The Future of

THE MINDSecrets of immortality unlocked AIs

psychiatric surgery

PLUS! The Fate of FukushimaWhat is magnetic refrigeration?Why a videogame invented a real

Racing tinnies on the Murray

TESLAPOWERWALL

The case against

SPACEXOne step closer to the stars

MORGAN EV3 The world’s coolest electric car?

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Award-Winning Performance

Issue #89, April 2016

EDITORIAL

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THE POPSCI PROMISE We share with our

readers the belief that the future will be

better, and science and technology are

leading the way.

Australia has always done

pretty well when it comes to

the expectation of living a

long life (if you’re European,

that is). Back in 1885, one of

the earliest years for which

we have reliable data, our life

expectancy was 49, about 5-10

years ahead of other Western

countries. Right now, we sit at

number six in the world with

a combined life expectancy of

83 (although Aussie women are

number four, and can expect

to live to 85).

Sure, throughout history

there have been old people

- wise elders who somehow

dodged the wars, the

massacres, the disease, the

shrinking number of predators

and the falling-down. But go

back to 1788 and tell those

bedraggled convicts that in

YOUR time almost everyone

lives past 70, and they’d laugh.

Longevity and the doubling

of our lifespan is the great

achievement of the last 200

years, but now science wants

to take that even further.

Researchers around the world

are sinking millions, billions

even, into fi guring out how

to stop “senescence”, how

to regrow telomeres on our

DNA, how to give the body

immunity against ageing.

The ultimate aim: cure death.

Make humans immortal.

That’s an admirable

goal, I suppose, but it will

be interesting to see what,

um, side-eff ects present

themselves when people live

past 120, 150 or more.

Just look at what our

extended lifespan exposes

us to today. The chances of

getting Alzheimer’s in 1788

was probably pretty low. Now,

by the time you turn 85, your

chance of getting it is one in

three. Cancer becomes an even

bet. And mental illness of some

kind a near certainty.

Some proponents of

longevity research say ageing

was a mistake of biology.

Useful in the primordial soup,

it has no place in an intelligent

organism that can direct its

own evolution and manage its

population growth.

Others suggest that ageing

and senescence, and the

hardwiring that only allows

cells to replicate a limited

number of times before dying

off , protects us from cancer.

Cancer is disease you’re

left with, when all other

diseases have been cured. You

can invoke it with a single

word, it means uncontrolled

cell growth, but there are

hundreds if not thousands of

ways in which cancer starts,

progresses, and kills.

It’s an obvious side-eff ect of

complex, multicellular life, if

you think about it. Put a simple

bacterium in a stress-free

environment and give it plenty

of resources and energy, and

the little bugger will split and

split over and over until there

are billions of cells.

Now take those cells

and change them so

they all perform slightly

diff erent roles and become

interdependent, not only

processing diff erent chemicals

and growing at diff erent

rates, but forming diff erent

structures all according

to a vastly complex set of

instructions encoded in a long

molecular chain. Of course

some of those cells are going

to go haywire. Cancer? It’s

incredible that multicellular

organisms can grow at all.

Thing is, we now have the

knowledge and technology

to fi gure out and put an end

to cancer. We will unlock the

secrets of Alzheimer’s and put

a stop to it. We will fi nd ways

to “cure” mental illness.

Extreme lifespans could be

a good thing. Imagine a world

where, when someone says

“sea levels will rise fi ve metres

by 2200”, the response isn’t

“meh, that’s not going to be MY

problem” but rather “we better

get on that because I just

bought a beach house.”

Only living to 40 sucks.

Living to 80 is a challenge.

Living for centuries will have

its drawbacks... but it might

just also save the world.

ANTHONY FORDHAM

afordham@nextmedia.com.au

Compared to our ancestors, we already live “forever”Before the Enlightenment, the average human

life expectancy was 30-40 years. That’s not bad

for a medium-sized mammal, but it’s half as

long as most of us can expect to live now.

FeedEditor’s Letter

POPSCI .COM.AU 03

#89

44CANWELIVE FOREVER?

We’re on the verge of “curing” old

age. But is immortality, or even

just longevity, something

we reallywant?

04 POPULAR SCIENCE

GE

TT

Y I

MA

GE

S

Contents

APRIL 2016

NOWBecause tomorrow is today

06 Tesla’s Powerwall isn’t worth it

10 Tough bike tyres use carbon

12 How to build a podcasting empire

14 Why we’ll all be gamers soon

16 Far Cry Primal’s made up language

18 Smart locks for the average home

20 The coolest electric car ever?

22 Magnetic refrigeration explained

24 Essential survival kit for your car

26 Koenigsegg is cooler than Bugatti

30A HARD ROAD TO THE STARS

SpaceX successfully launched

another Falcon 9 this month,

bringing a future of cheap

spaceflight a (tiny) step closer.

38GOOGLE’S MIGHTY VICTORY OVER GO

DeepMind, a team backed by

Google, has built an AI that

defeated a Go grandmaster.

Why is that such a big deal?

54FIVE YEARS AFTER FUKUSHIMA

Human error didn’t start

this nuclear disaster, but did

bureaucratic intransigence

make it worse?

60ELECTRIFY YOUR MIND!

Decades after lobotomy was

discredited, could Deep Brain

Stimulation bring psychiatric

surgery in from the cold?

NEXTThe world according to us

32 SpaceX: A short history of (mostly)

successful launches.

34 Could we glide our way to orbit?

36 Why science education matters

40 The world’s forests are...

actually spreading?

42 Sneaking past the blood-brain

barrier to cure cancer

42 Why we shouldn’t hate

our gold-plated electricity grid.

MANUALReinvent yourself (or at least your stuff)

66 Racing tinnies on the Murray

68 Why I built an applause machine

69 Buying an expensive router makes

sense, if you love HD movies.

70 Convert your car to electric!

72 Listen to a record with your teeth

73 A hybrid board/videogame that’s

like reverse-Jenga on acid

74 Nurses hack medical equipment!

75 Music controlled by the weather

03 Editor’s letter | 77 From the Archives | 78 Ask Anything | 80 Retro Invention | 82 Lab Rats

For daily updates: www.popsci.com.au

THE OTHER BITSChilled to near absolute zero

POPSCI .COM.AU 05

EDITED BY MICHAEL NUÑEZ + XAVIER HARDING

APRIL 2016

BOTTLE THE SUN

6 POPULAR SCIENCE

EnphaseAC BatteryRather than a singlelarge-capacity system,the Enphase is madeup of smaller 1.2 kWhbatteries. The units can be ganged up together to form a larger battery. This makes it a more flexible system than the Tesla Powerwall in many ways, as it allows the end user to more closely match overall capacity to how much power is used each day. It also makes it easier to upgrade in the future. The Enphase system promises a 96% round trip efficiency and can be connected to solar. It costs around $2000 per battery, installed. The bigger the system, the cheaper it gets. Reall big installs will come in around the same cost per kWh as the Powerwall. www.enphase.com

Thanks to the expertly-marketed Tesla Powerwall, “off the grid” electricity storage has once again become a hot topic. Solar panels are getting cheaper, but until now, storing

the power they generate (rather than letting it flow onto the grid for a penance of a rebate) has

meant maintaining racks of lead acid

batteries. It’s expensive, inefficient and

thanks to the gas these batteries can

emit, even dangerous.

We’ve definitely been waiting for self-

contained battery packs that can be

wall-mounted and used to store solar-

generated power, or even just avoid using

the grid during peak times.

Battery storage isn’t an especially new

idea, but it’s still the domain off-grid

purists, because the

economics don’t stack

up - except in certain

circumstances. Those

old lead acid systems

take up lots of space and

need maintenance. Now

newer systems like the Tesla

Powerwall use lithium ion

technology, are much smaller,

and easy to install.

Lithium ion has been

around for a while, but these

batteries can be dangerous

if they overheat. Only Tesla’s

work on the cooling system

for the batteries in its Model

S sedan has made the

Powerwall possible. And now

the market sees it can be

done, other manufacturers

are poised to follow.

In Australia, there are

now a few companies that

can install battery storage

systems, either stand-alone

or as part of a solar set up.

But it’s unlikely you’ll be in

a situation where investing

in such a system makes any

kind of sense - yet. Next page,

we’ll discover exactly why...

by

LINDSAY

HANDMER

Tesla PowerwallThis automotive-derived system comes in two versions. The 7kWh battery has a usable capacity of 6.4 kWh and is designed to be cycled every day. The system promises a 92% round trip efficiency and can be coupled to existing solar and some inverters. There is also a larger 10kWh capacity battery that is aimed at occasional use to provide uninterrupted power in the event of a blackout. Prices for the Powerwall vary, but the unit installed, with an inverter, is around $9500. Coupled with a solar array, prices are closer to $15,000. www.teslamotors.

com.au

8 POPULAR SCIENCE

APRIL 2016

While battery energy storage

technology does what it says on the tin,

the decision to actually install a system

comes down to the price. Paying

$10,000 is pointless if it doesn’t save at

least that much over its lifespan. Here,

we’ll focus on the Tesla Powerwall.

While there are prices available for

a variety of systems, the Powerwall

has the most data available, including

the very important capacity retention

values (based on the Powerwall

Australian warranty figures).

Tesla’s battery has a 10 year

warranty that states that it must

still have at least 60% of the original

capacity available at the end of that

period. It also has an aggregate

discharge level of 18 megawatt hours

(MWh) - an average of about 5KWh a

day over 10 years - which is defined

as normal use, and accounts for the

ongoing drop in capacity.

So the Powerwall is warrantied

to have at least 60% capacity after

whichever comes first - 10 years or 18

MWh of cycling. Think of it like a car’s

year-or-kilometre warranty.

This is important, because it means if

the battery is cycled twice daily (solar

and off peak), the warranty will actually

only remain valid for five years.

The important

figure is the 18 MWh -

because the purchase

price of the Powerwall

is exactly like buying a

discount on 18 MWh of electricity. The level

of discount depends on how much the power

to charge the Powerwall costs.

The best case scenario is that it’s free

- say from existing solar. So 18 MWh of

electricity costs the same as the purchase

price of the Powerwall, or $9500. This

works out at about $0.53 a kWh, which

is (depending on electricity prices) about

double the cost of grid power.

If a solar system needs to be installed

to charge the Powerwall, then the price is

more like $0.70 a kWh. More economical is

off-peak charging, but that still gives a per

kWh cost of around $0.60.

If the average electricity cost is higher than

the effective price of the power supplied by

the Powerwall (say $0.60 a kWh) over the

10 year period, then installing it will save the

user money. Otherwise it is more expensive

than simply buying power from the grid.

All that said, while the Powerwall is

warrantied for 10 years (or 18MWh), its

lifespan will likely be a lot longer. Assuming

the same rate of capacity drop for another 10

years (no data for this is given), the Powerwall

could be expected to provide another 12MWh

of electricity, for a total of 30 MWh over 20

years (or 10 years if double cycling).

Assuming no maintenance costs, that’s

around $0.32 a kWh. Including reasonable

charging costs, more like $0.40 a kWh, which

is still more than a lot of users pay for grid

electricity. Even if we assume the Powerwall

will work for 30 years, the effective cost of

the electricity is around $0.25 a kWh.

To make economic sense, the Powerwall

would need to cost around one third of the

current price, or electricity prices need to be

three times higher.

As production on the batteries ramps up,

and technologies come into play, battery

storage will get a lot cheaper. But grid-based

technologies are being worked on too. Time to

pick a side, and back your choice with cash!

by

LINDSAY

HANDMER

SAVED BY THE

DISTRIBUTED GRID?

Battery energy storage isn’t just

potentially beneficial to the end user

- it will likely be an important part of

the grid itself in the future. Right now

the distribution and power generation

system has to handle the peak load.

With a distributed system, the batteries

can handle the peak load, while the grid

only needs to carry the average load.

This means a cheaper and more robust

power grid that can cope with increasing

demand in the future.

NowReality Check

THE (HARSH) ECONOMICS OF ENERGY STORAGE

........

AUG 24 / Perth, HBF Stadium

AUG 26 / Brisbane, BCEC

AUG 27 / Melbourne, Margaret Court Arena

AUG 28 / Sydney, Australian Technology Park

........

Tickets out now from / www.thinkinc.org.au

10 POPULAR SCIENCE PHOTOGRAP BY BrianKlutch

Now

eliminat that trade-off once and for all.

They are ‘i finitely’ tough and ‘elegantly’

manoeuvrab e, according to the sales

brochure, any ay. But for once, flowery

marketing bumf might be backed with

actual science.

Graphene, in its ost basic form, is a

sheet of pure carbon ust a single atom

thick. It is half the de sity of aluminium,

which means it’s light a d extremely elastic.

Vittoria uses graphe e that is two

to eight atoms thick—ne rly invisible.

By adding it to mountain bike tyres,

Vittoria achieves the dre m combo of

characteristics—light, sticky, and tough—

that rubber can’t achieve on its own. In

fact, adding graphene to r bber creates a

tyre that changes dependi g on how you

ride. When hurtling down a straight, the

tyre stays relatively hard When braking

or cornering, it softens. o take advantage

of how graphene respo ds to acceleration

and cornering, Vittori s design allows the

top and bottom layer of the tyre to react

differently during se.

Vittoria can’t s y exactly how many miles

to expect from hese tyres—that depends

on trail con i ions and how hard you ride.

Leading to and on a recent trip through

Nepal, I put hundreds of miles on the Morsa

an he Mezcal. Fellow bikers’ tyres lost

ressure on a daily basis; they’d spin out

on a slippery rock. On descents, the tyres

gripped on rock and dirt alike—letting me

ride faster downhill than I ever have. Quite

a few of my fellow riders ended up throwing

their tyres in the post-trip bin. After my 13-

day trip, my Morsa and Mezcals were dusty

but barely worn, and should still last me for

several months more of regular rides.

Materials

APRIL 2016

by

BERNE

BROUDY

BIKE TYRES THAT CAN SURVIVETHE HIMALAYAS

V I T TO R I A M O R SA G +

A N D V I T TO R I A M EZC A L G +

P R I C E : US$70 per tyre

With plenty of tread to spare

Vi� oria uses graphene that is two to eight atoms thick—nearly invisible.

When you’re mountain biking in extreme

conditions, you want tyres that are

light enough for nimble handling, sticky

enough to grip rocky and dusty trails, and

tough enough to last. Most can’t do it all:

Beefy tyres have bite, but they’re sluggish;

light tyres are nimble, but they wear out

quickly or puncture.

Vittoria’s new Mezcal and Morsa tyres

Follow Me

360 Orbit

Auto landing/take of

www.xirodrone.com

Available at:

APRIL 2016

Now

INS

ET

IM

AG

E C

OU

RT

ES

Y L

EO

LA

PO

RT

E

31 2

2

3

YOURPODCASTEMPIREAWAITS

AKGMKII K271

If you want to hear

quality sounds (and

you’d better before

you broadcast it to the

world), you need clear

and precise head-

phones. The MKII is

legendary for its noise

insulation—thanks in

part to the large ear

cups—and neutral

sound reproduction.

$239

MACKIEPROFX4V2

To give you maximum

flexibility with editing,

it’s important to

capture audio through

separate channels.

This Mackie mixer has

two microphone jacks

and 16 sound effects

per channel. That way

you can add things like

reverb (to sound like

you’re in a large studio)

or delay (to give you an

endless goofy repeat).

You can also listen back

on studio speakers or

headphones, depending

on which you prefer.

$229

HEIL PR40

Heil’s dynamic micro-

phone is a great match

for a portable audio

mixer. The dual mesh

screens allow for relia-

ble response between

28 Hz and 18 kHz while

reducing any popping

sounds. Its warm tone

makes it a favourite

among professionals,

and a tough aluminium

body gives it a chance

to survive life on the

road—and be worth

every cent. $449

TiPS fROM lEO

BUILDACOMMUNITY

The approachability of podcasting makes it difficult torise above the noise. This is a question much larger thanpodcasting; it’s happening across all media. If you canbuild a community around what you do—whether as apodcaster or even videomaker—that community willbuoy you and support you and grow your audience.

by

MICHAEL NUÑEZ

TALKABOUTWHATYOULOVE

I choose panelists based on whom I’d love to hangaround and chat with. Because on a slow day, whenthere’s no Apple news, we’ll just talk about StarWars orwhatever. It’s much less agenda-driven than a televisionbroadcast. A lot of podcasting is hanging out with yourbuddies, talking about something you’re interested in.

DON’TCHASEANAUDIENCE

No one doing a podcast should say in calculated fashion,“Let’s do something that’s going to make a lot of money.”It might work short-term, but real successes come frompeople authentically speaking their truth. In new media,one has to find a voice—but we’re only just beginning.We haven’t found the Ernie Kovacs of podcasting.

It took him 20years, but Leo Laporte has built a

podcasting empire that rivals the old-school broadcasters.

He hasmore than 20 shows (ThisWeek in Tech being amust-

listen), which reach a combined 5million people eachmonth. His

California homedoubles as his TWiT’s Brick House studio, and is

litteredwith high-end tech to record, mix, and upload talk-show-

quality content. Even if you’re a few podcasts short of an empire,

this gear will set you on the right track.

1

12 POULAR SCIENCE PHOTOGRAPH BY Brian Klutch

Ask an expert

Features:

Bush Heritage II Connect

The Bush Heritage II Connect for the home has now been joined by the smaller Heritage P1 Connect, able to stream via Bluetooth on rechargeable battery, but retaining all the streaming and multiroom playback abilities of its big brother when at home.

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Sound+Image magazine on the Award-Winning Heritage II Connect

14 POPULAR SCIENCE

NowThe Platform

PHOTOGRAPH BY Cody Pickens

NowThe Platform

POPSCI .COM.AU 15

Q & A

POPUL AR

SCIENCE

APRIL 2016

EVERYONE WILL BE A GAMER IN THE FUTURE

Were you always into shooters?

Yeah, but I also liked role-playing games.

Wasteland is another game that had a big

impact on me. I remember pirating it a long

time ago. Then one day I met the game

director, Brian Fargo. I said, “Dude, I’m really

What’s the greatest challenge to growing

a gaming-hardware company?

To stay focused on the gamers. When

we talk to other people about using our

technology—whether they’re focused on

military or healthcare or space technology

—we always say, “We’re happy for you to

modify and use our products, but we really

just want to make products for gamers.”

Where is gaming headed?

It’s definitely going to be a lot more

immersive. And when I say immersive, I don’t

mean in the sense of what’s happening in

virtual reality; I mean in the form of what’s

happening with multiplatform games.

What do you mean?

Content is going to be served up in so many

different places: mobile to PC, PC to console,

PC to wearables. There could be a game that

sends you text messages, or there could be

Xbox characters who share social-media

interactions with you. The lines are going to

be incredibly blurred when it comes to how

people interact with games.

So are we still at the tip of the iceberg?

Absolutely. The future is incredibly bright

for gaming. Our biggest bet as a company is

that gaming is going to be the biggest form

of entertainment—bigger than movies, bigger

than music. We believe there are anywhere

from two billion to three billion gamers out

there. And it’s more accepted than ever.

Gaming appeals to a basic tenant of human

nature: It’s all about having fun.

The future is incredibly bright for gaming. We believe there are two billion or

three billion gamers out there.

If you haven’t heard of Razer, you’re not spending enough quality time with your video games. The decade-old, billion-dollar company was among the first to make gaming peripherals cool. It doesn’t sell the games; it sells millions of high-tech computer mouses, headphones, and keyboards to cashed-up adult gamers (or kids who have mastered the art of the nag). Now, Razer CEO Min-Liang Tan—a self-proclaimed game geek and self-confessed former video-game pirate—is looking to consolidate his empire with the release of a laptop, a streaming device, and a virtual-reality headset. Tan recently spoke to Popular Science about his obsession with gaming and the future of playing.

by

MICHAEL NUÑEZ

How did this all start?

I used to play video games competitively

back when e-sports was still called “Pro

Gaming.” I was living in Korea, and my friends

and I were always looking for a competitive

advantage during sessions of Quake 3, Unreal

Tournament, and other first-person shooter

games. We were willing to try anything. We

were always talking about how to hack our

computer rigs [sic] to make everything a

little faster. Keep in mind, all the mouses and

keyboards back then were slow. So we got

together with some IT guys and engineers

and, in 1999, designed a better, more

responsive mouse.

sorry for pirating it.” He loved my story so

much, he made me a character in Wasteland

2. It still blows my mind. I was a total

fanboy over his work, and it was such a cool

moment to find out he’s really excited about

the work we do.

USEFUL PHRASES

MU dram! U dram! - Run! Run! (Implied: because there’s a sabretooth coming)

Wadar salwa daha, ha pafi. - Make water safe to drink.

Apwayam. Balti-yi hatra dawsam - I become weak. Need food for strength.

Gwarshtam, buda kwala. - Thank you, smart man.

WHY GAMERS ARE LEARNING A (MADE UP) ANCIENT LANGUAGE

Yes that stone-age woman is wearing a necklace made of ears. It’s a PTSD thing, okay? Look! A mammoth!

by

A N T H O N Y

FO R D H A M

After four successful entries in the

Far Cry series, all of which featured guns,

explosives and vehicles, videogame publisher

Ubisoft went a bit retro for Far Cry Primal.

About 12,000 years retro.

Set in the Mesolithic Period, Primal

follows the fate of a man named Takkar. He

must reunite his people, the Wenja, build a

settlement and not just survive, but prosper.

There aren’t many first-person prehistoric

human hunter-gatherer simulators, but when

“cavemen” appear in movies, they usually

speak in nonsensical grunts or vaguely racist

English dialect. Snu-snu, anyone?

Primal’s creative director Jean-Christophe

Guyot says the team’s intention was to

give players a realistic (albeint condensed)

experience of our slow

transition from hunter-gatherer

to farmers. A big part of that is

the evolution of language.

Ubisoft consulted with

linguists specialising in Proto-

Indo-European to create a

unique language for the Wenja.

The first results still felt too

modern, so the team asked

the linguists to regress the

APRIL 2016

NowAbove and Beyond

16 POPULAR SCIENCE

language even further, to imagine the most

basic possible grammar a primitive culture

might need, to live day-to-day.

