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HAVE WE GOT
INTELLIGENCE
ALL WRONG?
Why an obsession with IO is holding us all back
'
RISE OF SUPERCONDUCTORS
An energy revolution edges closer to reality
PLUS TREE-PLANTING ROBOTS / OFF-SWITCH FOR CRISPR /
HOW MEGALODON GOT SO BIG / 2020 HEAT RECORD
News, ideas and innovation www.newscientist.com
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News Features
15 Frog traps 36 Rethinking intelligence
Spiders spotted weaving News Our dominant idea of what
leaves together to catch frogs makes a person smart needs
a radical overhaul
18 Salty groundwater
The water that supports 42 Taming CRISPR
the global food chain may The gene-editing technique
become too salty to use will transform medicine if it
can be controlled
19 Arty artificial intelligence
AI illustrator draws fun pictures 46 Superconductors get hot
to go with text captions Are these wonder materials
finally getting practical?
Views
The back pages
23 Comment
Adam Vaughan on the 52 Stargazing at home
best-ever year for electric cars Hunting a hexagram of stars
28 Aperture 56 Feedback
ANUP SHAH/NATUREPL.COM
32 Culture 56 Twisteddoodles
Second Spring looks at a for New Scientist
lesser-known side of dementia 16 Musical roots Could swinging from trees explain why we love music? Picturing the lighter side of life
Virtual events
Virtual event
The misunderstood
science of metabolism
Why do so many diets lead to
us gaining weight? Is exercise
really essential to losing a few
pounds? Evolutionary biologist
Herman Pontzer has conducted
groundbreaking studies into
such questions, including work
with Hadza hunter-gatherer Books
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Newsletter
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“It was the best of times, it was the worst perhaps too early to say, but what is clear is gone away – 2020, we now know, was the
of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was that the covid-19 vaccines give us grounds joint hottest year on record (see page 14).
the age of foolishness, it was the epoch for hope that some form of normality will To see how best to move on, we would
of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity… ” return in 2021, despite all the questions perhaps be wise to ask ourselves how we
We are just a couple of weeks into 2021 still swirling around how exactly that got here. On page 36, human development
and yet that famous opening from Charles can best be achieved (see pages 8-10). researcher Robert J. Sternberg makes the
Dickens’s A Tale of Two Cities has never What is equally clear, however, is that if case that at least part of the problem lies
rung truer. On the one hand, we are seeing and when covid-19 is contained, business in our faulty conceptions of what it means
the roll-out of effective vaccines against to be smart. Prioritising and rewarding
a disease that little more than a year ago “The pandemic has ruthlessly a very limited idea of intelligence has
was unknown to science – a stunning exposed divisions and exacerbated social, economic and racial
tribute to human wisdom, and to the inequalities around the world” inequalities, while fostering a “me first”
power of a belief in science. On the other culture that leaves us ill-equipped for the
hand, we have the incredible scenes of as usual isn’t an option. The pandemic collaborative problem-solving we need
an enraged mob rampaging through has ruthlessly exposed the divisions, if we are to survive and thrive as a species.
the US Capitol, the fulcrum of what inequalities and structural weaknesses It is a bold, compelling hypothesis
until recently was considered one of of societies around the world, not least in and such back-to-basics thinking may
the most secure democracies on Earth. established Western liberal democracies be exactly what we need if, to continue
Will wisdom or rage set our trajectory such as the US and UK. Meanwhile, global with Dickens’s words, a spring of hope
for the coming months and years? It is problems such as climate change haven’t is to follow this winter of despair. ❚
HOW YOUR BRAIN WORKS AND HOW TO MAKE THE MOST OF IT will introduce
you to what we know about how the brain works, the incredible way it builds our
inner world, how it learns, makes memories, runs on autopilot, what goes on when
Valerie Jamieson it’s asleep and dreaming and the mystery of consciousness. You’ll also discover
CREATIVE DIRECTOR how to make the most of what you’ve got at any age.
A patient in Brooklyn,
New York, arrives
at hospital
Vaccine roll-out
around the world
come back for their second shot. A separate criticism of the UK
“The longer you leave it, the more programme is that it supports
There is great variance between countries in how many doses of
time there is for people to forget,” giving people a different vaccine vaccines have been given to people so far. The total number of doses
says Deborah Dunn-Walters at the for their second dose from the administered is shown here for selected countries, which may not equal
University of Surrey, UK, who is one they received initially, in a the total number of people vaccinated, because multiple doses of some
chair of the British Society for mix-and-match strategy. Critics vaccines are needed
Immunology’s covid-19 task force. of the tactic include John Moore
The change also raises ethical at Cornell University in New York,
issues for the people who were who has said that by doing this
given the first dose on the the UK is “abandoning science”.
understanding that the second The move is less controversial
would follow three weeks later than it appears. The UK has
as per the trial data. only said that vaccines could be
Overall, it is possible that the mixed if someone was due to
shift, and the controversy around receive their second shot and
it, will undermine confidence there is no matching vaccine
in the vaccine programme. available, or if it is unknown
The scientific community which type they got initially.
is divided on the question Mixing the shots might even
of whether the UK strategy give better immunity. Previous
is a good one. The US Food and work on other vaccines suggests
Drug Administration said in that injecting someone with the
a statement that changes in same virus proteins in a different
vaccine administration could package provokes a stronger
place “public health at risk”. immune response. Known as
a “prime-boost” strategy, it has
been investigated in vaccines
Legal issues against HIV and malaria.
The answer may depend on The debate rolls on, but the
whether you take the perspective UK may not be an outlier for long. Covid-19 vaccine doses administered
of an individual or think of the Last week, Denmark approved a per 100 people
whole population. Much of the delay of up to six weeks between
The total number of individual vaccine doses given per 100 people (only
backlash has come from the US, the first and second shots of selected countries shown). This may not equal the total number of people
where overall public health has a vaccine, and the German health vaccinated because multiple doses of some vaccines are needed
lesser role in the medical system. ministry is debating a longer wait
The US is also more litigious still, according to media reports. Israel 21.38 (11 Jan)
than the UK, says Evans. Someone “There’s still quite a bit of debate, United Arab Emirates 11.8 (11 Jan)
in the US who catches covid-19 although I feel there’s a tilt UK 3.94 (11 Jan)
two months after their first towards a more flexible US 2.72 (11 Jan)
vaccine shot could sue their doctor schedule,” says Leif Erik Sander Denmark 2 (10 Jan)
for delaying the second dose. But at Charité – Berlin University Italy 1.16 (11 Jan)
a doctor can’t be held responsible of Medicine, who has argued Spain 0.87 (11 Jan)
by infected people if they haven’t for a delay between doses. Canada 0.85 (10 Jan)
yet received a vaccine at all. Even if the change to a delayed Germany 0.73 (10 Jan)
The British Society for schedule isn’t ideal because it Poland 0.68
Immunology’s covid-19 task force deviates from the time periods Romania 0.65 (11 Jan)
had initial concerns about the that were tested in the vaccine China 0.63 (9 Jan)
changes to the dosing schedule, trials, the decision needs to be Russia 0.55 (2 Jan)
and sought more information taken in the context of the Saudi Arabia 0.51 (11 Jan)
from England’s chief medical pandemic, says Dunn-Walters. Argentina 0.24 (8 Jan)
officer about the evidence. In “We had to get over ourselves and France 0.21 (11 Jan)
the end, the society put out a take a pragmatic view,” she says. Mexico 0.07 (11 Jan)
statement backing the decision. “We are in an emergency.” ❚ SOURCE: OURWORLDINDATA.ORG/COVID-VACCINATIONS • CC BY
THE UK’s race to vaccinate The Oxford/ test for sterility, and more. The how difficult it is to get it going
KIRSTY O’CONNOR/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
13.9 million people in high- AstraZeneca sterility test alone takes at least for the first time,” he says.
priority groups against covid-19 vaccine is 10 to 14 days, building in a lag. Until this week, around
by 15 February is a Herculean one of three UK health secretary Matt 210 hospitals and 780 centres run
undertaking. “Unprecedented” approved for Hancock has said the supply of the by family doctors were the main
may have become an overused use in the UK doses from manufacturers is the sites for vaccinations in England,
word in the pandemic, but the size “rate-limiting step”. Brown agrees. but seven mass vaccination
and speed of the vaccine roll-out “The biggest bottleneck does seem centres have now opened. Across
warrants it, though it may still to be the vaccine supply issue,” he the UK, a mix of sites will be used,
be months before many people control on the batches of vaccines says. Reports suggest a few million including hospitals, doctors’
receive a covid-19 vaccine. after they are made, have about doses are ready for use on priority surgeries and mobile units.
