Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
Gp t vng mi, hy
ng ngi ngng m hc lun. Cc topic nn :
- Brain
- Space (the universal)
- Health
- Under sea
Contents
Topic 1. Improve your memory in 40 seconds.............................................................................................4
Topic 2. Is another human living inside you?...............................................................................................5
Topic 3. The best (and worst) ways to spot a liar.........................................................................................8
Topic 4. How to learn 30 languages...........................................................................................................11
Topic 5. The mystery of the female orgasm...............................................................................................15
Topic 6. The suprising downsides of being clever......................................................................................20
Topic 7. Why do babies laugh out loud.....................................................................................................23
Topic 8. Why do we intiutively believe we have free will?.........................................................................24
Topic 9. I can predict the weather with my nose.......................................................................................27
The noise were creating in the sea can be deadly....................................................................................29
The geniuses who invented prothetic limbs..............................................................................................31
Topic. 12. If alien life exists on exoplanets, how would we know?............................................................33
Topic 13. To find aliens, we need to build a giant space parasol................................................................34
Topic 14. What is it like to have never felt an emotion?............................................................................37
Topic 15. The submarines that revealed a mysterious world.....................................................................41
Topic 16. The air that makes you fat..........................................................................................................43
Topic 17. The future of medicine is testing our body fluids at home.........................................................46
Topic 20. The secret codes youre not meant to know...............................................................................48
Topic 21. Are any foods safe to eat anymore? Heres the truth.................................................................50
Topic 22. Is beer better (or worse) for you than wine?..............................................................................54
Topic 23. Does mixing alcoholic drinks cause hangover?...........................................................................56
Topic 24. Does coffee really sober you up when drunk..............................................................................57
Topic 25. How to live forever.....................................................................................................................59
Topic 26. The real reason germs spread in the winter...............................................................................62
Topic 27. Why do we laugh inappropriately?.............................................................................................64
Topic 28. One of sciences most baffling question? Why we yawn............................................................68
Topic 29. How muc would you pay to live for an extra year?.....................................................................71
Topic 30. The nasa team keeping tabs on intergalatic death rays..............................................................73
Topic 31. The private investigator who spies using drones........................................................................75
Topic 32. Why do women live longer than men?.......................................................................................77
Topic 33. Why the US hides 700 million barrels of oil underground..........................................................79
Topic 34. How do you dismantle a nuclear submarine?.............................................................................83
Topic 35. The secret of the desert aircraft boneyards............................................................................86
Topic 36. The dystopian lake filled by the worlds tech lust.......................................................................89
Topic 37. Have you ever felt Solastalgia?................................................................................................93
Topic 38. Wernher von Brauns Bold plan for space exploration................................................................94
Does it pay to be kind to strangers............................................................................................................97
MI NGY C MT BI C
TRN BBC FUTURE.
TRA V HC THUC BNG HT CC
T VNG GP PHI. IN CUN NY
RA M C
4. Mi ngy phn u hc c bng ht 2 topics trong ny:
https://www.facebook.com/hocvietielts/photos/a.557032450993351.147609.555
325877830675/1196026860427237/?type=3&theater
15 BI NGN/18 BI DI
And the kids soon learn that all projects go awry (Laughter) and become at
ease with the idea that every step in a project is a step closer to sweet
success, or gleeful calamity. We start from doodles and sketches. And
sometimes we make real plans.And sometimes we just start building. Building is
at the heart of the experience: hands on, deeply immersed and fully committed
to the problem at hand. Robin and I, acting as collaborators, keep the landscape
of the projects tilted towards completion. Success is in the doing, and failures
are celebrated and analyzed. Problems become puzzles and obstacles disappear.
- Brain
- Space (the universal)
- Health
- Under sea
SPACE
Topic. 12. If alien life exists on exoplanets, how would we know? 31
Topic 13. To find aliens, we need to build a giant space parasol 32
Topic 30. The nasa team keeping tabs on intergalatic death rays 71
Topic 38. Wernher von Braun's Bold plan for space exploration 92
HEALTH
Topic 16. The air that makes you fat 40
Topic 17. The future of medicine is testing our body fluids at home 43
Topic 21. Are any foods safe to eat anymore? Here's the truth 48
Topic 23. Does mixing alcoholic drinks cause hangover? 54
Topic 24. Does coffee really sober you up when drunk 55
Topic 25. How to live forever 57
Topic 26. The real reason germs spread in the winter 60
UNDER SEA
Topic 15. The submarines that revealed a mysterious world
Topic 36. The dystopian lake filled by the worlds tech lust
However it happens, its perfectly plausible that tissue from another human could cause the
brain to develop in unexpected ways, says Lee Nelson from the University of Washington.
Shes currently examining whether cells from the mother herself may be implanted in the
baby brain. A difference in the amount, cell type, or the time during development at which
the cells were acquired could all result in abnormalities, she says.
Nelson has found that even as an adult, you are not immune from human invaders. A couple
of years ago, Nelson and William Chan at the University of Alberta in Edmonton took slices
of womens brain tissue and screened their genome for signs of the Y-chromosome. Around
63% were harbouring male cells. Not only did we find male DNA in female human brains as
a general observation, we found it to be present in multiple brain regions, says Chan. In
other words, their brains were speckled with cells from a mans body. One logical conclusion
is that it came from a baby: somehow, her own sons stem cells had made it through the
placenta and lodged in her brain. Strangely, this seemed to decrease the chances that the
mother would subsequently develop Alzheimers though exactly why remains a mystery.
Some researchers are even beginning to wonder whether these cells might influence a
mothers mindset during pregnancy.
Our knowledge of the human superorganism is still in its infancy, so many of the
consequences are purely theoretical at the moment. Kramer and Bressan's aim with their
paper was not to give definitive answers, but to enlighten other psychologists and
psychiatrists about the many entities that make us who we are today. We cannot understand
human behaviour by considering only one or the other individual, Kramer says. Ultimately,
we must understand them all to understand how we behave.
For instance, scientists often compare sets of twins to understand the origins of behaviour,
but the fact that even non-identical twins may have swapped bits of brain tissue might have
muddied those results. We should be particularly careful when using these twin studies to
compare conditions such as schizophrenia that may arise from faulty brain organisation,
Bressan and Kramer say.
In general, however, we shouldnt feel hostile towards these invaders after all, they made
you who you are today. I think it is now clear that our natural immigrants are with us for the
long-term, for better or for worse, says Nelson. And I would think for better outweig hs for
worse.
High scores turned out to predict greater life satisfaction, relationship quality, and, crucially,
reduced anxiety and rumination all the qualities that seem to be absent in classically smart
people. Wiser reasoning even seemed to ensure a longer life those with the higher scores
were less likely to die over intervening years. Crucially, Grossmann found that IQ was not
related to any of these measures, and certainly didnt predict greater wisdom. People who
are very sharp may generate, very quickly, arguments [for] why their claims are the correct
ones but may do it in a very biased fashion.
Learnt wisdom
In the future, employers may well begin to start testing these abilities in place of IQ; Google
has already announced that it plans to screen candidates for qualities like intellectual
humility, rather than sheer cognitive prowess.
Fortunately, wisdom is probably not set in stone whatever your IQ score. Im a strong
believer that wisdom can be trained, says Grossmann. He points out that we often find it
easier to leave our biases behind when we consider other people, rather than ourselves.
Along these lines, he has found that simply talking through your problems in the third person
(he or she, rather than I) helps create the necessary emotional distance, reducing your
prejudices and leading to wiser arguments. Hopefully, more research will suggest many
similar tricks.
The challenge will be getting people to admit their own foibles. If youve been able to rest on
the laurels of your intelligence all your life, it could be very hard to accept that it has been
blinding your judgement. As Socrates had it: the wisest person really may be the one who
can admit he knows nothing.
Hes not the first to ask this question. Darwin studied laughter in his infant son, and Freud
formed a theory that our tendency to laugh originates in a sense of superiority. So we take
pleasure at seeing another's suffering - slapstick style pratfalls and accidents being good
examples - because it isnt us.
The great psychologist of human development, Jean Piaget, thought that babies laughter
could be used to see into their minds. If you laugh, you must 'get the joke' to some degree - a
good joke is balanced in between being completely unexpected and confusing and being
predictable and boring. Studying when babies laugh might therefore be a great way of
gaining insight into how they understand the world, he reasoned. But although he proposed
this in the 1940s, this idea remains to be properly tested. Despite the fact that some very
famous investigators have studied the topic, it has been neglected by modern psychology.
If you want to make a baby laugh, then tickling is the surefire method (Credit: Getty Images)
Addyman, of Birkbeck, University of London, is out to change that. He believes we can use
laughter to get at exactly how infants understand the world. He's completed the world's
largest and most comprehensive survey of what makes babies laugh, presenting his initial
results at the International Conference on Infant Studies, Berlin, last year. Via his website he
surveyed more than 1000 parents from around the world, asking them questions about when,
where and why their babies laugh.
The results are - like the research topic - heart-warming. A baby's first smile comes at about
six weeks, their first laugh at about three and a half months (although some took three times
as long to laugh, so don't worry if your baby hasnt cracked its first cackle just yet). Peekaboo
is a sure-fire favourite for making babies laugh (for a variety of reasons I've written about
here), but tickling is the single most reported reason that babies laugh.
Importantly, from the very first chuckle, the survey responses show that babies are laughing
with other people, and at what they do. The mere physical sensation of something being
ticklish isnt enough. Nor is it enough to see something disappear or appear suddenly. Its
only funny when an adult makes these things happen for the baby. This shows that way
before babies walk, or talk, they - and their laughter - are social. If you tickle a baby they
apparently laugh because you are tickling them, not just because they are being tickled.
What's more, babies don't tend to laugh at people falling over. They are far more likely to
laugh when they fall over, rather than someone else, or when other people are happy, rather
than when they are sad or unpleasantly surprised. From these results, Freud's theory (which,
in any case, was developed based on clinical interviews with adults, rather than any rigorous
formal study of actual children) - looks dead wrong.
Although parents report that boy babies laugh slightly more than girl babies, both genders
find mummy and daddy equally funny.
Babies find us funny - even if they're too young to understand why we're funny (Credit: Getty
Images)
Addyman continues to collect data, and hopes that as the results become clearer he'll be
able to use his analysis to show how laughter tracks babies' developing understanding of the
world - how surprise gives way to anticipation, for example, as their ability to remember
objects comes online.
Despite the scientific potential, baby laughter is, as a research topic, strangely neglected,
according to Addyman. Part of the reason is the difficulty of making babies laugh reliably in
the lab, although he plans to tackle this in the next phase of the project. But partly the topic
has been neglected, he says, because it isn't viewed as a subject for 'proper' science to look
into. This is a prejudice Addyman hopes to overturn - for him, the study of laughter is
certainly no joke.
Topic 8. Why do we intiutively believe we have free will?
Free will experiments may not explain whether we are in charge of our destinies but
they can nevertheless reveal just how little we know about our own minds, says Tom
Stafford.
By Tom Stafford
7 August 2015
It is perhaps the most famous experiment in neuroscience. In 1983, Benjamin Libet sparked
controversy with his demonstration that our sense of free will may be an illusion, a
controversy that has only increased ever since.
Libets experiment has three vital components: a choice, a measure of brain activity and a
clock.
The choice is to move either your left or right arm. In the original version of the experiment
this is by flicking your wrist; in some versions of the experiment it is to raise your left or right
finger. Libets participants were instructed to let the urge [to move] appear on its own at any
time without any pre-planning or concentration on when to act. The precise time at which
you move is recorded from the muscles of your arm.
ielts.vinh@gmail.com
26
The measure of brain activity is taken via electrodes on the scalp. When the electrodes are
placed over the motor cortex (roughly along the middle of the head), a different electrical
signal appears between right and left as you plan and execute a movement on either the left
or right.
You may think you are in charge of your actions, but is that just an illusion? (Credit: Getty
Images)
The clock is specially designed to allow participants to discern sub-second changes. This
clock has a single dot, which travels around the face of the clock every 2.56 seconds. This
means that by reporting position you are reporting time. If we assume you can report position
accurately to 5 degree angle, that means you can use this clock to report time to within 36
milliseconds thats 36 thousandths of a second.
