FLOWERY LANGUAGE

Why plants are struggling to

get their message across
WRONG KIND OF SAND
We’re running out of the
stuff that built civilisation
THE THUNDERDRONE
Flying robot wars test
anti-drone defences
WEEKLY 17 February 2018

OLD FRIEND Stone-Age people kept dogs as pets

WHEN THE FUTURE

COMES BEFORE THE PAST The quantum twist that breaks the rules of reality

No3165 £4.50
US/CAN$6.99

0 7

9 770262 407282

PLUS DARK MATTER QUARKS/URBAN EVOLUTION/VAPE CRUSADERS/HUNTING WHALES/

SANITISER SUPERBUG/CLASSIC EXPERIMENTS/FACE-RECOGNITION SPECS/ROCKETS AWAY!
 newscientist.com/issue/3165
CONTENTS

Management
Executive chairman Bernard Gray
Publishing director John MacFarlane
Finance director Matthew O’Sullivan
Strategy director Sumit Paul-Choudhury
Human resources Shirley Spencer
Non-executive director Louise Rogers

Publishing and commercial

Customer services manager Gavin Power

REUTERS/MIKE HUTCHINGS
Head of data science Kimberly Karman

WESTMAC/GETTY IMAGES
HR co-ordinator Serena Robinson
Facilities manager Ricci Welch
Executive assistant Sarah Gauld
Trainee PA Emily Perry
Receptionist Alice Catlin

Display advertising
Tel +44 (0)20 7611 1291
Email displayads@newscientist.com Volume 237 No 3165 Analysis Cape Town is running out of water 20
Commercial director Chris Martin
Richard Holliman, Justin Viljoen,
Henry Vowden, Helen Williams

Recruitment advertising
Tel +44 (0)20 8652 4444
Email nssales@newscientist.com
Recruitment sales manager Mike Black
Key account managers
Martin Cheng, Reiss Higgins, Viren Vadgama
US sales manager Jeanne Shapiro
Marketing
Head of marketing Lucy Dunwell
David Hunt, Chloe Thompson, Andrew Wilkinson
Web development
Director of technology Steve Shinn
Maria Moreno Garrido, Tuhin Sheikh,
Amardeep Sian
New Scientist Live
Tel +44 (0)20 7611 1273
Email live@newscientist.com
Event director Mike Sherrard
Creative director Valerie Jamieson
Sales director Jacqui McCarron
Event manager Henry Gomm
Conference producer Natalie Gorohova
UK Newsstand
Tel +44 (0)20 3787 9001
Newstrade distributed by Marketforce UK Ltd,
2nd Floor, 5 Churchill Place, Canary Wharf,
London E14 5HU
Syndication
Tribune Content Agency
Tel +44 (0)20 7588 7588
Email tca-articlesales@tribpub.com
Subscriptions
newscientist.com/subscribe
Tel +44 (0)330 333 9470
Email ns.subs@quadrantsubs.com
Post New Scientist, Rockwood House,
Perrymount Road, Haywards Heath,
West Sussex RH16 3DH
On the cover
32 Flowery language
Why plants are struggling
to get their message across
35 Wrong kind of sand
We’re running out of the
stuff that built civilisation
4 The thunderdrone
Flying robot wars test
anti-drone defences
10 Old friend
Stone-Age people kept dogs
as pets
28 When the future comes
before the past
The quantum twist that breaks
the rules of reality
Plus Dark matter quarks (8). Urban
evolution (45). Vape crusaders
(23). Hunting whales (26).
Sanitiser superbug (7).
Classic experiments (41).
Face-recognition specs (13).
Rockets away! (14)
Leader
3 Revisiting ethically dubious
experiments of the past. We need
to rethink our exploitation of sand
News
4 THIS WEEK Drones vs drones.
Antarctic mission. NASA telescope
at risk. Opioids in the UK
6 NEWS & TECHNOLOGY
How should we deflect a deadly
asteroid? Trauma nurse ants.
Superbug resists hand sanitisers.
Australia’s forgotten megastorms.
Twisted space-time and dark
matter. Extinction by sterilisation.
Our ancient soft spot for dogs.
Online chat gives cyberattack
warnings. Gene activity shapes
mental health. Smart glasses fight
crime. SpaceX kicks off new era of
space flight. Human eggs matured
in lab for first time
17 IN BRIEF Houdini beetles. Weird
ice. The first portable atomic clock.
Parents nurse premature babies
Analysis
20 Cape Town As the South African
city runs out of water, how did
things get this bad?
22 COMMENT A quantum computer
revolution nears. Labels should
say if your meat met a better end
23 INSIGHT It’s time to take vaping
seriously as a way to save lives
Features
28 Blast from the future
The quantum twist that breaks
the rules of reality
32 Silence of the plants
The fragrant language of plants is
being destroyed by human activity
35 Sand storm We are running out
of the stuff that built civilisation
41 Real-life Lord of the Flies
How Muzafer Sherif’s schoolboy
experiment led us astray
Culture
44 Inside story of blood
The discoverer of our circulation
deserves his own exhibition
45 Wildlife to street life
Nature can inhabit the city,
but only if we help
46 The cat in the ceiling Absurdity
shapes a show on data and culture
Regulars
26 APERTURE
Hunting whale blows bubbles
52 LETTERS
Everything put together falls apart
55 SIGNAL BOOST
Offset the carbon from trips
56 FEEDBACK
Robot priests
57 THE LAST WORD
Sting in the tail

17 February 2018 | NewScientist | 1

DEFINITION of “Gorilla”
A company that dominates an industry without having a complete monopoly.”
Investopedia.

(YHU\ HUD KDV LWV GHILQLQJ EXVLQHVV GULYHU IURP WKH
&RORQLHV WR WKH ,QGXVWULDO 5HYROXWLRQ WR WKH 5DLOZD\V
WRWKH+RPH3&
:HEHOLHYHZHDUHOLYLQJWKURXJKWKHEXVLQHVVHUDRI
WKH7HFKQRORJ\*RULOODV
7KHELJTXHVWLRQLVKDYH\RXJRWHQRXJKLQYHVWPHQW
H[SRVXUHWRWKLVWKHPH"
0RVW RI WKH WHFKQRORJ\ JRULOODV FDQ EH IRXQG LQ WKH
0DQFKHVWHU  /RQGRQ ,QYHVWPHQW 7UXVW SOF
0 / &DSLWDO 0DQDJHPHQW /LPLWHG ㉇0/&0㉈ LV
DXWKRULVHG DQG UHJXODWHG E\ WKH )LQDQFLDO &RQGXFW
$XWKRULW\ DQG RQO\ DFWV IRU WKH IXQGV WR ZKRP LW
SURYLGHV UHJXODWHG LQYHVWPHQW PDQDJHPHQW
VHUYLFHV 0/&0 GRHV QRW DFW IRU RU DGYLVH SRWHQWLDO
LQYHVWRUV LQ FRQQHFWLRQ ZLWK DFTXLULQJ VKDUHV LQ
0DQFKHVWHU  /RQGRQ ,QYHVWPHQW 7UXVW SOF DQG ZLOO
QRW EH UHVSRQVLEOH WR SRWHQWLDO LQYHVWRUV IRU
SURYLGLQJ WKHP ZLWK SURWHFWLRQV DIIRUGHG WR FOLHQWV RI
0/&0
㉇01/㉈SRUWIROLR 3URVSHFWLYH LQYHVWRUV DUH VWURQJO\ DGYLVHG WR WDNH
Manchester & London WKHLU RZQ OHJDO LQYHVWPHQW DQG WD[ DGYLFH IURP
Investment Trust plc LQGHSHQGHQW DQG VXLWDEO\ TXDOLILHG DGYLVHUV  7KH
YDOXHRILQYHVWPHQWVPD\JRXSDVZHOODVGRZQ3DVW
ZZZPOFDSPDQFRPPDQFKHVWHUORQGRQLQYHVWPHQWWUXVWSOF
SHUIRUPDQFHLVQRWDJXLGHWRIXWXUHSHUIRUPDQFH
$YDLODEOHWKURXJK\RXUVWRFNEURNHURUSODWIRUPLQFOXGLQJ
MNL Performance, % Total Return
Y/E 31 July 2017 1 Yr 3 Yr 5 Yr
01/6KDUH3ULFH 
 
 
01/1$9 
 
 
6RXUFH%ORRPEHUJ)LQDQFH/30/&0

,QYHVWRU GRFXPHQWDWLRQ LV DYDLODEOH HLWKHU WKURXJK WKH

0/&0ZHEVLWHRUWKHOLVWHGSODWIRUPVDQGSURVSHFWLYH
LQYHVWRUV VKRXOG UHYLHZ WKHVH EHIRUH DQ\ GHFLVLRQ LV
PDGH
LEADERS

Editorial

CAROLYN AND MUZAFER SHERIF PAPERS, THE UNIVERSITY OF AKRON

Acting editor Graham Lawton
Managing editor Rowan Hooper
Head of production Julian Richards
Art editor Craig Mackie
Editor at large Jeremy Webb

News
Chief news editor Niall Firth
Editors Penny Sarchet, Jacob Aron,
Timothy Revell, Jon White, Chelsea Whyte
Reporters (UK) Andy Coghlan,
Jessica Hamzelou, Michael Le Page, Clare
Wilson, Sam Wong, (US) Leah Crane,
(Aus) Alice Klein

Features
Chief features editor Richard Webb
Editors Catherine de Lange, Gilead Amit,
Catherine Brahic, Julia Brown, Daniel Cossins,
Kate Douglas, Alison George,
Joshua Howgego, Tiffany O’Callaghan,

Refighting old battles

Sean O’Neill

Culture and Community

Editors Liz Else, Mike Holderness, Simon Ings,
Frank Swain

Subeditors Are ethically dubious experiments from the past ever fair game?
Managing subeditor Eleanor Parsons
Vivienne Greig, Tom Campbell,
Hannah Joshua, Chris Simms “THE past is a foreign country, it set out to answer are as relevant gathered by Nazi doctors.
Design they do things differently there.” now as they were back then. Murderous as they were, some of
Kathryn Brazier, Joe Hetzel, That aphorism is as true for The Robbers Cave experiment these experiments produced data
Dave Johnston, Ryan Wills
science as for any other walk was staged during a time of that could save lives today. Should
Picture desk
of life. Experiments done in political tumult not dissimilar the information ever be used?
Chief picture editor Adam Goff
Kirstin Kidd, David Stock the past sometimes couldn’t be to today’s. The experimenter Nobody is suggesting that
Production
repeated today, which makes was a Turkish immigrant who felt Robbers Cave is in the same
Mick O’Hare, Melanie Green , them a treasure trove of valuable increasingly unwelcome in the ballpark, but it is still worth asking
Alan Blagrove, Anne Marie Conlon information – albeit not one that US. The central question of his whether the work should be seen
Contact us should be opened casually. study concerned human nature: as valid. On balance, the fact that
newscientist.com/contact Consider a classic experiment are we inherently tribal, or do it didn’t do any lasting harm to
General & media enquiries that we revisit this week (see page social conditions drive us to anybody suggests it is fair game.
Tel +44 (0)20 7611 1202
enquiries@newscientist.com 41). It involved two groups of boys become so? The contemporary Indeed, we hope that
UK let loose in the wilds of Oklahoma relevance of the experiment is retelling and reinterpreting
25 Bedford Street, London, WC2E 9ES
Tel +44 (0)20 7611 1200
to test their capacity for inter- impossible to miss. classic experiments through
AUSTRALIA
group rivalry. If somebody There are, of course, problems contemporary eyes will become a
Level 11, Suite 3, proposed doing the same today, with disinterring old research regular feature in New Scientist. A
100 Walker Street,
North Sydney, NSW 2060
it wouldn’t get past the ethics results. Ethicists have long visit to a foreign country can often
Tel +61 (0)2 9422 8559 committee. And yet the questions agonised about the use of data tell us much about our own. ■
US
210 Broadway #201
Cambridge, MA 02139

Heads out of the sand individual impacts may be small,

Tel +1 617 283 3213

but our collective footprint is so

© 2018 New Scientist Ltd, England
New Scientist is published weekly
by New Scientist Ltd. ISSN 0262 4079.
New Scientist (Online) ISSN 2059 5387
Registered at the Post Office as a
newspaper and printed in England
by William Gibbons (Wolverhampton)
THERE is something absurd about
the idea that the world is running
out of sand, but the reality on the
ground – or under it – is no
laughing matter. Despite some
10 per cent of Earth’s surface being
covered with sand, most of it is
useless to us (see page 35). Getting
at the right sort is causing terrible
environmental degradation.
If that sounds like one more
thing to be guilty about, well,
sorry – it is. Just as your demand
for plastic contributes a small
amount to ocean pollution
and your use of transport and
electricity allow carbon dioxide
to leak into the atmosphere, your
need for concrete helps to drive
the destructiveness of sand
mining. That is the reality of
living in the Anthropocene:
large that we are affecting Earth’s
geology, atmosphere and climate.
Admittedly, cutting out
concrete is harder than offsetting
your flights or reducing your
consumption of plastic bags. But
that makes sand a useful rallying
cry for top-down action. There is
little more potent symbol of our
destructiveness than the fact that
we are running out of something
so apparently limitless. ■

17 February 2018 | NewScientist | 3

 THIS WEEK

Clash of the drones

A competition to take out rogue drones has some innovative entries

Timothy Revell country’s Ministry of Justice and in the air,” says Bart Remes at the drones as quickly as possible,”
Security sponsored a competition Delft University of Technology says Thielicke – hopefully, taking
DRONES are wreaking havoc. Last designed to test out the tech in the Netherlands, one of the out the competition in the process.
year, London’s Gatwick Airport required to take out a rogue drone. competition’s organisers. A simpler approach was
had to divert flights when a drone Dubbed the “anti-drone” Teams could score points for planned by the Laced Horns team,
was spotted flying nearby. In the competition, the aim of taking down other drones, but from the University of Twente in
UK, there were more than 100 DroneClash was to home in on maximum points were awarded the Netherlands and Clear Flight
incidents involving drones close a reliable way to pluck illegal or for stopping drones, grabbing Solutions, a firm known for
to airports in 2017 – the most ever, unwanted drones out of the sky. them and safely placing them in building flying robotic birds. The
and other countries have seen The organisers put up a $30,000 a nearby box. There were several team’s approach was to make very
similar increases. Reports of near prize for the best idea. knock-out rounds before the robust attack drones with a frame
misses are at an all-time high. winner-takes-it-all finale. extending all the way round the
So authorities are eager to find “Tactics include spaghetti, Speaking before the event, propellers, reinforced with carbon
ways to bring down drones safely string to foul propellers, William “IN-YOUR-FACE!” plates. To destroy the competition,
and reliably. But the task is harder firing darts at other drones Thielicke, from team DiPol, they simply bash into them. “It
than you might think. and even an airgun” described a cunning plan to use relies on pilot skill,” says Geert
“Most options to either catch raw spaghetti, which he hoped Folkertsma, one of the team.
a drone in the sky or drive it out In DroneClash, the teams each would give his team the edge. Other tactics include dangling
of the area are experimental had to defend a “queen drone” As a defence mechanism, their a piece of string above a drone to
or cause too much collateral and use “attack drones” to battle queen was to have pieces of pasta, tangle up the propellers so it falls
damage,” says Mark Wiebes, their opponents. To reach the reinforced with cord around the out of the sky, firing darts at the
Innovations Manager at the Dutch queens, the attackers had to travel strands and pointing in every opposition, and even an airgun
National Police. “Geo-fencing” is through the Hallway of Doom direction, so that any drone flying to throw the target off-balance.
one option but even that is not Death and Destruction, which near it risked a broken propeller. “In a practice session, there
foolproof and relies on users and included a variety of counter- Dipol’s attack drones would was a draft in the room that made
manufacturers playing along drone measures such as bright also have a couple of pieces of the drone fly like crazy, we just
(see “Bird in the hand”, right). lights, smoke and a net launcher. spaghetti attached like a lance. couldn’t control it, so we’re trying
That’s why Dutch police and the “DroneClash is like Robot Wars “We will then crash into the other to reproduce that,” says Daniel

Exploring a once- covers 5800 square kilometres. “It’s

hidden world
AN EXPEDITION to an unexplored,
newly revealed Antarctic ecosystem
began this week. An international
team set off to study a mysterious
area of the ocean that has been
concealed for thousands of years.
The ecosystem was hidden under
the Larsen C ice shelf for 120,000
years. It was exposed when a huge
iceberg calved off in July last year. The
iceberg, known as A68, is four times
the size of London, and weighs in at
around 1 trillion tonnes. It is one of
the largest ever recorded.
MARIO TAMA/GETTY
important we get there quickly, before
the undersea environment changes
as sunlight enters the water and new
species begin to colonise,” she says.
The team plans to collect animals,
microbes and plankton, as well as
samples of water and sediments, and
will record the movements of marine
mammals and birds into the area.
Trump to NASA:
cuts are coming
ONE of NASA’s planned space
telescopes is on the chopping block.

Katrin Linse of the British Antarctic President Trump has released his
Survey, who is leading the expedition, 2019 budget request, and despite an
says she wants to investigate the overall rise of $370 million on its 2018
marine life on the seabed, which funding, NASA is facing potential cuts.

4 | NewScientist | 17 February 2018

 For new stories every day, visit newscientist.com/news
ANDREW TESTA/THE NEW YORK TIMES/REDUX/EYEVINE
In for the kill: trained eagles can
catch drones... if they want to–
Vernis from a team called The
Wand, who have developed a form
of airgun. As New Scientist went
to press the battle was just getting
under way in a Dutch aircraft
hangar near Leiden.
Many teams were also keeping
their strategies secret, but some
had developed methods for safely
plucking drones out of the air in
Among those are five Earth science
missions and the Wide Field Infrared
Survey Telescope planned to launch
in the mid-2020s. WFIRST is intended
to hunt for the effects of dark matter
and dark energy, and would also have
instruments to find exoplanets.
A review found that WFIRST would
exceed its original $2 billion budget.
It has been competing for cash with
the planet-hunting James Webb
Space Telescope. “Developing another
large space telescope immediately
after completing the $8.8 billion
James Webb Space Telescope is not
a priority for the Administration,”
the budget request said.
This proposal also includes
plans to end NASA funding for the
International Space Station in 2025,
with a possibility of handing over its
operation to commercial firms.
an attempt to get the maximum
number of points, says Remes.
Although the event was
designed to be fun, DroneClash
has a more serious side. Drones
have also been used to deliver
contraband to people in
prisons, as well as in an attempt
to bomb a Russian airbase in
Syria. “I know of one incidence
where an ambulance helicopter
couldn’t land because of a drone
flying,” says Wiebes. “These are
Poorer people and
prescription opioids
DOCTORS in England have been
prescribing opioid painkillers
disproportionately to people in the
least affluent parts of the nation.
An analysis of nearly three years
of prescribing data up to February
2014 found that northern England
contained 9 out of 10 of the regions
where eight opioid painkillers were
most frequently prescribed (British
Journal of General Practice, DOI:
10.3399/bjgp18X695057).
Many of these regions fall in
socially deprived areas. From earlier
research we know that 40 per cent
of men and 44 per cent of women
in the poorest quarter of England’s
population experience chronic pain.
really serious incidents.”
A UK Department of Transport
study last year showed that even
a small drone may damage a
helicopter’s rotors or a plane’s
windshield. “We are a firm
believer in drones and how they
will improve society,” says Remes.
“But there also need to be no go
zones where we can take measures
against drones for public safety.” ■
Check newscientist.com for details
of the competition winner
In the US, the opioid crisis has
already reached epidemic levels. Last
week, Congress adopted a budget
that includes $1.5 billion spread
over the next decade to help families
with babies born addicted to opioids.
Purdue Pharmaceuticals, which
sells the painkiller OxyContin, said
last week that it will no longer actively
market opioids to doctors.
Face recognition’s
biases on show
FACE-recognition software can
guess your gender with amazing
accuracy – if you are a white man.
Joy Buolamwini at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
tested three commercially available
BIRD IN THE HAND
Anti-drone measures aren’t new,
but few are very successful. Eagles
trained by the Dutch police to pluck
drones out of the sky and bring
them back to base with their big
talons looked promising for a while.
Unfortunately, eagles don’t like
being told what to do. The project
was scrapped over concerns that the
birds might go after food instead
of the intended target. The US Air
Force is trying to find out if falcons
are up to the task.
Another approach is to use a radio
jammer in a particular area, so-called
geo-fencing, so that the instructions
from the pilot won’t be received.
This could be effective in some
instances, but may not work on
drones that can fly autonomously.
The US military has previously
released footage of a microwave
gun that essentially fries a drone’s
electronics. Though the approach
could work on the battlefield, a
drone falling in a civilian area could
create a lot of trouble. Employing a
laser gun creates similar problems.
What’s needed is some new ideas,
and a big drone battle could be the
way to generate inspiration (see
main story).
face-recognition systems, created
by Microsoft, IBM and the Chinese
company Megvii. The systems correctly
identified the gender of white men
99 per cent of the time. But the error
rate rose for people with darker skin,
reaching nearly 35 per cent for women.
Face-recognition software is
already being used in many different
situations, including by police to
identify suspects in a crowd (see
page 13) and to automatically tag
photos. This means inaccuracies
could have consequences, such as
systematically ingraining biases in
police stop and searches.
Biases in artificial intelligence
systems tend to come from biases
in the data they are trained on.
According to one study, a widely used
data set is around 75 per cent male
and more than 80 per cent white.
17 February 2018 | NewScientist | 5
NEWS & TECHNOLOGY

