BBC Knowledge - December 2014 In

4th Anniversary Special A Times of India publication

SCIENCE

HISTORY

NATURE

Volume 5 Issue 1 December 2014  ` 125 125

FOR THE CURIOUS MIND

TOP

 D  E  L  A  E  V  R  E

10

OF EVER EVERYTHING YTHING Human Evolution Animal Kingdom Space The Earth Technology Transport History Human Planet Science

R.N.I.MAHENG/2010/35422 R.N.I.MAHENG/2010/3542 2

CONTENTS

12

Human Evolution The flesh and bones of Homo sapiens – from key fossil finds to endangered languages and record-breaking people in history.

4th Anniversary Special

SCIENCE

HISTORY

NATURE

20

Volume 5 Issue 1 December 2014  ` 125 125

A Times of India publication

FOR THE CURIOUS MIND

TOP

 D  E  L  A  R  E V E

10

 Anim  An imal al Ki King ngdo dom m The features of creatures – the biggest, the fastest, the strongest, the oldest, the most dangerous and the weirdest animals on the planet.

OF EVERYTHING

30

Human Evolution Animal Kingdom Space The Earth Technology Transport History Human Planet Science

R.N.I.MAHENG/2010/35422

Space

REGULARS    Y    M    A    L    A  ,    9    X    K    C    O    T    S    K    N    I    H    T

6

Q&A 

Our panel of experts answer the questions you’ve always wanted to ask

88

In Focus

The Indian Space Research Organisation - its beginnings, legacy and future missions

2

December 2014

Incredible journeys into the cosmos, from the first astronauts (human and other animals) to the biggest things in space.

38

62

The Earth

History 

Biggest deserts. Coldest places. Longest rivers. Largest lakes. The most extreme places on our planet.

The cities, ancient marvels and battles – but also the mysteries and myths, hoaxes and empires, disasters and doomed expeditions.

72

46

Technology 

Human Planet

The appliance of science – from the tiny tech marvels in your pocket to the engineering feats that have transformed the world.

Discover how we’ve moulded the world around us – the biggest and smallest countries, the tallest buildings, the highest cities...

80

54

Transport From the wheel to the space shuttle, follow the development of movement through the ages – ever faster, bigger and more dynamic.

Science Who discovered what, when? The big breakthroughs – and the men and women who transformed our understanding of the physical world.

FROM THE EDITOR  You know that line from the movie Forrest Gump ? 'Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you are going to get’. Well, putting together each issue of Knowledge has been just like that. We begin with a curiosity and that question takes a life of its own. Our world is so full of wonders and revelations, constantly taking our breath away the minute we scratch the surface. And scratch and dig we did. The Top 10 of Everything. From the lives of A nimals to the sphere of Technology, Transport, Human Evolution, Space, History and much more. The fastest, the biggest, the best. An elaborate 71-page glimpse of the extraordinary that surrounds us. This special digest celebrates BBCK’s 4th year anniversary this month. And it also embodies the spirit of what’s yet to come. An exciting Quiz Contest in search of the brightest young minds across India, BRAINIAC will test the spirit of enquiry and the eagerness for knowledge of students from all over the country. BRAINIAC is about to open soon, so turn to page 28 for details and stay tuned to www.knowledgemagazine.in/brainiac/

[email protected] www.knowledgemagazine.in

 SEND US YOUR LETTERS Has something you’ve read in BBC Knowledge Magazine  intrigued or excited you? Write in and share it with us. We’d love to hear from you and we’ll publish a selection of your comments in the forthcoming issues.

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We welcome your letters, while reserving the right to edit them for length and clarity. By sending us your letter you permit us to publish it in the magazine. We regret that we cannot always reply personally to letters.

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YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED

Can consciousness be switched on and off? p7  Why is the hole in the ozone layer over Antarctica, if it’s uninhabited? p8 

EXPERT PANEL Susan Blackmor (SB)  A visiting professor at the University of Plymouth, UK, Susan is an expert on psychology and evolution.

Robrt Matthws Robert is a writer and researcher. He is a Visiting Reader in Science at Aston University, UK.

Can any animal see in pure darkness?

Luis Villazon

Luis has a BSc in computing and an MSc in zoology from Oxford. His works include How Cows Reach The Ground .

This rattlesnake can sense where you are in total darkness with infrared vision

 ASK THE EXPERTS?    2    X    S    I    B    R    O    C

email our panl at bbcknowldg@wwm.co.in W’r sorry, but w cannot rply to qustions individually.

Even without visible light, pit vipers, which include rattlesnakes, can sense the infrared light given off by any warm-blooded prey. Their pit organs near the nostrils don’t have a lens, so the heat image is fairly blurry. Many insects, including bees, can see into the ultraviolet, but ultraviolet light is never present in nature without some visible light as well, so it’s no use in total darkness. Bats and dolphins ‘see’ by listening to the

pattern of echoes from their high-pitched squeaks, and sharks can sense the tiny electromagnetic field generated by all living things. Electroreception uses special pores around the snout of the shark, called ‘ampullae of Lorenzini’. It only has a range of a metre or two, but it allows sharks to accurately close in on prey even in total darkness or when they are buried under sand on the seabed. LV 

Q&A 

New research suggests that a single brain region may function as an ‘on/off switch’ for consciousness

TOP TEN HEAVIEST ORGANS IN THE BODY 

1. Skin: 4,535g Function: Protects against pathogens; provides insulation; synthesizes vitamin D; regulates temperature; provides sensation

2. Liver: 1,560g Function: Breaks down toxins; produces hormones, proteins and digestive biochemicals; regulates glycogen storage

3. Brain: 1,500g Function: Drives executive functions such as reasoning; coordinates responses to changes in environment

4. Lungs: 1,300g Function: Supplies oxygen to be distributed around the body; expels carbon dioxide that is created around the body

5. Heart: 300g

Can consciousness be switched on and off?  Yes, if a recent experiment is to be believed. In an attempt to locate the source of an epileptic patient’s seizures, doctors at George Washington University, USA, inserted electrodes into her brain. One electrode was positioned close to the claustrum, a thin sheet of tissue below the cortex with a role akin to that of an orchestra’s conductor – coordinating the many different things that go on in the brain at once. Consciousness typically involves sights, sounds, thoughts

and feelings all coming together. Could the claustrum be what makes this possible? When the doctors stimulated this electrode the woman stayed awake but lost consciousness. She stopped what she was doing, stared blankly into space and would not respond to them. When the stimulation stopped she regained consciousness. It seems a whole, complex brain is needed for rich experiences, but it also needs the claustrum ‘switch’ to bring everything together. SB

Function: Pumps oxygenated blood from lungs around the body; pumps deoxygenated blood to the lungs

6. Kidneys: 260g (pair) Function: Remove waste products; regulate sodium and water retention; filter blood; produce urine and hormones

7. Spleen: 175g Function: Filters blood; holds a reserve supply of blood; recycles iron; synthesizes antibodies; removes bacteria

8. Pancreas: 70g Function: Produces insulin and glycogen; secretes enzymes that assist in the absorption of nutrients in the small intestine

What makes things burn? Combustion is simply a type of chemical reaction that occurs between a source of fuel and a source of oxygen, creating heat plus new compounds. A source of energy is often needed to split apart the fuel and oxidiser molecules – for example, a spark. But once the fragments start reacting, the heat produced keeps the process going. RM

9. Thyroid: 20g Function: Controls body’s energy use; makes proteins; controls hormone sensitivity

   K    C    O    T    S    K    N    I    H    T  ,    Y    T    T    E    G

10. Prostate gland: 11g Function: Secretes an alkaline fluid that constitutes 50-75 per cent of the volume of semen

7

December 2014

 T S  A   S T  L  A    T  I  V

 4  t s  1, 0 2  r o b o  o f t  in y

 a r v a r d  u m b e r  I s t h e n  c r e a t e d b y H  f s e l f  o   m  r   e  a  l  b  i n a s w  t h a t i s c a p a  b e r o f   s  m  t  u   s   i  n  t  n  y  a n  s c i e  i n g i n t o  s  o r g a n i s  f f e r e n t s h a p e  d i

Fire: a very useful chemical reaction indeed

 T S  A   S T  L  A    T  I  V

 m  0. 1 5 m  a l  le s t  f t h e s m

Q&A  The Galapagos hawk; a master of the art of hovering flight

 n g t h o  c a l  le d  I s t h e l e  e c t, a f a i r y  y  a i r y  n s  l f   y i n g i  h u n a. L i k  e a l  l  if e  k  i  i t s  i  f   k   i  o  K   h  e  c  t h  e s m u  t s ’ e g g s   v   i  l   t  i ,  s  e c   i e  t h e r i n s  i n s i d e o

How do hawks hover in the sky?

Which part of the brain generates free will?

   Y    R    A    R    B    I    L    O    T    O    H    P    E    C    N    E    I    C    S  ,    2    X    Y    M    A    L    A

No part! Like many scientists, I don’t believe we have free will. If the power of thought alone could cause our brains and muscles to act, it would be magic, because every action, every decision and everything we say depends on what happens in our brains and our environment. Since Benjamin Libet’s ground-breaking experiments in the 1980s we have known that the brain activity associated with an action is detectable half a second before a person decides to act. Since then, scientists have predicted people’s decisions from brain scans several seconds before they are made. This may seem weird, but surely fits with everything we know about how the brain works. Of course there can be randomness too, and recent brain research has shown that random events in a person’s brain can also be used to predict what they will do next. But randomness doesn’t give us free will. The real challenge seems not how to find the causes of free will – but to learn how to live without believing in it. SB

Scientists have been able to detect the brain activity of an action half a second before it’s physically carried out

8

October 2014

Birds of prey use a technique called ‘wind hovering’. This is really just flying into a headwind, but they control their forward airspeed so that it exactly balances the speed of the wind and the bird makes no progress relative to the ground. Kestrels are the masters of this

and can even hover briefly in stationary air by balancing forward-gliding flight with backwards-angled wingbeats. Gaps between flight feathers at their ends allow the bird to control wing turbulence and avoid stalling, and fanning the tail wide provides extra lift. LV 

Why is the hole in the ozone layer over Antarctica, if it’s uninhabited? NASA’s Aura satellite produced this map of the ozone layer over Antarctica. Blue shows low ozone levels; green, orange and yellow represent higher levels

Ozone depletion is mainly caused by chemical reactions between compounds such as chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and ultraviolet light. These occur in the stratosphere, above 8km (5 miles) altitude. By the time polluting man-made CFCs get that high, they have evenly dispersed around the globe, so whether or not people live and work under the ozone hole isn’t the determining factor in its location. The reason that the hole forms above Antarctica is because the ozonedestroying reactions happen much faster on the surface of the tiny ice crystals found in a type of cloud, called polar stratospheric cloud, which forms in the cold, dry conditions of the Antarctic. LV 

READING, WRITING AND LOVING Principals, contributors and experts tell us why BBC Knowledge is for them

MICHeL dANINO DR D R SAINI

K I RA   N 

Principal of Delhi Public School (R K Puram)

BBC Knowledge  is an

extremely resourceful  guide for students to gain impressive and expansive knowledge about a variety of  phenomenae in the world. The best feature of the magazine is its interface. The overall feel of reading, the facts that have been assembled and projected are very appealing.

B I R S  F ou  n  d    eT    HI   er   o f T  he   R i v  er  s   i de    I nd  i  a a  S c  nd   o f  D es   i gn    ho  o  l  , A hm f or   C h    e  d  a  b  a  d  ,  an  g  e    BBC Knowledge  is designed to inform and engage the reader on relevant topics in Science, History and Nature. The research-based articles make it a great resource for teachers to bring into their classrooms. Many of the articles in the magazine would connect easily with subject topics. The content of the magazine is a fine balance of knowledge and information.

Indian author and historian

BBC Knowledge  magazine

is an excellent populariser of science and other  topics of interest to  the intellectually curious young Indians (and less young). The content is of high quality: expert yet  accessible and stimulating content combined with topclass design. I enjoy reading  the science articles and  the superb design.

M e eN  A   K S  HI  J A I N 

 A s so    U ni  v er    c i at  e   P r of  e    s so    s i t y    ; F or    me  r   F  r o f H i st  or  y    , D el       M us   eu    el  l ow hi   m a nd    , N eh  r   u M em   o  r   i  L i br   ar    al    y 

BBC Knowledge serves a very useful purpose in that it invites experts in such a vast array of fields, covering science and humanities to present their views in a simple and concise manner.

ROMULUS WHITAKeR  Award-winning Herpetologist

BBC Knowledge  is

stimulating, a real page-turner of wide ranging, interest stimulating subjects. I think  that the wide variety of subjects is what I like most  about BBC Knowledge : you can always fnd something to

interest everyone.

DR C G GEETHA Managing Director of Cochin International Students Academy

BBC Knowledge  magazine

is one of the most informative magazines I have ever seen for the student community and teachers. It is becoming more and more popular among the teachers, students’ educators and

all others with an afnity

towards science in general.

REVEALED

OF EVERYTHING

Human Evolution

p12 

Animal Kingdom

p20 

  Space

p30 

The Earth

p38 

Technology p46  Transport

p54 

History

p62 

Human Planet

p72 

Science

p80 

HUMAN eVOLUTION

Delving into half a million years of evolution of our species – with our varied shapes, sizes, cultures and languages, provides fascinating food for thought about the nature of human development

   M    O    C  .    F    R    3    2    1  ,    3    X    K    C    O    T    S    K    N    I    H    T

12

December 2014

HUMAN EVOLUTION | SCIENCE

Human bone principally consists of collagen and calcium phosphate

10 FACTS ABOUT BONES Your ribs work hard  Your ribcage expands and contracts up to 10 million times each year – every time you breathe.

Your smallest bone is in your ear

You have one unconnected bone

The smallest bone in the body is only about 3mm long – the stapes (or stirrup) in the middle ear.

The hyoid, a horseshoe-shaped bone at the base of your tongue, is not  joined to another bone – the only such solitary bone in your body.

Hands and feet are your boniest parts

Your bones are light

You have strong legs

You lose bones as you grow up

The bones of an adult comprises a relatively small proportion of his or her total weight – about 15% in men, 12% in women.

 Your femur (thigh bone) is the longest, strongest and heaviest bone in your body; its length is 26% of your overall height.

Each human is born with 300–350 bones in his or her body. By the time we reach adulthood, that number is only 206 – many bones fuse during development.

More than half of your bones are in your hands and feet – 27 in each hand and 26 in each foot.

Your bones are mostly not living Bone consists largely of a matrix of collagen and hydroxylapatite (bone mineral) crystals. As little as five per cent is made up of living cells.

Your neck is like a giraffe’s

Your bones make blood

Humans have the same number of cervical vertebrae as a giraffe – seven.

Bone marrow produces about 2.4 million erythrocytes (red blood cells) per second.

10 ORGANS YOU CAN LIVe WITHOUT Lung  You might be a little short of breath, but living with one lung is perfectly possible. In 1931, Rudolph Nissen, who operated on Albert Einstein, was the first surgeon to successfully remove a patient’s lung.

Kidny If illness, injury or poison prevents your kidneys from filtering your blood, they need to be removed. You can cope quite well with just one, but if you lose both, you’ll need to use a dialysis machine.

Stomach  A gastrecomy – surgery to remove your stomach – can be required to treat cancer or ulcers. A total gastrectomy results in your oesophagus being connected directly to your intestine, which will have a long-term effect on diet and digestion.

Gallbladder Sitting just below your liver, the gallbladder stores bile to break down fat in food. Gallstones caused by high cholesterol can require removal of the gallbladder.

Intestines There are about 7.5m of small and large intestine wrapped up in your abdomen and, if necessary, all of it can come out – though absorbing nutrients afterwards may well prove to be problematic.

Eyes    Y    T    T    E    G  ,    3    X    K    C    O    T    S    K    N    I    H    T

14

Life can be harder without sight – or eyes – but clearly many people live fulfilling lives without the gift of vision.

Testicle Reproductive organs are sometimes removed for medical reasons, typically cancer.

December 2014

DID YOU KNOW? Th avrag human body is estimated to contain more than 95,000km of blood vessels

Gallstones can be extremely painful and can result in the gallbladder being removed

HUMAN EVOLUTION | SCIENCE

Kidneys filter your body’s waste products. However, you only need one to do the  job effectively

10 INVENTED LANGUAGES espranto Created by: Ludwik Lazarus

Zamenhof in 1887

Many people live long, healthy lives without an appendix

Appndix Is it a vestigial organ or part of our immune system? The medical jury is still out on that question, but it’s clear that its removal doesn’t cause any problems.

Spln  Your spleen sits just above your stomach, in the left-hand part of your body; it cleans your blood and fights infection. But if illness or injury necessitates its removal, other organs can compensate for its loss.

Pancreas This small organ sits just below the stomach, and secretes hormones and digestive enzymes. In some cases of pancreatic cancer the entire organ can be removed, though the patient will require replacement hormones.

 An international auxiliary language devised with the aim of promoting peace and understanding across the world.

Solresol

Slovianski

Sambahsa-

Created by: François Sudre in 1827

Created by: a team

mundialect

of languag xprts

Created by: Olivier Simon in 2007

In the language of Solresol, words can be communicated using hand gestures, colours and musical notes as well as verbally.

 An interlanguage designed to improve communication between Slavic peoples. It’s now spoken by around 2000 people.

This new tongue has a simple grammar and incorporates vocabulary from  Arabic, Chinese and Swahili among others.

Univrsalglot

Volapük 

Occidental

Created by: Jean Pirro in 1868

Created by:

Cratd by: edgar d Wahl in 1922

 An early – and unsuccessful – attempts at an international auxiliary language drew on vocabulary from a number of existing dialects.

Schleyer in 1880 Using mostly English words as a base, it was spoken by an estimated one million people at the peak of its popularity.

