A TIMES OF INDIA PUBLICATION

Volume 8 Issue 2 • February 2018 `125

SCIENCE • HISTORY • NATURE • FOR THE CURIOUS MIND

PLASTIC
Solving the

PROBLEM
SOMETHING’S
WRONG WITH
GRAVITY
What if the force that holds
the Universe together doesn’t exist?

CANINE
COMEBACK
Italy’s wolf population is flourishing again

KNIGHTS
TEMPLARS
The rise and fall of the elite warriors

R.N.I. MAHENG/2010/35422
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 From the

IT'S A NEW YEAR,

editor
TIME TO FIND NEW HOPE
IN THE WORLD.
Which is why you'll love our story on the way forward with plastics.
Sure, we should all reduce our use of plastic, but there’s also great
news about what’s been done about the plastic we’ve already used,
and updates on alternatives to plastic that the scientists of the world
are coming up with.
We also have good news from the world of wildlife – Italian wolves
and tawny owls are doing great, thank you, and an update on
space tourism. Yes, Elon Musk has the goods all right.
We also have a fascinating story on the Knights Templar;
if you liked The Da Vinci Code, you’ll want to read this one.
And there’s an interesting supposition in Something’s Wrong
with Gravity – what if Einstein and Hawking missed out on telling
us something vital?
Find out more about Kubera, the god of wealth, in our continuing
series on Indian mythology, and turn to the last page for a fascinating
found object – a glazed tile stolen from Uzbekistan.
Happy new year! May 2018 be a year of discovery for us all!
SEND US YOUR
LETTERS
Has something you’ve read in
BBC Knowledge intrigued or excited you?
Write in and share it with us. We’d love to hear
from you and we’ll publish a selection
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Email us at: edit.bbcknowledge@wwm.co.in
We welcome your letters, while reserving the
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Editor & Chief Community Officer,
BBC Knowledge
CONTENTS
A TIMES OF INDIA PUBLICATION

FEATURES
46
Volume 8 Issue 2 • February 2018 `125

SCIENCE • HISTORY • NATURE • FOR THE CURIOUS MIND

Something’s Wrong
with Gravity
PLASTIC
Solving the

What if the force that holds the Universe

PROBLEM together doesn’t exist? We find out how
SOMETHING’S
WRONG WITH
this new revelation will help us finally
GRAVITY
What if the force that holds
understand dark matter!
the Universe together doesn’t exist?

54
CANINE
COMEBACK
Italy’s wolf population is flourishing again

KNIGHTS
Space Tourism
TEMPLARS
The rise and fall of the elite warriors
gets Real
Space entrepreneur Elon Musk has penciled

64
R.N.I. MAHENG/2010/35422

Cover Feb 18.indd 1 15/12/17 12:05 PM

in a date in 2018 to send two tourists around

the Moon and back on Space X’s Falcon 9.
Read this before you buy the tickets
Cover Story

72
Solving the Plastic Problem God’s Elite Warriors
We look at innovative technology that is
We crack open the story of the
going to clean up our oceans
Knights Templar, a band of ferocious workers
who ferociously defended the Crusaders’
interests in the Middle East

82 Tawny Owls in the Nest

Peek into the life of one of nature’s
most mysterious creatures: the tawny owl

38
 92
22 REGULARS
8 Q&A: Your Questions Answered
Why does music make us feel good?
Why do ants walk in a line? Does sea air really make
38
18
you feel better? These questions and more answered
by our panel of experts

18 Snapshots
Enthral and inform yourself with
these amazing photographs!

22 Discoveries & Innovations

Get your science and tech news and updates here

82
34 On the Shelves
Books with plot twists that will leave you dizzy

38 Portfolio: Canine Comeback

In Italy’s diverse wildlife, the enigmatic wolf holds
a special place in the heart of the conservationists

78 Indian Mythology: Kubera

Mythology expert Devdutt Pattanaik details
the history of the god of wealth

89 Puzzle Pit
Let’s get those grey cells churning

78
92 Found Object
What do the inscriptions on this rescued brick
from Uzbekistan’s history reveal?

31 5
FEBRUARY 2018
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 Q
questions
& Answers

&A
Dr Peter J Bentley
Computer scientist, author
Emma Davies
Prof Alice Gregory Heath expert, science writer
Psychologist, sleep expert
Luis Villazon
Charlotte Corney Science/tech writer
Zoo director, conservationist
Dr Aarathi Prasad
Dr Helen Scales Biologist,geneticist
Oceans expert, science writer
Prof Robert Matthews
Dr Christian Jarrett Physicist, science writer
Neuroscientist, science writer

YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED

WHY DO ANTS WALK

IN A LINE?
Ants are highly social insects, thriving in
colonies of millions of individuals that work
as a team. Good communication skills lie
at the heart of their success. They rely heavily
on chemical scents, called ‘pheromones’,
to defend territories and exchange complex
information – from the location of food sources
and nest sites, to the presence of predators.
Each ant species has its own chemical
vocabulary of up to 20 different pheromones
that can be secreted to form specific scent
trails. The tips of their antennae translate the
chemical ‘words’, thereby guiding the ants,
in a line, to or from the desired destination. CC

PHOTOS: GETTY X4 ILLUSTRATIONS: RAJA LOCKEY

Ants look highly organised

when they’re on the march,
but they’re literally just
following their noses
08
FEBRUARY 2018
 WHY DOES MUSIC MAKE US
FEEL GOOD?
At a basic level, it is to do with how our brains have evolved
to find it rewarding to look for and find meaningful patterns
in sound. Research suggests there is something particularly
satisfying about a piece of music that is in some ways familiar,
but also contains a few surprises.
Music can also make us feel good by amplifying our current
mood (think of the ‘pleasure’ of wallowing in a sad song when
you’re feeling down); it can also trigger fond or poignant
memories. Then there’s the social side: singing along
with friends to a new tune from your favourite band fosters
a powerful sense of belonging. CJ

Few things can WHAT IS AT THE CENTRE OF

stir the emotions
like listening to A GAS GIANT LIKE JUPITER?
music
This is one of the key questions astronomers hope to resolve
with data from NASA’s Juno mission, currently orbiting
Jupiter. Jupiter’s atmosphere is made up of around 90 per cent
hydrogen and 10 per cent helium, so computer models suggest
its core may be made from metallic hydrogen, a bizarre form
of the element thought to exist at extreme pressures. RM

THE THOUGHT EXPERIMENT

HOW CAN I LIVE TO BE 100?

PHOTOS: GETTY X4, SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY ILLUSTRATIONS: RAJA LOCKEY

1. Be born later 2. Be female 3. Take vitamin D 4. Stay active

Life expectancy figures normally
assume mortality rates will stay
the same, but medical and
safety improvements are
constantly reducing them.
A new Danish model that takes
this into account found that
children born in the developed
world today have a 50 per cent
chance of reaching 100.
Women live longer than men,
and not just because they
tend not to fight wars. Japanese
researchers created mice
without a father by combining
two female genomes.
Their lifespan was extended
by 30 per cent. Men may be
engineered for size and strength
at the expense of durability.
Vitamin D has been shown
to help proteins in your cells
keep the correct 3D shape.
Misfolded proteins are
associated with ageing
diseases such as Alzheimer’s
and Parkinson’s.
Daily exercise slows the gradual
loss of heart muscle and bone
density as we age, and reduces
the risk of falls. Once you can
no longer walk 400m (0.25
miles) in five minutes, your
chance of dying in the next
three years rises by 30 per cent.
 questionS
& Answers

HOW LONG DO SIX

PINTS OF LAGER
STAY IN MY SYSTEM?
There is no simple answer. The rate at which
your body breaks down alcohol depends on
many factors, including your age, sex, weight,
metabolism and how much you’ve eaten.
As a general rule of thumb, it takes about
one hour for your body to break down one ‘unit’
(10ml of pure alcohol). A pint of low strength

lager contains about two units, while a higher
strength one has three. So it could take
18 hours or longer for the alcohol from six pints
of strong lager to leave your system. In other
words, at least some alcohol will still be in your
blood the morning after the night before. ED
WHY DO BEAVERS
BUILD DAMS?
Dam-building is synonymous with beavers,
the ultimate aquatic engineers. Using branches
from trees they have felled, these large rodents
dam lakes to create moat-like ponds of still
water where they construct islands known
as ‘conical lodges’ out of timber, mud and
rocks. The body of water surrounding the
lodges provides protection from predators
– resident beavers enter and exit their
sophisticated homes incognito via water-
filled tunnels leading from the lodges to the
pond. The largest lodge, found in Alberta,
Canada, measures over 500m in length –
though, contrary to a widely circulated myth, it is
not visible from space! In deep or fast-moving Stratolaunch will have the longest
water areas, beavers simply excavate into river wingspan of any aeroplane and,
once it’s complete, will be used
banks and set up home there instead. CC to propel satellites into orbit

TOP 10

SLEEPIEST ANIMALS
(by hours spent sleeping per 24 hours)

1. KOALA 2. SLOTH 3. BROWN BAT 4. GIANT 5. NORTH AMERICAN

20-22 20 19.9 ARMADILLO 18.1 OPOSSUM 18
10
FEBRUARY 2018
 IN NUMBERS
WHICH PLANE HAS THE
BIGGEST WINGSPAN?
The passenger plane with the biggest
wingspan is the airbus A380 – a monster
2.647
Length, in Earth days,
double-decker plane that carries 550 people, of a year on newly
with a wingspan of 80m. But the overall discovered exoplanet
plane with the biggest wingspan will soon be NGTS-1b, a ‘hot Jupiter’
an aircraft that carries no passengers at all. lying some 600 light-
Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft and one years from Earth
of the world’s richest men, has helped create
the Stratolaunch. This will be an aircraft with

41bn
six 747 jet engines and a twin
fuselage (the flight crew are all in the right-
hand one, and instrumentation is in the left
one). The amazing machine will carry
Total carbon emissions
rockets high into the atmosphere to make
from Earth in 2017 –
launching satellites cheaper and more
the first rise in
reliable. It’s still under construction, but its
emissions for three
wingspan will be 117m. PB
years

19.7M
Area in km2 of the
hole in the Antarctic
ozone layer at its
winter 2016 peak...
That’s good news: it’s
the smallest it’s been
since 1988

PHOTOS: GETTY X3, SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY ILLUSTRATIONS: RAJA LOCKEY

6. PYTHON 7. OWL MONKEY 8. HUMAN 9. TIGER 10. TREE SHREW

18 17 INFANT 16 15.8 15.8
 questionS
& Answers

HOW IT WORKS

The MRI Scanner

Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) takes advantage of the fact that the nucleus of a hydrogen
atom (a single proton) behaves like a weak compass needle. In the presence of a strong
magnetic field, the hydrogen atoms will align themselves, but a radio signal of the correct
resonant frequency will cause them to deflect slightly. When the signal is removed, the atoms
return to their equilibrium state and emit a radio signal of their own. An MRI scanner can detect
these signals and use them to map the distribution of molecules with lots of hydrogen atoms –
ie, water and fat. In this way, it can create detailed images of the inside of the body.

A. Scanning table
The patient can only be scanned
from inside the magnetic coil,
so a motorised table slides them
in and out.

B
F
E
C

B. RF system D. Main magnet F. Gradient system

An antenna produces
a radio signal to ‘nudge’
the hydrogen nuclei and listen
to the answering radio wave
they emit.
Superconducting magnetic A second coil distorts the main
coils produce a magnetic field magnetic field so that
of 1.5 teslas – that’s about 300 the resonant frequency
times stronger than a fridge of the protons varies according
magnet. to position.

C. Liquid helium E. Patient

Liquid helium is pumped The high magnetic fields mean
through an enclosing jacket that patients with cochlear
to cool the superconducting implants, pacemakers or
magnets almost embedded shrapnel usually can’t
to absolute zero. be scanned.
12
FEBRUARY 2018

WHY DON’T HORSES HAVE
TOES?
Early horses such as Hyracotherium, which lived 55 million years
ago, did have multiple toes, but they were much smaller animals.
For taller animals, excess weight at the end of their legs has a much
bigger impact on their speed. A recent study at Harvard University,
the USA, found that one broad hoof is almost as strong as multiple
smaller toes, but much lighter. Natural selection has gradually
discarded the horse’s side toes and widened the middle one
to increase running speed. LV
DOES SEA AIR REALLY MAKE
YOU SLEEP BETTER?
Take a coastal walk and the chances are that you will sleep better,
according to a 2015 study by the UK’s National Trust. However,
there is no evidence that sea air in itself will make you sleep better.
At one time, people attributed their sleepiness to certain ions
or ozone in sea air. In reality, we probably sleep better after
a trip to the seaside because we have had a satisfying amount
of exercise and have been lulled by the rhythmic sound of the
waves. Those that live their daily lives by the seaside don’t
tend to report improved sleep. ED

WHAT’S THE
FURTHEST A BOTTLED
MESSAGE HAS
TRAVELLED?
The longest known single journey was that of
a Doctor Who postcard in a bottle, thrown into
the sea at Tyne and Wear, the UK in 2011. This
turned up 17 months later in Perth, Western
Australia – over 14,500km away. But, in 1929,
German marine scientists dropped a bottle into
the Indian Ocean with instructions for the finder
to report where it washed up and then throw it
back. This floated for six years and covered
25,600km! LV
WHY DID WE EVOLVE
AN IMAGINATION?
Imagination underlies our ability
to anticipate different futures and
to reflect on alternative pasts.
Arguably, it’s what distinguishes us
most profoundly from other animals.
It means we can learn from past
experiences (“If I’d taken a spear with
me, I could have caught the deer”) and
we can hypothesise about the possible
outcomes of future scenarios (“If I trek
across the desert without any food
or water, I will get hungry and thirsty”).
This makes us incredibly adaptive
and is the secret to our superlative
planning and problem-solving skills.
Once imagination evolved, it also
unlocked the gifts of storytelling,
fantasy and wonder. CJ
 questions
& Answers
W H O R E A L LY D I S C O V E R E D ?
BLACK HOLES
LOUISE PAUL
WEBSTER MURDIN
While their enigmatic name was first coined
in 1967, the idea of objects whose gravity
is so intense not even light can escape them
is far older. In 1783, an English cleric and
amateur scientist named John Michell
showed that Newton’s law of gravity
suggested such objects could exist.
But Michell went further, suggesting that
despite being invisible, such objects might
reveal themselves if they happened to have
a star in orbit about them.
He proved to be amazingly prescient in
both respects. During the 1930s, theorists
using Einstein’s more sophisticated theory
of gravity, known as General Relativity,
showed that sufficiently massive stars could
collapse under their own gravity at the end
of their life, and turn into black holes
(ironically, Einstein himself never accepted
that such strange objects could really exist).
Michell’s second claim was confirmed in
the early 1970s. British astronomers Louise
Webster and Paul Murdin at the Royal
Greenwich Observatory and Thomas Bolton,
a student at the University of Toronto,
Canada, independently announced the
discovery of a massive but invisible object
in orbit around a blue star over 6,000 light-
years away. The object, an intense X-ray
source codenamed Cygnus X-1, is now
regarded as the first black hole to be
identified. RM
Cygnus X-1
14
FEBRUARY 2018
ARE ATOMS
EXPANDING AS
THE UNIVERSE
EXPANDS?
The expansion of the Universe only
significantly affects space and time
on scales bigger even than entire
clusters of galaxies. Below this, the size
of objects is dictated by far stronger
influences, notably the force of
electromagnetism in the case of atoms.
Extremely sensitive measurements have
found no evidence that the fundamental
properties of atoms are anything other
than constant. RM
IS VAPING SAFE?
The most recent research shows that vaping
is much less bad for you than smoking.
If you already smoke cigarettes, then
switching completely to e-cigarettes will
significantly improve your health.
But smoking is so bad for you that you could
switch to skydiving and still come out ahead!
Skydiving every day for 70 years gives a 23
per cent chance of early death, while lifelong
smokers have a 50 per cent chance of dying
before 70. The real question is: can you
safely take up recreational vaping, even
if you don’t already smoke? The evidence
for this is much less clear. Nicotine by itself
doesn’t cause cancer, and vape juice
CAN A TREE GROW
IN SPACE?
Experiments on the ISS have shown that
young spruce tree seedlings do grow in
microgravity, but they don’t look quite
the same. The seedlings grow faster, and
the pine needles don’t point downward
so much. DNA analysis shows that several
plant genes are more active in space, but
we’re still waiting to find out the long-term
effects on larger plants. LV
PHOTO:S: ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY OF AUSTRALIA, CHANDRA/NASA, MIKE PEEL/WIKIPEDIA,
GETTY X2, PETER ESSICK/AURORA PHOTOS ILLUSTRATION: RAJA LOCKEY
doesn’t contain any of the 70 known
carcinogens that are present in tobacco.
But it does contain other chemicals, such
as propylene glycol. When this is heated by
the electric element in the e-cigarette, it can
create formaldehyde, which is carcinogenic.
The different flavour chemicals used in vape
juice are all organic compounds, and these
can also be altered by the heating element.
Vaping has only been around for a decade,
so it is still too soon to be sure of long-term
effects. Since e-cigarettes will get you
hooked on nicotine just as surely as tobacco
does, it doesn’t seem wise to take up
a whole new addiction. LV
 W H AT I S T H I S ?

