An ash blanket

FROM THE EDITOR

What if you didn’t have to get old?

ON THE BBC THIS MONTH . . .

WANT MORE? FOLLOW SCIENCEFOCUS ON FACEBOOK TWITTER PINTEREST

So long, smog

GURUGRAM, INDIA

Rippling rubble

MARS

CONVERSATION

YOUR OPINIONS ON SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY AND BBC SCIENCE FOCUS

DISCOVERIES

NASA’s Parker Solar Probe is the first human-made

Elderly with elevated heart rates may be at greater risk of dementia

The discovery could help doctors to identify people with higher dementia risk for early intervention

Gene editing used to create all-male or all-female litters of mice

The breakthrough could help to stop the culling of livestock and animals used in scientific research

Palaeontologists figure out how a pterosaur the size of a doubledecker bus was able to fly

Quetzalcoatlus, the largest known animal capable of flight, launched itself into the air using its powerful legs

Method of predicting which bacteria are likely to become resistant to antibiotics developed

The researchers made the discovery by studying the emergence of ‘pre-resistance’ in tuberculosis bacteria

Frenchies more at risk of common health disorders than other breeds

Selectively breeding away from these health issues could mean that French bulldogs start to look different in the future

A genetic form of hearing loss could be reversed

A recent study performed on mice could lead to new therapies for patients with hearing loss

Dinosaur treasure trove unearthed in Italy

DISCOVERIES Palaeontologists from the University of Bologna have

Living robots capable of self-replication created in US lab

Sam Kriegman tells us about Pac-Man-shaped ‘xenobots’ made from frog cells that could one day lead to breakthroughs in medicine

ANIMAL EMISSIONS: HOW BIG IS MY PET’S CARBON PAWPRINT AND WHAT CAN I DO TO MINIMISE IT?

REALITY CHECK

OMICRON VARIANT: HOW WORRIED SHOULD WE BE ABOUT IT?

Research has started to emerge on the latest variant of COVID. How concerned should we be about it, and what makes it different from previous variants?

HAVANA SYNDROME: WHAT’S CAUSING THE MYSTERIOUS ILLNESS?

Some have blamed top-secret weapons, but the condition could be all in the mind

INNOVATIONS

PREPARE YOURSELF FOR TOMORROW

Scientists build working camera the size of a grain of salt

Honey, I shrunk the camera… to revolutionise surgery

Why do we find human-like androids so unsettling?

Alex Hughes spoke to the creator of Ameca, a humanoid robot that’s been going viral online for its uncanny facial expressions

Ideas we like…

...a unique, modular action cam Like most action

A BALANCING ACT

Unleash your inner five-yearold and practise standing on one leg, to keep your brain working hard

NOT MY FIRST METAVERSE

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg might be getting excited about the metaverse, but the idea is nothing new

Q&A

YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED ... HOW DO WE KNOW

HAVE WE DISCOVERED ANYTHING IN SPACE THAT WE NOW USE IN E VERYDAY LIFE?

ILLUSTRATION: DANIEL BRIGHT A pure science like astronomy

WARTY COMB JELLY

Starter for 10: What’s 97 per cent water,

HOW DO WE KNOW THE SHAPE OF THE UNIVERSE?

When astronomers talk about the ‘shape’ of the

WHY DO KIDS THROW UP SO MUCH?

Suckling infants throw up because they swallow a

CROWDSCIENCE

Every week on BBC World Service, CrowdScience answers listeners’ questions on life, Earth and the Universe. Tune in every Friday evening on BBC World Service, or catch up online at bbcworldservice.com/crowdscience

HOW DOES SOIL STORE CARBON?

Soil locks up carbon via the process below.

DO NOOTROPICS REALLY WORK?

A nootropic – sometimes referred to as a

DOES DYSLEXIA EXIST IN WRITING SYSTEMS LIKE JAPANESE AND CHINESE?

SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY, GETTY IMAGES X2 ILLUSTRATIONS: DANIEL

WHY DOES LEFT AND RIGHT MATTER ON HEADPHONES?

Sound moves quite slowly. An echo demonstrates how

ASTRONOMY FOR BEGINNERS

CANCER THE CRAB WHEN: LATE WINTER The trick

DEAR DOCTOR...

HE ALTH QUESTIONS DE ALT WITH BY SCIENCE FOCUS EXPERTS

DOES DRINKING MILK CREATE PHLEGM?

No, it’s a myth that started a long

HOW DOES CONCUSSION AFFECT VISION?

A concussion is a type of brain injury

IS SUNCREAM BAD FOR CORAL REEFS?

Over the last decade, scientific studies have shed

WHY DO DIFFERENT PLANTS IN THE SAME ECOSYSTEM EVOLVE DIFFERENT-SHAPED LEAVES?

BELLE FORD, SOUTHPORT

THE EXPLAINER

HAWKING RADIATION

CROSSWORD

PENCILS AT THE READY!

NEXT ISSUE

CRIME AND NOURISHMENT GETTY IMAGES PLUS ROBOT

Could the Moon fall out of the sky?

We dig into the science of Moonfall, Roland Emmerich’s latest apocalypse-fest

WELCOME TO YOUR FUTURE COMMUTE

JUST A FEW YEARS AGO, IT FELT LIKE FLYING CARS WERE STILL A DISTANT SCI-FI FUTURE WE COULD ONLY DREAM ABOUT. BUT INVESTMENT HAS INCREASED RAPIDLY, AND A NUMBER OF COMPANIES ARE NOW BUILDING AIR TAXIS TO MAKE OUR CITY JOURNEYS FASTER, EASIER AND CLEANER

AN END TO AGEING?

Eternal youth is the stuff of religion and mythology, but what if we could just have a bit more of it? What if there was a pill that could slow down the ravages of time, so that you could feel younger for longer. It sounds like snake oil, but there’s a growing body of research that’s betting on making it a reality

A WINNING FORMULA

Beneath the rainforests of South America lives a fungi that consumes 50,000 leaves a day without ever coming to the surface. It relies on ants to bring it food in exchange for nutrients. This unlikely partnership starred in Sir David Attenborough’s new wildlife series The Green Planet. Evolutionary biologist Dr Pepijn Kooij speaks to Amy Barrett about this special relationship…

THE LIGHT FANTASTIC

As new telescopes around the world power up, they could answer an ancient myster y: what’s powering the most energetic explosions in the Universe?

Stroke Association

stroke.org.uk/legacy

INSTANT GENIUS

The Insect Crisis

OCR

ocr.org.uk/assessor

PCSPECIALIST

WWW.PCSPECIALIST.CO.UK

Science Focus MAGAZINE

Sky at Night MAGAZINE

www.buysubscriptions.com/Yearbook2022

BBC Science Focus

www.sciencefocus.com/newslettei

BBC HISTORY REVEALED

www.buysubscriptions.com/HRHA22

Music

www.buysubscriptions.com/MUHA22

HUAWEI

www.mammaLorg.uk