C AN 2 6 . 9 9 U S 2 0 .

9 9
WA L TE R
I AM THE
DANGER
WH I T E
the real
science
behinD Tv s
BREAKI NG
BAD PG60
The future OF
HUMAN
ROBOTICS PG 4
How
will the
world
end? PG16
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CURIOUS
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A MA G A ZI N E F O R TH E C U R I O U S A T H E A R T.
Issue #34 October 23 2013
C O N TE N TS
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Possible vs. practical
Scientists must do a better job
assessing the difference between
the subset of discoveries that
offers practical solutions and the
set that is simply possible.
11
POLAND GETS SERIOUS
ON PLAGiRISM
Polands higher education
ministry has announced plans to
put in place a system to tackle
plagiarism to improve the quality
of Polish science.
14
Banned pollutants
bite back
A new study from scientists in the
UK says another consequence of
global temperature rises is that,
as ice melts, banned pesticides are
reemitted into the environment.
22
Thermodynamics
An inside look at the insightful
new text by Peter Jacobs.
28
NoteBooks go digital
Electronic lab notebooks are
changing the way many scientists
interact with information. These
capture experiment details and
data that are fully searchable
within and across experiments.
37
ResearchGate
Raises Funds
Scientist social network raised
more than $35 million from Bill
Gates and previous investors to
continue its contribution to the
open science movement.
47
Canada investigates
silenced scientists
Suzanne Legault, investigates
complaints that the government
restricts its scientists from sharing
their research openly.
4 NASA NEWS
NASAs Curiosity probe detects hints of
complex organics, on Mars.
4 3D PRINTING
Imagine printing anything from
electronic devices to articial bones
using the same 3D printer. Now,
scientists have developed a universal
approach for printing materials with
easy-to-modify surfaces to eliminate
the need for multiple 3D printers.
5 Michelsons interferometer
Fail. This word has, in recent years,
become a common term of abuse
among those sceptical of mainstream
science; a term dripping in vitriol
that combines I told you so with
implications of stupidity and ignorance.
7 EditorS column
An insightful look from our own
exectutive editor, John Maizels.
4
THe FUTURE
OF HUMAN
ROBOTICS
Humanoid robots are well on their way
from the pages of science ction to
your front door.
16
HOw WILL
THE WORLD END?
Humanoid robots are well on their way
from the pages of science ction to
your front door.
60
THE REAL
SCIENCE
BEHIND TVs
BREAKING BAD
Behind the sceens look at the science
behind AMCs hardhitting drama.
EDITOR
John Maizels
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Thi s week,
Nasas Curiosity rover has
detected a range of chemical
species including chlorinated
hydrocarbons on the surface
of Mars indicators that
point to the presence of
complex organic molecules.
However, we shouldnt jump to
conclusions just yet. The source
of carbon remains unknown
with the possibility that trace
amounts hitched a ride from
Earth, Nasa scientists say.
The search for organic
compounds the building
blocks of life on Mars is one
of Curiositys key objectives.
Central to this search is the
Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM)
suite on board Curiosity.
Using a small oven to heat
soil samples taken from a
site dubbed Rocknest a
drift of windblown dust and
sand SAM analysed the
gases that were produced.
It is still very early in the
mission and we are still
interpreting the data, says
Rafael Navarro-Gonzalez at
the National Autonomous
University of Mexico in
Mexico City, who is a co-
investigator in the SAM team
of Curiosity. But certainly
it is interesting to see that
there is a large number of
chemical species that originates
from the heating of the
Martian soil such as water
vapour, CO2, and SO2.
I m a g i n e
printing anything from
electronic devices to articial
bones using the same 3D
printer. Now, scientists have
developed a universal approach
for printing materials with
easy-to-modify surfaces
to eliminate the need for
multiple 3D printers.
3D printing is a potentially
powerful manufacturing tool.
However, numerous printing
technologies have had to
be developed as several 3D
printers with single-purpose
inks are often needed for
different uses, increasing
fabrication costs. Finding one
all-purpose ink or 3D printing
process has proven elusive and
nearly impossible, until now.
Xiaolong Wang at the Chinese
Academy of Sciences in
Lanzhou and co-workers in Jun
Yangs group at the University
of Western Ontario in Canada
have developed a versatile 3D
printing technique where a
bromine-containing acrylate is
added to a 3D printing resin.
The acrylate acts as an initiator
to allow polymer brushes to
grow on the printed surface.
Printed 3D structures are then
grafted into useful materials
by surface-initiated atom
transfer radical polymerisation.
