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AUSTRALIA
UNLOCK YOUR BODY’S
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● ACCELERATE MUSCLE GROWTH ● BOOST MENTAL STRENGTH NATURE
LEOPARD VS BIRD
SCIENCE
FLY TO LONDON IN UNDER FOUR HOURS
HISTORY
HOW JAMES BOND TOOK ON HITLER
TECHNOLOGY
WORLD EVEN
TS
SCIENCE
WELCOME TO n World of Knowledge is your new monthly magazine crammed full of amazing stuff about the world we live in. From first looks at futuristic technology and solving the puzzles of the universe, to revealing nature’s breathtaking secrets and investigating the most important moments in history, it’ll have something for every member of the family. This free 36-page mini-mag will give you a flavour of what you can expect over the coming months. Every issue will be a 100-page voyage of discovery as we uncover awesome facts about cutting-edge science, and explore the stories behind world events. So whether you’re aged nine or 90, this is a magazine designed to feed your mind. Welcome to World of Knowledge! COVER PHOTOS: Smetek/Huber, Corbis, Getty Images, Caters, PR, Sony
NATURE
H U M A N B O DY
SPECIAL $4.95 LAUNCH PRICE!
Get the launch issue of World of Knowledge for the special introductory price of just $4.95 – in stores from April 10. Turn to page 33 for details on how to subscribe. 3
AMAZING PHOTO
4
GO W
In t he m h i ‘cur as to t ddle se r t c y a get s la in’ of to sta tion, O w u wou nche ater y wit rtiz h . hea ld lose d into c If the the dlon con lear boat g in trol air surf to the and cr , he a ace r of t ock-ha sh he w rd ater .
ITH T
HE FL OW
GET ME OUT OF H
ERE!
The tip of th e cut the wa kayak has to te r like a knif – ideally at e th e p recise where the aerated wa point ter can cushion O rt he must pa iz’s fall. Then dd before the le frantically pushes him gushing water into the ch urn.
PHOTO: Red Bull
When Rafael Ortiz nudges his kayak away from the banks of the Palouse River, he knows there is no turning back. A few metres before the mighty river becomes an 18-storey waterfall, the current will swallow up anything that floats. Ortiz takes his paddle and starts hitting the marks he has played through in his mind a thousand times. His first priority is to go over the lip of the waterfall on the right-hand side. This route will give the Mexican just enough time and space during his descent to make corrections to his course before the chaos crashes down around him. It is not as if he can just let himself freefall; Ortiz has to lean back to make sure he isn’t flung out of his kayak. “The only way to survive is to become one with the water,” he explains. There is also the small matter of keeping the kayak balanced so that it cuts the surface of the pool like a knife – and of manoeuvring the landing so that it occurs at precisely the point where thousands of tons of falling water mix with the surrounding air to form a cushion. If the boat lands perpendicular to the water (known as ‘boofing’ in kayaker lingo), the impact would not only shatter Ortiz’s kayak, but also his spine. And yet even though he manages to hit the pool at just the right angle after four seconds plummeting through the air, he ends up missing his real target. The impact is so powerful that Ortiz is catapulted out of his kayak, meaning his record attempt is invalid. So, no world records broken, but no bones either, as Ortiz says on Facebook: “Glad it’s over haha.” Next up? The Iguaçú Falls in Brazil – 65 metres of vertical water and, assuming he manages to stay in his boat, another shot at a world record.
BRA CE
RES
Rafael Ortiz has just four seconds to steer his kayak as it hurtles over the Palouse waterfall in north-west America. As the water’s deafening roar thunders across the canyon, our extreme kayaker knows he cannot afford to make the slightest error
BRA CE,
57M ET
PLUNGING INTO THE VOID
W ev sur het lip en viv he at . He bef e th r or p h or e n be reci as t e he fall ot O ab sely o h go s is rtiz i le d to the t the es o ecid will ha rig w ver ed ov ve a ht p ate the er ny oi rfa his c nt ll de ont to sc rol en t.
5
TECHNOLOGY
HOW DO ITS WINGS HELP IT REACH MACH 5?
The faster an aircraft flies, the smaller its aerofoils need to be to generate sufficient lift. To reach Mach 5 (approximately 6115km/h) Skylon only requires a wingspan of 25 metres. By way of comparison an Airbus A380, which is a similar length, has a wingspan three times greater. Small foreplanes or ‘canards’ at the front of the fuselage serve primarily to control altitude. The engines, which are tilted downwards by seven degrees, supply additional lift.
HOW MANY TONS OF FUEL ARE REQUIRED TO BLAST INTO SPACE?
Skylon’s propulsion system uses a combination of three gases: hydrogen, oxygen and helium. At launch they would make up about 80% of Skylon’s 275-ton takeoff weight. In the SABRE, hydrogen combusts with oxygen and in doing so generates more energy than any other fuel. That makes the resultant gas mixture an ideal rocket booster. The only downside is the extremely high temperature that a hydrogen engine operates at – up to 1200°C. This is where the helium comes in. This ultra-light gas cools the engines and other parts of the aircraft. To achieve blast-off, a total of 66 tons of liquid hydrogen and 150 tons of liquid oxygen would need to be stored at high pressure in the tanks.
HOW DOES AN AEROPLANE BECOME A ROCKET?
Skylon has two different applications – as a supersonic airliner it will be able to whisk travellers across the globe faster than ever before, and as a ‘transporter’ it could facilitate low-cost, quick flights between Earth and space. What sets it apart is its revolutionary engine, which combines the potential of a rocket engine with that of a standard jet engine. In aeroplane mode, its Synergistic Air-Breathing Rocket Engine (or ‘SABRE’) can collect oxygen from the atmosphere and use it as fuel, while in rocket mode the engines can fall back on the stored oxygen in order to keep operating even in the near-vacuum of space.
SYDNEY TO LONDON...
IN 4 HOURS? Within a decade, next-generation superplanes like Skylon could be connecting continents or even taking passengers into space. There’s just one obstacle: engineers are still puzzling over how to maintain top speed for longer than a couple of seconds n
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SKYLON FACT FILE
HOW MANY PASSENGERS CAN BREAK THE SOUND BARRIER AT THE SAME TIME?
On a normal intercontinental flight, Skylon should be able to carry around 300 people. Because of the additional fuel and coolant required for ‘rocket mode’, this figure is reduced to between 30 and 40 for space flights. Both types of flight would be ‘piloted’ by a computer, rather than a person.
