SPEAKING CHIMP

Do we share an ancestral sign

language with our ape cousins?
VISITOR FROM DEEP SPACE
Second-ever interstellar comet
is heading our way
RINGING BLACK HOLES
Einstein proved right
(yet again)
WEEKLY September 21–27, 2019

T H E T R U E N AT U R E O F
CONSCIOUSNESS
W E ’ R E F I N A L LY C R AC K I N G
T H E G R E AT E S T M Y S T E RY O F YOU

‘WE ARE ALL IRRATIONAL’ No3248 US$6.99 CAN$7.99

Richard Dawkins on God, evolution and Islamophobia 3 8

PLUS FIRST WATERY EXOPLANET FOUND / CRABS THAT GROWL /

OUR VANISHING GLACIERS / INFINITE MATH PROBLEM SOLVED
Science and technology news www.newscientist.com US jobs in science 0 72440 30690 5
 NEW DATE!
Our popular event is
coming to Boston …

INSTANT EXPERT:
MYSTERIES
OF THE MIND
November 23, 2019
District Hall, Boston
You’re in possession of one of the most complex and
incredible objects in the known universe: the human brain.
How does a 1.4 kilogram tangle of nerve cells allow
you to sense, understand and change the world?
Discover why this is the most exciting time in the
history of brain science with six experts working at
the forefront of neuroscience, genetics and psychiatry.

TOPICS COVERED WILL INCLUDE:

Intelligence
Consciousness
Memory
Plus much more

Reserve your place today and view our speaker line-up

newscientist.com/mindevent-boston
Discovery
Tours

USA Departing:
9 days from $10,365
22 October 2020

Cruise Hawaii with

Richard Dawkins
Join evolutionary biologist and highly regarded
author Richard Dawkins on a boutique yacht
Tour highlights include:
k Evening seminars with Richard Dawkins
k 7 nights aboard the Safari Explorer
yacht - small enough to reach places that
other vessels cannot
k Explore Big Island’s living vocanic
landscape and misty forests
k Visit secluded bays and experience a
large array of wildlife
k Immersive exploration by boat, trekking,
snorkelling and private coach
k A thrilling night-time snorkelling
adventure seeking giant manta rays
k Enjoy the cultural treasure of a ‘pā‘ina
feast and discover the history of this
ancient homeland
k A day in Kailua-Kona, where the slopes
of the Hualalai volcano meet the ocean
k Maui and Big Island plus the lesser
visited islands of Molokai and Lanai
DAVID STOCK

To give guests the best possible experience there is a 2:1 guest-to-crew ratio and we
only have 32 places available, so please get in touch early to ensure you don’t miss out.

To book call +1 516 226 7917 (UK hours Mon to Thu 9-5:30pm, Fri 9-5pm GMT) In partnership with Steppes Travel

Or email newscientist@steppestravel.com

newscientist.com/tours
This week’s issue

On the 7 Speaking chimp

Do we share an ancestral
cover sign language with our
ape cousins?
34 The true nature of 3 weeks to go!
consciousness 12 Visitor from deep space Discover why engineering
We’re finally cracking the Second-ever interstellar is everywhere at our
greatest mystery of you comet is heading our way four-day festival of
science. Find out more
38 ‘We are all irrational’ 6 Ringing black holes at newscientistlive.com
Richard Dawkins on God, Einstein proved right
evolution and Islamophobia (yet again)

16 First watery exoplanet found 16 Crabs that growl

8 Our vanishing glaciers 13 Infinite maths problem solved

Vol 243 No 3248

Cover image: Oska

News Features
8 Our melting planet 34 Creating consciousness
A special report on the world’s Interview We have identified the four
shrinking glaciers essential elements that make
a conscious mind
12 Interstellar visitor
A second object from 38 Richard Dawkins’s mission
a different solar system The evolutionary biologist
may be coming this way wants to break the cycle
of superstition
15 Circadian rhythms
Light therapy may relieve 42 An untold Amazon tragedy
perinatal depression As huge parts of the rainforest
burn, other areas are drowning

Views
The back pages
21 Comment
Adults should join the climate 51 Stargazing at home
strikes, argues Alice Bell Make a model of Earth’s orbit
around the sun
22 The columnist
Annalee Newitz on tech firms’ 52 Puzzles
union confusion Cryptic crossword and a quick quiz
MARY TURNER, THE TIMES

26 Letters 53 Feedback
There are several approaches Elongated eels and naming
to saving the Arctic Ocean names: the week in weird

28 Aperture 54 Almost the last word

Rival mudskippers tussle for Lightning effects and biscuit/cake
territory in Japan duality: readers respond
38 Richard Dawkins
30 Culture
Inside the anti-science world
“We really need to push 56 The Q&A
xkcd creator Randall Munroe
of The Testaments the beauty of science” on the inventive use of science

21 September 2019 | New Scientist | 1

Discovery
Tours

S OU T H A ME RI C A Departing:
11 days from $3,059
(Early-bird price)

Total Solar Eclipse 2020: 6 December 2020

Adventure in Argentina
A rare celestial event in one of the most spectacular locations on Earth.
Enjoy the magnificent show that is a total solar eclipse along with the stunning
scenery of Patagonia and vibrant culture and sensory delights of Buenos Aires.

Renowned astronomer Dr John Mason will lead the eclipse experience at an

exclusive viewing location as well as giving evening seminars on his eclipse-chasing
adventures plus stargazing in the crystal-clear skies of Bariloche.

Tour highlights include: 

k Seminars and expert-led eclipse
and astronomy experiences with
Dr John Mason
k Private viewing site in
Piedra del Aguila for the eclipse
k Bariloche National Park
k Stunning tango dinner show
k Catamaran journey around
Nahuel Huapi Lake
k Thorough exploration of Buenos
Aires. European style with Latin spirit
k The stunning natural landscapes
and lakes of Patagonia
k Gaucho horseman cultural day

In partnership with Intrepid Travel

To book call +1 516 226 2274 (UK office 9am-5.30pm GMT)

Or email groupsuk@intrepidtravel.com ABTA No.Y0766

newscientist.com/tours
The leader
The lightness of being
An engineering approach to consciousness promises help with an old question
WHAT is it like to be a bat? Philosopher
Thomas Nagel’s 1974 question has
evolved to dominate our thinking on
consciousness. Nagel’s point, simply put,
is that even if we could fly, and navigate
using sonar, we would never grasp what
it feels like to be a bat. The argument
has become the “hard problem” of
consciousness, the intractability of
explaining subjective experience.
Consciousness isn’t something you
can measure or weigh; its ethereal
quality is so fascinating as to verge on
the mystical. Certainly it attracts plenty
of mystical explanations.
So it is unsurprising that, despite
decades of thought, we have been unable
to explain how our brains create the
GETTY IMAGES
conscious experience. Even if we
might insist that the hard problem is
illusory, or that consciousness is simply
PUBLISHING & COMMERCIAL
Display advertising
Tel +44 (0)20 7611 1291 Email displayads@newscientist.com
Commercial director Chris Martin
Display sales manager Justin Viljoen
Lynne Garcia, Bethany Stuart, Henry Vowden,
(ANZ) Richard Holliman
Recruitment advertising
Tel +44 (0)20 7611 1204 Email nssales@newscientist.com
Recruitment sales manager Mike Black
Nicola Cubeddu, Viren Vadgama,
(US) Jeanne Shapiro
New Scientist Live
Tel +44 (0)20 7611 1245 Email live@newscientist.com
Events director Adrian Newton
Creative director Valerie Jamieson
Event manager Henry Gomm
Sales director Jacqui McCarron
Exhibition sales manager Rosie Bolam
Marketing manager Katie Cappella
Events team support manager Rose Garton
Marketing executive Jessica Lazenby-Murphy
Marketing
Head of campaign marketing James Nicholson
Poppy Lepora, Chloe Thompson
Head of customer experience Emma Robinson
Head of data analytics Tom Tiner
Web development
Maria Moreno Garrido, Tom McQuillan, Amardeep Sian
© 2019 New Scientist Ltd, England. New Scientist ISSN 0262 4079 is
published weekly except for the last week in December by New Scientist Ltd,
England. New Scientist (Online) ISSN 2059 5387. New Scientist Limited,
387 Park Avenue South, New York, NY 10016
Periodicals postage paid at New York, NY and other mailing offices
Postmaster: Send address changes to New Scientist, PO Box 3806,
Chesterfield, MO 63006-9953, USA.
Registered at the Post Office as a newspaper and printed in USA by
Fry Communications Inc, Mechanicsburg, PA 17055
Can we make
a machine
that does what
a conscious
human does?
the way information feels when
processed in certain ways, we still
need to understand how the illusion
arises, and what kind of information
in the brain gives rise to the feeling.
Philosophy alone isn’t enough.
This is where engineering comes
in. To build something, you have to
understand it precisely. Can we make
a machine that does what a conscious
being does, that constructs a self-image
and uses it to produce descriptions of
MANAGEMENT
Chief executive Nina Wright
Finance director Jenni Prince
Chief technology officer Chris Corderoy
Marketing director Jo Adams
Human resources Shirley Spencer
HR coordinator Serena Robinson
Facilities manager Ricci Welch
Executive assistant Lorraine Lodge
Receptionist Alice Catling
Non-exec chair Bernard Gray
Senior non-exec director Louise Rogers
CONTACT US
newscientist.com/contact
General & media enquiries
US Tel +1 617 283 3213
210 Broadway #201, Cambridge, MA 02139
UK Tel +44 (0)20 7611 1200
25 Bedford Street, London WC2E 9ES
Australia PO Box 2315, Strawberry Hills, NSW 2012
US Newsstand
Tel +1 973 909 5819
Distributed by Time Inc. Retail, a division of Meredith
Corporation, 6 Upper Pond Road, Parsippany, NJ 07054
Syndication
Tribune Content Agency
Tel 1-800-346-8798 Email tca-articlesales@tribpub.com
Subscriptions
newscientist.com/subscribe
Tel 1 888 822 3242
Email newscientist.na.subs@quadrantsubs.com
Post New Scientist, PO Box 3806, Chesterfield MO 63006-9953
the world? This week, we report on just
such a project (see page 34).
The idea is that, just as any control
device needs a model of the thing it is
controlling, a brain needs a model of
itself. The experience of a phantom
limb – the feeling that an amputated
arm, for example, is still present – comes
about because the brain originally
created an internal model of the arm
to help control its movement. When
the physical arm is gone, the model,
the phantom, remains. The feeling of
consciousness could be the phantom of
the brain’s model of its own workings.
Although an engineering approach
won’t allow us to grasp the essence of
“batness”, it looks like a promising way
to build artificial consciousness. Who
knows, it might eventually explain the
mystery of our own being. ❚
EDITORIAL
Editor Emily Wilson
Executive editor Richard Webb
Creative director Craig Mackie
News
News editor Penny Sarchet
Editors Jacob Aron, Timothy Revell
Reporters (UK) Jessica Hamzelou, Michael Le Page,
Donna Lu, Adam Vaughan, Clare Wilson
(US) Leah Crane, Chelsea Whyte
(Aus) Alice Klein, Ruby Prosser Scully
Digital
Digital editor Conrad Quilty-Harper
Web team Lilian Anekwe, Anne Marie Conlon,
David Stock, Sam Wong
Features
Head of features Catherine de Lange (parental leave)
and Rowan Hooper
Acting head of features Tiffany O’Callaghan
Editors Gilead Amit, Julia Brown,
Kate Douglas, Alison George, Joshua Howgego
Feature writers Daniel Cossins, Graham Lawton
Culture and Community
Editors Liz Else, Mike Holderness, Simon Ings
Subeditors
Chief subeditor Eleanor Parsons
Bethan Ackerley, Tom Campbell, Chris Simms, Jon White
Design
Art editor Kathryn Brazier
Joe Hetzel, Dave Johnston, Ryan Wills
Picture desk
Picture editor Susan Banton
Production
Production manager Alan Blagrove
Robin Burton, Melanie Green
21 September 2019 | New Scientist | 3
Discovery
Tours

E C U A DOR Departing:
11 days from $8,535

Darwin’s Galapagos
7 June 2020

with Jo Ruxton
Explore the Galapagos Islands from the
comfort of a luxury small-berth yacht
Embark on a magical tour and discover a paradise for lovers of natural history,
animals and geology, under the expert guidance of marine conservationist and
documentary producer Jo Ruxton.

Highlights of the tour include: Plus

k Explore eight varied islands including Before setting off, take in
Isabela, Espanola and Fernandina Latin America’s largest and
k Exclusive behind the scenes access at best-preserved historic
the Galapagos Science Centre centre and colonial quarters
k Evening briefings from Jo Ruxton in Ecuador’s capital, Quito,
k Accompanied by local naturalist guides every day over two days

The Natural Paradise yacht only accommodates 15 people, so enquire

early to avoid missing out.

In partnership with Steppes Travel

To book call +1 516 226 7759 (UK opening hours Mon to Thu 9-5:30 Fri 9-5 GMT)
Or email newscientist@steppestravel.com

newscientist.com/tours
 News
Iceland extinction Infinite lottery
Vikings’ love of 50-year-old maths
ivory was bad news problem finally
for walruses p7 solved p13
JASON O’BRIEN/EPA-EFE/SHUTTERSTOCK
Spring fires in Australia
Blazes devastating the country’s east coast have arrived unusually early,
raising fears about what is to come. Ruby Prosser Scully reports
IT IS only just spring in Australia,
but bush fire season has already
begun, raising concerns that
there may be worse to come.
At their height earlier this
month, around 140 wildfires were
raging across eastern Queensland
and north-east New South Wales.
They have destroyed dozens of
homes and forced thousands of
people to flee. Some of the blazes
spanned hundreds of kilometres.
While there are now fewer fires,
this could lull people into a false
sense of security, says Philip
Stewart at the University of
Queensland. The latest weather
forecasts say the chances of fire
are “high” and “very high” across
affected areas in the coming days.
A change in the wind direction
Pesticide concern
Are chemicals
contributing to
bird declines? p14
or its strength could stoke fires
or cause them to alter course,
says Stewart. “Until fires are
completely out, it is not really
good to say that it’s safe.”
A combination of very low
humidity, gusty winds and
abnormally warm weather led
to the conditions that allowed
the flames to take hold earlier
than usual. Some areas saw
temperatures soar 10°C higher
than average, while some regions
are also into a third year of record
low rainfall. The threat of bush
fires will be higher than normal in
most of the country this summer.
More news articles online
Stay up to date with the latest science and tech news
newscientist.com/news
Psychiatric disorders
Brain network linked
to mental health
conditions p15
Additionally, several of the
recent fires appear to have been
started deliberately, says Paul Read
at the National Centre for Research
in Bushfire and Arson. Police are
questioning suspects.
To better manage the bush fire
risk, there needs to be greater
recognition that Australia is a
fire-prone continent and a return
to the controlled burning practised
by Indigenous Australians for
millennia, says Stewart. “They
didn’t just sit back and wait until
vegetation was so dry that you had
catastrophic fire events as you see
now,” he says. ❚
Research ethics
The Jeffrey Epstein
science-funding
scandal p18
Sexual health
Force often part of
first sex experience
ONE in 16 US girls and
women were forced into
their first experience of sex,
either physically or through
other kinds of pressure.
The figure comes from
an analysis of a national
survey run by the US Centers
for Disease Control and
Prevention.
Laura Hawks of Harvard
Medical School and her
team analysed the responses
from 13,000 women aged
between 18 and 44 who
answered the survey in the
past eight years. The team
used the term “forced” for
those who said their first
experience of sex with a
man was “not voluntary”.
About half of those who
responded this way said they
had been held down. About
a quarter were physically
harmed and a quarter
physically threatened – with
overlap between the groups.
About half reported being
verbally pressured, such as
being told the relationship
would end unless they had
sex, and a fifth said they had
been given alcohol or drugs.
Even when no physical
coercion was used, the
average age of women
forced into sex was 15 and
the average age of men was
27, says Hawks. “You’re
automatically getting a
picture of a huge power
imbalance,” she says.
There was less of an age
difference for those who
first had sex voluntarily:
the average age was 17 for
the women and 21 for the
male partner (JAMA Internal
Medicine, doi.org/dbk6). ❚
Clare Wilson
21 September 2019 | New Scientist | 5
News
Astronomy

The sound of a black hole

Cosmic monsters seem to “ring” in just the way Einstein predicted
Leah Crane

TRY as we might, we can’t prove note of a bell is determined by its is called the fundamental. There The mass and spin of the black
Albert Einstein wrong. One shape, the frequencies of waves are also shorter-lived notes called hole had already been calculated
prediction of his general theory produced are determined by the overtones. “The fundamental by the LIGO team based on all the
of relativity is that black holes are black hole’s mass and spin. rings like a high-quality wine glass, information in the signal. Isi and
simple objects. Now listening to “These frequencies and their and the overtones are more like his colleagues have now used just
them “ring” suggests this is true. lifetimes are inextricably tied a thud,” says Leo Stein at the overtone frequency to estimate
According to general relativity, to the shape of the bell, so you University of Mississippi. the mass and spin (Physical Review
any black hole can be described can listen to the ringing and learn Isi and his team found an Letters, doi.org/gf799b).
by three properties: its mass, spin about its structure,” says Isi. overtone in a signal detected They calculate that the black
and electrical charge. In practice, The longest-lasting frequency by the Laser Interferometer hole is about 68 times the mass
this boils down to the first two, Gravitational-Wave Observatory of the sun and spinning some
because we don’t expect black Black holes produce (LIGO) in 2015. This is the first time 100 times a second. That is a
holes to accumulate charge. characteristic notes anyone has found more than one good match with the previously
All other information about as they merge tone in a gravitational wave. calculated value. What’s more,
a black hole – like the properties because Isi’s estimate is based on
of objects that have fallen in – can’t the no-hair theorem, this suggests
be observed from beyond the that the theorem is correct. In
event horizon. This information other words, Einstein is still right.
is called “hair” and so the idea is The result isn’t very precise.
known as the no-hair theorem. The black hole’s properties could
Observations of black holes still deviate from those predicted
have all been consistent with by relativity by up to 20 per cent.
this idea. But Maximiliano Isi But there is a good chance that the
at the Massachusetts Institute test can be repeated. “The result
of Technology and his colleagues was from the loudest binary black
wanted to test it in a different way: hole signal we’ve had so far, but
using the ripples in space-time there are more signals that haven’t
called gravitational waves. been analysed yet,” says Katerina
SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY

We know that when a pair of Chatziioannou at the Flatiron

black holes merge, the leftover Institute in New York. Those
hole should ring like a bell, measurements should allow
emitting gravitational waves in physicists to nail down whether
several frequencies. Just as the black holes have hair. ❚

Machine learning

Bots defy laws the OpenAI Five beat the human
world champions at team-based
of physics to win video game DOTA 2. Bowen Baker
at hide-and-seek at OpenAI and his colleagues
wanted to see if the team dynamics
NEVER play games with a bot – it of the OpenAI Five could be used
will find a way to cheat. A team from to generate skills that could one day
OpenAI, an artificial intelligence be useful to humans.
lab in San Francisco co-founded by The hide-and-seek bots use
Elon Musk, has developed artificially similar principles to learn but the
intelligent bots that learned to simpler game allows for more
cooperate by playing hide-and- inventive play. The team set the
seek. The bots also learned how to bots loose in a simulation filled with
use basic tools and that defying the fixed walls and movable boxes and
laws of physics could help them win. left them to play millions of team
In April, a team of bots known as games of hide-and-seek.
At first, the hiders simply ran
away. But, they soon worked out
that the quickest way to stump
the seekers was to find objects
in the environment to hide
themselves, using them like a
sort of tool. For example, they
learned that boxes could be
used to block doorways and
build simple hideouts.
The real surprise came when the
“Maybe the bots will even
be able to solve problems
that humans don’t yet
know how to”
bots started exploiting glitches
in their environment. Seekers
found that if they pushed a ramp
towards a wall, they could launch
themselves into the air and spot
hiders from above. Hiders found
that they could get rid of the ramps
for good by shoving them through
exterior walls at a certain angle.
Such tricks show that AIs
are able to find solutions that
humans miss, says Baker. Maybe
the bots will even be able to solve
problems that humans don’t yet
know how to, he says. ❚
Douglas Heaven