To test their integrated
initiator approach, the
group fabricated lattices
containing the polymer
brushes and modied them to
be either superhydrophobic
or superhydrophilic. One
cubic superhydrophobic
lattice was shown to repel
a water droplet. Another
superhydrophobic structure
was in the form as of 2.5
cm diameter hollow mesh
ball with 1 mm pores.
When lled with water, the
hydrophobic ball effectively
held the uid without
leakage, even when shaken.
Fail.
This word (the noun, not
the verb) has, in recent
years, become a common
term of abuse among those
sceptical of mainstream
science (genetics, climatology,
vaccination); a term dripping
in vitriol that combines the
jeering I told you so with
implications of stupidity and
ignorance for the target.
But in reality, failure is a
pillar of science. When an
experiment doesnt match
your prediction, it is a
failure perhaps of design or
execution, or perhaps of your
idea. As Richard Feynman
memorably put it, no matter
how beautiful your guess
is how smart you are
who made the guess or what
his name is if it disagrees
with experiment it is wrong.
In this case, doesnt failure
constitute learning? Among the
greatest of failed experiments
are Albert Michelsons
measurements of the speed
of light, failures that would
usher in a new era in science
and a new understanding of
the motion of everything,
from electrons to galaxies.
Michelson was born in what is
now Poland, but at the height
of the California gold rush, his
parents emigrated to America.
He studied physics at the Naval
Academy in Annapolis and then
stayed on to teach the cadets.
He discovered his vocation by
accident when setting up a
demonstration of the beautiful
FoucaultFizeau experiment
to determine the speed of
light: a beam is bounced off
a rotating mirror, travels to a
xed mirror and retraces its
path back towards the source.
But, because the rst mirror
is moving, the returning beam
is displaced from the source
by an amount that depends on
the rate of rotation and the
speed of light. By collimating
the beam, Michelson
increased the precision of the
measurement by a couple of
orders of magnitude. Precision
would become Michelsons
watchword. Lon Foucault
had conducted this experiment
to show the speed of light in
water was slower than in air,
rejecting Isaac Newtons idea
that light was corpuscular.
But the wave theory favoured
by Foucault and others could
not explain the aberration of
starlight the tiny deviations
of stars from their observed
positions resulting from the
motion of an observer on the
orbiting and rotating Earth.
Continued on PG6...
4 OCTOBER2013 CURIOUSMINDS 5
DEPARTMENTS
BY: James Urquhart
NASAs
CURIOSITY
BY: Jeanne Therese Andres
3D Printing
By: ANDREA SELLA
Michelsons interferometer
AGE
52
EMPLOYMENT
2011-Present
Professor of inorganic
chemistry, University College
London (UCL), UK
1990-2011
Lecturer in Chemistry, UCL
1989-1990
Postdoc, University of Oxford,
UK
EDUCATION
1989
DPhil Chemistry, University of
Oxford, UK
1984
BSc Chemistry, University of
Toronto, Canada
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THE FUTURE

OF
ROBOTICS
HU
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Robots are well on their way from
the pages of science ction to your
front door. In fact, advanced humanoid
robots could arrive on your doorstep
as early as 10 years from now.
David Hanson,
founder of Hanson Robotics
in Richardson, Texas, is in the
process of developing lifelike,
conversational character robots
that target the entertainment,
consumer/household and
medical markets. Were
trying to make them into
actual friends that can tutor
and hold your attention much
longer than any toy possibly
could, says Hanson.
The potential applications
for advanced robots are
tremendous. Hanson believes
robots will eventually ll the
roles of home gadgets and
sees other uses that include
teaching, entertainment,
promotions and advertising.
Its a eld ripe for innovation.
Not every robot of the future
will look like a human. Many
robots will follow in the
footsteps (or wheel tracks)
of service robots like iRobots
vacuuming Roomba. To some
extent, service robots are
becoming much more effective,
particularly in targeted
domains like consumer
robots, says Hanson, 37.
iRobot recently expanded its
line of consumer robots to
include the ConnectR, a VoIP-
enabled robot with one-way
video and two-way audio
capabilities that can help you
keep an eye on your home or
ofce and even interact with
employees while youre away.
Even companies like Google
and Microsoft are getting in
on robotics. Google is offering
a $30 million bounty to the
rst private rm to land a
robot rover on the moon. Bill
Gates has invested in the ANTY
Project, which is working
on a furry robot designed
to comfort young hospital
patients. And Microsoft has
released its Robotics Studio
toolkit for creating robotics
applications. Microsofts move
into robotics will probably
encourage development in that
area, says Hanson. Youll
start seeing waves of new
applications coming out, most
of them specialized and serving
useful, narrow purposes.
