
desalination could be reused.
1.1
billion litres of ocean water
will be desalinated per day
in Dubai as from 2030.
Reverse osmosis drives out salt
Desalination methods can be divided into
two general categories: thermal and
membrane-based. Up until 2000, thermal
desalination was the most common, in a
method known as multi-stage flash distilla-
THE UNI. OF MANCHESTER
UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND
ATMOCEAN.COM
tion (MSF). Ocean water flows through
several chambers with different pressures,
temperatures and heat exchangers, causing
evaporation and condensation of the water
without its salt content, leaving brine as a
waste product.
This process requires a lot of energy, and
so another membrane-based technology
known as reverse osmosis has been able to
outcompete thermal desalination in recent
years. The process is the opposite of osmosis
– the natural phenomenon that occurs when
fresh water is separated from salt water, for
example at a cell membrane that allows only
water molecules to pass. In an effort to even
out the difference in salt concentration on
both sides of the membrane, water molecules
flow into the brine.
In reverse osmosis, salt water under high
pressure is forced through a membrane such
as cellulose acetate, moving to the opposite
side where there is a normal atmospheric
pressure. The membrane allows the water
molecules to pass, but blocks salt molecules
 SOLUTION

and other larger molecules. If only water

RITZAU SCANPIX
molecules get through, pure water results.

Efficient graphene membrane

Reverse osmosis is not as energy consuming
as thermal desalination, but the method still
requires electricity to power the pumps that
put the ocean water under pressure. Scien-
tists are working on using renewable energy
in the desalination process. Dubai’s plans
will see reverse osmosis powered by solar-
cell electricity producing more than 1.1
billion litres of drinking water a day in 2030.
Another solution to the energy problem
is to produce new types of membranes that
allow water molecules to pass more easily,
more efficiently blocking out salt and impu-
rities. One of the most promising materials
is graphene – 2D carbon sheets that are only
one atom thick. Scientists from the Univer-
sity of Manchester have developed a method
by which a graphene-oxide membrane lets
scientists control the size of the pores of the The waste product from ocean water desalination is highly concentrated brine.
membrane very accurately. Salt molecules Substances such as caustic soda and lithium can be extracted from the brine.

SHUTTERSTOCK & LOTTE FREDSLUND

Carbon nanotubes
Graphene membranes make
reverse osmosis more eco-friendly
Reverse osmosis membranes now block
1 out 90-99% of the salt of ocean water,
but they require lots of energy, as the
water must be forced through the membrane Water molecule
under high pressure. Chinese scientists have
developed a graphene membrane that directs
the water 100 times more efficiently, so requiring Graphene sheet Salt ion
lower pressure, and less power to drive it.

DIANXUN HOU ET AL. /AAAS & LOTTE FREDSLUND

Wooden membrane
Water vapour
efficiently filters out salt
Scientists from Princeton University Heat

2 have created a 500-micrometre-thick

wooden membrane that is water-
Membrane
repellent, yet allows vapour to pass. One side
of the wood is heated, making the water
evaporate and pass through the pores to the
opposite cold side, where it condenses. The
salt is left behind on the warm side. Cold water
SHUTTERSTOCK & LOTTE FREDSLUND

Waves put water under pressure Desalination

plant
The Atmocean company has developed
3 a pump that is mounted on a buoy
and powered by waves. In step with Buoy
the wave movements the pump sucks in water, Pump
forcing it out again under high pressure. A system
of 15 pumps causes a water pressure which is so
high that it can power a reverse osmosis plant
without any extra energy consumption. Inflow
Outflow

scienceillustrated.com.au | 47
 TECHNOLOGY WAT E R

are surrounded by a ‘shell’of water mole-
cules too large to pass through the pores of
the membrane. As scientists can control the
size of the pores very accurately, the
membrane is also more efficient at allowing
the water through, so the desalination does
not require so high a pressure (and power
consumption) as other desalination methods.
Electricity is also key to another MIT water
concept, in which the power extracts drinking
water from vapour, rather than ocean water.
The method can be used to harvest water
vapour from power plants, where today an
extraordinary 39% of US fresh water is used
oped a method by which a grid collects drops
from water vapour. Normally, this method
would capture some 1-3% of the water from
emitted vapour in the form of water drops,
but scientists have discovered that by
running a weak electric current through the
grid they can ionise the air so that it becomes
electrically charged. The grid then attracts
much more of the water vapour that would

Electric grid captures vapour
Membranes must be either cleaned or
replaced over time, as dirt and bacteria accu-
mulate. But ocean water can be desalinated
without them. MIT scientists have devel-
oped a method which can separate salt, dirt
and pesticides from water during a process
known as shock electrodialysis. The ocean
water flows through a porous glass material
with electrodes on either side. By having an
electric current flow to make the electrodes
positively or negatively charged, the salt
water divides into a high-salt region near
one electrode and a salt-poor region around
the other. When the amperage reaches a
critical level, a kind of shock wave develops
through the liquid, resulting in the low-salt
region being purified of up to 99.99% of the
salt from the original water sample.
99.99
% of the salt in ocean water
can be removed by a
‘shock wave’ of electricity.
to cool power plants during electricity gener-
ation, with much of the water emitted into
the atmosphere in the form of water vapour.
Huge quantities of drinking water are wasted
in this way.
The scientists behind the Infinite Cooling
concept aim to change that. They have devel-
otherwise speed by and disappear into the
atmosphere. The collected water can be
usefully recycled in the power plant cooling
system, or could form part of the water
supply for a nearby town.
The search to squeeze out still more
refreshing droplets does not stop here. Even
the moisture of human excrement can be
extracted and used as drinking water. In
2015, an omniprocessor prototype was built
in Senegal’s capital of Dakar. The city has
little organised sewage and suffers severe
problems with waste water and sludge from
primitive toilets. But thanks to the omni-
processor, faeces from 50-100,000 people is
now converted into pure drinking water.
Together with the other technical solutions,
quaffing down purified poo might ensure a
future in which no one needs be thirsty.

LO N G S H O T
Floating desalination plant aims to
supply cities with drinking water
The Pipe is a floating desalination plant, designed to remove both dirt and salt from ocean water in
a process known as electromagnetic filtering. An electromagnetic field will separate substances by
attracting ions. According to the creators, a Pipe can desalinate 4.5 billion litres of water annually.

ELECTROMAGNETS SURFACE MADE OF STEEL DRINKING WATER SENT

PURIFY WATER
Under the Pipe’s surface,
ocean water circulates in
a pipe system in which electro-
magnets attract ions in dirt and
salt, separating them from water.
KHALILI ENGINEERS
AND SOLAR PANELS
The surface of the plant is
covered in panels made of
recycled steel and solar cells
that supply electricity to the
electromagnetic desalination.
DIRECTLY TO THE SHORE
A pipeline directs the
desalinated drinking
water to a water supply net-
work. The maximum length of
the Pipe is 428 x 60 metres.

48 | SCIENCE ILLUSTRATED

Helping the planet by
drinking purified poo
They used to say ‘where there’s muck there’s brass’, but there’s
water too. In the ‘omniprocessor’, a system of steel pipes converts
sewage sludge into pure drinking water, generating enough power
to cover its own operation and transfer more to the electricity grid.
Water vapour
from faeces
Faeces is dried
The sewage sludge is carried
1 into a drying oven in which the
sludge is boiled dry of water.
The water vapour from the sludge is
separated from the drying oven via a pipe.
ENRICHED: Microsoft billionaire
Bill Gates tastes water
extracted from faeces.
YOUTUBE
Boiler
Generator
Sludge is burned
The sludge is carried into a burner,
2 where it is burned and heats a
boiler with water inside. The
vapour from the boiler is directed into a
steam engine and a generator that
generates power for the entire process.
Filter
Heat
exchanger
SOLUTION
Water vapour
from faeces
Water vapour
from boiler
Vapour is reused for power
The surplus vapour from the
3 steam engine is directed into the
drying oven, where the energy is
used for heating and drying the sludge.
Subsequently the vapour condenses into
water and is directed back to the boiler.
Water vapour is
filtered and condensed
The evaporated water
4 from the sludge is
directed through a
filter that purifies it further.
Subsequently the vapour is
directed through a heat
exchanger where it condenses
into water. The distilled water is
now 99.9% pure and can be used
for irrigation or as drinking
SHUTTERSTOCK & LOTTE FREDSLUND
water after having been enriched
with minerals such as calcium.
scienceillustrated.com.au | 49
 S PA C E ALIENS

Astronomers aim to

CHAT
WITH
ALIENS
In 2030, a radio signal
packed with music bites
from Earth will reach a
remote exoplanet that could
include life, for the first time.
New messages to aliens are
being translated, packed and
delivered by means of an
ultra-accurate laser telescope.

MESSAGE
Astronomers translate universal
knowledge into waves and binary code.

MESSENGER
Future messages to aliens will
be transmitted by laser.

D E S T I N AT I O N
Signals are despatched towards planets
that might harbour intelligent life.

