Sex Consciousness Ageing Genesis Evolution Aliens Intelligence Sleep... THE 10 BIGGEST MYSTERIES OF LIFE ae em YD RR LUM A LTA iN MLASars Sort rennet fevntgnani Sesto een ao towne writ mree ection ‘age ne eres Wecacanemtoet Stem swiss ‘Sask are chaste Opes wn enact Pa NewScientist q 7 7 3 Havethe aliens made contac? 6 NEWS EDITORIAL ‘What should we make ofthelatest signal foundby searchesforalienlie? 3 ‘UPFRONT USadmitscauseof global waming; 2bilion people fcelifewithout toilet thwarting the mise threat; FBltargets ie sharng; bureauragy pals bia fustudy 4 THIS WEEK Unexplained signal rom outerspace 6 Ertatorestialsshouldnotuseradlo 7 Theeiet that really works 8 Phosphorus ame fom on meteorites: 9 Whyte aninaboreptingresess 0 Anglers threaten raefish Theotseseenpnbowing Morethan onewaytolNvelonger 12 BREF ‘Wihy coastlines are facta; how tcl an nvdous sheep fl-body scans "asad asA-bomb";marmoset dads on'tlustater strangers B Plants dimbedto evolutionary succes fst planet found by tiny telescopes; tooyoung in get ona bike? friendly bugs dor'tward off thrush 14 TECHNOLOGY USplans mobile nudearreator Pia able football against a robot TheViual iflend game Bentultasound sharpens scans Irwenton: IBM targets instantspam ‘TRENDS: HOLIDAYS IN SPACE “Asttopreneus" ar already making plansforhotesin Earth orbit FEATURES ‘THE MYSTERIES OF UFE ‘Thetd biggest questonsof the living word, andthe best answers thatwehave today HARVESTING HEAT Convert the waste heat fom your ‘aor computor into fe eectrty HALF THE UNIVERSES MISSING How come altheantimatter vanished afer the bigbang, ‘and weareher instead? ‘if you buy a film on DVD, copyright owners could charge every time itis played ona machine that isn’t yours" Coprightisgring wrong, pages w 8 8 9 » 36 ONTHECOER Theto biggest mysteries oe, page Fist contac? pages Partclthat saved tho univers, page 36 Nas. te) REGULARS (COMMENT AND ANALYSIS Technology ging copyright owners thepower ‘we play mt verrens tocontolwhen and where wscandwatchflins 15 Sports cheatsandthe sities; saving Drimates; hatin do aboutSeraat 22 (WTERVIEW Jamie Wyte swagingwaron sloppy thinking, logical exo, fallades and muddles. He doesnt arewho Ison therecshing end, bti'sOK, he's paid-up philosopher cy PounKs Westinst er cary Tam Dall on dealing with dangerous wre, and thelinkbetveendiugsandjewels 4 ENIGMA HISTORIES 8 When Richard Carrington sow bright ‘white escent erupting fom the sun on September 859, he was witnessing thestartofthepeectslartorm Wu BooKS Intriguing evolution; how to build beautiful a singularspace opera; taking the genome apart; digital futures. Plus: paperbacks 46 FEEDBAGC 56 THE LAST WORD 5 08s 48 ' sepenber204| Neseos iteennaten ‘Shes Somers = Sanco ‘eee, {thao ita Foesnoeincae terete Sst ‘eet 20 Sioa, Fennel om me Soyo ‘ena oe vn enact a Alien attraction The search for extraterrestrial intelligence just gota lotmore exciting MENTION the search forextraterrestrial Intelligence and you canbesure of ‘mixed reaction. “The cynic will argue that we have beter things to do with our time that look forlitue ‘green men who probably donot exist. A SETI ‘enthusiast willeounter thatthe prize is too profound forus not to ty. The discovery of aliens ould revolutionise our understanding ‘ofevolution and religion. (It might even finally help us toanswer the question” what is Life?” see page 24)-The pragmatist will argue thatthe aliens aresofaraway that for usto pickup ‘anythingatall they would haveto transmit “directly atus, atthe very time when we are Jookingat them, othe chances of success are slim indeed. An optimist will say that whileit ‘may be along shot, tight just work. Sohow should we regard the news that the vast radio dish at Arecibo in Puerto Rico ‘has ound signal thatdefies conventional ‘explanation~not once but three times (see page 6)? One thing iscertain:itistooearly ‘osay that ETiscalling llwe know forsure isthat the signal doesnot it the profile of any. known astronomical object We have not watched tlong enough toknow fits anything other than random noise and there {sstila faint possibilty thatitisan artelact of the Arecibo dish itself. Ofcourse, ie may. ‘eventually join that other great SETI celebrity, the" Wow” signalof1977, asanintractable mystery. Another possibility is thatthe signal ‘could befroma previously unknown kind of astronomical object: that would not beas ‘exciting as extraterrestrial fe, but still fascinating ‘Whatever the anomalous signal turns out tobe, finding it isa significant achievement. Astronomer Paul Horowitz of Harvard ‘University says that only two orthree other ‘events in he past 30 years have piqued his ‘curiosity as much. There salsoa group of people who willbe particularly eager for more Information. The signal was spotted by the SETI@home project, which exploits fee time ‘onthe home and officecomputers of more ‘than 5 million volunteers toanalyserecordings from Arecibo. This isthe first noteworthy discovery in the six-year history of SETI@home and may tum out tobe the best certainly the most public-advertisement yet forthe value of distributed computing Oneof hemos frequent reasons given by people who participate inSETI@homeisa desire to joininscience’s quest toadvance human understanding. Today, peoplecan use ‘theircomputers free time not only to search foraliens butalsotodesiga drugs calculate protelnstructures and detect gravity waves ‘This atest discovery can only increase the number who want take part. Forthis reason itnoother, the discovery isa welcome ‘development. © Is Bush