LENGTH: 82 metres FUSELAGE DIAMETER: 6.25 metres WINGSPAN: 25 metres UNLADEN WEIGHT: 45 tons SPEED IN JET MODE: Mach 5 SPEED IN ROCKET MODE: Mach 25 CRUISING ALTITUDE IN INTERCONTINENTAL FLIGHT: 24 kilometres OPERATING ALTITUDE IN SPACE: above 200 kilometres ESTIMATED FIRST FLIGHT: between 2018 and 2020 7
T
ake off from Sydney and, in the time WIND RESISTANCE it takes to watch two movies, touch Aerodynamics play an integral part in an aircraft’s down in London? Via a quick trip into space? What sounds like science design and construction. fiction could soon be reality. All over the world, engineers are racing to perfect designs for supersonic passenger aircraft that can cheat time. With these aircraft, virtually any spot on the globe will be reachable in just four to five hours. Combine that with differing time zones and this could result in some intriguing possibilities: have a coffee on every continent within the space of 24 hours, take a quick jaunt to America or Africa, or experience half a dozen sunrises one after the other…
THE FUTURE IS GREEN
There’s a touch of the Concordes about Lockheed Martin’s Green Machine. Unlike its supersonic forerunner, though, pollution and sonic booms would not be a problem, thanks to its special engine combustors and inverted-V tail. In theory it could be in service by 2030.
WILL SUPERSONIC JETS BECOME NO-FRILLS AIRLINERS?
THE FASTEST AIRCRAFT IN THE WORLD
With the help of a booster rocket, NASA’s X-43A can reach an amazing 10,618km/h; nearly ten times the speed of sound. 8
criss-crossing the skies in a more environmentally friendly manner than current jets: the only emission these next-gen jets will produce is water vapour. Perhaps the most compelling argument in favour of Skylon, though, is based on cost: a rocket aircraft that uses a conventional runway and landing strip does not just reduce the price of a trip into orbit by a factor of 15, it could also make city breaks around the world an everyday occurrence for everyone. Not just in first class either. “What we are talking about here is Jetstar at Mach 5,” promises Ben Gallagher, business development manager for Reaction Engines.
CAN AN AEROPLANE MAKE AIR EXPLODE? Researchers still have to overcome a few hurdles before hypersonic flight becomes a reality, though. When any aeroplane approaches the sound barrier, the air resistance dramatically increases. The reason for this is that the aircraft compresses the air as if it were a rubber ball. The molecules simply cannot move out of the way quickly enough. Once the air expands again the sudden equalisation of high and low pressure causes pressure waves which spread in all directions at the speed of sound, similar to what happens following an explosion. When an aeroplane breaks the sound barrier at about 1226km/h, it’s flying faster than the sound it is making – leaving in its wake pressure waves that meet to make one huge wave. This sonic cone, which becomes longer and longer, forms at the nose and at the tail and spreads out in all directions in a circle. An observer on the ground would hear the characteristic single or double boom when the shockwave on the edge of the sonic cone passes over their location on the ground. The thunder caused by supersonic aircraft at low altitudes can even cause window panes to shatter. Only onboard does silence reign as the aircraft outruns its own noise.
LONDON
HAWAII
3.9 HOURS HOW DO YOU COOL AN ENGINE FROM 1000°C? The shockwaves resulting from the compression in the supersonic range are so powerful that they would tear most conventional airliners to pieces. On top of that, the incredible heat generated by friction compromises aerodynamics: pushing HEAD TURNER something as big as This mind-boggling concept an airliner through the plane from the University atmosphere at several
of Miami rotates through 90 degrees to switch from subsonic to supersonic flight.
SYDNEY
4 HOURS
times the speed of sound can generate temperatures of up to 1000°C. Rockets can be protected from melting by a special ceramic coating but if, like the Skylon, you need to use oxygen from the atmosphere for your own engines, your only choice is to lower the temperature – as quickly as possible. “Our system can cool impinging air from plus 1000 to minus 150 degrees Celsius in one hundredth of a second,” explains Alan Bond. Cooling is achieved with a matrix of very fine tubes carrying liquid helium. In addition, there is an integrated frost-control system to ensure that water vapour cannot freeze and block the cooling system inlets. Thanks to these features Skylon, in contrast to a rocket, does not need to carry bulky and heavy liquid oxygen when it is in jet mode. Only on journeys through the airless environment of space does the aircraft switch into rocket mode; once it reaches an altitude of about 24 kilometres it pumps stored oxygen into the combustion chambers. The transfer to an orbit trajectory around the Earth should take six minutes, making space closer even than Europe or America. If the Skylon project stays on schedule, the plane should make its maiden flight by the end of this decade, ushering in the global hypersonic age. 9
PHOTO: Getty Images; ILLUSTRATIONS: SPL/Agentur Focus; PR (3)
Skylon, designed by British firm Reaction Engines, is one of the most promising candidates. Alan Bond, the company’s founder, is currently overseeing tests with a unique propulsion system, a hybrid of a rocket engine and a jet: “We can get to space and back using this. We can also easily reach five times the speed of sound without any problem and thereby fly from Australia to Europe in four to four and a half hours,” he says. Currently the flight time for the 17,000-kilometre journey between Sydney and London is still 23 hours, with a refuelling stop en route. Of course, there’s a military application for this technology and there’s keen interest in hypersonic fighter planes. After all, at Mach 5 – five times faster than the speed of sound – a fighter jet would be able to outrun any current missile. Hypersonic planes are even too fast for pilots: at speeds much above Mach 4, having a human at the controls would be simply too great a risk. We just react too slowly. For this reason, a computer will assume command of Skylon. The European Space Agency (ESA) does not see “flaws of any kind” in the design. The new development could even be
HUMAN BODY
LIFE’S ENGINE
A
We can’t see our most important muscle – the heart – which is why we all too often ignore it. But new studies show that it’s possible to train your heart muscles to the point where cardiac output is improved by 50%.
