New Scientist - 30 11 2019

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SUPER MAGNETS
The new materials that will
transform technology
END GAME
Grand unified theory of
two-player games revealed
YOUR DOG’S TRUE AGE

...and how to calculate it
WEEKLY November 30 – December 6, 2019
Why the medicine

you take
Fast-tracked
approval, Tested on
efﬁcacy 20 people
unproven
No better
than placebo
Potentially Not approved for

deadly side your condition
effects
could actually be bad

for your health
No3258 US$6.99 CAN$7.99
4 8
PLUS THE MASS OF A NEUTRINO / WHY 70 IS THE NEW 65 /

SUSPENDED ANIMATION / CLIMATE TIPPING POINTS
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2019 Ryman Prize winner

Dr Michael Fehlings with New Zealand
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern.
Congratulations Dr Fehlings
Dr Michael Fehlings, a neurosurgeon from Toronto, has spent his career researching
and developing better treatment methods for degenerative cervical myelopathy, a
spinal condition which causes pain and disability in older people.
Michael is the winner of the 2019 Ryman Prize, presented by New Zealand Prime
Minister Jacinda Ardern, for his fantastic work.
The Ryman Prize is a $250,000 annual award for the best work anywhere in the
world to enhance quality of life for older people.
Go to www.rymanprize.com for more information

This week’s issue
On the 42 Super magnets

The new material that will
40 Features
cover transform technology “Climate
34 Why the medicine you 12 End game change
take could actually be
bad for your health
Grand unified theory of
two-player games revealed is scary.
14 Your dog’s true age
And when
…and how to calculate it people are
frightened,
10 The mass of a neutrino
they lash out
16 Why 70 is the new 65 in all sorts of
Vol 244 No 3258 8 Suspended animation
Cover image: Getty Images 17 Climate tipping points directions”
News Features
8 Suspended animation 34 Why the medicine you take
Our exclusive special report on Culture could actually be bad for you
a groundbreaking medical first Rushing drugs to market may be
doing more harm than good
17 Climate tipping points
Mathematical analysis 40 Rational outrage
suggests we may be closer Naomi Oreskes on the best ways
to disaster than we thought to combat science denial
20 The truth about vaping 42 Super magnets

Does a spate of lung injuries Exotic new materials are poised
mean e-cigarattes aren’t safe? to transform computing,
cosmology and medicine
Views
The back pages
23 Comment
Vote with climate in mind, 51 Stargazing at home
says Jacob Aron See Mercury rising in the east
24 The columnist 52 Puzzles

Chanda Prescod-Weinstein Quick crossword, a book puzzle
on the universe’s origin and a quiz
26 Letters 53 Feedback
Neglected concerns about Paper phones and drug-raiding
the nutrient choline boar: the week in weird
28 Aperture 54 Almost the last word

ESTATE OF NAM JUNE PAIK
See the exquisite insides Can screens make spectacles

of a glorious gem redundant? Readers respond
30 Culture 56 The Q&A

Two books describe when Jeffrey Hangst on how to
innovations can kill 31 Videotopian dreaming Nam June Paik is at London’s Tate Modern make antimatter
30 November 2019 | New Scientist | 3

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BEING HUMAN
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The leader
A critical balance
Fast access to new medicines shouldn’t mean endangering health
HIGH ideals have a way of seeming like the 1980s, the agency began to introduce may be based on smaller studies or
high hurdles when time is running out. expedited approval processes to get new measure things that are proxies for
If someone you love has been told they medicines to market much faster. the desired effect. Medication that is
have just months to live, and there is a Today, there are several methods used rushed to market in this way is more
drug that might offer them even a few to speed things up, and more than half likely to be withdrawn later over safety
months more, it suddenly matters less of medicines are now evaluated through concerns or to turn out not to work as
that the drug isn’t cost-effective, or that some kind of expedited pathway. To pay intended (see page 34).
it was approved on the basis of a small There is a growing group of researchers
trial and its risks and benefits remain “When your time is running out, raising the alarm over this trend. They
unclear. What matters is that it might it suddenly matters less that don’t dispute the need for quicker access
buy precious time right now. a drug was approved on the to new treatments or pretend that it is a
Such dilemmas are why the US Food basis of a small trial” straightforward problem to solve. And
and Drug Administration (FDA) and they don’t expect regulatory agencies
similar agencies around the world aim for the staff to keep up the pace of to do it without help from companies.
to strike a balance between efficacy and approvals, however, the FDA has come Fortunately, there is no shortage of ideas
expediency, speed and safety when it to rely more heavily on pharmaceutical about how to strike a better balance.
comes to approving new medications. industry fees – and accepts those funds That balance is critical, because if
In the 1970s, it took the FDA nearly three in exchange for keeping to set timelines. the drugs you take to get better could
years to usher a new drug through its The trouble is, the kind of research actually cause you harm, then he
evaluation process. But in response to needed to ensure that drugs are safe and system meant to protect you just
public demand after the AIDS crisis of effective takes time. Faster approvals isn’t working. ❚
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Where did we come from?

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

News
Genomic selection Long live the storm Kidney in a bag Spouse income Sharing fake news
Controversial Jupiter’s Great Red Wearable artificial Men who earn less How to nudge people
technique used Spot may not be organ works well than their wives feel into thinking before
on embryos p10 dying after all p11 in tests p12 unhappier p14 they click p16
Marine biology
Blue whale’s ultra-

low heart rate
WHEN blue whales dive for
food they can reduce their
heart rate to just 2 beats
per minute – well below
the resting rate of 15 beats
researchers predicted the
animals would have.
The finding is remarkable
given the whales use lunge
feeding, an energetic
method in which they engulf
vast volumes of prey-filled
water, says Jeremy
Goldbogen at Stanford
IMAGEBROKER/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO
University, California.
From a boat in Monterey
Bay, California, Goldbogen
and his team used a 6-metre
pole to attach a heart rate
monitor to a single blue
whale. The monitor was
held in place with a suction
cup. The researchers were
UN climate warning then able to monitor the

whale’s heart rate for almost
9 hours. They detected heart
rates of just 2 to 8 beats per
To minimise risks, the world must cut emissions by a staggering minute hundreds of times.
7.6 per cent a year for the next decade, reports Adam Vaughan The whale’s heart rate
was at its lowest when
THE huge challenge of meeting annual emissions have never The report comes less than a the animal was diving for
the world’s climate change fallen, though they plateaued week before international climate food and shot up after it
targets has been starkly spelled during 2014 and 2016, and have talks resume at a summit in Spain, resurfaced, reaching a peak
out in a new report from the UN previously plunged dramatically when countries are due to lay the of 37 beats per minute
Environment Programme (UNEP). at a country level, such as in Russia groundwork for bolder carbon- (PNAS, doi.org/dfwb).
In 2018, annual global emissions after the fall of the Soviet Union. cutting plans next year. The reduction in heart rate
of greenhouse gases reached Despite the impossible-seeming One source of hope is the during dives enables whales
55.3 gigatonnes – a new high. This cuts required, UNEP maintains it decline of coal use in power plants, to temporarily redistribute
must fall by 32 gigatonnes by 2030 is still feasible to stay under 1.5°C. set for a 3 per cent fall in 2019 – the oxygenated blood from
to avoid warming of more than “How long can we keep 1.5°C alive? biggest drop on record – according the heart to other muscles
1.5°C by the end of the century. We haven’t killed it yet. Even if we to analyst Carbon Brief. UNEP cites needed for lunging, says
That is a 7.6 per cent emissions don’t get to 1.5°C, 1.7°C is a hell of a protests by schoolchildren and the Goldbogen. Whales then
cut every year, says UNEP. lot better than 2.5°C, or the 3.2°C falling costs of green technologies recover upon resurfacing
Climate scientists last year we’re looking at now. Every 0.1°C as other reasons for optimism, but by increasing their breathing
outlined the stark impact of counts,” says Anne Olhoff at the it also concedes there is “no sign and heart rate, he says.
overshooting 1.5°C and hitting 2°C, Technical University of Denmark, of greenhouse gas emissions The whales have a “quite
including wiping out the planet’s one of the report’s lead authors. peaking in the next few years”. ❚ extraordinary level of control”
coral reefs, more droughts and of heart rate, says Sascha
extreme heat days and exposing More climate change coverage online Hooker at the University of
hundreds of millions of people For the latest on our changing planet visit St Andrews, UK. ❚
to climate-related risks. Globally, newscientist.com/environment Layal Liverpool

News Special report

Emergency medicine
Suspended animation
Humans have been put into suspended animation for the first time to
give doctors more time to treat severe injuries, reports Helen Thomson
AT LEAST one patient has been
treated using an experimental
technique called emergency
preservation and resuscitation
(EPR), which cools down the
body and gives doctors longer to
operate, New Scientist exclusively
revealed on 20 November. The
technique is being trialled for
people whose traumatic injuries
are so severe that they would
otherwise die.
It was “a little surreal” when
the technique was first used,
says Samuel Tisherman at the
University of Maryland School
of Medicine. He told New Scientist
that his team of medics had placed
at least one patient in suspended
animation so far, but wouldn’t
SHAPECHARGE/GETTY IMAGES
reveal how many people had

survived as a result.
EPR is being carried out
on people who arrive at the
University of Maryland Medical
Centre in Baltimore with an acute
trauma – such as a gunshot or stab
wound – and have had a cardiac carries oxygen to cells. Without EPR will be compared with Cooling the body to slow
arrest. Their heart will have oxygen, our brain can only survive 10 people who would have been metabolism could give
stopped beating and they will for about 5 minutes before eligible for the treatment but extra hours to operate
have lost more than half their irreversible damage occurs. for the fact that the correct team
blood. In cases like these, there However, lowering the wasn’t in the hospital at the time could have saved him if we’d had
are only minutes to operate, with a temperature of the body and brain of admittance. enough time,” he says. This led him
less than 5 per cent chance that the can slow or stop all the chemical The trial was given the go- to start investigating ways in which
patient would normally survive. reactions in our cells, which need ahead by the US Food and Drug cooling might allow surgeons
EPR involves rapidly cooling less oxygen as a consequence. Administration. The FDA made more time to do their job.
a person to around 10 to 15°C by Tisherman’s plan for the trial it exempt from needing patient Animal studies showed that
replacing all of their blood with was that 10 people who receive consent as the participants’ pigs with acute trauma could be
ice-cold saline. The patient’s brain injuries are likely to be fatal and cooled for 3 hours, stitched up and
activity almost completely stops.
They are then disconnected from
the cooling system and their
10 people
will be put into suspended
there is no alternative treatment.
The team had discussions with the
local community and placed ads
resuscitated. “We felt it was time
to take it to our patients,” says
Tisherman. “Now we are doing
body – which would otherwise be animation as part of a trial in newspapers describing the trial, it and we are learning a lot as
classified as dead – is moved to the pointing people to a website where we move forward with the trial.
operating theatre. A surgical team
then has 2 hours to fix the person’s
injuries before they are warmed
10°C
The minimum temperature to
they can opt out.
Tisherman’s interest in trauma
research was ignited by an early
Once we can prove it works here,
we can expand the utility of this
technique to help patients survive
up and their heart restarted. which their body will be lowered incident in his career in which a that otherwise would not.”
At normal body temperature, young man was stabbed in the The experimental technique
about 37°C, our cells need a
constant supply of oxygen to
produce energy. When our heart
2 hours
The amount of time patients will
heart after an altercation over
bowling shoes. “He was a healthy
young man just minutes before,
is only intended for use in
emergency medicine. “I want to
make clear that we’re not trying
stops beating, blood no longer be cooled to slow their metabolism then suddenly he was dead. We to send people off to Saturn,” says
8 | New Scientist | 30 November 2019

Q&A
Your questions answered New Scientist readers put their

questions about the emergency resuscitation and preservation
procedure to Helen Thomson
Tisherman. “We’re trying to buy Isn’t suspended animation Samuel Tisherman, will have a last ditch attempt at saving
ourselves more time to save lives.” a bit like an induced coma? done everything they can to their life.
How much longer someone can Yes, there are similarities save the person’s life the Tisherman said last week
be in suspended animation isn’t between the two. A medically regular way first. People who that if the researchers
clear. When a person’s cells are induced coma uses drugs to experience a cardiac arrest from absolutely knew they couldn’t
warmed up, they can experience slow the metabolism of the traumatic haemorrhage are fix the patient’s injuries, they
reperfusion injuries, in which a brain (so it needs less oxygen) unlikely to survive with current wouldn’t be considered. The
series of chemical reactions to help reduce swelling and treatments. patient’s quality of life, among
damage the cell – and the longer aid its recovery. In order to get approval for other ethical aspects, was
cells are without oxygen, the more However, suspended the trial, the researchers had considered before the trial
damage occurs. animation goes a lot further to have several consultations was approved.
by lowering people’s body
temperature to almost “The dream scenario is Would this procedure only be
First steps completely stop metabolism that people spend years available to the rich or famous?
It may be possible to give people a in the body and brain. in this state while they No, it doesn’t distinguish
cocktail of drugs to help minimise wait for a cure” between rich and poor. There
these injuries and extend the time Haven’t we been cooling the are several conditions for being
for which they are suspended, body to lower metabolism with the public. They also put a participant, not least that you
says Tisherman, “but we haven’t for years? details of the trial in the local need to have had a cardiac
identified all the causes of Yes, we have. Cardiac surgeons newspapers, and made a website arrest due to trauma and have
reperfusion injuries yet”. will often lower a patient’s body where people can opt out. been brought to the correct
Tisherman described the team’s temperature slightly while hospital. The technique
progress last week at a symposium performing operations on Is a patient’s future health involves a lot of doctors who
at the New York Academy of the heart. But suspended considered before this all have to be present at the
Sciences. Ariane Lewis, director of animation lowers body procedure? right time.
the division of neuro-critical care temperature much further – The researchers can’t give an
at NYU Langone Health, said she to around 10 to 15°C – at which accurate prognosis until this What’s the real potential
thought it was important work, point most metabolic reactions trial has been completed. If it of the technique?
but that it was just first steps. “We slow or stop completely. shows promise, they are likely The dream scenario is that you
have to see whether it works and to extend the trial to include would be able to keep people in
then we can start to think about Do people get to choose whether more people. this state for months or years
how and where we can use it.” they are put into suspended What they do know is while they await a cure for their
Although Tisherman’s team animation? that people who experience condition. But this is a distant
has been working on the trial The technique is only used as a cardiac arrest in these dream – this trial is the first step
since 2014, it may take a while to a last resort, meaning the team circumstances are unlikely and we don’t know yet whether
complete. In order for a patient to at the University of Maryland to survive with available the technique is effective.
be enrolled, they must be present School of Medicine, led by treatments. This is essentially
in the hospital at the same time So is immortality the endgame
as the large team trained in the of all this?
technique. “The team’s probably The endgame is about saving
a little too big,” says Tisherman. the life of someone who would
“But when you’re doing almost certainly have died. You
something like this, everyone might liken it to the invention
wants to be a part of it.” of the defibrillator – before that,
Tisherman says he hopes to be many people who had a cardiac
SOVEREIGN, ISM / SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY
able to announce the full results arrest would have died. Now
of the trial by the end of 2020. ❚ some of them live as a result
of that technology. ❚
Helen Thomson is It only takes 5 minutes

a consultant for New without oxygen before
Scientist and tweets brain damage occurs
as @hvthomson

News
Human genetics Physics
Genomic selection begins Mystery of the mass

of the neutrino could
New method of analysing IVF embryos’ genes used for first time soon be solved
Michael Le Page Layal Liverpool
A COMPANY called Genomic WE HAVE made headway in

Prediction has confirmed that at our efforts to learn the mass of
least one woman is pregnant with the neutrino. The particle, which
embryos selected after analysing was once thought to weigh
hundreds of thousands of DNA nothing, probably has a mass
variants to assess their risk of 500,000 times less than that
causing disease. It is the first time of an electron or lower.
this approach has been used to The new upper limit of the
screen IVF embryos, but some neutrino’s mass, 1.1 electronvolts,
people think its use is unjustified. is almost half the previous known
ZEPHYR/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY
“Embryos have been chosen upper limit of 2 electronvolts and

to reduce disease risk using brings us closer to pinning down the
pre-implantation genetic testing exact mass of this elusive particle.
for polygenic traits, and this “Neutrinos are a billion times
has resulted in pregnancy,” more abundant in the universe than
Laurent Tellier, CEO of Genomic atoms, so even tiny neutrino masses
Prediction, told New Scientist. He would make a big contribution to
didn’t say how many pregnancies Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust Analysing hundreds of the mass in the universe,” says
there were, or what traits or in the UK. “I think it’s a misuse thousands of DNA variants Christian Weinheimer at the
conditions were screened for. of the technology.” in embryos may give clues University of Münster, Germany.
A few genetic mutations lead Such screening places undue to future health Identifying this facet of the
to serious disorders, such as cystic emphasis on genetics when it isn’t neutrino will not only help us
fibrosis or Tay-Sachs disease. the biggest factor, she says. For not be aware of how strong the discern the structure of the early
It is already possible to screen IVF instance, our risk of heart disease polygenic predictions can be.” universe, it may also help scientists
embryos to identify those that is typically determined by our diet, Genomic Prediction is offering better understand the physics of
won’t develop these conditions. whether we smoke, how much polygenic screening to assess the the smallest things, he says.
But many disorders are exercise we take and so on. risk of diseases and abnormally Weinheimer and his
polygenic – that is, caused by “It’s completely different from low IQ. A separate study has colleagues on the Karlsruhe
variations in many different genes using pre-implantation genetic looked at whether polygenic Tritium Neutrino experiment
that each have a small and less diagnosis to select out embryos at screening could be used to select made their measurements using
clear-cut effect. Geneticists high risk of a very serious disorder, for desirable traits. Shai Carmi an electron spectrometer some
attempt to work out the overall when we can predict with complete at the Hebrew University of 24 metres tall and 10 metres across.
impact of thousands of gene accuracy whether or not those Jerusalem and his colleagues They analysed the decay of
variants by sequencing people’s embryos will be affected,” she says. fed genetic data into a computer a radioactive form of hydrogen
DNA and calculating so-called model to estimate the maximum called tritium – a process that
polygenic risk scores, but there “It is the first time this kind potential effect of selecting IVF emits an electron and a neutrino
are big questions about how of genetic diagnosis has embryos on the basis of polygenic simultaneously. By measuring the
accurate or useful these are. been used for embryos scores for high IQ or height. energy of the released electrons,
Genomic Prediction, which rather than adults” They found that the approach they were able to estimate the mass
is based in New Jersey, is the first could only increase height by of the neutrino with greater precision
company to offer polygenic risk But Stephen Hsu, one of the 3 centimetres at most, and IQ than was previously possible
scores for embryos rather than founders of Genomic Prediction, by an average of only 3 points (arxiv.org/abs/1909.06048).
adults, including an option to says polygenic scores reveal that (Cell, doi.org/dfvf). Carmi says it “We are extremely happy and
screen out embryos deemed a few people – those who score may be possible to achieve bigger proud,” says Weinheimer.
likely to have a very low IQ. among the top 3 per cent – have gains when we know more about “It’s very, very exciting,” says
Using these scores to screen a much higher risk of, say, breast genetic variants. Melissa Uchida at the University
embryos is controversial. cancer or heart disease. The firm’s He says his results don’t apply of Cambridge. “This is just the
“It is inappropriate to use tests aim to identify such genomes. to Genomic Prediction’s polygenic most precise measurement
pre-implantation genetic “These results are very risk screening because selection we’ve ever had.”
diagnosis to screen out polygenic new,” says Hsu. “A typical for quantitative traits such “We may finally be able to
risk factors for things like pre-implantation genetic as height is different from put together the puzzle of how
cardiovascular disease,” says diagnosis expert who focuses screening out embryos at high the formation of the universe
Frances Flinter at Guy’s and St on single-gene conditions might risk of disease. ❚ happened,” says Uchida. ❚

