With accessible features illustrated with the world’s best photography, BBC Focus Magazine explains the theory behind scientific phenomena and really brings science to life. In every issue you’ll find news of the latest major scientific developments, a lively Q&A section plus exclusive and astonishing photographic reports that range from the breathtaking to the downright odd.
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EYE OPENER
ENDANGERED FERRET CLONED FROM SPECIMEN FROZEN FOR 30 YEARS • The healthy young kit may help to save the species from extinction
Process of brain development viewed in a living animal for the first time
Good month & Bad month
Porknite: pigs have mental capacity to play video games, study suggests
Elephants fitted with fitness watches
Eating spinach could protect astronauts from space radiation
Destination: Mars • Every 26 months, Mars reaches the closest point to Earth in its orbit of the Sun, creating an ideal launch window for spacecraft to make the seven-month journey between the planets. The most recent window opened on 17 July 2020, with three missions arriving on the Red Planet last month. Here’s what they hope to tell us about our cosmic neighbour...
The most successful sperm poison their competitors • A study in mice has found a genetic variant that gives sperm a 99 per cent success rate – and could explain infertility in human men
Can a fin become a limb? • A single genetic change sheds light on how our ancient relatives first came onto land
In numbers
Could ’Oumuamua be our first recorded brush with alien technology? • In 2017, the Pan-STARRS telescope in Hawaii spotted an interstellar object, ’Oumuamua, passing by Earth for the first time. Since then, Prof Avi Loeb has been investigating its origins
Royal Photographic Society’s Science Photographer of the Year winners announced • The winners and standout images were chosen from more than 1,000 entries and will be available to view in an online exhibition run as part of the Manchester Science Festival until 2 May 2021. See the full lineup at rps.org/spoty
CORONAVIRUS: CAN WE STOP THE SPREAD OF MORE VARIANTS? • From South Africa to Brazil, Bristol and Liverpool, a string of worrying coronavirus strains has emerged. But why? And can we prevent more from developing?
RATS: ARE WE REALLY SEEING PLAGUES OF RODENTS IN OUR CITIES DURING THE PANDEMIC? • As if COVID-19 wasn’t stressful enough, some outlets have claimed that rodents are now taking over our empty offices and cities. But is this really the case?
OBESITY: COULD A NEW APPETITE-CONTROLLING DRUG BE THE TREATMENT WE’VE BEEN CRAVING? • In a large trial, people injected with semaglutide lost significant amounts of weight. Could this drug help tackle the obesity epidemic?
INNOVATIONS • PREPARE YOURSELF FOR TOMORROW
A cheaper, quicker and cleaner way to recycle more of your gadgets • New method enables rare earth metals to be more easily extracted from batteries, computers and electric cars
The truth is out there • Bellingcat, the investigative journalism site, has broken some of the biggest stories of the decade. Their investigators proved that Bashar al-Assad fired chemical weapons at his own people, they discovered who downed flight MH17 and, most recently, they put Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny on the phone with one of the men sent to assassinate him. They’re not spies, and they’re not trained, so how do these laptopwielding ‘amateurs’ hold power to account? Bellingcat’s founder Eliot Higgins talks to Daniel Bennett about why people need an intelligence...