6 | New Scientist | 21 September 2019

 Extinction
Vikings probably
wiped out Iceland’s
walruses
Colin Barras
ICELAND was once home to many
walruses – and now we have the
clearest evidence yet that Norse
settlers hunted them to extinction.
We already knew these animals
once lived on Iceland, but opinion is
divided on whether they vanished
before or after humans arrived.
Xénia Keighley at the University
of Copenhagen in Denmark and
her colleagues carbon-dated the
remains of 34 walruses found in
western Iceland.
They found that three died after
AD 874, when permanent settlers
are thought to have arrived. One
died only in 1330 (Molecular
Biology and Evolution, doi.org/
dbjv). In other words, Icelandic
walruses survived for only a few
centuries after humans arrived.
In itself, this isn’t proof that
humans killed off the walruses, but
the researchers suspect that is the
case because there are accounts
of Vikings hunting the animals,
and ivory was valuable to them.
However, the team also considered
whether the walruses might have
fled from people, as happened on
other islands. “When hunters went
to Svalbard, the females and calves
moved away,” says Keighley.
But the study doesn’t support
that idea. The Icelandic animals
Walrus ivory
was a valuable
commodity to
JAMI TARRIS/GETTY IMAGES
early settlers
on Iceland
have a DNA signature that isn’t
found in any other population,
suggesting they didn’t interact.
This finding is intriguing, but
it is based on mitochondrial DNA,
which gives limited information,
says Bastiaan Star at the University
of Oslo, Norway. ❚
Communication
We may share a basic
language with chimps
Clare Wilson
WE SEEM to have a natural
ability to communicate with
chimps. When tested, people
can usually understand
10 common hand gestures
used by chimpanzees. Human
infants use some of these same
gestures before they can talk,
although we don’t know if their
meanings are the same.
The gestures may be the
ARCO IMAGES GMBH/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO
remnants of a basic sign
language used by our last
common ancestors with other
apes, says Kirsty Graham, who
did the work with colleagues
while at the University of St
Andrews, UK. “This gestural
communication is probably
biologically inherited among
the great apes – including Graham presented the Some common hand
humans,” she says. findings at the European gestures may be
One idea about language Federation of Primatology shared by all great apes
evolution is that we developed meeting in Oxford, UK.
the ability to speak by building In a previous study, Adrian of which are also seen in
on a kind of sign language. To Soldati at St Andrews looked at chimps. Although they didn’t
investigate, Graham and her whether preverbal children used have enough material to
colleagues have been recording such signals. “Adults don’t need systematically study if the
the gestures of gorillas, chimps to use gestures so much because children’s gestures meant
and bonobos. So far, they have the same as those of the apes,
found 70 or so, with about
16 different meanings, as several
gestures can convey the same
52%
of the time people can identify
Soldati noticed a few such cases.
For example, if a child – or
chimp – reaches out with palm
message. Most are shared by an ape hand signal’s meaning uppermost, they are asking
these three great apes. for something. “They have this
The team set up a website spoken language is so powerful,” similar toolkit of gesture types
called the Great Ape Dictionary he says. He and his team filmed that, at least in some of the
where the public could watch 13 German and Ugandan infants cases, they used for similar
video clips of 10 common signs between 1 and 2 years old goals,” says Soldati. “We kind of
made by chimps and bonobos, interacting with caregivers. inherited this repertoire.”
and choose what each one They defined gestures as But there could be other
meant from four options. discrete movements during explanations for the way adults
By chance, they should get a periods of communication that can understand ape gestures,
quarter of the answers right. But achieve nothing physically – so says Thibaud Gruber at
they picked correctly 52 per cent it didn’t count if a child pulled the University of Geneva,
of the time, rising to 57 per cent their parent towards an object, Switzerland. “Humans can
if given a brief description of the for instance, but it did if they also recognise vocalisations,
situation in which the gesture gave a small, ineffectual tug. for example, a strident high-
was used. Some signals – such as Sometimes, the children pitched call signals danger. You
a chimp stroking near its mouth, seemed to succeed at achieving don’t have to invoke [ancestry],
which means it is asking for their goal, but not always. acoustics explains it. Some
food – were correctly matched The group recorded 52 kinds of these gestures are pretty
over 80 per cent of the time. of gestures, about 90 per cent obvious and self-explanatory.” ❚
21 September 2019 | New Scientist | 7
 Special report Ice loss
The Alps

Vanishing glaciers
As the UN prepares its report on the fate of the world’s ice,
Adam Vaughan visits a dramatically changing landscape
“IT’S very fast. We are confronted
with the reality of the retreat,” says
glaciologist Luc Moreau about the
rapidly vanishing ice at France’s
biggest glacier. We are looking at
the unmistakeable fingerprint
of climate change as told by the
historical photos hanging in a
hotel overlooking the Mer de
Glace, the “sea of ice” near the
Alps’ highest summit, Mont Blanc.
About a century ago, women
with boaters and parasols sat
near the Montenvers train station
above the glacier, which then
was almost level with a tongue
of jagged ice snaking into the

Mountain
guide Andy
KATIE MOORE FOR NEW SCIENTIST

Perkins says
warming is
causing
havoc

distance. Today, visitors are

greeted by a slightly sad and
largely grey glacier that is about
100 metres lower.

KATIE MOORE FOR NEW SCIENTIST

From the station, a short trip
by cable car takes me to the height
where, in 1988, a visitor could
descend down three steps to reach
the glacier. There are 580 steps
down to the glacier now. Of these,
80 were added this year – a stark
illustration of the accelerating
effects of global warming.
The fate of the world’s glaciers
will be laid bare by the UN climate
The Mer de Glace glacier.
Aerial shots from 1909
and 2019 (below) reveal
how much ice has been lost
France’s two biggest glaciers are
a short journey from the popular
Chamonix resort
LEFT: WALTER MITTELHOLZER, ETH-BIBLIOTHEK ZÜRICH;

science panel on 25 September, SWITZERLAND

Argentière
just days after research is
RIGHT: KIERAN BAXTER, UNIVERSITY OF DUNDEE

expected to confirm that the Argentière

glacier
extent of Arctic sea ice this Montenvers
summer reached the second Chamonix
lowest level ever recorded.
FRANCE Mer de Glace
There are some 170,000 glaciers
worldwide covering an area of
about 730,000 square kilometres. Mont Blanc ITALY
Monitoring of 500 glaciers
globally shows they are retreating

8 | New Scientist | 21 September 2019


across the board and, since 1960,
the rate at which they are losing
ice has increased. A leaked
draft of a report from the
Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change (IPCC) on our
planet’s oceans and ice warns that,
this century, melting glaciers will
“first give too much water and
then too little”.
800m
France’s two largest glaciers
have both lost this much of their
lengths over the past 30 years
Many places mentioned in the
IPCC report will seem remote to
some people, but the Mer de Glace
and nearby Argentière glacier are
in the heart of Europe, next to
Chamonix, a holiday destination
visited by millions every year.
Tourists can see the effects
clearly. The steps down to the Mer
de Glace are punctuated by “level
of the glacier” signs from 1985
through to 2015, the year the world
agreed the Paris accord to avert
dangerous global warming.
At the ice cave carved in the
glacier, white sheets have been laid
atop the ice to slow the melting.
Sébastien Payot tells me he is
running out of ways to adapt.
Since 1946, his family’s business
has carved a cave here for tourists
every year. But this year, the
diggers encountered a spit of
rock, indicating that they are
nearing the bottom of the glacier.
He fears that the ice’s retreat
means next year’s cave will be
the last. “It’s a barometer of
global warming,” he says.
Recent measurements
by Christian Vincent of the
University of Grenoble show that
the Mer de Glace and Argentière
glacier, France’s second greatest
glacier, have both lost around
800 metres in length in the past
three decades. Researchers have
gone further back in time by
working out the glacier’s depths
using photos taken from a balloon
in 1909, and comparing them with
photos taken from a helicopter
more recently (see bottom left).
The lift and the steps down to
the shrinking glacier will soon be
dismantled if plans by ski-lift firm
Compagnie du Mont Blanc go
ahead. It hopes to move access
to the glacier 500 metres up the
valley, and build an educational
centre focused on climate change.
“It should allow us to dig a new
cave in a place where scientists
think there should still be some
ice in the next 20 years, even with
the most pessimistic scenarios,”
says Mathieu Dechavanne at
Compagnie du Mont Blanc.
In this area, mountaineers
are seeing the changes up close.
“Eighteen years ago, people used
to ask ‘have you seen evidence of
climate change?’ They don’t ask
that anymore, because it’s clear
there is,” says Andy Perkins, a
British mountain guide who has
guided climbers here since 2001.
Warming is leading to more
rockfall and thawing permafrost,
causing havoc with infrastructure,
he says. “You have to take greater
care because there is no normal
anymore,” says Perkins.
In August, Perkins took a
client on the Cosmiques Arête,
a route above Chamonix that is
considered stable. A day later,
a large piece of rock fell from it.
A recent study of 95 Mont Blanc
massif climbing itineraries from
a famous 1973 book found that all
but two of the routes have been
affected by climate change.
Becky Coles, part of an
all-female team midway through
climbing all the 4000-metre peaks
in the Alps, found the heatwave in
June closed several route options.
It is hard to show rockfall is
How we can fight climate change
Christiana Figueres tells Adam Vaughan
newscientistlive.com
Scientists to be stranded
in the Arctic sea ice
The biggest scientific project
ever to take place in the Arctic
is about to kick off. This week,
a ship is set to begin drifting in
the sea ice off Siberia, where it
will become locked in the ice
for months of the Arctic winter.
The Polarstern icebreaker
is due to depart from Norway
on 20 September and is part
of MOSAIC, an epic endeavour
that will involve some 600
scientists studying climate
change, Arctic wildlife and
more over the course of a year.
Winter sea ice in the
Arctic is too thick even for
icebreakers to penetrate.
“It doesn’t make sense to
fight the ice, rather we are
going to work with it,” says the
expedition’s leader, Markus
Rex of the Alfred Wegener
Institute for Polar and Marine
Research in Germany.
The Polarstern, loaded with
scientific equipment, fuel and
food, will be supported by a
fleet of four other icebreakers.
For half a year, the ice will
be impenetrable, so a runway
on the ice will operate to fly
in supplies.
“It’s the biggest sea
ice experiment ever.
A once-in-a-lifetime
opportunity”
The behaviour of the
region’s rapidly declining
sea ice, which is expected to
disappear entirely over
summer in coming decades
because of climate change,
has been well-studied in
summer. But for winter, there
is little data beyond satellite
>
ALFRED-WEGENER-INSTITUT / MARIO HOPPMANN
The Polarstern icebreaker
is about to set out on an
unprecedented mission
images and basic temperature
records from ocean buoys,
says Rex.
The observations from the
Polarstern should help build
better models of climate
change. Rex says some models
predict that the Arctic will
warm by 5°C compared with
pre-industrial temperatures by
2100 but others predict 15°C
of warming. The range is huge
and needs narrowing, he says.
Donald Perovich from
Dartmouth University in
New Hampshire, who will be
aboard the Polarstern, says
the mission should also tell
us more about Arctic snow:
where it is, how it builds up in
winter and melts in summer,
and how it is blown around.
The mission should also
reveal more about how the
bottom of sea ice melts.
“It’s the biggest sea ice
experiment ever, by a large
margin,” says Perovich. “The
number of countries, the
number of scientists, the
number of icebreakers. It’s a
once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”
21 September 2019 | New Scientist | 9
Special report Ice loss

The melt of Mer de Glace getting worse because of a lack

In 1988, it took just three steps to reach of data, she says, but it feels worse
the Mer de Glace glacier from a lift stop. than in the past. “I think there’s
Today, it takes 580 to reach the glacier more rockfall, without a doubt.”
and the ice cave carved into it The heatwave was made more
probable by climate change.
1988: 3 steps
The retreat of the glaciers is
1990: 12 steps
affecting flora and fauna too, says
Hillary Gerardi of the Research
Centre for Alpine Ecosystems
2000: 118 steps in Chamonix. “We are seeing the
productivity of vegetation going
way up, plants are moving up the
slope and the growing season is
getting longer,” she says, citing
the example of a large tree that
Steps lead down to was found growing above
2010: 321 steps
the Mer de Glace Chamonix where a glacier had
2015: 370 steps glacier (above). An ice been situated just a decade ago.
cave (left) is dug in the Another example comes from
glacier every year the keeper of the Vignettes hut,
KATIE MOORE FOR NEW SCIENTIST

a stop on a popular walking route

in the area. A local plant known as
ICE CAVE génépi, used to make an alcoholic
drink, is usually picked at about
2019: 580 steps 2400 metres above sea level.
This year, the keeper picked it at
SOURCE: COMPAGNIE DU MONT-BLANC
3100 metres, the highest so far.
Meanwhile, some species will lose
out, like the rock ptarmigan, a bird
Greenland whose Alps habitat is shrinking.
The world is currently on the
Meltwater could Extracted ice cores and radar surface of this ice rather than path to dangerous warming, but
observations show that surface sinking into snow. This was first on 23 September, some 60 heads
raise sea level an melting is becoming so common observed in 2012, when there of state are expected to present
extra 7 centimetres and widespread in Greenland was extensive surface melting new climate change plans at a
that these bits of ice are getting across Greenland. UN summit in New York. The UN
MELTING and refreezing is turning larger and joining up to form Now computer modelling by special climate envoy, Luis Alfonso
the absorbent surface snow of extensive solid slabs. MacFerrin’s team suggests that de Alba, says the European Union’s
Greenland into solid ice. This means “This process really is meltwater runoff from the interior contribution will be fundamental
more water is draining straight into transforming the surface could add somewhere between to the meeting’s success.
the sea instead of soaking into the of the ice sheet in the interior 2 and 7 additional centimetres to Unless global action is taken
snow and refreezing deeper down. of Greenland,” says MacFerrin. sea level by 2100 (Nature, DOI: to curb carbon emissions, France’s
Now a study suggests that this will At present, almost all ice loss 10.1038/s41586-019-1550-3). two greatest glaciers are doomed.
cause an extra sea level rise by from Greenland is a result of That is roughly double previous A recent study by Vincent shows
2100 of at least a few centimetres. glaciers flowing faster into the sea. estimates that don’t take this that on the current emissions
“As a human and a father slab-forming effect into account. trajectory, Argentière will be
of three, it’s a little terrifying,”
says Michael MacFerrin at the
University of Colorado, whose
2-7cm
The predicted extra rise in sea level
The good news is that it isn’t
a runaway process that can’t be
reversed, such as the now-
gone by 2080 and Mer de Glace
by the end of the century.
“Almost nothing” can be done
team discovered the effect. caused by surface snow turning to ice inevitable collapse of the West locally to stop their decline, he
The Greenland ice sheet is Antarctic ice sheet. If surface says. Their future rests on the
made of snow. Deeper layers According to a recent survey of melting was reduced, a porous course the world takes. ❚
gradually turn to ice, but the surface climate scientists, Greenland ice snow layer would build up again.
used to consist almost entirely loss alone could add 33 centimetres, “This is completely dependent
of porous snow. When parts of it or maybe even 100 centimetres, on atmospheric temperatures,” Adam Vaughan is
melted, the water sank through to global sea level by 2100. says MacFerrin. “If you stop the chief reporter at New
the snow and refroze deeper In parts of Greenland, however, warming, you stop this effect.” ❚ Scientist and tweets as
down, forming chunks of ice. meltwater now runs over the Michael Le Page @adamvaughan_uk

10 | New Scientist | 21 September 2019

Food for thought
Give your mind a healthy balanced diet
with a New Scientist subscription

Why limit yourself to 5 a day?

)URPTXDQWXPSK\VLFVWRDUWLķFLDOLQWHOOLJHQFHIURPFOLPDWH
FKDQJHWRKXPDQKHDOWKDQGVRPXFKPRUHJLYH\RXUPLQGWKH
ULFKHVWGLHWRIZRUOGFKDQJLQJLGHDVZKHQ\RXVXEVFULEH

)RUHDV\VLJQXSYLVLW
newscientist.com/13563
Or call 1 888 822 3242,
quoting reference 13563
Savings based on a print + digital subscription to New Scientist made payable on an annual term. Offer closes 9th October 2019
News
Astronomy
A second interstellar tourist?
Mysterious comet heading our way may come from another star
Leah Crane
EXCITEMENT is building among
astronomers following the
sighting of an object that seems
to have come from outside our
solar system. If its origins are
confirmed, it will be only the
second interstellar object we
have detected. And unlike the
last, this one is heading our way.
The first interstellar object,
an asteroid called ‘Oumuamua,
was discovered in October 2017.
When we spotted it, it was already
on its way out of the solar system
and moving so fast that it was
difficult to study.
The new object is a comet,
spotted in images from the
Crimean Astrophysical
The world demands
more energy.
12 | New Scientist | 21 September 2019
Observatory on 30 August. Its
trajectory seems to indicate that it
came from beyond our solar
system, from the direction of the
constellation Casseiopeia. It was
initially known only as gb00234,
but is now being called comet
Borisov, after the astronomer who
first spotted it, Gennady Borisov.
Other astronomers have now
taken more than 150 pictures of
the object to try to nail down its
path. “We had one like this in late
May and it turned out to be a
normal comet,” says Michele
Bannister at Queen’s University
Belfast, UK. We don’t have enough
data yet to know whether Borisov
came from outside our solar
system, she says. “It’s a bit
under-baked as yet.”
Bill Gray, an independent
astronomy software developer,
has modelled the object’s path.
“It’s either a really bright
interstellar comet, or it’s getting
“It’s either a really bright
interstellar comet, or it’s
getting pushed around by
non-gravitational forces”
pushed around a lot by non-
gravitational forces,” he says.
It could be that material on the
comet is evaporating, creating a
propulsive force that has forced it
into a strange orbit. “Both are a
The world demands
less carbon.
little hard to believe, and we’ll
probably have to wait for more
data,” says Gray.
If it is an interstellar comet,
Gray’s modelling suggests that
it is heading towards us at about
30 kilometres per second and will
pass Earth in December. When it
passes us, it should be about twice
as far from us as the sun is.
This comet was caught much
earlier in its journey through the
solar system than ‘Oumuamua,
which will make it easier to
observe. This could give us a
unique opportunity to study
a rock from around another
star and perhaps learn what
other solar systems are like. ❚
 Can we use maths to clean our oceans?
Find out from Tom Crawford on 11 October
newscientistlive.com
Infinity

Mathematicians crack
50-year-old problem
Chelsea Whyte

IN AN infinite lottery, can you
create a lottery ticket that always
wins? This is the idea behind
a 50-year-old maths problem
that has now been solved.
But in a hypothetical infinite The normal It has taken Schrittesser
lottery, things are a little different. lottery is and Törnquist four years to
The winning collection of numbers somewhat solve the puzzle.
is infinitely long, and each ticket can easier to The pair used ideas from Ramsey
have an infinite number of rows, win than an theory to tackle the problem, a part

In a standard lottery, you have
a ticket with a handful of numbers
on it and if they match the randomly
selected numbers from the lottery,
your ticket wins.
Each ticket can have several
rows on it, giving you several
chances to win. This means that
a long enough ticket could in
principle have every possible
winning combination, so always
wins. It would cost so much money
to do this in reality, however,
that it wouldn’t be worth it.
GETTY IMAGES
with each row containing an infinite
number of numbers. In fact, the
ticket can be so large that the rows
can’t even be numbered, which
is called being uncountable.
In this situation, it is far less
obvious whether it is possible to
create a ticket that always wins.
It is now half a century since
mathematician Adrian R. D. Mathias
first posed the question, and David
Schrittesser and Asger Törnquist
at the University of Copenhagen
in Denmark have found an answer:
infinite lottery
it isn’t possible to have a ticket that
always wins the infinite lottery.
About 20 years ago, some
mathematicians rediscovered
the problem and started to make
progress. “Nobody took the
slightest notice for 30 years,
and then suddenly people got
interested again. It’s very satisfying
to see,” says Mathias.
of mathematics that looks at how
order appears in a large structure.
They found that in an infinite
lottery, a sort of structure arises that
means the winning numbers clump
together, but in a way that means
a ticket that always wins just can’t
exist (PNAS, doi.org/dbjk).
“With these kinds of problems,
you don’t sit down and say I’m
going to be the one who solves
it, because everyone has tried,”
says Schrittesser. “There’s a little
bit of serendipity.” ❚

Can the world We see possibilities

have both? everywhere.
From renewable energy and
cleaner-burning natural gas to
advanced fuels and new low
carbon businesses, BP is working
to make energy cleaner and better.

