Professional Documents
Culture Documents
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6 Brexit hate speech 34 Bad back?
The UK government is News The most common treatments
using AI to predict spikes in for chronic back pain may be
Brexit-related hate crimes making it worse
Views
The back pages
23 Comment
Genetic medicine tests the 51 Maker
limits of patient confidentiality, Build a mini weather station
says Laura Spinney
52 Puzzles
24 The columnist Quick crossword, a riddle of ages
James Wong delves into claims and the quiz
that fruit is bad for you
53 Feedback
26 Letters Sexy pavement lichen and a robot
Using biomass to make fuel priest: the week in weird
is a criminal waste
JASON BYE FOR NEW SCIENTIST
NewScientistLive.com/hotel
The leader
YOU rock your chair back, confident The policies of We don’t know where that point is.
you are still in control and can restore Brazil’s president, Some studies indicate that we could
equilibrium. Before you know it, you are Jair Bolsonaro, get there if a fifth of the rainforest is
on the floor, struck by an irreversible have seen an lost. Others suggest a tipping point
change you can’t swing back from. increase in could be reached as soon as 2030.
That’s the dangerous thing about Amazon burning Meanwhile, an unprecedented
tipping points: you don’t know you have number of fires are ripping through the
reached one until it is too late. Earth’s Arctic (see page 20). There, the tipping
climate could now be facing at least two. point is of a different nature: a sea-ice-
Reports from Brazil’s National The Amazon is a region of extraordinary free Arctic creating positive feedbacks
Institute for Space Research suggest that cultural and biological diversity, and that accelerate warming. That risk is now
wildfires in the Amazon are occurring a huge global sink of carbon dioxide. so dire that some researchers say we
in unusually high numbers (see page 5). We need it to have a chance of keeping should investigate local geoengineering
They haven’t yet been confirmed as global warming to a manageable level. options to prevent it (see page 38).
record-breaking, but many see them Fewer trees means less water vapour The law of unintended consequences
EVARISTO SA/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
as evidence that the anti-environment, being pumped into the atmosphere. means that must be a last resort. As
pro-agriculture policies of Brazil’s Intact regions of forest start to suffer. for the Amazon, Bolsonaro must be
president, Jair Bolsonaro, are driving At some point, the whole may reach persuaded to about-face, if necessary
illegal burning of the rainforest. a tipping point where the untouched by withholding aid and trade deals.
This is disastrous for the people and forest dies and the Amazon flips to We know by now what we all have to
wildlife living there, and for the planet. become a non-forest ecosystem. do. Let’s not test the tipping points. ❚
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News
Birds and burgers Managed retreat Digital privacy Shock waves in space Air pollution
Crows may have high The fight to save Facebook’s data may LIGO spots its first Is city air causing
cholesterol because coastal dwellings put millions of gay black hole-neutron mental health
they eat fast food p7 from rising seas p8 people at risk p11 star collision p13 conditions? p14
REUTERS/BRUNO KELLY
Moving away from the coast Rising sea levels mean that
a managed retreat for coastal communities is no longer a
case of if, but when and how. Adam Vaughan reports
Cosmology
SOCIAL media platforms struggling MILLIONS of gay people In Saudi Arabia, where practice, such information
to tackle the tide of misinformation living in countries where homosexuality can be punished could be used to identify people
and unsuitable content could cut homosexuality is outlawed with death, the team found in and collect information on
its flow by a fifth by better could be put at risk by February that 540,000 people them. For example, an advert
explaining their rules. That is Facebook’s advertising were labelled as having an directed at a particular group
the finding of a large-scale study practices. This is because the interest in homosexuality. could offer a prize to people if
of 32 million posts on popular firm allows advertisers to target The team revisited that number they enter their personal details.
discussion site Reddit. people on the basis of their in August and it had nearly Facebook says that just
On Reddit, volunteer moderators interests, including sexual ones. doubled to 940,000 people. because someone shows an
clear forums, called subreddits, Ángel Cuevas Rumín at Overall, Cuevas’s team found interest in something doesn’t
of unsuitable or off-topic material. Charles III University of Madrid, that there were more than mean they have that attribute.
Moderators take different Spain, and his colleagues You could like a page about gay
approaches, however. Some explain
why they have removed the content,
but about 99 per cent simply take it
analysed the list of options
available for targeting adverts
on Facebook. They found that
940,000 men, for example, without
being a gay man yourself.
people in Saudi Arabia are labelled However, there is likely to be
down without explanation. Shagun about 2000 of the options as interested in homosexuality overlap between the two groups.
Jhaver at the Georgia Institute of would be classed as “sensitive” “The interest targeting
Technology and his colleagues have information under Europe’s 4.2 million people tagged as options we allow in ads reflect
found that those who have had their recent GDPR data protection interested in homosexuality people’s interest in topics, not
posts removed – with or without law. These include a person’s living in countries where personal attributes,” Facebook
explanation – are less likely to politics, race or sexuality. homosexuality is illegal. told New Scientist. “People can’t
continue posting. But those who Some two-thirds of Facebook These people could be targeted discriminate by excluding
aren’t provided with a reason why users in the 197 countries and using Facebook’s ad tools (arxiv. interests such as homosexuality
their content was taken down have states the team looked at were org/abs/1907.10672). when they build an ad.” The firm
a higher likelihood of further posts tagged with at least one such While there is no suggestion says it recently removed more
being removed than those who are preference, accounting for a that anyone has been identified than 5000 targeting options.