Machine learning
Artificial intelligence is analysing

heart scans in dozens of hospitals
Chris Baraniuk
IN A dimly lit room filled with region too. Previously, doctors 1000 patients. The system was have developed, such as one
computers at St Bartholomew’s had to eyeball black and grey then tested against 200 scans from that allows scans to continue
Hospital in London, doctors pore scans to make a judgement about 105 patients to show that it could even when patients accidentally
over scans of people’s hearts. Until how much blood was present. reliably select each area of heart move, AI has improved efficiency
recently, medical staff here had to Getting an actual number needed muscle. It proved to be at least at St Bartholomew’s, says Manisty.
interpret the blotchy on-screen specialists and took several 90 per cent accurate in each case. Previously, the department
images purely by sight. Now hours or days. The system was also previously scanned around 25 people a
artificial intelligence is helping to “All of the things that we’re trained to quantify blood flow and day – now that number is well
explain what they are looking at. working on here are to try to compared against cardiac positron into the 30s.
Charlotte Manisty, a reduce the training required,” Shehab Anwer at University
consultant cardiologist at
St Bartholomew’s, analyses an
MRI scan of a struggling heart
says Manisty. The AI works
completely automatically and
delivers its analysis in around
20,000
The number of MRI scans
Heart Center Zurich in Switzerland
questions whether the colour
coding could obfuscate certain
and points to blue smudges over 2 minutes, she says. the AI has analysed so far features of a heart scan, perhaps
one area of muscle. The image on The same system is now meaning that doctors miss other
her screen has been coloured in used at more than 30 hospitals emission tomography, where signs of disease. Manisty says that
by AI. A swathe of blue around worldwide and has analysed more it was found to be 92 per cent in the original, grey scans are all still
the left ventricle, the heart’s main than 20,000 MRI scans to date. It agreement with that method. accessible in the system.
pumping chamber, means that was developed by Peter Kellman Kellman and Xue’s team William Bradlow at Queen
not enough blood is getting and Hui Xue at the National plans to upgrade the AI soon so Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham
to that part of the muscle. The Institutes of Health in Maryland that it can determine a patient’s in the UK says that there is
volume of blood reaching each and their colleagues. condition, for instance by stating little risk of distorting the scans.
bit of the heart is a good indicator To get the algorithm to correctly whether it thinks it has spotted a Interpreting MRI images of hearts
of how well it is functioning. identify each bit of the heart in blocked artery, diseased tissue or is tricky, but with help from AI,
The AI provides a numerical MRI scans, the team trained it on a healthy heart. Along with other more doctors could be doing it
estimate of blood flow for each more than 1900 scans of around algorithms that Kellman and Xue on a regular basis, he says. ❚
Solar system
Jupiter’s Great Red The giant storm on

Jupiter may not be
Spot is healthier
NASA/JPL-CALTECH/SWRI/MSSS/KEVIN M. GILL/CC BY 3.0
abating after all

than it looks
clouds, which appear red because
JUPITER’S giant storm, the Great they sit above the Great Red Spot
Red Spot, may not be dying any and are therefore exposed to more
time soon. It seems to have been of the sun’s UV radiation. This gives
unravelling for decades, but this the impression that parts of the
is probably down to the movement storm are disintegrating.
and shredding of clouds rather than Marcus presented these findings
a sign that the storm is abating. at a meeting of the American
Concerns have been mounting Physical Society in Seattle this
that the Great Red Spot might week. He says he was surprised
disappear. Once it was big enough taken earlier this year by the Using computer models, he and by how straightforward it was
for almost three Earth-sized planets spacecraft Juno showed red “flakes” his colleagues found that the flaking to simulate the flaking, which
to fit inside it – now it can hold little measuring 100,000 kilometres captured by Juno was in fact the “cried out for explanation”.
more than one. across apparently breaking off result of rare events: cyclones that “It’s wonderful to see serious
Although we know that the storm from the Great Red Spot. are common in Jupiter’s atmosphere attempts at numerical simulations
has been shrinking since 1878, the But this flaking isn’t actually colliding with lumps of cloud that being brought to bear on this
pace of this seems to have picked a sign that the storm is fragmenting hadn’t yet been pulled into the complex topic,” says Leigh Fletcher
up since 2012. and dying, says Philip Marcus at the storm as they passed by. at the University of Leicester, UK. ❚
What’s more, photos of Jupiter University of California, Berkeley. The impacts broke apart the Gege Li

News
Mathematics Medical technology
A unified theory for Wearable

artificial kidney
two-player games trialled in people
Chelsea Whyte Clare Wilson
WE ARE a step closer to the abdomen. Users must change

having wearable artificial a cartridge in the device every
kidneys, after a prototype 7 hours to replace the chemicals.
device that is worn like a small In a trial last year, the device
handbag was used successfully was used successfully for three
in people for the first time. days by 15 people. Blood tests
While the technology suggested it worked as well
still needs refining, it could as both conventional forms of
eventually free people from dialysis and would only need to
being tied to large dialysis be used for two 7-hour sessions
machines or hooked up to a day, says Foo, who presented
bags of fluid and tubing, says the work at the American
its developer Marjorie Foo at Society of Nephrology Kidney
Singapore General Hospital. Week conference in Washington
“For some patients, dialysis DC earlier this month.
IMAGE SOURCE/GETTY IMAGES
is controlling their life – this Some users complained

gives a bit more freedom.” it made them feel bloated,
People whose kidneys but this can also happen with
are failing usually need a conventional peritoneal dialysis.
transplant, but they may Foo says the device wouldn’t
spend years on a waiting list. suit everyone as some prefer
In the meantime, they have to have their dialysis done in
THERE is now one game to rule The classic prisoner’s to undergo dialysis to remove hospital rather than managing
them all. Whenever two parties dilemma weighs the costs toxins from their blood. it themselves.
face off, the possible outcomes of betrayal or cooperation The most common form It would give people
can be analysed with a unified is haemodialysis, which takes whose kidneys are failing
theory, rather than the various and the stag hunt, which requires about 4 hours at hospital, three more independence, says Susie
methods used in the past. cooperation to get better prey. days a week. This can interfere Lew at George Washington
Game theory uses maths to To study all of these possible with people’s daily lives. University School of Medicine &
analyse strategic scenarios. It can games as one, the research team The alternative, peritoneal Health Sciences, who co-chaired
help work out what will happen imagines two players who must dialysis, involves putting fluid
between two “players”, such as lift a heavy bag. There is an energy into part of the abdomen, “For some patients,
kids fighting at school, nations cost associated with lifting the which allows toxins to pass dialysis is controlling
locked in a trade war or animals bag. Each player gets a reward or from the blood into the fluid. their life. This device
vying for food. It can also assess is fined depending on whether The fluid is then drained away. gives more freedom”
the best strategy for winning. the bag is lifted (Royal Society This can be done at home daily
Jin Yoshimura at Shizuoka Open Science, doi.org/dftw). so toxins don’t build up, but it the conference session. “They
University in Japan and his The bag can be carried by one can be time-consuming to would not need to store boxes
colleagues have created a single or two people, and by varying exchange the large volumes of dialysis fluid,” she says.
game that can account for all the the number of players choosing of liquid. Most other groups trying
variables in two-player encounters to cooperate and the rewards or The new wearable kidney to develop wearable artificial
where each person has the option costs in the scenario, Yoshimura is a more portable form of kidneys have attempted
to choose between cooperation says their game can encompass peritoneal dialysis. The system to create a portable version
and betrayal or disengagement. all other two-player games. recycles the waste liquid by of haemodialysis.
The most famous of these is the This approach may make it passing it through a cleaning Meanwhile, a team at
prisoner’s dilemma, in which each clearer how to move from a device kept in the bag then the University of California,
of two inmates are told they can scenario in which cooperation returning it to the abdomen. San Francisco, is developing
either cooperate with the other is hard to one where it is easier, This avoids the user having an implantable artificial
inmate and stay silent or betray and that could help us devise to deal with large volumes kidney that uses human
them by testifying against the social interventions that of fluid. kidney cells kept separate from
other person. There is also the encourage cooperation, says The device is about the the patient’s blood supply, so
hawk-dove game, a bit like a game Kevin Zollman at Carnegie Mellon size of a small handbag and is immune-suppressing drugs
of chicken to avoid a collision, University in Pennsylvania. ❚ joined with a tube to a port in won’t be needed. ❚

2019 Ryman Prize winner

Dr Michael Fehlings with New Zealand
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern.
Congratulations Dr Fehlings
Dr Michael Fehlings, a neurosurgeon from Toronto, has spent his career researching
and developing better treatment methods for degenerative cervical myelopathy, a
spinal condition which causes pain and disability in older people.
Michael is the winner of the 2019 Ryman Prize, presented by New Zealand Prime
Minister Jacinda Ardern, for his fantastic work.
The Ryman Prize is a $250,000 annual award for the best work anywhere in the
world to enhance quality of life for older people.
Go to www.rymanprize.com for more information

News Canine calculator

Work out your dog’s age in human years
newscientist.com/dog-age
Psychology
Heterosexual husbands happiest

when they out-earn their wives
Alice Klein
MARRIED heterosexual men feel income, the amount of housework must take care of his family – has However, not all men feel
most comfortable when they earn the men did, or the hours their been incredibly durable despite the same way, says Syrda.
50 per cent more than their wives, wives worked. many other changes to gender Her analysis found that men
according to a study of data from Men who were the sole norms,” says Syrda. “These whose wives earned more than
the US. breadwinners were also relatively findings show that it can actually them when they got married
Over the past few decades, unhappy, perhaps due to the be harmful to men’s mental health didn’t experience the same
more and more women have stress of being the family’s only because they feel emasculated if discomfort. This is probably
started to out-earn men. Joanna financial source. But they weren’t their wives earn more than them.” because men who choose to pair
Syrda at the University of Bath as unhappy as men who earned up with high-earning women feel
in the UK wanted to investigate less than their wives. “The male breadwinner less threatened by female success
the psychological effects of this The men who were happiest identity has been durable to begin with, she says.
change. She analysed data from were those who earned 60 per cent despite many other The way happiness was
a US survey of more than 6000 of their households’ total income changes to gender norms” measured in the study – by asking
married heterosexual couples that and whose wives earned 40 per respondents how often they had
included questions about income cent. This is probably the point at Nicholas Haslam at the negative thoughts in the past
and emotional well-being. which wives earn enough money University of Melbourne in 30 days – was fairly crude, says
So far she has focused on the to minimise financial strain on Australia agrees. “Even if men Haslam. However, it still provided
effects in men. She found they their families without challenging think they’re beyond all of this a useful snapshot of general well-
tended to be unhappier when the traditional stereotype of the sexist stuff, very often they’re being, he says.
their wives earned more than male breadwinner, says Syrda not,” he says. “The fact that Syrda now wants to compare
them, becoming gradually more (Personality and Social Psychology men are happiest when women how women are affected by male
so as their wives’ earnings grew Bulletin, doi.org/ggb5mk). earn two-thirds what they do partners’ earnings. She also plans
relative to their own. This was “The male breadwinner shows we have a long way to to see how income differences
unrelated to total household identity – the idea that a man go to reach equality.” affect same-sex couples. ❚
Animals
Formula for Dogs hit the equivalent

of human middle age
calculating your after only a few years
dog’s real age
dogs’ methylomes – a set of
YOU may need to rethink your chemical changes to genes that
dog’s age. Conventional wisdom fluctuates throughout life – to
STONENA7/ISTOCKPHOTO/GETTY IMAGES
says that one human year is the those of humans over a lifetime.
equivalent of seven dog years, By matching these methylomes, the
but a new analysis suggests we researchers could convert between
have been getting this all wrong. the physiological age of dogs and
The seven dog years to every humans (bioRxiv, doi.org/dftv).
human year rule comes simply from In both, these age-related changes
crudely dividing human lifespan, largely involved developmental
around 80 years, by dog lifespan, genes found in all vertebrates that
typically 12 years. Trey Ideker are important from their time in the
at the University of California, equivalent of human middle age to our online dog age calculator). uterus through their childhood.
San Diego, and his colleagues after only a few years. It is a significant revision to Matt Kaeberlein at the University
found that the rule is a little off. But this ageing quickly tapers our understanding of how to map of Washington in Seattle says it
The team performed a genetic off, with the next 10 years only dogs against their human owners would be interesting to find out
analysis of dogs and humans accruing two human decades’ in terms of age, says Ideker. what happens to the age clock
to identify how they age over worth of changes. The team put The team studied 104 Labradors, in dog breeds with very different
time. The researchers discovered this together into a single formula: ranging from very young puppies lifespans, such as Great Danes
that, compared with us, dogs age human age = 16 ln(dog age) + 31 to 16-year-old dogs. The and chihuahuas. ❚
faster at first, blazing into the (see the top of the page for a link researchers then compared the Jake Buehler

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News
Ageing
70 is the new 65 for health

and life expectancy in the UK
Adam Vaughan
OUR health outcomes at older Older people in the

ages may be changing: people UK seem to be staying
who are 70 today feel as healthy healthier for longer
as 65-year-olds did a few decades
ago, according to the UK’s official of people aged 65 to 85 reported
statistics authority. poor general health in 1981, which
The idea that turning 65 marks fell to 39 per cent by 2017.
the beginning of old age is already “It’s not surprising that
CIRCLE CREATIVE STUDIO/GETTY IMAGES
seen as outdated in the world of there have been increases

work, with the UK’s state pension in life expectancy, but I was
age looking set to rise to 68 by pleasantly surprised about the
the end of the 2030s. But the improvements in terms of health,”
UK’s Office for National Statistics says João Pedro de Magalhães at
(ONS) says it now appears that the the University of Liverpool, UK.
notion is outmoded for health “This means that people are not
and longevity too. only living longer but they are
The ONS found that levels of living longer healthier, which
poor health for men aged 70 today expectancy is 17 years, equivalent men, in recent decades: the is what we all want.”
were about the same as those for a to a 65-year-old woman in 1981. introduction of new drugs to treat One caveat is that the
65-year-old man in 1997. A 70-year- The ONS says these findings hypertension, reduced levels of measure of health was self-
old woman today is on a par with imply that 70 really can be thought smoking and the introduction reported by people rather than
a woman aged 65 in 1981. of as the new 65 when it comes of lipid-lowering statins. being assessed by a doctor, says
Today’s 70-year-olds also have a to life expectancy and health. The ONS used two long-running Lorna Harries at the University
remaining life expectancy similar “The data is believable, it surveys to measure health. One of Exeter, UK. “People’s perception
to that of a 65-year-old several reflects what we see in the clinic,” asked people to rate their general of how healthy they are can
decades ago. A 70-year-old man in says Janet Lord at the University health, while the other asked differ quite a lot from person
2017 is considered to have 15 years of Birmingham, UK. She says whether they had a long-term to person. Something relatively
left to live on average, the same as there are three possible reasons illness and, if so, whether it minor for one person may be
a 65-year-old man had in 1997. For why large health improvements reduced their ability to do daily perceived to have a big impact
women aged 70, remaining life have been seen, particularly for activities. On average, 45 per cent by someone else.” ❚
Social media
How to fight the spread of fake news

THERE may be a simple solution media. Many said they would, and that they suspect to be fake. by independent fact-checkers.
to stop people sharing incorrect this wasn’t influenced by whether The researchers used Twitter The team found that the news
information online: just ask them the headlines were true or not. bots to message 5500 users who the Twitter users shared in the
to think about accuracy. In a follow-up study, the team had shared news from potentially 24 hours after they received the
Gordon Pennycook at the asked another group of people to misleading websites. They asked message was 3.5 per cent more
University of Regina in Canada judge the accuracy of headlines these people to rate the accuracy trustworthy than the news shared
and his colleagues presented more before asking them whether they of a non-political headline. before they had been contacted
than 2500 people from the US with would consider sharing them on Afterwards, the team measured (psyarxiv.com/3n9u8).
real headlines and images taken social media. People who were the trustworthiness of the news This suggests people are more
either from mainstream news given this accuracy prompt were shared by these users, with a likely to spread misinformation
stories or from a cache of stories significantly less likely to say they trustworthiness scale developed because they aren’t thinking
that had been debunked by would share false headlines. about accuracy, says Pennycook.
independent fact-checkers.
Some participants were asked
to indicate if they would consider
Building on this second
finding, the researchers explored
whether Twitter users could be
3.5%
Rise in trustworthiness of shared
He would like to partner with
social media platforms to scale
up the experiment. ❚
sharing the headlines on social encouraged not to share stories news when we consider accuracy Donna Lu