Natural gas burns 50% cleaner than coal in power generation.

21 September 2019 | New Scientist | 13

 News
Biodiversity
Pesticides could be partly
to blame for bird decline
Michael Le Page
BEES can be harmed by low
levels of neonicotinoid
pesticides, and now it seems
birds can too. Migrating white-
crowned sparrows have been
found to lose weight after eating
seeds treated with one of these
chemicals, imidacloprid,
delaying their onward
migration by several days.
Such a delay could hamper
their chances of successfully
breeding. However, the main
manufacturer of the pesticide
disputes the findings.
The latest twist in the debate
over neonicotinoids is the result
of work by Christy Morrissey at
the University of Saskatchewan
in Canada and her team. They
caught migrating sparrows,
tagged them with tiny radio
transmitters and gave them
feed containing imidacloprid
or an alternative without the
chemical. The birds given the
pesticide lost up to 6 per cent
KURT STRICKER/GETTY
14 | New Scientist | 21 September 2019
of their body weight in the
6 hours before release, whereas
the other birds hardly lost any.
Scans also showed a decline in
body fat among the first group.
When released, the birds not
fed imidacloprid continued
their migration after half a day.
Those given the pesticide took
four days, on average, to do the
same (Science, doi.org/dbg6).
57
out of 77 species of farmland bird
in North America are in decline
Morrissey says she also has
unpublished evidence that
two other neonicotinoids
have similar effects.
Birds that arrive late at
breeding grounds are less
likely to raise young successfully
and may not breed at all, says
Morrissey. “This has serious
impacts on populations.”
The study shows sublethal
doses of neonicotinoids
can have adverse effects on
seed-eating birds as well as
on beneficial insects such as
bees, says Caspar Hallmann
of Radboud University in the
Netherlands. “Birds – especially
small birds – are really
dependent on having sufficient
body fat during migration.”
The findings are disputed by
Bayer, the main manufacturer
of imidacloprid. Real-world
neonicotinoid exposure levels
are far below those that disrupt
migratory behaviour, and the
pesticides are safe when applied
according to instructions, says
a Bayer spokesperson.
Morrissey says the birds were
given realistic amounts. They
could get the highest dose given
in the study by eating just one-
tenth of a treated maize seed,
a fifth of a soya bean or three
canola seeds, for instance. “It’s
tiny, tiny amounts,” she says.
In North America, 57 of the
77 bird species associated with
farmland are in decline, with
neonicotinoids one possible
factor. However, Morrissey says
that banning these pesticides
isn’t the answer because
farmers will just use alternatives
that may turn out to be as bad.
Instead, we need to find ways
of farming that don’t rely on
quick chemical fixes, she says.
“The regulatory system
keeps failing, by allowing new
harmful chemicals into use,”
says Dave Goulson at the
University of Sussex in the
UK. “The only long-term
solution is to move away from
a reliance on pesticides to solve
every problem.” ❚
The white-crowned
sparrow is a native of
North America
Maths
Riddle that looks
like a pile of worms
is nearly cracked
Ben Skuse
WE ALMOST have a solution to
a fiendishly tricky mathematical
riddle first posed 82 years ago.
The Collatz conjecture is easy to
state. Start with any positive whole
number. If it is even, divide it by 2.
If it is odd, triple it and add 1.
Whatever the result, follow the
same steps as before, again and
again, building a sequence. The
conjecture says that whatever
number you start with, you
eventually get 1 as the answer.
The sequence can be depicted
visually to show lines all wiggling
their way back to the same spot.
This looks a bit like fronds of waving
seaweed or a pile of wiggly worms.
The conjecture has been verified
up to the starting number of 1020
(100 quintillion). However, proving
it absolutely involves not just
checking more numbers but also
finding a reasoned mathematical
explanation that it is always true.
Now Terence Tao at the
University of California, Los
Angeles, seems to have almost
got that. His work builds on that of
other researchers, who proved that
almost all sequences were at least
able to reach an intermediate value
between their starting number n
and 1. This means they can’t
balloon to infinity.
Tao has managed to go further
(arxiv.org/abs/1909.03562).
“I showed that one could move
this intermediate milestone to be
as close as one wishes to the final
goal 1 for almost all n,” he says.
Jeffrey Lagarias at the University
of Michigan says Tao’s work is “the
most significant progress on the
problem in many years”.
However, Tao says there is little
hope of using his methods to find
a complete proof. He writes that
this is “well beyond [the] reach of
current methods”. This is because
he relies heavily on techniques from
probability theory, meaning there
is always a small chance of failure. ❚

ECNP conference round-up Mental health
Light therapy may help relieve
symptoms of perinatal depression
Jessica Hamzelou
WOMEN with perinatal depression
appear to have altered circadian
rhythms. Using light to reset the
body clock seems to improve
their symptoms.
Our bodies run on internal
clocks that are regulated by a suite
of genes. In concert with light,
they wake us up in the morning
and leave us sleepy by night-time.
People with severe depression
GETTY IMAGES
tend to have disrupted circadian
rhythms, experiencing daytime
sleepiness and night-time
insomnia. Research has found
higher activity in some circadian
genes in people with the condition.
Perinatal depression – which
occurs during and after
pregnancy – seems to be similar.
Women tend to get less sleep when
they are pregnant, particularly if
they have perinatal depression.
To find out if circadian genes
might play a role, Massimiliano
Buoli and Cecilia Maria Esposito
of the University of Milan, Italy,
analysed seven genes in
44 women in the third trimester
of pregnancy. Thirty of the women
were diagnosed with perinatal
depression.
By looking at whether
epigenetic tags called methyl
groups were attached to the
genes, the researchers and their
colleagues could tell how active
these genes were. They found that
“Four circadian genes
showed different activity
in the women diagnosed
with depression”
three circadian genes were more
active and one was less active
in the women who had been
diagnosed with depression.
The team also found that the
more methyl groups there were,
the more severe a woman’s
symptoms were likely to be.
This suggests that the greater
the difference in circadian gene
activity, the more likely a woman
is to experience symptoms of
depression, say Buoli and Esposito.
The pair presented their findings
at the European College of
Neuropsychopharmacology
annual meeting in Copenhagen.
Brain network linked
to multiple mental
health conditions
A SET of brain structures appears
to be implicated in depression,
schizophrenia and other mental
health conditions, delegates
at the European College of
Neuropsychopharmacology
annual meeting heard last week.
“We know for psychiatric
illnesses, the categories of
diagnosis are not very reliable,” says
Maxime Taquet at the University of
Oxford. Psychiatric disorders have
been shown to overlap when it
comes to which genes they are
linked to, as well as symptoms.
Taquet and his colleagues wanted
to find out how these shared genetic
factors might influence a person’s
brain structure. Looking at the
SUDOK1/GETTY
brains of adults with established
disorders might not answer the
question, as the disorder or any
Hear Linda Geddes talk about how sunlight shapes our bodies
and minds at New Scientist Live on 11 October
newscientistlive.com
“The work is tremendously
exciting,” says Katherine Sharkey
at Brown University, Rhode Island.
In her own research, Sharkey
has found that using a light
box to mimic natural daylight
improves the symptoms of
perinatal depression. In a small
treatments might have caused
changes to the brain.
Instead, his team turned to
children aged between 3 and 18,
none of whom had been diagnosed
with a psychiatric condition. Any
differences in brain structure
among children are more likely
to be explained by genes rather
than the effects of an established
disorder or treatment, says Taquet.
Using data from 678 children in
the US, the team searched for 1877
genetic factors linked to a range of
psychiatric conditions, including
schizophrenia, panic disorder and
addiction. Each child was given a
score based on their overall genetic
Genetic factors
involved in
mental health
may influence
brain structure
Circadian rhythms
appear to be disrupted
in pregnancy
unpublished trial of 44 women
with the condition, she found
that those given a light box and
sleep routine alongside routine
treatment saw their symptoms
improve. “Everybody got better,
but the women given a circadian
intervention did better [than
those without],” says Sharkey.
Sharkey doesn’t yet have
enough evidence to recommend
the treatment more widely, but
there is evidence that a good sleep
routine and outdoor exposure to
sunlight is beneficial for mental
health. “In a typical office space,
the light level is 300 to 400 lux,
but on a bright, sunny day, outside
can be 50,000 lux,” says Sharkey. ❚
risk for mental health issues.
Brain scans revealed “large
differences” between the brains
of high-risk and low-risk children,
says Taquet. The team describes
the affected regions as the
“vulnerability network”, and
it includes the default mode
network, which is active when
the brain is at rest, plus regions
involved in planning and vision.
The findings add weight to
the idea that seemingly different
disorders have a lot in common,
says Taquet. “The psychiatric
disease categories we have, such
as depression, bipolar disorder,
schizophrenia and anxiety disorder,
are not that different in the end,
from a biological point of view.”
Annika Hulten, a medical adviser
for pharmaceutical firm Janssen-
Cilag in Helsinki, Finland, says the
work is “impressive and promising”.
But she says it is too soon to know
if this network would make a good
target for future treatments. ❚ JH
21 September 2019 | New Scientist | 15
 News In brief
THEO ALLOFS/GETTY IMAGES
Exoplanets
Watery alien world
best bet yet for life
A PLANET twice Earth’s size with
water in its atmosphere has been
spotted 110 light years away. It may
be the best place found so far to
seek life beyond our solar system.
Björn Benneke at the University
of Montreal in Canada and his
colleagues used the Hubble space
telescope to observe the alien
world, called K2-18 b, as it passed
in front of its star. This is the first
time the atmosphere of a planet
of this size has been characterised.
Benneke’s team and another led
by Angelos Tsiaras at University
College London looked at the
edges of the planet as it transited
its star so that light shone through
the atmosphere, allowing them
to analyse what it was made of.
They found distinct signs of water
vapour. K2-18 b is also in the
habitable zone around its star,
defined as the area where a planet
could maintain liquid water on its
16 | New Scientist | 21 September 2019
Animal behaviour
Crabs unleash their inner
growl when intimidated
GHOST crabs can “growl” by
grinding the teeth inside their
stomach. While many crustaceans
have such teeth to aid digestion,
the ghost crab is the first that
has been shown to use them
to communicate as well.
It has long been known that ghost
crabs (pictured) use noise to deter
intruders by flexing their claws,
making ridges near the joint rub
against each other. But when an
animal gets too close, the crabs hold
their claws upright, which prevents
them making these sounds.
Jennifer Taylor at the Scripps
Institution of Oceanography in
California noticed that even in
this position, the crabs still make
a rasping sound when threatened.
She and her colleagues couldn’t tell
what was causing the noise, so they
used X-ray videos to see what was
Physiology
surface (Nature Astronomy,
doi.org/dbgp). Bones fire up body’s
“This is the only planet that response to danger
we know of right now outside
our solar system that is in the YOUR skeleton secretes a hormone
habitable zone, that has an that helps to coordinate the flight-
atmosphere and that has water or-fight response, suggesting this
in it, which makes it the best part of our body is far from inert.
candidate for habitability When faced with a sudden
we know of,” said Tsiaras at threat, our heart and breathing
a press conference. rate, blood pressure, circulating
Planets like this one, between blood sugar and body temperature
the size of Earth and Neptune, increase to prepare our muscles
are common around other for action. This response is known
stars, but their atmospheres to be controlled by nerve pathways
are difficult to study compared from the brain and hormones
with those of larger worlds.
While K2-18 b probably does
have a rocky core, it is likely to
be mostly gaseous, making it
more similar to Neptune than
Earth, says Laura Kreidberg at the
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for
DOUGLAS SACHA/GETTY IMAGES
Astrophysics in Massachusetts.
“The jury is still out on whether a
planet like this could be habitable.
If there were life there, it definitely
wouldn’t be like life as we know
it on Earth,” she says. Leah Crane
happening inside the crabs as they
growled in response to various
threats. These revealed that the
rasping coincided with movements
of the teeth in the crabs’ foreguts,
known as gastric mills, and that the
teeth weren’t grinding up food at
the time (Proceedings of the Royal
Society B, doi.org/dbgj).
Many animals, from worms and
molluscs to birds, have mechanisms
for grinding food in their gizzards
that can produce audible noises
(though birds swallow stones rather
than having internal teeth – as did
dinosaurs). Taylor suspects that
some of these animals also use
these noises for communication.
Some fish, such as grunts,
produce sounds using the teeth
in their throats. This is the closest
known equivalent to the ghost
crabs, says Taylor. Michael Le Page
released by the adrenal glands.
Now, Gerard Karsenty at
Columbia University in New York
and his colleagues have discovered
that a hormone released by bones
called osteocalcin also has a role.
They found that blood levels of
osteocalcin quickly rose in people
when stressed. The same thing
happened in mice and rats (Cell
Metabolism, doi.org/dbgh).
The results build on the group’s
earlier work showing that bones
release osteocalcin to help muscles
burn fuel during exercise, and that
osteocalcin injections in older
mice make ageing muscles more
youthful. Together, these findings
suggest we need a radical rethink
of the role of bones, which have
previously been viewed as mostly
inert structures, says Karsenty.
The body may have different
ways of mounting a flight-or-fight
response so we have back-ups in
place in case one system fails, says
Robin McAllen at the University
of Melbourne in Australia.
Alice Klein
 New Scientist Daily
Get the latest scientific discoveries in your inbox
newscientist.com/sign-up
Technology
Really brief
University of California, Los on the inside. The black disc was
Free energy even Angeles, and his colleagues have designed to cool by losing heat
when the sun sets invented a $30 device that makes to the sky, while the aluminium
electricity at night using the block was designed to warm up
A DEVICE that makes electricity thermoelectric effect – in which by absorbing heat from the night
at night using heat rising from the temperature differences can be air. A thermoelectric generator
ground could be used to power converted to electricity. then converted the temperature
lights and phones in remote spots. Raman and his team created difference to electricity.
LEANDRO SOUSA

More than 1 billion people a temperature difference using It produced 25 milliwatts of

globally, chiefly in poor, rural a mechanism called radiative sky power per square metre when
communities, still lack an cooling, which causes sky-facing tested on a roof in California on a
electricity supply. Cheap solar cells surfaces to become colder than clear night, enough to switch on
Two new species of are increasingly used to power the surrounding air as they an LED light (Joule, doi.org/dbgm).
electric eel found lights, mobile phones and home naturally radiate heat into the The output would probably be
appliances in these communities, sky. They constructed a box with 20 times better in hotter climates,
It was thought that there but they work only during the day. a black disc on the outside facing says Raman. However, cloud and
was only one species of Now, Aaswath Raman at the upwards and an aluminium block rain may hinder it. AK
electric eel. Now two more
have been discovered, one Astronomy Robotics
of which (Electrophorus
voltai, pictured) delivers a
record jolt. All three species Is it a bird? Is it a fish?
are found in South America No, a leaping waterbot
and can produce between
650 and 860 volts LIKE a flying fish gliding above
(Nature Communications, the waves, a robot can propel itself
doi.org/dbdr). out of water into flight.
SOUTH AFRICAN RADIO ASTRONOMY OBSERVATORY

Mirko Kovac and his colleagues

Ancient kangaroos at Imperial College London have
had crushing bites developed a robot that can lift
itself out of water and travel
Giant ice age kangaroos through the air for up to 26 metres.
had “absurdly huge It weighs 160 grams and could be
cheekbones”, which used for monitoring the ocean,
helped them munch tough taking samples by jumping in
branches. The finding and out of the water in cluttered
came from creating a environments, avoiding obstacles
digital model of a skull such as ice in cold regions or
of Simosthenurus Giant space bubbles found floating objects after a flood.
occidentalis, an extinct The robot consists of a small
kangaroo that lived until near heart of the Milky Way tank that refills with water from
around 42,000 years ago its aquatic surroundings. It is
(PLoS One, doi.org/dbdq). THE centre of our galaxy has blown to the galactic disk (Nature, powered by calcium carbide, a
some bubbles. Astronomers using doi.org/dbgn). They are just visible chemical powder that reacts with
Tower is made of the MeerKAT telescope in South as smoky smudges above and below water to produce combustible
self-shaping wood Africa have found a pair of vast the bright central line of the galaxy acetylene gas. When the gas is
balloons of high-energy particles in the picture above. ignited by a spark, it expands,
A method for producing above and below the Milky Way’s The particles in them must have pushing a jet of water out that
bent wooden panels could central supermassive black hole. been accelerated by a powerful propels the robot into the air.
make it easier to create MeerKAT can detect synchrotron event at the middle of the Milky Way, It can jump multiple times
curvy buildings. The radiation that is caused by charged perhaps the black hole gobbling lots after refilling with water, which
technique involves the particles like electrons moving near of material and causing a big flare. could allow it to take several
use of wooden sheets the speed of light. Farhad Zadeh at The bubbles may be related samples per trip.
designed to bend as they Northwestern University in Illinois to another cosmic mystery. More The team tested the creation
dry and has been applied and his colleagues used it to map than 100 filaments of magnetised in a lab, lake and wave tank. The
for the first time to build the area near our galaxy’s core. particles were discovered about next stage is to see whether it
a 14-metre-tall twisting They found two huge bubbles 35 years ago, and we don’t know could be used to monitor the
tower in Germany (Science protruding from the area around how they formed or why they oceans around coral reefs and
Advances, doi.org/dbh9). the supermassive black hole at the emit radio waves. These strands offshore energy platforms (Science
centre of the galaxy, perpendicular are within the bubbles. LC Robotics, doi.org/dbgk). Donna Lu

21 September 2019 | New Scientist | 17

 News Insight
Research ethics

Dirty money?
In the wake of the Jeffrey Epstein science-funding scandal, we need to talk
about where money for research comes from, writes Chelsea Whyte
THE revelation that financier
Jeffrey Epstein was funding
high-profile scientific research
even after he had been convicted
of sex offences has rekindled a
debate about who funds science.
How do we decide what sorts of
donation are ethical, and to what
extent does it matter where
research funds come from?
The scandal over Epstein’s
science funding came to a head
on 7 September, a month after
Epstein died by suicide. It was
then that Joichi Ito, director of
the Massachusetts Institute
of Technology (MIT) Media
Lab, resigned. He admitted to
accepting some $1.7 million

NEMANJA TRIFUNOVIC/ WWW.MEDIA.MIT.EDU

from Epstein, both for the Media
Lab, an interdisciplinary research
group, and his own investment
funds. Epstein had been convicted
in 2008 of sexually abusing girls
as young as 14.
Ito’s acceptance of Epstein’s
money wasn’t a crime, but this is
an ethical grey area. Articles in the
media, and discussions between profile, as long as the money some people think are improper MIT’s Media Lab combines
scientists at MIT, have suggested was taken anonymously. Ito did (see “Money trouble”, right). research from technology,
that Ito’s actions were wrong indeed ensure that the money It is an apt time to ask these media, science and art
he accepted from Epstein was questions, because research
kept anonymous. institutions are facing a fragile Government-backed
Such debates over Epstein’s funding environment. “Until organisations like the US Office
funding of science have prompted the financial crisis, science had of Research Integrity, and the UK
ALAMY; SHUTTERSTOCK