given an explanation. fifth of the overall population. or killed as a result of this Collecting such data is a legal
Another study by the team found grey area. In Europe, there are
that 37 per cent of Reddit users stronger legal protections for
surveyed didn’t understand why sensitive data than there are for
their post was removed, and 29 per other types of personal data.
cent felt frustrated that it had been. However, data protection
The group calculated that if all experts are torn over whether
post removals were accompanied Facebook is breaking any laws.
with an explanation, the odds of “Facebook is in the wrong for
future removals would drop by sure, as far as EU data protection
20.8 per cent. The team will present law is concerned,” says Ed Boal
the work at the Conference on at Stephenson Law in Bristol,
Computer-Supported Cooperative UK. Sandra Wachter at the
Work and Social Computing in Oxford Internet Institute, UK,
Texas in November. isn’t so sure. “If the argument
While the system works in small being made is nobody is
communities, it may be hard to inferring sexual orientation but
scale across a larger site such as assuming an interest in sexual
YouTube, which has been criticised orientation, that brings us to an
for its opaque rules on what is unclear legal perspective,” she
acceptable content. says. “We need to broaden data
“Moderators have to be careful protection in a more sensible
about how they articulate their and holistic way.” ❚
HOCUS-FOCUS/GETTY
YOUR brain isn’t necessarily the things like cholesterol and blood they were 3 years old went on to “Acceleration or delay could be
same age as the rest of you. Now, sugar levels to estimate the have the youngest-looking brains positive or negative,” says Cole.
it may be possible to predict how biological age of the volunteers’ (bioRxiv, doi.org/c9ng). “If a 60-year-old has a brain that
quickly a person’s brain will age bodies. They found that this was This suggests we might be able looks 70, that’s bad, but if a 3-year-
throughout life based on tests loosely linked to brain age, but not to tell who is at risk of accelerated old has a brain that looks 5, that
taken when they are 3 years old. totally. “There are some people brain ageing early in life, says might be a good thing.”
A person’s biological age may who have a very advanced brain Elliott. He hopes that predicting The team also asked other
be a better indicator of their health age whose bodies seem to be brain ageing earlier in life could researchers to guess how old the
than their chronological age. Brain ageing slowly, and vice versa,” says allow treatments for conditions volunteers were based on photos
age can be measured using brain Elliott. However, the team found like dementia to be started sooner. of their faces. Again, the responses
scans and machine learning to that those who had the highest This means they might have a varied hugely, with estimates
determine if a person’s brain looks scores on cognitive tests when better chance of working. coming in 20 years above and
older or younger than the average James Cole at King’s College below their actual age. Those who
healthy brain for people of the Lower stress levels and London cautions that it will be looked older also had older brain
same age. exercise may help your difficult to make predictions ages. “It suggests that the outward
To find out if brain age might brain stay young based on a 3-year-old’s test results. signs of ageing are reflected by the
reveal anything about a person’s internal signs of ageing,” says Cole.
health in midlife, Max Elliott at That doesn’t mean that all older-
Duke University in North Carolina looking individuals will be on
and his colleagues assessed the their way to dementia, says Elliott.
brains of 869 adults in New We don’t yet have a way to treat
Zealand who have undergone brain ageing, but given the known
regular medical and cognitive benefits to the brain of healthy
testing since they were 3 years old. eating and exercise, these aren’t
When the volunteers, all aged a bad place to start. “Ageing is a
between 43 and 46, underwent complex interaction of genes
MRI brain scans, the team found and environment,” says Cole.
SALLY ANSCOMBE/GETTY
Space
A black hole has US and by Italy’s Virgo detector. they had seen their first black hole is a black hole. Based on initial
“We’re very confident that and neutron star merger, only for the estimates of its mass, the smaller is
been seen eating we’ve just detected a black hole observation to be chalked off due to probably a neutron star. “But there
a neutron star gobbling up a neutron star,” says the high possibility the signal was is the remote possibility it could
Susan Scott, a theoretical physicist background noise from Earth. This actually be a very light black hole,”
ALMOST 900 million years ago, at the Australian National University time, researchers are almost certain says Scott. If that proves to be the
two objects – one a black hole, the in Canberra and part of the LIGO the signal came from beyond Earth. case, it would be by far the lightest
other almost certainly a neutron collaboration. Researchers around the globe black hole ever observed. “We have
star – slammed together with If confirmed, the observation are now running the numbers to to look at the signal to see if we can
incredible force, sending shock would complete the trifecta of confirm the identity of the two confirm it is behaving like a neutron
waves through space-time. cataclysmic events researchers had objects involved. Given its size, star in the in-spiral,” says Scott.
These gravitational waves hoped to detect when LIGO was first researchers agree the larger Ticking off the final of the three
have now washed over Earth. proposed: the collision of two black types of event doesn’t mean LIGO
Last week, scientists from the Laser
Interferometer Gravitational-Wave
Observatory said the waves were
holes; the collision of neutron stars
in a binary system; and the merger
of a black hole and a neutron star.
900 m
Approximate number of years
will be powered down, however.
“That’s just the end of the
beginning,” says Scott. ❚
picked up by LIGO’s detectors in the In April, LIGO researchers thought since the collision spotted by LIGO James Mitchell Crow
Volcano that
Why is pollution linked to led to little ice
schizophrenia and depression? age identified
Chris Baraniuk
A NEW study has added to the A MINI ice age that lasted for
mounting evidence suggesting 125 years began in the middle of
air pollution is linked to mental the 6th century, helping to plunge
health conditions. But it isn’t the world into an era of chaos. One
clear yet how – or if – pollution of the key events behind it was the
may be affecting our brains. massive eruption of a volcano
somewhere in the southern
What has the latest study found? hemisphere. Now we may know
Analysing data from 151 million when and where it happened.
