THE MYSTERY OF KRYPTOS

Transcription

#SCEPTICISM
I S S U E 1 4 • O C TO B E R / N O V E M B E R 2 0 1 3
WHAT’S THE
SECRET?
THE MYSTERY OF KRYPTOS
#SCIENCE
#FOOD
#TECHNOLOGY
#ART
#POLITICS #MIND #MEDIA
#HEALTH
ISSN 2048-2590
PLUS...
GO SLOW, DO MORE
• COMPUTER HACKING: AN EXPERIMENT
• MAKE YOUR OWN PSEUDOSCIENCE IN 5 STEPS
•
THE GURU TEAM
Stuart Farrimond
realdoctorstu.com
Jon Crowe
Editor / Science Guru
@realdoctorstu
Deputy Editor/ Molecular Guru
@crowe_jon
Ross Harper
Deputy Editor
@refharper
Matt Powell
Guru Intern
Dorothée Grevers Guru Intern
Isabel Hutchison
Guru Intern
Ian Wildsmith Design Guru
ian@gurumagazine.org
FEATURED IN THIS ISSUE
Leila Wildsmith
Guru Opinions
Kim Lacey kimberlylacey.com
Mind Guru
@kimlacey
James Lloyd
thesoftanonymous.com
Daryl Ilbury
www.darylilbury.com
Physics Guru
@jbb_lloyd
Sceptic Guru
@darylilbury
Clive Stocker
confidentperformer.wordpress.com
Sarah Byrne sarahbyrne.org
Artem Cheprasov
Animal Guru
Ben Veal
benvealpr.com
Media Guru
@benvealpr
Felice Tocchini
Simon Makin
News Guru
simonmakin.me.uk
@SimonMakin
@KAPastor
Kyle Pastor
Matt Linsdell
Sarah Begum
(texture #16) Flickr • Asja Boroš
Fitness Guru
@smartfitmatt
sarahbegum.tv
CONTENTS
#ARRIVALS LOUNGE
#GURU OPINIONS
Page 6
Page 7
PRESENT TENSE: DO LESS, LIVE MORE
Do you end the day frustrated at never getting
everything done? Leila Wildsmith shows us why it
is worth putting an end to multi-tasking mayhem.
See how choosing the slow lane may actually
save you time and even make you happier. After
all, there’s no time like the present.
#MIND – COVER STORY
Page 9
CROWD-SOURCED CODE CRACKING
The CIA knows all. Or do they? Turns out they’ve
been struggling to crack a code etched on a
sculpture outside their headquarters since the
late 1980s. Kim Lacey, Mind Guru extraordinare,
explains why it’s baffling history’s greatest code
breakers, and how the internet community is
trying to crack it.
#BODY
Page 14
FIVE THINGS YOU NEVER KNEW YOU
NEEDED TO KNOW ABOUT SNEEZING
What do sneezing and sex have in common?
Our Physics Guru, James Lloyd, departs from his
usual specialism to reveal the biological beauty
behind his snotty habit. He debunks old wives’
tales and unearths the surprising history of bless
you-ing. Go and blow your mind on page 14.
#SCEPTICISM
Page 17
MAKE YOUR OWN PSEUDOSCIENCE IN 5
EASY STEPS
Some people do anything to make a quick buck.
Sceptic Guru, Daryl Ilbury, explains the full
process behind creating your very own quack
medicine. From choosing your target illness, to
creating the brand and marketing it, these five
fool-proof steps are pseudoscientifically proven
to make you rich and famous.
If you see a link or web address anywhere in Guru, it’s probably clickable!
Where you see the
at the end of an article, use it to click back to this contents page.
#MUSIC
Page 21
#FOOD
Page 33
THE REAL ‘X’ FACTOR
FROM THE GURU CANTEEN
Musician Clive Stocker thinks that ‘talent’ shows
produces celebrities that do music a disservice.
He encounters folk singers Dónal Maguire and
Dave Webber to find out that true music has
nothing to do with a tuneful voice, but something
much deeper.
Award-winning TV chef, Felice Tocchini treats us
to a cooking master class, combining the most
unusual of flavours. If you’re feeling adventurous
(and trust the science), why not try making a
rainbow trout cheesecake, or, for the somewhat
less daring, a sweet potato and goat’s cheese
salad? It’s called food paring; we call it delicious.
#MEDICINE
Page 24
EIGHT ARMS TO HEAL YOU
What do you get if you cross a spider and a
prescription drug? A potential wonder drug.
Sarah Byrne introduces the eight-legged spider
molecule that has inspired researchers in their
quest to make side-effect-free drugs. Let’s just
hope they can come up with a more appealing
name in the process.
#SCEPTICISM
Page 27
SPECIAL OFFER – BUY NOW!
Let veterinarian and Animal Guru Artem
Cheprasov take you through the shady back alleys
of the modern day snake oil salesmen. From not
so double-blind studies to foxes dressed in lab
clothing, he uncovers the dirty tricks used to get
you spending big money on dubious medicines
for you and your pet.
#GUREVIEWS
Page 31
A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH
In this issue, Ben Veal, our Media Guru, dips into
the macabre-sounding A Matter of Life and Death
by Paul Carroll. Does this black comedy satire of
modern day mourning deserve a standing ovation
or a death sentence? Check out our Gureviewer’s
verdict on page 28.
#NEWS
Have we got news for you… Should you be
getting your Granny an X-box for X-mas?
Simon Makin, our News Guru, reports on a
study that put brain games to the test. Also,
read about a study that (literally) shines a
light in the phenomenon of false memories.
#TECHNOLOGY
We challenged internet-savvy Kyle Pastor to hack
into someone’s Wi-Fi. See how it went and how
five simple steps can protect you from virtual
spies and hustlers. You might never browse the
internet in the same way again.
#SCIENCE
Page 32
ELYSIUM
It’s the sci-fi blockbuster of the year. Did its writer
and director, Neil Blomkamp, manage to match
his previous success with District 9, or is he
better off renaming the film ‘Not Another Dystopia
Movie’? Matt’s made up his mind.
Page 52
ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE AMAZON
RAINFOREST
Sarah Begum takes us on a walk down memory
lane, which runs through the thicket of an
Amazonian forest! Did she really hunt alongside
tribal warriors, while musing about being reborn
as a jaguar? Find out for yourself: she got it all on
tape.
#PHILOSOPHY
Page 55
WELCOME TO THE REAL WORLD
Would you choose the red or the blue pill? A group
of German physicists are looking for evidence that
we are all living in a virtual reality. That’s right, we
really could be living The Matrix, with our brains
plugged into a computer somewhere. Email us
when you’ve worked out how to do dodge bullets.
Page 39
A HACKER REVEALS HIS SECRETS
Page 43
AMERICANS DO IT WITH DOUGHNUTS
A hot drink can really take the edge off a cold and
windy autumn day. It can also make your sugary
snacks even more delightful. Our Science Guru
and dunking expert, Dr Stu, tells you all about the
perks of being a dunker and how to do it right.
Anyone fancy a cuppa?
#FITNESS
#GUREVIEWS
Page 35
#LIFE
Page 48
#ASK A GURU
Page 59
Check out answers to some of our favourite
questions from the past two months. Find out
about the science of flower care, the cons
of tactical napping and why your phone
charging worries may soon come to an end.
#NEWS: BITE SIZED
Page 61
Jurassic Park’s science has been scrutinised,
new merits of poo discovered, and time travel (of
sorts) made possible through healthy living. Read
all about these (and more) in this issue’s roundup
of news stories you probably missed.
#RANDOM IMAGE
Page 62
#DEPARTURE LOUNGE
Page 63
PROTEIN SUPPLEMENTS
Whether its solid abs, hunky biceps or He-Manesque pecs you’re striving for, Fitness Guru
Matt Linsdell shows how you can bulk up just
fine without investing in pricey protein shakes.
Don’t believe the advertising, just tuck into his
black bean chocolate brownies and get ripped.
(Exercise required.)
URU OPINIONS
I
Contents Pages: (Summer feeling) Flickr • Alfonso Salgueiro Lora
can’t resist a good mystery.
Although I don’t watch a lot of
TV, I have developed a fanaticism
for drama-thriller shows like Scandal
and Homeland. Their ever-twisting
plotlines make for some pretty
compelling viewing – and, when
the final credits roll, you’re left
wondering who are the good guys,
and who are the villains.
One real-life unsolved mystery that
continues to baffle the CIA is the
Kryptos code. Stencilled in a copper
sculpture outside the agency’s
headquarters, it has beaten top code
breakers and supercomputers alike.
In this issue, Mind Guru Kim Lacey
joins those members of the internet
community who are trying to crack
it.
From cracking to hacking, Kyle Pastor
becomes the bad guy and reveals on
page 39 just how easy it is to take
control of someone’s Wi-Fi. He spies
on everything his ‘victim’ does, and
in doing so he gets inside the head
of an internet voyeur – a disturbing
place to be.
Meanwhile, Matt Powell tries to
answer life’s greatest mystery – why
we are here. He finds out about the
scientists who claim that we live in
a Matrix-esque computer simulation.
GURU 12 • October/November 2013 • ISSN 2048-2590
© 2013 Guru Magazine Ltd.
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Text and picture material is sent at the owner’s risk.
Cover images: (Feathers) Flickr • Wilerson S Andrade
Follow Guru on Twitter •
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And what’s more, they think they can
prove it. (Yes, seriously.)
There’s certainly no doubting who
Animal Guru, Artem Cheprasov,
thinks to be the bad guys. He gives
the ‘experts’ who put profit before
proof a good drubbing on page 27 –
and with good reason. And this issue
is something of a scepticism doublewhammy, featuring Daryl Ilbury’s
easy five-point guide to making your
very own pseudoscience therapy. Try
it for yourself on page 17. We were
so taken by the idea that we have
come up with our own new illness –
Guropathy.
Should you be afflicted with this
heinous disorder, the rest of this
issue will provide relief; if you’re after
something different to eat, why not
try the recipes on page 33? If you’re
not sure what to do in your free
time, check out our book and movie
reviews starting on page 31. You
can find out the truth about protein
shakes (page 48); why life is better
done slowly (page 7); and what’s
currently taking the medical world
by storm (page 24).
Guru: your recommended dose of
science-lifestyle. Consume every two
months.
Dr. Stu
Guru: Your digital science-lifestyle
magazine. By you and for you. Next issue released: 2nd December 2013.
Guru is intended to be used for educational
and entertainment purposes only.
Please consult a qualified medical professional
if you have any personal health concerns.
Present tense
Do less, live more
I wonder what you’re doing as you’re
reading this. As I type, I am half
watching a detective programme (I
think I have worked out ‘whodunnit’);
I keep checking Facebook, just in case
something new has happened in the
last few minutes; and I am making
something to eat. I am a multitasking Queen. In fact, it is rare that
I will ever be doing just one thing
at once: I am always multi-tasking.
And I am not alone. Multi-tasking
is common in our culture; in fact,
it is necessary in our culture. With
increasing demands on our time and
resources, lengthening to-do lists and
higher expectations, we simply have
to multi-task in order to accomplish
everything.
However, far from being an effective use of
our time, recent research suggests that multitasking is actually inefficient and causes us to
spend longer on each task. Carl Honoré, author
of In Praise of Slowness and The Slow Fix writes,
“Much of what passes for multitasking is
nothing of the sort: it is sequential toggling
between activities. And the research suggests
that this flitting back and forth is actually
very unproductive: tasks can take more than
twice as long to complete when performed
in this way. That’s why that history essay
takes your teenage daughter (with her IMs,
cellphone, MySpace page, TV monitor, etc)
three hours to write instead of 90 minutes.”
What’s more, multi-tasking increases the
risk of mistakes which, depending on your
profession, could be life-threatening. In their
Harvard Health publication, Organise Your
Mind, Organise Your Life Dr. Paul Hammerness
and Margaret Moore claim that multi-tasking
increases the chances of making mistakes and
missing important information and cues.
Not only is multi-tasking ineffective and –
potentially – dangerous, it is exhausting. Our
brains cannot focus properly on more than
one task at a time, so trying to complete two
or more things at once is hugely taxing, which
leaves us feeling drained. Teresa Aubele, Ph.D.,
and Susan Reynolds explain this in their article
“Are You Smothering Your Brain’s True
Genius?” in Psychology Today.
So, if multi-tasking is actually a waste of our
time, it leads me to wonder why we are all so
obsessed with it.
Multi-tasking has become such an accepted way
of life that we seem unable to focus solely on the
activity at hand, even in our leisure or recrea-
PA G E 7 • O C TO B E R / N O V E M B E R 2 0 1 3 • I S S U E 1 4 • G U R U
(caffeinating, calculating, computerating) Flickr • Ryan Ritchie, (img_0005) Flickr • niezwyciezony
ARRIVALS LOUNGE
(Multitasking in the Park) Flickr • David Goehring
GURU OPINIONS
#MIND
tional activities. This is seen increasingly in the
popularity of social media sites. We no longer
just enjoy a meal with loved ones, we have to
share a photo of the meal as well. We no longer
simply enjoy leisure pursuits, we have to let the
world know too. This is even true when it comes
to watching TV: we are unable to watch our
favourite programmes without multi-tasking.
That this is now the norm is confirmed with the
new phrase “Dual Screening”, which refers to
the fact that as people watch TV, they are usually
also on the internet or using their phones at the
same time. In fact in an online research article,
TV and Social Media: A Second Screen Investigation Joel Windels (Lead Community Manager
at Brandwatch) found that a staggering 60%
of UK Twitter users use Twitter whilst watching
TV and 40% of all Tweets sent during TV
peak times is about TV. This is encouraged by
TV producers who often create and promote a
hashtag for Tweeters to use when commenting
on the show. If it is impossible for our brains to
fully attend to two tasks simultaneously, as has
been suggested, then we are missing out - even
in our leisure activities - despite thinking that
we are achieving more.
The myth that without multi-tasking we miss
out has become so commonplace that we feel
ineffective – lazy, even – and guilty if we are just
doing one thing at a time. In a culture addicted
to speed and the adrenaline buzz that comes
with it, slowing down and focusing on just one
thing at a time seems incomprehensible. We
are part of a society in which, as Brené Brown,
Ph.D., says, “our self-worth is tied to our net
worth, and we base our worthiness on our level
of productivity”. In such a culture, choosing to
do less and to spend longer on tasks in order to
accomplish them well is difficult. It is difficult
because it calls into question our very identity
and our sense of worth. Focusing all of our
attention on just one thing at once, or on one
person at a time has become uncomfortable.
Being present is tense.
So often we are not present in the present. Our
thoughts straddle the past and the future and
we are distracted by what we need to do, or
should have done. But in so doing, we waste
the opportunities to which each day presents
us. We miss out on so much of life by trying
to cram so much more into it. But our multitasking is leaving us drained and dissatisfied: no
matter how many tasks we manage to tick off
CROWD-SOURCED
CODE CRACKING
DECODING KRYPTOS
our ‘To Do’ lists, there is always that nagging
feeling that we could have done more, if only
we had worked harder. We define ourselves by
our accomplishments – we have become human
doings and not human beings.
The ‘Slow Movement’ is a reaction to this fastpaced, work-based life-style in which, by doing
everything not as fast as possible, but as well
as possible, people “do everything better and
enjoy everything more”. Carl Honoré explains,
“The Slow philosophy is not about doing everything at a snail’s pace. It’s about seeking to do
everything at the right speed. Savouring the
hours and minutes rather than just counting
them. Doing everything as well as possible,
instead of as fast as possible. It’s about
quality over quantity in everything from work
to food to parenting.”
Rather than wishing we had more hours in
the day, we should seek more life in the hours.
Instead of believing that there is never enough
time, we need to shift our thinking to understand that there is enough time if we scale back
our commitments, cull our to-do lists and take
control of the number of things with which we
fill our lives. When we stop seeing time as a
relentless master – making demands on us
which we can never hope to fulfil – and start to
see time as a series of unique opportunities, we
will begin to find freedom from the daily grind
and a deeper sense of purpose and fulfilment.
So, grab yourself a cup of coffee, sit
down and relax with the rest of this
issue.
