New Scientist

Discovery
Tours
C OMP E T I T ION
What’s your
science holiday
dream? We can
make it come true!
Is there a scientific holiday, tour
or experience in your bucket list
that you dream of making a
reality? We might just be able to
help with that!
We are crowd sourcing ideas for
new tours, and the winner will
recieve 2 free places on their tour
when it's launched.
k Write a brief description of your ideal

science holiday, tour or experience.
k We will launch the best idea late 2020 or
2021. The winner will receive two places
on the tour.
k No matter how big or small, we are
looking for brilliant unique ideas. It can
be complex multi-location overseas
holiday tour or a simple walking tour or a
weekender (and everything in between).
k We are also looking for ideas for family,
active and school tours.
More details and

entry form at form at
newscientist.com/tours
MEET THE FIRST ANIMALS
Enigmatic creatures from
before life’s big bang
SEEING AROUND CORNERS
How shadows can help us
piece together the invisible
THREE-BODY PROBLEM
AI takes on Isaac Newton’s
most fiendish puzzle
WEEKLY November 9 –15, 2019
THE HEALING
POWER OF
YOUR MIND
Why hypnosis
is finally being
taken seriously by
modern medicine
HOME OF THE FUTURE No3255 US$6.99 CAN$7.99

What a truly eco house could look like 4 5
PLUS THE SHAPE OF THE UNIVERSE / ELEPHANT MENOPAUSE /

ALIEN WATER / HOW OUR BRAINS REMEMBER WHERE THINGS ARE
Science and technology news www.newscientist.com US jobs in science 0 72440 30690 5
17MORE
THINGS YOU
NEED T O
UNDERSTAND
A treasure trove of knowledge to help
you understand, appreciate and navigate
the world better. Including:
Quantum theory & general relativity
The theory of evolution
Artificial intelligence
The human brain
Climate change
& Much more
Buy your copy from all good

magazine retailers or digitally.
This week’s issue
On the 38 Meet the first animals

Enigmatic creatures from
42 Features
cover before life’s big bang “A 3-D image
34 The healing power 42 Seeing around corners of a room
of your mind How shadows can help us
Why hypnosis is finally piece together the invisible can be
being taken seriously by
modern medicine 14 Three-body problem constructed
18 Home of the future
AI takes on Isaac Newton’s
most fiendish puzzle
from the
What a truly eco house
could look like 7 The shape of the universe
shadow
16 Elephant menopause cast by a
10 Alien water 10 How our brains
Vol 244 No 3255 remember where things are houseplant”
Cover image: Dan Page
News Features
6 On the origin of two legs 34 The healing power
Did apes first become bipedal News of your mind
in a surprising place? Hypnosis appears to alleviate
anxiety and chronic pain.
9 Fighting fake news Is it time to take it seriously?
The problem with Facebook’s
plans to tackle misinformation 38 Meet the first animals
The enigmatic creatures of early
10 There it is Earth are rewriting life’s history
The newly discovered type
of neuron that keeps track 42 Seeing around corners
of objects in space The intriguing science of
perceiving the invisible
Views
The back pages
21 Comment
Who owns the code of life? 51 Stargazing from home
How to spot Mercury
22 The columnist
Graham Lawton examines 52 Puzzles
our progress so far on saving A cryptic crossword,
the planet a puzzle and a quick quiz
24 Letters 53 Feedback
We must deal with the roots Speed-reading without opening
of domestic violence a book: the week in weird
28 Aperture 54 Almost the last word

SEBASTIAN BRILL/MPI-C
A futuristic solar farm in a Why are some people interested

desert high above sea level in science? Readers respond
30 Culture 56 The Q&A

The chasm between scientists Henning Beck says mistakes
and those who reject science 12 The Amazon’s secrets Experimenting high above the canopy are crucial for our success
9 November 2019 | New Scientist | 1

Humanity will need the
equivalent of 2 Earths to People lying down
support itself by 2030. solve anagrams in
10% less time
than people
standing up.
About 6 in
100 babies
(mostly boys)
are born with an
extra nipple.
60% of us
experience
‘inner speech’
where everyday
thoughts take a
back-and-forth
conversational style.
We spend 50% of our

lives daydreaming.
AVAILABLE NOW
newscientist.com/howtobehuman
The leader
Return of hypnosis
Time to see if it really has a place in mainstream medicine
DO YOU know what they call alternative accumulating that hypnosis has real a means to quit smoking, a recent review
medicine that’s been proved to work? promise as a medical therapy – helping found no good evidence that hypnosis
Medicine. So says Tim Minchin in his doctors perform surgery with fewer side helps. But this doesn’t mean it doesn’t,
poem “Storm”, in which he makes the effects and at lower cost, minimising says Jamie Hartmann-Boyce at the
case for evidence-led treatment. chronic pain, improving weight loss University of Oxford, because relevant
We have a long history of therapies techniques and potentially aiding an research has been so poorly designed it
that first seemed bananas, only to be international addiction crisis. makes it impossible to say for sure either
proved marvellous medicine. In the way. “It’s such an important issue that
1980s, two Australian scientists showed “The jury may be in on therapies we need… bigger, better trials,” she says.
that stomach ulcers were caused by like homeopathy, but that Hypnosis may be hard to define and
bacteria, not stress. As a result, simple shouldn't stop us exploring difficult to study, but the pay-offs could
antibiotics could treat a problem once other unusual treatments” be huge. With suggestions that it can
considered incurable. But the medical potentially reduce reliance on opioids,
establishment took some persuading. But no establishment should accept drugs which kill 130 people in the US
The pair won a Nobel prize, for having any alternative medicine until we have every day due to overdose, surely it is
the “tenacity to challenge the prevailing solid evidence of what works, and what worth taking seriously.
dogma”. Tenacity is just what is needed doesn’t. Tenacity only gets you so far. The jury is in on alternative remedies
now, in identifying the place of hypnosis We also need investment and rigorous like homeopathy, but that shouldn’t
in mainstream medicine (see page 34). studies. When it comes to hypnosis, stop us from exploring other unusual
People are right to be sceptical, given these are still in short supply. treatments – you never know, it might
its fantastical origins, but evidence is For instance, despite its popularity as just lead to a Nobel prize. ❚
PUBLISHING & COMMERCIAL MANAGEMENT EDITORIAL

Display advertising Chief executive Nina Wright Editor Emily Wilson
Tel +44 (0)20 7611 1291 Email displayads@newscientist.com Finance director Jenni Prince Executive editor Richard Webb
Commercial director Chris Martin Chief technology officer Chris Corderoy Creative director Craig Mackie
Display sales manager Justin Viljoen Marketing director Jo Adams News
Lynne Garcia, Bethany Stuart, Henry Vowden, Human resources Shirley Spencer News editor Penny Sarchet
(ANZ) Richard Holliman HR coordinator Serena Robinson Editors Jacob Aron, Timothy Revell
Recruitment advertising Facilities manager Ricci Welch Reporters (UK) Jessica Hamzelou, Michael Le Page,
Tel +44 (0)20 7611 1204 Email nssales@newscientist.com Donna Lu, Adam Vaughan, Clare Wilson
Executive assistant Lorraine Lodge
Nicola Cubeddu, Viren Vadgama, (US) Leah Crane, Chelsea Whyte
Receptionist Alice Catling
(US) Jeanne Shapiro (Aus) Alice Klein, Ruby Prosser Scully
New Scientist Live Interns Gege Li, Layal Liverpool, Jason Arunn Murugesu
Tel +44 (0)20 7611 1245 Email live@newscientist.com Non-exec chair Bernard Gray Digital
Events director Adrian Newton Senior non-exec director Louise Rogers Digital editor Conrad Quilty-Harper
Creative director Valerie Jamieson Web team Lilian Anekwe, Anne Marie Conlon,
Event manager Henry Gomm CONTACT US David Stock, Sam Wong
Sales director Jacqui McCarron Features
Exhibition sales manager Rosie Bolam newscientist.com/contact Head of features Catherine de Lange (parental leave)
Marketing manager Katie Cappella General & media enquiries and Rowan Hooper
Events team support manager Rose Garton US Tel +1 617 283 3213 Acting head of features Tiffany O’Callaghan
Marketing executive Jessica Lazenby-Murphy 210 Broadway #201, Cambridge, MA 02139 Editors Gilead Amit, Julia Brown,
Marketing UK Tel +44 (0)20 7611 1200 Kate Douglas, Alison George, Joshua Howgego
Head of campaign marketing James Nicholson 25 Bedford Street, London WC2E 9ES Feature writers Daniel Cossins, Graham Lawton
Poppy Lepora Australia PO Box 2315, Strawberry Hills, NSW 2012 Culture and Community
Head of customer experience Emma Robinson US Newsstand Editors Liz Else, Mike Holderness, Simon Ings
Head of data analytics Tom Tiner Tel +1 973 909 5819 Subeditors
Web development Distributed by Time Inc. Retail, a division of Meredith Chief subeditor Eleanor Parsons
Maria Moreno Garrido, Tom McQuillan, Amardeep Sian Corporation, 6 Upper Pond Road, Parsippany, NJ 07054 Bethan Ackerley, Tom Campbell, Chris Simms, Jon White
Syndication Design
Tribune Content Agency Art editor Kathryn Brazier
© 2019 New Scientist Ltd, England. New Scientist ISSN 0262 4079 is
Tel 1-800-346-8798 Email tca-articlesales@tribpub.com Joe Hetzel, Dave Johnston, Ryan Wills
published weekly except for the last week in December by New Scientist Ltd,
England. New Scientist (Online) ISSN 2059 5387. New Scientist Limited, Subscriptions Picture desk
387 Park Avenue South, New York, NY 10016 newscientist.com/subscribe Picture editor Susan Banton
Periodicals postage paid at New York, NY and other mailing offices Tel 1 888 822 3242 Production
Postmaster: Send address changes to New Scientist, PO Box 3806, Email newscientist.na.subs@quadrantsubs.com Production manager Alan Blagrove
Chesterfield, MO 63006-9953, USA. Post New Scientist, PO Box 3806, Chesterfield MO 63006-9953 Robin Burton, Melanie Green
Registered at the Post Office as a newspaper and printed in USA by
Fry Communications Inc, Mechanicsburg, PA 17055

Where did we come from?
How did it all begin?
And where does belly-button fluff come from?

Find the answers in our latest book. On sale now.
Introduction by Professor Stephen Hawking

News
African swine fever Cosmological crisis Biased sampling Take the bus Infant diseases
The search for a We still don’t know African gene variants Delivery drones could The long-lasting
vaccine to protect if the universe is missing from gene use public transport impact of measles
the world’s pigs p6 round or flat p7 studies p12 to go further p14 revealed p15
Environment
Chemical lawsuit
set to hit Australia
UP TO 40,000 residents of
towns contaminated with
chemicals from firefighting
foams are set to sue the
Australian government,
making it the biggest class
action lawsuit in the
country’s history.
The chemicals, called
PFAS (perfluoroalkyl and
polyfluoroalkyl substances),
were used in firefighting
foams on military bases
2019 HINDUSTAN TIMES/GETTY IMAGES
in the 1970s. They were

phased out in Australia in
2004 after studies showed
they tended to accumulate
in people’s blood, but
they are still found in
some waterways used for
drinking and agriculture.
The lawsuit will argue that
properties near the bases
India chokes on dirty air have lost value as a result.

PFAS don’t easily break
down. Studies in lab animals
suggest that extended
Levels of air pollution are spiking in northern India and environmental exposure to high levels of
controls are lacking, reports Adam Vaughan some may cause cancers,
but it is still unclear how
A SEVERE episode of smog in large Delhi was hit by a week of smog. Effects Institute in Massachusetts. this translates to humans.
parts of northern India has forced Agricultural fires were the single “There are smaller towns and The Australian
authorities to impose traffic biggest cause of pollution in Delhi villages across the northern part government has warned
restrictions, cancel dozens of on Monday, contributing 38 per of the country that are facing people in some communities
flights and close primary schools. cent of it, according to modelling equally dire pollution.” not to drink from waterways
Levels of tiny particulate pollution, by independent air quality For now, little can be done short or bore water, eat fish or
known as PM2.5, spiked over the researcher Sarath Guttikunda. of waiting for winds to shift the consume produce grown
weekend in the capital, Delhi, to But Apte says it would be wrong smog. In the longer term, both on nearby farms. But the
more than 10 times safe limits. to focus on farming because Apte and Pant say India must website of the government’s
Such extreme pollution occurs things such as vehicles, power implement stronger pollution defence department says
every year in the region, usually plants and household wood- controls across a range of sectors. the health effects of PFAS
between October and November, burning are also big sources. “Even Delhi is the 11th worst city in are “generally small and
as a result of weakening winds, on a good day, the air in north the world for annual PM2.5 levels, within normal ranges for
falling temperatures and farmers India is among the most severely according to the World Health the whole population”.
burning the stubble of crops. polluted on the planet,” he says. Organization. It says that almost “It’s an extraordinarily
“You can almost count on The smog isn’t only in Delhi, half of the planet’s 50 most confusing message,”
something of this magnitude says Pallavi Pant at the Health polluted cities are in India. ❚ says Erin Brockovich,
happening,” says Joshua Apte at an ambassador for
the University of Texas at Austin. More on air pollution online Shine Lawyers, the firm
The current crisis isn’t even the For everything you need to know, visit bringing the case. ❚
worst India has suffered: in 2016, newscientist.com/round-up/air-pollution Ruby Prosser Scully

News
Palaeoanthropology
Ancient European ape may have

been first to walk on two legs
Michael Marshall
THE discovery of 11.6-million-year- The 21 bones discovered

old fossils in Europe suggests that from an adult male
the first apes to walk upright may Danuvius guggenmosi
have evolved there, not Africa.
“These findings may revolutionise D. guggenmosi is “a game changer”,
our view on human evolution,” but many remain sceptical.
says Madelaine Böhme at the “The fossils presented here do
University of Tübingen, Germany. not preserve convincing evidence
Böhme and her colleagues for bipedal locomotion,” says
discovered the fossils in a clay pit Kelsey Pugh at City University
in Bavaria in southern Germany. of New York. She says the hips
They found 37 bones belonging and feet are both crucial for this,
CHRISTOPH JÄCKLE
to four individuals: an adult male, but aren’t among the fossils.

two adult females and a juvenile. Others are more positive.
They named the new species “This is really cool,” says John
Danuvius guggenmosi. It was Hawks at the University of
a small ape, weighing between Wisconsin-Madison. He notes
17 and 31 kilograms, and probably walked upright in trees, unlike bipedal hominins are all African, that D. guggenmosi’s shin bone
ate hard foods like nuts (Nature, all known apes. leading scientists to believe that looks a lot like that of a hominin.
DOI: 10.1038/s41586-019-1731-0). This is startling because bipedality evolved there. Böhme’s But he is unconvinced that
Surprisingly, its legs resemble D. guggenmosi is much older team argues that this trait arose bipedality, or hominins, began
those of humans. We can fully than the oldest known hominins among European apes. in Europe. He says that, around
extend our knees, so our legs that may have been bipedal: Her colleague David Begun at 11 million years ago, apes were
act like pillars directly under our Sahelanthropus tchadensis and the University of Toronto, Canada, expanding and diversifying, so
bodies. Chimps can’t do this: when Orrorin tugenensis. Both lived has long argued that hominins finding a fossil in one place isn’t
they stand on two legs, their knees around 6 million years ago, first evolved in Europe before proof that it originated there.
stay bent. D. guggenmosi’s leg meaning the newly discovered moving into Africa, but this isn’t Even if bipedality or hominins
bones suggest it could stand like a species may push back the origin widely accepted, largely because evolved in Europe, there is no
human, prompting Böhme’s team of bipedality about 5 million years. the evidence is fragmentary. doubt both our genus and our
to argue that the ape stood and Furthermore, the known Böhme says the discovery of species originated in Africa. ❚
Infectious diseases
Many millions of pigs and infected wild boar have turned University in Hong Kong. “Currently complex virus, with two coatings
up as far west as Belgium. It is also nobody on this planet has the and several ways of entering cells.
wiped out as African spreading in east Asia, killing many solution to the problem.” Antibodies to various bits of it have
swine fever spreads pigs in Vietnam and elsewhere. Despite years of warnings from never been enough to stop it.
ASF was spotted in China virologists, there is no vaccine. Most We will now be able to look for
A QUARTER of the world’s domestic in August 2018. It is now in every vaccines against viruses stimulate better antibody targets, says Dixon,
pigs have died this year as a virus province. The virus may have the body to make antibodies as scientists in China and Spain
rampages across Eurasia, and that spread there from North Korea. published the first detailed images
may be just the start. Half the pigs in The only way to get rid of ASF “I predict the virus will keep of the virus last month (Journal of
China – which last year numbered is to kill infected herds. But while spreading. Nobody on this Biological Chemistry, doi.org/ddqz).
440 million, some 50 per cent of pigs on farms can be destroyed and planet has the solution to Experimental vaccines made of
the world’s pigs – have either died replaced, the disease persists in wild the problem” live, weakened ASF have worked
of African swine fever (ASF) or been boar and feral hogs, as well as in better, says Dixon. These prompt
killed to stamp out the virus. meat, which is increasingly sold against viral structural proteins, specialised blood cells to recognise
ASF comes from East Africa. In abroad. “I predict ASF virus will such as those in the virus coating. a range of viral proteins, but there
2007, it reached Georgia in the remain endemic for some time in These then stop the virus from are several hurdles to developing
Caucasus in contaminated meat, east Asia and eastern Europe, with entering cells, for example. But ASF, such vaccines for use. Meanwhile,
and in infected wild boar. Now, it is constant introductions around the says Linda Dixon of The Pirbright she fears, ASF “could go global”. ❚
all over Russia and eastern Europe world,” says Dirk Pfeiffer of City Institute in Surrey, UK, is a large, Debora MacKenzie
6 | New Scientist | 9 November 2019

Cosmology Gene editing
We don’t know
if the universe is Spray-on CRISPR
spherical or flat Genetically modifying plants could soon be almost as easy as squirting
Leah Crane them with water, reports Michael Le Page
TRAVEL far enough in the universe STICKING DNA to nanoparticles able to permanently edit the Galan. First discovered in 2004,
and you could end up back where and spraying these on plant leaves genomes of sprayed leaf cells carbon dots are ball-like particles
you began. That is because the can alter their genomes as they (bioRxiv, doi.org/ddmw). of carbon less than 10 nanometres
universe might be a sphere rather grow. The simple technique The results have yet to be across that can be attached to
than a flat sheet, which would could have a wide variety of confirmed by other groups, but other molecules.
change nearly everything we uses, including changing the if spray-on gene editing works, Carbon dots can form when
think we know about the cosmos. properties of crops in fields. it could lead to new ways of carbon compounds burn, and
The Planck observatory, which “It was so straightforward,” says improving and protecting crops, occur naturally. “We’ve found
operated from 2009 to 2013, Heather Whitney at the University and of turning plants into them in coffee, we’ve found
mapped the cosmic microwave of Bristol in the UK. “It was really biofactories capable of making them in soil,” says Galan.
background, a sea of light left over surprising how easy it was.” chemicals such as flavourings Galan makes carbon dots for
from the big bang. It found there Whitney and her team have and pharmaceutical products. Whitney by heating sugars in a
was more gravitational lensing – so far tested their technique on “It’s amazing,” says Ignacio Rubio normal microwave oven. Next,
stretching of the light due to the wheat, maize, barley and others. Somoza at the Centre for Research she attaches a polymer called
They used a plant mister to spray in Agricultural Genomics in Spain, polyethylene glycol that attracts
“If the universe is spherical, leaves with water containing who now plans to try the method. DNA molecules electrostatically.
it could be a major problem nanoparticles called carbon At present, the main tool for When sprayed on leaves, carbon
for our understanding of dots that were bound to DNA. genetically engineering plants is dots get into nearly every cell on
the cosmos” The DNA, which coded for a a microbe called Agrobacterium. the leaf surface. Up to a third of
fluorescent protein, got into cells Researchers use it to insert DNA these cells use the added DNA to
shape of space-time, which can be in the plants’ leaves, prompting into plant genomes, although it make new proteins. Experiments
distorted by heavy matter – than them to glow green under UV only works in some plants and by the team show that the carbon
expected. Alessandro Melchiorri at light. This is a huge advance using it outside the laboratory dots don’t seem to be toxic, and
the Sapienza University of Rome on conventional methods for would be impractical and risky. may even boost plant growth.
and his colleagues believe this could inserting DNA into plants. Another approach is to use a “gene So far, the team’s attempts to
be because the universe is “closed”, But the DNA wasn’t gun” to force DNA into plant cells, modify egg cells in plant ovaries
or spherical, rather than flat (Nature incorporated into the cells’ but this can damage plants and and stem cells in growing shoots
Astronomy, doi.org/ddpc). genomes, so should break is difficult to do on a large scale. have failed. That is a disadvantage
If the universe is indeed closed, down over time. The researchers Whitney uses carbon dots when it comes to creating new
that could be a major problem for then took the technique a step created by her colleague Carmen varieties of GM plants. However,
our understanding of the cosmos. further, using carbon dots bound it could make it safer to apply
Another cosmological puzzle is that to DNA coding for the CRISPR It may soon be possible carbon dots to fields of plants
the part of the universe near to us machinery used for genome to edit the DNA of plants because modifications wouldn’t
seems to be expanding faster than it editing. In this way, they were simply by spraying them get passed to future generations
ought to be. This is tough to explain or spread among wild plants.
with a flat universe, and the team Many questions remain
calculated that this gets even unanswered, though, such as
tougher with a spherical universe. how the carbon dots get into
It is so bad that the team calls it a cells. “There’s so much we don’t
“cosmological crisis”. know,” says Whitney.
However, there are no other Spray-on gene editing could
observations hinting that the be misused, for instance to make
cosmos may be closed, and crops toxic. But Whitney notes
there is a chance that this Planck that there are already far easier
measurement is a statistical fluke. ways to poison food.
“If this [claim] is true, it would As for whether spraying carbon
have profound implications for dots into the environment could
our understanding of the universe,” harm animals, more research is
DEEPOL BY PLAINPICTURE
says David Spergel at Princeton needed. Carbon dots can get into
University. “It’s a really important mammalian cells growing in a
claim, but I’m not sure it’s one that’s dish, says Galan, but the immune
backed by the data. In fact, I’d say system mops them up if they get
the evidence is actually against it.” ❚ into the body. ❚