WILD WETLANDS
This aerial photo shows part of Sears Point, an area
of high land that juts out into the San Pablo Bay
in northern California, the USA. Over 388 hectares
of it are being restored to marshland, as this provides
an important habitat for local wildlife and reduces the risk
of flooding in nearby towns. The circular ‘marsh mounds’
seen here prevent waves from forming and carrying
away the sediments marsh plants need to grow.
 questionS
& Answers

WHAT COULD EXPLAIN THE STAR

OF BETHLEHEM?
Ancient Chinese records report the appearance of a bright comet in 5BC and also
the sudden flare-up of a star in 4BC – both around the time when Christ is now
thought to have been born. However, some researchers have claimed these events
lack the astrological significance of ‘portents’ involving the Moon and planets,
which would have attracted attention among scholars of the time.
This has led to the emergence of two top contenders for explaining the Star of
Bethlehem. The first is a so-called ‘occultation’ in 6BC, when the Moon appeared to
pass in front of Jupiter in the night sky. The second contender is an unusual triple
conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn that took place in 7BC, when these two great
planets repeatedly appeared close to one another. RM

16
FEBRUARY 2018
WHY ARE CLOWNS SO
SCARY?
For many people, there is something disturbing about
the clown’s make-up that renders their facial expression
as an unnatural, fixed grin or smile. This means we can’t
read their true emotions, putting us on edge. It’s probably
no coincidence that many of the most infamous horror
characters also conceal their faces in some way – think
of the Scream mask, or Leatherface from The Texas
Chainsaw Massacre. When the clown also behaves
aggressively or menacingly, the contrast with their playful
costume and grinning features just adds to the creepiness.
But context is everything: children can find friendly,
silly circus clowns hilarious. CJ

WHY DO DOGS EAT GRASS?

A 2008 study found that 68 per cent of dogs regularly eat grass
but only 22 per cent of them are sick afterwards, so it doesn’t seem
to be because the dog is ill. Wolves also eat grass, and it may be
that this helps to purge their intestines of parasites. Dogs may
have inherited this ancestral behaviour even though most pets
are regularly dewormed. LV

USB sticks are

actually lighter
when full of data

QUESTION OF THE MONTH

DOES A USB DRIVE

GET HEAVIER AS YOU
STORE MORE FILES
ON IT?
Believe it or not, they get lighter. USB drives
use Flash memory, which means the ones
and zeros of your data are stored on
transistors. When you save data, a binary zero
is set by charging the float gate of the
transistor, and a binary one is set by removing
the charge. To charge it, we add electrons,
and the mass of each electron is
0.00000000000000000000000000091 grams.
This means that an empty USB drive (which
mostly holds zeros) weighs more than a full
USB drive (which has ones and zeros).
Add data, reduce the weight. However,
you would need to weigh more USB drives
than exist on the planet together at once
before the difference in weight became
easily measurable. PB
 snapshots
Nature

18
FEBRUARY 2018
 She’s having
a bubble!
KEDAH, MALAYSIA
This is a social wasp belonging
to the genus Ropalidia, which is
commonly found across southeast
Asia. Most insects belonging to this
genus produce nests by swarming,
in a manner similar to honeybees
– an unusual behaviour for wasps.
However, in this particular species,
a single mated female starts a nest
in much the same way that wasps
often do.
“In this photo, the female has
constructed a paper nest from wood
fibres and water – natural papier
maché – and, in the cells, you can
see developing larvae. These will
turn into adult females that look
exactly like their mother queen,
but, instead of laying eggs, they
will become workers, expanding
and defending the nest and
tending to the eggs and larvae,”
said entomologist and BBC
presenter Adam Hart. “She has
removed water from the open nest
using her mouth. Wasps, like their
relatives the bees and ants, are
scrupulous in keeping conditions
in their nests just right for rearing
the young.”
PHOTO: CATERS NEWS

Unlike other worker wasps in the

UK, which remain more or less
PHOTO: ALAMY

sterile throughout their lives,

Ropalidia workers have the capacity
to become breeding females
that can replace the mother
queen if she is lost.
 snapshots
Science

A nifty little
mover
ROTTWEIL, GERMANY
Looking like something out of
Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory,
this image from ThyssenKrupp’s
testing tower shows the world’s
first ‘ropeless’ elevator. Thanks to
its cable-free design, the MULTI
elevator can move both vertically
and horizontally, with exchanger
mechanisms controlling direction,
much like points on a railway line.
Very tall buildings require multiple lift
shafts, as having a single, central
shaft can undermine their structural
integrity. But, as Markus Jetter,
ThyssenKrupp’s head of project
development, explains: “With
MULTI lifts, architects are no longer
restricted in their designs by
concerns about elevator shaft height
and vertical alignment. Traditional
shafts can occupy 40 per cent of
the floor space in a typical tall
building; MULTI halves that,
leaving more room for offices
and apartments.”
The first MULTI elevator is due
to be installed in the new East Side
Tower in Berlin in 2020.
20
FEBRUARY 2018
PHOTO: THYSSENKRUPP
 DISCOVERIES
discoveries
Science
DISPATCHES FROM THE CUTTING EDGE
PA L A EO N TO LO GY
TEETH SHED NEW LIGHT ON
MAN’S EARLIEST ORIGINS
T
WO fossilised teeth found on Devon’s
‘Jurassic coast’ have been identified as
belonging to some of man’s earliest
ancestors.
The teeth belonged to two previously unknown
species of small, rat-like creature that lived
around 145 million years ago, during the Early
Cretaceous period. The two species, which have
been named Durlstotherim newmani and
Durlstotherim ensomi, are now effectively the
earliest known creatures in the line that led not
just to humans, but to pretty much all mammals
that are alive today – from the tiny pygmy shrew
to the giant blue whale.
The fossilised teeth were discovered by Grant
Smith, an undergraduate student at the University
of Portsmouth, England. After realising they were
22
FEBRUARY 2018
The teeth found in Devon
came from two small,
rat-like mammal species
that co-existed with
dinosaurs
the teeth of some kind of early mammal and
showed them to his supervisor, Prof Dave Martill,
who, excited by the find, consulted Dr Steve
Sweetman, an expert in early mammals, who
confirmed the specimens’ remarkable age.
“Even at first glance my jaw dropped.
The teeth are of a type so highly evolved that
PHOTO: DR MARK WITTON/UNIVERSITY OF PORTSMOUTH
I realised straight away I was looking at remains
of Early Cretaceous mammals that more closely
resembled those that lived during the latest
Cretaceous – some 60 million years later in
geological history,” said Dr Sweetman. “Our 145
million-year-old teeth are undoubtedly the earliest
yet known from the line of mammals that lead to
our own species.”The creatures from which
1MM the teeth came would have been small,
burrowing mammals, and most likely nocturnal.
“The teeth are very worn, which suggests
the animals to which they belonged lived to
a good age for their species,” said Dr Sweetman.
“No mean feat when you’re sharing your habitat
with predatory dinosaurs!”
 THINGS WE
LEARNED
PA L A EO N TO LO GY THIS MONTH

DINOSAUR-KILLING ASTEROID
BLUE LIGHT CAN HELP
TO RELAX US

IMPACT WAS WORSE THAN

FOLLOWING
AN ARGUMENT
If you find your blood

WE THOUGHT boiling after a bit of argy-

bargy, get yourself a blue
light. A team at the
Some 66 million years ago, an asteroid struck London, England. “We wanted to revisit this
University of Granada,
the Yucatan peninsula in Central America, significant event and refine our collision model
Spain, has found that blue
forming the Chicxulub crater and wiping out to better capture its immediate effects on the
lighting can help us
the dinosaurs in what is known as the atmosphere.”
to calm down.
Cretaceous–Paleogene (K–Pg) extinction event. But perhaps more surprising are the results
But two new pieces of research suggest that this of a study conducted at Japan’s Meteorological
DOGS ARE RED/GREEN
impact was even more cataclysmic than was Institute and Tohoku University. In a paper just
COLOUR BLIND
previously believed. published in the journal Nature, researchers
Thinking about playing
A new study published in the journal Kunio Kaiho and Naga Oshima show that
fetch with your dog in the
Geophysical Research Letters shows that up to the high levels of soot and sulphurous gas
park? You might want to
three times as much sulphur may have been that caused the mass extinction were a result
think twice before buying
released into the atmosphere as a result of the of the rocks on the peninsula being particularly
a red ball: researchers at
impact than previous models have suggested. rich in hydrocarbons. Such rocks covered
the University of Bari,
This would have led to a longer period of global only around 13 per cent of the world’s surface,
Italy, have found that dogs
cooling, which helps to explain the devastating and had the impact occurred in a different area
can’t distinguish between
effects on the Earth’s fauna at the time. where the rocks were less rich in hydrocarbons,
the colours red and green.
“Many climate models can’t currently capture the dinosaurs would most likely have survived.
all of the consequences of the Chicxulub impact, In other words, the chances of the asteroid
EATING MUSHROOMS
due to uncertainty in how much gas was initially impact killing off the dinosaurs as it did were
COULD HELP US LIVE
released,” said the paper’s lead author Joanna only slightly more than one in 10. Unlucky…
A LONGER, HEALTHIER
Morgan, a geophysicist at Imperial College
LIFE
High levels of the
antioxidants
ergothioneine and
glutathione found in
mushrooms could help
to prevent cell damage
caused by free radicals
– oxygen atoms with
unpaired electrons
produced when the body
uses food to produce
energy.

CATS COULD PREVENT

CHILDREN GETTING
ASTHMA
Danish researchers have
found children who grow
up in families that keep
pet cats are far less likely
to suffer from asthma.
The effect is thought to be
If the Chicxulub down to specific genetic
meteor had shifted triggers for the conditions
trajectory slightly, being switched off when
dinosaurs could
still be roaming children are in regular
the Earth today contact with moggies.
 discoveries
Science

IN NUMBERS

SIX
MONTHS
The average time is takes to
shed extra pounds put on
through over-indulging during
the holiday period, as
estimated by a team at
Tampere University, Finland

23
TERAWATT
HOURS
The amount of energy used
globally by Bitcoin miners
each year... That’s just short
of the 24.8 terawatt hours

PHOTOS: ANDREW WALMSLEY, NATER ET AL., UNIVERSITY OF WARWICK/MARK GARLICK ILLUSTRATION: DANIEL BRIGHT
generated by renewable
energy worldwide in 2016

20
ZO O LO GY

NEWLY IDENTIFIED ORANGUTAN

IS WORLD’S MOST ENDANGERED
GREAT APE SPECIES
A population of orangutans that lives in a remote
part of northern Sumatra, and that was only
discovered in 1997, has now been identified
as a separate species. With only around 800
individuals known to exist, it’s now also the
most threatened of all great ape species.
It was once believed that all orangutans
were one species, but since 1996 science has
recognised two: the Bornean and Sumatran
orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus and Pongo abelli,
respectively). The following year, a long-
rumoured population of orangutans living in
the Batang Toru region of northern Sumatra
was seen for the first time, but initially the apes
were thought to be of the species P. abelli.
However, close study of an adult skeleton
found in 2013 has revealed significant
differences in the skull and teeth of the Batang
Toru apes, leading to their new classification:
24
FEBRUARY 2018
MILLION
The number of lives saved
worldwide by the measles
vaccine since the turn of the
Pongo tapanuliensis, or the Tapuli orangutan.
millennium, as calculated by
Genomic analysis suggests that the species
the Centers for Disease
must have split from P. abelli around 70,000
Control and Prevention
years ago.
“The Batang Toru orangutans appear
to be direct descendants of the initial
orangutans that had migrated from mainland
Asia, and thus constitute the oldest evolutionary
line within the genus Pongo,” said lead author
Alexander Nater, from the University of Zurich,
Switzerland.
With just 800 individuals known,P.tapanuliensis
goes straight to the top of the endangered great
apes league table, not least because large areas
of its habitat are threatened by plans to build
a hydroelectric dam in the region. The discovery
isn’t great news for P. abelli in that regard,
either – there are now 800 less of them than
was previously believed.

DOGS
People have more empathy for dogs than their
fellow humans, a study at Northeastern
University, Boston, the USA, has found.
Subjects who read about dogs being beaten
were more moved than those who read similar
stories about humans.
THE AMISH
A genetic mutation found in some members of
an Amish community in Indiana, the USA can
help them to live up to a decade longer than
people without it, a study at Northwestern
University has found.
G O O D MO N T H
BA D MO N T H
FAST EATERS
Taking your time at the dinner table could lead
to a trimmer, healthier you. A study led by
the American Heart Association has found that
slow eaters are significantly less likely to suffer
from obesity, heart disease and stroke.
GRAMMAR PEDANTS
Researchers from the University of
Pennsylvania, the USA, have found that
the English language is evolving by random
chance, and is subject to the same ‘drift’ found
in natural selection in the animal kingdom.
S PAC E
MASSIVE NEW
EXOPLANET SHOULDN’T,
IN THEORY, EXIST
Well, this is a bit of a headscratcher.
Recently discovered exoplanet NGTS-
1b is causing astronomers to rethink
their ideas about how planets come
into being, because according to
current theories, such a large planet
should not be able to from around a
star as small as its parent.
NGTS-1b is the first exoplanet
discovered by the Next-Generation
Transit Survey. This international
initiative, based at the Paranal
Observatory in Atacama, Chile,
uses an array of 12 telescopes to scan
a small area of sky repeatedly over
several months. By detecting a dip
in brightness, every 2.65 days, of the
light coming from a red dwarf star
dubbed NGTS-1, astronomers were
able to determine that a ‘hot Jupiter’-
type exoplanet is orbiting the star.
‘Hot Jupiters’ are gas giants (like
our own Jupiter) which are much closer
to their parent star than Jupiter is to
our own Sun. Because they’re so large
NGTS-1b is a ‘hot Jupiter’
orbiting a red dwarf star,
which, until now, wasn’t
believed to be possible
and orbit their parent so closely,
they cause significant, regular dips
in its brightness, and, as a result,
are among the easiest exoplanets
to spot.
It’s believed they form, like Jupiter,
in the outer reaches of a solar system,
before migrating inwards – but such
an explanation assumes the presence
of a main sequence star such as our
own Sun. According to current
theories, a red dwarf like NGTS-1,
which is only half that size, should
only have enough gravity to form
rocky planets, not gas giants.
“Having worked for almost a decade
to develop the NGTS telescope array,
it’s thrilling to see it picking out new
and unexpected types of planets,”
said Prof Peter Wheatley of the
University of Warwick, England,
who is head of the NGTS project.
The team’s next challenge will be
to work out how common planetary
systems like this are.
 discoveries
Science

ZO O LO GY

COCKATOOS ARE SKILFUL

SHAPE-SORTERS
Who’s a clever boy, then? Goffin’s cockatoos, a species of small parrot native to Australasia,
have been shown to have similar shape-recognition abilities to a human two-year-old.
Though not known to use tools in the wild, the birds have proved adept at tool use in captivity.
In a recent experiment at the University of Vienna and the University of Veterinary Medicine,
Vienna, cockatoos were presented with box with a nut inside it. The clear front of the box had
a ‘keyhole’ in a geometric shape, and the birds were given five differently shaped ‘keys’
to choose from. Inserting the correct ‘key’ would release the nut.
In humans, babies can put a round shape in a round hole from around one year of age,
but it will be another year before they’re able to do the same with less symmetrical shapes such
as squares, triangles or crosses. This ability to recognise that a shape will need to be rotated
into a specific orientation before it will fit is called an ‘allocentric frame of reference’. In the tests
in Vienna, the Goffin’s cockatoos were able to select the right tool for the job, in most cases,
by visual recognition alone. Where trial-and-error was involved, the cockatoos fared better
than apes and monkeys have in similar tests.
“This indicates that [Goffin’s cockatoos] do indeed possess an allocentric frame of reference
when moving objects in space, similar to two-year-old toddlers,” said Alice Auersperg,
head of the Goffin lab at the University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna.
The next step, say the researchers, is to try and work out whether the cockatoos rely entirely
on visual clues, or also use a sense of touch in making their shape selections.