Leila Wildsmith is an English teacher in a secondary
school and, in her spare time, loves writing and reading a
wide variety of different books. She also intensely dislikes
misplaced apostrophe’s.
G U R U • I S S U E 1 4 • O C TO B E R / N O V E M B E R 2 0 1 3 • PA G E 8
KIM LACEY • MIND GURU
It seems like so many of our biological
processes are becoming joint productions between our body and a
computer. If my brain fails me and
I can’t remember who starred in a
movie, I can quickly IMDB-it. If there
is a word that’s on the tip of my tongue,
there’s an app for that. And for more
advanced processes in medicine or
design, human-machine interaction
seems to happen automatically.
Previous Page: (Antipodes) Flickr • wanderingYew2, (Enigma Machine) Flickr • Tim Gage, (Kryptos sculptor) Wikimedia • Jim Sanborn
Now, think of all the James Bond movies you’ve
seen over the years. Think, too, of all the time
you spent immersed in spy stories when you
should have, oh, spent those evenings preparing
your next Guru article (okay maybe that last
one’s just me!). Whether in real life or in fiction,
we are all somewhat familiar with the gadgets
that spies use to increase their human senses or
capabilities; espionage is no stranger to pairing
humans with machines to gather, process, and
decipher information more effectively.
‘Cryptanalysis’, is a traditional career path for
intelligence operators, who have long worked
with machines to intercept and decode enemy
messages (for instance, using the Enigma
machine of WWII).
Highly intricate algorithms, created to muffle
sensitive national security information, can
be quickly infiltrated with computer-aided
analysis. As a result, even though today’s codes
are increasingly sophisticated, the complexity
of code-cracking technology has increased as
well. But there is one code that stumps even the
world’s best code breakers – Kryptos.
The Uncrackable code
Outside of the CIA headquarters in Langley,
Virginia, USA there is a symbol that is indecipherable to the decoding efforts of the world’s
While Sanborn imagined that the first three
quadrants would be solved in, at most, a matter
of months, it took nearly a decade for someone
to crack the code. Two individuals solved the
K1–3: one cryptographer inside the CIA solved
it with pencil and paper, while a California
man designed a computer program to crack the
code. (Recent reports have surfaced stating that
individuals within the NSA managed to solve
three of the quadrants a long time before the
CIA codebreakers.)
The Answers:
Yes, they’re bizarre but here’s what Sanborn
encrypted. He claims the mistakes were deliberate.
foremost cryptographers – humans and
machines alike. Commissioned by the CIA in
the late 80s, sculptor James Sanborn created
Kryptos, a curved copper sculpture with a secret
code on it. In an interview with National Public
Radio’s All Things Considered, Sanborn remarked
that his inspiration for the monument was the
secrets that spies carry with them to their grave,
noting that “spies can never tell anyone the
secret[…]they are privy to hidden information
for life.” Thus, Kryptos was born.
Translated from the Greek as ‘hidden,’ the
sculpture Kryptos is divided into four quadrants
(K1–4). To date, all of the codes have been
deciphered – except K4.
K1
K2
EMUFPHZLRFAXYUSDJK ZLDK RN SHGNFIVJ
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZABCD
Y Q T Q U X Q B Q V Y U V L LT R E V J Y Q T M K Y R D M F D
AKRYPTOSABCDEFGHIJLMNQUVWXZKRYP
V F PJ U D E E H Z W E T Z Y V G W H K K Q E T G F Q J N C E
BRYPTOSABCDEFGHIJLMNQUVWXZKRYPT
GGWHKK?DQMCPFQZDQMMIAGPFXHQRLG
C YPTOSABCDEFGHIJLMNQUVWXZKRYPTO
T I M V M Z J A N Q LV K Q E D A G D V F R PJ U N G E U N A
DPTOSABCDEFGHIJLMNQUVWXZKRYPTOS
QZGZLECGYUXUEENJTBJLBQCRTBJDFHRR
ETOSABCDEFGHIJLMNQUVWXZKRYPTOSA
YIZETKZEMVDUFKSJHKFWHKUWQLSZFTI
FOSABCDEFGHIJLMNQUVWXZKRYPTOSAB
H H D D D U V H ? D W K B F U F P W N T D F I YC U Q Z E R E
GSABCDEFGHIJLMNQUVWXZKRYPTOSABC
E V L D K F E Z M O Q Q J LT T U G S Y Q P F E U N L AV I D X
HABCDEFGHIJLMNQUVWXZK RYPTOSABCD
FLGGTEZ?FKZBSFDQVGOGIPUFXHHDRKF
IBCDEFGHIJLMNQUVWXZKRYPTOSABCDE
F H Q N T G P UA E C N U V P D J M Q C L Q U M U N E D F Q
JCDEFGHIJLMNQUVWXZKRYPTOSABCDEF
ELZZVRRGKFFVOEEXBDMVPNFQXEZLGRE
KDEFGHIJLMNQUVWXZKRYPTOSABCDEFG
D N Q F M P N Z G L F L P M R J Q YA L M G N U V P D X V K P
LEFGHIJLMNQUVWXZKRYPTOSABCDEFGH
D Q U M E B E D M H DA F M J G Z N U P L G E W J L L A E T G
MFGHIJLMNQUVWXZK RYPTOSABCDEFGHI
K3
K4
E N D YA H R O H N L S R H E O C P T E O I B I D Y S H N A I A
NGHIJLMNQUVWXZK RYPTOSABCDEFGHIJL
CHTNREYULDSLL SLLNOHSNOSMRWXMNE
OHIJLMNQUVWXZKRYPTOSABCDEFGHIJL
TPRNG AT IHNR A R PE SLNNE L EBLPII AC AE
PIJLMNQUVWXZKRYPTOSABCDEFGHIJLM
WMT WNDI T EENR AHCT ENEUDRETNHAEOE
QJLMNQUVWXZK RYPTOSABCDEFGHIJLMN
T F O L S E D T I W E N H A E I O Y T E Y Q H E E N C TAY C R
RLMNQUVWXZK RYPTOSABCDEFGHIJLMNQ
E I F T B R S PA M H H E W E N ATA M AT E G Y E E R L B
SMNQUVWXZK RYPTOSABCDEFGHIJLMNQU
T EEFOA SFIOTUE TUAEOTOARM AEERTNRT I
TNQUVWXZK RYPTOSABCDEFGHIJLMNQUV
BSEDDNIAAHT TMSTEWPIEROAGRIEWFEB
U Q U V W X Z K R Y P T O S A B C DE F G H I J L M N Q U V W
AECTDDHILCEIHSI T EGOE AOSDDRYDLORI T
VUVWXZK RYPTOSABCDEFGHIJLMNQUVWX
RKLMLEHAGTDHARDPNEOHMGFMFEUHE
WVWXZK RYPTOSABCDEFGHIJLMNQUVWXZ
ECDMRIPFEIMEHNL SST TRT VDOHW?OBKR
XWXZK RYPTOSABCDEFGHIJLMNQUVWXZK
UOXOGHULBSOLIFBBWFLRVQQPRNGKSSO
YXZKRYPTOSABCDEFGHIJLMNQUVWXZKR
T W T Q S J Q S S E K Z Z WAT J K L U DI AW I N F B N Y P
ZZKRYPTOSABCDEFGHIJLMNQUVWXZKRY
V T T M Z F P K W G D K Z X T J C D I G K U H U AU E K C A R
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZABCD
G U R U • I S S U E 1 4 • O C T O B E R / N O V E M B E R 2 0 1 3 • PA G E 1 0
K1:
BETWEEN
SUBTLE
SHADING
AND
THE
ABSENCE OF LIGHT LIES THE NUANCE OF
IQLUSION
K2:
IT WAS TOTALLY INVISIBLE HOWS THAT
POSSIBLE ? THEY USED THE EARTHS
MAGNETIC FIELD X THE INFORMATION WAS
GATHERED
AND
TRANSMITTED
UNDERGRUUND TO AN UNKNOWN LOCATION X DOES
LANGLEY KNOW ABOUT THIS ? THEY SHOULD
ITS BURIED OUT THERE SOMEWHERE X WHO
KNOWS THE EXACT LOCATION ? ONLY WW
THIS WAS HIS LAST MESSAGE X THIRTY EIGHT
DEGREES FIFTY SEVEN MINUTES SIX POINT
FIVE SECONDS NORTH SEVENTY SEVEN
DEGREES EIGHT MINUTES FORTY FOUR
SECONDS WEST X LAYER TWO
However, since the original decoding, neither
the most skilled humans nor computer cryptanalysts have been able to to decode K4’s message.
(Except some of the Guru team, shhh – Ed.) In
the years since its installation, multiple online
groups and individuals interested in cryptography have been trying to crack the final code
without success. Out of curiosity, I joined the
Yahoo Kryptos group, the most popular and
active group of amateurs attempting to solve
the puzzle. Alas, I’m no nearer to cracking the
code. (As a side note, Dan Brown’s fictional
symbologist Robert Langdon caused such
frenzy among the Yahoo group, that Sanborn,
in a rare “clue,” noted in interviews that the
novelist’s suggestions are totally false.)
Crack a secret code at home (yes,
really)
But before we get ahead of ourselves, let’s talk
a little about what it takes to write and crack
a code. Cryptography works on the basis of
sequential structure – once a certain section of
the code is cracked, the remaining portions are
usually understandable. The two popular types
of encoding are called substitution and transposition. In The Code Book, Simon Singh defines
these two techniques simply: “In transposition
each letter retains its identity but changes its
position, whereas in substitution each letter
changes its identity but retains its position”.
Confused? To illustrate, substitution ciphers
simply shift the alphabet a specific number of
letters; a typical substitution -4 would move “A”
to the “E” slot, “B” to “F”, “C” to “G” and so forth:
‘I eat apple pie’
becomes
‘M iex ettpi tmi’
K3:
SLOWLY DESPARATLY SLOWLY THE REMAINS
OF PASSAGE DEBRIS THAT ENCUMBERED
THE LOWER PART OF THE DOORWAY WAS
REMOVED WITH TREMBLING HANDS I MADE
A TINY BREACH IN THE UPPER LEFT HAND
CORNER AND THEN WIDENING THE HOLE
A LITTLE I INSERTED THE CANDLE AND
PEERED IN THE HOT AIR ESCAPING FROM THE
CHAMBER CAUSED THE FLAME TO FLICKER
BUT PRESENTLY DETAILS OF THE ROOM
WITHIN EMERGED FROM THE MIST X CAN YOU
SEE ANYTHING Q ?
PA G E 1 1 • O C TO B E R / N O V E M B E R 2 0 1 3 • I S S U E 1 4 • G U R U
How about a little run down of our favourite James Bond (and
maybe a few other spies’) gadgets? And, hey, if you decide to
make and send us the working gadgets, we’ll frame a picture of you
(and then print pictures of us hideously misusing your creation).
reprints or images on the CIA website. (There
is, however, a replica of Kryptos at the Smithsonian’s Hirshorn museum. Purists – take heed!)
The real question I have about Kryptos is why
haven’t we been able to design a computer
program to crack the code? Amateurs can
spend hours interrogating its meaning, but
the individuals who have solved K1–3 were not
‘amateurs’ – each was highly versed in either
CIA level cryptographic training or computer
science. The secret of Kryptos is inaccessible to
most – the code is too complicated to decipher,
too complicated to create an algorithm to crack
it, and too complicated to know where to begin.
Kryptos is begging to be solved, and whether
that solution happens with a computer, by
1. Laser wristwatch: You’re telling me I could know the time and laser
strangers’ faces off at the same time? Well, surprisingly, the Guru
team doesn’t really need more than that. A laser wristwatch would
make a brilliant Christmas gift because it’s better than a normal
(muggle) watch and we could destroy the socks we always seem
to get.
2. Aston Martin DB5: Does it even need the gadgets? No, it doesn’t,
but no one would be able to touch you in this car. One of the first
of Bond’s cars, we’ve always loved clichéd car gadgets: oil slick
release, smoke and machine guns in the headlights...something
is so wonderfully thrilling about all of those gadgets. Admittedly,
we’ve never considered the insurance for such a beast, but let’s
not ruin the magic.
3. The quantum earpiece: This is probably one of the most practical
gadgets. Maybe we should rephrase that; it’s one of the only
gadgets we couldn’t cause mayhem with. It gives its user the
ability to listen in on conversations through walls or from a considerable distance. We’d love to have one, although the intern just
wants to use it for nefarious deeds – not very spylike.
ADVERTISEMENT
(1965 Aston Martin DB5) Flickr • Rob_sg , (159/366 - Gig killers) Flickr • p_a_h, (Jetsons Commute) Flickr • Steve Jurvetson
• Elonka’s Kryptos Page
• Kryptos Sculpture Mystery
• The NSA cracked the Kryptos sculpture
years before the CIA
• Singh, S. (2000). The Code book: The Science
of secrecy from ancient Egypt to quantum
cryptography. New York: Anchor Books.
5. Jet pack: Does it even need an introduction? And why hasn’t
someone made one yet? (Actually, they have – Ed.) It’s both a cure
for un-coolness and laziness: you could fly to work and look even
better than Chuck Norris. There is nothing to hate about jetpacks –
except maybe if you were scared of heights or didn’t want to burn
up a huge amount of fuel by flying to the bar five minutes down the
road. You’d still be the coolest person there though.
codes, one might design an algorithm based
on the frequency of certain letters in order to
discover which letters represent others; and
once these sequences are revealed, the decoding
becomes procedural.
K4 has 97 letters – nearly three times as many
letters as that sample sentence. Just thinking
about how many combos K4 would yield is
mind blowing!
All this cloak and dagger goes even further
because unless you’re a CIA employee, you
can’t actually see this statue in person! Any
of us wishing to crack the code are limited to
References
With a PhD from Detroit’s Wayne State University, Kim Lacey from Detroit, USA
knows a thing or two about memory studies, digital media and digital humanities. She
also has a serious addiction to combo plates at restaurants. You can read about Kim at
kimberlylacey.com or follow her on Twitter at @kimlacey.
4. Exploding gum: We love this gadget. Ok, so it’s not one of Bond’s,
but it was probably inspired by Bond’s exploding toothpaste in
Licence to Kill. It is essential for getting yourself out of those
sticky situations. But it’s not great to chew, and it’s definitely not
for sharing.
Once the cryptanalyst discovers the sequence,
the solution quickly appears. Some complicated
ciphers substitute messages multiple times
– taking our last coded message and adding
another layer of substitution on top of it.
On the other hand, transposition is simply an
anagram – the letters are the same, but they are
scrambled. This might seem easy, but as Singh
explains, a simple sentence like: “For example,
consider this short sentence” which contains
only 35 letters has more than 50,000,000,000,
000,000,000,000,000,000,000 (fifty nonillion)
combinations. So in order to solve more complex
chance, by mathematics, or with pencil and
paper, many wonder if its decoded message will
really offer any relief to the swarms of devoted
cryptanalysts, amateur and professional alike.
(Is this a challenge to Guru readers!?)
#BODY
FIVE THINGS YOU NEVER KNEW YOU NEEDED TO KNOW ABOUT SNEEZING
FIVE THINGS YOU NEVER
KNEW YOU NEEDED TO
KNOW ABOUT SNEEZING
It all starts with a faint tickle in
the nose. The eyes begin to water,
the chest heaves, and the body
tenses. There’s nothing you can do
now. The tension builds, suspense
mounts, you clasp your hand to your
mouth, and then ah… ah… ah…
tchoooooooo!
Every sneeze is a masterpiece of
biological engineering
It happens so quickly that it’s over before you
can say “snotty shower coming your way”, but
every sneeze involves an intricate, choreographed chain of events. It all starts when
the sensitive lining of the nostrils becomes
irritated, whether by a viral infection, pollen,
pepper, dust, or the mink scarf of that woman
on the subway.
This triggers the release of chemicals called
‘histamines’, which stimulate the nerve cells
in the nose to send a message to the brain
(something like: “help! The nostrils are being
invaded!”). The brain then sends instructions
along the nerves leading to the face, throat,
chest and diaphragm (the sheet of muscle
that sits at the bottom of the rib cage). The
diaphragm contracts, filling the lungs with air.
