BBC Knowledge 201412

4th Anniversary Special
A Times of India publication Volume 5 Issue 1

December 2014 `125
SCIENCE • HISTORY • NATURE • FOR THE CURIOUS MIND
TOPLED
R E V E A
10 OF EVERYTHING
Human Evolution Animal Kingdom Space The Earth
Technology Transport History Human Planet Science
R.N.I. MAHENG/2010/35422
contents 12
Human Evolution
The flesh and bones of Homo sapiens –
from key fossil finds to endangered
languages and record-breaking people
in history.

A Times of India publication Volume 5 Issue 1
December 2014 `125
20
TOPLED Animal Kingdom

The features of creatures –
the biggest, the fastest, the
REVEA
strongest, the oldest, the most
dangerous and the weirdest
10
animals on the planet.
OF EVERYTHING 30
R.N.I. MAHENG/2010/35422
Space
regulars
Incredible journeys into
6 Q&A the cosmos, from the first
thinkstock x9, alamy
Our panel of experts answer the questions you’ve

always wanted to ask
astronauts (human and
other animals) to the biggest
88 In Focus things in space.
The Indian Space Research Organisation - its
beginnings, legacy and future missions
2 December 2014
38 62
The Earth History

Biggest deserts. The cities, ancient marvels and battles –
Coldest places. but also the mysteries and myths,
Longest rivers. Largest lakes. The most hoaxes and empires, disasters and
extreme places on our planet. doomed expeditions.
46 72
Technology Human Planet

The appliance of science – Discover how we’ve
from the tiny tech marvels moulded the world around
in your pocket to the us – the biggest and smallest
engineering feats that have countries, the tallest buildings,
transformed the world. the highest cities...
54 80
Science
Transport
Who discovered what,
From the wheel to the space shuttle, when? The big breakthroughs –
follow the development of movement and the men and women who transformed
through the ages – ever faster, bigger our understanding of the physical world.
and more dynamic.
from the editor
You know that line from the movie Forrest Gump? 'Life
is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you
are going to get’. Well, putting together each issue of
Knowledge has been just like that. We begin with a
curiosity and that question takes a life of its own. Our
world is so full of wonders and revelations, constantly
taking our breath away the minute we scratch the surface.
And scratch and dig we did. The Top 10 of Everything.
From the lives of Animals to the sphere of Technology,
Transport, Human Evolution, Space, History and much more. The fastest,
the biggest, the best. An elaborate 71-page glimpse of the extraordinary that
surrounds us.
This special digest celebrates BBCK’s 4th year anniversary this month. And it
also embodies the spirit of what’s yet to come.
An exciting Quiz Contest in search of the brightest young minds across India,
BRAINIAC will test the spirit of enquiry and the eagerness for knowledge of
students from all over the country. BRAINIAC is about to open soon, so turn
to page 28 for details and stay tuned to www.knowledgemagazine.in/brainiac/
edit.bbcknowledge@wwm.co.in
www.knowledgemagazine.in

Send us your letters
Has something you’ve read in BBC Knowledge Magazine intrigued or
excited you? Write in and share it with us. We’d love to hear from you and
we’ll publish a selection of your comments in the forthcoming issues.
Email us at : edit.bbcknowledge@wwm.co.in
We welcome your letters, while reserving the right to edit them for length
and clarity. By sending us your letter you permit us to publish it in the
Mrigank sharma (India Sutra)
magazine. We regret that we cannot always reply personally to letters.
Knowledgemagazineindia KnowledgeMagIND
KnowledgeMagind
Download this current issue from

www.zinio.com • www.magzter.com • www.rockasap.com
• www.readwhere.com
Here’s how to get in touch
Team India
Chief Executive Officer Tarun Rai
Editor Preeti Singh
Senior Features Writer Moshita Prajapati
Consulting Writer Dushyant Shekhawat
Senior Art Director Suneela Phatak
Senior Graphic Designer Navin Mohit
Digital Imaging Editor Shailesh Salvi
Senior Editorial Coordinator Harshal Wesavkar
Brand Publisher Soela Joshi
Senior Brand Manager Komal Puri
Chief Financial Officer Subramaniam S.

Publisher, Print & Production Controller Joji Varghese
UK Team Immediate
MediaCo
Editor Graham Southorn Chairman Stephen Alexander BBC Worldwide UK Publishing
Deputy Editor Andy Ridgway Deputy Chairman Peter Phippen Director of Publishing Nicholas Brett
Art Editor Joe Eden CEO Tom Bureau Head of Publishing Chris Kerwin
Publisher Andrew Davies Director of International Licensing and Syndication Tim Hudson Editorial Director Jenny Potter
Managing Director Andy Marshall International Partners Manager Anna Brown Publishing Coordinator Eva Abramik
Syndication Manager Richard Bentley UK.Publishing@bbc.com
www.bbcworldwide.com/uk--anz/ukpublishing.aspx
Subscriptions
National Manager Consumer and Retail Priyadarshi Banerjee subscriptions.wwm@wwm.co.in
Phone Assistant General Manager (RMD Magazines) Suparna Sheth suparna.sheth@timesgroup.com
T Subscription Centres: North 011 – 39898090 East 033 – 39898090 West 022 – 39898090 South 080 – 39898090
To subscribe online, visit: mags.timesgroup.com/bbc-knowledge.html • SMS: KNOWSUB to 58888
Sales Director Ad Sales and Business Development Jyoti Verma jyoti.verma@wwm.co.in

National Sales Head Neelam Menon neelam.menon@wwm.co.in
West Business Head Gautam Chopra gautam.chopra@wwm.co.in

Jiten Shivlani jiten.shivlani@wwm.co.in

EMAIL
North Nakul Puri nakul.puri@wwm.co.in
@
South Business Head Vikram Singh vikram.singh@wwm.co.in
Karthik Vijay karthik.vijay1@wwm.co.in
East Assistant Vice President Alka Kakar alka.kakar@wwm.co.in
Bijoy Choudhary bijoy.choudhary@wwm.co.in
Post Editorial, advertising and subscription enquiries

 BBC Knowledge Magazine, Worldwide Media, The Times of India Building, 4th floor, Dr. D. N. Road, Mumbai 400001
WEBSITE
www.knowledgemagazine.in
Printed and published by Joji Varghese for and on behalf of Worldwide Media Pvt. Ltd., The Times of India Building, 4th floor, Dr. D. N. Road, Mumbai
400001 and printed at Rajhans Enterprises, No. 134, 4th Main Road, Industrial Town, Rajajinagar, Bangalore 560044, India. Editor- Preeti Singh. The
publisher makes every effort to ensure that the magazine’s contents are correct. However, we accept no responsibility for any errors or omissions.
Unsolicited material, including photographs and transparencies, is submitted entirely at the owner’s risk and the publisher accepts no responsibility
for its loss or damage. All material published in BBC Knowledge is protected by copyright and unauthorized reproduction in part or full is prohibited.
BBC Knowledge is published by Worldwide Media Pvt. Ltd. under licence from Immediate Media Company Bristol Limited. Copyright © Immediate
Media Company Bristol Limited. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or part prohibited without permission. The BBC logo is a trade mark of
the British Broadcasting Corporation and is used under licence. © British Broadcasting Corporation 1996
CIN: U22120MH2003PTC142239
&
Your Questions Answered
Can consciousness be switched on and off? p7 Why is the hole

in the ozone layer over Antarctica, if it’s uninhabited? p8
Expert PANEL
Susan Blackmore (SB)
A visiting professor at the
University of Plymouth, UK,
Susan is an expert on psychology
and evolution.
Can any animal see in
Robert Matthews
Robert is a writer and researcher. pure darkness?
He is a Visiting Reader in Science
at Aston University, UK.
Luis Villazon
Luis has a BSc in computing and
an MSc in zoology from Oxford.
His works include How Cows
Reach The Ground.
This rattlesnake can

sense where you are
in total darkness with
infrared vision
Even without visible light, pit pattern of echoes from their

vipers, which include rattlesnakes, high-pitched squeaks, and sharks
can sense the infrared light given can sense the tiny electromagnetic
off by any warm-blooded prey. field generated by all living things.
Their pit organs near the nostrils Electroreception uses special
don’t have a lens, so the heat pores around the snout of the
image is fairly blurry. Many insects, shark, called ‘ampullae of
Ask the Experts? including bees, can see into the Lorenzini’. It only has a range of a
Email our panel at ultraviolet, but ultraviolet light is metre or two, but it allows sharks
bbcknowledge@wwm.co.in We’re never present in nature without to accurately close in on prey
sorry, but we cannot reply to
corbis x2
some visible light as well, so it’s even in total darkness or when

questions individually.
no use in total darkness. Bats and they are buried under sand on the
dolphins ‘see’ by listening to the seabed. LV
Q&A
New research suggests
that a single brain region
may function as an ‘on/off
switch’ for consciousness
top ten
Heaviest organs in the body
1. Skin: 4,535g
Function: Protects against
pathogens; provides insulation;
Can consciousness be
synthesizes vitamin D; regulates
temperature; provides sensation
2. Liver: 1,560g switched on and off?

Function: Breaks down toxins;
produces hormones, proteins and
digestive biochemicals; regulates Yes, if a recent experiment is to be and feelings all coming together.
glycogen storage believed. In an attempt to locate the Could the claustrum be what makes
source of an epileptic patient’s this possible?
3. Brain: 1,500g seizures, doctors at George When the doctors stimulated this
Function: Drives executive Washington University, USA, inserted electrode the woman stayed awake
functions such as reasoning;
coordinates responses to electrodes into her brain. One but lost consciousness. She stopped
changes in environment electrode was positioned close to what she was doing, stared blankly
the claustrum, a thin sheet of tissue into space and would not respond to
4. Lungs: 1,300g below the cortex with a role akin to them. When the stimulation stopped
Function: Supplies oxygen to that of an orchestra’s conductor – she regained consciousness. It
be distributed around the body;
expels carbon dioxide that is coordinating the many different seems a whole, complex brain is
created around the body things that go on in the brain at needed for rich experiences, but it
once. Consciousness typically also needs the claustrum ‘switch’ to
5. Heart: 300g involves sights, sounds, thoughts bring everything together. SB
Function: Pumps oxygenated blood
from lungs around the body; pumps
deoxygenated blood to the lungs
6. Kidneys: 260g (pair)

Function: Remove waste products;
What makes Fire: a very
useful chemical
regulate sodium and water
retention; filter blood; produce urine
and hormones
things burn? reaction indeed
7. Spleen: 175g Combustion is simply a type of chemical

Function: Filters blood; holds a reaction that occurs between a source
reserve supply of blood; recycles of fuel and a source of oxygen, creating
iron; synthesizes antibodies;
removes bacteria heat plus new compounds. A source of
energy is often needed to split
8. Pancreas: 70g apart the fuel and oxidiser molecules –
Function: Produces insulin and for example, a spark. But once the
glycogen; secretes enzymes that
assist in the absorption of nutrients fragments start reacting,
in the small intestine the heat produced keeps the
process going. RM
9. Thyroid: 20g
Function: Controls body’s energy
use; makes proteins; controls
getty, thinkstock
hormone sensitivity
10. Prostate gland: 11g

ITAL STATS
Function: Secretes an alkaline fluid V
1,02of ti4ny robots
that constitutes 50-75 per cent of the
volume of semen
umber arvard
Is the n created by H f self-
s w arm p a b le o
a a
in
n ti s ts that is c y number of
scie an
ing into
organis ferent shapes
7 December 2014 dif
STATS
VITAL
0.1th5ofm m st
Q&A
lle
th sma ed
e
ng call
Is the le ect, a fairyfly
in g in s ik e a ll fairy-
fly i huna. L of its life
K ik ik
the uch
lives m ggs
flies, it ther insects’ e
ins id e o
Birds of prey use a technique and can even hover briefly in

called ‘wind hovering’. This is stationary air by balancing
really just flying into a forward-gliding flight with
headwind, but they control backwards-angled wingbeats.
their forward airspeed so that it Gaps between flight feathers at
The Galapagos hawk; exactly balances the speed of their ends allow the bird to
a master of the art of How do hawks the wind and the bird makes no control wing turbulence and
hovering flight
hover in the sky? progress relative to the ground.
Kestrels are the masters of this
avoid stalling, and fanning the
tail wide provides extra lift. LV
Which part of the brain Why is the hole in the ozone

generates free will? layer over Antarctica, if it’s
No part! Like many scientists, I don’t believe we have
free will. If the power of thought alone could cause our
uninhabited?
brains and muscles to act, it would be magic, because
every action, every decision and everything we say
depends on what happens in our brains and our NASA’s Aura satellite
environment. Since Benjamin Libet’s ground-breaking produced this map
Alamy X2, science photo library
experiments in the 1980s we have known that the brain of the ozone layer
activity associated with an action is detectable half a over Antarctica. Blue
second before a person decides to act. Since then, shows low ozone
scientists have predicted people’s decisions from brain levels; green, orange
scans several seconds before they are made. This may and yellow represent
seem weird, but surely fits with everything we know higher levels
about how the brain works. Of course there can be
randomness too, and recent brain research has shown
that random events in a person’s brain can also be
used to predict what they will do next. But randomness
doesn’t give us free will. The real challenge seems not
how to find the causes of free will – but to learn how to Ozone depletion is
live without believing in it. SB mainly caused by
chemical reactions
between compounds such
as chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs)
and ultraviolet light. These occur in
Scientists have the stratosphere, above 8km (5 miles) altitude. By the
been able to time polluting man-made CFCs get that high, they have
detect the brain evenly dispersed around the globe, so whether or not
activity of an people live and work under the ozone hole isn’t the
action half a determining factor in its location. The reason that the
second before hole forms above Antarctica is because the ozone-
it’s physically
destroying reactions happen much faster on the surface
carried out
of the tiny ice crystals found in a type of cloud, called
polar stratospheric cloud, which forms in the cold, dry
conditions of the Antarctic. LV
8 October 2014
Reading, Writing and Loving
Principals, contributors and experts tell us why BBC Knowledge is for them
Michel Danino
Dr D R Saini Kiran Indian author and historian
Bir Se
Principal of Delhi Public School (R K Puram) Found
er of T thi
BBC Knowledge magazine
he
India a Riverside S
nd of D ch
esign ool, Ahmed
BBC Knowledge is an for Ch a
ange bad, is an excellent populariser
extremely resourceful of science and other
guide for students topics of interest to
to gain impressive and BBC Knowledge is designed to
the intellectually curious
expansive knowledge inform and engage the reader on
about a variety of
relevant topics in Science, History young Indians (and less
and Nature. The research-based
phenomenae in the articles make it a great resource young). The content is of
world. The best feature for teachers to bring into their high quality: expert yet
of the magazine is its classrooms. Many of the articles accessible and stimulating
interface. The overall in the magazine would connect
easily with subject topics. content combined with top-
feel of reading, the The content of the magazine class design. I enjoy reading
facts that have been is a fine balance of knowledge
assembled and projected and information.
the science articles and
are very appealing. the superb design.
Meenakshi
Jain
Asso Romulus Whitaker Dr C G Geetha

Univer ciate Profe
sity; F s
ormer sor of Histo Award-winning Herpetologist Managing Director of Cochin International
Museu Fellow, Neh ry, Delhi Students Academy
m and ru
Librar Memorial BBC Knowledge is
BBC Knowledge magazine
y
stimulating, a real page-turner
is one of the most
BBC Knowledge serves a very of wide ranging, interest informative magazines I
useful purpose in that it invites stimulating subjects. I think have ever seen for the
experts in such a vast array of
fields, covering science and that the wide variety of student community and
humanities to present their views subjects is what I like most teachers. It is becoming
in a simple and concise manner. about BBC Knowledge: you more and more popular
can always find something to among the teachers,
students’ educators and
interest everyone.
all others with an affinity
towards science in general.
revealed
of
everything
Human Evolution p12
Animal Kingdom p20
Space p30
The Earth p38
Technology p46
Transport p54
History p62
Human Planet p72
Science p80
human evolution
Delving into half a million years of evolution of our species – with our varied shapes,
sizes, cultures and languages, provides fascinating food for thought about the
nature of human development
THINKSTOCK x3, 123rf.com
12 December 2014
Human evolution | science
Human bone principally

consists of collagen and
10 FACTS
calcium phosphate
ABOUT BONES
Your ribs Your smallest You have one Your bones are
work hard bone is in unconnected mostly not living
Your ribcage expands your ear bone Bone consists largely
and contracts up The smallest bone in the The hyoid, a of a matrix of collagen
to 10 million times body is only about 3mm horseshoe-shaped and hydroxylapatite
each year – every long – the stapes (or bone at the base of (bone mineral)
time you breathe. stirrup) in the middle ear. your tongue, is not crystals. As little as
joined to another five per cent is made
bone – the only such up of living cells.
solitary bone in
your body.
Your bones You have You lose bones as Hands and Your neck is Your bones
are light strong legs you grow up feet are your like a giraffe’s make blood
The bones of an adult Your femur (thigh Each human is born with boniest parts Humans have the Bone marrow
comprises a relatively bone) is the longest, 300–350 bones in his More than half of same number of cer- produces about 2.4
small proportion of strongest and or her body. By the time your bones are in vical vertebrae as a million erythrocytes
his or her total weight heaviest bone we reach adulthood, that your hands and feet – giraffe – seven. (red blood cells) per
– about 15% in men, in your body; its number is only 206 – 27 in each hand and second.
12% in women. length is 26% of many bones fuse during 26 in each foot.
your overall height. development.
10 ORGANS YOU
CAN LIVE WITHOUT
Lung
You might be a little short of breath, but living
DID YOU
with one lung is perfectly possible. In 1931,
Rudolph Nissen, who operated on Albert
KNOW?
Einstein, was the first surgeon to successfully
remove a patient’s lung.
The average human
Kidney body is estimated to
If illness, injury or poison prevents your contain more than
kidneys from filtering your blood, they need to 95,000km of
be removed. You can cope quite well with just blood vessels
one, but if you lose both, you’ll need to use a
dialysis machine.
Stomach Gallstones can be

extremely painful
A gastrecomy – surgery to remove your and can result in
stomach – can be required to treat cancer the gallbladder
or ulcers. A total gastrectomy results in your being removed
oesophagus being connected directly to your
intestine, which will have a long-term effect
on diet and digestion.
Gallbladder
Sitting just below your liver, the gallbladder
stores bile to break down fat in food.
Gallstones caused by high cholesterol can
require removal of the gallbladder.
Intestines
There are about 7.5m of small and large
intestine wrapped up in your abdomen and,
if necessary, all of it can come out – though
absorbing nutrients afterwards may well
prove to be problematic.
Eyes
Life can be harder without sight – or eyes –
but clearly many people live fulfilling lives
without the gift of vision.
thinkstock x3, getty
Testicle
Reproductive organs are sometimes removed
for medical reasons, typically cancer.
14 December 2014
10 INVENTED
Kidneys filter
your body’s
LANGUAGES
waste products.
However, you only
need one to do the
job effectively
Esperanto
Created by:
Ludwik Lazarus
Zamenhof
in 1887
An international
auxiliary language
devised with the aim
of promoting peace
and understanding
Many people live long, healthy across the world.
lives without an appendix
Solresol Slovianski Sambahsa-