The result is a distinctive tongue that

doesn’t sound like just another Slavic dialect

(the game is set in the Carpathian mountains),

nor does it sound like one of the linguistic

mish-mashes you might hear in a Star Wars

movie, where Lucasfilm would combine four

or five languages to write lines for, say, Jabba

the Hut or the Ewoks. Wenja suits the time

and place these people are in, and it fits with

their very pronounced body language too.

Most importantly, it sounds right.

What’s more, Ubisoft wants the player

to learn the language as they go. Important

conversations that advance the story are

subtitled, but many of the “barks” (short

random phrases spoken by characters as the

player passes by) are not.

The collector’s edition of the game

includes a book that explains the grammar

and pronunciation of Wenja, but even without

it, excellent motion-capture performances

for each of the characters helps a lot.

The humans of Far Cry: Primal are a, well,

far cry from the generic guards of the latest

military shooter. That’s because they aren’t

following orders or fighting a war. They’re just

trying to survive. And for once, they know how

to talk about it.

HOWTOSPEAKWENJASimply replacing English with made up words is doing less than half the

job. Wenja has a substantially different structure to our modern languages.

Most basic sentences are in the order subject-object-verb (the man the

spear throws) but also have what Ubisoft calls “sentence starters” to

modify the message. “U” is an imperative, “nu” indicates now, “aysh” is a

conditional like “could”, and “may” is an interdiction. These can be combined

to create complex sentences, such as “U-nu-mas warha” which means

“Now speak to us!” Gamers who pick up the Collector’s Edition get all this

instruction in a 66-page pocket phrasebook.

3 Covetek BioDoorA flexible option at a pricemore in line with a goodquality traditional lock (plusinstallation), the BioDooropens with both a fingerprintand an RFID tag. The lockdoesn’t record or store entirefingerprints - rather it scansthem for points of significance,then keeps the data as anencrypted file. This meanseven if it is hacked, yourfingerprints can’t be stolen foruse elsewhere. The lock canalso be opened by swiping anRFID tag. It can store up to99 fingers or tags. The ownercan also set specific usersas administrators, who canchange the programming. Thelock is designed to be self-installed, and of course comeswith backup mechanical keys.

PRICE: $409www.covetek.com.au

WOULD YOU TRUST AN APP TO KEEP YOUR HOUSE LOCKED?

Mechanical keyed door

locks as we understand them

have been around for at least

a couple of hundred years.

So it’s time for the jangle

of keys in your pocket to be

replaced by something a little

less... Victorian? Meet a new

generation of smart locks.

They have touchscreens, can

read fingerprints, open with

RFID, connect to Bluetooth

and even link into a home

automation system or

connect to the internet.

Okay, so the locking part is

the same: a metal bar stops

the door opening. Smart

locks are all about making

the entry and exit process

more in line with our multi-

purpose digital lifestyles.

For example, codes and

digital eKeys can be created

to give neighbours access,

but only while the owner

is away. Or be sent to an

emergency plumber, who will

then only have access for

limited time.

Unlike complex home

automation systems, most

smart locks can be DIY

installed in the place of

existing deadbolts and locks,

without modifying the door

itself. This makes it easy to

upgrade the lock on a rental

property, but then put the

original back if moving (or if

the landlord

objects).

APRIL 2016

NowFuture Familiar

18 POPULAR SCIENCE

1 Kwikset KevoDesigned to be easy to DIY install and use, the Kevo is a smart deadbolt that unlocks at a touch. Homeowners simply carry a Bluetooth tab or install the Kevo app on a smartphone to automatically verify their identify. Extra features such as timed access or limited use keys can be created and sent remotely through the app to other smartphone users. The Kevo system can also be upgraded to link into a wireless network and integrate with other home automation gubbins. The lock has a standard key for backup, and batteries that last about a year. Kevo is one of the cheapest smart locks available, and can befound at most hardware stores.

PRICE: $269www.kwikset.com

by

L I N D SAY

H A N D M E R

2 Samsung Smart Mortise LockForget about keys, RFID or Bluetooth - the Samsung smart lock uses a fingerprint as an (almost, ew) impossible-to-lose key. The system scans and unlocks in under a second, and can store up to 100 different prints. It also has a touch panel code entry system that can be used for two step authentication, or as a backup. And for the luddites (and during blackouts), there are five mechanical keys. There’s also a cheaper version that skips the biometric reader for RFID key tag activation, but keeps the touchpad. There’s also a super-compact model that replaces a standard deadbolt.

PRICE: $649www.samsung.com

1

2

Now

Tesla Model S, but for a Sunday picnic, it’s

just right. This isn’t about drag racing or

even the track. It’s about pootling down a

country lane at 80 km/h and, for once, not

scaring sheep three paddocks over.

The EV3 is unashamedly different,

and the design reflects this. The most

distinctive feature of this tiny electric car

is its asymmetric design. That moustache-

like detail under the offset third headlight

is a set of cooling pipes. When driving

solo there’s a panel that blocks off the

passenger side of the cockpit, improving

aerodynamics and range. And giving

the car the look of a space pod from a

divergent history where the British Empire

won the race to the moon.

No matter the EV3’s eventual fate

(government funding in the UK will

see this one-time concept car start

production in late 2016), at the very

least it demonstrates that electric drive

is now just another propulsion choice.

Morgan’s traditional customers might

curl their mutton chops at it. But a new

generation who wants all the romance

without the oil and the maintenance

bills might just fall in love.

The Morgan 3 Wheeler has always

been fun, but very loud. The EV3 doesn’t

change the core concept. It just makes it

easier on the neighbours.

APRIL 2016

MORGAN EV3

Power: 4 kW

Battery

Range:

Weight

Price: T

www.m

UKmarque Morgan is famous for its distinctive,

retro-styled cars, and especially the idiosyncratic

3 Wheeler. The tiny, light roadster has two wheels

up front, one at the back, an iconic V Twin engine

and is painted to evoke a WWII fighter. It’s... actually

kind of nerdy, and a very certain type of gentleman

loves its handling, its surprisingly poor fit-and-

finish, and its difficult-to-justify price (see boxout).

Now, there’s an electric version. The EV3 has a

46kW electric engine drawing juice from a 20kWh

lithium-ion battery pack. Modest numbers? Well,

construction is carbon-fibre and aluminium over

Morgan’s famous wooden frame, and

so the EV3 weighs under 500kg.

This means the it will perform

about the same as the petrol-

powered 3 Wheeler, and have a

240 kilometre range. Sure, it’s no

IS THIS THE WORLD’S COOLEST ELECTRIC CAR?

Retro Envy

by

ANTHONY

FORDHAM

AUSSIE SPECSGetting the current petrol 3 Wheeler on local roads hasn’t been easy. To gain

Australian Design Rule Compliance, Morgan had to essentially re-engineer the car

from the ground up. The Oz version has a padded steering wheel, higher roll-over

hoops, dash padding, bigger mirrors, more indicators, brake failure light, a third brake

light and wind defl ectors instead of a wind screen. Most obviously, a new induction

system reduces engine noise and gives the Aussie 3 Wheeler a distinctive moustache.

All this comes at a hell of a cost. The UK version was never cheap (35,000 pounds, or

$67,000) but ours is $105,755 drive away. And you still only get three wheels.

20 POPULAR SCIENCE

APRIL 2016

Now

Any “How To Reduce Your

Ecological Footprint” pamphlet

worth its salt will point out the

environmental cost of running

a second fridge. And that’s just

the electricity. The refrigerant

gases themselves, should

they escape, can contribute

massively to global warming.

But there’s been an

alternative for over 100

years, at least in theory.

It’s called magnetic

refrigeration, and rather

than messing about

with gas, it works via the

magnetocaloric effect.

Basically, the

temperature of certain

materials will drop

when they are exposed

to a changing magnetic

field. Repeated

magnetisation and

demagnetisation of

these materials will

create stable hot and cold regions

in the system. Once that’s done,

it’s relatively easy to set up a heat

pump and hook it into the kinds

of coolers we already use. The

magnetocaloric system replaces

the gas-compressor in your fridge.

The magnetocaloric effect

was first described in 1881, and

the first system was built in 1933

- though it was

slightly more

hardcore than

your deep freeze,

given it chilled

stuff down to 0.25K (-272.90C).

And this is why we don’t already

have magnetically refrigerated

air conditioners. Lab-based

systems use exotic materials

and incredibly powerful magnetic

fields exceeding 2 Teslas, which

can only be generated with

superconducting magnets.

So like fusion, the

Holy Grail for magnetic

refrigeration is the

creation of a room

temperature system,

small and cheap enough

to stick in the bottom

of your fridge.

And that Grail

may now be in reach,

and we could be on

the verge of the first

major shift in cooling

technology since, well,

fridges were invented.

Companies such as

Cooltech Applications

are taking advantage of modern

manufacturing processes, the

discovery of new rare earth

resources, and of course powerful

computer simulations to design

working room-temp devices

like the Industrialised Magnetic

Refrigeration System (MRS).

Cooltech’s 200-700W MRS is

aimed at the commercial market

for now (think open supermarket

display cases) but installing it can

be as simple as ripping out the

existing gas system.

Cooltech claims the MRS will

save its customers on electricity,

but more importantly (for the

European market anyway) it will

give them an exemption from

taxes on refrigerants. A 700W

cooler is overkill for the average

kitchen, but consumer-grade

100W systems will follow.

The sound of the fridge

compressor kicking in at 0200h

has been a part of Australian

suburban life for three generations

now. But thanks to an obscure

magnetic principle from 1881, a

blessed silence could soon return.

12-14Percentage

of Australia’s

annual carbon

emissions

directly

attributable to

the HVAC&R

industry

(which includes

refrigeration).

Cooltech’s Magnetic

Refrigeration System.

Phrasebook

by

ANTHONY

FORDHAM

WHAT THE HECK IS...

MAGNETIC REFRIGERATION

That wheezing beer fridge in your garage is killing the

planet with its HFC gas and asbestos-laced insulation.

Fortunately, there’s a better way, and you won’t even

have to drink warm beer.

THE SECRET TO MAGNETIC REFRIGERATIONThe magnetocaloric effect was described in 1881, so why has

it taken 135 years to reach the market? The missing link has

been a material that exhibits the effect strongly enough to

work at room temperature (and without a magnetic field

of car-crumpling strength). Enter Gadolinium. It’s the 64th

element (give yourself a 197Au star if you knew that) and sits

in the rare earth group. As our hunger for rare earth metals

continues to grow, more prospecting uncovers new kinds

of minerals containing Gadolinium, each better suited to

magnetocaloric heat exchange than the last! Will this stuff,

once refined, turn out to have an even more deleterious effect

on the environment than hydrofluorocarbons? Well... it’s easy

to be a cynic, isn’t it?

22 POPULAR SCIENCE

The Bok Prize

The Charlene Heisler Prize

The Louise Webster Prize

The Ellery Lectureship

The David Allen Prize

The Berenice & Arthur Page Medal

The Richard Cole Fund

Donate to the Foundation for the Advancement of Astronomy

ABOOTFULLOFLIFE

by LINDSAY

HANDMER

NowToolkit

Australians are among the only people in the world to travel across our country with rope, water, torch and matches in the car. Creepy? Certainly not. Just sensible.

Every car should have a boot well-

stocked enough to keep its occupants

alive and more-or-less healthy in an

emergency. How many under-prepared

tourists have died when their vehicles

broke down halfway down, say, the

Birdsville track? And no matter how

experienced a desert driver you might

be, no 4WD skills will protect you from a

flash-flood, or raging bushfire. To survive

more than handful of hours in the heat,

and then the sudden biting cold of night,

you need gear. Gear like this lot.

Bottled WaterNo matter the trip, having extra water in the car is always a good idea. Ideally it should be kept out of sunlight. Recycled bottles are good for the environment, but the bacteria that grows in them after prolonged storage isn’t

much good for you. Foil-sealed water boxes are ideal because they pack efficiently. PRICE: $25CRITICALITY: Rope

From getting a tow to stringing up a makeshift shelter, rope is more useful, versatile and essential than most people realise. Don’t buy the $10 plastic rubbish. Opt for something higher quality. Abseiling ropes will do it all at a price, but a couple of decent nylon ropes in several gauges will pull you out of trouble. PRICE: $30CRITICALITY:

TorchThe absolute best bet is a hand-cranked model that doesn’t need batteries, but any torch is better than nothing. Touch waterproofed models are usually worth the extra scratch. Some can be plugged into a cigarette lighter to remain charged at all times. Remember to test before departure.

PRICE: $20CRITICALITY:

First Aid KitUnless you have St John’s training, a full kit will probably have a bunch of stuff you don’t even know how to use. Basics

such as bandages, bandaids, disinfectant, cotton wool buds,

paddle-pop sticks to splintfingers and OTC painkillerswill turn a bad fall from anemergency to an inconvenience. Also make sure you have a good

pair of sharp scissors and fine-pointed tweezers, plus somealcohol swabs. For ticks.PRICE: $35CRITICALITY:

The Useful BoxPile all this stuff into a box or bag and watch that humble container save the day. Matches and candles can actually mean the difference between life and death. Baby wipes are great for personal hygiene -

but go for unscented varieties (and don’t flush them!). Add a high-quality knife, sunblock, DEET-based insect repellent, and don’t forget a compass.PRICE: $0 - $50CRITICALITY:

Canned FoodA few cans of chunky soup, beans or other veggies don’t actually weigh that much, and they last a long time. Canned food also doesn’t need rehydration, so you can eat it cold in a pinch.PRICE: $20CRITICALITY:

Basic ToolsA small socket set, screwdrivers and pliers are the sorts of items you won’t miss until you need them. Are you prepared to sleep in the car overnight because you didn’t double-check you had all the tools available to change a tyre? Don’t forget a roll of duct tape, and maybe some tie wire. Anything you can’t fix with duct tape, you can fix with tie wire.PRICE: $100CRITICALITY:

Jumper CablesWe’re assuming if you’re off the beaten track, you’re using the kind of vehicle that can tolerate a jump-start. Even if your ride’s ECU won’t tolerate a jump, carrying cables makes it easy to GIVE assistance. Jumper cables can also mean the

difference between limping back into town, or leaving your car to the mercy of desert bandits (ie drunken vandals). PRICE: $35CRITICALITY:

Think nothing can go wrong, because your trip is just a few hundred klicks down the coast? Think again. And then find space in the boot for the following essential survival items.

MUST HAVE BASICS

24 POPULAR SCIENCE

NowAPRIL 2016

Toolkit

ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE DITCH BAGEverything has gone to rubbery prosthetic hell,

and you need to get out and survive with just

what you can carry. Those who are prepared

will have a “ditch bag” ready to go - and

everyone else will be zombie food. Here are the

essentials, to which you should add extras, such

as knives, torches and first aid. It’s also possible

to buy ready-made ditch bags from companies

such as Survival Kits (www.survival-kits.

com.au) or Survival Supplies Australia (www.

survivalsuppliesaustralia.com.au) for as little as

$115. But don't forget the can opener!

One WeekEmergency RationsPRICE: $150It won’t be tasty, but it’s compact, has a long shelf lifeand will keepyou alive.

Filter StrawPRICE: $25Avoid getting sick from

pesky reliance on the kindness of strangers. Itcan also refill a smartphone multiple times over and recharges from a cigarette lighter plugP

w

e cost, but havingskills to use it. Patching a car tyre isbit more involved than fixing a bicycltube In any case, changing out a tyr

good, but what if you es than you have spareessential to keeping on

matter what.

m.au

olar Ovenng able to cook food wthat annoying messingund trying to light a fire vital energy. This devo be used to evaporateter, producing not justsh water, but also tastICE: $150ww.sunflair.net

Fire SteelMatches can get wet and lighters run out of fuel. Fire Steel uses magnesium and a striker to produce sparks at 30000C hi h n light just

s reusable s and best of wet.

au

ROFTisstthgocacohclthelththadP

w

Surviving a few hours or at worst days until rescue is fine, but about when you want to disappear off the grid for months or more? The kit on this page isn’t just about surviving

GOING OFF THE BEATEN TRACK

Now

Understanding why one of these hypercars is a fascinating triumph offuture-tech, and the other is just, you know, sort of vulgar.

WHENKILOWATTSALONEAREN’TENOUGHTO IMPRESS

Showdown

Back in the 1980s, schoolyard supercar battles

split along Ferrari-Lamborghini lines. Horsepower,

displacement and number of cylinders were all

shouted back and forth, but really the war was

over style. Middle-class boys debating the Italian

aesthetics of cars they would never own.

Thirty-five years later, the ongoing prizefight for

the title of most insanely awesome car in the world

has largely abandoned style and good taste, and is

now all about crazy numbers. Six hundred kilowatts!

Quad turbo! Life beyond 300km/h!

The 1974 Lamborghini Countach LP 400 made

275kW from its 3.9L V12. In 2016, it takes a LOT

more to drop jaws. Right now, only

Bugatti and Koenigsegg push car

engineering beyond what millionaires

take for granted, to provide that blend

of insane performance and extreme

opulence reserved for billionaires.

Back in 2005, the Bugatti Veyron

became the world’s fastest production

car with a psychologically-important

1000HP (745kW) stock and a certified

top speed of 430.9km/h. Many versions

followed, but only now is it finally set

to be replaced by the Chiron. This new

epitome of engineering excess has an

updated version of the Veyron’s infamous 8.0L W16

quad-turbo engine, which will now produce 1103kW

and 1600Nm of torque. That’s four ‘74 Countaches.

Inside, the Chiron redefines taste and comfort,

with switchgear that costs more than a small BMW

and materials guaranteed to be withheld from sale

to lesser mortals. The Chiron has the kind of power

you only get from modifying a GT-R to the point of

spontaneous combustion, but you (well, not you) will

be able to drive it in traffic every day. It’s impressive

work. Especially since Bugatti is owned by VW.

But it’s not interestingwork. It’s just a big heavy

expression of what it means to be hyper-rich but have

no real idea of or interest in style or engineering.

Sounds harsh? Contrast it with the Koenigsegg

Regera. The company’s first luxury-over-raw-

performance model, the Regera combines a 5.0L

twin-turbo V8 with three electric motors and

a unique “direct-drive” single-gear 2.73:1 ratio

transmission. The drivetrain is so odd, it’s hard to

express its power output in a meaningful way. Total

power is 1358kW but actual mechanical output more

like 1100kW. Torque is a hair under 2000Nm.

The Koenigsegg Direct Drive System (KDD) lets

the lucky Regera owner whisper around in pure

EV mode, but above 50 km/h the V8 kicks in via a

complex hydraulic coupling. The point

of this? The hybrid Regera weighs only

88kg more than it would have with a

petrol-only 7-speed drivetrain, for a

total kerb weight of just 1580kg. That’s

feather-light for a hybrid supercar.

The Chiron, on the other hand,

weighs... well, Bugatti hasn’t said yet

but it will be a lot. Many tonnes.

While Koenigsegg will make money

from the Regera’s 80 car production

run (at somewhere north of $2.5 million

each), VW will probably sell the Chiron

at a loss, as it did with the Veyron,

which was after all, a halo marketing project. But

still, a $3 million car with no boot isn’t about profit

margins. It’s about showcasing exactly what can be

achieved when the engineers have infinite budget.

On that metric, the Regera wins easily. Innovative

drivetrain, making the best of ICE and electric,

lightweight “roboticised” construction with all kinds

of extending fins and wings and vents... versus the

Chiron’s giant cylindarrhea-suffering engine that, at

top speed, empties its 100L fuel tank in eight minutes.

Either car on the actual road is pointless, but I

know which one my inner child would rather have on

his bedroom wall.

2 KOENIGSEGG REGERA

Due: Q2 2016

Power: 1358kW total, 1100kW

effective, give or take

Torque: 2000Nm

Engine: 5.0L twin-turbo V8 +

3x electric motors

Top Speed: 420km/h

Weight: 1590kg

Production run: 80

Cost: $2.5 million

1 BUGATTI CHIRON

Due: TBA 2016-2017

Power: 1103kW

Torque: 1600Nm

Engine: 8.0L quad-turbo W16

Top Speed: 463km/h (420km/h

limited for “safety”)

Weight: TBC

Production run: 500

Cost: TBC (over $2m)

Model year of the

f irst production car

to have a top speed

in excess of 300

km/h, the Ferrari

288 GTO. (The f irst

to exceed 200km/h

was the 1949 Jaguar

XK120. Scary!)

1984

1 2

26 POPULAR SCIENCE

by

ANTHONY

FORDHAM

GARBAGEORGOLD?THEMURKYWORLDOFULTRA-CHEAPTABLETSby LINDSAY

HANDMER

NowRound Up

APRIL 2016

When iPads can cost over $1000 at

the high end, those Android and Windows

tablets priced at rock-bottom can look

very appealing. They can cost as little as

$50, and rarely exceed $250. While some

are obvious garbage or shameless Apple

knock-offs, others are sold by reputable

stores such as Officeworks, with full

warranty. Could they be worth a try?

Magical, revolutionary... and cheap

It should come as no surprise that

“affordable” tablets skimp on just about

every feature compared to a more

expensive model. Generally the tablets

have older versions of the relevant

operating system, slower processors,

lower resolution screens, limited storage,

and shorter battery life. But if all you

need is a tablet to watch funny cat videos

on YouTube or check email, then they will

do the job just fine.

The $250 Price Point

At the higher end of cheap laptops,

performance actually starts to become

acceptable. The latest generation of

efficient Intel Atom processors are

surprisingly good when it comes to

video and even games, and Windows 10

has turned out to be well optimised for

touchscreen (unlike its predecessor).

At this level, the tablets are roughly

equivalent to low end laptops, just

without the keyboard and trackpad. The

displays on these models aren’t full HD

(1080p), but are good enough for internet

video. You’ll be able to use most of the

popular apps, but some may feel a little

slow to load. Really, these tablets are

aimed at users who just want to surf

the net and check emails. Some models

come with Android rather than Windows

10, and the latest dual boot both OSes.

