Table of contents for July 2020 in BBC Science Focus Magazine

ART LOVERS Researchers at The European Synchrotron Radiation Facility have figured out why Edvard Munch’s 1910 version of The Scream has begun to degrade: he used impure cadmium yellow paint, which degrades even in relatively low humidity. Now, curators at the Munch Museum in Oslo, where the painting is kept, can work on measures to save it. NAP TAKERS Replacing prolonged periods of sitting around with a nice nap can help lower stress, body mass index (BMI), and improve mood, a study at Iowa State University has found.…

A new form of haptic technology has been designed that gives blind people the sensation of reading Braille, without having to touch any surfaces. The device, called the HaptiRead, was developed by researchers from the University of Bayreuth, Germany. They hope that the HaptiRead could be used by blind people out in public, for reading departure times at a bus stop or using a cashpoint, for example. Haptic devices work by simulating physical sensations. For example, if you hit a wall while playing Mario Kart , your controller will vibrate. Or, in more sophisticated devices, ultrasound waves are used to push darts of air at you which feel solid enough when they reach your skin, making the invisible into something physical. The HaptiRead uses the latter technique. It has been…

An ultralight e-bike that’s easy on the eyes Taiwanese company Gogoro has taken the motor, batteries and sensors of an e-bike and tucked them into a hub on the back wheel to streamline the design and create what it calls the ‘sports car’ of the e-bike world. The carbon fibre frame keeps the weight down to 12 kilograms, while helping to soak up the bumps and potholes of city streets. It has a battery-assisted maximum range of 88 kilometres (55 miles), can recharge in 2.5 hours and will lock down the motor itself when you park up. Oh and it’s priced like a sports car too. Eeyo 1 From $3,899 (£3,101 approx), eeyo.bike A camera designed for YouTubers Sony’s latest pocket camera is built for vlogging. It has a whip-smart…

YASMIN HAYES, LONDON WHY DO PEOPLE LAUGH WHEN THEY’RE NERVOUS? The most obvious function of emotional displays like laughter and crying is to signal to others what we’re feeling. But the fact that we laugh when we’re nervous shows this isn’t the whole story. Sometimes our emotional displays can be a way to mask our true emotions. If we’ve done something embarrassing, for example, we might laugh to cover up our feelings of shame or shyness. Nervous laughter could also be a way to help us regulate our emotions. We usually feel more relaxed after we laugh, so a nervous chuckle when we’re feeling socially anxious can help to alleviate some of those negative emotions. CJ WINNER Yasmin wins a Trust GXT 788RW 4-in-1 Gaming Bundle, worth £59.99. It includes…

IS CLIMATE CHANGE THE SAME AS GLOBAL WARMING? People often use the terms ‘climate change’ and ‘global warming’ to describe the same phenomenon: an increase in average global temperatures, caused by humans adding heat-trapping greenhouse gases into our planet’s atmosphere. But while some places are getting warmer as a result, other parts of the globe might sometimes be cooler. And ocean or atmospheric temperatures aren’t the only thing changing: weather patterns and sea levels are too. Some people therefore prefer to use the term ‘climate change’ as it covers the full range of predicted impacts. ‘Climate crisis’ is another term you might hear. WHAT’S THE EVIDENCE FOR CLIMATE CHANGE? Temperature records show that our planet’s average surface temperature has risen by about 1° C since 1850. Most of this warming…

Ambulance The BAFTA-winning documentary has returned to our screens, this time following the North West Ambulance Service. BBC One Thursdays at 9pm, catch up on iPlayer The Salisbury Poisonings In 2018, Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were poisoned by a chemical nerve agent in Salisbury. This three-part drama tells their story and the city’s response to the subsequent public health crisis. Available on BBC iPlayer CrowdScience: What’s The Point Of Blood Groups? The team finds out why animals have different blood types and if cross-species transfusions could ever save a human’s life. BBC World Service Available on BBC Sounds.…

WRITE IN AND WIN! The writer of next issue’s Letter Of The Month wins a Q800 Pro dashcam from Thinkware. It has a QHD wide-angle forward-facing camera, HD rear-facing camera and night vision. It also comes with cloud connectivity, where you can locate the vehicle, and alert others in case of impact. thinkwaredashcam.store A pointless vaccine? In ‘The race to create a vaccine’ article (May, p52) you say it can take “10 years or more” to get a vaccine ready. Does that mean that the flu jab I get every year won’t protect me from any new strain that has arisen in the last 10 years? Doesn’t that make the flu vaccination almost useless? Henry Parr, Frome It can take 10 years or more to develop an entirely new vaccine,…

Astronomers have captured an image of a galaxy shaped like a ‘cosmic ring of fire’, using data gathered by the WM Keck Observatory in Hawaii and images recorded by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope. The circular galaxy, dubbed R5519, is located 11 billion light-years away from us, and is roughly the same mass as the Milky Way. It has a hole in its centre that is two billion times longer than the distance between the Sun and the Earth, and is a hotbed of star-making activity. “It is a very curious object that we’ve never seen before. It looks strange and familiar at the same time,” said lead researcher Dr Tiantian Yuan, from Australia’s ARC Centre of Excellence for All Sky Astrophysics in 3 Dimensions (ASTRO 3D). “It is making stars…

