Are early childhood memories still stored in our brains? The mysterious 14-year cycle in the words we use [ ni | Disease starts in the gut and spreads to the brain WEEKLY 3 December 2016 HALF FULL OR HALF EMPTY? The truth about alcohol and your health CHANGING MINDS How to defeat delusion when facts lose their power 1No3102 £3.95 US/CANS5 95. AN EAT GREEN tr you love the planet, ditch organic foodSAMSUNG Timeless outside. Revolutionary inside. Style just got smarter. Discover more at Samsung.com[CT Te cS Forescte ae eSVorsprung durch Technik Taking work ‘home has its benefits. After a long day at work, few places look as inviting as the interior of the Audi Ad. Tt comes with Smartphone Interface as, standard to keep you connected, plus options like the all-digital Virtual Cockpit. So now, the drive home is one of the perks of the job. audi.co.uk/business coe PCCP Er reteeeriio acne coer ieriitre Petre mec L concen mer iy ferriteCONTENTS 8 Looking in the wrong place Parkinson's disease may startin the gut and travelto the brain Onthecover 28 Changing minds How to defeat delusion when facts lose theirpower coverimage Features 33 Half full or half empty? Specialreport: The truth about alcohol and yourhealth bine Qrrecycle 10 Gone, netforgotten Earlymemores stored 9 Repeataafterme yearword ole ‘8 Parkinson's shock Disease statsin the gut 33 Halffullorhalfempty? ‘cohol andyour heath 21 Eatgreen FFyouovethepnet, ditch argenic food Coming next week. Ten traits that make you Thebest and the worst of being human Toxiclegacy Inside Russia's forgotten nuclear zone ‘Volume 232 No 3102 This issue online newscientist com/issue/2102 Leader 5 The campaign against alcohol abuse deserves two cheers News 6 UPFRONT Per fsnin Mediteranean, Spacesuits deal withhuman waste. Spanishembsye surplus, New Zealencwipes outbuttertly pest a THISWEEK Language runs in 4-year yes. Moon was born wet, Eary memories may linger. Ceneticreniteto rea cystic brass. Indiasnewrverto be twice the siz of Nie 15 INBRIEF Africa's tallest ree, Never goto sleep angry Worldsstrongest cab, Spider single dads fix Lupnursery, Molasses lood prysics Analy: 118 High seas ishing The planto ban catching fishin more than haf the works oceans 20 COMMENT internet for allwilliberate and disrupt Bring solar engineering out ofthe shadows 21 INSIGHT Ditch organic food tahalpsave the planet Technology 22 Alenvisions the future. Computer plays. vingman, Augmentecreatycime senes Navigating amaze with bran stimulation Aperture 26 Fangtoot fish ready forits chse-up Features 2B Changing minds (see above eft) 33 Half ful orhalf empty? (see ett) 40 This toy wilselfdestruct lHadpastce thatcisappearon demand: 42 PEOPLE Zhang Heng andthe fstselsmoscope Culture 44 The reality question How much of physics Isreal andhowmuch of realtyis physics? 46 Earwigs, rotten panther Frank Buckland let tells us allabout this Vitorien naturalist Regulars S52 LETTERS Origins of ancionthalucnations '55 SIGNAL BOOST Help for good causes 56 FEEDBACK Supermoariscftectonwine 57 THELAST WORD Power 2alads 3December2015 |NewScientst|3It’s a beautiful thing when payments are painless. Payments that innovate with you. Braintree re EaLEADER NewScientist rayearnonrptan gious) Teretigsorea ioe fesaea 2 Ieeseenre ie {sibettonereet Deine obese Syn Tractor, Tus s897366 Teeter es Nenscaret potty Newser rleysS20585907 Sobering thoughts The campaign against alcohol abuse deserves two cheers “WHEN Iread about the dangers of drinking, [gave up reading” ‘That old joke ~usually attributed toBritish-born comedian Henry Youngman neatly sums up many of his compatriots attitudes to the risks of alcohol. Oratleastitdid Aer years of publichealth messaging anda tightening of theadvice on safe limits, the UX publicfinally seems tobe reading the warning signs. Over the past decade, alcohol consumption has been falling, especially among, younger people (see page 38). ‘similar downward trend has been seen inother Western countries Knowing what we know about alcohol’s health and social Impacts thisisa welcome development. Itisalsoa remarkable one, given how entrenched drinking culture appeared tobe. Socialand ‘economicchanges have played a part, but someof the credit must behanded tothe publichealth bodies who have fought this most ‘unfashionable of causes. Six years ago, the World Health Organization launched ‘worldwide campaign against alcohol abuse. tthe time, the WHO appeared tobe picking a fight it was unlikely to win. Public health campaigns are easy to dismissas killjoy nanny-statism; ‘when they target something as Widely enjoyed and culturally entrenchedasalcohol, they expect strong push-back. Lobbying from corporate interests only adds tothe pressure Alcohol-awareness campaigners have suffered their fair share of brickbats, But their patient and. largely consistent messaging seems tobe getting through. Thisis even more remarkable given thatthe alcohol industry has stubbornly resisted legislation ‘We need tounderstand what parts of the publ health campaign are working, and why” aimed at reducing consumption. Ithas,forexample,foughta serles of legal battles against Scotland's minimum unit pricing legislation -ameasure proven tocutaleohol abuse—which have delayed implementation and. may yet stop it altogether, Efforts toreduce harmful drinking have been modelled on the campaign against tobacco. ‘The success of both suggests publichealth campaigners have hiton formula fortackling diseases that result from lifestyle choices and increasingly guzzle healthcare resources in developed countries. Wenow need to understand which parts of the campaign work best, and why. Theearly evidence suggests that people payless attention tosafety limits than they do to pricing Whateveris behind the success may also beof interest to those who study the growing problem of post-truth polities, where facts and evidence have lost their value {see page 28). It seems that public health campaigners can marshal science and evidence to change beliefs and behaviour, oftenin theface of personal denial and corporate obstruction. What are ‘they doing right that other public bodies are doing wrong? Itisalso importantto understand the imitations of such campaigns and avold the temptation to overreach. Around conein five adults in the UK still smokes often huddled in doorways, cast out as social pariahs. That, surely isn'ta desirable end point for the alcohol ‘campaign, especially given that light drinking may sometimes bbebeneficial (see page 33) Like tobacco, drinking won't goaway entirely. Unlike tobacco, wwe shouldn't necessarily wish it to, Moderation must be thename of the game, orelse well-meaning but overzealous messages risk ‘making people give up reading allover again. a December 2026 |NewScientist 5UPFRONT JETeit:no future for fusion reactor? Embryo mountain SPAIN's fertility clinics havean, unusual problem: they havea mountain of “priceless” human ‘embryos that they don't know ‘what todowith, Itemerged this week that 230,000 frozenembryosleft over from fertility veatments have been left in storage in Spanish clinics for more than two years~ seemingly abandoned by their By law, the embryos canbe donated to other couples, used inresearch or destroyed after 40 years in storage, Clini tend not todo thelatter in case they are needed for research a alater dat, However, nota single request has. ‘been made to.use them for research in the last16 years Donation has not had much of ‘an impacton the problem either. Embryos used this way must ‘come from donors no older than GINewscentist| 3 December 2016 Pree ee Fe i \ | 35.Most couples who have fertility ‘weatment are above this age. Experts contacted by New Scientist say the embryos could be invaluable for research in other "As faras research is concerned, they would be priceless,” says YYacoub Khalaf, a fertility specialist at Guy's Hospital, London. Amajor hurdleis gaining permission from their owners to export the embryos-many of whom cannotbelocated, “It'san Ansteresting dilemma that requires publicconsultationand ethical debate,” says Khalaf, Brexit's nuclear fallout [BREXITputsthe future of theworlds of curent nuclear power tations largestruclearfuslonreactor based anditshouldproduceasmaler IinOxfordshire,in doubt. By leaving amount of waste. But makingit work ‘theEuropean Union the Ukmightalso effectively hasproved dificultas, ‘exitEuratom, the EUS framework for reactorsneed hugeamounts of safenuclear energy. energy toget going andeonly remain ‘TheUKgovernmenthasyette stable for shor periods saywhatitsplansareforceoperating Recently JEThas been running withEuratom,butpartaftheBrexit experiments tohelp with buileing negotiations willhaveteincludethe ITER alarger, more powerful reactor ‘nuclear fusion experiment ET. in France. The planwas for}ET tokeep DecommissioningJETisexpectedto _runningafterits scheduled finish leavearound3000cubicmetresof date in2018. Whether that happens radioactive waste, whichwouldcost__willdependon Brexitnegotiations. {around £289 millon to dealwith, "mewould be bizarreand according tothe UK AtemicEnergy extreme for the UK, whichhas, ‘Authority (UKAEA), beenat the forerontof fusion JETsaimistecommercialise research for SOyears,tojustleave ‘uclear fusion, whichreleasesenergy these projects” saystan Chapman, byforcingatoms together. Theenergy CEDofthe UKAEA,"Itwiouldmake ‘output shouldbefargreaterthanthat _nosensestrategicaly” Whatis Uber? uchstricterregulation The case was referred tothe EC} ISUBERatransportcompanyor by aBarcelona judgeaftera2014 justanapp? That's thequestion ruling pushed Uber to suspend facing the EU'shighestcourtthis services in Spain after complaints week inalandmark case thatwill that its operations amounted to inform how Uber and other unfair competition, Taxi firms digital-focused “sharing across Furope have argued that ‘economy’ firmsare ble to Uber has an advantageifitisnot ‘operate across Europe. subject to the same lawsas they ‘TheEuropean CourtofJustice are, withadditional protests and (EcHwillheararguments over _legalbattles taking placein ‘whether the ride-booking countries including France, company should be treated like Germany andthe UK. ‘anormal taxi firm ora purely ‘Uber maintains that itis simply digital service. Thedistinetionis _adigital service connecting Important,as transport firmsface driversand riders. Exotic deep seas INVASIVEspecies and those normally found in polar regions have been spotted in the deep seas of the eastern Mediterranean. The unexpected visitors were seenby aremotely operated vehicle descending to depths of 1 kilometre in waters off Lebanon, The team, led by marine conservation agency Oceana, was leftspeechiess by the discovery of an AtlanticLantern Shark, Hitched aridethough Suezcanal?” Measuring 0 centimetresandFornew stories every day, visitnewscientist.com/news slowing bright blue along its Space body-waste spine and belly, the Lanternisa shark generally associatedwith NASA offering $30,000 tothe thechilly watersofthenorth _personwith the best solution for ‘Atlantic, Whyi’shere,noone spending penny during aspace knows. emergency. TheteamalsosawinvasiveLion Currently, astronauts never Fishand RabbitFish, which canbe occupy their spacesuits for more explained moreeasily. They may thant hoursata time, during havebeencarried inthe ballast. which they normally useanappy Wwaterofships coming through if they are caught short, But NASA, ‘theSuez Canal saysOceana’s _ worries that fa disaster struck, Ricardo Aguilar. such asaddepressurisation, These species are pushingout astronauts may need to spend up native species and destroyingthe to sixdaysin heir suits, Instead habitat by overgrazing.’Some of getting theirown hands dirty, rockshavenow beenstripped bare the space agency has decided to ofalgae,” says Aguilar. launch the Space Poop Challenge toask forthe public's help, Anyone can propose a solution onthe crowdsourcing website HeroX. Ideas must be able to deal ‘with 75 millilitres of faecal volume and: lite of urine per day per crew member, as well as up to 30 mlof menstrual blood. t must alsobe hands-free and collect the wasteaway from the body. Duringan emergency, astronauts can'tjust tinkle out of aside-flap—space suits need tobe pressurised to keep the wearers alive. Solving the Space Poop Challenge really could be amatter oflife and death. The deadline for submissions is20 December. Byebye butterfly Missionto the moon NEWZEALAND has become the PLANNED pivatemission tothe firstcountry ever toeliminatean moon couldrevisitthe spotwhere invasive butterfly species. astronauts lastroamedits surface. Thegreatwhite butterfly (Peris _German-based PTScentists says brassicae)isnormally foundin __itwillland apairof overs, designed Europe, Africaand Asia.Itwas _withthehelpofcar firm Audi, near discovered in New Zealand in the Apollo17 landing siteand check 2010, probably afterarrivingona —_outthe lunarbuggy eftbehind by boat. Anelimination planwas _NASAduringits final mission tothe. soonlaunched by the government maonini972. toprotect agricultural crops from “Hasitbeenrippedtoshreds by Deingdestroyed by theinvaders. _micrometeorids,orisitstillstanding Pbrassicaestartsoutasa therelikeon the day they left?” caterpillar that feeds voraciously says KarsenBecker the team’s onbrassica crops such as cabbage, rover river broccoliand Brussels sprouts. It _PTScientissistakingpartinthe also targets New Zealand’s Google Lunar xPrize,arace toget the ‘7a native cress species, 57ofwhich _ firstprivately funded over onthe areatriskofextinetion. ‘moon. Tere ae curently 16 teams “The caterpillars feed groups —_intherunning, though only some, ona wide range of host plants and will completely defollatea plant, and can travel morethan 100 metres to find another,” says Jaine Cronin at New Zealand's Departmentof Conservation, Between 2010 and 2014, the department carried out 263,000 searches of29,000 properties to wipe out thebutterfy, Since theNZ§3 million campaign finished in December 2014, no great white butterflies have been seen. "We're confident ‘wecan declare them eradicated,” says Nathan Guy, New Zealand's ‘minister for primary industries Howsitholding up? IncludingPTScientists havea contractin pace to launch their rovers before the competition deadine tthe end of 2017-2 ‘date that has been pushed back ‘numerous times fromthe original endof 2012. Becker says the teamhas booked alight through launch broker ‘Spaceflight industries and hopes ‘oshare ride ona SpaceX Falcon rocket bylate 2017, or early 2018. [NASA guidelines suggest that ‘moon missions shouldland at east 2kalometres aay from any Apollo heritage sites, andnotapproach within 200 metres, Becker says they will andata distance of 3t0 4m and drive twithin200 metres to study the buggy remotely. 6OSECONDS Great Barrier grief ‘Wwothirdsoftheearalinthe most pristinenorthernpartsf Australis GreatBarerReet nave diedover thepastninemonthsasaresutot bleaching, crvenby warmer waters teiggeredby amajorEINi.Thisis theworsteverde-offreordedat, this World Hertagesit. Reef sections further south suffered only2toGpercentbleaching says asurvey that mapped the damage Cassini’send game Wsthebeginningof theend.The corbitof NASAS spacecraft Cassini is abouttabenudged even closerto Satumahead ofitsdeath dive into the planetrext Api This week, Cassiniwasmovedintoanorbitover the planets polesand wil graze Satur’soutermastF ring, whereit willsampling particles andgases. Zika outbreak Texasheatthofficialshavereported the state’ firstcaseofZkaprobably spread by nativemosquitees. The Virushasbeenlinkedtosevere birth efects Floridalsthe onlyother stateinthe US toreportcases of Zia caughtlocaly. ‘Snoopers assent Controversalnew surveillance powershavetakeneffectinthe Ux ThetnvestigatoryPowers Actreceivedroyalassenton 23November,meaningitsnow oficial aw. For example, internet Service providers willbe obiged tocollectrecordsofpeoplesinternet browsinghisterandstorethemfor a2months Beaverland Highlands ‘The Scottish governmenthas said that Eurasian beaversintreduced tothecountry willbe allowedte expandnaturaly,whilebeing ‘managed toprotectfarmersand landowners. The beavers will have protected status andbe considered asnativespecies. Scottish beavers were huntedtoextinctioninthe astheentury, December 2016 | NewScientst 7THIS WEEK P ki tenn i I ki patients with antibiotics or faecal arkinson’s: we're loo tai rkinson's: we r FIN ne in the wrong place en Sébastien Paillusson at King's College London. "We know that The disease could start in the gut not the brain, finds eee Other studies have shown that WEHAVEbeenthinkingabout fibres ofa substance called inthetrbrain.They suggested the farmersexposed to certain Parkinson's disease allwrong. _synuclein. Normally foundas _trigger was some unknown, pesticides, and people who get Theconditionmayarisefrom _smallsolublemoleculesin ‘microbe or toxin, thelr drinking water from wells damagetothegut, notthebrain. _healthynervecells,inpeoplewith The finding made sense Which might be contaminated Ifthe idea scorrect,itopens Parkinson's, something causesthe because people with Parkinson's __with pesticides ~are more likely thedoortonewwaysoftreating synucleimmoleculestowarpinto often report digestive problems— _toget Parkinson's, Perhaps these thediseasebefore symptoms adifferentshape, making them mainly constipation-starting up chemicals canalso damage ‘occur. “That would be game clump together as fibres. toro yearsbeforethey notice —_ nerves inthe gut. changing.” says David Burnat The frst clue that this tremors. interestingly, another Whateverthe culprit, knowing Newcastle University, UK. transition may startoutsidethe _earlysymptom of Parkinson's is thelocation of the first strike "Thereare lots of different braincameaboutadecadeago, _loss of smell.It maybeno allows for early detection-and mechanisms that could when pathologists reported coincidence, says Burn, thatthe treatment, Forinstance, drugs potentially stop the spread.” seeing thedistinctivesynuclein _noseandutaretwoorgans where that mop up synuclein fibres or Parkinson's disease involvesthe fibres innervesofthe gutduring nervecellsareexposedtothe _blocktheirformationare inthe death ofneuronsdeep withinthe autopsies-bothin people with outside world~andto potentially works. Ifthese ae given to people Drain, causing tremors, stiffness Parkinson'sandinthosewithout _problematictoxins and microbes. before the fibres reach thebrain, anddifficulty moving. While symptomsbut whohadthefibres Now, thesynucleinfibreshave they should havea better chance there are drugs that ease these been showntravellingfromthe _of'success. Itmightalso be symptoms, they become less gut to deep within the brain. possible one day to screen for effective as the disease progresses Collinhallisatthe California _flbresinthenerves ofthe gut ‘One ofthe hallmarks ofthe Institute of Technology andhis during colonoscopies for early- conditionis deposits of insoluble colleaguesinjectedsynuclen stage cancers, says Burn. BINewScentist|3 December 2016inthissection 1 India’ new river tobe twice the size of Nile, page 12 1m The plan toban fishing in the world’s high seas, page 18 m Alenvisions the future, page 22 Language trends in 14-year cycles ‘THEmediatendstointerpret _ digitised books. They then ranked cultureinannualcycles.Critics the nouns inerderof popularity publishend-of-yearbestoflists and tracked how their rankings and Oxford Dictionaries ust. __ changed from1700 to 2008. selected"post-truth” asitsword _Somecycles appeartocoincide of theyear.Buttheactual words withhistorical events. For Weuse seem tooperateon a ‘example, large swathes of words ig-yearcyce, declined in popularity in the years Marcelo Montemurroatthe around the world wars. Although, University of Manchester, UK, thereasonforthisis