PHOTOS: BENE CROY, GETTY

Goffin’s cockatoos
have shape-
recognition abilities
akin to those of
a human two-year-old
26
FEBRUARY 2018

M E N TA L H E A LT H
HALLUCINOGENIC DRUG BREWED BY
AMAZONIANS COULD BE USED TO TREAT
ALCOHOLISM AND DEPRESSION
A psychedelic drug traditionally used in South
American shamanic ceremonies could be used
to treat alcoholism and depression, new research
from the University of Exeter and University
College London suggests.
Previous studies have suggested that LSD
PHOTOS: ALAMY, NASA/ESA/G BACON/STSCL
and magic mushrooms can help alcoholics tackle
their addiction, but now ayahuasca, a psychedelic
brew often consumed in rituals in the Amazon
region, has also shown promise.
The brew is made from a blend of the bush
Psychotria viridis and the stems of the
Banisteriopsis caapi vine. It is used in rituals
by indigenous tribes and religious groups
in the region, as well as being increasingly
popular with visitors seeking psychedelic
experiences. The resulting concoction contains
dimethyltryptamine (DMT), a Class A prohibited
Ayahuasca has
been used in
religious rituals
since at least the
16th Century
drug in the UK.Taking Global Drug Survey
data from more than 96,000 people worldwide
– including 527 ayahuasca users, 18,138 who
used LSD or magic mushrooms and 78,236 non-
drug users – the team found that ayahuasca users
reported lower problematic alcohol use than
people who took LSD or magic mushrooms, and
higher general well-being than other respondents.
“These findings lend some support to the notion
that ayahuasca could be a powerful tool in treating
depression and alcohol use disorders,” said lead
author Dr Will Lawn, of University College London.
“Recent research has shown ayahuasca’s
potential as a psychiatric medicine, and our
current study provides further evidence that it may
be a promising treatment – though it’s important
to note that these data are purely observational
and do not demonstrate causality.”
 discoveries
Science

A previously unknown
chamber has been found
inside the Great Pyramid

EGY PTO LO GY

HIDDEN CHAMBER FOUND IN GREAT

PYRAMID USING COSMIC RAYS
PHOTO: SCANPYRAMIDS

How sub-atomic particle detectors are enabling archaeologists to peer inside

ancient structures as never before

28
FEBRUARY 2018

Archaeologists have uncovered a mysterious
chamber deep within the Great Pyramid of Giza,
using a cutting-edge imaging technique based
on the detection of subatomic particles created
by cosmic rays.
Dubbed the ScanPyramids Big Void, after
PHOTOS: SCANPYRAMIDS, SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY, HIROYUKI TANAKA X2
the name of the project that discovered it,
the cavity is approximately 30m long and 3m high
and is situated above the Grand Gallery, a large
corridor that connects the two largest of
information in archaeology”
the iconic structure’s three main chambers.
The Great Pyramid, also known as Khufu’s
Pyramid, was built during the reign of Pharaoh
Khufu, who reigned from 2509 to 2483 BC.
Despite years of research, there is no consensus
on how exactly the monument was constructed.
As yet, the precise structure and role of the
newly-discovered void remain unknown,
but the findings may pave the way for further
studies that could help researchers to understand
the pyramid and its construction process.
“No important internal structures have been
found in the Pyramid since 820AD, when the
Calife Al Mamun dug a tunnel and penetrated
inside, revealing most of the structure we know
today,” said Prof Mehdi Tayoubi from Cairo
University. “Finding something as important,
Mehdi Tayoubi
and colleagues now
hope to investigate
the new chamber
in more detail
“Our discovery is the first
demonstration of the
potential of cosmic ray
imaging to gather new
in terms of size, as the Grand Gallery is an important breakthrough.”
The void was discovered using sensors tuned to detect muons,
particles that are created when high energy cosmic rays slam
into molecules in the upper atmosphere. By piecing together data
from several different locations, the team were able to form a three-
dimensional image of the pyramid’s internal structure.
“Our discovery is the first demonstration of the potential of cosmic
ray imaging to gather new information in archaeology,” said Nagoya
University’s Kunihiro Morishima from Japan. “The Big Void has not
been touched by anyone since the building of the pyramid 4,500
years ago, so, if there are some artefacts inside the big void,
they should be very important for understanding ancient Egypt.”
The team now plans to take further scans of the Big Void,
in order to determine its shape and structure in more detail.
 discoveries
Science
WHAT ARE MUONS?
Muons are negatively charged subatomic
particles that come from the lepton family –
the same family as electrons, though muons
are much heavier. Like electrons, they are not
thought to be made up of any smaller particles,
making them a so-called elementary particle.
They were first discovered in 1936 by Nobel
Prize-winning physicist Carl Anderson and
Seth Neddermeyer at Caltech in the US while
they were studying cosmic radiation.
30
FEBRUARY 2018
Around 10,000 muons reach every square
metre of the Earth’s surface each minute.
They are created when cosmic rays –
high energy radiation that originates from
outside the Solar System – collide with
molecules in the upper atmosphere.
As muons don’t interact very strongly with
matter, they are able to travel through solid
objects – including our own bodies – and
penetrate deep into the surface of the Earth. WHAT IS MUON
TOMOGRAPHY?
Cosmic rays from
outside our Solar Thanks to their ability to
System send muons penetrate deep into solid
cascading through it
matter, muons can be used
to image the internal structure
of objects in a manner similar
to X-rays. Detectors are
placed in strategic positions
around the object to be
scanned, and left running for
several months. Over time,
a pattern of detections builds
up, revealing the void areas
where the muons passed
through without issue, and
the denser areas where some
of them were absorbed
or scattered. The internal
structure of the object can
therefore be discerned.
The technique has previously
been used to reliably image
and create 3D models of the
interior of volcanoes, making
clear the distinction between
rocks of different
temperatures, water, and
voids beneath the surface,
and also to probe the ruins left
behind in the wake of the
Fukushima Daiichi nuclear
disaster.
 prepare yourself for tomorrow
Pimax’s new VR
system raises the
graphics bar with 8K
resolution

GAMECHANGERS
As the year draws to a close, we take a look back at the tech
and gadgets that left a mark in 2017...
First up are two virtual reality headsets that highlight how rapidly VR is evolving. Consumer VR has so far mostly
come in two flavours. Either you wear a costly headset connected to an even more expensive PC/Mac, or you tuck
your phone into a visor, which is less immersive but a lot cheaper. But now there’s Oculus Go, a standalone
dedicated VR headset and handheld controller that require no other hardware – giving you the best of both worlds
for just $199 (£150 approx).
Meanwhile, a new headset from Japanese start-up Pimax VR recently broke the Kickstarter funding record
previously held by Oculus Rift. Their headset promises unparalled immersion, with each eye treated
to its own 4K display.
But, while VR has been big news in 2017, it wasn’t the only technology to be developing apace.
So over the next eight pages, we look at some of the hottest topics in tech in 2017, from robots to AI to electric cars,
and ask, ‘Where next?’. The future starts here...
 Innovations
Science

TRANSPORT

PETROL AND DIESEL CARS

GET AN EVICTION DATE

Dirty air is making us ill. In fact, 40,000 premature deaths per year can be attributed Plug-In Adventures’
to poor air quality, according to the Royal College of Physicians, the UK. So news modified Nissan Leaf
was the first electric
in July 2017 that the (UK) government was setting out to clean up air was welcome. vehicle to complete the
The headline was that the sale of petrol and diesel cars and vans would be banned 12,875km Mongol Rally
by 2040 – with hybrids being exempt.
But the initiative was greeted by a healthy dose of scepticism. Firstly, climate and
environment experts felt the deadline wasn’t soon enough: we’ll still be breathing in polluted air Car makers
for the next 22 years. Secondly, the scheme didn’t explain how the country might prepare for
a new influx of cars needing somewhere to plug in. To cope with the extra energy demand, are
it’s estimated we’d need 30GW of extra electricity per year, equivalent to the output of 10 more
Hinkley nuclear power stations or 10,000 more wind turbines. Finally, the Royal Automobile competing
Club, London, pointed out that it wasn’t clear what the ban meant for drivers, with big cities
likely to start imposing their own restrictions on polluting vehicles much sooner. to reimagine
There is cause for optimism, though. While the infrastructure strategy is lacking, car makers
from Nissan to Volvo to Jaguar are competing to reimagine themselves in an emissions-free themselves
age. Nissan, which produced the Leaf – the first proper electric car – sent it to compete
in the Mongol Rally, proving that you don’t need fossil fuels to go long haul. It also unveiled in an
home charging stations which could store power from the grid at off-peak hours, to lower
costs. Dyson announced plans to build an electric car in the near future, while Tesla recently emissions-
answered the question “What about trucks?” with its Electric Semi, which can haul 36 tonnes
for 500 miles on a single charge. free age
32
FEBRUARY 2018
 SMART HOMES
NEW SECURITY NORMS FOR
THE INTERNET OF THINGS
The ear in tech started at the CES show in
Las Vegas, where Amazon’s voice assistant
Alexa could be found in over 30 products.
That trend continued all year, with new Alexa
devices hitting the shelves almost daily,
and Amazon itself recently unveiling a raft
of new Alexa products including Echo Spot,
Echo Connect and, most significantly,
Echo Plus, which doubles as a fully-fledged
smart home hub.
With Alexa now in so many homes, this is
an obvious next step. When tech companies first
started talking about ‘internet fridges’ and other
Internet of Things (IoT) devices, people laughed:
who needed to go online or fumble about in an
app to see if they had milk, when they could just
open the fridge door? But introduce Alexa to
the mix, and suddenly you can check if you’ve
got milk, and order more if you haven’t, without
even reaching for your phone.
So expect 2018 to be the year when the IoT
– Now With Voice Control!™ – finally takes off.
But at what price? Almost as frequent as Alexa
product launches in 2017 were alerts about
security weaknesses in IoT devices – from the
Amazon Echo, to Nest security cameras, to
children’s toys and smartwatches aimed at kids,
which Germany has just gone so far as to ban
outright. In May 2017, Daniel Coats, the US
Director of National Intelligence, suggested
insecure IoT devices could be used to launch
cyberattacks on vital infrastructure, while a
recent report by German security specialists
Gemalto found that just 52 per cent of data
captured by such devices is encrypted.
John Moor, managing director of the IoT
Security Foundation, said: “At this point in time
there are no specific regulations for IoT security,
and that explains in part why we are seeing
so many problems. But we’re starting to sense
a consensus form around the key requirements
for IoT security, and we are encouraging Alexa is
everywhere:
governments considering regulation to look hard the Amazon Echo
at our expert-led work, so as to translate this into Plus (1), Echo (2),
useful regulation for responsible suppliers, Echo Connect (3)
and Echo Spot (4)
consumers and citizens.”
4
 O NOT
on the shelves
Books

TWISTED TALES
WE LIST BOOKS WITH SURPRISING PLOT TWISTS

WORDS: MOSHITA PRAJAPATI

THE MURDER OF ROGER ACKROYD

Agatha Christie
William Collins, Sons
The Crime Queen spins a web of deceit,
with twists and turns in every chapter, and
secrets that tumble out of every character’s
cupboard. Published in 1926, this murder
mystery, set in a hamlet in England, will have
you turn back to the first pages of the book
to look for the tell-tale signs that pointed to
the killer’s motives that you had missed
the first time around. This plot twist was
something that no one saw coming…

GONE GIRL
Gillian Flynn
Crown Publishing Group
Where do we even begin when
it comes to this pop culture
phenomenon, which was later
adapted into a movie for its sheer
plot twist that no one saw coming?
Nick Dunne’s wife Amy goes
missing days before their sixth
anniversary and suspicion falls on
Nick. From Nick’s secret life, to
his interactions with his family and
the media, and Amy’s diary, which
points a finger at Nick, the plot of
Gone Girl will have you tearing
through the pages
in hysteric anticipation.

DO N OT C R O S S
34
FEBRUARY 2018
T CRO
SS DO
NOT C
ROSS
FIGHT CLUB
Chuck Palahniuk
W W Norton & Company
The first rule of Fight Club is that you don’t
talk about Fight Club. That ensures this will
be a short review. You will have to read
the book to find the plot twist for yourself.

BIG LITTLE LIES

Liane Moriarty
Penguin Books
This one has little
secrets, unexpected plot
developments and a plot
twist that will astound you.
Set in a suburban town on
the west coast of America,
three female characters
and their quirky and
eclectic life choices make
for a gripping read about
the big little lies we tell
ourselves just to survive
life’s daily grind.

NEVER LET ME GO
Kazuo Ishiguro
Faber & Faber
This book is simple in narrative and in its exploration of human SHUTTER ISLAND
relationships, and in that simplicity lies the adroitness of the Dennis Lehane
author. He sucks you in with this beguiling take on star- William Morrow and Company
crossed lovers but therein lies a deeper meaning –
an emotional depth and resonance and the revelation of a The ending of this novel is still
truth that will leave you emotionally gutted at the end. Science debated – that’s the power of a great
fiction and romance have never merged better than this. plot twist. A US Marshal is sent
to a psychiatric hospital located
on a remote island to investigate
the case of a missing patient.
But he discovers that there is more
to the hospital than a missing
patient – nothing is what it seems.

O N OT C R O S S
SD
35
FEBRUARY 2018
 travel & food
Around the World

NEWS FROM THE WORLD OF

TRAVEL & FOOD INFO NUGGETS FROM ACROSS THE GLOBE

PARIS, FRANCE LAKE BAIKAL, RUSSIA

Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa receives her

own fan mail each week. It has been on display
in the Louvre museum in Paris since 1797.

THE PANTANAL

Lake Baikal, set in the icy landscape of Siberia in Russia, has more water than the Great Lakes
of North America. It is also considered the deepest lake in the world.

The Pantanal, an enormous tropical wetland CHILE LONDON, THE UK

that runs across Brazil, Paraguay and Bolivia, is
one of the best spots to sight jaguars in the wild.

KINGDOM OF BAHRAIN

Located on a peninsula of solid marble

bordering the glacial Lake General Carrera,
The Bahrain National Theatre has 1,001 seats, the Cuevas de Mármol, or the Marble Caves, At its highest point, the London Eye is about
in a nod to the legendary Arabian Nights. have been formed by waves washing up against as tall as 26 giraffes standing on each other’s
123RFX8

It is a stunning building on the waterfront the calcium carbonate for over 6,000 years. heads! The giant Ferris wheel is sited on the
in Manama, the capital of the island country. They can only be visited by boat. South Bank of the River Thames.
36
FEBRUARY 2018
FIVE THINGS TRAVEL WITH FOOD

YOU DIDN’T KNOW

ABOUT THE
THE GRAND
PRISMATIC SPRING
THE USA
Located in Yellowstone National Park, the Grand Prismatic
1 Spring is the largest hot spring in the United States.
First found by European explorers in 1839, the “boiling lake”
2 is strikingly colourful.
While the water is blue, the colours on the shores range
3 from red to green.
Muhammara
The colours of the water comes from pigmented microbial
4 mats, with the hues coming from chlorophyll and carotenoids
that react to the temperature. In winter, the mats are usually a
The Middle East
Muhammara is eaten as a dip and as a spread with
dark green, while, in summer, they could be orange and red. pita, as well as with grilled kebabs, meats and fish.
A versatile dish made with succulent red peppers,
The blueness of the water is due to the high purity and depth
5 of the spring, and also because the water is too hot
for bacteria to grow.
it is also used as a condiment across Lebanon and
Syria and the rest of the Middle East.

37
FEBRUARY 2018
 portfolio
Wildlife

Cani n e
COMEBACK
Italy’s wolf population has made a remarkable recovery since the1970s,
with a stronghold growing in the Abruzzi Apennines. Jo Price reveals
the secrets of their success

38
FEBRUARY 2018
This curious youngster is a member of a pack
living in a valley in the Abruzzi Apennines;
as the juveniles gained confidence
in the summer, they started to venture out
from the forest close to a public trail.
Wolves disperse when they are about two
years old, and can travel over 1,000km when
they leave the natal pack.
France’s wolf recolonisation began
when a few wolves moved into the Alps
from the northern Apennines.
 portfolio
Wildlife

Wolves roam in search of food –

as the old Russian proverb puts it,
‘The wolf is kept fed by its feet.’
The average size of the territory
of an Italian pack is 100–250km2,
but there are known territories
as small as 50km2 and as large
as 450km2

40
FEBRUARY 2018

RIGHT This photograph
shows a rare encounter
between a juvenile and a small
herd of red deer in deep snow.
After an intense exchange of
stares, a hind mock-charged
and the wolf backed off.
In the Apennines, there is
generally plenty of wild
prey for wolves, including
red, fallow and roe deer,
wild boar, and smaller
animals on occasion.
TOP RIGHT Two juvenile
wolves investigate a mountain
meadow near the pack’s
rendezvous site as they wait
for the adults to return from
the hunt. The youngsters
become braver by the day as
they play and explore using
their finely-tuned senses.
T
HE Abruzzi Apennines are close
to Rome and Naples, but remain
surprisingly wild. Their biological
richness lies in vast beech forests,
deep valleys and solitary mountain
plateaus that are home to Italian wolves.
Award-winning photojournalist Bruno
D’Amicis has spent six years documenting
the lives of these mysterious canids.
“We need to redefine our relationship with
large carnivores,” he says. “A cultural change
is necessary so that wolves and humans can
live alongside each other.”
Centuries of persecution wiped out grey
wolves in much of Western Europe, and
the population in Italy almost suffered the
same fate. By the 1970s, only about 100 Italian
wolves Canis lupus italicus, a subspecies
of the grey wolf, survived in a limited area
in the central and southern Apennines, but
the arrival of legal protection in 1976 enabled
the animal to make a comeback. There are
now about 1,000 to 2,000 wolves in Italy, with
approximately 1,500 in the Apennines and 120
in the Italian Alps. According to Luigi Boitani,
the chairman of the Large Carnivore Initiative
for Europe, the growth is mainly due to
an increase in availability of wilder areas, with
the abandonment of mountain and marginal
agriculture; the wolves’ ability to feed on
a variety of prey, and willingness to disperse
have enabled them to take full advantage.
However, the subspecies is coming into
increasing conflict with humans, contending
with poaching, persecution from farmers
and dangers of hybridisation. “The control
of free-ranging dogs and illegal killing using
poison bait need to change,” says Boitani.
Despite these challenges, the European
population of wolves in general is now thought
to exceed 10,000, quadruple the total in the
1970s – a success story welcomed by D’Amicis.
“More than any other species, the wolf has
managed to touch human imagination.”
 portfolio
Wildlife

ABOVE After a late summer storm, the afternoon light illuminates the mountain ridges in Abruzzo National Park. Meadows above the timber line turn
golden at this time of the year, while the old beech forest underneath starts to show the first colours of autumn. These wild mountains are a favourable
habitat for wolves, because they provide abundant prey and cover.
BELOW Three adults cautiously make their way out of the shelter of the forest and into a mountain meadow. A pack consists of a mated pair and their
offspring, including any young wolves born the previous year that have yet to disperse. This trio belongs to a pack of five.