The numbers tell the story. five months to build up huge groups of the UK population, with The Pfizer and BioNTech vaccine
Figures released on 11 January stocks before they are used. 15 million more working their way made in Belgium and the Oxford/
showed that nearly 2.3 million By contrast, covid-19 vaccine through the quality checks. AstraZeneca vaccine made in the
people in the UK have had a first makers are still in the start-up Sandy Douglas at the University UK were the first two approved for
dose of one of the three vaccines phase. Mass production of the of Oxford, who led work to scale use by the UK regulator, followed
approved by the UK regulator. On active ingredients inside the up manufacture of the vaccine on 8 January by the vaccine
vaccines has been under way for Oxford created with AstraZeneca, created by US firm Moderna.
“The supply of doses from months, but companies don’t says flu vaccines are made with an The European Union approved
vaccine manufacturers start putting doses into vials until existing manufacturing process Moderna’s vaccine on 6 January.
is the rate-limiting step closer to regulatory approval. with slight tweaks depending on Some European countries, in
in vaccinating the public” The other inherent hold-up in the strain of flu virus. For the particular Belgium and France,
the start-up phase is the quality coronavirus, the processes are have come in for criticism for
that same day, the UK government control process. In the UK, this new. “People need to understand bureaucratic delays to their
said it aims to be vaccinating at involves finished vaccines being vaccine roll-outs after the Pfizer/
least 2 million people a week in sent to a lab to check they have A medical worker in BioNTech vaccine was approved
England by the end of this month. enough of the active ingredient, the US gets a dose of the on 21 December.
To reach the mid-February UK make sure there are no impurities, Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine Israel, with its relatively small
target that prime minister Boris population of 9 million, is the
Johnson announced on 4 January, world leader for number of doses
JOSEPH PREZIOSO/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
THE Tin Woodman first appeared driving in a forest a possibility,” replanting or mechanised
in Frank Baum’s The Wonderful says Hankewitz. approaches with excavators.
Wizard of Oz 120 years ago. Now The cameras are also used Many countries around the
real robot foresters are making for image recognition, and world are looking to plant huge
their debut, planting trees rather provide a visual display for the numbers of trees to help fight
than cutting them down. operator if they need to drive climate change. There are several
The robotic foresters are the robot manually. plans to plant a trillion trees,
the work of Milrem Robotics in The plan is for the robots which would add to the 3 trillion
partnership with the University of to be largely autonomous, we currently have.
Tartu, both based in Estonia. Two which presents challenges Andrew Davison at Imperial
versions are under development in surroundings that are
based on the company’s range of unstructured and chaotic, unlike
3500
MILREM ROBOTICS
Astronomy
White dwarfs seen white dwarfs is, unsurprisingly, very Artist’s rendering ”It might be that it’s a planet that
white – ”like a blank sheet of paper”, of a white dwarf got destroyed, where bits of crust
eating remnants of says Jay Farihi at University College surrounded by flew at some point into the white
destroyed planets London. So, when an astronomical a ring of debris, dwarf,” says Triaud. He says this
body hits a white dwarf, its material with an asteroid could be an opportunity to learn
FOUR distant white dwarfs, the leaves a signature in the spectrum breaking up whether the formation of Earth-like
NASA/SPL
remnants of dead stars, have been of light that comes from the star, under the gravity continental crust and plate tectonics
spotted consuming what could be allowing astronomers to determine of the star are common throughout the galaxy.
the crust of pulverised planets. what the other body was made of. Fahiri says there are large
Mark Hollands at the University The chemical elements seen University of Birmingham in the UK. uncertainties in the data from
of Warwick, UK, and his colleagues polluting the spectra of white But Hollands’s team has spotted Hollands’s team, and doubts
have discovered that the material is dwarfs often match what we four white dwarfs whose spectra whether the spectrum pollution
similar to Earth’s crust, which could would expect to see from asteroids, contain pollution with a chemical can be confidently interpreted
help reveal whether the formation the cores and mantles of planets, profile that has the same ratio of as being from planetary crust
of our own planet is a common or the material you would see lithium, sodium, potassium and rather than coming from asteroids
process throughout the galaxy. if you crunched up the whole of calcium as Earth’s crust alone does or other planetary material. ❚
The spectrum of light emitted by Earth, says Amaury Triaud at the (arxiv.org/abs/2101.01225). Joe Paul
UK may allow gene editing in crops If a consultation leads 2020 was the
to the use of tiny DNA changes to improve the nutrition of food, joint hottest
it could be a potential benefit of Brexit, finds Michael Marshall year on record
Adam Vaughan
THE UK government is exploring was primarily cultural, because the and subjected to the same LAST year was the joint hottest
the possibility of using gene health and environmental risks lengthy approval process. globally and by far the warmest
editing to modify livestock and from these crops were minimal. “Before the ruling from the year recorded in Europe, making
food crops, for instance to make Gene editing causes much European Court of Justice, it was the years from 2015 onwards the
crop plants resistant to disease. smaller changes than wholesale eaten in the EU in a limited way, warmest six worldwide on record.
Gene editing is strictly regulated gene transplants – no more because various countries had Global average temperatures
in the European Union, in what significant than those associated independently made a decision in 2020 tied with 2016 at 0.6°C
virtually amounts to a ban, but with a technique used by plant that actually, if it is just this small above the long-term average –
now the UK has left the EU it has breeders for decades. Since mutation that isn’t different despite the absence of an El Niño
some freedom to set its own rules. the 20th century, breeders have from something you can do event, a climate phenomenon
The consultation was naturally, it shouldn’t be treated that has a warming effect. There
announced by environment
secretary George Eustice at
the Oxford Farming Conference
1
Gene editing is so precise it can
as GM,” says Wendy Harwood,
also at the John Innes Centre.
For many crop biologists, the
was an El Niño in 2016.
Europe, by contrast, demolished
records by a wide margin in 2020,
last week. change one “letter” in a genome situation is bizarre. “Radiation at 1.6°C above the long-term
“Gene editing is a mechanism mutagenesis creates massive average. The previous record was
to precisely edit the genome of often created mutations at random mutations across the 2019, which was 1.2°C above
an organism,” says Lesley Torrance random by exposing seeds to entire genome, yet plants the average.
at the James Hutton Institute in chemicals or radiation. Plenty produced by this process The figures were released
Dundee, UK. Instead of inserting of foods were made this way. do not undergo the same by European Earth observation
entire genes, or changing DNA For this reason, many regulatory regime [as gene programme Copernicus. Aggregated
at random, gene editing allows researchers had hoped that gene editing],” says Torrance. figures due shortly from other major
for highly specific changes, even editing would escape the stringent Leaving the EU’s gridlocked data sets, including those of the UK
altering a single “letter” of regulation that has stymied approval system for gene editing is Met Office and US agencies NASA
an organism’s DNA sequence. transgenic crops in the EU, and a potential benefit to the UK from and the National Oceanic and
This is made possible using instead be governed by the more Brexit, although it isn’t yet clear Atmospheric Administration, may
a technology called CRISPR-Cas9, permissive regulations used for how much the UK government yet relegate 2020 to the second
which in 2020 won two of conventional breeding and plans to change the rules. or third warmest year on record.
its pioneers the Nobel prize radiation mutagenesis. However, For Balk, every new crop Copernicus’s 2020 figures
in chemistry. in 2018, the European Court should be judged on its own show a clear north-south split,
One potential use of gene editing of Justice ruled that gene-edited merits. “What gene is it, what have with below-average temperatures
is to improve the iron content of crops should be treated as you changed, have you checked in the southern hemisphere and
white flour, says Janneke Balk at equivalent to transgenic crops, everything, yes or no?” she says. above-average ones in the northern
the John Innes Centre in Norwich, Whether the genetic change was hemisphere. Siberia and other parts
UK. In the UK, the law requires Rapeseed can achieved by CRISPR, radiation of the Arctic reached 3 to 6°C above
that white flour must contain a be modified with or something else is secondary average in some regions.
minimum amount of iron, so the gene editing to its actual effect, she argues. ❚ Figures published last week by
iron is added artificially. Balk’s lab is Mark Parrington at Copernicus also
exploring ways to create high-iron show that, while media attention
wheat by gene editing. focused on exceptional blazes in
However, before Brexit, such the US and Australia, global carbon
crops had little chance of reaching emissions from wildfires were
supermarkets, because the EU at one of their lowest levels in
has a fraught history with genetic two decades in 2020 due to
modification. It has strictly below-average fire activity in Africa.
regulated “transgenic” crops, Separately, the UK Met Office
which carry genes transplanted said it expects carbon dioxide levels
from other species. Genetically in the atmosphere this year to pass
JT IMAGES/GETTY IMAGES
Environment
JANUARY SALE
50% OFF
GROUNDWATER basins that it more saline from the top down. kilometres of land produce more University in the Netherlands
provide water for much of the A team led by Graham Fogg than $23 billion in crops annually. agrees that the problem
world’s food production are in and Rich Pauloo at the University They conclude that the first the researchers have identified
danger of becoming too salty of California, Davis, calls this stage of salinisation is already is important and worrying
for plants and animals. This risk process ABCSAL, which stands happening there (Journal for the world’s food supply
will remain even if care is taken for anthropogenic basin closure of Hydrology, doi.org/fp62). in the long term.
