Imagine a place where the air temperature can drop to minus forty (-40)) Celsius and the winds can bolt atspeeds of 40 meters per second? Antarctic penguins live in a place that exactly fits the description. They routinely hop in and out of the water in sub-freezing temperatures but ice won’t coat their feathers. Droplets of water on the feathers bead up so much that it’s difficult for heat to flow out of the droplets. The water will roll off before it has time to freeze. A combination of nanostructures and a special oil see to it that the ultra-water-repelling or “superhydrophobic” setting would prevail. Pirouz Kavehpour, who studied the penguins, is an aerospace engineering professor at UCLA. He knows ice on an airplane’s wings, flaps, and rudder can alter the aerodynamic properties of the plane and even cause it to crash. Airlines spend lots of time and money to prevent it. They should apply superhydrophobic surfaces inspired by penguins. It might be cheaper and longer-lasting. Kavehpour added, “It’s a little ironic that a bird that doesn’t fly could one day help airplane fly more safely,”
SNEAK PEEK
1. Not the “blueprint”
All information passed down from one generation to the next is stored in DNA, right? Turns out, DNA at best is a scrambled list of ingredients, not the set of instructions used to build and maintain a living organism. Who said “DNA cannot be seen as the ‘blueprint’ for life”?
1. Cell biologist Antony Jose (University of Maryland)
2. The earliest temple
Gobekli Tepe in Turkey was built 11,500 to 11,000 years ago. Lack of evidence of farming or animal domestication at the time implies it must have been built by hunter-gatherers. But its architectural complexity is highly unusual for these societies. Who studied the site?
2. Tel Aviv University archaeologist Avi Gopher
3. Ocean breathability
Ocean breathability (how breathable the water is) is critical to sea animals. Climate change isn’t just warming the oceans; it is also causing oxygen to decrease, which could force fish and other ocean animals to move away from their normal range. Who reported the issue?
3. UW postdoctoral researcher Evan Howard
4. This is self-control
Concentration and frustration tolerance bespeak self-control. A collection of 500,000-year-old flint axes, unearthed from a quarry in West Sussex, shows careful workmanship and a tendency to forgo immediate needs to longer term aims. Who saw self-control in them?
4. Archaeologist Dr Penny Spikins (University of York)
5. Diets gone south
Fatty food may feel like happy diversion these days. You may know people whose diets have gone south while they’re working at home during the pandemic. Who suggested that our ability to concentrate can be impaired by just one meal that is high in saturated fat?
5. Psychologist Annelise Madison (Ohio State University).
6. Turning off all pain
Several brain regions process pain. This means you’d have to turn them all off to stop pain, but there is a switch that turns pain off — a subset of neurons called the CeAga neurons. And it is in the central amygdala, the home of negative emotions! Who identified the neurons?
6. Fan Wang (Duke Institute for Brain Sciences)
7. Greater worldwide
Cities are strongly connected by flows of trade and materials, among other things. Disasters in one place can trigger costs in cities across the world due to the interconnectedness. Who proposed that the global impacts can be three times greater than the local impacts?
7. Data scientist Chris Shughrue (StreetCred Labs, New York)
8. Posture of power
Body language is not just about expressing feelings. “Power posing” is the nonverbal expression of power. It involves making very bold gestures and changes in body posture. Who identified it and demonstrated that it has “the strongest effect on children’s self-esteem”?
8. Robert Körner (Institute of Psychology, Martin Luther University)
9. No, after you!
Ants in panic stay calm. They act for the good of the group (“After you”. “No, after you”). Ants tell us “slower is faster”. Who, working with traffic engineers, found that the slower the individuals move, the faster a human crowd can be evacuated from a panic-stricken scene?
9. Evolutionary ecologist Martin Burd (Monash University)
[ANSWERS]
1. Cell biologist Antony Jose (University of Maryland)
2. Tel Aviv University archaeologist Avi Gopher
3. UW postdoctoral researcher Evan Howard
4. Archaeologist Dr Penny Spikins (University of York)
5. Psychologist Annelise Madison (Ohio State University).
6. Fan Wang (Duke Institute for Brain Sciences)
7. Data scientist Chris Shughrue (StreetCred Labs, New York)
8. Robert Körner (Institute of Psychology, Martin Luther University)
9. Evolutionary ecologist Martin Burd (Monash University)
QUIZ No. 955
1. Who noted that conspiracists see meaningful patterns where they might not exist?
– Joshua Hart
– Marie-Louise von Franz
– Florence Goodenough
1. Joshua Hart
2. High CO2 concentrations can affect decision-making and planning. Who found it?
– Anna C. Schapiro
– Pamela Jane Bjorkman
– William Edmund Hick
2. Anna C. Schapiro
3. Who said the 1993 blockbuster ‘Jurassic Park’ was wrong about raptor behaviour?
– Joseph Frederickson
– Oliver M. Boone Bulman
– Martin David Brasier
3. Joseph Frederickson
4. Which philosopher stated that “Nothing is more Western than hatred of the West”?
– Linda Martín Alcoff
– Robert Merrihew Adams
– Pascal Bruckner
4. Pascal Bruckner
5. The tallest Santa Claus in the US was the tallest WWII German soldier. Name him.
– Jakob Nacken
– Otto Moritz Walter Model
– Ferdinand Schörner
5. Jakob Nacken