Geology Climate change
Huge exoplanets
could host water
Earth’s tipping points may
deep underground be closer than we thought
Leah Crane Michael Marshall
THERE could be oceans’ worth EARTH’S climate may change far years scientists have realised The new study looked at what
of water hiding deep within giant more abruptly and dramatically that the various tipping can happen if two elements
planets. Minerals with water bound than we predicted. Regions of elements can interact: one influence each other.
up in their molecular structure can the planet that are thousands of tipping point could trigger It turns out there is a nasty
remain stable at extremely high kilometres apart may influence another, like dominoes. surprise: the two elements can
pressures, a new study suggests. each other, causing the global For example, if the Greenland start changing irreversibly at a
This means they could act as climate to lurch into a new state. ice sheet passes its tipping point lower temperature, so tipping
reservoirs for water even inside Climatologists have long and starts melting irretrievably, points may arrive sooner
planets much larger than our own. suspected that parts of the it will dump cold water into the (arxiv.org/abs/1910.12042).
Earth has a reservoir of water planet will change dramatically north Atlantic Ocean. This could “There might be a possibility
like this. It is bound up in a mineral and irreversibly if they are collapse a vast ocean current that certain feedbacks between
called ringwoodite, deep warmed past a certain called the Atlantic Meridional tipping elements lead to
underground in our planet’s mantle. tipping point. Overturning Circulation earlier than expected tipping
But at higher pressures than those One such place is the of the connected system,”
in the mantle, we are unsure how Greenland ice sheet. Warmer “Regions of the planet says study co-author Jonathan
these sorts of water-bearing, temperatures are melting the that are thousands of Donges of the Potsdam Institute
or hydrous, minerals behave. ice, so its upper surface is now kilometres apart may for Climate Impact Research
Masayuki Nishi at Ehime at a lower altitude – where the influence each other” in Germany.
University in Japan and his air is warmer and more melting The study is an abstract
colleagues investigated using will occur. (AMOC), causing rapid sea simulation rather than an
a mineral made of aluminium, It isn’t clear how much the level rise along the US eastern attempt to model real-world
oxygen and hydrogen. “We climate needs to warm relative seaboard and playing havoc tipping points like those that
succeeded in observing the to pre-industrial levels to trigger with the West African monsoon. could impact the Greenland
hydrous mineral under pressures irreversible melting of this ice Now a mathematical analysis ice sheet or the AMOC. Even so,
far higher than those in previous sheet, but one study suggested of tipping points suggests that the researchers think it could
studies,” says Nishi. 1.6°C would be enough. in some cases it could be even be applicable to the real world.
To mimic the heat and pressure That is alarming, but in recent worse than that. In theory, that could mean the
at the centre of large planets, the Greenland ice sheet will pass its
researchers squeezed samples tipping point and start melting
of the mineral between two small unstoppably before the global
diamonds and heated them with climate has warmed by 1.6°C.
laser beams. They then used X-rays However, Donges cautions
to examine the crystal structure. that the model the team used
At high pressures, they found, is “very stylised”.
the aluminium hydroxide shifted Nevertheless, the analysis
to a new phase with a sturdier is “very convincing”, says
structure. The water bound up in Anna von der Heydt of Utrecht
the mineral remained there even University in the Netherlands.
JASON EDWARDS/GETTY IMAGES/NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC IMAGE COLLECTION
under incredibly high pressures and She says such premature tipping
at temperatures well over 2000°C could well turn out to be real,
(Icarus, doi.org/dfmh). and it is important to find out.
Nishi suspects that many hydrous A link between Greenland
minerals can be stabilised under and the AMOC is plausible, says
much higher pressures than we Juan Rocha at the Stockholm
had thought possible, although Resilience Centre in Sweden.
it is difficult to be sure because “They are large, [geographically]
testing how each mineral behaves close, and their consequences
at high pressure is challenging. are strong enough as to affect
Hydrous minerals might act as an each other.” ❚
underground reservoir for surface
water on large terrestrial exoplanets Meltwater flows
called super-Earths and help them from the Greenland
to maintain liquid oceans. ❚ ice sheet

News In brief
Psychology
Look sharp or you’ll miss

the gorilla on the court
IF YOU were watching a basketball seconds. People failed to spot it at
game and a person in a gorilla suit around the same rate in both cases.
walked across the court, you would Next, the cross appeared for
notice, right? Earlier experiments either 1.5 seconds or 5 seconds.
showed that only about half of us Slightly more than half noticed it if
would, and now it turns out that if it was displayed for 5 seconds, and
you don’t notice within 1.5 seconds, slightly less than half when it was
you are unlikely to catch it at all. shown for 1.5 seconds. There was
The effect is called inattentional just a 13 per cent greater chance
blindness. But Katherine Wood and of noticing it if it was displayed for
Daniel Simons at the University of 5 seconds rather than 1.5 seconds.
Illinois wondered if lengthening the “The most natural thing to
time a new visual cue is in our field assume is that the longer it’s there,
of view helps. To test this, they the more opportunity you have to
asked people to watch black and notice it, so we were quite surprised
white shapes moving in straight when it turned out that it seems not
CHRISTIAN PETERSEN/GETTY IMAGES
lines across a computer screen to help you very much,” says Wood.
and bouncing off the screen edges. The team found that 1.5 seconds is
The people were told to count the time beyond which most people
how many times objects of one will have noticed something like
colour bounced. While doing this, this if they are going to spot it
a new, cross-shaped object passed (Royal Society Open Science,
over the screen for either 2.67 or 5 doi.org/dfk4). Chelsea Whyte
Animal behaviour Robotics
team conditioned females to battery. They can be programmed

Why sex is especially pair certain smells with electric Bots can check pipes to detect sound, temperature,
memorable for flies shocks. Flies that had mated while water still runs pressure, acceleration, rotation
could remember to avoid smells and magnetic fields.
FEMALE fruit flies get a boost in associated with shocks, but flies SWARMS of floating robots To save power, a sensor can be
their long-term memory after that hadn’t mated forgot after four could help map underground activated by a sudden change in
mating thanks to a molecule days, showing they couldn’t retain pipe networks and detect leaks conditions, such as hissing sounds
found in male fly semen. this training in the long term. and blockages in plumbing. associated with water escaping, or
The substance involved, called The researchers found that Peter Baltus at Eindhoven increased rotation, which could be
the sex peptide, binds to the sperm females who mated with males University of Technology in the a sign of turbulent water flow. The
of male flies and is passed on to modified to lack the sex peptide Netherlands and his team have robot would then increase the rate
females, where it travels from the didn’t have better long-term developed golf ball-sized sensors at which it takes measurements.
reproductive tract to the brain. memories, but flies that hadn’t that can gather information as One use the team has in mind is
It was already known that this mated but were injected with they float through pipes. to improve sketchy maps of ageing
molecule, which is unique to the peptide saw a memory boost Each robot has a microprocessor, water distribution networks below
fruit flies, alters behaviour. After (Science Advances, doi.org/dfk5). a sensor, memory boards and a cities. “The documentation is
mating, it changes what females In nature, flies that are yet to spotty and incorrect, or at least
prefer to eat and makes them mate might lack such a memory very approximate,” says Baltus.
reject future mating partners, in order to make them braver and The advantage of these robots is
for example. It normally does more likely to search out mates. In that they can work without having
this by acting on nerve cells contrast, long-term memory may to shut down the networks they
that are connected to the uterus. mean flies that have mated can travel through. “It makes many
Now Thomas Préat and his remember safe spots to lay eggs. people unhappy if you have to
colleagues at PSL University, Stuart Wigby at the University switch off drinking water to
France, have found that this of Oxford says he is surprised inspect pipelines,” says Baltus.
BART VAN OVERBEEKE
molecule also enhances long- that the sex peptide can migrate Similarly, the robots could
term memory by targeting cells all the way to the brain and affect inspect piping in a chemical plant
in the brain responsible for it. learning. “It’s kind of amazing,” without the need to shut the plant
To test fruit fly memory, the he says. Gege Li down entirely. Donna Lu

New Scientist Daily

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Music
Really brief
musical contexts, says Samuel more rhythmic than lullabies.
The world may sing Mehr of Harvard University. But the most striking discovery
in harmony after all To seek universal features, was that all cultures had melodies
LUKE MACGREGOR/BLOOMBERG VIA GETTY
Mehr and his team turned to centred around a “basis tone”. A

ALL music seems to have similar data science. They collated about good example is Twinkle, Twinkle,
structural elements. In fact, we 5000 descriptions of songs – the Little Star, which starts on the note
even use the same simple building voice being an instrument used C and uses notes from the C major
blocks to make melodies, which in all cultures – and their scale. This means that the C note
means humans might have an performances in 60 societies. gives the song a sense of stability
innate “grammar” for music. Not only was music present and feels like “home”.
While music seems to be in all in all societies, but when they The authors suggest that this
cultures, the prevailing view is analysed the data, clear patterns might be a sign of a universal
Bitcoin’s impact that it has few, if any, universal emerged. For example, songs used “musical grammar”, much like the
may not be so bad elements. Settling the matter in similar contexts shared similar idea we have a universal linguistic
empirically has been difficult features. Ritual healing songs were grammar of speech sounds
Mining the cryptocurrency because research often focuses more repetitive than dance songs, (Science, DOI: 10.1126/science.
bitcoin may be less on individual cultures and and dance songs were quicker and aax0868). Ruby Prosser Scully
polluting than we thought.
A study found powering the Environment Bionics
computers it uses led to the
release of 17 megatonnes
of carbon dioxide in 2018, Wearable patch
one-third that of an earlier gives sense of touch
estimate (Environmental
Science and Technology, A SYNTHETIC skin could help add
doi.org/dfkx). The new a sense of touch to prosthetic
figure took into account hands or give video games a more
the various ways energy is realistic feel. The skin comes as
produced across the world. a battery-free patch that can be
stuck onto any part of the body.
Humans are putting Created by John Rogers at
PAUL SMITH/PANOS PICTURES
plant species at risk Northwestern University in

Illinois and his team, it works by
A third of plants in the vibrating and pushing the skin. It
tropical region of Africa is powered wirelessly and can be
may be at risk of extinction, matched to the user’s skin colour.
according to an analysis of In a demonstration, a man with
22,000 species (Science a prosthetic hand wore the skin on
Advances, doi.org/dfkw). Turn pasture into plantations the upper part of this arm. When
Human impacts, including he grasped a cup with the artificial
increasing deforestation if you want greener palm oil hand, sensors transmitted the
and climate change, are touch sensations to his upper
thought to be responsible. PALM oil has become a villain in increase carbon emissions, arm (Nature, doi.org/dfk3).
environmental terms, as people according to a study by Quezada “Touch is important for being
Trash-talking robot realise that producing it often and his team (Science Advances, able to use a limb,” says Christof
curbs performance involves clearing rainforests. But doi.org/dfk6). He says it also has Lutteroth at the University of Bath,
it turns out this happens less often much less impact on wildlife. UK. Anyone who has tried opening
People who played a in Colombia than in other countries Globally, growing demand a door with cold, numb hands
video game against a that are major producers. for palm oil is leading to a rapid knows how vital it is for grasping
robot opponent made If you buy products containing expansion of oil palm plantations. In and manipulating objects, he says.
worse decisions when the palm oil from plants grown in Malaysia and Indonesia, rainforests The patch could also be used
bot trolled them, a study Colombia, there is a 60 to 70 per are being cut down to make way for in video gaming. In another
has found (arxiv.org/ cent chance that it comes from the crop. This is not only devastating demonstration, it vibrated to
abs/1910.11459). trees on old cattle pasture, rather for wildlife such as orangutans, it convert strikes in a combat game
The research discovered than on former rainforest, says Juan also releases a lot of carbon dioxide. into sensations felt on the body.
that negative comments, Carlos Quezada at the Swiss Federal The main reason why palm oil Rogers now wants to refine the
for example, made Institute of Technology Lausanne’s demand is increasing is that huge touch sensations transmitted by
people make less rational Ecological Systems Laboratory. quantities are now being turned the patch, for example by adding
decisions in the game. Planting oil palms on pasture in into subsidised biofuels, including the ability to gently heat and cool
the South American country doesn’t in Europe. Michael Le Page the skin. Layal Liverpool

News Insight
Health
The truth about vaping

A sudden outbreak of health problems linked to e-cigarettes has
raised concerns about their safety. Jessica Hamzelou investigates
SINCE e-cigarettes were launched Vaping liquids typically
just over a decade ago, their contain nicotine, but lack
popularity has soared. Some the tar found in cigarettes
3.6 million people in the UK and
more than 10 million in the US are Under EU law, many e-cigarette
vapers. But then came the horror ingredients – including vitamins –
stories. In the past few months, are banned as a precaution.
47 deaths and over 2200 cases That isn’t to say that no
of lung injury have been linked problems have been reported
to e-cigarette use in the US, where in the UK. Any suspected health
health officials are now warning effects must be passed on to
against vaping. the Medicines and Healthcare
The US Centers for Disease products Regulatory Agency.
Control and Prevention (CDC) says As of 15 November, the agency
the only way to ensure you aren’t has received 74 notifications
at risk while the problem is being describing 216 health effects that
investigated is by “refraining from may be linked to e-cigarettes,
use of all e-cigarette, or vaping, although these have yet to be
products”. But UK health bodies confirmed. Most of them relate
seem to disagree, with the to breathing and lung disorders.
statement that vaping is “95 per Regarding the age of users, in
cent safer than smoking” – taken the US, most lung injuries have
from a report by Public Health been in people under the age of 24.
LUKA LAJST/GETTY IMAGES

England – widely repeated. So A recent survey estimates that
how safe are e-cigarettes? Why has 28 per cent of high school students
the UK not seen the same health use e-cigarettes. Manufacturer
problems as the US? And are we Juul Labs has come under scrutiny
unnecessarily exposing another for developing flavours that might
generation to nicotine addiction? appeal to young people and
“It’s such a complex, rapidly developed a form of pneumonia a high. These THC-containing marketing its products as being
moving landscape that it’s difficult caused by substances from e-liquids were probably obtained fashionable.
for people to keep track,” says e-liquids getting into their lungs. from the black market, says Bauld.
Linda Bauld at the University of E-cigarettes have been available It is unlikely that THC itself is to
Edinburgh, who has advised the UK for about 10 years, so why are we blame for lung injury – we haven’t School advertising
government on tobacco control. only seeing these health problems seen the same symptoms in In September, the US Food and
E-cigarettes are handheld, now? The cases may all be linked cannabis smokers, for instance. Drug Administration sent the
battery-run devices that vaporise to a chemical typically found in But other chemicals are often used firm a warning letter, raising
“e-liquids”. These typically contain illicit products, according to a with THC in e-cigarette liquids. concerns about it having
nicotine, along with other The CDC has flagged vitamin E marketed its e-cigarettes in a
2200
chemicals and sometimes acetate, a synthetic form of the school using terms like “totally
flavourings, but they are free from vitamin, as the most likely culprit. safe” and “99 per cent safer than
the tar found in tobacco cigarettes. In a recent investigation, it was cigarettes” without authorisation
Bauld highlights two key issues found in all the lung samples from the agency. Within a few
with e-cigarettes: the current rash The number of recent lung injury taken from 29 people with weeks, the company’s CEO had
of health problems and users’ age. cases linked to vaping in the US vaping-related lung injury. stepped down, and the firm
So far, every US state apart from The eight cases of confirmed promised to restrict advertising.
Alaska has reported cases of lung study by the CDC and other or probable lung injury related All of the researchers contacted
injury linked to vaping. There is health bodies. Among a sample to vaping in Canada are likely by New Scientist agreed that
no specific test for such injuries, of 867 people diagnosed with to be connected to vitamin E e-cigarettes shouldn’t be used by
but symptoms include coughs, vaping-related lung injury, 86 per acetate-containing products from young people or people who have
nausea, diarrhoea, shortness cent reported having vaped the US, says Bauld. That might never smoked. Researchers in the
of breath and pains in the chest tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) – the also explain why there hasn’t been UK said that because e-cigarettes
or abdomen. Some people have chemical that gives cannabis users the same spike in cases in the UK. lack the tar found in tobacco

More Insight online Working

Your guide to a rapidly changing world hypothesis
newscientist.com/insight Sorting the week’s
supernovae from
the absolute zeros
cigarettes, they truly are 95 per to the image of e-cigarettes. In the

Medical e-cigs cent safer, with the remaining US, Juul Labs has marketed them
5 per cent of risk down to low as a trendy lifestyle product.
Numerous deaths and levels of toxic substances in But in the UK, young people
thousands of cases of lung e-cigarette vapour, which may are more likely to consider
injury have been linked to have long-term effects for health. e-cigarettes as an aid to quitting ▲ Cybertruck
vaping. Reclassifying vaping In the US, however, the CDC is smoking, says Bauld. That might Elon Musk unveiled Tesla’s
products as medical devices warning that nicotine can harm have something to do with the electric pickup truck last
might limit their appeal as the developing adolescent brain. EU imposing much stricter rules week. The stainless steel
lifestyle products and put And a US survey published last on their advertising. Television, Cybertruck already has
them under greater regulatory year found that young people who radio and magazine ads are over 200,000 orders.
control. They could then also vape are twice as likely to become banned, for instance.
be better targeted towards smokers. This trend hasn’t been There is an argument that ▲ Coldplay
people who already smoke. found in the UK, however. classifying vaping products as Coldplay plans to curb its
So far, only two products in At the same time, there is medical devices could shift their carbon footprint by not
the UK have got this approval. evidence that e-cigarette vapour image in the US, too – although going on tour. The move
Both were authorised as may be more harmful than it this may bring other problems should also significantly
nicotine replacement therapies appears – for adults as well as (see “Medical e-cigs”, left). reduce noise pollution
and could have been made young people. Robert Tarran at (only joking!).
available on prescription in the University of North Carolina “Every US state apart
the UK, but their owner, British criticises the “95 per cent safer” from Alaska has ▲ Quacking
American Tobacco, eventually figure because it was based on reported cases of lung Vive la France! Ducks on
changed tack, deciding to focus a comparison of the number injury linked to vaping” a small farm can carry on
on consumer products rather of chemicals in e-cigarette quacking, after a French
than medical ones. vapour and tobacco smoke. “The In the meantime, e-cigarettes court rejected a noise
There were moral and ethical number of chemicals is irrelevant,” may be a useful tool for people complaint by a neighbour.
concerns that the UK National he says. “No one knows what who are trying to stop smoking.
Health Service would be concentration these chemicals An influential study published ▼ Word(s)
subsidising products developed are reaching in the lungs.” earlier this year concluded that A few weeks ago Collins
by the tobacco industry, says Tarran’s team has found markers the use of e-cigarettes seems Dictionary chose “climate
Ben Hawkins at the London of lung disease in samples taken to work better than other forms strike” as its word of
School of Hygiene and Tropical from people who vape. He says of nicotine replacement therapy the year, even though
Medicine. He worries that these markers are the same as when it comes to quitting. And, it is two. Now, Oxford
tobacco companies may those found in the lungs of people in the UK at least, it appears Dictionaries has made
rebrand as nicotine technology with emphysema, a condition that to be cheaper than these other its choice: “climate
firms, which might enable causes shortness of breath and techniques, too, says Sarah emergency”. Can nobody
them to get around an shortens life expectancy. “If you Jackson at University College count to 1 any more?
international treaty that limits vape over a lifetime, you probably London, who conducted a
industry representatives from have a high chance of getting it,” cost-comparison survey. ▼ Sumatran rhino
lobbying governments. says Tarran. “From everything Epidemiologists think that Malaysia’s last known
Sarah Jackson at University I’ve seen in the lung, it doesn’t smoking rates are falling faster Sumatran rhino has died.
College London has another seem to be safer than smoking.” in the UK than in Australia There are now fewer than
concern. Were e-cigarettes E-cigarettes haven’t taken off at least in part thanks to the 100 left in the wild.
TOP: TESLA; REYNOLD SUMAYKU/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO
to be classified as medical among young people in the UK popularity of e-cigarettes in the
devices, tobacco firms may be as they have in the US. A survey UK. They are banned from being
the only ones able to afford to published in June suggests that made or sold in Australia.
put them through the expensive 84 per cent of young people in the So, for smokers, switching to
licensing process. “If the only UK have never tried e-cigarettes. e-cigarettes as a way to give up
provider of e-cigarettes was Over half who have used them smoking seems like a sensible
the tobacco industry, that have done so just to “give it a choice. But anyone else might
would be a precarious position try” – only 1 per cent said they want to consider the unknown
to be in,” she says. did so because it “looks cool”. health risks of vaping. “There’s
The difference may come down a lot we don’t know,” says Tarran. ❚

