&
WHAT CONNECTS......Seashells and
Byzantine emperors?1.
The mollusc Bolinus
brandaris is a predatory
sea snail that’s found in
the Mediterranean. It
secretes the antimicrobial
substance dibromoindigotin
from a gland.2.
The secretion
can be ‘milked’
from the snails
and used as dye.
In daylight, the dye
degrades from purple to
blue, but the ancient Phoenicians first
found a way to lock in the purple hue.3.
The dye became
known as ‘Tyrian
purple’ and actually became brighter
over time. It took over 10,000 snails
to make a gram of dye, so it was
fabulously expensive.4.
The imperial court of the Byzantine Empire
passed laws restricting the use of the dye to
the royal family only. The emperor’s children
were ‘porphyrogenitus’, which means ‘born to
the purple’.
PHOTOS: ISTOCK, ALAMY, WIKIPEDIA COMMONS, EYEVINE, SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARYCould drones be used
to detect landmines?
It’s ver y tricky to detect mines because
they are designed to be hidden from view.
An unmanned drone is being developed
for this purpose in the UK by Sir Bobby
Charlton’s charity Find a Better Way. It
aims to spot chemicals leaching from
mines using its hyperspectral imaging of
plant foliage.
However, most devices aim to safely
detonate the landmines. An unusual
example is the ‘mine kafon’. This giant
biodegradable ball of bamboo spines is
designed to be blown by the wind across a
minefield, detonating mines that its spines
touch, while its onboard GPS records
where it has travelled. PBThe ‘mine kafon’
detonates mines as
it is blown around
by the windWhat is consciousness?
There are three main schools of
thought. The higher order theory
says that consciousness is the brain
looking at its own activity. The brain
is a machine that constructs
simulations of how the outside world
works and consciousness is the
brain’s simulation of itself. The
global workspace theories argue
that consciousness is something
that happens when different parts of
the brain connect together to share
information. And the biological
theories look for a specific process
or structure within the brain that
creates consciousness; such as the
oscillations of the signals between
neurons that appear in the brain
scans of conscious subjects. LVNO EASY ANSWER