Putting these ingredients together, Libet took one extra vital measurement. He asked
participants to report, using the clock, exactly the point when they made the decision to
move.
The brain activity showed that the decision had often already been made, before the
participants were aware of having taken action
Physiologists had known for decades that a fraction of a second before you actually move
the electrical signals in your brain change. So it was in Libets experiment, a fraction of a
second before participants moved, a reliable change could be recorded using the electrodes.
But the explosive result was when participants reported deciding to move. This occurred in
between the electric change in the brain and the actual movement. This means, as sure as
cause follows effect, that the feeling of deciding couldnt be a timely report of whatever was
causing the movement. The electrode recording showed that the decision had in some
sense already been made before the participants were aware of having taken action. The
brain signals were changing before the subjective experience of taking a decision occurred.
We struggle to describe our thoughts and feelings accurately, making it difficult to tell when
we have made a decision (Credit: iStock)
Had participants brains already made the decision? Was the feeling of choosing just an
illusion? Controversy has raged ever since. There is far more to the discussion about
neuroscience and free will than this one experiment, but its simplicity has allowed it to
capture the imagination of many who think our status as biological creatures limits our free
ielts.vinh@gmail.com
27
will, as well as those who argue that free will survives the challenge of our minds being firmly
grounded in our biological brains.
Part of the appeal of the Libet experiment is due to two pervasive intuitions we have about
the mind. Without these intuitions the experiment doesnt seem so surprising.
The first intuition is the feeling that our minds are a separate thing from our physical selves
a natural dualism that pushes us to believe that the mind is a pure, abstract place, free from
biological constraints. A moments thought about the last time you were grumpy because you
were hungry shatters this illusion, but Id argue that it is still a persistent theme in our
thinking. Why else would we be the least surprised that it is possible to find neural correlates
of mental events? If we really believed, in our heart of hearts, that the mind is based in the
brain, then we would know that every mental change must have a corresponding change in
the brain.
The second pervasive intuition, which makes us surprised by the Libet experiment, is the
belief that we know our own minds. This is the belief that our subjective experience of
making decisions is an accurate report of how that decision is made. The mind is like a
machine as long as it runs right, we are happily ignorant of how it works. It is only when
mistakes or contradictions arise that were drawn to look under the hood: Why didnt I notice
that exit? How could I forget that persons name? Why does the feeling of deciding come
after the brain changes associated with decision making?
Theres no reason to think that we are reliable reporters of every aspect of our minds
contents
Theres no reason to think that we are reliable reporters of every aspect of our minds.
Psychology, in fact, gives us lots of examples of where we often get things wrong. The
feeling of deciding in the Libet experiment may be a complete illusion maybe the real
decision really is made by our brains somehow or maybe it is just that the feeling of
deciding is delayed from our actual deciding. Just because we erroneously report the timing
of the decision, doesnt mean we werent intimately involved in it, in whatever meaningful
sense that can be.
More is written about the Libet experiment every year. It has spawned an academic industry
investigating the neuroscience of free will. There are many criticisms and rebuttals, with
debate raging about how and if the experiment is relevant to the freedom of our everyday
choices. Even supporters of Libet have to admit that the situation used in the experiment
may be too artificial to be a direct model of real everyday choices. But the basic experiment
continues to inspire discussion and provoke new thoughts about the way our freedom is
rooted in our brains. And that, Id argue, is due to the way it helps us confront our intuitions
about the way the mind works, and to see that things are more complex than we instinctively
imagine.
Livesey (not his real name), now a 72-year-old software engineer, blamed the weird smell on the musty
hotel room. But the phantom smells returned when he was back home, increasing throughout the day
and persisting for hours.
Livesey went to see Alan Hirsch at the Smell and Taste Treatment and Research Foundation in Chicago,
who specialises in smell disorders. Hirsch tested his general olfaction by getting him to smell different
odours at a range of intensities. He discovered that Livesys ability to sense ordinary smells had been
impaired. This was not entirely unexpected: Livesey had Parkinsons disease, and a poor sense of smell is
a common symptom. This is likely due to the disease causing damage to the olfactory nerves, which are
cells that transmit information about sense of smell from the nose to the brain.
But why the hallucinations? Occasionally, we all get whats known as spontaneous olfactory discharge
where our olfactory nerves become briefly active. Normally, this discharge is inhibited by other neurons
sending out information about real smells, and so it doesnt amount to anything. However, an impaired
ability to smell stops these olfactory discharges from being suppressed, which means they are
consequently perceived as phantom odours. (For a similar reason, some people with hearing difficulties
can start to notice haunting strains of music that are purely the product of their mind.)
However, Livesey had started to notice something even more peculiar: his hallucinations would get
worse just before a storm. Two to three hours before clouds gather, his phantosmia intensifies and
persist throughout a storm. Sometimes, he says, he can predict a storm coming up to ten hours before it
starts.
Hirsch says this is the first case of weather-induced phantosmia he has ever come across. Its not,
however, the first time that weather and human ailments have been linked.
My knees hurt... it must be about to rain
Over two thousand years ago, Hippocrates observed a link between neurological complaints and the
weather. In 1887, researchers first investigated this relationship and found a significant link between
temperature and humidity and the intensity of joint and muscle aches in people with chronic pain. Since
then, links between the weather and migraines, as well as the weather and pain in people with multiple
sclerosis have been well documented.
Less well-known is the fact that our sense of smell is also known to decrease with a drop in air pressure,
says Hirsch. Since a drop in barometric pressure that precedes a thunderstorm would reduce Liveseys
olfactory ability even further, it may serve to further increase his phantosmia.
Of course, Liveseys phantom smells may simply be a case of recall bias, where a selective memory may
lead him to notice the times that his phantosmia gets worse before a storm than when it fluctuates at
other times. Or it could be that hes already been primed by a weather forecast beforehand. Livesey
doesnt believe this is the case on many occasions he has not seen a forecast, yet was still able to
predict the onset of bad weather.
Hirsch also believes that a real link between weather and phantosmia exists. He says that you also see
phantosmia when you put someone say a mountaineer training for a high altitude environment into
a hypobaric chamber, where they experience low ambient air pressures. We also see phantosmia in
people who are on long excursions in high altitude areas of Antarctica, he says.
Since meeting Livesey, Hirsch has treated a few other individuals with similar complaints: Everyone
weve seen so far has a somewhat impaired sense of smell in normal conditions and describes how the
hallucinations are most intense right before a storm, he says.
Going up?
Its a difficult problem to investigate objectively. In one preliminary experiment, Hirsch tried to induce
the hallucinations by getting his patients to travel in the express elevator up to the top of the John
Hancock Centre a 100-story, 1,127-foot tall skyscraper in Chicago. Although it had little effect on
Liveseys phatosmia, Hirsch says that the resulting change in pressure did increase the intensity of some
of his patients phantom smells, which suggests that the problem may well be sensitive to subtle changes
in air pressure.
Unfortunately, theres no permanent treatment. A few years ago, Livesey added L-dopa to his drug
regime for Parkinsons, and for a couple of months his hallucinations were barely noticeable. Recently,
though, theyve had some bad weather in Chicago and his phantosmia has returned.
One idea was that he might be able to reduce the hallucinations by boosting his remaining sense of
smell. A few months ago, on Hirschs recommendation, he started sniffing three different scents, three
times a day these fragrant scents appear to replace the hallucinated smell. It seems to be helping, he
says, but maybe thats just wishful thinking. Mostly, he just tries to ignore the smells. Focusing on work
helps, he says, as does laughing and eating.
Liveseys hallucinations arent painful but they are annoying, he says. When theyre at their most
intense they can smell like excrement thats rather distracting.
The smell sometimes changes but he says its almost always unpleasant. There are also the
physiological effects that I get from the smell, like watery eyes, he says. I read about some people who
hallucinate the smell of roses. Id like to know who that is Id prefer that!
I wondered whether anyone ever asks him what the weathers going to be. He laughs. No, its not 100%
accurate. Im not the national weather service. If they do, I tell them to go look at their iPad!
Researchers are decoding a secret world of underwater chatter and discovering the plight of animals
harmed by our noise.
Some years ago, Michel Andre found himself staring at the body of a dead sperm whale on a beach in
the Canary Islands. It was obvious that the animal had collided with a ship but why? Only later, after
methodically surveying the whales which lived in the area and measuring the increase of sound pollution
from ships did it become clear that there was a link.
The whales had become desensitised to the noise of approaching boats and were being struck by them,
often fatally. We never thought that this could be something that could kill, recalls Andre, who is the
director of the Laboratory of Applied Bioacoustics at the Technical University of Catalonia, Barcelona.
Andre has spent 20 years developing an advanced system for listening to subsea noise in order to better
understand why incidents like this happen. His underwater microphones, or hydrophones, have exposed
a world of sound and animal communication never observed with such clarity before.
The elaborate listening apparatus developed by Andre for detecting sound in the ocean is dubbed smart
ears. It not only detects the voices of whales, dolphins and other creatures, but also the deafening whirr
of boats, propellers and other marine machinery.
It was not an easy task. Sound waves dont travel through water in the uniform, predictable way they do
through the air. Instead, the temperature, salinity and flow of the water column among other things
dramatically impact their path.
Theres a lot of distortion, so Andre and his team had to develop algorithms that could analyse the
sounds in real-time and match them to a database of known ocean noises: everything from whale song
to dolphin-speak. No two sounds are the same, but the algorithms are clever enough to pick out
similarities in the audio waves and match them with a reasonable degree of accuracy.
Andres system can also estimate how far away the sound source is by interpreting how distorted the
sound itself has become partly an indicator of how much water it has travelled through before
reaching the hydrophone. The quality of sound, of course, is also dependent on the movement of the
animal that made it. If the animal turns its head you will not get the same sound or the same intensity,
he says.
A range of hydrophones, on buoys monitored by Andre, is now picking up audio signals in seas all around
the world. And the computer analysis is done extremely quickly according to Andre theres just a three-
second delay between picking up the sound and predicting algorithmically what it is. Then, the result is
transmitted back to the shore.
We are overloaded with information, he says. Its 24/7 data coming from over 100 channels around
the world.
Andres team arent just listening they have also studied the physiological damage caused to animals by
noise. After taking tissue samples from the ears of beached whales, evidence of harm was found in the
cells of those sensory organs. This, then, was why creatures had lost their ability to detect the noise of
ships.
If there are some missing structures of these cells, it means that the animal cannot codify any more the
sound that corresponds to this specific cell, he explains.
The kind of noise that whales and other marine animals have to contend with is not trivial, ranging from
ship sounds to loud explosions.
Christopher Willes Clark, a bioacoustician at Cornell University (who is not involved with Andres work),
says ships easily drown out the noise of whale songs and the animals are also exposed to deafening
explosions caused by subsea oil and gas exploration surveys.
We set off extremely loud explosions every 10 seconds for months at a time such that I can hear a
prospecting survey going on near Ireland I can hear that off Virginia, says Clark.
What can be done? One solution is to divert shipping routes to courses where ships are statistically less
likely to encounter marine mammals. Its also possible, sometimes, to slow down to 10 knots an hour
(18km/h) or less, which is less likely to fatally injure a whale. Clark explains that this leads to a
significant reduction in the chances of an animal collision.
As for tackling the root cause of the problem, the UNs International Maritime Organisation (IMO) has
already published guidelines on how to quieten ships, but it will be a while before the impact of such
changes might be observed in the wild. Plus, businesses and vessel operators will have to co-operate.
The ocean is not our world, comments Andre. But it is ours to look after. And thanks to his work, we
can better understand the impact of subsea sound pollution.
The fact that now we have access to the sound, it is completing the picture that we have, he says. This
is the only way we can understand what is going on.
Moments of genius can strike at unexpected times. Here we look at some of the fearless inventors who
pushed forward prosthetic technology.
Easton LaChappelle's brainwave for building a new prosthetic arm came after he was bored in class.
He stumbled across a cheaper alternative to the expensive prosthetic limbs currently available, as the
video below shows.
The worlds earliest functional prosthetic body parts are thought to be two examples of artificial toes
from Ancient Egypt. These toes predate the previously earliest known prosthesis the Roman Capula
Leg by several hundred years. What makes them unique is their functionality. Early prostheses were
mostly decorative, but these Egyptian toes are an early example of a true prosthetic device.