The muscles in the back of the throat and the
chest then follow suit, pushing out air, mucus,
and whatever nasties are inside the nose, in one
big snotty explosion. The process only lasts a
couple of seconds, but it can spew out thousands
of droplets at speeds of up to 100mph.
JAMES LLOYD • PHYSICS GURU
If someone sneezes today, you’re most likely to
mutter “bless you” and keep a safe distance lest
you catch their snot disease. In the olden days,
though, sneezes were loaded with meaning.
Sneezes are spontaneous and apparently
uncontrollable, so they were originally seen as
good omens sent by the gods. One of the most
auspicious sneezes occurred in the ancient
Greek legend the Odyssey. Penelope is waiting
for her beloved husband Odysseus to return
from the Trojan War. After hearing that he may
still be alive, she predicts, that upon returning,
Odysseus and their son Telemachus will take
revenge on her many suitors. At that moment,
Telemachus sneezes, “so loudly that the whole
house resounded with it”. Penelope laughs with
joy, reassured that the gods are smiling down on
them.
Today, of course, we still invoke the gods when
we say “bless you” after someone sneezes. No
one knows exactly where this came from, but
there are a few theories. For instance, a number
of age-old superstitions link sneezes to evil
spirits: some people thought that sneezes could
eject the soul from the body (where it might be
snatched by Satan); others thought that sneezes
purged the body of demons or evil spirits that
had possessed it. In both cases, saying “bless
you” was a way to safeguard the sneezer against
evil.
Another popular explanation is that “bless
you” became a common phrase during great
pandemics like the Black Death. If someone
sneezed, it was a sign that they had become
infected and would probably pop their clogs in
the not-too-distant future. So the response was
a kind of benediction which sent them on their
way. (It’s one of those responses you’d rather not
hear – Ed.)
Whatever the reason, virtually all of the world’s
cultures have a similar way of wishing sneezers
good health. Germans simply say “Gesundheit”
(“health”), Hawaiians say “kihe a mauli ola”
(“sneeze and you shall live”), while Cantonese
speakers say “大吉利事”, which literally means “a
great fortunate occurrence” – a positive view of
sneezing if ever there was one.
Sneezing does not make your
eyeballs pop out
Popular belief has it that your eyeballs will pop
out of your head if you sneeze without closing
Previous Page: (Day 286, Project 365 - 8.6.10) Flickr • William Brawley, (pollen) Flickr • theogeo
Sneezing, like sunlight and oxygen, is one of
those things we take for granted. But behind
every nasal explosion there’s a story. So the next
time you have a ‘sternutation’ (yep, scientists
have to rename everything), why not ponder
some of these incredible facts…
Sneezing used to be seen as a good
omen
FIVE THINGS YOU NEVER KNEW YOU NEEDED TO KNOW ABOUT SNEEZING
rival orgasmic pleasure, Ann Summers surely
would’ve launched a range of pepper mills by
now.
Orgasms and sneezes aren’t completely
dissimilar, of course – they both involve a
build-up of tension followed by a joyous release,
and there’s evidence that sneezing, like sex, can
release endorphins – but they’re created by two
completely different mechanisms. (Alas, the
science of orgasms will have to wait for another
time.)
your eyes. But fear not: it’s a complete myth.
In fact, it’s perfectly possible to sneeze with
your eyes open, as they’re firmly attached to
your head via muscles. We do usually shut our
eyes when we sneeze, but that’s because it’s an
involuntary reflex. The nerves serving the eyes
and nose are closely linked, so signals to one
can easily trigger a response in the other.
And, contrary to another common belief,
sneezing doesn’t make your heart momentarily
stop either: it’ll still valiantly beat on as you
spew out that snot.
(Day 38) Flickr • |Chris|
Sneezing can be triggered by
sunlight, sex, and full stomachs
It’s not just nasty things in the air that can
trigger sneezes: approximately one in four
people sneeze when looking at sunlight. No
one knows exactly what causes this ‘photic
sneeze reflex’, but one possibility is that signals
from the optic nerve overstimulate the nerves
involved in sneezing: our brain essentially gets
its wires crossed and initiates a sneeze when it
really doesn’t need to.
But it gets weirder still. Some people suffer
uncontrollable bouts of sneezing after a large
meal (this is marvellously called ‘snatiation’
– a portmanteau of ‘sneeze’ and ‘satiation’),
while others report sneezing when aroused,
orgasming, or even just thinking sexual
thoughts. So the next time someone sneezes
opposite you, give them a wink and see how they
react (or call them a pervert and act disgusted).
And while we’re on the subject of sex, six
sneezes do not make an orgasm (nor eight, ten,
or any other number). If sneezes really could
Counting sneezes can be strangely
therapeutic
#SCEPTICISM
MAKE YOUR OWN PSEUDOSCIENCE IN 5 EASY STEPS
AND GET RICH!
People like to make lists of all manner of
unusual things, but sneezing is surely up there
with the best of them. A chap called Peter
Fletcher has kept a record of every sneeze he’s
made since July 2007 (that’s 3,644 sneezes
at the time of going to press). As well as the
time, date and location of each sneeze, he also
assesses its strength (from ‘mild’ to ‘strong’)
and notes down what he was doing at the time
(e.g. ‘preparing porridge’, ‘googling Citroën
Xsara Picasso’).
“What’s the point?!” you might be asking. Well,
according to a blog post titled “Reflections on the
Counting of Sneezes”, this peculiar practice can
have a curiously therapeutic effect. In the words
of the man himself, counting sneezes “not only
acts to highlight, intensify and enhance the
experiences that accompany a sneeze, but also
the events that fall between the sneezes, giving
me a more profound understanding, even than
I had before, of the simple joy in the passing
of time, as recently when I stopped to watch
a blackbird in my garden, over the course of
five or six minutes, methodically peck away at
a large grape until the remaining section was
small enough to swallow whole, and then fly
away.”
So maybe it’s not an idea to be sneezed at after
all…
Further reading:
•
•
•
Sneezecount
Responses to sneezing around the
world
More on the photic sneeze
reflex
James Lloyd studied physics at university and recently finished a climate science PhD.
He’s now swapped semiconductors for semicolons, writing about science and blogging
at The Soft Anonymous. James enjoys music making, hill walking and trying to find
the perfect flapjack. Find him on Twitter @jbb_lloyd.
DARYL ILBURY • SCEPTICISM GURU
When I was director of a science
communications company, one of
our biggest challenges was to try and
dispel the myth embraced by many
children that science was difficult to
understand. Now that was difficult,
because often science is difficult
to understand. And this is one of
the reasons why pseudoscience
is so attractive; because it often
makes sense, in a ridiculous kind of
way. Ignorance can indeed be bliss
sometimes.
To show you just how easy it is to get a grip on
pseudoscience, I’ve created a step-by-step guide
to create your own. If you were in any doubt as
to why you might want to do this, there are two
very good reasons:
The most obvious is money. A lot of people
still get fooled into believing pseudoscience,
and there’s a lot of money to be made from
ripping off the uninformed. Making your own
pseudoscience can be like taking candy from
a baby. (However, while many enjoy the sweet
taste of success, you Guru readers have morals.)
Another reason is that it’s good for a laugh,
because pseudoscience should never really be
taken seriously (unless, of course, people are
capitalising on human ignorance and making
money from it, which is immoral – see point 1
above).
So let’s make this a fun exercise. Try it on your
friends or family, and when they wonder as
to how amazing it sounds, you can drop the
bombshell and everyone can have a laugh. It’s
really easy. Any idiot can do it – which is why
idiots often do. Let’s choose one of the more
prevalent forms of pseudoscience: ‘alternative’
medicine.
Step 1:
Step 2:
Identify a
malady
Think supply
and demand: choose
a malady that is common
and, preferably, not visually
specific or that needs real,
specialised medical attention.
So, steer clear of skin ailments
or acute conditions. Stick to
conditions that are associated
with a busy lifestyle. ‘Tension’
is a good one – it’s vague,
common and has various
causes and symptoms.
Invoke the
triumvirate
You need to isolate
a cause, so that you can
prescribe your ‘treatment’. To
be faithful to the pseudoscience
formula, you need to be both specific
and sketchy at the same time. The
best way to do this is to invoke the
trusty alternative medicine triumvirate
of ‘body, mind and spirit’. Play around
with the concepts of a ‘blockage’,
‘impediment’, ‘disassociation’, or
‘fracture’ within said triumvirate; and
preferably imply some measure of
fault on the part of the patient. That
way, when you tell them it’s not their
fault they’ll automatically feel
better.
Step 3:
Attach ancient
wisdom
Illogically,
mysticism is often used
to validate pseudoscience.
Many alternative medicines
claim a connection with past,
‘lost’ (read ‘extinct’) civilisations. Think Mayans and
Aztecs. Of course, if these civilisations were so wise, it begs
the question why they are now
extinct. The mix of mysticism
and real science (see Step 4)
is a key characteristic of most
‘alternative’ medicines.
~graphy
(if it supposedly records
something; such as their ‘spirit’)
~oscopy (if it supposedly involves the
placing of anything in or near
the body. Gently prodding with a
permanent marker could therefore
be called ‘penoscopy’)
~metry (if it supposedly measures
something that can’t be measured;
e.g. ‘soulometry’)
~desis (if it supposedly involves the
binding of two things; e.g. ‘mind
and spirit’)
~ectasia (if it supposedly involves making
something bigger; e.g. mind, such
as ‘pyschectasia’)
~iform (if something takes on the form of
something; e.g. ‘vitaliform’)
~genic (if it produces something; such as a
calming effect – think ‘calmigenic’)
Step 4:
Name it!
As I said in the preamble
to the Sceptic Quiz in
the last edition of Guru,
pseudoscience wouldn’t
be called ‘pseudo’
science if it didn’t take
on the appearance of
science in some way
– and the easiest way
to appear scientific is to
use a scientific-sounding
name. If you want your
alternative ‘medicine’
or ‘treatment’ to sound
scientific, try affixing any
one of the following
suffixes:
~iatry (if it focuses on a specific part
of the mind, body or spirit; e.g.
‘spectreitry’)
~lysis (if it involves the separation of
something; such as mind from the
body)
~pathy (if it supposedly involves
addressing a negative condition;
think ‘aurapathy’ as if they have a
negative ‘aura’).
Remember, if in doubt; just throw in the
term ‘therapy’.
Step 5:
THE REAL ‘X’ FACTOR
Prescribe a
‘treatment’
Medical science would
agree that removing oneself from
the causes of tension would help to relieve
its symptoms. Therefore the ‘treatment’
for your fabricated, now named, malady
should involve placing the ‘patient’ in a warm,
comforting environment, preferably lying
down, surrounded by calming music and the
subtle scent of flowers. Whilst their eyes are
closed, pretend to treat the malady in Step 1
by addressing the disruption of the triumvirate
you’ve suggested in Step 2. Think ‘realign’ or
‘unblock’. Using a calming voice, continually
reassure the patient that the malady has been
identified and the ‘treatment’ will be effective.
Hey, if it works for homeopathy, it’ll work for you!
If you’re still worried about whether the ‘patient’
will find a ‘cure’ in your ‘treatment’, keep a bunch
of rock crystals handy: they look pretty and
people believe they’re imbued with healing
properties.
#MUSIC
THE RISE OF TOXIC CELEBRITY VOCALS
So there you
have it: 5 steps
to creating
your own
pseudoscience.
Told you it was
easy.
Daryl Ilbury is a multi-award winning broadcaster and op-ed columnist based in
South Africa. He has a passion for science that has burned since he was a child. You can
see an archive of his work on his website www.darylilbury.com or follow him on
Twitter at @darylilbury.
CLIVE STOCKER
(Donal Maguire and Sean Corcoran) Flickr • candyschwartz
American Idol judge Simon Cowell is
now the top TV earner in the US. He
and Howard Stern, judge on America’s
Got Talent, both net $95m a year.
Such is our obsession with stardom.
Celebrating musical ability is all well
and good, but what if it gets drowned
out by the desire to be famous?
Earlier in the summer, I encountered acclaimed
folk singer Dónal Maguire for the first time. He
discussed the songs a musician chooses to sing,
and how a singer’s attitude affects their performance. As a music lecturer I was intrigued, but
did not expect that what he had to say would
be earth-shattering. I was somewhat mistaken.
Most of us believe that there are those that
have singing voices and those that do not.
This isn’t true, according to Dónal, who thinks
there is no such thing as a ‘good singing voice’.
THEREAL‘X’FACTOR
Dónal claims that the musicians who perform
with lasting musical success are those who
understand a song and seek to communicate
its meaning with an audience. They do this by
thinking about how best they can use the voice
with which they were born.
Dónal asserts that if your goal is merely to
entertain, as we see so often on ‘talent’ shows,
then you will be selling yourself short. The
desire to impress others is a very poor starting
point – an important lesson that I have learned
over the years: trying to play fast solos with the
intention to impress or trying to sing like one
of my vocal idols has led me nowhere. Exploring
the song and investigating its meaning is the
essential and only route to musical mastery.
Maguire explained that it usually takes him
three to four months to truly learn a song. Only
then, he says, can he know exactly how he will
perform each verse and how the meaning will
come across at any point. And, interestingly,
when he practices, he spends much of the time
singing the songs inside his head, working out
how best to deliver each line. It was a rare insight
into the practice of a professional musician who
often performs unaccompanied vocal solos all
over the world.
His weren’t just empty words: after talking with
me, he stepped up to perform a couple of songs
in front of a small audience. I was taken aback.
His intensity and fluency were incredible; the
songs were a part of him and I felt connected
with every word. It was like hearing a story from
a good friend over the dinner table: each word
had its part to play, and each line was delivered
slightly differently to convey meaning – all with
complete musical fluency. I can’t describe what
kind of voice he had because it adapted and
changed with each song; the range of dynamics,
the variety of tone, the pitch slides, the accents
in the music, the varying of tempo, the rigid
tempo sections, the pulling of the beat, the
precise pitching, the pauses, the silence, the
use of vibrato – all were used sparingly and
unobtrusively.
The end result was hypnotic and very moving.
He seemed truly at one with his music, bringing
forth a few tears of sadness in a song by Sean
Mone, from Keady in Co Armagh, called
‘Rosalita and Jack Campbell.’ The song speaks of
a young couple living in Belfast in the violence
of the 1970s: “When the sun set behind the
black mountain, the street demons came out to
dance.”
Toxic Celebrity Vocals
There are other musicians who have something
to say about singing with meaning. Folk singer
Dave Webber is passionate about the modern
pursuit of “Toxic Celebrity Vocals”. In agreement
with Dónal Maguire, he claims that too many
artists seek celebrity status above the establishment of musical meaning and believe that
endless melismas (like the yodelling of Mariah
Carey) and vocal embellishments are the way
to achieve it. We all know that contestants on
X-Factor (another of Simon Cowell’s creations)
make their way through the competition by
imitating the latest chart-topping, vocal acrobat
style – only to find they are dropped by their
record company 8 months later.
Knowing your song, knowing your lyrics,
knowing their meaning and thinking about how
to perform each song are all key to a meaningful
musical performance – a performance that
transcends any reliance on pyrotechnics. And
while they may not reach the same heights of
fame (or infamy), the shelf life of a folk singer
is considerably longer than that of your average
pop star.
I believe that it is carefully considered musical
subtlety and sparing use of musical features
that truly connects music with an audience.
Musicians: shun trying to please people and
remember that less is more.
“For Sale: Baby Shoes, Never Worn.”
The entirety of a six-word novel, attributed to
Ernest Hemmingway.
Clive Stocker lectures on music performance in Bath, UK, and is the author of How
to become a Confident Musical Performer. He is currently obsessed with expanding
musical performers’ comfort zones and has no plans to enter X-Factor at this stage.
You can read his blog here.
(Bromyard during the Folk Festival 2012) Flickr • brianac37
THEREAL‘X’FACTOR
#MEDICINE
SPIDERS IN YOUR BLOOD
In the US, over four billion medical prescriptions
were issued in the last year. For a population
of roughly 300 million, that’s a lot of pills. It’s
the aging population that skews the results to
make us seem like we are pill-popping fiends: as
more people are living longer, more are taking
medication to treat the maladies of old age.