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Views
The columnist Letters Aperture Culture Culture columnist
Chanda Prescod- Neglected concerns See the exquisite Two books describe Simon Ings on a
Weinstein on the about the nutrient insides of a when innovations gripping film about
universe’s origin p24 choline p26 glorious gem p28 can kill p30 CRISPR p32
Comment
Vote with climate in mind

One issue is dominating the UK general election – but for those
who care about the future, it’s not the right one, says Jacob Aron
B
REXIT, Brexit, Brexit. Jacob Aron is New Scientist’s
UK politics has been deputy news editor @jjaron
dominated by little else
since the country’s 2016 vote
to leave the European Union. That we should aim to hit that
The upcoming general election goal is a matter of global duty and
on 12 December may finally break naked self-interest, as it is for all
the impasse, but a far bigger developed economies. The UK
issue overshadows this vote: was one of the first nations to
climate change. industrialise and is responsible for
Environmental issues have a disproportionate amount of the
risen up the UK’s political agenda emissions that have got us into
recently, buoyed by concern about this mess. Rich nations like the UK
plastics in the ocean and publicity can provoke a trickle-down effect
surrounding climate protests by lowering the cost of green tech,
by Extinction Rebellion and making it accessible to the rest of
Greta Thunberg’s school strikes. the world. We have already seen
A continuing spate of extreme this with solar and wind farms.
weather events, most recently This isn’t about telling anybody
record-breaking rainfall and who to vote for: the complex,
flooding in parts of central and multi-party nature of this election
northern England, has brought and the perverse effects of the
the practical implications of a voting system makes any general
changing climate to the fore of advice pointless. But it is worth
many people’s minds. taking the time to inform
In a recent Ipsos Mori poll, ourselves what each of the parties
more than 20 per cent of says about climate change before
respondents named the putting a cross on the ballot paper.
environment and pollution as a New Scientist aims to play its part:
concern unprompted. That is up with my colleagues in our news
from just 2 per cent in 2012, and is department, I am currently
beaten only by Brexit, crime and working on a detailed analysis of
the National Health Service. the various UK political parties’
The next UK government will climate policies, to appear in the
have a huge opportunity to display In 2018, the Intergovernmental is a legal requirement in the UK. next issue.
international leadership on the Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Assuming no more early As the world warms and sea
climate, as the COP26 UN climate said that emissions will need to elections – a slightly risky levels rise, who do you want to be
summit is due to be held in fall 45 per cent from 2010 levels assumption, perhaps, given the in charge? Who is going to tackle
Glasgow in November 2020. by 2030, reaching net zero in 2050, febrile state of UK politics at the the biggest problem of our age,
There, nations will take stock of to limit global warming to a “safe” minute – the politicians taking and who is going to set us on the
the 2015 Paris climate agreement, level of 1.5°C. Inaccurately reported office in a few weeks’ time will right path to 2030? Brexit may
and commit to ratcheting up as “we only have 12 years to save still be in charge in 2024. That is seem important now, but looking
JOSIE FORD
efforts to reach net-zero the planet”, the 2030 goal is still a crucial time frame if the UK is to the future there are no bigger
greenhouse gas emissions. vitally important. The 2050 target to meet the IPCC’s 2030 goal. questions to answer than these. ❚

Views Columnist
Field notes from space-time
The beginning that has no end Investigations of the universe’s

origins make us repeatedly rediscover that the cosmos is stranger
than we ever imagined, writes Chanda Prescod-Weinstein
T
HERE may not have been time can mix: time and space your bread are reproducing
a beginning to the thing aren’t as independent as they at an exponential rate.
we understand as feel on everyday, human scales. One of the challenges that
“the universe”. Before I explain The expansion of space-time inflation theory faces is that while
what I mean, I should say: itself can also be hard to fully grasp it fits all of our cosmological data
of course, this isn’t the story because it is so different from almost perfectly, we haven’t been
I expected to tell audiences everyday life. Readers may have able to work out the details. We
when I was a child who wanted previously heard an analogy that still don’t have an exact equation
to be just like Stephen Hawking. space-time expansion is akin to to describe the energy that
Chanda Prescod-Weinstein I was certain, in fact, that the job galaxies racing away from each governs inflation.
is an assistant professor of I was signing up for was the one other like fast cars driving in What we have learned,
physics and astronomy, and where we figured out exactly what opposite directions. The reality however, is that many reasonable
a core faculty member in happened in the very beginning, is more fantastical than that. candidates for this energy
women’s studies at the to a level of detail that humanity Imagine a not-yet inflated equation implicate space-time in
University of New Hampshire. has never before known. As a balloon covered in little dots. a fantastic trick: it may be eternal.
Her research in theoretical grown-up scientist, I have had As you blow up the balloon New bubbles of space-time may
physics focuses on cosmology, the wonderful opportunity to (hopefully not with precious pop up and grow continuously,
neutron stars and particles investigate that era and to helium), the distance between with no beginning and no end.
beyond the standard model discover again and again that Not everyone loves this idea.
the universe is more bizarre “To understand In fact, one of the early architects
than we previously imagined. cosmic inflation’s of inflation, Paul Steinhardt, has
The old story from 1980 or so since become one of the fiercest
exponential
goes that in the beginning of space critics of inflation – and especially
Chanda’s week and time, space-time exploded expansion, watch eternal inflation – and a source
What I’m reading out of nothing and then rapidly how mould spreads of many editorials challenging its
I am really enjoying expanded. The expansion was on a loaf of bread” status in mainstream cosmology.
Hazel Carby’s so fast that it grew faster than the But so far, no one has offered an
Imperial Intimacies: speed of light, because it turns the dots grows. This is what the alternative idea for why the
A tale of two islands. out that the only thing that can expansion of space-time is like. contents of space-time look the
violate the universal speed limit Galaxies aren’t racing apart but way they do that matches the data
What I’m watching is space-time itself. This era, rather space-time is growing as gracefully as inflation does.
I’ve been marathon known as inflation, was first between them. In the meantime, the search
watching the reboot of simultaneously hypothesised This expansion isn’t anything for the right energy equation
Charmed, and it is great! by Alan Guth, Alexei Starobinsky, to worry about, because it is only continues and there are those
Andrei Linde and a team happening on very large scales, of us who are thinking beyond
What I’m working on comprised of Martin Einhorn not on the scale of our solar inflation to the energy that is
What if dark matter and Katsuhiko Sato. They were system, where gravity is playing left over after the process is done.
and dark energy were all motivated by a desire to try its part to keep things together. In a series of papers, I and my
connected? to explain phenomena that When our space-time was less colleagues have begun to unravel
astronomers had observed. than a second old, this expansion how the energy from inflation can
Before we even try to imagine accelerated faster than the speed plant the seeds of all the matter
what inflation means, we have of light for a very brief moment. we see in space-time: galaxies,
to grapple with the expansion of Imagine a percentage of a second planets and us. I struggle with the
space-time and what space-time with 40 zeros after the decimal. idea that inflation could be eternal
even is. That is how long cosmic inflation and the whole of space-time may
The idea that space and time occurred for. This expansion not have had a beginning.
aren’t completely separate entities was exponential. That aspect of inflation theory
is a relatively new one. Their To get a sense of what this may not be testable, which makes
merger is a theoretical necessity means, buy a loaf of bread and many people ask whether it is
induced by Albert Einstein’s wait until it shows signs of mould. still science. I think it is, and I try
This column appears relativity, which tells us that when Once there is a little, it will become to remember that the universe
monthly. Up next week: two of us are moving with respect a lot very quickly. This is because wasn’t designed to be easy for
Graham Lawton to each other, your space and my the microorganisms ruining me to understand. ❚

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Views Your letters
Editor’s pick
We can take lessons from
these rodent drivers
2 November, p 12
From Roger Morgan,
Presteigne, Powys, UK
Rats have been taught the complex
skill of driving a tiny car to collect
a food reward at their destination,
Alice Klein tells us. Monitoring the
rats’ levels of hormones associated
with stress showed that they
were relaxed: online you report
that they were less stressed than
rats that were driven around in
remote-controlled cars. It seems to
me that the rats may enjoy learning
and mastering new skills such as
driving – just as humans do.
This work was done to enable
research on how brain conditions
can affect cognitive function, for
extrapolation to humans. But this
brilliant piece of research may be
as important in giving us pause for computer or a hologram. Those immune system. In 1960, before eggs, is easily matched by soy
thought over autonomous vehicles. models will almost certainly lead to vaccination was available, I had and wheat germ flour, which
Will human drivers become stressed insights and even breakthroughs. two weeks off school with measles. you don’t show.
by going driverless? But they will be no more literally On the first day back, I came There is also a possibility that
true than the idea of the aether as home covered in chickenpox. the relationship between the
a fundamental fluid filling space. For decades I have suspected that intake of meat, milk and eggs and
The aether was a very
there was some relationship. advanced prostate cancer may be
productive idea on light Thanks to New Scientist, I now partly attributable to the choline
2 November, p 32 Hypnosis may be suffering
know that this was probably the levels of these foods. In the public
From Dave Tarpley, from mentalist reputation case. Given the information in interest, it is worth mentioning
Concord, California, US 9 November, p 34 the article, I count myself lucky that health concerns about dietary
Brendan Foster describes renewed From Stefan Badham, to have got off so lightly. choline are being investigated.
interest in the luminiferous Portsmouth, Hampshire, UK
aether. For all its shortcomings, Reading Helen Thomson’s
Neglected concerns about Will nobody think of the
the aether was one of the most interesting and amusing article on
productive scientific ideas of hypnosis, I wondered if hypnotists the nutrient choline poor Martian children?
all time. Many conceived of it aren’t taken seriously because, 26 October, p 20 26 October, p 30
as being electromagnetic as well: historically, they claimed to be From Marloes Schaap, From Anthony Richardson,
it allowed James Clerk Maxwell using only their minds to do it. Utrecht, The Netherlands Ironbridge, Shropshire, UK
to deduce that light was an As Thomson reports, anaesthetist With Clare Wilson’s article on Reviewing the Moving to Mars
electromagnetic phenomenon. Aurore Marcou uses local the neglected nutrient choline, exhibition, Simon Ings offers
The hope that the forces of anaesthetics and mild sedation you present a diagram showing some welcome balance to dreams
nature could be understood in in modern, medical-based beef liver as an important source of long-term space exploration.
strictly mechanical terms died hypnosis, making the hypnotist of it. As Wilson reports, some I would add some ethical issues.
before the aether did. Although one part of the process rather research suggests that women Adventurous adults may make
the electron was seen as a knot than the whole process itself. should have more choline when informed, rational decisions about
or whirl in the aether, it was they are pregnant. leaving Earth permanently. But if
recognised as having fundamental But pregnant women are this isn’t to be temporary, there
Thanks for bolstering my
electrodynamic properties. One advised to avoid liver of any kind, must be plans for them to have
of the discoverers of the electron, suspicion about measles since too much vitamin A from descendants, who will have made
J. J. Thomson, made great use of 9 November, p 15 animal sources poses a serious no such decision.
the idea of an aether. From David Muir, Edinburgh, UK risk for their unborn child. We have no long-term idea
In the information age, many Debora MacKenzie reports that The second-best source of of how deeply the characteristics
physicists treat the universe as a measles massively damages the choline that you show, hard-boiled of Earth’s environment may be

Views From the archives
hardwired into us as necessary Vaughan outlines. But the

for our well-being. Earth-scented suggestion that a space can be
gloves and green wallpaper may “airtight, but still well-ventilated” 35 years ago, New Scientist
be insufficient for their welfare. is confusing. was covering the aftermath of the
Should air trapped in an airtight world’s worst industrial disaster
home be recirculated? How would
Little figures on the ceiling
moisture escape? Dehumidifiers IT WAS a brutal statement of
explained by science need electricity and moisture- a brutal tragedy. “Poison gas
9 November, p 42 absorptive materials have to leaking from a pesticide plant
From Hillary Shaw, be recharged (more electricity killed more than 1000 people
Newport, Shropshire, UK consumption) or replaced in central India this week, and
You mention the camera obscura (recycled or landfilled). injured more than 20 000,”
as an example of unconventional our correspondent Debora
imaging. I saw a camera obscura The editor writes: MacKenzie wrote in our issue
after moving into a house with We mean only that houses of 6 December 1984. “It was
high ceilings, tall windows and should be built in a way that the sort of mass disaster which
a short front garden. On a bright avoids unintentional draughts, may become increasingly frequent as cities in the
first morning, I saw tiny figures not that no air can get in and out. Third World grow and surround factories.”
moving on the ceiling. The folds at Thankfully, that hasn’t come to pass, at least not
the top of the curtains were acting on the scale of the leak from the plant run by a local
Recycling heat to save
as pinholes, projecting pedestrians subsidiary of the US-based chemical corporation Union
on the street onto the ceiling. energy in our home Carbide in Bhopal, capital city of Madhya Pradesh.
Letters, 26 October “Many of the town’s 700 000 inhabitants fled to a
From Patrick Davey, hill to escape the gas,” MacKenzie reported, “which
Tackling the puzzle of low- Dublin, Ireland eventually covered an area of 40 square kilometres.”
carbon domestic energy Matthew Allan proposes that we The final death toll is unclear. In a deposition to India’s
9 November, p 18 retrofit homes with integrated supreme court in 2010, the Indian government quoted
From Jeremy Hawkes, Liverpool, UK heat-handling equipment. This a figure of 5295, with more than 500,000 non-fatal
As Adam Vaughan says, gas boilers is a great idea. injuries. Bhopal remains the worst industrial disaster
are a UK election battleground, We already have a sealed the world has ever seen.
with three of the main parties house. Its controlled ventilation The culprit was methyl isocyanate gas, an
wanting to phase them out, each incorporates a heat exchanger intermediate in the production of pesticides.
at a different rate. But methane working at 92 per cent efficiency. At Bhopal, it was stored as a liquid under pressure in
is a great biofuel that is relatively The only heat we waste is water tanks fitted with pressure valves, spill tanks and air
easy to make, store and transport. from washing machines and scrubbers. On the night of 2 December, nearly a tonne
Sensibly, three times more UK showers. These use only 30 per of water being used to clean pipes poured into a tank
domestic energy is supplied by gas cent of the normal water flow. Very holding 40 tonnes of the chemical, resulting in a
than by electricity. So if we remove few visitors notice the difference, runaway reaction.
gas, we will need four times the and, of course, you don’t heat the Evidence emerged within weeks that Union Carbide
electricity generation capacity. 70 per cent you don’t use. had known that safety systems were inadequate at the
This is a large price to pay for a plant, incapable of preventing a leak resulting from a
possible 12 per cent carbon saving. chemical reaction of this magnitude.
One spoonful of tea avoids
The next government should look The company still maintains that sabotage was the
at the low-carbon possibilities for plenty of plastic problems proximate cause for the leak, however. Although court
domestic heating. 5 October, p 16 cases related to the disaster proliferated in both India
We need investment in From Paul Whiteley, and the US, the only people convicted to date have been
insulation and heat recycling to Bittaford, Devon, UK a few Indian managers. “The case,” our correspondent
avoid heat going down the drain, You report the pollution and Fred Pearce wrote in 2013, reflecting on the legal
and into making gas from waste. possible health risks of plastic fallout, “remains a textbook example of the persistent
particles from teabags. There is failure of legal systems to hold multinational
From Karen Hinchley, Newark-on- a simple way to avoid these: stop corporations to account for their failures.” Simon Ings
Trent, Nottinghamshire, UK using teabags. For the price of a
I am pleased by the progress box of teabags that makes 25 cups,
in planning new homes that I buy loose tea to make 250 cups. ❚
Want to get in touch?

