Category Archives: Science

Arts, Books, History, Science

Book Review: Our Moon

LITERARY REVIEW

ACCORDING to astronaut Buzz Aldrin, the moon is mostly composed of greyish dust that smells of extinguished pyrotechnics which makes your eyes water.

Hardly an attractive environment, but we shouldn’t be fooled by first impressions. Were it not for the Moon, there would be no planet Earth. Or to be more precise, we wouldn’t even exist.

In exact and poetic prose, science writer and journalist Rebecca Boyle explains how many millennia ago – the timescale is still approximate – just how the Moon was formed from the same cosmic debris that made our world. Due to its gravitational impact, the Moon was responsible for pulling early fish-like creatures out of the Earth’s oceans and on to the shore.

It was from these that every creeping, crawling thing that inhabits our planet, including ourselves, developed. It is enough to give most of us nightmares.

The Moon is also Earth’s timekeeper. It continues to give us not only our days, but our months, seasons, and years. You may have thought that the Sun was in charge but, as the author explains, it is the pull of the Moon’s gravity on the Earth that holds our planet in place.

Without the Moon stabilising our tilt, at 23.4 degrees, we would wobble wildly and erratically, dramatically affecting our seasons and climate. In such a scenario, our planet would move from no tilt (meaning no seasons) to a large tilt (extreme weather and even ice ages). It is thanks to the Moon that the Earth remains a place that is more or less habitable – at least for now.

Prehistoric people weren’t aware of what went on in outer space, but they had worked out that the lunar cycle – the length of time it takes for the Moon to circle the Earth – governed not only their days but the seasons, too.

One of the most exciting passages in Rebecca Boyle’s book concerns the fairly recent discovery of 10,000-year-old pits dug near Crathes Castle, Aberdeenshire, in Scotland.

They are a sort of inverted or upside-down version of Stonehenge (but 5,000 years older), a Mesolithic lunar timepiece that allowed hunter-gatherers to work out which week in any year the salmon would be leaping in the River Dee, or when red deer might trot over the horizon.

And that’s not forgetting the influence on the regular arrival of new Mesolithic babies to be nurtured into a new generation of hunter-gatherers. Though more research needs to be done, it also looks that where there was not much natural daylight in communities in Northern Scotland, women tended to begin their menstrual cycles at the Full Moon.

This meant that they were most fertile at the New Moon, that dark time of the month when early man was less likely to be out hunting and gathering, and more likely to be at home making Stone Age love.

For those interested in testing this phenomenon, it just so happens that yesterday was a New Moon. Even now, in our age of electric light pollution, there is some evidence to suggest that women are still more likely to begin their monthly cycle at the Full Moon.

Boyle also investigates the old story about the links between the full moon and madness – the so-called “lunatic” effect. It turns out there is something in it: a 1990s survey reported that 81 per cent of mental health practitioners have observed a direct correlation between odd behaviour and certain times of the month.

At the very least, many of us find it hard to sleep when there is a full moon, which may well result in the kind of risky behaviour – driving too fast, drinking too much, yelling at annoying strangers – that lands many of us in A & E.

There is also emerging evidence that aneurysms are more likely to pop at either the Full or new Moon, thanks to the fact that it is at these points in its 29-day cycle that the Moon is most closely aligned with the Sun, which means that it exerts its strongest gravitational pull.

Given the extraordinary power that the Moon has on our everyday experience here on Earth, it is no wonder that earlier civilisations treated it not as a “withered, sun-seared peach pit”, to quote one early Apollo astronaut who orbited without landing, but as nothing less than a full-blown deity.

Particularly fascinating is the tale of Enheduanna, the Bronze Age high priestess, who used hymns to the Moon gods to bind the city-states of Sumeria into the world’s first empire.

There have been many books written about the Moon, but Rebecca Boyle’s feels especially timely. As the geo-political balance of our world shifts, the “space race” is being re-run with new players including Japan and India. This time around, however, the aim is not so much patriotic flag planting on the lunar surface, but economic advantage.

The Moon’s soil contains oxygen, silicon, aluminium, and iron, all of which can be refined into valuable things such as fuel, building materials and, ironically, solar panels.

Whichever nation manages to extract and exploit these first, will hold the balance of power in what is shaping up to be the next Cold War.

– Our Moon: A Human History by Rebecca Boyle is published by Sceptre, 336pp

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Health, Medical, Research, Science

Blood test that can detect Alzheimer’s 15 years before onset

ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE

A SIMPLE blood test can detect Alzheimer’s disease up to 15 years before symptoms begin, a major trial has found. It paves the way for a national screening programme.

The trial found that the test was as accurate as the current gold standard for diagnosing the condition.

For the first time, doctors were able to say if a person had a high, medium, or low chance, of having the disease – ruling out further invasive procedures.

Experts have said it would “revolutionise” diagnosis, making Alzheimer’s as easy to test and detect as for other routine health conditions such as high cholesterol.

Patients could expect results within days of visiting their GP, rather than the years it currently takes to get a diagnosis. This could have huge implications for future treatments, removing the barriers for a diagnosis – such as long waits for spinal taps or brain scans – and speeding up trials.

It could also pave the way for screening over-50s once more effective treatments become available.