INSTANT EXPERT:
MYSTERIES
OF THE MIND
November 23, 2019
District Hall, Boston
You’re in possession of one of the most complex and
incredible objects in the known universe: the human brain.
How does a 1.4 kilogram tangle of nerve cells allow
you to sense, understand and change the world?
Discover why this is the most exciting time in the
history of brain science with six experts working at
the forefront of neuroscience, genetics and psychiatry.
on dust carried by afternoon winds dust grains. And if life can be moved
that blow in from the Pacific. To find around Mars, contamination from
out, they set out Petri dishes filled our probes could spread fast, he
with nutrients in lines stretching says. ❚ Michael Marshall
Biocomputing Asteroids
uses DNA editing to speed up the that don’t fade over time even outer layer, dark and rough or
process. They call their system after the cues, in this case lactose, bright and smooth, and they
DOMINO, for DNA-based Ordered fade away, says Farzadfard. ❚ both take up an equal share
Memory and Iteration Network Ruby Prosser Scully of the surface. ❚ Abigail Beall
drop behind enemy lines and bonds have to be severed. But have made a glider with a 2-metre
leave no trace, thanks to a material Kohl designed his material so wingspan, and he says they can
that can be made into gliders or that as soon as one bond breaks, make 5 kilograms of the polymer
parachutes but that disintegrates the whole thing unzips. at a time. The work was presented
when exposed to heat or light. It is made from a chemical at a meeting of the American
The self-destructing polymer, called an aldehyde with various Chemical Society in California.
initially designed for use in additives that can either make the Marek Urban at Clemson
Honey can tell us all battlefield sensors, is the work of material rigid for use in a glider or University in South Carolina
about lead pollution Paul Kohl at the Georgia Institute sensor, or flexible to make a fabric. worries that the residue could be
of Technology and his colleagues. Sunlight can trigger the toxic. Kohl says he has tested it
Bees pick up pollution as They began with polymers that disintegration. Or, in true spy on plants, which survived. ❚
they fly around and some have a low ceiling temperature, style, a small light-emitting diode Chelsea Whyte
of it ends up in their honey,
although it is still safe to Demographics Technology
eat. Kate Smith at the
University of British
Columbia in Canada found App designed to spot
that analysing honey is as winter vomiting bug
good a way to check lead
levels as using soil or air A SMARTPHONE app can detect
samples. It could be used signs of norovirus, the most
to monitor remote areas. common cause of gastroenteritis.
Jeong-Yeol Yoon and his team at
Time to get up and the University of Arizona used a
move around a bit phone with an add-on microscope
and a light source to detect low
VISUAL CHINA GROUP VIA GETTY
150 up to 18 August
You would be forgiven for people are escaping the effects.
(megatonnes)
thinking that fires are on the rise “What happens in the Arctic
globally. In fact, the evidence 100 doesn’t stay in the Arctic. Pollution
doesn’t bear that out. For example, can carry thousands of miles
a 2017 study led by Niels Andela away,” says Elizabeth Hoy at NASA.
at NASA used satellite images 50 The agency has tracked smoke
to show that the amount of land from the fires in Siberia reaching
being burned worldwide has 0 the US and Canada. That pollution
actually decreased in recent 2005 2010 2015 2019 can combine with a city’s local
The health costs aren’t just month at Swansea University, UK. ▲ Kakapo
physical. Turetsky says that in Russian authorities have tried The birds are back in
Yellowknife, the capital of the seeding clouds to induce rain. town. For the first time in
Northwest Territories in Canada, The idea is that planes spray 70 years, the number of
doctors have reported increasing away an insulating layer that helps chemicals such as silver iodide kakapos, New Zealand’s
rates of hospital admissions for maintain permafrost – ground in an effort to enhance the rate giant parrots, has hit 200.
post-traumatic stress disorder that is normally frozen. This of ice crystal formation in the
during and following wildfires. makes it more likely that the atmosphere, producing more ▲ Chunky chips
At a workshop she ran in the city, permafrost could thaw and clouds, but there is no evidence Ever wished microchips
many people reported what they release even more CO2. Permafrost this is effective. were larger? Then
called eco anxiety. “A lot of these thaws discharge not just CO2, Today, firefighters’ priority is to Cerebras Systems’s
people didn’t experience the fires but also the more powerful protect life and property. Turetsky (macro) chip could be for
directly, but they know it’s going greenhouse gas methane. you. It is as big as an iPad
to come back,” says Turetsky. The potential positive feedback and will be used for AI.
The effect on the climate could
be more serious still. The problem
isn’t simply that fires release a lot
of CO2. This will exacerbate global
doesn’t end there. Researchers at
CAMS have already used satellites
to track soot from this year’s
northern Russia fires. Some landed
173
megatonnes of CO2 emitted from
▼ Fogcam
Farewell to the world’s
oldest running webcam.
warming, and Arctic wildfires have on ice in Greenland. That matters fires in the Arctic so far in 2019 Fogcam had recorded
released about the same amount because studies have shown that weather in San Francisco
of CO2 this year as the Netherlands soot can alter the reflectivity of ice, says that could in future be since 1994, but will be
does in a year. making it absorb more of the sun’s extended to protecting rich stores shut down because its
“For me what is far more energy and heat up. of carbon in the Arctic. “It might owners say there are no
insidious is the long-term The remote nature and sheer be governments come together good places to put it.
climate impact,” says Phillips. scale of the Arctic means there to protect certain areas where we
Her worry is the prospect of a isn’t a lot that firefighters can understand where the old carbon ▼ Cruelty
harmful positive feedback loop. do about these fires. Russia had is,” she says. The other thing we YouTube removed videos
Fires burn off vegetation, stripping to send in the army, planes and can do is to reduce CO2 emissions. of robots fighting each
In the future, hotter, drier other for defying animal
conditions in the Arctic will set (not android) cruelty rules.
