New Scientist - September 14, 2024 USA

REMARKABLE NEW INSIGHTS
INTO DINOSAURS’ LIVES

BECOMING ONE WITH
NASA’S ROBOT ASTRONAUT
FRESH CLUES ABOUT THE
CAUSES OF ENDOMETRIOSIS
HOW NUCLEAR
CLOCKS COULD REWRITE
THE UNIVERSE’S PAST
WEEKLY September 14 -20, 2024
BREAKING FREE
FROM OCD
A radical new approach to stopping the cycle
of intrusive thoughts and compulsive habits
No3508 US$7.99 CAN$9.99
PLUS ASTEROID TAKES EARTH BY SURPRISE /

THE MATHS OF POURING WINE / SMART SPEAKER DETECTIVES /
EXPERIMENTAL MPOX VACCINE / WHAT IS IT LIKE TO BE A DOG?
Science and technology news www.newscientist.com
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This week’s issue
On the 40 Remarkable new insights

into dinosaurs’ lives
cover
14 Becoming one with
32 Breaking free from OCD NASA’s robot astronaut
A radical new approach
to stopping the cycle of 21 Fresh clues about the
intrusive thoughts and causes of endometriosis
compulsive habits There are just four weeks
37 How nuclear clocks could to go until our flagship
rewrite the universe’s past science show. Visit our
website to explore the
12 Asteroid takes Earth by surprise programme of talks,
44 The maths of pouring wine speakers and experiences
11 Smart speaker detectives
newscientist.com/nslmag
Vol 263 No 3508 15 Experimental mpox vaccine
Cover image: Raymond Biesinger 29 What is it like to be a dog?
News Features
13 Jet stream changes 32 Rethinking OCD
Is global warming sending News Fresh insight into what
key wind patterns polewards? causes OCD is paving the
way for new treatments
16 Depression clues
Network of neurons linked 37 The ultimate timepiece
to mental health diagnosis Nuclear clocks may probe
nature’s fundamental constants
20 Rubbing out errors
Google discovery may herald 40 The lives of dinosaurs
efficient quantum computers New techniques and specimens
are opening windows into
dinosaur behaviour and ecology
Views
The back pages
23 Comment
Our love of monsters 44 Mathematics of life
tells us about ourselves, The maths of pouring wine
says Natalie Lawrence
45 Puzzles
24 The columnist Try our crossword, quick quiz
Rowan Hooper on a and logic puzzle
future food revolution
46 Almost the last word
26 Aperture What would happen if time
Exploring exquisite cenotes stopped?
SHUTTERSTOCK/SLOWMOTIONGLI
28 Culture 48 Feedback
How have AI models like Lipstick on the brain, plus
ChatGPT changed the world? cicadas help tinnitus, maybe
31 Letters 48 Twisteddoodles
We still lack an explanation for New Scientist
for morality 11 Flipping fantastic Why sharks leap out of the water Picturing the lighter side of life
14 September 2024 | New Scientist | 3

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Podcast Video Newsletter

Weekly Spotting deepfakes Lost in Space-Time
The team reveal how researchers
have managed to make living
Deepfakes, in which a person’s
facial expression or speech is
Mathematician Chris Bernhardt,
author of the book Beautiful
Essential guide
mice completely transparent. generated or altered, can be Math, explains the mathematics Tools such as ChatGPT have put
There is also a promising tricky to identify on first glance. that enabled the digital artificial intelligence on front pages
new blood cancer treatment. Yet their potential to misinform revolution. He peeks behind around the world. So why has AI
Hear why the US military’s or disrupt democratic processes our screens, revealing how leapt forwards so suddenly? How
latest high-tech spy gear is a is concerning. Journalist Andrea information processing and can generative AI tools help you?
balloon and why collapsing bat Hickerson and computer scientist transmission were radically And will this tech lead to human
populations are affecting infant Edward J. Delp discuss the rising changed with equations – and extinction? Get the lowdown
mortality in the US. Plus, imagine threat from AI-created content made today’s internet possible. on all this and more in our new
how dark deep space really is. and what we can do about it. newscientist.com/ Essential Guide, on sale now.
newscientist.com/nspod youtube.com/newscientist lost-in-space-time shop.newscientist.com
4 | New Scientist | 14 September 2024

The leader
OCD is no joke
We need to change how we talk about obsessive-compulsive disorder
WE HAVE probably all heard someone say about OCD. But as we explore on page 32, Thanks to decades of research into
they are “a little bit OCD”, perhaps jokily we are now discovering more about how it the underlying mechanisms behind the
or as a matter of pride, in reference to manifests in the brain – with implications condition, we now know that entire brain
their meticulous rearrangement of their for how we think about the condition. networks are affected, with significant
bookshelves or habit of spending rather It is true that a degree of obsessiveness imbalances in the neurotransmitters that
too long cleaning their bathroom. and compulsive behaviour is present in all drive the transmission of signals around
Most of us have a rough idea of what of us. We go back to check that we locked them. We are also learning that it is a
obsessive-compulsive disorder is, but it more complex condition than we thought,
tends to be viewed as a behavioural quirk. “We are learning that OCD is with the immune system and perhaps
In fact, this condition – characterised a complex condition, with the even microbes in the gut playing a part.
by intrusive thoughts and compulsive immune system playing a part” These insights into the drivers of OCD in
actions that you can’t stop – is debilitating the body and brain are opening the way to
for the 1 to 3 per cent of the global the front door, and we can’t stop our mind new treatments, which are sorely needed
population it affects. wandering to a looming stressful event. for those who don’t respond to the current
In this light, quips about being “a little In fact, many OCD symptoms seem first-line therapies. What is abundantly
bit OCD” risk trivialising a condition to represent distortions of useful clear, however, is that OCD is a profoundly
that can be every bit as serious as behaviours. But imagine if the intrusive distressing condition that we are just
schizophrenia or depression. The misuse thoughts and urges to take action didn’t beginning to get to grips with. It is past
of the term might reflect our ignorance stop? That is what characterises OCD. time we stopped with the quips. ❚
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News
Strangely quiet Sweat sensor How dark is space? Polar peoples Stem cell boost
Why have so few Wristband reveals Distant spacecraft Uncovering mystery Lab-grown cells
Atlantic storms hit how hard you are points its camera Arctic culture from could be a boon for
so far this year? p10 exercising p12 into the void p17 4500 years ago p18 cancer treatment p19
Space
Getting up close
with Mercury
This amazingly clear shot
of Mercury was taken by
the BepiColombo mission
on 5 September as it was
3459 kilometres from the
surface of the first planet from
the sun. It caught a glimpse of
the south pole (on the edge of
darkness in the top right of the
image). The European Space
Agency and Japan Aerospace
Exploration Agency probe
is using Mercury’s gravity to
change course, with the goal of
ESA
entering orbit around it in 2026.

News
Environment
Why has the Atlantic hurricane season

been suspiciously quiet so far?
Madeleine Cuff
FOR the past 27 years, without fail, Meanwhile, a weather pattern

BRANDON BELL/GETTY IMAGES
the Labor Day holiday weekend known as the Madden-Julian

in the US has featured a storm in oscillation has brought dry
the Atlantic – but not in 2024. In weather over the Atlantic since
early September, the Atlantic basin late August, says Kirtman. The
remained oddly calm, continuing oscillation has “fully enveloped
a run of calm weather that has into the Atlantic now”, he says,
lingered since Hurricane Ernesto suppressing storm activity.
whipped through the Caribbean “It’s definitely weird,” says
in mid-August. Klotzbach. “Everything looks
Forecasters were almost kind of anaemic out there.”
certain that this year would see The Atlantic hurricane
a busy hurricane season in the season reaches its peak around
Atlantic, says Phil Klotzbach at 10 September – after New Scientist
Colorado State University, who goes to press – so forecasters say
co-authors the institution’s it is too early to declare the season
influential hurricane forecasts. an anticlimax. The progression
Waters in the equatorial Pacific towards La Niña is picking up pace,
are cooling, marking a global shift Damage in Texas says Alex Da Silva at forecasting creating the right conditions for
to a La Niña weather pattern, which from Hurricane Beryl, service AccuWeather. The result is storm formation. Meanwhile,
generally favours a more active which hit in July that tropical waves, the seedlings ocean waters, particularly around
hurricane season. The Atlantic of storms, are being pushed off the eastern US coast, remain
Ocean is also experiencing near- lot of the stuff we expect has been the north-west coast of Africa far extremely warm. That lays the
record levels of heat, providing there, it just hasn’t produced the further north than normal, over groundwork for storms to rapidly
fuel for developing storms. Against storms. That’s more the surprise.” the colder waters of Western intensify once they do develop,
that backdrop, delivering a forecast A few factors are at play. Sahara. “That tends to squelch says Da Silva.
for a busy season was “like Despite ocean temperatures your storms,” says Klotzbach. “I’m concerned that the second
shooting fish in a barrel, super across the Atlantic basin persisting Tropical waves travelling over half of the season could ramp up,”
straightforward”, says Klotzbach. at near-record highs, one stretch of the Sahara are also picking up he says. “The warm waters are
In June, Colorado State water near the equator has cooled dusty, dry air. On 3 September, still there – if anything, they are
University issued an aggressive rapidly to below-average levels. the European Union’s climate warmer than when Beryl went
forecast, says Klotzbach, predicting That may have helped push the service Copernicus said easterly through. So it’s just going to
25 named storms and 12 hurricanes West African monsoon further winds have blown significant take one storm to come through
for the 2024 season. In May, the north than usual, says Klotzbach, amounts of Saharan dust into the there… and we could be looking
National Oceanic and Atmospheric bringing heavy rain to parts of eastern Atlantic. “For hurricanes to at another major hurricane.”
Administration in the US predicted the Sahara desert that normally develop, you need moisture,” says The changing climate escalates
between 17 and 25 named storms stay hot and dry. Ben Kirtman at the University of this risk. While it is still unclear if a
and up to 13 hurricanes. “This is a very unusual pattern,” Miami in Florida. “This deep layer warming world will produce more
But so far this season, which is of dry air coming off Africa into storms, research shows that it
now almost halfway through, only
three hurricanes have appeared:
Beryl, Debby and Ernesto, plus two
5
Named storms since 1 June, the
the Atlantic prevents the storms
from really kicking off.”
There are other reasons too.
increases the chances of hurricanes
rapidly intensifying, leaving
communities with little warning.
named storms below hurricane start of the Atlantic season Although La Niña is developing, Climate change can increase the
status, Alberto and Chris. As New it hasn’t happened as fast as volume of rain dumped by a
Scientist went to press, there were
hints that a sixth storm, Francine,
was on the way. Where have
17 to 25
Named storms predicted for this
expected, says Da Silva, so the
wind conditions haven’t been
as suited to creating hurricanes
storm and the severity of storm
surges, raising the risk of floods.
“Even if this season is not yet
most of the storms gone? season, ending 30 November as forecasters thought. quite as active as we thought,
The building blocks of a busy as we warm the planet we are
storm season – a transition to still stacking the deck for the
La Niña and a warm ocean – are Have we been predicting the climate all wrong? possibility of a hurricane to be
still there, says Klotzbach, but the See David Stainforth argue for a different approach very intense,” says Andra Garner at
system isn’t doing as expected. “A newscientist.com/nslmag Rowan University in New Jersey. ❚

Forensic science
Smart speakers could help crack crimes

Information on recognised faces and internet searches can be extracted from an Amazon Echo
Matthew Sparkes
POLICE can access a trove of without relying on Amazon were able to decrypt the token and the work the security research
data from smart speakers found to provide it to them.” access anything that the device was community does to help us
at crime scenes that could be The researchers focused on authorised to access. This revealed further improve our devices.”
invaluable in solving murders Amazon’s Echo Show 15, a smart details of voice requests, calendars, Criminologist David Wilson
or burglaries. Data on recently assistant with a display screen, contacts, conversations, photos at Birmingham City University,
recognised faces, internet searches a camera, six microphones and and videos (arXiv, doi.org/ngdv). UK, says the use of technology
and voice commands could an ambient light sensor. They “It requires some technical in murder investigations is
be extracted even without the probed inside the Echo Show with a knowledge to obtain the local data, far less prevalent than crime
owner’s permission or assistance device designed to test what signals but it was surprising that the file dramas suggest: less than
from the manufacturer. or data are flowing at various system was not encrypted,” says 2 per cent of murder trials rely
Jona Crasselt and Gaston points on a circuit board. The pair Pugliese. “It’s the common cat- on DNA evidence, for example.
Pugliese at the University of were able to gain access to the and-mouse game in security “It’s a simple human reality that
Erlangen-Nuremberg in Germany unencrypted file system, revealing research,” he says, as hacks are you’re most likely to be murdered
tested how much information can logs of detected movement and worked out and vendors then by someone you know,” says
be pulled from such a device after faces recognised by the built-in change things to secure devices. Wilson. “We already have access to
seeing news coverage of Amazon camera and artificial intelligence. An Amazon spokesperson information from those domestic
refusing police access to smart In this file system, they also told New Scientist: “The security settings through mobile phones,
speaker data in a murder case. found a “refresh token”, which is of our devices and customer data Facebook, Instagram posts.”
“We not only obtained access used to access data stored in the is a top priority. In this case, the While smart speaker evidence
to the local data, but also were cloud. This was encrypted, but researcher’s findings required may be useful, there is a trade-off,
able to access the data stored with a key found elsewhere on the direct physical access to the Echo he says. “I think it’s right that
in the cloud,” says Pugliese. device in an unencrypted file and device and specialised expertise Amazon would be a bit reluctant
“Forensic investigators would be information gleaned from open- to extract data from internal to release that information
able to access the data themselves source code published online, they device components. We appreciate because there are privacy issues.” ❚
Marine biology
The many reasons A great white shark

breaching ready
sharks take a leap to attack prey
out of the water
a predator tries to chase, herd or
SHARKS and rays jump out of stun its prey, or avoid a threat.
the water for a variety of reasons, The analysis, the first to look at
including courtship, birthing and breaching across sharks and rays as
hygiene, and the behaviour is more a group, suggests there is no single
common than previously thought. reason for this highly specialised
SERGEY URYADNIKOV/ALAMY
Breaching has been reported behaviour because the lifestyle

among fast-swimming predatory of each species is so different.
sharks – such as great whites Breaches often take place during
(Carcharodon carcharias) – as well courtship rituals and researchers
as filter-feeding basking sharks suggest the sound could be used
(Cetorhinus maximus) and many for communication (Environmental
species of ray, including manta rays. found that studies have proposed parasites, clearing gills, ejecting Biology of Fishes, doi.org/ngd8).
“Anyone who witnesses a a range of possible functions for faeces or internal parasites, or to “The idea that sharks and
breaching animal, be it a shark, breaching. The action could be a aid birthing, the researchers found. rays might communicate with
ray or whale, should think of way of cleaning, dislodging external Breaching is also observed when each other over long distances
why they perform this acrobatic using splashes and breaches
behaviour,” says Peter Klimley at is particularly intriguing,” says
the University of California, Davis. A talk on the wild side co-author Guy Stevens at the
Reviewing the scientific evidence, Hear wildlife presenter Chantelle Lindsay on 12 October Manta Trust, a UK charity. ❚
Klimley and his colleagues have newscientist.com/nslmag Melissa Hobson