News UK general election
Polling
Row over tactical voting site

Campaigners under fire for their statistical model for tactical voting
James Ball
THE UK general election campaign calculator. It used a relatively new model) to make much more woman in the north-east of
has begun, with voters having form of election modelling known granular predictions about the England with a degree, then work
to decide whether to support the as MRP, short for multilevel behaviour of constituencies – out how many such people there
current Conservative government, regression and post-stratification. and even individuals. are in different constituencies.
which wants to proceed with “MRP isn’t polling, that’s the key The method saw a boost in It then assesses other factors, such
leaving the European Union, thing that people probably don’t 2017 when polling firm YouGov as how marginal a seat is, as voters
or try to replace it. quite understand,” says Smith. released an experimental MRP in marginal seats are more likely
A pro-EU campaign group, Instead, it is a model that takes a on the eve of the election, correctly to switch parties than those in
Best for Britain, has launched a large initial polling sample (more identifying the winning party in safe seats. It also calculates
tactical voting guide designed to than 46,000 voters in this case) 93 per cent of seats. Chris Curtis incumbency effects, which
help elect politicians who want to and combines it with numerous from YouGov says the principle particularly boost an MP’s
change course on Brexit. The tool other factors (90,000 for this behind MRP is to model types first election as the incumbent.
has been criticised for giving what of voters, rather than relying on The techniques behind MRP
some see as odd advice, but the A new way of modelling traditional constituency polling. are decades old, but are largely
group says its choices are backed is being used to offer For example, an MRP will model a new factor in politics. This is
by complex statistical modelling. pro-Remain voting advice the behaviour of a 24-year-old partly because existing polling
The Liberal Democrats are the techniques are becoming less
most anti-Brexit UK party, with a effective as it gets harder to
policy of notifying the EU that the reach balanced samples, and also
country no longer wishes to leave. because online polling decreases
However, it is also a minor party, the cost of the large-scale polls
meaning its chances of winning needed to power the models.
many of the 650 seats are seen as There are limitations, of
slim. Despite this, Best for Britain course, not least that during an
suggests a Lib Dem vote in 99 seats election campaign, voters change
ALEX SEGRE/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO
where the party trailed the their minds. Smith says Best for
incumbent by at least 25,000 votes Britain is planning to update its
in the 2017 general election. model closer to election day.
Best for Britain CEO Naomi “MRP is still just like all polling,
Smith says this advice isn’t due to telling us where the public is
partisan bias, but rather the result right now,” says Curtis. “It is not
of how the group powered its predicting the future.” ❚
Energy
Fracking banned as in August near Blackpool. It is the The decision follows the UK would ban fracking permanently.
largest so far after operations by spending watchdog saying last Prime minister Boris Johnson
UK parties compete shale firm Cuadrilla in the past year. month that fracking had cost has said the environment will
on green credentials A scientific analysis published police forces and public bodies be one of his top three domestic
last week by the UK oil and gas £33 million, and that the priorities. Opposition to fracking
THE UK government has brought regulator concluded that bigger has long outstripped support in
in a moratorium on fracking in
England and dropped measures to
speed the development of shale gas
future tremors couldn’t be ruled out,
which could cause unacceptable
“damage and disturbance”.
2.9
The magnitude of a fracking-related
official polling.
Although environmentalists
welcomed the fracking moratorium,
wells, ringing the death knell for the Although the moratorium applies earthquake in August on the same day officials also gave
nascent industry. The sharp reversal only to England, fracking is already the green light for the country’s
of support ends nearly a decade effectively banned in Scotland and industry’s progress had been first deep coal mine in decades,
of protests, court cases and minor Wales. Opposition political parties slower than expected. near Whitehaven in Cumbria. ❚
earthquakes without any energy have pledged to ban the method of The opposition Labour party Adam Vaughan
being produced. extracting gas. The UK government accused the government of trying
The move comes after fracking also ditched controversial planning to win over voters in next month’s For more on climate change in the
caused a magnitude-2.9 quake reforms to aid the industry. general election. It said that it UK election, see page 18

Analysis Social media
Fighting fake news Facebook has a plan to tackle misinformation in

elections, but changes the firm made to its advertising policies in October
effectively halt the efforts before they have begun, reports Donna Lu
FACEBOOK has announced plans wrote Allan, who is also a member

to reduce misinformation and of the UK’s House of Lords.
foreign interference ahead of The rationale, according to a
the UK general election. But its Facebook fact sheet, is grounded in
efforts are unlikely to make much the firm’s “fundamental belief in free
of a difference. expression” and a “respect for the
On 12 December, voters across democratic process”. But more than
the UK will go to the polls in the 250 of Facebook’s own staff have
country’s first December election openly challenged the position.
in nearly a century. As the fallout
from the 2016 Brexit referendum “Politicians or political
parties aren’t even
NOAH BERGER/GETTY IMAGES

continues, misinformation and
electoral interference will be at eligible for fact-checking
the front of many people’s minds. in the first place”
“We will set up a dedicated
operations centre to bring together “[The policy] doesn’t protect
the teams who monitor activity voices, but instead allows politicians
across our platforms,” Richard Allan, to weaponize our platform by
Facebook’s vice-president of policy targeting people who believe is being used to target political Facebook HQ looked for
solutions, wrote in The Telegraph just that content posted by political advertising at potential voters. misinformation during
before the election was announced. figures is trustworthy,” they wrote Facebook and other social the Brazil 2018 election
Facebook’s measures include in an open letter. media companies need to
removing fake accounts and Facebook founder Mark improve their transparency around “You have 80 per cent of the
reducing the reach of articles that Zuckerberg was grilled recently by the use of data for advertising, world essentially where they’re
have been debunked by independent US member of congress Alexandria says Ailidh Callander at non-profit not making any effort whatsoever,”
third-party fact-checkers. The firm Ocasio-Cortez, and implied that Privacy International. In October, says Callander. This includes no
announced a similar approach for demonstrably false ads wouldn’t a Privacy International report requirement for political advertisers
the 2020 US presidential election. be removed from the platform. found that Facebook has to become authorised, for political
But the effectiveness of these Beyond misinformation, there is increased transparency for ads to carry disclosures or for ads
measures is dwarfed by changes also the issue of what personal data political ads in only 35 countries. to be saved in a public archive.
that the firm made to its advertising Even in countries with heightened
policies in early October. Facebook transparency, like the UK, it is still
previously prohibited any advertising Twitter bans political advertising difficult for an individual to access
that contained “deceptive, false, information about why they are
or misleading content”. Now the Twitter is banning all political Shortly after Twitter’s seeing particular advertisements.
ban is only for “ads that include ads from its service, saying social announcement, Facebook CEO Last week, Facebook agreed to
claims debunked by third-party media companies help advertisers Mark Zuckerberg said “political pay a penalty of £500,000 to the
fact checkers”. proliferate highly targeted, speech is important” and stood Information Commissioner’s Office,
This is a problem for two reasons: misleading messages. by Facebook’s decision. the UK data watchdog, relating to
Facebook’s two UK fact-checking In tweets announcing the Twitter currently only the Cambridge Analytica scandal.
partners have limited resources to policy, Twitter chief executive allows certified campaigns and The firm dropped its appeal of
monitor the more than 1 billion Jack Dorsey said: “While internet organisations to run political ads the fine, but didn’t admit fault.
pieces of content posted to the advertising is incredibly powerful for candidates and issues. The The data privacy issue extends
platform daily. Full Fact, the larger and very effective for commercial latter tend to advocate on broader beyond Facebook. In the UK, under
of the two partners, has a team that advertisers, that power brings issues such as climate change, a provision of the Data Protection
comprises fewer than 10 people. significant risks to politics, where abortion rights and immigration. Act, registered political parties can
The second issue is that under it can be used to influence votes The company said it will use personal data revealing political
Facebook’s rules, ads from politicians to affect the lives of millions.” make some exceptions, such opinions as part of their campaigning
or political parties aren’t even eligible Facebook has faced criticism as allowing ads that encourage activities, says Callander.
for fact-checking in the first place. since it disclosed that it won’t voter turnout. It will describe “They don’t need to go and get
“We do not believe it should be fact-check ads by politicians or those in a detailed policy it plans explicit consent,” she says. “It’s open
our role to fact check or judge the their campaigns (see main story). to release on 15 November. to abuse and it’s a condition that
veracity of what politicians say,” political parties rely on fairly heavily.” ❚

News
Space Neuroscience
We may have
spotted alien water
Brain cells could help
on comet Borisov recall missing objects
Jonathan O’Callaghan Jason Arunn Murugesu
ASTRONOMERS say they have A NEW kind of navigational we last saw an object. also at Durham University, says
detected a telltale trace of water on neuron has been discovered Steven Poulter at Durham the cells can’t identify objects.
comet 2I/Borisov, the first known in the mammalian brain, University, UK, and his Instead, they act as distance-
interstellar comet. If confirmed, and it fundamentally changes colleagues found the new checkers. The information that
it will be the first time water from our understanding of how we neurons accidentally. The team they generate and store is the
another planetary system has been relate to objects in our vicinity. was working on an experiment same regardless of whether
spotted inside our solar system. We already knew how that involved putting obstacles – the object in question is a sofa
Since comet Borisov was we locate ourselves within wine bottles, in this case – in the or a table.
discovered in late August, an environment, thanks to the path of rats, while monitoring The cells also don’t seem to
astronomers have been racing to Nobel prize-winning discovery activity in the rodents’ brains, differentiate between objects
observe it in detail before it hurtles of the so-called place cells and particularly in a region of the and obstacles. A brick that a rat
away following its closest approach grid cells that form the brain’s hippocampus, a brain area can simply crawl over activates
to the sun in early December. inner GPS system. involved in memory and the neurons in the same way as
Adam McKay at NASA’s Goddard Now a third type of cell, interpreting space.
Space Flight Center in Maryland recently discovered in rats, adds “One particular evening, “The cells become
and his colleagues used an another layer of complexity to I took away a couple of the active when we see an
instrument at the Apache Point this system. Known as vector bottles and I looked at the object, and stay active
Observatory in New Mexico to trace cells, these relate more to neuronal response – but it when it is moved”
study the light reflected by comet the objects in an environment stayed the same,” says Poulter.
Borisov. They found large amounts than to the environment itself. He initially assumed there was a wine bottle that the animals
of oxygen around it, possibly They become active when a an error in the software, but must travel around. Even a line
rat sees an object, helping the soon realised that some cells painted on the floor makes the
19
Kilograms of water per second
animal judge how far away that
object is and its relative distance
to other objects within sight.
were consistently firing as if
the wine bottles were still there.
The team then confirmed,
neurons fire in a similar way
(bioRxiv, doi.org/ddhx).
Lever suspects that vector
seemingly coming off comet Borisov These cells are active even through four years of further trace cells will be found in the
when the object they have been experiments, that the cells that human brain, noting that there
a result of water ice turning, tracking is no longer visible or continued to fire were a never- is already indirect evidence for
or sublimating, from solid to gas has been removed, and they can before-seen type of neuron. their presence in people. He
as it is heated by the sun (arxiv.org/ remain in this active state for Team member Colin Lever, suggests they are vital to how
abs/1910.12785). hours. In other words, vector we visualise a room or space.
“If a water molecule sublimates trace cells – assuming they are Sometimes it can be In rats, vector trace cells
off the surface, it gets released as present in the human brain – hard to keep track of are located in the subiculum,
water vapour,” says McKay. From may help us remember where where things are a region of the hipppocampus
there, ultraviolet light from the that is one of the first areas
sun will break the molecule apart of the brain to degenerate in
into hydrogen and oxygen, which people with Alzheimer’s. Lever
is what the team detected. suggests that this could explain
The findings suggest that the why forgetting where you left
comet is currently producing up to an object is often one of the first
19 kilograms of water per second. symptoms of the disease.
Alan Fitzsimmons at Queen’s Alastair Smith at the
University Belfast, UK, says the University of Plymouth, UK,
observation is a clear detection says the findings seem to “move
of oxygen atoms that points to us away from a system that tells
the comet containing water. you where you are in space and
Although we have detected actually tells you where other
water outside the solar system things are in that space”.
before – such as in the atmospheres Neil Burgess at University
of exoplanets or in star-forming College London says the
GETTY IMAGES
nebulae – we have never seen discovery of the cells verifies

water from another planetary long-held theories about
system this close. ❚ spatial memory. ❚

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
News
Field notes Amazon Tall Tower Observatory
Discovering rainforest secrets high above the trees

I took almost an hour to ascend the 1500 steps
of the tallest tower in Latin America, says Fred Pearce
IT WAS a long climb – 325 metres about 500 litres a day into the
above the floor of the pristine atmosphere. More intriguing are
Amazon rainforest, a metre higher the physics and chemistry that
than the Eiffel Tower in Paris. turn that water into rain clouds.
Rising out of the steamy jungle, The key seems to be volatile
temperatures peaked just under organic compounds, such as the
the canopy and then started isoprenes and terpenes emitted
to drop. Above 150 metres, a by most trees. In the air around
stiff, cool breeze blew. From the the tower’s summit, these
top, the trees looked like a mass compounds oxidise into the tiny
of tiny broccoli heads stretching molecular seeds around which
PAULO BRANDO/IPAM/WHRC
unbroken to the horizon. raindrops form – but not enough

I was met at the top by Meinrat to provide the volume of rain we
Andreae, director of the Max see. Andreae’s hunch is that other
Planck Institute for Chemistry in compounds – fast-reacting
Mainz, Germany. In 2007, he first sesquiterpenes – could be the
proposed erecting the structure missing link, but they are hard to
to sniff the Amazon forest’s breath of the Amazon. With forest fires in we haven’t accounted for yet,” said spot as they disappear quickly.
and examine its interactions with recent weeks burning faster than Andreae. “That means there are While straining to understand
the atmosphere. In this remote they have in the past decade, the probably tree emissions we are pristine climatic processes,
spot, 150 kilometres north air below us was thick with haze. ignorant about.” Uncovering Andreae’s team is increasingly
of Brazil’s jungle city of Manaus, Since the Amazon Tall Tower them may unlock the mystery worried about the polluted air
he hoped it could provide Observatory was inaugurated of how the trees maintain rainfall coming from the south. Back at
“a window on our planet’s in late 2015, its instruments have so far from the ocean. We know the research camp, his colleague
atmospheric chemistry before sampled the air above the forest rainforests recycle rainfall on a Matthias Sorgel told me about
industrialisation”. hour by hour, looking at levels heroic scale: each tree releases ozone generated by the fires. He
Andreae got his wish – during of carbon dioxide, sulphur is measuring up to 70 parts per
the November to May wet compounds, pollen and other The Amazon billion (ppb), a level normally
season at least, when clean air substances. In makeshift labs at the Tall Tower found in urban smogs. “We
from the Atlantic blows across tower’s base, researchers derive Observatory don’t know the sensitivity of
800 kilometres of largely intact other vital data, such as rates is 325 metres rainforest trees to ozone,” he said.
JOST LAVRIC/MPI-BGC
forest. But our climb was in late of photosynthesis in the trees. high “But as a rule of thumb, levels
September, the end of the dry Some of the chemistry is above 40 ppb are toxic to plants.
season, when the winds from the unexpected. “We know there are As the burning gets closer, it is
south cross the deforested areas reactions going on in the air that poisoning pristine forest.” ❚
Human genetics
Important gene associated with cardiovascular at the Broad Institute in Cambridge, The ancestors of modern African-
and metabolic diseases. Massachusetts, meaning other Americans came from specific parts
variants in African Human genetics studies have groups are under-represented. of Africa and so this doesn’t capture
people being missed suffered from a lack of diversity Gurdasani and her colleagues the genetic diversity that exists
and more research on people from analysed DNA from 6000 people within the African continent.
MORE than a quarter of the genetic different parts of the world is in south-west Uganda. About 29 per Because all humans originated
variation found among people in needed, says Deepti Gurdasani at cent of the gene variants they found in Africa, those who migrated away
25 Ugandan villages has never Queen Mary University of London, weren’t present in one of the world’s took only a fraction of the genetic
previously been recorded, because who led the work in Uganda. largest human genome sequence diversity with them. “Two individuals
most human genetics studies focus “European ancestry populations databases (Cell, doi.org/ddmk). within an African population will be
on people of European descent. This make up 16 per cent of the global Although some data sets do much more different than two
oversight could have a significant population, but approximately include people of African descent, individuals within a European
impact on global human health, 80 per cent of participants in such as African-Americans, population,” says Gurdasani. ❚
because the variants included genes genetic studies,” says Alicia Martin Gurdasani says this isn’t enough. Layal Liverpool

News
Maths
AI tackles thorny orbits

Artificial intelligence can solve hideously hard three-body puzzle
Leah Crane
A NOTORIOUS maths problem solve it using a neural network, test it. It matched examples from problem,” says Douglas Heggie at
first posed by Isaac Newton has which can be up to 100 million Brutus nearly exactly, showing the University of Edinburgh, who
become a lot easier thanks to times faster than the best the neural network could provide wasn’t involved in the research.
artificial intelligence. The computerised solvers. accurate and speedy solutions One limitation is that the AI only
three-body problem – the They trained their AI on a set to the three-body problem works for a finite length of time,
question of how three objects of 9900 three-body scenarios (arxiv.org/abs/1910.07291). and if a particular three-body
orbit one another under their generated by a state-of-the-art The AI could improve our problem hasn’t been studied
own gravity – has baffled solver called Brutus. The understanding of how black holes before, you don’t know in advance
physicists and mathematicians researchers used 100 more collide and form gravitational how long it will take to figure out
for more than 300 years, but it scenarios from Brutus to make waves, says Breen. Many of those what actually happens, he says.
turns out a neural network can sure their system worked, and kind of complex systems can be The researchers have proposed
find solutions remarkably quickly. then 5000 unsolved scenarios to boiled down to a series of three- a solution to this: rather than
The problem is difficult because body interactions that the neural using the AI for the entire task,
three objects orbiting each other Predicting how three network can easily solve, he says. just give it the hard bits – when the
form a chaotic system, meaning objects orbit each other “It’s astonishing to me to find three bodies make close passes.
a very precise understanding of is a complex challenge a totally new approach to this old Then give the problem back to
where the objects start is needed. Brutus with that computational
In a chaotic system, the “butterfly bottleneck already solved.
effect” comes into play – even a This could provide any number
tiny starting error could result in of solutions rapidly, even without a
very different orbits. There is no long sought-after, neat three-body
single equation to predict how the equation, says Christopher Foley at
objects will move and whether the the University of Cambridge, who
orbits will be stable over time. also worked on the AI.
Instead, mathematicians have “It’s less about the elegance and
to meticulously test each scenario more about making progress and
iteratively, either by hand or using advancing our understanding of
JUPE/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO
computerised solvers, which can the building blocks of our physical

be slow and energy intensive. environment,” he says. “If I can get
Philip Breen at the University of the solutions, some would argue
Edinburgh, UK, and his colleagues that it doesn’t matter how I get
have come up with a new way to there, as long as they are right.” ❚
Technology
Drones could ride on want to use them to deliver should take and when they should simulation involved 200 drones
packages across a large city. hop on and off buses. delivering 5000 packages using a
public transport to To address this, Shushman In simulations of San Francisco bus network with 8000 stops on
extend their reach Choudhury and his colleagues at and the Washington DC area, the it (arxiv.org/abs/1909.11840).
Stanford University in California program typically took a few The research doesn’t deal with
DELIVERY drones could get a range devised a computer program seconds to do both tasks. Riding practical considerations, such as
boost by taking the bus. Landing on that plans deliveries by getting buses boosted drone ranges by noise pollution, reliably landing
public transport means the flying drones to piggyback on buses up to 450 per cent. The largest drones on buses and public
vehicles could travel four-and-a- for a range boost. “We already transport delays, says Choudhury.
half times further, making them have this existing, generally decent If flying delivery “Exploiting predictable, existing
more useful for carrying packages infrastructure for most good vehicles want traffic flows is smart,” says Niels
over longer distances. cities and we’re just benefiting to extend their Agatz at Erasmus University
OKTAY ORTAKCIOGLU/GETTY
Drones are agile and fast, but from that,” says Choudhury. reach, they Rotterdam in the Netherlands.
their measly battery life means they The software has two tasks. might have to However, transit networks in many
can’t fly for long – considerably less The first is to decide which drones take the bus areas wouldn’t be extensive enough
than an hour for most consumer should deliver which packages and for this system to work, he says. ❚
models. That is a problem if you the second is to set the route each Edd Gent