Deflector Selector
Nuclear weapons release an to machine learning. Using the
explosive force, while a kinetic simulation as training data, they
impactor is essentially like trying taught an algorithm to study a

says nuke asteroids to shoot one bullet out of the air

with a much smaller one. Gravity
tractors are more subtle. The idea
given population of objects and
decide which tech had the best
chance of deflection. Nesvold
here is to put a spacecraft near an says after the algorithm is trained,
Jacob Aron six million hypothetical objects asteroid, and let its gravitational it can supply an answer in seconds
with the potential to hit Earth. pull slowly tug the rock off course, instead of hours.
IF AN asteroid was set to hit Next, they looked at how early but the concept hasn’t been tested. The team tried their trained
Earth, humanity would have to each could be detected before All this number crunching algorithm on three populations:
scramble to conduct the world’s collision, and the velocity change required a cluster of 100 computer hazardous near-Earth asteroids,
riskiest experiment. We have needed to knock it off course. cores running for around comets and rubble piles – loose
never tried to shove a space rock Finally, they looked at which 40 hours. To bring the timing collections of material, rather
off its course, so any defence of three technologies would down, the researchers turned than solid objects. In each case,
effort would be a shot in the dark. be best at doing this: nuclear nuclear weapons could tackle
People have come up with weapons, kinetic impactors What could we do if an asteroid was about 50 per cent of the objects.
ideas – like chucking nuclear or gravity tractors. on a collision course with Earth? Kinetic impactors and gravity
weapons at an incoming threat – tractors had lower success rates
but with limited asteroid defence (arxiv.org/abs/1802.00458).
budgets, which should we pursue? That might suggest we should
An algorithm called the Deflector invest in nuclear weapons as our
Selector says nukes would do the asteroid defence of choice, but
job about half the time. there are issues when it comes
To be clear, Erika Nesvold, to mounting these on rockets.
formerly at the Carnegie “The risks created by pursuing
Institution for Science in a nuclear asteroid defence
Washington DC, and her team programme would far outweigh
don’t suggest we give a computer the actual risks posed by asteroid
free reign over nuclear missiles. impacts,” says Eric Christensen at
“We are absolutely not advocating the Catalina Sky Survey.
DETLEV VAN RAVENSWAAY/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY

putting the algorithm in charge The gravity tractor success

of asteroid defence,” she says. rates improved when the asteroids
Instead, their machine learning were spotted earlier. “That points
algorithm can study a population to the need for better asteroid
of potentially hazardous objects, monitoring and detection
and determine which technology surveys,” says Nesvold. “Earlier
has the best chance of deflecting detection of potential impactors
them from Earth’s path. will provide more lead time to
To build the algorithm, Nesvold plan and execute a mission,”
and her colleagues simulated agrees Christensen. ■

Ants nurse The termites fight back, and their

powerful jaws can administer lethal
each other bites. The ants often lose limbs.
In 2017, Erik Frank, then at the
back to health University of Würzburg, Germany,
reported that Matabele ants routinely
A SPECIES of ant has become the first carry their wounded back to the nest.
known non-human animal to treat the This is odd: social insects usually treat
injuries of its fellows. “Nurse” ants lick each other as expendable. Injured
the lacerations of fallen comrades, ants “asked” for help by releasing
and this helps them to survive. a pheromone, prompting other ants
Matabele ants (Megaponera analis) to carry them.
live dangerous lives. Several times a In a follow-up, Frank, now at the
day, parties of soldier ants set out to University of Lausanne in Switzerland,
hunt termites, dragging them from and his colleagues have filmed what
their nests and carrying them home. happens in the nest when the injured
are brought in. The footage shows
nurse ants spend several minutes
licking their fellow ants’ wounds.
Without this attention, 80 per cent
of ants who had lost limbs died
within a few hours. Of those that
received care, 90 per cent survived
(Proceedings of the Royal Society B,
DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2017.2457).
“We don’t know yet if the ants are
just cleaning the wound and removing
“The ants were selective in
who they picked up. They
didn’t want to help ants
that had lost five legs”
debris, as we do with our wounds to
prevent infection, or if they are also
applying antimicrobial substances
with their saliva,” says Frank.
Either way, the treatment works.
“The ants are able to reach running
speeds similar to healthy ants, despite
missing a leg or two,” says Frank.
The ants probably don’t feel
compassion, says Frank, but want to
keep their numbers up. Indeed, not all
the soldiers were rescued. “The ants
were selective in who they picked up,”
says Frank. “They didn’t want to help
heavily injured ants who had lost five
legs.” Jasmin Fox-Skelly ■

6 | NewScientist | 17 February 2018

For daily news stories, visit newscientist.com/news

Superbug fights
back against
hand sanitisers
A DANGEROUS strain of bacteria has
found a way to resist hand sanitisers.
These alcohol-based sanitisers
were introduced to many hospitals
in the early 2000s to fight the spread
of drug-resistant superbugs like
TORSTEN BLACKWOOD/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

MRSA and vancomycin-resistant
Enterococcus (VRE). Although the
bacteria had evolved resistance to
antibiotics, it was assumed they
wouldn’t be able to do the same for
alcohol, which kills them much faster.
Since the introduction of hand
sanitisers, hospital MRSA rates have
sharply declined. But VRE rates have
increased fivefold in some places,
with more than half of those infected Predicting megastorms A storm forced the Pasha
Bulker aground in 2007–
dying. Now research by Timothy
Stinear at the University of Melbourne from 1800s ships’ logs (ENSO) and the Interdecadal
and Lindsay Grayson at Austin Pacific Oscillation (IPO). Both
Hospital, both in Australia, suggests “IT WAS blowing a perfect They collected temperature and affect sea surface temperatures.
that VRE bacteria have developed hurricane… the sea at this time pressure data from a handful of Conditions are most ripe when
alcohol tolerance. running mountains high…” weather stations that have records the ENSO is in its La Niña phase
The pair used paper wipes soaked That was one of the last things back to the 1850s. They also and the IPO goes from a positive to
in alcohol-based hand sanitiser to written in the logbook of a ship studied coastal erosion to see negative phase. La Niñas warm the
disinfect mouse cages that had been called the Catherine Hill, before when storm damage occurred. sea surface around Australia, and
coated with VRE samples collected in a storm drove it aground north of Where possible, they cross- are stronger and more frequent
either 1998 or 2012. Based on how Sydney, Australia, on 21 June 1867. checked this with ship logbook during negative IPO phases.
many mice became infected, they Storms like it are being studied to extracts and weather reports When the warm sea air hits cold
concluded that alcohol was 35 per help weather forecasters predict from the Sydney Morning Herald air on land, the resulting storms
cent less effective at killing the 2012 future recurrences. newspaper from 1831 onwards. can be intense “weather bombs”,
VRE bacteria than the earlier strain. Australia’s east coast is lashed This helped them reconstruct says Browning. Rising air releases
When they studied 139 samples by huge storms called “extreme some of Australia’s worst storms. moisture as rain, as well as lots of
collected from Melbourne hospitals east coast lows” every 10 to 20 The most famous was on 20 energy, causing strong winds and
between 1998 and 2015, they found years. Their rarity makes them August 1857 and sank the Dunbar ocean waves up to 18 metres high.
that the more recent bacteria were hard to predict. Meteorologists Browning presented the data
10 times as tolerant to alcohol than did not foresee the severity of the “The decks burst up from last week at a meeting of the
the older ones (bioRxiv, doi.org/ckdt). 8 June 2007 storm, for example, the pressure of the water Australian Meteorological and
This seemed to correspond with in which a coal ship ran aground. and the ship was rent Oceanographic Society in Sydney.
changes in the bacteria’s alcohol- “Most forecasters would only into a thousand pieces” He and Goodwin plan to refine
processing genes, which may have see one such event during their their predictions using weather
made their outer cell membranes careers, and nobody working on just outside Sydney, killing more observations from old ship
more impervious to alcohol. the forecast desk at the time had than 120 people. One newspaper logbooks. Petra Pearce at the
Rather than showing that hand gels ever seen anything like it,” says account described how “the decks National Institute of Water and
don’t work against VRE, the findings Stuart Browning at Macquarie burst up from the pressure of the Atmospheric Research in New
may mean that healthcare workers University in Sydney. water, the ship was rent into a Zealand has digitised more than
aren’t using them properly, says Most of what we know about thousand pieces, and all on 130,000 logbook images from the
Grayson. If they sometimes forget these storms is based on satellite board… were hurried into the 18th century onwards. She also
to use them or use gel and foam data, which only goes back to 1979. foaming and terrific sea”. presented at the meeting.
formulations with lower alcohol Browning and his colleague Browning and Goodwin found Fortunately, Browning says such
contents, superbugs have a better Ian Goodwin have now pieced that severe storms are most likely storms are unlikely this decade,
chance of surviving and evolving together information stretching when two climate cycles line up: as the IPO is moving into its safer
tolerance, he says. Alice Klein ■ back almost two centuries. the El Niño Southern Oscillation positive phase. Alice Klein ■

17 February 2018 | NewScientist | 7

NEWS & TECHNOLOGY
Dark matter born
in cosmic twists
Anil Ananthaswamy
SOLVING the case of the universe’s
missing antimatter may help us
pin down one other thing we can’t
seem to find: dark matter. The
solution involves a twist in the
tale of gravitational waves.
Matter and antimatter should
have been produced in equal
amounts after the big bang.
But antimatter is nowhere to be
found. Physicists think that
primordial processes made a tiny
excess of matter over antimatter.
When matter meets antimatter,
it annihilates. The leftover excess
of matter would can be seen in the
stars and galaxies. But how did
the mismatch come about?
One previous answer involved
neutrinos, which have a property
called chirality – the way they
twist, or their handedness. In
principle, particles can be either
left-handed or right-handed, but
neutrinos are only left-handed.
Evan McDonough of Brown
University in Providence, Rhode
Island, investigated what would
happen if this chiral asymmetry
wasn’t limited to particles. He
found that if the infant universe
had gravitational waves – ripples
Was the Great
Dying the Great
Sterilisation?
WE MAY have misunderstood the
worst ever extinction. The Permian
die-off has been blamed on volcanic
eruptions, but instead of killing, the
eruptions may have had an insidious
effect: sterilisation. Organisms may
not have died, but if they could not
reproduce, their species were doomed.
Scientists have long debated the
cause of an event 252 million years
8 | NewScientist | 17 February 2018
in the fabric of space-time – with
a preferred chirality, that could
also create an excess of matter.
NICOLLE R. FULLER/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY
That led him, with Stephon
Alexander at Brown University
and David Spergel at Princeton
University, to wonder whether the
same mechanism could account
for dark matter, the unseen mass
we detect via its gravitational
influence on normal matter.
For decades, physicists have
thought that dark matter is
made of something called
weakly interacting massive
particles (WIMPs). But all
searches for WIMPs have so
far come to nought.
To get at dark matter another
way, the team built a model in
which the primordial universe
had particles called dark matter
quarks, which differ from the
dark matter that is around today.
If these particles had neutrino-
like chirality, they would interact
with the chiral gravitational
waves to produce the kind of dark
matter in the current universe
(arxiv.org/abs/1801.07255).
“It’s a cool idea,” says Michael
Peskin at Stanford University
in Palo Alto, California.
“Anything you can do that
ago, at the end of the Permian period,
during which most complex life died.
Some years ago, geologists noticed
something odd about pollen from the
time. Many of the pollen grains were
malformed or underdeveloped.
That might be because volcanic
activity spewed ozone-destroying
chemicals into the air, so more of the
sun’s harmful ultraviolet-B (UV-B)
radiation reached Earth’s surface.
The UV-B may have harmed plants
like conifers and seed ferns. To mimic
this, Jeffrey Benca and his colleagues
at the University of California,
Berkeley, exposed 18 dwarf conifers
brings in a new idea into this area,
it opens a door.”
Just like matter and antimatter,
you get an asymmetry between
dark quarks and anti dark quarks,
and eventually the universe is left
with a small excess of dark quarks.
As the cosmos cools down, they
condense into a weird state of
matter called a superfluid. This
would form a background field
that would still exist now, and
excitations of this field would
be akin to today’s dark matter
particles. These would be much
lighter than WIMPs and would
not interact with normal matter.
“It’s much wimpier than WIMPs,”
says Spergel.
Given that, it won’t be possible
to look for these particles directly.
But they will behave differently to
to elevated UV-B levels for 56 days.
As expected, the trees made more
malformed pollen. But something else
happened. The trees survived the
UV-B, but all were infertile during the
exposure period. Although the pines
made seed cones, these quickly died
(Science Advances, doi.org/ckdh).
This was even true of cones shaded
from direct exposure. “As long as just
part of the tree is exposed to the
“As long as part of the tree
is exposed to the radiation,
it’s not going to be happy
enough to reproduce”
Gravitational waves that have
handedness twist up space-time
WIMPs on cosmological scales.
For example, such dark matter
would be distributed more evenly
throughout a galaxy than WIMPs,
without clustering on small
scales. Also, the ratio of dark
matter to normal matter may not
be constant through the cosmos.
These characteristics could give
us a way to spot this kind of dark
matter, Spergel says. For example,
the uniform distribution would
create a tell-tale signature in the
cosmic microwave background,
which is the radiation leftover
from the big bang, or influence
the formation of large-scale
structures like clusters of
galaxies. ■
radiation, it’s not going to be happy
enough to reproduce,” says Benca.
This suggests a new story. Perhaps
the volcanic activity didn’t directly kill
many organisms. Instead, the UV-B
may have sterilised most land plants.
There seem to have been pulses of
volcanic activity over millennia, so this
may have happened over and over.
“I think their conclusions are really
robust,” says Jennifer McElwain at
Trinity College Dublin in Ireland.
However, the idea cannot explain the
marine die-offs, says Richard
Twitchett at the Natural History
Museum in London. Colin Barras ■
 yT r
Sk n o
V
ct oi
ra u j
nt yo
co n
re he
W

with
h no upfro
ont cossts

Was £15

Free Unlimited Calls and Texts Roll and share your unused
for Sky TV customers data for up to 3 years

Not got Sky TV? Join from £20 a month

To join Skyy Mobile call 0800 759 0609
£20 standard set-up fee for new Sky TV customers
Offer not available online. Subject to status and credit check. 30-month interest free loan required. Data Plan required for duration of Swap plan, subject to 12-month
minimum term. Option available to buy phone without a loan. See sky.com/swaphelp for details. Phone subject to availability. 18+. Lowest monthly price: Comparison of
Swap24 pricing for iPhone SE over 24 months with 500MB of data against published standard pricing available from competitors selling the phone and airtime on monthly
contracts without upfront costs (combined monthly package or separate device and airtime plans). Other operators offer 24-month contract or loan terms. Only Sky
offers Pay as You Use calls and texts (other operators include calls and texts). Direct Debit required. Correct at 16 January 2018. £10 per month (pm) offer: Includes
£0 pm data plan with 500MB (1GB with double data offer) and unlimited calls and texts. Roll: Redeem data in 1GB increments. Free Unlimited Calls and Texts: Will end on cancellation
of TV subscription and standard published prices will apply (currently £10 a month). Inclusive calls to standard UK landlines (01, 02 and 03) and inclusive calls and texts to standard UK
mobile numbers (07). Subject to our acceptable use policy at sky.com/mobileterms Sky TV: New 18-month minimum term. Sky TV General: Separate contracts apply to Sky TV and Sky
Mobile. Non-standard set-up may cost extra. Weekend set-up £10 extra. Prices may vary if you live in a flat. You must get any consents required (e.g. landlord’s). UK, Channel Islands and
Isle of Man residential customers only. Further terms apply. Correct at 12 February 2018.
 NEWS & TECHNOLOGY

Gossip gives
warnings for
cyberattacks
LIKE canaries in a coal mine,
social networks can be used as
early-warning systems for incoming
cyberattacks. By monitoring
online discussions for chatter about
imminent threats, it is possible to
predict attacks, including ones like
last year’s WannaCry and NotPetya
ANNETTE LEPPLE/GETTY

ransomware outbreaks, before they

happen, giving potential targets a
valuable heads-up.
“In the last few years, cyberattacks
have grown in number, diversity and
impact,” says Anna Sapienza at the

Ancient humans
unable to do any useful work. In University of Southern California.
fact, keeping it alive was probably But this also means that
an unpleasant burden on its discussions about such attacks have

loved their dogs owners: it might have vomited

regularly and had diarrhoea.
Its survival hints that its
become more frequent and visible.
Sapienza and her colleagues at USC
and Arizona State University built a
owners felt a bond of friendship, tool that monitors the social media
Colin Barras guarded settlements or were used just like a modern dog owner. activity of prominent security
as pack animals for transport. “This is the first time we find researchers and hackers, as well as
HOW long have we had a soft However, Janssens and his [evidence] to suggest that dogs blogs and other online forums. It scans
spot for dogs? A reanalysis of a colleagues say there is an were treated emotionally, without for posts about cybersecurity topics
prehistoric dog that was buried alternative: we domesticated expectation of any benefit,” such as software vulnerabilities or
with two people reveals that dogs simply because we liked says Janssens. malware, using text-mining software
the animal had experienced having them as pets. Bonds of friendship may to pick out relevant keywords.
several bouts of potentially lethal Their reanalysis of the dog have helped drive domestication, The team found that in the days
illness. The fact it survived them reveals it had terrible oral health. says Mietje Germonpré at the before an attack, there was often a
suggests its owners cared for Although only about 7 months Royal Belgian Institute of Natural spike in cybersecurity talk online. This
their dog as a pet. old when it died, the dog had Sciences in Brussels. “Wolf pups reflects the team’s assumption that
The Bonn-Oberkassel dog could have been ‘adopted’ to those behind an attack typically don’t
was unearthed a century ago in “The probability that provide company,” she says. operate in a bubble. They interact
Germany. It was buried alongside the sick animal would “This raising of wolf pups as with others to identify weaknesses in
the remains of a man in his survive without human pets could have been a stepping a targeted system, obtain the tools
40s and a woman in her 20s. help is very, very low” stone, together with other needed to exploit them and recruit
All are about 14,200 years old. motives, on the pathway to the participants. These activities may get
The animal probably lived long experienced three periods of severe domestication of the dog.” noticed and discussed elsewhere.
after dogs were domesticated, illness when it was between 19 and It is significant that the dog When the tool detects an increase
as evidence for this process 23 weeks old, possibly due to a virus was buried, says Pat Shipman at in relevant chatter, it automatically
stretches back at least 32,000 that causes canine distemper Pennsylvania State University. raises the alarm. In live tests between
years. But the Bonn-Oberkassel (Journal of Archaeological “When you start burying animals, September 2016 and January 2017,
dog is still a key specimen because Science, doi.org/ckcq). it indicates a special relationship the tool generated 661 alerts.
it is the oldest known dog burial, “The first infection would be of some kind.” Around 84 per cent of these flagged
says Luc Janssens at Ghent enough to be lethal to most dogs Nevertheless, Shipman says current or imminent cyberthreats.
University in Belgium. That in the wild,” says Janssens. “Then we can’t rule out the possibility Retrospectively using data, the
means it can help us understand came two extra bouts, and the that the Bonn-Oberkassel dog was team also showed that its system
why dogs were domesticated. probability that the animal would – or could have become – a useful would have generated alerts for
A common assumption is that survive without human help is working dog. That might explain WannaCry and NotPetya, both of
prehistoric humans domesticated very, very low.” why its owners cared for it which caused massive disruption
dogs to put them to work. Maybe The researchers argue that through its illness, in the hope around the world (arxiv.org/
the first dogs helped with hunting, the sick puppy would have been that it would recover. ■ abs/1801.09781). Douglas Heaven ■

10 | NewScientist | 17 February 2018

 ǀĝIJÇ ïőƅ ƨėÖ
ïǀƨǀƅÖ ©Ǯ ©ƅĝńĉĝńĉ
Ǯőǀƅ ŬÖńƍĝőńƍ
ƨőĉÖƨėÖƅ ńőǬŲ
I"mƂh m
IG 8V}Ų

"ƅń ƥŚ
ƨő ƥŚ¿
³ƍė©³į
"ǭ³IJǀƍĝőńƍ ńÇ
mƍ ŬŬIJǮ

=ï Ǯőǀ ėǫÖ ŬÖńƍĝőńƍ Ǭĝƨė  ńǀĽ©Öƅ őï ÇĝñÖƅÖńƨ ŬƅőǫĝÇÖƅƍ¿ 8őǬ Çő Ǯőǀƅ ĝńǫÖƍƨĽÖńƨƍ ÇÇ ǀŬŻ
ƨįÖ ³IJőƍÖƅ ³őńƨƅőIJ őï Ǯőǀƅ ƅÖƨĝƅÖĽÖńƨ ƍǫĝńĉƍ ©Ǯ ©ƅĝńĉĝńĉ ƨėÖĽ =ńǫÖƍƨ ĽőƅÖ ƨėń ƥƹø¿ ÇĝƅÖ³ƨIJǮ Ǭĝƨė ǀƍ ńÇ Ǯőǀ ǬĝIJIJ
ƨőĉÖƨėÖƅ ĝń  /ĝÇÖIJĝƨǮ hÖIJïĜ=ńǫÖƍƨÖÇ aÖƅƍőńIJ aÖńƍĝőń Ůh=aaůŲ ǀƨőĽƨĝ³IJIJǮ źǀIJĝïǮ ïőƅ  ƅńĉÖ őï ³őĽŬIJÖĽÖńƨƅǮ }ÖIJƨė
Q mƅńƍïÖƅ Ǯőǀƅ ŬÖńƍĝőńƍ ŮńÇ =h
ƍ ńÇ őƨėÖƅ ĝńǫÖƍƨĽÖńƨƍů hÖƅǫĝ³Ö ©ÖńÖôƨƍ¾
ƨő ǀƍ ńÇ ĽńĉÖ ƨėÖĽ IJIJ ĝń őńÖ ƍÖ³ǀƅÖ őńIJĝńÖ ³³őǀńƨŲ
Q őǀƅ őǬń ÇÖÇĝ³ƨÖÇ cÖIJƨĝőńƍėĝŬ OńĉÖƅŲ
Q "ƅń ƥŚ ƨő ƥŚ¿ ³ƍė©³į ĝï Ǯőǀ ŬŬIJǮ ƨő ƨƅńƍïÖƅ
Ǯőǀƅ ŬÖńƍĝőńƍ¿ =h
ƍ őƅ őƨėÖƅ ĝńǫÖƍƨĽÖńƨƍ ©Ǯ ƹ Oƅ³ė
Q
bǀƅƨÖƅIJǮ aőƅƨïőIJĝő cÖŬőƅƨ ńIJǮƍĝńĉ Ǯőǀƅ ėőIJÇĝńĉƍ
ƹŚÝ ŮÖǭ³IJǀƍĝőńƍ ńÇ mƍ ŬŬIJǮůŲ ńÇ ïǀńÇ ŬÖƅïőƅĽń³ÖŲ

