Table of contents for October 2015 in BBC Science Focus Magazine

EARTH IS ON the brink of a mass extinction. The planet is losing species 100 times faster than would naturally be expected, and the cause of the problem is clear: us. And while other flora and fauna will be the first to suffer, it isn’t clear how humans will adapt to such a cataclysmic event. The crops we eat, the water we drink and the air we breathe are so wired into the planet’s ecosystems, that it’s difficult to see how we might survive. But there’s hope: conservation of our remaining natural resources could yet save the day. That’s why seed vaults and gene banks around the globe are stockpiling seeds, sperm and ova from the natural world. Turn to p38 to find out how this backup plan is taking…

It’s been good for: SPICE LOVERS Make mine a vindaloo: researchers at the University of Adelaide have discovered that eating spicy food may help to keep you trim. When the stomach stretches after eating, gastric nerves trigger to tell the brain it is full. The process is regulated by the TRPV1 protein, a receptor that’s also activated when we eat chilli peppers. CRYBABIES Feel like having a good blub? Well, it’s better to let it out. Researchers in the Netherlands found that volunteers who cried while watching a weepy movie were in a better spirits that their more stoic counterparts 90 minutes after it finished – despite their mood initially dipping. It’s been bad for: THE SQUEAKY VOICED If you fancy becoming a politician you might want to work on…

QUESTIONING AUTHORITY IS all part of growing up – and one of the foundations of science. It’s crystallised in the motto of the Royal Society: Nullius in Verba. Roughly, “Take nobody’s word for it.” By giving us the tools like the experimental method to question what we’re told, science has freed us from all kinds of twaddle peddled by authority figures. Without it, we’d still be in thrall to Aristotle and friends, who thought diseases are caused by bad air and the Sun orbits the Earth. Yet there’s a growing feeling in the research community that science could be doing a better job of questioning its own authority. The suspicion is that the pressure on researchers to produce something – anything – is leading to a lot of junk being…

MICE A study published earlier this year in the journal Frontiers In Behavioral Neuroscience found that male mice ‘sing’ in ultrasonic frequencies (sounds too high for our ears to detect) to attract females. What’s more, the researchers from Duke University found that the rodents produce more complex calls to attract females they have never met but whom they have sensed by smelling traces of their urine. GIBBONS Most animals vocalise in some way. But to be considered musical, scientists argue, the animals need to display vocal learning: they must have to learn how to sing in a specific way throughout their lives. Gibbons certainly do: male and female pairs duet loudly every morning to defend their territory. And it’s a skill they have to learn: a 2013 study described how…

WHAT ARE THEY? These devices use an electric current to control air as it passes over a surface – in other words, a way to improve a vehicle’s aerodynamics. WHY ARE THEY IMPORTANT? Due to its shape, a truck is about as aerodynamic as a brick so a lot of energy goes into pushing the air out of its path. Shaped body panels, spoilers on the roof of the cab and tails for the trailers can improve a truck’s aerodynamics – and in doing so increase its fuel efficiency and reduce its running costs – but they add weight and can make it difficult to maintain the vehicle and load/unload its cargo. Plasma actuators can do the same job without adding extra weight or inhibiting the truck’s use. HOW DO…

TODAY, THE WORD ‘hormone’ is commonly used and well understood. We might say we are feeling hormonal, or take hormones to prevent, say, diabetes or pregnancy. Teenagers, especially, are known for being troubled by their ‘raging’ hormones. These amazing chemicals, secreted into our blood by special organs called endocrine glands, control almost everything our body does – from our growth and development to our impulses and mood, from how often we sleep to how quickly our heart beats. There are even hormones that regulate our hormones. Yet until the start of the 20th Century, most scientists had no idea hormones even existed, let alone how they worked. The more visible systems of the body, such as the skeleton, muscles and major organs, had been known since ancient times. However, hormone…

Colin Stuart Astrophysicist, author and science presenter Colin admits that fellow astronomer John Gribbin is one of his science heroes – so what will he make of Gribbin’s new book? Find out on p106. Zoe Cormier This month, regular contributor Zoe looks at the beneficial effects music can have on your mind and body (see p52). Well, who better to ask than the author of Sex, Drugs & Rock ‘N’ Roll? Richard Dawkins We visited the home of the evolutionary biologist and outspoken atheist to discuss his many scientific achievements. What does he think has been his greatest work? Find out on p48. David Spiegelhalter Known for his work on risk, top statistician David says he’s not very good at maths. We don’t believe him, but you can find out…