Created by: Created by: a team mundialect
François Sudre of language experts Created by: Olivier
in 1827 in 2006 Simon in 2007
In the language of An interlanguage This new tongue has
Solresol, words designed to improve a simple grammar
can be communicated communication and incorporates
using hand gestures, between Slavic vocabulary from
colours and musical peoples. It’s now Arabic, Chinese and
notes as well as spoken by around Swahili among others.
verbally. 2000 people.
Universalglot Volapük Occidental

Appendix Created by: Jean Created by: Created by: Edgar
Is it a vestigial organ or part of our immune Pirro in 1868 Johann Martin de Wahl in 1922
system? The medical jury is still out on that An early – and Schleyer in 1880 Drawing largely on
question, but it’s clear that its removal doesn’t unsuccessful – attempts Using mostly English European words, this
cause any problems. at an international words as a base, it language built a big
auxiliary language drew was spoken by an worldwide following
on vocabulary from estimated one million but fell out of favour in
Spleen a number of existing people at the peak of the years following the
Your spleen sits just above your stomach, dialects. its popularity. Second World War.
in the left-hand part of your body; it cleans
your blood and fights infection. But if illness or
injury necessitates its removal, other organs can
compensate for its loss. Blissymbols Afrihili Láadan
Created by: Charles Created by: K A Created by:
K Bliss in 1949 Kumi Attobrah Suzette Haden
Pancreas Using symbols, this in 1970 Elgin in 1982
This small organ sits just below the stomach, and written language was Afrihili took elements This tonal language
secretes hormones and digestive enzymes. In adopted for signs in from English and was devised to better
some cases of pancreatic cancer the entire organ places like airports in various African enable women to
can be removed, though the patient will require Canada and Sweden. languages. express their views.
replacement hormones.
science | Human evolution
the 10 MOST 10 KEY BREAKTHROUGHS

WIDELY SPOKEN IN HUMAN EVOLUTION
LANGUAGES
Grasping with two hands
Discovery: The oldest-known hominid
may have had opposable thumbs
Orrorin tugenensis, fossils of which were first found in Kenya in 2000, is the oldest
described hominid (human-like) species, dating back up to six million years ago. It had
opposable thumbs and may have walked upright.
CLIMBING DOWN USING YOUR HEAD HANDY WITH TOOLS

FROM THE TREES Discovery: Fossil skull Discovery: Pre-human
Discovery: Tree-climbing indicates upright walking species, Hozbilis,
forebears may have moved used tools
A dig in South Africa in 1924
towards walking upright
unearthed a 2.8-million-year-old At the time the first specimens
4.4 million years ago
fossil Australopithecus africanus, were discovered at Tanzania’s
A fossil classified as Ardipithecus dubbed the Taung Child. Its skull Olduvai Gorge in 1963, it was the
ramidus was found in Ethiopia’s structure indicated that the spine first hominid associated with
Afar Depression in 1994. Its mix connected at the bottom of the stone tools – so the species,
01 Mandarin Chinese of features sparked debate that it cranium – suggesting dating from between 2.3 and 1.4
Speakers worldwide: 848m could be a ‘missing link’ between that it walked upright. million years ago, was dubbed
two lifestyles. Homo habilis (handy man).
02 Spanish
Speakers: 406m
WALKING TALL NEANDERTHALS CROSS-BREEDING
03 English Discovery: The world’s
most famous pre-human
NAMED WITH NEANDERTHALS
Speakers: 335m Discovery: The first pre- Discovery: Humans mated
species walked upright human species identified with Neanderthals
04 Hindi Excavated in 1974 in the Afar The type specimen of Homo The Neanderthal Genome
Speakers: 260m Depression in Ethiopia, ‘Lucy’ neanderthalensis was found in Project, founded in 2006,
(Australopithecus afarensis) Germany’s Neander Valley in sequenced the entire genome
05 Arabic lived between 3.85 and 2.95 1856. It probably lived from of a 1,30,000-year-old
Speakers: 223m million years old and was about 3,00,000 to 50,000 years specimen found in a Siberian
shown to have walked upright ago – and may (or may not) cave. DNA analysis suggests
– long before brains grew to have overlapped with modern that Neanderthals may have
06 Portuguese modern sizes. humans in Europe. interbred with modern humans.
Speakers: 202m
07 Bengali WIELDING STONE WHAT’S FOR DINNER PLAYING WITH FIRE

Speakers: 193m
TOOLS Discovery: The last meals Discovery: Human ancestor
Discovery: Our ancestors of ancient pre-humans in Asia
08 Russian used stone tools 3.5 million
Speakers: 162m years ago
The discovery of fossils of a The discovery in Java in 1891
newly described species, of the species named Homo
09 Japanese
Fossils of animal bones named Australopithecus erectus provided evidence of
Speakers: 122m discovered in Ethiopia in 2010 sediba, in South Africa in 2008 the earliest human ancestor
show cutting marks indicating included relatively complete found outside Africa, living
butchering with stone tools. individuals at different stages between 1.8 million and
10 Javanese (Indonesia) These date from some three of development. It’s hoped 1,43,000 years ago. It had
Speakers: 84.3m that analysing tartar on the human-like traits – long legs,
thinkstock
million years or more before

modern humans evolved. teeth of one specimen might short arms and downward-
* Source: www.ethnologue.com. Figures are estimates reveal what it ate two million pointing nostrils – and was
of first-tongue speakers. years ago. believed to use fire.
16 December 2014
science | Human evolution
10 INCREDIBLE
HUMAN RECORDS
Longest time Longest nose Longest tongue

breath held Mehmet Özyürek Englishman Stephen
In 2012, Stig of Turkey has the Taylor’s tongue measures
Severinsen of world’s longest nose. at 9.8cm (from the tip to
Denmark held his In 2010, his proboscis the middle of his closed
breath underwater measured at 8.8cm top lip).
for a remarkable 22 from bridge to tip.
minutes.
Longest tooth Longest Largest hands Smallest waist

extracted fingernails American Robert Cathie Jung of the
A tooth measuring In 2009, American Wadlow, the tallest USA has the world’s
3.2cm long was Melvin Boothe’s man ever, also holds smallest waist. It
removed from Loo Hui fingernails were the record for largest measures 38.1cm
Jing in Singapore measured at having a hands – 32.3cm from corseted – and just
in 2009. combined length wrist to fingertip. 53.34cm even
of 9.85m. without a corset.
Longest legs
Svetlana Pankratova
of Russia possesses
132cm-long legs, as
measured in 2003.
Longest run
In 2010, Frenchman
Serge Girard ran
27,011km around
25 EU countries – the
farthest dzistance run
in 365 days.
Longest swim
In 2007, Slovenian
Press Association x2, david alba
Martin Strel swam

the entire length of
the Amazon River,
covering 5,268 km
in just 67 days.
* Source: Guinness World Records.

Patwin
10 ENDANGERED Where: USA
Native to northern
LANGUAGES California, by 2011 it was

assumed that just one
person spoke Patwin as
their first language.
Kaixána
Where: Brazil
According to reports from 2006, one
named individual spoke this language
– though he was 78 years old.
Diahói Apiaká
Where: Brazil Where: Brazil
Probably fewer than Only a few hundred
a hundred members members of the
of the indigenous Apiaká people survive
people who spoke in northern Mato
this language live in Grosso state; having
southern Amazonas adopted Portuguese,
state; a 2006 study only one person
estimated that only is now believed to
one actually spoke speak the language.
the Diahói dialect.
Bikya
Where: Cameroon
In 1986, it was reported
that only four people
spoke this Bantoid
language, only one of them
Chaná fluently – and he was over
Where: Argentina/Uruguay 70 years old. Bikya may
In 2005, a man was discovered who now be extinct.
spoke at least some words of this
language, long believed extinct.
18 December 2014
Pazeh
Where: Taiwan
The last truly fluent
native speaker of
Pazeh, Pan Jin-yu, died
in 2010 at the age of
96. A handful of her
students continue to
speak the language of
this aboriginal people.
Dampelas
Where: Indonesia
Native to a narrow
stretch of northern
Sulawesi, estimates for
the number of speakers
varies widely – from as
high as 10,000 to
as low as one.
Lae
Where: Papua
New Guinea
In 2000, just a
single person in Morobe
spoke this language. It
may now be extinct.
Volow
Where: Vanuatu
As another native language, Mwotlap,
gained in prominence, Volow declined.
It is now believed that just one passive * Source: UNESCO Atlas of the
World’s Languages in Danger,
speaker remains in the village of Aplow. which lists 19 languages as being
spoken by no more than one person.
ANIMAL KINGDOM
From monstrous mammals to minute microbes, ancient reptiles and super-strong insects,
the diverse and dazzling world of wildlife is full of surprises
Alamy, thinkstock
photo: thinkstock x5, shaughney
x7, jennifer alamy x4 cc, alamy x4
shaughney
jennifer cc,
20 December 2014
Animal kingdom | nature
10 super-strong ANIMALS
01 Dung beetle 06 Tiger

Onthophagus taurus Panthera tigris
Hauls 1141 times own weight Lifts double own weight
In 2010, researchers Rob Knell and Prey varies across the ranges of the
Leigh Simmons demonstrated that the subspecies, but the largest tigers have
strongest males can pull a load been known to hunt and carry water
1,141 times its own weight. buffalo and even young elephants.
02 Hercules beetle 07 Asian elephant

Dynastes hercules Elephas maximus

Lifts 850 times own weight
Pulls 170% of own weight
The hefty insects known as rhinoceros But Asian elephants used in the timber
beetles carry huge loads – anecdotal industry have hauled logs weighing up
evidence suggests this species can lug to 9 tonnes – nearly twice as heavy
850 times its own weight. as a large male tusker.
03 Leaf-cutter ants 08 Ox
Atta cephalotes Bos primigenius
Lifts 50 times its own weight
Pulls 150% of own weight
The various species of leafcutter ant The phrase ‘strong as an ox’ is well
carry relatively enormous chunks of coined: for millennia oxen have been
leaves back to their nest to fertilise the used for hauling heavy loads and
fungi on which they feed. ploughing heavy soil.
04 Eastern gorilla 09 Green anaconda

Gorilla beringei Eunectes murinus
Lifts 10 times own weight
Constricts at 90psi
Big male gorillas – silverbacks – are Though figures are debated, the green
immensely strong. By comparison, anaconda is believed to be the world’s
the strongest human weightlifters can largest snake, and has the most powerful
lift two or three times their own weight. squeeze at a reported 90psi.
05 Crowned hawk-eagle 10 Brown bear

Stephanoaetus coronatus Ursus arctos
Lifts four times own weight
Five times as strong as a human
One of Africa’s most powerful raptors, Grizzly bears grow to 500kg and over,
the crowned hawk-eagle preys on and prey on large mammals such as
mammals such as monkeys and moose, elk and even black bears.
bushbucks that weigh up to 30kg.
10 eXTREME Anglerfish
Ceratioidei
Bedbug
Cimex
Common
garter snake
MATING PRACTICES Males are parasites,
latching onto females
lectularius
A male pierces a
Thamnophis sirtalis
Thousands of snakes
and releasing sperm female’s abdomen for writhe in a mass
Greater flamingo during spawning. traumatic insemination. mating ritual.
Phoenicopterus roseus Snails & slugs Praying mantis Wasp spider

Applies pink make-up Pulmonata Mantodea Argiope
Many land-dwelling Perhaps 30% of bruennichi
It’s long been known that the characteristic pink hermaphrodite slugs courting male The male breaks off
hue of flamingos’ feathers is derived from
and snails fire ‘love mantids are eaten his own pedipalp (penis
carotenoid pigments in the shrimps and other plankton
darts’ into prospective by females during or equivalent), blocking the
they eat. But in 2010 scientists discovered that
greater flamingos actively apply pigment, secreted mates during courtship. after mating. female’s reproductive tract.
from a gland at their rear, to their feathers during
preening – and reapply regularly to prevent it from
fading in the sun. Porcupine Squid Green spoonworm
Erethizon Teuthida Bonellia viridis
dorsatum The males of some Each male lives in a
A courting male squid species ‘stab’ female’s genital sac.
will urinate over his females to inject them
prospective partner with sperm.
before mating.
thinkstock x3
10 DANGEROUS ANIMALS
01 Mosquito 06 Lion
Up to 50 species of
Anopheles mosquito
Anopheles spp. Panthera leo
transmit malaria Human deaths/year: 2 million Human deaths/year: ≤100
to humans Bites from these insects transmit the
Lion attacks on humans often occur
plasmodium blood parasites that during harvests, but rare outbreaks of
cause malaria. mass ‘maneating’ also occur.
02 Asian cobra 07 Great white shark

Naja naja Carcharodon carcharias
Human deaths/year: ≤50,000 Human deaths/year: <30
Though not India’s most venomous snake,
Unprovoked shark attacks on humans are
this cobra is responsible for the majority extremely rare – and fatalities even rarer.
of snakebite deaths. Great white, tiger and bull sharks are
responsible for most.
03 Hippopotamus
Hippopotamus amphibius 08 Sloth bear
Human deaths/year: <3,000 Melursus ursinus
Accurate figures are hard to obtain, but
Human deaths/year: <2
hippos are certainly responsible for many Like other bear species, sloth bears don’t
deaths every year in Africa. predate humans, but chance encounters
A large male Nile can result in deaths.
crocodile can grow
up to 6m long 04 Nile crocodile
Crocodylus niloticus 09 Box jellyfish
Human deaths/year: >300 Chironex fleckeri
Attacks by this large reptile on people on
Human deaths: At least 60
the water or on riverbacks are relatively since 1883
frequent in Africa. Each of the sea wasp’s tentacles is
armed with about 5000 stinging cells.
05 African elephant
Loxodonta africana 10 Poison dart frog
Human deaths/year: ≤300 Phyllobates terribilis
Elephants probably kill a few hundred
Human deaths/year: Unknown
people annually – though more Living in the rainforest of Colombia, this

than 20,000 elephants are killed frog’s skin is coated with enough
by poachers each year. batrachotoxins to kill at least ten men.
December 2014 23
10 LONGEST
ANIMAL MIGRATIONS
01 DID YOU
Arctic tern Sterna paradisea 70,900km
This small bird – weighing just over 100g – undertakes an incredible two-
KNOW?
way migration each year. In August or September each bird leaves its The bar-tailed godwit
breeding grounds in Greenland and heads south, tracing the coast of either fuels its epic migration
Africa or South America and feeding in the Weddell Sea for four or five by digesting part of its
months before returning to the Arctic for the northern summer. own intestine during
the long flight
02 03 04
Sooty shearwater Northern elephant Leatherback turtle
Puffinus griseus seal Dermochelys Leatherback turtles
migrate across and
65,000km Mirounga coriacea around the Pacific Ocean
These birds follow angustirostris 20,000km
circular migration routes 21,000km One tagged turtle swam
around the Atlantic and These mammals swim from Indonesia to the USA
Pacific. between Californian and across the Pacific.
Mexican beaches.
05 06 07
Adélie penguin Humpback whale Globe skimmer
Pygoscelis Megaptera Pantala
adeliae novaeangliae flavescens
17,600km 16,600km 14,000km+
Adélis follow the ice The mammal with Evidence suggests Monarch butterflies
edge from breeding the longest journey that this dragonfly migrate from the
colonies to winter swims from Arctic to migrates from India eastern USA to winter
in Mexico’s Sierra
feeding grounds. tropical waters. to southern Africa. Madre mountains
08 09 10
Bar-tailed godwit Monarch butterfly Caribou
Limosa lapponica Danaus plexippus Rangifer tarandus
11,680km 6,000km 5,000km
This bird flies non-stop The migration between Some herds range across
from Alaska to USA and Mexico takes Arctic Canada in the
New Zealand in just three or four generations longest migration of any
eight days. to complete. terrestrial mammal.
10 wEIRD Eye-inflating
flatworm
Zombie-making
wasp
Tongue-eating
louse
Eye worm
The larvae of the
PARASITES
Larvae of the green- The female emerald The sea louse Cymothoa nematode worm Loa
banded broodsac fill the cockroach wasp stings a exigua feeds on blood loa infect human
eye-stalks of infected cockroach’s brain, then from a fish’s tongue till it eyes, and can be seen
snails, making them look lays an egg on its belly withers away, then and, more horribly,
(and wriggle) like little – and the wasp larva attaches itself to the felt as they squirm
caterpillars – luring devours its host from stump to feed on blood across the tissue
hunting birds. the inside. and mucus. beneath the cornea.
10 LONGEST-LIVED 02 03 04
VERTEBRATES Koi fish

Cyprinus carpio
Bowhead whale
Balaena
Tuatara
Sphenodon
haema- mysticetus punctatus
topterus 211 years 115 years old
226 years
Aldabra giant The oldest-known koi,
200-year-old spears
have been found in
Henry, a tuatara in New
Zealand, became a father at
01 tortoise called Hanako, died in 1977. some bowheads. the age of 111 in 2009.
Aldabrachelys gigantea
Oldest individual recorded: 05 06 07
255 years Blue and yellow Asian elephant Horse
macaw Elephas Equus ferus
Adwaita was a male tortoise reputedly given to Robert Clive in Ara ararauna maximus caballus
the 18th century. In around 1876 it was transferred to the
Alipore Zoo in Kolkata, where it lived until its death in 2006.
104 years 86 years 51 years
Adwaita’s age cannot be definitively confirmed; the longest- Churchill reputedly Lin Wang or The liver chestnut
lived reptile for which an age has been verified was Tu’i Malila, owned the macaw ‘Grandpa Lin’ died in stallion named Shayne
a radiated tortoise reputedly given to the Tongan royal family by named Charlie. Taipei Zoo in 2003. died in Essex in 2013.
Captain Cook in 1777, and which died in 1965 at the age of 188.
08 09 10
Cow Goldfish Polar bear
Bos primagenius Carassius Ursus maritimus
48 years auratus auratus 42 years
‘Big Bertha’ died three 43 years ‘Debbie’ died at
months before her Tish died in North Assiniboine Zoo in
49th birthday. Yorkshire in 1999. Winnipeg in 2008.
thinkstock x3, muhammad mahdi karim cc
Giant tortoises live to

extraordinary ages –
Galápagos tortoises often
reach over 150 years.
Skin-boiling Head-splitting Sex-change Vampire fish Mind-control Crab-

worm fungus bacteria The tiny, eel-like bug castrating
The guinea worm An ant infected with Wolbachia are transmitted candiru of the Amazon The single-celled barnacle
Dracunculus Ophiocordyceps to their insect hosts’ swims into the gills of parasite Toxoplasma When a female
medinensis grows up unilateralis climbs to offspring in eggs. To other fish and feasts on gondii eliminates Sacculina barnacle
to 1m long in humans, the top of a plant and increase dispersal, these their blood. Reports infected rodents’ fear of infects a crab, it
causing a burning pain die. The fungus’ fruiting bacteria can change suggest that it cats – which then easily changes the host’s
as it emerges through body then bursts from hosts’ sex from male sometimes swims into catch the rodents and hormones, effectively
the skin of legs. the ant’s head. to female. human orifices. are themselves infected. sterilising it.
Nature | Animal Kingdom
300kg
The weight that an
African elephant can
carry with its trunk. The
trunk contains
around 4000
muscles
10 super-fast ANIMALS
Overall speed
Peregrine falcon
Falco peregrinus
389km/h (fastest recorded)
The peregrine regular exceeds
322km/h during stoops (hunting dives) –
though doesn’t come close to that speed
in level flight.
Marine reptile Land mammal Bird Land herbivore Fish

