New Scientist - 11.07.2020

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The back pages

Puzzles Almost the last word Tom Gauld for  Feedback Twisteddoodles
Try our quick Sneezing in New Scientist Measuring buildings for New Scientist
crossword, quiz and succession and A cartoonist’s take with smartphones in Picturing the lighter
brain-teaser p52 triple rainbows p54 on the world p55 61 different ways p56 side of life p56

Science of cooking

Pairing flavours like a pro

From chocolate and strawberries to bacon and eggs, how well
do we really understand food pairing, asks Sam Wong

Sam Wong is social media WHY do some flavours go so well STOCKFOOD/AKSAKOVA, VALERIA
editor and self-appointed together? According to one school
chief gourmand at of thought, ingredients that pair mean that others won’t suppress, some flavours work well together,
New Scientist. Follow him well have key aroma molecules overshadow or clash. What’s more, the standard repertoire of pairings
@samwong1 in common. Strawberries, for don’t the most interesting pairings has only scratched the surface of
example, share aromatic work because they complement the delicious combinations out
What you need compounds with chocolate, each other, offering difference there. The book is a welcome
basil and balsamic vinegar – rather than more of the same? prompt to try new ones, which
Langoustines which may explain why they made me feel like I was eating
A yellow bell pepper complement each other. Barry Smith, a sensory scientist at a fancy restaurant at home.
Mayonnaise and philosopher at the School of
Lemon juice The idea has been embraced by Advanced Study, University of I heartily recommend this dish
Vanilla essence chefs such as Heston Blumenthal, London, also finds the shared inspired by the book: roast a yellow
Freshly ground coffee beans inspiring surprising combinations compounds idea too simple. bell pepper, blend it with some
like white chocolate and caviar. “We need insights from food mayonnaise to make a smooth
Science of cooking On Foodpairing, a website created chemistry, sensory science and sauce, then add a squeeze of lemon
appears every four weeks by chef Peter Coucquyt and cross-cultural studies,” he says. juice and a few drops of vanilla
Belgian food scientists Bernard essence. Pan-fry the langoustines,
Next week Lahousse and Johan Langenbick, Smith points out that some serve them with the sauce and
the chemical profiles of thousands power couples of the flavour world sprinkle some freshly ground
Stargazing at home of ingredients are used to generate work because of taste, not smell. coffee on top. It tastes incredible –
molecular matches for chefs and Bacon and eggs, ham and cheese, and you don’t need to know why.  ❚
the food industry. Now, their tomatoes and anchovies – these
insights are available in a new book, all provide two kinds of umami These articles are
The Art & Science of Foodpairing, that act synergistically to heighten posted each week at
containing suggested pairings for the intensity of flavours. newscientist.com/maker
hundreds of ingredients, along
with a few recipe ideas. Whatever truly explains why

Chocolate is a suggested pairing
for many ingredients in the book,
reflecting the complexity of its
aroma profile. Its roasted flavour
works well with bacon, which also
contains the chocolate-scented
chemical 3-methylbutanal.

As much as I enjoyed chocolate
mousse with crispy bacon and
other combinations from the
book, I am not entirely sold
on the idea that shared aroma
compounds determine which
flavours pair well. Typically,
dozens of volatile compounds
contribute to an ingredient’s
aroma. If a pair of foods have two
or three in common, it doesn’t

7 November 2020 | New Scientist | 51

The back pages Puzzles

Quick crossword #70 Set by Richard Smyth Quick quiz #76

Scribble 1 What name is given to a hypothetical
zone megastructure that encloses a star
and captures most of its energy?

2 How many neck vertebrae
do most mammals have?

3 What is the geologic era of the
dinosaurs, encompassing the Triassic,
Jurassic and Cretaceous periods?

4 Mikhail Tsvet is best known for
inventing which scientific technique?

5 In 1820, which alkaloid used to
Answers and treat malaria was first isolated from
the next cryptic the bark of a Cinchona tree?

