New Scientist - USA (2022-01-29)

29 January 2022 | New Scientist | 53

The back pages Puzzles

Quick quiz #136

1 What does ASMR stand for?

2 What colour flame does arsenic burn with?

3 In astronomy, what is the term for the

plane of Earth’s orbit around the sun?

4 In particle physics, if a particle has

half-integer spin, is it a boson or a fermion?

5 Which gland in the human body produces

the hormone calcitonin?

Answers on page 55

Puzzle

set by Steve Wain

#152 Lightning strike

At my bedside, I have a traditional-style

electric clock wired to the mains. It has

a curious fault. Whenever there is a

lightning strike on the village’s electricity

substation, the power surge causes

my clock to reverse direction.

When I went to bed last night, I could tell

that a storm was brewing, but I managed

to sleep through it. When I woke this

morning, the clock said 7 o’clock, and a

quick check of my wristwatch confirmed

that this was indeed the correct time.

But I just heard on the local news that

there had been three lightning strikes

on the substation during the night with

exactly 30 minutes between each strike.

At what time was the first lightning strike?

Solution next week

Quick crossword #100 Set by Richard Smyth

Scribble

zone

Answers and

the next cryptic

crossword

next week

ACROSS

1 Involuntary muscle contraction (5)

4 Form of SiO₂, used as a desiccant (6,3)

9 Compound with two oxygen atoms (7)

10 Sony gadget released in 1979 (7)

11 Final stage of metamorphosis (5)

13 Flowering plant native to the Balkans (5)

15 SI-derived unit of brilliance (3)

16 Winged insect (3)

17 18 Down of Cu and Zn (5)

19 Centre of the nervous system (5)

21 Single-celled fungal microorganisms (5)

23 Primate that might be slender or slow (5)

24 Chemicals giant founded in 1897 (3)

25 Armaments capable of causing

large-scale devastation (initials) (3)

26 Robert ___ , 17th-century polymath (5)

28 Fine hairs on the wings of an insect (5)

29 Rh (7)

31 The primary underground organ

of a carrot or beetroot (7)

33 Electric fairground vehicle (6,3)

34 Grass-like plant (5)

DOWN

1 16 Across with aquatic larvae (9)

2 Asexual reproduction (7)

3 Φ (3)

4 18 Down of Fe and C (5)

5 Not high (3)

6 Stomach ache, in infants (5)

7 Genus of Gram-positive bacteria (7)

8 Operating system (5)

12 Gravitationally curved trajectory

of a planet or satellite (5)

14 Device that emits amplified light (5)

18 Mixture of metals (5)

19 Programming language

made in 1964 (5)

20 ___ disease, viral infection of birds (9)

22 Human-like automaton (7)

24 Muscle in the shoulder (7)

25 Connected by cables; highly caffeinated (5)

26 Saltwater (5)

27 Methyl nitrate or ethylene carbonate,

for example (5)

30 Apple computer, informally (3)

32 Infected matter (3)

Our crosswords are now solvable online

newscientist.com/crosswords