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New Scientist, No. 3326 (2021-03-20)
New Scientist, No. 3326 (2021-03-20)
HOW TO THINK
YOURSELF YOUNGER
Psychological tricks to slow the course of aging
News Features
8 Delayed second dose? 36 Don’t act your age!
Countries disagree over News How to think yourself younger
coronavirus vaccine regimens with the right state of mind
Views
The back pages
23 Comment
Jeff Ollerton on the role of 51 Stargazing at home
pollinators for climate change What makes an equinox?
30 Culture 56 Feedback
The explosive story Concrete lunacy and more
of SpaceX’s early days 18 High life Flooding has forced some jaguars to live in trees for months nominative determinism
Podcasts Podcast
Weekly
The team find out how little we
know about reality; why cold-water
swimming is good for us; and
discover a sea slug with a penchant
for chopping off its own head.
GARY YEOWELL/GETTY IMAGES
Escape Pod
A dose of escapism via your ears.
This week, it is the battle of the
moons of the solar system, from
Europa to Titan. The team duke
it out to find which is the best.
newscientist.com/podcasts A quick dip Is cold-water swimming really a health tonic?
Newsletter
Newsletter
Launchpad
Get reporter Leah Crane’s weekly
round-up of what’s hot in space
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The leader
ESTABLISHING a good degree of pandemic fails to find value in things of real worth Carney is at the centre of efforts
resilience would have cost less than the to all of us, things that create long-term to remedy that in the run-up to the
economic output lost in just a single prosperity: resilience, sustainability and crucial COP26 climate talks in the UK this
day of the covid-19 crisis. That missed equality of opportunity among them. November. Central to it all is the thing that
opportunity is one indictment of market Failure to invest in pandemic controls oils all efficient markets: information.
failings among many that former Bank before covid-19 is one example of this Establishing reporting requirements,
of Canada and Bank of England governor “crisis of value”. The growing climate for example, that make it clear how firms’
Mark Carney advances in our interview and environmental crisis is another. investment strategies fit with net-zero
with him this week (see page 44). might not sound heroic, but it would allow
Another, perhaps the most troubling, “We are in thrall to a dangerous everyone to make investment decisions
is the inability of markets to value the market fundamentalism that based on their own, and society’s, values.
natural world. How is it that we can put a fails to value the things we do” Carney found himself embroiled
value on Amazon, the company, yet only in controversy last month over the
ascribe value to the Amazon rainforest The technological solutions we need to definition of net-zero investments used
by logging it and stripping it bare? reach net-zero carbon emissions by mid- by the financial company he now works
Carney’s critiques are worth listening century largely already exist. With a new for. However, that only underscores the
to. He has sat at the top table of global US administration in place, the political difficulty, and importance, of what is
capitalism for the past decade and a half. momentum for change is gathering, too. needed: robust action to rework markets
We have become in thrall, he says, to a Aligning market values with our values in to ensure they are transparently working
dangerous market fundamentalism that the climate fight is now the missing piece. for the benefit of us all. ❚
6)
ONLINE EVENT
MICHIO KAKU
THE QUEST
FOR THE THEORY
OF EVERYTHING
Thursday 29 April 2021 6 -7pm BST, 1-2pm EDT and on-demand
The greatest quest in all of science is the search for an
equation, perhaps no more than one inch long, which can
unify all the laws of the universe, and perhaps allow us to
“read the Mind of God,” in the words of Albert Einstein.
MICHIO KAKU
News
A nurse holds a
vial containing the
AstraZeneca vaccine
REUTERS/MARCO BELLO
to increase the time between roll out about 2 million vaccines
covid-19 vaccine doses has been a day, it is being limited by vaccine
thrust back under the spotlight supply, said Nancy Messonnier,
after the US hasn’t followed suit, director of the National Center
amid warnings that the strategy for Immunization and Respiratory
may backfire. However, the UK Diseases (NCIRD), at a JAMA
is no longer alone in its decision, Network webinar on 26 February.
with Canada and Germany both “You see op-eds and talking
choosing to follow a similar plan. heads on TV news programmes
In December, the UK made saying we should be doing what
the surprise decision to lengthen the Brits are doing,” says John
the interval between doses of Moore at Weill Cornell Medicine
the Oxford/AstraZeneca and in New York. But the US won’t
Pfizer/BioNTech vaccines from be changing course, he says.
the recommended three
or four weeks to 12 weeks. “There are talking heads
The rationale was that this on the news saying the US
would maximise the impact should do what the Brits
of limited supplies of the vaccine. are doing – but we won’t”
By allowing twice as many people
to be given a first dose, it would On 1 March, the US Centers for
theoretically produce broader Disease Control and Prevention
levels of protection across the held an online meeting of its
population. own immunisation advisory
The decision was based body, which discussed, among
on recommendations from a other things, the evidence
government advisory body, the for and against extending the
Joint Committee on Vaccination interval between doses of the
and Immunisation (JCVI), which mRNA vaccines made by Pfizer/ A healthcare worker gives “I completely agree with that,”
calculated that the level of BioNTech and Moderna – both a coronavirus vaccine to a says Moore, who recently wrote
protection from the first dose was approved in the US. It came down woman in Miami, Florida an article in the journal JAMA
quite high and that a 12-week gap in favour of sticking with the specifying the arguments
would save 3000 to 4000 more recommended interval, which is against a longer interval.
lives per million doses of vaccine. three weeks for Pfizer/BioNTech He detailed the fact that, even
The strategy appears to be and four weeks for Moderna, and though a single dose of vaccine
working, with early results from no more than six weeks for either. is protective against the original
the UK’s vaccination programme At the meeting, Kathleen SARS-CoV-2 virus, it is less so
described as “spectacular”. One Dooling at NCIRD laid out the against some of the new variants.
study of the entire population pros and cons of delaying a Of particular concern are the
of Scotland found that by the second dose. On the upside, variants that were first reported
fifth week after a first dose, the it could, in theory, protect more in South Africa (named B.1.351)
Oxford/AstraZeneca jab reduced people in the short term, she said. and Brazil (P.1). Both carry a spike
the risk of hospitalisation by But on the downside, it could leave protein mutation called E484K,
94 per cent and the Pfizer/ people vulnerable to the new which makes them somewhat
BioNTech vaccine by 85 per cent. variants and increase the risk resistant to vaccine-induced
A similar study in Israel of yet more variants emerging. antibodies, especially at lower
found that the first dose of
the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine was
78 per cent effective at preventing
In addition, the strength and
duration of protection from a
single dose remain uncertain.
94%
Decrease in risk of hospitalisation
antibody concentrations.
“You are going to need the
strongest possible antibody
hospitalisation after 21 days. On balance, she said, there was due to covid-19 in Scotland response to deal with them,”
There is growing clamour in “insufficient data to increase five weeks after a single dose says Moore, and that means giving
the US to pivot to the UK model. the recommended interval”. of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine the second dose to schedule.
One dose of
vaccine may be
enough for some
Clare Wilson
selection pressure on the virus coming from people who have A SINGLE dose of a coronavirus
to evolve. This hasn’t yet been been infected. Currently there vaccine may be all that is needed
observed, but needs to be are many, many millions more for people who have already
considered, says Moore. of them worldwide than there are been infected with covid-19.
John Robertson at the people who have been vaccinated. A small study suggests that
University of Nottingham, UK, So one could argue that the in people receiving the Pfizer/
agrees. Writing in The Lancet, he sooner everyone has at least BioNTech vaccine, the body’s
says: “the UK’s delayed second one shot of the vaccine, the better.” response to natural infection
dose could strongly favour the (For more on the effectiveness with SARS-CoV-2 seems to act
emergence of consequential of a single dose, see right.) like a first dose of the vaccine.