SUPER HUMANS
HOW DO I GET A BODY THAT
WON’T QUIT? n Accelerated muscle growth, improved cardio fitness,
superior mental strength – scientists have developed methods that allow you to access your body’s untapped potential and push yourself far beyond your normal limits 10
ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT
Chances are, you’re not getting the most out of your body – but improvement is always within reach. “People with a low level of physical fitness can improve their stamina by 10% within just three months,” says sports scientist Klaus Boes.
s he passes the 40-kilometre mark, Stu Thoms begins to slow his pace a little. With the Greek city of Athens receding into the distance behind him, the scalding midday sun beats down relentlessly on his skin – the temperature has risen past 38°C, and the 46 year old has now been running for four hours straight. The hours pass. Dusk begins to set in. Thoms arrives at the Sangas Pass, at an altitude of 1200 metres. It’s vital that he ‘checks in’ with his body from time to time, ensuring that his muscles are relaxed, his breathing is regular, and that his heart – life’s little engine – is ticking along smoothly, even after 15 hours and 135 kilometres of gruelling, non-stop running. As the sun rises, Thoms is the first runner to arrive at the gates of the legendary city of Sparta. He still has 40 kilometres – almost an entire marathon – to go. A crowd of thousands has gathered to cheer him and the other runners onwards. Eventually, Thom arrives at the feet of the statue of King Leonidas, where, finally, his race ends. He’s run a grand total of 246 kilometres, in a time of 26 hours, 28 minutes and 19 seconds. He laughs, he cries. He is overwhelmed by his achievement. On 29 September 2012, Stu Thoms won the aptly named Spartathlon – an annual race from Athens to Sparta that lays claim to being the toughest ultra-marathon on the planet. In 2012, of the 302 runners who attempted the Spartathlon, only 72 made it across the finish line. So, how did Thoms not only manage to complete the event, but win it? Certainly, he has talent, and his uncanny ability to keep himself motivated played a big role in his victory. But the real key to Thoms’ success is his ability to discover his body’s true potential, and to then use virtually 100% of that potential – something that few of us ever do. “You have to push yourself to the limit, and then raise the limit,” he explains, “otherwise you’ll never be able to handle the incredible strain.” It’s not only extreme athletes such as Thoms whose bodies harbour untapped reserves of strength, speed and stamina – all of us possess astonishing latent potential. “The muscles, the lungs, the heart – everyone has potential for improvement in the various performance centres of the body,” says sports-medicine expert Jürgen Giessing. Over the page, World of Knowledge will show some examples of how your own body’s hidden potential can be unlocked... > 11
HOW CAN I DEVELOP A STRESS-FIREWALL IN MY BRAIN?
Stress is a powerful performance inhibitor. According to studies, people whose brains are regularly flooded with stress hormones can find their physical fitness decreases by up to 40%.
n
WHAT’S THE QUICKEST WAY TO BUILD MUSCLE? n
Daniel Craig has precious little time to spare. It’s November 2011, and shooting on the new James Bond film Skyfall begins in just a few weeks. Director Sam Mendes will be expecting a brawny action-herotype to stride on to the set – but 43-year-old Craig is still far from ready to step into Bond’s shoes. It’s clear that a few regular gym sessions are not going to cut it, so how does Craig sculpt himself into the fittest, toughest 007 ever in such a short time? The secret to rapidly building muscle is a relatively new technique called highintensity training, or HIT. Popularised in the 1970s, experts claim that no other training method yields the same results in as short a timeframe. The key to HIT’s effectiveness is its relatively slow pace: instead of aiming for the maximum number of reps during a weight-lifting session,
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a body builder will take their time, extending each rep out to seven seconds apiece – three seconds lifting, one second holding, three seconds releasing. “At this pace, you can be sure that you’re getting the most out of a lift, and not just relying on momentum,” explains Jürgen Giessing. Studies show that a single set of reps using HIT is as effective as three sets of reps using standard training methods. And building muscle in this manner not only increases strength, it can also trigger a whole range of health benefits: research by physician Bente Pedersen reveals that muscles release proteins that have a regenerative effect on the liver, pancreas, heart and fatty tissue. “These neurotransmitters, known as myokines, are the reason that exercise can be so beneficial for people struck down by illness,” explains Pedersen. The only time that muscles release these myokines, however, is during exercise – in other words, no pain, no gain!
There’s barbed wire, cement bunkers, intimidating guards barking orders. The noise generated by a ferocious interrogation keeps everyone’s nerves on edge. Gazing along the concrete walls, there seems little chance of escape. We are not, however, in a real prisoner-of-war camp – this is just one exercise from 19 days’ worth of hellish training undergone by elite Special Forces cadets, in which they’re called upon to demonstrate near-superhuman levels of psychological stamina. The purpose of the US Army’s Resistance Training Laboratory is to build up “stress inoculation” – a mental firewall against stress. It may seem inconceivable that an entirely simulated situation could induce ‘genuine’ stress in a person – but Dr Andy Morgan of Yale Medical School has evidence that such scenarios really can do just that. Morgan’s studies show that when a soldier undergoes a mock interrogation, their heart rate can spike upwards to 170 beats per minute (from a normal resting heart rate of around 80 beats per minute) for a full 30 minutes – despite the fact that they haven’t moved a muscle. Meanwhile, their body is being flooded
with more stress hormones than are experienced by a pilot landing on an aircraft carrier. Remarkably, the stress levels in the top trainees will drop away to almost non-existent within 24 hours of entering the training program. It appears that you can train your body to adjust to even the most nerve-jangling of situations; essentially preventing the brain from ever entering ‘alarm mode’ and releasing noradrenaline and adrenaline into your system. If you’re generally quick to panic, you’d do well to repeatedly subject yourself to stressful situations – involving fear, pressure, tight timelimits, etc – in order to conquer your innate instinct to flee when the going gets tough. Competitive sports can help, as can video games. Special Forces training also utilises something known as mind’s-eye technique. Cadets are asked to call forth positive mental images from their pasts – successfully passing an exam, for example – in order to counteract stress. Such memories of past successes help effectively deal with fear and panic in the here and now.
BLOOD BOOSTERS
Muscles release healing proteins into the bloodstream that help organs such as the heart, pancreas and liver to regenerate. However, these beneficial neurotransmitters are only released during exercise.
