1. GET UNDER
SOME SKY
CUPID’S LITTLE SECRET
PRINT YOUR OWN PIZZA
PLAYING MIND GAMES WITH COCKROACHES
WHY YOU
SHOULD DO
IT OUTDOORS
• FEBRUARY/MARCH 2014ISSUE 16
I S S N 2 0 4 8 - 2 5 9 0
PLUS...
#SCIENCE#FOOD#TECHNOLOGY#ART#POLITICS#MIND#MEDIA#HEALTH#SCEPTICISM
I S S N 2 0 4 8 - 2 5 9 0
2.
3. THE GURU TEAM
Stuart Farrimond Editor / Science Guru
realdoctorstu.com @realdoctorstu
Jon Crowe Deputy Editor/ Molecular Guru
@crowe_jon
Ross Harper Deputy Editor / Complexity Guru
@refharper
Ian Wildsmith Design Guru
ian@gurumagazine.org
FEATURED IN THIS ISSUE
Autumn Sartain Nature Guru
autumnsartain.com
Natasha Agabalyan Food Guru
thescienceinformant.com @SciencInformant
Jessamy Baudains
jessamybaudains.wordpress.com @JessamyBaudains
Janske Nel
Simon Makin News Guru
simonmakin.me.uk @SimonMakin
James Crewdson @JamesCrewdson1
Dennis He
David Smith
protistlab.com
Kim Lacey Mind Guru
kimberlylacey.com @kimlacey
Isabel Hutchison
Shambralyn Baker @sevvy09
Spencer Manwell
Matt Linsdell Fitness Guru
@smartfitmatt
(texture #103) Flickr • Asja.
4. CONTENTS
#ARRIVALS LOUNGE Page 6
#NATURE Page 7
BORN TO BE WILD
“Stop being such a couch potato and go outside!”
is how we would say it. Autumn Sartain, Nature
Guru, puts it far more diplomatically. On page 7,
she gives so many reasons to get outdoors that
you’ll be drop-kicking your TV into the back yard.
#FOOD Page 12
MAKE MINE A PEPPERONI!
Stardust, stardust everywhere and not a bite to
eat… One of the greatest challenges facing NASA
today is how to deliver takeout food to astronauts.
Fret not, though, because the world’s brightest
minds have a cunning plan for preparing fresh,
in-flight pizza. Food Guru, Natasha Agabalyan,
invites you to pick your toppings on page 12.
#HEALTH Page 15
STRETCH IT, BABY!
Stretching, meditation and aligning yourself with
the universe. Don’t worry, Jessamy Baudains
agrees it all sounds a bit whacky. She dares to
contort herself into the shape of an inverted
tortoise for the sake of ‘research’. Find out how it
went on page 15.
#BIOLOGY Page 19
A KILLER CURE
If a swarm of killer bees decides to attack you,
run. Keep running and don’t stop. These nasty
blighters can sting a man to death. Ironically, their
venom could also help save millions by helping
to rid the world of HIV. Guest writer Janske Nel
explains how on page 19.
#ENVIRONMENT Page 25
NATURE’S MEDICINE CABINET
We last saw James Crewdson in the woods
hugging trees and saying “Yeah man, nature’s
got, like, all the healing power you need, dude!”
Perhaps he’s become a bit carried away with his
search to discover nature’s hidden medicines.
Join his expedition on page 25.
#NEWS Page 22
Super-brain Ross Harper writes about something
to do with water-cleaning carbon nanotubes and
Simon Makin covers a story about the weird things
that happen when you exercise. It’s the news you
almost certainly missed. Page 22 is where you
want to be.
If you see a link or web address anywhere in Guru, it’s probably clickable!
Where you see the at the end of an article, use it to click back to this contents page.
5. #RANDOM IMAGE Page 50
#DEPARTURE LOUNGE Page 51
#ASK A GURU Page 40
Our regular Ask a Guru feature on page 40 rounds
up some of our favourite questions from the last
two months. Find out why some men can breast
feed and why you really shouldn’t pull the legs off
spiders (as if you would).
#PHYSICS Page 44
HAS THE WORLD GONE BANANAS?
Lead-lined helmet? Check. Face mask? Check.
Foil-lined white body suit? Check. Fukushima has
put many of us on red alert for radiation. On page
44, Spencer Manwell offers some more “practical
tips” for keeping yourself safe. Just go easy on
the bananas.
#FITNESS Page 47
DOING IT OUTSIDE
The world’s wittiest ‘evidence-based’ personal
trainer, Matt Linsdell, shares a touching account of
how he overcame his childhood agoraphobia. We
now have a hard time keeping him still. Training
tips and more from our Fitness Guru – just get
your butt to over page 47.
#MEDICINE Page 29
CROWDSOURCING A CURE FOR CANCER
Go on, admit it. You love playing Angry Birds while
sitting on the toilet. Get prepared to use your idle
time for something nobler: curing cancer. Clicking
on some multi-coloured balls could help save
lives. Tap to page 29 to find out how.
#TECHNOLOGY Page 33
REMOTE CONTROL FOR BRAINS
Attach electrodes to a cockroach’s antennae, glue
a circuit board on its back and what do you get?
A lot of very unhappy animal rights activists? Yep.
And you also get the world’s first commercially-
available insect cyborg. Designed for kids. Mind
Guru, Kim Lacey, finds out more on page 33.
#LIFE Page 36
HOT OR NOT?
Before the ‘Hot or Not’ website, there was Miss
World. Before that, there were Divine Beauty
Contests. It seems men and women have always
enjoyed ogling each other. Dr Stu discovers what
it takes to have that special ‘X factor’ on page 36.
8. Modern living can seem a bit odd
sometimes. Lots of us take a car to
work, spend our day inside, drive
home, then unwind in front of a TV.
But Nature Guru, Autumn Sartain,
tells us that by staying indoors we
are missing out. Let her reveal how
nature can change you for good…
Human beings – you and I – come from a
long line of ancestors who bred, survived and
flourished on this planet, Earth. It’s a pretty
obvious thing to say, but just think about it for
a minute: for over two million years, humans
have been influenced by the plants, animals and
surroundings of this world. Those two million
years have shaped us to become what we are
today. That’s a long time – and I bet you can’t
imagine the number of people that represents.
I know I can’t.
Being so utterly shaped by the natural world,
it’s interesting to me that so many of us now
spend so little time outside. According to
a 2010 Report on American Consumers
published by the University of California, San
Diego, Americans spend an average of 12 hours
a day absorbing information, most of which is
from electronic sources such as television and
the Internet, but also texting, listening to music
and playing games. We are now spending 25%
less time pursuing nature-based recreations
such as camping and visiting national parks
than we did in 1987. It’s our increasing preoc-
cupation with entertainment media that is a
primary cause for this change. Fear is also one
of the main factors making parents happier
if their children play indoors. But whether it’s
entertainment or fear (or both), the results
aren’t pretty: a study of British schoolchildren
showed they were much better at identifying
Pokémon characters than common animals like
rabbits and beetles.
It is only now that science is finally catching up
with what we all know on some gut level – that
being outside is good for us. What is perhaps
unexpected from this new wave of research is
how being in nature influences our physical
bodies and our brains. For example, showing
people nature scenes, as opposed to city scenes,
makes them more giving to others and less
concerned with selfish goals. Road rage can be
reduced by the amount of vegetation visible
along a highway. Outdoor classrooms improve
mathematics and science scores. Views of
vegetation have also been linked to lower anger
levels, less impulsive behavior, and shorter
hospital stays.
BORN TO BE WILD
GUR U • ISSUE 1 6 • F EBR UA RY /MA R CH 2014 • PAGE 8
(watchingTVoutside)Flickr•mollybob
9. Impressively, just a twenty-minute walk in
nature improves attention scores for children
diagnosed with ADHD (Attention Deficient
Hyperactivity Disorder). Remarkably, one
research study found that behavioural improve-
ments were comparable with what top-selling
ADHD drugs claim to provide.
Shining a light on happiness
As you may or may not know, serotonin is a
chemical in our brains that helps us feel happy
(with drugs such as Prozac artificially elevating
the levels of this chemical our bodies release). In
2002, researchers in Australia discovered that
serotonin production is directly related to the
amount of sunlight in a day. The blue light of
the sky is our particular favourite: exposure to
this hue (with a wavelength of about 470 nm)
helps to relieve depression and the ‘winter
blues’ (seasonal affective disorder). Winter
brings the lowest level of this happy blue light
and so it’s even more important to spend
time outdoors during those short days. If you
happen to live at latitudes where you literally
get no light in the winter, or not enough, then
you are at a higher risk of depression.
Thankfully, therapeutic light ‘boxes’ can
help: light therapy has been shown to reduce
depression, anxiety and even eating disorders.
Light is particularly important in the morning,
so consider celebrating the morning by going
outside – the sunlight should help you think,
feel more alert and happy, lower your anxiety
and even help your sleep (later on, of course).
The same principles can apply even when you
can’t get outside: one set of researchers craftily
changed the lights on two different floors in
an office building and assessed how the office
workers felt. For four weeks, one floor had only
white light, and the other had blue-enriched
white light. The results were pretty amazing.
With the blue-enriched light, employees were in
a better mood, performed better at their jobs,
felt more alert, and were less irritable and tired
than the other group.
Naturallightisbecomingincreasinglyimportant
as we all are spending more and more time
indoors. One problem with looking at our
computers all day, instead of being outside, is
that our body can become confused about when
to be alert and when to sleep. We each have a
circadian rhythm – an internal body clock – that
controls when we wake and when we sleep. A
hormone called melatonin becomes active when
it’s dark, getting our body and mind ready for
sleep. If we spend our day in office cubicles then
we deprive ourselves of the benefits of natural
light. And then, at night, when we fill our eyes
with light from super-bright TV screens, our
melatonin is suppressed – really messing with
our sleep. But more than this, a disturbed
sleep-wake cycle can contribute to depression,
immune problems, obesity, attention deficit
disorder and more.