crossword next week Answers on page 55

ACROSS DOWN Puzzle

1 Place for esoteric online resources (4,3) 1 Render harmless – a bomb, for example (6) set by Catriona Shearer
5 System of transport by track (7) 2 Quadrilateral (9)
9 Flat side (5) 3 H2O (5) #84 Squarebot
10 Obstruction (9) 4 1984 work by ecologist E.O. Wilson (9)
11 Spiny marine echinoderm (3,6) 5 Toxin produced in castor oil seeds (5) ”What’s that you are holding,
12 Raised line; stretch of high ground (5) 6 Anti-inflammatory drug (9) Squarebot?”
13 Fever (archaic) (4) 7 ___ fiction, sci-fi subgenre (5)
15 Without Pb, like most modern petrol (4-4) 8 Y (6) “Square.”
18 Third (8) 14 Complicatedly interconnected – like knitting I have met Squarebot before and
19 Ne (4) am suspicious. “Are you sure,
22 Body of accepted principles (5) or electrons, say (9) squarebot? I can see it must be a
24 #1 (6,3) 16 Absence of correspondence (9) rectangle, because you have drawn
26 Mars (3,6) 17 Student of living systems (9) it on squared paper. But I can’t count
27 Part of the hip bone (5) 20 Dung beetle (6) the squares without breaking social
28 Distance across (7) 21 Like Heisenberg or Hahn, for example (6) distancing rules. How wide is it?”
29 Peninsula struck by an asteroid 23 2008 book on “choice architecture” (5) “16.”
24 Ordinal of 9 (5) “And its height?”
66 million years ago (7) 25 First general-purpose electronic computer (5) “16.”
“Sounds like a square, then. Just
Our crosswords are now solvable online to check: what is its area?”
“289.”
newscientist.com/crosswords “Hold on, that doesn’t work: 289
is 17 squared. You are rounding
52 | New Scientist | 7 November 2020 every numerical answer you say to
the nearest square number, aren’t
you? And if the answer isn’t a
number you just say ‘Square’?”
“Square,” chuckles Squarebot.
“So the width might actually be
17? Or 18? Or 15? Or even 20?”
“Square,” grins Squarebot.
Can you think of a question to
ask Squarebot to find out if the
rectangle really is a square?

Answer next week

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The back pages Almost the last word

Double up BEN HALL/NATUREPL Why don’t birds freeze
when flying at extremely
Why is it that when I sneeze, This week’s new questions high altitudes?
I almost always do so twice?
Satellite limits To what extent can satellites have satellites? past decade have these been
Geoff Broughton Could our moon have its own moon with its own moon, for scientifically confirmed. The
Abingdon-on-Thames, example? Is there a limit? Joe Roberts, St Austell, Cornwall, UK caveat with the third and fourth
Oxfordshire, UK bows is that they would be
Only twice? My wife always Frozen flight Birds fly at tens of thousands of metres high. behind you, so seeing them
releases a volley of six loud Ice forms on the wings of planes at this altitude, so why would require facing the sun,
sneezes. There is palpable don’t the birds freeze? Jane Pickett, Hitcham, Suffolk, UK and they would probably get
tension in the room if numbers lost in the glare.
five and six are momentarily The brain doesn’t regulate or into colours. Redder wavelengths
delayed. How can her nasal “count” sneezes, as sneezing is emerge at wider angles than From ground level, we never
system reliably count to six driven by a neuronal/muscular bluer ones, hence why red always see a bow’s full circle because
while under such strain? reflex. It is an involuntary act. appears as the outermost band the droplets projecting its lower
of the primary bow and violet section are below the horizon.
Taylor Rey Rainbow riot as the innermost. But entire 360-degree rainbows
Suwanee, Georgia, US can be seen from the air.
Almost every time I sneeze, I I have seen many double rainbows, Not all the original light escapes
do so seven times in a row. The but can you get triple or quadruple first time round, however. Some Hugh Pumphrey
sneezes come in fast succession, ones? If so, where are the best of it undergoes a second internal University of Edinburgh, UK
but occasionally the last one places to see them? What is the reflection before re-emerging. The n-th rainbow is caused by light
lags behind by a few seconds. maximum number that could This has three consequences. reflecting n times from the inside
occur at the same time? Firstly, the secondary bow’s of raindrops before escaping. Until
Harsha Kariyawasam colours now emerge at wider recently, there were a variety of
Royal National Throat, Nose Len Winokur angles than those of the primary claims to have observed a third
and Ear Hospital, London, UK Leeds, UK bow, so the second rainbow always bow, but few were credible. In
Sneezing is an underappreciated We mostly only see rainbows appears above the first. Secondly, the past decade, photographs of
upper-airway event. It is a critical when the sun is behind us. The because it is formed by less light, third and fourth bows have been
airway protection mechanism that reason is that light from the sun the secondary bow is fainter. taken, emerging when the
is internally reflected by the back Thirdly, the colour sequence of the contrast in the photograph is
“I saw nearly complete of raindrops to re-emerge towards secondary bow is flipped, with red very strongly enhanced.
arcs of three rainbows us. As it enters and leaves the now being the innermost band.
in the Great Rift valley drop, the white light is split Mike Follows
in Kenya after a band Further rainbows do occur, but Sutton Coldfield,
of rain had cleansed they are so faint that only in the West Midlands, UK
the air of dust” The use of laser light has revealed
Want to send us a question or answer? rainbows up to the 200th order in
prevents the entry and depositing the laboratory, but nothing beats
of potentially hazardous agents Email us at [email protected] seeing rainbows in the wild.
into the nose. Questions should be about everyday science phenomena
Full terms and conditions at newscientist.com/lw-terms Peter Bursztyn
It is normal to sneeze two or Barrie, Ontario, Canada
three times a day. This indicates Multiple rainbows are best seen
that our nasal defences are active in bright sunlight when the air is
and working. Frequently, one clear and free of dust. I saw nearly
sneeze isn’t enough, so it is complete arcs of three rainbows
promptly followed by another in the Great Rift valley in Kenya
to ensure that any inhaled about half a century ago. The
threats are fully expelled. conditions were perfect: a band
of rain had cleansed the air of
In conditions such as hay dust, the sun was low on the
fever or rhinitis, there is often horizon yet still very bright
irritation of the sensory nerves and dark rain clouds formed
of the nose such that the sneezing the rainbows’ background.
reflex activation threshold is
lowered. This results in anything I have seen small portions of a
from allergens to temperature third rainbow in various other
change and even strong smells places, but these never matched
activating a sneeze. the nearly complete triple arc that
I was treated to so many years ago.