(flapping flight)
Leatherback sea Cheetah Pronghorn Indo-Pacific sailfish
turtle Acinonyx jubatus White-throated Antilocapra Istiophorus albicans
Dermochelys 120km/h needle `tail americana 111km/h
coriacea The fastest land animal
Hirundapus 88.5km/h
The title of fastest fish is
35km/h on Earth can maintain caudacutus This antelope-like hotly disputed; the highest
A teardrop-shaped this speed for bursts 169km/h creature can maintain estimates for this species
body gives this reptile of no longer than 60 speeds of 56km/h for date from the 1920s.
a hydrodynamic seconds. several kilometres.
advantage.
Insect Land reptile Marine mammal Flying mammal

Horsefly Black iguana Common dolphin Mexican free-
Chrysops Ctenosaura Delphinus spp. tailed bat
relictus similis 64km/h Tadarida
thinkstock
145km/h 34.9km/h brasiliensis

96.5km/h
26 December 2014
Nature | Animal Kingdom
10 outsized ANIMALS
Largest mammal
(and largest animal ever)
DID YOU
KNOW?
Giant isopods –
14-legged deep-sea Blue whale
critters a little like giant Balaenoptera musculus
woodlice – can grow 30m, 170 tonnes
to 76cm long and Larger than any prehistoric giant, the blue whale would dwarf
the largest known dinosaur, Argentinosaurus, which weighed a
1.7kg ‘mere’ 80 tonnes or so.
Largest land mammal Largest reptile Largest snake Largest dinosaur Largest bird
African elephant Saltwater crocodile Green anaconda Argentinosaurus Ostrich

Loxodonta africana Crocodylus porosus Eunectes murinus Estimated to be 30-35m Struthio camelus
7.5m, 6 tonnes 6.7m, 2 tonnes 6.6m, 70kg long, 80-100 tonnes 2.1-2.8m, 145kg
david fleetham/alamy
Largest fish Largest amphibian Largest carnivore

Largest insect
Whale shark Chinese giant Southern
Goliath beetle Rhincodon typus salamander elephant seal
Goliathus spp. 12.65m, 21.5 tonnes Andrias davidianus Mirounga leonina
60-110mm, 100g 2m, 30kg 3m, 4 tonnes
December 2014 27
In association with Powered by
announcing
the hunt for
the smartest
Enter
Enter
students the definitive
the definitive
all-India
all-India
across india school
school
quiz
quiz
* Terms and conditions apply. Dates subject to change.

Enter the definitive
all-India school
Announcing
Announcing thequiz
the search for
search for
the smartest
the smartest student across
student across schools
schools
Who can participate: Students from standard 9 - 11
Regional Rounds:
New Delhi (22 November ’14), Mumbai (13 December ’14),
Kolkata (20 December ’14), and Chennai (17 January ’15)
Finale: Chennai, 17 January, 2015
Winners: 1 national winner and 4 regional winners
*Prizes: A cash prize of `1lakh and a trophy to the national winner
*Terms n conditions apply
*Terms n conditions apply
Who can participate: and gift hampers

Students to allfrom
finalists
8-11 standard
Who can participate: Students from standard 8-11
RegionalFinals:
Regional Finals:Mumbai,
Mumbai,Delhi,
Delhi,Kolkata,
Kolkata,and
andBangalore
Bangalore
RegionalFinals:
Regional Finals:Chennai
Chennaion on15
15January,
January,20152015
Prize:Winner
Prize: Winnerwins
winscash
cashprize
prizeofof11lakh!*
lakh!*
To participate, speak to your teacher co-ordinator or

log onto http://knowledgemagazine.in/brainiac/
space
Whether it’s comparing the sizes of planets, the length of exploratory space missions or the raw
power of rockets, here we tot up the vast numbers that govern what lies beyond our planet
thinkstock, UIG/Getty
30 December 2014
Space | science
10 SPACE FIRSTS
First man in orbit
Yuri Gagarin
Launch date: 12 April 1961
The Russian cosmonaut completed an orbit of Earth during his 108-minute spaceflight
aboard Vostok I. Being the first human in space, he later explained the experience of
weightlessness: “You feel as if you were hanging in a horizontal position in straps. You feel
as if you are suspended.” After landing back on Earth, Gagarin became an instant celebrity,
touring the world to tell the adoring public about his big adventure. It was to be his only
mission into space and he died in a plane crash in 1968 during a routine flight. His ashes
are buried in the walls of the Kremlin in Moscow.
First woman First First death First First space

in orbit space walk in space moon walk tourist
Valentina Alexey Leonov Vladimir Neil Armstrong Dennis Tito

Tereshkova 18 March 1965 Komarov 21 July 1969 28 April 2001
16 June 1963 Another Russian 24 April 1967 Apollo 11 mission The American
The Russian orbited cosmonaut, Leonov The Russian was killed commander Armstrong multimillionaire spent
the Earth 48 times undertook a 12-minute when the Soyuz 1 climbed down from nearly eight days in
during her near- period of ‘extra- spacecraft he was the lunar lander Eagle space, reaching the
three-day spell vehicular activity’ piloting crashed on its and onto the Moon’s International Space
aboard Vostok 6. (space walk) during re-entry to Earth. surface. Station EP-1 aboard
the Voskhod 2 mission. the Russian craft
He was secured by a Soyuz TM-32.
five-metre tether.
First primate
in space
First animal
in orbit
First manually
controlled
First whole
day in orbit
DID YOU
Albert II Laika
spaceflight
Gherman Titov
KNOW?
14 June 1949 3 November Alan Shepard 6 August 1961 The spacesuit worn by
A rhesus monkey 1957 5 May 1961 As well as spending a Neil Armstrong for the
called Albert II reached The Russian mongrel The American reached whole day aboard 1969 Moon landing
an altitude of about dog Laika survived four an altitude of 187km Vostok 2, Russian was made by a bra
134km in a US- orbits aboard Sputnik 2 aboard Freedom 7 Titov orbited the Earth
launched V2 rocket. before dying, possibly during which he had 17 times and was the
manufacturer
Albert II died as a result of some control of his first to sleep
on impact after a overheating. craft (Gagarin’s flight in space.
parachute failure. was strictly automatic).
the 10 LONGEST Valeri Polyakov
looks out of a
HUMAN SPACE
window of the
Russian space
station Mir during
FLIGHTS
his record-breaking
time in space
01 02 03 04
Valeri Polyakov Sergei Avdeyev Vladimir Titov & Yuri
Russia Soviet Union Musa Manarov Romanenko
Mission: Mission: Soviet Union Soviet Union
Nasa/JPL/Ted Stryk, getty, ROBERT SORBO/AP/Press Association, thinkstock
Mir Space Station Mir Space Station Mission: Mission:

Duration: Duration: Mir Space Station Mir Space Station
437 days 379 days Duration: Duration:
8 January 1994– 13 August 1988– 365 days 326 days
22 March 1995 28 August 1989 21 December 1987– 6 February 1987–
21 December 1988 29 December 1987
05 06 07 08 09 10
Sergei Krikalev Valeri Polyakov Leonid Kizim, Mikhail Tyurin & Anatoli Nikolai Budarin
Soviet Union/ Soviet Union Vladimir Michael López- Berezovoy & Talgat
Russia Mission: Solovyov & Oleg Allegria & Valentin Musabayev
Mission: Mir Space Station Atkov Russia & USA Lebedev Russia
Mir Space Station Duration: Soviet Union Mission: Soviet Union Mission:
Duration 312 days 240 days Mission: International Space Mission: Mir Space Station
19 May 1991– 29 August 1988– Salyut 7 Space Station Station Salyut 7 Space Station Duration:
25 March 1992 7 April 1989 Duration: Duration: Duration: 207 days
237 days 215 days 211 days 29 January 1998–
8 February 1984– 18 September 2006– 13 May 1982– 25 August 1998
2 October 1984 21 April 2007 10 December 1982
32 December 2014
Space | science
the 10 BIGGEST
MOONS IN OUR
SOLAR SYSTEM
01 02
Ganymede Titan
Radius: Radius:
2,631km 2,576km
Satellite of: Satellite of:
Jupiter Saturn
03 04
Callisto Io
Radius: Radius:
2,410km 1,821km
Satellite of: Satellite of:
Jupiter Jupiter
The largest moon
in our Solar System
is Ganymede, a
satellite of Jupiter
05 06 07
Moon Europa Triton
Radius: Radius: Radius:
1,737km 1,561km 1,353km
Satellite of: Satellite of: Satellite of:
Earth Jupiter Neptune
08 09 10 27.3
The length in Earth days
Titania Rhea Oberon
Radius: 788km Radius: 764km Radius: that the Moon takes
Satellite of: Satellite of: 761km Satellite to complete its orbit of
Uranus Saturn of: Uranus our planet
Ganymede Titan Callisto Io Moon Europa Triton Titania Rhea Oberon

10 IMMENSE
THINGS IN SPACE
01 Biggest asteroid
Ceres 06 Largest galaxy
950km diameter (average) IC 1101
Discovered in 1801, Ceres makes up a Six million light-years across
third of the total mass of the asteroid belt This supergiant elliptical galaxy,
between Mars and Jupiter. discovered in 1790 by William Herschel,
at the centre of the Abell 2029 cluster is
about one billion light-years away. Our
02 Biggest object in own galaxy, the Milky Way, is a mere
our solar system 100,000 light-years across.
Sun
1,392,000km diameter
The yellow dwarf star around which we 07 Biggest water cloud 09 Biggest nothing
orbit comprises over 99.8 per cent of the Around quasar APM Boötes Void
total mass of our solar system. 08279+5255 250 million light-
40 billion times the mass years across
of Earth n area of space containing nearly
A
In 2011, researchers discovered a vast
no objects (though a few galaxies
03 Biggest known planet cloud of water vapour surrounding a are present), this ‘void’ is around
GQ Lup b quasar some 12 billion light-years away. 700 million light-years from Earth.
30 times the radius of Jupiter The cloud holds enough water to fill the
This huge exoplanet, detected orbiting
Earth’s oceans 140 trillion times over.
a star some 457 light-years from Earth,
may have a mass up to 36 times that
of Jupiter and is fiercely hot – possibly 08 Biggest comet 10 Biggest star
2,650 kelvin. McNaught Westerlund 1-26
Visible tail 35° 1,530 solar radii
The spacecraft Ulysses passed through
Measuring distant stars is tricky –

04 Largest structure in the tail of this comet in 2007 and determining the edge of the star can
the universe detected ionised gas at a distance of be made difficult by solar winds – but
Huge Large Quasar Group 225 million km behind the nucleus. The the Royal Astronomical Society believes
(Huge-LQG) ‘shocked wind’ behind the comet was this red supergiant, which is about
4 billion light-years across larger still, making McNaught reportedly 1,000,000,000km across and some 16,000
In 2013, an international team detected
the largest comet ever discovered. light-years from Earth, is the largest.
a chain of some 73 quasars stretching
so far that its existence challenges the
nasa, thinkstock, ESO/vphas+survey/n.wright, alamy
fundamental Cosmological Principle.
05 Biggest black hole

Centre of NGC 1277
17 billion solar mass
This supermassive black hole, at the

centre of the NGC 1277 galaxy 220 million
light-years away, has a mass 17 billion
times greater than our Sun – itself about
two nonillion kg.
34 December 2014
Space | science
Nicolaus Copernicus
1473–1543
Proposed a heliocentric model
Astronomers for the universe
Since the days of Aristotle, the accepted model

of the solar system had the Earth stationary
at its centre, with the Sun and planets
revolving around it. The Polish astronomer’s
Galileo Galilei revolutionary heliocentric model – with the Sun
as the stationary force - challenged this view.
1564–1642
Supported heliocentricism,
discovered Jupiter’s moons and
Johannes Kepler Edwin Hubble
developed telescopes 1571–1630 1889–1953
Galileo’s support of the Copernican heliocentric Improved the refracting Discovered Hubble’s Law, suggesting
model saw his ideas investigated by the telescope and developed that the Universe is expanding
Roman Inquisition of 1615. But the Italian’s the laws of planetary motion
own achievements were formidable, including Hubble’s Law states that the recessional velocity of
developing telescopes enabling good views of the Kepler’s laws described how planets moved a galaxy increases with its distance from the Earth.
Milky Way and Jupiter’s moons. around the sun, challenging the geocentric The American was a major champion of the idea of
models of Aristotle and Ptolemy. The German the existence of galaxies beyond the Milky Way.
was a huge influence on Sir Isaac Newton.
Eratosthenes
276–194BC George Gamow
Charles Messier 1904–68
Measured the circumference of the 1730–1817
Earth Early advocate of the
Composed a database big bang theory
Eratosthenes – born in Cyrene, now in Libya – of celestial objects
used the angle of the noonday Sun at different Born in Odessa (in modern-day Ukraine), Gamow
places in Egypt to estimate the circumference of This French astronomer was the first to was one of the foremost advocates of the theory
Earth. His figure was remarkably accurate – in compile a systematic catalogue of nebulae that the universe was formed in a colossal
fact, according to some commentators, he was and star clusters that is still used in the explosion billions of years ago.
out by less than 2%. classification of many celestial objects.
Claudius Ptolemy
William Herschel Annie Jump Cannon c 90–c 168
1738–1822 1863–1941
Writings dominated astronomy for 12
Discovered Uranus and its moons Co-created the Harvard centuries
Classification Scheme
Born in Germany Herschel moved to England as The Almagest produced by this Greco-Roman
a teenager. He became famous for discovering This American astronomer’s classification astronomer and geographer was a celestial
Uranus and two of its major moons, Titania and scheme organised and ordered stars based on almanac that, though based on an erroneous
Oberon, as well as two of Saturn’s moons. He their temperatures. Her catalogue listed some geocentric model, became established as the
also discovered infrared radiation. 230,000 stars. definitive reference work for some 12 centuries.
Be a part of our
4th anniversary celebration
Subscribe to BBC Knowledge today and the first
40 subscribers will receive exciting gift hampers!
A Times of India publication Volu
Volume
V l me 5 Issue
I 1
December 2014 `125
December
SCIENCE t HISTORY t NATURE t FOR THE CURIOUS MIND
TOPLED
RE V E A
50%
OFF
10 OF EVERYTHING
R.N.I. MAHENG/2010/35422
To read BBC Knowledge online, visit

www.magzter.com • www.rockasap.com • www.readwhere.com • www.zinio.com
Scan the code to subscribe

NATURE SCIENCE HISTORY
GREAT REASONS TO SUBSCRIBE

Never miss an issue!
Get a peek into the underlying wonders of the world through the eyes of the experts!
Get amazing subscription offers!
Gain access to fabulous discounts and offers on other
Worldwide Media Magazines and products!
EASY WAYS CALL: West: 022-3989 8090, East: 033-3989 8090

North: 011-3989 8090, South: 080-3989 8090
POST: Send the completed form to
BBC Knowledge Subscription Offer,
TO (10 am to 6 pm - Monday to Saturday) RMD (M) Dept., Bennett Coleman & Co. Ltd., The
Times of India Bldg., Dr. D.N. Road, Mumbai –
SUBSCRIBE OR SMS: KNOWSUB to 58888 400001.
ONLINE: Visit mags.timesgroup.com/bbc-knowledge.html
BBC KNOWLEDGE PRIORITY ORDER FORM

Mail this form along with your Cheque/DD to our postal address mentioned above.
KNOW DEC’14
Tick Term No. of Issues Cover Price You Pay* Benefit
1 year 6 ` 750 ` 435 Save ` 375
2 year 12 ` 1,500 ` 870 Save ` 750
*Note: The above amount payable is inclusive of all postage and handling charges (`10 per issue).
All fields, including postal code and contact number/s are mandatory.
Name: (Mr/Ms) ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Address: _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________ City: ______________________________ State: _____________________________________ Postal Code: _________________
Tel. No. (with STD Code): ________________________ Mobile: ________________________ E-mail ID: ____________________________________________________________________________________
Payment Details (Debit Card not accepted)
Credit Card No.: Card Type: Expiry Date: MM YY
for ` ____________________________________________ Card Member’s Name: _____________________________________________________ Card Member’s Signature: _________________________
Cheque/DD Enclosed: Cheque/DD No.: __________________ Cheque Dated: ________________ Bank Name: _______________________________________________________________________
` _____________________________________ (payable to Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd.) Existing subscribers, please specify Customer ID: _________________________________________
I have read the terms and conditions and I would like to avail of this offer. Subscriber’s Signature: __________________________________________________________________
TERMS & CONDITIONS: • Cheques/DDs should be drawn in favour of M/s. Bennett, Coleman & Co Ltd. • Cheques/DDs must contain the code/address of the issuing branch. • Money orders will not be accepted. • Non MICR cheques/two separate cheques for one subscription not
Knowledge to reach you from encashment of remittance. • Subscription copies will be delivered by post/courier as soon as the issue is released in the market place, however BCCL will not be responsible for postal or courier delays. • The amount payable is inclusive of all postage and
handling charges (`10 per issue). • Avoid giving PO Box or APO addresses. • This offer is valid for 6 and 12 issues of BBC Knowledge depending upon the term subscribed for. • BBC Knowledge issues are also available without this offer. • This offer is non-refundabale and cannot be
combined with any other offer. • This offer and rate is valid in India only. • Disputes if any, will be subjected to the exclusive jurisdiction of competent courts in Mumbai only. • Terms & conditions are subject to change from time to time. • Incomplete or illegible forms will not be accepted.
•This is limited period offer & valid till stocks lasts.
The earth
Our planet is unique. Its size (12,756km in diameter at the equator), orbit, temperature
and atmosphere have nurtured life. We’ve compiled the most fascinating facts about
our home and its geographical features
thinkstock, 123rf.com
38 December 2014
The Earth | nature
the 10 LONGEST RIVERS
01
Nile
6,695km
East and North Africa
The world’s longest river has two main tributaries: the Blue Nile, rising in Ethiopia, and the
longer White Nile, emerging from Lake Victoria. Figures for the river’s length vary, as the
exact source is still debated; 6,650km and 6,695km are often quoted, but an expedition in
2006 claimed to have reached the true source, and subsequent figures have been as high
as 6,853km. Whatever its true length, the Nile – which flows through Uganda (and also
possibly the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and Burundi, depending on the accepted source), South
Sudan, Sudan, Ethiopia and Egypt on its way to the Mediterranean, is one of the world’s mightiest rivers.
02 03 04 05 06
Amazon Yangtze Mississippi- Yenisei River Ob-Irtysh
6,516km 6,380km Missouri 5,539km 5,410km
South America China 5,969km Siberia Siberia
This river discharges Chiang Jiang, a USA There’s some debate The Ob River flows
2,00,000m3 of water Mandarin name for about the true through Siberia into the
This combined river
per second, fed by the Yangtze, means source of the Kara Sea, while its
system drains some 31
sources in Bolivia, literally ‘Long River’ Yenisei, so its place tributary the Irtysh
US states and two
Colombia, Ecuador, – it drains about 20% in this list could be rises in the Altai
Canadian provinces.
Peru and Brazil. of China’s area. lower. Mountains.
07 08 09 10
Yellow River Paraná–Río de la Congo River Amur–Argun
5,464km Plata 4,700km 4,440km
China 4,880km Central Africa North Asia
The basin of the South America Also known as the The Amur flows
Huang Ho (also This river’s name Zaire, the Congo is 2,824km along the
known as ‘China’s comes from the Tupi the world’s deepest Russia-China border,
Sorrow’) was the phrase para rehe river – depths of and is fed by the
birthplace of Chinese onáva, meaning 230m have been Argun rising in Inner
civilisation. ‘as big as the sea’. measured. Mongolia.
The Nile is the world’s
longest river – though its
exact source is still debated
the 10 Deadliest
volcanic eruptions
01 Tambora 06 Laki
Indonesia Iceland
Erupted: 1815 Erupted: 1783
Estimated deaths: 71,000 Deaths: 9,350
02 Krakatoa 07 Santa María