Made by diagnostics company ALZpath, it was found to be 97 per cent accurate at detecting traces of the “tau” protein, which was linked to developing Alzheimer’s disease during the eight-year trials. These proteins start to build up on the brain 10 to 15 years before symptoms start showing.

Researchers in Sweden found high levels of the “tau” protein in the blood test corresponded to high levels of Alzheimer markers seen in expensive diagnostic brain scans and painful lumbar punctures.

The more of this leaked “tau” brain protein in the blood, the more likely or advanced the Alzheimer’s disease was in the tests involving 786 people. Growing evidence suggests biomarker changes like these can be detected in the blood years before other signs of the disease appear in the brain.

It means if scientists can find a way to stop these protein levels from rising, they could effectively halt Alzheimer’s in its tracks.

With breakthrough treatments such as donanemab and lecanemab on the horizon, experts say it is vital to have quick and reliable diagnoses. Professor David Curtis of University College London Genetics Institute said this was “one half of the solution”, while we await effective treatments.

He added: “This potentially could have huge implications. Everybody over 50 could be routinely screened every few years, in much the same way as they are now screened for high cholesterol.”

Around 900,000 people in the UK live with dementia – with Alzheimer’s the most common form. The growing ageing population means numbers are expected to rise to 1.6million by 2040, making a cheap screening tool vital to get to grips with the challenge.

Alzheimer’s Research UK analysis found 74,261 people died from dementia in 2022 compared with 69,178 a year earlier, making it the country’s biggest killer. While previous blood tests have shown promise, these findings have caused particular excitement given the high accuracy levels, large study size, and because the test already exists commercially.

It is also the first time a blood test has been found to be at least as good as a painful lumbar puncture or spinal tap for detecting elevated levels of the tau protein, according to the research team at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden.

Lumbar punctures involve taking fluid from the patient’s spinal cord. The inexpensive tests – priced at around £150 – could also be used to monitor a patient’s condition, allowing more tailored trials or treatment in future.

Dr Richard Oakley, of the Alzheimer’s Society, urged that more research would be needed, but said: “This study is a huge welcome step in the right direction as it shows that blood tests can be just as accurate as more invasive and expensive tests.

“It suggests results from these tests could be clear enough to not require follow-up investigations for some people living with Alzheimer’s disease, which could speed up diagnosis.”

The tests would need regulatory approval before widespread use. But they could form part of NHS trials starting imminently and looking to roll out blood tests for Alzheimer’s within the next five years.

The scientists’ findings were first published in JAMA Neurology.

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Environment, Science, Technology, United States

Ammonia is being developed as a low-carbon fuel

ENVIRONMENT

Intro: A start-up in America is developing world’s first ammonia-powered ships

THE Brooklyn Navy Yard’s sprawling industrial complex once employed 70,000 workers to build US battleships and aircraft carriers during the second world war. Almost 80 years later, it has become home to a New York city firm with a very different maritime mission – harnessing ammonia as a low-carbon fuel for the global shipping industry.

The start-up Amogy has already shown how ammonia-powered technology can work in a flying drone, a John Deere tractor and most recently a truck. Now, it is working on an ammonia-powered ship.

Most ships currently run on fossil fuels that emit greenhouse gases, accounting for 3 per cent of the world’s carbon emissions. One alternative involves converting vehicles to hydrogen power that would only emit water. But hydrogen gas needs to be compressed and liquified at -253°C for storage and transportation.

Ammonia could serve as an alternative hydrogen-bearing fuel that is more easily stored and transported in a stable liquid form at room temperature.

Hydrogen can be extracted by heating ammonia to high temperatures, which is a process that comes with its own energy cost. This is where Amogy’s technology comes in. To make ammonia power more viable, the company has developed what it describes as a more efficient and miniaturised “ammonia cracking” method that can chemically extract hydrogen from ammonia at a lower temperature. It uses a proprietary catalyst to speed up the process inside a chemical reactor that feeds into a hydrogen fuel cell.

A leading chemist at Saint Mary’s College of California says that what Amogy was able to bring to the table is that by having better catalytic technologies (all proprietary) they were able to miniaturise their ammonia cracking units and put them on board vehicles.

It was in July 2021 when Amogy first showed that its system could supply 5 kilowatts of power to a drone. By comparison, a standard ammonia cracking system for extracting that amount of hydrogen power is usually the size of a large shipping container. It also paved the way for a 100-kilowatt tractor demonstration in May 2022. That was followed by a 300-kilowatt truck demonstration in January 2023. The firm is now working towards demonstrating a 1-megawatt system in a tugboat.

Many countries already have pipelines and port facilities for handling ammonia that is produced industrially as fertiliser for agriculture. The US alone has more than 5000 kilometres of ammonia pipelines compared with 2500 kilometres of pipeline for transporting hydrogen – though it will need more to support ammonia-powered vehicles.

Another challenge is that ammonia still “has a carbon footprint associated with the production” because the standard industrial process uses natural gas. Low-carbon ammonia production would require use of carbon capture.

Cleaner alternative methods could ideally use electricity from renewable power sources to split water into hydrogen for conversion to ammonia.

. Science Book: Chemistry

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