BORN TO BE WILD
PAGE 9 • FEBRUARY/ M ARCH 2014 • IS S UE 16 • GUR U
(TangledUpInBlue)Flickr•Pewari
10. Making sense of the scents
When you walk into a forest, you have to admit
that it smells nice. Sometimes you probably
even take a deep breath, smile, and say “ahhh!”
(That can’t just be me, right?) Appreciating a
pleasant smell is a nice little side effect of being
outdoors, but there’s a lot more to scents than
just that.
It turns out that our noses are portals to our
brains (even though they may seem so useless
compared to, say, a dog’s nose). Tiny airborne
substances, or vapors, get into our nostrils,
enter our brains and then circulate throughout
our body. You don’t even have to be able to
‘smell’ them in the traditional sense. Plants give
off tiny plant aromatic particles called ‘phyton-
cides’ that can have varying effects, depending
on which ones you come into contact with.
Trees, for example, give off phytoncides that
can promote immune function, lower stress
hormones and induce relaxation. What’s
even more amazing is that the positive effects
don’t wear off right away. One publishedstudy
demonstrated that after a weekend walking in
the woods, the changes are still measurable a
month later.
And the benefits aren’t limited to trees. While
aromatherapists have been criticised for
overstatingtheirclaims,thereisnevertheless
evidence to show that other plant oil vapors can
influence body and mind – even increasing our
happy friend, serotonin. Rosemary may well
serve as an aid to memory, while lavender has
the opposite effect on memory and attention
but is great for relaxation. Experiments have
also shown that peppermint boosts physical
and mental performance in certain situations
and has been shown to lower anxiety for those
driving for extended periods of time.
Plants not only give off soothing vapors, they
also help clean up the air we breathe at work
and home. The analysis of indoor air has
shown some scary things: office air frequently
contains pollutants at levels beyond what
experts deem healthy. Such airborne contami-
nants include sulphur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide,
carbon dioxide and so-called ‘volatile organic
compounds’. Our computers are a major source
of indoor air pollution, giving off some volatile
compounds, some of which have been shown
experimentally to impair our thinking ability
and make us more likely to make mistakes. But
don’t despair! Researchers from the University
of Technology, Sydney have discovered what
they call a “portable, flexible, attractive, low-cost
technology”. Or potted plants to you and me.
Office plants can remove up to 75% or more
of indoor volatile organic compound loads. So,
if you spend a lot of your time inside, consider
bringing some nature in with you. They’ll make
even your apartment or office look nice too.
Take a break from thinking so
hard!
Crunching numbers all day, or doing some
other task that requires long hours of forced,
focused attention, can cause our minds to get
tired. Researchers call this ‘cognitive fatigue’;
it can cause us to make more errors and have
troublefilteringthroughirrelevantinformation,
leading us to be more distracted. Long periods
of ‘cognitive fatigue’ may eventually contribute
to burn-out, depression, and anxiety.
And this is where Nature can help (again).
In 2011, researchers in South Korea tested
university students’ mental abilities before
and after a walk, either through a lush park
or through a city. They found that by taking a
50-minute walk through a tree-lined park, the
students performed better on subsequent tests
BORN TO BE WILD
GUR U • ISSUE 1 6 • F EBR UA RY /MA R CH 2014 • PAGE 10
(Lavender)500px•MarkBucayan
11. Autumn Sartain’s favorite thing is spending time in nature, which is why she chose
to be a wildlife biologist. For the past ten years she has wrestled sea turtles in the
tropics, chased song birds in the mountains, sorted through Antarctic seafloor samples
and dealt with all that silly business of gaining a postgraduate qualification in Biology.
You can see some of her writing at autumnsartain.com.
when compared to the city-walkers. Unforced
attention on nature, and the fascination that
comes with looking at the natural world, was
enough to refresh the tired mind.
Not surprisingly then, getting out and walking
in a forest setting is also great for us. The Forest
Agency of Japan began promoting an initiative
in 1982 called Shinrin-Yoku, or ‘forest bathing’.
This program is meant to help stressed-out city
people (and anyone else interested) soak up
the effects of nature by getting them to spend
time in the forest. Since it started, psycho-
logical and physiological studies on over 1,000
adults have shown the benefits: lower levels of
stress hormones, blood pressure, heart rate,
depression and anger. They also found improved
sleep and a greater feeling of liveliness.
The great outdoors awaits
There are endless variations of outdoor adven-
turing, from gardening to scaling mountains to
walking in your local park. If you are like Matt
Linsdell, our Fitness Guru, and love to exercise,
you’ll be happy to know that simply running
outdoors reduces anger, fatigue, and anxious
thoughts more than running on a treadmill.
Better than that, outdoor exercise has been
shown to increase the number of positive
thoughts a person has. Whichever route of
outdoor exploration you choose, it appears
conclusive that nature is beneficial to health
and happiness.
So breathe in the air, bring some nature inside,
and of course, romp through the wilds and get
some dirt under those fingernails.
Find out more:
• The book Your Brain on Nature by Drs.
Eva Selhub and Alan Logan explores these
issues in greater detail.
References:
• Children with attention deficits concentrate
better after walk in the park.
• A potential natural treatment for attention-
deficit/hyperactivity disorder: Evidence from a
national study.
• Effect of sunlight and season on serotonin
turnover in the brain.
• Narrow-band blue-light treatment of seasonal
affective disorder in adults and the influence of
additional nonseasonal symptoms.
• Blue-enriched white light in the workplace
improves self-reported lateness, performance
and sleep quality.
• Effect of forest environments on human
natural killer (NK) activity.
• Smelling lavender and rosemary increases
free radical scavenging activity and decreases
cortisol level in saliva.
• Aromas of rosemary and lavender essential
oils differentially affect cognition and mood in
healthy adults.
• The effects of running, environment, and
attentional focus on athletes’ catecholamine
and cortisol levels.
• Improved performance on clerical tasks
associated with administration of peppermint
odor.
• Enhancing athletic performance through the
administration of peppermint odor.
• The influence of interaction with forest on
cognitive function.
• Use of living pot-plants to cleanse indoor air.
• Sixth International Conference on
Indoor Air.
BORN TO BE WILD
PAGE 11 • FEBRUARY/ M ARCH 2014 • IS S UE 16 • GUR U
(fludintheforest2)500px•Slav
13. We’ve all been there: it’s the end of
the week, you’ve just arrived home
after a post-work drink or two with
friends, and you’re feeling ever so
slightly peckish. But when you throw
open the refrigerator door, you’re
greeted with nothing but a mouldy
tomato and a half-eaten burrito. But
don’t despair! Food Guru, Natasha
Agabalyan, is on hand to explain how
the latest research from NASA may
mean the end of late-night hunger
pains – with the press of a button. A
3D printer button, to be precise.
If you’re a foodie like me, you strive to get
some sort of balance in your everyday diet –
whether it’s nutritional balance (you know, a
good chocolate to wine ratio), or a diversity of
textures or tastes. In my kitchen, flour (and
oil-covered pots and pans) litters the work
surfaces, evidence of my failed attempts to
create new types of tasty treats. I have yet to
perfect orange-flavoured pies and chilli-infused
ice cream. Variety is most definitely the spice of
my culinary life.
But now imagine for a moment that you’re an
astronaut (or simply a bad cook). Three times
a day you end up eating the same pre-made,
pre-packaged food. It won’t be long before you
get a little depressed – particularly if you’re just
two years into a five-year mission to Mars. At
least if you’re a bad cook you have a choice of
fast food deliveries: our poor astronaut has no
hope of a warm pizza. Or does she/he?
Down to earth dining
NASA are forever pushing the boundaries of
technology and they have a habit of inventing
things that ultimately turn out to be remarkably
useful. So far, they have brought us solar
panels, water filters and smartphone camera
technology.Lastyeartheyawardedaprestigious
innovation and research grant of $125,000 to
Anjan Contractor, a mechanical engineer from
Texas, USA. What he’s doing with the money is
unusual, to say the least: he’s making a machine
that will ‘print’ food. (I think he really just wants
to make a 3D printer to print a chocolate rose to
impress his valentine.)
Anjan’s ambitious plan to investigate the
potential of ‘printing’ food in space builds upon
existing open-source technology. Currently,
food for astronauts are mainly pre-packaged
products that have a long shelf-life and don’t
need refrigeration or freezing. (Space may be
the final frontier, but it’s limited on board a
spacecraft - fridges and freezers just don’t fit!)
Anjan hopes that 3D printing will provide an
answer to the challenge of providing varied and
nutritious food for astronauts. His prototype
printing system is very space efficient, and
would free up ship capacity for better uses.
Also, the printer uses ingredients that are
mainly powders and liquids, so they have an
extremely long shelf life – in some cases up to
30 years. So this invention has the potential to
feed crews on longer, more ambitious missions
than anything attempted to date.
Crucially, though, their system promises to
truly tickle the taste buds: it offers variety, not
only in nutritional content but in taste and
texture. The printer could well offer a
menu that accommodates every astro-
naut’s likes and dislikes. Plus, there’s
not much washing up. Now that should
put a smile on their faces!
Printed to perfection
So how does this tasty invention
work? Anjan’s company, Systems and
Materials Research Corporation
(SMRC), has divided out the three
elements of food – nutritional value,
taste, and texture – into separate parts
of the 3D printing process. The basic
food nutrients (i.e. protein, starch and
fat) can be printed using unflavoured
powders to give sustenance. Low
1
2
3
4
5
7
8
9
6
BELOW:
A selection of
food available on
the International
Space Station.