Send letters to New Scientist, 25 Bedford Street, London To find more from the archives, visit
WC2E 9ES or letters@newscientist.com; see terms at newscientist.com/old-scientist
newscientist.com/letters

Views Aperture

Glorious gem
Photographer Chris Perani
THIS exquisite image captures

the astonishing internal structure
of crazy lace agate, also known as
Mexican agate. This section of the
mineral is some 65 million years
old. Agate is related to quartz and
infused with aluminium and iron,
which help create the chaotic
explosion of colours and patterns.
Visualising the complexity of
agate requires special techniques.
Photographer Chris Perani uses
a 200-millimetre camera lens, to
which he attaches a microscope
objective lens in order to achieve
the necessary magnification.
Each final image is made up
of around 25,000 photos merged
together. To do this, Perani first
takes 350 photos of a section using
a focus rail that moves the lens no
more than 10 microns per shot
(the average width of a human
hair is around 75 microns). He
uses software to merge them,
repeating this process 70 times.
Perani finds the crazy lace agate
at specialist fairs and inspects each
specimen for scratches, which he
says would make the photo look
terrible. This kind of photography
captures the intricacies of minerals
like never before, he says. ❚
Gege Li

Views Culture
When innovation can kill

Cultural evolution may define humans, but its products include climate
change and inventions that have been weaponised, says Jonathon Keats
Drones can be used to
carry out attacks
Books
Ingenious: The unintended industrial growth, but, as Audrey
consequences of human Kurth Cronin documents in Power
innovation to the People, the invention also
Peter Gluckman and Mark Hanson powered modern terrorism.
Harvard University Press Dynamite was the perfect
weapon: it was easy to conceal
Power to the People: and detonate, and demand from
How open technological industry ensured it was readily
innovation is arming available. In 1881, a small group
tomorrow’s terrorists of anti-monarchists assassinated
Audrey Kurth Cronin Alexander II of Russia using
Oxford University Press dynamite, turning it into a global
symbol of violent uprising.
THE termite mounds of Australia’s Superbly researched and richly
Northern Territory are marvels. detailed, Power to the People
Often 3 metres tall, they are flat is a fascinating history of the
PHILIPPE HUGUEN /AFP/GETTY IMAGES
on two sides like tombstones, and technology appropriated for

oriented in the same direction. violence. Cronin describes how
But unlike grave markers, they AK-47 rifles became all-purpose
sustain life, moderating the weapons after the second world
harsh climate by absorbing war, and why aeroplane hijackings
sunlight on chilly mornings became so popular from the 1970s.
and evenings, while minimising For Cronin, future attacks
solar exposure at midday. will be fuelled by accelerating
These mounds are a classic they consider what happens when widespread just as we have cultural evolution relating to
example of something common the change it produces accelerates become increasingly sedentary. such things as AI. Dynamite,
to many species: niche beyond our ability to assimilate it, Other evolutionary mismatches she says, offers clues to the
construction, or optimising and when beneficial technologies include the impact of social media kinds of innovations that will
living conditions by altering the are used for negative ends. on our political structures, which be adopted. It was invented
environment. Yet humans stand Runaway cultural evolution are undermined by surveillance in an era of open innovation,
apart at this. Through our unique may even pose serious or and hacking. Even more profound when amateurs were encouraged
capacity to persistently transform is the mismatch climate change to experiment. Some used it
our environment, we have “The evolutionary brings, as fossil fuel-powered to fish; others added clocks to
extended our niche globally. vehicles and cities wreck Earth. make primitive time bombs.
mismatch of climate
In Ingenious, Peter Gluckman “Technology seduces us,” write Its accessibility and ease of use
and Mark Hanson attribute this
change means fossil Gluckman and Hanson. Unlike tell Cronin that attackers may
to cultural evolution, the process fuel-powered vehicles animals, we innovate way past target the likes of consumer-grade
by which shared ideas advance are wrecking Earth” survival needs – on a whim, for drones or infrastructural changes
over time. For them: “Our ability convenience or pleasure. And such as the internet of things.
to develop technologies, learn existential threats. Gluckman and while cultural evolution helps So can humans learn to predict
and communicate about them, Hanson’s most obvious example us achieve almost anything, the mortal dangers posed by
and then redevelop them… is, is obesity, caused by a ruinous it is blind to consequences. cultural evolution, and avert
effectively, human nature.” mismatch between biology and This problem is urgent, but catastrophic mismatches between
The book explores human the niche we have created. We are not new. Consider Alfred Nobel’s biology and society? Clearly
ingenuity, and while the genetically predisposed to store invention of dynamite back in to avoid extinction, our next
authors sometimes labour the calories and use them efficiently the 1860s. He created it as a safer, evolutionary move must be to
obvious (yes, we know we are because food was scarce and hard more reliable alternative to the become wiser about ingenuity. ❚
a technological species), they to gather during our evolutionary standard nitroglycerine used in
make a strong case for cultural history. Yet pre-packaged, mining and heavy construction. Jonathon Keats is a conceptual artist
evolution. More interestingly, high-energy foods are now He laid the groundwork for epic and experimental philosopher

Don’t miss
Videotopian dreaming
Recreating the visionary video installations of Nam June Paik
reveals our hopes for the information age, says Simon Ings
of a double refrigerator, containing those things with new technology.” Visit
the hardware to drive one of Paik’s video walls (the works for Parasites: Battle for
Exhibition Paik’s massive “matrices”, which he is best remembered) are survival at the National
Nam June Paik Megatron/Matrix, an eight-channel, monstrously heavy and absurdly Museum of Scotland
Tate Modern, London 215-screen video wall. It is in pieces delicate. But the Tate has managed in Edinburgh explores the
Until 9 February 2020 now, a nightmare to catalogue, to recreate his Sistine Chapel for country’s role in the fight
never mind reconstruct, stored in this show. Video projectors fill a to eliminate five deadly
THE legacy of Nam June Paik is innumerable tea chests at the room with a blizzard of cultural diseases that together
impressive. He is the man who Smithsonian American Art Museum. and pop-cultural imagery, a visual affect 1 in 18 people.
predicted the internet, YouTube, The trick for Saisha Grayson and melting pot reflective of Paik’s From 6 December.
remote education courses and Lynn Putney at the Smithsonian vision of a tech utopia, in which
many other icons of our information was to distinguish the raw material “telecommunication will become
age. He died in 2006, living long of Paik’s work from the work itself. our springboard for new and
enough to see some of his ideas Then curators like Sook-Kyung Lee surprising human endeavors”. The
start to become the drivers of today. projectors are new, but the feel of
He was an artist who spent “Paik’s utopia saw this recreated piece isn’t so very
much time engineering, different to that of the original.
telecommunications
dismantling, reusing and swapping To stand here, bombarded by
out components. He often replaced
become a springboard images of Bowie, President Nixon,
old tech with better tech, delivering for new and surprising Mongolian throat singers and other
what he could of his vision with the human endeavours” flitting, flickering icons of Paik’s Read
components available: cathode ray madcap vision, is to recall Nano Comes to Life
tube TVs, neon, copper, FORTRAN at Tate Modern had to interpret it for our (mostly broken) dreams for (Princeton) draws on
punch cards. A video synthesiser he a new generation, using new tech. the information age: “Video- author Sonia Contera’s
designed with Tokyo artist-engineer This is because what Paik used to telephones, fax machines, adventures in molecular-
Shuya Abe in 1969 created the make his art is likely to end up in the interactive two-way television… scale engineering to
psychedelic video effects to music bin. Consumer electronics aren’t like and many other variations of this herald the coming of
programme Top of the Pops in the painters’ pigments, which can be kind of technology are going to age of nanotechnology,
UK and the MTV channel. analysed and copied, or sculptors’ turn the television set into an and its promise to
A fascinating retrospective at marble, which may be repairable. ‘expanded-media’ phone system re-engineer tissue
London’s Tate Modern celebrates “Through Paik’s estate, we are with thousands of novel uses,” and transform lives.
all this – and his involvement with getting advice and guidance about Paik enthused in 1974, “not only
TOP: SINCLAIR STAMMERS,REECE LAB; BOTTOM: © THE ARTIST PHOTO: DAVID PARRY/© ROYAL ACADEMY OF ARTS
that loose confederacy of artist- what the artist really intended,” to serve our daily needs, but to
anarchists known as Fluxus. Paik, says Lee, “then we are simulating enrich the quality of life itself.” ❚
born in what is now Seoul in 1932
during the Japanese occupation of
Korea, was educated in Germany,
where he met Fluxus composer
John Cage and also the legendary
Karl-Heinz Stockhausen. (Yoko
Ono was a patron of Fluxus; David
Bowie and Laurie Anderson were Last chance
hangers-on.) Antony Gormley
© ESTATE OF NAM JUNE PAIK/ANDREW DUNKLEY ©TATE
Beneath Paik’s celebrated, and has been twisting our

celebrity-stuffed, concerts, openings perceptions of space
and “happenings”, there is what and the body for half
amounts, in the absence of Paik’s a century. A major
controlling intelligence, to a pile of show of his art has been
junk. More than 660 televisions, running at London’s
some broken. A black box the size Royal Academy of Arts.
Catch it before it ends
Internet Dream, one of on 3 December.
Paik’s signature video walls

Views Culture
The film column
The other cutting room How much do you really know about the revolutionary
gene-editing technology called CRISPR? A sharp independent film will have you up
to speed in no time at all, says Simon Ings
David Sanchez eyes a

CRISPR future for his
sickle-cell anaemia
and people with conditions that

could be helped by the technique,
such as schoolboy David Sanchez,
who has sickle-cell anaemia. We
learn that researchers are running
Simon Ings is a novelist and clinical trials using CRISPR to test
science writer and a culture a therapy for his condition.
editor at New Scientist. Foundational researchers like
Follow him on Instagram Jennifer Doudna and Jill Banfield,
@simon_ings Emmanuelle Charpentier and
Fyodor Urnov provide star quality.
Provocateurs like Stephen Hsu,
a cheerful promoter of designer
babies, and the longevity guru
George Church are given room to
explain why they aren’t nearly as
wrong as some people assume.
MATURE and intelligent, Human ravishing and yet absurdly simple Then the bioethicist Alta Charo
Nature shows us how gene editing to grasp. They need to be, because makes the obvious but frequently
Film works, explores its implications this is an account hardly less ignored point that the Brave New
Human Nature and – in a field awash with alarmist complex than those in the best World nightmare CRISPR is said
Directed by Adam Bolt rhetoric and cheap dystopianism – popular science books. As the film to usher in is a very old and well-
UK cinemas, 6 December explains which concerns are progressed, I began to suspect that worn future indeed. Sterilisations,
worth losing sleep over. the film-makers assume we aren’t genocide and mass enslavement
This gripping documentary idiots. This is so rare an experience have been around a lot longer than
Simon also covers a lot of ground, but also that it took a while to sink in. CRISPR, she says, and if the new
recommends... works as a primer on CRISPR, There are certain problems the tech is politically abused, we will
the spectacular technology that film can’t get round, though. There only have our ourselves to blame.
Films enables us to cut and paste genetic are too many people in white coats There is, of course, the
Gattaca information with something like possibility that CRISPR will let
Directed by Andrew Niccol the ease with which we manipulate “A mutation in a gene loose some irresistibly bad ideas.
The most intelligent sci-fi text on a computer. Human Consider the mutation in a gene
called ADRB1 allows
movie ever made about Nature introduces us to key start- called ADRB1, which allows us
genetic engineering – and a ups and projects that promise to
us to get by on 4 hours’ to get by on just 4 hours’ sleep a
cracking whodunnit to boot. predict, correct and maybe sleep. I would leap at night. I would leap at the chance of
enhance the genetic destinies such a therapy” a therapy that freed up my nights –
The Fly of individuals. It explores the but I wonder what would happen
Directed by fears this inspires, and asks moving specks from one Petri if everyone else followed suit.
David Cronenberg whether they are reasonable. dish to another. It couldn’t be Would we all live richer, more
A daft tale of scientific Its conclusions are cautious, otherwise, given the technology fulfilled lives? Or would I need
hubris or one of the most well-argued and largely optimistic. involves coats, specks, Petri dishes a letter from my doctor when I
heart-rending love stories Writers Regina Sobel and Adam and little else by way of props the applied for a 16-hour factory shift?
ever committed to celluloid? Bolt (who also directs) manage to general viewer can understand. The point, as Human Nature
You decide. tell this story through interviews. That this is a source of cool makes all too clear, is that the
Key players in the field, put at their amusement rather than irritation questions we should be asking
ease during hours of film-making, is largely due to the charisma of about gene editing are only
speak cogently to camera. There is the film’s cast of researchers, superficially about the technology.
no narration. ethicists, entrepreneurs, At heart, they are questions about
Ned Piyadarakorn’s graphics are diagnosticians, their clients ourselves and our values. ❚

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Features Cover story
Bad
medicine?
Rushing drugs to market was supposed to help
people in need, but it may be doing more harm
than good. Jessica Hamzelou investigates
W
EEKS before their due date, some from the market. The FDA has yet to decide. instance. Even when collaboration isn’t direct,
women find themselves stunned, It isn’t just Makena. At drug approvals FDA decisions have ripple effects: the US
peering through glass at their baby, agencies around the world, more and more process is viewed as the “gold standard”
a tiny body covered in sensors and tubes, medications are being rushed to market after worldwide and drugs granted accelerated
striving to stay in the world. limited testing. Drugs are approved based approval by the FDA or EMA can then be
Premature birth can be terrifying. Although on preliminary findings, or authorised for fast-tracked by authorities elsewhere.
survival rates for babies born before 37 weeks a particular use, then widely prescribed for Speed wasn’t always a priority. In the late
of pregnancy have steadily improved, they something else. And hanging over the process 1970s, the FDA was downright sluggish: it
are still significantly worse than those is a worrying question: are these agencies took an average of 35 months for a drug to
of babies born later, and the likelihood of working to protect the public or to further get through the review process. Today, it takes
longer-term health complications is higher. the interests of drug companies? less than a year. Starting in the early 1990s,
So any medication that could reduce We would all like to think that any treatment several measures were introduced to speed up
that risk would be gratefully received – and our doctors offer is the best option available approval, largely in response to public demand
has been. In 2011, a drug called Makena for us, based on credible evidence. But not only from people who faced life-threatening or
was approved by the US Food and Drug do some approved drugs turn out not to work, life-limiting conditions. New pathways were
Administration (FDA) on the basis of a small they may be worse for us than doing nothing. established to give quicker access to medicines
trial showing that it helped prevent preterm Decisions made by the FDA or European that addressed a serious unmet medical
birth. Later, larger studies found that it didn’t. Medicines Agency (EMA), which agree on need or represented “breakthroughs” in
One hospital even reported higher rates of approvals more than 91 per cent of the time, our understanding of how to treat a disease.
gestational diabetes among women given the have international ramifications. The FDA Yet despite those virtuous initial goals,
drug. Then last month, a large trial found that recently announced an initiative with these days, many drugs being hurried through
Makena was no better than placebo; an FDA Canada and Australia for faster, simultaneous are neither of those things. In 2008, the FDA
committee recommended withdrawing it approvals of certain cancer medications, for granted accelerated approval for bimatoprost,

ROBERTO CIGNA
a treatment that encourages eyelash growth. marketing authorisation” to new drugs that simvastatin – those drugs are all different,” says
“Increasingly, these pathways have become treat serious or rare disorders or respond to a Cifu. “Because we don’t have comparative trials
the norm rather than the exception,” says public health emergency, but may not meet of them, or even individual placebo-controlled
Caleb Alexander at Johns Hopkins University the standard level of evidence that they work. trials which we can compare, often it’s not
in Maryland. Today, more than half of all the Those lower standards of evidence include entirely clear which is the best of the drugs.”
drugs that the FDA authorises are granted settling for “surrogate markers”. Instead of This is also the case with many new cancer
an expedited approval of some kind. finding out if a drug can prevent heart attacks, drugs, which make up the majority of
The FDA told New Scientist that drugs for example, a pharmaceutical company may medicines approved through an expedited
authorised in this way “are held to the same only need to show that it lowers blood pressure. pathway. Cancer therapies often have
approval standards as other FDA drug “These are things that are not necessarily going debilitating side effects, so knowing whether
approvals”, but some researchers dispute this. to tell us that people are going to live longer or they will extend your life or not could be
“Fewer trials are being relied upon to approve have a better quality of life,” says Joel Lexchin critical in deciding whether to take them at all.
a drug,” says Jonathan Darrow at Harvard at the University of Toronto in Canada. Between 2009 and 2013, via both expedited
Medical School. “Those trials are less likely to and routine pathways, the EMA approved
be randomised than they were 20 years ago, 48 cancer drugs for 68 different uses. At the
less likely to be blinded, less likely to be No survival boost time of approval, the drugs had been shown to
[placebo] controlled and likely to be smaller.” New drugs that are similar to existing ones and improve survival for only a third of those uses;
Barbara Mintzes at the University of Sydney, treat the same conditions are often approved in just 10 per cent they seemed to benefit quality
agrees. “With the expedited approvals, there based on surrogate markers, says Adam Cifu of life. Even after these drugs had been on the
is a trend toward a lower bar of evidence.” at the University of Chicago Medicine. That market for between three and eight years, they
Faster drug approval has become more includes some of our most widely used drugs, still hadn’t been shown to improve survival
common in Europe, too. Since 2006, the statins, which are taken to lower cholesterol. or quality of life for half of the approved uses.
EMA has been able to grant a “conditional “If you compare atorvastatin, pravastatin, Many cancer drugs authorised by the FDA >

have similarly unclear benefits. Between 1992 New Orleans. “The drugs that receive the fastest
“The drugs that and 2017, says Mintzes, “only 19 of 93 new cancer reviews are also the ones that tend to have
receive the fastest drugs showed a survival advantage”.
Consider Afinitor, a drug used in the
the most serious risks, and even serious
risk resulting in death,” she says. “There is a
reviews are the treatment of metastatic breast cancer. trade-off between speed and safety, and the FDA
It was approved by the FDA in 2012 based on has been struggling to find the right balance.”
ones that tend a surrogate marker – that it limited tumour Having to attach serious warnings and
to have the most growth – but has since been shown not to
extend survival. “It’s very costly, it has real side
even ultimately withdraw certain medicines
are clear indications that some of these
serious risks” effects and it doesn’t let you live longer,” says
Vinay Prasad, an oncologist at Oregon Health
drugs “should not have been approved in
the first place”, says Christopher Robertson
and Science University. “And yet it remains on at the University of Arizona.
the market in both the US and European Union.”
When drugs are approved on the basis
of slim evidence, it is sometimes on the Dangerous alternatives?
understanding that testing will be carried out Once medicines make their way to market,
after they get the green light – as was the case it can be hard to wrest them back. When
with Makena. Yet these trials can take years to the latest data on Makena was released,
complete and are often poor quality. In some the American College of Obstetricians
cases, they just don’t happen. Nearly half of and Gynecologists, which has more than
post-marketing studies requested by the 58,000 members, said it would still
FDA haven’t been completed five years later. recommend prescribing the drug.
It is also more likely that drugs approved In part, the rationale may be that having
this way will later be found to have serious side something to offer is better than nothing.
effects, says Mary Olson at Tulane University in On the 16-person FDA advisory committee
that recommended withdrawing Makena,
seven members voted against this move.
Lowering the bar Jonathan Davis, a paediatrician at Tufts
Getting drugs to market faster often means relying on lower standards of evidence Medical Center in Massachusetts, was
among them. He wants Makena to stay
= 10 people on the market while more trials are
Phase 1
conducted because he worries that doctors
The drug is initially tested in 20 to 80 healthy volunteers
for safety and to identify common side effects will seek out potentially dangerous
alternatives if it is no longer available.
The reality is that sometimes the drugs that
doctors prescribe may simply be best guesses.
Phase 2
Once approved for one purpose, drugs can be
The drug is tested for efficacy in a few dozen to a few
hundred people who have the condition it is designed
prescribed “off label” for other uses. Officially,
to treat. Sometimes these trials are placebo controlled Makena is intended for pregnant women who
or compare the new drug against existing treatments have already experienced a spontaneous
Expedited premature birth. “But doctors prescribe it for all
Many drugs that follow expedited approval
sorts of other risk factors,” says Amy Romano,
pathways can go to market at this
point, before large-scale trials have a midwife and maternity care researcher based
been carried out. Such drugs are in Milford, Connecticut. “Even if the trials
more likely to be found to cause haven’t been done to show it does anything,
harmful side effects or be withdrawn
from the market later
they’ll still prescribe it because they want to
do something rather than nothing.”
Phase 3 Sometimes off-label prescribing can
Drugs are tested for efficacy and safety on be useful, says Cifu, as in the case where only
hundreds to thousands of people. For some one birth control pill has specifically been
drugs sent to market after phase 2, these
larger trials may be completed after approval approved to treat adolescent acne, but there
are several with similar chemical structures
and doctors know from clinical use that they
Approval have similar effects. “To prescribe one of
those for acne makes perfect sense,” he says.
But 80 per cent of off-label uses for drugs
aren’t supported by evidence because
companies aren’t required to run clinical trials
SOURCE: GAO, FDA for such unofficial uses. “We can proceed for