Fires in February the stage for more blazes. A recent
report on land use by the UN’s ▼ Practice
A WAVE of warm weather hit the peat of it being protracted. It’s a climate science panel warned as A study found that good
UK in February and three huge more difficult fire to deal with,” much. Stephen Pyne, who studies violinists practise just as
fires broke out in different parts says Paul Hedley at the National the history of fire at Arizona State much as even better ones,
of the country. In fact, the period Fire Chiefs Council. University, says we are entering suggesting the phrase
between June 2018 and June Since the 2018 moorland fires the “age of the pyrocene”. practice makes perfect is
2019 was a “really crazy year” near Manchester, the UK’s worst One crumb of comfort is that far from perfect after all.
for wildfires, says Thomas in decades, the country’s fire and the feedback loop can’t continue
BY_NICHOLAS/GETTY; TOP: ROSS HENRY/ALAMY
Smith at the London School of rescue service has trained forever. Once forest is burned, it
Economics. The UK has had 95 35 staff nationally as wildfire can’t keep burning. And smoke
large wildfires in 2019 already. tactical advisers, to pool expertise from northern fires has a modest
In the Arctic, it is often forests and aid coordination. Despite cooling effect, reflecting some of
that burn (see main story). In the this, wildfires are a growing the sun’s energy. In the meantime,
UK, peat and heathland blazes burden. “There is no way of however, the Arctic is still on fire. ❚
are the main problem. “There is getting around it, it is a real
potential once the fire is in the challenge for us,” says Hedley. Read about geoengineering efforts
to refreeze the Arctic on page 38
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Views
The columnist Letters Aperture Culture Culture columnist
James Wong delves Using biomass Three years’ worth of How the psychology Helen Marshall
into claims that fruit to make fuel is a shipping glints in the of happiness feeds a on poking fun at
is bad for you p24 criminal waste p26 English Channel p28 vast industry p30 business culture p32
Comment
O
NCE upon a time, a That is the nub of a trial coming patients unless they consent to despite the fact that, unlike in the
doctor’s consulting up at the High Court in London in their information being shared. UK, the right not to know is legally
room was as safe as a November, in which a woman is Guidelines issued by protected in Germany, with
confessional. You could say what suing the hospital that diagnosed professional organisations such as respect to genetic information.
you liked confident that, barring her father with Huntington’s the Royal College of Physicians do Balancing these various rights
very exceptional circumstances, disease for not informing her. acknowledge that situations can isn’t easy. Huntington’s is a clear-
it would go no further. No more. Huntington’s is a fatal, incurable arise where a doctor has a duty of cut case, medically: if you have
Two legal cases, one in Germany neurodegenerative disorder disclosure to third parties even in the mutation, you will develop the
and one still ongoing in the UK, caused by a mutation in a single the absence of consent – notably disease, assuming you live long
show how the limits of patient gene. Every child of an affected when not sharing information enough. That is unusual. In most
confidentiality are being tested, parent has a 50 per cent chance could result in death or serious cases, a gene test is likely to reveal
and how this challenges long- of inheriting the mutation. harm. The High Court trial will test only an increased risk of disease.
established medical norms. The woman argues that, had she whether that duty of disclosure The real problem is that the law is
At issue is how to define a known her father’s diagnosis, she should also be recognised in law. black-and-white, while predictive
patient in an era of genetic wouldn’t have given birth to her That could bring some much medicine is all about grey. ❚
testing. If a test shows that I carry daughter, who is now herself at needed clarity to the area, but also
a disease-causing gene, that may risk of Huntington’s. Currently, in create new problems. What if I test Laura Spinney is a writer
be relevant to other members of the UK as in many other countries, positive for a disease-causing gene and science journalist
JOSIE FORD
my family. If I refuse to tell them, doctors are legally obliged to variant and my family members, based in Paris. Follow
should my doctor? respect the confidentiality of who didn’t consent to be tested her @lfspinney
I
F YOU have ever delved into of specialist primate feed pellets, were contrary to their claims.
the world of online diet advice, leafy veg and fresh tree leaves. What does Plowman think of
you might have heard the In a very short time, Plowman this interpretation of her findings
claim that modern fruit is so and her team noticed dramatic in zoo animals being used as
filled with sugar that it is unsafe improvements in the animals’ justification for excluding fruit
for zoo animals. It might have health, with reduced obesity, from human diets? “I wasn’t aware
come with links to media reports improved dental health and of this and find it very surprising,”
with headlines like “Zoo bans even behavioural improvements. she says. “Fruit and non-leafy
monkeys from eating bananas”. The press enthusiastically vegetables have a much lower
James Wong is a botanist and The claim that fruit is no longer reported the story, focusing energy content than most of the
science writer, with a particular a healthy part of the diet – for almost exclusively on the angle of foods available to humans, so are
interest in food crops, humans as well as animals – has zoo monkeys no longer being fed a very healthy option for us given
conservation and the gathered thousands of likes and bananas. When other institutions, most of us consume too much.”
environment. Trained at the shares from low-carb devotees such as Melbourne Zoo, started to Stressing that her work on zoo
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, he around the world. But how good is follow suit, it triggered a further animals couldn’t be translated to
shares his tiny London flat with the evidence behind these claims? flurry of headlines. humans, she went on to say that
more than 500 houseplants. As a botanist who knows rather These news reports rarely the dietary alterations she made
You can follow him on Twitter a lot about fruit, but very little mentioned that many of the were to replace foods higher in
and Instagram @botanygeek about monkeys, I decided to go sugar and starch with indigestible
straight to the source, and talk to “These conclusions fibre, not replace it with fat and
the zoologist whose work first require us to ignore protein. There is plenty of
spurred these stories. evidence, she says, that a switch
one small detail:
Amy Plowman is director of from starch to fat and protein is
James’s week living collections at Paignton Zoo humans aren’t “definitely not” a good thing.
