Issue 75

Science Illustrated

Science and Discovery has never looked this good!

Science Illustrated1 min read
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Science Illustrated Australia
Editor Jez Ford editor@scienceillustrated.com.au Art Director Malcolm Campbell Advertising Manager ph: 02 9901 6100 Production Manager Peter Ryman Circulation Director Carole Jones Editor-in-Chief Sebastian Relster International Editor Lotte Juul Nie
Science Illustrated1 min readAstronomy & Space Sciences
Megapixel // Humpback Whales
The ‘bubble net’ technique (photographed here in Alaska) is primarily employed by humpback whales, and appears to be a culturally-learned behaviour employed by only a few groups of the world’s humpbacks. It is preceded by whale song thought to indica
Science Illustrated5 min read
New Engine Sends Planes Into Space
TECHNOLOGY More than five times the speed of sound–that’s what the European Space Agency (ESA) hopes to achieve with its future supersonic space plane. The engine designed to fulfil the task has passed a vital test at a centre in the US, with scienti
Science Illustrated2 min readAstronomy & Space Sciences
New Evidence Of Liquid Water On Jupiter Moon
Jupiter's gravity makes the ice on Europa crack. Water from Europa’s ocean moves towards the surface of the ice sheet. In some places, the water finds its way through the ice and emerges as vapour from the surface. Scientists have managed to measure
Science Illustrated3 min read
Do Nuclear Power Plants Heat Up The Planet?
Almost all energy consumed in a home ends up as heat. Only a little escapes in the shape of light. Industry contributes to heat a city through energy consumption, chemical reactions and other processes. Structures protect against the wind and so agai
Science Illustrated2 min readAstronomy & Space Sciences
How Do We Know How Many Galaxies There Are?
ASTRONOMY The universe is too vast and our telescopes too small to capture the light from all the universe’s galaxies so that we can count them. So astronomers do the second best thing: they count galaxies in a tiny part of the universe and then mult
Science Illustrated1 min read
Could The T. Rex Not Find Prey That Stood Still?
All modern research results indicate that Jurassic Park’s dinosaur expert, Dr. Alan Grant, and the two kids would have been eaten, as the T.rex had fully functional senses. Studies of the hollow cleft by the brain in a T. rex skull show that the dino
Science Illustrated3 min read
Did The Big Bang Happen More Than Once?
Cosmologists, who work with the structure and development of the universe, are not too keen on unique events without an explanation. It’s just not how nature works. Normally, laws of nature describe a framework in which events take place many times–s
Science Illustrated9 min read
Your Body Comes Alive After Death
THE FIRST MINUTES THE FIRST HOURS THE FIRST DAYS THE FIRST MONTHS Time of death can be surprisingly difficult to identify, even when investigators desperately need answers to eliminate some suspects and incriminate others. Take the tragic 1997 case o
Science Illustrated1 min readBiology
The Brain Wave Of The After-life
Brain cells produce an interior electrical signal by allowing electrically-charged ions into the cell. When the signal has flowed through the cell, ion pumps send the ions out again, readying the cell to send a new signal. When the heart stops beatin
Science Illustrated1 min read
Genes Return To Embryonic Stage After Death
During the first hours after death, the cells activate genes involved in the immune system and in the transport of molecules in and out of cells, probably aiming to repair damage. The lack of oxygen apparently makes the cells reset themselves and act
Science Illustrated1 min read
Gut Bacteria Occupy The Heart
Natural skin bacteria–particularly Staphylococcus and Streptococcus–are among the first to enter the blood and lymph systems. From there, they spread to organs that are full of blood, such as the liver and the spleen. After death, the number of gut b
Science Illustrated1 min read
Dead Bodies Move Their Arms
The breakdown of tissue causes the accumulation of gases in body cavities. The abdominal cavity and abdomen swell, and tight clothes could be damaged. Insects, particularly fly maggots, gnaw their way through the tissue and make the accumulated gases
Science Illustrated6 min read
Komodo Dragon Is Designed To Kill
The sun shines brightly on the island of Komodo in the Indonesian archipelago. A three-metre-long Komodo dragon is sunbathing next to one of the island’s few water sources, when suddenly its tongue vibrates intensely. It has picked up the smell of pr
Science Illustrated1 min read
Venomous Bite Makes Blood Flow
The Komodo dragon’s mouth includes venom glands. The venom is directed into the mouth via ducts between the teeth–and not in the teeth themselves, as in snakes. The venom is introduced as the Komodo dragon cuts into the skin of its prey, biting and p
Science Illustrated2 min read
Dragon Is An Armoured Tank
The Komodo dragon uses its tongue to capture smells. The slim forked tongue detects pheromones in the air, bringing them into its mouth, where they come in contact with the Jacobson’s organ in the upper part of the mouth. The organ is studded with sc
Science Illustrated1 min read
Genes Stop Dragon Blood Spills
Normal bleeding involves blood gushing out until a sufficient number of thrombocytes collect in the wound. The healing process is controlled by the MRVI1 gene, which produces a protein that blocks activation of thrombocytes. Once the gene is deactiva
Science Illustrated5 min readAstronomy & Space Sciences
Titan Rotocraft To Search For Proof Of LIFE ON SATURN’S ICE MOON
100km below Titan’s surface is an ocean of liquid water where organic material from the surface may be able to mix with the water to produce monocellular organisms also known as protozoans. Adrone with eight rotors ploughs its way through Titan’s den
Science Illustrated1 min readChemistry
Life Could Exist Under The Ice