News
Health Astronomy
Sweat monitor
reveals if you are
The day a surprise asteroid
exercising too hard hit Earth – harmlessly
Michael Le Page Matthew Sparkes
ELASTIC bands embedded with or three objects this size strike

colour-changing sensors can tell Earth every year. We are
how hard muscles are working by increasingly able to spot them
measuring the acidity of your sweat. early, with the first incoming
The device could be used asteroid that was detected by
to improve worker safety in astronomers before landing
physically demanding jobs, such being in 2008. 2024 RW1 is the
as the construction industry, as well ninth accurately predicted
as to help sportspeople optimise asteroid strike on Earth. “The
their training, says John Rogers at really positive aspect about this
Northwestern University in Illinois. is that the survey telescopes are
“If you see your pH dropping now good enough to spot these
down to very low levels, it’d be a things coming in and give us
good idea to stop working out,” says a bit of warning,” he says.
Rogers. “Otherwise you end up with Larger space rocks are also of
ALLAN MADELAR/FACEBOOK
sore muscles. But it’ll also tell you if limited concern. “We believe we
you haven’t worked out enough.” know more than 90 per cent of
During high-intensity exercise, [near-Earth] asteroids that are
muscles produce a chemical called about 1 kilometre in size, where
lactate. With continued exercise, 1 kilometre is considered not a
levels of this in the blood start to planet killer, but something that
shoot up as people near their limits AN ASTEROID slammed into Asteroid 2024 RW1 would destroy a whole region
of physical endurance. This can lead Earth’s atmosphere and burned was seen arriving or a whole continent,” says Ian
to a burning sensation in muscles, up near the Philippines on over the Philippines Carnelli at the European Space
sudden loss of energy and extreme 5 September. It was spotted by Agency (ESA).
fatigue. The fitter people are, the astronomers only hours before house, get the cat, jump in Both NASA and ESA now
longer and harder they can exercise it streaked across the sky in a the car and drive somewhere. have dedicated programmes for
before blood lactate gets high. bright fireball, but went unseen You don’t have the time to do spotting and tracking asteroids,
Rogers and his team have come by many on the ground who that,” he says. which involve a large network
up with an elastic band with a found clouds blocking the view. Fortunately, there was no of dedicated observatories,
series of tiny reservoirs that fill The asteroid, estimated to need for an evacuation: NASA’s existing and new, as well as
with sweat at different intervals. be roughly 1 metre across, was Planetary Defense Coordination amateur astronomers who
Inside each reservoir is a sensor spotted by the NASA-funded Office posted on social media take readings of the positions
that changes colour depending Catalina Sky Survey and initially that the asteroid had “safely of known objects so that their
on things such the concentration given the designation CAQTDL2, impacted Earth’s atmosphere”. orbits can be better predicted.
of lactate or the acidity of sweat. before being named 2024 RW1. Carnelli is also part of efforts
The results are read by taking As predicted, it struck at around “Survey telescopes are to hone asteroid defences. He is
a photo with a smartphone or 0046 local time, just east of now good enough to spot project manager of ESA’s Hera
attaching an electronic monitor. the northernmost island of these things coming in and mission, which is designed to
When the team tested the sweat the Philippine archipelago. give us a bit of warning” study the aftermath of an earlier
monitors on 12 volunteers on It is thought to have hit the NASA mission that smashed
exercise bikes, sweat lactate levels atmosphere at a speed of “An object this small can’t into an asteroid to try to change
didn’t correspond well with blood 17.6 kilometres per second, do any damage on the ground. its orbit. Hera will launch next
lactate levels, but the acidity or 63,360 kilometres per hour, We’re protected from them by month to verify the results of
of sweat did (Science Translational which Alan Fitzsimmons at the Earth’s atmosphere,” says the impact up close, and further
Medicine, doi.org/ngd4). Queen’s University Belfast in Fitzsimmons. A video shared improve our understanding
However, this was only the the UK says is about average on social media shot from the of planetary defence. “We
case for sweat from skin near the for such objects. province of Cagayan at the have developed, and we are
working muscles, which in this case “Don’t be fooled by northern tip of the Philippines developing, real planetary
was monitored by the bands being Hollywood movies where shows a flickering green fireball defence systems,” he says. ❚
around the ankles. Measurements you can see the thing coming appear behind the clouds,
by bands on the wrists of the cyclists screaming through the sky and followed by an orange tail. Additional reporting
didn’t reflect blood lactate levels. ❚ you’ve got time to run out the Fitzsimmons says that two by James Dinneen

Climate change
Jet stream shift is under way

Climate models have been predicting that global warming could send crucial wind patterns
polewards and we are now seeing signs this has started, reports James Dinneen
SECTIONS of the planet’s jet become long enough to begin December and February has In a 2023 study, Tim Woollings
streams have begun shifting reliably detecting a pattern, seen a statistically significant at the University of Oxford and his
towards the poles over the past says Thomas Keel at University shift northward of around 30 colleagues took a more general
several decades. This is most likely College London. “It looks like it’s to 80 kilometres per decade look at jet streams across both
a response to global warming, and happening now – it has emerged (Geophysical Research Letters, hemispheres. They found that,
could exacerbate heat and drought from the noise,” he says. doi.org/ngf4). However, the jet when analysed in combination,
in regions that depend on the He and his colleagues analysed streams aren’t changing in the they show a clear poleward shift
winds to steer storms their way. the jet stream above the North same way everywhere, says Keel. in their average position between
Jet streams are bands of rapid Pacific Ocean using datasets on He says the short record means 1979 and 2019. The trend has been
winds high in the atmosphere that wind speed in the region spanning it remains unclear whether this clearest above the Southern
blow from west to east around the 1980 to 2022. They found that its movement is greater than past Ocean, where the jet stream is
mid-latitudes and the poles. This is average position between variability. But models project that also influenced by the ozone hole
sometimes referred to as “the jet this effect will continue in coming over Antarctica. “For the other
stream”, but separate ones exist in Oscillations in the decades, expanding to other cases it’s really starting to emerge
each hemisphere and at various northern hemisphere’s months by the end of the century now,” says Woollings.
latitudes and altitudes. They are polar jet stream under a high-emissions scenario. Shifts in the position of the jet
driven by Earth’s rotation and streams have an effect on global
temperature differences between weather. For instance, a move in
NASA/GODDARD SPACE FLIGHT CENTER SCIENTIFIC VISUALIZATION STUDIO
the tropics and higher latitudes. the North Pacific Jet Stream could
Climate models have long exacerbate heat and drought in
anticipated that global warming the western US by redirecting
would cause a poleward shift in storms. Other regions that are
the jet streams. This is expected influenced by jet streams, such
to occur as increasing heat in the as the Mediterranean, Chile,
tropics pushes the storms that add South Africa and Australia,
fuel to the jet streams further from could be affected by similar
the equator. But the short satellite changes, says Woollings.
record of global winds has made it “If you’re right on the edge
challenging to know if these wind of the region that gets rainfall due
patterns were changing with any to the jet stream, even a degree
clear trend. That record begins shift of latitude could be really
around 1980 and has only recently serious,” he says. ❚
Microbiology
Bacteria can responses in plants and animals, determined that it takes four “The fact that an organism as old
known as photoperiodism, but it to six days for the response to and as simple as a cyanobacterium
anticipate the has never been seen in simple life develop (Science, doi.org/ngd6). can have photoperiodic responses
changing seasons forms such as bacteria until now. These organisms spawn a suggests that this is a phenomenon
Luísa Jabbur, then at Vanderbilt new generation in hours, so the that evolved much earlier than
DESPITE being among the simplest University in Nashville, Tennessee, cells must pass on day-length we might have imagined,” says
forms of life on Earth, cyanobacteria and her colleagues exposed information to their descendants. Jabbur, who is now at the John
can predict and prepare for the Synechococcus elongatus Cyanobacteria, which capture Innes Centre in Norwich, UK.
changing seasons. cyanobacteria to varying day energy from sunlight through Looking at how patterns
It has been known for more than a lengths and found that those photosynthesis, have existed for of gene expression changed
century that complex organisms can that experienced simulated short more than 2 billion years and are in response to day length, the
utilise day length as a cue for future days went on to be two to three found almost everywhere on Earth. team found that photoperiodism
environmental conditions – days times better at surviving ice-cold probably evolved by co-opting
get shorter before it gets colder, temperatures, indicating they had “This is a phenomenon existing mechanisms to combat
for example. Phenomena like prepared for winter-like conditions. that evolved much acute stresses such as bright light
migration, flowering and seasonal By testing shorter and longer earlier than we might and extreme temperatures. ❚
reproduction are all guided by such periods, the researchers have imagined” James Woodford

News
Field notes Woodside Energy’s Karda facility, Perth, Australia
Are humanoid robots the future of space exploration?

James Woodford pulls on a control headset and takes
NASA’s impressive Valkyrie robot for a spin to find out
I AM standing before one of the confirms that the robot, standing

most advanced robots in the world a few metres in front of me, is
and am awestruck by its humanoid following suit in the physical
form. Part Transformer, part Star world. I move my head, crouch
Wars stormtrooper and with hands or bend and so does Valkyrie.
that look like they can crush beer After a few minutes, I begin
cans, at 1.8 metres tall and weighing to feel more confident and dip
120 kilograms, NASA’s Valkyrie my head in a full bow but, in my
robot is an intimidating figure. exuberance, I have bent too far for
But it is the face that most the gantry straps and Sherry tells
AP PHOTO/ELISE AMENDOLA/ALAMY
transfixes me. Where the eyes, me to straighten up. He asks me to

mouth and nose should be is a say “freeze everything”. As soon as
cavity filled with whirring and I repeat the command I can sense
flashing sensors, including lidar the decoupling of Valkyrie from
detectors that give the robot both me and I step backwards, feeling
a three-dimensional view of the myself emerge from its body. With
world and an impenetrable, no- that, the session is over and the
nonsense expression. robot is moved by trolley to a
That is apt, because while Above: NASA’s humanoid Then, it is my turn. One of secure storage room.
current fashionable advances in robot, ready to be inhabited the team calls me over and fits So, have I just had a preview of
AI, like ChatGPT, aim to automate via virtual reality; below: me with a VR headset. I open my what it will be like to explore space
office work and creativity, the James Woodford takes a eyes and the room before me has in a robot body? Not exactly, says
people behind Valkyrie are more selfie with Valkyrie been transformed into a digital Shaun Azimi at NASA’s Johnson
focused on jobs that are too rendering of the lab. In front of Space Center in Houston, Texas.
dangerous for humans – both Valkyrie is being put through me, I can see a digital Valkyrie. On He says none of the five Valkyries
on Earth and, one day, in space. its paces at the Karda facility so the floor, there is a digital hexagon will ever go to space, but future
NASA has five Valkyrie robots researchers can work out what and I am instructed to walk robots that incorporate their
around the world, but the one I it would take to get a humanoid towards it. As soon as I am on the technology will. In fact, while
am visiting today is at the Karda robot onto offshore facilities hexagon, my body looks and feels my time controlling Valkyrie
facility in Perth, Western Australia, or into space. like it has merged into the robot’s. felt high-tech, these versions are
a lab owned by Woodside Energy, At first, I just watch as it is Its arms become my arms and all now over a decade old and may
an oil and gas company. With its controlled via virtual reality, of me is subsumed within it. In soon be retired, says Azimi.
large-scale offshore infrastructure, walking, spinning and bending each of my hands I am holding
the global energy giant makes a steadily. Even so, I note the straps a controller from which, in the
good partner for exploring how dangling from an overhead gantry. digital-scape, two laser-like beams
Getting legless
humanoid robots could be sent At a conservative cost of over emerge pointing to the ceiling. One issue is that Valkyrie was built
into inhospitable environments $2 million, NASA doesn’t want I am instructed to say the to walk in the gravity of Earth, but
to complete dangerous tasks. Valkyrie falling over. command to release Valkyrie into a zero-gravity version probably
Valkyrie’s two arms and legs my control. But, with its name wouldn’t need legs. Instead, the
and complex manipulation are “It’s possible you could origins in Norse mythology, I focus of the next generation
particularly impressive, says have an artificial human, misunderstand when Woodside will be on safety and reliability
Woodside’s Gabrielle Pennock, like Data from Star Trek, robotics engineer Andrew because the margin for error in
who, like the rest of the team, but it’s a long way off” Sherry instructs me to say “Thor space or harsh environments on
shortens the robot’s name to everything”. I am baffled until he Earth is small. Those who deploy
Val and calls it “she”. realises my confusion. “T-H-A-W, humanoid robots need to be
“That is unique with Val,” thaw everything,” he says, again. certain, for example, that they
says Pennock, “And I think she’s Uttering the words, it is as if I can won’t need a gantry to stop
probably the most complex – the feel the robot wake up – a sensation the robots falling over.
digital integration of her systems, the researchers describe as “riding “The physical capability of
JAMES WOODFORD
the sensor technology, that level the skin”. I tentatively begin to Valkyrie is really strong, but where
of complexity. I don’t think we move my limbs and can see the everybody’s trying to catch up right
really see that in any of our other movement reflected in the virtual now, including current industry,
robotic platforms.” reality environment. Sherry where the billions of dollars are

Infectious diseases
Experimental mRNA vaccine

could help fight mpox
Carissa Wong
pouring in, is the intelligence and AN mRNA vaccine for mpox system can learn to recognise University of Singapore. A
the adaptability, the resilience, the developed by biotech company them. Unlike other types of human trial has begun, with
safety and predictability right to Moderna has shown promise in vaccine, they can be developed results expected next year.
where we can have a robot that monkeys, raising hopes that it and manufactured quickly Although the mRNA approach
can always take the correct could help to tackle the ongoing once the genome of a virus shows promise, the JYNNEOS
action,” says Azimi. outbreak in West and Central has been sequenced. vaccine works well against cases
While NASA built Valkyrie Africa. Other vaccines for the Galit Alter at Moderna caused by the clade II variant
in-house, he says its successor virus exist, but a new vaccine in Massachusetts and her that circulated in 2022. The
will probably be the result of a based on mRNA technology colleagues created a vaccine current outbreak involves a
challenge set by NASA for others. would have advantages. containing RNA sequences
Then universities and commercial Nigeria, which has had 35 encoding proteins present in a “Countries in the West have
companies will innovate. confirmed cases of mpox so far family of viruses that includes vaccines in stock, and they
For example, he says, this year, has become the first mpox. They gave six macaques should provide these to
knowledge gained from the country in Africa to gain mpox the mRNA vaccine and six a African countries”
Valkyrie programme combined vaccines, with the arrival of so-called MVA vaccine similar
with advances from other research 10,000 doses of the JYNNEOS to JYNNEOS, while six macaques different variant – clade Ib – but
teams around the world will be vaccine. This shot contains a were unvaccinated. All the it is close enough to the earlier
directed to solving problems weakened form of the related vaccinated animals survived variant that the JYNNEOS
like gathering material from the vaccinia virus and helped high- a usually lethal dose of the vaccine should still work,
surface of the moon’s south pole. income countries, such as the virus, while five out of six says Jean Claude Udahemuka
As my time with Valkyrie begins UK and US, curb cases during a unvaccinated animals died. at the University of Rwanda.
to wrap up, I have a sense that I global mpox outbreak in 2022. On average, animals that So are mRNA vaccines needed?
have witnessed a technology that mRNA vaccines, which began received the mRNA vaccine also Some researchers fear that the
is the beginning of a future that being used widely during the had far fewer skin lesions than mpox virus, formerly known
hasn’t quite arrived. My mind covid-19 pandemic, contain those that received the MVA as monkeypox, could mutate,
is racing at the potential for a instructions for cells to produce vaccine or were unvaccinated rendering existing vaccines
science fiction future of humanoid viral proteins, so the immune (Cell, doi.org/nf8n). less effective. In that case, mRNA
robots. Imagine combining large The results stand a good vaccines will be needed, says
language models like ChatGPT An mpox treatment chance of being replicated Ranjit Sah at St. Elizabeth’s
with Valkyrie’s manual dexterity, discussion in Kavumu in humans, says Paul Ananth Medical Centre in Boston.
along with recent advances such hospital in the DRC Tambyah at the National Investing in mRNA vaccines
as a robot overlaid with living against mpox would also help
human skin. Can a human-like to boost vaccine supplies fast,
robot be that far away? says Ananth Tambyah.
“I think it’s possible that you However, mRNA vaccines
could have an artificial human, must be kept frozen, making it
something like Commander Data hard for them to be used where
from Star Trek, but I think it’s a long cold storage and distribution
way off,” says Azimi. He says it is infrastructure is limited. This
ARLETTE BASHIZI/BLOOMBERG VIA GETTY IMAGES
easier to envisage something like means they are likely to benefit

Hal from 2001: A Space Odyssey, high-income countries rather
a computer voice embedded into than the countries worst
a spaceship’s systems, than a affected, which will have to rely
fully realised android. on access to existing vaccines.
In the meantime, Valkyrie and “Some countries in the
her successors have important West have vaccines in stock,
work to do in Australia grappling and they should provide these
with a space-like environment, to African countries and other
says Azimi. “You can see sort of countries that are at risk,
natural parallels to a future lunar because people have to look
or Mars base and that gives us Where are you really from? at this as one boat that we are
the kind of proving ground in a Hear Adam Rutherford on how science is a weapon all in, and if it sinks, everyone
realistic environment,” he says. ❚ against racism newscientist.com/nslmag will sink,” says Udahemuka. ❚

