New Scientist - USA (2021-11-06)

6 November 2021 | New Scientist | 53

The back pages Puzzles

Quick quiz #126

1 Which of these is not a moon of Jupiter:

Dia, Thebe or Nix?

2 If a crustacean species is carcinised,

what does that mean?

3 Hans Berger is best known for inventing

which medical monitoring method?

4 Who is credited with coining the terms

“scientist”, “astigmatism” and “linguistics”?

5 The pnictogens make up which

group of the periodic table?

Answers on page 55

Puzzle

set by Alison Kiddle

#138 Ice cream coincidence

Mr Slippy owns two ice cream vans.

His staff check the temperature of

the freezers every hour to make sure

nothing melts. One day, the freezer in

Van A is at -13°C at 1pm and -18°C

at 2pm. Meanwhile, Van B’s driver logs

the temperatures as -12°C at 1pm

and -20°C at 2pm.

Mr Slippy is certain that there must

have been a time when both freezers

were at exactly the same temperature

but his drivers say it isn’t possible to

know for sure. Who is right?

Solution next week

Quick crossword #95 Set by Richard Smyth

Scribble

zone

Answers and

the next cryptic

crossword

next week

ACROSS

8 Logic-based puzzle, formerly known

as Number Place (6)

9 2013 film about a man’s relationship

with his AI assistant (3)

10 Nutrient-bearing part of an egg (4)

11 Base 12 (10)

12 Programming language developed

by Mike Cowlishaw (4)

13 Biting fly of tropical Africa (6)

16 Covert surveillance aircraft (8)

17 Digital optical discs (3-4)

18 Boris ___ , Russian world chess

champion 1969–72 (7)

22 Non-reproductive part of a flower (8)

25 Pa (6)

26 Unit of classification in biology (4)

27 Single-celled protozoan (10)

30 0 (4)

31 File extension denoting

an executable file (3)

32 Point of greatest distance between

Earth and the moon (6)

DOWN

1 Neurodegenerative condition once

found in Papua New Guinea (4)

2 Attraction between atoms or molecules (4)

3 Fraudulent or unproven medical

practices (8)

4 Marie Curie or Dorothy Hodgkin,

perhaps (7)

5 By mouth (6)

6 Reaction in which a water molecule

breaks a chemical bond (10)

7 Horn or siren (6)

14 Solar day on Mars (3)

15 The ___ , 1984 sci-fi thriller featuring

Arnold Schwarzenegger (10)

19 Cervical screening (3,5)

20 Carnivorous parrot (3)

21 Less long (7)

23 Mineralised tooth surface (6)

24 John ___ , British primatologist and

Bigfoot researcher (6)

28 Thrombus (4)

29 Middle layer of the eye (4)

Our crosswords are now solvable online

newscientist.com/crosswords

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