Brain dump issue 34 2016

Upper atmosphere, cloud tops atmosphere, Atmosphere hydrogen, helium, methane gas Mantle water, ammonia, methane ices Core rock, ice... The molecules of most elements are more compac

curious questions

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the human body Give your

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Why cats love catnip How planet names are chosen

The QWERTY keyboard explained Inside Yellowstone Park

Learn about Benjamin Franklin Anatomy of the Tiger tank

TRANSPORT

ENVIRONMENT TECHNOLOGY

HISTORY

These

attention-grabbing stars are the stellar celebrities of the Milky Way The stars were snapped by the Hubble Space Telescope and belong to the glittering star cluster Trumpler 14 Located about 8,000 light years away from Earth in the

Carina Nebula

t h a t s

AMAZING t h a t s

A stunning view of the Villarrica volcano taken from Pucon, some 800

km south of Santiago, showing visible signs of activity on April 21,

2015 Villarrica is one of Chile’s most active volcanoes, rising above the lake and town of the same name, 750 km south of Santiago

t h a t s

AMAZING t h a t s

Like a cosmic bull’s-eye, Enceladus and Tethys line up almost perfectly for Cassini’s cameras These two moons of Saturn were captured in perfect alignment by the

Cassini Probe in

December 2015

t h a t s

AMAZING t h a t s

Passerines have three toes facing

forward and one facing back

The fl exor tendon that pulls these toes

into a claw runs up the back of the leg

over the ankle joint When the bird

squats down to perch, the fl exor

tendon is pulled tight by the pulley

action of the tendon over the tarsus

bone The weight of the bird forces its

claws shut around a twig or telephone

wire, without any muscular effort

Passerines have three toes facing

forward and one facing back

The fl exor tendon that pulls these toes

into a claw runs up the back of the leg

over the ankle joint When the bird

squats down to perch, the fl exor

tendon is pulled tight by the pulley

action of the tendon over the tarsus

bone The weight of the bird forces its

claws shut around a twig or telephone

wire, without any muscular effort

In case of emergency, astronauts on the International Space Station can

take refuge or return to Earth on board the Soyuz escape capsules

One or two Soyuz spacecraft remain docked with the station

at all times, with each accommodating up to three people Since the ISS’ launch in

1998, its crew have never had to make an emergency return to Earth In January 2015, a suspected ammonia leak forced American astronauts to shelter temporarily in the Russian section of the ISS Close encounters with space debris have also forced crew to move

to Soyuz as a precautionary measure three times, but no collisions occurred

Perhaps surprisingly, there are not

separate compartments inside a

tube of striped toothpaste To get them

in the tube in the fi rst place, the different

coloured pastes are merged into a

divided nozzle, which keeps the colours

separate while dispensing them evenly

into the tube from the bottom via a

funnelling machine If you were to cut

open a tube of stripy toothpaste, you’d

see that the stripes are thicker inside

It’s only when you squeeze the tube that they become thinner as they fl ow out the nozzle The reason they fl ow at the same speed and consistency is down to the scientifi c study of the fl ow

of matter In scientifi c terms, the stripes all have the same rheology This means that they keep the same thickness and

fl ow in the same way under different pressures, so they keep their positions and remain as stripes in the paste

refl ecting blue.

2 Due to the fast nature of

Neptune’s spin around

its axis, its equatorial

diameter is 846

kilometres larger than

its polar diameter.

actually named, funnily enough, after his Greek counterpart

Poseidon’s son, Triton.

3 Around its equatorial region

Neptune is privy to winds

in excess of 2,150 kilometres

per hour as well as

extremely violent storms.

5 Neptune undergoes

seasons just like here

on Earth However,

they last 40 years each

instead of just the three

months we’re used to.

of 17 Earths

Upper atmosphere,

(cloud tops)

atmosphere,

Atmosphere

(hydrogen, helium, methane gas)

Mantle

(water, ammonia, methane ices)

Core

(rock, ice)

It’s because

it’s less effi cient

An alphabetical keyboard

would put A and E on the left and

middle of the top row, and T on the left

of the bottom row These are the most

uncomfortable places for touch typists

to reach, for some of the most common

letters in English The alphabet is a

random sequence of letters and there’s

no reason to suppose it has an advantage for keyboards There are patterns that are theoretically more effi cient than QWERTY These layouts never took off, but alphabetic order is demonstrably worse than QWERTY

WHY AREN’T KEYBOARDS ALPHABETICAL?