Q }Ö őñÖƅ  IJőǬ őńĉőĝńĉ ƍÖƅǫĝ³Ö ïÖÖ ńÇ ǬĝIJIJ ńőƨ ³ėƅĉÖ

Q
IJőǬÖƅ ƍÖƅǫĝ³Ö ïÖÖ őï Ųƹű¿ ³őĽŬƅÖÇ Ǭĝƨė őǀƅ
Ǯőǀ ƨő ƨƅńƍïÖƅ ƨő ǀƍŲ ƍƨńÇƅÇ ƍÖƅǫĝ³Ö ïÖÖ őï ŲƭøűŲ ŮVńĉőĝńĉ ïǀńÇ ³ėƅĉÖƍ
ƍƨĝIJIJ ŬŬIJǮ ©ǀƨ ƍÖƅǫĝ³Ö ïÖÖƍ ƅÖ ŬǮ©IJÖ őńIJǮ őń ƨėÖ ôƅƍƨ
Q =ï Ǯőǀƅ ³ǀƅƅÖńƨ ŬƅőǫĝÇÖƅƍ ³ėƅĉÖ Öǭĝƨ ïÖÖƍ¿ ǬÖ ǬĝIJIJ ƥŚ¿¿ ƨėƨ Ǯőǀ ėǫÖ ĝńǫÖƍƨÖÇ Ǭĝƨė ǀƍŲů
ƅÖĝĽ©ǀƅƍÖ Ǯőǀ ǀŬ ƨő ƥø Ůmƍ ŬŬIJǮůŲ
Q =ńǫĝƨƨĝőńƍ ƨő Öǭ³IJǀƍĝǫÖ ÖǫÖńƨƍ ŬƅőǫĝÇĝńĉ ĝńƍĝĉėƨƍ ïƅőĽ
mėÖ ǫIJǀÖ őï ĝńǫÖƍƨĽÖńƨƍ ³ń ĉő ÇőǬń ƍ ǬÖIJIJ ƍ ǀŬ¿ ƍő IJÖÇĝńĉ ĝńǫÖƍƨĽÖńƨƍ ÖǭŬÖƅƨƍŲ
Ǯőǀ ĽǮ ńőƨ ĉÖƨ ©³į ƨėÖ Ľőǀńƨ Ǯőǀ őƅĝĉĝńIJIJǮ ĝńǫÖƍƨŲ
őǀ ³ńńőƨ ńőƅĽIJIJǮ ³³Öƍƍ ĽőńÖǮ ĝń  h=aa ǀńƨĝIJ ĉÖ
øøŲ aÖńƍĝőń ƨƅńƍïÖƅƍ ³ń ©Ö ³őĽŬIJÖǭ ńÇ ƍőĽÖ ƨǮŬÖƍ őï
ŬÖńƍĝőń¿ ĝń Ŭƅƨĝ³ǀIJƅ ƨėőƍÖ Ǭĝƨė ĉǀƅńƨÖÖÇ ©ÖńÖôƨƍ¿ ƍǀ³ė
ƍ ÇÖôńÖÇ ©ÖńÖôƨ ƍ³ėÖĽÖƍ ńÇ ŬÖńƍĝőńƍ Ǭĝƨė ƍïÖĉǀƅÇÖÇ
ŬŬIJǮ őńIJĝńÖ ƨ ôÇÖIJĝƨǮŲ³őŲǀįơ³ƍė©³į
©ÖńÖôƨƍ¿ ƅÖ ńőƨ ÖIJĝĉĝ©IJÖ ïőƅ ƨėĝƍ őñÖƅŲ
ÇǫĝƍÖÇ ƨƅńƍïÖƅƍ ƅÖ
ńőƨ ÖIJĝĉĝ©IJÖ ïőƅ ƨėĝƍ őñÖƅŲ aIJÖƍÖ ƅÖÇ őǀƅ ŬÖńƍĝőń ƨƅńƍïÖƅ Vƅ ³IJIJ ǀƍ őń Ý ƭøÝ ƕāƭŚ
ï³ƨƍėÖÖƨ¿ ƨėÖ ³ƍė©³į mƍ ńÇ Öǭĝƨ ïÖÖƍ mƍ¿ Ǭėĝ³ė ƅÖ ŮIĝńÖƍ őŬÖń ÝĽ æ ƜŬĽ OőńÇǮ ƨő /ƅĝÇǮ¿ ʼnĽ æ ƜŬĽ őń hƨǀƅÇǮů
ǫĝIJ©IJÖ ƨ ôÇÖIJĝƨǮŲ³őŲǀįơ³ƍė©³į

=ƌƌƿÕÆ ©ǭ /ĜŃŃ³Ĝı
ÆļĜŃĜƌƧƄƧĜŐŃ hÕƄǪĜ³Õƌ IĜļĜƧÕÆ¿ ƿƧĖŐƄĜƌÕÆ ŃÆ ƄÕĈƿıƧÕÆ ©ǭ ƧĖÕ /ĜŃŃ³Ĝı ŐŃÆƿ³Ƨ
ƿƧĖŐƄĜƧǭű /ĜÆÕıĜƧǭ¿ /ĜÆÕıĜƧǭ =ŃƧÕƄŃƧĜŐŃı¿ ƧĖÕĜƄ ıŐĈŐƌ ŃÆ / ƌǭļ©Őı ƄÕ ƧƄÆÕļƄĮƌ Őî /=I
IĜļĜƧÕÆű sGOřƸřƔƠƸřƸ÷ƸƠhVÜƛřřƠƸƬřÜ
See the world
differently

Subscribe or give as a gift and save up to 50%

Plus receive the bestselling book How to be Human FREE

Visit newscientist.com/10925 or
call 0330 333 9470 and quote 10925

£25
VALUE
For daily news stories, visit newscientist.com/news

How genes shape

they died. “We found substantial to see disorders like depression,
overlap,” says Geschwind. anxiety and bipolar disorder all
The greatest overlap was seen in the same family,” she says.

our mental health between samples taken from

people with bipolar disorder,
schizophrenia and autism. These
The new analysis reveals why
some of these conditions overlap.
In the brain, star-shaped cells
conditions also overlapped to a called astrocytes help neurons
Jessica Hamzelou the University of California, smaller degree with depression grow. In people with autism,
Los Angeles, and his team have (Science, doi.org/ckd5). This schizophrenia and bipolar
A RANGE of mental health been working out how active mirrors what doctors have disorder, genes involved in
conditions seem to have different genes were in the brain spotted across generations of controlling how these astrocytes
overlapping effects on the brain. cells of tissue donated by people families, says Austin. “We tend function seem to be more active.
Analysing the gene activity behind who had schizophrenia, bipolar Each condition also had unique
this is helping us understand disorder, depression, alcoholism Genes affecting astrocytes (blue) elements. Brain samples from
what causes schizophrenia and or autism-like conditions when are more active in schizophrenia people with depression, for
other disorders. example, showed signs of
Unlike cancer or heart disease, stress and inflammation. This
say, for which underlying biological chimes with growing evidence
causes have been identified, that brain inflammation plays a
psychiatric disorders and some role in mood disorders, and that
developmental conditions are anti-inflammatory medicines
defined by behavioural symptoms. might help treat depression.
We know that people born with Heather Whalley at the
certain gene variants can be more University of Edinburgh, UK,
likely to develop schizophrenia, hopes studies like this will
bipolar disorder and autism-like help identify subcategories of
behaviour, but we don’t know depression. “Depression is such
what these genes might be doing, a heterogeneous disorder, it’s
and how they put people at risk. likely there are different subtypes
“The brain is an incredibly with different mechanisms,” she
complex organ – if something says. “It might make it easier to
DENNIS KUNKEL MICROSCOPY/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY

is out of whack, something identify treatments.”

else can step in to compensate, Geschwind’s team found no
so it’s very difficult to identify overlap between alcoholism and
the fundamental problem,” says the other conditions they studied.
Jehannine Austin at Canada’s This might be because the study
University of British Columbia. didn’t include many people with
Now it seems that the way alcoholism, says Austin. But it
some brain cells work is might hint that addictions work in
changed in similar ways in these a different way, says Kevin McGhee
conditions. Daniel Geschwind at at Bournemouth University, UK. ■

Police catch The firm that developed the

GLXSS Pro smart glasses, LLVision,
criminals with says the face recognition feature is
99.4 per cent accurate. If a match
smart glasses can’t be found then the officer can
send a photo to be checked against
SMART glasses have found a new a central database.
use: fighting crime. In the past The glasses are very light so
two months, seven fugitives and the police officers can wear them
26 people travelling with fake ID all day, says Zhang Xin at LLVision.
have been apprehended by police Police in three Chinese provinces –
at Zhengzhou train station in China Henan, Shandong and Xinjiang – are
thanks to glasses with built-in face using the technology. Some highway
recognition. According to local patrol officers are doing so when
media, some were wanted for alleged they check drivers’ licences, for
involvement in human trafficking. instance. It can also be used for
licence plate recognition.
There are reports that police in
Abu Dhabi will soon use smart glasses
to help identify people suspected
of a crime. US police departments
have undertaken trials in the past,
says George Jijiashvili at CCS Insight,
a technology consultancy firm.
Though there may be some resistance
among the public, he says it is
likely that US and European police
“While the technology may
make it easier to solve
crime, it could also be used
to intimidate protesters”
forces will start using smart glasses
more regularly soon.
There are reasons to be
cautious about equipping police
with face-recognising smart glasses,
says Paul Bernal at the University of
East Anglia, UK. While the technology
may make it easier for the police to
apprehend suspects, it could also be
used for more nefarious purposes,
such as intimidating protesters.
“When you feel safe and
comfortable, you trust authorities with
this stuff,” he says. “We’ll suddenly
realise it’s disastrous if the political
climate changes.” Chris Baraniuk ■

17 February 2018 | NewScientist | 13

 NEWS & TECHNOLOGY

Egg cells grown

in lab may lead
to better IVF
HUMAN eggs have been fully matured
from their most primitive state in the
lab for the first time. If these produce
healthy embryos, the technique
could lead to new fertility treatments.
Evelyn Telfer at the University of
Edinburgh, UK, and her team started
with tiny pieces of ovarian tissue from
10 volunteers, taken during caesarean
sections. The team looked for
primordial follicles – small structures
SPACE X

that each have the potential to release

an egg. Most follicles remain inactive

SpaceX proves
Elon Musks’s car and a dummy during a woman’s life, but some
astronaut leave Earth behind mature to release an egg in ovulation.
They then placed 310 of these

Mars is in reach But the car and its passenger

made many wonder: was this
launch about progress in space,
primordial follicles in a nutrient-rich
liquid, where they started to grow.
There is no particular ingredient
or just a giant advert? The culture that kick-starts growth, says Telfer.
Leah Crane, Cape Canaveral nearly 500 kilometres per hour, of private space flight is still Instead, she believes that the act
destroying two engines on the under construction, and SpaceX of dissecting the ovarian tissue to
PEOPLE describe rocket engines drone ship it was meant to land on. is becoming a dominant builder. remove these follicles is enough
as thunderous. Standing nearly In the following hours, Starman The firm has broken into a to activate their growth.
5 kilometres from SpaceX’s Falcon and his car hurtled through the market historically dominated Once the follicles matured, Telfer’s
Heavy rocket as it took off for the Van Allen belts – zones of intense by governments. Customers can team removed each of their eggs and
first time, it felt more like I was radiation around Earth – and flew launch cargo on Falcon Heavy for grew them further. Only 32 grew big
inside a thundercloud. towards Mars. The car ended up just $90 million, far cheaper than enough to resemble mature eggs, but
The success of the 6 February on an orbit that will take it past other rockets that approach its these had all undergone a crucial cell
launch changed the game for Mars and near the asteroid belt, size and even some smaller ones. division that makes them ready for
commercial space flight. where it will travel as far as Ultimately, Musk wants to fertilisation. The whole process took
At 70 metres tall and with three 254 million kilometres away from put humans on Mars. This launch around three weeks (Molecular
boosters containing 27 engines, the sun. With this launch, Falcon was a step toward his dream, Human Reproduction, doi.org/ckdm).
Falcon Heavy is the most powerful but Falcon Heavy will not carry The team has now applied for
rocket on the market. It is capable “With such an ambitious humans. Musk hopes that there a licence to fertilise these eggs
of putting 63,800 kilograms mission so close, it is will soon be a bigger, better option with sperm. If this creates healthy
into low Earth orbit or taking time to think about who on the launch pad. People hoping embryos, the technique may improve
16,800 kilograms to Mars. is in the driver’s seat” to fly to the moon or Mars aboard IVF. For women undergoing surgery
This first flight was a test, a SpaceX rocket will have to wait for conditions like endometriosis,
designed to show that the rocket Heavy has proved its ability to for the planned BFR rocket. removing some ovary tissue and
can carry a payload to space send payloads to Mars and beyond. Musk said he hopes to test promoting egg development in the
without exploding. SpaceX CEO The atmosphere at Cape fly the BFR in the next three to lab may be preferable to the gruelling
Elon Musk chose to send up his Canaveral was one of incredulous four years. If the timeline gets hormone treatments currently used to
red Tesla Roadster, with a dummy elation as video of the Roadster pushed back, SpaceX will stimulate the release of multiple eggs.
named Starman at the wheel. flying away from Earth streamed reconsider putting humans The technique may also lead to
The launch went off without to the press room televisions and aboard Falcon Heavy. a safer way to restore fertility in
a hitch, and the three boosters the public. While some bristled, Either way, SpaceX is one step women who have had cancer. Current
disconnected from the rest of many reacted with glee and closer to being the first private approaches involve removing ovarian
the rocket and flew back down to disbelief to the car hovering above firm to take humans to the tissue then re-inserting it after
Earth. The first two landed almost Earth. It was fun, it was silly and it moon and beyond. With such an treatment, but this carries a risk
simultaneously on their launch was beautiful. It was a symbol of ambitious mission close enough of reintroducing cancerous cells. IVF
pads. But the third did not touch the beginning of a new age of to touch, it is time to think about using lab-grown eggs should bypass
down so gently. It hit the sea going space exploration. who is in the driver’s seat. ■ this danger. Jessica Hamzelou ■

14 | NewScientist | 17 February 2018

Streamline analysis,
expand possibilities
DNA separation
E-Gel Power Snap Electrophoresis System

Simplify DNA electrophoresis with the only integrated gel

running and imaging platform
The new Invitrogen™ E-Gel™ Power Snap Electrophoresis System combines
the convenience of rapid, real-time nucleic acid analysis with high-resolution
image capture. The integrated design helps reduce workflow time and
accelerate discovery.

Find out more at thermofisher.com/powersnap

For Research Use Only. Not for use in diagnostic procedures. © 2017 Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. All rights reserved. All trademarks
are the property of Thermo Fisher Scientific and its subsidiaries unless otherwise specified. COL21973 0817
 IN BRIEF
ESCHCOLLECTION/GETTY

Fish use hot seabed

rocks as incubators
ONE species of deep-sea fish
incubates its eggs in a seemingly
impossible place: the baking
hot rocks of hydrothermal vents.
These seabed openings spew
fluids from the planet’s bowels.
“This is the first time this egg-
incubating behaviour, using heat
from active hydrothermal vents,
has been recorded in the marine
environment,” says Pelayo Salinas
de León of the Charles Darwin
Foundation in the Galapagos,
Ecuador. He says the heat may
speed up development.
Salinas de León and his
colleagues used a remotely
operated vehicle to explore the
Iguanas-Pinguinos hydrothermal
vents, north of Darwin Island
in the Galapagos. They found
157 eggs, each about the size of a
cellphone, which belonged
to Pacific white skate (Scientific
App guesses your emotions Smartphones are ideal devices for such a system
because they are filled with sensors that detect light,
Reports, doi.org/ckcn). The eggs’
tough cases may protect them
to target you with adverts sound, motion and location, all of which might help from corrosive vent chemicals.
deduce a user’s emotional state. In tests, MoodExplorer
IN THE mood for love? If so, you probably won’t want could guess the mood of users correctly from their
your phone to suggest a slasher movie or a thrash metal smartphone data 76 per cent of the time, where mood
Birds move muscles
album. An app that works out how you are feeling could was judged as either happy, sad, angry, surprised,
make recommendations that chime with your mood. afraid or disgusted. to ‘dream sing’
Called MoodExplorer, the app was created by “There are much more important reasons to sense
Wenzhong Li at Nanjing University, China, and his mood than to modulate which ads we get,” says Rosalind ZEBRA finches are such keen
colleagues. “Someone who likes romantic movies might Picard at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. musicians, they appear to
prefer to watch an action film if they are feeling angry, “If a person’s mood data shows that they will get the most rehearse songs during sleep.
perhaps, to relieve that anger,” says Li. “So a smart benefit from advice like: ‘take a walk with a friend’, ‘call We knew that while birds sleep,
recommendation system really needs to take our moods your buddy, Joe’, ‘skip Facebook today’ or ‘go to bed 2 their brains make the activation
into account.” hours earlier tonight’, then that should be prioritised.” patterns they show when they
sing. Now it seems their vocal
muscles move in response.
Precision atomic clock goes for a ride The team used the clock to test A team including Gabriel
a prediction of Einstein’s general Mindlin at the University of
AN ATOMIC clock has been used for 32 billion years, they would relativity: that time moves more Buenos Aires in Argentina fitted
to take measurements outside a be just 1 second off. slowly when gravity is stronger. electrodes to the vocal muscles of
lab for the first time. Christian Lisdat at the According to Einstein, clocks run 10 sleeping zebra finches. They
These super-accurate clocks National Metrology Institute slower at sea level than at the top saw twitching, like during singing
require extreme cold and stability. of Germany and his colleagues of a mountain, where the tug of (PeerJ, doi.org/ckb9). In a second
The tick of an atomic clock is set a strontium atomic clock Earth’s gravity is less strong. study, the team found they could
measured by the frequency of on the move with a specially To confirm this, the team took trigger these movements simply
radiation emitted when electrons designed trailer (Nature Physics, measurements in the mountains by playing songs to sleeping birds
around an atom change energy doi.org/ckd3). It has rubber of Modane, France, and in lower- (bioRxiv, doi.org/ckcp).
states. The best ones measure dampers to mitigate vibrations, lying Turin, Italy. Lisdat says they The movements may help with
time with an error of only and climate control to stabilise found that a year in the Alps is 84 learning, says Sharon Gobes at
1 in 1 billion billion: after ticking the temperature. nanoseconds longer than in Turin. Wellesley College, Massachusetts.

17 February 2018 | NewScientist | 17

 IN BRIEF
Premature babies
helped by parents
PARENTS of premature babies in
intensive care units can provide
basic nursing care. This isn’t to
save hospitals money, but because
it may help the babies grow faster:
newborns who get parental care
seem to put on about 8 per cent
more weight over a three-week
period.
While most hospitals let parents
stay with their babies in intensive
care, they are often treated as
visitors, says Karel O’Brien at Mount
Sinai Hospital in Toronto, Canada.
Her team has investigated
offering training to parents, so they
can take on some of the care of their
premature babies while in hospital.
This included feeding, giving oral
medicines, taking temperature and
completing charts. Parents had to
be at the hospital for at least
6 hours per day, five days a week.
Some care, such as giving injections,
was reserved for medical staff.
In the study of about 1800 babies
born seven weeks or more early,
after three weeks, babies whose
parents underwent this training
gained on average an extra 2 grams
of weight a day when compared
with similar babies at other
hospitals (The Lancet, doi.org/ckcd).
A confounding factor is that
parents more likely to opt for this
might be more attentive in other
ways, so the training and care may
not be the cause of the weight gain.
JILL LEHMANN PHOTOGRAPHY/GETTY
18 | NewScientist | 17 February 2018
Weird hot ice of Neptune’s core gets forged on Earth
NEPTUNE and Uranus have
hearts of ice, but not like any ice
you’ve ever seen. For the first
time, a team has created the
bizarre stuff that might occupy
the cores of these ice giants.
It is called superionic ice. It only
occurs at temperatures matching
those on the sun’s surface, and
pressures exceeding a million
Earth atmospheres – the
environment predicted at the
centre of ice giants. In this hot
ice, the oxygen ions of the water
molecules behave like a solid,
staying in place to form a lattice,
A better drug for
fighting asthma
A DRUG that can relax specific
muscles could become a new
treatment for asthma.
Many of the people who take
current asthma drugs, called beta-2
agonists, become less sensitive to
them. This is a dangerous
prospect for the 300 million
people worldwide with this
airway-constricting condition.
But Luis Ulloa of Rutgers
New Jersey Medical School and
his colleagues have been working
on a new drug, called TSG12, that
targets the smooth muscle cells
that line our airways. The team
says it relaxes tensed-up human
muscle cells 100 times more
effectively than some beta-2
agonists (Science Translational
Medicine, doi.org/ckb8).
When the team induced
an asthma-like attack in mice
using a dust mite allergen, they
found that TSG12 reduced airway
obstruction by 80 per cent. This
may be about 30 times more
effective than isoprenaline
(isoproterenol), a beta-2 agonist.
Because the TSG12 specifically
targets the muscle cells involved
in asthma, it may also have fewer
side effects than beta-2 agonists.
Trials of the drug in people should
begin later this year.
For new stories every day, visit newscientist.com/news
while the hydrogen ions flow
through it like a fluid.
This structure gives superionic
water ice resistance to very high
temperatures. Marius Millot at
the Lawrence Livermore National
Laboratory in California and his
colleagues have now made this
ice in a lab. To do so, they started
with ice VII, an exotic crystalline
form forged only under intense
pressure. They trained a laser on
one of two diamonds holding a
cube of ice VII, making a shock
wave that travelled through the
diamond and compressed the ice.
Beetles escape from toad’s stomach
BOMBARDIER beetles can spend
almost 2 hours wallowing in the
stomach juices of a toad, and still
escape alive. The beetle squirts so
much hot, toxic fluid into the toad’s
stomach that the animal is sick,
ejecting the beetle to freedom.
Shinji Sugiura and Takuya Sato
of Kobe University in Japan fed
bombardier beetles (Pheropsophus
jessoensis) to toads. Forty-three
per cent of the beetles escaped,
some after 107 minutes.
Bombardier beetles famously
produce jets of hot, corrosive and
toxic chemicals from their rear ends
The melting temperature
was 4726°C when under
pressures equivalent to
2 million times that of Earth’s
atmosphere (Nature Physics,
doi.org/gcv8xr).
This ice could explain the
odd, swirling magnetic fields of
Neptune and Uranus. Hydrogen
ions in superionic water ice can
carry electrical charge, making it
good at conducting electricity and
generating magnetic fields. The
fields might be generated if a layer
of ionic fluid water swirled around
an inner core of superionic ice.
SHINJI SUGIURA
when threatened. To find out if this
is how they escape, Sugiura and
Sato fed single bombardier beetles
to toads. They provoked half the
beetles to jettison their toxic loads
beforehand, depriving them of this
means of defence. Only three of 37
disarmed beetles survived, whereas
16 out of 37 armed beetles escaped
(Biology Letters, doi.org/ckcm).
“The bombardier beetle ejects
toxic chemicals inside the toad,
forcing it to vomit,” says Sugiura.
Bigger beetles survived best,
probably because they ejected more
toxic fluid and were harder to digest.
 Zoology: Understanding
the Animal World
Taught by Dr. Donald E. Moore III
OREGON ZOO; SMITHSONIAN’S NATIONAL ZOO
AND CONSERVATION BIOLOGY INSTITUTE
LECTURE TITLES

1. What Do Zoologists Do?

2. Animal Reproduction: Genes and Environment
3. Mammal Reproduction: Pandas and Cheetahs
4. How Animals Raise Their Young
5. Helpful Corals, Clams, and Crustaceans
6. Bees, Butterflies, and Saving Biodiversity
7. Deadly Invertebrates: Vectors and Parasites
8. Bony Fish, Skates, Sharks, and Rays
9. Amphibians, Metamorphosis, and Ecology
TIME O 10. Reptiles: Adaptations for Living on Land
ED F
IT 11. Beaks, Claws, and Eating like a Bird

FE
LIM

R
Save up to 12. Form and Function: Bird Nests and Eggs

55%
13. Taking to the Sky: Bird Migration
CH 14. What Makes a Mammal? Hair, Milk, and Teeth
15. Herbivore Mammals: Ruminants and Runners
R
O

DE
MA
R

16. Carnivore Mammals: Feline, Canine, and Ursine

R BY 3
17. Primate Mammals: Diverse Forest Dwellers
18. Size, Structure, and Metabolism
19. Protection, Support, and Homeostasis
20. Animal Energetics and the Giant Panda Problem
21. Ethology: Studying Animal Behaviour
22. Think! How Intelligent Are Animals?