The big toe is thought to carry some 40% of the bodyweight and is responsible for forward propulsion,
said Dr Jacky Finch, then at the University of Manchester. Modern prosthetic toes would be produced
only after intensive study of an individuals 's gait using cameras and other monitoring equipment.
Dr Finch selected two volunteers to test replicas of the toes and to their surprise they were very
comfortable: My findings strongly suggest that both of these designs were capable of functioning as
replacements for the lost toe and so could indeed be classed as prosthetic devices. If that is the case
then it would appear that the first glimmers of this branch of medicine should be firmly laid at the feet of
the ancient Egyptians.
Artificial limbs like these were expensive but allowed wearers who had lost a limb to continue a fighting
career. The articulated fingers could be used to grasp a shield, hold reins or even a quill. This limb was
manufactured for von Berlichingen by a specialist armourer.
Centuries later, huge number of casualties in the American Civil War caused demand for artificial limbs to
skyrocket. Many veterans turned to designing their own prosthetics as a response to the limiting
capabilities of the limbs on offer.
James Hanger, one of the first amputees of the war, patented the Hanger Limb. Samuel Decker
(pictured) also designed his own artificial arms and became a pioneer of modular limb design.
In the design pictured, Decker has a spoon attached to his mechanical arms, recognising the need to be
able to perform everyday activities with his prosthetics. Designs now needed to do more than replace
the lost limb, they needed to offer the young amputees some of their former abilities back. For the first
time, a generation of young men would now lead lives as amputees. Decker went on to become the
official doorkeeper at the US House of Representatives.
Around 1900, the pioneers of prosthetic design had begun the idea of specialised artificial limbs. Limb
design looked to more than just decorative uses and became increasingly more specialist.
Wide spread fingers, index, middle and ring finger smaller than normal, and padded tips on the thumb
and little finger, the above prosthetic had one specific purpose. This is an example of an artificial arm for
a pianist who would go on to perform at the Royal Albert Hall, London, in 1906. The spread fingers
allowed her to span one entire octave.
Despite her moment of fame, the name of the female pianist is now unknown. The Science Museum,
where this limb is now kept, has done their best to discover her identity. If you know who it could be, get
in touch.
For the first time, artificial limbs were being mass-produced in response to the enormous number of
casualties in World War One. In the US, the Walter Reed Army Hospital produced a large number of
artificial limbs for the returning veterans. This example is of a welding attachment and other tools
integrated into the limbs for amputees to return to work after the war
It wasnt all work, however. Also in the collection of the National Museum of Health and Medicine, USA,
is an attachment for playing baseball. The Walter Reed Army Hospital is still a centre for artificial limb
production in the US, 100 years later.
The technology continued to develop after WW1. DW Dorrance invented the split hook artificial hand
shortly before World War I. It became popular with labourers after the war who were able to return to
work using the attachment because of its ability to grip and manipulate objects. Its one of the few
designs that have remained relatively unchanged over the past century. Dorrance demonstrated its
multi-functionality in the 1930s by driving a car using the arm.
In the UK, Queen Marys Hospital, Roehampton, became a centre for manufacturing artificial limbs in the
World War Two. It opened in 1939. In its first year, 10,987 war pensioners attended the centre, with an
additional 16,251 limbs being sent by post. At the outbreak of war, the factory was expanded because of
the realisation that 40,000 UK servicemen had lost limbs in WW1.
However in WW2 there was around half the number of amputees. As Leon Gillis, QMH Consultant
Surgeon from 1943-1967, observed, advances in surgical techniques, treatment of infections and the
availability of blood transfusion after WW1 all reduced the need for amputation
Ormerods answer was disarmingly simple: shift the focus away from the subtle
mannerisms to the words people are actually saying, gently probing the right pressure points
to make the liars front crumble.
Could the light from stars be hiding evidence of extraterrestrial life? A giant
Starshade could soon reveal answers.
Alien hunting isnt just tabloid fodder anymore. Over the last few years, astronomers have
discovered thousands of planets outside the Solar System, suggesting that the galaxy is
teeming with worlds at least as many as one planet per star, on average.
The existence of so many planets raises the odds that at least one of them has life and its
possible there may even be an Earth twin making alien-hunting a bona fide scientific
endeavour. Were now ready to make the transition from are there planets? to is there life
on these planets? says Nick Siegler, the chief technologist of Nasas Exoplanet Exploration
Program. Thats a huge shift in how Nasas thinking about the search for life and whats next
in the world of planetary science.
Its harder than it seems to spot life from millions of miles away, especially if its not intelligent
The trouble is, its harder than it seems to spot life from millions of miles away, especially if
its not intelligent. Last week in our series The Genius Behind, we told the story of Sara
Seager, a scientist looking for signs of life on second Earths, who believes that the key is to
scrutinise the atmospheres of these alien worlds. Find out why in the film below:
Jump media player
Media player help
Out of media player. Press enter to return or tab to continue.
One of the technologies that could help researchers like Seager achieve their goal is a
seemingly crazy flower-shaped contraption called Starshade. Its a sort of giant space
parasol designed to block light from a star, allowing a telescope to avoid the star's glare and
peer into the planets in orbit and, possibly, reveal signs of alien life.
The part-built structure supporting the Starshade, unfurled on Earth (Credit: Nasa)
If we want to find a true Earth twin in the near future like in the next decade or two then
yes, we definitely need to do the Starshade, says Seager, who is based at Massachusetts
Institute of Technology (MIT).
Thats because a Sun-like star is 10 billion times brighter than an Earth-sized planet. The
only hope astronomers have for glimpsing any hint of life likely some form of
microorganism would be to somehow block the light from such a star, allowing a telescope
to directly observe the planet itself. Its a strategy radically different from the main way
astronomers have discovered and studied planets so far.
Because planets are so distant, small, and faint, astronomers have mostly probed them
indirectly for example by detecting dips in starlight when a planet passes in front of its star
or by measuring how the star wobbles when a planets gravity tugs on it. But alien-hunting
demands a new tactic.
Scientists hope to identify the gases in the planets atmosphere, and detect chemicals that
suggest the presence of life chemicals like oxygen, which comprises 20% of Earth's
atmosphere.
The glare of a distant light in Starshade tests illustrates how hard it is to see anything in
detail close to a star (Credit: Northrop Grumman)
Without life plants or photosynthetic bacteria we would have virtually no oxygen, Seager
says. Which is why oxygen is one of the most promising so-called biosignatures. But life on
Earth produces all kinds of gases, and alien life could be even more diverse. The challenge
is in determining whether these chemicals are biological in origin.
Although no-ones found any signs of life yet, astronomers have already sniffed out some
atmospheres
Although no-ones found any signs of life yet, astronomers have already sniffed out some
atmospheres. When a planet passes in front of its star, the starlight penetrates the gaseous
layer enveloping the planet. The molecules in the atmosphere absorb specific wavelengths of
light, depending on what the chemical is. By measuring which wavelengths are absorbed,
astronomers can identify the gases.
Bigger telescopes like the James Webb Space Telescope, slated for launch in 2018, will be
able to use this transit technique to resolve atmospheric chemistry in greater detail. It could
even conceivably detect biosignatures. It could get lucky, Siegler says. But this method is
only good for planetary systems around small stars called M dwarfs not around Sun-like
stars.
Which is why astronomers like Seager want to make Starshade a reality. The video below
shows how it might work in space, as well as a timelapse of the instrument unfurling on
Earth.
Jump media player
Media player help
Out of media player. Press enter to return or tab to continue.
The Starshade is launched with a telescope, and when it reaches its position in deep space,
it will unfurl and expand to a diameter as wide as 34m (112ft). The petals, which will likely be
razor-sharp, remove the effects of diffraction, in which light waves bend around the edge of
the shade and produce unwanted glare. The shade and telescope will then separate by as
much as 50,000 kilometres (31,250 miles) almost four times the diameter of Earth.
Suffice to say, this isn't easy. But researchers have shown the idea to work with experiments
in the desert, using a lamp, a model Starshade, and a camera. Jeremy Kasdin of Princeton
University, one of the leaders of the Starshade project, is conducting lab tests with a
miniature model to scale the setup stretches for 78m (257ft), with a Starshade about five
centimetres wide.
A test Starshade much smaller than the final version was used to explore the technique in
the desert (Credit: Northrop Grumman)
You may be able to see a pinprick of light in the distance, designed to simulate a star in
desert tests (Credit: Northrop Grumman)
If the project gets enough funding and all goes well, Nasa could launch Starshade as early
as 2026. We dont see right now any technical impediments to complete a Starshade and
flying it in the 2020s, Kasdin says.
But Starshade isnt the only way to block starlight. Its launch could coincide with WFIRST, a
next-generation space telescope thats planned to be fitted with an instrument called a
coronagraph, which blocks starlight from inside the telescope. We want multiple approaches
in case one doesnt work, Siegler says.
A coronagraph is a tried-and-tested technology first developed in the 1930s to study the
outer layers of the sun called the corona and could also find Earths twin. But, Siegler says,
the technology isnt there yet.
This is a simulation of how the Starshade would see our Solar System if millions of miles
away (Credit: Robert J Vanderbei)
Coronagraphs are complex and fragile instruments, which make them susceptible to the
Suns heat and vibrations from things like the telescopes reaction wheels used to orient the
spacecraft. Anything that can knock the telescope off-kilter means stray starlight gets into the
camera, ruining the observations. Deformable mirrors can cancel out some distortions, but
the current systems cant pick out an Earth-sized planet awash in starlight.
Watch how coronagraphs work in this animation:
The Genius Behind
Be inspired by great minds and ideas
This is part of a series called The Genius Behind, about the most amazing and sometimes
little known technological breakthroughs, and the innovative minds behind them.
With Starshade, however, the starlight never even reaches the telescope. All you need is a
relatively simple and small telescope, which is cheaper and easier to build. Alternatively,
Starshade may not even need its own telescope, and instead rely on WFIRST.
In the meantime, the hunt for Earths twin is heating up. Theres a lot of great science to be
had by looking at planets of all size scales, but ultimately, most of us really want to find an
Earth-like planet, says Kasdin. If that happens, calls will surely g row for answers about
whether it is inhabited the Starshade and projects like it may turn out to be our best
chance.
Topic 17. The future of medicine is testing our body fluids at home
From earwax to faeces, your secretions have secrets.
By Linda Geddes
14 December 2015
Blood, sweat, tears: what do they say about you? Scientists and doctors have long turned to
body fluids for clues about our health, but now theyre finding that they can reveal more
about the hidden workings of our bodies than once realised and whats more, its becoming
ever-easier to test them ourselves.
ielts.vinh@gmail.com
52
Last week, for instance, BBC Future covered the story of a Star Trek-like tricorder that
promises to diagnose fatal diseases like Ebola before people are even aware theyre
infected, and without them needing to travel long distances. Watch the video below to find
out more:
Jump media player
Media player help
Out of media player. Press enter to return or tab to continue.
Its not the only technology that allows for complex testing outside hospitals either: devices
like the Cue are being marketed that will enable self-testing for fertility, flu and signs of
inflammation. And the X-Prize Foundation is currently running a prize to discover the next
generation of medical tricorders, capable of diagnosing various illnesses.
The next five to 10 years is expected to yield many more such tests, as well as the
recruitment of new sources of information including some our more embarrassing
excretions.
As you might expect, many of these kits will involve the testing of blood. In blood you can
detect just about everything that youve eaten, or thats going on in your body, says Guy
Carpenter, reader in oral biology at Kings College London.
But its possible that technology will emerge to measure other excretions, says George Preti
at the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia. He is currently investigating what
your earwax can say about you. Unlike blood, earwax is a fatty substance, which means
certain molecules may concentrate there and be easier to detect than in more watery fluids.
If you have a certain group of metabolites that like to dissolve in lipids (fats), we may be able
to look at them in earwax, Preti says.