SARS-CoV-2 variants.” This risks She also points to the research Mark Mulligan at New York
perpetuating rather than ending from Scotland suggesting that University and his colleagues
the pandemic, he says. “Why the UK vaccine programme is tracked antibody levels in
make a short-term decision that working. “I think the data from 32 people who were given both
could have really bad long-term across the UK are supporting the doses of the vaccine, and one
consequences?” says Moore. rapid roll out of single doses as person who had both doses of
The UK strategy still has its the fastest way to reduce deaths.” the Moderna jab. About half had
supporters. Immunologist The JCVI is also sticking to its previously contracted covid-19.
Eleanor Riley at the University guns. “Data to date demonstrates About two weeks after a first
of Edinburgh, UK, was a vocal one dose of either Pfizer or dose, people who had recovered
proponent of the decision. AstraZeneca vaccines are giving from covid-19 had antibody
“I have not yet seen any data that high levels of protection against levels similar to or higher than
would persuade me that JCVI severe disease – hospitalisations those of people who had never
should change tack,” she says. and deaths. So currently [we have] been infected but had received
She points out that a single dose no plans to change our advice both doses. The results were
of either of the vaccines approved about delaying the second dose for announced on 9 March online
in the UK provokes an antibody up to 12 weeks,” says JCVI deputy at the Conference on Retroviruses
response at least as strong as chairman Anthony Harnden at and Opportunistic Infections.
that induced by natural infection. the University of Oxford. A separate study of 109
Experiments in the lab “Many previously infected people Meanwhile, on 3 March, people in New York who had
show that a single dose of mRNA have weak antibody responses. Canada’s National Advisory received either the Pfizer/
vaccine isn’t enough to stop So, currently, the greatest selection Committee on Immunization BioNTech or the Moderna
these variants from replicating pressure from suboptimal recommended that the interval vaccine revealed similar findings.
almost unimpeded, he says. antibody responses is likely between the first and second Alongside antibodies, other
“They just blow past it.” doses of all three two-dose aspects of the immune response
“If they start spreading, you’re Reminder cards in the UK vaccines approved for use in the may still be improved by two
in trouble,” says Moore. B.1.351 and tell people the date of country should be stretched to doses, such as T-cell activity,
P.1 are already present in the UK, their second vaccine shot a maximum of four months. says Stephen Evans at the London
and the E484K mutation has also The committee acknowledged School of Hygiene & Tropical
been spotted in the B.1.1.7 variant, in a statement that data didn’t Medicine. “If you’re offered two
first discovered in the UK, exist for four months of doses, I would take them even
which hasn’t so far been found effectiveness after just one dose, if I thought I had been infected,
to be resistant to vaccines. but said “the first two months because it would probably
Another argument against of real-world effectiveness are boost my overall response and
longer delay is that people showing sustained high levels it might make me more likely
who are part-vaccinated are of protection”. to respond to a variant,” he says.
a potential breeding ground Germany has also opted to The US Centers For Disease
CHRIS JACKSON/GETTY IMAGES
for yet more variants, says Moore. recommend an extended interval Control and Prevention hasn’t
A strong antibody response of six and 12 weeks between the changed its guidance, which is
should stop the virus in its tracks, Pfizer/BioNTech and Oxford/ that people with a confirmed,
while zero antibody response AstraZeneca doses, respectively. recent acute covid-19 infection
allows it to replicate with ease. Only time will tell which is may choose to temporarily
But a half-hearted one would put the right strategy, says Moore. ❚ delay vaccination, if desired. ❚
the weather is getting warmer B.1.1.7 (UK variant) weeks. The vaccination rates in
in the northern hemisphere B.1.351 (South African variant) most of Europe are far lower, and
and there is a gradual build-up 150,000 will be further slowed now the
P.1 (Brazilian variant)
of population immunity. use of the Oxford/AstraZeneca
The B.1.1.7 variant already 100,000 vaccine has been suspended in
contributed to a big second wave several countries (see page 7).
of cases in the UK in December, 50,000 In most of the rest of the world,
forcing the UK government to vaccination has barely begun
impose a strict lockdown in and little is known about the
0
England in January. At the start Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar prevalence of variants, making it
of this wave, the B.1.1.7 variant 2020 2021 difficult to predict future trends. ❚
New Scientist
Escape Pod
Hello and welcome to the Escape Pod. Your flight will Rowan
last about 15 minutes and we expect no turbulence, Hooper
8
Yellow-bellied marmots can
studied the possibility of putting
people into stasis for NASA. “This
delayed ageing with hibernation
says Hrvatin. We need to explore
whether inducing hibernation
in animals that don’t usually
says Williams. “We are looking at
a real signature of [this] process.”
The team found that the
hibernate for this many months would be critical,” he says. do it extends lifespan, he says. Greenland rocks contained
“Identifying any mechanisms in “It is an amazing study,” iron-rich minerals that hold a
marmots, there is a striking animals that could be delaying says Christopher Turbill at history of repeated crystallisation
cyclical pattern, says Pinho, ageing in low metabolic Western Sydney University in from magma oceans beginning as
with most changes occurring in conditions is obviously needed Australia, who has shown that early as 4.1 billion years ago. Some
summer when the animals are in order to understand how hibernation slows another of the minerals may have formed
active (bioRxiv, doi.org/fz6d). this may translate to humans.” sign of ageing, the shortening at least 700 kilometres below
The finding suggests that Hibernating animals do of the protective telomeres at Earth’s surface (Science Advances,
the ageing process slows during tend to live longer than other the ends of our chromosomes. doi.org/f2jg).
hibernation, and Pinho thinks similarly sized animals, says A correlation between winter Although this is the earliest
this is likely to be true for all Bradford, but this could just and rate of ageing doesn’t show evidence of these magma oceans,
animals that hibernate. “When be because they are less likely that hibernation is the key the team is confident that they
I first saw this, I was like, ‘Wow, to be caught by predators or be factor, says Turbill. However, existed before this. But Williams
what we suspected is actually exposed to harsh conditions. when combined with his work, says it is difficult to find ancient
happening’,” she says. “The finding that certain it adds weight to the idea that rocks from Earth’s earliest days
The results could help us ageing-related epigenetic hibernation is responsible. ❚ that would preserve this evidence. ❚
Saint Petersburg:
The history of Russian science
Explore the history of Russian science, from collection dating back to 1716 when it
Peter the Great's visionary creation of the was started by Peter the Great.
Russian Academy of Sciences in 1755, through
the fraught years of Soviet transformation, to a - Enjoy a short drive out of the city to visit the
present-day dominated by thoughts of space Pulkovo Observatory, built in 1839, destroyed
exploration and settlement. Led by art and during the Second World War then rebuilt.
architecture expert Andrew Spira with Simon
- Visit the all-Russian Research Institute of
Ings, author of Stalin and the Scientists, and
Plant Industry where Vavilov changed the face
New Scientist writer.
of agricultural science and genetics.
Visit museums, cathedrals and sites
made famous by the likes of Pavlov, Vavilov, - Discover the Vasilyevsky Island, the home of
Dokuchaev and Mendeleev. Discover the often the Geological Museum F.N. Chernyshev. The
overlooked achievements of Russian scientists, second largest geology museum in the world.
who did pioneering research on extending
human lifespan and explored the effect of living - Travel to town of Pushkin, a former imperial
matter on rocks and minerals while building a residence and town for the elite. Here you will
model of the evolution of the biosphere. As well visit the stunning Catherine Palace, the
as showing how Darwin’s theory of natural summer residence of the Russian Tsars.
selection could be reconciled with the findings
- Tour the Tsarskoselskaya Amber Workshop,
of genetics.
one of the biggest scientific-restoration
centres in Europe.