50 | SCIENCE ILLUSTRATED
 By Mikkel Meister

Targeted signals sent

to remote planets are
renewing interest in beings
that might answer the call.
CLAUS LUNAU/SHUTTERSTOCK
 S PA C E ALIENS
W
ow!, writes Jerry R. Ehman
in red on the printed
read-out in front of him.
It is August 1977, and the
astronomer is reading
data from the Big Ear radio telescope, when
unusual code among the endless rows of 1s,
2s, and 3s makes him stare. The ‘6EQUJ5’
sequence indicates radio waves 30 times
more powerful than the usual background
radiation of space. Ehman immediately
draws a circle around the sequence, before
writing the letters that subsequently become
the signal’s name.
During the month following the ‘Wow!’
signal, astronomers aimed the Big Ear at the
Sagittarius constellation, where the waves
came from. But the 72-second radio signal
was never repeated. Since then, astrono-
mers have built better and more powerful
telescopes, and have scanned a larger
section of the sky, but to no avail. Ehman’s
signal is still the only known potential
attempt by aliens to contact us.
Now a new organisation, METI, is tired of
waiting. So it aims to actively contact any
aliens’ home planets, hoping to establish a
permanent hotline. This requires a clear
message, improved signal transmission meth-
ods, and exoplanets with a likelihood of life.
Who might be out there – and are they friendly?
Other planets ought to include life
The search for intelligent life in space took
off seriously with Project Ozma in 1960,
when astronomer Frank Drake scrutinised
52 | SCIENCE ILLUSTRATED
radio signals from two Sun-like stars. The
search is known as SETI – Search for Extra-
terrestrial Intelligence – and since 1984,
international cooperation in the search has
been anchored within the framework of the
Californian SETI Institute.
This organisation, as well as several
researchers such as the 2019 Nobel Prize
laureate in physics, Didier Queloz, are posi-
32
radio signals are travelling
from the Earth towards
exoplanets and stars.
tive that we cannot be the only sentient life
in the universe. In the Milky Way alone,
according to calculations, some 10 billion
planets are likely to be located in the inhab-
itable zone where heat from a star is neither
too intense nor too insignificant. Although
studies recently shrank the zone, there are
still billions of planets out there with the
same basis for life as Earth.
If life probably exists on other planets,
why have we not been paid a visit? This
question constitutes the Fermi paradox,
named after Italian physicist Enrico Fermi.
One possible answer is that we are effec-
tively alone in the universe because other
life forms are either unsophisticated or have
become extinct. Another explanation is the
zoo hypothesis: that aliens passively
observe other planets, as do we, so far.
METI International is a breakaway group
from the SETI Institute that aims to test
the zoo hypothesis by actively telling aliens
about our existence. ‘METI’ is an acronym
for Messaging ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence,
and in 2017 the independent research
organisation sent its first signal towards an
exoplanet that might be inhabited.
Symbolic signals miss the target
This isn’t the first ever attempt. Over the
past 50 years, more than 30 messages have
been sent into space. In 2012, the 305m-wide
Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico sent a
reply to the ‘Wow!’ signal. It contained
10,000+ tweets and videos from people both
ordinary and famous. But the aim of the
message was primarily to prompt interest in
extra-terrestrial life in order to advertise a
UFO programme on the National Geographic
TV channel. Other messages have been
primarily symbolic, such as when NASA in
2008 sent The Beatles’ song Across the Uni-
verse on a journey towards the North Star.
Even the Arecibo Message, sent from the
telescope bearing the same name in 1974,
was primarily meant to demonstrate the
telescope’s capability, and besides, the signal
will miss its destination, the M13 globular
Astronomers write messages to aliens according
to Zipf’s law, a linguistic pattern which is obeyed
even by humpback whales. According to this law,
the most widely used word occurs twice as often
as the second most frequently used.
SHUTTERSTOCK
 MESSAGE

Scientists translate
universal message
Previous messages to aliens focus on culture and symbols.
The METI organisation will send a new message focusing on the
universe’s common characteristics, such as maths and chemistry.

The contents are chosen Atomic

number
The elements and their 1
1
H
chemistry are the same
Symbol
throughout the universe,
so the periodic table is an obvious
choice. Any civilisation that can 1.008
1.008 Atomic
mass
capture the signal can probably Hydrogen
recognise the table’s contents. Name

The message is encoded

The table is converted into
2 black frames around white Atomic
number
fields. Red boxes represent in binary
code
each element’s atomic number as a
binary number. Hydrogen’s No. 1
corresponds to the binary number 1.
Lithum (No. 3 ) has binary 11, etc.

Radio waves
Colours become signals
In order to send the table,
3 each colour must first be
converted into radio waves.
One frequency represents the black
frame, another one the white field,
and a third one the red number. A
radio telescope can send all three Rød
frequencies simultaneously.

Frequencies show colours 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Line 1 Modulation

8 9 Line 2
The modulation method is
4 used to raise each colour’s
frequency for a tenth of a
second to indicate that a box must be
HERTZ

LOTTE FREDSLUND/HENNING DALHOFF/SPL

red. The other colours’ frequencies

The message relies
remain unchanged. piece by piece,
the three signals can be combined into on other planets
the columns of the model. TIME 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 having the same
atoms as Earth.

scienceillustrated.com.au | 53
 S PA C E ALIENS

MESSENGER
cluster, because it will have moved before

EISCAT
the signal reaches it in 22155. Nevertheless,
the signal was mankind’s first targeted
attempt to tell intelligent life-forms outside
the Solar System that we exist. The message
was designed by Frank Drake with iconic
NASA astronomer Carl Sagan and others, as a
binary-coded illustration of knowledge about
Earth, such as our numeric system, a human
body, and the molecules that make up DNA.
According to Douglas Vakoch, president
of METI International, the Arecibo Message
contains too much information, and aliens
will not understand the man-made symbol-
ism. So METI’s group of scientists includes
psychologists and language researchers,
whose first task is to author messages that
any intelligent creature can understand.

Internet of the ocean

Since we don’t know how aliens communi-
cate, METI scientists are studying creatures
closer to home, such as humpback whales,
which also communicate in a way that we
do not understand.
The whales are interesting because their
singing involves the use of special methods
and specific patterns. They employ the
oceans as their own ‘internet’, using the fact
that sound travels five times faster through
water than in air. Whales can send a call that
reaches the receiver perfectly well in spite of
thousands of kilometres between them.
Norwegian satellite dish sends music to aliens
Scientists are trying to determine how
In 2017, the EISCAT radar near Tromsø sent forth a signal which
included 33 specially-commissioned 10-second music pieces towards the whales convert their
the GJ 273 b planet. Contributors include sound artist Holly Herndon, French messages into sound waves.
composer Jean-Michel Jarre and experimental electronic-music duo Matmos. The whales can appar-
An expected reply date in 2043 was included in the signal. ently also understand an
incomplete message, just
as people can understand
ROBERT BRAND
ARECIBO OBSERVATORY/NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION

sentences though we
hear only some of the
words. That is probably
because whale singing
adheres to Zipf’s law,
named after language
researcher George
Zipf. According to
Zipf's law, the most
frequently used word
of a language (or whale
sound) occurs twice as
often as the second
most frequently used
world, three times as
Huge Caribbean telescope Twitter messages reach often as the third most
sent pioneer message dwarf star in 2031 widely used word, and so on.
The Arecibo telescope in Puerto In 2013, private individuals were Although Zipf’s law does not
Rico lent its name to a famous able to send tweets from the US translate whale singing, the
signal, though it will miss its target. Jamesburg Earth Station aimed at the pattern reveals a factor common
Now it might send a new message. GJ 526 star 17.6 light years from Earth. to all languages, which METI can
use to author messages to aliens.

54 | SCIENCE ILLUSTRATED
Dictionary decodes signal
If an alien civilisation has the technology to
pick up radio signals, it is surely also able to
understand mathematics. So METI uses the
binary numbering system of 0s and 1s to
encode messages into small pictures known
as bitmaps of a few pixels. The binary code
is converted into radio waves, by which a
specific basic frequency represents a zero
and a slightly higher frequency represents a
one. The changes between the two frequen-
cies produce the small bitmap pixel by pixel.
When METI sent its first message via the
EISCAT telescope in Tromsø, Norway, the
contents were small music bites coded as
bitmaps of curves of different sound
frequencies, which the aliens might piece
together into music bites. The message was
intended to portray music as a type of
universal language.
The message also included a small inter-
stellar dictionary to help the receivers
decode the contents. The dictionary explains
basic knowledge about life on Earth, such as
the numbers 0-9, calculations, information
about elements, and physical units such as
metres and seconds. The complexity
increases gradually, until the receivers can
understand the meaning of the curves. The
METI scientists are trying to teach, in the
way an adult teaches a child.
New messages with short reach
The major challenge involved in contacting
DOUGLAS VAKOCH alien worlds is the huge distances of space.
PRESIDENT, METI Although earlier messages travel at the
speed of light, most are still hundreds of
light years from their destinations. One light
It is too late year is the distance that light and other elec-
to conceal tromagnetic radiation (such as radio waves)
ourselves in the universe, travel in one year. Our answer to the ‘Wow!’
so we should decide how we signal is still 15,500 light years from its desti-
nation, the M55 star cluster, and at least
want to represent ourselves.”
another 31,000 years will pass before any
reply can make it back to Earth – always
assuming somebody picks up the signal.