News
Neuroscience
Brain network linked to depression

A network of neurons in the brain seems to be larger in people with depression,
which could change how we think about the condition’s causes, says Carissa Wong
DEPRESSION has been linked to a Many different regions
larger-than-expected network of across the brain may be
neurons that work together across involved in depression
the brain, but not everyone is
convinced that it actually causes than that of children who hadn’t
the condition. developed depression symptoms
Like many medical conditions, by the same age. “This suggests
depression doesn’t have a single to us that salience network
cause, but can be brought on by expansion possibly predisposes
a traumatic life event, such as a somebody to depression, rather
bereavement, and has also been than being a consequence of
linked to genetics. depression,” the researchers write.
Studies also suggest that “I think their evidence is really
depression is tied to certain parts pretty strong that this is a pre-
K H FUNG/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY
of the brain being smaller – such existing change that influences

as the hippocampus, which is the risk of depression,” says
involved in memory, and the Yvette Sheline at the University
thalamus, which processes of Pennsylvania.
sensory information – than in But Espinoza Oyarce wants
people without the condition. But more research on larger groups
a review of 14 studies concluded of people before she is convinced.
that there was no robust Another factor, such as stress,
relationship between smaller groups, each made up of more isn’t just whether there is a link could also be involved, says Yeo.
brain structures and depression. than 40 adults, with and without between variations in brain “Social factors might cause both
Now, Charles Lynch at Weill depression. Finding the same structure and depression, but also, an increase in the network size
Cornell Medicine in New York results again has persuaded among people with these traits, and depression,” he says.
some other scientists that the link which came first. To get to the Getting to the bottom of this
“These results will make between a large salience network bottom of this, Lynch and his is important, because the size of
all of us scratch our and depression is genuine. “It’s colleagues also analysed data someone’s salience network may
heads and say, ‘what quite convincing,” says Thomas from a previous study, made up one day help to predict their risk of
does this mean?’ ” Yeo at the National University of children who didn’t show signs depression, says Yeo. But Espinoza
of Singapore. “I think this is one of depressive symptoms when Oyarce and Ian Hickie at the
and his colleagues have found that of the best studies.” aged 10 or 12, but who went on University of Sydney in Australia
the condition may also involve a The researchers themselves both say that measuring the
network of neurons across the
brain that become activated
together (Nature, doi.org/nf78).
acknowledge that not everyone
with depression will have such
an enlarged salience network, as
36%
A network of neurons covered
network size is unlikely to ever
be used to diagnose depression,
given the cost and other
The researchers scanned the demonstrated by two of the initial this much more of the brain’s impracticalities of brain scans.
brains of six people who had been participants having a network that cortex in children who went However, Hickie says research
diagnosed with mild to severe was similar to that of the controls. on to develop depression on the salience network could
depression for more than 10 hours They aren’t currently able to one day show that the size of
across about 20 sessions. They explain this, says Lynch. The to develop these symptoms in the network in someone with
found that the so-called salience team didn’t find that depression the next couple of years. depression affects how they
network was twice as large in four severity, for example, was linked They found that even before will respond to treatment.
of them as it was in 37 people with to a particularly large network. these children developed these “I was certainly not expecting
no depression diagnosis, who For Daniela Espinoza Oyarce at symptoms, they had a salience these results, and so it will, I think,
were also scanned. Located in the Australian National University network that spread across 36 per make all of us scratch our heads
the cerebral cortex, the brain’s in Canberra, a pertinent question cent more of their cerebral cortex and say, ‘what does this mean?
outermost layer, this network Where do we go from here?’,”
has been linked to attention and says Sheline. ❚
the ability to respond to stimuli. The social brain
Lynch and his team found See three experts explore the psychology of See page 32 for more on the brain
similar results in three other group dynamics newscientist.com/nslmag and mental health

Environment
Bat die-off led to more insecticide

use and rise in infant deaths in US
Michael Le Page
THE decline of bats in the US due are used at regulatory levels, accidents and murders. The mechanism, only that my
to the spread of a fungal disease there seems to be a health cost.” 8 per cent rise in affected counties results are not consistent with
slashed farmers’ earnings and In 2006, hibernating bats with would have resulted in an extra the idea of exposure through
led to an additional 1300 deaths a white fungus on their muzzles 1300 infant deaths by 2017, he food,” says Frank. That leaves
in children under 1 year old, were seen in a cave in New York calculates (Science, doi.org/ngcm). breathing in insecticides or
although the exact link is unclear. state, with many dying. White- Frank thinks his findings go contaminated water supplies
In counties where the bat nose syndrome, as it is known, beyond correlation to show that as the most likely routes.
disease is present, farmers has been spreading across the die-off of bats is the cause of “Frank convincingly
increased their use of insecticides North America ever since, both higher insecticide use and demonstrates that in counties
by 31 per cent to make up for the killing millions of bats. affected by white-nose syndrome,
reduction in insect predation by Frank has used data from “Insecticides are toxic. insecticide use increases
bats, Eyal Frank at the University agricultural censuses to compare Even when they are used compared to counties that
of Chicago has found. Between counties where white-nose at regulatory levels, there are not affected,” says Roel
2006 and 2017, farmers in affected syndrome has been detected with seems to be a health cost” Vermeulen at Utrecht
counties lost $27 billion as a result those where it wasn’t yet present University in the Netherlands.
of lower crop sales and higher up to 2017 – stopping that year higher infant mortality. He says However, Vermeulen says
insecticide costs, he calculates. because the census data is only the compelling thing is that the that the loss of income would
What’s more, in the affected released every few years. trajectory of counties changed lead to more stress in farming
counties, there was also an 8 per In affected counties, in the same way once the disease communities, and that this could
cent rise in the number of children insecticide use rose every reached them, whatever year also contribute to infant mortality.
dying before 1 year of age, which year after the detection of the disease arrived. “Therefore, it is questionable
Frank attributes to the increase the disease, but remained How higher insecticide use whether the observed effects
in insecticide use. broadly constant in other areas. led to higher infant mortality on infant mortality can be
“Insecticides are toxic by He then looked at data on infant isn’t clear. “I can’t say anything solely attributed to increased
design,” he says. “Even when they mortality, excluding deaths due to about the direct exposure insecticide use,” he says. ❚
Astrophysics
We finally know NASA’s New Horizons

NASA, APL, SWRI, SERGE BRUNIER (ESO), MARC POSTMAN (STSCI), D. DURDA
spacecraft has been looking

exactly how dark into dark regions of space
it is in deep space
per square metre per steradian, or
NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft sector, of the sky (The Astrophysical
has made the first precise Journal, doi.org/nf3z).
measurements of the ambient light It is as if you were in a deserted
that suffuses the universe, called cabin on a moonless night, more
the cosmic optical background. than a kilometre from your nearest
This glow is so dim that it neighbour, and that neighbour’s
is impossible to measure with refrigerator door light was on,
precision from Earth – the light from says Postman. “It’s 100 times
objects in the inner solar system darker than even the darkest
far outshines it. “It’s like trying to sky you can see from Earth.”
see the faint stars in the Milky Way While it may be faint, this
from Broadway in NYC,” says Marc about 8.7 billion kilometres from Postman and his colleagues then background is composed of all
Postman at the Space Telescope Earth. That is still within our solar calculated how much of the light of the light from all of the galaxies
Science Institute in Maryland. system, but far from its bright lights. in those images originated from that we can see in the cosmos.
But New Horizons has travelled With its camera shadowed by stars and dust within our galaxy, Earlier measurements hinted that
far enough to avoid some of that the body of the spacecraft, pointed and subtracted that to find the total there could be some unexplained
light pollution. After visiting Pluto away from the sun and the disc of amount of background light. The extra light there, but these new
in 2015, the spacecraft continued the Milky Way, New Horizons took result was an astonishingly dim observations dispel that idea. ❚
moving away from us – it is now 24 images of dark areas of space. glow of roughly 11 nanowatts Leah Crane

News
Archaeology
Greenland’s mysterious early culture

On a recent expedition, researchers braved summer storms in northern Greenland to learn
the secrets of the ancient peoples who lived there 4500 years ago, reports Becky Ferreira
SOME 4500 years ago, as the Great The people who migrated out never been hunted by humans.”
Pyramid of Giza was being erected of the Canadian Arctic 4500 years But about 700 years after
and the Indus Valley civilisation ago split into two groups: one that these peoples first appeared,
hit its peak, a group of Arctic went across northern Greenland, they mysteriously vanished.
peoples migrated to a region of called the Independence I culture, A second culture, known as
northern Greenland now known and another that went down the Independence II, emerged about
as Inutoqqat Nunaat, or the west coast of Greenland, called 1000 years after the first, but it
“land of the ancient people”. the Saqqaq people. The Wandel also disappeared, in about 100 BC.
They were the northernmost Dal Project is focused on the Untangling the history of the
culture on Earth at the time, Independence I group, named broader region, called Peary Land,
living just 800 kilometres from after Independence Fjord, a has been complicated by the near-
FUUJA LARSEN
the North Pole, but little has been formation near their settlements. total absence of human remains.
known about their diet, customs Unlike later cultures that lived Those working on the Wandel
or survival strategies in this in Greenland, including the Thule, Dal Project, which includes
extreme climate. Now, that ancestors of the Inuit peoples, the many Greenlanders, were also
is starting to change. Independence I culture didn’t Above: a microblade at the mercy of the High Arctic’s
On 30 July, researchers with travel with dog sleds and would stone tool found in unpredictable weather. The team
the Wandel Dal Project set off have roamed the vast wilderness Greenland. Below: relied on Twin Otter planes and
on an expedition to understand on foot. Their inland migration Researchers survey helicopters to reach the field
this ancient civilisation. “It’s a may have been buoyed by a period archaeological features site, but storms limited the
mystery,” says Bianca Perren at of warmer and wetter weather, says in Wandel Dal valley, latest expedition to just four
the British Antarctic Survey, Jens Fog Jensen at the National Greenland days instead of two weeks.
who was part of the expedition. Museum of Denmark, who isn’t With the sediment cores,
“So little is known about them.” involved with the Wandel Dal the researchers hope to
These peoples lived in lakeside Project. “Wandel Dal might have reconstruct the climatic and
tents fixed in place by stone rings been greener at the time of the environmental shifts that
that remain eerily untouched to arrival of Independence I,” he “You can imagine families may have shaped the lives of
this day. Previous expeditions says. “In 2500 BC, there was here. To have 4000-year- the region’s ancient peoples.
have found small tools, including more open water and probably old dollhouses sitting on “The High Arctic environment,
microblades, suggesting that they large stocks of musk ox that had this landscape is insane” with its cycles of light and
hunted musk ox on land and char darkness, cold and ice, was not
in the lakes, while hearths and just a backdrop for survival, but
mid-passages – stone structures a landscape full of resources
that run through the centre of the that the Independence I people
rings – provide a glimpse of how skilfully exploited,” says Mari
they kept warm during sunless Kleist at the University of
winters that lasted six months. Greenland. “Their ability to
Miniature tent rings at hunt, as well as to store and
some sites might be the remains preserve food, indicates a
of children’s toys, similar to deep understanding of the
dollhouses, opening a window environment and its cycles.”
into the domestic lives of these Perren and her colleagues felt
peoples. “These dollhouses a connection to the Independence
are all matching colours with I people, despite being separated
matching stones in the centre,” from them by thousands of years.
FUUJA LARSEN
says Perren. “You can imagine “There’s something about being

families here. To have 4000-year- in these sites where you’re camped
old dollhouses, sitting on this and where these ancient people
landscape, is just insane.” lived, looking at the same views
On this year’s expedition, the and trying to understand how
team extracted sediment cores to Death and disease in the Middle Ages they lived, what the environment
learn about the past climate and Hear Alice Roberts reveal new details about was like and how it changed,”
survey archaeological features. old diseases newscientist.com/nslmag Perren says. “It’s pretty magical.” ❚

Space Health
Did collision with a

huge asteroid knock
Lab-grown stem cells could be a
Ganymede askew? breakthrough for cancer therapy
Jacklin Kwan James Woodford
A MASSIVE impact billions of Stem cells can produce

years ago may have reoriented other types of cell
Jupiter’s largest moon. when they divide
Naoyuki Hirata at Kobe
University, Japan, and his colleagues This process, called
have studied Ganymede’s extensive differentiation, takes about
furrow system – a series of two weeks and makes millions
concentric troughs believed to of blood cells, he says.
be remnants of the largest impact Elefanty and his colleagues
structure in the outer solar system. then infused these blood
The centre of the furrow system cells into mice that lacked
ANIMATED HEALTHCARE LTD/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY
aligns with Ganymede’s tidal axis, an immune system and the

the imaginary line running to Jupiter cells became functional bone
from the centre of the moon’s side marrow in up to 50 per cent of
that always faces the planet. This cases (Nature Biotechnology,
led the researchers to suggest that doi.org/nf33). This means
the impact that formed the furrows the blood marrow made the
caused a redistribution of mass that same cells that carry oxygen
reoriented the moon. and fight infections as healthy
Through simulations, Hirata and human bone marrow does,
his colleagues determined that the says Elefanty. “It is this unique
impactor responsible probably had ability to make all the blood cell
a diameter of about 150 kilometres. HUMAN blood stem cells have First, Andrew Elefanty at the types for a prolonged period
That is much larger than the one been made in a laboratory Murdoch Children’s Research of time that defines the cells
that caused the extinction of the for the first time, which could Institute in Melbourne and as blood stem cells,” he says.
dinosaurs on Earth, thought to have significantly improve how we his colleagues turned human Abbas Shafiee at the
been about 10 kilometres across. treat certain types of cancer. blood or skin cells from several University of Queensland
Andrew Dombard at the Treating cancers such as donors into so-called pluripotent in Brisbane says the work is
University of Illinois Chicago leukaemia and lymphoma via stem cells through a process a “magnificent breakthrough”
says that if an asteroid like that radiation and chemotherapy called reprogramming. towards new therapies for blood
hit Earth, “it would be a global can destroy the blood-forming “This involves temporarily cancers. “It has not been done
sterilising event, a bad day”. cells in bone marrow. A stem turning on four genes, with before and it has a lot of potential
Upon impact, this asteroid would cell transplant means that new, the result that the patient for the future.” But even once
have breached Ganymede’s icy crust healthy bone marrow and blood cells revert to an early stage animal testing is complete, a
and penetrated into the liquid cells can grow. Umbilical cords lot of research in humans needs
oceans below, creating a transient are a particularly rich source “The approach could to be done before the approach
crater and hurling vast amounts of of stem cells, but donations be scaled up to produce can be used in clinics, he says.
material across the moon’s surface. of these are limited and a never-ending supply Simon Conn at Flinders
As this settled, it would have formed the cells can be rejected of blood stem cells” University in Adelaide,
a blanket of ejecta around the by the recipient’s body. Australia, says a key advantage
impact site, creating a region where The lab-grown cells have so of development when of the team’s approach is that
gravity is stronger due to the extra far been tested only in mice, but they can become any cell it could be scaled up to produce
mass. Over time, this would have when infused into the animals, in the body,” says Elefanty. “an essentially never-ending
made Ganymede reorient, aligning the cells became functional The second stage consisted supply” of blood stem cells.
the impact site with its tidal axis bone marrow at similar levels of turning the pluripotent But he adds that the rate of
(Scientific Reports, doi.org/nf34). to those seen after umbilical cells into blood stem cells. success and the diversity of the
However, although it is likely that cord blood cell transplants. “We first make thousands blood cells varied depending on
the impact affected Ganymede’s The new method would of small floating balls of cells, the donor. “This suggests the
early history, estimating the size of allow researchers to produce a few hundred cells in each ball, treatment, even at the preclinical
the object that hit is complicated stem cells from the actual and direct them to change from stage in mice, is not consistent,
because we lack good data on the patient, eliminating the supply being stem cells to sequentially which will need to be addressed
gravity and topography of this frigid issue and reducing the risk that become blood vessels and then prior to any clinical trials in
world, says Hirata. ❚ their body would reject them. blood cells,” says Elefanty. human patients,” says Conn. ❚

News
Technology
Google takes a quantum leap

A breakthrough from Google means quantum computers could now make fewer errors as they get bigger.
This could pave the way for the machines to solve useful real-world problems, says Matthew Sparkes
IF A small quantum computer with a 72-qubit processor and a up its quantum computers as
makes a small number of errors,
will a large quantum computer
105-qubit processor, each acting as
a single logical qubit. In one test, the
0.143%
the error rate for each cycle
rivals attempt to do the same.
One key question is whether
make even more, rendering logical qubit preserved quantum of Google’s quantum machine Google’s chosen architecture,
it completely useless? No, say information for more than twice using superconducting qubits,
researchers at Google, who as long as any of the physical will prove to be the correct
have made a key breakthrough
in error correction for quantum
qubits it was made up of could
do individually. In their paper on
105
physical qubits acted together
way forwards. Teams using an
alternative approach based on
devices, setting out a path the work, the researchers claimed as a single logical qubit trapped ions have previously
to creating machines that an error rate of just 0.143 per cent demonstrated error correction,
are useful and practical. per cycle of the machine – better but only for a dozen or so
Ordinary computers store
data as bits that are either a
than previous quantum machines
but still high enough to cause
1457
physical qubits are needed to cut
physical qubits.
Scott Aaronson at the
0 or 1, but errors can cause problems with large calculations errors to one in a million operations University of Texas at Austin
these to “flip” to the wrong value, (arXiv, doi.org/nf8j). says the work pushes quantum
which is why devices ranging from Google declined to speak that significant hurdles remain. computing nearer to practicality
smartphones to supercomputers to New Scientist, but in the paper Improving their processors to the and is a vindication for Google’s
have built-in error correction. the researchers say that although point of only making one error choice of quantum technology
Quantum computers are even previous efforts by other teams per million operations would be over that of its competitors.
more prone to errors, but the had “demonstrated different “resource intensive in practice” “I’d characterise this as another
problem is also more complex features of quantum error and require 1457 physical qubits significant step forward in
for them because each quantum correction”, they fell short of a for each logical qubit – which realising error correction, and
bit, or qubit, exists in a mixed definitive display, which the firm is more than what is contained as representing a collective effort
state of 0 and 1, and any attempt now claims to have made. “With in even the largest quantum of Google’s experimental group
to directly check its value destroys below-threshold surface codes, computers currently in existence. for the past couple years,” he says.
the fragile quantum state. we have demonstrated processor Google is now in a race to scale “Trapped ions and neutral atoms
To solve this, quantum performance that can scale in pushed ahead of superconducting
computers can be made to group principle, but which we must now Quantum computers, like qubits lately in terms of fidelity,
a number of physical qubits to scale in practice,” writes the team. this one from Google, are so the ball has really been in the
act as a single “logical” qubit, But the researchers also warn limited by their error rate court of Google, IBM and the
allowing for cross-checking of other superconducting groups
values while preserving their to answer that challenge, and this
quantum state. In this scenario, could also be seen in that light.”
instead of directly checking the Martin Weides at the
value of a qubit, a technique called University of Glasgow, UK,
surface code correction lets you says the current generation
observe the relative properties of quantum computers can do
of the physical qubits in different nothing useful that couldn’t be
ways, which can give hints that done with the computer power
an error has occurred. found in a smartphone, but that
But this introduces a further Google’s latest work demonstrates
problem, as Google discovered the machines can at least be scaled
in 2021, because adding more up in a practical way in the future.
physical qubits unhelpfully “They really showed that
introduced even more errors than by putting qubits together, you
ERIK LUCERO/GOOGLE
they solved. The goal was to find a reduce the error rate. You actually
way of reducing errors faster than get better and better,” he says. It
they were introduced, a breakeven probably isn’t useful yet, and you
point known as the threshold. would need tens of thousands or
Google now says it has crossed millions of error-corrected qubits
that threshold. In experiments, AI needs you to build anything useful, he says.
researchers at the company were See Verity Harding empower us to shape the future of AI “But it’s a great demonstration
able to pass the breakeven point newscientist.com/nslmag of the concept.” ❚