REMAINS buried in two mass French-Breton war, which was National University in Canberra, differs depending on precipitation
graves in the same cemetery in triggered by a succession dispute. who wasn’t involved in the study. levels. And one kind of sulphur
France have been identified as The war ended with several Using stable isotope analysis of isotope varies with distance
medieval soldiers belonging to treaties, and the Breton duchess teeth and bones, the researchers inland. “The ocean has got a
opposing armies. Anne of Brittany married King were able to determine where the particular sulphur isotope
Rozenn Colleter at the French Charles VIII of France in 1491, a soldiers probably spent their concentration, and so if you’re
National Institute for Preventive crucial step towards the formation childhood and last years of life. by the coast, there’s kind of a sea
Archaeological Research and her of the modern state of France. Carbon and nitrogen isotopes spray effect,” says Wood.
colleagues have identified the “It’s a really nice use of the shed clues on people’s diet, such Oxygen, strontium and sulphur
skeletons as belonging to soldiers archaeological techniques to shine as whether they were eating isotopes from the soldiers in the
who fought in the Siege of Rennes a light on a historic event,” says marine or terrestrial foods, says smaller grave, which contained
in 1491. The skeletons were found Rachel Wood at the Australian Wood, while strontium isotopes four skeletons, suggested that they
buried in a cemetery outside the indicate the underlying geology probably grew up in Brittany or
Jacobin Convent in Rennes. A large grave in Rennes of a region. returned to the region within the
The researchers identified probably contains soldiers Oxygen isotopes can reveal the last few years of their life, making
the skeletons by combining from the French Royal army type of water people drank, which it likely they were soldiers allied
historical information with to Anne of Brittany. In the larger
archaeological techniques, grave, which contained at least
including genetic analysis. They 28 skeletons, analysis pointed to
found that each skeleton was male origins in the French kingdom,
and older than 15, with traumatic suggesting they were members
injuries including unhealed of the French Royal army (bioRxiv,
wounds to the skulls and upper doi.org/f2m4).
limbs. This pointed to a burial Despite being from opposing
of soldiers. armies, the two graves were in
Radiocarbon dating placed close proximity to each other. The
the graves somewhere between researchers note the presence of a
the middle of the 15th century rosary and three sets of pearls,
and the end of the 16th century. pointing to a more careful burial,
COLLETER ET AL.
Astronomy
Alien rocks regularly are moving faster than the escape 1 astronomical unit (the Earth-sun cent, or three objects per century –
velocity of our solar system. distance) of the sun every year. could have velocities of more
whip through the Stars like our sun are expected The researchers estimated this by than 530 kilometres per
solar system to eject trillions of such objects from calculating the expected velocities second, meaning they originated
their star system in their lifetimes. of interstellar visitors and working from outside our galaxy’s disc,
AN AVERAGE of seven interstellar Astronomer Marshall Eubanks out how long they should remain in perhaps even from another galaxy
objects pass by the sun every year, at the company Space Initiatives our solar system. They found that (arxiv.org/abs/2103.03289).
potentially close enough for us to and his colleagues used data on the large majority should travel up Some of these interstellar objects
observe and even visit, according the motion and velocity of nearby to 100 kilometres per second, could be potential targets for remote
to a new analysis. Some of these stars from the Gaia telescope of the indicating they originate from observations or even visits by future
could even be from another galaxy. European Space Agency (ESA) to the main plane of the Milky Way. spacecraft, like ESA’s Comet
To date, two objects from other estimate how many of them might But a small portion – 0.03 per Interceptor mission. “We will never
planetary systems have been found end up in our neighbourhood. in our children’s, children’s, children’s
in our solar system: ‘Oumuamua They found that an average of “A small portion of lifetimes send a probe to another
in 2017 and the comet Borisov in 6.9 interstellar objects around the interstellar objects – three galaxy,” says Eubanks. “In this case,
2019. We know these objects are size of ‘Oumuamua – at least 100 per century – could come it might just fall into our lap.” ❚
interstellar in origin because they metres across – should pass within from outside our galaxy” Jonathan O’Callaghan
Electric catfish
can’t be stunned
One side of Earth’s interior
and it isn’t clear why is losing more heat
Cameron Duke Michael Marshall
OUR ancestors’ diets changed In a second study, published Parts of it do fit the evidence, WHEN using virtual reality, the
dramatically over the course of in February, Ben-Dor and Barkai she says. For instance, discrepancy between what you see
the past 2.5 million years, and argue that early humans like Australopithecus seems to and what your inner ear tells you is
one research team thinks that Homo erectus were mostly have had big guts, similar to happening can provoke a form of
this shift profoundly affected hunting very large animals like plant-eating gorillas, while nausea known as cybersickness. AI
our evolution. elephants. This, they say, only there is evidence that early that adapts VR scenes to match the
According to a team including required simple spears. Homo species ate more meat. motion of the head more accurately
Miki Ben-Dor and Ran Barkai “You probably need more But Nelson isn’t convinced can reduce this.
at Tel Aviv University in Israel, courage to hunt an elephant that H. erectus was regularly Most VR technology uses three
hominin diets were once than to hunt a zebra, but it’s hunting the largest animals. degrees of movement. What you see
so dominated by meat from less complex,” says Ben-Dor. changes when you tilt, nod or rotate
massive animals that the
hunters caused some of those
species to go extinct.
However, he points to a
2019 study that found that the
populations of such megafauna
50,000
Time in years since our
your head. However, it doesn’t take
into account translational motion –
that is, forwards and backwards
This, in turn, forced our were declining in east Africa, species may have begun as when walking, up and down as
ancestors to develop more beginning 4.5 million years eating less meat when crouching or standing up, and
sophisticated hunting methods ago. He argues that hunting by side-to-side when sidestepping.
to bring down smaller, more hominins contributed to that “Going after big game like Walk around while watching a
elusive prey, leading to greater decrease. As the largest animals that implies a significant level 3D video in a VR headset that was
intelligence and the evolution became rarer, hominins had to of cooperation and coordination filmed from a static point and you
of modern humans. hunt smaller, nimbler animals. and planning,” she says, even if may succumb to cybersickness as
“The key idea is that just That required better technology, it doesn’t need complex tools. it won’t reflect all your movement.
one ecological driver drove such as bows and arrows, and Nelson also questions Researchers at UK firm Kagenova
all of human evolution,” says necessitated the evolution whether the sequence of events have created a system that reacts
Ben-Dor. “The one driver is of greater intelligence lines up with the hypothesis. to these additional degrees of
the decline in prey size.” (Quaternary, doi.org/fzb9). Most of the megafauna freedom, and a study has shown
Humans – members of It’s “an interesting extinctions happened within that it reduces VR-induced nausea.
the Homo genus – appeared hypothesis”, says Sherry Nelson the past 25,000 years, well after Kagenova’s software uses AI to
roughly 2.8 million years ago, at the University of New Mexico. H. erectus itself had become slightly alter images from 3D videos
eventually replacing the more extinct. By 25,000 years ago, to take account of movement from
ape-like Australopithecus Did hunting change our species had long since one spot to another. The software
hominins that lived in Africa our evolutionary evolved big brains. “That can adapt existing images so no
prior to that time. trajectory? doesn’t really fit,” she says. ❚ new technology is required to
Ben-Dor and his colleagues record footage, and it can work
compiled evidence on what with any VR headset.
these early hominins ate. To see how well the new
This included traces of foods approach worked, Elisa Ferrè and
preserved on teeth, animal her colleagues at Royal Holloway
bones with cut marks University of London ran tests to
suggesting butchery and compare a standard VR set-up with
chemical analyses of preserved one using Kagenova’s software. The
hominin protein. team got 25 people to use HTC Vive
They concluded that headsets to view 3D footage of a
Australopithecus ate mostly beach using both set-ups. The
plants. However, early Homo participants reported 33 per cent
species ate more meat. When less nausea when experiencing
our species, Homo sapiens, first VR with six degrees of freedom
SHUTTERSTOCK/GORODENKOFF
Technology
Robots raise wages 10,000 workers increased, on reduced the gender pay gap by “Governments should force
average, by 47 per cent between around 2 per cent, so robots have companies to be more transparent
for all but increase 2006 and 2014. On average, a had a much larger effect. when it comes to their pay schemes,
the gender pay gap 10 per cent rise in robot workers The widening of the gender so we can see where discrepancies
in a country led to a 1.8 per cent pay gap was more pronounced in are coming from,” says Aksoy.