unclear, and Damisn Zanette at ‘Montemurro thinks itcould be Argentina's National Council or Scientificand Technical Research, identified 5630 commonly used nouns and analysed how their popularity changed over thelast three centuries ‘Acurious pattern emerged, They found that English words rosein popularity and then fell out of favour in cyeles of about 1gyears although cycles over the past century have tended to bea yearor two longer. They also found evidence of 14-year cycles in French, German, Italian, Russian and Spanish, The popularity of related nouns~suchas king, queen and duchess - tended to riseand fall together overtime (Palgrave Communications, doi org/btwd) ‘Tofind the pattern, they wrote computer scripts to dig through Google Ngram, a database of the words used in neatly five million Moon-dust cake **1i#ertovgn cotsionswitn water-bearing comets or asteroids Mix SHOWS early _weternssdeendeteceain samples em the moon before bt Moon had water snyinyounsrectromtnesurtace. Which doesn'ttlluswhether twas WATER mayhave been acrucial ‘there from the beginning or not Ingredient of the primordial body ‘Toiestigate, Wim van Westrenen thatsplitapart4Sillon yearsago at Vij University Amsterdamand tebecome arthandthe moon his colleagues made 10 milligram ‘Thelatestevidence or this,from mixtures containingallthe basiclunar Iab simulations of hove minerals ingredients: siicon, exygenanda formedinthe earlymoon,maysettle sprinkling of magnesium, caldum, long-running debate aboutwhether ion, titanium and aluminium. The theearlymoonandEarth contained teamsubjected eachto temperatures waterfromthe outset, erwhetherit and pressures that matched those on related to political trends. These results support previous work suggesting that language evolves ina patterned way, similar tohow genes are transmitted from parent to offspring, says Mark Pagel at the University of Reading, UK. “Language isnotall over the place," he says. "Is remarkably consistent.” However, Pagel says the researchers stillneedto completely ruleout these cycles being a statistical fluke, “I's fascinating tolook for Nounswillpass ‘the early moon. They dd thisboth with andwithout water Only when water wasincudedin ‘themix atlevelsofjust0.5to1 per centhy weight, id the types and amounts ofrackfermedmatch those ‘thathave been observed on themoon Most importanty the water-based mixture generated ayer of plagioclase -the main component af ‘thecrust-thatwhen extrapolated to “The evidence may settle a long-running debate about whether early Earth had water from the outset” cultural factors that might affect this, But wealso expect certain periodicities from random, fluctuations," he says. “Now and then, aword like‘apple’is going to bewrltten more, and its popularity willgo up. But then i'l fall back to long-term average.” However, if something does liebehind the cycle, its 14-year duration is puzzling. Some baby names have been found to move inand out of popularity over roughly the length ofa human generation. But with nouns in general, Pagel doesn't see an obvious cultural connection, “It doesn't fit the human life history: hesays. "There's no particular reason why itshould be14 years” Montemurro admits that the significance ofthe cyele's length remains unclear, buthe believes {tis due to more than chance “vs very difficult to imagine random phenomenon that will sive you this pattern,” he says. ‘And he thinks that further study of thecyele could reveal insights about human behaviour and the nature of fashion and trends. “Assuming these patterns reflect some cultural dynamics, hope this develops into better understanding of why we change the topics we discuss,” ‘Montemurvo says. "Weight learn why waiters get tired of the same thing and choose something new” Sophia Chen ‘the moon would be around 34 to 43kilometres thick, matching the average thickness measured with satellites. Dry mixturesledtoa plagioclase layer twice a deep. This suggests thatthe moon's current ‘geology couldonly have evolvedit water was there atthe outset (Weture Geoscience doi org/bt28) “Thishasimportantimpicatons both forourmedels oflunarorigin, andfor the possibilty there are stil waterichreservolrsonthe moon today, says Robin Canup atthe Southwest Research instituteln Boulder, Colerade, Ancy Coghlan m December 2016 |NewScientist|9THIS WEEK Can we tap into our earliest memories? ‘YoUprobably cantremember life ‘asa2-year-ald.Butmemory traces ‘rom our earliest years might stayin ‘ur brains, ready tobe reactivated with the right trigger, acording to researchinrats Mostpeoplehave infantile ‘amnesia, meaning they cant remember the firsttwa or three years ‘of heirlfe.Oneideais that growth ‘fnew neurons at this time in brain ‘areas involved memory formation interferes with storage of memaries. ‘Asa result they ae os forever Toinvestigate, Alessio Travagia _atNew York University andhis team ‘urmedtorats,inthebellet that they also experience infantile amnesia, ‘Young 17-day-oldrats - equivalent to .22-103-year-ldchild- could learn ‘toassociate one side of aboxwitha shock, but the memory wouldbegane within a day. Olderrats couldhold ‘onto thesememaries for several days. However. the team discovered ‘thatthe rghtreminder would prompt young ratsTost memaries toresurface.Once the pupshad forgottente associate one side of ‘the boxwitha shock, Tavaglaand his team gave themanether shock, “Suddenly theyhad thememory back,'hesays, Thissuggests that ‘thememoryisstltherejustnot normally accessible Nature Neuroscience, doirg/btu) Travaglathinkshis findings might apply tous aswell The“oft days" we experienceright result ‘rom the subconscious eactvationof unpleasant memories, he suggests ‘Andi Rudenko and L-HueiTsaiat the Massachusetts Insitute of ‘Technology are impressed, and say that Travagla'steam has tackled centuries-old question “The study breaks new ground. it shows that very early memoriesin mammalsarenotlest but storedas Intent traces thatcanbe recalles later” the pair write ina comment Piece published alongside the study. Jessica Hamzclou mt 10 | NewScientis| 3 Decemiver2016 Mutations can cause cystic fibrosis Forcing cells to ignore mutation to fight disease IPTHE instructions for what you're building are wrong, what ‘can youdo? That's the problem posed when DNA mutations in people with geneticdisease Jead to the production of faulty proteins, Anew technique could help cells get around that problem and potentially treat conditions like cystic fibrosis, ‘Most of our genesare recipes formaking proteins. Each three- letter DNA sequence -knownas acodonspecifies which amino acid should be added nexttoa growing chainof amino acidsto createa protein. This goes on until the protein-making machinery reaches acodon that says stop. But sometimes, DNA mutations create stop codon in the wrong place, sothe resulting proteins useless. Theseare knownas nonsense mutations, and they cause about 10 percent ofall genetic diseases. There might be ways to get around these premature stop codons. One approach was first proposedin the 1980s, but only ‘now have people managed to get “acti ittowork in human cells. It focuses on tRNAs, the molecules that recognise codons, and match the right amino acid to them, Itis possible to make artificial tRNAs that recognise premature stop codon and, instead of terminating the protein-making. process, add theamino acid required to make a useful protein. Inzou4, Carla Oliveiraat the University of Porto in Portugal andherteam restored the I tRNAs won't fix every protein made by the faulty gene, but they may beable te fix enough” production ofa healthy protein incellscarrying a mutation that Teads to hereditary stomach and breast cancer. Now Christopher ‘Ahernat the University of fowain Towa City and his team have used. artificial RNAs torestore some production ofthe protein thatis, ‘usually missing or broken in people who have cystic fibrosis (Biokiv, dotorg/btv5). Like Oliveira's team, they did this with cellsina dish, but with further developments, it might offer an alternative to drugsand gene therapy for treating about 10 percent of cases of cystic fibrosis, Itshould one day become possible tocure cystic fibrosis by fixing or replacing the mutant gene, Ahern says, but getting the Tong gene sequences needed for gene therapy orgene editing into Tung cells is huge challenge. Artificial (RNAs are smaller, soit might be possible to develop treatments more quickly, Once inside cell, the artificial {RNAs compete with the proteins that normally bind to stop codons and halt protein production. This ‘means that artificial RNAs won't Aixevery protein made by the faulty gene, butthey may be able tofix enough -for many genetic disorders, even low levels of protein can make abig difference. “Ithinkit's realy exciting,” says Malcolm Brodlie who treats people ith cystic ibrosisat the Great North Children’s Hospital in Newcastle, UK. But he points out ‘hat while Ahern’s team got cells toproduce proteins with the right amino acid sequence, they have not yet shown whether these proteins are fully functional Isitsafe to muck about with the genetic code like this? One danger Isthat the artificial RNAs may interfere with correct stop codons, ‘messing up other proteins. This might happen occasionally, but cells dohave other ways oftelling When they have reached the end of the instructions Evidence from otherkinds of research suggests that artificial {RNAs should be safe. "The introduction of tRNAs that are targeted to stop codons is tolerated ‘inanimals,” says Jason Chin of the University of Cambridge. ‘Any treatment based on this, approach sstilla long way off, says Brodie, not least because artificial (RNAs are harder co deliver to cells than conventional drugs. The fleldis advancing rapidly, though, Ahern says. Michael LePage mPorsche recommends Wo For those not satisfied with bronze, silver or gold. 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Over the millennia India's received government approval rivers so that water can be landscapehas gradually evolved “The canalnetwork will cut in Septemberwill ink the rivers diverted from flood-proneareas with thenaturalflowofwater. through atiger reserve and Kenand Betwain entraland Inthecastandnorthtothose ——“Mostriversarefedby monsoon will displace hundreds of —_ northern India. The project looks vulnerable to drought in the rains and have built arge thousands of people” settodestroy anestimated westandcentreofthe country. __floodplainsand deltas over 4ioo hectares of forest, which But the scheme could be theyears,"saysVedharaman _-Bangaluru,“Itcarries depositsand may include 58 square kilometres calamitous forthe environment, Rajamaniatthe Jawaharlal sediments. Damstrap sediments of the Panna Tiger Reserve— say geologists and ecologists, Nehru University in NewDethi, _thatare critical to habitats 10 per cent ofthe reserve's area. The Interlinking of Rivers “Pushing rivers around disrupts downstream.” The government remains scheme, which government the supply of sediments and Rajendran saysthatthe dams _committedtothe idea. The officialssayistogetthe green _ nutrients downstream” requiredby theschemewould __Interlinking Rivers scheme is an lightfromndia'senvironment He saysthe project could pushdownon Earth’scrust,adding attempt toboost water supply to ministry “imminent”, will negatively affect agriculture, extrastralnand possibly increasing the needy states, says Vijay Goel, createawaternetwork 12,500 asfarmlandshavebeenbuill _—theriskofearthquakesinthe junior minister for water resources. kkllometreslong—almost twice overcenturies infloodplains _— already quake-prone Himalayas. The projectlooks grand on thelengthoftheworld’slongest and near river deltas, "Rivers Inaddition, buildingdamsand _paperbut whether it will work rivers,theNileandthe Amazon. _rechargeaquifersnearfarmland,” vast reservoirs tocontroland _and itscost tothe environment Some i4riversinnorthern India says Rajamani store water will displace hundreds remain tobeseen, i and 16in the western, centraland southern partsof the country will be linked via 30 mega-canals and 3000 dams, costing $168 billion, Inthe process, 35 million hectares ‘of new arable land will be crested, aswellasthe means to generate ‘an extra 34,000 megawatts of hydropower. The projecthas the backing of Prime Minister "Narendra Modi, and the country’s wwateragency has made detailed plans for the first three links But many researchers question the sclence behind the scheme. They say there isn'ta simple division between riverbasins that carry too little and too much ‘water~and that climate change has triggered changes in rainfall patterns with unpredictable effects on future water flow. “What may appear as water- deficient today may become ‘water-surplus inthe future due toclimate change,” saysSachin ‘Gunthe atthe Indian Institute of ‘Technology in Madras, whose ‘Theinternetof rivers 22 Newscientist| 3 December 2016aia aN NEN) LRN) Waa THE WEEK Concludes Tuesday 9pm sky ATLANTIC or catch up nowa gNN aL aN DUE TO PHENOMENAL DEMAND AUTUMN SOLD OUT! Ne aK Se cd ea ee eer en aed ae id rere ca) te ec oe ea ed CC pi 120) 4 ae Ce ed sy ei Px 2 eS SU Mca Pre ed SP Lue ee Piha Ba Pane age SeenIN BRIEF Single spider dads care for young ‘Most male spiders bailout atermating~ but not one South ‘Americanspecies. Male Manogea porraceanatonly help with childcare they asooften end upassingle dads The male bulldsa web above the female sandhelps to maintaina nursery" web between the two that holds the egg sacs, HHealso defends the eggs from predators and removes rain from the surface of egg sacs. By theend ofthe mating season, 68 percent ofegg sacsare being cared for bbymales alone, says RafselRios = Mouraat the Federal University of Uberlindia in Brazil (animal Behaviour, datorg/bte. Moura found that significantly rmorebatchlings emerge from egg sacs tended by males than those Iefvalone, Males often outlive , females, which may have ed to Physics behind Boston's Harvard University gathered datafromhistorcalrecords. them evolving to take on paternal andranexperimentsenhowmelasses flows under dluties—the first such known ease deadly 1919 Molasses FlOOd sariouscondtions.thenfeditatitacomputermode's, _inasolitary spiderspecies. ‘The cupritseemstohave been gravity currents hich (N15 January1919,astoragetankinBostonsNerth _comeinteplay whenadense fluidspreadshorizontaly Endrupturedandawave of molassesmare than metres _intoaless dense fluid (inthis case, molassesinte air Being popular is highsweptthroughthe streets, flattening buildingsané The density ofthe molasses alone would account forthe kiling21 people. speedofitsinitalspread.nwasikebeingbowedoverty GO0d for the health Fornearlya century, histerlanshavewonderedwhy _asticky-sweet tsunami, says Sharp. famously slovemoving fluid caused such devastation. _Theinitialonslaught left people coveredinsuffocating LIFE at the bottom of the social, Now, the frst physicsanalysisofBoston'sGreat Molasses _ molasses asrescuers struggled tosave them, wais-deep ladder can be tough. Rhesus Flood shows that cold temperaturesand unusual currents inthe goo. Here the cold temperatures playedadeadly monkeys reveal how the stress conspired to turn the sticky goop intoaspeedingwave, _role:asthemolasses ooleditbecame even more viscous, of low social status can damage [Nicole Sharp, an aerospace engineer whorunsa Much ike quicksand, themore people thrashedabout, _the immune system, “Tumbirblog on uid ¢ynamics,andjordanKennedyat the more deeply they found themselves trapped. Luis Barreiro atthe University ‘of Montreal, Canada, and colleagues sorted female rhesus monkeys Sleep makes bad memories stick better before orafter seep. whohad never met into groups Thepartiipantsstruggled and observed as they formed a DONT gotobedangry.Now _assoclatedwiththeothers. They mosttoremembersuppressed social pecking order. Monkeys there'sevidenceforthis proverb: werethendirectedtomemorise _imagesforthemugshotsthey introduced thelr groups earlier ishardertosuppressbad nother26 pairsofmugshotsand —sawen thesecondday, suggesting tended tobe ranked higherhan memoriesifyousleeponthem. nastyimages.Halfanhourlater thatsleepmakesitharderto those introduced later Tnastudy,73malestudents they again thought about halfthe erase bad memories (Nature “Tofind out how rankaffected rmemorised 26mugshots.each _astoclatedimagesandactively Communications, DOI:103038/ health, the activity of 9000 genes paired withadisturbingimage, suppressed memories of the rest. ncomms133/5) inthe animals’immunecells was ‘suchas a mutilated body. The Finally, they were asked to This seems to supporta ‘measured (Science, doi.org/btrs). next day they were askedto think describetheimage associated previously explored idea ofusing White blood cells that fight abouttheimagesassociatedwith witheachofthes2mugshots, sleep deprivation tosuppressbad _ infection were moreactivein halfthemugshots,and¢oactively Theideawastoseeiftryingto memories and prevent conditions _higherranking monkeys, giving fuppressmemories ofthe images _suppressa memory works like postraumaticatessdisorder, thembetter protection. December 2016 |NewScentist 15IN BRIEF Crab’s claws are crushing champs AGIANT crab fromthe Asia-Pacific region has the most powerfuliaw strength of any crustacean. The coconut.rab, irguslatro, lives onistandsinthe Indian and Pacificoceans. Itean weight upto “kilograms andhavealeg span of almostametre Its clawsare trong ‘enough teliftupto28 kilograms. ‘and crackopen coconuts - hence itsmame.Butthe squeezing force of ltsclawshas neverbeen precisely ‘measured untiinow. Shin-ichiro Okaat the Okinawa ‘Churashima Foundation, Japan, and hiscolleagues recorded the law strength of29 wild coconut crabs ‘weighing between 30 grams and 2lograms from Okinawa standin southern Japan. The crabs were ‘ivena force sensor to squeeze ‘Theteam foundclaw strength ‘increased proportionally with body ‘weight. Thehighestreading was ‘almost 1800 newtons (PLoS One, \dolorg/btrh). That means acoconut ‘crabweighing 4kilegrams couldbe ‘expectedto exertacrushing force ‘of mere than 3000 newtons, says (Oka. This significantly outmuscles allother crustaceans, including lobsters, which have dawstrengths. ‘of only about 250 newtons, Human handshave anaverage ‘ripstrength of about 300 newtons, hile crocodilejaws bite down with _awhopping 6,000 newtons- the ‘strongestin the animal kingdom. 