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PHOTOS: Corbis (2); Sony Pictures; Getty Images (3) ILLUSTRATIONS: Smetek/Huber
UNDER PRESSURE
NATURE
A SNACK IN THE SAVANNAH
THE LONE KILLER
Leopards are solitary creatures, and will go out of their way to avoid each other. 14
The leopard has positioned himself, hidden from view, next to one of the busiest spots on the savannah. Antelope, zebra, gazelle and wildebeest will all pass by this small waterhole sooner or later. So when the leopard is hungry, this is the place to go – all it has to do is wait for some tasty prey to arrive. What will be on the menu today? There’s a surprise in store, however, both for the big cat and for photographer Matt Prophet, because today’s unexpected appetiser is a bird – specifically, sandgrouse. Sandgrouse tend not to fear big cats, as they barely register to the mighty ground-predators: their measly size makes them not worth hunting, and besides, their bones can shatter and become wedged in a big cat’s oesophagus – with fatal consequences. But during this particular lunchtime, a flock of sandgrouse fly over the waterhole just low enough for the leopard to reach out and grab one. Its powerful body springs upwards at lightning speed, two paws plucking the bird from the warm savannah air, while the rest of the flock frantically change course. Weighing around 400g, the bird isn’t much of a feast for an adult leopard, and immediately after devouring it the high-performance hunter is back on the lookout for more food to fill its 90kg frame. With a top speed of 60km/h and night-vision six times stronger than that of humans, the leopard waits to see what will arrive at the waterhole to become its main course…
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PHOTOS: Matt Prophet/Caters Picture Media(3)
This leopard had been waiting to ambush wildebeest or gazelle – until an unexpected flock of sandgrouse caused it to change its dinner plans
WORLD EVENTS
WELCOME TO HELL ISLAND
Migingo Island should be an angler’s paradise. The small rock in Lake Victoria is surrounded by some of Africa’s richest fishing grounds. But in recent years, greed has consumed the region. Now its inhabitants are in a fight for survival against each other – and against nature
I
t is no bigger than a footy pitch. But despite its small size, Migingo Island has a handful of bars, a temporary church, brothels, restaurants and even a cinema (although visitors expecting IMAX might be disappointed by the room full of plastic chairs and a television). Several hundred people live on the island in the eastern part of Lake Victoria. It’s crowded, it’s loud, and it stinks of fish and urine. There are just two toilets on the island, shared by its entire population: Migingo is one of the most densely populated areas on the planet. Twenty-four soldiers – 12 from Kenya and 12 from Uganda – patrol the rock day and night with semiautomatic assault rifles at the ready. Both countries claim Migingo as their own as it lies directly on the national border which runs across Africa’s largest lake. Every morning, a small armada of colourful boats heads out towards Migingo from the coast 25 kilometres away. At peak hours there are often more than 800 vessels bobbing about on the waters surrounding the single acre of stone and corrugated iron that make up the island. They are all here because of a situation that began some 60 years ago when 25 fish were released into the lake…
CAN 25 FISH DESTROY A LAKE THE SIZE OF TASMANIA? The island’s history will forever be connected to Britain’s colonial past. To the British in East Africa, Lake Victoria’s 70,000 square kilometres seemed > 16
Some 500 people call the rocky outcrop of Migingo their home. For the past few years, both Kenya and Uganda have claimed it belongs to them. 17
KENYA VICTORIA Migingo
340km
240km
2001
TANZANIA
WATER LOSS Between 2001
PHOTOS: Jesco Denzel/Visum (1); Nasa; Esa; Getty Images (2); Nigel Pavitt/Corbis (2)
2005
and 2005 the lake’s water level has dropped by 1.3 metres.
capable of supporting outstanding fisheries. In the 1950s, colonial officials were frustrated that Africa’s largest lake contained mostly tilapia, a relatively small fish which, they claimed, had too many bones and too little meat. British officials in the Ugandan Game and Fisheries Department decided to experiment and released an initial 25 Nile perch, a much bigger fish, into Lake Victoria. The hope was that they would breed and occasionally a few could be caught and eaten. In a lake the size of Tassie, what could possibly go wrong? It turned out that a lot could go wrong. Nile perch are predatory fish which can grow up to two metres long and weigh as much as 200kg. Within 30 years, the newcomers had eradicated over 250 species of fish from the area, many of which could only be found in Lake Victoria. The Nile perch population exploded and the fish quickly became indispensable to the fishermen in the neighbouring countries of Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. More than 30 factories are involved in packaging perch and delivering them to the rest of the world. Only
RARE CATCH
FISHY BUSINESS
Nowadays, this is an unusual sight on the shores of Lake Victoria. It is rare for fishermen to catch a Nile perch longer than 50cm because the fish are usually taken from the water before they are fully grown.
Due to their high fat content, Nile perch intended for personal consumption cannot be traditionally air-dried – they would rot. Instead, they must be smoked, which requires large quantities of wood.
24 hours after being taken out of the water, the perch arrive at the fish counters of European supermarkets, costing about $15/kg. The African fishermen receive a tenth of this. This may sound derisory, but it’s a lot of money compared to the wages received by labourers working on land in the area. As a result, thousands of people trek to the lake every year to sign up for work on the fishing boats, and more and more fishermen are fishing for fewer and fewer fish: the volume of Nile perch has been in decline since 2000. The once-thriving Lake Victoria is now on its deathbed.
hand, has decreased. The net result is that more water evaporates than is fed back into the water cycle. The increased temperature also leads to increased algae growth, which wouldn’t normally pose a problem for a lake the size of Victoria as the plants would be fed on by fish. Unfortunately, the region has been overfished to such a dramatic degree that the algae is left to grow, removing oxygen from the water. The rotting remains of plants sink to the lake bed and the decomposing bacteria release poisonous hydrogen sulphide. As a result, the smell of rotten eggs hangs over parts of the lake. Many coastal areas have become so poisoned that fishermen must travel further and further out to find healthy fish. Then, in 2004, fishermen discovered that the rocky areas around Migingo were still teeming with Nile perch.
CLIMATE CHANGE HITS LAKE VICTORIA A century ago, parts of Migingo Island were still under water, whereas today its highest point reaches five metres above sea level. The island is the direct result of an ecological catastrophe. Obviously it’s not the rock that’s growing, rather the sea is disappearing. In 50 years, climate change has caused the average local temperature to rise by one degree. Rainfall, on the other
NIGHT LIFE
Fishermen drag nets at night with the help of a lamp that has been charged by solar power. The light is powered by an ‘O-Box’ battery (the blue device beneath the lamp), which can also be connected to mobile phones, laptops, radios and TVs. In the boom years that followed, it’s claimed about three tons of the fish were landed there every day. Sadly, the specimens that used to grow up to two metres no longer exist. These days, it is rare to find a fish longer than 50cm. Humans have all but eliminated the Nile perch from Lake Victoria, and the whole ecosystem is teetering on the brink of disaster. To make matters worse, the region is hardly a safe one in which to work. Fishermen, wary of pirates that have begun operating around the island, each pay around $35 in protection money every month to the patrolling soldiers. Anyone at sea who hasn’t paid the fee is soon boarded by outlaws and thrown into the water. Only the brave fish after dark – it’s extremely dangerous. Instead, locals spend their nights in the island’s bars, or sit around fires, drinking cheap alcohol before disappearing with prostitutes into the corrugated iron shacks. Unprotected sex is the norm, and consequently AIDS and STDs are commonplace. But no one will leave the place as long as there are still Nile perch to be caught.