Health
Most detailed map of uterine lining

yields clues about endometriosis
Grace Wade
THE endometrium, or the inner The endometrium, or uterus

lining of the uterus, has been lining, changes dramatically
mapped in unprecedented detail. during the menstrual cycle
The information gleaned will
improve our understanding of bleeding or other conditions
reproductive health and common where the endometrium doesn’t
conditions such as endometriosis. properly develop, says Christine
The endometrium is one of the Metz at the Feinstein Institutes
most dynamic organs in the body. for Medical Research in New York.
Each menstrual cycle, it thickens The atlas also yielded clues about
CONNECT IMAGES/ALAMY
in preparation for pregnancy and, endometriosis, a painful condition

if a pregnancy doesn’t occur, sheds in which tissues similar to those
its top layer during menstruation. lining the uterus grow outside
Despite the endometrium’s it. Samples from people with
pivotal role in reproductive health, endometriosis showed impaired
we know little about this tissue. “It communication between the
is kind of a black box,” says Roser type of cell and gain new insights Tormo. “It was a bit unexpected, endometrium’s structural cells
Vento-Tormo at the Wellcome into their functions. They then even for us, how dynamic it was.” and those that respond to
Sanger Institute in the UK. analysed endometrium tissue She and her colleagues also hormonal changes. The insight
Now, Vento-Tormo and her samples under a microscope discovered new cell types, such as could lead to new treatments.
colleagues have analysed more to determine the location and one in the endometrium’s lower The map may improve our
than 313,000 endometrial cells structures of cells, creating a map. layer that changes across different understanding of causes of
from 63 people of reproductive The researchers found that the stages of the menstrual cycle infertility, too, such as why some
age. Samples were collected composition of the organ changes (Nature Genetics, doi.org/gt79tm). embryos can’t implant in the
throughout the menstrual cycle. every four or so days, says Vento- This type of cell, which can morph uterus lining, says Vento-Tormo.
Using a technique called single- into other types of cells, may help “I think this map is going to
cell sequencing, the researchers “Despite the endometrium’s regenerate the upper layer of the contribute immensely in the
measured which genes were pivotal role in reproductive endometrium after menstruation. coming years to understanding
turned on or off in each cell. This health, we know little Impairments in these cells might conditions that affect the
allowed them to identify each about this tissue” contribute to heavy menstrual endometrium,” says Metz. ❚
Zoology
Wild bees find a DNA sequencing techniques. “This has shifted dramatically.” kind of paving can be an example to
The team recorded 66 species Berlin’s pavements mainly other cities, especially considering
home in the sandy using pavements as a habitat. Many consist of small cobblestones the negative effects asphalt has on
sidewalks of Berlin of these were pollinators and other or blocks with a sand mixture urban biodiversity, says Lokatis.
beneficial insects, including 28 between them, where insects can The findings disprove the idea
PAVEMENTS can be unlikely havens species of wild bees and 22 species dig burrows. The benefits of this that cities are biodiversity deserts,
for wild bees and other insects, of solitary and parasitoid wasps. says Sarah Parsons at Western
a survey of streets in Berlin hints. They also found that there A Sphecodes cuckoo Carolina University in North
Sophie Lokatis at the Free were more nests, and a higher bee, or blood bee, on Carolina. “The effect of urbanisation
University of Berlin and her diversity of species, on pavements the streets of Berlin on species can be quite complex
colleagues explored 200-metre- within 200 metres of insect- and can, in some cases, result in
SOPHIE LOKATIS, FREIE UNIVERSITÄT BERLIN
long sections of pavement at friendly flower gardens, created a greater diversity of species than
12 locations in the German city. by local initiatives (Urban we may expect,” she says. “The
They recorded insect nest Ecosystems, doi.org/nf32). study underlines the importance
locations and collected individuals “Only a few years ago, of flower gardens in urban spaces
found at the entrance to nests, insect-friendly gardens near to promote bee and wasp diversity,
crawling on the sidewalk or flying apartments and extensive, and paves a path forward for how
within a metre of the ground. They rarely cut meadows in parks were we can design future cities.” ❚
also analysed soil from nests using almost unthinkable,” says Lokatis. Gary Hartley

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Views
The columnist Aperture Culture Culture columnist Letters
Rowan Hooper Divers explore the How have AI models Simon Ings watches a We still lack an
on a future food Yucatán peninsula’s like ChatGPT changed film about a man who explanation for
revolution p24 exquisite cenotes p26 the world? p28 can “hear” colour p30 morality p31
Comment
Something wicked…
From serpents to zombie pathogens, there is science behind our love
of monsters – and it tells us a lot about ourselves, says Natalie Lawrence
A
S FRIGHTENING as our pain tolerance. It is why
monsters are, they have some people with anxiety enjoy
always captivated us. From watching true crime or horror
chimeras and hydras to bunyips films before bed. Others like to
and golems, creatures have go skydiving or bungee jumping.
emerged from our imaginations The monsters we create today
throughout history and across for films, video games or books
cultures. Today, they explode represent the greatest fears of
onto our cinema screens with our age: Godzilla threatening
incredible regularity. Given how civilisation, fungi zombifying
scary monsters can be, it seems the entire human species, genetic
paradoxical that we keep making experiments gone awry or aliens
them. In fact, they are actually growing in our viscera. These
very important to us, and are creatures offer intense experiences
deeply rooted in our evolutionary of cultural catharsis. A case in
history and psychology. point: during the early days of the
Monsters are the fantastical covid-19 pandemic, horror fans
descendants of our co-evolution reported lower levels of stress and
with predatory animals: they are fear about what was happening.
wired into our neurocircuitry. Perhaps they had faced these
Snakes, for example, were some monsters before, in films such as
of our ancestors’ first deadly 28 Days Later or World War Z. It is
predators. This scaly threat probably no coincidence that the
ELAINE KNOX
caused early primates to evolve series The Last of Us was such a hit
specialised snake-responsive after the height of the pandemic.
neurons in their visual cortices Monster media allows us to
and large, visually dominated Likewise, the minds of many the monsters of mythology. push otherwise-insurmountable
brains. You could say that snakes more recent hominins were There are psychological benefits anxieties away, externalising
were monsters that helped make shaped by the need to detect to being frightened by monsters. them into brutish, supernatural
us. Just a small patch of scales is bears, lions and other mammalian When we listen to scary stories as beings or extreme zombie
enough to suggest “snake” to a predators in the tundra landscape kids, or watch films featuring pathogens, making normality
monkey or a human. Human of Europe during the last glacial horrific creatures, we experience appear relatively safer. It helps
babies who have never seen period. As a vulnerable, naked acute fear. The foreboding, the us exorcise our deepest fears.
a snake before still respond ape in a landscape dominated jump scare, the all-out crisis: By understanding our monsters
uniquely to them. by megafauna, we evolved to see these activate the amygdala, the and why we make them, we can
This hardware, together predators in the merest shapes on brain’s fear centre. It revs up the learn a great deal about what is
with our capacity for symbolic the horizon, in the dark between fight-or-flight response, sending going on under the surface of
representation, produced the tree trunks or in shadowy corners. adrenaline coursing through our our minds and culture. ❚
serpentine monsters that abound With their long teeth and scythe- blood. In a safe context, the end
in almost all traditions: dragons, like claws, these mammals of the story is followed by a drop in Natalie Lawrence is a
hydras and more. It is why we get haunted our imaginations, adrenaline and endorphin-fuelled historian of science and
a thrill from watching Snakes on appearing in cave paintings relaxation. Such controlled bouts author of Enchanted
a Plane or the basilisk in Harry created over millennia. They of fear might actually help us to Creatures: Our monsters
Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. might eventually have become manage chronic stress or increase and their meanings

Views Columnist
Future Chronicles
Feeding the world We travel to the early 2030s, when a

technological step change enabled us to produce all the food we
needed without the use of animals. Rowan Hooper is our guide
T
HE food revolution burst and ethical arguments had pushed 2040s, more than half of
into the open in the early for changes in farming for decades, the protein we consumed came
2030s. Microbial processes it was the financial savings that from microbes. Vast areas of
were developed that allowed drove this revolution. previously ranched and farmed
us to brew all the proteins we Three main obstacles needed land were allowed to rewild.
needed for our food without to be overcome to bring microbial New developments in 3D
using animals, on a tiny food to the masses. Two were printing, involving lasers and
fraction of the land, for less technical. First, food derived from microbially derived ingredients,
money. Such a disruptive microorganisms can have a high enabled the development of food
Future Chronicles technology hadn’t been seen level of nucleic acids, especially replicators. Initially designed for
explores an imagined since the industrial revolution. RNA, which can pose a health astronauts living for extended
history of inventions The dairy industry was the first risk. To get around this, microbes periods on the moon or Mars, the
and developments yet to to collapse. Milk is mostly water, were engineered to self-purify. replicators soon found their way
come. Rowan Hooper is sugar and a bit of fat. Two kinds Second, the process of growing, into homes. While not quite up
the podcast editor at New of proteins, casein and whey, make fermenting and harvesting the to the standard imagined in Star
Scientist and author of How up just 3.3 per cent of it. When microbes and their proteins had to Trek: The Next Generation, a TV
to Spend a Trillion Dollars: these proteins were made on an be made to work on an industrial show from the late 20th century
The 10 global problems industrial scale by genetically scale. A landmark moment was the (“tea, Earl Grey, hot”), the new
we can actually fix. You can modified yeast, there was no need replicators allowed people to create
follow him on X @rowhoop to devote land and infrastructure “The new food previously unimagined foods and
to farming cows, no need to clear replicators flavour combinations.
rainforest to grow soya beans This technology, used alongside
allowed people to
to feed cows, and no need to artificial intelligence, ushered in
exploit our fellow mammals. create previously a golden era of delicious, plentiful,
Invention Any dairy product could be unimagined flavour healthy food. Researchers in
Star Trek-style made for a fraction of the cost. combinations” Cornwall, UK, developed what
food replicators Microbial production had they called the Universal Pasty:
begun, in the 20th century, with opening in Finland of the first a 3D-printed package containing
Timestamp the churning out of vitamins such commercial factory producing a starter, main course and pudding
2030s as riboflavin (vitamin B2). The tech microbial protein, in April 2024. in one pastry-wrapped delight.
matured and, by 2023, essential Many others soon followed. An Italian team created Tortellini
Tagline omega fatty acids were made with The third obstacle was consumer Roulette: packages of pasta, each
The revolution that engineered yeast. Many other acceptance. But microbially derived bursting with a delicious surprise
fed the world – and proteins were made by engineered food products let consumers eat ingredient. There was even a craze
saved the planet microbes, and when the processes meat, fish, cheese, eggs and milk for Dodo Pie – which used proteins
were scaled up, they soon undercut that tasted just like the real thing. derived from the extinct flightless
their animal-derived equivalent. This, plus the cheaper price, won bird. Same with T. rex jerky. Meals
Leather, fish, eggs, meat could all over most sceptics. could be customised for personal
be made far more efficiently. Singapore was the first nation to taste and health requirements.
Plant products were transformed approve microbial protein for food, The sci-fi replicators of Star
too – even marijuana was better in 2024. The US followed soon after Trek had been called a metaphor
grown in vats. But the most and, by the end of 2025, the UK and for the endpoint of the industrial
important was palm oil. It had the European Union had done the revolution. The food replicators
already been made by microbes and same. The revolution had begun. in fact ended the hegemony
been used in beauty products by Swapping meat from cows for of industrial farming, the
2023, but as bioreactors improved proteins made by microbes was the destruction it had been inflicting
and grew in output, industrial single most important factor in on our ecosystems, the suffering of
quantities were produced. The saving the Amazon rainforest from billions of animals and the release
destruction caused by our appetite destruction. Mathematical models of greenhouse gases from farming
for palm oil was slowly dialled had shown that swapping just a that had been driving the climate
This column appears down: forests in Asia were restored fifth of animal protein for that crisis. What it started was a food
monthly. Up next week: and the orangutan saved from from microbes could halve revolution that, just in time, saved
Chanda Prescod-Weinstein extinction. While environmental deforestation rates, but by the early the world. ❚

Views Aperture

New Scientist video
Divers discover manatees in Yucatán cave habitat
youtube.com/newscientist
Going deeper
Martin Broen
Rizzoli
THE Yucatán peninsula in

south-east Mexico is riddled
with holes. When a giant asteroid
struck Earth 66 million years
ago near what is now the town
of Chicxulub, the impact created
a massive depression and caused
fracturing of the porous limestone
bedrock. Over millions of years,
rainwater has dissolved the stone,
creating underground rivers,
caves and cenotes (sinkholes).
Photographer Martin Broen
has explored 280 of the Yucatán’s
cenotes, atmospheric shots of
which are collected in his book
Light in the Underworld, out now
in the US and on 17 September in
the UK. This image, taken in 2020,
shows the cave area of a cenote
called Chan Aktun Ha (a Mayan
name meaning “little water cave”)
in the state of Quintana Roo. Here,
a cave diver is exploring among
pristine stalactites and stalagmites.
“During rain showers in the
Mexican jungle, water washes
tannin from the vegetation into
the cenotes, creating a tannic
acid solution,” says Broen.
“These natural filters provide
a surreal green, yellow or red
atmosphere to the caverns.”
The shallow caves of the Yucatán
Peninsula have been flooded
for the past 8000 years. “The
more I dive, the more I discover
the beauty and secrets of these
caves, uncovering unique fossils
of extinct megafauna, indications
of the first Palaeo-Americans, and
Mayan artefacts,” says Broen.
But, he adds, cenotes aren’t
just a window into the past but
“the veins that carry all fresh water
in the region”. With pollution,
deforestation and development
all a threat, Broen hopes his photos
can help people care about what
lies beneath their feet. ❚
Graeme Green