Drawing largely on European words, this language built a big worldwide following but fell out of favour in the years following the Second World War.

Blissymbols

Afrihili

Láadan

Created by: Charles K Bliss in 1949

Cratd by: K A Kumi Attobrah

Created by: Suzette Haden

Using symbols, this written language was adopted for signs in places like airports in Canada and Sweden.

in 1970

elgin in 1982

 Afrihili took elements from English and various African languages.

This tonal language was devised to better enable women to express their views.

in 2006

Johann Martin

SCIENCE | HUMAN EVOLUTION

THE 10 MOST WIDELY SPOKEN LANGUAGES

10 KeY BReAKTHROUGHS IN HUMAN eVOLUTION Grasping with two hans discovry: Th olst-known homini may hav ha opposabl thumbs Orrorin tugnnsis, fossils of which wr rst foun in Knya in 2000, is th olst scrib homini (human-lik) spcis, ating back up to six million yars ago. It ha opposabl thumbs an may hav walk upright.

CLIMBING dOWN FROM THe TReeS discovry: Tr-climbing forebears may have moved towars walking upright 4.4 million yars ago

01 Manarin Chins Spakrs worlwi: 848m

 A fossil classified as Ardipithecus ramidus was found in Ethiopia’s  Afar Depression in 1994. Its mix of features sparked debate that it could be a ‘missing link’ between two lifestyles.

USING YOUR HEAD

HANdY WITH TOOLS

discovry: Fossil skull inicats upright walking

discovry: Pr-human spcis, Hozbilis, used tools

 A dig in South Africa in 1924 unearthed a 2.8-million-year-old fossil Australopithecus africanus , dubbed the Taung Child. Its skull structure indicated that the spine connected at the bottom of the cranium – suggesting that it walked upright.

 At the time the first specimens were discovered at Tanzania’s Olduvai Gorge in 1963, it was the first hominid associated with stone tools – so the species, dating from between 2.3 and 1.4 million years ago, was dubbed Homo habilis  (handy man).

02 Spanish Spakrs: 406m

WALKING TALL

CROSS-BReedING WITH NeANdeRTHALS

discovry: Th rst prhuman spcis inti

Discovery: Humans mated with Neanderthals

Excavated in 1974 in the Afar Depression in Ethiopia, ‘Lucy’ ( Australopithecus afarensis ) lived between 3.85 and 2.95 million years old and was shown to have walked upright – long before brains grew to modern sizes.

The type specimen of Homo neanderthalensis was found in Germany’s Neander Valley in 1856. It probably lived from about 3,00,000 to 50,000 years ago – and may (or may not) have overlapped with modern humans in Europe.

The Neanderthal Genome Project, founded in 2006, sequenced the entire genome of a 1,30,000-year-old specimen found in a Siberian cave. DNA analysis suggests that Neanderthals may have interbred with modern humans.

WIeLdING STONe TOOLS

WHAT’S FOR dINNeR

PLAYING WITH FIRe

Discovery: The last meals of ancint pr-humans

Discovery: Human ancestor in Asia

The discovery of fossils of a newly described species, named Australopithecus sediba , in South Africa in 2008 included relatively complete individuals at different stages of development. It’s hoped that analysing tartar on the teeth of one specimen might reveal what it ate two million years ago.

The discovery in Java in 1891 of the species named Homo erectus  provided evidence of the earliest human ancestor found outside Africa, living between 1.8 million and 1,43,000 years ago. It had human-like traits – long legs, short arms and downwardpointing nostrils – and was believed to use fire.

discovry: Th worl’s most famous pr-human spcis walk upright

04 Hindi Spakrs: 260m 05 Arabic Spakrs: 223m 06 Portugus Spakrs: 202m 07 Bngali Spakrs: 193m

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NEANDERTHALS NAMed

03 english Spakrs: 335m

08 Russian Spakrs: 162m

Discovery: Our ancestors us ston tools 3.5 million yars ago

09 Japans Spakrs: 122m

Fossils of animal bones discovered in Ethiopia in 2010 show cutting marks indicating butchering with stone tools. These date from some three million years or more before modern humans evolved.

10 Javans (Inonsia) Spakrs: 84.3m * Source: www.ethnologue.com. Figures are estimates of first-tongue speakers.

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December 2014

SCIENCE | HUMAN EVOLUTION

10 INCREDIBLE

HUMAN ReCORdS Longst tim

Longst nos

Longst tongu

breath held

Mehmet Özyürek of Turkey has the world’s longest nose. In 2010, his proboscis measured at 8.8cm from bridge to tip.

Englishman Stephen Taylor’s tongue measures at 9.8cm (from the tip to the middle of his closed top lip).

In 2012, Stig Severinsen of Denmark held his breath underwater for a remarkable 22 minutes.

Longst tooth xtract

Longst fngrnails

 A tooth measuring 3.2cm long was removed from Loo Hui Jing in Singapore in 2009.

In 2009, American Melvin Boothe’s fingernails were measured at having a combined length of 9.85m.

Largst hans

Smallest waist

 American Robert Wadlow, the tallest man ever, also holds the record for largest hands – 32.3cm from wrist to fingertip.

Cathie Jung of the USA has the world’s smallest waist. It measures 38.1cm corseted – and just 53.34cm even without a corset.

Longst lgs Svetlana Pankratova of Russia possesses 132cm-long legs, as measured in 2003.

Longst run In 2010, Frenchman Serge Girard ran 27,011km around 25 EU countries – the farthest dzistance run in 365 days.

Longst swim    A    B    L    A    D    I    V    A    D  ,    2    X    N    O    I    T    A    I    C    O    S    S    A    S    S    E    R    P

In 2007, Slovenian Martin Strel swam the entire length of the Amazon River, covering 5,268 km in just 67 days.

* Source: Guinness World Records.

10 ENDANGERED LANGUAGES

Patwin

Where: USA Native to northern California, by 2011 it was assumed that just one person spoke Patwin as their first language.

Kaixána Where: Brazil  According to reports from 2006, one named individual spoke this language – though he was 78 years old.

Apiaká Where: Brazil

Diahói

Where: Brazil Probably fewer than a hundred members of the indigenous people who spoke this language live in southern Amazonas state; a 2006 study estimated that only one actually spoke the Diahói dialect.

Only a few hundred members of the  Apiaká people survive in northern Mato Grosso state; having adopted Portuguese, only one person is now believed to speak the language.

Bikya Where: Cameroon

Chaná

Where: Argentina/Uruguay In 2005, a man was discovered who spoke at least some words of this language, long believed extinct.

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December 2014

In 1986, it was reported that only four people spoke this Bantoid language, only one of them fluently – and he was over 70 years old. Bikya may now be extinct.

HUMAN EVOLUTION | SCIENCE

Pazeh

Where: Taiwan The last truly fluent native speaker of Pazeh, Pan Jin-yu, died in 2010 at the age of 96. A handful of her students continue to speak the language of this aboriginal people.

dampelas Where: Inonesia Native to a narrow stretch of northern Sulawesi, estimates for the number of speakers varies widely – from as high as 10,000 to as low as one.

Lae

Where: Papua New Guinea In 2000, just a single person in Morobe spoke this language. It may now be extinct. Volow

Where: Vanuatu  As another native language, Mwotlap, gained in prominence, Volow declined. It is now believed that just one passive speaker remains in the village of Aplow.

* Source: UNESCO Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger, which lists 19 languages as being spoken by no more than one person.

 ANIMAL KINGDOM From monstrous mammals to minute microbes, ancient reptiles and super-strong insects, the diverse and dazzling world of wildlife is full of surprises

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December 2014

 ANIMAL KINGDOM | NATURE

10 SUPeR-STRONG ANIMALS 01 dung btl Onthophagus taurus Hauls 1141 times own weight In 2010, researchers Rob Knell and Leigh Simmons demonstrated that the strongest males can pull a load 1,141 times its own weight.

02 Hercules beetle Dynastes hercules Lifts 850 times own weight The hefty insects known as rhinoceros beetles carry huge loads – anecdotal evidence suggests this species can lug 850 times its own weight.

03 Laf-cuttr ants Atta cphalots Lifts 50 times its own weight The various species of leafcutter ant carry relatively enormous chunks of leaves back to their nest to fertilise the fungi on which they feed.

04

eastrn gorilla Gorilla bringi Lifts 10 times own weight Big male gorillas – silverbacks – are immensely strong. By comparison, the strongest human weightlifters can lift two or three times their own weight.

05

Crown hawk-agl Stphanoatus coronatus Lifts four times own weight One of Africa’s most powerful raptors, the crowned hawk-eagle preys on mammals such as monkeys and bushbucks that weigh up to 30kg.

06

Tigr Panthra tigris Lifts double own weight Prey varies across the ranges of the subspecies, but the largest tigers have been known to hunt and carry water buffalo and even young elephants.

07 Asian lphant elphas maximus Pulls 170% of own weight But Asian elephants used in the timber industry have hauled logs weighing up to 9 tonnes – nearly twice as heavy as a large male tusker.

08 Ox Bos primignius Pulls 150% of own weight The phrase ‘strong as an ox’ is well coined: for millennia oxen have been used for hauling heavy loads and ploughing heavy soil.

09 Green anaconda Eunectes murinus Constricts at 90psi Though figures are debated, the green anaconda is believed to be the world’s largest snake, and has the most powerful squeeze at a reported 90psi.

10 Brown bear Ursus arctos Five times as strong as a human Grizzly bears grow to 500kg and over, and prey on large mammals such as moose, elk and even black bears.

10 eXTReMe MATING PRACTICeS Gratr amingo Phoenicopterus roseus Applis pink mak-up It’s long bn known that th charactristic pink hu of amingos’ fathrs is drivd from carotnoid pigmnts in th shrimps and othr plankton they eat. But in 2010 scientists discovered that gratr amingos activly apply pigmnt, scrtd from a gland at thir rar, to thir fathrs during prning – and rapply rgularly to prvnt it from fading in th sun.

Anglrsh Ceratioidei Males are parasites, latching onto females and releasing sperm during spawning.

Bdbug Cimex lectularius 

Common gartr snak Thamnophis sirtalis 

 A male pierces a female’s abdomen for traumatic insemination.

Thousands of snakes writhe in a mass mating ritual.

Snails & slugs Pulmonata

Praying mantis Mantoda

Many land-dwelling hermaphrodite slugs and snails fire ‘love darts’ into prospective mates during courtship.

Perhaps 30% of courting male mantids are eaten by females during or after mating.

Wasp spidr Argiop bruennichi

Porcupin Erethizon dorsatum 

Squid Teuthida

Grn spoonworm Bonellia viridis 

The males of some squid species ‘stab’ females to inject them with sperm.

Each male lives in a female’s genital sac.

 A courting male will urinate over his prospective partner before mating.

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The male breaks off his own pedipalp (penis equivalent), blocking the female’s reproductive tract.

 ANIMAL KINGDOM | NATURE

10 dANGeROUS ANIMALS 01 Up to 50 species of  Anopheles mosquito transmit malaria to humans

Mosquito Anophls spp.

06 Lion Panthera leo

Human aths/yar: 2 million

Human aths/yar: ≤100

Bites from these insects transmit the plasmodium blood parasites that cause malaria.

Lion attacks on humans often occur during harvests, but rare outbreaks of mass ‘maneating’ also occur.

02 Asian cobra Naja naja

07 Grat whit shark  Carcharodon carcharias

Human aths/yar: ≤50,000

Human aths/yar: <30

Though not India’s most venomous snake, this cobra is responsible for the majority of snakebite deaths.

Unprovoked shark attacks on humans are extremely rare – and fatalities even rarer. Great white, tiger and bull sharks are responsible for most.

03 Hippopotamus Hippopotamus amphibius

08

Human aths/yar: <3,000

Human aths/yar: <2

 Accurate figures are hard to obtain, but hippos are certainly responsible for many deaths every year in Africa.  A large male Nile crocodile can grow up to 6m long

04

Nile crocodile Crocodylus niloticus Human aths/yar: >300  Attacks by this large reptile on people on the water or on riverbacks are relatively frequent in Africa.

05 African lphant Loxoonta africana Human aths/yar: ≤300 Elephants probably kill a few hundred people annually – though more than 20,000 elephants are killed by poachers each year.

Sloth bear Mlursus ursinus Like other bear species, sloth bears don’t predate humans, but chance encounters can result in deaths.

09

Box jllysh Chironx ckri Human deaths: At least 60 since 1883 Each of the sea wasp’s tentacles is armed with about 5000 stinging cells.

10 Poison art frog Phyllobates terribilis Human aths/yar: Unknown Living in the rainforest of Colombia, this frog’s skin is coated with enough batrachotoxins to kill at least ten men.

December 2014

23

10 LONGEST ANIMAL MIGRATIONS DID YOU KNOW?

01

 Arctic tern Sterna paradisea 70,900km This small bird – weighing just over 100g – undertakes an incredible twoway migration each year. In August or September each bird leaves its breeding grounds in Greenland and heads south, tracing the coast of either  Africa or South America and feeding in the Weddell Sea for four or five months before returning to the Arctic for the northern summer.

02 Sooty shearwater Pufnus grisus 65,000km These birds follow circular migration routes around the Atlantic and Pacific.

05

03

04

Northrn lphant seal Mirounga angustirostris

Lathrback turtl Dermochelys coriacea 20,000km

21,000km

One tagged turtle swam from Indonesia to the USA across the Pacific.

These mammals swim between Californian and Mexican beaches.

06

Humpback whal Mgaptra novaanglia

Glob skimmr Pantala flavescens

17,600km

16,600km

14,000km+

 Adélis follow the ice edge from breeding colonies to winter feeding grounds.

The mammal with the longest journey swims from Arctic to tropical waters.

Evidence suggests that this dragonfly migrates from India to southern Africa.

09

Monarch butterflies migrate from the eastern USA to winter in Mexico’s Sierra Madre mountains

10

Bar-tail gowit Monarch buttry Limosa lapponica danaus plxippus

Caribou Rangifr taranus

11,680km

6,000km

5,000km

This bird flies non-stop from Alaska to New Zealand in just eight days.

The migration between USA and Mexico takes three or four generations to complete.

Some herds range across  Arctic Canada in the longest migration of any terrestrial mammal.

10 WeIRd PARASITES

Leatherback turtles migrate across and around the Pacific Ocean

07

Aéli pnguin Pygosclis adeliae

08

Th bar-tail gowit fuls its pic migration by igsting part of its own intstin uring th long ight

ey-inating flatworm

Zombi-making wasp

Tongu-ating louse

Larvae of the greenbanded broodsac fill the eye-stalks of infected snails, making them look (and wriggle) like little caterpillars – luring hunting birds.

The female emerald cockroach wasp stings a cockroach’s brain, then lays an egg on its belly – and the wasp larva devours its host from the inside.

The sea louse Cymothoa exigua feeds on blood from a fish’s tongue till it withers away, then attaches itself to the stump to feed on blood and mucus.

Eye worm The larvae of the nematode worm Loa loa   infect human eyes, and can be seen and, more horribly, felt as they squirm across the tissue beneath the cornea.

 ANIMAL KINGDOM | NATURE

10 LONGeST-LIVed VERTEBRATES 01

Alabra giant tortoise

02

03

Koi sh Cyprinus carpio haematopterus  226 years The oldest-known koi, called Hanako, died in 1977.

04

Bowhead whale Balaena mysticetus  211 years

Tuatara Sphenodon punctatus  115 yars ol

200-year-old spears have been found in some bowheads.

Henry, a tuatara in New Zealand, became a father at the age of 111 in 2009.

Aldabrachelys gigantea  Oldest individual recorded: 255 yars

Awaita was a mal tortois rputly givn to Robrt Cliv in the 18th century. In around 1876 it was transferred to the Alipor Zoo in Kolkata, whr it liv until its ath in 2006. Awaita’s ag cannot b nitivly conrm; th longstliv rptil for which an ag has bn vri was Tu’i Malila, a raiat tortois rputly givn to th Tongan royal family by Captain Cook in 1777, an which i in 1965 at th ag of 188.

05

06

07

Blue and yellow macaw Ara ararauna  104 yars

Asian lphant Elephas maximus  86 years

Horse Equus ferus caballus  51 yars

Churchill reputedly owned the macaw named Charlie.

Lin Wang or ‘Grandpa Lin’ died in Taipei Zoo in 2003.

The liver chestnut stallion named Shayne died in Essex in 2013.

08

09

Cow Bos primagenius  48 yars ‘Big Bertha’ died three months before her 49th birthday.

10

Golsh Carassius auratus auratus  43 yars Tish died in North  Yorkshire in 1999.

Polar bear Ursus maritimus  42 yars ‘Debbie’ died at  Assiniboine Zoo in Winnipeg in 2008.

   C    C

Giant tortoises live to extraordinary ages – Galápagos tortoises often reach over 150 years.

Skin-boiling worm

Ha-splitting fungus

Sx-chang bacteria

Vampir fish

The guinea worm Dracunculus medinensis  grows up to 1m long in humans, causing a burning pain as it emerges through the skin of legs.

 An ant infected with Ophiocordyceps unilateralis  climbs to

Wolbachia  are transmitted to their insect hosts’ offspring in eggs. To

The tiny, eel-like candiru of the Amazon swims into the gills of other fish and feasts on

Min-control bug

the top of a plant and die. The fungus’ fruiting body then bursts from

increase dispersal, these bacteria can change hosts’ sex from male

their blood. Reports suggest that it sometimes swims into

infected rodents’ fear of cats – which then easily catch the rodents and

infects a crab, it changes the host’s hormones, effectively

the ant’s head.

to female.

human orifices.

are themselves infected.

sterilising it.