Human vision Immunology
You can change the

size of your pupils
The long and deadly
just by thinking shadow of measles
Gege Li Debora MacKenzie
IMAGINE looking across a sparkling disease. They may need to be

lake on a sunny day. Did your pupils given any previous vaccinations
contract? It turns out that simply again too, as vaccines work by
thinking about a bright light is teaching the immune system
enough to change the size of our to make specific antibodies.
pupils, even if there isn’t anything It might be even worse than
real for our eyes to react to. that. In another study, Colin
Our pupils dilate in dark Russell at the University of
conditions to let more light into Amsterdam in the Netherlands
our eyes. The reverse happens and his colleagues sequenced
in bright conditions, which cause the DNA of immune cells from
JIM WEST/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY
our pupils to contract. 20 of the same group of

A team led by Nahid Zokaei at children. “We could look not just
the University of Oxford looked at at cells producing antibodies,
whether thinking about brightness but at their naive, precursor
can be enough to alter the size cells,” says Russell.
of people’s pupils. In a series of In our first few years of life,
experiments, the team repeatedly these naive cells mature,
showed 22 healthy men and diversifying so they can rapidly
women dark or light patches, MEASLES is known to make A child in Michigan recognise certain molecules on
each of which was associated children vulnerable to other receives the different pathogens. Russell’s
with a specific sound. infections. Now two studies of MMR vaccine team found that measles kills
Dutch Orthodox Protestants, the mature cells (Science
“This could mean our pupils who reject vaccination, have antibodies were made by Immunology, doi.org/ddhw).
constrict before we turn discovered why: it massively 77 unvaccinated Dutch children “It’s as if our immune system
on a light in a dark room to damages the immune system, who later caught measles. is reset back to infancy.”
prepare us for the glare” making measles even more As we are exposed to This means that those who
lethal than we realised. pathogens as children, we have had measles may need
After 2 seconds, the patches After measles vaccination accumulate specialised to be re-exposed to diseases
disappeared. The participants began in the 1960s, cases of the immune cells, each of which multiple times to rebuild their
then had to picture the correct disease plunged. Mysteriously, has learned to make antibodies antibody repertoire, he says.
patch in their mind when they wherever these vaccinations to attack one particular bit of It could take five years for
heard its corresponding sound. were given, deaths from a pathogen. The measles virus their immune systems to
The team found that people’s unrelated infections also fell. kills these cells, but the impact recover, as this is how long
pupils dilated when thinking of a In 2015, Michael Mina, now at of this wasn’t known. it takes in people given the
dark patch and contracted when Harvard University, found that The team found that before powerful immunosuppressive
picturing a light one, the same children who have had measles any of the children had measles, drug rituximab, which depletes
results that would be expected are so much more likely to catch they could make antibodies to the same cells and is used to
when actually looking at the other diseases that such post- many viruses and bacteria. But treat some kinds of cancer. This
objects (PNAS, doi.org/ddhq). measles infections may account afterwards, they lost between agrees with studies showing
This seemingly small action for half of all infectious disease 11 and 73 per cent of their that the immunity of people
could allow us to anticipate a deaths in children living in areas antibody library, for all kinds of who have had measles is
change in real brightness before where measles circulates. pathogens. The live, weakened lowered for up to five years.
it happens, says Sebastiaan Around 100,000 children measles virus in the MMR The effect has real clinical
Mathôt at the University of died of measles in 2017. Mina vaccine had no such effect in impact. Russell’s team gave
Groningen in the Netherlands, suspects that two or three the 32 other children studied a virus similar to measles to
who carried out a similar study times that number who (Science, doi.org/ddhv). ferrets vaccinated against flu.
that also confirmed this finding. survived the disease will later To get their lost antibodies When exposed to flu, these
For example, this reaction die of other infections they back, Mina suspects those animals went on to have bad
could mean our pupils constrict wouldn’t have caught if they who had measles must be bouts of illness. Vaccinated
just before we turn on a light in hadn’t had measles. re-exposed to all the pathogens ferrets who didn’t get the
a dark room to prepare us for To understand why, Mina they had already encountered, measles-like virus were still
the resulting glare, he says. ❚ and his team determined what with the attendant risks of protected against flu. ❚

News In brief
Zoology
Elephants found to have

menopause-like stage of life
FEMALE Asian elephants stop The oldest in this group lived into
reproducing towards the end of their 70s, but most had their last
their lives, putting them among calf by 55. The team calculates that
the few species that experience the proportion of years lived by
something akin to the menopause. females in a post-reproductive
Only humans, orcas, narwhals, phase is 16 per cent: some way
beluga whales and short-finned short of humans’ 43 per cent but
pilot whales are known to exhibit considerably more than African
what biologists call extended elephants’ 4 per cent (BMC
post-reproductive lifespan. Evolutionary Biology, doi.org/ddhj).
The existence of such a stage In elephants, halting reproduction
is an evolutionary riddle: why may be behavioural rather than
should individuals give up trying physiological, says Chapman. Such
to leave more descendants? behaviour could be a step towards
Now Asian elephants have been evolving a true menopause.
added to the list, thanks to Simon One idea to explain menopause is
Chapman at the University of Turku, the grandmother hypothesis. It says
Finland, and his team. They studied that if older females help care for
TONY HEALD/NATURE PL
records of 3802 female elephants grandchildren, they end up with

used in timber camps in Myanmar more descendants than by having
between 1940 and 2018. Their more children of their own. There is
mortality and fertility patterns are some evidence for this in the Asian
like those of wild Asian elephants. elephants studied. Sam Wong
Ancient humans Neuroscience
Tyrol, Italy. Some people believe University, Massachusetts,

Ötzi’s attempt to flee this was Ötzi’s home as an adult. Brainwaves help and her team used EEG caps to
his pursuers charted The moss had long been used take out the trash measure electrical activity in the
for staunching wounds because brains of 13 people while they
MOSS buried alongside Ötzi the of its mild antiseptic properties. AS YOU sleep, slow waves of napped inside MRI scanners.
Iceman bolsters the theory that It may have been used to treat a electrical activity in your brain They also monitored blood
his last journey was through a deep wound he received to his seem to help rinse away waste oxygen levels (in red, pictured)
gorge, possibly fleeing someone. right palm possibly 48 hours or products that could harm cells. in their brains and the flow
The well-preserved 5300-year- less before his death, says Dickson. This may play a role in preventing of cerebrospinal fluid, a watery
old mummified body was found Dickson was also surprised conditions such as Alzheimer’s. liquid that surrounds the brain
in the Alps on the border of Italy to find fragments of the moss Brainwaves are made by large and spinal cord. The team found
and Austria in 1991. His demise Neckera complanata in his networks of brain cells firing that, during sleep, large waves of
was gruesome: he probably bled to intestines, a low-altitude moss together in rhythm, but much cerebrospinal fluid flow into and
death after being hit by an arrow. of the woodlands. Ötzi was found about their function is unclear. out of the brain every 20 seconds,
Now James Dickson at the at 3200 metres above sea level, To see if they play a role in cleaning a process thought to remove
University of Glasgow, UK, and his which is way above the treeline. the brain, Laura Lewis at Boston waste. The inward flow was
colleagues have used thousands of This suggests Ötzi travelled preceded by patterns of slow
fragments of moss and liverwort from the forests below, possibly at waves of electrical activity.
buried alongside or inside Ötzi to 1200 metres but maybe as low as These brainwaves coincided
understand his final days. 600 metres above sea level, and with blood flowing out of the
The plants were from at least 75 went north up a gorge (PLoS ONE, brain, which the team says helps
different species, only 23 of which doi.org/ddhp). balance the total volume of fluid
live in that precise area today. One “It seems puzzling that he took around the brain (Science,
of the most intriguing discoveries the most stressful track through a doi.org/ddmr).
was of the bog moss Sphagnum gorge, but considering scenarios People with Alzheimer’s have
FULTZ ET AL. 2019
affine in Ötzi’s colon. This moss that he was on the run, a gorge fewer slow brainwaves, says Lewis.
is typically found in wetlands and provided most opportunities to However, it isn’t clear whether this
probably came from the bottom hide,” Dickson and his colleagues is a cause or a symptom of the
of the Vinschgau valley in South write. Ruby Prosser Scully condition. Layal Liverpool

New Scientist Daily
Get the latest scientific discoveries in your inbox
newscientist.com/sign-up
Electric cars
Really brief
ion batteries are charged rapidly, quickly into the negative
Warm batteries key there is a tendency for lithium to electrode without lithium plating.
to a very fast charge form plate-like deposits on the Then, they tested how well
negative electrode’s surface. the cells worked when they
CAIAIMAGE/PAUL BRADBURY/GETTY
OWNERS of electric vehicles may This can shorten battery life. were charged at either 40°C,
soon be able to fully charge their Wang and his team suspected 49°C or 60°C, and compared
cars in just 10 minutes, thanks to a they could minimise this problem the performance with a control
new design that heats up batteries. by first heating the battery to a battery charging at 20°C.
One offputting aspect of electric temperature too high to allow They found heating the
cars is the length of time it takes to lithium plating to form. electrode to 60°C was best,
recharge them. Ideally, we need To test this, they took an allowing the battery to recharge
batteries that can reach 80 per industrial battery and inserted through 2500 cycles without
Sorry, sex won’t cent charge – which gives a range micron-thick nickel foils in a stack forming lithium plates. That
start labour of roughly 300 kilometres – within of electrode layers. This structure is equivalent to 14 years of use
10 minutes, says Chao-Yang Wang allows the electrode to heat in or around 750,000 kilometres
Sex got you into this – can at Penn State University. less than 30 seconds, setting up of driving, says Wang. (Joule,
it get you out? A review of At the moment, when lithium conditions for ions to move doi.org/ddmh) RPS
trials looking at whether
sex can induce labour has Technology Astrophysics
found no evidence for this
commonly held view. In all,
the evidence from about Vast stellar blasts
1500 women shows that mimicked on Earth
it makes no difference to
when labour starts (The WHAT happens when a star
Journal of Sexual Medicine explodes? Surprisingly, the same
doi.org/ddhs). thing that happens when gas
explodes here on Earth.
Smallest ever For gas explosions to occur,
black hole spotted there needs to be a build-up of
pressure. Alexei Poludnenko at
A search for black holes has the University of Connecticut and
uncovered the smallest yet his team wanted to find out how
seen at only 3.3 times the this can happen in unconfined
mass of the sun. It is about spaces, such as in a type Ia
ALPHASTAR
10,000 light years away supernova, when a small star

from Earth, where it orbits called a white dwarf detonates.
a giant star about once Poludnenko and his colleagues
every 83 days. Despite its AI conquers most players of wondered whether there were
mass, the black hole is only similarities between these events
about 20 kilometres across hit video game in a fair fight and unconfined explosions on
– roughly the length of Earth. To investigate, they ignited
Manhattan in New York ARTIFICIAL intelligence can play To level the playing field, this time a mix of methane and air in a lab
(Science, doi.org/ddht). the real-time strategy video game AlphaStar was restricted to what facility and measured the pressure
StarCraft II so well that it is better human players can see, stopping it of the resulting explosion with
Cancer drug takes than nearly all human players. from completing actions in multiple sensors, while also tracking the
aim at mutation The AI, called AlphaStar, was locations simultaneously, said Oriol speed of the flames. They then
developed by tech firm DeepMind. Vinyals at DeepMind in a press compared this with a computer
An experimental cancer It competed anonymously against conference. The number of actions simulation of a type Ia supernova.
drug targets a genetic people in a series of online games was also restricted, so it wasn’t able They found that igniting the
mutation involved in a on the official StarCraft II game to click at superhuman speed. gas mix created fast turbulence,
range of common and rare server, Battle.net, and ended up This version of AlphaStar was stirring up the flames and making
cancers, including some ranked in the top 200 players for then pitted against human players the burning more vigorous,. Once
colorectal and lung cancers. each of the leagues it was in. in various locations. In the European the burning is fast enough, this
In tests, the drug removed In January, an earlier version of league, it was in the top 0.2 per cent creates pressure so quickly that
tumours in eight out of AlphaStar beat two of the world’s of approximately 90,000 players it doesn’t have time to dissipate,
10 mice and shrank them top professional players of the (Nature, doi.org/ggb9jx). eventually causing a detonation.
in two out of four people same title, but at the time it was “It’s an extremely impressive The team says the same process
(Nature, doi.org/ddhm). given advantages, such as the achievement,” says Julian Togelius seems to be behind supernovae
ability to see the entire game map. at New York University. Donna Lu (Science, doi.org/ddhr). LL

News Insight
Net-zero carbon
Home of tomorrow
Radical plans are set to slash the carbon emissions of UK homes.
Will people accept them, asks Adam Vaughan
GAS boilers make for an unlikely running costs roughly equivalent
UK election battleground, but to those of gas boilers.
politicians have been competing 1 However, doing away with a
on who will phase them out the gas connection means a financial
fastest. Last week, the opposition saving both to society – because
Labour party said it would the cost of connecting the home to
make all new homes net-zero the pipe network is paid through
carbon from 2022, beating the everyone’s energy bills – and to the
Conservative government’s plans 2 owner of the home, because they
to rule out gas boilers from new will no longer need to pay the gas
homes by 2025. The Liberal standing charge that energy
Democrats in turn said they will 3 suppliers impose.
make new homes net zero by 2021.
Whoever wins next month’s 8
election, the flicker of gas boilers is Changing behaviour
long due for extinction. The UK’s 4 6 Jenny Hill of the Committee on
26 million homes are responsible 7 Climate Change, which advises
for about a fifth of the country’s the UK government, says the
carbon emissions, making the switch to heat pumps is likely to
greening of them a key plank of require some adaptation. “It does
slashing net emissions to zero by absolutely require behaviour
2050 – now a legal requirement. change. We don’t currently know
Retrofitting those buildings will how people are going to react
be a huge undertaking (see “How 5 Homes that are net zero when it to not being able to install gas
comes to carbon emissions will
to green your home”, opposite). boilers in their homes.”
require many features that most
current homes lack For one thing, gas cooking hobs
will be replaced by induction hobs,
New build which are not only more efficient,
Meanwhile, some 230,000 new 1 Green roof 5 Ground source heat pump but can now match gas for
homes are built in the UK every 2 Timber frame construction 6 Induction hob responsiveness when it comes
year, most of them reliant on fossil to turning the heat up and down.
3 Insulated walls and floors 7 Air source heat pump
fuels for heating and hot water. “But they do require you to have
4 Car charging point 8 Double glazing
That will radically change with a new set of pans, so there is some
the government’s recent future inconvenience there,” says Hill.
homes standard, which will apply For some, such as blocks of flats, ground, water or the air, even on It isn’t just boilers: the fabric
to England from 2025, and could it may come via a heat network, a cold day. Most will be air source of future buildings will be
be followed by similar rules in where a central boiler pipes hot pumps, which involve a box like transformed (see diagram). Their
Scotland, Wales and Northern water to every property. That is an air conditioning unit on the walls, floors and roofs will have to
Ireland. What will new homes still likely to involve fossil fuels in home’s exterior. Like a traditional be much better at retaining heat
then look like? the near term, but a central system boiler, these pumps can be used than today’s, and they will need
Ministers hope the building is much more efficient than a for hot water or space heating, high-performance windows.
regulations mean an average block full of individual gas boilers. so the inside of future homes Homes will have to be airtight,
home’s carbon emissions will be For many homes, the answer won’t look much different. but still well-ventilated.
80 per cent lower in 2025 than one will be a heat pump – effectively “It’ll have bigger radiators, Richard Lowes at the University
built to today’s standards. To reach a refrigerator in reverse – which running on lower temperatures, of Exeter, UK, says walls are likely
that goal, the government isn’t uses a fan to extract heat from the but otherwise it will look pretty to look the same, but have more
explicitly banning gas boilers, much the same as a house today,” efficient insulating materials
but is implicitly ending them by
proposing a reduction in home
CO2 emissions that would be
impossible to meet with one.
80%
How much lower the carbon
says Jenny Holland of the UK
Green Building Council.
There is a cost: heat pumps
are about £3000 compared with
inside them. With windows,
double glazing is so good now
in performance that triple glazing
is unnecessary. Other potential
Crucially, a home’s source of emissions of new homes about £1500 for a gas boiler, and changes include a growing use of
heat will have to be low carbon. in England will have to be they consume electricity, with timber frames for buildings, which

More Insight online Working
Your guide to a rapidly changing world hypothesis
newscientist.com/insight Sorting the week’s
supernovae from
the absolute zeros
lock-in carbon, and “green roofs” batteries are expensive. You don’t to build homes that are net-zero
covered in vegetation, providing need solar power or a battery but compliant, water efficient and
a natural form of insulation to it’s nice to have,” says Lowes. don’t overheat. The problem
reduce energy consumption. The Home Builders Federation we have is with the skills and
Although 2025 is the key date, trade body says it welcomes industry.” Compliance regimes for
the government is proposing standards on carbon emissions, new homes, enforced by thinly ▲ Space cookies
an interim strengthening of but argues that the government’s stretched local authorities, aren’t Astronauts will be baking
regulations next year. That won’t fit for purpose, she adds. Hill also cookies in a new space
force the switch to greener “We don’t currently know believes that the new standards oven as a PR stunt. Looks
heating, but promises a cut of how people are going to should be introduced before 2025. as if it worked, given that
31 per cent on carbon emissions react to not being able Still, the future homes rules we are writing about it.
and more than £200 off average to install gas boilers” have been broadly welcomed,
annual energy bills for new builds, even if they could be tightened up ▲ Pet face-swap
versus rules today. Solar panels, proposals would be very in places. “There’s a general thing Ever wish your dog was a
already on the roofs of nearly challenging and require a lot here about moving away from lion? Obviously not: think
a million homes, would be one of work on supply chains. Such fossil fuels, which is to be of the furniture. But if you
way to do that, officials suggest. concerns can have an impact. applauded,” says Lowes. insist, NVIDIA has made
Hill says there is definitely a In 2015, the government shelved There may be grumbles in some a photo app that morphs
role for solar panels, but they are zero-carbon home standards quarters about induction hobs the face of one animal
no substitute for a low-carbon a year before they took effect, and people missing gas boilers, into another.
heat source. “You have to look in a sop to developers. but Lowes thinks there will be an
at how you decarbonise your Hill questions why the UK inevitable movement away from ▲ Vampire bats
heating and that is what delivers construction industry should combustion in homes, not just Creatures of the night are
the bulk of your savings.” find the rules a challenge, for climate change reasons but generally unfriendly, but
Home battery storage devices, when a gas-reliant country because of concerns over indoor it turns out vampire bats
which can store electricity from such as the Netherlands has air pollution. “Longer term, the form close relationships
solar panels and exploit off-peak already introduced rules idea of burning stuff in the house in captivity and retain
energy tariffs, are expected to be banning gas boilers without will be seen as completely daft.” ❚ them in the wild.
niche initially and are unlikely it causing problems.
to be standard in new homes. “From our perspective, we For more on what we need to do to ▼ Climate meeting
“It comes down to the economics: believe the technology exists now tackle climate change, see page 22 Greta Thunberg has had
to beg a ride back across
the Atlantic, as a major
How to green your home climate summit is moving
from Chile to Spain.
“There is a tendency for people key. “Insulating all external walls,
to think ‘I need solar panels or a floor and roofs, then upgrading ▼ NHS pagers
whizzy app to control my heating’,” windows and plugging all of the Pagers used by the UK’s
says Russell Smith at energy- gaps to reduce draughts has a National Health Service
efficiency consultants Parity massive impact on bills and more are leaking medical data
Projects. Try to resist the urge, so on comfort,” says Smith. Once over radio waves, possibly
he says. Instead, if you are looking it is airtight, you then need to keep to the 1980s, where
REELDEAL IMAGES/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO; GETTY IMAGES
at upgrading your existing home an eye on ventilation to maintain pagers belong.

to cut carbon emissions, Smith air quality, though, he adds.
recommends finding a local Energy efficient appliances and
company to do an impartial energy lighting are next. Only once you
assessment of your property to have done everything you can
see all the possible opportunities. to reduce demand should you look
The priority should be to reduce at a low carbon heat source – like
CHRIS HOWES/ALAMY
the need for energy. A typical Solar panels may not be a heat pump – or generating your
home uses 65 per cent of its the best way to cut your own energy, such as through solar
energy for heating, so insulation is carbon emissions panels, says Smith.