For best results, look for an Intel

1 Onda V919So what happens if you spend big brand money on a tablet in this segment? The answer: comparatively impressive specs. The screen is a 9.7” 2048 x 1536 panel with multitouch support. It also uses the newer Intel Atom X5 Z8300 CPU, with four cores boosting to 1.84 GHz. It has 4GB RAM, 64GB internal storage and 802.11n WiFi. This is also a dual-boot tablet; it runs both Android 5.1 and Windows 10 on the same unit. It measures in at 240mm x 170mm x 8mm and weighs 890 grams.PRICE: $350

www.onda-tablet.com

2 Chuwi Vi8 PlusA slightly cheaper 8” tablet, the Vi8 doesn’t skimp on the specs for the price. It has a 1.84GHz Intel X5 CPU, 2GB RAM, 32GB storage and 802.11n Wi-Fi. The tablet has an IPS display with a 1280 x 800 resolution. It runs Windows 10, and measures in at 211 x 123 x 93mm and weighs 350 grams. PRICE: $150

en.chuwi.com

ndows 10 Tablettablet has a 10.1” IPS screen with a 1280 x 800 ns an Intel Atom Bay Trail 1.83 GHz Quad Core CPU, M and 32GB of storage. It has front and back 2MP 1ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. The tablet measures in

9.3mm and weighs 600 grams. It’s available from

CPU, as much RAM and storage as possible and a display

resolution of either 1366 x 768 or 1280 x 800.

Android has been solid for a while now, but avoid Windows

8.1. A salesperson might tell you a Win 8 tablet can be

upgraded to Windows 10 for free, but that’s not always the

case so it’s easier if you just choose another model.

Where to Buy

The range of tablets you can find online at the big auction

sites is huge, but tablets are also a classic scam (you’ll

get a block of wood in a postage bag). Of the real ones, the

warranties are usually worthless and impossible to claim.

Fortunately, many larger retailers also stock affordable

tablets, including your post office and supermarket!

Our advice? Stretch your budget to $300. At this price, you

can buy an entry-level unit from brands like Asus, Lenovo or

even Samsung. These tablets have much better build quality,

more features, better software - and a real warranty.

1

2

3

28 POPULAR SCIENCE

30 POPULAR SCIENCE

EDITED BY BREANNA DRAXLER + MATT GILES

One day, commercial space launches like this Falcon 9 rocket

will be as common - and as taken for granted - as jet airliners

leaving Sydney’s Mascot airport. For now though, SpaceX

continues to work through the challenges of pioneering what

could be the most difficult start-up of an industry in the history of

the world (or rather, off it).

Unlike Tesla, billionaire Elon Musk’s other future-tech

company, SpaceX remains privately owned. It doesn’t compete

in an open market. Rather, it relies on NASA contracts, and the

US government’s inability to itself build a cheap, dependable

launch system to resupply the International Space Station.

Right now, the unmanned Dragon capsule is the only way

to bring material (but not people) down from the ISS. The only

way to get people there and back is via Russia’s dependable but

extremely old-school Soyuz. SpaceX’s dream is to design, build

and “man-rate” a crewed spacecraft, and reopen a direct path to

orbit (for the US, anyway).

Right now, SpaceX is somewhere in the pre-Mercury phase of

its program. The rockets are dependable (only one has been lost

in a failed launch) and development of the radical soft-landing

system continues as planned. There have been no crewed

SpaceX launches yet. But then, SpaceX is paid for with a mix

of its own private funding (about $450 million) and its contract

with NASA (about $396 million so far). Compare that to the

Mercury program’s $2.1 billion inflation-adjusted budget.

Which is of course the point. This isn’t just about putting

a test pilot in orbit to beat a political foe. It’s about building

relatively cheap, reusable launch

infrastructure. SpaceX’s ultimate

aim is nothing less than opening

up the universe for all humanity.

And that means opening it for

business, first.

by

LINDSAY HANDMER and

ANTHONY FORDHAM

POPSCI .COM.AU 31

So far, SpaceX hasn’t had a

rocket explode “on the pad”.

Sophisticated computer

monitoring shuts dotwn the

nine Merlin 1D engines if precise

launch parameters are not met,

preventing the kinds of launch

failures that dogged NASA for

years in the 1960s.

APRIL 2016

Ratio of

successful

SpaceX

launches

to failures

(includes test

flights that

resulted in

destruction of

the vehicle as

planned, but

stil l returned

expected data).

21:1

Next

You Are Go For Launch

The Falcon 9, in three variants,

has launched 22 times (as

of March 2016). One launch

exploded and was lost, the rest

were successful. Here are a few

that stand out.

June 4 , 2010.

Maiden Flight for testing

purposes.

December 8 , 2010.

COTS Demo Flight 1. Operation

Dragon launch.

May 23, 2012.

COTS Demo Flight 2. ISS payload

delivery test.

October 7, 2012.

CRS-1. ISS Resupply Mission.

Premature shutdown on one

engine. Main mission completed

successfully. Secondary

payload Orbcomm satellite not

successfully delivered to right

orbit. Customer got a discount!

September 29, 2013.

CASSIOPE. Falcon 9 v1.1 test and

successful CASSIOPE satellite

launch. Experimental water

landing test.

June 28, 2015.

CRS-7 ISS Resupply. The only

failure so far. Total rocket and

payload loss after second stage

explosion due to a ruptured

helium tank.

December 21 , 2015.

Orbcomm satellite launch.

First Falcon 9 Full Thrust launch.

First successful stage one

booster landing.

March 4, 2016.

SES-9 Satellite Launch. After

four launch scrubs, primary

payload delivered. Experimental

high velocity first stage landing

“failed” - but this was expected.

32 POPULAR SCIENCE

APRIL 2016

Tech Update

Even after just a few years of development, the

latest version of SpaceX’s rocket, called Falcon 9

Full Thrust, is already significantly more powerful

than its predecessors. This allows it to deliver

larger payloads to orbit, and gives more of a fuel

reserve margin to use for landing.

Unlike earlier launch systems by NASA and

others, the Falcon 9 uses deep cryogenic cooling

for its liquid oxygen (LOX) and Rocket Propellant-1

(RP-1, or fancy kerosene) fuel. In earlier designs,

the LOX was loaded at the temperature it turns

to liquid, -183 degrees Celsius. Cooling it

further to -207 degrees Celsius

makes it denser, which allows

more LOX to be loaded.

The RP-1 is cooled to -7

degrees Celsius for the

same reason. Aside from

more propellant in the

available tank volume,

the extra density means

higher flow rates to the

engines, and more thrust.

This allows the rocket to

deliver a heavier payload.

The Falcon 9 Full Thrust is

also taller, with improved engines.

It’s about 30% more powerful than its predecessor.

Aborting is Better than Exploding

The twenty-second Falcon 9 flight - the second

launch of the Falcon 9 Full Thrust variant - faced

four delays before a successful launch on the

fifth attempt. The payload was a five tonne

geostationary communication satellite called SES-

9, which will now provide coverage to parts of Asia,

South Asia and Indonesia.

The nature of this satellite meant it had to

ultimately reach an orbit 35,000 km/h from

Earth, which required the full capabilities of the

rocket. The launch was scrubbed four times when

the computer systems on board determined

conditions weren’t optimal - especially when the

fuel began to heat up.

Because of the cyrogenic fuel system, the

Falcon 9 sensitive to launch delays. Once the

super-cold liquid oxygen begins to warm and

expand, and has to be vented. Lost LOX can’t just

be topped up either, so even just sitting on the pad,

the rocket physically loses propellant.

For demanding missions such as the SES-9

launch, losing too much liquid oxygen reduces

the chance of mission success below acceptable

levels. Eventually, the call is made to scrub.

On February 28th, the rocket actually fired up its

engines for a split second, before flight computers

rejected the launch conditions, and shut the flight

down automatically. This is in stark contrast to

the rockets of the 1960s and 1970s. Without

sophisticated computer systems, “sub optimal

conditions” like this would have gone unnoticed,

the rocket would have launched, and the flight may

have been lost - including the multimillion dollar

satellite on top.

A Reusable Rocket

Out of the typical $61.2 million cost of a Falcon

9 flight, it’s estimated that the first stage costs

around $40 million, and fuel is as little as

$200,000. So rather than let this marvel of modern

engineering fall into the ocean and be destroyed,

SpaceX is trying to make the Falcon 9 reusable.

The initial challenge comes at first stage

separation, when the rocket can be travelling at up

to 9000 km/h and reach a peak altitude of 200 km.

Rather than parachutes, the Falcon 9 uses spare

fuel to slow itself, then make a powered, upright

landing. That’s right: it has retro-rockets.

It uses small grid fins to guide the rocket

towards the landing target, before lowering

landing legs and firing a single engine

to come to a stop.

So far SpaceX has only

managed this feat once - on

the 20th flight. On 22nd of

December 2015, the rocket

successfully launched the

Orbcomm OG2 M2 mission, albeit

to Low Earth Orbit which is easier to

reach than geosynchronous orbit.

There have been multiple attempts to land

the rocket on a floating barge. While none have

succeeded yet, the failures were planned and

expected and provided SpaceX with useful data.

Ideally, each Falcon 9 will be flown at least 10

times, and in the future even the second stage will

be recovered - massively reducing the overall costs.

Today, it costs around $30,000 to put 1kg in

orbit. With reusability, Elon Musk hopes that

SpaceX can reduce this to as little as $300.

SpaceX Tries Again... And Again...

HOW THEJAMES WEBB SPACETELESCOPE WILL

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34 POPULAR SCIENCE

NextConcepts & Prototypes

Toward the middle of the year, two pilots

sandwiched in a metre-wide cabin could

take the Perlan 2 glider to 90,000 feet (27km),

higher than all but a handful of aircraft have

ever flown. To reach such heights, the glider

will ride stratospheric waves—powerful and

little-understood currents that flow over

mountain ranges. It will be flying in uncharted

and unstable aeronautic territory, and between

the thin air and blistering ultraviolet radiation,

the slightest miscalculation could be

disastrous. If successful, the Perlan 2 could

expand the parameters of high-altitude flight,

enhance climate science, and provide new

insights on planetary exploration. And after

an initial tow to 10,000 feet, it will all be done

without burning a drop of fuel.

by

SHELBY

CARPENTER

Glider witha Stellar View

1.

ASSISTED

LAUNCHA tiny and fuel-frugal

tow plane will use

a cable to lift the

glider up to 10,000

feet. Perlan 2’s pilots

will then detach and

continue their ascent

using air currents and

flight instruments

powered by Lithium-

ion batteries.

PERLAN 2’S SPECS

POPSCI .COM.COM.AU 35

APRIL 2016

“�is area has the most intense turbulence outside what you’d get in ahurricane or a cyclone. It’s like you’re in a washing machine.”—Morgan Sandercock, project manager

2.

TIGHT

QUARTERS

Engineers built the

1-by-3-m pressurised

fuselage as small as

possible to minimise

weight and drag during

flight. The hull is

circular in cross-

section, rather than

the oval shape of most

aircraft, so air pressure

will push equally on

all sides.

3.

TREATED

WINDOWS

At 90,000 feet, and

with so much atmos-

phere left below, the

glider will be exposed

to intense solar

radiation. A coating on

the polycarbonate win-

dows will absorb the

rays. It will also help

protect against frigid

temperatures and

maintain the Perlan

2’s structural integrity.

Losing cabin pressure

here means the pilots’

lungs will explode

inside their chests.

4.

UNIQUE

WINGS

Lightweight

carbon-fibre wings

help the glider to fly in

the low-density air of

the upper stratosphere.

The aerofoil—its aer-

odynamically shaped,

25-metre wingspan—

maximises efficiency

and provides the

ideal ratio of

lift to drag.

5.

STEADY

FLYING

At this altitude, Perlan

2 will almost definitely

experience extreme

turbulence. The glider

will have conventional

ailerons, elevator and

rudders, but how these

will perform way up

there is an experiment

in itself.

6.

SAFE

DESCENT

Without an engine to

modulate its speed, the

Perlan 2 will rely on

airbrakes, which flip

open and create drag to

safely land. In case of

a midflight emergency,

the pilots can also de-

ploy an 3-metre-diam-

eter drogue parachute,

often used by high-

speed aircraft.

9.

CLIMATE

DATA

The flight has addition-

al scientific

implications. When

the waves stretch high

enough, they break,

and chemicals from the

troposphere are thrust

into the stratosphere,

where they can remain

for decades. No one

knows the effects of

this atmospheric cock-

tail, and whatever data

the Perlan 2 collects

could help sharpen

our understanding of

humanity’s effects on

climate change.

7.

SCIENCE

MISSION

The glider will be the

first to collect scientific

data on the powerful—

and unpredictable—

stratospheric waves.

Aviation experts will

use this research to

forecast the waves

more accurately, even-

tually enabling passen-

ger planes to operate in

the upper atmosphere,

where they could fly

farther and faster on

less fuel, due to lower

air resistance.

8.

PRACTISING

FOR MARS

The glider’s flying

conditions will be

similar to those found

on Mars, and the

team hopes to share

any insights the craft

gleans from its flight.

“Somebody will build

an aeroplane for Mars

someday, and we’ll

have a wealth of data

for that person,” says

Ed Warnock, the

project’s CEO.

TH

E P

ER

LA

N P

RO

JE

CT

36 POPULAR SCIENCE

NextGeeking Out

APRIL 2016

As told to

MATT GILES

The incoming president

of the National Acade-

my of Sciences, Marcia

McNutt, arrives at this

US advisory agency

at a crucial moment.

Technology is rapidly

changing the nature of

research, and science

education needs to keep

pace. Luckily the marine

geophysicist, whose

term begins in July 2016,

has spent her career

collecting data, tracking

environments, and

creating models of our

changing world. She’s

pro-curiosity and

bullish about the impact

that big data can have

on scientific discovery.

MarciaMcNuttOn the Power of Discovery

Amount, in

bil l ions of dollars ,

spent outf itting

K-12 classrooms

in the US with

computers and

tablets in 2014 ,

according to IDC

9.2

PHOTOGRAPHY BY Elliot O’Donovan

You may have heard that climate scientists at

CSIRO are set to lose their jobs, or maybe their jobs

were reinstated in the 10 days between me writing

this and the magazine going on sale. Either way, the

reconfiguration of Australia’s various peak scientific

research bodies continues.

National ICT Australia (NICTA) has been our

research centre of excellence for information and

communication technologies since 2002. Like the

Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) network, NICTA

researched, developed and then spun off commercial

implementations of a wide range of ICT projects that

would otherwise never get off the ground. Critics

call it too academic. Companies like Audinate and

Saluda Medical call it “mother”.

No matter the size of its IP portfolio, funding for

NICTA was always due to expire this year.

Fortunately, it has now merged with the CSIRO to

create Data61. Defining itself as a “digital research

powerhouse”, Data61 will continue NICTA’s work,

focusing on digital technology, big data, and analytics.

Research pillars include wireless networking,

imaging and visualisation, cybersecurity, robotics,

autonomous systems and the slightly ominous-

sounding “data for decisions”.

Expect to read about Data61

in Australian Popular Science a

lot in the years to come.

POPSCI .COM.AU 37

Let Their Two Science Powers Combine!

by

ANTHONY

FORDHAM

NextPhase Change

DATA61

Weird name? It simply

reflects the focus: Data.

And then identifies

the place: 61, which is

Australia’s country code.

Remember when you

used to call overseas on a

landline? No, neither do we.

“Children love discovery. We should teach them the fundamentals and then set them loose.”

Scientists have always been explorers—they’ve had to go out and brave the world to make new discoveries. Darwin found unusual finches, and that led to the theory of evolution. But with advances in computing power, scientists won’t necessarily have to leave their homes anymore. Future exploration will start with algorithms.

Explorers can come up with

crazy theories, use computers to

sift through our wealth of data,

and pull the signal out of the

noise, answering the questions:

‘What am I looking for here?

What is important?’

By 2023, a single computer’s

processing power will equal

that of the entire human race.

Apply that processing power to

all the information out there, an

imagine the discoveries we will

make. Adventurers won’t have

to get a queen to give them a

ship to explore anymore. Every

schoolchild could be a digital

Lewis and Clark.

I can’t help but believe we’re

on the threshold of mind-

blowing discoveries about the

worlds beyond our solar system.

People thought Pluto would be

dull, and its flyby was amazing.

We are going to look at planets

like Neptune and Jupiter and

say, ‘We thought they were

interesting, but the real variety

is out beyond Pluto.’

There is a very real

possibility that we’ll soon

learn more about the special

conditions that gave rise to

life on Earth. For a while, we

thought our planet was unique

because it was so active, and all

of that activity created energy

sources that life needs. But now

we see that happening in lots

of places in our solar system.

Maybe we aren’t so different

after all. We need to keep

exploring to find out.”

38 POPULAR SCIENCE

NextTurning Point

APRIL 2016

by

ANTHONY

FORDHAM

Go: Brain Defeats Heart

Go isn’t like other board games.

Chess grandmasters learn hundreds of

openings and memorise thousands of

board positions until they see patterns

almost before they form. But elite-level

Go is as much about feeling the state

of the board as it is about seeing it. In

its 2,500 year history, Go has inspired

philosophers, and even led to the

discovery of mathematical principles,

such as the surreal numbers.

This ancient game has simple rules,

but until 2016, no AI could seriously

challenge the top-ranked Go players.

The 19x19 grid pretty much rules out

brute-force evaluation of all possible

moves. There are simply too many.

Unlike Chess champions who know the

best patterns, Go grandmasters don’t

consult an internal catalogue. They play

toward a deeply intuitive aesthetic. How

can an AI possibly compete with that?

Well, researchers from DeepMind - a

UK company that Google acquired in

2014 - have done what many thought

was impossible, or at least still a decade

away. Their AI, called

AlphaGo, has beaten

the fifth-ranked

player in the world.

Korean grandmaster

Lee Sedol lost a best-

of-five match in what

the Go community sees

as a huge upset. How is

this possible? How was this

AI so good?

AlphaGo, like other board game AIs,

uses deep neural networks that mimic

the way neurons work in the human

brain. Neural networks can process huge

amounts of data and learn to perform

tasks - without being specifically (and

restrictively) programmed.

But other neural network AIs have

failed to win at Go. So DeepMind added

an extra, perhaps revolutionary step.

After AlphaGo analysed and learned

from thousands of historical Go matches

played between human grandmasters,

it was then set up to play against itself.

It tracked which moves proved the most

successful, boosting its skill

with a technique called

reinforcement learning.

The result: an AI that

combines the best human

techniques with entirely

new ways to play. First,

DeepMind put AlphaGo

through its paces behind

closed doors, where it beat

European Go champion Fan Hui

in five straight games.

Afterwards, AlphaGo continued to

train, helped along by further hardware

upgrades. Finally, on the 9th of March

2016, AlphaGo won its first game against

Lee Sedol, in 186 moves.

Then, it won a second game in

211 moves, and a third in 176. While

admitting he made some errors, Lee

Sedol says he found the AI unexpectedly

impressive. Before the competition, he’d

confidently expected to win 5-0.

In the second game, AlphaGo made a

move that surprised analysts, and showed

anomalies in play that looked like it had

glitched. After its decisive victory in that

An AI has finally bested a Go grandmaster, making this ancient game the latest to lose a world champion to mere code. How did computation beat intuition?

20816819938197998469947863334486277028652245388453054842563945682092741961273Total number of legal Go

positions on a 19x19 board:

Because an AI can do millions ofmathematical equations a second,one way to get an edge over a slow human is to build a decision tree for all the possible games branching out from the current move, and then search that tree to determine which move will give the AI the best chance of winning. The number of choices in the tree is called the “game-tree complexity”. For Tic-Tac-Toe,

it’s about 100,000, and a modern PC could evaluate 100,000 outcomes

in a fraction of a second. The game-tree complexity of Go is... bigger. In fact, it’s so big, mathematicians argue over the precise value. For the average expert-level game (150 moves with 250 possible choices per move), Go’s game-

tree complexity is 10360. Which, perhaps ironically, is much,

much larger than a googol.

GAME-TREE COMPLEXITY

POPSCI.COM.AU 39

NextTurning Point

game (Lee Sedol says that from early on, he never

felt like he was in a strong position), AlphaGo’s

developers at DeepMind explained how it prioritises

the chance of victory over maintaining a wide lead

in points. When given the choice between an 80%

chance of victory with a 20 point lead, and a 99%

chance with a one point lead, it will choose the

latter. Commentators quipped that “...when AlphaGo

plays a slack looking move... it should more

accurately be viewed as a declaration of victory.”

Then in what was, at this point, a bit of an upset

to the upset, Lee Sedol won the fourth game

by drawing on every ounce of his experience

and human intuition. On move 78, he played an

unexpected move in the centre of the board.

This time, AlphaGo’s response to this

quintessentially human move really was a

mistake, according to its designers. Telemetry

showed AlphaGo backing itself with a 79% chance

to win at move 79, but it took 11 further moves for

the AI to “realise” it had made a strategic error.

Its self-evaluated chance of winning plummeted.

A human might have choked at that point, but

the dispassionate (and stress-hormone-immune)

machine kept on until move 180. Then it resigned.

DeepMind says the AI only considers capitulating

when the chance of winning drops below 20%.

DeepMind’s victory has profound implications

for the future of AI. Unlike the unique hardware and

software of previous grandmaster-beating systems

like IBM’s Deep Blue chess AI, AlphaGo uses

generalised machine-learning techniques. It’s not

quite built from “off the shelf” parts, but it’s close.

For AI researchers around the world, AlphaGo

is another step forward on what is still a very

long road. But DeepMind believes the proven

success of the combination of deep neural

networks and reinforcement learning could have

profound implications for scientific research. For

example, humans use their intuition to spot an

area of research likely to give results, then the

AI could crunch vast amounts of data and serve

up insights to the humans.

All this, from a simple bag of black and white stones.

38015378525648451698519643907259916015628128546089888314427129715319317557736620397247064840935

WatsonGAME: Jeopardy!GAME-TREE COMPLEXITY: N/AYEAR OF VICTORY: 2011HUMANS DEFEATED: Brad Rutter and Ken Jennings

Designed to showcase natural language processing, Watson had the full text of Wikipedia but no internet connection during the game. Watson now works at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Centre, advising nurses on lung cancer treatment.

The Inevitability of DefeatThe long road to true artificial intelligence is signposted by the defeats of the world champions of increasingly complex games. Here’s a hall of fame/shame:

The MoorGAME: Othello/ReversiGAME-TREE COMPLEXITY: 1058

YEAR OF VICTORY: 1980HUMAN DEFEATED: Jonathan Cerf

The nature of Othello makes it attractive to computer programmers, and since the 1990s, humans have been unable to beat most Othello algorithms. Free Othello AIs available online can easily defeat today’s best players.