1. Beef Pattie
2. Trail Mix
3. Creamed Spinach
4. Crackers
5. Cheddar Cheese
Spread
6. Candy Coated
Peanuts
7. Cashews
8. Beef Steak
9. Orange Ade
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MAKE MINE A PEPPERONI!
PAGE 13 • FEBRUARY/ M ARCH 2014 • IS S UE 16 • GUR U
15. STRETCH IT, BABY!
A YOGA SCEPTIC TRIES THE DOWNWARD-FACING DOG
#HEALTH
JESSAMY BAUDAINS
16. Downward-Facing Dog, Dead Bug,
Cobra, One-Legged King Pigeon,
Cow Face and Inverted Tortoise. No,
this isn’t the line-up for some bizarre
Noah’s Ark. These are the positions
into which millions of people twist
themselves every day, all in the name
of yoga.
Often when people hear ‘yoga’, they imagine
incense burning, long-haired hippies, or, at the
other end of the spectrum, skinny celebrities
talking about how yoga “healed” them (hmm).
Yes, there can be incense, chanting, and the odd
Madonna-like-bod – but yoga is much more
than smells, sounds and body envy. This activity
is about community, confidence-building and,
more recently, a little bit of science. It’s about
bringing a variety of people together and
getting in touch with your physical ‘nooks’ and
mental ‘crannies’. Sounds scary, I know, but I
recently gave yoga a go, and it wasn’t as bad as
it sounds…
We all know that exercise is good for us, but
many of us underestimate just how much it can
improve and maintain both our physical and
emotional health. Last year, British Medical
Journal announced that exercise can reduce
your risk of major illnesses, such as heart
disease, stroke, diabetes and cancer, by up to
50% and lower your risk of early death by up
to 30%.
Still, we all know that work, family, or
relationship pressure can make you feel like
there’s little enough time to exercise, let alone
dedicate a whole hour to Pilates, Zumba or
a yoga class. But, a toned body aside, there
is clearly a lot to gain from exercise – yoga
included. So is it finally time to wave goodbye
to love handles?
Take your pick
There are many different types of yoga out
there. From ‘Hatha’, using slow and gentle
movements, to ‘Ashtanga’ and ‘Power’ yoga,
which are both physically demanding and fast
paced – the world is your yoga oyster! No two
classes are likely to be the same, meaning the
effects on the body will vary according the
specific practice. Some practices allow you to
stretch and unwind while others will definitely
get a sweat going.
Of course, many people still think of yoga as the
lazyoption–awasteoftimeinafast-pacedworld
where ‘boxercise’ or ‘spinning’ are the supposed
guarantors of a chiselled physique. Other
people consider yoga worthless because of its
less than scientific roots in Indian mysticism. It
is true that you may not be constantly gasping
for breath during a yoga class, but the physical
benefits of yoga are becoming increasingly hard
to argue against. Stretching and the holding
of postures encourages muscles to lengthen, a
process that leads to stronger, more powerful
muscles. Indeed, research published in the
journal Preventative Cardiology, in 2007, showed
improvements in muscle strength, flexibility
and cardiovascular health in young adults after
two months of twice-weekly ‘Hatha’ classes.
I know how incredibly frustrating it is to trudge
away on a cross trainer for an hour after a full
day of work when all you really want to do is sit
in front of the TV and consume a large glass of
Merlot. In fact, an Ofcom survey from the end
of 2013 found that the average person in the UK
spends around 4 hours watching TV each day,
with another report estimating we spend 1 in
12 waking minutes on the Internet. And we’re
not alone: Canada has similar statistics, while
residents of the US squeeze in an impressive 5
hours of box-watching per day. Even if you are
pushed for time, it might be worth substituting
an hour of TV or Internet surfing for an hour
of yoga.
TOP:
A Hatha yoga
class.
ABOVE:
An Ashtanga
yoga class.
PreviousPage:(Yogainthemountains)Flickr•TomasSobek,(HathayogainJapanese@Semperviva)Flickr•GoToVan, (SIRSASANA)Flickr•gbSk
STRETCH IT, BABY!
GUR U • ISSUE 1 6 • F EBR UA RY /MA R CH 2014 • PAGE 16
17. While many studies have explored the
mental health benefits of yoga and
meditation, they have tended to rely
on participant questionnaires or have
been published in questionable
journals. Encouragingly, though,
mainstream medical journals
are starting to publish carefully-
conducted critical analyses: one
study in The British Journal of Sports
Medicine concludes that the evidence
for yoga use is “encouraging” but more
research is needed.
There is certainly more work to be
done but scientists are edging closer to
confirming what yogis have believed
for years – yoga and meditation can
improve health and help us cope with
stress. John Denninger, a psychia-
trist at Harvard Medical School, is
currently leading a five year study on
how yoga and meditation – which are
intrinsically linked – affect the genes
and brain activity of those who are
stressed. Denninger says: “There is a true
biological effect. The kinds of things that
happen when you meditate do have effects
throughout the body, not just in the brain.”
Yoga yourself younger?
In another report published in 2012,
scientists at the University of California
at Los Angeles and Nobel Prize winner
Elizabeth Blackburn found that yogic
meditation may even slow the ageing
process. 39 people were randomly
chosen to practice Kirtan Kriya, a type
of yogic meditation, or listen to relax-
ation music for 12 minutes a day for
eight weeks. Blood tests revealed that
the meditation group showed a marked
increase in the activity of an enzyme
called telomerase over and above
the relaxation group (43% vs 3.7%).
Though not normally active in most
cells, telomerase can prevent cells from
ageing in the normal way. Yes, it’s too
early to say that this effect is from yogic
meditation specifically, or that upping
telomerase activity will definitely result in
prolonged youthfulness. Time, as they say,
will tell.
According to expert practitioner, Swami Rama,
yoga (which means ‘union’) supposedly unites
the “the body, breath, mind, soul, and
ultimately, the universe itself”. Now, I
know the prospect of unifying your body
with the universe sounds ridiculous at
worst and a little comic at best, but yoga
nevertheless aims to provide something
more meaningful than a jog around the
park.
“The warmth of the heated ceiling, the smell
oftheburningincensealongwiththeserenity
and peace of the room is totally therapeutic.
As soon as you walk into a practice you forget
about everything around you and are taken
into a world of peace and relaxation,” says
Gabriella Maubec, 22, a dedicated yogi.
(Bill)Flickr•milopeng
STRETCH IT, BABY!
PAGE 17 • FEBRUARY/ M ARCH 2014 • IS S UE 16 • GUR U
18. From a purely psychological point of view,
deep breathing and meditation practices can
help shift our thoughts away from everyday
financial concerns and personal struggles.
“Every session I dedicate my practice to one
person. I am able to give up an hour where I
can focus on something and someone other
than myself”, says Gabriella. Experienced yoga
teacher, Emma Despres, 38, says “For me, yoga
has been life-changing, and not simply because
it helps to increase our strength, stamina, flexi-
bility and balance on all levels – physical, mental
and emotional.”
“I love getting so many people involved in my
classes,” says yoga teacher-in-training, Sophie
Bourge, 23. “I especially like to get boys to come
to classes, because I still feel there’s a bit of a
stigma in the UK about guys practicing yoga.
When I lived in Vancouver, all the ski and surfer
dudes loved it! We need to get more of the boys
involved!”
So, as a person committed to the ethos of
trying new things, I have started a personal
‘experiment’ into yoga. I can’t be sure I’m doing
it ‘right’, but I have to say, exercise and healthy
eating have become less of a battle. They say
that “yoga gets you back to you”. So far, I have
found that it also allows you to take time out
of your busy schedule, to put down the remote
control, and just reflect. Oh, and there are also
claims it can improve your sex life. What’s not
to love!?
Right, now to get into the one-legged king
pigeon…
Research
• Comparative effectiveness of exercise
and drug interventions on mortality
outcomes: metaepidemiological study
• Effects of Hatha Yoga Practice on the
Health-Related Aspects of Physical
Fitness
• Yoga for anxiety: a systematic review
of the research evidence
• Average daily TV viewing time per
person in selected countries in 2011
• A pilot study of yogic meditation
for family dementia caregivers with
depressive symptoms: effects on
mental health, cognition, and telom-
erase activity.
• Quantification of Outcome Measures
for Mind Body Interventions
• UK digital adspend hits record 6
month high of £3bn
• The Communications Market
Report
Jessamy Baudains is a journalist based in London with a passion for writing and travel.
She spent a year working and exploring East Africa and Sri Lanka before embarking on an
English Literature degree at the University of Warwick. She is currently studying for her MA in
International Journalism at Brunel University. When she’s not drinking a cosmopolitan, reading
Oscar Wilde or planning her next trip, she blogs at jessamybaudains.wordpress.com. You
can follow her on Twitter @JessamyBaudains.
(BondiBeachYoga)Flickr•tarotastic
STRETCH IT, BABY!
GUR U • ISSUE 1 6 • F EBR UA RY /MA R CH 2014 • PAGE 18
20. It is a blazingly sunny December
afternoon in a small town at the
southern tip of Africa. The air is hot
and heavy. No wind or breeze stirs
the tree tops. Sara, a mother of two, is
working in the garden, meticulously
uprooting weeds, pruning hedges,
and trimming the trees covering her
perfectly pink hydrangeas. Suddenly,
the air around her is filled with a
droning, angry sound as a black cloud
rises up from the tree foliage. Instinct
takes over, and Sara covers her face
and runs.