STICKING TO TRADITION
Fishing with trawlers and dragnets is forbidden on Lake Victoria. 18
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SCIENCE
THE
INVASION HAS BEGUN...
VIEW OF AN UNTOUCHED WORLD
A gust of wind on Mars draws wave-like patterns in the sand dunes of the Nili Patera crater. Spectacular shots of Mars’s surface like this one are sent back to Earth by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which has been doing laps around the Red Planet since 2006. Researchers use these photographs to study the layout of the Martian landscape.
For the past five decades, researchers have been sending surveillance probes to Mars. There have been great successes and there have been terrible failures, but with 145 million square kilometres of land and untapped mineral resources up for grabs, the human race’s colonisation of the Red Planet is not just a possibility – it’s an inevitability
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78% NITROGEN 20% OXYGEN 0.04% CARBON DIOXIDE 1.96% OTHER GASES
MEDIAN TEMPERATURE AT THE EQUATOR: 29°C AIR PRESSURE: 1013 MILLIBARS
...AND THIS COULD BE
THE NEXT STEP
99% CARBON DIOXIDE 1% OTHER GASES MEDIAN TEMPERATURE ON THE EQUATOR: -63°C
T
he place is completely inhospitable: no air to breathe, no running water, no vegetation, an average temperature of -63°C and endless turbulent sandstorms. Nevertheless, once the overpopulation of Earth becomes an unsolvable problem, Mars could be used as the human race’s next home. Scientists are already planning the invasion of the Red Planet. Their primary aim: to transform Mars into a second Earth. For this to happen, an artificial atmosphere will need to be created and the temperature raised above zero degrees, something that will cause Mars’s polar ice caps to melt. This is the only way that oceans, rivers and lakes will be able to form – the basis for vegetation. Experts call this process ‘terraforming’. But how do you actually melt the polar ice caps? The American Mars researcher Robert Zubrin has suggested three possibilities: a targeted asteroid collision, a set of gigantic mirrors which concentrate sunlight, and factories which produce greenhouse
90% CARBON DIOXIDE 9% NITROGEN 1% OTHER GASES MEDIAN TEMPERATURE ON THE EQUATOR: -20 TO -5°C
AIR PRESSURE: 100 MILLIBARS
gases. NASA experts consider the erection of factories as the most realistic option. Although the implementation of such a scheme could begin in the next few years, Zubrin believes it may take up to a thousand years for us to transform Mars into a second Earth with the help of future technologies. If the plan works then factory-created carbon dioxide will create a dense atmosphere for Mars, absorbing more sunlight. Temperatures will rise and the ice will melt. The first rainfall will create rivers and lakes. The ground will be injected with bacteria, lichens and micro-organisms, used to provide flowering plants with nourishment. “Most of the work will be taken care of by life itself. We only need to raise the temperature a little and plant a few seeds,” explains the NASA scientist Chris McKay. It’s hoped the first astronauts will take off for Mars to further explore our neighbour sometime around 2030. After that, it’s only a matter of time until mankind establishes its first colony on the Red Planet.
75% CARBON DIOXIDE 22% NITROGEN 2% OXYGEN 1% OTHER GASES MEDIAN TEMPERATURE ON THE EQUATOR: -5 TO + 4°C
FACTORY FOR THE PRODUCTION OF GREENHOUSE GASES ACCOMMODATION DOME WITH GREENHOUSES
ACCOMMODATION BLOCK LANDING CRAFT
TRANSPORTER ACCOMMODATION UNIT
ARRIVAL-100 YEARS
1
THE 1000-YEAR PROJECT BEGINS
A series of short Mars expeditions mark the beginning of the interplanetary migration of our species. Small teams of pioneering astronauts install the first accommodation units following their flight to our neighbouring planet. These temporary stays on Mars will last for six months at a time.
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100-200 YEARS
2
THE ATMOSPHERE BECOMES DENSER
Factories designed to generate greenhouse gases are erected after the initial settlement. They will cause temperatures to rise, ice in the polar caps to melt and carbon dioxide to be released. A dense, Earth-like atmosphere is slowly created. Large mirrors which reflect sunlight will accelerate the melting process.
LAKES, RIVERS AND FORESTS FORM
CONSERVATORIES
200-600 YEARS
3
MARS BECOMES FERTILE
The dense atmosphere will result in so much sunlight being absorbed that the temperature should gradually climb above freezing. Clouds will form, and the first rain will begin to fall. Bacteria, algae and lichens will also start to appear in the stony Martian deserts, making the planet fertile for other plants.
600-1000 YEARS
4
NATURAL PRODUCTION OF OXYGEN
Eventually, large flowering plants and diseaseresistant trees can be planted. At this point the natural production of oxygen will begin on Mars. During the following 400 years, the average temperature on the planet’s surface will rise by approximately four degrees Celsius. 23
PHOTOS: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona/DDP; Getty Images ILLUSTRATIONS: NGS
EARTH STATISTICS
HISTORY
n The world of James Bond was
ELITE OPERATIONS
While writing the James Bond novels, Ian Fleming drew on memories of his time as commander of Britain’s 30 Assault Unit, which undertook topsecret overseas missions during WWII.
not merely a wild fantasy created by author Ian Fleming – those 007 stories were, in fact, at least partly autobiographical. World of Knowledge has gained access to documents and witness statements that reveal Fleming himself to be a top spy. His code name with the British secret service was 17F – and his missions did serious damage to the work of the Nazis
THE REAL
WAR HEROES
Fleming’s unit was set up to counter German Abwehrkommando intelligence gathering teams. Thanks to Britain’s Official Secrets Act, its existence remained secret for years.
24
LEADING MAN
The current Bond, as embodied by Daniel Craig in Skyfall, closely resembles Ian Fleming’s original concept of a physically strong but psychologically suspect elite fighter.
JAMES007 BOND
25
TURNING THE TABLES
During WWII, Fleming met some German secret service agents in a casino in Estoril, Portugal, and attempted to take all their money by gambling with them. Things did not go to plan, and in the end it was Fleming who lost all his money. The author used this anecdote in his 1953 novel Casino Royale, which was turned into a film in 2006.