Your Guide to the 23. Combating Disease in the Animal Kingdom

24. Animal Futures: Frontiers in Zoology

Wonders of Animal Life Zoology: Understanding the Animal World

Zoology is the remarkably vast scientific field that covers all aspects of
animal life—from their social habits to the strange ways they hunt their
prey. This all-encompassing science combines many different schools
of study to gain deep insights into the animal kingdom, including how
different species evolved; the parenting styles of different animal species;
the way they eat, sleep, and migrate; and their biology and anatomy. If
you love science or nature, or just have a curiosity about the vast world of
creatures who live alongside us, this course will reveal the hidden world of
animals in a way no textbook could ever hope to do.
In Zoology: Understanding the Animal World, The Great Courses
teams up with Dr. Donald E. Moore III and the Smithsonian’s National
Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute—the leader in animal care and
education—to bring you 24 visually rich lectures packed with exclusive
footage from the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and interviews with
Smithsonian scientists. Get up close and personal with a breathtaking
variety of animal species—from butterflies to crocodiles to giant pandas
(and their babies)—through the eyes of a trained zoologist.
Ofer expires 03/03/18
Course no. 1266 | 24 lectures (30 minutes/lecture)
SAVE UP TO £30
NOW £24.99
NOW £24.99
+£2.99 Postage and Packing (DVD only)
Priority Code: 157865
For over 25 years, The Great Courses has brought
the world’s foremost educators to millions who want
to go deeper into the subjects that matter most. No
exams. No homework. Just a world of knowledge
available any time, anywhere. Download or stream
to your laptop or PC, or use our free apps for iPad,
iPhone, Android, or Kindle Fire. Over 600 courses
available at www.TheGreatCourses.co.uk.

THEGREATCOURSES.CO.UK/9 NSC The Great Courses®, 2nd Floor, Mander House, Mander Centre
Wolverhampton, WV1 3NH. Terms and conditions apply.
See www.TheGreatCourses.co.uk for details.
0800 298 9796
ANALYSIS CAPE TOWN

A city without water

Cape Town’s water reserves are so low that it may soon have to
turn off the taps. How did it get this bad, asks Michael Le Page

AS I fly south towards Cape Town, but manageable. They mean when the city will start to turn Some people and businesses
I pass over hundreds of kilometres having the shortest of showers off the taps to a million homes – are planning to leave the city until
of parched land, with not a speck and not always flushing the toilet. currently estimated as 11 May. The the crisis is over. Most don’t have
of green in sight. Closer to the city, Many thousands of people idea is that places like hospitals that luxury. As always, the poor
green fields start to appear and have installed boreholes so they and commercial districts will still will be hardest hit, with many
the city itself is full of lush parks can water their gardens or top get running water, but millions of farms already laying off workers
and gardens. If it wasn’t for the up swimming pools. But most people will have to pick up their and tens of thousands of jobs at
massive posters at the airport, groundwater isn’t drinkable 25-litre-a-day rations from just risk if the situation continues.
you wouldn’t know that this is without treatment – there is a 200 collection points. Now the city has to wait for the
a city about to run out of water. distinct sulphurous odour to the Many are sceptical about rainy season, which starts in April
In fact, the situation is so bad borehole water from one of the whether this will work in practice. and peaks in June. No one knows
that, on 1 February, residents were homes I visit. How will the traffic be managed? what it will bring: the seasonal
told to use no more than 50 litres The situation will worsen What about those who don’t have forecasts are no more reliable
a day per person. If the rains don’t dramatically on Day Zero, cars, or live in building without than tossing a coin.
refill the city’s reservoirs, the taps lifts? What about ill or older Even good rain might not bring
will be shut off in May: Day Zero. Cape Town’s water shortages mean people, who can’t carry that much immediate relief. Large parts of
Cape Town’s problems are regular trips to natural springs water? The answers aren’t clear. the reservoir beds have dried out,
partly down to bad luck. Rainfall
in the area, which the city relies
on for its water, is highly variable
and the past three years have
been among the driest on record.

“Millions of people will

have to pick up their
25-litre-a-day rations from
just 200 collection points”

Climate change might have made

this more likely, but no one knows
for sure (see “Is climate change to
blame?”, right).
The underlying cause, however,
is simple: in several parts of South
Africa, the supply of water hasn’t
increased in line with growing
demand. It has been clear since
at least 2002 that, if nothing was
done to increase supply, there
would be massive water shortfalls.
Cape Town was going to run out of
water sooner or later; the drought
has just made it sooner. While
politicians may be happy to
blame climate change, the dire
REUTERS/MIKE HUTCHINGS

situation is much more a result

of institutional incompetence
and alleged corruption.
Until now, the tight water
restrictions have been a nuisance,

20 | NewScientist | 17 February 2018

For daily news stories, visit newscientist.com/news
says water resources expert
Anthony Turton, who lives in
Cape Town. These “sponges” will
soak up a lot of water before the
reservoirs fill with usable water –
how much is unknown.
So, how did it come to this? “It’s
a failure of the state,” says Turton.
“It’s happening in various places
across the country.”
Government failure
The South African government’s
own 2002 water strategy warned
that several parts of the country
faced large shortfalls in coming
years. “Particular attention will
therefore have to be given to
ensuring adequate future
water supplies to [the main
metropolitan centres],” the
strategy said. A 2007 report on the
water supply to Cape Town and
surrounding areas projected that,
even in the best-case scenario,
demand would exceed supply IS CLIMATE CHANGE TO BLAME?
no later than – wait for it – 2018.
One reason so little was done Global warming has probably made climate scientist Mark New at the
is that under South Africa’s Cape Town’s water crisis a bit worse, University of Cape Town, as records
constitution, the national but it isn’t the main cause, as some for the region are limited.
government, rather than reports have suggested. It may be that global warming
provincial or city authorities, Computer models predict that made the current drought more likely,
is responsible for major water South Africa’s Western Cape will get but there is no clear evidence of this,
infrastructure. But South less rain as the planet warms, and he says. However, the warming is
Africa’s Department of Water indeed there has been a slight decline increasing water losses from
and Sanitation has run up huge in rainfall over the past 50 years. evaporation, meaning less water
debts due to mismanagement However, it is less clear how rainfall reaches taps even if rainfall remains
and alleged corruption and is in is changing in the mountains that constant. This is a factor in the current
complete disarray, according to supply almost all of the water to Cape crisis, but by how much isn’t clear. New
a November report by the South Town and farms in the area, says is working to answer that question.
African Water Caucus, a network
of organisations working on
water issues recognised by the drinkable water from the sea and they ran into trouble.
DWS. “This is an incredibly and groundwater could also Serious trouble,” says Muller.
corrupt country,” Turton says. supply the rest of the city’s needs Only in May last year did city
Instead of investing to boost during drought years. But during authorities finally accept that
Cape Town’s water supply, the years of plenty, Turton stresses, they couldn’t just keep trying to
department cancelled plans to water should be pumped back cut water use and hoping for rain.
raise dams higher. underground, ready for when it The mayor unveiled plan B in
Meanwhile, Cape Town’s is next needed. August: “to augment the system
leaders decided to rely on limiting This is the approach adopted using a number of technologies
demand rather than increasing by Perth in Australia over the past and sources by up to 500 Ml/day
supply by, for instance, extracting decade. Faced with declining over the months ahead”.
and treating groundwater. “They rainfall and emptying reservoirs, “We are doing absolutely
had been advised to make some it has built major desalination and everything in our power to help
investments,” says Mike Muller at water treatment plants, and is Team Cape Town to avoid Day
the University of Witwatersrand pumping some of the treated Zero,” said Peter Flower, the city’s
in Johannesburg, who oversaw water back into the local aquifer. director for water and sanitation
the last major water project in Kirsty Carden, who studies in a statement.
the Western Cape when he ran the water management at the In the first phase of the plan,
national water department from University of Cape Town, agrees groundwater was supposed to
1997 to 2005. “They basically said, that the city shouldn’t keep provide 100 Ml/day, with another
‘we are so good at managing our 100 Ml coming from temporary
water we don’t have to’.” “A 2007 report projected desalination plants. Yet six
South Africa needs to change that even in the best-case months on, plans have hardly
its entire approach to water scenario water would run advanced and almost no extra
management, says Turton. Rather out no later than 2018” water has been produced.
than hoping to store enough river In theory, it should be possible
water behind dams to cope with relying on dams alone. “We have to ramp up desalination very
droughts, it needs to turn to to build in some resilience.” quickly, for instance by bringing
recycling, desalination and But recycling and desalination in ships equipped to do the job.
groundwater storage, he says. aren’t cheap, she points out, and But so far construction has
Turton estimates that recycling Cape Town has had many other started on just four small plants,
Cape Town’s waste water could urgent problems to address, which will produce only tens of
supply as much as 400 million such as housing the million millions of litres a day. It will take
litres (Ml) a day – more than people living in poverty. “These years to ramp up groundwater
half of the city’s current needs. people are already collecting extraction, says Turton, not least
At present, the city only reuses a water in buckets as a daily part because of the time it takes to get
tiny fraction of its water and only of their life,” says Carden. planning permission.
as “grey” water for plants, rather Delaying investment in Cape Town is almost out of time.
than treating it to drinking other water sources, however, Its fate is now largely down to the
standard. “Water is an infinitely could prove to be a very costly vagaries of the weather. If the rains
renewable resource,” says Turton. mistake for the city. “They didn’t don’t come, the taps go off and the
Desalination plants that create do what they should have done city enters uncharted territory. ■
17 February 2018 | NewScientist | 21
COMMENT
Ready for the next leg?
Will we realise the exponential power of quantum computing within
five years as many now predict, wonders Graeme Malcolm
THOSE racing to realise the
potential of quantum computing
have been busy signalling that
within the next half decade a
functional machine will be here –
one capable of undertaking tasks
unimaginable in the context of
today’s classical supercomputers.
As we saw with the rise of
standard digital computers,
timelines are volatile and
uncertain, with developments
often taking longer than
predicted. But there are good
reasons to think that we could
be on the cusp of the greatest
computing revolution to date,
even if it is not done and dusted
in exactly five years.
One hopeful sign is that
scientists and companies are
making big investments. These
are coming from the likes of IBM,
Google, Intel and Microsoft and
show they think this technology
can provide a step change key to
Spell it out
Label all meat as stunned or unstunned
at slaughter, says Danny Chambers
“BAN halal and kosher meat in
the UK.” This is the demand of an
online petition signed by about
90,000 people so far.
It is far from the first. This
example is full of phrases such
as: “The people of Britain wish to
remain a civilized society not a
barbaric one. We denounce halal
& kosher meat in our country.”
22 | NewScientist | 17 February 2018
they stand, the calls for change
are often enthusiastically shared
online by far-right groups,
making sensible debate difficult.
Why is this an issue at all? In the
UK, animals have to be stunned
before slaughter, unless being
killed according to religious rules.
Stunned animals are unconscious
Such calls are becoming when their throats are cut. This
perennial, but the continual focus
means they are not aware of the
on religion is getting in the way.
severing of major blood vessels.
It simply heightens emotions andAnimals not stunned are fully
diverts attention from the key conscious and die when enough
concern – animal welfare. It is the
distinction between stunned and “Sheep are conscious for
non-stunned slaughter, not up to 20 seconds once their
religious vs non-religious, that throats are cut and cattle
should be front and centre. As for up to 2 minutes”
their growth. And progress so
far means the paths to quantum
computers have now emerged.
The real question is not if they
will arrive, but what form they
will take and what they might be
used for in the near term.
Why is quantum computing
worth pursuing? The reason is
the quantum bit or qubit. Unlike
a digital binary bit, which can only
be on or off, a qubit can be “on”
or “off”, both “on” and “off”, and
neither “on” nor “off”. When
entangled with other qubits,
quantum technology allows for
exponentially more processing
power than binary systems.
It will deliver a quantum
advantage, or so-called quantum
supremacy, that will take
computing far beyond the powers
of current classical computers.
To achieve this, a system would
need to function with between
50 and 100 qubits.
blood is lost. This is stressful,
induces panic, and the animal will
inhale blood and experience pain.
Sheep retain consciousness for up
to 20 seconds once their throats
are cut, cattle for up to 2 minutes,
and poultry can take even longer.
Some Muslims believe meat
cannot be halal if pre-stunning is
used. However, many Muslims
think pre-stunning is compatible
with halal slaughter; as a result
about 80 per cent of UK halal
meat is pre-stunned. This is not
so with Jewish shechita slaughter
– all kosher meat is unstunned.
What is the answer? From a
welfare point of view, a ban of
non-stunned slaughter would be
For more opinion articles, visit newscientist.com/opinion

Superconductors, ultra-cold
atoms and ultra-cold ions are
INSIGHT E-cigarettes
among the means to create or
simulate qubits. Each faces
challenges. Ultra-cold atoms
promise greater scale, but have
yet to produce the required qubit
accuracy (too many errors in
quantum computation destroys
the quantum advantage over
standard computers). Ultra-cold
ions provide reduced errors and
scalability is beginning to be
realised, but so far this is limited
to 10 to 20 qubits. And the use
MATT CARDY/GETTY

of superconductors relies on
advances in materials science.
Which will prove best is unclear.
What is clear is that as we
generate ever more data, current

Switching to vaping
computers are hitting processing benefit from information on dosing
limits. This is where we will and even how to inhale.
see the greatest advantages At the moment, those giving such

will save lives

of quantum versions. From help are generally the staff of the
modelling climate change and specialist vape shops springing up
weather systems to population everywhere. A few doctors work
dynamics, quantum-powered with these outlets, visiting to provide
capabilities will solve problems health education materials and
classical computers can’t. Clare Wilson vaping are unknown and it should actively encouraging their patients
Five years to the revolution? be discouraged. In countries such to visit, Notley’s team found in a
There are growing grounds for IT IS an unprecedented turnaround. as Australia, it is even criminalised. study published last week.
optimism for specialised uses. E-cigarettes, once painted as a new Public Health England, on the This is not common practice,
Just don’t expect a quantum PC and sinister health risk, are now being other hand, has long been in favour though, partly because of e-cigarettes’
on your desk in 2023. ■ promoted as a public health lifeline – of vaping, and last week called on shady reputation. And not everyone is
in the UK, at least. Yet if we want to companies and even hospitals to keen to get health advice from vaping
Graeme Malcolm is CEO and co-founder make the most of their potential, introduce vaping rooms, like old-style shops, which often look like bars or
of M Squared, a UK firm developing healthcare staff need to put aside smoking rooms. smartphone stores.
photonics and quantum technology their preconceptions and embrace But there is another change that In theory, pharmacies would be
them more enthusiastically. needs to happen if we want more ideally placed to step in but again,
The rationale for vaping is clear. people to switch. Vaping is not as anti-vaping sentiment has made
ideal. Failing that, a requirement Regular tobacco smoking is one of easy to take up as smoking. There them reluctant. The UK’s Royal
to label meat as stunned or the biggest lifestyle contributors are several kinds of products available. Pharmaceutical Society, the body
non-stunned would allow to death and disease worldwide, The most basic version, sometimes that represents pharmacists, told
consumers to choose better causing heart disease, strokes and its members not to stock e-cigarettes
welfare if they so wished. a long list of cancers. While the “Not everyone is keen to at all in 2014, although many shops
What’s more, many people flavourings in e-cigarettes could in get health advice from flout this, and that stance is now
don’t know that the hindquarters theory harm the lungs, vaping has vaping shops, which under review.
of animals from shechita been calculated to carry at most often look like bars” Notley has called for more health
slaughter are often not seen as 5 per cent of the risk of smoking. professionals to work collaboratively
kosher, so are sold, unlabelled, in It is hard to quit smoking – about called cigalikes, don’t give a quick- with vaping shop staff, who are
the general food chain. Labelling 90 per cent of attempts end in failure – enough nicotine hit to satisfy most often former smokers themselves
this way would identify it. To but vaping makes it easier. By one smokers and people who start with and can be highly knowledgeable
make progress on these issues, estimate, the failure rate drops to these often relapse, says Caitlin Notley about their wares. “Most pharmacists
we must put the focus on welfare 60 per cent when people become at the University of East Anglia, UK. could certainly learn from vape
rather than religion. ■ vapers instead. More complex e-cigarettes require shops,” she says.
For once, the UK has one of the most purchasing several items of kit, such It’s not the most conventional way
Danny Chambers works as a vet in enlightened and progressive stances as the device, nicotine liquid and to combat a public health problem.
Bristol and sits on the British Veterinary to a social ill. In many countries, the charger, and some people need advice But when you see a lifeline it makes
Association’s policy committee official stance is that the risks of to start off. New users may also sense to grab it with both hands. Q

17 February 2018 | NewScientist | 23

Advertising feature
Tackling HIV
Just 30 years ago, an HIV diagnosis was a death sentence.
Today, thanks to a scientific partnership of epic proportions,
it can be manageable with a single daily pill
I
N 1981, doctors in the US became aware
of a strange phenomenon. An unusual
number of healthy young men in Los
Angeles and other cities were falling ill and
dying from rare infections and cancers. Their
symptoms suggested that something was
weakening their immune systems, leaving
them vulnerable to diseases they would
normally fend off. More mysterious still, the
condition appeared to be most prevalent
among the gay community, intravenous
drugs users and people who had frequent
blood transfusions.
Similar cases emerged in other countries
and it soon became clear that the world was
facing an epidemic of a new disease for
which there was no cure. Doctors called the
illness Acquired Immune Deficiency
Syndrome (AIDS) and within three years had
found it was caused by a retrovirus. This virus
could be passed on in several different ways:
through unprotected sex, blood transfusions,
sharing needles, and through pregnancy,
childbirth or breastfeeding. But how it could
be stopped wasn’t clear.
This was the start of an epic journey to find
a treatment for one of the biggest killers of
the last half-century. For years, the virus that
causes AIDS, the human immunodeficiency
virus or HIV, had the upper hand. By 2000,
33 million people were infected, 14 million
had died, and in Africa it had become the
number one cause of death through
infectious disease.
Today, thanks to a series of biomedical
breakthroughs and the painstaking work of
thousands of researchers around the world,
the tables have turned. Those with HIV can
now live longer, fuller lives by taking a single
daily dose of antiretroviral medicine.
“Today, HIV is a chronic illness,” says
Professor Chloe Orkin, a consultant physician
at the Royal London Hospital and Chair of the
British HIV Association. Indeed, the
outcomes are better than for many chronic
illnesses. “Those diagnosed early are likely
to have a normal life expectancy, which isn’t
always the case with long-term illnesses like
diabetes,” she says.
In September, the US Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention declared that people
with minimal amounts of the virus in their
blood have “effectively no risk” of passing
it to their partner through unprotected sex.
That’s one reason why the future for
someone diagnosed with HIV in 2018 is a
great deal brighter than it was 30 years ago.
At that time, researchers had little idea
what made HIV so difficult to beat. We now
“The quest for new HIV
treatments has produced
some remarkable progress”
know the virus attacks a person’s
T lymphocytes, a type of white blood cell that
plays a central role in the immune system.
Once inside a T-cell, the virus starts to
reproduce. First, it transcribes its single-
stranded RNA sequence (its genetic
blueprint) into a double-stranded DNA
sequence using an enzyme called reverse
transcriptase. The viral DNA then fuses with
the T-cell’s own DNA, allowing it to replicate
Halting HIV reproduction
The HIV retrovirus enters
the host cell and releases
viral components
Reverse transcription
HIV RNA
The process of reverse transcrip-
tion uses HIV RNA to generate
HIV DNA by assembling the cells
own deoxynucleotides
and create HIV proteins whenever the T-cell is
activated. New HIV particles are released into
the bloodstream, where they target other
T-cells, and the process starts all over again.
The first success in the search for HIV
treatments was a class of antiretroviral drugs
called reverse transcriptase inhibitors (see
diagram below). These disrupted the early
stages of the virus’s life cycle by preventing
the reverse transcriptase enzyme from
synthesising DNA from viral RNA. That made
it impossible for the HIV to reproduce.
Some of the first reverse transcriptase
inhibitors emerged from collaboration in the
early 90s between the Institute of Organic
Chemistry and Biochemistry in Prague, the
Rega Institute for Medical Research in
Leuven, Belgium, and Gilead Sciences. The
three-way partnership led to the
development of several antiretroviral
approaches that are still relevant in HIV
treatment today.
By the mid-90s, AIDS had become the
leading cause of death among young adults
in the US. At this time, medical authorities
licensed a second class of antiretroviral drugs
Integrase
HIV DNA
Deoxynucleotides
HIV RNA
Reverse HIV DNA chain
transcriptase produced by reverse
transcription
 The future is increasingly
brighter for people with HIV