The single-celled parasite Toxoplasma gondii eliminates

Crabcastrating barnacle When a female Sacculina  barnacle

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NATURE |  ANIMAL KINGDOM

300kg Th wight that an African lphant can carry with its trunk. Th trunk contains around 4000 muscles

10 SUPeR-FAST ANIMALS Overall speed Prgrin falcon Falco peregrinus  389km/h (fastst rcordd) Th prgrin rgular xcds 322km/h during stoops (hunting divs) – though dosn’t com clos to that spd in lvl ight.

Marin rptil

Land mammal

Lathrback sa turtle Dermochelys coriacea 

Cheetah Acinonyx jubatus 

35km/h  A teardrop-shaped body gives this reptile a hydrodynamic advantage.

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120km/h The fastest land animal on Earth can maintain this speed for bursts of no longer than 60 seconds.

Bird (apping ight ) Whit-throatd needle `tail Hirundapus caudacutus  169km/h

Land herbivore

Fish

Pronghorn Antilocapra americana

Indo-Pacic sailsh Istiophorus albicans

88.5km/h This antelope-like creature can maintain speeds of 56km/h for several kilometres.

111km/h The title of fastest fish is hotly disputed; the highest estimates for this species date from the 1920s.

Insect

Land rptil

Marin mammal

Flying mammal

Horsefly Chrysops relictus 

Black iguana Ctenosaura similis

Common dolphin Delphinus spp.

145km/h

34.9km/h

Mxican frtailed bat Tadarida brasiliensis 

64km/h

96.5km/h

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December 2014

NATURE |  ANIMAL KINGDOM

10 OUTSIZed ANIMALS Largst mammal (and largest animal ever)

DID YOU KNOW? Giant isopos – 14-lgg p-sa crittrs a littl lik giant woolic – can grow to 76cm long an 1.7kg

Blue whale Balaenoptera musculus  30m, 170 tonnes Largr than any prhistoric giant, th blu whal woul warf th largst known inosaur, Argntinosaurus, which wigh a ‘mr’ 80 tonns or so.

Largst lan mammal

Largst rptil

Largst snak

Largst inosaur

Largst bir

African lphant Loxoonta africana

Saltwater crocodile Crocoylus porosus

Green anaconda Eunectes murinus

Argntinosaurus

7.5m, 6 tonns

6.7m, 2 tonnes

6.6m, 70kg

estimat to b 30-35m long, 80-100 tonns

Ostrich Struthio camelus

Largst sh

Largst amphibian

Largst carnivor

Whal shark  Rhincoon typus

Chins giant salamander Andrias davidianus

Southern lphant sal Mirounga lonina

2m, 30kg

3m, 4 tonns

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2.1-2.8m, 145kg

Largst insct Goliath beetle Goliathus spp. 60-110mm, 100g

12.65m, 21.5 tonns

December 2014

27

IN ASSOCIATION WITH

POWERED BY  

 ANNOUNCING THE HUNT FOR ENTER ENTER THE SMARTEST

STUDENTS

THE DEFINITIVE DEFINITIVE THE  ALL-INDIA  ALL-INDIA SCHOOL SCHOOL QUIZ QUIZ

 ACROSS INDIA 

ENTER THE DEFINITIVE  ALL-INDIA SCHOOL  Announcing theQUIZ searchfor for  Announcing the search Who can participate: Students from standard 9 - 11 thesmartest smartest studentacross across schools the student schools Regional Rounds: New Delhi (22 November ’14), Mumbai (13 December ’14), Kolkata (20 December ’14), and Chennai (17 January ’15) Finale: Chennai, 17 January, 2015 Winners: 1 national winner and 4 regional winners *Prizes: A cash prize of  ` 1lakh and a trophy to the national winner and gift hampers to allfrom finalists Who can participate: Students standard

8-11 Who can participate: Students from standard 8-11  RegionalFinals: Finals:Mumbai, Mumbai,Delhi, Delhi,Kolkata, Kolkata,and andBangalore Bangalore  Regional Chennaion on15 15January, January,2015 2015 RegionalFinals: Finals:Chennai Regional Winnerwins winscash cashprize prizeofof11lakh!* lakh!* Prize:Winner Prize:

To participate, speak to your teacher co-ordinator or log onto http://knowledgemagazine.in/brainiac/ 

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         T          *          *

SPACE

Whether it’s comparing the sizes of planets, the length of exploratory space missions or the raw power of rockets, here we tot up the vast numbers that govern what lies beyond our planet

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December 2014

SPACE | SCIENCE

10 SPACE FIRSTS First man in orbit Yuri Gagarin Launch dat: 12 April 1961 Th Russian cosmonaut compltd an orbit of earth during his 108-minut spacight aboard Vostok I . Bing th rst human in spac, h latr xplaind th xprinc of wightlssnss: “You fl as if you wr hanging in a horizontal position in straps. You fl as if you ar suspndd.” Aftr landing back on earth, Gagarin bcam an instant clbrity, touring th world to tll th adoring public about his big advntur. It was to b his only mission into spac and h did in a plan crash in 1968 during a routin ight. His ashs ar burid in th walls of th Krmlin in Moscow.

First woman in orbit

First spac walk 

First death in spac

First moon walk 

First spac tourist

Valentina Trshkova 16 June 1963

Alxy Lonov 18 March 1965

Vladimir Komarov 24 April 1967

Nil Armstrong 21 July 1969

Dennis Tito 28 April 2001

 Apollo 11 mission commander Armstrong climbed down from the lunar lander Eagle and onto the Moon’s surface.

The American multimillionaire spent nearly eight days in space, reaching the International Space Station EP-1 aboard the Russian craft Soyuz TM-32 .

The Russian orbited th earth 48 tims during hr narthr-day spll aboard Vostok 6 .

 Another Russian cosmonaut, Leonov undertook a 12-minute period of ‘extravehicular activity’ (space walk) during the Voskhod 2  mission. He was secured by a five-metre tether.

First primat in spac

First animal in orbit

Albert II 14 Jun 1949

Laika 3 November 1957

 A rhesus monkey called Albert II reached an altitude of about 134km in a USlaunched V2 rocket.  Albert II died on impact after a parachute failure.

The Russian mongrel dog Laika survived four orbits aboard Sputnik 2  before dying, possibly as a result of overheating.

The Russian was killed when the Soyuz 1 spacecraft he was piloting crashed on its re-entry to Earth.

First manually controlled spaceflight  Alan Shepard 5 May 1961 The American reached an altitude of 187km aboard Freedom 7  during which he had some control of his craft (Gagarin’s flight was strictly automatic).

First whole day in orbit Gherman Titov 6 August 1961  As well as spending a whole day aboard Vostok 2 , Russian Titov orbited the Earth 17 times and was the first to sleep in space.

DID YOU KNOW? Th spacsuit worn by Nil Armstrong for th 1969 Moon landing was made by a bra manufacturer

THE 10 LONGEST HUMAN SPACe FLIGHTS

01

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32

02

Valri Polyakov Russia

Srgi Avdyv Soviet Union

Mission: Mir Spac Station Duration: 437 days 8 January 1994– 22 March 1995

Mission: Mir Spac Station Duration: 379 days 13 August 1988– 28 August 1989

05

06

Srgi Krikalv Sovit Union/ Russia Mission: Mir Space Station Duration 312 days 19 May 1991– 25 March 1992

December 2014

Valri Polyakov Soviet Union Mission: Mir Spac Station Duration: 240 days 29 August 1988– 7 April 1989

 Valeri Polyakov looks out of a window of the Russian space station Mir  during his record-breaking time in space

03

04

Vladimir Titov & Musa Manarov Soviet Union

Yuri Romannko Soviet Union

Mission: Mir Space Station Duration: 365 days 21 December 1987– 21 December 1988

Mission: Mir Space Station Duration: 326 days 6 February 1987– 29 December 1987

07 Lonid Kizim, Vladimir Solovyov & Olg Atkov Soviet Union Mission: Salyut 7 Space Station Duration: 237 days 8 February 1984– 2 October 1984

08

Mikhail Tyurin & Michael López Allegria Russia & USA  Mission: International Space Station Duration: 215 days 18 September 2006– 21 April 2007

09 Anatoli Berezovoy & Valentin Lebedev Soviet Union Mission: Salyut 7 Space Station Duration: 211 days 13 May 1982– 10 December 1982

10 Nikolai Budarin & Talgat Musabayv Russia Mission: Mir Space Station Duration: 207 days 29 January 1998– 25 August 1998

SPACE | SCIENCE

THE 10 BIGGEST MOONS IN OUR SOLAR SYSTeM 01 Ganymede Radius: 2,631km Satellite of: Jupitr

03 Callisto Radius: 2,410km Satellite of: Jupitr

05 Moon Radius: 1,737km Satellite of: Earth

08 Titania Radius: 788km Satellite of: Uranus

Ganymede

02 Titan Radius: 2,576km Satellite of: Saturn

04 Io Radius: 1,821km Satellite of: Jupitr

06

The largest moon in our Solar System is Ganymede, a satellite of Jupiter

07

europa Radius: 1,561km Satellite of: Jupitr

09

Triton Radius: 1,353km Satellite of: Nptun

27.3

10

Rhea Radius: 764km Satellite of: Saturn

Titan

Th lngth in earth days that th Moon taks to complt its orbit of our plant

Oberon Radius: 761km Satllit of: Uranus

Callisto

Io

Moon

Europa

Triton

Titania

Rhea

Oberon

10 IMMeNSe THINGS IN SPACE 01

Biggst astroid Ceres 950km diamtr (avrag)

06

Discovered in 1801, Ceres makes up a third of the total mass of the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.

This supergiant elliptical galaxy, discovered in 1790 by William Herschel, at the centre of the Abell 2029 cluster is about one billion light-years away. Our own galaxy, the Milky Way, is a mere 100,000 light-years across.

02 Biggst objct in our solar system Sun 1,392,000km diamtr The yellow dwarf star around which we orbit comprises over 99.8 per cent of the total mass of our solar system.

03

Biggst known plant GQ Lup b 30 tims th radius of Jupitr This huge exoplanet, detected orbiting a star some 457 light-years from Earth, may have a mass up to 36 times that of Jupiter and is fiercely hot – possibly 2,650 kelvin.

04 Largst structur in the universe Hug Larg Quasar Group (Hug-LQG) 4 billion light-yars across

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34

In 2013, an international team detected a chain of some 73 quasars stretching so far that its existence challenges the fundamental Cosmological Principle.

05

Biggst black hol Centre of NGC 1277 17 billion solar mass This supermassive black hole, at the centre of the NGC 1277 galaxy 220 million light-years away, has a mass 17 billion times greater than our Sun – itself about two nonillion kg.

December 2014

Largst galaxy IC 1101 Six million light-yars across

07

Biggst watr cloud Around quasar APM 08279+5255 40 billion tims th mass of Earth

09 Biggst nothing Boötes Void 250 million lightyears across  An area of space containing containing nearly no objects (though a few galaxies are present), this ‘void’ is around 700 million light-years from Earth.

In 2011, researchers discovered a vast cloud of water vapour surrounding a quasar some 12 billion light-years away. The cloud holds enough water to fill the Earth’s oceans 140 trillion times over.

08 Biggst comt McNaught Visibl tail 35° The spacecraft Ulysses  passed   passed through the tail of this comet in 2007 and detected ionised gas at a distance of 225 million km behind the nucleus. The ‘shocked wind’ behind the comet was larger still, making McNaught reportedly the largest comet ever discovered.

10

Biggst star Wstrlund 1-26 1,530 solar radii Measuring distant stars is tricky – determining the edge of the star can be made difficult by solar winds – but the Royal Astronomical Society believes this red supergiant, which is about 1,000,000,000km across and some 16,000 light-years from Earth, is the largest.

SPACE | SCIENCE

Nicolaus Copernicus 1473–1543

Astronomers Galileo Galilei 1564–1642

Propose a heliocentric moel for the universe Since the days of Aristotle, the accepted model of the solar system had the Earth stationary at its centre, with the Sun and planets revolving around it. The Polish astronomer’s revolutionary heliocentric model – with the Sun as the stationary force - challenged this view.

Supporte heliocentricism heliocentricism,, iscovere Jupiter’s moons an evelope telescopes

Johannes Kepler 1571–1630

Galileo’s support of the Copernican heliocentric model saw his ideas investigated by the Roman Inquisition of 1615. But the Italian’s own achievements were formidable, including developing telescopes enabling good views of the Milky Way and Jupiter’s moons.

Improve the refracting telescope an evelope the laws of planetary motion

Eratosthenes 276–194BC Measure the circumference of the Earth

Kepler’s laws described how planets moved around the sun, challenging the geocentric models of Aristotle and Ptolemy. The German was a huge influence on Sir Isaac Newton.

Charles Messier 1730–1817 Compose a atabase of celestial objects

Eratosthenes – born in Cyrene, now in Libya – used the angle of the noonday Sun at different places in Egypt to estimate the circumference of Earth. His figure was remarkably accurate – in fact, according to some commentators, he was out by less than 2%.

This French astronomer was the first to compile a systematic catalogue of nebulae and star clusters that is still used in the classification of many celestial objects.

William Herschel 1738–1822

Annie Jump Cannon 1863–1941

Discovered Uranus and its moons Born in Germany Herschel moved to England as a teenager. He became famous for discovering Uranus and two of its major moons, Titania and Oberon, as well as two of Saturn’s moons. He also discovered infrared radiation.

Co-create the Harvar Classification Classificatio n Scheme This American astronomer’s classification scheme organised and ordered stars based on their temperatures. Her catalogue listed some 230,000 stars.

Edwin Hubble 1889–1953 discovere Hubble’s Law, suggesting that the Universe is expaning Hubble’s Law states that the recessional velocity of a galaxy increases with its distance from the Earth. The American was a major champion of the idea of the existence of galaxies beyond the Milky Way.

George Gamow 1904–68 Early advocate of the big bang theory Born in Odessa (in modern-day Ukraine), Gamow was one of the foremost advocates of the theory that the universe was formed in a colossal explosion billions of years ago.

Claudius Ptolemy c 90–c 168 Writings ominate astronomy for 12 centuries  Almagest st produced by this Greco-Roman The Almage astronomer and geographer was a celestial almanac that, though based on an erroneous geocentric model, became established as the definitive reference work for some 12 centuries.

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THE EARTH Our planet is unique. Its size (12,756km in diameter at the equator), orbit, temperature and atmosphere have nurtured life. We’ve compiled the most fascinating facts about our home and its geographical features

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December 2014

THE EARTH | NATURE

THE 10 LONGEST RIVERS

01

Nile 6,695km

East and North Africa Th worl’s longst rivr has two main tributaris: th Blu Nil, rising in ethiopia, an th longr Whit Nil, mrging from Lak Victoria. Figurs for th rivr’s lngth vary, as th xact sourc is still bat; 6,650km an 6,695km ar oftn quot, but an xpition in 2006 claim to hav rach th tru sourc, an subsqunt gurs hav bn as high as 6,853km. Whatvr its tru lngth, th Nil – which ows through Ugana (an also possibly th dmocratic Rpublic of Congo, Rwana an Buruni, pning on th accpt sourc), South Suan, Suan, ethiopia an egypt on its way to th Mitrranan, is on of th worl’s mightist rivrs.

02 Amazon

6,516km

03 Yangtz 6,380km

South America

China

This river discharges 2,00,000m3 of water per second, fed by sources in Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Brazil.

Chiang Jiang, a Mandarin name for the Yangtze, means literally ‘Long River’ – it drains about 20% of China’s area.

07 Yellow River

08

04

05

MississippiMissouri 5,969km

Yenisei River

USA

There’s some debate about the true source of the  Yenisei, so its place in this list could be lower.

This combined river system drains some 31 US states and two Canadian provinces.

09

5,539km Siberia

Congo Rivr 4,700km

Amur–Argun 4,440km

China

4,880km

Central Africa

North Asia

The basin of the Huang Ho (also known as ‘China’s Sorrow’) was the birthplace of Chinese civilisation.

South America

 Also known as the Zaire, the Congo is the world’s deepest river – depths of 230m have been measured.

The Amur flows 2,824km along the Russia-China border, and is fed by the  Argun rising in Inner Mongolia.

This river’s name comes from the Tupi phrase para rehe onáva, meaning ‘as big as the sea’.

Ob-Irtysh 5,410km Siberia The Ob River flows through Siberia into the Kara Sea, while its tributary the Irtysh rises in the Altai Mountains.

10

Paraná–Río de la Plata

5,464km

06

The Nile is the world’s longest river – though its exact source is still debated

THE 10 DEADLIEST VOLCANIC ERUPTIONS 01

Tambora Indonesia erupt: 1815 Estimated deaths: 71,000

06

Laki Iceland erupt: 1783 daths: 9,350

02

Krakatoa Indonesia erupt: 1883 daths: 36,417

07

Santa María Guatemala erupt: 1902 Deaths: 6,000

03

Mount Plé Martiniqu erupt: 1902 daths: 29,025

08 Indonesia erupt: 1919 daths: 5,110

04 Nevado del Ruiz Colombia erupt: 1985 daths: 25,000 05 Unzen Japan erupt: 1792 daths: 15,000

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09

Galunggung Indonesia erupt: 1882 daths: 4,011

10

Vesuvius Italy erupt: Ad 79 daths: upwars of 3,000

The eruption of Mt Tambora killed tens of thousands, many of whom starved because of the eruption’s impact on agriculture

THE 10 COLDEST PLACES 01

Rig nar Dome Fuji Antarctica –93.2°C Recorded in August 2010 from a remote sensing satellite.

December 2014

02

Vostok Station Antarctica –89.2°C The lowest groundmonitored temperature, recorded on 21 July 1983 at a Russian Antarctic research station.

03

dom Argus Antarctica –82.5°C

04

AmunsnScott South Pole Station Antarctica –82.5°C

THE EARTH | NATURE

THE 10 HOTTEST PLACES 01

dasht- Lut Iran 70.7°C The highest surface temperature officially confirmed on Earth was detected by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite at Gandom Beryan in the Dasht-e Lut (Lut Desert) between 2003 and 2005.