Indonesia Guatemala
Erupted: 1883 Erupted: 1902
Deaths: 36,417 Deaths: 6,000
03 Mount Pelée 08 Indonesia

Martinique Erupted: 1919
Erupted: 1902 Deaths: 5,110
Deaths: 29,025
09 Galunggung
04 Nevado del Ruiz Indonesia
Colombia Erupted: 1882
Erupted: 1985 Deaths: 4,011
Deaths: 25,000
10 Vesuvius
05 Unzen Italy
Japan Erupted: AD 79
Erupted: 1792 Deaths: upwards
Deaths: 15,000 of 3,000
The eruption of Mt Tambora

killed tens of thousands,
iss/nasa, alamy, thinkstock x3, euphro cc, daniel leussler cc/wikipedia
many of whom starved

because of the eruption’s
impact on agriculture
The 10
COLDEST
places
01 02 03 04
Ridge near Vostok Station Dome Argus Amundsen-
Dome Fuji Antarctica Antarctica Scott South
Antarctica –89.2°C –82.5°C Pole Station
–93.2°C The lowest ground- Antarctica
Recorded in August monitored temperature, –82.5°C
2010 from a remote recorded on 21 July 1983
sensing satellite. at a Russian Antarctic
research station.
40 December 2014
The Earth | nature
the 10 hottest places
01 Dasht-e Lut 06 Rub’ al Khali (Empty Quarter)

Iran Arabian Peninsula
70.7°C 56°C
The highest surface temperature

officially confirmed on Earth was 07 Kebili
detected by the Moderate Resolution Tunisia
Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) 55°C
on NASA’s Aqua satellite at Gandom
Beryan in the Dasht-e Lut (Lut Desert) 08 Timbuktu
between 2003 and 2005. Mali
54°C
A salt river winds
through the scorching 02 Queensland Outback
desert at Dasht-e Lut Australia 09 Tirat Zvi
69.2°C Israel
53.7°C
03 Flaming Mountains This temperature was recorded at a
Xinjiang, China kibbutz in June 1942 – at that time, the
66.7°C highest ever documented in Asia.
04 Al-Aziziyah 10 Dallol
Libya Ethiopia
57.8°C 34.4°C
For many years, this temperature
This was the average annual temperature

(detected in September 1922) was from 1960 to 1966.
the highest ever recorded.
05 Death Valley
USA
Death Valley, in California’s
Mojave Desert, is the
56.7°C
USA’s lowest, driest and
hottest place
05 06 07 08 09 10
Oymyakon Klinck research North Ice Snag Denali Verkhoyansk
Russia station Greenland Yukon, Canada Alaska, USA Russia
–71.2°C Greenland –66°C –63°C -59.7°C –45.4°C
The lowest air –69.4°C This low was recorded
temperature recorded in at this British North
the northern hemisphere Greenland Expedition
was detected at this research station in 1954.
Russian village in 1926.
Though popular images of the Sahara
depict endless rolling dunes, much of
it – as here, in Algeria – can be rocky
the 10
LARGEST
DESERTS
Some areas of Chile’s
Atacama Desert receive just
Antarctic Desert
1mm of rain each year
01 13,829,430km2
02 03 04
Arctic Sahara Arabian Desert
Though it’s largely covered with a thick coat of 13,726,936km2 9,400,000km2 2,330,000km2
ice, Antarctica is actually extremely dry. Inner North Africa Ara bian Peninsula
regions receive less than 50mm of precipitation
each year – less than the Sahara – and some dry
valleys experience virtually none at all.
05 06 07
400
Gobi Desert Kalahari Desert Patagonian
1,300,000km2 9,00,000km2 Desert
China/Mongolia Angola/Botswana/ 6,70,000km2
Namibia/ Argentina/Chile
years – the length South Africa
of time some areas of
alamy x3, thinkstock x2
Chile’s Atacama Desert

went without rain 08 09 10
between 1570 and Great Victoria Syrian Desert Great Basin Desert
1970 Desert 5,20,000km2 4,92,000km2
6,47,000km2 Iraq/Jordan/Syria USA
Australia
42 December 2014
The Earth | nature
The 10
LARGEST
LAKES
About 80% of the surface

01 Caspian Sea2
of Greenland is covered by
a vast ice sheet
3,71,000km
Central Asia
the 10 LARGEST 02 Lake Superior

82,100km2
ISLANDS USA/Canada
03 Lake Victoria
68,800km2
Greenland
01 2,175,600km
East Africa
2
04 Lake Huron
59,600km2
Convention dictates that continents are not considered USA/Canada
islands – otherwise Australia, at 7,692,024km2, would
top Greenland by a factor of more than three. Though 05 Lake Michigan
the world’s largest island, Greenland is sparsely 57,800km2
populated, with fewer than 60,000 inhabitants; around USA
80% of its surface is covered by a vast ice sheet.
06 Lake Tanganyika
32,900km2
02 03 04 East Africa
New Guinea Borneo Madagascar 07 Lake Baikal

7,85,753km2 7,48,168km2 5,87,713km2 31,722km2
Russia
08 Great Bear2 Lake

05 06 07 31,328km
Canada
Baffin Island, Sumatra, Honshu, Japan
Canada Indonesia 2,25,800km2 09 Lake Malawi (Nyasa)
5,03,944km2 4,43,066km2 30,044km2
Malawi/Tanzania/
Mozambique
08 09 10
10 Great Slave Lake
Victoria Island, Great Britain Ellesmere 28,568km2
Canada 2,09,331km2 Island, Canada Canada
2,20,548km2 1,96,236km2
The Earth | nature
The 10 TALLEST Water cascades into

the mist at Tugela
Falls in South Africa
WATERFALLS
Angel Falls
01 979m Angel Falls plummets from
Auyan tepui in Venezuela
Venezuela Browne Falls in the

majestic Doubtful
Sound on New
Zealand’s South Island
The world’s highest uninterrupted
waterfall cascades from the top of the
tepui (flat-topped mountain) called
Auyan, with a single plunge of 807m.
Called Kerepakupai Vená (waterfall of the deepest place)
in the local Pemon language, its English-language name
was bestowed in honour of Jimmie Angel, the American
aviator who was the first to fly over it in 1933.
06 05 04 08
James Skorga Vinnufallet Kjerrskredfossen
Bruce Falls 864m 865m 830m
840m Norway Norway Norway
Canada
09 10
Waihilau Colonial 03
Falls Creek Falls
thinkstock x3
02
792m 783m Three Sisters
Hawaii, Washington Falls Tugela Falls
USA State, USA 914m 948m 07
Peru South Africa
Browne Falls
836m
New Zealand
44 December 2014
e6
e 4 Issu `125
Volum r 2014
Octobe
tion
publica
India
es of
A Tim
D
S MIN
RIOU
E CU
R TH
t FO
TURE
Y t NA
STOR
NC E t HI
SCIE
TAKEIP
A TR LL
TO HLELEY
VA
s
aque
mac s p40
nese ture
Japa pera
how ro tem
out ze
Find le sub-
batt
2
/3542
2010
ENG/
.MAH
R.N.I
technology
Inventions, gadgets, gizmos, materials – the world of technology is fast-moving and

constantly surprising. The top tens on the next few pages demonstrate the range of
applications for scientific developments
123rf.com
46 December 2014
Technology | science
10 sCI-FI PREDICTIONS
THAT CAME TRUE
Television Electronic book

Predicted by: Mark Twain, From Predicted by: Stanislaw Lem, Return
the London Times of 1904, From the Stars, published 1961
published 1898 Instead of hardcovers and paperbacks, Polish
The first television was produced in the 1920s, author Lem foresaw books in crystal form, read
but Mark Twain had already described the on devices called ‘optons’ that display one page
telectroscope that would “make the daily doings of text at a time.
of the globe visible to everybody”.
Tank
Tablet device Predicted by: HG Wells, The Land
Predicted by: Arthur C Clarke, 2001: Ironclads, published 1903
A Space Odyssey, published 1968 The tank made its battlefield debut in 1916, but
Surfing the internet on a portable device was was envisaged by Wells as an all-terrain,
dreamed up long before the turn of the armoured vehicle carrying powerful guns. Winston
millennium. In the late 1960s, Clarke gave his Churchill later credited Wells for the idea, but the
fictional astronauts ‘newspads’ so they could author’s vehicle was inspired by Brahmah Joseph
keep up to date with the goings-on back home. Diplock’s pedrail locomotive.
Earphones Atomic bomb

Predicted by: Ray Bradbury, Predicted by: HG Wells, The World
Fahrenheit 451, published 1953 Set Free, published 1914
Though the personal stereo didn’t appear until Wells envisioned a nuclear bomb that would
1977, in the early ’50s Bradbury described explode continuously for 17 days and have
earphones piping in constant music and talk. longer-term effects through nuclear fallout.
Scuba-diving equipment
Predicted by: Jules Verne, Twenty Moon landing
Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, Predicted by: Jules Verne, From The
published 1870 Earth To The Moon, published 1865
Verne described a means of breathing More than 100 years before Armstrong’s lunar
underwater using apparatus that, unlike all stroll, Verne had envisioned a trip to the Moon
existing equipment, didn’t take its air supply – though his protagonists were fired from an
from the surface. His idea came from the enormous cannon at a launch site in Florida.
system developed in the 1860s by French duo
Benoit Rouquayrol and Auguste Denayrouze to
save miners trapped underground.
Surveillance
Predicted by: George Orwell, Nine-
Video calls teen Eighty-Four, published 1949
Predicted by: Albert Robida, Le CCTV cameras, internet cookies, loyalty cards,
Vingtième Siècle. La Vie Électrique, NSA data monitoring, social media… The Big
published 1890 Brother dreamed up by Orwell in his dystopian
novel comes in many guises today.
The first public videophone service launched in
Germany in 1936, and EM Forster described a
communication system that transmitted both
audio and visual signals in his short story The
Machine Stops, published in 1909. Yet this
French author’s 1890 book mentions a similar
device called ‘le téléphonoscope’.
Guglielmo Marconi
(standing), the godfather
of telecommunication
10 crucial
coMMUNICATION
BREAKTHROUGHS
The Alphabet
When: 4000-1200BC
The ability to record information was arguably most significant breakthrough
in human communication after speech. Sumerian cuneiform, a pictographic
writing system denoting concepts and syllables, evolved around 4000BC.
It was replaced by the Phoenician alphabet comprising characters that
represent single sounds.
Cuneiform writing, developed around

4,000BC, is regarded to be the first alphabet
Postal Paper Gutenberg Semaphore Morse Code Telephone

Service AD 105 Press 1792 1840 1876
27BC–AD 14 Official records credit 1450 By peppering 566 The telegraph had Many people lay
It’s thought that the Chinese inventor Cai For centuries, literacy towers topped with already been claim to the invention
Persians were the Lun with the first and literature were mechanical arms invented, but in 1840 of the telephone, but
first to introduce a production of paper, restricted to religious throughout his native American painter Alexander Graham
kind of postal service although scholars and wealthy France, Claude Samuel Morse filed Bell filed the first
around 550BC. But archaeological intellectuals. Then Chappe invented the his first patent for an patent for a device
the earliest and best- research suggests that German Johannes first optical improved device that that enabled people
getty, Alamyx4, thinkstock
documented paper was being used Gutenberg invented semaphore system, used electric signals in different places to
evidence of such a in the country much the metal printing allowing to communicate talk to each other.
system, enabling the earlier than that. press with movable the information encoded
public to send written type, enabling military as a series of dots
messages, dates multiple copies and and dashes.
from the reign of the of publications to government to
Roman emperor be made quickly send quick
Augustus. and cheaply. messages over
vast distances.
48 December 2014
DID YOU
KNOW?
The first computer
mouse, invented by Doug
Engelbart in California
in 1964, was carved
from wood
top 10 cOUNTRIES WITH
HIGHEST SMARTPHONE
PENETRATION
01 02
United Arab South Korea
Emirates 73% of
73.8% of population owns
population owns a smartphone
a smartphone
03 04
Saudi Arabia Singapore
72.8% of 71.7% of
population owns population owns
a smartphone a smartphone
05 06
Norway Australia
In New York, Alexander Graham Bell 67.5% of 64.6% of
shows onlookers how to call Chicago population owns population owns
a smartphone a smartphone
Wireless trans- Television Arpanet
missions 1925 1969
1895
*Source: Our Mobile Planet by Google. Survey conducted Q1 2013.

The first equipment Modern networks 07 08
Guglielmo Marconi allowing the viewing were born when
built on the work of of live pictures, technology allowed Sweden Hong Kong
others to develop and rather than pre- computers to connect 63% of 62.8% of
improve a system recorded footage, and communicate population owns population owns
using electromagnetic appeared in 1925. with each other. That a smartphone a smartphone
radiation to transmit Similar technology technology led to the
messages wirelessly. had been developed creation of Arpanet
In 1895, he sent and over the previous 50 (Advanced Research 09 10
received signals over years, but Scotsman Projects Agency
a distance of almost John Logie Baird Network), a system to UK Denmark
2.5km. By 1901, he made the first public help US research labs 62.2% of 59% of
was able to demonstration of exchange information, population owns population owns
communicate across television in 1925. laying the foundations a smartphone a smartphone
the Atlantic. for the internet.
10 nASA TECHNOLOGIES WITH
Cardio-muscular
conditioning machines
EARTHLY APPLICATIONS Introduced to commercial market: 1991

The machine dubbed the ‘Shuttle 2000-1’ was
developed to give astronauts an effective workout,
helping to combat muscle wasting that can result
from life in zero gravity. The same machine is
used for physiotherapy and to help elderly
people exercise.
Artificial heart pumps Memory foam
Introduced to commercial market: 1998 Introduced to commercial market: 1969
In 1966, NASA contracted aeronautical engineer
Patients awaiting heart transplants can be kept
Charles Yost to improve aeroplane seating in the
alive with a left ventricular assist device (LVAD).
hope of providing better crash protection. He came
Smaller than other heart pumps and battery
up with memory foam, a material that could
operated, this instrument is based on the fuel
absorb high-energy impacts but also provide
pumps used in NASA’s rocket engines.
greater comfort by moulding itself to any object
placed upon it.
Scratch-resistant lenses
Introduced to commercial market: 1983
These evolved from an experiment to improve
water purification on spacecraft. The result was a
coating that rendered spectacle lenses almost
impervious to abrasion.
Fire-retardant paint
The coating on the Apollo spacecrafts’ heat shields
was used for fire-retardant paints for aircraft. The The foam that never forgets
paint has also been employed to reinforce steel – another NASA creation
structures in buildings.
10 RARE
ELEMENTS
found IN
YOUR HOME
Europium Terbium Lanthanum Neodymium
Symbol: Eu Symbol: Tb Symbol: La Symbol: Nd
Atomic number: 63 Atomic number: 65 Atomic number: 57 Atomic number: 60
Used in nuclear reactors as Found in LCD screens and Another of Carl Mosander’s Neodymium makes
well as low-energy light solid-state memory devices discoveries, this is one of excellent magnets and has
bulbs and TV sets. (including USB drives). Swedish the metals used in the been put to use in computer
wikipedia, alamy
Discovered by France’s chemist Carl Mosander nickel-metal hydride hard drives, stereo
Éugene-Anatole Demarçay discovered the soft, malleable (NiMH) batteries found in speakers and electric
in 1896. and ductile metal in 1843. some smartphones, motors. It’s also used to
laptops and electric cars. colour glass.
50 December 2014
Space blanket Smart clothing Infrared thermometers

Introduced to commercial market: 1980 Introduced to commercial market: 1997 Introduced to commercial market: 1991
The same material that protects astronomical Smart clothing is made from phase-change fabric, Astronomers gauge the temperature of planets
objects ranging from the Hubble telescope to the material that incorporates microscopic capsules millions of light-years away by measuring the
Mars Rovers against the extreme temperatures of filled with a chemical that switches between a thermal radiation emitted. The technology
space also keeps marathon finishers warm. By liquid and a gas depending on the temperature. developed to monitor that radiation powers
coating a thin plastic sheet with aluminium, a NASA uses it as a liner in astronaut gloves and it’s infrared thermometers that measure your body
lightweight material was created that insulates by now found in bedding, clothing and footwear. temperature by checking the heat emitted from
reflecting heat. your eardrum.
Anti-fog coating
Skiers wearing goggles on snowy slopes bless this
technology that helps prevent eyewear from misting
up. This technology is based on the coating developed
to stop condensation building up on plastic or glass
surfaces in NASA’s Gemini spacecraft.
Maximum absorbency garment

DID YOU Otherwise known as the ‘space nappy’, the

maximum absorbency garment was designed to
enable astronauts to relieve themselves
KNOW? comfortably during prolonged spacewalks.
Capable of soaking up approximately two litres of
liquid, the ‘space nappy’ also offers a solution for
Prolific inventor people suffering from incontinence.
Thomas Edison filed
2,332 worldwide
patents during his
lifetime
Yttrium Samarium Cerium Erbium Dysprosium Selenium