not to deplete them further. and groundwater salinisation. Shallow groundwater may “It means that stopping the
A groundwater basin is a large They have just conducted a deteriorate over decades, says overexploitation of aquifers
geological structure in which vast detailed study of the important Fogg. The quality of deeper is not enough. You must make
quantities of fresh water are stored Tulare Lake basin in the southern reserves may only become them open again, for a time
in volumes of buried, permeable Central Valley of California, where a problem after two or three adding much more water than
rocks called aquifers. Often just over 12,000 irrigated square centuries. Yet he notes that is pumped out. In many cases,
the basin is in an “open” state, this could come sooner than that won’t be realistic,” he says.
which means water is constantly The Tulare Lake basin the current estimates of the Bierkens thinks that a
flushed through it. But if the in California is already expected exhaustion of a basin. number of important aquifers,
water level falls too low, the basin beginning to turn salty Marc Bierkens at Utrecht such as the Indus basin in South
can become “closed”, and water and East Asia, the Ogallala Aquifer
cannot leave the aquifers via in the US and the La Mancha
rivers or underground flows. aquifers in Spain, could very
Once a basin is closed, salt well be affected. “In most of the
leaching into the groundwater important regions, you’ll reach
won’t be flushed out of the that point,” he says.
aquifer again, so it accumulates. If refilling an aquifer
Irrigation may cause both isn’t feasible, farmers and
the closure of a basin and cities will have to deal with
worsen the resulting problems. the salty water as best they can,
As groundwater is pumped up according to Bierkens. “You could
PATRICIA E. THOMAS/ALAMY
Astrophysics
Jumping into a universes. There is no observational the tunnel connecting the two that travelling through a wormhole
evidence that they exist – nor that universes – would become wider to a different universe is impossible
wormhole could separate universes exist – but they and wider while shortening in length as it would sever the connection
make it collapse are theoretically possible under the at the speed of light (arxiv.org/ between the two universes, leaving
laws of physics as we know them. abs/2012.13788). Eventually, the the jumper falling into a black hole.
WHEN a wormhole reaches the end Igor Novikov at the Niels Bohr connection between the two black Don Marolf at the University
of its life, the “mouths” at either end Institute in Copenhagen, Denmark, holes would disintegrate, leaving of California, Santa Barbara, says
may expand and get closer to one and his team simulated what would behind a pair of black holes, each this calculation relies on a type of
another before disconnecting and happen if a wormhole connecting in the universe in which it started. quantum field that is unlikely to
carrying on as regular black holes. two universes was pushed out of One way to add energy and push exist. He says these wormholes
The trigger for this death could be equilibrium, such as if it were hit a wormhole out of equilibrium is by “violate cherished principles in
energy that perturbs the wormhole, by a blast of energy. Previous work jumping into it. This would mean addition to there being no evidence
including a person leaping in. has shown that this could unite the for their existence”. So, a wormhole
Wormholes are hypothetical universes, but Novikov and his “The tunnel connecting two falling apart in this way is “a
tunnels between two black holes colleagues found that wasn’t the universes would become hypothetical and highly unphysical
that connect distant regions of case. According to their calculations, wider and wider while event”, he says. ❚
space-time or even separate the “throat” of the wormhole – shortening in length” Leah Crane
Some dinosaurs
sat on their eggs
AI illustrator draws surreal
like birds do images from text prompts
Michael Le Page Chris Stokel-Walker
A FOSSILISED oviraptor found on AN ARTY artificial intelligence then filtered using a separate
top of a clutch of eggs confirms that gets inspiration from text computer model, also
some dinosaurs sat on or near their captions to create outlandish developed by OpenAI, called
eggs to keep them warm, like birds. images – such as “armchairs CLIP. This system picks what
There is already strong evidence in the shape of avocados” or it believes are the 32 “best”
that some dinosaurs brooded eggs. “a baby daikon radish in a tutu works produced by DALL-E.
Several fossils of adult oviraptors – walking a dog”. This hints that it CLIP is trained on 400 million
bird-like dinosaurs around 2 metres has some grasp of how language images with text found online.
long – have been found on or shapes visual culture. It looks at nouns, verbs and
near clutches of eggs. But many OpenAI, a company that adjectives, and performs as well
researchers think even small has partnered with Microsoft, as many image classification
dinosaurs may have been too developed the system, called systems when confronted with
heavy to sit atop their eggs without DALL-E. It is a neural network – a images it hasn’t seen before.
damaging them. Some argue that form of AI modelled on a brain –
the oviraptors found on nests died
while laying eggs rather than during
brooding or while guarding the eggs.
and is based on the company’s
GPT-3 language model that can
create expansive written works
400m
images help train OpenAI’s
Now a team led by Xing Xu at based on short text prompts, software to assess its output
the Chinese Academy of Sciences in but DALL-E produces images
Beijing has described and analysed instead of words. “We find image-text pairs
a fossil found near Ganzhou in “The world isn’t just text,” across the internet and train a
China. It consists of the partial says Ilya Sutskever, co-founder system to predict which pieces
remains of an adult oviraptor on top of OpenAI. “Humans don’t of text will be paired with which
of at least 24 eggs, many of which just talk: we also see. A lot of images,” says Alec Radford at
have embryos inside. Eggs with important context comes OpenAI, who developed CLIP.
embryos have been found before, from looking.” “This is really impressive
but not in association with an adult, DALL-E is trained using a set work,” says Serge Belongie at
says team member Michael Pittman of images already associated Cornell University, New York. He
at the University of Hong Kong. with text prompts, and then Images of a chair and says more research is needed to
The fact that the embryos are at uses what it learns to try to a radish, with a twist, look at the ethical implications
a late stage shows the adult wasn’t build an appropriate image made by an AI of such image creation systems,
laying eggs when it died. The team when given a new text prompt. like the risk of creating totally
also looked at the amounts of It does this by trying to up on poorly worded text faked pictures. For example,
different forms of oxygen in the understand the meaning of prompts and struggles to what if you could fool people
carbonates in the eggshells and the “natural language” text position objects relative to into thinking scenes are real,
embryo bones. The ratios of it is given, then producing an each other – or to count. not computer-generated.
oxygen-18 to oxygen-16 isotopes appropriate image. It builds “The more concepts that Effie Le Moignan at Newcastle
reflect the temperature at the time the image element by element a system is able to sensibly University, UK, also calls the
the carbonates formed. For two based on what has been blend together, the more likely work impressive. “But the
eggs, this analysis suggests that understood from the words. If it the AI system both understands thing with natural language
the embryos developed at around has been presented with parts of the semantics of the request is, although it’s clever, it’s
body temperature – between a pre-existing image alongside and can demonstrate that very cultural and context-
36°C and 38°C (Science Bulletin, the text, it also considers the understanding creatively,” says appropriate,” she says.
doi.org/fp59). This shows the visual elements in that image. Mark Riedl at Georgia Institute For instance, Le Moignan
eggs were being brooded, not For instance, if given an of Technology in Atlanta. wonders whether DALL-E, if
just guarded, says Pittman. image of the head of a T. rex, and “I’m not really sure how to confronted with a request to
For the third egg analysed, the text prompt “a T. rex wearing define what creativity is,” says produce an image of Admiral
which was further from the body a tuxedo”, DALL-E can draw the Aditya Ramesh at OpenAI, who Nelson wearing gold lamé
of the adult, the developmental T. rex body under the head and admits that he was impressed pants, would put the military
temperature would have been add appropriate clothing to it. with the range of images hero in leggings or underpants –
between 30°C and 32°C. Some The neural network, which DALL-E produced. potential evidence of the
modern bird eggs develop at a lower OpenAI described last week on The model creates 512 images gap between British and
OPENAI
temperature too, says Pittman. ❚ the company’s website, can trip for each prompt, which are American English. ❚
Earth in the past century. They were continued to supply water and
once part of asteroids that formed organic compounds to Earth in
about 4.5 billion years ago. the recent past. Samples of rock
When ice in a meteorite melts, the from asteroids may shed more
water and fluid-soluble elements light on this. Karina Shah
Health Environment
three months after the birth and mothers with cancer. Child cancer the way the study was conducted
the mother of the second boy was specialists might see it once in a and pointed to their commitment
diagnosed following delivery. lifetime, says Ekert. An infant’s to greener transport, such as
Analysis showed the boys’ immune system would normally pledges on zero emissions and
tumours had genetic mutations destroy any transferred cancer reducing reliance on personal
that matched those in the cancers cells, he says. Donna Lu vehicles. Layal Liverpool
Huge sharks ate body size at various stages in Studying rare vertebral remains
unhatched siblings its life (Historical Biology, DOI: is critical to learning more about
10.1080/08912963.2020.1861608). ancient sharks, says Jack Cooper
ANCIENT megalodon sharks may “Megalodon’s size at birth was at Swansea University, UK.