 A salt river winds through the scorching desert at Dasht-e Lut

02

Qunslan Outback  Australia 69.2°C

03

Flaming Mountains Xinjiang, China 66.7°C

04

Al-Aziziyah Libya 57.8°C

06

07 Kbili Tunisia 55°C 08 Timbuktu Mali 54°C 09

Death Valley, in California’s Mojave Desert, is the USA’s lowest, driest and hottest place

05 Oymyakon Russia –71.2°C The lowest air temperature recorded in the northern hemisphere was detected at this Russian village in 1926.

06 Klinck rsarch station Greenland –69.4°C

Tirat Zvi Israel 53.7°C This temperature was recorded at a kibbutz in June 1942 – at that time, the highest ever documented in Asia.

10

For many years, this temperature (detected in September 1922) was the highest ever recorded.

05

Rub’ al Khali (empty Quartr) Arabian Peninsula 56°C

Dallol ethiopia 34.4°C This was the average annual temperature from 1960 to 1966.

Death Valley USA 56.7°C

07 North Ice Greenland –66°C This low was recorded at this British North Greenland Expedition research station in 1954.

08 Snag Yukon, Canaa –63°C

09 Denali Alaska, USA -59.7°C

10 Vrkhoyansk  Russia –45.4°C

Though popular images of the Sahara depict endless rolling dunes, much of it – as here, in Algeria – can be rocky

THE 10 LARGEST DESERTS Some areas of Chile’s  Atacama Desert receive just 1mm of rain each year

Antarctic Desert

01 13,829,430km2

Though it’s largely covere with a thick coat of ice, Antarctica is actually extremely ry. Inner regions receive less than 50mm of precipitation each year – less than the Sahara – and some dry valleys experience virtually none at all.

02

Arctic 13,726,936km 2

05

400

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years – the length of time some areas of Chile’s Atacama desert went without rain between 1570 an 1970

December 2014

Gobi Desert 1,300,000km 2 China/Mongolia

08

Great Victoria Desert 6,47,000km 2 Australia

03

Sahara 9,400,000km 2 North Africa

06

Kalahari desert 9,00,000km 2 Angola/Botswana/ Namibia/ South Africa

09

Syrian Desert 5,20,000km 2 Iraq/Joran/Syria

04

Arabian Desert 2,330,000km 2 Ara bian Peninsula

07

Patagonian Desert 6,70,000km 2 Argentina/Chile

10

Great Basin Desert 4,92,000km 2 USA

THE EARTH | NATURE

THE 10 LARGEST LAKeS  About 80% of the surface of Greenland is covered by a vast ice sheet

THE 10 LARGEST ISLANDS

01

Caspian Sa 3,71,000km 2 Central Asia

02

Lak Suprior 82,100km 2 USA/Canada

03

Lak Victoria 68,800km 2 East Africa

04

Lak Huron 59,600km 2 USA/Canada

05

Lak Michigan 57,800km 2 USA

06

Lak Tanganyika 32,900km 2 East Africa

07

Lak Baikal 31,722km 2 Russia

08

Grat Bar Lak 31,328km 2 Canada

09

Lak Malawi (Nyasa) 30,044km 2 Malawi/Tanzania/ Mozambiqu

10

Grat Slav Lak 28,568km 2 Canada

Greenland

01 2,175,600km 2 Convention dictates that continents are not considered islands – othrwis Australia, at 7,692,024km2, would top Grnland by a factor of mor than thr. Though th world’s largst island, Grnland is sparsly populatd, with fwr than 60,000 inhabitants; around 80% of its surface is covered by a vast ice sheet.

02

New Guinea 7,85,753km 2

03

Borneo 7,48,168km 2

04

Madagascar 5,87,713km 2  

05

Bafn Island, Canada 5,03,944km 2

06

Sumatra, Indonesia 4,43,066km 2

07

 

Honshu, Japan 2,25,800km 2  

08

Victoria Island, Canada 2,20,548km 2

09

Great Britain 2,09,331km 2

10

Ellesmere Island, Canada 1,96,236km 2

THE EARTH | NATURE

THE 10 TALLEST WATeRFALLS

Water cascades into the mist at Tugela Falls in South Africa

Angl Falls

01 979m

 Angel Falls plummets from  Auyan tepui in Venezuela

Venezuela

Browne Falls in the majestic Doubtful Sound on New Zealand’s South Island

Th world’s highst unintrruptd watrfall cascads from th top of th tpui (at-toppd mountain) calld Auyan, with a singl plung of 807m. Called Kerepakupai Vená  (watrfall of th dpst plac) in th local Pmon languag, its english-languag nam was bstowd in honour of Jimmi Angl, th Amrican aviator who was th rst to y ovr it in 1933.

06

05

Skorga 864m Norway

James Bruce Falls 840m Canada

09

Waihilau Falls 792m Hawaii, USA

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04

08

Vinnufallet 865m Norway

Kjrrskrdfossn 830m Norway

10

Colonial Crk Falls 783m Washington State, USA

03

Three Sisters Falls 914m Peru

02

Tugla Falls 948m South Africa

07

Browne Falls 836m New Zealand 44

December 2014

 I s s u e 6  5   ` 1 2  m e 4  V o l u  b e r 2 0 1 4  O c t o  n  a t  io  u b l i c  n d i a p  e s o f I A T i m

 N C E  S C I E

 M I N D  I O U S  C U R  T H E  F O R  U R E  N A T  R Y  O  T  H I S

 E  T A K   I P  A T R E L L  H  T O  L E Y  V A L

 q u e s  a c a  p 4 0  e m  s  a n e s  t u r e  J a p  e m p e r a  t  h o w  o u t  - z e r o  F i n d t  le s u b  b a t

 2 2  3 5 4  1 0 /  G / 2 0  H E N . M A   R. N. I

TECHNOLOGY

Inventions, gadgets, gizmos, materials – the world of technology is fast-moving and constantly surprising. The top tens on the next few pages demonstrate the range of applications for scientific developments

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December 2014

TECHNOLOGY | SCIENCE

10 SCI-FI PRedICTIONS THAT CAMe TRUe Television

elctronic book 

Prict by: Mark Twain, From

Predicted by: Stanislaw Lem, Return From the Stars, publish 1961

th London Tims of 1904, publish 1898

The first television was produced in the 1920s, but Mark Twain had already described the telectroscope that would “make the daily doings of the globe visible to everybody”.

Tablet device Prict by: Arthur C Clark, 2001: A Spac Odyssy , publish 1968

Instead of hardcovers and paperbacks, Polish author Lem foresaw books in crystal form, read on devices called ‘optons’ that display one page of text at a time.

Tank  Prict by: HG Wlls, The Land Ironclads , publish 1903

Surfing the internet on a portable device was dreamed up long before the turn of the millennium. In the late 1960s, Clarke gave his fictional astronauts ‘newspads’ so they could keep up to date with the goings-on back home.

The tank made its battlefield debut in 1916, but was envisaged by Wells as an all-terrain, armoured vehicle carrying powerful guns. Winston Churchill later credited Wells for the idea, but the author’s vehicle was inspired by Brahmah Joseph Diplock’s pedrail locomotive.

earphons

Atomic bomb

Predicted by: Ray Bradbury, Fahrnhit 451 , publish 1953

Prict by: HG Wlls, Th World Set Free , publish 1914

Though the personal stereo didn’t appear until 1977, in the early ’50s Bradbury described earphones piping in constant music and talk.

Wells envisioned a nuclear bomb that would explode continuously for 17 days and have longer-term effects through nuclear fallout.

Scuba-iving quipmnt Predicted by: Jules Verne, Twenty Thousand Lagus Undr th Sa , publish 1870

Moon laning

 Verne described a means of breathing underwater using apparatus that, unlike all existing equipment, didn’t take its air supply from the surface. His idea came from the system developed in the 1860s by French duo Benoit Rouquayrol and Auguste Denayrouze to save miners trapped underground.

More than 100 years before Armstrong’s lunar stroll, Verne had envisioned a trip to the Moon – though his protagonists were fired from an enormous cannon at a launch site in Florida.

Predicted by: Jules Verne, From The Earth To The Moon , publish 1865

Surveillance Video calls Predicted by: Albert Robida, Le

Vingtièm Siècl. La Vi Élctriqu , publish 1890 The first public videophone service launched in Germany in 1936, and EM Forster described a communication system that transmitted both audio and visual signals in his short story The Machine Stops , published in 1909. Yet this French author’s 1890 book mentions a similar device called ‘le téléphonoscope’.

Prict by: Gorg Orwll, Nine -  tn eighty-Four , publish 1949 CCTV cameras, internet cookies, loyalty cards, NSA data monitoring, social media… The Big Brother dreamed up by Orwell in his dystopian novel comes in many gu ises today.

Guglielmo Marconi (standing), the godfather of telecommunication

10 CRUCIAL

COMMUNICATION BReAKTHROUGHS Th Alphabt Whn: 4000-1200BC The ability to record information was arguably most significant breakthrough in human communication after speech. Sumerian cuneiform, a pictographic writing system denoting concepts and syllables, evolved around 4000BC. It was replaced by the Phoenician alphabet comprising characters that represent single sounds.

Cuneiform writing, developed around 4,000BC, is regarded to be the first al phabet

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Postal Service

Papr Ad 105

Gutnbrg

Smaphor

Press

27BC–Ad 14

Official records credit Chinese inventor Cai Lun with the first production of paper, although archaeological research suggests that paper was being used in the country much earlier than that.

1450

1792 By peppering 566 towers topped with mechanical arms throughout his native France, Claude Chappe invented the first optical semaphore system, allowing the military and government to send quick messages over vast distances.

It’s thought that the Persians were the first to introduce a kind of postal service around 550BC. But the earliest and bestdocumented evidence of such a system, enabling the public to send written messages, dates from the reign of the Roman emperor  Augustus.

December 2014

For centuries, literacy and literature were restricted to religious scholars and wealthy intellectuals. Then German Johannes Gutenberg invented the metal printing press with movable type, enabling multiple copies of publications to be made quickly and cheaply.

Mors Co 1840 The telegraph had already been invented, but in 1840  American painter Samuel Morse filed his first patent for an improved device that used electric signals to communicate information encoded as a series of dots and dashes.

Tlphon 1876 Many people lay claim to the invention of the telephone, but  Alexander Graham Bell filed the first patent for a device that enabled people in different places to talk to each other.

TECHNOLOGY | SCIENCE

DID YOU KNOW? Th rst computr mous, invnt by doug englbart in California in 1964, was carv from wood

TOP 10 COUNTRIeS WITH HIGHeST SMARTPHONe PENETRATION 01

United Arab Emirates 73.8% of population owns a smartphon

03

Saudi Arabia 72.8% of population owns a smartphon

05 In New York, Alexander Graham Bell shows onlookers how to call Chicago

Wirlss transmissions 1895 Guglielmo Marconi built on the work of others to develop and improve a system using electromagnetic radiation to transmit messages wirelessly. In 1895, he sent and received signals over a distance of almost 2.5km. By 1901, he was able to communicate across the Atlantic.

Television 1925

Arpant 1969

The first equipment allowing the viewing of live pictures, rather than prerecorded footage, appeared in 1925. Similar technology had been developed over the previous 50 years, but Scotsman John Logie Baird made the first public demonstration of television in 1925.

Modern networks were born when technology allowed computers to connect and communicate with each other. That technology led to the creation of Arpanet (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network), a system to help US research labs exchange information, laying the foundations for the internet.

Norway 67.5% of population owns a smartphon

07

Sweden 63% of population owns a smartphon

09

UK  62.2% of population owns a smartphon

02

South Kora 73% of population owns a smartphone

04

Singapor 71.7% of population owns a smartphon

06

Australia 64.6% of population owns a smartphon

08

Hong Kong 62.8% of population owns a smartphon

10

dnmark  59% of population owns a smartphon

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10 NASA TeCHNOLOGIeS WITH EARTHLY APPLICATIONS Articial hart pumps

Mmory foam

Introducd to commrcial markt: 1998 Patients awaiting heart transplants can be kept alive with a left ventricular assist device (LVAD). Smaller than other heart pumps and battery operated, this instrument is based on the fuel pumps used in NASA’s rocket engines.

Introducd to commrcial markt: 1969 In 1966, NASA contracted aeronautical engineer Charles Yost to improve aeroplane seating in the hope of providing better crash protection. He came up with memory foam, a material that could absorb high-energy impacts but also provide greater comfort by moulding itself to any object placed upon it.

Cardio-muscular conditioning machins Introducd to commrcial markt: 1991 The machine dubbed the ‘Shuttle 2000-1’ was developed to give astronauts an effective workout, helping to combat muscle wasting that can result from life in zero gravity. The same machine is used for physiotherapy and to help elderly people exercise.

Scratch-rsistant lnss Introducd to commrcial markt: 1983 These evolved from an experiment to improve water purification on spacecraft. The result was a coating that rendered spectacle lenses almost impervious to abrasion.

Fir-rtardant paint Introducd to commrcial markt: 1974 The coating on the Apollo spacecrafts’ heat shields was used for fire-retardant paints for aircraft. The paint has also been employed to reinforce steel structures in buildings.

The foam that never forgets – another NASA creation

10 RARE eLeMeNTS FOUND IN YOUR HOMe

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December 2014

europium Symbol: Eu Atomic number: 63

Terbium Symbol: Tb Atomic numbr: 65

Used in nuclear reactors as well as low-energy light bulbs and TV sets. Discovered by France’s Éugene-Anatole Demarçay in 1896.

Found in LCD screens and solid-state memory devices (including USB drives). Swedish chemist Carl Mosander discovered the soft, malleable and ductile metal in 1843.

Lanthanum Symbol: La Atomic numbr: 57

Neodymium Symbol: Nd Atomic number: 60

 Another of Carl Mosander’s Neodymium makes discoveries, this is one of excellent magnets and has the metals used in the been put to use in computer nickel-metal hydride hard drives, stereo (NiMH) batteries found in speakers and electric some smartphones, motors. It’s also used to laptops and electric cars. colour glass.

TECHNOLOGY | SCIENCE

Spac blankt

Smart clothing

Infrared thermometers

Introuc to commrcial markt: 1980 The same material that protects astronomical objects ranging from the Hubble telescope to the Mars Rovers against the extreme temperatures of space also keeps marathon finishers warm. By coating a thin plastic sheet with aluminium, a lightweight material was created that insulates by reflecting heat.

Introuc to commrcial markt: 1997 Smart clothing is made from phase-change fabric, material that incorporates microscopic capsules filled with a chemical that switches between a liquid and a gas depending on the temperature. NASA uses it as a liner in astronaut gloves and it’s now found in bedding, clothing and footwear.

Introuc to commrcial markt: 1991  Astronomers gauge the temperature of planets millions of light-years away by measuring the thermal radiation emitted. The technology developed to monitor that radiation powers infrared thermometers that measure your body temperature by checking the heat emitted from your eardrum.

Anti-fog coating Introuc to commrcial markt: 1967 Skiers wearing goggles on snowy slopes bless this technology that helps prevent eyewear from misting up. This technology is based on the coating developed to stop condensation building up on plastic or glass surfaces in NASA’s Gemini spacecraft.

Maximum absorbncy garmnt

DID YOU KNOW? Prolic invntor Thomas eison l 2,332 worldwide patnts uring his lifetime

Introuc to commrcial markt: 2009 Otherwise known as the ‘space nappy’, the maximum absorbency garment was designed to enable astronauts to relieve themselves comfortably during prolonged spacewalks. Capable of soaking up approximately two litres of liquid, the ‘space nappy’ also offers a solution for people suffering from incontinence.

Yttrium Symbol: Y Atomic number: 39

Samarium Symbol: Sm Atomic number: 62

Cerium Symbol: Ce Atomic numbr: 58

Erbium Symbol: Er Atomic number: 68

dysprosium Symbol: Dy Atomic number: 66

 Yttrium is a metal that can be added to glass to make it heat- and shock-resistant; it is found in many camera lenses.

Discovered by Frenchman Paul-Émile Lecoq de Boisbaudran in 1879, this metal makes great magnets, used in headphones and electric guitars.

Replacing cadmium in pigments used in domestic products, red plastic toys or homewares are likely to contain cerium, which is also found in compact discs, flat-screen TVs and low-energy light bulbs.

 Another Carl Mosander discovery, this silver metal has a pink tinge. It’s useful for colouring photographic filters but also improves the function of optical fibres for broadband internet connections.

Paul-Émile Lecoq de Boisbaudran also discovered dysprosium. Besides nuclear reactor control rods, dysprosium is used in car headlights and the electric motors found in hybrid vehicles such as the Toyota Prius.

Selenium Symbol: Se Atomic number: 34 Many devices powered by solar cells contain selenium. You might also find it in your bathroom – it’s used in some antidandruff shampoos.

DID YOU

10 eNGINeeRING WONdeRS OF THe MOdeRN WORLd

KNOW? Googl’s original nam was BackRub, “a ‘wb crawlr’ sign to travrs th wb”

Jiaozhou Bay Brig Qingao, China Lngth: 26,707m Th brig across China’s Jiaozhou Bay is th main sction of a complx comprising a 41.58km roaway conncting th istricts of Qingao an Huangao. Opn in 2011, th worl’s longst brig ovr watr cost £5.5bn to buil; its construction rquir 10,000 workrs, 4,50,000 tonns of steel and 2.3 million m³ of concrete.

Burj Khalifa

railroad Russia

United Arab Emirates

Lngth: 9,289km

Hight: 828m

Akashi Kaikyo brig Japan Lngth: 3,911m

Construction on the world’s longest railway line began in 1891 and, by 1916, had successfully connected Moscow in the west with  Vladivostock on Russia’s east coast, 9,289km away.