Adrenaline and panic temporarily keep the pain
at bay, but the multiple stings she receives from
a swarm of African honey bees – or killer bees
as they are known in most parts of the world
– demand to be felt eventually. The intense
pain seizes her; she collapses, and darkness
descends. Little does she know that what’s
coursing through her veins, and could be killing
her, could hold a cure for a disease that is
decimating her beloved country.
The murderous helper
In South Africa, the legends and myths
surrounding the beautifully coloured golden-
yellow and black striped stingers are passed
down through the generations: a horde of
thousands of bees will relentlessly chase
you for almost half a kilometre once the nest
is disturbed, and the venom from between
500–1100 stings can kill an adult human.
Venoms like those of the African honey bee, are
cocktails of substances that can have a harmful
effect on the human body, the ingredients of
each cocktail being unique to each species of
venomous creature. For many venoms there
are no anti-venoms (more correctly called
‘antivenins’) available. However, an ongoing
revolution in medical research is looking past
the need to develop antivenins to focus instead
on the therapeutic properties of the venoms
themselves: what if venom-toxins could be used
to cure instead of kill?
This is not a new idea. The great 15th
century
philosopher Paracelsus once said; “In all things
there is poison; there is nothing without poison. It
only depends upon the doses, whether a poison is a
poison or not”.
So, over the years, hundreds of venoms have
been studied for their potential therapeutic
effects, with some of the most deadly venoms
providing the most potent treatments. Since
1974, researchers have been exploring the
anticancer potential of venoms from snake
species such as the Elapidae family (which
include Cape and Egyptian cobras), Viperidae
family (rattlesnakes), and Crotalidae family (pit
vipers). Toxin from Agkistrodon contortrix (the
copperhead snake) has been shown to reduce
the spread of tumours, while the purified venom
from the Tasmanian tiger snake has been found
to slow the growth of neuroblastoma cells
(tumours of the head and brain).
Currently, purified venom-toxins from snakes
are used in drugs for high blood pressure,
strokes, kidney diseases, diabetes, heart failure,
and even deafness – as well as being used as
anaesthetics. Amphibian skin also carries fasci-
nating venoms that can be used to heal wounds,
kill cancer cells, and destroy microbes – with the
latter being the subject of particularly fervent
research given the rise of microbes that are
immune to most currently-available antibiotics.
Bee, wasp, centipede and scorpion venoms
have also been tested for their ability to effec-
tively treat leukaemia, liver cancer and multiple
sclerosis; and as treatments to destroy the
bacteria associated with sexually transmitted
diseases such as chlamydia, and candida infec-
tions.
Zooming in on a cure for HIV
But the use of venoms as the basis of potential
medicines isn’t without major challenges.
After all, venoms – by their very nature – are
meant to kill. To unlock the healing power of
venoms a way must be found to cross the line
from toxin to therapy. And this is where the
fields of nanomedicine and nanotechnology are
stepping up to the challenge.
PreviousPage:(bees)Flickr•AlexKi,(HoneyBeeSwarm)Flickr•kaibara87
A KILLER CURE
GUR U • ISSUE 1 6 • F EBR UA RY /MA R CH 2014 • PAGE 20
21. Nanotechnology is a field of research that
works with particles at the nanoscale – objects
sized between 1 and 100 nanometres (1 nm
= one billionth of a metre). To put this into
perspective, an atom is 0.1 nm wide, viruses
are between 10–100 nm in size, and the
diameter of a human hair is a bulky 100 000
nm.
Nanomedicine, the field of research that
develops nanoparticles for use in medicine,
has as one goal: the design of drug delivery
systems that are safer, easier to control, and
more effective than traditional medicines. It
is here that venom and nanotechnology are
coming together in a harmonious relationship
that could drastically improve human lives,
especially in South Africa.
South Africa is a country amongst those with
the highest rates of HIV/Aids in the world.
It is estimated that over five million South
Africans have so far contracted the virus –
a staggering 10% of the country’s overall
population. Thousands of kilometres away, at
the Washington University School of Medicine
in the US, researchers have turned to bee venom
to try and find a solution to the rapid spread
of HIV. Their weapon of choice: nanoparticles
coated with a highly potent toxin from bee
venom called melittin.
Melittin isn’t a complete newcomer to the
world of medicine: it is already known to be an
anti-cancer agent, capable of attacking renal,
lung, liver, ovarian, prostate, bladder, and
breast cancer. Its effect comes from its ability
to destroy cell membranes, causing cells to rip
apart. (This also explains why a bee sting is so
unpleasant!)
It may come as little relief to Sara and the
thousands of other people who are injured and
killed by bees every year, but the marriage of
venom – feared by mankind for millennia – and
nanotechnology, a small but ever-growing field,
could have a revolutionary effect on our ability
to fight diseases that kill millions. Perhaps
countries like South Africa, which are home to
themostvenomouscreatures,shouldre-evaluate
how they look at their buzzing, slithering,
scuttling
and scary
n e i g h -
b o u r s
– not as
mortal enemies, but as
creatures that bring the potential
and power to heal.
References:
• Spatial foraging patterns and colony
energy status in the African bee
• A lytic peptide with anticancer
properties
• Cytolytic peptide nanoparticles
(‘NanoBees’) for cancer therapy.
• Cytolytic nanoparticles attenuate
HIV-1 infectivity
• Anti-cancer effect of bee venom toxin
and melittin in ovarian cancer cells
through induction of death receptors
and inhibition of JAK2/STAT3
pathway
• Bee venom in cancer therapy
• Nanoparticle-conjugated
animal venom-toxins and their
possible therapeutic potential
Janske Nel is currently busy with her second year of a Master’s in Nanotechnology,
centred specifically on nano-oncology, at the University of the Western Cape, South
Africa. She shows no fear in the face of spiders, snakes or long hours in the laboratory,
but shudders at the thought of books left face down.
The venom-powered
nano-cure
Researchers at the Washington University
School of Medicine have been using
toxin-coated nanoparticles that have little
‘bumpers’ (much like a car’s bumper)
spaced evenly around the nanoparticles,
which help them bounce away from
normal cells. But HIV, which is much
smaller than normal cells, misses
the bumpers and therefore comes
into contact with the toxin-coated
shell of the nanoparticle. This
then destroys the protective
double membrane HIV
uses for protection,
causing the virus
to burst.
(killerbeehive)Flickr•dutchman_svh
A KILLER CURE
PAGE 21 • FEBRUARY/ M ARCH 2014 • IS S UE 16 • GUR U
22. BODY
EXERCISE YOUR
MUSCLE MOLECULE
Was one of your New
Year’s resolutions to get
more exercise? How’s that
“working out” for you? Would it help if you knew
exactly how exercise has such long-lasting effects
on good health? Well Guru is here to tell you that
scientists have just made a big step forward in
understanding exactly that. Think of it as a geeky
pep talk… A landmark new study has found that
exercise not only makes your heart and muscles
stronger but may actually change the type of fat
in your body. Researchers discovered that exercise
triggers muscles to produce a small molecule that
travels through the blood and into ‘white’ fat,
changing it into calorie-burning ‘brown’ fat. This
transformation may be a ‘missing link’ between
exercise and its wide-ranging benefits.
There are two kinds of fat. Everybody knows about
horrid white fat – the stuff that gives us adorable
‘love handles’ and ‘bingo wings’ – but its lesser
known cousin, brown fat, is a very different beast.
White fat cells are where our bodies store energy
from the food we eat. Think of them as fuel stores;
we need that reserve just in case we don’t eat
enough to fuel our daily activities. But snaffle more
calories than you use up each day and you’ll start
to get bigger.
Brown fat cells are more like fuel burners – they
burn fat to generate heat. Scientists used to think
brown fat was only found in new-born babies and
disappeared by adulthood, but we now know that
most adults still have some. Also – interestingly –
it tends to be more plentiful in thin people.
Author:
Simon
Makin
GUR U • I SSUE 1 6 • F EBR UA RY /MARCH 2014 • PAGE 22
www.gurumagazine.org
IN THE NEWSReporting the news you might have missed...
February/March 2014
23. TECHNOLOGY
NANO-SPONGES TO
THE RESCUE!
So what does this have to do with exercise?
Well, researchers from Bruce Spiegelman’s lab at
Harvard Medical School in Boston, MA, found
that when muscles are exercised they release a
newly-discovered hormone called irisin – and irisin
can make white fat behave more like brown fat.
These experiments were done on mice, although
lots of researchers are pretty confident that the
same thing happens in human muscle It’s not yet
clear whether irisin affects all humans in the same
way though, as other researchers could only find
effects in elderly people.
Fitness in a bottle
Irisin isn’t the whole picture however. In this latest
study a team led by Robert Gerszten, in collabo-
ration with Spiegelman’s group, found another
substance called beta-aminoisobutyric acid (or
BAIBA for short). BAIBA is much smaller than
irisin (a single amino acid for the real geeks out
there), but has been found to ‘brown’ the white
fat cells by making their DNA behave more like a
brown fat cell. BAIBA also encourages liver cells to
break down fats – a sure sign of increased metab-
olism. Indeed, mice given water laced with BAIBA
to drink had a higher metabolism, healthier blood
sugar, and lost weight.
To check whether these effects are likely to apply
to humans, the scientists analysed samples
from over 2000 patients (from the long-running
Framingham Heart Study) and found that
people with low levels of BAIBA in their blood had
high cholesterol levels – putting them at a higher
risk of heart disease – and more insulin resistance
– putting them at risk of diabetes. But when people
had taken part in a 20 week exercise programme,
as part of another study, their BAIBA blood levels
increased by 17%.
