2020-02-01_New_Scientist

52 | New Scientist | 1 February 2020

The back pages Puzzles

Quick crossword #50 set by Richard Smyth Quick quiz #36 Puzzle set by Hugh Hunt

#44 Elevator pitch

On the way back from a party the other

day, my daughter and I got into an

elevator. I was holding a cup of water

with an ice cube floating in it, while my

daughter was admiring her helium-filled

balloon as it floated above her on a slack

string. Our only company in the elevator

was a spider, dangling from the lift’s

ceiling on a thin thread of silk. As the lift

accelerated upwards, what did we see

happening to the balloon, the ice cube

and the spider?

Answer next week

#43 Dividing

Grandma’s field

Solution

A fence passing through points A and B

divides the area precisely in half and ensures

two oak trees (green dots) are in each plot.

Any line that passes through point A (the

centre of the rectangle that is formed by the

top three squares) will divide that rectangle

in half. The same is true of any line that

passes through point B (the centre of the

lower rectangle).

Points A and B can be found by folding

or by drawing diagonals, so no

measurement is required.

1 What word, from ancient

Greek for “a changing”, is

used to describe when a

cancer spreads from its

original site?

2 How many officially

recognised dwarf planets

does the solar system have?

3 Thanks to the “magic”

number of 50 protons in

its nucleus, which chemical

element has the greatest

number of stable isotopes?

4 The dormant volcano

Emi Koussi is the highest

point in the Tibesti

mountains, and also

therefore in which

unforgiving place on Earth?

5 The name of the warbler

Sylvia undata means

“wave-patterned woodland

sprite”; what is its rather

more prosaic English name?

Answers below

The Black Hole

cryptic crossword

#23 Answers

ACROSS 1 Knurled, 5 Swoop,

8 In use, 9 Brownie, 10 Shushing,

11 Orca, 13 Tilers, 14 Vivace,

17 Mien, 19 Follicle, 22 Leanest,

23 Torsi, 24 Get it, 25 Tiniest

DOWN 1 Knits, 2 Unusual,

3 Lee shore, 4 Debunk,

5 Swot, 6 Owner, 7 Preface,

12 Pig Latin, 13 Time lag,

15 Accurse, 16 Tomtit,

18 Enact, 20 Exist, 21 Newt

The secret phrase: New Scientist

Quick quiz #36

Answers

Metastasis 1

ain asteroid Five: Ceres in the m 2

ake and belt; Pluto, Makem

ea in the Kuiper belt; Haum

ost distant of alland Eris, the m

Tin 3

The Sahara desert; the 4

peak lies in northern Chad

The Dartford warbler, after 5

ens found by two specim

ornithologist John Latham

near Dartford in Kent

 



 

 

  

 

  

 

 



 

 

ACROSS

1 Cry of Archimedes (6)

4 Toxic plant, known as

false hellebore (8)

10 27 Across genre associated

with William Gibson (9)

11 Tree tissue (5)

12 Extinct bird, Raphus

cucullatus (4)

13 Inflammation of brain and

spinal membranes (10)

14 n^0 (7)

16 Sicilian volcano (4)

19 Olympus ___, Martian

volcano (4)

21 Plant used in herbal

medicine (7)

24 1927 Fritz Lang 27

Across film (10)

25 Pathogen (4)

27 Technologically speculative

literature, film, etc (3,2)

28 James ___, author of

“An essay on the shaking

palsy” (1817) (9)

29 Bone structure (8)

30 Snowmobile (6)

Answers and the next cryptic crossword next week.

DOWN

1 Translating into cipher (8)

2 Rb (8)

3 James T ___, captain of

the Enterprise (4)

5 Glass bead formed by

meteorite impact (7)

6 Six-sided (9)

7 Chipped flint nodule (6)

8 Remove condensation (6)

9 Connect (to a station

or frequency) (4,2)

15 Rose-pink pyrope (9)

17 Flipped; went

backwards (8)

18 Long-legged bird

in the family

Phoenicopteridae (8)

20 Roman siege engine;

Ford automobile (7)

21 Bird enclosure (6)

22 Vomiting (6)

23 Obsolete unit of volume (6)

26 Philip K ___, 27 Across

author (4)

Our crosswords are

now solvable online

newscientist.com/crosswords

[email protected]

A

B