The current tallest building in the world (boasting a full 163 storeys), this iconic skyscraper took 3,30,000 cubic metres of concrete and 39,000 tones of steel to build. The tower also boasts more than 24,000 windows.

 Almost half of the entire length of this incredible structure, which boasts the longest central span of any suspension bridge in the world, is suspended over the waters of the Akashi Strait and carries a six-lane highway.

This man-made channel connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans opened in 1914. Some 42,000 workers excavated the canal, digging enough earth to bury Manhattan Island. Today, more than 14,500 vessels use the waterway every year.

Millau Viauct

Bailong

Thr Gorgs

Larg Haron

France

Elevator China

Dam China

Collider

Hight: 330m

Hight: 180m

Switzerland

Built into a cliff face in Zhangjiajie National Forest Park, the Bailong Elevator (aka the ‘Hundred Dragons Elevator’) is the world’s highest outdoor lift. The 330m ascent takes around a minute in one of three glass cabins.

The barrier on China’s  Yangtze River is far from the biggest dam in the world, but is a crucial part of the world’s largest hydroelectric power station with a generating capacity of 22,500mW. To make way for the reservoir, three cities had to be flooded.

Lngth/

Lngth: 2,460m Hight: 343m

     Y      M      A      L      A

Panama Canal Panama

Trans-Sibrian

The world’s tallest bridge spans the valley of the River Tarn, carrying a fourlane highway 270m above the valley floor. Higher than the Eiffel Tower, the bridge was completed in 2004 after three years of construction at a cost of €400m.

Lngth: 77.1km

Franc/ circumference:

27km Buried 100m below France and Switzerland is the world’s most powerful particle accelerator, designed to recreate the conditions that existed shortly after the Big Bang. It weighs more than 38,000 tonnes.

Gotthard Base Tunnel Switzerland

Lngth: 57km Running underneath the Swiss Alps, when completed this will be the world’s longest rail tunnel. Due to open in 2016, this will eclipse both the 53.85kmlong Seikan Tunnel in Japan and the 50km-long Channel Tunnel.

TECHNOLOGY | SCIENCE

Sir Arthur C Clark 1917–2008

Visionary scinc-ction writers Isaac Asimov 1920–92 Wrot or it mor than 500 influntial books

Co-writr of th film 2001: A Spac Oyssy As wll as arning a numbr of awars for his writing, th British author – who spnt most of his latr yars in Sri Lanka – was somthing of a propht, pricting that computrs woul b us for onlin shopping an banking.

Robert A Heinlein 1907–88 First Scinc Fiction Writrs Gran Mastr

Ray Bradbury 1920–2012 Created visions of a ystopian futur

Most famous for writing th Foundation  series, the Russian author is often considered one of th ‘Big Thr’ sci-fi writrs, along with Hinlin an Clark. His scinc-fiction short story Nightfall  was voted the best of all time. A crater on Mars is nam aftr Asimov – th highst accola for a sci-fi writr?

Bginning his carr as a magazin writr, this Amrican author wnt on to pn four ovrlapping sris, incluing th Future History  books. His novls xplor a rang of thms incluing sx, rac, politics an th military – oftn sparking important bats on ths topics.

One of the most celebrated American writers, many of Brabury’s storis wr aapt for othr mia – most famously, Fahrenheit 451, nvisaging a futur stat that burns books. Btwn 1985 an 1992, h also prsnt The Ray Bradbury Theatr e television show, for which h aapt 65 of his own storis.

Phillip K dick  1928–82

ee ‘doc’ Smith 1890–1965

Jack Williamson 1908–2006

Wrot novls inspiring Blade Runner  and Total Recall 

Bst known for th Lensman  and Skylark  series

Wrot th Legion of Space series

As wll as publishing 44 novls, dick also write around 120 short stories. The American author’s works hav inspir a string of hit films incluing Blade Runner , Total Recall and Minority Report .

This Amrican author is somtims known as th ‘first nova’ of 20th-Cntury scinc fiction. H was particularly popular with scintists, nginrs an military mn – possibly bcaus a common theme in his novels was the ifficulty of maintaining military scrcy.

Williamson was only th scon nam Gran Mastr of Scinc Fiction, from th Scinc Fiction Writrs of Amrica. Th eastrn Nw Mxico Univrsity library is hom to th Jack Williamson Scinc Fiction Library.

Harlan Ellison 1934–prsnt

Frank Hrbrt 1920–86

Frederik Pohl

Multi awar-winning author and editor This American writer has published more than 1700 short stories, novellas and essays, as well as many film and TV scripts including muchlauded Star Trek  episodes. He’s the only three-time winner of the Nebula Award for Best Short Story.

Writr of th Dune  saga Hrbrt us many of his novls to xplor an combat complx ias bas aroun philosophy, larship an rligion, an his work attract a fanatical fan bas. Dune  became a major film directed by David Lynch.

1919–2013  Author with a career spanning 75 years This Amrican writr’s first publish work was a short story prouc in 1937; his last novl was print in 2011. Pohl was awar th damon Knight Mmorial Gran Mastr Awar by th Scinc Fiction Writrs of America in 1993.

December 2014

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TRANSPORT

The past 100 years or so have seen an extraordinary revolution in the way that we move around our planet. Almost always, the emphasis has been to reach more places – and to do it faster...

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December 2014

TANSPORT | SCIENCE

THE TOP 10 FASTEST PLANES

Falcon HTV-2

Top sp: 20,920km/h

01

Unmanned Lockh Martin, dfns Avanc Rsarch Projcts Agncy an US Air Force, USA, 2010

dvlop to tst th limits of long-uration hyprsonic travl, th Falcon HTV-2 is a rockt-launch, unmann but fully manouvrabl plan that’s capabl of ying at Mach 20. Not that anything can b rmotly scrib as ‘long-uration’ at ths kins of sp; a plan travlling at mor than 20,000 mils an hour woul covr th istanc btwn Nw York City an Los Angls in aroun 12 minuts.

02

X-43A Top sp: 12,144km/h Unmanned NASA, USA, 2004

07

Bll X-2 Starbuster Top sp: 3,369km/h Mann Bell Aircraft, USA, 1955

03

X-15 Top sp: 7,274km/h Mann US Air Force and NASA, USA, 1959

08

XB-70 Valkyri Top sp: 3,308km/h Mann North American Aviation, USA, 1964

04

X-51 WavRir Top sp: 6,276km/h Unmanned Boing, USA, 2010

09

MiG Foxhoun Top sp: 2,999km/h Mann Mikoyan, Sovit Union, 1975

05

SR-71 BlackBir Top sp: 3,540km/h Mann Lockh, USA, 1964 10

F-15 eagl Top sp: 2,679km/h Mann Mcdonnll douglas, Boing, Spac & Security, USA, 1972

06

MiG-25 Foxbat Top sp: 3,492km/h Mann MikoyanGurevich, Soviet Union, 1964

Sailboat 02 c 4000BC

10 GREAT TRANSPORT BReAKTHROUGHS 01

The Nile, Tigris and Euphrates rivers were important trade routes for the Egyptians and Mesopotamians. Artefacts from those civilisations show sailboats were used to travel and to transport goods between the settlements along them.

Whl

c 4500BC

03

Suspnsion c 3100BC Early roads were little more than rocky tracks, making journeys uncomfortable for any passengers and potentially damaging for cargo. By hanging a loadbearing platform or cabin from a frame built upon a cart’s chassis, the ancient Egyptians came up with a method of ensuring a smoother ride.

It’s difcult to pinpoint whn th whl was invntd, but th arlist rcordd vidnc of thir us dats back to th Sumrians of Msopotamia. Th whl nabld th popl of this ancint civilisation to build carts with which to haul biggr loads than could b carrid on thir backs.

04

Chain drive c300BC The mechanism that – by transmitting drive from one place to another – would dramatically alter bicycle design approximately 2,000 years later first appeared in ancient Greece. The polybolos, an automatic crossbow, used a chain drive to load bolts for rapid and repeated fire.

05

Rockts c 1250 Long before some bright spark thought of using rockets to launch a men and machines into space, they were being used as weapons in battle. After they invented gunpowder, Chinese chemists used it to fire incendiary projectiles at their enemies.

THE 10 LONGEST COMMeRCIAL FLIGHTS    2    X    Y    T    T    E    G  ,    2    X    Y    M    A    L    A

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01

02

03

04

Sydney to Dallas 13,804km Qantas 15 hours and 10 minutes

Johannsburg to Atlanta 13,582km Delta Air Lines 16 hours and 55 minuts

Dubai to Los Angls 13,420km Emirates 16 hours and 30 minutes

Dallas to Brisbane 13,363km Qantas 16 hours

TANSPORT | SCIENCE

09 Powered ight 1903

06 Steam locomotion 1784 Steam engines were the driving force behind the Industrial Revolution, but the idea for using boiling water as a power source dates back long before the 18th century. However, it wasn’t until 1784 that Scottish inventor William Murdoch unveiled a prototype of a steam-powered road vehicle. Trains and ships would follow soon after.

Man had been taking to the skies using various forms of kites, gliders and balloons for a long time before Orville and Wilbur Wright showed up. But they were the first to successfully make a powered, controlled and sustained flight.

10 Jet engine 1930 07

Once human flight had been achieved, engineers set about finding ways to fly faster, further and higher. The jet engine made doing all of those things possible. The idea behind it dates back to the first century AD, but it wasn’t until 1930 that the first patent was filed for one designed to power an aircraft.

Pneumatic tyre 1845  A ‘tier’ was the name given to the band of steel used to tie the spokes on wooden wheels together to form the round structure. But steel isn’t the best material for producing traction or a comfortable ride so people began looking for an alternative, which arrived in the form of vulcanised rubber. Scotsman Robert William Thomson was the first to patent the idea of attaching a rubber tyre to a wheel and filling it with air.

08

Internal combustion engine 1879 The roots of the internal combustion engine date back centuries. Crank and rod mechanisms appear in Roman times and gunpowder was used to drive the pistons of a water pump in the 17th century. However, it was Germany’s Nikolaus Otto who first built and patented an internal combustion engine that could be incorporated into an automobile.

05

06

07

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09

10

Dubai to Houston 13,144km Emirates 16 hours and 20 minutes

Dubai to San Francisco 13,041km Emirates 16 hours

New York (JFK) to Hong Kong 12,990km Cathay Pacifc 16 hours

New York (Newark) to Hong Kong 12,980km United Airlines 15 hours and 50 minutes

Doha to Houston 12,951km Qatar Airways 16 hours and 20 minutes

Dubai to Dallas 12,940km Emirates 16 hours and 20 minutes

THE 10 BIGGEST COMMeRCIAL AIRCRAFT 01

02

03

04

Airbus A380 853 passngrs 72.72m long

Boing 747-8 700 passngrs 76.3m long

Boing 747-400 568 passngrs 70.6m long

Boing 777-300 550 passngrs 73.9m long

06

07

08

09

Boing 747-200 452 passngrs 70.6m long

Boing 747-100 452 passngrs 70.6m long

Boing 777-200 440 passngrs 63.7m long

Airbus A350-1000 369 passngrs 73.78m long

THE 10 FASTEST TRAINS    S    U    B    R    I    A  ,    G    N    I    E    O    B  ,    5    X    Y    M    A    L    A  ,    5    X    Y    T    T    E    G

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December 2014

430

380

360

350

km/h

km/h

km/h

km/h

01

02

03

Shanghai Maglv, China Rout: Longyang Road Station – Shanghai Pudong Intrnational Airport Opnd: 2004 Manufacturr: Simns and ThyssnKrupp

Harmony CRH 380A, China Route: Bijing – Shanghai Opnd: 2010 Manufacturr: CSR Qingdao Sifang Locomotive & Rolling Stock 

AGV Italo, Italy Route: Napls – Milan Opnd: 2012 Manufacturr: Alstom

04

Vlaro e/AVS 103, Spain Route: Barcelona – Madrid Opnd: 2007 Manufacturr: Siemens

TANSPORT | SCIENCE

THE 10 BUSIEST AIRPORTS 05

Boing 747-300 496 passngrs 70.6m long 10

Airbus A340-600 359 passngrs 75.36m long

01

Atlanta Intrnational Airport, USA 94,630,445 passngrs in 2014

02

Bijing Capital Intrnational Airport, China 84,178,434 passngrs in 2014

03

Lonon Hathrow Airport 72,968,534 passngrs in 2014

04

Tokyo Intrnational Airport 70,366,151 passngrs in 2014

05

dubai Intrnational Airport, UAe 68,915,702 passngrs in 2014

06

Los Angls Intrnational Airport, USA 68,373,700 passngrs in 2012

07

O’Har Intrnational Airport, Chicago, USA 68,007,716 passngrs in 2013

08

Paris Charls  Gaull Airport, Franc 62,974,437 passngrs in 2012

09

dallas-Fort Worth Intrnational Airport, USA 61,408,414 passngrs in 2012

10

Hong Kong Intrnational Airport, Chk Lap Kok, Hong Kong 61,287,045 passngrs in 2012

350

320

320

320

320

300

km/h

km/h

km/h

km/h

km/h

km/h

07

08

09

10

Alstom eurouplx Route: France, Germany, Switzerland, Luxmbourg, Spain Opn: 2011 Manufacturr: Alstom

TGV duplx, France Route: Paris – Marsill Opn: 1996 Manufacturr: Alstom and Bombardier

ICE 3, Germany Rout: Frankfurt – Cologn; Munich – Nurmbrg Opn: 2000 Manufacturr: Siemens

eTR 500 Frecciarossa, Italy Route: Rome – Milan Opn: 2008 Manufacturr: Treno Veloce Italiano

05

Talgo 350, Spain Route: Mari – Llia Opn: 2005 Manufacturr: Patnts Talgo and Bombardier Transportation

06

e5 Sris Shinkansn Hayabusa, Japan Rout: Tohuku Shinkansn Lin Opn: 2011 Manufacturr: Kawasaki Havy Industry and Hitachi

* Source: Airports Council International (www.aci.aero) preliminary passenger figures August 2014.

THE 10 FASTEST ROAD CARS 01

Bugatti Veyron Super Sport

Top spee: 431km/h  

2010–present

despite having mae its public ebut back in 2010, all other roa-legal cars continue to eat the Super Sport’s ciners. Powere by an eight-litre engine, the Bugatti is capable of accelerating from 0-60mph in just 2.4 secons. This nee for spee oesn’t come cheap, though. Prospective owners nee to have a spare $2.5m in their back pocket. An then there’s those insurance premiums.

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03

Koenigsegg Agera R Top spee: 418km/h 2011–present

Hennessey Venom GT

Top spee: 428km/h 2012–present

07

08

Koenigsegg CCX Top spee: 394km/h

McLaren F1 Top spee: 386km/h 1992-1998

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2006–2010

December 2014

04

05

SSC Ultimate Aero

9ff GT9-R Top spee: 413km/h 2007-2008

Top spee: 413km/h 2006–2013

09

Zenvo ST1

Top spee: 374km/h 2009–present

10

Pagani Huayra Top spee: 370km/h 2012–present

06

Saleen S7

Twin-Turbo Top spee: 399km/h 2005–2009

TANSPORT | SCIENCE

George Stephenson 1781–1848 Became renowned as the

‘father of railways’

Transport pioneers Wright brothers Orville: 1871–1948 Wilbur: 1867–1912 Mae the first powere fixe-wing flight  At the turn of the 20th century, the race to achieve powered flight was hotting up. But though several of their contemporaries got airborne at around the same time, these siblings were the first to achieve true powered flight – on 17 December 1903 – and to patent the aerodynamic control of a flying machine.

Stephenson built the world’s first public inter-city railway line to use steam locomotives. His design for the Rocket also became the template for most steam engines in the following 150 years.

Sir Christopher Cockerell 1910–99 Invented the hovercraft

The British owner of a small boat company, Cockerell wanted his vessels go faster. He developed a theory – that a narrow jet of air around the edge of a craft would efficiently lift it above the water – and tested his ideas with a vacuum cleaner and two tin cans, patenting his technology in 1955. The first hovercraft crossed the English Channel in 1959.

Henry Ford

Montgolfier brothers Joseph-Michael: 1740–1810 Jacques-Étienne: 1745–99 Invente the hot-air balloon In 1783 - 120 years before the Wright brothers made history – these French siblings flew an unmanned balloon nearly 2km during a public demonstration, following that with a brief (tethered) flight with Étienne on board.

Many people have laid claim to being the creator of the bicycle, including Scottish blacksmith Kirkpatrick Macmillan in 1839. But Frenchman Lallement was the first to be awarded a patent in the US in 1866 after adding pedals to a walk-along dandy horse to create the velocipede.

This industrialist’s adoption of mass-production techniques revolutionised transport, with his Model T Fords rolling off the assembly line at an astonishing rate. Ford was a controversial character, but made car ownership an achievable goal for many middle-class Americans.

Whittle outlined the principles behind jet propulsion while still a student, taking out a patent on his design in 1930 at the tender age of 23. The first prototype was produced in 1937, and the first jet-powered plane, a Gloster E.28/29, took its maiden flight on 15 May 1941.

Lauded as the ‘father of rocket science’, this German-American was a crucial figure in the development of the V-2 rocket used by the Germans in the Second World War. He was subsequently recruited by NASA and became chief architect of the Saturn V launch vehicle.

Invented the bicycle

Motor Company

Invente the turbojet engine

develope rocket science

1843–1891

Founded the Ford

1907–96

1912–77

Pierre Lallement

1963–1947

Frank Whittle

Wernher von Braun

Karl Benz 1844–1929 Invente the petrolpowere automobile Though other engineers (including fellow German Gottlieb Daimler) were working on similar vehicles concurrently, in 1886 Benz was the first to be awarded a patent for an automobile powered by an internal combustion engine.