ChinookGAME: English Draughts / CheckersGAME-TREE COMPLEXITY: 1031

YEAR OF VICTORY: 1994HUMAN DEFEATED: Marion Tinsley

The score was 0-0 with six drawn games, and Tinsley had to retire due to pancreatic cancer. It defended its championship in 1995 against Don Lafferty, winning a 32-game match 1-0 with 31 draws. But Tinsley was better...

Deep BlueGAME: ChessGAME-TREE COMPLEXITY: 10126

YEAR OF VICTORY: 1997HUMAN DEFEATED: Garry Kasparov

After losing 4-2 to Kasparov in 1996, Deep Blue was upgraded and came back in 1997 to win 3.5-2.5 after Kasparov made a mistake in the sixth game decider. He accused Deep Blue of cheating and demanded a rematch. He never got one.

Canada

United States

Mexico

Brazil

ArgentinaChile

Uruguay

Paraguay

Equador

Costa Rica

GuatemalaHonduras

Panama

Belize

Bolivia

Venezuela

Guyana

Suriname

French Guiana

Colombia

Peru

Dominican Republic

Cuba

NextCoordinates

40 POPULAR SCIENCE *Countries with less than 1 million acres of forest area are omitted.

According to the FAO,

the forest industry,

including logging and

paper products, adds

US$600 billion annually

to the global GDP.

In September 2015, the Food and Agriculture

Organisation released a rare bit of good news:

The global rate of forest loss has dropped

50 per cent in the last five years.

In northern regions, commercial planting

has even expanded forests. “The only way to

supply things like amazon.com packages and

toilet paper is tree plantations,” says Kenneth

MacDicken, a former FAO senior forestry

officer, who led the report. Not all countries

are sighing with relief, though. In the southern

tropics, where forest clearing can be a matter

of life and death for local communities, laws

are ignored and the practice continues.

Climate change exacerbates the stress

on forests, says Mary Wagner, associate

chief of the US Forest Service, leading to

drought, bushfires and disease outbreaks.

Fortunately advances in data collection and

remote-sensing put foresters in a good position

to find solutions. “We’ve never been better pre-

pared for managing forests,” MacDicken says.

by

BREANNA

DRAXLER

The Future of the Tree is Starting to Blossom

ECUADOR 210,000 acres/year

Yes, its total forested areacontinues to drop, but Ecuador cut its rate of forest loss in half by paying landowners to maintain a forest’s beneficial functions, such as carbon sequestration and water filtration. “Water doesn’t come froma faucet,” Wagner says. “It comes from a forest.”

BRAZIL 5.7 million acres/year

With massive tracts in private hands, Brazil’s forest remains vulnerable. But a law now requires that landowners retain 80 per cent of their property as forest. “That means they can’t convert everything to farmland,” MacDicken says.

NERD BOX:

The area of each country represents the total forest cover, in acres.*

Each country is coloured by the amount of change its forests have undergone since 1990.

GROWTH Greater than 1% Between 0.3% and 1% Between 0.1% and 0.3%

LITTLE TO

NO CHANGE

LOSS

Between 0.1% and 0.3% Between 0.3% and 1% Greater than 1%

China

South Korea

Cambodia

Malaysia

Australia

VietnamLaos Philippines

Japan

NorthKorea

Thailand

Myanmar

BangladeshIndia

Afghanistan

Sri Lanka

UnitedKingdom

Germany Poland

Norway

Mongolia

Finland

Russia

Sweden

Papua New Guinea

Solomon Islands

Botswana

Cameroon

Italy Greece

AustriaRomania

Ukraine

Ivory Coast

New Zealand

Indonesia

BhutanNepal

PakistanTurkey

Azerbaijan

Georgia

Uzbekistan

Namibia

AngolaZambia

South Africa

Gabon

Portugal

Republic of Congo Tanzania

Iran

Zimbabwe

Mozambique

AlgeriaMorocco

Tunisia

Malawi

Madagascar

Somalia

Ethiopia

Eritrea

South Sudan

CentralAfrican

Republic

ChadMali

Nigeria

Senegal

Sudan

Turkmenistan

Kenya

Congo

Spain

France

Belarus

Kazakhstan

APRIL 2016

POPSCI .COM.AU 41 DATA VISUALIZATION BY TULP Interactive

SO

UR

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: ©

FA

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01

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GL

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SE

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15

In 2015, the amount, by area, of Earth’s forests

that are planted by humans, rather than natural

INDONESIA

2.7 million acres/year

A highly decentralised government dispersed across the country’s thousands of islands makes monitoring forests difficult. A whole-log export ban creates jobs at least: When trees are cut down, the lumber must be processed locally before export.

INDIA

670,000 acres/year

A rapidly expanding ruralpopulation in India meansmore people are relyingon wood for fuel. And thathas led to more smallfarmers planting treesfor additional income.“Fast-growing, short-rotation tree plantationsreduce the pressureon natural forests,”MacDicken explains.

SOUTHAFRICA

Holding steady

Pulp and papercompanies in SouthAfrica have established aprofitable tree-plantationindustry. But, as is thecase with an increasingnumbers of countries,reliable access to waterlimits expansion.

CHINA

5.1 million acres/year

China’s immense investment in planting forests—enacted to stop the expansion of the Gobi Desert as well as the increase of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere—is paying off. Coupled with natural progress, China’s forested acreage has grown tremendously in recent years.

EUROPE

2.1 million acres/year

Despite sweeping histori-cal deforestation, much of the European continent is on the upswing thanks to secondary-forest growth. “Europe has relatively little natural forest left, but you’d never know that,” MacDicken says. “The planted forests are well-managed, well-maintained, and getting on in years.”

UNITEDSTATES

760,000 acres/year

Because of increasing urbanization, 83 per cent of the US population now lives in a city. While the US boasts nearly 477 million acres of public forests, Wagner points out that its 321 million acres of urban forests are perhaps more impressive.

7%

42 POPULAR SCIENCE

PA

SIE

KA

/SP

L/G

ET

TY

IM

AG

ES

APRIL 2016

NextOne Giant Leap

WASTE NOT,WANT NOT

Your body has an excellent defense system forkeeping toxins out of the brain: the blood- brainbarrier. But this border patrol also keeps drugsout, which presents a real problem for treatingbrain tumours the same way we do other cancer.

When bacteria feed on

excrement and other waste,

what’s left is sludge. And that

sludge is “a secret goldmine,”

says Paul Westerhoff, an

environmental engineer at

Arizona State University. He

means it literally: Westerhoff

estimates that large quantities

of gold, silver, and other valuable

metals seep into biosolids from

a variety of sources, including

industrial processes and teeth

fillings. Unfortunately, experts

say we’d need to spend more

on extracting these resources

than they are worth on today’s

market. But then, they used

to say that about shale oil, too.

NICOLELOU

by

LYDIA CHAIN

ATrojanHorseintheWaronCancer

Amount of sludge bacteria

produce annually, per person

$500Estimated value of metals in a

tonne of sludge

Estimated value of gold and

silver that could be mined

annually from the waste of

1 mill ion people

Estimated worth of al l

metals that could be mined

annually from the waste

of 1 mill ion people (cost of

extraction not included)

In November, a team from Sunnybrook

Health Sciences Centre in Toronto hacked the

blood-brain barrier by creating temporary new

entrances. Doctors injected microscopic air

bubbles into a cancer patient’s bloodstream,

and then focused sound waves onto blood

vessels near their tumour. This caused the

bubbles to vibrate violently, poking holes in

the barrier just big enough for a chemotherapy

drug to pass through. These holes closed back

up just a few hours later.

This method could also enable targeted

drug treatments for diseases such as

Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s. “It opens

up a whole world of possibilities,” says

neurosurgeon Todd Mainprize, the team’s

lead researcher. “We could treat things we

couldn’t treat before.”

BY THE NUMBERS

easier to co-ordinate a response from a single point,

rather than having whole suburbs go dark because their

dinky little power station fell over under the load.

Electricity itself isn’t like other resources. If there

was a water pipeline that spilled half its water on the

way to our taps, that would be a terrible waste. That

water - a physical chemical compound - is gone.

Electricity is a fundamental force of the universe.

It isn’t a physical thing that can be exhausted. It’s the

ultimate renewable. As long as the correct voltage

and amperage reaches the substation (and eventually

your house) it doesn’t really matter that the generators

“made” 50% more of the stuff and we “lost” it en route.

The only reason we care about transmission waste is

that we use coal to make the electricity. Burning more

coal is bad, both economically and for the environment.

Now imagine a huge solar farm. Who cares how much

of the electricity it generates is “wasted” in transmission?

The source keeps coming, no matter what.

In the absence of a tech revolution in PV, compact

fusion or something else, electricity is only truly

low cost at scale. We’ve had 70, 80 years of power so

incredibly cheap, you’re only really paying for the ROI

on wire, poles, transformers and other equipment. The

actual “energy” is free. That’s amazing.

As we transition to renewable power, everyone is

madly scrabbling to fi gure out where the money is. It

turns out coal was a bad idea that was bad for the planet.

But the grid that grew up around coal generation is

useful, reliable and eff ective. We should keep using it.

Unless, that is, you want to get a Tesla Powerwall,

so you can stop giving money to an Australian power

company... and instead give even more money to an

American car company.

he Tesla Powerwall is defi nitely

the sexiest home electricity storage

system ever invented, but as

Lindsay’s article (p.6) explores, the

economics of having a big battery

bolted onto the outside of your house

just don’t work. Or at least, not yet.

Meanwhile, this issue’s Retro Invention (p.80)

looks at Australia’s fi rst solar farm, the White Cliff s

power station, built in 1981. That experimental

station was a success, providing reliable power to

its remote community, but since then Australia has

slowly fallen further and further behind the rest of

the world when it comes to solar farms.

We have big installations under construction, but

our sunburnt country is defi nitely late to the party.

The same goes for wind power too.

Of course, there are many factors to explain this.

India might have a 600MW solar farm, but it also

has 50 times our population. Australia has abundant

coal, abundant natural gas, 120 hydroelectric

facilities, a relatively small population and falling

demand for electricity. And yes, lobbyists for existing

technologies are constantly lurking in the halls of

power, jumping out and screaming “WHAT ABOUT

THE JOBS!” at any politician who looks sidewise at

any form of alternative energy.

But there’s another factor that, at the very least,

aff ects the discourse around large-scale solar. Part of

the reason domestic solar panels have been installed

on so many Aussie rooftops (apart from the subsidies,

I mean) is that we Aussies love our independence

and the feeling that we don’t have to depend on “the

government” to provide basic services.

In other words, partially as a result of our essential

national character, we are susceptible to the idea that

“the grid” is bad. That it has been “gold plated” and

run by a bunch of corporate crooks who manipulate

regulatory systems to jack up their profi ts.

And, well, sure that’s true. But the thing is, if you

want cheap electricity, a massive central power

station is a very effi cient way to get it. Yes, lots of

power is lost during transmission. But the stations are

built at the sweet spot between transmission distance

and fuel transport distance. If demand spikes, it is

PART OF THE REASON DOMESTIC

SOLAR PANELS ARE INSTALLED

ON SO MANY ROOFTOPS IS THAT

WE LOVE INDEPENDENCE AND

THE FEELING OF NOT HAVING TO

DEPEND ON “THE GOVERNMENT”

FOR BASIC SERVICES.

T

POPSCI .COM.AU 43

APRIL 2016

NextRethink

We shouldn’t let the climate change debate demonise grid powerby

ANTHONY

FORDHAM

Anthony

Fordham is

the editor of

Australian

Popular Science.

He’s bitter

because he

bought a house

in a valley

that’s always in

shadow. Even

worse: there’s

no mobile

reception.

*Or at least long enough to set off a fire alarm

44 POPULAR SCIENCE

Want more birthdays? Science can help. B Y B R O O K E B O R E L

P H O T O G R A P H Y B Y T H E V O O R H E S

W

APRIL 2016

POPSCI.COM.AU 45

We’ve long been drawn to immortality, or at least a version of it. In the 16th century, Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de León alleg-edly searched for the Fountain of Youth. Even further back, in Greek mythology, ambrosia granted eternal life. We’re still searching for ways to hit the bi-ological pause button, but today’s scientists have a more practical approach: They hope to stall ageing to pre-vent the diseases that so often come with it. If they succeed, we’ll not only live longer, we will also be healthier and more youthful. Here’s what we know now that Ponce de León didn’t.

LIF

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EC

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Y A

T A

GE

65

FR

OM

LIF

ET

AB

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AN IMA L

L E S SONS

The average life spans of

animals vary wildly from ours, but

the mechanisms involved for each

appear to be different. “There are

multiple roads to longevity,” says

Vadim Gladyshev, a geneticist at

Harvard Medical School. Identifying

strategies that nature uses to alter

life span could help scientists figure

out how to extend human lives.

B R A N DT ’S BATS

Despite weighing only about as much as a 10 cent piece, Brandt’s bats can live as many as 41 years in the wild. In 2013, Gladyshev and colleagues found changes to genes that alter the animal’s response to growth hormones.

B OW H E A D W H A L E

Possibly topping out at older than 200, the bowhead whale is the longest-lived mammal known. In 2015, a team of scientists found genetic variations relevant to ageing, cancer protection, cell-cycle regulation, and DNA repair.

O C E A N Q UA H O G

In 2006, researchers found an ocean quahog thought to be 507 years old. “That is pretty remarkable when you figure that clams have beating hearts,” says Austad. His lab is looking for the reason its proteins can last so long.

N A K E D M O L E R AT

Hairless and wrinkled, naked mole rats can live to be 30 years old—many times the life span of other rodents. In 2014, research led by the University of Liver-pool found changes in the rat’s genome related to cancer resistance.

H Y D R A

The freshwater hydra seems, under ideal conditions, to be immortal. It also has a seemingly endless supply of stem cells. German researchers have linked a longevity gene, also found in humans, to stem-cell production.

46 POPULAR SCIENCE

A question of tımeLife is destructive. Our environment and our internal functions all wear and tear at our body over time. Evolutionarily speaking, natural selection rewards those who can survive such hardship. So why don’t we live forever—why do we age at all?

Longevity / H OW W E AG E

There have been numerous attempts to understand how and why we age—as recently as 1990, the biologist Zhores Medvedev tallied more than 300 possible hypotheses. But according to Steven Austad, a biogerontologist at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, one explanation has risen to the top: “Reproduction is the name of the game. Basically, we age because it’s not in nature’s best interest to perfectly repair our bodies. The main thing is to keep us reproductive as long as possible, and then let our bodies deteriorate.”

The rate of ageing in humans and other mammals, Austad says, might be determined by how quickly we have to reproduce before we’re killed of by other factors. In general, the smaller the animal and the more hostile its environment, the shorter it lives. A i eld mouse, for example, must breed before a hawk snatches it up, and so its organs and immune system don’t need to last 50 years. On the l ip side, elephants have few threats, so their bodies can keep going for decades. “In an evolutionary sense,” says Austad, “that is the timekeeper.”

Since 1900, average life expectancy has risen from 47 to 79. A lot of those gains come from a lower infant-mortality rate: A century ago, 1-in-10 babies born in the west died before age 1, while today that figure is 1-in-170. But longevity gains in later years have also been substantial. This chart shows the expected age of death for those who are 65 right now. All four nations shown here have gained about a decade. Women have also outpaced men, a trend Andrew Noymer, a demographer at the University of California at Irvine, ascribes to higher rates of smoking and drinking among males. In the past few decades, men have been closing the gap—meaning more golden years for everyone. K AT I E P E E K

ANNALS OF THE GOLDEN-AGER

EXTRA CANDLES FOR THE CAKE

Years women outlive men, on average

4

2

01900 1950 20001850

1800

Expected age of death for 65-year-olds

SwedenFranceJapanUnited States

90

70

75

1900 1950 200018501800

80

85

Women

Men

A P R I L 2 0 1 6

Tortoises typically

l ive well past 100 and

might be able to

survive even longer.

In 2006, a giant

tortoise thought to be

255 years old died at

India’s Calcutta Zoo.

“Longevity is one of the most exciting areas of research

because it really takes into account every aspect

of a human being.” —Winifred Rossi, National Institute on Ageing

305Number of known

genes that might

be associated with

ageing, of the

roughly 20,000

humans possess

JO

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FC

AL

E/M

AR

INS

CO

PE

.CO

M

Slowageing,staveofdisease

48 POPULAR SCIENCE

SOME EXPERTS on ageing thinkwe’re at thecusp of amedical revolution. The currentmodel for treating diseases such as cancer,diabetes, Alzheimer’s, and cardiovasculardisease is to attack each as theypop up.

It’s a game of healthcare whack-a-molethatmight help people live longer but atgreat cost to their quality of life. A newapproach tackles the key risk factor inall these illnesses: age.“Once you are broken, it is hard to put

you back together,” says Brian Kennedy,a molecular biologist and president

of the Buck Institute for Research onAgeing in California. “If we can targetageing, then we can extend humanhealth span, keeping people disease-free and high-functioning.”That would give peoplemore time

when it mattersmost—when they’refeeling youthful enough to enjoy it.

IWASBORNonOctober 4, 1908. I grewup on a farmwith the biggest red barninwesternOklahoma. The farm life is agood life—you eat better, get up earlier,work, and play. You get fresh air and youwalk all the time; you’re not always ridingsomething. It was a healthier life, I think,thanmost people live now.People just need to use their common

sense and don’t overdo on everything.Asmy grandmaused to say, be like the

woodpecker and use your head.Don’t overeat. And lay of allthese doggone carbonateddrinks. I eat twomeals a day

and snack a little in themiddle.I drink lots ofwater—it keeps your

innards lubricated—and I don’t havemanywrinkles onmy face.I think it is so important to enjoywhat

you have. You can kill yourself worryingor being envious or just plain ungrateful.Andworry iswhat brings on illnesses likecancer and heart problems.Every agehas beenmy favourite. I’vehad

mypicture taken somany times, you couldpaper theWhiteHousewith it. I have a fewaches andpains, but not enough to stopmeyet. I have a redChevroletMalibuMaxxandmydriver’s license is gooduntil 2018.Neighbours tellme I’mgoing towear outmygaragedoor.—A S TOLD TO JENNIFER BOGO

TakeItFromMe,107-Year-OldPaulineAngleman

Ageing starts in a fundamen-

tal part of our bodies: our cells.

Scientists have identified several

processes that all play a role in

how cells break down.

C E L L

S E RV I C E

C U T S H O RTThe end of each chromosome is cappedwith a protective bit of DNA called atelomere. As a cell ages, the telomereshortens; once it reaches a critical length,the cell stops dividing.

ZO M B I E C E L L SSome cells enter a state called senes-cence—they stop dividing but resistdeath, producing inflammatory signalsthat harm healthy tissues.

T R A S H P I L E U PCells normally perform autophagy,eating up damaged proteins and otherdebris. But eventually this process jamsup and trash overwhelms them.

FA I L E D A S SA S S I N SIn order to delete damaged DNA, cells gothrough apoptosis: programmed death.But some older cells don’t actually die,possibly one cause of cancer.

FACTO RY H A LTMany organs contain adult stem cellsthat help regenerate and repair damagedtissues. But as we age, they can ceasefunctioning or dwindle.

S H A K Y G E N ESDNA constantly faces damage, both frominternal glitches and external influences.Over time genetic casualties pile up, andour cells can’t repair them.

ENDGAME

OVER AND OUT

In 1961, cell biologist Leonard Hayflick showed that human foetal cells kept in the lab divide only a certain number of times before they die. The so-called Hayflick limit seems to play a role in cellular ageing, but it’s not yet clear how. Some cells, such as cancer, can circumvent the limit and divide indefinite-ly—possibly via an enzyme that prevents telomeres from shortening.

Longevity / W H AT W E L E A R N E D

T I M E L I N E

A G E I N G

T H R O U G H

T H E A G E S

1 5 1 3 Juan Ponce de León allegedly seeks the Fountain of Youth in Florida.

1 7 5 0 Average global life expectancy is roughly 27.*

1 8 0 0 s Refrigeration makes it less likely food will spoil—no more deadly meat snacks.

1 8 6 4 Pasteurisation kills pathogens in milk and juice; the world safely drinks up.

1 9 0 0 s Sanitation improves in Europe, North America, and Japan. Goodbye, cholera.

1 9 2 8 Penicillin kicks off the age of antibiotics, sending deadly bacteria on the run.

1 9 3 5 Scientists suggest that restricting calories (bummer!) might boost life span.

1 9 4 9 US formalises vaccina-tion programs. Kids are free to play with rusty nails.

1 9 5 0 - 1 9 5 5 Average global life expectancy rises to 47.

1 9 6 1 Researchers say anti -oxidants might extend lives. Good news for vitamin sales.

1 9 7 0 - 1 9 7 5 Average global life expectancy hits 58.

1 9 8 0 s Caloric restriction helps mice live longer.

1 9 8 8 First gene related to ageing is found—in a worm.

1 9 9 0 - 1 9 9 5 Average global life expectancy reaches 65.

2 0 0 0 s Several journal articles nix the idea that antioxidants boost longevity.

2 0 1 0 As it turns out, some mice live longer with fewer calories; others, not so much.

2 0 1 0 - 2 0 1 5 Average global life expectancy climbs to 70.

2 0 1 4 New trials on rapamycin and metformin—two drugs shown to extend the lives of mice—begin.

2 0 1 5 Tourists flock to Ponce de León’s Fountain of Youth Archaeological Park. Still no magical water source.

POPSCI .COM.AU 49

*Source: A Concise History of

World Population. Life expectan-

cies after 1750 from the United

Nations Population Division.

How to live long & prosperThe advice for living longer hasn’t varied much overthe years: Eat well, get some sleep and exercise, andcut the stress. Science backs that up.

But exactly how much of each matters to an individual person is still unclear.

“In general, these things are good for you,” says Charlotte Peterson, a molecular and cellular biologist at the University of Kentucky, “but some people

beneit more than others. If we could understand that too, it would be a big advance in the ield.”

But there’s no point in waiting. Here’swhat the latest science says and some tools to help you hack your habits.

Longevity / W H AT TO D O A B O U T I T

HAPPY RETURNS

THE DEEP END

OF THE GENE POOLClues to longevity might lie in the healthiest longest-lived people among us. Boston University researchers have been studying centenarians—people 100 years of age or older—since the mid-1990s. Their findings suggest that most people have the genetic makeup to live well into their 80s if they take care of their health. Centenarians, on the other hand, have the added bonus of protective genes—so far researchers have counted more than 100.