16 | Newscientist|3 December 2026 Fornew stories every day, Living cells bond carbon and silicon for the first time APROTEINhasbeencoaxed ‘Frances AmoldattheCalfornia_mutatingits DNA coding. Each intobondingcarbontosilicon Institute of Technology in time, the team selected the organically forthe firsttime. The Pasadena. Arnoldand-olleagues most promising candidates innovation could ansformhow —havenow unveiled proteinthat and mutated them again. wemakeanaray ofproducts, _doesthejob~andoutperforms __Afterthree rounds of fromdrugstosemiconductors. _othermethods of bonding thetwo mutations the protein could Siliconisthesecond most _elements(Science, dolorg/btrt|._bondsiliconto carbon 5 times abundant element in Earth's Theteamereatedthe protein moreefficiently than any crust butitdoesn'tnaturally using process of artificial syntheticcatalyst bond tocarbon. Thats why selection called directed The research may alsohelp manufacturers useartifcial evolution, They started witha _usanswerquestions about what methods tomakecompounds _proteincalled cytochrome silicon-based life forms could combining the two, ‘enzyme, hich sfoundinthe _looklike, says Amold here oron would bemore sustainable bacterium Rhodothermus another planet. One can startto and perhaps cheapertocreatethe marinus. This was synthesised in dreamabout whathappens when same bonds ithbiology, says _E.coliandmodified by randomly youput siliconintolife,"she says Sweetener causes mice heath issues DIET drinks may make you fatter. Experiments inmice suggest the artificial sweetener aspartamecan cause increased weight gsinand Ghronichealth issues ‘Aspartame is widely used and many reviewshavefoundit safe toconsume. But Richard Hodin at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston and his team found that itmay disrapt processes inthe body that preventinflammation. Whenthe team fed mice ahigh- fat diet for 18 weeks, those also givenaspartame puton more weight than those that werent. Mice onhealthydietsgivenithad Africa's tallest tree is on highest peak higher blood sugar levels between rmeals~awaming signofdlabetes. AFRICAStalestindigenous ree-at ranged ramS9.2toB1S meteesin This may be because of the whopping @1Smetres-hasbeen height. Hempestimatesthat they chemical'sinfluence on intestinal discoveredinaremetevalleyonthe _arebetween 500 and600 yearsold alkaline phosphatase IAP),an continents highest mountain, (Biodiversity and Conservation, enzyme that neutralises gut- Klimarjare, in Tanzania. dl org/btr). frritating toxins. When aspartame Andreas HempattheUniversity _-Themassivetrees play an wasinjected intosegmentsof ef BayreuthinGermary fstspatted _Impertantrolein the mountains ‘mouseintestine, IAPlevelsfllby abunchoftallEntandrephragma _ecasystem, harbouring fers and so percent Applied Physiology, _excelsumtrees while exploring __otherplans. "They re ike acty Nutritionand Metabolism,doi, _MountKillmanjaros vegetation __intheforest."says Hemp. org/btr8).Thiseffect mayleadto 20yearsago.Butitwasonlyrecently _Thecolossusin Tanzania has low-level inflammation, which thatthe oolswere avallableforhim matched the previous record for can cause chronic diseases tomeasuretheirheights accurately, the tallesttre in Africa, which was ‘Ourresults providea His team sized32 specimens.using _establishedby an introduced Sydney ‘mechanism forwhy aspartame _laserinstrumentsbetween201Zand blue gumin Limpopo, South Aica, ‘may not always work to keep 2016, andfoundthatthe10tallestdledin2006, people thin,” says Hodin,SET ee mare yay oe on eel Give as a gift and save up to 53% A Nene ea Lemerll 03303339470 and quote 9248 4 cr New Rye ” ~ ufANALYSIS FISHING BAN i Deadliestcatch? Leave the sea b Conservationists have a plan to ban fishing in the world's high seas, butisit the right approach, asks James Randerson ITISoneofthe planet’slasttrue impossible conservation dream, persistence ofahandfulofmarine isthe case. Inthe first decade of wildernesses,yetahandfulofthe especially with anew USpresident scientists who have steadily built the aistcentury, the high seas world'swealthiestnationsare —_whohasrejected internationalist the ecological,economicand accounted foraround 2per cent plundering ts riches tosatisfy the foreign policy and environmental _socialase underpinning it. ofthe global average annual atch appetites fluxury consumers~ protections, butit has been Theideawasputonthemap of Somilliontonnes, worth around allwiththehelpofbillionsin __gainingmomentum.AttheOur _in2014byChristopherCostelloat _siogbillion.Critiesofabancite public money. Oceanconference, hosted by the the University of California, Santa _ the ossofobsand economic Thegreatbluewildernessin US Department of State in Barbara, who tackled oneofthe value from high seas fishing ‘question is the“high seas”—the Washington DCinSeptember, _chiefobjections. Seafoodisavital vessels, though working conditions sBpercentoftheoceanoutside _SecretaryofStateJohn Kerry spoke source of protein forthe world’s on such ships are farfrom ideal the 200-nautical-milelimitthat warmlyabout thenotionof placing _ population, so if'ahigh seas (see"tt’sahard feat sea, right) definesthe areacach coastal _thehighseasofflimits. Turning _fishingban were oslash the But Costello showed thatthe country canexploit as an thisvast area of ocean into slobalcatch significantly the economics make sense. He ‘exclusiveeconomiczone E52). marine protected area wouldbe idea would beanon-startr. ‘modelled global fish stocks, ‘The vast majority ofthehigh seas “anextraorinarystep",heargued, Therawnumberssuggestthat taking intoaccount migration, isafishingfree-forallwithalmost _ Thenotion has obvious appeal between high seas and coastal nolegal protection, butnowa _forconservationists,butthatisn't “They are exploiting zones, and found thats high boldideaistakingroot: why not enoughbyiitselfThe factthattalk the global commons. seas banislikely to have clear banfishing therealtogether? of abanhasreacheddiplomatic We are talking about benefits for coastal fisheries, The plan might seman circlesistestament tothe big fishing mafi where most fishing takes place 1B | NewScientis 3 Decemiver2016(Pt0S Biology, doi org/bs34) The model suggests seafood populations would recoverin the high seasand thenspillout into the EZ, increasing fish caught by more than3o percent and more ‘han doubling profits. This is partly because the most highly prized species tend tobe ‘migratory ones such as bluefin ‘una, sharks and swordfish “tas basicaly athought experiment,” said Jennifer Jacquet at New York University, who spoke about the feasibility of aban at ‘he Pew Marine Fellows annual meeting in Noordwijk, the Netherlands, in October. "Butt planteda seed” Winners and losers Ofcourse, some seafood would be offthe menuentirely-butnot ‘much, Of theaverage annual 10 million tonne high-seas catch, Just 0.03 percent consistsof species found only there. This is backed up by listo the species that would be affected by a ‘ban, which mentions 585 species ‘hat migrate betwen the coastal zonesand high seas, and just19 found only in the high seas, (ScientficReports, doi org/bs3}), ‘These include such unappetising- sounding fareas the sandpaper fish, spiny icefish, Antarctictooth fish and blunt scalyhead, The study also predicted that populations of migratory fish would only haveto increase by Bpercentas aresult ofa ban for thenet impact on global fisheries tobe positive. Costellofound there would bea 42 percent {nerease, which would boost World fishery valueby $1sbillion asthe benefits spill into EEZs. ‘Andaban would share that wealth around. At the moment, just four countries -Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Spain account fornearly half ofall high seas. fishing, as measured by landed value (see map, above rght).“They are exploiting the global commons without paying properly forthe right to access those resources,” ‘newscientistcom/news says Erie Sala of the National ‘Geographic Society, who spoke at the Our Oceans meeting. “Weare talking about big fishing mafia” Solike anautical Robin Hood, a ban would take from therich and sgiveto the poorest nations, whose ‘own coastal waters are being deprived of migratory fish by the high seas trawlers. "Globally we will benefitbut you are going to hhavellosers,"says Rashid Sumaila atthe University of British Columbia in Canada, Ifaban were to boost migratory species by 42 percent, Costello found that 35 countries and territories (mainly developing nations) would enjoy net gain, seven would experience no change and 50 would lose out Inparticular, South Korea and Taiwan would suffer losses of cover $500 million each, No prizes for guessing who willopposeaban then, but conservationists have another argument up their sleeve. High seas fishing only makes economic sense because of piles of public money subsidising ship-building and fuel osts. Sumaila estimates thatthe total annual subsidy for high seas fishingamounts to around s3billion globally “Fishing on the high seas would not be possible without the huge IT’S AHARDLLIFE AT SEA Working conditions on high seas fishing vessels vary considerably but they include some ofthe worstin the Industry. “There wouldberatsand cockroaches onthe boats” saysjohn Robidoux,aformerfishing observer InCanadawhe often spent months at seawatching the working practices con foreign vessels ‘Many shipsare vastfactoriesin which workershaulinthe catch. then process and packit onboard forsale. Otherboats often meet the factory ship totransport the catch toshore, allowing the factory toremainon the high seas for long periods. ‘Asprofit marginshave tightened, ‘unscrupulous operators have Abig haul Ten counties are responsible or 70 percent of glbalhigh seas ishing. asmeasureeby the average annuallandedvalue @High-seas © Exclusive economic zones Gal Es subsidies that countries are worry that campaigning fora givingtothat industrial fishing high seas banwould distract from. fleet,"Sala told OurOceans.In _anexisting UN process tocreate fact,itwouldbelosingaround _ smaller marine protected areas. szqbilliona year. “Tm torn-really torn,” says Socouldahighseasbanbe _Krristina Gjerdeatthe workable? Most nations already agree onthe goalof protecting “High seas fishing would 10 percentoftheoceans by 2020, not be possible without though wearen'tthereyet. Even huge subsidies given to with recentgainssuchasthe the industrial fishing fleet” creation in October of the world’s largest marine protected area in International Union forthe the AntarcticRossSea, just 4 per Conservation of Nature, centofthe oceans protected. Countries like Japan will react very Butsome conservationists _negatively toany mention of a ban, shesays, butitcan’tbe done without getting them on board. Others counter-argue thatthe squeezed their employees to threat ofa total ban would give makethesumsaddup.“Aswehave impetus to the existing UN plans eatenmostoftheworiésfishithas Either way, conservationists becomeincreasinalyditfcultto shouldn't give up on this remain profitable says}ohn ambitious goal, says Jacquet. Hocevar, Oceans CampaignsDirector Accommodating the losers may atGreenpeace ook difficultor even impossible, Inmany cases thismeans that _ bul theParisclimate agreement, poorandvulnerablewerkersfrom which came into force in record ‘ountrestike Myanmar, Cambodia, time last month, shows what can Indonesiaandthe Phiippinesare be achieved when there is political dupedinte accepting minimalwages _willin the face of disagreement. ‘withneworkerprotections-siave High seas fishing ought tobe a Iabourinetfect."Theirpassportsare diplomatic walkin the park by oftenconfiscatedandtheycanbe comparison, ‘rapped ontheboatsatseafor “Tactually think thisisa way months revenmorethanayear,, easier political deal than climate saysHocevar change,” she says, “You're talking about luxury fish” m December 2016 |NewScientst 19COMMENT Disruption from above Efforts to beam the internet to all corners of the globe are gathering pace. twill berate but also bring chaos, says Jamais Cascio COULD toppling dictatorships beas easy as flying balloon corlofting a satellite? Some proponents of plans to provide {global wireless internet from the skies seemto thinkso ‘Afterall, we have seen the effect thata brief wave of uncontrolled internet accesshad in the Arab Spring, Imagine how much more lasting and eventful the effects ‘of an internet largely outside the control of governments that want tocensor it would be. These schemes are coming, as indicated by Hlon Musk’ SpaceX seeking ‘consent ast week to put 4425 base stations into orbit. ‘As societies in the West have discovered, however, unfettered internet access doesn’t just mean siving voice tothe voicelessanda more diverse array of philosophies. Italso means a cacophony of voices clamouring for attention by being louder or more The heatis on ‘Atmospheric geoengineering trials must begin in earnest, says Matthew Watson THE Paris climatedeals goal of keeping global warming below 145°C produced a strong but mixed response from scientists, “Most welcomed ts intention, while some, including me, were also alarmed, wondering how it, ‘might be achieved. Here's the truth, made plainer by the USelection result: if we 20 Newscientist|3December 2016 Wish tostay below15"Cwehave todeliberately intervene inthe global climate system ona ‘massive and unprecedented scale, The worst impacts ofa warmer world would make it immoral not toact, Weare nearing the point at which we must make choices hence the growing call fora frank discussion of ll geoengineering ‘methods, These would aim to alter Earth's radiation budgetby, for example, pumping reflective particles into the alr. Fleld trials of such radiation management need support. ‘The urgency isakin tobeing ina raftwithout paddles heading fora ‘waterfall. We could paddle forthe bank with our hands—which is like curbing carbon emissions— Dutt’ toolate to makeit to safety this way. We could build ‘makeshift paddles to row quicker “If we wish to stay below 5 °Cwe mustintervenein the global climate system onamassive scale” outrageous than thenext,a platform fordemagoguery and division, and the ability to rapidly spread false news stories, mages and videos that inflame voter fury Itturns out that, ratherthan, being a unifying force, the internet hasalso been a tool for deepening biases and ideological conflicts. Itmakes it easier tofind like-minded alles, soit quickly becomes possible to only encounter opinions that agree ‘with one's own world view. Various digital maladies afflicting netizens, from spam to fraud to malware, would also find fertile ground in new users ofa global internet. Many of these threats have been shaped overthe years bya Darwinian environment ofattackand counter-attack as they seek toevade and overcome the just-asrapidly evolving spam blockers, antivirus packagesand ad barriers. t's easy toimagine develop technologies to suck carbon out ofthe alr—but itis doubtful weean make them in Lume. We could brace for the Inevitable and strap in—adapt to climate change by building coastal defences and son. (, we could swim fort. But that’ risky: the waterlooks cold and not everyone can swim. This {slikeradiation management. I's quick and relatively cheap but it’s plunge into the unknown, Thisis why informations vital: ifwe knew how long we had, the size ofthe fall,the time tomakea paddle, and the temperature and depth ofthe water, we could make amoreinformed decision,Fermere opinion articles, visit newsclentist cam/epinion the chaos that would reignin regions with sudden access to the internet but litle orno online security, in particular the addition of millions of relatively “unprotected computers that could be recruited for distributed denial of service attacks. "None of this means we should halt plans to make access global. Itwilloffer powerful tools for cooperation and organisation, Access to uncensored sources of information—even ifflawed— will allow millions the chance to see the world anew. But advocates for unleashing the internet everywhere need to {temper hopes with recognition that this could also result in political disruption, technical chaos and culture shock, Notalloutcomes will be happy, and more thana few of the groups and ideologies empoweredby this ‘will oppose key principles such as free information access ‘Atruly global internet will in \ime, bea good thing. But we must be clear-eyed as othe near-term consequences and opportunities forchaos that it will mean. Asthe Jast few years have shown, the internet can bea powerful ‘medium for disharmony. a JamaisCascoisa istingushed felow athe nsttuteforthe Future Inveality, climate change might bbea series of increasingly severe drops, andit makes sense to fully exploreall the options: wean ourselves off carbon, create negative emissions technologies and brace for impacts. But we must alsotest the water incase we decide to swim fort, ‘That means considering properly, through researchand amore open discussion, the unpalatable choice ofradiation management. Matthew Watsonisaveaderinnatural hazards atthe University of Bristol UK, andes the princpalinvestigatorof {he UKSPICE projec. which aimed fies test atmospheric eoengineeing INSIGHT Food labelling i " Care about Earth? Ditch organic food Forstarters,youare not helping wildlife. Yes, xganicfamshosta greater diversity of willie than ronventionalones. But because the yields are lowes organic farms require ‘more and, which inthe tropics often means cutting cow more rainforests And organic food alsoresutsin higher greenhouse gas emissions than conventional farming The troube’s, thereisno way totell whether that bascloa of breagis betterinterms of greenhouse emissions than the exganic one sitting ex toiton the supermarket shel Thisdvide wllbecome ever greater Michael LePage WANDER around the fcalsupermarket _andyau wil struggle to find ary ches totheenviconmentalimpactof the food you eat. fyou ae lucky, some of the seafood might bea the markot the Marine Stewardship Counc which certifies fish caughtina sustainable vay but thats about Yetfarmingis the secondlargest source of greenhouse gas emissions worlwide, anly sight bering heating and ebctricity And while its relatively easy tocut emissions from lectrcity by switching to solr, ecucing emissions from famingis 2 tougher aut to crack ‘Yu might thin baying lca f aluays preferable to mportedfeac when itcomes te carson emissions, tuteven thisis not arelable guide Focd flown thousands of miles can stil have armuch lower carbon footorint than. say. localpreduce growin heated greenhouses, The1one label youre likely find on mary fooditemsis the" organic" one Butit you care about the environment dont buyit(ts not heattie either, tut that's ancther stor) “Food flown thousands of is miles canhaveamuch lower carbon footprint than local produce” inthe future, because the ‘organisations that set the rather arbitrary standards for what counts as"organic have fm rejected the ‘echnology showing the greatest promise for reducing farming ‘emissions: geneticmacification, Existing GM crops may aready be reducingcarbon emissions even ‘Acarbonnightmare though they were nat designed todo so,Nextup crops thatcan capture more ofthe sun's energy, require less fortiser and tolerate draughtor sak. Butthe organic movement willhave ‘vane aft, There was afainthape that ‘some mightat east accept gene editing given that gene-edted crops ‘an be genetically indistinguishable from conventionalcrops. Buta, on 18 November theUS organic standarcs board voted unanimously against this What we reallyneed aecimate labels on foods, so consumers can see that whether, say gene-ecedbread is farbetterinclmate terms than organic bread This isnt going tobe easy. Measuringall the emissions associated with producing foodand geting ‘ontoa supermarket shetfisextremely complex, not tay expensive. Most schemes safarhave foundered, Tesco trac introducing its own carbon labeling 2007, fr instance, but eventually abandoned the idea ‘Andis pointless unless the labels _areeasy to follow. One promising oroposalistadescre the greenhouse ‘emissions assacated with particular fooditemsin terms of what percentage af apersarstypical daly ‘atbon footprint they represent. imate labelingis cefinitely worth pursuing despite te chalenges, The ‘only alternatives to allow consumers tocantinue being hoodwinked by feel- {900d mumbo jumbo - and the stake are far toohigh toler this happen. mt December 2015 |NewScentst 22TECHNOLOGY Al predicts the future Adeep learning system can guess what happens next from a photo, helping it understand the present, says Victoria Turk [AN ARTIFICIAL intelligence system can predict howa scene willunfold and dream upavision of the immediate future Given still image, the deep learning algorithm generates 2 ‘mini video showing what could bappennext.Ifit starts witha picture ofatrain tation, itmight imagine the train pulling away from the platform, for example, ‘Oranimage of abeach could inspire itto animate themotion ‘flapping waves. ‘Teaching Alto anticipate the future can helpitcomprehend the present. To understand what someone s doing when they're preparing ameal, we might