Views Culture
Race to the top

How have AI models like ChatGPT changed the world, and who were their
architects? A riveting new book takes an inside look, says Alex Wilkins
Book
Supremacy
Parmy Olson
Macmillan Business (UK);
St Martin’s Press (US)
FOR most people, ChatGPT

appeared to materalise out of
thin air. Within weeks of OpenAI’s
quiet launch of the AI chatbot, it
had become the fastest-growing
app of all time and, almost two
years later, it is nearly as well
REUTERS/AMIR COHEN
known as Google or Facebook.
In the meantime, companies
worldwide have gone gaga for
the technology, with little time to
pause to consider the wider societal
consequences. So how did we get to shepherd their AI systems for But this isn’t a hagiography Tel Aviv University before
here and who was responsible? the public good and keep them out either, and Olson is clear about a talk from OpenAI CEO
Much of the praise (or blame, of the hands of profit-driven big the dangers that OpenAI and Sam Altman in June 2023
depending on how you feel about tech companies. Both ended up Deepmind have, in her view,
AI) lies with two men, argues financially entangled with those conveniently ignored in an board last November, which still
journalist Parmy Olson in her same companies, with Microsoft’s effort to push their technology feels exciting, and the launch of
book Supremacy: AI, ChatGPT and backing of OpenAI and Google’s out to the world so quickly and tools like image generators and
the race that will change the world. purchase of Deepmind. be first to claim the glory. Many coding assistants, which feels less
Sam Altman and Demis Hassabis, It’s a riveting tale and Olson is of these will sound familiar – interesting and tangential to the
respectively the CEOs of OpenAI a compelling storyteller, drawing “hallucinating” made-up earlier narrative of the book.
and London-based DeepMind, on the high-level access she has to information, propagating the The story that has developed
became involved with AI in very both men, along with other figures bias of the data they were trained since Olson penned her last words,
different ways, but their stories in the story, thanks to her job as on, generating offensive content – in March this year, has also been
quickly became intertwined. but Olson gives prominent voice one of growing scepticism around
Altman, a Silicon Valley “One of the perils to the researchers, nearly all whether AI models may have
boy wonder, rose through women, who first raised many begun to approach a wall. OpenAI’s
of writing about AI is
the ranks of California’s start-up of these issues, and illustrates long-anticipated GPT-5 model is
scene before setting his sights that the tech progresses well how they were nearly seen as a make-or-break moment
on what he viewed as the world- so fast that you risk universally ignored by their for the industry, and whether it
changing potential of AI. Hassabis, becoming outdated” bosses, who were mostly men. significantly moves the needle
a child chess prodigy who flitted One of the perils of writing towards AGI, as either OpenAI
between the British video game a tech columnist at Bloomberg about AI is that the technology or Deepmind have defined it, will
industry and academia, was Opinion. Neither Altman nor progresses so fast that anything dictate to a large extent whether
drawn to AI for different reasons, Hassabis comes off too badly in you write is at risk of becoming the AI bubble will keep growing.
seeing it as a way to uncover Olson’s telling, and she clearly has instantly outdated. Olson largely The subtitle of Olson’s book,
the secrets of the universe. some sympathy for the complex avoids this by focusing on the “the race that will change the
Despite these differences, web of philosophical and political story before ChatGPT, but there world”, makes that scenario sound
they found themselves in similar movements they find themselves are times she must make an like a certainty. But there is still a
positions, steering AI research in as part of the AI field, like attempt to be as up-to-date as chance that our AI models might
labs towards the ill-defined goal effective altruism, the “earn to possible. Towards the end of the not get much more advanced than
of “artificial general intelligence” give” ideology that disgraced book, she covers more recent they are today, and these past two
(AGI). Both men started out with crypto mogul Sam Bankman- developments, such as the failed years will seem like an anomaly,
lofty ethical principles, promising Fried was famously a fan of. ousting of Altman by the OpenAI rather than the norm. ❚

Generation pup
Learn all about canine science from Rachel Casey New Scientist
on 12 October newscientist.com/nslmag recommends
The power of the dog

What is it like to be a dog? And what can we learn from them?
A philospher’s take is full of insights, finds Abigail Beall
and wrasse fish seem to be able to chasing iguanas along the canal Bethan Ackerley
do, while dogs struggle. Rowlands near his home or getting excited Subeditor
Book London, UK
reframes this to suggest it doesn’t about such trivial daily routines as
The Happiness of Dogs mean a dog is less self-aware than jumping in the car to pick Rowlands’s I have been watching
Mark Rowlands
a wrasse, rather that it navigates son up from school. This is probably Supacell on Netflix, a
Granta Books
the world in a different way. He because I recognise my own dogs in superhero drama that
suggests a dog might not inspect its them – whether it is my greedy Jack, follows five Black south
DO YOU spend a large chunk of reflection because “it doesn’t care who is full of joy and surprise every Londoners who suddenly
your day looking at your dog, asking about how it looks in a mirror” – day when I feed him his dinner, or develop superpowers.
questions like “what do you think something I know I would rather my precious Peanut, who trembles I won’t spoil the exact
he is thinking right now?” Or “does spend less time caring about. with fear when she leaves the reason why, but it is to
she understand how much I love That said, I found the book house but comes alive when do with their genes.
her?” If that sounds familiar, then challenging at times. Particularly running along an empty beach. Series creator Rapman
a new book by philosopher Mark tricky were the sections that dived As an owner of a very anxious (aka Andrew Onwubolu)
Rowlands may be just the thing. deep into philosophy, which make dog, some of the sweeping was a fan of comparable
The Happiness of Dogs: Why up a large part of it. While this is statements about dogs and their US drama Heroes. I was
the unexamined life is most worth to be expected from a philosopher, joy were hard to swallow. Rowlands too, so had to watch the
living is a fascinating take on what it it can be a bit much for someone writes that “for a dog, happiness new show. It is also about
is like to live like a dog. It touches on unaccustomed to reading about (or comes effortlessly”, and he talks ordinary people, such as
the unique bond between humans even thinking about) the question about “unbridled happiness – in nurse Sabrina (Nadine
and their companions, tackles such of what makes life worth living. their love of life and their utter Mills, pictured), facing
big questions as the meaning of life Overall, though, I felt that commitment to their actions”. extraordinary situations.
and goes on to explore experiments Rowlands made the philosophy Of course, this is the case for a dog My favourite was Andre
into animal consciousness. digestible by sprinkling in chapters with a happy life. But I couldn’t help (Eric Kofi-Abrefa), who
I learned a great deal about how on animal consciousness and plenty but think this isn’t true for all dogs. is tempted to misuse
dogs experience the world and why of tales from his own life and the Peanut, for example, was born his superstrength to
traditional tests of consciousness canines that have been a part of it. on the streets, abandoned when provide for his son.
might be flawed. Take the classic These latter sections were the ones she was a few days old and spent
question of whether animals I found most enjoyable, especially the first two years of her life in a
recognise themselves in the due to Rowlands’s unusual track kennels. Six years later, she does
mirror – something manta rays record. He spent years living with experience joy every day, when
a wolf, which he wrote about in we take her to her favourite field or
Unlike humans, dogs may know The Philosopher and the Wolf. she is playing with her housemate.
what they know through living I also loved anecdotes about But plenty of her time is also spent
rather than through thinking Rowlands’s beloved dog, Shadow, in fear, when there are loud, I have also read
unexpected noises, such as a van A Woman’s View by
driving past or when I rustle a plastic Jeanine Basinger, about
bag. In these moments, she seems the contradictory, often-
to embody a phrase Rowlands subversive themes of
uses to describe humans, “uneasy the “woman’s picture”.
creatures, never quite at home in She argues that female
the world or even in our own skins”. fans of these1930s,
In any event, the take-home 40s and 50s movies
message from The Happiness made a sly bargain: they
of Dogs is that we humans should could spend 85 minutes
be more dog. Instead of reflecting watching Joan Crawford
on and endlessly wondering live out their fantasies
about everything, we should of power, misbehaviour
SHUTTERSTOCK/TOM WANG
live more in the moment. “What and sex if they endured 5

we know, if we know anything, minutes of conservative
we know through thinking,” writes moralising. I’d take that
NETFLIX
Rowlands. “Dogs in comparison deal, wouldn’t you?

know through living.” ❚

Views Culture
The film column
A new sense Neil Harbisson was completely colour blind, but after a sound
generator was attached to his skull, he could “hear” colour. Cyborg: A documentary
tells his story, but could have used more bite, says Simon Ings
The back of Neil

Harbisson’s head and
his sound generator
explaining what it is like to have

friends transmit the colours of an
Australian sunset to the back of
his skull. Using the same rig he has,
they send a signal that generates
Simon Ings is a novelist and a tone that is a specific colour to
science writer. Follow him him. To which one radio show
on X @simonings guest objects: couldn’t they just
send him a postcard instead?
Born never digs into this very
sensible question. It is a pity.
Harbisson says he weathered
months-long headaches and
SIDEWAYS FILM
episodes of depression in an
effort to extend his senses, but all
outsiders care about is the tech.
A recent novelty created by
NEIL HARBISSON studied music any other visual information. Harbisson and his collaborators
composition at Dartington College Body modification in art is a headband that tells the time
Film
of Arts in the UK. He was born with has a long, rather vexed by heating spots on your skull.
Cyborg:
achromatopsia, so is unable to history. I recall performance Obviously, a watch offers a more
A documentary
perceive colour of any kind. Not artist Stelarc suspended from accurate measure. Less obviously,
Carey Born
one to ignore a challenge, in 2003 flesh hooks, pronouncing on the device is meant to create a new
First Born Films
Harbisson recruited product the body’s obsolescence. He sense in its wearer, an embodied,
In UK cinemas
designer Adam Montandon to doesn’t do that sort of thing now. pre-conscious awareness of solar-
on 20 September;
build him a head-mounted rig that As he nears 80, you can declare planetary motion. The tech is
US to be announced
turns colours into musical notes victory over the flesh as much as fun, but what matters is the idea.
that he can listen to via earphones. I find it slightly irksome to
Simon also Now in his 40s, Harbisson has explain Harbisson’s work when he
recommends... “It is endearingly old-
evolved. The sound generator and hardly bothers. For over 20 years,
Films fashioned – as though
an attached camera on a pencil- he has offered his audience what
X: The Man with thin stalk are permanently fused
the body’s plasticity they now expect: a ringing
the X-Ray Eyes to the back of his skull. He hears wasn’t already a endorsement of transhumanism,
Roger Corman
colours through bone conduction. burning social issue” the philosophy that would have us
Streaming
If, indeed, “hears” is the word. treat our bodies as malleable meat.
Ray Milland stares into the Watching Carey Born’s Cyborg: A you like: time gets the last laugh. Harbisson and Ribas co-created
universe and regrets it in one documentary, we sometimes catch The way Harbisson hacked his the Cyborg Foundation and the
of horror director Corman’s Harbisson talking intelligently own perception leaves him with Transpecies Society to give a voice
more existential forays. about the senses. He doesn’t hear very little to do but talk about his to cyborgs and others with non-
colour so much as see it, because experiences. He can’t demonstrate human identities. An endearingly
Crimes of the Future his visual cortex interprets the them, unlike his partner, Moon old-fashioned approach, it is as
David Cronenberg
information directly, much as Ribas. The dancer-choreographer though the body’s plasticity wasn’t
Prime Video
practised Braille readers don’t go has a vibrating, internet-enabled already a burning social issue, and
Viggo Mortensen and through a stage of interpreting gadget in her left arm that tells a weapon in our culture wars.
Léa Seydoux perform artistic sensations of touch. His colour her how to respond to real-time I wish Born had challenged
surgeries in a future that organ is startling: what is that earthquake data. The bigger the her subject. Penetrate their shell
thinks it has mastered antenna on the back of that chap’s vibrations, the stronger the quake, of schooled ego and you may
evolution. You can almost
head? But Harbisson is used to it, and this guides her dancing. find conceptual artists have a
hear Cronenberg chuckling.
and his brain treats its input like Harbisson, however, is stuck surprising amount to say. ❚

Views Your letters
Editor’s pick The Ring of Brodgar on the main 1970s. Although this was full algebra often not encountered
island of Orkney is a circle of of apparently useful sugar until the postgraduate level.
standing stones that was made and protein and was eaten
We still lack a fundamental
by a thriving Neolithic settlement. with enthusiasm, the cattle
explanation for morality Nature will have occupied
That ring was there when inexplicably failed to gain weight.
31 August, p 28 Stonehenge was being built, The problem was solved by all the levels of reality
From Andrew Whiteley, and today it has 20 stones missing. an astute student (my informant) 10 August, p 18
Consett, County Durham, UK Your article suggests the altar who got out of the lab and spent a From John Davidson, Knighton
Webb Keane’s anthropological stone would have been brought to few days cattle-watching. The test on Teme, Worcestershire, UK
account of morality in his book Stonehenge by sea: where better to group spent their days excitedly It is fascinating to consider the
Animals, Robots, Gods encounters find a craft and a crew to transport running and jumping, enjoying possibilities of quantum biology,
the familiar problem experienced by it than in an island community? a caffeine high rather than but surely its existence would be
reductive explanations of the moral getting down to the serious no great surprise. It seems to me
faculty. However sophisticated From Fred White, Nottingham, UK business of eating grass. that nature is already functioning
the concepts deployed, morality The altar stone isn’t the only happily at all the “levels” we
is explained away as essentially a Scottish connection to humans think we can discern, and
These financial trades
social construct, a matter of social Stonehenge. Isotopic analysis of many more we have yet to identify.
conditioning. I am given no reason, pig teeth near Stonehenge found are bad enough already Surely molecules, atoms,
ultimately, why I must do the right they had been brought from the 17 August, p 14 subatomic particles, the quantum
thing, why I must not pursue my Orkney islands for feasting. From Sam Edge, world and the microdynamics of
interests at the expense of others. Ringwood, Hampshire, UK space, etc., are all aspects of one
What truly lies at the heart of the High-frequency trading already natural system, functioning as a
An engineer’s vote for
moral sense is unaccounted for. demonstrates that the financial whole, and the various so-called
the cynical approach markets are nothing but a shell levels are all human constructs –
17 August, p 36 game profiting only the already a useful analysis or a window
Exploring the latest From Miles Fidelman, ultra-rich and causing misery for onto something we don’t fully
mystery of Stonehenge Acton, Massachusetts, US the rest when they go off the rails. understand, part of a whole we
24 August, p 16 In engineering, cynicism is a Making such trading even more have yet to comprehend?
From Richard Deacon, London, UK very practical way to approach volatile with quantum technology
While I remain in awe of the big challenges. You must assume will only cause harm.
A simple solution to
detective work that has gone that anything that can go wrong
into suggesting a Scottish origin will go wrong and proceed food’s climate impact
Delving into the maths 17 August, p 13
for the altar stone at Stonehenge’s accordingly. Only after everything
centre, I remain dumbfounded that can go wrong has gone wrong behind the latest AIs From John Kitchen, Kettering,
by the belief that it was human and you have cleaned up the 27 July, p 28 Northamptonshire, UK
agency that brought it there. mess can you get on with From Elizabeth Hembree, You report the growing impact of
Surely a far more believable making things go right. Lexington, Virginia, US emissions from food production
story is that the stone was there In your review of Anil on the climate. The only way to
anyway somehow and our Bronze Ananthaswamy’s book Why avoid this kind of damage is for
Caffeine: great for us,
Age ancestors recognised its Machines Learn, I was astonished every person to limit their meat
difference – its strangeness – and not so good for farms to read his statement that the intake to less than 200 grams per
therefore its possible potency, so 24 August, p 36 mathematics behind AI is simple, week. This is a fraction of what
began using it as a spiritual focus? From John Hedger, “the kind one learns in high many people now eat. We do need
The construction of Stonehenge Dundonnell, Ross and Cromarty, UK school or early college”. dietary vitamin B12 and animal
around it followed from this. I was delighted to find that This may be true of a basic products are rich in this, but B12
moderate consumption of model, but not for ChatGPT, supplements and fortification
From Robert Senior, caffeine is good for Homo Claude and other neural are plentiful these days.
Uppingham, Rutland, UK sapiens. It may not be for some network-based models, which No matter what the agricultural
Acquiring objects from abroad, other species: I was once told of involve billions of parameters and industry says or does, unless we
particularly if they have cultural experiments on the use of waste multiple dimensions. The maths eat far less meat, we will destroy
significance, is something pulp from coffee berry processing is stochastic probability theory, our environment. ❚
humans like to do. Stones, as cattle feed in Mexico in the stochastic calculus and linear
whether gems or edifices,
For the record
are particularly popular.
Might the altar stone have been Want to get in touch? ❚ A 100-nanometre glass bead
acquired in the same way? We now Send letters to letters@newscientist.com; is a thousandth of the width of
know that it must have come from see terms at newscientist.com/letters a human hair (31 August, p 16).
an area of north-east Scotland. Letters sent to New Scientist, 9 Derry Street, ❚ Orkney is in Scotland, off the
Orkney is at the centre of that area. London, W8 5HY will be delayed mainland (24 August, p 47).