have been at least 2 metres long at about 2 metres,” says Shimada. The large birth size suggests that
birth – possibly as a result of eating Similar to how a tree trunk has megalodon, like many present-day
unhatched eggs in the uterus. annual growth rings, the shark sharks, ate unhatched eggs in the
Kenshu Shimada at DePaul vertebrae has growth bands. By uterus – known as intrauterine
University in Chicago and his counting these, Shimada and his cannibalism. “The consequence
colleagues examined a fossil team suggest that this megalodon is that only a few pups will
of Otodus megalodon that was specimen died at 46 years old. survive and develop, but each
Tree snakes spotted recovered in the 1860s from Previous studies have relied on can become large,” says Shimada.
making like lassos 15-million-year-old rock and is evidence from megalodon teeth to While the growth pattern
now housed at the Royal Belgian estimate body size. This is because between birth and middle age is
Snakes on the Pacific island Institute of Natural Sciences. teeth are often the only part of a now clearer, we know little about
of Guam have been seen Studying the shark’s vertebrae shark to fossilise, as its skeleton is megalodon growth later in life. KS
moving in a new way. The
technique, dubbed lasso Domestication Genetics
locomotion, involves them
making lassos with their
lower bodies and wiggling Living cells turned
upwards to climb. Bruce into data stores
Jayne at the University of
Cincinnati, Ohio, and his THE DNA in live bacteria has
team recorded five brown been edited to encode and store
tree snakes using this information. This could be a step
method to move (Current towards creating a new medium
Biology, DOI: 10.1016/j. for long-term data storage.
cub.2020.11.050). Life’s genetic information is
held in DNA, but there is growing
Progeria gene interest in using it as a storage
MEZZOTINT_ALAMY/ALAMY
BO NO
dolphin species, including the illusive Blue
OK W
and Sperm whales. Visit volcanic crater
IN
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Views
The columnist Letters Aperture Culture Culture columnist
Welcome to the Perhaps evolution A close look at the Second Spring looks Jacob Aron on the
green decade, says has squared Advanced Virgo+ at the lesser-known vikings of Assassin’s
Graham Lawton p24 that circle p26 interferometer p28 sides of dementia p32 Creed Valhalla p34
Comment
F
OSSIL-fuel-powered cars Adam Vaughan is
aren’t yet consigned to the New Scientist’s chief reporter.
scrapheap, but they are fast @adamvaughan_uk
travelling down a one-way road
towards it. in the UK’s case, signal to buyers
The pandemic triggered dire that petrol is heading downhill
new car sales in the UK, which fell too. New air pollution charging
by 29 per cent back to levels seen zones, such as London’s expanded
in 1992, figures published last Ultra Low Emission Zone
week show. Yet sales of new, fully introduced in October, will
electric cars bucked the trend, speed things up further.
rocketing by almost 186 per cent All this is with electric cars
to more than 108,000. That may that use conventional lithium-ion
seem insignificant when you batteries, before any of the
consider more than 900,000 advances in charging speed and
petrol ones were sold over the driving range promised by
same period, but look at the rate of breakthroughs from technologies,
change. In the UK, more electric such as solid-state batteries.
cars were sold last year than in the Yes, there are still bumps
previous decade. in the road to overcome. The
Motorists, like progressive number and speed of public
leaders and car makers, have chargers need to increase.
woken up to the fact that petrol Cars need to be charged at smart
and diesel cars are on the way out, times of day to avoid unnecessary
destined to follow incandescent costs for energy networks (and
light bulbs into history. It isn’t just ultimately the consumers who pay
the UK: the boom is happening pollution played a role in a 9-year- electric vehicles, which run a short for them). However, none of the
across Europe. In Norway, long old girl’s death. distance on a battery before challenges are insurmountable.
a pioneer of carrots and sticks Why are the changes coming a combustion engine kicks in. Of course, as cycling and
to wean people off petrol and now? Some of it is down to specific Strikingly, the UK’s bestselling walking advocates will point
diesel, electric models overtook policies. The UK’s numbers were car last December wasn’t a out, electric versions don’t solve
fossil fuels ones in 2020 for the turbocharged by the government Volkswagen Golf or a Ford Fiesta, all of the problems that cars bring.
first time. allowing firms to pay no company but the electric Tesla Model 3, They still generate air pollution
These tipping points matter. car tax on electric cars from April which starts at £40,490. from the tyre particles and road
Transport has eclipsed energy 2020 to April 2021, compared Dieselgate – the revelation in dust that they throw up, and
to become the biggest carbon with the 20 to 37 per cent charged 2015 that many Volkswagen cars we have no techno-fix for that.
emitter in the UK and many other on petrol and diesel cars. Most of had been equipped with devices So we need to get out of our cars
countries. We need this electric the plug-in cars sold last year that let them cheat exhaust too, though – as my colleague
boom if we are to stand any chance were company ones. emissions tests – and fears over Graham Lawton has written –
of avoiding climate change’s It is also about growing choice. diesel cars being charged to enter that isn’t always easy. Yet given
MICHELLE D’URBANO
most devastating effects. Vehicle More new electrified models are towns and cities have already last year’s torrent of bad news,
emissions also harm and kill us due in the UK this year than new hastened their demise. Recent 2020 marking the beginning
in the short term: witness the petrol or diesel ones, although government pledges to ban new of the end for fossil fuel cars is
inquest last month that found air that does include plug-in hybrid petrol and diesel car sales, by 2030 a moment worth celebrating. ❚
O
NE temptation that pandemic not only exposed how Deal in the US, and a fair wind for
is hard to resist when close we are to the environmental other pro-environmental policies.
writing about the precipice, it also proved humanity Taken together, these national
environment is the narrative of is actually capable of responding to political tremors of 2020 promise
the last chance saloon – the cliché existential threats. It is perhaps no to deliver an international
that the next summit or election coincidence that 2020 saw some earthquake in 2021 and beyond.
is the final opportunity to avert of the most significant climate According to a perceptive analysis
climate or biodiversity crisis, commitments ever made by by Bloomberg Green journalist
and if it is lost, all is lost. national and transnational bodies: Akshat Rathi, they are signs that
Graham Lawton is a staff I have written a few dispatches net-zero pledges by China, Japan the world is finally moving
writer at New Scientist and from the saloon and understand and South Korea; the European decisively towards a low-carbon
author of This Book Could Save its appeal. The analogy is urgent Union’s Green Deal; the UK’s future. Climate action, he writes, “is
Your Life. You can follow him and motivational, while the lead on green finance, including starting to be ‘institutionalized’ –
@grahamlawton alternative is to point out that compelling big companies to that is, getting deeply embedded
there is, in fact, another saloon come clean about their exposure into how the world works”.
over the horizon and that failure to climate risks; and a greener- This year will also see a ramping
isn’t terminal. The problem is, than-expected Brexit deal. On up of pressure from those
if you overuse an analogy, it loses top of this, renewable energy decades-long (and hitherto
its power. Especially if it isn’t true. frustratingly unsuccessful)
But as 2021 gets into its stride, “The national international efforts to
I think we may have seen the last political tremors institutionalise environmental
of the last chance saloon. I’m wary action. In June, the United Nations
promise to deliver
of making any firm predictions – will declare a Decade of Ecosystem
Graham’s week 2020 exposed the folly of doing an international Restoration with the aim of
What I’m reading that – but there are increasing earthquake in 2021 preventing, stopping and
I finished the first draft of signs that humanity spent much and beyond” reversing environmental
my new book so, boringly, of last year sat in that particular degradation “on every continent
my own manuscript. bar, drank its fill, stared at the continued its drive to outcompete and in every ocean”. The 2020s
bottom of the glass and finally fossil fuels, while the desire to will also be the UN Decade of
What I’m watching decided it was time to quit. build a better post-pandemic world Ocean Science for Sustainable
The new series of Despite the ongoing climate exploded and remains strong. Development. The Aichi
my midwinter guilty and biodiversity crises, there There was also a changing of biodiversity targets – which were
pleasure, Death in is a whiff of green optimism in the guard in the US, still the key set in 2010 and expired with a
Paradise. the air. Much of it is emanating player in the global carbon casino. whimper last month, with none
from the silver linings of a dismal Assuming Trump’s attempted of the 20 goals fully achieved –
What I’m working on 2020, which this time last year coup d’etat fails (even after four will be updated and rebooted.