Symbol: Y Symbol: Sm Symbol: Ce Symbol: Er Symbol: Dy Symbol: Se
Atomic number: 39 Atomic number: 62 Atomic number: 58 Atomic number: 68 Atomic number: 66 Atomic number:
Yttrium is a metal that Discovered by Replacing cadmium in Another Carl Mosander Paul-Émile Lecoq de 34
can be added to glass to Frenchman Paul-Émile pigments used in discovery, this silver metal Boisbaudran also Many devices
make it heat- and Lecoq de Boisbaudran domestic products, red has a pink tinge. It’s useful discovered dysprosium. powered by solar cells
shock-resistant; it in 1879, this metal plastic toys or for colouring photographic Besides nuclear reactor contain selenium. You
is found in many makes great magnets, homewares are likely to filters but also improves the control rods, dysprosium might also find it in
camera lenses. used in headphones and contain cerium, which is function of optical fibres for is used in car headlights your bathroom – it’s
electric guitars. also found in compact broadband internet and the electric motors used in some anti-
discs, flat-screen TVs and connections. found in hybrid vehicles dandruff shampoos.
low-energy light bulbs. such as the Toyota Prius.
DID YOU
10 ENGINEERING WONDERS KNOW?
OF THE MODERN WORLD Google’s original name
was BackRub, “a ‘web
crawler’ designed to
Jiaozhou Bay Bridge traverse the web”
Qingdao, China
Length: 26,707m
The bridge across China’s Jiaozhou Bay is the main section of a complex
comprising a 41.58km roadway connecting the districts of Qingdao and
Huangdao. Opened in 2011, the world’s longest bridge over water cost
£5.5bn to build; its construction required 10,000 workers, 4,50,000 tonnes of
steel and 2.3 million m³ of concrete.
Trans-Siberian Burj Khalifa Akashi Panama Canal Gotthard Base

railroad United Arab Kaikyo bridge Panama Tunnel
Russia Emirates Japan Length: 77.1km Switzerland
Length: 9,289km Height: 828m Length: 3,911m This man-made Length: 57km
Construction on the The current tallest Almost half of the channel connecting Running underneath
world’s longest building in the world entire length of this the Atlantic and the Swiss Alps, when
railway line began in (boasting a full 163 incredible structure, Pacific Oceans completed this will
1891 and, by 1916, storeys), this iconic which boasts the opened in 1914. Some be the world’s
had successfully skyscraper took longest central 42,000 workers longest rail tunnel.
connected Moscow in 3,30,000 cubic span of any excavated the canal, Due to open in 2016,
the west with metres of concrete suspension bridge in digging enough earth this will eclipse
Vladivostock on and 39,000 tones of the world, is to bury Manhattan both the 53.85km-
Russia’s east coast, steel to build. suspended over the Island. Today, more long Seikan Tunnel
9,289km away. The tower also waters of the Akashi than 14,500 vessels in Japan and the
boasts more than Strait and carries a use the waterway 50km-long Channel
24,000 windows. six-lane highway. every year. Tunnel.
Millau Viaduct Bailong Three Gorges Large Hadron

France Elevator Dam Collider
Length: 2,460m China China France/
Height: 343m Height: 330m Height: 180m Switzerland
The world’s tallest Built into a cliff face The barrier on China’s Length/
bridge spans the in Zhangjiajie Yangtze River is far from circumference:
valley of the River National Forest Park, the biggest dam in the 27km
Tarn, carrying a four- the Bailong Elevator world, but is a crucial Buried 100m below
lane highway 270m (aka the ‘Hundred part of the world’s France and Switzerland
above the valley floor. Dragons Elevator’) is largest hydroelectric is the world’s most
Higher than the Eiffel the world’s highest power station with a powerful particle
Tower, the bridge outdoor lift. The generating capacity accelerator, designed to
was completed in 330m ascent takes of 22,500mW. To make recreate the conditions
2004 after three around a minute way for the reservoir, that existed shortly after
alamy
years of construction in one of three three cities had to the Big Bang. It weighs
at a cost of €400m. glass cabins. be flooded. more than 38,000 tonnes.
Sir Arthur C Clarke

1917–2008
Visionary Co-writer of the film
2001: A Space Odyssey
science-fiction As well as earning a number of awards for his

writing, the British author – who spent most of
writers his later years in Sri Lanka – was something of
a prophet, predicting that computers would be
used for online shopping and banking.
Isaac Asimov Robert A Heinlein Ray Bradbury

1920–92 1907–88 1920–2012
Wrote or edited more than 500 First Science Fiction Writers Created visions of
influential books Grand Master a dystopian future
Most famous for writing the Foundation series, Beginning his career as a magazine writer, this One of the most celebrated American writers, many
the Russian author is often considered one of American author went on to pen four overlapping of Bradbury’s stories were adapted for other media
the ‘Big Three’ sci-fi writers, along with Heinlein series, including the Future History books. His – most famously, Fahrenheit 451, envisaging a future
and Clarke. His science-fiction short story novels explore a range of themes including sex, state that burns books. Between 1985 and 1992, he
Nightfall was voted the best of all time. A crater race, politics and the military – often sparking also presented The Ray Bradbury Theatre television
on Mars is named after Asimov – the highest important debates on these topics. show, for which he adapted 65 of his own stories.
accolade for a sci-fi writer?
Phillip K Dick EE ‘Doc’ Smith Jack Williamson

1928–82 1890–1965 1908–2006
Wrote novels inspiring Blade Best known for the Lensman and Wrote the Legion of
Runner and Total Recall Skylark series Space series
As well as publishing 44 novels, Dick also This American author is sometimes known as Williamson was only the second named Grand
write around 120 short stories. The American the ‘first nova’ of 20th-Century science fiction. Master of Science Fiction, from the Science
author’s works have inspired a string of hit He was particularly popular with scientists, Fiction Writers of America. The Eastern New
films including Blade Runner, Total Recall and engineers and military men – possibly because Mexico University library is home to the Jack
Minority Report. a common theme in his novels was the Williamson Science Fiction Library.
difficulty of maintaining military secrecy.
Harlan Ellison Frank Herbert Frederik Pohl

1919–2013
1934–present 1920–86
Author with a career spanning 75
Multi award-winning author Writer of the Dune saga years
and editor
This American writer’s first published work
This American writer has published more than Herbert used many of his novels to explore was a short story produced in 1937; his last
1700 short stories, novellas and essays, as and combat complex ideas based around novel was printed in 2011. Pohl was awarded
well as many film and TV scripts including much- philosophy, leadership and religion, and his the Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master
lauded Star Trek episodes. He’s the only three-time work attracted a fanatical fan base. Dune Award by the Science Fiction Writers of
winner of the Nebula Award for Best Short Story. became a major film directed by David Lynch. America in 1993.
December 2014 53
TRANSPORT
The past 100 years or so have seen an extraordinary revolution in the way that
we move around our planet. Almost always, the emphasis has been to reach more places
– and to do it faster...
newspress, us air force/darpa
54 December 2014
tansport | science
The top 10 FASTest PLANES
Falcon HTV-2
Top speed: 20,920km/h
01 Unmanned
Lockheed Martin, Defense Advanced Research Projects
Agency and US Air Force, USA, 2010
Developed to test the limits of long-duration hypersonic travel, the Falcon HTV-2 is a
rocket-launched, unmanned but fully manoeuvrable plane that’s capable of flying at
Mach 20. Not that anything can be remotely described as ‘long-duration’ at these kinds
of speed; a plane travelling at more than 20,000 miles an hour would cover the distance
between New York City and Los Angeles in around 12 minutes.
02 03 04 05 06
X-43A X-15 X-51 WaveRider SR-71 MiG-25 Foxbat
Top speed: Top speed: Top speed: BlackBird Top speed:
12,144km/h 7,274km/h 6,276km/h Top speed: 3,492km/h
Unmanned Manned Unmanned 3,540km/h Manned
NASA, USA, 2004 US Air Force and Boeing, USA, 2010 Manned Mikoyan-
NASA, USA, 1959 Lockheed, USA, Gurevich, Soviet
1964 Union, 1964
07 08 09 10
Bell X-2 XB-70 Valkyrie MiG Foxhound F-15 Eagle
Starbuster Top speed: Top speed: Top speed:
Top speed: 3,308km/h 2,999km/h 2,679km/h
3,369km/h Manned Manned Manned
Manned North American Mikoyan, Soviet McDonnell
Bell Aircraft, Aviation, USA, Union, 1975 Douglas,
USA, 1955 1964 Boeing, Space
& Security,
USA, 1972
Sailboat
10 gREAT transport 02 c 4000BC
The Nile, Tigris and Euphrates rivers were
BREAKTHROUGHS important trade routes for the Egyptians

and Mesopotamians. Artefacts from those
civilisations show sailboats were used to
travel and to transport goods between
the settlements along them.
01 Wheel
c 4500BC 03 Suspension
c 3100BC
Early roads were little more than rocky
It’s difficult to pinpoint when the wheel was invented, but the earliest recorded evidence of their tracks, making journeys uncomfortable
use dates back to the Sumerians of Mesopotamia. The wheel enabled the people of this ancient for any passengers and potentially
civilisation to build carts with which to haul bigger loads than could be carried on their backs. damaging for cargo. By hanging a load-
bearing platform or cabin from a frame
built upon a cart’s chassis, the ancient
Egyptians came up with a method of
ensuring a smoother ride.
04 Chain drive
c300BC
The mechanism that – by transmitting
drive from one place to another –
would dramatically alter bicycle design
approximately 2,000 years later first
appeared in ancient Greece. The polybolos,
an automatic crossbow, used a chain drive
to load bolts for rapid and repeated fire.
05 Rockets
c 1250
Long before some bright spark thought
of using rockets to launch a men and
machines into space, they were being used
as weapons in battle. After they invented
gunpowder, Chinese chemists used it to
fire incendiary projectiles at their enemies.
the 10 longest
commercial 01 02 03 04
flights Sydney
to Dallas
13,804km
Johannesburg
to Atlanta
13,582km
Dubai to
Los Angeles
13,420km
Dallas to
Brisbane
13,363km
Qantas Delta Air Lines Emirates Qantas
alamy x2, getty X2
15 hours and 16 hours and 16 hours and 16 hours

10 minutes 55 minutes 30 minutes
56 December 2014
tansport | science
06 Steam locomotion 09 Powered flight

1784 1903
Steam engines were the driving force
Man had been taking to the skies using

behind the Industrial Revolution, but the idea various forms of kites, gliders and
for using boiling water as a power source balloons for a long time before Orville and
dates back long before the 18th century. Wilbur Wright showed up. But they were
However, it wasn’t until 1784 that Scottish the first to successfully make a powered,
inventor William Murdoch unveiled a controlled and sustained flight.
prototype of a steam-powered road vehicle.
Trains and ships would follow soon after.
10 Jet engine
1930
Once human flight had been achieved,

07 Pneumatic tyre engineers set about finding ways to fly faster,
1845 further and higher. The jet engine made doing
A ‘tier’ was the name given to the band
all of those things possible. The idea behind
of steel used to tie the spokes on wooden it dates back to the first century AD, but it
wheels together to form the round wasn’t until 1930 that the first patent was
structure. But steel isn’t the best material filed for one designed to power an aircraft.
for producing traction or a comfortable
ride so people began looking for an
alternative, which arrived in the form
of vulcanised rubber. Scotsman Robert
William Thomson was the first to patent
the idea of attaching a rubber tyre to a
wheel and filling it with air.
08 Internal combustion engine

1879
The roots of the internal combustion

engine date back centuries. Crank and
rod mechanisms appear in Roman times
and gunpowder was used to drive the
pistons of a water pump in the 17th
century. However, it was Germany’s
Nikolaus Otto who first built and patented
an internal combustion engine that could
be incorporated into an automobile.
05 06 07 08 09 10
Dubai to Dubai to San New York (JFK) New York Doha to Dubai to Dallas
Houston Francisco to (Newark) to Houston 12,940km
13,144km 13,041km Hong Kong Hong Kong 12,951km Emirates
Emirates Emirates 12,990km 12,980km Qatar Airways 16 hours and
16 hours and 16 hours Cathay Pacific United Airlines 16 hours and 20 minutes
20 minutes 16 hours 15 hours and 20 minutes
50 minutes
the 10 biggest
commercial aircraft
01 02 03 04
Airbus A380 Boeing 747-8 Boeing 747-400 Boeing 777-300

853 passengers 700 passengers 568 passengers 550 passengers
72.72m long 76.3m long 70.6m long 73.9m long
06 07 08 09
Boeing 747-200 Boeing 747-100 Boeing 777-200 Airbus A350-1000

452 passengers 452 passengers 440 passengers 369 passengers
70.6m long 70.6m long 63.7m long 73.78m long
the 10
fASTEST 430 380 360 350
TRAINS km/h km/h km/h km/h
01 02 03 04
getty x5, alamy x5, boeing, airbus
Shanghai Maglev, Harmony CRH AGV Italo, Italy Velaro E/AVS

China 380A, China Route: 103, Spain
Route: Longyang Road Route: Naples – Milan Route:
Station – Shanghai Beijing – Shanghai Opened: 2012 Barcelona –
Pudong International Opened: 2010 Manufacturer: Madrid
Airport Manufacturer: CSR Alstom Opened: 2007
Opened: 2004 Qingdao Sifang Manufacturer:
Manufacturer: Siemens Locomotive & Siemens
and ThyssenKrupp Rolling Stock
58 December 2014
tansport | science
The 10
busiest AIRPORTS
05 01 Atlanta International Airport, USA
94,630,445 passengers in 2014
02 Beijing Capital International Airport, China

03 London Heathrow Airport

04 Tokyo International Airport

Boeing 747-300 70,366,151 passengers in 2014
496 passengers
70.6m long 05 Dubai International Airport, UAE
10 06 Los Angeles International Airport, USA

07 O’Hare International Airport, Chicago, USA

08 Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport, France

09 Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, USA

Airbus A340-600 61,408,414 passengers in 2012
359 passengers
75.36m long 10 Hong Kong International Airport, Chek Lap Kok,
Hong Kong
350
km/h
320
km/h
320km/h
320 km/h
320 km/h
300 km/h
05 06 07 08 09 10
Talgo 350, E5 Series Alstom Euroduplex TGV Duplex, ICE 3, Germany ETR 500
Spain Shinkansen Route: France, France Route: Frankfurt Frecciarossa,
Route: Hayabusa, Japan Germany, Route: Paris – – Italy
Madrid – Lleida Route: Tohuku Switzerland, Marseille Cologne; Route: Rome –
Opened: 2005 Shinkansen Line Luxembourg, Opened: 1996 Munich – Milan
Manufacturer: Opened: 2011 Spain Manufacturer: Nuremberg Opened: 2008
Patentes Talgo Manufacturer: Opened: 2011 Alstom and Opened: 2000 Manufacturer:
and Bombardier Kawasaki Heavy Manufacturer: Bombardier Manufacturer: Treno Veloce
Transportation Industry and Hitachi Alstom Siemens Italiano
* Source: Airports Council International (www.aci.aero) preliminary passenger figures August 2014.
the 10 fASTEST ROAD CARS
01 Bugatti Veyron
Super Sport
Top speed: 431km/h
2010–present
Despite having made its public debut back in 2010, all other
road-legal cars continue to eat the Super Sport’s cinders.
Powered by an eight-litre engine, the Bugatti is capable of
accelerating from 0-60mph in just 2.4 seconds. This need
for speed doesn’t come cheap, though. Prospective owners
need to have a spare $2.5m in their back pocket. And then
there’s those insurance premiums.
02 03 04 05 06
Hennessey Koenigsegg SSC Ultimate 9ff GT9-R Saleen S7
newspress x4, hennessey, rwd cars/wikipedia, Trubble/wikipedia, alamy
Venom GT Agera R Aero Top speed: Twin-Turbo

Top speed: Top speed: Top speed: 413km/h Top speed:
428km/h 418km/h 413km/h 2007-2008 399km/h
2012–present 2011–present 2006–2013 2005–2009
07 08 09 10
Koenigsegg CCX McLaren F1 Zenvo ST1 Pagani Huayra
Top speed: Top speed: Top speed: Top speed:
394km/h 386km/h 374km/h 370km/h
2006–2010 1992-1998 2009–present 2012–present
60 December 2014
tansport | science
George Stephenson Wernher von Braun

1781–1848 1912–77
Became renowned as the Developed rocket science
‘father of railways’
Lauded as the ‘father of rocket science’, this
Stephenson built the world’s first public inter-city German-American was a crucial figure in the
railway line to use steam locomotives. His design development of the V-2 rocket used by the Germans
for the Rocket also became the template for most in the Second World War. He was subsequently
Transport steam engines in the following 150 years. recruited by NASA and became chief architect of the
Saturn V launch vehicle.
pioneers Sir Christopher Cockerell

1910–99 Montgolfier brothers
Wright brothers Invented the hovercraft Joseph-Michael:
Orville: 1871–1948 The British owner of a small boat company,
1740–1810
Wilbur: 1867–1912 Cockerell wanted his vessels go faster. He Jacques-Étienne:
developed a theory – that a narrow jet of air 1745–99
Made the first powered around the edge of a craft would efficiently lift
fixed-wing flight it above the water – and tested his ideas with a
vacuum cleaner and two tin cans, patenting his Invented the hot-air balloon
At the turn of the 20th century, the race to achieve technology in 1955. The first hovercraft crossed
powered flight was hotting up. But though several the English Channel in 1959. In 1783 - 120 years before the Wright brothers made
of their contemporaries got airborne at around the history – these French siblings flew an unmanned
same time, these siblings were the first to achieve balloon nearly 2km during a public demonstration,
true powered flight – on 17 December 1903 – following that with a brief (tethered) flight with
and to patent the aerodynamic control of a Étienne on board.
flying machine.
Henry Ford Pierre Lallement

1963–1947 1843–1891
Founded the Ford Invented the bicycle
Motor Company
Many people have laid claim to being the creator of
This industrialist’s adoption of mass-production the bicycle, including Scottish blacksmith Kirkpatrick
techniques revolutionised transport, with his Macmillan in 1839. But Frenchman Lallement was
Model T Fords rolling off the assembly line at the first to be awarded a patent in the US in 1866
an astonishing rate. Ford was a controversial after adding pedals to a walk-along dandy horse to
character, but made car ownership an achievable create the velocipede.
goal for many middle-class Americans.
Frank Whittle Isambard Kingdom Brunel