AT A GRAVEYARD for old jets, a curious experiment was taking place. At Cotswold Airport near Cirencester, engineers were inside a disused Airbus getting ready for an unusual task: to detonate a bomb. After years of lab tests, this was the moment of truth for a system, called Fly-Bag2, for resisting explosions onboard an aircraft. Fly-Bag2 consists of four layers of fabric, including bulletproof Kevlar, stitched into the shape of a large box, into which the passengers’ luggage is placed. Cameras were ready as the detonation switch was flicked. As we stood a safe distance away, there was the sound of a muffled boom. The plane itself did not seem to move at all. When the air cleared, we clambered inside the aircraft’s hold. The smell of explosive hung in…

YOU WOULDN’T WANT to bump into this guy when you were out for a leisurely swim! Palaeontologists at Yale University have discovered fossils belonging to a giant predatory sea scorpion. Dubbed Pentecopterus decorahensis, thanks to its resemblance in shape to the ancient Greek warship known as a penteconter, the animal could grow to almost two metres in length and had a heavily armoured head and large, grasping limbs for trapping prey. The creature lived around 467 million years ago, making it the oldest eurypterid – a group of aquatic arthropods that were the ancestors of modern spiders, lobsters and ticks – discovered to date. Researchers say that it is likely to have lived in shallow, brackish water with a low salt content that would have been inhospitable to more typical…

What did they do? A University of Leeds team, led by Dr Steve Clapcote, altered a gene in mice that inhibited the activity of an enzyme called phosphodiesterase-4B (PDE4B), which is present in many organs, including the brain. They studied the effect this had on the mice’s memories and problem-solving skills. What did they find? Compared to normal mice, the PDE4B-inhibited mice learned faster, remembered things for longer and performed better at problem-solving. They also appeared to be less affected by scary experiences than unaltered mice, and spent less time cowering in corners. Why did the scientists do that? As PDE4B is also present in human brains, the work may help to shed light on the molecular mechanisms of learning and memory. Further down the line, it could also form…

THE NEXT TIME you get sick, your illness may be treated by a school of tiny ‘microfish’. A team at the University of California has created 3D-printed fish-shaped microrobots that are capable of swimming through liquid and carrying payloads. They could be used for removing toxins or delivering drugs to specific areas of the body. The bots measure just 120 microns by 30 microns and were printed using a technique called ‘microscale continuous optical printing’, in which UV light is shined onto a photosensitive material, causing it to solidify. They are built up one layer at a time. This process allows various nanoparticles to be inserted into specific areas to give them specific properties. Platinum nanoparticles in their tails propelled them through a solution of hydrogen peroxide in which they…

Ordovician-Silurian 447 to 443 million years ago The first mass extinction was caused by protocontinent Gondwana moving towards the South Pole, leading to global cooling, glaciation and a drop in sea level. Most life at the time was marine, and about 85 per cent of it vanished. Late Devonian 375 to 360 million years ago About 70 per cent of all species died in a series of extinction pulses. Marine life was particularly hard hit, with coral reefs disappearing almost entirely. The cause is unclear – possibly global cooling due to oceanic volcanism. Permian-Triassic 252 million years ago The worst extinction event, killing 90 to 96 per cent of species. The cause is debated but could have been a meteorite, volcanism or methane release that led to rapid climate change.…

BEES Insects have been pollinating flowers for 100 million years and about 70 per cent of our agriculture today depends on them continuing to do so. But pesticides, habitat loss, invasive species and diseases are driving global bee populations into a severe decline, with potentially catastrophic consequences for food production. BATS These mammals play a vital role in food production, particularly in the tropics. They pollinate flowers and disperse fruit seeds, but also consume insect pests - saving us millions of dollars in pesticides. Without bats, we’d have no bananas, mangoes or tequila. CORAL Earth’s richest ecosystems are coral reefs. They offer a home to untold amounts of biological wealth - fish, molluscs, sharks, turtles, sponges, crustaceans and many more. They protect coastlines from storms, filter water and store carbon.…

THE WORLD’S OLDEST INSTRUMENT The 43,000-year-old Divje Babe flute is one of the oldest human creations ever found. It’s an 11cm-long piece of a bear’s femur, with two fingertip-sized holes spaced 3.5cm apart. Due to its similiarity to modern wind instruments, it was dubbed the ‘Neanderthal flute’ by the archaeologists who found it in Slovenia in 1995. Reconstructions indicate it could play the musical scale. THE WORLD’S OLDEST AUDITORIUM Prehistoric cave art in Arcy-sur-Cure, France, dated to 30,000 years old, is visually impressive. But to add to this, acoustic analysis shows that the scenes depicting bison, horses and hunting were frequently painted in subterranean areas that have the best acoustic properties for resonance and reverberation. This suggests they were used as the backdrop to musical performances, like an ornamented concert…