And it is not much different in other developed
countries around the world, where millions
of older people are taking a daily cocktail of
tablets – ranging from painkillers to potentially
lifesaving blood pressure drugs, to cholesterollowering medicines and psychiatric drugs for
anxiety and depression. It’s no wonder that
drug design is big business.
But designing new medicines that are both
effective and safe is only half the battle. The
next challenge is how to get those drugs to
the part of the body where they need to act.
Whenever a drug strays to a part of the body
it wasn’t intended for, side-effects are often the
result.
SARAH BYRNE
Mission (near) Impossible
You probably don’t think much about what
happens to a pill after you swallow it. As long
as it eases your headache, keeps your allergies
under control, or even stops you getting
pregnant, why would you? But the contents
of that nondescript-looking little capsule have
a truly epic journey to go on before it reaches
its destination and completes its quest to make
you better.
First, it has to survive the hostility of the
stomach, which is awash with car battery
strength hydrochloric acid. This presents
a particular problem for the many drug
molecules that are small proteins (peptides),
which are especially sensitive to acidic conditions. And then there are the digestive enzymes
throughout the gut that break down our food.
Many of these enzymes are designed to break
down and digest protein-rich foods like meat,
eggs, or nuts. Unfortunately, these enzymes
have a nasty habit of breaking apart the proteins
in our medicines as if they were protein in our
food.
Injecting the medication directly into the bloodstream to bypass the guts is a reasonable alternative – though not without its own problems.
Injections are more difficult to administer than a
capsule, and more painful and unpleasant than
simply swallowing a pill. Additionally, the bloodstream is not the serenely flowing river its name
might suggest – at least from the perspective of
a tiny and fragile protein molecule. Once in the
fast-flowing blood, the medicine molecules are
exposed to extreme shear forces – forces that
can literally tear proteins apart or cause them
to become distorted and unfolded, rendering
them useless.
Previous Page: (Spider) Flickr • carolynconner, (ill.) Flickr • Key Foster
EIGHT ARMS TO
HEAL YOU
The notion of a spider walking on
the inside of your veins sounds like
the stuff of gothic horror. Make it a
‘nanotechnology spider’ and it sounds
more like science fiction. But that’s
how a new eight-legged creation could
revolutionise the future of medicine.
Researchers at the Helmholtz
Centre for Infection Research
have made a spider-like molecule as
the latest hope in the search for new
ways of getting therapeutic drugs to
the places in the body where they’re
meant to act: their targets.
#SCEPTICISM
High speed tearing forces aren’t the only
challenge presented by the bloodstream. It is
also home to the white cells of the immune
system, which monitor for and dispose of
any ‘foreign’ substances. While being vital for
protecting us from disease, this activity can be
an additional obstacle to drug molecules trying
to reach their destination if the white blood
cells earmark them as enemies.
It gets worse: some parts of the body are a
particular challenge for our little drug molecule
to get to. For example, anything that needs to
get to the brain must cross what is called the
‘blood-brain barrier’: a formidable defence
system that protects the brain from toxins or
infectious particles that might have found their
way into the bloodstream. And even when there
is no physical barrier – such as the one between
the blood supply and the brain – we often need
a drug to build up within a particular organ or
in a tumour for it to do its job – but there’s a
chance it could be flushed out before it has the
chance to take effect.
So, over and over again, the very mechanisms
that protect us from harm are working against
our pharmaceutical efforts to heal ourselves.
drug molecules on its arms, thereby increasing
the amount of drug that is delivered with
each protein molecule. Its natural role in the
body also means that it will not be toxic or be
destroyed by our natural defences.
The ideal situation, however, would be to make
a ‘transporter’ that has the ability to perform
its own healing functions – at which point
we enter the futuristic realm of ‘synthetic
biology’, whereby we design and construct
molecules which carry out their assigned tasks.
Achieving this would mean working on a tiny
scale – the so-called nanoscale (things the size
of 0.0000001 cm). Multi-armed structures,
like the spider protein, have become popular
amongst researchers due to the potential for
loading up the arms with the cargo of your
choice.
Nanobots – microscopic robots – are the
ultimate goal for some. They offer the vision not
only to deliver medicines to a specific ‘address’
but also to perform repairs to damaged tissues.
Such developments are likely to be a long way
off, but would truly revolutionise medicine if
they could be made to work.
SPECIAL OFFER –
BUY NOW!
SNAKE OIL FOR YOUR PET SNAKE
(Blood Cells) Flickr • Andrew Mason, (Hexbug Crab) Flickr • MonkeySimon
Creepy-crawly curers
How, then, can we overcome this paradox? The
‘spider protein’ (otherwise known as ‘C4BP’) is
an attempt to do just this. C4BP is a naturallyoccurring protein, which forms part of our
immune system, helping to protect the body
against bacteria. It has a spider-like structure
consisting of eight ‘arms’ extending out from a
central body. It is a protein that comes from the
immune system and has the resilience needed
to survive in the bloodstream. Most remarkably
– and unlike most proteins, which only work
at temperatures up to about 40⁰C – it can also
survive boiling temperatures. (Of course, it’s not
going to encounter boiling temperatures in the
body, but it’s an impressive feat nonetheless.)
Its robustness makes the spider molecule
ideal to carry drugs throughout the body and
to its intended target. Researchers envisage
‘decorating’ each spider protein with seven
I imagine it would be difficult to persuade
many people to be injected with mini-spiders.
Perhaps, then, comparisons to creepy crawlies
would be best avoided.
Sarah Byrne has a background in computational biology and is based in London, UK.
Her speculative fiction and science writing can be found at sarahbyrne.org
ARTEM CHEPRASOV • ANIMAL GURU
One of my biggest pet peeves is
bad science. I turn blood-red at the
thought of having to read another
utterly mismanaged ‘scientific study’,
revealing nothing more than the
idiocy of its own methods, results,
and conclusions. But what’s worse
is that some people, including the
researchers themselves, use this bad
science to rip you off. These people
are no better than the 19th century
snake oil salesmen, who peddled little
bottles of ‘miracle cures’ that turned
out to be bottles of God only knows
what.
Some of today’s scientists, doctors, veterinarians, and greedy businessmen abuse the
scientific method – humanity’s best measure
of whether something works – to make a fast
buck at your emotional, physical, and not to
mention, financial expense. Now, I’ve nothing
against financial gain – but I would rather not
walk around with oily money in my hand.
So why do I feel such rage? The problem is that
these people are bastardising and manipulating the science, touting study after study
and using impressive-sounding terms, in order
to convince you that their treatment works.
They sound authentic and it’s hard to spot the
magical deception – unless we are trained to do
so. That’s why the snake oil of today is far more
sinister than that of days gone by.
claims). This is a typical example of the logical
fallacy known as the ‘appeal to authority’ – a
claim that we are expected to believe because
it comes from an ‘expert’, albeit an expert from
the wrong field.
But other seemingly magical claims are more
sinister. There are ‘scientific studies’ that
are double-checked by scientific peers prior
to publishing, which nevertheless amount
to nothing more than fluff. Sometimes the
researchers try to give a sense of objectivity by
using what’s known as the blind or double blind
approach, methods normally used to weed out
bias.
A double blind study is the best research
method we have, and it boils down to this:
half of the test subjects picked at random are
given a new treatment, and the other half are
given a placebo – a dummy drug. Neither the
test subjects (the patients) nor the researchers
or doctors know who is getting the placebo and
who is getting the actual treatment.
Bad science = lots of suckers
Previous Page: (Snake oil, Sapa) Flickr • Jeremy Weate
“Trust me, I’m a doctor”
Sometimes, this scientific misdirection
amounts to nothing more than a name. I
recently saw a commercial for a pet breath
freshener (something that looks like the human
tongue scraper) that featured an individual
calling himself ‘Doctor’. A member of the public
watching the commercial would doubtless
assume he was a veterinarian because of the
context in which he was appearing – promoting
a pet health product. Yet a bit of internet
searching revealed nothing of the sort: he was
not a medical practitioner of any kind (which
would help to explain his utterly ridiculous
objective measurements. The likelihood of
these subjective analyses giving a false result
is even higher in studies with a small number
of participants – and often the participants of
the study, be it the doctor or the patient, can
actually tell if they were given the placebo or
control drug even before the study is over. How
do you think that will influence the subjective
scoring system in a ‘double blinded’ study?
Yet even the double blind approach is not
foolproof. For example, some studies may
‘blind’ the researcher and participant to what
is being used in the study, but the evaluation
of how well the product works may still rely on
an opinion-based scoring system, instead of
a measured analysis. So, the results – and the
study itself – rely on subjective techniques, not
Unfortunately, poor designs such as these
have been used in a lot of studies that have
reported beneficial effects – everything from
acupuncture and nutraceutical joint supplements to stem cell therapies for animals. Yet
people continue to use them with nothing more
than blind faith, hoping that a scientist who
found a positive result was able to be unbiased
even in the face of a subjective scoring system.
Allow me to let you in on a big secret: someone
with a doctorate or a practicing doctor is a
human – and isn’t always unbiased. In the
world of veterinary medicine, this is even truer.
My animal patients cannot tell me how they
actually feel (something that is in and of itself
subjective) and my clients may not be the most
reliable when it comes to indicating whether
Fido is limping more today than he was one
month ago. Therefore, is the drug I gave Fido
for arthritis actually working for his individual
needs? Or is Fido just having a good day, never
mind his treatment for arthritis or lack thereof?
Do I stop or switch treatments?
One thing I can be sure about is that our senses
are inherently unreliable. It’s a part of being
human. Consider our sense of taste: a dish
that’s too spicy for one person may have just
the right ‘kick’ for someone else. The same meal
that is beautifully laid out on a plate will taste
nicer than one that is slopped in a bowl. All
too often, however, study designers know that
much more objective methods of measurement
will yield the ‘wrong’ results – or they simply
aren’t willing to finance these typically more
expensive options. Therefore, we’re stuck with
a lot of information based on subjectivity, even
from seemingly objective studies.
As an important side note, research that fails
to show that a treatment works has a tendency
to end up in the dog bowl. Or put another way,
there is little glamour in proving that something
doesn’t work. This factor may subconsciously
influence researchers to conduct studies that
are more likely to have a positive result. Why
would they waste all that time, money, and
effort on a negative result, only to not be recognized for their hard work?
If you flip a coin fifty times and get 27 heads,
does that mean that the coin is always more
likely to land on a head? No. And in the same
way, every piece of research needs to be analysed
statistically to find out whether changes are
(The old dog) Flickr • *therovingsheep
(Don’t forget to take your Wonder Oil) Flickr • liquidnight
real or arise merely through chance. While the
chances are small, there is always the possibility
that through dumb luck alone, a ‘favorable’
statistical result will finally occur – especially if
the ‘negative’ results never see the light of day.
That’s why the best studies are repeated and
independently verified in order to minimise the
impact of such luck or scientific machination.
GUREVIEWS
Proof by talk show
Author: Paul Carroll
Publisher: Matador
Price: £6.47 (Amazon UK), £5.14 (Kindle)
Rating:
What’s worse is that the media feeds on these
bad studies, claims, and products. We would
all like an easy solution to complex issues and
everyone wants the best for themselves, their
pet, and their wallet. Who wouldn’t want to
do everything possible to help Fido? Typically,
the media reports a great story about a new,
easy-to-implement solution; the company then
makes a killing, and all of us who bought the
product feel a heartwarming hope. You never
hear about the owners whose animals didn’t
get results, or the research study that showed
no benefit, do you? That type of story wouldn’t
get the same ratings nor make the same money
for everyone involved (unless, of course, a lot of
patients are dying, which always boosts ratings).
It gets even more disturbing. When I have
questioned some companies or organizations
claiming their products have positive effects, I
am invariably given the silent treatment. You
would expect that a company with a robust,
worthwhile product would have no problem
using the most concrete scientific methods to
prove their product works. You wouldn’t need
to hide from objective criticism because you’d
have nothing to hide from, right?
So who’s at fault here? In short: everyone.
Complacent veterinarians who don’t do their
homework; consumers who subconsciously
justify the precious time, emotion, and money
they spend on a product by seeing ‘results’
that would have occurred even without the
snake oil; and the companies that sell it. And
the dividends from this false hope are hardly
shared evenly. What does the consumer end
up with? A warm fuzzy feeling. The companies
that sell it? Thousands of dollars per stem cell
procedure, millions of dollars in sales for the
Book Review
A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH
tongue scraper, and billions of dollars in global
sales for nutraceutical and herbal ‘medicines’.
I have some solutions to this problem, but I
know that not many people will adopt them.
Anything in life that’s truly good for you always
comes as a result of some very hard work or
extreme luck. But it’s easier to forget that and
ignore the problem – just like those companies
who’ve ignored real science.
In the end, don’t take what you read in
newspapers or online at face value. Dr. Google
has no MD. Most of the people that write about
these things in online or print media don’t
actually read or understand the complex study
they are writing about, or at worst are in the
pocket of some organization looking to profit
from your ignorance.
Ultimately, buying any ‘treatment’ will probably
make you feel better about yourself, regardless
of whether it works. And it has been shown
that the more you spend on a placebo, the more
likely you are to think that it works. If you think
that’s a price worth paying, then spend away –
the snake oil merchants are counting
on you.
Born in St. Petersburg, Russia, Artem Cheprasov moved to the U.S. when he was a
little boy. So no, he is not a spy. Or is he? He finished his studies in veterinary medicine in
the top 10% of his class, conducted research, and discovered a cool mathematics algorithm;
but we cannot confirm this as both Washington and Moscow have refused to comment on
this matter because he really is a spy or, more likely, they have no idea who he even is.
The one certainty in
life is that we are all
destined to be faced
with death. The grief
and suffering that comes
with it is an emotional
topic at the best of times,
and rarely the stuff of
modern fictional satire
– especially here in the
UK, where stiff-upper-lip
mentality is the norm.
As a Public Relations professional, it was no surprise that
former PR man Paul Carroll’s
debut novel, A Matter of Life and
Death, piqued my interest. I was
initially attracted by the book’s macabre cover art, and
further intrigued by the novel’s synopsis: a modern-day
take on mourning, which taps into Generation Z’s need to
feel connected to one another and to celebrate life’s accomplishments.
Carroll’s debut novel centres on Farren Mortimer, an entrepreneur behind a hugely-successful business known as A
Matter of Life and Death, or AMOLAD for short. Dubbed
‘Mr. Eulogy’ by the press, Mortimer has grown a business
empire by putting the ‘fun’ into funerals by offering a range
of services including bio-vids and online memorial pages.
We join Mortimer, recently appointed as the Government’s ‘bereavement czar’, exactly one year before the
first People’s Remembrance Day (PRD) – a newly-created
national British holiday allowing workers one day off
work to mourn the departure of loved ones. It’s a holiday
designed to tap into the public’s passion for mass mourning,
as demonstrated in the wake of Princess Diana’s death.
This upcoming ‘celebration’ irks both religious groups and
the traditional funeral industry alike – and Mortimer is the
driving force behind its imminent success.
Whilst paving the way for morbid revelry, Mortimer contends
with a host of memorable characters. There’s corporate
in-fighting with AMOLAD’s ambitious Operations Director
Jon, who is intent upon taking the concept even further;
unwanted conversations with footballer’s-wife-turned-roadsafety-campaigner Annie Brooks (figurehead of HASTE –
Help Arrest Speed Through Education); tabloid attention from
limelight-seeking showbiz journalist Kieran McDonaghy;
ongoing critique from the influential anonymous Tweeter
known only as @wappinglie; and frequent public attacks from
an anarchist graffiti street artist called Smudger. And to make
matters worse, this all happens as Mortimer is coming to
terms with the imminent death of his adopted father. As the
clock ticks ever-closer to the launch of People’s Remembrance
Day, and the difficulties mount for Mortimer, it seems almost
inevitable that things are not going to run smoothly for the
Government’s next big initiative.