What I’m reading in Devon, UK, and has done zoo monkeys” The evidence suggests
“Transforming the pioneering research on the diets of she is right. In several exhaustive
Nutrition of Zoo Primates non-human primates in captivity. reviews of the best scientific
(or How We Became She observed that the food given studies we have to date, higher
Known as Loris Man to zoo monkeys was often a poor fruit consumption has been
and That Evil Banana reflection of what they ate in the consistently linked to a lower
Woman)”. An excellent wild. In some zoos, it more closely incidence of obesity in humans,
chapter by Amy Plowman resembled the food preferences of as well as a reduced risk of
and Francis Cabana from their human keepers. cardiovascular disease and
the book Captive Care “We have, whether consciously even certain types of cancer.
and Management, Part II or unconsciously, assumed animals involved in these new Perhaps more pertinently, if you
that human food is suitable for feeding regimes, such as the red or I were put on a leaf-only diet we
What I’m watching non-human primates,” she says. pandas in Melbourne Zoo, are would need to eat more than
The TV adaptation of the In some leading zoos, primate essentially leaf eaters and don’t 300 cups of chopped, raw lettuce
film What We Do in the species whose diet in the wild is actually eat much, if any, fruit in a day. That wouldn’t be pretty. We
Shadows. I’m a total geek made up overwhelmingly of leaves their natural habitat anyway. But would struggle to get anywhere
even outside work. are routinely fed chicken, eggs, then, pandas being fed bamboo near enough calories to meet our
cheese, yogurt, bread and noodles. instead of fruit is less of a story. daily needs, and would quickly
What I’m working on This understanding of primate Those who linked the switch to succumb to nutrient deficiencies.
Lots more writing and nutrition is, Plowman says, the benefits of particular diets in It seems, much like zookeepers
radio projects, and I am “far removed from reality”. humans also failed to point out of the past, our close-relatedness
filming part of a new TV To create a diet as similar to the that the new regime given to these to monkeys means many of us,
documentary. monkeys’ natural diet as possible, animals involved eliminating all low carb activists included, can’t
she eliminated energy-dense meat and dairy too, and swapping help but project their needs onto
items such as meat, dairy and to an essentially 100 per cent leaf ourselves and vice versa. But to do
grains, and reduced the amount diet. Advocates of ultra-low carb so requires us to ignore one small
AHTENG/GETTY
This column appears of fruit and some of the more and meat-heavy “carnivore” detail, which even I as a botanist
monthly. Up next week: calorific vegetables. The monkeys’ diets for humans were therefore can confirm: Humans aren’t zoo
Chanda Prescod-Weinstein new regime consisted essentially sharing research whose findings monkeys. Shocking, I know. ❚
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Views Your letters
Editor’s pick
Using biomass to make
fuel is a criminal waste
27 July, p 23
From Fred White,
Nottingham, UK
Michael Le Page’s article barely
scratches the surface of the
problems with biofuel policy.
Solar energy conversion involving
wheat is around 0.06 per cent
efficient. That is 1/250th the
efficiency of the solar cells that we
now see covering agricultural land.
This idea takes no account of the
energy cost of planting, cultivation,
fertilisers, pest and disease control,
harvesting, processing and
distribution of biofuel. Cover roofs
in solar cells and leave the good
earth for food and nature reserves.
Richard Webb
Book
Manufacturing Happy
Citizens: How the science
and industry of happiness
control our lives
Edgar Cabanas and Eva Illouz
Polity
Driving forces
Nothing can be taken for granted in an
autonomous future, finds Simon Ings
A surfeit of snake oil Ordinary lives hang in the balance when self-appointed
industry disrupters roll into town. Let’s hear it for novelists who puncture and poke
fun at a business culture disconnected from its people, says Helen Marshall
WHAT
IF THE
RUSSIANS
GOT TO
THE MOON
FIRST?
WHAT IF DINOSAURS
STILL RULED THE EARTH?
AVAILABLE NOW
newscientist.com/books
Features Cover story
Back story
Chronic back pain is on the rise,
and the most common treatments
may be making matters worse,
finds Helen Thomson
bones that make up your spine. They were Of course, backache can also be caused In 2003, Jeffrey Jarvik at the University
looking for small bulges called Schmorl’s by accidents, sports injuries or a congenital of Washington in Seattle and his colleagues
nodes that can occur in the soft tissues disorder, but it is lifestyle factors such as randomly assigned 380 people with lower >
1
get up and go. Despite doctors all over the
0 world still prescribing bed rest, it is one of
the worst things you can do. When young
9
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Arctic
rescue
squad
ALEXANDER SHOLTZ
of CO₂ gives a correspondingly large action on cloud formation, phasing out turn from white to blue. Wadhams, who has
increase in heating – or if it is resilient. their sources will unmask previously led 40 expeditions to the Arctic, has seen
But Tapio Schneider, a climate scientist concealed greenhouse gas warming. So to enormous change in that time. “When I started
at California Institute of Technology in understand the extra bump of warming going to the Arctic, you could think of the
Pasadena, says evidence from improved we can expect when the atmosphere gets whole of the northern hemisphere as a solid
recent climate models points towards cleaner, we need to figure out how clouds continent,” he says. “Ice connected Eurasia and
the planet being more sensitive than we contribute to climate sensitivity. North America. But now you have blue ocean.