LOCUST PLAGUE Millions of people in East Africa, the Middle East and Asia are at risk of hunger due to rising swarms of desert locusts. The insects are threatening pastures and crops wherever they go. Locusts eat almost all crops, and in one day a swarm covering one square kilometre can consume the same amount of food as 35,000 people. Just months after Kenya was hit by the worst locust outbreak in 70 years, a second, larger wave is currently causing destruction. In India, farmers already hard hit by the coronavirus pandemic are now battling a massive invasion of the insects, while farmers in Pakistan are suffering the worst plague of locusts in recent history. OCEANS Removing plastic from the ocean is not enough Plastic, along with ‘invisible’ pollutants like…

In the universe of Star Trek, on 5 April 2063, humanity ventures out into the Galaxy on the first ship capable of faster-than-light travel, the USS Enterprise. The newly invented ‘warp drive’ not only lets humans explore the cosmos, but also attracts the attention of Vulcans and brings about our first contact with an alien species. It’s been 54 years since we were first introduced to the USS Enterprise, and many of the futuristic technologies from Star Trek have since been invented, from handheld communicators to universal translators. A warp drive is the next obvious choice: Voyager 1, which has travelled further from Earth than any spacecraft, took nearly 35 years to leave the Solar System. Not exactly handy for interstellar travel. Luckily for humanity, theoretical physicists have been working…

SPRING TO LIFE GRAND PRISMATIC SPRING, YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, WYOMING, US Yellowstone’s Grand Prismatic Spring is the largest hot spring in the US, and it boasts a veritable rainbow of colours. Hot water bubbles up through a crack in the Earth’s crust, supplying the spring. Very little can survive in the centre of the spring, where temperatures can reach nearly 90°C, so the water here is a pure blue. But away from the centre, colourful, heat-loving bacteria begin to thrive, and the spring’s concentric rings of temperature create different niches. The colours come from the photosynthetic pigments, such as chlorophyll and carotenoids, that the bacteria use to manufacture energy from sunlight. Carotenoid-rich Synechococcus bacteria are responsible for the innermost yellow ring, while slightly further from the centre, Synechococcus rubs shoulders…

STEADYGOING SHARK The Greenland shark (Somniosus microcephalus) may live more than 400 years, making it the longest-lived vertebrate. The best evidence for their longevity came from a study published in Sciencein 2016, when the eye lens of one of these sharks was radiocarbon-dated at 392 years old, plus or minus 120 years. The predator is providing some useful insights into ageing. It thought its chilly habitat may switch on anti-ageing genes that get rid of DNA-damaging molecules and help fight off infections. THE IMMORTAL JELLYFISH The jellyfish Turritopsis dohrnii seemingly has the power of immortality. A bit like Doctor Who, it can regenerate to a younger state. It achieves this feat by switching its cells from their adult state to an earlier ‘polyp’ form. While transforming our cells back from…

Claire’s* legs ache with cold as she pushes forwards into the messy grey sea, grey sand stretching behind her, grey sky above. She braces herself against each incoming wave, the wind whipping at her exposed skin. Her local beach, Scheveningen, on the western coast of the Netherlands, is a wide expanse of sand running uninterrupted beside the North Sea. It’s March, and the sea temperature is about 6°C. In the water, Claire’s skin temperature drops instantly, and after a few minutes, her muscles start to cool, stiffening like chewing gum. Her swim is short, and warming up takes hours, but she’s elated to be there. “We were jumping around, shrieking like schoolgirls,” she says, remembering her first taste of cold water swimming. Claire needed the boost, as three months before,…

HOW CAN I SEE JUPITER AND SATURN? WHEN: THROUGHOUT JULY In some ways, summer stargazing is great because of the warmer nights. But the shorter nights mean that there’s a much smaller window of darkness. That’s why it’s a great time to look for the brighter objects in the sky, like planets, which are still visible even when it’s not fully dark. This July offers the perfect opportunity to spot two of the ‘naked eye’ planets: Jupiter and Saturn. That’s because the Earth’s orbit will bring it directly between these planets and the Sun. When this happens, a planet is said to be ‘in opposition’. It is the closest the planet will come to Earth – and is therefore the brightest we will see it in our night sky. Jupiter…

LESS IS MORE. Most people don’t need anything more than a basic cleanser and moisturiser, and sunblock if you’re going outside. SOME SKIN NEEDS MORE HELP. There are about 3,000 skin-related conditions, such as eczema and psoriasis. If your skin is scaly, dry and red, then you may be advised to follow a particular routine. In this case, moisturisers can help to rehydrate the skin, and short bursts of steroids can ease inflammation. MOISTURISERS DON’T ‘GIVE’ WATER TO THE SKIN. This is a common misconception. Moisturisers provide a protective barrier and work by allowing the body to transfer water from deep down in the skin to the top layers. EXPENSIVE CREAMS AREN’T NECESSARILY BETTER. There’s some interesting psychology going on here. Sometimes, we pay extra for the branding, the packaging…

