Brain dump issue 34 2016

YOUR REGULAR DOSE OF INCREDIBLE FACTS BROUGHT TO YOU BY BROUGHT TO YOU BY welcome Getyourcurious questionsanswered Congratulations! Another SCIENCE issue of Brain Dump has been delivered direct to your tablet or smartphone As usual, it’s packed with facts, stats and info encompassing a fascinating range of topics from the worlds of science, Why cats love catnip space, nature, transport and the human body Give your HISTORY brain a workout and swipe left to get started Learn about Benjamin Franklin ENVIRONMENT Inside Yellowstone Park SPACE How planet names are chosen TRANSPORT Anatomy of the Tiger tank TECHNOLOGY The QWERTY keyboard explained Followuson @BraindumpMag www.f/BraindumpMag @BraindumpMag acebook.com/braindumpmag Design: Laura Barnes photography; Getty; Thinkstock; NASA that s AMAZING These attentiongrabbing stars are the stellar celebrities of the Milky Way The stars were snapped by the Hubble Space Telescope and belong to the glittering star cluster Trumpler 14 Located about 8,000 light years away from Earth in the Carina Nebula that s AMAZING A stunning view of the Villarrica volcano taken from Pucon, some 800 km south of Santiago, showing visible signs of activity on April 21, 2015 Villarrica is one of Chile’s most active volcanoes, rising above the lake and town of the same name, 750 km south of Santiago that s AMAZING Like a cosmic bull’s-eye, Enceladus and Tethys line up almost perfectly for Cassini’s cameras These two moons of Saturn were captured in perfect alignment by the Cassini Probe in December 2015 HOW DO BIRDS STAY PERCH WHEN THEY ON THEIR SLEEP? Passerines have three toes facing forward and one facing back The flexor tendon that pulls these toes into a claw runs up the back of the leg over the ankle joint When the bird squats down to perch, the flexor tendon is pulled tight by the pulley action of the tendon over the tarsus bone The weight of the bird forces its claws shut around a twig or telephone wire, without any muscular effort WHAT WOULD HAPPEN IF THE ISS WAS EVACUATED? The Russian Soyuz rocket launches astronauts to the ISS aboard a Soyuz capsule In case of emergency, astronauts on the International Space Station can take refuge or return to Earth on board the Soyuz escape capsules One or two Soyuz spacecraft remain docked with the station at all times, with each accommodating up to three people Since the ISS’ launch in 1998, its crew have never had to make an emergency return to Earth In January 2015, a suspected ammonia leak forced American astronauts to shelter temporarily in the Russian section of the ISS Close encounters with space debris have also forced crew to move to Soyuz as a precautionary measure three times, but no collisions occurred HOW ARE THE STRIPES IN STRIPY TOOTHPASTE MADE? Perhaps surprisingly, there are not separate compartments inside a tube of striped toothpaste To get them in the tube in the first place, the different coloured pastes are merged into a divided nozzle, which keeps the colours separate while dispensing them evenly into the tube from the bottom via a funnelling machine If you were to cut open a tube of stripy toothpaste, you’d see that the stripes are thicker inside It’s only when you squeeze the tube that they become thinner as they flow out the nozzle The reason they flow at the same speed and consistency is down to the scientific study of the flow of matter In scientific terms, the stripes all have the same rheology This means that they keep the same thickness and flow in the same way under different pressures, so they keep their positions and remain as stripes in the paste 55 NEPTUNE COOL THINGS Neptune’s eyecatching deep blue colouring is caused by the methane gas in its atmosphere, absorbing red light and reflecting blue Upper atmosphere, (cloud tops) Atmosphere (hydrogen, helium, methane gas) Mantle (water, ammonia, methane ices) Due to the fast nature of Neptune’s spin around its axis, its equatorial diameter is 846 kilometres larger than its polar diameter Around its equatorial region Neptune is privy to winds in excess of 2,150 kilometres per hour as well as extremely violent storms Core (rock, ice) Neptune’s one major moon is actually named, funnily enough, after his Greek counterpart Poseidon’s son, Triton Neptune undergoes seasons just like here on Earth However, they last 40 years each instead of just the three months we’re used to Sizes… Neptune’s diameter is nearly four times that of Earth, with a mass that is the equivalent