Discovery
Tours
FRANCE
Science of pro cycling:

Mont Ventoux
Departing:
5 days for £2,199 (approximately $2,859)
21 May 2020
A highly immersive expert-led training camp with sports scientists from Sheffield
Hallam University and former Olympian and ex-Team Sky rider Phil Deignan, based
near France’s iconic Mont Ventoux. The scientists have supported multiple Olympic
and UCI professional wins, whilst Phil has ridden in support of Chris Froome and
achieved a Grand Tour stage win in his own right at the Vuelta a España.
A unique ride experience, in the company of experts giving stimulating seminars and
1:1 consultation. Plus, a full ride itinerary, road support, recovery sessions and plenty of
those special touches that pro-cyclists enjoy. Staying in a delightful 4-star chateau in
the heart of Provence. This is the next level up from a standard training camp, where
you will leave as a more effective, efficient and enlightened rider.
k 4 days of seminars and interactive k 4 nights full-board at Chateau de Mazan

experiences from leading sports k Speed groups to suit differing rider
science experts abilities
k Ride with ex -Team Sky professional k Professional ride support and guidance
and Olympian Phil Deignan from expert ride leaders
k 3 long-distance training rides and 2 k Return bike and luggage transfer from
warm-up/recovery rides Guildford and London
k Including the famous les cinglés du k Transfers from Marseille airport/
Ventoux Avignon rail station to the camp
k Bespoke, risk-assessed routes, GPS data k Cervelo C3 disc bikes (with full Ultegra) In partnership with Just Pedal and
and route profiles for hire Sheffield Hallam University's Centre of
Sport and Exercise Science
Full details and booking form at newscientist.com/tours

or email tours@newscientist.com
Views
The columnist Letters Aperture Culture Culture columnist
Graham Lawton We must deal with Futuristic looking The chasm between Chelsea Whyte finds
assesses our climate the roots of domestic solar panels in the scientists and those clone fun in Living
change progress p22 violence p24 Chilean sand p28 rejecting science p30 With Yourself p32
Comment
Who owns life?

A debate over who can access and exploit the planet’s genetic
resources will have ramifications for all of us, says Laura Spinney
NEXT week, delegates will gather biodiversity loss is a problem, and

in Rome to discuss a question that species can’t be conserved until
could have profound implications they have been catalogued, they
for global biodiversity, food argue that it will be the developing
security and public health. countries that mainly lose out.
Stripped of technical language, it Another area of concern
boils down to this: who owns life? is public health. Containing
The Rome meeting convenes epidemics and developing new
the governing body of the drugs depend on the rapid sharing
International Treaty on Plant of pathogen information.
Genetic Resources for Food and A drug recently shown to be
Agriculture. It is also known as effective against Ebola was made
the “seed treaty” because it mostly by Regeneron Pharmaceuticals in
deals with seed collections. It the US using digital data derived
will address arrangements for from a clinical sample taken from
accessing these genetic resources, a Guinean woman during the 2014
and how to share any benefits Ebola outbreak in West Africa, and
resulting from their exploitation. deposited in GenBank. Regeneron
Central to that discussion will be isn’t obliged to share the benefits
“digital sequence information”. with Guinea because there was
The seed treaty covers only no physical sample involved. If the
samples of the physical material firm had to share, it may have had
that constitutes plants. But as less incentive to develop the drug
more species are sequenced and more people might have died
and their molecular blueprints in the current Congolese outbreak.
digitised, they can be exploited – There are potential solutions.
for creating a drought-resistant Users of digital databases could be
crop plant, say – without accessing required to sign data access and
a physical sample. have failed, and some have called included to close what they see as use agreements, which would
It is not just plants at stake. the issue “the monster in the a loophole. On the other are the protect donors’ interests, while
The outcome of the Rome closet”. Part of the problem is that developed countries, which have leaving research unrestricted until
meeting is likely to influence a digital sequence information isn’t carried out most of the cataloguing it was commercialised. It is time
meeting for the Convention on clearly defined: should it include of that biodiversity, and drawn to discuss these because, while the
Biological Diversity next October. only DNA and RNA sequence data, most benefit from it. They don’t stand-off endures, more and more
This treaty covers all life, and for example, or also amino acid want the digital data covered. biodiverse countries are bringing
also neglects digital sequences. sequences and epigenetic data? Much of the information sits in in restrictive national legislation
Given that an organism’s DNA, The larger issue is whether public databases that researchers on access and benefit-sharing,
RNA or protein sequence is merely including it will further the goals can access without obligations and that is unlikely to help anyone,
information stored in a molecule, of the treaties, which aim to fairly towards donor countries. Some including them. ❚
you might think that extending share the fruits of Earth’s genetic in developed nations fear that
these treaties to cover digital resources. On this, the world is adding red tape, similar to the Laura Spinney is a
sequence information would be split. On one side are the generally agreements that control the journalist based in Paris.
JOSIE FORD
uncontentious. Far from it. So far, biodiverse and developing sharing of physical samples, will Follow her @lfspinney
all attempts to reach a consensus countries, which want digital data slow crucial research. Because

Views Columnist
No planet B
A case of cautious climate optimism A year ago, we were told

we had 12 years to save the planet. We now have 11. What have we
achieved in that time? You may be surprised, says Graham Lawton
W
“ E HAVE to do still in deep trouble. But if you impact, says Baker-Brown.
everything, and look behind the headline figures “Architects specify what buildings
we have to do it on greenhouse gas emissions and are made of, and can therefore
immediately.” That quote, from fossil fuel consumption, there decide to make them out of
climate scientist Piers Forster at are glimmers of light. environmentally benign stuff.”
the University of Leeds, UK, has One of them is emanating That principally means recycling
haunted me ever since I wrote from an industry that is rarely materials instead of demolishing
it down almost a year ago. I was recognised as being on the front buildings. To put it in perspective,
interviewing Forster for a piece on line of the climate fight, yet the construction industry creates
limiting global warming to 1.5°C. actually wields a disproportionate 60 per cent of the UK’s waste –
Graham Lawton is a staff Like many senior scientists from influence: architecture. In the past 120 million tonnes a year – and the
writer at New Scientist and the Intergovernmental Panel on year, UK architects have declared built environment contributes
author of The Origin of (Almost) Climate Change (IPCC), he remains a climate emergency, inspired around 40 per cent of the UK’s
Everything. You can follow him institutionally optimistic that we in part by a new grass-roots carbon footprint. “Architects are
@grahamlawton can pull off a rescue. But he didn’t organisation called the Architects thinking, ‘Actually, we can do
mince his words. Climate Action Network! (ACAN) something about this’,” he says.
That was just after an IPCC whose stated aim is to rapidly This isn’t the sole solution. But
report spelled out the scale and decarbonise the building sector. if a small group of activists inside
speed of the changes needed to That may sound like small beer, a profession like architecture can
avoid catastrophic warming of but it isn’t. According to the IPCC, turn sentiment into action in less
more than 1.5°C. It was widely buildings are responsible for than a year, then maybe Taalas’s
reported as giving us “12 years optimism is justified.
to save the planet” – not entirely “If you look behind The renewable energy industry –
Graham’s week accurate, but not entirely wrong the one bright spot in the gloomy
the headline figures
What I’m reading either, and a useful rallying cry for on greenhouse gas picture painted by the IPCC – is
The Wall by John action. We now have 11 years. So it’s also powering on. Last month,
Lanchester. I find a good time to ask, with another
emissions and fossil the International Energy Agency
dystopian, post- year over, what have we done? fuels, there are reported that offshore wind could
apocalyptic fiction I put this question to glimmers of light” generate more than enough
weirdly comforting. another titan in the climate electricity to meet global demand.
ecosystem, Petteri Taalas, about a third of the world’s total That would go a long way to
What I’m watching secretary-general of the World energy consumption, and so the decarbonising not just our
Chernobyl. I find Meteorological Organization. I built environment is absolutely energy supply, but also buildings,
dystopian, post- asked him what had actually critical to solving the climate transport and industry, four of the
apocalyptic docudramas happened since the 1.5°C report crisis. The 1.5°C report called for all sectors earmarked by the IPCC for
weirdly comforting. came out. His answer can be new buildings to be carbon neutral immediate and transformational
summarised in two words: not by 2020, the most ambitious change. And if the Green New
What I’m working on much. Carbon emissions and target in the entire document. Deal – a gigantic environmental
I’m in Cambridge for a consumption of fossil fuels are According to Duncan Baker- infrastructure plan proposed by
very juicy-looking human still rising, he admitted. But, he Brown from the School of the US Democratic party – can
evolution conference. said, “the mental attitude has Architecture and Design at the be set in motion next year, then
changed… sentiment has moved University of Brighton, UK, ACAN we are really starting to talk
in the right direction”. increasingly reflects mainstream about a revolution.
Really? Is that all we have? opinion in the sector. Even those Forster is feeling optimistic too.
Sure, sentiment matters, but Greta working on colossal infrastructure “With the public, businesses and
Thunberg alone can’t achieve the projects, such as the Heathrow cities, the conversations have
hard yards of getting emissions Airport expansion and the HS2 shifted from if we cut emissions to
down. I felt like Talaas was putting railway – guzzlers of concrete and how,” he says. “Government needs
a brave face on an increasingly steel – are seriously thinking to do much more, but even here,
hopeless situation. A few weeks on about how to go zero carbon. there are some encouraging signs.”
This column appears from our conversation, however, Similar movements are emerging We still have to do everything,
monthly. Up next week: my gloom has lifted a little. I’m across Europe and North America. immediately. But at least we
Annalee Newitz not about to do a U-turn: we are Architecture can make a real aren’t doing nothing. ❚

Discovery
Tours
USA
Cruise Hawaii with

Richard Dawkins
Accompany the evolutionary biologist and highly-regarded author
Richard Dawkins on this cruise around the fascinating island of Hawaii
From the Volcanic National Park to abundant rare wildlife and stunning landscapes, this is a truly
unique expedition. Discover Hawaii’s unique culture and history whilst cruising aboard the Safari
Explorer, a rugged expedition yacht small enough to explore where larger ships can’t. Then in the
evenings, thought provoking seminars from Richard.
DAY 1: ARRIVE BIG ISLAND DAY 4: HONOKOHAU ocean rock formation steeped in
Check-in to the Marriott King NATIONAL PARK folklore that rises majestically out
Kamehameha’s Kona Beach Hotel Kaloko-Honokohau is the site of an of the sea and learn about Lanai’s
in Kailua-Kona for a day at leisure to ancient Hawaiian settlement, historical plantation days.
visit the Hulihee Palace and comprising of historic temples,
Mokuaikaua Church. fishponds and petroglyphs. The DAY 7: CAPTAINS CHOICE
park is also renowned for its EXPLORATION DAY
DAY 2: VOLCANOES walking trails, geological features. The captain will purposefully Departing:
AND DEPART TO SEA and opportunity to observe turtles. navigate to a site that uncovers
9 days from $10,365
Explore Hawaii Volcanoes National more of what the Hawaiian Islands
Park then board your yacht, the Safari DAY 5: MAUI have to offer based on local 22 October 2020
Explorer, a nimble 36-passenger Explore one of the most unique conditions and current wildlife
yacht with a 2:1 crew to guest ratio. ocean reef systems in Hawaii. sightings To book call
Snorkel in this known sea turtle
DAY 3: BIG ISLAND habitat among hundred-year-old DAY 8: MOLOKAI
+1 516 226 7917
Throughout the cruise, Professor coral gardens and sail through the Spend the day on Molokai learning (UK hoursMon to Thu 9-5:30 Fri 9-5 GMT)
Richard Dawkins will be talking Humpback Whale National Marine about the traditions of the
about the evolutionary principles Sanctuary, spotting humpback Hawaiian people. In the evening, Or email
that volcanic island chains illustrate. whales, spinner dolphins, Hawaiian enjoy one of Hawaii’s cultural
The evolutionary story in Hawaii is monk seals and reef fish. treasures, a pa’ina (feast) held at the
newscientist@
similar to the Galapagos – both Molokai Museum. steppestravel.com
young, volcanic archipelagos. DAY 6: LANAI
Snorkel in the protected marine Wake up to views of the tranquil DAY 9: DISEMBARK FOR YOUR
reserve and reefs of Pawai and a island of Lanai and prepare for a full HOMEWARD JOURNEY
thrilling night-time adventure day of water and land-based
swimming with giant manta rays. excursions. Hike to Puu Pehe, an
To give guests the best possible experience there is a 2:1 guest-to-crew ratio and we
In partnership with Steppes Travel
only have 32 places available, so please get in touch early to ensure you don’t miss out
Views Your letters
Editor’s pick
We must deal with the
roots of domestic violence
19 October, p 20
From Ann Bliss, London, UK
I was interested by Alice Klein’s
article on domestic violence and
ways to tackle it. During the 1980s,
I worked in a women’s refuge, then
one of two in my London borough.
This essential service for vulnerable
women and their children has
since been cut as a result of the
government’s reduction of financial
support to local authorities.
The male-dominated police
and judiciary still don’t understand
or take seriously the physical,
psychological and emotional
damage that the fear and actuality
of domestic violence and abuse
cause, not just to victims – who
are, as Klein says, overwhelmingly
women – but also to their children.
Women need to feel empowered be generalising from his own We have proposals for they experience before, during
and supported to resist abuse by experience: because his anxiety and after proposed experiments.
regulating animal work
promoting a culture of respect, both is rational, so is that of everyone This includes separation from
in the home and in schools. Children else. This may give the impression, 12 October, p 18 loved ones, confinement and
who witness domestic violence may though, that eco-anxiety is From Hope Ferdowsian, the infliction of painful, deadly
come to believe that this is the norm something specific and different Albuquerque, New Mexico, US procedures and diseases.
within families and repeat the from other forms of anxiety. We need a clear ethical framework We argue for a stricter risk
patterns as adults. By all means Surely the reason not to classify for animal research, says Chelsea threshold that recognises animals’
support men to prevent further eco-anxiety as a mental illness is Whyte. Protections for human status as a vulnerable population.
abuse, but it is more important that it isn’t a special case. People research provide a template. We also describe new ways forward
to provide support for women by react emotionally to situations, In 1979, the Belmont Report, including more ethical, human-
empowering them and providing sometimes by becoming anxious. issued following the US National centred research methods and
refuges so that they and their This anxiety may be rational or Research Act (1974), revolutionised re-envisioning animal research
children have a safe place to run to. it may not. Anxiety about climate research on human subjects by as more akin to human clinical
Until we accept that we live in a change covers this whole range. articulating key ethical principles: research – for example, enrolment
patriarchal, misogynist culture and If someone needs treatment specifically, respect for autonomy of “animal patients” who live with
overthrow this system, very little for an inappropriate response, this and obligations to beneficence “surrogate” human caregivers.
systemic change will happen. must not be obscured by a notion and justice. Such research now Animals overwhelmingly bear
that eco-anxiety is always rational, requires informed consent, a the burdens of research, despite
The editor writes: any more than by the idea that full assessment of the risks and their inability to provide informed
For more on the origins of patriarchy, it is a specific mental condition benefits, and the just selection of consent or to benefit from it. This
see 21 April 2018, page 33. that is somehow different from participants. Vulnerable groups, is a decidedly unjust proposition.
other forms of anxiety. including children and prisoners, Public concern, backed by our
Children often have incomplete have special protection. current understanding of animals,
Eco-anxiety is just anxiety
models to assess what response In an article in the Cambridge demands better.
and may merit treatment is appropriate, and can thus Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics,
12 October, p 22 suffer from irrational fears. my colleagues and I envision
Consciousness may be
From Philip Belben, The current climate emergency, an equivalent for animals that
Nettlebridge, Somerset, UK impinging so hugely on all our considers concepts like autonomy, just a model of attention
Graham Lawton makes some good lives, may well be the trigger for justice and vulnerability to harm 21 September, p 34
points about the alleged condition some of these. This is neither (doi.org/dc9m). We describe how From Markus Eymann,
of eco-anxiety. But in getting from a new phenomenon that needs animals could be treated as Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
these to his conclusions, he takes a a new name nor a non-existent vulnerable subjects, with greater Michael Graziano suggests our
strange route. At first, he seems to one to be dismissed. attention to the potential harms brains have evolved something

he calls an “attention schema”. In formal consent, is worrying. surfactants, which help the solution is the standard way
an earlier issue, Donald Hoffman We should instead rely on key passage of substances through of making bleach.
explained how we may see the relationships with mental health the skin. A small number are Sodium hydroxide and
world as a series of “icons” that staff, which we know help in many surfactant and water-free. These hydrogen are produced at the
represent real objects in the world ways other than just monitoring. tend to be greasy, but avoid the cathode and chlorine at the anode.
but aren’t those objects, because Phone surveillance seems like problem of emulsion-based Reacting sodium hydroxide and
if we saw an object for what it was, one more blow to the idea that we sunscreens washing off, which chlorine produces sodium
we would be overwhelmed by its should develop humane services makes a mockery of their sun hypochlorite. Using seawater
complexity (3 August, p 34). based on understanding people protection factor ratings. to produce hydrogen would be
An attention schema is a model in their social context. Zinc oxide and titanium complicated by these reactions.
of attention that our brains can dioxide have their own problems.
manipulate to shift focus from one The finest particulate sizes have
Carry on with life on your Cyclists don’t need or
object to another, without having the least whiteness on the skin,
to worry about all the details of solar-powered airship but have run up against studies use gyroscopic effects
synapses and neurons that are 12 October, p 15 confirming that they can enter Almost the Last Word, 5 October
actually the basis of our attention. From David Wyper, Glasgow, UK tissue and do damage. Larger From Tim Lewis,
It seems to me that these two I enjoyed reading Donna Lu’s particles are safer and good Narberth, Pembrokeshire, UK
ideas are related. Graziano’s article on a solar-powered airship blockers of ultraviolet light, but Several answers in Almost the
attention schema is one of scheme while my wife Margaret require users to look like white- Last Word refer to the gyroscopic
Hoffman’s icons. and I returned to Glasgow from painted circus clowns. Sunscreen effect of bicycle wheel rotation
We experience the attention New Scientist Live. It concludes formulators still have work to do. helping to maintain balance.
schema as consciousness. We with the view that low speeds This has been discussed before
could say consciousness is an icon would be a deterrent to using (Last Word, 9 December 2006 and
Lack of funding leaves
that represents us to ourselves. It airships for passenger transport. 3 February 2007). Michael Brooks
gives us the ability to manipulate Instead of our 5-hour rail trip, satellite data inaccessible reported experiments showing it
objects and find pathways we could have travelled by air in 21 September, p 10 to be false (28 May 2011, p 44).
through an environment. 1 hour. Eco-anxiety prompted us From Alan Trusler, Balance on a bicycle is
If neurobiologists one day to take the train. While perusing South Ockendon, Essex, UK maintained solely by continual
understand how our brains the article, it occurred to me that You report findings on the melting correction of rider and handlebar
generate Hoffman’s icons, they our decision hadn’t cost us any Greenland ice cap. Many amateur positions. The faster you go, the
will be close to knowing how our time. We were doing what we scientists and school pupils have smaller the corrections you
brains generate consciousness. would have done at home: reading, witnessed this. In the mid-1970s, have to make.
listening to music, emailing, I worked on remote sensing in
chatting and eating snacks. science education. From Stephen Kinsella,
Apps won’t reliably spot
But the closure of Dundee Kingston Bridge, Somerset, UK
mental health symptoms Satellite Receiving Station due The gyroscopic action of the
28 September, p 7 Sunscreen formulators
to the withdrawal of funding wheels is negligible in balancing
From Miles Clapham, London, UK still have work to do has left us without data from a bicycle. Think of a child’s scooter
Jessica Hamzelou reports on a 27 July, p 20 polar-orbiting weather satellites. with its tiny wheels, or an ice skate
smartphone app that could spot From Brian J. Wilkins, The other UK-funded satellite with no wheels at all.
signs of schizophrenia in facial Wellington, New Zealand receiving station at Plymouth Balance is achieved by the rider
expressions and speech. This may As midsummer approaches doesn’t offer such data. constantly moving their centre of
be confounded by the fact that here, I return to Jessica Hamzelou’s gravity slightly to one side or the
medication, notably neuroleptics, report that, of the 16 active other. To stay stationary, a rider
Yet another problem with
can alter voice and facial ingredients for sunscreen moves slightly back and forward,
expressiveness. Alcohol and other listed as “safe” in the US, only electrolysing seawater as well as shifting side to side. This
drugs can have similar effects. zinc oxide and titanium dioxide Letters, 12 October is observed with unicyclists. ❚
A bigger issue is the notion are certainly safe and effective. From Tim Stevenson,
that schizophrenia is a single After nearly 40 years of research Prestwood, Buckinghamshire, UK
For the record
illness distinguished from other into sunscreens, I note that the Clive Semmens discusses
conditions by such signs. Reduced medium for the active ingredient ways to get around obstacles to ❚ There is at least one other
facial expression and altered voice is also important. Most sunscreens electrolysing seawater to make rearrangement of a dartboard
and content of speech can be are oil-water emulsions using hydrogen. But electrolysing a salt in which each neighbouring pair
part of many emotional and adds up to a square number: 20,
psychological problems. Shyness 18, 15, 10, 6, 19, 17, 8, 1, 3, 13,
might also produce these effects. Want to get in touch? 12, 4, 5, 11, 14, 2, 7, 9, 16 (Puzzle,
The notion of smartphone Send letters to New Scientist, 25 Bedford Street, London 28 September; solution, 5 October).
surveillance as a way of monitoring WC2E 9ES or letters@newscientist.com; see terms at ❚ Tardigrades, or “water bears”,
people’s mental health, even with newscientist.com/letters have eight legs (12 October, p 34).