WHEN industries replace workers rise in the discrepancy in pay countries where gender inequality He thinks governments should
with robots, wages rise for all on between genders (European was already high and labour laws introduce coding and high-tech
average due to productivity gains, Economic Review, doi.org/fz6k). provide less support for women in skills to school curricula and provide
but the difference in pay for men Aksoy and his team say this is work. In countries where gender ongoing support for education
and women widens. because there are more men in inequality was low, automation among adults to help people train
Cevat Giray Aksoy at King’s medium- and high-skilled jobs, had no statistically significant for new careers when jobs are lost
College London and his colleagues and these roles disproportionately effect on the gender pay gap. to automation.
analysed the effects of automation benefit from automation. They say “But at the same time they
in 20 European countries using progress in recent decades to reduce “Progress in recent decades should make sure that the
data from the statistical office of the gender pay gap could be quickly to reduce the gender pay system and the labour market
the European Union. They found eroded by automation. On average, gap could be quickly is fair to everyone,” he says. ❚
that the number of robots per the introduction of minimum wages eroded by automation” Matthew Sparkes
THE UK government has failed to month in response to a freedom it was working to make the of colour as people not been
deploy an updated version of an of information request. experience of uploading a digital applied? Because the Home
“effectively racist” face analysis Since the service went live in photograph simple “for all of Office doesn’t prioritise [people
algorithm used for checking June 2016, some black users of our customers”. of colour].”
passport pictures, despite the service have reported being Noel Sharkey at the University Sam Smith of campaign group
knowing it works poorly for told their photo didn’t meet of Sheffield, UK, says the issue was MedConfidential, who unearthed
some black people. The improved requirements after it mistook lips shocking 18 months ago, but documents showing that the UK
version has been available for for an open mouth and suggested seems even worse now it has government knew about the
more than a year. people had their eyes closed when persisted for so long. “What I find software’s problems before
New Scientist revealed in they were open. The passport most alarming is that the software deployment, says: “Every day
2019 that the Home Office had office said in October 2019 that company produced a solution the Home Office doesn’t use the
deployed a face-detection system more than a year ago and it has improved software is another
for its passport photo-checking A passport checker used not been used. It leaves open the
service despite being aware it in the UK performs badly question as to why the Home “The software company
worked badly with very light on some skin tones Office is still using this effectively produced a solution
and very dark skin. racist algorithm.” more than a year ago
The passport office said in New Scientist understands the and it has not been used”
February 2020 it had talked to covid-19 pandemic has affected
the software’s vendor, which had work on updating the software. day that the Home Office actively
amended the tool, and it could Such bias in algorithms can chooses to run a service for British
be deployed after testing by the be introduced if they are trained citizens which discriminates
vendor and the Home Office. on an insufficiently diverse set based solely on the colour of
However, more than a year on, of data. their skin.”
the passport office confirmed it “Software tends to fail for A Home Office spokesperson
has still not applied the fix, leaving minority groups because the says: “We are determined to
VIOLETASTOIMENOVA/GETTY IMAGES
individuals from some ethnic people developing it, and the make the experience of
minorities facing obstacles to people incentivising and uploading a digital photograph
an essential service. authorising it in turn, do not as simple as possible, and
“Her Majesty’s Passport Office take the needs of those groups continue to work hard with
can confirm that we have not seriously,” says Os Keyes at the our supplier to identify ways
deployed the updated software,” University of Washington, Seattle. to improve this process for all
the agency told New Scientist this “Why has the patch to treat people of our customers.” ❚
Technology
A quantum trick answer more quickly when pitted specific state at a time, being robot has two options – it can go
against similar problems later on. rewarded when it made a correct left or it can go right,” says Saggio.
with photons gives Now Valeria Saggio at the guess. However, in the quantum “If the robot goes right, it does
AI a speed boost University of Vienna in Austria version of the experiment, the not receive a reward, but if it goes
and her colleagues have added a AI could put the photon in a left it receives a reward. At the
MACHINE learning, a process used quantum twist to accelerate this superposition of more than one next round, the probability of
to train artificial intelligence, can process. They set up an experiment state. This allowed it to narrow it going left will increase.”
take an extremely long time – but involving a photon moving through down the correct answer before That’s the classical version of
a quantum trick could massively a wave guide and ending up in one making a final, classical guess at the the experiment, but the quantum
speed things up for tasks involving of four possible states. They tasked goal state (Nature, doi.org/fz3v). version would allow it to go left
particles of light called photons. an AI with making sure the photon “Imagine you have a robot that and right simultaneously at each
In reinforcement learning, an ended up in one particular state, is standing at a crossroads, and the guess, requiring far fewer guesses
algorithm runs through the same and rewarded it for doing so. before it learns to always go left.
problem over and over again and is In the classical version of this “The quantum version This strategy sped up the learning
given a numerical reward only when experiment, without any added would allow the robot time of the AI by 63 per cent,
it reaches the correct answer. That quantum effects, the AI would only to go simultaneously left from 270 guesses to just 100. ❚
process teaches it to find the correct be able to move the photon to one and right at each guess” Leah Crane
Anthropology Health
groups – the youngest was about The people in this group were Biology, doi.org/fz53).
2 years old and the oldest about killed indiscriminately as there This could be especially useful
50. Radiocarbon dating of each were members of both sexes, for children, says Abrams, because
individual and layers of the mass all age groups and several they often struggle to explain the
grave indicate that they were families – as opposed to other level of pain they are experiencing.
killed and buried in 4200 BC. examples of massacres in The team believes that this
The researchers found that the prehistoric communities in method can be extended to other
burial site contained 21 males and the Copper Age. Karina Shah causes of pain. Krista Charles
gravity exerted by the smallest University of Vienna in Austria sphere, the least massive object
object yet tested – a 90-milligram and his colleagues have taken this whose gravity has been measured.
gold sphere. This could help us to the smallest extreme yet. They To measure these tiny effects,
understand how gravity fits used a specialised pendulum to the apparatus had to be extremely
together with quantum measure the gravitational field sensitive. The researchers shielded
mechanics on the smallest scales. of a tiny gold sphere with a radius it from electromagnetic forces
We know our understanding of of about 1 millimetre. using a Faraday cage and did the
More twins being gravity isn’t complete. It doesn’t They wiggled the gold sphere experiment in the middle of the
born now than ever explain how dark energy speeds back and forth by 1.6 millimetres night during the least seismically
up the expansion of the universe, while it was near a similar gold active time of year – around
The global rate of twin nor does it fit with quantum sphere attached to the pendulum. Christmas – in a vacuum (Nature,
births has risen, according mechanics, which describes The gravity of the first sphere doi.org/fz6h). Leah Crane
to data from 165 countries.