Robotics is a complex but
quickly evolving area that
gives growing businesses a
lot to look forward to. Says
Hanson, As computers get
faster, the robots get smarter.
Continued on PG. 22...
ARTICLE BY: AMANDA C. KOOSER
6 OCTOBER2013 CURIOUSMINDS 7
HOW
WILL THE
WORLD
END?
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Continued on PG. 22
There is
almost
nothing
that could
completely
destroy the
earth.
NOTHING.
Oh sure, theres a pile of
events that could make life
more difcult, and a laundry
list of things that could
wipe out all of humanity.
Including: asteroid strikes,
rising temperatures,
or global plagues
In order to actually destroy
the Earth, you would need
signicantly more energy,
and there just happens to be
enough, a short 150 million
kilometers away: the Sun.
The Sun has been in the
main sequence of its life for
the last 4.5 billion years,
converting hydrogen into
helium. For stars this massive,
that phase lasts for about
10 billion years, meaning
were only halfway through.
When the Sun does nally
run out of hydrogen to burn,
itll begin fusing helium into
carbon, expanding outward
in the process. It will become
a cooler, larger, red giant
star, consuming the orbits
of Mercury and Venus.
Scientists are still unsure if
the red giant phase of the Sun
will consume the Earth. If it
does, the Earths story ends
there. Itll get caught up inside
the Sun, and spiral inward
to its demise. Death by red
giant in 5.5 billion years.
If the Sun doesnt consume
the Earth then well have a
long, cold future ahead of us.
The Sun will shrink down to a
white dwarf and begin cooling
down to the background
temperature of the Universe.
Continued on PG. 40...

CURIOUSMINDS 9 8 OCTOBER2013
ARTICLE BY: DONNA J. NELSON
Season 1
of the television series
Breaking Bad, I read in
Chemical & Engineering
News that executive producer
Vince Gilligan really wanted
to get the science right
but had no funds to pay a
science adviser. He and his
writers were resorting to
Web searches and Wikipedia
to research science content
for the show. He welcomed
constructive comments from
a chemically inclined audience.
Most scientists hate seeing
mistakes in science appear
in movies or TV, so this was
an unusual opportunity. I
volunteered to help Vince, and
he took me up on my offer.
For ve years I was Breaking
Bads science adviser, helping
writers get all their scientic
facts right. I answered
questions about chemical
reactions, provided chemical
structures and equations,
proofed script pages, and
gave background for the
shows characters who were
scientists or did science.
I considered my involvement
to be a service to the scientic
community. The experience
also gave me an unusual
opportunity to peek into the
entertainment worldone that
was different than anything
I had observed previously.
The most enduring benet
was making the science
content correct as well as
interesting to the public.
Among viewers, professional
or trained scientists are of
course happy merely for the
program to have no glaring
mistakes. To this group,
awed science content is like
ngernails on a blackboard and
ruins the viewing experience.
They are already deeply
familiar with their elds and
are not necessarily excited
about the science they see
on television or in movies.
Conversely, many nonscientists
might not be sufciently
interested to watch a science
show in the rst place. They
might, however, be inuenced
to do so by enthusiastic
novice scientists. The latter
likely represent the bulk of
the initial audience who are
excited by the shows content
and insist others should watch
it because of its fantastic
science.. Novice scientists like
to critique the science in the
program and argue with one
another about it in detail.
They generate interest by
arguing extensively about TV
and movie science minutia on
blogs or other online media.
I was amazed at the level of
science detail in some blogs.
Some novices challenge
and push themselves and
one another to understand,
explain and critique the
science they view. Through
such exciting discussions they
draw in students who have no
experience with science. Their
excitement becomes infectious.
Recently, research has shown
that exposure to science and
math among peers and in the
culture at large does more than
a students own achievements
in math to inuence them to
major in scientic subjects. It
stands to reason that television
such as Breaking Bad might
help ameliorate and perhaps
reverse our nations declining
number of students selecting
science and technology majors.
Ultimately, though, no one will
get excited about a television
program unless it tells a good
story. The writing must focus
on creating a terric plot
that also explains the science
and provides context for it.
The story must introduce
or relate to science, it must
convey why science is fun and
exciting, and it must relate
science to everyday life.
Continued on PG70...
GUEST CONTRIBUTI NG
EDITORDonna J.
Nelson
10 OCTOBER2013 CURIOUSMINDS 11