54 | New Scientist | 7 November 2020

Tom Gauld Answers

for New Scientist Quick quiz #76

Answer

1 A Dyson sphere
2 Seven
3 The Mesozoic era
4 Chromatography
5 Quinine

Cryptic crossword
#43 Answers

ACROSS 1 Dog star, 5 Pique,
8 Charm, 9 Bus fare, 10 Faintly,
11 Ankle, 12 Format, 13 Despot,
16 Anode, 18 Lithium, 20 Braille,
21 Meant, 22 Shear, 23 East End

DOWN 1 Decaf, 2 Glazier, 3 Time
traveller, 4 Ribeye, 5 Postage
stamps, 6 Quark, 7 Element,
12 Flambes, 14 Primate,
15 Allele, 17 Orate, 19 Muted

Geoff Piltz “Some swallowtail predators when it takes #83 Albatross
cover during the day.
Eskdalemuir, Dumfries butterflies have rear Solution
and Galloway, UK vision. The male can Peter Jacobsen
I have seen a quadruple rainbow sense light with its Davis, California, US H
on the waterfront at Liverpool, UK. penis to help find the One species of swallowtail Impact
There was a double rainbow with butterfly has rear vision. The
male has photoreceptors on its d
a taller pair of rainbows above it. right mating position” penis that help it position itself 4H
for mating. The female can also
This second set started at the same sense light with its genitals, Pugwash Mast
probably to help her lay eggs
apparent origins as the first set, frogs, salamanders and sharks. in the right place. If we call the height of the mast
3H, the stone climbed H above
but extended higher into the sky. This eye doesn’t form images, Mike Follows that to be 4H above the ground at
Sutton Coldfield, its peak. A parabola is a “square”
After consideration, I have come but it is sensitive to light and dark. West Midlands, UK function, so the height increases
Humans have few predators and with the square of the horizontal
to the conclusion that the first set The parietal eye may even have can use our hearing and the eyes distance. If the top of the stone’s
of fellow hunter-gatherers to path was d from the mast,
was created by light directly from developed from a more functional detect many of them, so there is Pugwash was 2d from the
little evolutionary advantage to peak. The flight of the stone is
the sun, whereas the second set eye or pair of eyes that would have expending energy in order to have symmetrical around the peak,
eyes in the backs of our heads. so if the peak is d from the mast,
was made by light reflected off allowed true sight overhead or it is also d from the point of
Evolution doesn’t always find impact. So the point of impact
the river Mersey. even to the rear. the perfect fit to the environment. is d from the peak, 2d from the
But if rearward vision were mast and 3d from Pugwash, and
The human pineal gland, advantageous, then I think it the stone was travelling at 3/2 or
would be more likely that we 1.5 times the horizontal speed
Looking back which produces melatonin in would have adapted to turn our of the albatross, or 15 knots.
response to light signals from heads 180 degrees like owls.  ❚
7 November 2020 | New Scientist | 55
Why hasn’t evolution given us eyes our eyes, is thought to have

in the back of our head or rear-view originated from the parietal eyes

mirrors? (continued) of the non-mammalian ancestor

that we evolved from.