It shows there were 9 twin Archaeology Technology
births per 1000 births in
the 1980s, but 12 per
1000 today. Fertility Sensor warns you if
treatment may be a factor you’re sitting too still
as the hormones used to
promote production of eggs A SMALL sensor worn on the neck
can see two released at containing origami-like folded
J.A. SOLDEVILLA/UNIVERSITAT AUTÒNOMA DE BARCELONA
IBE YE
FO AR
R
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Comment
Y
OU would be forgiven for studying forest carbon dynamics
not knowing that there are use fine nets strung between
two large United Nations stakes to measure the “litter”
environmental events happening that falls from trees each year.
this year. The UN Climate Change The contribution of reproductive
Conference (COP 26) in Glasgow, litter, as opposed to leaves or
UK, is receiving a huge amount twigs, isn’t always calculated, but
of media attention; the UN when it is values of 10 to 20 per
Biodiversity Conference (COP 15) cent of the total litter are typical,
in Kunming, China, much less so. depending on the type of plant.
At least, outside New Scientist. We have limited understanding
This is a source of frustration to of what happens when this
us ecologists, but it is fairly typical: material enters the soil. A large
the climate emergency often number of seeds are stored in the
overshadows the ecological soil and they can be persistent,
emergency, even though the two and reproductive litter can be very
overlap both in their causes and woody compared with leaves, and
their solutions. thus their carbon storage capacity
Although ceasing the extraction may be greater.
of fossil fuels is a priority, if we are For these reasons, it is vital
going to reverse the effects of that we pay more attention to
climate change we need nature- international agreements, such
based solutions, built on as the Convention on Biological
conservation of biodiversity, to Diversity, and enact policies that
capture the carbon dioxide from safeguard pollinators, for example
the atmosphere. Pollinators are by banning harmful pesticides
crucial to this, but their numbers The best way to restore natural of sycamore seeds. All of these and creating larger protected
are declining, some species have habitats to help fight global contain a very high proportion of areas. This requires action now
gone extinct and others are warming is through natural carbon. Once they have fulfilled at all levels, from governments
critically endangered. regeneration from seeds, and their function, they fall to the to conservation groups, to create
Around 75 per cent of the for that we need pollinators. ground where they enter the soil and restore habitats in which
world’s main types of crops rely But this may not be the most as a source of locked-in carbon. pollinators can thrive.
on pollinators. Without them, our important role of pollinators in Soils are the world’s second- Drawing down carbon from the
diets and farmers would be poorer. relation to climate change; how most important carbon store, atmosphere and sequestering it
But their value in combating they affect soils may be more and much more important than requires multiple approaches;
climate change is often overlooked. critical. When a pollinator visits a the vegetation that they support. there is no single solution.
Almost 90 per cent of the 352,000 flower it sets in motion a chain of In fact, three-quarters of terrestrial Without pollinators as allies,
species of flowering plants are events that leads not just to seeds, carbon accumulates in soils. reversing the effects of climate
pollinated by insects and but also to a series of structures Only the oceans contain more change will be much harder. ❚
vertebrates such as birds and bats. that support plant reproduction. carbon by mass.
MICHELLE D’URBANO
As such, pollinators ensure the These include woody fruit casings How much carbon enters the Jeff Ollerton is at the University
continuation of plant populations that protect the developing soil thanks to the activities of of Northampton and author
that lock up carbon in their woody embryo, as well as dispersal pollinators? We have no idea as it of Pollinators & Pollination:
stems, roots, bulbs and tubers. structures such as the wings hasn’t been measured. Ecologists Nature and society
L
AST month, somebody Some are static images, but most One of the other top-selling
bought a 10-year-old are gifs of some kind. collectibles is a digital hipster
animated gif of a flying cat It is hard to explain why the version of Beanie Babies called
for over half a million dollars. best of these looped videos are CryptoPunks. Created by two
It isn’t some symptom of mesmerising, just as nobody can artists who run New York-based
pandemic panic, nor is it a new fully account for why Nyan Cat was Larva Labs, CryptoPunks are
scam. Instead, it is all thanks one of the most-watched things unique “characters” – 8-bit
to a tiny piece of code called a on YouTube in 2011. But we all cartoon heads with slightly
non-fungible token, or NFT, that know a good gif when we see it, different hair, facial expressions,
Annalee Newitz is a science offers an internet solution to a and for people who have grown up hats and skin colour – that people
journalist and author. Their very internet kind of problem. online, that is worth something. collect and trade using ethereum.
latest novel is The Future of The problem is that art gains If a popular creator is involved, It sounds bonkers until you
Another Timeline and they its value from being unique, but that makes it even more valuable. consider how much money people
are the co-host of the when you can download anything Musician Grimes auctioned off a pay for digital objects inside their
Hugo-nominated podcast online, suddenly art doesn’t collection of crypto art in early favourite games. Or for Magic: The
Our Opinions Are Correct. seem so valuable. The solution Gathering cards. We like to collect
You can follow them is the NFT, a unique digital token “We all know a good things, regardless of whether
@annaleen and their website associated with an image or video gif when we see it, they are made of bits or atoms.
is techsploitation.com file that can’t be copied. The NFT Looked at from one angle,
and for people who
is stored on a blockchain – a crypto art promises to do what
secure, decentralised digital
have grown up great art has always done: turn
ledger – just like bitcoins are. online, that is worth an ephemeral moment into
Presto! A unique piece of “crypto something” something enduring, something
Annalee’s week art” that is worth something. that can be owned. This seems
What I’m reading NFTs have made headlines March – a few short, sci-fi-themed especially needed on the internet,
Sociologist Kim TallBear’s because creators are selling their videos set to original music – and where creative content is often
fascinating analysis of crypto art for enormous amounts earned almost $6 million. treated as expendable trash
science and race in of money. In mid-February, None of this is being sold for precisely because it is so easy
Native American DNA. digital artist Chris Torres sold his actual dollars or pounds, of course. to make copies.
10-year-old meme creation, It is all in cryptocurrencies like At the same time, many of the
What I’m watching Nyan Cat, for about $580,000. bitcoin. Most creators prefer to big NFT sales feel like capitalist
It’s a Sin, Russell T. For those who don’t recall it, Nyan deal in a cryptocurrency called stunts, a new flavour of the get-
Davies’s amazing Cat is a gif of a cartoon kitty with ethereum, in part because its rich-quick schemes associated
recreation of queer life the body of a toaster pastry, who blockchain offers support for with cryptocurrencies. Like crypto
in London during the runs endlessly to the beat of a contracts that define how a piece coins, NFTs have to be “mined”
1980s and 90s. Japanese pop song while trailing a of content can be used. using mathematical calculations
sparkly rainbow across a twinkling But NFTs aren’t merely for art that are resource-intensive,
What I’m working on night sky. Torres remastered the snobs. Canadian firm Dapper Labs slurping up energy to power
Researching the history 2011 gif and sold it on crypto art quickly discovered that basketball servers that quickly turn into piles
of adventure stories about auction site Foundation.app. fans would pony up thousands of electronic waste. Some artists
the American West. Anyone can own a copy of the of dollars to collect little bursts may be making money, but our
Nyan Cat gif – just as anyone can of video called “Top Shots”, CryptoPunk and Top Shots habits
own prints of a Frieda Kahlo self- showing awesome plays from are terrible for the planet.
portrait – but only one person can several angles. The National There is also a basic question
have the official gif, identified by Basketball Association teamed about whether we need
its unique NFT. This has been a up with Dapper Labs to launch blockchain technology to recreate
boon for digital artists, who are a special Top Shots store. There, the experience of collecting
finally able to market their work fans can buy and sell Top Shots unique art. As author Robin Sloan
in the way more traditional artists with cryptocurrency, and show pointed out, after experimenting
do. On Foundation, you can peruse off their collections. According to with selling tokenised amulets
This column appears digital art that runs the gamut CryptoSlam, which monitors NFT bearing tiny poems, the whole
monthly. Up next week: from genuinely gorgeous to markets, Top Shots are the most thing might be better handled
James Wong disturbing or obviously silly. heavily traded collectibles. by using a simple spreadsheet. ❚
The Daily Fix The Planet Health Check Launchpad Lost in Space-time Our Human Story Parental Guidance Wild Wild Life
Views Your letters
adding to the “silent” pandemic Reduce and reuse is the of weight loss caused by exercise.