The researchers now think that having more BAIBA
protects you from conditions like diabetes and
heart disease. It could therefore be used as the
inspiration for new treatments – perhaps even in
the development of drugs to fight obesity, or even
just to help people lose weight. Maybe your doctor
could even test your BAIBA levels and find out how
much exercise you have really been doing!
But we shouldn’t get too excited just yet: there’s
still a lot of work to be done, such as finding out if
BAIBA has any unforeseen side effects in animals,
before they can even start down the road towards
drug development. So don’t go turning in your
gym shoes just yet – there’s still no substitute for a
good old-fashioned work out.
Oh no! I’ve spilled my wine!
Be a dear and pass me that
carbon nanotube.
I’ll admit, it’s not the first thing you think of when
it comes to mopping up spills, but tiny tubes made
of a sheet one carbon atom thick may soon be the
answer to a whole host of cleaning jobs.
As the name suggests, carbon nanotubes (CNTs)
are small… really small. They’re ‘nanoscopic’ to be
precise! Since their discovery in the 1960s, CNTs
have adopted a variety of roles – from flat screen
TVs and solar panels to carbon fibre bike frames,
and even nerve regeneration therapies. CNTs have
taken the world of science and industry by storm,
and now they promise to help the environment by
cleaning up pollution. Is there nothing these little
guys won’t do?
Clever Italian chaps
at the University of
Roma have led the way
in making this new
type of CNT super-
sponge by changing
the way CNTs are
normally made. To the
complicated manufac-
turing process, they
have added a key new
ingredient – sulphur
– which has let them
synthesise longer tubes
than before, fashioning
BELOW:
A scanning electron
micrograph of carbon
nanotube bundles.
Author:
Ross
Harper
PAGE 23 • FEBRUARY/ M ARCH 2014 • IS S UE 16 • GUR U
IN THE NEWS
24. them into a porous sponge-like structure. In tests,
these 2×2cm mini-sponges were able to selectively
absorb up to 3.5 times more toxic substances from
water than all previous efforts. They were also
able to hold an amount of vegetable oil up to 150
times their initial weight – meaning a small 7 gram
sponge could easily soak up your one litre bottle of
olive oil. Now that’s got to come in handy during
any kitchen-based fiasco!
But the real applications are to environmental
clean-up initiatives. After, let’s say, an oil spill,
these new CNT sponges could be released into the
water, selectively grabbing all the nasty toxins.
“OK,” I hear you sneer, “but then what, smart guy?
You’ve just replaced free-floating toxins with toxin-
filled sponges. Idiot!” That’s true (and a little harsh).
However, the important thing is that these CNT
sponges contain iron… iron is magnetic… magnets
can be used to pull stuff towards you… see where
I’m going with this?
After sending out the CNT troops, they can be
retrieved far more easily than other water-cleaning
options available by using good old-fashioned
magnets. Then, like any sponge, they can simply be
squeezed out and used again. Perfect.
The next step is to figure out a way to produce
these CNT sponges on a commercial scale. (If a
550,000-ton oil tanker bites the dust, you’re going
to need a lot of sponges.) The other thing to be
absolutely sure of is that the sponges themselves
aren’t toxic to any wildlife. All things being well, we
should soon have a new tool in the fight against
dirty water, and, more importantly to you and me,
an effective way to get red wine out of the carpet.
Reference:
• A three-dimensional carbon
nanotube network for water
treatment
Simon Makin is an auditory researcher turned science journalist. Originally from
Liverpool, he has a degree in electronics, a Masters in speech and hearing sciences, and
a PhD in auditory perception. He worked as a post-doc in the psychology deptartment
at Reading University for several years, before recently taking the leap into journalism.
Tweets as @SimonMakin. Blogs as Heisenberg’s Hamster.
A biologist straight out of Cambridge University, Ross Harper spent two years heading his own
technology start-ups: BuyMyFace.com and Wriggle Ltd. As he begins his neuroscience PhD
at UCL, Ross is living proof that you can take the boy out of the lab, but not the other way around.
Between devising his latest crazy schemes, Ross makes an effort to eat (pizza), sleep (two pillows),
and exercise (skiing/rugby/swimming). Follow him on Twitter @refharper.
GUR U • ISSUE 1 6 • F EBR UA RY /MA R CH 2014 • PAGE 24
IN THE NEWS
26. For as long as there has been disease,
people have looked to nature to find
cures for their ills. Whether it was
Aztec doctors using tree roots to cure
stomach aches or ancient Chinese
practitioners using seahorses to cure
kidney problems, the natural world
has always offered doctors plenty to
put in their medicine bag. Today, even
in cutting-edge research facilities, the
outdoor laboratory of nature is still a
goldmine for important drugs.
Let us now go on a journey into the wild – to
discover nature’s hidden healers…
A walk in the scrublands
If you happened to be strolling through the
scrublands of south-western America on a
spring morning, you might be lucky enough to
meet a two foot (60cm) long lizard called a glia
monster. This venomous lizard is an ugly beast
but it’s not dangerous. (It’s too slow-moving to
catch a human.) Its saliva, however, contains
substances that have the power to fight disease.
Move over Harry Potter fans, this dragon spit
is for real:
Glia monster saliva contains a substance called
exendin-4, a compound that can be used to
treat diabetes. This chemical is very similar
to a hormone (GLP-1) released in humans
when food is broken down. It has been used to
produce the diabetes drug exenatide – a modern
medicine that causes weight loss and helps
control insulin blood levels. But the healing
slobber of this remarkable lizard doesn’t end
there. It also contains gilatide, a chemical which
appears to boost memory and may one day be
used to treat Alzheimer’s disease.
Relaxing by the river
As we continue our journey, we saunter along
an English riverbank in June. The willow tree
is there, in all its green splendour. In the bark
of this majestic tree, there is a chemical called
salicylic acid, the main component of a chemical
best known to us as aspirin. This is one of the
most important drugs available today, and
is used in pain relief and stroke prevention.
Sometimes the oldest remedies are the best:
every year over 100 billion aspirin tablets are
swallowed.
Aspirin was made into medicine in 1897 but
plants have also made more recent contribu-
tions too – although to discover these we must
PreviousPage:(TheCloveLakesColossus)Flickr•HoboMatt,(MedicineCabinet)Flickr•CarlMilner,(gilamonster)Flickr•soulsurvivor08,(CryMeARiver-TheRiverWeyNavigation-Aug2013)Flickr•gareth1953theoriginal
NATURE’S MEDICINE CABINET
GUR U • ISSUE 1 6 • F EBR UA RY /MA R CH 2014 • PAGE 26
27. travel further afield.
A trip to the tropics
You would probably ask for a second opinion
if your doctor gave you some Madagascan
rosy periwinkle, but this plant has made a
huge contribution towards the treatment of
childhood leukaemia. With pretty pink flowers,
it is a short shrub that grows in the rainforest.
You wouldn’t have to travel far to spot it: the
plant is known for its beauty and is used as
an ornamental plant the world over. And it is
certainly worthy of prominence: vinblastine,
which is extracted from its leaves, has increased
the survival rates of childhood leukaemia from
10% to around 95%.
High and low, grubby and clean
It’s not just plants and animals that have health
benefits – fungi also get in on the act. Fungi are
amazingly diverse organisms and can survive
in places where few other living things can.
Some live in deep sea sediments, withstanding
extremely high pressures, while others live in
areas of high temperature or salt concentra-
tions. To live in such a wide range of habitats,
they have become mini-chemical factories,
which is extremely useful for humans.
The shining jewels in the crown of fungal contri-
butions to medicine are antibiotics. From the
untidy mess of Sir Alexander Fleming’s lab
came an accidental discovery that would revolu-
tionise medicine: a penicillium mould, left on
a discarded Petri dish, produced an unusual
substance that appeared to kill many disease-
causing bacteria. When Fleming spotted it, he
called it ‘mould juice’ for several months before
eventually changing it to the now famous
‘penicillin’. Fleming’s penicillin heralded the
era of modern antibiotics and enabled patients
with previously untreatable diseases to make
full recoveries. Today, while penicillin is used
less than before, many of our other antibiotics
are also fungal in origin.
(Catharanthusroseus24082012)Wikimedia•Joydeep,(Penicilliummandarijntjes)Wikimedia
BELOW:
penicillium
mould covering a
mandarin orange.
NATURE’S MEDICINE CABINET
PAGE 27 • FEBRUARY/ M ARCH 2014 • IS S UE 16 • GUR U
28. James Crewdson is a medicine undergraduate at Gonville and Caius College,
University of Cambridge and is also a member of the Zoology department at the same
university. He has a keen interest in all biological sciences and in the happenings of
Manchester City Football Club, the current and future champions of English football.
You can follow him on Twitter at @JamesCrewdson1.
Into the deep
Researcherslookeverywheretofindthenextbig
drug – and that doesn’t just mean on the land!
Sometimes they have to don their flippers and
dive underneath the water to see what sunken
treasures may be there. One such treasure is
Tectitethya crypta, a large, pale sponge that you
could swim past in the shallow waters off the
Caribbean without so much as a second look.
This sponge was crucial in the development of
AZT, one of the key breakthrough drugs in the
treatment of HIV.
Even more unusual is the Conus magnus, a
poisonous cone snail found mainly in tropical
waters near coral reefs. Its venom has led to
the discovery of ziconotide, a pain-killer more
powerful than morphine that can be used to
treat long-term pain. It is probably appropriate,
then, that it is also known as the ‘magical cone’.
Finishing where we began
Our journey concludes where you are standing
(or at least where you should be standing – see
our Nature Guru’s article on the benefits
of being outdoors). The soil beneath your feet
hides the source of the best-selling pharmaceu-
tical agent in history.