The earwax of people of East Asian descent smells different to that of European, African or
American descent
For example, maple syrup urine disorder, a genetic condition in which people cant break
down certain parts of proteins, can be diagnosed by sniffing earwax: It smells of maple
syrup, says Preti. He recently published research revealing that the earwax of people of
East Asian descent smells different to that of European, African or American descent, as
does their body odour. We already have an indication that there is some disease-related
information in earwax; theres also information about where youve been and what youve
eaten. Whether earwax will turn out to be more useful than blood and other body fluids for
diagnosing certain conditions remains to be seen, but we dont know unless we investigate
it, Preti points out.
Then theres sweat. For decades it has been used to screen newborns for cystic fibrosis,
which alters the balance of sodium and chloride in their sweat. Now, wearable patches are
being developed that could alert athletes to changes in the balance of electrolytes that might
signal that theyre about to crash because of dehydration or physical exertion. One
advantage of monitoring sweat is that it could be done passively you dont have to stick
yourself with a needle, or even mess about with swabs - an electronic sweat-sensor could be
ielts.vinh@gmail.com
53
worn under clothing that transmits information wirelessly, without you even having to think
about it.
But there may also be limitations. Sweat contains marker molecules, but they are very, very
variable, which will probably preclude their direct clinical use, cautions Jeremy Nicholson,
chair in biological chemistry at Imperial College London. Its composition is also influenced by
the activity of microbes living on our skin. Blood, on the other hand, tends to provide a more
accurate picture of whats happening inside the body, as it infiltrates every tissue, and the
body keeps its basic composition in strict check.
Even within a drop of blood, theres still a great deal more information that might be gleaned
than is currently possible. For instance, Manfred Kayser at Erasmus University Medical
Centre in the Netherlands is currently developing new DNA tests that might enable a
persons age, physical appearance, and geographic origin, to be predicted from a blood
sample, which could help police identify criminal suspects or badly decomposed bodies.
Some of the greatest excitement surrounds the potential predictive power of the microorganisms living
within and upon us. We think that at least a third of the metabolites in our
blood are being produced by our microbes, says Tim Spector, professor of genetic
epidemiology at Kings College London and author of The Diet Myth. And its becoming
apparent that they are influencing our health in hitherto unimaginable ways. For instance, the
mood-altering chemical serotonin isnt only produced by your brain cells; it turns out that
certain gut bacteria produce it too, and they may therefore play a role in depression.
Id be able to tell much more about you from your poo than your DNA Tim Spector,
researcher
The best place to look for changes in your bacterial flora though, is poo. If you gave me
your poo sample and your DNA sample, Id be able to tell much more about you from your
poo than your DNA, says Spector. This is because although the genes of any two people
are approximately 99.9% similar, we only have 10-20% of our microbes in common. And
recent research suggests the type of microbes in our guts and therefore our poo are
influenced by what we eat, and where weve been living. We can identify the differences
between Europeans, Africans and South Americans, and we have some early data from
twins showing differences between those who live in Scotland and those that live in
England, Spector says.
Not only could analysing our poo for microbes and the chemicals they produce help tease
apart complex diseases like depression and obesity and diabetes, it could also provide an
early warning that an elderly person is becoming dangerously frail and needs additional
support. As elderly people go downhill, they have a marked rise in certain gut microbes, or a
lack of others, says Spector.
As these new sources of information mature, and the cost of analysis decreases, more selftesting kits are
inevitable. Some believe this will democratise healthcare, reducing the need
ielts.vinh@gmail.com
54
for people to travel, and enabling them to monitor and take greater responsibility for their own
health. But it could also result in unnecessary worry and false leads. We can give people
tests for various things, but the interpretation of those tests will still require the guidance of a
health professional, Carpenter points out. Issues of privacy may also come to the fore. For
now at least, few of us pay much regard to what happens to our secretions and emanations
once they leave our bodies.
Yet for better or worse, soon a small sample of your blood, sweat, and even your earwax will
be all thats necessary to reveal a great deal about your behaviour, health and more.
The constellation of circles recurs across different currencies; its shown here, on the right,
on a 10 note (Credit: BBCW)
Other visual codes are scrawled in the landscape around us. One surprising example is the
series of signs known as hoboglyphs a collection of symbols meant to provide information
to travelling workers and homeless people. Among other things, these could indicate the
quality of a nearby water source, or suggest whether the occupant of a house is friendly or
not.
Graffiti gangs have also been known to develop esoteric glyphs which which they might
scribble over the graffiti of rival groups. Discover magazine listed some examples in 2012.
These included SS meaning South Side a faction within a specific gang in Indianapolis;
and a lazy red X over someone elses graffiti a visually jarring mark of disrespect.
Known as hoboglyphs, these nondescript graffiti tags highlight safe areas, water sources
and information about police between the homeless (Credit: Flickr/Everfalling/CC BY 2.0)
Amazingly, as Discover reported, software is now helping police decipher these symbols
automatically. Such programs are even available as smartphone apps.
And finally, the spray-painted squiggles you see on pavements in towns and cities all over
the world adhere to codes understood by construction workers and engineers. A BBC News
Magazine report recently revealed the meaning of many of these in the UK, and pointed out
that different colours related to different types of cable or pipe. Blue meant a water system
while yellow indicated gas lines and green labelled CCTV or data wiring.
All of these codes have a purpose to avoid causing panic, to transmit subtle signals in
social groups, or to provide technical information quickly and easily. But once you know
about them, its difficult to shake off that sense of intrigue and conspiracy if only a
conspiracy of knowledge. Its no wonder online discussions about these codes are so
popular.
People dont like secrets, do they? says Baker. There is a drive to have as much
information as possible we do live in the information age, he adds.
Topic 21. Are any foods safe to eat anymore? Heres the truth
Is bacon really as bad for you as cigarettes? Will coffee give you a heart attack? Do
wheat-eaters suffer brain fog? BBC Future examines the foods, the fears and the
facts.
By David Robson
30 October 2015
Food was once seen as a source of sustenance and pleasure. Today, the dinner table can
instead begin to feel like a minefield. Is the bacon on your plate culinary asbestos, and will
the wheat in your toast give you grain brain? Even the bubbles of gas in your fizzy drinks
have been considered a hazard.
Worse still, the advice changes continually. As TV-cook Nigella Lawson recently put it: You
can guarantee that what people think will be good for you this year, they wont next year.
Many of our favourite foods are not the ticking time bomb we have been led to believe
This may be somewhat inevitable: evidence-based health advice should be constantly
updated as new studies explore the nuances of what we eat and the effects the meals have
on our bodies. But when the media (and ill-informed health gurus) exaggerate the results of a
study without providing the context, it can lead to unnecessary fears that may, ironically,
push you towards less healthy choices.
Weve tried to cut through the confusion by weighing up all the available evidence to date.
You may be pleased to learn that many of your favourite foods are not the ticking time bomb
you have been led to believe.
The WHO warns against bacon, but how worried should you be? (Wendy/Flickr/CC BY-ND
2.0)
The food: Bacon
The fear: Processed meats are as dangerous as cigarettes.
The facts: While the World Health Organisation has announced overwhelming evidence that
bacon (and other kinds of processed meat) can contribute to colorectal cancer, the real
dangers are not quite as worrying as the subsequent headlines would have us believe.
As Cancer Research UK points out in an astute blog, colorectal cancer is itself relatively rare.
If you eat barely any meat, there is a 5.6% risk of developing the disease over your lifetime;
even if you pig out on bacon and ham every day, it only rises to about 6.6%. In other words,
for every 100 people who stop eating bacon, only one will have avoided cancer. To put that
in perspective, consider the figures for tobacco: for every 100 smokers who give up, 10-15
lives may be saved. The two are hardly comparable.
ielts.vinh@gmail.com
65
Even so, you may want to reconsider a 20-rashers-a-day habit. The UK government advises
that an average of 70g a day is still healthy about three rashers, or two sausages.
In a nutshell? The odd English breakfast may not do you as much good as a bowl of
granola but nor is it gastronomic asbestos.
Should you avoid a daily cup? (Guwash999/Flickr/CC BY 2.0)
The food: Coffee
The fear: Our caffeine addiction will drive us to a heart attack.
The facts: There is very little evidence that a cup of Joe will send you to an early grave; in
fact, the opposite may be true. In 2012, the New England Journal of Medicine reported on
the health of 400,000 Americans over the course of 13 years. The scientists found that
people who drank between three and six cups a day were around 10% less likely to die
during the 13-year period, with lower rates of heart disease, stroke, diabetes and infections.
Considering a string of studies examining the health of more than a million individuals, a
review in 2014 painted a similar picture: people who drank four cups a day were around 16%
less likely to die at any one time.
Note that these were only observational studies. Although they tried to account for other
factors, theres no way of knowing if the coffee itself was protecting the heart, or if theres
some other, hidden, explanation. Perhaps healthier people are just more likely to be drawn to
coffee. But as addictions go, its pretty harmless.
In a nutshell? Its probably not the elixir of life that some claim, but based on this evidence,
you can at least savour that morning espresso with impunity.
We've been eating wheat for 10,000 years (Glory Foods/Flickr/CC BY 2.0)
The food: Wheat
The fear: So-called grain brain could contribute to Alzheimers disease.
The facts: First things first: a very small number of people around 1% of the population
do have a genuine gluten allergy known as celiac disease, that can damage their intestines
and lead to malnutrition. Others may not suffer from celiac disease, but they may instead be
sensitive to wheat; although they dont suffer symptoms if they only eat a small amount,
they may experience some discomfort if they eat too much bread.
ielts.vinh@gmail.com
66
Explanations for this non-celiac gluten sensitivity are controversial: rather than the gluten in
wheat specifically, it may instead be caused by a range of sugars and proteins that are also
found in many other foods, including fruit and onions. If so, simply cutting wheat would not
relieve the symptoms.
Then there are the people going gluten-free even without experiencing definite symptoms at
all, because wheat itself is seen as being toxic. As Peter Green at Columbia University
commented recently: People who promote an anti-grain or anti-gluten agenda sometimes
cite our work in celiac disease, drawing far-ranging conclusions that extend well beyond
evidence-based medicine. One popular claim, for instance, is that wheat-based foods
trigger inflammation throughout the body, which could contribute to brain fog and increase
the risk of serious conditions like Alzheimers. But while diets heavy in carbohydrates and
sugars may, over time, lead to neural damage, whole wheat is still better than other energy
sources, such as potatoes, since it releases its sugars more slowly.
In a nutshell? Humans have been eating wheat for at least 10,000 years and unless you
have been tested for an allergy, there seems little reason to stop until we have far more
evidence.
Cheese is bad for your heart, right? Not so fast (jeffreyw/Flickr/CC BY 2.0)
The food: Butter, cheese and full-fat milk
The fear: Dairy products will clog up your arteries and contribute to heart disease.
The facts: For decades, the message has been simple: saturated fats from cheese, butter,
and full-fat milk will raise the cholesterol in your blood and put you in danger of a heart
attack. For this reason, many health organisations had encouraged us to lubricate our diets
with margarine and vegetable oils, replacing the saturated fats with poly-unsaturates
typically found in the (famously healthy) Mediterranean diet.
Yet over the last few years, weve seen a stream and then a torrent of deeply puzzling
findings that contradict the accepted wisdom. Taking all the evidence into account, one major
review in the Annals of Internal Medicine recently concluded that high levels of saturated fat
intake had no effect on coronary disease. Again, these were only observational studies, but
one team decided to put it to a test with a carefully planned intervention, feeding their
participants 27%-fat Gouda cheese every day for eight weeks. At the end of the trial, they
had lower cholesterol than controls asked to stomach a zero-fat alternative.
The oddest finding? Despite the fact that full-fat milk and butter are packed with calories,
people eating full-fat dairy were no more likely to be obese than those drinking semiskimmed milk; 12
separate studies have in fact found them to be leaner. Its possible that the
fat itself could help regulate the metabolism, meaning that you burn off energy more
efficiently; or it could be that full-fat dairy keeps our hunger locked away for longer, making
us less likely to fill up with unhealthy snacks later on.
In a nutshell? We still dont understand why, but full-fat may be the new skinny.
ielts.vinh@gmail.com
67
Pasteurisation of milk has many benefits (Intrinsic-Image/Flickr/CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
The food: Pasteurised milk
The fear: Pasteurisation could contribute to eczema, asthma and other immune disorders.