We have four sets of tonsils There

is a palatine tonsil either side of

the back of the mouth The lingual tonsil

behind the tongue, and the tubal tonsils

and adenoids on the roof of the mouth

are part of the lymphatic system, a

network of vessels used by the immune

system to patrol and defend the body Together they form a defensive ring that guards the entrance to the lungs and digestive system Inside the tonsils, powerful cells of the immune system can detect infection early, and mount a rapid response

WHAT ARE TONSILS FOR?

Cockpit fl ight recorders are

enclosed in a steel or titanium box

(which is painted orange to make it

easier to fi nd) Inside that there are

some racks of very rugged electronics,

but most of these don’t actually need

to withstand a plane crash, as long as

the tapes or memory chips containing

the actual data do They are stored in

an inner armoured steel case coated in

a fl ame retardant paint and lined with several layers of insulating materials Blocks of paraffi n wax are used at various points as thermal barriers In a

fi re, the paraffi n melts and absorbs some of the heat

WHAT ARE BLACK BOX FLIGHT RECORDERS MADE FROM?

The rippled surface of the fi rst Martian sand dune ever studied up close fi lls this Nov 27,

2015, view of “High Dune” from the Mast Camera on NASA’s Curiosity rover The dunes close to Curiosity’s current location are part of “Bagnold Dunes,” a band along the northwestern fl ank of Mount Sharp inside Gale Crater

“HIGH DUNE”

MARTIAN SAND DUNES

There is an oil found in the catnip plant (nepeta cataria) called nepetalactone Researchers believe that when this oil enters a cat’s nasal tissue, it binds to protein receptors that stimulate sensory neurons This leads to a response in neurons in a certain part of the brain known as the olfactory bulb which projects to other brain regions; regions that mediate emotional responses to stimuli (causing a behavioural response), and regulate neuroendocrine responses, making the cat react

to an artifi cial cat pheromone It doesn’t affect all cats, but many roll around, fl ip over, get hyperactive and sometimes act aggressively, before experiencing a come down ten minutes later

CATNIP?

WHY DO

CATS

LOVE

The molecules of most elements are more compact

in their solid form than they are

in their liquid state, but water is different As you may know, each water molecule is made

up of one oxygen atom with two hydrogen atoms attached The hydrogen atoms in water have a positive charge and cause the water molecules to

be attracted to one another This attraction forces water to form a net of crystals with lots

of gaps in it as it freezes The crystal net structure takes

up more space than liquid water and so water expands

as it turns to ice

WHY DOES

WATER

EXPAND WHEN FROZEN?

Planetary names in our Solar

System are derived from

mythology – except for Earth, which

comes from Middle English Since fi ve

of the planets can be seen by the naked

eye, they have been called many things

depending on the culture over the

centuries before their

current names became

standard Uranus

(previously thought to have

been a star) is the only

planet whose name comes from

Greek rather than Roman

m y t h o l o g y

N e p t u n e ’ s discoverers argued over who could name

it, while former planet Pluto’s name was suggested by an 11 year old in the

UK There were no planetary naming rules until 1919, when the International Astronomical Union (IAU) formed The IAU is currently in charge of naming all celestial objects

CHOSEN?

HOW ARE THE

NAMES OF

PLANETS

When lips lose moisture, the skin covering them can become tight and crack or

resulting in sore and even bleeding lips Unlike other parts of our body, our lips do not contain oil glands, which means they are more likely to become dry Other factors then exacerbate the situation So, a lack of moisture makes matters worse, whether this is weather induced or a failure to moisturise lips manually, and frequently licking lips actually removes moisture too Extreme weather conditions, like cold or

dry air, wind and Sun exposure,

strip moisture, and also lead

to chapped lips

CHAPPED?

WHY DO

LIPS GET

WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE

BETWEEN FROGS AND

TOADS?