1907–96 Karl Benz 1806–59
1844–1929
Invented the turbojet engine Trains, boats, bridges...
Invented the petrol- He could do it all
powered automobile
Whittle outlined the principles behind jet As well as building the first railway linking London
propulsion while still a student, taking out a patent Though other engineers (including fellow German to Bristol, this visionary engineer also designed
photo: alamy x4
on his design in 1930 at the tender age of 23. The Gottlieb Daimler) were working on similar vehicles both the Clifton Suspension Bridge in Bristol and
first prototype was produced in 1937, and the concurrently, in 1886 Benz was the first to be the SS Great Britain, the first iron steamer to cross
first jet-powered plane, a Gloster E.28/29, took its awarded a patent for an automobile powered by an the Atlantic.
maiden flight on 15 May 1941. internal combustion engine.
history
The evolution of civilisation and science through five and a half thousand years of recorded
history – and even before – yields a treasure trove of astonishing facts, mysteries and hoaxes
Thinkstock, alamy x2, getty
62 December 2014
history | history
the WORLD’S 10 OLDEST CITIES
01 02 03 04 05
Jericho Byblos Aleppo Damascus Beirut
Founded: Founded: Founded: Founded: Founded:
c 9000BC c 5000BC c 4300BC c 4300BC 3000BC
The first settlers Known as Gubal by Founded as Halab, this Some argue that the The name of the
were attracted by the the Phoenicians and Syrian city was the Syrian capital has Lebanese capital is
numerous springs renamed Byblos by the capital of the Amorite been inhabited since derived from the
around the site, now Greeks, this Lebanese dynasty of Yamhad. 10,000BC. Canaanite word Be’erot
within the Palestinian city is possibly or wells. The under-
territories. the world’s oldest ground water supply is
continuously inhabited still used to day.
settlement.
06 07 08 09 10
Shush Faiyum Sidon Plovdiv Gaziantep
Founded: Founded: Founded: Founded: 4000BC Founded:
c 4200BC c 4000BC c 4000BC The discovery of 3650BC
Originally called Susa, This Egyptian The base from which pottery and other This city, now in south-
this Iranian city was settlement is located the Phoenician empire everyday objects dating central Turkey near
the capital of the on part of the site grew, this Lebanese back several thousand the Syrian border, was
Elamite Empire. of the ancient city was reputedly years proves that the founded by
Crocodilopolis, visited by Jesus, site of this Bulgarian the Hittites.
dedicated to St Paul and Alexander city was settled in the
the worship of a the Great. Neolithic Age.
sacred crocodile.
10 fAMOUS
HOAXES
A feathered missing link
Discovered: 1997 Exposed: 1999
In 1999, the National Geographic Society
trumpeted the discovery, two years earlier,
of the remains of a dinosaur covered in bird-like
plumage. It was not a missing link, but a forgery
created by a Chinese farmer.
Hitler’s Diaries
Discovered and exposed: 1983
Historian Hugh Trevor-Roper was left with egg
on his face after authenticating documents
purporting to be the Nazi leader’s diaries. They
were actually the handiwork of Konrad Kujau, a Orson Welles caused panic across the
notorious German forger. US with his radio broadcast in 1938
Piltdown Man The Fiji Mermaid Alien autopsy

Discovered: 1912 Exposed: 1953 Publicised and exposed: 1842 Publicised: early 1990s
A skull and jawbone discovered in Piltdown in The legendary circus impresario PT Barnum Exposed: 1995
East Sussex were relics from a modern man toured the US with this ‘mummified mermaid’ The bodies that appeared in film footage
and an orangutan – not a previously – and had the public fooled. Until, that is, it claimed to depict an alien autopsy performed
unknown form of early human, as amateur emerged that the mermaid possessed the after the Roswell UFO incident in 1947 were, in
archaeologist (and the hoax’s perpetrator) withered head of a monkey and the tail of a fact, dummies created by Ray Santilli, an entre-
Charles Dawson claimed. dried fish. preneur from London’s Camden Town.
The Cardiff Giant

Discovered and exposed: 1869
Stern journalist Gerd A 10ft-tall ‘petrified man’ excavated by workers in
Heidemann presents
the alleged diaries Cardiff, New York, turned out to have been carved
of Adolf Hitler to the out of gypsum by tobacconist George Hull.
press in 1983
alamy, press association, getty, thinkstock x2
DID YOU
KNOW?
In 1915, British
intelligence services
discovered that semen
made an effective
invisible ink
64 December 2014
history | history
The War Of The Worlds The Protocols Of The

Perpetrated and exposed: 1938 Elders Of Zion
Thousands of Americans believed that their coun- Published: 1903 Exposed: 1921
try was under attack by aliens when Orson Welles This anti-Semitic book, purporting to describe a
broadcast a radio adaptation of HG Wells’ The Jewish conspiracy to dominate the world, was
War Of The Worlds. disseminated across the globe. It was probably
plagiarised by Russian agents from various sources.
The Cottingley Fairies

Claimed: 1917
Exposed: 1980s
More than 60 years after Edwardian England Loch Ness Monster photo
was enchanted by five pictures showing two Taken: 1934 Exposed: 1990s
young girls, Frances Griffiths and Elsie Wright, Robert Kenneth Wilson’s iconic photo seemed
surrounded by fairies, the former admitted the to confirm the Loch Ness monster’s existence,
photos were hoaxes. but later analysis suggested that ‘Nessie’ was
probably being towed.
10 enduring Nero fiddled

while Rome
Sir Walter
Raleigh laid
Romans
deliberately
American
Independence
historical burned
The origin of this
down his cloak
for Elizabeth
vomited
at orgies
was declared on
4 July
myths expression is
definitely contentious.
The legend of
chivalrous Sir Walter
The ‘vomitorium’ was
actually the entrance
The Pennsylvania
Evening Post
Though Nero was laying his cloak over a allowing crowds to exit published the
known as a musician, puddle to keep Queen and enter a stadium. news about the
the fiddle wasn’t Elizabeth’s feet dry resolution declaring
invented until 1,500 stems from Walter independence on
years after the fire Scott’s romantic novel 2 July. The actual
of Rome. Kenilworth document called
of 1821. The Declaration
of Independence was
approved on the 4th.
Albert Einstein Marco Polo Napoleon was George Washington “Let Them Eat Witches were
failed maths at brought short had wooden teeth Cake” burned at the
school pasta to Italy The ‘little corporal’ The dentures of the Marie Antoinette stake in Salem
When he saw this from China was actually slightly first US president never suggested Though witch trials
claim published, Though wheat taller than the average (below) were made of that the breadless were certainly held
Einstein corrected noodles probably Frenchman of his hippopotamus and other peasants of the in the Massachusetts
it: “I never failed existed in China for time – 5 French feet, animal teeth, as well 18th century town of Salem,
in mathematics. centuries before Polo 2 inches. In English as human teeth held should eat cake. there’s no evidence
Before I was 15, I had visited, it’s likely measurements, this is together with ivory, gold The misattributed that ‘witches’ were
mastered differential pasta (or similar 5 feet, 7 inches. wire and brass screws. quote is from Jean- burned at the stake.
and integral calculus.” preparations) had Jacques Rousseau’s Some 20 women
arrived in Italy autobiography – the were hanged or
from Arab lands well ‘great princess’ would crushed, and their
before the have been only 11 at bodies later burned.
13th century. the time.
10 ANCIENT ENGINEERING ACHIEVEMENTS
The Colosseum Saksaywaman Aqueduct Great Pyramid
Where: Rome Where: Peru of Segovia of Giza
Date built: Date built: Where: Spain Where: Egypt
AD 70–80 15th century AD Date built: Date built:
It took an estimated Scientists still don’t 1st century AD c 2500BC
100,000m3 of know how the Inca It may have been The tallest
travertine stone to transported the constructed by the man-made structure
build the largest massive boulders Romans 2,000 years on Earth for 3,800
amphitheatre in used to construct ago, but this 167- years, construction
the Roman Empire, this huge walled arch masterpiece of the Pyramid of
accommodating complex in Cusco. still carries water Khufu took 100,000
50,000 spectators. from the River Frio to workmen up to
the town of 20 years.
Segovia today.
10 DOOMED Imperial Trans-Antarctic

Expedition
The Donner Party
Led by: The Reed and
EXPEDITIONS Led by: Ernest Shackleton

Date: 1914–17
Shackleton’s attempt on a land crossing
Donner families
Date: 1846–47
When a party of pioneer families and their
of Antarctica ended in disaster when his employees got trapped in the mountains of the
ship, Endurance, became trapped in ice Sierra Nevada, this journey west to California
and sank. The story of his epic rescue mission descended into cannibalism.
is legendary.
North face of the Eiger

Led by: Toni Kurz and
Andreas Hinterstoisser
Date: 1936
Kurz and Hinterstoisser both lost their lives dur-
ing this famous attempt on the formidable Swiss
peak, the former tragically dying
from exhaustion just metres from his
would-be rescuers.
thinkstock x5, alamy x5
Polaris Expedition Attempt to navigate the

Led by: Charles Francis Hall Northwest Passage
Date: 1871 Led by: John Franklin
It wasn’t the cold that scuppered Hall’s attempt on Date: 1847
the North Pole, but arsenic poisoning, suggesting Franklin’s entire party died of starvation,
that he may have been murdered by another hypothermia, tuberculosis, lead poisoning and
member of the expedition. scurvy after being forced to abandon their ice-
bound ships.
66 December 2014
history | history
Stonehenge Mohenjo-daro Great Wall Teotihuacan Leshan Giant Antikythera

Where: England Where: Pakistan of China Where: Mexico Buddha Mechanism
Date built: Date built: Where: China Date built: Where: China Where: Greece
From c 2500BC 2600BC Date built: 100BC–AD 250 Date built: Date built:
Our prehistoric This city boasted Begun in This Aztec metropolis Begun in 2nd century BC
ancestors may have thousands of c 220BC was, for centuries, AD 713 Arguably the most
transported 82 huge mortared brick At nearly 9,000km the largest city in the It took thousands of complex device from
stones more than buildings, a street long – and, at points, Americas, and home workers more than the ancient world,
200km from the plan designed to a rising to almost 1km to the third-tallest 90 years to complete the Antikythera
Preseli Mountains of grid and sewage above sea level – it’s pyramid in the world, this, the largest Mechanism is
west Wales to this systems that wouldn’t little wonder that the the Pyramid of carved stone a mechanical
giant astrological be matched in many Great Wall of China the Sun. Buddhist in the ‘computer’ that
observatory. parts of Europe until is arguably the most world, standing tracks the cycles of
the 20th century. iconic of all man- some 71m tall. the solar system.
made constructions.
DID YOU
KNOW?
Ferdinand Magellan
Terra Nova expedition The search for the city of Z gave the Pacific Ocean
Led by: Robert Falcon Scott Led by: Percy Harrison Fawcett its name. ‘Mar pacifico’
Date: 1912 Date: 1925 means ‘peaceful sea’
Five members of Scott’s party reached the South British explorer Fawcett’s obsession with finding
Pole – 33 days after their Norwegian rivals led by El Dorado, the legendary ‘City of Gold’, was to
in Portuguese
Roald Amundsen became the first to do so – but prove his undoing. He disappeared without trace in
all perished on the return journey. the Brazilian jungle.
Mount Everest expedition

Led by: George Mallory and
‘Sandy’ Irvine
Date: 1924
Did Mallory and Irvine become the first men to
conquer Everest? We’ll probably never know for
sure – Mallory’s body was recovered in 1999,
but with no evidence to show whether he had
reached the summit.
Round-the-world flight
Flying to the North Pole Led by: Amelia Earhart
Led by: Salomon August Andrée Date: 1937
Date: 1897 The first woman to fly solo across the
Andrée’s mission to fly to the North Pole ended in Atlantic, intrepid aviator Earhart disappeared
tragedy when his hydrogen balloon was blown off somewhere over the Pacific Ocean during her
course. The Swedish engineer and two colleagues pioneering round-the-world flight. Her body has
died attempting to trek back to civilisation. never been found.
According to legend,
Nan Madol was built
by twin sorcerers
10 baffling
HISTORICAL
MYSTERIES
Nazca Lines
Where: Southern Peru
Created: 300BC–AD 600
Discovered: 1930s
These extraordinary ground markings depicting
animals and plants – some over 200m long – have
puzzled scientists for decades. Some have even
claimed they’re ancient runways for visiting aliens.
City of Nan Madol Roanoke colony abandonment

Where: Micronesia Where: Roanoke Island, North
Created: 12th–13th century AD Carolina, USA
Discovered: early 19th century Created: 1587
This once-great city – dubbed the ‘Venice of the An English colony was established on Roanoke
Pacific’ and constructed using 250 million tonnes of Island in 1587. Three years later, when John
huge basalt blocks on a coral reef – was made with- White returned with supplies, he found the colony
out machines. The question is: how? abandoned, its population having mysteriously
vanished.
Mary Celeste Phaistos disc

Where: Atlantic Ocean Where: Phaistos, Crete
Runways for aliens?
Discovered: December 1872 Created: Second millennium BC
The Nazca Lines of Peru When this brigantine was discovered drifting, Discovered: 1908
unmanned, in the Atlantic Ocean a great maritime Scientists have been trying (and failing) to
mystery was born. Did the crew abandon the ship decipher the code on this 15cm fired-clay disc
fearing an explosion, after smelling alcohol fumes? – discovered at the site of a Bronze Age Minoan
Piri Reis map palace – for over a century.
Where: Topkapı Palace,
Istanbul, Turkey
Created: 1513 Jack the Ripper murders Egyptian aeroplane
Discovered: 1929 Where: Whitechapel, London Where: Saqqara, Egypt
How did a 16th-century Turkish mariner map north- When: 1888 Created: c 2000BC
ern Antarctica – the continent wasn’t visited until The violent murders of several prostitutes in East Discovered: 1898
1818? Just one of the questions posed by Piri Reis’ London triggered one of the most famous who- Discovered in a tomb, this remarkably aerody-
remarkable cartography. dunnits in history as the police hunted the elusive namic model was designed by ancient Egyptians,
killer ‘Jack the Ripper’. 4,000 years before man could fly.
Chou Chou buckle Rongorongo writing

Where: China Where: Easter Island
Created: around AD 300 Created: late 18th century
Discovered: 1956 Inscriptions on stone and wooden tablets
Aluminium wasn’t isolated until the 19th century. So found on Easter Island are in a script
how was this girdle fastener – found in the grave of called rongorongo, a mix of ideographs
Chinese general Chou Chou – created 15 centuries and a kind of phonetic alphabet. But what
earlier and made from 85% aluminium? does it mean?
68 December 2014
history | history
the 10 The Vietnam War was both

lengthy and bloody
LONGEST WARS
01 04
Three Hundred Greco-
and Fifty Years’ Persian War
War Belligerents:
Belligerents: Isles of Greek city states,
Scilly, Netherlands Persian empire
1651–1986 499–449BC
This ‘conflict’ started The city states of
during the English Civil Greece overcame
War, when a Dutch fleet seemingly impossible
declared war on the odds in repelling a series
royalist Scilly Isles. A of invasions launched
peace treaty was finally by the full might of the
signed in 1986. Persian empire.
02 05 07 09 10
Arauco War Guatemalan Wars of Great Vietnam War
Belligerents: Civil War the Roses Northern War Belligerents:
Colonial Spanish, Belligerents: Belligerents: Belligerents: Swedish Communist and anti-
Mapuche people Guatemalan military, Houses of York and empire, a coalition led communist forces
1536–1820s leftish rebels Lancaster by Russia 1956–75
This clash between 1960–96 1455–85 1700–21 North Vietnam’s commu-
the indigenous people One of history’s longest England’s ruling Sweden’s stranglehold nist forces defeated their
of Chile and Spanish civil wars was sparked Plantagenet family on the areas around the southern neighbours and
colonists ended when dissidents rebelled tore itself apart in a Baltic Sea was smashed dealt the United States
in native victory against Guatemala’s au- bitter dynastic war by a coalition of na- a bloody nose in a Cold
when Chile won its tocratic regime in 1960. that ended with Rich- tions including Russia, War conflict that cost
independence in It ended with a peace ard III’s death at the Denmark-Norway and hundreds of thousands
the 1820s. treaty in 1996. Battle of Bosworth. Saxony-Poland. of lives.
03 06 08
Hundred Years’ Thirty Peloponnesian
War Years’ War War
Belligerents: Belligerents: Belligerents:
England, France, Protestants and Athens, Sparta
alamy x3, getty x2, thinkstock
Burgundy, Scotland Catholic nations C 431–404BC

1337–1453 across Europe Sparta became the
English attempts 1618–48 dominant force in
to seize the throne Millions died and huge the Greek world
of France were areas of central Europe after triumphing over
foiled in this long- were laid to waste when Athens in a series
running conflict that Europe’s Protestant of clashes on land
awakened French and Catholic states and sea.
nationalism. crossed swords.
INSPIRING YOUNG MINDS THROUGH KNOWLEDGE OLYMPIADS
Last year millions of students from 27,000

schools in 1,350+ cities and 16 countries
competed in the SOF Olympiads!
14TH SOF NATIONAL 17TH SOF NATIONAL 8TH SOF INTERNATIONAL 5TH SOF INTERNATIONAL
CYBER OLYMPIAD SCIENCE OLYMPIAD MATHEMATICS OLYMPIAD ENGLISH OLYMPIAD
SEP. 18 & OCT. 14 NOV. 12 & NOV. 25 DEC. 4 & DEC. 18 JAN. 20 & JAN. 29
Registrations must reach us by 30 days of chosen date of exam

Promotional Feature
AWARDS & RECOGNITIONS
Students attaining top ranks at school level, state level, and at international
level will be recognised.
INTERNATIONAL AWARDS - Class 1 - 12

SCHEDULE OF EXAMS: RANK AWARD NO. OF AWARDS
1 `50,000 each + Gold Medal* 47
EXAM DATE 1 DATE 2 + Gifts Worth `1,000 + Merit Certificate
17TH NSO Wednesday, Tuesday,
2 `25,000 each + Silver Medal* 47
12th Nov ‘14 25th Nov ‘14 + Gifts Worth `1,000 + Merit Certificate
8TH IMO Thursday, Thursday, 3 `10,000 each + Bronze Medal* 47
4th Dec ‘14 18th Dec ‘14 + Gifts Worth `1,000 + Merit Certificate
5TH IEO Tuesday, Thursday,

20th Jan ‘15 29th Jan ‘15 STATE AWARDS - Class 1-12
RANK AWARD NO. OF AWARDS
1 `5000 each + Gold Medal* 940
+ Gifts Worth `1,000 + Merit Certificate
SCHOLARSHIPS 2 `2,500 each + Silver Medal* 940

+ Gifts Worth `1,000 + Merit Certificate
Girl Child Scholarship Scheme (GCSS): 3 `1,000/ each + Bronze Medal* 940
`5,000 each scholarship to 300 girls will be provided. + Gifts Worth `1,000 + Merit Certificate
Scholarship for Excellence in English (SEE): 4-25 25 Gifts Worth `1,000 20,680
`5,000 each scholarship to 120 students will be provided. + Merit Certificate
(New) Academic Excellence Scholarship (AES):