The facts: Its not just full-fat milk that has come under fire. A common assumption is that
the more natural a food is, the healthier it must be, and this has led some to shun
pasteurised milk. Proponents claim that pasteurisation damages many of the useful nutrients
in milk, including proteins that may protect us from allergies. The process of pasteurisation,
they believe, also kills friendly microbes in the milk that could add to the microbiome in our
gut, aiding digestion, strengthening the immune system and even protecting against cancer.
Many doctors, however, believe this is premature. The mild heating involved in pasteurisation
should leave almost all the nutrients intact, and it seems unlikely that the friendly bacteria in
raw milk will bring many benefits: its colonies would need to be thousands of times bigger for
enough of the bacteria to survive digestion and make their way to the intestine. And although
there is some tentative evidence that people who drank raw milk as children tend to have
fewer allergies, its hard to be sure this was caused by the milk itself, and not just the fact
that many of these children mostly grew up on farms. Living among so many animals, their
body may have been trained to deal with allergens at a young age, making them less likely to
suffer as adults. Whats more, drinking raw milk could be potentially dangerous: we
pasteurise the drink for good reason, to kill microbes that could cause serious disease, like
tuberculosis, Salmonella and E coli.
In a nutshell? Before you risk a nasty infection, you might want to wait for the evidence to
match the extravagant claims.
How many eggs is too many? (Tom Fassbender/Flickr/CC BY-ND 2.0)
The food: Eggs
ielts.vinh@gmail.com
68
The fear: A heart-attack in a shell.
The facts: Like full-fat milk, eggs were once thought to cake our arteries in cholesterol and
increase the risk of heart disease. There may be some truth in these claims, but provided
you are otherwise healthy, eating up to seven eggs a week seems to come with no illconsequences.
In a nutshell? Besides the risk of flatulence and constipation, eggs are a safe and valuable
source of protein.
Many fear the health effects of sweeteners in diet drinks (Zeev Barkan/Flickr/CC BY 2.0)
The food: Diet soft drinks
The fear: Artificial sweeteners can contribute to cancer risk.
The facts: We already know that too much sugar leads to obesity, diabetes and heart
disease but what about the artificial sweeteners we add to diet drinks to try to lessen the
impact? One common fear is that they promote the growth of tumours. But as Claudia
Hammond recently explained on BBC Future, the risks may have been exaggerated; a vast
study conducted by the US National Cancer Institute found no increase in the risk of brain
cancer, leukaemia or lymphoma in people consuming aspartame, the most common
sweeteners, and the same seems to be true for other sugar alternatives. There is, however,
a chance that they might contribute to glucose intolerance, and type 2 diabetes though it
has yet to be proven. (Incidentally, Hammond has also punctured the idea that the bubbles in
soft drinks are themselves a hazard, debunking claims that it could harm your stomach and
weaken your bones.)
In a nutshell? Artificial sweeteners may be the lesser of two evils they may carry some
risks, but are still healthier than the full-sugar alternatives.
Topic 22. Is beer better (or worse) for you than wine?
From health benefits to hangovers, there are some important differences between hop
and grape that only science can explain.
Few drinks (save tea or coffee) divide the world so spectacularly as beer or wine. Theres no
accounting for taste, of course but there are subtle differences in the way they affect your
body and determine your health. Is one more fattening than another? How do their heart
benefits compare? And which gives the worse hangover?
BBC Future has combed through the data to bust some of the myths surrounding two of the
worlds favourite drinks.
Which gets you drunk more quickly?
A pint of lager and a medium glass of wine both contain around the same alcohol content
two or three British units (16-24g). However, your descent into inebriation relies on that
alcohol passing into your blood stream and the speed at which this happens can depend
on the type of drink.
The speed at which you get inebriated can depend on the type of drink
Mack Mitchell at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Centre recently asked a
group of 15 men to imbibe different drinks on different days. He made sure that the alcohol
content was precisely matched to their body weight and ensured they drank the alcohol at
precisely the same rate, over a 20 minute period. Unsurprisingly, spirits entered the blood
stream quickest, leading to the highest peak in blood alcohol content followed by wine
(reaching a peak 54 minutes after drinking) and then beer (which peaked 62 minutes after
the drink was finished). In other words, a glass of wine will go to your head more quickly than
a pint of beer.
Verdict: Beer is less likely to lead to embarrassment
What drink is the more fattening? (Credit: iStock)
Which gives you the biggest paunch?
At face value, the myth of the beer belly should be true. Alcohol itself contains calories, not to
mention all the sugars that make our favourite drinks so tasty. And at around 180 calories, a
pint of beer has 50% more energy content than a small glass of wine enough to cause you
to pile on the pounds.
For moderate drinkers, however, the differences seem to be minimal. A recent review of
studies concluded that neither wine nor beer drinkers tend to put on weight over the shortterm. The
authors noted, however, that the longest study had lasted just 10 weeks. The
studies could have missed minor weight gain and even 1kg (2.2lbs) over that period would
eventually add up to a beer belly weighing 25kg (55lbs) over five years. Thats the equivalent
to carrying 10 full-term babies.
(On the plus side, the commonly held view that beer may cause men to develop breasts is
almost certainly an unfounded myth.)
Which gives the worst hangover?
Despite their best efforts, scientists have yet to conquer the drinkers most formidable foe:
the hangover. We dont even fully understand what causes it. Dehydration is likely to be an
important factor (alcohol makes us pee more liquid than we take in) but it may also be
caused by some of the byproducts of fermentation. Called congeners, these organic
molecules give each drink its unique flavour and aroma, but they may also be toxic to the
body, resulting in the throbbing head and nausea that usually follows a night of excess.
In general, darker drinks are thought to contain more congeners. In fact, the evidence so far
is ambiguous. Although certain dark spirits like bourbon do seem to produce a worse
hangover than crystal clear vodka, different types of beer and wine so far seem to be equal.
So provided you havent turned to the hard stuff, you cant blame your choice of drink for
your agony.
Verdict: Too ambiguous to call
Red wine contains polyphenols, which soothe inflammation and provide other health benefits
(Credit: iStock)
Which is better (or worse) for my health?
We are often told that a glass of wine a day could help rejuvenate the body, reducing our risk
of heart disease, high blood pressure, and diabetes. This life-giving sustenance is thought to
come from polyphenols (found especially in red wine) that soothe inflammation and mop up
damaging chemicals in the body.
If drank in moderation, a glass a day really may keep the doctor away
Beer is conspicuously absent from these health bulletins, but it too contains a fair share of
polyphenols, and seems to offer modest benefits, akin to white wine but less than red wine.
Clearly, none of this gives you a free pass to binge drink, but if drank in moderation, a glass
a day really may keep the doctor away.
Verdict: Red wine wins hands down, but beer may be better than no drink at all
Overall verdict: When it comes to health benefits, wine edges it as the best medicine.
However, beer drinkers can at least respond that their drink has the more illustrious
history. In fact, some anthropologists have suggested that our taste for beer might
have planted the seeds of agriculture, and therefore civilisation itself. Thats
something to contemplate the next time youre waiting at the bar.
Topic 29. How muc would you pay to live for an extra year?
We all strive to forestall death but at what cost does it become too expensive? BBC
Future explores the attempts to value the price of life.
Human life is so precious, it seems crass to put a price on it. How can a pile of coins, paper
or gold bars match a year on Earth? Life should be, quite literally, invaluable.
Yet that is the morbid question that health services, everywhere, inevitably have to ask. They
have limited money to spend on sick and dying people, and whenever a new drug becomes
available, they have to make a choice: will the few stolen months, or years, be worth the
money it costs?
Our gut instincts may seem obvious: we should do all that we can to buy more time for the
people we love. Yet Dominic Wilkinson, an intensive care doctor and ethicist at the University
of Oxfords Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics recently wrote a thought-provoking article
questioning these assumptions and asks us all to consider just how much we should be
willing to pay for a longer life.
Intrigued, BBC Future phoned him to explore his argument, and to better understand the
ways we currently calculate the price of life.
Hi-tech treatments mean that we can survive many of the diseases that would have killed our
ancestors - yet they come at a huge cost (Credit: Getty Images)
At the moment, drugs for terminal illnesses tend to be judged on two things by how much
they extend the lifespan, and the quality of life of the patient, using a scale known as the
Quality Adjusted Life Year-saved (QALY). A drug that helps you live for an extra year, at half
your general quality of life, would score about 0.5 years on this scale, for instance.
Alternatively, a drug that improved your quality of life for a year from a level of half normal,
to full health would also score 0.5, explains Wilkinson.
ielts.vinh@gmail.com
88
The UK recommends paying about 20,000 to 30,000 for each additional year of good
health
From these calculations, a health service can then start to set a price on whether a drug is
worth the cost. The UKs recommendations, for example, are about 20,000 to 30,000
($30,000 to $45,000) for each additional year of good health, once it has been adjusted to
take into account the quality of life. So a drug that achieved 0.5 on the QALY measure would
only merit 10,000-15,000 ($15,000 to $22,500).
This inevitably means that some drugs have been rejected by the National Health Service
(NHS), because they are simply too expensive: the breast cancer drug Kadycla, for instance,
only extends the lifespan by about six months for a cost of 95,000. Even if the quality of life
during those few months is equal to that of a healthy person, it still hugely overstretches the
limit. (Other healthcare providers may have different criteria, of course but they all have to
weigh up the costs and benefits in some way, before offering to fund a treatment.)
Campaigners argue that the pharmaceutical companies should lower the costs of such
treatments, and that health services should also invest more and more money in drugs that
will buy terminally ill patients some more precious time. Given these strong and emotive
arguments, the UK recently considered increasing the threshold for terminal illnesses to as
much as 80,000 ($120,000) for each quality-adjusted year saved.
Should we pay more for drugs that will extend a life, if it means cutting off treatment that
could improve the lives of those not in danger (Credit: Getty Images)
As doctors looking after patients, we are ethically driven to say that I know it is expensive but
my first duty is to help my patient Dominic Wilkinson
Wilkinson says this attitude is completely understandable and its often the doctors, as well
as the patients themselves, who argue the case. As doctors looking after patients, we are
ethically driven to advocate for patients, to say that I know it is expensive but my first duty is
to help my patient, he says.
But the inevitable sacrifice is that this money will be taken away from other areas of care,
such as mental health services or help for people with disabilities measures that may be
crucial for improving the quality of life for people at the start or middle of their lives.
Is it worth forfeiting one persons comfort to buy another a few more months at the end of
their life? When making these decisions, its important to gauge public opinion. And although
you might assume that most people would pay infinite sums to buy a few extra years, recent
research suggests we do not all place such a high value on the sheer length of the lifespan.
ielts.vinh@gmail.com
89
When surveyed, many people said they would prefer to pay for treatments that improve
palliative care, rather than new drugs that would buy extra years (Credit: Getty images)
Wilkinson points to a detailed UK study of 4,000 people that clearly explained the different
ways the health services limited resources could be spent, and asked the participants for
their preferences. They clearly indicated that they werent comfortable with giving more
money to people who were terminally ill, compared with people who might benefit at other
stages of their lives.
Perhaps most surprising were the results from a study in Singapore, which questioned
elderly, but otherwise healthy, citizens as well as those suffering from terminal cancer. The
striking thing from that is that they were prepared to pay an awful lot more money for
palliative care so they could be treated in their own home, than drugs that would extend life,
says Wilkinson.
Many participants would pay just 5,000 to extend life by a year
On average, the participants would pay 5,000 ($7,500) for a treatment to extend life by a
year. But they were willing to pay about twice that amount 10,000 ($15,000) on better
palliative care, such as better nursing that would allow them to die in the relative comfort of
their homes, rather than a hospital. It seemed to provide a fresh way of thinking about
difficult decisions.
Doctors are increasingly arguing that we should maximise the quality of our time on Earth,
rather than extending the length of the lifespan (Credit: Getty Images)
Clearly, these studies are not the final answer; it is hard to know if these opinions are shared
among different people in different cultures and facing different illnesses; there are also
questions about just how effectively a calculation like the QALY scale can really, objectively
assess a treatments potential. But Wilkinson thinks that we should at least consider these
different opinions before devoting more and more money to extending lifespans.