The big breakthrough came in 1996, when

researchers realised that the best way to
suppress HIV replication was to use a
combination of drugs – an approach known
as highly active antiretroviral therapy
(HAART). The only way the virus could
become resistant to this approach would be
to develop several mutations at the same
time, which is highly unlikely to happen.
The most recent HAART treatments
contain two reverse transcriptase inhibitors
and a third drug from another class, usually a
protease inhibitor or an integrase inhibitor.
Together these can reduce the amount of
virus in the blood to undetectable levels and
allow the immune system to recover,
provided they keep taking the treatment.
When HAART was introduced, people had to
take handfuls of drugs several times a day,
and the side effects were often terrible. Today
the drugs are far easier to take and can be
combined into one or two daily pills.
That approach has had a huge impact.
Combination therapy has turned what used
to be a death sentence into a chronic illness.
However, the HIV epidemic is far from over.
G-STOCKSTUDIO/GETTY IMAGES

One of the biggest problems, says Borg, is

called protease inhibitors. These target
The integrase another of the virus’s enzymes responsible
inserts the HIV DNA The HIV RNA and for cleaving the long chains of viral DNA into
into the host cell's DNA and other viral components
individual proteins. With protease disabled,
produces new copies of the leave the cell forming
HIV RNA a new retrovirus the virus cannot reproduce. Later,
researchers chalked up another small victory
Host DNA
with a set of drugs that attack the middle part
of the virus’s reproductive cycle. Integrase
Cell nucleus inhibitors disrupt a viral enzyme that
integrates the HIV DNA with that of the T-cell.
Each of these was an important step, yet it
was clear early on that no single treatment
used in isolation can keep HIV at bay for long.
This is because the virus has a remarkable
ability to mutate as it replicates and this
allows it to become resistant to a drug
HIV RNA
quickly. “HIV actually makes a lot of mistakes
when it replicates, generating a lot of
mutations,” explains Peter Borg, Medical
Reverse transcriptase inhibitors stop
this process, in this case by taking the Director at Gilead Sciences. “If you don’t
place of deoxynucleotides, attaching to significantly inhibit the replication, you can
the HIV DNA chain and terminating it end up getting a lot of resistant virus.”
that between a quarter and half of people
with HIV are diagnosed when their immune
systems are already depleted and so are at
risk of other potentially fatal diseases and
overall poorer prognosis. “A major challenge
is to get people diagnosed and linked to care
and on to treatment in a timely fashion.”
In the meantime, there is an urgent need to
make the latest therapies and diagnostic
tools more available in certain developing
countries. In some areas, people with HIV are
still treated with old-generation medications
associated with more side effects. And the
stigma around the disease is dissuading
people who may be infected from coming
forward for early testing. Finally, there is the
issue of ensuring the long-term health of
people living with HIV as life expectancy
continues to increase.
The quest for new HIV treatments has
produced some remarkable progress and
these are now beginning to spread. The next
article in this series will explore how modern
HIV treatments are becoming more widely
available across the planet.
For more see: @GileadSciences
Date of preparation: January 2018
Job code: 999/IHQ/18-01//1004
APERTURE

26 | NewScientist | 17 February 2018

Forever blowing bubbles
A HUMPBACK whale surfaces, its mouth
distended with krill and thousands of litres of
water. It is the final stage of bubble-net hunting,
a sophisticated technique employed by these
huge mammals. A whale and its partner, visible
just below the water’s surface, have together
created a trap for the krill – their main food
source – by swimming around exhaling columns
of bubbles through their blowholes. The spiral
of columns surrounds the crustaceans, creating
a barrier they are unwilling to swim through.
They move close together, and that’s when
the whales dive, turn and swim upwards into
the krill, mouths gaping.
It is an effective strategy, but not well
understood. A drone took this photo as part of a
project led by David Johnston of Duke University in
Durham, North Carolina, to learn more about the
whales’ behaviour. A laser altimeter fitted to the
drone allows his team to calculate its altitude and
thus the sizes of the whales and their bubble nets.
The picture was taken about 200 kilometres off
the western Antarctic Peninsula. The whales feed
here all summer, building up supplies of fat. They
need to, because they then migrate to their
breeding grounds in the Gulf of Panama and will
not eat again until they return to the Antarctic,
six months later. Julia Brown

Photograph
Duke Marine Robotics and Remote Sensing Lab
NOAA Permit 14809-03, ACA Permit 2017-034

17 February 2018 | NewScientist | 27

 COVER STORY

28 | NewScientist | 17 February 2018

CHRISTOPH HETZMANNSEDER/KEYSTONE-FRANCE/REB IMAGES/GETTY
 Blast from the future
To make sense of quantum weirdness, we need to
rethink cause and efect, says Adam Becker

I
F YOU were to break your arm tomorrow time warp, we need to rewind to the 1930s, particles can instantaneously affect each
afternoon, would you suddenly find it when the outlandish physics of quantum other when measured, or they had definite
hanging useless in a sling this morning? mechanics was threatening to overturn velocities all along, even though quantum
Of course not – the question makes no sense. centuries of conventional wisdom. The theory physics was incapable of determining them.
Cause always precedes effect. But maybe life seemed to imply that subatomic particles Einstein’s money was on the second
isn’t quite so straightforward for a photon. exist in a vague cloud of probabilities until option. Instantaneous connections between
In the subatomic realm, where the laws of they are measured, at which point they snap distant particles were impossible according
quantum physics make seemingly impossible into a definite state. But Einstein, for one, to his theory of special relativity, which
feats routine, the one thing that we always wasn’t having it. “God doesn’t play dice with enforced a strict speed limit for how fast
considered beyond the pale might just be true. the universe,” he insisted. signals can pass between objects – the
This idea that the future can influence the Yet despite his distaste for randomness, speed of light. In fact, he was adamant
present, and that the present can influence the it was a different feature of the quantum that all theories must uphold this ban on
past, is known as retrocausality. It has been world that Einstein found truly unbelievable. instantaneous signals, a principle known
around for a while without ever catching on – as locality. Hence he damned entanglement
and for good reason, because we never see “The idea that the present as “spooky action at a distance”, suggesting it
effects happen before their causes in everyday would turn out to be a mirage once a more
life. But now, a fresh twist on a deep tension in influences the past seems fundamental theory came to light.
the foundations of quantum theory suggests absurd at first glance” But entanglement never did vanish. Instead,
that we may have no choice but to think again. it made its presence felt in the laboratory.
No one is saying time travel is anything In a thought experiment, he pointed out that In the 1960s, Northern Irish physicist John Bell
other than fantasy. But if the theorists going if the probabilistic description of the quantum came up with a brilliant way to put spooky
back to the future with retrocausality can world were the true state of things, then action to the test, and it has since passed with
make it stick, the implications would be measuring one subatomic particle could flying colours every time. The examination
almost as mind-boggling. They could not instantly influence the state of another, culminated in 2015 with a “loophole-free”
only explain the randomness seemingly regardless of the distance between them – Bell test hailed as the nail in the coffin for
inherent to the quantum world, but even a strange phenomenon that became known locality. Like it or not, spooky action at a
remake it in a way that finally brings it into as entanglement. distance – or non-locality – is a thing.
line with Einstein’s ideas of space and time – Imagine that two particles collide and fly Or is it? Retrocausality could save us from
an achievement that has eluded physicists off in opposite directions. Under quantum non-locality. The trouble is that it seems
for decades. “If you allow retrocausality, it is rules, these particles are now entangled. absurd at first glance. It jars with everyday
possible to have a theory of reality that’s more Their velocities are unknown. But if you experience, in which time flows forward and
compatible with lots of things that we think measure the velocity of one of them, you’ll effect follows cause. But backward causation
should be true,” says Matthew Leifer at immediately get the velocity of the other, is no harder to swallow than entanglement –
Chapman University in Orange, California. even though there was no way to know this and it might just solve two of the greatest
To get to grips with this particular brand of in advance. So you have a choice: either the conundrums in physics. >

17 February 2018 | NewScientist | 29

 “Certainly, John Bell himself thought his
work revealed a deep tension with special
relativity,” says Huw Price, a philosopher
of physics at the University of Cambridge.
“The appeal of retrocausality is that it removes
that tension.” By restoring a kind of locality,
retrocausality gives us the chance to rebuild
quantum mechanics in a way that works
with Einstein’s theory of general relativity,
which shows how gravity results from the
warping of space-time by matter and energy.
“Most people have tried to recast gravity
in quantum terms, but maybe it is the other
way around,” says Ken Wharton, a theorist at
San Jose State University in California. “Maybe
what we need to do is recast quantum theory
in space and time. Retrocausality looks like
one way to do that.”
The notion that the present might influence
the past in the quantum realm can be traced
back to Paris in the late 1940s, when a young
physicist called Olivier Costa de Beauregard
spotted a way to explain pairs of entangled
particles without invoking non-locality.
Perhaps, he suggested, measuring one particle
sent a signal back in time to the point in the
past when the pair collided. The signal could
then turn around and travel forwards in time
with the other particle, ensuring its velocity
was exactly in accordance with the
measurement of the first one.
If a signal took this path, you could preserve
locality without requiring the two entangled
particles to have determined their velocities
at the point of their collision. No instant
communication, no violations of relativity.
At that point, no one had shown that
DENISE TAYLOR/GETTY
non-locality was real. Only when Bell
came along was there any reason to take
de Beauregard’s proposal seriously. But
even then, with all manner of clever
30 | NewScientist | 17 February 2018
interpretations springing up to explain the
perplexing results of the Bell experiments,
retrocausality never really caught on.
It wasn’t until 2010 that Price attempted to
resuscitate the idea. His case revolved around
a principle called time-reversal symmetry.
This states that, mathematically speaking,
the fundamental laws of physics work the
same going backwards in time as they do
going forwards. Of course, that doesn’t tally
with our everyday experience: you can’t
unscramble an egg, say, or unshatter a glass.
(Physicists suspect that has something to
do with the second law of thermodynamics,
which says that entropy – the amount of
disorder – always increases over time when
large numbers of particles are involved.) But
the fact is that fundamental physics is almost
entirely indifferent to the direction of time.
Nearly all physicists agree that most of the
basic laws of physics obey time-reversal
and they would be loath to give it up.
With that in mind, Price pointed out
that if the laws of quantum physics obey
time-reversal symmetry, as they seem to,
then retrocausality is inevitable. Yet there
was a loophole in his argument. Price had
“Now is an illusion: past,
present and future form a
single, ever-existing block”
assumed that the quantum description of
a particle, known as the quantum state,
corresponded to a real thing in the world,
as opposed to being a mathematical tool for
handling our own ignorance of said particle.
For many, this was reason enough to ignore
Price because the true status of the quantum
state remains debatable.
But retrocausality is becoming harder
to avoid. In 2017, Leifer and Matthew Pusey,
now at the University of Oxford, found a way
to close the loophole in Price’s argument. By
merging Price’s ideas with Bell’s, Leifer and
Pusey managed to show that retrocausality
is necessary to save time-reversal symmetry
regardless of whether the quantum state is
real. This leaves another tricky choice:
abandon time-reversal symmetry or embrace
the idea that in the fuzzy quantum realm,
the future really can influence the past.
Leifer is among those attempting to make
good on the second option. The key might be
a feature of relativity called the block universe.
In its marriage of space and time, Einstein’s
great theory fatally undermines the concept
of “now”. What is happening “now” in a
particular location depends on where you are
and how fast you’re moving, so two different
observers may see different things at the
same time in the exact same spot. This makes
“now” an illusion. Time doesn’t really pass
at all, and our perception that it does is due
to our limited perspective on the world.
In reality, past, present and future form a
single, ever-existing block.
In a block universe, quantum retrocausality
wouldn’t look so strange. If the past and the
future coexist – if past events don’t fade away
before future ones come into being – the
future could easily influence the past.
What we need now, says Leifer, is a new
version of quantum theory that incorporates
the block universe to allow for retrocausality
to emerge naturally. “The idea here is that you
would formulate a theory of quantum physics
over all of space-time, all at once,” he says,
urging us to think of quantum cause and
effect like a jigsaw puzzle. “When you do a
jigsaw, you don’t do the bottom row first, and
then the next. Each piece imposes constraints
on the ones around it. So physics could be like
that: each region of space-time could impose
constraints on the neighbouring regions.”
But if the quantum world is a block universe
shot through with retrocausality, why don’t
we see retrocausality in our everyday lives?
After all, we are all made of quantum stuff. The
answer boils down to quantum uncertainty.
Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle states that
it is impossible to know both the position and
momentum of a particle at the same time. So
there are features of the quantum world that
are persistently hidden from us, and this is
ultimately what allows for retrocausation
without letting us send signals to the past.
“If my choice a minute from now determines
one of these things that I don’t know, then
I can’t send a signal back to myself,” says
Wharton. “And yet it’s still retrocausal.”
Wharton is among those who argue that
when you really think about it, retrocausality
is no crazier than entanglement. And besides,
he says, it brings plenty of advantages – not
least the opportunity it affords physicists to
remake quantum theory in a way that works
with space-time. By restoring a form of
locality, retrocausality might even lead to
the long-sought explanation of how gravity
manifests at the quantum scale.
God plays sudoku
“A lot of avenues have been left unexplored
because people have been taught to think
in this Newtonian picture of states evolving
forwards,” says theorist Emily Adlam at the
University of Cambridge. “Retrocausality is
going to open up many new possibilities that
might hopefully get us out of the rut we’re in.”
It might also help to explain where the
randomness in quantum physics that never
sat right with Einstein comes from. According
to Adlam, retrocausality suggests a neat
solution: quantum randomness is an illusion
that appears because we’re only seeing part
of the picture at any one time.
“Retrocausality might even
explain where quantum
randomness comes from”
In that case, Einstein was right. “God doesn’t
play dice, he plays sudoku,” says Adlam. If you
were doing a sudoku and you started on the
left and moved towards the right, it would
look as if you were seeing random events,
she says. “But if you look at the whole thing
at once… you can see all the rules, you can see
that there’s actually a unique deterministic
solution from these global constraints to
the whole grid.”
Similarly, in a retrocausal version of
quantum physics, what happens here and
now could have effects on the distant past
of a far-flung galaxy, effects that only make
sense in the context of the “all-at-once”
picture of the block universe. This may seem
like a drastic departure from the ordinary laws
of physics as we think of them, but to Adlam,
that’s not a problem. “It’s quite naive of us to
suppose that the laws of nature would take the
form that is most convenient for us,” she says.
“To me, it’s not in fact extreme or weird at all
to go to this retrocausal picture.”
Not everyone shares Adlam’s enthusiasm.
While it is true that time-reversal symmetry
is a cherished property of nearly all the
fundamental laws of physics, the version
Leifer and Pusey use isn’t the usual one.
Rather than time-reversing the laws of physics
themselves, they time-reversed the setup
of their thought experiment, and showed
that the results remained the same. This
distinction gives sceptical physicists pause.
What’s more, retrocausality doesn’t answer
every question facing quantum physics –
at least not yet. “The next chapter in this story
is just starting,” says Wharton. The hard work
begins now, he adds, as researchers attempt
to develop a complete retrocausal theory, one
that reproduces all the usual results of the
hugely successful standard quantum theory.
But if recent work by Sally Shrapnel and
Fabio Costa at the University of Queensland
in Australia is anything to go by, even a fully
retrocausal quantum theory wouldn’t solve
all the problems that niggle away at other
interpretations of quantum physics. Although
retrocausality handily accounts for the results
of the Bell experiments, there is another
issue, known as quantum contextuality,
which may yet stop it in its tracks.
Contextuality says that the outcomes of
quantum experiments depend on what other
experiments are conducted at the same time –
a strange idea that physicists would prefer to
be rid of. Now, Shrapnel and Costa have shown
that retrocausality cannot easily dismiss it.
Although Shrapnel agrees with Leifer that
retrocausality is worth investigating, she
sounds a word of warning. “The retrocausal
interpretation is not the free lunch that
perhaps you might think it is,” she says.
“It’s not going to be as simple as postulating
backwards-in-time causal influences. We’re
going to need something even more exotic
than that, and I think that’s kind of cool.” Q
Adam Becker is a writer based in Oakland, California,
and author of What is Real? The unfinished quest for
the meaning of quantum physics
17 February 2018 | NewScientist | 31
Silence o f
the plants
The strange and fragrant language of plants is being
destroyed by human activities, fnds Marta Zaraska
I
N THE classic post-apocalyptic novel
The Day of the Triffids, giant carnivorous
plants terrorise humanity. Triffids can walk
and are equipped with venomous stingers,
but their real power lies in their ability to
communicate and so plot against us.
It sounds far-fetched, but since John
Wyndham’s book was published in 1951, one
aspect of this fiction has proved to be science
fact: plants do talk to one another. If you
stroll through a forest and take a deep breath,
you can smell the “words” – complex volatile
chemicals such as beta-pinene, which smells
fresh and piney. Plants produce thousands of
these, combining them to create “sentences”.
However, this fragrant language is under
threat. Air pollution is disrupting floral
scents, turning their messages into gibberish.
Not only is this having an impact on plants’
abilities to survive, it is also bad news for
pollinating insects – and for us, because it
affects everything from crop yields to the
smell of our favourite flowers. Luckily,
there is a way we can help our botanical
friends fight back.
It has long been known that insects such
as pollinators and pests can distinguish
between plants by the unique bouquet of
chemicals they release. What’s new is the idea
that plants use their emissions to talk among
themselves. “Plants release volatile chemicals
into the atmosphere – these can be viewed as a
language in the sense that a plant releasing the
32 | NewScientist | 17 February 2018
chemicals can be viewed as ‘speaking’ and the
plant receiving them as ‘listening’ and then
responding,” says chemical ecologist James
Blande at the University of Eastern Finland.
Many plants warn one another of an
impending pest attack. When a tomato
plant is infested with cutworms, for example,
it releases a cocktail of volatile chemicals
into the air that is picked up by others nearby.
On “hearing” the warning, these tomato
plants respond by producing glycoside, which
triggers the release of a poison to ward off the
hungry caterpillars. Other plants use a similar
approach to summon help from friendly
insects. When aphids infest soybeans, for
instance, the plants sound a chemical “burglar
alarm” that brings ladybirds to the rescue.
Now we are discovering that air
pollution can disrupt these communications.
In one study, Blande and his colleagues
put individual bumblebees into a chamber
containing paper flowers resembling those
of black mustard. When the scientists injected
the scent of real black mustard flowers that
grew in either a clean or polluted atmosphere
the bumblebees’ reactions were unequivocal:
they were immediately attracted to the
unpolluted scent, while that from polluted
air left them buzzing around aimlessly.
What’s going on? In the past few years,
ozone and nitrogen oxides have emerged as
the main gibberish-inducing culprits. These
ultimately result from vehicle and power plant
 emissions, with diesel exhaust a particular
problem. Both ozone and nitrogen oxides
react with the volatile chemicals released by
plants. This changes the smell of their bouquet
by degrading some compounds in the mix
more readily than others. When monoterpene
limonene, a common “word” of oranges, is
mixed with ozone, for example, it degrades
into as many as 1200 different compounds.
Such degradation can happen surprisingly
fast. Ecologist Robbie Girling at the University
of Reading, UK, and his colleagues exposed
eight common compounds produced by
flowers to diesel exhaust. “What we weren’t
expecting was the speed with which these
reactions seem to be occurring,” he says.
“Within a minute, which is the shortest time
period our method could resolve, we couldn’t
see anything of one of the compounds. It was
instantaneously undetectable.” (See “When
plants talk dirty”, page 34)
It’s not just the clarity of plant language that
gets disrupted, the “loudness” is affected, too.
The scent of plants simply can’t travel as far
in polluted air as in pristine conditions. To

“Scents that could once be

picked up kilometres away
now travel only metres”
find out how much things have changed
since pre-industrial times, Jose Fuentes at
the University of Virginia and his colleagues
made a computer model that included
historic air pollution levels. It revealed that
scents produced by flowers that could once
be picked up kilometres away now travel as
little as 200 metres.
Even between clean and dirty environments
today, a similar reduction in signal can be
seen. Take lima beans. When one plant is
attacked by spider mites, it emits chemical
signals that prompt others nearby to produce
more sugary nectar. This, in turn, attracts
predatory mites, which eat the attackers.
If the atmosphere is clean, Blande found,
the beans easily communicate with
neighbours growing 70 centimetres away.
But if ozone concentrations top 80 parts per
billion (ppb), their warning cries can’t be
heard more than 20 centimetres away.
This 80 ppb of ozone pollution seems to
often be the level above which problems
start. That’s bad news because in urban areas
GONÇALO VIANA

concentrations of ozone often exceed 100 ppb,

and sometimes even 200 ppb. It is less clear
when nitrogen oxide levels become a >