Features Cover story
Fresh insight into what causes

obsessive-compulsive disorder is
paving the way to new treatments,
discovers Anthea Rowan
Rethinking OCD
W
HEN my daughter was young, she The obsessions are unwanted ideas, images
washed her hands a lot. We might or impulses that dominate people’s thoughts
have poked what we thought was and defy efforts to control them. They typically
gentle fun at her, saying she was “a little bit involve themes of danger or harm, such as
OCD”. Later, she began to disclose “bad excessive fears about contamination, an
thoughts”, which I assumed were the typical extreme concern with order and symmetry
products of a child’s imagination. I told her or worries about losing important things.
we all had thoughts like that, and if we Compulsions can take many forms:
ignored them, they went away. excessive washing, lock checking or
Hers didn’t. At 21, they were out of control superstitious behaviours like touching an
and out of proportion to anything like reality. object a certain number of times to prevent
She was diagnosed with obsessive-compulsive something bad happening. “The symptoms
disorder and I finally realised there was are very disabling and unpleasant,” says Trevor
nothing “a little bit” about this condition. Robbins, also at the University of Cambridge.
OCD is complex and commonly I have witnessed the physical manifestation
misunderstood, with a limited number of of my daughter’s thought process on a loop in
treatment options. But in recent years, the her repeated hand-washing – yet the intrusive
mechanisms in the brain and body that drive thoughts aren’t silenced by soap and water or
it are finally being pinned down, revealing an reassurance that thoughts are just thoughts.
elaborate picture involving genetics, various This highlights one of the problems
brain networks, the immune system and even with our understanding of OCD, because
the bacteria in our gut. In turn, this growing obsessive thoughts and compulsive actions
understanding is opening up new possibilities are part of everyday life, to some degree. We
of tackling this life-sabotaging condition. go back to check that we did indeed lock the
Around the world, between 1 and 3 per front door, and can’t stop our mind wandering
cent of people are estimated to have OCD, to the stressful event coming up next week.
which typically begins during adolescence Indeed, many symptoms of OCD represent
or early adulthood. As its name suggests, it distortions of useful behaviours or defence
is characterised by obsessions – or intrusive mechanisms – such as avoiding contaminated
thoughts – and compulsions, which are habits substances or checking that a fire is out –
you can’t stop. “Compulsive thoughts capture intended to ensure safety.
BRETT RYDER
attention and take over because they’ve But when obsessive thoughts become
become a compulsive habit,” says Barbara frequent or intense, or compulsive rituals
Sahakian at the University of Cambridge. become so prominent that they interfere

with an individual’s functioning, that is when
a diagnosis of OCD is made. In severe cases,
people may not be able to leave their home,
as they are performing their rituals for as
long as 12 hours a day, says Robbins.
Currently, the front-line treatment for OCD
is a specialised form of cognitive behavioural
therapy (CBT) called exposure and response
prevention, in which the individual is
gradually exposed to situations that trigger
them and learns ways to cope with their
distress. Drugs called selective serotonin
reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), commonly used
to treat depression and anxiety, can also
be used. But around a third of people with
OCD don’t respond to these, so the hunt
is on for alternatives.
Brain loops
One line of enquiry that researchers
have pursued since the 1990s is to try to
understand the brain mechanisms that
drive OCD. An increasingly clear picture is
emerging of its underlying circuitry. This
research has highlighted the importance
of certain neuronal networks that help
prioritise information and decide which bits
we should act on. Known as frontostriatal
loops, these connect the front of the
outermost part of the brain, the cortex,
with an inner region called the striatum
(see “OCD brain networks”, page 35).
One of these loops is related to goal-directed
behaviour, where we deliberately weigh up
information and decide on certain actions
to achieve a particular objective. Another is
involved with our habit system, where we carry
out actions automatically. There is constant
interplay between these systems, with the goal-
directed network able to inhibit the habit ones.
Both systems can be impaired in OCD,
says Naomi Fineberg at the University of
Hertfordshire, UK. “There’s poor inhibitory
control.” For instance, under-connectivity in
the goal-directed loop and hyper-connectivity
in the habit network are both associated
with stronger OCD symptoms.
A third loop acts as a control circuit that
arbitrates between the goal-directed and habit
systems and allocates control “This mainly
enables flexible switching between the goal-
directed and the habit system,” says Robbins.
“If this system is impaired, which also appears
to be the case in OCD, then you will have a >

How our brain creates our sense of ‘mental health’
Camilla Nord explores the science of a balanced brain
scenario where it is difficult to disengage These findings lend weight to a surprising

from the habit system, leading to repetitive alternative view of OCD that has emerged over
behaviour, which may be a driver of the past decade. The traditional explanation
compulsive behaviour.” for the condition is that obsessive thoughts
The importance of this arbitration loop drive compulsive rituals, which are carried out
was highlighted earlier this year in a study to control or reduce distress. The alternative
by Jun Soo Kwon at Seoul National University, hypothesis turns this on its head: the idea is
South Korea, and his colleagues, in which that obsessions may arise as a post-hoc
people with and without OCD had their rationalisation of compulsive behaviour. In
brains scanned while carrying out cognitive other words, compulsive habits may be the
tests. The researchers found that reduced driver of the irrational beliefs and worries,
BASAK GURBUZ DERMAN/GETTY IMAGES

connectivity in the brain network involved not the other way round.
with arbitration was linked to the severity Crucial evidence for this came from a 2014
of compulsive symptoms. study in which participants with and without
Another piece of the puzzle of OCD in the OCD were trained to develop new habits in the
brain is the role of the neurotransmitters that lab. To avoid getting a shock to their wrist, they
drive and direct the activity in neural networks. pressed a pedal when they saw a square on
A major leap forward in our understanding of a computer screen. Later, the shocker was
this came last year in a study that looked at the disconnected from their wrist, so there was no
levels of two key neurotransmitters in the longer a need to press the pedal to avoid pain.
brains of people with and without OCD: Strikingly, those with OCD – but not those
glutamate, an “excitatory” neurotransmitter without – continued to press on the pedal has yet to be peer-reviewed pinpoints some
that enhances communication between when they saw the square, even though they of the finer details. This examined the
neurons, and GABA, which dampens it. said they knew it could no longer harm them. genomes of nearly 40,000 people with
Using a powerful scanning technique, When questioned about their persistence in OCD and identified 15 genetic signatures
Marjan Biria, who is now at University College pressing the pedal, some volunteers with OCD associated with the condition, including
London, Robbins and their colleagues focused invented explanations for their behaviour ones for proteins that influence brain function
on two specific brain regions: the anterior such as “I thought it could still shock me and development. Intriguingly, one of the
cingulate cortex and the supplementary somehow” even though they earlier said that other signatures identified was associated with
motor area, which are both involved in they knew they wouldn’t be hurt. One rationale the genes for the major histocompatibility
controlling the balance between conscious for this disconnect is that when we carry out an complex, a region of DNA that plays an
important role in the immune system
and has also been linked to other mental
health conditions such as schizophrenia
and bipolar disorder.
“Compulsive thoughts take over because This finding fits with a growing body of
evidence that the immune system is one of
they have become a compulsive habit” the factors driving OCD. It seems to have this
effect by influencing certain brain networks
that, in turn, enhance compulsive behaviours.
A case in point is two related conditions called
PANS and PANDAS in which children can
goals and more automatic habits. They found action that no longer makes sense, our brains suddenly develop OCD symptoms, anxiety
that people with OCD had higher levels of can invent a story that makes our behaviour or tics seemingly in response to infection.
glutamate and lower levels of GABA in the seem more logical. “In PANS/PANDAS, severe OCD symptoms
anterior cingulate cortex, compared with This still begs the question of why some can present within hours and from nowhere,”
people who don’t have the condition. people are more prone to OCD than others. says Fulvio D’Acquisto at the University of
The study also found that the severity Here, too, the underlying factors are becoming Roehampton, London. It appears that an
of OCD symptoms and a tendency towards clearer. We have long known that genetics immune reaction may cause inflammation
compulsive behaviour were related to plays a strong part, because OCD tends to run and impair a brain region heavily implicated
higher glutamate levels in the supplementary in families, with the immediate relatives of in OCD called the basal ganglia, of which the
motor area. The dominance of excitatory affected individuals having a four to eight striatum is part.
neurotransmitters in these regions may times higher risk of developing the condition. Further support for the role of the immune
make them hyperactive, which, in turn, In fact, half of the risk of developing OCD is system in OCD comes from the 2023 discovery
allows compulsive behaviour to dominate. down to our genes. A paper from March that by a team of researchers, including D’Acquisto,

Do microbes cause OCD?
Evidence is mounting that receive a transplant.
the microbes in our gut play The researchers also found
an important role in mental inflammation in a key brain
health conditions, and new area implicated in OCD called
research is revealing that the medial prefrontal cortex,
this is the case for obsessive- probably due to the
compulsive disorder too. accumulation of a substance
Key evidence comes from called succinic acid driven by
a study published this year, the proliferation
in which a team at Shanghai of transplanted microbes.
Jiao Tong University, China, This not only indicates
transplanted faecal gut that gut microbes might be
microbiota from humans with a causative factor in OCD,
OCD into mice. Two weeks but opens up potential routes
later, the mice began to exhibit to treating the condition
repetitive behaviours and through diet or manipulation
Going back to check signs of anxiety compared of the types of microbes in our
a lock repeatedly with animals that didn’t digestive system.
is a common
symptom of OCD
that people with the condition have increased out a proposed mechanism for the protein’s under way, with the aim of testing them
activity levels in a gene for a protein produced effect: an infection leads to temporary as potential new treatments for OCD.
by immune cells called immuno-moodulin, increases in Imood, which then accumulates But this is just one of many avenues being
or Imood. in the brain, altering the functioning explored in the hunt for new ways to tackle the
D’Acquisto and his colleagues had found of neuronal cells, says D’Acquisto. condition. These include brain stimulation
this protein by chance a few years earlier while What’s more, antibodies against Imood techniques, phone apps and even changes to
working on mice that exhibited high levels of reduce the compulsive behaviours in mice, diet, as there is emerging evidence that gut
compulsive digging, and discovered that this raising the possibility that they might work microbes play a part in the condition too
behaviour was linked to high levels of Imood. in humans too. Efforts to develop a human (see “Do microbes cause OCD?”, above).
Their soon-to-be published research will set version of the Imood antibody are currently One of the many new ideas is to use
ketamine. This anaesthetic and rave drug
causes feelings of disassociation, and is
OCD brain networks undergoing a surprising conversion to
One underlying cause of obsessive-compulsive disorder is alterations to neuronal being used to treat brain and mental health
pathways called frontostriatal loops. We also know that neurotransmitter conditions. For instance, a randomised
imbalances in two brain regions, the anterior cingulate cortex and the controlled trial carried out by Carolyn
supplementary motor area, are linked to the condition. Rodriguez at Stanford University in California
Cortex
and her colleagues found that taking ketamine
resulted in a rapid improvement in OCD
symptoms. In a study due to be published
soon, the researchers found that a single
intravenous infusion relieves symptoms
for about three weeks. Rodriguez is now
exploring the biochemical mechanisms
through which this drug works.
However, the addictive nature of ketamine
Supplementary and its side effects mean it is no magic
motor area bullet. “These things give me pause. I’m not
Anterior cingulate advocating people with OCD rush to use
ketamine,” says Rodriguez, who is a strong
Frontal areas
proponent of CBT treatment for OCD. To use
FRONTOSTRIATAL
Striatum an analogy, if a person broke their arm, they
LOOPS
would need a cast to support it in recovery,
SOURCE: OCDANDTHEBRAIN.COM
she says. “I think of CBT as the plaster cast >

A patient Meanwhile, a number of other non-invasive
undergoing techniques to alter the neural pathways in
transcranial outer parts of the brain – through magnetic
magnetic or electrical stimulation – are becoming
MARC BRUXELLE/ALAMY
stimulation, increasingly common, with the first such

which can help device approved by the FDA for OCD in 2017.
alleviate OCD Just like for TTIS, these devices are
composed of electrodes or electromagnetic
coils that are placed on top of the skull.
The effect – felt as a buzz – can be tailored
to the brain circuitry of the individual,
something that can be done with ever
greater precision now that we have
“The psychedelic drug psilocybin is a clearer understanding of the brain
networks associated with OCD symptoms.
in clinical trials for treating OCD” A 2023 meta-analysis of 25 trials of so-called
transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS)
found that it “exhibited a moderate
therapeutic effect… on OCD symptom
severity”. The effects are small, says Fineberg,
but it has value “perhaps in helping to loosen
and ketamine, in the short term, to alleviate to Rodriguez, “the closest we’ve been since the the brain up so you can do your CBT”.
pain while doctors cast the break.” 1990s to a new FDA-approved drug” for OCD. However, Robbins is more optimistic about
Ketamine is thought to work because it New treatments are sorely needed because, the potential of TMS, especially since studies
increases neuroplasticity – the brain’s ability for the 10 per cent of people with severe OCD are under way to establish the best brain areas
to remodel itself – and, in so doing, it loosens whose symptoms don’t respond to CBT to target and the optimum doses for alleviation
the characteristically rigid thinking that or SSRIs, invasive surgical procedures are of symptoms. “The exciting thing about TMS
accompanies OCD and makes those with currently the main alternative. These include is that it adjusts the so-called excitatory/
the condition more receptive to CBT. anterior cingulotomy, when a permanent inhibitory balance in the cortex, which we’ve
For similar reasons, the psychedelic drug lesion is made in area deep in the brain recently shown is affected in OCD,” he says.
psilocybin – the active ingredient in magic involved with OCD behaviours. Alternatively, The upshot of all these investigations into
mushrooms – is also in clinical trials for deep brain stimulation (DBS), where thin the mechanisms underlying OCD is that, in
OCD in the UK and the US. In the body, it electrodes are inserted into this part of the future, clinicians should have some much-
is converted into a molecule that binds brain to deliver electrical currents, is a less needed new tools to treat this distressing and
to a specific receptor in the brain for the permanent way to mimic these lesions and sometimes intractable condition. “OCD is not a
neurotransmitter serotonin, so it can act disrupt information flow. neurodegenerative disease where you’re losing
in similar ways to SSRIs and, in turn, may the brain,” says Robbins. “It’s just that the brain
help unstick thought patterns. “If you has been modulated – it’s not in the right state.
boost serotonin, it makes you more Brain stimulation I think it could be made to function better.”
flexible,” says Robbins. Around two-thirds of people receiving DBS Rodriguez is also optimistic for the future. “I’m
We are also seeking fresh treatments by for OCD see a marked reduction in symptoms. so hopeful for the patients I have now for when
looking at existing drugs designed to treat However, it is a last-resort treatment as it they are older,” she says. “The technology is
other mental health conditions, especially is invasive and comes with risks such as coming on in leaps and bounds.”
those that work on the brain’s glutamate infection, seizures or bleeding. But this may When I ask my daughter what she thinks
pathways, which we now know are implicated change if a newly developed non-surgical about these new possibilities she, too, is
in OCD. A case in point is the drug riluzole, technique to stimulate neural activity deep hopeful. “Knowing there may be things
approved by the US Food and Drug in the brain called transcranial temporal within my reach that can ease OCD symptoms
Administration (FDA) to treat motor neuron interference stimulation (TTIS) proves to be a is really helpful,” she says. “It makes me feel
disease. Early studies found it helpful in viable alternative. In this, electrodes attached more in control.” ❚
treating OCD that is resistant to treatment to the scalp deliver signals at different
with SSRIs and CBT. frequencies to a particular deep brain region.
Now, the pharmaceutical company When these signals interfere with each Anthea Rowan is a freelance
Biohaven is working to develop a related other, they alter neural activity. A randomised writer and author of A Silent
drug, troriluzole, with fewer side effects. It is trial in May found this technique could Tsunami: Swimming against the
in a phase III trial in humans and is, according selectively target the striatum. tide of my mother’s dementia

The ultimate
stable resonances. This exceptional accuracy
enables GPS, keeps financial systems in check
and allows us to test the limits of fundamental
laws of physics, like the time dilation predicted
by Albert Einstein’s general theory of relativity.
timepiece
But atomic clocks have limitations. Electrons
form the outer part of an atom, and as such
they are vulnerable to interference from
electric and magnetic fields that can cause
the resonances to shift. “What limits these
clocks is that in the lab you have to control all
the environmental parameters – the smallest
The most precise clock ever built could transform our magnetic fields, the smallest electric fields,
understanding of the universe, finds Lyndie Chiou everything,” says Sandro Kraemer, a physicist
at KU Leuven, a university in Belgium. “So,
in practice, we’re always fighting that.”
In 1996, Eugene Tkalya, a physicist at
Moscow State University, realised there
E
KKEHARD PEIK is a clock-maker. But blowing precision? Because it will be used was a better solution. Instead of using
instead of spending his days looking for something much more exciting than electrons on the edge of an atom, a neutron
at tiny cogs and springs through a simply telling the time. Nuclear clocks could moving between two energy levels inside an
magnifying glass, the tools of his trade are help probe some of the deepest mysteries atom could be the basis of a clock. There were
powerful lasers, wires and, occasionally, of the universe, including the nature clear reasons such a device would outperform
radioactive atoms. Peik, director of the of dark matter and some of the elusive an atomic clock. While the electron shells
German metrology institute (PTB), is one fundamental forces that shape our cosmos. are affected by stray electric and magnetic
of a handful of physicists who have spent The tick of today’s atomic clocks is the fields, neutrons are impervious to these
the best part of three decades trying to make result of electrons that oscillate between forces. Instead, they are only affected by
the most accurate timepiece in the universe. a pair of shells around the nucleus of an the strong nuclear force, which interacts
Since the 1950s, researchers have atom. The transitions between these shells over extremely short distances – less than
been constructing atomic clocks, the are driven by shining lasers at the atoms the width of an atom. A nuclear clock would
very best of which are now so accurate involved at just the right frequency to match measure time with orders of magnitude
they only lose a second in around 31 billion that of the oscillations, a state that is known more precision than an atomic clock.
years. But these are about to be replaced as resonance. This resonant frequency, For most atomic nuclei, driving such
by a new model: the nuclear clock. the number of oscillations of light per a resonance would require a laser more
This promises to outperform its second, sets the tempo of the clock. powerful than we have yet invented. There is
atomic counterparts both in terms of In the case of atomic clocks, the number an exception though – the radioactive element
precision and accuracy. A nuclear clock of oscillations each second is extremely thorium-229 (Th-229). This needs an unusually
ADOBE STOCK
would, in principle, only drop a second every stable, so we can use them as very precise low amount of energy to create its oscillation.
300 billion years. Why, you might ask, would timekeepers. The best atomic clocks use “It’s still high compared to what people
we ever need something with such mind- ytterbium or strontium atoms and have ultra typically use nowadays in atomic clocks, >