Most drugs given

fast-tracked approval
are to treat cancer
years and years using a drug off-label without

ever really knowing if it’s safe and effective for
those uses,” says Robertson.
Off-label prescribing can also benefit
pharmaceutical firms that develop what are
known as “orphan drugs”. These are
medications intended to treat rare diseases,
defined in the US as those that affect fewer than
200,000 people. There and in places such as
Europe and Australia, orphan drugs are granted
fast-tracked approval and either reduced fees
or tax breaks. In 2018, 34 of the 59 new drugs
authorised by the FDA were orphans. After
approval, drug developers are usually granted
exclusive rights to market new medicines for
several years. With orphan drugs, this period
may be extended, allowing firms to set higher
prices for longer. Makena was granted orphan
drug status. It was first marketed at $1500 per
shot, or $30,000 over an entire pregnancy.
Once these drugs are on the market, they
ABK/GETTY IMAGES
can be prescribed for much more common
disorders. “There are products that have
made tens of billions of dollars that are
anything but orphans,” says Alexander.
A lidocaine patch marketed as Lidoderm,
for example, was approved as an orphan drug
by the FDA in 1999 to treat nerve pain caused
by shingles – which affected about 191,000
“We can proceed letters sent by the FDA to pharmaceutical
companies appears to have dropped. Yet it
Americans at the time. Since then, it has for years using remains the case that off-label prescriptions
can be dangerous. They are more likely to cause
become widely prescribed for other types
of pain. By 2005, 82 per cent of Lidoderm a drug off-label adverse or allergic reactions, for instance.
prescriptions were for uses not approved by For many, when these issues are taken
the FDA. “Once you let a product on the market, without ever together they become a major source of worry:
it’s very difficult to control how it’s going to be
used,” says Lexchin. “The drugs get around –
knowing if is the FDA prioritising the interests of drug
companies over those of the public?
people use them for other conditions where it’s safe and It is certainly the case that an increasing
they’re not found to be beneficial.” amount of the agency’s funding comes from
“We’re in this odd situation where the effective” industry. Under the Prescription Drug User
off-label use is largely unregulated, but the Fee Act introduced in 1992, pharmaceutical
reimbursements for it can be extremely companies agreed to pay fees to help fund
profitable for the companies,” says Robertson. additional FDA salaries and, in return, the
It is illegal for drug companies to agency agreed to speed up approval times.
deliberately market drugs for disorders that guilty of misbranding and sentenced to a year Back then, the FDA received around $36 million
they haven’t been officially approved for. of probation and 100 hours of community a year from drug companies, says Darrow.
But whether the FDA can intervene if service. But Caronia appealed on the grounds The fees have been repeatedly renewed and
salespeople do this is now “a little bit hazy” that he was merely exercising his right to free expanded since. “Now it’s around $1.5 billion
thanks to a 2012 court case, says Robertson. speech. In 2012, a court of appeals overturned per year coming from user fees,” he says. At the
The story starts with Alfred Caronia, a sales his conviction, deciding that, “as long as EMA, 89 per cent of the €330 million annual
rep for the company that made Xyrem, a drug everything he was saying was true, he had a budget comes from similar fees. For the FDA,
officially approved to treat narcolepsy. In 2005, constitutional right to say it”, says Robertson. it’s 45 per cent. “There is some concern about
Caronia was recorded telling a doctor that the To the court, it didn’t matter that there wasn’t the quality of evidence and the willingness of
drug could also benefit people with insomnia robust evidence to support his claims. the FDA to consider the industry as its primary
and fibromyalgia, that it was being investigated Robertson thinks the FDA may now be client, rather than the public,” says Darrow.
in Parkinson’s disease and multiple sclerosis unwilling to pursue similar cases because, New Scientist contacted both agencies to ask
and that it was safe to use in children. if one made it to the US Supreme Court and whether that financial dependency conflicts
The US government argued that Caronia the agency lost, it would lose the ability to with their missions to serve the public. The
was “marketing a dangerous drug for use not effectively regulate drugs and medical devices. EMA didn’t respond by the time this went
approved by the FDA”. In 2009, he was found Since the Caronia case, the number of warning to press. An FDA representative replied in a >

“We’re losing written statement that user fees are “to hire
additional staff and upgrade its information
enabling the public to subject financial ties to
much closer scrutiny. Last September, an
out on our technology systems”, and that the user fee
act “committed the Agency to speed the
investigation by The New York Times and
ProPublica revealed that José Baselga, then
ability to treat application review process for new drugs chief medical officer at the highly regarded
without compromising its high standards Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in
patients because for new drug safety, efficacy, and quality”. New York, “put a positive spin on the results
medicines aren’t Upfront payments aren’t the only way
the industry can influence the FDA. Drug
of two Roche-sponsored clinical trials that
many others considered disappointments”,
being properly companies may offer payment for work on without disclosing that he had received more
advisory boards or cover accommodation or than $3 million from Roche in the preceding
evaluated” travel expenses for members of an FDA panel three years. When the story broke, Baselga
after a drug has been approved, avoiding the issued an apology and resigned, but within
need to report a conflict of interest beforehand. months was given a senior role at AstraZeneca.
Once approved, the way drugs are promoted “It really isn’t much of a punishment when
or prescribed might also be influenced by you get a very lucrative job,” says Prasad.
drug company funds – even at a surprisingly
small scale. A 2018 study found that physicians
who receive financial benefits from companies Getting better
that make opioid drugs are more likely to The first step towards addressing these issues
prescribe them, even when the compensation is to shine a light on them, and an increasingly
is as small as a $13 meal. vocal group of physicians, researchers, lawyers
With the enactment of the Physician and policy-makers are attempting to do just
Payments Sunshine Act in 2010, it became a that. Prasad is writing a book exposing flaws
legal requirement in the US for drug and device in the way cancer drugs get approved and
manufacturers to report any financial ties with prescribed, for instance. Darrow has published
doctors greater than $10. According to publicly paper after paper examining the nuances of
available data, two of the doctors who voted to how drugs make it to market in the US and
keep Makena on the market received financial abroad. Aaron Kesselheim of Harvard Medical
compensation from the manufacturer at some School, a co-author with Darrow on several
point. The amount one reportedly received papers, has testified before the US Congress
was just $17. That may seem like peanuts, multiple times to draw attention to problems
but that money represents an opportunity in drug development, approvals and pricing.
for the sales rep to give a pitch directly to the But change is slow in coming. What’s more,
doctor –“an intimate education session” most doctors and scientists contacted by New
as Romano puts it. “They wouldn’t do them Scientist don’t necessarily blame regulatory
if they weren’t so effective,” she says. bodies for the lack of evidence in support
As intended, these kinds of disclosures are of many new drugs. They point out that
organisations like the FDA are balancing the
need for scientific evidence with pressure from
doctors and patient groups – even if some of
Racing to market these groups are funded by drug companies.
The use of expedited pathways for drug approval has steadily increased at the US Food and Drug Administration Frustratingly, too, direct efforts to change
things have fallen short. In 2005, a UK
15
parliamentary select committee
recommended that the government’s
Number of fast-track licences granted
12 Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory

Agency work with industry to design trials that
test whether each drug is likely to improve a
9 person’s life. It also suggested a limit on how
much promotional material doctors receive
about new drugs. But the government decided
6 to maintain the status quo, stating that “there
is no indication that the measures currently
in place are not effective”.
3
There is a lot at stake. “We’re losing out
SOURCE: FDA
on our ability to treat patients because

0
medications are not being properly evaluated
2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 and not being properly prescribed,” says

Links to relevant research papers

are included in the online version
of this article at newscientist.com
Taking your Fact boxes on

packaging could
health into be a way to inform

the public about
your hands the evidence for

new medications
Ask your doctor how new the drug is

Newer drugs may have less safety
information. We don’t find out about the
side effects of some drugs until they have
been on the market for years, and given
to hundreds of thousands of people.
SIMON DAWSON/BLOOMBERG/GETTY
Ask if the medicine was approved

for your condition or symptoms
Drugs are often prescribed “off label”
for uses unapproved by regulatory
bodies, and for which there is little or
no evidence to support their use. “If it is,
you’re covered, if not, it’s worth asking,
‘Why are we using it?’ ” says Adam Cifu Lexchin. Robertson echoes the point. “If we withdrawn from the market if they aren’t
at the University of Chicago Medicine. end up in a situation where we know less and shown to improve survival within a set
less about the chemicals that we are putting in number of years. Most of those contacted
Ask how likely the medicine is to work our bodies in situations where we are the most by New Scientist had heard this suggestion
The “number needed to treat” reveals vulnerable and the most desperate for health brought up at conferences, but it has yet
how many people would have to try a solutions, that’s really worrisome,” he says. to develop into a coherent campaign.
drug before one person benefits. A high That is why they and other outspoken While advocates for reform carry on with
number suggests the drug is less likely critics won’t stop trying to raise the alarm. the long slog towards meaningful change,
to help you. Meanwhile, their wish list for how to do things there are things we can all do to ensure we get
better grows longer by the day. Lexchin thinks the best possible medicines (see “Taking your
Ask how the drug compares we need to make organisations like the FDA health into your hands”, left). That starts with
with other drugs and EMA financially independent. “Regulation taking an active role in our healthcare and
Newer drugs may not have been should be funded out of public money, not out weighing up the risks and benefits of any new
compared with existing drugs. of user fees that the industry pays,” he says. treatment. If a doctor recommends a drug, ask
Ask where the evidence lies. Huseyin Naci at the London School of questions about it, says Robertson. Ask if that
Economics says that “drugs should be drug is approved for your specific condition,
Look for studies on the drug evaluated on the basis of their overall survival and for the evidence supporting its use.
You can find out how a drug was benefit wherever possible”. Mintzes agrees. Your doctor should also be able to tell
approved by searching the website The use of expedited approval pathways shaves you how new the treatment is, how much is
of the regulatory body, such as the FDA an average 11 months off the time it takes for known about its safety and if a new treatment
or EMA. Cochrane reviews provide a drug to get to market. “That’s not that long,” outperforms older ones. It may seem like a lot to
easy-to-understand summaries on she says. If data collection ahead of approval ask of doctors who are pressed for time or who
how the drug has fared in clinical trials. were to take longer, people who wanted to try may struggle to keep up with the constantly
the drug in the meantime can be granted access evolving research. But when your health is on
by taking part in clinical trials or through the line, this may be your best chance of getting
compassionate access schemes, says Mintzes. the medicine that is genuinely best for you.
When drugs are approved without clear “Gone are the days when a doctor should tell
evidence that they work, this should be made you, ‘You need drug A’,” says Prasad. “Here are
apparent on their packaging, says Darrow. the days when a doctor should tell you, ‘Let’s sit
“Patients overestimate the value of new down, let’s talk about drug A, let’s talk about
medications, in some cases by a factor of drug B, let’s talk about what if we do nothing.’” ❚
HERO IMAGES/GETTY IMAGES
10 or more,” he says. “What’s really needed

is a drug fact box, just like we have nutrition
fact boxes, where we use terms that patients Jessica Hamzelou is a reporter
can understand.” at New Scientist. She specialises
One idea that is gaining some traction in covering health and medicine.
is for approved drugs to automatically be Follow her @JessHamzelou

Features Interview
“It’s rational to
particular scientific conclusions that people
think threaten or conflict with their self-
interest: that could be economic self-interest,
it could be religious beliefs or it could be some
kind of political position like commitment
be outraged by to free-market capitalism. Denial is quite

specific, not the broad-brush thing that people
sometimes make it out to be. And I think that
distinction is important, because the solution
things that are is different.
It seems that we have gone from science

denial to denial of facts and evidence in
general. Would you agree with that?
outrageous” Yes. What we’re seeing is the “manufactured

doubt” strategy being universalised as
a political tactic, because once you can
undermine people’s beliefs in facts and
credible authority, then you can say almost
anything.
Naomi Oreskes has long defended science Normally in politics, one of the tools that
we use to fight back against things we don’t
against the forces of misinformation. But it’s agree with is to point out when they’re
time scientists stopped being so arrogant, factually incorrect. Now, because there’s so
much cynicism and distrust, that’s become
she tells Graham Lawton extremely difficult.
Social media cops a lot of the blame.

Is that fair?
I think it’s an oversimplification. We know
A
HISTORIAN of science at Harvard from history that you don’t need social
University, Naomi Oreskes is best media to spread disinformation, you can
known for exposing the tactics of do it with old-fashioned media. However,
science deniers. Her first book Merchants of I do think social media has made it
Doubt, co-authored with Erik Conway, worse because it’s now possible to get
chronicled how industry-funded scientists disinformation out to incredibly large
spread misinformation and doubt about audiences rapidly at very low cost. A bunch
PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS
tobacco smoke, climate change, acid rain and of guys in a basement can now do a lot of
more. She has since exposed how the “tobacco damage and do it pretty quickly.
playbook” has become the standard corporate
strategy to delay regulatory action and protect When corporate interests spread
bottom lines. In her new book Why Trust misinformation, it is clear why they are doing
Science?, she sets out what scientists must do it. What motivates the guys in the basement?
to stem the tide of denialism. Naomi Oreskes is Professor People do things for all kinds of reasons.
of the History of Science at It isn’t just about money. They are often driven
Graham Lawton: We live in troubled times. Harvard University by free-market ideology, the idea that if the
Have you ever known science denial and government intervenes into the marketplace,
misinformation to be so rampant and we’re on the road to socialism. Lots of people
widespread? buy into this myth – and it is a myth – that
Naomi Oreskes: I don’t like to overstate the hurricanes. To deny it in the face of human government is bad, that any regulation, even
situation because we’ve had denial for a long suffering – there’s a moral dimension to that. to protect your health and safety, is bad. There’s
time. However, two things have happened to I can’t think of a word other than “shocking”. a well-funded and very smart campaign to
make things worse. One is the blatant, overt, persuade ordinary people that their self-
unapologetic and completely shameless Why do so many people reject and interest is the same as that of the captains
rejection of science by the president of the mistrust science? of industry.
United States. I would push back on “so many people”. When
The other is that people’s lives are really at we look at opinion polls in the US, UK and Is ideology the only motivation?
stake. Climate change is here, it’s unequivocal. around the world, the vast majority of people Attention-seeking behaviour is part of it too.
People are being killed by floods and do accept science. But we see resistance to There are a lot of people who would not be

ideologically motivated misinformation. What

you have to do is to expose their motivation,
and then you can say, “Look, I get it. I care about
freedom too. So let’s talk about solutions to
this problem that we could achieve without
taking away your freedom.” Then you have
shifted the terms of debate.
You and others have been banging this drum

for years. Do you feel like you have failed?
I don’t think so. We have made people aware
that this is not simply a problem of scientific
literacy. However, we’re up against really,
really big forces.
There is an incredibly powerful and well-
funded network, organised and financed
RICH PEDRONCELLI/AP/SHUTTERSTOCK
by some of the most powerful corporations

that have ever existed.
Denial makes me angry, but I don’t know if

that is an appropriate response. Does it make
you angry?
Oh, absolutely. I think we need to be angry. We
need to be outraged. I always say it’s rational to
Protests against tighter rules be outraged about things that are outrageous.
on vaccination exemptions in But then we have to channel that anger and
Sacramento in August outrage into productive political action.
well known who are actually quite famous

now because of their climate denialism.
I also think some of them are lonely. Once,
“Once you One of your previous books, The Collapse
of Western Civilization, painted a deeply
pessimistic picture of the future. Do you
this guy gave me a really hard time at a book
reading. Then afterwards, he asked me out.
undermine still feel that way?
Every single day you can find grounds for
And I think they’re scared. Climate change
is scary. And when people are frightened,
beliefs in facts optimism. Greta Thunberg is amazing, the
Gandhi of climate change. She is clearly
they lash out in all sorts of directions and
they often shoot the messenger. When
then you can motivating lots of people. So is Extinction
Rebellion. There is rising anger, people are
someone comes along and says, “Don’t listen
to those geeks, they’re just a bunch of elite,
say almost saying, “This is ridiculous.” I think that’s
all good.
arrogant eggheads” – which, honestly, some
of them are – some people find that an anything” But every day, you can also find grounds
for pessimism. Are we going to figure out how
attractive message. to dislodge these incredibly powerful forces
that we’re up against? I think the jury’s still out
You think scientists are partly to blame? on that.
I don’t want to use the word blame. But some that to communicate is to connect with a
way in which we’ve structured science and fellow human being, and you cannot do that You have yourself been targeted by denialists
our understanding of what it is to be a scientist without some degree of emotional investment. and misinformation campaigns.
has contributed. So when scientists expunge their emotions, Of course, but I try not to dwell on it. I know
A lot of scientists are really full of it doesn’t work. it’s toxic. I get much more support than I get
themselves, right? There is a certain way in pushback. Most people are with us. Most
which scientists – not all, but some – can be What can scientists do to counter public doubt? people understand the threat. They know it
dismissive of ordinary folks. Scientists have When the doubt thing first happened, most is real and want to do something about it.
to stop being so arrogant. scientists misdiagnosed it. They saw it as a I try to stay focused on that. ❚
The problem is in the way we’re trained and problem of scientific literacy and thought that
what we’re taught to value. There’s a cultural the response was to explain it more clearly.
obsession with the idea that to be a great More facts, more evidence. Graham Lawton is a staff writer at
scientist, you have to be absolutely single- That doesn’t work because these people New Scientist. Follow him on Twitter
minded. You get no training whatsoever in are not lacking information. This is not a @GrahamLawton
communication. But there’s plenty of evidence knowledge deficit problem, it is a problem of