SECONDarTt O(30 AsNsaOulNt wEere part
Despite a rocky st ce, tack on Dieppe, Fran of the disastrous at II e unit’s World War in August 1942), th de co ed ur oc ary: they pr record was exempl great a d ize a machine; se books for the Enigm logy deal of new techno and y; an m from Nazi Ger man er G e bagged the entir 70 18 naval archives from onwards. They also any helped liberate Britt . and Paris in 1944
P U O C A G E M ’S G IN M FLE gineer Wernher , the Nazi rocket en
Officially speaking ns in Bavaria lf up to the America se m hi ve ga n au Br d witness von But newly unearthe II. ar W ld or W of d nducted at the en service operation co et cr se a to t in po ner in statements ng von Braun priso ki ta ns ica er Am he by Fleming. “T r, who served r story,” one soldie ve co a st ju as w ria was actually Bava d, has claimed. “He an m m co g’s in em , and under Fl e time a Soviet zone th at as w ch hi w a, in Thuringi ist so the rocket scient should have been ians. a prize for the Russ was This little white lie e w at th necessary so could pick him up and he could go to the USA.”
26
SECRET MISSILE SITE
A missile site plays a key role in the film adaptation of Fleming’s You Only Live Twice – inspired by the production facility at Mittelbau-Dora, where the Nazis’ V2 rockets were made. Plans for the facility were captured by Fleming’s 30 Assault Unit in 1945.
T
he front was many kilometres behind them – they were now deep in enemy territory. Moving rapidly, the British troops found the house they were searching for, stormed inside, took their target prisoner and collected all the documentation they could find. The leader of the group compared the information in his small black notebook against the prisoner stood before him. It was clear they had the right man – a rocket scientist who’d been working for the Nazis. The special unit had to shoot their way back to British headquarters. When they arrived, they found their commander waiting for them. His name: Ian Lancaster Fleming.
ON HER MAJESTY’S SECRET SERVICE: DID FLEMING HAVE A LICENCE TO KILL? The man who most people today know only as the creator of James Bond was actually one of the most important British secret agents of the Second World War. Ian Fleming commanded the top-secret 30 Assault Unit, whose mission was to capture from the Nazis’ scientists, secret weapons and documents that were vital for the Allies – and then to escape from the lion’s den, ideally undetected. In order to ensure that these missions were successful, the unit was given the highest possible priority within the military, and granted passes that permitted them to take almost any course of action – a bona fide ‘licence to kill’. The operations carried out by Fleming’s commandos were some of the high points of Britain’s ‘secret service war’ – a war that arose out of desperate necessity. In 1940, the British had just suffered a defeat at Dunkirk, were standing alone against Nazi Germany, and were bracing themselves for a full-scale invasion. For Prime Minister Winston Churchill, this unconventional form of warfare seemed the only way to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. Churchill was looking for a lateral thinker to lead the most elite of these new secret service units, and he found one in Ian Fleming – personal assistant to the Admiral John Godfrey, director of Britain’s Naval Intelligence Division (NID). Soon, Fleming appeared in the Admiralty telephone book, along with his post, rank and extension number; he was listed under his official title of desk agent. But that extension number, 991, appeared in the phonebook a second time – without a name, without a rank, under the mysterious, shadowy listing of ‘Leader of Special Services’. Fleming’s desk-agent post was merely an elaborate cover story: documents and witness interviews from the time indicate that he was, in fact, one of Britain’s top spies during World War II. > 27
Sean Connery, in the 1963 Bond film From Russia With Love, with a ‘Lektor’ decoding machine. Fleming clearly based the gadget on the Enigma encryptors used by the German forces in World War II.
HOW DID FLEMING GO FROM PLOTTING AGAINST THE NAZIS TO INSPIRING JFK? While France’s armed forces were being defeated by the Nazis in 1940, Fleming was sent to conduct secret negotiations with the French regarding handing over control of their naval fleet to Britain. Just a few weeks later, he was putting together Operation Golden Eye, a contingency plan that would come into effect if the British base in Gibraltar was captured by the Germans. The plan involved Allied agents spying on the Nazis using a series of hidden bunkers. Operation Golden Eye was never put into action, but in memory of the plan, Fleming later christened his estate in Jamaica ‘Goldeneye’, while James Bond’s 1995 cinematic outing (his 17th) also took the name. In December 1944, the British secret service entered a factory near Cologne and found something they’d long been searching for: a near-complete list of factories, laboratories and scientists working on the Nazis’ so-called ‘weapons of revenge’, such as the V2 rocket. Fleming immediately left London for the front; first to Versailles, then Westphalia, in west Germany. One of Fleming’s team recalls, “We crossed into Germany near Aachen, and split ourselves into 10 small units. We then went to the harbour facilities at Hamburg, Bremen and Kiel, and captured 28
SMARTER IN Top-secret 007 intelligence deciphered 60 SECONDS
E DECODER CODING TspH ying tales had to be
Fleming’s real-life ude them before he could incl carefully modified ation rm the sensitive info in his books, due to until r example: right up Fo d. ne ai nt co ey had th et that British forces cr se a ill st as w it , 1970 hine, Enigma cipher-mac captured a German broken its fiendish codes, and had been -level unscrambling high ges Nazi military messa rt during the latter pa g in em of the war. Fl therefore had to ng ‘disguise’ the decodi ssia machine in From Ru it at th With Love so r didn’t blow the cove of any real-life post war operations.
a great deal of weaponmaking material.” During these operations, an episode occurred that Fleming later used in his Bond short story From a View to a Kill. A dispatch rider in Fleming’s unit was assassinated while transporting valuable documents; working incognito, Fleming then became a dispatch rider himself, in order to personally investigate the attack – and successfully tracked down the assassin. Following World War II, Fleming worked as a writer, but remained active within the secret service and had contacts within the highest echelons of government. In 1960 he met John F. Kennedy, who went on to publicly declare himself a fan of the Bond books, sending sales through the roof and making Fleming a multi-millionaire. But it wasn’t only Fleming’s fiction that JFK admired – he also adopted his favourite author’s doctrine of unconventional warfare. Top-secret British naval units of the kind that Fleming had overseen during the war became the model for the US Navy SEALs – the elite special forces that assassinated Osama bin Laden in May 2011. Even today, Fleming’s work is still making an impact in the fight against terror.
HOW MUCH MONEY HAVE THE BOND MOVIES MADE? The most recent 007 movie, Skyfall, cost around $150 million to make. But the investment paid off: the blockbuster brought in $80 million in its first week of release, $12 million of that in Australia. In addition, the film generated around $45 million through various product-placement deals. Altogether, the 22 Bond films that preceded Skyfall cost approximately $1 billion to make – but returned five times that at the box office.
¸
HOW DID AN AUSSIE FROM GOULBURN BECOME 007? ¸
WHICH JAMES BOND HAS USED HIS
LICENCE TO KILL THE MOST? Excluding Skyfall’s impressive bodycount, James Bond has dispatched a lofty 352 people, many of his Bond girls among them. Pierce Brosnan has by far the most victims on his conscience, at 135; behind him are Roger Moore with 90, and Sean Connery with 72. Daniel Craig’s first two outings netted him 27 – though his scything down of Silva’s crew in Skyfall has bumped up that figure considerably. It’s still early days for him, too.