Imagine that they will next eat it, something whichis tricky foran Alto grasp. Such system could alsolet an ALassistant recognise ‘when someone is about to fall, 22 NewScientist| 3 December 2016 orhelpaself-driving car foresee anaccident, “Any robot that operates in our world needs to have some basic ability to predict the future,” says Carl Vondrick at the Massachusetts Institute of ‘Technology, part of the team that created the new system, “One network generates the videos, and the other judges whether they look realor fake” “Torexample, if'you're about tosit down, youdon’twanta robot to pull the chair out from underneath you.” Vondrick and his colleagues will present theirwork ata neural computing conference in Barcelona, Spain,on 5 December. Todevelop their Al the team trained ton million videos from image sharing site Flickr, featuring scenes such as beaches, golf courses, train stations and babies in hospital. These videos ‘were unlabelled, meaning they ‘were not tagged with information tohelpan Afunderstand them, After this, the researchers gave ‘the model till mages andi produced its own micro-movies ‘of what might happen next, ‘Toteach the Alto make better videos, theteam used an approach called adversarial networks. One network generates the videos, and the other judges ‘whether they look real or fake. The ‘two get locked in competition: the video generator tries tomake ‘videos that best fool the other network, while the other network hhones its ability to distinguish the ‘generated videos from real ones. Alcantellwhathappensnext tthe moment, the videos are low-resolutionand contain 32 frames, lasting just over second. But they are generally sharp and show the ight kind of movement for the scene: trains move forward ina straight trajectory while babies crumple their aces. Other attempts to predict video scenes, suchas pone by researchers at New York University and Facebook, have required multiple input frames and produced just afew future frames that are often blury, Rules of the world ‘The videos still seem a bit wonky toahumanand the AThaslotsleft tolearn. For instance, it doesn't realise thata train eavingastation should also eventually leave the frame. This isbecause ithasno prior knowledge about the rules oftheworld;itlacks what we would call common sense, The 2 million videos-abouttwo years of footage—areallthedataithas togoonto understand how the world works."That’s not that much incomparison to, say,a 10-year old child, orhow much evolution hhas seen,” says Vondrick ‘That sai, the workillustrates ‘what can be achieved when. computer vision iscombined ‘with machine learning, says John Daugmanat the University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory. Hesays that akey aspectisan ability to recognise that there isa causal structure to the things that happenovertime. "The laws of | physics and the nature of objects ‘mean that not just anything can happen,” hesays. "The authors have demonstrated that those constraints canbe learned” Vondrickis now scaling up the system to make larger, longer videos, He says that whileit may neverbe able to predict exactly | what will happen, it could show usaltermative futures, "Ithink we can develop systems that eventually hallucinate these reasonable, plausible futures ofimagesand videos."Formare technology stories, sit newscientistcom/technology [Using the prototypea police Computer plays _ 4 officercanvew an ARversionof wingman in US air 2 theseenein frontofthemona : smartphone. Asthey explore the force simulations area, footage froma cameraon their vestis sent peopleat WOULD you trustan artifiat different locations suchas inteigence tof acombatje? forensic scientists or chemical Software calledALPHAisbeing used specialists. These remote totlyjetsin simulations andcouldone colleagues can add information day control planes thatjoinplotsin land notes to theoficers AR view, reatwedimissions. ranging froma request toexplore [ALPHA Was developed by particular area toabigarrow Palbernetixiniberty Township. Oho, saying body here asatraningaldfortheUS a force “We've tried the system andit was designedto fly enemy airaftina really addsalotof value tomany ‘Vitualar combat simulator buthas different areas of policing” says nowbeen tumedintoasystem that innovation adviser Nick Koeman contol alle panes that accompany fromthe National Police ofthe human pltsinthe simulator, Netherlands Many Alsarebasee on neural “The set-up isnt suitable for use networks thatmimichuman brains ‘when making anarrest,Koeman These use ayers computation says, because officers trialling, thatarenardforuste decipher, Viewwithoutentering thesystem sometimes found whichmakesittricky to work out theadditional information vow they reached a decision, an i distracting. But itis helpful for mencesewene POlice search for clues — scsrpcrereics mcteaa” With augmented reality nesrsrmetnzte verified at each step, soitwon't right people at the right time, ina fuzzylogicpproachandclassfies _arriveat thescene:asuspected Delft University of Technology Whileit wouldbe preferable to datainterms of concepts such asa ecstasy lab. There's drug havebeendevelopingthe AR _haveateamofthe most suitable plane"movingfast‘erbeing'very paraphernalia everywhere, systemforfiveyearsandhave investigators search every sitein threatening: anddevelopsruleson but which piece of evidence now testeditincollaborationwith person, thisisn’talways possible. how tobehavein response. could bemosthelpfulforyour _theDutchpolice,the Netherlands The systemcould also keep "Rather than emulating the investigation? Then, amassive __Forensicinstituteandthe Dutch numbersatacrime scene toa biological structure of thebrain fuzzy virtualarrow appears, pointing fire brigade."Insixmonths,the minimum without sacrificing logicemulatesthethoughtprocessef outa bottle of chemicals, policewillbeabletobuythe thoroughness. The more people human’ saysNickEmest,CE00f accompanied by anote complete package.” he says youhave there, the more likely, Psibernetix.Hesaysthismakesit saying “Bagthis please’ youareto find important ceasiertoworkouteachstep the Dutch policearetrialingan “The advantage of evidence-but youalsoraise the systemtookto produceancuteome. augmentedrealty(AR)system augmentedrealityisthe _riskof accidental contamination. ButNoelSharkeyat the University thatstreamsvvideofrombody _ potential torecreate a ‘With AR, many people ean help of Sheffield, UK. doubtsthatitwillbe cameras wornby officers to crime scene for ajury” ‘uncover clues without physically soeasytovalidate ALPHAS cade. "itis experts elsewhere. These experts touching anything notoriously ctficutforevenrelatvely can then guide the offcersby When anofficerartivesata Ttmay also be possibleto use simple programs."he sys. annotating the scene virtually crimescene,itisoften important the recordings from the system Wile the current version of with notes hat theofficerscan that they exploreit immediately~incourt. "Theadvantageof ALPHAisgearedtowardsasimulated seconasmariphoneorhead- there could beasuspecthiding,or augmented reality is the potential cnvironment.Emestsaysthereis mounted devicelike GoogleGlass. achemical givingofftoxicfumes. ability o ecreatea crime scene notechnologicalobstacetoalater_ -—“Wennowhavegoodenough --Butthefirstpersonthereisn't_forajury” says Michael Buerger, versionpilotingan uncrewedaircraftsoftwareand hardwaretouse necessarily the most qualified to professor of criminal justice at orcorpilotingacrewed one, augmented reality at crime investigate. Thenew system aims Bowling Green State University in “Letusseeproperscientifictesting scenes,” says Dragos Datcu, toallow the mostrelevant experts Ohio. However, Buerger says there and evaluationof the dea beforewe principal researcher at AR ogetactively nvolvedinthe _arelikely tobe legal challenges the fembarkonsuchadangerousidea,” company TwnklsinRotterdam, _search,evenifthey'rehundreds _firsttime ARis used as evidence. says Sharkey, DavicHambingm™ the Netherlands. ofkllometres away. Timothy Revell December 2016 NewScientst 123TECHNOLOGY Maze in your mind Brain stimulation can help you navigate, finds Timothy Revell YOU'RE stuckina maze. Youcan't see the walls, or the floor. Allyou have tonavigate with isadevice ‘onyourhead stimulating your braintotell you which way togo, ‘Thisis exactly what happened to volunteers who were asked to solve ‘amaze puzzle guided only by ‘transcranial magneticstimulation (IMS) Theirsuccesssuggeststhat “Brain stimulation could thistypeofmominvasivebrain augment virtual reality or promptcouldbe usedtoaugment help give people who are virtualreaityexperiencesor blind ‘visual’ information” help give people who are blind “visual” information about their surroundings. Darby Losey at the University, ‘of Washington in Seattle and his colleagues created virtual mazes inthe style of simple 2D video {game Participants had to guide anavatar through these mazes, ‘but without being ble to see them-instead, they faced a blank screen, Atregular intervals, question box would pop up asking ifthey wanted to move forward or ‘makeaturn, Allthey had to goon wasa dose of TMS tothe primary visual cortexat the back oftheirbrain cach time their avatar got too close toa wal. ‘TMS produces smallelectric currents that can, atcertain intensities, Induce the perception ofaflashoflightcalledaphosphene. Nolight actually enters theeye, but thebrain still’sees" i Phosphenescanalso occurif Imsure the exitwashere before 24 INewSclentist|3 December 2015 you put pressureon your eyeballs ‘when rubbing your eyes ‘Toescape from the maze, the participants simply had tochoose to carry on walking ‘until they experienced fash oflight,and then turn Onaverage, participants successfully completed 70 per centofthe mazes each of which required making 0 correct moves Incontrast, people provided with ‘fake TMS machine that gave ‘hemo stimulation were nat ableto complete any ofthe mazes, suggesting that TMS was helpful {ngulding people and they weren't just guessing lrontiersin Robots anda, dot org/btab. Phosphenes are notonly experienced by sighted people, butalso those who ae blind. ‘This means that similar systems could one day help to give people with visual impairment more information about their suaoundings by providing “Thisisavery promisinginitial study,” says Erie Thomson at Duke University in Durham, North ‘Carolina Theset-upis curently basi, given that volunteers only brad binary choice to go forward ‘orturn,"Butithas the potential tobe expanded toconvey more information,” he says. losey'sambition stoaugment virtual realityina way that’ bbeachieved with apair of goggles alone. "Traditionally virtual realty isdone through goggles and headsets, but really it’s yourbrain thatcreates your reality We want togodirecty tothe brain,” he says. Hewantstofind waysto use brain stimulationto communicate more complex experiences than justa flash of light. "That could be something abstract like the colourbiue,oF evenanemotion,"hesays. i ONE PER CENT Self-driving scooter De eared eee rs anes ee es eran pemerrernrenrg thatcandriveitsetfalonga pre ents eee ets similar sensor technology to Peers Sea emery es neednotfear-itsmaximum speed errant Pre renee) ereennaetind peer remarry Serger) Decay anna Se eaters Ree eee reac ‘the energy frm Testaacquired ee eee Cae tee Se Peete Islanders previously used desel ‘generatorsandoften experienced ounThe World’s Thinnest & Lightest Business-Class Notebook The New HP EliteBook Folio Reinvent Obsession ee UT A aT oom co neg @ gi Windows Pro cortanais your truly personal digital assistant. keep reinventing Ree ee ee ee ce eee ee kere ee ee eee en eee eee ed einen electorates etaneamamor aimed alee ote eaten Pete reheat ieerepeetet aoe Siciesinabasleir leet urcarcconrie eaet Never eorrored Peewee ip etaueitsvenenreripernomrnech eiiioeitezeeteer naar nat eesti ren tetas Plsspepetinevhrhereoerer omar pir teringne ear pk el riches Perr ea ee Naren ee tar et ena ea e ae er Lec sees aa ca eaL E Se eat ec en enc Tts4409 / RAINBC {CAM 221 12 STOPSEEING COVER STORY REASON Human brains skew facts. How can we change our minds, asks Dan Jones NOVEMBER Donald Trump defied the pollerstobecleted the gps president [tewmonts care, Uk voters decidedto end ther country s43Jearmembershipof he European Union Throughout furope populist Socata ponetas ncereee Spponentshave cred foul thesecampalgs, they gue winsupporby ditrtngor Augean regarding the trth Polticans spin and poltican ie. That hastlways ben hecase and wanestent itiseneturel produce fee democrat caltate Sven so wed appears haveentered ‘ewreraof post ath pots where he Seongestcrteny what sti Stephen Calbert hae dubbed "uthines claims that felrghevenfthey havea bassin, tnd which people wanttobelicvebecase they tthe preexisting tudes Tnecen years peycholoistsand polis! scientist have boon revealing the shocking txtenttowhch weveallsusceptbleto truthines,andhow tat ead polarised viewson factual questions ttm thesfety of Vacrne to human caused ciate change Theta isthat fats play lessee in Shaping ou views than wemighthopeforin ‘pete whose latinname means wise man” “Tithe povicoseoma tobe getting wort, By furngout when and wy weaves Prt vw fatal information bower, searchers arestaringtoseehow wecan ENrowottthebiners 1 Tetsjstesblshone fact ist tacts | aregoodThej may beuncomfotable, or inconvenient but only by embracing tonal fact-based solutions can we hope to prosper asa society. “We need to have discussions that are based ona common set of accepted facts, and when we don't it’s ard to havea useful democraticdebate,” says Brendan Nyhan at Dartmouth Collegein New Hampshire, Ina world of rational empiricist, facts and a careful weighing of the evidence would determine which claims we accept and which We reject. But weare biased. In the real world offlesh-and-blood humans, reasoning often starts with established conclusions and works backto find “facts” that support what we already believe, Andi we're presented with facts that contradict ourbeliefs, we find clever ways to dismiss them. We're more ‘wily defence lawyer than objective scientist. What's my motivation? Psychologist call this lawyerly tendency motivated reasoning Take climate change. The ciencehere s unambiguous: climate change shappening and humanactivity it driving Yet despite this, andthe rsksit poses toour descendants, many people Still deny itis happening The major driver especially inthe US, ts political ideology. APew Research Center survey released a month before the US election showed that, compared with Democrats,Republicans are less likely to believe that scientists know that climate change is occurring that they understand its causes, or that they fully and accurately report theirfindings. They arealso more likely to believe that sclentists' research sdriven by careerism and political views. ‘Many liberals ike to think this sa product of scientificllteracy, which ifaddressed would bring everyone round tothe same position. Ifonly. Studies by Dan Kahan at Yale University have shown that, in contrast to liberals, among conservatives its the most scientifically iterate who are least ikely to accept climate change. Polarisation over climate change isnt due to lack of capacity tounderstand the issues,” says Kahan. "Those ‘who are most proficient at making sense of scientificinformation are the most polarised.” For Kahan, this apparent paradox comes downto motivated reasoning: the better you are at handling scientific information, the better you'll be at confirming your own bias and writing off inconvenient truths. Inthe case ofclimate-changedeniers, studies suggest that motivation is often endorsement of free- ‘market ideology, which fuels objections tothe {government regulation of business that is required totackle climate change."Ifask people four questions about the free market, Ican predict theirattitudes towards climate science with 60 per cent certainty,” says Stephan Lewandowsky, a psychologist at ‘the University of Bristol, UK But liberal smugness has no place here. Consider gun control, Liberals tend to want tighter gun laws, because, they argue, fewer ‘guns would translate into fewer gun crimes. Conservatives typically respond that with fewerguns in hand, criminals canattack the Innocent with impunity. > 3December2026 |NewSclentst|29Despite criminologists'best efforts, the ‘evidence on thisissue is mixed. YetKahan has found that both liberals and conservatives react to statistical information about the effects of guncontrol in the same way: they accept wat fits in with the broad beliefs of ‘thei political group, and discount that which doesn't. And again, it's not about IQ: "The more numerate youare, the more distorted ‘your perception of the data,” says Kahan, Weare blinkered on other contentious Issues, too, from the death penalty and drug legalisation to racking and immigration. In, fact, the UK's Brexit vote provides another ‘compelling case study in the distorting power ‘of motivated reasoning. Drawing on responses from more than, 11,000 Facebook users, researchers at the Online Privacy Foundation found that ‘while both Remainers and Brexiteers could accurately interpret statistical information ‘henit came toassessing whethera new skin ‘cream caused arash, thelr numeracy skills “The most numerate people are better at distorting the data to fit their beliefs” abandoned them when looking at stats that undermined rationales for their views—for ‘example, figures on whether immigration is linked toan increase or decrease in crime. Asa result, the facts they encountered didn’ tlead them to update their beliefs in line with the evidence -a weakness the Leave campaign exploited. As Arron Banks, co-founder of the Leave eu group said ina recent interview: "The Remain campaign featured fact, fact, fact, fact fact Itjust doesn’t work. You've got to connect with. people emotionally. It's the Trump success Lewandowsky points to another problem: the lure of conspiracy theories. When it ‘comes to climate change, “you can say’All the sclentists have made a mistake, which isa hard sell, but i's much easier to say "They'reall ‘corrupt says Lewandowsky. His work shows that many people do in fact reject climate ‘change as conspiracy, and they tend to ‘endorsea wide range of other conspiracy theories (see “I's acover-upt" right), Political ideology doesn't explain ‘everything. The bogus link between autisen and the vaccine for measles, mumpsand rubella, while often portrayed asa liberal ‘obsession, cuts across polities. “Opposition to vaccines isa diverse phenomenon, andzesists 30 [Newscientist] 3 December 2015, ‘easy generalisations,” says Nyhan. “There's no demographic actor that predicts who is most ‘vulnerable to ant-vaceine claims.” Wsclear, then, that many of us, f not al, are stuck with blinkers. But how did we get toa point where facts have almost no value? Iecould be down tohovr we get our news. In the immediateaftermath of Trump'selection, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg came in for criticism for effectively runningamedia ‘machine~perhaps the world’s biggest — ‘without the due care that should come with, such a responsibility. In the US, nearly two: thirds of people get news through Facebook, which is programmed to bring you news similar to what you've already seen-often ‘hat the most ideological and politically Wecan'tsee pastourbiases onimmigration andvaccination risks STOP voc HI active peoplein your feed have shared. I’snothard to see how that could havean ‘amplifying effect on motivated reasoning, and therrse of social media might well explain why our problems with facts seem tohave ‘grown more acute, These days, i's easy to drift into echo chambers reverberating not only ‘with news and views that confirm