Editor’s pick of antimicrobial resistance. In my teens, I took up running.
only plastic bottle remedy
It has been known for years that When my children were of school
More worries about the 6 March, p 23
highly intensive systems increase age, I had less time to run and
risk of disease spillover the risk of food-borne disease From Shenali Kalawana, I really put on weight – about
Leader, 6 March and spillover of zoonoses with London, UK 25 kilograms. Once school duties
From Roger Myers, London, UK pandemic potential, such as avian You reported research that found were out of the way, I started
Your leader and the associated flu. The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has 2.3-litre plastic bottles are the least running again – about 5 to 10
feature “Spillover” (p 41) appear raised awareness, but we must harmful to the planet. But why kilometres at least five times a
to lay the blame for the pandemic recognise the interaction between advocate an optimum size at all? week – and my weight went right
primarily on our destruction of components in eco-social systems We shouldn’t create loopholes for back down. Then I injured my
biodiversity and encroachment on that generate zoonotic disease the production of harmful plastic knee. It was operated on, but
fragile ecosystems. Yet for most of risks. In that context, future products. The best way to prevent I am now unable to run and that
human evolutionary history, people development of food animal harm is to reduce use of plastic 25 kilograms returned. I know
have lived within such ecosystems production is a major priority. bottles and switch to reuse and many people like me who have to
in small groups as hunter-gathers refill business models. exercise or they will put on weight.
and would surely have been just
as exposed to zoonotic infections.
Could non-viral factors
The difference then was that look like long covid? Why do we think about Alien cryptocurrency may
these tribes were mostly isolated 27 February, p 10 time as two dimensional? need a mega power source
from one another, with only From Laura Alexander, Dollar, 6 March, p 46 30 January, p 44
occasional contact. In contrast, Clackmannanshire, UK From Martin Jenkins, London, UK From Dave Smith,
almost all human groups are now While it is possible that the I read Julian Barbour’s article Alnwick, Northumberland, UK
deeply interconnected. This factor symptoms described in your on the possibility of time flowing I have been wracking my brains
was arguably just as important in look at long covid in children are backwards with great interest, as to think of something requiring
making the pandemic possible. due to this syndrome, they could I have recently been wrestling the amount of power provided by
While preventing the destruction also be caused by a lack of social with the same questions (from a Dyson sphere. On considering
of nature is vital, doing things like contact and education, limited the point of view of philosophy recent news articles, however,
figuring out how to quickly break opportunities for exercise and rather than physics). the answer finally dawned on me:
the chains of transmission across sunshine exposure, constantly However, it raised questions an alien mega civilisation that has
the interlinked global human hearing apocalyptic news reports, that weren’t addressed. If time, based its entire monetary system
population should also be made a being cared for by stressed adults, like space, is expanding from the on a bitcoin-like blockchain.
priority. After all, the next pandemic being forced to spend long periods big bang, shouldn’t it also be
might not spawn from zoonotic looking at screens and so on. expanding in all directions, not
Spin a yarn in the battle
sources, but something more just forwards and backwards?
malign like bioterrorism. What are the implications of a against garden slugs
Extended mask wearing 27 February, p 49
universe in which time is
From Fiona Tomley and Dirk will hamper the recovery expanding sideways? Is the From Mike Starke,
Pfeiffer, GCRF One Health Poultry 6 March, p 10 forwards/backwards concept of Chale Green, Isle of Wight, UK
Hub, Hatfield, Hertfordshire, UK From Bryan Simmons, expanding time the result of our Here is a tip for Clare Wilson to
We agree with your article on the Bratton, Wiltshire, UK linear experience of time and our keep the slugs at bay. My wife
problem of pathogens spilling Those of us who wear glasses can inability to think in other terms? grows crop after crop of pristine
over from animals to humans suffer badly from lenses steaming green beans. Her secret is to pack
as we encroach on nature. There up while wearing a face mask. It is pieces of hand-spun fleece yarn
For some, exercise is the around the bean stems. This
is another big factor influencing a nuisance when doing something
zoonotic disease emergence, necessary like shopping. Given the key to keeping weight off has successfully deterred the
though: the intensification talk of masks being required until 27 February, p 32 gastropods from adding her
of food animal production. 2022, I certainly wouldn’t pay to From Guy Cox, St Albans, Phaseolus vulgaris to their diet. ❚
Escalating demand for animal go to a concert, the theatre or a New South Wales, Australia
protein means the density of museum if I could only see a blur. My own experience differs from
For the record
livestock systems is increasingly So, when these places reopen, some of the claims in Herman
high. Consequences include many of us wouldn’t want to go Pontzer’s article on human ❚ In our report on life found
pollution, monoculture (for if masks are still mandatory. metabolism, particularly the lack underground (27 February,
animal fodder), poor animal p 14), we should have said
welfare, high pathogen growth the deepest previously
and genetic adaptation. Moreover, Want to get in touch? known life was microscopic
to compensate for poor husbandry Send letters to letters@newscientist.com; nematode worms.
and biosecurity, more than half of see terms at newscientist.com/letters ❚ It is the sun’s increasing
antimicrobials used on the planet Letters sent to New Scientist, 25 Bedford Street, energy that will warm Earth
are in food animal production, London WC2E 9ES will be delayed in the far future (6 March, p 12).
O N L I N E C O U R S E S TO E N L I G H T E N ,
E N T E R TA I N A N D I N S P I R E
COURSE ONE
Valerie Jamieson
CREATIVE DIRECTOR
Gege Li
Merlin rocket motor. Nine of these to land rocket stages that its
would be needed for the much competitors still ditch, as well as
larger rocket that cash-rich clients flying astronauts to the ISS from US
like NASA wanted to use to send soil on its Crew Dragon for the first
cargo to the International Space SpaceX’s Starship rocket smartest engineers, and adopting time since the space shuttle retired.
Station (ISS) – and, later, crewed exploding (top) and Crew ultra-fast engineering techniques. The firm’s army of online fans
missions. If Falcon 1 hadn’t shown Dragon in space (bottom) Musk comes across as a fiercely seems to be getting used to its
that the motor could power a demanding boss, and the lengths “go fast, break things and fix them”
rocket to orbit, there might not After tracking them all down, he goes to hand-pick talent are process. Attempts to land Falcon 9
have been a Falcon 9, the rocket Berger captured their entertaining revealing. On one occasion, he rocket stages failed many times
that has become the backbone warts-and-all stories of potentially called Google co-founder Larry before success dawned. At the
of SpaceX’s business. avoidable foul-ups, the details of Page to ask if a senior Google staffer time of writing, three prototypes
Berger chronicles the amazing which make this book an essential, could work from a Los Angeles of the firm’s Starship moon and
human and technological unofficial reference text for what office instead of a Silicon Valley one Mars rocket have exploded
struggles that led to the success to do (and not do) as space flight so that the staffer’s spouse could spectacularly. All of which makes it
of the launch. To be convincing, goes commercial. work for SpaceX. Page agreed. a particularly good time to publish
he needed unprecedented access What drives SpaceX, Berger When an academic found that five Liftoff, the fascinating backstory
to Musk and, perhaps more writes, is Musk’s relentless quest of his 10 students had gone to work of why SpaceX does it this way. ❚
crucially, to the key propulsion, to get humans to Mars as soon as at SpaceX, Musk is said to have got
avionics, structural and launch possible. That means two things: in touch – not to explain, but to Paul Marks is a London-based writer
engineers behind Falcon 1. a laser-like focus on hiring the find out where the other five went. specialising in space and technology
but hundreds of
Nick Robinson as Ross thousands of models
T: AMAZON
Getting along with a robot The latest book from Nobel prizewinner
Kazuo Ishiguro is a fascinating tale about artificial intelligence,
friendship and what it means to be human, says Rowan Hooper
A
“ GE is an issue of mind over matter.