17 February 2018 | NewScientist | 33

When plants
talk dirty
Plants produce volatile compounds
to communicate. In different
combinations, these can tell other
plants to “prepare for attack”, or they
can attract or repel insects. However,
air pollution is disrupting these lines
of communication by breaking down
many of these chemicals (see main
story), including some of the most
common ones that give plants their
distinctive aromas.
Myrcene
A peppery, woody scent with a touch
of carrot, myrcene is produced by
many plants including rose and orchid
flowers, and tobacco and tomato
leaves. It degrades readily in the
presence of diesel exhaust, which
can confuse pollinators such as bees.
Monoterpene limonene
A citrusy scent produced by oranges,
lemons and cannabis, this degrades
into as many as 1200 different
compounds when mixed with ozone.
Beta-caryophyllene
A clove-like scent produced by roses
and lavender, this is readily destroyed
by pollution, which may explain why
flowers in urban gardens are lacking
in aroma.
Beta-ocimene
With its tropical citrusy odour, this is
more quickly broken down by pollution
than any other scent tested. Mixed
with diesel exhaust it becomes
undetectable in less than a minute.
Benzaldehyde
This almondy scent reacts with ozone
slowly compared with other volatile
compounds produced by plants.
34 | NewScientist | 17 February 2018
problem, but in the UK, nitrogen dioxide from
diesel exhaust is undoubtedly doing damage.
Its impacts on human health mean there are
legal limits for emissions, but these are
regularly breached. For example, hourly
levels of nitrogen dioxide shouldn’t exceed
200 micrograms per cubic metre more than
18 times in one year, yet in parts of London
this happened in just the first few days of 2017.
Urban gardeners may notice the effects.
“These pollutants definitely affect the smells
from plants,” says Blande. Nitrogen oxides
can reduce the time for which some floral
scents linger in the air from 18 hours to a
mere 5 minutes. Scented flowers such as roses
don’t have the same strong aroma in cities
that they have in rural locations, says Blande.
You have to get really close to smell them,
and even then you are unlikely to experience
the full aroma because compounds such as
the clove-like beta-caryophyllene are quickly
destroyed by pollutants.
It’s not just our noses and poetic natures that
suffer when the scent of flowers is disrupted.
“I don’t think it would be too big a jump to
suggest that air pollution could also be a factor
in reducing the numbers of flying insects,”
says Girling. Insect numbers have been falling
globally, a situation that came to prominence
in 2017 when it was revealed that insects in
German nature reserves had declined by an
alarming 75 per cent in just 27 years.
Miscommunication between flowers and
insects could be particularly significant for
pollinators such as bees. Although no one has
yet measured the overall impact this has had
on bee numbers, Girling has found that the
common volatile myrcene is particularly
easily damaged by diesel exhaust – and this
can lead honeybees astray. His team found if
they removed myrcene from flowery scents,
only 37 per cent of bees still recognised them.
As the language of plants becomes
increasingly garbled, the impact on the
survival of pollinators and plants themselves
threatens to destabilise whole ecosystems,
with serious implications for the natural
world and commercial crops. Efforts are
under way to reduce pollutants such as diesel
exhaust but progress is slow. The good news
is that there is a simple and immediate step
we can take to help plants communicate:
grow more of them to mop up the pollutants.
Some plants are better at this than others,
but research suggests reforestation is a
particularly good option because trees have
a large surface area to absorb ozone and
nitrogen dioxide from the atmosphere.
Urban planners are already moving in the
right direction. Many cities now have vertical
gardens and living walls. Near London’s
Victoria train station, for example, a 20-metre-
high wall contains more than 10,000 plants.
Even trees are being planted on the sides of
buildings. In 2014, the first forest skyscraper
went up in Milan, boasting 800 trees and
almost 20,000 other plants. In China,
the Nanjing Green Towers, currently under
construction, will have 1100 trees along
with thousands of other plants, and a whole
forest city is planned in Liuzhou.
Such urban forests do, of course, have their
communications undermined by pollution,
but they also serve to reduce its impact on
other plants. What’s more, with more plants
closer together they don’t have to shout as
loudly to be heard. It seems like a no-brainer.
Nevertheless, Fuentes injects a note of caution.
He points out that some plants produce lots
of organic molecules that are precursors of
ozone, so can make matters worse when
mixed with dirty city air. “Oaks, poplar trees –
those are no-nos,” he says.
And what about rural areas? Although
such places are often cleaner, pollutants can
have a disproportionate effect here because
of their impact on commercially important
plants. The solution, says Fuentes, is to
plant more flowers around crop fields – in
particular, he recommends petunias. These
won’t just clean up the pollutants that disrupt
plant communication, but will also attract
pollinators. If the flowers smell sweet, that’s
even better for our human noses. It’s a win,
win, win solution. Q
Marta Zaraska is a writer based in France
 L
IKE stars, snowflakes and blades of grass,
sand is one of those things that seems to
be in infinite supply. It has been a symbol
for quantities beyond counting since ancient
times. When the biblical hero Joseph faces an
impending famine in the book of Genesis he
“stored up grain in great abundance like the
sand of the sea, until he stopped measuring
it, for it was beyond measure”.
Fast forward a few thousand years and
things have changed: we are running out of
the stuff. “Sand is a lot like oil,” says Jianguo
Liu of Michigan State University. “It takes a
lot of time to make and it can’t be renewed.”
That’s more than a little troubling,
for sand is literally the foundation of modern
civilisation. It is a crucial ingredient in
concrete, bricks, plaster, glass and microchips.
What’s more, efforts to mine ever more sand
are damaging ecosystems around the world.
We can’t do without it, and yet now
might be the time to stay our shovels.
Increasingly, the world is waking up to the
sand crisis and trying to tackle it. Learn to use
less sand in a smarter way, and we might just
XPIXEL
stop this most precious of resources from
slipping through our fingers forever.
Think of sand and you probably picture
the golden-brown stuff on the beach, which
is largely made of silicon dioxide. Yet sand
is defined not by its composition, but by
the size of its grains, which are smaller than
gravel and larger than silt. Roughly speaking,
that means between 2 and 0.06 millimetres.
Within that range there is a huge variety –
from the translucent pink stuff found on
dunes in Utah to the black volcanic grains
of some Hawaiian beaches.
The different kinds suit different
applications, but there is one need that dwarfs
all others. Between 60 and 75 per cent of the
sand we mine goes to sate our hunger for
concrete. It is tough, easy to work with and
fairly cheap, which is why we use twice as
much of it as all other building materials
combined: about 30 billion tonnes per year.
That is enough to build a wall 27 metres tall by
27 metres wide around the equator, says Pascal
Peduzzi at the UN Environment Programme,
who wrote a report on the sand crisis in 2014.
Concrete is made mostly of sand and its
chunkier cousin gravel, with a little cement >
17 February 2018 | NewScientist | 35
AGGREGATE
ARMAGEDDON
Digging up sand and gravel is causing
ecological damage around the globe

CORAL BLANKET
Dredging sand from the sea floor
stirs up a soup of particles. When the
sediment settles, it blankets coral reefs
and plants, stopping them feeding and
photosynthesising. It can also clog
marine animals’ gills, suffocating them.

DOLPHIN DISRUPTION
Dredging has eroded riverbanks on
India’s Brahmaputra river. That has upset

11billion
the ecosystem, threatening the Ganges
river dolphin, one of the world’s most
endangered freshwater mammals.

MARSH MASH-UP tonnes of sand were

Sand mining has degraded marshes
in south-east Brazil that are important used to make concrete
habitats for the critically endangered worldwide in 2010
São Paulo marsh antwren, a species
of bird that was only discovered

94 million
a few years ago.

TSUNAMI MAGNIFICATION
The impact of the 2004 Indian Ocean
tsunami would have been less severe
in Sri Lanka, were it not for the removal cubic metres of sand were
of dunes that would have protected the dredged from the seabed
coast. Upstream mining has also reduced
the amount of sediment reaching the to build the Palm islands
coast, meaning the dunes aren’t being off the coast of Dubai
replaced quickly.
PLAINPICTURE/T.BEHURET

SALTED VEGETABLES
At the Mekong river delta in Vietnam,
sand mining has led to the intrusion of
salty ocean water, which damages crops
and affects the drinking water supply.

COSY MOSQUITOES
Pools of water left behind by sand
mining are the perfect breeding grounds
for mosquitoes. In Iran, these pools are
the most common habitats for the larva
of the two species that carry malaria.
AGGRESSIVE CLAMS
Boats used to transport sand may also
carry invasive species like the Asian
clam. Once introduced into a new area,
these clams can outcompete other
species and reduce biodiversity.
and some water mixed in. Most recipes call
for large, rough sand grains that bind together
well. So, although there may be mountains
of the stuff blowing around in the Sahara,
for example, those grains are no good for most
types of concrete – they are too small and
polished round by the wind. The best sources
of concrete-compatible sand are river beds,
beaches and the near-shore seabed. Sand from
the ocean floor works too, although it needs
to be laboriously purged of salt and chlorine.
Sand mining in such places can ravage the
environment. For instance, in the past few
years sand pirates have harvested so much
grainy booty from islands in Indonesia that
at least 24 of them have disappeared. Much
of the sand is shipped to the cramped island
state of Singapore, where it is used in land
reclamation projects. Meanwhile, there are
fears of ecological catastrophe in Indonesia.
There are many more stories like this
(see “Aggregate Armageddon”, left) and
they show we have a serious sand problem.
But it is hard to know exactly how serious.
Few countries publish how much sand they
extract, in part because widespread off-the-
books mining means most don’t know
themselves. It is telling that the official

36 | NewScientist | 17 February 2018

 import and export statistics for sand don’t
cancel out.
One workaround is to tot up how much
concrete we use and then track backwards
to calculate how much sand we must be
using in construction. Alessio Miatto at
Nagoya University in Japan used this strategy
to estimate that in 2010 the world used about
11 billion tonnes of sand for construction,
plus another 11 billion of gravel.
Our sand crisis is a classic case of the tragedy
SHIFTING SANDS
The countries that import and export sand aren’t the ones
you might expect, as these selected examples show
Exporters
With its huge land mass and long coasts
full of concrete-friendly sand, the US
is the biggest exporter. You might
US
have expected it to be somewhere
like Egypt, with its sprawling deserts.
But fine desert sand isn’t useful for
concrete. Instead, Egypt exports Germany
smaller quantities that often end up
in ceramics. It’s more surprising that
Germany and Belgium are  big players.
That may be because they are home to Belgium
large multinational building material
companies. Plus, sand is heavy,
so it may be cheaper for Germany’s
neighbours to import it short distances Egypt
across the border rather than long
stretches across their own country.
Importers
Singapore is the world’s largest
importer of sand by a country mile.
Singapore
The crowded island state is conducting
massive land reclamation projects that
require a lot of material. Belgium and
SOURCE: OBSERVATORY OF ECONOMIC COMPLEXITY. 2016
Germany are big importers of sand as Japan
well as major exporters. That’s probably
because, like South Korea and Japan,
they import silicon-rich sand for
making electronics and glass, and South Korea
export different sorts. You would think
that the United Arab Emirates would
have enough sand of its own — but
again, it is the wrong sort for concrete. United Arab
Emirates
Dubai’s highways and skyscrapers are
built with imported sand.
of the commons, where unfettered access to we can repair those that are already standing.
a common resource leads to demand that Concrete wear and tear often comes in the
overwhelms the supply. One logical solution, form of cracks that weaken structures and
then, is to set up and enforce rules on how allow water to intrude and corrode the
much sand can be mined – but that is easier embedded metal reinforcements. In the US
said than done, especially in remote places. in particular, many structures are in dire need
“The real solution is to decrease our need for of repairs. In 2017, the American Association
sand,” says Peduzzi. of Civil Engineers awarded their nation’s
In effect, that means reducing our use of infrastructure a D+ rating overall, which
concrete. Instead of building new apartment means it is “at risk”. It found that every day
blocks, bridges, dams, car parks and more, there were 188 million trips across structurally
deficient bridges in the country. The UK’s
infrastructure received a similar diagnosis
when it last had a check up in 2014.
To fix the cracks researchers have turned
to a surprising ally: bacteria. Hendrik Jonkers
at the University of Delft in the Netherlands
has developed a spray containing bacteria that
World sand exports 2016 produce calcium carbonate, which acts as a
$947 million filler. In theory, concrete could also come with
bacteria mixed in, which could spring into
Exports Imports action and heal the building when exposed to
$303 million the air. But the bacteria can’t fix cracks more
than a millimetre wide. Moreover, many
species can’t survive for long in concrete –
a harsh environment that is about as alkaline
as bleach, says Congrui Jin of Binghamton
University in New York state.
Oil well, heal thyself
Jin thinks she has a better idea: use fungi
instead. They are tougher than bacteria and
might provide a better healing additive for
concrete. So over the past two years she and
her colleagues have conducted the first
0 50 100 studies of whether fungal spores can survive in
Value (million $)
concrete and produce calcium carbonate filler.
Screenings have shown up two strains that can
pull it off. That isn’t a terrible batting average
World sand imports 2016 considering how hostile concrete is, says Jin.
However, a fungi-based concrete healing
$1.38 billion
product is still years away. We can’t wait that
long, says Mohammed Imbabi, a cement
$189 million expert at the University of Aberdeen, UK.
Take oil wells in the North Sea, he says.
There are thousands of them out there,
each of which needs to be plugged with
concrete at the end of its life. That concrete
can’t fail, or else residual oil would seep into
the ocean. “The oil majors are desperately
looking for solutions,” he says.
Imbabi is investigating new species of
calcium carbonate-expelling bacteria,
which he says offer advantages for oil wells
because they can lie dormant for far longer
than fungi. He is also looking at microcapsules
0 50 100
that could be mixed into concrete. When
Value (million $)
ruptured they would release chemicals >
17 February 2018 | NewScientist | 37

900,000
tonnes of sand were
illegally mined around
the Indian city of Delhi
in one year
SAND MAFIA
Unregulated sand mining is a problem the
world over – sometimes a violent one
Sand is becoming a scarce resource
(see main story). It is also heavy and
so expensive to transport. That creates
an opportunity for local mining gangs;
if they can mine sand in areas close to
building operations, they can sell it
on cheaper than legitimate suppliers.
Being part of a “sand mafia” can
seem attractive because it is a low-risk,
high-profit enterprise that doesn’t
require much specialist equipment.
It is also a legal grey area. There are no
coherent international laws forbidding
sand mining. Where local regulations
exist, they aren’t always enforced,
especially in remote areas. In India,
for example, sand mining requires a
licence, but some local governments
turn a blind eye to illicit operations
because they provide an income for
otherwise destitute people.
The term “mafia” conjures up the
idea of a well-organised group that
dominates a territory. But that isn’t
always appropriate, says criminologist
Anita Lavorgna at the University
of Southampton, UK. Many groups
operate opportunistically in small areas.
In some cases, including in Morocco,
child labour is involved.
We know most about sand mafias
in India and Italy, thanks to studies of
media reports and court documents by
38 | NewScientist | 17 February 2018
that react to produce a filler.
Still, even if self-healing concrete becomes
a reality, structures will eventually become
too badly cracked to repair. Once that happens,
we can try a different strategy for reducing
sand demand: concrete recycling. This already
happens to some crumbling structures, which
are cut into blocks and ground into aggregate
that can be mixed into concrete in place of
sand. The resulting material is even better
than regular concrete for low-grade
SAKIB ALI/ HINDUSTAN TIMES VIA GETTY IMAGES
applications like road bases. But regulations
prevent it being used in critical structures
like bridges. Plus, there is only enough used
concrete in worldwide demolition waste to
satisfy about 20 per cent of the aggregate
needs of the developed world.
So if we can’t repair concrete perfectly and
we can only recycle so much, can we replace
the sand with something else? The Romans
made concrete with volcanic ash or a common
mineral called pozzolan instead of sand,
for example. More recently, we have tried
out other options, from sawdust to sediment
trapped by dams.
These generally involve trade-offs,
Lavorgna and Aunshul Rege of Temple however. Concrete made with sediment has
University in Philadelphia. Here mafia is only a fraction of the strength and durability
the right word. of concrete made with virgin sand. The same
In Italy, sand is simply a new strand of goes for sawdust; you can only replace about
the traditional mafia’s activities. In India, a quarter of the sand in concrete before the
the researchers found that groups are material’s strength suffers.
active in 12 of the country’s 29 states. Perhaps we need to go further and
They often mine other commodities such change the way we build entirely. Concrete
as manganese, which is used to make structures typically have angular shapes
magnetic metal alloys, and sometimes with internal steel frames for support. That
they use extreme violence to exert brutalist approach is hardly frugal in terms
control over resources. In June 2015, the of material, but a new wave of architecture
burned body of a journalist who had been might change that.
reporting on the sand mafia, Sandeep
Kothari, was found near a railway line
in Maharashtra. Repeated arrests have
Blocks by Block
done little to check the trade. The technology that underpins this change
There are reports of illicit sand is 3D printing. Over the past few years,
mining in Morocco, Algeria, Vietnam, building firms have developed robots that
Malaysia and Indonesia, and studies can print concrete structures quickly and
suggest it goes on in at least 70 countries. easily. Take San Francisco-based firm Apis
It’s difficult to get a handle on the Cor, which in 2017 printed the walls of a test
size of the illegal sand trade globally. house in Russia in 24 hours.
But reports suggest that about Printing concrete allows architects to
900,000 tonnes of sand were illegally experiment with innovative building
mined around Delhi in a single year. shapes, some of which may use less concrete.
We also know there is a gap between But printed concrete is only suitable for
the official figures for sand imports certain structures at the moment, says
and exports worldwide. That suggests Paulo Monteiro, an environmental engineer
much activity is slipping through the at the University of California, Berkeley.
authorities’ hands. “My feeling is that That is because the boundaries between
there might be a lot more going on, but it layers introduce weak points.
is not known about,” says Lavorgna. Concrete panels cast in a mould don’t
have that problem, but they must be cleverly
designed to save space and weight. This is the
specialty of architectural researcher Philippe
Block at the Swiss Federal Institute of
Technology in Zurich. His idea is to build
structures from blocks that fit tightly together
and support each other in compression. That
means the concrete panels can be thinner –
which in turn means less sand is needed.
The results can be striking. One example
is the Armadillo Vault, a 15-metre-wide dome
built from some 400 limestone blocks for
“To consume less sand,
we may need to entirely
change the way we build”
the 2016 Venice Biennale arts exhibition (see
photo, below). Block designed the structure so
it would support itself without any adhesives.
It doesn’t have to be limestone, though. One
of the group’s more recent projects is a new
take on the most pedestrian part of a building,
the floor. The Block floor consists of five
interlocking pieces of concrete laced with an
organic-looking pattern of internal ribbing.
Again, the arched panels are designed so that
compressive forces hold the floor up, like the
ceiling of a cathedral, which eliminates the
need for internal steel rods.
The result is only 2 centimetres thick
and up to 6 metres across, and uses 70 per
cent less concrete than a conventional floor.
As a bonus, the space saving means there
is plenty of room left over to fit heating
24
islands in Indonesia
have disappeared after
extensive mining by
REUTERS/YULI SEPERI
sand pirates
and cooling pipes or wiring. problem. FreeFAB uses a large robotic printer
The Block floor is made using a 3D printing arm that spits out a specialised wax to make
process that fuses together successive layers detailed moulds that are then used to cast
of fine powder to create a final form. This concrete panels. It is a fast process and the
method is highly precise, but the printed material from the moulds can be reused.
materials are relatively weak. The method is already being used to produce
A technique called FreeFAB, developed concrete panels for the Crossrail project,
by the European construction firm Laing a 100-kilometre railway line being built
O’Rourke, could potentially solve that underneath London.
Switching to Block-style concrete building
would lower our demand for sand, but lots of
The Armadillo Vault real-world iteration and testing must happen
was made from 400 before we get to that stage. So perhaps in the
limestone blocks – meantime it is worth at least trying to firm up
and no adhesive the rules on sand mining. A few international
conventions touch on sand but they aren’t
coherent, says Peduzzi. That is why Liu and
his colleagues recently called for a global
governance system to be set up for sand.
The first crucial step would be to find out
how much sand there is and where it lies. Then
we could start talking about where extraction
can continue and at what level. In other words,
we need a global sand budget. “So far research
is scattered and fragmented – there’s no
DAVID ESCOBEDO / ESCOBEDO GROUP
complete picture,” says Liu. Developing
such a picture is something the international
community needs to take seriously, Liu says,
and soon. It is time to take our heads out of the
sand before it disappears from around them. Q
Julian Smith is a writer in Portland, Oregon
17 February 2018 | NewScientist | 39
UPCOMING
INSTANT EXPERT EVENTS
Saturday 17 February 2018
INSTANT EXPERT
MATHEMATICS IN THE REAL WORLD
Discover why the world is chaotic, the secret codes that govern
the internet, the statistics that shape our lives and much more.
Speakers include Holy Kreiger, James Grime, Chris Budd and
three other experts.

Saturday 24 March 2018

INSTANT EXPERT
CONSCIOUSNESS
Explore what consciousness is, what are out of body experiences, will
we ever build conscious machines and much more. Speakers incude
Anil Seth, Karl Friston, Susan J Blackmore and three other experts.

Saturday 14 April 2018

INSTANT EXPERT
MENTAL HEALTH
Learn about the many causes of mental illness, what is normal,
understanding psychosis, meditation and much more. Speakers
include Anne Cooke, Catherine Wikholm, Praveetha Patalay and
three other experts.