Eric Anderson Depending on how an eye is

Wickford, Rhode Island, US defined, it could be that scorpion

While the previous answers to fluorescence serves as a basic eye.

this question were good, they It seems that a scorpion’s glow is

missed something. a by-product of its exoskeleton’s

Many vertebrates have a third ability to sense light – or “see” –

or “parietal” eye at the top of hinting that it can tell whether it

their head, including some lizards, has left any part of itself visible to

The back pages Feedback

Heightened interest Twisteddoodles for New Scientist included in participants’
submissions to Q&A sessions.
Our hats, of which we have very Got a story for Feedback?
many, are firmly off this week Largely of a putatively sexual
to Frédéric Bouquet and fellow Send it to [email protected] or nature, they provide insight into
inhabitants of the 15-metre-high New Scientist, 25 Bedford Street, London WC2E 9ES the palaeontological mind. We can
Laboratory of Solid State Physics Consideration of items sent in the post will be delayed only assume that anyone enquiring
in Orsay, France, for their paper about “erections” in that context
“61 ways to measure the height Not consistently, however. Bone of contention would have unimpeachable
of a building with a smartphone” Some methods were unable to intentions, but we are less sure
(arxiv.org/abs/2010.11606). deliver an answer at all, among A delightful exchange ensued on about “enlargement”. Also
them number 61: “Phone call Twitter after Ben Rathe reported appearing on the list, eliciting
We are reminded of an urban to the building’s architect.” that his wife had fallen foul of varying degrees of polite nodding
legend about a physics student who software being used to censor and smiling on Feedback’s behalf,
later turned out to be Niels Bohr. Lower! language in submissions to a are “stroke”, “stream”, “knob”
When challenged during an oral question and answer session at and “flange”.
examination to describe how he “Scientists find new organ in a conference. “One of the words
might do something similar with a throat while testing for prostate it is censoring is ‘bone’,” he writes. That last one causes us to wander
barometer, he came up with several cancer”, reports a headline on Sky “It’s a palaeontology conference.” down a byway of wondering how
indubitably correct answers that News. Feedback is disappointed words can assume sexual
contributed to getting him failed. on further reading to find that this Happily, the organisers of this connotations simply by sounding as
wasn’t a result of the common year’s Society for Vertebrate if they should have them. Perhaps
These included lowering the doctor’s injunction of people Paleontology (SVP) meeting wrote some expert in acoustolinguistics,
barometer from the roof to the presenting with problems down back, tweeting: “Hi all, you’ll be a research field that we have just
ground on a long piece of string below – “just cough for me” – one pleased to know that ‘Hell’ and made up in hope, can enlighten us
and measuring the length of string that always puzzled Feedback until ‘bone’ are now permitted on the as to the quality of these words
plus barometer, and throwing the we mindfully noted the muscular Q&A function #2020svp Please use that makes it so.
barometer off the roof and timing spasm that passes through those responsibly!” The tweet included a
how long before it smashed on the areas when we cough. It seems it smiling face and three bone emojis. But this is by the by. The whole
ground. The traditionalist within was actually positron emission thing reminds us of the recent story
us is pleased to record that both of tomography that led to the Courtesy of our man with the reported by the BBC of the Canadian
these methods appear on the team’s breakthrough, which is real old bones, Jeff Hecht, Feedback seed and garden supply company
list, although this does suggest that science, but far less fun. has been able to view a full list whose picture of onions was
measuring the height of a building of words that the software rejected by Facebook’s algorithms
with smartphones, plural, would be blocked – all, we presume, for being “overtly sexual”.
a more accurate description.
AIs clearly aren’t going to make
A mere cavil. We can’t fault the it far in the saucy seaside postcard
comprehensiveness of the research, industry, but more generally,
which employs methods involving following recent discussions about
free fall, giant pendulums and artificial intelligence taking our jobs,
various acoustic and optical we are glad of further evidence that,
techniques, as well as a section actually, our future jobs will be
of the most interest to physicists, correcting the job that the AI did.
“methods that only work in theory”.
Nor can we fail to be impressed by Not (yet) in the bag
the range of values recorded for
the building’s height, from zero Allen Young writes in with an
(“Giant pendulum, using the advert from our own esteemed
accelerometer”), to 800,000 metres organ for the New Scientist shop,
+/- 100,000 m (“Variation of the and a special offer of a free tote
Earth magnetic field between the bag on all purchases over £20.
top and the ground”). (Good offer, that, and the bags
are very fetching.)
The method “Variation of gravity
between the top and the ground, Too late, however – possibly.
determined by general relativity “Offer valid until 31st October”,
time dilation” also returned a value the advert trills, “or until stocks
of zero, although with a margin of last”.Well, it is past 31 October now,
error of 3 million kilometres either Allen, so we can only suggest you
way, leading the researchers to enquire whether stocks have
conclude, perhaps ruefully, that “on begun to last yet, and if they
average, the simpler the method, haven’t, claim your free bag. Just
the more precise the results”. don’t tell anyone we sent you. ❚

56 | New Scientist | 7 November 2020

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