Scientists have discovered

several new drugs—or new uses

for old drugs—that might help

increase health span or life span.

They haven’t undergone safety

testing yet, so don’t try at home!

Take Two and Call Me in a Decade

M E T FO R M I N Used to treat diabetes, metformin helps the body metabolise glucose. It might also slow cellular ageing and curb age-related illness. A pilot study on its impact on aging in humans, led by researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, is now underway.

R A PA M YC I N To prevent organ rejection, rapamycin has been given to kidney-transplant patients for decades. Recent research suggests the drug affects the same enzyme pathway as caloric restriction and so provides the same benefits to longevity (without having to diet). A trial testing the drug in dogs has begun at the University of Washington.

S E N O LY T I C S Discovered last year by scientists from Mayo Clinic and the Scripps Research Institute, senolytics kill senescent cells while having little effect on healthy ones. They have been shown to extend the health span of mice.

YO U N G B LO O D Scientists have long known that stitching the circulatory systems of young mice to old mice can improve the health of the latter. Now they have begun to study this effect in humans: In 2015, the company Alkahest began a trial to learn how young blood affects people with Alzheimer’s disease.

EAT

GOOD

STU F F

Science Says: Recentresearch helps shedlight on why certain foodstaples keep you healthylonger. A 2015 study fromthe University of Iowa, forexample, found there’ssomething to the old ad-age about an apple a daykeeping the doctor away:Ursolic acid, a compoundin apple peels, seems tostave off muscle weak-ness in elderly mice.

Tech Hack: Apps likeMyFitnessPal, Nutrino,and Fooducate canhelp track meals andprovide information oningredients and calories.Or hack your diet with asupercomputer: The ChefWatson app offers recipesfor whatever produce is inyour fridge.

CATCH

SOME

Z ’ S

Science Says: We nowknow that chronic sleepdeprivation increases riskof age-related diseasessuch as cancer, diabetes,heart disease, stroke, andhypertension. A 2014study by researchers atthe Federal Universityof São Paulo in Brazilshowed that older adultshave a higher chanceof experiencing chronicsleep disorders.

Tech Hack: Healthtrackers from Jawboneand BodyMedia includesleep monitors, whichrecord how many timesyou wake at night andhow much time youspend in deep sleep. Min-ing that data for patternscan link poor sleep tospecific habits.

G E T

MOV I N G

Science Says: Exercisecan decrease your risk ofcardiovascular disease,diabetes, and somecancers; it also mighthelp you live longer. Sofar, scientists don’t knowwhat gives exercise itsprotective quality. Butlast year the NationalInstitutes of Healthannounced a $170 millioninvestment in researchthat will attempt to findthe answer.

Tech Hack: It can behard to motivate your-self to hit the gym, butthe social component offitness apps can help—particularly if you’recompeting with friendsor family. A 2015 studyfrom the Universityof Tampere in Finlandfound that gamificationhelps boost and sustainregular exercise.

RE L AX

Science Says: While short-term stress can help you maintain a healthy immune system, chronic stress increases the risk of heart disease, gastrointestinal issues, and diabetes; it also caus-es wounds to heal more slowly. Research from Ohio State University in 2013 found that people who care for spouses with dementia, a stressful responsibility, might have immune systems that age at an accelerated rate.

Tech Hack: Wearable monitors like the Spire tracker detect signs of stress and can prod you to take a break. The Bluetooth-enabled Muse headset measures electrical activity in the brain and provides real-time feedback as it guides you through meditation sessions.

50 POPULAR SCIENCE

POPSCI .COM.AU 51

Q U I Z

H O W L O N G

W I L L I L I V E ?

The following quiz, based on behaviours of the long-lived Seventh Day Adventists, is adapted from one created by Thomas Perls, a geriatrics specialist at Boston Uni-versity. It’s good, not perfect. “People will write to me and say, ‘I love the calculator, but it says I should be dead,’” Perls says. “I say, ‘This probably means you had some pretty bad behaviours in the past, but the good news is you have fantastic genes that protected you from them.’”

For the following test, start at 86 if you’re male and 89 if you’re female. (Sorry, fellas: Women typically live longer than men.)

Do you have a Zen-like atti-tude that makes it easy to shake stress? If yes, add five years. If no, subtract five.

Do you have family members who’ve lived to 95 or older? If yes, add 10 years. If no, don’t add or subtract anything.

Do you exercise five days a week for at least 30 minutes? If yes, add five years. If no, subtract five.

Are you regularly pre-senting your brain with interesting or challenging tasks, such as word or math puzzles or active learning? If yes, add five years. If no, don’t add or subtract anything.

Does your diet help you maintain a healthy weight so you don’t feel slowed down or unwell? If yes, don’t add anything. If no, subtract five years.

Do you smoke? If yes, take off 15 years. If no, don’t add or subtract anything.

7.1 TRILLIONNumber of dollars that increasing our health span—the length of time one remains healthy—might add to the US

economy over 50 years , according to a 2013 study led by the University of Southern California

Average global lifeexpectancy at birth—

MEN : 68WOMEN : 73

Some of the biggest names in biotech have joined the effortto forestall ageing. They’re well-funded, well-staffed, andlargely working in secret.

52 POPULAR SCIENCE

AracetotheinishIn 2014, Joon Yun, founder of the Palo Alto Institutein California, announced the $1 million Palo AltoLongevity Prize. Its goal: “hack the code” of ageing.

The irst half will go to the irst group torestore homeostatic capacity—the body’sability to stabilise its various systemsafter experiencing stress or injury. “Untilmidlife, it is so pervasively e�ective thatwe don’t realise we have homeostatic ca-pacity until we start losing it,” Yun says.

The hitch is, no one knows how tomeasure it in a meaningful way, and so theprize will use proxies such as heart-ratevariability, and award whichever teamcan get an ageing animal’s heart pumping

like it’s young again. The other half of theprize will go to the irst group that’s able toextend the life of a mammal by 50 per cent.

So far, 30 teams from across the worldhave signed up to compete, including re-search groups at schools such as StanfordUniversity and the University of Nebras-ka Medical Centre, and teams from theprivate sector, such as Volt Health, led by amedical-device designer.

The clock is ticking—they have until 31December, 2019 to win.

Longevity / T H E LO N G V I E W

BIG -MONEY BET

PRIVATE INVESTIGATORS

CAVEAT EMPTOR

THE ETHICS OF

LIFE EXTENSION

A treatment that extends lifespan is something almost every human would take (when it came to the crunch), but if it’s expensive or inaccessible, it could also make existing healthcare inequalities worse, says Alexander Capron, an expert in health policy and ethics at the University of Southern California Gould School of Law. Life expectancy is already tied strongly to socioeconomic status: Indigenous Australian men born in 2010-2012 have a projected lifespan of 69.1 years. That's more than 10 years lower than non-indigenous Australians.

CA L I C OGoogle founded Calico to develop therapies for age-related diseases. It’s brought firepower to the effort: Calico’s leaders include former heads of drug companies and top-notch ex-perts on genomics and ageing. Together with a partner, it has pledged up to $1.5 billion for research—more than the public National Institute on Ageing earmarked for research in 2016.

CY T EG E NIn late 2015, Breakout Labs, a philanthropic venture founded by Peter Thiel, announced CyteGen will be folded into its portfolio of “radical science companies.” CyteGen’s goal: to use a proprietary drug-discovery platform in order to find health-span-increasing drugs that target cell metabolism.

H U M A N LO N G E V I T Y I N C. Geneticist J. Craig Venter took aim at longevity with the 2013 launch of Human Longevity Inc. In October, the company announced its first Health Nucleus facility, which offers personalised analysis of an individual’s genome. That data, in turn, will help build a whole-genome database that feeds research on risk factors for age-related diseases.

AN

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POPSCI.COM.AU 53

KEY

Colours represent how many years a person born in 2013 can expect to live, by US. county.

Average age at death

67-71

71-74

74-77

77-80

80-84

U S M A P BY K AT I E P E E K , BA S E D O N DATA F R O M T H E I N ST I T U T E

FO R H E A LT H M E T R I C S A N D E VA LUAT I O N

As a result of the growing ubiquity of digital devices, I believe that all of our mannerisms, recollections, feelings, beliefs, attitudes—everything about our lives—will be collected and stored in the cloud. We are creating simulacra of ourselves outside our bodies. I call this our “mindfile.”

At the same time, we’re developing ever-better digital assistants that use voice recognition and artificial intelligence. They even have different personalities, like Siri. I call this software “mindware.” And I think the convergence of mindfiles and mindware will produce a seemingly conscious replica of any person—a “mindclone.”

One of the projects my company has been working on is a cognitive enabler for Alzheimer’s disease. An individual beginning to suffer would be able to store enough personality and recollections digitally that, when combined with a camera and voice recognition, he or she can interact with friends and family through the technology—even once no longer able to do so through his or her own brain.

This very naturally leads to the question, how good does an enabler have to be before it is considered part and parcel with the person itself? And when the person’s body finally succumbs, can the enabler claim legal rights?

People have always been afraid of things that are different and weird. But when the weirdness of cyberconsciousness blends with the love for family members, people will see cyberconsciousness as innocuous. By 2030, I believe there will be a social movement of people whose grandmother, sister, or friend has a fatal disease, and who say their mindclones should be legally recognised as a continuation of themselves.

Ultimately, the Internet of Things will enable mind clones to travel, present themselves ever more freely and with greater ubiquity, and even transcend legal death. — A S TO L D TO M AT T G I L ES

Martine Rothblatt is

many things—CEO of

biotech company United

Therapeutics, founder

of Sirius Radio, inventor,

lawyer, and medical

ethicist—but foremost, she

is a futurist. Specifically,

Rothblatt believes in

transhumanism, or the

indefinite extension

of human life through

advanced technology.

Who needs a body anyway?

Fukushima

54 POPULAR SCIENCE

J A PA N I S S T I L L C L E A N I N G U P

A F T E R O N E O F T H E W O R S T

N U C L E A R D I S A S T E R S T H E

W O R L D H A S E V E R S E E N .

S T E V E F E AT H E R S T O N E

W E N T T O S E E H O W M U C H

T H E Y H AV E A C C O M P L I S H E D —

A N D H O W FA R T H E Y H AV E T O G O .

P H O T O G R A P H Y B Y

M I C H A E L F O R S T E R R O T H B A R T

APRIL 2016

POPSCI .COM.AU 55

ON 11 MARCH, 2011,

THE MOST POWERFUL

EARTHQUAKE EVER

RECORDED IN JAPAN

STRUCK THE NORTHEAST

COAST OF THE MAIN ISLAND.

THE GROUND SHOOK FOR

SIX MINUTES, CUTTING

ELECTRICAL POWER TO

THE FUKUSHIMA DAIICHI

NUCLEAR POWER PLANT.

A 15-metre wall of water spawned by the quake exploded

over Daiichi’s seawall, swamping backup diesel generators.

Four of six nuclear reactors on-site experienced a total

blackout. In the days that followed, three of them melted

down, spewing enormous amounts of radiation into the air

and sea in what quickly emerged as the worst nuclear disaster

since Chernobyl in 1986.

But there was an immediate diference: The Japanese

government never considered abandoning Fukushima

as the Soviet Union did with Chernobyl. It made the

unprecedented decision to clean up the contaminated

areas—in the process, generating a projected 22 million

cubic metres of low-level radioactive waste—and return

some 80,000 nuclear refugees to their homes. This past

September, the irst of 11 towns in Fukushima’s mandatory

evacuation zone reopened ater extensive decontamination,

but fewer than two per cent of evacuees returned that

month. More will follow, but surveys indicate that the

majority don’t want to go back. Some evacuees are afraid of

radiation; many have simply moved on with their lives.

Another town scheduled to reopen, sometime in the next

two years, is Tomioka, 10 km south of the nuclear plant.

I.

FUKUSHIMA

56 POPULAR SCIENCE

One of our guides said that things were beginning to return

to normal, pointing out that workers no longer needed to

wear full-face respirators on 90 per cent of the site, and also

that vending machines were recently installed outside the

cafeteria. Given the popularity of vending machines in Japan,

this was a perfectly logical measure of normalcy.

Ater a brieing, we were taken to an adjoining building

where TEPCO had a special viewing room outitted with

thick, radiation-proof portholes. Carved from a 35-metre

coastal bluf in the late 1960s, the Fukushima Daiichi

complex has two main terraces separated by a steep slope.

From my vantage point seven storeys above the upper terrace,

I could see the entire 348-hectare site, a bustling city of

workers garbed in white Tyvek suits. Construction vehicles

rumbled down roads between blocks of drab industrial

buildings. Before the disaster, much of the plant’s grounds

were covered in pine trees that served as a bird sanctuary.

“Every time I come here, I’m so surprised,” said one

TEPCO guide as he stared in awe at row upon row of water

tanks below. “Two years ago, it was all lat land.”

About a kilometre to the east, where the site meets the

Paciic Ocean, four of the reactors rise up from the lower

terrace: Unit 4 with its trellislike support structure; the stub

of Unit 3; the deceivingly intact Unit 2, which is the only

damaged reactor still wearing its outer shell; and Unit 1, clad

in beige panels. The unique appearance of each

reactor relected the complexity of decommissioning the site.

“At Fukushima Daiichi, there’s no textbook,” said chief

decommissioning oicer, Naohiro Masuda, when I spoke

to him at TEPCO’s headquarters in Tokyo a week earlier.

“There are three reactors [that melted down], and each has

a diferent manner in which the fuel melted. The buildings

are damaged in diferent ways. So we need to think of three

diferent methods to solve this problem.” In other words,

Fukushima Daiichi has three separate and highly challenging

decommissioning projects, not just one.

A reactor like those at Fukushima Daiichi is essentially

a sophisticated machine for boiling water. Fission heat

from nuclear fuel rods makes steam that spins a turbine,

producing electricity. The steam is condensed, cooled,

and pumped back into the reactor core to keep the fuel

normal background level in Tokyo.

Ironically, Hiyashi had returned

to Tomioka, a mildly radioactive

ghost town, for reasons millions of

suburbanites could appreciate:

“The commute was killing me.”

Hiyashi took me to see his house,

which had been decontaminated

just that week. In the driveway,

an empty decontamination bag

sagged in a steel frame. Bright

pink tape marked areas of high

radiation: downpipes, taps,

electrical conduit. We walked

around the yard, avoiding piles of

clean ill that hadn’t been raked

out yet. The sun was going down

over a dark stand of pine trees

across the road. Crickets began

to stir in the high grass growing

beyond the decontamination bufer

zone. Hiyashi put his hands on

his hips and looked around at the

neighbourhood of darkened houses.

“Tomioka exists only in name,”

he said. “It’ll never be a town

again.” I got the sense that Hiyashi,

like so many evacuees, would

rather be compensated to relocate.

Owning a house in a place few

want to live isn’t much of an

inheritance for his daughter.

II.WHILE THE Japanese government

rebuilds Fukushima prefecture, the

Tokyo Electric Power Company

(TEPCO) is slowly dismantling the

Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power

plant, a process that’s expected to

cost at least $19 billion. Two weeks

ater I visited Hiyashi, I drove

through Tomioka again, this time

on a bus with a handful of other

journalists headed to the site.

Inside the plant gates, guides

wearing white TEPCO golf shirts

herded us inside the Entrance

Control Building, where some of

the 7,000 employees who now

work at Fukushima Daiichi strip

out of their protective clothing

in front of long rows of lockers.

Nuclear scientist Ikuro Anzai measures radiation

levels near a nursery school in Fukushima City.

One night this past Japanese

autumn, I drove around Tomioka’s

waterfront, which the tsunami had

wiped out. It was eerily quiet, save

for a loud, metallic clap echoing

through the empty streets from the

direction of an incineration facility.

Wild boar scampered through

ields where the old train station

once stood. And a breeze carried

the scent of mould and rot from

shops and homes that had been

cracked open by the earthquake

and gutted by the tsunami. In one

shop, a truck had been carried

through a display window and

deposited on the loor as if it had

been deliberately parked there.

During the day, Tomioka,

which once had 16,000 residents,

is a vast construction site sprawling

across residential neighbourhoods,

commercial districts, and

empty rice ields. Thousands of

decontamination workers equipped

with little more than shovels, strip

50 millimetres of contaminated

topsoil in a 20-metre perimeter

around every structure in town.

They dump the soil into black

decontamination bags, which

they pile onto every street corner

and empty lot. Some bags have

been there long enough to sprout

weeds. The workers also use dry

hand towels to wipe down every

single building, from the roof to the

foundation, and pressure-wash any

asphalt and concrete. It’s tedious,

exhausting work.

The town allows residents to

visit during the day, but special

permission is required for

overnight stays. When I met him,

Kenichi Hiyashi, a supervisor for

a company cleaning up Tomioka,

was about to move back to his

house on the outskirts of town.

Four and half years earlier, when

he evacuated with his daughter and

parents, radiation levels were ive

microsieverts per hour (μSv/h).

Now they hovered at around 0.6

μSv/h—still more than twice the

government’s long-term goal of

0.23 μSv/h, and about 15 times the

APRIL 2016

POPSCI .COM.AU 57

from overheating, and to make more steam. If water

circulation stops, the rods can get so hot that they begin

to lose integrity. In a worst-case scenario, they melt like

candle wax, and the molten fuel pools up inside the reactor,

releasing massive amounts of radiation.

Masuda estimates that decommissioning the Fukushima

Daiichi site—removing all nuclear and radiological hazards—

will take three to four decades, although he acknowledged

that the technologies required to

scoop melted fuel out of the damaged

reactors don’t even exist yet.

“Engineers are studying the

problem,” he says, “but we don’t think

that there’s no way to remove the fuel.

There’s huge risk involved. If you

make one small mistake, it might cause

a huge problem for the local people, or

even worldwide. We have to be aware

of that possibility.”

To get a closer look at the reactors,

we donned anti-contamination gear:

safety helmet, dust mask, goggles, two pairs of latex gloves,

one pair of cotton gloves, long-sleeved undershirt with breast

pockets to hold a dosimeter (a device the size of one of those

iconic Japanese lip phones, that measures the amount of

radiation a person absorbs), disposable pants, two pairs of

socks, Tyvek suit, rubber boots, disposable boot covers, and

masking tape to seal the shirt cufs. All of these precautions

were supposed to keep radioactive contaminants from getting

inside our lungs and on our skin. It provided no protection

whatsoever against gamma radiation. A TEPCO handout

informed us that our dosimeters

were set to beep in 20 μSv intervals.

Properly clothed, we clambered

aboard a bus upholstered in thick

plastic and duct tape.

III.ONCE LANDSCAPED with

greenery, the long, steep slope

separating the upper and lower

terraces of Fukushima Daiichi is

now a sterile sweep of smooth

situated on a hillside. Standing on

top of it, I was eye-level with the

roofs of the four damaged

reactors. They were 19 storeys tall,

except for Unit 3, shortened by the

hydrogen explosion that blew its

top of. Crane booms used to erect

new reactor coverings dangled

high above them. The coverings

prevent the spread of radioactive

dust. Ultimately, they will provide

a frame from which to suspend

equipment, on the day TEPCO

inally igures out how to extract

the melted fuel.

Even under ordinary conditions,

retrieving fuel rods from a

nuclear reactor’s core is a delicate

procedure, requiring the use of

specialised machinery. The fuel

rods are sealed inside a reactor

pressure vessel (RPV), a 750-ton

steel capsule illed with water

lodged in the heart of the reactor.

Surrounding the RPV is the

primary containment vessel (PCV),

a massive, pear-shaped structure

made of concrete up to

1.5 metres thick and lined with

125 mm of steel. The PCV, in

turn, is embedded in a concrete

honeycomb of utility rooms illed

with a labyrinth of pipes, pumps,

and other equipment. The only part

of the reactor visible to the eye is a

thin outer layer of sheet

metal and concrete.

Shucking our

contaminated shoe

covers, we boarded the

bus and motored down

a road at the base of the

reactors. Units 1, 3, and

4 had sufered hydrogen

explosions that looked

dramatic in news footage.

In reality the explosions

blew apart only the

reactors’ thin outer layers, leaving

the massive PCVs mostly intact. At

least that’s the hope. Nobody can

say for certain if the earthquake,

hydrogen explosions, or some

unknown event—a mysterious

explosion was heard coming from

deep inside Unit 2, for instance—had

cracked the PCVs. Fatal radiation

levels make it impossible to send

Bags f i l led with contaminated soil and

debris stack up on a site in Naraha.

Left: Workers build a new seawall

along Fukushima’s coast.

FATA L R A D I AT I O N L E V E L S M A K E I T

I M P O S S I B L E T O S E N D I N S P E C T I O N

C R E W S I N S I D E T H E R E A C T O R S .

I N S T E A D , T E P C O S E N T T W O R O B O T S .

concrete, designed to keep

rainwater from soaking into the

contaminated ground. As the bus

descended toward the ocean, we

passed an area piled high with the

sun-bleached trunks of dead pine

trees. Only a few cherry trees had

been spared the chainsaw.

Our irst stop was an

unremarkable windowless building

58 POPULAR SCIENCE

inspection crews inside the reactors.

Instead, TEPCO sent two robots

into the PCV of Unit 1 this past

April to locate the melted fuel.

One robot stopped working within

three hours; the other persevered

for four days. The best information

TEPCO has received so far about

the location of fuel debris came

from a recent muon scan of Unit 1.

The scan revealed a void inside the

reactor pressure vessel, conirming

the worst-case scenario: Molten

fuel had burned clean through it

and slumped to the bottom of the

primary containment vessel. Fuel

had probably melted through the

RPVs in Units 2 and 3 as well. The

likelihood of TEPCO meeting its

2021 deadline for the start of fuel-

debris removal is, at best, remote.

In the meantime, there’s plenty of

other decommissioning work to

keep the company busy.

IV.MY DOSIMETER beeped its irst

20 μSv alert as the bus passed

the Common Pool Building,

where thousands of spent nuclear

fuel assemblies sit submerged

underwater. Nuclear reactors

have to be refuelled about every

three years. At Fukushima Daiichi,

hot spent fuel initially cools of

in a pool on the top loor of the

reactors before being transferred

to the Common Pool Building.

Unit 4 was oline at the time of

the disaster, and therefore didn’t

melt down. In December 2014,

TEPCO reached a major milestone

when cranes hoisted the last fuel

assembly from Unit 4’s spent

fuel pool. It plans to pluck the

remaining spent fuel from the other

reactors beginning in 2019.