The treats
are on us this
holiday season
It’s the time of year for giving and receiving.
That’s why we’re giving away an extra 10% off with
every subscription that you can put towards your holiday
food shop (or whatever treats you wish to spend it on)
The perfect present full of ideas and discoveries

for friends, family… or yourself!
newscientist.com/13817
Or call 1 888 822 3242, quoting reference 13817
Offer ends 31st December 2019. Use code XMAS10 at checkout to claim your extra 10% discount
Views Aperture

Powering on
Photographer Jamey Stillings

jameystillings.com
ALTHOUGH protests in Chile have

led the nation to withdraw from
hosting the 2019 United Nations
Climate Change Conference
(COP25), its ambitious plans
for a renewable energy future
continue. This dramatic image of
a solar facility, contrasting starkly
with the ancient sand of the
Atacama desert, shows how those
intentions are becoming reality.
These panels are in the
Solar Jama plant, along the coast
from Chile’s capital, Santiago.
It is located thousands of metres
above sea level, and the arid
desert air contains very little
water vapour, allowing more
sunlight to reach the solar cells.
The country’s green energy
credentials were dealt a blow
last week when it pulled out as
host of COP25. The move followed
anti-government protests about
inequality and rising prices.
Chile had seemed like a perfect
home for the conference in the
year climate change protests
went mainstream: in the past
10 years, the country has suffered
mega-droughts and its worst
ever wildfires.
Chile aims to get 20 per cent
of its power from renewables by
2025, rising to 70 per cent by 2050,
the year by which it has pledged
to become carbon neutral. Its late
withdrawal from hosting COP25
points to the difficulties and
complexities of such ambitions:
how can you effect change in
the middle of civil unrest? ❚
Jason Arunn Murugesu

Views Culture
The great divide

Can we bridge the chasm between scientists and those who reject much of
what science shows? The first step is to understand it, says Michael Brooks
Book
Why Trust Science?
Naomi Oreskes
Princeton University Press
“I DON’T want you to listen to

me. I want you to listen to the
scientists.” That is what climate
activist Greta Thunberg told the
US Congress in September when
she offered a report by the UN’s
ALESSANDRO DI CIOMMO/ZUMA WIRE/SHUTTERSTOCK
Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change (IPCC) rather
than her own words as testimony.
But why would anyone choose
to listen to carefully dehumanised,
committee-speak science over the
impassioned, but not impartial,
rhetoric of real human beings?
Because facts outweigh opinions,
say science insiders. The trouble
is, as Naomi Oreskes points out
in her fascinating new book, Why change: thousands of scientists Humanity matters, as we Defending the scientific
Trust Science?, that is because we contribute, and their findings, see with former doctor Andrew method turns out to be a
have faith in science. In the end, researched over decades, are Wakefield’s claim that the MMR very complicated matter
none of us can actually come up distilled into a digest of objective vaccine causes autism. Scientific
with a convincing answer to the facts by teams of scientist-writers. refutations of his flawed research neutrality of science, scientists
question at the heart of this These reports aren’t designed to continue to be outgunned by have gone down a wrong road.”
discussion: why trust science? be page-turners, nor to convey media accounts of parents who But it is hard to discern an
Maybe because it works. scientists’ anguish at the dire declare their children have been alternative. A 2017 study suggests
Surely the results of social situation. They are cool left with autism by the vaccine. climate change researchers
experiments like vaccination Now measles, mumps and rubella offering policy suggestions aren’t
speak for themselves? Death “In suppressing their are back. People are powerful. viewed as any less credible by the
and damage from diseases such as The issues are complicated. public, unless they are advocating
values and insisting
measles and smallpox have been But as co-author with Erik Conway new nuclear power stations. Even
radically reduced by inoculation.
on science’s neutrality, of Merchants of Doubt, which the broader research community
Or we could cite the laws of scientists have gone looked at the efforts by vested is now accepting of scientists who
physics: if you blanket Earth down a wrong road” interests to obscure real science hold opinions on what should be
in a gas that absorbs infrared behind everything from smoking done about their research results.
radiation, trapping heat, it has to presentations of the scientific to climate change, Oreskes knows Such actions do make it
experience significant warming. conclusions and how they that part of the problem is that easier for politicians to ignore
Ah, but how do outsiders were reached. a little mistrust goes a long way. inconvenient truths, though. If
know this is true? Frustrating as it Perhaps, Oreskes suggests, In the pursuit of a reputation scientists had declared themselves
seems, Oreskes argues that this is a that is why they have made so little for unbiased objectivity, scientists angry at decades of inactivity or
valid question. Scientists, she says, impact on global policy-makers. have declined to discuss their sounded an alarm to mobilise
“need to explain not just what they “The dominant style in scientific values, she says. In fact, they public opinion, they would
know, but how they know it”. writing is not only to hide the have pretended to have none – a have risked being grouped with
But attempts to do this can values of the authors, but to hide disastrous strategy. “Would you lobbyists – and there are better
confound the problem. Take IPCC their humanity altogether,” she trust a person who has no values?” lobbyists around, as Oreskes and
reports. They are the voice of says. “The ideal paper is written… asks Oreskes. “In suppressing their Conway’s book made clear.
scientific consensus on climate as if there were no human author.” values and insisting on the value- Oreskes offers peer review and

Don’t miss
Succeeding to fail
LYNN HERSHMAN NEESON, FIRST PERSON PLURAL, THE ELECTRONIC DIARIES OF LYNN HERSHMAN, 1984-96, EXHIBITION VIEW, KW INSTITUTE FOR CONTEMPORARY ARTS BERLIN, 2018. FOUR-CHANNEL VIDEO INSTALLATION. COURTESY OF THE ARTIST AND BRIDGET DONAHUE, NYC. PHOTO: FRANK SPERLING.
From Silly Putty to an abandoned universal
language, Simon Ings stares failure in the face
tenure as mechanisms to establish depends on changing needs Visit

trust. The trouble is, insiders are and circumstances. Manual Override opens
keeping a dirty secret: peer review Exhibition There was a time, not very on 13 November at
is far from perfect, and tenure Flop: 13 stories of failure long ago, when the plethora The Shed in New York.
isn’t “the academic version of The Octagon of human languages seemed It is a group exhibition of
licensing” that Oreskes suggests. University College London indicative of some deep, collaborations between
The vast majority of working Until 10 April 2020 historical failure to establish artists, geneticists,
scientists don’t have tenure. Surely amity across our species. There engineers and AI
most of these are as knowledgeable QUITTING your job? Then do is a fascinating page on display specialists, built around
and trustworthy as the tenured? remember to clear out your from an essay by the 17th- the visionary art of Lynn
Whatever paths we take, to locker. One former employee century clergyman John Wilkins, Hershman Leeson.
make progress, we have to start of University College London whose Royal Society project
by acknowledging that things look left a bottle of home-made attempted to establish an
different outside science. If you plum brandy in a drawer. The analytical language that would
haven’t studied science beyond macerated plum was eventually let people communicate despite
what was compulsory in school, discovered, mulled over (sorry), not sharing the same spoken
have no ongoing connections misidentified as a testicle language. It foundered because
with scientists and have trusting (species unknown) and added the Royal Society couldn’t agree
relationships with those who to the university’s collection. how many essential concepts
doubt science’s claims, then you It is this selection of paintings, existed in the world.
may be sceptical about scientists prints, objects and medical Now that we have developed Watch
who claim to have a handle on exhibits that provides the items artificially intelligent agents The Atom: A love affair
what is true or real. Especially if for Flop, taking place in UCL’s capable of translating spoken takes no sides, and pulls
those scientists suggest we take a tiny Octagon gallery. This isn’t speech in real time, we find no punches, in its witty
path that looks dauntingly painful. so much an exhibition as a series failure in the reduction of and admirably objective
In fact, trust may not be the of provocations. A notice by the linguistic diversity. We bemoan archival account of the
central issue anyway. Maybe, for last case asks us to share our lost languages (3000 have West’s relationship with
climate change at least, it amounts failures on a postcard “so we perished since 1900) and nuclear power, directed
to this: why do today what you can can all start learning from mourn the cultural deficit left. by Vicki Lesley. At Leeds
put off until tomorrow, especially each other’s mistakes”. Can objects fail? Only in the International Film Festival
if it then becomes somebody else’s What is a failure? Do they sense that they fail to perform from 16 November.
problem? That “somebody else” exist outside human judgement? an expected action. Silly Putty,
is, of course, the next generation. A favourite undergraduate a perennially popular toy, was
Thunberg’s, to be precise. philosophy question is “can the result of a failed attempt to
If it is a bold move to focus a animals have accidents?”. produce synthetic rubber during
book on a question with no clear People certainly can: one of the second world war.
answer, it is even bolder to publish the more gruesome exhibits is If these examples of failure
the critiques of your answer in the a human heart, fatally punctured feel a bit tenuous, well, that is
same book. The second half of by a sword swallower’s blade. the point Flop wants to make:
Why Trust Science? is a back-and- How we define failure what is interesting is how we
forth between Oreskes and some deal with failures, not how we
academics. But in a field with few define them. As the introductory Read
reasons to be cheerful, it is both material explains: “Perhaps Change Is the Only
enlightening and encouraging. contrasting failure with success Constant: The wisdom
Once we begin to understand the is the real problem. If every of calculus in a madcap
size of the chasm that separates activity has to end in either world (Black Dog &
science’s outsiders and insiders, one or the other, it denies Leventhal) is the latest
as Oreskes clearly does, we can the nuanced and messy cartoon triumph from
at least start to design a bridge. ❚ complexities of life.” ❚ Ben Orlin, creator of the
underground bestseller
MATT CLAYTON
Michael Brooks is a consultant for The failure to make synthetic Math With Bad Drawings.
New Scientist. He wrote The Quantum rubber created one of the world’s Learn to think in curves!
Astrologer’s Handbook most enduring toys, Silly Putty

Views Culture
The TV column
The best you can be Living With Yourself plays with the idea of creating a clone
that’s better than the original, exploring ideas about human perfectibility and
what might happen if we could edit out our flaws, says Chelsea Whyte
Paul Rudd is Miles Elliot,

who accidentally acquires
a more perfect cloned self
while such change seems

appealing, a lot gets lost if we can
edit ourselves this way. What we
like in people isn’t always about
perfection. Flaws are endearing, an
Chelsea Whyte is a reporter angry flare-up can lead to humour,
for New Scientist, based in and smoothing down those edges
Boston, Massachusetts. makes for a flat imitation of life.
Follow her on Twitter The first few episodes employ
@chelswhyte the well-worn trope of identical
men swapping places and trying
not to get caught. So it is a relief
when the series changes tack
(warning: spoilers ahead) and they
NETFLIX
out themselves to Miles’s wife,

Kate (Aisling Bea). Understandably,
she is horrified, but also finds
ARE two Paul Rudds better than wasn’t supposed to wake up at all. herself falling for her husband’s
one? We find out in Living With You can imagine the hijinks clone, only to realise that this
TV Yourself, a Netflix comedy in which that ensue. They may not tread perfect, Ken doll version of Miles
Living With Yourself Rudd plays Miles Elliot, a burnt- any new ground, but it is a joy to isn’t what she really wants.
Creator Timothy Greenberg out, middle-class suburbanite. His see Rudd inhabit very different In the end, the show poses an
Netflix marriage is strained after years of versions of the same person. He interesting scientific conundrum.
unsuccessful attempts to have a can manage to look a decade older Kate has sex with both versions of
Chelsea also child and the normal decay that or younger through a single her husband and gets pregnant.
recommends... can set in with routine. He has posture or expression. The series ends with ambiguity
hit a roadblock at the advertising When the two Miles confront about the father. But if the DNA
Film agency where he works, coming each other, it reminds me of a reconstruction created a new
Multiplicity (1996) up empty when he needs ideas. conversation my friends and I Miles with younger-looking
Director Harold Ramis Then, he gets a chance to hit skin and more energy, it seems
In this cloning comedy, the refresh button. A colleague “A lot is lost if we try to plausible that his biological age is
things go awry – several has recommended a nondescript somehow different. The spa staff
iterations of Michael spa where he is offered a deal that
edit ourselves: what mentioned telomere length in the
Keaton’s character get sounds too good to be true. For we like in people isn’t hand-waving explanation of the
dumber and dumber as they $50,000, he can undergo a always about perfection, procedure, which made me check
make copies of themselves procedure – mysteriously flaws can be endearing” how that might affect a child.
described as to do with DNA Telomeres are DNA sequences at
restructuring and microsynaptic have had about teleportation. The the ends of our chromosomes that
memory transfer – and voila, he person who comes out the other shorten with age, and a child’s
will be a better version of himself. end of a hypothetical teleportation telomere length has been shown
It is no spoiler to explain that machine may look like you and to correspond to the age at which
instead of waking up feeling have your memories, but even if their father conceived them. So
fantastic, Miles comes to in a every single atom is in the same Kate and the two Miles might be
shallow grave in a forest. He finds position in your body, is it you? able to work out who was the
his way home to see an identical A lot of the show deals with father. But could they live with it?
Miles living in his home, talking to the idea of the “best self”: what if Maybe living with yourself is
his wife and living his life. It turns you were kinder, more thoughtful, only possible when you accept
out the procedure he underwent more creative, funnier and more some ambiguity, or gloss over the
was cloning and his original self respected? It becomes clear that bad to focus on the good. ❚

WHAT IF TIME STARTED
FLOWING BACKWARDS?
WHAT
IF THE
RUSSIANS
GOT TO
THE MOON
FIRST?
WHAT IF DINOSAURS
STILL RULED THE EARTH?
AVAILABLE NOW
newscientist.com/books
Features Cover Story
ASHLEY MACKENZIE

Look into my eyes
Hypnosis is entering mainstream medicine and appears
to be helping with everything from anxiety to chronic
pain. Is it time to take it seriously, asks Helen Thomson
H
“ ONESTLY, I wondered whether I was Hypnosis has a long history in medicine. It is a state you are likely to have experienced
actually in labour, because surely it The earliest recorded use dates to 1550 BC, before – when you have been so absorbed in an
was meant to be more painful than but it took off in the 18th century when activity that you don’t notice anything around
this.” That’s Shona, describing the recent birth German physician Franz Mesmer decided that you or the passage of time.
of her daughter. Her secret? Hypnosis. During the planets’ physical influence on people could We also now know that the success of
pregnancy, she learned how to hypnotise be manipulated using magnets to cause a famous illusionists getting people to do weird
herself into a state of mind that allowed her trance and treat disease. Mesmer was later and wonderful things on stage has more to
to minimise the pain of labour and, in her denounced as a fraud and hustler, but the idea do with peer pressure than it does with being
own words, “quite enjoy the whole thing”. of changing people’s behaviour through trance hypnotised (see “Smoke and mirrors”, page 36).
The word hypnosis may call to mind a persisted, and gained more credibility in the When it comes to how to actually hypnotise
swinging watch or an entertainer getting 19th century when the Scottish surgeon James someone, there is no standard method.
people to believe they are naked on stage for Braid began to investigate what physiology A common approach starts with thinking of a
an audience’s amusement. Its history is one might underlie this strange phenomenon. calming image, before imagining yourself
of sorcery and magic, tales of the occult and Today, hypnosis is used for a vast range of in a peaceful setting that stimulates all your
exploitative charlatans. Practitioners are rarely conditions. But even as its use has become senses, followed by a deepening procedure and
doctors or counsellors, clinical trials struggle more common, its reach within medicine has affirmations that help you achieve your goal. It
to get funded and there is still no regulatory been limited. In part that is because few can can be induced by another party or by yourself
authority that monitors the practice. agree on what exactly hypnosis is. Cobbling (see “How to hypnotise yourself”, page 37).
Yet despite these issues, people are turning together opinions from several researchers, As we’ll see, there are good reasons to keep
to the technique to help with everything from a hypnotic “trance” could be described as a calling the process “hypnosis”, but its fuzzy
labour to hot flushes, anxiety and chronic pain, state of focused attention, concentration and definition and controversial history have made
and a growing body of research is starting to inner absorption, accompanied by a loss of it difficult to figure out what works and what
confirm its benefits. We are also beginning to awareness of the other things around you. doesn’t. Its classification as “complementary”
get a handle on how it actually works and what rather than mainstream therapy by the UK’s
happens in the brain during hypnosis. National Health Service (NHS) hasn’t helped
The result is that how we define hypnosis is either, says Jane Boissière from the British
changing, and its use in mainstream medicine Society of Clinical and Academic Hypnosis,
is increasing. The UK’s Royal College of
Midwives now accredits hypnobirthing
“You’ve probably because it makes obtaining funding for trials,
training or setting up relevant services in the
courses and funds training in the technique. been in a trance, NHS “virtually impossible”.
Some anaesthetists now include hypnosis in In spite of this, the UK’s National Institute for
their toolkit, and it is even being touted as a when you were Health and Care Excellence does recommend
solution for the opioid addiction crisis.
Hypnosis is certainly no cure-all, but learning
so absorbed you hypnosis for one condition: irritable bowel
syndrome. IBS causes painful cramps, bloating,
what works, why it works and how to do it
ourselves may help us harness the power of the
didn’t notice the diarrhoea and constipation. The cause isn’t
known and there is no cure, but some drugs
mind for some of life’s toughest battles. passage of time” and diet changes can ease symptoms. >

NHS trusts childbirth, but it did significantly reduce their
now offer reported levels of fear and anxiety.
hypnobirthing Indeed, many see promise for its use in
courses mental health. Anxiety disorders are some of
the most impairing and common conditions
in the US. This year, in the first analysis of its
kind, Keara Valentine at the University of
Hartford, Connecticut, and her colleagues
quantified the effect of hypnosis for reducing
anxiety by analysing all of the controlled
studies of this intervention. The results were
BURGER/PHANIE/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY

impressive: the average participant receiving
hypnosis showed more improvement than
84 per cent of people who didn’t receive it.
What’s more, there was no difference in benefit
between those who used self-hypnosis and
those given guided hypnotherapy.
Hypnosis isn’t just used for pain and anxiety,
of course. It is increasingly popular as a way to
help people learn new behaviours or kick bad
habits. But, again, the research is mixed
And for treatment-resistant IBS, there is nausea and fatigue afterwards. And the because of poor trial design. In June, Jamie
overwhelming evidence that hypnosis benefits weren’t just physical. His team Hartmann-Boyce at the University of Oxford
can improve symptoms and quality of life. predicted that if 90 per cent of people and her colleagues published a review of
“During hypnosis, patients might picture needing a breast cancer biopsy in the US 14 studies analysing the use of hypnosis to
the gentle waves of the sea, and imagine their were to undergo hypnosedation, it would save help people give up smoking and couldn’t
bowels are moving in a similar regular, quiet the country more than $135 million a year. find sufficient evidence to recommend it. The
rhythm,” says Carla Flik at University Medical problem wasn’t that hypnosis definitely didn’t
Centre Utrecht in the Netherlands. help, she says, but that the trials were a mess.
In the US, both the American Psychological Going deeper “They had lots of bias, were imprecise or had
Association and the National Institutes of This reported reduction in mental and physical too few participants,” Hartmann-Boyce says.
Health now promote hypnosis as part of symptoms makes it no surprise that pregnant “It’s such an important issue that we need to
standard care for pain. Numerous studies have women like Shona flock to hypnobirthing produce bigger, better trials.”
shown that it can improve a variety of chronic classes. Officially, though, the jury is still out on In other areas, results are more consistent.
problems, such as lower back pain and side this one – a 2011 review of 13 studies concluded For instance, in the early 1990s, a meta-analysis
effects of cancer treatments – often offering that hypnobirthing “holds promise” as an of weight-loss studies showed that adding
more relief than physical therapy and cognitive intervention for labour pain, but so many of hypnosis to cognitive behavioural therapy
behavioural therapies alone. the trials were poorly designed that a more more than doubled how much weight people
Hypnosis can be so effective for pain definitive answer wasn’t possible. A 2015 trial lost. Another meta-analysis done in 2018 had
relief that, since 1992, it has been used found the technique made little difference to equally encouraging results.
in many surgical procedures – including whether women requested pain relief during Despite this increasing evidence of
biopsies, laparoscopies and plastic surgery –
as an alternative to general anaesthesia.
The technique is simple, says Aurore Marcou
at the Curie Institute in Paris, France. “The Smoke and mirrors
patient receives a local anaesthetic and mild
sedation. We sit beside them and guide them No hypnotist can make revealed that most people compelled to behave in the
to concentrate on their inner world, their you do something against would do these things way they do,” says Michael
breathing, and help them bring their your will, despite what TV whether hypnotised or not, Heap, a clinical psychologist
attention to a safe space. We help them mentalist Derren Brown’s merely because they had at the University of Sheffield,
relive experiences in the past. All of your stunts may suggest. Back in been put under pressure by UK. “Mainly it’s because
brain is focused on those memories.” 1939, scientists did show a person in authority. When these people are placed in
The major benefit is fewer side effects. that hypnotised volunteers asked to perform the same front of an audience. They
“You don’t feel drowsy, or sick from the general would perform risky acts, like acts outside such settings, know what’s expected of
anaesthetic,” says Marcou. picking up poisonous snakes, participants all said no. them. They’re actually just
Guy Montgomery at the Icahn School of suggesting they weren’t “It’s true that the people obeying the hypnotist,
Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, has found acting of their own volition. who are brought on stage they’re cooperating,
that women who had hypnosis before breast But later experiments and hypnotised feel complying with authority.”
cancer surgery reported less pain, anxiety,