If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter.”
This nugget of wisdom, often
attributed to Mark Twain, has been turned into
many an inspirational internet meme over the
years. As a 51-year-old who is starting to feel the
gathering momentum of the inevitable slide,
it strikes me as little more than a platitude that
makes people feel better about getting old.
But according to a growing body of research,
there is more to it than that. Subjective age –
how old we feel – has a very real impact on
health and longevity. People who feel younger
than their years often actually are, in terms of
how long they have left to live.
The question of what controls our subjective
age, and whether we can change it, has always
been tricky to address scientifically. Now,
research is revealing some surprising answers.
The good news is that many of the factors that
help determine how old we feel are things that
we can control to add years to our lives –and
life to our years.
We have known for a while now that simply
counting the number of years someone has
been alive isn’t necessarily the most accurate
SKYNESHER/GETTY IMAGES
there are some predictable psychological Florida State University and his colleagues,
changes that come with age, too. looked at data from three studies following
In the late 1990s, Laura Carstensen, more than 17,000 people for up to 20 years.
a gerontologist at Stanford University in They confirmed that subjective age isn’t just
California, measured how human psychology a feeling, but also a pretty accurate predictor
typically changes as we age. Her work has of health. “People who feel younger live
shown that young people, for whom time longer. Those who feel older have a shorter
seems unlimited, are motivated to pursue lifespan,” he says.
knowledge about the physical and social So you can get a rough idea of your longevity
world – to explore and make new connections. by figuring out your subjective age. The trouble
As a result, they tend to be more enthusiastic, is that it’s not as simple as asking people how
outward-looking and sociable than their old they feel, says Maria Mitina, a biologist at
parents and grandparents, but also more Hong Kong-based biotech company Deep
superficial, impulsive and emotionally fragile. Longevity who is working on the problem.
Older people, meanwhile, feeling that they Subjective age can fluctuate widely depending
have fewer years left to play with, turn away on mood and circumstances, so people’s
from exploring and concentrate on finding answers may not reflect how old they feel
meaning, emotional intimacy and sharing most of the time.
the wisdom of their years. Each of us has a “baseline” that we
consistently return to and which may or
may not match up with our age in years or
Just a feeling? our position on the psychological timeline,
Even within this general psychological says Mitina. In this respect, subjective age
trajectory, however, subjective age varies is like another important quality-of-life
considerably. This isn’t terribly surprising: measurement, happiness. People’s self-
we all know people who are young at heart reported happiness levels vary greatly from
and young fogeys who think and behave older day to day and even hour to hour, but an
than their years. Intriguingly, though, studies individual’s happiness tends to fluctuate
suggest that being young at heart is seriously around a characteristic baseline. Somebody
good for you. A lower subjective age is who is temperamentally cheerful can have
correlated with better health, longevity bad days, but will always gravitate back towards
and general well-being, while people with a this happy medium.
greater subjective age have higher levels of Because of short-term fluctuations in
inflammation, a marker of general ill health, subjective age, simply asking someone “How
and older-looking brains. old do you feel?” isn’t a particularly reliable
A 2018 paper by Antonio Terracciano at guide to their baseline subjective age. “It is >
current sex life is also in the top 10 (as the saucy dividends. Several questions probe a person’s and improve well-being,” says Mitina.
joke version of the old saying goes, you are attitude towards ageing as well as their If answering 1000 questions to find out
only as old as the person you feel). relationships, community involvement and your subjective age feels like a poor use of
Other contributions to SubjAge aren’t personality. In all cases, being more open and time you won’t get back, the good news is
obviously connected to youth at all. One of the optimistic helped. People who felt positive that you don’t have to. Mitina and her
top 25, for example, is how much people feel about ageing and who rated themselves as colleagues have whittled the questionnaire
they contribute to the well-being of others. extroverts had a lower SubjAge, for instance. down to just 15 questions, none of which
Ultimately, says Mitina, the goal is to turn “We can ask people to be more open – to new ask directly how old you feel, and created
these findings into lifestyle advice to help people, new knowledge or new experiences. a website where anybody can get a rough
people feel more youthful and even live longer. Push people to be more sociable,” says Mitina. and ready estimate of their subjective age
The analysis showed that a 60-year-old with a (see app.young.ai/psychoage). I did it and
SubjAge of 65, for example, is twice as likely as discovered that – depressingly – I feel exactly
a 60-year-old with a matching SubjAge to die Older, wiser, sexier as old as I am right now.
from any cause at any given age thereafter. This chimes with research on centenarians I am 51; I feel 51; my subjective age is 51.
The magnitude of the effect is surprisingly showing that one thing they have in common I am putting this finding down to lockdown-
large, says Mitina. “I think this is the most is an optimistic and gregarious nature. Positive induced restrictions on social contact and
powerful outcome from our experiment – that attitude is much more strongly correlated exercise. On the plus side, if living to a ripe old
higher subjective age doubles mortality risk.” with long life than any biomarker, according age requires more friendship, better sex, new
As for the kinds of lifestyle changes to to Kaare Christensen, who runs the Danish experiences and a healthier attitude to ageing,
make, the fact that the biggest influence on Aging Research Center at the University of count me in. 40, here I come! ❚
how old we feel is physical health could give Southern Denmark.
people concrete actions they can take to get Others may want to focus their energies
their SubjAge down, such as exercise to closer to home. “It looks like if you are very Graham Lawton is a staff writer
improve fitness and dietary changes to happy about your sexual life, then you are at New Scientist
improve blood pressure. psychologically younger, so investment in
Going out to explore could also pay closer relationships can make you younger
Cloud control
Aircraft create a web of contrail clouds that warms our planet a
surprisingly large amount. Can we banish this fluffy menace for good?
David Hambling investigates
T
HERE are few more delightful antidotes solution: scrub them from the sky altogether.
to stress than to lie on your back in Contrails are created when water condenses
warm grass and watch the clouds go by. to form ice crystals around tiny particles of
As children, we love finding the outlines of soot from aircraft exhausts. Yet there is no
animals and castles in the billowing shapes. fundamental reason why this has to happen.