Features
Exotic new materials

with remarkable
properties are poised to
transform computing,
cosmology and medicine.
Stephen Ornes reports
RISE
of the
SUPER
MAGNETS
RALF HIEMISCH/GETTY IMAGES

Heroic
multiferroics
CANCER DETECTION
1 AND BRAIN MAPPING
From the signal-sending of
neurons to the ion channels
of cells, your body is positively
tingling with electrical activity.
“If you have access to electricity
at the molecular level, then
you can actually control cells,
treat diseases and even control
biological processes,” says
Sakhrat Khizroev, a physicist
and inventor at the University
of Miami in Florida looking for
medical applications for a new
class of wonder materials called
multiferroics (see main story).
The potential is vast.
Multiferroics might reduce the
need for invasive techniques
O
NE April night in 1820, the Danish computational power to helping search for by being made into nanobots
experimentalist Hans Christian the universe’s missing matter (see “Heroic designed to swim through blood
Øersted made a remarkable multiferroics”, right and following pages). vessels and deliver life-saving
discovery. By bringing an electrical wire near Spaldin, now at the Swiss Federal Institute drugs. They would be guided by
a compass lying on his workbench, he found of Technology in Zurich, was ideally suited magnetic fields outside the body
its needle could be made to shiver and dance. to hunt such substances. “My passion is really and able to interact with tissues
Whether a lucky accident or an inspired bit electrons,” she says. “I love thinking about through their electric properties.
of experimentation, that moment cemented them.” That boded well because understanding For his part, Khizroev
Øersted’s reputation. What he had discovered electrons is key to understanding why has developed multiferroic
was that electricity and magnetism, long multiferroics are so valuable. nanoparticles to spot signs
thought to be entirely distinct phenomena, Virtually all the matter that we can see is of cancer. The idea is that
were in fact inextricably linked. made up of atoms. These, in turn, consist of once inside the body, the
Two hundred years later, this connection electrons spinning around a nucleus formed multiferroics flag cancerous
powers our world. Moving magnets give rise of protons and neutrons. Despite their tiny cells in a way that can be detected
to electric fields, driving the motors in electric size, electrons play a vital role in determining through nuclear magnetic
cars and generators in hydroelectric dams. a material’s electric and magnetic properties. resonance imaging. Studies
Flowing electric currents in turn give rise to Let’s take magnetism first. All electrons have suggest they can outperform
magnetic fields, such as those used in MRI a quantum property called spin that can be traditional, cobalt-based
scanners and particle accelerators like the Large thought of as an arrow that points in one of nanoparticles.
Hadron Collider at CERN. But this symbiosis two directions. Most of the time, these arrows Ultimately, he has other
has its limits. Until recently, it was thought are oriented randomly, with no one direction targets in mind, including
to be impossible to produce a single material dominating. In some materials, however, the the brain. “The brain is more
that could possess a permanent magnetic arrows get in formation when they are exposed energy-efficient than any
field and electric field at the same time. to an external magnetic field. If all the arrows computer working today,”
Then, one day in 1998, a researcher at are aligned the same way, the material starts he says. His vision is to use
Yale University named Nicola Spaldin asked generating a magnetic field of its own. > multiferroic particles to map
a deceptively simple question. Why? the organ’s network of neurons,
“It was a question that really no one was and then develop a computer
asking, or had thought to ask before,” says based on that map.
Spaldin. That moment marked a turning point “It was a question
in her career and launched a revolution in
materials science, a decades-long pursuit that really no
of elusive wonder stuff with both properties.
Today, the first examples of these so-called
one was asking,
multiferroics could change technology for or had thought
good. There might be no end to their power:
from making better solar cells and boosting to ask before”
Materials like iron, which are capable of charges line up. Even if the electric field is
2 UNPICKING
STRING THEORY
becoming magnetised and retaining their
magnetism even when the external field
is removed, are said to be ferromagnetic.
taken away, the charges stay put, and the salt
produces its own electric field. By analogy
with ferromagnetism, which had been
String theory is one of the most Ferromagnets are everywhere in our daily known about for millennia, this property
popular (and controversial) lives. A compass needle is one example, and was called ferroelectricity.
candidates for a theory your fridge is probably covered with dozens Coming just a century after Øersted’s
of everything, a unified more, holding up your holiday snaps and demonstration, this Rochelle salt experiment
mathematical framework reminders. Less well known to most of us, deepened the known connections between
capable of describing the but also well-established, are ferroelectrics – electricity and magnetism. Given this
entirety of physics. Among its materials that can produce electric fields, used relationship, you might think that getting
predictions is that everything today to power some types of computer chip. ferroelectricity and ferromagnetism into the
in the universe is made of Their superpower, just like ferromagnetism, same material would be easy. But no such luck.
unbelievably tiny strings, starts with electrons. Briefly put, some “When you have magnetic materials, they’re
whose vibrations correspond materials have a mix of charged atoms built almost by definition not ferroelectric,” says
to the subatomic particles we into their structure. If an electric field is applied materials scientist Manfred Fiebig at the Swiss
see in our daily lives. to the material, these charges can permanently Federal Institute of Technology.
In the 1970s, physicist Tom shift, and the separation of negative and
Kibble described how such positive charges generates a tiny electric
strings might arise in the early field, called a dipole. When these dipoles Mutually exclusive
universe, in the moments line up in the same direction, they form what The logic is fairly simple: magnetism only
shortly after the big bang. is called an electric polarisation. This means occurs because electrons, in order to align their
Gaining insight into those the material produces an electric field. spins, must be free to move between atoms.
conditions appears impossibly Materials that can do this are said to be For a ferroelectric material to create an electric
difficult, but Kibble identified ferroelectric (see “Fields of dreams”, right). field, charges must be free to move when an
a number of mathematical The first observation of ferroelectric external field is applied – but then stay in place.
symmetries that the early behaviour came in an unlikely substance: “It is not a trivial thing. You want to relate
universe should obey. a laxative called Rochelle salt, developed two different kinds of physical phenomenon.
If someone could only find by a French pharmacist in the 17th century. One with currents, one with stationary
something with those charges. How do you create materials that have
symmetries, they might both of these properties?” asks Ramamoorthy
be able to model those “Ferroelectric Ramesh at the University of California,
primordial conditions. Berkeley. “These two things are in some
Forty years later, Nicola behaviour was first sense pointing in opposite directions.”
Spaldin, while at the University
of California, Santa Barbara,
seen in a laxative But that didn’t stop scientists from looking
for examples. In the 1950s, Soviet physicists
proposed a multiferroic called Rochelle salt” developed a synthetic material that had
called yttrium manganite flickers of promising properties when cooled
as the answer. The equations to below 0°C, but these vanished at room
that describe the material Its creator wouldn’t reveal his recipe, but its temperature, limiting their usefulness. In 1965,
as it changes polarisation, ingredients weren’t its only secret. In 1824, Swiss physicists overcame some of these
wrote Spaldin, match the Scottish physicist David Brewster observed difficulties, but the fragility of their material
conditions Kibble laid out to that Rochelle salt is pyroelectric, which meant that industry wouldn’t bite.
such an extent that it is the means it produces a small voltage when The next three decades brought a steady
“crystallographic equivalent of heated or cooled. And in 1880, the Curie trickle of experimental attempts to mix
cosmic strings”. She suggests brothers – Jacques and Pierre – showed magnetic and ferroelectric ingredients, but
that the material may enable that it was also piezoelectric, generating multiferroics remained mostly out of reach,
physicists to simulate the voltage when it was squeezed, stretched difficult to make and harder to use.
conditions that prevailed or otherwise physically deformed. In 1899, This is where Spaldin comes in. When she
billions of years in the past. Thomas Edison took advantage of Rochelle left Yale for a new position at the University
salt’s piezoelectricity to build a commercial of California, Santa Barbara, she took a bold
version of his phonograph to play back tack. She abandoned her original research
sound recordings. plans and instead dedicated herself to hunting
Those early findings suggested something multiferroics full-time. Then, in 2000, she
strange was happening in the salt’s atoms. published an electrifying paper that changed
The situation became even more interesting everything. It was titled, simply: “Why Are
in 1921, when a physicist at the University There So Few Magnetic Ferroelectrics?”
of Minnesota found that if Rochelle salt Her short, sharp analysis of the necessary
was immersed in an electric field, its electric properties of such materials was inspirational.

Fields of dreams
A material’s electric and magnetic properties depend on the behaviour of its
electrons. Individual electrons can generate electric or magnetic fields that
cluster together in small regions called domains. In ferroelectric and
3 FINDING
DARK MATTER
ferromagnetic materials, these domains line up in the presence of external fields.
In multiferroic materials, both sets of domains line up at the same time Around 85 per cent of the
matter in the universe is
FERROMAGNETIC MATERIAL invisible. We know this
so-called dark matter is
Apply a out there because of its
magnetic field gravitational effects, but
nobody has yet spotted it
directly. Sinéad Griffin at the
Lawrence Berkeley National
Lab in California is one of the
many physicists looking to
change that.
Her idea is simple. As the
FERROELECTRIC MATERIAL Earth whooshes through
Apply an a big cloud of dark matter,
electric field that directional motion might
give rise to a kind of invisible
wind. Such a wind would impart
energy that ordinary matter
could pick up, providing
evidence of dark matter’s
existence and possibly its
composition.
MULTIFERROIC MATERIAL “A smoking gun for a dark
matter experiment would be
getting this directionality,”
says Griffin. “If you have a
target that can pick this up,
it’s enough.”
Conveniently, the energy
range that multiferroics are
sensitive to is exactly right
for picking up the likely
constituents of dark matter.
Most dark matter detectors
One researcher she inspired was Ramesh,
then working on the other side of the country.
“Spaldin changed are huge vats of inert liquids,
tucked away deep underground,
He had been conducting experiments on a her plans and that are looking for high-energy
synthetic compound called bismuth ferrite, particles. But they have largely
and the weird results he was seeing seemed to started to hunt seen a lot of nothing. The
match the signature of Spaldin’s multiferroics. detectors that Griffin envisions
So he picked up the phone. multiferroics would pick up even fainter
“I remember it very clearly,” says Spaldin.
“He was very Californian. He didn’t know me
full-time” signals, making them an
exciting option.
very well, but he just asked, ‘What do you think
is the electric polarisation of bismuth ferrite?’”
That unconventional opening line launched
a collaboration: Spaldin with the theory and
big vision, Ramesh with the materials-making
background. As it turned out, bismuth ferrite
was the perfect candidate. On a microscopic
level, it consists of a lattice of bismuth atoms
interspersed with charged ions of iron and
oxygen. The structure of the bismuth atoms
provides the ferroelectricity, and the >

Going beyond the

BOOSTING
4 MEMORY
ferromagnetism
of ordinary bar
magnets was seen
Computer hard drives are as impossible
essentially made of tiny
magnets whose polarity
can be used to store binary
information. Magnets point one
way for a “1” or flipped over
for a “0”. Right now, computers
use an electric current, applied
directly through a wire, to flip
POWER AND SYRED/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY
the magnets when necessary.

Multiferroics suggest
another way. Earlier this year,
Ramamoorthy Ramesh’s group
at the University of California,
Berkeley, unveiled a multiferroic
electrical component that also
stores information as 0s and 1s.
But unlike ordinary hardware,
it doesn’t need current from
a wire. Instead, these switches wiggling electrons in the iron ions supply the In some ways, though, computer memory
can be flipped by applying an magnetic boost. But it isn’t enough to simply turned out to be the low-hanging fruit. In the
external electric field. That have these two on their own, says Ramesh. past few years, researchers have realised that
may not seem like a big deal, The oxygen atoms play a crucial role too, these materials have so much more to offer,
until you consider it would take creating the stable geometry that allows both including in endeavours as diverse as medicine
10 to 30 times less energy per properties to emerge. “You have to have all of and cosmology (see “Heroic multiferroics”,
bit of information stored to do them together in a certain way,” he says. page 43). “The applications have exploded
it this way. beyond what we ever imagined,” says Spaldin.
Given the explosive growth In fact, she notes that perhaps the biggest
of power-hungry technologies When a plan comes together surprise to emerge from the past two decades
like the internet of things, In 2003, Spaldin and Ramesh reported on is how many uses have been found for
self-driving cars and artificial their first observation of multiferroicity in this multiferroic materials that have nothing to
intelligence, it is small wonder substance. For the first time in history they had do with the coupling of magnetic and electric
that companies like Intel are an example of this material that lent itself to behaviours. “In many applications, we’re
actively pursuing such devices. applications. It had the necessary superpowers finding that the multiferroicity itself isn’t
and it maintained its properties at room as interesting as something else that came
temperature. The group also showed that it was along with it,” says Fiebig. For example, many
ideally suited to uses in computing, especially multiferroics have a structure that makes
memory (see “Boosting memory”, left). them exceptional harvesters of solar energy.
The revelation that practical multiferroics In principle at least, that means they should
existed sparked a revolution. Before have conversion rates far greater than today’s
2003, the related terms “multiferroic” or silicon-based top performers.
“electro-ferromagnetic” were mentioned in Better and more efficient multiferroics
a few hundred papers. Since 2003, they have are surely still out there. And, no doubt,
shown up more than 32,000 times. The field somewhere beyond them are entirely
exploded beyond the reach of Spaldin, as labs new classes of material with as-yet-
around the world took up the challenge to undreamed-of combinations of natural
make and explore their own multiferroics. properties. Perhaps all it will take for us to
“It was exactly like a Bollywood movie, root them out is for someone like Spaldin
with a lot of fight scenes, and people crying, to start asking the right questions. ❚
and dance sequences, things like that, but
translated into physics,” jokes Ramesh. Since
then, he and Spaldin and other physicists have Stephen Ornes is a journalist
been locked in an ongoing race to extract the based in Tennessee. He
next surprising, serendipitous revelation from tweets @stephenornes
a class of materials that just keeps on giving.

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Successful candidates for an Assistant Professor rank will possess at a minimum a doctoral
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The Department of Biological Science is a diverse and interactive group with 46 tenure-track
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10th Anniversary
Great minds come together at Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany

What’s in it for me? How it works:
If you are a post graduate student with an interest in During a one-week Summer Camp, 50 selected
the pharmaceutical and chemical industry, the students will attend in-depth presentations about
Innovation Cup is your chance to gain in-depth the pharmaceutical and chemical industry given by
knowledge about research and development, to net- researchers and managers at Merck KGaA, Darmstadt,
work with top students from around the world and Germany. The participants will be divided into teams,
-
to build a business case together with experienced work together to develop a business plan and present
professionals. it to a grand jury, who will award the Innovation Cup
for the best plan along with a cash prize of EUR 20,000
Who can apply: plus EUR 5,000 for the runner-up.
Advanced students and post docs in the fields of life
science, material science, data science and business A conference with alumni of previous Innovation Cup
administration from all over the world can apply: editions will be held on the first day of the Summer
• Sciences: Post graduate students on their way Camp.
towards a PhD in biology, medicine, biotech,
bioinformatics, data sciences, biochemistry, Further information about the program and how to
chemistry, pharmacy, physics or engineering. apply online from November 1, 2019, until January
• Business: Advanced MBA students and re- 31, 2020:
cent MBA graduates with an interest in the http://innovationcup.emdgroup.com
pharmaceutical and chemical business and a
science background. Location:
The Innovation Cup will comprise the following team Near Frankfurt, Germany, June 20–26, 2020.
topics: oncology, immuno-oncology, autoimmunity, Travel, accommodation and food expenses will be
drug discovery technologies, digitalization, paid by Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany.
electroceuticals, lithography.
Merck KGaA
Darmstadt, Germany
The back pages

Puzzles Feedback Twisteddoodles Almost the last word The Q&A
Quick crossword, Paper phones and for New Scientist Can screens make Jeffrey Hangst
a book puzzle and drug-raiding boar: A cartoonist’s take spectacles redundant? on how to make
a quiz p52 the week in weird p53 on the world p53 Readers respond p54 antimatter p56
Stargazing at home 2 Week 4
Mercury rising in the east

If you are up before sunrise, look out for the smallest planet as it
reaches the spot where it is most easily seen, says Abigail Beall
MERCURY passed in front of the

sun two weeks ago in a rare transit
event. This week, we get a chance
to see the planet at night. But you
will have to set your alarm.
Mercury and Venus are known
as inferior planets, because they SUN
orbit closer to the sun than Earth
does. On 28 November, Mercury MERCURY
Abigail Beall is a science writer reached its greatest western
in Leeds, UK. This series is elongation. This is the point in its
based on her book The Art of 88-day orbit of the sun when the
28ɾ VENUS
Urban Astronomy @abbybeall distance between the sun and
Mercury as seen from Earth is
the biggest it gets. This apparent
47ɾ
What you need distance is also known as the
Binoculars angular separation. In the
A good view of the following days, the planet dips
EARTH
eastern horizon a little lower in the sky, but you
should still get a good view.
For next week Seeing the planets depends on
A dark night at them being as far from the sun as
high latitude possible, because when they are Stargazing at home online
right next to it, the light they Projects will be posted online each week at
reflect is outshone by the sun newscientist.com/maker Email: maker@newscientist.com
itself. This matters even more for
Mercury than it does for Venus, smaller because its average orbit is constellation Libra and the planet
because it is much smaller and about 58 million km from the sun, should be there.
fainter than its neighbour, and while Venus’s is 110 million km and Binoculars will give you a better
Next in the series: so close to the sun. The rocky Earth’s is about 150 million km. view, but you can see the planet
1 Mercury transits the sun planet, with a cratered surface Mercury’s proximity to the sun with the naked eye. At the time
2 How to watch the Leonid rather like our moon’s, is less than makes it hard to see most of the it rises, Mercury will have a
meteor shower 5000 kilometres in diameter. That time, with the best viewing magnitude of −0.44, so should be
3 Venus and Jupiter makes it smaller than Jupiter’s opportunities being just before visible to most people with clear
in conjunction moon Ganymede, and Titan, sunrise or just after sunset. skies regardless of light pollution.
4 Mercury at its greatest which orbits Saturn. While the greatest elongation is Because it is close to the horizon, it
elongation Mercury’s maximum angular on 28 November, Mercury will be will shine with a pink hue, like the
5 How to see the separation varies between 18 and visible for two weeks after this, setting sun. That is because Earth’s
Northern Lights 28 degrees according to how close rising 2 hours before sunrise and atmosphere scatters light coming
Where to go and it is to the sun in its highly reaching 10 degrees above the through it, reducing the amount
what to look for elliptical orbit (the absolute horizon 45 minutes before sunrise. of blue light reaching your eyes.
6 Find the Andromeda maximum separation is shown People in both hemispheres The nights are getting longer in
galaxy in the illustration). For Venus, should get a look, but those in the northern hemisphere, so next
7 How to see Santa (the it is between 45 and 47 degrees. the north will have the best view. week is a guide to the best way to
ISS) on Christmas Eve Mercury’s angular separation is To spot Mercury, try to find the watch the aurorae there. ❚

The back pages Puzzles
Quick crossword #46 Set by Richard Smyth Quick quiz #30 Puzzle set by Zoe Mensch
1 Panthera pardus pardus,
Loxodonta africana, Diceros #32 Rearranging books
bicornis, Syncerus caffer…
what is missing from the list?