hypnotism’s potential, there remain many information about sensory stimuli and is
questions regarding how it actually works. How to hypnotise linked to areas that organise an appropriate
But that too is starting to change. emotional, behavioural response. Lower
“I don’t think anyone should say ‘yes we
yourself activity in this area may mean that pain
know exactly what hypnosis is’,” says Laurence Start with 5 minutes of calming imagery, signals are given less attention than normal.
Sugarman at the Rochester Institute of such as imagining your favourite colour Other research suggests that hypnosis
Technology in New York, “but we have some washing over you, or thinking about gets people into a state of mind where the
ideas.” First, he says, we shouldn’t think about floating in a pool of water, while associated brainwaves – patterns of neural
hypnotism as something that induces a single concentrating on your breath. activity – are similar to those seen during deep
state, but as a discipline that influences the Next, imagine yourself in a happy meditation. In a small study of people with
brain’s ability to adapt and learn. “It’s a skill place – somewhere peaceful that stirs multiple sclerosis who underwent hypnosis
we can use to help us change our mind.” your senses; you can smell, touch, hear to treat chronic pain, Mark Jensen at the
This adaptability – which is also known as and see the different aspects of the University of Washington, Seattle, and his
plasticity – lets the brain modify its neural images around you. If you are imagining colleagues found that enhancing the theta
connections and rewire itself so that we can a day at the beach, for instance, you can brainwaves generated during a hypnotic trance
perform novel behaviours, remember new visualise the bright sky above you, feel increased the potency of the pain relief. That
information and adapt to the variety of the warmth of the sun on your skin, taste may be because the brainwaves generated
experiences life throws at us. There are and smell the salt in the air and hear the during a hypnotic trance aid the brain’s ability
times when the brain is more plastic – the sounds of the waves rolling in and out. to learn and adapt to the new information it is
first few years of life, for instance, or when we Next, it is time to go deeper. To receiving during the therapy.
experience strong emotions. It is likely that make yourself feel even more relaxed, Despite this progress, there remain
hypnosis puts our brain in a state that is think about descending a spiral staircase, challenges: not least convincing doctors to
conducive to remoulding, not in one specific for instance. keep an open mind. According to Montgomery,
way, but in many different ways depending Now repeat affirmations that help you many trainees ask: “Do we have to call it
on the individual and the therapy involved. achieve your desired outcome. hypnosis? That word may scare patients off.”
For instance, imaging studies show that The short answer is yes. When people undergo
the relaxation part of hypnotic induction the same procedure labelled either hypnosis or
significantly suppresses activity in our frontal relaxation or suggestion, it works better when
cortex, the brain area responsible for planning, or otherwise – the more easily they can be called hypnosis. Motivation to be hypnotised,
decision-making and attention. This releases incorporated into a learned behaviour. as well as believing it is a credible therapy, can
the brake that it normally puts on other areas When it comes to controlling pain, also increase the likelihood that it is effective.
involved in filtering and integrating salient hypnotism seems to help in a different way. As with the placebo effect, it may be that your
information from inside and outside our body, Pain perception is generated by the brain, and belief hypnosis will make a difference is in fact
which we use to generate new memories, ideas we know that it can be influenced: consider a critical part of the success of the treatment.
and behaviours. Something similar happens the gymnast who breaks their leg halfway Giving hypnosis a fair shot in mainstream
when we drink alcohol, a time when you might through a routine and carries on, or a mother medicine could have big pay-offs. Studies show
also feel more suggestible. who saves her child from a burning building that people with chronic pain can lower their
It seems that while in the hypnotic state, before noticing her own injuries. Hypnotism use of painkillers through hypnosis. In the
we can generate more intense sensations in seems to allow us to do something similar. US, more than 130 people die every day from
our mind. Marie-Elisabeth Faymonville, head overdoses involving addictive prescription
of the pain clinic at Liège University Hospital painkillers, most notably opioids. Speaking
in Belgium, has found that people who are On your wavelength at last year’s World Economic Forum,
hypnotised and asked to imagine a pleasant When Faymonville hypnotised volunteers psychologist David Spiegel at Stanford
memory show more activity in brain areas before pressing a warm or painfully hot University in California pointed out that
responsible for movement and sensations stimulus on their palm, it lowered the hypnotism isn’t addictive and doesn’t kill
than people who are merely imagining the perceived unpleasantness and intensity of people, yet it can have a considerable effect on
same scene without hypnosis. the pain by about 50 per cent compared with pain, and is therefore worth taking seriously.
“There was no real stimulation coming subjects who were just resting, and by about Does hypnosis work for everyone? No.
from the outside world, but those who were 40 per cent compared with those told to But you can try it on yourself for free and
hypnotised were seeing as if their eyes were distract themselves with a pleasant memory. it comes with minimal risks, says Marcou.
open and information was coming in. It was A closer look at the brain in this context “That’s what’s so nice about hypnosis – the
similar to real perception,” she says. The shows that hypnosis lowers activity in the results can be really good, you just need to
stronger such sensations are – imagined anterior cingulate cortex, a region that receives be willing to give it a go.” ❚
“For treating anxiety, self-hypnosis or Helen Thomson is a consultant for

New Scientist. She is the author of
guided hypnosis were equally good” Unthinkable: An extraordinary journey
through the world’s strangest brains

Features
The first
animals

geological record in the 19th century, and
they quickly noticed something puzzling. The
oldest rocks they could find seemed devoid of
fossils. Biologically complex marine animals,
including woodlouse-like trilobites, suddenly
appeared in abundance in the rocks assigned
to the Cambrian period.
The pattern troubled Charles Darwin
because it clashed with his idea of evolution
by natural selection as a slow and gradual
process. To make sense of it all, he suggested
that simpler life forms must have evolved
The Cambrian explosion is feted as evolution’s before the Cambrian but left little or no fossil
evidence of their existence.
big bang, but now some enigmatic earlier creatures We now know Darwin’s hunch was correct.
are rewriting the history of life, says Colin Barras Geologists have spotted signs of microbial life
in rocks more than 3 billion years old. They have
also identified an important transition roughly
2 billion years ago, when those microbes
became slightly larger and more biologically
L
IFE appeared on our planet more than complex. This was a necessary step on the way
3.5 billion years ago and consisted to animals, broadly defined as organisms that
exclusively of microbes for the next are multicellular, capable of locomotion and
3 billion years. Then, about 539 million years responsive to their environment.
ago, everything changed. But the Cambrian explosion still seemed
In the geological blink of an eye, the seas to mark the sudden blossoming of animal
were filled with large and complex animals, life. This remained the case even though,
including worms with legs and fearsome in the mid-20th century, geologists began
spikes, creatures with a trunk-like nose and finding fossils of large organisms, some a
five eyes, and giant shrimp-like predators metre or more across, in rocks that predate the
with mouths like pineapple rings. Cambrian explosion by 30 million years. These
This evolutionary starburst is known as organisms were dubbed the Ediacaran biota
the Cambrian explosion. It is one of the most because they date to the Ediacaran geological
significant moments in life’s history on Earth period, which precedes the Cambrian. But we
because it is the point at which species that couldn’t quite figure out what to make of them.
are clearly related to today’s animals first This wasn’t only because none of these
appeared. It is seen as evolution’s big bang. “Ediacarans were organisms seemed to possess obvious animal
But over the past few years, geologists features like a gut or a mouth. Some, including
have begun to have second thoughts. Newly
as strange to our those in a group called the rangeomorphs,
discovered fossils and careful analysis of ones eyes as life on also had a very unanimal-like fractal anatomy,
found decades ago suggest that animals were in which tiny parts of the organism looked
thriving in the period before the Cambrian. another planet like miniature versions of larger parts
As a result, some people are now arguing would be” (see “Pushing back the clock”, page 40).
LEFT: RICHARD BIZLEY/SCIENCE PHOTO; RIGHT: SINCLAIR STAMMERS/SCIENCE PHOTO
that the explosion of animal life started The influential palaeontologist Adolf

about 12 million years earlier. Others are Seilacher argued that the Ediacaran organisms
questioning whether it is possible to define were so clearly unrelated to the animals of
a distinct explosion at all. the Cambrian that they were effectively as
You could be forgiven for thinking that strange to our modern eyes as life on another
shifting the dawn of the animal revolution planet would be. Seilacher was one of many
from 539 to 551 million years ago isn’t that big researchers who felt that Ediacaran species
a deal. But evolution can do a lot in that length The leaf-like and ecology looked so alien that it was
of time: the entire span of human evolution rangeomorphs (left), impossible to escape the conclusion that the
probably fits within 12 million years, the length the largest of which Cambrian was indeed a dramatic explosion
of time since our lineage separated from that grew to 2 metres in of familiar animal life.
of chimpanzees. What’s more, shifting life’s big height, are now thought In the past 10 years, however, geologists have
bang back could have important implications to have been some of shifted their thinking. Sophisticated analytical
for the quest to figure out what sparked the earliest animals. techniques have started to suggest that
evolution’s most spectacular spell of invention. The same goes for some of the weird species of the Ediacaran
Scholars first worked out how to read the Tribrachidium (above) were animals after all, and that they behaved >

“There probably uncannily like modern creatures. “We used
to be obsessed with the Ediacaran-Cambrian
across the ancient sea floor, surrounded by
halos of smaller and smaller individuals.
wasn’t a Cambrian boundary,” says Simon Darroch at Vanderbilt This suggests that Fractofusus reproduced in
University in Tennessee. “Now it’s looking a sophisticated way. It generated waterborne
explosion worthy of smoother than previously thought.” offspring that would drift and land on an
Perhaps the most compelling clues empty bit of sea floor. Then, as the offspring
the name after all” come from rocks in Newfoundland, Canada, developed into adults, each would form a
that contain traces of the earliest Ediacaran series of tentacle-like fingers, the ends of which
communities. Here, you don’t just stumble would then grow into a clone of the adult.
on the occasional nicely preserved
specimen – you walk over bedrock exposures
120 square metres in area that each contain Surprisingly modern
thousands of fossils. That is a little like how certain modern
Each giant slab is a Pompeii-like snapshot deep-sea animals such as sponges and corals
of the deep-sea floor community as it reproduce, says Mitchell. Fractofusus may
was 570 million years ago. “It’s absolutely have had a fractal-like anatomy unlike that
astonishing in terms of preservation,” says of any modern animal, but it apparently
Emily Mitchell at the University of Cambridge. reproduced like some of today’s animals
It is what the rocks reveal about Ediacaran do. That might hint that it was related to
organisms that really surprised her, though. those animals, although Mitchell says we
Mitchell and her colleagues mapped the size can’t rule out the possibility that Fractofusus
and distribution of fossils of an oval-shaped was instead related to fungi, which sometimes
rangeomorph called Fractofusus. This also reproduce this way.
Ediacaran grew up to 40 centimetres in length In any case, it isn’t just Fractofusus that
and was covered in peculiar, fractally repeating behaved surprisingly like a modern animal.
pleats. The data, published in 2015, showed that Another Ediacaran organism called Kimberella
the largest individuals were scattered randomly left behind tracks that suggest it trundled
around, grazing on microbial mats on the
sea floor, which is a strikingly animal-like way
Pushing back the clock to behave. Darroch and his colleagues have
used computer models to show that another
We used to think that animals burst onto the scene in an abrupt “explosion” of complex life Ediacaran, Tribrachidium, probably fed on
during the Cambrian period. However, new discoveries are revealing animal-like creatures
in the earlier Ediacaran period
suspended particles, just as many modern
shellfish do. In a sense, it doesn’t even matter
whether these Ediacaran organisms were
Ediacaran Cambrian animals or not: they were behaving and
635 Million years ago 539 485 reproducing like modern marine animals do,
which suggests that Ediacaran ecology was
more like today’s than we previously thought.
Fractofusus Marella There might also be good reason to believe
Reproduced much like that at least some strange Ediacaran organisms
modern deep-sea really were animals. The strongest evidence
animals like sponges
for this came last year. Ilya Bobrovskiy at the
Australian National University in Canberra
and his colleagues analysed the chemistry of
rocks containing an Ediacaran organism called
Anomalocaris
Kimberella Dickinsonia. The rock around the fossils had
Trundled around a chemical signature associated with algae,
the sea floor which would make sense because the shallow
grazing on
microbial mats
sea floor on which Dickinsonia lived was
probably coated in mats of algae. But the
molecules within the fossils themselves
included a particular type of steroid that
Yilingia Hallucigenia
is produced only by animals, implying that
Segmented creature with Dickinsonia was an animal.
primitive legs, possibly an These conclusions don’t necessarily lead
early arthropod
to a defusing of the Cambrian explosion.
Some people suspect that the Ediacaran
animals didn’t give rise to modern ones.

If so, it is possible that there was still an they have been linked to sudden drops in
evolutionary explosion of sorts 539 million the quantity of nutrients generated through
years ago, just one that involved a sudden photosynthesis – and with mass extinction
blossoming of different sorts of animals, events. But the size of the carbon shift during
namely recognisably modern ones. the Shuram event is so large that it has so far
Palaeontologists have, however, begun defied explanation, even after 25 years of study.
to find evidence that the Ediacaran seas did And deciphering the event has now taken on
contain animals that probably were related new significance, given the realisation that it
UNIVERSAL IMAGES GROUP NORTH AMERICA LLC/DEAGOSTINI/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO

to modern ones. “We’re sucking down the might have been the trigger for the blossoming
[species] that were previously known in the of animal life as we know it.
Cambrian into the Ediacaran,” says Rachel Some geologists argue that the Shuram
Wood at the University of Edinburgh, UK. event reflects what they describe as “turmoil”
For instance, in 2017, Wood and her from dramatic changes to the paths that
colleagues announced they had found tiny water took as it slowly circulated around
fossils of what were previously assumed to the ancient oceans. Others suspect that it
be exclusively Cambrian animals in Siberian represents a huge global warming event
rocks dating to the final 10 million years of that released carbon-containing methane
the Ediacaran. Tiny burrows that could have into the oceans and atmosphere. Either of
been produced by nematode-like worms have these environmental disturbances might
also been seen in Ediacaran rocks from Brazil somehow have triggered the dawn of modern
dating back at least 550 million years. ecosystems, but we still don’t know quite how.
That is an important discovery because Alternatively, the Shuram event might
nematodes, primitive though they may seem, reflect a sudden rise in atmospheric oxygen.
are relatively advanced animals. One study Conventionally, a surge in oxygen levels has
even suggests that they are closely related been viewed as a potential trigger for the
to arthropods: animals, like spiders and Fresh analysis of sudden flourishing of animal life – although
lobsters, with legs and an exoskeleton. Dickinsonia fossils these days, many biologists suspect that the
If nematodes were around in the Ediacaran, suggests they were story is more complicated.
it is plausible arthropods were too. among the first animals It is also exasperatingly unclear how
Indeed, just last year, minuscule footprints animal life responded to the Shuram event.
left by an unidentified, multi-legged animal Darroch says geologists have struggled to
were reported stretching several centimetres still in full swing. It is then that we see the first find rocky outcrops that both record the
in rocks from south China thought to be up clear signs that tiny yet unmistakably modern Shuram geochemical signal and contain
to 551 million years old. And earlier this year, animals were scuttling around in the shadow enough Ediacaran fossils to show how
a team caught a rare glimpse of another of the larger Ediacaran organisms. ecosystems reacted. “The rock record is not
possible early arthropod in the same rocks: a If there was a distinct explosion, our being as helpful as we’d like it to be,” he says.
25-centimetre-long segmented creature called chances of working out why it happened Darroch thinks we will eventually find those
Yilingia that seems to have had primitive legs. would be immeasurably improved if we elusive rocks. One reason for optimism is that
In light of all this, there probably wasn’t could figure out when and where to look for a number of new outcrops of Late Ediacaran
a Cambrian explosion 539 million years ago clues. For comparison, by 54 million years ago, rocks have come to light in the past couple
after all. Animals, both familiar and weird, mammals were thriving across the world and of years: details of a previously unknown
really were thriving millions of years earlier. the first primates had just appeared. But our site in Iran were published just last year, and
This revelation is so fresh that opinion is still explanations for this explosion of mammal Darroch and his colleagues are in the process
divided on how to recast the rise of the animals. life are lacking if they don’t acknowledge of studying a fresh locality in South Africa.
Earlier this year, a team including Wood and the dinosaur-ending asteroid impact that Evidence from these sites might finally
Mitchell argued that animals actually became had occurred 12 million years earlier. help explain when and why the most
dominant by diversifying through a series of As far as we know, there was no asteroid dramatic event in the history of life on Earth
relatively small evolutionary changes over tens impact to trigger the evolutionary explosion occurred – or it could indicate that the story
of millions of years. As such, they concluded 551 million years ago. But we do know of early animal life is so complex that there
that it is debatable whether there really was that huge changes were afoot at the time. wasn’t a neatly definable Cambrian explosion
any explosion worthy of the name. The problem is that they are frustratingly after all. “It might just be that we’ve been trying
“I can absolutely see their argument,” says mysterious. Geochemists studying the to impose artificial patterns and boundaries on
Darroch. Even so, he still thinks there was a chemical isotopes locked away in 551-million- the rock record,” says Darroch. ❚
distinct evolutionary explosion, albeit one year-old rocks have found signs of what they
that began much earlier than we had thought. describe as the single biggest shift in the ratio
In a paper published last year, he and his of carbon-13 to carbon-12 in Earth’s history. Colin Barras is a consultant
colleagues argued that this explosion didn’t It is known as the Shuram event. for New Scientist. He is based
take place 539 million years ago but 12 million Carbon shifts often indicate ecosystems in Ann Arbor, Michigan
years earlier, when the Ediacaran period was in flux. At other times in our planet’s past,

Features
Seeing around
corners
Hidden scenes are lurking in the shadows.
Jon Cartwright exposes the intriguing
science of seeing the invisible
N
OTHING to see here: just an image predictable way – namely, at the same angle
of an empty street. But the investigator at which they hit it. As a result, all the visual
thinks there is more to this than information collectively contained within
meets the eye. With a few clicks of his mouse, the light rays is preserved, so that you always
he enhances a featureless shadow cast on see a clear image of whatever is out of view.
the floor, apparently defying the laws of The problem is that most surfaces we
optics to extract a blurry image of two people encounter aren’t reflective, at least not in
lurking around the corner. the sense that a mirror is. When you look at a
Technical wizardry like this seems far- painted wall, for example, you are observing
fetched. But this isn’t CSI. The investigator is a light rays that have bounced, or scattered, from
computer scientist not a detective, and those all sorts of random angles, preventing you
characters are graduate students not suspects. from seeing an image of yourself. In fact, your
More importantly, this technology is real, and image is there, but it is made up of only the tiny
it is being developed in labs right now. minority of light rays that happen to take the
The science of seeing around corners is direct path from your face, into the wall and
new, fast-moving and breathtaking. We are back into your eyes. The majority of light rays,
discovering that the shadows are full of visual which scatter through alternative paths, wash
information that our eyes can’t see. Now, as these out and thus render any image invisible.
people develop clever ways to make the To the human eye, at least. In 2012, computer
invisible visible, they are exposing all manner scientist Ramesh Raskar at the Massachusetts
of potential applications besides forensics. Institute of Technology (MIT) and his team hid
Autonomous cars that spot hidden hazards. an artists’ manikin behind a screen and then
Cameras that direct fire crews to people fired laser pulses onto an adjacent wall. They
trapped in burning buildings. Endoscopes that knew that some of the photons fired by the
guide surgery in unreachable parts of the body. laser would scatter off the wall, rebound off the
“It could be extremely powerful,” says manikin and then scatter off the wall again,
Vickie Ye, a computer vision researcher before finally being picked up by their photon
at the University of California, Berkeley. detector. They also knew that this portion of
“Any information outside the frame could photons would be tiny compared with the
be interpretable.” zillions taking different routes. The trick was
You don’t need novel science to see around in the precision of their detection system.
a corner. You could just use a periscope, or any By timing the return of a photon to within a
ELENI DEBO
mirror for that matter. A mirror works because few trillionths of a second, they could calculate
light rays bounce off the surface in a clean and how far that photon had travelled after it had

bounced off the wall. The haphazard nature
of scattering made things difficult, because it
was only possible to get a sphere of possibilities
as to what point on what object’s surface each
photon had come from. But by timing lots
of photons returning from many different
positions on the wall, the researchers ended
up with numerous spheres of possibilities.
Ultimately, the points where these spheres
overlapped in their calculations formed a
crude yet recognisable three-dimensional
image of the hidden manikin.
Accidental cameras
Specialist laser systems like Raskar’s don’t
come cheap, which could limit their
application. Last year, some of his former
group members, now at Stanford University
in California, developed a version of their
algorithm that could be run in conjunction
with more widely available detection
equipment. As the technology shrinks,
they hope it could be integrated into surgical
endoscopes. This might allow surgeons to
see parts of an unhealthy intestine that are
otherwise too tight to probe. It could also
find use in autonomous vehicles, letting them
spot other road users about to hurtle out of
side streets. Exploiting it in CSI-style forensics
will be trickier, because the technology would
have to be incorporated into every CCTV
camera at the manufacturing stage.
And yet, even everyday technology can
be trained to see things outside the frame.
The underlying concept here is different,
relying on the existence of what are now
being called “accidental cameras”, but the
results are equally jaw-dropping.
We normally think of cameras as devices
with glass or plastic lenses, but a camera can
be anything that controls the light falling on
a surface. Take the humble camera obscura,
for example: by allowing light to enter a
darkened room solely through a tiny hole,
only light rays travelling directly from different
points outside can get in. Unadulterated by
any scattered light, these direct rays form
a perfect, if inverted, image of the exterior
scene on the wall opposite the hole.
Such a camera is almost always deliberately
constructed. But as soon as Antonio Torralba
and William Freeman at MIT started looking,
they found unintended cameras almost
everywhere – not just holes, but edges of any
sort. A corner in a corridor, for instance. >