The bus turned sharply onto a

steel-plated road that ran between

the ocean and the four turbine

buildings. Together, the buildings

formed a featureless white wall

longer than a Nimitz-class aircrat

carrier. Tsunami-tossed wreckage

was strewn against their foot:

twisted ductwork, chunks of

broken concrete pronged with

rusty rebar, and large pieces of

smashed equipment. We were

perhaps 3.5 metres above sea

level, the lowest point at the site,

and an ideal vantage point from

which to appreciate the immensity

of both the reactor facilities and

the tsunami that inundated them.

Looking out to sea, it was terrifying

to imagine a 15-metre tide of

water rolling over the seawall and

ploughing into the bus.

Five years ater the meltdowns,

contaminated water continues

to low from the site into the

ocean. Although TEPCO’s most

recent analysis of seawater

shows a “nondetectable” level of

caesium, that level merely relects

a regulatory threshold. “Non-

detectable doesn’t mean the plant

isn’t leaking into the sea,” says

Ken Buesseler, a marine chemist

with Woods Hole Oceanographic

Institution. “In fact, TEPCO’s data,

like our own, shows continued

elevated levels of caesium in ocean

waters closest to the plant.”

The bus braked in front of

Unit 4. We got out to look at

what TEPCO called the “seaside

impermeable wall”: 594 concrete-

and-steel piles that run almost 800m along the waterfront. It

is the last line of defence between Fukushima Daiichi and the

sea, though it is designed to protect the sea from the nuclear

plant, not vice versa.

To understand the full scale of the water problem at

Fukushima Daiichi, you have to go back to the disaster’s early

days. Under normal conditions, water circulates through the

reactor facilities in a closed loop to cool the nuclear fuel and

generate steam. That loop broke during the disaster, and to

delay (if not prevent) meltdown, TEPCO resorted to pouring

seawater into the overheating reactors. The reactors and

turbine buildings quickly began illing up with millions of

litres of highly contaminated seawater.

“A few more days and water would have overlowed the

plant, which would’ve taken whatever they had and squared

it in terms of a catastrophe,” recalls John Raymont, founder

of Kurion, a nuclear waste management company based in

Irvine, California. “We heard that some of the men at the site

would step in a puddle and get radiation burns immediately

from it.” It was the disaster’s nadir.

There are no longer skin-searing puddles of radioactive

water on the ground at Fukushima Daiichi. But TEPCO

is still circulating 320 tonnes of water per day into the

reactors to keep the melted fuel cool. An ad-hoc circulation

loop now pumps contaminated water from the reactors to a

puriication system custom-built by Kurion that removes two

of the worst radionuclides: caesium and strontium. Most of

the water then goes back into the reactors, while some gets

piped to the tank farm.

There are 1,000 tanks at Fukushima Daiichi, containing

more than 700,000 tonnes of contaminated water, equivalent

FUKUSHIMA

The destroyed Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant as seen from the bridge

beside the Takigawa dam in Tomioka, about 11 kilometres southwest of the plant.

POPSCI .COM.AU 59

to nearly 300 Olympic-size swimming pools. The scale is

almost overwhelming.

TEPCO can’t go on building tanks forever, nor can

it discharge the water into the ocean. The water is

contaminated with high levels of tritium, a radioisotope

that can’t be removed using conventional iltration

technology. Even if TEPCO could eliminate the tritium

overnight, it’s doubtful the government would allow the

company to dump tens of millions of litres of “puriied”

Fukushima water into the ocean before the 2020 Tokyo

Olympics; it would be a public relations nightmare. In the

meantime, water tanks are sprouting up all over the site

like colonies of toadstools ater a rainstorm.

We boarded the bus and headed toward reactor Units 5

and 6. On the way, we stopped briely at various well heads

and iltration facilities designed to trap and treat thousands

of litres of groundwater that lows downhill toward the ocean

every day—right beneath the crippled reactors. Some of the

groundwater mixes with the highly contaminated water in the

reactors and must be treated and pumped to the tank farm;

some ends up leaking into the ocean, untreated.

TEPCO has been testing an underground “ice wall” to

divert the low of groundwater around the reactor facilities,

but there’s no word on when the company will switch it on.

Located on higher ground, Units 5 and 6 were untouched

by the tsunami. But they lie directly in the path of the

radioactive plume that ended up contaminating 9000 square

kilometres of land northwest of the plant. We passed dead

pine trees scattered like orange toothpicks along the edge

of a wooded area. Pine trees are particularly radiosensitive,

and these had probably sufered the same fate as trees in

Chernobyl’s infamous Red Forest, a tract of pines killed by

fallout. For the second and last time,

my dosimeter beeped a 20 μSv alert.

In two hours on-site, most of it riding

on a bus, I’d received a radiation dose

equivalent of at least four chest X-rays.

V.THE FUKUSHIMA disaster had a

chilling efect on the nuclear-power

industry worldwide. Germany, for

example, is phasing out of nuclear energy altogether. China

suspended its rapidly expanding nuclear-energy program.

And in Japan, where nuclear power supplied 30 per cent

of the country’s energy, the entire reactor leet was taken

oline. But the nuclear chill has begun to warm up lately.

Ten new reactors went online last year, the most since 1990.

China now has 24 reactors under construction, with more

on the books. Last August, Japan quietly restarted its irst

reactor since the disaster.

Ikuro Anzai, an owlish 75-year-old nuclear scientist from

Kyoto, is sceptical. He’s spent his career criticising the

incestuous relationship between government regulators and

the nuclear industry that allowed companies like TEPCO

to ignore safety warnings. In his view, Japan should follow

Germany’s example. Until that happens, the least the

government could do is educate a skittish public about the

health efects of radiation exposure. Anzai can’t do much

about the former, but few are better

equipped, or motivated, to address

the latter. He travels to Fukushima

every month to measure radiation

levels to reassure those who no

longer trust the government—to

say nothing about the nuclear

industry—to protect their safety.

“The accident destroyed

people’s trust in the industry, in

the government, and experts,”

Anzai said. “As a scientist, I want

to make a sincere efort to stand

beside victims and help minimise

their exposure to radiation, and to

restore trust in scientists.”

On a drizzly aternoon, I met

Anzai at the Torikawa Nursery

School in Fukushima City, about

65 km from Fukushima Daiichi.

Although residents were never

evacuated, radioactive hot spots

in some parts of town still exceed

the government’s long-term

decontamination goal of 0.23

μSv/h. Anzai carried a gamma

spectrometer on a strap over his

shoulder as I followed him down

winding lanes to an old Buddhist

temple in the centre of a residential

neighbourhood. Anzai knelt

next to a swing set and held the

spectrometer’s sensor over a hole

he’d made in the coarse sand.

“Zero point zero seven

microsieverts per hour,” he

announced. “It’s the same as my

oice in Kyoto.”

That was less than half the

radiation levels Anzai found when

he surveyed the same walking

route two years ago, good news

for the children who attended

Torikawa Nursery School. Ever

since the disaster they’ve been

cooped up out of fear of being

exposed to radiation. Now they

could take their daily walk again.

“It’s important for children to

be able to touch the snow and step

on the ice,” the director of the

nursery school, Miyoko Sato, told

me. “But we still worry about the

food the children eat.”

Food grown in Fukushima

prefecture—famous for its produce

in Japan—is closely monitored for

radioactive contamination, but the

school still sources its food from

outside it. Understandably, many

parents no longer trust authorities

on any matter concerning

radiation, which is

ironic, because the food

restrictions that the

government put in place

ater the disaster were, in

Anzai’s view, one of the

few things it did right.

As the clean-

up of Fukushima

prefecture and the

decommissioning of

the nuclear plant move

forward, Anzai has one simple

piece of advice for Japan’s

government and its nuclear

industry, one that he’s been

repeating for more than four

decades: “Don’t hide, don’t lie,

and don’t underestimate.”

In many ways, rebuilding

Fukushima is the easy part.

Japan has recovered from far

worse. Restoring public faith will

be much more diicult because

mistrust has no half-life.

Reporting for this story was

supported by a grant from the

International Centre for Journalists.

I N T W O H O U R S O N - S I T E , M O S T O F

I T R I D I N G O N A B U S , I ’ D R E C E I V E D A

R A D I AT I O N D O S E E Q U I VA L E N T O F

AT L E A S T F O U R C H E S T X - R A Y S .

APRIL 2016

ANELECTRIC CURE

60 POPULAR SCIENCE

COULD A PACEMAKER FOR THE BRAIN

END THE SCOURGE OF ALZHEIMER’S?

Fewmedical procedures offer visible relief as

immediate and profound as you can see when

a Parkinson’s patient switches on their deep

brain stimulation device.

Back in 2013, New Zealand man Andrew

Johnson uploaded a video to YouTube, which

opens with him sitting calmly in front of

the camera. He switches off his Medtronic

DBS device (by holding a remote to his chest

above an implant) and seconds later begins

shaking with the severe, almost violent

muscle tremors that characterise Parkinson’s

disease. After a few moments, he reactivates

his implant, the tremors fade, and he walks

easily out of the shot.

Following World War II, doctors spent

decades developing psychiatric surgical

procedures, where they would physically

destroy structures in a patient’s brain, in

hope of reducing symptoms of a range of

diseases and disorders.

But results ranged from inconclusive, to not

very good, and even disastrous. Thousands of

people lost their personalities and ability to

have meaningful relationships with friends

and loved ones, all due to an over-reliance

on lobotomy. Even the few for whom these

kinds of radical “ablative” techniques seemed

to work, had to learn to live with severe and

permanent side eff ects.

BY ANTHONY FORDHAM

The great pariah of medicine, psychiatric surgery, might soon come back in from the cold, if clinical trials of deep brain stimulation continue to show results

APRIL 2016

POPSCI .COM.AU 61

DEEP BRAIN STIMUL ATION

62 POPULAR SCIENCE

In fact, it was an attempt

to improve the accuracy of

creating brain “lesions” by

targeting structures with

electrodes planted directly

into the brain, that led to the

almost-accidental discovery of

deep brain stimulation.

PACEMAKERS, REAPPLIED

Patients with chronic heart

problems have been able to

rely on increasingly small and

sophisticated pacemakers for

decades. New tech has seen

batteries shrink, electrodes

become smaller and more

accurate, and wireless telemetry

provide doctors with remote,

real-time information about the

state of a patient’s heart.

Now, these sophisticated

pacemakers are being re-

purposed to potentially offer

symptomatic relief and effective

management of everything

from obsessive-compulsive

disorder (OCD) to depression,

chronic pain and epilepsy.

There is even emerging

research that offers a hope that

DBS might even be able to halt

the progression of Alzheimer’s.

In March 2016, neurologists

and neurosurgeons alike

gathered in Cairns at the 10th

annual Scientific Meeting for

the Asian Australasian Society

of Stereotactic (see box) and

Functional Neurosurgery.

While discussion ranged well

beyond deep brain stimulation

into many other areas, it was

clear that recent advances in

this kind of treatment could

ultimately lead to a renaissance

for that most maligned school of

medicine - psychiatric surgery.

A LONG AND CAREFUL ROAD

Experiments in deep brain

stimulation began in the 1960s,

but the first treatments weren’t

approved (for essential tremor)

until the late 1990s. Since 2000,

DBS has been approved for

Parkinson’s, dystonia and OCD.

Now, neurologists want to find

how much more it can do.

Professor Andres Lozano,

chairman of the Division of

Neurosurgery at the University

of Toronto says DBS has

benefited from our massively

increased understanding of

how the brain works.

“The appeal of electric

stimulation is not only can it be

turned on and off, it can also be

turned up and down,” he says.

“At first, the lesion surgery done

in the 1930s was considered to

be quite effective, but it went

overboard and the bad cases

took over the narrative.”

Obviously, a lobotomy cannot

be reversed, or adjusted for

patient’s particular set and

severity of symptoms. But a

WiFi-equipped pacemaker can.

“We are starting to think that

many conditions - depression,

OCD, Tourettes - are linked to the

amount of activity in particular

circuits in the brain. With DBS,

we can adjust activity in that

circuit and see how the patient

responds,” says Lozano.

Professor Joachim Krauss,

chairman and director of the

Department of Neurosurgery at

the Hannover Medical School,

points out how the complexity

of the brain makes this kind of

medicine so difficult.

“We have this idea that we

need to target a structure in

the brain, but we don’t know

exactly where that target

is. Or we might be going to

the same structure to treat

multiple disorders,” he says.

“We understand a lot about the

hardwiring of the brain, but now

we need to know more about

the basic networking. We need

to see how it functions, and how

it functions in disease states.”

A SPARK OF HOPE

For Professor Lozano, one of

the most exciting potential

applications for DBS is in the

treatment of Alzheimer’s.

“If you’re diagnosed with

Alzheimer’s today, even an

NO HARM

NO FOUL:

DBS AND

OCDMovies and TV shows love to depict OCD characters as having slightly annoying but ultimately useful quirks (brilliant detective taps light switch three times and solves murder). But in the real world, Obsessive/Compulsive Disorder is ranked in the top 10 disabling illness by the World Health Organisation. It can make life almost impossible.

The challenge of treating OCD lies in the complexity of the condition. OCD can mean constant intrusive thoughts, or it can mean repetitive move-ment, or it can mean precisely controlled ritual behaviours. Or any mix of those and a number of other symptoms. There’s no “OCD gland” that can be removed in surgery.

But electrical stimulation of the brain has, in some cases, reduced the severity of the condition. Right now, DBS has received a “humanitarian device exemption” from the US FDA for the treatment of OCD. That means regulators are satisfied DBS doesn’t hurt OCD patients - but it might not actually be helping them either.

Recent studies have shown DBS can give a 40% reduction in the symptoms of some patients with severe OCD. That might seem like a long way from a cure, but for someone living with this condition, it can mean all the difference.

early diagnosis means you’re

in pretty bad trouble. It means

six to eight years, a lot of that

in a nursing home, and then

death,” he says. Lozano points

out that in Alzheimer’s, the

actual hardware of the brain

disintegrates and malfunctions.

“The circuits that control

memory are hit the hardest,” he

says. “But if we place electrodes

near those circuits, and boost

their activity, boost the amount

of traffic flowing down them,

it’s like circuit training.

“There’s evidence that if

we do that, the circuit stops

degrading, and can even repair

and regrow. Even if we can just

make these circuits work better

and prevent deterioration, that

will make a huge difference.”

Trials for treating Alzheimer’s

with DBS are now entering

phase two. That means doctors

must now establish the therapy

is safe and effective for use on

humans. Until now, testing has

been done with animals.

“We don’t know to what

extent it will work in humans,”

says Lozano. “We’re looking

for a change in the rate of

decline.” He points out that the

brain uses huge amounts of

glucose as fuel, and Alzheimer’s

patients have large areas of the

DBS could free patients with

depression from a daily drug

regime and its side - effects

APRIL 2016

POPSCI .COM.AU 63

brain where glucose use drops

dramatically. It’s a desperately

needed clue.

“We hope DBS will turn these

areas back on, start them using

glucose again,” he says. “People

could regain lost function.”

Professor Lozano thinks

using DBS in this way

is 5-10 years away from

implementation. And at the

same time, other trials are

underway for Tourettes, drug

addiction, anorexia and even

schizophrenia. For anyone with

problems in the wiring of their

brain, it might just help.

LAYERS OF COMPLEXITY

It’s tempting to see DBS as a

true panacea, a one-stop-shop

to fix the endlessly creative and

varied ways the human brain

gets messed up. Of course, the

reality is always more complex.

Adding to the challenge,

the brain has an inconvenient

superpower - its ability

to adapt and rewire itself

after suffering trauma.

Neuroplasticity is very useful

when you’re learning to walk

again after losing a chunk of

brain in a car accident. But

it’s less helpful, after having

part of your brain “ablated”

(burned or frozen out) to stop,

for instance, essential tremor,

when what remains rewires

itself and symptoms return.

A DBS patient, of course, can

just get the electrodes shifted

a bit, or the pulse rate of the

electrical signals tweaked.

So at the very least, can DBS

completely replace ablative or

“lesion” surgery? Could it even

eventually replace the anti-

psychotic drugs that in turn

made lobotomies obsolete (or

at least deeply unpopular) in

the mid-1950s?

“For now, this treatment

is used on people for whom

drugs don’t seem to work,” says

Lozano. “To be considered for

clinical trials, you must have

already failed other therapy.

“DBS won’t replace brain

surgery, it still is brain surgery!”

And as for the timeline,

Lozano says: “It usually takes

15 years to get a new therapy

approved. If you’re talking

about a nervous

system therapy, that

can take longer, and it

will cost billions to do

the trials. But I think

we’re on track.”

Yet no matter how

many DBS trials

return positive results,

there will always be

that extra ethical

consideration. This

branch of medicine

will always be stalked

by the long shadow of

psychiatric surgery’s

troubled past.

“We must be careful

to avoid misuse of this

kind of surgery,” says

Krauss. “Remember,

lobotomies were once

considered good. We must take

all measures to avoid a repeat of

those kinds of mistakes.”

TRANSLATION

SERVICES

STEREOTAXY /

STEREOTACTIC

SURGERY

Surgeons used to crank open a patient’s ribcage for heart surgery, or cut huge windows in their skull to get at the brain. Stereotactic surgery uses imaging tech like MRIs or even X-rays to create a 3D co-ordinate system and pinpoint where surgery needs to be done. No more rummaging around in your internal organs: just in and out, with minimal trauma.

Egas Moniz

No general for you. Patients must remain

awake and perform tasks so surgeons can

place DBS electrodes in the best position.

C H I S E L TO T H E B R A I NFrom the 1940s, neurosurgeons came to the

conclusion that the best way to give patients

relief from a range of conditions (mostly

mental illness) was to physically destroy parts

of their brain. Many different procedures were

developed, and while some were instantly

controversial, others continued to be used for

decades. Here are two examples.

THE BAD

LOBOTOMYPROCEDURE: Sever the

connections between the

prefrontal cortex and the

rest of the brain.

THEN: Intended to give

symptomatic relief to

patients who were so

profoundly mentally ill

they could barely function.

Pioneer Antonio Egas

Moniz shared a Nobel

Prize for Medicine in 1949 for developing the

lobotomy. Over 20,000 lobotomies were done in

the US alone in the 1940s and 1950s.

NOW: Almost universally accepted that

negative side-effects of the procedure massively

outweigh any benefits. Made largely obsolete in

the mid-1950s by anti-psychotic drugs.

T H E N OT- Q U I T E -A S - BA D

BILATERAL CINGULOTOMYPROCEDURE: Sever the supracallosal fibres of the

cingulum bundle, which pass through the anterior

cingulate gyrus. (ie cut up just a tiny bit of the brain.)

THEN: Developed in the 1940s as an alternative

to the always-controversial and often feared

lobotomy. Intended to treat OCD and depression,

by interrupting the flow of “wrong” signals and

modifying the patient’s cognitive control and

attentional response.

NOW: Used well into the 1990s, but research

suggests it’s not very effective in treating OCD.

Possibly effective in treating chronic pain. MRI

now allows very accurate targeting of the right

structures in the brain to limit side effects. Likely

to be made obsolete by deep brain stimulation.

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64 POPULAR SCIENCE

WORTHOVER$329!

66 POPULAR SCIENCE

Steel Hulls, Brown Water, No Limits

According to the Riverland Dinghy Club,

the race started way back in 1981, when “two

mates” had a bet on who could be quickest

through the backwaters in a tinny.

Because South Australians take bets very

seriously, they plotted out a tortuous 90km

long course and hit the water. No one is quite

sure anymore who actually won - the club

doesn’t even name the “two mates” - but in

true bush spirit, a new racing tournament

was born. Now 35 years later, it attracts

racers from all around Australia for a

massive weekend-long annual event.

THE RACE

The Derby follows the same route that was

mapped out back in 1981. The race starts and

fi nishes in Renmark, South Australia, and

draws crowds of spectators every year.

The circuit combines long straights,

with hair-raising slaloms through barely

visible snags and forests of drowned trees.

Competitors have to duck low-hanging

branches and dodge fl oating debris.

The race isn’t a straight up loop either,

with four laps that head through diff erent

stages in sometimes opposing directions.

While a section of the race is along the

Murray itself, most of it winds through

tighter creeks and backwaters that divert

from and then rejoin the main channel.

Travelling at high speeds through sharp

bends, boats often fl ip, or careen out of the

water and up the bank. If the damage is

minimal, the two-man team drags the tinny

back into the water and keeps on racing.

The dinghies start the race together, but

there is a sharp penalty for jumping the

gun. Unless the overeager boat immediately

backs off the plane (cuts speed and lets the

hull settle back into the water), they receive

a two minute penalty - which is an eternity

Welcome to the Riverland Dinghy Derby, a uniquely Australian racing competition, where teams of two strap a 30HP outboard motor on the back of a modified fishing “tinny” and hurl themselves along the narrow backwaters of the Murray river at 90km/h. The high speed twists and turns are reminiscent of the insane Isle of Man TT, and in this race, accidents are just as common. Even finishing at all is a major achievement.

BY LINDSAY HANDMER

POPSCI .COM.AU 67

APRIL 2016

To help keep a level playing field (or racing river?) and encourage new teams, the Dinghy Derby supports a range of racing classes. The lower end is about purism, while the higher classes allow for mods and the extra power that can make the race so intense. Before the race, boats are subject to scrutineering to make sure they comply with the rules.

Standard ClassUnmodified Australian mass-produced dinghy with original seats. Stock outboard motor with all manufacturer’s parts only. Standard class races with 15HP, 25HP and 30HP engines.

30HP RookiesUnmodified Australian mass-produced dinghy hull, but front seats can be removed and additions such as a keel and engine trimming device are permitted. Engines can be tuned but not modified.

300cc ClassCustom hull design allowed. Internal engine mods allowed, but must not exceed 300cc capacity. Mods allowed using factory parts or aftermarket parts. Surface-piercing propellers and alternate fuels allowed.

30HP SportsCustom hull design and construction material allowed. Max 30HP engine can be modified internally, but must use the original power head and carburettors. Mass-produced aftermarket parts allowed.