The biggest killer worldwide is heart disease
and one of the most important weapons in our
fight against it is the family of medicines called
the ‘statins’. These compounds were discovered
in a common fungus, Aspergillus terreus, which
lives in soil across the world. Statins have the
amazing ability to reduce the amount of choles-
terol in your blood, meaning your arteries are
less likely to become clogged up – offering
protection against heart attacks and strokes.
They have become a crucial way of keeping
many people healthy.
The natural world is magical and it is because of
this magic that the great outdoors has become
the great pharmaceutical manufacturer. From
dragon spit to magical cones, these wonders can
be found the world over. When you next go for
a walk in the great outdoors, look around (and
beneath) you and just think of all the
miracle drugs waiting to be unearthed.
(Conusmagus(orangeform))Flickr•smallislander,(Spaceboots)Flickr•NomadTales
NATURE’S MEDICINE CABINET
GUR U • ISSUE 1 6 • F EBR UA RY /MA R CH 2014 • PAGE 28
30. We have a love-hate relationship
withhealthscarestories.Welove
finding out what can happen
inside our body. But we also
hate these stories because the
thought of what can go wrong
scares us silly. On radio and
TV, in newspapers and on the
Internet, at hospitals
and in doctors’
offices, medics
can’t help but hit
us with a brutal
truth: the older
we get, the more
likely we are to get
a nasty illness –
like cancer. But
Dennis He and
David Smith
discuss how this
story just might
have a happy
ending after
all…
We like to think
of our body
being whole,
but it is
actually made
u p of 300 trillion
t i n y cells, all working
together harmoniously. (Well,
for most of the time.) However, if
you wait long enough at least one
of these cells might develop a fault.
In cancer, it will lose its ‘off switch’
and start dividing uncontrollably,
eventually resulting in a tumor.
Apart from trying to lead a healthy
life or raise money for cancer
research, there’s not much any of
us can do about this inevitability.
Each of us has to wait patiently while
medical researchers try to find a cure –
hopefully in our lifetime. But no longer
must we wait passively: new online
tools are turning the tables and giving
ordinary people – you and me – the
power to beat cancer.
Web 3.0 – power to the people
The 1990s are remembered as the decade when
the Internet entered everyday life. The 2000s
have been known for the birth of ‘Web 2.0’ –
when the Internet became truly interactive.
Similarly, the 2010s may well be remembered
as the ‘decade of the crowd’ – the era of crowd-
sourcing.
Crowdsourcing has achieved some of the Inter-
net’s greatest successes. Take, for instance,
Wikipedia – a massive, free online encyclopedia,
which is curated by millions of volunteers and
serves to keep us glued to our iPhones on trivia
night. Meanwhile, ‘crowdfunding’ sites like
Kickstarter now offer a platform for aspiring
entrepreneurs – artists, writers, film makers,
and just about anyone with an idea – to pitch
their projects to the world. This web venture
has already raised over $100 million (USD) for
various projects around the world. Not bad for
a ‘kick-start’.
Scientists have also been getting a piece of the
crowdsourcing action. Online sites, such as the
Tree of Life Web Project, which describes and
documents our planet’s biodiversity, is powered
by online collaboration. And now anyone who
wants to see an end to cancer can play their part
with Cell Slider, a website developed by Cancer
Research UK which harnesses civilian brain-
power in an effort to find cancer treatments.
Breaking the bottleneck with Cell
Slider
When someone is first given a cancer diagnosis,
cell samples are collected from the tumour and
sent to a lab for analysis. Trained technicians
thenspendlong,gruelinghourssortingthrough
these samples, flagging up any that may have
cancerous cells. Such is the time-consuming
nature of the work that many hospitals and
clinics are overwhelmed and have accumulated
huge backlogs of unanalysed images: terabytes
of cellular data sit waiting to be processed.
What’s more, although it’s not a difficult thing
to do, it hasn’t yet been automated: our eyes and
mind are faster and more accurate at analysing
images than any computer.
What this does mean, though, is that pretty
much anyone with good eyesight and a basic
knowledge of what to look for can analyse cell
slides – a task that, at heart, simply involves
color distinction, shape identification, and
counting. It is a powerful way for the Internet-
connected masses to make an invaluable contri-
PreviousPage:(CSD2010_12)Flickr•MaineGeneralHealth
CROWDSOURCING A CURE FOR CANCER
GUR U • ISSUE 1 6 • F EBR UA RY /MA R CH 2014 • PAGE 30
31. bution to the battle against cancer. In essence,
each image represents one part of a person’s
journey with cancer. And each analysed image
gives more information on how well cancer
treatments, new and old, are working.
The Cell Slider website attracts would-be collab-
orators through a sleek and intuitive interface.
Like any video game, it has an introductory
tutorial to show you what you are looking
for in each image – ‘playing the game’ means
looking at microscope images of real tissue
samples taken from real people. Each cell slide
has a variety of cells (different coloured blobs),
which you must distinguish between, keeping a
particular eye out for any yellow-colored cancer
cells.
At present, most of the images on Cell Slider are
from women with breast cancer, but there are
plans to expand the site to include other types
of cancers. And don’t worry, the fate of patients
is not resting on any one user: each slide gets
analysed multiple times by different users, and
many are re-reviewed by a certified technician.
Statistically speaking, the slides with higher
concentrations of yellow stain – those most
likely to be indicative of cancer – are more likely
to be double-checked by other keen civilian
scientists.
Building momentum
So far, Cell Slider is going great guns and has
truly caught the imagination of the ‘crowd’.
After being online for about a year, more than
1.9 million images have been analysed. What’s
more, all the time spent by our helpful citizen
scientists on Cell Slider has freed up time for
technicians to spend on more demanding tasks.
The data from these results have not yet been
published, but the fact that there is an outlet
for the everyday person to aid in research is a
promising start. We can only hope that this will
prompt future innovations that allow for even
more ‘citizen scientists’ to take a more active
role in fighting disease.
The Cell Slider initiative is all about giving
power to the masses, not about individual
recognition: if you participate you won’t receive
any money, credit in academic papers, or get
points towards any type of reward. (See sidebox
on the next page for alternative crowdsourcing
websites that do). But what you will receive is
comfort from the knowledge that you’ve done
something that could greatly benefit the lives of
(We’rethinkingofyou)Flickr•UnhinderedbyTalent
CROWDSOURCING A CURE FOR CANCER
PAGE 31 • FEBRUARY/ M ARCH 2014 • IS S UE 16 • GUR U
34. “There’s an app for that” – remember
that tagline from a few years back? In
a few short years, apps for seemingly
everything have materialised. But
an app to control minds would be
a step too far, surely? Mind Guru,
Kim Lacey, looks into the highly
controversial RoboRoach project
and an app that can indeed control
minds. Admittedly, just the minds of
cockroaches, but still…
A common complaint in many households is
that there are too many remote controls (OK,
so maybe just in mine). On more than one
occasion, I have thought, “why in the world do
we have so many options to turn on the TV?”
Not once, however, have I ever thought, “Gee,
wouldn’t it be great if I could control the mind
of a cockroach... with my phone?” But for those
of you who have been irritated by the lack of
insect mind remote controls (you’re out there
somewhere, right!?) then fret no more: the
future has arrived.
RoboRoach: a bit like Robocop, but
smaller. And with antennae.
ItwaswhilereadingEmilyAnthes’Frankenstein’s
Cat: Cuddling Up to Biotech’s Brave New Beasts (a
great book, incidentally) that I first discovered
RoboRoach. Anthes’ book maps out how
biotechnology is shaping the animal kingdom.
You know, dolphins with prosthetic fins, bionic
dogs, genetically engineered fish that glow
near pollution… that sort of thing. She also
introduces and explains RoboRoach: the
world’s first commercial insect cyborg.
RoboRoach took its inspi-
ration from the secret
services. DARPA (the
Defense Advanced
R e s e a r c h
P r o j e c t
Agency)
previously
had inves-
tigated the
feasibility of
‘bug spies’, the
idea being that a
remote-controlled
insect could literally be
a “fly on the wall”, incon-
spicuously snooping on top-secret meetings
while sending audio back to the infiltrators.
(Of course, no one ever suspects a cockroach.)
Developers, Backyard Brains, decided to take
this idea into the mainstream… and into the
classroom.
Based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA, Backyard
Brains developed a mechanism and a mobile
app to conduct ‘mind control’ experiments
at home. By attaching tiny electrodes on to a
cockroach’s two antennae – and by controlling
the electrodes with the mobile app – armchair
scientists can override the insect’s movements.
Acockroach’ssimplebrainusesitstwoantennae
tohelpitfinditswayaround.Whenoneantenna
strikes an object – a wall, say – it turns in the
opposite direction. The RoboRoach ‘backpack’ is
stuck onto the insect’s back and sends electrical
signals directly into each antenna, similar to
those that the roach’s nerves would naturally
create. The backpack communicates with a
‘remote control’ app via Bluetooth, giving any
smartphone user god-like powers over how the
roach walks: stimulate the left antenna and
the roach turns right; stimulate the right and
it turns left. Cool, right? Except the gross part
is that you have to have cockroaches walking
around your house.
A clever experiment or sick enter-
tainment?
RoboRoach uses the same technology as deep
brain stimulation, a treatment for Parkinson’s
and other neurological conditions. And so in its
short commercial life, Roboroach has quickly
become a popular educational tool, helping
everyday people understand science in a fun
way. Entertainment value notwithstanding,
however, not everyone can stomach insect
experiments and there are serious ethical issues
surrounding the project. Soon after RoboRo-
ach’s release, PETA (People for the Ethical
Treatment of Animals) launched a very public
attack, branding the project “cruel”, “sadistic”
and “torture [to] bugs”. They formalised their
objections in a complaint to the Michigan
attorney general and the Department of
Licensing and Regulatory Affairs, citing the
felony of “unauthorised practice of veterinary
medicine (performing surgery on cockroaches)”.