AMOLAD is a richly-woven and deliciously dark take on grief
and loss, set against the interconnected, PR-savvy world in
which we all live. While it may sound unlikely from the premise,
in a bizarre way it is a heartening tale of family bonds, history,
and standing up for what you believe in – even when those
beliefs are at odds with popular culture. Mortimer, whose
moral compass is surprisingly well aligned for a man profiting
from misery, is a relatable central figure pushed to the edge by
spiraling events – culminating in a chilling finale, which will
stay with you long after the book is finished.
As a fellow PR, I certainly appreciated Carroll’s public relations
and media insight, which shines through from the outset.
He makes cynical, yet astute, observations on the world of
celebrity, and the ways in which the media plays personalities
off against one another to its own end. It is uncomfortably
accurate, if somewhat exaggerated for effect. A Matter of
Life and Death is a cutting tale of mass culture, and the way
in which we all feel the need to be constantly linked to one
another while fighting to be the centre of attention – even
when we are no longer here to receive the affirmation.
Immensely readable, sharp and surprisingly funny, A Matter
of Life and Death is a strong first effort and hopefully a sign of
things to come. If you like your fiction – and your humour –
dark, then this is a book definitely deserving of your attention.
Ben Veal is a Public Relations and Digital Marketing professional based in Wiltshire,
UK. A big fan of film and literature, Ben also writes for the Daily Mirror about the
rather unusual sport that is professional wrestling. Find out more about Ben at www.
benvealwrites.com
The GuReview rating system:
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NOT GREAT
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VERY NOT BAD
WICKED IN A GOOD WAY
#FOOD
GUREVIEWS
Film Review
ELYSIUM
Writer/Director: Neil Blomkamp
Released: 21st of August 2013
Running Time: 109 minutes
Rating:
So what’s Earth like in the year
2154? Well, it’s fairly bleak: a
scorched Earth, gangs, orphans,
and a robot police who take
the idea of ‘no tolerance’ to its
extreme. This is the dystopian
Earth as Neil Blomkamp
imagines – the same director
who brought you the cult classic
District 9, which was a success
both in its story, characters,
and political undertones. In
Blomkamp’s imagined future,
the wealthy live in a space station
far from the poor, who are forced
to stay on a ruined and polluted
Earth. The poor are refused the
high-tech medical care of their
wealthy counterparts, leaving them
susceptible to diseases that could otherwise be cured in
a matter of minutes.
The movie’s protagonist, Max, played by Matt Damon,
is an ex-con who is desperately trying to sort out his life
and who finds stability working at a robot production
factory in future L.A. Max is known as a notorious and
clever criminal who finds himself in a compromising
situation after he receives a lethal dose of radiation. He
is forced to accept a job which could save him – but one
that comes with more risks than he is aware of.
Elysium’s premise makes it a movie worthy of a watch
and the credentials of Neil Blomkamp and Matt Damon
should also pique your interest. It features stunning
special effects, which include the landscapes of a ruined
Earth and the interior of the Elysium space station,
which are so wonderful they appear real. (Thankfully
they aren’t.) Not to mention, the robots, weaponry, and
almost-but-not-quite-believable technology. You’ve got
to forget the science: brain implants that can upload data
but that kill the user when downloaded (at least when
the plot demands it) , and a floating atmosphere on the
Elysium space station that somehow doesn’t float off
into space. And we certainly aren’t meant to ask where
the Elysium inhabitants get their wine from. Personally,
I found that the gun shootouts were the best and most
engaging part of the movie, being shot as if with a
handheld camera. (But, hey, I’m a sucker for big screen
explosions).
Even without knowing that District 9 and Elysium were
directed by the same person, you would probably make
the connection between the two movies: both use a
science fiction premise to make a political point about
racism and inequality. Unfortunately Elysium runs into
problems beyond the special effects and action scenes.
Matt Damon tries his best with a character so flat it
could have been pulled straight from a video game. The
story – what little there is of it – is both predictable and,
in some cases, bordering on non-existent. Don’t expect
any clever twists and turns – you will probably guess the
ending within the first twenty minutes of the movie (or
after reading this review). The other characters of the
movie are similarly one-dimensional, although I will say
that Sharlto Copley (Wikus van de Merwe in District 9)
plays a fine villain, even if utterly clichéd.
In a similar vein to District 9, Elysium is an allegory of
social inequality: the rich live in another ‘world’ where
good health, advanced technology, and prosperity reign.
The poor are left in an impoverished ghetto-like Earth
with a droid police force who ruthlessly oppresses them.
Stressing the ever-widening gap between the poor and
the rich, Elysium has all the subtlety of an exploding
Death Star. If you dig deeper into the partially hidden
meanings of this movie, you could say that Blomkamp
wants to highlight how the wealthy destroy our Earth to
earn more money, and how we all have to deal with the
consequences.
Overall, Elysium is an exciting, if intellectually
undemanding, movie to watch. As with many Sci-Fi
movies, scientific plausibility is ignored for the sake of
the narrative. The glaring plot holes, uninspiring script
and superficial characters are a continuous reminder of
how good this movie could have been – and how far it fell
from its mark. It won’t be a movie that you’ll cherish and
you’re only likely to remember the special effects, explosions, and big guns. But then, if you’re like me, then that
isn’t a complete disaster.
Matt Powell is a graduate from Oxford, obsessed with all things space orientated.
Besides being the meanest ukulele player to grace the English countryside, Matt spends
his time reading, writing and walking. He was also the Summer 2013 Guru Intern.
The GuReview rating system:
WACK
NOT GREAT
MIDDLING
VERY NOT BAD
Unless you are a particularly sophisticated eater, you
probably haven’t sampled these two dishes, created by
T.V. chef, Felice Tocchini. Felice owns an award-winning
restaurant and has a strange preoccupation with trying
to get everyone to eat more sweet potatoes (see the
first recipe). There is some sense behind the madness,
as Felice incorporates a science called ‘food pairing’ into
his quirky cuisine. Red wine and meat go together, as
do tomatoes and basil, but food pairing turns this art of
food-combining into a science: scientists examine the
chemicals that constitute the flavours of certain foods
and then pair them with other foods that share the same
chemicals. Some of the results are more than a little
SWEET POTATO SALAD
surprising – but often work well. For example, you could
eat a bacon and strawberry salad, their shared flavours
blending together in an explosion of culinary delight.
The principle of food pairing was covered extensively in
Issue 5, and some strange combinations were sampled in
episode one of the Guru podcast (with varying levels of
success).
So while enthusiasm for a seafood cheesecake may be low,
a potato and cheese salad can’t be that offensive to the
senses. Have fun with the following recipes, and if you’re
uncertain, try them on your friends and family first –
loved ones make such good guinea pigs!
Serves 4 people
“This is fantastic with some
warm walnut crusty bread!”
Ingredients
• 1 large sweet potato
• 2 spring onions, sliced
• Small bunch of rocket
• 2 tsp honey
• Juice of ½ lemon
• 2 tsp sesame oil
• extra virgin olive oil
• 4 slices of goat’s cheese
• 50g black and white
sesame seeds
• Salt and pepper
Method
1. Peel the sweet potato and, with the help of a mandoline*, slice lengthwise into thin little strips. (If you don’t have
a mandoline you can simply carry on with the potato peeler to obtain thin slices.)
2. Dress the sweet potato with the honey, a little salt and pepper, sesame oil and a little olive oil. Mix well and place
in the fridge for 20 minutes.
3. In the meantime, drizzle the goat’s cheese with a little olive oil and top with the sesame seeds; place under a grill
for 3 or 4 minutes, or until the cheese starts to melt and the seeds are golden.
4. Add the rocket and onion to the sweet potato and mix.
5. Place a generous handful of salad on the centre of the plate, top with the slices of goat’s cheese and serve.
*A mandoline is a cooking utensil used for slicing and for cutting. You can buy one in any good kitchen shop.
WICKED IN A GOOD WAY
IN THE NEWS
www.gurumagazine.org
October/November 2013
SMOKED RAINBOW TROUT CHEESECAKE
Serves 4 people
Reporting the news you might have missed...
Ingredients
Base
• 25g butter, melted
MIND
• 6 wholemeal biscuits,
crushed
• 200g smoked trout
• 150g mascarpone
• 75ml natural yoghurt
• 50g crème fraiche
• 60g butter
• 1.5 tsp horseradish sauce
• 1.5 tsp chopped dill
• 1.5 tbsp chopped spring
onion
• Juice of ¼ lemon
• Salt and pepper
• ¼ tsp of mace or nutmeg
• 10ml brandy
Method
1. Prepare the base by
mixing together the
biscuits and butter. Press
into four moulds and
leave to set.
3. Add the flaked smoked
trout and butter.
4. Adjust the seasoning and
place in the mould (level
to the top).
If you like the sweet potato
recipe and want more, visit
www.lovesweetpotatoes.com
Recipes and images © Felice Tocchini
5. Leave in the refrigerator
to set.
This cartoon explains how Dr Tonegawa’s team created a false memory
in the brain of mice. They first put the mouse in one environment
(illustrated as the blue box), labelled the brain cells encoding for
the memory of this environment (white circles), and made these
cells responsive to light. Then they put the animal in a different
environment (illustrated as the red box) and delivered light into the
brain to activate these labelled cells. This induced the recall of the
first environment -- the blue box. While the animal was recalling the
first environment, they also received mild foot shocks. Later when
we put the animal back into the first environment, it showed behavioural signs of fear, indicating it had formed a false fear memory for
the first environment, where it was never shocked in reality.
“the formation of at least some false memories in
humans” may happen because “recalling a memory
renders it highly susceptible to modification”. In
other words, when we bring something to mind, it
can end up being distorted by what is happening to
us there and then, creating false memories.
Tonegawa told Nature they refer to the technique
as ‘incepting’ a false memory. We are a long way
away from the sci-fi scenarios depicted in films like
Inception, but the study still raised some eyebrows:
James Giordano, a neuroethicist at Georgetown
University in Washington DC, told Nature: “That
was a bell-ringer, the idea you can manipulate the
brain to control the mind.”
Thankfully, Tonegawa says the study was just meant
to provide insight into memory formation and he has
no plans to implant false memories in humans. The
team hope their work will help inform researchers
and legal experts alike, as to just how fallible memory
can be.
G U R U • I S S U E 1 4 • O C TO B E R / N O V E M B E R 2 0 1 3 • PA G E 3 4
(Memory Mouse Diagram) © Collective Next
Filling
2. Combine cheese and
yoghurt together, add
the lemon juice, horseradish, dill, onion, and
mace, and mix well.
Does your memory fail you
sometimes? Convinced something
happened when there’s proof it
didn’t? It happens to the best of us, and it’s a mystery
that science is finally starting to solve.
Researchers have managed to create false memories
in mice by controlling groups of cells in a specific
part of the hippocampus, a brain region crucial for
memory. Their work sheds light on how memory
fundamentally works, and may offer the first real
insight into the biology of false memories in humans
– a phenomenon that has, among other things,
resulted in people being wrongly imprisoned (only
to be later exonerated by DNA evidence).
Susumu Tonegawa and colleagues at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology bred genetically engineered mice with brain cells in their
hippocampus that could be activated with the flick
of a light switch. This state-of-the art technique,
known as optogenetics, is transforming brain science,
and you can learn more about it here.
The team knew from previous studies where in
the hippocampus the neurons that store memories
of being in a specific place are found – and that, in
their mice, these memories can be “labelled” and
reactivated with a pulse of blue light delivered via
a fibre-optic cable. In this study, they first put mice
in one box and labelled the memory that formed as
they explored. They then did something really clever
(and a bit mean): the mice were placed in a different
box, but the ‘memory’ of the first box was reactivated with light, while giving the mice a mild electric
shock.
Amazingly, when the mice were returned to the
first box, they froze in fear: they associated this
environment with pain, even though they had never
been shocked there. What’s more, the mice were only
frightened in this first box, not in another they had
never been in. In short, the scientists had successfully created a false memory by incorporating the
shocks into an artificially activated existing memory.
Of course, this is a far cry from remembering what
you did on your holidays five years ago, or a key
event from your childhood. But the scientists think
MEMORIES ARE
MADE LIKE THIS
IN THE NEWS
MIND
A recently published study
seems to show that training the
elderly on a specially designed
videogame can make them better
multi-taskers than untrained
youngsters.
The game, dubbed NeuroRacer, involves steering a
car along a winding road. To add an extra dimension,
players must press a button whenever a green
circle appears briefly at the top of the screen, while
ignoring other ‘signs’. By comparing their performance on reacting to the signs while not driving,
the scientists could estimate the mental ‘cost’ of
multi-tasking. By testing 174 people aged between
20 and 79, they confirmed what we already knew –
multi-tasking ability declines with age.
The team, led by Adam Gazzaley at the University of
California, San Francisco, then tested people using
a version of the game that gets harder as players
get better – as any good game should. They divided
46 elderly volunteers into three groups, who either
played the full multi-tasking version of the game,
trained in driving and sign-spotting separately,
or got no training at all. The two training groups
IS GAMING
GOOD FOR
GRANDPA’S
GREY MATTER?
practised for a total of twelve hours over the course
of a month.
Only the full game training dramatically improved
multi-tasking ability. No real surprise there,
perhaps, but these elderly NeuroRacer pros were
now better than 20-year-olds playing for the first
time – and these improvements were still there 6
months later. All the volunteers were also given a
range of general mental performance tests before
and after training, and the new pros had also
improved at some unrelated brainy tasks. This is
crucial because otherwise all we can really say is
that people improved at something they practised
at – and that’s not exactly headline news!
Training was also found to have boosted activity
in the foremost part of the brain (the prefrontal
cortex), which is involved in controlling mental
processes, making the brains of these elders
behave like much younger people’s. The researchers
claim the study demonstrates just how much the
ageing brain can still be modified by experience – a
phenomenon known as ‘plasticity’.
NeuroRacer remains a research tool, but a company
called Akili (which Gazzaley co-founded and
advises), is developing a commercial version it
hopes to get approval to market as a therapy. But
don’t write up your Christmas list for granny just
yet...
‘Brain training’ games have spawned a multimillion dollar industry in recent years, but the
manufacturers’ claims remain highly controversial.
After the initial hype died down, a number of
studies were published showing that they actually
have little effect on general mental abilities.
A recent study looking at all the published
evidence (called a ‘meta-analysis’), concluded
“memory training programs appear to produce
short-term, specific training effects that do not
generalize”. In other words, you get better at the
games, but not much else.
From a scientific standpoint, things weren’t
looking good for the industry before this latest
study came along. Of course, this study is different
from most commercial brain-training programs in
some important ways. It doesn’t target short-term
memory as most do, but trains multi-tasking. The
authors also make no wild claims about improving
mental abilities across the board in just about
anyone: the game tackles a known problem in a
specific group of people. But while the results are
intriguing, and have certainly reignited debate,
it might not be the game-changer (groan – Ed) it
appears to be.
NeuroRacer was used much like a medical treatment,
to ‘cure’ a mental decline caused by ageing. But
whenever researchers attempt this, there’s always
the risk of a placebo effect – where people get
better just because they expect to. The researchers
didn’t measure the volunteers’ expectations about
their training, casting some doubt on the results.
There are other problems, but probably the most
glaring omission is that the elderly pros were only
compared to the untrained 20-year-olds in terms
of game performance and not the other mental
tasks – which is what we’re really interested in. We
also don’t know whether these other abilities were
still heightened after 6 months.
The question is far from settled, so there’s a lot
more researchers and manufacturers will have to
prove before Guru can unreservedly recommend
a purchase. Whatever the answer, there’s certainly
no danger of NeuroRacer outselling Grand Theft
Auto V just yet.
Simon Makin is an auditory researcher turned science journalist. Originally from Liverpool,
he has a degree in electronics, a Masters in speech and hearing sciences, and a PhD in
auditory perception. He worked as a post-doc in the psychology deptartment at Reading University
for several years, before recently taking the leap into journalism. Tweets as @SimonMakin.
Blogs as Heisenberg’s Hamster.
(brain training) Flickr • Jessica C, (Grand Theft Auto Five Artwork) © Rockstar Games
IN THE NEWS
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#TECHNOLOGY
A HACKER REVEALS
HIS SECRETS
YOUR PERSONAL DATA EXPOSED IN MINUTES
KYLE PASTOR
Previous Page: (Crackers) Flickr • elhombredenegro
Whistleblowing,
digital
crime,
hacking. In recent news there has
been much controversy over spying
programmes headed by the American
National Security Agency (NSA).