Although its very understandable to want to buy more expensive drugs for the terminally ill, I
dont think it reflects the view of the general public or those of the patients, he says. Nor is it
clearly the right ethical approach.
As the population ages, and healthcare grows ever more advanced, and expensive, these
issues will only become more pressing. The eminent American surgeon Atul Guwande has
long questioned whether it is better to stretch out the lifespan, instead of increasing the
comfort of our available years. Ezekiel Emanuel, the former director of the Clinical Bioethics
Department at the US National Institutes of Health, has even claimed that he would refuse all
life-extending healthcare at the age of 75, rather than entering a cycle of ever more intense
treatments to draw out his last few years.
Few of us may decide to take such a drastic decision, but anyone, at any age, may do well to
consider the value of their time on Earth and what we are doing to make the most of it.
ielts.vinh@gmail.com
90
Topic 30. The nasa team keeping tabs on intergalatic death rays
A space mission tracking the most violent explosions in the Universe has just
celebrated its 10th anniversary. Richard Hollingham discovers how Swift has changed
our view of the cosmos.
You do not want to get in the way of a gamma ray burst.
Theyre the most luminous, high energy explosions that have happened since the Big Bang,
says Neil Gehrels, principal investigator at Nasa for the Swift mission. Its like a beam of
gamma radiation thats flying through the Universe.
What would happen if one of these cosmic death rays of high frequency electromagnetic
waves hit the Earth?
A gamma radiation burst could extinguish life on Earth (Credit: Science Photo Library)
For a planet 1000 light years away, it would destroy the ozone layer. If it was just 100 light
years away it could blow the atmosphere off, says Gehrels matter-of-factly.
The chances of that happening to the Earth is fairly small, about once in a billion years, he
adds. Its certainly not as great a threat as a giant asteroid hitting our planet. Still, it
probably pays to keep an eye on them.
Round-the-clock detection
Gehrels leads the international team of scientists with members in the US, UK and Italy
operating the Swift satellite, which they use to study the behaviour and origins of these
cosmic events . In orbit since November 2004, the spacecraft is named after its ability to
respond instantly to any of the 90 or so high-energy flashes of radiation it detects each year.
As soon as Swift detects a gamma ray burst somewhere in its field of view, the satellite
rotates to point its X-ray and optical telescopes in that direction. Meanwhile back on Earth,
within a few seconds of the blast going off, the science team are notified by text message.
ielts.vinh@gmail.com
91
(Credit: Getty Images)
Immediately even if were on the road somewhere well go to our laptops, log in and then
get on the phone to teleconference with other members of the team, says Gehrels. Within
15 minutes of the burst, they will have issued an alert so that other observatories on the
ground can point their telescopes towards the source.
Like being a doctor on call, duty scientists working on Swift even get woken up in the middle
of the night to react to an event on the other side of the cosmos. Its really exciting, youre
making discoveries and learning something new at all hours of the day and night.
Black holes and revelations
However, not everyone agrees with this assessment. My wife was amused by this at the
beginning, pretty soon it got to be annoying, says Gehrels. As more time went on, shed just
sleep right through it.
Before Swift was launched, no one knew for sure what caused gamma ray bursts. Now
astronomers are fairly certain that the longer bursts that is anything over two seconds are
caused when the centre of massive stars collapse in on themselves forming black holes.
When the stars subsequently explode into oblivion, a jet of gamma rays is blasted out across
space.
(Credit: Science Photo Library)
The second type of these explosions (anything shorter than two seconds) is categorised as
short bursts. The Swift team has concluded that these are caused by the collision of two
dense neutron stars. These cosmic bodies are just a few kilometres across but have a similar
mass to the Sun. Which helps explain why the resulting explosion is so phenomenal.
What the Swift scientists have also discovered is that gamma ray bursts are vitally important
to the evolution of the Universe. When a gamma ray burst goes off near a star with a
planetary system, it can have a very important and destructive influence, says Gehrels.
Time warp
The explosions that result in gamma ray bursts might even have provided all the gold in the
Universe. There was a burst that had an unusual afterglow that told us that a lot of heavy
elements like gold had been produced, Gehrels says. It certainly gives us a clue where gold
comes from.
Because light from the other side of the Universe takes so long to reach the Earth, some
gamma rays bursts spotted by Swift actually began their journey towards us shortly after the
Big Bang 13.7 billion years ago. When a blast goes off, it illuminates that particular region of
ielts.vinh@gmail.com
92
space enabling astronomers to get a glimpse back in time to the birth of the very first stars
500 million-or-so years after the Universe came into existence.
The alerts give astronomers time to direct telescopes onto areas of gamma ray activity
(Credit: Science Photo Library)
Weve learnt what the early Universe was like, says Gehrels. When the Universe was born,
the only elements were hydrogen and helium but explosions started to seed the galaxy with
higher elements like carbon, nitrogen and iron the elements that make up our bodies.
Not only do we owe our very existence to cosmic explosions, there is some evidence that the
Earths ecosystem has been directly affected by these bursts of energy. Research published
in 2013 suggested that a blast of radiation that hit our planet in the 8th Century may have
been the result of a gamma ray burst, though Gehrels is inclined to reserve judgement.
Swift could continue its mission for another five years (Credit: Nasa)
After 10 years of observations, he reckons Swift is good for at least another five years but it
has already transformed how astronomers see the Universe.
Before Swift, astronomers used to think the Universe was a steady set of stars and
galaxies, he says.
All across the world, women enjoy longer lifespans. David Robson investigates the
reasons why, and whether men can do anything about it.
As soon as I was born, I was already destined to die earlier than half the babies in my
maternity ward a curse that I can do little to avoid. The reason? My sex. Simply due to the
fact that I am male, I can be expected to die around three years earlier than a woman born
on the same day.
What is it about being a man that means I am likely to die younger than the women around
me? And is it possible for me to break the curse of my gender? Although this puzzling divide
has been known for decades, it is only recently that we have started coming close to some
answers.
One early idea was that men work themselves into an early grave. Whether working in a
mine or ploughing the land, they put extra stress on their bodies and amassed injuries that
caught up with them later in life. Yet if that were the case, you might expect the gap to be
closing, as both men and women converge on the same, sedentary jobs.
The survival advantage of women is seen in every country, in every year, for which reliable
records exist
In fact, the difference in lifespan has remained stable even throughout monumental shifts in
society. Consider Sweden, which offers the most reliable historic records. In 1800, life
expectancy at birth was 33 years for women and 31 years for men; today it is 83.5 years and
79.5 years, respectively. In both cases, women live about 5% longer than men. As one
recent article put it: This remarkably consistent survival advantage of women compared with
men in early life, in late life, and in total life is seen in every country in every year for which
reliable birth and death records exist. There may be no more robust pattern in human
biology.
Nor has it been easy to prove that men are more abusive of their bodies. Factors such as
smoking, drinking, and overeating may partly explain why size of the gender gap varies so
widely between countries. Russian men are likely to die 13 years earlier than Russian
women, for instance, partly because they drink and smoke more heavily. But the fact is that
female chimpanzees, gorillas, orangutans, and gibbons also consistently outlive the males of
the group, and you do not see apes male or female with cigarettes hanging out of their
mouths and beer glasses in their hands.
Instead, it would seem like the answer lies in our evolution. Of course, social and lifestyle
factors do have a bearing, but there does appear to be something deeper engrained in our
biology, says Tom Kirkwood, who studies the biological basis for ageing at Newcastle
University in the UK.
There are many potential mechanisms starting with the bundles of DNA known as
chromosomes within each cell. Chromosomes come in pairs, and whereas women have two
X chromosomes, men have an X and a Y chromosome.
That difference may subtly alter the way that cells age. Having two X chromosomes, women
keep double copies of every gene, meaning they have a spare if one is faulty. Men dont
have that back-up. The result is that more cells may begin to malfunction with time, putting
men at greater risk of disease.
Among the other alternatives is the jogging female heart hypothesis the idea that a
womans heart rate increases during the second half of the menstrual cycle, offering the
same benefits as moderate exercise. The result is delayed risk of cardiovascular disease
later in life. Or it could also be a simple matter of size. Taller people have more cells in their
bodies, meaning they are more likely to develop harmful mutations; bigger bodies also burn
more energy, which could add to wear and tear within the tissues themselves. Since men
tend to be taller than women, they should therefore face more long-term damage.
But perhaps the true reason lies in the testosterone that drives most other male
characteristics, from deeper voices and hairier chests to balding crowns. Evidence comes
from an unexpected place: the Imperial Court of the Chosun Dynasty in Korea. Korean
scientist Han-Nam Park recently analysed the detailed records of court life from the 19th
Century, including information about 81 eunuchs whose testicles had been removed before
puberty. His analyses revealed that the eunuchs lived for around 70 years compared to an
average of just 50 years among the other men in the court. Overall, they were 130 times
more likely to celebrate their hundredth birthday than the average man living in Korea at the
time. Even the kings who were the most pampered people in the palace did not come
close.
Although not all studies of other types of eunuch have shown such pronounced differences,
overall it seems that people (and animals) without testicles do live longer.
The exact reasons are elusive, but David Gems at University College London speculates that
the damage may be done by the end of puberty. For speculative evidence, he points to the
sad cases of mental health patients, institutionalised in the USA in the early 20th Century. A
few were forcibly castrated as part of their treatment. Like the Korean eunuchs, they too
lived for longer than the average inmate but only if they had been sterilised before the age
of 15. Testosterone might make our bodies stronger in the short-term, but the same changes
also leave us open to heart disease, infections, and cancer later in life. For example,
testosterone might increase seminal fluid production but promote prostate cancer; or it might
alter cardiovascular function in a way that improves performance early in life but leads to
hypertension and atherosclerosis later, says Gem.
Not only do women escape the risks of testosterone they may also benefit from their own
elixir of youth that helps heal some of the ravages of time. The female sex hormone
oestrogen is an antioxidant, meaning that it mops up poisonous chemicals that cause cells
stress. In animal experiments, females lacking oestrogen tend not to live so long as those
who have not been operated on the exact opposite of the male eunuchs fate. If you
remove a rodents ovaries, then the cells dont repair against molecular damage quite as
well, says Kirkwood.
Once the children are born, the men are more disposable
Kirkwood and Gem both think of this as a kind of evolutionary pay-off that gave both men
and women the best chances of passing on their genes. During mating, women would be
more likely to go for alpha males, pumped up on testosterone. But once the children are
born, the men are more disposable, says Kirkwood. The welfare of offspring is intimately
connected with welfare of the maternal body. The bottom line is that it matters more for the
children that the mothers body should be in good shape, rather than the fathers.
Thats cold comfort for men today. As it is, the scientists admit that we need to keep on
looking for a definitive answer. We really have to retain an open mind as to how much the
difference can be explained by hormonal differences and other factors, says Kirkwood. But
the hope is that eventually, the knowledge may provide some hints to help us all live a little
longer.
Topic 33. Why the US hides 700 million barrels of oil underground
The worlds superpowers store an enormous stockpile of oil in secure caverns and
tanks around the world. So why cant we use it?
By Chris Baraniuk
22 September 2015
Something important, and valuable, has been quietly hidden along Americas Gulf Coast.
Across four secure sites in unassuming locations lies nearly 700 million barrels of oil buried
underground. A total of 60 subterranean caverns, carved into rock salt beneath the surface,
constitute the United States massive Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR).
The facility was set up 40 years ago and there are now many other huge oil stockpiles dotted
around the world. In fact, a whole host of countries have poured billions of dollars into
developing such facilities and more are on the way. But what are these reserves and why
would anyone want to bury oil back into the ground in the first place?
The answer lies in the energy crisis of 1973. Arab oil exporters had cut off the West from
their supplies in response to US support for Israel during the Yom Kippur War. The world
was so dependent on oil from the Middle East that prices skyrocketed and petrol was soon
being rationed at US filling stations. In some cases, it dried up completely. People feared that
any petrol they had might be stolen and a few even took to protecting their cars with firearms
Topic 36. The dystopian lake filled by the worlds tech lust
Hidden in an unknown corner of Inner Mongolia is a toxic, nightmarish lake created by
our thirst for smartphones, consumer gadgets and green tech, discovers Tim
Maughan.