Covid-19, the story that I predicted would be pivotal for years of seditious agitation, I still On the climate front, the
will not die. the planet. I was right, of course, cannot believe I’m writing that), Intergovernmental Panel on
though for the wrong reasons. Joe Biden will be inaugurated as Climate Change is expected
Back then, we were just months president next week. Even better, to release its latest scientific
away from important global Biden’s party hung on to the House assessment in July, which can only
negotiations on climate and of Representatives and won a strengthen the scientific case for
biodiversity. The pandemic meant controlling vote in the Senate. urgent action. November will
both had to be postponed. They With the presidency and usher in the postponed COP26
are now tentatively rescheduled both houses of Congress under climate summit, at which that
for later this year – and maybe for progressive control – and in action should materialise in the
the better. If they had happened possession of a clear mandate for form of even more ambitious
as planned, in the middle of a climate action, at least until mid- national carbon pledges.
business-as-usual 2020, they term elections in late 2022 – there We will be covering these
probably would have produced will be no knuckle-dragging on developments as they happen,
This column appears a business-as-usual outcome: the US rejoining the Paris climate and we will try not to reach for
monthly. Up next week: warm words but little action. agreement, no knuckleheaded the last-chance-saloon narrative.
Annalee Newitz But times have changed. The veto of the planned Green New We promise. ❚
The Inclusion Group for Equity in Research in Lamb writing to the Chair of UK Research and the inequitable environment those
STEMM, better known as TIGER in STEMM (or Innovation (UKRI), Professor Sir Mark Walport, within Higher Education face.
simply TIGERS), is a diverse group of passionate to request data regarding research funding and Today, TIGERS has hundreds of members
individuals working together to improve the equality, diversity, inclusion and accessibility. and supporters, including students, technicians,
EDI - equality, diversity and inclusivity - space The underwhelming response received from professors and support staff. Together, we are
within UK higher education. UKRI lacked the granularity and detail TIGERS advocates for equity across the HE sector,
TIGERS initially formed in 2018 as a had hoped for, only confirming why efforts to speaking out on issues affecting our
group of 50 people, working via Twitter to put improve the EDI space within higher education membership and the wider community.
together a proposal for #MyScienceInquiry, a are so necessary. As just one example, the To date, we’ve stood up for trans rights in the
government initiative in the House of Commons allocation of funding to applicants from ethnic Sunday Times, published documents
via its Science & Technology Select Committee, minorities at PI level was 17% compared to highlighting the barriers faced by particular
led at the time by Sir Norman Lamb MP. The 27% of white applicants. marginalised groups in the competition for
brief proposal was signed by more than 200 After the dissolution of the existing research funding, and we maintain a blog and
individuals working across higher education in Science & Technology Select Committee owing our original Twitter account (@TIGERInSTEMM)
the UK. Prof Rachel Oliver (University of to the 2019 general election, TIGERS wrote to for broader discussions.
Cambridge) pitched our proposal, representing the new chair, Greg Clark MP, insisting that the
the newly-formed TIGERS in the House of inquiry was still relevant, and urging him to
Commons by invitation of the Select Committee. continue the previous efforts, this time Find out more
Our inquiry, “Impact of science funding policy on co-signed by 429 others. We await a decision, All are welcome to join us, and
equality, diversity, inclusion and accessibility”, and hope that Greg Clark MP will follow in you can find out more on our
was one of four taken forward, with Sir Norman the footsteps of his predecessor, recognising website tigerinstemm.org
Views Your letters
correctly addresses the issue that from and to us. When we are imagine both sides in a conflict
Editor’s pick they are only useful on firm, flat considered “advanced”, maybe having such weaponry, with AI
surfaces, which are rare in nature, we will be invited to join them. pitted against AI. As warfare is –
Perhaps evolution
but perhaps misses the question: by any sensible assessment – an
has squared that circle how did such surfaces come to be? irrational and illogical way to
19/26 December 2020, p 50 Our feral horses can’t
In other words, in terms of human resolve conflict, can we assume
From Rachel Mckeown, technological evolution, which be controlled that way that AIs left to their own devices
Aberfan, Mid Glamorgan, UK came first, the wheel or the road? 19/26 December 2020, p 12 would reach that conclusion and
You wonder why animals haven’t From Jamie Pittock, end hostilities? In such a case, AI
evolved wheels. It is worth noting Canberra, Australia can only be seen as a good thing.
Handshakes may be
that the body of an organism isn’t While it would be nice to have a
the boundary of its phenotype. gone for a generation simple solution like birth control
11 November 2020, p 41 Guts of a computer help
Richard Dawkins introduced for feral horse populations, or to
the “extended phenotype” From Roy Murchie, redefine them as beneficial, this me search for stardust
concept in which a cascade of Wivenhoe, Essex, UK risks exacerbating environmental 19/26 December 2020, p 53
causality ultimately stemming There is much talk of the degradation and loss of species. From Gerald Legg,
from genes can eventually lead to impact of covid-19 on how we In Australia, our flora and fauna Hurstpierpoint, West Sussex, UK
non-biological products, examples greet one another. Perhaps the (for example, the corroboree frog) When it comes to hunting for
being architectures like beaver flu pandemic that followed the haven’t evolved to cope with the micrometeorites that land on
dams. Could the wheel similarly be first world war gives clues to many effects of large, hoofed my roof, I have often dredged
considered an extended phenotype how our behaviour on this herbivores. Research I am involved my gutters with a magnet from
of humans, constructed once may change long term. in shows that trapping and birth a computer hard drive in a plastic
evolution had invented sufficiently I am 88 and my parents, born control are impractical methods bag. Remove the sludge adhering
advanced intelligence? in 1907 and 1909, were averse to reduce the approximately to the bag, wash in a Petri dish and
Non-biological materials to any physical displays when 25,000-strong feral horse examine under a microscope.
don’t face the same inherent greeting strangers. There was very population in the Australian Alps.
limits as living tissue, such as the little handshaking or kissing on
Do distant worlds warm
blood supply requirement. When meeting anyone. Of course, they
Eyes also betray when as they feel the squeeze?
phenotypes are expanded according grew up through the 1918 flu
to Dawkins’s framework, the design pandemic and their behaviour was a right hook is coming 5 December 2020, p 44
book for evolution to explore could like that of their contemporaries. 28 November 2020, p 13 From Thomas Collins,
massively expand. From Mark O’Shea, York, UK Ifold, West Sussex, UK
You reported how changes in our Apparent volcanic activity even
When it comes to aliens,
From Ian Flitcroft, Dublin, Ireland eyes occur before the decision to on the most remote worlds in our
The arguments cited against N may be large after all initiate strenuous activity. This system raises the question of the
the evolution of wheels in living Letters, 28 November 2020 is one of the first things a novice source of its internal energy.
things include the problem of the From Liz Berry, boxer is taught: “Don’t look at the I wonder if, as planets and
environment not being smooth Lydbrook, Gloucestershire, UK opponent’s hands. Look at their moons cool and their outer layers
and the challenge of supplying In discussing the Drake equation, eyes. They will tell you when the solidify, there is a compression
blood to a biological wheel. which estimates the likelihood of real attack is about to start.” of internal material by shrinkage
Maybe there are exceptions. the existence of intelligent alien of the outer layer. Could this
Tumbleweed lacks blood, but has cultures, Tim Stevenson assumed raise the temperature and be
Maybe combat AIs
evolved a rolling solution that is that N – the number of advanced a source of energy for this
perfectly suited to its flat, desert civilisations in our galaxy – was will just declare a truce distant volcanism?
environment. Its “wheeled” design low, as we haven’t heard from 12 December 2020, p 14
has a clear advantage, allowing any such aliens. From Bryn Glover, Kirkby Malzeard,
Essential reading in
distribution of the plant and its With tongue in cheek, may I North Yorkshire, UK
seeds over a wide area. suggest that such civilisations may The clear message from your piece these challenging times
It is sometimes suggested that not want “developing” ones such on military robots is that AIs will From Michael Scott,
we are the only creature to have as ours to communicate with the provide clearer and more logical Lochcarron, Highland, UK
invented the wheel. I think dung advanced worlds around them. decisions in warfare than their I wanted to thank New Scientist
beetles may have beaten us They could be perfectly capable human minders could offer. editor Emily Wilson and all the
by millions of years, “inventing” of stopping communication both To extend the argument, we can team, especially Adam Vaughan,
a way to get collections of dung Graham Lawton, Michael Le Page
larger than themselves uphill: and Clare Wilson, for keeping
rolling them. Want to get in touch? me so well informed about
Send letters to letters@newscientist.com; coronavirus over the past
From Martin Jenkins, London, UK see terms at newscientist.com/letters tumultuous year. Your coverage
Michael Marshall’s article on Letters sent to New Scientist, 25 Bedford Street, has been fascinating, enlightening
why animals don’t have wheels London WC2E 9ES will be delayed and always informative. ❚
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Views Culture
and her husband
Tim (Matthew Jure)
Read
Podcast Inscape is Louise Carey’s
Life with Fire first solo novel: a science
Amanda Monthei fiction tale of near-future
corporate surveillance
IT ISN’T surprising that most in which a young soldier
people associate fires with death is sent to discover the
MATTHEW MCFARLAND/UNIFIED FIRE AUTHORITY/HANDOUT VIA REUTERS
blazes, Nick Nauslar at the National white men. Lenya Quinn-Davidson, important research is a critical horrific and illuminating
Interagency Fire Center in Idaho who started a training scheme for first step,” says Monthei. ❚ cases of murder.