42
FEBRUARY 2018
 A lone adult male crosses a snowy field in winter.
Italian wolves are genetically distinct, but their external
morphology is very similar to that of most European
wolves. Breeding with dogs is a considerable threat
to wolves because of the loss of genetic purity.
 portfolio
Wildlife

A juvenile howls
with his siblings and parents,
which are out of shot; a youngster’s
howls are short and repetitive
compared with those of an adult,
which linger and are deeper.
Howls keep the pack in touch
and advertise territory.

44
FEBRUARY 2018
 BRUNO D’AMICIS is a wildlife
photojournalist deeply interested
in mountain ecosystems and
conservation issues. Despite
working around the world in
a variety of habitats he always
returns to photograph his first
love, the Abruzzi Apennines.
In 2014, he won the ‘World in
Our Hands’ category of Wildlife
Photographer of the Year
and the ‘Nature: Singles’
category of World Press Photo.
www.brunodamicis.com

1. A lone wolf has a poor chance of survival, because hunting large prey can only be done in a pack. Here, three members greet each other after a night
hunt. Their roles in the pack are defined through play and confrontation, and only rarely through fighting. In Europe wolves are more likely to hunt at night
in order to avoid people.
2. A domestic cow glances at an adult male feeding on a dead horse – wolves will take any available prey. Researchers monitor tracks and use radio-
collars to learn more about their behaviour, so that they can educate the people in the region about the best ways to minimise risk and ensure peaceful
co-existence.
3. A lot of effort is being made to support farmers who are affected by wolves beyond just offering compensation. Measures such as electric fences and
guard dogs are being used to deter packs and protect livestock. This Abruzzese mastiff wears a spiked collar to prevent wolves from biting its neck.

2 3
 science
Gravity

SOMETHING’S
WRONG WITH
GRAVITY

A new theory
could rewrite
the laws of
physics as we
ILLUSTRATION: MAGIC TORCH

know them,
and finally
explain what
dark matter is
WORDS:
PROF ROBERT
MATTHEWS
46
FEBRUARY 2018

48
43
49
 science
Gravity
S
CIENTIFIC riddles don’t come
much more baffling than this:
entire galaxies seem to be in the
grip of something that affects
their behaviour, but no one
knows what this ‘something’ is.
If it’s a form of matter, then it
must be the most abundant
matter in the cosmos, yet all attempts to get a
sample of it have failed. Not even the Large
Hadron Collider has seen a glimpse of it.
It remains as enigmatic as its name: dark matter.
Now, one theorist has provoked controversy
with a devastatingly simple explanation
for why dark matter still hasn’t been found:
it doesn’t exist.
But that’s not the only reason Prof Erik
48 Verlinde of the University of Amsterdam, the
FEBRUARY 2018
Netherlands, is attracting
so much attention. After all,
others have previously
suggested dark matter may
be some kind of illusion.
What sets Verlinde apart
is his explanation for the
source of the illusion.
He believes it’s the result
of nothing less than a
fundamental misconception
about the most familiar force
in the Universe: gravity.
It’s a claim that brings
Verlinde up against the work
of some of the greatest minds
in science – including Albert
Einstein, whose celebrated
theory of gravity is one of
the cornerstones of modern
physics. Known as General
Relativity, it has led to a host
of triumphs, including
the detection in 2015 of
gravitational waves – ripples
in the fabric of space-time
caused by the collision
of two black holes.
THE TRUTH ABOUT
GRAVITY
Verlinde has spent years
piecing together clues from
theory and observation to
create a whole new vision
of the force we call gravity.
Now his ideas are being put
to the test, with intriguing
results. And at the centre
of them all is the mystery
of dark matter.
Verlinde has been hailed
as the intellectual successor
to Einstein in the media, yet
he sees his goal in more down
to earth terms. “I’m just trying
to explain where gravity
comes from,” he says.
That might seem a bizarre
statement, coming a century
after Einstein showed that
gravity is the result of matter
warping space and time
around it. Yet, according
 doesn’t exist
argues that dark matter
RIGHT: Erik Verlinde
to Verlinde, this overlooks the fact that
General Relativity remains just a description of
the force we call gravity. It leaves unanswered
the key question of exactly how matter affects
space and time.
To carry out his research, Verlinde has had
to grapple with some of the deepest problems
in science, including the quest for the so-called
Theory of Everything – a theory that unites
gravity with quantum mechanics that has been
considered the holy grail of physics for decades.
Theorists have long known that General
Relativity cannot be the last word about gravity.
That’s because it fails to incorporate the other
cornerstone of modern physics, quantum
theory. As well as describing the subatomic
world with astonishing precision, quantum
theory has been able to account for all the
fundamental forces of nature apart from one:
gravity. Since the 1950s, theorists have tried
to marry the two views of nature to produce
one overarching theory.
The problem, says Verlinde, is that they
are based on such radically different views
of reality. For example, General Relativity
presumes that it’s possible to pin down
precisely where particles are and how they’re
moving, while quantum theory shows that’s
impossible. “So taking gravity into account
gives us a bit of a problem,” explains Verlinde.
For years, he worked on superstring theory,
which many believe to be the most promising
way of overcoming these problems. Yet,
despite decades of effort and a host of mind-
boggling ideas, there is still no hard evidence
that it works.
This has led Verlinde down a different
path in search of the truth about gravity.
The origins of this truth lie in a series of
surprising connections between gravity
and an apparently unrelated part of science:
thermodynamics, the physics of heat.
In the early 1970s, theorists studying black
holes – notorious for the intensity of their
gravity – discovered they must also be packed
with something called entropy. Widely used
to understand the behaviour of hot objects,
PHOTO: ILVY NJIOKIKTJIEN

entropy reflects the number of ways of

rearranging the constituents of objects without
changing their appearance. Calculations
showed that black holes contain the highest
possible entropy that can be crammed into
a given volume of space. But they also revealed
something else. Common sense suggests that
 science
Gravity

as it depends on the constituents So could the supposedly fundamental

of objects, the entropy of a black hole force of gravity also be emergent, its real
should depend on its volume. origins being linked to entropy and
Yet theorists found it depends only those incredibly tiny Planck areas
on the hole’s surface area. Stranger still, of space-time?
the calculations suggest the black hole’s
surface is made up of a vast patchwork NEWTON AND EINSTEIN
of so-called Planck areas. Named after In 2010, Verlinde created a stir among
the eponymous German pioneer theorists when he published a paper
of quantum theory, Planck areas are far showing how his theory could be used
smaller even than a subatomic particle, to accurately derive both Newton’s
and appear to be the building blocks and Einstein’s laws of gravitation.
of space-time itself. “The similarities with other known
Pondering these mind-bending emergent phenomena such as
connections between the physics of heat thermodynamics have been mostly
and space-time, Verlinde began regarded as just suggestive analogies,”
to wonder if they were hints of a radical declared Verlinde. “It is time we not

Visualisation of dust falling into a black hole. The bright

new way of thinking about gravity. only notice the analogy, and talk about

flash of light is Hawking radiation – one way in which

Heat was once thought to be the similarity, but finally do away with
a fundamental property of matter gravity as a fundamental force.”
that exists in and of itself, like electric While intriguing, many theorists
charge, for example, but it’s now known remained unconvinced the finding
to ultimately be the result of collisions was anything more than a quirk of
between the millions of atoms and physics. Verlinde needed to come up
black holes can lose mass

molecules that make up a gas, liquid with something that didn’t merely
or solid. The faster the atoms and reproduce existing theories, but
molecules that make up a material predicted something new – and testable.
move, the more energy they have He now believes he’s found it with
and the hotter the material the enigma of dark matter.
appears. Thus heat is actually While hints of its existence emerged
an ‘emergent’ property. over 80 years ago in studies of clusters
of galaxies, it was a discovery of
a curious effect inside galaxies that
first convinced astronomers to take
dark matter seriously.
According to Newton’s law of gravity,
stars further from the centre of a galaxy
should orbit more slowly than those
closer in. But, during the 1970s, studies
of stars within spiral galaxies showed
that beyond a certain distance from the
centre, this effect simply vanished.
The most obvious explanation was
that the stars were being affected by the
gravity of an invisible cloud of matter
surrounding the galaxies. It soon became
clear that, whatever this stuff was,
it couldn’t be made from the standard
PHOTO: SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY

building blocks of matter. That sparked

a global effort to detect a viable
alternative, which continues to
this day – with no success.
This has led to growing suspicions
that the most obvious explanation is
simply wrong. In 1983, physicist Prof
Mordehai Milgrom, of the Weizmann
Institute in Israel, pointed out a curious
50
FEBRUARY 2018

Swot up on your physics with our handy
ENTROPY
Central to the second law of thermodynamics,
entropy is a measure of the disorder in a system.
It reflects the number of different ways
the components of a system can be rearranged.
The letters making up the words on this page have
“IT IS TIM E WE NOT ON LY NOTICE
WITH GRAVITY AS A FU N DAM ENTAL FORCE”
TH E ANALOGY, AN D TALK ABOUT
TH E SIMILARITY, BUT FINALLY DO AWAY
low entropy – there’s only one way to arrange them
(assuming each individual a, b, c, etc. is unique)
to produce the text you’re reading. But, if you
scramble the letters, it will have higher entropy,
as there are lots of ways to arrange them jumbled
up. The second law of thermodynamics reflects
that it’s easier to go from an ordered page to
scrambled letters than it is to go from a pile of
letters to the contents of this magazine. Similarly,
it’s easier to break an egg than to unbreak it.
FUNDAMENTAL FORCES OF NATURE
Physics recognises four fundamental forces:
electromagnetism, which deals with interactions
in matter and light; the strong nuclear force,
which holds the particles of atomic nuclei together;
the weak nuclear force, which is involved in nuclear
decay; and gravity. All except gravity fit with
quantum theory.
GENERAL RELATIVITY
The General Theory of Relativity, published by
Einstein in 1915, explains how mass warps space
and time, and how these warps influence the way
that matter moves. It provides equations that give
us a precise description of gravity, indirectly
predicting phenomena like black holes,
gravitational waves and the Big Bang.
GRAVITATIONAL LENSING
Einstein’s General Relativity predicts that massive
objects warp space enough to make passing light
curve around them. This means that large cosmic
structures like galaxies can act like lenses.
Light coming from behind the galaxy is bent
around it towards the viewer, bringing distant
bodies into focus.
MOND
This stands for Modified Newtonian Dynamics –
a theory that expands on Newton’s laws of motion.
It offers a potential explanation for the unexpected
behaviour of spiral galaxies and galactic clusters
usually attributed to dark matter. It is based on
the idea that the effect of gravity behaves in a
subtly different manner on a vast scale. Even so,
it still doesn’t explain all the observed oddities –
but then neither does dark matter.
PLANCK AREAS
German physicist Max Planck mathematically
derived the Planck length, a unit of distance
around 100 billion billion times smaller than
JARGON
BUSTER
glossar y, by popular science writer
Brian Cle gg
the nucleus of an atom, using constants of nature
such as the speed of light. If space is not
continuous but made up of quanta – the minimum
amount of a physical property that can be
interacted with – it has been suggested that its
quanta might be a Planck length across (see below
for more on quantum theory). Below this distance,
measurement would not be possible. A Planck
area is a Planck length squared. In black hole
theory, when a black hole absorbs a single bit
of information, its event horizon – the boundary
around it from which not even light can escape –
expands by one Planck area.
QUANTUM THEORY
This theory describes the behaviour of light and
matter on a very small scale – that of individual
particles such as atoms, electrons and photons.
The theory takes its name from its central idea that
phenomena are not continuous in nature but are
instead broken down into tiny indivisible chunks
or packets called quanta. In classical mechanics,
objects always exist in a specific place at
a specific time. But in quantum theory we can only
determine the probability of an object being in
a certain place at a certain time. This seems
counter-intuitive, but the theory is incredibly
successful in explaining the interactions
of light and matter.
STRING THEORY
String theory was devised to explain
inconsistencies in particle physics. It is a leading
approach in the attempt to produce the so-called
Theory of Everything. In string theory, particles are
replaced with vibrating strings, but, for the maths
to work, there need to be nine spatial dimensions
rather than the three we observe.
THERMODYNAMICS
Originally developed to provide a theoretical basis
for the design and operation of steam engines,
thermodynamics – literally the movement of heat –
is now a fundamental area of study in physics.
It has four laws, of which the most important are the
first – ‘energy is always conserved’ – and the
second ‘heat always moves from a hotter to a
colder body’. The second law also shows that, on
average, in a system that’s isolated from its
surroundings, entropy stays the same or increases
– to decrease it requires energy.
TULLY-FISHER RELATION
The amount of light energy emitted by a spiral
galaxy such as the Milky Way is roughly
proportional to its speed of rotation. The faster
the galaxies spin, the brighter they are.
This is known as the Tully-Fisher relation, named
after the astronomers Brent Tully and Richard
Fisher who discovered it.
 science
Gravity

fact about the galactic evidence for dark matter: lens’ effect. An international team
it can also be explained if Newton’s law fails of astronomers has found that this effect
to accurately explain the motions of stars is consistent with the predictions of Verlinde’s
in the outer reaches of galaxies feeling theory, without the need for dark matter.
an acceleration due to gravity at a rate less Now the search is on for evidence that
than a certain critical value: around Verlinde’s theory does not just explain MOND,
100-billionth that generated by Earth. but outperforms it. And, here, some problems
have emerged. Astronomer Dr Frederico Lelli
TESTING, TESTING and his colleagues at the European Southern
While intriguing, what Milgrom called Observatory have been studying the orbits
Modified Newtonian Dynamics (MOND) simply of stars in galaxies, and they’re not behaving
replaced one mystery with another: where as expected. “Verlinde’s theory predicts

relation, the faster a spiral galaxy spins,

did this ‘critical acceleration’ come from?
BELOW: According to the Tully-Fisher
a stronger gravitational pull than MOND in
That’s what Verlinde decided to find out using the inner regions,” explains Lelli. But this
his ideas of emergent gravity. “I quickly found effect doesn’t seem to exist: “This seems to be
a back-of-the-envelope calculation that might a serious issue,” he says.
explain it, but I had to work for a number The biggest problem facing Verlinde,
the brighter it will be

of years to make this more precise,” he says. however, is explaining a cosmic ‘coincidence’.
He now believes he has succeeded. Why does the amount of dark matter needed
The key lies in the effect of the entire to explain galaxy rotation curves match
Universe on the vital ingredient needed for the amount needed to explain observations
the existence of gravity: entropy. According of the early Universe? “The observational
to both Newton and Einstein’s theories, the
entropy of objects like black holes increases
with their area. But Verlinde has shown things
change on the scale of the whole Universe,
because of dark energy. First identified in the
1990s, dark energy is a kind of anti-
gravitational force that is propelling the
expansion of the Universe. Its origins remain
mysterious, but calculations by Verlinde show
that dark energy leads to entropy increasing
with volume, not just area. That changes the
behaviour of gravity at cosmic scales – and,
says Verlinde, the result is an acceleration effect
creating the illusion that dark matter exists.
“In an expanding Universe, the gravitational
laws have to be adjusted at the acceleration
scale indicated by MOND,” he says. Unlike
MOND, however, he has been able to calculate
the effect using basic physics.
Verlinde’s theory does more than explain
why dark matter has never been found.
Astronomers have long been puzzled by a ‘law’
linking the brightness of spiral galaxies to their
spin rate. Known as the Tully-Fisher relation,
it makes no sense using conventional theories
of gravity, but Verlinde has shown that it’s
a natural consequence of the link between
gravity and entropy.
PHOTOS: GETTY X2

Further evidence backing Verlinde’s theory

comes from recent studies of the light from
distant galaxies. According to Einstein, the
gravity field of galaxies can bend the path of
light rays. This is known as the ‘gravitational
52
FEBRUARY 2018
 “WE’RE IN A PERIOD WHEN IT IS NECESSARY

SETTLE OUT”
TO EXPLORE MANY NEW IDEAS, AND IT
TAKES A LONG TIME FOR SUCH THINGS TO
evidence for dark matter from a variety of methods is all amazingly consistent,”
says astrophysicist Prof Neta Bahcall of Princeton University, the USA.
The simplest explanation is that dark matter really does exist, but just hasn’t
been found yet. But Verlinde points out that his work on the nature of gravity is
and emitting gravitational waves
orbiting each other, warping space-time
ABOVE: Visualisation of two black holes

far from complete. “To explain these effects, one has to develop the theory to the
point where one can describe the cosmological evolution of the Universe,” he
says. “I am currently working on these ideas, but it will take some time.”
Given the huge pay-off if he’s right, many scientists are willing to cut Verlinde
some slack. “We’re in a period when it is necessary to explore many new ideas,”
says astronomer Prof Stacy McGaugh of Case Western Reserve University, Ohio,
the USA. “And it takes a long time for such things to settle out.”