of 17 Earths 12,756.3km 49,532km WHY AREN’T KEYBOARDS ALPHABETICAL ? It’s because it’s less efficient An alphabetical keyboard would put A and E on the left and middle of the top row, and T on the left of the bottom row These are the most uncomfortable places for touch typists to reach, for some of the most common letters in English The alphabet is a random sequence of letters and there’s no reason to suppose it has an advantage for keyboards There are patterns that are theoretically more efficient than QWERTY These layouts never took off, but alphabetic order is demonstrably worse than QWERTY WHY DOES WATER EXPAND WHEN FROZEN? The molecules of most elements are more compact in their solid form than they are in their liquid state, but water is different As you may know, each water molecule is made up of one oxygen atom with two hydrogen atoms attached The hydrogen atoms in water have a positive charge and cause the water molecules to be attracted to one another This attraction forces water to form a net of crystals with lots of gaps in it as it freezes The crystal net structure takes up more space than liquid water and so water expands as it turns to ice HOW ARE THE NAMES OF PLANETS CHOSEN? Planetary names in our Solar System are derived from mythology – except for Earth, which comes from Middle English Since five of the planets can be seen by the naked eye, they have been called many things depending on the culture over the centuries before their current names became standard Uranus (previously thought to have been a star) is the only planet whose name comes from Greek rather than Roman my thology N e p t u n e ’ s discoverers argued over who could name it, while former planet Pluto’s name was suggested by an 11 year old in the UK There were no planetary naming rules until 1919, when the International Astronomical Union (IAU) formed The IAU is currently in charge of naming all celestial objects WHY DO LIPS GET CHAPPED? When lips lose moisture, the skin covering them can become tight and crack or become flaky, sometimes resulting in sore and even bleeding lips Unlike other parts of our body, our lips not contain oil glands, which means they are more likely to become dry Other factors then exacerbate the situation So, a lack of moisture makes matters worse, whether this is weather induced or a failure to moisturise lips manually, and frequently licking lips actually removes moisture too Extreme weather conditions, like cold or dry air, wind and Sun exposure, strip moisture, and also lead to chapped lips WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN FROGS AND TOADS? Frogs and toads share many features, so they are often confused They both belong to the Anura order of the class Amphibia, but they usually have features that help to separate them Frogs have long legs to enable them to jump and mucuscovered skins Toads are fatter, have dry skin, and have shorter legs Frogs tend to stay close to water while toads are more often found inland While this category is huge, we tend to think of ‘true frogs’ as members of the Ranidae family, and ‘true toads’ as members of the Bufonidae family, each of which contains hundreds of different species K R A P E N O YELLOWST -metre high Wild beasts, 30 ervolcano up geysers and a s y the USA ro that could dest SWIPE FOR MORE Jackson Lake “During the 1988 ‘summer of fire’ 36 per cent of the park was affected by wildfires” Heart Lake Grand Teton e Yellowstone Grand Canyon of th Yellowstone Lake 10 Lewis Lake Shoshone Lake ‘Old Faithful’ Geyser Grand Prismatic Spring 10 Mammoth Hot S prings WHY DO PEOPLE LIKE DIFFERENT FOODS? The tip and sides of the tongue have lots of fungiform papillae, responsible for sensing the five different tastes: sweet, sour, bitter, salty and umami Different people have different numbers of these bumps, allowing them to be broadly separated into three groups: non-tasters, medium tasters and supertasters Supertasters can have as many as ten times more fungiform papillae than non-tasters, and as a result of this, are much more sensitive to flavour They report that sweet foods taste sweeter and fatty foods taste creamier, and they often dislike the taste of bitter foods, such as broccoli, cabbage and brussel sprouts FLY? FLYING FISH HOW DO Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it’s actually a fish Strictly speaking though, flying fish not really fly They use their fins to help them glide through the air, but they not flap them like wings The fish developed