THE CLASSES

MORE INFO

Want to get into dinghy racing? Or justgo along to next year’s race? Check outRiverland Dinghy Club on Facebook, or atwww.dinghyderby.com.au. For a taste of theaction, YouTube (youtu.be/_5aKcpAhTOk) hasloads of great video - thanks Red Bull! Ourpictures are supplied by Grant SchwartzkopffPhotography. For more great shots of theracing action (as well as other events), headto gswatty.smugmug.com.

when the rest of the fi eld has already

disappeared around the fi rst bend.

A competitive time to complete the

course is around 1h:15m - assuming the team

fi nishes at all, that is.

THE CREW

Each boat carries two people - a driver and

a swinger. Since the boats are extremely

lightweight (under 400kg even with motor),

yet overpowered (the top class allows

modifi ed 30HP outboards), keeping the right

weight balance is essential.

A swinger’s job is to hold themselves on

the front of the boat and shift their weight

around as the tinny turns. It’s not an easy

job, and involves hanging off the front of a

small boat at high speed, face barely above

the rushing water.

Having a good swinger can mean winning

by seconds or sliding into a mud bank at 45

km/h - it needs to be someone light, fast,

strong, daring, able to take risks and make

the right call every single time. No pressure!

After completing a tight turn, getting back

up to speed quickly means keeping the nose

of the boat low, so even on straights,

the swinger still needs to sit as far

forward and low down as possible.

The swinger also needs to read

the surface of the water and the

wind, to help compensate for

wakes from other boats.

Because of the number of spine-

shattering obstacles - both on

the surface and underwater

- the crew must wear Australian

standard full-face motorcycle

helmets as well as life jackets.

BOATS AND MOTORS

Sure the Derby may have started as a kind

of joke - haha look, we’re racing tinnies! - but

like almost all Australian sports, people

have been taking it very seriously for

decades now. It is possible to compete with

nothing more than a basic tinny, but many

boats used in the Riverland race are highly

modifi ed - it depends on the class. Seats are

cut out or lowered, extra reinforcement is

welded in and keels are added. Most tinnies

don’t come with fl oatation cell, but these are

essential, to keep the boats from sinking if

(when) they fl ip over.

In the lower classes, boats are supposed

to be left more-or-less stock, but some

modifi cations are allowed. Remember

throwing the fuel tank in the bottom of

the family tinny where it sits loose ? In this

race the tank needs to be bolted down so

it doesn’t fl y out of the boat during a sharp

turn. Lateral-g, it gets you every time.

For the open classes, racers will spend

serious money on custom boats that barely

look like a tinny at all.

For many other teams though, a favourite

dingy is the Stacer 319 Proline. It’s aff ordable,

the right shape for racing, is easy to modify,

and crucially weighs just 63kg hull-only.

The engines used are two-stroke, because

they off er better power to weight ratio.

Reliability is key, and Yamaha is a favoured

brand. Depending on the class, engines are

allowed mild aftermarket modifi cations, but

major internal changes, superchargers and

turbos are not permitted.

The top-tier racers usually bring multiple

engines to the event, set up for diff erent

classes and races.

ENGINE

SPECYamaha 30HP496cc two-strokeoil-injectedin-line 3 cylinderCost: $4500Weight: 60KGPower: 30HP

BOAT SPECSStacer 319 ProlineMaterial: AluminiumLength: 3.24mBeam: 1.32mWeight: 63KGCost: $1,999Max Recommended HP: 10HP

Looks tranquil ,

doesn’t it? The

silence won’t

last. Below,

Google Earth

gives a sense

of the many

twists and

turns racers

must negotiate

at crazy

speeds.

68 POPULAR SCIENCE

Manual

PHOTOGRAPH BY Tobias Björkgren

APRIL 2016

Absurd Machines

supply, I ran into trouble. The

Applause Machine is controlled by

an Arduino UNO: a tiny,

inexpensive microcontroller that’s

great at reading sensors and

managing hardware like motors.

But it has only a 5-volt output, and

the DC motor required 12 volts

to run. To solve this problem, I

inserted a MOSFET transistor—

which allows you to control a high

voltage with a low one—between

the Arduino and the motor.

Last, I added a slider to the

front of the machine to control

the speed of the clap. It can

gradually increase from a snarky

slow clap to a breakneck 330

claps per minute. After testing,

it was evident that the Applause

Machine is set to make the

torturous practice of applauding

a relic of days gone by. Now how

can I celebrate my achievement?

Picture your hands after you’ve just

watched an amazing performance. An

evening spent clapping has probably left them

red, tired, and blazing with pain. That’s why I

created a portable applause solution for the

21st-century human. With high-

quality sound, speed control, and a custom

laser-cut case, the Applause Machine will do

your clapping for you.

To build it, I started with a pair of tongs from

my kitchen. I attached a metal spring below

the grippers, and put an oval-shaped DC motor

between the arms. When the motor spins, it

forces the tongs to open and close, creating a

clapping motion.

As for the machine’s hands, I wanted to find

a pair that would create the most realistic

clapping sound possible. So I bought four

different types of plastic hands from a party-

supply store. After some experimentation, I

decided that hollow hands made of rigid

plastic created the best noise. I fastened them

to the tongs’ grippers with small bolts.

When it came to the machine’s power

You ‘Need’ an Applause Machine

Inventor and YouTuber

SIMONE GIERTZ builds

ridiculous contraptions—

because she can.

POPSCI .COM.AU 69

APRIL 2016

ManualTech Explainer

When you sign up for a new ISP, they’ll throw in a pre-configured wireless modem-router as part of the deal. So why would you ever buy one yourself?

Are Expensive HomeRouters Worth It?

Bandwidth, in

gigabits per

second, of Li-Fi ,

a new wireless

communication

technology based on

visible light rather

than radio waves.

Expect it in 2018.

224

NOT JUST FAST, BUT FAT

BANDWIDTH: Usually under-

stood as the “speed” of a data

connection. Higher bandwidth

means quicker downloads. But

bandWIDTH also indicates how

much capacity a connection

has for multiple users. A single

YouTube HD stream might only

need 5Mbps, but four people

watching at once need 20Mbps.

Multiple users doing multiple

activities - gaming, video call,

VPN access to work etc - put

even higher demand on the link,

because not all use bandwidth

the same way.

The ASUS RT-AC5300U triband wireless

router ($529) has eight antennas, a

1.4GHz dual-core processor, 512MB RAM,

4x gigabit ports, 2x USB2.0 ports and a

USB3.0 port for connecting an external

hard drive. Its MU-MIMO antenna

technology means it can handle multiple

users with ease, and provide extreme WiFi

coverage for your house (and probably

most of the garden too). Paired with the

right receiver in a PC, it can hit transfer

speeds of 2167 megabits per second .

by

ANTHONY

FORDHAM

Because we now live in the age of the

smartphone and tablet, having a wireless

network in your house is just another utility,

like electricity or running water. Despite this,

why are so many of us content to use the WiFi

equivalent of really crappy taps?

The modem/routers that ISPs provide

(usually called a Gateway or something cute

and marketable) are much better than they

used to be, but they prioritise simplicity. ISPs

need to give customers a “common” experience

(for troubleshooting), so these devices can’t

adopt new technology very quickly.

And it’s technology more and more of us

need, because these days it’s not just about

getting an internet signal from the wall and

beaming to a PC in the study. It’s about splitting

that signal between three phones, a tablet,

and a couple of laptops, while also letting the

resident film geek stream a totally legitimate

1080p rip of The Force Awakens (probably)

from a NAS drive to the new WiFi-enabled

smart TV in the lounge.

That last task isn’t

dependent on the

speed of your internet

connection at all, but

Steve’s movie can choke up the

whole network and ruin the

afternoon for everyone else, if the

router can’t handle all that traffic.

QUALITY AND QUANTITY

A router packing all the latest

networking technology will give

the average household a bunch

of benefits that may not be

immediately obvious.

More and larger antennas

improve the quality of the wireless

signal, and will reduce those “dead

spots” where the WiFi seems to

drop off for no reason.

Newer WiFi standards like

802.11ac have higher maximum

bandwidth (over 1Gbps) and

support antenna systems that

better manage multiple users.

And a high-end router usually

doesn’t have an ADSL modem

built in. Once, when ADSL was

“the future” having the modem

(the device that actually connects

you to the internet via a phone

line) included saved money and

space. But with NBN access

coming any day now (please) an

expensive router with no modem

won’t be made instantly obsolete.

Finally, a good router can

identify and prioritise certain

kinds of traffic. A movie needs

an clean stream, but someone

loading a basic web page won’t

notice a millisecond pause or two.

BINGE WATCH

Why do you want all this? If

nothing else, because streaming

video services are the new pay

TV. Netflix is here now and Stan

is chomping at its heels. Freeview

Plus makes your rooftop antenna

obsolete. The future is people

watching multiple HD streams on

multiple devices. Add 360-degree

video and virtual reality before

2020, and you can see buying a

good router is just as sensible as

buying a good fridge.

ManualProject of the Month

70 POPULAR SCIENCE

Convert Your Old Hatchback Into An Electric CarThis won’t be an easy project. Something will go wrong, and it will be more expensive than you expect. But the results can be so worth it...

very quiet to drive. Depending on the

power of the motor installed, performance

can be excellent, not so much because of

raw kilowattage, but rather thanks to a

constant level of torque.

The major downside is of course limited

range. While a $250,000 Tesla can do over

400km, a DIY electric car will typically

manage 100 to 200 km from a full charge.

Because that’s more than enough for all but

the most insane commutes, it’s not an issue

for most DIY EV enthusiasts. What’s more

of an issue is the complexity of the project,

and the way conversion costs can quickly

spiral out of control.

Want to skip the actual project? EVs

pop up for sale all the time. For more

information, the best place to start is your

local branch of the Australian Electric

Vehicle Association (www.aeva.asn.au).

RUNNING COSTS

Depending on the car - and specifi cally

depending on its weight - converting to an

EV can reduce ongoing running costs as

much as 75%. Before the collapse in global

oil prices, the picture was a lot clearer,

because not fi lling up at $1.60 a litre once or

twice a week really adds up.

According to the Australian Bureau of

company that can do it for you of course.

But don’t expect process to be simple... or

to make economic sense.

GOING ELECTRIC

Ditching a stinky, clattery ICE for a

smooth and quiet electric motor has a

lot of advantages, but also a few killer

disadvantages. First the good news: a

small light electric car can be cheap to run

- just 1 or 2 cents a kilometre. The ongoing

maintenance costs are also lower, because

electric motors need almost no servicing.

EVs also reduce emissions, and can be

Despite what may feel like an endless

barrage of publicity and marketing,

the range of fully electric cars on the

Australian market remains as limited as

the distance you can drive them on a single

charge (FX: cat “mrowr!” noises). The only

car that can go the distance (by which we

mean, go an acceptable distance) is the

Tesla Model S and it’s priced as a luxury

sedan. The handful of other options can’t

manage a 200 km road trip, and cost a lot

more than their petrol equivalents. What’s

a true EV enthusiast to do? Why, convert an

existing car to electric, or hand it over to a

This electric RX7 was converted by Ian Hooper in 2012-

2014 and now helps promote Zero Emission Vehicles

Australia (www.zevo.com.au) , a one -stop-shop for EV

goodies. Check out the project page to see how much

went into this build. Spoiler : it was a LOT.

There are

l iterally

hundreds of

electric motors to

choose from.

by LINDSAY HANDMER

ManualProject of the Month

APRIL 2016

POPSCI .COM.AU 71

sta istics, ost Au sie cars travel

about 14,000 km a year, or almost

40 km a day. The average fuel

consumption for passenger cars is

around 10 litres per 100km. Since the

falls in crude, prices fl utter around

$1.10 a litre, so that’s $1540 a year. At

electricity prices of $0.30 a kWh, the

same distance driven might cost $500

to $1000, depending on the car.

So assuming a $15,000 cost to do

the conversion, an electric car is not

an immediate money saver. And mark

our words: a DIY conversion will

always cost more than you think. Do

this for the project, not the pennies.

THE CAR

Obviously, start with a donor vehicle.

The ideal candidate is something small

and lightweight, but still modern (crash

protection, plz!). While larger cars can

hold more batteries, the extra weight

means overall range may suff er. It

doesn’t have to be a little hatchback

though - many electric car projects

focus around lightweight sports cars,

such as the Madza MX5 (not the 2015

model though, are you crazy?!). The

ideal donor car is of course one you can

somehow get for free.

SHOPPING LIST

Total costs will vary depending on the

level of build (on a scale from “get it on

the road” to “beautifully integrated

battery display on custom dash”), but

here follow some costs involved in

buying the parts for an EV.

Because no two EV projects are ever

By converting an existing vehicle, your EV alreadycomplies with the majority of Australian rules andstandards, and as a one-off project car it won’t need to becrash tested. But before you can head down to the localRTA and get it registered, the conversion needs to besigned off as safe. The exact process varies from state tostate, but involves having an approved automotive engineerinspect the vehicle and sign a certificate.

GETTINGREGISTERED

the same, prices vary enormously,

and depend especially on the desired

range and power.

For a lower-performance hatchback

conversion with a range of around

100 km, the total cost for parts is at

least $10,000. The higher end of our

ranges below are for larger vehicles.

High performance race cars or

other specifi c builds move well out

beyond the bounds of economics

and are best tackled by obsessives

or perfectionists only. For more

information on EV parts and pricing,

head to www.evoworks.com.au

ELECTRIC MOTOR

PRICE: $1800 - $5000

Standard DC motors are common,

simple and effi cient, but don’t

typically off er regenerative

braking, which reduces overall

effi ciency. AC motors are effi cient

and reliable, but need a more complex

controller system. On the plus side,

they can do regenerative braking,

extending range for the same size

battery pack.

CONTROLLER

PRICE: $1500 - $5000

This critical component is what takes

the huge amounts of power from the

battery, and sends it to the motor.

Pulse width modulation is used to

vary the motor output based on the

“throttle” (no longer a suitable term

but oh well) position. Controllers get

progressively more expensive for

more powerful electric motors.

BATTERY PACK

PRICE: $5000 - $10,000

Older EV conversions used

lead acid batteries, but now

most builds opt for Lithium

ion battery packs. These are

signifi cantly lighter and off er

decent lifespan.

CHARGER AND BATTERY

MANAGEMENT

Price: $1000 - $3000

A good charger system is critical

to maintaining battery life, as

well as getting the car ready

to drive again as quickly as

possible. Depending on the

voltage, number of batteries and

how fast you want to charge, the

prices can vary signifi cantly.

THE EXTRAS

PRICE: $1000 - $4000

At some point, usually after

ripping out the ICE and

making the original car totally

undriveable, the EV enthusiast

will realise there are a few bits

missing. For a start, most brakes

are vacuum operated. The car

can use the original brakes, but a

12v vacuum pump and reservoir

tank will be needed. Other

items include systems for power

steering, accelerator, switches,

gauges, sensors, cabling and

connectors. Provisions also need

to be made to run the existing air

conditioning system. Think you

don’t need AC? This is Australia

tough guy, think again.

e controller is a crucial component that will

nage acceleration response and more.

72 POPULAR SCIENCE

TOOLS+MATER IALS INSTRUCT IONS

1

5

2

3 4

APRIL 2016

Cheap Tricks

CO

UR

TE

SY

SA

M H

AY

NO

R (

5)

Bookmark

Manual

1 Cut out a cardboard circle the

exact size of the record. Then cut

an X in the centre of the circle,

corresponding to the hole in the

middle of the record.

2 Slide the pencil through the X so

about 25mm of the point protrudes.

Wrap rubber bands around the

pencil as a stopper to keep it from

sliding, and hot-glue it into place.

3 Secure the needle to the end of

the wooden skewer with tape.

4 Thread the record onto the

pencil, and place it on top of the

cardboard circle. Set the pencil’s

point on a flat surface, and twist it

to spin the record.

5 Bite the stick (don’t touch it with

your hands), then gently lower

the needle onto the record so

it catches a groove. Adjust the

pressure and angle until you hear

music in your head.

6 Throw away the ruined record.

Listen to Records with Your Teeth

Onshape

You don’t need a fancy machine, or even ears*, to listen to old records.

With science educator Sam Haynor’s bone-conducting phono graph,

you just need your teeth and some cheap everyday objects. Haynor

places the record on a DIY turntable and then attaches a needle to a

wooden skewer, which users bite. As the needle moves over grooves

in the record, vibrations travel up the skewer and into the teeth

and jaw. The brain interprets them as sound. Try it yourself, but be

warned: Playing music through your skull can feel unsettling. “People

give me that ‘what are you doing to me?’ look,” Haynor says.

(*Okay, you do need a functioning inner-ear, but you’ll figure out what we mean

if you just keep reading instead of nitpicking everything....)

• NOT a rare mono

recording of

the Beatles’ Help!

• Cardboard

• Sharpened pencil

• Hobby scalpel

• Pliers

• Rubber bands

• Hot- glue gun

• Needle

• Wooden skewer

• Masking tape

Designing a high-quality 3D model usually requires expensive,

memory-hogging software. Onshape aims to change this by

taking computer-aided design to the cloud. The modeling program

can run as a Web page in your browser, or as an app on a mobile

device. “Everyone on a product-design team now can work faster

together,” says Onshape co-founder and chairman Jon Hirschtick,

“without having to copy software or CAD files.”

Though the interface should feel familiar to veteran CAD users,

Onshape has a library of videos to get people started, as well as a

forum for learning about and suggesting new features. Onshape

offers all modeling and

drafting tools for free, but

unlimited storage costs

$100 per month.

TIME 15 minutesCOST $1DIFFICULTY • • • • •

by

JEREMY S. COOK

by

NICOLE LOU

ALWAYS CROSS THE STREAMS

The game might only ship with six beasts (plus a Kickstarter-exclusive omnibeast at a higher pledge

level) but the cross artefacts allow them to be combined in increasingly fabulous ways. For instance,

the warthog might cross with the octopus to breed a hogtopus (and a bump in points). But this

creates a new challenge: because the new beast is necessarily more fabulous than the standard

beasts, those beasts will become “jealous” and drain points from the total score on subsequent turns

- unless the players can respond and make them even more fabulous too.

POPSCI .COM.AU 73

APRIL 2016

ManualKickstarted

Fabulous Beasts proves that Kickstarter fans have an appetite for almost anything...

Balance Weird Animals for Fun!

by ANTHONY FORDHAM

UK gaming collective Sensible

Object raised over $320,000

to Kickstart this compellingly

odd-looking balancing game.

It’s called Fabulous Beasts

and at its core is a sort of

reverse-Jenga. Players work

co-operatively to stack weirdly-

shaped plastic chunks to score

the most points possible.

The distinctive visual design

of the objects includes a set of

the eponymous beasts (there’s

an octopus, warthog, shark,

bear, toucan and eagle), a pile of

elements, artefacts to migrate or crossbreed the beasts,

and two “miracle” pieces that change up the game rules.

Players take turns stacking these objects on a base which

has an integrated digital scale, and connects to an app

running on a tablet via Bluetooth.

Each plastic object has an embedded radio-

frequency identification (RFID) tag, and before adding it

to the pile, player must tap each piece on an RF reader

on the base to register it.

Once the base acknowledges the weight and ID of

the game piece, it appears on the screen in the app. The

aim is to bring beasts into the digital world of the app,

and make them progressively more fabulous by adding

elements like fire and water, or crossbreeding them, or

migrating them between air, land and sea.

The bigger the tower, the higher the score. If a piece falls

off the tower, the game warns that “the world is becoming

unstable!” and gives the players five seconds to restore

balance. If the tower falls, it’s game over.

Not quite enough challenge? The two “miracle” artefacts

give big score multipliers. But the “Miracle of Haste” puts

a time limit on adding new pieces, and the “Miracle of

Distraction” makes the active player hold their finger on the

tablet while trying to add their next artefact.

Despite the excellent design and intriguing concept,

Fabulous Beasts only just scraped across the funding

line (Sensible Object asked for GBP160,000 and received

GBP168,360.). We were a backers, so expect a playthrough

video to appear on www.popsci.com.au sometime in

November or December 2016.

Manual

74 POPULAR SCIENCE

Fix the World

ILLUSTRATION BY Peter Sucheski

APRIL 2016

by

RACHEL

NUWER

realised that Nicaraguan nurses were

“stealth-making.” Gomez-Marquez

and Young began designing custom

tool kits in order to help.

Back in their native US, to better

investigate and support nurses’ making

needs, they founded the Maker Nurse

program in 2013. The organisation

discovered that healthcare personnel

were already modifying equipment to

make it safer and more efficient. “To

them, it’s second nature,” Young says.

“They don’t recognise their ingenuity as

something that is worth talking about.”

To foster that creativity,

MakerNurse supplied several

hospitals with portable prototyping

carts equipped

with tools, Velcro,

and electronics. It

also established

the first medical

makerspace in the US:

MakerHealth Space,

at the University of

Texas Medical Branch

in Galveston.

The space contains

equipment like 3D

printers, laser cutters,

Nursing Inventıon

and sewing machines. In September

2015, 110 hospital staff toured

MakerHealth Space, and around 25

of them scheduled consultations with

engineers who provide expert

advice once a month. So far, the range

of projects includes a novel medication

delivery system and an improved

knee-brace support.

“Ever since Florence Nightingale,

nurses and healthcare workers have

done things on the fly with materials

designed for other purposes,” says

David Marshall, chief nursing and

patient care services officer at UTMB.

“Now they can develop those ideas near

where they’re actually delivering care.”

While touring hospitals in Nicaragua, Jose

Gomez-Marquez and Anna Young kept

running across ingenious hacks, such as

hand-cut cloth goggles to protect phototherapy

patients’ eyes and cereal boxes fashioned

into IV patches. The medical-device designers

DIY BURN BATH

When chemical-burn patients come to the ER, nurses must wash them by manually holding a showerhead for hours at a time. Jason Sheaffer,nurse manager for the Blocker Burn Unit at UTMB, turned to MakerHealth for a less onerous approach. Using

PVC pipes and 3D-printed parts, he made a portable three-headed shower that can direct water over specific areas. “It seemed like an easy solution, but I could never get around to building it on my own,” Sheaffer says. “Now if I have an idea, I can just run up to the makerspace and get the ball rolling.”

by

AIMEE SWARTZ

PHOTOGRAPH BY Daryn Deluco POPSCI .COM.AU 75

APRIL 2016

ManualMeet a Maker

For nearly a decade,New Orleans organist andinventor David Rolston,better known as Quintron,had harboured a very specificdream: to build a synthesisercontrolled by the weather. Asa touring musician, he couldnever find the time. And then,in 2011, he was diagnosedwith lymphoma.