CLAUS LUNAU/SHUTTERSTOCK
Laser opens chat window
to foreign worlds Proxima
Centauri

Across long distances, powerful lasers are better at maintaining signal strength than Outgoing signal
2
radio waves. Scientists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have shown
that we can use existing technology to build a laser telescope that can outshine
the Sun like a lighthouse, and be observed by aliens on remote planets.

Signal returns

3
Mirror

LASER LIGHT SENT NEIGHBOURING STAR COSMIC CHAT

FROM EARTH
A 2MW infrared
1 laser fires light
onto a small mirror.
The beam is reflected onto
a 30m telescope that
sends a signal which is
10 times more powerful
than the infrared radiation
from the Sun.
RECEIVES SIGNAL BEGINS
The reach of the The first aim is
2 laser is up to 20,000 3 to send a flash
light years, but it is most that is captured and
accurate over distances then responded to
such as to Proxima as a handshake that
Centauri 4.2 light years confirms a connection.
from Earth. The laser Subsequently, we could
could hit the Proxima b send messages back and
exoplanet very accurately. forth with laser pulses.

scienceillustrated.com.au | 55
 S PA C E ALIENS
Human secrets travel
through empty space
Astronomers have warned against revealing our
location, but it is already too late. For half a century,
physical messages and radio signals have given
away Earth’s location, raw materials, and population.
NASA
DUTIL & DUMAS
The man’s lifted arm shows his fingers,
and a binary number indicates the
woman’s height of 168cm.
Aliens receive
nudie pics
In 1972 and 1973, the two probes
of Pioneer 10 and 11 were
launched to travel out of our Solar
System. If ever discovered by aliens,
they will find two gold-plated
aluminium plaques that include a
drawing of a naked man and woman.
The plaques also indicate the probe’s
path out of the Solar System.
Arrival time:
unknown, as is the destination
56 | SCIENCE ILLUSTRATED
Voyager 1 has no specific destination, but in
40,000 years it will pass by the GI 445 star.
NASA
Gold albums on
space voyage
Each Cosmic Call symbols is unique; no
reorientation can confuse it for another. The probes of Voyager 1 and 2
were launched in 1977, each
Unique symbols carrying a gold record including
pictures and sounds from Earth such as
will arrive safely birdsong, thunder, and heart beats. On
one side of the records, instructions
Nine messages were sent to nine indicate how to play them, how to
stars from the Yevpatoria radar in draw images based on the recorded
Ukraine in 1999 and 2003. Each Cosmic sounds, and information about the
Call message included 23 pages Solar System’s location based on
describing Jupiter’s size as compared to neutron stars known as pulsars.
the Sun, indicating symbolic codes for
the numbers 0-9, and explaining pi, Arrival time:
Pythagoras, and more. The symbols’ unknown, as is the destination.
designs are fault-tolerant, i.e. the
receiver will be able to recognise each
one even if the voyage might have
disrupted parts of the signal.
Arrival time: 2036-2069
 NUMBERS

BERS
Cartoon is a guide
ATOMIC NUM DING
L
F O R T H E B U IF L I F E
BLOCKS O to Earth’s biology
The Arecibo Message from 1974
was the first radio signal with a
specific destination outside the Solar
System. It consists of 73 lines of 23
characters each, which make up a
graphic message that primarily describes
the chemistry behind life on Earth.
MOLECULES However, the signal will just miss its
CE
THAT PRODU A
DNA AND RN destination, the M13 star cluster.

Arrival time: 22155.

L
DNA’S SPIRA
SHAPE AND
THE NUMBE ER
OF MOLECUL
PAIRS IN A G:
HUMAN BEIN
4.3 BILLION

WORLD
:
POPULATION
4.3 BILLION

HUMANS'
SHAPE AND
HEIGHT

YSTEM
THE SOLAR S

THE ARECIBO
TELESCOPE

Astronomer Carl Sagan helped

produce the contents of the Pioneer,
Voyager and Arecibo messages.
NASA/ARNE NORDMANN/SHUTTERSTOCK

scienceillustrated.com.au | 57
DISH SIZE:
306.18m
 S PA C E ALIENS
So to establish a more useful direct line
between planets, the messages must be sent
to exoplanets in our cosmic neighbourhood.
Since the first exoplanet was discovered in
1992, 4100 have been spotted by space tele-
scopes such as Hubble and Kepler. Based on
the sizes of exoplanets and stars, their
mutual distances and their atmospheric
make-up can be determined, so astronomers
can try to determine whether a planet is in
the inhabitable zone and is a rocky planet
that could include intelligent life.
The music bites sent by METI in two stages
in 2017 and 2018 are headed for GJ 273 b,
an exoplanet only 12.4 light years from
Earth, and the first message will arrive in
November 2030. If the planet includes an
intelligent civilisation that has radio tele-
scopes, a reply could reach Earth in 2043. As
of now, nobody knows if this planet
harbours any life, but new telescopes can
intensify METI’s search.
Since 2018, NASA’s Tess satellite has been
dicovering rocky planets near stars in our
neighbourhood. When the next large space
telescope, James Webb, is launched in 2021,
its 6.5m-wide mirror will be able to more
closely identify the molecular make-up of
atmospheres to find evidence of oxygen,
water, methane... and so life. METI’s long-
term ambition is to focus on the planets that
are most likely to include life, but also to send
signals to millions of other exoplanets close to
Earth, hoping for a relatively rapid reply.
58 | SCIENCE ILLUSTRATED
4.2
light years is the
distance to the closest
potentially-inhabited
planet, Proxima Centauri b.
Come and get us
In direct conflict with METI’s aim, you will
find a written agenda from 2015 signed by
scientists from the SETI Institute, SpaceX
founder Elon Musk, and others, expressing
concern about the potential hostility of
aliens: “A global, scientific, political, and
humanitarian discussion must take place
before any messages are sent,” it says.
But decades of emissions of waves for
radio and TV have already produced a
bubble of signals around our world that
travel away from us at the speed of light. In
principle, an alien civilisation some 85 light
years from Earth could pick up a weak radio
signal of a Bing Crosby hit from 1933.
“It is too late to conceal ourselves in the
DAYA BAY ANTINEUTRINO DETECTOR
Large underground detectors
capture neutrinos. Astronomers
believe that aliens might use the
particles that are produced in
huge accelerators to send signals.
universe, so we should decide how we want
to represent ourselves,” METI president
Douglas Vakoch said in an interview in 2018.
As the debate continues, METI plans its
next message: a visualisation of the periodic
table. The organisation hopes to send the
message from a powerful radio telescope
such as Arecibo.
The search continues
The ‘Wow!’ signal still remains the best chance
of being a sign of alien intelligence. Astron-
omer Antonio Paris in 2017 claimed that the
signal came from two comets, but Jerry
Ehman, who discovered the signal, does not
think that comets emit such a brief signal.
On the other hand, almost everybody agrees
that the signal is not from Earth.
The SETI Institute continues the search
for evidence of intelligent life. In the years to
come, the 350 telescopes of the American
Allen Telescope Arrays are to search more
than one million stars for evidence of radio
waves. Other astronomers are working on
expanding SETI’s search to signals other
than radio waves, such as infrared radiation
from lasers, or tiny neutrinos that could
come from particle accellerators.
According to Nobel Prize laureate Didier
Queloz, within 30 years we will have the
technology to find life on remote planets,
and within 100 years we will have found the
first aliens. Until then, we must enjoy our
alone time in the universe.
 D E S T I N AT I O N

LOTTE FREDSLUND/SHUTTERSTOCK
3 signals aimed
at intelligent life

New telescopes are discovering more destinations
where intelligent life might exist to receive our call.
Signals are headed for the most promising candidates.
NASA
Local super-Earth
to be taught music
In 2030, the GJ 273 b exoplanet will
1 receive music bites from Earth.
GJ 273 b is orbiting about 10 times closer
to its star than Earth, but as the star is
weaker, the planet might include life.

Messages

Destinations

NASA/ESO
Stars

PROCYON
SIRIUS

HAMAL

1 EARTH

10,000 messages hit

PROXIMA FOMALHAUT ball-shaped star cluster
CENTAURI 2
3 The Wow! signal from 1977 came
2 from the Messier 55 star cluster, but
the sender is unknown. In 2012, 10,000
A LTA I R tweets were sent towards the cluster,
which is about 15,500 light years away.

NASA/ESO

Locked world might have

inhabitable neighbours
In 2008, ‘A Message From Earth’
3 was sent to the Gliese 581 c planet,
Scientists think that which has one side always facing its star.
aliens would probably It has a climate similar to Venus, but two
have at least two eyes, neighbouring planets might include life.
legs, and fingers.

scienceillustrated.com.au | 59
 HUMANS BRAIN BACTERIA

Action centres where

bacteria gather

FEELING Scientists have discovered a wealth

of bacteria in four brain areas that
each play a role in motor functions,
awareness, or mental disorders.