talks about the factors that had women in fire, thinks people with Can we find common
to line up for such unprecedented diverse backgrounds are needed Sandrine Ceurstemont is a humanity even in the
fires to occur. As well as the absence to help tackle the growing severity science and technology writer darkest of deeds?
of summer monsoons and presence of wildfires. “Innovation at its core based in Morocco
Playing nicer The real Vikings have traded their image as violent marauders for a
bit of nuance, but new game Assassin’s Creed Valhalla has it both ways and features
people playing nice while still wanting to invade and rule, says Jacob Aron
Rethinking intelligence
Our dominant idea of what makes people smart is exacerbating world
problems and needs a radical overhaul, says researcher Robert J. Sternberg
I
MAGINE a world in which admission intelligence, who can have it and how we set that is hardwired in your genes – is
to the top universities – to Oxford or about cultivating it in ourselves and others, something you can learn, and that can
Cambridge, or to Harvard or Yale – were we can begin to reboot our decision-making change through life. It is constantly updated
limited to people who were very tall. Very smarts and reshape our world for the better. by your interactions with your environment.
soon, tall people would conclude that it is Our conception of intelligence has come This notion is quite alien to the modern,
the natural order of things for the taller to both a long way and not very far in the past Western way of thinking about intelligence,
succeed and the shorter to fail. century or so. Historically, intelligence has but it was clearly understood by Alfred Binet,
This is the world we live in. Not with been defined simply as an ability to adapt to the co-creator of the first modern intelligence
taller and smaller people (although taller the environment. People who are intelligent test. This test was published in France in 1905
people often are at an advantage). But there can learn, reason, solve problems and make and translated into English a few years later.
is one measure by which, in many places, decisions that fit their real-life circumstances. Binet believed that intelligence is modifiable,
we tend to decide who has access to the best This “adaptive” intelligence consists of and he wanted to serve children and schools
opportunities and a seat at the top decision- different things in different environments. by identifying those children who didn’t
making tables: what we call intelligence. According to where you are in the world respond well to regular schooling, but
After all, someone blessed with intelligence or your mode of life, it might be shown in instead needed special instruction. He
has, by definition, what it takes – don’t they? negotiating city life or the environment of intended to introduce mental “orthopaedics”
We have things exactly the wrong way a rural farm, or in approaches to ice-fishing to help children become smarter and open up
round. The lesson of research by myself and or using natural herbal medicines. Adaptive opportunities for them, regardless of social
many others over decades is that, through intelligence – rather than intelligence as class. Binet died in 1911 and didn’t live to
historical accident, we have developed a something you either have or don’t have, develop his idea fully. Soon enough, the law
conception of intelligence that is narrow, of unintended consequences kicked in.
questionably scientific, self-serving and The kinds of tests pioneered in those early
ultimately self-defeating. We see the days measured memory skills and a narrow
consequences in the faltering response
of many nations to the covid-19 pandemic, “Intelligence range of analytical skills: things such as
vocabulary recall, information-processing
and a host of other problems such as climate
change, increasing income disparities and
is something speed, the ability to perform numerical
operations and complete number series,
air and water pollution. In many spheres,
our ways of thinking about and nurturing
you can learn, spatial visualisation and the like.
Things started to go off the rails when
intelligence haven’t brokered intelligent
solutions to real-world problems.
and that intelligence researchers adopted a technique
pioneered by a distinguished English
We need a better way. Fortunately, at least
the starting point for this is clear. By returning
can change psychologist, Charles Spearman. He had
discovered in 1904 that the results of various
to a more scientifically grounded idea of through life” tests he was using to measure mental >
Be highly context-driven,
requiring people to balance
many conflicting interests
REUTERS/MARKO DJURICA
is a problem; or else, the nature of the
problem is unclear
as Binet had envisaged, their function was what the tests measure, and also the
to restrict people’s opportunities in the “Intelligence socialisation opportunities parents want
service of employers, colleges, universities
and other institutions. tests work to, or are able to, provide. When members
of diverse groups are measured for what
REUTERS/FRANCIS MASCARENHAS
also to compensate for or correct weaknesses,
often perform better than do students who
are taught in a way that favours only those
with good memory and analytical skills.
Instead of teaching and testing students
on arcane problems, the emphasis needs to
be on realistic problems. So, rather than an
appropriate test question in mathematics
being to recall the formula for an exponential
curve and calculate quantities from a given as well as standard admissions tests. They
exponential curve, it might be to describe
what an exponential curve looks like, and
“An obsession also decreased differences between socially
defined racial and ethnic groups.
sketch out the problems that can arise from with individual It is way past time to let go of a narrow,
an exponential growth curve in a given
context. Or in the social sciences, instead of success has antiquated and self-serving notion of what
it means to be intelligent. The stakes couldn’t
asking a student to recall the essential points
of such-and-such a theory, problems need to blinded us to be higher. Our current ideas have created a
“tragedy of the commons”, whereby privileged
test the full range of creative, analytical and
practical skills (see “Measuring adaptive
the damage people’s obsession with their own individual
success and that of their children has blinded
intelligence”, left).
This isn’t airy-fairy, touchy-feely stuff. Tests
we are causing many people to the damage we are causing
to our collective well-being. We need to think
of creative, practical and wisdom-based skills
are just as good, if not better, at measuring
to our collective of intelligence as having positive collective
goals, not just individual ones. The dinosaurs
things relevant for success in the real world as
conventional IQ-based tests. Tests of practical
well-being” lasted on Earth for 165 million years. If we
don’t change our notions about what it
intelligence, for example, predict various means to be adaptively intelligent, we may
kinds of job success as well as conventional not come anywhere close to that. We will
intelligence tests, even though success on have runaway global climate change,
one type of test correlates only minimally pandemics, pollution and the confrontations
with success on the other type. among people these problems will cause.
Meanwhile, adding creative, practical and We won’t need a heavenly body to do us in.
wisdom-based skills to university admissions We will have done it to ourselves. ❚
tests increases the accuracy of predictions
of both academic and extracurricular success
over those provided by conventional tests. Robert J. Sternberg is at Cornell
In one study my colleagues and I conducted University in Ithaca, New York. His
in US universities with widely differing levels book, Adaptive Intelligence: Surviving
of selectivity and kinds of students, such and thriving in times of uncertainty,
tests predicted first-year grades almost twice will be published in February
T
HERE is a technology that could tackle the golden age that gene editing promises. contained genetic sequences of their
some of life’s most pressing problems, Viruses, such as the one that causes choice, rather than ones from phages,
from disease to malnutrition. It could covid-19, don’t just pose a threat to humans – along with a Cas enzyme called Cas9. With
fix medical conditions such as cystic fibrosis they attack all living organisms, including this tool, biologists can home in on a specific
and sickle cell anaemia simply by changing a bacteria. In the ancient bacteria-virus rivalry, DNA sequence and make a cut at a precise
bit of genetic code. It could eliminate malaria CRISPR is one of the weapons bacteria have location. This allows them to disable a target
by making male mosquitoes infertile, or wipe evolved to combat bacteriophages, the gene or excise a faulty one and replace it
out pests that destroy crops. And it could name given to viruses that infect them with a working version.
modify other organisms to increase their (see “Evolutionary arms race”, page 44). CRISPR-Cas9 has since been used
usefulness, helping to create foods that are CRISPR forms part of many bacterial successfully many times to genetically edit
tastier and more nutritious. genomes. It is made up of repeating DNA cells in the lab. But for it to be an effective
This is the promise of CRISPR, a sequences interspersed with fragments of medical therapy, it must be delivered directly
biochemical tool at the forefront of a gene- genetic code left behind by phages from past to cells in the human body either physically,
editing revolution. Produced naturally by viral attacks. When a phage invades again, the such as by injection, or with a vector, usually
bacteria, CRISPR has gained rock-star status bacterium makes RNA copies of these CRISPR an engineered virus that encodes the desired
among scientists in the decade since its regions. These bits of genetic material then genes. In 2020, a team in the US achieved this
extraordinary potential was first recognised, hook up with a particular protein, an enzyme for the first time, injecting CRISPR into the
and it is already starting to live up to the called Cas. They latch on to matching eyes of someone with an inherited form
promise. But behind all the excitement sequences in the invading virus’s genome, of blindness caused by a single mutation.