Joichi Ito (left) accepted money from
sex offender Jeffrey Epstein (right)
because they burnished Epstein’s
public reputation by associating
him with respected scientists.
the question: are there good
enough systems to allow people
to collectively decide which
sources of research funding
they are happy with?
This goes far beyond Epstein.
The tobacco industry once funded
a lot of health research with the
purpose of improving its own
reputation. Today, Facebook funds
research into the effects of social
media on democratic processes,
benefited from pretty steady
annual growth rates. Now,
government funding has
started to decline or plateau,”
says Jack Stilgoe at University
College London. Research
institutions really need cash
and so “they are more likely
to get themselves in this kind
of trouble”, says Stilgoe.
equivalent, offer guidelines on
how to avoid conflicts of interest
and conduct research responsibly.
These touch on funding, often
stipulating, for example, that
funders shouldn’t be able to
influence what results get
reported. But funding decisions
aren’t overseen by independent
bodies. At universities, they are
usually made by a funding office.
When science is primarily

That view isn’t universal. In an
essay last week, Lawrence Lessig
at Harvard University argued that
taking Epstein’s money could
have helped MIT’s research
without ameliorating Epstein’s
despite being seen by some as a
platform from which democracy
can be manipulated. There are
plenty of other examples of
research institutions taking
money from sources that
$1.7m
Amount of money that
Joichi Ito says he accepted
from Jeffrey Epstein
funded by the public, measures
like this may be sufficient. But
Stilgoe says that during the
20th century, sources of funding
have diversified, with the military
and others giving more money

18 | New Scientist | 21 September 2019

 More Insight online
Your guide to a rapidly changing world
newscientist.com/insight
Money trouble
The Massachusetts Institute of
Technology Media Lab isn’t the
only place to have accepted
donations from sources that
some consider inappropriate
(see main story).
The London School of
Economics came under fire
in 2011 for accepting money
from a foundation run by
Libyan dictator Muammar
Gaddafi.
In the same year, the
University of California, Los
Angeles, accepted $10 million
from Lowell Milken to set up a
business law institute.
He had been indicted for
racketeering and fraud.
New York’s Metropolitan
Museum of Art has a wing
named after the Sackler family,
who own Purdue Pharma,
which has been accused of
stoking the opioid crisis in the
US. The museum said in May
that it would stop accepting
donations from the family.
Many other places have
financial links to the family
too, including an imaging
laboratory at London’s
Natural History Museum.
with strings attached. “Scientists
have not been great at talking
about the conflicts of interest
that come with that,” he says.
There is no commonly adopted
ethical framework to guide these
decisions, although some have
tried to create one. One attempt
is the Missenden Code of Practice
for Ethics and Accountability,
developed by Rory Daly who is
now at Lancaster University, UK.
The code says universities
should create an ethics committee
that includes representatives
of students, staff and the local
community, and that this should
vet every source of funding.
John Wakeford at the Missenden
Centre near High Wycombe, UK,
worked with Daly on the code.
He says the idea was well received
by ethicists, but university funding
offices didn’t widely adopt it.
A 2011 seminar for university
development officers to discuss
funding ethics garnered interest
from only two people, he says.
The inclusion of staff and
students on such a panel could
alleviate funding concerns before
they turn into a fiasco, says
Wakeford. Without this kind
of transparency, universities
can put their staff in unethical
positions without their consent.
That was true for Ethan
Zuckerman of the Media Lab.
He was unaware that the lab had
received funding from Epstein,
and resigned in protest when
he found out. In a blog post,
he wrote that his work focused
on social justice and that it was
“hard to do that work with a
straight face” in a place that had
worked with Epstein.
However, a Missenden-style
committee wouldn’t necessarily
have helped in the MIT case,
because Ito concealed where the
money came from. A committee
can’t vet donations it doesn’t
know about.
Does this mean that we need
a regulatory body with sharp
teeth to force all donations to
science into the light of day?
We may not need to go that far.
Kieron Flanagan at the University
of Manchester, UK, says that
autonomy is baked into the
principles guiding universities
and that this scandal may well
prompt them to revisit their rules.
Working
hypothesis
Sorting the week’s
supernovae from the
absolute zeros
“When a scandal comes along,
as it does periodically, institutions
respond to that in a scramble
and maybe set their own
principles for what funding
they’ll accept,” he says. ▲ Vegemite flies
It is also clear that not all A balloon has carried
scientific funding is suspect, says two slices of Vegemite
James Wilsdon at the University on toast 100 kilometres
of Sheffield, UK. Public funding is into the atmosphere.
well regulated. And many private Your move, Marmite.
donations are directed towards
specific research or particular ▲ Superbolts
labs, which often makes the We now know that
expectations clear. lightning bolts that are
1000 times stronger
than average mainly
$10m
Amount donated to the University
strike at sea, particularly
at a hotspot near Japan.
▲ Moon elevator
of California, Los Angeles, by A cable tethered to the
someone indicted for fraud moon rather than to Earth
could be a more feasible
The problem lies elsewhere, way of building a space
when money is donated to elevator to our nearest
particular teams or institutions neighbour.
without a stipulated goal or aim.
“Shovelling money into this grey ▼ Nappy changer
space that exists above individuals An inventor who patented
and specific projects makes it an “automatic nappy
possible not to see the fingerprint changer” has won an
of that funding,” says Wilsdon. Ig Nobel prize. Who wants
One reasonable way to to put their child in first?
encourage transparency around
this type of funding, says Wilsdon, ▼ A load of dung
could be to legally require all A story about an Inuit man
donations to research institutions who made a knife from
to be made public if they are over his frozen faeces may not
a certain amount. This approach be entirely true. When
already exists in politics, so we ethnographers made one,
know it is workable. the blade melted when
One thing is sure: these they tried cutting meat.
questions aren’t going away.
And it is probably going to be
prestigious labs that face them
most often. On the one hand, they
are a magnet for rich individuals
looking to make a statement.
GETTY IMAGES/ALAMY
On the other, they already have
enough money to carry out due
diligence. “It should be easier for
them to say no,” says Flanagan. ❚
21 September 2019 | New Scientist | 19
 SAVE 15%
USE CODE
FINAL15

JOIN US AT THE WORLD’S

GREATEST SCIENCE FESTIVAL
10 -13 October | ExCel London

BIG THINKERS
OLA ROSLING • CAROLINE CRIADO-PEREZ • LEE BERGER • ALICE ROBERTS • AVI LOEB
GELONG THUBTEN AND ASH RANPURA • MEGAN ROSSI • PAUL DAVIES • MAGGIE ADERIN-POCOCK
MARTIN REES • MARCUS DU SAUTOY • LIZ BONNIN • ROBERT PLOMIN • JO DUNKLEY • VLATKO VEDRAL
JOANNA BRYSON • MARK MASLIN • JACQUELINE MCGLADE • GEOFF SIMM • GINA RIPPON • AL WORDEN

BIG IDEAS AND BIG ISSUES

IS MARS HABITABLE? • ARE WE ALONE? • WHAT HAVE INSECTS DONE FOR US?
CANNABIS AND MENTAL HEALTH • THE FUTURE OF HEALTHCARE • THE FUTURE OF ENERGY
HOW CLIMATE CHANGE IS AFFECTING AIR TRAVEL • IS GAMING BAD FOR US?
WEIGHING FORESTS FROM SPACE • IN PURSUIT OF ONLINE PRIVACY • WHAT’S THE POINT OF DADS?
FIXING THE PLASTIC WASTE PROBLEM • AIR QUALITY • THE TRUTH ABOUT DIETS

FOR CURIOUS MINDS

BOBBY SEAGULL • DOCK A SOYUZ SPACECRAFT • LEVITATING WITH SOUND
CARNIVOROUS PLANTS • SUPERHUMANS • MARS ROVER • RELICS FROM THE MARY ROSE
DINOSAURS OF BRITAIN • WHAT WE CAN LEARN FROM ANCIENT TECHNOLOGIES • OUMUAMUA
SCIENCE COMEDY QUIZ • AFTER-DARK DISCO • HOW EARTH MADE US • CONSERVATION DRONES
WHY DO SMART PEOPLE DO STUPID THINGS? • GUT HEALTH • AGEING • THE SCIENCE OF FATBERGS

Only three weeks to go! Visit newscientistlive.com and use code FINAL15
*Valid on Standard and Friday Night Late tickets

SPONSORS
AND PARTNERS
 Views
The columnist Letters Aperture Culture Culture columnist
Annalee Newitz on There are several Rival mudskippers Inside the anti- Roguelike games
tech firms’ union approaches to saving tussle for territory science world of can’t be truly random,
confusion p22 the Arctic Ocean p26 in Japan p28 The Testaments p30 says Jacob Aron p32

Comment

Climate strikes grow up

The school strike for the climate movement is looking for adult
support on 20 September. We should give it, argues Alice Bell

also walk out, part of the long-

standing Amazon Employees
for Climate Justice campaign.
If you can’t leave work, there
are still plenty of ways to aid the
strikers. You could donate some of
your wages to a climate campaign
or write to schools, local papers
and political representatives in
support of the protests.
Above all, the young strikers
want to see more people taking
increasingly ambitious climate
action. The most helpful thing any
of us can do is look around, decide
what needs to change and resolve
to make that change happen.
That can’t end with a 30-minute
microstrike on 20 September.
Climate change isn’t something
we simply win or lose, then the
game ends. As climate scientist
Kate Marvel puts it, it’s more of
a slope we slide down.

I
T IS just over a year since
Swedish teenager Greta
Thunberg, frustrated by
political inaction on climate
change and following Sweden’s
hottest summer in more than
250 years, skipped school and sat
in front of the Swedish parliament
with a handwritten “Skolstrejk för
klimatet” (School strike for the
climate) sign.
Before long, teenagers in other
countries were following her lead,
building momentum towards the
global Fridays for Future school
strike movement. They have
brought a new energy, bluntness
and charisma to the climate
JOSIE FORD
On 20 September, they are
asking adults all over the world
to join them in showing up on
the streets. Whether you are an
employee, employer or neither,
it’s worth asking what you can
do to answer that call.
If nothing else, this is a
chance to show a positive spirit
of intergenerational cooperation
on an issue that could be very
generationally divisive – and in a
world increasingly scarred by such
conflict. Climate change is an issue
for us all. We should send a clear
signal that we know delegating it
to the young to sort out will leave
it too late.
first places outside Sweden to
spark a youth strike. By dint of
their nation’s location on the
globe, Australians will be some
of the first to strike. There, the
Not Business As Usual coalition
of employers has pledged to
support the strike, whether by
closing company doors, having
a meeting-free day, allowing a
longer lunch break to attend
protests or just making it clear
that teams won’t be penalised
for taking a few hours off.
In the UK, the Trades Union
Congress has voted to support
30 minutes of solidarity action
on the day. As the strike begins
The sort of climate nihilism
that the novelist Jonathan Franzen
was pilloried for after his article in
The New Yorker last week – that
we’re doomed, so there’s no point
doing anything – is the last thing
we need right now. As we cross
the threshold of 1°C of global
warming, it’s still not too late.
Concerted, sustained action on
behalf of all those who care about
the future of the planet is what
is needed. 20 September is the
perfect time to show that’s where
you stand, too. ❚
Alice Bell is co-director
of climate charity 10:10.

debate – and shown spectacular Australia shows how support across the Atlantic, more than Follow her on Twitter
skill at embarrassing politicians. can be mobilised. It was one of the 1000 employees at Amazon will @alicebell

21 September 2019 | New Scientist | 21

Views Columnist
This changes everything
Your job has been cancelled Gig workers in California will fight
employers the old fashioned way – with laws. By Annalee Newitz
I
T STARTED with a rumour.
“Don’t use the DoorDash app
to tip your driver,” a friend
told me. “The company steals tips.
You have to pay the driver directly,
in cash.” Sure enough, a few days
later the story broke: DoorDash,
the food delivery app, was using
tips to cover drivers’ guaranteed
Annalee Newitz is a science base rate of $10 per delivery.
journalist and author. Her If I tipped my driver $10 via
novel Autonomous won the app, DoorDash would use
the Lambda Literary Award that money to cover her base
and she is the co-host pay and she would get no tip.
of the Hugo-nominated If I tipped her in cash, she would
podcast Our Opinions Are get her $10 base from DoorDash,
Correct. You can follow her plus the tip she had earned.
@annaleen and her website Drivers were rightly incensed.
is techsploitation.com But there was nothing they could
do. Like drivers at Uber and Lyft,
these gig workers had been hired
as independent contractors – and
that meant no worker protections
Annalee’s week under US federal and state law.
What I’m reading Now that is about to change.
Gideon the Ninth by Thanks to a law that has just
Tamsyn Muir, which passed in California, known
features necromancers as Assembly Bill 5, many gig
in space! workers will be reclassified as
employees, making them entitled
What I’m watching to benefits, legal protections
Tigers Are Not Afraid, and the right to unionise.
a cinematic fairy tale This is what it sounds like
about the ghosts of drug when the future arrives. You
war victims in Mexico. were expecting disco, but you
got punk rock. For over a decade,
What I’m working on gig economy companies have
Programming my been promising that they would
coffee table. launch us into an age of smooth,
post-scarcity goodness, where
everyone could do the work they
wanted to do, when they felt like it.
All thanks to apps and algorithms
that help workers find customers
who want to pay them.
But when the rubber met
GADO IMAGES / ALAMY STOCK PHOTO
the road, it turned out that the
algorithms didn’t assign people
enough work to survive. And
then companies tried to squeeze
This column appears even more money out of their
monthly. Up next week: gig workers, with things like
James Wong DoorDash’s tip-keeping practice.
22 | New Scientist | 21 September 2019
When workers complained,
companies pointed to barely
comprehensible “arbitration
clauses” in the click-through
employment agreements that
their drivers had signed. These
arbitration clauses meant all
problems had to be resolved
privately, between worker and
company, without lawyers or
union representatives.
Assembly Bill 5 has taken away
those arbitration clauses too.
Uber has already vowed to fight
the law. Its lawyers claim that the
company’s primary enterprise is
“technology”, not transportation.
Its drivers are therefore peripheral
“If I tipped my driver
via the app, DoorDash
would use that money
for her pay and she
would get no tip”
to its business, and not entitled
to employee status. Uber’s
representatives also claim
that if drivers go full time,
everything will suck because
employees have to work set
hours in limited locations.
These are mind-boggling
assertions. First, Uber is literally
nothing but drivers. Take them
away, and the app is useless.
Second, the Uber app is incredibly
sophisticated, capable of
coordinating millions of requests
and routes and fare changes.
But it is somehow too hard for
Uber engineers to figure out how
to assign flexible full-time hours
to drivers in multiple locations?
Luckily, we can do more than
merely pose snarky questions
about Uber’s intentions. We
can sue them. Under Assembly
Bill 5, the state and cities have
the right to sue businesses that
incorrectly classify employees
as contractors. That is what
California is likely to do.
The whole scenario is a
reminder that technological
change doesn’t always lead us
towards a more futuristic culture.
Sometimes, it leads us back to
the Victorian era, when workers
had no recourse to justice even
when newfangled factory
machines kept eating their arms
and fingers. As we career into the
next decade, this contradiction is
likely to become more obvious.
And we are having to call on a
very old-fashioned system, the
law, to prevent the 21st century
from turning into a Charles
Dickens novel.
Gig work has spawned a new
generation of union organisers
and labour lawyers. And their
movement is bleeding into the
upper echelons of the tech
industry, too. Google’s employees
have staged walkouts to protest
pay inequities, and Amazon is
so worried about unionisation
that it has created anti-labour
educational videos for managers.
Even friendly crowdfunding
site Kickstarter just fired two
employees who were trying to
organise a union. I’m pretty sure
this isn’t the future that DoorDash
and Uber’s funders were promised
when they poured billions of
dollars into gig apps.
Technology rarely leads to the
social changes you might expect.
Even our shiny new phones and
brilliant apps are mired in
conflicts that go back centuries.
Maybe the best way to predict
what’s next is to pay attention
to what came before. ❚
 SUBSCRIPTION OFFER

Subscribe today
*
from only $1.91 a week

- Free weekly print

delivery to your door
As a - The New Scientist app, giving
New Scientist you instant access anytime,
anywhere, including
subscriber you - Current and back issues of New Scientist
also benefit All issues of New Scientist: The Collection -
exclusively worth $9.99 each!
from: - Full access to newscientist.com with
- Over 30 years of archive content
- 100+ science talk videos
- Early access to magazine features online

For easy online sign-up, visit newscientist.com/13565

Or call 1 888 822 3242, quoting reference 13565

* A digital subscription package to New Scientist costs $1.93 a week, made payable by quarterly continuous payment methods
 EXPLORE THE BIG IDEAS
ARE WE ALONE IN THE UNIVERSE? • WHAT IS LIFE?
THE FUTURE OF HEALTHCARE • FACTFULNESS
CLIMATE CHANGE • HOMO NALEDI • SOLVING AGEING
WHO ARE WE? A CONVERSATION BETWEEN BUDDHISM
AND NEUROSCIENCE • MORE THAN 120 TALKS
COME AND HEAR!

FUN FOR ALL THE FAMILY

MADDIE MOATE’S STORY TIME
POP-UP PLANETARIUM • BE A BRAIN SURGEON
WALK ON THE MOON • FIRE TORNADOS
VR ROLLER COASTER • SMELLY WORLD OF INSECTS
ROCKET WORKSHOP • ROBOTS • JET SUIT FLIGHT
OVER 150 INTERACTIVE EXPERIENCES
COME AND SEE!

SPONSORS
AND PARTNERS
GREATEST SCIENCE FESTIVAL
FOR CURIOUS MINDS
GUT HEALTH • DINOSAURS OF BRITAIN
FUTURE OF FARMING • THE SCIENCE OF MAGIC
WHY DO SMART PEOPLE DO STUPID THINGS?
CANNABIS AND MENTAL HEALTH
QUANTUM REALITY • THE TRUTH ABOUT DIETS
SCIENCE TO SAVE THE WORLD
COME AND LEARN!

USE CODE
FINAL15
SAVE 15%

Only 3 weeks to go! Visit

newscientistlive.com
and use code FINAL15
10 -13 October | ExCel London

*Valid on Standard and Friday Night Late tickets only

Views Your letters

Editor’s pick
Several approaches to
rescuing the Arctic Ocean
31 August, p 38
From Fred White, Nottingham, UK
Just how big a cynic does it make me
that when I read Rowan Hooper’s
article on refreezing the Arctic, I
couldn’t shake the conviction
that certain politicians who are
supposedly climate change sceptics
may have links to corporations
that can’t wait to get their snouts
in the geoengineering trough?