¸
George Lazenby, the only Aussie to play 007, secured an audition after meeting Bond producer Albert R. Broccoli while getting a haircut in London. At the screen test, Lazenby accidentally punched a professional wrestler who was on set. Broccoli was impressed by his aggression, and promptly offered him the Bond role.
DID IAN FLEMING REALLY HELP TO SET UP THE CIA? During WWII, Bond author Ian Fleming was in regular contact with Allen Foster Dulles, who would later become Director of the CIA. At the time, Dulles was working in Switzerland in the espionage section of America’s Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the forerunner of the CIA. In 1941, Fleming was sent to the US to advise on the development of the OSS. His contributions were so integral to the creation of this new secret service that Admiral John Godfrey, his boss at the British Naval Intelligence Division, had to write a letter to the Americans after the war requesting that they keep Fleming’s role a secret, as he feared political implications.
¸
WHY DOES 007 DRINK HIS MARTINI
SHAKEN NOT STIRRED?
A vodka martini is comprised of large and small particles. The taste molecules are the large ones and the alcohol molecules are the small ones. When such a mixture is shaken, it results in granular convection, which means that the large particles rise up to the surface, while the smaller ones fall to the bottom. It appears Bond prefers a shaken vodka martini because he wants the taste – rather than the alcohol – to touch his lips first.
¸
PHOTOS: Sony Pictures (2); Getty Images (5); Corbis (2); Archiv RZB (2); News International Press
JAMES BOND
DECODING THE ENIGMA MACHINE
29
TECHNOLOGY
Can my smartphone be used to rob me? n It’s a nightmare scenario: you
check your bank balance to discover that somebody has completely drained your account of funds – and the only tools that the shadowy culprit required were a malicious software package called Citadel, and your smartphone… 30
In the World of Knowledge laboratory, we investigate the extraordinary science behind things you thought you knew – from caffeine to cash machines, sleep to scuba-diving. This month: the sinister world of online banking fraud
➜
A
re you aware of everything that your computer is up to while you’re surfing the web? Your browser – the program that makes the internet visible to you – works incredibly hard: all those videos, tunes and animations have made today’s web a truly multimedia experience, one that requires numerous extra resources, known as plug-ins – the likes of Flash, Java, Shockwave and Quicktime. These plug-ins allow you to web-surf, but also open the door to malicious attackers such as Citadel – which, according to one digital security expert, is “currently the most powerful and malicious software being used to target users of online banking”.
WHERE DOES MALICIOUS SOFTWARE LURK? Citadel can infiltrate your computer with terrifying ease – all it requires you to do is visit an everyday internet site. A Citadelcontaminated ad banner on an otherwise harmless site can transfer the ruinous software, unnoticed, onto your machine; your browser will attempt to display the banner using the necessary plug-in, thereby opening up a security flaw that a hacker can exploit to slip the Citadel code onto your hard drive. Experts call this “drive-by download” – you’re infected simply by visiting a site, without ever clicking on any malicious links. Citadel: it sounds like an established, branded product – and that’s exactly how its creators market their highly illegal software across more than 100 underground online forums. To give their program a slick corporate veneer, they deploy the same marketing techniques used by software giants such as Microsoft and Electronic Arts, offering tutorials to inexperienced hackers, constant updates, and even contracted licensing agreements. There’s no element of a modern, professional sales strategy missing from their operation. “We want to work with our customers,” explain Citadel’s anonymous developers. Indeed, Citadel purchasers are encouraged
to offer in-depth feedback, to help shape the next generation of malicious software. The manufacturers run a question-and-answer system, on the anonymous and untraceable messaging service Jabber – with answers guaranteed within 24 hours. This ‘helpline’ is closed only at weekends. Clearly, the creators of Citadel consider themselves to be safe, secure, and above the law – although, as revealed in Citadel’s disclaimer, they do have respect for the authorities within (what’s strongly suspected to be) their own country: “Our software ceases to function as soon as it finds a computer with a Russian or Ukrainian keyboard layout.” If you’re okay with that, you’re invited to pay around $1400 for your own copy of Citadel – although that’ll get you only the most basic version. For twice as much, you can get the VIP Extreme Edition, which will remove any ‘competing’ malicious software from any computer you sneak it onto.
HOW DOES A COMPUTER BECOME A ‘ZOMBIE’? Citadel’s main function is to scout out and memorise bank account details – and with 64% of all Australian internet users now banking online, there are plenty of account details up for grabs out there. Most Citadel victims have their machines randomly infiltrated as they pass through an infected website. But when it comes to particularly enticing prizes – such as large businesses with vast bank accounts – online criminals will often get personally involved, targeting a company’s high-ranking employees with customised emails filled with believable content and contaminated links. One click, and Citadel is burrowing deep inside the company’s server. Once Citadel infiltrates a computer, it becomes a ‘zombie’. The malware hijacks and brainwashes the machine, recruiting it to its ever-growing global army of zombie computers – known collectively as a botnet. This vast network is controlled centrally by a hacker using a ‘command and control’ server. The largest botnets can comprise > 31
WHAT DOES THE HACKER SEE? A hacker using Citadel can see their victim’s every action, as if peering over their shoulder. Citadel scouts out automatic passwords and other sensitive information, while the hacker – disguised by a handy ‘screen-mask’ – controls the captured computer and freely noses around the infected system.
YOU’RE ON CAMERA
Citadel can record its victims’ actions. In this instance, the malware is filming the victim as they enter a password using a virtual keyboard.
PASSWORD CHECK
Citadel automatically draws up a report about an infected computer – see this censored example. The access data required to hack into a victim’s online bank account (circled in red) will be what most hackers are interested in.
HOW DO I PROTECT MYSELF?
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n Increase your awareness: the security features used on computers are still missing from many mobile phones. Ensure your operating system includes a virus scanner. n If your smartphone uses Android, keep it up to date: the latest version of Google’s software is always the safest. n Remain suspicious: if in doubt about an email or update, check with the (supposed) sender. n Study links carefully: smartphones’ small displays often result in parts of web addresses being obscured.
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Citadel is only available for purchase on anonymous, underground websites. This screenshot depicts one such site; criminals use these chat windows to trade.
n Always install official updates for your browser, operating system, virusscanner and, in particular, the plug-ins such as Flash, Java, Shockwave, Quicktime, etc. n Take care when surfing on unknown sites. n Always treat links in emails with suspicion – no matter who the (supposed) sender is. n Only purchase security software from the manufacturer’s own site. n When online banking using an https connection, look out for valid safety certificates in the browser’s address bar.