On its website, Backyard Brains lists and
responds to many of the criticisms they have
received, including: “This … is simply a show-off
demo that abuses animals”; “Animal experi-
REMOTE CONTROL FOR BRAINS
GUR U • ISSUE 1 6 • F EBR UA RY /MA R CH 2014 • PAGE 34
37. It all started as an argument one
evening. The men were on one side of
the room, the women on the other.
The battle lines were drawn. Movie
star Keira Knightley was the point
of discussion. We men were passion-
ately arguing that she is beautiful. We
knew we were right. But the women
were far from convinced – some
claiming that she has a face that looks
as if it has been hit with a frying pan.
They were clearly jealous of her good
looks. Predictably, the disagreement
did not reach an amicable conclusion.
The saying that “beauty is in the eye of the
beholder” is painfully clichéd but true: every-
one’s idea of what makes someone attractive
is different. (Clearly not everyone thinks Keira
Knightley is.) It is, however, hard to deny that
some people are just… well… darned good
looking. Take Natalie Portman or Ryan Gosling:
they seem to have that special something,
meaning that they regularly feature in glossy
mags’ ‘Hottest Celebrities’ lists. We all know it
when we see it, but can never quite put a finger
on what that ‘X-factor’ is. The secret of beauty
is, however, not as mysterious as you might
think.
Hey baby, your testosterone drives
me wild!
After breathing, drinking, eating and sleeping,
a human’s next most powerful urge is to get
down and jiggy with someone special. But
this recipient of our lovin’ can’t be
just anyone
– they need to be able get our heart racing,
tummy tumbling and the hairs on the back of
the neck standing… erect. Put simply, they need
to ‘turn us on’ – and that usually means they
need to look attractive.
So let us look at a stereotypically ‘good looking’
man: he is tall, has broad shoulders and a
muscular, V-shaped upper body. Conversely,
the belle of the ball has a curvaceous figure, full
lips and soft features. These appealing qualities
aren’t random and are seen positively across
different cultures. In a primitive and uncon-
scious way, they give us clues about who will
make a good mate and parent of our future
children.
The hallmarks of a ‘good looking’ man suggest
that he is physically strong, thus giving him the
ability to intimidate and dominate other men.
He will therefore make a good protector of a
future family. Any good looking man will also
tend to have prominent cheekbones, a chiselled
jawline and prominent brow – all of which
develop in the presence of high testosterone
levels in the blood. And high testosterone levels
indicate that he is particularly virile.
Similarly, a woman’s allure is born out of her
ability to bear children. When highlevels of the
female sex hormone, oestrogen, pump through
her veins, she will develop wider hips, larger
breasts and softer features. Plenty of oestrogen
can make a woman extremely fertile – and that
seems to be something men simply can’t resist.
LEFT:
Comparison
between a male
(top) and a
female pelvis
(bottom).
Females
generally have
wider hips to
permit childbirth.
HOT OR NOT?
PAGE 37 • FEBRUARY/ M ARCH 2014 • IS S UE 16 • GUR U
PreviousPage:(PlasticPeople)Flickr•pni,(CHARLES_ATLAS)Flickr•tohoscope
38. Is that a wallet in your pocket, or
are you just pleased to see me?
You may have dreams of getting together with
a Natalie or a Ryan, but let’s face it: most celebs
are way out of your league. (Of course, this
does not apply to our rock star Guru readers.)
When a man gains status, strange things start
to happen: we see overweight rich tycoons
marrying impossibly well-endowed swimwear
models, and we hear of ugly football managers
getting hooked up with women twenty years
their junior. In terms of physical attractiveness
alone, these match-ups make little sense: ‘Mr
Ugly’ has none of the evolutionary qualities
that mark him out as a strong, testosterone-
fuelled father-in-the-making. When it comes to
wealth and status, love truly is blind.
But a ‘league table’ of attractiveness really does
exist. A psychological theory known as ‘the
matching hypothesis’ explains how all of us are
placed in a desirability pecking order, with the
mostbiologicallyattractivepeoplebeingtowards
the top. According to this widely accepted
concept, people find their match with someone
who has a similar position in the league table
– beautiful people tend to get together with
beautiful people, while less beautiful people
hook up with similarly placed individuals. This
dating hierarchy sounds simplistic, but real-life
romance normally follows these rules.
As we see in the case of rich businessmen,
however, it is possible to springboard up the
league table by gaining wealth, status and
power. Each of these social indicators of security
and strength represent the ability to protect a
family and so compensate for other ‘biological
weaknesses’ (like having a beer belly).
The secret to beauty: be boring
But we’re still not seeing the whole picture when
it comes to the weird science of the super model.
Hormones, wealth, success and fertility still do
not guarantee a successful modelling career. The
real trick is to be remarkable in an unexpected
way. By being utterly unremarkable…
If you ask a bunch of randomly-chosen volun-
teers to rate the attractiveness of, say, the faces
of 100 different people, most will agree on
which are the most and least attractive. The
highest scorers will not have big noses, sticky-
outearsorlopsidedsmiles.Theattractivepeople
will rarely be ‘funny looking’; to all intents and
purposes, they will be completely and utterly
‘normal looking’.
This experiment reveals that symmetrical faces
have real appeal. Look at the portraits of all
of Hollywood’s hottest individuals: for the
majority, the left side of the face is almost an
exact mirror image of the right. (You can test
out the facial symmetry of any face online at
Symmeter.com)
The reason for Mr or Miss Average being
beautiful is that they serve as a very crude
marker of health and good genes: serious
illness, injury, or a genetic disorder may
give unusual looks or disfigurements. In the
200,000 years of human history, our ancestors
needed a way to single out those with healthy
genes to pass on to the next generation. In the
absence of genetic testing, choosing a symmet-
rical, average-looking person seems to have
maximised the chance of us passing on good
genes to our progeny.
(In truth, it must be said, being lopsided is rarely
a good indicator of poor health. Evolution, it
seems, is an unforgiving mistress.)
HOT OR NOT?
GUR U • ISSUE 1 6 • F EBR UA RY /MA R CH 2014 • PAGE 38
(LoveisBlind)Flickr•BlueGoaॐ☮,(CD)Flickr•najjie
40. Can men lactate?
Asked by Louise via Facebook
Yes, there are reported instances of breastfeeding
men which, although very bizarre, brings a whole new
meaning to “sharing the parenting duties”.
Male breast milk production is called male galactor-
rhoea. There are a variety of reasons for this to happen,
but it is most commonly caused by raised levels of
the hormone prolactin. This hormone is produced
from a tiny gland at the bottom of the brain called the
pituitary gland. Prolactin stimulates breast tissue to
grow and milk-producing glands to develop. Without
prolactin, a woman would not be able to breastfeed (it
PROmotes LACtation) and it is produced aplenty in
women who are nearing the end of pregnancy or who
are breastfeeding. Men, understandably, don’t have
much circulating in their blood.
Should something cause increased prolactin levels
in a man, he will ultimately develop milk-producing
breasts, just like a breastfeeding woman – albeit in a
smaller and less dramatic form. The most common
reason for high prolactin levels (hyperprolactinaemia)
in men is a small tumour (non-cancerous) on the
pituitary gland. This is usually treatable and can often
be cured.
It is always abnormal in men (in case you were in
doubt) and a milky nipple is always a reason for a man
to visit the doc.
So good news, you fathers: your nipples are safe. You
just have to get used to cleaning up the poop.
Answered by Dr Stu
(AntonundTorsten)Flickr•TorstenMangner
GUR U • ISSUE 1 6 • F EBR UA RY /MA R CH 2014 • PAGE 40
ASK A
GURU
Friday is usually a day to unwind and let those
mental cogs go down a gear. Which is why every
Friday we run‘Ask a Guru’,a chance to send those
questions that popped into your mind during the
week.Y’know,those irritating thoughts like,“is there
intelligent life out there?” and “why can’t men
breastfeed?”
You can tweet your questions to us @GuruMag
with the hashtag #AskAGuru, post it on our
Facebook wall,or send it via the app (just tap the
‘?’ on the main menu). You can even use good
old-fashioned e-mail or send it in a letter. (There’s
a stamp around here somewhere...)
Your questions are awaited by an eager team of
qualified writers and Gurus who will do their very
best to find you an answer. And we will seek out
an external expert to help if we can’t.Go on,give
us your best shot!
Check out our selection of five answers from the
last couple of months. Read these and more
online.
41. What would happen if we lost our moon?
Asked via Facebook
No moon? What an Apollo-ing notion! (Forgive me…)
In short: without a moon, things would get messy –
although it may take a few thousand years for it to
really sink in.
The moon does three important things on the Earth: it
controls its tides, its rotation and its wobble.
By pulling at our oceans with its gravity, the moon
gives us high tides. (The sun does a similar thing, but
because it’s so much further away it doesn’t affect the
tides as much.) So without the moon, tides would be
less pronounced. Such a change wouldn’t sole-ly affect
fishermen (get it?! Ok, I’ll stop now) – but also many
animals that depend on changing tides to survive.
Mass extinctions wouldn’t be great for the planet, but
it wouldn’t cause the world to come to an end.
The moon also puts a damper on the Earth’s spinning
speed, causing it to ever-so-slightly slow down. This
is called tidal friction and, thanks to the moon, our
days are actually becoming gradually longer. Without
our moon, days would gradually become shorter. This
wouldn’t be too much of a bother though, as we would
lose only a couple of seconds every 100,000 years.
