What Does the Moon Smell Like?: 151 Astounding Science Quizzes (21 page)

keyboard on the International Space Station. Chris Hadfield played his collapsible guitar on a space shuttle mission, and then gave it to Thomas Reiter on REVOLUTIONS

the Space Station Mir. These are just a few relatively recent examples, but there’s been music in space since the early days of spaceflight. All of the musical instruments listed below have been played at some time or other, but . . .

Which was the first instrument played in space?

a) didgeridoo

b) flute

c) harmonica

d) kazoo

279

Music from Space

Which was the first instrument played in space?

A

a) didgeridoo

b) flute

c) harmonica

MUSICAL

d) kazoo

REVOLUTIONS

CORRECT ANSWER:

c) harmonica

Gemini 6 and Gemini 7 were the first craft to

rendezvous while in orbit around the Earth, in mid-December 1965. To celebrate, Wally Schirra and

Thomas Stafford (Gemini 6) performed the first song in space, “Jingle Bells.” Schirra played a tiny four-hole, eight-note Little Lady Hohner harmonica, and Stafford jangled a string of miniature sleigh bells.

Now, if that’s not spacy-sounding enough for you, Ken Bowersox and Don Pettit performed “Jingle

Bells” on harmonica and didgeridoo on the

International Space Station in 2002. The didgeridoo is an Australian Aboriginal wind instrument with a unique, haunting sound. Imagine it accompanying a harmonica. It wasn’t the first version of “Jingle Bells”

from orbit, and it probably won’t be the last, but it has to be the most unusual duet ever played in space.

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The World’s Smallest Guitar

Guitar collectors are an extravagant bunch. One col-Q

lector was willing to pay close to US$1 million for guitar virtuoso Eric Clapton’s old Fender Stratocaster,

“Blackie.” But there’s one guitar that even the world’s MUSICAL

most avid collectors, or guitar legends, can’t touch.

It’s the world’s smallest guitar, and it was made by physicists at Cornell University in the U.S. How REVOLUTIONS

small is it, exactly? Here’s a hint: it’s smaller than a bread box.

How small is the world’s smallest guitar?

About the size of . . .

a) a single cell

b) a poppy seed

c) the world’s biggest bacterium

d) this period.

281

The World’s Smallest Guitar

How small is the world’s smallest guitar?

A

About the size of . . .

a) a single cell

b) a poppy seed

MUSICAL

c) the world’s biggest bacterium

d) this period.

REVOLUTIONS

CORRECT ANSWER:

a) a single cell

The world’s smallest guitar was made for fun, and to show that mechanical devices can be made on a

microscopic scale. The nanoguitar is about as long as a single cell, 10 micrometres (10 millionths of a metre, or about one 2,500th of an inch). It’s anatomically correct, with six unimaginably thin strings, and, believe it or not, it’s technically possible to play the itty bitty guitar. All you need to pluck the strings is a special microscope that can move atoms around.

Even if you went to all the trouble, the guitar is so tiny you wouldn’t hear it anyway. Isn’t it time someone invented a nanoscale guitar pickup? The world’s smallest electric guitar — now there’s a fun challenge for today’s musical scientists!

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TOP SECRET

Spy Academy

The Allies used sneaky, secret weapons in World War Q

II, and espionage was one of the big guns. Spies who could live by their wits under any circumstances were in high demand. To train more operatives for the war effort, North America’s first spy school was set up.

Silent killing, parachute drops, withstanding torture, deception, sabotage, and everything you need to know about plastic explosives were among the

subjects on the curriculum. As many as 2,000 agents trained at this top-secret facility from 1941–44, including some who would later form the core of the CIA. Its location isn’t top secret these days, so you might know . . .

Where was North America’s first training school for spies located?

a) in Guanajuato, Mexico

b) in the suburbs of Rochester, New York

c) near Toronto, Canada

d) on Midway Island, South Pacific

283

Spy Academy

Where was North America’s first training school for A

spies located?

a) in Guanajuato, Mexico

b) in the suburbs of Rochester, New York

TOP

c) near Toronto, Canada

SECRET

d) on Midway Island, South Pacific

CORRECT ANSWER:

c) near Toronto, Canada

The school, called Camp X, was located on a farm just east of Toronto, where some of the spies were recruited. According to a Camp X report, among the best spies were recent immigrants from countries with a (then) low standard of living, such as

Yugoslavia and Hungary, as well as left-wing

Spaniards and Italians. Most returned to their home-lands to join the resistance against the Nazis.

Liberal-minded Canadians, and sophisticates with dual nationality, preferably French and American, were also actively recruited. The Camp X Spying 101

course was 10 weeks long, but there were also weekend courses for intelligence officers. If I had to guess, I’d say that the future CIA directors probably just took the weekend courses.

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The Real James Bond

The mastermind behind Camp X became a master

Q

spy, but he started his illustrious career as a decorated World War I war hero. Next he became a

successful inventor and businessman. Among his

TOP

inventions is the great grandaddy of the fax machine SECRET

— a wireless photo transmitter that made him a millionaire by the time he was 30. Officially, he was the British Passport Control Officer headquartered in New York City, but he was actually the head of BSC

(British Security Co-ordination). His mission was to create a secret intelligence network that spanned the entire Western hemisphere. If you were sending him a top-secret coded message . . .