HEARING THE SIGHTS
Listening to the inaudible might To understand how this vertical edge acts as nothing more than the basic geometry
sound like a paradox, but not a camera, and how, ironically, it can allow you of a corner and video footage of the ground
according to a group including one to see the very scene it is obscuring, you first beside it, taken by an ordinary digital
of the pioneers of round-the-corner have to notice that the floor by the corner camera, their algorithm could reconstruct
imaging. In 2014, William Freeman of the wall is in shadow. Known technically a video of two people moving about,
at the Massachusetts Institute of as a penumbra, this dark patch is easy to miss. completely outside the frame.
Technology and his colleagues Most of the floor is at the same brightness There was a big snag with this work. The
captured high-speed video due to light scattering from everywhere in “images” making up the reconstructed video
footage – without audio – of various the corridor. At the penumbra, however, were only one-dimensional, like thin strips of
objects from glasses of water it is slightly dimmer because light from normal photographs. That was enough to
to empty crisp bags while an around the corner can’t quite reach it. disclose movement, but not to recognise
instrumental version of Mary Given a photo of the floor near to the corner, anyone. The reason was that the accidental
Had a Little Lamb played in the a computer could subtract the contribution camera itself, a vertical edge, was one-
background. The almost- made by light that stays the same brightness dimensional. As a result, moving away from
imperceptible vibrations of the everywhere to leave only the diminished light the wall improved the view around the corner,
objects caused by the sound waves in the shadow region – that is, the contribution but shifting up or down did not.
were enough to enable them to from around the corner. This would tell you
reconstruct the nursery rhyme. the average brightness and colour of the
Sound can see through walls, too. hidden scene, which is pretty useless on its What the yucca sees
In June this year, David Lindell of own. But the existence of the corner tells you In January this year, however, a group
Stanford University in California something else about the light striking the led by Vivek Goyal at Boston University
and his colleagues hid an H-shaped shadow region. managed to reproduce, from around a corner,
object behind a wall. They then To understand why, imagine standing two-dimensional, colour images of what was
used speakers to bounce sound with your shoulder to the wall, next to a being shown on an LCD monitor. The feat
off another wall so it would go corner, but so you can’t see round it. This is required a slightly different accidental camera:
behind the first wall. Deploying where the shadow is deepest. As you sidestep a credit card-sized occluder set back from the
microphones to pick up the away from the wall, your view around the corner, casting a shadow not onto the floor,
returning sound waves, they could corner steadily improves. In the same way, but onto a wall even further back (see diagram,
build up an image of the hidden the portion of the hidden scene exposed at right). “We’re getting two-dimensional
object. They believe the set-up is a any one point within the shadow depends reconstruction because the occluder itself
faster and cheaper way to see round on how far away that point is from the wall. is two-dimensional,” says Goyal.
corners than light-based systems. It is this constraint that makes the maths for Goyal hasn’t stopped there. Determined
If all this hidden imaging sounds converting the shadow to an image solvable, to make round-the-corner imaging more
a little cloak-and-dagger, be as Torralba and Freeman, together with Ye and applicable to everyday situations, his group
warned that people can be tracked others at MIT, discovered in 2017. Armed with recently demonstrated improved algorithms
through the walls of a home or
office using ambient Wi-Fi and
a smartphone. You need an app Walls have eyes:
developed by Yanzi Zhu at the clever tricks can
University of California, Santa tease images
Barbara, and his colleagues, from shadows
which can detect the faint swelling
of a Wi-Fi signal caused by human
movement, so long as you walk up
and down a few times first to map
the Wi-Fi environment. The
researchers, who created the app
to expose the privacy risk, are now
developing defensive systems for
Wi-Fi transmitters.
GAMPE/WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

that work with textured, rather than just In the shadows
featureless, surfaces. He even has How an ordinary digital camera can see a hidden image
preliminary results for two-dimensional
images from one-dimensional corners 1. A screen shows an 2. Light and shade from
without extra occluders. Position in the image that is hidden the image, obstructed by a
second dimension can be gauged from the from a camera’s view chair, fall on the opposite
wall. The camera takes a
relative brightness of the scattered light, he
picture of the shadow
says. “It’s less robust, but we’ve had success.”
Meanwhile, Torralba, Freeman and
their colleagues have shown that a
three-dimensional image of a room can
be reconstructed merely from the shadow 3. An algorithm
cast by a houseplant. This works in the same analyses the
way as the corner-imaging technique, in that shadow, teasing
out the visual
different points of the plant’s shadow reveal information
information about different portions of the encoded in the
room. The distinction is that the computation pattern of light
required is far more complicated here, rays blocked out
by the chair, to
because the shadow is cast by leaves and reconstruct the
stems sprouting in all directions. In fact, the out-of-sight image
image they created was only made possible
thanks to a painstaking calibration procedure,
which involved shining light onto the plant
from every point within the room beforehand,
to work out the geometrical relationship
between shadow and hidden scene. SOURCE: doi.org/gftrn2
With the science moving so fast, it is

tempting to speculate what these algorithms
could do in the future. Ye points out that to get used to it, and push back against any a laser operating in the terahertz range,
artificial intelligence is increasingly able to uses they consider inappropriate. which is midway between infrared light and
work out geometry from still photographs, In any case, it is hard to stem the flow microwaves. Terahertz light can penetrate
without any calibration. Combined with of ideas, especially given a $28 million materials and, unlike X-rays, it can also
the ability to interpret shadows, this well of funding from the US Defense Advanced distinguish between white and black tones.
potentially means that any photo could Research Projects Agency shared by many From the precise arrival time of photons
betray something of the scene outside of the research groups. Another concept that are reflected, the MIT researchers could
the original frame. “Any camera has a Goyal is working on is a combination of the select, by depth, any page up to nine sheets
limited field of view,” says Ye. “Even just penumbra and laser approaches, which he down, and scan its text. The capability could
for security or forensics, it would be expects will make round-the-corner imaging be a boon for historians looking to investigate
incredible if you could increase that.” more flexible and reduce acquisition time. delicate cultural artefacts.
Because the recording equipment need be Others, meanwhile, are using sound or Wi-Fi Or, returning to vehicle safety, how
nothing special, the images don’t have to be signals rather than light to see into hidden about being able to see through fog?
new, either. Imagine being able to shed light, spaces (see “Hearing the sights”, left). Last year, Guy Satat, then a PhD student in
retrospectively, on the context of rare historical Then there are ways to employ the Raskar’s group, noticed that the wavelength
photos or video footage, or contemporary technology to see objects hidden not outside, of photons that have scattered off fog
photos presented as fake news. “It’s definitely but inside the frame. In 2016, Raskar and his particles is skewed in a distinct way. The
plausible,” says Goyal. “It’s all just post- colleagues exposed a printed manuscript to skewed photons can be discarded, leaving
processing. You just need high resolution.” only those scattered from the object. Add
Equally plausible, of course, are more some sort of photon-return timing system
nefarious uses, such as spying on people who to judge depth and the fog is lifted.
believe they are out of sight. “I’ve thought a lot
about this and I don’t think people should be
“A 3-D image This sort of technology is still in its infancy,
but it is already clear it will save lives – and
too concerned,” says Ye. “These techniques of a room can who knows what other applications are hiding
are currently super-sensitive to things like around the corner? ❚
camera motion, which is why we’ve mostly be constructed
used fixed cameras. Even just for very slowly
moving cameras, things become very hard,
from the Jon Cartwright is a consultant
very quickly.” Although the technology is shadow cast by for New Scientist based in
progressing fast by scientific standards, she Bristol, UK
adds, societies will still have plenty of time a houseplant”
Recruitment
Associate or Full Professor in Experimental

Quantum Information Science
The Institute for Quantum Computing (IQC) and the Faculty of Science
at the University of Waterloo (UW) is seeking an exceptional scholar and
newscientistjobs.com researcher for a senior hire at the Associate or Full Professor level, with
an anticipated start date of September 1, 2020.
Recruitment advertising
A PhD, demonstrated evidence of running a world-class research program
Tel +1 617-283-3213 in experimental quantum information science and technology, a clear
YLVLRQRIWKHIXWXUHLPSDFWRITXDQWXPWHFKQRORJ\DQGHӽHFWLYHWHDFKLQJ
Email nssales@newscientist.com are required. Responsibilities include the supervision of graduate
students and teaching at the undergraduate and graduate levels.
Full consideration for this position is assured only for applications

received by December 1, 2019. Interested individuals should upload
their application via the faculty application form at https://uwaterloo.
ca/institute-for-quantum-computing/positions and arrange for three
referees to upload letters of reference.
The University of Waterloo regards diversity as an integral part of

academic excellence and is committed to accessibility for persons with
disabilities. As such, we encourage applications from women, First
Nations, Metis and Inuit peoples, persons with disabilities, members of
diverse gender identities, and others who may contribute to the further
GLYHUVLӾFDWLRQRILGHDV
$OOTXDOLӾHGFDQGLGDWHVDUHHQFRXUDJHGWRDSSO\KRZHYHU&DQDGLDQVDQG
permanent residents will be given priority.
Full description at https://jobs.newscientist.com/en-gb/

job/1401680537/associate-or-full-professor-in-experimen-
tal-quantum-information-science/
Bring your
career to life HMRI Postdoctoral Fellowship Program
Sign up, create your own job alerts Pasadena, CA
and discover the latest opportunities Huntington Medical Research Institutes’ (HMRI) Postdoctoral Fellowship
in life sciences at Program provides MDs, PhDs, and MD/PhDs rigorous scientific training,
mentoring, and a rich research environment supplemented by close
newscientistjobs.com interactions with colleagues at nearby universities, including Caltech, USC,
and others.
Fellows will obtain hands-on experience carrying out studies in HMRI’s
four major areas of research:
• Brain research with focus on Alzheimer’s disease and Migraine
• Imaging and spectroscopy of the brain, blood vessels, and heart
• The study of heart attack and ways to reduce cell death during heart
attack, models of heart failure, models of cardiogenic shock, studies of
cardio-toxic substances, e-cigarettes.
• Studies specifically focused on the connection between the brain and
heart disease
ELIGIBILITY:
Applicants for the HMRI Postdoctoral Fellowship Program must have
completed a PhD, an MD, or an MD, PhD program and have proof of
completion and degree by June 30, 2019.
At the time of acceptance into the fellowship program, the applicant may
have no more than five (5) years of research training or experience since
obtaining a post-baccalaureate doctoral-level degree.
@science_jobs #sciencejobs Applications are accepted on a rolling basis. Find out more at https://jobs.
newscientist.com/job/1401678395/hmri-postdoctoral-fellowship-program-/
46 | New Scientist | 9 November 2019 newscientistjobs.com

Department of Biological Science
Assistant Professor, 9 Month Salaried (Cell Biology)
The Department of Biological Science at Florida State University invites outstanding
applications for a tenure-track ASSISTANT PROFESSOR in the EURDGO\GH¿QHG DUHD RI
Cellular Biology. The Department is interested in individuals using any experimental system,
from cultured cells to organismal, to understand fundamental cellular processes using
approaches including but not limited to correlative light and electron microscopy, high-
resolution light microscopy, live cell imaging, or genomics. Successful candidates are
expected to establish an innovative, extramurally-funded research program and contribute to
Professor of Chemistry
undergraduate and graduate education.
Successful candidates for an Assistant Professor rank will possess at a minimum a doctoral The Department of Chemistry in the College of Letters and
GHJUHH IURP DQ DFFUHGLWHG LQVWLWXWLRQ RU WKH KLJKHVW GHJUHH DSSURSULDWH LQ WKH ¿HOG RI Science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison seeks outstanding
specialization with a demonstrated record of achievement in teaching, academic research, and
service, and must meet university criteria for appointment to the rank of Assistant Professor. applicants with research interests in all areas of chemistry for
3RVWGRFWRUDOWUDLQLQJLQWKH¿HOGRIVSHFLDOL]DWLRQLVSUHIHUUHG faculty positions at the tenured and tenure-track levels. Faculty
The Department of Biological Science is a diverse and interactive group with 46 tenure-track positions require a commitment to excellence in scholarly
faculty members in Cell and Molecular Biology, Neuroscience, and Ecology and Evolution research, teaching, and service.
JUDGXDWH SURJUDPV 2XU GHSDUWPHQW LQFOXGHV VFLHQWL¿F OHDGHUV LQ F\WRVNHOHWDO PRWLOLW\
structural biology, epigenetics, chromosome biology, plant biology, virology, and chemical
senses. Researchers have access to excellent core resources, including a state-of-the-art
The department is strongly committed to diversity among faculty.
LPDJLQJIDFLOLW\HTXLSSHGZLWKD7LWDQ.ULRVHOHFWURQPLFURVFRSHFRQIRFDOVIRU¿[HGRUOLYH Women and candidates from groups traditionally under-
FHOOLPDJLQJDQGVXSHUUHVROXWLRQ'6,0ÀRZF\WRPHWU\DQGPDVVVSHFWURPHWU\IDFLOLWLHV
a modern BSL3 facility; and the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory. For information
represented in the field of chemistry are strongly encouraged to
about Florida State University’s Department of Biological Science, visit our website at apply.
http://www.bio.fsu.edu.
Senior-level theoretical chemists, including those specializing in
Questions about the position should be directed to Prof. Hank W. Bass:
cell.search@bio.fsu.edu materials science and biophysics, are especially encouraged to
See details at:
apply and will be considered for the Joseph O. Hirschfelder
https://jobs.newscientist.com/en-au/job/1401680298/assistant-professor- professorship in theoretical chemistry. This position will begin
9-month-salaried-biological-science-/ August 2020 or later. Candidates for the Joseph O. Hirschfelder
$Q(TXDO2SSRUWXQLW\$FFHVV$I¿UPDWLYH$FWLRQ3UR'LVDEOHG 9HWHUDQ(PSOR\HU
professorship in theoretical chemistry must have extensive
experience, a track record of innovation, world-class research
accomplishments, and teaching credentials which meet the
requirements for full or associate professor with tenure as
determined by the Physical Sciences Divisional Committee.
A successful candidate will be expected to develop an
internationally recognized scholarly research program in their
area of specialization, to teach chemistry courses at the
undergraduate and graduate level, to mentor graduate and
undergraduate students, and to perform professional and
Assistant Professor - Mathematics or Science university service as appropriate.
Applications are invited for a tenure-track faculty position at the rank of
Assistant Professor, and in special cases Associate or Full Professor, at
A Ph.D. in Chemistry or related field is required. Candidates for
the Institute for Quantum Computing (IQC) and any department in the the Assistant Professor title must have demonstrated potential for
Faculties of Mathematics or Science. IQC is a collaborative research internationally recognized research in their field of specialization.
institute focused on quantum information science and technology,
ranging from the theory of quantum information to practical applications. Tenured candidates must have demonstrated excellence in
Membership in IQC is renewable, with an initial appointment of 5 years, scholarly research, teaching, and service which meet the
and comes with research space, a teaching reduction of one course, and requirements for full or associate professor with tenure as
a stipend. Information about research at IQC can be found at
http://uwaterloo.ca/iqc/research and https://tqt.uwaterloo.ca/. determined by the Physical Sciences Divisional Committee.
As an employer committed to employment equity and accessibility for Apply online at https://academicjobsonline.org/ajo/jobs/15083
persons with disabilities, we encourage applications from members of
equity-seeking communities including women, racialized and Indigenous
Application materials including cover letter, current CV, teaching
persons, persons with disabilities, and persons of all sexual orientations statement, research experience summary, and a concise
and gender identities/expressions. description of research plans will be required for all applicants.
The University of Waterloo is host to the Institute for Quantum Computing. Applicants will also be asked to provide the names and contact
At present, IQC has a complement of 32 faculty members from the
information for three professional references. To guarantee full
Faculties of Engineering, Mathematics and Science. Interested individuals
should upload their application via the faculty application form at: consideration, applications must be received by November 17,
https://uwaterloo.ca/institute-for-quantum-computing/positions. 2019. However, applications will be accepted until all positions
Full consideration for these positions is assured only for applications are filled.
received by December 1, 2019.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison is an equal opportunity affirmative
$OOTXDOLӾHGFDQGLGDWHVDUHHQFRXUDJHGWRDSSO\KRZHYHU&DQDGLDQVDQG action employer. Women and minority candidates are especially
permanent residents will be given priority.
encouraged to apply. Unless confidentiality is requested in writing,
Full description at https://jobs.newscientist.com/en-gb/ information regarding the identity of the applicant must be released on
job/1401680540/assistant-professor-mathematics-or-science-in- request. Finalists cannot be guaranteed confidentiality. A criminal
stitute-for-quantum-computing/
background check will be required prior to employment.
newscientistjobs.com 9 November 2019 | New Scientist | 47

The Department of Land Resources and
Environmental Sciences at Montana POSTDOCTORAL POSITION
State University, Bozeman Vascular smooth muscle and
(http://landresources.montana.edu) endothelial cell ion channels
are seeking applicants for tenure track Postdoctoral position immediately available
to study physiological functions and
faculty positions: pathological alterations in arterial smooth
muscle and endothelial cell ion channels.
Tenure Track Faculty, Environmental
Projects include studying blood pressure
Systems Science regulation by ion channels and regulation
Screening will begin 9 December 2019 RIWUDI¿FNLQJVLJQDOLQJDQGIXQFWLRQVRI
753%.&D.YDQGYROWDJHGHSHQGHQW
Job ID: 1401680241 &DFKDQQHOVVLPLODUWRVWXGLHVZHKDYH
UHFHQWO\SXEOLVKHG/HRHWDO31$6
Assistant Professor of Remote .LGGHWDO6FLHQFH6LJQDOLQJ/HRHWDO
6FLHQFH6LJQDOLQJ%XOOH\HWDOH/LIH
Sensing
Screening will begin 15 December 2019
7HFKQLTXHVLQWKHODERUDWRU\LQFOXGH
Job ID: 1401677925 573&5:HVWHUQEORWWLQJELRWLQ\ODWLRQ
LPPXQRÀXRUHVFHQFH)5(7SDWFKFODPS
HOHFWURSK\VLRORJ\FDOFLXPLPDJLQJ
Assistant/Associate Professor of SUHVVXUL]HGDUWHU\P\RJUDSK\EORRG
Watershed Analysis SUHVVXUHWHOHPHWU\DQGFRQGLWLRQDONQRFNRXW
Screening will begin 20 December 2019 PRXVHPRGHOV([SHULHQFHZLWKPROHFXODU
ELRORJ\LRQFKDQQHOELRFKHPLVWU\SDWFK
Job ID: 1401678440 FODPSHOHFWURSK\VLRORJ\DQGFDUGLRYDVFXODU
physiology preferred.
Applications will be accepted until an 5HTXLUHGTXDOL¿FDWLRQVLQFOXGHD3K'RU

adequate applicant pool has been 0'LQ3K\VLRORJ\RUDUHODWHG¿HOG6HQG
curriculum vitae and names and addresses
established. RIWKUHHUHIHUHQFHVWR'U-RQDWKDQ
+-DJJDU0DXU\%URQVWHLQ(QGRZHG
Find complete descriptions and 3URIHVVRURI3K\VLRORJ\'HSDUWPHQW
RI3K\VLRORJ\8QLYHUVLW\RI7HQQHVVHH
applications instructions: +HDOWK6FLHQFH&HQWHU8QLRQ$YHQXH
https://jobs.newscientist.com/ 0HPSKLV7186$
minisites/montana-state- jjaggar@uthsc.edu.
university/ https://www.uthsc.edu/
physiology/faculty/jjaggar.php
Montana State University values diverse
perspectives and is committed to continually 87+6&LVDQ(TXDO(PSOR\PHQW$I¿UPDWLYH$FWLRQ7LWOH9,,;
supporting, promoting, and building an inclusive 6HFWLRQ$'$$'($(PSOR\HU
and culturally diverse campus environment.
48 | New Scientist | 9 November 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:
The back pages
Puzzles Feedback Twisteddoodles Almost the last word The Q&A
Cryptic crossword, a How to read 20,000 for New Scientist Why science Neuroscientist
wood cutting riddle, words a minute: the A cartoonist’s take holds some of Henning Beck on
and the quiz p52 week in weird p53 on the world p53 us spellbound p54 breaking rules p56
Stargazing at home 2 Week 1
Watch the transit of Mercury