yourbiases, bbutalso falsehoods, rumoursand conspiracy theories jostling with stories from reputable sources, So if we want to restore the power of facts, perhaps its time torethink how news is delivered on the largest scales. But evenifthe social media “fier bubble” is ‘burst and everyone is exposed to inconvenient ‘truths, itmay not be enough. A study of 1700 parents done by Nyhan and Jason Relflerat theIt’s a cover-up! Why wee drawn to conspiracy theories Were the moontandings faked? Was the US government behind the 9/1 attacks? ishuman-caused climate change aliberalhoax? The power af conspiracy theorieshas ever waned- infact aecordingta arecent estimation atleasthalfof ‘the USbelievesinane ormere ot ‘the commonones. Andto some extent, were allsusceptble because conspiratrial thinking stems from universal aspects of human psychology. ‘Therels our propensity tosee threats urking everywhere and to make links between coincidental events. But according toJoanne Miler, apolitical scentstat the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, bitin conspiracy theories isalse fuelled by politically motivated reasoning-a ‘tendency to skew factualinformation according te our pre-existing beliefs and political allegiances (see main story). "Beth conservatives and liberals ae prone to accept conspiracy ‘theories that make the atherside ook bad. says Miller. Butshe has also found that conservatives, especially ‘those who are knowledgeable about poltcs but distrust mainstream authorities are mostlkely to endorse conspiracy theores. Thisreason, suggests Miller, Isthatconspiracy theories are most attractive te those who feel they're onthelesing end of plies. Indeed, Miller has found that inducing this feeling of asing outincreases endorsement f conspiracy theories across thepoitical spectrum, though againthe effectis more pronounced among conservative Republicans - ‘which means Trump's claims that ‘the election wasrigged made perfectsense asa campaign tactic. Now Trumphasbeen elected as US President, we mightsee reversal, says Miller "Liberals and Democrats right become more likely to believe conspiracy theories that make the other side look bad now that they fin themselves thepoltcal losers” University of Exeter, UK, reveals that fact. based messages of the sort often used in public health campaigns don't work—and sometimes have the opposite effect to what ‘was intended, So while messages debunking the claim that the MMR vaccine causes autism, forexample, did reduce beliefin this misconception, they actually decreased intent tovaccinate among parents with unfavourable attitudes towards vaccines. Similarly, images of children suffering from the diseases that MMR prevent led sceptical parents tobe less likely to vaccinate than they were previously. [Nyhan and Reifler allthis the "backfire effect” ‘That is not to say that debunking myths, which became an Olympic sport during the recent US election campaign, isa waste of, time. Nyhan and Reifler found that during. the 2014 midterm elections inthe US, fact- checking improved theaccuracy of people's beliefs, even ifit went against ingrained biases. Democrats would update their beliefs after hhaving aclaim made by a Democrat debunked, and Republicans did likewise Work by Emily Thorson at George ‘Washington University in Washington DC paints similar plecure. She found that misconceptions on issues like how much ofthe US debt China owns, whether there's afederaltime limit for receiving welfare ‘benefits and who pays for Social Security could be fixed bya single corrective statement. ‘Thebad newsis that myth-busting loses its power on more controversial or salient issues. "It's most effective for topics that we're least concerned about as ademocracy,” says Nyhan, “Even the release of President Obama's birth certificate had only limited effecton people's belief that he wasn’t borninthis country.” And Thorson has found that even when corrections work~say getting people to accept thata fictional congressman accused oftaking campaign money from criminals did no such thing -the taint of the earlier Estimates suggest thathalfoof the US population believe inaconspiracy claim often sticks tothe innocent target, imwhat she calls “belief echoes”, Yet Thorson remains upbeat, "I's easy to become pessimistic when we focus on really frustrating cases ike 9/11 conspiracy theories ‘or Obama'sbirthplace,"she says, “but there's stilla lot of room to use facts to change attitudes.” Changing minds Insome cates, the power of fact to persuade might tumon the way they're presented In Unpublished work Nyhan and Reflerhave found that information presented graphically leads people to form more accurate beliefs about the topic inquestion~the effectiveness ‘of Bush's troop surgein aq in 2006/2007, say,orthe state ofthe economy under Gbama than simply reading text about the same topic And this is true even when the people looking overthe graphs have political reasons toreject the conclusions they encourage For Nyhan, itisa simple way of re-packaging information that journalists and the broader media could take into account when reporting stories. ‘Another avenue draws on thea that people ject facts because they threaten the identity builtaround their word view.1s0, buffering selfesteem might reduc that threat. When Nyhan and eile got people toreflectam and write about values that are immportanttothem, anesteer-enhancing intervention called selFafirmation, they found that tcandothe rick -butitseffects arenat uniform, Forinstanc,forRepublicins whose identity is not strongly tied up with theirpary, selfafirmation makes them less likelyto reject caims about climate change, buutamong Republicans who strongly identify with the pany, he intervention either has no effects, or reinforces their belies. Likewise, Millerhasfoundthatself- > December 2016 |NewSélentst 31affirmation increases endorsement of ‘conspiracy theories among conservatives, ‘but not among liberals. Combining graphical information with elfaffirmation also. produces mixed results, dependingon ‘who you're dealing with Until recently, researchers had found no personality trait that mitigates motivated reasoning, But earlier this year, Kahan discovered something intriguing about people who seek out and consume scientific Information for personal pleasure, atraithe ‘alls scientific curiosity. Having devised a scale formeasuring this walt, heand his colleagues found that, unlike sientificliteraey, scientific curiosity is linked to greater acceptance of >human-caused climate change, regardless ‘of politcal orientation, On ahost of issues, from attitudes to porn and the legalisation ‘of marijuana, to immigration and fracking, scientificcuriosity makes both liberals and ‘conservatives converge on views closerto ‘what the facts say, Perhaps even more encouragingly, Kaban’s team found that scientifically curious people were also more eager to read views ‘that clashed with those oftheir political tribe, So finding ways o increase scientificcuriosity, 32 NewScentst|3 December 2015, perhaps by increasing the influence of people ‘with this trait, could take the heat out of partisan disputes more effectively than, promoting scientific literacy Kahan sees other glimmers of hope. One right be to exploit what he cals “cognitive dualism’, the ability to hold two seemingly contradictory beliefsat the same time. It's phenomenonat play inthe recent Pew survey “Asking about climate changeis akin to asking ‘whose side are you on? ‘onclimate change: just 5 percentof conservative Republicans agreed that human activity was causing climate change, but 27 per ‘ent agreed that if we changed our ways to limit carbon emissions it would make big difference intackling climate change, The same cognitive dualism is evident among US farmers. A2013 survey of farmers in Mississippi, North Carolina, Texasand Wisconsin found that only aminority accepted climate change as fact, eta ‘majority in each state believed that some From gun controtte climate change, our existing beliefs skew how we see the facts farmers will be driven outof business by climate change, and the rest will have to change current practices and buy more insurance against climate-induced crop fallures. By buying crops genetically ‘engineered to cope with climate change and purchasing specialist insurance policies, many of them already have The psychological underpinnings ofthis “quantum mental state’ in Kahan’s words, are mysterious, he says, but i's important because itsuggests that people can think about factual issues at very different levels, depending on theextent to which the issue is bound up with their identity. Kahan thinks that asking people about human-caused climate changes akin to asking “Who are you, and whose side are you ‘on?", which is why political identity makes sucha difference to theiranswers, But when yyoustart talking about climate changeasa local, personal issue, itlosesits political edge and becomes a more pragmatic concer, “When issues are wrapped up innational lectoral politics, they havea resonance that divides people,” says Kahan. "So you want to depolitieise things along onedimension to acilitate action at anotherlevel.” Taking polsonous partisan polities out of factual issues like climate change s part ‘of what Kahan cals “detoxifying the seience- ‘communication environment”. Amajor pollutant ofthis ecosystem, argues Lewandowsky, isthe influence of dark money in politics. A2013 study by Robert Brulle at Drexel University, Philadelphia, found that between 2003 and 2010, $558 million was funnelled through third-party “pass through” ‘organisations, which hide the source of money, toclimate-denial groups. "We have to talk about these anti-democraticinfluences and how they affect public discourse,” says, Lewandowsky. Sols there any hope for facts? Restoring their power is not going tobe easy. But despite the challenges, Nyhan cautions against despondency. “I's important not tooverstate what'sdifferent about today from the past, when there were other ways of circulating misinformation,” he says. Although slower than today's nstant-access 24-hour news and all-consuming social media, they still allowed politicians to introduce false claims into the national debate. “There was no Golden Age of democracy ‘when facts dominated public opinion or political discourse,” says Nyhan, “But we've survived nonetheless", Danjones writer basedin Brighton, UX¥ ’ 7 SPECIAL REPORT ALCOHOL | Binging is bad, but the odd drink never did any harm - right? Helen Thomson distils the facts about alcohol r health ERAISEa glass tocelebrate, sip wine (semis while catching up with fiends. Alcohol plays central role in ocialisingin ‘many cultures especially at this ime of year. InDecember, consumption s 41 percent higherin the UK than during heather months. Yetthe warm glow of holiday tipple may be tempered by a growing awareness ofalcohols harms. Drinking can increase your rskof cancer, stroke andliver disease Ttexacerbates the harms of smoking, can undermine your immune system, impair ‘your judgement and make you more likely Tohave risky sex, injure yourself or hurt someone else. Each year alcohol-related crime costs the UKa whopping En billion, and the country’s National Health Service spends £3 billion treating alcohol-related medical issues. That's not to mention the £73 billion hangover inlost workdays. Soar, soclear. Booze is bad, But what about the steady trickle of findings that suggest, n moderate amounts, it may have some benefits Thereis the seductive story of red wine taving off dementia, and the finding _ that regular drinking decreases yourrskof E heart disease and premature death. Do these § stories stand up? Inother words, can wereally £ naisea glassto ourhealth? | Fist letsfacethefacts. Accordingto > December 2036 |NewScientst 133Weekly guidelines The definition of a"standar tink’ or unit of alcohol and the recommended limit par week varies around the worl Standard eink (gramsetpureakohol) emany| eta New Zealona Poland the World Health Organization, 33 million deaths worldwideare atributable to alcohol ‘each year. The WHO dlassifiesalcohol asa ‘group 1 carcinogen, alongside asbestos and plutonium. That's because regularly drinking three units a day a premium pint oflageror large glass of wine-can cause seven types of ‘cancer, including those of the mouth, breast and bowel, as wellas increasing your risk of liver disease. Across the different types of ‘cancer, that risk ends torise with each additional daily drink ‘Amajor part of the problem comes from. ‘a chemical called acetaldehyde, whichis produced as our body breaks down alcohol ‘Acetaldehyde damages DNA and prevents our ‘ells from repairing this damage, leading to ‘cancer. And while our liver is fairly hardy ‘organ, its superb ability toreplace damaged cells while healthy is limited by chronic ‘alcohol consumption. Too much booze can also produce abuild up of fatty acids inthe liver, which eventually results in liver disease. So how muchis too much? Publichealth officials hedgeby saying that thereisnosafe” level of drinking, and some studies indicate ‘evenone drink day can increase therisk of ‘cancer. The UK government recently updated its guidance, recommending no more than ‘gunitsa week-the equivalent of six pints of beer spread evenly overthree days or more ‘This was basedon findings that showed 34 | Newscientist] 3Decembe: 2015 Equivalent Weely guidelines inpinsot eabeer Weekly guidelines ferwomen fermen 152 therisk forinjury and disease significantly increases above that level Pregnant women are advised to avoid alcohol completely. Itdidn't go down well. Even though alcohol consumptionand binge drinking have been declining in recent years (see "Down in one”, page 39), people were up inarms hat their suggested weekly limits were being cut again. ‘Over the past 4o years, the upper limit in UK {guidelines has fallen sharply-in979, twas 56 units a week—about 24 pints or23 glasses of, ‘wine. "These limits are about a vague national self-image of puritanism, not health,” declared Simon Jenkins in The Guardian. Glass half-full Itdidn'thelp that in other countries the {guidelines for low-risk drinking are, for the ‘most part, more lenient than those of the UK. They arealso very different, evendown towhat constitutes a unit of alcohol or "standard drink” (see“Weekly guidelines’, above). In Austria, one drink can have up to 20 gramsof alcohol init. Inthe UK, is just B grams. Guidelines also vary in whether they are daily or weekly limits, And some countries like Canada, make allowances for an extradrink on special occasions. This lack ‘of agreement merely shows how difficult t isto pinpointa safe evel ‘What's more, many countries have different guidelines for menand women, Inthe UK, the new limits apply to everyone. That's because even ifthe route toharm is different, when youllook atthe health hazards foreach sex the statistics start balancing out, says Petra Meierat the University of sheffield, Uk, one of the researchers whose work informed the new guidelines. Alcohol does affect men and women differently-wornen ‘metabolise it more quickly, so havea higher bloodalcohol concentration after drinking the same amount. Women are also at higher isk forsomealcohol-elated cancers, Butmenare ‘more frequent binge drinkers and tend to ‘engage in more risky behaviour when drinking. “Accounting for allthe outcomes, it's so similarthat thereisn’ta good base for saying men can drink more,” says Meter. (One thing national guidelines can’t dos take into account how risk varies between individuals, Lots of things determine how bad alcohol i for exch of us, from social circumstances to mental health issues. Even ‘our genes may play apart: studies in mice show associations between particular genes and propensity to drink alcohol. "Knock out ‘that gene inanimals and they become heavy drinkers,” says Klaus Miczek at Tufts University inMedford, Massachusetts.In humans, several studies have shown that certain variations of genes~ specifically those that drive cycles of sleep and wake~cancauseaperson to havea higher risk of alcoholism. “There are other things thatthe guidelines can‘taddress—how drinking acertain amount of units affects someone's family, or their risk of criminal activity or thei isk to other people,” says Meler.It wouldbe difficultto come up with recommendations around those things that were applicable toeveryone.” Guidelines are designed to get people drinking less. And that can have tremendous benefits: In the Soviet Union in 1985, life expectancy atbirth increased by two years ina ingle calendar year—largely because of reduction in deaths from cardiovascular disease, This leap was atributed toa campaign by communist party leader Mikhail Gorbachev toloweralcohol consumption, Pass the bottle But when researchers compared intake and health with that of other countries, they were befuddled. At the time, the Soviet Union had high levels of heart disease and the highest consumption of alcohol in any OECD country. But Prance, the country with the second highest consumption, had surprisingly low levels of cardiovasculardisease. The finding didn’t square ith studies showing diminishing heart health with increasing alcohol consumption either. Researchers were bemused - they called it the "French paradox” Partofthe reason for the disparity washow they looked at drinking, considering only the total consumedina week, without looking at The recommended when peopledrank.The French were more UKaalcohelconsumption likely to consume alcohol as wine with limitisnowthe same for meals, whereas the Soviets drank more menandwemen splritsand binged at the weekends. Then these differences were taken into account, stzevealed that bingeing was significantly detrimental to cardiovascular health. The French paradox alsoled people to look into whether drinking alcohol has any beneficial effects. There are now more than 100 studies that show alink between, having just one or twodrinks day anda decreased riskof heart attack, stroke and sudden cardiac death, Some alsosuggest that smallamounts of alcohol can decrease your risk of gallstones and type diabetes, ‘The key hereis moderation. Ameta-analysis of s studies that followed more than 300,000 people for 12 years found none of these benefits for those who consumed more than fourdrinks a day. ‘These potential benefits make sense wa biologically Moderate drinking seems to boost the amount of high-density lipoproteins (HDL) inourblood. These cruise around getting rid of low-density lipoproteins, which tend to promote the formation of fatty deposits in our arteries, so high levels of HDL may reduce the risk ofheart disease, ‘One study in monkeys supports this idea: sixmonths of regular moderate intake of alcohol was associated with improved levels of HDI, and this wasn’t seen in animals given alcohol in binges or no alcohol a all. In humans, providing solid evidence of alink between regular drinking and heart health hasbeen moredifficult.Torun a controlled trial you would have to ask people to drink acertainamount every day formany years, something thatis impractical f not unethical Soiinstead, researchers look or trends in people's drinking habits and health markers overtime, Shue Huang at Pennsylvania State University and her colleagues recently analysed alcoholintakeand cholesterol > December 2016 NewScentst 135levels of mare than 80,000 Chinese adults ‘over six years. Those who drank moderately - ‘one drink per day for women and two formen— ‘maintained higherlevels of HDLovertimethan ‘those who abstained or drank more heavily. Unfortunately, Huang’s study is subject tothe same pitfalls as other observational studies. People who drink in moderation also tend to exercise