How would you address the telegraph? To:

a) 007

b) Deep Throat

c) Intrepid

d) Mother

285

The Real James Bond

How would you address the telegraph? To:

A

a) 007

b) Deep Throat

c) Intrepid

TOP

d) Mother

SECRET

CORRECT ANSWER:

c) Intrepid

Years before World War II started, Canadian William Stephenson was living in England, but doing business in Germany regularly. When he noticed that Hitler’s Nazi government was gearing up for war, he warned Winston Churchill. He volunteered to assassinate Hitler, but Churchill assigned him to head up British intelligence in the Western hemisphere instead. The telegraphic address of his headquarters was Intrepid, and it was later popularized as his code name. After the first James Bond movie,
Dr. No
, was released in 1962, Ian Fleming, who created the Bond character, wrote in
The Times
, “James Bond is a highly romanti-cized version of a true spy. The real thing is . . .

William Stephenson.”

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Unclassified Fiction

What happens to intelligence officers when the war Q

ends? Well, Sir William Stephenson went from being head of British intelligence in the Western hemisphere to being a successful businessman again, this TOP

time based in Bermuda. Some of the other officers SECRET

who spent time at Camp X became prolific writers.

They went from composing top-secret reports to penning unclassified, and extremely popular, fiction.

What was NOT written by a former intelligence officer?

a)
Beneath the Planet of the Apes
screenplay b)
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

c)
Charlotte’s Web

d)
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

287

Unclassified Fiction

What was NOT written by a former intelligence officer?

A

a)
Beneath the Planet of the Apes
screenplay b)
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

c)
Charlotte’s Web

TOP

d)
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

SECRET

CORRECT ANSWER:

c)
Charlotte’s Web

Paul Dehn, Ian Fleming’s friend and intelligence co-worker, wrote screenplays, including several
Planet of
the Apes
sequels,
Goldfinger
,
The Spy Who Came in
From the Cold
, and
Murder on the Orient Express
.

Roald Dahl worked on the manuscript of the final Camp X report, and went on to write many children’s books, including
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
, as well as novels, books of poetry, short stories, and screenplays. Ian Fleming, who wrote dozens of novels and short stories about James Bond, the most famous fictional spy of all time, also wrote
Chitty Chitty Bang
Bang
for his son, Caspar.
Charlotte’s Web
was not written by a former intelligence agent, although author E.B. White was known to spy on the animals on his farm for inspiration.

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The Biggest Aspidistra in the World

Aspidistra was once the most powerful radio trans-Q

mitter on the planet. At a time when most radio stations were 50 kilowatts or less, Aspidistra’s transmitter was 600 kilowatts. Named for a popular

TOP

wartime song about an Aspidistra flower so tall that SECRET

the top of it was in the clouds, the 14-tonne (30,000

lb) top-secret monster transmitter was located in Crowborough, England. During World War II, it communicated with other top-secret Allied radio stations, including Hydra, the communications centre for

British intelligence at Camp X. Both radio transmitters played important roles on the intelligence front.

Hydra’s job of receiving and retransmitting intelligence was straightforward. Aspidistra’s role was more complicated, and you could say that Aspidistra played both sides.

What kind of radio station was Aspidistra?

a) black

b) grey

c) red

d) white

289

The Biggest Aspidistra in the World

What kind of radio station was Aspidistra?

A

a) black

b) grey

c) red

TOP

d) white

SECRET

CORRECT ANSWER:

a) black

Aspidistra was a black radio station, meaning that it transmitted from England, but gave the impression that it was transmitting from within Germany. White stations broadcasted propaganda too, but didn’t disguise their location. Black stations were first called Freedom Stations, and later, Research Units, or RUs.

Whatever they were called, their purpose was psycho-logical warfare and sabotage. Most of the information Aspidistra transmitted was from legitimate German news sources, but the real news was interspersed with propaganda designed to turn German citizens against their own leaders. Aspidistra was also used to derail bombing missions by confusing Luftwaffe

pilots. Their coded instructions were recorded in the evening, and Aspidistra retransmitted the same

instructions to the pilots on the next night’s bombing run. More than the fighter jets were scrambled when that happened.

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“The Thing” in the

Ambassador’s Office

A large, carved, wooden plaque of the Great Seal of Q

the United States was presented to the U.S.

Ambassador in Moscow by Soviet children as a gesture of friendship. It hung on the wall of the

TOP

ambassador’s home office, right behind his desk, from SECRET

1946 to 1952. It was only removed when a British radio operator discovered that there was a bug in the gesture of friendship. When he tuned in to an open channel, he could hear the conversations taking place in the Ambassador’s office. A bug was found inside the plaque, right under the Eagle’s beak. Rumour has it, it took intelligence and counterintelligence agents six months to figure out how “The Thing” worked. No one had seen anything like it before.

What made The Thing different from other spyware of the day?

a) It had no power supply or active electronic

components.

b) It resembled a burglar alarm.

c) It was activated by a motion detector.

d) all of the above

291

“The Thing” in the

Ambassador’s Office

What made The Thing different from other spyware of A

the day?

a) It had no power supply or active electronic components.

TOP

b) It resembled a burglar alarm.

SECRET

c) It was activated by a motion detector.

d) all of the above

CORRECT ANSWER:

a) It had no power supply or active electronic components. (All of the above is not always the correct answer!)

The Thing was the first passive resonant cavity bug, and it consisted of nothing more than a tiny microphone connected to a small antenna. It radiated no signal when it was inactive, and worked on the same principle as the theremin electronic music instrument — radio wave interference. That’s no

coincidence, because both were invented by Léon Theremin. When microwaves were beamed at The

Thing, it acted like a tiny radio station, and transmitted the sounds it picked up in the Ambassador’s office to a receiver in another building. Once the Brits and Yanks had figured it out, bugs based on The Thing’s design were built into all kinds of things, including the walls of embassies. There, the ingenious little devices listened in, undetected, to countless conversations for years, if not decades.