Losing the moon would mean losing the Earth’s
stability: our planet wobbles as it orbits around the
sun and the moon reduces this wobble. The physics
behind this is a bit too complex to go into, but the
result would be greater fluctuations in the Earth’s day
lengths; there would be periods with no seasons, and
times of seasonal weather extremes. Changes would
still be quite gradual though, so we’d have some time
before extreme climate change would put an end to
our reign on Earth.
Do spiders ever run out of web or do they make more
when they eat?…I think I’ve seen them recycling old web for new web but I
can’t be sure as I normally squash them on sight.Asked by Matthew
Dearest Matthew,
Spiders are awesome. They spin beautiful webs, they
get rid of pesky flies, and – very occasionally – they
bite nerdy high-school students, turning them into
superheroes. It therefore saddens me that you would
“squash them on sight”. Regardless, you do pose an
interesting question: how do spiders make webs, and
can this ability run out?
A spider’s silk doesn’t leave its body fully formed.
There’s no little roll of spider thread waiting to be
unravelled: the silk is actually secreted as a protein
fluid, which hardens when it comes into
contact with the air (a bit like glue does when
it comes out of a tube). This fluid is produced
by the spinneret glands located at the tip
of the abdomen, and the web has different
properties depending on which gland type it
comes from: it can be sticky (to catch prey) or
strong (to form robust structures).
To make its web, all the spider needs is a supply
of protein. So, yes, the more they eat, the more
web they can produce. It’s a nice circle isn’t it
– the spider builds a web to catch prey, it eats
the prey, and digests it into protein, which it
then uses to build another web. Simplicity: thy
name is spider.
So what happens on a slow day when our spider isn’t
having any luck catching dinner? It’s used a lot of
protein to build a lovely web, but the flies just aren’t
coming. It would be a terrible waste just to abandon all
that work. Why not eat the web and re-use the protein
to spin another one in a better location? That’s exactly
what they do! Spiders munch old web and use the
protein to refuel their spinneret glands – it’s recycling
at its best!
So there you have it. Spiders are not only awesome,
they’re also eco-friendly. What more could you want
in a creepy crawly?
Answer by Ross Harper
(Spiderweb)Flickr•lynnmwillis
ASK A GURU
PAGE 41 • FEBRUARY/ M ARCH 2014 • IS S UE 16 • GUR U
42. What is the longest someone has been pregnant for?
Asked by Fiona West
The current record of the longest ever successful
pregnancy goes to Beulah Hunter and her daughter
Penny from Los Angeles. While a normal human
pregnancy lasts for around 266 days, Mrs Hunter’s
pregnancy in 1945 lasted for 375 days – a whopping
109 days overdue. Dr. Daniel Beltz of the Los Angeles
Methodist Hospital, who treated Mrs Beulah,
confirmed the date when she first tested positive and
the date of birth. He was quoted as saying that the
excessively long pregnancy was due to unusually slow
development of the foetus. The baby was described
as of healthy weight when born, had a normal devel-
opment and went on to lead a healthy life.
Bear in mind that, as with all records of a medical kind,
the validity of this claim is questionable. Some argue
that it could be two separate pregnancies adding up to
a longer time period. The first could have miscarried
and then been directly followed by a second successful
pregnancy. Another idea is that the date for the start
of the pregnancy could be wrong. The date was taken
from the missed period prior to testing positive, but
this could be due to a spontaneously missed period
and a false positive test. In 1945, the pregnancy test
involved injecting the pregnant woman’s urine into a
mouse and observing any hormone-related changes.
While this was an effective test, it is less accurate than
today’s test and could conceivably have falsely come
up positive. If she then got pregnant in the following
few weeks, it would appear that the baby had an excep-
tionally long gestational period. However, this is all
speculation and we will probably never know the exact
length of the pregnancy.
While that pregnancy was long, it isn’t the longest
time between conception itself and birth. In May
2003, a boy and a girl were born 13 years after being
conceived. In late 1990, a couple from Jerusalem,
who had infertility issues, had embryos cryogenically
frozen for use at a later date. Twelve whole years later,
these embryos were implanted in the mother and she
gave birth to a boy and a girl, weighing 5 pounds each.
Answered by James Crewdson
But perhaps most importantly, if we lost our
moon, we’d have a tough time explaining to
future generations what inspired werewolves, the
Moon walk, and songs like ‘Man in the Moon’. If
we’d lost it a century ago, mankind would be “one
large step” behind – though the Soviet Union and
U.S. would have saved themselves a quarrel (and
a lot of money).
Check out this documentary for a fuller story –
including the likely origin of our moon.
To see what Hollywood makes of the matter, you
could try watching (enduring?) the 2013 block-
buster Oblivion.
Answered by Isabell Hutchison
(harvestmoon)Flickr•lovingyourwork.com,(Ensaio{grávida}-SilvanaLyra)500px•Nathalinha.
ASK A GURU
GUR U • ISSUE 1 6 • F EBR UA RY /MA R C H 2 0 14 • PAGE 42
43. Are edible nightshades toxic or poisonous? If so, in
what quantities?
Asked by @sineira via twitter
When you think of a ‘nightshade’, the image
of a deadly nightshade plant or a pretty flower
probably comes to mind. In reality, nightshades
are part of a vast family of varied plants (the
Solanaceae family). Quite a few types of night-
shade are highly toxic – but lots aren’t. Had you
realised that potatoes, tomatoes, chili peppers
(to use the US spelling) and even the tobacco
plant are types of nightshade? Which gives you
something to think about next time you squeeze
ketchup on your fries.
The chemicals that make nightshades poisonous
are called alkaloids. These harmful chemicals help
to protect the plants from anything that wants
to eat them; it’s the reason hot peppers are so
fiery – they contain the spicy alkaloid, capsaicin.
While the heat from eating a chili pepper may
deter other mammals, humans can’t seem to get
enough (see this previous answer to find out
why). And while eating lots of hot peppers isn’t
fatal, it can certainly make you sick. (Technically it
is possible to die from chili pepper overdose but you
have to try very hard – Ed)
Some nightshade plants are deadly, such as bella-
donna (deadly nightshade) and the jimson
weed. Never eat these. They contain tropane,
another much more toxic alkaloid. Side-effects
are nasty: hallucinations, coma, and death. A
few leaves or berries are enough to kill an adult
human. Children and animals are especially
at risk since the berries look edible and taste sweet.
Oddly, tropane can also save lives when given in
controlled doses as atropine, a drug that can treat an
irregular heartbeat.
Potatoes and tomatoes are the most popular edible
nightshades. They do contact a harmful alkaloid called
solanine, which when ingested in large quantities can
cause vomiting, diarrhoea and hallucinations. We can
get away with eating tomatoes and potatoes because
solanine levels are low in the edible parts of these
plants. Toxic levels of solanine are found only in the
leaves, stems, and unripe fruit. Therefore, eating ripe
tomatoes is fine, so you should feel free to eat as much
tomato sauce and mashed potatoes as you want. But if
anyone offers you tomato leaf tea, don’t drink it. Oh,
and avoid the green potatoes.
List of edible nightshades:
• Tomato
• Tomatillo
• Naranjilla
• Eggplant (aubergine)
• Potato
• Pepper (includes hot and sweet varieties as well
as spices like paprika, chili powder, cayenne, and
Tabasco)
• Pimento
• Gogi berry (wolfberry)
• Tamarillo
• Cape gooseberry/ground cherry
• Pepino
• Garden huckleberry
Answer by Shambralyn Baker
(Monnom:‘Atropabelladonna’...Deadlynightshade...)Flickr•annearnould
ASK A GURU
PAGE 43 • FEBRUARY/ M ARCH 2014 • IS S UE 16 • GUR U
44. HAS THE WORLD
GONE BANANAS?
5 PRACTICAL WAYS TO STAY SAFE FROM RADIATION
#PHYSICS
SPENCER MANWELL
45. Ask most people what they think
are the main sources of radiation
and you’re likely to hear three main
answers – nuclear power, radioactive
waste and fallout from A-bombs.
And once upon a time I thought the
same way. After all, nuclear power
and bombs use radioactive materials
and produce radioactive waste, which
goes everywhere and gets into every-
thing. Right? Well, not quite.
I have often heard it said that “no radiation is
safe”. But, for most people, nuclear power and
fallout from nuclear weapons aren’t the major
contributors to the radiation they are exposed
to. They’re not even close! Let me therefore
outline five modest steps that you can take
to protect yourself from common sources of
radiation – most that you are probably not
aware of.
Step One: build your house out of
straw
I know this strategy didn’t work so well for the
three little piggies, but bear with me…
Most of us get our largest annual dose of
radiation from naturally occurring sources,
including several radioactive minerals found
underground. But these minerals don’t stay
buried away: they are commonly found in
building materials like concrete and brick. In
other words, the stuff houses are made of.
So one way to avoid natural sources of radiation
is to eschew typical building materials and opt
for straw instead. And your straw house would
be better off without a basement: radioactive
radon gas, found in rock and soil, can seep
into your home and accumulate to potentially
dangerous levels.
Step Two: install a lead-lined roof
Step Two for radiation protection is where
things get tricky. We need to deal with the fact
that another large portion of our annual dose
of radiation takes the form of cosmic radiation
from outer space. To keep our exposure to
cosmic rays to a minimum we should place nice,
thick, lead rooftops on our straw house. I am no
engineer, but I suspect there may be structural
support issues here...
PreviousPage:(X-ray)Flickr•MadHousePhotography,(Banana-Isolated)Flickr•robin_24,(strawbalehouse)Flickr•iphilipp,(LeadroofonStMary’sChurchDedham)Wikimedia•PaulFarmer
HAS THE WORLD GONE BANANAS?
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