From Luce Gilmore, Cambridge, UK

Assuming that the ice does mostly
melt, as seems likely, the Arctic
could be the place that comes to
the planet’s rescue. This may have
happened before. During the early
Eocene Epoch, the atmospheric
carbon dioxide concentration
peaked at more than 2000 parts
per million – at present, it is around
400 ppm (and rising).
The Arctic Ocean had only
one narrow channel to the other
oceans. It probably had fresh
water floating over saltwater.
Blooms of Azolla, freshwater
ferns that fix nitrogen, grew here
and lasted 800,000 years, bringing
carbon dioxide concentrations
down to 650 ppm. Dead Azolla
sank to the anoxic depths, where
its carbon still lies locked.
As geoengineering projects go,
closing off the Arctic Ocean is quite
a modest proposal. Of course, we
would have to wait for the Arctic to
warm a little more and for a floating
freshwater cap to form before a
second Azolla event could really
take off. Thereafter, the process
would be self-sustaining, and
self-limiting once the ice returns.
From Jim McHardy, Clydebank,
West Dunbartonshire, UK
The melting of the Greenland ice
sheet could be reduced by slowing
the seaward movement of glaciers.
Moulins, holes that meltwater flows
down, reduce friction between the
base of the ice and the bedrock.
If a moulin is filled to the top,
water pressure at the glacier base
can be roughly equal to the pressure
of the overlying ice. This results in
the glacier almost floating away
on the water at its base.
Bulldozing dams across the
meltwater streams to divert water
around a moulin and so reduce the
flow under the glacier could be
a quick fix. Or we could use large
solar reflective sheets, supported
by balloons, to cover moulins and
refreeze water. Solar-powered
propellers could keep the reflective
sheets in position.
Money can’t buy you
happiness or contentment
31 August, p 30
From Ros Groves,
Watford, Hertfordshire, UK
Apparently, the search for
happiness is now a well-funded
industry. Surely this calls into
question whether spending so
much time, money and, quite
possibly, anxiety in its pursuit
is counter-productive.
Instead, wouldn’t it be better to
question what exactly happiness
is? To me, it is experienced in
response to a joyous event or
achievement. It is fleeting, before
a return to the baseline. Maintain
this state for too long and it will
lose its magic. More superlative
events will be needed to maintain
this level of happiness, inflating
everyday irritations to trauma.
Surely the answer lies in
contentment? A neutral level
of default temperament offers a
greater ability to enjoy genuine
happiness at all levels, to keep
minor annoyances in perspective
and to promote greater strength
in dealing with misfortune.
Maybe grandchildren, not
children, make us happier
24 August, p 12
From Brian Horton, West
Launceston, Tasmania, Australia
Alice Klein reports that having
children makes us happier, but
only when they leave home. This
is consistent with a previous study
(5 September 2015, p 40) showing
that parents over 40 were happier
than younger parents. I suggested
(Letters, 26 September 2015) that it
is grandchildren who make us
happier. The latest study,
concentrating on parents over 50,
supports this, since children
living at home are less likely
to have their own children.
Please find a lower-impact
kind of random curiosity
10 August, p 38
From Sam Edge,
Ringwood, Hampshire, UK
You suggest readers download
a computer program to search
for Mersenne primes in the
background. Yet every week you
report the looming peril of climate
change and the need to change
our behaviour to limit it.
Modern laptops and many
desktop computers throttle back
the processor speed and put their
drives to sleep when idle. This
significantly reduces power
consumption. Installing software
that keeps the processor loaded
and that reads and writes data
will prevent this – all to try to
find mathematical objects for
the sake of curiosity. How much
extra carbon dioxide do you think
would be released if every reader
did as you suggest?
There are less energy-intensive
ways to find rare things. You could
catalogue birds, insects and plants
for scientific surveys, for instance.
There are also distributed software
projects seeking potentially
beneficial things, such as the

26 | New Scientist | 21 September 2019


Folding@home effort to
elucidate protein structures
(8 November 2008, p 36).
Neanderthals’ ears could
indicate an aquatic past
24 August, p 17
From Malcolm Knight,
Frizington, Cumbria, UK
Neanderthals’ ears show signs of
time in the water, as Ruby Prosser
Scully reports. This seems to lend
credence to the idea that humans
led a semi-aquatic lifestyle,
possibly before the split between
Neanderthals and Homo sapiens.
Wading for fish and shellfish
could have driven development
of long hind limbs and an upright
stance, with buoyancy giving
support during the transition.
These changes could have given
us the posture required to carry
a large, heavy head.
A seafood diet provides high-
quality protein and lecithin for
the development of a large brain.
Add to this the characteristics we
share with sea mammals: salt
tears, a diving reflex and blubber.
I would love to see this possible
evolutionary path explored more.
Why can’t we use seawater
to make hydrogen?
Letters, 20 July
From Albert Lightfoot,
Albury, New South Wales, Australia
As Chris deSilva says, exporting
hydrogen produced by electrolysis
is like exporting water. But why
use fresh water? Pure water is
essentially a non-conductor,
while seawater conducts electricity,
aiding electrolysis. It may also
have useful by-products, such
as industrially useful rare earth
metals, cobalt and lithium. If
some desalination is necessary,
use the same photovoltaic or
wind-generated electricity that
would be used for the electrolysis.
Want to get in touch?
Send letters to New Scientist, 25 Bedford Street, London
WC2E 9ES or letters@newscientist.com; see terms at
newscientist.com/letters
Views From the archives
Lord make me admit my
ignorance, but not yet 40 years ago, New Scientist
17 August, p 42 highlighted research suggesting
From Mark Tester, new uses for a familiar drug
Burtonsville, Maryland, US
According to Anna Ijjas, Saint WE HAVE known for a while
Augustine is said to have quipped there was something about
that prior to creating the universe, the willow tree. Hippocrates,
God was preparing hell for those the “father of medicine”,
who pry into mysteries. What he recommended chewing willow
in fact wrote in Confessions is: bark as a remedy for pain and
“I answer the man who says, ‘What fever in the 5th century BC, as
did God do before he made heaven well as drinking tea brewed with
and earth?’ I do not give the it to relieve pain in childbirth.
answer that someone is said to In 1763, the clergyman
have given, evading by a joke the Edward Stone from Chipping Norton, UK, wrote
force of the objection: ‘He was a letter to the president of the Royal Society
preparing hell for those prying describing his experiments, which showed that
into such deep subjects’… I would powdered willow bark helped treat the “agues”,
rather respond ‘I do not know’, or fevers, of people living in damp areas.
concerning what I do not know, Willow bark, it turns out, is a rich source of
rather than say something for salicylates, the class of compounds to which aspirin
which a man inquiring about such (acetylsalicylic acid) belongs. For more than a century,
profound matters is laughed at, people have been taking aspirin in tablet form, and it
while the one giving false answer is now one of the world’s most popped pills.
is praised.” In our 20 September 1979 issue, we reported on
some surprising new benefits of the drug. “The humble
aspirin,” we wrote, “may turn out to be an important
And the award for most
therapeutic tool in preventing blood clots in
complex object goes to… particularly sensitive people”.
Letters, 10 August The result came from a “large team of researchers
From Hillary Shaw, from St Louis, Missouri. They gave the drug to a group
Newport, Shropshire, UK of 19 patients undergoing blood dialysis over a period
Guy Cox discusses whether of five months”, we reported – more than halving the
our brains are the most complex incidence of blood clots.
objects in the universe, as they The team was careful not to claim too much,
are parts of bodies, which are parts saying “aspirin may not necessarily prevent coronary
of societies… This implies some thromboses”. But time has vindicated their work. Today,
complexity metric: perhaps the aspirin is routinely prescribed in low doses to people
bytes needed to describe an object who have had a heart attack or stroke to protect them
divided by its volume. Otherwise, from having another.
the universe must be the most More recently, aspirin has acquired yet another use.
complex object in the universe. Thanks to its anti-inflammatory properties, it seems it
can help prevent some cancers. In 2014, a review led
by Jack Cuzick at Queen Mary University of London
For the record
found that in the UK, more than 130,000 deaths from
❚ The photo illustrating our note cancer would be avoided if all people aged 50 to 64
about the kakapo population took a low-dose aspirin daily. The effects were greatest
hitting 200 was of a different for bowel, stomach and oesophageal cancer, with
parrot (31 August, p 21). smaller effects for prostate, breast and lung cancer.
❚ We loathe vans (and other “The second most important thing you can do to
vehicles) spitting out nitrogen prevent cancer, after not smoking, is to take a low-dose
oxides (7 September, p 42). aspirin,” Cuzick told New Scientist’s Chloe Lambert in
D. HURST/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO
May 2015. A wonder drug indeed – although as ever,
check with your doctor first. Simon Ings
To find more from the archives, visit
newscientist.com/old-scientist
21 September 2019 | New Scientist | 27
Views Aperture

28 | New Scientist | 21 September 2019

Listen to Helen Scales explore the wonders of life in
the deep ocean at New Scientist Live on 10 October
newscientistlive.com

Inglorious mud

Photographer Remi Masson

Agency Nature Picture Library

EVEN fish can end up fighting

over land. These land-dwelling
great blue spotted mudskippers
are facing off on the mudflats of
Kyushu Island, Japan, their gaping
mouths and raised dorsal fins a
sign of aggression.
Mudskippers are highly
territorial, with some species
building mud walls to keep out
trespassers. Walls also trap a pool
of water in the fish’s territory,
encouraging the growth of
single-celled algae called diatoms,
the main food for this species,
Boleophthalmus pectinirostris.
If a mudskipper infringes on a
neighbour’s territory, a fight may
ensue. The 20-centimetre-long
fish can leap 50 centimetres in the
air during combat, or in mating
displays, by propelling themselves
with their pectoral fins.
As mudskippers have adapted
to spend 90 per cent of their lives
out of water, it is tempting to
see them as a snapshot of our
evolutionary past, when our
ancestors first flapped onto
land. They seem to have easily
overcome many of the challenges
for fish living on land. They move
around using their fins, lay eggs
in water-filled burrows and
breathe through their gills and
skin (although they have to keep
their bodies moist).
This transition isn’t as difficult
as it might seem, however:
amphibious behaviour is reported
in 33 families of fish, and many
may have evolved independently.
The earliest tetrapods, which gave
rise to amphibians, reptiles, birds
and mammals, were more closely
related to lungfish, which gulp air
to help them survive in water with
little dissolved oxygen. ❚

Sam Wong

21 September 2019 | New Scientist | 29

Views Culture

Waking up to anti-science
In The Testaments, Margaret Atwood’s sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale,
resistance is growing to the grim, puritanical world of Gilead, finds Donna Lu

Book
The Testaments
Margaret Atwood
Chatto & Windus

“WHO would have thought that

Gilead Studies – neglected for so
many decades – would suddenly
have gained so greatly in
popularity?” muses a fictional
future historian in The Testaments,
Margaret Atwood’s sequel to The
Handmaid’s Tale. It’s a tongue-in-
cheek reflection of reality: some
34 years since The Handmaid’s
Tale was published, the dystopian
novel has had an unforeseen
resurgence following a hit TV
series, inspiring global protests
about reproductive rights.
In the Republic of Gilead, a
ISOLDE OHLBAUM/LAIF/CAMERA PRESS

puritanical, theocratic society

that has replaced the US, fertility
rates are in free fall, after chemical
and radiation exposure due
to environmental damage.
Birth defects and stillbirths
(“Unbabies”) are common,
and childhood cancer is rising.
To redress this, the eponymous
Handmaids are farmed out to
powerful men whose wives can’t
have children, for the purposes
of procreating. (Officially, male
infertility doesn’t exist.) Abortion
is outlawed, and doctors who
have carried out the procedure
are executed.
Set 15 years later, The Testaments
introduces a generation of girls
who have grown up within Gilead,
including one of the book’s three
narrators, Agnes Jemima. They are
taught they are “precious flowers”
in a society where their worth is
based on chastity and the ability
to reproduce. Contrast this with
a Canadian girl of the same
generation, Daisy, for whom the
piousness of Gilead is “weird as
terrible place, where women
“As seems characteristic couldn’t have jobs or drive cars”.
of troubled political Spoiler alert: Aunt Lydia, one of
times, the line between Gilead’s female architects, returns
fact and fiction is blurry” in a new guise. “Better to hurl
rocks than to have them hurled at
you. Or better for your chances of
staying alive,” she reasons. Atwood
read the “very cheery” diary of
Hitler’s minister of propaganda,
Joseph Goebbels, while writing the
book. The nexus of all this drives
the plot, which is both taut and
gratifying, if tidy.
The extreme incarnations of the
oppressive society Atwood created
seemed divorced from the liberal
democracies of 1985 when The
Elisabeth Moss and Handmaid’s Tale was published.
Alexis Bledel star in But for Gilead’s antecedents, look
the TV adaptation of elsewhere: combine Romania’s
HULU

fuck”, the republic “a terrible, The Handmaid’s Tale outlawing of birth control under

30 | New Scientist | 21 September 2019

 ET, where are you? Avi Loeb seeks answers at
New Scientist Live, on the main stage on 12 October Don’t miss
newscientistlive.com

Real aliens
Will ET look like us? Or be intelligent?
Simon Ings enjoys a tour of the exoplanets

Nicolae Ceaușescu with the In just 14 pages of Imagined Listen

monolithic theocracy of Iran, Life, the authors outline the The Art of Innovation,
while Guardians escorting Gilead’s Book physical laws constraining the on BBC Radio 4 from
women remind us of Saudi Imagined Life universe. They rattle through 16 September, explores
Arabia’s male guardianship laws. James Trefil and how to define life, and why the relationship between
In troubled political times, Michael Summers spotting it is so difficult. Most art and science over
the line between fact and fiction Smithsonian of the molecules identified as a the past 250 years.
becomes blurry. Since the election potential biomarker of life have An accompanying
of Donald Trump – an impetus for “IF YOU can imagine a world a “nonbiological production exhibition at London’s
renewed interest in the book – that is consistent with the laws mechanism”, they write. Science Museum opens
some US states have passed laws of physics,” write planetary They list environments in on 25 September.
restricting the right to abortion. scientists James Trefil and which life may have evolved,
Meanwhile, fertility is dropping: Michael Summers, “then from water worlds to mega-
in the past four decades, sperm there’s a good chance it exists Earths (expect “normal fish…
counts in developed countries somewhere in our galaxy.” and stubby dinosaurs”). All this
have fallen by more than half. The universe is mostly dark before the meat course: a tour,
And in July, the US Environmental and empty, but the few pockets planet by imaginary planet, of
Protection Agency said it wouldn’t that are populated by matter are otherworldly life and civilisation.
ban chlorpyrifos, a pesticide full of planets. Interstellar space The authors want to believe in
that has been linked to nervous is littered with hard-to-spot life that is “really not like us”, but
system damage in young children. rogue worlds, ejected early in have a hard time making it stick. Watch
Like its predecessor, The their solar system’s history, and Carbon-based life itself may be Sea of Shadows, on
Testaments also draws on current they may outnumber orbiting pressing against unexpected limited UK release from
events. School-sanctioned marches planets two to one. Some limits. Of the 140 amino acids, 27 September, is a
in Canada call to mind climate experts put this figure at 1000 only 22 are central to Earth’s powerful documentary
strikes, as young protesters hold to one, which may explain why biome; it may be that the exposing the activities
signs reading: “GILEAD, CLIMATE little green men have yet to mechanisms of inheritance of Mexican drug cartels
SCIENCE DE-LIAR! GILEAD WANTS land on the White House lawn. must converge on a narrow and Chinese traffickers in
US TO FRY!” So is our planet-cluttered set of possibilities, which may poaching activities that
Atwood also wryly inverts the galaxy full of life? Trefil and also set limits on alien biology. are driving the world’s
dynamics of US immigration Summers are obviously primed The trick to finding life in odd smallest porpoise, the
politics. Gileadean refugees cross to receive with open arms any places is to dig. Scientists are vaquita, to extinction.
the Canadian border, smuggled visitors who happen by. In beginning to abandon the idea
via the Underground Femaleroad. Imagined Life, their second life must evolve and persist on
They become the refugees that book, they do a splendid job of the surface, the authors say, as
Italy, Germany and even New explaining how tentative our they imagine an aquatic alien
Zealand are unwilling to accept. thoughts on exobiology are. civilisation for whom a mission
At the heart of the novel is the Their first book, Exoplanets to the surface would be akin to
power of narrative itself – of who (2013), is already rather dated, a Mars mission for us.
gets to speak and to listen, of the such is the pace of the field. I’m not sure I buy their
ability of information to limit, assumption that life most likely
control or expand a world. breeds the kind of intelligence Read
“Knowledge is power, especially that manufactures technology. Altered Inheritance
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC/ © DERBY MUSEUMS TRUST

discreditable knowledge,” writes Nothing in biology, or human (Harvard). Bioethicist

Aunt Lydia. “Loose lips sink ships,” history, suggests that. We may Françoise Baylis wonders
several characters repeat. “Least be a colossal oddity. Still, what the unintended
said, soonest mended,” is another Imagined Life reminds me of my consequences might
recurring adage. childhood books, full of artists’ be of well-intentioned
A regime’s official story, argues impressions of oceans on Venus, medical projects that
The Testaments, rarely aligns with only much, much better. ❚ harness CRISPR
DAVID SHERMANN

reality. Autocracies can be built on technology to edit

controlled narratives, but in the Artists depict the search for life the human genome.
end, truth can still destroy. ❚ on planets beyond Earth

21 September 2019 | New Scientist | 31

Views Culture
The games column
Who wants a predictable life? Roguelike games are storytelling machines
in which everyone’s experience is different. But they only work if the balance
between order and randomness feels right, says Jacob Aron
Jacob Aron is New Scientist’s
deputy news editor. He has
been playing video games
for 25 years, but still isn’t
very good at them. Follow
him on Twitter @jjaron
BANDAI NAMCO
WHEN Apple launched the iPod
Shuffle, people complained that
Game its shuffling function didn’t work
Rad as advertised – songs by the same
Double Fine artist seemed to be clustering, so
PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One one David Bowie track, say, would
and Nintendo Switch swiftly be followed by another.
In fact, this kind of clustering
Jacob also is exactly what we would expect.
recommends... A random algorithm makes no
effort to “remember” what has
Games come before, so it makes for an
Spelunky unsatisfying listening experience.
Mossmouth In the end, Apple tweaked its
PC and PlayStation 4 software to avoid repetition.
“We’re making it less random to
FTL: Faster Than Light make it feel more random,” said
Subset Games the CEO at the time, Steve Jobs.
PC and iOS I was reminded of this playing
Rad, a game set in a 1980s-tinged
future following not one, but
two apocalypses. As you explore
a nuclear wasteland and vanquish
enemies, your character randomly
mutates to gain new abilities, such
as an arm that shoots fire or a
snake head that spits poison.
Rad is a roguelike, a genre
named after the 1980 game Rogue,
which sees players delve into a
dungeon full of monsters and
magic items (itself inspired by
32 | New Scientist | 21 September 2019
the classic Dungeons & Dragons).
Rogue uses text characters to
represent everything in the world,
for example, the @ symbol is the
player. Meanwhile, the dungeon
is generated by an algorithm
each time you start up, giving it
the potential for huge variety.
I like to think of roguelikes as
storytelling machines – ideally,
your experience will be
completely different from
“Roguelikes are not
truly random – if
they were, the game
would be impossible
to complete”
someone else’s, making it fun
to swap anecdotes with friends.
That said, like the altered version
of the iPod Shuffle, roguelikes
aren’t truly random – if they were,
you’d end up with a game that was
impossible to complete. In other
words, a dash of order is key to
making randomness enjoyable.
Unfortunately, Rad hasn’t quite
got the balance right. Surprise and
discovery are a huge part of the
In Rad, your character
randomly mutates to
gain new abilities
roguelike genre, but with Rad, I
found myself acquiring the same
mutations again and again. Each
time I died and started a new game,
I had less of an urge to continue
playing, as it felt like I wasn’t
seeing anything novel, which
doesn’t make for a great story.
Other roguelikes are well worth
checking out, however. Spelunky,
the king of modern roguelikes,
is a near-perfect balance of order
and chaos. The levels are never
the same, but everything within
the game is utterly predictable,
allowing you to set up chains
of actions such as throwing a
bomb to blast a stone into the air,
triggering a trap to kill a snake. You
can’t help but laugh as you play.
For my taste, though, Spelunky
is still a bit unforgiving as you
start from scratch every time.
I prefer Rogue Legacy, which
sees you play as a member of a
long-running dynasty, each with
their own quirks such as short-
sightedness or vertigo. When you
die, you get to keep certain items
and upgrades from the previous
run, allowing you to progress
further into the game’s randomly
generated castle. This persistence
isn’t completely true to the roots
of the roguelike genre, but it
strikes the right balance for me.
Finally, some roguelikes
abandon the dungeon trapping,
but retain the randomness to
generate unique experiences.
If you are a Star Trek fan, check
out FTL: Faster Than Light, which
has you command a spacecraft
and crew. Hopping between
star systems, you can live out
your Captain Picard fantasies,
managing power levels, or
depressurising the ship to put out
fires. Just don’t jettison the crew. ❚
 SECOND EDITION OF
BEING HUMAN

BEING
HUMAN
Take a step back from the everyday
chores of being human to tackle the
big – and small – questions about our
nature, behaviour and existence.