GOOD ABOUT
BRAIN
Planning centre
The frontal lobes are
involved in planning,
attention, and schizophrenia.

BACTERIA
Bacteria in the brain have hitherto
been linked with fatal diseases. But
biologists have now discovered that
the microbes exist permanently in
the brain, where they can influence
mental disorders, trigger mental
energy, and improve your mood.
SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY/CLAUS LUNAU

Two types of nerve cells Myelin

are the homes of bacteria

NEURON ASTROCYTE

Myelin

Blood vessel

Axon
Foot

BACTERIA THRIVE IN INSULATION CELL FEET INCLUDE MICROBES

1 Neurons send nerve signals through 2 Astrocytes are a type of nerve cell
the brain via long axons. They are that moves nutrients from blood vessels
surrounded by a fatty, insulating myelin to other nerve cells. The bacteria accumulate
SHUTTERSTOCK

sheath that is full of bacteria. in their feet, located close to other cells.

60 | SCIENCE ILLUSTRATED
 By Gorm Palmgren

Motion centre
The striatum controls motions,
and it fails to function
correctly in Parkinson’s patients.

Learning centre
The substantia nigra is
important for learning,
and Parkinson’s issues appear
to originate here.

Memory centre
The hippocampus transfers
recollections to the memory.
Alzheimer’s originates here.

The discovery of intestinal

bacteria in the brain might mean
that bacteria affect the brain
directly, instead of indirectly,
as previously believed.
 HUMANS BRAIN BACTERIA
F
or three decades, biologist
Rosalinda Roberts has cut ultra-
thin slices from the brains of the
recently deceased, studying
them closely under an electron
microscope. Originally she was searching for
the cause of schizophrenia, but over time
she became ever more obsessed with small
spots that ought not be there, yet existed in
several areas of the brain tissue. And when
Roberts finally realised what these spots
were in 2018, she was surprised.
They were bacteria, and the scientist
from the University of Alabama became the
first ever to prove that our brains harbour
lots of bacteria.
Bacteria in the brain have always made
doctors sound the alarm, as an infection in
the delicate brain tissue is associated with
lethal diseases such as meningitis. But
Roberts’ research indicates that lots of
bacteria exist permanently in the brain
without alerting the immune system or
causing infection. Quite the opposite. The
Microbes
that may
influence
your brain
92% of the bacteria that have
been discovered in human
brains belong to three major
bacteria classes: Bacteriodetes,
Proteobacteria, and Firmicutes.
These make up 68% of intestinal
flora, and are suspected to either
increase or reduce the risk of
brain diseases.
VOLKER STEGER/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY/CLAUS LUNAU
62 | SCIENCE ILLUSTRATED
tissue in great detail, revealing that the
strange oblong spots were the length of
34
microbes and were surrounded by a thick
wall that normally encapsulates the cell
structure of bacteria. Some of them were
linked in chains, in the way that bacteria
often are. The studies left no doubt: all the
brains harboured bacteria.
healthy human brains Subsequently, Rosalinda Roberts and her
colleagues identified the bacterium species
have been examined, and
by studying the sequence of 16S rRNA genes
each contained bacteria. that are unique to all organisms. The brain
tissue included genes from several bacteria,
and a surprising 92% of the bacteria species
bacteria in the brain could prove to be indis- belonged to one of the three major classes of
pensable in controlling thoughts, improving bacteria that also make up the majority of
mental health, and even in protecting intestinal flora.
against depression and Alzheimers’.
Lactic acid flora calms mice
Thinking with your gut bacteria The intestinal bacteria’s beneficial effect on
In Rosalinda Roberts’ experiment, slices of the brain has been observed by scientists
34 healthy human brains were placed under since 2011, when neurologist John Cryan
a powerful electron microscope. There the from University College Cork in Ireland fed
electron bombardment showed the brain lab mice bouillon mixed with a type of
KATERYNA KON/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY
BACTEROIDES
SOUTHAMPTON GENERAL HOSPITAL/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY
HELICOBACTER PYLORI
STEVE GSCHMEISSNER/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY
LACTOBACILLUS
lactic-acid bacteria which make up a natural they still don’t know exactly how the intes-
part of the human intestinal flora. The ‘food’ tinal flora influences the brain.
resulted in lower concentrations of the So far, the predominant theory has been
corticosterone stress hormone in the blood, that intestinal bacteria activate the vagus
and influenced the brain’s ability to process nerve’s outermost ramifications in the
impulses of anxiety, fear and stress. After six intestinal wall, making it send nerve signals
weeks on the high-bacterium diet, the mice to the brain. But Rosalinda Roberts’ discov-
became less nervous, and they spent more ery indicates that the microbes reduce this

ROSALINDA C. ROBERTS/UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA

time exploring open areas of the cage, BACTERIA
extended chain of command by migrating
where they would have been vulnerable to through the vagus nerve into the brain itself.
enemies in nature.
When John Cryan cut the mice’s vagus By nerve or by blood?
nerves, he discovered a possible explana- The images from Roberts’ electron
tion of how the intestinal flora control the microscope clearly show that the
brain. This nerve links the brain and the 0.01 mm brain’s bacteria accumulate in the
intestines, informing the brain that the myelin sheaths that function as
intestines are full. On the other hand, the Scientists found the bacteria with a type of insulation and surround most
brain can inform the intestines that it is the microscope that is rarely used on brains. neurons. This same myelin
middle of the night, so they should take it fatty substance also
easy. In mice without the vagus nerve Since then, many scientists have shown surrounds the vagus
connected, the lactic-acid bacteria lost that different intestinal bacteria can affect nerve that passes
their antidepressive effect,and the animals the human brain so that it becomes more or directly into the
remained just as nervous as they would less receptive to schizophrenia, depression, lower brain, the
have been without the special ‘feed’. anxiety, Alzheimer's, and Parkinson’s. But brainstem,

BACTEROIDETES
Neurotransmitter
protects against depression
An intestinal flora with a low level of
1 Bacteroides bacteria affects nerve signal
flows n the brain in a pattern linked with
depression. The depressive thoughts disappear with
GABA
an increased number of bacteria in the intestines.
BACTERIUM ROLE: secretes GABA, which regulates
signals between nerve endings in the brain.

PROTEOBACTERIA
Protein triggers Alzheimer's
Every second person has Helicobacter pylori
2 bacteria in their stomach, from where they
send neurotransmitters that affect intestinal
flora and the brain. Alzheimer's patients have more H. Protein lump
pylori bacteria in their stomachs than healthy people, PEPTIDES
and the bacterium is known to cause dementia in mice.
BACTERIUM ROLE: emits peptides that make brain
cells produce harmful protein lumps.

FIRMICUTES
Substance in the blood KYNURENINE
aggravates schizophrenia
Schizophrenia patients often have more
3 Lactobacillus bacteria – related to lactic
acid bacteria – in their intestines. The
symptoms typically deteriorate with the increased
number of this type of bacteria.
BACTERIUM ROLE: increases the blood's content
of kynurenine that blocks receptors in the brain.
 HUMANS BRAIN BACTERIA
bypassing the blood-brain barrier, which
normally keeps out bacteria. Theoretically,
the bacteria need only pass the intestinal
wall and get into the vagus nerve’s insula-
tion in order to reach the brain.
However, the bacteria also influence a
special type of nerve cell: astrocytes, which
feed neurons nutrients from the blood. The
astrocytes supply the food via outgrowths
known as feet, which are located close to the
brain’s blood vessels, absorbing nutrients.
And these feet contain lots of bacteria.
So some scientists believe that the bacte-
ria travel with the blood from the intestines
to the brain, where they sneak through the
blood-brain barrier and into the astrocytes.
The barrier has weak points in the brain-
stem’s vomit centre and olfactory bulb,
which is located right behind the nose,
where the brain needs to be able to detect
toxins in the blood or pheromones from the
air so it can react quickly by vomiting. The
brain has relaxed its safety measures there,
and the bacteria may have taken advantage.
Future studies aim to find out whether
the bacteria are particularly concentrated in
these locations around the olfactory bulb
and vomit centre. If this proves to be the
case, it will support the theory that bacteria
travel to the brain via the blood.
Messy intestinal flora
According to Rosalinda Roberts’ studies, the
intestinal bacteria live peacefully in the
Rosalinda Roberts (left) heads the
research into a large collection of
donated human brains.
64 | SCIENCE ILLUSTRATED
brain without triggering acute infection. But
because she found bacteria particularly in
parts of the brain that are involved in mental
or physical brain diseases, the tiny microbes
probably mix things up in other ways,
affecting the brain cells’ workings and hence
also our thoughts and mental health.
Deep inside the brain are areas known as
the substantia nigra and the striatum, where
92
% of the bacterium species
in the brain belong to
major bacterium classes.
motions are coordinated so they become
fluid, as when we lift a cup with a hand to
our mouth. In Parkinson's patients, these
areas do not function correctly, so that
motions become slow, clumsy or tremorous.
Both areas harbour bacteria, indicating that
the microbes affect the substantia nigra or
striatum directly through close contact.
Another brain area with many bacteria was
the hippocampus, which is involved in
Alzheimer's and depression. In an article
from 2019, psychiatrist Elizabeth Sublette
from Columbia University in the US deter-
mines that some intestinal bacterium
species are particularly numerous in
patients with depression and so probably
boost disease development, whereas other
species exist mainly in healthy people, and
so might be contributing to protection of
the brain against depression.
Intestinal flora could affect mood
Your mood and your quality of life are also
influenced by bacteria, according to a major
study from 2019. Microbiologist Jeroen Raes
from the University of Leuven in Belgium
studied the intestinal flora of more than
1000 people, finding striking relationships.
Faecalibacterium intestinal bacteria
were particularly numerous in people who
were emotionally balanced, whereas
Butyrivibrio was linked with the ability to
form positive social relationships. In the
intestines of people with lots of energy,
there were many Coprococcus bacteria.
Other scientists will now repeat Roberts’
experiment, firstly to double-check that the
bacteria really are present in the brain. Not
until then can a concrete relationship be
established between the bacteria and the
brain’s physical and mental diseases. If
successful, the discoveries could outline a
promising new direction for treating those
who suffer such forms of brain distress.
UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA AT BIRMINGHAM
 Three paths to the brain
for intestinal flora
Bacteria are thought to use neurotransmitters to remote-control the
brain, but now the discovery of microbes in the brain itself indicates
that they travel with blood or nerves from the intestines to the head.