As adults, there is something calming and Decades of experiments with spy planes,
comforting about those fluffy tufts of white alternative engines and, most recently, with
drifting slowly past. Clouds are beautiful. artificial intelligence have shown that it is
Clouds are innocent. possible to stop them forming. It won’t be
With one exception. The streaky smears easy: wiping the atmosphere clean of contrails
of cloud that criss-cross the sky in the wake may require nothing less than a wholesale
of aeroplanes may look too wispy to cause reimagining of the traffic in our skies.
any harm. But we now know that these The effect of clouds on our climate is subtle
condensation trails, or contrails, make an because they can both reflect incoming
outsized contribution to global warming by sunlight, which has a cooling effect, and trap
GEORGE PACHANTOURIS/GETTY IMAGES
trapping heat like a downy jacket. “They are heat beneath them, which has a warming
one of the few manifestations of man-made effect. However, contrails are a type of artificial
climate change agents that you can actually cirrus – a thin, cold, high-altitude cloud – and
observe,” says David Lee, an atmospheric we have known for a long time that these are
scientist at Manchester Metropolitan a climate menace. Their wispiness means
University in the UK. As the evidence mounts they let almost all sunlight through while also
to show how harmful contrails are, some trapping heat below them highly effectively.
engineers are reaching for an audacious For sure, cirrus clouds are a natural part of >
M
ARK CARNEY made his name as a based firm Brookfield Asset Management – lockdown, at the start of the covid-19 crisis.
sound steward of money. He a role that recently garnered some controversy Throughout that time, a third crisis –
entered the public eye in 2008 when for that firm’s definition of its net-zero climate the climate crisis – has been building too.
he was appointed governor of the Bank of investments. Carney is also the UN special I reflected on all this and realised that,
Canada at the age of just 42, and his swift and envoy for climate action and the finance in many respects, these are all crises of values
decisive interventions there are credited with advisor for the UK government’s presidency – in particular the relationship between how
helping the country weather the storm of the of the UN’s COP26 climate change conference, markets value things versus the broader
global financial crisis better than any other rich a crucial point for the world’s climate plans, values of society, including values that are
nation. From 2011 to 2018, he was chair of the scheduled to take place this November in necessary, actually, for the market to work well.
global Financial Stability Board, established in Glasgow. He has just written a book called The book tries to chart a way of thinking about
the wake of that crisis to strengthen oversight Value(s): Building a better world for all about value in economic terms and philosophical
of the world’s banks and try to avoid a repeat. how we can and must rework capitalism to terms. It looks at how that thinking has
In 2013, Carney was appointed governor of help solve the crises we face. changed, how that’s contributed to these
the Bank of England, the first non-Briton to crises and then what responses will work.
oversee the UK’s central bank since it was Richard Webb: What is the significance of
established in 1694. your book’s title, and what was it that How has our perception of value changed?
Since stepping down from the governorship motivated you to write it? Markets have come to the narrow view that
in 2020, he has turned his focus to the tricky Mark Carney: I came in as governor of the Bank only things that can be given a price have
interface of economics and the environment. of Canada at the start of the global financial value. We can price Amazon, the company –
He has returned to the private sector as a vice crisis. I finished as the governor of the Bank its current market value is almost $1.7 trillion –
chair and head of impact investing at Canada- of England literally the week of the first UK but value is only ascribed to the Amazon, the
region, when the ecosystem is destroyed What do the financial, covid-19 and climate
for the purposes of agriculture or harvesting “We can price crises tell us about how market value and
timber. Meanwhile, the market view of value broader societal values have diverged?
applies not only to material goods, but
increasingly to the whole of life, from the
Amazon, the One thing it tells us is about how markets
undervalue resilience. It has become clear
allocation of healthcare to education and
environmental protection. The seeds of
company. But from covid-19 that we underinvested in basic
pandemic preparedness. The cost of putting in
the crises we have experienced lie here.
value is only place at least the initial provisions to protect
our healthcare workers, to protect vulnerable
people, to have mass testing, would have been
The belief in unfettered markets has become
central to Western capitalism in recent ascribed to the equivalent to the economic output we lost in
decades. Is that era over? a single day during the crisis. That’s nothing,
I think we have seen the dangers of it. The Amazon when yet those investments weren’t made. In the
global financial crisis, which was caused in part climate crisis, similarly, we’ve undervalued
by surrendering supervisory judgement to the
perceived wisdom of the market, showed that
it is destroyed” the resilience of ecosystems.
Then there is the value of solidarity.
danger. But we need the dynamism that In the run-up to the financial crisis, individuals
market value brings from innovators and in financial institutions were increasingly
entrepreneurs to develop solutions to the focused on their own pay and little on the risks
problems we face. We need to get market value they were running for their organisations, and
and societal values back into an equilibrium. still less for the wider financial system. There >
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The back pages Almost the last word
KESSUDAP/GETTY IMAGES
and headed towards another star, Surviving there would be quite
there would be a point at which another matter.
the apparent magnitude of the sun
would equal that of the other star. Andrew Aitchison
The closest such point is about Kendal, Cumbria, UK
1.5 light years from Earth, between The Chelyabinsk meteor, which
our planet and the star Sirius. This week’s new questions exploded over Russia in 2013, was
said to be brighter than the sun,
Mike Follows Sticking power How does porridge manage to stick to as were some nuclear bomb tests.
Sutton Coldfield, non-stick pans? Geoff Gill, London, UK
West Midlands, UK Fear and trembling
As seen from Earth, Sirius is the Weak with laughter Why is it that we are stronger when
brightest object in the night sky. we are angry, but hardly have the strength to stand up when Why do our hands shake when
Sometimes known as the Dog Star, we laugh really hard? Samira Bendjedidi, Reading, Berkshire, UK we are nervous?
it is located in the constellation
Canis Major. Lewis O’Shaughnessy
To look at a star is to look sun, it would begin to appear brightness, so it would appear to Nottingham, UK
back in time. An eye adjusted to dimmer than Sirius once we outshine the sun well before you The origins of nervousness and
darkness with a pupil diameter of had completed 17 per cent of the got halfway there. My estimate is associated shaking lie deep in our
journey – about 1.43 light years. about 1.8 light years would do it. evolutionary history. Nervousness
“For the sun to appear By travelling along this path, is essentially a response to stress.
as dim as Sirius, the it is conceivable that another star Damir Blazina Stress is associated with a
might outshine the sun before Bonn, Germany powerful fight-or-flight response:
brightest object in our
we have travelled 1.43 light years. To answer the question literally, our sympathetic nervous system
night sky, it would To be sure, we would need to the closest stable such point would dilates our pupils, initiates
need to be moved know the luminosity and spatial be the side of Mercury facing away sweating and stimulates the flow
1.7 light years away” arrangement of all local stars. from the sun. Our star would be of blood rich in sugar and oxygen
hidden from an observer at this to our muscles. The release of
6 millimetres looking towards Pat Sheil point by the planet, rendering it adrenaline into our blood
this constellation would intercept Camperdown, completely invisible. perpetuates these effects.
a remarkable 8 million photons New South Wales, Australia Mercury has no natural Historically, this was essential
per second from Sirius, particles The closest you could be to Earth satellites, therefore the brightest to enable us to catch prey, escape
of light that launched from the and have another star appear visible object would probably be predators or fight rivals, as these
stellar surface 8.6 years earlier. brighter than the sun would be one of the other planets in the changes make the body much
Sirius has a luminosity just under 2 light years towards solar system, depending on more ready for physical activity.
25.4 times greater than the sun, the star Alpha Centauri A, which their relative orbital positions. Unfortunately, the body reacts
but, because it is 8.6 light years is just over 4 light years from us. Mercury’s path shows high to all stress the same way and isn’t
away, its apparent brightness is Alpha Centauri A is somewhat eccentricity, meaning it deviates able to distinguish the stress of
12 billion times less than that of bigger and more luminous than significantly from a circular orbit. a boardroom meeting from that
the sun. For the sun to appear as the sun, at about 1.5 times the solar At their closest, the observer of an attack by a predator. A side
dim as Sirius, it would need to effect of this readiness can be
be moved 1.7 light years away. Want to send us a question or answer? tremors in our muscles as they
If we were to leave the solar Email us at lastword@newscientist.com start producing energy, which has
system and move directly towards Questions should be about everyday science phenomena nowhere to go other than into
Sirius, and then look back at the Full terms and conditions at newscientist.com/lw-terms muscle contractions. This can
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