thought, which means we should be very “Marine cloud-brightening experiments Physically and psychologically, the world is
worried. If it is that sensitive, then we will have the potential to shed light on one of fragmented, and I think that is having an
get 1°C of additional warming from the most vexing and important questions important change in how people think.” ❚
adding a mere 70 parts per million or so of in climate science, namely how aerosols
CO₂ to the atmosphere – which would take affect clouds,” says Schneider. “It behooves
about 20 years at the current rate. That us to do everything we can to understand Rowan Hooper (@rowhoop) is head of
would take us over 2°C of global warming the climate system better, before we try to features at New Scientist and author
since pre-industrial times, the level at manipulate it.” of Superhuman: Life at the extremes
of mental and physical ability
Is there
anybody
out there?
After millennia of guesswork, we can
finally start finding out for certain,
says astrobiologist Sarah Rugheimer
I
T IS the biggest question in the universe: the mere geological rumblings of a lifeless
are we alone? Philosophers have world. With these tools at our disposal,
debated the question for millennia. answers are finally within our grasp.
When 16th-century Italian astronomer and To understand my optimism, it is worth
Dominican friar Giordano Bruno declared that revisiting the work of astronomer Frank Drake.
the cosmos contained “an infinity of worlds of In 1961, Drake devised a formula to estimate
the same kind as our own”, he was directly how many advanced civilisations were capable
contravening religious dogma. He was later of signalling their presence in the Milky Way.
burned at the stake during the Inquisition, in His eponymous equation depends on breaking
part for daring to question Earth’s unique status. down that big unknowable quantity into a
The debate continues, in more restrained number of more tractable ones that can be
fashion, to this day. For some, the sheer multiplied together, such as the number of
size of the universe makes it unlikely that stars in the galaxy and the fraction of those
life formed only once. For others, the likely to have planets (see “Quiet
remarkable complexity of life on Earth neighbourhood”, page 45).
is testament to its uniqueness. Even with pessimistic values, the existence
Until recently, vague philosophical of millions of technological civilisations seems
answers of this kind were the best science likely. The main bottleneck on that apparent
could do. The signs of life were far too explosion of life, however, is in Drake’s final
ambiguous to pin down for certain, and term: the average lifetime of a communicating
our nearest potentially habitable worlds civilisation. Humans have been broadcasting
were too small and distant to test. radio signals that escape into space for only
But for the first time in human history we about a century, and, in the current geopolitical
are reaching the technological sophistication climate, who is to say how many more years
needed to provide a genuine answer. Powerful we have left. If you take the pessimistic
telescopes are letting us study planets in other assumption that intelligent life destroys itself
solar systems, giving us a glimpse into their rather quickly, the Drake equation suggests
atmospheres and a flavour of what type of life that statistically we are alone in the galaxy.
might be living on their surfaces. At the same If intelligent civilisations survive for millions,
time, improved analysis of our own planet is or even billions of years, however, then the
BETH HOECKEL
allowing us to redefine what life might look Milky Way should be teeming with aliens.
like from afar, and is helping us to distinguish This calls for optimism, but also caution.
the signs of a flourishing alien civilisation from After all, if there are millions of alien
Radio silence
There are many proposed answers to this
question (see “Solutions to the Fermi paradox”,
page 44). Perhaps, say some, the aliens are
already here, just keeping their identities
secret. Perhaps they are deliberately steering
clear of Earth, treating it as a sort of cosmic
heritage site that deserves their protection.
Or alternatively, there are simply no aliens out
there. As an astrobiologist, I prefer to believe
that aliens are out there; we simply haven’t
communicated with them yet.
It isn’t hard to imagine why this could be the
case. Alien civilisations might well be millions
of years ahead of us in their technological
advancement. Trying to communicate with
them using our primitive technology would
be as absurd as teaching a ladybird to use a
telephone. That hasn’t stopped us trying, of
course, whether by including artefacts, such as
plaques etched with celestial maps and images
of humans, on our long-distance spacecraft or
by broadcasting targeted radio messages into
the depths of space. So far, no reply.
All hope is not lost. The Fermi paradox and
Drake equation specifically deal with the
question of intelligent life, with the ability to
communicate, travel and colonise. But only
a fraction of the life we know of would be
capable of these feats. Today, the vast majority
of Earth’s biosphere consists of microbes.
Single-celled organisms dominated the
planet’s surface for nearly 3 billion years
before multicellular life began. What is more,
microbial cells not only outnumber human
cells on our planet, they even outnumber them
on and in your body. If life exists elsewhere in
the universe, chances are it is microbial.
This means that the first detection of alien
life is unlikely to come from eavesdropping
on an interplanetary conversation. Instead,
we will need to scan the atmosphere of
other planets for familiar molecules that
primitive microbes are likely to emit: as
close as we can get to a fingerprint of life. >
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molecules respond to different wavelengths Mars. Alternatively, some have suggested that
of light, and by separating the light we collect life could reside on Saturn’s moon Titan,
in our telescope into different wavelengths, swimming in its lakes of liquid methane.
we could see the telltale spectra, or light signals, Whatever we find on these nearby worlds,
produced by substances such as oxygen, I am confident life exists elsewhere in the
ozone, methane, water and carbon dioxide. universe. But confidence isn’t enough. Over
What makes it such an exciting time to work the next few years, our searches are going to
in this field is the number of missions being become more accurate, more thorough and
developed to perform this task. The first capable of looking further than before.
of these will be NASA’s James Webb Space The answers we find stand to fundamentally
Telescope, scheduled to launch in 2021. This shift our understanding of the universe and
will be our first hope at identifying molecules our place in it. As the science fiction writer
in the atmosphere of a habitable exoplanet. Arthur C. Clarke put it: “Two possibilities
ARIEL, a European Space Agency mission due exist: either we are alone in the universe
to launch in 2028, will continue this effort. or we are not. Both are equally terrifying.”