HE BLOOD-BRAIN
BACTERIA CROSS T
1 REE TRICKS
BARRIER USING TH
Wh ite blo od ce ll
Ba cte ria

Blo od

Blo od -br ain VA G U S N E RV E

ba rri er ce ll

Lin k
be tw ee n
ce lls B C
A BLOOD VESSEL Vagus nerve

Myelin
Br ain flu id

C White blood
B If the link
A Bacteria reaching cells often have
the brain enclose between cells in
e blood vessel access to the brain, Bacteria
themselves in blood th so bacteria can
vessel cell walls, wall is missing,
a bacterium can enter these
passing through to and then sneak in.
the brain itself. slip in via the hole.

GREASY INTESTINAL NERVE

2 MAKES UP BACTERIUM HIGHWAY
If bacteria penetrate the intestinal wall, they can move
into the fatty myelin sheath around the long vagus nerve.
From there the bacteria migrate to the brain stem where
the nerve ends – and the microbes have entered the brain.

NEUROTRANSMITTERS FROM THE

3 BACTERIA TALK TO THE BRAIN
CYTOKINES

Intestinal bacteria influence immune cells close to the

intestinal wall to release a series of biochemicals known as Intestines
cytokines. These travel with the blood to the brain, where
they can affect the flow of nerve signals and so brain activity.
CLAUS LUNAU
 MEGAPIXEL CAMOUFLAGE

66 | SCIENCE ILLUSTRATED
 Web of deceit: the spider
that weaves a disguise
Many spiders weave their webs widely to
capture prey. But this Asian crab spider uses
its web as camouflage, spinning a disguise of silk
that looks sufficiently like a bird dropping to entice
insects into the trap. The disguise goes so far as to
emit some of the same chemicals as bird droppings.
In the photo, the spider has caught a small wasp.
The ruse delivers one further advantage — birds
are not interested in their own droppings, so they
are unlikely to eat the spider.

Photo // Emanuele Biggi

NPL

scienceillustrated.com.au | 67
 HUMANS INTELLIGENCE

Intelligence is volatile. Scientists find it

SHUTTERSTOCK

difficult to agree on a concrete definition of

this capacity that cannot be measured directly,
only estimated by testing a series of skills.

68 | SCIENCE ILLUSTRATED
 By Jens E. Matthiesen

WHAT IS INTELLIGENCE?
Some questions are so complex that they remain
unanswered for centuries. Yet the search for a
solution often yields information and wisdom
even while the final answer remains out of reach.

What
makes you
so bloomin’
smart, eh?
Thousands of people have
had their mental capacities
measured, with the results
analysed and compared across
gender, age, nature and nurture.
The search has been going on
for more than a century, yet
scientists still don’t know
exactly what intelligence is,
nor why some people are
smarter than others. Studies
repeatedly raise more questions
than they provide answers.
scienceillustrated.com.au | 69
 HUMANS INTELLIGENCE
F
or Scottish schoolchildren aged 10-11 on the
1st of June 1932, it was a special day. Instead
of following their usual timetable, the first
lesson involved a different and special chal-
lenge: an IQ test. For 45 minutes the students
worked on the test, which included questions about
words, sentences, numbers and figures. The test, which
had been designed by a psychologist, Sir Godfrey Thom-
son from the University of Edinburgh, aimed to improve
the teaching material of schools and find out how many
students had mental handicaps, so that their education
could be handled in a better way.
The study included 87,498 children, and was the first
of its kind. Up until the 1960s, the extensive data that
resulted was referenced in psychological text books.
Since then it has been largely forgotten, the results
collecting dust in the university’s attics and basements
throughout Edinburgh – until another local psychologist,
Ian Deary, brought them to light again in 1996. Deary
knew exactly what he wanted to use them for. They
were a perfect starting point for a study of what happens
to our intelligence over a life-
time. Does it change, or do we
become more or less intelligent
as we grow older? Perhaps the
old data could even be used to
Whether you live find out why some people are
to collect your more intelligent than others.
Like all other intelligence
old-age pension researchers, Ian Deary is chal-
depends in part on lenged by the fact that intelli-
your IQ at age 11. gence itself is a subject which is
very hard to pin down. It is diffi-
cult even to form a definition on
THE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH
which scientists will agree. It
has often been said that if you
ask 25 intelligence researchers
to define intelligence, you will
get 25 different answers. So
unsurprisingly there is also
INTELLIGENCE RESEARCHER IAN DEARY
on the relationship between IQ and life expectancy. similar disagreement when it
comes to the interpretation of
results produced by intelligence
studies. Not only that, the last century has shown that
some facets of intelligence research can be socially and
politically controversial.
Defining intelligence
In 1994, American psychologist Linda Goddfredson set
out to do the impossible, trying to make the world’s
leading intelligence researchers agree. Gottfredson felt
that there was a need for researchers to collaborate in
telling the public what scientists had discovered
concerning human intelligence. She drew up 25 short
conclusions and asked 131 university professors to sign.
Less than half of them agreed – 52 in total – but on 13
December 1994, the Wall Street Journal published the
conclusions. The first of these was simply an attempt to
define the very concept of intelligence.
“Intelligence is a very general mental capability that,
among other things, involves the ability to reason, plan,
solve problems, think abstractly, comprehend complex
70 | SCIENCE ILLUSTRATED
ideas, learn quickly, and learn from experience. It is not
merely book learning, a narrow academic skill, or
test-taking smarts. Rather, it reflects a broader and
deeper capability for comprehending our surroundings
– ‘catching on’, ‘making sense’ of things, or ‘figuring out’
what to do.”
The length of this definition reveals how difficult it
is to explain the concept of intelligence. Gottfredson’s
difficulties are also highlighted by the fact that she felt
the need to talk about what intelligence is not.
Her definition is an attempt to pin down a concept
within intelligence research known as the ‘g’ factor
(g signifying ‘general intelligence’). English psychologist
Charles Spearman was early on the track of the g factor
in 1904, when he was working with the results of
more schoolchildren who had been tested for different
mental capabilities. To his surprise, and that of other
psychologists, he discovered a general pattern across
the test results. If a student scored highly in one disci-
pline, there was an overall likelihood that the same
student would also score high in the other disciplines.
And similarly if a student scored poorly in one field, it
was highly likely that he or she also scored below aver-
age in the other ones.
Think of a number
The discovery of the g factor made it clear that there is
not much in the way of swings and roundabouts when
it comes to intelligence. The g factor is in direct conflict
with the common view that if there is something that
you are bad at, there’s probably something else that you
are good at. Rather it says there is an underlying general
intelligence that influences our intellectual capacities in
all fields positively or negatively. But of course we all
have our different strengths and weaknesses. The prob-
lem with the g factor is how to measure it directly, disre-
garding such specific capabilities in different fields. We
can only get an indirect impression of the g factor by
designing intelligence tests in such a way that the over-
all result will reflect it as effectively as possible.
The first intelligence tests were developed by French
psychologists Alfred Binet and Théordore Simon in 1905,
then developed further, until in 1916 they were designed
with the possibility of calculating an intelligence
quotient, or ‘IQ’, based on the results. The basic concepts
have held the test of time; modern IQ tests are still
inspired by one of Spearman’s students, American
psychologist David Wechsler, who refined the tests
further in the middle of the last century.
Psychologists’ IQ tests can be designed in different
ways, but they typically include questions that test
language skills, the understanding of symbols, calcula-
tion skills, number processing, logical thinking, and
spatial capabilities. Test subjects can take all the time
they want to complete some tests, but others take place
against the clock, with simple questions in which test
subjects are asked to match a series of numbers and
symbols based on a list on which each symbol is related
to a number. The test subjects must solve as many prob-
lems as possible within a given time-frame.
An IQ test comes with a scoring system, and based
on the test subject’s results, his or her intelligence
 quotient is calculated. The scoring system is designed in Abstract thinking: 99%
such a way that a sufficiently large group of test subjects Problem solving: 98%

will yield results with a normal distribution, a bell- Knowledge acquirement: 96%