1 HOW MUCH CHOLESTEROL YOU HAVE “MIRROR, MIRROR ON the wall, who’s the fittest of them all?” Asking this very question might become a commonplace occurrence following the announcement this summer that a mirror is in development that will assess the health of anyone who looks into it. The Wize Mirror is being developed by researchers from seven European countries, coordinated by the National Research Council of Italy. The device uses five compact cameras and a 3D scanner to measure facial skin tone, the amount of fat on the face and facial expressions. It also analyses breath. Based on this data, the mirror estimates factors such as cholesterol levels, glucose levels, anaemia, weight gain and stress. If you’re looking a little run-down, the idea is the mirror will provide you…

1. Nile crocodile Bite force: 5,000psi Distribution: Sub-Saharan Africa 2. Saltwater crocodile Bite force: 3,700psi Distribution: India, Southeast Asia, Australia 3. American alligator Bite force: 2,125psi Distribution: Southern USA 4. Hippopotamus Bite force: 1,800psi Distribution: Sub-Saharan Africa 5. Jaguar Bite force: 1,500psi Distribution: Southwestern USA, Central America, South America 6. Bull shark Bite force: 1,350psi Distribution: Warm coastal areas, rivers and lakes worldwide 7. Gorilla Bite force: 1,300psi Distribution: Forests of central Africa 8. Polar bear Bite force: 1,200psi Distribution: Arctic Circle 9. Grizzly bear Bite force: 1,160psi Distribution: Canada and USA 10. Hyena Bite force: 1,100psi Distribution: Sub-Saharan Africa…

WHAT’S HOT HA HA AND How we laugh online has been making the headlines recently after researchers at Facebook looked into the ways its users show their appreciation of humour. To the relief of English teachers everywhere, simply typing the words ‘ha ha’ was by far the most popular method – appearing in 51.4 per cent of the posts where laughter was expressed on the social network. Laughter emojis (such as ) were the next most popular method, popping up in 33.7 per cent of the posts examined. WHAT’S NOT LOL The irritating text-speak abbreviation for ‘laughing out loud’ has fallen out of favour, if Facebook’s survey is anything to go by. LOL appeared in just 1.9 per cent of posts on the social network during the last week of…

1 BRAILLE BUDDY This might look like yet another fitness tracker, but it’s actually a Braille smartwatch. As well as doing all the usual smartwatch stuff, Dot can also function as an e-book reader, and there’s a built-in Braille tutor for those who can’t already read it. Surprisingly, that’s actually the majority of the blind population – meaning that Dot could transform lives in a way that an Android or Apple watch never could. Dot $300 (£190 approx), fingerson.strikingly.com 2 JAZZY ODYSSEY The ARP Odyssey duophonic synth was released in 1972 and graced recordings by everyone from ABBA to Deep Purple. It was discontinued in 1981, and secondhand machines have traded hands for increasing sums ever since. But now Korg has rebooted the Odyssey, adding USB and MIDI connectivity, and…

IN 1902 ERNEST Starling and William Bayliss were studying the nervous system’s control of digestion at University College London. They were looking in particular at the duodenum – the part of the small intestine located immediately after the stomach. When gastric acid enters the duodenum, the pancreas releases pancreatic juice. At the time, hormones were barely understood. A large number of scientists still thought that vital organ functions, such as the release of pancreatic juice, were controlled by the nervous system. To test this, Starling and Bayliss cut away all of the nerves in the pancreas and the duodenum of an anaesthetised dog. They found that pancreatic juice was still produced when acid passed through the duodenum. They suspected that the duodenum was producing something that was entering the bloodstream…

1700S The height of the craze for ‘castratos’ – male opera singers castrated before puberty. Giuseppe Aprile (pictured) was one such singer. 1849 Arnold Berthold’s famous experiment on cockerels reveals that the testes play a key role in the development of male characteristics, even when severed from the nervous system. 1891 George Redmayne Murray cures myxedema patients using extracts from the thyroid glands of sheep. 1905 Ernest Starling uses the term ‘hormone’ to describe the chemical messengers that are rapidly being discovered. 1915 Harvey Cushing starts his work on the pituitary gland and establishes it as the ‘master gland’ that keeps many other metabolic processes synchronised. 1921 Insulin therapy for diabetics is developed by Frederick Banting and Charles Best. Banting is awarded a Nobel Prize two years later – he…