Isambar Kingom Brunel 1806–59 Trains, boats, briges... He could do it all

 As well as building the first railway linking London to Bristol, this visionary engineer also designed both the Clifton Suspension Bridge in Bristol and the SS Great Britain , the first iron steamer to cross the Atlantic.

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HISTORY The evolution of civilisation and science through five and a half thousand years of recorded history – and even before – yields a treasure trove of astonishing facts, mysteries and hoaxes

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HISTORY | HISTORY 

THe WORLd’S 10 OLdeST CITIeS

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Jericho Founded: c 9000BC

Byblos Founded: c 5000BC

Alppo Founded: c 4300BC

Damascus Founded: c 4300BC

Beirut Founded: 3000BC

The first settlers were attracted by the numerous springs around the site, now within the Palestinian territories.

Known as Gubal by the Phoenicians and renamed Byblos by the Greeks, this Lebanese city is possibly the world’s oldest continuously inhabited settlement.

Founded as Halab, this Syrian city was the capital of the Amorite dynasty of Yamhad.

Some argue that the Syrian capital has been inhabited since 10,000BC.

The name of the Lebanese capital is derived from the Canaanite word Be’erot or wells. The underground water supply is still used to day.

06

07

08

09

10

Shush Founded: c 4200BC

Faiyum Founded: c 4000BC

Sidon Founded: c 4000BC

Plovdiv Foun: 4000BC

Gaziantp Founded: 3650BC

Originally called Susa, this Iranian city was the capital of the Elamite Empire.

This Egyptian settlement is located on part of the site of the ancient Crocodilopolis, dedicated to the worship of a sacred crocodile.

The base from which the Phoenician empire grew, this Lebanese city was reputedly visited by Jesus, St Paul and Alexander the Great.

The discovery of pottery and other everyday objects dating back several thousand years proves that the site of this Bulgarian city was settled in the Neolithic Age.

This city, now in southcentral Turkey near the Syrian border, was founded by the Hittites.

10 FAMOUS HOAXES A fathr missing link  discovr: 1997 expos: 1999 In 1999, the National Geographic Society trumpeted the discovery, two years earlier, of the remains of a dinosaur covered in bird-like plumage. It was not a missing link, but a forgery created by a Chinese farmer.

Hitlr’s diaris discovr an xpos: 1983 Historian Hugh Trevor-Roper was left with egg on his face after authenticating documents purporting to be the Nazi leader’s diaries. They were actually the handiwork of Konrad Kujau, a notorious German forger.

Orson Welles caused panic across the US with his radio broadcast in 1938

Piltown Man discovr: 1912 expos: 1953

Th Fiji Mrmai Publicis an xpos: 1842

 A skull and jawbone discovered in Piltdown in East Sussex were relics from a modern man and an orangutan – not a previously unknown form of early human, as amateur archaeologist (and the hoax’s perpetrator) Charles Dawson claimed.

The legendary circus impresario PT Barnum toured the US with this ‘mummified mermaid’ – and had the public fooled. Until, that is, it emerged that the mermaid possessed the withered head of a monkey and the tail of a dried fish.

Alin autopsy Publicised: early 1990s expos: 1995 The bodies that appeared in film footage claimed to depict an alien autopsy performed after the Roswell UFO incident in 1947 were, in fact, dummies created by Ray Santilli, an entrepreneur from London’s Camden Town.

The Cardiff Giant discovr an xpos: 186 9 Stern journalist

Gerd Heidemann presents the alleged diaries of Adolf Hitler to the press in 1983

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 A 10ft-tall ‘petrified man’ excavated by workers in Cardiff, New York, turned out to have been carved out of gypsum by tobacconist George Hull.

DID YOU KNOW? In 1915, British intllignc srvics discovered that semen made an effective invisibl ink 

December 2014

HISTORY | HISTORY 

Th War Of Th Worlds Prptratd and xposd: 1938

The Protocols Of The Elders Of Zion Published: 1903 exposd: 1921

Thousands of Americans believed that their country was under attack by aliens when Orson Welles broadcast a radio adaptation of HG Wells’ The War Of The Worlds .

This anti-Semitic book, purporting to describe a Jewish conspiracy to dominate the world, was disseminated across the globe. It was probably plagiarised by Russian agents from various sources.

Th Cottingly Fairis Claimed: 1917 exposd: 1980s Loch Nss Monstr photo Takn: 1934 exposd: 1990s

More than 60 years after Edwardian England was enchanted by five pictures showing two young girls, Frances Griffiths and Elsie Wright, surrounded by fairies, the former admitted the photos were hoaxes.

Robert Kenneth Wilson’s iconic photo seemed to confirm the Loch Ness monster’s existence, but later analysis suggested that ‘Nessie’ was probably being towed.

10 ENDURING HISTORICAL MYTHS

Nro ddld while Rome burned

 Albert Einstein failed maths at school

Napoleon was short

George Washington had wooden teeth

“Let Them Eat Cake”

The ‘little corporal’ was actually slightly taller than the average Frenchman of his time – 5 French feet, 2 inches. In English measurements, this is 5 feet, 7 inches.

The dentures of the first US president (below) were made of hippopotamus and other animal teeth, as well as human teeth held together with ivory, gold wire and brass screws.

Marie Antoinette never suggested that the breadless peasants of the 18th century should eat cake. The misattributed quote is from JeanJacques Rousseau’s autobiography – the ‘great princess’ would have been only 11 at the time.

When he saw this claim published, Einstein corrected it: “I never failed in mathematics. Before I was 15, I had mastered differential and integral calculus.”

Marco Polo brought pasta to Italy from China Though wheat noodles probably existed in China for centuries before Polo visited, it’s likely pasta (or similar preparations) had arrived in Italy from Arab lands well before the 13th century.

The origin of this expression is definitely contentious. Though Nero was known as a musician, the fiddle wasn’t invented until 1,500 years after the fire of Rome.

Sir Waltr Raligh laid down his cloak for Elizabeth

Romans deliberately vomited at orgis

American Indpndnc was declared on 4 July

The legend of chivalrous Sir Walter laying his cloak over a puddle to keep Queen Elizabeth’s feet dry stems from Walter Scott’s romantic novel Kenilworth  of 1821.

The ‘vomitorium’ was actually the entrance allowing crowds to exit and enter a stadium.

The Pennsylvania Evening Post  published the news about the resolution declaring independence on 2 July. The actual document called The Declaration of Independence  was approved on the 4th.

Witches were burned at the stake in Salem Though witch trials were certainly held in the Massachusetts town of Salem, there’s no evidence that ‘witches’ were burned at the stake. Some 20 women were hanged or crushed, and their bodies later burned.

10 ANCIeNT eNGINeeRING ACHIeVeMeNTS

10 dOOMed EXPEDITIONS

The Colosseum Whr: Rom Date built: AD 70–80

Saksaywaman Whr: Pru Date built: 15th cntury Ad

It took an stimat 100,000m3 of travertine stone to buil th largst amphithatr in th Roman empir, accommoating 50,000 spctators.

Scintists still on’t know how th Inca transport th massive boulders used to construct this hug wall complx in Cusco.

Aquuct of Sgovia Whr: Spain Date built: 1st century AD

Great Pyramid of Giza Whr: egypt Date built: c 2500BC

It may have been constructed by the Romans 2,000 years ago, but this 167arch mastrpic still carries water from the River Frio to the town of Sgovia toay.

The tallest man-ma structur on Earth for 3,800 years, construction of the Pyramid of Khufu took 100,000 workmn up to 20 years.

Imprial Trans-Antarctic expition L by: ernst Shacklton dat: 1914–17

The Donner Party Led by: The Reed and Donner families dat: 1846–47

Shackleton’s attempt on a land crossing of Antarctica ended in disaster when his ship, Endurance , became trapped in ice and sank. The story of his epic rescue mission is legendary.

When a party of pioneer families and their employees got trapped in the mountains of the Sierra Nevada, this journey west to California descended into cannibalism.

North fac of th eigr L by: Toni Kurz an Andreas Hinterstoisser Date: 1936 Kurz and Hinterstoisser both lost their lives during this famous attempt on the formidable Swiss peak, the former tragically dying from exhaustion just metres from his would-be rescuers.

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Polaris expition Led by: Charles Francis Hall Date: 1871 It wasn’t the cold that scuppered Hall’s attempt on the North Pole, but arsenic poisoning, suggesting that he may have been murdered by another member of the expedition.

December 2014

Attmpt to navigat th Northwst Passag L by: John Franklin dat: 1847 Franklin’s entire party died of starvation, hypothermia, tuberculosis, lead poisoning and scurvy after being forced to abandon their icebound ships.

HISTORY | HISTORY 

Stonhng Whr: englan Date built: From c 2500BC

Mohnjo-aro Whr: Pakistan Date built: 2600BC

Our prhistoric ancestors may have transport 82 hug stones more than 200km from th Prsli Mountains of wst Wals to this giant astrological observatory.

This city boasted thousands of mortar brick builings, a strt plan sign to a gri an swag systms that wouln’t be matched in many parts of europ until the 20th century.

Grat Wall of China Whr: China Date built: Bgun in c 220BC At narly 9,000km long – an, at points, rising to almost 1km abov sa lvl – it’s little wonder that the Grat Wall of China is arguably th most iconic of all manmade constructions.

Teotihuacan Whr: Mxico Date built: 100BC–Ad 250 This Aztc mtropolis was, for centuries, th largst city in th Americas, and home to th thir-tallst pyrami in th worl, the Pyramid of the Sun.

Leshan Giant Buddha Whr: China Date built: Bgun in AD 713 It took thousans of workrs mor than 90 yars to complt this, th largst carved stone Buddhist in the worl, staning some 71m tall.

Antikythra Mchanism Whr: Grc Date built: 2nd century BC Arguably th most complx vic from the ancient world, th Antikythra Mchanism is a mechanical ‘computr’ that tracks th cycls of the solar system.

DID YOU KNOW? Trra Nova xpition Led by: Robert Falcon Scott Date: 1912

The search for the city of Z Led by: Percy Harrison Fawcett dat: 1925

Five members of Scott’s party reached the South Pole – 33 days after their Norwegian rivals led by Roald Amundsen became the first to do so – but all perished on the return journey.

British explorer Fawcett’s obsession with finding El Dorado, the legendary ‘City of Gold’, was to prove his undoing. He disappeared without trace in the Brazilian jungle.

Frinan Magllan gav th Pacic Ocan its nam. ‘Mar pacico’ mans ‘pacful sa’ in Portugus

Mount evrst xpition L by: Gorg Mallory an ‘Sany’ Irvin dat: 1924 Did Mallory and Irvine become the first men to conquer Everest? We’ll probably never know for sure – Mallory’s body was recovered in 1999, but with no evidence to show whether he had reached the summit.

Flying to th North Pol L by: Salomon August Anré Date: 1897  Andrée’s mission to fly to the North Pole ended in tragedy when his hydrogen balloon was blown off course. The Swedish engineer and two colleagues died attempting to trek back to civilisation.

Roun-th-worl ight Led by: Amelia Earhart Date: 1937 The first woman to fly solo across the  Atlantic, intrepid aviator Earhart disappeared somewhere over the Pacific Ocean during her pioneering round-the-world flight. Her body has never been found.

 According to legend, Nan Madol was built by twin sorcerers

10 BAFFLING HISTORICAL MYSTeRIeS Nazca Lines Whr: Southrn Pru Created: 300BC–AD 600 Discovered: 1930s These extraordinary ground markings depicting animals and plants – some over 200m long – have puzzled scientists for decades. Some have even claimed they’re ancient runways for visiting aliens.

Runways for aliens? The Nazca Lines of Peru

Piri Ris map Whr: Topkapı Palac, Istanbul, Turky Crat: 1513 Discovered: 1929 How i a 16th-cntury Turkish marinr map northrn Antarctica – th continnt wasn’t visit until 1818? Just on of th qustions pos by Piri Ris’ rmarkabl cartography.

Chou Chou buckl Whr: China Created: around AD 300 discovr: 1956 Aluminium wasn’t isolat until th 19th cntury. So how was this girl fastnr – foun in th grav of Chins gnral Chou Chou – crat 15 cnturis arlir an ma from 85% aluminium?

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December 2014

City of Nan Maol Whr: Micronsia Created: 12th–13th century AD Discovered: early 19th century

Roanok colony abanonmnt Whr: Roanok Islan, North Carolina, USA Crat: 1587

This once-great city – dubbed the ‘Venice of the Pacific’ and constructed using 250 million tonnes of huge basalt blocks on a coral reef – was made without machines. The question is: how?

 An English colony was established on Roanoke Island in 1587. Three years later, when John White returned with supplies, he found the colony abandoned, its population having mysteriously vanished.

Mary Clst Whr: Atlantic Ocan Discovered: December 1872

Phaistos disc Whr: Phaistos, Crt Created: Second millennium BC Discovered: 1908

When this brigantine was discovered drifting, unmanned, in the Atlantic Ocean a great maritime mystery was born. Did the crew abandon the ship fearing an explosion, after smelling alcohol fumes?

Jack th Rippr murrs Whr: Whitchapl, Lonon Whn: 1888 The violent murders of several prostitutes in East London triggered one of the most famous whodunnits in history as the police hunted the elusive killer ‘Jack the Ripper’.

Rongorongo writing Whr: eastr Islan Created: late 18th century Inscriptions on stone and wooden tablets found on Easter Island are in a script called rongorongo, a mix of ideographs and a kind of phonetic alphabet. But what does it mean?

Scientists have been trying (and failing) to decipher the code on this 15cm fired-clay disc – discovered at the site of a Bronze Age Minoan palace – for over a century.

egyptian aroplan Whr: Saqqara, egypt Created: c 2000BC Discovered: 1898 Discovered in a tomb, this remarkably aerodynamic model was designed by ancient Egyptians, 4,000 years before man could fly.

HISTORY | HISTORY 

THE 10 LONGeST WARS 01 Three Hundred and Fifty Yars’ War Blligrnts: Isls of Scilly, Netherlands 1651–1986 This ‘conflict’ started during the English Civil War, when a Dutch fleet declared war on the royalist Scilly Isles. A peace treaty was finally signed in 1986.

02 Arauco War Blligrnts: Colonial Spanish, Mapuch popl 1536–1820s This clash between the indigenous people of Chile and Spanish colonists ended in native victory when Chile won its independence in the 1820s.

03

The Vietnam War was both lengthy and bloody

04 GrcoPrsian War Blligrnts: Grk city stats, Prsian mpir 499–449BC The city states of Greece overcame seemingly impossible odds in repelling a series of invasions launched by the full might of the Persian empire.

05

07

09

Guatemalan Civil War

Wars of the Roses

Great Northrn War

Blligrnts: Guatemalan militar y, leftish rebels 1960–96 One of history’s longest civil wars was sparked when dissidents rebelled against Guatemala’s autocratic regime in 1960. It ended with a peace treaty in 1996.

Blligrnts: Houss of York and Lancaste r 1455–85 England’s ruling Plantagenet family tore itself apart in a bitter dynastic war that ended with Richard III’s death at the Battle of Bosworth.

Blligrnts: Swedish mpir, a coalition ld by Russia 1700–21 Sweden’s stranglehold on the areas around the Baltic Sea was smashed by a coalition of nations including Russia, Denmark-Norway and Saxony-Poland.

06

10 Vitnam War Blligrnts: Communist and anticommunist forces 1956–75 North Vietnam’s communist forces defeated their southern neighbours and dealt the United States a bloody nose in a Cold War conflict that cost hundreds of thousands of lives.

08

Hundrd Yars’ War

Thirty Yars’ War

Ploponnsian War

Blligrnts: england, Franc, Burgundy, Scotland 1337–1453 English attempts to seize the throne of France were foiled in this longrunning conflict that awakened French nationalism.

Blligrnts: Blligrnts: Protestants and Athns, Sparta Catholic nations C 431–404BC Sparta became the across europ dominant force in 1618–48 Millions died and huge the Greek world areas of central Europe after triumphing over were laid to waste when  Athens in a series Europe’s Protestant of clashes on land and Catholic states and sea. crossed swords.

   K    C    O    T    S    K    N    I    H    T  ,    2    X    Y    T    T    E    G  ,    3    X    Y    M    A    L    A

INSPIRING YOUNG MINDS THROUGH KNOWLEDGE OLYMPIADS

Last year millions of students from 27,000 schools in 1,350+ cities and 16 countries competed in the SOF Olympiads!

14 TH SOF NATIONAL CYBER OLYMPIAD

17TH SOF NATIONAL SCIENCE OLYMPIAD

8TH SOF INTERNATIONAL MATHEMATICS OLYMPIAD

5TH SOF INTERNATIONAL ENGLISH OLYMPIAD

SEP. 1 8 & OCT. 14

NOV. 12 & NOV. 25

DEC. 4 & DEC. 18

 JAN. 20 & JAN. 29

Registrations must reach us by 30 days of chosen date of exam

Promotional Feature

 AWARDS & RECOGNITIONS

Students attaining top ranks at school level, state level, and at international level will be recognised. INTERNATIONAL AWARDS - CLASS 1 - 12 SCHEDULE OF EXAMS:

RANK

EXAM

DATE 1

DATE 2

17TH NSO

Wednesday, 12th Nov ‘14

Tuesday, 25th Nov ‘14

8TH IMO

Thursday, 4th Dec ‘14

Thursday, 18th Dec ‘14

5TH IEO

Tuesday, 20th Jan ‘15

Thursday, 29th Jan ‘15

AWARD

1

 ` 50,000

each + Gold Medal* + Gifts Worth  ` 1,000 + Merit Certifcate

47

2

 ` 25,000

each + Silver Medal* + Gifts Worth  ` 1,000 + Merit Certifcate

47

3

 ` 10,000

47

each + Bronze Medal* + Gifts Worth  ` 1,000 + Merit Certifcate

STATE AWARDS - CLASS 1-12

RANK

SCHOLARSHIPS

Girl Child Scholarship Scheme (GCSS):  ` 5,000

 ` 5,000

AWARD

NO. OF AWARDS

1

 ` 5000

each + Gold Medal* + Gifts Worth  ` 1,000 + Merit Certifcate

940

2

 ` 2,500

each + Silver Medal* + Gifts Worth  ` 1,000 + Merit Certifcate

940

3

 ` 1,000/

940

each + Bronze Medal* + Gifts Worth  ` 1,000 + Merit Certifcate

each scholarship to 300 girls will be provided.