The invisible g factor shaped curve. So most people – about 95% – will have an
IQ of 70-130. Some 70% are in the 85-115 span, meaning
determines our capacity that their intelligence is average. Only 2% score lower
Our intellectual capacity is often divided into four than 70, and a similar 2% score higher than 130. (These
areas, which each involve a number of different high performers can apply for membership of the
SHUTTERSTOCK

talents. Combined, the groups reflect our general Mensa high IQ society.)
intelligence, also known as the g factor. A high g Generally, there is no difference between men’s and
Memory: 81%
factor is an indication of a generally gifted person. women’s intelligence; both score an average of
100 in intelligence tests. But if we delve into indi-
vidual sections of the tests, we do find a differ-
LANGUAGE LOGICAL THINKING
Language understanding, Includes spatial understanding ence. Women score higher on average than men
vocabulary, general knowledge, and the ability to draw conclu- in the parts that have to do with language capa-
the ability to combine data. sions based on new material. bilities. Men score higher on questions that have
to do with spatial understanding. There is also a
EXAMPLE QUESTIONS EXAMPLE QUESTION slight difference in spread between the sexes: Mental speed: 72%
What do these have in common:
a painting and a symphony?
? there are more men both at the top and the
(Both are works of art.) Which figure is next in line? bottom, with very low or very high intelligence.
an apple and a pear? The cause of this has still not been identified.
(Both are fruit.) A B C When intelligence researchers discovered

g
that we all have an underlying g factor that
(B is correct.) determines our score in IQ tests, another ques- General knowledge: 62%
tion was obvious – does it change? Is this a snap- Creativity: 60%
shot of our mental capabilities, or is our g factor
WORKING
MEMORY locked in for life? And that was exactly what Ian
PROCESSING
Includes Deary wanted to find out when he began delving
SPEED
calculation and the Includes the ability into the old data from the intelligence tests of
ability to repeat and to quickly decode those Scottish schoolchildren. And to answer it,
sort out series of symbols and organize he needed to hunt those schoolchildren down.
numbers and letters. them according to simple rules.
EXAMPLE QUESTION The 77 Club Reunion
EXAMPLE QUESTION
The examiner says the It was a most unusual reunion at the Aberdeen
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
following: W-4-G-8-L-3. › – ◊ = ‹ + @ † ∞ Music Theatre on 1 June 1998, when 101 elderly
Now repeat the symbols with Fill in the blanks below men and women came together. They were all
numbers first in numerical according to the above rules. born in 1921, so were then 76 or 77 years old, and
order and then letters in
alphabetical order. 3 1 6 8 5 6 1 3 7 they had each participated in the national intel-
(The answer is 3-4-8-G-L-W.) ligence study carried out in 1932. Ian Deary and
his employees had found them via newspaper
advertisements and by contacting medical clin-
ics throughout the country. Now they were seated in the
theatre to take exactly the same intelligence test over
which they had first puzzled 66 years earlier.
The reunion provided Ian Deary with a rare opportu-
IQs have a bell-curve distribution
nity to study what happens to the intelligence of a group
Based on an intelligence test, scientists can
of people over a very long time. He could compare indi-
calculate a person's intelligence quotient, IQ.
The average IQ is 100. When a great number of viduals’ results at the ages of 11 and 77, and could also
people are tested, their IQs will be distributed along get a general idea of how the test subjects had changed Ambition/motivation: 19%
a bell-shaped curve. in relation to one another.
The analyses of the results showed two trends. The Which qualities
influence our
vast majority did better in the second test. Deary had intelligence?
expected that, simply because the test was originally A study asked
34 % 34 %
made for kids; it would be easier for adults. Much more 600+ specialists
interesting was that the people who scored above the question.
They almost all
average as children did so again, and the ones who
14 % 14 % believed that
scored poorly first time around continued to do so. a talent for abstract
68 % of us are in Deary also noted a third general conclusion, that the thinking was key.
this group of nor-
2% mally gifted people. 2% entire group taken as a whole had scored above average Far fewer
believed that
when they were children. Had this contributed to them
IQ 70 85 100 115 130 ambition and
being still alive and healthy enough to take the test for the motivation
second time? Since Deary’s work, other studies have were important.

scienceillustrated.com.au | 71
 HUMANS INTELLIGENCE
confirmed the same trend, causing him to conclude that
“Whether you live to collect your old-age pension
depends in part on your IQ at age 11.”
Though there are several factors, some reasons why
our intelligence quotient as kids might predict our life-
span are not hard to guess. As Deary suggests, part of the
explanation is that higher intelligence in kids often
leads to better academic education later in life, which in
turn will predicate healthier and safer environments for
the rest of their lives.
The slow curve of age
Although our IQ from a very early age seems to affect us
throughout life, this does not mean it is a constant.
Some basic mental capabilities can improve; others can
become impaired. Again individuals will vary but studies
indicate a general trend. When it comes to solving
language problems, we generally improve from age 25 to
around 40. Subsequently, we remain at the same level up
until the age of 80. However with
logic problems, such as conclud-
ing a rule based on a few exam-
ples, it goes the other way, our
performance generally deterio-
Shared family rating from age 25 to 80.
environment has an These two types of capacities
appreciable effect on are examples of what psycholo-
gists have named “crystallised
children’s IQ, but intelligence” and “liquid intelli-
becomes minor by gence”. When we use our crys-
the time they are tallised intelligence, we benefit
from knowledge and experience
late adolescents. that are solidly anchored in the
brain. When we use our liquid
intelligence, we do not use
previous knowledge, but must
reason our way forward from a
new and unknown situation.
Our general IQ can also
change over time, although
INTELLIGENCE RESEARCHER JOHN LOEHLIN
on nurture’s limited influence on our IQ.
studies show major individual
differences, so that in some
people it improves, and in others
it deteriorates. But the general trend is that our g factor
becomes weaker with age. It remains a mystery why
that is so, but scientists suspect that there is a physical
explanation: our brain cells simply function more slowly
with age.
Several experiments, including those carried out by
Ian Deary in 2017, show that there is a link between
response time and measured intelligence. People with a
high IQ are averagely quicker. And the connection seems
clearer the older the test subjects are.
Speed of response might therefore be a clear cause
for the g factor generally deteriorating with age. But
speed may also be a small part of the explanation for
why some people have a higher IQ than others in the
first place. The speed at which our brain cells communi-
cate with each other depends on the brain’s ‘white
matter’, bundles of nerves that link different areas of the
cerebral cortex. The nerves are insulated by myelin
sheaths, and the more sturdy these are, the faster the
72 | SCIENCE ILLUSTRATED
signals travel through the nerves. With age, the myelin
sheaths become damaged, which might explain why the
nerve cells communicate more slowly. Likewise, extra
sturdy myelin sheaths could benefit some of us IQ-wise.
Scientists emphasise that our individual intelligence
is very complex, and that the speed of the nerve cells
probably explains only some of the differences between
us. But the theory is at least a concrete link between
intelligence and the physical brain.
Other efforts to find physical explanations of IQ
differences have not produced many answers. The size
of the brain does not seem to mean very much. Since the
1990s, when it became possible to measure the volume
of living people’s brains by means of MRI scans, several
comparisons have been made between brain size and
IQ. Some of them demonstrated that a big brain means
a slightly higher likelihood of the owner having a higher
IQ, but the link is not very clear. The same is true for the
brain’s weight, and for the number of brain cells.
While brain researchers have been seeking largely in
vain for intelligence in the physical brain, psychologists
have used other methods in recent decades to find out
why some of us are more intelligent than others. And
one major area of study is the age-old question of nature
versus nurture.
Separated at birth
When Gerald Levey met Mark Newman, it was
like seeing himself. The bald pate, whiskers, the
moustache – even the glasses were the same.
The two middle-aged men had never met
before, but they had an incredible amount in
common. They both worked in lawn mainten-
ance; they were both voluntary firefighters. They
drank the same brand of beer, carried their
keys in the same way, and liked the same
western films.
Gerald and Mark are identical twins, but
were adopted by two different families after
they were born, and so they had been selected by
psychologists from the Minnesota Center for Twin and
Family Research in the US. Since 1979, scientists from
the centre have summoned more than 100 pairs of twins
like Gerald and Mark to study the link between intelli-
gence and nature and nurture. Identical twins have the
same genes, so they are perfect test subjects for scien-
tists – particularly if they grew up apart.
Over time scientists have made so many twins take
IQ tests that they can identify the general trends of the
influence of nature and nurture on intelligence. The
results are remarkable. Twins who live their entire lives
apart score almost the same in IQ tests, the difference
so slight that it is close to the difference between twins
who grew up together. These results indicate that
nature, i.e. the genes, means a great deal to intelligence.
Other studies carried out by the Texas Adoption
Project in the US have investigated the effect of genes in
a different way. Scientists headed by Professor John
Loehlin IQ-tested kids who were adopted at birth, while
at the same time testing their biological mothers and
adoptive mothers. The tests were made twice – when
the kids were 8 and 18 years old. Again the results are