Buy your copy from all good magazine

retailers or digitally.
Find out more at newscientist.com/TheCollection
 Features Cover story
What is
consciousness?
A new idea about what consciousness is and
why we have it reveals how we could recreate it,
says neuroscientist Michael Graziano
C
ONSCIOUSNESS is a slippery concept.
It isn’t just the stuff in your head.
It is the subjective experience of some
of that stuff. When you stub your toe, your
brain doesn’t merely process information
and trigger a reaction: you have a feeling of
pain. When you are happy, you experience
joy. The ethereal nature of experience is the
mystery at the heart of consciousness. How
does the brain, a physical object, generate a
non-physical essence?
This experience-ness explains why pinning
down consciousness has been described as
“the hard problem”. Subjective experience
doesn’t exist in any physical dimension.
You can’t push it and measure a reaction
force, scratch it and measure its hardness
or put it on a scale and measure its weight.
Philosophers have described it as the “ghost
in the machine”. Even scientific ideas about
consciousness often have an aura of the
metaphysical. Many scientists describe it as an
illusion, while others see it as so fundamental
that it doesn’t have an explanation. Always at
the centre of the riddle lies its non-physicality.
But what if consciousness isn’t so mystical
after all? Perhaps we have just been asking
the wrong question. Instead of trying to
grapple with the hard problem, my colleagues
and I at Princeton University take a more
down-to-earth approach. My background lies
in the neuroscience of movement control,
what you could call the robotics of the brain.
Drawing on that, I suggest that consciousness
OSKA
can be understood best from an engineering
34 | New Scientist | 21 September 2019
perspective. Far from being some sort of
magical property, it is a tool of extraordinary
power. It is a tool that can be engineered into
machines. Our new approach shows how.
Because the normal methods of observation
and measurement don’t quite apply, the study
of consciousness has always sat uneasily in
mainstream science. A few decades ago,
The International Dictionary of Psychology
described consciousness as “a fascinating
but elusive phenomenon; it is impossible to
specify what it is, what it does or why it evolved.
Nothing worth reading has ever been written
about it.” Since then, consciousness has
become an increasingly popular topic in
science, generating numerous ideas and
thousands of papers but very little agreement.
One approach searches for the neural
correlates of consciousness: the minimal
physical signature in the brain needed for
subjective experience. There have been some
interesting leads, but the hunt continues.
“Far from being
some sort of
magical property,
consciousness is
a tool of great,
practical power”
Other researchers build on the insight that
consciousness isn’t just a stimulus processed
in the brain. Their higher-order thought theory
proposes that the brain contains a system that
re-represents the stimulus at a higher level
with added self-information, which is how we
become conscious of it. Exactly what that
higher-order information is, what cognitive
purpose it serves and where in the brain it is
constructed are all debated – although some
people associate it with the prefrontal cortex.
A particularly influential idea is known as
global workspace theory. Here, information
coming both from outside and within the
brain competes for attention. Information
that wins this competition becomes globally
accessible by systems throughout the brain
so that we become aware of it and are able to
process it deeply. Also popular is the integrated
information theory. It sees consciousness as
an emergent property of complex systems
and posits that the amount of consciousness
in any system can be measured in units
called phi. Phi is high in the human brain, but
also present in everything from a hamburger
to the universe, since everything contains
at least some integrated information.
Then there is the idea that consciousness
is an illusion. This is often misinterpreted. It
doesn’t mean that consciousness doesn’t exist,
or that we are fooled into thinking we have it.
Instead, it likens consciousness to the illusion
created for the user of a human-computer
interface and argues that the metaphysical
properties we attribute to ourselves are >
21 September 2019 | New Scientist | 35
 Understanding humans by building robots
Hear Tony Prescott on brainy robotics at New Scientist Live
newscientistlive.com

wrong. Researchers debate the exact source A major advantage of this idea is that
of these mistaken self-descriptions and the it gives a simple reason, straight from “In this account,
reason we seem to be mentally captive to them.
Engineering, and the science of robotics in
control engineering, for why the trait of
consciousness would evolve in the first place.
consciousness
particular, tells us that every good control
device needs a model – a quick sketch – of
Without the ability to monitor and regulate
your attention, you would be unable to
isn’t so much
the thing it is controlling. We already know control your actions in the world. That an illusion as
from cognitive neuroscience that the brain makes the attention schema essential
constructs many internal models – bundles for survival. Consciousness, in this view, a self-caricature”
of information that represent items in the isn’t just smoke and mirrors, but a crucial
real world. These models are simplified piece of the engine. It probably co-evolved
descriptions, useful but not entirely accurate. with the ability to focus attention, just as
For example, the brain has a model of the the arm schema co-evolved with the arm.
body – called the body schema – to help control In which case, it would have originated as
movement of the limbs. When someone loses early as half a billion years ago.
an arm, the model of the arm can linger on
in the brain so that people report feeling a
ghostly, phantom limb. But the truth is, all of
us have phantom limbs, because we all have
internal models of our real limbs that merely
become more obvious if the real limb is gone.
By the same engineering logic, the brain
needs to model many aspects of itself to be
able to monitor and control itself. It needs
a kind of phantom brain. One part of this
self-model may be particularly important
for consciousness. Here’s why. Too much
information flows through the brain at any
moment for it all to be processed in equal
depth. To handle that problem, the system
evolved a way to focus its resources and shift
that focus strategically from object to object:
from a nearby object to a distant sound, or
to an internal event such as an emotion or
memory. Attention is the main way the brain
seizes on information and processes it deeply.
To control its roving attention, the brain needs
a model, which I call the attention schema.

Ghostly essence
Our attention schema theory explains why
people think there is a hard problem of
consciousness at all. Efficiency requires the
quickest and dirtiest model possible, so the
attention schema leaves aside all the little
details of signals and neurons and synapses.
Instead, the brain describes a simplified version
of itself, then reports this as a ghostly, non-
physical essence, a magical ability to mentally
possess items. Introspection – or cognition
accessing internal information – can never
return any other answer. It is like a machine
SOUTIRIS BOUGAS/EYEEM/GETTY

stuck in a logic loop. The attention schema is

like a self-reflecting mirror: it is the brain’s
representation of how the brain represents
things, and is a specific example of higher-
order thought. In this account, consciousness
isn’t so much an illusion as a self-caricature.

36 | New Scientist | 21 September 2019

 Sometimes, the best way to understand
a thing is to try to build it. According to this
new idea we should be able to engineer
human-like consciousness into a machine.
It would require just four ingredients:
artificial attention, a model of that attention,
the right range of content (information
about things like senses and emotions) and
MANANA KVERNADZE/EYEEM/GETTY
a sophisticated search engine to access the
internal models and talk about them.
The first component, attention, is one
of the most basic processes in most nervous
systems. It is nicely described by the global
workspace theory. If you look at an object
such as an apple, the brain signals related to the
apple may grow in strength and consistency.
With sufficient attentional enhancement,
these signals can reach a threshold where
they achieve “ignition” and enter the global
workspace. The visual information about the
apple becomes available for systems around
the brain, such as speech systems that allow
you to talk about the apple, motor systems that
allow you to reach for it, cognitive systems that
allow you to make high-level decisions about
it, and memory systems that allow you to store
that moment for possible later use.
Scientists have already built artificial
versions of attention, including at least
a simple version of the global workspace.
But these machines show no indication
of consciousness.
The second component that our conscious
machine requires is an attention schema, the
crucial internal model that describes attention
in a general way, and in so doing informs the
machine about consciousness. It depicts
attention as an invisible property, a mind that
can experience or take possession of items,
something that in itself has no physical
substance but still lurks privately inside an
agent. Build that kind of attention schema,
and you will have a machine that claims to be
conscious in the same ways that people do.
The third component our machine needs
is the vast stream of material that we associate
with consciousness. Ironically, the hard
problem – getting the machine to be conscious
at all – may be the easy part, and giving the
machine the range of material of which to be
conscious may be the hard part. Efforts to build
conscious content might begin with sensory
input, especially vision, because so much is
known about how sensory systems work in the
brain and how they interact with attention. But
a rich sensory consciousness on its own won’t
be enough. Our machine should also be able to
incorporate internal items such as abstract
thought and emotion. Here the engineering
problem becomes really tricky. Little is known
about the information content in the brain
that lies behind abstract thought and emotion,
or how they intersect with the mechanisms of
attention. Sorting out how to build a machine
with that content could take decades.
Talking my language
The final component our conscious machine
requires is a talking search engine. Strictly
speaking, talking isn’t necessary for
consciousness, but for most people the goal of
artificial consciousness is a machine that has
a human-like ability to speak and understand.
We want to have a good conversation with it.
The problem is deceptively hard. We already
have digital assistants like Siri and Alexa but
these are limited in their functions. You give
them words, they search for words on the
internet, and they then give you back more
words. If you ask for the nearest restaurant,
the digital assistant doesn’t know what a
restaurant is, other than as a statistical
clustering of words. In contrast, the human
brain can translate speech into non-verbal
information and back again. If someone asks
you how the taste of a lemon compares with
“To engineer
human-like
consciousness
into a machine
would require four
ingredients”
The big challenge
will be giving a
robot human-like
sensory and
emotional input
that of an orange, you translate the speech
into taste information and compare the two
remembered tastes, then translate back into
words to give your answer. This easy back-and-
forth conversion between speech and many
other information domains is challenging to
do artificially. Our conscious machine would
need to correlate information across every
imaginable domain, a problem that hasn’t
yet been solved in artificial intelligence.
Given all the promise and all the difficulties,
just how close are we to conscious machines?
If the attention schema approach is correct,
the first attempts at visual consciousness
could be built with existing technology. But
it will take a lot longer to give machines a
human-like stream of consciousness. It will
take time to build a conscious machine capable
of seeing, hearing, tasting, touching, thinking
abstract thoughts and feeling emotions, with
a single integrated focus of attention to
coordinate within and between all those
domains, and able to talk about that full range
of content. But I believe it will happen.
To me, though, the purpose of this thought
experiment isn’t to advocate for conscious
robots. The point is that consciousness itself
can be understood. It isn’t an ethereal essence
or an inexplicable mystery. The attention
schema theory puts it in context and gives
it a concrete role in adaptation and survival.
Instead of an ill-defined epiphenomenon, a
fog extruded by the brain and floating between
the ears, consciousness becomes a crucial
component of the cognitive machine. ❚
Michael Graziano is a professor
of psychology and neuroscience
at Princeton University and author
of Rethinking Consciousness
21 September 2019 | New Scientist | 37
 Features Interview
“I want to break
the cycle, not
indoctrinate”
Time hasn’t dimmed Richard Dawkins’s
passion for evolution and a godless world,
Graham Lawton discovers
F
EW scientists have acquired such a high
public profile as Richard Dawkins – and
maintained it amid such controversy.
His first book The Selfish Gene, published in
1976, launched him to fame as a populariser
of evolutionary biology. Eight books and
30 years later, he wrote The God Delusion,
which reinvented him as a ferocious
advocate for atheism.
He chose his subjects well: during his writing
career, evolution and religion have emerged
as fronts in an increasingly vicious culture war
between what he would characterise as the
forces of darkness and superstition and
those of enlightenment and reason.
Both lionised and demonised for his strident
views, he is once again stepping into the fray,
bringing his lifelong passions for evolution
and secularism together in his 15th book,
Outgrowing God: A beginner’s guide.
You’ve written another book about God.
Yes, Outgrowing God, which is for young
people. Teenagers, let’s say – and young
people up to about the age of 99 as well.
It covers a lot of familiar Dawkins territory,
not just God but also evolution. Why did you
feel that people need more on these topics?
I want to encourage people to think for
38 | New Scientist | 21 September 2019
themselves. I’ve always felt rather passionate
about breaking the cycle as each generation
passes on its superstitions to the next. If you
ask people why they believe in the particular
religion that they do, it’s almost always because
that’s how they were brought up.
I’ve long wanted to try to break that cycle
while being keen not to indoctrinate, because
that’s of course what we criticise religious
people for doing.
My experience of children of that age –
admittedly, largely my own – is that they
are uninterested in religion and don’t
need persuading of the truth of evolution.
I’m glad to hear that. That cannot be true all
over the world, however. It’s certainly not true
in America, where unfortunately religion and
anti-evolution have a real hold, and in the
Islamic world.
Your new book spends a lot of time picking
JUDE EDGINTON/CONTOUR BY GETTY IMAGES
factual holes in the Bible and pointing out logical
inconsistencies and absurdities. It’s good sport,
but isn’t it a futile exercise?
It’s not futile to people who believe. So many
people have a literalistic, Bible-based faith, and
so they’re actually quite shocked to learn how
little support there is for any Bible stories.
Many people in America are not aware that,
“I think we are
all susceptible
to a certain
level of
irrationality”

for example, virtually nothing in the Old

Testament has any evidential support at all.
It’s not just Adam and Eve and Noah. There’s
no evidence that there was a Jewish captivity
in Egypt, for example, which is shocking to
some people.

But we know that people believe in the Bible not

because of the factual content of the stories, but
because of a commitment to a group identity.
Probably yes, but a lot of people literally believe
what they read in the Bible. It’s important to
disabuse people of this, that the evidence for
anything in the Bible is extremely flimsy.

In terms of the harms and abuses done in the

name of religion, do you think that the world has
become a better or worse place since you wrote
The God Delusion?
It’s become a worse place, hasn’t it? I think and
hope it is temporary. I think there is clearly an
overall trend in the right direction, as you look
over decades and centuries. Any trend like that
is subject to reversals and I think we’re in a
reversal at the moment. But I think it’s a blip.
If you look at the number of people who
profess a religion in America and the rest of the
world, it’s going down. The number of people
who say they have no religion is now really
substantial. It’s about 25 per cent, which is
huge. It’s bigger than most other religious
denominations. So that’s a very good sign.
However, it’s not entirely clear whether
religion has given over to rationalism, or
to a more vague, nonsensical new ageism.
That would be a pessimistic view.

Unfortunately, I think pessimism is in order.

There’s evidence that as people discard
theologically correct views, they adopt other
superstitions to replace them.
Yes, that could be true. So in a way, that’s why
I think the second half of the book, the science
part, is so important. I think we need to >

21 September 2019 | New Scientist | 39

 Cruise Hawaii with Richard Dawkins
Evolutionary biology, volcanoes and culture
with Discovery Tours
newscientist.com/tours

really push the beauty of science, not just

GREATEST HITS
The Selfish Gene
(1976)
This influential
bestseller popularised
a gene-centred view
of the world and
introduced the concept
of the meme
The Extended
Phenotype (1982)
Through examples
such as a beaver’s
dam, Dawkins illustrates
the ways that genes
interact with other
genes and the wider
environment of the
organism
because it’s true but because it’s beautiful
and an armoury against not just religion,
but superstition generally.
That part of the book is less combative. For
example, it doesn’t even mention the intelligent
design movement or pick holes in its claims.
Yes, I simply put the positive case for evolution.
I want to persuade my readers that this is an
elegant, beautiful idea that explains all
the facts. That automatically undercuts
intelligent design.
What about the wider culture war over evolution,
particularly in the US?
It’s still going on and there are constant little
fracas, and it’s an important fight we have on
our hands. There’s an anti-science culture in
parts of America – I keep coming back to
America – and evolution is on the front line.
We live in troubled times.
We do, yes.

The Blind I am interested in your views on why that might

Watchmaker (1986) be. Things like post-truth politics, fake news,
An eloquent frontal the triumph of gut feeling over facts – these are
CHRIS MCANDREW/CAMERAPRESS

assault on the “what use
is half an eye” argument
that the complexity of
living organisms are
evidence of the work
of a creator
Unweaving the
Rainbow (1998)
When Newton explained
the origin of the
rainbow’s colours, poet
John Keats accused him
of destroying its
mystique. In this book,
Darwin argues the
opposite: that science
enhances the wonder
and beauty of the world
The God Delusion
(2006)
Dawkins on why a
supernatural creator
almost certainly doesn’t
exist, and a belief in a
personal god is a
delusion
things you have spent a lifetime arguing against.
You must find it depressing.
Yes, it is depressing, but my views are not
interesting. I think you’re right that we live
in troubled times and I’m as troubled as the
next person. But I’m not a sociologist. I’m not
a psychologist. I would only be able to give an
amateur opinion as a citizen, which is no
more interesting than anybody else’s.
One of the things that frequently gets blamed
for the mess we are in is social media, of which
you are a prolific user.
I think that’s right. Ricky Gervais makes
rather a good point when he says that the
things people write on the walls of public
lavatories you just ignore, and that’s what
always used to happen. But now, instead of
writing in lavatories, they tweet.
These are people who otherwise wouldn’t
have a voice. No editor would publish what
they write. They wouldn’t get a letter published
in the newspaper. In the old days, what they
would do is write on walls. Now, they tweet.
Have you ever considered quitting Twitter?
All it ever seems to do is polarise and inflame...
It does. I mean, if you look at replies, that’s what
you get. But then if you look at the number of
people who retweet and the number of people
who like, that can be very substantial.
Some of your tweets have led to you being
called Islamophobic.
I know. What I’ve said is that Muslims are
not culprits, but the biggest casualties of
Islam. They’re the ones who suffer most
from Islam, so I’m anti-Islam but I’m definitely
not anti-Muslim.
People have also criticised you for subjecting
Islam to special criticism.
Not at all. If you look at The God Delusion or
Outgrowing God, Islam is scarcely mentioned.
I could more fairly be accused of attacking
Christianity and not attacking Islam enough.
You’ve described the word Islamophobia as
“otiose”. Could you explain what you mean?
Unnecessary and actually pernicious, because
it gives an entirely wrong impression. There’s
no word “Christianophobe”. But we shouldn’t be
phobic about people. We should be mistrustful
of ideologies where they have pernicious
effects, which I think virtually all religions do.

40 | New Scientist | 21 September 2019

 PROFILE I write about the environment and I have
Richard Dawkins is developed quite a jaundiced view of humanity
emeritus professor of as a result. But you strike me as somebody
evolutionary biology at who is quite optimistic that reason and
the University of Oxford. science will prevail.
He was professor of Am I? I’m not sure. There’s some ground
public understanding for believing that although there are problems,
of science from 1995 to science will solve them. Science’s track record
2008. He tweets is encouraging, but such optimism as I have
@RichardDawkins is cautious.

Do you feel like your books have helped to

advance the causes of rationality?
I can’t possibly tell. I’m glad I’ve written all the
books I have, and I’m glad they’re all in print
and selling well. I get numerous letters from
people who say that they went into science
because they read one of my books. I find that
hugely encouraging, hugely gratifying.

Do people say that to you about atheism too?

Yes, they do.

To return to God, your new book discusses

the evolutionary psychology of religion.
As an evolutionary biologist, do you buy the
idea that human brains are naturally receptive
to religious ideas?
I think that’s got to be true, which of course
doesn’t mean that they’re right to do so.
We need some kind of explanation for the
fact that religion is such a ubiquitous
phenomenon all over the world.