lurk some dark questions. What if the editing and the accompanying Cas protein snips Precisely targeting other parts of the body
goes wrong? What if it has undesired effects? the viral DNA strand, destroying the phage. is harder, however. The issue is how to get
What if we can’t stop it? Without a means In effect, CRISPR works as a sort of genetic CRISPR only to the cells of interest, while
to keep CRISPR on target and halt it in its memory of past viral attacks that confers also ensuring that enough editing takes
tracks when needed, gene editing could immunity against future ones. place in them to see the changes you want.
have disastrous consequences – both for With vectors “there is no ‘magic bullet’ – it’s
human health and for the planet. a bit of a shotgun approach”, says molecular
What we need is an off-switch, one that can Elegant editing biologist Erik Sontheimer at the University
be used at will. Researchers around the world Given the system’s simplicity and elegance, of Massachusetts Medical School. This is
have spent years trying to find one, largely by it is perhaps unsurprising that researchers where concern begins to creep in.
investigating various biochemical solutions. eventually spotted CRISPR’s potential as a Many scientists worry about the
However, it turns out that the answer may gene-editing tool. The discovery won a Nobel consequences if gene editing is left
be right under our noses. In an evolutionary prize in 2020 for biochemist Jennifer Doudna unchecked. “Expression of Cas9 in the
face-off between CRISPR-producing bacteria at the University of California, Berkeley, and wrong place, or for too long, is going to
and the viruses that infect them, nature Emmanuelle Charpentier, now director of the be very dangerous,” says microbiologist
has already designed anti-CRISPR. The Max Planck Unit for the Science of Pathogens Alan Davidson at the University of Toronto,
challenge now is to harness this evolved in Germany. In research published in 2012, Canada. The main problem is that CRISPR can
off-switch to our own ends and usher in they presented a CRISPR system that zero in on sequences that are similar to, but >
its big advantage is that it can respond the genomes of half of all sequenced bacteria.
rapidly. So, when bacteria are under However, some phages have evolved their
attack from just a few viruses, CRISPR own system to fight back.
can eliminate them before they Their defence consists of small proteins
proliferate and activate their anti- called anti-CRISPRs (Acrs) encoded in their
CRISPR, saving the microbes from genome. When a phage infects a bacterium,
having to expend too much energy. it injects its genetic material and then hijacks
the host’s genetic machinery to make copies
Never-ending battle of its own genes. The Acr genes are among
It probably took thousands of years for the first to be expressed, which means that weren’t being destroyed by the microbe’s
bacteria to evolve CRISPR. “It requires anti-CRISPR can get straight to work to block CRISPR system. Looking more closely, he
huge genetic innovation,” says Edze the bacteria’s CRISPR response. It uses a discovered that the virus had genes capable
Westra at the University of Exeter, UK, variety of mechanisms, including attaching of inactivating the bacteria’s defence. At first,
who studies the evolutionary ecology of directly to the Cas enzyme and preventing Bondy-Denomy didn’t realise the magnitude
bacterial immunity. Yet, its evolutionary CRISPR-Cas from binding to DNA. of his discovery. Back then, no one was
future is uncertain. All we can be sure Anti-CRISPR was discovered by accident thinking about the problem of keeping
of is that, in the arms race for survival, in 2012, just as the CRISPR gene-editing CRISPR-Cas9 under control, let alone ways to
bacteria will continue to evolve revolution was taking off. Working in do so. Nevertheless, he continued studying
innovative defences against viruses and Davidson’s lab, microbiologist Joseph Bondy- Acrs, finding them in a range of other phages.
viruses will evolve ways to fight back. Denomy was surprised to find that phages For a while, he and his colleagues had the
infecting a pneumonia-causing bacterium field to themselves.
human cells along with CRISPR-Cas9, CRISPR-Cas9 genes into cells, but these
allowing them to limit gene editing to a then remain there indefinitely because they
brief period, so minimising the problem become incorporated into the cell’s DNA. As
of off-target edits. Timing when the Acr was a result, there is a risk that, somewhere down
administered provided another layer of the line, Cas9 will somehow become active
control, allowing them to switch off Cas9 again and make undesired edits in the
either abruptly or gradually. genome. This can be prevented if the gene-
There is still much to discover about Acr editing sequence also contains an off-switch.
proteins, but their potential to regulate gene Progress with anti-CRISPR has been
editing is clear. “It’s a very exciting time to remarkably rapid, but huge questions
think about this Acr strategy as one option – remain. One is whether it is safe to
or even the premier option,” says Bondy- administer Acrs to people. “I don’t think that
Denomy. “What it gives you, is the ability to they have any risks that aren’t present with
have a genetic off-switch encoded with Cas9.” using CRISPR or, in fact, any foreign proteins
That has significant advantages over other that you would introduce into people,” says
possible approaches. For a start, it would Davidson. Nevertheless, both Acrs and
minimise the number of therapies patients CRISPR-Cas9 are of non-human origin so
are exposed to compared with using a could generate an immune response that
Anti-malaria separate drug to inhibit Cas9. It also means would inactivate them and might cause
measures may you can be sure that Cas9 and AcrIIA4 are in damaging inflammation. Cas9 has already
be redundant the same place at the same time. And it can been seen to generate antibodies in mice.
one day thanks give you more control to stop and start gene However, Acrs are around 100 times smaller
to CRISPR gene editing by allowing the activity of the two than Cas9, which means they stand less
editing (above) proteins to be toggled back and forth – chance of being recognised by any antibodies
potentially by using light. Already, one that might be produced in response to them.
The first group has engineered a version of AcrIIA4 Bondy-Denomy thinks that adding Acrs is
operation using that can be turned on and off by shining light unlikely to make things any worse.
CRISPR in a onto it, a technique known as optogenetics. The biggest challenge will be making anti-
human was CRISPR work in practice. To control gene
carried out in editing using Acrs, we need to find ways to
2020 (left) On target deliver them to the right place inside the
Anti-CRISPR might even help solve the body and reliably control them once they
problem of getting gene editing to occur are there. We aren’t capable of that yet.
only in certain cells. By tinkering with Acrs, “We’re still just scratching the surface,”
it is possible to produce CRISPR-Cas9-Acr says Davidson. That is hardly surprising,
complexes that are permanently off in non- given that this idea is just a few years old.
target parts of an organism. Sontheimer’s Bondy-Denomy, for one, believes it will
In 2016, Bondy-Denomy and his colleagues team demonstrated this in the first successful happen one day. But to make the life-saving
found Acrs capable of disabling the Cas9 study of anti-CRISPR in a living organism. potential of CRISPR a reality, anti-CRISPR
enzyme, the one used in the vast majority The researchers created an Acr that was active needs to generate the same level of interest
of gene-editing studies. By then, he had his unless it was in the presence of a snippet of and creative research as its nemesis. “It’s
own lab at the University of California, San RNA found only in liver cells. They then really important to get it on everybody’s
Francisco. His former colleague April Pawluk added this to CRISPR-Cas9 so that gene radar,” says Bondy-Denomy. ❚
discovered this same protein, AcrIIA4, editing occurred only in a mouse’s liver. Such
simultaneously. Now CRISPR researchers an approach could potentially be used in any
did take notice. With the problem of control organ that contains a unique RNA molecule. Gege Li is a freelance science
widely recognised, they began to pile in to Combining Acrs with CRISPR offers long- writer and was working as an
anti-CRISPR research. Within months, a team term benefits too. Viral vectors are currently intern at New Scientist when
including Doudna had delivered AcrIIA4 into the most common method for getting she wrote this article
are hot (again) to last for just a few hours. In the event, some
1800 physicists crammed into a space made
for 1100, with thousands more watching on
TV screens outside. The session eventually
broke up at 3.15 am, with many people
It’s been a long time coming, but materials lingering until beyond dawn. The news made
front pages around the world. In New York,
that conduct electricity without losing meeting participants were feted on the street.
any of it could finally be emerging from The reason for the unlikely euphoria
was a sudden slew of breakthroughs in
the cold, says Michael Brooks superconductivity. Superconductors are
materials that can transport electrons, and
But it is a result published late last year at 203.5K by squeezing it until it was at
that has provoked the most excitement. It too 155 gigapascals (GPa), more than 1.5 million
was a long time coming. Back in 1968, Neil times the atmospheric pressure at Earth’s
Ashcroft at Cornell University in New York surface.
showed that if hydrogen could be turned into Following that lead, in October last year,
a solid, it should contain superconducting Ranga Dias at the University of Rochester
Cooper pairs. Ashcroft continued his in New York and his colleagues created
theoretical studies for decades, and in 2004 a material that superconducts at 287K,
showed the same should be true of hydrogen- or 14˚C. Assuming it is winter, and the
containing compounds known as hydrides central heating has been off, that is pretty
under conditions such as extreme pressures, much room temperature – the first time
perhaps even at room temperature. superconductivity has been achieved at
That was a clue, but no more. To make a anything like this temperature.
material superconduct “we’ve learned that Dias and his team made their material
you’ve got to have a number of different superconduct by crushing it between
elements sitting in the right place in the two diamonds, achieving a pressure of
crystal, in exactly the right proportions”, says 267 GPa – akin to that found near Earth’s
Speller. That means going through a whole core. That is highly impractical. But crucially
periodic table of elements. “It’s looking for a it seems likely, says Dias, that the material
needle in a haystack – unless you’ve got a becomes a superconductor through the
strategy for where to look.” conventional Cooper pair mechanism.