The closest planet to the sun is about to make a spectacular pass in
front of our star. Abigail Beall explains how to view it safely
JUST last week we learned how

to identify the constellation of
Taurus, which starts to pop up in
November and can be viewed in
the night sky from pretty much
anywhere until around March.
This week, we are learning about
something much more fleeting:
the transit of Mercury across the
Abigail Beall is a science writer face of the sun.
NASA'S GODDARD SPACE FLIGHT CENTER/SDO/GENNA

in Leeds, UK. This series is On 11 November, Mercury, the
based on her book The Art of rocky, crater-covered world that is
Urban Astronomy @abbybeall the closest planet to the sun, will
pass in front of our star as viewed
What you need from Earth. This will be visible
Binoculars from much of Europe, Africa, New
Tripod Zealand, west Asia and America.
Cardboard You might think all the planets
Paper orbit the sun in the same plane,
but that isn’t the case. Mercury’s
For next week orbit, which takes 88 Earth days,
Warm clothes is about 7 degrees off from ours,
which is why transits like this are Stargazing at home online
relatively rare: they only occur Projects will be posted online each week at
about 13 times a century. newscientist.com/maker Email: maker@newscientist.com
In total, the transit will take
about 6.5 hours. It will start at these can blind you. Using a over the binocular eyepieces. Hold
12:34 GMT. Of course, the time telescope equipped with a special the cardboard over the binoculars
of day and weather in your area filter is a great way to see a transit and point them towards the sun.
Next in the series: will determine whether the sun is like this, but most people don’t Then, stick white paper onto
1 Mercury transits the sun even visible. If it isn’t, there will be have access to their own telescope. another piece of card and hold this
2 How to watch the Leonid plenty of opportunities to watch In any case, there is a safe way to up behind your binoculars so the
meteor shower the event live on webcams or see watch the transit using binoculars, light from the eyepieces is shining
See Earth plough through professional images of it. For the if you have bright sunshine on the onto the paper. It is that simple.
cometary debris most recent transit, in 2016, NASA day. Mercury is 4900 kilometres The cardboard with holes for the
3 Venus and Jupiter in created an iconic composite photo across – tiny compared with the eyepieces stops light that isn’t
conjunction showing Mercury’s movement sun – so you will need to mount from the binoculars from hitting
4 Mercury at its greatest as a dotted line across the sun’s your binoculars on a tripod to the paper and drowning out the
elongation surface (pictured). It also recorded keep them still enough to make image of the transit. You can cover
5 How to see the a high-definition video. out the diminutive planet. one of the lenses if you only want
Northern Lights It should go without saying, but A simple set-up will enable you to see one image, otherwise you
6 Find the Andromeda never look directly at the sun. This to view the motion of Mercury will have two that are identical.
galaxy is particularly true if you are using without damaging your eyes. Take Next week, you may need to
7 How to see Santa (the a telescope or binoculars because a piece of cardboard and cut two grab your coat – we will be outside
ISS) on Christmas Eve even a glimpse of the sun through holes in it just big enough to fit watching a meteor shower. ❚

The back pages Puzzles
Cryptic crossword #18 Set by Wingding Quick quiz #28 Puzzle set by David Bodycombe
1 Which chemical element is
“missing” from the universe, #29 How many strips?
with far less of it apparently
about than the big bang How many 3x1 strips, like the
theory says there should be? example pictured, can be cut
out of this piece of wood?
2 The individual antennas of
the Square Kilometre Array,
planned to be the world’s
largest radio telescope, will
be built in Australia and
South Africa. Where is the
EXAMPLE
project’s headquarters?
3 In terms of cross-section,
Hang Sѫn Đoòng near
Vietnam’s border with Laos
is the world’s largest what?

4 What are the longest
and shortest bones in Answer next week
the human body?

5 Agreeableness, openness
to experience, extroversion,
conscientiousness and
#28 A well-timed nap
ACROSS
1 Satellite destroyed – around freezing
what other factor make Solution
up psychologists’ Big Five
it’s punk! (7) temperature (13) personality traits? One hour is 60 minutes for the minute hand,
5 Insignificant quantities of 15 Smear picture, a point and 1 hour is one-twelfth of a circle (i.e. 30°)
iodine, oxygen, tantalum of no return? (7) Answers below for the hour hand. In other words, if the time
and sulphur (5) 17 Speaker’s to bring legal is “m” minutes past the hour, then the hour
8 Almost moon-shaped action against Native hand has travelled through ½m degrees
function with rising Americans (5) past the hour.
amplitude (9) 19 Fish in French station,
Quick
9 Some whale intestine we hear (3) Crossword #44 Suppose that when I go to sleep, the angle
worn around the neck (3) 20 Planet high in alien Answers between the minute and hour hand = m. If
10 Small, competent lifeforms, originally, the minute hand is ahead of the hour hand,
ACROSS 1 Littoral, 5 Uremia,
marten (5) like a kangaroo (9) this means (30 – ½m) = m. This is only true
10 Holes, 11 Subscript,
12 Crush odd Tory politician 22 Grass-like plant found 12 Esperanto, 13 EPROM, for m = 20, meaning the time is 3.20 pm. It
covered in beer (7) on southern border (5) 14 Mosaic, 15 Gas main, is also possible that the minute hand is more
13 Organic compounds derived 23 A dry ram somehow 18 Eyelids, 20 Acinus, 22 Eosin, than one hour segment ahead of the hour,
from virus or sick barons 24 Brown Kiwi, 25 Imaginary, i.e. 30 + (30 – ½m) = m, meaning m = 40,
makes a reference for
26 Imide, 27 Medusa,
solar observations? (7) 28 Beat-em-up and the time is 6.40 pm.
DOWN
1 Dismisses neuroscience 7 Wife puts on jeans back to DOWN 1 Lehrer, 2 Telephone, If the minute hand were even further ahead,
writer (5) front, then slowly at first, 3 Observation bias, 4 Arsenic, m = 60 + (30 – ½m) means m = 60, but we
6 Rocket scientist, 7 Meier,
2 Consume American turns around (7) 8 Antimony, 9 Oblong,
call “60 minutes past 9” 10 o’clock. And if
energy (3) 11 Cried like a seal? (9) 16 Aluminium, 17 Selenium, the minute hand isn’t ahead of the hour
3 Reported novel and 13 Seeks food, taking 19 Subway, 20 Anodyne, hand, then m = ½m (midnight or midday,
obvious type of power (7) a long time (7) 21 Bilerp, 23 Shard but neither can apply here) or m = (30 + ½m)
4 Inner city geek, when 14 Regret swallowing key and all solutions are m = >60 again.
moving, has this? (7,6) with Russian saviour (7)
5 Italian swamp with a 16 Crow met her regularly Quick quiz #28 So I fell asleep at 3.20 pm and woke at
psychedelic plant (5) for cheese (5) Answers 6.40 pm, having slept for 3 hours and
6 Type of lens provided 18 Plant tissue can be 5 Neuroticism 20 minutes.
by Dorothy’s companion extracted from sexy middle ear
the stapes (stirrup) in the
hugging large animal – lemmings (5)
4 The femur (thigh bone) and
not ant (9) 21 Pascal holding up high and 150 metres wide
one drink (3) 3 Cave. It is some 200 metres Get in touch
in Cheshire, UK Email us at
Answers and the next quick crossword next week. 2 Jodrell Bank Observatory
crossword@newscientist.com
1 Lithium
puzzles@newscientist.com

The back pages Feedback
Quick lit Nom det corner Twisteddoodles for New Scientist

Exciting news for those struggling We promised we’d give it up, but
to catch up on back issues of just can’t help ourselves. Anne
New Scientist: colleges in China are Barnfield writes to say that as a
offering courses in speed-reading, specialist in equine facilitated
promising students the ability therapy, her name is rather apt.
to zip through texts at 20,000 And Jim Ainsworth spots Mark
words a minute. Bridge writing in The Times about
We got wind of this story a bridge design by Leonardo
(a t a m u c h s l o w e r p a c e) da Vinci. Regular reader Ben Haller
via China Daily, which published is right to point out that Feedback
a viral video showing students is stuck in a positive feedback loop,
flipping through whole books in and every example of nominative
seconds. The bookworms, filmed at determinism further fuels the fire
a reading competition in Yancheng, of addiction. This is unsurprising,
Jiangsu, are said to be practising given that it is itself an example
“quantum speed-reading”, a of nominative determinism.
technique pioneered by Japanese
educator Yumiko Tobitani.
According to a website run by
No-air mail
Ruwan Education – a New Zealand Robin Adams notes that those
outfit that offers courses in writing letters to the Newbury
quantum speed-reading – the Weekly News must supply “a
technique “does not require the terrestrial address”. “Does this
book to be opened at all”, noting discriminate unfairly against
that it can be “simply held up aliens?” he asks. Feedback is more
in front of the reader’s face and concerned for the publication’s
the pages are flipped rapidly financial health. In these trying Lamb & Mint Sausages”, which medicines, AYUSH, previously
using the thumb”. times for print media, overseas are manufactured by “The English announced plans to raise a
Even better than that, quantum readership is not to be sniffed at. Sausages Ltd” of Auckland, using generation of super-children by
speed-readers can read books New Zealand lamb. A blow to feeding women pastilles made
while blindfolded, and practitioners
Fantasy food anyone hoping the UK will be from cow dung (28 September).
can understand books written in an export powerhouse following Good nationalists, meanwhile,
any language. Well, if you can’t More on the food labels that Brexit: it seems the world already are brushing their teeth with cow
see the words, why would it matter under-promise and over-deliver: makes its own British goods. urine toothpaste and washing
that you don’t know what they say? the “cheese and onion flavour their bodies with cow-dung soap.
Quantum speed-reading also potato snacks” consumed with Dirty business A handwash that contains the
promises to improve your memory relish by Maggie Delaney are very thing you wash your hands
and intuition, shorten sleep “made with real ingredients”. In New Delhi, the Khadi and Village of does sound like a cunning plan
duration, heal skin blemishes, “Personally, I’d be much more Industries Commission has for a self-perpetuating business.
improve your golf score, make inclined to buy the product if it launched a campaign to promote But in reality, cow-dung soap
you win the lottery more often, contained unreal ingredients: traditional handicrafts, such as contains only ash made from
find lost cats, summon people fairy dust perhaps or one of bottles made from bamboo and dried and heated cowpats.
by thinking of them, grant you Santa’s helpers or a leprechaun,” soap made from cow dung. Since This ingredient is said to be an
precognitive powers such as which would be much more the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya excellent exfoliant with healing
telepathy and clairvoyance, and interesting than boring old crisps, Janata Party (BJP) came to power in powers that are as extensive as
unlock psychokinetic abilities. says Maggie. 2014, the cow – a sacred animal in they are unproven.
Yes, those are all genuine benefits Which makes us ask: how do Hinduism – has enjoyed a Feedback has issued an
listed by Ruwan Education. you know there aren’t unreal resurgence in popularity, and the office-wide email: if any of our
Speed isn’t everything, of ingredients in your food? You can’t market for beneficial bovine holidaying colleagues want to
course: comprehension also prove a negative. Checkmate, byproducts is stacking up. bring back a traditional souvenir
has its upsides. Feedback has science. Readers may recall that the from India, we would love a bottle
now spent what feels like Indian ministry for traditional made from bamboo. ❚
hours reading about quantum
Brits abroad
speed-reading, and we are none
the wiser on how this technique Robert Bevan Smith finds himself Got a story for Feedback?
is supposed to work. On the unable to resist an offering in Send it to New Scientist, 25 Bedford Street,
plus side, we have found an a supermarket in Wellington, London WC2E 9ES or you can email us at
awful lot of lost cats. New Zealand: “Traditional Welsh feedback@newscientist.com

The back pages Almost the last word
Are some flames hotter than

Different minds
others, and if so, what gives
Why do some people become them a higher temperature?
interested in science and
some don’t? energy state. However, the
amount of energy needed to
Steve Gisselbrecht compress the spring is quite small,
Boston, Massachusetts, US so the difference in temperature
People are incredibly complicated would be hard to detect.
and a lot of factors affect what we
like. In this case, one person might Ron Dippold
have had more inspiring science San Diego, California, US
teachers early on in life. Or When you compress a spring,
perhaps they saw more science- the potential energy is stored in
GETTY IMAGES
oriented TV shows growing up, the mechanical bonds between
or had a book read to them with atoms, which you can think of
a scientific fact that answered as little springs. The spring as a
a question they had just been This week’s new questions whole can’t decompress – until
wondering about. Since our brains it breaks – but little chunks can
grow and change in response to Burning hot Are all flames the same temperature? If decompress as they come off.
our thoughts, this kind of accident not, what causes them to have different temperatures? Most of the stored energy goes
can contribute a lot to how we Stefan Badham, Portsmouth, Hampshire, UK into decompressing each small
think in the future. part. It isn’t 100 per cent efficient,
But people are also just Number games My bank has given me a new PIN, so the fragments heat up a tiny bit
different. Scientists who study advising me that I can change the number for one that from friction. The bits also stir the
personality have mostly settled is “more memorable”. Anything I chose, say based on my acid slightly as they come off.
on five major traits, or axes, that birthday, would surely be easier for a fraudster to discover. This is where the spring energy
people differ along. They have So should I keep the randomly generated PIN I was issued? goes. But stirring is a terrible way
been given different names, Martin Frearson, St Albans, Hertfordshire, UK to heat a liquid – try stirring a cup
but we can call them curiosity, of water with a spoon.
friendliness, conscientiousness, The heat from the chemical
outgoingness and nervousness. useful, and waste a lot of time and Coil conversion reaction between the metal and
There is evidence that these traits energy reinventing the wheel. the acid will be much greater
are fairly heritable, meaning that If I compress a metal spring, tie it than that released by the spring’s
outgoing parents tend to have Marilyn Lott with an acid-proof binding then decompression, but it will still
outgoing children more often Front Royal, Virginia, US submerge it in acid and dissolve be a very small amount.
than introverted parents do, Sixty-five years ago, girls were the spring, what happens to the
and so on. told, “don’t take these subjects: energy that was used to compress David Muir
These traits could affect a mechanical drawing, motor it? I think the acid must warm up, Edinburgh, UK
person’s reaction to science – a mechanics, advanced but how is the stored energy The reaction between a metal and
more conscientious person might mathematics”. That rubric converted to heat? an acid is exothermic, releasing
work harder to get answers, say, became far less common by energy to the solution and raising
while a more nervous person the 1970s. Eric Kvaalen its temperature. A steel spring
could be unhappy about ideas Les Essarts-le-Roi, France weighing 5.6 grams gives out
that aren’t really settled – but Terry McDonald (graduate of The acid solution will warm up around 8800 joules of energy
curiosity seems like the strongest Mirboo North high school, even if the spring isn’t compressed, when dissolved in acid.
driver of a scientific mindset. Australia, 50 years ago) due to the heat of reaction as the If the spring is compressed
Curious people tend to seek Maidstone, Kent, UK acid dissolves the metal. If the 10 centimetres with a force of
out new things and more cautious A high level of curiosity about spring is compressed, it will warm 10 newtons, then the spring is
people prefer the tried and true. I the world around them. up slightly more. As each atom or stressed by 1 joule of energy.
suspect that both exist as a result ion is released from the crystals of This increases the solution’s
of natural selection. A group in It is also worth pointing out metal, it will leave with a slightly temperature by 1/8800 more
which no one is willing to try new that science encompasses a higher energy because it is being than an unstressed spring,
things will fail when conditions vast array of subjects. A person released from a slightly higher a piffling 0.01 per cent. ❚
change or familiar foodstuffs who is interested in analysing
become unavailable. But on fossils might be as different
the other hand, a group in which from someone who models Want to send us a question or answer?
no one values familiarity and fluid dynamics in pipes as they Email us at lastword@newscientist.com
tradition will lose the knowledge are from someone who studies Questions should be about everyday science phenomena
of what is edible and what is languages – Ed Full terms and conditions at newscientist.com/lw-terms

The back pages Q&A
We should embrace our mistakes, says

neuroscientist and author Henning Beck.
Without them, we would never achieve
anything worthwhile
As a child, what did you want If you could send a message back to
to do when you grew up? yourself as a kid, what would you say?
I wrote a science “book” about the human Dude, the most valuable thing you have is
body when I was 8 years old. I think your brain. Wear a helmet!
I always wanted to explain things.
What scientific development do you hope
In your latest book, you say that to see in your lifetime? “The most
making mistakes is good. Why?
Consider the alternative: if we never made any
The first aircraft tried to mimic a bird’s wings.
Of course, that didn’t work out. Artificial
important
mistakes and followed the rules perfectly, we intelligence is in the same position. Copying message I’d
send to my past
would never visit anywhere new. Breaking rules the brain is a dead end: we need to find the
and making mistakes push the boundary of principles that make it work and replicate them.
human knowledge.
What’s the best thing you’ve read or seen
self? ‘Dude, your
How did you end up in neuroscience?
The brain is the last and greatest mystery in
in the past 12 months?
I recently played with my 2-year-old neighbour,
brain is valuable.
science. No other thing has been studied so who learned the name of a particular spider at Wear a helmet!’ ”
deeply and is so poorly understood. When you first sight. That’s when I realised that human
look at a brain from the outside, you just see a wet thinking is fundamentally different to any
mass full of densely packed nerve cells. How can kind of computer.
this be the origin of game-changing ideas, great
symphonies, language, love and art? We have no
idea. Is there a greater enigma on Earth? Do you have an unexpected hobby,
and if so, please will you tell us about it?
How has your field of study changed in I throw boomerangs because I love the idea that
the time you have been working in it? the things you throw away will eventually come
When I started, neuroscience was dominated by back to help you – if you do it cleverly.
biochemistry and molecular biology. But it turns
out that biology alone cannot explain how the
brain works. We need support from mathematics How useful will your skills be after
and information science to understand how the the apocalypse?
brain actually creates thoughts and organises When something bad happens, people always
information. We know that there are mathematical look for somebody to explain how or why,
principles and rules that guide its processing, so that they can understand it and ensure it
but we have no clue what they are. doesn’t happen again. Of course, explaining that
before it happens would be the better approach.
What’s the best piece of advice
anyone ever gave you? OK, one last thing: tell us something
When I was 17, my teacher said: “It’s the mistakes that will blow our minds…
we make that distinguish us from unimaginative In a thousand years, no one will remember
computers.” Since then, I’ve remembered that anything about life today because our electronic
learning from failures is more important than storage devices are non-durable. We’re a lost
avoiding them. Done is better than perfect. generation. People will look back to the
present-day dark ages and wonder
If you could have a conversation with any what we fools were up to. ❚
scientist, living or dead, who would it be?
Probably Richard Feynman, about encouraging Henning Beck’s book Scatterbrain: How the mind’s
people to think scientifically. In our times, it is mistakes make humans creative, innovative, and
more necessary than ever to think critically successful is out now (Greystone Books)
and challenge our opinions. TATIANA KOROLEVA/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO

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

New Scientist

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

New Scientist

Uploaded by

Document Information

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

New Scientist

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Discovery

k Write a brief description of your ideal

More details and

HOME OF THE FUTURE No3255 US$6.99 CAN$7.99

PLUS THE SHAPE OF THE UNIVERSE / ELEPHANT MENOPAUSE /

Buy your copy from all good

On the 38 Meet the first animals

28 Aperture 54 Almost the last word

A futuristic solar farm in a Why are some people interested

30 Culture 56 The Q&A

9 November 2019 | New Scientist | 1

We spend 50% of our

PUBLISHING & COMMERCIAL MANAGEMENT EDITORIAL

9 November 2019 | New Scientist | 3

And where does belly-button fluff come from?

Introduction by Professor Stephen Hawking

in the 1970s. They were

India chokes on dirty air have lost value as a result.

9 November 2019 | New Scientist | 5

Ancient European ape may have

THE discovery of 11.6-million-year- The 21 bones discovered

to four individuals: an adult male, but aren’t among the fossils.

6 | New Scientist | 9 November 2019

9 November 2019 | New Scientist | 7

Row over tactical voting site

8 | New Scientist | 9 November 2019

Fighting fake news Facebook has a plan to tackle misinformation in

FACEBOOK has announced plans wrote Allan, who is also a member

NOAH BERGER/GETTY IMAGES

9 November 2019 | New Scientist | 9

nebulae – we have never seen discovery of the cells verifies

10 | New Scientist | 9 November 2019

Buy your copy from all good magazine

Discovering rainforest secrets high above the trees

unbroken to the horizon. raindrops form – but not enough

12 | New Scientist | 9 November 2019

AI tackles thorny orbits

computerised solvers, which can the building blocks of our physical

14 | New Scientist | 9 November 2019

You can change the

IMAGINE looking across a sparkling disease. They may need to be

our pupils to contract. 20 of the same group of

9 November 2019 | New Scientist | 15

Elephants found to have

records of 3802 female elephants grandchildren, they end up with

Ancient humans Neuroscience

Tyrol, Italy. Some people believe University, Massachusetts,

16 | New Scientist | 9 November 2019

10,000 light years away supernova, when a small star

9 November 2019 | New Scientist | 17

18 | New Scientist | 9 November 2019

at upgrading your existing home an eye on ventilation to maintain pagers belong.

9 November 2019 | New Scientist | 19

Science of pro cycling:

k 4 days of seminars and interactive k 4 nights full-board at Chateau de Mazan

Full details and booking form at newscientist.com/tours

Who owns life?

NEXT week, delegates will gather biodiversity loss is a problem, and

9 November 2019 | New Scientist | 21

A case of cautious climate optimism A year ago, we were told