`5,000 scholarship and trophies to 160 students for their all (new) STATE AWARDS – FOR LEVEL ONE WINNERS
round performance.
Class wise 
4th Teachers’ Training Camp (TTC):
Top ten rank holders from each of 20 states / zones, who qualify for the
100 teachers trained each year in the latest educational 2nd level exam will be awarded a Certificate of Merit and a gold medal
techniques by the experts at British Council.
each. This will be applicable for NCO, NSO, and IMO.
SCHOOL TOPPER AWARDS

AWARDS Medals will be awarded to toppers from each class as under:
 If 10 or more students from one class write an exam - gold, silver, and
 Total Awards worth `10 Crores bronze medals will be awarded to top three rank holders.
 If between five to nine students from a class write an exam - a gold
 Approx. 5,00,000 awards to winners. medal will be awarded to the topper.
 Participation Certificates will be awarded to every student and Merit
Certificates to all 2nd level qualifiers.
 Performance Analysis Report for each participating student will be provided.
For further information on SOF write in at Science Olympiad Foundation, Plot No. 99, Sector 44, Gurgaon, 122003, Haryana
• Landline No: 0124-4951200 • Mobile: 09312680855, 09312680857
• Visit us at www.sofworld.org or email info@sofworld.org
human planet
The world is shaped by us – our houses, our cities, our roads, and, most of all,
our sheer number. Here we’ve pulled together the facts and figures that demonstrate
the impact humans have made on Earth
72 December 2014
Human Planet | science
10 cOUNTRIES THAT
don’t officially exist
Republic of Somaliland Nagorno-Karabakh Republic
Where: Horn of Africa Where: Surrounded by Azerbaijan
Capital: Hargeisa Capital: Stepanakert
Declared independence from Somalia in 1991. Declared independence in 1991, though still claimed
Not recognised internationally. by Azerbaijan and not recognised by most nations,
except three that are also non-UN members.
Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic of Abkhazia

Republic (Trans-Dniester) Where: Black Sea coast between
Where: Between Moldova Georgia and Russia
and Ukraine Capital: Sukhumi
Capital: Tiraspol Declared independence from Georgia in 1999, and
Declared independence from Moldova in 1990; has subsequently been recognised by states
not recognised by most nations, except three including Russia, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Nauru,
that are also non-UN members. Tuvalu and three others themselves not recognised
by the UN.
Republic of China (Taiwan) Sahrawi Arab Democratic

Where: South China Sea Republic (Western Sahara)
Capital: Taipei Where: Between Morocco and
Effectively independent since the end of the Mauritania
Chinese civil war in 1949, Taiwan is recognised Capital: Laayoune
by only 21 UN members and the Holy See. Republic declared in 1976, but Western Sahara is
still claimed by Morocco, which still governs the
majority of its territory.
Turkish Republic of State of Palestine

Northern Cyprus Where: West Bank of Jordan
Where: Northern third of Cyprus and Gaza Strip
Capital: North Nicosia/Lefkosa Capital: Ramallah/East Jerusalem
Declared independence in 1983, following Declared independent by the Palestine
Turkish invasion of Cyprus. Recognised as Liberation Organization. Around two-thirds of UN
a state only by Turkey. member states have recognised Palestine.
Republic of Kosovo Republic of South Ossetia

Where: Balkans, between Serbia Where: North of Georgia
alamy x3, thinkstock
and Albania Capital: Tskhinvali

Capital: Pristina Declared independence from Georgia in 1991,
Declared independence from Serbia in 2008 following but recognised by only a few countries including
long-running conflict. Recognised by USA and many Russia, Nicaragua and some European nations,
Western European nations, but not by all UN members. but not all UN members.
the 10 tALLEST 02 03 04
SKYSCRAPERS Shanghai Tower

Shanghai, China
Height: 632m
Makkah Royal
Clock Tower Hotel
Mecca, Saudi
One World
Trade Center
New York City,
Date completed: 2014 Arabia USA
Height: 601m Height: 541.3m
Date completed: 2012 Date completed: 2013
Burj Khalifa
Dubai, United
01
05 06 07
Arab Emirates Taipei 101 Shanghai World International
Height: 828m Taipei, Taiwan Financial Center Commerce
Date completed: 2009 Height: 509m Shanghai, China Centre
Date completed: 2004 Height: 492m Hong Kong
Having been home to the world’s tallest free-standing Date completed: 2008 Height: 484m
structure for nearly 4,000 years (until the Great Pyramid at Date completed: 2010
Giza in Egypt was overtaken by Lincoln Cathedral in 1311), the
Middle East reclaimed the title when the Burj Khalifa tower
was opened in January 2010.
08 09 10
Petronas Tower 1 Petronas Zifeng Tower
900
Kuala Lumpur, Tower 2 Nanjing, China
Burj Khalifa
Malaysia Kuala Lumpur, Height: 450m
828m Height: 452m Malaysia Date completed: 2010
Date completed: 1998 Height: 452m
800 Date completed: 1998
700
Shanghai Makkah
Tower Royal Clock
632m Tower Hotel
601m
600 One World Shanghai
Trade Center World
541.3m Taipei International
Financial
101 Centre Commerce
509m 492m Centre
500 484m
400
300
200
photo: thinkstock
100
74 December 2014
The 10 mOST
POPULOUS
COUNTRIES
01 02
China India
Population: Population:
1,349,585,838 1,220,800,359
03 04
USA Indonesia
316,438,601 251,160,124
05 06
Brazil Pakistan
Burj Khalifa also boasts a record-
breaking number of floors – 163 201,009,622 193,238,868
Petronas
Tower 1 Zifeng
and 2 Tower
452m 450m
*NB: population figures estimated in July 2013. Source: CIA World Factbook
07 08
Nigeria Bangladesh
174,507,539 163,654,860
DID YOU
KNOW?
When it’s completed
in 2019, the Kingdom 09 10
Tower in Jeddah in
Saudi Arabia will Russia Japan
stand 1000 Population: Population:
142,500,482 127,253,075
metres tall
The Chernobyl disaster
rendered Pripyat a ghost town
10 cities left
ABANDONED Oradour-sur-Glane
Where: France
Abandoned: 1944
Kolmanskop
Where: Namibia
Abandoned: 1954
Craco
Where: Italy
Abandoned: 1963
A German Panzer division This mining town The instability of the hill
destroyed this town, killing was abandoned when its on which the town sat
642 inhabitants. diamond yield declined. caused a mass exodus
Pripyat during the 1960s.
Where: Ukraine Varosha Kayaköy Hashima

Abandoned: 1986 Where: Cyprus Where: Turkey Island
Abandoned: 1974 Abandoned: 1923 Where: Japan
Following the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, the This holiday playground of The non-Muslim Abandoned: 1974
entire population of around 50,000 residents were the rich was abandoned inhabitants of this town This mining area closed
evacuated – never to return. after the invasion were forced to relocate for business after the
by Turkey. after the Greco-Turkish War. seams were mined out.
DID YOU Humberstone

Where: Chile
Salton
Riviera
Plymouth
Where: Montserrat
KNOW? Abandoned: 1961
Abandoned after the
Where: California
Abandoned: 1970s
Abandoned: 1995
A volcanic eruption in
saltpeter-mining industry Local fish population died 1995 led to the evacuation
The world’s lowest-lying declined. Now a UNESCO out; so did local tourism. of two-thirds of the island.
capital city is Baku World Heritage Site.
in Azerbaijan, which
lies at 28m below
sea level
The 10 01 02 03 04
sMALLEST Vatican City Monaco Nauru Tuvalu

thinkstock x4, alamy
0.4km2 1.9km2 21km2 26km2
COUNTRIES
(by area)
76 December 2014
The 10 hIGHEST
CAPITAL CITIES
La Paz, the Bolivian capital, clings to the
lower slopes of the Andes
01 La Paz
Bolivia
3,640m
Sitting in a bowl with mountains on all sides, the Bolivian
capital is located in the valleys of the Andes. With a population
of 877,363, the city’s more affluent citizens tend to reside in
its lower-lying neighbourhoods, while poorer residents make
their homes at higher altitudes within the capital.
02 03 04
Quito Thimphu Bogotá
Ecuador Bhutan Colombia
2,850m 2,648m 2,625m
05 06 07
Addis Ababa Asmara Sana’a
Ethiopia Eritrea Yemen
2,355m 2,325m 2,250m
08 09 10
Mexico City Nairobi Kabul
Mexico Kenya Afghanistan
2,240m 1,795m 1,790m
05 06 07 08 09 10
San Marino Liechtenstein Marshall Islands Saint Kitts and Maldives Malta
61.2km2 160km2 181km2 Nevis 298km2 316km2
269km2
the 10 most densely
populated countries
Monaco
01 Area: 2.02km2
Population: 36,136 Density: 18,068 people/km2
Not only are its citizens the most tightly packed-in on the planet, the principality
also claims the highest gross domestic product per capita at $153,177 US. The
world’s second smallest country by area after the Vatican City, Monaco is modestly
increasing in size thanks to ongoing land reclamation projects.
Monaco is no place
for those who suffer
from claustrophobia
02 03 04
Singapore Vatican City Bahrain
Area: 716km2 Area: 0.44km2 Area: 757km2
Population: Population: 800 Population:
5,399,200 Density: 1,818 1,234,571
Density: 7,669 people/km2 Density: 1,631
people/km2 people/km2
05 06 07
Malta Maldives Bangladesh
Area: 315km2 Area: 298km2 Area: 1,47,570km2
Population: Population: Population:
4,16,055 3,17,280 1,52,518,015
Density: 1,321 Density: 1,065 Density: 1,034
people/km2 people/km2 people/km2
08 09 10
Palestine Taiwan Barbados
Area: 6,020km2 Area: 36,191km2 Area: 430km2
Population: Population: Population:
4,420,549 23,361,147 2,74,200
Density: 734 Density: 645 Density: 638
people/km2 people/km2 people/km2
thinkstock x3
78 December 2014
The 10 countries 01 02
most affected by Honduras

Climate Risk
Myanmar
Climate Risk
climate change Index: 10.17

Droughts and floods
hit food production.
Index: 11.83
Warmer temperatures
have led to huge
increases in the spread
of water-borne diseases.
Honduras 10.17
03 04
Myanmar 11.83
Haiti Nicaragua
Haiti 16.83
Climate Risk Climate Risk
Index: 16.83 Index: 17.17
Nicaragua 17.17 The number and power Two category-five
of hurricanes have storms in the past
Bangladesh 19.67 increased significantly 15 years claimed
in recent years. thousands of lives.
Vietnam 24.00
Philippines 31.17
Dominican Republic 31.33 05 06

Mongolia 31.33 Bangladesh Vietnam
Thailand 31.50 Index: 19.67 Index: 24.00
Frequent flooding of the Increases in flash
Ganges delta wipes out floods, landslides and
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35
crops, destroys homes other natural disasters
Climate Risk Index and spreads diseases. causing many deaths.
Floodwater causes
damage in Dhaka,
Bangladesh
07 08
Philippines Dominican
Climate Risk Republic
Index: 31.17 Climate Risk
Increasingly frequent, Index: 31.33
intense natural Flooding and erosion
disasters, especially are both causing major
*NB: figures based on German Watch Long-Term Climate Risk Index

floods,are claiming problems for this
thousands of lives. Caribbean country.
09 10
Mongolia Thailand
Index: 31.33 Index: 31.50
In the past 70 years, Crops have been
average temperatures increasingly
have increased by 2°C destroyed by floods.
andrainfall has decreased,
hitting the agricultural
sector particularly hard.
science
Research into the nuts and bolts of the universe makes for riveting reading –
from quarks and string theory to landmark breakthroughs (and mistakes),
eccentric experiments and dinosaur discoveries
123rf.com
80 December 2014
science | science
10 big BLUNDERS
& false claims
Mars mission malfunction
NASA spent $327 million launching the Mars Climate Orbiter, which reached the red planet on
23 September 1999 – only to be lost in the Martian atmosphere. A navigation malfunction in its navigation
systems was discovered to be the result of a basic error: the orbiter had been engineered using imperial
measurements, but was guided using technology that followed the metric system.
The universe Fire comes from The universe is Energy from

revolves phlogiston infinite cold fusion
around us In 1667, German Eminent – and In 1989, electrochemists
The influential (and alchemist Johann controversial – Stanley Pons and Martin
groundbreaking) Greco- Joachim Becher astrophysicist Fred Fleischmann announced
Roman mathematician proposed a theory of Hoyle posited a ‘steady that wwthey had
and geographer Ptolemy combustion claiming state’ theory, suggesting detected a nuclear
developed an astronomical the existence of terra that the universe has reaction at near room
model in which Earth pinguis, an element existed and will continue temperature – ‘cold
sat at the centre of the released when to exist forever. In 1949, fusion’, a holy grail for
cosmos. His geocentric flammable objects are Hoyle derisively coined the production of cheap
model went uncorrected ignited. The substance the phrase ‘big bang’ to and abundant supply of
until Copernicus proposed was later dubbed describe the alternative energy. Nobody has since
his heliocentric theory in phlogiston by Georg theory that he continued succeeded in reproducing
1543 – nearly 1,500 Ernst Stahl – and, of to deride till his death their results.
years later. course, does not exist. in 2001.
DNA is a Creation of Travel faster The The Earth

triple helix killer bees than light cosmological is young
American scientist Biologist Warwick Kerr In 2011 the established constant British scientist Sir
Linus Pauling was a began crossbreeding laws of physics Einstein, believing William Thomson, 1st
Nobel-winning chemist European and African appeared to have been that the universe was Baron Kelvin, is best
– but erred in 1953 bees near São Paulo broken when an Italian static, introduced a known for determining
when suggesting that in 1956, in an attempt lab claimed to have cosmological constant the value of the lowest
DNA has a triple helix to develop a species witnessed neutrinos to his general theory of possible temperature
structure. Later that more suited to Brazil’s travelling faster than relativity to explain how (absolute zero, or
year, Francis Watson tropical climate. The the speed of light. Not gravity was thwarted in –273.15°C. But he also
and James Crick resulting Africanised so. It transpired that preventing expansion. used the idea that the
discovered that DNA bees – aka killer bees, the GPS equipment When it was discovered Earth is gradually cooling
forms a double helix. aggressive and prone used to track the that the universe is to estimate its age. In
to swarming – escaped neutrinos hadn’t been expanding, he renounced 1897 he announced that
and spread northward hooked up properly. the constant, calling it his the Earth was 20–40
In 1999, NASA’s Mars
Climate Orbiter disintegrated as far as the USA. ‘greatest blunder’.almost million years old. We
in the Red Planet’s the speed of light. now know that it’s about
atmosphere – thanks to a
blunder in software units 4.5 billion years old.
10 BREAKTHROUGHS IN BIOLOGY
Cell division
Who: Robert Remak
When: 1855 By hardening the cell
membrane, Remak was able to
By staining a cell’s membrane, Remak was observe cell division
able to prove that new cells are formed by the
division of existing cells. He also surmised that
tumours grow and are spread in the same manner.
Cell biology
Who: Henri Dutrochet Osmosis Theory of evolution by natural selection
When: Early 19th century Who: Jean-Antoine Nollet Who: Charles Darwin and
The French physiologist pioneered the study of When: 1748 Alfred Russel Wallace
cells as the key units of function in life, and Nollet was the first person to document osmosis When: 1858
suggested that basic processes of life are similar – variations in the concentrations of dissolved Darwin and Wallace each independently conceived
across all organisms. substances causing movement of the solvent (for the theory that species develop through a process of
example, water) – a key process in biology that natural selection.
Homeostasis explains, for example, how plants take up water
Who: Claude Bernard from the soil. Biogenesis
When: 1854 Who: Louis Pasteur
Bernard stated that “all the vital mechanisms, Inheritance of acquired traits When: 1861
varied as they are, have only one object: that of Who: Jean-Baptiste Lamarck Pasteur showed that the growth of bacteria from
preserving constant the conditions of life.” This When: 1801 fermentation was a result of biogenesis – and
encapsulates the concept of homeostasis – the Lamarck proposed that characteristics acquired by extrapolated that all life originates from an organism
maintenance of a constant internal environment, an organism can be passed on to offspring. Long similar to itself, rather than non-living material, as was
key to most forms of life. considered inaccurate, modern ideas of epigenetics earlier believed.
endorse a form of this type of inheritance may occur.
Genetic inheritance Chromosomes
Who: Gregor Mendel Food chain Who: Theodor Boveri and Walter Sutton
When: 1865 Who: Al-Jahiz When: 1902
By studying pea plants, Mendel discovered that When: 9th century AD The independent work of these two biologists led to
inheritance of many traits, such as height, could be The idea that all organisms are dependent on others, the conclusion that pairs of chromosomes, found in all
explained through simple rules – resulting in the together forming a vast web encompassing all dividing cells, carry the information by which genetic
concept of dominant and recessive genes. species, was proposed by the Arabic writer Al-Jahiz. traits are inherited.
10 GAME-HANGING Megalosaurus
Discovered: 1676
FOSSIL FINDS Where: Oxfordshire

Lived: Jurassic (201–145 million years ago)
A fossilised femur from this carnivore (left) was
discovered in 1676, but it was nearly 150 years later that
William Buckland and colleagues named the ‘huge lizard’
– and recognised it as the first-known dinosaur.
alamy, thinktock, press association
Iguanodon
Mosasaurus Discovered: c1821
Marine fossils Discovered: 1764 Where: Sussex
Discovered: 6th century BC Where: Maastricht, Netherlands Lived: Early Cretaceous (around 125 million
Where: Greece Lived: Cretaceous (around 70–65 years ago)
Lived: various periods million years ago) One of three genera included in the original classification
The Greek philosopher Xenophanes reasoned This aquatic reptile was the first to be identified as of dinosauria, the first fossils of this 10m-long herbivore –
that the fossils of marine creatures found on an extinct species, by Georges Cuvier, and the first discovered in the early 1820s by Gideon Mantell – fuelled
land were evidence of sea covering the earth in genus of such an animal to be named, in 1822 by a fiery debate about evolution and whether prehistoric
previous eras. William Conybeare. reptiles had actually existed.
82 December 2014
science | science
10 sCIENTISTS WHO
EXPERIMENTED ON THEMSELVES
Max Joseph von Pettenkofer John Scott Haldane
1818–1901 1860–1936
In 1992, this Bavarian hygienist drank the This Scottish physiologist repeatedly used
diarrhoea of a cholera-stricken man in an attempt himself as a guinea pig, testing the effects of
to demonstrate that the microbes became breathing various mixes of air and gases. His son
harmful only after incubating in the ground. He Jack was also often involved.
discovered that he was wrong.
William J Harrington Pierre Curie

1923–92 1859–1906
To observe the effects of radium on skin, the
The American researcher in autoimmune
French scientist strapped a piece to his arm; the
disorders transfused blood from a patient with
resulting burn prompted the idea that radioactive
idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura into himself,
material could be used to treat diseased tissue
showing that the condition causes the body to
such as tumours.
destroy blood platelets.
Horace Wells Barry Marshall