warming to global warming? ‘THE mood music has certainly changed. Arepor for the US Congress describingthe ‘activities and plans for the national Climate ‘Change clence Program (www.climatesclence, {gov statesin clear terms that increases in {lobal temperature ver the past 50 yearsare "unlikely tbe due only to natural climate variations’ Andit lays the blame forsomeof ‘the warming on greenhouse gases see page.) Untilnov, the Bush administration ‘as gone out ofits way to dstanceltselffrom, ‘statements about human-induced climate ‘change, President Bush dismissed 2002 report by the State Department which predicted dire consequences from global ‘warming, saying ithad been “patout by the bureaucracy”. The same year, the Environmental Protection Agency dropped. global warming completely from its annual report onairpollution But the latest report {sendorsed by none other than Donald Evans ‘and Spencer Abraham, the secretaries of ‘commerce and energy respectively, and by John Marburger, Bush's science adviser. ‘Sohas there beena changein policy? ‘The Bush administration hasnever denied the ‘existence of global warming. Rather, thas “argued that we do not know enough about the ‘causes to set sensible policy. The admission that humans have something todo with ‘driving climate change seems ikea significant shift. But until theadministration creates legally binding rules tocurb greenhouse gas ‘emissions, such changes meaningless. © ‘september 206 andesCloning the dead? INAbizarreexperimentbacked bybereaved relatives, cells from dnd chikren anda dead man awe beencloned by using them with coweaas stripped of their DNA. ‘onvof the resultingembryss grew to the 6ycell stage, Panos Zavos of the Andrology Institute of America claimed: London on “Tuesday. Studying te hybrid embryos willhelp pave the way foreratingconed babies using hhuman eggs, Zavossays Cows lave been cloned from “This man preys on the strong desires of the most vulnerable, giving false hope” ‘wo-day-old hunks ofbeef sot ight be possible toclone people using cells from corpses, Several {groups have aleacreated cloned embryos by fusing human cells ‘with empty animal eggs, the first n9g6. But noneofthismeans that other scientists accept Zavos's claims." This man preysonthe strong desires ofthe most vulnerable, giving them false hopes,” says Robin Lovell-Badge ofthe UK's National Institute for Medical Research “He should ‘escent Septanber008 publish his research to provehe Isnotacharlatan” ‘Allpastattempts tocreate hybridcloned embryoshave been aimedatderiving embryonic stem cells, notreating cloned. babies. And sofarall those attempts havefailed, because the embryos do not develop very fur Noonehas published credible proof that stem cells can be Gerived this way (New Scientist 23 August 2003, 4) Poo furore stalls bird flu study ARE migratory birdshelping to spread the HsNibird flu devastating east sian poultry ‘locks? And could they cary tas Jaras Australia? Astudy tofind outby analysing droppings from the migratory birdsthat return to ‘Queensland’s Heron Islandeach summer could be delayed fora ‘yearby bureaucratic wrangling. ‘Renowned flu expert Graeme Laver, formerly of the Australian National University, planned to Having to get ethical approval is ridiculous, all we want to dois collect bird poo” CLEAN UP, SAVE LIVES, CASH IN Within 4 hours of your eaing this, ‘4000 cildrenvl de through fc of cas otal of safe drinking water, Butthore ia glimmer of hope. Invesirment in safe drinking water and sanitation tins tao tobe a drain on resourxs but nef the atest ways for poor aunty to energseits economy, ‘ys the World Heats Orgoization, ‘On26 August the WHO and UNE the UN dien'sorganisation, published theiratestupdateon global fers to rovidesafemater fora. "Haf the population on the planet now have ped waterathome, and that's pretty Inpresiva” says aie Bartram, ‘wordinator of the WHYS water antation and heath progamme. Te organisations goal providing safe dking water for almost al by 20 is eset on couse, collect fresh droppings using rho more thana plastic sheet. This week he recelveda perralt from the Queensland Parks and ‘Wildlifeservice, only tobe toldby the Queensland Department of Primary Industries land Fisheries that he will be able for prosecution unless begets approval from the department’sanimal ethics committee, which could take months. “Isridiculous, all we ‘want todos collect bird poo,” says Laver. He claimstheauthorities fear finding HN‘ will eter tourists, whllethey ay they are ‘merely following the rules How est Butsaritation ia diferent matter. ven i theWHO' goals or 20a met, lost? ilo people lst be ‘without acest 2 line. Govemments should see improving sanitation as anopportnity rather thana milstone, Barvam sys Areportcommisoned by ‘the WO ear his year alate that forever dllor vested in inprodng sanitation, theres agin of between $3and $4, That's becuse counties wil be spending far les money on wasted labour anon treating sanitation relied inese. Walking long distances find dean water, for example, casts 40 bllon orkhours ayer in Afi alone. “testis tremendous motor fr apd improvernent we sould be uneasing. Whe you put money, it multiplies ct,” Bartram ay. Hepatitis E strikes CASES ofhepatitis Eappeurto have tripled nfess than month inthe troubled Darfur gion of Sadan, Butitisunclear whether thehikesdueto the virus thriving incontaminated water fndfoodin refugee camp, or because of improved monitoring. he World ath Organization reportsr788casesofthedsease Uptoz2 August including 36