New_Scientist_3_08_2019

52 | New Scientist | 3 August 2019

The back pages Puzzles

Quick crossword #37 Set by Richard Smyth Quick quiz #14 Puzzle set by Hugh Hunt

#15 Lines through

the chessboard

Linus is using a thin felt-tip pen and a ruler

to draw straight lines on a conventional

8x8 chessboard. With eight lines, he can

easily ensure that a line passes through

every square on the board. For instance,

he can just draw a line through the middle

of each row of squares, which means

each line would go through eight squares.

But a line can pass through more than

eight squares – for example, the one in the

illustration goes through nine - so Linus

wants to find a way to cut through all

64 squares with fewer than eight lines.

Can you help?

Answer next week

#14 The H coins problem

Solution

Add two coins to seven coins that are

in an H configuration to make 10 lines

of three like this:

(There is a third solution, which is just a

mirror image of the second solution.)

1 Which area of the brain’s

frontal lobe, crucial for

language processing, is

named after a 19th-century

French anatomist who

studied speech

impediments?

2 ”Spukhafte

Fernwirkung” – whose

phrase, about what?

3 The red veil of St Agatha

supposedly saved the city of

Catania from the advancing

lava of which volcano?

4 The American alligator

takes its formal name from

which US river?

5 Which moon of Saturn

is famed for the icy geysers

shooting from near its

south pole?

Answers below

Cryptic

Crossword #11

Answers

ACROSS 1 Antenna, 5 Catch,

8 Adieu, 9 Fanmail,

10 Extraordinary, 11 Vienna,

12 Turban, 15 Country Dances,

18 Own Goal, 19 Islet,

20 Steak, 21 Dandify

DOWN 1 Amaze, 2 Thistle,

3 Neural Network, 4 Affirm,

5 Configuration, 6 Tiara,

7 Halcyon, 11 Vacuous,

13 Bacilli, 14 Eyelid,

16 Ulnae, 17 Satay

Quick quiz #14

Answers

Broca’s area, named after 1

Pierre Paul Broca

Albert Einstein’s, about 2

quantum entanglement – a

phrase usually rendered into

English as “spooky action at

a distance”

Mount Etna, Sicily 3

The Mississippi – it is 4

Alligator mississippiensis

Enceladus 5





   

    

   

  



   

 

ACROSS

1 Immature form of a

dragonfly, for example (5)

4 Type of malicious code

inserted into software (5,4)

9 Portable gadget launched

by Sony in 1979 (7)

10 In anatomy, the middle (7)

11 Colour between red and

yellow on the visible

spectrum (6)

13 See 12 Down

15 Form of H 2 O (3)

16 ___ Valdez, oil tanker that

struck a reef in 1989 (5)

18 Spokes (5)

20 Soft sheepskin leather (5)

22 Synthetic material (5)

23 ij (3)

24 Ceefax or ORACLE,

for example (8)

26 Disconnect from

power supply (6)

28 Tympanic membrane (7)

30 Deficiency in red blood

cells (7)

32 MSN chat client,

launched in 1999 (9)

33 Doughnut shape (5)

Answers and the next cryptic crossword next week.

DOWN

1 Term for classical

mechanics (9)

2 Software designed

to cause harm (7)

3 Low, continuous sound (3)

4 Organ of respiration (4)

5 Precious stone (3)

6 Sequence of nucleotide

triplets (5)

7 Sesame or sunflower,

for example (7)

8 Lawrence ___, Nobel

prizewinning physicist and

X-ray crystallographer (5)

12/13 Swedish climate

activist, b.2003 (5,8)

14 H (5)

17 Firm best known as a

pioneer in photocopying (5)

18 Enzyme secreted by

the kidneys (5)

19 Fish-derived collagen (9)

21 Gut component between

the stomach and

duodenum (7)

23 Macromolecule composed

of many subunits (7)

24 thm (5)

25 ĭ

27 Two ducks? (4)

29 MB (informally) (3)

31 Insect of the family

Formicidae (3)

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The red line passes through nine squares