this technique to help them escape predators in the water, but they cannot remain airborne for very long, because they need to return to the water to breathe Tail technique Gliding The fish begins rapidly beating its tail, which is still underwater, to gain thrust By spreading its fins, the fish can glide through the air for up to 200 metres (655 feet) at a time Lift off Staying airborne When it falls back towards the surface, it can beat its tail in the water to begin another glide Long distance flight Flying fish can glide for up to 45 seconds at a time Streamlined body When swimming, the fish folds its fins against its body to make it more streamlined and gain speed By completing successive glides, the fish can travel up to 400 metres (1,312 feet) through the air By angling its body upwards, the fish breaks through the surface of the water to heights of up to six metres (20 feet) Speedy swimming The fish begins by swimming really fast underwater They can reach speeds of over 60 kilometres (37 miles) per hour HOW WAS STONEHENGE BUILT? An enigma of prehistoric civil engineering and a dramatic silhouette on the landscape of Salisbury Plain, the megalithic monuments at Stonehenge are a constant reminder of the incredible resourcefulness of ancient civilisations Construction of Stonehenge was divided into three stages The first, between 3000 and 2500 BC, involved the creation of an ordinary henge monument (a circular enclosure bounded by banks and a ditch) that was used for ceremonies and burials The second stage saw the arrival of Welsh bluestones from the Preseli mountains In around 2150 BC, people began transporting these four-ton stones to Wiltshire using a combination of rollers and sledges on land, and rafts across the sea and rivers At the end of the 386-kilometer journey the stones were arranged as a double circle in the centre of the Stonehenge site These bluestones provided a sacred focus, which Stonehenge experts professors Timothy Darvill and Geoff Wainwright suggest was due to the stones’ perceived magic healing powers Once the stones were set up, the site attracted more interest with visitors and pilgrims from all over northern Europe In around 2000 BC, the third phase of construction began when Sarsen stones were transported from a site 25 miles from the monument These immense stones – the heaviest of which weighed 50 tons – were positioned upright in an outer circle with horizontal lintels running between each vertical WHY HAS FLOODING BECOME SUCH A PROBLEM? Unfortunately, flooding is simply a part of nature One in six properties are at risk of flooding in England and Wales Changes in our climate, such as more severe storms and wetter winters, will increase the risk of flooding in the future There are a variety of ways to tackle flooding and these are just a few of them Changes in land use, such as building houses or putting down concrete, can increase the risk of flooding Because of this, we advise against developments that will have an adverse affect on flooding When building flood defences we look for ways to work with nature rather than against it Creating mudflats and salt marshes to store flood water can prevent flooding elsewhere, and can also provide environmental benefits such as new habitats Individuals and communities also have a role to play in protecting themselves and their properties from flood risk WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN AND Heat (measured in joules) is the amount of thermal energy (molecular m o v e m e n t ) something has and it can vary depending on the mass of the object; if the object has a large mass, its thermal energy will also be large as it has a lot of molecules, while a smaller object will have less thermal energy as it has fewer molecules But temperature is a measure of the relative thermal energy of something; it’s the degree of hotness or coldness, measuring the average kinetic energy in the molecules of an object Temperature is not dependent on the mass of an object, so objects of different sizes could have the same temperature, but different heats So, a mug of tea may have the same temperature as a bath of hot water, but as the bath has more water, it takes more energy to get its molecules to that temperature, and therefore it has more heat HEAT TEMPERATURE? HIS LIFE’S WORK 1706 Born in Boston on 17 January to Josiah and Abiah Franklin 1718 Aged 12, begins an apprenticeship at his brother’s printing business 1723 After publishing work under a false