regularly, haveahealthy weight and get adecent amount of sleep, all reasons they may have better heart health. ‘Additionally, many studies don’t differentiate between never-drinkers and those who have given up drinking. The health issues of people who have quit may undermine data ‘onnon-drinkers,and serveto exaggerate the benefits seen in others, ‘Another pitfall is that when people are reporting how much they drink, they underestimate both how much alcoholisin their beverages, and how many they have across week. Self-reported consumption is ‘well below the level calculated from alcohol sales data and may be off by as much as 40 per ‘cent, according to the UK Departmentof Health, That amounts to one additional large glass of wine each day. This ll makeitvery difficult to tease out which benefits are ‘actually down to aleohol consumption, Everything in moderation ‘When studies have tried tocontrol variables including level of physical activity, number of friends and socio-economicstatus, they havereached different conclusions. After factoring in demographics, lifestyle, family background and health history, Michael Frenchat the University of Miami, Florida, found that there were protective effects of ‘moderate alcohol consumption, particularly ‘among women. Yethe says there are many factors that are harder to take into account. “It could be that those who drink moderately livea moderate lifestyle,” he says. "Maybe they're moderate in their work-family balance, for instance. Perhapsit’sthat which helps theirheart.ifthat’s thecase, itis merely an indicator of living balanced life” One consistent findingis that the benefit is more pronounced inolder people, says Annie Britton, an epidemiologist at University College London. "They have a higher risk ‘of heart disease soit may be that the alcohol has more to work with, which is why yousee moreofaneffect But there isno consensus that a certain 36 [NewScientist|3December 2015, amount of alcohol is good for your heart “There are people who are passionate that there are health benefits, and there are others ‘who are equally passionate that it isall down, toervorsin the data,” says Britton, What about tales that red wine might prevent cognitive decline? tis packed with resverattol, ‘a chemical thought to protect against the effects of stress and.a poor diet by activating a group of enzymes that affect gene expression Ithas also been linked toa reduction in age- related conditions such as arthritis, macular degeneration and dementia, but many of these studies have been in animals. Last year, though, Scott Turnerat Georgetown University Medical Center in Washington DC put tt the test in humans, His team gave 9 people with mild to ‘moderate symptoms of Alzheimers disease eithera resveratrol ill ora placebo twice a day fora year. Over time, the placebo group's Alzheimer’s symptoms worsened, and there ‘were changes in their blood biomarkers. ‘Those taking resveratrol had fewer symptoms ‘and showed littleorno change inthe blood ‘biomarkers, One small catch: to consume the same amount of resveratrol, you would have to.glug about i000 bottles of red wine a day. ‘The story is similarly underwhelming when itcomes to claims that champagne may help stave off dementia, Spatial memory is one of the first things to be affected by Alzheimer's disease, soitisno surprise thata study suggesting that this type of memory can be improved by phenolicacids in champagne made viral headlines. Unfortunately, that was only found that tobe true in rats. Par more research has tobe done before the samecan besaid for humans Iitseems like none of the reported benefits stand up, there isat least evidence forone straightforward perk we have all heard: small tipple makes iteasier to solve problems that require creative solutions. ‘Andrev Jarosz, now at Mississippi State University Starkville, and his colleagues had 4omendo a battery of memory tests, then ‘grouped them into pairs with roughly the same working memory capacity. They asked one of each pair todrinka vodka andExercise seemstohelp younegate the effects of yourbeers f w 2.5 million The people in the UK who recently drank more than the recommended weekly limitin asingle session, Itis equivalent to about six pints Running it off People in England and Scotland who drink moderately anddo last 7 5noursof exercise Der week havea salle eltiverisk of yng from Cancer ancheartcsease than dnkers who co Titleornoexercse Exercise (hours aweet) Less than 75 More tnan75 More than 15 Cardiovascular disease mortality 2 Relative sk ° 2 Os { i ; ; ee se oe oF SF é "pete | oa - 6.15 Equivaletingits Derweek <3 i il cranberry, then had both try to solve series of word problems. Those who drank were better at solving problems that required ‘thinking outside of the box. The theory is that alcohol reduces your working memory capacity, nother words, your ability tofocus onone thing while blocking out peripheral information. By lowering these walls, your mind can wander, ‘making novel connections that would. otherwise be overlooked, Theevidence may be thin thatthe odd drink can beaboon, but you might at least be able to counteract its damage. One way is exercise. Arecent look at data from 36,370 ‘menand women aged 4o years and over shoved that in people who did litte tono exercise, there wasa direct relationship between alcohol intakeand cancer risk. But in ‘those who drank moderately and did atleast ‘75 hours of activity a week~ from walking or {gardening to more rigorous exercise—the risk of death from cancer or heart disease was decreased (see“Running itoft, left) ‘Abreak from booze might also help Inwork in press, Gautam Mehta and his colleagues at University College London studied 100 people who took part in "Dry January”~a campaign by UK charity Alcohol Concern that encourages people to give up alcohol fora month. Mehta's team analysed the participants before and after their abstinence and found that it reduced their blood pressure, weight and markers of insulin resistance, key factorin diabetes. When small group of New Scientist employees ‘teamed up with Rajiv Jalanat University College London Medical School to testa similar period of abstinence, they found hints ‘that liver fat—which ean prelude liver damage might also fall when you stop drinking. “Any time off alcohol can only bea good thing.” says Mehta, “But in terms of how ‘much you need to completely reset the body, 'simpossible to say” Whileit’s clear that there's no “safe” amount todrink, a smal tipple could nevertheless get your creativity going and might just might - benefit yourheart in old age. ifyoudon't exceed recommended limits, avoid bingeing and try to exercise for atleast an houra day, ‘you should keep your long-term hangovertoa ‘minimum. Cheers! Helen Thomson sa consultant for New Scientist If youste worried about your drinking habits or those ofoloved one visiterikaworecouk => December 2015 NewScentst|37SPECIALREPORT ALCOHOL Generation clean Young adults are increasingly choosing to stay sober. What is driving the trend, asks Jon White? 118 tabyboomersmaybe parsing VU testers of wine oldbegondor them young adulsare qu tumngsnay male Site anrdcorenlunge hei btmore andimorearechosngtobetcettaandchose hod nae onateagedonglesotl Thathaspublcheahcapers teasing ther godiaciftiliespietakesold thot bemany heath benef om tener aces andlssalcel uted Voence oredce idence {dterandear dues decaesto come Sovhaisspuring young pepl CSahun accel ani conue Themove wy rmbootes stein thotsbombctcen theca ngosand mad tooo the gematiotnown milena Tepestrilenlasorgeneation®}ae Coninungand ren eepening te end This snapteof theft tha aol sro scott been a decades Inlingindrunenness om tary adulhood-onceateotpusoge isn dealneacossmanydeveopedcouncsn the Utinaoos ugly we binsof people sgedi6 ong danke eek efore B20 teivasdonmtolss ten al utiwo:hdstpeopleaged 4564s drnkreglry accngc tne OX Ofc for Nato states nf og menaged Sstoravere morte aman sberage frouptodrikmorethon rung of eee Seckcabou opntsefbeer-thesdvsd “pperimitathe ime That init hance enctopped tongue abou spins TntheU® akenelinakehns been deine among censsncehiting eng iomuththesamein aus epecaly tong thovebombetween9gsan999 “aatuttant generator shitisunder way styshames Sle AcoholReserch Ur surenfatethat hissed 38 [Newscientist] 3Decembe: 2015 not the result ofa few teetotallers skewing the stats. Nt only are more of these age ‘groups saying they are teetotal but people ‘who do drink are binge drinking less often, ‘tis clear itis notjusta flash in the pan,” says Robin Room, who studies alcohol policy at the University of Melbourne, Australia, Justsayingno Why ate younger people drinking less? Its impossibleto ignore the role of new financial pressures. Millennials in many places are loaded with student deb, have faced recessions, areliving nan eraof greater job insecurity, ‘widening income inequality and lsorising housing costs ‘Additionally for them, socialising no longer requires meeting ina pubor bat. They can group chat from bedrooms via laptops, tabletsand smartphones.When youare communicating with your friends online youenot usualy standingaround at somebody’shouse party drinking alcohol,” says psychologist ean Twenge at San Diego State University inCalifernia, who wrotea ‘book on millennial culture, Generation Me. These trends are picking up steam with the generation born in i995 nd after. Underage drinking inthe UK is declining in away that mirrors the young adult rend (see’“None for me", right). n Australia, the most dramatic recent declinesare in 3 and 4-yearolds ‘The fact that smartphoneshave cameras mayalso inhibit alcohol use because people fear appearing drunk n photos posted online forallto se. Beersmaker Heineken acknowledged as much ina report in anuary. It concluded that “selfawarenessand stayingin, contol” are the main motivations for reduced drinking onanightout ormillennials Another factoris the increasingly cosmopolitan nature of Western populations, Percentage of11t015-yearolds whe havehadan alcoholic eink None forme Underage alcohol consumptioninEnglandhas sropped significantly over the past decade esis 70 60 so 40 30 20 2005 Boys 2008 zou 204Alcoholisn'tcentralto social ifefora growing ‘numberof young people 1in6 The proportion of people around the world who regularly binge drink asthey incorporate newcomers from cultures where drinking is less common, London not only has the most diverse population in the UK, butat more than 30 per cent, the highest concentration of people who are teetota. Then theres the idea of a backlash to the excesses of your elders. This has been dubbed the Ab ab or Safly theory in reference tothe stralght-laced daughter of ahard-drinking character in UK comedy Absolutely Fabulous. Drinking by the baby boomer generation, born between 1946 nd 1964, and their successors in generation X, the last of whom were born in 1980, haseither risen or remained high in recent decades. Younger generations bucking such trends would be the reverse of 960s counter culture, when those coming of age rebelled against the straight- laced ways of their parents, ‘Other possible factors are that public health messages have become more effective, ‘clampdown on under-age sales stopped bad habits setting in, and attitudes about aleohol among parents have shifted. In2004,27 per cent of 11 to 15-year-olds said their parents provided them with aleohol. By 2014, that was down to 7 percent. No rolling over Ws likely that ll of these elements contribute tosomeextent, but it’s hard to pin down which ate most important, That’sa problem for publichealth officials, becauseabetter understanding could help guide strategies toensure the trend endures, When you look atthe illness, death and crime attributed toalcohol consumption, the payoff for maintaining itt alow levelis potentially huge interms of lives and money saved and pressures eased on healthcare systems, But the industry won'tjust rollover. It ‘markets hard on social media and runs viral campaigns that reach millions. Alcohol advertising may notbe winning over zillennialsat the moment, butts influence shouldn't be underestimated. Inthe UK, spending on alcohol advertising rose from £150 million to £250 million annually between 1989 and 2000, Over the same period, weekly alcohol consumption by people aged 11t015, years rose ina correlated manner, even ifthey ‘weren't the target audience. ‘Can publichealth experts stop the industry upending the decline? “If youraise the price of alcohol, witha minimum unit price for example, you can gently discourage Down in one veal binge rrking sin decine in age part thanks te the youngest generations cheasing to abstain 30 15t024 we B5t068 Per cent binge inking the previous week ‘Sand over “tts suey binge ing mas ened as ang nse moredrinking,” says Raom. In Scotland, politicians re attempting todo ust that.In 2o%2 they agreed a minimum price of 5op per ‘unit ofaleohol-what amounts toa minimum price of £1 fora sooml can of beer, or £14 fora bottle of spirits. Wine and whisky industry groups promptly challenged this, but in October, the minimum price was upheld by Scotland's highest court. The drinks groups are expected to appeal to the UK's Supreme Cour, Alison Douglas from the charity Alcohol Focus Scotland sees shades of tobacco industry ‘tactics. “The health of the people must come before the profits of big business,” she says ‘Much is a stake. Substantial health gains of| the younger, drier generations are unlikely to show themselves fora few years because of the long-term natureof chroniciliness linked to alcohol, but no one doubts they will emerge. “Ifconsumption starts to rise again this could ‘be undone,” says Nicholls. But Twenge s optimistic that moderate drinking is here to stay “Ifyou think about the causes here Idon’t think any of them are going away." she says, Jon Wihiteis comment ecitor at New Scientist 3December 2016 |NewSclentst|39Wish you could get that plastic tat to vanish once the festive season's done? Granted, says Sandrine Ceurstemont OUNG energetic ndeanshaven Y sspears orsantaclas Justa we he makes toysieapper The scm wor’ ste consumer trent contrbtestoalobal cites Tein plane up ons reck nog ting Pasian tocar acorns ent imate awash eithsomeso milion omnes stthestutt what we vuln peor thatcouldtanform ntesometing ee all Spmorevenvanshfogetes Inns bat eon tte Uniesy, Pais eomthe cee. Memakepascobectedeppearal he times hestys Peshapsttwon belong eto theseason's musts toy comes tsuinpedmhaselrdesuc baton Dattoday's plastics are not json chitas Indeed her delta Toweostmean that many everday objects tredzstined ohang around fordecdes Mecanenygussathowongsome sts Suvieintndf butinmany eae Extendsbeyondthesoyeusorsowe been producing anddiscarding tem ona pend Fate we rej pls tending Gbtabnsa tel cere enn eeee {ontcomponens Anderenthen te rerlingmivof har pass that sally Cersareglngstremcrestesapymer souppeppereditharows jean solvent Soweendoporthahuntot nk plas Cnlyforasingl false tea prk bench Twas that nba ie probien ather than 40 | NewScient |aDecember2015 any Scrooge-like tendencies, that prompted Phillips to try todesign self-destructing toys “I’sanice place to start minimising the accumulation of plasticwaste."he says. The firs step is some basic chemistry. Research in the past few years has produced new sorts of polymers, the long, chain-like ‘molecules that make up plastis. These polymers arejust as durableas conventional ‘onesin normal use, but contain chemical unitsat points within them, orattheirends, ‘that prompt the material to break up at room, ‘temperature when it meets particular stimalus. Phillips's lab has been developing plastics that break down in ultraviolet light ~ not ideal for toys, but good for components not exposed to sunlight, for example on the inside of electronic devices. He has alsobeen looking at plastics that disintegrate on contact with chemicals they don’tencounterin daily use, such as fluoride or hydrogen peroxide. Destruction trigger ‘One challengeis ensuring that the self- destruct signal spreads from a plastc’s surface right through the material. Here, Phillips and his colleagues were inspired by plants such as the Venus flytrap, wherea fleeting touch toa leafcausesa change inthe whole plant. “We are building self propagating reactions into ‘our materials,” says Phillips. na proof-of- concept design, one molecular component ofawater-repelling polymer film reacts toa specifie wavelength of light, starting a chemical reaction that spreads through the whole polymer and turns it hydrophilic. Phillips has also been building plastic objects from layers that react to different triggers, so that applying a sequence of ‘them makes the objects change shape. These ‘morphing materials might not quite make a real-life Transformer toy, but Phillips thinks they could be useful for creating adaptive tools: think bolts and washers that shrink to fit range of screws or that change from rigid to rubbery. Otherplastics can be engineered togiveoutachemical orlight signal as they breakdown, with potential applications in ‘medicine. Another innovative byproduct isa propulsion system: one of Phillips's plastics springs forward because it releases carbon dioxide as it decomposes. Phillipsis not alone in trying to make plastics vanish. At the University of the West cof England in Bristol, UK, loannis leropoulos _gandhis colleagues want to avoid rigid plastics ind toxic power supplies for the rabots they redeveloping. Instead, they plan tobuild ‘them from soft, biodegradable polymers such aslatex orcollagen, with microbial fuel cells thatextract energy from waste liquids such as rine, “The materials we choose and their properties indicate the lifetime of the whole thing,” says eropoulos. The team hopes to develop tricks to change the expiry date of such plastics, perhaps by embedding substances that will ooze out or self-destruct inresponse toa signal ifthe robot gets lost ‘Meanwhile, ames Hedrick from IBM Research in an ose, California, and his team were looking for new materials to use in computer hardware when they developed a gentler chemical process to break down both, PET plastics, commonly used in drink bottles, and the hard plastics used in smartphonesand CDs that usually end up in landfill. catalysts used in existing recycling processes leave heavy metals in the plasticthat have to be removed since they are toxicand affect ts structure. The new process creates pure product, allowing the resulting molecules to bbe turned into even higher value polymers, for use in composites and in medical applications like drug delivery.”Now when [Took t bottle "The toilet might eventually be the ideal garbage disposal unit for plastic” I don’t see garbage, Isee a feedstock for all ‘ypesof new materials,” says Hedrick The ‘teamis speaking to potential partners about commercialising the process. ‘With Phillips's plastics, mass production is stilla long way off: they are slightly texicand ‘too expensive. Buthe thinks his materials, could be put to immediate use as self. destructing adhesives, Small amounts of the polymers can double as glue on a range of materials lke glass, metal and plastic, and they are justas strong as conventional adhesive. "What's neat is that ours can also bbe reversed,” says Phillips. "By applying a signal, the object you've glied together ‘will fall apart." Joost Duflowat the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium hasalso developed a low-cost polymer glue that can bond the components ofa television, and falls apart only when a particular amount of force Is applied. uch materials might soon havea ready market: European Union laws being drafted could mean gadgets mustbe designed ‘odisintegrateat the end of their lives. Phillips imagines a