Another promising technique involves To my mind, finding alien life would humble
on Earth by anaerobic microbes, which don’t using large ground-based telescopes to do our apparently exalted status in the cosmos.
rely on oxygen to survive. Not only would it the same thing. These include the European We would be just one more example of life as
be relatively easy to detect in an exoplanet’s Southern Observatory’s Extremely Large a planetary process, crystallising out of the
atmosphere, but it is the simplest gas that Telescope, currently being built in Chile and molecules that make up our universe.
can’t be produced by any natural processes due to start working in 2025. Observing planet Searching widely and finding nothing would
we know of. Detecting phosphine, in other atmospheres from Earth’s surface is difficult be equally sobering, however, indicating that
words, could indicate an anaerobic biosphere. because you must first remove our planet’s even in environments we think of as habitable,
If coming up with such hypotheses seems atmosphere from the signal. Next-generation the chasm between chemistry and simple life
challenging, putting them to the test is ground observatories will be able to do just is vast. Hopefully, such an appreciation of
something else entirely. The first step is to that by subtracting its effects from the light life’s rarity would lead us to protect all forms
identify candidate exoplanets: those with the entering the telescope. This detailed technique of existence on our own world, reminding us
right temperatures to nurture the complex can even allow us to distinguish isotopes that Earth is the only home we have.
chemistry needed to sustain life. At present, on other worlds, subtly different versions The next two decades will witness a
finding worlds beyond our solar system is of the same atoms that differ only by the revolution in exoplanetary science. We have
usually done by looking for the slight dimming presence of a single neutron in their nuclei. already found dozens of potentially habitable
that happens when a planet crosses in front of That is something I never dreamed would worlds and the next technological advancement
its star. It is a process hundreds of times more be possible in my lifetime. in observations will be able to detect potential
difficult than spotting a firefly crossing a For all the excitement surrounding far-flung biosignatures in their atmospheres. Now we
searchlight on the other side of the Atlantic. planets, perhaps the first successful detection need to watch – and wait. ❚
This detection method also opens the door of extraterrestrial life will happen closer to
to sensing different types of molecules in the home. Certainly, other places in our solar
atmosphere of a temperate and rocky planet. system have conditions suitable for life as Sarah Rugheimer is an
For example, when light from a star passes we know it, such as in the liquid water ocean astrobiologist at the
through the air cloaking such worlds it can hidden beneath a thick ice layer on Jupiter’s University of Oxford, UK
reveal the composition of that air. Different moon Europa or in the subsurface water on
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Quick crossword #39 Set by Richard Smyth Quick quiz #18 Puzzle set by Zoe Mensch
1 Nihonium, Tennessine,
Oganesson – what fourth #19 The vicar’s age
name is missing from
this list? A bishop visited his friend the vicar on
her birthday. Knowing the bishop liked
2 9,192,631,770 what of
number puzzles, the vicar told him about
what equals what?
a family that had just joined her church.
3 The ICZN, based in “If you multiply their three ages
6LQJDSRUHDQGWKH,$37 together, you get 2450, and if you add
EDVHGLQ%UDWLVODYD6ORYDNLD their ages together, you get your own age,
do what? your grace.”
4 A golfball-sized lump of The bishop, after some thought, said:
90 per cent platinum and “I can’t be certain how old everyone in the
10 per cent iridium (by family is.”
mass) fulfilled what function The vicar responded: “I am older than
until 2019? everyone in that family.”
The bishop could then tell how old
5 FlyBase collates genetic
DOUGLAS SACHA/GETTY
Water is the solvent for these backs not because they are happy
waste products – it dissolves them but because they want to get rid
and allows them to pass out of the of an itchy irritation. They could
body as urine, as well as in sweat. be trying to get rid of their winter
Urine is produced in the kidneys coat, which makes them sweaty
and consists of urea and other This week’s new questions in the summer. If they are being
waste products dissolved in water. bothered by biting insects, then
We need to drink more water to In the ink Why do blue highlighter markers never seem to rolling in mud, or even dust,
replenish the fluid that leaves the have the high luminosity of pink, yellow, orange and light affords some protection.
body this way. green highlighters? Ana Beard, London, UK Dogs are different. A very
When you are dehydrated, your relaxed dog will lie on its back with
urine will be dark yellow. This is Once upon a time Why does my brain like fictional stories? its vulnerable abdomen exposed.
because there isn’t enough water Shvets Roman, Moscow, Russia On the other hand, a dog that is
in your system to dilute the urea frightened may roll over as a sign
sufficiently. Water itself is not a Run the world If the world’s population all met in one place of submission and thus avoid
waste product – it is a mechanism and all ran in the same direction, would this affect Earth’s attack by another dog.
by which the body removes waste. rotation? Neil Edwards, Guildford, Surrey, UK Some dogs retain their
evolutionary urge to roll in other
Andrew Sanderson animals’ excreta, such as fox
Spennymoor, County Durham, UK urine concentration falls and thirsty. You drink, and the body’s faeces, to disguise their own scent.