Find out more and book tickets:

newscientist.com/events
10am – 5pm at:
Royal College of General Practitioners
30 Euston Square
London
CLASSIC EXPERIMENT

Real-life Lord of the Flies

Muzafer Sherif’s classic experiment on children is held up
as proof that waging war comes naturally to us. But there’s
more to this story than meets the eye, reveals Gina Perry

I
N THE summer of 1954, a bus pulled into
Robbers Cave State Park in the mountains of
rural Oklahoma. The dozen 11-year-old boys
on board, all of them strangers to each other,
craned to catch a glimpse through the dusty
windows of what for most of them was their
first summer camp. For a week they explored
the park, swam in a creek, and hiked in and
around mountain caves. They didn’t know that
a couple of days later, a second group arrived,
also believing they had the park to themselves.
Social psychologist Muzafer Sherif and his
team, disguised as camp counsellors, watched
each group bond and form its own identity.
The two groups named themselves the Rattlers
and the Eagles, each with flag, anthem, dress
code, leaders and followers, as well as shared
rules and standards. “They staked out their
territory,” Sherif’s research assistant,
O. J. Harvey, told me. “Everything was ‘our’ –
‘our hideout’, ‘our creek’.” The Rattlers felt Take two groups of
particular ownership of the baseball field, boys, place them in a
which they had cleared and marked out. park, then wind ’em up
Gradually, each group became aware of the and let ’em go
other: when the Rattlers discovered some
empty cups in their hideout and heard the
sounds of others playing on the baseball field,
they began to resent the interlopers. Finally,
Sherif brought the two groups together in
five days of competition, in everything from
baseball to tent-pitching. The winners would
be awarded a group trophy and a handsome
jackknife for each boy, the losers nothing.
From their first interaction on the baseball
field, the Rattlers and the Eagles regarded
each other with hostility and suspicion,
according to Sherif. Throughout the
tournament, the adults fanned rivalry between
them, covertly stacking the odds against one
team, then the other, increasing the tension >

17 February 2018 | NewScientist | 41

and keeping the scores neck and neck.
Hostilities reached fever pitch halfway

CAROLYN AND MUZAFER SHERIF PAPERS, THE DRS. NICHOLAS AND DOROTHY CUMMINGS CENTER FOR THE HISTORY OF PSYCHOLOGY, THE UNIVERSITY OF AKRON
through the competition. The Rattlers, faces
smeared with soot, crept up to the Eagles’
cabin in the dark. Bill Snipes, now a retired
detective but back then one of the Rattlers,
recalls the raid: “I climbed through their
window and almost fell on one boy. I woke him
up and he was not happy. He started swinging
at me. We tore their place up. They did the
same to us. It was almost like the counsellors
were building this animosity.” Days of warring
words and fisticuffs followed, with staff only
intervening to break things up before anyone
got seriously hurt. The violence ended only
when the staff engineered a disaster by cutting
off the camp’s water supply. In calling for
volunteers to help, Harvey hinted that
unknown saboteurs may have been at work;
that the park had a history of vandalism. All
the boys duly volunteered, perhaps fired up
by the idea of a common enemy.
At the top of the hill behind the mess hall,
the two groups found the water line buried
beneath boulders and some sacking jammed
into the pipes. As the temperature climbed
towards 40°C, they realised that they would
slake their growing thirst sooner if they
worked as a single team to clear the
obstructions. This saw the group boundaries
blur and, in a series of problem situations
devised by Sherif over the final week of the
three-week study, dissolve.
By the time the boys returned home – this The youngsters had no idea they were When Sherif arrived, the city was in the grip
time in a single bus – their antagonisms had part of a psychological experiment of the Great Depression. He was appalled by
been forgotten. They were a cohesive group the suffering of thousands of unemployed
who sang Oklahoma! with gusto. But the scientist’s and novelist’s views of and homeless people who flooded the streets.
Sherif’s Robbers Cave study is remembered human nature couldn’t have been more At rallies he heard of the antagonism and
less for its happy ending than for its startling different. For Golding, “man produces evil as racism between working people competing
demonstration of just how quickly animosity a bee produces honey” and his novel was, he for jobs and housing, and passionate calls for
can develop between people who have no said, “an attempt to trace the defects in society the poor and unemployed to unite for radical
reason to hate each other – an indictment of back to human nature”. For Sherif it was the social change. Moved by the disenfranchised
human nature. Carried out in the year that other way round: people were inherently and what he saw as the cruelty of the capitalist
William Golding’s Lord of the Flies was good and it was the environment – economic, system, Sherif gravitated towards a group of
political, social – that set groups competing intellectuals who thought that communism
“The Rattlers, faces smeared against each other, fostering rivalry, prejudice offered a framework for understanding the
and violence. If Golding was a pessimist, Sherif chaos of the Great Depression and the rise of
with soot, crept up to the was an optimist: he thought you could foster fascism, racial prejudice and anti-Semitism.
Eagles’ cabin in the dark” peaceful coexistence between warring tribes In his first book in 1936, he blamed a
by changing the environment. “competitive individualistic bourgeois
published, the study is often twinned with The roots of Sherif’s experiment lay far society” for creating frictions between
the novel. Both involve the transformation from rural Oklahoma. Sherif had arrived in the different social classes, believing that “the
of children in the wilderness, a descent into US from his native Turkey in 1929 at the age of classes themselves must be eliminated”.
savagery and violence. Sherif described how 23, as part of a wave of young intellectuals sent But on his return to Turkey in 1937, Sherif
an observer chancing on the interactions at abroad by the new government of Mustafa found such views unwelcome. In 1944, he
Robbers Cave would have never have guessed Kemal (later called Atatürk) to study and bring was swept up in the first of a series of anti-
these “disturbed, vicious… wicked youngsters” back the tools for shaping a new nation. After communist purges and was briefly jailed,
were in fact the “cream of the crop” in their a stint at Harvard University, Sherif ended up before his influential family secured his
middle-class home communities. at Columbia University in New York City. release. Disenchanted, he appealed to friends

42 | NewScientist | 17 February 2018

in the US to help him find a job, and soon after
left Turkey for Princeton University.
But in his years away from the US, and cut
off by the second world war, the country had
changed; the vibrant left-wing intellectual
scene Sherif had been part of in New York had
dissipated. Sherif’s idealism was undimmed:
in a 1947 book he co-wrote, he expressed
sympathy for Marxism and admiration
for what he saw as the benefits of Russian
collectivism over the capitalist culture of
the US. With his ideology clear, he set about
devising an experiment to “prove” that
collectivism trumps competition.
Fight snub
In 1949, 1953 and 1954, Sherif conducted
summer-camp experiments in three
locations. In 1949, the two warring tribes
united following the introduction of a third
group, a common enemy. In 1953, the boys
all mixed as one large group for a day before
being separated into teams. Sherif wanted to
show he could turn friends into enemies. It
backfired: the boys mutinied against the staff,
whom they accused of trying to make them
fight. Sherif approached the final experiment
“with a definite script in mind”, says Harvey,
and at Robbers Cave he finally got the results
he wanted.
During those first camp studies, the themes
Sherif was researching – of friends and foes,
loyalty and betrayal – were being played out
in his own life. The political climate that drove
him from Turkey was making itself felt in the
US as the cold war began to bite. In 1949, he
took a job at the University of Oklahoma just
before the state legislature launched a
committee to investigate communism and
required that state employees and university
staff swear loyalty to the US. In signing the
oath, Sherif swore he had not been part any
communist-leaning groups in the previous
five years. As a foreign-born scientist working
on navy-funded research, he was considered
a security risk and FBI director J. Edgar Hoover
launched an investigation into him. FBI agents
interviewed Sherif’s mentors and colleagues,
librarians and landladies, shopkeepers and
administrative staff who had known him in
the US, as well as some who had known him in
Turkey. One so-called friend told investigators
that Sherif “would have no hesitation in
providing all the information he might
possess to the Russians”. But no one else
repeated the claim, and Sherif was cleared.
This climate of fear shaped the way Sherif
presented his work. Early on, describing the
In the conflicts
planned by Muzafer
Sherif (below), the
tribes came up with
flags and mottos
way the animosity erupted between the two
groups, Sherif wrote that the boys’ behaviour
reflected the dynamics of a competitive
society that divided people into the “haves
and have-nots”. In the McCarthyite climate of
the time, this could be read as suspiciously
pro-communist, and between the first draft
of his 1949 summer camp study and its final
report, Sherif distanced himself from his
political past. He also began to play down any
deliberate manipulation that the researchers
engaged in to escalate friction between the
groups or engineer the environment to gain
specific results.
From the final draft of his 1949 report
through to his book The Robbers Cave
Experiment: Intergroup conflict and
cooperation in 1954, Sherif crafted a narrative
in which social classes became “groups”,
political ideologies became “environments”
and the researcher performing feats of social
engineering to demonstrate his theory
became invisible.
In reality, however, Sherif’s team took
increasingly active roles in the three
experiments. Archive material reveals how at
Robbers Cave, for example, they encouraged
the Eagles and Rattlers to retaliate against
each other, accompanying the boys on raids.
Modern research ethics mean that such an
experiment cannot be repeated today, so we
may never know how a Robbers Cave scenario
would unfold with no adults to stoke
factionalism. Since it was conducted, the
Robbers Cave study has become a classic
in social psychology and beyond, referenced
in developmental psychology, neuroscience
and in evolutionary explanations of
discrimination, prejudice, conflict and war.
But in accepting Sherif’s politically neutral
account of his own research, it is easy to
overlook the amount of social engineering
involved and what it says about the power
of manipulation. In a world in which racism
and tribalism are on the rise, the real lesson
of Robbers Cave is not that humans are
hardwired for war, but that we should look
beyond warring factions and behind the
scenes, to ask whose interests – political,
national, corporate – are being served by
division and conflict. ■
Gina Perry is a psychologist and writer in Melbourne,
Australia, and author of The Lost Boys: Inside
Muzafer Sherif’s Robbers Cave experiment (Scribe),
out this April
17 February 2018 | NewScientist | 43
CULTURE

The inside story of blood

The revolutionary William Harvey deserves his show, says Simon Ings

under its own volumetric tack when he mapped “the little traditionally spent more time
Ceaseless Motion: William Harvey’s
pressure. Heaven help you if you doors in the veins” that, we know on textual analysis than on
experiments in circulation, the Royal
made too much of the stuff. now, are valves maintaining the examining patients.
College of Physicians, London, to
Luckily, physicians were on hand flow of blood back to the lungs. The exhibition is housed
26 July
to release this disease-inducing Within 30 years, Harvey’s in a building designed by
AFFECTION and delight aren’t pressure through bloodletting. realisation that blood pressure Denys Lasdun. This celebrated
qualities you would immediately It sounds daft now, but clues is controlled by the heart, and modernist architect was so taken
associate with an exhibition back then that something quite that this organ actively pumps by Harvey’s achievements that
about blood flow. But Ceaseless different was going on were blood around the body in a he designed the interiors as a
Motion reaches beyond the sparse and controversial. The continuous circuit, had subtle homage to the human
science to celebrate the man – 16th-century physician Andreas circulatory system.
17th-century physician William Vesalius had puzzled over the “Harvey, who founded a With the royal college now
Harvey – who, the story goes, heart. If, like every other organ, lecture series in his name, celebrating its 500th birthday,
invented the tradition of doctors’ it fed on blood produced in the remembered to bequeath its institutional pride is palpable,
bad handwriting. He was also liver, why were its walls so money for refreshments” but never stuffy. As one staff
a benefactor: when founding a impenetrably hard? But even member told me, “We only started
lecture series in his own name, he this towering figure, the founder overturned the teachings of the talking about ourselves as a ‘Royal’
remembered to bequeath money of modern anatomy, decided 2nd-century Graeco-Roman college after the Restoration,
for the provision of refreshments. that his own observations had physician Claudius Galen in to suck up to the king.”
It is an exhibition conceived, to be wrong. European centres of learning. Those who can visit should be
organised and hosted by the It was Hieronymus Fabricius, The new thinking also put close brave and explore. Upstairs,
UK’s Royal College of Physicians, Harvey’s teacher in Padua, Italy, clinical observation at the heart there are wooden panels from
whose 17th-century librarian who offered a new and fruitful of a discipline that had Padua with the dried and salted
Christopher Merrett described circulatory and nervous systems
how to make champagne several of executed criminals lacquered
years before the monk Dom into them. They are rare survivors:
Pérignon began his experiments. when pickling methods improved
Less happily, Merrett went on a and it was possible to provide
drinking binge in 1666, and let medical students with three-
Harvey’s huge book collection dimensional teaching aids,
burn in London’s Great Fire. such “anatomical plates”
The documents, seals and were discarded.
signatures that survived the Downstairs, there are endless
flames despite Merrett’s curiosities. The long sticks doctors
neglect take pride of place in carried in 18th-century caricatures
an exhibition that, within a were clinical instruments – latex
very little compass, tells the gloves didn’t arrive until 1889.
story of one of medicine’s more The sticks’ silver ferrules contained
important revolutionaries miasma-defeating herbs and,
through documents, portraits sometimes, phials of alcohol.
and some deceptively chatty None of them are as handsome as
wall information. Harvey’s own demonstration rod.
JOHN CHASE/ROYAL COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS

Before Harvey’s 10 years of But if a visit in person is out

intense, solitary study bore fruit, of the question, take a look at
physicians thought blood was the royal college’s new website,
manufactured in the liver and launched to celebrate half a
then passed through the body millennium of institutional
conviviality and controversy.
Harvey’s demonstration rod You will have to provide your
was capped with a silver ferrule own biscuits, though. ■

44 | NewScientist | 17 February 2018

For more books and arts coverage, visit newscientist.com/culture
From wildlife to street life
Nature can inhabit the city, but only if we help, finds Matthew Cobb
Darwin Comes to Town: How the
urban jungle drives evolution by
Menno Schilthuizen, Quercus
EVOLUTIONARY
biologist Menno
Schilthuizen is
clearly a glass-half-
full kind of guy.
In his resolutely
optimistic book
Darwin Comes to
Town, he takes us on a global tour
of how nature is responding to
massive urban expansion, and
finds much that is good.
Faced with our alteration of
the planet and its climate, in
particular through a toxic mix of
increased urbanisation and highly
intensive farming, Schilthuizen’s
pragmatic and balanced response
is to look for the positives.
He finds these in the very
places where most of us now
live: cities. Urban sprawl, he
proclaims, creates spaces for
those organisms able to resist
the concrete, the noise, the lack
of greenery and the effects of
chemical and light pollution.
In his thought-provoking
book, Schilthuizen describes the
wonders of what he calls human-
induced rapid evolutionary
change, as animals and plants
adapt their bodies and habits to
the new urban terrain, creating
new ecological niches.
Some of these examples have
been studied for a long time: the
rise and fall of blue tits pecking at
British milk-bottle tops was first
noted in the 1930s, and has now
virtually disappeared, along with
the doorstep deliveries of full-fat
milk that made it possible. Other
adaptations, such as that of the
now pigeon-eating catfish of Albi
in southern France, have only
Approve or not, cities too are
now part of the natural world
recently been observed, while the
significance of the physical and
behavioural changes shown by
urban blackbirds in Europe is
only just being appreciated.
Schilthuizen cleverly uses
examples of urban biodiversity
to explore the central concepts
of behavioural ecology, from
ecosystem engineers (ants
and humans), through island
biogeography (as true on
roundabouts as on oceanic isles)
to honest signalling and sexual
selection. These ideas are
“Schilthuizen describes
the wonders of what he
calls human-induced rapid
evolutionary change”
MOMENT/GETTY
explained simply, often
supported by the words of the
scientists directly involved.
With care, Schilthuizen
explores whether the changes
he describes are in fact examples
of evolution – changes in genes –
or whether they are cases of
learning or of the fashionable,
but rarely demonstrated,
inherited non-genetic changes
known as epigenetics. The
rigorous and stimulating
discussions of how we can
distinguish between various
causes of change, and what their
long-term implications are, help
make the book required reading.
Schilthuizen, a professor of
biodiversity at Leiden University
in the Netherlands, doesn’t
dismiss attempts to conserve
species in the wild or protect
wilderness. As an experienced
researcher in tropical biology and
with a deep love for the natural
world, he understands the
importance of maintaining the
remaining wild areas. In a moving
coda, he describes his sadness at
returning to the semi-wild
edgeland bogs of his Rotterdam
childhood to find them covered
with neat housing estates.
But barring a catastrophe that
decimates the human population,
he emphasises that we – and
nature – are going to have to make
do with an urbanised planet. And
the urban spiders and plants and
birds and microbes he describes
give some reason to be optimistic.
As a glass-half-empty kind
of guy, at least when it comes to
the future of biodiversity, I was
particularly pleased by the final
section covering four ways we
can encourage urban biodiversity:
let wild organisms survive, don’t
eliminate non-native species,
preserve pristine wild areas
around cities and monitor urban
biodiversity using apps and
citizen science.
If we are careful, Schilthuizen’s
vision of a rich, urban ecology
may come to pass. I hope for all
our sakes it does, because the
alternative is deeply alarming. ■
Matthew Cobb is a zoologist at the
University of Manchester in the UK
17 February 2018 | NewScientist | 45
CULTURE

Got our eyes on you!

Absurdity shapes a new show on data and culture, finds Simon Ings

[JOYCAT]LMAO, Open Data Institute,

London, throughout 2018

ON Friday 12 January 2018,

curators Julie Freeman and
CEILING CAT BY EVA AND FRANCO MATTES. PHOTOGRAPH BY THEO MCINNES/ODI

Hannah Redler Hawes left work

at London’s Open Data Institute
confident that, come Monday
morning, there would be a few
packets of crisps in the office.
Artist Ellie Harrison’s Vending
Machine (2009) sits in the ODI’s
kitchen, one of the older exhibits
acquired over the institute’s five-
year programme celebrating
“Data as Culture”. It has been
hacked to dispense a packet
of salty snacks whenever the
BBC’s RSS feed has a news item
containing financial misfortune.
No one could have guessed that,
come 7 am on Monday, Carillion, It had no time at all for Wilfred through a hole in a ceiling tile – Ceiling Cat is a comment on our
the UK government’s services Owen: “Froth-corrupted” (Dulce is Franco and Eva Mattes’s Ceiling beliefs about surveillance
contractor, would have gone into et Decorum Est) earned £0.00. Cat, a taxidermied realisation
liquidation. There were so many You can, of course, reverse this of the internet meme, and a comprehend it,” she says, “and
packets in the hopper no one game and ask what happens to comment on the nature of those visualisations are often
could open the door, say staff. people when they over-interpret surveillance beliefs. “It’s cute done in a very short space of time,
Such anecdotes are the stuff of machine-generated data, seeing and scary at the same time,” for a particular purpose, in a
this year’s show, as humour and patterns that aren’t there. This is the artists say, “like the internet.” particular context, for a particular
absurdity are harnessed to ask big what Lee Montgomery has done Co-curator Freeman is a data audience. Then they acquire this
questions about internet culture, with Stupidity Tax (2017). In an artist herself. You may have seen afterlife. All of a sudden, they’re
privacy and artificial intelligence. effort to understand his father’s her naked mole rat surveillance the lenses we’re looking through.
Looking at the world through mild but unaccountably secretive project at last year’s New Scientist If you start thinking about data as
algorithmic lenses may bring gambling habit, Montgomery Live. The 7.5 million data points something rigid and objective and
occasional insight, but what really acquired by the project are now bearing the weight of truth, then
matters here are the pratfalls as, “Seeing the world through keeping network analysts busy you’ve stopped discerning what is
time and again, our machines algorithmic lenses may at Queen Mary University of right and what is wrong.”
misconstrue a world they cannot bring insight, but what London. “We want to know if Freeman wants us to analyse
possibly comprehend. matters are the pratfalls” mole rats make good encryption data, not abandon it, and her
In 2017, artist Pip Thornton objects,” says Freeman. Their nest exhibition is an act of tough love.
fed famous poems to Google’s has used a variety of data analysis behaviours might generate true “When we fetishise data, we end
online advertising service, techniques to try to predict the random numbers, handy for data up with what’s happening in
Google AdWords, and printed the UK National Lottery. The sting security. “But the mole-rat queens social media,” she says. “So many
monetised results on till receipts. in the tale is the installation’s are far too predictable... Crisp?” people drowning in metadata,
The framed results value the word associated website, which implies Through a mouthful of salt and pointing to pointers, and never
“cloud” (as in I Wandered Lonely as (mischievously, I hope) that the vinegar, I ask Freeman where her acquiring any knowledge that’s
a Cloud by William Wordsworth) whole effort has driven the artist playfulness comes from. And as deep and valuable. There should
highly, at £4.73, presumably ever so slightly mad. I suspected, there is intellectual be some words to express that
because Google’s algorithm was Watching over the whole show – steel beneath: “Data is being glut, that need to roll back a little
dreaming of internet servers. literally because it is peeking constantly visualised so we can bit. Here, have another crisp.” ■

46 | NewScientist | 17 February 2018

INFINITY
AND BEYOND
Your ultimate guide to mathematics
=HURLQĆQLW\ZRQGHUQXPEHUVSUREDELOLW\DQGVWDWLVWLFV
V\PPHWU\DQGUHDOLW\FRPSXWDWLRQDOFRPSOH[LW\PDWKV
DQG\RXUEUDLQDQGPXFKPRUH

%X\\RXUFRS\IURPDOOJRRGPDJD]LQHUHWDLOHUVRUGLJLWDOO\
)LQGRXWPRUHDWnewscientist.com/thecollection
LETTERS
letters@newscientist.com @newscientist newscientist

EDITOR’S PICK Several ways we could

Everything put together falls apart, unless we have a vision
From Linda Dawe,
Chesham, Buckinghamshire, UK
As a scientifically curious artist I was
interested to read Laura Spinney’s
article on the possible collapse of
Western civilisation as we know it
(20 January, p 28). But what would
earlier writers have made of it all?
Well, the writer Rudyard Kipling said:
“Cities and Thrones and Powers /
Stand in Time’s eye, / Almost as long
as flowers, / Which daily die.”
On our inability to deal with our own
personal contribution to impending
doom, he wrote: “We had a kettle: we
let it leak: / Our not repairing it made
it worse. / Now we haven’t had any
tea for a week… / The bottom is out
of the Universe.”
But the last word goes to another
poet and lyricist, Paul Simon, summing
up all human history in his song
Everything put together falls apart.
From Paul G. Ellis,
Chichester, Hampshire, UK
Spinney’s article and your Leader
(20 January, p 5) provide a useful
underpinning for thoughts that must
be haunting many of us who have paid
attention to world news in the last
decade. What they omit, however, is
a vision or ideas that might inspire a
great majority of humanity toward
a long-term consensus.
Though Marxism, for example, has
manifestly failed – arguably through
its divisiveness – its early spread did
show the possibility of inspirational
ideas having powerful and widespread
influence. Surely, now, attempts
should be made to counter pessimism
by trying to work out and promulgate
some inspirational vision of humanity’s
future to which most governments,
organisations and populations might
be able and willing to subscribe.
It won’t be easy to find common
ground between authoritarian and
democratic governments, nor across
sectarian and other divides – but that
just indicates how far-seeing such a
vision would need to be.
handle the heat
From Duncan Cameron,
Brighton, East Sussex, UK
John Pickrell suggests ways to
stay cool in heatwaves (20 January,
p 36). Before Saddam Hussein
came to power, I lived in Basra in
southern Iraq. It was said to be the
hottest major city on the planet,
with both high humidity and
40°C summer temperatures.
The modern city of cement and
brick with asphalt boulevards was
almost uninhabitable in summer
without air conditioning. The
old city was better, with closely
packed light wooden structures
in narrow alleys. But the prize
belonged to the people of the
Mesopotamian marshes to the
north, who probably knew more
than anyone about natural
climate amelioration. They had
lived in buildings adapted to the

Could you help transform a life?