TUESDAYS Costing The Earth BBC Radio 4, 3:30pm THIS ENVIRONMENTAL SHOW returns for a new series. Highlights include former Focus editor Jheni Osman taking a look at urban gardens. With over 80 per cent of the UK’s population living in urban areas, how can we ‘greenify’ our cities? Jheni reveals the species invading our backyards, and the gardening tips that will help them thrive. 23 SEPTEMBER My Head BBC World Service, time TBC ON 30 JANUARY 2011, James Piercy was involved in a serious car crash and suffered a major brain injury. This is the story of his recovery. He meets the policeman who kept him breathing and the surgeon who operated in the dead of night, and finds out what injuries like his can tell us about the brain.…

24 SEPTEMBER Solar Secrets: Understanding Our Star, The Sun Royal Observatory Greenwich, London, 7pm-8:30pm, £7, rmg.co.uk AT THIS TALK, journey into the heart of our Solar System and explore how far we’ve come in our understanding of the Sun. 30 SEPTEMBER Rolls-Royce’s Engineering At Work Day Thinktank, Birmingham, free, bit.ly/1PnIA89 STUDENTS IN YEARS 8 and 9 can get hands-on at these workshops run by Rolls-Royce engineers. Booking essential. FROM 9 OCTOBER The Crime Museum Uncovered Museum of London, from £10, museumoflondon.org.uk NEVER-SEEN-BEFORE objects from the Metropolitan Police’s Crime Museum are now on public view. 13 OCTOBER Rosetta – The Story So Far Royal Astronomical Society, London, 1pm-2pm, 6pm-7pm, free, ras.org.uk DISCOVER THE INCREDIBLE challenges of Rosetta at this talk by Prof Ian Wright, who was involved in the mission. 15…

What’s the idea behind your book? It’s that evolution – incremental, gradual selective change that produces complexity and order without a plan – is something that applies to much more than just biological systems. It explains how language evolves, and how society and technology changes. How does technology evolve? If you look at how new technologies emerge, we give far too much credit to inventors. Twenty-three people independently came up with the idea of the incandescent light bulb – it was the next inevitable step based on what had happened before. There are lots of ideas out there: some get chosen, some get dropped and the result is an incremental change in technology. You also say that morality is an evolutionary process… I argue that the idea of evolution pre-dates…

…drove a hybrid SUV around the crowded city streets of London to find out if it really does do 148mpg. Turn to p90 to discover whether these next-gen eco vehicles live up to the marketing hype. …went to the launch of Project MC2, a new range of STEM-inspired dolls for children, and got to try out a geek chic photo booth. Read about the dolls on our website at bit.ly/projectmc2 …spoke to zoologist, economist and author Matt Ridley about his new book, which argues that most ‘human achievements’ are in fact simply the result of ideas evolving over time. FOCUS DIGITAL Available for Android • iOS • Kindle Fire • Kindle e-reader…

Who is she? A former director of the radiology lab at Israel’s Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. What has she been up to? She has been ingesting small doses of hydrogen peroxide (H202), a powerful chemical that’s used to make explosives and hair bleach, on a daily basis for the last six years. Why on Earth is she doing that? Studies on nuclear disasters such as Chernobyl or Fukushima have found that the bodies of those hit by high doses of radiation produce fatal quantities of hydrogen peroxide. Laster believes she can teach her body to adapt to this. So she’s making herself radiation-proof? That’s the general idea. Lester hopes her daily dose of bleach will let her build up an immunity to the deadly H202, just as vaccinations grant…

The lunar atmosphere The Moon has an atmosphere? Yep. NASAs LADEE craft has detected abundant levels of neon in the lunar atmosphere, which means we now know that it is mostly made up of neon, helium and argon. Where does it come from? Solar wind shoots into space from the Sun, and this gassy breeze containing hydrogen, helium and small volumes of other gases hits the surface of the Moon. Only helium, argon and neon are volatile enough to bounce back and enter the atmosphere, while the other gases stay on the surface. Can it get all that from solar wind? The atmospheric gases are mostly provided by solar wind, but the Moon itself also has its own supply of gases. Argon-40 is released from the radioactive decay of potassium-40…