Intelligence hides
from brain researchers
Over a period of 100 years, scientiests have
unsuccessfully measured, weighed, and scanned
the human brain to find physical parameters that
can be linked with intelligence. Exterior indicators
such as brain shape, size, and weight apparently
mean very little to our IQ.
The number of cells does not matter
Our intellectual capacity is spread across all of
the cerebral cortex, but it is apparently not very
important how many brain cells we have. Women
are just as intelligent as men, although on
SHUTTERSTOCK
average they have four billion fewer brain cells.
Size means almost nothing
Some brain researchers have found a link
between IQ and brain size, but it is very
modest and doesn’t impact on comparisons of
intelligence between men and women.
Women: Men:
1,245 g 1,375 g
Weight is not important at all
On average, men have 130g more brain than
women, but that does not give them an upper
hand when it comes to IQ. The weight also
seems unimportant to individuals of the same
sex. Einstein’s brain weighed only 1230g, which
is less than the female average.
highly surprising. Overall, they show that the IQ of the
eight-year-olds matches the IQ of the adopted mother
to some extent. At this age, the kids’ IQ is determined
both by nature and nurture. But this changes as they
grow older. At 18, their IQ is much closer to their biolog-
ical mother’s, and equivalently different from their
adoptive mother’s. The results made John Loehlin
conclude: “Shared family environment has an appreci-
able effect when children are small, but this becomes
minor by the time they are late adolescents.”
This implies that our intelligence is determined by a
mixture of nature and nurture, but the effects of nurture
level out as we grow older. If you score high in an IQ test
as kids, thank your parents for a good upbringing. If you
score high as an adult, thank them for their genes.
It also means that there is no formula that can be
applied to say to what extent differences of intelligence
are due to nature or nurture. And of course scientists
disagree a lot, some believing that nature is responsible
for 30% of differences, while others claim that the
percentage is as high as 80%.
A generalisation too far
Interest in intelligence research exploded in the US
in the mid-1990s, following the publication of a
controversial book called ‘The Bell Curve’, writ-
ten by psychologist Richard Herrnstein and
sociologist Charles Murray. The title refers to
the bell-shaped curve which indicates the
normal distribution of intelligence in the
population. Through almost 900 pages, the
authors delved into statistics concerning
links between IQ and different social According to
conditions. The book included summaries some scientists,
claiming that low intelligence is a domi- intelligence can
be divided into
nant feature in groups of people character-
two types:
ised by poverty, high unemployment, early liquid and
divorces, a low level of education, and a high crystallised.
crime rate. The authors went one step further, The former
is based on the
commenting on the links and problems, and suggest-
ability to solve
ing possible political solutions. They believed that the new problems,
government should take steps to limit the number of whereas the
children with low intelligence in any given group. latter relies on
experience. The
The book’s content about the average intelligence of
two change over a
different ethnic groups – blacks, white, and people of lifetime, while the
Latin American descent – was even more controversial. general IQ remains
The statistics implied a difference, with blacks scoring constant from
the age of 20.
averagely low in IQ tests, and whites scoring the highest.
To many who read “The Bell Curve”, Herrnstein and
Murray’s belief that the difference was due to both Crystallised
intelligence
nature and nurture seemed to be an effort to revive an
ideology by the name of eugenics. The debate about
the book’s contents became as emotional as it was General IQ
academic, some attacking the book for being racist,
others for its statistical methods, and still others for
its interpretations of the research results. When it Liquid
intelligence
comes to the IQ of different ethnic groups, most
scientists acknowledge a statistical difference, but
emphasise that it can be explained by environmen-
tal and social factors, not necessarily by the form of
genetic inheritance. Moreover, they point out that the
difference of IQ within each group is much larger than
0 20 40 60
scienceillustrated.com.au | 73
 HUMANS INTELLIGENCE
the difference between the groups as a whole. But
there are other statistical differences between different
population groups that are widely known in a different
context – across the generations.
Smarter than your mum
Intelligence researchers throughout the world have had
a collective headache for 35 years – and there have been
no indications of it beginning to fade. The headache was
triggered in 1984, when scientists were introduced to a
mysterious phenomenon by James Flynn, who was then
a professor of political studies at the University of Otago
in New Zealand. Flynn had become aware that the
companies that design intelligence tests were needing
to revise them regularly. Either they had to make the
questions slightly more difficult, or they had to adjust
the score system. The companies were doing it to main-
tain the bell curve rule – that the test scores of a large
group of people must always result in a normal distribu-
tion with an average of 100. If people got better at the
tests, the testing companies have to mark them down,
or make the tests harder.
Flynn discovered that the
general trend in the companies’
adjustments was to make the
questions harder. So as tests
The monopoly became ever more difficult over
of those who time, better mental capacities
were required to get the same IQ
believe in a single score as someone tested earlier.
general intelligence While it was widely known
has ended. that the tests were being
adjusted, Flynn was the first to
calculate the consequences, and
he found out that the effect was
much larger than anyone had
SCHOOL OF EDUCATION
HARVARD GRADUATE
suspected. The numbers them-
selves weren’t huge. Through
the 20th century, tests were
INTELLIGENCE RESEARCHER HOWARD GARDNER adjusted so it became averagely
on the idea behind his theory about several intelligences. 0.3 IQ points harder to get the
same score from one year to the
next. Such an annual rise
doesn’t seem much, but it means a lot when scientists
compare the IQ of different generations.
James Flynn has scrutinised results of the IQ tests
that many nations use when they accept recruits into
the military. The consequence is very clear once the
results are cleansed of the adjustments made to the
tests over the years. If the average of soldiers tested in
1992 is the usual 100, those tested 50 years earlier in
1942 would have had an average IQ of only 73.
The Flynn effect demonstrates that the population as
a whole became ‘smarter’ over the generations, all the way
up through the 1900s. The development is the same in all
the 35+ nations he has studied. In spite of much specula-
tion, intelligence researchers have not found any clear
explanation of the effect. Flynn himself believes that it is
to be found in the external environment – the time and the
society in which we grow up. In particular, developments
in education have meant that ever more people have
learned to think in the way that is rewarded in IQ tests.
74 | SCIENCE ILLUSTRATED
As Flynn once said “We educate people to take the
hypothetical seriously, to use abstractions, and to link
them logically.”
Better nutrition, global rises in GDP, and the minimi-
sation of infectious diseases which can affect develop-
ment are other possible contributing factors to what is
known as the Flynn effect.
Yet there is every indication that the Flynn effect is
decreasing, and even reversing. The most recent military
IQ tests of some nations, such as the Nordic countries,
show that the effect has become invisible since 2000.
Our most recent new soldiers are no more intelligent
than the soldiers of the late 1990s.
The Flynn effect and the lack of a certain explanation
for it reveal weaknesses in the way in which scientists
measure intelligence. Following Flynn’s discovery, it’s
clear that an IQ score does not paint an accurate picture
of a person’s intelligence without including information
on the time when the test was made.
Others have criticised IQ tests and the whole idea of
the g factor for painting too narrow a picture of our
mental capacities. According to these critics, intelli-
gence should be defined in a totally different and much
broader way.
Many intelligences
Maybe we do not have just one, but rather a long series
of different intelligences which function completely
independently of each other. That is the essence of the
theory of intelligence introduced by American psycholo-
gist Howard Gardner in 1983. He disagreed with the idea
of a central g factor that makes up the basis of all our
intellectual capacities. Instead Gardner listed a total of
seven intelligences, and has since expanded his theory
to include another two. Apart from the classic subjects
included in traditional IQ tests, Gardner’s theory also
includes capabilities such as musicality, physical abili-
ties, and social intelligence. The mission of his contro-
versial new theory was clear:
“While we may continue to use the words ‘smart’
and ‘stupid’, and while IQ tests may persist for certain
purposes, the monopoly of those who believe in a single
general intelligence has come to an end. Brain scientists
and geneticists are documenting the incredible differen-
tiation of human capacities, computer programmers are
creating systems that are intelligent in different ways,
and educators are freshly acknowledging that their
students have distinctive strengths and weaknesses,” he
wrote in 1999.
Gardner’s theory about intelligences has received
much attention, and it was particularly well-received by
teachers. The theory focuses on the fact that children
learn in different ways, and so individual approaches,
also known as learning styles, are needed in order for
individuals to benefit the most from their education.
Intelligence researchers are not very enthusiastic.
Some criticise Gardner’s theory for being too broad and
for working with factors that are impossible to measure.
Others consider it a problem that the many capabilities,
talents and interests included in the theory undermine
the very concept of intelligence. So most intelligence
researchers still stick to the classical understanding of
intelligence as determined by an underlying g factor. On
the other hand, scientists also emphasise that intelli-
gence is only one mental human capacity, and many The g factor is challenged
others determine how we manage in life. A single by many intelligences
number indicating IQ does not show anything about
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe,
characteristics such as humour, empathy, generosity, Some scientists think it is time to abandon the German writer: IQ 188