2 When viewed from the
northern hemisphere, does 10 7 2 6 5 4 1 9 3 8
the moon appear to be the

same way up as it looks from
the southern hemisphere or

is it upside down? Once a week, it is Jordie’s job at the library
3 Russia’s Lake Baikal is the to put books back in order on the shelves.
world’s deepest lake and its
largest freshwater lake by This week, he finds that the 10-volume
volume. Which lake is second
encyclopedia has been mixed up in the
on both of these lists?
order shown above. He has to put them
4 What creature, when
back in order, and since the books are
discovered swimming off the
heavy, he wants to move as few volumes
eastern coast of South Africa
in 1938, had been missing as possible.
for some 66 million years?
5 The five telescopes of the A move consists of taking a book off the
High Energy Spectroscopic shelf and sliding the other books to the
System in Namibia side to make space, if necessary. What is
investigate which the smallest number of moves he needs
ACROSS phenomenon? to make to rearrange the books in the
1 Control ___ , reactor 21 Formulating Online order one to 10 from left to right?
Answers below
core components (4) Calculations in Algebraic
3 Cancer-causing Language (5)
substance (10) 23 Royal ___ , honeybee Cryptic Answer next week
10 Cryptid of North America (7) secretion (5) Crossword #19
11 Charles ___ , US 24 Group of bonded atoms (8) Answers
seismologist (7) 27 Japanese tech company, #31 Three hats
12 Animated sci-fi sitcom, first founded in 1910 (7) ACROSS 1 Rice (Trice), Solution
broadcast in 1999 (8) 28 Human-like automaton (7) 3 Dominant, 9 Thyroid, 10 Crest
13 See 21 Down 29 Point on Earth’s surface (Rest), 11 Trust (Rust), 12 Mantle,
14 Rumble (Crumble),
16 Pewter or bronze, say (5) closest to a detonation (6,4) 16 Adhere, 19 Alight (Light),
17 Compound containing 30 US transport firm, founded 21 Fling (Flint), 24 Turbo (Turbot),
an oxyanion of W (9) in 2009 (4) 25 Meatier (Metier), 26 Charming
A B C
18 Operation on the (Harming), 27 Smew
DOWN 1 Rotatory, 2 Coypu,
small intestine (9) 4 Oedema, 5 Incan (Tin Can),
6 Areolae, 7 Tots (Cots), Cassie can’t deduce the colour of her hat
DOWN 8 Mortal (Moral), 13 Hedgerow, from looking at the two in front of her, so
1 Vitamin B₂ (10) 14 Herbivorous dinosaur of 15 Malaria, 17 Defeat (Defect), she says nothing. This silence tells Ariana
18 Stamen, 20 Groom (Room),
2 Not analogue (7) the order Ornithischia (10) and Beverley that their hats are different
22 Ilium, 23 Otic
4 The use of labour-saving 15 Giant salamander (10) colours. Beverley can see a white hat in
devices (10) 19 Type of synthesised front of her, so she says “black”. Ariana
5 European Organization dance music (7) Quick quiz #30 then deduces that her hat is white.
for Nuclear Research (4) 20 Si (7) Answers
gamma rays
6 Core of an atom (7) 21/13 Mathematics prize (6,5) 5 Cosmic rays, specifically
7 1997 biopunk sci-fi film (7) 22 C (7) time the dinosaurs did
8 Standard; type (4) 25 Species of cormorant (4) become extinct around the
9 ___ Canyon, supertanker 26 Effervesce (4)
fossils, was thought to have
previously known only from
that ran aground in 1967 (6) 4 The coelacanth. The fish,
Africa’s Great Rift Valley
3 Lake Tanganyika in East
2 Upside down
up the “Big Five” of African game
and the Cape buffalo, it makes
elephant, the black rhinoceros Get in touch
leopard, the African bush Email us at
Answers and the next cryptic crossword next week. Together with the African
crossword@newscientist.com
1 Panthera leo, the lion.
puzzles@newscientist.com

The back pages Feedback
to being a good spy is the ability

Twisteddoodles for New Scientist
Better on paper
to stay undercover. Feedback isn’t
Our masters in Silicon Valley a spy, we add perhaps too hastily.
have our best interests at heart. We are merely an anonymous
For evidence, look no further than magazine column prone to talking
an innovation uploaded to Google’s about itself in the third person.
Digital Wellbeing Experiments Few spies have blown their
platform. “Paper Phone” is aimed at cover quite so spectacularly as
helping those driven to destruction Hvaldimir the Russian spy whale.
by their smartphones and the His is a story that tugs at the
Google products on them. heartstrings. The beluga was first
To take advantage, simply go to found in April near a Norwegian
the Google Play store and download fishing village wearing a harness
the Paper Phone app (bear with saying “Equipment St Petersburg”.
us here). The app allows you to He has since continually
choose the things on your phone attempted to make contact with
that you can’t do without – your humans, receiving numerous
daily schedule, say, maps, notes, injuries from ship propellers
recipes or Sudoku puzzles, and and the like.
then… print them. On paper. A few weeks ago, a beluga
For those who don’t remember looking strikingly like Hvaldimir
paper, it is like a super-thin tablet was filmed playing fetch with the
with very limited memory, or a South African crew of a boat in
single page of a Kindle book in the Arctic Ocean. “Catch this,”
independent physical form. With say the sailors, as they throw a
essential data logged in this handy rugby ball into the icy waters.
format, you can safely leave your “I know I shouldn’t,” you can
phone at home. “A paper phone can imagine Hvaldimir thinking,
do most of the things a smartphone “if I want to continue the charade destroyed more than $20,000 pillow from Blu Sleep,” writes
can do,” the app’s designers explain that I am but an ordinary beluga worth of high-grade cocaine, regular correspondent Prashant
in a helpful video, “but it doesn’t whale, but go on.” grubbing up and ripping open Rao. The revolutionary technology
distract you as much.” The suspicion is that Hvaldimir, several packages, and scattering in this bed cushion is “powered
It all rather reminds Feedback whom Feedback is choosing to their contents through woodland by our own metabolism”, in which
of the Built-in Orderly Organized call The Spy Who Came in from the near Montepulciano. “bio-ceramic [gel] recycles and
Knowledge device, a paper-based Cold But Then Went Back Because Assuming altruistic motives, that converts radiant body heat into
technology first advertised on It Was His Natural Habitat, was makes them the do-gooding-est something that gives the body a
the pages of the magazine Punch so heavily socialised during swine since sheepdog locum Babe boost – infrared energy”.
many moons ago. Compact, his training that he has proved won the county sheepherding Ah yes, infrared energy –
portable and durable, the BOOK unable to kick the human habit. competition in the eponymous otherwise known as heat. Blu
ordered essential information Meanwhile, we don’t wish to blow 1995 film. If Feedback were an Sleep promises that the pillow
on sequential sheets of paper that any more covers, but we would Italian hog, we might be considering will increase tissue oxygen
were optically scanned directly like to know what a crew of South a career change – the thought of levels, reduce inflammation and
to the brain. BOOKs even came Africans equipped with a rugby being turned into an unusually promote vitality, as well as lessen
with their own personalisation ball is doing in the Arctic Ocean. intoxicating guaniciale doesn’t stress and fatigue – a crucial selling
tool, the Portable Erasable Nib bear thinking about. point for anything calling itself
Cryptic Intercommunication a pillow. Yet Feedback thinks the
Language Stylus, or PENCILS.
High on the hog Ceramo is something far more
Hot water bottle
Feedback still owns a few Never work with children or precious. By heating us with our
BOOKs, and highly recommends animals, top wisecracker W. C. Fields Good news on the climate change own expelled body heat, it must
them. Having just tried out Google’s once wisecracked. Friendly Arctic front: we could soon be tackling be the world’s comfiest perpetual-
latest digital detox device in the whales aside, that certainly seems it in our sleep. “You may be motion machine. Buy 10, and
bath, we can report it worked to apply if your line of business interested in purchasing an sleep like a baby knowing you’re
swimmingly too. That’s more than is selling cocaine in central Italy. advanced technology Ceramo doing your bit to save the planet. ❚
can be said of our last smartphone. One gang of dealers, accustomed
to keeping its powder dry in
I, spy underground woodland caches, has Got a story for Feedback?
had its entire stash discovered and Send it to New Scientist, 25 Bedford Street,
Emerging from beneath the suds, destroyed by a gang of wild boar. London WC2E 9ES or you can email us at
Feedback is reminded that the key The elite tusk force is said to have feedback@newscientist.com

The back pages Almost the last word
Does red sky at night really

Needing focus
mean that the next day’s
I wear spectacles to correct for weather will be fine?
myopia and astigmatism. Is it
possible to create a program to Around 50 per cent of dream
adjust the image of a TV, mobile people are strangers. Male
or PC monitor using my optical strangers were aggressive more
prescription such that I could often than female strangers, and
view it without spectacles? female dreamers were more likely
to encounter hostile characters.
DAVID COLE/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO

Dan O’Donovan Dreams rarely involve aspects
Solihull, West Midlands, UK of everyday life, but seem to be
The eye uses a lens to focus light a way of examining, in symbolic
on the retina at its back. It needs form, our own anxieties.
to do this because the iris is a
circle rather than a tiny hole, Elwyn Hegarty
so a circle of light enters the eye. Armidale, New South Wales,
All of the light from each point Australia
on, say, a computer screen reaches This week’s new questions I see a parade of clear but
the lens and is then redirected to unfamiliar people’s faces in my
one point on the retina. This relies Poetic prediction “Red sky at night, shepherds’ delight; mind’s eye just as I am about to fall
on the lens changing shape so red sky in the morning, shepherds’ warning”. Putting aside asleep, rather than later. If I have
that it can refract the light by the occupation of the observer, is there any truth in this been waiting a while for sleep,
the correct angle. adage? If so, why is it true? Richard Kubiak, Pen-y-cae-mawr, I find this reassuring, as it means
As no program can adjust the Monmouthshire, UK that rest is just round the corner.
path of the light as lenses do, the I have heard of two others who
screen can’t seem to be a different Come clean What is the difference between shampoo and have had the same experience.
distance to the lens than it actually shower gel and, if so, what is it? Sam Wong, London, UK
is, so the simple answer to this Peter Gandolfi
question is no. However, placing London, UK
a magnifying lens, such as a to adjust the image for the Christine Warman I get visual hallucinations
fresnel lens, over the screen astigmatism of one eye, but then Hinderwell, North Yorkshire, UK sometimes when I am tired
may help with myopia. it wouldn’t be right for the other. Dream pundits, of which there are and I close my eyes. It is as if I
many, tend to go along with the have entered a world of people,
Graham Jones Dreamy looks idea that strangers in dreams are none of whom I know, and
Bridgham, Norfolk, UK real people. They say our brains always different. I quite enjoy
In 2014, researchers at Strangers appear in my dreams. can’t fabricate faces, so these the experience and marvel at
Massachusetts Institute of Their features are clear, but none people are actually recollections the workings of my brain.
Technology and the University are familiar, not even from an of real people we have seen but Some of my friends with severe
of California, Berkeley, developed earlier dream. What is going don’t consciously remember. visual impairments also have
a prototype display that can be on in my brain, and do others Such accounts support the hallucinations, a phenomenon
viewed by people who are near experience the same? concept that everything we known as Charles Bonnet
or far-sighted without the need experience is accurately stored syndrome. It is quite common
for glasses. It involves placing a Tony Holkham in our memory, if only we could among those with sight loss,
second screen covered in pinholes Boncath, Pembrokeshire, UK access it. Yet it is more likely that especially those who are newly
in front of the image, as well as Considering that my dreams memories are reworked and blind, and tends to go away as the
software to adjust the screen almost always involve going edited, and can be false. I think brain adapts to the loss of vision.
picture so that slightly different somewhere, either on foot or dream people are invented from I hear that many people with
images reach each eye. This acts in by car, I should expect to meet a stock of general images. the syndrome are wary of talking
a similar way to a lens, redirecting many strangers. Yet I hardly ever In 1996, Calvin Hall and Robert about their symptoms, thinking
the path of the light such that each do. Most of the people I interact Van de Castle conducted a survey that they are experiencing a
of a person’s lenses can focus it. with in my dreams are either well of the content of dreams. They mental health problem. I believe
However, the technology doesn’t known to me or curious hybrids of found that most involve the that I am in good health, with
seem to be available yet. more than one friend or relation. dreamer and two or three others. good vision. ❚
Many of the places I dream
Eric Kvaalen about, though, don’t exist. When
Les Essarts-le-Roi, France I wake, I marvel at how these Want to send us a question or answer?
Astigmatism results from events could have been created in Email us at lastword@newscientist.com
irregularities in the shape of the such minute detail by my brain – Questions should be about everyday science phenomena
cornea or lens. It might be possible and, more to the point, why. Full terms and conditions at newscientist.com/lw-terms

SOUVENIR ISSUE
MOON LANDING
5OTH ANNIVERSARY
1969-2O19
THE
QUEST
FOR
SPACE
Don’t miss a special souvenir issue from
New Scientist celebrating the 50th anniversary
of the moon landings. Explore the past, present
and future of space exploration with over 100
pages of in-depth articles on the wonders of the
solar system, plus 20 pages of newly resurfaced
historical content from New Scientist’s archive
detailing the original space race as it happened
Available from all good

magazine retailers, digitally in the
New Scientist app or direct from
newscientist.com/thecollection
The back pages Q&A
Jeffrey Hangst spends his days puzzling over

antimatter at CERN, the world’s biggest particle
physics lab. He wants to learn why there’s more
matter than antimatter in the universe
As a child, what did you want to Which discovery or achievement do you

do when you grew up? wish you’d made yourself?
I always wanted to be a scientist. I grew up during
the space race, and I clearly remember thinking
Paul Dirac’s insight, predicting the existence
of antimatter, is right up there – one of the truly
“I like to be
that being an astronaut would be cool, but great intellectual leaps in the history of science. the first to
see something
that being a scientist would be cooler.
If you could have a conversation with any
Explain your work in one easy paragraph. scientist, living or dead, who would it be?
I work with antimatter, which is this weird, mirror Could I exchange this to bring back John Bonham, new, and that’s
opposite to “normal” matter. It is a huge puzzle,
because we think matter and antimatter existed
so I could go to a Led Zeppelin concert? the case with
in equal quantities just after the big bang, but If you could send a message back to everything
yourself as a kid, what would you say?
we measure”
we can’t explain why only matter survived. My
ALPHA experiment is looking at the properties Get your atoms from a gas bottle.
of the simplest anti-atom, antihydrogen, to
see if there may be some small, overlooked Do you have an unexpected hobby, and
difference between matter and antimatter. if so, please will you tell us about it?
I play guitar in a rock band. We are three CERN
Why did you choose this field? physicists and a singer from Transylvania. The
I have always worked with antimatter. I guess name of the band is Diracula. I also build my own
I like a challenge. Where’s the fun in getting your guitars. This is easier than making antihydrogen.
atoms out of a gas bottle that anyone can buy?
Did you have to overcome any particular What’s the best thing you’ve read
challenges to get where you are today? or seen in the past 12 months?
Well, everything about antimatter is challenging. I really enjoyed Roger Waters’s movie Us +
You have to produce antiprotons in high-energy Them, which was only shown for one day
collisions and then slow them down and stop in Geneva. I am a huge Pink Floyd fan.
them to make antihydrogen. Even then, you only
get a handful of atoms that you have to keep in an
ultra-high vacuum away from normal matter. How useful will your skills be after
I have been told by colleagues at every step of the the apocalypse?
way that all this is impossible, but here we are. I am much more likely to be blamed for the
apocalypse… Seriously, though, experimental
What’s the most exciting thing you’ve physicists can build or repair pretty much
worked on in your career? anything, and we are great scavengers of
Antimatter has been my entire career, and it has equipment. And I was kidding, we could never
always been exciting, if a bit daunting. It is cool make enough antimatter to be dangerous to
to work on something that fascinates people and anything other than our own sanity.
shows up regularly in science fiction. I like to be
the first to see something new, and that’s the OK, one last thing: tell us something that
case with everything we measure. will blow our minds…
I’ll tell you four things. Roger Waters visited
What achievement are you most proud of? ALPHA this year. We had a beer. He autographed
There are two. In the ATHENA collaboration, my guitar. If I send him an email, he answers. ❚
we succeeded in producing the first low-energy
atoms of antihydrogen in 2002. The second was Jeffrey Hangst is spokesperson for the ALPHA
the first confinement of antihydrogen by ALPHA experiment at CERN in Geneva and professor
in 2010. I started ALPHA in 2005 to get to this, and of physics at Aarhus University in Denmark
everything we do today is based on that result. SIDE: RICHARD ISAAC/SHUTTERSTOCK

Discovery
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UPLOADED BY "What's News" vk.com/wsnws TELEGRAM: t.

YOUR DOG’S TRUE AGE

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This week’s issue

On the 42 Super magnets

20 The truth about vaping 42 Super magnets

24 The columnist 52 Puzzles

28 Aperture 54 Almost the last word

See the exquisite insides Can screens make spectacles

30 Culture 56 The Q&A

30 November 2019 | New Scientist | 3

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PUBLISHING & COMMERCIAL MANAGEMENT EDITORIAL

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