It costs $50 to send a child to a UWS school for a whole
year. That’s less than $1 per week.
hŶŝƚĞĚtŽƌůĚ^ĐŚŽŽůƐĐƌĞĂƚĞƐĞĚƵĐĂƟŽŶĂůŽƉƉŽƌƚƵŶŝƚLJ
for children living in the world’s poorest regions. We are
driven by our global mission to help reach children that
ĚŽŶŽƚƌĞĐĞŝǀĞĞǀĞŶƚŚĞŵŽƐƚďĂƐŝĐĞĚƵĐĂƟŽŶ
We have now reached over 15,000 previously out-
ŽĨƐĐŚŽŽůĐŚŝůĚƌĞŶĨƌŽŵƌĞŵŽƚĞĐŽŵŵƵŶŝƟĞƐĂĐƌŽƐƐ
Cambodia, Myanmar and Nepal, thanks to the support
of people like you. Please help us to reach our target of
50,000 children by 2019.
Every penny, pound, cent or dollar donated goes
towards helping girls and boys in marginalised and
ƉŽƐƚĐŽŶŇŝĐƚĐŽŵŵƵŶŝƟĞƐ
www.unitedworldschools.org I @teamuws|
info@unitedworldschools.org

Help us to teach the unreached, get involved today:

www.unitedworldschools.org/get-involved

52 | NewScientist | 17 February 2018

 “It depends on the expectation of what
is ‘comfortable’, doesn’t it?”
Gemma Pearce responds to the idea that it is impossible to
live comfortably without trashing Earth (10 February, p 10)

climate since Babylonian times.
These were made of bundles of
reeds that didn’t absorb heat, with
open entrances that ensured a
flow of air. They were delightful
to sit in.
Is it possible to envisage a post-
anthropogenic climate change
architecture that learns from the
experts of the past?
From Anthony Wheeler,
Mackay, Queensland, Australia
More ways to keep cool in our
increasingly hot climate include
building houses on stumps
2 metres high to allow cooling
air to circulate underneath.
This, along with high ceilings that
allow hot air to rise away from the
occupants, is how old Queensland
houses were built.
Chimneys can also help by
sucking warm air out of a structure
by Bernoulli’s principle. Finally,
recessing the house into the
ground can keep it cool – or even
burying it all, as in the town of
Coober Pedy in South Australia.
From James Willis,
Alton, Hampshire, UK
What about solar-powered air
conditioning? It is impossible for
any form of air conditioning to
reduce net global warming, but
solar power would surely be an
improvement on the fossil fuel
status quo, especially in sunny
places with dispersed populations
such as Pickrell’s own Australia.
It would be interesting to see a
quantification of just how great
this improvement might be.
Clearly the energy required for
manufacture, installation and
eventual dismantling and
recycling of the units would have
to be taken into account, although
much of that might come from
renewable sources. Even if the
benefit to the global energy
balance is smaller than we hope,
the immediate, local benefits of
zero running costs and immunity
to grid outages would surely make
such systems attractive.
From Guy Cox,
Sydney, Australia
Pickrell writes: “The creation of
air-conditioned public refuges is
another option that was discussed
widely during last summer’s
heatwave here in Australia.” But
they already exist, are numerous
and nobody is more than a short
drive from one. They are called
shopping malls and are very
widely used for just that purpose,
not least in this summer’s
extreme heatwave. Thousands of
square metres of air-conditioned
space, interesting shops, play
areas for children, food outlets,
cinemas… What government
refuge could possibly compare
with that?
Quantify the economy in
physical terms, please
From Jane King,
Edinburgh, UK
Bryn Glover is undoubtedly
correct that money has absolutely
no intrinsic value (Letters,
16 December). It was this that led
us at the University of Edinburgh
to look at the economy and the
numerous interactions within it
using not money, but a physical
unit of account: the energy
embodied in goods and services
as they are brought to the market.
We summarised our findings in
the book Not By Money Alone.
Our aim wasn’t to dislodge
conventional economic ways of
thinking, but rather to identify the
physical boundaries within which
economies are constrained to
operate: even economists cannot
escape thermodynamic limits.
Not surprisingly, the approach >

C U LT U R A L T O U R S
FOR DISCERNING TRAVELLERS
Kirker ofers a range of Cultural Tours including visits to some
of the fnest art galleries and museums in Europe.
Undiscovered Paris
Spectacular wall art from astro photographer Chris Baker
3 December 2018
Ravenna, Urbino & Ferrara
4 April & 26 September 2018
The Palaces & Galleries of St. Petersburg
13 April, 7 September & 5 October 2018
Art of the Côte D’azur
17 April & 18 September 2018
Florence & Siena – Power & Patronage
23 April & 9 October 2018
Málaga – Picasso & Beyond
6 November 2018
Available as frameless acrylic or framed backlit
Art Galleries of the Netherlands
up to 1.2 metres wide. All limited editions
5 August & 18 November 2018
Speak to an expert or
request a brochure:
020 7593 2284
quote code XNC
www.galaxyonglass.com www.kirkerholidays.com
Call Chris +44 (0) 7814 181647

17 February 2018 | NewScientist | 53

LETTERS
was received unenthusiastically
by traditionalists; it attracted
considerable interest otherwise.
If we fall down, here’s
how to get up again
From Ginny Craig,
Knaresborough, North Yorkshire, UK
Joan Zealey writes of her mother’s
failure to get up again after falling
(Letters, 27 January). I worked
as a specialist physiotherapist
for people who had had a leg
amputated. One of the criteria
for discharge from hospital was
that everybody was shown how
to get up from a fall.
This involved lying still for a
while to get over the shock of the
fall, then rolling onto their side
and pushing up into a sitting
position. Once sitting, they were
shown how to “bum shuffle”
backwards using their hands for
support and the remaining leg
for propulsion. If they had stairs,
they bum shuffled to the bottom
of the stairs and raised themselves
backwards, step by step, until they
could use the bannisters to pull
themselves into standing.
Surprisingly, even the very old
TOM GAULD
54 | NewScientist | 17 February 2018
or weak seemed to manage this
very well, in spite of having only
one leg for propulsion!
Don’t deny me pain relief
for others’ problems
From Hilary Gee,
Cartmel, Cumbria, UK
I do understand that, as Andrew
Kolodny says, there is a problem
with the over-prescription of
opioids and that many people
could manage their pain with less
powerful versions (13 January,
p 35). Even a mild pain gets very
wearing and hampering if it never
goes away. And if it does persist, as
with the chronic arthritis I have,
becoming addicted to painkillers
is more or less irrelevant, since I
continue to need relief anyway.
Though Kolodny doesn’t want
to ban painkillers, anyone with
chronic pain will understand the
fear of being denied relief because
of other people’s problems. The
pain is real, it may never go away,
and nor will the need for effective
drugs. Perhaps research into
safer but equally effective pain
treatments might be the best
cure for the addiction crisis. And
letters@newscientist.com
controlling the drug companies,
of course. They have been allowed
to over-sell into the ludicrously
commercial US medical system.
Are we alone in the
universe or not?
From John Harvey,
Rodmell, East Sussex, UK
Dirk Schulze-Makuch and William
Bains make a very good case for
expecting life, even complex life,
to have evolved and proliferated
across the galaxy (13 January, p 22).
But they argue that failure so far
to find evidence of extraterrestrial
technology suggests the evolution
of technological civilisations may
prove a real stumbling block.
There is another possibility.
Our own galaxy has been around
for over 10 billion years, more
than twice as long as the solar
system. There is plenty of time
for advanced civilisations to have
evolved elsewhere. Assuming a
random distribution across time
of many evolutions, most would
be millions of years ahead of us.
Such super-beings wouldn’t
have sat around waiting to be
discovered by earthlings. They
@newscientist newscientist
would have discovered us a long
time ago. I think they would find
a way of subtly hinting to us that
Earth’s civilisation wasn’t as
unique as we thought.
From Derek Hough,
Chalford, Gloucestershire, UK
We currently have little idea
how even simple life could have
evolved from inert chemicals,
so we must not get ahead of
ourselves when discussing types
of life that could exist elsewhere
in the universe. It seems to me
that a universe with a single
occurrence of life is almost
infinitely more probable than
a more ordered universe in
which life is slightly more
commonplace. Rest assured,
we are alone.
A most interesting
thing about earwax
From John Dick,
Claremont, California, US
Christie Wilcox, describing the
secrets of earwax, didn’t mention
a most interesting thing about
our ears and earwax that helps
to explain many of the issues
discussed (23/30 December 2017,
p 67). This is the fact that the skin
in the ear canal grows outwards,
just as our fingernails do, and at a
similar rate. This carries the wax
outwards to be eventually cleared,
and results in the waxy historical
record Wilcox refers to.
For the record
Q The inconstant moon: its orbit is
inclined 5 degrees to the ecliptic, the
plane of Earth’s orbit around the sun
(28 November 2015, p 13).
Letters should be sent to:
Letters to the Editor, New Scientist,
25 Bedford Street, London, WC2E 9ES
Email: letters@newscientist.com
Include your full postal address and telephone
number, and a reference (issue, page number, title) to
articles. We reserve the right to edit letters.
New Scientist Ltd reserves the right to
use any submissions sent to the letters column of
New Scientist magazine, in any other format.
SIGNAL BOOST
Offering your projects a helping hand

Offset the carbon from trips

AFTER James Hughes and Thomas Silcock left their homes
behind at the age of 18 to pursue unpredictable journeys around
the world, they became addicted to the sense of total freedom
that came with travel. Putting themselves in as many different
shoes as possible became a hobby and the desire to immerse
themselves in different environments and cultures became a
way of life. But a question arose. How could they do something
to support a way of life that had given them so much? The
answer was to offer others the chance to simultaneously explore
and conserve the planet. Their brainchild, Gone West, was born.
The company has been evolving since 2008, and still has a
long way to go, but it offers travellers and businesses a platform
designed to create a direct relationship between them and the
natural environment, and to reduce their environmental harm.
When you book a trip through Gone West or one of its affiliates, WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE
the firm will plant enough trees to offset the resulting carbon BETWEEN A HUMAN BRAIN
emissions. Businesses, too, can offset their annual emissions.
Gone West believes travel shouldn’t be a selfish act, whether AND A MOBILE PHONE?

“
commuting, backpacking around the globe or taking a short trip.
Ag
groundbreaking and endlessly fascinating meditation on

”
Users can keep track of their carbon footprint and give back to
the environment. It’s simple: Gone West calculates the emissions our innate ability to feel ‘connected’ to other people.
from your trip or business and sends the data to its reforestation Steve Silberman, author of NeuroTribes: The Legacy of Autism
team, who work around the clock in the UK and elsewhere to
plant enough trees to offset the environmental damage.
Businesses in the travel industry who offset their carbon are
added to Gone West’s “green list”, helping people book more
ethical trips. And the more you reduce your carbon footprint,
the cheaper travel becomes: flying less generally means using
cheaper transport options. The goal is to remove the travel
industry’s carbon footprint. Thomas Silcock, co-founder

For more information, visit www.gonewest.com

Signal Boost is your chance to tell our readers about a project that
needs their help. We’re looking for campaigns, programmes or
ideas from non-profit or voluntary enterprises. Send a proposal, OUT
together with images and information about yourself, to NOW!
signalboost@newscientist.com. New Scientist does not endorse www.jkp.com JKP
any  claims made in this donated advertising space. We reserve
the right to edit contributions for clarity and style.

17 February 2018 | NewScientist | 55

 FEEDBACK
“IF PEOPLE no longer easily trust
their human priests, and there is less
of religious community life, could
they trust a robot priest?” Stanford
University’s Cindy Mason discussed
the case for a mechanical minister
at a recent conference on ethics and
AI held in New Orleans, Louisiana.
Noting that revelations around
sexual abuse in the Catholic church
had diminished trust in priests, Mason
explored the role that costumes had
on shaping public reactions to robots.
A robot fashion show at a
Nordstrom department store in
2015 demonstrated that the same
robot dressed in different outfits –
bride, superhero, “frilly girrly” and
others – elicited different reactions,
and people were more likely to ask
about the robot’s role than its
hardware or software.
It’s not clear to us whether robot
priests would be rehabilitating the
image of robots or priests, but we
note that as well as a stint as a
shopping assistant, the Pepper
PAUL MCDEVITT
android built by Softbank Robotics
has also turned its hand to ministering
Buddhist funerals.
French media reports that annual sales of
Nutella weigh in at “almost as much as the
Empire State building”. Lynn Holman asks “Why
can’t they use elephants like everyone else?”
56 | NewScientist | 17 February 2018
In 2011, the Engineering and
Physical Sciences Research Council
published guidelines about ethical
robots, the fourth of which states that
machines “should not be designed to
exploit vulnerable users by evoking an
emotional response or dependency”.
Mason recommends an addendum:
that robots should be designed
so that their appearance matches
their function. In other words, clothes
maketh the man – and the machine.
GOOD-looking people are more
likely to identify as politically
right wing, according to a recent
study published by the Journal of
Public Economics. Rolfe Peterson
and Carl Palmer looked at two
historical data sets that include
information about political
beliefs and looks. For one,
interviewers were instructed
to rate the respondents “from
1 (homely) to 5 (strikingly
handsome or beautiful)”.
The results show that more
attractive people tended to
gravitate toward conservative
political opinions. It’s well
For more feedback, visit newscientist.com/feedback
demonstrated that more
attractive people are treated more
favourably in society, and the
authors hypothesise that this
leads them to have difficulty in
appreciating the hardship that
others face.
In the same journal, Niclas
Berggren and his colleagues
note that this also applies
to politicians. In fact, the
pattern appears so ingrained
that, in the absence of other
information, voters will assume
that the attractive candidate is
the conservative one. Finally,
a scientific discovery that
narcissistic despots can
cheer about.
READER Derek Woodroffe is left in
the dark by roadworks on the A52
going in to Derby. He says there is a
sign there telling drivers that due to
the roadworks, the street lighting
isn’t working.
“Although it was daytime,
so I probably didn’t need the lighting,
it did occur to me that each of the
lamps has a large bright indicator
showing that the light is working,”
says Derek. The lack of light from the
lamps at night would probably tell me
that they were out of service, he says,
“so the sign feels rather redundant”.
He notes the sign itself wasn’t
illuminated, “although I’m not sure
if that would make the sign more or
less useful”.
A PERFECTLY aged Howard
Bobry writes: “I must respectfully
disagree with both Feedback and
reader Colin Jacobson regarding
the ageing effects of birthdays”
(20 January).
He says that as someone
born on 29 February, “I can assure
you that my having had only
17 birthdays has not limited my
ageing, nor has this paucity
hastened my demise (yet)”.
THE Guardian reports the death of
Nigel, a male gannet that spent five
years alone on Mana Island in New
Zealand, trying to court decoys placed
there by conservationists. The 80
concrete replicas, painted to look like
gannets and accompanied by
solar-powered speakers playing
their calls, were installed in the hopes
of encouraging the birds to start a
colony. However, when three real
birds arrived recently, Nigel chose
to ignore them, preferring the
company of his stony companions,
and died soon after.
SCIENTISTS are reviewing
everyday items that prove
useful for research, using the
#reviewforscience hashtag on
Twitter. The trend was inspired
by an Amazon review for tea
strainers left by “John”, who
noted that the spherical mesh
cage was perfect for holding ants.
We find a 10-speed battery-
operated body massaging wand
is just right for luring spiders
out of their dens. And another
entomologist waxes lyrical about
Keebler Pecan Sandies Cookies:
“You will not find a more
convenient and attractive field
bait for myrmicine ants. No mess,
no fuss, and the light color allows
easy following of foraging worker
ants back to their nest.”
Clear nail polish proves useful
both for “sealing coverslips onto
freshly stained slices of brain”
and essential first aid for jungle
fieldwork, where you can use it
to seal botfly wounds in the skin
to prevent the maggot beneath
developing. Who said science
wasn’t glamorous?
You can send stories to Feedback by
email at feedback@newscientist.com.
Please include your home address.
This week’s and past Feedbacks can
be seen on our website.

THE LAST WORD
Sting in the tail
Mosquito bites frequently induce
a sharp sting in people and some
animals, with severe evolutionary
consequences for the mosquito when
it gets swatted. Are any mosquitoes
evolving with delayed-action stings
or reduced sting secretions so that
they can drink blood without the
threat of imminent death?
QMosquitoes have been around
since the Jurassic period and
probably evolved to feed on
dinosaurs. Although we humans
consider ourselves to be the most
important animal on Earth, from
the mosquito’s point of view we
are somewhat irrelevant because
they have evolved to feed on
specific hosts. However, much
like fleas, they will not pass up
a meal if one is available from
the wrong host.
I can make a useful comparison
with my experience of the tiger
mosquito, Aedes albopictus.
This Asian mosquito has recently
invaded Europe and, to my
chagrin, it took up residence
in my locality last summer.
Its bite is the most unpleasant
I have ever experienced. It is
simultaneously painful and itchy
and causes a small bump to form,
so presumably it’s not particularly
adapted to humans. In fact,
it will feed on any suitable host –
bird or mammal.
It attacks in swarms in full
sunshine and can penetrate
socks, jeans and T-shirts with ease.
It is solenophagic, which means
it thrusts its stylets directly into
We pay £25 for every answer
published in New Scientist. To answer
a question or ask a new one please
email lastword@newscientist.com.
Questions should be scientific
enquiries about everyday phenomena,
and both questions and answers
should be concise. We reserve the right
to edit items for clarity and style. Please
include a postal address, daytime
telephone number and email address.
You can also send questions and
blood vessels and seems to take
just a matter of seconds to be fully
fed. You may swat some, but not
all, especially if they are in the
middle of your back, and often not
before they have had time to feed.
Any survivor can lay a couple of
hundred eggs and mate up to four
times in its lifetime. The fact this
mosquito is known to spread
dengue and chikungunya means
it must manage to feed on at
least two victims, so it does not
seem to be compromised by its
painful bite.
Then again, those odd one or
two mosquitoes that do find their
way into my bedroom at night,
when A. albopictus is not active,
seem to be able to feed on me
without leaving a trace. This
morning I woke up with an itch
behind my left knee. So some
have already evolved to feed
on me without me noticing,
or at least without me noticing
enough to try and swat them.
Terence Hollingworth
Blagnac, France
QYour correspondent has
confused bites and stings. A sting
usually refers to a toxin injected
into a host by a specialised organ,
the organ itself or the resulting
sensation, whereas a bite is
performed by mouthparts.
Moreover, “bite” isn’t the
best way to describe mosquitoes’
behaviour, as it implies the action
of toothed jaws. Mosquitoes don’t
sting; rather, they pierce their
long mouthparts (proboscis)
through the host’s skin. The
proboscis comprises two tubes:
answers to The Last Word, New Scientist,
25 Bedford Street, London, WC2E 9ES.
New Scientist Ltd retains
total editorial control over the
published content and reserves all
rights to reuse question and answer
material that has been submitted by
readers in any medium or in any format
and at any time in the future. All
unanswered questions and previous
questions and answers are at
newscientist.com/lastword/
Last words past and present at newscientist.com/lastword
one to suck up blood, the other
to inject saliva. Only female
mosquitoes bite, because they
require protein from blood for
egg production.
Nonetheless, female
mosquitoes are likely to have
undergone selection for an
unnoticeable bite, as your
correspondent supposes. As well
as anticoagulants, mosquitoes
do inject mild painkillers into
the host via their saliva.
Sam Buckton
Chipperfield, Hertfordshire, UK
Heated debate
In your article about housework
(“Germ Warfare”, 14 January 2017),
you said that after washing dishes
we should “rinse with plenty of water,
preferably hot”. Why hot? Wouldn’t it
save money if they were rinsed with
the cold water that comes directly
from the mains?
QWhile washing-up liquids come
in various fragrances – lemon for
instance – that might flavour a
sauce, unless you relish the taste
of even unscented detergent then
it is best to rinse. “Preferably hot”
does imply that using cold water
remains an option, but there is
one big downside to cold – and it
is personal. Water straight from
the mains can be icy cold and
prolonged contact with it can
be painful.
So hot water is more
comfortable. Second, it is less
viscous, and more readily runs
from the tap and off the dishes
with the soapy suds. It also
happens to be less dense, so you
might even use less water and
save money this way.
Third, although dish detergents
work by binding with both water
and grease to form a soluble
emulsion, the emulsion still
behaves much like its
components. Like the neat
detergent, it is more viscous and
less soluble in cold water. And like
the plain fat, it can congeal when
cooled – especially with fats that
are solid at room temperature.
Rinse with cold, therefore, and
your freshly cleaned dishes could
end up retaining an invisible film
of grease, or the cold conjugate
could start congealing to gum up
the waste pipe.
Finally, hot water warms the
dishes, encouraging any residual
moisture to evaporate and dry
off more quickly. The precise
temperature at which these
effects start to make a difference
isn’t clear. Just don’t expect me to
do the research – it would be like
watching plates dry.
Len Winokur
Leeds, UK
This week’s question
HOT SAUCE
Why is there no insulation for
saucepans? Or around kitchen
sinks or bathtubs? Is it difficult
and expensive, or just a lazy
tradition inherited from wasteful
innocent times?
Peter Gleeson
Axedale, Victoria, Australia