Frogs and toads share many

features, so they are often

confused They both belong to the

Anura order of the class Amphibia, but

they usually have features that help to

separate them Frogs have long legs to

enable them to jump and

mucus-covered skins Toads are fatter, have

dry skin, and have shorter legs Frogs tend to stay close to water while toads are more often found inland While this category is huge, we tend to think of

‘true frogs’ as members of the Ranidae family, and ‘true toads’ as members of the Bufonidae family, each of which contains hundreds of different species

Mammoth Hot Springs

Grand Canyon of the Ye llowstone

Mammoth Hot Springs

Grand Prismatic Spring

2 1

3 4

5

6 7

8 9

The tip and sides of the tongue

have lots of fungiform papillae,

responsible for sensing the fi ve different

tastes: sweet, sour, bitter, salty and

umami Different people have different

numbers of these bumps, allowing

them to be broadly separated into three

groups: non-tasters, medium tasters

and supertasters

Supertasters can have as many as ten times more fungiform papillae than non-tasters, and as a result of this, are much more sensitive to fl avour They report that sweet foods taste sweeter and fatty foods taste creamier, and they often dislike the taste of bitter foods, such as broccoli, cabbage and brussel sprouts

DIFFERENT FOODS?

WHY DO PEOPLE LIKE

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it’s actually a fi sh Strictly speaking though, fl ying fi sh do not really fl y They use their fi ns to help them glide through the air, but they do not fl ap them like wings The fi sh developed this technique to help them escape predators in the water, but they cannot remain airborne for very long, because they need to return to the water

to breathe

FLY?

Staying airborneWhen it falls back towards the surface, it can beat its tail in the water to begin another glide

Tail technique

The fi sh begins rapidly beating its

tail, which is still underwater, to

fi ns against its body to make it more streamlined and gain speed

Lift off

By angling its body upwards, the fi sh breaks through the surface of the water to heights of up to six metres

(20 feet)

Long distance fl ight

By completing successive glides, the fi sh can travel up to 400 metres (1,312

feet) through the air

Speedy swimmingThe fi sh begins by swimming really fast underwater They can reach speeds of over 60 kilometres (37

miles) per hour

HOW DO

FISH FLYING

water to begin another glide

more streamlined and gain speed

Flying fi sh can glide for up to

45 seconds at a time

An enigma of prehistoric civil

engineering and a dramatic

silhouette on the landscape of Salisbury

Plain, the megalithic monuments at

Stonehenge are a constant reminder of

the incredible resourcefulness of

ancient civilisations

Construction of Stonehenge was

divided into three stages The fi rst,

between 3000 and 2500 BC, involved

the creation of an ordinary henge

monument (a circular enclosure

bounded by banks and a ditch) that was

used for ceremonies and burials

The second stage saw the arrival of

Welsh bluestones from the Preseli

mountains In around 2150 BC, people

began transporting these four-ton

stones to Wiltshire using a combination

of rollers and sledges on land, and rafts

across the sea and rivers At the end of the 386-kilometer journey the stones were arranged as a double circle in the centre of the Stonehenge site These bluestones provided a sacred focus, which Stonehenge experts professors Timothy Darvill and Geoff Wainwright suggest was due to the stones’ perceived magic healing powers Once the stones were set up, the site attracted more interest with visitors and pilgrims from all over northern Europe

In around 2000 BC, the third phase

of construction began when Sarsen stones were transported from a site 25 miles from the monument These immense stones – the heaviest of which weighed 50 tons – were positioned upright in an outer circle with horizontal lintels running between each vertical

HOW WAS STONEHENGE BUILT?

Unfortunately, fl ooding is simply

a part of nature One in six

properties are at risk of fl ooding in

England and Wales Changes in our

climate, such as more severe storms

and wetter winters, will increase the

risk of fl ooding in the future There are

a variety of ways to tackle fl ooding and

these are just a few of them

Changes in land use, such as

building houses or putting down

concrete, can increase the risk of

fl ooding Because of this, we advise

against developments that will have an adverse affect on fl ooding

When building fl ood defences we look for ways to work with nature rather than against it Creating mudfl ats and salt marshes to store fl ood water can prevent fl ooding elsewhere, and can also provide environmental benefi ts such as new habitats

Individuals and communities also have a role to play in protecting themselves and their properties from

Heat (measured in joules) is the amount of thermal

energy (molecular

m o v e m e n t ) something has and

it can vary depending on the mass of the object; if the object has a large mass, its thermal energy will also be

large as it has a lot of molecules, while a smaller object will have less thermal energy as it has fewer molecules But temperature is a measure

of the relative thermal energy of something; it’s the degree of hotness or coldness, measuring the average kinetic energy in the molecules of an object Temperature is not dependent

on the mass of an object, so objects of different sizes could have the same temperature, but different heats So, a mug of tea may have the same temperature as a bath of hot water, but

as the bath has more water, it takes more energy to get its molecules to that temperature, and therefore it has more heat

DIFFERENCE

HEAT AND

WHAT’S THE

BETWEEN