Solar radiation and cosmic radiation break down methane and nitrogen into ions and electrons. Those produce tholins–complex molecules that include carbon, hydrogen, and other substances that are important for life on Earth. Tholins fall as ‘snow’ ont
Science Illustrated1 min read
Drone Detective Has Three Super Senses
The generator consists of two materials: one with surplus electrons and one with a shortage (a lack of electrons in atoms is also known as ‘holes’). One side of the circuit is heated by decaying plutonium. The heat makes electrons and holes move towa
Science Illustrated5 min read
Transparent Sea Creature Invented Our Blood Cells
Scientists from Stanford University in the USA have been scraping flower-like ‘stains’ from the floating docks of Monterey, California. Though the diameters of these colourful ‘rosettes’ are easy to miss, only a centimetre or less across, they have p
Science Illustrated1 min readMedical
Killer Cells Ready To Attack In The Case Of A Mismatch
A Botryllus colony consists of 4 to 20 drop-shaped individuals and has a 5-10mm diameter. Each individual has an endostyle that produces different types of blood and immune cells, sharing them with the rest of the colony in a common blood circulation
Science Illustrated5 min readEarth Sciences
California Threatened By New Flood Phenomenon
Rain falling on Christmas Eve in California is not unusual–the American state receives half of its precipitation between December and February. But when the skies opened back in December 1861, they didn’t close again for more than a month. Over a per
Science Illustrated1 min readEarth Sciences
Fluctuating Air Flows Trigger A Meteorological Waterfall
The moisture comes from the ocean, the temperature of which is high in the tropics. If the high and low pressures are just right, long fingers of vapour-saturated air can pull away from the Equator towards the west coast. When air flows inland, it is
Science Illustrated16 min readOccult & Paranormal
‘It’s Life, Jim, But Not As We Know It…’
WHAT IS LIFE? Some questions are so complex that they remain unanswered for centuries. Yet the search for a solution often yields information and wisdom even while the final answer remains out of reach. The set-up in the lab of 22-year-old chemist St
Science Illustrated1 min readBiology
Life Line Is Drawn Between Virus And Bacterium
Crystals can grow by new atoms that are added to the structure, but they have no metabolism. Prions spread by changing the structure of other proteins around them. But like crystals, they do not have a metabolism. Viruses include genetic material tha
Science Illustrated1 min readEarth Sciences
Two Contending Theories About The Nature Of Life
According to the Medea hypothesis, life tends to destroy its own conditions, as happened when cyanobacteria invented photosynthesis some 2.5 billion years ago. They filled the atmosphere with oxygen, which was toxic for most organisms, and consumed s
Science Illustrated1 min read
Megapixel // Garden Eels
The garden eels look like seagrass as they sway in the current, feeding on the plankton that drifts past them. Along their backs, the eels have an organ that can sense motion or pressure changes, and when a predator swims by, the eels quickly vanish
Science Illustrated5 min read
Quantum Microphone Hears The World’s Lowest Sounds
In order to capture the world’s lowest sound, scientists have invented the world’s most sensitive microphone, so small it can only be seen through an electron microscope. 0. 000 5 mm Every time you hear a sound, there are vibrations in the air. If yo
Science Illustrated1 min read
Tiny Microphone Captures Sound Particles
A control unit known as a transmon qubit sends electrons into a circuit. The circuit is made of a super-conductive material to prevent the electrons disappearing en route. When the electrons pass by a resonator, it produces phonons that are captured
Science Illustrated5 min read
Physicists Are Searching For… A MIRROR UNIVERSE
Imagine a world almost like our own. It includes everything from galaxies and stars to humans and animals, but there is one important difference: everything is reversed. Earth orbits the Sun in the opposite direction. The heart is located in the righ
Science Illustrated1 min readAstronomy & Space Sciences
Neutrons Travel Between Two Mirrored Universes
According to the theory, the Big Bang created everything, going on to form both our universe and a mirror universe. Stars and planets can also exist in the mirror universe, and on some of the planets, life may have originated, and could be contacted
Science Illustrated8 min read
A Revolution In Roman Surgery
PRESENT STATUS The methods of the Roman Empire laid the foundations of modern medicine, but in recent years, robots have entered operating rooms. The American STAR robot is already more accurate than human surgeons. In 2016, it stitched up pig intest
Science Illustrated1 min read
Greek God Of Medicine Saved Rome
In 293 BC, a severe epidemic swept through Rome. The citizens died in great numbers. The Roman gods seemed powerless, so Rome sent a delegation to the city of Epidavros in Greece, home of the Greek god of medicine, Asclepius. As the delegation discus
Science Illustrated1 min read
Open Wide Please… Tools From Pompeii
In abdominal examinations of women, the doctor used a speculum with three arms. They were introduced into the vagina and subsequently expanded by means of handles and a screwing mechanism. According to Galen, the below instruments were used to force
Science Illustrated1 min readAstronomy & Space Sciences
Stars Live On The Edge
Dense dust and gas clouds produce stars. New stars must gain mass. Protostars are huge. Nuclear processes mature the star. Lack of hydrogen triggers the formation of a planetary nebula. Major stars die in an explosion. STARS LIVE ON THE EDGE. Black h
Science Illustrated1 min read
// Test Yourself
Solve the three problems below to find a combined code phrase. Turn to page 13 for the answers and the meaning of the phrase. 1 Which letter replaces the question mark in the right circle below? 2 What number replaces the question mark below right? 3

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