Fruity tattoos FOR THOSE WHO want a tattoo, but aren’t quite ready to be permanently inked, how about one that lasts for two weeks? Unlike other temporary tats, Inkbox’s designs last for more than just a few days. The secret lies in a fruit-based formula that stains the top layer of skin (the epidermis) but, unlike conventional tattoos, not the layer beneath (the dermis). Place the adhesive stencil on the skin, hold a wet cloth over it for 10 minutes, and wait 24 hours for the tattoo to appear. Hipster heaven! Patent pending Diet dressing IMAGINE IF LOSING weight was as easy as changing your clothes. That’s the bold claim of Adam Paulin, creator of Thin Ice clothing. His insoles and vests are embedded with cooling chips – essentially miniature…

THE MERE MENTION of comets crashing into the Earth is likely to bring to mind images of mass extinction and the end of days. But researchers at the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC) have found further evidence that comet impact may have been vital for the creation of life as we know it. The team ran a series of experiments aimed at mimicking the kind of comet impacts that are likely to have occurred on Earth at the time when life first appeared, around four billion years ago. They made a mixture of amino acids (the so-called ‘building blocks’ of life), ice and forsterite, a mineral often found in meteorites. They then cooled it to 77°K and bombarded it with a propellant gun, to simulate the force…

A SOAP BUBBLE IS almost like a magic pill for making people smile. They’re easy to create, beautifully spherical, innocent and airy with a hint of unpredictability. And they’re colourful. But once you’ve watched them for a while, you notice something strange. The shifting swirls gliding over the surface are pink and green, sometimes with streaks of yellow and occasionally blue. But where are the other colours? What about red and purple, brown and orange? What makes a bubble so selective? Possibly the only thing about bubbles that has consistently been disappointing to generations – other than the fact you can’t catch them – is that you can’t change the colour of a bubble by adding food dye. There’s just not enough of it: a typical soap bubble is so…

SEPTEMBER 2015 SEES the 50th anniversary of the first showing of Gerry Anderson’s Thunderbirds, which was successfully revived by ITV this year. Like most of Anderson’s 1960s shows, Thunderbirds was set against a background of a world government. “We now had the United Nations and I imagined, rightly or wrongly, that there would be a world government in the future,” Anderson said. This was a common assumption in science fiction at the time, and was inspired by the multinational institutions that emerged after WWII – the UN, the EU. Their purpose was to prevent another war, to provide mediation between countries armed with atomic weapons, and to manage challenges like poverty on a larger scale. But the idea of a world government has a long history. The Spanish philosopher Francisco…

ASTRONOMY IS UNIQUE among the sciences as it is conducted at a distance. Geologists can go out in the field to study rocks face-to-face and even bring them back to the laboratory for further analysis. The same goes for biologists, palaeontologists and chemists – they’re all very hands-on. But what if your area of interest lies in galaxies and how they evolved to form the structure of the known Universe? What do you do then? You can’t haul a galaxy down to Earth for closer inspection and telescopes only provides a snapshot of what they were like at for a brief moment. For a group of astronomers based in Durham and Leiden, in the Netherlands, the answer is to build a replica of the Universe in a supercomputer. Their brainchild…

SUSAN BLACKMORE Susan is a visiting psychology professor at the University of Plymouth. Her books include The Meme Machine DR ALASTAIR GUNN Alastair is a radio astronomer at the Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics at the University of Manchester ROBERT MATTHEWS After studying physics at Oxford, Robert became a science writer. He’s Visiting Professor in Science at Aston University GARETH MITCHELL Starting out as a broadcast engineer, Gareth now writes and presents Click on the BBC World Service LUIS VILLAZON Luis has a BSc in computing and an MSc in zoology from Oxford. His works include How Cows Reach The Ground EMAIL YOUR QUESTIONS TO questions@sciencefocus.com or post to Focus Q&A, 2nd Floor, Tower House, Fairfax Street, Bristol, BS1 3BN CRESSIDA NICHOLLS, POOLE Q Could we grow plants without sunlight?…

1 The 3D-printed smart cap is fitted with an inductor and capacitor, to form a resonant circuit. It’s then screwed on to a milk carton. 2 When milk is left at room temperature, bacterial growth increases, which causes a change in the liquid’s electrical properties. 3 When the carton is turned upside down, a drop of milk becomes trapped in the cap, allowing the circuit to test its properties. 4 A reader wirelessly detects the changes then alerts you as to whether the milk is still fresh enough to consume or stale. RESEARCHERS AT THE University of California, Berkeley have designed a 3D-printed ‘smart’ bottle cap that lets you determine whether milk has turned sour – without needing to give it a sniff. This is the first time that working…