That is where computing muscle comes in.
In 2006, Chris Pickard, a materials scientist
at the University of Cambridge, showed it Proof of principle
was possible to speed the search by putting If so, it is the long-sought proof that
the theoretical frameworks for a range of conventional superconductivity is possible
materials – including the hydrides – into a at room temperature, meaning we can use
free and easy-to-use software package called well-developed models to look for materials
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The back pages
Puzzles Almost the last word Tom Gauld for Feedback Twisteddoodles
Try our crossword, How long is the gap New Scientist Reading backwards for New Scientist
quick quiz and between the past A cartoonist’s take or forwards: the week Picturing the lighter
logic puzzle p53 and the future? p54 on the world p55 in weird p56 side of life p56
Stargazing at home
3 What is Pele’s hair?
Answers on page 55
Answers and
the next cryptic Puzzle
crossword next week set by Rob Eastaway
ACROSS DOWN
#96 Inside the box
9 Higher, superior (5) 1 ___ Khalifa, Dubai skyscraper (4)
10 90° north (5,4) 2 Marine life forms in the phylum Porifera (6) Can you join the 36 dots below
11 20th-century Dutch astronomer (3,4) 3 Georg von ___ , German wireless pioneer (4) using 10 straight lines, with your
12 ___ number, used to label or identify (7) 4 Small wading bird (4) pen never leaving the paper and no
13 Leg joints (5) 5 Inflammation in the lung (10) lines going outside the grid? At least
15 Unspecified ordinal numeral (3) 6 Metabolic panel (4) one line must pass through each
16 Period, age (3) 7 Perambulation first undertaken dot and no devious rule-bending
17 Woodworking tool (3) by Neil Armstrong (8) is required. You will find lots of
19 Of memory, able to precisely 8 Involuntary response to stimulus (6) ways to do it with 11 lines, but
recall an image (7) 13 Carnivorous parrot of New Zealand (3) 10 is much more of a challenge.
20 1000 hertz (3) 14 Perspiration (5)
23 Animal doctor (3) 15 Soft-bodied marine mollusc (10)
24 Public transport vehicle (3) 16 Microsoft spreadsheet software (5)
25 Illuminated (3,2) 18 Cable carrying a flow of current (4,4)
27 “There is no such thing as a ___” – 21 Fastening device formerly known
Mark Twain (3,4) as a clamp locker (3)
29 Acetylsalicylic acid (7) 22 Ancient non-flowering plant (6)
32 Arctic bird of prey (9) 26 Asphalt lake (3,3)
33 Siblings from the same pregnancy (5) 28 Air or water resistance (4)
29 Skin condition (4)
30 Hierarchy expressing a location in a file system (4)
31 John ___ , mathematician and economics PS This puzzle forces you inside the
Nobel laureate (4) box, but its solution is related to the
classic four-line, nine-dot problem
that was the origin of the cliché
“thinking outside the box”.
Our crosswords are now solvable online
newscientist.com/crosswords Answer next week
2 To increase in size.
5 The Leonids.
Cryptic crossword
#48 Answers
ACROSS 1 Skip, 3 Midnight,
8 Audubon, 10 Umami,
11 Prehistoric, 13 Apache,
15 On edge, 17 Resolutions,
20 Hyena, 21 Forceps,
When light is reflected within Going potty 22 Smocking, 23 Hasp
a raindrop, it is dispersed into its
constituent colours. A double If plants and trees can communicate DOWN 1 Snap peas, 2 Indie,
reflection, which is what creates via their root system, do they get 4 Innate, 5 Neutron star,
the primary bow, spreads the lonely in pots? (continued) 6 Glanced, 7 Trig, 9 Bright spark,
colours out further. However, 12 Messes up, 14 Agree to,
unless the raindrops are exactly Nikki Walter 16 Olefin, 18 Omega, 19 Ohms
NIGEL COATSWORTH
The last word (again) Twisteddoodles for New Scientist On the button
Many thanks to those who wrote As a brief interlude, responding
in response to our division of the to our question last week of how
world into magazine-forwards and many belly buttons there are in
(Feedback’s favoured) magazine- a 10-minute walk, John Dobson
backwards readers (19/26 suggests “a very good estimate
December 2020). Robin Shipp is one per person undertaking
confesses to taking things even the walk”. Very good, John – but
further, reading our individual items how many people fit into a
in reverse order, thereby sometimes 10-minute walk?
missing the point of running jokes.
Robin, if you’re reading this week,
Put your clothes on
nice to have you with us and it’s a
pleasure to devote our sign-off item Welcome, column-backwards
to you. Our apologies that none of readers. To perplex you straight off,
the preceding items followed on the cutlery research actually took
from one another, but at least you second place in The Medical Journal
have the consolation that we are of Australia’s annual Christmas
all, column-forwards and column- research competition. The golden
backwards readers, now just as stethoscope went to David
confused as each other. Chapman and Cindy Thamrin at
the Woolcock Institute of Medical
Research in Sydney for looking into
Me and my spoon
factors affecting the productivity
Onwards and… downwards. As the of Australian medical researchers
roving albatross is to the high seas, during the covid-19 pandemic,
so the humble teaspoon is to the apart from unfocused cutlery rage.
office kitchen: its mysterious The list of most frequent causes
comings and goings are the Got a story for Feedback? of interruptions to teleconferencing
subject of myth and legend, and Send it to feedback@newscientist.com or meetings will be familiar to many:
much academic research. We need New Scientist, 25 Bedford Street, London WC2E 9ES internet connectivity (61 per cent of
hardly remind you, dear readers, Consideration of items sent in the post will be delayed respondents), children (42 per cent)
of that seminal paper from 2005 and other household members
which established that the half-life (40 per cent). One person reported
of a teaspoon in the communal varnish dot. During a seven-week you pour out the water? Now that an interruption by a sleepwalker,
tea rooms of the Macfarlane observation period, six spoons really would be a research project. although the researchers observe “it
Burnet Institute for Medical went missing, compared with is unclear whether this was during
Research and Public Health in only one fork. In a previously The weight of W(h)ales a daytime nap or a night meeting”.
Melbourne was 42 days. unobserved phenomenon, the The headline findings of the study
The latest instalment in the saga overall number of knives and “If we assume that the annual rate may be summarised as: having
comes courtesy of a paper in The forks in the drawer went up, of teaspoon loss per employee can young children at home while trying
Medical Journal of Australia sent presumably because the passive- be applied to the entire workforce to work depresses productivity,
to us by reader Lyndal Thorburn. aggressively marked spoons of the city of Melbourne (about but doesn’t affect mental health.
It is by Mark Mattiussi at the Royal shamed the light-fingered into 2.5 million), an estimated 18 million Wearing pyjamas while working,
Brisbane and Women’s Hospital returning half-inched wares. teaspoons are going missing in on the other hand, has no effect on
and his colleagues – clearly, As to the deeper question Melbourne each year. Laid end to productivity, but does correlate with
cutlery-related passions run “where the fork did all the spoons end, these lost teaspoons would more frequent reporting of a decline
particularly high in Australia – go?”, that remains as deep a cover over 2700 km — the length in mental health. This finding tallies,
and is entitled “What the forks? A mystery as what happened to of the entire coastline of the researchers suggest, with earlier
longitudinal quality improvement that other sock. Hastily hiding our Mozambique — and weigh over studies showing improvements
study tracking cutlery numbers emergency stash under a pile of 360 metric tons — the approximate in the mental health of hospital
in a public teaching and research tea-stained correspondence, we weight of four adult blue whales.” patients when encouraged to
hospital staff tearoom”. point by way of diversion to our We append this quote from the change into day clothes.
In the equivalent of ringing suggestion a few years back that 2005 research merely to note that Feedback’s elegant silken
an albatross with a radio receiver, quantum teleportation might Mozambique isn’t the only place pyjamas are supremely
only not, the team introduced play a part: could the disappearing blessed with around 2700 km comfortable, that’s our excuse. But
18 forks and 18 teaspoons to teaspoons be the same ones that of sea views. This was a golden we’re going to have to find another
a communal cutlery drawer, mysteriously appear at the bottom opportunity to express something excuse for why we squeeze out just
each furnished with a red nail of every washing-up bowl when in terms of both Wales and whales. this one measly column a week. ❚