PROF ROBERT MATTHEWS is visiting professor in science at Aston University,

Birmingham, the UK.
 science
Space

P
AYPAL founder and Tesla boss Elon Musk isn’t a man
who thinks small – nor is he short of a few million
dollars to chuck at any obstruction in his path.
Which is why SpaceX – the company he founded
in 2002 with a view to developing cheaper, faster,
longer-distance space travel, and ultimately colonising Mars –
has become the world’s leading private spaceflight provider.
The list of spaceflight ‘firsts’ that SpaceX has racked up over
the course of the past 15 years is a long one. Among other
achievements, it was the first private company to put a liquid-
fuelled rocket into Earth orbit (Falcon 1, 2008); the first to send
a spacecraft to the ISS (Falcon 9, 2012); the first to put a satellite
into geosynchronous orbit (Falcon 9, 2013), and the first to
relaunch and land a ‘used’ orbital rocket (Falcon 9, 2017).
As you can see, the reusable Falcon 9 rocket has been the key
to many of SpaceX’s successes. Long term, Musk’s eyes remain
firmly fixed on the Red Planet, but, in the meantime, let’s take
a closer look at this 69.9m-tall behemoth, which has now racked
up 38 successful flights and is fast becoming the go-to option
for getting payloads and people into space…

SPACE TOURISM

GETS REAL
Elon Musk has pencilled in a date in 2018 to send
two tourists around the Moon and back on SpaceX’s
Falcon 9 rocket. Here are 10 things you need to know
before you buy yourself a ticket…
Words: COLIN STUART

54
FEBRUARY 2018
 When SpaceX launched
a communications satellite
into orbit in March 2017, they
made a little piece of space
history. It was the first time an
orbital rocket had be reused –
it had already been to space
and back in April 2016.
The Falcon 9’s first stage –
the bit with most of the fuel
and the main engines –
is brought back to the ground
and collected to fly again.
This could be a game-changer
for space exploration because
that’s the most expensive part
of the rocket. Previously, each
time you wanted to go to space
you had to fork out hundreds
of millions of dollars
for a brand new rocket.
Now the same one can be used
multiple times.
SpaceX is offering its
customers a discount of up
to 30 per cent if they opt to fly
their payload on a reused
Falcon 9, cutting the cost
of getting to space even
further.

IT’S
PHOTO: SPACEX

REUSABLE
 science
Space
IT’S RELIABLE
The Falcon 9 rocket boasts a 95 per cent success rate.
There have been 41 launches since the first in 2010, and all
but two achieved their stated goals. One failed to reach orbit,
the other exploded on the launchpad during a pre-flight test.
This compares well to the rest of the rocket industry, where
the average failure rate is also 5 per cent. NASA’s Space
Shuttle, which ferried astronauts to and from orbit, had
a success rate of 98.5 per cent, with the famous Challenger
and Columbia disasters notable black marks. The Russian
Soyuz rocket, which is currently the only way to get people
to the International Space Station, has seen over 1,700
launches and has a 97 per cent success rate.
If SpaceX wants to start using its technology to send people
to space, then perhaps it will have to boost its success rate
a little to bring it in line with these other benchmarks.
56
FEBRUARY 2018
SpaceX engineers inspect
one of the Falcon 9’s
interstage sections
prior to assembly
IT COULD INSPIRE
A GENERATION
NASA’s Apollo missions did a lot more than just land
12 astronauts on the Moon. A whole generation watched
on as human beings ventured out onto a new world for
the very first time. Those unprecedented steps fired up
the imaginations of countless young people worldwide,
many of them turning to careers in science, maths and
engineering as a result.
But humans have languished in low Earth orbit ever
since Apollo 17 departed from the lunar surface in 1972.
Yes, we have the International Space Station, but don’t
underestimate the power of seeing humans push new
boundaries. If private space companies can return people
to the Moon, or even send them to Mars, their exploits will
be beamed around the world in an era now equipped with
HD cameras, social media and 24/7 news channels.
The inspirational effect of those missions would be
unrivalled. Who knows what this generation might be
inspired to do next?
 IT’LL KICK-START
NEW INDUSTRIES
In the past, the huge costs of space launches meant only those
with the broadest shoulders could afford the astronomical sums
involved. That used to mean governments. But governments
are funded by taxpayers, many of whom are sceptical about
the merits of space exploration when they see more pressing
concerns closer to home.
SpaceX is blazing a trail for the true commercialisation of
space by proving that it can be done well for less. Now other
companies are also springing up, looking for a slice of action.
Billionaires Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson are already putting
their money on the line. The global space industry is growing
rapidly, consistently outpacing even the Chinese economy.
As a result, companies that were priced out of space before
are beginning to think that it might be affordable after all.
The fleets of satellites that these companies inexpensively put
into orbit will help run innovative new technologies, including
autonomous vehicles and super-fast internet connections.
PHOTO: SPACEX X2
IT’S POWERFUL
The power behind the Falcon 9 is the Merlin
engine, which is built in-house by SpaceX.
Nine of these engines are clustered together in
the first stage, while the second contains a
single Merlin that’s modified to fire in the
vacuum of space. The engines burn a mixture
of rocket-grade kerosene and liquid oxygen.
On a typical launch, the first stage engines burn
for 162 secs, and the second stage engine burns
for 397 secs.The powerful Merlin is one of the
most efficient engines ever built. Having nine of
them in the first stage also offers some built-in
safety. On other rockets, if an engine fails
during launch, the lost thrust can destroy the
payload’s chance of successfully reaching orbit.
But the Falcon 9 is designed so that two of the
nine Merlin engines in the first stage can fail
and the launch won’t be affected. The healthy
engines can burn longer, picking up the slack to
save the mission.
A Merlin engine being
prepared for testing.
The Falcon X carries
10 of these engines
 science
Space

FALCON 9: HOW IT WORKS

The Falcon craft have been a decade in the making.
Here’s what you need to know about the rocket and the capsule
DRAGON
FLIGHTS BY MISSION OUTCOME
SPACECRAFT
15

12.5

10 Success
7.5 Partial failure
PRESSURISED Loss during flight
5
SECTION Loss before launch
Also referred to as the capsule, 2.5
this is designed to carry both
cargo and humans into space
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017

FLIGHTS BY LANDING OUTCOME

15
Ground pad success
TRUNK 12.5
Dragon’s trunk supports Drone ship success
the spacecraft during 10 Ocean success
ascent to space, carries
Parachutes failure
unpressurised cargo 7.5
and houses Dragon’s Ground pad failure
solar arrays. The trunk 5
and solar arrays remain Drone ship failure
attached to Dragon until 2.5 Ocean failure
shortly before re-entry to
Earth’s atmosphere, No attempt
when they are jettisoned 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017

ROCKET EVOLUTION

NINE MERLIN
ENGINES
With its nine first-stage
Merlin engines clustered
together, Falcon 9 can
sustain up to two engine
shutdowns during flight
and still successfully
complete its mission

FALCON 1 FALCON 9 V1.0 FALCON 9 V1.1 FALCON 9 V1.2 (FT) FALCON HEAVY
2006-2009 2010-2012 2013-2014 2015-PRESENT NOV 2017?
58
FEBRUARY 2018
 FALCON 9 LAUNCH TIMELINE

PARTING
OF THE WAYS BACK DOWN
Once the rocket reaches an altitude
of around 60km, the Falcon 9 rocket’s TO EARTH
first stage – home to nine Merlin As the Dragon spacecraft heads off on
engines – falls away from the Dragon its adventures, Falcon 9 first completes a
spacecraft, just as the Saturn V flip manoeuvre to turn around 180°. Then
rockets fell away on the Apollo there’s a short engine burn to propel it back
missions. Unlike the Saturn V, though, towards Earth. As it approaches Earth’s
the Falcon 9 will return to Earth to be atmosphere, aerodynamic fins are deployed
reused on to guide it, after which there’s another very
future missions. quick ‘entry burn’. Some adroit
manoeuvring later, the rocket is ready
for its vertical, bottom-first
landing.
OFF INTO SPACE
The second stage of the Falcon 9,
which is equipped with a single
Merlin engine that’s been modified
to fire in the vacuum of space, fires
up once the first stage has been
jettisoned. It burns for only a little
over 6.5 minutes, but that’s
enough to propel the Dragon
spacecraft on to its final
destination.

PAYLOAD SEPARATION

FAIRING
SEPARATION
BOOSTBACK BURN

STAGE SEPARATION FLIP MANOEUVRE GRID FINS DEPLOY

PHOTO: SPACEX X4 ILLUSTRATION: ACUTE GRAPHICS

ENTRY BURN
ASCENT

AERODYNAMIC GUIDANCE
PHOTOGRAPH: JYOTHY KARAT

LAUNCH

VERTICAL LANDING
 science
Space
IT CAN LAND AT SEA
So far, all launches have taken place from one
of three land-based launch sites. However, some
landings have taken place out at sea. After five
unsuccessful attempts, the first flawless landing
on a floating drone ship came in April 2016.
This is key because landing at sea requires less
fuel than returning to the launch site, and
expending less energy in the landing means
there’s more energy available to reach a higher
orbit. Touching down on water is also safer
if anything goes wrong.
The two floating barges – Of Course I Still
Love You and Just Read The Instructions –
are named after spaceships in the Iain M Banks
novel The Player Of Games. The former is
stationed in the Atlantic Ocean to pick up
rockets launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida,
the latter in the Pacific to collect missions
launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base,
California, USA.
A Falcon 9 rocket
touches down one
of the two offshore
landing platforms
60
FEBRUARY 2018
IT’LL LAUNCH
PEOPLE ONE
DAY
SpaceX has already successfully
used its re-usable Dragon capsule
to deliver cargo to the International
Space Station – the first time that
was done by a private company.
Launched on top of the Falcon 9
rocket, its true purpose is to send
people into space. Four windows
will provide the lucky astronauts
with a stunning view.
The next version of Dragon –
Dragon 2 – will make its first
delivery to the ISS in November this
year. It’ll be launched on the new
Falcon Heavy rocket, which will
also be making its maiden flight.
Elon Musk has even announced
his intention to send two paying
customers around the Moon in
a Dragon 2 capsule and return them
to Earth. Remarkably, he says this
will happen at the back end
of 2018. Given that only one
government has ever achieved
this feat before, it is some statement
of intent.
 IT’LL BOOST SPACE
TOURISM
Even if two paying punters don’t end up getting
sent around the Moon in a week-long mission
next year, it’s easier to see SpaceX launching
tourists into Earth orbit.
In the decades to come, travelling into space
will become as common as getting on a plane.
The first trans-Atlantic flights cost thousands of
dollars in today’s money, but now the ocean can
be crossed for a few hundred. Similarly,
a successful launch of customers into orbit by
a private company will generate even more
PHOTOS: SPACEX X2, GETTY

competition and drive down the price for all

of us.
Don’t be surprised if the children in school
now are holidaying in space for a few days later
in their lives. For the price of a round-the-world
cruise or a top-of-the-range car, they could be
looking down on the rest of us from orbit
as they float in a Dragon capsule.
 science
Space

62
FEBRUARY 2018
THERE’S STILL A FEW
KINKS TO IRON OUT
There’s a reason why many commentators
baulked when Elon Musk announced his vision
of a Moonshot as early as this year. Space travel is
still difficult, especially with heavy payloads
beyond Earth orbit. NASA managed it in
the 1960s and 70s, but only by throwing a huge
amount of money at the problem. In the years
running up to the first Moon landing, NASA’s
budget was over 4 per cent of the GDP of the USA
– the largest economy in the world.
As a private company, SpaceX’s books are IT COULD
secret, so we don’t know how much money it’s
pumping into space exploration or how likely it TAKE US
is that its efforts will ever be profitable. If all goes TO MARS
to schedule then SpaceX should deliver
astronauts to the International Space Station next ONE DAY
year, and a lot will depend on how that goes. It’s no secret that Elon Musk’s
Glitches could put back any subsequent human ultimate goal is to
flights significantly, but it wouldn’t be the first get people to Mars. However,
time SpaceX has done something unprecedented. that feat is leagues ahead of
escorting astronauts into
Earth orbit.
Musk’s vision involves
SpaceX’s Interplanetary
Transport System (ITS). The
aim is to eventually park up
to 1,000 spaceships in Earth
orbit, each with a crew of 100.
They’ll await the optimal
window to head for Mars
and depart en masse.
This happens every 26 months
when the gap between the
planets is narrowest.
Musk’s publicly stated
ambition is to get a million
people to Mars within the next
50 to 100 years.
The Red Planet still presents
significant hurdles, however.
The radiation exposure on
the six-month voyage would be
unacceptably high, so the crew
will need shielding. Slowing
down sufficiently to land
safely on Mars is a real
challenge, too, as is keeping a
crew supplied with enough
food, water and energy for
such a long journey.

COLIN STUART is a fellow of

the Royal Astronomical Society.
PHOTO: SPACEX

His books include 13 Journeys

Through Space And Time, Why
Space Matters To Me and
Physics In 100 Numbers.
 SOLVing THE
PROBLEM
By 2050, there could be more plastic in the sea than fish. With Blue Planet II,
the TV show, we take a look at some genius inventions that could help clean up
our oceans
WORDS: JOSH GABBATISS
T
HERE are over five trillion pieces of plastic in
the world’s oceans. The floating island of rubbish
that’s supposedly found at the centre of the Pacific
Ocean, dubbed the ‘Great Pacific Garbage Patch’,
has captured the public’s imagination, but even
this doesn’t do justice to the problem. In reality,
if you stood on a boat at that site, you would see
no enormous plastic island, but rather endless tiny fragments
floating on the surface of the ocean. According to one estimate,
this plastic soup covers an area twice the size of the continental
United States.
As plastic moves through our seas, it breaks down into
smaller pieces – the kind of pieces that can easily be swallowed
by marine life. And the problems continue beneath the surface.
Scientists are increasingly finding deposits of plastic at
the bottom of the oceans, even as far down as the 10km-deep
Mariana Trench in the Pacific.
The facts are horrifying, but many of the impacts that plastic
will have on ocean ecosystems, marine creatures and, by
association, us, remain to be seen. Scientists and entrepreneurs
PHOTO: GETTY
are currently working on ways to halt the flow of plastic into
our oceans, and get rid of the stuff that’s already there, before
the problem gets even worse.
CAPTURE IT
Perhaps the most natural response
to the plastic problem is to try to clean up
what’s already there. “Of course, clean-up
is really important,” says Prof Richard
Thompson, head of the International
Marine Litter Research Unit at Plymouth
University, the UK “and it’s our first
reaction as humans when we’ve made
a mess.” Such reactions vary wildly in
scale, from local ‘beach cleans’ to large-
scale, high-tech projects launched by
the likes of The Ocean Cleanup.
The Ocean Cleanup was initially
conceived by the then 18-year-old Dutch
entrepreneur Boyan Slat. His highly
ambitious project aims to use huge
barriers to passively trap plastic
as it moves around ocean gyres – the large
circulating currents that keep the floating
plastic in place. By anchoring the barriers
in deep, slow-moving water, the idea is
that the system will move slower than the
 science
The Plastic Issue
“If I were a rich philanthropist, I would be
putting 99 per cent of my money into stopping
the flow (of rubbish), and 1 per cent into
clean-up”
The barriers that plastic surrounding it, allowing the debris to
The Ocean accumulate against the barrier.
Cleanup will deploy
The team behind the project estimates that
measure 1-2km
in length and aim deployment of their systems could clean up
to capture larger approximately 50 per cent of the Great Pacific
plastics before Garbage Patch within five years. It’s an exciting
they degrade proposal, and one that has captured people’s
imaginations, most notably venture capitalists
like Peter Thiel who have followed through on
this enthusiasm with sizeable cash injections.
In total, The Ocean Cleanup has received
$31.5m in donations since its inception back in
2013. The team is aiming to roll out a pilot study
in the North Pacific around March 2018, and
their first fully operational system will be
launched later in the year.
While it may be appealing to the great and
the good of Silicon Valley, The Ocean Cleanup
has attracted its fair share of criticism from
the scientific community. Concerns have been
raised over everything from the viability of
the proposed barriers to their effects on local
ecosystems. Perhaps the biggest issue raised,
however, is that glamorous initiatives like
Slat’s draw attention away from the key
problem, which is the sheer quantity of litter
entering the seas. “It’s a little bit like you’re
filling the bath, you leave the taps on and go
downstairs to make a cup of tea,” says
Thompson. “Then you come back upstairs
to find the bath is overflowing – do you start
by mopping up the floor, or do you start by
turning off the tap?”
66
FEBRUARY 2018
What worries Thompson and others is that
projects like The Ocean Cleanup
overcomplicate an issue that requires basic
work to be done first. “If I were a rich
philanthropist with money to invest in solving
the problem, I would be putting 99 per cent
of my money into stopping the flow, and 1 per
cent into clean-up,” he says.
Dr Matthew Savoca, who studies the effects
of plastic pollution on marine life at the NOAA
Southwest Fisheries Science Center, the USA,
has a more positive take. “Assuming it doesn’t
scoop up more ocean life than plastic, why not
give it a shot?” he says. “However, I think [The
Ocean Cleanup] would be most effective at or
PHOTOS: ERWIN ZWART/THE OCEAN CLEANUP, KOSUKE ARAKI, ALAMY
near the mouths of large commercial harbours
and at the mouths of rivers, since we know
that’s how most plastic gets out to sea in the
first place.” While this is not the stated aim of
that project, a far smaller device – the Seabin –
has been designed by two Australians to clean
up rubbish in just such areas. Using solar-
powered pumps, Seabins sit at the surface of the
water and suck in the debris that accumulates
around harbours and other seaside structures.
Another suggestion for plastic collection
involves underwater drones. These autonomous
vehicles could whizz around plastic-saturated
areas of the ocean, swallowing rubbish with
their circular ‘jaws’ while keeping fish away
using a sonic transmitter.
These are ingenious solutions, and maybe
a bona fide success story will help to ease the
 WHAT’S THE
ALTERNATIVE?
Can we reduce our reliance on plastic? Here are five
innovative materials that are in development