By Tim Maughan
2 April 2015
From where I'm standing, the city-sized Baogang Steel and Rare Earth complex dominates
the horizon, its endless cooling towers and chimneys reaching up into grey, washed-out sky.
Between it and me, stretching into the distance, lies an artificial lake filled with a black,
barely-liquid, toxic sludge.
Dozens of pipes line the shore, churning out a torrent of thick, black, chemical waste from the
refineries that surround the lake. The smell of sulphur and the roar of the pipes invades my
senses. It feels like hell on Earth.
Welcome to Baotou, the largest industrial city in Inner Mongolia. I'm here with a group of
architects and designers called the Unknown Fields Division, and this is the final stop on a
three-week-long journey up the global supply chain, tracing back the route consumer goods
take from China to our shops and homes, via container ships and factories.
You may not have heard of Baotou, but the mines and factories here help to keep our
modern lives ticking. It is one of the worlds biggest suppliers of rare earth minerals. These
elements can be found in everything from magnets in wind turbines and electric car motors,
to the electronic guts of smartphones and flatscreen TVs. In 2009 China produced 95% of
the world's supply of these elements, and it's estimated that the Bayan Obo mines just north
of Baotou contain 70% of the world's reserves. But, as we would discover, at what cost?
Element of success
Rare earth minerals have played a key role in the transformation and explosive growth of
China's world-beating economy over the last few decades. It's clear from visiting Baotou that
it's had a huge, transformative impact on the city too. As the centre of this 21st Century gold rush,
Baotou feels very much like a frontier town.
Workers in a factory in Shenzhen make MP3 players (Credit: Kate Davies/Unknown Fields)
In 1950, before rare earth mining started in earnest, the city had a population of 97,000.
Today, the population is more than two-and-a-half million. There is only one reason for this
huge influx of people - minerals. As a result Baotou often feels stuck somewhere between a
brave new world of opportunity presented by the global capitalism that depends on it, and the
fading memories of Communism that still line its Soviet era boulevards. Billboards for
expensive American brands stand next to revolution-era propaganda murals, as the
ielts.vinh@gmail.com
111
disinterested faces of Western supermodels gaze down on statues of Chairman Mao. At
night, multicoloured lights, glass-dyed by rare earth elements, line the larger roads, turning
the city into a scene from the movie Tron, while the smaller side streets are filled with drunk,
vomiting refinery workers that spill from bars and barbecue joints.
Even before getting to the toxic lake, the environmental impact the rare earth industry has
had on the city is painfully clear. At times its impossible to tell where the vast structure of the
Baogang refineries complex ends and the city begins. Massive pipes erupt from the ground
and run along roadways and sidewalks, arching into the air to cross roads like bridges. The
streets here are wide, built to accommodate the constant stream of huge diesel-belching coal
trucks that dwarf all other traffic.
A coal mine in Baotou (Credit: Liam Young/Unknown Fields)
After it rains they plough, unstoppable, through roads flooded with water turned black by coal
dust. They line up by the sides of the road, queuing to turn into one of Baotous many coalburning power
stations that sit unsettlingly close to freshly built apartment towers.
Everywhere you look, between the half-completed tower blocks and hastily thrown up multistorey
parking lots, is a forest of flame-tipped refinery towers and endless electricity pylons.
The air is filled with a constant, ambient, smell of sulphur. Its the kind of industrial landscape
that America and Europe has largely forgotten at one time parts of Detroit or Sheffield must
have looked and smelled like this.
Quiet plant
One of our first visits in the city is to a processing plant that specialises mainly in producing
cerium, one of the most abundant rare earth minerals. Cerium has a huge number of
commercial applications, from colouring glass to making catalytic converters. The guide who
shows us around the plant explains that they mainly produce cerium oxide, used to polish
touchscreens on smartphones and tablets.
Inside a rare earth mineral processing plant (Credit: Kate Davies/Unknown Fields)
As we are wandering through the factorys hangar-like rooms, its impossible not to notice
that something is missing. Amongst the mazes of pipes, tanks, and centrifuges, there are no
people. In fact theres no activity at all. Apart from our voices, which echo through the huge
sheds, the plant is silent. Its very obviously not operating. When asked, our guide tells us the
plant is closed for maintenance but theres no sign of that either: no maintenance crews, no
cleaning or repairs being done. When pushed further our guide gets suspicious, wonders
why we are asking so many questions, and clams up. Its a behaviour well encounter a lot in
Baotou a refusal to answer questions or stray off a strictly worded script.
ielts.vinh@gmail.com
112
As we leave, one of our party who has visited the area before suggests a possible
explanation: could local industry be artificially controlling market scarcity of products like
cerium oxide, in order to keep rare earth prices high? We cant know for sure that this was
the case the day we visited. Yet it would not be unprecedented: in 2012, for example, the
news agency Xinhua reported that Chinas largest rare earth producer was suspending
operations to prevent price drops.
One of Baotous other main exports is neodymium, another rare earth with a variety of
applications. Again it is used to dye glass, especially for making lasers, but perhaps its most
important use is in making powerful yet lightweight magnets. Neodymium magnets are used
in consumer electronics items such as in-ear headphones, cellphone microphones, and
computer hard-drives. At the other end of the scale they are a vital component in large
equipment that requires powerful magnetic fields, such as wind farm turbines and the motors
that power the new generation of electric cars. Were shown around a neodymium magnet
factory by a guide who seems more open than our friend at the cerium plant. Were even
given some magnets to play with. But again, when our questions stray too far from
applications and to production and associated environmental costs, the answers are less
forthcoming, and pretty soon the visit is over.
The refinement of rare earth minerals, like that done in this factory, can cause toxic
byproducts (Credit: Kate Davies/Unknown Fields)
The intriguing thing about both neodymium and cerium is that while theyre called rare earth
minerals, they're actually fairly common. Neodymium is no rarer than copper or nickel and
quite evenly distributed throughout the worlds crust. While China produces 90% of the global
markets neodymium, only 30% of the worlds deposits are located there. Arguably, what
makes it, and cerium, scarce enough to be profitable are the hugely hazardous and toxic
process needed to extract them from ore and to refine them into usable products. For
example, cerium is extracted by crushing mineral mixtures and dissolving them in sulphuric
and nitric acid, and this has to be done on a huge industrial scale, resulting in a vast amount
of poisonous waste as a byproduct. It could be argued that Chinas dominance of the rare
earth market is less about geology and far more about the countrys willingness to take an
environmental hit that other nations shy away from.
(Credit: Liam Young/Unknown Fields)
And theres no better place to understand Chinas true sacrifice than the shores of Baotou
toxic lake. Apparently created by damming a river and flooding what was once farm land, the
ielts.vinh@gmail.com
113
lake is a tailings pond: a dumping ground for waste byproducts. It takes just 20 minutes to
reach the lake by car from the centre of the city, passing through abandoned countryside
dominated by the industrial architecture on the horizon. Earlier reports claim the lake is
guarded by the military, but we see no sign. We pass a shack that was presumably a guard
hut at one point but its abandoned now; whoever was here left in a hurry, leaving their
bedding, cooking stove, and instant noodle packets behind when they did.
(Credit: Liam Young/Unknown Fields)
We reached the shore, and looked across the lake. Id seen some photos before I left for
Inner Mongolia, but nothing prepared me for the sight. Its a truly alien environment,
dystopian and horrifying. The thought that it is man-made depressed and terrified me, as did
the realisation that this was the byproduct not just of the consumer electronics in my pocket,
but also green technologies like wind turbines and electric cars that we get so smugly excited
about in the West. Unsure of quite how to react, I take photos and shoot video on my cerium
polished iPhone.
You can see the lake on Google Maps, and that hints at the scale. Zoom in far enough and
you can make out the dozens of pipes that line the shore. Unknown Fields Liam Young
collected some samples of the waste and took it back to the UK to be tested. The clay we
collected from the toxic lake tested at around three times background radiation, he later tells
me.
Watch the black byproduct of rare earth mining pouring into the lake at Baotao (Credit:
Richard John Seymour/Unknown Fields)
Unknown Fields has an unusual plan for the stuff. We are using this radioactive clay to
make a series of ceramic vessels modelled on traditional Ming vases, Young explains, each
proportioned based on the amount of toxic waste produced by the rare earth minerals used
in a particular tech gadget. The idea is to illustrate the impact our consumer goods have on
the environment, even when that environment might be unseen and thousands of miles
away.
After seeing the impact of rare earth mining myself, its impossible to view the gadgets I use
everyday in the same way. As I watched Apple announce their smart watch recently, a
thought crossed my mind: once we made watches with minerals mined from the Earth and
treated them like precious heirlooms; now we use even rarer minerals and we'll want to
update them yearly. Technology companies continually urge us to upgrade; to buy the
newest tablet or phone. But I cannot forget that it all begins in a place like Bautou, and a
terrible toxic lake that stretches to the horizon.
Topic 38. Wernher von Brauns Bold plan for space exploration
The man who designed the V2 rocket also helped America reach the Moon. And he
had a plan for deeper space exploration that was ahead of its time, it appears.
On 9 March 1955, 42 million Americans around a quarter of the total US population at the
time tuned in to watch a new Disney TV series. It featured no dancing mice, princesses in
peril or orphaned ungulates. Man in Space was fronted by a handsome, warm and engaging
rocket engineer setting out his vision for the future exploration of the cosmos.
Surrounded by beautifully sculpted spacecraft models and futuristic artwork, Wernher von
Braun addressed the viewer, talking through his plan for a practical passenger rocket
achievable, he claimed, within 10 years. The programme included spellbinding dramatic
animations and a suspenseful orchestral score, full-sized spacesuits and detailed diagrams.
Ten years earlier, von Braun had been leading the development of Hitlers V2 rockets
ballistic missiles built by slave labour and targeted at civilians across Europe. Now he was
the poster child for the American space programme and being welcomed into homes across
the nation.
The rockets von Braun built for the Nazis became the first stage of the American space
programme (Credit: Science Photo Library)
ielts.vinh@gmail.com
116
Opinion on the German rocket engineer is probably even more divided today than it was in
the 1950s. Some historians suggest he was an amoral opportunist exploiting Hitlers desire
for a futuristic weapon, to further his own ambitions for space exploration. For many others
he remains a hero a space visionary that won the race to the Moon and presented America
with a roadmap to the stars.
Whatever you feel about the man, the fact is that 60 years after those first broadcasts people
still refer to the von Braun Paradigm. Put simply, its the steps the engineer set out to take
mankind into space, with a shuttle and a space station, followed by missions to the Moon and
Mars.
He was obsessed with the Moon, that was his childhood ambition Michael Neufeld
What he was trying to do was lay out an architecture for how spaceflight might be possible,
explains Michael Neufeld, senior curator at the Smithsonians National Air and Space
Museum in Washington DC and author of three books and numerous articles on von Braun.
He was obsessed with the Moon, that was his childhood ambition.
The plan was very influential in the 60s and it lived on, Neufeld says. When going straight
to the Moon became the project he was enthused by that and didnt necessarily adhere to
this rigid shuttle, Moon, Mars scheme but for a lot of engineers at Nasa that was the logical
programme for human space exploration.
Shuttle without a station
Throughout the 1960s, von Braun pursued the development of the giant Saturn 5 rocket that
would take men to the Moon. But, in the minds of some in the American space agency, this
was just a diversion.
Nasa kept trying to come back to the script, says Neufeld. At the end of the 60s, the Space
Task Group tried to recommend to [President] Nixon that we need to build a space shuttle
and a space station and then well prepare for expeditions back to the Moon and onto Mars.
After Nasa landed astronauts on the Moon, the agency's budgets were slashed (Credit:
Nasa/Getty Images)
With the Moon race won and space budgets slashed, all that emerged was the space shuttle
programme a reusable vehicle conceived to service a space station. But without a space
station. Not so much a space policy as an excuse not to have one, says Neufeld. However,
the von Braun Paradigm remained close to the hearts of many.
Von Braun died of cancer aged 65 in 1977, four years before the first Space Shuttle flight.
But his plan lived on. Nasa returned to the idea of a space station and then President Bush
stood on the steps of this museum in 1989 and said were going back to the Moon and
Mars, says Neufeld. That also was a failure.