One conclusion of that research is that humans

Another chapter in your book looks at progress in
moral issues such as gender and racial equality,
and you present a very upbeat picture. Do you
worry that progress has gone into reverse?
No. It’s important to take the long view. I
think there’s absolutely no doubt that we’re
getting better as the centuries go by. The
moral standards of a 21st century person
are significantly different from those of a
20th century person.
For all that we have reversals, we have at
the same time a very strong movement in
favour of gay rights, in favour of all sorts of
other things which would once have been
inconceivable. During my lifetime, you
could go to prison for homosexual activities
in private.
If you were to project into the future, what
current cultural norms will be seen as morally
indefensible?
Almost a no-brainer: the treatment of
non-human animals.
“We really need to
push the beauty
of science”
Are you vegetarian?
I’m trying to be. I’m vegetarian at home!
I want everybody to do it. That’s another
thing moving in the right direction.
You have never written in detail about the
environmental crisis. That strikes me as a debate
you could usefully contribute to, because it’s
essentially a failure of rationality and truth.
Yes, it is. I can’t deny its huge importance, but
I haven’t written much about it. It hasn’t been
my field and so, at present, I’d be an amateur.
are deeply irrational and that belief in the
supernatural is etched into our brains.
Do you accept that?
Well it’s not universally true, clearly.
There are plenty of highly rational people
about: people who are not religious, who
are not superstitious and who do maintain
a sceptical attitude towards such things.
Although, even those of us who think
we’re rational sometimes get things wrong.
We are susceptible to certain irrationalities.
Are there any that you’ll admit to?
I think that if I were locked in a notorious
haunted house at night, I might be
frightened. I’ve never tried it. But I think
we’re all of us susceptible to a certain level
of irrationality. ❚
Graham Lawton
(@GrahamLawton) is a staff
writer at New Scientist

21 September 2019 | New Scientist | 41

 PHOTO ESSAY

The sunken
rainforest
Deep in the Amazon, hydroelectric dams are drowning hundreds of
thousands of trees, transforming forests into sources of greenhouse
gases. Daniel Grossman reports. Photographs by Dado Galdieri

42 | New Scientist | 21 September 2019


I
N BALBINA, a small town in the
heart of the Brazilian Amazon, the
shoreline of a vast reservoir sparkles
blue and a mild wind ruffles the water,
lifting small whitecaps. Within a few
months, fire will devastate vaste swathes
of the forest, some not far from here,
but the story I’ve come to investigate
lies just below the water’s surface, where
millions of trees have been drowned
by a hydroelectric dam blocking the
Uatumã river. The submerged jungle is
no longer sucking carbon dioxide out
of the atmosphere. Instead, the rotting
corpses of once-magnificent trees are
belching out yet more greenhouse gases.
No wonder the Balbina dam is known
by experts as “the worst hydroelectric
power plant in the world”. And yet its
environmental impact is worse than
previously thought, as I discovered when
I visited the region earlier this year to
spend time with climate researchers.
Their findings suggest that any dam
built in tropical lowlands could be
exacerbating the climate crisis, which is
particularly alarming now that Brazil’s
president Jair Bolsonaro has promised to
extract more of the Amazon’s resources,
including hydroelectric power.
Completed in 1989, the Balbina dam
was controversial from the start. Its
construction ensured that an area
substantially larger than Greater
London was flooded, engulfing territory
that belonged to indigenous groups
previously decimated by disease and
violent confrontations with settlers.
The Brazilian government claimed
the project would modernise the
Amazon. But the dam never achieved
its advertised capacity, and over the
past decade whatever green credentials
it had have been discredited.
Hydroelectric power is widely
considered a good way to reduce
greenhouse gas emissions while
satisfying our ever-increasing demand
for power. The most recent study
produced for the Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) on this
topic, released in 2012, reported that,
taking into account construction and
PHOTO ESSAY
operation, hydroelectric power produces
only half a per cent to three per cent of
the warming of fossil-fuel power plants
that burn coal, oil or natural gas.
That is true for some dams, such as
those built in relatively cool, dry places
with relatively little vegetation, which
rots and turns into greenhouse gases.
But the IPCC report ignored dams built
in lowland tropical forests, where
luxuriant jungle produces an unusually
large amount of emissions.
One of the first people I met when I
travelled to Brazil was Philip Fearnside,
a biologist at the National Institute of
Amazon Research, known as INPA, in Top: Part of the massive reservoir
Manaus. He has spent the past 25 years created by the Balbina dam
arguing that hydroelectric dams in
tropical lowlands are a climate disaster. Bottom: Philip Fearnside in his
He cites two reasons. First, tropical basement office in Manaus
lowland forests are highly productive
and so contain more carbon than other Far left: Some 300 kilometres
areas, which means they release more downstream from the dam, a rare
when they die. Second, in hotter Igapó forest has been flooded.
climates microbes that digest organic As its trees rot, they give off huge
matter grow better and so produce amounts of greenhouse gases
more greenhouse gases. There are two
types of microbes that digest the dead
trees: one group operates in the oxygen-
free conditions at the bottom of the
reservoir and produces methane while
the other, which lives in oxygen-rich
water close to the surface, produces >
21 September 2019 | New Scientist | 43

CO2. In both cases, growth is promoted
by higher temperatures.
Fearnside says that the increased
methane created in tropical dams is
especially problematic. Although it is
relatively short lived in air, methane
warms the atmosphere much more
than CO2. According to the IPCC, over
20 years, each gram of methane has the
same heating effect as 86 grams of CO2.
So why did the IPCC reports give
tropical dams a clean bill of health?
“A lot of the authors were from big
hydroelectric companies,” Fearnside
says. William Moomaw at Tufts
University in Massachusetts, lead
author of the methodology study on
which the 2012 IPCC report was based,
says the body did “drop the ball,” by
lumping tropical dams with all dams
as if there is no distinction. But he
insists that was due to inattention,
not nefarious motives. “The IPCC is
dominated by people from the
temperate world,” says Moomaw.
In any case, a clear-eyed assessment
of tropical dams is now more critical
than ever. Most of the hydroelectric
plants being planned are in the tropics,
primarily in lowland forests. Nearly 150
large dams are slated in the Amazon
basin alone, with another 72 planned
in Laos and 50 in Cambodia. We aren’t
going to restrain global warming if we
build these dams based on false
assumptions, says Fearnside.
One of those assumptions was that
the methane generated in the reservoir
is forever trapped, held down by the
mass of water above. But Fearnside and
his colleagues weren’t convinced. In
the early 2000s Bruce Forsberg, also at
INPA, and Alexandre Kemenes, then a
graduate student of Forsberg’s, put this
to the test. They realised the turbine
water intake at Balbina is several
metres below the surface, right where
most of the methane is held. They
thought the gas could be released into
the air where the water disgorged and
the pressure dropped. “Like opening a
bottle of Coca-Cola,” says Forsberg.
Sure enough, when Kemenes
invented a novel way to sample
the water exiting the turbines for
methane, the researchers detected
significant amounts of the stuff.
44 | New Scientist | 21 September 2019
PHOTO ESSAY
Above: Emissions from dead
and dying trees in an Igapó
forest fuel global warming
Right: Brazil’s president Jair
Bolsonaro has promised to
increase exploitation of the
Amazon’s resources, including
through hydroelectric power
Far right: Brazil’s demand
for electricity has soared in
recent years, driven by the
rise of the middle class in
cities like Rio de Janeiro
Extrapolating, they were able to show
that the reservoir at the Balbina dam
is releasing 39,000 tonnes of methane
every year. This more than doubles
the amount attributable to the dam
compared with previous estimates.
The research shows that if you include
methane and CO2, Balbina is nearly
10 times as bad for the environment as
a coal-fired power station producing
the same amount of electricity.
The news got even worse earlier this
year when another research team
reported that the dam is creating even
more CO2 and methane downstream
of the floodgates. To see for myself,
I joined Jochen Schöngart, another
INPA biologist, in a fishing boat.
Halfway between Balbina and the
point where the Uatumã river joins
the Amazon river, Schöngart stared
gloomily across the gunwale. Our pilot
cut the engine and we glided silently
through a dead forest, skeletal
branches poking above the water.
This eerie graveyard was once a stand
of rare shoreline trees, known as an
Igapó forest. Its trees are adapted to
sporadic flooding, the result of rains
changing the water level each year.
But the construction of the dam
disrupted the river’s natural rhythms.
Balbina’s technicians deal with the
annual three-month pulse of high
water by adjusting outflow to store
this extra water for release during the
rest of the year, smoothing out the
amount of electricity produced. In
years gone by, the water level of the
river fluctuated a lot more between
wet and dry seasons than it does now.
Where Schöngart has brought me, the
average difference in water level
between these seasons has been

significantly reduced. During the dry
season the water is on average 1 metre
higher than before the dam was built.
Schöngart thinks this higher water
prevented tree roots from ever drying
out, killing the forest. To confirm it,
he and his team looked at growth rings
inside 17 dead trees to see when the
forest started failing. The results
showed that the first trees began
dying a year or so after Balbina started
raising the river’s dry season level.
Every tree at the lowest elevation along
the previous shoreline has since died.
Schöngart and his team also used
satellite radar images to estimate the
scale of tree mortality. They found
that the dam has killed hundreds of
thousands of Igapó trees, which had
previously locked up roughly 130,000
tonnes of carbon. It isn’t yet clear how
quickly the carbon from this dead and
Shaun Quegan will talk about mapping forests from space
on the Earth stage at New Scientist Live on 10 October
newscientistlive.com
rotting forest will be released, but it
only adds to the case that the Balbina
dam is even more environmentally
damaging than anyone thought.
The problem is, demand for energy
is growing. Hydroelectric dams
provide 80 per cent of Brazil’s
electricity, and president Bolsonaro
has promised to build more. That will
be “disastrous for the environment
and for local people”, says Fearnside.
Even insiders from Brazil’s
hydroelectric industry agree that
the Balbina dam produces too
much greenhouse gas. Luiz
Pinguelli Rosa, former president of
Electrobras, Brazil’s largest electricity
company, admits that “Balbina is very
bad”. But he insists that it is an outlier.
Forsberg begs to differ. More
than a decade ago, he and Kemenes
demonstrated that three other dams
in the Amazon also give off two to four
times as much CO2 as an equivalent
coal-fired power plant. “Almost all of
these lowland tropical dams emit
more greenhouse gases per megawatt
than a thermoelectric plant burning
dirty coal,” he says.
As Bolsonaro plots to further exploit
the Amazon to fuel Brazil’s economic
development, one thing is abundantly
clear. “The solution is to not build
more dams,” says Fearnside. ❚
Daniel Grossman (left) is a reporter
based in Massachusetts. Dado Galdieri is a
photographer based in Rio de Janeiro. Their
trip was supported by the Pulitzer Centre
21 September 2019 | New Scientist | 45
Recruitment

Assistant Professor of Chemistry

newscientistjobs.com
Recruitment advertising
Tel +1 617-283-3213
Email nssales@newscientist.com
The University of Chicago: Physical Sciences Division: Department of
Chemistry
Location
Chicago, Illinois
Description
The Department of Chemistry at The University of Chicago invites applications
for the position of Assistant Professor of Chemistry in all areas of chemistry.
Applicants must apply online at apply.interfolio.com/66199 and upload a cover
letter, a curriculum vitae with a list of publications, a succinct outline of research
plans and a one page teaching statement. In your cover letter, please specify
one sub-discipline that best represents your research interests (inorganic,
materials, organic, physical, theoretical or chemical biology). In addition, three
reference letters are required.
8\HSPÄJH[PVUZ
At the time of hire the successful candidate must have completed all
YLX\PYLTLU[ZMVYH7O+PU*OLTPZ[Y`VYHYLSH[LKÄLSK1VPU[HWWVPU[TLU[Z^P[O
other departments are possible.
Application Instructions
Review of applications will begin on October 07, 2019 and will continue until all
WVZP[PVUZHYLÄSSLK
Apply to: apply.interfolio.com/66199
Equal Employment Opportunity Statement
;OL<UP]LYZP[`VM*OPJHNVPZHU(ɉYTH[P]L(J[PVU,X\HS6WWVY[\UP[`+PZHISLK
=L[LYHUZ,TWSV`LYHUKKVLZUV[KPZJYPTPUH[LVU[OLIHZPZVMYHJLJVSVY
religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national or ethnic origin, age,
status as an individual with a disability, protected veteran status, genetic
information, or other protected classes under the law. For additional information
please see the University’s Notice of Nondiscrimination.
1VIZLLRLYZPUULLKVMHYLHZVUHISLHJJVTTVKH[PVU[VJVTWSL[L[OL
application process should call 773-702-1032 or email equalopportunity@
uchicago.edu with their request.

Bring your
career to life Research Fellow
Research Experience required in Immunology,
Sign up, create your own job alerts Bioengineering, Immunotherapy, T cell Biology, Antibody
and discover the latest opportunities Engineering or T cell Receptors. With the research
experience, candidate should be well-versed in various
in life sciences at lab experiences including tissue culture, cell-based
newscientistjobs.com assays measuring phenotypes of various cell subsets,
F\WRWR[LFLW\DQGSUROLIHUDWLRQˊRZF\WRPHWU\DQDO\VHV
It could be also helpful if candidate is familiar with
gene editing, molecular biology techniques, western
blot analysis (immune-histochemistry, immuno-
precipitations and immunoblotting), transfections, RNA/
'1$H[WUDFWLRQV3&5SXULˉFDWLRQRISODVPLGVDQG
general lab organization/ordering as well as lab safety
LVVXHV([SHUWLVHLQHYDOXDWLRQRIGUXJHIˉFDF\VWXGLHVLQ
animal models could be also helpful.
Education: Ph.D with experience.
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute is an equal opportunity
HPSOR\HUDQGDIˉUPVWKHULJKWRIHYHU\TXDOLˉHG
applicant to receive consideration for employment
without regard to race, color, religion, sex, gender
identity or expression, national origin, sexual
orientation, genetic information, disability, age, ancestry,
military service, protected veteran status, or other
groups as protected by law.
Apply Here: http://www.Click2apply.net/yrvrqt4zkc6jf6yk
@science_jobs #sciencejobs

46 | New Scientist | 21 September 2019 newscientistjobs.com

Join us in Anaheim this November!

2019
ANAHEIM, CALIFORNIA
NOVEMBER 13-16, 2019

Recipient of the
2019 AIMBE Excellence in STEM Education Award

The Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students (ABRCMS)

is a must-attend event bringing together one of the largest communities of
underrepresented minorities in STEM fields.

This award-winning conference gathers dynamic undergraduate students, and

the research faculty and program directors who mentor them, for four-days
of learning, sharing, and networking. From poster presentations to scientific
and professional development sessions and exhibitor showcases, ABRCMS is a
robust event guaranteed to leave you feeling inspired.

Mark your calendar and plan to join us

November 13-16, 2019, in Anaheim, CA!

www.abrcms.org/register
Managed by: Funded by:
Fellowships for Postdoctoral Scholars
"1_oѲ-uv_brv-u;-ˆ-bѲ-0Ѳ;|om;‰ouu;1;m|7o1|ou-Ѳ]u-7†-|;vbm7bˆ;uv;-u;-vo=u;v;-u1_ĸrrѲb1-ࢼomv‰bѲѲ0;
accepted from doctoral recipients with research interests associated with the following:

Departments - Applicants who wish to conduct !;1brb;m|vo=-‰-u7v-u;v;Ѵ;1|;71olr;ঞঞˆ;Ѵ‹ķ‰b|_

research on topics of general interest to one or more of the
departments are encouraged to apply. Interdepartmental
research, including with the Marine Policy Center, is also
encouraged. The Departments are:
ƒApplied Ocean Physics & Engineering
ƒBiology
ƒGeology & Geophysics
ƒMarine Chemistry & Geochemistry
ƒPhysical Oceanography
primary emphasis placed on research promise. Scholarships
-u;-‰-u7;7=ouƐѶŊlom|_-rrobm|l;m|v‰b|_-vঞr;m7
of $61,200 per year, a health and welfare allowance and a
lo7;v|u;v;-u1_0†7];|ĺ!;1brb;m|v-u;;m1o†u-];7|or†uv†;
|_;buo‰mu;v;-u1_bm|;u;v|bm-vvo1b-ঞom‰b|_u;vb7;m|
"1b;mঞC1-m7";mbou$;1_mb1-Ѵ"|-@ĺoll†mb1-ঞom‰b|_
ro|;mঞ-Ѵ)-7ˆbvouvrubou|ov†0lbমm]-m-rrѴb1-ঞom
is encouraged. olrѴ;|;7-rrѴb1-ঞomvl†v|0;u;1;bˆ;70‹
1|o0;uƐƔķƑƏƐƖ for the 2020/2021 appointments. Awards
‰bѴѴ0;-mmo†m1;7bm ;1;l0;uĺ!;1brb;m|vo=-‰-u7v1-m
bmbঞ-|;|_;buv|†7‹-m7u;v;-u1_r;ubo7-||_;mvঞ|†ঞom-m‹
ঞl;-[;u-m†-u‹ƐķƑƏƑƏ-m70;=ou; ;1;l0;uƐķƑƏƑƏĺ

A joint USGS/WHOI aaward will be given to a †u|_;ubm=oul-ঞom-0o†||_;"1_oѴ-uv_brv-m7-rrѴb1-ঞom

postdoc whose research is in an area of common interest forms as well as links to the individual Departments and their
between USGS and WHOI Scientific Staff. The individual research themes may be obtained through the Academic
will interact with both USGS and WHOI based advisors on uo]u-lvv;1ঞomo=|_;)‰;0r-];v-|Ĺ
their research.
‰‰‰ĺ‰_obĺ;7†ņrov|7o1|ou-Ѵ
$_;1;-mo‚ol";bvlo]u-r_mv|u†l;m|
Center (OBSIC) will award a fellowship for research on t†-Ѵrrou|†mb|‹ņLul-ঞˆ;1ঞom lrѴo‹;u
the earth’s internal structure and its dynamic processes
†vbm]v;-Yoouv;bvlb1l;-v†u;l;m|vĺ!;v;-u1_-u;-v
bm1Ѵ†7;Ĺv;-Yoouv;bvlb1bmv|u†l;m|-ঞomķbm1Ѵ†7bm]|_;
7;ˆ;Ѵorl;m|-m7ņou-rrѴb1-ঞomo=m;‰v;mvouvĸ;-u|_
v|u†1|†u;‰b|_-m;lr_-vbvom†vbm]o1;-mŊ0o‚ol
seismograph data, including the development and/
ou-rrѴb1-ঞomo=m;‰-m-Ѵ‹ঞ1-Ѵl;|_o7oѴo]b;vĸ
;-u|_t†-h;Ŋu;Ѵ-|;7ruo1;vv;v†vbm]v;-Yoou
v;bvloѴo]‹-m7ņou];o7;v‹ĸ|_;
bm|;urѴ-‹0;|‰;;mv;-Yoouv;bvlb1
measurements and oceanographic
ruo1;vv;vĸ-m7o|_;uruof;1|v
within this broad scope. Award
recipients may be advised by
v1b;mঞC1v|-@‰b|_bm|_;Cˆ;
Departments as well
as the USGS, or a
1ol0bm-ঞom
thereof.
The back pages
Puzzles
Cryptic crossword,
an egg puzzle and
the quick quiz p52
Feedback Picture of the week Almost the last word The Q&A
Elongated eels and Our pick of your Lightning effects and Randall Munroe
naming names: the future-themed biscuit/cake duality: on the creative use
week in weird p53 photos p53 readers respond p54 of science p56