1CARBON DIOXIDE
AND SUGAR
As plastics tend to be made using fossil
4EDIBLE
PACKAGING
Food and drink packaging
fuels, the search for alternatives is part of is going to require a huge
the journey towards a more sustainable
future. Currently, 4 per cent of global oil
1 overhaul if we are to solve
the plastic problem. One viable
production goes into plastic, but scientists option could be packaging
are exploring ways to bring this down to zero. replacements that are just as
A sugar- and carbon dioxide-based edible as the products they
substitute for the plastic polycarbonate (used contain. An example is Skipping
for spectacles lenses, DVDs and Rocks Lab’s ‘Ooho!’, an edible
greenhouses), has been developed by a sphere of water made from
team at the University of Bath. Not only does seaweed extract that you can
their method bypass fossil fuels, but the pop into your mouth (4). The US
resulting material is transparent, strong and Department of Agriculture,
biodegradable. meanwhile, has developed a

2 replacement for
the thin plastic films used in food
packaging, made from the milk

2AGAR Easily extracted by boiling red algae,

agar is used to make confectionery in
protein casein. Not only are
these films biodegradable,
sustainable and edible,
Japan. In a project called Agar Plasticity, they are also far better at
the Tokyo-based design collective AMAM preventing food spoilage than
suggested that this gelatinous substance plastic. Talk about win-win.
could be a viable plastic alternative.
By heating agar, pouring it into moulds
and then freezing it, the team was able
to make a selection of plastic-like products
and packaging (the bottle pictured has
3
been wrapped with the agar ‘plastic’).
The designers are now looking to partner
with industry so that they can access
5CHICKEN
FEATHERS
Enormous quantities of feathers
the scientific and technical knowhow to are produced as a by-product
take their idea to the next level. of the poultry industry, and they
are generally treated as waste.
However, despite their soft
and fluffy structure, feathers
are composed almost entirely

3FUNGI The bulk of a mushroom’s body consists

of a mass of underground filaments called
4 of keratin, a tough protein also
found in animal hooves and
horns. This means that, in
the mycelium. By employing mycelia grown theory, they could be used as
on agricultural waste, New York company strong, structurally sound,
Ecovative Design is creating a new plastic natural replacements for regular
alternative. A mixture of fungi and their food plastics. Researchers at the
source can be placed into a mould, such University of Nebraska-Lincoln,
as food packaging or a piece of furniture. the USA, have attempted to
Then, once the mould has become filled
with a dense mass of mycelia filaments,
5 harness this potential, by
pounding feathers into a fine
it is heat-treated to kill off the fungi, leaving powder, then mixing with
a product that is durable but also chemicals to make the keratin
totally biodegradable. molecules bind together.
 science
The Plastic Issue

WHERE OUR
PLASTICS GO

68
FEBRUARY 2018
ILLUSTRATION: RAJA LOCKEY
 science
The Plastic Issue

tension between those developing the projects,
and the people who want to prevent the plastic
getting there in the first place. After all, as
Savoca points out: why not do both?
GOBBLE IT UP WITH MICROBES
Bacteria are potentially the most versatile
creatures in existence, capable of making
a home in pretty much any environment on
Earth. It is perhaps unsurprising, then, that,
in recent years, scientists have found evidence
that some have evolved the capacity to break
down plastics. Last year, for example,
a Japanese team identified a bacterium capable
of biodegrading PET – a plastic found in
everything from polyester clothing to water
bottles – prompting speculation that bacteria
could be employed to stem the tide of plastic
pollution by munching through it.
Dr Linda Amaral-Zettler, a microbial ecologist
working on the ‘plastisphere’ – the community
plastic and those in the surrounding water, so
the concept of bacteria adapting to life in the
Plastic Age is not that far-fetched.
“But it’s one thing to colonise, it’s
another to actually break down and
digest plastic,” she adds.
While plastics do degrade
naturally through UV radiation and
physical processes, and bacteria
may be playing some role in
this, it doesn’t mean all the
plastic is simply vanishing
into their tiny bodies, never to
be seen again. In fact, some
microbes might even be
breaking down the plastic
into ever smaller particles,
ABOVE LEFT AND which are not only harder to
RIGHT: A total of 5,000
tonnes of litter was cleared detect and clean up, but
from a 2.5km-long stretch could be damaging marine
of Mumbai’s Versova beach
ecosystems. Plastic-
PHOTOS: ALAMY, AFROZ SHAH

over the course of 85 weeks.

of creatures living on ocean plastics – says
it’s wrong to think of plastic as a sterile
environment. “When you do the experiments,
you find there are some microbes that are
incredibly well suited to colonising plastics,”
she explains. Her work has shown distinct
genetic differences between bacteria inhabiting
70
FEBRUARY 2018
Before the volunteers set to
work, waste was piled over
1.5m high
RIGHT: Seabins are designed to
collect rubbish from harbours and
ports, and can suck in 1.5kg of
floating waste per day
our dirty work for us.
munching microbes are an
intriguing area of research,
and certainly worth exploring
further. But with the plastic
piling up fast, we might not be
able to rely on bacteria to do
TURN IT INTO SOMETHING ELSE
Ultimately, plastics are not our enemy.
They are durable, lightweight, inexpensive,
and incredibly useful. The major issue is that
around 40 per cent of the plastic we produce
is going into single-use items, such as cotton
buds, drinking straws, carrier bags and
plastic forks, which have a long life
following disposal.
Fortunately, we’re beginning to see more
projects that repurpose discarded plastics.
Not only can plastics be recycled to make the
usual suspects, such as packaging, but they can
be transformed into more specialist products
such as clothes. Some companies, for example,
melt down plastic bottles and turn them into
fibres that can be woven into fabrics, a process
that uses 50 per cent less energy than producing
polyester, the plastic most widely used in
clothing, from scratch.
Plastics can also be used as fuel, with new
technologies allowing us to efficiently convert
them into diesel and gasoline. By heating plastic
in a controlled way, coupled with a catalyst, it is
possible to produce fuel that doesn’t even need
refining and is ready to use.
All of this means less plastic
leaking out of the system
and ending up in the oceans.
Eventually, we could see a
fully circular ‘plastic economy’,
though this would require
major changes at an industry
level in order to make plastic
easier to recycle and reuse.
JOSH GABBATISS is a science
writer based in London.

HOW YOU CAN HELP

AVOID GIVE UP GO ON RECYCLE! GO
SINGLE-USE CHEWING A BEACH We’ve all heard this one MICROBEAD
PLASTICS GUM CLEAN by now, but currently -FREE
The culprits here should Chewing gum is made Organisations conduct only a third of recyclable In the UK this year a ban
be familiar to everyone: from synthetic rubber – cleans up and down the plastic used by even UK is coming into force for
carrier bags, bottles a plastic – and country, removing consumers is recycled. even products such as
and drinking straws. shockingly around rubbish from the beaches So swot up on your local sunscreen and make-up,
Purchase a ‘bag for life’, 100,000 tonnes of the and raising awareness of rules and get into the so read ingredients lists.
carry a reusable bottle, stuff is discarded every the ocean environment. recycling habit!
and sip drinks straight year. Is minty-fresh
from the glass. breath really worth that?
 history
Knights Templar

THE KNIGHTS
TEMPLAR
GOD’S ELITE
WARRIORS
Dan Jones tells the story of a crack unit
of holy hard-men who spent 200 years
defending crusaders’ interests in the
Middle East with unblinking ferocity

The Templars’ Tunnel running

underneath Acre (today Akko in Israel),
site of the military order’s last stand.
Rediscovered in 1994, tunnels linked
the Templar fortress to the main port
and customs house

72
FEBRUARY 2018
O
n a cripplingly hot day at the start
of July 1187, Saladin, the sultan
of Egypt and Syria, stood beside
his son al-Afdal and peered across
the battlefield towards a red tent
on a hill. The sultan’s face was pale
with worry. The armies before
him had been fighting for hours,
tortured by near-unbearable heat, dust and smoke, which
billowed up from the desert scrub Saladin’s own men
had set alight. Thousands of men and horses lay dead.
The enemy – a vast force led by the Christian king Guy
of Jerusalem – was badly battered and falling back,
but until the king’s red pavilion fell, victory would
not be complete. Al-Afdal, youthful and bullish, cheered
every Christian charge that the Muslim army repulsed.
Saladin scolded him. “Be quiet!” he said. “We have not
beaten them until that tent falls.” Moments later,
the sultan’s angst turned to tearful jubilation. The tent
collapsed, King Guy was captured and the battle of Hattin
was over. The Christians’ holiest relic – a fragment of the
True Cross – was seized. The dead were left to rot where
they lay, while the living were led off in disgrace: the
lowliest Christian prisoners for slaves, and the more
valuable for ransom.
But there was one category of captives who received
quite different treatment from all the rest. A reward
of 50 dinars was offered to anyone who could present
the sultan with a member of the military orders:
Hospitallers and Templars. These knights and sergeants
were the elite special forces within the armies of the
cross. They were the most dedicated and highly trained
warriors in the Holy Land. And Saladin had special
plans for them.

BAND OF BROTHERS
In 1187, the Order of the Poor Knights and of the Temple
of Solomon was about 68 years old. The Order had
first been assembled in 1119 at the Church of the
Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem by a French knight called
Hugh of Payns. Hugh had travelled to the east around
the time that Jerusalem fell to the Christian armies of
the First Crusade, and he stayed there: seeking a way
to combine his skill as a soldier with his yearning
for religious purpose.
With a small number of like-minded men – later
accounts said there were nine – Hugh established
a brotherhood of religious warriors: skilled fighters
who took oaths of chastity and poverty. They dedicated
themselves to protecting Christian pilgrims on roads
around the holy city, which were menaced by brigands
preying on vulnerable travellers touring unfamiliar
countryside.
This fraternity of holy hard-men soon gained official
SHUTTERSTOCK

recognition. The then-ruler of Jerusalem, Baldwin II,

put them up in the al-Aqsa Mosque, which they identified
with the biblical temple built by Solomon. This was
how the Templars gained their name.
 history
Knights Templar

PAPAL TAX BREAKS

For survival, the brothers relied on charitable
handouts, and they quickly became expert
at soliciting these – particularly in western
Templar were
Europe, where they built up a large network
of profitable estates donated by supporters
of the crusading movement. In the 1120s,
The Knights (By ‘Franks’, he meant the western Christians
in the Holy Land.) Ibn al-Athir was around
27 years old in 1187 and, like his contemporary
Saladin, he knew just how competent – and
able to fight dangerous – the Templars could be.
After all, history fairly buzzed with
across all examples. In 1148, the Templars had saved

the order was granted a quasi-monastic rule
to live by, designed by the Cistercian abbot
Bernard of Clairvaux. In the 1130s, the pope
granted them sweeping tax breaks and an
official uniform of white or black tunics
emblazoned with a cross.
By the 1140s, the Templars had begun
to expand their mission of merely providing
roadside rescue for pilgrims. In parallel with
the Hospitallers, who branched out from
providing medical services in Jerusalem
to assuming military duties, the Templars
manned castles throughout the Holy Land
and assisted in raids on Muslim cities
such as Damascus.
At the other end of the Mediterranean
they had been drafted into the Reconquista:
the Christian campaigns for control of the
Muslim states of al-Andalus, in southern Spain.
The Templars were by now a self-sustaining
paramilitary organisation, a crack squad
of hardened and dedicated soldiers, able to fight
across all terrains and oath-bound to serve God
and their brothers. In modern terms, they were
the equivalent of the SAS, the Navy SEALS
or the French Foreign Legion.
“They were the fiercest fighters of all the
Franks.” This was the Muslim chronicler
Ibn al-Athir’s assessment of the Templars.
terrains. They
the French armies of the Second Crusade
from annihilation. Tens of thousands
were the of ill-disciplined troops led by King Louis VII
had tried to cross hostile territory in Asia Minor
equivalent on foot and horseback, on their way to Syria,
where they planned to liberate the city
of the SAS, of Edessa. Bedraggled and badly led, they were
prey to repeated attacks from Turkish
the Navy SEALS horsemen, who inflicted a particularly terrible
defeat on the crusaders at Mount Cadmus, near
or the French modern-day Denizli in Turkey. Hundreds
Foreign were killed and the king only escaped capture
by hiding on a boulder.
Legion In desperation, the French king handed over
military command of the entire expedition
to a Templar named Gilbert. He was one of only
50 or so brothers among the vast procession,
but Gilbert’s leadership was inspired.
He divided the pilgrims into battalions,
each with a single brother in charge.
All the able-bodied were given a crash-course
in military conduct, and shown how to hold
their shape and discipline under attack.
As a result, the French survived the hard trek
east, and, on arrival in the Holy Land
the Templars even raised an emergency loan
The seal of the Knights Templar,
to keep Louis’s troubled campaign afloat.
who were, according to one Muslim
chronicler, “the fiercest fighters of all In the years that followed, the Templars were
the Franks” trusted to defend castles around Gaza in the

Saladin captures the Holy

Cross from a crusader army
at the battle of Hattin in 1187,
as depicted in Matthew Paris’s
Chronica maiora. Following
the victory, the Muslim
leader would inflict a terrible
vengeance on the Knights
Templar

74
FEBRUARY 2018
 THE RISE AND FALL OF THE TEMPLARS
Hugh of Payns and eight other knights band
together in Jerusalem, agreeing to protect
Christian pilgrims outside the city. They are
officially recognised in 1120. Their base
is the al-Aqsa mosque, which they call
the Temple of Solomon.
1119 The first Templar Rule is written at a church
council in Troyes. Templars are committed
to a life of celibacy, poverty and military
exercise, and banned from knightly frivolities
1129
such as hunting with birds or wearing
pointed shoes.

Pope Innocent II decrees that the

Alfonso I ‘the Battler’, king
of Aragon, dies and 1134 Templars are only answerable to papal
authority, and grants them the right to wear
leaves one third of his the sign of the cross on their chests.
kingdom to the Templars,
drawing the order into
the Reconquista.

A coin depicting Alfonso I

and, on the reverse, a cross
1139

During the Second Crusade to liberate

the city of Edessa, the Templars repel 1148 Templars wear their distinctive uniforms in a French
Turkish attacks and shepherd a French mural
army all the way to the Holy Land.

1187
Richard the Lionheart conquers Cyprus and
sells it to the Templars. But the order cannot
hold it peacefully and quickly sell it on to Guy
REX SHUTTERSTOCK, CLASSICAL NUMISMATIC GROUP INC - WWW.CNGCOINS.COM/BRIDGEMAN/ALAMY

of Lusignan, the former king of Jerusalem.