We lose water in four principal volume increases. The more regulatory system works out how This seems to make dogs happy
ways: in urine, sweat, breath you exercise and sweat, the much you should drink to restore and their owners very unhappy.
and faeces. This doesn’t include more salts you lose, because the balance to be within required
minor losses such as in tears sweat can’t be concentrated, limits. When you have drunk Tony Holkham
and spitting. We gain water by hence the marketable value of enough, you feel sated and stop Boncath, Pembrokeshire, UK
drinking, and by breaking down sports drinks. The amount you drinking. This system is Horses, and many other animals,
food during metabolism into need to drink is unique to you. remarkably efficient. roll to rid themselves of irritation
carbon dioxide and water. Linked to the hydration sensors It takes several hours for the or parasites that they can’t reach
Sweat, breath and faeces stay at are the thirst parts of your brain. fluid levels in the body to respond with their mouths or feet. It is
the same concentration, so the If you feel thirsty, then drink to the liquid you have drunk, but necessary, but leaves the animal
main control of body fluid content water. Otherwise, keep someone the regulatory system works well vulnerable for a short time.
is via our kidneys. Their activity else happy and rich by buying enough most of the time to keep Dogs roll for this reason too,
is controlled by a molecule known their fluid replacement and by the body’s fluid content within especially because many modern
as vasopressin or antidiuretic all means carry a bottle with you its typical parameters. breeds are unable to groom
hormone, which is secreted by to prove that selective advertising If you lose a lot of water themselves effectively. They
the pituitary gland. This is has an effect on you. quickly, on a very hot day for also do it to submit to another
regulated by an area of the brain example, you may lose too member of the pack and, in
called the hypothalamus, which Brian Pollard much, and then you become domesticated dogs at least,
contains receptors sensitive to North Hill, Cornwall, UK dehydrated, and it feels because they love to have their
the blood’s concentration of The human body is made up unpleasant. The unpleasant belly rubbed. My Jack Russell
sodium and other substances. mainly of water, and our feeling is your body requesting Sparky would probably put this
The kidneys are the main way physiology operates to keep an urgent ingestion of liquid. last reason at the top of the list. ❚
for us to excrete salts. If you eat within about a litre of the 45 or so
a lot of salt, your kidneys will litres in an average-sized person.
increase the concentration of The way it does this is by Want to send us a question or answer?
the urine up to their maximum regulating the feeling of thirst. Email us at lastword@newscientist.com
ability. Past this, the volume will When the fluid level starts to get Questions should be about everyday science phenomena
increase. If you drink a lot of water, low, your body makes you feel Full terms and conditions at newscientist.com/lw-terms
As a child, what did you want to do How has your field of study changed in
when you grew up? the time you have been working in it?
My parents were practical scientists, and they We have been at the centre of a paradigm shift
used their skills to solve real-world problems. in forensic science. The situation before was
Partly as a consequence of that, my overriding
desire was to make a difference when I grew up.
that the only time judges and forensic scientists
spoke to each other was in the courtroom.
“Your DNA could
Now, the judiciary and forensic scientists work transfer to a
Explain what you do in one easy paragraph.
weapon even
together. We speak about science in informal
I lead a team of people from different scientific, ways, exploring each other’s questions and
statistical and science communication
backgrounds and we try to address some of the
perspectives, to gather a collective understanding
of what science can answer and what it can not.
though you have
fundamental challenges in how science is used in never directly
the justice system. We work with police, Do you have an unexpected hobby,
researchers, lawyers, judges and the public. I also and if so, please will you tell us about it? touched it”
do forensic casework – my area of expertise is in Not really – I am a workaholic.
investigating how and where fires start.
How useful will your skills be after
What’s the most exciting thing you’re the apocalypse?
working on right now? I can make things out of wood and I can set a fire
We are working on the development of a global almost anywhere – two of the essential skills for
citizen science project that will help forensic building a shelter and keeping toasty warm.
scientists understand how materials transfer
between surfaces and then persist on the surface
they have transferred to. We have designed If you could have a long conversation
and tested universal experiments to build with any scientist living or dead,
databases that will address these questions and who would it be?
will launch these globally in 2020. These are One is Michael Faraday, who wrote
profoundly important issues that help us The Chemical History of a Candle and instigated
explain the relevance and weight of forensic the Royal Institution’s Christmas lecture series.
evidence to our courts. Another is Florence Nightingale, who was the
first female member of the Royal Statistical
If you could send a message back to Society and made good use of infographics.
yourself as a kid, what would you say?
Work harder than everyone else and don’t be
afraid to think differently. OK one last thing: tell us something that
will blow our minds…
Were you good at science at school? We have very little understanding of how trace
Yes – and maths and woodwork, which is materials, such as DNA, transfer and persist from
always a useful skill to have. one surface to the next. If someone picks up a
glass that you have handled and then they pick up
What achievement or discovery are you a weapon and assault someone, your DNA could
most proud of? transfer to that weapon even though you have
Proving that conventional smoke alarms don’t never directly touched it. We are undertaking
wake children and then finding a sound that does. research to understand whether this can happen
It sounds like a truck reversing, that intermittent and in what circumstances. ❚
beeping noise, followed by a female voice saying
“get up, the house is on fire”. Each sound is played Niamh Nic Daeid is professor of forensic science
for 10 seconds, repetitively. Most children wake and director of the Leverhulme Research Centre for
with either the first beeping tone or when they Forensic Science at the University of Dundee, UK
hear the voice for the first time. STOCK MONTAGE/GETTY