DR HELEN PILCHER Science writer Helen reveals the processes that create some of the most colourful natural phenomena on Earth. p46 PROF MIKE TIPTON Could cold water swimming help stave off stress and depression? Mike is one of the scientists who’s looking into its potential. p74 DR DANIEL MACARTHUR The gnomAD database is now live. It’s a collection of the genetic variation in thousands of genomes. Daniel reveals what it might tell us about disease. p24 PROF BRENDAN WALKER Self-proclaimed thrill-seeker and engineer Brendan reveals the psychology and physiology of rollercoaster riders. p70…

The ethics of research I have mixed feelings about the article on the effects of ocean plastic on turtles (April, p17). I’ve seen the damage that plastic is causing to our oceans myself – while diving in the Red Sea in Aqaba, Jordan I found a moray eel choked to death on the seabed with plastic tightly wrapped around its neck. But the article raised some questions. How ethical is it to take turtles captive to conduct research? Aren’t we restricting the very freedom we’re trying to give them, even in the name of science? What are we doing to help turtles we find with plastic in their system? Lynn Muldrew Science offers the opportunity for us to try and prevent further damage to the marine environment. We need to…

ANCIENT ANTARCTIC ICE RETREATED 50M A DAY Global warming that ended the last Ice Age caused the Antarctic ice shelf to retreat up to 50 metres per day – 10 times faster than the rate observed today, a study at the University of Cambridge has found. In the last period of rapid deglaciation, some 12,000 years ago, the ice along the Antarctic continental shelf broke up into sheets. This stirred up sediment on the seafloor leaving patterns of delicate, ‘wave-like’ ridges that can be used to calculate the rate of the ice’s recession. If climate change continues to weaken ice shelves, we could see similar rates of retreat, raising sea levels all over the world, the researchers warn.…

WALK OR CYCLE MORE The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has highlighted walking and cycling more as one of the tactics that save energy and could help to stabilise global temperatures. Many car journeys that we make in our daily lives are relatively short. Almost two-thirds of 2-3km journeys in England are made by car, but these journeys could often be made by foot, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution while helping you stay healthier. For longer journeys, bicycles are an option. Electric bikes in particular are increasingly allowing people to travel further, and offer a boost up steep hills too.…

1. The SpaceX Crew Dragon module and Falcon 9 rocket are prepared for launch in a hangar. To the left are two Falcon 9 boosters that were recovered from a previous launch. SpaceX is the first organisation to recover boosters for reuse, rather than losing them at sea after launch. 2. NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley walk out of the Operations and Checkout building on their way to the launchpad. They are wearing SpaceX’s newly designed spacesuits. 3. On 30 May, Crew Dragon was launched atop a reusable SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida. 4. Two minutes and 40 seconds after the launch, the Falcon 9 rocket detached from Crew Dragon before falling back down to Earth. It fired its boosters to land safely on an…

As far as Nintendo games go, Animal Crossing isn’t perhaps as well-known outside of gamer circles as series such as Super Mario, Pokémon or The Legend Of Zelda. And yet the latest instalment, New Horizons, has become something of a phenomenon in this worrying new world we find ourselves in. If you haven’t already come across it, New Horizons is a life-simulation game, a more easygoing counterpart to earlier titles like The Sims. You start off by purchasing a getaway package to a deserted island, armed only with a tent and a few basic tools to tend to the land. Although there’s a basic storyline to follow, what you do in your newfound escape is up to you. Among other things, you can go bug-hunting, try to catch rare fish,…

“ULTIMATELY, THIS IPAD IS A HYBRID THAT PULLS OFF THE NEAT TRICK OF FEELING LIKE A COMPLETELY DIFFERENT DEVICE DEPENDING ON THE TASK AT HAND” The iPad Pro feels like it’s from the future. It’s the kind of technological alchemy that only a handful of tech companies seem to manage. The hardware is so well-designed, and the interface so intuitive, that there’s just no friction when you use it – nothing slows you down. For all its elegance, the iPad Pro has always felt a little too glam and a little too workshy to really earn the ‘Pro’ moniker it carries. But with the arrival of the new Magic Keyboard, complete with a trackpad, can it finally become a tool that helps you be more productive? Is it different from…

WHY DO I SMELL OF ONIONS AFTER I’VE BEEN WORKING OUT? You have two kinds of sweat glands in your skin. ‘Apocrine’ glands exist only on certain parts of your body, such as your armpits and groin area, and produce an oily fluid in response to emotional experiences such as anxiety, pain and arousal. ‘Eccrine’ sweat glands are much more numerous and distributed all over the body, and they’re responsible for your workout sweat. The purpose of eccrine sweat is to cool down the body as it evaporates from the skin. Eccrine sweat is more than 99 per cent water and completely odourless – at least when it first leaves your pores. But the bacteria on your skin feed on the scant nutrients in the sweat, along with any loose…