1815–48 Nicolae Minovici 1951–present
An American dentist in Connecticut, Wells
1868–1941 The Australian doctor drank a culture of the
To better understand the experience and effects
pioneered the use of nitrous oxide (laughing microbe Helicobacter pylori to prove that the
of hanging, this Romanian forensic scientist
gas) in dentistry by having one of his own teeth bacterium, not stress or spicy food, is responsible
hanged himself on several occasions – with
extracted while under anaesthesia. for causing stomach ulcers.
assistants on hand to release him.
John Paul Stapp Lazzaro Spallanzani
1910–99 Werner Forssmann
1904–79 1729–99
The American researcher made a huge
The procedure for cardiac catheterisation was This Italian priest swallowed various items,
contribution to air-crash safety by testing the
developed by this German doctor in 1929, when including bones contained in small cloth bags or
effects of rapid deceleration on the human body,
he threaded a thin rubber tube through a vein in perforated wooden tubes, to test how stomach
strapping himself to a rocket sled braking rapidly
his left arm and into his heart. secretions help digest food.
from up to 1,000km/h.
Archaeopteryx Thrinaxodon Tiktaalik

Discovered: around 1861 Discovered: named 1894 Discovered: 2004
Where: Solnhofen, Where: South Africa Where: Ellesmere Island, Canada
Germany Lived: Early Triassic (250–245 Lived: Late Devonian (around 375
Lived: Late Jurassic million years ago) million years ago)
(around 150 million years ago) This low-slung, burrowing carnivore had dog-like Many features of this lobe-finned fish are similar to
The ‘first bird’ was a transitional species linking teeth and may have sported fur. It’s considered to those of four-legged animals – this creature and
feathered dinosaurs with modern birds – have been a precursor of modern mammals. its relatives may have been the ancestors of most
and its status in this transition is still steeped modern terrestrial animals.
in controversy.
Diplodocus Ambulocetus Amphistium

Discovered: 1877 Discovered: 1993 Discovered: 18th century
Where: Colorado, USA Where: Pakistan Where: Northern Italy
Lived: Late Jurassic (155–145 Lived: Early Eocene (50–48 million Lived: 50 million years ago
million years ago) years ago) This transitional genus of flatfish had one eye
This monstrous herbivore, stretching to 33m in In form a little like a mammalian crocodile, on top of its head. As researcher Matt Friedman
length, was the first near-complete fossil of a Ambulocetus was adapted for both aquatic and realised in 2008, it was probably the ancestor of
giant sauropod to be discovered. terrestrial life – it could swim as well as walk – modern fish such as flounder, halibut and sole,
and was probably a forerunner of modern whales. which have both eyes on one side of the head.
science | science
10 BREAKTHROUGHS IN GEOLOGY
The Earth’s core
Deep time Continental drift Who: Richard Dixon Oldham
Who: Aristotle Who: Abraham Ortelius When: 1906
When: 4th century BC When: 1596 Oldham analysed the speed at which earthquake
The Greek philosopher recognised that the Earth Though Alfred Wegener is credited with the waves travel through the Earth, and noticed that
changes at an indiscernably slow rate, writing: idea of continental drift – land splitting from an the speed drops markedly towards the centre
“the distribution of land and sea in particular ancient single mass, a hypothesis he presented – thence deducing the existence of a core of a
regions does not endure throughout all time” – a in 1912 – over three centuries earlier the Flemish different density.
concept dubbed ‘deep time’. geographer Ortelius had suggested that the
Americas had once been connected to Europe
and Asia.
Stratification of the Earth’s crust

Who: Abraham Werner The edge of the
When: 1774 Earth’s core sits
at about 2,900km
As the creationist views of early geologists beneath the surface.
softened, German geologist Werner proposed a
system of classification of rocks and divided them
into five chronological formations.
Geomorphology
Who: Shen Kuo
When: 11th century AD
Chinese scientist Shen Kuo (AD 1031–95) made
observations of marine fossil shells in mountains
far from the ocean, and proposed that the rocks
were once on a seashore. He theorised that
land formed from uplift and silt deposits, and is
gradually eroded.
10 CRUCIAL Falling objects

of different
Everything
is composed of
Atoms are
composed
Every event has
a natural cause
PHYSICS sizes
accelerate at
atoms
Who: Leucippus
of smaller
particles
Who: Thales
When: c 580BC
THEORIES the same rate

Who: Galileo
Galilei
and Democritus
When: 5th
century BC
Who: Joseph John
Thomson
When: 1897
Greek philosopher
Thales attempted
to explain natural
When: 1589 Atomism proposes By demonstrating phenomena without
To disprove Aristotle’s that everything that cathode rays are reference to
theory of gravity, is composed of composed of negatively mythology. He was
thinkstock x6
Galileo dropped two an infinite variety charged particles, among the first to try
balls of different of indestructible, Thomson effectively found to identify a substance
weights from the immutable ‘atoms’ the electron – the first of from which all things
top of Italy’s Leaning that collide or link up the subatomic particles to are composed (water,
Tower of Pisa. to form clusters. be discovered. he thought).
84 December 2014
Paleomagnetism
Who: Stanley Keith Runcorn
When: 1940s and 1950s
The British geophysicist Runcorn established
the study of residual magnetisation in ancient
rocks. His work demonstrated reversals of
Earth’s magnetic field, and provided evidence for
The strata of continental drift.
sandstone can
be clearly seen
at Antelope
Canyon, Arizona Accurate age of the Earth
Who: Clair Cameron Patterson
When: 1953
Geological strata The American geochemist used lead isotopic
Who: Ibn Sina (Avicenna) data from the Canyon Diablo meteorite to
When: c AD 1027 calculate the Earth’s age to within 70 million
In his Book of Healing, the great Persian years. His figure, 4.55 billion years, has remained
polymath Ibn Sina described the process by essentially unchallenged since.
which layers of rocks of different hardness –
geological strata – are overlaid and eroded
at varying rates.
DID YOU Plate tectonics

Fossils identifying strata
Who: William Smith KNOW? Who: John Tuzo Wilson
When: 1965
When: c 1799 At Silfra in Iceland (pictured The concepts involved in explaining Wegener’s
Known as the ‘Father of English Geology’, Smith’s theory of continental drift had been developed
studies of the rock layers of England led him to
right) you can snorkel and refined with the discovery of mid-ocean ridge
propose the Theory of Faunal Succession, stating
between the European spreading and the study of paleomagnetism, but
that fossils of the same age would be found in and North American Tuzo Wilson added the final elements to complete
similar rock strata across the country. continental plates the picture of massive moving plates.
Buoyant Atoms of an Energy can’t be Objects move Mass has an Hadrons are
force equals element are created or de- at a constant associated composed
displaced fluid identical in size stroyed velocity unless energy of quarks
weight and mass Who: Julius von acted on by Who: Albert Who: Murray
Who: Who: John Mayer external force Einstein Gell-Mann and
Archimedes Dalton When: 1842 Who: Isaac When: 1905 George Zweig
When: c 250BC When: 1803 German scientist Newton Arising from his theory When: 1964
Archimedes’ principle Our modern concept Julius von Mayer When: 1687 of special relativity, Hadrons (subatomic
states that: “Any object, of atoms is based on established the law Newton’s three laws Einstein’s most famous particles including
wholly or partially a lecture in which of the conservation of of motion, including equation (e=mc2: neutrons and protons
immersed in a fluid, is Dalton proposed that energy within a closed this first law, form energy equals mass that comprise atoms)
buoyed up by a force matter is made of system (though it can the foundation of times speed of light are themselves
equal to the weight of indestructible atoms, be converted between classical mechanics squared) shows that composed of smaller
the fluid displaced by and that all atoms of different types – for as we now the mass of an object particles called
the object.” the same element example, between understand it. is a measure of its quarks.
are identical. heat and kinetic). energy.
science | science
The 10 mOST EXPENSIVE EXPERIMENTS
$150 $20.6
billion billion
$8
billion
$6.65 billion
01 02 03 04
International International James International
Space Station Thermo- Webb Space Linear Collider
(£92 billion) nuclear Telescope (£4.1 billion)
Weighing nearly 420 Experimental (£4.9 billion) A planned particle
tonnes and floating Reactor Scheduled to launch accelerator even
370km above the (£12.3 billion) in 2018, this bigger than the Large
Earth, the ISS has In 2010 construction telescope – a NASA Hadron Collider, the
been continuously began in France project with input ILC will use a straight
occupied by on what will become from the European path rather than a
astronauts from the world’s largest and Canadian Space circular one to
various countries tokamak fusion Agencies – will measure particle
since the first device – investigate how collisions more
crew docked on a magnetically galaxies form by accurately. Sites in
2 November 2000. confined core in peering out to the Europe, the USA and
which fuel will farthest reaches Japan are currently
be heated to of space. being considered,
temperatures greater with construction due
than 150,000,000°C. to begin by 2016.
$3.26 billion
$3.1billion
$2.7billion
$2.5
billion
07
06 08 09
Envisat
Cassini- (£1.9 billion) Human Genome Curiosity Rover
Huygens Launched aboard an Project (£1.5 billion)
cern, esa, getty x2, press association
Spacecraft Ariane 5 rocket from the (£1.65 billion) This car-sized robotic
(£2 billion) European Space Work to map the rover was designed
Launched in 1997, Agency’s facility in entire human to investigate
the Cassini orbiter French Guiana in 2002, genome began in whether life could
entered Saturn’s orbit Envisat spent 10 years 1990; it had a budget ever have existed on
in 2004, at which in orbit monitoring signs of $3 billion and was Mars. Its original
point the Huygens of environmental impact expected to take 15 two-year mission
lander probe and climate change on years – but was was extended
separated to Earth’s atmosphere, completed two years indefinitely at the end
investigate the ringed oceans, land and ice. early and under of 2012, and it
planet’s largest Ground control lost budget. continues to explore
moon, Titan. contact with the the Gale crater.
satellite in 2012.
86 December 2014
It’s hoped the
International Linear
Collider will help
explore the ‘Terascale’
the 10 BIGGEST
BANGS ON EARTH
$6.4billion Chicxulub Impact
Seattle Kingdome Demolition When: 65 million years ago
When: 26 March 2000 The Chicxulub crater in Mexico, a staggering
Holding up to 66,000 sports fans in its 19.821 180km wide, was created when a 10km-wide
05 million m3 capacity, this stadium became the meteorite crashed into Earth. The impact is
largest building to be demolished by explosives believed to have been a major contributing
Large Hadron when it was destroyed in 2000. factor in the extinction of the dinosaurs.
Collider
(£3.84 billion)
The 20 member
states of CERN Heligoland explosion Mt Toba
(Conseil Européen When: 18 April 1947 When: 75,000 years ago
pour la Recherche The Royal Navy tried – and failed – to blow up a When the supervolcano Mt Toba erupted, it
Nucléaire – the whole North Sea island and the huge German launched at least 2,800km3 of magma and ash
European Council for naval base it carried by detonating around 4,000 into the atmosphere, causing a six-year volcanic
Nuclear Research) tonnes of explosives, one of the world’s biggest- winter and possibly kick-starting an ice age. The
picked up most of the ever single detonations. Despite that, the island resulting crater holds the world’s largest
cost of the 27km- remained intact. volcanic lake.
circumference tunnel
and equipment, with
significant
contributions coming
from an additional six Mont Blanc MOAB
observer nations. When: 6 December 1917 When: 11 March 2003
This French ship was carrying over 2,400 tonnes The USA claims that its Massive Ordnance Air Burst
of explosives when it collided with another vessel (MOAB) device, containing 9 tonnes of explosive
off the coast of Nova Scotia, Canada. The Mont material, is the biggest non-nuclear bomb in the
Blanc was approaching Halifax when the resulting world. The first test detonation occurred in 2003; it is
fire caused a massive explosion, levelling 2.5km2 yet to be used in combat, but could destroy tanks and
$2
billion
of the town and shattering windows 100km away. buildings within a radius of several hundred metres.
Nedelin Catastrophe AN602 ‘Tsar Bomba’

10 When: 24 October 1960 When: 30 October 1961
A Russian R-16 intercontinental ballistic missile This Russian 58-megatonne nuclear weapon,
Super- was being tested when it burst into flames on the most powerful ever detonated, was tested
conducting its launchpad at the Baikonur test range – over the Arctic. It exploded with more than 4,800
Super igniting its tanks that were filled with a toxic times the energy of the atomic bomb dropped
Collider fuel mixture called Devil’s Venom, and creating a on Hiroshima; the shockwaves travelled around
(£1.2 billion) fireball that killed dozens of people. the world three times.
Construction on a
particle accelerator
with an 87km-
circumference ring in Buncefield Complex Universe I, Part II
Texas was halted in When: 11 December 2005 When: 15 July 1988
1983 – but not until The explosion caused when the first of 20 tanks The world’s largest firecracker burst over Hokkaido,
after nearly half of in Britain’s fifth-largest oil storage depot blew Japan during the 1988 Lake Toya Firework Festival.
the $4.4bn budget up was heard 200km away. The 700kg shell was moved into position on a
had been spent. The British Geological Survey measured floating platform before being ignited, creating a
the event at 2.4 on the Richter Scale. five-colour pyrotechnic display 1.2km across.
in focus
The Indian Space Research Organisation
ISRO “We are really not racing

with anyone, but with
ourselves to reach the
next level of excellence.” -
K Radhakrishnan, ISRO Chairman
Legacy
In 1962, a concentrated joint effort by India’s
then leading scientists Dr Vikram Sarabhai
and Dr Homi Bhabha with the Government of
India led to the creation of the Indian National
Committee for Space Research (INCOSPAR) with
a goal of furthering space research in India. The
committee set up the Thumba Equatorial Rocket
Launching Station (TERLS) in Kerala in 1963 as a
station to launch sounding rockets and launched
its first rocket in November of the same year.
TERLS then developed infrastructure for rockets
and indigenously developed the successful Rohini This is an image taken by the Mars
Sounding Rocket (RSR) programme in 1967. The
ISRO/NASA/JPL-Caltech/USGS/Brown Univ, mars image - ISRO
Color Camera. The dark region

combined success of these programmes and towards south of the cloud formation
projects led to the formation of The Indian Space ISRO’s lunar probe Chandrayaan 1 is credited with the discovery of is Elysium - the second largest
Research Organisation (ISRO), India’s primary water molecules on the surface on the moon. volcanic province on Mars.
space agency on 15th August 1969.
Since its foundation 45 years ago, ISRO has
set landmarks in the field of space exploration.
In 2008-09, the Indian Space and Research
Organisation successfully launched a lunar
Did you know
orbiter, Chandrayaan-1, which discovered • Chandrayaan 2 is to be launched in early 2017. It is India’s second lunar explorer and
evidence of water on the moon. India’s first includes a lunar orbiter, a lander and a lunar rover.
interplanetary mission, the Mars Orbiter Mission
• Astrosat will be launched in early 2015 and is a dedicated astronomy satellite, which will
successfully entered planet Mars’ atmosphere on
further the field of astronomy research in India. Described as a multi wave laboratory in
24 September 2014 on its maiden attempt. The
space it is equipped with ultra-violet, visible and x-ray instruments.
mission was executed in 15 months at a cost of
Rs 450 crore ($74 million) and will gather images, • ISRO at present is preparing for its launch of a crew module, which will be launched by
atmosphere analysis of the planet. Since 30 July the GSLV Mk-III in December 2014. This is in preparation for India’s future manned space
2014, ISRO has had 8 successful missions. mission by 2016-17.
88 December 2014

BBC Knowledge 201412

Hochgeladen von

Dokumentinformationen

Originaltitel

Copyright

Verfügbare Formate

Dieses Dokument teilen

Dokument teilen oder einbetten

Freigabeoptionen

Stufen Sie dieses Dokument als nützlich ein?

Sind diese Inhalte unangemessen?

Copyright:

Verfügbare Formate

BBC Knowledge 201412

Hochgeladen von

Copyright:

Verfügbare Formate

4th Anniversary Special

A Times of India publication Volume 5 Issue 1

SCIENCE • HISTORY • NATURE • FOR THE CURIOUS MIND

4th Anniversary Special

SCIENCE • HISTORY • NATURE • FOR THE CURIOUS MIND

TOPLED Animal Kingdom

Our panel of experts answer the questions you’ve

The Earth History

Technology Human Planet

magazine. We regret that we cannot always reply personally to letters.

Download this current issue from

Chief Financial Officer Subramaniam S.

Sales Director Ad Sales and Business Development Jyoti Verma jyoti.verma@wwm.co.in

West Business Head Gautam Chopra gautam.chopra@wwm.co.in

Post Editorial, advertising and subscription enquiries

Can consciousness be switched on and off? p7 Why is the hole

This rattlesnake can

Even without visible light, pit pattern of echoes from their

some visible light as well, so it’s even in total darkness or when

2. Liver: 1,560g switched on and off?

6. Kidneys: 260g (pair)

7. Spleen: 175g Combustion is simply a type of chemical

10. Prostate gland: 11g

Birds of prey use a technique and can even hover briefly in

Which part of the brain Why is the hole in the ozone

Asso Romulus Whitaker Dr C G Geetha

Human bone principally

Stomach Gallstones can be

Solresol Slovianski Sambahsa-

Universalglot Volapük Occidental

the 10 MOST 10 KEY BREAKTHROUGHS

CLIMBING DOWN USING YOUR HEAD HANDY WITH TOOLS

07 Bengali WIELDING STONE WHAT’S FOR DINNER PLAYING WITH FIRE

million years or more before

Longest time Longest nose Longest tongue

Longest tooth Longest Largest hands Smallest waist

Martin Strel swam

* Source: Guinness World Records.

LANGUAGES California, by 2011 it was

01 Dung beetle 06 Tiger

02 Hercules beetle 07 Asian elephant

04 Eastern gorilla 09 Green anaconda

05 Crowned hawk-eagle 10 Brown bear

Greater flamingo during spawning. traumatic insemination. mating ritual.

Phoenicopterus roseus Snails & slugs Praying mantis Wasp spider

02 Asian cobra 07 Great white shark

VERTEBRATES Koi fish

thinkstock x3, muhammad mahdi karim cc

Giant tortoises live to

Skin-boiling Head-splitting Sex-change Vampire fish Mind-control Crab-

Marine reptile Land mammal Bird Land herbivore Fish

Insect Land reptile Marine mammal Flying mammal

145km/h 34.9km/h brasiliensis

African elephant Saltwater crocodile Green anaconda Argentinosaurus Ostrich

Largest fish Largest amphibian Largest carnivore

* Terms and conditions apply. Dates subject to change.

Who can participate: and gift hampers

To participate, speak to your teacher co-ordinator or

First woman First First death First First space

Valentina Alexey Leonov Vladimir Neil Armstrong Dennis Tito

Mir Space Station Mir Space Station Mission: Mission:

Ganymede Titan Callisto Io Moon Europa Triton Titania Rhea Oberon

fundamental Cosmological Principle.