Scholarship for Excellence in English (SEE):

NO. OF AWARDS

4-25

each scholarship to 120 students will be provided.

25 Gifts Worth  ` 1,000 + Merit Certifcate

20,680

(New) Academic Excellence Scholarship (AES):  ` 5,000

scholarship and trophies to 160 students for their all round performance.

(NEW) STATE AWARDS – FOR LEVEL ONE WINNERS

Class wise  4th Teachers’ Training Camp (TTC): 100 teachers trained each year in the latest educational techniques by the experts at British Council.

Top ten rank holders from each of 20 states / zones, who qualify for the 2nd level exam will be awarded a Certicate of Merit and a gold medal each. This will be applicable for NCO, NSO, and IMO.

SCHOOL TOPPER AWARDS  AWARDS

Medals will be awarded to toppers from each class as under: 

If 10 or more students from one class write an exam - gold, silver, and bronze medals will be awarded to top three rank holders.



If between ve to nine students from a class write an exam - a gold medal will be awarded to the topper.



Participation Certicates will be awarded to every student and Merit Certicates to all 2nd level qualiers.



Performance Analysis Report for each participating student will be provi ded.

 Total Awards worth  ` 10 Crores



 Approx. 5,00,000 awards to winners.



For further information on SOF write in at

Science Olympiad Foundation, Plot No. 99, Sector 44, Gurgaon, 122003, Haryana • Landline No: 0124-4951200 • Mobile: 09312680855, 09312680857 • Visit us at www.sofworld.org or email [email protected]

HUMAN PLANeT Th world is shapd by us – our houss, our citis, our roads, and, most of all, our shr numbr. Hr w’v pulld togthr th facts and gurs that dmonstrat th impact humans hav mad on earth

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December 2014

HUMAN PLANET | SCIENCE

10 COUNTRIES THAT

dON’T OFFICIALLY eXIST Rpublic of Somalilan Whr: Horn of Africa Capital: Hargisa

Nagorno-Karabakh Rpublic Whr: Surroun by Azrbaijan Capital: Stpanakrt

Declared independence from Somalia in 1991. Not recognised int ernationally.

Declared independence in 1991, though still claimed by Azerbaijan and not recognised by most nations, except three that are also non-UN members.

Prinstrovian Molavian Rpublic (Trans-dnistr) Whr: Btwn Molova an Ukrain Capital: Tiraspol

Republic of Abkhazia Where: Black Sea coast between Georgia and Russia Capital: Sukhumi

Declared independence from Moldova in 1990; not recognised by most nations, except three that are also non-UN members.

Rpublic of China (Taiwan) Whr: South China Sa Capital: Taipi Effectively independent since the end of the Chinese civil war in 194 9, Taiwan is recognised by only 21 UN members and the Holy See.

Declared independence from Georgia in 1999, and has subsequently been recognised by states including Russia, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Nauru, Tuvalu and three others themselves not recognised by the UN.

Sahrawi Arab Democratic

Rpublic (Wstrn Sahara) Whr: Btwn Morocco an Mauritania Capital: Laayoun Republic declared in 1976, but Western Sahara is still claimed by Morocco, which still governs the majority of its territory.

Turkish Rpublic of Northrn Cyprus Whr: Northrn thir of Cyprus Capital: North Nicosia/Lfkosa

State of Palestine

Declared independence in 1983, following Turkish invasion of Cyprus. Recognised as a state only by Turkey.

Declared independent by the Palestine Liberation Organization. Around two-thirds of UN member states have recognised Palestine.

Rpublic of Kosovo Whr: Balkans, btwn Srbia

Rpublic of South Osstia Whr: North of Gorgia Capital: Tskhinvali

and Albania

Capital: Pristina Declared independence from Serbia in 2008 following long-running conflict. Recognised by USA and many Western European nations, but not by all UN members.

Whr: Wst Bank of Joran an Gaza Strip Capital: Ramallah/east Jrusalm

Declared independence from Georgia in 1991, but recognised by only a few countries including Russia, Nicaragua and some European nations, but not all UN members.

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THE 10 TALLEST SKYSCRAPeRS

02

03

Shanghai Towr Shanghai, China Height: 632m Date completed: 2014

Burj Khalifa 01

Dubai, United Arab Emirates

05

Height: 509m Date completed: 2004

Having bn hom to th worl’s tallst fr-staning structur for narly 4,000 yars (until th Grat Pyrami at Giza in egypt was ovrtakn by Lincoln Cathral in 1311), th Mil east rclaim th titl whn th Burj Khalifa towr was opn in January 2010.

08

Burj Khalifa 828m

Height: 452m Date completed: 1998

700

Shanghai Tower 632m

600

500

400

300

200

   H    T    :     O    T     O    H    P

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Height: 601m Date completed: 2012

Height: 541.3m Date completed: 2013

07

Shanghai Worl Financial Center Shanghai, China Height: 492m Date completed: 2008

International Commerce Centre Hong Kong Height: 484m Date completed: 2010

10

Petronas Tower 2 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Zifng Towr Nanjing, China Height: 450m Date completed: 2010

Height: 452m Date completed: 1998

800

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On Worl Trade Center Nw York City, USA

09

Petronas Tower 1 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

900

Makkah Royal Clock Towr Hotl Mcca, Saui Arabia

06

Taipi 101 Taipi, Taiwan

Hight: 828m dat complt: 2009

04

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December 2014

Makkah Royal Clock Tower Hotel 601m

One World Trade Center 541.3m

Taipei 101 509m

Shanghai World Financial Centre 492m

International Commerce Centre 484m

HUMAN PLANET | SCIENCE

THe 10 MOST POPULOUS COUNTRIES 01 China Population: 1,349,585,838

03 USA Population: 316,438,601

05

Burj Khalifa also boasts a recordbreaking number of floors – 163

Petronas Tower 1 and 2 452m

Brazil Population: 201,009,622

02 India Population: 1,220,800,359

04 Indonesia Population: 251,160,124

06

Pakistan Population: 193,238,868

Zifeng Tower 450m

07

DID YOU KNOW? Whn it’s compltd in 2019, th Kingdom Tower in Jeddah in Saudi Arabia will stand 1000 metres tall

Nigria Population: 174,507,539

09 Russia Population: 142,500,482

08

Bangladsh Population: 163,654,860

10

Japan Population: 127,253,075

   k    o    o    b    t    c    a    F    d    l    r    o    W    A    I     C    :    e    c    r    u    o     S  .    3    1    0    2    y    l    u    J    n    i    d    e    t    a    m    i    t    s    e    s    e    r    u    g     fi    n    o    i    t    a    l    u    p    o    p    :    B    N    *

The Chernobyl disaster rendered Pripyat a ghost town

10 CITIES LEFT ABANDONED

Pripyat Whr: Ukrain Abandoned: 1986 Following th Chrnobyl nuclar disastr, th ntir population of around 50,000 rsidnts wr evacuated – never to return.

DID YOU KNOW? Th world’s lowst-lying capital city is Baku in Azerbaijan, which lies at 28m below sea level

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76

THE 10 SMALLeST COUNTRIES (by ara) December 2014

Oradour-sur-Glan Whr: Franc Abandond: 1944

Kolmanskop Whr: Namibia Abandond: 1954

Craco Whr: Italy Abandoned: 1963

 A German Panzer division destroyed this town, killing 642 inhabitants.

This mining town was abandoned when its diamond yield declined.

The instability of the hill on which the town sat caused a mass exodus during the 1960s.

Varosha Whr: Cyprus Abandond: 1974

Kayaköy Whr: Turky Abandoned: 1923

This holiday playground of the rich was abandoned after the invasion by Turkey.

The non-Muslim inhabitants of this town were forced to relocate after the Greco-Turkish War.

Hashima Island Whr: Japan Abandond: 1974

Humberstone Whr: Chil Abandoned: 1961

Salton Riviera Whr: California Abandoned: 1970s

 Abandoned after the saltpeter-mining industry declined. Now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Local fish population died out; so did local tourism.

This mining area closed for business after the seams were mined out.

Plymouth Whr: Montsrrat Abandond: 1995  A volcanic eruption in 1995 led to the evacuation of two-thirds of the island.

01

02

03

04

Vatican City 0.4km2

Monaco 1.9km2

Nauru 21km2

Tuvalu 26km 2

HUMAN PLANET | SCIENCE

THE 10 HIGHEST CAPITAL CITIES La Paz, the Bolivian capital, clings to the lower slopes of the Andes

01

La Paz Bolivia 3,640m Sitting in a bowl with mountains on all sids, th Bolivian capital is locatd in th vallys of th Ands. With a population of 877,363, th city’s mor afunt citizns tnd to rsid in its lowr-lying nighbourhoods, whil poorr rsidnts mak thir homs at highr altituds within th capital.

02

03

Quito Ecuador 2,850m

05

04

Thimphu Bhutan 2,648m

06

Addis Ababa ethiopia 2,355m

08

07

Asmara Eritrea 2,325m

09

Mxico City Mxico 2,240m

Bogotá Colombia 2,625m

Sana’a Yemen 2,250m

10

Nairobi Knya 1,795m

Kabul Afghanistan 1,790m

05

06

07

08

09

10

San Marino 61.2km2

Liechtenstein 160km2

Marshall Islands 181km2

Saint Kitts and Nevis 269km2

Maldivs 298km2

Malta 316km2

THe 10 MOST deNSeLY

POPULATED COUNTRIES

Monaco

01

Ara: 2.02km2

Population: 36,136 dnsity: 18,068 popl/km2 Not only ar its citizns th most tightly pack-in on th plant, th principality also claims th highst gross omstic prouct pr capita at $153,177 US. Th worl’s scon smallst country by ara aftr th Vatican City, Monaco is mostly incrasing in siz thanks to ongoing lan rclamation projcts.

Monaco is no place for those who suffer from claustrophobia

02

03

Singapor Ara: 716km2 Population: 5,399,200 Density: 7,669

Vatican City Ara: 0.44km2 Population: 800 Density: 1,818

Bahrain Ara: 757km2 Population: 1,234,571

popl/km2

Density: 1,631

popl/km2

popl/km2

05

06

07

Malta

Malivs

Banglash

Ara: 315km2 Population: 4,16,055

Ara: 298km2 Population:

Density: 1,321

dnsity: 1,065 popl/km2

Ara: 1,47,570km2 Population: 1,52,518,015 dnsity: 1,034 popl/km2

popl/km2

08

3,17,280

09

Palestine Ara: 6,020km2 Population: 4,420,549 dnsity: 734 popl/km2

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04

December 2014

Taiwan Ara: 36,191km2 Population: 23,361,147 dnsity: 645 popl/km2

10

Barbados Ara: 430km2 Population: 2,74,200 Density: 638

popl/km2

HUMAN PLANET | SCIENCE

THE 10 COUNTRIES

01 Honduras

MOST AFFeCTed BY CLIMATe CHANGe Honduras

Droughts and floods hit food production.

10.17

Myanmar

03

11.83

Haiti

Haiti

16.83

Nicaragua

17.17

Bangladesh

19.67

Myanmar Climat Risk Inx: 11.83 Warmer temperatures have led to huge increases in the spread of water-borne diseases.

04

Climat Risk Inx: 16.83

Nicaragua Climat Risk Inx: 17.17

The number and power of hurricanes have increased significantly in recent years.

Two category-five storms in the past 15 years claimed thousands of lives.

24.00

 Vietna m

0

Climat Risk Inx: 10.17

02

Philippines

31.17

Dominican Republic

31.33

Mongolia

31.33

Thailand

31.50

5

10

15

20

25

30

Climate Risk Index

Floodwater causes damage in Dhaka, Bangladesh

05

35

06

Banglash Climat Risk Inx: 19.67

Vietnam

Frequent flooding of the Ganges delta wipes out crops, destroys homes and spreads diseases.

Increases in flash floods, landslides and other natural disasters causing many deaths.

07

Philippins Climat Risk Inx: 31.17 Increasingly frequent, intense natural disasters, especially floods,are claiming thousands of lives.

09

Climat Risk Inx: 24.00

08 Dominican

Rpublic Climat Risk Inx: 31.33 Flooding and erosion are both causing major problems for this Caribbean country.

10

Mongolia Climat Risk Inx: 31.33

Thailand

In the past 70 years, average temperatures have increased by 2°C andrainfall has decreased, hitting the agricultural sector particularly hard.

Crops have been increasingly destroyed by floods.

Climat Risk Inx: 31.50

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SCIENCE

Research into the nuts and bolts of the universe makes for riveting reading – from quarks and string theory to landmark breakthroughs (and mistakes), eccentric experiments and dinosaur discoveries

     M      O      C  .      F      R      3      2      1

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December 2014

SCIENCE | SCIENCE

10 BIG BLUNDERS

& FALSe CLAIMS Mars mission malfunction NASA spnt $327 million launching th Mars Climat Orbitr, which rachd th rd plant on 23 Sptmbr 1999 – only to b lost in th Martian atmosphr. A navigation malfunction in its navigation systms was discovrd to b th rsult of a basic rror: th orbitr had bn nginrd using imprial masurmnts, but was guidd using tchnology that followd th mtric systm.

In 1999, NASA’s Mars Climate Orbiter disintegrated in the Red Planet’s atmosphere – thanks to a blunder in software units

The universe revolves around us The influential (and groundbreaking) GrecoRoman mathematician and geographer Ptolemy developed an astronomical model in which Earth sat at the centre of the cosmos. His geocentric model went uncorrected until Copernicus proposed his heliocentric theory in 1543 – nearly 1,500 years later.

Fire comes from

The universe is

enrgy from

phlogiston

innit

In 1667, German alchemist Johann Joachim Becher proposed a theory of combustion claiming the existence of terra pinguis , an element released when flammable objects are ignited. The substance was later dubbed phlogiston by Georg Ernst Stahl – and, of course, does not exist.

Eminent – and controversial – astrophysicist Fred Hoyle posited a ‘steady state’ theory, suggesting that the universe has existed and will continue to exist forever. In 1949, Hoyle derisively coined the phrase ‘big bang’ to describe the alternative theory that he continued to deride till his death in 2001.

cold fusion In 1989, electrochemists Stanley Pons and Martin Fleischmann announced that wwthey had detected a nuclear reaction at near room temperature – ‘cold fusion’, a holy grail for the production of cheap and abundant supply of energy. Nobody has since succeeded in reproducing their results.

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 American scientist Linus Pauling was a Nobel-winning chemist – but erred in 1953 when suggesting that DNA has a triple helix structure. Later that year, Francis Watson and James Crick discovered that DNA forms a double helix.

Biologist Warwick Kerr began crossbreeding European and African bees near São Paulo in 1956, in an attempt to develop a species more suited to Brazil’s tropical climate. The resulting Africanised bees – aka killer bees, aggressive and prone to swarming – escaped and spread northward as far as the USA.

In 2011 the established laws of physics appeared to have been broken when an Italian lab claimed to have witnessed neutrinos travelling faster than the speed of light. Not so. It transpired that the GPS equipment used to track the neutrinos hadn’t been hooked up properly.

constant Einstein, believing that the universe was static, introduced a cosmological constant to his general theory of relativity to explain how gravity was thwarted in preventing expansion. When it was discovered that the universe is expanding, he renounced the constant, calling it his ‘greatest blunder’.almost the speed of light.

British scientist Sir William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin, is best known for determining the value of the lowest possible temperature (absolute zero, or –273.15°C. But he also used the idea that the Earth is gradually cooling to estimate its age. In 1897 he announced that the Earth was 20–40 million years old. We now know that it’s about 4.5 billion years old.

10 BReAKTHROUGHS IN BIOLOGY Cell division Who: Robrt Rmak  Whn: 1855

By hardening the cell membrane, Remak was able to observe cell division

By staining a cell’s membrane, Remak was able to prove that new cells are formed by the division of existing cells. He also surmised that tumours grow and are spread in the same manner.

Cll biology Who: Hnri dutrocht Whn: early 19th cntury The French physiologist pioneered the study of cells as the key units of function in life, and suggested that basic processes of life are similar across all organisms.

Homeostasis Who: Clau Brnar Whn: 1854 Bernard stated that “all the vital mechanisms, varied as they are, have only one object: that of preserving constant the conditions of life.” This encapsulates the concept of homeostasis – the maintenance of a constant internal environment, key to most forms of life.

Genetic inheritance Who: Grgor Mnl Whn: 1865 By studying pea plants, Mendel discovered that inheritance of many traits, such as height, could be explained through simple rules – resulting in the concept of dominant and recessive genes.

Osmosis Who: Jan-Antoin Nollt Whn: 1748 Nollet was the first person to document osmosis – variations in the concentrations of dissolved substances causing movement of the solvent (for example, water) – a key process in biology that explains, for example, how plants take up water from the soil.

Inhritanc of acquir traits Who: Jan-Baptist Lamarck  Whn: 1801 Lamarck proposed that characteristics acquired by an organism can be passed on to offspring. Long considered inaccurate, modern ideas of epigenetics endorse a form of this type of inheritance may occur.

Food chain Who: Al-Jahiz Whn: 9th cntury Ad The idea that all organisms are dependent on others, together forming a vast web encompassing all species, was proposed by the Arabic writer Al-Jahiz.