further, perhaps unexpected boon from his particular plastics. While his ultimate goals to createa vanishing plastic that emits nothing but inert gases when it decays, many of hose developed s0fardecompose in liquids-meaning the toilet might be an ideal general garbage disposal unit. Imagine plastics that respond toa signal from sewer-dwelling bacteria, or even components in urine, so parents can take ‘unusual vengeance on an annoying toy by peeing on it Not that Phillips wants to make splash with that particularidea, “Itoften creeps people out when mention ithe says. Sandrine eurstemont $2 writer basedin Moraceo 3December2026 |NewScientst 42PEOPLE Use a toad to catch a quake The world's first seismoscope was created in AD 132 by polymath Zhang Heng, but did his legendary device really work? The evidence is shaky, finds Andrew Robinson spata metal ballintothemouth ofa bronze toad crouching patiently beneath iandofficals atthe courtofthe Hanemperor were astonished, And sceptical too:this ‘Supposedly revealed that ancarthquakewas hhappening elsewhere inChina, yet they fltno tremorsin he capital Luoyang Sure enough, Justa few days later, gallopinghorsemen broughtnewsofadestructivecarthquake intongx 700 kilometresaway. "Upon this everyone admitted the mysterious power of theinstrument,”orsothe story goes from thenon,offiialsin the Bureawof Astronomy andCalendar were required tonote he ‘occurrence nd direction of earthquakes inthe imperial realm indicated by this, the world’s first seismoscope China has kept records of earthquakes since at east 780 BC-longer than any other country ~andhas suffered the two deadliest ‘quakes inhistory.So perhaps it’s unsurprising tata Chines offical, Zhang Heng should hhavebeen the first tocreatea selsmoscope, around AD 12 Hissteiking story istoldin the hroniclesof the Hou Han shu (theistory of theLaterHan dynasty). ‘And whata device twas, Shaped ike an urn some metres actos, itscurved bronze case was adorned with eight éragons'headsand toads oriented in the rections ofthe compass ‘The postion ofthe dragon that eeasedits ballindcated the direction of an earthquake's epicentre Zhang called it houfeng didongy: literally. a“wind-observing earth-movement instrament” less literaly an “earthquake vweathercock: He believed earthquakes were linked toalr movement, especialy stom winds encountering obstacles, suchas (Castes 42 [NewSclentist|3 December 2015 ‘mountains. The chief reason for detecting ‘earthquakes, thought Zhang, was because they ‘were heavenly omens indicating misconduct of government officials. “The heavens crack, ‘and theearth shakes," Is one of many Chinese ‘sayings about high politics and everyday life. ‘After a particular earthquake shook the capital, Zhang submittedastatementto Emperor Shun describing the disaster asa divine commenton the failure of anew policy for recruiting the talented and virtuous for audience were prime candidates, but glared at ‘Zhang so menacingly that he thought better ‘of nominating them, Nevertheless, they later slandered him to the emperor, soitwas ‘not surprising that his career encountered periodic setbacks. Hereflected upon his travallsin someofhis many poems, which ‘won him literary fame, such as these closing. lines from his final composition, written during his retirement: "IfTset my mind free beyond the common world / Why care for office. if movements withintheearthwere worldly glory or disgrace?” portents of corruption within the court, an, instrument todetect earthquakes might Heavenly ins; greatly assist the emperor. The imperial ‘eumuchs advisers with the earof the ‘emperor~probably felt differently. Onone occasion, the young emperor was said to have summoned Zhang to his chambers and asked hhimtoname the most despisedmen inthe kingdom. The eunuchs present during the Zhang spentthefirst few decades ofhislife farfrom the centre of imperil power, He wasbornin AD 78 toadstingushed but not wealthy family and was tun 2 that he was summoned tothe captalby Emperor An Tobecomeajunioroffical asa result of hs broadlearaing Zhang then worked hs way up theranks including takinga stintas imperial astronomer astrologer Inepired bythe heavens he wrote thes cear Chinese description ofthe celestial sphere including theedstorand suns apparent path during 3 the year Hetsalsosaldtohavedesigned the wor’ Mrst water poreredarcllary sphere — the carliestinalong lineofwater-driven astronomical clocks in China Zhang finally pecamea palace attendant in 34 allowing ‘One of many variationsontheseismoscope, in London’sNaturalHistory Museumcollection 2 him to offer personal advice to the emperor, Despitehis many talents Zhang's attitude | toautoritypreventedhisbecoming the official court historian. He opposed the idea Sfavouredby the emperorand certainofficals- of revising the Chinese calendarand compiling the history oftheltan dynasty according tosome apocryphal teachings akin tothe prophecies of Nostradamus. 136, perhaps asa result of increasing political pressure, ‘Zhanglleft the capital and became the chief administrator ofa princely kingdom, and in 138 retired toa peaceful life of scholarship inhis home town, But notforlong. He was recalled to the capital, now with the rank of imperial secretary, but died shortly thereafter, {n139. Whether the dramatic success of his houfeng didongyiwas a factor inhis recalls, alas, unrecorded. Whatever the truth, the enigmatic seismoscope ishis enduring legacy. It remains mystery partly because it vanished without trace and partly because seismologists still cannot agree on its inner mechanism, While the Hou Han Shu speaks volumes on the device's outer appearance, itcontainsonly a ‘minimal description ofthe innards: "A central column capable of lateral displacement along tracks in the eight directions [soarranged as to operate] closing and opening mechanism” {in thedragons’ mouths. According to historian Christopher Cullen, an authority on ancient Chinese science, “The description ofthe device that has come downto usis sufficiently etailed tohaveled to numerousattempts at reconstruction, but not clear enough to enable any ofthe attempts to be taken as definitive.” Surely, the central column wasa sensitive pendulum. Yet, seismologists have no clue hhow the complete mechanism could have kept ‘mechanical friction low enough to detect tiny ZhangHengpicturedwithascalemodel ofhis"earthquakeweathercock™ ‘movements of the ground more sensitively ‘than ahumancould. Toadd tothe uncertainty, wecan never know ifthe seismoscope's famous quake detection happened as chronicled in the How Han Shu, which was completed around 440, centuries after Zhang's death, Suspiciously, thedetection goes unmentioned in an earlier history, the Hou Han ji, source ofthe How Han Shu’s description of the device, Moreover, the later document lists seven earthquakes between 132, when the seismoscope was made, and 139. And although one of these quakes, in 138, caused destruction in Longxi, the record clearly states that the tremors were also felt in ‘the capital. Cullen suspects the detection story is "fan fiction’, inspired by admiration for “Was the quake-detection story ‘fan fiction’ inspired by mechanical creativity?” Zhang's undoubted mechanical creativity These doubts haven't stopped many experts in China Japanand elsewhere attempting reconstruct the seismoscope. In China museum curator WangZhenduo modelled it twice: in 1836 ith aconventionallpendalum and inthe 9sos withan inverted pendulim, |, Nether responded torealearthquakes, inching the devastating Tangshan quake of + 1976, which killed hundreds of thousands of . people. This quake caused tremors in Beijing, ‘where the second of Wang's models was kept "During the past decade oro, Chinese Academy of Sciences team led by retired 4 geophysicstFeng Rui has bultand tested a handsome new model with conventional pendulum that is now prominent displayed in Beijing's Science and Technology Museum But thas yetto detect an earthquake, including the great Sichuan quake of 2008 ‘Another model, inondon's Natural History Museu collection (pictured, et, madefora BBCTV programme in the 1970s rom Wang's 1936 design has fuled to detect an earthquake, too=less surprisingly, given the UK's seismic stability Nevertheless the model's popularity suggests thatthe puzzle of Zhang's unique invention continues tofascinate not only China,butalsothe restofthe world ® Andrew Robinson isthe author of Earth-Shattring Events: Earthquakes nations and (Thames & Hudson) December 2015 |NewsSclentst| 43CULTURE Good times, bad times How much of physics is real, and how much of reality is physics, asks Richard Webb Now: The physics of time ay Rchard A, Mller Wet Norton, $27.85; Realty is Not What it Seems: The Journey to quantum gravity by Carlo oval Allen Lane, £16; (ism: The future of quantum physics by Hans Cvistian von Baeyer, Harvard University Press, $24.95: Fashion, Faith and Fantasy inthe New Physics of the Universeby Roge Penrose, Princeton Universit Press, $2995 WHAT fraction of what you know thatis importants physics?” Richard A. Muller strikes ‘an unexpected note with this ‘question towards the end of his book Now. Aveteran of particle physics and cosmology behind atleast two Nobel-prizewinning strands of research, Mullerisn’t pouring cold water onan entire discipline, But heis addressing theme that, one way or another, exercises himand the authors of three other majornew books: how ‘much of physicsisreal,and how much of eality is physics? There's reason enough for the navel-gazing. Inone sense fundamental physics is flowering like never before. In another, itis inone ofits deepest funks. The past five years have een three ‘reat experimental advances: the discoveries of the Higgs boson and gravitational waves, as well as the Planck satellite's meticulous ‘measurements of the cosmic microwave background. But all have served to confirm existing pictures of reality: the standard ‘model of particle physics based ‘onquantum field theory, and the 44 [NewScertst3 December 2015, standard cosmological model ofa bigbang universe rooted in Einstein's theory of gravity, the general theory of relativity, Yet the deficiencies of those two theories are obvious. Not only do they contradict each other, they contradict how we feel reality should behave. Can we do better? ‘Muller's starting point s time, the most obvious place where our perception of reality and the description given by ourphysical theories diverge. Relativity robbed reality of flowing time that neatly separates past from future. Itdenies the existence of any privileged spot from which we can measure time's passage. How cana physical theory predict things so at odds with our experience? In Mullerswords, _saidofCarloRovell’spetidea, _least, help ustoonderand predict physicsshouldexplainwhatwe Authoroflastyeay bestseller _the world’s workings, seeinreality notcontradictit. Seven Brief Lessons on Physics, ach has required sometimes Hisisathoughtful,thought- Rovelliisaleadinglightinloop cherished preconceptions to be provokingandaccessiblebook quantum gravity, theoretical reconsidered. Loop quantum endeavourwhich,afterstring gravity is noexception. Again, “Inone sense fundamental theory, isthe second most you have tounpickspace-ime, physicsisfloweringlike popularroutetoreconciling _—_theunified fabricof reality that never before; in another, it quantumtheoryandgeneral _Einstein’s relativity stitched isinoneofitsdeep funks” relativity together. Atthe infinitesimal level Assuch he is partofan ofthe Planckscale, space becomes that blends concepts from hhonourabletraditionamong _apixelated, rough, quantum relativity, thermodynamics physicistsofsecking better foam. That, incidentally also and quantum theory toclucidate understandingofreality through supplies time witha new guise: how physics got whereitis,and _theunificationof physical theories. the direction in which it flows themisstepsthat mighthave _Boutsofunificationhave spurred emerges from the orderin leditthere.Itislessaboutthe _onprogressinpphysicseversince which processes happenon destination, more about the ther7th century when Newton __unabservably small scales journey. Muller's big reveal—that married heavenly andEarthly _withinthis foam. new timemight becontinuously — movementsinhis hws of Asradicalas this sounds, Rovelll created inthe aftermathofaqD gravitationand motion. Ateach makes convincing argument bigbang-mayormaynotstand stage new conceptualtoolswere that tis sthe conservative upto scrutiny ashefreely admits. introduced—particles, waves, _optioncomparedwith the extra Something similarcouldbe _flelds-that, mathematicallyat_ dimensions, fields and particlesFormore books and arts coverage, visitnewscientistcom/eulture Christian von Baeyer bangs thedrum foranew” Quantum Bayesian” interpretation: the ‘uncertainties that apparently haunt the quantum world before itismeasured havelittle todo with reality being uncertain, and everything todowith us being uncertain about reality. In QBism, {quantum theory becomes a theory not of the observed, but ofthe observer. Von Baeyer does a passable job ofssetting out the stall although his more narrowly focused book “Ultimately physics only describes that part of reality thatis susceptible tomathematics” tenusto getlostin the detalisat the expense ofthe big picture But QBismremainsaminonty sport Is that toreturnto Muller’ eritique, because of the inability of physicists torecognise or toacceptthelimits oftheir pretensions to descrbe reality? ‘This themeistaken up by Roger Pentosein Fashion, Fithand FF Fantasyin the New Physics of the Universe—by farthe least easy F read ofthe four books, but one that gives usa valuable insight demandedby stringtheory __Catholicdogma.Hisargument ___Aretheremanyimportant things into whatone ofthe most anditewidelytrailed precursor, wasthatitwouldbe embarrassing aboutealty physcscantexplhin? prominent theoretical physicists supersymmetry. Newion, instein shoulditturmout thatthe big cofrecent times makes of ealitys andcodidnot try to guess’ new bangwasn'tactually the havenow, andits predictions will relationship toideasin quantum theories, argues Rovell,butbuilt _ beginning-anactof probably onlykickinatenergies theory, standard cosmology, onwhatwasknown Quantum extraordinaryforesight.given_solnugeang distances sosmallitisandtheories that pretend to theoryandgeneralrelatvity _thatcontemporary ideas about _hardtoseehowwemight probe replace them. ae“right"theoriesontheir _—theexistenceofamultiverse _—_thetheoryexperimentallyorfind So where doesallthiseave respective scales ofthe smalland were decades away. apractialuseforit Neversay us? Ultimately, physics only thelarge—the tickistodoaslitle never of course,and knowledge describes the part of reality that, damage toboth while melding forknowledge's sake has its is susceptibleto mathematics theminesunitedyhole. = Quantum gravity valie-butinvbatsenselssich seule points ou nota Inthe best tradition of Yelinsomesenses Rovelliseasy, atheoryausefulguidetoreality? because Kurt Godel'stheorems of scientists writing popular readablestylepullsthewoolover _Le’srollbackabit:ifwe're the 930s madeitclear that any science, Rovellimarties physical oureyes.Youcouldbeforgivenfor making intuition the measure mathematically based theory will Understanding ithalighttouch concludingthataworkingtheory of atheory,wheredoesthatleave always be incomplete. Ffforts such andaliteraryeyeforincidental _ofloopquantum gravity asgood quantum theory?I’sgivenus asthe pushtoaquantum theory detail. TakethecaseoftheBelgian _asexists,andthat experimental lasersand computers, soon some of gravity may ring ustoa more priest astronomer Georges verificationisaround the comer. _levelitis unquestionably useful- complete understanding butt Lemaitre, who inigsi successfully Woulditwere that simple eveniftheoldlinethatifyou _islkely ou vista willremain dissuaded Pope Pius XI from Anda blunter question thinkyouunderstandit,you blurred. Nodoubt physicsis equating the bigang Lemaitre’semerges.Quantum gravityis _haven'tunderstoodi sbothtrue important butit could be there baby morethananyone') with _unlikelyto produceamore andhasa fitingiyfuzzy origin. ismuchthatisimportant about thebiblicalactofcreationin _intuitivepictureofrealitythanwe Inhisnew book QBism, Hans reality hatisnotphysics. December 2016 |Newsilentist 45CULTURE A curious life Eccentricity was the birthright of 19th-century naturalist Frank Buckland, finds Stephanie Pain ‘The Mon Wh Ate the Zoo: Frank Buckland, forgotten hera ofraturol history by Richard Ging Chatto Windus, £1799 BIG bushy beard. check, Bizarre childhood: check House stuffed ‘with exoticand sometimes scary animals (not all stuffed)-check In ‘the roll callof Victorian eccentrics, ‘aman who dissectshis dad, dines onfried viperand roast giraffe and tries tobecomea salmon must rank somewhere near the top. Thanks to Richard Girling’s Dlography, my current favourite nutty naturalist is Frank Buckland: surgeon, zoologist, pioneering fish farmer. What gives him the ‘edgeis that forall his wacky ways, +e was tireless in his search for nowledgeabout thenatural ‘world and for the best of reasons. Buckland wanted to find better sources of food to feed the poor and became a tireless champion offish. Henevermade the grade academically yetbecamea respected expert, sell-out speaker ‘and hugely popular writer. Buckland was never going tobe ‘ordinary. He grew up among piles of fossils, bones anda menagerie of strangeanimals because his father was the equally eccentric ‘William Buckland, the University ‘of Oxford's first geology professor andaneminent churchman. twas Buckland senior who instigated the family interest in improving the nation’s diet Dinner might include hedgehog, horse, puppy-even crocodile, ‘Buckland fought for a dependable supply of fish for the UK's poorest 46 |NewScent |aDecember2016 turtle or half-rotten bear. Surrounded by animals alive, deconstructed oron his plate, Buckland juniorbegan his own investigation ofthe natural world, ‘Throughout his life, Buckland observed, dissected and tasted Secondhand facts weren't good enough: he had to find out for himself, There was nothing he wouldn’ttaste. Roasted field mice ‘made"a splendid bonne bouche fora hungry boy". Boa constrictor tasted like veal. Kangaroos were an ideal source of good meat, with theirlong tals better than oxtail But earwigs were “horribly bitter” Decomposing panther wasn'ta huge success either. Hearing that the panther at friend's zoo had died, Iwrote,..at once otell him tosend medown some chops. Ithad, however, been buried a couple of days, but got them to digitup... twasnot very good” Buckland!’ eating habits make forentertaining reading, but there are otherreasons to remember hhim, He had hoped to do good as ‘asurgeon, but spent much of his timeas unofficial vetat London 200 (a ood source of previously “Earwigs were ‘horribly bitter’ to eat and decomposing panther was nota huge success either” uuntasted species) untilhe threw |himselfinto the cause that ‘occupied the rest of his life: fish, Buckland founded the UK's Acclimatisation Society to identify and introduce new food crops and animals. Buthe quickly concluded that the best way to feed protein: starved families was toensurea, dependable supply of fish Hedeveloped techniques for hatching fish eggs, hoping to restock depleted rivers. He spelled out why sofew rivers supported salmon: most were filthy. “Manufacturers ofall kinds of materials... seem to thinkrivers are convenient channels kindly givento them by nature tocany away... the refuse of thelr works.” Weirs were another problem, preventing salmon returning upriver to spawn. Those that did ‘make it were poached before they could breed. Buckland tackled every problem, river by river even wading in to see for himself the obstacles salmon face, He identified threats to coastal fisheries and argued for government-sponsored research. We shall keep stumbling and blundering along until there are no fish left to catch, unless we at once grasp the amp of science and guided by its ight, boldly striveto find out for ourselves ‘what actually is going on.” When Buckland wasn tleaping Into rivers, he was writing a stream of articles that changed how people looked atthe natural world. Nature, he convinced a previously uninterested public, was tobe admired and protected, Inhislifetime he was revered. After he died, he was forgotten. jg But unlike the panther, Buckland was well worth digging up again. 