IN HIS REMARKABLE science-fiction novels about an advanced civilisation called the Culture, Iain M Banks solves the problem of fuelling a starship by using limitless energy from The Grid, a fictional field between our Universe and a mirroring antimatter one. It’s a nice idea but in the real world we have to make do with more traditional methods of generating and distributing power. As many have pointed out, there’s more than enough energy arriving from the Sun every second to fuel our needs but capturing it in a useful form is a challenge. Currently we rely on a million-year-long process of compressing organic remains into coal and oil to make fuel, a method that’s both inefficient and causes unwelcome climate changes. But we are on the verge of a transformation…

Arnold Berthold (1803-1861) Berthold was a German physiologist and zoologist. He studied the organs and sexual characteristics of various animals, but it is his work on castrated cockerels that is remembered as the first experiment in the field of endocrinology. Charles-Édouard Brown-Séquard (1817-1894) Brown-Séquard was a distinguished scientist from Mauritius who made many great contributions to medicine and our understanding of the nervous system. However, he derailed hormone science by injecting himself with the juice of animals’ testicles and making wild claims about how it made him feel. Ernest Starling (1866-1927) Starling was the English physiologist who coined the term ‘hormone’ in 1905. Along with his brother-in-law William Bayliss, he made a number of contributions to the study of hormones. Their experiment to extract secretin is a classic. Harvey Cushing…

1 ADRENALINE Adrenaline is one of the most familiar hormones and is famed for the ‘buzz’ it gives when released during frightening or exciting moments. 2 ENDOCRINE SYSTEM Humans have at least 80 known hormones and 10 hormone-producing glands. The release of hormones, their effects, and their interaction with each other is known as the endocrine system. 3 HOMEOSTASIS Hormones play a key role in the body’s constant maintenance of a stable internal environment, known as homeostasis. 4 HORMONE Hormones are chemicals released by the body to control processes including digestion, metabolism, respiration,sleep, reproduction, mood and growth, to name a few. They travel through the blood and bind to specific receptors on the target cell, triggering a change in cell function. 5 HPA AXIS This stands for the hypothalamicpituitary–adrenal axis,…

20 SEPTEMBER Dawn Discovery, 7pm MOST OF US know somebody who perkily insists that 6am is the best time of the day. Here’s your chance to try out that theory, while still enjoying a lazy lie-in. Dawn explores the natural world during daybreak, filming a selection of bleary-eyed animals as they wake up in five beautiful locations – Zambia, Brazil, Mexico, Norway and Columbia. 20 SEPTEMBER Warlords Of Ivory National Geographic, 8pm BRYAN CHRISTY IS the real-life Indiana Jones. Named National Geographic’s Explorer of the Year in 2014, he’s spent the past decade uncovering wildlife traffickers. In this programme, he conceals a GPS tracker inside a faux ivory elephant tusk, and, before he knows it, he’s hunting down poachers in the heart of Africa. 26 SEPTEMBER Inside The Mega Twister…

LastQuake iOS 6.0 or later, iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch, Android 2.3.3 or later, EMSC, free DID THE EARTH just move for you? For a quick and easy way to confirm whether it was an earthquake, LastQuake’s stark interface is designed to do just that. As well as using GPS to list reported quakes near you, you can reference significant tremors around the world and report anything going on in your area. Switch to the global map for a visual representation of the strength and reach of each earthquake, as reported by users tapping ‘I felt that’. Behind the headline information are even more details about the area that has been affected by the quake. Solar Walk iOS 7.0 or later, iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch, Android 4.0 or later, Vito Technology, £2.29/£1.82 TAKE A WALK…

Hardback Paperback “I came away enlightened, challenged, and somewhat in awe of an author able to write so lucidly” The Evolution Of Everything Matt Ridley 4th Estate £20 THOUGH I’VE NEVER met him, I feel like I know Matt Ridley pretty well. My first interaction with him was back in the mid-1980s, when he was the wunderkind science editor of The Economist. I’d ring him up whenever I thought I had a piece he’d print, and soon twigged my chances were greatly enhanced by having some contrarian line about a controversial issue widely believed to have an ‘obvious’ solution. Simples. Actually, it wasn’t. I soon realised how hard it is to free oneself from conventional thinking, and spot flaws in what everyone ‘knows’ is the right answer. But blowing up…