Stargazing at home Week 1

Earth’s celestial moment

It’s almost the September equinox, making this the perfect time
to kick off our exploration of the heavens with Abigail Beall
ANGLE OF EARTH'S TILT
0
EVER looked up at the night sky 23.5
in wonder? Ever wished you could PRECESSION
spot Mars or navigate by the stars?
Then our new astronomy series is EARTH SIDE-ON TO
for you, wherever you live in the SUN AT EQUINOX
world and even if you are in a light-
polluted city. Better still, no special
equipment is required.
Crucial to making sense of the
Abigail Beall is a science writer night sky is understanding Earth’s
in Leeds, UK. This series is movement around the sun. As an
based on her book The Art of equinox falls on 23 September, I’m
Urban Astronomy @abbybeall going to kick off the series with a
simple model to explain what it is.
What you need There are two equinoxes in the
Cardboard year; they are the points when the
Two balls lengths of day and night are nearly
Wire equal over the world. The one in
Sticks September is when the southern
Glue and scissors hemisphere begins to tilt slightly
more towards the sun and spring
For next week begins. In the north, it marks the
A clear night sky start of autumn, or fall. Stargazing at home online
The equinox isn’t a day-long Projects will be posted online each week at
event, however. It is the exact newscientist.com/maker Email: maker@newscientist.com
moment when the sun crosses
the plane of Earth’s equator, which Now move your Earth around in a process called precession. To
varies according to your latitude. the sun, keeping your polar wire simulate this, hold the end of the
Next in our The model we are making won’t pointing in the same direction at wire protruding from Earth’s north
7-week series be to scale, but that’s OK for our all times. You’ll come to a point at pole and make it trace a small circle
1 Model the equinox purposes. Start with a circular which the northern hemisphere (see picture). This rotation takes
2 Find the North Star piece of card. Cut another piece tilts towards the sun. This is the 25,772 years to complete, meaning
and Southern Cross into a rectangle the same length June solstice, marking the that in around 13,000 years’
Learn to navigate as the circle’s radius, like the one northern summer. time, summer in the northern
by the stars in the picture. Then pierce a hole As you move your Earth further hemisphere will happen when
3 Test your area’s light at one end of your rectangle and at round its orbit, it will reach a point it currently experiences winter.
pollution the centre of your circle and push a where both hemispheres face the It also means the North Star will
4 Identify the craters stick through both. Glue a ball on sun the same amount – this is change, because the north pole
of the moon top to represent the sun. where we are now, the September will no longer be pointing in the
5 Orion and Sirius: how Next, bend a piece of wire to equinox. When the south pole tilts same direction. Instead of Polaris,
to star-hop 23.5° – that is the angle of Earth’s most to the sun, you have reached the bright star Vega will be the
6 Planet spotting: Mars, axis of rotation – and stick it into the December solstice, and the north star. Which brings us to next
Mercury and Uranus the other end of your rectangle. March equinox comes when both week, when we’ll be using what we
7 Taurus and the zodiacal Pierce the poles of your “Earth” sides are equal again. have learned to find the North Star
constellations ball and stick the wire through. The tilt of Earth is also moving, and the Southern Cross. ❚

21 September 2019 | New Scientist | 51

The back pages Puzzles
Cryptic crossword #15 Set by Wingding
   


 

  


ACROSS
1 Express disapproval about
British leader putting his
country before Europe (6)
4 Headless rodents grab
physiotherapist’s tool (3,3)
9 Microbiologist finding sticky
substance by old city (7)
10 Boy eating last of supper
with zero fat (5)
11 Audibly put together joint
when necessary (2,3)
12 Vehicles’ gas emission
reversed by first generation,
adding carbon (7)
13 Large animal at university –
this might help her find her
way around (11)
DOWN
1 Withdraw record held
by Madrid club (6)
2 Chemist had some of
Garbo’s children (5)
3 Bone in neck ape broke (7)
5 Cellular features said to
be more humorous (5)
6 Fowl took off, it’s reported,
fleeing this? (4,3)
7 Lover or church? Astronauts
feel it intensely (1-5)
8 Nuclear reaction’s ability
to sustain itself, sceptics
would have it? (11)
Answers and the next quick crossword next week.
52 | New Scientist | 21 September 2019
   continuum hypothesis








18 Complex pattern of French
law on aluminium (7)
20 Implied sensitivity, myself
included (5)
22 Climbing plants with drug
moving back in tubes (5)
23 Silver and spirit found in
Turing’s coat, adding
information (7)
24 Look to pull queen
backwards (6)
25 Northern Ireland and
Gibraltar initially stay in
the European Medicines
Agency? Turing’s cracked
it! (6)
14 “One is getting older,”
as American writes: this
could reveal the workings
of her mind (7)
15 Recklessly augment
harmful chemical (7)
16 Illness causing passion
for waiting in line? (1,5)
17 Part of flower that is
viewed negatively (6)
19 Heads of Turing’s agency
sought every reason to
develop shocking weapon (5)
21 Hold cold fish (5)
Quick quiz #21 Puzzle set by David Bedford
1 In mathematics, the
#22 The 9-minute egg
advanced by Georg Cantor in
1878 concerns the possible I like my eggs to be
sizes of what quantity? boiled for exactly
9 minutes. The
2 Pan troglodytes and problem is that
Pan paniscus are the sole I have no way to
members of the Pan genus. measure time except
How are they better known? for two egg timers
that are able to
3 What is the main measure precisely
chemical component 4 and 7 minutes
of standard glass?
respectively.
There is more than one way to set up
4 John Bardeen,
the timers to measure exactly 9 minutes,
Walter Brattain and
but I am keen to eat my egg as soon as
William Shockley shared
the 1956 Nobel prize in possible. Can you help?
physics for which discovery?
Answer next week
5 The hallux is the
biggest of your whats?
#21 Six weeks of seconds
Answers below
Solution
The number of seconds in six weeks and the
Quick product of all the whole numbers from 1 to
10 inclusively (10!) are the same:
Crossword #40 3,628,800.
Answers Here is how to show they are the same
ACROSS 7 Brown rat, 9 Inlier,
without a calculator:
10 Womb, 11 Complexity,
12 Taipei, 14 Apple DOS, The number of seconds in six weeks is
15 Expansion slot, 6 weeks x 7 days x 24 hours x 60 minutes x
17 Cyclamen, 19 Arsine,
60 seconds
21 Rhinoceros, 22 Mole,
23 Aments, 24 Endogeny Now, rewrite these numbers as products of
smaller numbers.
DOWN 1 Areola, 2 Swab,
3 Friction, 4 Dial-up, 5 Alex
For example: 24 = 3 × 8
Bellos, 6 Beetroot, 8 Tympanic
nerve, 13 Pipelining, 60 = 5 × 4 × 3
15 Erythema, 16 Nearside, which gives you:
18 Mucosa, 20 Nylons, 6 x 7 x (3 x 8) x (5 x 4 x 3) x (5 x 2 x 3 x 2)
22 Mega which equals:
6×7×3×8×5×4×3×5×2×3×2
Reorder and adjust this sequence, noticing
Quick quiz #21 that 10 = 5 × 2,
and 9 = 3 × 3
Answers
= (5×2) × (3×3) × 8 × 7 × 6 × 5 × 4 × 3 ×
2
5 Toes
= 10 × 9 × 8 × 7 × 6 × 5 × 4 × 3 × 2
4 The electronic transistor
3 6LOLFRQGLR[LGH6L2ċ
GETTY IMAGES
bonobo = 10!
2 The chimpanzee and the
the two
is no level of infinity between
just the integer numbers, there
line) is larger than the infinity of Get in touch
numbers you can order along a Email us at
the infinity of real numbers (all
crossword@newscientist.com
1 Infinity. It states that while
puzzles@newscientist.com
The back pages Feedback
Elongated eels
A two-year forensic trawl of Loch
Ness in Scotland has concluded that
its most famous resident may be a
large eel.
Researchers from New Zealand’s
University of Otago sifted DNA
samples from the loch to see what
sorts of creatures were hiding in its
depths. The analysis found nothing
to suggest the presence of any of
the usual Nessie suspects, which
in recent years have included
plesiosaurs, whales and even large
fish such as sturgeon or catfish.
There was, however, plenty of eel
DNA. “Our data doesn’t reveal their
size,” said researcher Neil Gemmell,
“but the sheer quantity of the
material says that we can’t discount
the possibility that there may be
giant eels in Loch Ness.”
Alternatively, perhaps lots of
regular-sized eels are slithering
around in a giant eel costume,
terrorising the occasional visitor and
enchanting the local tourist board.
Lost at sea
More submarine mysteries, this
time in the Baltic Sea. Researchers
from the GEOMAR Helmholtz
Centre for Ocean Research in Kiel,
Germany, are scratching their
heads after their underwater
monitoring station vanished
overnight. The seabed observatory
at Eckernförde Bay, in place since
2016, stopped transmitting data
on 21 August. When divers arrived
at the scene, they found nothing
but a shredded cable that once fed
power to the station.
The BBC reports that the area
is off-limits to fishing boats.
Yet experts said the 770-kilogram
observatory was too heavy to be
moved by storms, tides or large
animals (or, presumably, lots of
little animals wearing a large
animal costume). In a statement,
GEOMAR researcher Hermann
Bange asked beachcombers to
report anything suspicious
washing up on shore. Though with
£270,000 of equipment at stake,
Feedback thinks the local pawn
shop might also be worth a visit.
Mind your mouths Picture of the week The future
The sea monster head count is
rising. Last month, conservationists
working on Hilton Head Island
in South Carolina reported the
discovery of a two-headed
loggerhead turtle hatchling.
Meanwhile, Fox News showed
a picture of a two-mouthed fish
reeled in by angler Debbie Geddes
in upstate New York.
That’s not all: in New Jersey
last month, a two-headed timber
rattlesnake christened Double Dave
was recovered by conservationists,
while another two-headed serpent
was spotted in Bali.
What’s going on? Hypotheses,
speculation and glowing anti-
nuclear screeds to the usual
address please.
Bottle rockets
All Jedi warriors are advised to
put thermal detonators in their
checked luggage before passing ASIMO, the humanoid robot, sings and plays with a football four times a day at
through airport security. the Miraikan National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation in Tokyo.
The US Transportation Security Courtesy of Penny Winters.
Administration (TSA) previously The next theme is nature’s patterns, to celebrate the change in seasons.
stated that the existing ban on Email us your related photos to readerpics@newscientist.com by
“replica and inert explosives” Tuesday 24 September.
included souvenir soda bottles Terms and conditions at newscientist.com/pictureoftheweek-terms
from Disney’s Star Wars: Galaxy’s
Edge theme parks, which are an alternative to chemotherapy and Naming names
designed to resemble the radiotherapy”. This money would
fictional firecrackers. be used to create a repository of Feedback is relieved to find the
But millions of voices cried out alternative cancer treatment books spirit of nominative determinism
in protest, and feeling this great “that the Jersey Library don’t have is alive and well among the New
disturbance in the force, the TSA at present and are not willing to Scientist readership. Still. John
has taken the offending bottles off stock”, as well as paying for Hawkins writes that in our article
the no-fly list. The grenade-shaped patients’ treatments “not covered on happiness “it is delightful to
plastic containers can even be by their medical insurance”. note that the author of a paper
taken in hand luggage – so long as As the saying goes, if it looks like titled ‘Positive Psychology’ is
the syrupy contents are emptied a quack and it quacks like a quack, Martin Seligman” (31 August, p 30).
out first. Allowing liquids to be then it’s probably a quack. After a The name means “Blessed Man”
taken on flights? Now that really Twitter outcry, Waitrose head office in German.
would be dangerous. sprang into action, telling Anne the Meanwhile, Jack Haley notes
proposal was “done in error” and that at the University of Florida
“we will not be supporting this Transportation Institute, a group
Jersey justice charity”. It seems shoppers in Jersey examining the structural integrity
A Waitrose supermarket in St Helier, will have to settle for scientifically of supra-aquatic transportation
Jersey, has faced criticism for verified treatments for now. pathways is led by Jennifer Bridge.
including a charity that raises money
for alternative cancer treatments in
a fundraising initiative. Got a story for Feedback?
Local shopper Anne F spied an Send it to New Scientist, 25 Bedford Street,
in-store charity box raising money London WC2E 9ES or you can email us at
for “non-toxic cancer treatments as feedback@newscientist.com
21 September 2019 | New Scientist | 53
The back pages Almost the last word
Lightning bulb
A summer storm woke me around
2 am. I heard a sizzling sound before
lightning struck about 100 metres
away. Then I saw a 1.5-volt solar-
powered outside light glowing like
a 50-watt bulb. It faded after a few
minutes. What caused the sizzling
sound and made the light glow
so brightly?
Storm Dunlop
East Wittering, West Sussex, UK
The sizzling sound was almost
certainly a corona discharge and
is often heard before a nearby
lightning flash. The discharge
occurs when the electrical
field between the cloud and the
ground is strong enough to cause
electrons to be emitted from the
tips of any pointed objects – even,
in some cases, from people’s hair.
As for why the light glowed, it
depends on the type of lamp. If it is
one that glows after being charged
during the day, the flash may have
provided sufficient charge for the
light to come on. If it is activated
by passive infrared (PIR) radiation,
it is possible that the heat from
the lightning was sufficient to
activate the PIR sensor.
John Woodgate
Rayleigh, Essex, UK
Both effects are due to the electric
field that is generated between
the thundercloud and the ground.
The light is caused by a current
that is induced in the wiring of
the lamp by the varying electric
field through its accompanying
magnetic field. These fields persist
for a while at a lower level than the
very strong fields created just
before and during a strike.
Anthony Richardson
Ironbridge, Shropshire, UK
It is unclear whether the bulb
was powered by the intense light
absorbed from the lightning by
the solar panel or, in a less likely
scenario, by charge absorbed
from the air. The sizzling sound
must be the sound of the air
being explosively expanded
in the lightning channel.
54 | New Scientist | 21 September 2019
Is sitting inherently bad for
you or just time that could
be better spent exercising?
UK tax claim on its Jaffa Cakes.
Chocolate-coated biscuits are
subject to value-added tax (VAT)
in the UK, whereas chocolate-
coated cakes aren’t, so a huge
amount of money was at stake.
McVitie’s (my employer at
the time) won the case, partly
because cakes, including Jaffa
cakes, become dry when they go
GETTY IMAGES
stale, whereas biscuits go soft.
Gerald Dorey
This week’s new questions Oxford, UK
This question is an example
Sitting pretty We are frequently told we need plenty of of the profound cake-biscuit
exercise and that sitting is bad for us. Is the problem with existential problem exemplified
sitting merely that it stops you exercising, or is sitting bad in by the Jaffa Cake. This chocolate-
itself? John Gordon, Datchworth Green, Hertfordshire, UK coated confection has provoked
much discussion: a BBC radio
Coil conversion If I compress a metal spring, tie it with an programme that discussed the
acid-proof binding then submerge it in acid and dissolve the subject even invoked Ludwig
spring, what happens to the energy that was used to compress Wittgenstein’s ideas of the futility
it? I think the acid must warm up, but how is the stored energy of “family resemblance” tests,
converted to heat? Roger Key, Bedale, North Yorkshire, UK whether a categorisation is merely
a semantic reflex and whether
a non-binary category might
Hard-baked Claire Gregson be applied.
Portadown, County Armagh, UK Lawyers are more practically
Why do crisp ginger biscuits go soft Biscuits are essentially dried minded, and in 1991, a UK VAT
if left exposed to the air for a couple cakes, so absorb ambient tribunal decided that the critical
of days when other baked products, moisture. Cakes are much more factor was whether the item
such as cakes and bread, go hard? moist, so evaporate water to the absorbs moisture over time and
surrounding air. Just eat and enjoy. becomes softer, as with biscuits,
Krista Nelson or gives up moisture and hardens,
Rokeby, Tasmania, Australia David Jackson as with cake. This confirmed that
The difference between a cake Liverpool, UK the Jaffa Cake is a cake, and is
and a biscuit is similar to the Biscuits start out with a very low therefore liable for a lower rate
difference between bread and moisture content of between 1 and of tax than it would have been
toast. Bread starts out soft and 3 per cent, depending on the type, if classified as a biscuit.
moist but dries out over time whereas this is around 15 to 30 per Clearly, the ambient humidity
and becomes an unpleasant mix cent for cakes. In an atmosphere is critical. I would suggest that in
of soft and dry. Toast is made by of moderate humidity, water countries with weather that is
drying out bread to make it crisp. will diffuse out of a cake and hot and humid enough to melt
As toast ages, it absorbs moisture, into a biscuit until equilibrium the chocolate on a Jaffa Cake, no
making it rubbery and unpleasant. is reached, not only with the cake would harden, nor would
Biscuits are the toast of the entrapped air, but also the starchy, a biscuit stay hard for long. The
cake world and were originally sugary matrix of the product. reverse would be true in deserts.
made by baking cakes twice to In the 1990s, biscuit and cake In both areas, the cake-biscuit
dry them out for storage. If you manufacturer McVitie’s fought a duality disappears. ❚
leave a cake and a biscuit in a
standard kitchen, the moist
cake will dry out and the dry Want to send us a question or answer?
biscuit will become soggy, both Email us at lastword@newscientist.com
approaching the same state, just Questions should be about everyday science phenomena
from different directions. Full terms and conditions at newscientist.com/lw-terms
The back pages The Q&A
As a child, what did you want
to do when you grew up?
When I was very little, I had a book that showed
some people building a house, so the first thing I
can remember wanting to be is a housebuilder. A
little later, I started reading comics, and I actually
remember thinking that it would be really neat to
be a cartoonist. But then I realised that I only
knew how to draw stick figures, so I abandoned
that idea – only to stumble on it by accident a
decade or two later.
Explain what you do in one easy paragraph.
I draw comics and post them on the internet,
where people look at them when they’re
supposed to be working on something. I also
write books about cool maths and science.
What do you love most about what you do?
I love learning about weird cool stuff and getting
to tell people about it, but my very favourite thing
is that I occasionally hear from people who got to
know their future partner by sending my
comics back and forth to each other.
How has your field of study changed in
the time you have been working in it?
I was never a great student overall, and after a
few years of feeling frustrated in science class,
I remember thinking that I didn’t want to do
science after all. But then I came across a
physics textbook and realised that was
the kind of science I was excited about.
If you could send a message back to
yourself as a kid, what would you say?
I’d feel a lot of pressure to figure out the most
important world event to warn people about. But
I’d probably panic and just write: “Sorry about the
paradox I’m creating right now :(”
What’s the best piece of advice
anyone ever gave you?
My mom once told me she tries never to make
fun of someone for admitting they don’t know
something. I think that’s a really helpful lesson.
If you make fun of people for that, you’re just
teaching them to avoid revealing to you when
they’re learning something and you miss
out on getting to show them cool stuff.
56 | New Scientist | 21 September 2019
Cartoonist and former NASA roboticist
Randall Munroe wanted to know how to
land a space shuttle in a drainage ditch, and
went to astronaut Chris Hadfield to find out
What’s your favourite ‘How to’
from your latest book?
For the chapter “How to Make an Emergency
Landing”, I interviewed Chris Hadfield, test pilot
and commander of the International Space
Station. My plan was to throw increasingly bizarre
scenarios at him until he got annoyed, but to my
surprise, he answered every question without
hesitation. Even better, his answers were all
delivered in a very businesslike astronaut
voice. It was so much fun listening to him calmly
describe how to crawl around on the outside of
a plane or land a space shuttle in a drainage ditch
as if he had done it a thousand times.
Do you have an unexpected hobby, and
if so, please will you tell us about it?
Every fall, I spend a few days hiking up to
mountain lookouts to help count migrating
hawks. I was very into the Animorphs series
of books as a kid. K. A. Applegate spent a lot
of time describing hawks riding thermals.
It sounded so nice!
What’s the best thing you’ve read or
seen in the past 12 months?
Gretchen McCulloch’s book on how the
internet shapes language, Because Internet,
sheds light on so many things that I’ve noticed
but never really understood about how people
use text to communicate.
“My mom told
me she tries
How useful will your skills be after
the apocalypse? never to make
I guess it depends whether there are surviving
people who have free time and want to hear cool
fun of people
facts about the apocalypse that just happened. for not knowing
OK, one last thing: tell us something that something”
will blow our minds…
The first nuclear weapon was created closer to
the invention of barbed wire than to today. ❚
Randall Munroe is an engineer, author and creator
of the web comic xkcd. His latest book, How to:
Absurd scientific advice for common real-world
problems, is out now
TOP: RANDELL MUNROW; BOTTOM: PHOTO RESEARCHERS/FLPA
 SOUVENIR ISSUE
MOON LANDING
5OTH ANNIVERSARY
1969-2O19

THE
QUEST
FOR
SPACE
Don’t miss a special souvenir issue from
New Scientist celebrating the 50th anniversary
of the moon landings. Explore the past, present
and future of space exploration with over 100
pages of in-depth articles on the wonders of the
solar system, plus 20 pages of newly resurfaced
historical content from New Scientist’s archive
detailing the original space race as it happened

Available from all good

magazine retailers, digitally in the
New Scientist app or direct from
newscientist.com/thecollection