name, runs away to Philadelphia 1728 Establishes printing company and purchases The Pennsylvania Gazette the following year 1732 Publishes the first edition of the Poor Richard’s Almanack, which becomes very popular 1741 The efficient Franklin stove is invented but fails to take off as a product 1752 Through his kite experiment, he proves lightning is an electrical phenomenon BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 1776 Signs the Declaration of Independence, signalling the United States’ independence from the British Empire 1783 Treaty of Paris is signed American Revolutionary War ends 1790 Franklin dies on 17 April aged 84 SWIPE FOR MORE THE BIG IDEA Before Franklin began his experiments in science, the popular belief was that electricity consisted of two opposing forces Franklin proved that in fact it was a single element, imagining it to be like an invisible fluid If a body had an excess of this fluid, it was positively charged If it had a deficiency, it was negatively charged He theorised that the body with more fluid flowed to the body with less fluid, or rather that electric charges flowed from positive to negative However, it has since been discovered that electricity is actually the flow of electrons, which means it flows from negative to positive At 12 years old, Benjamin Franklin began an apprenticeship at his brother James’ printing shop James refused to print his articles, so Benjamin wrote under a female pseudonym James was outraged when he discovered this Benjamin abandoned his apprenticeship and moved to Philadelphia He set up his own printing business and purchased The Pennsylvania Gazette In the 1730s, Franklin bought properties and businesses, organised a volunteer fire department, established a lending library and was elected grand master of the Pennsylvania Masons, clerk of the state assembly and postmaster of Philadelphia In the 1740s, he invented the Franklin stove, and dreamed up bifocal glasses and swimming fins In the 1950s, Franklin conducted the kite-and-key experiment, proving that lightning was made up of static electricity He developed the single fluid theory, which proposed that electricity was a ‘common element’ rather than two opposing forces In 1757, Franklin travelled to England to represent Pennsylvania in its fight with the descendants of the Penn family over who should represent the colony On his return almost 20 years later, he fought for American sovereignty, and contributed towards drafting the Declaration of Independence in 1776 He went to France as a diplomat for the US, and it was largely because of him that the government of France signed a Treaty of Alliance with the USA in 1778 When Franklin died in 1790, he was dubbed ‘the harmonious human multitude.’ Left: Franklin’s blueprint for the Franklin stove Below: Franklin invented bifocal glasses in the 1740s The Tiger’s gun could fire a variety of ammunition, ranging from highly explosive anti-tank rounds, to incendiary shrapnel Weaker and thinner than the armour at the front of the tank, the walls of the side hull were six centimetres thick or less SIDE/REAR HULL ARMOUR Responsible for the tank’s welfare, positioning and activity, Tiger Commanders were experienced and respected officers COMMANDER AMMUNITION In order to shift the tank’s huge weight (56.9 tons), a Maybach HL230 P45 V-12 petrol engine was installed at the rear of the Tiger ENGINE Controlling the speed and direction of the tank, the driver sat to the side of the Tiger’s gearbox 10 DRIVER The armour of the front hull was nearly ten centimetres thick, providing maximum protection from frontal assaults FRONTAL HULL ARMOUR As with the front hull, the turret’s front armour was very thick, measuring in at nearly 12 centimetres FRONTAL TURRET ARMOUR Bringing the pain to allied forces, the large Krupp-made 8.8cm gun had a very flat trajectory and was famed for its accuracy and range KRUPP 8.8CM KWK 36 L/56 GUN Crucial for communication and co-ordinating the attacks, the Tiger’s radio operator was pivotal to its successful operation RADIO OPERATOR Operating the Tiger’s monster gun, the gunner sat next to the tank’s Commander GUNNER THE TIGER TANK F O Y M O T A THE GERMAN HEAVY TANK OF CHOICE DURING WORLD WAR II AN KNOTS DISCOVERED MARIANA TRENCH 1875 TONS 11.8STATISTI COOL WEIGHT OF THE DEEPSEA CHALLENGER DEEPSEA CHALLENGER DESCENT SPEED N TIO ORA XPL EA E P-S DEE / MARIANA TRENCH AGE 170M YEARS 11 KM 1960 DEEPEST POINT OF THE MARIANA TRENCH MARIANA TRENCH FIRST EXPLORED