1191

A medieval depiction of the battle of Hattin, a black day

for the Templars

On 4 July, Saladin defeats a huge Christian

army at the battle of Hattin. He then orders
the summary beheading of all Templars
A 14th-century illustration shows
captured by his forces.
Guy of Lusignan departing for Cyprus

c1200 German author Wolfram von Eschenbach

casts Templar-like figures as the
defenders of a mysterious item known

1218
Templars join the Fifth Crusade in the Nile as the Holy Grail.
Delta, fighting on board armoured galleys.

On Friday 13 October, agents working for

King Philip IV arrest every Templar in France.
1291 Mamluk armies attack the last crusader
outpost in the city of Acre. The Templar
master William of Beaujeu is killed leading
In 1312, the order is disbanded
and its property confiscated. 1307 the defence.
 history
Knights Templar
Knights Templar are arrested on the orders of the “cruel and conniving” French king
Philip IV, in a scene from the 14th-century Chroniques de France ou de St Denis
Discipline south, where Christian territory gave way to
Egyptian lands. Further north, they guarded
was the passes through the Amanus Mountains,
which controlled the routes from Asia Minor
paramount. into the Christian principality of Antioch.
They advised secular leaders on military
The order’s strategy, but were also pointedly independent,
carrying out kidnapping missions and raids
famous of their own as they pleased. Even the Assassins
– the shadowy Shia terrorist sect who lived in
black-and- the Syrian mountains and specialised in
spectacular public assassinations of leaders
white flag of all faiths – would not touch the Templars,
and paid them a fat fee to be left alone.
was only to The Templar Rule, which originally
resembled a Cistercian monk’s order of daily
be lowered routine, was heavily revised around 1165
to become more of a military handbook:
when the setting the Templars’ battlefield protocols,
and emphasising the importance of discipline
last man and obedience. The order’s famous black-and-
white flag was only to be lowered when the last
defending it man defending it was dead. “No brother should
leave the field… while there is a piebald banner
was dead raised aloft; for, if he leaves, he will be expelled
from the house forever,” it read.
When they rode into battle, the Templars sang
76
FEBRUARY 2018
a psalm: ‘‘Not to us, O lord, not to us, but to your
name give the glory, for your steadfast love
and faithfulness.” The sight and sound of these
men charging in their red-crossed white and
black cloaks was rightly feared throughout
the Holy Land.
SUICIDALLY PROUD
When Saladin’s men had finished rounding
up Templars and Hospitallers after the battle
of Hattin in 1187, around 200 prisoners had
been delivered. These included the Templar
grand master, Gerard of Ridefort, an impulsive
and suicidally proud leader who repeatedly led
his men into fights against impossible odds,
yet somehow always emerged with his own life.
He would do so again now, as Saladin ordered
him to be imprisoned and exchanged for
the Templars’ castle at Gaza.
The rest were not so lucky. Saladin had
witnessed the Templars’ bravery first hand
several years previously, when the commander
of their besieged fortress at Jacob’s Ford met
his death by deliberately riding headlong
into a burning section of the castle. Now, wrote
his secretary and biographer Imad al-Din:
“He wished to purify land of these… unclean
orders, whose practices are useless, who never
give up their hostility and who have no use as
slaves… He ordered that each would have
his head cut off and be erased from the land
of the living.”
Instead of committing the job to
a professional headsman, Saladin asked
for volunteers from his religious entourage.
Sufis, lawyers and scholars stepped forward
for the chance to decapitate an infidel, with
predictably gruesome results. Some deaths
were swift. Others were painful and slow,
as inexperienced clerics hacked away with
blunt blades and no technique. Many, wrote
Imad al-Din, “proved themselves ridiculous
and had to be replaced.”
Saladin sent a letter to Baghdad containing
news of his extermination of the Christian
military orders. “Not one of the Templars
survived,” he wrote, with satisfaction.
And he was very nearly correct.
THE TEMPLARS FIGHT BACK
Nearly, but not quite. It took several years
for the Templars to rebuild their numbers
and their military reputation, but they managed
it. When Richard the Lionheart arrived in the
Holy Land to lead the Third Crusade in 1191,
he revived the order’s fortunes, installing new
leaders from his own entourage and ensuring
BRIDGEMAN X 2
that the Templars rode either at the vanguard
or rearguard of his army as it marched down
the coast from Acre to Jaffa, reclaiming cities
Saladin had conquered. He briefly handed
 Mamluk cavalry train for combat in a military manual from 1371. It was against these Egyptian slave-soldiers
that the Templars of the Holy Land made their final stand – defending the crusader city of Acre in 1291

the Templars a military dictatorship on Cyprus, final stand. German Teutonic Order governed a
although they found the island ungovernable In 1307, however, the order semi-autonomous state in Prussia for centuries.
and sold it on. And, when Richard left the Holy was destroyed by a cruel The Mamluks, who were themselves somewhat
Land for Europe in 1192, he was said to have and conniving king of like an Islamic military order, ruled Egypt
travelled incognito, wearing Templar uniform. France, Philip IV. Philip used and Syria until they were swept aside by the
The order remained at the military heart a popular wish for the Ottomans in 1517.
of the crusades for another century. Templars and Hospitallers to Why did the Templars fall? Part of the answer
In 1218–19 they starred in the Fifth Crusade to be merged into one military lies in the weakness of their last master,
Damietta in Egypt, deploying armoured galleys super-order as a pretext for James of Molay; part in the cruel caprice of
in the water of the Nile Delta, as the Christian investigating their practices Philip IV. But what is seldom noted is that the
armies attempted an amphibious siege and then confiscating their Templars, for all their wealth and privilege,
of the city. Two generations later they were wealth. Their collapse was never established for themselves a geographical
back again, having helped fund and provision swift and dramatic, as the base that they could defend against all assaults,
another crusader army with designs on king’s lawyers and papal even from their own side.
Damietta, this time led by Louis IX of France. inquisitors accused the The brothers were famed for their bravery,
Throughout the 13th century, the Templars brothers of corruption, dedication and piety but these were not enough
continued to be involved in the Reconquista, blasphemy, and sexual crimes. to save them when Philip IV attacked.
helping King James I of Aragón to conquer By 1312, the Templars had Had they established themselves as the rulers
Ibiza and Mallorca between 1229 and 1235, been disbanded. Their last of Cyprus when they had the chance in 1191,
and the kingdom of Valencia by 1244. master, James of Molay, was their history might have been different. But
Then, at the end of the century, when the burned at the stake as a heretic they did not, and the Knights Templars’
Christians were being swept from the Holy in Paris in 1314. shocking demise now dominates our memory
Land by an Egyptian slave-soldier regime called Other orders survived of an order that was, in its day, better known by
the Mamluks, the Templars provided the very the decline of crusading. Ibn al-Athir’s assessment: “The fiercest fighters
last line of defence. Their huge fortress in Acre The Hospitallers continued of all the Franks.”
was the last bastion to hold out against Mamluk the fight against the church’s
forces storming through the breached walls enemies from a new base on DAN JONES is a historian, author and
in 1291, in what turned out to be the crusaders’ the island of Rhodes, while the TV presenter.
 history
Indian Mythology

Kubera TREASURER OF THE GODS

K
UBERA is no longer worshipped today as he
once was in ancient India. He is the pot-bellied
king of the yakshas, and closely related to
the rakshasas, and associated with great wealth,
often known as the treasurer of the gods. If you go
the Reserve Bank of India building in New Delhi,
you will find on either side of the gate the image
of Yaksha and Yakshini symbolising the wealth generated from
78
FEBRUARY 2018
 Ÿ Myth is a belief,
an article of faith,
industry and agriculture respectively, indicating were given important positions in the monastic
which cannot be how yakshas and their king Kubera are closely orders. Their image was placed on either side
verified scientifically. associated with wealth. On temple walls, of the Buddha, leader of the Buddhists,
Believers think it is
true; non-believers
we find images of yakshas, strange gnome-like and the Jinas, the great teachers of the Jains.
feel it is false. misshapen beasts, very fat, with pot bellies Yaksha-Yakshi couples were seen serving the
While science and dwarfish features. sages while they meditated. Many Buddhists
restricts itself to ‘how’
We learn of Kubera for the first time and Jains were merchants. And, while they
questions (how did
the world come into in the Shatapatha Brahmana, a ritual manual appreciated the value of giving up desire
being, how are we explaining how various Vedic yagnas have as stated by the Buddha and the value of
born), myth answers to be conducted. It is dated to a few centuries austerity as recommended by the Jinas, they
‘why’ questions
(why does the world before the Buddha, so roughly 2,800 years ago. also knew the value of wealth in the world.
exist, why do we live, In it, he is described as the leader of robbers Hence, Kubera was an important deity for them.
or die). Fiction is and misshapen gnomes, who live in the forest. Merchant communities visualised Kubera
nobody’s truth.
Fact is everybody’s But, over time, he becomes a deity, worshipped as ruling in his kingdom of Alaka in the North
truth. Myth is alongside Shri, the goddess of wealth, who and sitting on nine treasures (nava-nidhi).
somebody’s truth. we now know as Lakshmi. He had two queens: Nidhi, goddess of treasures,
Ÿ Mythology is Yakshas were linked to water bodies and and Riddhi, goddess of growth. His pet
the vehicle of myth;
it is a set of stories, trees, which are necessary for survival, which mongoose, it was said, would spit out gemstones.
symbols and rituals explains their close association with Lakshmi, The presence of the mongoose is significant,
that communicates and with fertility in general. They were also because the mongoose is the enemy of the snake,
the myth that binds
a community. associated with gems, and metals, so all kinds and snakes, especially nagas, were believed
The community of wealth – water, plant wealth and mineral to produce gems on their hoods. Kubera
transmits these wealth. Yakshas were worshipped with flowers is supposed to be so rich that he is nara-vahana,
stories, symbols
and rituals over
and coloured powder and fragrant paste and which means the one who rides a human being.
generations. lamps under trees, as rocks and besides rivers. All other gods travel on animals – Shiva
Religious Scholars believe the practice of puja began on a bull, Vishnu on a hawk, Lakshmi
mythologies speak
first as yaksha-puja. What was first the practice on an elephant, and Durga on a lion – but Kubera
of god, demons,
heaven, hell, soul, of primitive forest tribes eventually became rides a man. This indicates perhaps how man
and rebirth. Secular mainstream Brahmin ritual as the old yagna has become a slave of wealth.
mythologies speak practices faded and new practices were adopted
of rights, justice,
equality, and as Vedic thought spread from the Gangetic In the Ramayana
diversity. plains to the rest of India. In early texts, yakshas and the Mahabharata
Ÿ Mythologies from received blood sacrifices and were feared; By the time the Ramayana is written in Sanskrit,
India are the major
but, later, they became less malevolent and roughly 2,000 years ago, we learn that Kubera’s
mythologies that
originated in India: more friendly, and red powder was used instead grandfather is Pulatsya, his father is Vaishrava.
Hinduism, of blood. Wild yakshas converted to more gentle Vaishrava had two wives: Ilavila, who gave
Buddhism, and forms when they met Buddhist and Jain monks, birth to Kubera, and Kaikesi, who gave birth
Jainism. Belief in
rebirth, hence we learn in the Jatakas and Agamas. to Ravana. Thus Kubera was Ravana’s older
karma, is common to brother. Kubera, we are told, built the golden
all three of them. Place in Buddhism city of Lanka and had a flying chariot called
and Jainism Pushpak Viman. Ravana defeated him in war,
Buddhists and Jains rejected Vedic rituals, and claimed both his golden city and his flying
and preferred the monastic ways, but they chariot. Kubera was forced to take refuge in the
did not reject Kubera or Lakshmi. Both of them North, with Shiva, and to build a new city Alaka.
Sketches: Devdutt Pattanaik

Scholars believe the practice of puja began

first as yaksha-puja
 history
Indian Mythology
In the Mahabharata, when the Pandavas
drink water from a lake without permission,
they are killed by the yaksha who resurrects
them after Yudhishtira agrees to answer all
the yaksha’s questions. Thus, yakshas are
closely associated with water bodies here.
In the Mahabharata, a yaksha called
Sthunakarna plays a key role in transforming
Shikhandi from a woman into a man.
Thus, yakshas were linked to magic.
In vaastu-shastra, the occult science of
direction, the south is associated with death and
change and, hence, the land of rakshasas, while
the north is the direction of growth, prosperity,
permanence and, hence, the yakshas. This
reveals the tension between rakshasas
and yakhshas as described in the Ramayana.
Clearly, there was a time when yakshas
and rakshasas were seen as the same,
but, over time, yakshas became
the good cousins and rakshasas
80
FEBRUARY 2018
Clearly, there was a time when yakshas
and rakshasas were seen as the same,
but, over time, yakshas became the good
cousins and rakshasas the bad cousins.
One can speculate that these were forest
tribes; those who supported the Vedic ways
were seen as yakshas and those who rejected
the Vedic ways were seen as rakshasas.
It is significant that both yakshas and
rakshasas tend to be closely associated
with Shiva, and less with Vishnu, reflecting
Shiva’s more wild ways and Vishnu’s more
refined ways.
The stories of Kubera
There are many stories of Kubera, of how
he knew when to spend and when not
to spend. In peace time, he would collect even
grains of sand that would be left behind by
farmers on the farm. In crisis, during floods,
he would not hesitate to use sacks of rice
to create dams, knowing fully well that
the rice would be destroyed by this decision.
Once he became so proud that he felt
that his wealth could never be depleted.
To teach him a lesson, Ganesha went to
his house and ate all his food, reminding
Kubera that material wealth can go away.
Another time, he was boasting about how
money can do anything. Shiva’s consort, Devi,
then plucked out one of his eyes and ate it.
Replace it, she said. Kubera could not; he
realized that wealth cannot replace all things.
Yakshas play a very important role in folk
tales. In the Buddhist Jatakas, Manibhadra
and Purnabhadra are leaders of the yakshas
who live in the North and the South
respectively. Among Jains, Manibhadra is
seen as a vira, or guardian spirit. In Kalidasa’s
Meghadutam, we learn of a yaksha exiled
from Alaka, the city of yakshas, asking
the clouds (megha) to be his messenger (duta)
and give a message to his beloved, describing
the sites along the way.
Scholars are convinced that the notion
WIKICOMMONSX2
the bad cousins
of the pot-bellied elephant-headed
Ganesha has its origin in ancient
yaksha-worship. Touching
the large belly of the yaksha
was supposed to be lucky.
The laughing Buddha image
from Zen Buddhism is closely
associated with the yaksha murtis
of Hinduism. Yakshas are very
similar to the dwarves of Viking
mythology and the goblins
of Irish mythology. Essentially,
they were earthly creatures,
feared for their form, but sought
for their treasures.
Yakshas were water gods.
Where there was water, there
was wealth and, hence, yakshas.
Together with Nagas and
Gandharvas, the yakshas were
creatures of the wilderness, to be
found outside human settlements,
once worshipped under trees,
next to waterfalls, or in caves,
by ancient Indians in the quest
for fertility. Later, as religion
became more and more organised,
these deities became lesser gods
and relegated to the sides of the
sacred pantheon. Today, we find
them on temple walls, in the sides,
besides the main shrine. But
their time is slowly coming back
as we move from a more socialist
economy to a more capitalist
economy. Notice how all over
India, there is a rising popularity
of Feng-Shui symbols like toads
on a heap of gold coins, dragons,
rising bamboo shoots, fat pot-
bellied monks and gods of
fortune. These are all water
deities. These are all Kubera’s
subjects, yakshas from the
north-eastern land called China.

About the author

Devdutt Pattanaik is a writer, illustrator
and lecturer of mythology, who draws
attention to its relevance in modern
times. Based in Mumbai, he has over
30 books, and over 800 articles to
his credit. His latest children’s books
include The Girl who Chose:
Ramayana for Children (Puffin) and
The Boys who Fought: Mahabharata
for Children (Puffin). To know more,
visit www.devdutt.com
 nature
Tawny Owls

tawny
tactics
By thinking outside the box, a Yorkshire artist is gaining
unique insights into the lives of his local tawny owls,
discovers Amy-Jane Beer
Photos by Robert Fuller

Young tawny owls often perch

together so the adults can
keep a watchful eye on them.
Parents will defend their
offspring vigorously
from predators.

82
FEBRUARY 2018

88 BBC Wildlife November 2017

 T
HE theme from The Great Escape has
been in my head for days, ever since
I scooted down the tunnel leading from
Robert Fuller’s house to his new wildlife
hide. Access is via a trolley – you lie
down and haul yourself along by a rope, just like
Steve McQueen and Richard Attenborough.
As well as getting you into the hide unnoticed,
it’s also jolly good fun.
The view from the hide is pretty unusual.
To the right is a drystone structure with a den for
stoats and a wooden maze to test their flexibility.
To the left, an artificial badger sett is under
construction. Behind us, a weasel snoozes in
a heated nestbox.Outside is a bird table loaded
with defrosted day-old chicks, strapped down
so they can’t be carried off – Robert wants his
visitors to feed where he can see them.
Tonight, we’re concentrating on tawny owls,
which Robert has been watching, photographing
and painting here for 18 years. “They’re
challenging,” he says. “Really secretive.
The first time I saw one on a fence-post just down
there I ran for my camera but, of course, when I got
back it had gone. I built a nestbox out of an old
stump, mounted it in a tree and there have been
tawny owls there ever since.” This was good for
the owls but, for Robert, getting good photos
means luring the birds into the open.
“The supplementary feeding started when
I decided to help a young male kestrel,” he recalls.
“I began putting out mice that I caught for him.
When he had a family, I put the food out late
at night so he’d have something first thing.
It wasn’t long before the owls cottoned on
and soon I was feeding them every night, too.”
Robert’s expertise with owls soon became local
common knowledge and people started bringing
him ‘rescued’ owlets. Most of these were tawny
owls. “The thing about tawnies is they fledge too
soon, and, end up on the floor,” says Robert.
“People assume they’ve been abandoned when,
in fact, the parents are still close by.” Hand-rearing
is a last resort because owlets have so much
to learn from their parents. Since Robert knew
the adult pair he was feeding would never struggle
to find food, he decided to try fostering the owlets
with them.