Our charter is to continue what he began Les Johnson
ielts.vinh@gmail.com
117
In the minds of many, however, von Brauns stepping-stones to Mars have never gone away.
Nasa keeps coming back to it, says Neufeld. What do we do now? is a perennial problem
with Nasa because the future of human spaceflight has been a lot less than the dreams of
the believers.
But there are still plenty of believers out there and, right now, they perhaps have every
reason to feel optimistic. In fact there is still a whole department at Nasa dedicated to these
future footsteps.
Von Braun became enthused with a plan to land on the Moon, but he had envisaged it being
part of a great plan (Credit: Science Photo Library)
Von Braun started this office back in the 1960s, says Les Johnson, technical advisor for
advanced concepts at Nasas Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama and owner of a DVD
copy of the original Disney series. Our charter is to continue what he began it is a direct
linear descendent of what he did.
I have a conference report from 1964 looking beyond the Moon and this was before even
Project Gemini and he was already telling his folks to start planning that Mars trip, says
Johnson. If I was to compare it to what we do today, most of the issues were wrestling with
were things he outlined in 1964.
Strong leadership
The parallels are striking. Johnsons office has recently been grappling with the challenges of
building the new Space Launch System (SLS) the first rocket since von Brauns Saturn 5
capable of taking humans beyond low-Earth orbit and, potentially back to the Moon and onto
Mars.
Johnson believes that as well as von Brauns visionary concepts we should also admire his
leadership. Whenever you have a team of people working towards a common objective
whether thats a team of 10 in a small business or tens of thousands with project Apollo to go
to the Moon youve got to have someone who keeps it all on track, who has that big vision,
says Johnson.
The Space Shuttle was built without the space station it was designed to resupply being in
orbit (Credit: Nasa/Getty Images)
Its the difference between a leader and a manager, unless you have a leader articulating
the vision, the manager doesnt have anything to manage.
ielts.vinh@gmail.com
118
If you ignore the inconvenient truth that America jumped a couple of steps by going to the
Moon early, it now appears we are back on track with the von Braun Paradigm. We have
done the shuttle and space station, now we push on to the Moon and Mars.
This was certainly the official narrative during last years launch of the new Orion spacecraft
and when I visited the factory where the SLS is taking shape. The new head of the European
Space Agency, Jan Worner, also told BBC Future recently of his vision for a village on the
Moon.
Unlike in von Brauns day any deep space exploration is likely to be international in nature
In fact Johnson too, has something of the visionary about him. Space is the future, he tells
me. Weve got to move out, weve got to explore and move beyond the Earth.
Johnson cautions, however, about the whole vision thing. A person whos a visionary is a
single point failure, so Im always nervous when someone says the great leader will get us
out of this. And, realistically, unlike in von Brauns day any deep space exploration is likely
to be international in nature involving the US, Europe, Russia, Japan, Canada and maybe
even China and India. A shared vision is likely to be a much more solid foundation for the
future.
It is, nevertheless, remarkable that we are still talking about von Braun 60 years after those
Disney shows and almost 40 years after his death. Even private space rivals Jeff Bezos and
Elon Musk refer to von Braun and his name was invoked recently in their recent mine is
bigger than yours spat over who has built the best reusable rocket.
Any future space stations are likely to be the product of complex international cooperation
(Credit: Esa/Nasa/Getty Images)
Im surprised hes not been forgotten more, admits Neufeld. Its partly the space visionary
dimension and partly the Nazi question either hes a bad Nazi or hes our space hero, its
hard to hold in your head that he could be both of them simultaneously.
He was the space populariser of the 50s and 60s, says Neufeld. He remains among space
buffs the one with a vision for a future space programme.
Wernher von Braun would doubtless be pleased people are still following his vision but even
more pleased that a Mars mission is a serious prospect. As someone who understood the
price of these gargantuan undertakings, however, he would also probably point out that no
mission to the Moon or Mars is yet properly funded.
Still, to adopt that old Disney adage: When you wish upon a star, your dreams come true.
Eventually.
Youd have thought Sandi Mann was offering people a slap in the face not a steaming cup of coffee.
Shed been visiting her local cafe with her children, where they often enjoyed a cheap and cheerful
breakfast as a treat before school. The youngest didnt want the coffee that came with his toast, so she
thought she might as well take it round and see if the other customers would like a free treat instead.
What could possibly go wrong? I thought theyd be delighted that everything would be warm and
cuddly, she says today. Instead, I just got stares of bewilderment. There was this suspicion: Had I spat
on it? Is it poisoned? She ended up feeling that she had somehow acted wrongly when all she wanted
to do was offer a free gift.
It wasnt meant to be like this. Mann, a psychologist at the University of Central Lancashire, had just
embarked on a new project to explore the phenomenon of paying it forward a popular philosophy of
being generous to a stranger, in the hope they will pass on the kindness to someone else. The idea is to
create a chain a domino effect, Mann explains.
Manns idea was to try it herself for a couple of weeks and observe the way people react. After all, most
people might have the intention of being a little bit kinder, yet we feel that we are unable to muster up
the willpower. So why is it so difficult to both give, and accept, kindness? And would it really pay off in
the real world or are we just too cynical in todays society? Mann recorded the pleasures, and
embarrassments, of that journey in her recent book Paying It Forward : How One Cup of Coffee Could
Change the World. (In the spirit of the books contents, Manns royalties from the book go to a charity for
patients with muscular dystrophy.)
Like many people, Manns interest in everyday kindness started with a heart-warming post on her
Facebook feed. Her American friend Debbie had been visiting a drive-through coffee shop only to find
that the person ahead had already settled her bill. She was so chuffed it made her day, says Mann.
Straight away, she was intrigued by the philosophys potential the idea that a single act of kindness
could have a knock-on effect, like the butterfly effect, sending ripples of goodwill through the world.
As Mann started reading up on the subject, she found that the principle has a deep history. In Italy,
wealthier Neapolitans have long embraced the tradition of buying a caffe sospeso in addition to their
own, for someone who is less able to pay for the luxury. Benjamin Franklin is one of the most famous
proponents of the idea. While lending some money to a friend, he explained: I do not pretend to give
such a deed; I only lend it to you; when you meet with another honest man in similar distress, you must
pay me by lending this sum to him, he wrote. This is a trick of mine for doing a deal of good with a little
money.
Today, paying it forward has become a popular and far-reaching movement it has even spawned a
novel and film. Google the term, and you will read heart-warming stories of grandiose acts of goodwill
like the generous philanthropists anonymously calling hospitals to pay for expensive operations, without
expecting so much as a simple thank you.
But often it is the smaller deeds that are most touching. Mann points to the case of Josh Brown, a 12-
year-old who found a strangers lost phone on a train. The owner was so pleased, she offered him a small
reward for the trouble. Instead, he sent a note attached to the returned phone: Dont worry about the
money, just do something nice for someone else.
These everyday altruists may not get an immediate payback (besides the givers glow), but people like
Brown tend to reap their rewards in terms of general life satisfaction. Michael Norton at Harvard
Business School has offered some of the most convincing evidence, repeatedly finding that people who
spend a bigger proportion of their income on others tend to be far happier, in the long run, than those
spending it on themselves.
Crucially, this is not just the result of the comfortable Western lifestyle: Norton has tested the concept
with data from more than 130 countries, from the US to Uganda. Across all countries rich or poor, and
in every continent people who gave more tended to be happier people, he says. For this reason, he
thinks the joy of giving appears to be a psychological universal a trait that lies at the core of human
nature, independent of your culture.
Taking time to help others may even protect you from disease, Mann says. Over a 30-year study, women
who volunteered for a charity were 16% less likely to suffer a major illness during that period perhaps
because it lowers stress levels, which may also, in turn, boost the immune system.
There are many possible reasons why acting selflessly may soothe the body and mind in these ways.
Giving to others can increase your social connection (who isnt grateful after theyve received a nice
present) and your sense of purpose in life; you feel like youve made a difference, and there is a point in
getting out of bed in the morning. Given that humans are social animals, this may be part of our evolved
nature, says Norton. In the same way that we hunger for fat or sugar we may all nurture a deep desire
to help other people, he says.
Helpers high
At least, thats the theory yet Mann found that the helpers high was often difficult to earn. Having
read the research, she had decided to spend two weeks trying simple, generous acts. I was very
determined that it shouldnt cost lots of money, she explains. So I set myself the challenge that it had
to cost less than a pound.
Her first task should have been simple enough. The setting was familiar her local coffee shop and she
was accompanied by her (cringing) children. All she wanted to do was to give away her seven-year-
olds unwanted cup of coffee. Yet as she walked among the tables, she was just met with suspicion rather
than gratitude. I felt like saying Im only trying to do something nice.
It was only once she framed the act differently, so that it seemed more logical, and less altruistic, that
their attitudes changed. Suddenly it was a different story altogether it made perfect sense that my kid
wont drink coffee. They still refused, but the suspicion vanished, and there were smiles, and thanks.
Eventually it was accepted by a lady named Rochel, who subsequently found an opportunity later in the
week to treat someone else.
That initial mistrust was a common theme for each of the following 13 days in which she tried to offer
strangers an umbrella on a rainy day, pay for someones parking ticket, and let fellow shoppers jump
ahead of her in checkout queues. Suspicion was the strongest reaction throughout, she says. Each
time, it was only when she offered a rational explanation such as the fact she was waiting for someone
at the checkout that people would accept her offers. Looking back, Mann now explains it as stranger
danger. Were brought up to expect strangers to put one over us, she says.
Yet there were also moments when she genuinely touched peoples lives. One man accepted the
chocolates, and told me that its a great thing spreading love instead of hate, says Mann. When you
know youve given someones mood a lift and made a difference theres nothing like it. She even
earned a good friend from the experience shes still regularly in touch with Rochel, the woman who
accepted her coffee on that first day.
If anything, the occasional hostility has only made Mann more determined to persevere. She points to
research showing that people have become individualistic over the last few decades, and score about
40% lower on tests of empathy than those brought up in the 1970s. Perhaps were just less used to being
kind, and receiving kindness in return.
Its a sad society if thats what weve become, she says. Theres so much hate, negativity, and
suspicion, and with everyones individualism, we feel like were all fighting just for ourselves, but we
need to counteract this and start a kindness movement. It sounds cheesy, but I think we need it.
Critics of the paying it forward movement may balk at its artificiality; they may even see it as
somewhat coercive, guilt-tripping others into acts of charity they may resent. They may also point to
evidence that goodwill does not spread quite as quickly as its proponents would like to believe. Nortons
own research, for instance, has found that spite and greed are far more likely to ripple through a
population than generosity. If someone is stingy, we are much more likely to pay forward that negative
behaviour to next person, he explains.
Yet you could also argue that this is only one more reason why we need a bit more kindness in the world
to neutralise those bad apples. Whats more, even though these random acts of kindness may seem
artificial to start with, there is some evidence that they can permanently change you for the better so
that kindness becomes your norm. You can cultivate habits of virtue, says David Rand at Yale
University, who has found that subjects encouraged to perform good deeds tend to be kinder in
subsequent tasks, a kind of psychological spillover. Indeed, he thinks that even the most astonishing
acts of altruism such as the heroism during the recent Paris shootings all grew from tiny seeds of
deliberate goodwill that eventually grew into an automatic desire to help others.
Mann, for one, is convinced that we can all change for the better. As a clinical psychologist, she has even
started advising people with depression to try and incorporate small acts of generosity or kindness into
their therapy. Depressed people say they have a lack of meaning in life, and that they dont feel
valuable, says Mann. She emphasises that it isnt a cure their other therapy is still very important.
But it gives a way to contribute back to society and that makes them feel good, like they are
something useful.
If you are inspired to give it a go, she suggests you should develop a thick skin. It takes some courage
and guts, she says. For this reason, she would advise setting the bar low at the beginning. I wouldnt
recommend standing in the street giving [out] free chocolates start with something in your comfort
zone, maybe just smiling at someone in the street, or talking nicely to shop assistants. Simply
complimenting people she encountered turned out to be one of the easiest, and most warmly received,
acts of kindness.
Ultimately, she hopes that her book will help remind us all that sometimes being kind can be a reward in
and of itself. Thats the view Id like to change; that there doesnt always have to be ulterior motive. You
can be kind just for the sake of being nice.