5 And ifyouwant toknow why he : dissected his dad, read the book. 5 Stephanie Painisaconsultantior New ScientistTHE ® GREAT Y Courses’ Smithsonian’ A Visual Guide to the Universe 55% off smithsoniat Explore the Universe with the Smithsonian From Saturn's rings to the heart of the Milky Way, and from colliding galaxies to cataclysmic gamma-ray bursts atthe edges of visible space, some of the most spectacular sights in the cosmos are now as easy to sce as the stars above. A Visual Guide to the Universe, produced in partnership with the Smithsonian, takes you there in 18 lavishly illustrated lectures taught by award-winning professor and distinguished astronomer David M. Meyer of Northwestern University Among your many adventures, you will orbit Saturn with the Cassini probe, see an asteroid up close with the Dawn spacecraft, and search for ‘water and life on Mars with the Mars rovers. Looking beyond our system, you will witness how an armada of remarkable space telescopes is uncovering the secrets of the cosmos. Embark on our era's greatest voyages of discovery without leaving home—you'll find the view is truly out of this world! THEGREATCOURSES.CO.UK/SNSC 0800 298 9796 A Visual Guide Pome Ont cocrs ‘Taught by Professor David M. Meyer ore Dee ees Sea ee ee eC y Cee ee eat ee eee ian Saturn—The Rings of Enchantment Se eee eet Deed ee) ee RC crea Dereon Kenney Runaway Star, Zeta Ophiuchi pee ng rere kon respec oy Sree De ete te cceg De een Ser Seu) Pwr DVD &49:99 NOW £19.99 Crt cert EAS a ee ee ena! Rene ere ensNewScientist newscientistjobs.com Opportunities in Quantitative Genetics and Crop Protection ainburgh SSRUC is unique in Scottand and ‘one of he largest organisations of is kind in Europe. Our ambitious and exciting vision isto work at local, natonal and iterational levels, leading innovation and ‘sustainable development in ‘agriculture and rural sectors. SRUC, The Rosin institute ‘and the NIAB are currenty ‘establishing a canta for integrative plant and animal breeding. This cenire wal hamess ‘and expand upon latent expertise in quantitative genetics in the UK ‘and wilink othe successful crop ‘and sol resoarch group at SRUC. We are currently seeking the ee Beaeey) sex Principal Investigator Plant Genomics circa £40 ~ 55K ‘You wil be an established PI with strong and contemporary ‘genomics exoertse from various backgrounds, induding plants. ‘You wil establish and lead a plant genomics lab and wil provide underpinning molecular ‘expertise and tachnical sls for the cove research areas of crop protection, crop improvement ‘and sol science teams within the ‘esearch group. You wil develop Intemational collaborations and target emerging sources of intgmational funding to engage In iniatives that impeove sustainable crop productivity and stimulate new areas of breeding improvement research. ‘SRUC. AChatale como ted by ‘ioraes, Co03"t2 Researcher / Lecturer Crop Protection circa £33.-37K You will develop a programme of research covering plant- pathogen interactions and Integrated control of important pathogens and will contribute fo tho research and teaching deliverables of the team. You will contribute significantly to the publication record of the team. The Post includes responsibiliy for undergraduate and postgraduate project supervision. You will be an ‘experienced P! with strong ‘expertise in crop protection {and ideally have lecturing and teaching experience. Scotland's Rural College Leading the way in Agricultural ‘and Rural Research, Education Consultancy Ukrecrultmentadvertising ‘SRUC A corm arg Overy ‘svaneng Equa ana especing Haran Figs trovgou to eagaiaten and (emuagng poston re dies ‘sep use Daily Corer Ermyor ere SRUC 2 rama Find your perfect candidate with OUR NEW CV DATABASE + Search over 60,500 STEM professionals + Sophisticated Boolean search so you can query the you're looking for + Quickly scon through the results, view their actual CV ‘and pick your ideal candidate For more information please contact us on 020 8652 4444 (or email at recruitment.media@rbi.co.uk NewScientist jobs recruiters.newscientist.com 48 |NewScientist| 3 December 2016IMMUNOCORE targeting T cell receptors Milton Park, Oxfordshire: Immunocore Limited, just south of Oxford, UK, is an innovative and dynamic biotechnology company developing a unique Domes ey eee cee cena ees ee ea ee eta er a partnerships with Genentech, GlaxoSmithKline, Medimmune and Eli Lilly, and with our first drug candidate in clinical trials, we are seeking to expand our current: TARGET IDENTIFICATION AND VALIDATION TEAM We currently have several openings for enthusiastic scientists to join our Target Discovery team. The aim is to provide high quality gene and protein expression analysis from in silico sources and experimental data as a foundation for future ImmTAC development. In these exciting roles you will work closely with a team of cellular and molecular biologists and be involved in antigen discovery and early target validation across a broad range of immunotherapy projects focused on cancer as well as on various infectious and autoimmune diseases. Molecular and cellular aie ry De EI ose acne In these challenging roles you will have the opportunity to bring your scientinic input to a wide variety of oncology projects and will play an important role in the biological validation of novel targets for immunotherapy. You will investigate the distribution of kgene expression in tumours and normal hhuman cells and your work will have a profound impact on the discovery of novel therapies for cancer, The ideal candidate will have practical experience of working ina molecular and cellular biology lab in either an industrial or academic setting. Specific experience of either qRT-PCR, Immunostaining of whole tissues or primary cell culture techniques would be an advantage, though not all ae essential Essential for all Positions ons We are looking for scientists with experience in immunostaining, histology and/or in situ hybridisation to enhance our target discovery and exploratory diagnostic ‘activities, In this exciting role you will have the opportunity to participate in the ImmTAC development pracess at multiple es of the project lifecycle. You'll contribute tothe discovery of novel targets for immunotherapy and also be closely involved at the pre-clinical and nical development stages of a number of diverse oncology and auto-immune projects. The ideal candidate will have some practical experience of histology in either {an industrial, hospital or academic setting. Previous experience of digital histology and some knowledge of pathology would be an ‘advantage inthis role, though not essential. rat ns We are looking to recruit senior technicians with some experience of working in a cellular and molecular biology environment. In this role you will work closely with other lab-based scientists ina friendly and highly co-operative team. The ideal candidate for this position will have had some experience in one of the following areas: cell culture techniques, tissue sectioning or DNA/RNA extraction. AS training will be provided on all techniques, this isa good opportunity for a candidate who wishes to broaden their molecular and cellular biology skills. As you'll play a core role within the group, good organisational skills and excellent attention to detail will be essential Senior Scientists: PhD or equivalent with a post-doctoral experience; you will enjoy working in a fast-paced laboratory environment as part of a motivated team. Scientists: PhO, BSc or equivalent qualification with practical experience of molecular biology techniques, gained in either industry or academia; you will enjoy working in a fast-paced laboratory environment. Senior Technicians: A-level qualifications or equivalent in a scientific subject and practical experience of either molecular or cellular biology techniques; you will enjoy working in a laboratory environment as part of an energised team. Closing date for applications: Ifyou would like to work in a friendly, dynamic environment developing novel therapeutic research programmes please send your application (copy of CV. and short covering letter) to Mrs. C. Canuto, Immunacore Limited, 101 Park Drive, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxfordshire, OX14 4RY, or Died Solares are competitive; benefits Include pension scheme and private health Insurance.ee ee ued ane ae aura ae eae eA ante AU Oe ile? 2 amen i lcaewscientistjobs.com Think beyond. Make a difference. {93 billion Swiss francs in core research and development expenditure in 2015 makes Roche one of the most research focused companies worldwide. ‘Our 120 year heritage and a stable shareholder structure ensure a long-term view and a strong and stable ‘commitment to researching and developing novel treatments in the areas of oncology, immunology, infectious diseases. ophthalmology and neuroscience in order to improve the lives of patients all over the world. Because its not just a job. Its a responsibiliy. Abig one. The next step is yours. careers.roche.ch/research 3 December 2016 |Newsilentist 51LETTERS —— EDITOR'S PICK Culture isnotsacred “These army people f “ponour’ bound othis culture? Ourancestorsmaynothavebeentripping — “henitoppresses a ct. From Nicola Hutchison From Gwydion Williams r seemmammms vethepspartotshamanicritvals, ‘Harlow, Essex, UK Coventry, West Midlands, UK /9E pscovensD. (7) secousesty sussancimigaines, Tamdisappointedthatresearcher Yourarile on “honour cultures” Hew Tey ¢ Thatistrue, but many Ryan Brown seeks “only to ‘was interesting but could have ‘AcistEvED A archaeologists, including Lewis understand’ the "honour" aspect _ given more history. The Icelandic Willams, state that thoughout the ofsouthern USculture,“not _sagas, to take just one example, wore the-eaemanyotheraysto changeit” (2 Novernber, p32). give details of ust sucha system, eateshamanisticholucnations, __Heacknowledgesthatitieads operating withitsown awsand suchas dtumming.singing.rhythmic tooppressionof womenand _—_without aregularstate. arcing. fasting mestating fatigue violence against them. anchypragosia(atrestonalstate While agree that heavy- Unexpected origins of toané fromsleep Thesignsseenin handed attempts at cultural signlonguages thefirststageofthehallcinatory change based on unreplicated stetearevery smile nomatterwhat results would be bad, maintain From Les Hearn From Geoff Harmer rmethodis usedoachievechat state, thatwherebreachesofhuman London, UK Reading, Berkshire, UK 1n1992Ivsitedmembersofthe _rightsareendemictoaculture, Your correspondent bemoans Ines veryinterested by Alson Georges Mentawitibe,stilivingtracttonaly thenthose aspects ofthe culture the impending loss of A-Sayyid esciptionofcaveartsymbalsused _onSiberutlsiandofindonesia.One_deservenomore preservation _‘Bedouin Sign Language (ABS1) ‘throughautthe ancient werld evening|savy three shamans conduct thanadiseasewould-though _(Letters, sNovernber) and accuses (2Novembes,936)-Butthe theirdtvalby crumming.singingand —-membersoftheculturemust _“Hebrew speakers of lacking Cesciptionaf archaeologist David rhythmicdancing.whichindicoda —_—be sensitively engaged and respect for “languages and Lewis-Willam’s wark gives the hallucnatory vance'thatcausedthem empowered by those working _ cultures under threat Israeli Sign. Impression thachallucinatons, tacollapse onthe floor. towards change. Brownnotes that Language (ISL) hasno more todo GALAXY ON GLASS Bee ar EWS ee cen ac ae u cL Een ence an acca up to 1.2 metres wide. A big impact in any room. All limited editions. | www.facebook.com/galaxyonglass. LAUD Aoi e Menon ce ececias ‘52 NewScientist|3 December 2016\¥ “Geo-engineering terrifies me. Technology with planet-wide consequences tied to international pol stoMathew Watsons calor ests of With Hebrew than British Sign achieving the capability to layersasinmodem3D printing _printersarein decline, as people Language has to dowith... British. communicate broadly "without __(Letters,12 November). Something discover how non-automaticit TRwasdeveloped from German complexgrammarislargelya__similarhasactually been doneby reallis. SignLanguage,whichwastaken mystery"(@October, p36). Inthe SatoshiKawata andcolleaguesat__Buteconomic forecasterskeep Colerusaleminthe1930s,Itisthe 1960sIworkedforaparachuting Osaka University Japan. Their predicting exponential growth mainmeans ofcommunication trainingschool:weflew withno masterpiece created inz001,was_andmarkets into thebillions fordeaffews,Arabs,Druzeand doorontheaircra Windnolse_acomplexsculpture ofaprancing Only forthe wealthiest percent, Bedovins inlsrael Ifyouonly sign prevented speech Wequickly _bull-theslzeofaredbloodcell ~Ithink The value ofD-printed ABSL,youareconfinedtoone developedasignlanguagethat (18 August2001,p7) sculpture {seven harder to see smallvillagefortherestofyour wasqultecomplex, conveying —-~Ratherthanusingtwolaser than themass market for Ie-IfyousignisLawholenew details ofalttude, airspeed, beamsasDaedalusproposed, customised prosthetics. setofopportunitiesopens pin directionandwhatactiontotake they used one pulsed beam. They tducation employmentand —_tocompensateforanon-optimal dependedon hefactthatintwo- Population sizeis only socal relationships. exitfomtheplane Needsmust... photonreactionsbothmusthlt partof the story ‘Noone tstrying tostop people the molecule simultaneously, sningintevllgeangage ” Somerootsandbranches Whehwilonyhapenatthe —fromtun cme titi dificult to see what else inti centre ofthe focused spot itohurch, Hampshire, UK the authorities should do other of 30 printing _ Itis certainly true that a drastic thanofferthem the same services From Guy Cox Sydney, New South From Stewart Dickson cutinthe human population availabletodeaf peopleelsewhere Wales, Australia Champaign thinois US could benefit the restof nature, inisael Tworeaderspointedoutthat __Aslongagoasi989lwasinvolved but Perry Bebington overlooks backing74, New Scientist Inthefirstwaveof3D printing: some lephants inthe room From Rod Murpiy columnistDaedalus proposed _butthetrumpeting ofthe recent (Leters,22 October), Wearenot Pinegownte, South Africa 5D printing by laser beam second wave, whichstartedafter only partof a damaging species ShiraRubin observes that Al polymerisation withinaliquid some patentsexpired, perplexes but probablyall have elatvely SayyldBedouinsigntanguage resin~ratherthanaccreting _-—«me.ThearthatsalesofhomesD _welhoffWesternifestyles~ > THE by Lucy Kirkwood CHILDREN “Reteed people ae lie nuclear power stations Wo te tole by he sea” December 2036 NewScentst 53TETTERS Tettertenewscentstcom J enewscent By newsientst ‘while themedianglobalincomeis primaryroleoflanguageisto question of whetherscienceisor nature of society lies against the ‘afewpoundsperpersonperday. keeporderintheluuman mind canbepoliticallyneutral. There _ universal experience ofthe last Comparetheimpactofour _andtobetheengineoffreewill. _canbenodoubtthat neutrality is_fewmillennia of human history lifestylesintermsofdiet,cash Charles DarwininTheDescent untenable. Science concemsthe crops transport, waste,housing _ofMan,however, proposedthat_pursuitofknowledge,which The standard of proof pluswaterandmineraluseswith languageevolvedasaninstinctual naturallymeansnewknowiedge to put value on alife (say)aMalawiansubsistence _meansof communication and new information. farmer,andwedon'tlooktoo “through naturaland sexual Such new information could From NeilHolmes good.Ifhumannumbersareto selection’: Hewasarguably the theoretically bekeptisolated ‘Bromsgrove, Worcestershire, UK fallnaturally,thedeath atemust originatoroftheidea ofheritable, fromtherestofhumanityas Discussing the price of alife, exceedthebirth rate.Itiseasy to mutable“memes" declaring that somesortofsterilemuseum Shannon Fischer mentions the thinkthisoughttoapply toother “thesurvivalofeertainfavoured —exhibitthatwecouldalladmire case of Vitor Nealon (22 October, people;acceptingourownentry wordsinthestruggleforexistence whilerefusingtochangeany _p28)-Hisconvictionwas quashed intheobituarycolumnisalitte _isnaturalselection’ aspectofourexistence. But the in 2ox3because DNA ona victim's less popular. AsAlun Andersonobserves, history of humanity makes underwear was shown nat to reviewing'Tom Wolfe's bookabout clearthat thisneverhasbeen the _behis,buthehasnot been Language, nature, lng TheRngdomfspech, asc andpobbly neve we, smpenated forthe yar none ofthis explains “how ‘onsidertheeariy useoffirefor he spentinprison. nurture and change Janguage comes tomean cooking (5 November, p36). Fischer wrote: "The evidence From christine McNulty something" (22November, p44). _Theworkofeveryscientistcan_barissohightthat many receive Oxhey, Hertfordshire, UK Humansaretheonlyanimal leadtonewand possibly though no compensation atall”Itis Marek Kohn quoteslinguistNoam that cancreatea virtual eality _notnecessarly)improvedways worsethan that. Aclaimant for ‘Chomsky concluding: language inthetheatreofthemind and _of leading ourlives:change. Like compensation now has o prove “isnotproperlyregatdedasa” _thatcandenytheevidenceof —_—itornot,changeandopposition beyond reasonable doubt that systemofommunication...tis the senses. Languageisthe tochangearewhat polities sal they did not commit the crime. ‘system forexpressing thought” antithesisofinstinet. Theldea about. It isacop-outforscientists Nealoncould natdotis. tis (November, p42). Thisisthekey thatourthoughtsare instinctive _toclaimthatthey aretheseckers virtually impossible todo so toresolving thetwoopposing _isparenttothedangerousidea of newideas,but itisthejobof __-ThebarristerHelena Kennedy ideas concerning theevolutionary that cultureis innate. politicianstodecidewhattodo said when thelaw was changed by sourceofhumanlanguage:doesit with theres the then secretary of state Chris spring from nature or nurture? From Bryn Glover, Kirkby ‘Toprovidenew informationin Grayling that"toask people to ‘Ther7th-century philosopher Malzeard. North Yorkshire, UK any expectationotherthanthatit prove theirinnocence beyond Johniocke wasalsoclearthatthe Kohnimplicily poses the could potentially beapplied tothe reasonable doubt isanaffront tooursystemoflaw." Weare, of course, thankful that the government has achieved its objective of saving money. oe) LET'S MAKE A YEARS LATER... ! MEMORY ERASURE irs eres Motor ts SERIA compLETE! Ss Theardeleh out one method ‘valuing alife:the purely capitalist principle thata thing is worth only what somebody is willing to payforit. On that basis, my lifeis Worthless, having reached that point where{'m too old to sell my body for sex, yet too young to sell itforscience. GOOD IDEA! NO IDEA. THROW IT ALL AWAY AND LETS MAKE A | tes shoul sent: MEMORY ERASURE SERUM.) Letters tothe ctor New Scientist TIO High Hotborn, London WCIYSEU_ malt tters@newscientistcom heey upnalaaesancianane nindeinareews apres > Reticence Wesco muon nary 54 NewSclentst|3Dacember 2015SIGNAL BOOST rere iv] Sed Heart of the matter IF YOU or one of your chien neoded a heat transplant, your

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