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CAN CITADEL READ YOUR TEXT MESSAGES?
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more than 30 million connected computers, and their combined might surpasses the computing capacity of even the most powerful NASA supercomputers. Shockingly, it’s estimated that up to a quarter of all computers in the world are likely to be part of a botnet, with most users remaining blissfully unaware that their seemingly trusty machine has a secret ‘side-job’. There are numerous motives for wanting to create a botnet: they can be used for sending spam, launching online attacks, stealing data, or trading pirated movies, music and software. But, of course, it’s online banking where the real money is to be made. After taking over a machine with Citadel, its new master can search any server that it’s connected to for passwords. Alternatively, Citadel can spy on the unwitting user during his or her next online-banking session, and can even use the infected computer’s webcam to record the user’s movements.
In Australia, paying for goods online is a fairly straightforward procedure, but around the world many online banking users are forced by their banks to rely on ‘Transaction Authentication Number’ (TAN) passwords to keep their payments secure. The TAN system works like this: when an accountholder needs to make a transaction, they request a TAN code from their bank, the bank sends a unique TAN code out to the account-holder’s smartphone via text and the account-holder then inputs this one-off TAN code into the bank’s website, thereby verifying their identity. Citadel is capable of hijacking this system. When an account-holder visits their bank’s homepage, Citadel redirects them to an identical-looking page, urging the account-holder to download a ‘security update’ onto their smartphone. This fake program actually redirects the flow of text messages away from the smartphone and over to the Citadel-controlling hacker. The account-holder requests a TAN code via text from their bank; the hacker receives this TAN code, and now has everything they need to gain access to their victim’s account. Initially, the victim will be unaware that anything untoward has happened: Citadel can manipulate their online banking statement to make everything appear normal. Meanwhile, their stolen money is on the move – usually via so-called money mules, unsuspecting third parties who’ve agreed, for a small fee, to make a seemingly innocent transfer of funds overseas. Online-security experts are constantly battling against Citadel’s trickery, but Citadel remains one step ahead; a new update appears every week, available for less than $15. As long as Citadel lurks behind thousands of ad banners, the internet will remain a risky place to visit.
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$1m Bat mask
QUESTIONS&ANSWERS Are whale sharks fast-food fanatics?
n Whale sharks drift lazily through the oceans, filtering plankton and small fish out of the water with their wide-open mouths. At least, that is what we have always assumed. And now, thanks to this photograph taken off the coast of Papua, it looks like we were right. This whale shark is sucking on a fishing net for a lazy snack of mackerel. In fact, these 20-metre fish, also found on Western Australia’s Ningaloo Reef, are such gentle eaters that the nets are rarely damaged in the process.
WHAT DOES IT $10,000 COST TO BE Eye shield
EASY PICKINGS
The whale shark homes in on the trapped fish.
WHY IS OUR BODY TEMPERATURE EXACTLY 37°C? PHOTOS: Archiv; PR (3); Getty Images (6); Action Press;
n According to research conducted in Israel, the reason our body temperature is warmer than the average ambient temperature is to keep fungal infections at bay. It seems that 37°C strikes the perfect balance between being able to prevent infection and the cost of maintaining our body temperature in terms of energy consumption.
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Underarm knives
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Is it true that rangas feel more pain? n Redheads undergoing medical procedures require 20% more anaesthetic than blondes and brunettes. Scientists agree that red hair is the byproduct of dysfunctional melanocortin 1 receptors. This dysfunction is known to trigger an increase in the production of a specific hormone. This happens to be the same hormone that stimulates the receptor in the brain governing sensitivity to pain.
CEO Matthew Stanton PUBLISHING DIRECTOR Gerry Reynolds PUBLISHER Brendon Hill GROUP COMMERCIAL MANAGER – SPECIALIST DIVISION Christy Trollip DIRECTOR OF SALES Tony Kendall FOR ALL ADVERTISING ENQUIRIES: NATIONAL GROUP SALES MANAGER, MENS LIFESTYLE Brigitte Guerin EMAIL: BGuerin@bauer-media.com.au PHONE: 02 9282 8249 WORLD OF KNOWLEDGE: GPO Box 4088, Sydney, NSW, 2001, Level 16, Civic Tower, 66-68 Goulburn Street, Sydney. Telephone: (02) 8275 6455. World of Knowledge is published by Bauer Media Ltd,
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n He may have cuddly-looking fur. He may have adorable button eyes. He may have an extremely aerodynamic shape. But one thing the flying squirrel doesn’t have is time to waste on climbing trees. He prefers to glide from branch to branch, for distances up to 90 metres. The rodent, which normally grows to around 30cm in size, is native to Europe, North America and Asia. He’s a real aerial acrobat too, his tail working as an air-brake when he lands on a tree trunk.
n He is not your average superhero. Unlike Superman or the Hulk, Bruce Wayne a.k.a. Batman doesn’t have one superpower. He’s just Carbon a wealthy businessman with reinforcements access to cool (and primarily black) state-of-the-art technology. Experts from the world of materials science and engineering have Elbow pads crunched the numbers Kevlar suit and found out how much it would cost to be just like Batman.
$18m Tumbler
37,304
PETABYTES is the volume of data processed in private internet traffic per month. According to Cisco Systems, this number is set to rise to 82,189 petabytes (roughly 82 billion MB) by 2015.
HOW DO FLYING SQUIRRELS FLY?
BATMAN?
ARE THERE REAL AVATARS IN OUR FUTURE? n A man in Tokyo shakes hands with a woman in Rome. That sounds like the stuff of science fiction, but it could become reality sooner than you think. A team at University College London, led by Professor Mel Slater, is close to perfecting a telepresence experience using motion sensors, cameras and life-sized robots. In the future, business people will be able to experience all the benefits of face-to-face meetings with none of the hassle of international travel. It’ll be cheaper, quicker and a good deal more eco-friendly, too.
Kevlar gloves
The Tumbler is a customdesigned stealth vehicle even the most sophisticated radar is unable to detect.
$1000
Codpiece
$40,000 Cape made of intelligent polymers
$1.5m Batpod
Tucked away in the trunk of the Tumbler is Batman’s escape vehicle.
$150
Knee pads
$1000
Ultrasonic bat attractant
$1000
Kevlar boots
$60m The Bat
A hybrid between an airplane and a helicopter, the Bat comes with two massive propellers.
$230,000 Butler 35