Theory of evolution by natural selection Who: Charls darwin an Alfr Russl Wallac Whn: 1858 Darwin and Wallace each independently conceived the theory that species develop through a process of natural selection.

Biognsis Who: Louis Pastur Whn: 1861 Pasteur showed that the growth of bacteria from

fermentation was a result of biogenesis – and extrapolated that all life originates from an organism similar to itself, rather than non-living material, as was earlier believed.

Chromosomes Who: Thoor Bovri an Waltr Sutton Whn: 1902 The independent work of these two biologists led to the conclusion that pairs of chromosomes, found in all dividing cells, carry the information by which genetic traits are inherited.

Mgalosaurus Discovered: 1676 Where: Oxfordshire Lived: Jurassic (201–145 million years ago)

10 GAMe-HANGING FOSSIL FINDS

 A fossilised femur from this carnivore (left ) was discovered in 1676, but it was nearly 150 years later that William Buckland and colleagues named the ‘huge lizard’ – and recognised it as the first-known dinosaur.    N    O    I    T    A    I    C    O    S    S    A    S    S    E    R    P  ,    K    C    O    T    K    N    I    H    T  ,    Y    M    A    L    A

Marin fossils Discovered: 6th century BC Where: Greece Lived: various periods

Mosasaurus Discovered: 1764 Where: Maastricht, Netherlands Lived: Cretaceous (around 70–65 million years ago)

The Greek philosopher Xenophanes reasoned that the fossils of marine creatures found on land were evidence of sea covering the earth in previous eras.

This aquatic reptile was the first to be identified as an extinct species, by Georges Cuvier, and the first genus of such an animal to be named, in 1822 by William Conybeare.

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Iguanoon Discovered: c1821 Where: Sussex Lived: Early Cretaceous (around 125 million years ago) One of three genera included in the original classification of dinosauria, the first fossils of this 10m-long herbivore – discovered in the early 1820s by Gideon Mantell – fuelled a fiery debate about evolution and whether prehistoric reptiles had actually existed.

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10 SCIeNTISTS WHO eXPeRIMeNTed ON THeMSeLVeS Max Josph von Pttnkofr 1818–1901

John Scott Haldane 1860–1936

In 1992, this Bavarian hygienist drank the diarrhoea of a cholera-stricken man in an attempt to demonstrate that the microbes became harmful only after incubating in the ground. He discovered that he was wrong.

This Scottish physiologist repeatedly used himself as a guinea pig, testing the effects of breathing various mixes of air and gases. His son Jack was also often involved.

Pierre Curie 1859–1906

William J Harrington 1923–92

To observe the effects of radium on skin, the French scientist strapped a piece to his arm; the resulting burn prompted the idea that radioactive material could be used to treat diseased tissue such as tumours.

The American researcher in autoimmune disorders transfused blood from a patient with idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura into himself, showing that the condition causes the body to destroy blood platelets.

Horac Wlls 1815–48  An American dentist in Connecticut, Wells pioneered the use of nitrous oxide (laughing gas) in dentistry by having one of his own teeth extracted while under anaesthesia.

John Paul Stapp 1910–99

Nicola Minovici 1868–1941 To better understand the experience and effects of hanging, this Romanian forensic scientist hanged himself on several occasions – with assistants on hand to release him.

Barry Marshall 1951–prsnt The Australian doctor drank a culture of the microbe Helicobacter pylori  to prove that the bacterium, not stress or spicy food, is responsible for causing stomach ulcers.

Wrnr Forssmann 1904–79

Lazzaro Spallanzani 1729–99

The procedure for cardiac catheterisation was developed by this German doctor in 1929, when he threaded a thin rubber tube through a vein in his left arm and into his heart.

This Italian priest swallowed various items, including bones contained in small cloth bags or perforated wooden tubes, to test how stomach secretions help digest food.

Thrinaxoon discovr: nam 1894 Whr: South Africa Liv: early Triassic (250–245 million yars ago)

Tiktaalik  discovr: 2004 Whr: ellsmr Islan, Canaa Liv: Lat dvonian (aroun 375 million yars ago)

This low-slung, burrowing carnivore had dog-like teeth and may have sported fur. It’s considered to have been a precursor of modern mammals.

Many features of this lobe-finned fish are similar to those of four-legged animals – this creature and its relatives may have been the ancestors of most modern terrestrial animals.

diploocus Discovered: 1877 Whr: Colorao, USA Liv: Lat Jurassic (155–145 million yars ago)

Ambulocetus Discovered: 1993 Whr: Pakistan Liv: early eocn (50–48 million yars ago)

Amphistium Discovered: 18th century Whr: Northrn Italy Liv: 50 million yars ago

This monstrous herbivore, stretching to 33m in length, was the first near-complete fossil of a giant sauropod to be discovered.

In form a little like a mammalian crocodile,  Ambulocetus  was adapted for both aquatic and terrestrial life – it could swim as well as walk – and was probably a forerunner of modern whales.

The American researcher made a huge contribution to air-crash safety by testing the effects of rapid deceleration on the human body, strapping himself to a rocket sled braking rapidly from up to 1,000km/h.

Archaoptryx Discovered: around 1861 Whr: Solnhofn, Germany Lived: Late Jurassic (aroun 150 million yars ago) The ‘first bird’ was a transitional species linking feathered dinosaurs with modern birds – and its status in this transition is still steeped in controversy.

This transitional genus of flatfish had one eye on top of its head. As researcher Matt Friedman realised in 2008, it was probably the ancestor of modern fish such as flounder, halibut and sole, which have both eyes on one side of the head.

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10 BReAKTHROUGHS IN GeOLOGY dp tim Who: Aristotl Whn: 4th cntury BC

Continental drift Who: Abraham Ortlius Whn: 1596

The Greek philosopher recognised that the Earth changes at an indiscernably slow rate, writing: “the distribution of land and sea in particular regions does not endure throughout all time” – a concept dubbed ‘deep time’.

Though Alfred Wegener is credited with the idea of continental drift – land splitting from an ancient single mass, a hypothesis he presented in 1912 – over three centuries earlier the Flemish geographer Ortelius had suggested that the  Americas had once been connected to Europe and Asia.

Stratication of th earth’s crust Who: Abraham Wrnr Whn: 1774  As the creationist views of early geologists softened, German geologist Werner proposed a system of classification of rocks and divided them into five chronological formations.

Th earth’s cor Who: Richar dixon Olham Whn: 1906 Oldham analysed the speed at which earthquake waves travel through the Earth, and noticed that the speed drops markedly towards the centre – thence deducing the existence of a core of a different density.

The edge of the Earth’s core sits at about 2,900km beneath the surface.

Gomorphology Who: Shn Kuo Whn: 11th cntury Ad Chinese scientist Shen Kuo (AD 1031–95) made observations of marine fossil shells in mountains far from the ocean, and proposed that the rocks were once on a seashore. He theorised that land formed from uplift and silt deposits, and is gradually eroded.

10 CRUCIAL PHYSICS THEORIES

To disprove Aristotle’s theory of gravity, Galileo dropped two balls of different weights from the top of Italy’s Leaning Tower of Pisa.

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Falling objcts of different sizes accelerate at the same rate Who: Galilo Galilei Whn: 1589

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evrything is compos of atoms Who: Lucippus and Democritus Whn: 5th century BC

Atoms are compos of smaller particls Who: Joseph John Thomson When: 1897

 Atomism proposes that everything is composed of an infinite variety of indestructible, immutable ‘atoms’ that collide or link up to form clusters.

By demonstrating that cathode rays are composed of negatively charged particles, Thomson effectively found the electron – the first of the subatomic particles to be discovered.

Every event has a natural cause Who: Thals Whn: c 580BC Greek philosopher Thales attempted to explain natural phenomena without reference to mythology. He was among the first to try to identify a substance from which all things are composed (water, he thought).

Palomagntism Who: Stanly Kith Runcorn Whn: 1940s an 1950s

The strata of sandstone can be clearly seen at Antelope Canyon, Arizona

Gological strata Who: Ibn Sina (Avicnna) Whn: c Ad 1027 In his Book of Healing , the great Persian polymath Ibn Sina described the process by which layers of rocks of different hardness – geological strata – are overlaid and eroded at varying rates.

Fossils intifying strata Who: William Smith Whn: c 1799 Known as the ‘Father of English Geology’, Smith’s studies of the rock layers of England led him to propose the Theory of Faunal Succession, stating that fossils of the same age would be found in similar rock strata across the country.

Buoyant forc quals isplac ui wight Who: Archimedes Whn: c 250BC

Atoms of an element are identical in size and mass Who: John Dalton Whn: 1803

 Archimedes’ principle states that: “Any object, wholly or partially immersed in a fluid, is buoyed up by a force equal to the weight of the fluid displaced by the object.”

Our modern concept of atoms is based on a lecture in which Dalton proposed that matter is made of indestructible atoms, and that all atoms of the same element are identical.

The British geophysicist Runcorn established the study of residual magnetisation in ancient rocks. His work demonstrated reversals of Earth’s magnetic field, and provided evidence for continental drift.

Accurat ag of th earth Who: Clair Camron Pattrson Whn: 1953 The American geochemist used lead isotopic data from the Canyon Diablo meteorite to calculate the Earth’s age to within 70 million years. His figure, 4.55 billion years, has remained essentially unchallenged since.

DID YOU KNOW? At Silfra in Iclan (pictur right) you can snorkl btwn th europan and North American continntal plats

enrgy can’t b created or destroyed Who: Julius von Mayr Whn: 1842 German scientist Julius von Mayer established the law of the conservation of energy within a closed system (though it can be converted between different types – for example, between heat and kinetic).

Objects move at a constant velocity unless acted on by xtrnal forc Who: Isaac Newton Whn: 1687 Newton’s three laws of motion, including this first law, form the foundation of classical mechanics as we now understand it.

Plate tectonics Who: John Tuzo Wilson Whn: 1965 The concepts involved in explaining Wegener’s theory of continental drift had been developed and refined with the discovery of mid-ocean ridge spreading and the study of paleomagnetism, but Tuzo Wilson added the final elements to complete the picture of massive moving plates.

Mass has an associated nrgy Who: Albrt Einstein Whn: 1905  Arising from his theory of special relativity, Einstein’s most famous equation (e=mc2: energy equals mass times speed of light squared) shows that the mass of an object is a measure of its energy.

Hadrons are compos of quarks Who: Murray Gll-Mann an Gorg Zwig Whn: 1964 Hadrons (subatomic particles including neutrons and protons that comprise atoms) are themselves composed of smaller particles called quarks.

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THe 10 MOST eXPeNSIVe eXPeRIMeNTS

$150 $20.6 billion

billion

01

02

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$6.65

03

04 International Linear Collider

billion

International

International

James

Spac Station (£92 billion)

Thrmo-

Weighing nearly 420 tonnes and floating 370km above the Earth, the ISS has been continuously occupied by astronauts from various countries since the first crew docked on 2 November 2000.

exprimntal

Wbb Spac Tlscop (£4.9 billion)

$3.26 billion

nuclear Reactor

(£12.3 billion) In 2010 construction began in France on what will become the world’s largest tokamak fusion device – a magnetically confined core in which fuel will be heated to temperatures greater than 150,000,000°C.

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(£4.1 billion)  A planned particle accelerator even bigger than the Large Hadron Collider, the ILC will use a straight path rather than a circular one to measure particle collisions more accurately. Sites in Europe, the USA and Japan are currently being considered, with construction due to begin by 2016.

Scheduled to launch in 2018, this telescope – a NASA project with input from the European and Canadian Space  Agencies – will investigate how galaxies form by peering out to the farthest reaches of space.

$3.1 billion

$2.7

$2.5

08

09

Human Genome Project

Curiosity Rover

(£1.65 billion)

This car-sized robotic rover was designed to investigate whether life could ever have existed on Mars. Its original two-year mission was extended indefinitely at the end of 2012, and it continues to explore the Gale crater.

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billion

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Envisat

CassiniHuygns Spaccraft (£2 billion) Launched in 1997, the Cassini orbiter entered Saturn’s orbit in 2004, at which point the Huygens lander probe separated to investigate the ringed planet’s largest moon, Titan.

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(£1.9 billion) Launched aboard an  Ariane 5 rocket from the European Space  Agency’s facility in French Guiana in 2002, Envisat spent 10 years in orbit monitoring signs of environmental impact and climate change on Earth’s atmosphere, oceans, land and ice. Ground control lost contact with the satellite in 2012.

Work to map the entire human genome began in 1990; it had a budget of $3 billion and was expected to take 15 years – but was completed two years early and under budget.

(£1.5 billion)

It’s hoped the International Linear Collider will help explore the ‘Terascale’

THE 10 BIGGEST BANGS ON EARTH

$6.4 billion

Seattle Kingome demolition When: 26 March 2000

05 Large Haron Collider (£3.84 billion) The 20 member states of CERN (Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire – the European Council for Nuclear Research) picked up most of the cost of the 27kmcircumference tunnel and equipment, with significant contributions coming from an additional six observer nations.

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Chicxulub Impact When: 65 million years ago

Holding up to 66,000 sports fans in its 19.821 million m3 capacity, this stadium became the largest building to be demolished by explosives when it was destroyed in 2000.

The Chicxulub crater in Mexico, a staggering 180km wide, was created when a 10km-wide meteorite crashed into Earth. The impact is believed to have been a major contributing factor in the extinction of the dinosaurs.

Heligolan explosion When: 18 April 1947

Mt Toba When: 75,000 years ago

The Royal Navy tried – and failed – to blow up a whole North Sea island and the huge German naval base it carried by detonating around 4,000 tonnes of explosives, one of the world’s biggestever single detonations. Despite that, the island remained intact.

When the super volcano Mt Toba erupted, it launched at least 2,800km3 of magma and ash into the atmosphere, causing a six-year volcanic winter and possibly kick-starting an ice age. The resulting crater holds the world’s largest volcanic lake.

Mont Blanc 

When: 6 december 1917

MOAB When: 11 March 2003

This French ship was carrying over 2,400 tonnes of explosives when it collided with another vessel off the coast of Nova Scotia, Canada. The Mont Blanc was approaching Halifax when the resulting fire caused a massive explosion, levelling 2.5km2 of the town and shattering windows 100km away.

The USA claims that its Massive Ordnance Air Burst (MOAB) device, containing 9 tonnes of explosive material, is the biggest non-nuclear bomb in the world. The first test detonation occurred in 2003; it is yet to be used in combat, but could destroy tanks and buildings within a radius of several hundred metres.

Neelin Catastrophe When: 24 October 1960

AN602 ‘Tsar Bomba’ When: 30 October 1961

 A Russian R-16 intercontinental ballistic missile was being tested when it burst into flames on its launchpad at the Baikonur test range – igniting its tanks that were filled with a toxic fuel mixture called Devil’s Venom, and creating a fireball that killed dozens of people.

This Russian 58-megatonne nuclear weapon , the most powerful ever detonated, was tested over the Arctic. It exploded with more than 4,800 times the energy of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima; the shockwaves travelled around the world three times.

Buncefel Complex When: 11 december 2005

Universe I, Part II When: 15 July 1988

The explosion caused when the first of 20 tanks in Britain’s fifth-largest oil storage depot blew up was heard 200km away. The British Geological Survey measured the event at 2.4 on the Richter Scale.

The world’s largest firecracker burst over Hokkaido, Japan during the 1 988 Lake Toya Firework Festival. The 700kg shell was moved into position on a floating platform before being ignited, creating a five-colour pyrotechnic display 1.2km across.

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10 Superconucting Super Collider (£1.2 billion) Construction on a particle accelerator with an 87kmcircumference ring in Texas was halted in 1983 – but not until after nearly half of the $4.4bn budget had been spent.

IN FOCUS  The Indian Space Research Organisation

ISRO

“We are really not racing with anyone, but with ourselves to reach the next level of excellence.” K Radhakrishnan, ISRO Chairman

LEGACY

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In 1962, a concentrated joint effort by India’s then leading scientists Dr Vikram Sarabhai and Dr Homi Bhabha with the Government of India led to the creation of the Indian National Committee for Space Research (INCOSPAR) with a goal of furthering space research in India. The committee set up the Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station (TER LS) in Kerala in 1963 as a station to launch sounding rockets and launched its first rocket in November of the same year. TERLS then developed infrastructure for rockets and indigenously developed the successful Rohini Sounding Rocket (RSR) programme in 1967. The combined success of these programmes and projects led to the formation of The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), India’s primary space agency on 15th August 1969. Since its foundation 45 years ago, ISRO has set landmarks in the field of space exploration. In 2008-09, the Indian Space and Research Organisation successfully launched a lunar orbiter, Chandrayaan-1, which discovered evidence of water on the moon. India’s first interplanetary mission, the Mars Orbiter Mission successfully entered planet Mars’ atmosphere on 24 September 2014 on its maiden attempt. The mission was executed in 15 months at a c ost of Rs 450 crore ($74 million) and will gather images, atmosphere analysis of the planet. Since 30 July 2014, ISRO has had 8 successful missions.

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ISRO’s lunar probe Chandrayaan 1 is credited with the discovery of water molecules on the surface on the moon.

This is an image taken by the Mars Color Camera. The dark region towards south of the cloud formation is Elysium - the second largest volcanic province on Mars.

dId YOU KNOW •

•

•

Chandrayaan 2 is to be launched in early 2017. It is India’s second lunar explorer and includes a lunar orbiter, a lander and a lunar rover.  Astrosat will be launched in early 2015 and is a dedicated astronomy satellite, which will further the field of astronomy research in India. Described as a multi wave laboratory in space it is equipped with ultra-violet, visible and x-ray instruments. ISRO at present is preparing for its launch of a crew module, which will be launched by the GSLV Mk-III in December 2014. This is in preparation for India’s future manned space mission by 2016-17.