The mysterious nature of charge
Frank Close explores the dynamics of the subatomic
world on 12 October newscientist.com/nslmag
but it’s so low that one could imagine driving Then, one day in November 2023,
this with a laser,” says Eric Hudson, a physicist Peik wrapped up a meeting and headed
at the University of California, Los Angeles. to his lab, where he was surprised to walk
Physicists set to work to be the first to into a room full of excited colleagues. Finally,
achieve this neutron oscillation. The initial, after decades of searching, they had found
and biggest, hurdle was that no one knew the right energy to drive the transition. “It’s a
exactly what energy was required. Only by rare event in the life of a researcher where you
knowing this very precisely could a laser be really see something for the first time,” he says.
tuned to produce the resonance. This value “That’s a great experience.” Hudson’s group
couldn’t be calculated, only determined soon found the correct energy, too. “They beat
through careful experimentation. us by a little bit, but that’s OK,” says Hudson.
“It’s an exciting time for everyone.”
With this huge hurdle cleared, the only
Probing the strong force step left to making a usable clock was to
The reason for this lies in the strong boost the resonance signal from the nucleus
nuclear force. As the name suggests, it is of Th-229, which was still too weak. To get a
the strongest of the fundamental forces, but usable signal for a working clock would require
only over the shortest distances. It confines a laser much more sharply tuned at exactly
fundamental particles called quarks together the right energy. In late June, Jun Ye at the JILA
in a bubble to make protons and neutrons. research institute in Boulder, Colorado, and
But move a tad outside the bubble, and his group revealed that they had constructed
the strong force peters out to nothing. just such a laser. “Seeing the direct frequency
To this day, the physics behind the measurement sent a chill to my body,” says Ye.
strong nuclear force makes it extremely In their paper, Ye and his team describe
difficult to make practical calculations of their set-up as amounting to a nuclear clock,
the entire nucleus. “There is a pretty good but not everyone agrees. “Jun has made
model of strong interaction in the standard spectacular progress,” says Peik, but it
model [of particle physics],” says Kraemer. doesn’t quite meet the definition of a clock.
“However, to describe a whole nucleus, there “A clock is a device that shows time,” he says.
are so many potential interactions.” As a rule, “It should be able to provide a ticking at a
in such cases, physicists rely on approximations. well-controlled frequency and to do so
Yet, even with these simplifications, our largest for a reasonably continuous period.”
supercomputers don’t have enough capacity While Ye’s set-up isn’t stable enough to
to calculate the physics of heavy atoms like meet this definition, since it worked only for
Th-229. This means values related to the inner a limited number of cycles, it has proven useful
workings of the nucleus, like the Th-229 as a tool for probing questions in fundamental
resonance, must be found by trial and error. physics. “It’s the dawn of precision metrology
The number of possibilities was so large for nuclear physics,” says Ye. For his first
DAWN YANG
that finding the right one was like looking experiment with the device, Ye and his team
for a needle in a haystack. Over several years, used it along with a strontium atomic clock
starting in 2009, physicists like Bret Beck at to measure something called the nuclear
the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in electric quadrupole moment inside a Th-229
California narrowed down the Th-229 transition
energy to smaller and smaller ranges. Then,
atom, a measure of how symmetrical the
charge is within a nucleus, which naturally
“A nuclear
Hudson hit on a novel approach. Instead of
measuring the transition from a single Th-229
has a shape like a stretched sphere.
The team hoped to find out if the
clock would,
atom, as others had been doing, he proposed a
way to boost the signal by embedding billions
quadrupole moment changes slightly
when the nucleus moves to a slightly
in principle,
of atoms into crystals. This would finally allow higher energy state. Peik’s lab ran a similar only drop a
a more precise measurement of the energy experiment in 2018, and no such changes
required, and make a nuclear clock feasible. were detected. But Ye’s lab found a tiny change second every
Fast-forward to 2023, and physicists working
at CERN, the particle physics laboratory near
of 1.8 per cent. “No one has ever been able to
observe this experimentally,” said Kraemer. llion years
300 billion years”
Geneva, Switzerland, narrowed down the “That’s a really very big step forward.”
uncertainty in the energy gap even further. Ye and his colleagues used the shifting
On the back of this, both Hudson’s and Peik’s quadrupole measurements to show that a
groups refocused their search efforts to this property called the nuclear volume of Th-229,
much narrower region. Peik’s group started which is related to the shape of the nucleus,
scanning from the upper end of the new range, must be altering too. They discovered that
while Hudson’s started from the lower end. the minuscule shape shifts can be used to

The clock that
hunts dark matter
Nuclear clocks could be a surprisingly
useful tool in the hunt for dark matter,
the mysterious stuff thought to make
up more than 80 per cent of all the
matter in the universe. In particular,
these clocks, which are currently being
developed (see main story), might
be sensitive to a specific candidate
known as ultralight dark matter.
Dark matter is only known to
interact with other matter gravitationally,
making it notoriously hard to detect.
But some models predict that ultralight
dark matter could disrupt a nuclear
clock through the strong nuclear force.
If physicists could detect this happening,
it would provide evidence that
ultralight dark matter exists.
for next-generation GPS satellites, as such

traits are required to make very precise
measurements of location. “The atomic
clocks in GPS satellites are nowhere near as
good as what we have in the lab,” says Hudson,
who also points out that nuclear clocks are
portable and can run at any temperature.
Eventually, nuclear clocks could be used
to redefine time. Currently, a unit of time is
based on the rate of oscillation of an electron
between two electron shells inside a caesium
atom, and it hasn’t changed since 1967. But
perhaps in future, the second could be defined
according to neutron oscillations. “It takes
a long time for standards to change,” says
Hudson, “but I imagine a [thorium-based]
clock will eventually be the standard.”
There’s just one fly in the ointment: Th-229
determine the sensitivity of the nuclear primarily by the strong nuclear force and the is incredibly scarce. Because of its radioactive
transition frequency to a universal constant other by the electromagnetic force – and let decay, it can’t reliably be found in nature. Today’s
known as the fine structure constant. them tick, looking for subtle changes in how stockpile is a byproduct of nuclear weapons
This research relates to an overarching they keep time. Any differences could be traced programmes that ended in the 1990s, leaving
question in physics to do with these universal back to teensy shifts in nature’s constants, such only 40 grams of high-quality Th-229 on Earth.
constants, which are observed values – like as the fine structure constant. Others hope to Kraemer says CERN could produce more, but
the strength of the various forces – that define use the clocks to answer other questions too the facility isn’t ideal for manufacturing large
how the universe works. The tiniest change (see “The clock that hunts dark matter”, above). quantities. “On the other hand, the amount
in any of these constants would have an There are plenty of applications in tech, too. needed is also rather low,” he says. A recent
impact on everything from subatomic Unlike the electrons in an atomic clock, which experiment only needed 0.17 micrograms,
physics to cosmic structures. The question repel each other, the functioning of neutrons so today’s supply could potentially enable
is: have these values really always been the in a nuclear clock is unaffected when the atoms around 200 million nuclear clocks. It is
same? “You think about nature, how many are packed densely together. This means a certainly enough to get started. ❚
things areactually constant?” says Hudson. nuclear clock based on Th-229 atoms could be
“Everything is dynamic at some level.” far more stable than an atomic clock, because Lyndie Chiou is a freelance writer
Nuclear clocks are the best bet to answer the large number of atoms would average based in San Francisco, California
this question. Researchers could construct out the noise inherent to such systems. This
a nuclear and an atomic clock – one ruled means the clock would be a good candidate

Features Interview
“ Now we can get at

information we didn’t even
realise was preserved in
dinosaur fossils”
Reconstructing dinosaurs can be a challenge, but
working out their behaviour takes that to a whole
new level, as David Hone tells Colin Barras
D
INOSAURS dominated the land for Colin Barras: Some of the largest dinosaurs – search of food. Can we test that? Well, yes: we
around 180 million years. Yet we have sauropods such as Diplodocus or Brachiosaurus, can study the chemical isotopes in sauropod
little idea what life was like for these for example – were nothing like any living teeth and see a recurring signature reflecting
prehistoric icons as interpreting fossils that animal. How do you even begin to work their diet that tells us an animal was shifting
are at least 65 million years old is fiendishly out how they behaved? between two spots every six months. That’s an
difficult. Finding out more had long seemed David Hone: One of the most important annual migration. Then we can begin asking
impossible. No longer. things we can do as palaeontologists is use our how that ties in with our reconstructions of the
In the past few decades, new technologies understanding of modern animal ecology and local ecology at the time to understand the
and new specimens have provided previously behaviour in a much better way. Mouth shape drivers of migration. Or we can begin asking
unimaginable windows into their behaviour is a good example. If you’ve got a small mouth, how this migration might have affected the
and ecology. This, along with insights you are usually targeting individual buds or behaviour of the predators in the region. We’ve
from living animals, is finally allowing leaves – high-nutrition foods. If you have a very gone from “big sauropods moved slowly” to
palaeontologists to build a picture of broad mouth, you are usually bulk feeding. something far more sophisticated.
dinosaur life ranging from parental That’s a simple observation we can apply to
care, migration and hunting styles to sauropods. But I think we have the real Can we infer from this that all or most of these
communication, sociality and combat. potential to go much beyond that. gigantic sauropods were migrating animals?
David Hone is one of those working to You have to be careful: we know from today’s
glean more about life in the age of dinosaurs. Could you provide an example? animals that behaviour is astonishingly
A palaeontologist at Queen Mary University Well, we have moved away from simply saying flexible. Wildebeest are a great example.
of London, he has collated the latest findings “this sauropod was very big, so it probably To many of us, almost the defining feature
PAUL RYDING/JOSEPH WOODHOUSE
into a forthcoming book, Uncovering Dinosaur moved slowly”. We are now beginning to of these animals is the mass migration they
Behavior: What they did and how we know. realise that some of these slow animals were make across the Serengeti and Masai Mara.
He gave New Scientist a taste of what has been actually relatively energy efficient, meaning But go to South Africa and the wildebeest
discovered, from migrating herbivores and they could travel long distances – even if it there don’t really migrate. It’s the same species
semi-aquatic predators to why ostriches are took them a long time. That opens up new behaving in a completely different way. That
a problem for understanding which dinosaurs questions. Why might a sauropod travel a long tells you the mass migration behaviour seen
doted on their young. way? An obvious reason might be that it’s in in the Serengeti isn’t tied to the biology of >

these animals, it’s entirely environmentally and they will each come and lay a few eggs in
“We can see driven. The same must have been true for his nest. Was that true of some dinosaurs? If so,
at least some dinosaurs. then if you find a dead dinosaur on a nest of 50
growth rings That’s important to know because there are
implications for other aspects of behaviour –
eggs, you don’t know whether that reflects the
output of one female or 10. So, ostriches tell us
on the teeth behaviours like parental care. If you’re
constantly moving, it’s more of a challenge
it’s not enough to simply say: I have this many
eggs in the nest that were laid by one animal,
of embryonic for offspring to keep up. But if you are relatively

stationary, it’s possible to protect young
which cared for the offspring.
offspring. Today, lots of people are very How are new tools and technologies
dinosaurs” happy with the idea that many of these transforming our understanding of
dinosaurs showed extended parental care. dinosaur behaviour?
We actually have very good data for that. With new techniques we can get at information
we didn’t even realise was preserved in
You mean dinosaurs like Maiasaura, where dinosaur fossils. But it doesn’t necessarily lead
fossilised nests appear to show hatchlings were to easy conclusions. A great example is using
fed on vegetation brought back by their parents? CT scans to look at dinosaur embryos. We can
Yes, that nest study was really fundamental see growth rings on the teeth of these tiny
research – although, of course, it only tells us animals that were deposited daily. That’s
about the behaviour of one dinosaur species astonishing to begin with, but you can then use
at just a handful of sites that have fossilised. those growth rings to work out how long the
It’s not a model for all members of that group, embryos remained in the egg. When people
let alone all dinosaurs. did this for two plant-eating dinosaurs,
Protoceratops and Hypacrosaurus, it turned
Another surprising idea is that some dinosaurs out they had an extraordinarily long
were semi-aquatic. What do you make of incubation time. We’re talking up to six
research suggesting that the giant theropod months, when you might have expected this
Spinosaurus was a crocodile-like predator? to be more like weeks or a couple of months.
Those ideas don’t always stand up to scrutiny That blows some of our assumptions out
once you look at all the available information of the water. What were the parents doing?
and think through all the implications. For All of the options look weird. Alligators will
example, it was argued that Spinosaurus could guard a nest for a couple of months, but I
sit in the water like a crocodile with just the honestly can’t easily imagine a dinosaur
eyes and nostrils above the water, but the hanging around for six months to guard its
nostrils are on the side of the head, not the top, nest, which would be difficult without food
and the eyes aren’t any more raised up in these being available. But completely abandoning
Some sauropods dinosaurs than others. In fact, they’re rather the nest is not necessarily something I would
made an annual lower than in many, so it really doesn’t match expect them to do either. Then there’s the
migration the available data. possibility that they abandon the nest for a
time and then come back to it to look after the
These days we know that birds are living babies when the eggs hatch – but that’s almost
dinosaurs. Does that mean we can enhance unprecedented among today’s animals.
our understanding of prehistoric dinosaur So, basically, none of the options are
MARK GARLICK/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY/GETTY IMAGES
behaviour by studying birds? clear. But, of course, you’d rather know

People are doing this now, but it’s really about that problem. The alternative is being
important to be sure you understand mistakenly confident in assumptions that
modern bird species before you begin making are actually wrong.
inferences. For example, in birds, there is a
complex interchange between the number of Are there other instances where we have to be
eggs laid, how big the eggs are and how much careful not to make assumptions when using
care the parents give the hatchlings. But then new technology on specimens?
you have ostriches. Now, ostriches are very, Colour is a perfect example. With new
very annoying in this context, because a imaging techniques we can spot pigment-
successful male will court a number of females containing melanosomes that are in

Hear more from David Hone
at this year’s New Scientist
Live. He will be speaking
JULIUS T CSOTONYI/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY
on13 October about how

dinosaur researchers
interpret the often minimal and even
conflicting information available to them
For more information, visit
The plumage colours females don’t, this would likely tell you
of Anchiornis (above) something about their courtship and also
and other feathered rearing behaviours: unornamented male
dinosaurs hold clues birds usually help raise chicks. And if they
about their behaviour are both showing camouflage patterns year-
round then they might well have been very
Some dinosaurs, vulnerable to predators.
including Spinosaurus
(left), may have been People love to hear about new or unexpected
semi-aquatic discoveries about dinosaur behaviour, but is it
a problem that today’s super-realistic dinosaur
nature documentaries often feature the more
speculative ideas?
MOHAMAD HAGHANI/ALAMY
Well, if those documentaries just showed

the things we definitively knew that dinosaurs
did, then they would be very short. From my
perspective, as long as some good information
is communicated and people start to
understand things, then I’m comfortable.
I think there is a general accumulation of good
fossil feathers and work out their colour. I guess that study isn’t possible because information. For instance, it’s now normal not
This technique has been applied to feathered we just don’t have that many fossils? just to show feathered dinosaurs, but to show
dinosaurs like the small Chinese predator But we do. I’ve been to a collection in feathered dinosaurs with the right kind of
Anchiornis. It told us that one individual had eastern China that had the thick end of feathers in the right places and being used
black and white feathers on its wings and a 1000 specimens of Anchiornis, and about in ways that we think they were used. That’s
rusty-red coloured head. But this is just one-third of them had feathers. Most of those something that has happened in big-ticket
one animal when it died. are probably going to have melanosomes. documentaries only within the past 10 years,
Modern birds tell us that there might Analyse 300 of them and you will learn so and the idea of dinosaurs with feathers is
have been more going on. Look at the grouse: much more about the ecology and behaviour probably now beginning to stick in the public’s
babies look different to adults, males in the of this dinosaur – especially if you combine mind. So, I do think the documentaries are
breeding season look different to females, that with information from other techniques, moving in the right direction. ❚
and in winter both males and females living such as analysing stable isotopes to find out
at higher altitudes or latitudes turn white for which specimens died in winter and which
camouflage in the snow. So, yes, it’s wonderful died in summer, and examining bone Colin Barras is a freelance science
we’ve worked out what one Anchiornis looked microstructure to see if you can work out writer based in Ann Arbor, Michigan
like at the time it died. Now we have to do it which were male and which were female. For
again with 50 or 100 Anchiornis. example, if males show bright colours and

The back pages
Puzzles Almost the last word Tom Gauld for Feedback Twisteddoodles
Try our crossword, What would New Scientist Lipstick on the brain, for New Scientist
quick quiz and happen if time A cartoonist’s take plus cicadas help Picturing the lighter
logic puzzle p45 stopped? p46 on the world p47 tinnitus, maybe p48 side of life p48
Mathematics of life
Go with the flow