Allegedly, they track bulk email and
cell phone data for domestic surveillance. And while there are arguments
both for and against these antics –
running the gambit from preventing
terrorism to an Orwellian dystopia
– the question of how easy it is for
non-government organisations and
individuals to track your data still
lingers. As a hacker, I decided to find
out.
My field experiment was to see how realistic the
possibility is to uncover the details of someone’s
personal life by hacking into their Wi-Fi. (To be
clear, the target in this experiment was fully
informed of my intentions.) In order to pull off
this operation, I needed three things. The first
was a laptop computer. The second, and most
difficult to acquire, was a USB wireless device
that would allow me to access Wi-Fi (called a
dongle), which I was able to purchase for less
than $40 on Amazon. The third item was a
piece of software called VirtualBox (a ‘virtual
machine’ program) that I downloaded for free
from the internet.
Most people access the internet wirelessly,
so I searched for Wi-Fi hacking programs. As
absolutely no surprise, the first website I came
across had swathes of information and details
on the programs one could use and how to use
them. In my case, all I needed was a version of
an operating system called Backtrack. Providing
I had a Wi-Fi dongle with the correct specifications, I could start hacking straight away. (The
Wi-Fi dongle needs to be set to something called
BELOW:
‘monitor mode’ so that it can listen to the traffic
The programs
within Backtrack
on a Wi-Fi network.) The trickiest part is that
were able to
only certain manufacturers make dongles that
crack the Wi-Fi
can be put into this mode, and therefore I had passwords (blanked
out for privacy
to search the Internet to make sure I ordered reasons).
This took
the correct one. Total time: ten minutes.
less than 2 hours.
5 tips to keep the hackers
out
1. Make sure that when logging into
a website, it says https in the URL
address bar (rather than just http).
This is a secure connection.
2. Avoid doing important things in
coffee shops, such as banking.
3. Always try to use different passwords
for different accounts. Or at the very
least, make different passwords for
more sensitive data (banking, etc.)
4. If possible, always include numbers
or symbols into passwords, such
as “ILoveGuru1!2@3#4$”. This will
make decryption much more difficult.
5. Make sure that your router password
is not the same as your Wi-Fi
password (go here for instructions
on how to do this). If my ‘victim’ had
done this, then this article would have
been much shorter!
Now comes the fun part. Would I actually
be able to hack a Wi-Fi network? The short
answer: yes. And it’s embarrassingly easy to do.
Not only was I able to gain access to someone’s
wireless network, but the program even showed
me the Wi-Fi network password in plain text.
This is what I believe to be the most important
and potentially powerful achievement from this
simple hack.
With access to someone’s Wi-Fi password, I
would have a high chance of accessing more of
their passwords (such as those for their e-mail,
social networking, and possibly even bank
accounts). Just think of your password and all
of the possible variations you could add on to
it. Perhaps only adding a number at the end or,
if you’re clever, adding a few characters such
as “!@#$”, etc. Being able to access someone’s
network password and realising the potential
dangers that could result if the password was in
malicious hands is a scary revelation. It made
me think twice about the digital world we live
in. As I carried out this experiment I felt a
sense of power and presence; once I had their
network password, what else could I do and be
capable of? I was curious to try out more. In my
spiral of corruption, I decided to take things a
step further (with permission of my ‘victim’, of
course…)
Watching while you browse
Once you have access to a wireless network,
you have access to all of the information
being passed by the computer to and from
the Wi-Fi router. A program called Wireshark
was a convenient tool to sniff out this traffic.
With this software I was able to determine
what websites are visited and, in some cases,
even see the plain text usernames. As long as
I was hacked into the Wi-Fi network before
someone connected to it, I could capture all the
BELOW:
Using Wireshark,
network traffic. For example, if I was connected
I was able to see
to your Wi-Fi network and started to listen to
when the target
logged into an
the network traffic before you turned on your
online account (in
this case, Minecraft. computer then I would be able to see the ‘digital
net). This gave me
handshake’ your computer makes with the
access to the plain
Wi-Fi router. With this I would have access to
text username
all of your web browsing data.
(highlighted).
The Wi-Fi router is the box in the corner of the
room where the wireless signals come from. You
can actually access many functions of it using any
web browser (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Google
Chrome) providing you have the password. As
it would turn out, my ‘victim’ uses the same
password for just about everything, including
the password that connects them to the router.
This gave me real power and it was at this point
that things became really interesting. With this
password, I was able to reboot the Wi-Fi router
without actually touching it; this was the first
time I could perform an operation in the digital
world that could actually have physical implica
tions in the real world. As soon as I pressed a
button on my keyboard, the ‘victim’ would be
disconnected from whatever they were doing.
It could be something as mundane as sharing
BELOW:
a Tweet or looking things up on Google, or it
As the target was
could be something more important such as
lazy and used the
a Skype job interview or purchasing a plane same password for
both the Wi-Fi and
ticket. Since I knew that my ‘victim’ wasn’t the router, I could
easily reset the
doing anything too important I could put my
router, forcing them
worries to rest.
to reconnect to
their own Wi-Fi.
Once the reboot occurred, all I had to do was
to make sure that I connected to the network
before they did – which allowed me to see the
‘digital handshake’ and have access to their
browsing behaviour and their usernames. The
‘door’, so to speak, was basically open at this
point. If they used the same password for both
their Wi-Fi and their router administrator
#SCIENCE
account, it would be likely that they also used
it for their Gmail, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn,
etc. accounts. If they used the same password
for their online banking, then they would be in
real trouble.
AMERICANS DO IT
WITH DOUGHNUTS
THE ART AND SCIENCE OF DUNKING
Previous Page: (Una luz entre las sombras...) Flickr • anieto2k
ABOVE:
Once I was able
to see the user log
into their Wi-Fi, I
used Wireshark to
view the websites
they were looking
at in real time. They
obviously had good
taste.
The ethical hacker
Is what I did wrong? Does it matter when you
say you have nothing to hide? Would your
opinion change if I wasn’t an individual but
rather a corporation or government agency?
Personally, I have never been truly able to put
into words why I don’t like the idea of someone
spying on me. I don’t have anything to hide, but
for some reason, I don’t like the feeling of being
watched. After performing this experiment, I
was finally able to find the reason behind my
feelings. From the perspective of a hacker, I
have realised that there is a very distinct and
visceral line that must be crossed. Until you
have experienced it – or at the very least, tried
to step into the shoes of a hacker like I have –
you may never truly understand these feelings
of disdain.
That is why I do not like the idea of someone
watching. We can all think of how creepy it
would be to stand behind someone who is on
their computer and just watch their screen, but
it takes a certain type of person to take that
imagination and apply it to reality. What they
end up seeing is more than just the information;
it’s the person behind the monitor that they’re
observing. Whether it is a single individual or a
group, the people doing the hacking can see me,
understand me, and influence me. I don’t fear
what they know about me. I fear them.
Kyle Pastor is in graduate school completing a Masters in theoretical polymer physics.
When not exploring the physics of stuff nobody cares about, he is usually writing,
coding, or playing obscure games that nobody cares about. He blogs about all things
interesting at www.infplusplus.com.
STU FARRIMOND • SCIENCE GURU
BELOW:
An American
biscuit (left), and
a British biscuit
(right).
Americans do it with doughnuts,
South Africans do it with rusks and
the Australians do the Tim Tam
Slam. It’s a worldwide curiosity that
has existed since the dawn of sweet
baked treats – dunking. There aren’t
very many of us who don’t enjoy
partially submerging a sugary snack
into a hot drink, and I’m no exception.
However, everyone has their own
style: whether you dunk chocolate
chip cookies or ginger snaps, it can
say a lot about your personality.
Dipping into the science of dunking
Once upon a time, when I worked as a lecturer, I
alleviated the boredom of the summer recess by
filming myself conducting some very tonguein-cheek science ‘experiments’. Despite terrible
production values, ‘Which is the Best Biscuit
to Dunk’ went down quite smoothly with the
YouTube community. Having stumbled across
my video, and having clearly enjoyed watching
me act like a sweet-toothed buffoon, the
documentary producers requested my assistance. The rest, as they say, is history.
Dunking makes for better taste
With the exception of ice cream and last night’s
pizza, food invariably tastes best when it’s hot.
There is a scientific reason for this: taste buds
work most effectively at warm temperatures;
below about 15°C they stop detecting flavour
properly. (Frozen desserts are loaded with
sugar and flavourings to compensate for this
School of Medicine in St. Louis
found that our taste buds
sense fat itself. You can
replace butter and oil with
alright-tasting alternatives, but it’s never quite
the same because you
simply can’t trick those
fat-sensing taste buds.
The researchers also
went some way to work
out why some of us crave
fried foods, while others
are infuriatingly ambivalent. They discovered
that everyone has a
different sensitivity to fat:
some people have taste buds
that are eight times more
sensitive to fat than others.
So if you can’t resist eating the
entire box of chocolates, this
could be the reason why.
Dipping your chosen (full-fat) biscuit
or cookie into a full-fat milky drink will
guarantee to tingle those fat-sensing taste
buds. Just don’t think about your waistline.
Bitter
Sour
Salt
* NB. Hereafter, ‘biscuit’ refers to what are called ‘cookies’ in US English
Biscuit dunking has been the
subject of many a newspaper
article and magazine
column in the UK. Now,
a forthcoming BBC
documentary
will
explore humankind’s
fascination with these
sweet-tasting snacks
– with a sizable portion
devoted to the dunking
ritual. Due for release Nov-Dec
2013 and hosted by UK cook, Nigel
Slater, I (Dr Stu) will be explaining the science
of dunking. But you needn’t wait for general
release: join me now Guru-readers as I unpack
the many mysteries of the dunk.
numbing effect.) So, heating your biscuit with
ABOVE:
Tim Tam Slam.
a dip in a mug of tea or coffee will enhance the TheOpposite
corners
biscuit’s flavours.
of a Tim Tam are
bitten off, then
Smell is also a crucial part of the flavour
the hot drink is
sucked through
sensation – something you can prove by
the biscuit like a
holding your nose while eating. When chow
straw. When the
gets chewed, aromas from the mushed food hot drink reaches
the
pass up the back of the throat and into the nasal resttheofmouth,
the biscuit
cavity – where we can smell it. Hot, moist food is quickly placed in
releases more flavour molecules into the nose the mouth, before
the outer chocolate
than cold, dry food. So by wetting a doughnut,
melts, and eaten.
biscuit, or cookie in a warm drink, the flavours
are further intensified.
Fatty treats just taste too darned
good
We are ‘programmed’ to taste and enjoy fats:
our ancestors survived famine because they
were innately driven to go for the foods with
the most calories in them (i.e. high fat foods). If
you’ve ever compared the taste of a low-fat food
with a high-fat one, the fatty option always
tastes better. A chocolate chip cookie or low-fat
crispbread? Not a contest, really.
We used to think taste was a combination of
sweet, sour, bitter and salt. You might recall the
pictures of a ‘tongue map’ from school, showing
that different parts of the tongue are sensitive
to different tastes (see image on the next page)
Most of this wisdom of old has been proved
wrong: the ‘tongue map’ isn’t true, and there is
in fact a fifth basic taste: savoury (or ‘umami’).
A couple of years ago, flavour got even richer
when researchers discovered a sixth basic taste
sensation – fat.
In 2012, researchers at Washington University
Sweet
Timing
thing
is
every-
Tea and coffee drinking
veterans will know that
plunging a biscuit into
a hot beverage is an
exacting discipline. Insufficient biscuit submersion
results in an unsatisfying
experience; waiting too
long causes the biscuit to
break apart, leaving an
unpleasant sludge in the
bottom of the mug. Or
worse, it severs during
transit to the mouth with
the sugary slop crashlanding onto your lap.
A biscuit is essentially a
mesh of hard starchy fibres
held together by fat and
sugar. When dunked, the fat
and sugar quickly dissolve;
the starch absorbs liquid,
and the biscuit softens and
expands slightly. The liquid
tracks upwards through the
microscopic gaps between
the
starchy
fibres
(through a process
called ‘capillary action’)
and eventually the
biscuit will soften to
the point that it rips
apart under its own
weight (what I term
‘catastrophic biscuit
failure’).
Biscuits
with more sugar
and fat tend to fare
badly when dunked
whereas less tasty ones
are far more resilient.
Doughnuts are particularly hardy because they
are made from dough,
which contains gluten (a
strong protein that holds the
doughnut together – hence
‘catastrophic doughnut failure’ is
rare).
It is possible to do some calculations to
work out which biscuit or cookie is best
able to resist death by coffee (see sidebox).
Put a biscuit in a drink and you will notice that the liquid slowly tracks
up the biscuit like rising damp. Try it with a few different types and you
will notice that the beverage soaks the biscuits at different speeds.
The rate at which the liquid rises up a biscuit depends on how dense
the biscuit is; on a microscopic level the tiny gaps between the starch
fibres act like little pores through which the fluid travels.
In 1998, Physicist Len Fisher wrote a curiously complex equation to
predict how quickly any biscuit will get soggy. It’s questionable how
useful it is, but if you insist…
Distance liquid travels (in metres)
=
σDt
4μ
To get an answer, you need to decide how many seconds you are
dunking for (put this where the t is) and D is the size of the microscopic pores in the biscuit (you aren’t going to know this, but it is
usually less than 0.00001 m). σ and μ are the liquid surface tension
and the fluid’s viscosity respectively (0.0679 N/m and 0.547 ×
10–3 Nsm-2 for 50°C coffee).
If you managed to do all that maths, then you definitely deserve to
finish off the packet. (If you haven’t eaten them already.)
Protect yourself: introducing the
Dunk-o-Meter™
Clamp Stand
Biscuit 1
Timer
Clamp Stand
Biscuit 2
Hot Water
The only way, however, to truly discover which
biscuit is the perfect ‘dunker’ is get down and
dirty with a hands-on experiment.
Under (cough) carefully controlled conditions, it is possible to compare different biscuit
varieties’ relative dunkability.
As one might expect, dense biscuit varieties are
tough and last a long time – up to five minutes or
more. Those endowed with a chocolate coating
or cream centre are especially good: under
boiling conditions, the coating/filling melts and
acts like a glue to hold the biscuit together.
Here’s a summary of the results.
King of the dunkers
Plain wheat flour (‘Rich Tea’)
Reliable and dependable. When
eaten dry, they are disappointingly
bland, although under ideal conditions they are able to withstand
over 20 minutes in a hot drink.
4.5/5
Chocolate chip cookie
Ginger nut / ginger snap
(Rich Tea) Wikimedia • Sean Whitton, (Tim Tams) Wikimedia • Bilby
A risky choice. They taste fantastic but
are highly unpredictable when dunking
owing to the random distribution of
chocolate chips.
Not recommended. It is teeth shatteringly
hard when dry but rapidly softens and
collapses in hot drink. It has an
acquired taste.
3/5
1/5
Oat-based biscuits
Deceptively effective. Don’t let its
crumbly nature deceive you – it can
be surprisingly robust if handled
carefully. Its highly absorbent
qualities result in maximum flavour
experience.
3.5/5
Special Mention: ‘Tim Tam’
The Tim Tam Slam ritual is an odd variation on
dunking. Available in many parts of the world and
often performed in the Southern hemisphere, hot
tea is sucked through this
chocolate-encased biscuit
sandwich. Very weird, but a
chocolate-lover’s delight.
References
How temperature influences our taste
http://phys.org/news187250351.html
Dr Stuart Farrimond (Doctor Stu) originally trained as a medical doctor before
deciding to branch out into lecturing. He drinks too much coffee, eats ice cream and has a
bizarre love of keeping fit. You can check out Doctor Stu’s blog at realdoctorstu.com.
ADVERTISEMENT
Chocolate coated or cream centred
The dunker’s dream. Indulgent,
satisfying and remarkably dunkable
– thanks to the sticky chocolate
‘glue’ effect. WARNING: Messy if
dropped.