November 2017 BBC Wildlife 89

 nature
Tawny Owls
“We were winging it,” he admits. “We didn’t
have nestbox cameras then, so we had no idea
what was going on inside. But tawny owls are
phenomenal parents and they’re used to rearing
chicks of varied ages because their own broods
naturally hatch over several days.”
These days, when spring ‘orphans’ arrive,
those that are large enough are ringed by Jean
Thorpe – an amazing woman who rehabilitates
most of North and East Yorkshire’s injured
raptors – and Jack Ashton-Booth, another local
raptor specialist. Robert transfers the owlets
to the box on the first night, which occasionally
means adding more than one at a time.
Does that mean the parents can’t count or
recognise their own? “No, they can’t. They’re
pretty stupid really,” he chuckles. “They’re
not colonial, so there’s no real benefit in
recognising their own chicks. They have such
a strong urge to nurture – much better than barn
owls. You wouldn’t want a barn owl as a mother,
but the tawnies are formidable.”
Formidable is no exaggeration. Pioneering
bird photographer Eric Hosking famously lost
an eye to a tawny owl he had been watching
and Robert is regularly attacked when returning
84
FEBRUARY 2018
owlets to the box. “It’s like someone throwing
half a brick at you. A half-brick with claws.
I’ve been punctured on my back and my head.
I used to wear a chainsaw helmet with a visor,
2
but they come in so hard, I was worried they
might hurt themselves. So now I wear a leather
hat with ear flaps, a visor and two buffs around
my neck.”
FAMILY LIFE IS COMPLICATED
Earlier that evening, we’d walked down
the valley to a nestbox, one of three made
from tree stumps and now home to
tawny and barn owls, and kestrels.
On the way, Robert explained
that last year the tawny pair
raised 10 chicks – four of their
own and six surrogates.
Last year, however, didn’t start so
well. The female laid three eggs, but
one failed to hatch. The first owlet
to emerge was killed by the male,
which unusually, supporting two
families in 2017. “He started pinching
food from the nest to take to the other brood,
which had already hatched,” says Robert. “I
November 2017
 Tawny owl chicks often
end up on the ground
when fledging.
1 BOTTOM: Barn owl
chicks have white down
2
and dark eyelids.

WHEN DOES A BABY

OWL NEED HELP?
TAWNY OWLS
GROUNDING: For fledging tawny owls, grounding
is an occupational hazard. Often a chick can climb
back into its tree, so it should only be taken to a vet
or rehab centre if it’s obviously injured or unwell.
If not, return the chick to the nest or a nearby
branch. Chicks smaller than a clenched fist are more
vulnerable, but taking them into care may rob them
of the natural upbringing they need. If in doubt, ask
a local wildlife rehabilitation expert.

WET PLUMAGE: It’s different if a bird is wet,

THIS PAGE:
1. An adult
tawny snoozes in
Robert is regularly as waterlogged down loses all of its insulating
volume. Following overnight rain, Robert brings
a kestrel nestbox
2. Two owlets
attacked. “It’s like any grounded chicks he finds inside to dry off on
top of the boiler in a closed cardboard box lined with
someone throwing
make themselves
at home in Robert’s shredded newspaper. He returns them to their nest
nest stump
the same evening.
FACING PAGE:
1. A male and half a brick at you. SAFETY FIRST: If you do decide to pick up a tawny
A half-brick with claws.”
female perch side
by side, having owl, put on a hat, gloves and goggles or a visor.
re-stablished their
territory by driving Be vigilant for the parents – some won’t hesitate
the young birds out to attack if they are nearby. If you sense an airborne
of the area
think he got confused. He arrived in the box, the female raised assault, don’t look up.
2. Robert checks
up to show him his baby and he just took it.” The female tried
Ann & Steve Toon/naturepl.com

a rescued owlet
before introducing to intervene but it was too late. So, as it turns out, only one
it into a nestbox
of the owlets she is caring for is the pair’s own. The first BARN OWLS
surrogate owlet also perished after being attacked by sheep. You can tell barn owl chicks from tawnies
“That happens a lot,” explains Robert. “You’d think the main risk by their pure white down and dark eyelids
to fledglings on the ground would be foxes, badgers or stoats, but (tawny owls’ are pink). Barn owls fledge
no. Sheep see them moving and trample or head-butt them into later and don’t ground as often, but
the ground.” are less able to self-rescue so may
Like many of the birds released on Robert’s patch, last year’s need help returning to the nest.
adoptee owls came from Jean Thorpe. None of them are true As a more stringently protected
siblings. “You can see they’re different,” Rob tells me. “Normally species, however, a licence is
owlets in a family have similar coloration, but these ones are required to touch them unless
a mixture – some are really pale.” they’re injured or suffering.
 nature
Tawny Owls

We arrive under a glorious spreading wych

elm. “They love this tree,” says Robert. “The
The ‘wise owl’
way the branches twist creates level perches
with good shelter. They only really use the
idea is nonsense
nestbox when there are no leaves on the trees,
so, after the young fledge, they’re out all the
But you can
time. There’s one now.” I crane my neck. Robert see why they
gained that
has to guide my eye – at first all I can see is
leaves and branches, but then I see the owlet.
It’s big, almost fully grown. Its plumage is
cinnamon and buff, fluffy on the chest, but reputation
developing the tree-bark adult texture on its 1. A young owl comes
to feed in front of Robert 2
back and sides. Its face swivels in the
2. Robert reproduces
surrounding hood of feathers, like the bezel
the owls on canvas
of a watch. Robert sets up a telescope and I take
3. A young owls’ cryptic plumage
a squint. helps it avoid predators, such as
The ‘wise owl’ idea is nonsense; these aren’t buzzards.
brainy birds by any measure. But you can see 4.Tree stumps make great
why they have gained that reputation. Their nestboxes, although they
big eyes appear all-seeing. Having spotted one are heavy
chick, we quickly see another, and another. 4
In a few minutes, all five are accounted for,
then Robert spots their mother, watching us.
I can clearly see the fleshy pads of her toes
3
pressing into the branch, while the scalpel-tips
86
FEBRUARY 2018
1. A female tawny
broods her own
owlets and
surrogates
2. Wet chicks are
brought inside to
dry off before being
returned to their
nest
of her talons rest lightly on the bark.
Tawny owls have moved from a ‘Green’ to
‘Amber’ listing due to their declining numbers,
though the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO)
points out that standard survey methods
(the species’ last national survey was in 2005)
may be unreliable for such secretive birds.
Bad weather, infanticidal parents and sheep
aren’t the only threats. Over 65 per cent of dead
tawnies reported to the BTO are killed by
traffic. This is a skewed statistic, because road
fatalities are more likely to be recorded than
other deaths, but the risk is still significant,
especially as roadsides are good places to find
carrion or hunt small prey. If an owl killed
on a road is a parent, the entire brood may
be doomed.
SERIOUS RISK
Disease is a serious problem too, especially
trichomonosis. This is caused by a protozoan
parasite that infects the moist tissues of birds’
mouths and throats. It’s the same condition that
has devastated greenfinch numbers, but it’s also
common in pigeons (where it’s known as
canker) and birds of prey (in which it’s called
frounce). Like kestrels and sparrowhawks,
tawny owls eat dead or sickly birds and are thus
highly susceptible. As the infection progresses,
lesions on the throat prevent feeding. “It’s really
unpleasant – they’re weak and wheezing,
and if you open the bea,k it’s all yellow inside,”
says Robert. “It affects whole families, because
parents feed infected prey to their young,
or they die and the owlets starve.”
After confirming the family are safe and well,
we go to check on its neighbours. Another huge
nestbox, a few trees along, is home to barn owls.
They’ve managed to foul the lens of the camera
mounted inside the box, so Robert has to clean
it. There are eight owlets inside, he tells me,
as he scales the ladder. He reaches in
and immediately a fury of hissing erupts –
the same sound as air escaping from several
inflatable mattresses.
CUTE… BUT TOUGH
Robert ducks as a shuttlecock of white feathers
explodes over his shoulder and parachutes into
the grass. “Oops. Keep an eye on that one!”
 science
Tawny Owls

he grins. “I’ll get it back in a minute.” 1. A male tawny arrives 2

Five minutes later, the lens is clean again, with a meal for a youngster
the owlet is safely back in the box and we’re 2. A young tawny owl takes
heading back to the ‘Great Escape’ hide. cover from mobbing blackbirds
under Robert’s car
Soon after 10pm, the calling starts: a chorus
3. Grounded owlets can end
of ‘kerrr-icks’ all around us. The female appears
up waterlogged in bad
on a fallen branch at the end of the garden and weather and unable to fly
is joined by an owlet, then I make out the
silhouettes of two more on a high feeding table.
After a minute or two, the adult takes off and
flies towards us. Her huge wings are cloud-soft,
but she lands with a heavy clunk on the table.
She seems as surprised as I am and looks down
at her feet, bobbing as if trying to work out
whether they really are as big as they look.
I suppress a giggle and she turns towards us.
There’s something teddy-bearish about her
round face and obsidian eyes. Then she bends,
seizes one of the day-old chicks and pulls. 3 “They remember this place and sneak back
She lifts her wings for balance, revealing for food when they have their own young.
muscular legs that flex to take the strain. I know it’s them because I find day-old chicken
I hear sinew ripping as the meal is remains in their boxes.” There must be special
dismembered. This is one badass teddy-bear. satisfaction in knowing so many of these birds
They’ll keep coming until September, Robert would not have survived without help. “Yes,
expects. “The adults parent them until August, it’s magic,” agrees Robert. “Rescuing them is
but then things start to break down and by one thing, but a natural start is the only way
October it’s war.” Autumn is the time for young they can learn everything they need to know.
to find territories of their own. These chicks My job is to help them stay wild.”
might not go far though. Young from previous
years have moved to the next valley, where AMY-JANE BEER is a natural-history writer and
Robert has erected more nestboxes. regular BBC Wildlife Q&A contributor.

88
FEBRUARY 2018
PUZZLE PIT
CROSSWORD NO. 41 Across
8 Otherwise (4)
9 Seizes or arrests (10)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 10 Nun's headdress (6)
11 See __ __ __ : be in complete agreement about? (3,2,3)
8 9 12 Rebukes, reproaches or denounces (8)
14 Fears (6)
16 Devoted followers (4)
17 Articles of faith (5)
10 11 18 Only fair (2-2)
19 Justification (6)
21 Stinging arachnid (8)
23 Threatening evil (8)
26 Runs away to marry (6)
12 13 14 15
27 Dull and uninspiring, in a way? (10)
28 Stadium section (4)

Down
16 17 18 1 Unable to read or write (10)
2 Loathes or spurns (8)
3 Vocation (6)
4 Fencer's blade (4)
19 20 21 22 5 Decapitated (8)
6 "B" in B.C.? (6)
7 Indolently (4)
13 Oozes through (5)
15 Found out, unearthed or invented? (10)
23 24 25 26
17 Understand or interpret (8)
18 Sustains, maintains or keeps up (8)
20 ___ work: is a lazy person, in a way? (6)
22 Headed the batting order (6)
27 28 24 Terrible Russian (4)
25 Decays or putrefies (4)

SOLUTION OF CROSSWORD NO. 40
R I B S L A C H R Y M A L
C D
HOW IT’S DONE U M B I L I C U S L A R Y N X
Y A T E
The puzzle will already be familiar to crossword enthusiasts, although the British O T M O L A R N A N V I L
L I P A N
style may be unusual as crossword grids vary in appearance from country O C E P I G L O T T I S
G B O N E S H U
to country. Novices should note that the idea is to fill the white squares with Y V E N T R I C L E
I R I
letters to make words determined by the sometimes cryptic clues to the right. C O R N E A K E R A T I N
The numbers after each clue tell you how many letters are in the answer. C
O
K N E E C A P
Y
T S
All spellings are UK English. Good luck! O O W H K
C F R I B R A I N
C E R E B R U M T S E N
Y M M A N D I B L E
X U O
P E R I C A R D I U M
 Brain teasers
Puzzles

PUZZLE PIT FIND YOUR WAY OUT OF THE MAZE

PICTURE SEARCH
In the jumble below, the words represented
by each of the 16 pictures are hidden either
horizontally, vertically or diagonally forward
Picture
or backwards but always Search in a straight line.
See
In the how many
jumble below, of them
the words youby can
represented each offind.
the 16 pictures

Look outalways
wards but forindescriptive
a straight line. Seenames.
are hidden either horizontally, vertically or diagonally forward or back-
how many of them you can
find? Look out for descriptive names..

N H H Q B C O S P E A R I
W R E F R I G E R A T O R
A Y R W F D N D E H M D O
L G G D T O I I T S M C N
R L L Q D O M R I C E S C
U N A S T R A W B E R R Y
S F S B L B L S R H Y Y M
H D S Q Y E F M T S P X B
E J L A P E N I O E C E A
U M B R E L L A L D R R L
H A N D B A G L S K H U I
T E S T T U B E O L Q B I
S E A H O R S E H V S Y W

Solution to Picture Search

SCRAMBLE
Cymbal, flamingo, glass, handbag, Nepal,
refrigerator, rice, ruby, seahorse, spear, straw-
berry, test tube, toaster, umbrella, volleyball,
walrus
move one
Solve the four anagrams and
to form fou r ordinary
letter to each square rked with an
nge the letters ma
words. Now arra
HEAD & TAIL
r to the riddle or to
asterisk(*) to form the answe
ica .
ted
fill in the missing words as ind
the form
to fill the blank in
* Look at the clue nd part of
* ord. The seco
GSUEE of a compound w st part of the next
fir
* * the answer is the
BCKAA answer, etc.
Cart
* * Haul off
AEIVRR
match
* * Not a home
EIRVHT
Strategy
_ - Voltaire (3,..,5)
The __ is the avenue to the ___
sounding
Loud and re
Cultivated

Wild celery
Roots
or source
Foundation

90
FEBRUARY 2018
 BBC KNOWLEDGE QUIZ
ENIGMA CODE See how you fare in the general knowledge
quiz given below.
Each colour in our code
Ratings: 1-3 Poor, 4-5 Fair, 6-7 Excellent
represents a letter. When you
have cracked the code, you will
be able to make seven words.
DOUBLE BARRELLED 1) Who was the first President of Israel?
What word can be placed in front of the a) David Ben-Gurion
The clue to the first word is b) Chaim Weizmann
five words shown to form, in each case,
given to help you get started. c) Yitzhak Rabin
another word?
The clue: Prison official 2) What was the name of Shylock’s wife in
L E A D E R
W
Enigma code Shakespeare’s the Merchant of Venice?
a) Leah
W
Each colour in our code
represents a letter. W I D T H b) Portia
When you have
cracked the code you
c) Titania
A G E
will be able to make up
W seven words.

The clue to first word is

given to help you get 3) What is the capital of Gabon?
W started.
S T A N D a) Libreville
The Clue : Prison

W official b) Kigali
c) Mogadishu
W Solution to
Enigma Code :
W A G O N
Warden, Wander, 4) Who was the last man to walk
W
Wonder, Onward, Toward,
Wanted, Answer
on the moon?
a) Buzz Aldrin
b) Alan Bean
BRAIN TEASERS c) Eugene Cernan
1) 1) Only one word in the English for Finland. If the plane was to 5) Which rock star is buried at the Père
language has a single letter crash in Sweden, where would Lachaise Cemetery in Paris?
repeated 6 times. What is it? the survivors be buried? a) Jimi Hendrix
b) Jim Morrison
2) What’s black when you get it, 5) Two bankrobbers rob the local c) Kurt Cobain
Red when you use it. And white bank. They then hop into their
when you’re all through with it? car and scurry off to their 6) What is the SI unit of radioactivity?
hideout 20 miles away. When a) Coulomb
3) What is the largest possible
b) Geiger
number you can write using only they get there, they realise that c) Becquerel
2 digits - just 2 digits, nothing one of their tyres had been
else? completely flat the whole time. 7) Who is the co-founder and CEO of Twitter?
How did they get to their hideout a) Jack Dorsey
4) A group of Englishmen is without noticing? b) Omid Kordestani
travelling on a German plane, c) Paul Allen
piloted by an Norwegian, bound

PICK & CHOOSE 6. c) Becquerel, 7. a) Jack Dorsey

3. a) Libreville, 4. c) Eugene Cernan, 5. b) Jim Morrison,

of sets of letters
BBC Knowledge Quiz: 1. b) Chaim Weizmann, 2. a) Leah,
sing the right combination
Solve the six clues by cho and only in
ers can be used only once
4. Abacus, 5. Intended, 6. Montague

given below. Each set of lett cifies how many

Pick & choose: 1. Gibberish, 2. Mercury, 3. Escapologist,

r at the end of the clues spe

the order given. The numbe
tyre in the trunk.
the solution.
sets of letters are used in
4. You do not usually bury survivors. 5. The flat was the spare
9, this is 9x9x9x9x9x9x9x9x9 or 387,420,489.
Brain Teasers: 1 Indivisibility. 2. Charcoal . 3. 9 to the power
1. Nonsense Double Barrelled: Band

Hg in the periodic table

Wanted, Answer
2. Enigma Code: Warden, Wander, Wonder, Onward, Toward,

Harry Houdini was a famous one

Head & Tail: Cart-Away-Game-Plan-Gent-Eel-Grass-Roots
3. Answer: The ear is the avenue to the heart - Voltaire
Scramble: Segue, aback, arrive, thrive.
4. Counting frame toaster, umbrella, volleyball, walrus
refrigerator, rice, ruby, seahorse, spear, strawberry, test tube,
5. Meant
Picture Search: Cymbal, flamingo, glass, handbag, Nepal,
Solutions:
6. Romeo's family in Romeo
and Juliet
IN BER ND
ABA CURY ESC
TA APO LOG
ISH MON CUS
GIB GUE ED
IST TE MER
 found object
History

THE TRUSTEES OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM

UZBEK TREASURE
returns home
A huge glazed tile stolen from the 12th-century Chashma-i Ayub monument near Bukhara
in Uzbekistan has been returned after it surfaced in a London gallery. The decorative Islamic
calligraphic tile, which dates from the 13th century, is just over half a metre high
92 and was stolen in 2014.
FEBRUARY 2018