creativity, and other gifts that determine how we func-
tion socially. And perhaps those are the very qualities
that, combined with our intelligence, will continue to
give the human brain the edge over artificial intelligence
developed in the world of computers.
Today, it is possible to make computers take classical
IQ tests, and they are becoming ever better at it. In 2015,
scientists from the American University of Illinois
understanding that intelligence can be boiled
down to one g factor. Instead they suggest that we
have many different intelligences that function
independently of each other. The father of this idea,
Howard Gardner, works with 9 different intelligences.
Blaise Pascal,
Verbal/linguistic French physicist: IQ 173

subjected a sophisticated computer program to a series

of tests, discovering that the program had an IQ corre- Musical
Isaac Newton,
English physicist: IQ 168
sponding to that of a four-year-old. When it took a test
for seven-year-olds, it failed completely.
Galileo Galilei,
It is capacities concerning language understanding Mathematical/logical Italian physicist: IQ 163
and reasoning that are particularly difficult for artificial
intelligence. The program was asked to find a word that Leonardo da Vinci,
Spatial/visual multi-talented Italian: IQ 158
matched the following three pieces of information:
“This animal has a mane if it is male”, “the animal lives
Johannes Kepler,
in Africa”, and “it is a large, yellowish brown cat”. The Bodily German astronomer: IQ 153

computer came up with five different answers – dog,

farm, creature, home, and cat – but not ‘lion’. Martin Luther,
German reformer: IQ 148
However, artificial intelligence is well on its way to Social
cracking the code in this area as well. Artificial neural
Johann Sebastian Bach,
networks, which use deep learning, are designed to German composer: IQ 143
Personal
acquire knowledge based on experience in the same
way as the human brain. Whether that is sufficient to Nicolaus Copernicus,
Polish astronomer: IQ 138
catch up with the real thing is yet to be seen. Perhaps Naturalist
there will always be something missing, something
Rembrandt,
unique to the human intellect. Dutch painter: IQ 133

As one of the biggest scientific geniuses of all time, Existential

SHUTTERSTOCK

Albert Einstein, said: “The true sign of intelligence is

not knowledge, but imagination.”

Napoleon Bonaparte,
French emperor: IQ 123

Fast links may be a path

Brain cell
to high intelligence
Experiments have shown that simple reactivity
is linked with intelligence. People with quick
SHUTTERSTOCK

reactivity also have averagely higher IQ.

Outgoing link Ulysses S. Grant,
Perhaps this is related to faster links between American general: IQ 108

their brain cells.

How would the

Myelin sheath above historical
geniuses of the
world score
if they took an
IQ test today?
INSULATION Contact to Of course, we
DETERMINES PACE other cells
cannot accurately
Brain cell links are lined know, but
with an insulating layer of psychologists
myelin. The thicker the layer have given it a try
is, the faster the signals based on tradition,
travel through the link. written material
left by them, and
data from their
schooling.
 PHOTODOC OCEAN FEAST

Feast in
Ev
darkness
ery n ig ht, s trange creatu
res
e from
nd hu ng ry predators ris
a a
take part in
the abyss to e
uge fea s t. T hey consum
h nd
plankton – a
each other.

In the abyss,
there is often not
much to eat, so energy
must be saved for
the hunt. Here an
argonaut octopus
settles on top of a
jellyfish to get a
free ride to the
MAGNUS LUNDGREN

feast near the

ocean surface.

JELLYFISH ELEVATOR An octopus gets a ride to the surface.

76 | SCIENCE ILLUSTRATED
 By Morten Kjerside Poulsen & Henrik Vinther Nielsen

The manta ray

has a wing span of
more than seven
metres. Although
closely related to
sharks, the huge ray
feeds only on small fish
and plankton, which
MAGNUS LUNDGREN

are filtered through

its large mouth.

BIG RAY, TINY LUNCH Shark cousin feeds on small fish and plankton.

Like a terrestrial
mantis, the mantis
shrimp folds its
forelimb claws.
When unsuspecting
prey approaches,
the mantis shrimp’s
MAGNUS LUNDGREN

claws jut out to pierce

it. Subsequently,
the jagged claws
cut up the prey.
MANTIS SHRIMP TEARS PREY APART Jagged claws pierce fish.

scienceillustrated.com.au | 77
 PHOTODOC OCEAN FEAST

It is difficult to hide
in the open sea, so the
best camouflage is
sometimes complete
transparency. The
young surgeonfish uses
this strategy, and its
skin is so thin that that
you can peek directly
into the fish’s brain.

MAGNUS LUNDGREN
TRANSPARENT CAMOUFLAGE Enemies see through surgeonfish.

When the diamond

squid is fully grown,
it is about a metre
long and weighs
approximately 30kg.
At a younger age, the
small transparent squid
remains under the
surface, feeding on
small fish and even
smaller squid.
MAGNUS LUNDGREN

CANNIBAL BABY The young diamond squid consumes other smaller squid.

Sometimes the best

defence is to scare one’s
enemies. In order to
scare off hungry
predators, African
pompanos have evolved
tentacles that imitate
those of a poisonous
jellyfish, keeping their
owners safe from
cautious enemies.
MAGNUS LUNDGREN

TENTACLES FOOL ENEMIES Flatfish imitate poisonous jellyfish.

78 | SCIENCE ILLUSTRATED
MAGNUS LUNDGREN

Young fish are

particularly vulnerable,
so they must resort to
radical solutions to
avoid ending up as an
appetiser. This young
fish is not vulnerable to
the venomous tentacles,
but its predators are,
so the jellyfish becomes
a temporary shelter.

PhotoDoc FEAST IN
DARKNESS

VENOMOUS HUG Prey seeks refuge among the tentacles of venomous jellyfish.

scienceillustrated.com.au | 79
 PHOTODOC OCEAN FEAST

FLIGHT TO SAFETY Wings keep flying fish safe during plankton feasts.

80 | SCIENCE ILLUSTRATED
 The small flying fish
can safely feast on the
plankton even though it
is on the menu of many
predators, because it is
difficult to catch. Special
fins allow it to ‘fly’ long
distances above the
water – out of reach of
bloodthirsty predators.

PhotoDoc FEAST IN
DARKNESS

Any great feast needs

a clean-up afterwards.
The Pacific cleaner
shrimp lives in a
symbiotic relationship
with ocean fish which
swim by to get rid of
dead cells and parasites
MAGNUS LUNDGREN

MAGNUS LUNDGREN

on which the small

shrimp is happy to feed.

GENERAL CLEAN-UP Shrimp cleans parasites from fish.

scienceillustrated.com.au | 81
 Editor: Jeppe Wojcik
ANSWERS ON PAGE 13

BREAK CODE QUESTION 1 NUMERACYA-

THE CODE
CY

Solve the th
on the left to
ree problem
find a co m
p
b
ag
in
e
s
ed
13
1 Three of the small squares are identical
except that their patterns have been rotated
in different ways. Which are the three?
4 In nine years, in 2029,
four brothers will be
99 years old combined.
. Tu rn to
code phrase e
fo r th e an swers and th What will they be in 2031?
the p h ra se .
meaning of

C H G O I A

E LOGIC

CODE QUESTION 2

5 Which of
the six
figures below

? replaces
the question
mark?

2 If the circle's radius equals 1,

what is the circumference of
the white rhombus/diamond?

S T U V

W X

ANSWERS
CODE QUESTION 3 Each answer makes up
part of a code phrase.
Write the code words here:
CODE-BREAKING
6 The six-letter sequences
each lack the same two
letters to have a common link.
Which letters are missing?

3 Which number replaces

the question mark?
1
C O U E A U
2

3 E I N E I N
Do you know what it
means? Turn to page 13
to find out (no peeking!). P A E U R
82 | SCIENCE ILLUSTRATED
 DON’T MISS THE NEXT ISSUE

COMING UP
NEXT ISSUE 14 MAY 2020

THE ICE MOON

OF TITAN

... and the

KOMODO drone that

DRAGON:
designed to kill
will search
for life there

It cannot bleed, its jaw is filled

with venom, and its skull is
protected by a natural armour.
Scientists have sequenced the
Komodo dragon's DNA and
discovered a series of genes
which make the lizard an
exceptional killer.

A SHORT HISTORY
OF SURGERY
Warning: it's not pretty...

Your body comes

alive after death
The brain sends electric signals, the body's cells
work at full stretch, the arms move for months.
New experiments reveal a strange explosion of
life in the minutes, days, and months after death.
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