Katie Steckles enlists the help of fluid dynamics
researcher Kat Phillips to explain the maths of pouring wine
HAVE you ever found yourself

dispensing wine from a box, or
beer from a standing keg, and
wondered how much liquid is
left in the container? If you
were thinking about it like a
mathematician, you might have
noticed that the fuller the keg is,
the faster the beer comes out.
Katie Steckles is a This might seem obvious, but
mathematician, lecturer, this is a known mathematical
YouTuber and author relationship, and it uses a versatile
based in Manchester, UK. piece of maths that crops up in
She is also adviser for many other real-world situations.
New Scientist’s puzzle Fluid dynamics is the study of
SHUTTERSTOCK/OLESCHWANDER
column, BrainTwister. flow: how liquids and gases
Follow her @stecks behave under forces and interact
with their environment, which
we can model mathematically.
Bernoulli’s principle tells us
that for a given particle of fluid,
the total sum of its energy and
pressure remains constant are roughly equal. Bernoulli’s low pressure, filling it up.
as it moves through space. principle then gives a relationship This same idea works in
This means the sum at one between the height difference and any situation involving fluids –
point must match the sum in the speeds at these two points – where one of the three variables
another location along the same namely, the more wine that is left of height, pressure and speed is
path. For a typical fluid like air or in the box, the greater the height fixed, the other two will be related.
water, the quantities involved are difference between the two points Even the flight of an aeroplane can
pressure, and energy in two forms: and the faster the fluid will come be modelled in the same way: the
potential energy (height) and out of the spout. curved shape of plane wings is
kinetic energy (velocity). If we The same maths can be useful designed so that the air above
keep one of these values fixed, when you want to open a light them moves faster than the air
the other two will then have plastic bag – like a trash bag – below. This creates a region of
a proportional relationship, but find it is sticking together. low pressure above the wing
which we can take advantage of. The best trick is to open the bag that produces suction to lift the
In the case of a wine box, there a tiny amount, and then quickly aeroplane higher into the sky.
will be a path that the wine moves blow some air into it from a few So you can thank Bernoulli’s
along that connects the top of the centimetres away. This quick principle next time you pour a
liquid’s surface inside the box, change in speed, with no change drink – maths is there to keep
Mathematics of life through to a point just past the in height, creates a region of low everything flowing smoothly. ❚
appears monthly spout where the liquid flows pressure in front of the opening
out. As both of these points are of the bag – which will cause air These articles are
Next week touching the surrounding air, nearby to rush away from the posted each week at
Debunking gardening myths we can say that their pressures high pressure and towards the newscientist.com/maker

The back pages Puzzles
Cryptic crossword #144 Set by Rasa Quick quiz #269

set by Bethan Ackerley
Scribble 1 What is the chemical formula of lactic acid?

zone
2 In botany, plants with adaptations to
live in arid places are known as what?
3 X chromosomes that have been

rendered inactive via Lyonisation
are typically known as what?
4 What is the Ramanujan number, i.e. the

smallest number that can be expressed
as the sum of two positive cubes in
two different ways?

5 Which of Saturn’s rings is the brightest?
Answers on page 47
BrainTwister
Answers and set by Mary Ellis
the next quick #37 Digital multiplication
crossword
next week Consider the following rule: Start with
any two-digit number, then repeatedly
multiply the digits together until the
ACROSS DOWN result is a one-digit number. For example:
8 Those going around at CERN 1 Spooner’s tribunal closed 84 32 6, or 97 63 18 8.
owned golf clubs, all but one (7) timesaving route (8)
9 Male captivated by Shakespearean 2 Aimless commercial break (6) What happens if you start with 93?
villain’s winged form (5) 3 Ways of working on small
10 Drops rules for the auditor (5) natural carpet (4) There is just one sequence of length
11 Fatty hummus, say, fills 4 Without hesitation, I bad-mouth 5 starting from a two-digit number.
a hole at short notice (7) Easter or Christmas (6) This sequence ends with the number 8.
12 Company given false hopes after 5 Pastry containing peeled lime, What must the starting number be?
YouTube turns over new leaf (9) not cooked pepper (8)
14 Looking back, cross block (3) 6 Canadian dictionary somehow Can you find the longest possible sequence
16 Pair moving west? That’s a drag (3) crossed the pond (6) starting from a three-digit number?
18 Underground Alaskan city’s timekeeper (9) 7 Amount of a chemical agent (4)
21 Carelessly uncrate hybrid creature (7) 13 Berate graduates carried in after hours (8) Solution next week
22 Faint after initially tolerating 15 With extra energy, markets
small adjustment (5) wildly adorable mammals (8)
23 Horse-drawn vehicle circling a unit (5) 17 Cold attempt to sustain success… (6)
24 Possibly “dewiest” or another 19 …really confused chair, we hear (6)
description for eyes? (4-3) 20 Scandinavian city officials,
at first, like gold (6)
21 Toxic gas around narcotic shrub (4)
22 Orderly is extremely touchy
about credentials (4)
Our crosswords are now solvable online

newscientist.com/crosswords

The back pages Almost the last word
Might we all be
Stop all the clocks
programs in a powerful
What would happen supercomputer?
if time stopped?
at a space-time singularity
Pat French such as at the classical big bang.
Longdon-upon-Tern, Albert Einstein’s special theory
Shropshire, UK of relativity enables me to deduce
Nothing. (Lots of it). Time is that time would stop for you if you
a dimension. Without time, could travel past me at the speed
existence would cease. of light in a vacuum (but you have
While it takes some sort of inertial mass, so this is impossible).
brain and memory to be aware You wouldn’t experience time
of time passing, every particle in to have stopped, but would say
the universe exists in space-time. it was my clock that was stopped,
There would be nothing in which emphasising that there is no
they could move or even “be”. such thing as absolute time
IFEELSTOCK/ALAMY
Also, every force is exerted over applicable to all observers.
time. This means the forces that An observer outside the event
hold the universe together, from horizon of a black hole would also
gravity to the weak nuclear force see time stop for someone falling
(which holds together the quarks This week’s new questions into it, forever unable to cross the
in protons and neutrons), would boundary. But the unfortunate
have no time in which to act. Red or blue pill? Is there any scientific evidence disproving traveller wouldn’t experience
The question is like asking what the notion we are part of a vast simulation run by an advanced any slowing of their own clock
would happen if “size” stopped. civilisation? Philip Simmons, Culver City, California, US and could fall through without
noticing, provided the black hole
Peter Holness Pointed question Why do animals like rhinoceros and was large enough that tidal forces
Hertford, UK triceratops have horns while deer and elk have antlers? didn’t “spaghettify” them before
The interesting thing about this Colin Oatway, Wokingham, Berkshire, UK they crossed the horizon.
question is that it teeters on the
edge of “admissibility”. Scientists John Elliott
usually try only to ask themselves But physics has a big problem in Or, as early 20th-century author Stockport, Greater Manchester, UK
admissible questions. It has agreeing how time is understood Ray Cummings wrote, “Time… Many questions about the nature
become more acceptable recently between quantum mechanics is what keeps everything from of time are complicated by hidden
for physicists to speculate whether and general relativity, and this happening at once”. illogicalities. For example, the two
makes answering the reader’s words “happen” and “stop” each
“It has become more question very difficult. Nick Canning contain hidden references to time
acceptable recently for The latter theory has Coleraine, County Londonderry, UK and only have meaning if it exists.
much to say about how high A misleading picture of time Without time, nothing can change,
physicists to speculate
speeds, massive objects and haunts this question, one nothing can happen, nothing can
if time even exists. If it gravity warp time. Perhaps we visualised in those movie scenes start or stop. So how should we
doesn’t, the question can say two things: stopping of “frozen moments” where a think about time? Physics has
is inadmissable” change stops time and vice- camera viewpoint travels 360 given us some very useful clues.
versa. And an “observer” might degrees around a space apparently Perhaps the best clue is that
time even exists. If it doesn’t, experience “stopped time” frozen in time. These are uncanny most fundamental and simple
the question is inadmissible. inside a black hole but would because they are physically of constants, the speed of light
But it is admissible if it does. be destroyed in the process. impossible for an observer to or c, which is equal to 2.998 × 108
Time’s existence is broadly experience. (They are obtained by metres per second. This is known
accepted in how we measure Andrew Taubman using multiple space-separated to be a universal constant, the
and “synchronise” our lives Perth, Western Australia cameras at the same time.) If time same throughout the universe,
to it. We also use it as a variable Time is the space between events stopped for all space-separated at all times, and the same for
in our equations. But “change” (broadly defined). If time were observers, then literally nothing every observer, whatever their
is one of the few things we to stop, there could be no more could ever happen. But this is circumstances. You can’t get more
can be absolutely certain of. events, so the answer is “nothing”. physically impossible except fundamental than that. But note
Historically, measuring time that c is a speed, which has the
involves accurately “chopping Want to send us a question or answer? dimensions of length divided by
it up” into ever smaller “chunks”, Email us at lastword@newscientist.com time. Thus, as soon as we define
from the sun’s rising and setting Questions should be about everyday science phenomena a spatial unit of length, c also
to the “ticking” of atomic clocks. Full terms and conditions at newscientist.com/lw-terms automatically defines a unit

Tom Gauld Answers
for New Scientist
Quick quiz #269
Answers
1 C₃H₆O₃
2 Xerophytes
3 Barr bodies, or X-chromatins
4 1729
5 The B ring
Quick crossword
#166 Answers
ACROSS 8 Eye tooth, 9 Adhere,
10 Spirit, 11 Sediment,
12 Scirocco, 13 Unsafe,
14 Back to the Future,
18 Cosmic, 20 Racemose,
23 Teraflop, 24 Glands,
25 Bisect, 26 Speculum
DOWN 1 Myopic, 2 Star Trek,

3 Aortic, 4 Physiotherapist,
5 Dandruff, 6 Thymus, 7 Transfer,
15 Anorexia, 16 Osculate,
17 Tympanum, 19 McAfee,
of time, the time taken to travel “Stainless steel tends (NaOCl) and is a strong oxidising 21 Cygnet, 22 Sodium
that length unit at velocity c. to degrade in seawater agent, which is alkaline and also
So, time is a “given” at the heart contains free chloride anions (Cl-).
because chloride ions
of all reality, as is space. Chloride ions disrupt the #36 Prime
This neatly leads us to the allow corrosion of protective layer and eventually generators
Minkowski view of space and the underlying metal, allow corrosion of the underlying Solution
time: we live in a four-dimensional often forming pits” metal, often forming pits: this
space-time, where three of the is why stainless steel tends Setting p = 5 generates four
dimensions are the space we are would look at their wrist and to corrode in seawater. primes (5, 7, 11 and 17).
familiar with, each of which can suggest that it was lunchtime. The hypochlorite can oxidise
be measured in metres. The fourth Cr(III) to Cr(VI), for example to There are three prime
dimension can also be measured Cleaning up chromate, e.g. [CrO4]2-, and also numbers between 220 and
in metres, but we are travelling Fe(II) or (III) to Fe(VI) as in ferrate 230 (223, 227 and 229),
along it at the velocity c, the speed I have a stainless steel kitchen sink. [FeO4]2-. If a little bleach is added and setting p = 227 generates
of light, and we interpret that as the When I clean it with bleach, leaving to some ferrous sulphate or a sequence of four primes
world changing, and that gives us it instantly gleaming, what happens ferric chloride solution, once (227, 229, 233 and 239).
the concept of time. Time doesn’t to the particles that were staining it? the precipitate has settled, the
“flow”; it is just us shooting along pink colour of the liquid above For x² + x + p, setting x = 0
that fourth-dimensional axis. The Mark Dirnhuber is visible due to the ferrate. gives 0² + 0 + p = p and setting
section we have just traversed is Bristol, UK Hypochlorite bleaches tannins x = 1 gives 1² + 1 + p = p + 2,
the past and is fixed, immutable; Stainless steel has chromium by disrupting the ring structures thus generating a twin prime
while the section ahead is the as the key ingredient: on contact in the molecules, decolourising pair (p, p + 2).
future and is uncertain, described with air (or even nitric acid) this and solubilising the stain. It will
only by a series of probabilities forms a thin but resistant surface also attack and dissolve protein
or possibilities, over which layer of chromium(III) oxide films on the steel. By rinsing and
we have limited control. (Cr2O3), which protects the steel exposing to air, you may well
from further corrosion. This oxide be refreshing the oxide layer.
Malcolm Afferson layer may well pick up stains, for Personally, my choice
Barnsley, South Yorkshire, UK example from tannins, which would be to forgo all this
Nothing. Until someone’s tummy are polyphenols from tea. dubious chemistry and rely on
rumbled. Then someone else Bleach is sodium hypochlorite detergent and elbow grease. ❚

The back pages Feedback
Lipstick in the brain Twisteddoodles for New Scientist Commonly, people say it is like
the sound cicadas make.
Lipstick interacts with the human And so, decided Mithila Durai and
brain mostly in indirect ways. Kazue Grant Searchfield at the University
Hirabayashi and colleagues have of Auckland, New Zealand, why
been modernising the search not use the fight-fire-with-fire
for some of those interactions. approach? Fight tinnitus with
Their stated goal is to find cicadas – or, for efficiency and
“a real-time brain-based product ease, recorded cicada sounds.
evaluation method which detects So they did. They tried other
the incongruency between a recorded sounds, too: surf and rain,
product, in this case lipstick, and and also some artificially generated
a consumer’s expectations”. The noise. The treatments continued
latest explorations led to a study over several weeks. In 2017 they
called “Right prefrontal activation published a paper, in the journal
associated with deviations from Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience,
expected lipstick texture assessed about this “mixed-methods trial
with functional near-infrared of broad band noise and nature
spectroscopy”, published in sounds for tinnitus therapy”.
Frontiers in Neuroergonomics. None of it cured tinnitus.
Reader Nicolas Clairis brought But some sounds – especially
it to Feedback’s attention. the cicadas – helped some people
The experiment tried to measure sometimes, lessening the intensity
the incongruency – the presumably or the annoyance of the tinnitus.
disappointing mismatch – between Or so the scientists say those people
the actual softness of a lipstick and said. Alas, there is no technically
the softness the lipstick customer sound way to directly measure
had expected of that lipstick. The the perceived sounds caused
method being tried here was fairly by tinnitus. The only available
novel for the cosmetics industry: Got a story for Feedback? evidence – what people say
using functional near-infrared Send it to feedback@newscientist.com they hear, is a second-rate kind
spectroscopy (fNIRS) to measure or New Scientist, 9 Derry Street, London, W8 5HY of evidence. It is pure hearsay.
activity in a lipstick-wearer’s Consideration of items sent in the post will be delayed
right inferior frontal gyrus.
Measured policing
Some members of the team
had done earlier explorations – also Al-Azhar University of Indonesia. as to lipstick-borne conscious Feedback’s search for hiring
using fNIRS – of lipstick in the brain. The trio sought to determine or unconscious messaging restrictions specifying numbers
In 2021 they reported discovery how female students at the by conference participants. that aren’t based on actual job-
of “a willingness-to-pay associated university “represented particular performance requirements stirred
right prefrontal activation during meanings through their choice What a buzz memories for reader David Curtis.
a single, real use of lipsticks”. of lipstick colours”. They report He writes about some history
Four years earlier, they reported a contrast – an incongruity – This bounty year for cicadas in his country, Australia.
an even more ambitious project. between the students’ explicitly (see “A cicada double brood “Your request for job
Its broad scope is evident in the title: stated reasons for choosing is coming – it’s less rare than requirements based on
“Evaluation of pleasure-displeasure colours and “the subconscious you think”, newscientist.com/ measurements bring to mind
induced by use of lipsticks with message they want to convey”. article/2427004) has Feedback an ad from the 1970s to increase
near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS): That subconscious message, remembering a medical experiment female participation in the police
usefulness of two-channel NIRS explain Hadiyansyah, Bawarti and that used cicadas to treat tinnitus. forces. A picture was shown of
in neuromarketing”. Ulfa, “is quite complex, ranging Those with tinnitus hear a male and female in uniform
Feedback has seen few better from optimism, cheerfulness, joy, annoying sounds at times and in asking the question ‘What is the
examples of lipstick-and-brain- modesty, warm [sic], wanting to be places that people who don’t have difference between these two
centric interdisciplinary research. the centre of attention, femininity, tinnitus don’t. The sounds can vary police officers?’ The answer
passion and love, to sensuality”. from person to person, from day to was given as ‘6 inches’.”
Face value of lipstick The study, “Lipstick as female day, even from moment to moment. Human memory is impressive,
students visual communication Descriptions of them, when listed, but notoriously unreliable.
But here is perhaps one better strategy”, was presented at the sound like a chunk of a Foley artist’s Feedback hasn’t verified the
example of lipstick-and-brain- 4th International Conference on to-do list: ringing, whining, blowing, persuasiveness or the existence
centric interdisciplinary research: Islamic Epistemology, which was roaring, buzzing, chirping, clicking, of this ad, or the precision of
a study by Dhuha Hadiyansyah, conducted virtually. The published sizzling, crackling, white noise, that measurement. ❚
Era Bawarti and Maria Ulfa at the version contains no information static and so on and on and on. Marc Abrahams

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