4/5
You can’t argue with science: baked snacks taste
better when paired with a hot drink and lead to
a more satisfying mid-morning break. Perfect
timing remains an unresolved issue and further
investigative dunking work needs to be undertaken. (Any volunteers?)
However, given the danger of a hot biscuit
falling onto a clean shirt, I feel that urgent
action is required to protect unsuspecting
dunkers. In the UK and parts of Europe, food
packets often display a ‘traffic light’ labelling
system (‘healthy foods’ having a green label –
see image). I propose a similar ‘dunk-o-meter’
traffic light advisory system for all packets of
cookies and biscuits: a red circle would indicate
short dunk of under five seconds; amber would
advise a five to ten second dip; and green for
longer.
To bring about a change of this magnitude will
need all of you dunk-fans to speak out. Join
the petition to lobby the food industry today
by sending an email to ProtectTheDunker@
gurumagazine.org.
Dunkers unite! Your coffeehouse needs you.
#FITNESS
PROTEIN SUPPLEMENTS
PROBABLY NOT WORTH THE CASH
Be warned: I am woefully under-qualified to
give personal nutritional advice – and so are
virtually all other trainers. It is a complicated
and ever-changing issue. The moment I finish
typing this article, there will be a new study
making different recommendations. I won’t
give you my opinion – or even my experience –
but I will do my best to collate the best evidence
we have on the matter. If it disagrees with what
you have learned, then good. Let that place the
seed of doubt in your mind. But don’t just troll
the internet trying to confirm what you want
to believe (because you’ll find it eventually).
Don’t go to body building websites that sell
the products they recommend. Exercise
extreme scepticism with regards to diet issues
(word play intended). Now here are the facts…
MATT LINSDELL • FITNESS GURU
Everybody into the pool!
I’m going to keep this simple. Protein is a big
thing made of smaller things. Those smaller
things are called ‘amino acids’. Slap a bunch
of amino acids together and you get a protein.
Different combinations of amino acids make up
different proteins. Got it? Cool, let’s keep going.
So you eat some protein. Then what happens?
Well, your stomach is a bubbling bowl of hydrochloric acid. The proteins you eat get broken
down into their constituent amino acids by the
acid and enzymes in the stomach and by more
enzymes in the intestine. Now, what does your
body do with those? Like drunken frat boys
at a keg party chucking girls into a swimming
pool, your body chucks the amino acids into
your amino acid ‘pool’. This pool is not in one
place, but diffused throughout your body: it is
in your cells, in your blood stream, in your liver
– wherever they can hang out until needed. This
amino acid ‘pool’ is under continuous turnover
– the old being used and replaced by the new
that is ingested.
Now, when your body needs some protein, it
can reassemble the amino acids from the pool
to make things like enzymes or structural
proteins (which may, in turn, be used to build
new cells and new tissue, like muscle). All the
time there is an on-going process of breakdown
and remodelling of proteins within your body.
But the process of protein synthesis comes
to the fore during growth or when tissues are
damaged: if you tear a ligament, then you’ll
need to draw from your amino acid pool. If you
are pregnant, you are creating a baby and that
will require dipping into the amino acid pool on
(Protein) Flickr • tamakisono
PROTEIN
SUPPLEMENTS
I’m a personal trainer, because of
which people often stop me and open
the conversation with the words “I
have a quick question for you.” Eight
times out of ten they say, “How do I
lose the fat around my stomach?” I
have no idea why they think this is
a quick question. Another question I
get is “how do I get bigger?” I usually
assume they mean muscles and not
shoes. And the one that I am not
qualified to answer: “What should I
eat after exercise?” This last question
is one of the most challenging to any
personal trainer, and I’m going to try
to shed some light on it in this article.
PROTEIN SUPPLEMENTS
• 2 slices whole wheat bread = 8 g
• 1 small potato = 4 g
• 1 portion of pasta (100g) = 6 g
• 1 cup of rice = 4 g
• 1 cup of lentils = 18 g
• 10 ounce steak = 82 g
• One salmon fillet (80g weight) = 33g
• 1 portion of chicken fillet (160 g weight)
= 70.37
• 1 small tub (113 g) of yoghurt = 13 g
• 1 slice of cheese = 7 g
A 65 kg (143 lb) woman should aim to eat 52
grams of protein per day
A 70 kg (150 lb) man should aim to eat 56
grams of protein per day
Search for all foods online at the USDA
website and calculate your protein needs
here.
a regular basis. And of course, if you are engaged
in strenuous exercise, then muscle tissue repair
will require withdrawals of amino acids from
the ‘pool’.
Problems arise when our diet doesn’t contain
enough protein. If this goes on too long your
amino acid pool will be depleted and so your
body will need to get it from somewhere else. It
will break down its existing tissues, like muscle
and internal organs, and use the amino acids
to make repairs, to replace worn-out enzymes,
and to make new cells (such as red blood cells).
This is not a good thing and eventually results
in muscle wasting or damage to other organs.
Eat enough starch and fat but don’t
believe the websites
So what if you eat too much protein for your
requirements? It will ultimately get converted
into fat. However, this basic biological process
is regarded as a myth in some weight-lifting
circles, who believe ingested protein is only ever
used to make muscle. Protein can be used as a
fuel to power bodily processes. In fact, about
5% of the protein you eat is burnt up during
exercise. And during times of inadequate carbohydrate intake – our main energy source – as
much as 15% of the protein will be used for
energy. We should always strive to eat enough
fats and carbohydrates (starchy foods like
bread and pasta) to fuel the body. Let protein
be the building block for your tissues. It’s what
protein is best suited to. If your body relied on
protein for fuel all the time, it would be continually performing a process called ‘deamination’
(pulling the nitrogen group off of the amino
acid molecule). Lots of deamination results in
liver and kidney damage – and you don’t want
that. They’re called vital organs for a reason.
So that is why we need protein in our diet: not
just to recover from exercise but for all sorts
of repair and growth. But how much do we
really need on a daily basis? Ask this question
online and you’ll receive hugely varied answers:
buff weight-lifters tend to tout a huge number.
I’ve read 1 gram of protein per pound of body
weight, sometimes more. This is a lot of protein.
In the US, the Dietary Reference Intake (DRI)
for moderately active people is a third of this
– and virtually the same as inactive people:
0.36 grams of protein per pound of body
weight. So if you weighed 200lbs that means
72 grams of protein per day is adequate for
normal tissue repair. If you are recovering
from an injury, this number can be more than
double. Endurance athletes, like runners,
require between 0.55 and 0.72 grams of protein
per pound of body weight. The range takes into
account gender differences in athletes, with
female athletes tending to require slightly less.
In the case of power athletes, like weightlifters,
American football players/rugby players, and
body builders, the recommendation is 0.68 to
0.81 grams of protein per pound of body weight.
The punch line
Now here is the kicker. As you become a better
trained athlete you actually require LESS
protein. WHAT?! Yes, you read that correctly.
WHY?! Well, the better trained you are, the more
efficient your body is at utilising the protein
you ingest. The first few weeks of training tend
to require higher amounts of protein. Three
or four weeks into training and an athlete’s
requirements can drop to lower levels. I don’t
want to give too many numbers because it is the
concept that is the important thing I’m trying
to convey here.
I should probably also make reference to
eating a variety of different foods.
Hey, here’s a fun idea. Track how much protein
you eat in a day. If you are training then you
are probably consuming more food anyway, and
you’ll probably ingest more protein without
even trying. But add it up and see what you get.
I bet you’ll be surprised.
Right, I’m off to eat a Black Bean Brownie
(homemade of course) and a glass of skimmed
milk. That’s probably half my daily intake right
there.
Black Bean Brownies Recipe
•
the ‘quality’ of protein. Some proteins are
considered to be more ‘complete’ because they
contain more of the amino acids essential to
human life. We call these amino acids essential
because we can’t make them within the body.
They need to come from our diet. Plant sources
of protein tend to have less of the essential
amino acids whereas animal sources tend to
provide a complete source. That doesn’t mean
you can’t be a vegetarian and an athlete; it just
means that you need to put some effort into
Preheat oven to 350°F/180°C. Spray an 8
x 8-inch (20cm x 20cm) baking pan with
non-stick cooking spray and set aside.
Place the black turtle beans – one 15
½-ounce can (approx. 450g), drained and
rinsed – in the bowl of a food processor;
blend until smooth and creamy.
• Add 3 large eggs
• Add 3 tbsp. canola oil
• Add 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• Add 1/2 cup cocoa powder
• Add 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• Add 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• Add 1/2 cup flour
• Add a pinch of salt and process until
smooth
• (Optional: add 1/2 tsp peppermint extract.
I like Orange extract.)
• Add ¼ cup of chocolate chips (I add more)
and pulse a few times in the processor
until the chips are broken up.
• Pour the batter into the prepared baking
dish and sprinkle the top with ¼ cup of
chocolate chips.
• Bake 30 to 35 minutes, or until the edges
start to pull away from the sides of the
baking pan and a toothpick inserted in the
centre comes out clean. Cool in the pan
before slicing.
Eat, enjoy and feel healthy all at the
same time.
Matt Linsdell is a certified personal trainer and has a degree in Environmental Science. He
calls himself an ‘evidence-based trainer’, because training is a field which is littered with welldisguised pseudoscience – his emphasis is always on teaching the biology behind exercise. He lives
at the edge of the beautiful and expansive Gatineau Park in Quebec and works across the water
in Ottawa, Ontario. If he’s not out walking his two pit bulls, you’ll find him doing press ups with
insanely large weights on his back. Follow Matt on Twitter at @smartfitmatt.
(Russian Embryo) Flickr • Thirteen Of Clubs
You’re probably eating more
protein than you think
PROTEIN SUPPLEMENTS
#LIFE
ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE AMAZON RAINFOREST...
JOURNEY INTO THE AMAZON
Each phase of my journey through the Amazon
could be summarised as an adrenaline-fuelled
adventure. Within moments of the canoe first
coming to a stop after a two day journey, I
was greeted by the Huaorani – a curious and
intriguing group of people. They looked just
as I had imagined in my dreams: longish black
hair, short in stature, stretched earlobes and a
friendly wonder on their faces. Some warriors
were clothed, ready to battle the invading
westerners, whereas others wore a string around
their waist. All were perfectly adapted to their
environment – the thickened soles of their feet
providing protection against the harsh jungle
terrain. Everything about their way of life fascinated me and I wanted to know more.
Trials on the trails: three become
two
but the journey had to continue.
Three days in and ‘bush meat’ was no longer
on the menu. With food supplies running low
we were given an important task which was
an integral part of the Huaorani way of life –
hunting.
Hunting with the natives
Pego, one of the Huaorani warriors, and his
brother danced through the jungle to the music
of the monkeys, blowgun in hand and darts
ready to fire. Mission: dinner. But the trouble
was that dinner was dancing somewhere up
in the trees. I could sense the monkeys were
grinning from the branches with their tongues
poked out! But from the ground, looking up
with an empty stomach, I couldn’t see the funny
side. I watched as the warriors carried out their
duties; they imitated the voices of the animals
to lure them in and capture them with ease. Tip
toe, tip toe, tap – the warriors danced on the
floor of the jungle to the beat of a monkey’s
steps and in the style of a monkey’s moves. The
hunter’s strategy was well polished.
As I hunted with the legendary warriors, I saw
that, in some way, they were also fighting to
save their lands from exploitation. During my
time in the Amazonian rainforest I had met
with the tribe elders and listened to their stories
of past and present, and felt their fear over the
destruction of their land. Modern western influences have greatly affected these people; it is a
culture on the verge of erosion. The future had
arrived here in the jungle, and with it, change
was inevitable. It made me ponder on similar
Day 1: man down! Steve, the sound recordist,
could go no further when a graze suddenly
became infected. He left us in search of a hospital
and was fortunate to hitch a ride on a plane with
a National Geographic film crew (who had just
finished filming in the same village). It felt like
a disaster that would jeopardise everything we
had prepared for. Just my cameraman, Frank,
and I were left to make the documentary. We
had come with a purpose and I was determined
to fulfil it. I kept telling myself that nothing
was impossible even when the challenges came
thick and fast – limited petrol supplies to charge
the camera and power the boats, the threat of
being attacked by the Tagaeri tribe while out to
catch food, and a radio call announcing Steve’s
death (a misunderstanding I was grateful for) –
SARAH BEGUM
Previous Page: (Rainforest Biome) Flickr • Webbaliah, (Roadside tribesmen) Flickr • Ben Sutherland
ONCE UPON A TIME
IN THE AMAZON
RAINFOREST...
As I walked under the canopy of a
tropical world, thoughts of ancient
mysteries flooded my mind. At 21
years of age, my childhood dream
had finally come true. Many years ago
during a primary school lesson on
deforestation, my fantasy was born.
And now, I was in the Amazon jungle,
ready to survive like the natives have
done since the beginning of time. Set
for adventure, thirsty for action, I
was ready to live the dream I had kept
alive for so long. And I was making a
documentary to chronicle everything
I saw.
ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE AMAZON RAINFOREST...
#PHILOSOPHY
WELCOME TO THE
REAL WORLD
A SIMULATED EXISTENCE
struggles from around the world to preserve
our environment and cultures; are we fighting a
losing battle or will there ever be an end to this
war over the destruction of rainforests?
(Black Panther by Bruce McAdam) Wikimedia • Bruce McAdam
The spirit of the jaguar
One fascinating tradition I discovered was the
Huaorani’s connection with the jaguar and
the legend behind it: they believe that when a
warrior and shaman die, they are reincarnated
as a jaguar. As a feline-obsessive myself, I was
hoping I might get a chance to see one in the
flesh, but unfortunately the mysterious beast
remained elusive during my stay. Instead, one
of the warriors trained me to throw a spear.
Upon proving myself worthy, I was promptly
challenged to an arm wrestling match. The
warriors told me that the jaguar spirit existed
within me and that when I died, I would also
be reincarnated as a male jaguar. I was flattered,
and couldn’t help but amuse myself with the
thought of growing whiskers and a pair of giant,
manicured claws!
On the last day, in homage to my ‘jaguar spirit’,
I had the feline image painted on me in blue
(semi-permanent) dye. While perfectly appropriate for the jungle, I didn’t fit in as well walking
through passport control in Miami, New York
and London, where officials mocked, “Avatar’s
my favourite movie!” I remember thinking, “I
hope my documentary will be too!”
---Amazon Souls was selected for the Cannes Film
Festival Short Film Corner and the Sheffield
Doc/Fest Videotheque 2013. It has had both
local and online press coverage and recently
been endorsed by celebrity presenter and
adventurer, Bear Grylls and supported by Sky
Rainforest Rescue, Rainforest Alliance and
Rainforest Concern. We are now waiting for
it to hit the big screens so that everyone can
share in this extraordinary journey and see
how beautiful the Huaorani way of life really
is. Sarah is also anticipating a return to
make part two.
In 2010, Sarah Begum became the youngest female Documentarian to produce her
first film in the Amazon Rainforest. With an interest in ancient civilizations, Sarah has
since been exploring the world, embarking on adventures and working on various film
and humanitarian projects. You can find out more at sarahbegum.tv.
MATT POWELL
Previous Page: (Universe in my hands) Flickr • Lauro Roger McAllister -...
Throughout history, humanity has
believed in some form of benevolent
creator – ranging from our Sun, to a
multidisciplinary team of Gods, or
indeed one bearded old man sitting
on a cloud. But what if our creators
are a bunch of tech-wizards? It
sounds even more far-fetched than
superstitions of old, but leading
physicists now suggest that life, the
universe and everything, are nothing
more than a simulation like a video
game in which we are the ‘players’.
Perhaps they’ve been watching the
Matrix trilogy a bit too much…
Our universe seems to be unbelievably finetuned. If any of the ‘laws’ of physics were even
slightly different to what they are, life as we
know it, would be impossible. Dark matter, for
example, releases just enough energy to keep
the universe stable and expanding – any more,
and it would be torn apart; any less, and it
would implode into a fiery furnace.
One of the main motivations for investigating
whether the universe is a simulation is simply
convenience; if it is shown to be the case, we
would instantly be able to answer these tricky
philosophical questions by saying “That’s just
how the simulation was programmed!”