Weather MaestroWhile undergoing

chemotherapy, Quintron was stuck

at home. “I spent much of the

time on my front porch building

prototypes,” he says. “It brought

me peace during a dark time.” The

resulting instrument, called the

Weather Warlock, has sensors that

detect sunlight, temperature, wind,

and moisture. A custom circuit

board transforms those weather

patterns into droning noises.

Quintron tuned the synth to

a harmonious chord—E major—

and used intervals that are

“Theoretically, blind people could experience a sunset through sound.”

“mathematically sympathetic”:

octaves, fifths, and major thirds.

“The sounds the synth makes

are harmonious and consonant,

inspired by the healing state of

mind that I was forced to be in,”

he says. He hopes the Weather

Warlock will help others too.

“A lot of blind people cannot

synchronise with cyclical changes

in the day,” Quintron says. A live

stream of the Weather Warlock’s

music could change that. To

share it, he built the website

weatherfortheblind.org.

Quintron’s other creations include the Spit Machine, a hand organ that uses saliva in its circuitry, and the Disco Light Machine, which uses a drum and lights to create music.

But his most notable invention is the Drum Buddy, a rotating, light-activated drum machine that creates different rhythms and sound effects. Artists Laurie Anderson and Sean Lennon, and the New Orleans Museum of Art, have all purchased Drum Buddies.

The instrument was born of necessity, Quintron says. “I wanted a synth that I could use to play and manipulate rhythms, while playing the organ with the other hand. That’s not something you can walk into a store and buy.”

INVENTED

INSTRUMENTS

INS

ET

IM

AG

E C

OU

RT

ES

Y D

AV

ID R

OL

ST

ON

76 POPULAR SCIENCE

Manual

HOTOGRAPH BY Jill Shomer

Right Tool / Right Job

APRIL 2016

Control Your Projects with Your Mind

Pressing buttons with your

hands is a drag. With Open BCI,

an open-source brain-computer

interface, you can now use the

power of your mind to control

smartphones, robots, and even

your friends’ limbs.

When DARPA funded

research into a brain-computer

interface, artist and engineer

Joel Murphy and his former

student Conor

Russomanno built

a working prototype.

Then they decided

to further refine the

device in order to

make the software

and hardware cheap

and accessible.

In 2014, the

duo launched a successful

crowdfunding campaign and

eventually developed the Ultra-

cortex, a US$399 3D-printed

electroencephalogram (EEG)

headset, and the Ganglion,

a US$99 circuit board. The

1 In an attempt tobetter understand neurofeedback, Guillaume Dumas, a neuroscientist at the Institut Pasteur in Paris, created software that uses OpenBCI to turn brain waves into music. 2 At a hackathon organised by BCI Montreal, Canadian and Dutch partici-pants combined OpenBCI with the Human-Human Inter-face, a DIY kit that

can send electricalimpulses to a person’s arm muscles. This let the hackers control the arms of strangers on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. 3 Davide Valeriani and Ana Matran-Fernandez, doctorate students in brain-computer interfacing at the University of Essex, created an app that allows users to issue smart-phone commands by winking.

The Ultracortex

(left) has 21

electrode holders.

A new model

(below) has 61 for

more versatil ity.

BRAINY IDEAS

by

CLAIRE

MALDARELLI

electrodes in the Ultracortex

record your body’s electrical

signals, and the Ganglion

transmits the signals to your

computer. This allows you to

control a mechanical device

with your brain waves.

OpenBCI is intended as

a DIY device. “We want it to

essentially be a Lego kit that

you get in the mail, which also

just happens to be a

brain-computer

interface,” says

Russomanno. It

could be used to

control mechanical

devices or computers

with brainwaves or

facial movement,

or simply to watch

one’s own brain activity.

The products are available

for preorder on the OpenBCI

website. And because both

hardware and software are

open-source, you can 3D print

your own headset.

POPSCI .COM.AU 77

APRIL 2016

Ah, that giddy time between the wars. Where half the

population was sure another great war was inevitable, and

the other half was equally sure it could never happen again.

And yet the July 1936 edition clearly shows a world full

of optimism about what technology can achieve. Cars are

amazing, and now we build them out of STEEL so train

carriages can’t crush you! Chemists are remaking the world

with science! Hugh Ruttledge will totally conquer Everest on

this, his second and much better equipped attempt! (Spoiler:

he failed, but Tenzing Norgay was there to take notes.) The

Russians have electric tractors now! Window in live rat

shows vital processes! (Actual headline.) A massive feature

that asks “Can Fish Hear?” is illustrated exclusively with

photographs of dogs and anteaters!

This is a world in which you can buy a French canoe

that collapses into a trailer pulled by a bicycle that in turn

collapses to fit into the canoe. Professor Yandell Henderson

of Yale controversially claims humans need carbon dioxide

to stimulate circulation and respiration. Cigarettes have

filter tips now, to protect your lips from the annoyance of

loose tobacco ends, and to provide a cooler smoke.

Then there’s this, the ball tank. Because the US in 1936

a society where an “Abercrombie” could call up Popular

Science Monthly and say he’d designed a tank that resembles

a rolling ball, and “trip for biscuits” or not, the magazine

would extol the virtues of his design and commission an

illustrator to draw a sweet cutaway and everything.

Little did the editors of the July 1936 edition know that

just seven short years later, the Soviets and the Nazis would

fight the biggest tank battle in history. The bloody and brutal

Battle of Kursk would involve over 10,000 tanks claim more

than 300,000 lives, but be remembered as the first time a

Nazi advance was stopped, and then forced to withdraw.

And it should go without saying, none of those tanks

“resembled a rolling ball”.

AND THEN ACTUAL

WAR INTERVENED...

“...a high-speed tumbleweed tank proposed by a Texas inventor is a new addition to

modern war machines... the inner shell can be sealed against poison gas... the tank’s

spherical shape presents the smallest possible target for enemy bombs or shells, and all but direct hits would glance o� its curved sides...”

- P O P U L A R S C I E N C E M O N T H LY, J U LY 1 9 3 6

ArchivesJuly 1936

78 POPULAR SCIENCE

Short answer: A confusing jumble

of 20th century conspiracy theories

ANSWERS BY Anthony Fordham

Ask Us Anything

Q: WHAT EXACTLY IS THE “BLACK KNIGHT” SATELLITE??

Obviously 2016 is shaping up to be the

year of conspiracy theory resurgence.

We’ve had the flat earth, the luminiferous

aether (please don’t ask), and now the

Black Knight satellite is back.

If the Black Knight story was a couple of

hundred years old, it would be a legend or

maybe even a myth, but since it’s actually a

confused mish-mash that started in 1973,

kinda, it’s called a conspiracy theory.

Anyway, Scottish sci-fi author Duncan

Lunan wrote in Spaceflight, the journal of

the British Interplanetary Society, that he’d

uncovered a hidden radio message sent

by an alien space probe sitting out at the

Lagrange-5 point, trailing the Moon in its

orbit. Incredibly, quite a lot of the media

took notice of this, and kept on taking notice

even when Lunan claimed the probe had

come from the star Epsilon Boötis, about

208 light-years from Earth, and was 13,000

years old. Perhaps the arbitrarily specific

nature of his claims made them seem more

plausible? He later published a reaction

because of course he did. Then he un-

retracted part of the retraction in 1998.

For some reason, this story was later

conflated with a bunch of stuff from the

50s and 60s, including: A UFO researcher

claiming the US Air Force had evidence of a

satellite orbiting Earth in 1954, three years

before Sputnik I; a report in TIME magazine

claiming the US Navy had detected a dark

object in orbit in 1960; astronaut Gordon

Cooper (in fact not, because someone

made it up) reporting a UFO sighting out

the window of Mercury 9 in 1963; and the

Space Shuttle Endeavour photographing a

black object in orbit in 1998 while taking the

first US module to the ISS.

Oh yes, and apparently Nicola Tesla also

discovered an alien satellite in 1899 while

doing weird experiments but didn’t realise it.

These and various other sightings and

rumours have all combined to create the

surprisingly persistent Black Knight story:

“There is an alien probe or satellite orbiting

Earth”. It may not be among the more

detailed or convincing of the various UFO

conspiracies, but that didn’t stop Pepsi (yes,

Pepsi) making a short film called Black

Knight Decoded just last year, in which a

UFO investigator gets too close to the truth

about the refreshing taste of epsi UFOs.

You and I might think Pepsi’s involvement

proves it’s all a harmless bit of fun, but

true believers see this unlikely source as

proof there’s something to the rumour of

a 13,000 year-old alien probe orbiting our

unsuspecting planet. But here’s a funny

thing. Any sentient being who happens

to be in the region of space 4.3 light

years from Sirius approximately 296,000

years from now, and happens to look in a

telescope, and happens to see a tiny streak

pass by at something like 55,000 kmh/h,

and then analyses a few frames of any

video they might have taken... they may be

shocked to see clear evidence of an ancient

alien probe. That probe is Voyager 2, and

I love the thought that - even though the

chances of this are less than infinitesimal

- it may one day be the subject of another

civilisation’s cheesy UFO ‘documentary’.

Our preferred theory for why the Black

Knight story has persisted here on Earth?

It’s probably just because it has a cool name.

Yes, we know the inset image is Serenity from the TV show Firefly. A conspiracy theory website didn’t though. The black thing in the distance is space junk photographed by Endeavour.

A:

POPSCI .COM.AU 79

Have a burning question? Email it to letters@popsci.com.au

Q: Come on admit it: speed kills is a myth, right?

A: Sigh. Okay fine. Speed doesn’t kill. Speed

is just what you call velocity when you don’t

want to specify a direction. But know this: to

GET speed on Earth, you need to absorb a

lot of kinetic energy. And the faster you go,

the more energy you’ll have, and if you hit

something, that kinetic energy will turn into

sound, a tiny bit of light, and a catastrophic

rearrangement of the fragile biological

structures in your body. And that will kill the

hell out of you. The release of kinetic energy

kills, and speed is the container.

Q: Why is petrol so cheap now?

A: You want me to answer THIS in a boxout?

Strictly correct answer: markets, the world,

life, all these things are complex. Gross

simplification: OPEC deliberately “managed”

production for years to keep prices up, and

ironically this made it economically possible

for the US to develop its tar sands and shale

oil reserves, which historically could not

compete with just sticking a tube in the ground

and watching oil squirt out. With start up costs

now covered, the US is nearly oil independent,

and global oil production exceeds demand.

The result: 92.9 a litre for E10. Crazy!

Q: Are humans the only blue-eyed mammal?

A: No, but we’re among the very few mammal

species where blue eyes confer a genetic

advantage. A 2008 study suggests a single

gene in blue eyed people “switches off”

melanin production. So really blueys are “not

brown” eyed. Enough humans find blue eyes

sexy for this gene to have had great success,

especially in places like Scotland (over 80% of

the population). In other mammals, expression

of a recessive blue eyed gene is usually

associated with deafness or neurological

disorders, especially in cats.

Q: IF A STRANGER TAKES A VIDEO OF ME DOING SOMETHING STUPID, AND IT GOES VIRAL, CAN I TAKE LEGAL ACTION?

Short answer: Probably not,

unless we can see your privates.

Okay so first up standard disclaimer:

we are not legal professionals and if

you’re serious about this go and speak to

a solicitor. That said, we think we know

what you’re talking about here: in February

2016, a Perth woman was filmed, presumably

without her consent, washing the inside of

her car at a public car wash, by a man who

A:

subsequently got 15 minutes of fame after the

video went viral and was picked up by bored

newspapers on a very slow news day.

The laws around filming in public mostly

protect people from having their PRIVATE

acts recorded. This includes sex, of course,

but also getting undressed and anything

else that might expose an ordinary citizen’s

“private parts” (legal term).

If you’re just on the street doin’ your thang

(such as for example filling the inside of your

car with detergent not designed to be used

inside a car) the situation is a little bit cloudier.

Defamation is of course a well-tested legal

principle - but applies only if you can show you

have suffered substantive damages or loss

because of the video (lost your job, publishing

deal, spouse etc).

Not so long ago, a non-celebrity would

only ever be videoed in public on a security

camera or by a TV crew getting “people

walking up street” B-roll footage. Close-up,

HD footage of you stepping in dog poo and

then falling over and mushing your face

in more dog poo is really only something

we’ve had to worry about since the spread of

smartphones began in earnest after 2010.

In our opinion, what the viral video lad did to

the car-wash lady was slack. But she wasn’t

identified. Her friends and family probably

know it’s her, but the rest of us just don’t care.

So if something like this happens to you,

chalk it up to life in the modern world (also

seek legal advice, see disclaimer above).

That said, we do wonder how different

the reaction to this story would have been,

if it was a bunch of government employees

laughing at this lady over a CCTV feed in a

security office somewhere...

APRIL 2016

Our hot, dry country is one of the

best places in the world for large-scale

solar power generation. That’s because

the vast, arid and largely flat interior of

Australia receives some of the highest

levels of solar “insolation” (amount of

radiation reaching the surface) anywhere

on the planet. But while the subject of

this article shows we weren’t LATE to

the solar party, even now we’re sort of

just hanging around on the edge of the

dance floor, twitching unenthusiastically.

Our level of solar installation lags behind

many other developed countries, despite

that fact many of the solar industry’s

new technologies were pioneered in the

research labs of Australian universities!

While our cheap and abundant coal is

certainly a factor, much of our reticence

to embrace large-scale solar has been

largely political. But when it comes to

technology and test-beds, there was a

brief time when we led the world...

White Cliffs Solar Power Station

Way back in 1981, Australia built its first

solar power station in outback NSW.

White Cliffs is... uh... way out north east of

Broken Hill, around 97 km from Wilcannia,

and was chosen because it receives the

most energy from sunlight per square

metre of any area in the state.

The power station was built by a team

of from the ANU to test the technology

and power the local town.

Unlike modern solar systems, the

station did not initially use photovoltaics.

Instead, it had 14 three-metre-wide

80 POPULAR SCIENCE

by LINDSAY HANDMER

Solar Power Comes to AustraliaThink solar is just a 21C thing? In fact Australia dabbled with grid-connected solar power back when Malcolm Fraser was PM. So what happened next?

Area of solar

panels, in km ,

using today’s tech,

needed to supply

100% of Australia’s

power needs, about

the same area as

all our rooftops

combined.

4000

ThenRetro Invention

POPSCI .COM.AU 81

A LITTLE PHOTOVOLTAIC HISTORYWhile the term “solar power” can apply to a surprisingly wide range of technology, the photovoltaic cell is arguably the most important, and most promising. PV cells convert radiation directly into electricity, without any moving parts.

The photovoltaic effect was first observed and investigated by French physicist Edmond Becquerel way back in 1839, when he was just 19. Becquerel noticed that silver chloride placed in an acidic solution, with platinum electrodes, generated electricity when illuminated. The effect is caused by photons exciting electrons in a material, which creates a current.

In 1883 Charles Fritts built the first solid state photovoltaic cell from selenium and gold. It worked, but only converted 1% of the energy it received into electricity. Most quality cells in use today range from 10% to 20% efficiency, with the very best in labs reaching 45% (this tech can be yours for around $1 million a square metre!). Incidentally, while a direct comparison isn’t really fair, the photosynthesis used by most plants is only 2% efficient.

parabolic dishes on gimbals to track

the sun. Each dish consisted of 2000

individual mirrors, concentrating sunlight

onto a collector, which boiled water. The

vapour ran a steam engine - actually a

modified three-cylinder diesel motor.

The station could output 25kW,

and had a battery system that stored

electricity for limited use overnight. On

cloudy or rainy days, or during high winds,

a diesel generator kept the lights on.

This thermal system operated

until 1996, when the town was finally

connected to the grid. Rather than

being decommissioned, the station was

converted to photovoltaic generation.

Now, the dishes focused sunlight

onto an array of solar cells. To keep

them running efficiently, the cells were

water cooled. The new system boosted

capacity by nearly 100%, producing up

to 45kW of electricity, which was fed

directly into the grid.

The upgraded station continued to

be run as an ongoing solar experiment

until December 2004, when it was

mothballed permanently. Most homes in

White Cliffs are underground, so perhaps

a little ironically, there’s little demand

for electricity for heating or cooling.

Combined with cheap grid power, it

made the station no longer economical

to operate or maintain.

Even though it doesn’t generate

power, the White Cliffs solar station

provides important data on the longevity

and efficiency of photovoltaics.

AGL’s 53MW solar farm at Broken Hill in NSW

will produce 126,000 MWh of zap -juice a year.

AUSTRALIA, Y U NO SOLAR?

Yeah, Australia still has a solar problem. The Mildura Solar Concentrator array was a planned (but now cancelled) 100 MW concentrated photovoltaic solar system that was going to be built in Victoria. The Nyngan Solar plant has a planned 102 MW capacity, while the Moree solar farm will product 56 MW when finished. Sound impressive? Well, the Charanka Solar Park in India generates 600 MW, while the Solar Star project outputs 579 MW. As this technology matures and gets cheaper, it’s beginning to get harder to see our lack of big solar projects as anything more than the result of politics and vested interests. If only coal wasn’t so stupidly cheap and energy dense...

STORY BY Subject ZeroLabrats

Generally, $125 isn’t enough for

me to knowingly engage in illegal

behaviour, but it’s been a tough week.

So I’m outside the city (again) in a run-

down warehouse (again) about to play

two-up with a robot.

“I guess what I don’t understand,” I

say to Thommo, creator of Thommo’s

TrooBlu Two-Up AI, “is why the robot

or whatever is the spinner and the

boxer, and gets to bet as well?”

Thommo shrugs. “It’s about

compact design, isn’t it mate?” he

says. “Multi-core processing, all that.

And I don’t keep losing the guts when

some intern wants to toss the kip.” He

grins at me. “Plus, the machine acts

as the Cockatoo as well.”

By this point my knowledge of two-

up, gleaned mostly from an ancient

memory of watching Gallipolli in year

eight, has deserted me. I shrug.

“You know, the fella who keeps

watch for the cops. I’ve got wireless

IP cameras all over the outside of the

warehouse. Totally networked mate.”

“Okay,” I say. “Whatever. The other

thing I don’t understand is why you’re

testing this AI on me. Shouldn’t you be

using a two-up world champion or a

ranked pro player or something?”

“Ah,” says Thommo. “Turns out

there isn’t a two-up world champion,

or a two-up league. The game isn’t

even played anywhere except Perth

and Melbourne Casinos. And on Anzac

Day of course. After midday.”

“But then...” I lick my lips. The

following question has gotten me in

trouble before. “Why did you bother to

build this thing at all?”

We regard the Universal Robots

UR5 arm and the two-up kip duct-

taped to the end of it. The kip is

floor in chalk.

He rushes over and peers at them.

“Odds!” he calls, because one coin has

landed heads up, the other tails. He

turns to me. “Okay so we’re testing

the iterative toss subroutines. You

need to bet on the next four tosses.

Not telling you how to punt, but I

wouldn’t bet on him odding out - that’s

only a 3.125% probability.”

I shrug. Since there’s no actual

money riding in this, I say: “Uh, I guess

heads, heads, tails, heads?”

Thommo produces an Apple Pencil

and an iPad Pro, and makes a bunch

of notes. All his gear is top shelf,

probably because even when it comes

to pointless gambling AI projects, the

house always wins.

“Okay,” he says eventually, retrieves

the pennies, and puts them back

in the kip. The voice yells “Come in

spinner!” again, the coins fly, Thommo

scurries, and it’s odds again. And it’s

odds on the next three tosses too,

which causes Thommo’s frown to get

deeper and deeper.

“Well strike me pink,” he says. “The

bugger odded out. Maybe a glitchy

seed in the acceleration randomiser...”

Suddenly the roller door to the

warehouse screetches up, daylight

blasts in, and with it, my old friends

the metropolitan police.

“My god,” says the grizzled cop. “An

illegal two-up school. They actually

exist. I never thought I’d live to see this

kind of BLASPHEMY.”

“What’s that?” says the young cop,

pointing at the robot arm.

“I don’t care,” says the grizzled cop,

not even looking. “It’s playing two-up

in March. Taze it, bro.”

But it turns out that even though

Thommo doesn’t know how to install

IP video cameras properly, he does

know how to install a Krav Maga

point-defence module on a Universal

Robotics UR5 collaborative robot arm.

It takes me three blocks of hard

sprinting before I realise I never got

my $125. I’m not surprised though: the

house always wins.

THE

INVENTION

ISSUE: 10

projects that

could change

the world //

How to live

with DRONES

in your town

// New SPACE

HELMETS // A

real FORKLIFT

EXOSKELETON

+ HEAPS MORE!

bright pink, and obviously 3D printed.

Thommo had been very proud of it

when he first showed me. The UR5

is linked to an Alienware Area-51 PC

which I privately consider a bit too

fancy for this application. Much like

the UR5 robot arm itself.

“The pennies though,” Thommo

had said when he first ran me through

the whole rig. “Real, pre-1939. Totally

legit.” Then he’d stepped back and kind

of spaced out. Like he’s doing now.

“Uh?” I say.

He blinked. “Sorry mate, what?”

“If there’s no championship or

competition or anything like that, why

build a two-up AI in the first place?”

Thommo gives me a sad smile.

“Mate, do you know anything about

neural networks? Do you know

what it’s like, lying awake at three

in the bloody morning, wondering if

algorithms can have souls?”

I assume this is a rhetorical

question, so I don’t say anything.

Apparently satisfied, Thommo nods

and then asks: “So, Queens, Baldies,

George V or George VI?”

Since I read the Wikipedia page on

two-up at the library this morning, I’m

prepared for this.

“Baldies,” I say. I always did have

a soft spot for Edward VII. Thommo

steps forward and carefully arranges

two antique pennies - one heads up,

one tails up - on the bright pink kip.

“Come in spinner!” yells a heavily

digitised voice from a tiny USB

speaker plugged in to the Alienware.

The RC5 robot arm lurches with a

whine of servos, and the pennies fly

what I assume is the regulation ten

feet into the air. They fall into a circle

Thommo has drawn on the concrete

NEXTISSUE!Issue #89,May 2016On sale 28th April 2016

Thommo’s TrooBlu Two-Up AICan a mere algorithm do justice

to Australia’s most sacred game?

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