Life is but a dream
Until now, it has been believed that the universe
is infinite. If this is true then the sums don’t
quite add up: astrophysicists have come to the
conclusion that dark matter energy levels are
far weaker than would be expected, and high-
energy cosmic rays seem to lose energy as they
travel through space. These quirks of nature are
difficult for physicists to explain – unless we
all live in a simulation. If all of our existence is
not actually in an infinite universe, but trapped
within a space with limited boundaries (like
being inside a computer game), then many of
the things astronomers see start making more
sense.
So how on Earth will scientists try to see if the
universe is a computer simulation? Ironically,
they intend to test their theory with algorithms
and super-computers. Increasingly sophisticated computers are presently crunching their
way through very, very complex algorithms,
and have so far digitally recreated some pretty
complex stuff – including the way subatomic
particles and atoms are held together.
Tumbling down the rabbit hole
Silas Beane and his team from the University
of Bonn, Germany, have made a computer
program that creates a digital grid-like lattice.
This grid is stuffed with virtual particles which
follow all the forces of nature that we know
of, so all Beane and colleagues had to do is sit
back and watch what happens. A lattice can be
likened to a chess-board: it restricts whatever
moves along it to certain lines and energy levels,
with nothing being able to move beyond the
lattice spacing. It’s like a garden trellis, which
directs plants to grow in only certain directions.
If the universe was ordered in a lattice, it would
restrict (or ‘cut-off’) the energy level of cosmic
rays travelling along these pre-set lines, as
they’d be unable to travel in any other direction
than the lattice spacing.
So within the super-computer’s microchips, a
minute part of the universe is being created like
a lattice – albeit at a size equivalent to something
1,000,000,000 times smaller than a bacterial
cell. Why so small? Well, imagine simulating
planets, stars and galaxies right down to the
tiniest atomic particle; you would need an
immensely powerful computer to calculate
what each particle was doing and where it was
at any given time. At the moment we simply
don’t have enough computing power to do this.
However, Beane believes we’ll be able to make
simulations as big as a human sometime in the
next century. (I’m not sure what a person living in
a universe the size of one would do! Ed.)
By generating a mini-universe in a computer,
we can see whether it behaves like our universe
does and it could help balance the unbalanced
equations. So far, Beane and his team have
had positive results. Within their simulation,
the cosmic rays do have restricted energy
levels, which they say could point towards our
universe being a simulation with pre-set restrictions, or a simulation with a finite space that
causes cosmic rays to bounce back and forth as
they travel.
However, these findings should be taken with
a pinch of salt – at least until computing power
advances to the point at which we can simulate
a larger universe. There is also the problem that
a single high-energy cosmic ray passes Earth
only once every century – making it difficult
to compare the virtual results with what is
observed in life.
Your very own Truman Show
For me, the most interesting aspect of this
experiment is its philosophical implications for
humanity. If we discovered our universe to be a
simulation, how would this affect our value of
life? Would we cope if we had to question reality
and how it differs from what we perceive to be
real? These are all far-reaching, metaphysical
questions that don’t necessarily have clear
answers – and they have understandably caught
the attention of bloggers, as well as advocates
of Intelligent Design who aim to scientifically
prove the existence of God. Many of these
believers tend to focus on certain aspects of the
experiment to serve their own ideological interpretation of the universe.
Some of the more creative reporters claim that
our universe could be a testing ground for an
advanced race of humans who put themselves
in simulations like our universe to gather life
experience, which will qualify their entrance
into a ‘super-race’ – whatever that might be.
Others say our universe could be a simulation
that was created by humans from the future
who wish to examine their own past time
periods. It sounds like a story from an Arthur
C. Clark novel, but it isn’t, I promise.
Beane and his team believe that, if the universe
is a simulation, there should be a way to communicate with our simulators. But is this classic
human arrogance? Rather than admitting
that some of our predictions are wrong, Beane
and others make the audacious claim that
the universe is an artificial simulation with
restrictions. Most science-nuts seem wholeheartedly enthusiastic about the simulation
idea. And while I’d like to believe there may
be something better to be found beyond our
current perception of reality, it’s hard to be sold
on these simulation ideas.
But if the universe is a simulation, how will
science convince the human population that
they’re simply the characters in a Sims-esque
game? It’s not going to be easy. These experiments have the potential to change how we
view our lives, our outlook, and our very worth.
There is something strange about the human
condition: we want reality to be real, but secretly
hope that it isn’t.
References
•
•
•
•
•
Beane, S. Savage, M.J. Davoudi, Z.
(2012). Constraints on the Universe
as a Numerical Simulation.
Justin Mullins. (2012). The idea
we live in a simulation isn’t science
fiction.
Are you living in a computer
simulation?
Yet more evidence emerges that our
universe is a grand simulation created
by an intelligent designer
Cosmic rays offer clue our
universe could be a computer
simulation
Matt Powell is a graduate from Oxford, obsessed with all things space orientated.
Besides being the meanest ukulele player to grace the English countryside, Matt spends
his time reading, writing and walking. He was also the Summer 2013 Guru Intern.
(God is watching you) Flickr • The unnamed
ASK A
GURU
ASK A GURU
Do cut flowers last longer if you cut up or bruise the
bottom of the stems? How?
Asked by Louise Allan via Facebook
Your questions are awaited by an eager team of
get it off your chest.
qualified writers and Gurus who will do their very
You can tweet your questions to us @GuruMag
with the hashtag #AskAGuru, post it on our
Facebook wall, send it via the app (just tap the
‘?’), or use the good old-fashioned e-mail.
best to find you an answer. And we will seek out
an external expert to help if we can’t. Go on, give
us your best shot!
Here’s a roundup of some recent answers:
Why can’t we stop laughing when we are tickled?
(suspicious tickler) Flickr • istolethetv
Asked by Jodine via Facebook
Whether for pain or for pleasure, tickling is something
we all experience. It is accompanied by laughing and
smiling, but underlying the joy is an intense hatred for
the tickler. They will taunt you as you gasp for breath:
“If you hate it so much why are you laughing?” And
after the assault is over you may ask yourself, “Why?
Why can’t I stop laughing when tickled?” To understand this, you need to understand the basic mechanisms of the tickle reflex.
Tickling is split into two distinct categories
called ‘knismesis’ which is that itching
feeling when you lightly touch your skin,
and ‘gargalesis’ which is the ‘funny’ tickled
feeling. Knismesis is pretty easy to understand
from an evolutionary point of view: if a bug
or foreign body is crawling on your skin, the
natural response is to wipe it off so it can’t bite
you or make you sick. Gargalesis, on the other
hand, is more complicated.
Recent studies have shown that the tickling
feeling we get is related to pain sensing nerves
in our skin. Researchers found that if someone
loses their pain response then they also lose their
tickling response. Endorphins are released when
feeling pain, so this may also have something to do
with the nature of tickling. As for why we cannot stop
laughing, it may be psychological. Anyone that is super
– ticklish can tell you that they will begin laughing
before even being touched – so the anticipation of
tickling may be the culprit…
Read the full answer online.
Answered by Kyle Pastor
the air bubble that’s blocking the flow of water…
So there you have it, the science behind flower care.
Right, can I start laying out my flower puns? What a
blooming great question; I hope I got to the root of the
problem and haven’t stemmed any new ones. Ah, that
felt good.
Answered by Matt Powell
Is there any science behind the old wives’ tale ‘feed
a cold, starve a fever’?
Asked by UOPscience via Twitter
Sometimes the oldest sayings are the best. Advice
handed down through the generations can be trustworthy wisdom. Eating apples is most certainly good
for health and will go some way to ‘keep the doctor
away’. Likewise, not letting the sun go down when
you’re angry is an aid to improving marital harmony.
But should you ‘feed a cold’ and ‘starve a
fever’?
‘Feeding a cold’ certainly falls into the
‘good advice’ category. Any doctor, me
included, would stress the importance
of good nutrition when fighting off
an infection. The immune system can
consume vast amounts of energy when it
is battling off the baddies.
On a similar logic ‘starving a fever’ makes
little sense – although there is a little bit
of research that suggests it might just be
true. This 2002 study showed that eating
a meal enhanced the immune system’s
specialised virus-killing abilities (viruses
being the cause of the cold); whereas
fasting enhanced its bacteria-fighting powers (bacterial
infections being a common cause of fever).
Although this finding grabbed the headlines of certain
newspapers, it’s far from convincing. The research was
done on only six volunteers, all of whom were perfectly
fit and healthy. Also, bacteria do tend to cause the
(trekkyandy) Flickr • trekkyandy, ((88/365) :: It burnss uss, my preciousss) Flickr • chispita_666
Got a burning question? Friday’s your chance to
They do indeed! There is a lot of contradictory advice
on the internet about how to handle and care for cut
flowers. In fact, there’s more than enough advice to
fill an academic journal for a year – so much so, that
it could make you want to give up displaying flowers
altogether. I digress. Let’s nip this question in the bud.
Whether you buy flowers from a shop or grow them in
your own garden, they’ll need their stems
cut at the bottom before you place them in
a vase. It’s important to do this because the
moment you cut a flower from the bush or
plant, an air bubble will form at the base
of the stem. If you think of how a plant
continually sucks up water from its base
(by a process similar to capillary action),
then exposing a cut stem to air will mean
an air bubble forms at the bottom. This
air bubble will block the flow of water up
the stem. That’s why everyone will tell you
to cut the stem – it means you get rid of
ASK A GURU
On balance, it would appear sensible to keep eating
through a cold and a fever – even if sustenance is in
non-solid form (chicken soup, anyone?).
Food poisoning is a little bit different, and a far more
messy affair. But we’ll save that for another day.
Read the full answer online
Answered by Dr Stu
‘Polyphasic’ sleeping means it is possible to sleep for
2 hours a day. Is this true?
Asked via email
Maybe you’re a night owl; maybe you’re a morning
lark. Nevertheless, most people will sleep no more
than once a day, and when they fall asleep it will be at
night and for about 6–9 hours. If you sleep 8 hours a
day, you would spend one third of your life sleeping.
Many people have experimented with various sleep
styles. Throughout history, it is said that people
from all walks of life – from Napoleon to Winston
Churchill – have deviated from the usual 8-hour
‘monophasic’ block of sleep. When you break up your
sleeping hours into multiple segments, it’s
called ‘polyphasic sleep’ and it can take on
numerous forms.
The most extreme version of polyphasic
sleep is also known as the ‘Uberman’ style
where you would only sleep for 2 hours a
day. This sounds like a great time-saving
technique and it’s not surprising that
many are keen to try it out. However, it’s
not something to be taken lightly.
Your sleep pattern is regulated by
something called your ‘circadian rhythm’.
External cues such as light and darkness,
as well as hormones, are involved in this natural body
rhythm that makes you feel sleepy or awake. Polyphasic
sleep disrupts this rhythm while your body tries to
adapt to your new sleeping style. There is the potential
for long term health problems through poor sleep.
But if you think sleeping sounds like a great waste of
time, worry not. Google have come up with a solution
– the Nap Pod. Now you can sleep in the office and get
away with it!
News: bite sized
Click on the headlines to find out more!
Animals that live life in slow motion
The future looks Hot!
Could body heat one day be harnessed to power
electrical devices?
Asked by Mad Moules via Facebook
(just a quick snooze) Flickr • Phil Gradwell
Answered by Isabel Hutchison
Although many insects only live a matter of days,
they certainly don’t see it that way. Time moves more
slowly for animals that are smaller or have a faster
metabolism. Dogs process information twice as fast
as humans, experiencing everything at half the speed
that we do. Flies live in ‘bullet time’, seeing life slowed
down 7 fold – which is why they can easily outsmart
our attempts to swat them.
Answered by Dorothée Grevers
It could indeed. In fact, it won’t be long before you will
be able to buy body heat energy-generating products.
Researchers have been working on this idea for some
time now, but only recently have they discovered
materials cheap enough to make it worthwhile
producing them.
The principle underlying all of these new technologies
is basically the same: certain materials generate energy
when they are exposed to two different temperatures
body heat to charge their phones. However, patience
is required: after 8 hours of slumber you can talk on
your phone for a mere 24 minutes or leave your phone
on standby for up to 11 hours (an excuse for a lie-in,
perhaps?)…
Besides charging phones, body heat, in this case from
the inside of your ear, could be used to run medical
devices such as hearing aids. Furthermore, lining
car seats with thermoelectric material could reduce
your fuel usage and potentially shrink your carbon
footprint. The advantages of using body heat as an
alternative energy source are striking. It looks like
soon enough you’ll be able to have your cake and heat
it, too.
at the same time. These devices are called thermocouples and could turn the difference in temperature
between, let’s say, the inside and outside of your
trouser pocket into electrical power.
At the annual Isle of White festival earlier this
month, Vodafone gave a demo of the so-called “Power
Pocket”. By printing heat sensitive electricity-generating material onto the inside of trouser pockets and
sleeping bags, festival visitors could use their own
(Show Me The Light) Flickr • d_pham
worst fevers – but viral infections can cause very nasty
fevers also. Most importantly, when going through a
fever, our metabolic rate sky-rockets – so not eating
when in such a state will deprive the body of the fuel
needed to sustain itself. The pounds may fall away, but
you’ll be pig-sick.
ASK A GURU
What’s cooking? Our future, that’s what. The land
area affected by heat waves will double by 2020 and
quadruple by 2040, scientists warn. They even claim
this will happen no matter what we do, but don’t stop
investing in green living because reducing your carbon
footprint should help the world beyond 2040.
You can’t taste corked wine, but it still
tastes like a wet dog
It has been discovered why ‘corked’ wine tastes like
rotten cardboard: a substance called TCA gets into the
bottle. However, it isn’t TCA that we taste: it seems
that TCA suppresses our sense of smell, and our brain
fills the gap with an ‘imaginary’ musky odour.
Eat well, get younger
Ten elderly men have successfully managed to turn the
clock back. After five years of following a strict daily
regime of yoga, meditation, exercise and a meat-free
diet, their cells became biologically ‘younger’. With
age, telomeres (the caps at the ends of cellular DNA
strands) usually shrink. In these 10 volunteers,
telomeres increased in size by 10%!
When arms became wings
Whether the chicken or the egg came first doesn’t
bother many palaeontologists (it was the egg – Ed).
Working out how birds first got their wings has been
a real head-scratcher – until now. Researchers have
found that 150 million years ago some dinosaurs
started evolving disproportionately large arms. They
may have been the laughing stock of the herd back
then, but over countless generations these gangly
arms developed into something that could let them fly
off.
Jurassic Park will sadly remain fiction
You probably remember the scene: a long needle going
into an insect in a chunk of amber. It is the way Jurassic
Park scientists got hold of dinosaur DNA. However,
real-life attempts to extract and decode DNA from the
blood of insects entombed in fossilised tree resin have
failed.
Turn your poo into power
Scientists have developed a battery that is powered by
sewage. Containing microbes, silver oxide and carbon
cloth, the bugs break down the sewage into carbon
and clean water, generating electrons in the process.
These electrons flow through a wire to the silver oxide,
creating electricity (and silver). Talk about
clean energy!
DEPARTURE LOUNGE
Welcome back to the Departure Lounge: the fictional
waiting room where we share a friendly chat before parting
ways (until the next issue, of course!) How are you feeling?
Puzzled? Good stuff.
In this issue we’ve focused heavily on the mysterious– from
unbreakable codes and the veiled world of computer hacking,
to the suggestion of a simulated universe. We hope to have
shed some light on the complexities of the world we live in,
and give a polite nod to the many secrets that remain locked
in its vastness.
But all this wondering has tired me out. Let’s turn our
attention back to something a little more stable – like the
bi-monthly release of Guru. Simulated reality or not, the
next issue of our delightful science lifestyle will come to you
on the 2nd of December, and don’t forget, the Guru Magazine
app is available to download all year round, from The App
Store or Google Play.
We know that two months can feel like a long time when
you’re not tucking into a fresh edition of our magazine, but
don’t despair. If you have any science(y) questions you’d like
answered, our elite team of Gurus is always here to lend a
hand. Whether it’s why we get dizzy when we’ve had a few
too many, or what makes our hair turn grey as we get old, just
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THE MYSTERY OF KRYPTOS

Transcription

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